Where do people get off?

Says the ex-boyfriend to me as I ran out the door to make it to the gym on time, after his team blows my team away, and he leaves his star shooter on the court after the run the score 30 points up on us....

"Do you hate me now?"

Where do people get the balls to make a comment like that?

I know for a fact that my sister knows the answer to this question, but for the rest of us... (inspired by the Lexus and BMW that the people at the end of the street down from me own, who rent a SMALL TOWN HOME in a nice but not that nice neighbourhood, and all of whom are under 20 years old... hmmmm)

How freaking long does a car alarm scream for before it shuts off
(sans hitting the deactivate button)?

Something strange to think about.

"What you gain on a swing set, you loose on a teeter totter."

Today has been the perfect day.

Who gets to take a friday field trip to the mall with students?
Who gets to shop all day sans students?
Who gets to buy a boobalicious top for a great deal?
Who gets to enjoy the last afternoon of nice weather sipping coffee on a patio?

That's right.....

Me

There are two important things I try to reinforce with my students. One of them is how important it is for them to listen to other people’s opinions even if they do not agree with them. The other one is to try and make them see how easy it is to help people out with random acts of kindness.
I think one of the hardest things for me to do is get up in front of my students and preach these virtues when they do not appear often around us.
I am not a political person. The idea of ever becoming a politician does not interest me in the least. I do however understand that everyone has their calling, and I am glad that it is not mine.
Take for example the Debates that were televised last night. I am embarrassed that one of them will be leading our province. The anger, rude interruptions, and off topic answers that they demonstrated is heart breaking.
I was in Indigo the other day and watched from a distance as a pile of magazines fell onto the ground. I watched as a young child walking past stopped to pick some of them up and put them on the shelf. I then watched as the father pulled him sharply away from the mess, shouting at him for picking the books up off of the ground as he did not make the mess so he should not clean it up. How sad.

I was in church yesterday. After the opening procession the congregation began to sing. I heard what I thought was the typical child screaming above the hesitant voices. But as I tried to tune into where the voice was coming from. And then it came to me. It was not a child screaming. It was a child singing. Now, bless his soul. He could not carry a tune. But the lung capacity on that child. His voice echoed like the heavenly choir. I turned to my Mum filled with happiness and smiled. She said, “That is what you call singing out to the Lord.”
Now that child could not sing, but the happiness that his efforts brought to all those gathered, was spectacular. And with the sun shining in the windows, and the warmth that that child’s voice generated... what a great way to start a day.

Inspiring me to think about why I want to be a child again.

I want to go back to being a child again.
When I can tell people that their cooking doesn’t really taste good.
When I can tell people that I just don’t like them.
When I can jump without hesitation into a freezing lake.
When I can leap with no regard for others into a puddle.
When I can sing out loud with out uncertainty, even though I can’t carry a tune.
When I can find the smallest thing to laugh about, regardless if it makes sense or not.

Thought to be continued.

K

Today is Friday. With great disappointment school is open, and the busses are running. It is so funny. There are people in the States that are battling floods, power outages, and repairing damages and here we are upset that the school is open. We can be so selfish sometimes.

With great excitement I am getting a new cell phone and it looks like it could not be at a more appropriate time. I have had a little Nokia phone for two years, and it has suffered tremendously. I have dropped it so many times that the screen is no longer legible. The lcd screen has leaked and when you dial you have to dial blind as you can’t see the numbers that you have inputted. And to top it off I do not know where on earth I put it. I like that it is so small, but it is too tiny as I lose it on a weekly basis. But I could not be more excited as the flip phone that I have been lusting after with the polyphonic ring tones should be shipped to me any day now. I have been waiting for my contract to come up so that I could get it. I can’t wait. Tee Hee.

My other project today is to book my flight to New York. Seestor will be visiting a friend of hers and I thought that it would be fun for me to join them. Can you believe that me, the shopper with serious addictions (I swear they wrote the Confessions of a Shopaholic series based loosely on my life) have never been to New York. Wow. So I have been trying to figure out which is the best airport to fly into. I looked on the net (Got to love it!) and found out that LaGuardia is the airport that I should fly into. It is crazy! They even gave me a approximate quote as to how much a taxi will cost. How wonderful. I am sooooo excited to go.

