fun, fun and more fun!

This past weekend was fantastic. I don't think it would be possible to pack more fun into three days. My weekend began on Friday. I had a cinnamon bun and coffee with my friend Beth. The more I get to know Beth the more I like her. She is fun and funny. She is thoughtful and wise. She has fabulous curly hair and a wonderful smile. Beth invited me to a ceilidh. That's pronounced kay-lee. Essentially it's a Scottish square dance. I loved it and my calves, right at the top just below the knee, have been on fire for the last three days. The flames are starting to dissipate now, thankfully.

After coffee with Beth, my friend Jonas and I went to Value Village to buy him a Halloween costume. Jonas is from Switzerland and he has never celebrated Halloween before. I dressed him up as a mad scientist, wig and all. He's a really good sport. I also took him to JJ Bean for an americano. This was his first americano from JJ Bean. It was fun to watch him drink it. The day progressed to dinner at Andi's then the ceilidh.

Saturday began with my writing class and ended at Fright Nights at Playland. Me, Sabrina, Luc and Jonas dressed up in our costumes (I was a pirate wench) and hung out there all evening and laughed and screamed and had a lot of fun. I think one of highlights of the evening was the hilarity surrounding the caramel apples. You know how you have a caramel apple at a fair in the summer and it's soft and delicious? Well, it doesn't work that way in October on a clear night in Vancouver. The four of us got our caramel apples and tried to bite only to discover that the caramel was as hard as a rock. Then I had a bright idea. There are heat lamps everywhere!! The caramel will soften and it will be just like the middle of the summer!!! Well, the caramel softened but it was still only 5 degrees outside.

The haunted houses, the hellevator, the roller coaster and Luc screaming his head off were worth every penny of the admission price.

Sunday was church and tea and scones with my parents. Karla, Beth, Sabrina and I went and had real English tea and scones made by my mother. Sitting with British people drinking tea and eating scones is the way it should be. It just makes the entire experience more real. My mum's scones also reminded me why I really don't like store bought ones. It's just not the same.

Getting up for work wasn't that difficult this morning when I thought about how great my weekend had been. I was actually thankful I had a job to go to.

kindergarten memory

A few minutes ago I was thinking about kindergarten. I was 4 when I went into kindergarten, not because of my brilliance, but because my birthday falls in the last quarter of the year. I remember my teacher, Mrs. Sinclair, who had long, flowing dark brown hair. I often wanted to touch it. Her hair looked silky. She had the same last name as our principal and even in kindergarten this did not pass us by. "are they married?" "do they love each other?" "Will they have babies one day?" It turns out they just had the same last name. End of story. Kindergarten was more an exercise of learning self restraint for me than anything. Waiting my turn in the sand area. Waiting my turn at the water station. Waiting to answer the questions Mrs. Sinclair was asking. Waiting, waiting, waiting. What took people so long to come up with the answers anyway? It was soooooooooo obvious. In my first report card Mrs. Sinclair wrote "Laura's extensive leadership skills sometimes come across as bossiness on the playground." How poor Mrs. Sinclair must have poured over that sentence. She probably thought, "How do I tell these parents that their daughter is annoying the heck out of all the other kids by telling them what to do?" She needn't have worried. My poor parents were very attuned to the fact that I was bossy. I think they knew I'd figure it out in the end. My mom was wise enough to know that, deep down, having friends was more important to me than telling people what to do. I would also like to inform you that in my final kindergarten report card Mrs. Sinclair wrote, "Laura has effectively learned how to hone her leadership skills on the playground. She is a happy and delightful child to teach." I think she was just relieved to send me to Grade One.

thoughts

I've had a few thoughts today:

1) I really like my new roommate. In fact, I love her in the purely platonic sense of the word. There is no telling how happy it makes me that she likes to clean as much as or more than me. Not to mention that her mere presence makes me smile. She's the bee's knees!
2) Small gestures speak volumes and there have been a few small gestures in the last couple of days that have made my heart sing.
3) My new turkey chili recipe is a keeper. YES!
4) I like cookies a lot. I especially like them when someone else bakes them and leaves them at my house.
5) My friend Beth makes me think. Perhaps she should be mentoring me instead of the other way around.
6) It's unbelievably difficult, and I dare say, impossible to love God and love people on my own strength. I am truly thankful for Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Where would I be without them?

