Eye of the Storm

Life hasn't been completely swept up in the craziness of adoption.

This is my current crafty project. I fell in love with the yarn - it's so soft and fuzzy, and masculine enough for the men in my family who wouldn't be caught dead in something that's not an earth tone. I knew as soon as I saw it that it was destined to become a scarf. It's also the first thing I've knit (knitted?) on my new birch needles, and I don't think I'll be able to go back to metal or plastic. The yarn glides so beautifully, with just the right amount of hold so that stitches aren't slipping off.

A batch of cinnamon soap that is currently about 2 weeks into the curing process. My sunporch smells glorious! At least when the landlord's son who lives out back isn't "relaxing" in the evenings with his smouldering herb of choice.

The highlight of this past weekend, other than finishing the training course?

We went to see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood (of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame) perform an improv comedy show on Saturday night. I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time - and did we ever need it!

And so life carries on in the midst of the whirlwind.

Things are looking 'Up'

I'm not a big fan of going to see movies in the theatre. You can't pause it to go pee, there's always someone who feels the need to chat with their friend, my knees start to hurt because I can't stretch my legs out, the a/c is almost always too cold ... you get the idea. I much prefer to watch movies in the comfort of my own home, so please understand that I'm not saying this lightly: if you haven't done so already,

GO SEE PIXAR'S 'UP'!

We went last night with a bunch of friends from our home church, and I can honestly state without any exaggeration that it was one of the best movies I've seen in years. And because it's done in 3D, you really need to see it in the theatre to fully appreciate it. I don't want to tell you anything about it - I went in having no idea what it was about, other than an old man and a balloon covered house, and it completely blew me away. So go. Now. I promise you'll enjoy it :)

Rainy Thursday at the Opera

I love rain. There's very little that I enjoy more than the feeling of a rainy day, as I sit all warm and cozy inside listening to the wind and the pitter-patter of the rain hitting the windows. I love the smell of wet earth, and the extra vibrancy that the rain gives anything green.

I do not, however, enjoy it quite as much when walking about in soaking wet shoes and pants that I just discovered were a little too long, as they sopped up more water with every step I took. It wouldn't have been so bad if I had been on my way home, where I could change into something warm and dry, but I was not. TC had gotten tickets to the COC's performance of La Bohème last night, so after work I headed to the southwest corner of Queen St. W and University Ave. where we had arranged to meet. We then walked a couple of blocks to Jack Astor's to have dinner, and back to the Four Seasons Centre in time for the opera. By that time, I was soaked from the knees down.

I was still looking forward to the performance, though, since La Bohème is one of those operas that everyone has heard about, and the COC usually puts on a wonderful show. Not so much the case this time. It started at 7:30, and finished a little before 10:30, which is pretty standard. However, normally there is only one intermission. Last night there were three, each around half an hour long. So of the three hours that we were there, half of it was spent sitting and waiting for the next act to start. I could understand the need for the intermissions - there was a set change between eact act, so some time was needed to make it happen. But the sets were so complex that it took forever, which made it difficult to get back into the performance once it finally started up again. It would have been far better, in my humble opinion, to use simpler sets that set up quickly and allowed the story to flow in a less disjointed manner, especially since the location of each scene wasn't really all that important as the story was completely character driven.

Added to this was the fact that directly behind us sat a young woman of high school age who insisted on emitting a high pitched, whiny, mewling "Oh!", every time one of the characters sang or did anything that could be considered romantic (i.e. every 5 minutes), as though it was necessary to inform everyone around her that this was a moment of pathos and wasn't it just precious? By the end of act 3 I was ready to toss her off the balcony. We were five stories up.

Otherwise, it was thoroughly enjoyable :) The performances were all fairly good or better, and there's a reason it's one of the most popular operas of all time. You can't go completely wrong when you have good material.

That being said, I was glad to get home and put on dry jammies, curl up in bed and listen to the wind blow the rain against our window until I fell asleep.

