an epic tale of beast-wrestling

I saw a guy in full joging regalia, jogging down the street with a big jug of fabric softener in one hand and a big bottle of dish soap in the other.

I saw a firetruck getting a checkup. Did you know that the whole cab (like the seats and the floor and the dashboard and such) lean forward to expose the engine underneath?

I saw a girl walking down the street who looked like a sketch from a sewing pattern envelope, with the long legs and the crisp plaid jacket and all.

I went shopping for produce at one of the small grocers up the street. I bought an onion, a thing of garlic, a green pepper, a head of broccoli, a stick of celery, two carrots, and a bag of mini-potatoes. The bill was $3.22. I love buying produce from those guys!

And now for the epic tale of beast-wrestling:

The dog at work had a major spazz because of the windstorm that was going on. Wind makes her nervous. I figure she has an even greater hearing range with which to detect creepy howling and whistling noises that the wind makes. To cope with this hatred of wind, she keeps trying to escape outdoors (I know, it makes so much sense). Since people are constantly walking in and out of the front door, we had to shut her in our office so she wouldn't escape.

Once inside our office, she did not decide to hide under her owner's desk. No, she decided that my desk was the place to be. So she paced around by my elbows, tried to shove herself between me and my desk, drooled profusely on my socks, and headbutted me. We're talking about a German Shepherd and Black Lab mix here, so this is no small nuisance. Then, once the power went out and I had to give up my computer work, I did some filing. Finally, the dog was content to stand beneath my open filing drawer (and drool on my socks some more).

I didn't mention that this whole time, I kept having to leave and re-enter the office, which involved muscling the frantic dog away from the exit every time. My knee was wet from all the dog-snot and dog-slobber that had soaked through my cords after repeated headbutts. At one point I actually had to pin her head against the wall with my thigh in order to let someone else in the office.

Anyway, it was nuts, and that was my day.

blessed

These past few months, I have felt overwhelmed with how blessed Aaron and I are.

First of all, our relationship is great. This week I told Aaron that I'm pretty sure I love him twice as much this year than I did last year (and last year I married him, so that's a lot).

Also, we love our apartment, it is our home. A recent addition to our home is the final three knives and two pots from our wedding registry. I feel like now our kitchen is complete (at least in terms of knives and pots, and they are a significant part of any kitchen). They're all great quality, so they'll last us a lifetime and we'll never need to buy pots or knives ever again unless some drastic accident befalls them.

Also, I have a job that really suits my skills and experience, and it's a meaningful job too! And who could forget our wonderful families and friends? And the fact that we live in a relatively peaceful and prosperous country?

Sometimes I just don't know how to thank God properly for all these blessings. Just saying thank you doesn't feel like enough.

Dear Elliot

Hi Elliot. Did you know that I don't have your e-mail address? Maybe you could send it to me, my e-mail address is my first name -dot- my last name at gmail. (Forgive my paranoia at not typing it out properly.) Anyway, I know you read my blog so this is me sending you an e-mail alternative.

There's a question I've been meaning to ask you: How come Kingdom Halls never have windows?

That's all. Please post a comment or just e-mail me back.

strangers no more

I made a new friend on the bus today. He was in his late twenties, built big & heavy (although he didn't look overweight), with dark hair tucked under a black felt hat, and wearing a matching black felt coat. He was reading "Kafka for Beginners."

The only empty seat on the bus was beside him. As I sat down, he uncrossed his legs so that his shoe wouldn't rest against my leg, and said a quick, "Sorry." I replied with a simple "That's okay." And, just like that, we became friends. It was like the opposite of creepy man vibes.

Several stops later, he said, "Hey, those are really neat pants." (He was, of course, referring to my awesome pants of metal and straps...if you know me, you should know which ones I'm talking about.) So we had a quick chat about where I got them and why. Then we fell in to a non-awkward silence while we each continued to read our books.

When he got off, he said thank you to the bus driver (a peculiar habit of many Vancouverites), and then we made eye contact and gave each other a nod and a "Seeya!" and that was all. I like making friends on the bus!

first anniversary

Yesterday Aaron and I celebrated our first anniversary! It's neat, because it's a real honest-to-goodness wedding anniversary, not just a dating monthiversary or the anniversary of when we started dating.

Our celebrations were comfy and low-key. We both had to work, but after work we went to this pub that serves nifty tapas. We had scallops with lemon pepper and shredded squash, an Asian stirfy bowl thing, seared ahi tuna, and some really fun tofu that was sweet and spicy and came with lotus root chips. We had a fun and mildly flamboyant waiter, and we both agreed that if either of us were gay men, we would have a crush on him. At one point Aaron had to tell him, "One of these chopsticks is not like the other..." One was a black drinking straw (or "drawing tube") that matched the chopstick. Much silliness prevailed as Aaron made airplane noises while getting me to eat a piece of tofu, and I impersonated a sea serpent while drinking my water.

After dinner, we walked down the street and found an Italian espresso and gelato place. Half of the occupants were middle-aged or elderly Italian men. Everyone was watching the hockey game on a big TV that had without a doubt been primarily intended for watching the world cup of soccer/football. So we had gelato and watched the end of the game.

Then we went home and watched TV and reminisced about what all happened a year ago, and Aaron read more of The Hobbit to me as I fell asleep. It was a good day.

watermelon submarine

Life continues to be lovely...I'm on vacation after all! I spend my days doing all the lazy things my heart desires, as well as helping Robi paint his baby's room. It's the perfect balance of uselessness and usefulness. I'm going to go find breakfast now.

tidied

We're home! Four Christmasses down, one to go. (We've done the Sportack Christmas, the Pankratz Christmas, the Reimer Christmas, the me-and-Aaron Christmas, and now we've only got the immediate-Sportack-family Christmas left.)

Toronto was good and filled with tons of wonderful people. I also learned that all sorts of people read my blog who don't comment, so I never knew about them before. Welcome to you all! I dub you my bonus readers.

Today we tidied and cleaned our apartment, and it feels marvellous. That is all.

One last time: Merry Christmas!

AWOL no longer

I'm in Toronto! It's good to be home. I consider myself to have 3 home cities, so when I go home to Vancouver it will also be good to be home. It looks like we'll be in Winnipeg for Christmas next year, so that will be the third home. It's just going to be a long wait until then!

I probably won't post much in the next week, so happy advent and merry Christmas to you all!

Tito Puente is my friend

Today I did some more people-watching.

I had my usual morning bus driver, and he looks like Bono...which really just means that he is a pretty generic-looking white guy who wears Bono shades. But anyway, he's a good bus driver, and Bono seems to be a good guy, so who can complain?

I also saw a caricature-like old man hobbling down the street all hunched over his cane. He was wearing an old grey-brown suit and had a decent-looking hat on, and his grey beard was over a foot long.

There was also a baby who was absolutely captivated by a ceiling fan. Its mother pushed his stroller underneath it, and the baby was so enthralled that it almost keeled over and out of the stroller as he was determined to keep facing that shiny, spinning fan.

I saw a nice cat.

A cute little blonde grade one girl tried to get me to do the splits at work today.

Oh, and this doesn't have to do with people-watching, but Aaron and I had a lunch date and I chose my sandwich off the menu because it was called Tito Puente. It came with really good fries. Plus, there was fun Cuban music playing in the restaurant, and the windows were warm to lean against because the patio heaters were on outside. It was a good lunch date.

good impressions

Today was another day filled with feelings of success!

First of all, I got tons of work done on my Christmas mailing at work, even though it meant postponing lunch until 3pm.

The other big thing I did at work today was hold job interviews for my teens who are applying to be Team Leaders. Team Leaders are basically supervisors of their peers, so they'll keep track of attendance and help delegate tasks and be good role models. Anyway, the interviews put me in a good mood because I basically get to chat with some of the best kids I've got and see how great they are.

Some of these kids have mad interviewing skills! When asked why they are applying, they say things like, "I see it as a great opportunity to develop my leadership skills," or, "I feel I'm ready to take on more responsibility."

It's also interesting to see which kids look good on paper. I basically know all of them and feel I could make good hiring decisions without any resumes or interviews, but the process is good practice for them and also gives everyone a fair chance to prove themselves. Interestingly enough, one of the girls I would hire in an instant used really informal teen-language and didn't spellcheck or use capitals. Another girl who is kind of young (and frankly too immature for me to actually hire) definitely looked the best on paper, her application package was neat and well-worded.

It was a day of being impressed.

communicate with post-rapture heathens!

Worried about your unsaved loved ones? Send them a letter with salvation instructions or an "I told you so" card via the Post Rapture Post, a group of atheists kindly offering their services for a small(ish) fee.

(Man, I love this stuff!)

a day of ups, downs and sides

First, I slept in. Huttah!

I also had a few moments of seeing red when I found out by accident (read: nobody tried to tell me) that the choir was planning on singing two songs this Sunday, and I'm the worship leader whose job it is to arrange the service and make sure it ends on time. Not only that, but they thought they would sing one during the lighting of the advent candles, and I had just stayed up late last night creating a litany to be read at that time. "But the choir always sings during advent!" does not count for squat unless I happen to have been told. How long have I been a full member of this church? Five days. I simply do not know what "always" happens. ARRRRRGH. Oh, and did I mention that somebody has already slotted them in to the order of service and printed the bulletins, and still nobody has told me exactly what those bulletins say?

Next, I held a job interview with one of my teens for a leadership role, and he is absolutely fantastic! Such insight and grasp of responsibility! I want to hire him, but there are circumstances (seniority and such) that put him a little further down on the list, so we'll see.

