long post but very interesting and well-written so you'd better read it all.

I've had another series of busy weeks that don't translate into interesting posts.
I've been working regularly at my little flower shop and about once a week at poppie. and I'm in a show this weekend so rehearsals tend to occupy my evenings. it's an interesting piece in which the choreographer is collaborating with the poor tree typewriter band so while we're dancing there are typewriters typing and then at the end they read what they've been writing - sort of spoken word poetry-ish. it's neat. except that we haven't had much time to put the piece together and it feels a little less than ready to be performed. we tried a run in the theatre yesterday and it was slightly disastrous. but it will come together I'm sure... i hope...

top five other things worth mentioning:

1. THE GRAD:
Christie and I had our graduation ceremony from continuing education's apparel design I. It was primarily/almost entirely middle aged people graduating and all the speeches were talking about how brave we were for going back to school and balancing our careers and family and going for it, even though we're older. so that was nice... the best part of the grad was that i found a corsage in the fridge at work that was too old to sell (and in my opinion, too hideous to sell -ooh speaking of ugly corsages... I've another good story to tell in a second...) so i made Christie wear the ugly corsage the whole night to celebrate our graduation. it was huge and full or daisies and wax flower (current day baby's breath) and big organza bows. it was quite lovely on her skinny little wrist.

2. THE UGLY CORSAGE:
The other day I got a call from this lady who wanted to order a corsage for I guess her daughter's grad. And she wanted something unique so she decided she wanted 3 big orchids (we usually put 2 which is already too huge for my liking, so 3 is mammoth) and then she wanted a vine attached to it that could wrap all the way up her arm... plus a big chocolate brown bow at the base and two strands of chocolate brown ribbon at the top that could criss cross all the way up the arm like a ballet slipper. PLUS she wanted us to add rhinestones all throughout the corsage... and then when she came to pick it up she decided it wasn't big enough and added a fourth orchid and more rhinestones. it was rather challenging to respond to this lady and keep my voice at a friendly and helpful tone. hopefully the poor grad wasn't too surprised by this not-so-subtle addition to her outfit...

3. I HAVE CONQUERED MY FEAR OF BICYCLES:
I have been riding my bike to work recently. for those of you who know me I have a not-entirely-secret fear of bicycles, which is funny considering my boyfriend is on a bike more often that he isn't these days. I like riding the tandem bike because I don't have to steer (or pedal if I don't want to) because I tend to run into things like trees and curbs. But I have conquered and it turns out it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was. I think I had a couple of bad experiences lined up and it turned into a bit of a complex. As it turns out, trees aren't that hard to avoid after all...

4. MONDAY MALL MARATHON MADNESS AND MIDNIGHT MEETING
On Monday Christie and I went out for breakfast and then went to the mall for the first time in ages. (we tend to not be mall shoppers) But we had a lot of fun and got a lot of cheap things. The mall is a bit of a strange culture. There are many hilarious people there that make me glad I'm not a teenager anymore. After the mall had tired us out I had a rehearsal but then I picked up Christie again and we eventually ended up at the airport to meet Lindsey's flight. We had this whole plan figured out where we would give Lindsey's parents a card that told her to follow balloons and then we attached a trail of balloons around the airport that lead her up the stairs to one of the last black and white photo booths that remains in the city. and one of us would be holding the last balloon sticking out of the booth. but we didn't want to sit there forever with our arm out at a 90 degree angle so I was trying to spy over the balcony so I could see when she was coming but there were a bunch of things blocking my view. And Christie was taking pictures of the balloons when she noticed a girl coming up the stairs and kind of running. She thought that she was just trying to get out of the picture but then she realized it was Lindsey and screamed NOOOOO and Christie and I jumped up and sprinted down the hallway and launched ourselves into the photo booth and jabbed out the balloon. So it didn't end up being very smooth in the end but it was still a fun memory. And we got good reunion photos...

