Sunday, July 23, 2006
My Birthday Gift
Here is a picture of the beautiful bracelet my daughter gave me for my birthday. It's very sparkly and pretty! I just love it.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Blues, Blues and more Blues
I have been away for a mini vacation to the Nation’s Capital, Ottawa, again. This time it was to go to the Ottawa Bluesfest for the first time.
I was browsing the internet in May to look for information on my new favourite musician, James Hunter and was lead down the cyber path to pulling out my credit card and purchasing two tickets to see Etta James in Ottawa last week.
I had heard about the Bluesfest before, now in its 13th year but had never made the decision to attend. When I purchased the tickets, I had no idea who I would take but I decided to ask my daughter if she would like to go. We had not been away together in years and I know that she enjoys Etta James so it seemed like the obvious choice.
Etta James has been a favourite artist of mine for a long time and I did not want to go to her concert with anyone that did not appreciate her music. My daughter was very excited about our trip and arranged for the time off work.
We stayed at the Ottawa Marriott, which is a lovely hotel, but it was a little too far away from the venue, which is held at Confederation Park. The best hotel, location wise, would have been the Lord Elgin, which was right across the street. I will know better next year.
The concert was fabulous. I was impressed with how appreciative the crowd was and there was quite a crowd. Melissa and I had VIP seats, three rows from the stage. We could see the sweat dropping off Etta’s face.
I am still in awe that I have finally been to see my idol. It still seems like a dream. One thing that was a big shock to me was how much weight she has lost. Etta James has always been a big woman but she was just a little tiny thing on the stage. Her voice is as big and full as it ever was and she blew us all away with the strength.
At the end of the show, while she sang her encore, tears started to roll down her cheek, she stopped singing, walked to the edge of the stage, stood for a few moments listening to the catcalls, and applause then turned suddenly and walked off the stage.
I do not think I will ever see her perform again. It seems to me that the weight loss is due to health issues and I hope I am wrong, but something tells me that I am not.
Other things that we did while in Ottawa were:
dined with my friend,
caught Dickie Betts performance the first night we were there,
shopped around the market in the sweltering temperatures,
my daughter tried on every pair of sandals in the Rideau Centre only to decide to wait until she was in Toronto again,
drove the wrong way on two one-way streets almost running head on into a UPS van and then had to do a big U-turn in the middle of the intersection and run a red light to get out of it,
my daughter had her picture taken with Jully Black after we watched her performance,
got lost on our way to lunch at a restaurant that I have been to several times before,
slept in both days,
sang along to great music during the 4+ hour drive there and home.
Etta James Ottawa Bluesfest 2006 "At Last"
Etta James Ottawa Bluesfest 2006 "I want to Ta Ta Ya Baby"
I was browsing the internet in May to look for information on my new favourite musician, James Hunter and was lead down the cyber path to pulling out my credit card and purchasing two tickets to see Etta James in Ottawa last week.
I had heard about the Bluesfest before, now in its 13th year but had never made the decision to attend. When I purchased the tickets, I had no idea who I would take but I decided to ask my daughter if she would like to go. We had not been away together in years and I know that she enjoys Etta James so it seemed like the obvious choice.
Etta James has been a favourite artist of mine for a long time and I did not want to go to her concert with anyone that did not appreciate her music. My daughter was very excited about our trip and arranged for the time off work.
We stayed at the Ottawa Marriott, which is a lovely hotel, but it was a little too far away from the venue, which is held at Confederation Park. The best hotel, location wise, would have been the Lord Elgin, which was right across the street. I will know better next year.
The concert was fabulous. I was impressed with how appreciative the crowd was and there was quite a crowd. Melissa and I had VIP seats, three rows from the stage. We could see the sweat dropping off Etta’s face.
I am still in awe that I have finally been to see my idol. It still seems like a dream. One thing that was a big shock to me was how much weight she has lost. Etta James has always been a big woman but she was just a little tiny thing on the stage. Her voice is as big and full as it ever was and she blew us all away with the strength.
At the end of the show, while she sang her encore, tears started to roll down her cheek, she stopped singing, walked to the edge of the stage, stood for a few moments listening to the catcalls, and applause then turned suddenly and walked off the stage.
I do not think I will ever see her perform again. It seems to me that the weight loss is due to health issues and I hope I am wrong, but something tells me that I am not.
Other things that we did while in Ottawa were:
dined with my friend,
caught Dickie Betts performance the first night we were there,
shopped around the market in the sweltering temperatures,
my daughter tried on every pair of sandals in the Rideau Centre only to decide to wait until she was in Toronto again,
drove the wrong way on two one-way streets almost running head on into a UPS van and then had to do a big U-turn in the middle of the intersection and run a red light to get out of it,
my daughter had her picture taken with Jully Black after we watched her performance,
got lost on our way to lunch at a restaurant that I have been to several times before,
slept in both days,
sang along to great music during the 4+ hour drive there and home.
Etta James Ottawa Bluesfest 2006 "At Last"
Etta James Ottawa Bluesfest 2006 "I want to Ta Ta Ya Baby"
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Asshole
Fit people can be dinks. No, they can be assholes. I wonder if I will turn into one when I lose the extra invisible person that I carry around with me each day.
This morning while I was out enjoying my Saturday morning walk I came upon a couple of men and a woman on bicycles heading in the opposite direction. The guy in the lead was complaining about a “fat woman with her two year old and stroller” who had impeded his progress one day because they didn’t jump out of his way. They were right in the middle of the wide trail. I caught a fragment of the woman empathizing with him before their conversation was lost in the wind “…and you were on your bike!”