Also, I had a chat with my dad, and I'm excited about seeing lots of super people at Christmas! The end.

why I don't post as much as I feel I should

I think that when I used to work at the coffee shop, my brain simply was not being engaged, so I had a lot more free brainspace to just doodle and notice and such. Lately, with my new-and-engaging job, I haven't had as much brainspace available. Maybe that's a lame excuse. I dunno. I just feel like I don't have enough free brainspace these days. But I'll find some. I'm not giving up!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

I forgot all about St. Nicholas Day until this morning, when it was too late to put my shoes out (or to hide goodies in Aaron's shoes). If you've ever been my roomie, you've probably heard me talk about St. Nicholas Day. For the rest of you, let me tell you about it!

In Germany there is no Santa Claus, there is just St. Nicholas. And the whole stocking-stuffing thing doesn't exist there either. And St. Nicholas' big day is December 6, not Christmas Eve. So, on December 5th, German children are supposed to polish their shoes and set them outside the door. Overnight, St. Nicholas comes by and leaves small gifts in the shoes of the good children. The bad kids just get switches, which are left by St. Nicholas' evil sidekick whose name I forget. Switches, as in, "You're getting a beating now, kid!" not as in electric light switches.

When I lived in Germany in the late 80's and early 90's, kids liked to set out their biggest pair of shoes, namely their galoshes. (Aside: galoshes! What a fantastic word! Say it several times and just feel the goodness. Maybe say it rhythmically and do a little stomping dance to go with it.) Their parents would also sometimes leave gifts that were bigger even than their galoshes. I generally just got oranges and nuts and a Kinder egg.

This is one German tradition that my parents got right. There is another German tradition, that of the "Schultuete", that they didn't quite get right. The first day of grade one is a very very big deal in Germany. Amongst other things, kids get Schultueten, which are giant decorated cones of bristol board that tie up at the top with crepe paper. Inside is a whole bunch of candy and school supplies and little toys.

When we first moved to Germany, I was half way through grade one, and some of the little old church ladies took pity on me having missed my German Einschulung, so they made me a Schultuete in March. And they gave a mini-Schultuete to my little brother so he wouldn't feel left out. When I started grade 2, my parents gave both me and my brother small Schultueten again. And the next year. And so on. Tobin and I thought it was swell, and it never occurred to us that our parents might not have realized that the only time German kids got Schultueten was on their actual first day of grade one, and then never again. It was great.

hair stick

Today I am enjoying my hairdo. It is my favourite hairdo, and I've been doing it quite regularly for maybe 2 years now. I use a chopstick and twist my hair around it, and then stab it back into the hair twist, and it stays. (Judi, I use the chopsticks you gave me. The Sonya-like ones that kind of look like twigs at the end.)

Here's what I like about this hairdo:

1. It's unique. I don't really see anyone else with their hair like this. Sure beats a ponytail!

2. It looks good. Funky and cute but not silly.

3. It's simple. All I need is a single chopstick, no silly bobby pins or such. And it's quick.

4. Sometimes you just need to have your hair up and off your neck. The chopstick lets you do that without having a severe ballerina bun.

5. I love how I keep finding new ways to tuck my hair into it no matter how long it gets.

6. I love feeling the weight of my hair at the back of my head. You can't really feel the weight of your hair when it's down, because it's so evenly distributed. But when it's all up and twisted into a small space, you can really feel its weight. It feels neat.

7. I feel SO cool when I pull the chopstick out of my hair and it all tumbles down. Like I belong in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Or in a shampoo commercial.

christmastime is here

Yesterday Aaron spent several hours organizing all our spices. Our apartment is now an even happier place to be!

We also got out our Christmas stuff. For me, there has always been a very strong line drawn between things that are "mine" and things that are "shared". So, when I got out the Christmas ornaments, I first arranged them into the section that was ours from gifts last Christmas, and the section that was mine (which has always been mine, even separately from my family's ornaments...they have a special red box to live in). Then, I realized that is our first Christmas as married people, and that our ornaments shouldn't be separate anymore. So I very deliberately mixed the two sections together and put away my little red box, empty.

I put up my icicle decorations over our big living room window, and I put the Charlie Brown Christmas CD in the stereo. Aaron bought lots of tealights. Candles are an essential part of Christmas!

Aaron and I have also bought chocolate to put in our advent calendar. There are a few mini-Lindt balls, but mostly there are chocolate squares from all over the world that we got at a fancy chocolate shop. We haven't bought chocolate for the last 4 days yet, because we want to buy fancy kinds that do better if eaten within 10 days, so we'll buy those later. I guess this advent calendar, shaped like a tree, is going to be our replacement for a real Christmas tree. We're not getting one since we're going to Toronto for a whole week before Christmas and so that messes with the time we would have to enjoy it properly.

In other news, I saw a bus being towed by a giant towtruck today.

success!

Here's a window into what my job is like. The biggest success of my week occurred today. One of my girls actually called in to say she was going to be absent! I mean, sure she's still got a lame excuse to be absent, but the point I'd like to emphasize is that she bothered to call and tell us ahead of time.

This girl was developing a nasty habit of just going AWOL, and basically has no skills in the area of following through on anything. The last straw for me was when I talked to her less than 24 hours ahead of time to confirm that she was indeed going to meet me at a certain time and place. She sounded positive and "of course!" about it, and then she failed to show up at our meeting or call to excuse herself. Needless to say, when I finally did meet her a week later, I really drilled the point home that she had to call if she was going to be absent.

And now, success! She called! I'm on cloud 9! Maybe one of these days we'll start working on getting her in to work more often, but for now I'm glad for this tiny glimmer of responsibility.

eggs!

got the tuesday blahs? have no fear, enlightenment is near!

that is all

snow!

It has been snowing now for about 30 hours without stopping, and this in a city that might get snow 3 or 4 times a year, and you're lucky if one of those snowfalls stays on the ground for more than 24 hours.

In related news, I have a driving test tomorrow morning (in 12 hours).

I'm actually hoping they won't cancel it because in these conditions they would have to be really compassionate, and besides, it's really hard to accidentally speed when everything is slippery and crazy.

I even practised driving today and made it up the giant hill in the slush! True, I had slid 3 lanes over by the time I got to the top, but I was doing better than most people out there. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to practice parallel parking, because there weren't any spots that didn't have a foot of slush in them, and it was hard enough staying straight on the road so why mess with parallel parking in such conditions...

Wish me luck!

car accident

Today there was a car accident at one of the elementary schools we work with at Urban Promise. None of our kids were hurt, but two of our kids saw it happen and knew the children who were injured. It was very traumatising for them. If you're the praying type, please pray for the injured children (the injuries were quite severe but not life-threatening), and for the children at the school who are upset by it.

gut monster

Sorry about the long pause between posts. I've been having a glass is half full kind of week. And for the past two mornings I've woken up with a gut monster. That's a little monster that lives in my gut and twists my insides and randomly pokes my brain so that it yelps "I hate you!" or just plain "Fuck!", but not actually out loud...yet. I like to save up my swears for sewing days.

Anyway, by the afternoon my gut monster was gone, thank goodness!

This evening I went grocery shopping, and the half and half cream I wanted was on the top shelf and nowhere near the front. Since there is a big milk room behind the shelves in the milk fridge, I stuck my head in and hollered, "Hello? Is anyone in there? I can't reach the cream!" I removed my head from the milk fridge to see a Safeway employee looking at me funny. I asked him if he could go in there and push all the cream to the front, at which point it sunk in that this guy was about seven feet tall, so sure enough, he just reached in and grabbed one for me.

worry wart

Today I was worrying that I had offended someone inadvertently. Aaron seemed to think that girls/women spend a lot more time and energy worrying about what other people think as opposed to guys/men.

While this men/women thing is certainly true in our relationship, I was wondering if it was really as universal as he made it sound.

What do you guys think? Have you observed the same in yourself and/or others?

three goals

I have decided that I need to take action on three of my passions that are getting neglected.

1) I want to dance. This means going out dancing (although it seems that none of my Vancouver friends are into this), or taking lessons of some sort. I think I should continue with bellydance, it's been my favourite so far. This would also be exercise, which is good for me.

2) I want to be outdoors. This means going for a hike every month or so, and going camping several times in the summer.

3) I want our home to be a place where people feel welcome to just stop by on a whim. (If you live nearby, this means you can invite yourself over sometime.) Probably the best way to start this is to invite more people over. I think I would like to have a Christmas party.

I think I should start these things by Christmastime, or by January 1st. These could be my early new year's resolutions. If anyone wants to help keep me on track, maybe you could do some of these things with me, or remind me, or ask me how these things are going. Thanks!

I'm back!

So, my week-long work trip is over, and it was quite fun. The work part was all useful and relevant, which was nice. The conference was held in Camden, NJ, which is basically a poor and run-down suburb of Philadelphia, basically a black-and-hispanic ghetto. Hence the Urban Promise ministry of after-school programs and educational/job support for kids and youth.

One of the things that messed with my perception of the community was that most people lived in single-family rowhouses. They almost looked like the simple brick houses such as one might find in the north Beaches or other upper/middle class areas of Toronto. In Vancouver and Toronto, one mostly thinks of poor people as living in apartment buildings, so it took a bit of adjusting before I could see how run-down the neighbourhoods really were.

Now for the fun stuff. On Friday night we took a bus with a whole bunch of Urban Promise people for a whirlwind tour of Philadelphia. We walked and shopped along South Street, and we saw the Liberty Bell, and we ran up the steps that Rocky ran up in the movie (The Philadelphia Museum of Art). I've never seen that movie so I wasn't sure what the fuss was all about, but I ran up those steps and yelled "Adrian!" with the rest of them.