To Do This Week:

1. Re-pot my houseplants that have outgrown their current homes.
2. Pick up the clothes that have erupted all over the floor and wash them.
3. Listen to old mix tapes and determine if they're worth keeping.
4. Order a shampoo bar - Sherrie, do you make those? Or know someone who does? I want to try one to see if they work.
5. Order some books from Chapters with my gift certificate (thanks for all the wonderful suggestions, folks!).
6. Plan crocheting lesson for a friend who wants to make a baby afghan.
7. Start making list of what to pack for our upcoming trip to France (17 days and counting...).
8. Arrange for someone to cover my shift in the nursery the Sunday we're away.
9. Buy a pile of non-electric pencil sharpeners. Did you know that many African children become infected with HIV because the only thing they have to sharpen their pencils with is their father's old razor? A friend is going to Africa next week and has asked everyone to bring in as many pencil sharpeners as we can.
10. Pick up one more skein of yarn to finally finish the latticework afghan.
11. Photocopy some sheet music and return the originals to their owner (I know, I know - I'm a criminal).
12. Get milk.
13. Look into sources of local, preferably organic produce this summer.
14. Come up with an idea for celebrating mother's day that doesn't require buying gifts (any suggestions?).
15. Book a massage at the spa.
16. Charge the batteries for our camera so I can start taking pictures again!
17. Call the folks.
18. Randomly select winner of mystery gift from previous post and send the gift.

That ought to keep me occupied! Have you all been out enjoying the glorious spring, even summer weather? TC and I went for a walk last night to pick up the soil for item #1, and it was lovely! The grass is green, the trees all have leaves, and some have started to blossom; daffodils and pansies and tulips are everywhere - it's a beautiful time of year.

Along the way to the hardware store, TC got ice cream while I got some sour gummie bears, which reminded me of all the summers I managed to beg a dollar from my mom to spend on penny candy at the local convenience store. Good times! We got home exhausted, TC from carrying 10 lbs of dirt for half an hour, and me from forgetting that it was 30 degrees out and over-dressing.

It's a warm, rainy day today - the kind that makes the earth smell delicious, and the worms come out to play on the sidewalks. A puddle-jumping kind of day. I'm going to have to find one on my way home :)

Fuming

I am royally pissed off. I mean really angry - so angry I want to weep. Why, oh why, oh WHY must people wear perfume?!? TC got us tickets to a concert today, a piano duet by two of the best duetists in the world, held at the Royal Conservatory. I was excited about it, and really looked forward to an enjoyable afternoon. Things were going well - we arrived a little early, found good seats, and settled in. Then just before the concert was set to start, a woman covered in furs and fumes arrived. Her scent assaulted my nose before she even entered the row behind us for one of the few remaining seats, which happened to be right behind me.

I immediately went on the alert. Her perfume was so strong that it was actually hurting me to breathe, but I hoped beyond hope that I'd be able to make it through the performance before the full-blown allergy attack that I knew would be coming actually hit. I fanned. I breathed as shallowly as possible. I tried to discretely cover my nose when I needed to take a deeper breath. I was so focused on trying to breathe that I honestly couldn't tell you much about what the music was like.

Then I felt my right eye start to water, and I knew there was nothing I could do. At the beginning of the second piece, I started feeling the need to cough, which is how I react to perfume. Have you ever tried to keep yourself from coughing? For 30-40 minutes? It isn't pretty. Your nose runs. Your eyes stream. And depending on how desperate you are to control your cough (and I was desperate), you end up doing the coughing equivalent of a dry heave. Not that any of this actually prevented me from coughing. All it did was allow me to try and time my coughs with a louder part of the piece rather than during the silences between movements.

By the time intermission came, I felt so badly for the people sitting around me - I know how disruptive it can be to have someone coughing in your ear while you're trying to enjoy music - that I left and came home. There was no way I was going to be able to stay. Even if we sat somewhere else, the damage had already been done, and my allergies were in full swing. Before I left, though, I really wanted to find the woman and tell her what she'd done - ruining the entire concert for me, and at least partly for the people who were forced to sit and listen to me have a coughing fit. It was probably a good thing I didn't see her.

It just makes me so mad! I've heard every excuse under the sun for wearing perfume, but ultimately there is no good reason for it. If you wear perfume it's because you like to. You don't need it. It doesn't make you a better, more likeable person. It says nothing about you - nothing good, anyway. All it does is make a significant part of the population miserable whenever they go out in public because they can't breathe!!!!

So lay off the perfume!

