Vancouver 2010

It's coming! After the olympic flag was handed over to Vancouver's Mayor Sam Sullivan at Sunday's closing ceremonies, all the talk is now about the next winter olympics to be held right here in Vancouver!

Watching the flag get hoisted at city hall today, I have to say, it's pretty exciting! This is such a fabulous place to live, and I'm proud to be a Vancouverite! Yippeee!

And the winner is...

Alrighty, so I'm a week behind on this one, so sue me! :P

A while back I posted a contest to name my car. Becca kept calling it "fluffy puff" or "cream puff" or "powder puff." I created this contest specifically so it wouldn't end up with any of those names. Sorry Bex, I love ya, but no thanks! ;-)

I got some great entries both on the site and offline. Here are some favourite suggestions:

Brent suggested "Remington Steele." I love it! It's a great name, perhaps more apt for a big boat like the one I used to have, but very funny! He wins in the "if only I still had a boat" category.

cjoy suggested "Oscar." She wins in the "make Hillary giggle" category. I may still use that one! It's fun!

Happy and Blue wins in the "make Hillary's jaw drop" category for his suggestion of "The Love Machine." Sorry, no lifestyle changes will be made to accomodate that name! :P

I think the overall prize has to go to Brad, though. On the way to a party one night, he suggested, "You should call it Black Beauty.... cause it's not black." It's just dumb enough to be cool! So till I change my mind (oh how fickle I am) my car will now be called "Black Beauty."

Or maybe Oscar Reminton the black beauty of a love machine. Um, or maybe not.

The cat came back

The cat came back. Sandwiches are beautiful, sandwiches are fine. Through a hollow log. Word Bird........Who are you thinking of? If you said Fred Penner, you're right! (ding ding ding! You win!)

Another teacher at my school goes to a church in Burnaby who was hosting two Fred Penner concerts yesterday afternoon. Before the concerts, however, he gave a workshop for parents and teachers about "Honouring the Child." I heard about it and couldn't pass up the opportunity! So, yesterday, I got to meet Fred Penner!!!

I loved his songs growing up. It was him, Raffi, and Charlotte Diamond all the way, baby. But Fred Penner had a TV show called Fred Penner's Place. Remember it? He'd climb through a hollow log into this magical place with puppets and the Word Bird and special guests and lots of fun! At the workshop, he talked about how when he was a kid, he had a secret hiding place in a little grove of trees that whenever he was upset, he'd crawl into. It was a cozy, protected place for him, and special because it was secret, only he knew about it. So when he was asked to do a show, he wanted to create that same kind of place for kids to enjoy the show. Did you ever notice that before he crawled through the hollow log, he'd look over his shoulder to see if anyone had followed him? :) You can view the show opener by clicking here (scroll down a bit and click play when the page opens)

Fred (can I call him Fred? Mr Penner? Nope, it's gonna have to a full meal deal on the name)... Fred Penner talked about his journey and how he ended up doing what he's doing. He told all kinds of great stories from his childhood and how they connected to what he has done in his life. I was really impressed with how purposeful he's been with his career, and how he's captured the meaning of honouring children. Hearing the stories behind a lot of the songs, they have such fabulous messages for children. They're meaningful, not just fluffy. After his talk he opened the floor up to requests and we had a singalong! Squeee! So fun!

Victory!

For one brief fleeting moment, I was cool in the eyes of some grade 6 skater kids today!!! They forgot their props for a Stomp project they're working on, so we were looking for suitable substitutes. I asked them if all they needed was something to serve as a deck (the part of a skateboard that you stand on).

Skater kid: "Yeah. ... ... hey, wait, did you say deck?"
Me: "Yeah."
Skater kid" "Woah! Cool. A teacher knows what a deck is."
Me (nonchalantly, with a slight toss of my head): "Of course! I know what trucks and ollies are, too."

I walked away listening to the sound of 12 year old boys marvelling at the fact that I, a dumb old out of touch music teacher, actually knew about skateboarding. (Thanks to my brother!)

I am so cool. Booyeah! HAHAHAHA!

Good for the soul

Yesterday was incredibly windy. It was one of those marvelous winter days in Vancouver where the sun shone golden on a fresh snowfall on the mountains and you had to lean forward and fight for every step if you were going to try to walk into the wind. They said it would be blowing near 70 km/hr on the beaches.

What better day for an outing? I decided to take a few hours and enjoy the evening before my improv class.

I drove down Oak Street and took in the views of downtown, nestled between the waters of False Creek and the spectacular North Shore mountains. I made my way a little farther west and parked just at the foot of Granville Street. I walked halfway over the Granville Street Bridge, past bundled up pedestrians scurrying accross the bridge, doing their best to get out of the wind as fast as they could. I took my time, hair whipping my face, hands freezing, and laughing at the absurdity of what I was doing. I soaked up every golden reflection on apartments, every whitecap, every kayaker making their way back in (kayakers?!?! In this weather? They had outriggers, for heavens sake! Gotta love Vancouverites). I headed to the beach to watch the waves crash in and see the sun sink into the ocean. I had to squint as I approached because of all the sand blowing off the beach. It blew past the logs on the beach, making the sidewalks look like desert dunes. I ended up with sand in my pockets, sand in my hair, sand in my socks. I even had to pick sand out of my lip gloss.

I walked out to water's edge, took down my ponytail, stretched out my arms, and twirled. The wind roared, the waves crashed, and the snow on the mountains turned pink as the sun began to set. I worked to control my body against the wind. The only thing that mattered was that moment.

Around and around, hair in my face, salt on my skin, twirling.

Where I'm At...

"If the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off."

That about sums up how I'm feeling right now. Tired of suckage, trying to be optimistic. It's been a year of hits for me - stolen car, totalled car, whiplash, a huge piece of my life (Camp Kawkawa) that had closed down... and now some jerk has stolen my wallet from my classroom.

It happened on Thrusday in the space of about 10 minutes. I ALWAYS lock my classroom, but I share it with another teacher who has lost so many keys that the school won't give her another one, so she just leaves when she's done and leaves the door unlocked. She could send a kid to go get a key from me or from the office, but no. Instead, the door was unlocked and someone - most likely from of the street cause of when and how they used my stuff - went into my classroom and took my wallet out of my purse. Thankfully they only took the wallet and left my cell, digital camera, and palm pilot! But still... all my ID, all my cards.... UUUG! They were quick about using my credit card, too: in the space of half an hour or so they racked up $300 in charges.

BUT, I'm trying to be optimistic. I'm usually such a "glass half-full" kinda gal. I'm struggling right now though. Ok, so at least I still have all the other stuff that was in my purse. Hey, I've got a much better car now. As far as Camp goes, God must have something even better up his sleeve if he allowed Kawkawa to close down.... I'm trying to let those things be at the front of my thinking, but it's hard. I've really had enough.

I'm really tired of people getting away with stuff at my expense. Punks steals my car - $300 please, just to get it back. Some guy decides he doesn't want to stop for a red light? Hey look, Hillary has to buy a new car, see a chiropractor twice a week, and deal with a sore back for three months and counting. Crook steals my wallet - digs it right our of my purse - and now I have to pay to have all my ID prelaced, deal with trying to get new ID without any ID in the first place... *SIGH*.

I promise a happier post tomorrow. Tonight I'm just in a sucky mood. Blah.

A Contest! A Contest!

With prizes and EVERYTHING!

I've had my new car for a month, and - SCANDALOUS! - I still haven't named it. I said a while back that I was going to have a contest on my blog to come up with a great name for my new ride. So now's your chance to get creative!


Get aquainted with my old beastmobile first, then read about my new car. OR if you've always had this burning desire to name a car BabaGanouche or some such ridiculousness, just pick a name based on the picture and run with it! Just leave a comment with your suggestion (and perhaps an explanation of WHY you want to name my car that) below. You've got till midnight Tuesday. Check back on Wednesday to see who the weiner... erm, the winner is.

There are prizes, folks, PRIZES!

Counterbalance

Yesterday, being Valentine's Day and all, the student council had a "Pink/Red/White" day. Everybody was to don their brightest Valentine colours and have a candy-chocolate-sugar filled day of sweetness. It was fun. I had mostly primary kids for music classes yesterday, and they really get into things. Pink and purple and white and red and hearts were EVERYWHERE, especially in the kindergarten class that is made up of twenty girls. No joke. The sea of pink is overwhelming on a normal day, let alone on V-Day! Anyway, it was all very cute. I got deliveries throughout the day of little valentines cards and candies, and we had an extra special goodie day at recess with the best chocolate mousse cake you have ever tasted, hands down.

