bulldozer

sometimes i'm influenced by other people's negativity. i think i wrote about this recently. the problem i'm currently struggling with is what if it's not just negativity, what if it's actually true. i feel the weight of her words, and i don't really disagree or anything i guess it's just i don't want to hear it - at least not in that tone or from that angle.

bren is a great example of speaking warmly. i've often witnessed her saying with a smile that her son is "a storyteller". it's made a big impression on me because in the cocoon i came out of the verbiage would've been much different, much harsher. i.e. "a liar".

i think the choice of words is coming from something deeper than simply being an optimist or a pessimist. it's not even a matter of perspective. it seems to me that it kind of comes from (excuse my word picture if you find it cheesy) an inner fountain. if your inner self, your fountain is bitter water - stale and toxic - that's what comes out of you - even if you're a optimist. and if the water in your inner fountain is clean, and pure, and unpolluted, than what comes out of you will be wholesome. it's health vs unhealth. not optimist vs pessimist.

at the moment i've been mildly polluted by some toxicity. it will take some time to flush it out of my system. that being said, i will try to encourage the process by trying to see clearly and lovingly at the situation. i'm not trying to look at it as a glass half full, but instead glass of clean water instead of glass of dirty gross water.

brendan's mouth is quite sore today. it sucks getting wisdom teeth out, but at least you only have to do it once. he made himself a peanut butter milk shake today from the paper of suggested recipes he was given. oh, that reminds me, i need to file his return or else we won't get our money back. the cost of teeth extraction has gone up in the last 8 years since i had mine out.

it's empty in the valley of your heart.

pass

my slightly younger husband got his wisdom teeth out today. 3 of 4 actually since he had one out earlier this year. the poor fella is lying on the couch at his mom's place at the moment after having a reaction to the local anaesthetic. he keeps throwing up. as i spoke with nancy on the phone i could hear him in the background saying "i'm fine". hm, maybe he's still a little spaced out :p i'm thankful that nancy is a good caretaker and is available to help him out today.

SO... more about camping. we were pretty well prepared for the week. last summer we had two overnight camping trips, which really prepared us for our week long venture. the only thing we were missing that we could've used was a hatchet. b brought along his machete that he bought in the dominican republic during his two month stint there, and while it was very useful at times, it couldn't be used as an axe. we tried. we've been home 3 or 4 days now and i still crave my daily dose of roasted marshmallows every day. i could go for one right now actually. we became very skilled fire makers, and had them a-roaring within a minute or so. very nice.

we slept til about 9:30 or 10 most days, and early afternoon we'd head out for either a jaunt into northbrook or to hike the trails. on wednesday, in the grocery store we were browsing the newspapers covers. it took me several minutes of browsing (wasn't looking for anything in particular) when the words "the day after jack layton's death" caught my eye. i was shocked! i ran to brendan across the grocery store and told him the news. we were kind of baffled and mildly frustrated that the paper was a bit vague on the details - we couldn't figure out which day he'd actually died and it didn't say. we decided to purchase the paper and take it with us for a more in-depth read. very sad. very very sad. i'm sad for his wife and canada. and yet, i find the outcry at his death to be quite positive. a lot of people care about the issues he stood for, and that's encouraging. i don't think people are going to bail now, they want to see jack's dreams come to fruition.

on sunday i was rather grumpy and restless. i realize now that it's because i was between books, without an audio book, and i ran out of yarn for my knitting project (i've never run out of yarn knitting socks before. i think they short-yarned me. i should be able to get one sock out of one ball). thankfully i remembered the legwarmers i tried starting a few months ago, the pattern was really tricky, but i've figured it out and it's fantastic! and yesterday i picked up the da vinci code on cd, so i'm a happy lesley once again.

