October 20, 2006
Wow. What a severely tiring week. What can I say - I'm a wuss when it comes to sleep deprivation. :oP Event after crazed event. A little too much, might I say, but can't say that I regret any of it.

Monday night was spent shopping for PDL food, then getting Buckley's from Shopper's. What a crazy medication it is! It doesn't taste weird, but it sure clears your sinuses in no time! And like they say, it works!

Attendance dropped slightly for PDL on Tuesday this week, but it was refreshing to hear how everyone came to Christ or how people's spiritual states were. And people loved the fact we dropped Rick Warren from the menu. And I personally liked the prayer request time, although it is rather unfortunate that we didn't actually get to PRAY, since, as usual, we ran rather late. If it were a group in Waterloo, we would've probably stayed. This is what the adult, working life is like, I suppose!

Wednesday night was fun. I went out with Kim to Bubble Republic, and we just caught up on everything that's been happening in our lives. I was reminded how similar our personalities were. It's probably why, after 14 years, we're still friends. :o)

Last night, I went to a church retreat meeting and found out I was appointed secretary. If you don't show, you'll get a role! :oP Anyway, it's interesting being the youngest one in the crowd, and one of two from the English congregation. I felt like the advocate for the young people (Juniors, WAY, JOY)! The "adults" definitely have their viewpoints on the young people (not bad, but maybe a little misguided or uninformed), and I tried my best to let them in on the position of the youth (in a word: reluctance). Actually, Carmen and Alice jumped right in, since they have daughters in that age range. However, my heart still longs for everyone in the church to grow in community (for example, through the retreat), and it would be SO VERY COOL to see the old, the middle aged, and the young interacting freely. I think Kenny's vision for the retreat is completely AWESOME. I'm looking forward to working with him and Alice on the promotional side of things. I already notes flowing for that one...

Tonight was OH MY GOODNESS I NEED TO GET RID OF ALL THESE E-MAILS CLUTTERING MY MAILBOX night. It was supposed to be a family dinner night, but my mom is currently staying over in the hospital with Aunt Susan, so that got postponed. Anyway, goodness sakes I've got too much on my plate! However, I did manage to lower the inbox by about 20 e-mails, so this is good. On the other hand, I generated a lot of paper that I still need to sort through after this entry. Good times in Mississauga! :oP

Tomorrow will be the Celebration Night for PDL, and a possible dinner with a few from the small group. It doesn't look too likely right now, however. Who knows, though? Maybe I'll get the remaining 7 people's responses tomorrow morning. Doubtful, however. :oP

Sunday, I'll have the JOY winter retreat meeting at Sharon's. Ahhhh... WR. I love WR. WR is the best thing next to lying in a dark room at night and blasting a familiar tune when no one is at home. Man, I miss that. Anyway, we'll see how that comes around.

So that's a week in review. Fun, fun, fun times in Victorialand! No, seriously. It's good. ;o)

SONG OF THE MOMENT

I'd swim across Lake Michigan
I'd sell my shoes
I'd give my body to be back again
In the rest of the room

To be alone with you

You gave your body to the lonely
They took your clothes
You gave up a wife and a family
You gave your goals

To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

I'll never know the man who loved me

"To Be Alone With You," Sufjan Stevens (from Seven Swans)
This was my anthem of sorts for the last little while. Can't get bored of it. I took the disc out of my CD player now, but oh man, what a beautiful song. I randomly downloaded it, too, based on one stranger's recommendation. I shall own the CD one day.

October 13, 2006
"Shop 'til it stops." - Bono

We're certainly not children of the revolutionary 60's. We're way too apathetic and steeped in the materialistic society to even care about social issues as a generation nowadays. But it's not like we can't tailor the need for social awareness with the culture of today. Go Bono and Bobby Shriver for thinking up the (RED) revolution. Click here for more.

It's awesome how more and more celebrities are endorsing the cause to end poverty (Bono, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, to name the more well-known ones). Hopefully it won't be a trend that they're following. But once you've witnessed the tragedy first hand, I don't think there's any way of turning back. There's certainly no turning back for me. I can only hope more will join in.

What the heck. I think I'll go and order me one of them (RED) bracelets at the Gap. Unfortunately, I don't think they're offering them in Canada just yet. At least not on the Canadian Gap site. Maybe soon. Another bracelet to add to the white band. Another way to show committment.

While I'm at it, visit (BLOG)RED.

Update: Gap doesn't do internation orders. I guess I'll need to wait until they have them in stock in Canada.

October 7, 2006
Oh man. My head needs a break. I'm a wuss when it comes to lacking sleep on a continual basis. Now I'm feeling a little fuzzy... what was I supposed to do again? Nap? Browse CDs? Work on the new layout? Write fanfic? Oh wait. Get off fanfiction.net and start clearing your e-mails. And plot next week's activities.