During this tour, we got in trouble with the authorities twice. First at the Liberty Bell we were trying to take a group picture so some of the people stood up on the low wall. (The bell itself was still about 10 metres away inside a building that had a big window so you could see it.) A cop blew his whistle and yelled something at us that we didn't understand. One of our big black guys walked over to ask him to repeat himself, and the cop got kind of nervous and said "Do not come over here!" as if the guy was going to get rough with him or something. Anyway, it turned out that we weren't allowed to stand on the wall, but we were still allowed to take pictures. It was weird to observe how the cop was afraid of our guy because we knew him to be super-friendly, but I guess he was pretty big (not to mention black), so...yeah.

The second time we got in trouble was at the Museum. Some of us wanted to take a group picture, and we saw this big bronze sculpture of a spider in the courtyard at the top of the oh-so-famous Rocky steps. So some of us decided to climb up on it. Suddenly a voice resounded through the courtyard from an invisible outdoor intercom speaker: "You there taking the picture! DO NOT CLIMB ON THE SPIDER!" (It was totally a "God?!" kind of moment.) I guess they had security cameras and such.

On Saturday, we hopped a train to New York, and spent the day walking around. We saw Times Square (the Toys R Us has a ferris wheel inside, it's so big!), Central Park, and some of 5th Avenue. We also saw Method Man of the Wu-Tang Clan, for whatever that's worth.

On Sunday we went to a small black church in Camden where you were supposed to say "AlleLUiah!" and "Amen!" and "Thank you JEEsus!" all the time. Sam would have liked it. Although, I did find the sermon somewhat questionable because of one part where the pastor was saying that when you've got issues, just smile and say "It is well!" to people who can't help you anyway.

Then we went into Philadelphia and we went to the museum. It is a gorgeous and impressive building on the outside, and all the art inside was fun too. The most famous painting I saw was Van Gogh's sunflowers. I also saw lots of Monet, Manet, Matisse, Degas, and Picasso. I really like a lot of Picasso's stuff so long as he doesn't get so cube-y that you can't tell what the painting is about. Once I walked into a small-ish dead end room, and turned around to go out again and - hello! - there was Picasso's self-portrait looking at me from the wall the door was in. It was kind of a "Hey! I know you!" kind of moment. I also discovered Joan Miro, who I didn't even know was famous until I went home and told Aaron I liked "The Hermitage" and that we should hang it in our house if we ever get really rich someday.

Speaking of which, the guy whose house we were staying in was a bit of an amateur art collector, and he actually had two small original watercolours by Salvador Dali. They weren't crappy either, I quite liked them. Tres cool!

So after we went to the museum, we went back to South Street and ate Philly cheesesteaks for dinner.

Those were my adventures. How are all of you guys doing?

up up and away!

I'm going on my very first business trip today! I'll be in Camden, NJ for three days for a conference, and then I'm staying an extra three days to check out Philadelphia and maybe some other nearby east coast cities. It will be fun, but I hope I don't get sick of strangers and colleagues too soon. We'll see. It would be more fun if Aaron could come and discover a new city with me.

For those of you who pray, maybe you could keep us in mind as we travel to the States and fly (from Seattle). I'm nervous about the border crossing and the flights and such, and I hope they go smoothly. Safety is another nice thing to pray for travellers. Thank you. I will post again in a week or so.

new toys!

Today at work I got a new flat screen monitor and speakers that actually work! I have so much desk space! And it's amazing what kind of an aesthetic difference it makes to have gotten rid of that beast of a monitor and the two phone books it was sitting on!

Yahoo!

Bible and truth

Once again, I find myself pointing out something that Elliot posted about first. They do say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery...

Madeleine L'Engle talks about faith and truth and fact and story in an interview you can read here (don't worry, it's pretty short). I agree with pretty much everything she says. One thing I might not have said is that God is a sh*t, but I would agree with her basic idea that God's not always a jolly old barrel full of monkeys.

I like the way she talks about the Bible being truth but not fact. This is something I learned best from Neil Gaiman and his Sandman series of graphic novels. There are a whole bunch of wacky stories in there, and it's hard to tell if they're actually happening to the characters or if it's all just a hallucination, or maybe both. But the point is that it doesn't so much matter if things actually happened or not, rather, the point is that the stories are true, and you'd better take that seriously!

I would like to add that I believe most of the stuff in the Bible actually happened, and that it has been retold truly but perhaps not entirely factually. That's the way oral history works. Things happen, and then their significance gets interpreted and retold in a meaningful way.

The one thing that I would absolutely insist actually (factually) happened is the life, death and resurrection of Christ. That's the whole point of God's story. The Word became flesh and lived among us. He really, truly died and then beat death and became really, truly alive again.

Maybe I'm making some logistical error in this balance between fact, myth, truth and such, but I kind of think that's the point. It's all in tension and really weird to figure out (I mean, seriously, God becomes a physical, vulnerable, mortal human?!?), but it's really really really true. Thus endeth my spazz.

children galore

Today I picked some children up from school and then spent the afternoon with them at one of our after-school programs. Here is what I saw and heard:

- a tiny Japanese girl wrestling with a backpack that was probably twice as heavy as she was

- another girl wandering around the playground saying, "Squeak! Squeak!" in a frequency more suited to a dog's hearing range than a human's

- a very trendy-looking boy (if he were older, I might think he was gay) who had a super-villain accent. I think he was from eastern Europe. At the end of our Bible lesson he had this prayer request: "I vould like to prrrray for my glasses, because zey are brrrroke."

- boys playing soccer, and the newly immigrated Chinese boy not only was included with hand gestures, but also wasn't half bad as a goalie even in the face of hard kicks from the popular leader-boy

- lots of rope-jumping and monkey bar stunts

- some remarkably insightful comments by the grade 4 and 5 kids during the Bible lesson. I don't remember any of them right now, but those kids sure have brains in their heads!

...sigh...

But I still kinda miss nunchuks girl.

comment extravaganza!

In the last seven posts (two weeks), I have received a grand total of two comments, both from Elliot. (Thanks Elliot!) This makes me feel sad and unloved, or even *gasp* wonder if people find me boring. However, I am not one to issue a plea for comments and leave it at that. I like to provide a reason, a question, an incentive or a discussion starter...anything to prove that I am not boring!

So I would like to ask you, what is the human obsession with the weather all about? It is the classic conversational haven of uncomfortable party guests. It is one of the first thing my mother will ask about when she calls from Toronto (admittedly, I also express genuine curiosity in the meteorological happenings "back East", as the Vancouverites like to say). Is it perhaps a way of reminding ourselves that there is somthing greater than us, something that affects our lives over which we have no control? Or is it the remnant of a more outdoors-y way of life, where the weather had a serious impact on our livelihoods?

In other news, a pair of Aussies pose the question: What have we learned from history? (Thanks be to Elliot.)

reboot

I feel like my brain has finally rebooted. For the past two weeks it's been jam-packed with a big fundraiser at work, a leadership training event I had to plan and run for the teens I work with, leading worship at church, meeting with each of the teens I work with for evaluations, and having Sam and Annemarie visit us (yay!), and all this on top of the normal weekly work that I have to accomplish. So, my brain has been extraordinarily full, and finally this morning there is [almost] nothing left to do but the pile of little and not-so-urgent things that has accumulated. This morning it is empty of concern, and ready to do all those little things. How refreshing!

I still have to teach youth Sunday school and be part of the worship (music) team this Sunday, but that should all be okay.

So, I'm back! I'll find something more blogworthy to post in short order, I'm sure of it!

i need a day off

that is all

today I Made A Difference

Today, I Made A Difference. It was my first day of doing evaluations of my kids at work. By "my kids" I mean the teenagers who work in our after school programs with the little kids. The site directors who actually run the programs wrote the evaluations, and it's my job to meet with the teens to go over them and set new goals for the next months. The evaluations themselves basically consist of three affirmations and two challenges to improve.

When I came to the program to get Angela (I'm not allowed to use her real name), she looked tired or something, like she was upset or having a bad day. We started to go over the evaluation. By the second affirmation, I noticed she had this really weird look on her face.

I asked her, "What's up? Is there anything you'd like to say?"

She said, "No, nothing's wrong...I'm just not used to getting compliments."

By the time we were done, she was wearing a big smile, even after we talked about her challenges. The site director told me later that she was a bit giddy after our meeting.

Angela is one of those girls that has grown up in our after school programs who probably doesn't have the most supportive home life. We make a point to try and keep her involved with our programs, even though she's not much of a natural leader. And today it made a difference.

more snippets of the life of me

This past weekend I went away to Manning Park for a church youth retreat. It was lots of fun, and even though it was a huge disappointment that Aaron couldn't go at the last minute, I'm really glad I went. The youth were very fun to hang out with. I miss them, I don't get to hang out with them too much now that I work full-time. One of the junior divas said I was very pretty, so that felt pretty cool. It did not feel cool when the youth pastor (my brother-in-law) threw an apple and hit me in the head. I still have a bruise, but it was an accident because he thought I was looking. A smaller group of us went for a walk to the river and played with some vividly green slimy stuff, and it was gross and fun. There were pretty leaves, lots of bright yellow ones. But it was sad to see all the dead trees that the pine beetle killed. In some sections of the park, I can confidently say that 90% of the trees were dead. In the areas where there wasn't so much pine, it obviously wasn't as bad as that.

Yesterday I took a walk downtown and I saw a bright plum-purple garden hose at a nursery. I also saw a baby, well, just the leg of a baby that was sticking up and out of its stroller. It was wearing white pyjama-type things with feet, and the foot part of the PJ's was pulled a fair ways off the end of the baby's foot, and it looked like a little truce flag sticking out of the stroller.

