Gratitude

One thing that I definitely learned in Kenya was to be grateful for all that I have.  When I got home, I came across this article in my Twitter feed about 10 simple, science-based ways to increase happiness.  What's cool is that I practice a lot of these strategies: exercising, sleeping more (well, I try to at least), spending time with loved ones, and helping others.  I've always tried to work on gratitude, which is #10 on the list.  In fact, when I was in Kenya, I wrote in my journal that I'd like to keep a gratitude journal when I get home.

I haven't started that yet, but I have an empty journal kicking around, and I'm going to consider this post as my first entry.  Each day, I'm going to jot down at least three things that I'm grateful for. I had a pretty great day today.  I spent the full day at work.  I lead 40 student leaders in preparing for tomorrow's grade 9 orientation.  I do this every year, and I find it's a great way to ease into the school year.  Instead of just going in and doing mind-numbing paper work, I get to work with a great bunch of kids.  (And then when it's over, I do the mind-numbing paper work.)

Today I was grateful for the following:

1) The president and vice-president of student council were the first two students to arrive. They were excited to see me (aww) and gave me big hugs (aww).  I was grateful for the welcome.

2) My friend Nigel was helping me out today.  We also are taking the student leaders to a camp at the end of September.  We did this last year, and we reminisced about how the worst thing that happened during those three days was when we were lounging on a patio, overlooking a beautiful view of fall foliage, and then there was a slight breeze and we felt cold for a few seconds.  We had a huge laugh remembering this, and I'm grateful for laughs with good friends/colleagues.

3) I bought rafiki bracelets for some colleagues at work who supported my trip to Kenya.  I handed out a couple of them today, and my colleagues were thrilled with them.  I am grateful for support, and also to be able to make people happy with small tokens of appreciation.

Last Post (for awhile)

Well, tomorrow's the big day.  At 11:20 pm, I'll be on the redeye to London. 

There will be a 10 hour stopover in London, which means I'll get to quickly visit with the lovely Claire!  I'm so excited to see my dear friend; I haven't seen her since 2011, but she's always there for me when I pull a Liz Lemon or other such insanity.

After the London stopover, there will be another redeye flight to Nairobi.  Then, we will hop on a coach that will take us to our camp in the Maasai Mara.  I think it's about a five hour drive.  We'll be able to stop in the Great Rift Valley (think of the setting of the Lion King) on our way to camp.

There are a lot of things on our itinerary that look super exciting.  A lot of our time will be spent volunteering in the community on construction projects.  (Don't worry, there will be lessons first.) I look forward to working hard.  We will be visiting local schools, health clinics and going on a water walk.  We will be able to experience the journey of a local woman who has to get water for her family.  I think after this, I will appreciate water much more than I do.  We'll get some time to visit a local market.  We'll get to meet Maasai Warriors and learn how to bead with the Maasai Mamas.  And, of course, there will be a safari!

I can't believe that the trip that I've been prepping for over a year is finally here.

I'll take lots of pictures and write in my journal.  I'll definitely post some journal entries and pictures when I get back.   Until then (August 17th), I am off the social media grid.  Take care my friends. Kwaheri!  (That's goodbye in Swahili.)

Four more sleeps 'til I leave for Africa.

Miss Rilo Kitty is settled nicely in her country home.  Who knew that cats have really great memories?  It's been about a year since she's last been at my parents' house but as soon as she got there, it was obvious that her first matter of business was to check out the place to see what had changed (not much).  I bet she probably still remembers her life before I adopted her and she became Miss Rilo Kitty.  I always wonder where she came from.  All I know is that she was picked up on the street somewhere near Long Branch.

Anyway, I had a nice little visit in Stratford.  I napped, ran some errands, watched a couple of pathetic baseball games with my parents (oh, those Jays), saw some old friends that I hadn't seen in years, went for a run around the old high school, and visited with my aunt.  A lot to pack into 48 hours, huh?  Well done me.

I took the train back to the city today.  I love a nice sunny morning train ride through the countryside while I drink a cup of coffee and listened to music.  I made a pretty sweet Matthew Good playlist for the ride.  I haven't listened to him in a long time, and a lot of his music takes me back to happy places in my life.  Anyway, the point of this is that it was a nice journey back home.

Of course, it's not really home without Miss Rilo to welcome me.  Cat-less life is weird.  No one's trying to lie on my keyboard as I write this!

After a relaxed afternoon, it was gym, then errands.  Right now I'm in the process of making myself low maintenance for my trip: I had my shellac manicure stripped off my nails without getting a new one, not even one without polish, and no pedicure either.  I figure construction work in Africa is going to be hard on my hands and feet, so I'll get those fixed when I'm back.

It kind of blows my mind that I'm going to go three weeks with no jewellery, no makeup, and not really worrying about fashion.  It will be good for my soul I think.

