why I like canoes better than kayaks (avec prelude)

Prelude
Many things have transpired since my last post. In a nutshell, I had a week of vacation and Aaron and I went camping, then my best friend Liz showed up in town and we hung out, and then I went away on a work retreat. And now I'm home again.

Aaron and I went camping on Galiano Island, and we enjoyed nature. We spent time in the sun, on the beach and kayaking. We played in tidal pools. We saw deer, even baby deer, and they looked so wonderful when they bounded away! We saw phosphorescent micro-organisms in the ocean at night. We also heard some seals who suffered from night terrors and sleep apnea. Or at least that's what it sounded like.

Our camping trip was also pest-free except for the occasional wasp. Galiano Island does not have any bears at all, and apparently their raccoons and skunks are not interested in garbage or dirty dishes left out overnight. I got one mosquito bite in three evenings of sitting by the campfire in a tank top. Honestly, it was kinda creepy to be that unmolested by nature.

Visiting with Liz and her mom was also fun. Aaron got to spend more time with them than I did, because they were still in Vancouver the whole time I was away on the work retreat.

Finally, I spent three days and two nights in a cottage with my colleagues. It was pretty chill. My favourite part was canoeing. I have been both canoeing and kayaking in the past two weeks.

Here is why I like canoeing better than kayaking:

- The whole means of steering is far more tangible in a canoe. Foot pedals that turn a rudder simply do not have the same effect as a well-wielded paddle. I imagine the difference to be much like driving a standard as opposed to an automatic. You gain a more tangible control over things when you cut out the "middle man" machinery. You can't turn a kayak on a dime without resorting to canoe tricks (which are more difficult with a super-long buttless kayak paddle).

- I like the point of view better in a canoe. You are higher up, which means you have a better angle for looking down into the water, and the scenery in general looks better in my opinion.

- The seating arrangement is more comfortable. In a kayak your legs are stuck straight out in front of you and resting on foot rests. I like the properly seated or kneeling positions better, and you have more options to find a comfortable position without knocking your knees on the bloody kayak.

- I prefer taking powerful individual paddle strokes rather than trying to be a smoothly fluttering kayak whirly-bird. Again, it just feels more tangible somehow.

- When canoeing, you can switch the side you're paddling on and give some of your muscles a rest while still moving forward. When kayaking, the only rest your muscles get is when you stop.

- Finally, I simply feel more at home in a canoe. I have developed a full complement of canoe habits over the course of my lifetime, and I feel like a canoe is somewhat like a natural extension of my body. Not so much with kayaks.

I win!

This post is an Annemarie-style post in that it talks about housecleaning that I have accomplished today. When Aaron came home from grocery shopping, I challenged him to think of a visible surface (i.e., not inside cupboards) in the bathroom that I had not cleaned. So here's the scorecard:

Diedre's points (stuff I cleaned):
mirrors
faucets
bathtub
the soap dish in the wall of the bathtub
light fixture
the fan in the ceiling
the outside of the drawers
the ceiling
on top of the wall cupboards
the floor

Aaron's points (stuff I didn't clean):
the shower curtain rod

Other points I would have had if he had asked:
the back side of the toilet tank (and the wall behind it)
the toilet paper holder
the walls
other obvious stuff like the sink and the toilet bowl/seat

blarney

Tee hee! There are five honest-to-goodness Irish in the office today! They're chattering away with THICK accents and it's both fun and funny! I have to ask them to repeat themselves half the time, I can't understand most of what they say the first time around.

crazy bus drivers

Yesterday I walked past one of those bus waiting areas where bus drivers take their breaks between runs. I heard a strange noise coming out of one of the busses. When I looked closer, I realized that there were two bus drivers hanging out in the bus, and one of them was playing the BAGPIPES. How's that for a lunch break activity?

thou shalt watch Stardust

Aaron and I watched Stardust yesterday, and it was awesome! It was a good fairy tale/quest/adventure movie, filling the same sort of niche in my heart as The Princess Bride. It made me laugh lots too! I fully intend to buy it when it comes out on DvD (and that's saying something, because I usually just rent movies), and I fully intend to watch it many more times over the course of my life. And show it to my kids. And my parents. And everyone else. I believe this movie is completely appropriate for anyone who is old enough to cope with the largely goreless killing of disposable characters, the off-screen killing of animals, and scary witches.

I'm not very talented at writing reviews, so let me cut myself short and simply say: Watch it, it is highly entertaining. Now turn off your computer and go watch it.

fabulous frolics

Everybody should go and look at Annemarie's picture-filled post about our camping trip.

What are you waiting for? GO LOOK AT IT!!!

camping at Wells Grey

We spent the long weekend camping with Sam and Annemarie. We live in opposite corners of British Columbia, so we decided to drive to the middle and camp at Wells Grey Provincial Park.

It was fun and relaxing and we got to use our tent outdoors for the first time! (You may recall that we had already set it up in our living room and slept in it for two nights.) This is the summer of buying camping gear, so we also broke in a new tarp, camp chairs, camp pots/pans, and a new air mattress for Aaron. It was tres exciting. Maybe next time we'll buy our own cooler. And remember to bring dish soap.

We spent Sunday driving around the park and looking at various natural and historical sights. There was a carbonated mineral spring that was bubbly and covered in bright orange goo. When you threw rocks in, the goo closed up immediately over top and you couldn't tell that anything had changed. There weren't even surface ripples. It was as if the rock had ceased to exist the moment it touched the goo!

The other pleasant surprise was Helmcken Falls. I figured we were just going to go see a bunch of mediocre-but-cool waterfalls in the park, but Helcken Falls are the real deal! They are three times as tall as Niagara, although they are of course much much narrower. But there is a still quite a significant amount of water pouring over (they are not wispy), and there is a cool hollowed-out part in the cliff that has mainly been eroded by winter ice from the mist. Here is a picture that I found online, although I don't think it really does the falls justice, they're WAY bigger than that!

my personal highlight reel (from today's ultimate game)

1) I jumped up and knocked a disc out of the air before anyone else could jump up and grab it (there were 2 of them on me).

2) I was jogging along somewhat close to an opponent, basically just trying to get out of the way, when I noticed from her face and posture that she was about to catch the disc in about 0.6 seconds. I didn't have time to find the disc in the air, so I just ran right in front of her and managed to have the disc bounce off my side without me ever seeing it. It was a successful, if unusual, defensive move.

3) I caught a point. Apparently the opponents decided that a tired female was not worth covering, and I ran unhindered into the open end zone. And then I caught it.

it is finished

I finished the new Harry Potter book. I can once again prowl the internet at my leisure, unafraid of spoilers. I can once again return to work without fear of my babbling teenagers. Victory is mine! And I will not spoil it for the rest of you, so read on without fear.

I am beginning to realize that I am a master of "willing suspension of disbelief". So many of the little plot twists and turns were things that had occurred to me at some point before they happened, but I never stood back and fully fleshed them out in my mind. I guess I'm not big on predictions because I'm afraid that I'll be right (or wrong), and in the end I just want to experience the story in the sequence that it happens.

random spazzy angry people

Today we had a staff meeting over dinner in a restaurant. As we were chit-chatting and settling down, my boss Jo (female) made a light-hearted comment to a fellow staff member, "Ask and you shall receive...if you behave."

Enter random spazzy angry woman, seated at the table behind us. Let us call her PShAW (It's quite a funny acronym if you don't mind a P in place of an R). She says, "Excuse me, did you just say, 'Ask and you shall receive if you behave'??? I don't know if I can stay in the same restaurant as you!"

Several of us make small comments about how we were just joking. One of my more hot-headed colleagues may have come across slightly antagonistically.

