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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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?
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.
---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.
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.
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.
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!
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? 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.
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.
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.
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?
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.