 

you desired my attention but denied my affections.

bundle

we're home from camping!! actually we've been home since saturday. it's hard juggling 2 social media sites (pspd and facebook). i spent several hours uploading our summer photos onto facebook and adding captions. that sounds like a big endeavour but i honestly really enjoyed myself :) SO that means i didn't get around to making an appearance here.

camping was great. i loved it. there were a few skeptics who thought a week of camping was too much, and it made me wonder what we'd gotten ourselves into. but it was perfect, just what i needed. we stayed in hardwood hills campgrounds at bon echo. which is kind of like back country camping - deep in the woods. it was pretty empty, with very few other campers. in fact there was one night when there wasn't a single other camper in our section. that was neat but also a little creepy - it felt more noisy and there were more animals around that night. in spite of this, i really loved the reclusivity of it. on sunday it was rainy and the weather prospects were looking bleak. i didn't want to stay at home until it blew over. i figured if it was really bad we could stay at a motel that night. i just needed to get away from home. i love the maxi pad but there's always something that needs doing and i don't find it very relaxing on a holiday. so we headed out into the downpours, driving slowly on the highway, then north at the flying Js. however, around roblin we realized we'd left the bbq at home, so we had to turn around :S when we arrived home we grabbed the bbq and several other items that we forgot, and shoved it into the back of the car while massive raindrops fell on us. we got pretty soaked. the drive was much better and by the time we arrived at bon echo it was mostly just drizzly. we were able to get set up and make dinner, play scrabble then go to bed. the rest of the week was smooth sailing! but i'll tell you about it later.

all week long we called nancy to hear if megan had gone into labour yet. by friday it felt both more-likely and less-likely that anything had happened yet. BUT to our much delight we found out that our lovely new niece had arrived that afternoon :) we spent the rest of the evening thinking about her and talking about our excitement to go meet her. we packed up early on saturday and arrived back into town early afternoon. we went straight to the hospital to see her, ben and meg. she is just the sweetest sweetest thing. her name is audrey megan mclean :) she was so warm and both of us felt like we could just go on holding her and watching her little face all day. meg was doing well and ben was being a super helpful and already getting into dad mode with changing diapers :) it was a great conclusion to our vacation. usually coming home after holidays are kind of anti-climatic, but this time it was exciting to return home :) i feel super lucky to have yet another wonderful niece. and it's so neat to have a niece on the other side of our family. i think ben and meg will make fantastic parents and i look forward to watching audrey grow up.

 

you are the mother -
the mother of your baby child,
the one to whom you gave life.

pacifism

it's been a full week, and as i type b and i are getting ready to go on our first week-long camping adventure. i'm looking forward to it. i think camping will be fun, and this kind of trip is new for me. but i'm also looking forward to it since it will be a nice break from regular life and responsibilities. we won't have any email access for the entire week, so it will be a nice holiday from modern technology as well. i need a break from routine. i recently dreamt that i faked my own death just so i could take a road trip to niagara falls.

i found out on friday that i get to take a business trip to san diego in october for 5 days. i'll be attending and supporting a trade show there. it will be a great growth opportunity for me professionally. this is in addition to my 10 days in berlin. i'm pretty psyched, even though b is less thrilled. i feel like the remainder of the year is going to whiz by with various activities filling the months.

have a great week! i'll be thinking of you.

lead my to the truth and i will follow you with my whole life.

sriracha

i like that traditions are things that develop over time. to some extent they can be planned in advance, but for the most part the best traditions are those that come from natural origins.

so brendan's best bud has entered politics. at 23, robb is the new provincial green party candidate for the area, and we feel pretty darn proud of him. sure he's young, but he didn't enter this position lightly, and has been working with the green party for last few years - so he's very well informed. AND on top of all that, he's a super & smart guy. i read an article about in him the whig today. it was pleasant, and on the encouraging side of neutral. i was a little annoyed that it said that tuition fees is an issue close to robb's heart, since it implied that since he's young and directly impacted by it, it draws more of his attention. that's a false assumption. he's a well-rounded candidate and understand all the issues quite well. plus, i'm quite certain that the concern he has over tuition is not personal but rather a result of the exclusivity and how it impacts the broader picture. that being said, if robb specifically stated that tuition fees is an issue close to his heart than i take back my annoyance. as in my usual method of self-torture, i scrolled down and read the article comments. they were split down the middle between encouraging and spiteful. in fact, the very first commenter only said that he disagrees with everything robb stands for. which made me laugh out loud. how could someone possibly know EVERYTHING that another person stands for simply from reading a short 350 word article. brendan always tells me not to read the comment section of articles because they always upset me. he says anonymous comment sections are where the world goes to be mean. they're like verbal septic tanks. this time, i decided to comment in response. nancy is always saying that people would be less crule if they couldn't hide behind made up identities. so for the sake of being honest and transparent, upright and accountable i used my actual name. i have mixed feelings about this. stating any opinion leaves one open to attack, but you know... robb had an entire article written about him, and is entering a life of politics, so compared to that my online comments are a walk in the park.

