i don't like receiving emails titled "update" and i'm getting too many of them lately from too many different people. i don't really know what to say at this point without things sounding morbidly depressed mostly because not getting these emails is potentially worse than receiving them. anyways - that's all i've got - is it any surprise that i'm feeling anti-social lately.

praying for you em...

update:

thanks to james - kenya planning has been brought up to date and is no longer overwhelming.
thanks to jennie - the dishes are done (and the floor is clean)
thanks to me - my room is still a mess -however we have decorated cupcakes
thanks to God - it is still -22 -- has actually moved on to -23
thanks to peachtree tv - the friends marathon continues - tho sadly they started repeating shows about 4 hours ago (yes i am still watching)
thanks to that little girl at church - my day is still made.

life is good.

so i was sitting down in church today when a little girl came and sat beside me and started talking... her name was either ashley or ellie - she was either 5 or pretending to be - and her dad was the pastor --- that part i know was true... anyways - she made my morning (or i guess afternoon as church starts at 2). it was like she came in - looked around - and decided that we were gonna be friends for the moning...
in other news - today is a friends marathon... which isn't helping with the work getting done - but i love it :)
kenya planning is becoming overwhelming
the dishes are piling up
my room is getting messier
it is -22 degrees outside
but i could stay like this for a while and be ok...
eventually the stories in my head will be written down and i will become a millionare
eventually i will have time to sit at the piano and sing my little heart out again
eventually i will be done all of this work and i will be able to take a short breather
but more importantly...
today a little girl came and sat beside me in church.

december already! considering that every day in september took about 3 years to get through - october and november sped by at the speed of light. there is an insane amount of homework that needs to be finished today - and of course i ran out of black ink - which i didn't know until AFTER i got home from the mall today. so perhaps i'll walk back in a bit.
i'm very weepy lately it's odd.probably all the pent up frustration with all this work that isn't getting done...
bah - despite this - life is good. spent a couple hours with joanna and pat in the library working on our spec ed 'movie' - we were much more effective at playing MASH and remembering how to use the cootie catcher - Pat is married to half the girls in our class now... but oddly has really good luck haha.
oh good - it's only -7. time to put on the long johns and the new winter boots and walk to the walmart to go buy some ink :)

i'm back in north bay. there is snow here - and it is cold - and my landlords are listening to their tv way to loud as seems to be normal. i'm excited to see everyone tomoro - not as excited that i'm going to be back in the classroom - but the first day is always people sharing stories of their placements - so that'll be good i guess.
got a nice email from jeff... looking forward to these crazy malaria pills - i am so splurging for the kind that doesn't make me mad....
i was reading something on the qualities of introverts the other day - and i think i am one... i draw my strength / recharge my batteries by being alone and thinking things through - or just writing stories in my head ----- i should start writing those down some day.... hmmm. anyways - this surprised me a bit because while i knew i wasn't a TRUE extrovert - i always figured that i am very relational - i like having people around me i get mad when they are not... maybe i'm just messed up - maybe there is no maybe about it haha...
anyways - as per usual lately i have nothing really to say - or perhaps what i do have to say is locked up and i can't write is in an articulate manner (is writing articulate? or is that just speech?) ok - g'day

so my english practicum is over. i think i may actually miss it a bit --- tho i'm excited for a music placement in feb with craig... and even more excited about kenya in march !!!! things are all moving at rocket speed - it's kind of insane... hopefully the world stops spinning soon... or something is gonna get missed.

i have so much to say - but no energy or desire to really get into it all. teaching is going well for the most part - there are still those kids who make me want to smack them upside the head - but i feel there probably always will be those kids.
i have no voice right now - i feel that may be contributing to the general crankiness that is me...
but who really knows in the long run.
anyways - i'll have more later - for now - the relative silence shall continue.

so the following is really long - but it's my favourite poem of life. welcome to the full version of matthew arnold's "the buried life"...

light flows our war of mocking words, and yet, behold, with tears mine eyes are wet! i feel a nameless sadness o'er me roll. yes, yes, we know that we can jest, we know, we know that we can smile! but there's a something in this breast, to which thy light words bring no rest, and thy gay smiles no anodyne. give me thy hand, and hush awhile, and turn those limpid eyes on mine, and let me read there, love! thy inmost soul.

