So I decided to waste some time last night on Facebook and ended up doing the "random" thing and blurted down 25 things about myself as they "randomly" came to mind. Thought I'd share them here:
1. I've always liked to say that I don't follow trends, but I keep contradicting myself on that one.
2. Two nights ago I puked on the hour for 7 hours! It was horrible. (You know, after two times, there's not really anything left.) It seems that this occurrence happens to me every few years and I can clearly pinpoint the other times, because I was away. Once in Victoria, once in Winnipeg and once in Northern Ireland. As best as I can figure it out, it is food poisoning.
3. I actually have never really had digestive trouble with all of my travelling/living abroad.
4. I don't really like Gap or American Eagle Outfitters and I have never bought anything from either place.
5. I like listening to CBC radio.
6. Hmm, this one was about this blog, so I'll have to blurt out something else for here. Um...I love sandwiches. A lot. Once for grade 10 Biology, we were supposed to keep track of our diet to count calories and that particular day ended up being a snow day. My calories were through the roof because I made 6 sandwiches for myself that day!
7. I used to write stories when I was little.
8. I try to write songs.
9. I like trivia and can get too obsessed with knowing things.
10. Even though I try to stay knowledgeable about politics, I really am not that political of a person.
11. I can be annoyingly unexciteable and unpassionate about things.
12. Music is my one constant love. Singing especially. I play guitar, bass, piano and percussion, but none of them as well as I'd like.
13. I did public speaking competitions from grade 7 to 9 and went especially far (made money) in grade 8 on my speech about the weirdness of the English language. I actually plagiarized most of the speech's content from an article in Reader's Digest and no one ever caught me! My grade 9 speech on my future ambition to be a housewife and mother didn't go very far.
14. My elementary school was tiny and playing chess was cool. I was good at it and won in the county and went to the provincials. I am proud of this, but it makes me nervous to play now because it's a lot to live up to. I don't think I'm that great anymore.
15. I was once a hippy poser and a boarder poser at the same time. Now I am not close to either. I went to some concerts in Guelph recently and felt out of place with all the hippies.
16. People have this impression that I am a travelling machine. This leads to some people thinking that I am not very settled. The fact is, I have lived in the same city for nearly ten years!
17. The only place I ever really wanted to go was England and I did, living there ten years ago. I view any other travelling as an added blessing that I am given almost year-to-year.
18. I have so many cousins, that I lose track! Some of my older cousins have children older than our younger cousins.
19. Seeing other cultures, I have a great respect for prioritizing community living and taking care of family. My mom has been living in a nursing home since July. Sigh.
20. I am a fan of lesser-known shows like Veronica Mars and Instant Star. But I also love Lost, 24, Prison Break, etc. My favourite reality shows are the Amazing Race and So You Think You Can Dance.
21. In my teen years, I used to go to a lot of Christian concerts. I saw the Vancouver group Hokus Pick about 10 times, so that they started to recognize me.
22. I like dogs, but can't picture having one in the city. My dog Duke lived for 16 years (on a farm). He used to chase everything, snowmobiles, cars, walkers, school bus, ground hogs, snakes, rabbits....I once helped him kill a raccoon (when I was 10). Oh Duke.
23. My lungs aren't very good when I exercise. I am not convinced that they will get better with training. Even when I was little and really fit, I could never run a complete lap without going a ridiculous slow pace. I get weezy when I exert myself a lot (like a spin class), or outside in the cold (like jogging up the block last week to the video store). I have a puffer. Sometimes I get this weezy cough when I'm nervous. I sometimes wonder if I picked something up in Mexico City as I can clearly remember having breathing problems there.
24. I am a huge advocate for making sure that women are properly fitted at a bra store. I hate that commercial for "Meals Ready Before You Are" where the woman comes downstairs in her bra to take her meal out of the microwave. The bra is riding up in the back! It doesn't fit her right!
25. On my 25th birthday I picked up my new car and had a backyard party at good ol' 380 Louisa St. For that birthday, I went and saw U2!
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Breaking up the February blahs
So I hit up some shows yesterday. It had occurred to me recently that I used to attend concerts a lot (in my younger years!) and hadn't been to one in ages. I'd been looking into what's local and stumbled upon the second annual Hillside Inside festival held in Guelph. Despite not having anyone to go with (well, I could have tried harder to find someone, I guess), I bought a ticket Friday night and went Saturday afternoon. It was a good event. Great music. Just kinda chillin' like for most of the day, checking out the acts, wandering around. Laughing to myself at just how hippy Guelph is. It was nice to just take in live, good music. Even Guelph's local talent The Magic were a good listen.