You may remember me mentioning that I only have two recurring themes in my dreams. One is that of being late, and the other is that of losing my teeth. Well, last night my tooth dream was taken to another level. Not only did I have that incredibly tangible sensation of my teeth getting wiggly and having the roots poke into my gums and the squishy place that is left once they've fallen out...no, in this dream I actually went to the dentist and said, "I keep having these recurring dreams about my teeth falling out, and now it's become real! What do I do? Can you put my teeth back in?" In the words of Strongbad, WEIRDED OUT!!!

ugly websites

For work, I'm going to take some of the grade 11's and 12's to the Vancouver Education and Career Fair. Check out the ugly header and logo on their website. They sent me a poster that's even uglier, because in addition to the ugly header, it has lots of black text with hazy pastel pink shadows that looked like grandma spilled her makeup. And the logo...! Words fail me.

Also, I used to work for BC Rehab, which is an absolutely fantastic organization, but their website also suffers from a sorry colour scheme. When I worked for them 2 or 3 years ago we already thought the website needed help, and I just checked back today for the first time since, and nobody's even touched the website design.

academia land

Yesterday I went to a lecture at Regent College by Miroslav Volf on "Faith that Makes a Difference." He seemed like he had his head on straight. It actually sounded pretty common-sense to me, but I got the sense that this fit the structure of the three-lecture series quite well. The first lecture had been a bit of a "shocking diagnosis", the second (the one I attended) was a "return to the foundations" message, which is why it was filled with good-sense-making theology, and I think the third was going to be more of a "radical outcomes" kind of lecture.

Anyway, it was interesting to be back in the academic theology sphere. On the one hand, I felt how easy it would be so slide right back into that comfy niche and to be all brainy and buddy-buddy with the student sitting next to me. He had a scruffy half-beard, was wearing jeans and a t-shirt with an open plaid shirt over top, and laughed loudly and genuinely at all the theological insider's jokes. The notes that I read over his shoulder were things like "blessing---relevance to Didache?" and "sex and St. Augustine---in conflict with Volf's deliverance theme?" These notes made my brain hurt, because I knew that I should probably be able to understand exactly what he was thinking, but at the same time, I didn't give a rat's ass about Augustine or about making witty references to Volf's ecclesiological clashes with Ratsinger.

Basically, it all boils down to this: I'm doing good and important work these days, and theological-academia-land is not the place for me right now. I don't really miss being in school. Maybe one day I'll want to bring all my work experience to seminary with me to get an M.Div. and then get better at doing ministry work again, but until I start running low on fuel or inspiration or something, I'm staying out of university.

guest post by my mom

My mom likes reading my blog, particularly my people-watching posts, and so she has written a guest post for me on some people people-watching she did on the Toronto subway. Without further ado, here's my mom (her name is Laverna):

I'm on the subway to work, on a week day, my 10th day of work non-stop and counting (bleuwch!)...at Yonge & Bloor i spot a fishing pole in the periphery of my vision... a person has just gotten on to the subway, its 8:30 a.m. and the person (could be a man, woman or child - I never got to see the face of this person, but he/she had very small petite hands...) was clearly set for a day of fishing - he/she rummaged around in his/her various bags and I saw that this person was prepared for a picnic and cold weather - thermos, sushi, quilted vest were all re-stashed and re-organized. I oriented myself to a world of "other" - other than subway, metropolitan work-a-day mode and started to imagine..... imagine what kind of a day this person might be anticipating; sunny & cold, going to Humber River perhaps?.... anyway, I got off at St George station (having only shared a brief ride - 2 stops) with this "other world" person.... and felt happier as a result....

excitement, family, and marvellous nerdiness

First up, hear my happy news: I'm going to be a bridesmaid! For my brand-new-(almost)-sister-in-law! My brother and his fiancee are having all their siblings in their wedding party. Meghan's other three bridesmaids are her roommates (she just has one brother). Apparently they're going dress shopping soon, and one of the roommates said something about how all of them could certainly find something to agree on, but what about Tobin's sister? Meghan told them not to worry about me, since I am cool. See? We're going to be great sisters. Too bad I live so far away...oh well. I get to wear blue, and I'll probably even get to sew the dress myself. Yahoo!

Today Aaron and I had our first Thanksgiving together, and it was nice. His parents are in Italy at the moment, and his grandparents are about to leave for Austria, so we had Thanksgiving with three friends of ours (2 sisters + 1 boyfriend who is also my coworker). When I got home I called my family, and I talked to all of them, and that is when I got the good news about the bridesmaid thing. I love my family and I miss them all very much.

Yesterday was also fun. Aaron and I went to see a microwave telescope! A friend of mine from Toronto is part of the team of Princeton graduate students who are working on it, and it's being constructed here in Port Coquitlam (a suburb of Vancouver). It was quite nifty. The main mirror surface itself is about 7 metres tall, and I'm estimating that would make the entire telescope structure to be about 15 metres tall. We got to climb up in and around it, but not while it was moving and doing its scanning motions.

One of the special things about this telescope is the reasonably fast rate at which it scans back and forth across one section of the sky. This motion ultimately helps filter out atmospheric interference, and creates a bigger picture to work with. Another nifty thing about the telescope is that the actual recording instruments are kept at a temperature of 0.3 Kelvin. That's right folks, only one third of a degree above absolute zero! This also helps eliminates interference from all those warm atoms jiggling around.

When the telescope is done, they're going to take it apart into 2-4 pieces (it's not quite decided yet), and then they'll drive it down the road on a big truck to the river, where it will be put on a barge, which will go to a major port, and then the telescope will be loaded on a bigger boat and go to Chile. In Chile, it will get loaded back on a truck and be driven up a mountain to a high altitude where there is even less atmospheric interference. Did you know that part of the project's budget is to improve the roads up the mountain in Chile so that the telescope can actually get there?

Now for a vote: which post of geekiness is more fascinating, this one or the one on A440?

all y'all

I've been having fun learning more about the proper uses and pronunciation of "y'all" from my two American colleagues. The American pronouns go like this: I, you, he, she, it, we, y'all, they. For example, when talking with Blair the Texan about my husband and our apartment and such, he said "So, where do y'all live?" It took me awhile to figure out that he meant just two people: Aaron and me. When I was telling Mike from Cali about this, and that I had thought y'all meant a whole bunch of people, he said, "No, that's 'all y'all'!"

So, there is now a further distinction when it comes to the second person plural. "Y'all" refers to a few people, whereas "all y'all" refers to a whole bunch of people.

And by the way, don't pronounce the L's too strongly, it's best if you just leave your mouth somewhat slack and make it more of a "yaw."

windfall

Yesterday I was told that I have 5 vacation days that I'm supposed to use before December 1st. Isn't that sweet? Normally I'm supposed to use my 4 weeks vacation before our new fiscal year (which begins in December), but the week of vacation that I've earned this fall will be hard to spend due to the busy nature of the season, so they may let me bank them for next year. How's that for a story of "news the boss gives you on a Monday morning?"

Also, I may have mentioned my work trip to New Jersey before...but here's the new plan: after our three days in Camden, NJ (Wednesday to Saturday morning), five of us are going to spend the rest of the long weekend in Philadelphia! Since we were flying from there anyway, all we have to spend is food & accomodations for our little vacation. Too bad Aaron can't come.

My job definitely has some perks, even if they're not financial!

trio

Today I saw an unusual group of three people walking down the street together. Two were Hutterite-looking women in dresses and black head coverings, and their companion was a man in a flashy Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses. Go figure.

Engrish

This morning on the bus there was a young Asian woman who was listening to a tape and reading an "English for Everyone" book. I looked over her shoulder to read her book, and saw this sentence: "You're sister is coming to visit." How is anyone supposed to learn proper English if the books are wrong? To add to the irony, the next page was a full lesson on "I am = I'm, you are = you're," etc.

I considered pointing out the mistake to her, but judging by the level of English in her book, it probably would have been a pretty confusing conversation. Besides, who would believe a stranger on the bus when your published textbook says something different?

pipe cleaners

Yesterday I went to work on a Saturday because there was this "visioning day" with the board that I had to attend. It wasn't so bad as far as visioning days go. We got to use lots of post-it-notes of various sizes and many flourescent colours, as well as sharpies.

When I first walked into the room in the morning, I saw that there was a pez dispenser (with candy) on each table, as well as a jar of assorted pipe cleaners. I was curious about what sort of activity we might be doing with them. Half an hour into the sessions, the moderator man interrupted himself to say, "By the way, those pipe cleaners and pez and such are there to be used at your discretion. I find that pipe cleaners help the fidgety and creative among us sit through an entire day of this without getting bored or disinterested."

This, of course, made my day.

I picked a sparkly pink one that reminded me of fireworks, and I put it on my glasses to make them look all glam and cat-eye-style. Then I made a sparkly flower. Then I tried to make a frog, but it looked odd, so I turned the frog into a tumbleweed and all was well.

honeymoon blogs

My little brother Karl, whom you may remember from music video fame, has started a blog. He's still in the honeymoon phase of posting clever things every day, but I'm excited to see how it turns out in the long run. Check out his link on the left side of the page. (Notice how I alphabetized them all? I'm so organised!)

Speaking of losing the honeymoon phase...what's with all you other people not posting anymore? It's especially funny when I go to Jan or Melissa's blogs, because the first thing you see is "sorry, I keep forgetting to post" or "long time no post," and my first reaction is "SWEET! She finally posted again!"....except that's the same post that's been there for one or two weeks, and I've had the same reaction pretty much daily since it was first posted.

busy busy busy

Work is still good, but it is also busy. I hope to have more free time next week.

Right now the hardest thing is that I'm expected to help out once or twice a week at the after school programs for the kids, except that with 4 sites to go to I'll only get to each one once or twice per month. So, I have absolutly no "consistency" factor with the kids, and I'm feeling pretty lost as to how to manage them because I don't know what they're used to, what they're allowed to get away with, and what I should really keep an eye out for.