PShAW says, "Excuse me, but do you know the twenty-third psalm? My mother just passed away!"

Hot-headed colleague answers without sarcasm, "I'm sorry for your loss." We settle back into our meeting. PShAW mutters under her breath, "'Ask and you shall receive if you behave'!" *more muttering*

We try to settle back into our meeting. PShAW calls over the waiter. "Excuse me, I would like to change tables please!" As she passes us, she says quite audibly to all, "I don't want to sit near chauvinists."

Throughout the course of our dinner meeting (which is quite long), PShAW leaves the restaurant for some time. She returns and is disgusted to see us still sitting there, and makes more antagonistic mutterings.

Finally, as we leave the restaurant, she is standing outside the door having a smoke. As Jo walks past, she says (audibly again), "There goes the witch. I hope all the grease goes straight to her ass."

And all this because of one rather innocent joking comment. We talked about her later, and we couldn't figure out if she was a Christian who was offended by a perceived mockery of a line of scripture, or if she was antagonistic towards Christianity and didn't want to be anywhere near someone quoting scripture in a public place. Nevermind the fact that her comments were all extremely disjointed and didn't make any sense. Chauvinists?! It was a woman who made the initial comment! And what does the twenty-third psalm have to do with anything? Thankfully we all had the wits to just keep our mouths shut and not quote it back at her.

I figure that either the loss of her mother was so recently painful that she was lashing out, or that she has some sort of personality disorder, or that she was just a normal person with major issues. My vote is with the personality disorder, I don't see how a normal angry person could come up with that crap.

morning brain

Today I will tell you a little tale about how poorly my mind functions within the first few hours of waking up.

I took a shower this morning, and as I was rinsing off my light grey washcloth in the showerhead, I noticed a dozen or more tiny dark dots on it that were not washing off. For some reason, I assumed that they were lice. And then I freaked out because that's really gross. I figured they weren't washing out because they were holding on to the comfy warm washcloth fibres for dear life.

And then I started wondering where on earth they could have come from, and how long Aaron and/or I have had lice, and how there could be so many all of a sudden without us noticing, and if I would have to cut off all my hair to get rid of them. I tried to pick one out of the washcloth, and thought it was odd that it came apart in a fibre-like manner, but then again I had never really been up close and personal with a louse before.

So, I got out of the shower and continued getting ready for the morning, because I didn't see what else I could do about it right then, and I needed to get to work. So I took my dark purple towel and started to dry off. I noticed, for about the 28th time, that this towel had acquired several tiny light-grey pills of fuzz from being washed with our light-grey towels. I wondered why our grey towels never got dark purple pills.

I kept pondering the louse problem. No light dawned.

Finally, when I was almost ready to go, I decided to take another look at the lice. I noticed that in the better light, the lice looked purple. I poked one. I thought it seemed to curled up tighter on the fabric. I picked it out of the washcloth. It trailed a few fibres behind it as if it had been holding on really tightly.

And then I finally figured it out.

Aaron can be very thankful that I had resusted the urge to run out of the shower and wake him up and make him kill the lice. He's even worse than I am in the morning!

reflections of a church bulletin doodler

Today in church I succumbed to the age-old temptation of all church doodlers: I coloured in all the O's on the bulletin (and also the zeroes). Instinctively, I tried to be very precise by colouring 100% of the area inside the O's, and 0% of the area outside of the O's.

Then I caught myself and thought some hippie thoughts along the lines of, "God is a creative and vibrant God! Why should we be limited by the institution of type? We should all be colouring outside the lines and across the lines; we should be thinking outside the box!"

Then I caught myself again and thought, "Nonsense! God created the universe to be quantized at the most minute levels! Empty O, full O, there need not be anything in between, for God's building blocks of the universe are beautiful!"

I continued to colour in the O's, a little less precisely than before, but still generally aiming for inside-the-lines perfection. I'll bet God loves both the organic mess and the quantum precision in the world.

it's geek time again!

In the World of Warcraft, Aaron and I now both have sets of armour that don't look ridiculously mis-matched and actually look decent as a whole for a change. (I once had a butt-ugly assortment of armour that I called my hobo suit.) To celebrate, we had a spontaneous photo shoot. Here are the results! I recommend clicking on the photos so you can see the bigger & better version.


In case you couldn't figure it out, I'm the girl elf with the green braid, and Aaron is the man-elf. The large cat is his pet, named William. I'm being cool and pointing at the camera! (It's a little hard to see at this angle.) And yes, we are standing on a giant mushroom.




Even in computer game photos, some loser will blink. This time it was Aaron.




Aaron flexes to show off how uber he is. William is unimpressed.



I give a girly cheer to show off how uber I am. Aaron is unimpressed.




And finally: our glory shot! Yes, I am being like Storm and making lightning. This time it's my poor little white kitten who is unimpressed. Meow!

bugs and snails and puppydog tails

Today at work we held a big sports day for the kids at our summer day camps. I ran the 100m sprint event, which was nice and straightforward.

The highlight of my day has to be this one kid who was completely fascinated with a bug on his hand, to the point of being oblivious to anything else. He stared at the bug while I was explaining how the heats would go. I had to call him up to the start line three times when it was his heat. The only time he broke eye contact with the bug was during my "on your marks, get set, go!" when he glanced up to see where he was going. He kept his head up for the first few steps, and then got worried that he'd drop the bug. He lightly jogged the rest of the race, eyes glued to that bug in his hands. Even when his group walked back to the start line to grab their stuff after the race, this kid still trailed behind with his bug. How cute!

romance alive and well among minivan owners

This weekend Karl and Terry came to hang out with Aaron and me after attending the bit Mennonite conference in Abbotsford all week. We had fun!

When we were all done with our picnic and frisbee-throwing at the park in Steveston, we returned to our car. Right next to our car was a minivan, complete with a pair of white, upper-middle-class, thirty-something, heterosexual owners. They were leaning against it and sharing a very romantic and intimate kiss.

We slowed down as we approached our car in order to give them some time to finish up. They took all that time and then some. Eventually we just walked right up next to them and got into our car. As we were buckling up, the woman started giggling a bit, presumably embarrassed due to how silly they were being with other people so close by. As we drove away, we caught the husband's eye, and we gave him a big thumbs up! He grinned, and they both laughed, and it was all very cute.

le beater extreme

On Friday, I took the ferry to a work retreat, and somebody was bringing this car on the ferry:


It looked like it had spent a year or two in the bush. Intrigued, I attempted conversation with the car's owner. I would have to deem the conversation a failure.

Me: "Neat car!"
Him: "That's what happens when you let a woman drive it for a few hours."
Me: *looking at my two female companions, trying to figure out who exactly he thought would receive his comment well* "That's not a very nice thing to say."
Him: "Huh? Why not?"
Me: *already walking away* "Because I can drive much better than that, thank you very much."

I wish I could have come up with a much cleverer response, but alas, I don't think that well on my toes. Any suggestions for a response to set my mental replays aright?

so I'm a big fat biter

This just in! Something I copied off Elliot's blog that he copied from someone else!

CHRISTIANITY: Islam! So help me, you're going to accept secular democracy like a responsible and mature theological tradition!

ISLAM: No way, man! I don't wanna grow up to be like you. I'm gonna be true to myself and keep executing infidels and sinners as much as I want.

CHRISTIANITY: Oh, please. I was launching crusades and running inquisitions while you were still in diapers. Believe me, it's gets old fast. You need to do the smart thing and accept a humanist approach to...

ISLAM: Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I'm going to my room. A jihad on all of you! [runs upstairs to bedroom]

CHRISTIANITY: (sighing) Sweet Jesus. Was I really that obnoxious when I was that age?