alas! is even love too weak to unlock the heart, and let it speak? are even lovers powerless to reveal to one another what indeed they feel? i knew the mass of men conceal'd their thoughts, for fear that if reveal'd they would by other men be met with blank indifference, or with blame reproved; i knew they lived and moved trick'd in disguises, alien to the rest of men, and alien to themselves--and yet the same heart beats in every human breast!

but we, my love!--doth a like spell benumb our hearts, our voices?--must we too be dumb?
ah! well for us, if even we, even for a moment, can get free our heart, and have our lips unchain'd; for that which seals them hath been deep-ordain'd!

fate, which foresaw how frivolous a baby man would be--by what distractions he would be possess'd, how he would pour himself in every strife, and well-nigh change his own identity--that it might keep from his capricious play his genuine self, and force him to obey even in his own despite his being's law,bade through the deep recesses of our breast the unregarded river of our life pursue with indiscernible flow its way; and that we should not see the buried stream, and seem to be eddying at large in blind uncertainty, though driving on with it eternally.

but often, in the world's most crowded streets, but often, in the din of strife, there rises an unspeakable desire after the knowledge of our buried life; a thirst to spend our fire and restless force in tracking out our true, original course; a longing to inquire into the mystery of this heart which beats so wild, so deep in us--to know whence our lives come and where they go. and many a man in his own breast then delves, but deep enough, alas! none ever mines. and we have been on many thousand lines, and we have shown, on each, spirit and power; but hardly have we, for one little hour, been on our own line, have we been ourselves-- hardly had skill to utter one of all the nameless feelings that course through our breast, but they course on for ever express'd. and long we try in vain to speak and act our hidden self, and what we say and do is eloquent, is well--but 'tis not true! and then we will no more be rack'd with inward striving, and demand of all the thousand nothings of the hour their stupefying power; ah yes, and they benumb us at our call!

yet still, from time to time, vague and forlorn, from the soul's subterranean depth upborne as from an infinitely distant land, come airs, and floating echoes, and convey a melancholy into all our day.

only--but this is rare--when a beloved hand is laid in ours, when, jaded with the rush and glare of the interminable hours, our eyes can in another's eyes read clear, when our world-deafen'd ear is by the tones of a loved voice caress'd--a bolt is shot back somewhere in our breast, and a lost pulse of feeling stirs again. the eye sinks inward, and the heart lies plain, and what we mean, we say, and what we would, we know. a man becomes aware of his life's flow, and hears its winding murmur; and he sees the meadows where it glides, the sun, the breeze.

and there arrives a lull in the hot race wherein he doth for ever chase that flying and elusive shadow, rest. an air of coolness plays upon his face, and an unwonted calm pervades his breast. and then he thinks he knows the hills where his life rose, and the sea where it goes.

feeling crazy restless today.
probably has to do with all the work i did NOT do this weekend and the constant rain that prevented any trips outdoors. perhaps also that the one paper i wouldn't mind writing isn't due until next week so i should probably be focasing on things that are due tomorrow and following days.

friday afternoon brought a fantastic treck through the trails behind the university with grant and joanna. 3 hours later we were exhausted, but know a LOT more about each other - and due to grant being an environmental geographer - a LOT more about the trees and dirt and rocks and whatever that we found in the trails. i can now ID all the coniferous trees in that forest. (with the help of my dichotomist key of course :P). it's fun spending time with people who are willing to share what they know - particularily when they know interesting stuff :P.
that night was a section party - it was good times - i'm still very skeptical that most of these people will turn into the "family" that everyone claims we will be - but they will make this year doable at the very least.

saturday - as most of my saturdays go - this one involved sleeping until noon - staring (not doing) at my homework - and some movies. jen and i walked to the bank/mall at one point because there was a brief moment of sun - however it rained the whole walk back... not quite as pleasent.

today - more homework - not really getting anywhere... good meeting with the curriculum development group.

so ants in my pants - can't even write well tonight...

problematic for the assignments i should be doing...

i better get back at that...

i am old.
at least mentally. or something.