today is brendan's last day of work at startek. while it feels like the last 8 months has flown by, it also feels like ages ago when we discussed the idea of him working at startek back in snowy january. i'm proud of him for what he's accomplished. for sticking with it even when it was not enjoyable, and for finding many things he did enjoy about working full time. in a lot of ways, no thanks to startek, i think it was a very changing experience for him.

sometimes it seems to me that humans are what ruins humanity.

you are not alone in this.

fly

the cbc aired a news piece about pain recently. a study has shown that pain is more bearable when it's controlled by the individual instead of someone else (such as a nurse or doctor). they've found that when people feel they have a choice about when they are administered pain medication they can actually manage the pain for longer lengths of time - compared to when they have to wait for someone else to make that decision. i find that very intriging. i'm currently undergoing a lengthy process of being diagnosed with a condition that causes excessive pain around the time of my period each month. since i've discovered this concept - that i can manage my discomfort by exercising my own empowerment - i've found i'm able to diminish my pain enough that it's not crippling. it's still there, but less so. i'm not saying i don't sometimes need painkillers, it just means that i can better determine when they are necessary instead of feeling desperate for relief. mind over matter. i can soothe myself.

i suppose that concept could work for many things: hunger, sleep, boredom, heartache. in a way... this shouldn't be a surprising discovery. people thrive when they are empowered.

 

with grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

naturalism

for andrew's birthday shannon planned a party for him, but unfortunately since it's summer most people were away so we were just a small gathering. one of the highlights was that we were told to all dress up as andrew. i was quite pleased with my costume - it required more effort than brendan's, he just wore a plaid shirt and a tool belt. i wore airwalk shoes (andrew has a pair of black ones), some long shorts with brendan's boxers (there was a big hole in the bum of the shorts so i needed to wear the boxers so my bum wasn't exposed. i actually found a patch for the shorts and ironed it on on saturday). my orange shirt that has a funny slogan on it (andrew often wears shirts like that) with one of b's two plaid shirts. i wore my glasses, a toque and a sticker that said "hello my name is andrew". then to top it all off i drew on a soul patch. it was fun. and i felt dressing like a boy was pretty comfortable - PLUS it inspired shanno and i to be much stronger when we were moving around heavy long tables. funny how clothing changes our ability. no doubt if i was all dressed up fancy like i wouldn't want to move around tables, much less be strong enough.

bren has this great skill at finding really amazing sites and blogs then sending them to people who are interested. yesterday she sent me two. the first one was a blog entry written by a girl saying that she's done the whole pro-life thing, pro-gay rights, pro-women's rights, pro-peace, etc etc. and has found that it would often make her anti the opposite. which she doesn't like. so instead of being pro causes, she's now pro people. i like that. i like people. i value people. i believe that there is something redeemable in everyone, so being anti any people group doesn't work. i can be pro-people. i can rally for people and always keep their humanness as the focus of my cause.

anyways, the other link she sent was to this online photo article about how kids live in different parts of the world. it reminded me a little of the 'babies' documentary. these kinds of glimpses into how other people live is important. they give us perspective. they give us a dose of reality that we don't get often enough. check it out (click across the numbers at the top or the arrow button). the world is full of extremes. i was left once again longing for everyone to have enough.

at the moment, for some undetectable reason, b and i don't have a lot of money for extras these days. but we have enough :) we've been scaling back to what we need this week and sifting out our wants. it's a good practice from time to time. having limited spending money can be fun. it makes me appreciative and be more careful with how i spend my allowance. it made buying my mumford and sons album even more fun. plus, we made andrew's birthday gift instead of buying, which turned out to be extra fun since it was a challenge and we had to be creative.