It’s no wonder that people who are overweight refrain from joining fitness clubs or going out to popular walking/biking trails. Children are not the only ones who can be cruel. People at my age, can be so intolerable and insensitive to others, that it makes me sick.
You really have to have a thick skin and be very selfish in your desire to become healthy so that people like that do not make you want to hide yourself away in your home.
I guess he didn’t notice the big sign that instructs “slow walkers” to walk in the middle of the multi-use trail so that people who are flying through on their silent bikes will be able to go around them. Asshole!
This morning while I was out enjoying my Saturday morning walk I came upon a couple of men and a woman on bicycles heading in the opposite direction. The guy in the lead was complaining about a “fat woman with her two year old and stroller” who had impeded his progress one day because they didn’t jump out of his way. They were right in the middle of the wide trail. I caught a fragment of the woman empathizing with him before their conversation was lost in the wind “…and you were on your bike!”
It’s no wonder that people who are overweight refrain from joining fitness clubs or going out to popular walking/biking trails. Children are not the only ones who can be cruel. People at my age, can be so intolerable and insensitive to others, that it makes me sick.
You really have to have a thick skin and be very selfish in your desire to become healthy so that people like that do not make you want to hide yourself away in your home.
I guess he didn’t notice the big sign that instructs “slow walkers” to walk in the middle of the multi-use trail so that people who are flying through on their silent bikes will be able to go around them. Asshole!
Monday, July 03, 2006
Dreams of Fear, Flying and Work
Have you ever recalled a previous dream in a dream? With your previous dream perceived as reality in your current one. I know this is a little convoluted and possibly hard to understand what I am talking about so I will explain with an example of what I dreamt last night.
I have been dreaming of work non-stop lately. Possibly, from the overwhelming feelings that I have been experiencing lately, I am not sure but that is my best guess.
In my dream, we were refitting our offices with brand new desks, baffles, carpeting; the whole office transformed from dingy to an appealing space with lots of natural wood pieces (baffles included) and windows. The dividing walls of the cubicles had large glass panels to allow light to flow through the office. The wood finish was in a medium pine, not too blonde and not dark. It was a rich, warm tone.
During my dream, my boss (never seen before in real life) called a meeting in his small office. Rather than sitting behind the desk the boss had pulled a chair into the centre of the room and all the staff members had pulled chairs all around him reminding me of a schoolteacher with his students gathered near his feet. I didn’t see any room for a full size chair so I went into an adjacent waiting area and picked up a small wooden stool and found a spot amongst the rest of the staff members to sit and listen to my boss make his announcements or deliver whatever information was about to be shared.
He started to enquire about something that I was responsible for but had not finished which made me feel dreadfully embarrassed and panicky. In the end, it wasn’t as bad as I thought because inadvertently I had done whatever it was that was expected; I just hadn’t done it in the same way as it had previously been done and I had forgotten to copy certain individuals. So that was a relief.
During the meeting, I was staring out the window and I noticed a man in a business suit, briefcase in hand, floating from the sky, into the office building next door from the sky.
I joked asking my boss when we would be purchasing those individual jet packs for our daily commute to work. Everyone shouted how they would never use one because of fear of flying or heights. I then recounted how I had previously commuted to work via balloon (previous dream).
I recalled how I would hang onto this huge balloon and with the assistance of different strings would navigate myself to wherever I was going but the gale force winds one day did in fact take me miles and miles out of my way and made me nervous when I saw that I was headed toward large open waters. I was subsequently rescued by an airplane and brought safely home.
After waking up I realized that I had incorporated a previous dream (going to work by hand balloon) into a brand new dream.
I wonder what it is that the flying to work is signifying.
I have been dreaming of work non-stop lately. Possibly, from the overwhelming feelings that I have been experiencing lately, I am not sure but that is my best guess.
In my dream, we were refitting our offices with brand new desks, baffles, carpeting; the whole office transformed from dingy to an appealing space with lots of natural wood pieces (baffles included) and windows. The dividing walls of the cubicles had large glass panels to allow light to flow through the office. The wood finish was in a medium pine, not too blonde and not dark. It was a rich, warm tone.
During my dream, my boss (never seen before in real life) called a meeting in his small office. Rather than sitting behind the desk the boss had pulled a chair into the centre of the room and all the staff members had pulled chairs all around him reminding me of a schoolteacher with his students gathered near his feet. I didn’t see any room for a full size chair so I went into an adjacent waiting area and picked up a small wooden stool and found a spot amongst the rest of the staff members to sit and listen to my boss make his announcements or deliver whatever information was about to be shared.
He started to enquire about something that I was responsible for but had not finished which made me feel dreadfully embarrassed and panicky. In the end, it wasn’t as bad as I thought because inadvertently I had done whatever it was that was expected; I just hadn’t done it in the same way as it had previously been done and I had forgotten to copy certain individuals. So that was a relief.
During the meeting, I was staring out the window and I noticed a man in a business suit, briefcase in hand, floating from the sky, into the office building next door from the sky.
I joked asking my boss when we would be purchasing those individual jet packs for our daily commute to work. Everyone shouted how they would never use one because of fear of flying or heights. I then recounted how I had previously commuted to work via balloon (previous dream).
I recalled how I would hang onto this huge balloon and with the assistance of different strings would navigate myself to wherever I was going but the gale force winds one day did in fact take me miles and miles out of my way and made me nervous when I saw that I was headed toward large open waters. I was subsequently rescued by an airplane and brought safely home.
After waking up I realized that I had incorporated a previous dream (going to work by hand balloon) into a brand new dream.
I wonder what it is that the flying to work is signifying.
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