JUDAISM: Believe me. You were.

[Meanwhile, at the retirement home...]

ZOROASTRIANISM: (talking to no one) Hello? Is anyone there? Does anyone care what I think?

ode to a faithful husband

For a few days now I've been trying to think of what to post to break my long work-induced absence from the blogosphere. I've done a bunch of stuff over the past few weeks, mostly work-related, but also fun-related. It's all gone by in a blur of frantic business. However, the one thing that remains deliciously clear in my memory is how wonderful Aaron has been throughout it all. So this post is dedicated to my beloved husband. (Sorry if you've got a gag reflex for things like this. Too bad.) Here's my list of what Aaron has done in the past two weeks:

- Aaron cooked me several interesting dinners, hot and ready when I got home.
- He spent time listening to me vent all my stress, and it was the really good kind of listening that made me feel better, not just the "I will sit quietly while the soundwaves are coming from your mouth" kind of listening.
- He did some of my dishes.
- He helped me make freezer jam!
- He spent lots of time with me, just hanging out and watching TV, or cuddling, or reading or whatever.
- He's been cheerful and friendly and supportive, never complaining, even when there might have been reason for it.
- And so much more.

I love my husband!

Fear Not

"Fear not, then; you are of more value than many sparrows."

- Matthew 10:31

I wanted to post something with the title "Fear Not," and this is what I came up with. So fear not, I have not forgotten my blog. I will post again soon when my brain clears.

new things

Today I acquired two new and exciting things.

First of all, Aaron and I bought a tent! This means we get to go camping lots this summer (I hope)! It is very exciting. It is the same tent that Sam and Annemarie have. It is a 3-person tent with a nice vestibule (what a word!) for our stuff.

Secondly, I must geek out in a major way. I rarely post about my gaming habits (World of Warcraft), but here goes anyway: I GOT EPIC FLIGHT FORM TODAY!!! I AM PURPLE AND SHINY AND ZOOOOMING!!!

Translation: My character can now shapeshift into a super-duper-uber-amazingly-fast armoured purple bird. I can now move through the World of Warcraft about 300% faster than riding on my super-fast giant cat. This is hands-down the most expensive thing I have ever done; it cost 5000 gold. To compare: the second most expensive thing I have ever done in World of Warcraft is buy the super-fast giant cat for 800 gold. Other than that, I'm sure I've never spent more than 150 gold on anything, ever (I can't even think of an example). AND IT WAS SO WORTH THE 5000 GOLD, IT IS SO COOL. And it's not all about spending gold either, I had to do a bunch of quests and kill this rare boss in a heroically difficult dungeon. I must also thank Aaron, my in-game sugar-daddy, for donating half the gold, I could never have come up with that amount on my own.

/end geekfest

a ramble about long distance friendships (or something)

I'm an "in-person" kind of person. I'm not so good at keeping in touch and calling people (although I am better than some). I tend to pay attention to who and what's in front of me at the moment. I don't get too hung up on goodbyes, because I know that life goes on, and that I'll probably see everyone again at some point. I trust that when I return someplace, my old friends will still be there and still be happy to see me, and I'll be happy to see them, and we'll have a grand old time together.

This is the way things are in my head. It's a very confident and trusting "it'll all work out just fine" kind of headspace. I figure that people will still be there when I come back to wherever it is that they are, and all will be well.

Part of this mindset is purely practical. Last time I checked, I have 191 friends on Facebook, and I would honestly LOVE to keep up a constant and close friendship with about half of them. But I can't. I'm sorry. It's really hard for me to think about calling people when I can't spend time with them in person anyway.

I just do way better in person than I do long distance. I guess I'm posting this so that those of you who wish I would call more will understand a little better. Please don't think of it as me forgetting you or ignoring you. Think of it as me being confident that our friendship will last throughout long absences.

The only thing that sucks about this is when you live somewhere where you don't have an abundance of friends. Like me in Vancouver. Then I'm stuck being frustrated that I have to just phone people when I'd rather be hanging out with someone, and I don't always want to use the telephone either, so then I'm stuck. Ah well, that's what internet friends are for.

Edit: I forgot to mention that if my lack of phoning/writing is a very sad thing for some of my friends and family, then please tell me because I don't want you to feel hurt or forgotten. I can't promise I'll be different, but I can promise to make an effort if it is really important to you.

distasteful and unethical

Distasteful: A 6"x8" full-colour and almost photo-like upper arm tattoo of 2 pieces of sushi, a mound of wasabi, a pile of ginger, and 2 crossed chopsticks. (Seen on a woman on the bus.)

Unethical: This sentence in a mail promotion for the RBC Platinum Visa Card: "Even though you may already carry one of more other credit cards, you should not hesitate to accept this card." The rest of the advertisement was geared towards people who are already in credit card debt. I hope the people who plot these schemes of ruination live to regret it.

comments of congratulations and awe are in order

First of all: Come on, people! I counted 11.6 MILLION daisies and I get no comments of congratulations or awe?!?! Seriously, you blog readers need to get your comment priorities straight. =)

This post will contain three lesser feats worthy of congratulations and awe. Yesterday I played my first Ultimate game of the season. We were two really well-matched teams, and although we were in the lead for much of the game, in the end we did not win. But it was fun. In this game, I did no less than three cool things. I like keeping track of these things because usually I only do about one cool thing per game, and doing cool things makes me feel really cool.

Cool feat the first: The other team was about to score the first point of the game when I came out of nowhere and knocked the disc down mere inches away from its intended catcher.

Cool feat the second: I had been very convincing in my role of "tired and slow girl" (convincing because it was utterly true), so the person who was supposed to be covering me got lazy and started trailing behind. I saw my opportunity, raised a hand to ask for a pass, and when Aaron threw it into the endzone I sprinted and caught the point! Their defense had no chance.

Cool feat the third: I successfully made one of those nifty foot-dragging catches where you can catch an out-of-bounds disc so long as one of your feet is still on the ground in-bounds. I'm not sure I've ever done that before!

fun in the sun

Last week I saw a dog that was so tiny and skinny that when it was walking towards me (with some sunshine glare behind it) it was practically invisible. As I passed the dog, I was surprised by how large it actually was, at least in terms of height and length. It was like that CBC kids' show Slim Pig.

Today Aaron and I went to the beach, and there was a very large grassy area near the beach, and it was COVERED in little daisies. I thought maybe there were 1 or 2 million daisies there. After some rough estimation (which included counting the daisies in a representative square metre, and pacing out the size of the field), we concluded that there were in fact more like 11.6 million of them. Isn't that amazing?

the curious incident of the woman in the subway

I'm back, the wedding was lovely, and a good time was had by all!

Here's a story from last week: Aaron and I were walking into a subway station when a woman started her song-and-dance.

"Do you have a loonie? I just need another loonie to get on the subway, the guy won't let me in if I don't have exact change."

I said no and kept walking, but Aaron decided to give her a subway token. There was a brief pause as we waited to see if she'd give him the change she already had in her hand, but she didn't, and Aaron shrugged and moved on. A few minutes later, we got on a train, and the woman got on the same car as us.

"Good," I said to Aaron, "at least she actually used the token to get on the train like she said."

After one stop, the woman got out of her seat and started walking along the subway car in our general direction. She asked the passengers on either side, "Do you want to buy a token?"

She actually made it all the way to the guy sitting next to us. When it seemed that he was going to buy it, I spoke up and said, "Excuse me. We gave you that token. I hope you put it to good use!"

She went back to her seat with her boyfriend and got off at the next stop without making eye contact. Aaron and I joked around a bit with the guy who almost bought our token.