I am on reassignment on Saturday as my original flight has been cancelled. That means that I have to call in this evening and they can give me a flight, and I have to be available between 7am and 8am tomorrow morning. I have mixed feelings. As I will not be going back to work for months, I would like to do one final flight, but at the same time I would love to get paid and not work. Again, the matter is out of my hands.

Can you think of a better way to wake up in the morning than an unexpected phone call? It was a mixed blessing. For some reason my cell phone I mean alarm clock did not go off this morning and by the grace of God, someone called me at an ungodly hour. A fantastic, purposeful phone call at that! I am often amazed at how easy it is to start off your day in a positive way and at the same time amazed at how one small action from someone else can make or break your day.

I heard the most moving reflection the other day. You know how we curse traffic lights, and forgetting things and have to go back for them, a traffic accident that makes us wait, or heavy congestion on the roads in the morning. Imagine all those people who were late to work on the morning of September 11. The fact that they ran into all those inconveniences, saved their lives. How fascinating is that? All the things that we dread and do not look forward to ultimately have their purpose. Wow.

Things are busy as usual. I am going to book my trip to New York today. My sister is coming in from England to visit her friend and I have decided that because I have never been that it would be the perfect opportunity to go. I am very excited and have decided that I will curb my shopping at this end so that I can go crazy on that end.

And by some strange occurrence I had decided to through myself into the world of education again. I will be taking my Special Education Course (Part One) through Western University. Am I crazy? I have heard what a nightmare online course can be and still am signed up for one. When will I learn?

On a sad note, the high anticipated canoe trip has been cancelled due to insufficient enrollment. And I am so sad. But it hopefully will go in the spring. I think it might be a blessing in disguise as the weather at night is quite fresh, although it does warm up during the day. And on another positive note I will get to make the party to celebrate Lorina’s bday and Jenn finishing off another exam. I was afraid that the trip would run late and that I would miss out on the festivities.

On the note of weather, we are expecting high winds and heavy rain as the hurricane Isabel approaches. I was saying to a friend the other day that I do not know what to do. It is so funny, but I have never dealt with a hurricane or MAJOR storm before. I figure I will just go to my Mum’s house. She has a basement that we can always hide in. My house has an above ground basement. Got some advice to tape the windows, and I guess that I will have to bring in my lawn furniture so that it does not get whipped away to Kansas. (Ha ha!!)

Ahh. September.

How bad have I been the last two months with this blog. I will confess that August was a write off (ha ha ha) as I was home for barely two days the entire month. And as glamorous as it sounds, I am sure that it has taken some time off of my life. I spent a crazy week trecking back and forth to between Toronto, Frankfurt, Vancouver, Frankfurt, Berlin, Warsaw and Toronto, only to return and leave the next day for San Francisco for a week of boat living and sailing with my aunt, uncle, and my Mum. It was a great way to relax and try to catch up on some of the sleep that I missed.

And the trials of wishing great friends a bon voyage on a two year journey to the other side of the world.
And then returned to a wedding that was tons of fun (and of course a beautiful bride, Cynthia), and a whirl wind few days catching up with friends that I haven’t seen in awhile.

Only to return and be whisked back to Amsterdam (an extended stay) (purchased a fab necklace)and then off to Vancouver for a quick sojourn (bought a fab purse), and then home again. Had a hard time trying to figure out who I was and where I lived.

Again, I repeat that this sounds much more glamorous than it really is.

September sneaked up on me and kicked my butt. I am still trying to come to the terms of waking up every morning and dragging my butt into school. I am also coaching basketball four nights a week and trying to maintain my silly gym schedule of three nights a week. Somewhere in there I have decided that I should join a few committees. Does it ever stop?

Beyond everything else I am trying to remain faithful to “Paradise Hotel”. Don’t even get me started on that show. I will go on for hours. Thank goodness it is finished next week. That should clear up some time in my schedule. Hey doesn’t the Bachelor start soon.