now i don't want you to get confused here - i'm not going through some sort of quarter-life crisis or whatever you want to call it - i don't even really truly believe that i am old - rather i believe that in the grand scheme of things i am young... but right now - i am old.
monday afternoon i had an hour to kill before going home because jen finished class an hour after me - rather then staring at the rain that had been pouring down all day long i went to the wall - the campus bar - with 2 guys from my class. we had a great time - discussing practicum and classmates and life. eventually - as it always seems to - the topic turned to relationships. now it often feels (no matter how true / untrue this is) that everyone in the section is paired off - or "significantly othered" as it has been termed - with the exception of a few. so in this conversation - one of the guys is married with children and the other is single like me - and is friends with primarily the opposite sex like me. we basically decided that for us - dating is going to be hard... this of course led to... "the backup plan".
the backup plan is something traditionally geared for marrying someone if you are both single at the age of 30 and then poof - your singledom is over and you have a quick husband[/wife]. up until this point - 30 was far away. the idea of having a backup for the age of 30 seemed reasonable.
monday that came crashing down around us - 30 is only 8 years away. 30 is within reasonable sights.
30 is way too soon for a backup - and i am old.

i'm having issues focassing this weekend. i started this weekend with an uber long to-do list, and unfortunately it's still just as long if not longer. i'm at the point where i don't feel the need to have the 3 pager + lesson plan and can probably make do with some scribbled notes in my notebook - but school requirements say that i must write out complete plans - so i should probably get on that at some point. so far the weekend has been good - friday night daddio and i watched the replacements and i attempted to design a tree house for him - apparently my plans all sucked tho, because he didn't want to use any of them... wanted them to be affordable or something :P. saturday i got up - took a nap - went on a walk in the BEAUTIFUL weather, and didn't do much else then stare at my notes. then we went to stratford and saw ceaser and cleopatra. i enjoyed it quite muchly. christopher plummer played ceaser and he was good - but i really wanted him to break out in 'the hills are alive' as a sort of encore. that would have made my year for sure! - however that was probably out of character lol.
sunday was church and then nap time and then the first t-giving dinner of the weekend... it wasn't bad - and i got some marking done while we were there. driving over the skyway bridge was intense... there was a strange thick fog just settled over the bridge that made it feel like we were going to drive off the end of the bridge into nothingness. history tells us that the world is flat, and explorers were always worried of falling off the ends of the earth. i think whoever thought that up was sailing into one of these fogs. but then we made it over the bridge and slowly the air was clear again. crazy stuff.
today follows more of the same - t-giving dinner part 2. it should be good. we'll see what happens.
happy thanksgiving all!!!

you know how you have like 20,000 things to do in a weekend so THAT is the weekend that you get sick. it's tres annoying. just so you all know. i managed to finish 6 of the 9 lesson plans which i guess is good because now i have another 6 more to add on top of that (for all you non-math people out there... i'm back up to writing 9 plans). I have to start teaching 4Cs thursday which is actually a little intimidating for me - which basically just means my plans must be solid. baaaaaaaaaaaah must get to work! especially cuz my show is on at 8:30 so there's half an hour i wont be working.
in other news.... i'm off to work now :)