Well. That was yesterday.

Today I was greeted first period by one of the grade seven classes. They all walked in and took their seats on the carpet, and I found myself looking out over a sea of black. Black hoodies, black blouses, black T-shirts, black sweaters. I laughed and made a comment about the recoil from Valentines day when one student pointed out that I was wearing black, too. I guess one can only take so much sugary sweetness before you run screaming into a gothic funk. I just never expected it to happen so fast.

Valentine's Ramblings

Ok, so I'm not really posting a lot of original thoughts these days... I've been busy and kinda suffering from writer's block. I guess it's just a blog downtime for a bit. BUT, I couldn't let Valentines Day go by without a post, of course.

So, what will it be? A long, self-pitying wistful lament about being single and where are all the quality guys these days? Naw, not my style. (But hey, if ya know any quality guys... hee hee, I'm KIDDING! um, kinda) Or how 'bout a big rant about how Valentines' Day is all just a commercial, overblown holiday and how you should say "I love you" year round, not just on one day. While I agree with that but also will never say no to chocolate, flowers, OR jewelery, I also don't really have the energy for a rant. Hmm... how about wishing all you singles Happy Sad (singles awareness day)? Really.... who makes a holiday called SAD? Naw, none of those really appeals to me.

I will, however, leave you with a rather amusing commentary on Valentine's Day. What did YOU do for V-Day?

My hair keeps sticking to my face...

... and I must have shocked myself about 387 times today. But hey, that's ok! For once I'm lovin' the static electricity, because it means it's actually DRY ENOUGH to be there in the first place. After nearly 6 weeks of rain, dry is very, very welcome!

Hip hip hooray for SUNSHINE!!!!

Confession Time

I took this photo this morning. February 9. Notice the clematis flowers that are BLOOMING outside the window? Christmas Tree.... Clematis. Perhaps it's time to take down the decorations. (This isn't quite as bad as 2003. It took me till March break to get the Christmas stuff down. Um... wait, did I just admit that? heh. heh.)

Laughter... the best medicine!

Blah! I'm home from work for the third day in a row. It's my annual "I have no voice and every time I cough it rip us my throat even more" episode. I feel kinda wussy staying home for that, but uh... kinda hard to teach, let alone teach MUSIC with no voice. Grrrr...

Since laughter is the best medicine, I have to share a few funnies I found in my blog travels... they made me laugh out loud, I hope they will make you do the same!

First, two crazy stories I found over at Anne's place: The Horror of Blimps and Neighbourhood Hazard. I laughed out loud at both of them. True or not, I don't care, they're great!

And then a video I snagged from GiggleChick... it's amazing what a good soundtrack and some editing can do!

I WISH I COULD QUIT YOU, McFLY

My feet are freezing!

Also known as "How slip on shoes and by-law enforcement officers are a bad combo."

Today was the last day to apply for summer school (my source of income for the summer months), and, as usual, it was down to the wire. I had left it till the last second to fill out and drop off my application. I was hastily filling out my application form and wasn't sure if I'd be able to get it in before the office closed at 4pm. As I was running out the front door of my school, I realized I'd left the address for a staff social back in my room. AK! No time! I called over to another teacher who was walking to her car and she rummaged around... she found it and off I went.

24 minutes till the office closes.

Key in ignition, and ruh-ruh-ruh-ruh-ruh-ruuuuooooom. Uh, WHY is my NEW car having issues starting?!?! Oh yeah. The tank is empty. And I don't mean, oops, "I need to get gas soon" empty, I mean, "I reeeeally hope I can get it around the corner, let alone to a gas station cause I've been pushing the 'E' for two days now" empty. tick, tick tick... I decided against trying to push it all the way to the board office. Luckily I made it to a gas station. I pulled up, whipped out my card to pay at the pump, and ARG! I had picked the ONE pump out of ten that DIDN'T have pay-at-the-pump. Glug glug glug goes the gas. Great. There's a line up. I pay, and add a chocolate bar to my total. There's a reason I pay at the pump.

17 minutes to go.

Then I hit traffic. Broadway at 3:45 on a Friday. Brilliant. I kid you not when I say that I hit every single red light.

13 minutes to go. Uh. Slow drivers.
9 minutes to go. Dumb pedestrian! Hurry UP.
6 minutes to go. C'mon c'mon c'mon.
4 minutes to go. Sure, cut me off then turn left. It's ok. Go ahead. JACKASS.

I finally arrive at the board office. Parking is terrible in that area. TERRIBLE. All I'm doing is running in and out. The desk is right at the front door, no line up, nothing, just throw the application in a box. I pull up in front of a car parked at the last meter before a (very long) bus stop. The "no stopping" sign is at the middle of my car. On go the hazards and I bolt.

Now everybody knows that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, yes? So it would make sense to cut across the lawn/park in front of the office and not take the sidewalk, right? Well. This is no ordinary lawn. Grass, when paired with about 50 days of rain in the last 55 days is no longer grass, but a big muddy yet deceptively green bog. As I was sprinting across the grass, my shoes started to sink in a little, then a lot, then suddenly my stocking-ed foot went SQUISH into the mud. I was running, so there was no time to stop before my OTHER stocking foot SQUISHED down into the mud as well. It took a few steps through mud so deep it covered the tops of my feet before I could stop. Now I had to go back and get my shoes.

Mud, would you believe, has amazing powers of suction. It took some very strong yanking to free my shoes from the ooey gooey mess they had ensnared themselves in.

Shoes in hand, I continued on to the office, tippie-toed into the front door so as to leave as little mud on the floor as possible, practically THREW my forms at the lady, breathlessly mentioning something about the shoe-eating mud outside, then ran back to my car, totally laughing to myself at the absurdity of what just happened.

Before I saw her, I heard a voice saying, "I don't know why you stopped here, I'm gonna have to give you a ticket." I looked up through my rain-soaked glasses to see a metermaid's bright yellow jacket standing in front of my car. She had WATCHED me run through the mud, yank out my shoes, and run back to my car in my SOCKS. The show wasn't long. I figure about a minute and a half. No bus had come. No car had to wait cause I was parked where I was. I was half in a parking zone, and had been gone less than two minutes. I showed her my shoes and my muddy jeans and socks. No dice. I now owe the city $40. Special.

I now had to go home and change before the party. Halfway home, I realized I had a chiropractor appointment that started three minutes before. It was back near the school board. Great. And I didn’t even have my phone handy to call, cause I threw my purse in the trunk along with my socks and shoes.

And now, I'm late for the party. But hey, I've vented, and hopefully you'll find this story as unbelievable (and rather comical, minus the parking ticket) as I do.



What kind of day have YOU had?

Happy Groundhog Day!

What a wierdo tradition. Some rodent comes out of his hole and predicts the weather... Oh well, fun nonetheless. Hope the groundhogs wherever you are predict an early spring!

I've posted my groundhog wishes to you HERE.

Oh yeah, and Happy Birthday to ME! (Dah da-da DAAAAAH!) Lucky me, born on the day of the rodent. This is the first year my age has seemed old! Twenty seven. Huh. 'Course that doesn't mean I have to be mature! ;)

Thoughts on God and Kawkawa

Click the button to visit "Camp Kawkawa Rembered"

I haven't blogged much in the last week. I've been kind of at a loss of what to say. (ME? Impossible!) I've been busy and I'm still thinking a lot about Camp Kawkawa. I'm still in shock that it's gone (well, closed).

I went up there last Saturday for a farewell open house. It was kind of a bitter sweet day. More bitter than sweet, to be honest. I saw some old friends, and that was good, but it was hard to see that beautiful location and know that that was the last function that would ever happen there. It was really last minute, too, because the decision to close the camp had come so quickly, so there were tons of people who couldn't make it or who don't even know yet that it's closed.

When I got there, I went all the way to the top of the property and started a kind of prayer walk/memory walk. I tried to go to each part of camp and just spend some time in each place bringing up memories and committing them to God. The hardest thing was seing the staff. Giggles, Rainbow, Mr Pots... they were all hoping to retire there. The new Director, Tim, just started in May. He and his wife were hoping to be there for 10-15 years. They made it seven months.

Giggles (er, Paulette) and I cried at the thought of the empty beach this summer. Where the hot summer air was once full of the sounds of kids playing and laughing and praising God, there will now only be silence and emptiness.