It was nice how you could go at will to the floor level and so I did for two of the better/bigger shows: Bedouin Soundclash and Sam Roberts Band. Sweet. The BS show was kind of a flashback to my days of "rude boys" "skanking" at the shows.
(Here's a photo of me in those days.) Yes, once upon a time I guess I would have fit in quite well with the hippy crowd, as you can see, but I kinda felt out of it yesterday. No matter though--totally dug the music. I was rather enthralled by the bass of Bedouin Soundclash. I played the bass at church this morning and well, I need to practice.
The Sam Roberts show was by far the best though. Best energy (although by then, I was getting quite tired from the day)--don't know how the drummer could endure. They played all of their songs that I really like and the musicianship, especially with their 5-10 minute instrumental ending of fabulous rockness, excellent! Somewhere in the midst of that show I noticed a girl I recognized from high school (there seems to be Collingwood people everywhere) and afterward talked with her and her brother--the first people I'd actually had a conversation with all evening! That was nice.
So yeah, live music stuff. My latest thing to bring cheer to the blahs.
Here is a video of That 1 Guy, who with his magic pipe only, plays quite the show. You gotta see it to get it. Actually, I did see him and I even went up after to look closer at the contraption and I still don't get it. But it was cool.
It was nice how you could go at will to the floor level and so I did for two of the better/bigger shows: Bedouin Soundclash and Sam Roberts Band. Sweet. The BS show was kind of a flashback to my days of "rude boys" "skanking" at the shows.
(Here's a photo of me in those days.) Yes, once upon a time I guess I would have fit in quite well with the hippy crowd, as you can see, but I kinda felt out of it yesterday. No matter though--totally dug the music. I was rather enthralled by the bass of Bedouin Soundclash. I played the bass at church this morning and well, I need to practice.The Sam Roberts show was by far the best though. Best energy (although by then, I was getting quite tired from the day)--don't know how the drummer could endure. They played all of their songs that I really like and the musicianship, especially with their 5-10 minute instrumental ending of fabulous rockness, excellent! Somewhere in the midst of that show I noticed a girl I recognized from high school (there seems to be Collingwood people everywhere) and afterward talked with her and her brother--the first people I'd actually had a conversation with all evening! That was nice.
So yeah, live music stuff. My latest thing to bring cheer to the blahs.
Here is a video of That 1 Guy, who with his magic pipe only, plays quite the show. You gotta see it to get it. Actually, I did see him and I even went up after to look closer at the contraption and I still don't get it. But it was cool.
Sunday, 1 February 2009
A voice--my voice--from the Past
It has been really nice this weekend to have no obligations, nothing to do, nowhere to be. I didn't leave the house all day yesterday and I quite enjoyed it. I read a whole book (some fictional tale about a girl in S. Africa, her father's unfaithfulness, her mother's insanity and fairies), finished a whole season of Heroes and roasted a whole bunch of parsnips. Today I went to church and didn't have to be there at any certain time (was not playing or leading any music this week). I attempted to stay in tune with what the pastor was talking about, but found myself doodling and then practicing fractions to make sure I'm in shape for the tutoring I am doing. Subtracting fractions led to me working out my genealogy/ancestry---I'm not completely sure, but I think it is 5/8 English, 1/8 Irish, 1/8 Scottish and 1/8 Welsh. Then this led me to realize that my grandparents' names make a little rhyme (Mary, Bruce, Ralph and Ruth) and maybe I should write a song about them (the little I know about them) sometime.
Then I found myself back in tune with the sermon and felt emotion stirring [again]. I'm supposed to be investigating my happiness right now and questioning if I am being held back from life by things in my life (funny that). (This is what I took from my last counselling session.) So I have been trying to dig, but not dig too much, into what I could do to be happier. The sermon "So What?" was a kind of look at What has God made me to do? I've been thinking again about music things.
There are things I want to see and I want to happen that I really can't do anything about--is there anything I can actually do? Even if there is, I'm kind of tired to doing. I am a doer by nature and today I feel like giving up on figuring out what I can do! I ended up at home and after lunch and a taste of Bollywood film (an indulgence I enjoy on some Sunday afternoons) I again retreated to my room and brought this all up with God. This song came to mind and the funny thing was that it is my own song, written eight years ago in India for a friend who was crying from physical pain (food related). I went and dug out my folder of self-composed songs and started with this one. It was interesting that it changed its meaning for me today--from a fun, cheer-up-my-friend song to a bit of a prayer. Then I tried another one that I wrote eleven years ago! It seemed better than I remembered. Then there was one that I've always liked that, this afternoon, I found hard to sing through. Funny how six years later, I'm still feeling the same way about the same things.