 

you can understand dependence
when you know the maker's hand.

metamorphosis

in a week we will be on vacation. being so close to holidays makes me worn, eager and anxious to take leave. i dreamt last week that i faked my own dealth so brendan and i could temporarily escape our reality and take a road trip. in the end we decided on driving down to niagara falls, but were ultimately found out and didn't get to go. it was an unsettling dream actually. one in a series of odd and unsettling dreams.

i'm finding that negativity tastes badly in my mouth these days, or rather my ears. i'm quite affected by negativity, it seeps into me and i can't shake it. it affects so much, because it's a perspective thing. two people can look at the same thing and one person can see something awful and the other can see something redemptive. i can't change other people's perspective, but i want to filter out negativity and speak out affirmation. there is always something worthwhile in everyone. *sigh* i think the key is to seek understanding. and when that fails... then to holding ones tongue.

this weekend, for the first time ever... i bought an album from itunes :D very exciting! bren teases me since i'm so old fashion, but i really like having cds! i listen to them at work on repeat til i'm ready to move on. but i concluded that i could burn it onto a cd. good compromise. anyways, so for my first album download i close mumford & sons. i've been wanting that album for a while. we sing many of those songs at next, so they hold some significance for me.

i struggle to find any truth in your lies.

pince-nez

you know... there are times when i have all sorts of things to say but don't have the time.

then there are times like right now, when i want to write but have nothing to say. i'm not inspired in the slightest. i've got nothing. c'est la vie.

 

the beard is the handsomeness of the face,
and a wife is the joy in a man's heart.

peaches

it seems that i've come full circle. i ate sandwiches every day from kindergarten to sometime in highschool. i grew to hate sandwiches, and have steered clear of them in the second half of my life. but unexpectedly i've started taking sandwiches to work again. i'm hesitant, i'm skeptical, which i guess is why i'm always careful to not eat the same kind every day or else i'll get grossed out and never want to see another sandwhich again. sometimes i use wraps, sometimes i use bread, sometimes i use english muffins. it's going very well, and my tummy seems to like it.

without intending to, the two books i'm currently reading (one reading, one listening to) are unexpectedly complimentary. which is odd, because i did not expect that a futuristic novel would parallel with a memoir from iran. 1984 and reading lolita in tehran are quite remarkable to read in sync. listening to 1984, the bleak tale is next to impossible for me to imagine ever happening. the sexual oppression. the arrests for next to no reason, the constant policing of people, the assigned clothing, the inhumane torture. and yet when i read about the lives of those in iran it's outragously similar. the reasons are different, but the treatment of citizens is the same. i suppose the two differences are that in 1984 they have telescreens and women are treated as equals. it makes me sad that dystopias actually exists.

 

never felt so foreign and free as before.

bookmarks

ok so after the show concluded on saturday night we quickly took the car and got in line at the ferry. there was a fair amount of time to get on and we waited for about 20 minutes for the midnight ferry. however, when the ferry arrived it loaded only about 10 cars before closing up and heading to kingston. we were about 3 cars from the ramp and watched in confusion as the apparently empty ferry left the island. there were still swarms of people on foot standing around the ferry dock. something unusual was taking place. the area was speckled with police cars, and when one officer walked past i asked him what was going on. he told us that the ferry had reached it's max of 250 occupients (mostly on foot) which was why it appeared so empty. he also mentioned that an ambulance had boarded at some point and they are required to take it over to kingston immediately, and that had impacted the ferry schedule. so we waited for the ferry to arrive in kingston then return to the island. it wasn't til about 12:40 that it returned, this time we made it on, but many people on foot were stranded yet again. we made it home by 1:45. we were all exausted and felt terrible come morning. what a day. it's funny how concerts on islands seem to be broken up into two phases: the concert and the ferry ride home. beckie was lucky to make it on the 12:00 ferry. i was glad for that since she had to drive back to her cottage that night.