My nails are actually really long right now.  Six-plus months of healthy living is doing wonders for me.  I haven't gotten sick once (I used to get a cold about every 2-3 months) and my nails are super strong and don't break.  Anyway, I'm going to go cut them and take the polish off my toes.

And, four more sleeps until I fly out.  It's off to London, then a ten-hour stopover, then off to Nairobi.  So six more sleeps until I'm in Africa.  I. Cannot. Believe. It.

Random summer moments

- It was still pretty hot on Friday, but there was a bit of a breeze out.  Enough that I could enjoy a nice lunch with a friend on a shady patio, instead of heading indoors for A/C.

- Friday night I went to the Jays game.  My friend Mathew scored free tickets only 21 rows behind home plate.  I haven't seen a game that close in, well, have I ever?  I have memories of sitting in the 100s back when no one was visiting Toronto because of SARS, and you could get $2 Jays tickets.  Other than that, it's been the 500s for quite some time.  The Jays lost, but it was a fun game... lots of homers and strikeouts despite the loss.

- On Saturday I got a warning from an arborist.  No, I wasn't harming any trees, just sitting on a park bench reading a book.  I was listening to music and lost in my book when a man comes up and said "Sorry for interrupting your reading, but you might want to sit somewhere else.  I'm an arborist, and that tree there is very cracked, and with these winds we've been having, it might fall over." 

I thanked him and found another bench, although I'm doubtful that the tree would have fallen over on me.  It was a pretty calm day.  However, I'm going to keep an eye on that tree from now on and see if my friendly neighbourhood arborist was right.


- Today I had a busy fun-filled day with my pal Vern who's up for a short visit.  We went to The Beach and had a nice lunch, then went for a walk along the boardwalk, went to Yogurty's and she drove me to Ikea to buy a new lamp for $16.99.

I walked out of Ikea spending almost $200.  Expensive damned lamp.

The problem was that I fell in love with a pair of purple velvet curtains that I thought would look great in my bedroom and also do a better job blocking out the morning sun than my current curtains, which are old, and were cheap anyway.  I hemmed and hawed and decided that they were worth the splurge because they'd give my room a nice makeover.  In addition, I got two purple velvet throw curtains that match the curtains, and a little vase with three fake purple flowers.  Mini-bedroom makeover!

On top of that, I decided to pick up a couple new pillows, bulbs for the new lamp, and a couple of lint rollers (can never have too many of those). 

And that's why my lamp cost $200.

- After the Ikea trip, we went to the Jays game.  I was back to my usual spot in the 500s.  The 500s don't give you the view that you get in the 100s, but you do get added entertainment.

The game was painful.  The final score was 14 - 5 or so for the Dodgers.  There were three various innings where they gave up 4 runs.  Ugh.

However, for the last couple innings, we were entertained by a drunk dude in our section.  He came over to make friends, and tried to win a debate about baseball with me.  (I won.)  He and his friend then gave my pal Vern some awful sales pitches about loans from their bank.  It was rather hilarious.

Seriously, you always get bonus entertainment in the 500s.  I remember being at a game with someone a few years ago where there was this super drunk dude who called himself "Cliff Robertson" (I think) and was trying to pick up some girl by telling her that he operated a scuba diving lesson place in the suburbs somewhere.  It was pretty hilarious, and I remember trying not to laugh so hard as we eavesdropped.

- Tomorrow I'm catching a ride back to Stratford with Vern.  It's that time finally: Rilo's heading to my parents' place for safe-keeping as I travel.  In exactly a week's time, I will be on a plane to London, and then a plane to Nairobi.

Watermelon

It's hot and I've messed up my sleeping patterns as of late by going to bed really late, and sleeping in 'til 10 am or so.  I call it summer vampirism.  It usually happens every summer.

I just ate a slice of cool watermelon over the sink in my kitchen.  Is there anything better than juicy watermelon when it's super hot, especially when it's chilled?

As I was eating, a memory came back to me of the time I paid $30 for a watermelon.

My first teaching job (ten years ago from this September OMG) was on an isolated community in Northwestern Ontario.  I worked for an internet high school.  Northern Ontario has dozens of these small, remote aboriginal reserves, and they have populations far too small to support secondary schools.  As a result, children have to leave their families to pursue secondary education, and of course, this leads to many challenges.  The internet high school that I worked for was an alternative to students leaving their home communities.  They had a classroom in their community with a teacher, and they took their courses online.  I was responsible for putting some science courses online, and marking work of students in other communities.  During the school day, I helped students in my community complete work in their courses.  (I remember learning a lot about art and communications technology while helping my students.)

I had about seven students in my home community, which was an Oji-Cree community.  At the end of the school year, we were lucky to get a bunch of shiny new computers.  My principal told me that we could take one of the old computers and raffle it off within the community and use the funds to throw a year-end party for my students and other children in the community.  My students and I diligently went around selling tickets and we raised enough money for a good party.  I was pleasantly surprised at how great the support was for our little raffle.

