Skip to main content

Today Was Near Perfect

I am tempted to say that traffic wrecked my day. It didn't, because that is blameshifting. I did find myself in a foul mood after my drive back to Toronto took twice as long as expected, but before that hiccup, I had a stupendous day.

Here is an outline.
  • Slept in for an hour. (Feels weird to celebrate an 8am wake-up.)
  • Went to the Farmers' Market.
  • Went to Red Brick Cafe.
  • Had a fantastic whirlwind conversation over doughnuts & drinks with Jay and Michelle.
Subpoints about Jay & Michelle:
- Jay & Michelle and I went to the same high-school church group for 2 years. Jay doesn't remember this. (He does remember me from the elementary school we both went to.)
- At this youth group, Michelle and I joked about starting a hip-hop band called The I-O Oreos. As in "inside out" oreos. Because we were both white on the outside but black on the inside. I don't know why I remember this.
- Jay & Michelle just returned from 5 months in Central America. They just went. Packed up and left. One of the things I like best about them is that they don't just sit around and talk big - they think, they talk, and then they do.
- Michelle is passionate about ending sex trafficking. I feel like this deserves more attention.
Michelle is passionate about ending sex trafficking.
And you should check out what she's up to.
- Jay is passionate about Michelle. And church. And a lot of things.
- Jay & Michelle leave on Tuesday for an apprenticeship with a church on Vancouver Island. The lead pastor at that church is one of my favourite writers on Christian spiritual disciplines. His book on Sabbath and his book on Heaven both rocked my world.
- Jay is hopefully going to help me bring all my blogging mayhem into one beautifully simple site.
- Jay suggested I call my first book Ministry for the Men, Poetry for the Money: Mistakes So Far?
- I said that my favourite word is redemption and if I ever get a tattoo, that's what it's going to say. Without missing a beat, Jay said, "Oh, so you really like coupons?"
- Michelle is afraid of bees.
- Jay & Michelle are incredibly easy to talk with. I hope our lives intersect more often in the future.
  • Surprise lunch with the family for Dad's birthday!
Subpoint highlights:
- Goats' cheese on my salad. Love the goats' cheese.
- Biggest ice cream cake I have ever seen.
- Holding my niece.
- Playing eye-contact games with my nephew.
- Laughing with my sister.
- Laughing with my sister at my brother.
  • Seeing my sister's makeover! Taking some photos of her new do.
  • Shopping with a friend, who brought peanut butter cups & helped me buy a jacket.
  • A few more moments with the parentals.
  • Homemade "johnnycake" (cornbread) from Grampie for the road.

Making that list was helpful.
I like lists.
And now I'm dreaming about all sorts of things.
Specifically:
  • my fantastic family and what it will be like when my little brother rejoins us in Ontario.
  • travel. Where I will go, why, and with whom.
  • blogging. All the thoughts I have are bursting out of my orifices. (I have been a chatterbox all week.)
FINAL NOTE.
You really need to click on the links above that will take you to sites run by Jay & Michelle (and one site for the author dude).
    Labels:

    Comments

    1. MLW11:09 PM

      I have read some of Jay & Michelle's blogs and they are a pretty awesome couple. Glad you had a good time with them and that you had a good time during your whirlwind visit to Guelph.

      ReplyDelete
    2. Laura J2:51 AM

      here's my nursey side. Perhaps your ideas should only burst out of one orifice. The other options are slightly shocking...even to me.

      On a completely different note. I miss you a lot today and wish you were here so we could talk. Sigh. Sigh again.

      ReplyDelete
    3. Beth9:26 AM

      laura: i miss you too. and in my mind, the "orifices" comment was supposed to conjure up images of rainbows bursting from my eyes and ears and nose and mouth...head orifices only.

      ReplyDelete
    4. afro-chick4:48 PM

      i like this michelle.
      i feel passionately about what she feels passionately about. i'm going to check the link.
      also..i heart..mark buchanan & his books. well, mostly his books. (maybe you're talking about him?)

      i like the title of your first book.

      ReplyDelete
    5. J.r. Fisher11:04 PM

      Hey, You want to help my return to Ontario? I'm told we should talk sometime, as you yourself once checked all possibilities of travel from BC to Ontario and might have some pointers. MSN sometime? Or text . . . . anything is fine really.

      ReplyDelete
    6. Jay Brock11:54 AM

      That Michelle does sound pretty awesome!

      Beth, we need to meet up more, seriously!

      Also, do I get a commission on your first book? ;)

      Ps... my most recent blog post was inspired by you! http://bit.ly/3Lists

      See you on Facebook!

      ReplyDelete

    Post a Comment

    Popular posts from this blog

    Simone Weil: On "Forms of the Implicit Love of God"

    Simone Weil time again! One of the essays in Waiting for God  is entitled "Forms of the Implicit Love of God." Her main argument is that before a soul has "direct contact" with God, there are three types of love that are implicitly  the love of God, though they seem to have a different explicit  object. That is, in loving X, you are really loving Y. (in this case, Y = God). As for the X of the equation, she lists: Love of neighbor  Love of the beauty of the world  Love of religious practices  and a special sidebar to Friendship “Each has the virtue of a sacrament,” she writes. Each of these loves is something to be respected, honoured, and understood both symbolically and concretely. On each page of this essay, I found myself underlining profound, challenging, and thought-provoking words. There's so much to consider that I've gone back several times, mulling it over and wondering how my life would look if I truly believed even half of these thi...
    1 comment
    Read more

    I Like to Keep My Issues Drawn

    It's Sunday night and I am multi-tasking. Paid some bills, catching up on free musical downloads from the past month, thinking about the mix-tape I need to make and planning my last assignment for writing class. Shortly, I will abandon the laptop to write my first draft by hand. But until then, I am thinking about music. This song played for me earlier this afternoon, as I attempted to nap. I woke up somewhere between 5 and 5:30 this morning, then lay in bed until 8 o'clock flipping sides and thinking about every part of my life that exists. It wasn't stressful, but it wasn't quite restful either...This past month, I have spent a lot of time rebuffing lies and refusing to believe that the inside of my heart and mind can never change. I feel like Florence + The Machine 's song "Shake it Out" captures many of these feelings & thoughts. (addendum: is the line "I like to keep my issues strong or drawn ?" Lyrics sites have it as "stro...
    2 comments
    Read more

    Esse - Czeslaw Milosz

    I'm on a bit of a poetry binge this week, and Monday afternoon found me lying on the luxurious shag rug of a friend's tiny apartment, re-reading some of my favourite poets (ee cummings, William Carlos Williams, Czeslaw Milosz). It is an adventure to re-open a collection and wonder what will pop out, knowing something you've read before will strike you afresh, or you will be reminded of a particularly moving line that you had somehow forgotten. Like this piece from Milosz, which floors me. Every. damn.* time. The first time I read it, I lay in a park with a friend (this same friend who offered me her rug as my reading burrow) and demanded that I share it with her. I spoke it carefully, and then, into the post-reading silence, I slammed the book shut, and dropped it as loudly as I could onto the grass. "I'm never reading anything again," I declared, "What else is there to say?" Esse I looked at that face, dumbfounded. The lights of métro st...
    Post a Comment
    Read more