Man, I have a lot of memories from that place, both fun memories and memories of lessons and decisions that have shaped who I am today. I think that's why it's so hard to see the camp close: it's had such a huge impact on my faith, and I've linked that, probably too much, with camp. It's like once camp is gone, that part of who I am - while it's still there and can never be taken from me - no longer has a physical place to be tied to. The plan is to find a new location and start a new camp. That will be good, but it will never be the same. But really, when are we ever promised that things will stay the same?

There were lots of tears on Saturday, but the biggest ones fell when we were singing "Blessed Be Your Name." I've never had a hard time singing that before, but this time was different.

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say,
Lord, Blessed be Your name
It was a reminder that God gave this camp to us, and now he's taking it away. Nobody knows why. Everybody was saying last Saturday that if God is taking away such a wonderful, God-honouring, life-changing place, he must have something so much better up his sleeve. It's just hard to say goodbye and not know what's going to happen next.

Even as I was thinking about that, I came accross a newsletter from another camp that gave me yet a different perspective: I've often thanked God for giving us Camp Kawkawa, and now I'm wondering why he's taking it away. But in reality, it was never really given to us. Camp Kawkawa is God's. It always was. He's just invited us to use it. I'm so grateful for that invitiation.

____________________________________
* See pictures from Saturday's farewell party here.
* If you, too, have spent any time at Camp Kawkawa, please go to Camp Kawkawa Remembered and share a favourite memory. I am collecting stories that will be added to a book about Kawkawaand I'd love to hear your story.

Surprise!

Just another one of my many talents.....

Click here

What hidden talents do YOU have?

It's showtime *UPDATED*

Oh. My. Goodness. You'll never guess who I'm going to see tomorrow night. No really. Guess. I'll wait. ...... Nope, try again... not them either.... nope.....

Give up? Here's a hint...

Dressed in yellow, she says "Hello
"Come sit next to me you fine fellow"
You run over there without a second to loose
And what comes next, hey bust a move!

Wednesday, 9pm at the Plaza on Granville, $20 at the door... Email me if you wanna come (Brad... you know you waaaaana!)

*UPDATED* I'm such a weenie. I didn't go! I was SO gonna. I decided at 10pm the night before that I was in, listened to all kinds of clips of Young MC's songs online, and called a bunch of friends to come with me, all excited and enthusiastic (me? enthusiastic? neeeeever). My friends Jordan and Lloyd weren't as excited but agreed to come along for some fun and so I wouldn 't go on my own (my sister and a bunch of her friends were gonna be there, too, but I wanted a friend or two along as well). Upon further inspection of the showtimes, I saw that there were two opening acts, and Lloyd pointed out that Young MC probably wouldn't be on till 11 or 11:30... it was a work night... I had been sleeping really poorly... I was getting sick... I decided the day of the concert that I should probably get to bed at a decent hour and get some sleep instead.

ARG... when did I turn into such an old lady???

Well, I'm off to glue my teeth in and cover the couch with plastic now...

Yes... YOU!

Just wanted to point out my blog-o-the-week. Her name's Sarah Cool and she's got a nifty blog going. I particularly liked her post called "Breathe Deep..." (Jan 11). It got me thinking and she's got soem great points. She's a fun gal, so go check out her site and say hello! (Don't know what I'm talking about? See that blog thumbnail on the sidebar under "Welcome to my Tenant"... go click it! :D

Well slap me silly and call me Sally!

I don't like being a meany-pants. But this was getting out of hand. I faxed some forms off to my insurance adjuster in December, and I haven't heard from him since. I've been paying privately for my chiropractic treatments and my chiro office has been trying to get hold of the adjuster, and so have I. My messages have now turned into, "Hello, this is Hillary calling regarding claim number blah blah blah. This is now the third/fourth/fifth/etc time I have called. I would appreciate a phone call back as soon as possible."

Well he FINALLY called me back tonight. Turns out he never got my forms (which still doesn't explain why he hasn't called me back for three weeks, but hey). We got everything set up for my chiro office to bill the insurance company, and for me to be reimbursed.

As an afterthought, I asked him if they had determined liability from the accident yet. It is a sticky one, cause I was turning left, so the onus is on me to prove that the guy who hit me ran the red. I had a witness, who has not returned one single phone call (from me, a lawyer friend, the insurance company... anyone). He's a dud. So basically, even though the other guy was in the wrong, the fault would end up being mine, meaning increased insurance rates, etc etc etc. Suckity suck suck suck. Plus, when they paid me out for my totalled car, they held my $300 deductible, only to pay it to me if it was found to be the other guy's fault.

Well.

At the intersection, the guy insisted it was a yellow light he went through. Last month when I checked on the process, his statement with the insurance company was still that he went through the yellow light. So today when I checked, I was hoping for maybe a 50/50 fault decision, but knowing that I really shouldn't get my hopes up. Imagine my shock when the adjuster told me that the other driver had accepted full fault!!! WOOHOOO!!!!! That means my insurance won't go up. That means my adjuster is gonna cut me a cheque for $300 (a fact I forgot about till he brought it up). That ALSO means I'm eligible for "pain and suffering" money from the insurance company. I'll have to see what's reasonable and go from there.

But WOOHOO!!!!!! There's a MAJOR prayer answered, and a HUGE weight off my shoulders!

Yippee Skippy!!!

I've got the kleenex handy

Click the button to visit "Camp Kawkawa Rembered"

Um, so this is my fourth post today. Sorry gang, it's been a really eventful Sunday for me, not to mention the rest of the weekend. Yikes.

I guess life goes in a cycle of highs and lows. This low hit me pretty hard today. I'm still not convinced I can get through typing this without tears. I've already had a few crying sessions this afternoon and evening.

Just after I got home today, I was in a fantabulous mood (scroll down to find out why). Then my mom called me to tell me about an announcement she saw in the bulletin this morning at their church: "Due to geological concerns, Camp Kawkawa will be closing down at the end of January. " The camp is built on the side of a mountain, and after having a geological survey done, they found that there was too great of a risk of landslides. In order to continue operating, every guest would have to sign a waiver to stay there. That's simply too damaging. Nobody would come. So Camp Kawkawa is closing. Forever.

I felt like I had been punched in the gut.

Camp Kawkawa is a Christian kids camp up in Hope that has been a huge part of my life since I was little. My Nana and Papa first sent me there when I was eight years old, and I spent at least a week (sometimes eight or nine weeks) there every summer for the next sixteen years. It's been two and a half years since I last worked there, but I've gone up to visit and to volunteer for a weekend here and there, and have been up the most recently for a church retreat last May.

It is my favourite place in the whole wide world. Not only is it an incredibly beautiful spot, but the experiences I have had there have shaped so much of who I am today, particularily in regards to my faith. I have grown and learned SO much there. I simply can't put into words how much I love that place. I've said before that as soon as I arrive on the property, I feel as if my soul can relax. It is a refuge for me, a sacred place.

I know of course that even though the buildings will be gone (uh, oh, here come the tears), the effect it's had on me and on thousands of other people can never be taken away. What God has done through that ministry will last even beyond this life. I take comfort in that, but I can't bear the tought of never again being able to huff it up that killer hill to the girls chalets, play a game of beach volleyball with 50 kids, watch a skit night in the dining hall, pray for my cabin of girls in the staff lounge, teach a kid how to shoot an arrow or paddle a kayak, and see kids come to a deeper understanding of God as they go about the activities of the week.

They are hoping to relocate at some point, but it will never be Kawkawa again.

There will be a final Open House Farewell on Saturday January 21 from 2pm-6pm. I'll be going (camera and kleenex - lots and lots of kleenex - in tow). If you'd like to come, let me know.

In the meantime, if you're interested, here are a few links to Kawkawa if you'd like to see a little bit of the place that is so dear to me:

Camp Photos --- Camp Video (it's a large file, it may take a while to load) --- 360 degree interactive tour --- Open House invitation --- Why Kawkawa is closing it's doors --- Some thoughts after the retreat in May

VRRROOOOOOM

That's the sound my new Honda Civic makes!

WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!

Ahem. Sorry. I'm a bit excited.

I just bought a white 95 Civic LX sedan. It's in beautiful shape, and I drove it off the lot with only 94,139 kms on it (58,945 miles), which is less than half of what an average car would have on it by now. It's all tuned up, just had the brakes done, AirCared till Christmas 2007, and is set to go.