For our party, I had to fax in a grocery order to the grocery store in the nearest town.  They would pack our groceries in cardboard boxes, and then there was a small airline that would fly our food to us.  (This is how I ordered my groceries too when I lived there.)  Of course, you had to pay the airline a certain fee per pound of cargo.

I asked my students what they wanted to order.  They basically had free range.  If they wanted it, I'd order it for them.  (In fact, I don't think I really cared if the order went over what we raised.  I was cool with paying the difference out of my pocket.)

I was expecting their first requests to be junk food: pop, chips, hotdogs, ice cream and such.  But the very first request was for a watermelon.

"A watermelon, huh?  You guys are healthy!  Nice," was most likely my response to this request. 

When the bill for the food arrived, I understood why, when given the choice of any sort of food to order, my students requested a watermelon.  The price of a whole watermelon from a northern grocery store was about $12, and I know that I calculated the shipping of the thing to be about $18, more than the melon itself. 

After finding the cost of buying and shipping a large melon that's 91% water, I then understood why watermelon was the huge splurge for the party.  Watermelon was certainly not an every day food in this community.

I remember that watermelon being eaten up incredibly fast at that party.

And I can't help but remember this whenever I eat watermelon.

You know I think about you, let me know you think about me too.

This evening I went to a few of my favourite Toronto spots:

1) The Bloor Cinema to see the documentary "20 Feet From Stardom".  I love docs.  I love our city's documentary cinema.  It's a beautiful space and was packed tonight.



2) A Markham Street patio for beer on a humid summer evening.  Yes, it was a little bit sweaty, but I love being outside.

3) Browsed records at Sonic Boom.  Restrained myself from buying any vinyl.  I still have the new Two Hours Traffic record that I got a couple weeks ago and have not listened to yet.

Now I'm listening to Whitehorse and reading on my sofa.

Also, I think this Neko Case cover of Harry Nilsson's "Don't Forget Me" is great for a hot summer night.  Or any night, really. 

I could've been your girl, and you could have been my four-leaf clover.

Somehow week three of summer vacay has crept up upon me.  I have to say that I'm feeling super relaxed these days... I walk around in a zen-like state of relaxation.  It's a good place.

I've spent these last few days spending lots of time with various friends.  Some good dinners out, some good dinners in, a bit of shopping, a cardio martial arts class, and lots of good conversation.

In my time on my own, I've been binge-watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix (verdict = love) and reading the book that the series is based upon. 

Really, there's not a whole lot more going on.  I should be devoting more time to organizing my apartment and going to yoga classes.  I guess I'm not totally relaxed if I'm still criticizing my use of time, huh?

I have a few more things to complete on my Kenyan to-do list: mainly get some Kenyan shillings, some US dollars to pay for my visa, and purchase some steel-toed workboots, coveralls, and work gloves to wear while doing construction projects there.  Oh, and more sunblock (can't have too much of that, I figure) and assorted other items.

I was thinking of booking a haircut before my trip, but I am going to leave my hair at its current length for the trip.  I can sort of tie it back at this point.  I feel I'm going to be wearing my hat a lot of the time over there.  I will resume my pampering schedule (hair, nails, etc.) once I return.

I can't believe in two weeks today, I'll be arriving in Nairobi.  Getting there is seriously going to take two days.  We flight out on an overnight flight on July 29th, have a 10-hour layover in London, and then it's another 8-hour overnight flight to Nairobi.  I feel like the journey there will be half of the battle.  Anyone else survived a flight to Africa? I guess I've done Australia, but this seems more arduous.    I know few people who've actually been to Africa.  It'd be cool to get travel trips from someone.  Even though I have a detailed packing list, I feel like I'll forget something important.

All this thinking; that's summer life.  Hope you are all well, and surviving any heat wave you may be facing.  We are in the midst of one.

Quiz Show Audition

In May, I found out that I passed the online test for a popular quiz show on TV.  I'd taken the online test in November upon my parents' prompting (well, insistence, really), and then completely forgotten that I'd even done so until I got the email.

(I'm not going to post the name of the show, just in case someone googles ___________ auditions or whatever.  No spoilers for them!)

Today was my audition.  I was a little bit nervous and pessimistic about it last night, I'll admit.  I'm naturally introverted and last night the thought of having to talk to strangers was very unappealing and I was also afraid that the online test was a fluke and that I'd know nothing today, or be faced with all sorts of questions on American history, geography, and opera, all of which are my worst categories, and end up looking really dumb in front of others.

The audition was in a downtown hotel's meeting room.  The people outside really did look like quiz show contestants, and I had to do my best from bursting out laughing.  It just was really funny.  No one was saying ANYTHING until the dude beside me made a joke about it and we struck up a conversation.  He also turned out to be a teacher.  This was his second time auditioning for this show; he'd actually flown to NYC the other time.