So here's the thing: The woman was obviously ashamed of being caught in her tricks. I really do hope that she was ashamed of lying to well-intentioned people and taking advantage of them. That's why I said what I did. I think I was still feeling angry about an incident earlier in the month where I had been pressured into giving someone a bus ticket, and I felt I had no polite way out of the forced conversation but to give it to him.

But I hope this woman didn't think I meant her to feel shame for being poor and needing to beg. That was not my point. I just wish she would have asked for money if that's what she really wanted, instead of swindling people.

I have not vanished

I'm in Toronto, being consumed by pre-wedding madness. I'm a bridesmaid and the MC for my brother's wedding! I'll return to posting soon.

things I don't understand

After reading the most recent issue of The Mennonite, the church periodical I receive twice per month, I have discovered that I really don't understand two issues.

Firstly, I don't understand why young adults are leaving the church. Everyone seems to agree that we're losing people after they graduate from high school, but nobody seems to know why. Sometimes people ask me what I think about this issue. I don't really know what to say, because I didn't leave. I don't know why young adults leave the church. The only thing I can think of is that maybe they don't understand very much about church and/or the Christian faith, and expect it to be something that it isn't, and somehow find it irrelevant. But I haven't got the slightest idea why, or what could be done differently, because it all worked out just fine for me.

Secondly, I don't understand what the barriers are to women in ministry. I don't understand this because I have never experienced any such barriers. Ever since I was a young teenager, I have been encouraged by many, many people to take leadership roles in the church. Most recently I have been pestered by many, many members of my current church to apply for the newly-open youth pastor position. I have little doubt that I would be the number one candidate if I had decided to apply (I didn't). I am constantly being encouraged and invited to lead worship, preach sermons, serve on committees, and other such things. I have no doubt that I would be encouraged and welcomed in pretty much any ministry venture I could think to participate in.

So when I read articles about these two issues, I really don't know what to think, say or do, because I do not have the personal experience necessary to truly understand what's going on. I feel myself to be lacking in insight and understanding in these matters. I would very much welcome comments on this.

Finally, and almost unrelatedly, I do not understand this garage sale sign I read today: "Moving Sale! Everything for sale and more!" How does one sell more than everything?

update

So, I'm still working like a maniac, but let's not dwell upon that. It's fun, but very tiring.

I miss all my other blogging friends who are not posting so much anymore. I'd put a guilt trip on you all, but I've only posted once a week myself of late, so perhaps I shouldn't.

In a week, I get vacation! I will be going to Toronto to celebrate my brother's wedding. I get to be a bridesmaid AND an MC at the reception! This week I need to put the finishing touches on my dress. I am very, very much looking forward to the visit with family and friends, and of course the big day itself. As far as I know, everyone is quite pleased with the Tobin+Meghan matchup, and I am certainly happy to gain another lovely sister!

One of the girls from our church youth group has asked me to be her "conversation partner" as part of her baptism preparation class. I took her out for lunch today, and it was very fun. I feel so honoured that somebody has chosen me as a role model! Her mom came and talked to me in church today as well, and said that she was very happy with her daughter's choice as well. Affirmation feels good!

my favourite outfit ever

I wore this yesterday:

green tank top (it's long enough to stick out the bottom of other shirts)
pink zip-up shirt (the zipper is off-centre, and the neck is wide and folded-over)
my funky black-and-white skirt (I sewed it myself especially for R+R's wedding, and someone said that I was the best-dressed person there)
pink knee-high socks
my boots of butt-kicking

Plus, I was having a good hair day.

I felt fantabulous.

I'm alive and working hard

Hello faithful readers. I have reached an incredibly busy season at work, I'm just starting my second 6-day week in a row. I guess I won't be posting much!

I've also noticed that whenever I post something about not being able to post very much, I tend to find something post-worthy within 24 hours. So we'll see if that happens this time or not. Maybe saying it out loud (or typing it publicly) will break the trend...ahhh superstition.

Wish me luck and sanity!

on spring, and a smile

On spring:

Yesterday, while crossing the bridge above a rail corridor, I noticed that the trees along the tracks all had that lovely hue of green that is composed of many baby leaves who have yet to grow up and darken.

There are some flowering bushes near my workplace that smell lovely. At the base of these bushes the grass is the most unbelievable shade of fresh, zesty green.

There has been a pleasant mix of blue sky, clouds, rain and sunshine of late. It's perfect rainbow season. As I left work today it was pouring rain, and yet I wished I had sunglasses to see where I was going. (I was headed west, obviously.)

Also, the sun and the clouds/mist were doing the most interesting thing at the tops of the mountains today. Most of the sky was dark with rich grey rainclouds, but right above the mountains the clouds appeared mistier and lighter, and the sun was making this mist glow very prettily.

Yesterday I left work much later than usual, and I saw large, tall popcorn-like clouds being illuminated with that blue post-sunset light against a darkening blue sky. It was most striking. When I got off the bus at home, the stars and Venus were blazing brightly and brilliantly.

A smile:

On my bus today, there were two men, about age 30, who were having a conversation in Spanish. I wasn't really paying attention at all, until I heard the word "Mennonitas." I guess I respond to that word like one might respond to hearing one's name, and I glanced up quickly and happened to make eye contact with one of them. He obviously understood that something he had just said caught my attention, and I got the feeling he even figured it was the "Mennonite" word. However, I wasn't sure what to say, so I said nothing. As I got off the bus a few minutes later, I walked past his window. This time, we made eye contact again, and I decided to smile warmly. The smile was heartily returned.

sweet, sweet, overtime

Last night once our youth group gathering was officially over, we all stayed to watch the end of the third period of the Canucks game. They were tied 4-4 at the end of it, and I was chatting with this girl who said, "So now they play a 5-minute overtime period, and then it's a shootout!" I informed her that this was the playoffs, and that they were going to keep playing 20-minute OT periods until somebody scored, no matter how long that takes. This was news to her, but I reassured her that often enough somebody scores soon and it doesn't take too long.

This morning I read the headline, "Canucks top Stars in fourth OT." Ahahaha.

the search continues...

Okay, I can't help myself, I need to post about some more interesting searches that have led people to my blog:

"why doesn't apostles' creed mention scripture?"
"can you die from burning plastic"
"cuban galoshes"
"computer hair stille"
"leaders chocolate store winnipeg"
"I woke up early sunny day lyric"

and finally...

"david dammann"

Oh noes! I'm found out! (see the 5th line or so in that post) I even checked the IP address, and the search really did originate in Germany, which is where we both lived when said crush occurred in grade 4.

home sweet home

I had a good weekend. At first I wasn't sure if I was ready for a break, because I have so much stuff to do at work that I wouldn't know what to do with a long weekend of not working on it. Anyway, that's precisely why I needed a good, long weekend.

I spent a lot of time at home. I spent a fair bit of time sewing my bridesmaid dress for my brother's wedding. I did the dishes. I cooked dinner for my aunt. We went out to Aaron's Oma and Opa's on Sunday afternoon. We went to church twice. We watched TV and cuddled. We slept in a lot. We went for a walk. We ate lots of paska. Aaron did homework.

It felt so GOOD! I feel like I have re-established this apartment as my home. When work is busy, I can get absorbed in it to the point that I can't get my mind off it when I'm at home. Then, I spend much of my evening trying to distract my mind from work, and it ends up feeling like I am always hiding from one part or another of my brain, and that being at home is just some sort of bunker to protect me from the outside world. This nice, long weekend was a time for me to remember that this apartment is my home, and I love it, and I love spending time here, and I like doing all sorts of creative and home-making things here besides just hiding from my over-active brain.