sunday saw the much awaited baby shower for meg. there was a good mix of folks, which included brendan's crazy aunts. they are funny ladies, who were very entertaining. nancy created a lovely spread of food, and meg received many lovely gifts. it won't be long now. she's due in 12 days, but if she's late it could be until september 8. hopefully she'll come sooner than later. b and i are very excited about the birth of our new niece. i'm super curious about what they're going to name her, but don't want to know until she's born. meg almost let it slip at the shower, which always makes me giggle. baby mclean is due the week we're on vacation. if she's born when we're away we'll drive down to meet her. i only have another week and a half til my holidays! i can't wait! i'm looking forward to camping.

when i arrived home from work last night it took me a little while to notice that brendan trimmed his beard. he's been growing it since we were in ireland and it's grown quite long. he'd decided to grow it til he starts school, but thought he should cut it before we go camping. i was quite excited to see his new shorter beard. it looks kind of fuzzy or something. i have to say... i've been quite surprised to discover that his face looks different. it's as though he's been aging slightly underneath his growing beard and now i get a glimpse at the change. he looks very handsome. whoa whoa!

i'm being haunted by the ghost of the dead mouse.

 

it's nothing but time and a face that you lose.

droop

something gross happened this morning.

while walking thru our house shortly after i woke up, still mildly sleepy, i nearly stepped on a dead mouse. it totally creeped me out.

the cats were so nonchalant about it. my kitties are not kitties anymore... they're both big and grown up now - having taken the life of a small creature. i can't help but think differently of them. i'm not mad, they're cats and killing mice is part of their nature. part of me is glad because it means i don't need to set mouse-traps. thankfully they didn't have the smarts to bring it into our bedroom and drop it at our feet. i'm also thankful that they just ignored it after they killed it instead of slicing it open or eating it. they were quite alert this morning as though there was static excitement in the air. both walked around with a hint of new confidence. sometimes i try watching them to determine which one struck the final blow. i suspect it was honey, but one can't be sure about this.

honey and pekoe are more sheltered then their predecessor fru - i'm not sure why because i treat them the same as him. fru was more urban and edgy. i'd say they're soft and naive - like suburban teenagers.

i have this weird thing about deadness, that i halfway expected the mouse to come back to life at any moment. same with my dead fish when i was a teenager. i didn't like to use the same toilet they were flushed down because of the thought of them swimming back up the pipes and into the porcelain bowl. i suppose this paranoia stems from an extreme lack of experience.

i'm reminded of working at KGH. they'd say "the mouse is expired".

it's odd to overhear my colleagues talk about harper and realize that there's a slight fondness in their voice. anyone who calls him "prime minister harper" with a straight face, and is not being ironic, might as well wave a harper flag.

 

you sprung me, i'm grateful.

jones

so we went to this little thing called the wolfe island music festival. it's this funky little festival ranted within the top 10 best music festivals in canada... but you know... no big deal :)

i woke up at 7:30 that morning totally well rested and excited about the day. there was a lot to get ready since we were both vendors and festival goers. we arrived at the ferry just before 11 which allowed us plenty of time to be in a safe position for boarding. shanno, b and i set to work setting up our dinning tent to house the la tienda merch, and very soon had the best looking booth there :)


being vendors allowed for many opportunities to get to know other festival goers. at least two separate people came up to us and asked if it was the same la tienda from dominican republic because they'd spent some time volunteering their themselves. it was great having b and taylor there since they'd both spent time in D.R. themselves. i hadn't really expected brendan to help out at our booth but he did and seemed to really enjoy himself. meanwhile shanno and i sidewalk chalked the road encouraging people to come check out our booth and support the women's art coop.

business was steady, but not nearly as busy as i'd expected. i thought we'd easily sell out, but people were less interested in the booths than i thought. i suppose it stands to reason that they were there for the music, but for me the vendors at part of the festival. i was also surprised that the fact that the merch was made by women escaping poverty didn't seem to interest people. sometimes i forget that being informed and being concerned about poverty isn't a natural part of everyone's day to day thoughts. in a way it made me sad to realize that many folks are in their north american bubble and care little about the hard lives of others.