Sunday at Casa Loma

Our friends L & M from Kingston came to visit this past weekend. It's the first time we've seen them since their wedding back in August, so it was great to have them here. Not only are the good friends, but they force us to become tourists in our own city. Last time they visited, we went to the Toronto Zoo and had a blast. This time they wanted to visit Casa Loma, a castle built here in TO back in the day by a rich guy who lost everything in the Great Depression. It's now a tourist attraction, and kind of neat.

This is the library, located just off of the great hall. You can't tell from this picture, but most of the books are actually fake. When the castle was privately owned, though, it was filled with the family's books.

I took this picture of the lady of the castle's sitting room because I think I could spend a significant amount of time here. Look at all that gorgeous light! There are comfy chairs to curl up in with a book or a craft project, a piano to play when the mood struck - and servants to clean it up when need be. Me likey :)

After touring all the main floors (there were three of them), we climbed an endless number of spiral stairs up into the highest tower to see the view from the little windows (that's M, taking a pic of the view). Every available surface of the tower was covered in the signatures of others who had made the climb, people from all over the world which was neat.

From the top of the castle we went all the way down to the bottom, through the secret tunnel that connects the main castle with some of the outbuildings. First stop...

...the potting shed. Apparently the grounds of the estate are spectacular, and after seeing this place I completely believe it! We'll have to go back in the summer to see the gardens. The next stop (and the final one)...

...the stables. The original family that owned the castle had quite the horse collection from the looks of things. What struck me was that it hasn't been inhabited in more than 50 years, but it still smelled like horse pee. Mmm. And, tucked away behind a locked door and down a shadowy hall, we beheld a rather creepy sight...

I bet you didn't know that Santa and his helpers hung out in the basement of the stables of Casa Loma during their off season, did you?

Creepy Santa workshop notwithstanding, I think my impression of our visit to Casa Loma was summed up rather nicely by another visitor:

Still here...

Hey folks! I am still alive and kicking, despite the lack of activity here :) Life, combined with illness, has redirected a lot of my blogging energies. As well as my housekeeping energies. We are currently experiencing a severe shortage in the grocery department, and a severe overabundance of laundry. Thankfully, our cleaning lady comes today, so the apartment will at least be clean when I get home.

We spent the weekend at a retreat for the elders of our church (I still find it wierd to think of myself as an 'elder' - it evokes images of old men in suits, which I most definitely am not!), which was a lot of fun and very uplifting. And cold. Very, very cold. Extremely cold! But we survived, and it turns out that extreme cold is an effective stimulus of interpersonal bonding - it was either bond or freeze...

I was very thankful to return to my grocery-less, laundry-laden, warm apartment :)

In Review...

Do you remember those socks that I started way back in July? I finished them this past weekend - yay! They're not perfect (I still haven't nailed the 'finish-off-the-toe' thing), but for a first attempt at sock-making, I'm immensely pleased with them :)

We actually did quite a bit over the weekend, come to think of it. Friday was spent with some friends from Calgary who were in town at a part of the city known as the Distillery District - one of my new favourite parts of Toronto. Check out this picture from their official website:

Very Dickensian, don't you think? Of course it was daytime when we were there, and there were no Christmas lights, but there was an Art Fair and my new favourite store - Soma Chocolate. Mmm...all you have to do is go in the store and breathe and you get your chocolate fix. They make it all right there (you can watch them do it) and it is soooo good!

I need to stop thinking about it, though, or I won't be able to avoid sweets this month. So far so good, by the way. As of Monday morning I haven't touched anything that might be classified as 'dessert' (which, for me, is a pretty extensive list). 27 more days to go...

Anyhoo, on Saturday we made one of our tri-annual trips to Wal-mart (that horribly addictive place) and came home with so much stuff (I console myself that none of it was useless - we actually did need all of it). I won't bore you with all the details, but I did spend September & October's yarn budget for an afghan that I'm excited about. Another awesome find:

That's the first of my Jaywalker socks with the Fleece Artist Seawool, which isn't what I got at Wal-mart. See the bag that it's sitting on? We've been needing a new set of sheets, and the ones we bought came wrapped in that bag rather than in plastic. I think it's rather cute - it's now my knitting tote for the subway. Hooray for reuseable packaging!