I went to the dealership today fully intending to walk away from this car. My mechanic cheked it over of Friday and told me it needed some work: brakes, tires, a tune up, and a timing belt in another three months or so. The salesman was asking a lot, and even though it's got really low kilometers, it's still an eleven year old car and doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles. It's got air conditioning, but manual windows, locks, etc. I didn't think he was going to go down too much on his price.

My dad and I offered $1500 below what he was asking for it, because of this and that that needed fixing, etc. But then he then told us that he had the brakes fixed and the oil changed yesterday, and showed us the tires again, which weren't nearly as bad as my mechanic made them out to be. The back ones will need replacing in a few months, but that's not too expensive to do. I'll still have to do the timing belt in a few months. BUT, he gave us his bottom line, which was WAY lower than I thought it would be. Plus, because he had just gotten the car, he hadn't transferred it to his company yet. It was just in his name, so I saved half the tax (no GST) and the documentation fees. That alone saved me $625. His bottom line was $1000 less than he was asking, so after some deliberating with my dad (dads are great!) I decided to take it.

I still wasn't going to drive out of there right then and there, because I'd need a certified cheque from the bank to pay and would have to go buy insurance, and it was 4pm on a Sunday. Not gonna happen.

BUT (lotta buts in this story, aren't there?), he told me he'd take a regular cheque, so off we went back to my house from Hastings and Commercial (about a 20 min drive) to get my chequebook, paid him, then started running around looking for an insurance place that was open at 5 pm on a Sunday. We drove into North Van to the Superstore (another 20 min drive each way) and voila! I had insurance. Off we went, back the the dealership, and I drove off the lot at 5:30 this evening!

Holy shamoley, I have a car!!! And it WORKS! In contrast to the Beastmobile, I'm toying with naming it Beauty. Might be kinda cheesy though. I'll post pictures tomorrow and maybe have a "name my new car" contest. Hmmm...... I like that plan. Start thinking! I'll officially announce the contest later this week.

WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!

Back to the contest

Say What?

'Member how back a while ago I was musing about taking an acting class? Well I jumped in with two feet on Saturday and registered for an eight week IMPROV course! There was an acting one that conflicted with my Bible study, but this one is on a different night. I'm simultaneously looking forward to it immensely and am totally terrified. The fun begins this Tursday... it's gonna be great! If there's a show at the end, I'll invite y'all to come and see!

The desk

Yeah, yeah, yeah... so I've got no pictures of a non back-twizzling computer set up to show you (see post below). My monitor and keyboard can't both fit on the same side of the desk without my keyboard being right up against the edge of the desk (and even hanging off a little bit). I thought about putting the monitor on a shelf above, but monitors are heavy and those shelves are just held up by four little plastic pins. Not a good combo. This is gonna take more work than I initially thought. Perhaps a slide-out keyboard shelf. Or just a new desk. Dumb back. Who says they're supposed to be straight, anyway? ;)

On the plus side, I DID clean the desk off. No more junk.*


*On the desk that is. Now the junk is in a basket on the floor waiting to be sorted through.
I'll get there, I will! Feel free to yell at me anyway! :-)

A stern talking to

I've been going to a chiropractor lately for the sore back I've had ever since my car accident. I've heard the whole gamut of opinions from "They're quacks" to "He made my bones move" but I thought I'd go see for myself and give it a try. I wasn't too convinced after the first few appointments, but it's feeling a lot better now! Yippee!

On Monday, the chiro mentioned that some of the problems in my back were kind of strange to find after a car accident, so he started asking questions about other things, like my job, my sleeping habits (yeah, those need to change) and things like that. I knew right away what was causing the problem, so I decided to fess up, and then got a lecture. It was a friendly lecture, and he joked about being required to give it, but it was a lecture nonetheless.

Folks, I have the worst desk set-up ever. EVAR. Behold the badness of it all...

Now that may not look so bad at first glance, but look where my monitor is. It's way off to the left. I sit diagonal on the chair, my right leg tucked underneath me, my left arm across my chest in order to reach the keyboard. Either that or I've got my knees under the desk and my torso twisted to the left to see the screen. My back basically looks like a twizzler stick when I sit here.

In my defense, if I put the monitor on the other side of the desk, half my desk would be rendered useless. It would not be a useful workstation at all. However, seeing as I never work at my desk except for when I'm on the computer, and my desk NEVER looks as clean as that (it's mostly used to store piles of junk - there ya go, there's my dirty little secret for you), I'm pretty sure the "it would be useless space" argument just isn't gonna cut it.

I guess I need to change my desk.

Hey! How's this for accountability... if you don't see a picture of a rearranged and uncluttered desk by Sunday night, yell at me! My back and my chiropractor will thank you!

National De-Lurking Week

Hey out there! According to Paper Napkin (and a WHOLE lot of other blogs out there!), this is National De-Lurking Week. Sign me up! (I know it's near the end of the week, but hey, for me, it's gonna last a week.) My site gets a good number of comments, and I appreciate them all! I'm always thrilled to see a new comment come into my inbox. But my stat counter tells me that there are lots more of you out there who are reading! Go on! Leave a comment! Say hello! It doesn't have to be witty, it doesn't have to be long. If a post makes you think of something, coment away! A blog is a conversation - I'd love to hear your end of it! :D

Trolls

Wow, I just realized that three really long posts in the last week were all about car shopping. Yawn. And I was wondering why my comments were down! Ha ha! Sorry if I've been boring you. The hunt has kind of been consuming my spare time these days. Blah!

On a much more exciting note, go check out Troll Baby on my sidebar (to the right and down). Karen is my new renter this week, and she's great! Funny posts, and a great blog design. She's got a contest running now where you send her your URL and the winner gets a free blog makeover. Go show her some love! Click on the tumbnail to visit her!

So funny!

So normally I don't post jokes (cause there are kajillions of them floating around out there, and really, we all get enough of them as forwards in our inboxes), but this blonde joke just got funnier every time I looked at it. Go check it out!

Lessons

These have been the longest days I've had in a very tong time. Other than six hours to sleep, and some time to shower and eat breakfast, I have been doing some form of car hunting from about 3:30pm Friday till 5:30pm Saturday. Ridiculous, I tell you.

BUT, there's a light on the horizon. I have a first and second pick, and both are good deals on nice cars. We'll see how the inspection goes.

A few things I've learned through car shopping these last few weeks:

1. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. That's obvious, yes. But I'm a person who will drive all the way across the city anyway just to be sure.

2. If a salesman stands under cover and watches you wander around in the lot in the pouring rain and doesn't come up to you, even when you've made eye contact with him 3 or 4 times, and then when you walk over and ask him to come out and open the car for you and you find a random piece of plastic sitting on top of the engine, it's a bad sign. It's an even worse sign when you ask what it is and the sales man tells you, exasperated, "I told you it's a...." (I still don't know what it was. I couldn't understand what he said and I wasn't interested in finding out.) He started walking away with no explanation of where he was going, so my dad and I just yelled "Bye" (we had to yell, he was far away by this point) and walked away, hood up and everything. Yikes.

3. I am a second guesser. I do that all the time when I'm playing Settlers of Catan and making a trade. I make the deal to trade cards, and then invariably pull my hand away and say, "Well, actually... yeah, no, ok. Here's the cards." Apparently this translates into buying cars.

4. You have to really know what you're talking about when you're a single girl on her own in a car lot. I learned a few key questions to ask while looking intently at the running engine and cocking my head to one side as if I actually knew what I was listening for. Not that I would necessarily understand the answer to the question, but they don't have to know that!

5. When you reach under the hood to open it up and you rip off half of your very long thumbnail below where it's attatched to the skin (Yyeeeooowww!), you just have to grin and bear it, cause really, what salesman would take you seriously if you pulled the whole, "Ah! I, like, broke a nay-uhl when I opened this motor cover thing, and, like, it rillyrilly huuurts." Yeah. Not so good. My thumb actually got all swollen and really tender after that, and it throbbed for two days. Pfft, and girls are mocked when they call attention to a broken nail.

Here's hoping one of the cars I saw today works out, and I don't have to learn any more car shopping lessons for a long time!

Help me

I am in car buying hell.

I thought I had one last weekend. It was beautiful - a 98 Corolla. I put a deposit down, and he said he'd give it back if I wasn't happy with the mechanical inspection. I had second thoughts, it had high kilometers, I figured I could get a better deal. I agonized for a few days, then cancelled the deposit check and called him back to tell him there was no deal. Then I felt sleazy. Now I feel sleazy and realize that that was probably a fairly decent deal, and wish I could still buy the car.

