gen·u·ine

we could both win...

2012-02-07T00:09:00.002-05:00

An Open Letter to People Living with Type 1 Diabetes

2012-01-05T22:50:00.000-05:00

It was brought to my attention recently that some friends of a friend were just informed that their two-year-old daughter has juvenile diabetes (type 1). While this little girl is far too young to understand the implications that this diagnosis may have for her, her parents are all too aware of the many challenges that both she and they now face.

Diabetes can be tough. It takes a lot of work. A lot of time, energy, money, planning, etc. As a kid, and even as a teenager or adult, this little girl will know that there is something a little bit different about her. She'll have to get used to answering lots of questions from friends, family and teachers and to sometimes having to be treated differently. She'll probably have to take a break to eat or drink in the middle of class once in a while. If she has a pump, she might have to explain to her professors in university that she's dealing with the food she just ate, not texting a friend in class. Oh, and she'll probably never be allowed to become a pilot.*

Especially as she gets older and begins to take ownership of her diabetes and care for herself, she'll go through stages where her blood glucose just won't stay as controlled as she wants it to be and that will be both frustrating and disappointing. She'll have to pay close attention to the food that she eats, all the time. She can't just take a day off from carb-counting or insulin or checking her blood glucose levels.

But she'll live. And she still has the potential to live a life that is just as full and as rich as anyone else's.

I've had diabetes for 19 years (or so). If I could offer her some advice, it would be this:

Go to camp.
I went to Camp Huronda (http://www.diabetes.ca/get-involved/helping-you/camps/ontario/huronda/) from the time that I was 8 until I was 16 (after which I was too old to return as a camper). Many campers continue going to camp as part of the staff at that point. When I moved to British Columbia for university, I volunteered at Camp Kakhamela (http://www.diabetes.ca/get-involved/helping-you/camps/british-columbia/kakhamela/) for three years.

I can't say enough good things about camp.

Both of these camps (and there are many more -- at least one or two in every province in Canada) are geared for kids with type 1 diabetes. They guarantee an abundance of medical supervision in the form of doctors, nurses, and dietitians who are available 24/7 to ensure that the kids stay safe while they enjoy a ton of incredible activities that will help them make friends, learn new skills, gain confidence and learn how to manage their diabetes as much as possible on their own.

For me, camp was the place where I could go and feel like everybody else. No one there made some silly comment about drugs if I said that I felt "high" and my friends all understood and knew what to do if I felt "low". I still remember the first time I ever gave myself an injection--it was my very first night at camp (I've always been something of a control-freak and I didn't trust the nurse to do it the way my mom did which meant I had to do it myself). I also remember, in my last summer at Camp Huronda, cheering on another young camper who was able to give himself an injection for the first time too!

Of course there are lots of things besides the diabetes to make camp fun (ropes courses, swimming, horse-back riding, games, archery, skits, canoeing/kayaking, sailing, camp fires, hiking, etc.).

So go to camp. It will change your life.

Like your doctor.
If your doctor makes you cry every time you visit him or her, switch doctors. It's one thing to get upset once in a while when things just don't seem to be working--your endocrinologist (that's the fancy word for a doctor who specializes in diabetes) and the team of people who work with him or her are there to work with you and help you to problem-solve and keep things under control. Make sure that your doctor treats you like a real person.

I've had it go both ways. I had one doctor when I was young who gave me the same suggestions every time I went in and it was frustrating for me because I felt like I just couldn't do what he was asking of me. As a young adult, I started seeing a new doctor who I looked forward to visiting every 3-6 months! She helped me to set realistic goals, based on where I was in terms of age and life-circumstances and she never made me feel like I was imposing when I had questions between visits (like when I wanted to go kayaking for a weekend and wasn't sure how best to adjust my insulin accordingly). So hear your doctor out, and be prepared for some tough conversations once in a while, but if he or she seems to be talking at you more than with you--ask to be referred to someone else.

Fight.
I love scuba diving. Can I just say though, that it's not always easy to do it?

In Canada, I had no problem getting certified as a scuba diver (I currently have my advanced open water diving certification with a dry suit speciality). I had to get my doctor to sign off on it for me, but once my doctor gave me the OK, so did all three of the Canadian diving organizations I've worked with.

When I went to Australia for 10 months, however, it was a different story. The first answer at EVERY scuba diving organization I contacted was NO WAY. Diabetics can't dive here.

In the end, I did have to compromise (I was never allowed to dive without a dive master in my group), BUT I dove. I went on one overnight trip and two other day-trips and they were all fabulous. It meant spending more time on the phone than most people have to spend when trying to set up a dive trip. It meant signing my life away on way more pieces of paper than was normal. But it also meant seeing some pretty cool things (sharks!) on the Great Barrier Reef!

Fight to do the things that you know you can do. Fight to maintain good control of your blood glucose levels because the more you are able to manage your diabetes, the less it will have a negative impact on your life. There will certainly be both ups and downs, but the time and energy that you put into caring for yourself is so worth the freedom that you are able to enjoy as a result.

Challenge yourself!
Safety first--so make sure that you talk to your doctor before trying anything that you're concerned about BUT don't let your diabetes stop you from doing the things that you're excited about!

As I noted above, it sometimes involves a bit of extra time and planning, but you can almost always make it work. When I was 20-21, I spent 10 months visiting family and then backpacking (by myself) around the eastern half of Australia (+ a few days in New Zealand). I went sailing, diving, snorkeling, hiking, camping, etc. and it was fabulous! It took a bit of extra work to ensure that I had enough supplies to get me through the year and I had to remember to keep insulin in the refrigerator as soon as I arrived at a hostel, etc. but once I got started... My diabetes didn't slow me down a bit!

I've taken up rock climbing and have found that I always need to adjust my insulin or drink a juice box early on in any climbing session. It took a bit of trial and error, but I rarely get low anymore because I've got a good system (as indicated -- one juice box is usually enough to keep my sugar-levels pretty steady for a good 2-3 hour session in the gym. Outside sessions often require an extra juice box).

I discovered in British Columbia that hiking means walking... up a mountain. Mountains took a bit of trial and error too. They take a lot more energy than just hiking up and down trails in Algonquin Park, let me tell you! I'm on an insulin pump and I've learned that for me (and it's different for everyone), I need to reduce my insulin to about 30% an hour or so before I start a hike and I also need to carry a lot of juice with me. I prefer juice over food because sometimes it's difficult to eat if you're low but not especially hungry. Again, once you sort these things out... it gets easier every time! The trick is preparation... and then a whole lot of trial and error!

This past summer, I completed a 4-day, 3-night hiking trip along the Juan de Fuca trail (http://www.sookeoutdoors.com/juandefucatrail/). If you had told me 3-5 years ago that I would be able to do something like that, I would never have believed you. In part because I wasn't physically capable of that sort of thing (or so I imagined), and in part because I was terrified of being so disconnected from help for such a long period of time (if someone with type 1 diabetes runs out of food in the wilderness, he or she doesn't have three days to live like most other people).

Part of what encouraged me to take up climbing and to take on the challenge of the Juan de Fuca was a short "Young Adult Diabetes Education" session that was hosted by the clinic that I was a part of in B.C. There were about 12 of us there, all between the ages of 17-25, and the speaker was a guy named Sebastien who, at the time, had successfully summited Mt. Kilimanjaro (tallest mountain in Africa) with a group of TEENAGERS who also had type 1 diabetes. Sebastien was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 22 and is now Canada's first diabetic to summit Mt. Everest (and he, again, brought a bunch of young people (who have diabetes) with him as far as the base camp). I think he's now competing in Iron Man races... http://www.sebastiensassevilleinspires.com/eng/index.html

So, really... Other than a few things that are restricted by law (like being a pilot)*, there are very few things that you can't do as a result of your having diabetes. If the first answer is "No"--try again. Get your doctor involved. Get in touch with some like-minded individuals. In Canada, there's a group called "Connected in Motion" (http://www.connectedinmotion.ca/) for young adults who live with type 1 diabetes. Do what you have to do, but don't give up without a fight.

I guess that's my final tip...
Find friends with diabetes!
Whether it be through the clinic you attend, through camp, or through a group like Connected in Motion, having people around you who are going through the same struggles and celebrating similar victories is worthwhile. The encouragement and understanding that you can provide for one another will go a long way in helping you to continue pushing ahead and maintaining good control.

Some final thoughts...
Parents of children with diabetes are also living with diabetes. Many of these tips apply to you as well. In addition though, can I just provide you with some hope?

Diabetes does not mean the end of the world for your child. It does not mean that he or she will be unable to live an incredible life filled with adventure and opportunity. My life is just one example, and it's not even the most exciting--try doing a quick google search of famous people or athletes with type 1 diabetes!--BUT even so...

I've backpacked in Australia, New Zealand and Italy; participated in an archaeological dig in Greece; I've road-tripped around much of Canada and some of the U.S. as well; I've tried my hand at scuba diving, rock climbing, and hiking up (non-alpine) mountains, not to mention regular hiking, canoeing and kayaking (all of which I've done on day trips as well as on lengthier overnight/interior wilderness trips); I've helped to build houses in Mexico; I completed my undergraduate degree on the other side of the country from where I grew up and I'm now completing my MA back in my home province of Ontario. I have diabetes... but would you have guessed it if I hadn't told you first?

*EDIT: I've recently been informed that things have changed. People with Type 1 diabetes can be (and are!) pilots! http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/2008/06/26/5807/flying-on-insulin/ ... Moral of the story? We really can do it all!

graduating (part ii)

2011-11-08T11:11:00.001-05:00

where was i? right. swing dancing in the summer... which i suppose brings me to year 3 (my years start in september)!

i'd helped out at camp again in the summer and while i was there, connected with "nurse rebecca" whose roommate was or had already moved out and who was looking for a new one. coincidently, i was looking for a place to live. so when the summer ended, i moved from carson and brenda's place, to rebecca's, in the capitol hill area of north burnaby. perfect!

i remember the bakery at the end of our street because it was fabulous. the day-old bread was uber cheap and they also made this delicious cookie-like tart things with some kind of hard (candy?) frosting. yum.

i think that this was also the year that i helped lead a girls' bible study at ucm...

it's funny. year 1 and 2 are pretty clear but 3 and 4 are kind of one big blur.

but anyway. i'd been getting messages from the sfu outdoors club mailing list for at least a year by this time but had been too scared to do anything with them (all these crazy hikers/climbers/kayakers/bikers were INTENSE and thus intimidating). so i remember going to one of the socials (pub nights are far less scary than overnight camping trips in the snow) and meeting two guys -- brett and kevin. the two of them convinced me to go on the upcoming snow-shoeing trip to mt. seymour...

and it was a blast! so begins my increasing participation with the outdoors club... also, it was kevin who gave me a ride to mt. seymour for that snow-shoeing adventure. on the way home, i remember two very important things. the first is that i asked him what he liked to read. he responded with "food politics" (!?). i know, right? long story short, this is basically the conversation that convinced me to become a vegetarian. crazy! the second is that most of us went from the top of mt. seymour to deep cove where i was introduced to honey's donuts. oh. my. goodness. you have not had a donut until you've had one of these suckers. it's like a heart-attack on a plate but it's SO WORTH IT.

so now... while i'm thinking about it. this year is pretty much the year that changed my life.

i'm pretty sure that this was the fall semester when i took two courses with chris jones. one was about paul (you know, the guy who wrote a massive chunk of the new testament) and the other was called "the history of the relationship between faith and reason"--which is pretty much what i'm researching as i complete my MA at york (which i probably only got into because of chris' letter of reference). this year and the one after were probably my best two years at sfu--i loved the friends that i made in that first semester and several of us would take a number of courses together in the semesters that followed.

in the spring semester, i started spending more time with this cute guy from church who'd been in my alpha group the previous spring and who i'd had a few "god" conversations with over the fall... we started dating in april that year (2009) and he's currently living with my parents and i in ontario (just for one semester).

i worked at arrow again that summer and, since brian and i had started dating by then, spent most of my evenings and weekends climbing with him, rob, dave and/or scott in squamish or at the gym (occasionally).

in the first semester of year 4, i went to greece on an archaeological field trip. wow. i can't believe that was only two years ago. it kind of feels like forever. i spent most of my time, when we weren't digging up or washing pottery, tanning on the beach, eating free ice cream, waffles or brownies (pronounced "waff-less" and "broo-nees" respectively) from pantoles (the guy who ran the restaurant in town which we frequented most frequently...). a few other highlights include hiking with leesa up to the near(ish) monastery and getting a ride down (it was up a mountain) on the back of a motorcycle and finding a 2500 yr-old coin in the mouth of our skeleton (what'd we name him again? spike?).

after greece, i spent six days in italy where i (twice) walked until i literally couldn't walk anymore, enjoyed italian pizza, gelato, pasta and hospitality (i think guys here could learn a few things from the guys there... just sayin'), and took about a zillion pictures. venice was amazing because it looked just like you imagine it does. i found a glass-blower who sang while he made his ornaments and so i bought one for my mom that i watched him make. rome was intense because there was SO MUCH to see. i remember being shocked to run into a guy i knew from langley--in my hostel! he and i and another of the guys from the hostel toured around together for a day, which allowed me to see an incredible number of amazing places because they never wanted to stop... and on my final days there, i wandered on my own so that i could stop and shop and take it all in. highlight = listening to christmas carollers at the trevi fountain. same tune, different words (i don't speak italian). perfect.

brian came to ontario to see me (and my family) at christmas that year which was a lot of fun. the rest of that year is another blur... except that i remember moving in with christy and our two older (and slightly neurotic) landlords right at the bottom of the hill. i think that apartment was my favourite of all the places i've lived in burnaby thus far. i also remember getting hired as a tutor-marker in the humanities department. i was SO excited. it was that position which eventually led to my being able to work as a teaching-assistant a year later. i will forever be grateful to chris jones (who encouraged me to apply and put in a good word) and david mirhady (who was likewise a very supportive supervisor).

that about wraps up year 4...

i'll finish year 5 later. *to be continued...*

graduating (part i)

2011-08-02T20:30:00.000-04:00

i have the song "closing time" stuck in my head tonight: "every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end..."

that's pretty much where i'm at right now. i'm at the end of a beginning that began roughly five years ago. crazy, hey? so i suppose this is as good a time as ever to reflect on some of the highlights and random memories that stick out to me as i look back on my life as an undergraduate student majoring in humanities at sfu.

i remember moving across the country via one flight and with only two bags to transport myself and everything i would own for the next few months, at least. i had two plates, two bowls, two spoons, two forks, two butter knives, one paring knife and i think i brought a travelling mug as well. for food i had a couple of packets of oatmeal and some snacks to keep me alive until i could find my way to a grocery store. i also had a weed that tim had given me, promising me that i wouldn't be able to kill the green plant he was bestowing upon me (after hearing me whine about how i had a black thumb and would never be able to keep anything green alive in my home). i carried it across the country with me in a pringles (chips) container.

i was met at the airport by a friend of a friend who i had never met previously and who i have not, that i know of, ever met again since. lovely girl. she drove me and my bags from yvr to burnaby mountain where i stayed in sfu's "hotel" until the following day when i would be allowed to move in to my new room in mctaggart cowan hall (aka "mccow").

i remember meeting my residence advisor, alaina, who had curly hair and a big, bright smile and who truly made our small community just that -- a fabulous community of people who actually enjoyed spending time with one another in the kitchen, during holidays, or as tourists exploring the city.

i also remember making my way to the bus stop where i ran into two guys, one of which was kind enough to point me in the direction of the nearest grocery store / value village. and then, once en route, to ask me out on a date! clearly the west coast was where i was meant to be.

i found work pretty quick at travel cuts and at the sfu radio station but neither position was a good fit for me so i was delighted to finally get a job at cole's bookstore in lougheed mall until christmas when i would return home to be with my family (having celebrated in australia the year before). i brought two friends and a third friend-of-a-friend along with me because my parents are awesome and don't mind when i do things like that. we had quite a full household that christmas... my whole family + jenny, aline and damla from korea, france and turkey respectively. upon my return to bc in january, i was able to begin working at starbucks in new westminster (6th and 6th) which, i would later discover, was a pretty swell store. the environment there was far more enjoyable than the environment in which i would later work at lougheed... but that's a different story for another day.

other highlights include my amazing ta, carolyn, whose passion and encouragement definitely made my first semester back at university a much smoother transition than it may have been otherwise. she was the first person who put the idea into my head of becoming a ta during my undergraduate career. oddly enough, she was my ta for humanities 101 which is the course that i would end up ta-ing for in my very last semester. sweet.

obviously the point church makes it on this list too... most of the folks i remember are no longer part of the point, but this will forever be the community etched in my memory when i think of the point church at sfu: lois, josh, nathan, adria, susanne, lynda, sarah, jocelyn, kelly and jeanne (+ melissa and matthew), kyle, graham, jefferson, craig, joel, anna, mckinley, juanito... these beautiful people became my family for the next year or two, at least, and i won't forget the girls' camping trip or multi-sensory services or talent shows in the AQ or dinners after church at adria and susanne's (and lynda's?) place... fun times!

i tried to take up jogging for a while too. as fabulous an encourager as josh was, i don't think i'll ever try that again.

jogging with josh meant talking which led to josh introducing me to jen since she needed a roommate and i needed a place to live that wasn't residence. jen and i lived together for a year and a half... and we're still friends! good friends, even. success!

the rest of the year is pretty much a blur... until the middle of exam time in the spring semester when i realized (far too late) that summer jobs were posted and hired for in early february, not in late april or early may. oops.

then came the e-mail from steve who was asking if i was looking for a summer job because he was pretty sure he had one that would be a good fit for me... and i've been working at arrow for summers and a few semesters here and there ever since!

my (relatively new) endocrinologist invited me to help out at camp kakhamela (diabetes camp) for a week in early july and, largely because of my time there and the encouragement of the rest of the medical staff (+ my great medical benefits from starbucks), i looked into and finally purchased an insulin pump. i can't even imagine how different my life would be right now... that thing has made my life SO much easier. amazing how one decision (going to camp) can have such a profound impact on the bigger picture... and i wasn't even a camper!

year two... i worked at starbucks in lougheed mall until just after christmas when i was able to return to work at arrow part-time for the spring semester. come summer, i no longer had a ride to work and was also looking for a new place to live which eventually led to my moving in with carson and brenda for the summer. living in langley was exciting because it meant i was sharing a whole house with a wondeful family, i could bike to work on a regular basis, and tim and his sister, danielle, were living just a few minutes away in abbotsford that same summer. thus, i ended up spending a fair amount of free time hanging out with them... hiking, swimming, kayaking, board games - you name it! also, langley had free swing dancing in the park on friday nights which meant LOTS of dancing and a couple of new friends to boot!

*to be continued*

good times!

2011-03-18T15:53:00.001-04:00

most of this week has been pretty intense and stressful. i had a midterm on wednesday and twice as much reading to do as normal for my thursday afternoon class. this followed a busier-than-normal weekend during which i enjoyed some girl-time with Cora and Maytel (shopping + haircuts at lougheed + getting my nose pierced downtown).

needless to say, i spent most of sunday thru wednesday either reading for my thursday class, studying for my midterm (25 typed pages of notes!!!), or looking into a mirror / photos taken with my phone and trying to decide if i liked said nose piercing = asking myself if i chose the right side, whether it was too high or low or forward... etc. i hate that what i see in the mirror is not what everybody else sees. brian says it's called kairo-something (when your left side is actually on the left side instead of the right side where everybody else sees it).

anyway. so it was stressful.

however. i have also received an overwhelming amount of good news lately, much of it this week!

just last week (i think), i found out that i'll be able to work at Arrow again for the summer which is soooo exciting! i miss both the job and the people and am very excited for the opportunity to spend one more summer with them.

i've been on something of a night-shift schedule these days and have learned that it's a bad idea to check on anything important right before (attempting to) sleep.

so on monday, brian was able to confirm with his friend's dad that we were able to get a fabulous deal (two nights for the price of one!) on a beautiful chalet suite just outside of tofino on vancouver island for when my parents are here to visit (www.tofinochalet.com). hurray for connections and generous people (aka brian's friend's dad, Don).

additionally, brian's friend (also my friend), dave, confirmed with me that he's up for joining brian and i on a road-trip in april! tentative schedule is something along the lines of...
thursday, april 21 = drive to smith rock, oregon, stopping for a couple of hours in portland at powell's bookstore because i've been dreaming of visiting this giant bookstore (aka heaven) for almost five years.
april 22-23 = climbing in smith rock (apparently it's a great place for relatively easy sport climbing (which is what i'm just getting into now)!
april 24 = drive to vegas; crash at hostel near the strip (free parking!)
april 25 = rest day in vegas!!
april 26-27 = climbing / camping in red rocks canyon (half hour or so from vegas).
april 28 = drive to grand canyon
april 29-30 = drive home!

so that was good news. dave is a pretty swell guy so brian and i are both excited that this trip is now officially a go!

on tuesday night (aka wednesday morning), i was juuuust about to head to bed when i remembered that it was the middle of march and i should be checking in on the westjet website every day now in order to ensure that i / my parents don't miss out on any good deals for flights in june. so i "quickly" checked the website only to discover that a three-day sale had just begun! i called my mom (at 5:30am her time - twice), assured her that there was nothing wrong, and then convinced her in her zombie-state to fly out one day earlier than she'd agreed to and stay one day later. so my parents are here for exactly two weeks, they're flying out of hamilton and into abbotsford (so convenient!!), and after taxes and fees, etc. the cost was still less than $1000 (just). the second call was because my mom goes by her middle name and i had to confirm what name is on her primary id for booking purposes. flights are non-transferable and names matter, after all. whew.

so who can sleep after that? at least i got in another couple of hours of studying... adrenaline is apparently way more effective than caffeine.

so now we're on to wednesday... midterm went alright and we were let out of class afterwards which gave me an extra two hours to finish my homework for thursday's class... which i didn't end up going to. also, brian had mentioned to me that blair had told scott that he wanted to hike the juan de fuca trail this summer. i have wanted to hike this trail for... four years? basically since i learned about it. it's kind of like the west coast trail but shorter - 47km instead of 70km - and not nearly so expensive.

so i contacted blair and suggested that we go on the july long weekend... it'll be busier but it would mean not having to take more than one day off of work. to my surprise and amazement, he got back to me right away and said that he'd be happy to go on the july long weekend and that he agreed with me re: we should book the ferry / shuttle right away. the surprising part was not that he was keen on going but that a) he had no problem with the fact that i wanted to do it over a long weekend and b) he was willing (and even happy about) planning ahead. i need to adventure with blair more often.

SO ferry is booked!!! we're taking the 7am ferry on friday the 1st of july and returning on the 9pm ferry on the following monday! soooo excited. hopefully brian and scott will join us, but if not, i'm sure there will be others interested in tagging along :)

so, on thursday, by the time 1:30pm rolled around, i was in absolutely no condition to think, let alone speak or engage with my classmates in our 4-hour seminar. also, i don't have time to get sick right now. must sleep. so i went home and did that. mmmm. sleep.

then, i couldn't sleep because i napped too late in the afternoon. so when i was finally tired enough to hit the sack last night (thursday), i did another stupid thing. i checked the status of my application for york university (humanities MA program) online and... it was accepted!

more adrenaline = more lack of sleep. le sigh.

woke up this morning to the mailman asking me to come downstairs and sign for a package. brian's birthday present arrived JUST in the nick of time! sweet.

also, brian's mom is going to get him an ice cream cake for his birthday which is absolutely perfect because i love ice cream cake too and because that meant i could go back to sleep for another hour instead of going to the grocery store to buy stuff to make one.

honestly. this week could not get any better.

much love, friends!

break

2010-12-29T13:41:00.001-05:00

i love Christmas-time.

the day before yesterday, brian offered to go with me when i went to the mall to do some boxing-week shopping (!?) and then we went climbing for the second time over the break and it wasn't nearly so disappointing. i feel much better about myself this time around ;)

also, it was especially fun because brian was surprised with a new harness for Christmas (because his mom is crazy-generous) which means that i inherit his old one. which is basically the exact same as his new one except that the new one is a size smaller and has two more gear loops. they're soooo comfy. and compact / light!! and -- if i ever fall upside down -- i won't fall out of it. my old one was getting a little too loose to be safe. AND. brian received a gri-gri from his dad which meant that belaying him on the tougher climbs was waaaay more comfortable for me (holding someone while they rest -- i.e. hang around in the air for a bit shaking out limbs and chalking up hands -- can get pretty tiring / uncomfortable with a regular atc. a gri-gri does much of the work for you).

then yesterday...

i slept in 'til 10:22. i hadn't set an alarm and i woke up pretty much 8 hours after i went to sleep which means i might actually be caught up on sleep for the first time in months. woohoo!! i stayed in bed 'til 11:15 because i could. then i got up and vacuumed the house, tidied my room, did some laundry and cleaned the bathroom. after the work was done, i ate christmas chocolate (i have enough chocolate now to last until june i think!), synced my new ipod with my laptop (and new third day cd), and played lord of the rings online for hours. i'm an elf minstrel chillin' out in the shire at the moment. fun fun!

also, i got in touch with jane and we're hanging out today.

all that to say, i was up until about 4am. so much for caught up on sleep.

anyway. more fun to come -- off to shower and get ready to hit the road!

Christmas @ the K's

2010-12-26T17:33:00.000-05:00

Brian's paranoid so his family's last name isn't posted in the title here -- but that's where Christmas was for me this year.

the last few days have been just what I needed -- lots of people + lots of rest and relaxation! a perfect blend of Christmas craziness and quiet.

the 23rd was my last day at Arrow (sad!) and by the time i made it (almost) home, i was exhausted. (that'll happen when you switch very suddenly from a late-night, late-morning schedule to a late-night, early-morning schedule).

i met brian and a few of our friends at anton's to celebrate dave's (belated) birthday, which had been "inconveniently located in the middle of exam period" (-Brian), and Christmas. anton's servings are huge (for me, one meal there has me leaving with another dinner and at least two lunches), but for the first time ever, someone i was with finished their meal! in fact, four of them finished. gross.

they each received a pen to commemorate their accomplishments.

we went to brian's afterward to have some birthday cake (!?) and hang out. i ran away to brian's room and took a 2-hour nap followed by my heading home to sleep for another 10 hours.

Christmas eve day... i slept in. (hence the 10-hr sleep). somehow, i managed to do laundry, shower, wrap all my gifts and pack for a couple of days all in the space of an hour and a half. i met brian at holdom skytrain station because he'd been kind enough to stop at the purolator depot to pick up a package that i'd received (that was an adventure; the purolator people don't take kindly to other people picking up your packages, especially when neither they nor you have any idea what the package contains...).

anyway. the mystery package contained an ipod that i won recently on some contest that i vaguely remember entering. i enter a lot of contests. this is why i have a hotmail account which is used only to collect the spam that i receive as a result of these contests. anyway. i now own one of the new ipod nano's which is small and clips to things like the shuffles, but has a touch-screen and lots of fun functions (like fm radio and a pedometer). yay!

from there, we ran (figuratively) to down town port coquitlam where I took some quick photos of Brian and his brother, Derek. their mom drove us to superstore where they waited in line for about twenty minutes (and were actually able to move ahead of a few friendly folks) in order to print out one of those pictures to put in a frame and give to Grammy and Poppy (their grandparents) that evening. talk about last-minute. yeesh.

we ran to the house, dropped off our things, picked up Glen and some food and zipped over to Grammy and Poppy's place to meet with the rest of the family for dinner. Lots of food, family, gift-giving and pictures! we took lots of pictures.

this is one of my favs:

Derek, Glen, Aaron, Brian, Andrea, Brenda and Myself

we went at 11:30pm to Derek's church for their Christmas Eve service, then came home and slept soundly 'til morning!