Sunday and Monday were spent visiting, relaxing, knitting (see above) and making a batch of lavendar soap, which I'll show you once it's out of the mold. All in all, the weekend was a perfect blend of activity and inactivity. Don't you just love long weekends?

Life's a Beach :)

TC joined a beach volleyball rec league for the summer, so off we went last night to The Beaches, where they had set up 85 volleyball nets - all of which were in use! I've never seen that many people playing volleyball at the same time before. It was a lot of fun, despite the 40 degree heat and wicked humidity (next time, we take lots of water - some people forgot to bring any so we had to share ours). They played 7 games and won them all, while I cheered from the sidelines and crocheted half of a summer scarf for my mum (I'll try to remember to post a pic once it's done).

Afterwards it was off for ice cream, sweet potato fries, wings and calamari (ugh!) at a local pub, then home for a shower (you should have seen our feet!) and an attempt at sleep.

Life is good :)

Saturday at the Zoo

What fun! Our friends L&M from Kingston came to visit us this weekend, and aside from shopping and just hanging out, all that they wanted to do was go visit the Toronto Zoo, to which neither TC nor I have ever been. I loved it! The day was perfect, a little overcast so it wasn't too warm, but warm enough that we didn't need sweaters. All of the animals (except for the cheetahs) were out and about, including...



...the Greater Kudu. Check out those horns! Sidenote: Is there a Lesser Kudu?



Hippos are such massive animals! And apparently they're quite deadly if you happen to enter their territory. We arrived as the keeper was giving a little schpeel, and I think he said there are about 300 people killed by hippos each year. Crazy!



Isn't he (or she?) beautiful? I've never seen a giraffe before, and I was really struck by them. They're so tall and graceful and gentle-looking.



They were feeding the elephants when we got there, which was neat. They're rather comical - their eyes are so small in relation to the rest of them, and yet their ears are huge (not to mention the obvious nose thing).



This beast of a thing (a Great Indian Rhino) looked like a cross between a rhino and an armadillo. It had what looked like hinged armor plates all over its body.



Is that not the picture of contentment? The lions were pretty sleepy when we saw them, so they just kind of laid there soaking up the sunshine.



This guy came up to the fence and posed for this picture - what a showboat! :)



The Great Indian Rhino's less armoured, though massive, cousin, the White Rhino. Apparently they're called White Rhino's not because they're white (as you can see), but because the native name for them, which translates roughly as "square-headed" sounds like the english word "white".



I think tigers are absolutely gorgeous. You can't tell from the picture, but he's (she's?) actually sitting on the top of a hill in the middle of the tiger enclosure, surveying his domain.



These fish are called Lake Malawi cichlids - all beautiful blues, yellows and silvers.



Does anybody else watch Meerkat Manor? If you do, you'll understand why the highlight of the zoo visit for me was seeing these little guys. They're smaller than I thought, being about the size of very small cat. But still very, very cute!



And of course we got to see some local wildlife too :)

Gaining Perspective

I think...no, that's not right...I know that I should stress out a lot less than I do. I mean, if I really stop and think about it, no matter how busy I get, I know that I have been just as busy in the past and pulled through. It's just that I sometimes lose perspective and need to be reminded that there are bigger things than me and my problems out there.

Last night that reminder came in the form of a Toronto Symphony Orchestra concert that we attended with our friend JD. As we sat there and listened to the music, I was completely swept up in it. There were points when I had to remind myself to breathe, especially during the third piece that they played: John Corigliano's Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra. It was such intense and moving music, so beautiful and haunting.

It was also great to reconnect with JD, who we went to university with and now works with a missions organization. She just returned from a trip to Bangladesh and had wonderful things to tell us about the work that is being done toward improving literacy among the women and children in that country, as well as the on-going translation of the Bible into their language. You can't help but realize how paltry your own problems (or at least my problems) are when you realize how much you have to be thankful for - the ability to read, the freedom to believe and worship as I choose, more food and clothing than I really need.

So what if I'm busy? :)

A Loverly Evening...

What fun! As TC's birthday gift to me, we went to see a production of My Fair Lady last night and had a wonderful time. I was a little bit worried before going, since the movie version is one of my all-time favourites and I didn't want to come away disappointed, but my fears were unfounded. I think the producers/director made a wise decision in that they didn't add the burden of trying to be different from the movie to the play. Instead, they kept most of the same elements and made them their own. The result was a beautiful, well choreographed, thoroughly enjoyable performance!