This kind of scares me, especially in terms of the one special needs kid that I'm supposed to babysit for about half an hour every Tuesday. His mom obviously does not censor ANY media that he has access to, so he swears profusely and knows more about sex than any child his age should (and believe me, he likes talking about it!). He's not really the type of kid you can reason with, and so I'm never quite sure if I should keep on insisting "no, that's not a word we use here," because that just draws his attention to that word so that he says it even more. The alternative is to give him the impression that he can say whatever he wants because I'll never say no to anything. So, I'm kind of frustrated because the way he talks about sex makes me really uncomfortable, almost like being around a dirty old man, except he's only 9 so it seems even dirtier. Bah.

Yay! I'm playing with pictures on my computer!

 

I cropped and straightened and sharpened and generally tweaked this one. It needed a bit of help, and it's still a bit fuzzy. But I like it.

picas and posts galore

Some of my loveliest and farthest-away friends have finally updated their blogs!

First off, Steph Posch is engaged! To Carlos! Also, her coffee-shop mission on the tropical island of Roatan is progressing well. If you are rich, you should send them money.

Also, lovely Mylène is taking time to reflect on her job future, and to dance the night away.

Niki and Jason are spending a year in Ireland, and Jason likes taking pictures.

Luscious Liz has figured out how to post pictures on her blog. Click to see pictures of another kitten named Bella. (Annemarie's parents got their Bella first.) Also, Liz's Bella has a sister named Ella. Did you know that Steph Posch has a niece named Ella? How's that for coming full circle with names!

Now all the world needs is for Sam to post on his blog...*cough* pokepokepokepokepoke *cough*

ringtones from hell

I just got a new cellphone for work, and I can download 2 free ringtones! But here's the catch: nothing can mutilate an amazing song so brutally as turning it into a MIDI file. Oh. My. Goodness. I keep looking up all these fantastic tunes, such as the songs included in my musical brilliance post, and they all sound like CRAP as ringtones! No fair! I want a cool one!

junkmail soaps

I've been getting some funny junkmail at my work e-mail address. About once a day I get a message from someone whose name I don't recognise, and since I'm new and don't know who all of my contacts are yet, I open it just to make sure. The first bit is always something about a hot stock to buy: "Watch it trade on Thursday! It's going up!" The second half of the e-mail is some sort of unrelated and scattered soap opera narrative that always makes me laugh. For your entertainment, I have copied and pasted an excerpt:

She never took upwith David Kirk until she heard Hilary was engaged. The dance of sunbeams in the brook shallows was justas it had been so many years ago. What was it David had read to herfrom a poem the night before he went away? I cant bear tothink of you here, in tears, after Im gone. Lets have supper in the orchard to-night, Judy. He and Pat were, as Patfrequently told herself, very happy in their engagement. Im NOT going to look up at Brook when Im uttering thefinal vow. It doesnt do to meddle, she reflected sagely. It meant a marriage at threedays notice, but what of that?

Christians and the death penalty

Here is a brief but interesting article about serial killers and why Christians should never be advocates for the death penalty. Simply put, someone who is alive still has the opportunity for redemption, so we as Christians should never eliminate that possibility for another human being. As far as we know, death is the end of all opportunities for redemption. (Although I'm not totally certain about that...but in any case I'm sure Christ would love to see us all live to accept him.) As a pacifist I can't help but think that this should apply to all killing, including warfare.

A440

I've been somewhat busy lately, so the posts have been less frequent. Full-time work takes up more of my time than part-time work did (believe it or not). I went on a retreat with the staff at work for three days last week too. It was fun, but I ran out of extrovertedness by the end. I drew a fun picture of God, it was a pencil drawing of a burned-down forest and then there was a fireweed (in coloured pencil) growing in it. It was about Hope. The Bible says God is Love, but I think Hope is just as good a name for him. All is not lost.

At work today I planned a night of laser tag for the teens. I made an appointment with a high school guidance counsellor to get her help in recruiting more teens to our programs, and she sounded really friendly and positive, so that made me feel really friendly and positive. Plus, I got to help a girl with her grade 12 physics homework, and I got really excited and happy about that too, because I'm a geek. I can still do it!

Finally, I would like to share a fascinating piece of trivia that I learned from my dear friend Liz today. Did you know that when musicians play Baroque period pieces, they tune to an A that has a frequency of 415Hz? Nowadays it is standard to tune to an A that is 440Hz. So, I had two questions about this: 1) How does anyone actually know that that's how they tuned back then? and 2) Why would we bother to tune down to play period pieces today? And the answer to both questions is organs. The old Baroque church organs that still exist in Europe are tuned to an A of 415Hz, so that's how we know what frequency their A was back then. Also, if you still want to play Baroque music in a big cathedral with a baroque organ, you're obviously going to tune to the A 415 organ because you can't re-tune the organ. Liz says that when music turned more romantic, musicians started tuning to higher frequencies because it sounded cheerier, and that trend has continued so that today some musicians even like to tune to A 442. INTERESTING!

yay job

Here comes a tale of why I am liking my new job. I woke up this morning at 7:25 and thought "Mmm...5 more minutes of sweet, sweet sleep..." and then I woke up at 9:10 and said "WHY IS IT NINE???" I had pulled the old am/pm switcheroo and thereby made Aaron late for his first day of school. As for me, it was no biggie, I'm on a salary and can guesstimate my hours as I please. So I rolled into work at 10am and checked some e-mails.

At 10:30 I went grocery shopping with two co-workers for our weekend retreat. When we got back, Nellie and I hung out in the kitchen and prepared the marinade for a chicken dinner. I decided to use the meat tenderiser on the garlic cloves, and it worked smashingly. If you have a meat tenderizer, you need never mince your garlic again! I attended a half-hour training session on preparing budget reports, which I found kind of interesting because I'm a geek. For the rest of the day I did more e-mailing, filing and phone calling, which actually made me progessively more cheerful because things were getting done and everything was seeming less crazy.

I like it that I can experiment with meat tenderizers at my new job. Plus, I got to wear my baggy jeans and an ancient t-shirt to work today. I've also figured out that one of the biggest things I like about my new workplace that nothing seems unnecessary. There aren't any protocols or busy work or rules that seem useless or stupid or silly. Even almighty Tradition (the bane of many ministries) is maintained in the best way possible: if it's genuinely good, keep it; if you'd rather do it differently for any good reason, then chuck it.

It's funny, it's not as if I'm over-the-top ecstatic about this job, it's just that I've finally found a job that makes simple sense, so I'm actually satisfied for a change.

crikey

I always thought Steve Irwin was invincible. Apparently not. I won't say he had it coming, because that's rude, but I will say that those who live by the sword must be prepared to die by the sword (or by nature, or whatever your chosen lifestyle's risks are). I only hope that he and his family understood the possible consequences of his actions and were prepared to deal with them. At least this way the legend kind of lives on...he didn't die in a mundane way like a hit-and-run, he died out where he loved to be. I think that counts for something.

Thank you, Crocodile Hunter, for adding your wonderful personality to this world. You will be missed.

people watching

Yesterday after work I had some time to putz around downtown and do some people-watching. Here are the results.

I saw a grinning freckled girl about age 12 with a huge skateboard. I saw a woman with a wooden canoe paddle crossing a bridge. I saw a dog (okay, I did some "dog-watching" too) who was the precise shape and size of a great dane but was coloured exactly like a dalmation. There was a funny woman who stood too close to me and stared past my head in confusion before she snapped out of it and then rather sheepishly asked for directions.

I saw two men get out of a cab and then stand on the street corner staring intently in one direction as if they were waiting for something or someone. They looked like somewhat unlikely companions. One was about 20 years old, redheaded, looking like your typical "boy next door" wearing jeans and a white T-shirt. He had a camera case/man-purse slung over one shoulder. The other was about 40, had long curly greying hair, and had that gaunt look that one often sees in people who live on the street. By their posture towards each other, it seemed like they considered each other buddies, nothing more and nothing less. After five minutes of staring, the young one gave a sharp whistle, and then they switched corners and stared intently in another direction. I looked away for a minute, and when I looked back they were gone.

A group of 4 adults walked out of a hotel. They looked like tourists from some midwest American town or city in their really generic haircuts and really generic clothing. One was the mom of a single 3-year-old, and at first glance I judged her to be one of those women who identifies really strongly with her mom-identity...you know, the sort who is somewhat too protective and likely to develop into a full-blown minivan-driving soccer mom in a few years' time. Temporarily unobserved, her kid tried to pick up a flyer off the dirty sidewalk with the same arm that he was using to clutch a plush toy to his chest, because his other arm was tied in a sling. Having achieved this feat, the boy ran to his mom saying, "Mommy! I found a newspaper! I found a newspaper!" To my surprise, the mom looked the kid in the eye and said, "Ooh, a newspaper! Did you get it for Daddy? Why don't you give it to Daddy?" in a good, genuine-sounding tone of voice. After the father thanked his son for the gift, the kid proceeded to trail behind his parents to pick up another flyer with his one non-gimpy-but-full-of-plush arm, saying, "Daddy! I found another newspaper for you!" I had misjudged this family by their blah appearance, I think I want to be a relaxed but genuine kind of family like that someday.

new job in action!

I have now been at my new job for two days. I work for Urban Promise. I am definitely going to like it. The UP offices are in a big house that was once the manse of the church next door. It's got a real comfy feel to it. Three of the people training me on Monday walked around the house barefooted. I can wear pretty much anything I want (within limits of general decency, of course), I can keep my nosestud in, and I don't come home smelling like coffee.