We then were called into the meeting room and sat at tables.  The first order of business was a welcome video hosted by the host of the quiz show.  Then we tried out some questions as a group to warm-up.  Turned out there were lots of lawyers in the group.  There was also an engineer sitting in front of me who'd also auditioned before in Toronto, and thought I looked familiar from it, but nope, first time for me.  There were also some people from as far away as New Brunswick, Montreal, and Winnipeg.  (Lucky me with a 20 minute subway ride.)

We also found out that 100 000 people did the online test, and only 2 500 made the audition stage.  That's a nice intellectual confidence boost for me!  Of those who auditioned, only 400 will make the show.  Basically I'm now in the contestant pool for 18 months, and if I don't hear anything, it's back to the online test for me. 

Anyway, but the audition was super fun.  First we wrote a 50 question test (like the online test) and I think I did pretty well.  There were lots of questions that I knew for sure, and only a few that I did not know at all.  After that, we were called up in groups of 3 to play a mock version of the game.  I felt I was pretty competitive.  I managed to buzz in first on a good number of questions and get them right.

After each game, the contestant hopefuls had personality interviews.  I felt that mine went well.  I told stories about lighting my hand on fire at school, and playing quiz games with my students in class.  Also, the interviewer said to me "By the way, you have really really pretty hands."  This is actually something I've heard before, so I joked "Well, if this quiz show thing doesn't work out for me, maybe I should be a hand model."

So yes, that was the audition.  And, we got a souvenir pen, and earbuds in a little pouch.  It was totally a really fun experience.  That's how you can truly tell you're with a group of fellow nerds: you all say "Wow! That was fun!" when you write a test.  I'm going to totally try to audition again in 18 months, because let's face it, I have approximately a 16% chance of making it.  (I did the math of course.)

Now that I've used my brain a bit this summer, I can go back to letting it mush-ify with bad reality TV.  :)

I hate the rain. (Part 2)

I believe the rain at Sunday's Turf show killed my trusty iPhone 3GS.  I started having problems with it on Sunday night, and then it worked properly again early Monday morning, but by about 10 am, the screen was really dim (it wasn't the settings).  I could at least still get calls and texts but it was hard to read.  Anyway, it was probably the best time ever for me to break my phone as it was 3.5 years old and I was ready for a new one.  I was going to hold out until Apple released the next iPhone (most likely so I could get the iPhone 5 for cheaper), but here I am with a new iPhone5 with a nice bright screen and oh-boy is it fast with a much much better camera.

Back to hating the rain. Hey - that song is playing on my record player right now.  I love Neko forever.

So, how did I spend rainmageddon?  (All extreme weather event are required to be suffixed in -mageddon, right?)

Well, rainmageddon started off as a humid, yet sunny day.  I woke up and decided to run on the treadmill on the gym to pre-work off the feast I'd be having later in the day.  After my run, Becca T came over to visit Ms. Rilo and listen to some records, and then we headed off to High Tea at the very nice Windsor Arms hotel.  We had to wear our sunglasses on the way there as it was so sunny.

Near the end of high tea, we noticed that it was really dark out, and right before we were going to leave, it started really coming down.  There was no way we were going out there, so we decided to hang out in the Windsor Arms' bar and have some Prosecco.  Good call on our part.  We were able to keep up with the havoc that rainmageddon was wreaking on Toronto on the bar TV.  (I tried to check Twitter on my busted phone and joked "There's either flooding or flooring in Toronto right now... it's really hard to read on this thing.")

Becca had organized a drinks night at a pub at 7 pm, so we had to brave it.  Luckily, by the time we left at about 6:30 pm, it was raining at a reasonable rate.  We walked to Bloor subway stations, where it was utterly chaotic.  Various portions of the subway were closed down.  However, Bloor to Lawrence was open, which was really fortunate for us, since that encompassed where we were, where the pub was, and where both of us had to go home.

We were lucky ducks for sure.  I have a friend who lives in Etobicoke who was still without power this morning.  I was only inconvenienced by having to hang out in a really nice hotel bar with a nice glass of sparkling wine.

I hate the rain.

Fun moments from the past four days:

1) Joel Plaskett playing an amazing set at TurfTO on Thursday night.  I think I'd forgotten how much I love him.

2) Dancing to She & Him.  I loved seeing them live.  They were adorable.

3) Post show beers with my pal Eric.  We had some much-needed catch-up time.

4) Toronto bargain shopping with my friend Heather, who was visiting from London. 

5) SEEING BECCA T!  She's in town! We had sushi, and she joined my group of friends to see Tegan and Sara and Fun. at Downsview Park.

6) Tegan and Sara played an amazing set.

7) Fun. were well, fun.  The best was that they had fireworks going on during their encore.

