Thursday, April 30, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #120: Literacy

You know that saying, "If you want something done, give it to a busy person?" Well, that often seems to pan out in my life.

In the midst of an insanely busy period, I've managed to finish three books in the past week. Don't misunderstand: they were all books I'd started a while back but just wasn't getting around to as much as I'd like. In the past few days, I've sat down quite reliably at the end of the day to take a breather and to read for half an hour or so.

But all of that is merely the prologue to the main point of this entry, which is that I'm so glad I'm a reader.

I'm not even going to get into the blessings of an education when people all around the world are deprived of basic education for many reasons.

Instead, I am simply going to focus on the fact that I'm incredibly grateful to be a reader. I love reading to the point of being a little bit OCD about it. (My reading of choice is books, but I read a variety of other odd things, too, including the backs of every single bottle of soap and shampoo I purchase.) Although I'm a lover of television and movies, there's still nothing quite like reading a good book.

During the summer I usually take a week and go off to a place with no cable and read for eight hours a day. And strangely enough, I don't miss the television at all when I'm there. Perhaps I should take a year off TV at some point, just to get through some of the dozens of books waiting on my shelves to be read.

Well, maybe a few months.

Maybe when nothing much is on anyway.

(At this point, Sonya will stop shaking her head and make a snide comment, I'm sure.)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #119: Toothpaste

Thank goodness for toothpaste.

Not only does it help keep our teeth clean, strong, and all shiny, but I'm also grateful every morning for its ability to obliterate morning mouth. Whew! Life isn't quite right until the old pearlies have been brushed with minty fresh goodness. Those crazy folk in the mad, mad world of dental hygeine have developed so many delicious flavours from which to choose. Currently I'm enjoying "Herbal Mint" from Colgate.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #118: Not Such a Long Way Gone

I finished reading Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone, memoirs of a boy soldier.

Like Beasts of No Nation, it rather unflinchingly illuminates the realities of the child soldier's experience, at least as much as those of us from the outside can process. In reading of his experiences, first as a civilian on the run from violence, then as a child soldier, and finally in his rescue and rehabilitation, it's difficult to ignore the blessings in one's own life.

There are a thousand tiny things every day which we can easily take for granted. Family, food, shelter, safety, silence, music, peace, education, literature, sanitation, medical care, friendships, toothpaste -- the list goes on and on and on if one just takes a moment to notice them.

It's a bit funny that sometimes I think, "What could I write about today?" here when really there's no lack of things about which to be grateful.

Of course, an entry about being thankful for toothpaste might not be that exciting to read.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #117: Survival

Today was one of those days in which the terms "run off my feet" and "chicken with its head cut off" could readily be applied alongside "ready to drop".

But it was a great day, when all is said and done. I won't get into the numerous things which kept me from having a break for ten hours straight, but the day was capped off by viewing a fine performance of The Diary of Anne Frank with friends and featuring friends.

An exhausting day? Yes.

An excellent day? Yes.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #116: Miraculous Turnaround?

Today was a big rehearsal with Betsy's kids and BOOM! a switch has been flicked. What a difference a week can make. They've been working their butts off and it's paying off. I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing come together in another week.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #115: Betsy

Today I spent a little time with Betsy preparing a song I'll be singing tomorrow.

Therefore, it's time for an entry expressing gratitude for her.

Betsy and I first met when I was a student teacher and served my time at a placement at the school where she worked. Though I wasn't working in her class, it was a small school, so I got to know her -- a little bit. When the university had trouble placing all of their students during the second semester, she offered her classroom, but the university refused saying we had to spread my experience around.

(Don't worry, though. I won in the end, in a manner. I now teach in her old classroom!)

Where we really got to know each other was on the picket line during my first year out of school. She was several months pregnant and had a lovely lawn chair to sit on by the roadside when necessary. The small group of us spent plenty of quality time chatting while picketing, eating treats brought to us by supportive parents.

Later on, it was Betsy who somehow coerced me into working at the interactive dinner show where she'd worked for years. Later still, she essentially forced me to audition for my first community theatre show, and thus my secondary occupation on and around the stage began.

Throughout the years, we've been excellent friends and she's an endless source of amusement, encouragement, and general helpfulness. She helps me prepare for auditions, accompanies me when I sing in church, has helped to write and arrange music for shows I've written, and generally encouraged me to get off my duff and exercise some creativity. As mentioned earlier, she's had me helping with her school musical, giving me a chance to work with older kids for a change.

On top of all this, she's a massively talented and compassionate person. I'm honoured to be among those who are blessed to know her.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #114: Showcase

Today my kids were performing and viewing performances at a board event celebrating the Arts. The kids did really well and it was a very enjoyable day when all was said and done.

