This may be the best thing I have read in a while...


( Prepare to laugh )

I have no words...

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/gays_too_precious_to_risk_in

A friend of mine sent this to me and I felt compelled to share...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anSpBUxsgAU

Inspired by Nezumiko
I will send a handmade gift to the first four people who leave a comment here on my LJ. (You'll have to give me your address unless you want a digital handmade gift. Addresses can be emailed or whatnot; don't put them here in your comment unless you want to share them with the world.)

I don’t yet know what that gift will be, but you will receive it within 365 days. The only thing you have to do in return is "pay it forward" by making a similar agreement on your LJ.

I knit and spin and weave and crochet and make quilts and do a bunch of other things too... 

The other day I had a really nice visit with my father -- which would have been unheard of a few years ago, but has happily become more common in the past year.  He cooked for me, and we sat and chatted for a while. We watched a little soccer, and it was time for me to go home. 
As I was leaving, my father was puttering around in the kitchen, whistling 'Que Sera Sera' (literal translation: 'what will be will be' - it is an old song made popular by Doris Day) ... As I walked down the driveway, got into my car, turned the car around and started to drive away, the whistled tune followed me, and seemed to wrap itself around my heart. I looked up and saw that my father was standing by the wondow, watching me leave. He raised his hand and waved at me, never wavering in his whistling.
For some reason, walking out of my parents' house, listening to my father whistle, evoked some pretty profound emotions... and left me with this incredibly peaceful, well-loved feeling resonating deep within me.  

Today when I was driving home from work, I took a short cut that had been recommended by my co-worker. 

Within moments (or 40 minutes) I knew I was lost. 

*sigh*

I managed to figure out where I was and got home safely. The short cut had taken three times as long!

I had a lovely drive in the countryside. 

And the best part was when I drove by this little stone house perched on a hill in the middle of nowhere. I slowed down to take a closer look (that is the nice thing about getting lost in the countryside - you don't ever really 'hold up' the traffic) and saw a car that was painted the exact same shade of sparkly green as my favorite (only) bike from my childhood. There it was, just sitting there, sparkling in the sun like my old banana seat! If only it had had streamers hanging off of the side mirrors... Then it would have been perfect... 

It was pretty great ...

Saturday mornings are so lovely around my little house. 

They always include  dark roast coffee, a newspaper to read, and the delightfully entertaining musings of the radio hosts on the CBC.

This morning I slept in, took my pup out for a pee, and sat down to enjoy my coffee. "And Sometimes Y" was playing on the radio. Today the host was exploring what makes a phrase or word a cliche, a metaphor or simply a word. One of his co-hosts was the 'word nerd', who played excerpts from 'Dr.Fowler's Modern English Usage - The Opera'. 

Yup. An Opera - all about obscure word usage. The word nerd really may be my  knight in shining armour 

*sigh* 

I love Saturday mornings.

On Saturday I will be on a panel, promoting what I think is the book that everyone in the city should read, and why. 
I have chosen Zadie Smith's White Teeth. I need to write/read a 10 minute 'plug' for the book, focusing on its social relevance and its connection to community. 
Hmmm. 
10 minutes doesn't usually seem like a long time for me to speak about anything. 
But I am feeling a little stuck at the moment. 
If you happen to have read the book, and have any 'key points' from your access/standpoint, please let me know. 
Be forewarned - I may post my notes here, to get some feedback before the panel discussion on Saturday night. 

By the way - if you have not read this book, you should. That's my opinion. 
(Now I just need 9 minutes and 50 seconds of filler)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5blbv4WFriM


(just in case you needed something to laugh about today)

So - I have an 11  year old dog. She is beautiful and loves people -- and loves to dominate other dogs. She is very food-driven and food possessive. Last year she developed separation anxiety suddenly, and had to be put on anti-anxiety pills for a short while. Since then, she has panicked when I have tried to re-introduce her crate, and so I have resorted to using baby gates to keep her in one part of the house. She has had seizures a couple of times, and so I try to make sure she stays safe even when I am not home. 
She has a habit of randomly destroying things -- last month she became obsessed with my Boggle game, and shredded the box and chewed each of the dice. The hour-glass was in tact, and even though she chewed the hard plastic, there was no blood, so she was okay. The month before  she tried to eat a package of  flip-chart markers. In between, there was no issue with anything. 

As I have written before, i have just finished my job. Which has meant that things have been a bit stressful... and that I also had to clean out my desk/office at work and bring a bunch of stuff home (thanks to beachlass, that was a less emotionally terrible process, thanks again for coming with me, love!). 

In one of the boxes, there was a package of Nicorette chewing gum, that someone had tried to donate to the Centre, and I was going to pass on to someone I knew (we cannot give out any medications to the youth and teh package had been opened, so I got the okay from the person who was donating it, and since I knew her anyway, though it would be safe to pass on). But I didn't think that my dog might want it. 
Silly me.

Last night I went out for 10 minutes. When I came back, I discovered a shredded/chewed package of Nicorette chewing gum on the floor. I called the after hours vet clinic (it was 12:30 am), and was told to call the poison control hotline right away. I did, and was put on hold for what seemed like a very long time. Eventually they told me that yes, my dog had eaten enough of it to be worried -- both because of the nicotine, and the sweetener used in the gum.  That combination could make her have a heart attack, stroke, have liver failure, etc etc etc

I gave her 3 table spoons of hydrogen peroxide, and made her vomit.  And then had to sort through her piles of mint-and-bile-smelling vomit, to count the pieces of gum. Luckily she threw up 24 whole pieces of gum, which reduced the potentially chewed up number to 6, which put her in the 'okay zone'. 

But man, oh man, was it ever scary for a while. 

This tops the time when she ate three bread-loaves worth of dough, and it started to rise inside of her. That time, when she threw up, the dough was so elastic that she kept in re-inhaling it, and I finally had to sit there beside her and cut off the dough as she puked. Yum yum. She farted yeast smelling farts for the next couple of days. It took me months to get over it enough to bake bread again. 

I am just glad that she is okay. 

Today I am leaving the organization I built. 
After today I will no longer be the Executive Director of a youth shelter/drop-in program. I will no longer be the 'mom' of all of the street-kids in my town.
Even though this has been coming for 6 months (which is when I gave notice), it still feels too soon, like the work is not done... like I am not actually leaving. 

But I am. 

How do you say goodbye to 70+ kids who have struggled and survived and still have the capacity to be super cute and fun and inspire love and hope and strength???  I know that teachers with whom I have spoken have drawn parallels to their own experiences within the classroom, with needing to say goodbye at the end of a school year, or a semester. But I have known some of these kids for 7 years - have been the most constant person in their lives - and have built a whole organization around their needs. 

I  can't stop youth poverty from happening. I know that. But I am so intensely proud of the fact that I have been able to save a whole lot of lives through providing basic things like shelter, clothing, food, health care and most importantly, compassion.  

I am so proud, and so grateful. It feels good to be leaving when I can see just how amazing everything has been. If I had left 6 months ago, it would all have been clouded under conflict with the Board, with the landlord, with the community -- all because people do not understand that youth respond way better to compassion than they do punishment.  It breaks my heart when people blame and villify young people for living in poverty, for struggling and for being in conflict -- like it is their fault they are poor, hungry, broken and desperate. Like there haven't been adults that have let them down. Like there are no other issues going on in their lives. Like they don't deserve to just be kids for a while. 

*sigh* 

I am not sure what I will be doing next -- community developer, mom, women's shelter manager, master quilter/spinner, minister's wife???

It's so good that it feels like a new adventure, instead of running away, or being defeated... It's just time for a change...