The job is super-flexible in many ways. Firstly, so long as I put in full-time hours and don't schedule events for teens during school hours, I can work whenever I want. I don't have to punch in or out. Also, so long as I maintain the core programs of getting teenagers trained and volunteering in the after-school programs for kids, I can pretty much plan whatever else I want to do with them. I can build this ministry to suit my skills and my passions and also to meet whatever we discern the needs of the teens to be.

Did I mention that I get 4 weeks of vacation? I pretty much need to take them in pre-determined windows (2 at Christmas, 1 in late June and 1 in late August), but there will of course be flexibility when it comes to attending my brother's wedding next May.

I like the kind of Christian atmosphere at this job as well. There is a real desire for the kids and especially the teens to get to know God, but they're not trying to be a conversion factory. It's basically a lot of intentional exposure to Christian beliefs and values within the framework of the after-school programs, and the rest is up to them. This might seem like an odd comment, but I'm also glad that I've heard the staff use the word "ass", so that's not taboo.

I am going to like this job.

more pure genius

It's a good thing a picture is worth a thousand words (and therefore a video is worth a million), because this has rendered me speechless. WATCH IT. NOW!

Habakkuk 2:17

The sermon in church this morning was about Habakkuk. Yes, it was about the entire book, because it's only 3 or 4 pages (depending on your Bible's font size and page layout). In the middle of a list of woes to Israel, there was this verse (2,17):

"The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
and your destruction of animals will terrify you.
For you have shed human blood;
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them."

So...I just found it kind of eerily relevant to the world today...yeah.

cabin fever

Aaron and I have been looking at our money situation, and it's looking kind of iffy as to whether we can make it out to Toronto for Christmas or not. (We're making my brother's wedding in May our first priority for travelling to Toronto, so Christmas got bumped down the list.) If we don't go for Christmas, it will be a full 17 months of staying in BC without visiting my home town. I also realize that is has now been a full 12 months since I was last in Manitoba, and if we wait until next summer, it will be a 2-year absence, and that's assuming we even can visit then.

I am not used to staying in one spot like this! I travelled all the time when I was a student, and even when I lived at home with my family in Toronto, we drove to Manitoba once or twice every year to see our extended family. Our only vacation this summer was when we road-tripped up to Dawson Creek, and although that was super-awesome, we never even left the province. (We really should have gone to the Yukon when we had the chance.) I guess I'm not sure I can handle it. I've got cabin fever.

ubergeek

Some friends of mine may be geeky in terms of comic books, science fiction, martial arts, and all sorts of other stuff, but this week I may have out-geeked you all. I play World of Warcraft, and here's the biggest news in my world this week: As of Tuesday, battlegrounds are now inter-realm, and it's totally blowing my mind! Arathi basin #11! Gah! Needless to say, with me having a week of holidays now that I'm between jobs, I have been playing lots.

In layperson terms: Instead of having to wait a long time between these special fun games, there are now lots and lots running all at once and the wait time is basically zero. Whoa.

superhero activities

I forgot to mention that the best parts of my day yesterday were when I rode the bus to work and I was standing in the aisle and holding the pole and my hair was blowing in the wind from the open window and I felt like a superhero, and also when I built pink dribble castles on top of the pink slushy drink I had for lunch by picking some slush up in my straw and then dribbling it on top of the castle (much like you can do with super-wet sand at a beach).

the death of a hamster

Yesterday was my last day at the coffee shop. I was getting pretty tired of most of the people I worked with, but I was kind of sad to say goodbye to some of the customers. I said goodbye to most customers in my head, because I wasn't sure how to say it out loud. I'll miss Mike, Shirley, the friendly Australian woman with the odd name I can never remember, the green tea latte guys who invited me to their house party, and Rob the busdriver, as well as the happy busdriver lady who likes oat bars. I will certainly not miss the notorious Short Mocha Man. But I will definitely miss all the kids who take martial arts lessons next door, because they are so friendly and polite and spunky and full of smiles. I want to have kids like that someday.

One of the kids, nunchuks girl, came in yesterday and said "There's a dead hamster outside." I looked up and out the window, and two other girls were pointing at somthing for me. So I put on a double layer of pastry gloves and went out to see what I could do. Someone had left a cardboard box labeled "free hamsters" just outside the martial arts place. It seems that the hamster had chewed a hole in the box and then keeled over dead just four feet into his freedom. His eyes were milky white and the girls were a little bit scared.

Girl: "Are you going to bury him?"
Me: "No."
Girl: "What are you going to do with him?"
Me: "I'm going to put him in the garbage."
Girl: "No!"
Another girl: "I guess he'll end up in a landfill and be covered up, so that's kind of like burying him."

So I picked up the hamster, and as soon as I touched him (remember: double-layered pastry gloves) and felt that he wasn't crusty and stiff like I thought but that he was soft and squishy with bones inside just like a real live hamster, then I got sad. I put him back in his box and carried him away to the dumpster. The girls didn't follow, I don't think they wanted to see. I was beginning to question whether I had done the right thing by just saying where I was putting the hamster or whether I should have lied to the kids to make them feel better. I was still sad for the hamster itself as well. So, as I put it in the dumpster, I said a prayer: "Oh Lord, receive this hamster into thy kingdom. Amen."

My dad might take issue with that because he's not one for ascribing souls or intelligence to animals, but I had to say something to properly wrap up the life and death of the hamster. I'm sure God can weed out the iffy theology and make sure the hamster ends up in the right place. I've decided that when I'm in heaven and I've already managed to look up all my old friends at least once, I'll have lots of time left to hunt for the hamster and make sure he's okay.

When nunchuks girl came back for a hot chocolate after her lesson, I gave her what is without a doubt the largest mountain of whipping cream I have ever managed to pile on top of a small cup and said "I'm sorry you had to see a dead hamster." The woman behind her in line smiled at me in a friendly and sympathetic way. I've spent much of the past 24 hours wondering whether maybe I shouldn't have told them I was putting the hamster in the garbage. I didn't want to make them more upset, but I didn't want to lie. I hope I did the right thing.

wedding funs

Robi and Rikki are married now! I'm amazed at how the managed to pull together a wedding in two short months.

My attire for the days events also followed the "last minute" theme. I have this great green silk corset top that I made almost a year ago, and I had yet to wear it to a really nifty event (although I did wear it to meet Neil Gaiman...but that wasn't really a dress-up occasion). So on Tuesday I went shopping for a good skirt to wear it with. Shopping was futile, however, because things were either ugly/stupid or way too expensive. For example, I found a really fun skirt for $120, but really I could have made it myself.

So I did. Except I only managed to go fabric shopping the afternoon before the wedding, and I only managed to actually start anything after dinner at around 9pm. So I stayed up until 5 sewing a skirt. Luckily I could sleep in until noon because the wedding only started at 3. I got many lovely comments on my skirt and top. One of Robi's friends said I was the best dressed person there, and a friend of the family said my top was "very classic...and other things," which Aaron heartily agreed with. Nothing like a nice vanity boost from time to time!

I was an ushette! I like being an usher-type, because you get all of the random but useful tasks. I was the guardian of the bridesmaids' purses, the putter-of-things on seats for people in the processional, and a general message conveyor. At the reception, I met a baby named Kai, and I got to hold him and he smiled at me even though he was super-tired. I also met a toddler named Matthew when he very deliberately ran his forehead into my knee. Who knows why kids do these things?

Congratulations Rikki and Robi!

point form (sort of)

Pink sunset, bright stars, fresh country air, getting someone else to take my 5:30am shift, running into traffic to refill a busdriver's coffee through the window, pleasant sunshine, only one shift left at my stupid job, finally getting my married surname on my driver's license, a sewing project, and a wedding to look forward to on Friday. Life is good.

most certainly half full

No Jan, the glass is not so half-full that I will never publish my blog again. I just don't always have something blogworthy to say, and I don't care to waste people's time and brain cells with something that I wouldn't want to read. But, for your sake, let me attempt to blog something worthy of reading:

Last night we tied our last Ultimate Frisbee game of the season. Then we went out to a pub, and it was fun. We talked about doulas, and why it makes guys more comfortable to call them "childbirth labour coaches" instead of something hippie like "doula." We let Bailey and Dan talk about some of their more extravagant drunken adventures in order to impress the new girl on our team. The jury's out on whether or not they were successful. The new girl Christina and I bonded over being from Toronto and the difficulty of making friends in a new place. Dan invited me to take dancing lessons with him, and Aaron took half-hearted exception to the fact that Dan was hitting on his wife. I had a nice chat with Julia about irritating jobs we've had. Julian and Julia (yes, they're a couple whose names only differ by one letter) ordered poutine once again, which I think is kind of gross. Aaron and I had nachos. I had a brown cow, which satisfied my dessert craving. Everyone else had pitchers and/or pints of beer. People played pool and Robi made possibly the best shot of his life.

So, that's what happened yesterday. Now comes the feedback: Is a blog entry in the style of "what I did today" worthy of your time, or shall I stick to the stories that I think are truly interesting? (Admittedly, what I often have a different idea of what is interesting to jabber about than other, so this may be a futile conversation.)

half-full or half-empty

I think it's kind of funny and scary that PMS actually exists. For me, I'll often be crabby and full of mood swings for a few days before I stop and think "Hey, what's wrong with me? My actions and emotions have been absolutely bizarre for days!" at which point I'll start counting days/weeks and then the light will dawn: "Ohhhhh...THAT'S why." It's as if for 7 days, something in the pit of my stomach shifts from my usual "the glass is half-full" to a concrete sense of angsty "half-emptiness." Anyway, it weirds me out that the world can look that different from one week to the next. I can't even imagine what it must be like to have a diagnosed mental illness like depression.

the art of shade

I have noticed an interesting summer phenomenon here in Vancouver. It first came to my attention when I was walking towards my bus stop and saw about 6 people tightly lined up across the sidewalk I was trying to walk along. What were they doing? I think they were waiting for the bus too, but why in such an odd formation?