As a fan of the movie, I was especially excited to find out that the lady who was playing Mrs. Higgins, the professor's mother, was the same lady who did the singing voice for Audrey Hepburn in the movie version. Her name is Marni Nixon, and it turns out that she was also the singing voice for Deborah Kerr in The King and I, as well as for Natalie Wood in West Side Story.

I think one of the things that I enjoyed the most about the performance was the signing that was going on for the deaf and hearing impaired to one side of the stage. Two ladies signed the entire musical, which must have been exhausting for them - especially given the fact that My Fair Lady is largely about sound. How does one translate an accent and the intricacies of its social connotations into sign? I had no idea what they were saying, but it was beautiful to watch!

The reason that they had the signers was that the performance we attended was for the benefit of the Canadian Hearing Society, which was holding a silent auction to raise funds as well. Being the crafty, but good-hearted, people that we are, TC and I decided to put a bid in on an item early on, just to build it up so they'd get a good donation for it. We figured that at some point during the intermission, someone would out-bid us. Well, it turns out no one did. So we came home with a lovely basket of maple related products, including maple cookies, 2 bottles of maple apple caramel, a bottle of maple syrup with orange liqeur, a bottle of rum-infused maple syrup, a box of assorted teas and an espresso cup and saucer.

I'd have taken a picture, but TC left for BC this afternoon, and he took the camera with him once again. So we're going to have to go picture-free for the next few days :)

Wedding season has arrived!

Sorry for the lack of postings recently. We're currently in one of those busy phases, which will hopefully calm down a bit after all the couples in our home church finish getting married and all the activities we're part of finish up their 'end-of-year' festivities. So, mid-June-ish. I'm looking forward to the slower pace of summer, even though I'll be working throughout.

This weekend was spent at the first of three weddings this summer - a couple from our home church who met online. My favourite part about the wedding? The groom's face through the entire ceremony, and most of the reception, was covered with a great big beaming goofy grin :) The reception was held at the Old Mill Inn & Spa (more so the inn than the spa, of course), which is a huge and exquisitely beautiful spot, surrounded by gardens galore and located next to a meandering river, which on the day we were there was covered in flower petals from the trees that were blossoming everywhere - so pretty! Unfortunately, we forgot to take our camera, so there are no pictures...sorry!

I did remember to snap this shot before we left, though. I made a set of dishtowels and dishclothes for the wedding gift, which I wrapped in this gorgeous (and completely recycleable) paper that I got at Walmart (I'm weak, I know).

We didn't get home until rather late, and because I haven't been sleeping very well lately (stupid neck!), I slept in on Sunday and just lazed around for most of the day. About the only productive thing I did this weekend was fold the 2 loads of laundry that have been sitting around since Friday. And you know what? I'm okay with that :)

Night at the Opera

I was feeling pretty down yesterday, but TC had just the right pick-me-up in mind when I got home from work. Through his connections at Massey, he was able to get us tickets to the dress rehearsal for the Canadian Opera Company's production of Eugene Onegin. It was exactly what I needed! The music was lovely, and I loved the stage design. It's an opera by Tchaikovsky, and was sung in Russian with English surtitles showing above the stage.

For a full synopsis, check this out, but here's the short version:

"In a deeply emotional letter, the young Tatyana declares her love to the proud Onegin, who rejects her. After killing his friend Lensky in a duel, Onegin travels the world to try and escape his regret. When he meets Tatyana years later, he realizes he loves her, but it is too late. Tatyana is now married and even though she still loves Onegin, it is her turn to reject him."

Had this been written today, I'm sure Tatyana would have left her husband and gone with Onegin and been lauded for doing so. I appreciated the way she was held up as a heroine for doing what she knew to be right, even though it was difficult. Ultimately, her integrity was more important to her than satisfying her emotional desires.

(**NB: These pictures were taken on the night that we were there! I have borrowed them from the COC website, which you can find here.)