I have spent nearly 7 hours (holy shneikey - that long???) tonight pouring over internet and classified ads, calling dealerships and private sellers, making lists and lists and lists of cars to go see, fighting a computer that has a hissy fit and "stops responding" every 5 minutes (no joke - it froze 7 times in an hour), and mapping out the locations of all these places so my dad and I can go see them tomorrow in somewhat of an efficient manner.

I think my head is going to explode.

And WHAT is with all the beige-tan-brown-puce-champagne Toyotas out there? Champagne??? That's just a fancy word for BLECH! NOT the colour for me, thank you very much.* But that's all there seems to be for sale. What's that? You're selling a 2000 Corolla with a measly 46 kilometers on it? Keyless entry, power everything, air conditionning AND cruise control? No accidents? Never let out of the heated garage? Only $1000? Great! I'll take it! Wait... what colour is it? ... Champagne? Oh... ok, no, that's ok, I'll keep looking.

Perhaps I'm being a little too picky.

But really, I'm going to go nutty if I have to do this rigamaroll again next weekend. Here's hoping for a great deal tomorrow!

=== UPDATED=== It is now 1:51 am. I have been car hunting for about 9.5 hours. I am going to bed.

* If you've got a beige-tan-brown-puce-champagne car and you like it, I'm glad. I'm just not a beige kinda gal. In case you hadn't noticed.

Dopey? Grumpy? Sleepy?

All of the above.

Dopey cause I just couldn't seem to get it together today. It was the first day back to school, and it just seemed off. Mighta been cause I wasn't nearly as prepared as I had meant to be (ok, so I wasn't prepared at all). The last kindergarten class I had today was not a shining moment of music teacher brilliance. Good thing there was a student teacher on the first day of her practicum there watching me, jsut to see how a kindergarten music class unfolds. Crap. It didn't help matters that I felt I had to apologize for such a horrible class and joked about "See, that's what you call 'winging it.'" Good job, Hillary. Highlight your goof-ups. Why do I DO that?

Grumpy cause... I don't know. Just one of those days. Har-UMPH.

Sleepy cause I went to bed far too late last night (surprise surprise) and the first day back to being a performing monkey... er, I mean music teacher... was a bit of a shock to the system after two weeks of vacation. No Qwyzzle for me tonight, I think my brain would explode.

Which of the Seven Dwarfs do you identify with today?

AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

It's a reeallly good thing I'm going back to work tomorrow. I'll have something to occupy my mind other than the most addictive game on the internet. That's right, folks. If you haven't ever heard of Qwyzzle, run far far away. Don't go near it. It will make you completely insane and suck away days of your life. You will bang your head repeatedly on your desk trying to figure out how the HECK to solve many of the 100 different levels. But boy, it's fun.

Try it. I dare you.

Be sure to read the messages in the status bar (at the bottom left corner of your browser window. Firefox users, you might have to use IE for it to work). They'll give you clues.

I have just recently finished level 34, after MUCH headbanging and tearing of hair (I wonder if my students will notice the bald patch tomorrow?). I don't have a nifty little summary of where I got stuck and the time spent like Gigglechick does, but it's probably best that my mom (hi mom!) and the rest of you don't know how many hours I've spent on this game. Gigglechick. I don't know whether to love her or hate her for introducing me to this cursed game.

Click here to keep reading...

* 7:15pm Jan 2 - Level 34 completed. FINALLY.
* 8:49pm - STUCK on 36. I've tried every possiblity, and nothing is right. AAARRRGGG.
* 9:14pm - Gave up on 36 and just tried numbers till I got it. The answer still doesn't make sense.
* 9:33pm - begin level 41
* 10:24pm I hate level 41
* 10:41pm - FINALLY! On to 42. And stuck. I hate this game.
* 10:59pm - Level 43! It's about TIME. 42 was so obvious, I never even saw it. Ach.
* 11:17pm - stuck on 44
* 11:25pm - Level 45 - NOOO! Not another MAZE!
* 11:36pm - Forget it. I give up. I'm going to bed.
* 11:14pm Jan 8 - FINALLY through level 45. Many attemps later and who knows how many binary conversion tools. ARG. (Yes, I DID go to work during this time! But much time was also spent on this dang maze)
*12:03pm - everyone says 46 is super easy. Arg! I'm stuck, and feeling stupid
* 12:11pm - got it! On to 47. I really should be sleeping
* 12:19pm - 47. Done. 48. Done. 49. Done. I've heard 50 is a doozy. Here goes.
* 1:10am - stupid obvious answer that I didn't get for an hour. DUH. Got Level 50 now.
*1:44am - how does someone make these things up? I mean, really! On to 52
* 2:38am - Level 54. Stupid shroud. Qwyzzle forums are down, too, so I can't get hints. ARG. It's probably a good thing, seeing as I have to work in the morning. @$#!$ life sucking game.
* 2:56am - Just got 54. HOW are you supposed to konw to do that??? OK. Bed tiem for real now.

Take me back to the main page!

Oooh! It's got hubcaps!

It really doesn't take too much to impress me.

I've been car shopping a little over the break. After my Beastmobile, almost anything looks nice! I am, however, being much pickier this time around. I've been to Beatertown. It was fun - kinda - but I don't feel the need to go back. I've been looking at Toyota Corollas and a few Honda Civics: they're such good cars - they go and go, and are usually pretty reliable. I've seen a pretty nice Mazda Protege, too. I would love to buy new, but alas, Mr. Bank Account is not quite ready for that. The Beastmobile was an '89, so my goal is to buy something that's within ten years old. We'll see how that pans out.

I have to say, if there's one thing I've learned from trooping around to look at used cars, it's that I hate car shopping! Ug! It's phenominal how much JUNK is out there. Even more unbelievable is how much people are asking for said junk.

A few cars I never even ended up seeing because the people selling them had accents so thick I couldn't even tell if they were telling me it was a standard or an automatic (and I'm not your wussy need-subtitles-for-a-teensy-weensy-accent kind of gal!). I coulnd't even get any information on those cars, nevermind directions to go see them!

And then there were the cars I did see. Let me tell you this much: if you have been breeding wet, chain smoking dogs in a homemade swimming pool in the back of your car, NOBODY will buy your car.

I don't know what some people do to thier cars to make them smell so horribly putrid (nor do I want to know!) but phew!!! I thought my dad was kinda strange when he kept poking his head into cars on used car lots to sniff them. Uh, no. Good plan. Also a good plan? Check for indoor swimming pools. While a luxury on some super swanky limousines, it's not generally a feature you want to see in a Corolla or a Protege. About the only good that has come from the ten days of pelting pouring rain here in Vancouver (and another 14 days at least in the forecast!) is that if the car is leaking, you're going to know about it. One car I saw, in addition to the puddles on the floor in the back seat, was so full of water below the floor of the trunk that the plug was removed so it could drian. PLUG? I didn't even know cars had plugs! Too bad, cause everything else looked great!

And so I shop some more. If anyone out there if feeling overly generous, I'm taking donations (of cars or cash)!!! :D

Happy New Year!

Here's to a bright and blessed 2006!
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Warmest wishes for the new year!

Welcome to Amy!

Just a little post to welcome Amy from Amy's Musings. She's the featured blog of the wek this week. Head on over to my sidebar and give her a click for an enjoyable read! Tell her I sent you!

From Amy: Tales from the Anti-June Cleaver, Anti-Soccer Mom. Mom of three great but strange kids contemplates family, life, and the world around her. Erma Bombeck-ish, humorous, occasionally sarcastic, opinionated, but always with an open mind...

Sitting on my hands

That's about as productive as I feel in the whole car-shopping area. Will I EVER get a car??? I put off shopping after the Beastmobile got schmucked for a month till I actually had the time to go look. Now I'm waiting... and waiting... and waiting... for the bank to get back to me about extending my line of credit so I can actually PAY for it! My holidays and borrowed car time are quickly running out. ARG! Why can't timing match up? First I had no time. Now I have no money (well, ok, I had no money when I had no time, too). As soon as I have no time again, I'll have the money. Or maybe not. *sigh* I really don't want to go to Beatertown again. I've had a beater, it was fun - kinda - but I'm ready to move on. I don't need a new car (though hey, if anyone's offering... !!) but I want something reliable, with things like a working transmission. See? I don't ask much!

I need to buy a jet pack. Then I could just fly to the places I want to go. It'd really cut down on the commuting time, too!

Is it over already?