It turns out they were all sharing the shade of the same lamppost.

How odd is that? Since that day, I've noticed all kinds of people trying to escape the sun by standing in the plentiful shade of various city poles (electrical, telephone, more street lamps, etc.) I just don't get it. Shade works to cool you off if, say, a large tree has sheltered a section of lawn from being heated up all day long. But a narrow band of shade on pavement does nothing, as you're still surrounded by heat-radiating concrete on all sides, and even the shaded concrete that you're standing on was in the sun 15 minutes ago and will be there again in 5. The only way the whole pole-shade thing makes sense is if you're trying to read a book without blinding yourself in the sun, and that has nothing to do with heat.

I laugh at the pole-shade people.

I had an argument with my dream

Last night I had a dream about the waterslides in West Edmonton Mall. I dreamt that we were there on an off day and the place was practically empty, so the lifeguards let Aaron and me in for a single free slide. Luckily I had my bikini in my bag, so I got to look fantastic instead of going in my t-shirt and shorts. I tried to get to the biggest waterslide, but I kept getting lost in all the staircases. When I finally gave up and decided to slide down the one that was in front of me, I found that I was wearing my glasses, which obviously couldn't come down the slide with me.

At this point I (the dreamer) had to draw the line with my dream. I knew for certain that I had left my glasses with Aaron, but the dream started arguing with me as if caught red-handed, "Well, you're wearing them now so obviously you didn't leave them with Aaron." I argued back, "WHATEVER. I left them with Aaron and you're just to proud to admit that you forgot. My glasses are down there with Aaron, so you'd better not keep pretending they're up here on my face." "But...you...ummm...Ha! You're still wearing your watch and a necklace and your earcuff AND your socks! Bet you didn't think of taking those off! You'll just have to leave them up here, slide down, and then climb all the way up to get them again anyway! Nya nyaaah!"

I was pretty sure I hadn't been wearing any of those things with my bikini in the first place, but since I hadn't made a point of leaving them with Aaron, I couldn't prove that the dream was wrong and outside its usual jurisdiction of making things randomly different than they were five minutes ago. Like how there was now a huge lineup behind me that was impatient for me to stop arguing with my dream and get on the damn slide. So I took off my watch, necklace, earcuff and socks (note the absence of my glasses...the dream had to give me that one) and went down the slide. Then a whole bunch of other stuff happened, including Christmas, and I woke up before I ever got back to my socks at the top of the slide.

fireworks

I went to see the fireworks yesterday. I LOVE FIREWORKS!!! When I was a bride-to-be and reading all those crazy magazines, the only themed wedding I read about that wasn't tacky beyond all belief was a fireworks-themed wedding. I totally could have had a fireworks wedding. Except we got married in January, and nobody would have had fun shivering in the cold while watching fireworks.

So, Vancouver has one of those international set-the-fireworks-to-music competitions. Yesterday's performance was brilliant, it was all set to jazzy music, including some Gershwin and also the Pink Panther (which had low, dim pink stars for the sneaky-sounding bits and then really glitzy ones for the pizzazz parts). One of my favourite things that they did was slowly build a rainbow (over the course of maybe a minute or so) from shooting lots of those plain red stars off to one side, then adding some orange ones that shot a little more vertically, and then some yellow ones pretty much vertically, etc., until they had a big rainbow fan of coloured shooting stars. I like it that they got really creative by using a whole bunch of cheap fireworks that any joe shmoe could buy instead of only showing off with the $500 a shot big ones (which were also very impressive).

I also enjoyed the really fun and classy jazz selection they used. I've seen these fireworks competitions done with classical selections, which are also cool, but classical just gets done way too much with fireworks. Then there are the more "avant-garde" presentations with Madonna and Euro pop and who knows what other kind of weird stuff, and these ones just end up bit bizarre. But the Gershwin was just plain sexy. I'm not even a huge fan of Gershwin to begin with, but he totally can do fireworks!

It's official!

Okay, as promised, today I have something blogworthy to post!

I have FINALLY been officially offered the job at Urban Promise (the one that deals with youth and leadership/life skills development) and I have offically accepted! I start August 28. Only one more month at Ye Corporate Coffee Shoppe!

*dance a little jig*

This is also the job where I'll have to raise extra support because I am working in Missions and there apparently isn't a lot of money lying around. So, if you know anyone who wishes to donate either a teensy or a gigantic amount of money to help this work with urban "at risk" youth, just give me a shout. Tax receipts for all!

Also, for those of you who are the praying sort, I would appreciate the support of your prayer for me in a new and challenging position (thank goodness I have a challenging position!), and also for the many children and youth that I'll be working with, that they will learn and grow and maybe even get to know God a little better. (Urban Promise doesn't focus primarily on evangelism, but still hopes that kids become more aware of who Jesus is through their programs and relationships with the staff.)

dead or not dead?

I'm not dead. I just have nothing blogworthy to say. Maybe tomorrow?

a million ways to be cool

Here is absolute, irrefutable proof that I have the coolest little brother in the world.

Karl and his friends have entered a contest for the best fan recreation of the music video for OK GO's "Million ways to be cruel." The prize is a paid trip to one of the band's concerts where you will dance onstage with them. Here is the band's website with the original dance video, so you can compare and appreciate the awesomeness.

Anyway, posting lots of really good comments on the website (the one with Karl's video) helps them win, so take five minutes for my baby bro, will ya?

Thank goodness for fathers-in-law with ladders.

Okay, today let's play a game. It's called "See if you can write my blog entry." So, in the comments, you can write a mini-blog entry for me that falls under the title of "Thank goodness for fathers-in-law with ladders."

Once you've all guessed a bit, I will write my own comment/blog entry with the story of what actually happened that required a father-in-law with a ladder.

yay beach

Yesterday we went for a walk on the beach. It's funny, I was sitting at home and pining for the beach, and then once we got there, there was nothing to do except stand and walk. It was already 8:30 in the evening, so the wind was getting rather chilly as well.

We saw some street, I mean, beach performers. They were really funny, one was a "mad scientist" and one was a robot. They did things like throw those juggling bowling pins at each other as if they were fighting, but really they were juggling. And the robot guy could do all kinds of neat balancing things like climb up a ladder that wasn't leaning against anything.

The best part was the children who were laughing at these clowns (for that is what they were, even if they didn't have any face paint). They laughed really loud and genuinely as only children can do, in a way that leaves them breathless. I laughed too, and I clapped lots. Aaron, of course, thought that I was cute. (Awww.)

I had an Oreo ice cream sandwich and Aaron had a Turtles ice cream on a stick, and later we got a strawberry lemonade. And we got sand in our sandals.

I like summer.

Punted! (and not even dignified with a whack of the Word)

Okay, obviously y'all didn't wish me enough luck, because I've already been punted from the fundamentalist discussion forum! I had wondered if this might happen eventually (like in a month or two), or if maybe I would just end up excusing myself for the sake of keeping the peace.

I'm rather disappointed. I was really going to try to be a part of their community. I wanted to put myself outside my comfort zone and allow myself to be challenged by their different views. I figured it would help me to get to know the Bible on a "quote-it-off-the-top-of-my-head" basis, which is an area in which I find myself lacking. They didn't even send me a goodbye e-mail or anything, they just disabled my login or link or whatever without any explanation. What kind of community is that? I wanted to learn from them, but instead of responding to my posts, they just slammed the door in my face. I am severely disappointed.

Here is my list of possible reasons I got punted:
1. The introduce-yourself thread asked for your favourite quote, and I quoted Orson Scott Card.
2. I pointed out that all the fundamentalist statements of faith I had read put scriptural authority as really really really important, but that the Apostle's Creed doesn't even mention scripture at all. I was curious what they thought of this. (Maybe they misunderstood the line about the "holy catholic church"?)
3. Someone had linked an article about what a horrible Christian Rick Warren (the Purpose-Driven Life guy) is. I was shocked and appalled by how utterly vicious the article was, so I said as much.
4. Maybe they found my blog.
5. I said I liked the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Personally, I think #3 or #4 might be the kickers. Perhaps my tone in the post mentioned in #3 was too strong, but my stomach was seriously churning in disgust at how rude the article's author was! I actually agreed with about 90% of the content of it, it was just so un-Christian in tone.

Perhaps I assumed too much in bringing up a point of controversy. I have always enjoyed debates when they are edifying and challenging. Perhaps the forum people are not used to that kind of conversation and thought I was attacking them, although I very deliberately tried to formulate my words in a manner that did not cross any lines.

Ultimately, I am saddened. This experience was supposed to help me get to know some fundamentalist Christians and to understand them better. Instead, I find my negative stereotypes of fundamentalists to be strengthened.

wish me luck

Well, I've embarked on a new adventure. After reading Elliot's post about Christian death metal, I started lazily following links here and there until I found myself presented with the opportunity to become part of a fundamentalist Christian discussion forum and online community. So I applied, and although the moderator may have had her doubts about me (remember when fundamentalism was dead last on my "What kind of Christian are you" quiz?), she let me in. My goal is not to slam my brothers and sisters in Christ over in the fundamentalist wing of God's house, but rather to learn from them. I pray that I can remain humble and open to learning, and yet not hide who I am or what I believe in order to not be kicked from the forum.

My first few days as part of the forum have been interesting. I have read much that either makes my stomach churn or that I just plain don't give a rat's ass about. (Who gives a crap whether or not they find archaeolocial evidence that Noah's ark existed?) I have also taken the interesting step of linking my profile over there to this blog over here. Maybe they'll find out that I swear, or that I have difficulty figuring out what God's will is when it comes to homosexuality. (*Gasp* and now I've put that in my topmost post so that the fundamentalists can find my deviance even sooner!) Anyway, I guess I'm curious to see if they'll just punt me out of the forum with a good whack of the Word, or if they'll actually stop and listen to what I have to say. I'm trying to stop and listen to what they have to say, otherwise I wouldn't spend a millisecond of my time on that forum.

