Sarah Harmer

Thanks Clark for reminding me of the incredable Sarah Harmer.

Yes I have heard of her. In fact she was one of the first musicians whose music I was introduced to from a guy I worked with at Bad Ass Jacks. It was like my first week on the job and we found out we liked a lot of the same music...so he started dropping all these names and lending me CD's. I have been a supporter of her ever since.

In fact...as I finish editting the papers that I have due today....I will listen to the wonderfulness of Sarah Harmer.

Here's what I am going to do today:
- eat cheerios
- grab Sarah Harmer CD from room
- finish editting papers, run to school to print them off and hand them in.
- eat an apple
- have some tea
- pay attention to Jack (the cat)
- watch a Wesley Snipes movie (7 seconds...looks cheezy but it has guns and some partial martial arts, just what I need right now)
- finish registering for school
- and....ah.....start doing internship stuff...

Everyone gets here today...orientation starts tomorrow....I can't believe it is all starting.

change in weather

Waking up to gloomy, overcast, and windy weather can be both a good thing and a not so good thing. The not so good is simply the fact that I am usually always cold and when the weather turns to fall breezes and temp dropping fast...well my poor little system just rebels, not to mention the joints that connect my body freak out and decide to act 4 times their age, being all arthritic and all......*sigh*.

Ah but the good....
the good is - well - really good.
of course a staple to days like today is tea, many cups of tea.
I don't think there is a time when I am having a cup of tea and I am not happy. Tea reminds me of the good things in life and in a day. I guess it is good that I drink tea regularly then eh?......

Then of course there is the whole "curl up in a blanket and read" moments (whenever you can squeeze it in). Those moments are priceless as well. It's like be enveloped in a hug (tea in hand) and if you have a book you are enjoying, oh the moment seems boundless in its wonderfulness.
Is wonderfulness even a word?
Ya I didn't think so either.

It is nice seeing an end to something, knowing that you have to push it until then, but when that moment arrives - when it is over - mmm that feeling.....there is nothing like it.
These two papers I have are due tomorrow and today is the storm before the calm...I anticipate tomorrow when it is over, its like nothing can wreck the bliss and beauty of the day when you hand in big papers.

Horray!!
Its starting to rain.
As I have said many times on this blog, rain and tea go hand in hand...
so to the tea I go.

elmer fudd and picasso

It is always strange the moving onto something new. It is completely exciting and yet completely over charged with such raw emotion on every level. The strangeness of this movement from one to the other, has been a realization for me as of late, it is a bit awkward, a little weird, and just all together strange. I am afraid there just isn't another word for it - strange is the only word that fits.

I feel as though I have been hanging in the middle since returning here - that lump of time situated between the end of one thing and the beginning of another. This hasn't been an altogether bad experiance - just odd really. That awkward feeling of being not quite sure what to do, where to go, or how to go about it.
How long do you dwell on what has ended? When do you take time to look forward? How do you start taking those steps?

Today was the official day of "something new". The cue of tomorrows hold the unthinkable, unimaginable, and down right exciting. Abundant with possibilities, they run through my mind daring me to dream big. Live open-handedly. What a challenge eh? To trust God enough to not hold tightly to things we have no control over anyway.
A handful of students arrived and started their "training" this evening. Very strange to have them about the campus. It is all starting, here we go - lets get jiggy with it.

To flip to the other side of the coin - there is something mind numbingly wonderful about Steven Seagal movies. I try hard not to rent them (really I do) but it is like there is this gravitational pull inside of me towards them.
I laugh at their cheesiness, bad acting, and weak plots and yet greatly enjoy the weapons, witty sarcasms, and martial arts. I am weak, like putty in its hands, when it comes to martial arts and army movies....hahaha. As the rest of the movies I have seen of his, I will likely forget the plot and whether or not I have seen it only to rent it again and find out half way through that I have seen it..... it really is a beautiful cycle.

Today's 8 beautiful things:
- tea
- cuddling with Jack (the cat)
- Mario Cart
- Coke
- playing the piano all alone in the dark
- when the air is "misty" not quite fog, not rain...but mist.
- a new "office" to decorate
- seeing old friends again

the art of transition

It is a strange feeling this being done one thing and the other has not yet begun. The realization of the end of the previous has taken hold of my mind. Strange that it is done. Sad and exciting all at once.

New things are always exciting for me though. This coming up year is definately new ground - what an edventure.

It has been raining since I arrived into town.
I love the rain, the sound of it on the window panes, the roof, the front porch.
The best is standing on the porch and watching it pound the streets and yet you are hardly even getting wet. I love the rain.

Watching the rain always makes me make tea. Tea and rain just go hand in hand - it is a beautiful relationship and one that I endorse whole heartedly.

Once again the strangeness of being in eston is a bit overwhelming. What a unique little place this is. It is weird thinking that I have spent most of my life here. Ever since being back here I'll look down streets, see certain back alleys, go into buisnesses and be flooded with memories of people and times now in my past.

I am procrastinating...why am I so good at that....I am trying to find a good free online "teach me french" site...I think I am just going to talk to my old french teacher and see if she would teach me this year.