I have no idea if that makes sense, but the point is, I had a good and refreshing and rejuvenating weekend at home. Hopefully some of that can carry over into my next two weeks of work (which will be very busy once again) so that coming home can be exciting because I like it here, not just because I'm hiding.

new life

I like communion. The symbolism works on so many different levels and/or facets. Today I am excited by the idea that in communion (and the events of Holy Week in general), God becomes one with us in our suffering, and we become one with him in his life and victory. His body is broken for us, his blood is shed for us, and we partake of it and gain nourishment and life in the new covenant. It's amazing, really.

exact change

Today, I took a quick trip to the supermarket, and the bill was $23.01. I dumped my change into my hand and found exactly 1 penny, 1 toonie, 3 quarters, 3 nickels and a dime. Nothing more, nothing less. Sweetness! Then, I dug through the rest of my wallet and found two fives and a ten. Nothing more, nothing less. I HAD EXACT CHANGE! And now I have exactly zero cash left in my wallet. Nothing more, nothing less.

Call me a simpleton, but that made my day!

right behind you

Has anyone else ever worked in a shared office space? I'm not sure I like it so much. I share my office with three other people, and I always feel like somebody is looking over my shoulder and judging me and my work behaviours. Very rational, I know. But I absolutely work better when nobody else is in the office, or maybe when there's only one other person in the room and they're obviously absorbed in what they're doing and unlikely to strike up a conversation with me.

I'm probably not alone in feeling like this, but I still feel a little bit paranoid/crazy. Any hints/tips/commiserating available out there?

oh, the places you've gone

create your own visited countries map

So, I really need to travel more. I'd like to point out that In Europe there are many small countries all squished together, so that red splotch represents 9 countries.

While I obviously need to do more international traveling, I must admit that I also have a great passion for travelling within Canada. I love roadtrips, and I'm fiercely proud of this vast and marvellous country that I live in. I am starting to think about planning a canoe trip in the Yukon or the NWT for summer 2008. Anyone want to come?

P.S. My computer is still fried. A new computer is in place, but it has been pieced together in a creative way by Robithegeek, and it has not yet been properly finetuned. Therefore, I am still computerless.

because quiz thingers are cool

---10 Firsts---
First Best Friend:: Larissa Friesen
First Screenname:: D4ATLC (no joke)
First Pet Name:: I forget. They were goldfish and I was very young. I know one of them was named after a young adult at my church.
First Piercing:: Nose
First Crush:: David Dammann (wouldn't it be funny if he googled this one day and found out!)
First CD:: do you mean tape? Clumsy by OLP.
First School:: River Elm Elementary School, Winnipeg
First House Location:: a few miles outside of Rosenort, MB
First Kiss:: Aaron
First Car:: Daisy! (2004 Mazda 6, silver)

---9 Lasts---
Last Time You Smoked:: 2004, to celebrate grad. and before that? Thanksgiving 1997 or something. And that's it. I guess I'm not much of a smoker.
Last Food You Ate:: dried figs
Last Car Ride:: home from a youth party at church
Last Movie You Watched:: School of Rock (at said youth party)
Last Phone Call:: something at work
Last CD You Listened To:: Weezer, the blue CD
Last Bubble Bath You Took:: probably when I was a kid. pre-1993, I think
Last Song You Listened To:: The Sweater Song (Weezer, remember?)
Last Words You Said:: something to Aaron about not reading over my shoulder

---8 Have-You-Evers---
Dated A Best Friend:: no, he became my best friend sometime after we started dating
Been Arrested:: no
Been On TV:: yes
Eaten Sushi:: yes!
Cheated On Your B/F:: no
Been On A Blind Date:: no
Been Out Of The Country:: does living in Germany for 4.5 years count? I mean yes.
Been In Love:: yes

---7 Things You Are Wearing---
1:: blue cords
2:: the famous "my bird is faster than your car" t-shirt
3:: purple zip-up hoodie
4:: polka-dot underoos
5:: boring socks
6:: bra
7:: umm...a hair elastic?

---6 Things You've Done Today---
1:: ate yogurt & granola for breakfast
2:: went to work
3:: drove in rush hour (I'll do penance later for my disgusting contribution to air pollution)
4:: went to church for youth group
5:: watched an episode of Lost
6:: wrote this thingy!

---5 Favorite Things (not in any order)---
1:: Aaron
2:: sunshine
3:: trees
4:: people (family, friends, hobos, etc)
5:: green

---4 People You Most Trust--- [not in any specific order!]
1:: God
2:: Aaron
3:: my parents
4:: lots of other people

---3 Things You Want To Do Before You Die---
1:: visit all the Canadian Territories, and Newfoundland and Labrador. (I've already visited all the other provinces)
2:: go back to Germany
3:: have a family

---2 Choices---
Vanilla or Chocolate:: Chocolate
Hugs or Kisses:: kisses!

---1 Person You Want To See Right Now---
1:: Karl or Tobin. Or Mom or Dad or Meghan. And lots of other people. I've been homesick these days.

flaming canine newfies on swings. trick-or-treat!

Monday morning I woke up early to the unpleasant aroma of burning plastic. After much sniffing and searching, it was determined that the source was my computer. So, it's now on the fritz. It's hard to tell exactly what's wrong with it, because all of it has worked at some point since the burning plastic incident, but never all at once (or at least not for very long). At this point we're thinking that it may or may not be the monitor, which doesn't really make much sense, but if it's not the monitor then we have no idea what the heck is wrong. Anyway, my lack of computer might affect my posting, and it might not. We'll see.

Here's some stuff I've seen/heard lately:

I saw a cop and her dog standing on the street and chatting to another cop who was sitting in his car with the passenger window all the way open. The dog was apparently happy and excited to see the cop in the car, so after turning a few circles, it jumped right through the window and into the passenger seat. Both cops laughed a lot.

I heard a killer Newfie accent. This person never, EVER pronounced the 'g' at the end of an '-ing' word, it was always '-in'. Actually, this was my first aid instructor from the weekend, so I had to listen to her talk a LOT. We did the unit on chokin, and then on severe bleedin, and don't forget the unit on bandagin and splintin.

On Monday, I had to do my time at one of the kids' programs from work. I got the easiest job ever! When we went to the playground, only two girls wanted to stay in the upper part and all the other kids wanted to go to the lower part. So, I got to stay with the two girls, who are some of the sweetest and best-behaved kids there are. Not only that, but they said I wasn't allowed to listen to their conversation, so I had to go over and swing on that swing by myself. So, I got to swing for about half an hour by myself with no kids bugging me at all! These two girls stayed within my line of sight the entire time, so I never had to get off the swing.

Those girls were funny, too! They were making incredibly detailed plans for Halloween (yes, 7 months early, and at age 8 that is not a short time). One was going to dress up as Pippi Longstocking, and the other was going to be Dead Pippi Longstocking. Hey, it's Halloween, so at least one of them had to be creepy in some way. They decided at whose house they were going to meet (after dressing up, but before putting on their makeup). They even spent about 10 minutes deciding precisely how they were going to say "trick-or-treat" and what face they were going to make and how Dead Pippi Longstocking was going to grab the candy in a ghoulish kind of way, and then they rehearsed the whole thing to make sure they had it down perfectly.

in need of peeps

Another level of spring has been reached. Many of the trees now match my cute pink umbrella! However, it rained all week long and was miserably cold. But today is finally sunny!

I have still been working like a maniac, but a blog is not the place to write long whiny paragraphs about that.