Brian and Derek's dad, Aaron, arrived at 8:30am and we all had lots of fun opening gifts and enjoying breakfast -- a la Glen -- before Aaron left to visit with his family a few hours away.

the rest of the day was restful and quiet! Derek went to Andrea's family's Christmas thing and Brenda went with Glen to his family's get together. Brian and I did our own thing... I took a nap and he showered, shaved and took advantage of the opportunity to check out his new climbing gear.

later in the afternoon, he and i went for another quick visit to his grandparents' and then, because Glen was kind enough to lend us his car, drove out to the theatre and watched Tron together. fun movie!

we got home just a little while after Brenda and Glen and watched "Miracle on 34th Street" with them before heading back to bed after a busy, but mostly restful, day.

now it's boxing day! i've pretty much finished writing my letters of intent for grad school applications (whew!) and am looking forward to spending the rest of the day doing something fun with Brian's family (we were looking into laser tag but sounds like that's not a go anymore since the place has been pretty slow -- no fun playing laser tag with only 4-5 people).

anyway. it's been good. i'm finally feeling more or less caught up on sleep and social time and have thoroughly enjoyed spending the holidays here in PoCo with Brian's family.

hope your Christmas has been just as lovely -- may you enjoy the last few days of 2010 as you begin to look ahead to all of the adventures that 2011 will bring!

much love!

quick

2010-12-19T20:53:00.001-05:00

exciting times!

i'm finally done this semester! all that's left to do is wait for marks to be posted and finish putting together my grad school applications...

went shopping yesterday with brian's family in the morning and with adria and graham (and brian) in the evening. ALMOST done. whew. mom and dad -- your gift should arrive dec 23-24.

went to church this morning; great talk by brendan.

facebook = free tickets to see laurell in concert tonight @ 8pm with brian; hurray!

also, found out yesterday that i won an ipod nano (8 gb)! another yay!

graham and adria like to clean so our apartment is looking pretty fabulous. so so so wonderful.

discovered convocation schedule. i walk across the stage (or at least begin watching others cross the stage) at 2:30pm on june 16th! oh, how sweet it is.

went to the humanities department christmas social on friday. yum. also, it was fun to catch up with friends and meet some new (to me) professors who, sadly, i won't have time to take a course with.

so far, i've read three books (for fun) since the start of december. only two left! (lovin' the dragonriders of pern series). also, all caught up on tv shows. what will i do after this week is over??

must. go. climbing.

on friday, was able to retrieve keys for my office (and the humanities main office as well) for next semester. sharing it with three other TA's, but still very excited to have an office. and keys. feels so strange and official-like. also, met with supervisor and co-TA on friday prior to the christmas social. really looking forward to this new experience!

should find out at the end of this week re: celiac. gah! bought rice crackers at costco just in case.

looked at our moon + jupiter and its three moons on friday night with brian. telescopes = fun. and cold.

think that's it. will try to update with real sentences and more detail at a later date. must run now -- gotta get to granville and broadway before 8pm for the concert!

rain. math. sleep.

2010-11-14T04:31:00.000-05:00

i'm not a big fan of the rain. i was thinking the other day about Arrow's upcoming staff Christmas celebration and I realized that this is (possibly) the last time I'll be at an Arrow Christmas party. Also, it'll (perhaps) be my last Christmas in BC. And summer... just one more summer.

I started to think about all of the things about BC and the people here that I'll miss.

And then I walked for 18 minutes in the rain only to just miss my bus and wait in the rain for another 15 minutes before the next one came, which was followed by me riding that bus, two skytrains and another bus home. In wet, cold clothes. I won't miss the rain in BC. I'm a big fan of dry... sunshine and summer.

I don't particularly like math. Which is good... because I'm not particularly adept at it. I'm taking a discrete mathematics course right now (which I've probably already mentioned?) and so far I've been doing ok. In the past four weeks, however, I've been in one class and one tutorial (there are three classes + one tutorial each week) where I understood, for the most part, what was going on.

Today I met with two classmates and we spent something like five hours working on an assignment together that is due on Monday. I learned how to get rid of logs and work with fractions that are the numerators of other fractions or with the punctuation that math can apparently contain (did you know that they use '!' in math for these things called factorials... So like. 10! = ten factorial = 10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1. Crazy). Anyway. I'm still not sure how well I'm going to fare on Wednesday's midterm, but Monday's assignment is done and while there is NO WAY I could have figured it all out on my own, at least I understand everything that I wrote down. I hope. Obviously if I do poorly, it means I don't understand as well as I might think I do. Time will tell, I suppose!

So math. It's almost over and this makes me very, very happy.

Sleep. I need to get more of that than I have been getting lately. Here's to just a few more weeks until I can sleep for like, three solid days. Wheeeee!

jury duty. group work. cold.

2010-10-04T19:01:00.001-04:00

last week was really crappy.

it was much worse for brian than it was for me, but really. it was just bad. not like, "the world is ending!" bad, but still... "the world is overwhelming!" bad is bad enough, right?

this week is getting better. i think that things are always way worse in my head. i have an assignment and a midterm due on wednesday and today i had to have some notes typed up in prep for a paper i'm writing with a few classmates. i also had a meeting on saturday night and was overwhelmed by association by all the goings-on in brian's world.

today...

the notes are typed.

i met with a friend after my math class this morning who helped me sort out some of the stuff that was confusing me and i've got plans to study with another classmate at some point tomorrow so i'm feeling mostly comfortable about the midterm on wednesday morning.

my assignment on wednesday is still going mostly nowhere. but it's only one step in a much larger project and if i just stick to doing the darn thing, i really should be able to come up with SOMETHING before 4:30pm on wednesday. mostly... i just need to take the time to read. and think.

so the world isn't collapsing and i'm not going to fail (hopefully) any of these assignments.

and brian's world is still pretty overwhelming for him but it does seem to be improving at least on some levels. a friend was able to offer him some help last night on the assignment he's been struggling with all weekend; stuff at his place has been taken care of; we're all keeping our fingers crossed and hoping he'll be able to get out of jury duty (i know, right!? if he can't get out of it, it starts nov. 1)

three thoughts...
i. jury duty sucks.
ii. writing papers in groups isn't SO bad... if you can convince everyone that you should be the one to write up a draft (hence gain control of the structure of the paper...). i'm such a control freak. i know, i know. i have a good group though. they're all keeners (like me) who want to get it done early. and i like them even more since they were all quite happy to let me be "the voice." yay.
iii.we had three sunny days this week and they were all wonderful. it's cold today; i had to wear a coat.

engagements. homemade ice cream. sunshine.

2010-10-03T02:25:00.001-04:00

i love it when people i love get engaged.

one of my closest friends got herself engaged just recently and it's wonderful. i can't wait for the wedding.

brian's mom got engaged too. also fantastic.

both happened around the same time which made for an especially lovely weekend... seriously. i'm still all giddy and it's been at least a week since i found out.

i have a small, single-serving size ice cream maker. it's pretty much just a cup insulated with liquid that keeps the contents extra cold (if the cup has been frozen) and thus freezes ice cream quicker than say, a normal cup that's been frozen. i haven't used it in a loooong time, but last night and tonight... i made ice cream. vanilla... with bits of a chocolate bar mixed in. yum.

i like to 'dress up' when it's sunny. i'm not sure why, but i feel prettier when the sun is shining. i wore a skirt two days in a row this week.

too bad it's october now and we'll be lucky to see the sun six more times between now and june.

three thoughts.

2010-08-20T00:29:00.002-04:00

my parents (who, i think, are the only people who still read my blog) keep complaining that i don't blog enough anymore.

i have a co-worker who blogs a lot. she writes really well and her posts are quite consistently thoughtful, entertaining, challenging, inspiring, frustrating, enlightening, quirky and fun.

at the end of every post, she writes down three things that she is thankful for. i think it's a good idea. once in a while (very rarely), her post may consist of only the three things she's thankful for -- but it's something.

my problem is not that i have nothing to say or nothing exciting going on in my life. actually, my problem is that i've got too much going on in my life. i mean, really, who has time to write about all the crazy things happening when the craziness never seems to slow down? when i do have time, i don't have enough time to update the world (read: my parents) on everything, so instead of writing about something, i just don't write at all.

all of this to say...

i've decided on taking a new approach.

i may still post updates on my comings and goings once in a while but in order to appease my readers (mom and dad), i will try to blog more often by blogging less.

and since jane's "three things i'm thankful for" is such a good idea, i'm going to steal it. except... i'm just going to jot down three thoughts. some of them may be positive and some of them may be negative. either way though, i certainly think at least three thoughts each day and so i am hoping that this method of blogging will enable me to post if not more thoroughly, at least more consistently.

here we go...

cheese, movies and banff:

1. i went to the grocery store today and as per usual, checked to see if there was any cheese on sale. i really like cheese but it's ridiculously expensive in BC.

for example:

in Ontario -- specifically, at the grocery store where my mom shops -- these cracker barrel cheeses (and other similarly packaged brands) sell for a regular price of roughly $8. when it's on sale (and the brands just switch back and forth so there's generally at least one on sale every other week), these cheeses sell for $5-6.

you'll notice in this picture (one that i took just a few hours ago at the grocery store where i do much of my grocery shopping), the SALE price for these cheeses is $9.98. it's difficult to see here, but the regular price is $13.99.

no. your eyes do not deceive you. $13.99 for a hunk of cheese.

thought # 1 today = cheese in this province is way over-priced.

2. i love movies. i especially love movies when i can watch them in movie theatres for cheap. the clova cinema in cloverdale is playing two movies tomorrow night that i really want to see: Salt and The Last Airbender. the clova is a small, family-run theatre so all four of us can go see both shows for $23. popcorn is also uber-cheap, especially if you bring your own containers.

so i'm excited. almost giddy, actually.

after the shows are over (~10:45pm), we'll head to the richmond night market to admire lots of fake name-brand stuff and bravely try out a few random asian foods.

3. banff is beautiful, but expensive. brian and i (and another friend - eric) are hoping to do an end-of-summer road trip to the rockies over the labour day weekend. we want to do some hiking and some climbing and perhaps i can convince the boys to do a little bit of relaxing as well.

we've got a car and directions and a few ideas... all we need to find is a place to sleep. preferably an affordable place to sleep. le sigh.

sunshine.

2010-07-08T01:37:00.000-04:00

it is sunny today. and hot. summer has finally finally finally arrived in the lower mainland. i hope it stays for more than just this one week.

that said, it doesn't feel like summer yet. i've had a not-actually-that-bad-but-right-now-seemingly-crummy-week.

i spent last weekend in abbotsford where i was house-/pet-sitting for a co-worker and while i thoroughly enjoyed the much-needed quiet and the distance that the weekend offered, it was hard to spend just one more weekend not seeing brian. we've both been pretty overwhelmed with school and work over the past few weeks and now that we're done, we keep planning on spending some quality time together and it keeps not happening.

we had to postpone our date-night last wednesday (which was planned because it was the first time in six weeks we'd both be free and not overwhelmed with homework) because his work schedule changed. then we had to postpone our re-scheduled date-night on saturday because i was going to be in abbotsford and he was going to the outdoors club kick-off weekend in squamish. which is fantastic -- it was good that he got to be active and i got to rest because that's what we both really needed -- but still, hard. and then he worked again last night and tonight and finally -- tomorrow's the day! we get to actually have a face-to-face conversation for longer than three minutes and i'm really excited. he lives about a 10-min walk away, but i've missed that boy!

anyway. so i've been busy -- too busy. and now i'm tired. and kind of grumpy. even though much of the busy was actually quite wonderful.

also this week -- i had some difficulties with my pump sites and long-story short -- everything was mostly ok but i felt really really crappy for three consecutive days (not the entire three days, but there were lengthy periods of time over each day when my body was not happy with me) aaaand just to be safe, i went to the hospital to make sure i didn't go into dka. fun, fun.

when i was kayaking a few weekends ago (which was fabulous), i lost my toque -- one that i'd won at the vancouver international mountain film festival -- and that was sad. our dryer hasn't worked since we moved in (may 24). our washer died yesterday (or the day before. sometime this week anyway). it still swooshes water around a bit but mostly you just end up with dirty wet clothes that are also soapy. our refrigerator has been getting steadily warmer and things are starting to go bad. today... it's not cold at all anymore. the freezer is ok. the lights are all on. but no coldness. bah. my pan, the one that brian got me for my birthday --- the first birthday gift he's ever given me and one that i spent a LONG time picking out, was used by some guests the other day (which is fine) and in the process was brutally attacked by a knife. or knives. metal ones. not so fine.

c'est la vie, i suppose.

seriously, my life is not that bad. i got to GO kayaking which was crazy-amazing. i'm co-hosting a stellar cocktail party on friday and that has been and will be filled with copious amounts of fun. i also have an incredible job with great co-workers, good friends and also a pretty swell boyfriend. i live in a great place that is both convenient and affordable. and one day, it'll be beautiful too. i just have to get around to unpacking.

so forgive my whining. i know that things could be worse. but today... ugh. i can't wait until they're better. because they could also be better.

much love friends.

winding down

2010-05-02T01:45:00.001-04:00

whew.

today, i slept in until 12:30pm. i am so ready for a break.

the last few weeks have just flown by!! i eventually managed to write my paper, get my marking done (on time even!) and ended the week last sunday when i handed in my (take-home) final exam for my history class (historical survey of ancient greece). apparently that went really well since i received word this week that i earned an A+ in the class -- sweet!

following that, i began working at arrow again this week and it's been soooo good to be back! i love my job.

monday night, brian and i went out for sushi and then just did nothing together for a while (watched friends, actually) because we both had time (which never happens).

tuesday evening i convinced dave and anthony to help me lug some empty cardboard boxes to my house from sfu and they convinced me to work out with them at the sfu gym first. then the two of them and brian came (bearing boxes) to my place and we hung out for a few minutes before they all headed back up to brian's place and i went to bed.

wednesday was special -- brian and i have been together for a whole year now! he learned (via youtube and the guy who works at the "rock and gem store" in north burnaby) how to silversmith and made me a ring! it's beautiful! so we went for a walk while it was still sunny, then had dinner at the sfu pub and hung out with the outdoors club folks for a while. it was perfect -- he asked me out last year after walking me home from the outdoors club social so we were both surprised and excited to find out that the social was happening on the same date this year too!

thursday i stopped at walmart on my way home from work to buy some rubbermaid containers for my linen and towels, and for my craft stuff. i figured i needed to store 'em in something anyway, might as well get the containers pre-move to use for packing. which took me from roughly 7pm until about 2am.

so friday was a long day filled with caffeine and walking around the office to keep myself awake. after work, i cleaned up the kitchen and my room (christi had already taken care of the bathroom) and then brian came over and we moved all my stuff into my landlord's garage because he and his wife have been kind enough to let me store it there for the 24 days of May during which i'm pretty much homeless.

after we moved everything and i finished the cleaning, brian and i had some dinner at his place and i made my way over to vic and candice's place to crash. until today! when i woke up at 12:30 feeling more well-rested than i have in weeks!

i'm pretty tired again now... it's only 10:40pm but i had a wisdom tooth pulled today...

it wasn't so bad. didn't hurt at all during or immediately following the procedure (just a regular extraction so i wasn't knocked out or anything, just localized freezing). it did hurt by the time i made it home (because it hadn't occurred to me to take advil before the pain hit me) and so i downed the advil as soon as i arrived back at vic and candice's place and watched "hancock" while i iced my jaw and tried not to think about how sore it was.

advil is a wonderful thing. it started to wear off about four hours later and i noticed. but as long as i have it in my system... there's only a very slight, dull ache on the right side of my jaw. still. my body is fixin' itself now (there's a gaping whole in my mouth, after all) and so i'm tired.

tomorrow is lois' birthday celebration and so i'm going to a brunch with her and some of her friends which should be fabulous. i only got one tooth pulled, so i'll even be able to eat something at said brunch. i just have to remember to chew on the left side of my mouth. fun times, fun times.

in any event. i am falling asleep as i type so i'll wrap 'er up and update more later.

much love!

messy

2010-04-26T01:51:00.000-04:00

is my room. it's a total disaster. or, in mom-speak, it looks like it's been hit by a bomb.

normally, i would begin cleaning as soon as i wrapped up all of my final papers and exams. today, however, i keep stopping myself from cleaning because what's the point of tidying when one should be packing instead? i just need boxes.

hoping to make a costco run this week. like... tuesday.

and in my defense, the semester isn't completely over... i still have a tiny bit of marking left to do. 4 exams. one is not yet in my possession and three i just need to finish. but that should all get wrapped up tomorrow after work, and then what excuse will i have for not cleaning my room?

i hate moving.

and boredom... i don't like being bored. although right now... it is refreshing. so i guess i do like being bored, but only in small doses.

a [long] secular age

2010-04-13T05:11:00.001-04:00

40 hours*
is 2400 minutes
776 pages**

roughly 3 minutes per page.

and it's finally done. oh, how sweet it is.

in my humanities graduating seminar*** we've spent the semester reading and dialoguing (and complaining) about charles taylor's a secular age. it's got a lot in it. a lot. some of it is really insightful and interesting and thought-provoking and some of it just made me want to cry (sometimes because i thought taylor was crazy, but most of the time because i was just confused).

honestly, it feels like some kind of accomplishment to be able to say that i actually read the whole thing. it never takes me that long to read things. this book forced me to read slowly. very, very, very slowly. so i'm glad i read it. but right now, tonight... at 2:00am on tuesday morning (about 8.5 hrs before the final class where will discuss the final portion of the text for an hour before heading to the pub to celebrate together)... i'm also (and maybe even a little more) glad that i don't have to read it anymore. whew.

*i'm estimating. some weeks the reading took me at least eight hours. other weeks it was closer to six. this week's reading was both the shortest and the easiest and it took about 4.5 hrs to complete. we only met every other week, however, so divide those numbers by two and then multiply by 12 weeks. or something.

**not including the end notes... but let's be honest, i read very few of those anyway. who the heck has time for end notes when you're reading a text as dense and difficult as this one!?

***(no, i'm not graduating; i took the class a year early because many of my favourite classmates are graduating and so i wanted to enjoy this one last class with them...)

articulating penelope

2010-04-08T16:40:00.000-04:00

i found out this week that i won $50 for this picture... (2nd place in the greece field school photo contest)

It's called, "Articulating Penelope" because that's what Rebecca is doing in the photo. Penelope is the name we gave to the (wo)man whose skeleton we found in this particular burial. first we thought it was a female skeleton but then we thought it might be male. i can't recall what it actually ended up being. it was buried with a child though -- very sad.

oh, the [night] life of a student.

2010-04-02T04:48:00.004-04:00

here's my dilemma. i like mornings but i hate waking up for them. so unless i have to be somewhere, i tend to sleep. until at least 10 or 11 am.

it takes a bit of time to, you know, do anything. so i don't often get started on anything productive until the afternoon. say 1pm.

but by 1pm, i just can't concentrate. well. sometimes i can read... sometimes. but writing or thinking or doing anything that requires me to be fully awake and functional? not happening.

so basically... i get all my best work done after 8pm. the very best stuff usually happens between 11pm and 2am. and then i go to bed, clinging to the hope that someday i'll be a morning person again. except... all that "very best work" usually requires me to think. which i do enjoy. but at 1am or 2am when i've only just let myself stop thinking, my brain simply refuses. so then i'm stuck thinking for at least another hour. sometimes more. which means sleep = evasive.

i miss the sunshine. sigh.

in other news.

tomorrow's easter! well. not really. it's good friday. but that's fun too! and i'm hanging out with brian's family for easter dinner, so it's easter for me. and them.

brian and i hang out with his family pretty frequently, but it didn't occur to me until his mom and i were chatting last week at his dad's birthday thing about easter... she was asking us if friday worked for us, etc. and then... it occured to me: she assumes i'm coming, and i assume i'm invited. it's just... normal. they're doing a family thing, and i'm included. because that's how it is.

i've never not had a place to be for special occasions and holidays out here in the west coast of canada. i used to spend most of the holidays with steve and lea, and last year i was invited to my prof's place for easter dinner. so, you know, it's not like i've ever been alone or anything.

but anyway. it was just kind of nice to realize that i've got this quasi-permanent (at least as long as brian and i are together) invitation to holidays and family gatherings with brian's family. something a little structured/routine/consistent/whatever you call things that don't change all the time.

fun times.

also.

i'm moving. again. (perhaps another reason for my deep appreciation of something that is a little more stable in my life).

i'm excited though. i had two really good opportunities that came to fruition this week and it was sooooo difficult to decide between them.

i'm going to be moving up the hill to the univerCity at sfu. woot!

most exciting features?

i get a relatively big closet and there's a gas stove in the kitchen. oh, and i can walk to class.

the people i'll be living with are pretty ok too ;)

think that about sums up my world at the moment. enjoy your long weekend, friends.

much love!

tulips

2010-03-07T03:37:00.002-05:00

there was an undergraduate physics conference at sfu today and when it was all over, several of the people who had volunteered throughout the day decided to head to the mountain shadow pub. the pub happens to be conveniently located about two blocks from my house SO when brian called me undecided about whether or not to follow the crowd, i quickly convinced him that he should. and that i should go with him.

why?

well. nachos. nachos have been continually popping up in our conversations over the past two weeks or so and as a result i've been craving them and would probably have caved and gone to the store to buy some and make 'em myself at home had we not gone to the pub to have some made for us. brian also loves nachos (it makes me happy that we both have a deep appreciation for food. especially nachos and ice cream. i'm not certain, however, that he loves nachos as much as he loves chocolate, or that his love for chocolate is as intense as my love for ice cream...)

anyway.

so i met one of his professors (the one with the accent -- i've wanted to meet him for a while because whenever brian talks about his lectures, he always imitates the accent), and we had some (expensive!) nachos and it was good.

also, i was upset with him yesterday so tonight he came to my door bearing tulips. smart man. we'd already mostly worked through things yesterday... but still. the tulips were a nice touch. i love spring. and the flowers that come with it.

back2school

2010-03-04T15:29:00.004-05:00

what a break! i thought the olympics were great -- if for no other reason than the fact that i had two weeks off of classes because of 'em!

but there are more reasons. downtown was fantastic. i wish people were that friendly and excited all the time! the crowds were huge and tough to navigate some of the time, but they were always good-natured too!

i spent WAY more time watching events on TV and hanging out downtown with friends than I had originally anticipated so I didn't get as much done for school as I'd hoped... but it was worth it!

i cried a lot too. i've been uber-emotional over the last like... three weeks! it's so ridiculous! i think i'm somewhat normal for the tears i shed through the tim horton's commercial (based on the fact that i know several others who responded similarly). but the coke commercial?? the "let's show them whose game we're playing" one? when they swapped the words to "now they know..." after canada won gold for men's hockey... i started tearing up. i cried when joannie rochette was skating, and when moir and virtue were skating (every time). not to mention the rest of the skaters. and athletes. every time someone won something and jumped around or did a dance or hugged someone... i cried. if there was a crash and burn... i cried. and even in my own world... if i remember something good or i get anxious about an upcoming assignment... everything these days makes me cry. it's so weird!!

and no, i'm not pregnant.

so that's pretty much all there is to update on. otherwise, life is pretty much same-old, same-old. i spend most of my time reading, writing or marking and once in a while i find/make the time to go climbing. i guess yoga is somewhat new. i'm trying it out for the semester so i do yoga once a week now as well. let me just say that i had no idea i was so flexible!

well. that's it for today, folks. much love!

crazy connections!

2010-02-18T16:28:00.006-05:00

remember those random guys in Venice who walked with me to St Marco Square and regaled me along the way with interesting facts and tales about living and working there?

well. can't remember if i blogged it, but after i'd left them i realized that i hadn't said thank-you! so i (somehow) found my way back to the apartment where the one guy lived (the one whose name i hadn't learned) and since he lived right next to a small restaurant, i went into the restaurant and showed a guy working there a picture of him to find out if he recognized him. he did! so they gave me a piece of paper and i wrote a quick thank-you note that the restaurant guy promised to deliver the next time he saw the guy-who-lives-next-door.

today... i received an e-mail from him!

His name is Nicola Catullo (finally!) and these are the two events that he and his co-worker (they work for Venezia Marketing & Eventi) organized:

New Years Eve (35,000 people showed even though there was a high tide which means water all over the walkways)

Venice Carnival (800,000 people!!)

Anyway. That was both random and kind of fun -- good to know they got the thank-you!

camping. squamish. february.

2010-02-16T02:49:00.003-05:00

what a crazy-busy weekend!

thursday was my first day of freedom (wooho!) for the olympic break so i slept in a little, went to see the olympic torch on campus at SFU and then headed to vancouver to buy some hiking shoes. actually, i went to vancouver to buy a decent sleeping bag (since i don't currently have one) but decided to purchase the shoes instead. sleeping bags are easier to borrow.

in any case, on friday night i stayed up late preparing food for said camping trip and packing what little camping equipment i own for our short overnighter in squamish. our = myself, brian, scott and dave.

brian and i got up way-too-early to meet and catch a bus to coquitlam where we enjoyed a quick (but tasty) breakfast with his dad. after that, we grabbed our rental car, met dave at his place, scott at kootney loop and headed off in our tiny car to the wonderfulness that is squamish.

we spent the afternoon climbing wet granite in the rain... an interesting challenge to say the least. when we'd finally had enough, we headed back to town to warm up and dry our things out for a little over an hour at mcdonald's.

and then... then we hiked out (still in the rain) with our (still wet) gear and we camped (illegally) for the night in a dry cave in the boulder fields that was covered in some kind of rodent feces. yum. it was cool though! i mean, gross - yes - but also cool. there was tons of room and we covered the ground with a tarp, put crash pads on the tarp and covered those with another tarp to keep us as far away as possible from the aforementioned mouse poo. then we slept. from like... 9:30pm-ish until almost noon. oh, how sweet it was.

then sunday... it was SUNNY!! and warm!!! and BEAUTIFUL!!

so we went climbing on the (still wet) slab in the Upper Malamutes -- some great climbs across the road from The Chief that we absolutely MUST return to in drier weather.

we had wanted to be back in Port Coquitlam by 6pm-ish but since Scott lives in Vancouver and Sunday was V-day, plus Chinese New Year, plus the Olympics... it took about an hour just to drop him off SO Dave didn't get dropped off until 7:30pm and by the time Brian and I were able to get to his mom's place, we found out (or Brian found out, since I had no idea that we needed to be home for anything) that we were too late to make our reservations (we had reservations!?) for dinner.

no biggie. we looked up a fun Mexican restaurant in Langley and went there instead.

then, because we had to drop the car off early on monday morning, we crashed at brian's mom's place. we got up early to drop the car off and then promptly returned home to go back to bed. when we finally woke up (noon-ish again), we went for a lovely walk and decided that it might be fun to make dinner for his mom and glen.

so we tried our hand at stuffed tomatoes and were pleasantly surprised by how perfectly they turned out!!! hurray!

and now... now it's almost 1am and i've mostly unpacked and should probably head to bed but i'm really not that tired... ah well.

in any case. it was a good, though very busy, weekend.

oh! and the olympics have officially begun. i'm hoping to head into the craziness on wednesday or thursday this week...

much love friends!

i have no head

2010-02-10T03:11:00.002-05:00

or at least, it feels that way.

i can't wait for tomorrow to be over. sort of. i'm looking forward to the yoga/climbing portions of the day which will begin at 3:45pm.

everything prior to that, however, is stressful!!!!

midterm at 10:30 which i am only somewhat prepared for.

followed by marking, meeting with student and more marking.

and then yoga. and then climbing. which are both good. but i can't think about either of those things right now. too busy worrying about aforementioned midterm. i hate tests.

oh. and i have no phone. translink may or may not have it. if it's not in the lost and found by friday, i can assume that i need to find a new phone. because i have the time and money to go about making that happen. bah.

did you know...

2010-02-04T12:49:00.005-05:00

that at Stanford University, they have a ph.d program for "Modern Thought and Literature" which is pretty much exactly like the interdisciplinary style of the Humanities department at SFU?

they accept fewer master's students than doctoral students (in part because as doctoral students work toward finishing, they also get a master's...) which also means that they accept applications from students who have completed an undergraduate degree and want to jump right into the ph.d from there.

and. IF you're accepted (which means you're one of 5-8 students from among 50-60 applicants)... and i quote, "All Ph.D. students admitted to the program receive five years of full support. The funding is a combination of University Fellowship stipends, Teaching Assistantships, and Research Assistanships. Tuition is also covered for five full years. In addition, students are eligible for two summers of funding."

so basically. you get to go for free. and you're guaranteed a job on campus while you're there. wha!?

new goal? hmmmmmm.

[edit] apparently stanford's website lies and they actually receive several hundred applications for this program rather than 50-60.

certifiable.

2010-02-04T03:17:00.003-05:00

that's me!

apparently. i went to speak with maria in the hellenic studies department to see how close i was to having completed the hellenic studies certificate... (i thought i had just once class left to do but am currently checking in with the advisor for every program i'm registered in to ensure that i can, indeed, graduate next year with all the stuff i think i'm eligible for) so um, where was i? oh yes. maria.

and i'm done! i don't even have to take that last class. woot.

i need to take it anyway... since it's the only upper level writing intensive course offered by the humanities department. but whatev.

this has been such an intense week.

in the past 7 days i've had to mark a little over 30 assignments, write one real paper, submit three smaller written assignments that don't quite qualify as papers, and prepare for a presentation. which really. isn't too bad. but i'm tired anyway.

i'm trying out yoga this semester with a friend.

it's been interesting so far. i find that it's not "easy" but that i can definitely do everything she asks us to do over the hour-long class and so i question how much i'm actually impacting my body. until about twenty minutes after we're done and i start to feel muscles ache that i didn't know existed.

so that's kind of fun. it's definitely relaxing, but also a bit of a work-out in the non-cardio sense.

what else?

i love that i have friends here. still. it never ever ceases to both amaze and encourage me that i cannot go up to campus without running into a zillion familiar faces. it gets more and more difficult, actually, to avoid lengthy conversations with people i haven't seen or connected with in far too long.

and i love the pub. went on tuesday (skipped bible study...) after class with my favourite pub-going classmates and reveled in every moment of decent conversation. oh, how i've missed those conversations.

in other news...

i'm pretty much unpacked. as of like... two weeks ago. so that's also pretty stellar. and i bought myself a new set of double sheets from winners. all my linen was for a twin bed and my bed in the new place is a double -- i cannot express how thrilling it was being able to justify something as wonderful and exciting as new linen! no -- i'm not being sarcastic.

and. the sheets are bright green. not like... fluorescent. but still. happy. and i love 'em.

really. now i'm just tired. but i had a few spare moments and wanted to fill you in on some of the goings-on.

i'm not purposely avoiding the blog. i'm just busy. who would've thought that the "easiest" semester of my life (i'm only taking 10 credits!!! i usually take 12.) would be just as busy as every other semester of my life. meh.

the olympics invade soon. i'm sure i'll have more exciting stories then. i think i'm going camping at some point over the two-week break. i hope so anyway.

ps. did you read that? TWO-WEEK break. yup. that's right. SO excited.

and on that note. i'm off to bed.

much love friends.