life is insane. not counting the last week of practicum i did at the beginning of september (which i'm starting to realize doesn't "count") i have been 'miss visser' for a week now. 225 minutes of that was me teaching - my own class. they ask me the questions - i assign the homework - i'm allowed to give the detentions for being late... not that i have yet - that's just another hurdle i have to get over in terms of the whole 'me being in charge thing'. it's insane how much planning goes into these things. for every one and a half hours i teach - i'm probably planning for three hours. they say that'll speed up as i have practice - i really hope so as this weekend i'm hoping to write out 2 weeks worth of lessons for grade nine. we'll be learning fables, the argumentative paragraph, and writing a test on the rhetorical modes... and i doubt i'll be able to fit that all in. it's so weird to move into this environment where it takes months to get through a novel when i've spent the last 4 years having a book read every week for every class. i'm slowing getting used to this timing thing - it's taking a bit tho. the school is really good - everyone is awesome about including me, and it seems that everyone wants to make sure this experience is the best you can have. the music teacher i work with (unofficially) ensures that i have the opportunity to teach in his class and offers suggestions and feedback even tho he gets nothing out of it (other then the chance to sit and practice the trombone in the band while i conduct). the english department ladies got me to teach them how to conduct today in their office - because they found agatha and were making fun of me for owning my own baton - but it's all in good fun. the tech guy came out and explained to Gordie and i all about the different technology things available at the school which was really great as we were taking up his lunch period asking him questions. other teachers just give me handouts of the stuff they're doing because they think it's cool and they want to pass it on.
we were talking in my grade 11 class today about how a road often symbolizes a journey. the fact that all of my favourite poetry and art has to do with roads - whether they be well travelled or winding through the bush - makes a lot of sense to me. i really like the journey. i like the road. i like being able to cut through the bush quickly to see what's on the other side, but i also enjoy sitting on the side of the road and checking out the flowers and the trees and the stars. i like teaching kids how to slow down and REALLY look at something - and they are doing the same to me. it's so easy to see something one way and decide that THAT is the only correct way to look at it - but often times they have these crazy ideas that are awesome.
i think i'm a rambling mess right now - i think that's what living at school all week and then coming home and planning for school does to you - but it's just a stop on the road - and that's pretty cool.
more will come this weekend i'm sure as i need breaks from the incessant lesson planning.

9 hours of class (4 hours - 1 hour break - 5 hours) is TOOOOO much.
just so you know.

i'm officially done a week of placement. the kids treated me with respect - and i survived. i met teachers - managed to fit in with the entire department and not feel toooo much like a misplaced student for the most part. this week made it clear to me that this is what i'm supposed to do - at least for a while. even tho i'm not 100% in the specialty that i would have chosen this week, the feeling of knowing something and being able to lend my expertise is quite satisfactory. students came up to me and asked for MY opinions on things. they put up their hands and were satisfied when I was the one that came over to help them. even the insane class has offered me a level of respect - it's going to take work with them - but i don't doubt that i can handle it.
preparing myself for the trip back to north bay - not dreading it half as much as i expected.
it's all going to be ok.

so i'm in north bay. started school today. have a new laptop. have some new friends. it wasn't the big tragedy that i was looking forward to. rather it was easy. my friend scott is in my section - so we had a chance to hang out all day today (and probably tomoro and the next day and all this year). i'm waiting up until midnight to sign up for a class that i seriously hope i get into as it's a big step toward my ending up in kenya - which lets face it - is the ideal for this adventure girl. anyways - i'm out of here for now... more later - i hear my day tomoro is spent learning how to turn my new laptop on - and since i'm currently typing on it - i'm gonna go with i've got that covered.

can i just say that i have some pretty stellar friends. the type who when i'm going crazy and need a break will reorganize their schedule a bit and work for me so i can holiday it up for more then just the weekend. i'd like to say i'd do the same no questions asked - and in this case probably would... but this idea of dropping things that are maybe not as trivial to help a friend out needs to expand into everyday life.

hmmm

in other news - had a big visser family lunch today - gotta love the whole... 'so do you have a boyfriend yet??' questions... well - no - i don't have a boyfriend... and oddly enough my life is plenty full and plenty amazing... who knew that was possible 8- that being said - my family is pretty fantastic in their own way as well...

oooo embarrasing story time: so i was carrying a bag of my clothes, etc from camping into my room yesterday when i turned the corner to sharply and jammed the knitting needles that were in the bag deeply into my leg... needless to say i have holes in my leg now and it still hurts. a lot. probably not as nato tho - he nicely broke his arm while at the cottage this week... lucky him.

so. life is continuing. adventures are flying by - some good - some bad - some rather indifferent.
checked some more items of the list of life - the most notable being a groomsman in my friends' wedding... it was a fantastic weekend of prep and celebrating and catching up with old friends.

i went camping with the gang this past weekend - got a little bit burnt... no more being casper for me!

i dyed my hair hot pink... well - streaked it at least - however all this going in the water has faded it out quite a bit, and now - not even a week later i'm back to being a blonde with some pale pink woven through it... the next step is to alternate blue and pink... we'll see when i find time again.

