I have a box ...

1. Pens,
2. Papers,
3. little bags,
4. odd rocks,
5. cards,
6. special bags
7. key chain holders
8. name tags
9. wooden boxes
10. scraps of material
11. toothbrush
12. old sunglasses
13. 12 books
14. cd case
15. camera manuals
16. iphone box "special"
17. ribbons
18. hand cream tubes
19. wooden unpainted characters
20. leftover christmas decorations

Yes ... that is what my box will be full of the second I leave here ..... It's little pieces of stuff that has accumulated in little inconspicuous corners of the world, that serve to clutter me up. I am about to be defragged.

In other news newsworthy ....

I had an aha moment .. just a moment ago ... I am going to transfer the pictures of the strides for stro.kes event from saturday onto a memory card, and then bring my frame, and let them play from that ... what an idea~! People will be most happy!

My gift bag cupboard is full .. well full of tissue paper that is ... AND then I bought more BEAUTIFUL gift bags last week. ONE can never have enough gift bags ... and to think that I only have ONE shelf dedicated to that sort of stuff .. no wonder I cant put the gift bags away. Probably should buy more gifts ... I guess.

HOLY thundering granola bars .. it's my nieces 16th birthday today ... my BIL took a gorgeous photo of the girl ... absolutely gor.gee.os.

That girl, and my boy .. along with a couple other thousand kids are writing their provincial math exam today. Nothing like having your birthday at the end of June, or the beginning of September, or even the beginning of January ... it's all a WELCOME to school event .. of which we all have done this to our children. Well .. my boy had his chance ... he could have arrived on Christmas .. like I wished for him to....

In other non-christmas events ... it's raining out ... but warm ... so in effect my flowers and APPLE trees are being watered! I can not find my box of carrot seeds that I had here last week ... can't hink of what I did with them .. and they didn't fill my box of SHIT... CRAP... STUFF... delicately placed items of existance ....

Need some pictures .. must go find some ...

Am Am Am Am

So GLAD this weekend is over!!

I can't tell you how glad ....

I am ALWAYS dead nervous running events ...

The WALK went over very well ... DESPITE the rain ...

Our music remained good souls, and played for the group ...

I had the perfect amount of help

AND managed to run 6 miles at the end of the day.

I used SUNDAY as a day of rest ... cause that is the way it was done ...

Once upon a time .... !

First day of summer ...

I certainly hope it stays that way.

WE HAVE SUNSHINE!

Have offered up my house for an event next week. Kinda nervous ... cause it just makes me nervous offering up my house ... not that we have party crashers .. it's more of ... I just get worried that the place will never get clean enough.

Hmmm.. who cares. It will be nice to just "do something different".

In other things different...

THE SUNSHINE!

In other things different....

THE SUNSHINE!

In things that are going on:

THE SUNSHINE!

No really ... I speak the truth.

~~~~~~~

Am doing things differently already .....

I have booked some dates for the stroke group to meet in the summer. NOW that is different!

Have decided that I am going to try and run 5 miles in an hour. I did it in an hour and TWO minutes yesterday. Had a little freak out at my failure!... of course the freakout was because the PIP was with me ... and I had my music turned up ... Omaaaagggaaaawwdddd ... EVERYBODY needs this song "Back in the New York Groove" by KISS. ... and I was trudging along ... with the music in my ears... and the PIP rolling along side of me... and me singing ... to the song ... which I barely know the lyrics ... and the FUSSILINA doll is rolling her eyes and laughing at my craziness.

My real goal was to run for 60 minutes ... but when I saw that I was going to get close to running to the 5 mile mark my pace quickened ... cause sometimes I am just that determined. The Fussy had been busily telling me about how she doesn't do anything competitive, and we had been talking about that while I ran, and she road .. and so it was that exact TEACHABLE moment that it sprung upon me that life is a competitive adventure .. if only it is US that we compete against.

My next goal is to continue to quicken my pace, if only a very small amount .. and purchase some new runners ... however currently I am still very much loving these nike air runners that I have owned for a small while, and are still very cushiony, and still have a large amount of tread that hasn't been flattened. I might even buy another pair of running pants. AND .. then I am going to attempt to run every second day, instead of every third. Lots of plans swirling about ... just need to jump on them .. between the weather storms.

More news on the Fussilina doll ... she auditioned & FINALLY got a solo for the leaving ceremony on Thursday. My Fussilina doll ... amazing young lady with a glowing spirit, she exudes such gentle confidence mixed with a certain amount of craziness. Oh how I wish I could have been this way when I was her age. Crazy ... well I believe I had perfected that in Grade 8 ... but that confidence .. and auditioning & singing IN FRONT of others ... neva, neva, neva, NEVERRRRR! She is over the top excited to begin Grade 9 ... just so that she can get into the play ... that is her sole focus.

And the Jimmy. The Jimmy is good. Looking like James Dean again, with that black leather jacket, t-shirt and jeans. That Jimmy is now "his" departments "go-to" guy. The manager lady asked for "the Jimmy" when he showed up for work yesterday and told him that he was now "the go to guy" for the other employees in his department. She said that she watched him in action the last couple of weeks, and saw that he had a good work ethic, and encouraged others to complete tasks that were asked of them. HOLY FLYING FRUITBATS ... I knew this day would come ... that the Jimmy would take ownership of doing a good job, when there was a lot at stake. Mr. 16 year old newbie is the go-to guy. Rock on Jimmy ... oh .. right .. that he will.

Happy first day of summer .. and a warm welcome back .. to the SUNSHINE!

Can I have ..

1. Someone come and do my hair for me.
2. Please plug the curling iron in and style away.
3. Your payback will just be a simple thank you.
4. Thank you.

In other things that I wish I can have:

1. That would be time.
2. And money .. not necessarily for my own family, but a larger cause.
3. A chauffer ... for me.
4. Wait ... I want a housekeeper, that isn't me.
5. Does she do laundry .. cause I want one of those people too.
6. What about a shopper person ... there is such a service!
7. An appointment scheduler ... for things like oil changes and stuff!
8. I think a stylist is in order ... cause I have the simplest style going.... this could be challenging.
9. A closet organzier. NO ... someone that re-organizes my specially contained stuff, to be re-contained ultra special like.
10. A present shopper. I am the WORST ever present shopper. I even consented to a gift for a good gift giver for the giftee's, and the good gift giver has come up giftless, which makes me even more giftless, and now I can't retract the gift-in-tow obligation to regift my non-gift that I would have simply presented in a giftcard.

That's all.

speeding away at the speed ...

Of sound ...

Yesterday I was at work.

After all, it was Sunday, and that is generally where I find myself on most Sundays.... but when it came to 2:00 ..

I shot up and left...

and ran (well OK I didn't run at this very moment  but rather quickly made my way)

down the street

to get to ..

"the faceplant fellas"

playing at Sapperton Days.

And there they were in big bold daylight ... on stage

Singing and playing their big sounds.

Very cool to watch ...