Venice...

2009-12-02T15:19:00.001-05:00

so. tired.

i'm in venice, sitting on my luggage in the luggage-storage room with three security guys all totally engrossed in watching whatever is playing on tv. i'm guessing it's supposed to be a comedy because the laugh track playing in the background is pretty frequent.

anyway.

venice.

patras (the city in greece where i caught the ferry that dropped me off in italy) was nice, but it was sunday so the only things open were the restaurants and coffee shops. i did a lot of window shopping though and decided that it's a good thing all those stores were closed -- i had no room in my luggage anyway.

nice as it was, i slept in the ferry terminal for at least an hour in the evening because i was bored with the free internet in the square, it was getting cold outside, and i didn't want to spend any more money on food or beverages.

the ferry was supposed to leave at midnight but it took until about 11:30pm to UNload all the vehicles (mostly big trucks) and then another hour and a half to LOAD the new cars and trucks, etc. so we pulled out of the port at around 1:30am. bah.

lucky for me, a turkish/british guy - Tom - introduced himself to me at the terminal shortly after watching me clumsily handle my over-sized luggage while trying to check in for the ferry.

he'd done the trip about a month ago in the opposite direction and on that trip had made friends with a different canadian (James). the two of them had determined, based on that experience, that being alone on a boat for 32 hours would probably drive anyone completely crazy. and it's true. it was definitely good to have someone to explore and chat with between reading, labeling pictures and napping since really, there's nothing else to do on a ferry in the winter (in the summer, there is a pool on deck that would likely help relieve some of the boredom).

and then this morning... there was venice.

oh. my.

it's like...

everything you see in the movies, only better. because it really is like that. it's old and rich and quaint and beautiful.

and friendly!

i started following signs to st marco square but somewhere along the way i found myself distracted by a building or something and the next thing i knew, i was taking pictures of a fountain in a small square and there were no more yellow signs pointing me in the direction of any nearby touristy points.

le sigh.

so when the two guys who had been behind me when i started taking pictures of the fountain passed me and used a key to open the door of an apartment in the square, i figured that at least one of them lived in the city and would likely be able to point me in the direction of the nearest signage.

didn't happen.

instead... the guy with the key told me that his friend knew where st marco square was and then promptly entered his house and left his friend to help me out. except he just looked at me for a second and then ignored me to talk to his friend in Italian. man. i hate now knowing the language. sort of. i mean... things like ciao and bon journo and gratzi all sound way better with italian accents.

anyway.

so THEN. the guy inside the house says something to his friend, who in turn says to me... "if you want to wait a moment, we're going to st. marco square to do some measurements and take some pictures. you can walk with us."

wha!?

so i did.

very quickly. past all the touristy shops and cafes and bridges and corners -- so many pictures that i didn't take. well. i did take them -- i went back later to mostly re-trace our steps. but that's besides the point.

they were actually both very very cool.

they work for some big firm to host all kinds of crazy-big events in the city. and in other cities too, i think. so today they were going to st. marco square to figure out some technical details about the huge new years eve event that they're putting together.

How cool!?

anyway.

so we walked and we did stop long enough to take pictures a few times because the guy who does, in fact, live in venice knows EVERYONE. did you know... there are no cars in venice. just people walking everywhere. and boats. but mostly walking... do you know why i hate cities? it's a lot because i hate traffic. but there can't be traffic (at least not in cars) when there are NO CARS. oh how sweet it is.

um, so ok. guy-who-lives-in-venice knows everyone because everyone who lives in the city is always wandering around on foot. so people get to know people. and on one particular occasion, guy-who-lives-in-venice stops for a conversation that looks like it'll last longer than 2-3 minutes so his friend, whose name i did eventually find out is marco (easy to remember since that's where we're headed and all...), keeps walking. so i keep walking with him. and we take the "touristy" route so he can show me the rialto bridge. it was fab-u-lous.

then, we see guy-who-lives-in-venice (gwliv) 5 ft away and marco tells me that if i just keep going straight, i'll be there in a jiffy. not in those words exactly, but that was the idea.

except then we meet up with gwliv and he invites me to have coffee with them. so i get a cafe latte and the most delicious pastry i've ever tasted in my entire life. and then, when i reach for my wallet, he insists that i'm not allowed to pay because "I invited YOU." and apparently that should make it obvious to me that i'm not expected to pay.

ok so we have our coffee and our pastries (yum! seriously -- it was creamy and sweet but not too sweet... i'm telling you. perfection on a plate) and then they take me the "touristy" route again. if i hadn't been there, they'd have taken empty narrow allies. instead, they continued to act as my tour guides, answering all my questions and filling me in on all of the wonders (and difficulties) of living and working in venice.

those fountains? that look like taps in the streets? the water coming out of them is totally drinkable. yup. i totally went back to fill up my water bottle later just because i could.

where was i? touring... so they showed me the gondola park and then... voila! st. marco square!

and we wandered around there for a few minutes and they both kept telling me that it was very sad i couldn't be there for new years or for the annual festival (something about masks...) in february (also largely put together by them). eventually they they got to work measuring things and taking pictures and i decided that it would be a good time for me to head out on my own to go take pictures of all the things i didn't take pictures of on the way to the rialto bridge and st. marco square.

gwliv thought that i was leaving because i was bored by their technical work talk but i insisted that i was ever-so-grateful for their hospitality and assured them it was likely to be the highlight of my day. then i took a picture of them. and that was that! they both gave me a hug and kissed my cheeks (i love europe!) and then continued measuring while i headed off to adventure around venice on my own.

and i totally forgot to ask gwliv what his name was before i left though. oops!

so there it was.

friendly venice.

i spent the rest of the day wandering and taking pictures and buying tiny souvenirs.

i found one tourist shop with a guy in it who was making glass stuff right there behind his counter. he wears big sunglasses and listens to loud jazz music while he has his fire going and his glass melting into beautiful things... it was wonderful! he said that he and his wife make everything in the store. so i bought stuff for my mom and my sister.

souvenirs are totally made for girls. everywhere i turn i see things that make me think of my female friends and family members but i almost never see any trinkets or things that make me go, "wow! dad would sure love this!"

so dad, and brian... apologies in advance. i found you stuff in greece, but i had to look for it. mom and meagan might get more. because they're girls. so they're easier. it's not my fault i can't say "no" to pretty things. bah.

and dinner. i had bread (something that starts with the letter "A") and cheese. the most expensive cheese i've ever purchased. i asked the guy at the cheese place which kind would go well with bread and he let me try one that was gross. then he let me try the kind i ended up buying and it was wonderful. but expensive. €23 and change per kg! *shudder*

but still. yum.

ummm. what else, what else??

friendly city, check.

food, check.

musical glass man, check.

water!!

so much water. i mean... i knew that the canals would have water in them (being canals and all...) but the roads too!

apparently the whole city (50% of the shops/houses for sure) flooded yesterday. like more-so than usual. so there was still the residual water from that (and high tide at 9am) on the roads (and when i say roads, i mean... the things you walk on that aren't really sidewalks because they aren't on the side of anything) that didn't go down until at least noon-ish.

at one point, i hit a dead end. sort of. there was a canal in front of me, and a bridge just a little ways to the left... but whether i went right or left, i was going to have to walk through water that was about half way to my knees. that or go back the way i came and find some other way around. but i wasn't sure how much of the city's walkways would be covered with water like that and didn't want it to hinder my sightseeing so... i rolled up my pants and waded on through.

some lady and her husband thought that was pretty cool. they clapped, shouted "bravo" and took a picture of me.

the people who live in venice -- they all have rubber boots. the tall kind. until that road, i hadn't quite understood WHY there were so many rubber boots wandering the streets in a city that's in a country that's supposed to be all high fashion and stuff. i get it now.

and... that pretty much brings me to now. i arrived in venice at 8:30am, took a free shuttle to the bus loop (there are cars until you get to the bus loop -- and then the cars have to park there because there's nowhere else for them to go), and then struggled with my luggage up and over a giant bridge (with stairs. ugh!) until i reached the train station around 9am. i stored my luggage there until... now. 9pm.

which means... i walked for 12 hours. the only time this whole day that i sat down was for the 10 minutes or so it took me to each my bread and cheese at dinner time. and that was on step in front of a random building by a guy with one of those piano things that squishes and expands so you can hear the sound when he presses the keys... can't remember what they're called.

anyway. i just can't walk anymore. so as much as i have totally fallen in love with venice and would LOVE to see more of it... it's cold and it's dark and i can barely feel my feet anymore SO. here i am. sitting in the luggage storage room with the luggage storage people at a train station 3 hours before my train leaves.

at least i'll save a few euros by taking my luggage out of storate slightly earlier :)

well. this has been good. it's now almost 10pm and my train leaves in 1.5 hours! so. i'm going to go grab myself one last venetian cafe latte and sip it slowly 'til it's time for boarding.

muchos love, friends!

Digging Greece -- http://dig-greece.blogspot.com

2009-09-11T03:14:00.004-04:00

Hey guys!

Since I once more have exciting adventures to write about (and a little more time too!) I will resume blogging on a more frequent basis...

The catch:

I'll be blogging most of the time on the GROUP BLOG that we've created for those of us who are adventuring together in Kefalonia for the semester.

I highly recommend reading posts that other people write in addition to the ones that I put up, but if you really only want to read my stuff, click on the label "Shannon" and they'll all be there.

So far I'm the only one who has posted anything but that's because it's been too busy for me to organize a quick teaching session for showing the others who want to participate HOW to post their own accounts of what's been going on!

In any case, check out what's there and know that there are many more posts to come -- We've been in Athens for two days and I haven't even BEGUN to share about all the craziness that has ensued so far! There is one sweet picture up though -- a group shot of all of us at a temple that "they" think was originally built to honor both Hephaestus and Athena!

The address is:
http://dig-greece.blogspot.com/

See you there!

Love Shannon

kayaking!

2009-08-24T02:13:00.002-04:00

brian and i went on a fabulous kayaking trip with the sfu outdoors club this weekend...

it was advertised about 1.5 months ago and it was too good a deal to pass up ($165 for three days of kayaking which covered not only the kayak rentals but a professional guide--who volunteered her time--camping fees and food as well!).

so. good.

the weather was perfect -- a little chilly in the evenings, but a few layers kept me warm enough (and i'm always cold!)

kayaking in the ocean is a bit different from kayaking in a lake too... the conditions change far more frequently because of shifts in the wind and currents, etc. but you see a lot more as well! there seems to be a lot more life along the shores and even in the waters of the ocean -- we saw tons of crabs, starfish and jellyfish not to mention a fair number of seals, oyster catchers (birds), and herons!

on friday we enjoyed speeding along a quick current through a tiny passage to get to saturna island (where we enjoyed some wine tasting and paninis for lunch!) and got stuck for a few hours waiting for the current that had changed direction and picked up speed quite significantly before we were able to get through the pass to head back to our camp!

being one of the few folks on the trip who had any past kayaking experienc, i was able to use the single kayak for the first two days (the first day because it was a particularly small and tippy kayak so she wanted someone experienced to use it; the second day because we had to deal with going through the quick/choppy passage on the trips to and from saturna. lovely! it wasn't so bad being in the double kayak on the way back either since i was paired with eric who was also a stellar paddler -- in hindsight, we probably should have been split up because we spent as much time that day waiting for the rest of the group as we did actually paddling the kayak. meh. it was a more restful day if nothing else!

the food was great -- all the meals were vegetarian which made things especially convenient and easy!

the camping was also pretty incredbile. we slept on the beach both nights... the first night we had no idea that you weren't supposed to camp out on the beach. the second night we'd been told by a ranger that we were only allowed to set up tents in designated areas but decided that we would designate the beach ourselves and simply ensure that the tents were taken down and packed up before the ranger returned... may i just say -- sand is wonderful to sleep on. much more comfortable than rocks and dirt.

what else?

the water and the sky!!!

since we were in the gulf islands, there was very very little light pollution which meant that the stars were stunning! there were SO many of them!

the darkness also made it possible to appreciate the luminescence of the one-celled organisms that shine brightly when they come into contact with anything -- it's like little sparkles in the ocean whenever a wave breaks on the sand or when you move a hand or foot around in the water.

the group itself was a lot of fun. everyone was pretty laid back and we all connected well and got along...

my arms are a little sore and i'm pretty sure i'm dehydrate still... but overall, it was a perfect weekend and well worth the tired muscles and my now-pink nose.

will post pictures relatively soon. hopefully.

much love friends!

Sunny Days... Keepin' the Clouds Away

2009-07-19T20:04:00.006-04:00

Not that there are many clouds to keep away... Seriously. I'm sure the farmers around here aren't so thrilled with this dry summer heat, but I'm LOVING it.

I think in all of July (so far) it's rained for maybe three days. Every other day... SUNSHINE. and HOT. Bea-u-ti-ful.

Camp was fantastic. Those rainy days in July... Happened Mon-Tues while I was there (and apparently Wednesday in Vancouver). I managed to go kayaking almost every day (even Monday in the rain)-- Tuesday was the only day I didn't make it down to the Waterfront and that was because I chose to go on a gelato run with Alanna, Daphne and Melissa. At least, I think it was Melissa?

Anyway. Lots of kayaking. On Wednesday, Brian came to visit for the day... The tide was really really low so we were able to see TONS of starfish when we went out. It was his first time kayaking so that was fun!

There was a bit more adventure at camp this year than there has been in a while... One of the kids starting seizing in the night when we (one of the nurses and myself) were in her cabin for testing. That's why we go testing at night though, so we were able to keep her safe and by lunch the next day, the camper was able to enjoy a picnic lunch outside with her cabin mates followed by another afternoon of fun and games at camp.

Thursday evening we (the med staff) went to the high ropes course and did three of the activities there! (We each tried two of the three options). I did one that required pulling yourself up with a pulley system (something like... you would have to lift a quarter of your weight but would only go up a quarter of the length of rope you pulled... or maybe it was four times the length... but I don't think so). That was interesting. I have no upper-body strength, so Jeff and Marco helped me up a good chunk of the way by pulling the rope from the ground.

Once up, you had to walk across the one rope while hanging on to two other ropes that were about a foot or two to the right and left of the one you were walking on, and probably 4-4.5ft above the one you were standing on (just under shoulder-height).

The other one that I tried this year was called "the rickety bridge". There were no ropes to hang on to as you crossed this bridge that was something like a suspension bridge... only all the pieces of wood to walk on were at least a foot, up to 3 feet in some places, apart from each other. Like something from an Indiana Jones movie. It was not particularly difficult, but man... it was SCARY.

All in all, a stellar week! Can't wait 'til next year :)

Camp ended on Saturday and Brian, Rob, and Brian's friend, Jin, met me at Horseshoe Bay (the ferry terminal) around 6pm because Horseshoe Bay is on the way to Squamish... I was pretty exhausted, but who could pass on an opportunity to go climbing AND get a ride home afterwards with all the stuff to carry home from camp?

The guys ended up deciding to go night bouldering once the sun went down and it was too dark for rope climbing... So I wandered the woods with them and read my book (like I'd have enough energy to go bouldering - HA! - but I was too afraid to sit in the car by myself) until they were done.

The rest of the week has been pretty much a blur.

I know that I cleaned up and did some laundry, etc. on Sunday and continued the recovery process (camp takes a lot of you!) into Monday.

Tues-Thurs I worked at Arrow... It's incredible how much work can build up for you when you're gone for a week. I love being busy though, so it was good to have an impossible-to-finish to-do list to work through!

The busy-ness continued into Friday... I had to get up early for some bloodwork and then had a meeting at 10am with a youth pastor and his wife who are bringing some of their youth up from Seattle in a couple of weeks to help out with our church! They were cool people and we had fun sharing thoughts and ideas about ministry and the stuff we want to see accomplished when they come back at the end of July with their youth.

Friday night, I joined Jen, Dave and Michel for sushi (so good!!) and then board games at Dave's place. Have you ever heard of Agricola? I'm not sure if that's how you spell it, but that's how it sounds. It's something quasi-similar to Settlers of Catan. But not really. It's complicated like Settlers (probably even more so) and more restricted by time -- you only have so many moves! -- but anyway. That's what we played.

Saturday, Brian and I went to his mom's place for a family BBQ -- I met some more people I didn't get to meet at Glen's 50th (Brian's aunt, uncle and cousin) and enjoyed hanging out with his mom and Glen, Derek (brother), and grandparents too. We played darts! "Around the Clock" style I think? Which was definitely something new... luckily when I missed the dart board, I was still close enough to it to hit the giant slab of wood it was on rather than the house behind the slab of wood!

Sunday I spent most of the day enjoying the sun and the live jazz music at Renaissance Coffee up at SFU while I wrote some letters and read (I'm currently working on "The Singing Sword" by Jack Whyte). I may have enjoyed the sun a little too much... the breeze on the mountain made it easy to forget that I was in the sun and I look a little rosy now as a result.

Aaaand now it's Monday. I've done a bit of work for The Point (church) already this morning and I think this afternoon I'll head up to campus (AGAIN) to get the admin people to fill out my program information for the fall so I can finish applying for student loans... I don't really need the money this year (and didn't borrow any last year) but because Greece is so expensive, I'm eligible for enough money that some of it I won't have to pay back which basically means that I could use the money I don't have to pay back and just keep the rest of it in the bank earning interest until I do have to pay it back. Plus, it'll make me feel better having that bit of a cushion for when I return to BC in January.

WHEW.

Sorry for the novel -- congrats to those of you who made it all the way through.

Much love friends!

whataweekend!

2009-06-15T19:32:00.006-04:00

i am ex-hausted!

but the last few days have been absolutely packed with adventuring and exploring and fun and/or free stuff. woohoo!

on friday evening i called sandra after work to find out if she was up for hanging out... the conversation went something like this:

"hi sandra, it's shannon. how's it going?"

"hi shannon! it's going well. hey... i'm going to the night market in chinatown tonight. want to come?"

seriously. how perfect!

so we went and tried all kinds of cheap asian food and i purchased a few cheap knock-offs (i'm especially excited about the headlamp. i understand that it probably won't survive longer than the summer -- but it is a super-bright LED head lamp and it was only $6.)

that was friday.

saturday...

i went to some training for festival planning which was very helpful. made some neat connections there and now have some people with waaay more experience than me offering to help me get this ball rolling over the next couple of days. hurray!

oh. and i learned how to make flowers and turtles out of balloons.

after that i headed over to brian's place and we hung out for the rest of the afternoon/evening. went to see UP at the 'dolphin theatre' which totally made me cry. i'm such a girl.

sunday afternoon i met up with my breakfast buddies for lunch! we decided to check out some cute cafe or something on commercial drive and discovered that there was a HUGE community festival taking place! so i bought a beautiful journal with hand-made paper for $10, sandra bought a scarf and sarah bought a dress. so pretty! anyway. it was all very hippy-esque and reminded me of the weekend markets in australia. good times, good times. i'm still a little sad that i didn't buy the wrap around reversible blue skirt that i found. it was be-aut-iful.

in any case. it was good to catch up with the girls and they bought me a present!! that hilarious frog-prince that i posted about way back in the fall... they found one at a dollar store here!! and wrapped it up all pretty-like and gave it to me. because they're wonderful. so if brian doesn't work out, apparently all i have to do is add water and this frog will turn into a new prince for me.

after that i met up with brian, scott, anthony and rob and the four of us went to squamish for some EXCELLENT climbing. best part... i totally made it up a 5.10b!!!! which is waaaay higher a rating than any other climb i've ever done (i'm usually challenged by but mostly able to do 5.8-5.9s at the most). my knee is pretty scratched up (i may have fallen and hit the wall a few times...) but man. it was fun to be really challenged. progress is good.

today has been good too.

i went and volunteered for the day at a golf tournament / fundraiser for "Caring for Kids" (or something) which i think gives money to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation -- that's who I heard about the volunteering from anyway.

It was so relaxing -- my job was as a hole-in-one attendant. That means that for the whole day, all i was supposed to do was watch hole #16 and be prepared to be a 'witness' if anyone was able to get a hole in one. i spent the day getting to know my co-volunteer, adrian and his co-workers who were there to relieve us (for bathroom breaks, etc. since there has to be two witnesses there at all times).

it got boring so i took off with one of them to drive around the course in golf cart for a half or so and let Kinder (that's her name) watch the hole for a while.

anyway. for that... i got a sweet jacket (except it's mens so it's a little big) and an even better shirt. plus lunch. yum. oh. and a tan. *grin*

aaaanyway.

that's it for now. my apologies for the lack of updating lately. life's been too busy to be able to write about it! Mostly the busy is pretty predictable though... there's a lot of climbing or hiking and Brian. i love summers in BC.

later friends! much love!

more spontaneous adventuring

2009-05-24T00:50:00.001-04:00

last night i received a facebook message just after midnight (it was probably sent earlier, but that happened to be the first time i checked facebook since the day before) which proposed that i join a few others who were going to spend the day transiting to Bowen Island and then hiking up Mt. Gardner. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare myself (or sleep), but figured it sounded like too good an idea to pass up.

my feet hurt.

but i think it was worth it.

we walked 17 km in total. 3 km each way between the ferry terminal and the trail head, plus 11km for the hike itself. The elevation gain is 719 metres. That's almost 3/4 of a kilometre.

the views from the summit were incredible. there were almost no clouds in the sky which meant that we could see EVERYTHING. west was vancouver island, north was keat's island, gambier, gibsons and the mainland that juts out beyond it. to the south-east was the whole of the lower mainland. we could even see as far as mount baker!

beautiful.

jeff, scott's friend, hiked up carrying half a watermelon (really) which was mostly funny but also kind of fun.

in any case. my feet hurt. but it was a stellar hike and i'm glad that i went! and now... i'm too tired to think of anthing else to say. good night!

bliss.

2009-05-03T14:51:00.005-04:00

i'm having a good week.

explored sfu's roof on sunday, went biking on monday, to the outdoors club social on tuesday, climbing on wednesday, moved my stuff on thursday (then went to see 'x-men: wolverine' at midnight), helped brian move on friday and went for a short-but-sweet walk on saturday. and now it's sunday again and christine's coming to visit.

this week could not be any more perfect.

climbing... real rocks!

2009-05-01T16:38:00.002-04:00

on wednesday this week brian and i went climbing in deep cove with dave, jen, matt and three more of jen's friends whose names i can't remember.

we'd found this spot when we went hiking with scott last weekend at deep cove so it was exciting to go back with some gear and actually give the climbing a try!

it was my very first time climbing anything outdoors and so i really really really didn't think i'd make it up the wall. not to mention the climb that we (brian, jen, matt and i) ended up doing was a crack climb -- i've neve done anything like that even in a gym!

anyhoo.

so we started off by rapelling down the wall...

it's incredible when you know that the only thing stopping you from just falling is the rope and the person at the bottom holding on in case you let go...

in any case. we all made it down safely and then promptly set up to make our way back up the wall!

matt went first and then it was my turn... man. i've only been climbing a handful of times in the gym so attempting an outdoor climb made me SO anxious!

it was fantastic though!!!

the whole thing.

the fact that we found the spot by accident when we were hiking, the fact that we hiked back to it (nature, trees, scenery -- all things that i love PLUS climbing and adventure!) the fact that I MADE IT TO THE TOP of the climb even though, going down it, i was skeptical that i'd even make it past the start!

ahh fun times, fun times!

easter weekend continues!

2009-04-26T19:59:00.002-04:00

after our climb up and down the chief and spent an hour or so recovering at my place, we decided to go hiking at lynn canyon... in the dark. not my idea.

it was pretty cool though. it was nice to be there without so many people, and the waterfall looked and sounded just so much more... incredible. it's like the night just makes things different. anyway.

we hiked around for a bit, took some pictures (that i can't post because matt has them...) and then wandered back toward the car.

i'm a bit afraid of the dark. i'm a lot afraid of heights. crossing the lynn canyon suspension bridge at night... so not my favourite thing in the world to do!

i warned the guys that i wanted to cross the bridge on my own and that if either of them started to run on it while i was still crossing -- i would kill him. alex either didn't hear or didn't believe me. he crossed first and when i was about half-way, decided to run back towards me. so i called him a jerk and when he got close enough, i punched him.

alex doesn't know me well... so he wasn't expecting that. some people just like to learn things the hard way.

we were all pretty awake after our evening hike so we stopped at mcdonald's for some ice cream before dropping alex off at his place and heading home for some much-needed sleep!

that was saturday.

sunday was pretty much just spent at church and chris' (my professor) house to celebrate easter with her family, another student or two, and friends from her catholic group. so much food!! so many italians... :) we played charades -- i had no idea that chris was so competitive! i did well, but i don't think it had anything to do with my non-existant charade-ing skills.

oh, and matt spent the afternoon with alex. so after chris' party, i headed downtown to meet them and matt and i borrowed alex's bike for monday...

...when we biked around stanley park!

before that though... i woke up at 8:30 to discover that matt had already gone to the store and bought some bacon, eggs and milk for our breakfast! i'd invited my friends, jen and dave, for breakfast because i wanted jen to meet matt before he left.

in addition to the breakfast food, i also found a trail of chocolate eggs leading all around my house! at the end of the trail was a little package of said chocolate eggs! there was also a giant toblerone bar but i totally didn't even see that until matt told me that i wasn't done. oops. anyway. the chocolate easter egg hunt was very sweet and probably one of the highlights of the weekend for me!

back to stanley park... where we found a cool tree with branches all around it that made a perfect ladder for climbing! and then it was like... flat! there was a whole level of flat space that the rest of the tree just branched out of. definitely worth going back to -- you could have a picnic up there!! i can't explain it well with words, but i'll post pictures soon. remind me if i forget...

what else?

after stanley park (which was fabulous!!! talk about a PERFECT day!), matt and i met alex at his place and we all went back to my place for some lasagna dinner and to grab all matt's stuff and then... it was off to the airport!

definitely a crazy-busy weekend, but SO worth the pain and exhaustion that stayed with me through most of the week that followed!

Easter Weekend!

2009-04-19T11:40:00.009-04:00

SO.

it's been a week since last weekend and I haven't really had time to slow down since -- my apologies to those of you who have been patiently waiting for all of the fabulous details!

thursday night -- brian came with alex and i to the airport to pick up matt and several bags + 1 box (with a bike for alex and feather mattress cover for me). alex and matt crashed at my place so we could get an early-ish start so by the time we were settled and ready for sleep it was right around 2am!

the rental car people picked us up at 9am (we may have kept him waiting for a few minutes while we finished packing...) and we were on the road by 9:45am! woot.

and then... the stawamus chief. (aka the chief)

the chief is a mountain located beside the town of squamish -- about an hour past north vancouver on the sea-to-sky highway heading toward whistler.

there are 3 peaks.

we went to the second peak which is the highest. it's a 1.7 km trail (what!?) with a 700m elevation gain.