Much like Tuesday, it was great to sit back and see a wide variety of performances, to see kids so actively engaged and having worked so hard. Choirs, drama, dance, Orff ensembles -- it was a pleasure.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #113: Tax Relief

I had my taxes done (yes, ahead of the deadline, even) and I don't owe. That's all that matters to me. I'm getting a tiny sliver of a return, but as long as I don't have to pay anything extra, I'm happy.

Whew.

Random Act of Gratitude #112: Chip Update

I'm playing catch up again. I apologize; life's been insane.

Remember those delicious chips I talk about frequently? They returned to my main grocery store and are starting to appear everywhere. I'm hoping this means that the time for concern over their marketable future is over. Woohoo! Bring on the Rosemary and Basil!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #111: Arts and Social Justice

Tonight I attended a great event at a nearby school in which the arts met social justice through a "Me to We" event.

"Me to We" promotes actions and attitudes which focus on the interconnectedness of people, moving from Me-centred thinking to We-centred thinking. Simple, right? It's connected with Free the Children, a charity started by Craig Kielburger when he was twelve, heard the story if Iqbal Masih, and decided he had to take action against child labour. Free the Children now is a major player in the fight for children's rights around the world, and engages the energies of young people and their adult supporters in making a change in the world.

The school event brought kids together with the arts to raise money and awareness for Me to We goals and charities. It was a pleasure to see kids actively engaged in the arts and many seemed quite passionate about the cause. It was a great event and a very enjoyable evening.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #110: Hope for the Future

I've been working with a group of high school kids, helping Betsy out with her musical production in a sort of unofficial Jack-of-All-Trades role and the opening date is quickly approaching.

I must say that, despite all one hears about the miserable state of adolescents, it's really a great group of young people with whom we're working. Sure we're pulling teeth sometimes to get performances going, but that's beside the point. They're a decent group of folk and I'm really enjoying them as a group and as individuals. It'll be strange when it's over; I've grown quite used to checking in on them every few days.

Thank goodness all is not lost among the teenagers!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #109: Jean

I attend a small church with an older congregation. I could find somewhere with hipper music, a younger crowd, and a more contemporary style, but I don't. Though we don't necessarily see eye to eye on every nitty-gritty philosophy, they're still lovely, compassionate people who are wonderful.

One of my dearest friends at church is a retired teacher named Jean. Despite the difference in our age and generation, Jean and I have become friends and I'm often reminded to be thankful for the privilege of knowing her.

Jean wears her heart on her sleeve; there is no pretense with her, no facade. She is also a wellspring of encouragement. We've often chatted at some length about teaching and its rewards and challenges, as well as other bits and pieces of "regular life". At these times, I'm always struck by her honesty, her candor, and her disinterest in putting on the appearance of "having it all together and knowing it all". That's something very admirable.

Jean just had a little non-fiction book published locally and I'm looking forward to reading it both as a historical account of a local figure and as a window into the writing mind of a wonderful woman.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #108: Hospitality

Tonight I attended a birthday get-together for my friend Jeff at his parents' house. I knew a few of those in attendance (his girlfriend Jackie and her parents, his kids), but it was my first time meeting the others in his family.

What a lovely, hospitable, friendly family! They were exceedingly welcoming and great hosts in every way.

Perhaps the funniest thing was realizing that every male I've now met in Jeff's family looks and sounds just like variations on a theme. There can be no doubt regarding the genetic relationship there. Haha!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #107: A Simple Pleasure

Thank goodness for cheese.

Seriously. I can't imagine life without it.

Tonight, my pasta, which would otherwise have been mediocre, was made delicious thanks to goat's cheese.

Whoever invented cheese deserves to be adored for all eternity.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #106: The Start of the Best Part of the School Year

Today marked the beginning of my favourite part of the school year: the days when we can sit under the big tree for Snack & Story!

I'm sure it looks suspisciously like Maria and a very large group of Von Trapp children out there when I'm reading under the tree, but it's one of my favourite times of the school year. Love it.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #105: A Dream

I'm not usually one to hop on the feel-good bandwagon of warm-fuzzy videos online, but this woman -- now pervading every news cast and web news site -- and her performance on yesterday's Britain's Got Talent brings me a little joy.

Even more than the "don't judge a book by its coverishness" of it all, it's the thought of this woman standing in front of that crowd and being enthusiastically applauded and adored for what she can do is what I love. I think everyone should have at least one moment when the world adores them. I hope she has more such moments.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #104: Official Progress

The office in my house is far from organized, but I can officially declare that sufficient progress has been made for me to actually sit at the desk with the computer and work there. That's right.