I think I'm in denial! My decorations are staying up for a while yet, and darnit, I'm NOT puting away my Christmas music. At least not yet. All the craziness leading up to Christmas, and then *poof* it's over! I'm going to do things differently next year, I think. I reeeaaalllly need to make some time to be still. Jesus was born in a manger because there was no room for him at the inn. I don't want there to be no room for him in my life, either.

That being said, it was still a wonderful Christmas. It was quite different than other years, but still full of all the traditions I love.

My aunt and uncle and cousins arrived from Edmonton on Christmas Eve and stayed for two nights. It was so great to have them with us this year. They don't come down every year, and when they do, they usually stay with grandparents, so this was such a treat! Our house was busting at the seams, and it was great! We all went to the Christmas Eve service at my parent's church, which is right next door to our house in my high school gym. It was so bizarre to be in that hated place (gym was never a happy memory for me in high school!) and seeing it all decorated for Christmas. It bacame a holy place as something in the words of O Holy Night really struck me.

We all crammed into the family room afterwards and watched Jim Carey's version of The Grinch (I've had "be it eeever so heeeiiiinnnous, there's nooo place like hooome" stuck in my head ever since!). It seemed the picture perfect Christmas Eve - the whole family (two, in fact!) plus the dog all hanging out together by the fire. After the movie, we left some treats for Santa and all the "kids" were sent off to bed.


I still wake up early Christmas morning and sneak out to look at the scene in our living room. The warm glow of the tree, the bulging stockings, the pile of gifts underneath the tree, and the MESS Santa left (Santa is always messy when he somes to our house!)... I still feel like a kid on Christmas morning.

With TWO families around the tree, opening gifts was even more chaotic than usual! Both families open gifts one at a time so we can see what everybody gets, so it took nearly two hours to open everything! I got, among other things, a drybag for kayaking, Scategories, an engraved pen, software to make a photography book, and a compact, lightweight tent which will be perfect for backpacking! The tent was one of those items on the wishlist that I thought I'd put on, but really wasn't expecting to get! Yippee!

Every year, my dad lavishes gifts on my mom. She's stopped giving him a wishlist, because he'll go and buy everything on it. This year he was left to fend for himself, and he did a pretty darn good job. Every year, my parents make a calendar with photos they've taken throughout the year. We give them to the aunts and uncles, the grandparents, etc. Mom's last gift was one of these calendars. BUT, stuffed in March's page was a CD labelled, "What's this all about?" Dad opened up his laptop and popped in the CD. A powerpoint presentation began to play. To back it up here for jsut a minute, my parents don't take lavish vacations. They'd love to, but they jsut can't. The last real vacation they went on was to Hawaii for their 25th anniversary, which was eight years ago. Also, both of my parents have had quite a tough year. So, Dad decided to do some homework. This presentation was the result of that. One of the slides asked my mom if she remembered this guy:

It tok my uncle humming a few bars of the theme song to "The Love Boat" before my mom realized what exactly she was getting...


Dad had booked a TEN day cruise of the Mexican Riviera, leaving from San Fransisco. He also booked another six days in San Fransisco at the end of the cruise, complete with tickets to a few shows and a day in the Napa Valley touring the vinyards. Because my mom only gets one week off at spring break, he had also arranged for an extra week off work for her (she teaches preschool, outside of the public system, so time off is actually quite difficult to get). WOWEE!!! I'm SO excited for them. This will be a much deserved holiday for them. Yahoooo!

The rest of the family came over in the afternoon and we did the crazy gift thing again (another two hours!) and had dinner. We had twenty-two people for Christmas dinner. TWENTY-TWO! After everybody but my aunt and uncle and cousins had left, a dance party broke out in the living room. Everybody under the age of 25 left as quickly as they could (mortified to see their parents dancing, I'm sure. It was quite funny). Although I stuck around, I didn't dance. I thought I'd let them have thier fun! ;) Once again, not a typical Christmas!

I hope your Christmas was happy!

Click here to see more Christmas pictures.

Who knew?

Excerpts from my letter to Santa (a little silliness on a rainy day)...

Dear Santa,
It really wasn't my fault what happened at Dave's office party... I thought it was funny when I put Jordan's tummy control panty hose on my head and danced the Merengue on the chair while singing `I Want a Hippopotumus for Christmas'... I don't remember calling Shaun's wife a lumpy goat... And when I threw up on Rachelle's husband's uvula, it was only because I ate too much of that almond... I don't think that was any reason for Rebecca to call me a droopy lemur and have me arrested for public nose picking! ... So, Santa, here I sit in my jail cell on Christmas Eve... Please bring me what I want the most---bail money!
Sincerely, Hillary

~~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~~
Gotta love MadLibs! Make your own here. Thanks, Shelli, for the link!

My Apologies...

First to my current and previous tenants, 'A' from Red Shoe Diaries and Grace from Life According to Princess Grace (click the thumbnail on the right to visit Grace). I've been a bad landlord (bloglord? heh heh... I like the sound of that!) I promised them both a shout-out and I never got to it. Go show them some love! Leave a comment and tell them Hillary sent you.

The second apology goes to Firefox users. Apparently those of you who use Firefox have had music playing automatically every time my blog loads for the last week or so. I thought I turned that feature off (it's off in Explorer!) but apparently Firefox doesn't recognize the code. Grrr. (And Zen, ya wuss, it's a 30 second clip! ;) ) It's off now.

Merry Christmas

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices
Oh night divine
Oh night when Christ was born
Oh night divine, Oh night divine

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
Over the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friend.

He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King!
Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.

Christ is the Lord! And ever more we praise thee,
His power and glory
Ever more to proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

Oh night devine
Oh night night when Christ was born.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
Wishing you and your family many blessings this Christmas!
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Christmas Eve

I'd like to say that is was the sheer excitement of the day that got me up so early. In reality, it was the pelting pouring rain and the leaky drainspout outside my window. No matter. It's Christmas! Our house is crammed with family from out of town, memories of a beautiful Christmas Eve service are still fresh, and all of us watched a favourite Christmas movie jammed into the living room last night. Most of us fell alseep! It was perfect!

Torn

Man, I'm a blogging machine. (That, or I have tons of housework to do and I'm the biggest procrastinator ever)

Looking ahead to the new year, there are a few things I'd like to do. One is, of course, continue on with my small group/Bible study. I love those folks! I couldn't imagine a week without them! I'd also like to help with my church's Alpha program. Alpha is a "come as you are and ask what you'd like" introductory course to Christianity. It's really a great program, and I've been wanting to get involved for a while now. Finally, in the spirit of trying new things and capitalizing on my hammy personality, I want to take an acting class. I actually found one that's resonably priced and starts in January, too!

The only catch? Every one of these weekly events happen on Wednesdays. AAARRRGGG!!! I don't want to have to choose! Of course, in reality, I couldn't do them all anyway, cause if you factor young adults in there, too, every other Monday, I'd have something going on four nights a week. Insanity.

This acting class looks like so much fun. I've never been in a play before (if you don't count the Sunday School Christmas pageants), and I only took drama in grade 8. I don't know if it's the higher-than-usual number of plays I've seen in the last while or what, but I have an itch to act, mostly cause I think it would be such a gas!

Anyone want to take the course with me? Details are here. It's the first course, called "Acting for the fun of it" (Though I may end up going for the improv course on Thursday nights).

ps. Elaine: I don't have your email address: send me an email (use the link in my profile) so I can add you to my address book. BTW, thanks so much for the card - your kind words meant a lot, thank you. Now quit lurking, girl! I know you're here! Leave a comment! ;)

Seven

AfricaBleu tagged me with this meme a looong time ago (woohoo! My first tag ever! :D ) so here goes! (Hey, any excuse not to go to do housework is good for me, apparently! )

SEVEN THINGS......

....I Want To Do Before I Die:
1.) Get married
2.) Have kids
3.) Take a Carribean Cruise
4.) Go on a missions trip
5.) Travel to at least three different continents
6.) Learn to use an SLR camera
7.) Act in a play

....Things I Cannot Do:
1.) Type the word "just." It ALWAYS comes out jsut
2.) Yodel. Though sometimes I try, much to the embarassment of those around me
3.) Get to bed before 11pm, apparently. Usually it's 12 or later. No wonder I'm always so stinkin' tired!
4.) A cartwheel anymore (boo hoo!)
5.) Drive a standard
6.) See more than six inches in front of my face without glasses/contacts
7.) See a baby without holding it. Well, a baby I know. Runing up and grabbing strangers' babies would jsut (see?) land me in jail.