I spent this weekend taking a first aid course. It wasn't too bad, and I got to feel really smart because I knew a lot of the answers and I had a few really good questions. Plus, I made a friend named Izabella who was my practise buddy. We had lunch together today. She has a baby girl.

Now I am home again but with nobody to hang out with. I need peeps right now! Peeps, Where are you? It's the first sunny day in a long time and I want to go out and play with the peeps! But there aren't any. Oh well.

newsletter time

I'm writing a newsletter at work this week, and I'll be sending it to people who support me financially or who pray for me or encourage me or just plain want to know what I'm doing in my ministry at UrbanPromise.

If you want to receive this letter via snail mail, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail, and include your current mailing address if you have reason to believe I might not have it. Thanks!

midnight epiphany

Okay, prepare yourselves, this is going to be a really random story.

Two years ago, I lived in Toronto for the 4 summer months, and I took bellydancing lessons. In my bellydancing class, there were two women, Angela and Maureen, who were identical twin sisters. The whole summer, it always felt like they reminded me of someone, or they were familiar to me in some way.

Fast forward a bit: I woke up around 5 last night and couldn't sleep. I spent the next hour or more in that really frustrating one-quarter-asleep and three-quarters-awake state where you're desperately trying to hold on to that sleep and not wake up all the way. Anyway, during this strange state of mind, it suddenly occurred to me who Angela and Maureen reminded me of: the twins Heather and Erica Farrell from Degrassi High (that blessed TV series that kept me entertained after school for so many years).

So, with that mystery solved, you'd think I could go back to sleep. But no, I had to think about it even further. Degrassi was filmed in Toronto. Many of the actors were just local kids who stayed in Toronto and led normal lives and never filmed anything again. Maybe Maureen and Angela didn't just remind me of the Degrassi twins, maybe they actually were the twins! They would be about the right age...

So this morning at work, I googled it all, and voila! They were in fact the very same actors! I TOOK BELLYDANCING LESSONS WITH THE DEGRASSI TWINS FOR 4 MONTHS AND NEVER REALIZED IT UNTIL TWO YEARS LATER. SO COOL!

can God sin?

Can God sin? I don't think so. Can God make mistakes? Maybe. I do think he can change his mind.

Whatever your take on those questions is, I certainly think this video is at least thought-provoking if nothing else. If you can't catch all the lyrics, there's a link to them on that page as well.

I'm not convinced that the title "Credo" fits the content very well, but maybe that's just me being picky about semantics.

new link

I've just put a new link in the sidebar to my friend Adam's journal of his time in Chile. You may remember my post about him building a microwave telescope in Port Coquitlam. Well, the telescope is now alive and well in Chile, and they're getting the whole thing set up. It should prove interesting.

even more oldtimers

Work this week has once again been somewhat overwhelming in terms of time and scheduling, which has made this blog suffer. To take revenge, I am writing this blog post while I'm at work. Thankfully, work has not actually been stressful or intimidating this week. I think it has something to do with me praying more/better/or soemthing. However that all works, I am grateful.

Two things about old people:

On Monday, there were two little old Chinese ladies and two little old Chinese men waiting at my bus stop. They were chattering and guesturing and joking and laughing like a gaggle of teenagers. It made me happy.

Today, I was once again reminded of the fact that I hate the sense of entitlement some old people have when it comes to getting on the bus. I am sick and tired of being elbowed out of the way as some little old lady or man decides to screw the whole bunch of people who are lined up and just get on the bus first no matter what the cost in manners or dignity.

Now a story about what I did yesterday:

I went to the NHL oldtimers game! This is where they put together a team of retired NHLers and pit them against a current community team. In this case, it was the Vancouver Police Department hockey team. Despite the fact that all of the NHLers were either entirely grey or even potbellied, they absolutely cleaned up. I think they scored 15 goals, and I think the VPD scored 5.

The thing that was so refreshing about this hockey game was how absolutely unpretentious it was! For you CMU-types, this game kind of resembled the Z-team game with its antics and tomfoolery. There was a clown referee, there was a trick puck that changed direction of its own volition in the middle of a penalty shot, at one point one of the players had "rocket skates" that had little spark-throwing fireworks attached, and the scorekeeper was constantly fudging the VPD score so it wasn't too embarrassing (I think the scoreboard read 15-13 at the end). The best part was when they opened up the zamboni gates and let in a herd of 5-year-old hockey players whose jerseys came down to their skates. So, they played 5 minutes of NHL vs. the Timbit team, which was ridiculously cute. It was a great night of down-to-earth, utterly foolish, and completely good-natured community fun.

untitled

Thousands of worm towers have appeared in the lawn, preparing to lay siege to us surface-dwellers.

Cherry trees are betraying distinct signs of pink.

I slept with my window open.

Spring?

another funny church lady

After church today an old Oma was holding little Caleb and telling everyone who came by, "He's my grandchild!" or, "I have a great-grandchild!" in her German accent. She was kidding, of course. None of her grandkids have children, although two of them are married. Funny how when a grandchild gets married, it's like the universal cue for the grandparents to expect a great-grandchild in a matter of months (nine, to be exact).

Anyway, it was hilarious to see her standing there with the baby and announcing "I have a grandchild!" to anyone who would listen. Robi and Aaron and I were watching her as her own husband came up. "He's my grandchild!" she told him. "Oh really? Whose is it?" I actually forget exactly how the conversation went from there, but I know that hilarity ensued, because my tummy hurt from laughing. I'm glad that old people can be just as silly and funny as young people.

feel the burn

I set my oven mitts on fire yesterday. I must have brushed one of them against the top coil in the oven as I was taking the chicken out. As I held them both in one hand and fussed with the chicken with the other hand, I thought, "I know the rosemary was getting a little toasted, but it just doesn't smell like I thougth burning rosemary would...OH!" Anyway, I suppose it happens to the best of oven mitts.

I'm kind of scared of work this week, I'm in charge of a 3-hour event for 90 teenagers on Saturday. I don't feel prepared!!!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for youtube...or something like that....

Okay, this is funny. I like people who mess with theology, it keeps us all on our toes. And that Jesus is hot!

happy weekend for me

I had a calm and relaxing weekend.

First of all, I played a fair bit of World of Warcraft, and I got my druid to level 68. This is significant because at level 68, druids can turn into a giant crow and FLY!!! Everyone else only gets to fly at level 70 when they can buy a rideable gryphon. So, this is UBER-COOL. Druids are the best because they're the only ones who can shapeshift. I can be a bear, a sea-lion, a cat (a nondescript, large, and fiercely carnivorous sort of cat), a cheetah, and now a crow. Some druids can also be trees (think Ent) or moonkins (large half-owl, half-...I dunno...half-bear?...creatures), but I didn't choose that path.

Also, I slept lots and had lots of comfy at-home time. I love spending lots of time at home and being comfy. I'm a real home-body on the weekend. I think I learned that from my mother.

Today at our church young adults group, I got lots of Caleb time. He's three weeks old, and he looks more like a human being and less like a red-faced peanut all the time! I held him while he slept during lunch, and his floppy little hand flopped onto my thumb and his fingers curled around it oh-so-slightly. Afterwards my hands and arms smelled like baby. I still like his baby eyelashes a lot, and I like all the faces he makes when he's sleeping and gassy. I think we're going to be friends.

Finally, I'm sad that none of you other churchy/theology types commented on my previous geeky post...Marva Dawn is cool! Can I get an "Amen"?

I win

You are 80% Scripture literate!

 

You are a Pseudo-Bible scholar. Good job, apparently you actually read the good book every once in a while.

The Adult Bible Quiz

It was those OT questions that saved me. I'm also pretty sure that some of my answers were lucky guesses. I had a few of them down to two choices, at which point I just went with gut instinct.