Familiar excitement

Helping my roomie gather her things in a hurry, organize them into what she needs when, and then waiting around as other peers arrived only to leave again moments later - it all finally hit me.

I am leaving again.
Today is the day (that always sounds cheezy to me) where I hit the road again. Sometimes I get sick of traveling really fast. Like before I got to Eston I was pretty stir crazy in the vehicle because - well I am claustrophobic and vehicles can be difficult places for me sometimes - but give me a day or two to catch my breath, then I'm all ready to go again.

The thought of leaving again today is really exciting. I get to go back to Calgary, hang out at a really great apartment (with an amazing balcony), watch two of my friends get married, go to a celebration night and hear how a whole bunch of missions went, and then hang out with staff that I'll be working and living with for the next eight months. What a trip!

Organizing what I need is a little hard at the moment - I didn't get much sleep last night and it is early right now - I am always thinking I will forget something important. I mean when you have so much on your mind, sometimes the little things slip....

I need to pack up all this stuff...some of you I'll see soon...can't wait...ciao.

Quite a day

It amazes me how all of a sudden one day comes along and is packed full of challenges and encouraging little things. Conversations, things you read, things you've been wrestling with for a long time all seem to pick a day in unison - and jump you.

Hijacking all reasonable thought they infiltrate your system and set up camp and the remainder of the day is left in attempts to maneuver around them as they go about their deliberations.

It amazes me the change that I have undergone - by the grace of God - too where I find myself today. I am daring to have an opinion on things now, daring to think about issues and life in general whereas before I just never thought, felt like I was around people who never let me think. Correction - I thought, very deeply on things - but never was given chance to verbalize. So thoughts just stewed in my head in an endless dance.

My love of the Haiku has been reawakened today. I remember in highschool when we were introduced to it, I loved it...thought it was awesome.....and don't really remember why I stopped writing. Today...it has hit me once again - the stark simplicity, the ability to look at something so everyday and communicate it in such a way as to take the reader by surprise, help them see it differently.

I feel challenged to view my life as though it is through a Haiku...
I feel challenged to compose at least one Haiku a day....

whether I take on this challenge has yet to be decided...nonetheless...challenged I am.

song stream

Things I love today:
- Michelle Pfeiffer in White Oleander
- dreary days
- cleaning my room
- yogurt
- tea
- reading old journals

My dreary day soundtrack includes:
- Ani Difranco
- Muse
- Etta James
- Jason Upton
- Stars
- Placebo

slipping away

I gave myself Saturday.
I specifically said that I will stay in bed as long as I can stand it, watch as many movies as my eyes can handle, and stay up again as late as I want.
Then I gave myself Sunday as well - realizing that I needed more than just one day to veg.
It is funny when you get a moment to stop moving - you realize how tired you actually are.

My "To Do" list is growing larger by the moment.
Once tomorrow hits I will be up early and working hard all day in order to get stuff done.
I am really looking forward to the Praise Party in MJ though on Sunday night. I can't wait to see the kids again and all my friends and hear how all the missions went. I am quite sad that I couldn't be travelling to the missions - it would have been great to connect with them there.

It is so quiet in this town.
I am definately in city withdrawl.
I miss sitting on the balcony of my apartment and hearing birds chirping and motorbikes rippin' it up on the streets.
People yelling and kids laughing.
Seeing the building across the way getting built, and visiitng the little pubs and shops along 17th.
How did that place win my heart so fast? I was only there 6 weeks for crying out loud!

It's a drowsy day today. The thick breeze is hot and makes being outside a little too much. I am going to go for a walk, take some movies back to the store, and try and get used to small town life again.

starting again

For the complete lack of consistant blogging my most humble apologies I extend. There has simply been no time, energy, or means of writing something significant - so I opted to write nothing.

I returned here to Bible School town just about an hour ago, it was nice because my roomate forgot her drivers liscense so I got to drive home. Driving really relaxes me - zones me out. I am so very tired and am greatly looking forward to sleeping most of the day away tomorrow. Except that I have to find another matress for my bed - because it is too soft and gives me back pain.

I want to dive right into all the crazy stuff that has happened since I have last updated. Being at the end of this Street Invaders thing is a weird feeling. The whole changing gears thing is a little odd and I am not quite sure what the next few tomorrows will hold - what will be will be.

It is really strange being back in a small, quiet, not busy, nothing open late little town.
As much as I don't want to admit it - I really did fall in love with living in Downtown calgary. I would move there in a heartbeat.

As much as I have many things running through my head that I could say - I am just exhausted on so many levels and so I will stop this blog right now. Well I'm going to change up some stuff and then I will post this.

Offical day one

It is august first.
Does that seem strange to anyone else?
I am surely weirded out by the enormously fast approach of this day.
It came so fast - and like most things that comes so fast - it will leave fast too.

It is this point in street invaders bootcamp where things move quickly.
Everyone gets used to their routine, learns the rythmn of the day, etc.
All of a sudden we are packing vehicles on Saturday sending teams off to their locations.
Very fast week - good week, but fast.

It is breakfast...I should go eat, I doubt there will be much there I will want to eat, but none the less, I shall depart.