Speaking of plots, there are "plot bunnies" in my head (good term from Carikube) that I'm sure won't disappear until I exorcise them on paper. I personally blame Supernatural and The Chronicles of Narnia for these bunnies. Go away; I don't got no time for youse. A few more days off life would be good. I hope this holiday Monday will do good. And hopefully the potluck tomorrow will run itself, because it still feels a little surreal for some reason. Strange.

Ooo... a babbly day. I thought the espresso from Brazil Bakery would help, but not so much (however, the espresso was quite kick butt good). The fresh air breathed in from the walk there didn't help either. Neither did all those songs I played in the morning. This leaves my last resort of napping. :oP Actually, sitting outside and staring at the bright blue sky sounds like a good alternative, but the computer and all the tasks beckon a little louder, as usual. Boo.

Oh! I got 2 free tracks from Puretracks yesterday, one for signing up, and one for doing this survey from a joint venture with UT. So I got Story of the Year's "Anthem of Our Dying Day" and Pink's "Who Knew." SOTY's song is still sweet after all these years. Gotta love acoustic-ish screamo-ish tracks. Purges all the unspoken and inexpressible frustrations inside, or something. Right.

Okay, I'll save the rest of the babble in my own head. Thanks for reading.

SONG OF THE MOMENT

You took my hand
You showed me how
You promised me you'd be around
Uh huh, that's right
I took your words and I believed in everything you said to me
Yeah, that's right

If someone said three years from now you'd be long gone
I'd stand up and punch them out �cause they're all wrong
I know better �cause you said forever and ever
Who knew?

Remember when we were such fools and so convinced and just too cool
Oh no, no, no
I wish I could touch you again
I wish I could still call you friend
I'd give anything

When someone said count your blessings now before they're long gone
I guess I just didn't know how
I was all wrong
They knew better
Still you said forever and ever
Who knew?

I'll keep you locked in my head
Until we meet again
And I won't forget you my friend
What happened?

If someone said three years from now you'd be long gone
I'd stand up and punch them out �cause they're all wrong
And that last kiss
I'll cherish until we meet again
And time makes it harder
I wish I could remember
But I keep your memory
You visit me in my sleep
My darling
Who knew?
My darling, my darling
Who knew?
My darling, I miss you
My darling
Who knew?
Who knew?

"Who Knew," P!nk (from I'm Not Dead)
The best part about this song was once, I was in the car with my dad, about to pull into the driveway, and he said, "this is a nice song. Let's listen to it before going in." My dad likes P!nk. Who knew?

October 1, 2006
Nice things from recent times, in no particular order:

• FINALLY got drapes for my room... I've have bedsheets for the last 10 months... seriously
• Yummy taro patties from T&T
• Shopping with Niette - too short, though
• Winging the presentation WELL at today's training - thank goodness for the sort of unrelated script prep!
• Crab legs for dinner tonight, along with roast beef - surf and turf, baby!
• Second City communication training at Sheridan (nice ice breaker game ideas for future JOY events)
• Bumping into Corey, Lily, and Nicole at Square One - haven't seen Corey in 10 years! Fairwind was that long ago! He didn't change a bit!
• PDL - good times, and always good food... breakfast... mmmmmm...
• First pay cheque this year... sweeeeeet! (I was down to $45 or so before then... oof)
• Random phone call from Philpott Church in Hamilton (nice to know that the church does think about random visitors!)
• Doing publication stuff at work - I love laying out stuff on the computer screen!
• Getting a pen from a student
• Free food at training - always goooooood (that's the 3rd and 4th free meal from Sheridan!)
• Starbucks with Neil, my coffee obsessed supervisor
• Good times at the Career Centre - the people are just pure awesomeness
• Working with students at Sheridan
• Phone conversations with PDL people :o)
• Finishing The Confessions by Augustine - after 8 months!

Hmm... my list is not in parallel structure. I hope none of my students see this. :oP

In short, life's going well. Except maybe the fact that my e-mail count is back to 45 after I shaved it off to 17 last week. Boo to that. Seriously, I need another e-mail weekend. Oi.

Well, there's church tomorrow, so I should go soon. But not after some words from Augustine:

How God Draws Us
Late I came to know you, Beauty ancient yet new. Late I loved you. But, see, you were within me while I was abroad. There I was seeking you. Deformed though I was, I was rushing upon those beauties of your creation. You were with me, but I was not with you. Those beauties kept me far from you, beauties which would not have existed, were they not in you. You cried and called aloud, and broke my deafness. You flashed, shone and shattered my blindness. You breathed fragrance, I drew in my breath, and I pant for you. I tasted, I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

-Book 10, XXVII