SPEAKING OF THEOLOGICAL NERDINESS:
I went with Annemarie and Sam to Regent College yesterday, and as we were sitting in the cafe with the admissions guy who was answering Annemarie's questions, I saw Marva Dawn! I looked at her, and then at Annemarie, but the admissions dude was in the middle of talking and I couldn't figure out a suave way to say "Look, everybody! It's Marva Dawn!" without sounding like a pathetic little groupie. So, only I saw her and I just had to tell Sam and Amp about it later when the admissions dude was gone.

I'm a good wife!

Today I took Sam and Annemarie shopping at Ikea and Home Outfitters, and I ended up spending $200 on various household stuff. You know what's the best part? I did it all without Aaron's input or foreknowledge, and when I brought all the stuff home, he approved of every single purchase I had made! I'm like the wife in Proverbs 31 who is wise in providing for the household. I'm so proud of me for being able to spend a surprise $200 on good things and have Aaron be happy with it all.

The real steal-of-a-deal was a full set of 500-thread-count queen-sized sheets (fitted sheet, flat sheet and 4 pillowcases) for $100. In case that means nothing to you: a pair of the exact same pillowcases costs $70, which is unfortunately a very normal price. Bedding is flippin' expensive in general, and we needed a new set anyway, so it was my lucky day. They are dark chocolate brown. I like colours with substance. They will look very good with our beige-and-green comforter and our purple bedroom wall.

Ok, now I'm off to sleep in my super-comfy 500-thread-count bed! Goodnight!

pointer

The dog at work must have some pointer blood in her somewhere. (She's mostly german shepherd and black lab.) If you have food on your desk, be it in a sealed plastic container or hot and steaming on a plate, she will stand behind you and wait. If it takes you awhile to finish, she'll sit or lie down, but always facing the food. Even once you finish your food, she will not leave until the plate/container is put away in the dishwasher, just in case you'll let her lick it. Thank goodness she's a properly silent pointer and not a whiny beggar. Silly food pointer dog.

more miscellany

Yesterday I saw a girl with the perfect anime ponytail. Her hair was straight and shiny, and so thick that her ponytail made that perfect fat upside-down teardrop shape that you see in anime.

Here's a tidbit I've been meaning to mention for awhile: Remember Melody from the Archie comics? You know how she had little music notes in all her speech bubbles to indicate that she has a melodic voice? I always thought that was ridiculous, but I've met this woman who really does have such a melodic voice. I have no idea how she does it, but the first time I heard her speak, I totally saw little music notes float around her head. Her voice is soft but strong, and really sweet, and it kind of lilts in a musical way. She's not even a musician, so I don't know how she does it.

This morning I was shopping at my favourite Indo-Canadian green grocer's, and the checkout man didn't seem to remember the price of my green onions. So he raised his voice towards his old father-in-law at the back of the store and said something along the lines of,

"*Hindi* *Hindi* green onions *Hindi* *Hindi* *Hindi* sixty-nine?"

I nodded and said, "Yes."

The checkout man gave me a surprised and confused look.

I said, "Well there was certainly enough English in the question, right?"

I guess he realized what he'd actually said, and gave me this big smile that said, "Oh, right!"

fun little old lady

There's this one saintly lady at my church. It took me awhile to realize how neat she is, because she has one of those deadpan-old-person faces. (At least it's not an angry-old-person face.) Her name is uber-Mennonite, so let's call her Mrs. Janzen.

Back in the summer when Robi and Rikki got engaged, Mrs. Janzen came up to me on a Sunday morning and congratulated me on my engagement. I explained that she had the wrong gal, and we both had a good laugh. She said that in her old age she had trouble keeping all the young people apart, and I said that in my young age I still had trouble keeping all the old people apart.

So today was baby Caleb's first day in church at 8 days old. (I guess I only alluded to his arrival in my recent quiz post...anyway, R&R's baby is here and he's healthy and his name is Caleb!) Mrs. Janzen nabbed me in the lobby after church today and said "Did you notice? I didn't congratulate you today!" I had forgotten about the engagement incident entirely, so we had ourselves another good laugh! I'm so glad when people can laugh at their own mistakes.

joker, reveal thyself!

So, I got a second hit for "how did gershwin die and was he afraid of death."

At first I thought "Whoa! What are the chances?!" but then I read more of the details in my stat counter, and it turns out that this mysterious second person had already visited my blog 14 times prior to her/his unusual search.

So, if you're trying to mess with my mind: congratulations, it almost worked! But not quite. I'm on to you! Of course, it's always possible that you just couldn't remember my blog address and then tried to find my last post via a search engine...

here's a new one

It's not quite as good a search as "stupid mennonites", but it'll do:

"how did gershwin die? and was he scared of death?"

edit: also "jogging in a jug formula"

quiz again

So, I came across this quiz thinger on the intarweb in a few different places, and I'm a sucker for quizzes, so here goes:

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend? married.
3. Your hair? long
4. Your mother? hi!
5. Your father? *wave*
6. Your favorite thing? grapes
7. Your dream last night? blank
8. Your favorite drink? water
9. Your dream car? porsche
10. The room you're in? safe
11. Your ex? nonexistent
12. Your fear? hatred
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? mom
14. Who did you hang out with last night? Caleb!
15. What you're not? serious
16. Muffins? bran!
17. One of your current wish list items? tent
18. Where is? waldo
19. The last thing you did? grapes!
20. What are you wearing? pink
21. Your TV? nope
22. Your pet? plants?
23. Your computer? clunky
24. Your life? fantastic
25. Your mood? meh
27. What/who are you thinking about right now? quiz
28. Your car? Daisy
29. Your work? good
30. Your summer? warm
31. Your relationship status? married
32.Your favorite color? orange
33. When is the last time you laughed? today
34. Last time you cried? Tuesday
35. School? finished!

people search for the weirdest things...

I have one of those statistic-counting thingies on my blog that gives me all kinds of information about who reads the stuff I write. I am continually amused by the keyword searches that bring people here. So, the following is a list of things people actually type into search engines, which bring them to my blog:

"stealing flowers girlfriend"
"strawberry starbursts"
"milky white hamster eye"*
"how do I make a hairdo with chopsticks"
"hutterite women feel ugly"
"croc shoes teenagers"
and my all-time favourite..."stupid mennonites"


*This one is a perennial favourite, I get about 4 hits every month with a similarly worded search.

driving-o-rama

So, I was planning on continuing my public-transit-oriented lifestyle and possibly branching out into cycling, despite the fact that I can now drive myself (and a limited number of passengers) wherever and whenever I want. Let me tell you about my first full day of having my N-license.

It was my turn to make community lunch for my co-workers, so I had two big casserole dishes of moussaka and a bag full of salad ingredients to take to work. Needless to say, this was not going to work on the bus, and Aaron didn't feel like driving me, so I had to take the car to work all by myself.

Next, stuff happened and plans changed and I ended up driving all by myself to Surrey where I had to do work stuff. This involved driving over the oh-so-scary Pattullo bridge, just days after reading how it is the deadliest bridge in British Columbia. (Read this article from today's paper titled "It's a death bridge" for more info...basically, it's too narrow for four lanes, and there's no median, and there's a curve where people tend to drive into oncoming traffic instead of staying in their itsy-bitsy lane.) This was a 45-minute drive in rush hour traffic.

Then, while in Surrey, I was asked spur-of-the-moment to drive a teenager to the store to pick up some forgotten dinner ingredients. So now I had a 15-year-old kid whose life to risk alongside mine. Did I mention that by this time it was foggy as all heck out there?