~~~~
I watch these characters and wonder where does one get their drive to perform?

The King and I are very NON performers. So it doesn't come from that. I have always been intrigued about intrinsic motivation, and how truly UN-intrinsicly moved the Jimmy has been over the course of his years ... EXCEPT when it comes to his music & what HE wishes to perform.

The Miss Pipalot is the same ... a natural performer. She has excelled in the exact ways that the King and I never enjoyed during the school years ... presentations and getting involved in the school plays.

~~~~~~~~

It will be interesting times next year when the chicklets of mine re-enter the SAME school ...  and they are BOTH going to try out for the play. The difference will be exactly this ... the PIPPY will be able to adapt to whatever is thrown her way, and she will just go with it ... and I know the JIMMY will find a swirling current and get caught going a different direction .. as always.

~~~~~~

In the meantime ..... I will continue to trudge around the lower mainland watching the faceplant fellas play on a variety of stages ... and I will try and get pictures of them ... of course the trick here is to get a good picture of each them, in a light where they look good in an exact moment. Challenging no?

Whats up in the neigbourhood...

The group played at "The Yale" the other night. This place has been spoken about in one of the boys classes by quite a musician himself ( the teacher) . All of these young characters have been subject to the classroom chatter ... and therefore made a point of trying to get their muscial abilities in ... before the place shuts down. Or so I have been told.

My challenge of the day of course was trying to get a picture without using the flash .. always easier said than done, but nonetheless I worked at it ...

Don't be mistaken by the fellow on stage left .. although he looks like the Jimmy himself .. he is a taller version of the Jimmy, who is behind the bass guitar guy on the right, next to the drummer, which you can't see either~!

So yesterday ...

Was a long long time ago .. so I'm gonna talk about today.... as it's so fresh in my mind and all. But wait .. first a moment of brilliance ...

Yae me: I managed to plant alot of my little plants and such yesterday ...
Yae me: I remembered to call my friend ... it was her birthday!
Yae me: I partook in a random wine sampling festival at my friends house.
Yae me: I think I will never get invited back ... not that I was invited anyways.
Yae me: I broke a tree stump down into smitherines & turn to bark mulch.
Yae me: I managed to eat cake and enjoy it guilt free!
Yae me: I remembered to change something from the day before ...! Whoa!
Yae me: I trudged around making plans to turn little things into BIG things!
Yae me: I managed to eat a bun before going to bed in an effort to feel well!
Yae me: I relaxed and enjoyed the moment of being "in the moment"
Yae me: I enjoyed the beautiful evening & didn't worry about those chicklets
Yae me: I managed to get myself back to work this morning minus an alarm.
Yae me: I forgot that I was going to talk about today!

Meanwhile ...

I did some sort of crazy inhumane challenge for myself after work ... I decided to run the route that we normally walk. Except that I don't run .. I kinda trudge, and then work at trudging ... I don't know when it will ever happen that I do run ... if ever .. but for now I trudge. So on Friday I did the 60 minute trudge challenge ... so I ran around the countryfied streets for an hour ... that was all good. Yesterday was a day off ... hence the gardening that got to happen .. and then today I decided that I needed to run around the streets and hills ... you know ... to mix it up a bit ... because I am sorta stupid that way ... I had my Neil Diamon "Crunchie Granola Sweet" & "Brother Loves Traveling Band" playing away on the tune maker, and punched in my random route that I dreamt up .. and off I went .. not sure what was to become of me ... of course there was someone that came up from behind me and flew past me down the hill ... I can't even go down the hill fast ... (which might be a smart thing ... ) ... and continued on ... I ran (trudged ... but DIDN"T walk) for 50 minutes along roadways and inclines ... and eventually when I got myself back to the big hill .. I just walked up it ... for the time being I am not out winning awards at being the complete crackpot that nobody knows I am anyways ... so I figured walking up the hill was still a win in my books... but kind of ... and it was actually just HOT. Of course we are now into the start ofthe summer months, and have only had two maybe three nice days of blue sky weather ... so heatwise it was a bit dicey ... but I was still happy with the results ... I think eventually I might even be able to melt away some extra portions of me ... but will not hold my breathe .. for the moment ...

Alrighty .... so you in the streets and grocery aisles!