1.7 km makes it sound like a stroll-in-the-park. but it's not. i mean, it's totally do-able. but there are chains and ladders and tons of stairs along the way and we did it while carrying 45-50lbs on our backs -- we moved slowly. oh and by "we" i mean... matt, alex and myself as well as josh and dave, two of my other friends from here who came just for the hiking bit.

we left the parking lot around 11am and made it to the peak right around 1:30-2pm i think. just in time for lunch :)

(this is a view of the first peak from the second peak -- above;
and our view of Squamish -- below)

there was snow at the top... and wind. lots of wind. but the sun was shining and the views were spectacular! alex and matt decided that we should camp on the ledge that we could see about 30ft below us so they hiked around looking for a way to get there. unfortunately the way we got there led me through a giant puddle that had been covered with snow until i stepped on it... and one soaking wet shoe.

all was well though... matt let me wear his super-thick wool socks and we made some waterproofing to put on my feet outside of the wool with the storm blanket (i think that's what they called it) he'd brought along. in any case... alex's shoes got pretty much just as wet with all the digging in the snow we did to prepare places to put up tents.

so much for not going winter-camping this year. it may have been slightly warmer, but i still spent the night sleeping in a tent on the snow.

we had hot chocolate and some instant meal food stuff (purchased at mec) for dinner. mmmm. i think that i could have heated up just about anything at that point and found it delicious simply because it was warm...

we built a fire (shhh don't tell!) to try to dry our shoes but all that it did was make them smell like smoke. it was fun to have a fire anyway though... what's camping without a fire??

and then it was time for bed. oh the warmth of sleeping bags. it was a beautiful thing.

i'm not sure what time we woke up... it wasn't with the sun because the sun didn't really come out on saturday...

we opened the fly on my solo-tent (matt brought it from ontario for me to use) and squished in there together to make and eat breakfast (oatmeal). by that time my sleeping bag wasn't keeping me warm anymore so squishing 3-people into a one person tent and having hot oatmeal and hot chocolate together was like enjoying a bit of heaven. oh the warmth.

after breakfast we packed everything up in the mist and started the descent!

we fully expected that the rain would make going down much more difficult to navigate and so we'd move much slower, but it was actually MUCH easier than going up (both the section of chains AND the regular hiking section).

after we were safely on solid (non-mountain) ground, we packed up the car, I changed into cleaner and drying clothes (good thing I'd brought sandals for the drive home!) and we headed straight to North Van for some lunch at this cute place called "The Tomahawk" mmm. Then... it was back to my place for a nap, and out again for more adventuring -- to be continued!

can't breathe. too excited.

2009-04-03T12:52:00.000-04:00

http://www.sfu.ca/hellenic-studies/diggreece.html

and the circus begins...

2009-03-30T20:56:00.008-04:00

come one, come all - enjoy the show!

i've been juggling (school, work, life) since the middle of last week and the challenge only increases with each day that passes... until april 8.

after april 8th, the show will end and i'll be able to start slowing down. sort of.

this week is my final week of classes. i have two exams but they're both in-class which means that technically, i will finish this friday. yup. except that i also have two assignments due the following week (april 6th and 8th) because my professors had mercy on us and gave us all extensions. *whew*

i'm not sure how i feel about these two exams quickly approaching exams (one is on thursday, the other on friday).

the magazine publishing class that i've been taking has been interesting and very practical but the majority of the content in terms of theory and ideas has been pretty simplistic. very common-sense. the "pop quizzes" we've had have been laughable. rumour has it, the exam is written much like an extended quiz. this information does not motivate me to study.

the books, markets and readers class is where i will write my other exam. this one has been more informative. i'm not so interested in marketing, but i think that my interest in publishing in general has sustained me through this course and helped me to find value in what we have been studying there. i'm a little bit more nervous about this one. on one hand, my professor seems to be pretty laid-back and from what he's told us about the exam, it should be straight-forward enough.

however.

we've only received feedback from him as far as grades ONCE. i know that i'm excelling in the course (based on that mark and because he's told me so), but i'm still not sure what exactly he'll be looking for on the exam.

well. ok. i have a pretty good idea. but i think that... i know the abstract ideas inside and out. but i'm bad at remembering the details. and there have been a lot of details. so i'm nervous. and motivated! but studying is weird for this class. he's repeated a lot and bounced around a lot and covered 16 topics each day. as a result, i go through my notes and find it incredibly challenging to try to categorize the information and figure out where there are holes in arguments, etc.

this is what i should have been doing on sunday.

on saturday i did my homework for visions of heaven and hell. i have now read the whole of dante's inferno. and engaged with it. woot. (i'm not especially motivated to read the rest of the divine comedy yet, but someday...)

on sunday... i volunteered as a seat filler at the juno awards.

that's right. they round up roughly 500 people to go watch the juno awards for free in order for the show to look better on camera. it's not nearly so cool if it looks like there is only half of an audience, after all.

there is no guarantee that as a seat-filler, you'll actually have a seat to fill.

you show up a couple of hours prior to the start of the show where someone sticks a colourful bracelet on your wrist, writes "s" on your wrist or hand (s=seat filler, in case you lose the bracelet) and then someone else directs you to the wherever the rest of the people with the same colour bracelet are waiting.

about ten minutes before the show, everyone heads into the audience and sits as close to the front as possible in order to fill up any empy seats. i'm told that my experience was very typical so i'll just tell you what happened...

basically, i found one seat. for about 2 minutes. and then some guy came and he had a ticket for it. so i found another seat. this one i knew wouldn't last because the guy i sat beside told me that his wife would be back any minute. that's ok, my job is just to fill seats until the owners of those seats return to them. unless, of course, i'm lucky enough to find a seat that hasn't been purchased -- in which case i get to stay there for the duration of the show.

anyway. so i'm in seat #2 for a minute or two. which is about... 4-5 rows from the front. almost directly behind bryan adams. i was one seat to the left of the edge of my row, he was sitting at the edge of the row just a few rows up. front-row seating, of course. so while i sat there wondering if i'd ever been that close to someone famous (who i actually recognized -- i don't recognize many famous people because i am SO out of the pop-culture loop) before, who should walk by me, stop, and lean slightly over myself and the gentleman to my right in order to speak with someone sitting a seat or two to my left but michael buble. gah!

i didn't get all "oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness" out loud, but i was excited on the inside. i'm not sure why. i don't know or really care about any of these people. maybe it was something in the air. in any case, the buzz of celebrity was getting to me and even though i know it's ridiculous, i was still excited.

so seat #2 didn't last too long because my neighbour's wife did return to claim it quite quickly.

seat #3, however, was only another 5-6 rows back and happened to be right behind two of my friends who had also volunteered as seat-fillers. we didn't know that we'd all volunteered, but it was fun to run into each other and find out while we were there!

so i sat down in seat #3 about two minutes before they started counting down "90 seconds until showtime" . . . "60 seconds!" . . . "30 seconds left folks!"

and then there were flames and a heat wave and nickelback was singing/yelling something about something in someone's mouth. it wasn't a song i knew. and i think i probably shouldn't, but i do like nickelback. they have some pretty crappy stuff but there are a limited number of their songs that i enjoy immensely anyway. in any case, that performance was more exciting than it was entertaining or enjoyable.

oh, and seat #3? no one claimed it. ever. so i enjoyed the ENTIRE show from about 10 rows back, right beside where the awards were awarded. for free. incredible!!! seriously. our seats were fabulous.

and the performers? i have now seen (live in concert):

great big sea
sarah mclachlan
bryan adams
nickelback

(all the rest of them are apparently pretty cool -- and some of them sang songs i recognized from the radio -- but i'd never actually heard of them before)

the stills
sam roberts (this is a band, not just a person)
kathleen edwards (she duet-ed with bryan adams)
hawksley workman
eccodeck
divine brown
serena ryder
crystal shawanda
city and colour

so what else was fun and/or exciting about the juno awards, you ask?

well.

we got some free pizza at the volunteer appreciation party that happened in a tent on granville street after the show. and i won a door prize!

i won... drum roll... a makeover at sears (woohoo?) and... baby clothes. maybe the first is supposed to help me get to where i might need the second? or not. in any case, the outfits really are adorable and i have a number of pregnant friends at the moment so i'm sure they'll come in handy for shower gifts or something. there was also a keith urban dvd -- too bad your birthday just passed, rach! you'll have to wait 'til christmas now ;)

BUT that's not all. i've saved the most hilarious event of the evening for last -- it's like a prize for those of you who are still reading (seriously -- i commend you!).

mckinley and juanito and i were making our way through to the other side of gm place in order to meet blair (who'd been randomly assigned a seat) but we stopped to take a quick bathroom break on the way. i'll preface the rest of this story with a quick note -- we were walking through the volunteer/media/star hallway so there were famous faces all around at this point. not in large quantities, but we'd seen probably about every 3rd or 4th person we passed on stage or up for nomination at some point over the course of the show.

anyway. so mckinley and i wander into the women's washroom because, well, we're women.

and who should wander out of one of the stalls at the precise moment in time but... some random guy. who we both recognized. which gives him quasi-famous status.

he looked at us, looked around, looked at us... "is this the women's washroom?"

"yes. yes it is." (that was me)

"really? i mean, that makes sense... i was wondering why there weren't any urinals."

we both just kind of looked at him at this point.

"well. this IS awkward. my daughter is waiting outside and she'll love this. Do you think it's alright if i wash my hands before i leave?"

we assured him that it was and giggled as we all went our separate ways.

mckinley filled me in today -- the quasi-famous man we met in the ladies' room was TSN's michael landsberg. http://www.tsn.ca/shows/otr/

fun times, fun times.

so that was my weekend.

homework saturday, junos on sunday... and there will be nothing but juggling (read: studying and homework-ing between sleep and work) for me from now until april 8th. oh, april 8th. how i long for thee.

muchos love friends!

belated birthday

2009-03-20T02:57:00.000-04:00

i have too many thoughts tonight to be able to write anything that is actually coherent... but i'll do my best to paint you a picture of my world anyway...

school. today we handed in a business plan for SPARKY* -- a kids pet magazine. by we, i mean the group i was working with all semester in my magazine publishing course. our business plan looks fantastic. we spent a lot of time pulling it all together this weekend but it's done. out of our hands now. it was a weird process though. not bad, just weird. so many ideas and pieces of the puzzle to try to arrange to make it happen... it's kind of fun being able to watch as the pieces connect and come together to form something whole.

visions of heaven and hell has been interesting. i've loved some of our readings but am a little disappointed in the dialogue. it feels like chris is pulling teeth every week just to get people to talk about the texts... i miss last semester where there were always talkers... and usually those talkers thought about what they were going to say so it was good... intelligent and challenging. i miss the depth and the authenticity... the passion for discovery and learning. i am learning... but i suppose i feel both like i'm learning alone (though there are exceptions in a few of my classmates who are equally as hungry to dialogue and figure out our readings together) and i'm sad for the rest of my class who aren't engaging as much. it feels like a waste. i just don't understand how anyone can be apathetic about these ideas, these questions... bah. it's not so bad. really. i am still learning and we are still dialoguing -- it's just not of the same calibre as faith and reason. i hope to experience a class like that at least once more before i graduate. *fingers crossed*

having fun lately too. i didn't sleep much last weekend... relay for life went all through the night on friday and saturday didn't end until early on sunday too... but it's good. it's fun to be out and about. seeing new bands, having good conversations... grocery shopping.

oh and on wednesday, i slept over at jane's place. we went to white spot for dinner (so yummy) with sandra and then rented three movies that we never watched... which was totally ok because we watched "sense and sensibility" instead. 100 points to whoever can tell me what other classic novel ends with the a surprise,

"how's mrs. ___?"

"my mother is fine"

"i meant your wife"

"what? oh no. you've been mistaken. mrs. ___ married my brother instead" which of course leaves prince charming miraculously single and thrilled to be able to marry the girl he fell in love with at the start of the movie (or book).

i swear i've never seen or read sense and sensibility but i've seen (or read) that ending before. so strange! so -- for real -- if you know of the other book that has an ending just like that (where the "other girl" marries the brother of the male hero so that even though the female heroine has been terribly upset by the thought that the hero she loves has married someone else, she eventually finds out that he's actually still single and very much in love with her...) you absolutely must remind me of which one it is. this is going to drive me crazy forever. or until i figure it out.

in other news.

i've been dreaming lately.

greece... is quickly approaching. it seems so surreal, but it's like... it's starting to sink in that it might actually happen. really and truly. four months. four whole months. i think about it and i can't breathe for a few seconds while the wave of anticipation washes over me. greece. september. whoa.

and now... it's time for bed. much love friends.

drugs currently in my system...

2009-03-09T14:47:00.003-04:00

strepsils medicated throat lozenges (honey and lemon)
to ease the excruciating pain resonating from my throat. i've been downing these since yesterday and even though they don't seem to be working, i keep trying anyway.

extra strength tylnol

originally to help with the fever and headache i had on saturday. now i just keep taking them because whenever i stop the headache returns. oh. this is also supposed to help my throat, but no such luck so far.

penicillin

the doctor at the walk-in thinks i may have strep throat. it's not for sure yet, but she gave me the prescription to start right away anyway. i've done that because i'm thinking that even if i don't have strep throat, maybe the fact that i believe these drugs will help will cause them to have a placebo effect. either way, the pain stops and i'm happy. still too early to know if it's working.

brandy and honey

this was a 'homemade recipe' suggested to me by jason, my roomie's boyfriend. he said that it always works for him. minus the honey. it was definitely warm and soothing for a few minutes... the initial warmth has mostly worn off now, but i'm also hoping the alcohol kicks in soon and helps me to sleep.

and on that note. i'm going to go drink more water and get some rest. or try to anyway. pray for me and/or wish me luck!

VIMFF!

2009-03-01T14:53:00.004-05:00

so last night was incredible. i have no words.

actually, i think i was rendered speechless at least twice.

which is quite the feat, i might add.

For those of you who don't know or care, VIMFF = Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.

i was supposed to go on tuesday night to see the paddling shows buuut I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get there in time after class and then the Outdoors Club decided to have a pub night and even when I'd decided to go on Tuesday, I was still having difficult deciding between that night or Saturday night (yesterday) which was the finale!

Lucky for me, Ivan (online ticket guy / host) was kind enough to transfer my tickets to another night and I ended up going to the Outdoors Club social on Tuesday AND the VIMFF last night.

One of the shows from Tuesday night won the Jury Award and it makes me sad because I'd still really like to see that show -- if only I could figure out how to get myself to Squamish next weekend to see the tour!

ANYWAY. I'm still glad that Saturday worked out -- the main show was a mixture of photos and video shots narrated live by the climber, Alex Huber.

Wow.

Seriously. This guy is like... crazy!!! He climbs things without ropes. High things. Like mountains. He practices first and only does the climbing without a rope after he's confident that he can do it... which I suppose makes him slightly less crazy... but only slightly.

BUT he's got some AMAZING images to go along with his stories and he was a fantastic speaker. SO passionate about what he does!! He would start describing the mountains and it was like... like he was discovering them for the first time every time he thought about them. I thought it was cute, but Brian told me that that probably wasn't what he was going for...

His awe and wonder for those mountains was inspiring. And he kept sharing about his passion for creating "memorable moments" or "colourful pages in the book of his memories" by making even easy climbs as difficult as possible (this is apparently done by doing insane things like crossing from one peak to another via slackline rather than just walking... or by solo free-climbing them without a rope - which means to do it without any kind of assistance or equipment).

Anyway. Whenever he talked about memorable moments he'd get all giggly like a little kid (and he's 40 years old) and because he's German, his accent would get in the way a little...

So. I don't care. It was cute. But also awe-inspiring and amazing and terrifying and beautiful.

And then it ended late. Really late. And neither of us had looked up bus times for the trip home (well, I had... but not for bus times at midnight because I had expected the show to end much, much earlier)

So. We got on one bus, realized it wouldn't take us to Phibbs Exchange, and promptly got off. Only to find out that the Phibbs Exchange bus wasn't running anymore. And then while we were talking with a gas-station guy about what bus could get us to Vancouver (because he swore that the sea-bus wouldn't be running anymore either) we missed another bus that would actually have gotten us to the sea bus in time.

Basically, to make this long story short, we missed about four buses and ended up walking around in the rain for three hours... we eventually caught the LAST night bus to Vancouver followed by the second-to-last N35 which got us to our respective homes (cold and wet, but still friends) right around 3am. Whew.

So. VIMFF... definitely a worthwhile outing!

Note to self regarding next year though... Look up the bus schedules in greater detail to ensure that we actually know how to get home once its over.

i had a crappy week.

2009-02-23T00:52:00.003-05:00

and it wasn't even that bad in terms of events. actually, some really good things happened this week.

it was more just my state of being. i felt like crap.

and i mean, i'm a girl who has a tendency to get all emotionally retarded sometimes -- this i know. but this week was particularly bad.

i'm hard on myself sometimes, but i generally have a healthy enough self-esteem that i can work through the differences between conviction or healthy discontent and the lies that we sometimes feel like the world is shouting at us -- but this week i felt attacked and alone and totally incapable of ignoring those lies that kept running through my head.

but i'm not alone.

and truth matters. Truth matters.

so i'm listening. and i'm learning. and this week is over.

and for those of you who spent any amount of face (or phone, if you live in ontario) time with me this week -- thanks. for putting up with this temporarily insane and generally less fun version of me.

18...

2009-02-20T15:14:00.003-05:00

that's how old i was the last time i fit into this cute brown skirt that is hanging up in my closet. if you're a girl, you'll know what i'm talking about. those one or two items of clothing that you keep around as something of a reminder of what used to be and a goal of what you'd like to be again...

anyway.

so i'm getting ready to go to a wedding reception after class tonight.

trying on everything i own. the pants i wanted to wear are too big right now, which i guess is a good thing.

so i found an outfit. it's ok. and then the skirt caught my eye.

so i figured, what the heck? it's already been a less-than-fabulous week. might as well see how close or far i am from that long-term goal.

and you know what.

it almost fits.

i mean, it's a bit snug and i could still lose 10 lbs for it to fit properly... but i got it on and all zipped up and could walk and sit and move around and everything! hurrah! of course, it's very very likely that it was too big for me when i bought it at 18. almost all of my clothes were too big for me at that age. the point is, i couldn't even get that skirt on after tyndale and that was 5-ish years ago. so this is good.

and the sun? is still out. the result... i'm feeling better today. and i needed to blog about it even though that wedding? i should be getting ready for it right now instead of writing this. now i've got to go rush and finish getting ready or i'll be late for class. *sigh*

ps. greece in the fall. is so happening.

Zits. The comic.

2009-02-17T13:27:00.003-05:00

I loved this one. So I decided to share.

25 Random Things (aka Following the Crowd...)

2009-02-01T15:08:00.001-05:00

So normally I really detest these list-type posts. I posted one not-so-long ago (a few months?) I think. It was a list of 100 things I want to do before I die. And here I go again...

Oh! And in case you're wondering, I understand that it's a facebook bandwagon I'm jumping on, but I'm posting here because this is where I blog. And it'll show up on facebook too. My motivation for jumping on this particular bandwagon? I've been tagged in a whole bunch of these notes which leads me to believe that there are at least a few people who might get a kick out of reading my list.

And it begins:

1. I hate following the crowd, but I hate making decisions about what the crowd should do even more.

2. I'm a little bit crazy. But I think it works for me.

3. I love people. Especially new ones. One of my favourite things in the world to do is attempt to figure out what makes someone tick; to learn what it is that they are most passionate about. To recognize that thing because when you ask about it, the individual's face lights up and s/he breathlessly starts telling you all about it as if there was nothing more important or exciting on the planet.

4. I value Truth more than anything else in the world.

5. I value authenticity almost as much as I value Truth.

6. I think that most people perceive me as being confident. But I almost never am.

7. I think it's important to do the things that you dream about doing even if it means taking risks and/or overcoming fears. Fear should never be an excuse to stop pursuing dreams. Big or small. I think that this has been one of the most rewarding lessons of my life.

8. I am most afraid of being alone. I think that this is closely linked to my other biggest fear -- being boring.

9. I am also afraid of heights, things in the dark, and of falling down the stairs.

10. My favourite author of fiction is Orson Scott Card. I think that everyone should read Ender's Game before they die.

11. My favourite author of non-fiction... Right now... is Blaise Pascal. I don't know if everyone should read his Pensees, but I certainly love it.

12. I love chocolate, but only the real stuff. I don't particularly like chocolate-flavoured things like cake or ice cream.

13. I love ice cream. Except the plain chocolate kind. See #12. I don't think I could turn it down though, because ice cream in general is a weakness for me that I've given up trying to overcome. I am my father's daughter.

14. I love driving. Especially standards. Like my dad's Honda Civic.

15. I worked as a pizza delivery girl in Australia for a few weeks and I found it incredibly exciting because it meant that I got to drive on the other side of the road. They even gave me a standard car once. Whee!

16. I love taking pictures. Of everything. Really.

17. I am very easily excited. Things like random signs on the side of the road or sunshine in January or taking the bus in Toronto can lead to a very excited (bouncing off the walls) Shannon very very quickly.

18. My favourite thing to do is have an engaging conversation. The real kind. Intense and deep and honest.

19. I have no sense of balance.

20. I also have no sense of rythm.

21. I love to explore and to travel. I think this is partly because exploring and travelling often combine two of my other favourite activities -- meeting new people and trying new things.

22. I don't really have a favourite colour. But today I love green and dark red, like rust. Only prettier.

23. One of my dreams is to hitchhike somewhere. Not just across town... but like... across Canada. Or something. Don't worry mom, I wouldn't do it by myself.

24. Since August 2007 and for the rest of the forseeable future, I will be attached to a machine for almost 24 hrs/day and that machine will be what's keeping me alive. I say almost 24 hrs/day, because I unattach myself whenever I shower or go swimming.

25. I wear contacts and I love them because having peripheral vision is way-cool. Plus, they don't fog up when it's cold outside and I can wear them under a mask when I'm snorkeling or scuba diving to see fishes instead of blobs under water.

The end.

Climbing = Pain

2009-01-28T08:53:00.000-05:00

Not that I didn't love it, because I did. (see last post).

Brian told me that I would probably use some muscles that I don't use very much.

I think what he meant was "You will probably use ~~some muscles~~ every muscle above your waist that you ~~don't use very much~~ didn't even know you had. And you'll know it tomorrow because you won't be able to use any of them without experiencing immense pain."

*I do recognize that you're supposed to learn to put more of your weight on your legs, and (as I explained in the last post) this is something that I was attempting to figure out. In the process, however, my arms and hands were depended upon (a lot) to move around, balance and stay attached to the wall.

PS I still want to go again. I just also want some advil.

Climbing!!

2009-01-28T02:10:00.003-05:00

I went climbing today!!!

It was fantastic!

My hands hurt. A lot.

But it was fun and challenging and the people I went with were soooo friendly and helpful! There was one that I tried twice and I did better the second time, but still couldn't get to the top... I like that I have a goal now. I need to make it the top. It gives me an excuse to go again.

Things to work on first... balance on my feet in order to use my hands and arms less. And bouldering. That's where you climb without a rope, but also it's different because you do use your arms a lot more. And there's a giant mat on the ground to soften the fall.

Anyway. It was fun. I think... I want to go again. Soon.

moving

2009-01-10T03:37:00.002-05:00

moving furniture, that is. not my place of residence.

bah.

instead of reading tonight, which was my original (and probably much better) plan, i spent the last five hours taking apart my loft bed (because it sold in less than a day on craigslist - woot) and re-arranging my room to fit the rest of my things.

my original plan was to sell my desk with the bed, but the people buying the bed don't want the desk so i'm sort of stuck with it for now. i think, actually, it'll fit rather well. so maybe it's a good thing i'm stuck with it.

i do need to purchase myself an extension cord, however. suggestions on where to buy cheap (but long, and with a space for three-pronged plugs) extension cords?

oh. and i have this uber-bright orange and yellow flowered sheet that is almost exactly the same width as the wall which was previously hidden by my bookshelf. so i hung it up and now i have an uber-bright orange and yellow flowered wall. hurrah!

pictures to follow.

after i buy the extension cord and get the last of the random things i own nicely stowed away.

and after i get my homework done too. i've been procrastinating this week. i hope it's not a foreshadowing of what's to come, but rather just a result of first-week-back-at-school-visits with all the friends i haven't seen in a while.

writing...

2009-01-10T00:29:00.002-05:00

wow, it's been a while!

either my life is way less interesting and/or dramatic or... i just have less shareable thoughts about it. maybe it's a bit of both.

i took a picture of a gas station in caledonia while i was at home but i took it with my parents' camera. when they send it to me (*cough* dad *cough*), i'll post it. it's quite exciting, this picture. stay tuned to find out why.

also.

home was good. it was really good.

i'm slowly coming to the realization that while i have a whole ton of people i really love to see when i go home... there are only a few friends i've really made the effort to keep in touch with. what that means, is that this month in ontario was way less busy and stressful because as long as i was able to spend some quality time with those few closer friends, all the rest was just gravy.

instead of running myself to death trying to catch up with every single person i know, i spend most nights at home with my parents playing cards or watching movies.

i did enjoy going to visit my great aunt and uncle in gravenhurst with tim and matt, and of course visiting my grandparents up past north bay with gloria. sigh. how i love the snow. and northern ontario. for visiting anyway.

i've learned that snowshoeing is fun, but it's much scarier than hiking in the summer. for one thing, the trail is way harder to see, the moving is much slower, and when you know the sun's going down soon and you're unsure if you've already passed the fork in the trail where you were supposed to head back to the parking lot which may mean that your three kilometre hike is turning into nine kilometres which would be very very very bad and while there is one cell phone among the three of you, there are no useful numbers on it and almost no battery and and and... lucky for tim and matt, i was able to keep most of my freaking out on the inside. just.

but snowshoeing is still fun. i want to try it again. with more cell phones, maps, and maybe a few gps's and/or compasses. oh, and a better fitting coat.

i also learned that while gloria and i still have very little in common, we can stay friends because we both have quality time as a love language... thus, we give each other oodles of time and both end up feeling well-loved. it's a beautiful thing. oh, and our differences make us stronger and all that.

anyway. i don't have too many thoughts on the rest of my adventures in ontario. maybe i will later, but probably not. there are pictures on facebook that tell the rest of the stories i think.

what else?

it's that time again. school!

so far, so good. i have no exams again which makes me excited. well. i do have exams, but they're both in class, which just means that i'll finish early again. still exciting.

i have profs who are all fairly interesting and excited about the topics they're teaching. they all appear to be decent communicators too. woot!

i feel like...

i'm just rambling.

i miss having something to say. i do care about what's going on in my life, and i really feel like i've been learning a lot lately. i just don't know if i can put words to everything that's been running through my head.

maybe i'll try again soon.

much love friends!

72.5

2008-12-10T15:26:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I drove home from Hamilton and put $15 of gas into my dad's car.

It filled 3/4 of the tank.

I paid 72.5 cents/litre.

This afternoon when I was walking with my mom, the price in town was down to 71.6 cents/litre.

When I graduated from Tyndale (4.5 years ago), gas was 77 cents/litre.