Now the neat-freaks out there won't understand at all, I'm sure, but in getting some things organized over the winter, it became necessary to just put things that would end up in the office in the office. That led to a space quite cluttered with "waiting to be organized" stuff.

The neat-freaks still wouldn't understand, if they looked in the room right now, why I would be at all happy. Like I said, it's still got a lot waiting for attention. It's just good that I can now work there and don't have to work at the coffee table or dining room table any more (unless I want to).

Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #103: The Culmination of a Long Weekend

Did I avoid some work this weekend? Yes.

Will I have to deal with it in the next few days? Sure.

Was it worth it to have a real holiday weekend? Absolutely.

It was the first weekend in quite a while in which I really did leave work at work and just deal with non-work life and a great weekend it was. I did some visiting (as I'm sure you're aware) and some relaxing, and life's better for it.

Aaahhhh!

(Now back to work.)

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #102: Audio From the Archives

Upon opening one of the boxes brought home from my parents' place, I immediately found six cassettes. Featured below are the covers from three of them.

That's right, John and Keltie, they've started coming out of the woodworks.

Way back in the days when I moved away from Kingston, these two friends of mine kept a link through letter writing and eventually their correspondence went high-tech and letters started arriving as cassette tapes. As you can see, there were both solo and partnered efforts involved. Some, like these three, were very carefully and lovingly prepared, with credits and playlists on the inside. Often times, John would carefully white out the printing on an actual commercial tape and replace it with his own text after recording over some musician's work. (Yeesh. How expensive were blank cassettes back then?)

The entertainment value was immeasurable and I remember sitting down with headphones and listening and laughing. When the two of them were together, interspersed among songs (generally selected by DJ John) were segments of general mayhem, often involving toilet humour and fighting. (I'll be interested to listen again and find out whether these elements were as pervasive as I remember.)

Keltie can rest assured that there's no mention of hotdogs or Kraft Dinner on these tapes, as far as I can recall, since those topics came up on a solo outing of hers, but I'm determined to get the three of us together to listen to them together.

I'm completely amused to have found the tapes after many years of burial, but even more, I'm grateful for the fact that after my big move away from Kingston there were people who spent years (YEARS) frequently reminding me that I had not been dismissed. Today they're both in regular contact with me and stand as a pair of my longest standing friends.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #101: Parentally Bound

I was off to visit the parents this weekend and, in addition to excellent driving conditions and easy traffic, it was great to get up to see them. They make me laugh. They're currently in that place of having to plan what's going to be going on in their lives in the next year or two since retirement is coming up quickly and having no money certainly will have its effect on their plans.

Of course, that has meant that my very practical mother has already started purging the house of everything extraneous while my packrat father is left scrambling, trying to do his part but not really having the cut-throat approach to disposal that my mother expects. Very entertaining in its own right.

As for me, I've been doing my part by taking a few boxes from my stash there with me every time I return home after a visit.

I really have wonderful parents and it was grand to get up to visit over the Easter weekend.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #100: A Renewing

Today was spent hanging out, watching movies, and eating fondue with Sonya. That's enough for which to be thankful, but it makes for a short entry; therefore, I'll instead write about The Renewing and Improving of a Friendship.

I've known Sonya for many years ... over twenty, I suppose. We lived for a period in the same town, went to the same church and high school, and were generally pleasant with one another. We weren't necessarily bosom chums, but we got along, liked one another, and were both slightly scoffed at by our parents for our enjoyment of a certain story (though Sonya no doubt was an aficionado of the film alone while I was a lover of both film and books). Regardless, that's basically how it was.

Off Sonya went into the world (with a slight disdain for the small town in which we lived, I'm sure -- Ha!) and we didn't talk much for some time. There were the occasional Hey-how-are-you-doings, but not much more.

Then a few years ago, we somehow reconnected. I know I received an e-mail inviting me to go and see Wicked (I couldn't go, but fear not, for I have seen it regardless), but I'm not sure exactly the sequence of things. Did that come as our first contact in a while? I do know there was another stretch in there of minimal contact, and then at some point we started chatting regularly.

We got together to go to an event in Toronto at which Keltie was exhibiting some masks she'd made and that was the first time we had actually gotten together in ages. And suddenly we were reconnected and our friendship was officially renewed.

Since then we've done a show together (and despite her fears to the contrary, it was just fine having her "invade my life" to do so) and generally built upon that vague friendship from years ago. I'm glad that we've reconnected, find her terribly enjoyable, and feel quite honoured that she's one of several friends from "way back" who continue to be part of my life.

Thanks for popping back into my weird little sphere, Sonya!

(And I bet you're ridiculously impressed that you landed on #100, too. Ego. Ha!)