....Things That Attract Me To The Opposite Sex:
1.) A sense of siliness
2.) Godliness
3.) Attentiveness
4.) Integrity
5.) Eyes + smile
6.) A warm personality
7.) It's totally plagarism, but I HAVE to go with what AfricaBleu said: "Chest and arms. I like that broad, strong section of chest which just begs for me to lay my head against, and then giant arms to wrap me up." mmmm... yummy

....Things I say most often:
1.) WOOHOO!
2.) "I'm not going to continue until I have ALL eyes on me and mouths are zipped!" (aw, ain't teacher talk special???)
3.) Oh dear
4.) hee hee hee (in text or in real life!)
5.) I LOVE IT! (while clapping my hands together and grinning like a fool)
6.) ta ta ti-ti ta (*laughs and rolls eyes*)
7.) I get this one said TO me the most often: "How's that go again?" This usually after some crazy dance, sound effect, or action I do to accompany one of my many stories. Or after I say, "I LOVE IT!" clap my hands together and grin like a fool.

...Celebrity Crushes: (the few I can come up with were all from when I was little...)
1.) Raffi (I was SIX, ok!?!?!)
2.) Michael J Fox as Alex P. Keaton (inexplicable, really. )
3.) ummm...
4.) thinking...
5.) I know this is kinda cheating....
6.) but I honestly can't think of anyone...
7.) I've never been big on celebrity crushes! I must be a wacko!

... People I want to do this
1.) Cathy
2.) Brad
3.) Ann
4.) Paul
5.) Liisa (but she has to create a blog first! Go Liisa, go! Doowiiit!)
6.) Anyone else who'd like to do it!
7.) You!

Me?! Alternative?!

Under the encouragement of a friend of mine, I'm going to look seriously at joining the co-operative auto network instead of buying a new (to me) car to replace the beastmobile. Basically, you become a member fo the co-op and then there are cars stationned all over the city. You reserve a car and just go to the nearest location to pick it up. It's obviously a little more complicated than that, but the idea is that memebers of the co-op share a whole fleet of all kinds of different vehicles. You pay by kilometer, so the less you use, the less you pay. It's a really great way to have use of a car when you need one, and encourages you to use other transportation (bike, bus, your feet!) when you can. Plus it's waaaay cheaper than owning your own car and is more environmentally friendly, too!

My friend is pretty sold on the idea, and it sounds pretty good to me. The only reason he's not using it is because he does a lot of driving for his work and needs to get up and go at the drop of a hat. I guess there has to be a little bit of planning ahead of time to use a co-op car. I'd just have to get better at planning my life!

Does anyone out there use this network in Vancouver or elsewhere? Have you got any pros/cons you'd like to share? Leave a comment or email me (use the link in my profile)!

I want to be... an ACT-TOOOOR

Ingredients:
6-8 plays in the last 2 years
being chosen as first star of the improv at my language school in 2001
the desire to try something different
a generally hammy personality

Mix together and let simmer, and voila! You'll get the crazy notion of enrolling in a community acting program.

I've been thinking about donig somehitng like this for a while. Acting just looks like so much fun! I never did drama in highschool, and I think it would be neat to try my hand at a little play or something. I wonder if there are any (low cost!)acting programs out there. Some people take a photography course (which I'd like to do, too), some people learn how to arrange flowers, I want to try my hand at the theatah, dahling. I sense a new year's resolution coming on...

Of course for now, all I can think about is the Jack McFarland Acting School. That scares me. :P

Just Jack!

Happy Birthday to my blog!

My blog is one year old today! One sentence in my first post makes me laugh and laugh... Well, we'll see how often I use it, but why not try! Oh my. If only I'd know how addicted I would get! Hee hee hee...

Waves of grace

Once again, God has blown me away by his grace and unexpected surprises.

On the way home from the play last night, my friend Dave and I were chatting about him heading home to Toronto for Christmas. I asked him how he was getting to the airport (I would have offered to drive him, but, well, I'd need a car for that!). He mentioned that his roommate was probably going to drive him and then leave the car in front of their place while they were both away for Christmas. He'd have his landlord keep an eye on it for those two weeks. In the very next breath he asked me, "Hey! Do you want to borrow my car while I'm away?" OH. MY. GOODNESS! I was speechless. "Really?!?! Uuuh... wow!" I hope he didn't think I was trying to lead him to that conclusion! I totally wasn't! The use of a car over the holiday alleviates SO much stress for me. I don't have to worry about Christmas shopping taking forever (yes, I still have shopping to do!), I can actually GET myself to my parent's place for Christmas, the whole bit! And hey, it's going to make shopping for my own car SOOOO much easier! His reasoning? He tries to remember that everything he has doesn't belong to him, but to God, and so wants to use what he has to help others whenever possible. Just another glimpse of a character that reflects Christ in so many different ways. I want to be more like that.

Then today I found an envelope from the Canadian Teacher's Federation (CTF) among my mail. That seemed somewhat odd. During the teacher's strike back on October, teacher's took a big financial hit, and the CTF set up a "Teacher Hardship Fund" to give grants to teachers who qualified. I applied, and got a letter about two weeks ago saying that I wasn't going to get a grant/assistance. So today's letter from the CTF was kind of strange. I guess they got more money for the fund, or something, because there was my cheque! WOW!

Even as I write tonight, I think back to one of the things I wrote last night - that I was beginning to fear that God would begin to lose patience with ever-wandering me. I know that's not true, but sometimes that thought still creeps in. After all, Jesus isn't just a meek little infant in the manger. He's also a pretty fiesty character. He's the Lamb of God, but also the Lion of Judah. Is there a limit to his grace? It's in gifts like the use of Dave's car for two weeks and some unexpected money right when I need it the most that I hear God's voice gently answering my question. Grace and blessings have no limit, and are not dependent on me deserving them. Once again, God is wooing me to himself. How can I resist a love like that?

Full

I don't even know where to start. My head is so full of thoughts, all swirling, all needing to be savoured, to be left to percolate. I want them to touch me deeply, but I'm afraid that with the fragile state they're in now, they'll be lost too soon. I always seem to be left with just a taste in my mouth. Never the whole meal, never enough to satisfy. I want to chew each thought slowly and let it fill me up. Of course, then there's the issue of what to write here. Who will see it? Do I want to be that raw, that open, for everyone to see?

Love? Something is stirring in me. I pray and I pray for it to go away. I'm afraid that nothing will ever come of it, and I don't want to feel that pain.

Disappointment. Or rather, a great fear of disappointment. I try so hard not to get my hopes up, for fear they will come crashing down. Again.

Hope. False or founded? I want to simultaneously squash it and do everything possible to keep it alive. It's not just about him - about everything. Particularily about finding the "me" I seem to have lost somewhere along the way this year.

Longing. To be me again. To not be overwhelmed. To slip my hand into his. To be so much more of the person God wants me to be. Longing that sometimes is barely noticeable, but sometimes comes to the surface and is so strong my chest aches.

Fear. "I fell funny. Funny-bad." This year has been hard. I haven't felt like myself. To look at me, one would say that everything is going well. Work friends, family, church - all good. I almost feel ungrateful when I say that something just feels wrong. I had to fight away tears at the play tonight when the actor read a monologue that could have been about me. Fear that all I hope for won't happen. Fear that I won't be "good enough" in what I do. Fear that my Jesus will stop having patience with ever-wandering me.

As the author of that monologue had finally been able to put his finger on what had been nagging at him, I came to see that for me it was the same thing. Even as I'm writing this, I see how much fear is at the root of what I'm feeling. It's not a knee knocking horror film type terror. It's not even a tangible worry that I can identify and deal with. Instead it seems to be a subtle change in character, a timidness about life. It's as if I'm afraid to really live, to put my heart out there. At a deep, nearly unrecognizable leve, I'm afraid to risk. I didn't used to be that way. It feels like this year I've become jaded. Lost something.

Fear is a funny thing. It seems to sneak up on you. It slowly coils around you and starts to restict your movement. I see now why the words "paralysing" and "fear" are used together. And I see how the paralysis can be so much more than physical.

As Chrsitmas apporaches, I find myself thinking about the angels that came to Mary, to Jospeh, and to the shepherds in vast multitues. The first thing on their lips was "Do not be afraid." Then I think to all the times in the Bible that phrase has been uttered.

"I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you... The Lord will say to those with fearful hearts, 'Be stong. Do not fear. Your God will come.'... Do not be afraid, for I am with you and I will rescue you... Don't be afraid, just believe... Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid...