John the Bus-Driver

2008-12-07T20:09:00.002-05:00

my bus driver to seattle is so cute.

he's this old man, short and round and absolutely hilarious.

i sat in the very front seat of the bus because the drive to seattle is beautiful and i wanted the window-view. john, like most bus driver's i've met, likes to tell stories to the person sitting in the front seat. *grin*

i've heard about his current partner - greg - who is "so clean, he scares me sometimes!" and his partner hans, from two partners ago, who was kind of a jerk. john's been driving for this company for 18 years.

he likes the company -- for their christmas party this year, everyone got to stay in a huge suite-style hotel room!

john also likes riding his motorcycle -- he's got a trike.

he organizes a big ride every september and has made friends with the owner of the mariot hotel just on the other side of bellingham. this year, there were so many people coming out to "john's ride" that they needed to rent out 74 rooms.

his son has a harley, he likes them because they keep their value. he bought a harley trike hoping tha this wife would ride with him more, but she still doesn't like it much.

his son and daughter-in-law ride too though, they love it. he wasn't sure that his daughter-in-law would be up to it, but she's great. in fact, he's "her bitch" now. you have no idea how hard it was not to laugh when he told me that.

anyway.

so i'm enjoying john my story-telling, veggie-eating, motorcycle-riding, bus-driver.

shuttle-ing

2008-12-07T17:45:00.000-05:00

who knew that the quick shuttle from vancouver to seattle was going to have so many perks -- among them, free wi-fi for the entire trip (or until my laptop battery dies...)!

seriously. for those of you thinking about taking advantage of the drastically cheaper flights from seattle or bellingham (rather than vancouver), getting to those airports via quick shuttle is definitely a worthwhile endeavour.

where greyhound costs $33 from several vancouver locations to seattle (downtown), quick shuttle is only slightly more (if you're a student and you purchase your ticket over the internet, it's $41) and not only do they take you right to the seattle airport, they also have an easy-to-get-to pick up point (vancouver airport or downtown at howe and helmken which is where i got on) AND now this -- free internet access on the bus. cool, hey?

now... if only i had something that i actually wanted to write about, i could use this time for blogging.

but i don't.

oh. except as a side note, i do recommend trying not to book a 1:30pm shuttle from howe and helmken on the same day as vancouver's santa clause parade which takes place on howe and begins at 1pm. oi-vey. i felt like part of the parade as i wandered about a km up howe st with luggage in tow, looking something akin to a homeless person (partly because i didn't brush my hair today and i'm wearing my most comfortable--and worst-looking--clothes).

so enjoy this exciting tidbit of information regarding transit from vancouver to seattle and have yourselves a beautiful sunday afternoon (or evening, if you're reading this in ontario).

much love friends.

feelin' like home

2008-12-02T20:48:00.005-05:00

i'm emotional today.

i know, i know... surprise, surprise. as per usual. what else is new? same old, same old.

honestly though, it's exhausting being an emotional basket case who, try as hard as i may, is completely unable to hide anything i'm thinking or feeling from the rest of the world.

that said, emotions aren't evil, and most of mine are actually quite positive... but still. exhausting.

first... there's the freedom that students experience when coming to the realization that every spare moment is just that -- spare. without need of being filled or used efficiently.

it's part of the general winding down of another semester. it comes right alongside the post-traumatic stress. that weird nagging feeling that there's something else you could be -- should be -- doing, when really, there's not (that whole freedom thing, it takes a while to feel real. something like a dream that's just too good to be true).

i will say, however, that i have already finished one reading-for-fun novel. i started it on monday after handing in my last paper (since my next big deal was the exam the following monday which i knew i wouldn't need to start studying for until at least friday...). and i finished it on thursday.

it was called Farewell Anatolia and it was a story about a Greek guy living in Turkey prior to and during WWI when there was a lot of stuff going down between Greece and Turkey. fun fun fun. my biggest concern right now, is what do i read next!?

then, as has been recorded too many times already in the last few posts... there's this anxiety about letting go of some fabulous pub-nights and conversations and friendships... but i won't go there in this post because you're all well aware of my joy in having experienced such stellar courses this semester and my grief at letting them go...

and then there's a bit of worry... i'm going home for FOUR weeks. which is fantastic. buuut, it means i'm also not working for four weeks. and you know, there's still rent to pay. however... god's already providing, so this emotion, at least, is waning once more.

and then, the most overwhelming of my emotions... is confusion. is confusion even an emotion, or just a state of mind? whatever.

right now... i want to visit my family and friends in ontario. but did you read that? i said, visit. it feels like i'm visiting. not only that, but there's this weird thing that has quickly become a consistent theme at sfu... i know people.

seriously.

it's like... i remember a year or two ago being ecstatic when i ran into someone i knew from class, outside of class. it almost never happened. because i only knew like 12 people, and half of them weren't even sfu students.

now, not a day (or even an hour) goes by on either campus where i don't run into someone i know from a class or church or ucm or one of many workplaces or what-have-you. do you know what that means?

it means, i live here.

it's just a part of what i've missed about my little town in ontario where you couldn't go for groceries or tim horten's or anything without running into a friend or two or ten... but it's a good part. it's weird how much of a difference it makes to know people. there is so much meaning in connecting.

two minute conversations with the friend who is also waiting in line at renaissance between classes, the nods as you pass by a familiar face in the hall, the random decisions to actually stop and spend a real chunk of time catching up with someone you haven't spoken to in a while... meeting friends for breakfast (almost) every tuesday at 8:30 because you decided that your friendship should carry on past the end of the semester two semesters ago. going for walks a few times a week with the girl around the corner because, who knew, you actually became pretty good friends in the year and a half you lived together. leaving for langley two hours early so you can have coffee with a girl you met in the summer... which means friends exist even in the outer-regions of the lower mainland ;) walking your boss's dog at night and randomly meeting a co-worker also out for an evening stroll... also in the outer-regions of the lower mainland. crashing the physics undergrad lounge to write a paper because you need people around and you know someone who knows the code to get into that lounge. knowing the grad student in the room next door who is willing to lend you the key to the (closed) office for some espresso in order to stay awake to write that paper. knowing that at 2:30 on tuesdays there will be someone at the pub to chat with. and that there will be more people to chat with at 7:30 on tuesdays and thursdays. and most monday's too. (i know, i know -- you've heard this before too!)

so it's weird, you see. because i've never gone home and missed bc while i was there. and i'm not home yet, and maybe i'll be too busy to miss bc when i am. but there's that potential today, and even the potential of missing this place is new. and a little bit strange. and i don't know what to do with it.

so.

i feel like home.

because on one hand... i'm looking forward to going home. and on the other, i'm starting to feel like i'm already there.

closing time... every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end... right?

2008-11-26T02:10:00.003-05:00

so tonight... after class... i was almost in tears.

now, it could have had something to do with the fact that last night i slept 9 hours after having been awake for 38.

but mostly, i think i really am just saddened at the fact that this semester, and specifically this class, is drawing to an end. by this class... i mean my faith and reason class.

it's just everything about it. the material we've been reading has been so interesting and challenging and inspiring and exciting.

the conversations have been meaningful and real.

the people. i am going to miss the people.

i love people. love them. friendships and dialogue. by the second half of the semester, i was hanging out at the pub before and after class on tuesdays because the conversations were just. that. good.

and i hate goodbyes.

and next semester... there's another class. and i was looking forward to it. and maybe i still am. but it seems that because there aren't a lot of humanities students taking it, chris is going to teach it in the fall again and the people who actually WERE going to take it are now considering just waiting it out until there's a better crowd... and it makes me sad.

what happens if all these new, non-humanities type students are uninterested and not engaged -- what if no one else comes to the pub??

*sigh*

and. if i go to greece in the fall, it's not like i can just post-pone the course until then like everyone else.

so it makes me sad. the end of this semester. it almost feels like the end of tyndale all over again. it was that good.

however. christmas is coming and with it christmas break. bring it on!

bloggable.

2008-11-15T02:56:00.004-05:00

i have no words.

so much is going on in my world right now, but i can't really write about it. it's not like there's anything secret or especially new... but i just don't know how to place where i'm at.

i love the classes that are about to be over. the only thing that keeps me from being incredibly depressed about the end of this semester, is the intensely exciting prospect of another fantastic class next semester.

all of the people who i love to dialogue with, the people who challenge me by their honest quests for truth and meaning and answers... those are the people who are also taking this course. it's like the best of both classes combined. plus a friend from church who i think will only add to the fun.

work is still incredible. it seems unreal to earn money at a job that i love while working with a great group of people in such an amazing atmosphere. i have opportunities to feel useful and to learn and to be doing something that has meaning and purpose. and pay for rent in the process. how many students can say that? (i know that i'm not the only one, but i still feel pretty darn blessed).

and still...

something feels off this week and i can't put my finger on it. i hate that.

i also hate having thoughts that words can't articulate. bah.

dozy

2008-11-13T04:48:00.005-05:00

i love words. and writing.

usually i like things that i'm good at, things that come easily to me.

words come easy most of the time, but not writing.

writing is so much more than words. it's thinking and processing and dialogue.

in high school english classes they always taught us to come up with our thesis first, and then to fill up the paragraphs with reasons for why the thesis is true. i can't do that. i always come up with a tentative thesis, but i almost always change my mind at least once or twice or seven times before i finish. so my real thesis? i always write it last.

that's why i like writing.

i like it because if i read something that is outside of the context of a narrative, i can't remember it. i have a hard time really thinking about it. until i have to write about it.

writing about them forces me to retain the things that i read or think about, and it forces me to consider, wonder, engage. dialogue. learn.

that's something else that i discovered not so recently. i learn best through dialogue. writing is just one way for me to do that. so is conversation. i like both, but i prefer the latter.

and another thing...

structure. i love it.

i love language because it makes sense. it's not the beauty of it that i love, and i am horrible at remembering vocabulary. it's the rules. the grammar. the structure of language. that's what draws me in.

i do well in school. i don't think that i'm exceptionally intelligent, in fact, i walk away from my faith and reason class feeling mostly stupid almost every week because i can't even articulate what i think in my head, and it only gets worse if i try to articulate those unarticulated thoughts outloud. but there's structure. i get a syllabus and i manage my time well because time can be planned and mapped out and organized. i can write papers, not because i have good ideas (because really, i don't. this is not modesty, it's the truth. i cannot come up with ideas to save my life -- it takes hours of conversation and thinking and stress for me to decide what to write about). where was i? oh yes. papers. i can write papers because papers are structured. they flow. the ideas need to connect and make sense and stay consistent.

and it's not all just me + structure = success. mostly it's only because god helps me out with things like security and provision and fulfillment and purpose that i can even survive. but structure is also my friend. this is something that i realized last week, i think. when i was talking to my prof on the way home from the pub.

and there you have it. i like words and writing and structure. though really, i'm sure none of this is news to any of you who know me even just a little. i think usually when we have epiphanies about ourselves, we're the only ones who are ever surprised by our findings. for the record, the only epiphany here was the structure thing. i already knew i liked words and writing.

Thoughts on Pascal and Predestination

2008-10-25T15:21:00.005-04:00

Nothing I've read in Pascal actually has anything to do with predestination, but at work yesterday Bonny and Darren and I spent some time talking through different views and ideas about predestination and the implications of those ideas.

Some of the implications of a belief in predestination (which I am still a little confused about since people can mean different things when they use that word -- it's very much a linguistic problem where our language (or at least my capacity to use it) is totally incapable of fully articulating the whole picture of beliefs about this sort of thing) ANYWAY.

Where am I going?

I think that... God is all-powerful. I think that he chooses to allow us an element of choice. I think that God chose to die for everyone. I think God chooses everyone. So he gives everyone a choice about whether or not they will recognize their need for him. I think that he already knows all of the choices that I have made and will ever make because he is outside of time. I do not think that that diminishes or takes away from the idea that I was and am still free to make those choices. I also believe that God can and does use people regardless of whether or not they choose to be used. I believe that God can and does direct us in such a way that we can be at times (for lack of a better word) manipulated such that the consequences of making the "wrong" choice are so drastic that it seems as though we really don't have much choice after all. I have no problem with this because I also think that God is Good. Good with a capital G.

(side note: all of the thoughts above are things that I'm still working through. My theology remains a work-in-progress so I'm not claiming any of this - at this point - as statements about what is True, but rather about my current understanding of that Truth. Plus, more of that would probably be clearer within the context of the aforementioned conversation at work).

So predestination? I don't know... But I think there is less fog in my mind when I think about it now. Which is fun.

Which brings me to Pascal.

Pascal says over and over and over again that faith is a gift from God. He says that you cannot have faith without God's intervention because reason won't take you there, and neither will any other human faculty. This is a sovereignty of God question, I think. But he never says that, so who really knows.

The problem is that Pascal also writes about how everything in nature points to the wretchedness and helpless of man without God. He says that those who do not recognize man's unhappy state without God have weak minds.

So if a weak mind doesn't recognize God, doesn't it follow that a mind that isn't weak does recognize man's need for God? Which implies faith... which was attained by way of reason... which contradicts one of his biggest arguments... the whole, faith only comes from God thing.

So can all of it be true? Can nature and reason both point to God and never get us there? Or is belief in God not the same thing as faith? Or is it that nature and reason pointing to God is a part of how God gives us faith? Or are all minds weak until they are strengthened/illuminated by God's intervention?

today

2008-10-18T01:14:00.001-04:00

a boy called me. a normal, attractive, male member of society. we talked on the phone for almost one hour. and he still wants to spend time with me.

gah.

It's a bird, it's a plane... It's another one of my novels!

2008-10-15T01:27:00.003-04:00

So, there’s no access to the real world from this place at all... which means you’ll read all about my weekend all at once. I’ll try to write daily, more for myself than for you – I don’t want to forget any of the details.

Day 1 – Oct 9

The alarm goes off at 5am, and I’m almost on the bus by 6:58. I say almost, because it stopped a little further from the curb than usual thus resulting in me completely missing the step and falling into the bus – bags first – planting a lovely (read: large and painful) bruise on my left shin. Fun times.

I got off at the wrong stop... but managed to find my connecting stop before the bus got there after some frantic “running” around (with two relatively large bags – one filled with layers of clothing and homework, the other with my diving gear).

My excuse is that I wasn’t fully awake. The day did improve though!

I was an hour early for the ferry (on purpose, since the bus got there at 7:20 or 8:20 and the ferry was leaving at 8:30...) which allowed me to grab some breakfast and relax... and do some reading! I don’t think I’ll be getting much homework done this weekend. Definitely not as much as I’d hoped. I’m already exhausted and it hasn’t even really started yet!

Anyhoo. The ferry was fun!

I planted myself by a giant window at the front and was joined by an older gentleman who saw my textbook on Paul and proceeded to grill me with questions... first about Paul, and then about my (apparently unfounded and completely absurd) belief in the Trinitarian nature of God.

He finally decided that he needed to go to the bathroom, so I started to write again on my laptop (I’d been doing that when he joined me). After a few seconds, however, I realized that the guy behind me had a video camera out, so I asked him what he was taping.

“Didn’t you see the dolphins? There were HUNDREDS of them!!”

Nope. I was too busy doing homework to notice the hundreds of dolphins that we’d apparently just passed. In any case, this German guy was sitting with another German guy (both of them in their late-40s I think) and a younger Canadian guy. They all seemed friendly and not in the mood to argue, so I leapt at the chance to avoid more confrontational debating with the guy who was still at the bathroom and invited myself to move back one table to participate in their conversation about dolphins... and hunting bears.

The younger guy’s name was John. John lives in North Burnaby but was headed to Nanaimo for work that day. John was friendly. In his twenties. He likes hiking. So do I. This came up in conversation. And then John asked me if I’d like to go hiking... sometime... with him. I was a little hesitant after my last adventure with the random sky train guy, but John had been happily chatting with two older German men before I joined them so at least I know he’s capable of having a conversation that he doesn’t intend to follow with a kiss. Anyway, I gave him my phone number and promised myself that if he calls, he’ll have to be willing to hang out with me in a group or at least in a public place a couple times before any wilderness walking ever takes place (unless he wants to hike with me and my friends).

I arrived in Nanaimo at 10:15am-ish and had no trouble at all finding John (the diving guy) in the parking lot. First stop... his buddy’s place so he could sign some paperwork and buy a winnebago. Then we picked up the cook. Zach.

*checking over shoulder to ensure that Zach is currently pre-occupied with cooking or cutting firewood or something and will not be reading this...*

Zach is my favourite part of this trip so far. He’s twenty-something, from the maritimes (hence, very friendly and polite) and also fun to look at it. He thinks that most religion is the result of some kind of conspiracy theory. He’s also planning on buying 65 acres in New Brunswick and building his own house. He wants to get by. He doesn’t want to have a lot of stuff. He just wants to plant some sugar maples as an investment, to rent out some of his acreage for farming, and do a bit of farming himself. But not cows or goats because then you can never leave. He’s going to put an offer in on a particular spot at the end of this week, actually.

Oh, and I should be careful when walking around the cabins (the ‘resort’ is three cabins and some other small building – all floating on a large “dock” which means it’s totally surrounded by water. Close to some land, but only accessible by boat. Are you understanding the reasons behind the lack of communication with the world yet? We’re talking ISOLATION here!) Anyway – I should be careful because it’s slippery and he will jump in the ocean to save me, but he’d prefer not to.

Ok so back to Day 1.

We pick up Zach.

Then we go back to John’s place where he has some more things to do before we leave. 4.5 hours worth of things to do apparently.

Zach and I are fairly well acquainted now. 4.5 hours worth of one-on-one getting acquainted.

We left for Port Hardy around 4:30pm and arrived around 11:00pm. It’s only about a 4-4.5 hour drive, but we stopped for groceries at Campbell River and a couple of times for coffee and bathroom breaks too, of course.

I slept for the last two hours. On Zach’s shoulder. Because the truck? Is just a small truck with three seats – the driver’s seat, the regular passenger seat, and that awkward seat in the middle. What a shame.

Upon arriving at Port Hardy, we emptied all of the stuff into John’s boat and then drove it over to his buddy’s boat where we crashed for the night since it would have been too dangerous and slow to go to the Hideaway (cabins) before the sun came up in the morning.

And so it was, the first day and the first night.

Day 2 – Oct 10

It’s only 12:47 of day two, so there’s not much to say at this point.

We woke up at 6:16 and left for the cabins at 6:45 just before the sun started to rise. When the sun did rise, however, it was incredible. The mist and the islands and the water... a few clouds here and there... and the colours. So far today I’ve seen some river otters and lots of heron. No dolphins yet, but we’re going for a dive this afternoon as soon as John returns with the people who are paying to be here.

He left around 9am promising to be back between 11:30-12 and gave Zach and I instructions to tidy up, make the beds, put away the rest of the food and other supplies we’d brought from Nanaimo and otherwise make ourselves at home. Zach’s been the cook here since August so he knows the ropes and promptly ordered me to sit down and enjoy a coffee with him as soon as John left. We were finished tidying and preparing for everyone by 11am and since then Zach’s given me the “grand tour” and started preparing lunch and dinner (dinner will be some kind of chowder, so he’s got everything all chopped up just waiting to be heated) while I attempted to complete some more homework.

This place is funny.

It’s in a beautiful spot, and the cabins are nice – but you can tell it’s run by a man and only a man. I swear he must be dutch too. There’s junk EVERYWHERE. The vacuum is probably older than I am by 10 years or more. It’s cute though, it has character. And I love that the main cabin (where I’ll be staying with John and Zach) is heated by a wood stove. Mmm. Love that smell of burning wood.

Oh and it’s sunny. It was supposed to rain today, but I assured both John and Zach that it would be sunny because it has to be sunny today. It’s my first opportunity to dive here, after all. They just smiled and nodded at me like I was crazy, but now it’s my turn to smile. And remind Zach every two minutes that the sun is still a-shining – there’s not even a single cloud in the sky!

Anyhoo. Will update more later. Much love friends.

Day 2 Continues

Note to self – I need 40+ lbs of weight when diving with more layers on and in saltier water than Porteau Cove or Whytecliffe.

The group arrived just after 1pm wanting lunch, but lunch wasn’t ready because they were supposed to have arrived by noon and gone out for a first dive, returning for lunch around 2pm.

Zach made chowder (which I wasn’t hungry enough to try) and a make-your-own-sandwich platter. I helped cut the carrots and the oranges. I also made juice.

That’s about all I did after the room cleaning this afternoon!

I went out for the first dive but didn’t actually dive because a) I didn’t have enough weights and b) my fins fell off, and finally... one of the gloves I had rented had a big hole in the finger (which means – hands much too cold!)

I did get out for the second dive though! Armed with more weights, locked fins, and a borrow pair of gloves without holes 
I went with Ross and Doug who were kind enough to point out a ton of interesting things on the sea wall that we explored. The sun was setting when we went out, so by the time we were in the water, it was night! I love night dives!!

I went down with 40 lbs of weight... but apparently that wasn’t quite enough. I’d not taken into consideration that the last time I dove was in less salty water with less layers of clothing – both of which mean less weight is needed to obtain proper buoyancy.

Basically, the 40 lbs got me down, but at about 1000 PSI, my tank decided that it was time for me to surface. At least the ascent wasn’t too quick, but there was definitely no 3 min safety stop – I had no air left in me to get rid of in order to stay down. No air in the suit means I was also a bit chilly.

All that aside though, it was still fantastic. I cannot express enough how much I LOVE being under the water!

Plus, both Ross and Doug were patient and very helpful. I mentioned already that they were quick to point things out to me... My favourite life under the sea so far has been the basket stars. They’re so beautiful! They’re white and round-ish with tons of curly tendril-like things branching out all around. I’ll see if I can get a hold of some pictures (many of the people I’m diving with have underwater cameras and seem more than willing to share their good shots).

When all was said and done, it was time to head back for a late dinner, followed by dishes, followed rather quickly by sleep!

Days 3-4, Oct 11-12

I’m writing these days together since I didn’t have time yesterday to jot down the memories.

I set my alarm for 6:45am but couldn’t force myself to exit the bed until I heard Zach come in at 7am to start breakfast. When the place is being heated by a wood stove that stops burning sometime in the middle of the night, you sleep well, but it’s definitely not fun leaving the warmth of the covers before the sun comes out!

Anyhoo. Breakfast was at 7:47 so most everyone showed up around 8:15am and we all enjoyed Zach’s pancakes, toast and fresh fruit! As soon as breakfast was over, we all suited up and headed out around 9am for our first dive of the day!

I forgot to mention that the very first dive I did (successfully) was called Seven Trees.

The first dive of the morning was at a site called Eagle Rock (where there actually were bald eagles often perched on the trees overlooking the water). This dive was interesting because the tide was SO strong! There wasn’t much you could do other than let the current carry you where it would. Luckily, “where it would” was along another beautiful wall covered with anemones, nudibranchs, and various other forms of life (including this bright purple blob inside a white piece of coral with yellow-ish dots that looked like eggs or something all around it!)

On the way up from this dive I had a bit of trouble keeping my feet under control during our three minute safety stop (where you sit at about 15-20 ft below the surface to let your body decompress) but managed to grab hold of some kelp and get my feet back below the rest of my body. (This is only an issue because in a dry suit, if your feet are higher than your body, they fill with air and it’s difficult to then lower them because they just want to keep floating...)

Anyhoo. That was dive number two.

The third dive (second dive of the day) was called Rock (or Wall – I can’t quite remember) of Life. And it was!! We joked afterwards about the poor visibility... you couldn’t see the wall through the life *gasp!*

So I dove with Darryl and Doug for this one. I followed Darryl and Doug followed me. Until I saw a rock that was breathing and promptly stopped following Darryl long enough to do a double take and turn around because rocks don’t breathe... but octopi do!! That’s right. This breathing rock had tentacles! So Doug flagged Darryl down and then also managed to get Blaine and Gary’s attention so that they could also take part in this octopus sighting. This was most definitely the highlight of the trip for me. Not only did I get to see an octopus, but I actually SPOTTED it on my own!

Again... more life, excellent visibility... fun fun fun!

Day four was much of the same.

Seriously, the visibility was always 70-100 ft (in all directions!) and the life was always just amazing. I saw shrimp and lots of Puget sound king crabs (one of which came down a wall and almost landed on my head...), more of the same kinds of stuff from the other dives... but there was just so much. I’m still processing. It was just... overwhelming. I’ve never seen so much LIFE like that before! It was just... it was incredible. Unforgettable. Unbelievable too... had I not seen it myself.

Day five... Oct 13.

I did one last dive on Monday before kicking Zach’s butt one more time at Crazy Eights and then heading back to the lower mainland shortly after lunch!

My last dive was also amazing (what else!?)

It was at Seven Tree again... which was fun. That site was both my first and last dive in Browning Pass :)

This time, the tide was supposed to take us up one side of the island, and then turn to take us back the other way... except... it turned like an hour later than it was supposed to which meant that we just kept going past the island once we got to the end of it. And so I experienced my first drift dive!

The life along the wall until we got to the end of the island was (once again) incredible, but even more amazing (for me) was drifting over a sandy patch of ocean floor... where THOUSANDS of tiny eel-like fish would fly up out of the sand the second a flashlight was shone on it. It was... something else. Seriously. We’re not talking hundreds of fish here, we’re talking thousands. And you couldn’t even tell that they were under the sand until they were popping out of it! That experience alone made that dive worthwhile for me!

And that’s about it, really.

The people were great – John is a super-friendly guy with TONS of stories, Zach was uber fun to hang out with, and the eight people who came as guests were also very patient and helpful, always giving me tips and encouraging me, sharing stories about their diving experiences...

The food was amazing. Props to Zach for that. We even managed a thanksgiving dinner on Sunday night since everyone was leaving on Monday!

One of the two Doug’s gave me a lift all the way home from Port Hardy which was totally above and beyond anything I’d expected (I was just hoping for a ride to the ferry in Nanaimo!) and he’s also putting together a DVD with some photos and videos that were taken over the course of the weekend.

So there you have it.

I saw a TON, I learned a lot, I met some stellar people and now... I’m exhausted.

Oh, and it’s Tuesday now. So I’ll also let you know that class today was exciting and interesting and wonderful (as per usual) AND when I got home and checked my phone... there was a message from John (who I met on the ferry). Unfortunately, it’s a little late to call him back, but perhaps there will be some coffee or hiking (with a group) sometime soon :)

I must say, however, I’m a little disappointed in Canada as a whole right now... It seemed a sure thing that the conservatives would win, but did they have to win by so much? I’m thankful at least for the fact that they didn’t quite get the majority. My apologies to all you conservatives out there.

Much love friends. Thanks for getting through this novel and a half!

I was able to get some videos and pictures from the trip... I’ll try to post ‘em soon!

Pascal...

2008-09-29T00:39:00.003-04:00

i am so lucky to have found the perfect major in my first semester at sfu.

this week, for example, we are reading blaise pascal's pensées. (translated into english, of course).

sometimes i get a little lost (like when he goes on about an infinity of infinitely happy life to be won in the wager) and like all of the philosophers we read, his arguments are not always clear or sound...

but since we're reading this semester always with a question about what the author thinks about the relationship of faith and reason... so far, pascal is my favourite. he combines them. he talks a lot about the limits of reason, but still acknowledges its imperative role in pursuing truth. the limits of reason are what imply the necessity of faith. and not just faith... he writes about other things that make us human. things that are unavoidable... like imagination and passion. and maybe reason would be more useful without those things, but it's not possible to reason without the interference of those things... so his solution? ally them. work out truth by using it all together. i love it.

pragmatic. i think that's what he is, that's the difference that i most appreciate. the practicality. maybe this would be nice, maybe that would be better -- but in the real world, this is how things need to go. because we're not without imagination or passion. because reason can't get us to every truth. because we want to be happy. because... we're human.

quotes worth quoting* (the numbers refer to each individual "pensée" because, yes... the thoughts are numbered):

12 - Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect.

21 - Thinking too little about things or thinking too much both make us obstinate and fanatical. If we look at our work immediately after completing it, we are still too involved; if too long afterwards, we cannot pick up the thread again.

24 - Man's condition. Inconstancy, boredom, anxiety.

28 - We are equally incapable of truth and good.

44 - Put the world's greatest philosopher on a plank that is wider than need be: if there is a precipice below, although his reason may convince him that he is safe, his imagination will prevail.

47 - Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.

70 - One must know oneself. Even if that does not help in finding truth, at least it helps in running one's life, and nothing is more proper.

98 - How is it that a lame man does not annoy us while a lame mind does? Because a lame man recognizes that we are walking straight, while a lame mind says that it is we who are limping.

110 - It is just as pointless and absurd for reason to demand proof of first principles from the heart before agreeing to accept them as it would be absurd for the heart to demand an intuition of all the propositions demonstrated by reason before agreeing to accept them.

149 - Men, it is in vain that you seek within yourselves the cure for your miseries. All your intelligence can only bring you to realize that it is not within yourselves that you will find either truth or good.

151 - We should unhesitatingly look for truth. And, if we refuse, it shows that we have higher regard for men's esteem than for pursuing the truth.

173 - If we submit everything to reason our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural. If we offend the principles of reason our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.

183 - Two excesses: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason.

185 - Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them.

188 -Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it.

192 - Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness.

424 - It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason.

423 - The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.

*Pascal, Blaise. Pensées. Trans. A. J. Krailsheimer.Toronto: Penguin Books, 1995.

the rollercoaster that is my life.

2008-09-23T15:47:00.003-04:00

so last week was kinda crappy. and i'm a little tired. so much so that i cried myself to sleep yesterday -- not over anything in particular; just because i'm tired. and maybe a little jaded.

but that's not to say that things are still crappy. it's actually almost the complete opposite.

remember the "i can't wait until monday, because monday is the first day of next week which means that this bad week is over" blog? i was right.

i had the most intensely wonderful conversation after class on monday, in part because it was just myself and one other person who went out to the pub after class. usually the group is significantly bigger, but the prof couldn't make it out this week and so it was just the two of us. in any case, it was good. it was SO good. we talked about so many things... family and traveling and relating to people and then... questions. those big meaning-of-life type questions. we talked about how terrifying the thought of forever can be and about good and evil and beauty in the world. our perspectives are totally different, but we were both honest and real and it was good.

also on monday... i called safeway and convinced the manager to give me a $20 gift card to make up for the fake $20 bill they gave me on thursday. woot.

nothing i can do about the random skytrain adventure or the fact that i no longer have an ipod... but i did get an e-mail today informing me that in addition to sfu's open scholarship which brought my tuition and student fee costs down to about $700 (plus whatever i paid for textbooks, which was close to $150-175 this semester)... i was nominated (by the humanities department) and won the "Father Michael Bach Memorial Scholarship" which is $1000.

so basically... i not only get to go to school for free this semester, i actually even earned a little money.

this led to more crying this morning, but of a different variety. i'm such a girl.

honestly though. up and down, up and down. i care way too much about everything. i suppose this is what ensures that my life will never be boring.

oh, and i know that someone was praying for me these past few days. i appreciate it more than i could ever express in words -- so thank you.

much love friends.

relief

2008-09-22T00:35:00.002-04:00

i'm house-/dog-sitting this week for carson and brenda.

i met brenda this morning and can't even begin to express how glorious it was to be welcomed back to their place and to have some time with them again before they headed out the door for an intense week of ministry-stuff!

i'm comfortable here.

not that i don't love my new place, but it's still new, you know?

this place... fits. i love that there is a lot of space. i love that there are flowers on the kitchen table, a dog, pictures all over the place of family members, toys for landon in the living room, and that when christa called today, she knew who i was when i answered the phone.

this place is a home. and while carson and brenda are not my family, they are a family... and i loved being a part of it this summer.

they're not here this week, and that's a little sad. it's also the reason why i'm here. duh. it works though... because i was able to get a lot of reading and homework done today, and i expect that i'll get more done this week.

this place is oozing with God's peace and i needed that. plus, brenda gave me a hug. i also needed that.

and it's only 9:30pm, but i'm going to bed. because the bed here is big and comfortable and familiar enough to feel like home.

much love friends. and sweet dreams.

it's not over 'til it's over.