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #99: Melissa, Queen of Holiday Treats

Melissa, with whom I work, is the Queen of Holiday Treats. That's right. She is.

Every holiday, we arrive at work to find on our desks little packets of chocolates and assorted treats made and wrapped up by Melissa. As someone who is terrible at even remembering the holiday is coming, let alone remembering to do anything about it, it's astounding that someone can consistently be so well-prepared. I'm convinced it's a gene I have missing.

Thanks, once again, Melissa for your thoughtful wee reminders and gifts. It always makes me smile!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #98: Solomon Grundy

Sometimes I come across something that just amuses me.

Today, I came across this cartoon.

I find it quite enjoyable.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #97: A Little Heat

The blower motor on my car (yes, they seriously call the motor for the interior fan the "blower motor") has been acting up again lately, and recently it stopped working altogether, but at the moment there are bigger fish to fry when it comes to expenses.

So when the usual April snowfall came today, complete with ice formed from yesterday's rain, I was not so sure how things were going to go with my windshield.

How thankful I was, therefore, when I gave it a shot and when turned on high, it started blasting air up onto my windshield. Whew! A few minutes later, the ice had melted adn I was able to go on my merry way, driving in warm, melty (and safe) peace.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #96: PhotoSue

For one project on which I have been working, I needed some photos of kids.

I had the project.

I had the kids.

All I needed was a photographer.

Enter Sue, who arrived camera in hand this afternoon. She worked smashingly with my gaggle of models (that's right, models come in gaggles), and took my vague ideas of what we could do for each photo and made them better and made them work. I'm quite confident that we ended up with some great shots for the project.

Thanks for taking the time to come out and shoot some kids, Sue!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #95: The Season Opens for Porch Reading

One of my favourite things about the summer is sitting on the porch with a cup of tea and a book or three.

Today the weather was fine. It was sunny. It was quite warm.

It was reading-on-the-porch weather.

Aaaaaah!

I'm aware that the weather's not going to last at this point in the game, but having the first outdoors sunny read of the season was a welcome reminder of things to come.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #94: Sleep, Sleep, Sleep

I've been sick for several weeks now and am on a new round of antibiotics that will hopefully blast it out of me.

For that reason, in addition to the usual it's the weekend impulse, it was a very welcome treat to sleep in today and to roll over, look at the clock, and think to myself, "Nope. I'm not getting up yet."

I know I've expressed my thanks for the chance to indulge in a little sleep-in before, but today it was particularly welcome.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #93: A String of Positives

Today was a good day filled with small gifts.

My class has been on a really positive run this week, and today I again found them really quite enjoyable, productive, and generally fun to be with. It was a rainy day (which I love as a person, but not so much as a teacher), but it didn't seem to result in the usual stir-craziness.

We worked on a short drama/dance performance we'll be performing at a couple of events in a few weeks and accomplished a good amount. If the what the kids did today is any indication, it's going to be good.

In the evening, I met up with a few friends and had a good dinner (goat cheese salad) and friendly chat, then we went to a show and saw more friends on stage and afterwards, not to mention a few friends in the audience. Afterwards, it was out for a bite to eat and chatter.

And so a bunch of small but positive things piled up to make a very satisfying day.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #92: Words From the Past

I went to work today and found the strangest thing on my desk.

It was an envelope. It was addressed to me, and dated 2007.

Odd.

Apparently one of the kids found it after it fell out of a book.

I opened it.

I read it.

I laughed.

My dear friend Linda, who spent some time as a student teacher in my class two years ago, had left it like a time capsule in my box of Human Body materials waiting for me to crack it open again when the time came to teach the unit. Haha!

It was a smashingly kind and amusing note about her time in my class and hoping that the letter would find me well and happy. I can tell you that finding it made today that much more happy. Completely enjoyable.

Thanks, Linda! Your random act of kindness has directly led to my random act of gratitude today!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Random Act of Gratitude #91: The Genius of Bruno Coulais

I finally got the soundtrack for Coraline. About thirty seconds into the film, I thought, "I will have to get this soundtrack." It's worth it for the opening credits music alone. Naturally, it went into my car stereo immediately. I'm should crank that first track, with its odd, haunting melody sung by a children's choir, at stoplights with the windows down. Haha!

Of course, if you haven't seen the movie, you really should. Don't worry about bringing kids as props. You don't need 'em. See it in 3D if you can; it's stunning.

*Edited to add:

Ha! While driving to work today, it suddenly occurred that the "opening credits" music I referred to above was actually the closing credits music. It's the first track on the CD, but not from the start of the movie. I was trying to figure out where Track Two fit into the movie and suddenly went, "OH! That's the start!" Ha!