Mum's visit

My mom has been and gone, and we had a wonderful time. I'm so glad she was able to come - one of the things that I find hardest about living in Toronto is that my family is so far away. They can't really share in the things that are important in my life, except insofar as they listen to me talk about them, so it was really good to be able to show Mum my world...such as it is :)

This may sound funny, but one of my favourite things about having Mum visit was just spending time running errands with her. We made a trip to the Walmart to pick up the stuff that had been accumulating on my Walmart list, and I got to show her around my neighbourhood - my yarn store, our favourite restaurants, our dentist, the bank, the pharmacy - essentially the landscape of my life.

We also had a lot of fun just sitting around the apartment watching HGTV and the Food network, chatting and catching up on everything and nothing. On Sunday she came to church with us and met quite a few of our friends, putting faces to the names we've talked about.

On Friday we had Afternoon Tea at the Windsor Arms Hotel just south of Bloor Street. If the idea of having a grown-up tea party appeals to you (and you have some extra $$$), I highly recommend going. We had a marvelous time! The room we were seated in was just lovely, with 12' ceilings, ornate moldings and huge windows. The walls were a rich eggplant colour, and the furnishings were all either white or the same rich purple, with lavendar window treatments. We were seated at an elegant and cosy little table for two right next to the fireplace and underneath the crystal chandelier (sorry for the lack of pictures - TC took the camera with him to Washington).

Mum ordered the Darjeeling tea, while I opted for the Russian Caravan which tasted like tea that has been brewed over a campfire - strong, but good. We were each brought a different teapot (Mum's was a cute little pot covered in pink roses, while mine was a larger sturdy-looking affair with an Egyptianesque border around the top), and they kept the hot water coming throughout the 2-1/2 hours we were there.

Our server then brought out a 2-tiered china platter. On the top tier were three kinds of the cutest sandwiches - asparagus, citrus chicken and smoked salmon. Then on the bottom were 4 scones (2 lemon, 2 raisin) which were the most delicious scones I've ever had in my life! They came with Devon cream and blackberry currant jam - mmm! Next to the scones were an assortment of petit fours, all of which were very yummy. Then we were given a little ramekin full of fresh strawberries and Devon cream. By the time we finished eating all of this - and believe me, we did indeed finish - we were both just about ready to pop!

This did not stop us, however, from stopping at the Godiva store on Bloor Street on our way home and buying far too much unbelievably delectable chocolate :)

The only downside to all of this is that now that Mum has been in my little world, I really miss her and wish she could be part of it all the time - or at least more often... I'm trying to stay positive, though, and focus on being thankful she was able to come for as long as she could.

But will you do me a favour, loyal blog readers? If you live anywhere near your moms, will you give them a hug and tell them how much you appreciate their involvement in your life?

Thanks.

Oh the irony!

I have just discovered, or rather realized, the catch 22 of blogging. One is either doing all kinds of interesting things, but has no time to blog about them, or has all kinds of time to blog, but nothing to blog about! I currently find myself falling into the latter category, though there are some activities looming on the horizon. Mum and I are planning on having Afternoon Tea at the Windsor Arms while she's here - I'll be sure to let you know how that goes! And then there is our mystery trip coming up next weekend...

Sometimes I think the anticipation is just as much fun as the event itself :)

Apologies!

I've been, and continue to be, too busy to post much, but here are the last few days in a nutshell:

work
do French homework
sleep
work
do French homework
go to meeting
sleep
work
do French homework
go to meeting
sleep
work
do French homework
update budget
sleep

And the next few days:

work
do French homework
eat dinner with Adrienne Clarkson
sleep
go to meeting 1
go to meeting 2
sleep
go to church
do French homework
get groceries
cook something
sleep

I'll fill in some details sometime after March 8th, which is when all the craziness will end...I hope... Until then, please forgive the lack of effort put into my postings.

Spa Day

Well, I'm back from the spa and I had an amazing time! I got lost on the way there, but a nice lady with a beautiful black lab got me turned in the right direction and then proceeded to walk there with me, chatting the whole time, which was a fun way to get things started. My spa experience started with choosing the type of mud I wanted them to use - I picked the Oceanic Clay-Mud which smelled like lavendar and was supposed to be really moisturizing. Then I was given a tour of the facilities and given a locker, towels, a kimono and flip-flops. At this spa, before you begin any treatments you do the water circuit, which goes as follows:

1. Shower (using a delicious smelling mint-lime bodywash) to remove any impurities from your skin.
2. Spend 5-10 minutes in the warm salt-water pool in front of one of the massaging waterjets.
3. Spend 5-10 minutes in the 100% humidity eucalyptus-scented steam room.
4. Shower.
5. Take a plunge in the cold pool for a minute to stimulate circulation and regulate body temperature.
6. Spend 5-7 minutes in the infared heat sauna.
7. Shower.
8. Another plunge in the cold pool.
9. Steep in the hot green tea pool for 5 minutes.
10. Shower.
11. Last 1 minute cold plunge.
12. Sit in the warm salt pool for a few more minutes.