I'm not going to start censoring myself here, so if the discussion board members pop by, maybe they can see a little bit more of who I am. I most certainly do censor myself on that forum because I don't want to be any more controversial than I already am. They're trying to build an online Christian community, for Pete's sake, and that's a good thing that I don't want to wreck for the sake of a deliciously heated debate.

Anyway, if you're curious, the host website/blog is here, but the actual forum itself is only viewable by discussion board members.

inside jokes

I have recently realised that I have my own inside jokes. Sometimes I think I'm just plain hilarious, and nobody else seems to get it. But that's okay, I enjoy laughing, even when nobody else is. I also realised that this trait reminds me of my friend Charles Koop. He can laugh himself into tears when everyone else is just deadpan.

My favourite posts ever are musical brilliance, well I'll be damned, Balaam is my friend. They make me laugh.

musical brilliance

Thank God there is an abundance of musical brilliance in this world! I take it as proof that God exists. Here is a list of some of the musical brilliance I have enjoyed in the past 7 hours of scanning:

Cake - Witty (with a capital W), clever, and content that feels real ("No Phone" is a particular favourite)

Bjork - totally inspires me. so many brand-new ideas.

Frou Frou - "Let Go" strikes a good philosophical chord in my heart

Moist/David Usher - sexy voice. mmmen.

Bush - Gavin Rossdale also has the voice of a mmman. hot accent too.

Johnny Cash - "Man in Black" makes me think he should have been Roman Catholic. The Suffering Christ can be a very powerful comfort and inspiration.

U2 - self-explanatory if you know anything.

Maroon 5 - really sexy and not shallow. they talk about stuff. like relationships. but for real.

Hawksley Workman - really really really sexy, period. and way to not be afraid of bizarre metaphors! go get 'em, boy.

Smashing Pumpkins - when Billy stops screaming, they have some fantastic stuff. Screaming Billy does not always equal. But then again, Screaming Billy is sometimes the most brilliant thing the Pumpkins have. I suspect I am making no sense here, so let's move on...

Foo Fighters - fantastic energy

Propellerheads - sweet groove of the gods

Yes. As you may be able to tell, 7 hours of scanning has fried my brains to little bacon bits. I'm going to go listen to more music. And eat blueberries. Namaste.

bored...

Join me for "An Afternoon in the Life of Diedre." I am currently sitting in my father-in-law's home office, scanning a bazillion pages out of business textbooks as part of some contract work for a professor. I am listening to Beck on my iPod. I am bored. The sad thing is that I'm being paid about $4 more per hour than I am at my coffee shop job. I work so much harder there...they really don't pay me enough. Hence my jobhunt.

Oh, an update on that: my second interview for the youth work job is next week. I'm thinking it will go well. That job will be exciting because it will make use of all my abilities and then some. That job will not be exciting because the salary is confusing. They will provide a salary of $21,000, and I am supposed to fundraise the rest of my salary to a maximum total of $35,000. This is all fine and well if you come from a church culture where missionaries are funded entirely by private donors. This is the kind of community the organisation comes from. They think they're being pretty avant-garde by ensuring a minimum salary. However, I do not come from this kind of "missionaries find their own funding" kind of church culture. Where am I supposed to find the extra money? I don't want to ask family, because that's just awkward. (Hey Uncle Bob...want to pay my salary while I work for people you've never heard of?) I don't want to ask my church back in Toronto, because they already helped me plenty with my two undergrad degrees. (Thanks for paying my university fees...now that I've finally graduated, want to pay my salary too?) I don't want to ask my new church here in Vancouver either, because I'm just too new to be asking them for money. Besides, one person from this church already works for the same people, and apparently it's been awkward when she asks them for money, and she's even a longtime upstanding member. Can anyone offer any suggestions? I'm kind of stumped.

So, I'm still scanning. Now the Foo Fighters are in my ears. I'm chewing on an orange Starburst. These pages are literally torn out of books! I actually have to pull each page apart from the glue binding that holds it to the others. This is difficult for me; I have a certain respect for books, no matter how boring their content may be. Although, I suppose I could happily destroy books that were idiotic, poorly written, ugly, and utterly useless.

Here's an awful book-abuse story: At one of the church youth events this year, we had an obstacle course relay. The kids had to pick up a hymnal, put it on top of their heads, and walk a certain distance. Even this proposal made me queasy...what if the hymnals fell and got their pages bent? Well, they did. And also, as the whole relay was degenerating into chaos, one of the youth actually threw a hymnal at a chair! You can ask Aaron, I almost keeled over and died. I did in fact scream in agony. Perhaps this is all due to my TUMC upbringing (my home church has an uncalled-for number of professional classical musicians in attendance, and the hymnal is an object of reverence), but people here just don't seem to take the hymnal as seriously as I'm accustomed to.

Jars of Clay. Strawberry Starburst. Johnny Cash. Cherry Starburst. Peter Gabriel. Strawberry Starburst.

The whole raise-your-own-salary thing has got me back looking for admin-ass jobs just in case a perfect one shows up. There is undoubtedly more money to be had in admin assistance than in ministry. However, I want to start my career already! I've already had a just-a-job job for a year. As Lolo has pointed out, you need experience in a field to get hired in that field. I gotta start now! So I guess I still want the piddly $21,00 salary because I'll be putting my noggin to use.

Bjork. NO MORE STARBURSTS. Radiohead. (This is a very Diedre playlist...)

I suppose I should stop pestering all you blog-readers before I lose you all. Well, have a good afternoon. Hopefully you all make lots of money in your fulfilling careers.

owie

Last night my Ultimate frisbee team FINALLY won a game! It's been kind of frustrating to keep losing games because we know we can beat most of the teams we've been playing, we just get lazy or unlucky or something. But we won last night! And with a price: my right leg hurts in 4 different places, most notably my bothersome hip and my knee. Owie.

Yesterday I went clothes shopping and spent my entire income tax return. (It wasn't really that much in the first place.) I got capris, a neat zip-up sweatshirt, two tank tops and two dresscode work shirts. All for cheap! The capris are lululemon-esque but only cost me $35, and the sweatshirt was on sale for $36. The sweatshirt is really hot, it's black and long, almost like a trench coat or something.

The most beautiful thing about today was either the sunrise or the flower petals the wind was stirring up outside the florist shop next to where I work. They looked like the wrapping paper I put Annemarie and Sam's wedding gift in. Or perhaps the most beautiful thing about today is yet to come...

bid for the papacy

In a short 15 minutes I discovered my dream job and then promptly had all my hopes dashed. I want to be the pope. I am perfect pope material! I love fiddling in church administration and committees and keeping the unity of the communion and such, and I have a pastoral streak, and I've got a good start on my education with a Bachelor of Theology. And by the time I'm 70 and ready to be the pope, they could be ready to elect a woman to the papacy. It was all perfect in my mind...I don't even have that huge a beef with infant baptism and the Virgin Mary...and then Aaron reminded me that I'm not celibate. DAMN! There's really no way to get out of it either...divorce and murder are sure ways not to be the pope. So, we've agreed that if Aaron dies a natural death in the next 10-20 years, I'll convert and start logging Roman Catholicism hours in order to be pope. Seriously, being the pope would be wicked awesome! I'd get to live in the Vatican with secret passageways and priceless art and a really nifty library!

Besides aspiring to be the pope, I also spent several hours cleaning our apartment today. It feels really good to have it so clean! To celebrate, we're going to have people over on Sunday so we can show off how clean and organised our home is. If you're reading this, you're invited. See you there!

training woes

Well, it's been a week since I last posted, and it's been a rather dreary week. Not so much in terms of weather--that has been gloriously hot and sunny! I've been working and training (for my shift supervisor promotion) for 7 out of the past 8 days...my "long weekend" consisted of Sunday only. This week I'm working three opening shifts, so I have to be at work for 5:30 am, which is a vile and disgusting time to be working. I could understand if someone voluntarily woke up at that time and puttered around in their garden or took their dog for a walk, but being at work at that time is just depressing. I'm a terrible morning person, and messing with my sleep schedule like that just makes me weary and emotionally volatile, and just plain crabby.

The other thing that makes training difficult is that I'm often shadowing this other shift supervisor whose work style drives me up the wall. She's basically a slightly paranoid, uptight micro-manager. She's the kind of person who tells you to do something half a second before you were going to do it anyway. I've worked with her before, and usually I just do things my way whether it drives her nuts or not. But now I'm learning how to do her job, so she's actually supposed to be telling me how to do things all the time, and boy is she good at it! Arrrgh! The only thing that makes our working together even possible in the slightest is that we're both generally nice people and can be mature about our differences. I understand that she's trying to be helpful, and I think she understands that I'm more independant than a simple yes-woman. If either of us had the slightest inclination to be bitchy, things would have exploded long ago.

I did however see a fuzzy man on Saturday. He was short and dark (not sure if he was tanned or from India) and bald and had fuzzy white hair sticking out around his head, and his beard was long and wispy and tapered into a point. He looked like a retired south Asian leprechaun. The fuzzy man made my day.

Yesterday I re-discovered that I have made some friends in Vancouver since moving here in September. I ran into a friend from work (who no longer works with me) in the mall and had a friendly chat. Also, two of my Ultimate Frisbee teammates were very friendly and we had some good laughs.

But it's still hard to be my usual chipper self when I know I have to wake up at 4:20 tomorrow morning.