8) Two mimosa brunch this morning at the Drake Cafe.

9) Seeing Whitehorse play at TurfTO today.  They are a great live band.

10) Watching Neko Case in the pouring rain with my friend Karen.  I don't think I've seen Neko since maybe 2009, and man, she is THE awesome.  It was pouring and it go so muddy.  She played the song Fever, which has the line "I hate the rain" which was kind of perfect, because we were on at least our third downpour of the day.  But still, watching Neko in the rain and mud was a rather special moment and I'll never forget it.  She played a killer set and I cannot wait for her new album.

11) Belle & Sebastian closing out TurfTO.  I was rather unfamiliar with most of their music, but it was a lovely set nonetheless.

Tomorrow I have high tea and drinks with Becca T.  So excited. 

I wanted to control it but love I couldn't hold it.

SUMMER FOREVER!

Seriously, the past week has been great!  I've finished two excellent books (both Canlit too), listened to a lot of vinyl, got some good workouts in, got my nails done, etc., etc.  I love this pace of life.

I also got my shots for Africa (yellow fever, typhoid, Hep A) and my prescriptions for anti-malarials.

Tonight is the first of three concerts in four days.  It's The Barr Brothers, The Joel Plaskett Emergency, Camera Obscura and She & Him for TURF (Toronto Urban Roots Festival).

I am excited for all the bands, but I am most excited to hear this song.  For me, it's one of those songs that I can really relate to.  It's a little bit of a heartbreaking song, but because the melody and vocals and strings are so lovely, who cares?  Also, the video is set in European cities like Paris and Barcelona, and we all know how I feel about those places.

I've gotten back to the road where I started.

Summer's here!  And here's how it started for me.

Rainy Friday.  Our year-end staff social on a massive neighbourhood patio was moved into the school.  It was still fun.  Afterward, I carried on to the Bier Markt with some friends where I indulged in Belgian and Kenyan (!) beer.

Early Saturday morning.  Met up with my pal Mathew and a couple of his friends for a cross border shopping extravaganza in Buffalo New York.  We had to get back to Toronto by 8 or 9, so it was a whirlwind.  I ended up pretty much buying a whole new summer wardrobe: lots of shorts and light Ts that I hope will be appropriate for Kenya.  Lots of fun bright colours too.

We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.  I've never been there before.  Since we were in a rush we had to get our cheesecake to take home.

Crossing back home was rather funny.  My friend Mathew always gets a bit clammy when being questioned by customs agents.  When the lady asked us where we'd been, he froze and then said "The Buffalo" to which she replied "What did you do in THE Buffalo?"  From now on, it's always going to be The Buffalo to me.

I was home by 9 pm and had the problem of the cheesecake on my hands.  My diet's been a little off track during the month of June because of the sheer amount of parties going on.  I've been cheating far too often.  Anyway, I know that my trainer always tells me that a good time to eat carbs is after a workout, so I threw on my running clothes and ran over 7 km to earn my delicious cheesecake.

Sunday was a day of rest.  I finished reading a book, and listened to She & Him Vol 3 on vinyl. 

Today I went with my pal Mathew to the Jays' game.  Being that it was Canada Day, there were free read Jays hats for the first 20 000 fans, and the game sold out, so we went early.  Good thing too, because the dude beside us was about 15 mins later than we were, and got no hat.  It was a great game: the Jays gave the Tigers a nice drubbing (to steal a word from the CBC).  The final score was 8 to 3.

After the game, I came home, had a nap, then watched TV for the evening (rare for me).  I watched shows on either end of the intellectual spectrum: Jeopardy! and The Bachelorette.

Long weekend is over, and tomorrow starts my time off officially. This week is busy.  I have training, exercise dates with friends, shots to get for Kenya, three concerts, and I need to get my apartment into some semblance of order.  Good thing I got a bit of rest this weekend.

Am I the one you think about when you're sitting in your fainting chair drinking pink rabbits?

My work-friends and I picture our work as a sitcom.  Cataloging all of the characters and the sitcom-y moments is a great way to cope.

Tomorrow's the season finale.  We have some meetings, then a social and it's a two-month hiatus.

The hiatus sort of started today.  I slept in, got a pedicure, treated myself to sushi, went to the gym, and had a small nap.  I also read 100 pages in the interim as well.  After a really nice me-day, I headed out west to the pretty inn where our school has graduation.  This year's graduating class was very special.  There were some great kids, and I'm really going to miss them.  I feel very privileged to have made a difference in so many lives.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to summer.  It's going to be a great one.  I've got a lot of fun things planned so far: cross-boarder shopping trips, concerts, visits from Becca T, lots of exercise and clean eating.  I feel like July is going to be like today: still lots of socializing but alone time to relax and rejuvenate.

I fly to Kenya on the 29th.  We have an overnight to London, then a bit of a stopover, and then a long flight to Nairobi.  I can't believe that it's just a little over a month away!