i went over to western to empty out my locker the other day... it was weird - seemed very final. i've had that locker since the beginning of 2nd year and to remove all of my random belongings from the building was weird.

i haven't figured out what i'm doing with nipissing yet - i have a place to live in north bay (thank goodness!!) but beyond that - no clue. still haven't registered for classes etc... don't even really know if/when i'm supposed to - hopefully they email me back soon about that.

the car and i are having a marvelous time together - we have been up to north bay, to stratford, and camping together in the last couple weeks - beyond that - our journey consists mostly of going to and from work... back and forth - consistently...

work - what to say about that... i'm teaching someone that i put behind me 5 years ago in waterdown - was glad to leave them... i guess i'm ok with the fact she's back in my life - it's also just strange however.
people are insane. i don't understand why everything is such a big deal... so your kid didn't pass to the next level --- most kids don't... it isn't as much a scarring situation as they make it out to be... take a chill pill and teach your children to accept failure as a normal part of life... they can't learn that they will succeed in absolutely everything all the time... and now is when they should be learning how to deal with these "disappointments"

anyways - this adventure girl has to clean her car/apartment... do some laundry... bake a lasagna all within the next 2.5 hours... aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

if that happens --- road trip up to sauble tomoro!! woot woot

i don't know what i'm thinking right now. huge blast from the past. jumping in the mosh pit. moved to the back now instead of in the thick of things - but jumping none the less. flashing back the last 4 years. looking at how things changed. looking at how things stayed exactly the same. you have no idea how much i wish i could freeze this moment in time. eliminate the uncertainty of finding new people or scarier yet eliminating the certainty of finding new people. i think i'm worried about doing this again... getting close to people and then having to leave or break the bonds... having to do the uncertainty of a new place again.

in other news. went on a road trip this weekend. rory, and christina accompanied me. we walked the length of sauble beach freezing ps... then slept in a tent in the freezing cold - woke up to SNOW!!!! then walked to big bay, sat and skipped stones for a while (relates to the flashing memories seen above) then walked the length of wasaga beach - also freezing ps.

i'm a contemplative mess at the moment. but i must mull over this while i sleep as i work at 5am tomoro.

good night.

so... let the adventures begin... this girl is the proud new owner of a 2001 honda civic... it's a standard (which she doesn't know how to drive 100% yet - but that will come :P)
anyone up for a roadtrip to find the money tree so she can afford gas?!?!?

so it's pretty much decided. i have 4.5 months left in this city that i've called home for the past 4 years and then i'm gone. moving up north to where there are few people that i know, and even fewer pools - and oddly enough i'm more upset about the lack of pool thing. i'm in a very weird place right now in that i know this is the right thing to do - staying here and going to a sub-standard school just because it's more "convenient" is not going to make me happy in the long run - so now i get to prepare for a new adventure: moving from THE forest city to an actual forested city. it'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. :)

so i was just re-reading some old posts, and read the one about that common ground service that we gave idols up for lent... update: when i tried to remember what i "gave up" it took me a while to remember, because it's pretty much gone... cool beans!

current adventure: get to the end of school intact and passing... it's gonna be a challenge.

oddly enough i have nothing to say
beyond loving the audience at the movie tonight...

sitting in an amsterdam library.... no crazy muffins as of yet... short version of the trip so far is as follows: Frankfurt, Mannheim (4 unintended hours), Paris, St. Malo, Mont St. Michel, Ponterson, Paris, Brussels, Brugge, Brussels, Amsterdam.......clearly there is more to say then that... but i'll wait until i get home...
hasta luega!!!

