my romantic getaway

THIRTY-ONE MORE DAYS until i leave for playa del carmen to meet up with the lovely and talented belinda, for our seven day getaway together. i can't wait. time to get the bathing suits and flip flops in order! just as she said, "we need to get cute outfits!" so we can lounge around and eat buffets and drink pina coladas by one of the million pools. oh, and did i mention there will be mayan ruins, jungles and dolphins? wwwhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Weekend

Today: Eat homemade egg mcmuffin, drive to Lake Louise, snowboard my brains out, come home, hot bath, roast chicken (props to Ryan), go to sketchy bar (did you know it's "Big Chest Week"?) with free pingpong and lots of people I don't know from the Fort McMurray reunion.
Tomorrow: Report cards, IPPs, and clean up my class. Get my life in order. Plan trip to somewhere warm and sunny, plan what to wear at warm and sunny place. Sleep.

Hey Neighbour

Do you think we talk enough to strangers / slash / people we don't know? Should we branch out more? Are we hiding something?

An early morning ramble

I am waiting for my mum to arrive - she was scheduled to fly in at 7:55 pm last night, and delayed a whopping 9 hours or so.... I am up and waiting for her now, I slept a bit but apparently I don't do well with people not showing up on time, at least not when it's 9 hours late and I'm worried about them....

Anyway, I've been meaning to post a bit about Teachers' Convention. WAIT! Don't go! Really, it was an awesome two days for my brain cells and I want to gush about it for a bit. Mainly, I went to see keynote speakers. Sure, I could go and learn 'how to sew a zipper in a minute' (what!?) or how to teach math using dice or whatever, but my brain needed more than that. I got about a year's worth of math activities at the first workshop I went to. AND THEN....

Maude Barlow. Volunteer Chairperson for the Council of Canadians. She spoke about the future of public education. Scary. At a staff meeting last week we talked about new school opening up in Calgary, and apparently 9 of them (?) are joint public/private ventures. What does that mean? Your guess is as good as mine. I digress. Long story short, as soon as we open up water, healthcare, or education to competition, here comes NAFTA and before you know it we're shipping off the so-called-underachievers to separate schools so they can be taught by Kumon representatives who don't give a rat's ass. Wheeeee. Look up more about 'deep integration' and the deal Paul Martin signed with bush in Waco a few months ago and NOBODY covered it. Anyway, I (heart) Maude Barlow.

Next up, Lesra Martin. Did you ever see that movie, The Hurricane? Anyway, the kid in that movie, the one who doesn't read or write at 15, moves to Toronto to learn and end up freeing a wrongly convicted black man, the real life GUY, was in Calgary talking to us about the power of one. The best thing about it was how incredibly happy he was - like this - "HOT DOG! I've been on Oprah! HOT DOG! I went to Hollywood" etcetera. Not an overly exciting talk, but incredibly inspirational to hear about how one person can change another's life.

Finally, I went to see Wendy Mesley. What an incredible woman. She is so incredibly intelligent and well-spoken, and at the same time, accessible and personable. She was here to talk about the effect of the media, good and bad, on today's children. She mostly talked about the news media and how real-time/on-the-ground reporting had affected the news we see and read about. Kind of interesting, but we sure do have to look at the way we teach - something's gotta change, eventually. We can't keep teaching the way we did 20 years ago if the kids are growing up in a totally different world. I knew that already, seriously, but it's hard to make the move when everybody else is stuck or unaware.

I'm tired.
Time to see if I can track down my mother!

Way to blow my socks off

So my friend Peter Katz rolled into town on Thursday night, played a nice little pub I didn't know about called Jackdaw's and, surprise surprise, TOTALLY blew my socks off. For the millionth time. You have to understand I'm a little bit biased because he is, afterall, my friend, but he really is incredibly talented. in the course of any show of his, I always have moments where I smile and there is probably a little twinkle in my eye while I get lost in a daydream provoked by some of his incredible lyrics... or else, I end up feeling the lump in my throat grow, as in "The Fence" about Matthew Shepard, and the tears well up in my eyes...

ANYWAY. He is incredibly powerful and talented and amazing. The thing that touches me the most about his music, though, is how incredibly honest and genuine it is - I always feel like he's confiding something deep, important, personal.

Good thing he's coming back in a few weeks' time. Check him out.

The List

Okay, so I was re-reading an old kid's book the other day - remember Frog and Toad? Those inseparable amphibians? "A List" is a funny story - Toad has a list of things to do, and anything not on the list can't be done. He loves to do something, then cross it off. But what happens when your list blows away, and "run after the list" wasn't even on the list. Worse, you can't remember what else was on the list. Frog is such a good friend, he just sits quietly with Toad as he struggles to figure out what to do.

Why did I just tell you about it? Well, firstly, I just downloaded "Romance Bloody Romance" by Death From Above 1979 and it appears to be my new favourite get-stuff-done-so-you-can-cross-things-off-of-lists music. Second. So far today I have been very productive. Think, helping Ed move, recycling, washing car (oooh, shiny), groceries, organizing. But now, third. Although I have good music, it is a sunny day and TWELVE degrees and I want my list to blow away. So that I can just pretend it didn't exist. Just like Toad. That was random!

Don't get me wrong...

I'm not complaining, really, but it boggles my mind that I just spent almost four hours planning and preparing so that I can have a SICK DAY tomorrow. Good thing I DON'T have the avian flu. Geesh.

Oops.

I felt like such a total loser tonight because I went to the after-hours clinic because I am sick and I thought I was dying of strep throat or the avian flu or something and all I have is a cold. When the doctor said "I think you have the same thing as I do... guess when you work around sick people all the time you're bound to catch something" and then I almost asked him if he watches Scrubs because in the episode I watched on Wednesday when I took the day off it was all about JD being paranoid about getting all these weird diseases. Anyway.

I don't care. I'm taking the day off tomorrow. Pbthththththth.

Today I am home sick. I have the flu. I am woozy, sniffly, stuffed up, sneezy, you know the deal. I lounged around in bed until 10 which was a major luxury considering I've been getting up at a nauseating 5:40 every morning to get to school early. But then, do you think I can stop doing stuff? No. I am doing laundry, researching a potential spring break trip with Belinda (I'm not complaining about that), washing dishes, cleaning up, I plan on doing my Valentines for the kids for next week, I've been looking up books I need to order, and then, I will go to the hospital to visit my E.A. who is sick and to drop off a basket we made for her at school. Scary. Soon, if my brain is up for it, I'll share some crazy research to prove why my brain never shuts off. I'm serious, people have STUDIES that PROVE I'm not crazy. I'm just a girl. I don't know what that means. All I know is I can't even relax in the bubble bath because I keep thinking of stuff to do. Turn off brain, turn OFF.

Thank you Dad and Vicky for the beautiful flowers for my birthday. I didn't have a vase for them so for awhile they have been sitting in a measuring cup. Hopefully I can find something more appropriate soon, but they are sooooo pretty and they smell sooooo lovely (at least from what I can smell) and I luurve them. Thank you.

I will never get sick of the mountains

I think my goggles look like they're on crooked, which makes me look like a bit of a doofus but really it's a reflection of something. Really. *sigh* Also, that's Fiona in the skis.