But first, let's see how the season finale plays out.

A - Z(ed) of Me

Borrowed from my lovely friend Siobhan. 

A. 

Age: 33.

B. 

Bed size: double. 

C. 

Chore that you hate: all of the chores.  Seriously, I need a housekeeper.

D. 

Dogs: my first pet was a dog!  She ran away, and then a friend of my grandmother's dog-napped a new one for me.  Luckily, my mother was able to return it to its family.  Read about it here. 

E. 

Essential start to your day: breakfast (Greek yogurt, berries, almonds) and coffee.

F. 

Favourite colour: purple.

G. 

Gold or Silver: I prefer silver but am starting to like gold.

H. 

Height: 5ft 6in

I. 

Instruments you play: I used to play the piano, but I've lost it.  Can still hammer out Fur Elise though. That one's like riding a bike to me.

J. 

Job title: Teacher.

K. 

Kids: I'm on the fence about that.

L. 

Live: Toronto.

M. 

Mother’s name: Lucy.

N. 

Nicknames: my friend's husband calls me Crunchy Crackers.  Also, is "Miss" a nickname?

O. 

Overnight hospital stays: When I was born.  Not since then, though.

P.

Pet peeves: whoa.  This one could be a post to itself.  Selfishness.  Thoughtlessness.  Entitlement.  And people who are outside sitters on the bus which makes it impossible for me to sit on the seat beside them.  Especially when they aren't getting off any time soon.

Q.

Q. Quote from a movie:

“Spider Pig! Spider pig! Does whatever a spider pig does!” - Homer from The Simpsons Movie

R. 

Right or left handed: right

S. 

Siblings: None.
T. 
There's no T!  Hmmm, but for tea, I sure do love David's Tea!

U. 

Underwear: I wear it.

V. 

Vegetable you hate: onions.

W.

What makes you run late: I'm usually pretty punctual.  If I'm running late, I'll blame the TTC like any good Torontonian.

X. 

X-Rays you’ve had: teeth, and right foot.

Y.

Yummy food that you make: Chipotle-Glazed Roast Chicken with Sweet Potatoes.  This is a recent find and it's amazing.  I've made it for a few friends and always get rave reviews.  And it fits my healthy-eating plan!

Z. 

Zoo animal: lemurs.

You don't think before you jump.

The heat arrived this weekend.  It finally feels like June... not that I'm complaining.  I loved the cool summer days that preceded this weekend.  But now it's one of those evenings where it feels hot, and I don't even feel like even thinking about sleeping so I'm watching The National videos on YouTube while drinking some red wine.

Which is probably not the best thing to do as songs by The National are pretty wonderfully mopey.

I need their new album.  I love the song "This Is the Last Time" because I can really relate to it.  I wish I'd come across it in February, I really do.   (Well, it didn't exist in February either but I wish it did.)

This Tiny Desk Concert on NPR is great.



Weekend was pretty great.  Nice day on Friday at Centre Island with student council.  Birthday party for my friend Mathew on Friday night.  I finished up my marking and report cards on Saturday.  Today I went to the spa and had dinner with a pal.

But still, the hot weather brings a weird sort of sadness with it.  I always get a little bit nervous before summer starts.  I need the rest, but all of the undefined time seems overwhelming.  Too much time that I could spend lost in my thoughts, wrapped up in my introversion letting myself be haunted by ghosts of summers past.  I'm going to do the best to schedule myself silly, buy a Metropass, and get out of my neighbourhood during the month of July.

Really Great Day

I had a really great day today.  Seriously, there were several times where I exclaimed this aloud.

Today I proctored my last exam of the semester.  It was for my environmental science class.  This class was challenging to teach: they V-coded the course, which means two different courses were put together in my class at the same time.  It was like a split grade.  I had students who are on their way to the workplace taking one level of envi-sci as well as students who are on their way to college/university taking the other level.  It was really hard to teach, and I feel that I have done a much more effective job at delivering these courses separately in the past.  Often education is a numbers game, and that is what unfortunately happened this year.

However, even though I couldn't be as effective as I usually am, it was really nice having one last day with my students.  They also showed me that although logistics prevented me from being 100% awesome, I was still pretty darned awesome.  Everyone worked really hard on their exams, and many of the students wrote very sweet thank you messages to me on their exams (I've gotten a lot of those this semester).  It's great when you teach a course that you are very passionate about, and that your students actually tell you that they will take with them what you taught for the rest of their lives.  I'm so lucky to be in this profession.