After the Surrey stuff was done, I had to drive a co-worker back to Vancouver, over the death bridge, in the dark, in the fog. I think she was nervous, but she's usually nervous about all sorts of stuff, so it's not like it was me, but it still made me nervous to have her being nervous about my driving.

Finally, at the end of my 12-hour workday all I had to do was drive home. I drove about 60km today, all by myself, in scary conditions. And I thought that having a license wouldn't change anything...

small and large

Yesterday I saw a teensy weensy bird. I think it was a nuthatch or something. It made me think of Aaron because he likes birds.

On the bus last night, there was a fat little girl, maybe age 4 or 5, and she was verrrrry sleepy. I decided that the couple she was with were her grandparents, because they seemed to be paying lots of special attention to the girl in a way that jaded parents usually do not. When they woke the girl up because she was falling over too much, she brightened up considerably quickly. The three of them had some sort of a conversation in Spanish, and I could tell that the girl was probably pretty intelligent. I decided that I liked the cute little fat girl.

This morning I passed my first driving test. I'll have to take another one in two years before this is all over.

bluntness - is the truth really so ugly?

I spent some time with one of my teenagers today. Throughout the conversation I was shocked at how she actually seemed to prefer and enjoy many unhealthy lifestyle choices. I guess I didn't think people like this actually existed.

Teen: "I like buying my lunch, I don't like bringing lunch from home."
Me: "Oh yeah? What's your favourite lunch to buy?"
Teen: "New York Fries!"
Me: "I like buying subs. You can have meat and vegetables and cheese, and together with the bun that's all four food groups!"
Teen: "When I have subs, I get lots of meat and cheese and no vegetables. And then I get them to heat it up and melt the cheese."
Me: "You don't like vegetables?"
Teen: "Nope, not really!"

...Later...

Me: "It's such a beautiful day! I love it when the sun comes out and I get to be outside."
Teen: "People keep saying that. I don't really like to be outside."
Me: "No?"
Teen: "No, I'd rather be inside, sitting in front of my flat screen TV!"
(Yes, this is a verbatim quote.)

Part of the picture that you may be missing is that this teen has some developmental disabilities, and so she tends not to conform to a lot of our social behaviour expectations. Most people would probably censor their preferences based on their knowledge of healthy lifestyles, or at least express some guilt about their unhealthy preferences. Not so with our teenaged friend. She was blunt to the point of being incredulous that anyone would think her preferences to be unusual or odd.

Maybe a lot of teens really do prefer greasy food and hate vegetables. Maybe they really do prefer indoor TV to a walk in the oh-so-rare Vancouver sunshine. Maybe it takes someone with few social inhibitions to just come out and say it. But I sure hope that this one teen is a rare exception. What's not to like about vegetables and sunshine?

fractals

To continue the theme of my last post, let me link you to pictures of a coloured Mandelbrot set. This is one of the math things that we talked about last weekend. The Mandelbrot set is a relatively simple kind of equation that produces the very pretty pictures you see in the link above. The idea with fractals such as the Mandelbrot set is that as you zoom in to inspect the tinier details, you start to see the original larger pattern (or parts of it) repeated in miniature. And then you can keep on zooming in infinitely and more and more patterns show up, but you'll always find something recognizeable from the larger picture. It's like so much classical music with its themes and variances and familiar parts that are nonetheless different from the first time you hear it. Except fractals are infinitely detailed, the composition is never over, you can't zoom in to a point where the resolution sucks, you'll just keep discovering more and more intricate beauty.

So check out that first link! You have to scroll down a few lines to find the place where you click the "next" to see a zoomed-in section of the fractal, but make sure you do because it is AWESOME. (If you feel lost, look at the smaller image below the big one to see where your zoomed-in picture was taken from.)

If you've never discovered the glory of God in math, this is your chance. It's amazing what kind of glorious, detailed beauty a relatively simple equation can produce! Surprise!

Here's a preview:

surprise!

This weekend, while Annemarie and Sam were visiting CMU, CMU visited me in the form of a big "portable CMU" event at my church.

My favourite session was with Tim Rogalsky, my old math prof. He talked about chaos theory and Pascal and Fibonacci spirals and nature, and it was great. My favourite tidbit was this thought: Mathematicians often just come up with a new idea of how math could be fun, and then they play with this idea in their heads for years without ever considering how it might be applicable to "the real world." Then, decades or centuries later, somebody discovers that this "useless" idea actually perfectly describes something in the real world that has existed since the beginning of time. The mathematicians had thought they were just inventing nifty games and puzzles and never knew they were inventing a formula that actually describes the way a huge flock of birds flies together.

Tim said he thinks this happens because we are made in the image of God the creator. Our innate ability to create mathematical ideas that later turn out to have been present in the world all along without our knowledge is because we are made the image of a the very same creator who created the world in the first place, so it makes sense that we create ideas that mirror God's ideas. To this I say: NEAT!!!

Also, Tim was invited to preach the sermon in church this morning, and a major theme in his sermon was "Surprise!" Before the service, he handed out colourful scarves to the children and youth (and I nabbed one too), and everytime he said the word "suprise" in his sermon, we were supposed to toss them up in the air. It was an ingenius way to keep the kids paying attention (that, and he had a big jar of candy sitting on the pulpit that he was going to hand out to kids who could tell him how many times he said "surprise" during his sermon), and it really conveyed the joy of "suprise!" without being disruptive because it was silent. At the end of his sermon, Tim closed his eyes and prayed, but I noticed that when he prayed the word "surprise", everyone was still silently throwing the scarves in the air, including me. The whole tossing colourful scarves thing got me totally overstimulated and I was giddy for about an hour after the service. It was marvellous fun!

new earthly posessions

On Friday, Aaron and I had a long date while we were waiting for the mechanics to fix the brakes on our car. During the course of this date, we bought fun stuff. I got a pair of those croc shoes to use as slippers when I'm at work, so as to protect my socks from the dog hair, dog drool, and tracked-in snow and dirt that find itself on the floor. It turns out you can buy these little thingies to stick in the holes of your crocs...Aaron insisted on buying me a little gecko. It now lives on my shoe, and it is fun. I also got the same store to order in a different pair of shoes in my size, so hopefully I'll replace my worn-out merrills by the end of the week.

Aaron found and bought a cute pair of everyday shoes as well. He doesn't like it that I call them cute, but that's just the first word that comes to mind. I suppose "funky" could work as well, but they're not crazy shoes or anything, so "cute" just works better.

I got a bellydancing scarf! It's black and has silver "coins" that jingle when you move. It's super-fun-tastic.

Also, we bought the game Quarto, which I played a lot in high school over my lunch hours. We bought it because we were looking for a 2-person game to play at home for when we don't feel like watching TV or playing computer games, and when we want to play games but none of our friends can come over. It's fun.

Oh, and now I've lost my watch. Hopefully it will turn up again soon.

sad and mad

First the "mad": Today I found out that once I pass my first driving test, I will have to wait two whole years until I can take the test for the full and final license. That's two years with a green N on my car! That really sucks! Anyway, hopefully I'll get rid of the red L this month and at least get started on my two-year N sentence. BC licensing is long and slow. In Ontario one could be done with graduated licensing in 16 months if you took driver's ed, and 2 years if you didn't. Here it is simply 3 years total, no exceptions.

The "sad": I have lost two scarves and one toque this winter, all three of them being favourites of mine. I am very sad. One scarf was a gift from my parents, one scarf was a gift from a friend, and my Toronto Maple Leafs toque was another gift from my parents (and my brothers had matching ones). Anyway, I suppose I should not be so attached to my earthly posessions. I can always get a new ones. But I'm still grieving a bit.

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.