beauty

As I pull up to the intersection my eyes go to the lady decked out in yellow. Yellow rain coat, yellow rain pants, yellow construction helmet. Red stop sign. She appears older than she probably is because her skin is weathered. Her hair is damaged from a few bad dye jobs and it is pulled back into a ponytail with an ugly black scrunchy. Who thought of the scrunchy anyway? I am drawn to her because she is drawn to the strikingly beautiful woman walking across the street in front of her. This woman is perfectly put together and she is not wearing a stitch of yellow. Beautiful black leather boots, dark wash jeans, wool pea coat and a lovely scarf draped perfectly. Her umbrella poised above her pretty hair. The lady in yellow watches this other woman for a fleeting moment. As she watches, her hands reach up to the collar of her rain coat and I see her straighten the fleece jacket she has underneath the slicker so the collars of both coats are aligned. It is her one attempt at beauty. Underneath all of that rubberized clothing she is still a woman and she still wants to be beautiful. Even while standing on a street corner in the pouring rain flipping a sign from stop to slow she longs to be beautiful. And she is beautiful to someone even if she doesn't meet the "criteria" for beauty. She is beautiful simply because she is and there is beauty in everyone.

birthday frivolity

Every year my birthday just seems to get better and better. Generally, I end up having a birthday week. This year it all started on Monday at Thanksgiving dinner at my parents. Pumpkin Pie AND cake. It was delicious! As the week went on I got various birthday wishes culminating in celebrations on the actual day!! Saturday my day started with my writing class which I am loving more and more each week. Then I had lunch with my new roommate Sabrina and coffee with my friend Kveta. Shopping at RW&Co. because I got 25% off on my birthday. I got some nice new tops and a lovely new coat.

Then Saturday night happened. Around 6 (some of my friends have issues with the clock) my friends began to arrive with delicious things they had cooked for me. There was tomato and bocconcini salad, shepherd's pie, zucchini casserole, tomato and mozzarella dip, homemade foccacia bread, cheese biscuits and more stuff I'm not remembering. It was delicious!! As we finished the meal our evening transitioned into a spontaneous round of "would you rather..." lead by my friend Beth. The pinnacle 'would you rather' was, "would you rather have your knee joints bend the wrong way or have your bumb in the front?" Envision that for a moment. Is there really a choice there? Eventually, after much deliberation, I chose the knees.

The next game was creating an answer to a theme. The first round was, "what would you have gotten Laura for her birthday if you could have?" Everyone would then hand their answers in and we all had to guess who had written what. The next question was, "What do you think the title of Laura's book should be?" The final round was, "What would you be totally shocked to see Laura wearing?" Clearly, I was the theme for this game and I liked that. I think some of my favorite answers were "Confessions of a beer slinging nurse" "Speed skating suit." "Soft helmet" "a ring with no diamonds". I'll leave it to you to figure out which category those belong in.

The best part of my birthday is spending time with the people I love and those who love me. I love the cards people buy and the sentiments they relay. Thank you to everyone who made my birthday so special. I love you all.

hardly strictly

This past weekend I spent two and a half days in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco with about 50,000 other people at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. You can see some of my new friends in the picture above. We listened to the sweet sounds of bluegrass and other beautiful music. I loved it. Neko Case, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Ricky Scaggs, Earl Scruggs...I could go on and on. Charlie Louvin is an 80 year old man who is apparently a giant in the bluegrass world. The guy still has stage presence. The Sadies are from Toronto and the lead guys are two brothers. For the last half of their set their mom and dad sang with them. I kept wishing I could get invited for Christmas. The sing alongs would be fun! The entire festival was unbelievable and it was all FREE!!