interesting common ground tonight.
as people arrived they were given a hershey's kiss and told not to eat it... (so were we - just much after we arrived...) as the service is broken up into different parts we all figured these would be part of the service later - and we were right.
the whole service was about serving idols and what exactly could be considered an idol - which of course could be anything. about 3/4 of the way through the service, anita tells us to take out the kisses we had been given and during one of the songs we were praying and reflecting to (over the sound system... we actually got to sit and participate!) if we were ready to give up on one of our "idols" we could symbolize this by taking the kiss and putting it beside the christ candle up at the front. she reminded us that sin is often present in appealing circumstances as this chocolate was. and it was actually a difficult thing to do. we had already spent 30-45 min holding on to the chocolate and by this point everyone was ready to eat them... so giving them up was more then just minorly symblic. over the course of a 4 minute song - everyone brought their kisses up to the front... just a few at a time until you looked up at the front and saw everyones chocolate - chocolate that symbolized something in their life that was holding them back. as this was the first sunday of lent it got me to thinking about things to give up - now normally i don't really give anything up for lent - but i was thinking that if i gave up one of my 'idols' each year i'd probably be in pretty good shape. it was interesting to reflect on it for the next couple of songs and just see the candle surrounded by the candle as we sang about surrender.
i was already thinking this was a very cool excercise, but anita wasn't done yet - at the end of the service she brought our attention back to the chocolates at the front and said that when we give stuff up for God he fills our life with better things - she then brought out a basket of full size chocolate bars...
the whole experience has given me something to think about.

be still and know...

so i did this taize thing. i experienced it - and it was good. it took us 4 hours to get to toronto because the weather was so shitty - but we made it.
i'm not sure that i got out of the weekend what i was "supposed to" but it was still really good...
friday night i enjoyed the chance to just sit and be... it was a chance to be silent and to sing a little bit - or not sing and just sit and listen and pray without a huge focus on anything... i don't think i've just sat in a long time. there was a real sense of God just whispering - be still and know... saturday was more of the same- but i was slowly feeling the need for more stimulation - but still very interesting discussions were happening and it was an interesting dynamic of people that attended the conference - but there were no real moments of revelation or anything. sunday we attended a great little catholic church right next door to the place we were living - it was awesome... we sat next to a nun that had attended the whole taize weekend with us (very cool lady) and the sermon was done by another visiting nun - another very cool lady... the service was also the re-dedication of the "religious" lives to God - so the nuns and the monks etc. re-did their vows... pretty cool. we then returned to the conference for a final talk with brother emile - very interesting.
highlights of the weekend:
- just sitting on friday night
- the AMAZING place we stayed at.... neil, katie and i got to stay at the u of t catholic chaplancy centre --- it's this huge victorian mansion type thing... 7 students live/work there with father pat - the priest of the neighbouring parish... you walked into this place and got lost... there was hallway after hallway - neil got a bedroom and katie and i slept on couches in the living room... they were really hospitable and friday night in particular we stayed up for quite a while talking to one of the guys in the house... saturday night we fell asleep listening to the priests/nuns having a hymn sing at their party till 2 am... father pat called them the jesuits that can't sing or something... but it was fun
- the churches we did workshops in... we were mainly in st. paul's cathedral - but also visited metropolitan united and st. james anglican - all of which are huge and have great accoustics...
- going out with ryan and jasmine- it was nice to be able to catch up - and also take a break from the silence :-)
- the service this morning... great to break some of those preconceived notions...
overall the weekend was a great tool at opening up my mind towards some things that are different and that i don't necessarily consider normal practice...

so there's currently a winter storm warning in effect - everywhere (except western of course) was closed today - and yet, i'm still thinking that i'll be hopping into a car and going to the taize conference in toronto this weekend. i think it will be a good weekend - if we make it there... if not - i'll be in london - doing homework and cleaning my room
wish me luck...

jeff said that talking to me stresses him out - i'm feeling like everything is sitting heavily on my shoulders... not really sure why...

updates on shawna (if you want them...) can be found here:

http://www.shawnabethlehem.blogspot.com/

so my cousin Darryl's girlfriend Shawna was in a car accident friday afternoon. and just like that youthfullness no longer equates itself with immortality. she's currently in critical condition and needs all the prayers she can get.

if i make it through this semester without some form of major breakdown involving sitting in a corner rocking back and forth and/or shaving my head... i'll be quite amazed...
that's all i have to say.