2008-09-21T03:37:00.007-04:00

honestly. i can't wait for this week to be over.

next week has to be better.

in addition to feeling sick for most of wednesday (due to a lack of insulin) followed by my adventure on the sky train, followed by very little sleep on thursday night, followed by losing $20 (due to an error made at Safeway when they gave me a fake bill)... the "fun times" continue.

i did some laundry this evening.

my ipod shuffle was in one of my pockets.

it no longer works. i suppose going through the washing machine can have that affect on electronic devices.

*sigh*

next week has to be better.

bloggable?

2008-09-19T21:35:00.001-04:00

i'm not sure. but jane thinks yes, so here it goes...

i'm having an... unsual/crappy week this week.

for one thing, i have yet to figure out how to calm myself down from the intensely fabulous four hours that is my faith and reason class on tuesdays which means that when wednesdays roll around, i'm lucky to have had 3-4 hours of sleep and that puts a bit of a damper on the day.

this wednesday was no exception.

plus.

i switched the injection site for my pump. this has never caused me a problem before, but for some reason, on wednesday, the site didn't inject properly and from 5:30am-ish until noon-ish, i wasn't getting any insulin. that's bad.

high blood sugars i've had. they make me tired and thirsty. i was tired, even with a bit of headache by the time i reached the office at 8am. however, having had little-to-no sleep, the sleepiness came as no surprise and with sleepiness often come headaches -- thus, i work on and berate myself for not having brought advil to work with me.

11:30am hits and rather than sleepy and headachey, i'm now feeling a little nausiated. actually, i'm a lot nausiated. so i quickly run to the bathroom, turn on the tap, and empty my stomach of my breakfast, all the while thanking God that i'm not in residence anymore (you do not want to place your head over those toilets, trust me).

i then test my sugar levels. and they're high. so i check my pump, seems fine. i take out the site and voila... problem solved. luckily, i had a syringe on hand and was able to medicate myself for the rest of the day.

still... ketones (which i definitely had) are crappy and the sick-feeling... it didn't really go away until almost 4pm when it was time to leave.

then... the bus ride home.

i can't remember if i blogged about the beautiful spanish guy on the bus who i was not able to give my phone number to because of the rapid closure of the skytrain doors... but anyway. that was two weeks ago.

he was on my bus again on wednesday.

we chatted... he asked me out. i hemmed and hawed and never did come to a conclusion because...

whilst chatting, we ended up at columbia skytrain station. he had a bicycle. we were both transfering to the other side of the station, which requires going down one level and back up -- with a bicycle, this means taking the elevator. since we're still conversing, i join him in the elevator.

and then the elevator doors close.

and he kisses me. like... he attacks my face with his tongue.

it was many things. shocking, disgusting, slobbery... to name a few.

my response... well, really. after quickly pulling away (or pushing, or ducking -- there was a wall behind me and a bike behind him but somehow i managed to remove his face from mine relatively quickly), i'm pretty sure i just glared. he caught on to the fact that i was not-so-pleased and responded with a not-so-innocent "what? are you ok?"

and being still in a state of shock, the only thing i could come up with was "that's never happened to me before" followed by the opening of the elevator doors and me -- bolting to the skytrain in the hopes of getting on before he managed to get his bicycle out of the elevator.

gah. seriously -- WHO DOES THAT!? (the kissing random strangers i mean)

i still shudder.

anyway. this is not the end of the week, we're still only at wednesday.

thursday was ok. my class was good, not great... but good. i expect it's nearly impossible to have a bad one with the courses i have this semester.

in any case, i had a fabulous conversation with a good friend last night... except that it was really late and i had another early morning today... so today was a rather sleepy day too. which isn't too bad.

but i'm a little emotionally exhausted at the moment - in part from my adventure on the skytrain, in part from the rush of catching up with friends, re-entering the world of reading and papers, etc., and of the course in part to my *surprise surprise* continued tendency to take on more than i can handle in any given period of time.

so this is me. exhausted.

and then i find out that 20$ of the 60$ i gave my roomie to cover my half of the groceries we bought last week... was fake. i got it as cash back at safeway when i bought muffins for the small group i'm helping to lead. normally i keep my receipts, but i threw it away with the bag (having eaten the muffins, it wasn't like i needed it to return anything). this means that i am now $20 poorer simply because... really, i don't know why. because that's just the way this week is going.

bah.

on a slightly happier note -- i really do love my classes and our small group went well and i'm looking forward to house sitting this week in langley, i'm half way through this weekend's reading... things aren't SO bad.

hopefully they'll be better after sleep. besides, it's about time some things start going a little more negatively in my life -- there's been too much good for much too long now anyway. i may have started to take it for granted soon.

much love friends.

DO try this at home.

2008-09-13T23:05:00.002-04:00

so while i normally pride myself on not being the procrastination-type (i write down every assignment in my day planner and if there is too much for one week, i juggle the due dates to ensure that i never have an overly-loaded week unless absolustely necessary, thus often leading to assignments handed in early, which also tends to lead to higher grades as most profs are so shocked by an early submission that they seem to be unaware of what else to do...)

um, so where was i? procrastinator-i-am-not.

but this was the second week of school and all the clubs-days stuff was happening and everyone wants to catch up with everyone else before life gets too crazy again... so i had a lot to do. plus, in my own defense, i am still moving in. it's mostly done, but i have yet to purchase those long tacks to attach pictures and things to the cloth i have hanging behind my desk (instead of a cork board -- hence the need for the long tacks -- which are very difficult to find!!)

all that said... i didn't read one single thing this week. not one. i put it all off for the weekend.

BUT

it's 8:10pm right now, and even though i slept in until 10am, i have read Genesis, 1 & 2 Kings, 12 full-sized, 11pt font with wide margin pages of Thomas Acquinas aaaand three short articles on other random things somewhat related to faith and reason.

may i just say, that while i do believe it's impossible to read through all of Genesis and Kings in one sitting... doing it in a couple small sittings all timed very closely together (ie. read the first half of Gen and take a shower, read the second half and do some laundry, read 1 kings and have some lunch, etc.) was an experience. and a good one!

i've read all of that before -- but i found it especially enlightening to read all of Kings in one day. i'm familiar enough with Genesis that it wasn't especially different for me to read it all at once, but in Kings... there were so many connections and repetitions that i had never even come close to noticing before! i was even able (for the most part) to keep track of which kings were from Israel and which were from Judah! maybe it's just me... because if i read just a couple of chapters at a time, i forget all those names and things from chapter 1-2 by the time i get to chapter 7. but maybe not.

seriously, people. it's worth trying it out.

also. the exciting part is that after this break, i can read the first eight chapters of Corinthians and be DONE my reading for this whole upcoming week. which means i can take some time tomorrow to write some journals, but otherwise will have time to RELAX. oh the thought.

in other good news... the sun still shines in the lower mainland. praise the lord. for real.

and i'm making salmon soup tomorrow. yum.

much love friends

productive evening vs sleep

2008-09-12T01:48:00.003-04:00

tonight, productive wins. tomorrow... i will be paying for it.

in other news...

i still love my classes. words are just not enough.

tonight, we went to the pub after class again (same prof and some of the same people as the other class on tuesdays) except... it's pub night on thursdays so there was a cover charge which meant we promptly turned around and decided to call it a night instead. and then my prof gave me a ride home. so. weird.

i mean, not weird -- it was surprisingly not awkward at all -- but weird because really, since when do professors drive students home? she dropped rob off at the skytrain too.

anyhoo.

i like the ESV translation of the Bible. lots of "and"s which is how it would have actually been written. fun fun fun.

i got my hair trimmed on tuesday and wasn't a huge fan of the way the hairdresser cut my bangs... but then at work yesterday, brenda said that she could fix 'em, and she did! it was funny to get my hair cut in the bathroom at the office with a pair of regular scissors, but i'm much happier with the look and brenda's now my hero.

oh, and the sun... has been shining for almost a week and is supposed to continue shining through most of next week too. glorious.

i should be sleeping...

2008-09-10T01:28:00.002-04:00

but i'm so adrenalined-up that i can barely contain myself!

*this is me shaking my fist in frustration with my own extroverted self*

i have the absolute best semester ever. i mean... it's a LOT of work. it looks like i'll be reading roughly 3/4 of the Bible over the course of the next three months. in addition to other articles and authors. which is a lot.

but the classes... oh the classes.

it felt like heaven having almost four hours to discuss what reason is and what we mean when we use the word 'faith' and how we know what we know and went on to talk about mediated knowledge and atheism and individualism and the enlightenment and theology and and and... it was beautiful.

THEN...

chris (my prof) let everyone know that a few of the people in the class traditionally go out for a 'pint at the pub' after class. so i went to the pub... and i was the only person who was there who hadn't been before (all the rest have taken upper level courses with chris before and were used to the after-class glass of beer).

and the good times continued... no one seemed to care that i had a diet coke instead of a beer, i thoroughly enjoyed continuing some of the discussions that had happened during class and as other topics were approached with the same enthusiasm and passion that generally come from those of us in the humanities/philosophy departments... i also discovered that while my conclusions about Truth were totally different from most of theirs (and my vocabulary tends to include less of the four-letter variety), i still have quite a bit in common with the others around the table (there were 6-7 of us).

Anyhoo. Hours of interesting and intense conversation combined with the meeting of several new potential friends = a very energized shannon.

oh, and i was invited to two parties this saturday. both with themes. one is an early-90's theme, the other is an underwear theme. so strange.

i doubt i'll go to either, but it was fun being invited nonetheless.

much love friends.

new news!

2008-08-15T00:06:00.003-04:00

for those of you who have facebook...

most of this news will not be so new!

i've already posted the photos from day 1 of my most recent scuba diving adventure, and i probably won't be posting anything from day 2 (though i've been tagged in a few so facebookers should check 'em out -- especially the one where we all fully-inflated our dry suits -- think "pillsbury dough boy").

now it's time for the stories!

how it all began...

i'm not going to go as far back as the beginning of my scuba diving experiences, but as far as this most recent expedition is concerned, it's been a long time coming!

i've been living in bc for two years and have thought about diving here quite frequently since my arrival. however, i'm a student which makes both time and money a bit difficult to come by. i met this guy at grouse mountain a few weeks ago though, and was reminded once again of how much i love diving -- and how silly it was for me to have been living in one of the top ten places in the world to go diving and to still have done nothing to take advantage of that opportunity!

that said, the ocean here is cold and most of the best diving involves WRECKS. since i wasn't trained to dive in a dry suit (which is significantly warmer than a wetsuit) nor trained for wreck diving, it was clear that step no. 1 would be to get some of that training taken care of this summer.

which is what i did.

last wednesday i went to the pool in walnut grove (which, by the way, is incredible -- with waterslides and walls that open up to make it a quasi-outdoor pool!) and learned some dry suit techniques (in addition to remembering all that stuff about buoyancy and how to hook up regulators to tanks, etc.)

on saturday, myself and three others (bryan, markos, and dave) completed the first three of six dives to do over the course of two days. dave's girlfriend, ashley, was our surface support hero and monique was our instructor. bryan was kind enough to give me a lift both saturday and sunday which was wonderful because it would have been impossible for me to participate without the ride!

anyhoo. so our first dive was a wreck dive and it was ok... the visibility was pretty poor, and it was made worse by the fact that dave and i were behind bryan and markos who hadn't quite mastered their buoyancy at that ponit -- which translates into lots of silt from the bottom and from the boat that was stirred up making the visibility even worse. basically, you could see that there was something there, but when all you can see is three feet in front of you, it's hard to really get an idea of what you're looking at.

with monique's help we were able to find a bunch of potential hazards and possible entry points. dive no. 1... check.

our second dive was a dry suit dive. this was where dave and i had to show that we could remove all our scuba gear (other than the actual dry suit) and put it all back on at the surface of the water. deep enough out that we couldn't touch the bottom.

it's difficult enough to do it with a wetsuit, but with the added awkwardness of giant gloves and a much less flexible dry suit... bah. eventually though, we managed. dive no. 2... check.

dive no. three was a navigation dive. i love compasses. i'm not sure why... anyhoo. it's basically like orienteering, only underwater. i think that this was definitely my favourite of all three dives even though i did lose my partner at one point. i found him pretty quickly at the surface so it wasn't a big deal. anyways, i loved it mostly because i had fun with the compass (and successfuly swam in a square!). oh, and we saw a jelly fish! so bizarre!

other highlights on saturday... "search and rescue" for bryan's missing fin. he lost it while putting on the other fin just before our second dive. monique found it while she was swimming toward the stairs to look for it and kicked it.

the very first time you walk into the ocean with a dry suit it's like... you feel the cold of the water and it feels wet. but when you get out, you're dry (obviously). it's just the strangest thing EVER to feel the water around you, but know that you're still dry and the feeling of "wet" is really just your mind playing tricks on you!

sunday was much of the same, though we went to Whytecliffe instead of Porteau Cove where there were many more divers, but the visibility was way better.

dive no. one was the deep dive. i was petrified. i spent our entire time stopped at 91 ft talking myself into staying (as opposed to swimming up to the surface, or at least higher than the thermal line on myself).

dive no. 2 was a digital underwater photography dive. pictures to come. we saw many many crabs (one bit our instructor!) and flounder and starfish and one reef shark. apparently.

dive no. 3 was our final dry suit dive which consisted pretty much of one skill (unattached the air line from the tank to the dry suit inflator valve, and then reattaching it under the water and with those giant gloves on... ) but we followed that with some exploring of the wall and the creatures that lived there. fun fun fun.

that's pretty much it -- i'm now an advanced open water scuba diver *woot*

oh, and in october...

i get to go for FREE on thanksgiving weekend to this place at the very northern end of vancouver island called "browning pass" which is near port hardy and has been recommended to me as the absolute best place to dive in bc (and is run by the absolute best guide of that area -- apparently).

how did i manage this, you ask?

this is the place that i think i already wrote about... basically, i'm going to go up and work while i dive so that in four days instead of averaging 2-3 dives / day, i'll average 1-2 (i should get in at least 6 dives) and between those dives, i'll be responsible for helping out -- cleaning, meal prep, filling tanks, etc.

in addition to the diving, i'll also have my food and accommodation covered.

all i need to figure out is how i'm going to get there (he said though, that the people going are mostly coming from a shop in vancouver so i think i'll be able to arrange some carpooling!) and rent some equipment!

the regular price for this trip (with 9-10 dives instead of 5-6) is $645.

so... i have something to look forward to this fall! *grin*

also exciting...

i got to write the main article for a newsletter that we're sending out at work and that was pretty exciting... basically, it was myself and my co-worker who were responsible for rounding up the content, formatting the newsletter, and getting it sent out.

putting the whole thing together with jane has been a really good learning experience! the writing part was just an added bonus :)

annnd now it's almost 10pm and i'm exhausted. signing off...

much love friends.

dancin' the night[s] away

2008-07-28T03:26:00.003-04:00

it's late, i know. and i should be in bed right now because i have to be up and at work in less than eight hours... which means i definitely won't be getting all eight of those hours for sleep this evening.

anyway, i'm not sleeping right now because i've had a wonderful weekend and i need to write about it before i sleep away the adrenaline.

on friday, we finished work early so i took connor to the park and we hung out for a good hour there before heading back to the house. it was nice to just be outside and enjoying the sunshine! later that night, i went to swingin' in the park with fat city swing... i LOVE swing dancing outside. it's so much more comfortable -- it gets so hot and stuffy inside during the summer!

afterwards, i actually went to red robin's with most of the rest of the swing crowd and it was just... good. it was good to have some conversations and actually get to know some of the people i've been dancing with all summer long!

anyways, i had originally thought of going to the fireworks in vancouver on saturday night, but the girls i had planned on going with weren't able to make it so i was without any real plans... until jose (he does dj-ing for almost every swing club in the lower mainland!) mentioned on friday night that on saturday night, there was the "7th annual hanger 40's themed swing dance" at pitt meadows regional airport. wha!? sounds like SO much fun!

annnnd it was.

i asked around and discovered that justin and britt were going to the hanger dance... then i managed to invite myself along ;)

we arrived around 8:30pm and danced until the music died shortly after midnight. what an unbelievably wonderful night! there was a live "big band" (the Bruce James Orchestra) and planes and all kinds of people -- a few familiar faces, but mostly people i'd never met before. every single person i danced with was like a million and a half times better than me which made it slightly embarrassing, but mostly just fun.

there was this one older gentlemen with shorts and almost-knee-high socks... he had more energy and bounce than any other person i danced with and it made me laugh.

after all that fun, we were pretty wide awake (and starving), so justin and i stopped at tim's for a bite to eat on the way home which meant i definitely slept through my alarm clock and missed church this morning.

my next plan was to go to cla's evening service, but i had enjoyed dancing so much on friday and saturday that i also kind of wanted to go to the abbotsford suburban swing... i'd never been to that one before!

it all worked out perfectly though, because i called justin and he was going (and was willing to take me), and he wasn't planning to leave until 7:30... which meant i could make it to at least the first 45 min or so of church for some worship and some of the talk and still go dancing afterwards!

juuust as i was headed out the door though, justin was walking in! turns out the lesson in abbotsford ends at 8:30 which meant we didn't have to leave until 8pm. perfect. so we went in and got to listen to the whole message before heading off for yet another evening of swinging!

oh yes, so this is the first time in the whole summer that i sat with someone i knew at church! how fun to have a friend!!

so. i've decided (again) that i really love swing dancing. i need to keep up this regular attendance thing because it really has helped me to feel so much more comfortable and capable! i had a really difficult time following some of the leads in abbotsford tonight, but it would have been much more disastrous a couple of months ago. tonight, there were more embarrassing moments ("i'm sorry for kicking you about eight times..." "was i supposed to spin just then?" "oops, was that your foot again?") but still, i love it.

it's also been refreshing to have some conversations about god while in transit to and from these things. oh, and tonight... how random. this one girl and i were talking outside (it was really hot inside tonight, i've been so spoiled by the dancing in douglas park where we dance outside and it's much much cooler!) um, so where was i? oh yes. the girl.

she mentioned how she had no idea that abbotsford "was like, the bible belt... there are NO clubs here!" and then said how she was continually surprised by the number of church people she was meeting at any and all of the swing clubs -- even vancouver! i pointed out that regardless of denomination, swing is often "allowed" even when other forms of dancing are not. she then went on to explain how she was surprised at how unfriendly some of the folks in vancouver seemed to be -- shouldn't all these christian people be friendly and nice all of the time?

it was an interesting conversation, to say the least. i'm excited that these things can come up so randomly and out of the blue. fun fun fun.

well. i suppose that's about it. my weekend of swing dancing, swing dancing, and a little more swing dancing.

much love friends!!!

busy being...

2008-07-24T00:43:00.002-04:00

it's been a busy few days and it looks like my world is only going to get busier... luckily this busy-ness is entirely of the fun sort.

my weekend went as follows...

on friday night after work, bonny and i went to see the bc lions beat the winnipeg blue bombers -- live from row g (which is #7, if you do the math). neither of us had been to a football game before, but luckily kristen and jeremy were kind enough to explain what was going on whenever we (mostly me) were confused.

while i'm not a huge sports fan (i'm not even a little bit of a sports fan to be honest) i definitely enjoy watching them live. it's something about the energy of a crowd and the anticipation that comes with watching the game happen. plus, the tickets were free courtesy of carson and brenda who are visiting their son and daughter-in-law in australia!

on saturday, i met tim at "western canoe and kayak" where his sister works and we rented a double kayak for the day (half price courtesy of danielle through whom we got the staff discount!) i learned how to do a wet exit with a skirt and tim tried (without success) to roll the double kayak. it was a beautiful sunny day -- perfect for paddling around the lake (we went to hayward because it's close) and having a quick lunch on the beach.

the store closed at 4pm, so we (attempted) to return the kayak at that time... got a little lost on the way back, but managed to pull in just five minutes late. love those patient people at western canoe and kayak.

we were danielle's last customers and tim's aunt dropped off his cousin (skylar) so the four of us (tim, danielle, skylar and myself) headed back to my "home" to take connor (the dog) for a walk and make some dinner.

a few hours later, it was off to the movies! we went to the twilight drive-in theatre in langley -- the only drive-in theatre in the lower mainland! we stayed for two movies: get smart (it was ok) and batman (good, but not as good as the last one).

after that we all fell into bed and crashed until 10am-ish when it was time to rise and shine and get ready to climb a mountain!

yep, that's right. we hiked up a mountain on sunday. grouse mountain, to be precise.

2.9 km, almost 3000 steps, lots of water and 2.5 hours later we completed the grouse grind. i think it would have been a significantly faster hike had i not been low for the entire thing. by the end of it, my goal had gone from "get blood sugar up to 5 or higher" to "keep blood sugar over 2.5 and refrain from dying, throwing up or passing out before the end"

whew.

i have no desire to ever do that again, but i'm excited that i can check it off my list of things i have done at least once. i do have to say, the view was fantastic and the company wasn't bad. danielle saved me by stealing my attention away from my screaming leg muscles and keeping it on our memories of tyndale (me) and summit (her).

so that was my weekend.

this week... i 'found' a place to live in september. i didn't do any real finding, but was offered a room by a wonderful girl -- rebecca -- who was the head nurse at camp when i was there a couple of weeks ago. the location is perfect, rebecca's cool and she's also generous because she'll be paying more rent just to make it possible for me to afford to live there. crazy, hey? pray that god provides for both of us this year!

i also finalized and payed for my scuba diving certification... somehow i'll be getting the advanced open water certificate AND the dry suit certification for $350 even though the regular price for a dry suit upgrade (that doesn't equal certification) was advertised at $380 and the usual cost for both certifications is $440.

annnd... i got contact lenses. if you already have a prescription, allow me to suggest www.clearlycontacts.ca. seriously -- i ordered contacts yesterday, they arrived today. i didn't give them any form of payment or even fill out my credit card information prior to receiving the package in the mail and it was still shipped overnight (free!)! oh, and i got 2 years worth of 02optix contacts for $220 total. sweet!

my aunt darcene thinks i have horseshoes coming out of um... me. i think if there's a spiritual gift of finding/getting good deals, i've got that one.

so coming up we have... scuba diving (aug. 6, 9th and 10th), possible camping trip on the long weekend, possible road trip following the scuba weekend and this weekend... swing dancing on friday and coffee with kirsten on saturday!

plus flora is back from japan, so hopefully hanging out with her will fit in there somewhere too. like saturday afternoon.

in any case, it's 10pm and i need to SLEEP. much love friends!!!

ruminations and reflections

2008-07-18T00:43:00.003-04:00

i've had some complaints over the past couple of weeks regarding my neglection of blogging as of late so i'll do my best again tonight.

before i get started, however, it's important to note that i do have reasons for not blogging... excuses, if you will.

first -- i tire of blogging about what i DO. my schedule. on monday i did this, on wednesday i did that. it gets boring to write and likely even more boring to read. i enjoy writing about what i've done if it's something unusual or exciting, or if it brings up questions or interesting things to think about.

second -- i've been thinking about a lot of things lately. i feel like i've been overwhelmed with all the new challenges, insights, questions and opportunities that have continued to invade my world since early last semester. so i DO have something to blog about, but it's been difficult to find the time to give those thoughts the energy and focus that i want to give them when i post them online for all the world to read (by "all the world" i mean... my family and a few friends since no one else reads this).

i'm not sure how far i'll get tonight, so i'll start by making a list and i'll refer back to it later if i don't get to everything tonight...

some of these things are deeper than others. obviously.

so first -- prayer and expectations. they kind of go together.

i met with this lady, christa, who is known at arrow as a spiritual doberman. funny, hey? i went to her house for tea one saturday evening because... well, because i was talking to steve about where i'm at with god, and he suggested hanging out with christa at some point.

it's funny how just two hours can be such a huge deal.

christa definitely has discernment. and while she didn't tell me anything about myself that i wasn't already aware of, she did make some connections between my personality and my relationship with god that had never even occurred to me.

i shared with christa my impression that god wanted me to do something and my frustration with being so uncertain about what it was that he wanted me to do... and she explained to me that when god leads us, he doesn't just say, "go." he says, "go here" or "do this" not that he always tells us to go somewhere specific or do something specific, but just that if he is going to lead us, he's going to lead us with a little more clarity than just "do something"

if that sounds unbiblical or strange, blame me for being unable to articulate well enough what i'm trying to say.

christa also pointed out that i probably have a tendency to set higher expectations of myself than those that god has for me. she challenged me to surrender to god the expectations that i have of myself, as well as the expectations that other people have of me (imagined or real) and to ask god to reveal to me what his expectations are so that i can strive to meet his expectations with his help.

there were some other things that we talked about (a lot of surrendering!) and when i walked away... there was relief.

and prayer. we prayed together before i left and as i prayed, christa corrected me. she actually stopped me mid-prayer and said, "no, no, no. not like that. pray like this." and then went on to guide my words to reflect what my attitude and heart need to be when i pray.

it was such a helpful and uplifting experience and my prayer life has been drastically different ever since. it's a beautiful thing.

on to balance.

there are so many decisions to make this summer... this year. this season. being a student means not only having a very limited amount of time without a "to do" list hanging over my head... it also means having a whole lot of fairly significant decisions to make on a fairly consistent basis. it's exhausting.

right now, i'm in the midst of trying to figure out...

whether to continue taking ancient greek (this would be semester 3 and would likely end with me being capable of actually reading lengthier portions of homer in the original greek! it's mostly time to put into practice all of the rules that we spent the last two semesters learning) or to take greek civilization instead. a fourth year history course that sounds interesting and brings me one class closer to completing my history minor (i still haven't decided whether or not to keep that minor or to drop it...)

where to volunteer. with UCM (christian) or somewhere else outside of the christian bubble. like tutoring or with the diabetes association or with oxfam or...

whether to go to greece next summer or next fall

whether or not i can handle another year in bc (in addition to the two i for sure have to finish) and if i can't... how the heck am i going to get enough credits to graduate in the spring of 2010.

where i am going to live in september. if you have any ideas, please let me know.

glasses or contacts. oh! i have a picture -- kind of random, but anyway -- here's me with contacts:

yes? no? maybe? why??

i think that's about all my brain can take of thinking for tonight.

though, i will also write a bit about work because i'm loving it.

we finished the new brochure this week, and fixed up a good chunk of the website... i really love doing this design/publishing stuff! it's a combination of editing and making things look pretty and i love it! i also love that other people are happy with the results. it's fun to feel useful.

anyway, so while i've been doing lots of this and lots of that (as happens in most administrative positions), my role has once again been drifting more and more toward the formatting of brochures, hand-outs, notes, powerpoints, programs, cards, newsletters, etc. and i'm loving every second of it.

also coming up... scuba diving! i've signed up to get my advanced open water diving certification on the third weekend of august -- with dry suit training. woot!

and, on the second weekend of august there's a possibility that i'll be heading to portland with bonny to check out imago dei (think Blue Like Jazz) and powell's bookstore (the largest bookstore in the world!! *gasp* it sounds like heaven).

on that note. i'm going to go to bed now... and dream of bookstores and scuba diving and the continuation of sunshine and blue skies that have lasted a couple of weeks now. *happy sigh*

i love summer and sunshine. love love love it.

much love friends.

ps. give me a hug next time you see me. i don't "need" one, but i miss 'em and there aren't many hug-gy people around these days. *sad face*

Kakhamela / Elphinstone

2008-07-06T02:10:00.003-04:00

I am so made for camp.

I love it. Love love love it.

Despite some pre-camp anxiety whilst trying to arrange transportation to and from Gibsons, both the travel and the week were carried out smoothly!

I went into camp a day early, and headed out to Burnaby to crash at Nurse Rebecca's house a day earlier than that (Friday after work). She and I picked up Lucy just after 8am on Saturday and we were at camp setting stuff up before lunch time!

My role at camp this year was the same as last year -- Midnight Rambler! I walked around with another med staff and test blood sugar levels at midnight and 3am, although they had two Midnight Ramblers for the first time this year which meant that I only had to do three 3am checks instead of five! *woot*

The kids were a little less smelly this year, and some of the cabins had been painted -- somehow, the painted ones also seemed to stay much cleaner. Maybe the kids felt worse messing up a white cabin than a wood-coloured one. In any case, I had fun! I love walking around at night. It's quiet and there are SO many stars out. We couldn't have asked for better weather, and I always enjoy getting to know the med staff personnel who are out on checks with me.