speaking of people who care about those who are poor... brendan randomly bumped into a franciscan monk. before b met him, i saw a man in gray robes but didn't clue into why he was dressed that way. i honestly didn't think twice about it. brendan is a HUGE admirer of st francis of assisi, and has been wanting to meet an franciscan monk for a long time. this is again something i forget is not considered normal behaviour. most folks don't look-up to dead saints who took vows of poverty. but i love that brendan does and fully support him. because of him i also have a soft spot for francis and think he was on to something worthwhile. anyways, the monk's name is gabriel. he had a super long beard and looked as though he was in his mid to late 30s. he wore a plain gray robe with a thick rope to keep it together. he was in the area visiting his brother and sister-in-law, and was very kind to talk with brendan about his life as a monk. it was very cool and it made us all giggle with delight seeing b with his completely counter-cultural man.

we packed up our booth around 7 and enjoyed the rest of the bands from a blanket on the grass, and also while standing up close to the stage. it was a great night and the air smelled sweet.

there is more to tell but i'll save that til tomorrow :)

when we go down, your loss of courage,
when we go down, you're so ferocious.

a murder of crows

i suppose it was bound to happen some day. and why not when i'm 31... i have a loose tooth.

i have a baby tooth. my corner tooth. it's always been very sturdy and showed no signs of leaving. but my dental hygienist keeps telling me to be careful with it because baby teeth don't have very deep roots. for some unknown reason, in recent years my adult tooth has "erupted" behind it which means it's come thru the gum. it's not really a big deal. it's not visible and i've gotten used to it.

anyways, my baby tooth has been sore for the last few days. so i decided to give it a slight little jiggle to see if anything happens and i've discovered that it's loose. i have a loose baby tooth.

this isn't good. my dentist keeps saying they can easily fix it with braces. and i keep thinking "i'm not getting braces". not only is it because it's expensive AND i'm 31 (well past the braces phase in life), but back in 2006 i visited kenya. when i was there i saw a woman who had one tooth. just one. i have all my teeth, soon i may have one less. i am grateful for my teeth, and i'm committed to taking care of them. that being said i'm ok with not undergoing the long unpleasant process of braces to fix one tooth. the rest of my teeth are fine and in my mouth. i don't know what the alternative may be. a bridge? an implant? an empty spot? not sure yet. being my corner tooth it'll be pretty obvious that a tooth is missing. i don't want to feel self conscious of my smile. thankfully i have benefits thru work, so some of the expenses will be covered.

 

choose the brightest future.

saucer

i taught brendan to sew a few evenings ago. actually, this was his second sewing lesson. even though i taught him once before he'd forgotten everything and we had to start from square one. he has a pair of pants that's seams unravel from time to time. it's a very easy repair job, and is the perfect opportunity for teaching a life skill.

i don't believe in gender roles. maybe it's because i was raised in a home where my dad could cook and my mom could not. maybe it's because i spent my teens in a single-parent home and had to tackle all the husband responsibilities. maybe it's because i was single for the majority of my twenties, living alone having to fill all household tasks myself. maybe it's my strong willed nature and my desire to be fully capable even if i don't need to be. regardless, there has been no gender distinction in the lorimer bedroom project.

from day one, brendan and i have not fit many/major gender stereotypes. with me being just shy of a decade older than him, it's nearly impossible for our relationship to follow predefined paths. when we were first married i worked full time while he maintained our home. he's a great cook, he's much tidier than me, he enjoys vacuuming. i taught him about car repairs, oil changes, and how to drive stick. it's like cross-training. i think this makes us well rounded, and stronger both together and as individuals.