Once you've done all that, you sit on one of the lounge chairs next to the pools and sip water or tea or juice until someone comes to get you for your treatment. I didn't have time to get steps 11 & 12 in before they came to get me for the 1/2 hour massage, but that was alright. I was already feeling much more relaxed, but by the time Christiana finished I seriously had all I could do to keep myself awake! She took me back out to the lounge chairs, where I sat with my cup of 'Vitality Tea' and did my best impression of jello.

After about 10 minutes, Rachelle came to take me to my 'body bake and beyond' treatment. It was just like the description said - nirvana! I couldn't really see what was going on because she kept a warm cloth over my eyes almost the whole time, but there was a great deal of sloughing, slathering and rinsing taking place. I have never felt so pampered in all of my life.

Evergreen

I've wondered in the past about how I could possibly be making a positive impact on the world working for an company that is a rather significant cog in the machinery of capitalism, but some of those thoughts were laid to rest last night as I spent the evening with some colleagues preparing and serving a nutritious gourmet meal at Evergreen, a drop in centre for street kids in downtown Toronto. It turns out that my employer supplies the funds and the people for 5 of these dinners every year, and they're looking to expand that involvement by doing it monthly. That's not to say that I don't still have issues with my company and all that it stands for (ie. wealth management), but I at least feel better that they're doing something good with all of that wealth.

The Evergreen is a truly amazing place. They provide hearty, nutritious lunches and suppers 5 days a week, and warm, safe place for the kids to hang out during the day. They also offer the kids some amazing services, which you can check out on their website. It's a beautiful facility. And the kids desperately need as much compassionate help as we can give them. Some of their stories are absolutely heartbreaking, like the guy from NB who has been living on the streets since he came home from school when he was 14 and found a note on the table from his mother saying that she had taken his sisters and wouldn't be back. Can you imagine what that would do to your sense of self-worth? I find it hard to wrap my head around. I'm so glad that a place like Evergreen exists to show these kids that somebody cares about them.

The best laid plans...

Isn't it funny how things never go quite as planned? I had my weekend all mapped out, with a list of things I wanted to accomplish and people we were going to see. Saturday was going to be laundry and groceries, then going out with some friends that evening. Then Sunday we were going to head off to church and run some errands, and then come home to make a pot of soup, finish a unit of the French course I'm taking, and make a batch of vanilla soap.

Well Saturday went largely according to plan. All the laundry got washed, dried and folded, this week's groceries got tucked into their respective places, and we had a wonderful time going out for supper with our friends H & B. We went to a restaurant called "Hoodoo McFiggin's" - which, in retrospect, should have been our first indicator that things were going to go awry. Very early on Sunday morning, we began to seriously regret our choice of restaurant. Apparently the ribs that both TC and I had initially enjoyed had been the residence of a considerable bacteria colony, which our tummies were less than thrilled to host and proceeded to rather violently evict. So there was no going to church or running errands on Sunday! The plan changed to simply laying around the house and recovering - or so we thought.

Unbeknownst to us, TC's aunt had arrived in town for a conference and wanted to get together with us Sunday afternoon, which was the only time during her conference that we were all available. Off we went to another restaurant - this time a well-established chain restaurant of good repute - where we gingerly ate lunch with Aunt B, who is one of our favourite people. We visited with her for the rest of the afternoon, which was great, but by the time we got home around suppertime we were both so incredibly wiped that absolutely nothing else got done.

So much for those well-laid plans! On the plus side, I now understand the game of football, which was a complete mystery to me until yesterday. TC, Cousin P and I watched the Superbowl, cheering for whichever team happened to be losing at the time. With the exception of the Hoodoo aftermath, it was an enjoyable weekend ;o)