Speaking of weather... it was sunny and HOT every day except a bit on Friday and Saturday when we were leaving. Ah, so wonderful. I haven't had time to be outside in any weather for a while, and I spent almost every afternoon soaking up the sun....

from inside a kayak. I couldn't resist the water and spent almost every afternoon (except Friday) at the waterfront. Every time I was at the waterfront, I also took out a kayak. We went swimming once, and the water was WAY warmer than I expected (considering that this has been the first warm week of the year...)

I love kayaking. More than canoeing. It's official.

On Friday when I didn't go kayaking (or sailing, because though an outing had been planned, you can't sail when there isn't even the slightest hint of a breeze outside *sad face*), Thomas and I attempted to play tennis.

I was able to go to both campfires this year (I skipped out on making peanut butter and jam sandwiches for the first one, and we made them early to make it to the second one) AND we also all made it to the talent show to watch the kids show off their singing/dancing/acting/eating skills. Fun fun fun.

Thomas, the other midnight rambler, had never been to camp before at all. Any camp. He never did quite figure out the loud shouting and singing at the dining hall or around the campfires. Having that stuff questioned was a little weird, it's so much of what makes camp, camp for me. But anyway, I loved it. I don't care WHY the kids sing and shout at meals, the fun is that they do. My theory... you do all the fun being-a-kid stuff at camp that you're not usually allowed to do at home. Eating pudding without your hands, singing and standing up through meal times, staying up late to talk with your friends, dressing up in some of the strangest outfits or costumes, cheating at all the evening program games... it's a beautiful thing.

Oh! We also had the opportunity to do the High Ropes course on Thursday night!

I think that I was the most entertaining to watch -- mostly because I was completely terrified. I did complete the challenge that I tried (walking across one horizontal rope, with the help of four vertical ropes strategically placed far enough apart that you had to really stretch to reach them), but it took me FOREVER because I was shaking so much from my unexplainable fear of heights. If it hadn't been for the fact that I took my glasses off and could barely see, I'm not sure I'd have ever finished.

What else?

I tried a sensor for the week! Basically, it goes in much like my insulin sites for the pump, and the insertion checks blood sugar levels every five minutes to keep track of patterns, etc. I went for 48 hours only going under four and over eight once each! (One low, and one 9.3 after pizza...) That was pretty exciting, especially at camp where everything is so different and crazy!

Anyway. I'm sad that it's over already, but so very very glad that I was able to go again this year. I love camp. Love love love it.

good times... good week.

2008-06-15T01:49:00.003-04:00

this week has been one of the most enjoyable weeks that i've had since i've been back in BC!

work has been good -- lots of fun projects on the go right now!

on thursday night, i hitched a ride to abbotsford with steve so that i could meet up with dennis and marie (and ryan!) to hang out before their big move to the island! it was SO good to have some time to connect with steve, and also refreshing to spend time with dennis and marie! ryan is such a cutie (and such a happy boy!!) and it's always comforting to talk with people who i still associate with 'home' and who, though in a very different situation than mine, are still in a similar process of connecting and building new friendships, communities, etc. so that was already a good night, and it didn't end there!

i spent the night at bonny's house. bonny is another of my arrow co-workers. she's the same age as me and lives in abbotsford, not too far from where i'd met with dennis and marie! anyway. it was fun to get to know her a little bit and i definitely enjoyed hanging out for a few hours before bed as well as some good conversation on the drive in to work on friday!

on friday after work i was pleasantly surprised to find out that the car would be available for me to borrow again! so far it's worked out that every other friday i've been able to borrow the car to get out to the fat city swing dancing nights! last night was, i think, my best night yet!

i was comfortable with what we learned in the lesson, i met a girl who is here for a few weeks from ontario (who offered to give me a ride next week if i don't have the car!) and her friend, terra. who i've met before. at tyndale! terra worked with enrollment when i was a student there! crazy, hey? i've seen three people from tyndale out here in the last two weeks!

today was saturday. well, it still is saturday right now.

i slept in until 9:30am, which is pretty good because lately my body hasn't been letting me sleep much past 8-8:30am on the weekends. on friday it was beginning to look like i'd have a rather boring weekend, but that has definitely not been the case!

i went to see "prince caspian" at the clova in the afternoon. their matinees cost $4.00. woot!

right after that, one of jane's friends (sandra) picked me up and then we picked up another friend and jane. why all the picking up?

we went wine tasting!

i've never been wine tasting before. there was one more friend who we met at the fort winery; it was her birthday. i've learned that... i like fruit wines better than grape wines, but not so much the dessert wines. unless they're mixed in a sangria with another not-so-sweet wine. like blueberry (dessert) and white cranberry (dry). oh, and strawberry wine. it's so my favourite. hands down. yum.

we tasted a lot of wine though. and the dessert wines are 18% (ish) alcohol. so after the tasting, we all had a glass of our favourite to enjoy with a cute (and also tasty) cheese platter. jane didn't drink her wine, so i had some of it... which means... i probably drank two very full glasses of wine in just a couple of hours. and i hadn't eaten since breakfast. no wonder i felt a bit dizzy if i stood up too fast.

drunk? no... tipsy? oh yes. i wonder if they noticed?

who woulda thought that i'd drink like twice as much as i normally do in an evening... with four women (who i barely know) in the middle of the afternoon!?

in any case, i will sleep well tonight!

ah good times. i've had time hanging out with people i love, meeting new people, trying something i haven't done before, discovering a new part of bc that i didn't know existed, watching a decent movie (for cheap!), swing dancing, and time outside in the sunshine! seriously, it's like all of my (almost) favourite things in just 2-3 days!

all that's missing is a hike or kayaking but i can do that next weekend, or some other time in the near future. like when i'm at camp in two weeks :)

beautiful.

and now... speaking of sleeping well tonight... i'm off to bed!

much love friends!

Barnabas!

2008-06-05T00:47:00.002-04:00

I am an extrovert.

As I get older and start to find myself craving more alone time than I ever used to feel the need for, I sometimes start to wonder if that core part of me is somehow changing...

and then things like today happen.

I work at Arrow Leadership. (which by the way, is an incredible leadership training organization, and a stellar place to work). I work in the office.

Today, I spent the afternoon at Barnabas where there is a seminar week taking place. Barnabas is this beautiful location on Keats Island, which is part of the sunshine coast of BC. I've spent a lot of time (both last summer and again in the few weeks I've been back this summer) preparing for and learning about these seminar weeks. Today, I had the opportunity to experience a small part of it.

The highlight?

The conversations. The people.

I am like, bouncing off the walls right now. Why?

I am an extrovert. I got to meet people today. Gah! I love it.

It was hard sometimes to connect with some of the executive people who were there (I really don't have a clue about anything to do with the business or executive world), but there were enough people there who I was able to connect with that it just... It was beautiful. Putting faces to names and hearing the stories -- What people are doing, how they connected with Arrow, why they connected with Arrow, what they've been learning and the impact it's already had on them after just three days... Ahhh. These are the moments I live for.

I miss it already and I was only there for 7-8 hours.

It was also good to connect with Denise. Denise works at Arrow too; she does the bookkeeping. She and I had TONS of time to talk (I crashed at her place last night, it takes a couple hours to get there and a couple of hours to get back...) and it was so wonderful to get to know her and to find out that we have more in common than I'd ever have expected.

Anyway. It was a good day. A great day, even.

Oh, and I bought a t-shirt and a camping/beach hat for $3.49 each. Woot.

--------------

I should also mention that I spent two hours or so on the phone with one Miss Gloria Huh on Monday night and that was also splendid. I always feel like I'm closer to God after our conversations.

What-a-week.

And it's only Wednesday!

Time to sleep and process some of this goodness.

Much love folks.

note to self:

2008-05-31T03:01:00.002-04:00

east coast = easy. lindy = moderate. both a little bit = bad. very bad.

so i've been hangin' out at langley's "fat city swing" swing dancing on friday nights. they do east coast swing dancing. which is pretty much the easiest kind to learn.

i learned lindy first -- at sfu. with an eight-count step.

then i learned lindy again in vancouver with a six-count step.

now i'm learning east coast which is like lindy but without the triple-stepping -- and it's usually a six-count step, with the occasional eight-count move thrown in (ie. the charleston).

and i'm bad at it. really really really bad.

however. although i tend to dislike things that i'm not good at, this is not the case with swing dancing. i actually love it. i just want to be better at it.

so this summer... i'm sticking with it. i'm not going to give up after a month and kick myself later for it. i'm going to go (almost) every friday night and dance the night away, learning from people who are clearly way better at swing dancing than i am. there's a lot of those out this way.

so there it is. my lame excuse for sucking, and my commitment to stick it out until i can gain enough confidence to dance with the birthday guy(s) in the middle of the circle. woot.

today, i bought shoes. now i have to go every week.

oh! and i almost forgot...

2008-05-30T02:21:00.003-04:00

do you remember that lake we jumped into during our hike on saturday?

the 'aquaman' episode of smallville was filmed at the very dock off of which we jumped. *giggle*

the little things

2008-05-30T02:06:00.002-04:00

today was a good day.

it's been a good week, actually.

i like getting things done. did i write about that in my last post?

i learned (or rather, confirmed) that i like having to-do lists, and i especially like crossing things off. while i get a lot done on most days, if i don't get much finished, i walk away feeling as though i haven't done anything.

i crossed a lot of things off the list this week at work, and at home.

i did some laundry, i caught up on most of my e-mails, i checked out classes being offered in the fall, i found a school in langley where i think i can go get my hair done (and maybe my nails too!). i went for a hike (but you already read about that), i went to a new church, i watched a movie i've wanted to see for a long time (PS I Love You -- and i sobbed my way through the whole thing). i wore skirts. i watered my cacti, i called a friend, i set up a date to usher at and watch lois' play (can't wait 'til june 7!), i finished one book (Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card) and started another (Wicked by someone else whose name i can't remember right now). and today.

today i booked a flight home for christmas.

why so early?

i booked a return flight from seattle to buffalo at CHRISTMAS time for a total (after taxes) of $375.77.

oh. my. goodness.

i'm still dancing. in my head.

so i booked it now because i couldn't pass it up. that is like... ridiculously cheap. the same flight with westjet for the same dates... over $1000 today.

yep.

so anyway.

it's been a good week. a productive week. but i'm so looking forward to the weekend!

oh. and more good news:

i get to go to part of a seminar next week! i'm driving out with denise on wednesday so that we can both have the barnabas experience and get a glimpse of what the arrow seminars are like! woot. woot doesn't sound very excited, but trust me. this also has me dancing. mostly in my head.

anyhoo. so if you live in ontario... i'll see you at christmas ;)

much love friends.

sunshine and summer

2008-05-26T01:59:00.004-04:00

it's taken a week or two, but i think i'm starting to settle into summer.

living with carson and brenda has been great so far! they're beautiful people, so i think that even living in a basement with them wouldn't be so bad. they do, however, have a house. it's like icing on the cake. lots and lots of icing.

i love that my room has a huge window, i love that there's a dog (connor). i love that the community is beautiful and small and friendly -- in the everybody-knows-everybody-small-town kind of way that i grew up with. i love that brenda likes company in the kitchen. i'm hoping that if i hang out there long enough, some of her magic will rub off on me. (seriously, it's like nothing she touches in the kitchen can turn out badly!)

work has been going well too!

i enjoy the people, and i love having a list everyday. i especially love crossing things off of that list. thursday wasn't so great -- there was a lot to do, and nothing that was actually finished. so although i got lots done, i didn't get anything finished and that bothers me. ah well. friday was better, and thursday wasn't actually bad. it was just frustrating. and that's just a weird personality thing rather than an actual problem.

langley itself... i'm learning.

the bus system sucks.

but the people are pretty cool.

i've started going to friday night swing dancing... i didn't make it this friday (because i'd get home too late and i had an early morning on saturday), but i plan on going again at the end of this week. it's definitely a "Bible belt" here. almost everyone i met last time was talking about where they go to church, etc.

there was a rodeo last weekend.

i went with tim and danielle who are here for the summer... it was definitely different. i had fun :) they opened with prayer, and when one of the cowboys was knocked unconscious from the "g-force" of his bucking horse, the announcer prayed for him and encouraged everyone else to do the same. very cool, but so so so weird. it was like going back in time to when that sort of thing was "acceptable" and even normal.

this weekend...

i went hiking on saturday (hence the early morning). it was an 8km hike and it was beautiful! it was definitely warm in the sun, so when we stopped for lunch at a beach on the lake we were hiking around, a few of us decided to jump in.

so. cold.

but it wasn't cold enough to knock the breathe out of me, and it felt wonderful once i was out of the water and in the sunshine.

what else?

i went to church this morning. i was walking to the transit bus stop, but happened to pass a school bus with the name of the church i was checking out on the side. as it turns out, they were picking up a bunch of kids for sunday school (their parents don't attend, so the church sends a bus to pick them all up), and a few senior citizens. i'm not a child and i'm also not a senior citizen, but they were happy to give me a ride anyway. that worked out well.

i met a girl -- i sat beside her and when she found out i was "new" she introduced herself and gave me her number. she told me that she understood how hard it could be to make new friends in a city where you don't know many other people your age and said she'd be happy to hang out sometime. that was nice. a little surprising, since it was a big church and i don't usually find big churches all that friendly... but a happy surprise nonetheless.

carson knows a family from ottawa whose daughter is also living here for the summer, so i've contacted her as well and am looking forward to making that connection.

i felt somewhat drained by the time this weekend had rolled around because while i needed the break and the quiet, i hadn't seen many friends over the course of the week and i am an extrovert. no people = no energy.

so. good weekend. time with people, time outside in the sunshine and wilderness... and some possible friendships in the works.

and now.. it's off to bed so that i can function well at work tomorrow.

oh. one more thing. i think.. i'm going to invest in contact lenses.

much love friends! i'll try to be more interesting next time...

Stories from Mexico!

2008-05-16T10:21:00.003-04:00

There are so many moments in my memories of Mexico that I doubt I'll be able to capture them all. I will, however, do what I can to give you a small glimpse of the experiences we had and the way we saw God at work in and around Vicente Guerrero.

We went to build one house, but raised enough for a house and a side project. Charles, who helps to run Hero Holidays, had two families requesting a house -- neither of whom he could say 'no' to. Because we had the manpower available, Charles actually did some extra fundraising to bring our finances up enough to cover both house-building projects.

The families we were building for were both living in 'houses' made from branches, with cardboard and/or tarps tied tightly around them for the roof and walls. There was one family of four, and another family of eight. I helped at the site with eight. In addition to the parents, there were six children: a baby boy, three girls (3-ish, 6-ish and 12), and two more boys (8-ish and 10-ish). The kids spoke a bit of spanish, but the parents only spoke the native dialect from wherever they came from (they fled to Mexico from their home country). The oldest daughter, Secora, spoke Spanish fluently and acted as our translator for much of the time. Her parents respected her a lot -- for example, when we were asking where they wanted the windows, Secora disagreed with her father and pointed out different spots and he quickly agreed and went with her decision.

Our family was also without a bano hole (pronounced ban-yo) which, in English, is an outhouse hole. That meant that in addition to building our house, we also had a constant team of about 3-4 people helping to dig a hole 3ft x 3ft x 8ft deep. We came just short of reaching 8 ft deep, but managed to get down 7 3/4 ft which was deep enough for us to be able to cover it with an outhouse building.

The children were so cute. They were constantly following us around, grabbing our hands and counting to three (indicating that they wanted us to swing them around) or jumping and shouting the Spanish word for "horsey" which meant that they wanted a piggy-back ride.

At one point, on my way back to my site from the other one (which already had a bano hole and so was where we all went to use the bathroom throughout the day), I met a man from the community. Obviously we weren't able to communicate much because I don't speak Spanish at all, but he kept pointing all around and saying, "autre, autre, autre!" (meaning, "other, other, other!") I couldn't figure out what he was pointing at for the first while, but I eventually started to notice houses that looked like the ones that we were building and from there realized that he was pointing to all the other building projects that had been completed by teams like ours, working with Becky and Charles in that community. Once he saw that I understood, he just wanted to keep shaking my hand. I asked him if any were his (I think), and he said no, but he was still very grateful for what was happening in his community.

We painted the house a bright sky blue on the outside and peptol bismal pink on the inside (as per the family's request). The kids all LOVED helping us paint. At one point the youngest girl (who was I think 3 yrs old) was frustrated because her older sister wouldn't give her a chance to use the paint brush. I called her over and let her hold onto the roller with me and we started painting the lower part of the wall together. She was a little unsure at first, but when she saw the wall start turning pink she turned to look at me, back at the wall, back at me and then started bouncing up and down while she painted with more enthusiasm than I'd seen all week. It was the cutest thing ever!

The father often wanted to help, but I think he felt like he wasn't as capable of hammering in the nails as the rest of us (which was clearly untrue, but it was difficult to communicate to him that none of us had a clue what we were doing either). In any case, he wandered around most of the time inspecting everything that we'd done and then caulking all the walls once the roof was up.

There were older women from the community who would come every day and set up a little market just beside each of the sites where we were working. They sold lots of jewelery, blankets, ponchos, purses, etc. It was incredible to think that they would come set up a little shop for the 12-13 of us that were at each house.

What else? Oh! We left Erin at a taco stand... She was one of the girls on the trip. She had been in the candy store (which is next to the taco stand) and somehow we managed to leave without her. The problem was that none of us really noticed. I mean, people noticed that she wasn't around, but if anyone said, "Where's Erin?" the response generally indicated that she was with someone else. Except she wasn't. She eventually made her way back to us even though she didn't have any contact information, didn't know where we were staying, didn't speak any Spanish, etc. Whew. We implemented a buddy system after that.

Well, that's about all I can write for now! Have a stellar long weekend friends!

Ontario :: Mexico :: Langley -- Part I

2008-05-11T21:33:00.003-04:00

It's May 11th and after crashing at Lois' place last night, I was picked up and brought to my new home (for the summer) by Carson and Brenda this afternoon! The past four weeks have been absolutely crazy with the last few days of exams, followed by an incredible (albeit too short) stint in Ontario, followed again by another intense and beautiful week in Mexico.

There are many moments, memories and thoughts to update you with, and I promise to try to get most of them posted at some point during the next week or two. For now, I'll fill you in on where I'm at in this time and place -- the rest is still processing in my heart and mind.

I'm exhausted and a little bit unsettled as a result of the myriad of transitions from Burquitlam to SFU to Ontario to Mexico and finally to Langley; from school to home to house building and eventually to work at Arrow. I feel as though God has been overwhelming me with ideas and lessons (mostly along the same few themes) and experiences -- and right now my prayer is for Him to slow down so that I can catch up.

While most of you have heard about the theme of provision and trust that God has been working through my life over the past few months, there has been one other consistent theme that has been becoming more and more prominent in my heart and mind as I struggle to figure out what it is that God is asking of me right now.

It was good to be at home and to think through some important identity questions – I was able to recognize and fully accept that while the decisions I make now are important and will significantly impact the next season of my life, who I am called to be is more important than what I am called to be. Even more important: I can be that person now. Or at least get started.

That said, I need to act. I don’t know what the means or what it is supposed to look like. I only know that God is telling me to act. In addition to thinking, dreaming, and praying about who I should be and how to live that out, I need to act and I need to start now. I only wish that I understood what to do with that – where do I go from here?

I feel like my eyes have been opened as I’ve become more informed about the world and the hurt and injustice that exists there. As I learn about Africa and Mexico and other “developing” nations, I do not feel called to move there and build houses or plant churches. Instead, I only feel compelled to do something in this place and time.

*sigh*

This is where I am today. Called… but to what?

more than a degree?

2008-04-21T00:06:00.003-04:00

i feel like tonight was a perfect example of why i'm in unversity, and why... what you take doesn't matter so much as the fact that you're taking something. i've heard the "learning how to think" explanation before, but i feel like tonight i lived out what that meant.

i went bowling with some friends, and it was great fun. after bowling, we went to wendy's for some frosty-goodness (did you know they come in vanilla now!?) and spent a couple of hours chatting about these incredibly intense and important issues like citizenship and civic/government/individual responsibility and how christianity plays into all that. when we talked about africa, i knew the context because of the modern african history course that i just finished. when we talked about politics, i felt like a part of the conversation in part because of the specific things that i've been learning in my classes, but even moreso because i feel like i've learned to think things through in a much different and deeper way than i ever did before.

the more time i spend at university studying about history and philosophy and having conversations about the state of the world today... the more i feel like the ball is in our court, and we're just watching it sit in the middle of the floor. that or feebly chasing it around the room.

i'm working on this paper proposal right now, and it's so interesting and exciting and i want so badly to have the opportunity to write the paper... but it's so difficult to narrow down what i want to write about. i think though,that for this particular piece, i will to write about citizenship in light of individualism, and argue that individualism = apathy. not that they're the same thing, but that individualism leads to apathy in terms of politics and civic participation.

anyway.

we had some good conversation tonight and i enjoyed it. a lot. but i left feeling overwhelmed, disappointed, and mosty hopeless. because the ball being in our court... that should be exciting. instead, it almost brings me to tears because i have so little faith in the ability or even the desire for our society and culture (myself included) to change our attitudes and actions in terms of the way our world is being governed.

i spent some time talking to god about these thoughts and conversations as i drove home, and can only keep returing to the same conclusion. the ball is in our court. and that is hopeless.

but god is bigger. he's bigger than our individualism and he's bigger than our apathy. he's bigger than aids and poverty and greed. he's bigger than loneliness and hopelessness and corruption. it is these things that give me hope, and i'm holding on with everything in me and begging god to reveal himself to my generation so that we truly can live for something greater than ourselves.

healthy!

2008-04-15T03:12:00.004-04:00

not that i was ever especially unhealthy, but it's kind of refreshing to actually look forward to seeing the doctor twice a year (or so) which is so vastly different from former experiences of days gone by. (neither meagan nor i were big fans of the doctor we saw as kids -- he was a smart man, but with no tact and well, if he had a heart, he hid it well.)

it's amazing how much of a difference it makes in my life to have a good doctor. seriously. i remember seeing signs up at mcmaster in the diabetes clinic that encouraged patients to consider the team at the clinic as 'partners' or 'team-members' but being almost disgusted by my drastically different real-life experiences there. don't get me wrong, as soon as i switched to the adult clinic, things were better, but that was only one or two visits before i went traveling and then moved here so there wasn't much on which to base any new opinions.

anyway, so what i'm getting at is that... it's true! the whole notion of a "team" and partnering with your endocrinologist (that's a doctor who specializes in treating diabetes) can actually work.

the first time i met dr. julie (cool things number 1: my doctor and i are on a first-name basis. very refreshing!), we just went through the basic "get to know you" conversation where you talk for 10-15 minutes about everything other than your diabetes. funny thing though, she was genuine. and we had some things in common. like... a love for camp!

remember when i spent a week at diabetes camp last summer? and how i'm going back again this year? julie is the one who told me about that opportunity and even gave me a ride to the ferry so i could go up a day early with her to enjoy the camp before all the kids arrived.

ok, so first there's the genuine caring and just plain friendly nature she's got. then... i'm a person. i'm not stupid, i don't need to hear the cliched "do the same thing every day for 3-4 day and all your problems with regards to diabetes will be magically solved" because a) she's young herself and still remembers that consistency is just plain impossible for university students and b) she works mostly with teenagers/young adults and so has ideas and suggestions that are not only do-able, but actually work-able too.

and, she gets it. my A1C (that's the measure of your average blood glucose levels for approx 3 months) wasn't horrible, but it wasn't all that fantastic either. for the first time ever, i spent 45 minutes with a doctor who i could talk to, really talk to, about how frustrated i was with my inability to control this as well as i wanted to and where i thought some of the issues might be, but how i didn't know what to do or how to take of those things.

so first... she helps me out by providing me with an insulin that wasn't, at that time, covered by the health care system here and that i would never have been able to afford on my own. because of my job at starbucks, i was able to get a pump which eliminated the need for that insulin, but it'd been helpful for a time anyway.

so anyway. today i went in and my A1C is (for the first time since i can remember) actually within the range that you're supposed to aim for -- it's not all dr. julie. the pump has helped tremendously, i've been purposely more on top of things, and there are other staff at the clinic at eagle ridge who i see and who have given some other helpful suggestions. but the reality?

being treated like a person and cared for my a doctor who listens and takes into consideration the realities of the real world when doling out advice and offering encouragement in light of the frustrations that come with having any kind of chronic illness -- it makes a difference.

so while my diabetes has always been a part of my life and it's never been horribly out of control, it's like... everyone's got a list of things to take care of: work, rent, groceries, studies, relationships, etc. and this was something on my list that i felt like i could never put a "check" beside. like i could never get it right.

and now, not only am i excited about "getting it right" but before getting to that point, i was able to come to terms with the knowledge that it was ok to miss the mark -- missing the mark did not mean that i was failing. i was not a failure. that feeling? it's freeing.

anyway. so i had a good time hanging out with dr. julie today, and i'm looking forward to october when i can show up with an even better a1c and a new goal -- because the goal i've been trying to reach for more than five years? i found out today that i've been there for the last three months. and all that extra testing i had on friday... (about once every year you get screened for about a million other things that could be wrong with you) apparently everything other than my pancreas is in absolutely perfect condition.

woot ;)

thanks for listening... muchos love amigos!

i should be sleeping...

2008-04-13T07:31:00.003-04:00

'stead of studying (because keeping late hours dreaming wouldn't be so bad, but these late-hour study sessions are going to kill me. or at least make me grouchy tomorrow.)*

it's 4:30am and i've got a lot of studying done since about 6pm. unfortunately, i spent most of the actual day-light hours on saturday failing in my attempts to focus for more than 15 minutes at a time. it was so sunny and beautiful outside, but if i sat in the sun it was too hot, and if i was inside the house, i was too distracted by the sun to be able to study. this is what we call a lose-lose situation.

i didn't get any studying done on friday either, but i don't feel bad about that. i rocked my ancient greek final (easiest exam EVER: i love that language). then i got some blood work done. generally i've found that the lab here has been fantastic, but on friday i had this evil nurse woman who decided that when she missed my vein the first time, she should just jab around to find it instead of attempting the other arm. when i said "ow!" followed by something of a glare, she just ignored me and kept fishing. meanie.

after taking care of my stab wounds, i went back to my ex-home and finished packing, then proceeded to clean out every cupboard and drawer in the kitchen. jeanne came over with her giant suburban around 1pm, and by 1:35 it was filled with everything i own. that's right, my life fits into a suburban. (which is huge, but still). off we went to jane's garage in langley where we unloaded all of my things to their resting place (for the next 4 weeks anyway).

next was the return home (it's been so good seeing jeanne again, have i mentioned that she and kelly and the kids have returned from the US of A and are back on the mountain? because they are. woot!)

upon arriving at ex-home, i watched an episode of "veronica mars" in an effort to relax, and then jen and her mom arrived and we cleaned that place 'til it shone. or at least got rid of the cobwebs.

and now, i'm free! no more crazy landlady trying to raise the rent three times the legal limit with no notice, no more forced all-nighters because said crazy landlady is still on china time and wants to move furniture around in the kitchen above my room ALL NIGHT LONG.

i'm not bitter at all, as you can tell.

oh, but i am staying in jocelyn's room for the next week. on campus, with sheets and dishes (so i didn't have to keep any of those and store them somewhere here instead of with the rest of my things in langley while i return home and go to mexico).

so this is good news.

if only i can actually focus on studying...

but now it's almost 5am so i should really try to get at least 5 hours of sleep or so, and then back to the books tomorrow in the AM!

if i can finish (or mostly finish) going through my publishing process notes tomorrow, it means i'll have more time to study for african history which is what i think i really need... so crazy. so crazy. i cannot wait until april 17. it almost makes me want to cry with relief just thinking about it. only 105 hours until i am boarding a plane for ontario. as much as that sounds great, it's also a little terrifying. being that in that 105 hours i need to study for and write two more exams, plus sleep. maybe throw in a few meals. ahhh.

breathe. just breathe.

*note the reference to Rascal Flatt's chorus, "I should be sleeping 'stead of keeping these late hours I've been keeping, I should be sleeping 'stead of dreaming about you..."

the world is spinning...