After the exam, as I was cleaning up the room, two of my students brought me a thank-you gift: a case of Coke Zero.  Usually in this class, I'd be drinking a Coke Zero (stolen from a friend's mini-fridge; but I pay him a monthly CZ fee) and talking about things like toxins in the environment and eating healthy foods from sustainable sources and then remark "and yes, I know I'm being a bit hypocritical as I drink this potentially-carcinogenic solution from a multi-national food company but I REALLY need caffeine to get through the rest of the day.  And I don't like sugar-y sodas."  It became a bit of a class joke and it was so sweet that they dragged it from the mall for me!  A case of pop has never touched a person so much as it did today, I think.

I have hidden it carefully in the storage room off of my classroom.  There is summer school in the building this summer, and I don't want anyone to steal my special stash.  I'm ready for September.

After exams wrapped up, a couple of my friends and I drove out to my local pub for lunch and pints on a patio in this beautiful sunny temperate weather.  (LONG LIVE EXAM WEEK.)  We then went to do some marking at the Starbucks across the street and got some marking in.

I had to abandon the marking party early because I had running plans with a former colleague/friend.  We worked in different departments, and she's at a different school now, but we've kept in touch over Facebook.  She's recently started running using clinics from the Running Room, and invited me to a run in The Beach neighbourhood.

I don't go out to The Beach enough.  It's in the city's east end, and I tend to stay central or go west.  However, it's such a pretty neighbourhood, and is a nice 20 minute streetcar ride from downtown.  I need to get out there more often.  We did a nice easy 4K run with the group, and then had some delicious frozen yogurt.  We took our yogurt out along the boardwalk, and then settled on a nice rock by the lake.  It looks like we'll do some more fitness activities together since we're both going to be sticking around Toronto for July.

Anyway, so I've got 32 exams left to mark, but I think I'm going to hit the hay and work on them tomorrow.   Awesome students, friends, fitness pals, and an awesome city with great neighbourhoods to explore make for such a nice day.

Had It Coming/Old Time Sake

I'm always trying to break up with Matthew Good.  I say "oh, I'm not going to listen to his new album or go to his shows.  I don't think I'm into him anymore."

Then he comes out with something new, and I really like it as per usual and circle the date his new album is being released on my calendar.  Maybe this one I will get on vinyl.  And now I'm thinking "okay yes, I've seen him at Massey Hall at least once before but it'd be cool to see him at Massey Hall again in the fall so I should get tickets but who will I bring as my MG BFF lives in France?"



I should give up on this musical break-up though.  It's not going to happen. 

I can't remember the last time I had a successful musical breakup.  Once I love an artist I'm pretty committed.  I like following careers for years and listening to each new album.  And I'm not the type to say "oh, only their first two albums were any good and then they went downhill."  Once I'm hooked that's it.

I'm a keeper, I suppose.  Or all of my bands are to me.

Last Sunday, after Field Trip, I went to my local pub for a beer.  Like a nerd, I was wearing my fave BSS Tshirt because well, I had the BSS afterglow about me.  My server, a punk-ass looking dude who must have been about 25 and had floppy hair, said "oh did you go to the show yesterday?"

I said yes, it was awesome, and then he went on a rant about how BSS and Stars and pretty much every Toronto indie band from the 2000s only had 1-2 good albums and then went downhill.  I wasn't taking it and kept saying "I disagree!  Stars' latest album was a total throwback to Set Yourself On Fire.   BSS' Forgiveness Rock Record was pretty good.  It had Meet Me in the Basement after all."  But dude kept going on until finally I said "Can I order my food now?  And I need another beer."

Apparently he was good at band breakups.  Unnecessary band breakups.  How about you guys?  Do you do musical breakups??

Also, I've been digging this old Kathleen Edwards song lately.  It's been going through my head.  I'm feeling it these days.

Blurry Nights

Good weekend.  Lazy weekend.  Fitness groove reset tomorrow I tell you.

On Friday night, I headed to Yonge-Dundas Square to catch a free show for NXNE. 

I saw Hayden for the third time this year; this fact would elate my teenaged-self.  I've been a Hayden fan since I was approximately 16 years old.  And yes, he played this: (my favourite song to mope to since I was ~ 16)



And this... (the song I will always associate with breaking my foot a week before starting university)



And this... (my favourite song from the new album)



Hayden twice within one week?  Yes please!

The National headlined this show, and I'm new to The National.  So many of my fellow music snobs love The National, and I kind of wanted to go to this show, so I picked up High Violet on vinyl a few weeks ago on the advice of my hair stylist.  (Who was probs at the show too.)

The National are amazing live.  I really enjoyed their show, even though YD was pretty packed.  The highlight was the crowd sing along to "VanderLyle Crybaby Geeks" which was the song I was waiting for.  It was also cool when lead singer Matt Berninger went into the crowd during the show.  His mic cord was super long because he got pretty close to us (we were maybe 25 rows of ppl from the stage) and went in a big circle through the crowd.  I had to duck under the cord too.

Anyway, that was followed by drinks, so all-in-all, a pretty great Friday night.