so when it became clear that his pants were in need of some attention it just seemed natural to teach him how to sew instead of sewing for him. there's no reason why a grown adult shouldn't be able to sew their own pants as long as their fingers all work properly. obviously i would not flat-out refuse, and i'm sure there will be occassions when he'll need my help mending clothing, and i'd help him out for sake of time, etc. i'm not opposed to nurturing him or taking care of him, but it usually manifests in different ways. i help him out with details and plans that he forgets or overlooks. i pick him up special treats when i grocery shop that i know he'll enjoy. i pick him up at work instead of him taking the bus. i print him out directions to venues when he's performing out of town and write him little notes in the comments box. but when it comes to sewing i prefer to give him a life skill instead of giving him a repair job. i very much ascribe to the "catch a person to fish and you will feed them for a day. teach a person to fish and you will feed them for a lifetime" philosophy.

so he got out a needle and thread and set to work. it was tricky. his fingers are big and somewhat bulky. when he struggled i encouraged him that it he's able to play strings on a guitar he can manage a sewing needle. sometimes my teaching methods hindered more than helped. sewing is so easy to me that i would show him once and expect him to know how to tie a knot at the end of the thread. i'll try to take it more slowly on our inevitable third sewing lesson. in the end he stitched up that seam and felt rather pleased with himself. i'm proud of him :)

 

i saw the sky in you, what do you see in me?

gelato

brendan quit his job today. or at least handed in his two weeks notice. wow. it's hard to believe the end is arriving.

it's funny how we climatize to our environment. back in may or june i was so excited to have taken the big comforter off our bed because it is summer. but for the last few nights we've gone back to our winter duvet. it's just so comfy.

for jo's shower tonight i bought her condoms from the dollar store. this is hilarious to me. i should probably include a cautionary note on them. also at the dollar store i got her a pregnancy test and an ovulation cycle tester. all things i didn't know could be purchased at dollarama.

i'm pretty excited about this coming saturday. it's wolfe island music festival. not only does it have a super stellar line-up, shanno and i are vendors! we're selling la tienda merch. i think it's going to be a real hit and we'll easily sell out. it's the right venue, right price, and right merch. i'm very excited about this. i feel like i'm introducing two great friends who will click instantly - women's art coop... meet music fest goers. music fest goers... meet la tienda. i'm yenta and it's a perfect match!

 

my mid-year resolution seems to be turning me into someone who is tidy.

 

i slept through july.

marble

i first met beckie in 2005. she'd just returned from living in northern quebec. she lived in kingston for one year, then returned to the north - this time baffin island. we haven't lived in the same city for 5 years, and even when we did it was just a short time. and yet, we've maintained our friendship, enjoying visits and trips, festivals and overnights. on saturday i visited her at her cottage. it was perhaps the first time we've spent together just the two of us in a long time, and it was really great to have that time together. she's a very low maintenance friend, we don't really have to do anything. we mostly sat around chatting, went swimming, ate some food. we have our share of differences, but accept those differences pretty easily. i drove home at dusk, driving winding country roads, listening to the same album as i always do when i return from visits to her cottage. it was a great drive, the great end of a great day.

she gave me verbal instructions on how to make iced tea. so sunday was filled with drinking homemade iced tea while i scrubbed the pad with baking soda, listening to a classic futuristic dystopic novel. i scrubbed and scrubbed parts of our kitchen i thought were beyond help. i rearranged the photos on our refrigerator. it was an incredibly relaxing day, and i felt very content.

it turns out the iced tea was not decaffinated as i thought it was. i didn't realize this until 2 am last night while i lied in bed feeling not an ounce of tired. i'll have to start making it with decaf because i really really like it. it's very subtle.

holidays are the only days i have to share with brendan since our schedules are not complimentary and we don't share days off. i wanted to do something special, to make use of the occassion so i surprised him by taking him to the aquatic golf range in collins bay. he was quite delighted by the surprised. i'm not much of a golfer but i find whacking the golf balls very fun. i prefer the golf range to regular golf. b feels i have potential as a golfer since i have a decent swing. we're planning on going more often since we both like going and it's not very expensive. i tend to get blisters on my hands from the club, so i may need to invest in a golfing glove.

now that it's august, life is suddenly full of anticipation. wolfe island music festival this saturday. joanne's bridal shower this wednesday, meg's baby shower on sunday, brendan quitting his job, our week of vacation, our niece being born, b getting his wisdom teeth out. full full full. much to look forward to.

 

when you walk, you move like moses.