5. AND IN RECENT NEWS....
I was at work yesterday cutting rose stems when my dad called and said that there was a message saying to call Faye at the studio and it was urgent. Faye is the co-director of my program so after I finished my roses I called her and she told me I had been offered a professional job working on a duet with a choreographer named Christina Medina. It takes place from mid October until mid November... in Austria. My airfare and accommodation is taken care of plus I get a fairly reasonable honorarium and I get to go to Austria for a month and perform in a show there. So that was overwhelming and exciting news. I had from yesterday afternoon until this morning to make my decision, but really, how do you say no to an experience like that? Made me feel a little crazy afterwards though. Rosie was worried I was going to break all the Gerber stems because I was a little spaced out and they break easily when you put those little tubes on them... But I didn't break any because I'm a good little florist.

didn't nail it...

You Are Likely an Only Child

At your darkest moments, you feel frustrated. At work and school, you do best when you're organizing. When you love someone, you tend to worry about them. In friendship, you are emotional and sympathetic. Your ideal careers are: radio announcer, finance, teaching, ministry, and management. You will leave your mark on the world with organizational leadership, maybe as the author of self-help books.

The Birth Order Predictor

nailed it for lindsey, but i don't feel i relate to any of these things, really. maybe a little bit... i think it was the question about the woods that lost me.

description of a haircut

I got my hair cut yesterday. As I don't have a camera, I cannot show you what it looks like. So this post probably isn't all that interesting... But I'll tell you some history about my haircut because I'm sure you're interested and, frankly, I have nothing better to do right now... So here is is: I was in a big dilemma for quite some time about how to cut it. For a long time I was determined it was time to chop it all off. It hasn't been cut since October and it was looking bad. But my hairdresser moved to India so I kept putting it off because I didn't know who to go to. And then the salon called me to say that my hairdresser was coming back and wanted to know if I wanted to make an appointment. And so I did. But right before my haircut, my hair started looking good again so I had second thoughts. But they got cut off anyways. It's not as short as I had thought about doing it, because as it turns out, my hairdresser is back for good (I thought she was just visiting) so now I have the option of going back to her if I want a bigger change. But I did lose a lot of hair. It doesn't look super different except for my pony tail. it's a wee little tail. just a spriglet, really.

a rather boring post summarizing a rather busy week

So... what can I tell you about this week? For my first week off, I've managed to keep myself rather occupied. I won't bother giving you all the details, as they are rather boring when listed off. it mostly involved rehearsals and trying to get my room into a liveable state again. It's been an embarassingly long time since it was last cleaned. Thursday my sister and I had a nice date involving yummy turkey wraps and buying cheap clothes. Friday night was the last senior high youth event of the year. It was pretty fun. It was called the Hot El'eventé which obviously means we stayed in a hotel for the night. We got there and hung out for a while and then went accross the street to value village for a fashion competition including a walk off in the breakfast room and then we played in the pool (which was surprisingly small) and went on the waterslide (i have a lot of bruises from that) and after the pool we went to the drive-in movie theatre and saw ocean's thirteen which didn't end until about 3:30 and we went to a salsbury house after for latenight breakfast. So we didn't get back to the hotel until closer to 5. the sun was already coming up. It made me a little stressed because I had to work at 10. But it was a fun evening the kids had a great time. and then I worked from 10-5 and had a reahearsal from 6-10. so that sucked after having 3 1/2 hours of sleep. that's not how i normally function. but today i got to sleep in. i slept like a rock for over 12 hours. it was lovely. And that's about all I have to tell you. except for this: I am in two shows this summer and I have two weddings to go to. Is it odd that they both are at exactly the same time? especially because one of the weddings is on a thursday (and I think it's going to be a super weird wedding so I'm disappointed I have to miss it). that's definately all i have to say for now.

birthday photographs

So, as you know it was Kyle's birthday this weekend. And as I think you know, his aunts and uncles happened to be in town so we had a birthday feast. Here are some pictures of it:

This is the birthday boy with his cake. (and me in my new favourite hoodie. i know it doesn't look like much, but it's soft.) Kyle likes to make unhappy faces in pictures because he thinks when he smiles it makes him look bulbous and chubby...


Something about Kyle's hair in this picture makes him look less like Kyle... In any case, Kyle's sister Tara sent him a soccer jersey all the way from Argentina. She's going to have a baby soon. An Argentinian Gaucho Boy...