2008-04-07T01:35:00.003-04:00

and i'm not sure i can keep up!

i spent most of my weekend cramming massive amounts of information about classical islamic civilization into my brain and now, i can't stop thinking about caliphates and imams and umayyads vs abbasids. gah.

in other news:

i went to see a play on thursday because my friend lois is a stage manager and i enjoy going to see all of her plays. this one, however, was the most thought-provoking and easily my favourite so far.

oddly enough, it was about a pedophile. instead of portraying this intensely evil character though, it was just about a man. he's just come out of prison (he was there for 12 years), and he's struggling to figure out what normal is and how he can get to that place again.

the question that keeps being raised, is if it's possible. can he change? if he can't, is it his own fault, or is because the world around him continues to tell him that it's impossible? his sister won't see him or let him anywhere near her kids, and there's an unprofessional and abusive police officer who makes no attempt to hide his contempt. the actor did an incredible job of depicting the man's frustrations with his own sickness, in addition to his awareness of the wrongs he'd done and his sincere desire to be free from the 'addiction' that once controlled him.

if nothing else, this play demonstrated the reality that even though children grow up, the name calling only becomes more subtle -- and it's difficult or perhaps even impossible to ignore the voices around you when they all seem to be shouting that you're worthless scum, a failure, and without hope.

very very good. if you live in the lower mainland, you should go see it at pacific theatre (near granville and broadway) between now and april 26.

oh and the actor, as previously mentioned -- very good. and good looking. it was almost scary how quickly i felt myself swooning over a known pedophile. it must have been the plaid shirt.

anything else? not so much.

i'm moving soon. packing is ουτως (greek = emphasis, like 'so') not fun. last time i moved, i had 5-6 boxes and we fit it all into the back of jen's jeep for one trip down the hill. and now... now there are already 8-10 boxes and one duffle bag and i haven't even packed my clothes or my duvet and pillows or my printer, this semester's studying materials or my craft stuff or dishes. ahhh.

estimation... the clothes will fit in the laundry hamper, the duvet etc. will fit in a garbage bag, and the dishes will fit in 1 big box or two medium sized boxes. the rest of the school stuff and the printer.. another 2 boxes. really, that's about it. so i'm not doing horribly. but it's definitely more than one car load. i'm still hoping it'll be just one load in jeanne's suburban though. those are supposed to be big, right?

ahh. how did i accumulate so much STUFF in just ONE year!?

*please note that my cd player took up two boxes, the sewing machine was another box, and while i haven't acquired any more dishes, i do have more non-perishable foodstuffs to take along with me, plus another quilt from my mom (those are big!) and probably double the clothes. which is good, since i used to be able to fit my entire wardrobe in one duffle bag.

but still.

moving back home in another 2-3 years... i will definitely have to rent myself a truck or something. who wants to go on a roadtrip in 2011?

*sigh*

muchos love amigos.

pro-ductive.

2008-04-02T05:21:00.002-04:00

i'm telling you. it's too bad that university operates on a mostly 9-5 (or at least a "during the day") schedule because i am definitely at least three times more productive between the hours of midnight and 3am.

tonight (between the hours of 9pm-2:30am) i was able to complete my last paper for the semester, finish my greek homework, watch the newest episode of "the big bang theory" (no, it's not about darwin. it's a hilarious show about two physicists who live in an apartment across from a friendly, but definitely much cooler, blonde girl), and i think there's something else i managed to cross of my "to-do" list but i don't remember what it is right now.

woot.

oh wait, i do remember. i packed some more. mostly clothes. one garbage bag for the salvation army and the other for things that i won't be needing between now and may 10th.

fun fun fun.

happy sigh.

2008-03-30T02:24:00.004-04:00

so today was our "Mexican Fiesta" fundraiser/end-of-year event for UCM and it was an amazing evening of karaoke, "rock band," yummy mexican food, pinata, pictures and friends! lots and lots of friends. plus we raised money for an excellent cause :)

that said, i'm too wired to sleep right now but too tired to do actual school work.

I was inspired by a link from another blog though, to write out a list of 100 things I'd like to experience before i die. i had a list of three things for a long time. i wanted to spend at least a year at bible college, go to australia, and get married (have a family). i've already crossed off two of my major life-goals, so i suppose the last one will be the first thing to be added to my new extended list of aspirations. oh, and i'm listing 50 instead of 100 because i should really get back to writing my next paper instead of my goals for the next 25-50 years ;)

so, without further ado, here is a (off the top of my head) list of 50 things* i would someday like to do (not in any particular order):

*my apologies for #20-27. i could have just said "travel" for one answer and be done with it, but let's face it: i have specific travel destinations in mind.

get married
go sky diving
go winter camping
become a master scuba diver (highest non-professional certification)
get published or help to publish someone else
lead someone to Jesus
be a mentor
take a photography course
become fluent in another language
own a dog
buy a house
get my motorcycle license
translate the book of Romans from the original Greek
learn how to two-step
become a better listener
TA for a Humanities course
sew something useful
sleep on a beach
swim or scuba dive with dolphins
go to greece
and south africa (or africa in general)
and thailand
visit my sponsor-child in bangladesh
visit every country in europe
visit every province in canada (6 down, 5 to go)
see israel
and india
have at least one child
complete the west coast trail
and the east coast trail
climb a mountain
have an entire set of dishes that match
go hang-gliding
read every book by orson scott card
work at one job for at least five years. and love it.
share an "our song" with someone special
graduate from university
with a CGPA of 3.8
and $20 000 or less of student loan debt
see the northern lights
get lifeguard certification... or at least the bronze medallion
encourage someone to dream big
and watch that person chase the dreams God gives him/her
see a television program being filmed
love better
invent something cool (and maybe useful)
memorize (and be able to recite) an entire book of the Bible
learn how to snowboard
master the art of the british (northern) accent
dance in the rain

and there it is. my list of lofty goals. this (mom and dad) is what the future of tomorrow dreams about today. at least if by the future of tomorrow, you mean me. scary, but true.

EDIT:
jane (kindly) pointed out that i'd repeated myself, so #41 has now been altered to reflect a new and unique lofty goal. thanks jane!
and yes. the post that inspired this one was the one that you pointed out in your blog ;)

i am SO meant to be a student.

2008-03-26T00:05:00.003-04:00

aside from the parts where i feel completely exhausted, overwhelmed, anxious and unable. not to mention poor.

except really, those are the things that make up the life of a student right?

it's when i get papers back and find out that either a) these guys mark way easier than my teachers in high school did or b) i'm a lot smarter than i think i am -- that all of those things make it worthwhile. part of it is a bad thing i think... it's because i've set the bar high that i tend to put more and more pressure on myself to measure up -- to attain the same grades or better than i did the semester before. and why?

well, partly because this whole open scholarship thing has been pretty cool with two thirds of my tuition being paid for and a guaranteed fabulous registration date.

but there's more. i'm fairly content with being me (we've all got things we'd like to change, but i'm living in light of Jesus' grace which means that i'm a work in progress. still, i'm excited about the person i am now and how that person continues to be shaped and molded as each day, week, and month progresses).

that said, i'm a bit of a perfectionist -- especially when it comes to school. i've never been much good at sports or artsy things, i suck at speaking in public, and though lively, i'm not the "life of the party" funny person. i have always done well at school, and because of that, it sometimes becomes my refuge, or my measuring stick. if i fail at school, it's like i fail at being me because so often i let my value be determined by the number or letter on the papers, tests and projects of this academic world i've surrounded myself with.

so what happens when i don't do well in a course? i'm hoping that i don't have to find out (i still want to keep that scholarship!) but i also know that i need to find my refuge and my value in Christ -- apart from the bar set for me by myself or the world of academia.

anyway.

i got my final paper from cmns 372 back -- i feel awful for how little time and energy i've put into that course so far, and especially this paper. i wrote it, and had i had more time, i would have re-written the whole thing in light of what i'd learned writing it the first time. unfortunately, i didn't have more time (because i left it too late) and so was forced to hand it in anyway. and once again, i've done much better than i'd anticipated or hoped for. (yes paulman, i know: surprise, surprise. but the reality is -- it generally IS a surprise to me. every. single. time.)

hurray for university. and the fact that i'm almost done for the summer. whew.

adrenaline.

2008-03-20T03:33:00.002-04:00

so i've been going absolutely crazy (and bringing anyone in my vicinity along for the ride) all day.

i had my last midterm this afternoon at 12:30pm. i also had a weird conversation with a friend last night that i couldn't get out of my head. oh, and this morning at 9am (half-way through my ancient greek class) dr. geoffrey schmulz came in to speak with us about september.

i think... i really think i might actually go to greece in september instead of going for the field school next summer.

seriously.

it sounds like the most incredibly amazing opportunity EVER and i can't imagine turning it down. big news.

so. while i've barely slept in the past 2 days, and it's already almost 1am and i've got another early morning tomorrow... my body is still full of adrenaline and let me tell you, i've been more focused and awake today than in a long time. i think i like adrenaline ;)

on that note, i should try to get at least something of a good night's sleep tonight -- much love friends. if anyone knows of a good way to get to greece (like some secret extra-cheap route), do let me know! i should know about this for sure by the time i get back from mexico in early may. crazy hey?

note to self...

2008-03-16T07:43:00.003-04:00

angel food cake. rises. a lot.

but if it's twice as high as the pan, so you can't lay the pan on its side to cool, don't worry -- it'll fall down into itself and end up not-so-risen in the end.

still tasty with strawberries. which are affordable once more. woot.

and papers. oh so many papers. only four weeks left. four? five. not very many weeks left. i need summer. oh, how i am looking forward to april 17.

really, i'm enjoying this semester. i am. my classes are ALL interesting (which makes it much much cooler than if half of them sucked--see blogs about my previous semester). but still, for some reason the writing is just. not. happening.

even the walk in the afternoon sunshine didn't get much more than 200 words out of me.

ah well. i'll take a break and translate some greek. maybe then some ideas about technology and publishing will miraculously pop into my head and translate easily onto the keyboard and computer screen. weird, how in upper level classes you don't just regurgitate the information anymore... i have to actually think about this one. bah. thinking is highly over rated.

unproductive.

2008-03-09T19:08:00.003-04:00

it sucks that at this time of the year when i've got sooo much to do ALL the time, i feel like i'm in my absolute least productive state of mind and being. i wanted to write two papers this weekend (finish up one, and totally write the other).

i did finish one, and caught up on my reading. and thought of what to write for the other... which means that monday will likely be another looong night of writing. we'll see. tonight after church i'll try to attempt some greek homework, but will likely crash early because of the loss of an hour's sleep yesterday on top of an already late night out and early morning today.

i went to ucm's saturday night dinner hang-out time thing... for lack of a better description?

afterwards some of us went out for bubble tea (i tagged along for the people but resisted the urge to buy anything) and then this morning i went to a morning church which was actually quite refreshing.

anyway. so i'm sleepy. and if i wasn't doing powerpoint tonight at church, i think i'd probably just go home and sleep now. alas, i'm on campus with no energy to write anymore and no greek text (i left it at home) but not much else to do other then head to church reaaaally early.

that said, off i go.

oh, and the midterms i was freaking out about... they went fine. better than fine actually. there's hope for me yet.

much love!

oh dear.

2008-03-04T08:22:00.003-05:00

it's 5:22am.

my history paper is pretty much done... almost. i mean, i wrote it. i could hand it in tomorrow and i'd pass. but i don't want to pass. i want to excel. so i'll wait 'til i hear back from my ta and then i'll edit-edit-edit and it'll be wonderful.

now i just have to write the other history paper.

except that it's 5:22am and i have to work at 9am and can't figure out if it would be better for me to go to bed now for 1.5 hrs of sleep, or just shower and do my greek homework before work so that after alpha tonight i can go to sleep early early early.

i think i'm going to go with that. i'm not tired right now anyway. i'm on my third wind. or maybe fourth. i'm on a wind anyway.

goodness, i've pulled more of these quasi-all-nighters in the past two weeks than i did all of last year. bah.

what do cobblers do?

2008-03-01T18:43:00.006-05:00

they cobble. thus, 'cobbling' is a word. i hope my ta agrees with me, since i'm definitely using it in my essay: "those who were poor or working in a base occupation such as fishing or cobbling..."
meh. I've got microsoft word's dictionary on my side.

i'm excited. this paper is finally going somewhere, maybe i'll even have it done by monday so that my ta can read over it for me, ensuring at least an 'A-' if i can follow all of his suggestions for improvement afterward...

oh. so i bumped into my greek prof outside the AQ the other day and he introduced me to this other prof who will be heading up... the semester abroad in greece that's happening in september.

WHAT!?

i've pretty much committed to doing the greece field school next summer, but now there's this new semester-abroad thing which is similar, but longer, and with an archeological dig around what used to be CORINTH. ahh ahh ahh. what to do, what to do. pray. lots of praying. so many options, so little time... and money. either option = greece, so really... it's not a huge deal. but a DIG!? and a whole semester? it's like telling me i could visit heaven for four months.

and now... back to that paper or um, since it's 4pm, maybe i should shower and get ready to go out. jen and i have dinner plans and then there will be dancing, swing dancing. at the legion. THEN it will be back to paper time. woot.

Another Summer @ Arrow

2008-02-28T23:04:00.004-05:00

Today was Thursday #3 of working at Arrow this month and sometime in mid-afternoon, Steve approached me and asked if I could meet with Tarra and him "to discuss my future" since Steve's been involved in planning my future for the past decade (his words - strange, but somewhat true).

10 minutes later, and I'll be back at Arrow this summer!

Tarra will be my supervisor this year (last year it was Steve), but the work will be quite similar. I'll have an extra day each week since I don't have a second job this time around, and I'm SO looking forward to balancing ONE job this summer instead of two (translation : time OFF to actually ENJOY a summer in British Columbia!)

Anyhoo. I start shortly after my return from Mexico and will continue until Sept, just like last year. *sigh* I love the less-worry factor associated with knowing I've got a job lined up for the summer. Particularly since it's a job I LIKE.

I'll have to print out an actual COLOUR photo of my family for the desk this year instead of the make-shift black and white one from last year ;)

Anyhoo. Off to translate some Greek!

procrastination strikes again...

2008-02-25T20:40:00.002-05:00

it's so sunny out. this is day 8 of an almost unbroken stretch of sunshine. there was one day of clouds in there somewhere, but 7/8 ain't bad. especially considering the fact that i live in vancouver. so so so good. it's been warm too! like 10-12 C!!

i feel like it should be june. this is june weather.

plus, june = end of school. actually, now that i'm in university, may = end of school. but still. june weather. very early june. maybe may. either way, it's waaaay better here than in ontario. it has to happen sometimes right?

in other news.

i have many hours of researching and writing and reading this week. and next week. and pretty much every week between now and april 17. bah.

good things happening though. i just wish i could see the words i'm trying to read so that i could take the notes from this book that i have to return to the library tomorrow and eventually use said notes to write aforementioned paper. *sigh*

time for a nap. much love friends. someone should write me a letter.

sunshine and lollipops and...

2008-02-19T13:42:00.005-05:00

ok so there were no lollipops. but today is the third day IN A ROW of beautiful sunshine-y goodness. so far i've had at least 4 people comment on my choice of attire (birkenstocks and a skirt) and so far i've received only odd looks when i explain that sunshine=springtime=sandals. i think the springtime=sandals part is clear, but no one can let bygones be bygones when it comes to determining what indicates the start of spring (dates-schmates -- sunshine, my friends -- it's aaaaaall in the sunshine!).

so yes, the sandals are a wee bit chilly, but oh so worth it.

i love sunny days in bc. (i pretty much love sunny days anywhere...)

fun fun fun! oh, and even though there aren't lollipops, there is chocolate from switzerland, which i suppose will suffice ;)

and midterms. there are also midterms. kind of takes away from the warmth of the sunshine-y goodness, but yesterday's was a breeze and i've got the rest of today (mostly) to finish preparing for the next two tomorrow...

also today.

i joined some ucm-ers at IHOP for breakfast at 7:30 for the $2 breakfast special (three pancakes + 2 sausage OR 2 eggs, 2 sausage, toast and hashbrowns for $2!!!!) unless you're josh who orders two of the $3 meals and somehow still finishes first. i can't decide whether it's impressive or gross.

but i decided that i may just have to go to ihop once/week for this rather enjoyable (and cheap) community-building endeavour. next week, i have to try the blueberry syrup.

weeeell. i suppose i should get back to actually studying now. *sigh* wish me luck! enjoy the sunshine my vancouverite friends!

3:02. am.

2008-02-17T06:02:00.004-05:00

It is currently 3:02am and here I sit in quiet despair (or desperation?), lamenting the fact that I have been studying for hours and have retained... not very much. definitely not enough.

there is always tomorrow. Jesus, let the sun come out tomorrow. Or not, but at least help me to REMEMBER stuff and not fail my midterm on Monday. Or the two on Wednesday. Or the paper due Tuesday. Oi.

In happier news, Jen is back from Switzerland. And she's awake too. (I love jet-lag, it's usually so lonely at 3am). And she brought chocolate. Swiss chocolate. The tales you hear of the splendor of swiss chocolate... friends, they are entirely true. yum.

so many things

2008-02-16T23:11:00.002-05:00

so i've had no internet at home since last saturday (and no one at home with whom to converse about the goings on of my days since Jen left last Saturday and only returned from Switzerland this afternoon) and it was driving me insane!

seriously, i had no idea how much i took for granted being able to communicate my thoughts via blog or e-mail or facebook at random moments while i should be doing homework, or even being able to do homework at HOME (researching papers is difficult without having access to um, research).

not to mention the fact that i do all my banking online. and communicating. did i mention communication? friends, family, tutor-markers, professors even! i was unable to complete my greek homework last weekend (i mean, i completed it, but i won't be credited with the completion) because we E-MAIL our translations to the prof on saturdays. which is one of the very few days each week not requiring my trek up to sfu.

anyway.

so this week:
i finished (or mostly finished except for now fixing up the sentences edited by Marianne this afternoon) my publishing paper.
i started to realize how much i don't know about greek (mostly endings and paradigms -- personal pronouns, relative pronouns, etc. did you know that there are over 24 ways to say the word, "the"!?), modern african history and classical islamic civilization.

i think i've got the greek memorized, and a good start on africa. i'll finish writing those study notes up tonight. tomorrow morning will be writing of classical islamic civilization study notes. followed by memorizing of africa study notes because africa midterm = monday.

um what else this week?

thursday!!

on thursday, i worked at arrow. it was so good to be back at "my" cubicle. i love that place. i think i'm destined to someday be an over-educated secretary or admin assistant in a small office environment like that, because it's perfect.

anyway, it was mostly exciting to see people (hi jane!) and to see SURGE. the 35 under 35 magazine. i didn't work on the magazine at all, but i did spend a lot of time working with the project last year and so it was sooo cool to see some of what came out of it.

and work. to go in with a list of "to do" and come out having most of them crossed off. i like the feeling of having actually finished something. doesn't happen much in university... the list continues to grow while you continue to cross off one thing and have two or three things quickly added *sigh*.

though, we're (by "we" i mean my TA on behalf of myself and a few others in my tutorial) negotiating with my professor for african history to release us from the obligation to write two more papers AND a midterm prior to the final exam -- especially since nothing is worth anything. seriously. our next assignment is worth 5% of our grade. but for that measly 5% we're expected to read an entire novel and write 4-5 pages of analytical thought referring to the novel and our readings about the biafran war (throughout which the novel takes place). i like the assignment, i don't like the idea of spending hours and hours on a paper that isn't worth anything. hopefully we can get rid of the paper after that and make this one worth 15%.

*crosses fingers in hopeful anticipation*

also this week.

SIX vaccinations for mexico on friday morning = SIX shots (four IM (in the muscle) and two regular) in ONE sitting = very achy arms today. apparently i have very firm shoulder muscles. i blame my backpack.

luckily, they didn't charge me for hep B or tetanus or the polio booster or the MMR booster. just hep A and typhoid. and the appointment. still, it was way less expensive than i'd anticipated. woot.

almost makes up for the way my arms won't function properly today.

did i mention my backpack at all? i can't remember. i got a great deal downtown. GREAT deal. if i haven't told the story, let me know and i'll regale you with it next time.

much love and hugs.

publishing... in China?

2008-02-04T18:27:00.001-05:00

so. i don't really care about the legal details that need to be taken into consideration by canadian publishing houses hoping to co-publish with publishing houses in China.

and i mean, there are considerations to consider. but 1500 words worth? um, no.

decisions, decisions!

2008-01-30T14:24:00.000-05:00

well. it's been quite the week!

i suppose i will begin... last week. and attempt some chronological order, though i'm not sure it will help you follow the flow of events and/or thoughts taking place. my life is way too random. i've decided i kind of like it that way ;)

so last week i chose to pull two almost-all-nighters, and sleep less than 5 hours every other night (although there was some lengthy napping to ensure survival and get rid of the headaches resulting from lack of sleep). "why?" you might ask... well. i finished all of my reading for the week before going to bed on wednesday, completed a paper that was due today (which is now due tomorrow because we're having another snow day at sfu *sigh*) and handed it in on monday, went to the first alpha meeting (and loved it), wrote a few cards and letters etc., and of course, caught up on all other homework and assignments for this week by the end of the evening on sunday. (except greek, which wasn't assigned until class on monday, but which i was able to do yesterday because i had no work or school due to, again, copious amounts of beautiful snow.)

having tuesday off, i probably could have gotten a head start on my next paper due for my distance ed publishing course. i've done the readings for it already... however. i chose instead, to catch up on sleep and register for ucm's mexico mission trip (and finish my greek homework, of course).

today the burnaby campus is open (ie. you can get there by bus) but classes are all cancelled. i couldn't handle being inside my room for another entire day, so i'm up on the mountain as i write this. my goal for today: finish next week's reading assignments so that on thursday (tomorrow), i can start writing the publishing paper i neglected to look at yesterday. if i can get that done early, i can then start on my term paper for classical islamic civilization. gah. so much writing this semester! it's a good thing i like writing papers. mostly. at least these are on topics that interest me, or at least that i can develop an interest in.

oh yes, so mexico.

most of you who know me, will know that i tend not to make decisions quickly. or even in a timely manner. (shopping with me generally only happens once. i can't understand why no one else takes an hour to choose which pair of shoes or what backpack or which pair of jeans to buy. these decisions take time, reflection and research my friends!)

that said, i normally have a fairly good idea of what decision i think i'll make, the timely part comes in when i then proceed to research every possible detail before making an actual commitment.

on tuesday, i would have made you all proud. i made a decision and committed to it in less than 15 minutes.

i was on the UCM website to find out which day of the week the lounge took place (i thought it was wednesday, same as last semester, but wanted to be sure -- it is on wednesday, for those of you who are curious. from 2-4pm.) on said website, there was a link for some information about the mexico mission trip. i clicked on it, read through the brochure and almost immediately determined that i needed to go. not just wanted to (though i definitely want to and am super-excited about it), but needed to. this is what happened to me when i chose to go to tyndale. it was like... God says go, and there's nothing you could really say or do to convince yourself that you didn't hear it. i don't get those taps (or lightening bolts, as was the case this time) often, and so it's generally pretty easy to say, "yes!" because really, nothing else makes sense.

so i sent an e-mail to kirsten, praying for something to be able to work out with flight arrangements (if this was going to work, it'd be WAY easier to fly to meet everyone in san diego, than to fly from home--ontario--back to vancouver and then down to san diego all in the same day) and that my parents wouldn't be too disappointed at my cutting my trip home short by 3 days. at this point, i'd already committed, but for those things to work out would be very reassuring.

well. flights have been arranged and booked, my parents are understanding (they're pretty stellar though, they tend to support just about any decision i make even if they think i'm an idiot -- i mean, they'll tell me i'm an idiot, but they support me anyway which is wonderful and i love them for it. in this case though, i think it's more of an actual we-support-you-and-we-don't-think-you're-an-idiot deal. woot!)

so. may 1-10th i will be in mexico helping to build a house for a family who needs it. expect a letter requesting support soon (prayer and/or financial)! if you don't want to wait for a letter, let me know -- i'll be happy to include you in my prayer-update-letters and/or take your money at any time ;)

in other news:

on thursday, i am going to see a play with my friend, lois. lois works at a theatre and until this year, i'd been to maybe two plays in my entire life (one with school, and one with my aunt and uncle in australia). now... i get to go on a monthly basis and i either usher to earn my tickets, or as is the case this time, go as lois' guest. fun times!

jen and i are probably moving in the spring. if you think about it, pray that we are able to find a place in a good location for a price we can both afford (or that we find separate places that we can afford -- we're hoping to find something together but realize that we may not be looking for all the same things). if you live in the lower mainland and happen to hear of a place -- we're looking along hastings somewhere -- between hastings and lougheed hwy (though the other side of hastings may be ok as well) and somewhere west of brentwood, but not much further west than broadway.

what else?

i don't think there is anything else at this point. other than noting, one more time, that we are experiencing lots and lots of snow right now. lots. more than i've seen here before. and it's beautiful. but i had wanted to go to my classes today. *sad face*

i will try to take pictures. no promises.

much love friends!!

OH! and home. for those of you in ontario -- april 17-may 1. i am going to attempt to persuade my parents to open up their home for a party on april 18th (friday). you're all invited. i think. will follow up with more details in the somewhat near future.

memorizing africa

2008-01-23T02:58:00.001-05:00

i have a geography "quiz" tomorrow for my modern african history course.

apparently we shouldn't worry about it. it's not a big deal. we just need to memorize 54 countries, 22 waterways and 6 environments -- locations and correct spellings.

fun fun fun.

oh, and for those of you who argued with me on friday night about whether or not timbuktu exists and/or is located in africa... i was right. it does exist, and it is located in africa. so there.

the rest of my week:

tomorrow
- 9:30 -
co-op intake interview (1 hour)

- 10:30 -
classical islamic civilization lecture (1 hour)

- 11:30 -
ucm girl's bible study (1 hour)

- 12:30 -
modern african history lecture (1 hour)

- 1:30 -
classical islamic civilization tutorial (1 hour)

- 3:30 -
modern african history tutorial (1 hour)

- 4:30 - (3 hours)
work at crisp (closing shift)

- 8:30 - (ish)
get some reading done -- two chapters in publishing reader, one chapter in publishing text

and then sleep.

thursday
- 10 am -
wake up. maybe.

to-do:
- ex. 202 and 206 for ancient greek
- read maji maji article and ch. 21-23 for modern african history. finish novel. take notes for reading responses -- due tuesday of next week.
- clean room. it's mostly ok, but i should vacuum and do laundry. really.
- more sleep.

friday
- 10:30 - (1 hour)
classical islamic civilization lecture

- 11:30 - (8 hours)
work at crisp (closing shift)

- 8:30 - (ish)
reading for classical islamic civilization. pp. 172 - 195, and sourcebook articles 3 & 4.
skim ancient greek homework (to be completed on saturday)

more sleep.

saturday
- 10 am -
wake up. maybe.

to do:
- write reading response for maji maji article
- complete ancient greek homework.
- write reading response for novel -- half of a yellow sun. maybe.

really. it's just tomorrow that will be insane. after that, as long as i get something done every day, i might even be able to take sunday off. we'll see.

tonight was the first alpha meeting at sfu and it went really well! it's been sunny for two days in a row, and now that i've got most of africa memorized, i'm feeling pretty ok about tomorrow... so really. all is on the up and up.

and now. it's time for sleep. much love friends.

more surprises!

2008-01-20T04:56:00.000-05:00

well.

i started off my birthday with a surprise phone call from my parents at 7:30am! it wasn't a surprise that they called me, only that the call was so early ;) the timing was perfect though, and even after our conversation i still had plenty of time to be up and ready for class in time (if they'd called much later, i likely would have been late).

class was followed by tutorial which was followed by my return home and attempts at reading... which was promptly followed by an impromptu (and unintentional) two hour nap. then... then it was time to get ready for a dinner at montana's with lois.

and about 15 other people.

gah!!!

my first surprise was the bouquet of balloons waiting for me in lois' car. the second was almost everyone from church waiting for our arrival at montana's. i had no idea. at all. until, of course, i saw way too many familiar faces and responded by turning around and walking away (what would you have done?)

it was so much fun. i couldn't believe that they'd pulled it off -- even jen hadn't let it spill and she lives with me!

anyhoo. so it was exciting because a) i love montana's regardless of who else is there with me, b) i love lois, but it was fun to have everyone else there too, c) i got lots of birthday cards -- they're all taped up to my wall at home now, and d) there was yet another surprise waiting for me at victor and candice's place where we went for cake afterwards!

before that though... it was fun because some of the people there had never been to montana's before, and i think the response was fairly positive. i love it when other people enjoy the things that i do. woot!

it was victor's birthday today (saturday), so i told the waitress and they made him wear the moose hat too. pictures will be posted soon. (which reminds me, i will also have pictures of camp to post soon since i've been able to get a hold of a card reader and can finally download them to my computer!)

back at vic and candice's place i was given the last of the surprises in the form of a scrapbook filled with notes and pictures from my friends here and even some from my ONTARIO family and friends! CRAZY! i was so surprised when the second entry that i saw was from the Brown family, followed shortly after by a note from GLORIA! there were quite a few more, but man. it was so amazing. i still can't believe that lois and josh managed to get a hold of so many people they've never even met!

in any case, my actual-birthday bash was spectacular which means i pretty much had two perfect evenings in a row -- all because of some special friends who spent way too much time and energy spoiling me this year!

and now... it's 2:30am and i'm just about finished all the homework my mind can handle for tonight so off to bed i go. much love -- and much thanks to those of you who were involved in any of the goings-on of the past few days.