In the pile were a couple of poems that my brother wrote while I was in Derby ten years ago on my YWAM DTS and that I later put music to. He had actually emailed these to me while I was away from home for the first time and today I was able to read over what he had written me. I always remember my brother being soo much older than me yet, here are his words from his younger self--younger than I am now! And today they were special and encouraging to read again.
Finally I came across a printed email that I had written to a friend of mine during this same time. I had just come back to England from six weeks in Brazil and I was excited, inspired and filled up. Today as I read my own words from my eighteen year old self, I was pushed to more tears. I was writing to encourage my friend and to testify to what all God was doing around and in me and today, I ended up encouraging my ten year older self. Well, I'm not exactly sure if I am encouraged. I am deeply touched. I am amazed at how what I wrote then applies to how I feel now. I have this letter beside me right now and every time I look at it to perhaps pull out something that is touching me, I get all teary again. I think I will just continue to mull over my words!
I could look at my eighteen year-old self as young and untouched by pains and disappointments. Nevertheless, the words I wrote then are still truths and I must take these words to heart. The experiences I had during that time of my life were very real and I should hold to them and build on them, not brush them aside. I can scarcely comprehend the wisdom coming from the mouth of my eighteen year old self. Weird how God can speak to you through your past self. It's kind of like an episode of Heroes!
(This is me then. Hippy hair, plaid checked polyester man pants, a shirt with the Play Doh logo on it saying "Pray Mo'", the orange bowling shirt and my "I'm Po' But I'm Proud Shirt". Sigh.)
Then I found myself back in tune with the sermon and felt emotion stirring [again]. I'm supposed to be investigating my happiness right now and questioning if I am being held back from life by things in my life (funny that). (This is what I took from my last counselling session.) So I have been trying to dig, but not dig too much, into what I could do to be happier. The sermon "So What?" was a kind of look at What has God made me to do? I've been thinking again about music things.
There are things I want to see and I want to happen that I really can't do anything about--is there anything I can actually do? Even if there is, I'm kind of tired to doing. I am a doer by nature and today I feel like giving up on figuring out what I can do! I ended up at home and after lunch and a taste of Bollywood film (an indulgence I enjoy on some Sunday afternoons) I again retreated to my room and brought this all up with God. This song came to mind and the funny thing was that it is my own song, written eight years ago in India for a friend who was crying from physical pain (food related). I went and dug out my folder of self-composed songs and started with this one. It was interesting that it changed its meaning for me today--from a fun, cheer-up-my-friend song to a bit of a prayer. Then I tried another one that I wrote eleven years ago! It seemed better than I remembered. Then there was one that I've always liked that, this afternoon, I found hard to sing through. Funny how six years later, I'm still feeling the same way about the same things.
In the pile were a couple of poems that my brother wrote while I was in Derby ten years ago on my YWAM DTS and that I later put music to. He had actually emailed these to me while I was away from home for the first time and today I was able to read over what he had written me. I always remember my brother being soo much older than me yet, here are his words from his younger self--younger than I am now! And today they were special and encouraging to read again.
Finally I came across a printed email that I had written to a friend of mine during this same time. I had just come back to England from six weeks in Brazil and I was excited, inspired and filled up. Today as I read my own words from my eighteen year old self, I was pushed to more tears. I was writing to encourage my friend and to testify to what all God was doing around and in me and today, I ended up encouraging my ten year older self. Well, I'm not exactly sure if I am encouraged. I am deeply touched. I am amazed at how what I wrote then applies to how I feel now. I have this letter beside me right now and every time I look at it to perhaps pull out something that is touching me, I get all teary again. I think I will just continue to mull over my words!
I could look at my eighteen year-old self as young and untouched by pains and disappointments. Nevertheless, the words I wrote then are still truths and I must take these words to heart. The experiences I had during that time of my life were very real and I should hold to them and build on them, not brush them aside. I can scarcely comprehend the wisdom coming from the mouth of my eighteen year old self. Weird how God can speak to you through your past self. It's kind of like an episode of Heroes!
(This is me then. Hippy hair, plaid checked polyester man pants, a shirt with the Play Doh logo on it saying "Pray Mo'", the orange bowling shirt and my "I'm Po' But I'm Proud Shirt". Sigh.)
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