This is him... and her... this picture looks different from the others because it wasn't taken at the feast. Because they weren't there. Because they're in Argentina having babies.


I have no explanation for this one... actually I do: Kyle and I were seriously tired. We can't keep up with the old folks anymore... they're wild.

Group photo minus Kyle's dad. From left to right we have Terry (Randy's brother) and his wife Jan (Darlene's sister) - they're from BC - and then Darlene and then Kyle and I ( I was being sneaky because Randy was concerned with fitting us all in the picture and I wanted to see if he noticed that he couldn't see me even though I was in the centre... he didn't... ) and then from Regina we have Lorraine (another of Darlene's sisters) and her husband Elwood (he likes ropes but hates snooze buttons).


And this final picture is of all of us after they came to see me dance. I was incredibly sweaty but they hugged me anyways because they liked the show...

a lovely disaster of a birthday

Last night Kyle and I went on a Birthday Date. It was a bit of a hectic day for me because I had a lot of shopping and things to do in preparation but I had no car so I was running around and getting shin splints most of the day trying to find the perfect presents. I ended up getting a car for about an hour and was able to get everything ready after all. And then I had a rehearsal from 4:30 - 6:00 and Kyle had a job interview at 5:45 just accross the street so we arranged to meet when we were both finished.

So we did. And as we walked to my car we noticed it had been mispaced. So then I had to make a whole bunch of phone calls to try and find it while we stood outside. A good thing about us standing outside figuring stuff out is that one of the guys who interviewed Kyle came out and asked him if he could start tomorrow (today). So Kyle is now a Bicycle Courier which is exciting and pretty much perfect for him as long as he doesn't get hit by anymore cars. So then Kyle and I went on a romatic birthday stroll to Higgens and Main to find my car in the Dr. Hook lot. There seems to be no reason why they towed it. Unless my meter broke after I parked there because I did pay for enough parking and they towed me half an hour after I got there when I paid for 2 hours... Oh well.

So when Kyle and I got home we decided to go to the Dandelion Eatery for dinner and we walked over there to find it closed. So we decided to go to Mise and it also was closed. So we ended up at Fude wich was delicious in the end and they gave us free dessert because it was Kyle's birthday. So the disasters ended there and we had a lovely evening and he loved his presents. And fortunately Kyle doesn't mind disasters. He says they just make things more memorable.

finally....

It's already been a week since my last post. This week has been hectic and full and it's finally over. Kyle and I both finished our craziness within 16 hours of eachother. Friday at 4:30 we had a showing of the piece we've been working on with Bill Evans from New Mexico. It was kind of fun, actually. We were all exhausted and didn't want to do it but we had our showing in the theatre upstairs with lights and we showed our piece and the level 1s and 2s showed their piece and Bill Evans (who I believe is in his 70s) tap danced between each piece. He was amazing. Kyle and his parents came with his aunts and uncles from out of town. It was nice to have them there. And then Saturday Kyle had his last exam of all time at 9:00 in the morning and it was his birthday yesterday too. So after his exam him and I went out for brunch at the Falafel Place and wandered the city together looking at antiques and loctite (which was particularily exciting... kyle needed it for building wheels for his bike. I bought an antique locket and a big cameo ring). It was a nice relaxing afternoon. And then we went to his parent's house for a birthday feast.

I slept in this morning and it was wonderful. I have a 4 hour rehersal this afternoon, though and I'm not super excited about that. But at least it has nothing to do with school so it'll be okay.

Other highlights of the past week include our grad dinner. One of the co-directors of our program hosts it and cooks for days before the meal. It was amazing. We had about 6 courses and all of it was fantastic Italian food. It was a nice evening. I'm going to miss all my fellow 4th years next year. We managed to bond in a special way over the past 4 years and it's sad to see us all disperse. Only 4 out of 10 of us are staying in town. Actually that's a lie. 2 more will be in town next year, but right now they're in Africa and Israel. I'm sure we'll all see eachother but it's still sad to say goodbye after spending virtually every day together for 4 years.

Other than the grad dinner my week didn't really have any highlights... It was stressful and busy and exhausting and sweaty. And I had a grant proposal due on Friday which didn't help matters at all. But I'm done! It's all done! woot!