I slept in on Saturday, read a little, then met up with my friend Elaine for shopping and dinner at the Eaton Centre.  I splurge a bit on a couple new summer tops from Aritzia, and a new running threads (v-neck Run Swiftly T, Inspire II crops, matching headband) from Lululemon.  All of my old running Ts are supper loose, and I have to pull the drawstring super tight on my old crops so that they don't fall down when I'm running.  :)  I figured it was time to splurge on some new workout stuff, and yay, I am now down a full two sizes at Lulu.  Victory. 

My friend Elaine always gives me great perspective on my life.  She is always very empathetic when big stuff goes badly, but laughs at the little stuff that goes badly, which is what you should do.  As I was telling her some recent stories at dinner, she pointed out that my life is like a sitcom, and I agreed.  Then I told her that I have a Jeopardy! audition this summer and she was like "see! that would only happen on a sitcom."  It's true.

I spent most of today reading a book that I picked up at the mall: "The Silver Star" by Jeannette Walls.  I really like both of her other books (The Glass Castle, Half Broke Horses) so I figured why not.

This upcoming week is all about tying up the semester and getting my workouts back on track after three days off... Tomorrow I'm going to run to a yoga class and back, and then I'm sure my trainer will crush me on Tuesday which is leg day (dude's leg days are insane).  I have a running date at the Beaches on Wednesday with a former colleague which I'm looking forward to.

Happy Monday blog pals! 

Almost there...

One more teaching day, and then it's on to exam week.

I'm going to miss my classes.  My mom points out I say that every semester.  It's 'cuz it's true.  I always get the best kids.  It's exam review Jeopardy all day tomorrow.

Weekend plans are to be determined.  I'll probably catch some free music for NXNE, get some exercise in, a bit of shopping, dinner with a friend, and finish off that blasted term marking. 

I'm looking forward to a July; almost a whole month with not much planned other than a few shows and getting myself ready for Kenya.  And I'll need to book a massage or two.  And de-clutter this apartment.  And read.

Ahhh.  Can't wait.

Everything will change.

I realize that I've been celebrating the year 2003 over the past few days.

On Saturday, I went to Arts & Crafts' amazing 10th anniversary festival, where Broken Social Scene played 2003's "You Forgot It In People".

Tonight, I went to see the Postal Service play at the Air Canada Centre to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their album "Give Up".

Funny enough, I wasn't overly into either of these albums in 2003.  I was into indie rock back in those days; perhaps since I was just finishing Teachers' College, I didn't quite have the music budget that I have these days and wasn't into all of the bands.  I know I liked Death Cab for Cutie back then, so I'm surprised I didn't listen much to the Postal Service; I probably knew a few songs. (The Postal Service is a side project of DCFC's Ben Gibbard.)  Same with BSS.  I read "Chart Magazine" voraciously back then (a Cdn music magazine), and know that I'd definitely heard of BSS in 2003 but didn't really get into them until later in the decade.

Anyway, I'm now fully acquainted with each of these 2003 albums and loved seeing them live over the past few days.  The remastered "Give Up" is definitely one of my fave albums of this year, even though it's 10 years old.  I love the 3-record collector's edition I bought on vinyl.  Moreover, I love the album as a whole, and seeing it played tonight (although shuffled up with some B-sides, a cover, and two new songs) was incredible.

More incredible is that one of my favourite musicians, Jenny Lewis, who sings/plays on "Give Up" played in the band tonight.  She is from the band Rilo Kiley, who I named my cat after, so it's always a special night when you get to see the lady whose band you named your cat after.  She has an awesome voice, and is a multi-instrumentalist: she played bass, acoustic guitar, and drums this evening.

Anyway, all of this 2003 music got me to thinking about myself in 2003.  Ten years ago I finished my education and had to figure out my place in the world.  I'd never even been on a plane at that point in my life.  A lot of my friends have remained the same (heck, I took my friend Mathew to tonight's show and he was around in 2003), and a lot about me is the same: I'm still the same person at heart, still love music, books, etc.

But I'm way different now.  And I like it.  I really do think I've gotten much better with age, and I'm super proud of that.

I'm way stronger: physically, emotionally, and mentally.  I've been through my share of heartbreaks, challenges, and disappointments, but have gotten through all of them, and I think I'm way better off for them.  I think I'm probably in the best physical shape of my life right now thanks to an intense five months of training/healthy eating.

I've traveled lots in ten years.  I've been able to maintain the vast majority of friendships from ten years ago, but have also made lots of new friends.

I've read a lot, learned a lot, and discovered a lot.  I have a career that I love and from which I get a lot of fulfillment. 

I'm like a fine wine, I think.  Definitely better with age.  If The Postal Service does a 20th anniversary of Give Up in 2023, I look forward to seeing how I'll have grown by then.  It's nice to reflect and realize that I'm happy with how I've grown, and that I know I'm probably just going to get better.