As I sit and think about Christmas, I'm reminded that I have no reason to fear. My past is redeemed and my future is secure. As I muddle along in the present, I'll try to keep this in mind.

Do not be afraid.
Do not be afraid.
Love has found it's way to you.
Do not be afraid.

Click here to play

Yessss!

I've FINALLY got my blog the way I wanted it (for now!) After I had changed from the standard blogger template, I did the all-beige thing. It was kinda warm and cozy, but, well, kinda beige. I made a tester blog, but the template was horribly messed up when viewed in Firefox. After a few desperate pleas ("My site is broken! Fix it!") to some HTML savvy friends, and a few jaunts through the codes of some similar sites, I got some tips and hopefully there aren't any problems with the way it looks in either IE or Firefox. Let me know if there are any issues!

A HUGE thank you to Brad and Paul for wading through mygibbled code and getting me going again!

Bits 'n' bites

Yippeee! School's out for Christmas! I SO need a break. I'm telling ya, I was barely hanging together this past week. And of course, just in time for vacation, I'm sick! Typical! I could feel it coming Wednesday. It was the weirdest thing: like a hard ball of sick deep in my head that just began to grow and grow. Bah!

I'm hoping this will be a relaxing break. The goal is to get my house clean and my leftover marking/recording done this weekend, then have the two weeks to enjoy. Nevermind the fact that I've got to go car shopping now, still have appointments to go to for my back (which is still bugging me from the accident) and haven't yet bought gifts for any of my immediate family! *sigh* I did ALL my shopping in one day last year, every last bit of it. All on December 21. I was insane. Definitely not gonna go that route again, but I have a feeling it will be close. It will be so much easier if I get a car sooner rather than later.

On the way home from work/school today (I still don't know what to call it!) I witnessed the most abominable display of self-centered childish snark I have seen in a very very long time. I was on a crowded bus reading a book when I heard a string of profanities coming from a woman who liked to be in about her early twenties. I had no idea what had happened, but saw a woman trying to squeeze past snark-girl to get off the bus. As the woman was stepping off the bus, snark-girl replied, loudly, "Do that again and I'll *@#* bite them off!" Huh? Her phone rang just after that and in a hugely exasperated tone, she snarked "WHAT," then proceeded to recount what had happened - extremely loudly with great profanity - what had happened. I guess the woman who was trying to get off the bus was a little unsteady on her feet and went to grab the pole to steady herself as the bus stopped suddenly, but missed and touched snark-girl's mouth. OK, yeah, gross, but have a little grace, lady! As her conversation proceeded, you could tell that she was angry, angry, angry, and apparently was a drama queen and wanted the whole world to know about it. Passengers around her started to talk, because she was being SO ridiculous. We were all stupified at how this girl was carrying on. As my stop came up and I got all my stuff together, I guess she had seen me looking at her in astonishment and started in on me. I got ranted at for an entire block and a half and she was still going as I got off the bus.

Look, snark-face, you're right. I have no idea what's going on in your life. It might be really horrible, and if so, I really am sorry. But the way you treated that woman (and your friend on the phone, for that matter) was atrocious and there's no need to make everyone around you miserable, too. And ranting at a stranger? Classy.

I was really picked at her, because it was such a great afternoon - school had just gotten out, it was a beautiful day, I was enjoying my book, and she totally poisoned the good mood I was in. Normally I can just let stuff like that roll off, but today it really stuck with me. I need to go blast some happy music or something to wash all that nastiness out of my head. Blech!

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favourite things
Then I don't feel so bad!

What are a few of your favourite things?

Tuesday's Tale of Christmas

Every year everyone in my family clears an evening in their schedule and we all go to mom and dad's house to decorate teh family Christmas tree. Ours is NOT a "Martha Stewart" tree. It's a real live, sap-oozing, needle-dropping, scent-giving showcase of our family history. Every ornament on our tree has a story behind it: this one was made by Great-Grandma Friesen. She knitted one for each of us when she was nearly blind... that one was given to you by that little old lady who always sat behind us at church. She loved you kids so much! ... this one came from our language student in Korea... do you remeber making this one? We had all the neighbourhood kids over and I baked dough ornaments for hours! ... These baubles were a weding present: they've been on our tree for thirty-two years... and on and on the story goes. Decorating the tree is a little time warp into our family's past. It's also a noisy, hilarious, crowded (there's always friends or language students or boyfriends/girlfriends, or some combination of those added to the mix), treat-filled evening. Did I mention it was noisy?

Dad always gets the tree set up before dinner. Because our Christmas tree stand is now ROUNDED on the bottom (DAD! Just get a new one!!!), the tree has to be secured to the wall/window ledges with string. I'm pretty sure the string is the only thing holding it up this year. "Is it straight?" Nope, a little to the left. "Umf! Is it straight?" Not quite. "Now?" Well now it's off center. "Yeah, but is it straight?" ...




This continues for who knows how long, then it's time for the lights. They get strewn all the way down the hallway and dad cirlces them aroud the tree while one of us feeds them to him. Sometimes things get a little tangled up...




Our family has a two set-in-stone traditions when it comes to our Christmas tree. The first one is the "squint test." Nobody wants a Christmas tree with big dark spots on it... the lights have to be evenly distributed. When dad's about halfweay through the lights, it's time to the "squint test." One (or more!) of us stand in the hallway and scrunch up our eyes to blur the lights. It's much easier to spot light-deficient places on the tree that way! Of course, if someone happens to be standing there with a camera, you end up with a picture of yourself that looks like this.

The second started back in 1994. My brother was 11 when he wrote this note, and every year when we put away the decorations, it gets tucked carefully back into the box. I'm going to let the note tell the story for me on this one. (Click on the picture if you need a larger view.)



After all the decorating was done, it was my turn (according to the note!) to put the angel on the tree. It really doesn't matter to us now, but mom still insists we follow the order. It's fun!



And of course, some typical sibling goofiness, just for fun!

2005 In Review - Blog Style

I got this idea from Steve... want a review of your year? Go through your archives and copy the first line (or lines) of the first post of every month, and voila! You've got a recap of your year. Click the titles to read the rest of the posts if it strikes your fancy! :-)

January - Staving off boredom
Well, it's been 4 days holed up at home feeling crappy... I've been going insane! (hee hee, my insanity isn't WHY I was holed up, just a by-product)...

February - Happy Birthday to me!
It's my blog, I'm allowed to be shameless! Happy birthday to me, and Happy Groundhog Day to all of you! ...

March - So close!
It is SOOO exciting to see God working in people's hearts! I have a friend who I don't see very often (maybe even once a year, which is ridiculous, because she onle lives a few blocks away), but every time we hang out we end up talking about Christianity...

April - Fill in the blank
I like big ____ and I cannot lie, you other brothers can't deny......Well, you may be thinking "butts" and you'd be right... unless of course, you're listening to this...

May - AAAARG!
Reader, beware. This is a rant. HONESTLY! We can't eat ANYTHING anymore without it being bad for you. All of a sudden EVERYTHING is off limits. Eat more of this, eat less of that. This causes cancer, that will make your hair fall out...

June - Show N Shine
I went to my first classic car show last weekend... how fun! I have a friend who is really into classic cars, and my parents were volunteering at the refreshments booth (as a fundraiser) so my friend and I went together...

July - Questions
Why does God's voice always seem clearer to me after the fact? Over the last year, it seems that only after something happens can I look back and go, "Ah, yes, God was telling me this or that." Is it because I'm not in the practice of hearing his voice? Or have I heard it and chosen not to listen?...

August - Variations on a theme
Sometimes things people say or phrases I hear just stick in my head... then, even months later, a little lightbulb goes on and I realize that they are all related. Hmm... could God be trying to tell me something?...

September - Tick. Tick. Tick.
The hours are quickly sliding away... I'll be walking through those big blue doors in nine and a half hours...

October - What was I THINKING???
Oh wow. I'm shaking my head in disbelief. I actually WORE that?...

November - The aforementionned "cool stuff"
On October 15, I went to a housewarming party at a friend's place. My friend, we'll call her Jane, pulled me aside and told me she had something for me...

December - What's in a name?
Merry Christmas! Not "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" or "Have a good winter vacation." Merry Christmas...

You know you're a music teacher when...

...you can supply seven people with seven different musical instruments all from your living room. That's not counting the clarinet and flute I have in my bedroom. Can you name all seven instruments? (Click for a larger view)