Eight of us travelled down to San Fran in two vehicles. Me, Kenton, Kathleen, Chris, Tim, Patrick, Lorraine and Brett. My car and Kenton's parents van made their way down 1600km of the I-5 overnight on Thursday. This picture was a common sight when I would look out the front window. And the picture below is driving into the city. This is the Bay Bridge. If you haven't been to San Fran you should go. It's great. The people of San Fran are incredibly friendly and helpful. It's pretty easy to get lost in San Fran but someone will kindly help you get on the right track again.

On Sunday evening our group split. 3 of us drove home overnight and 5 stayed behind. My new friends Patrick and Tim and I all wanted to get home for thanksgiving dinner. So off we went on the 16 hour drive home. Inadvertently we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge which we were not supposed to do but we did, much to Tim's delight. It is a pretty impressive structure. Even though our diversion took us in the wrong direction we quickly fixed it and found ourselves on the I-5 heading north. The crazy thing is I can get onto to the I-5 at any point between here and Mexico and drive straight north without having to turn until I get to the street I live on. When you cross the border at Peace Arch the I-5 turns into the 99 which turns into Oak Street. One right hand turn off of the street and you're at my house. This was a weekend for the history books. I will never be the same again.

sign of jonah

If you read the post before this you will see that I thought my friend Vanessa would give birth to her son Jonah on my birthday which isn't until the 13th of October. God had other plans. Jonah arrived last night at 220. Safely, healthy. Vanessa and Brian are holding their baby in their arms and fully in their hearts. As someone looking in from the outside, I think the early arrival of Jonah is merciful and gracious toward Brian and Vanessa. They were both afraid. Afraid that the same thing would happen again that happened last time. Afraid that this baby they were longing for would be taken from them at the last second. So God gave him to them a little earlier than anticipated.

The story of Jonah in the bible becomes a metaphor for Jesus hundreds of years later. Jesus himself refers to the sign of Jonah. That he will be gone for three days and then rise again. Jonah was in the great fish for three days; Jesus was in the tomb. Both were given new life and as a result many others were given new life. In Jonah's case it was the people of Nineveh; with Jesus it IS the whole world.

With new baby Jonah I think God is speaking to us. He is reminding us that there is new life all around. He is telling us that stories do continue past tragedy. Those stories can be full of joy and life to the full. May we all be able to see God speaking to us through other's lives. May other people be able to see God through us. We are all stories of life and, hopefully, life to the full.

My heart is full

What a fabulous weekend. Celebrating my friends birthday, starting my writing class, participating in a "mother blessing" and getting my house ready for my new roommate.

Writing class is great and I am excited to see what could be accomplished in 8 short weeks. Of course there is the quintessential person with very few social graces who has difficulty interpreting the mood of the room. I am trying to find it amusing. Maybe I will share some of the shorter pieces I complete in this format. There was a discussion about whether or not blogs were considered creative non-fiction and the teacher said blogging was more free and not as thoughtful as true creative non-fiction. I may introduce her to some of my more thoughtful friends who blog and blog well....Brandon and Beth.

Saturday afternoon a group of women got together for a "mother blessing" for our friend Vanessa. Vanessa has experienced tragedy unlike any of us could imagine. Last summer her baby died a few days before she was born. I have seen a lot of death and I have seen a lot of grieving and if grieving can be done well, no one has done it better than Vanessa and her husband Brian. In two short weeks their baby Jonah will arrive. On my birthday. Before the mother blessing we were given instructions to buy two beads. One for Vanessa and one for Jonah. The beads for Vanessa were made into a necklace for her and the beads for Jonah were made into a bracelet...which turned into three bracelets because there were so many beads. We were to pick beads that said something significant to Vanessa and Jonah. It was fascinating and heart warming to hear how each person thoughtfully chose their beads. Thematically strength and beauty shone through. I left the gathering full in my heart. Words of love and friendship and divinity swirled in my head. The moments were a picture of the intended way. This is how we are to speak to one another, about one another. It was a glimpse into glory.

I can't wait to meet Jonah and hold him in my arms. As one of the women at the Mother Blessing prayed, he is a picture of the hope that God can bring life in the midst of death. That He shines through the darkness. That the hope of glory overrides the despair of reality. Ultimately. It is what keeps us walking with our heads held high. It is what keeps us praying for seemingly miraculous things.