teacher's college is offically totally applied to. i sent in the last piece of my application (due friday) in today. unfortunately i had no creative juices left at all - so what i wrote was crap. fortunately i have awesome friends and they fixed it up for me... ben took what i wrote and made it better, and then julie took what he wrote and made it better yet.
i've realized some things recently...
- i want to go to africa...
- i hate being cold
- i have no idea what i'm doing next year and keep flipping from being cool with that to having anxiety attacks
- i have an awesome family
- i have awesome friends
- i like wearing shorts in the winter
- i want to learn ballet
- if i don't get into teachers college i'm starting to re-think the orphanage in honduras idea... perhaps now is the time?
- i actually am an introvert... but i really like hanging out with people
-something needs to change. i don't know what yet - all i know that something has to change - perhaps that is the adventure?? figuring out and dealing with whatever that may be...

oh well - perhaps this is enough rambling for one night...

friday night: got all dolled up and went out to cowboys. i haven't been there since spring probably because the last time we went - wasn't the most fun time i've ever had there. anyways- friday night was fun. there was nothing out of the ordinary - we danced and drank and laughed and got hit on by randoms and ate wendys and had an all around good time.
saturday: i woke up late because i had gotten no sleep the night before and went to work - showed up there to find out the class i was supposed to teach had been cancelled - not impressed. i then went home and did some homework before embarking on a new adventure. my dad had bought a table at some bolivian fundraiser dinner and had invited me and 5 of my friends to attend with him (and my mom). so - amber, ang, hannah, neil, and i left the church and drove to the old elementary school - stopping only to pick up rachel at redeemer. we then went to the dinner- it was interesting... the food wasn't what i expected - but it was also better then i expected. we spent the evening laughing and singing and neil and ang drew pictures while hannah and i discussed the obliteration of the rhyme scheme in songs ---- you can't change the lyrics of songs to be more gender neutral unless you fix the overall rhyme structure as well... come on people!! then neil and hannah headed back home to the l-dot, and amber, ang, and i drove rachel back to redeemer - while there we stopped in to say hi to jason... which seemed to be awkward for everyone else - so we left after approx. 5 min. then we spent the night playing hand and foot with my mother and the three of us. finally ended up in bed (quite late) and in true girly slumber party fashion - spent the evening discussing stupid boys (Billy! lol) and talking about wedding plans. morning came too soon and we went to church and then spent the afternoon eating and playing hand and foot before heading back to the l-dot ourselves.
overall gooood weekend.
my only adventure today (monday) was 'diving' at work.... basically = swimming to the bottom of the 5m deep tank and picking up hairballs with your bare hands... one of my favourite aspects of working at the pool... and maybe watching bollywood in world music tonight... good times.

i love it when you go in to work - not at your home facility - but where you've been contracted out - and the class has been cancelled and therefore you got out of bed for NOTHING! yep - it's my favourite!!

the tickets are booked.... sooooooo excited!

i have to change my picture to "A" recent adventure rather then "most" recent adventure as it seems adventure floats out of the strangest things. new years passed in one of my favourite ways: hanging out at a friend's house doing things we normally do - just with hugs at midnight. this years game set included dutch blitz, guesstures, things in a box, and the random thing where we fold the paper and alternate drawing and sentence making. an excellent evening if i do say so.
the next days became an endless parade of work... i lived at that pool an average of 12 hours a day... INSANE!. i spent an hour the thursday night untangling the 50 metre lane ropes after my shift ended... now there is an hour i will never get back.
friday i finished up and was not really in the mood to meet people at ang's, but then amber called with free tickets to the gold medal game of under 17 hockey; ontario vs. usa. now that was a good evening. we pretended that we had a clue and cheered when everyone else did and gasped when the puck went anywhere near the net. we then had a slumber party without the slumber or the party really.
the next morning i awoke to find a party was being thrown in my house that night and as i was getting sick i decided to go home. i stopped first at amber's house and she decided to come home with me and we went to visit jen before she left for bc. we ended up going to niagara falls... good times. apparently you can go up to the lighting house and change the lights shining on the falls... i picked very pretty colours. then we went on a walk before planning the rest of the evening... fworks, mshow, lshow, fsauser... the fworks were awesome... quite a bit of fun and the 12 year old policeman was really nice. mshow was necessary... lshow was the same as it was 6 years ago. still kinda cool - but the same. the fsauser was another new adventure that i didn't know existed... good old lundy's lane.
sunday was spent playing hand and foot and today work and school started again...
quite the interesting weekend