Princely Luck in the City

Someone get me down on the floor
What's the point of living in the city?
(Clap Clap by The Waking Eyes)

I had quite a bit of luck this morning, well in some ways.

I planned to go to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair where Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall would be officially opening the fair.

I almost didn't go. I woke up late. I had kids to get off to school and a dog to take care of. But then, the song Clap Clap came into my head...

"what's the point of living in the city?"

One of the advantages of living in the city is that I am potentially close to events that I would not otherwise be able to enjoy. So with Prince Charles visiting Toronto, I thought, why not go and experience royalty first hand? It doesn't happen every day, every year or every decade.

Traffic was horrendous though as I weaved my way southwest from home to get to Ricoh Coliseum trying to avoid the rush of cars heading downtown and the construction that seems to be everywhere.

So, traffic wise, I was not very lucky (it took at least double the normal time to get there)...but I managed to get into the stadium at least half an hour before their arrival.

The couple arrived to my surprise in a horse-drawn carriage that went around the arena a couple of times.




There was a short presentation on the stage and then Prince Charles declared the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair "officially open":




Then they left the arena and were walking towards the exhibition hall. The crowd was quite large at this point. I managed to capture this photo and was quite satisfied.



I thought about leaving, but then figured that since I was there, I may as well go around and see the exhibitions to determine if I would return with my daughter.

Half an hour later, I am now heading towards the exit when I came upon the Duchess of Cornwall's entourage. I first capture this photo:



then move to the next aisle where it looks like she is heading. She stopped at a booth that was selling and sampling jams. She tasted some and asked the exhibitor some questions about them. She then walked towards where I was lined up and she stopped and shook my hand.

The diamond maple leaf-shaped broach that she is wearing was borrowed from the Royal Collection. In 1939, it was given to the Duchess of York (Queen Mother) by the people of Canada in 1939.

At this point, the morning has exceeded my expectations. As I start walking towards the exit again, I notice an obsessive monarchy fan asking multiple questions to a photographer about where the Prince was. He had a schedule of Prince Charles' walkabout, so I find out where he was at that precise moment. I thought that perhaps the crowd would be smaller now, so head that way....the crowd is not smaller, but I happen to be at the right place at the right time as Prince Charles walks by.



So as I leave thinking about the great luck I had of being at the right place at the right time, twice...and figure I would leave before the Prince (and the crowd), I have to laugh as I walk around the parking lot trying to remember where I left the car. I don't believe I have ever forgotten where I parked the car before. I tried to lock the car (to get the beep of the alarm)...to no avail. Five minutes later, I find the car and leave the parking lot, but that 5 minutes was enough to get stopped on Lakeshore as they close it, awaiting for the royal motorcade to go by. I turned off my car knowing it would still be 5 or 10 minutes (from the photographer's schedule) and relaxed enjoying my music and knowing that I would take the luck of seeing the royal couple versus the luck of traffic. The drive home would take longer than the drive down...but it was all worth the effort.

I love living in the city!

Partial Dream Come True

They say that when we write our dreams down, we should be specific. In case you have missed my recent posts about my dreams, go back a few posts to fill in the gaps.

After one friend called to share his viewing of the Olympic Torch going by in Victoria, another friend of mine got to carry the Olympic Torch in the Olympic Relay.

What a wonderful surprise I got while I was preparing dinner last night to have that friend (who had just flew home that day) show up at my door with a long box containing THE Olympic Torch....ok, HIS Olympic Torch (since there are over 12000 of them)....but an Olympic Torch that has been lit with THE Olympic Flame!

To make things even better, he leaves the Olympic Torch with me to enjoy for 24 hours.

Seriously???? He's going to leave it with me?



A friend of mine described this photo of me with the words..."it looks like you're a kid in a candy store". Imagine if I actually got to run in the relay...what would that photo look like? LOL

So last night, I called my family and some friends to share my happiness. More than one person said, isn't your dream to carry an Olympic Torch? This could be your dream come true.

I did think that this could be as close as I get to my dream this year. I will watch the Torch Relay run past down the road from where I live. I will go downtown to see the Torch Relay Celebration...but I am now actually TOUCHING and HOLDING an Olympic Torch. I probably won't get to hold a lit one so this could be as good as it gets.

I may not get to Vancouver to be AT the Olympic Games.

So last night, we had dinner with the Olympic Torch on the table. I toasted with the favourite Canadian wine I had (Weir Wine Pinot Noir) and felt very blessed to have a friend who shared his experience with me.

I think it's very beautiful. It's long and curvy with the Vancouver 2010 inukshuk logo. It is heavy when you first pick it up, but for its size I didn't find it too heavy. I could easily run the 300m distance with it. The inspiration for its shape was:

"Canada’s open land, vast potential and smooth, fluid lines left in the snow and ice from winter sports"

This is what it looks like when it's lit:



You can see the evidence left behind from the lit flame on this photo.



On the one side, it has a bilingual inscription of
"With Glowing Hearts"
"Des Plus Brilliants Exploits"



On the other side there is a beautiful (because we know how much I love...) a maple leaf.



The stainless line on both sides are supposed to represent the blade of a skate.

I did look to see what I wrote as my dream in my book (whether it was to carry the torch or not). It says to...

"attend the Olympic Games" and then thinking that travelling across the country (or to another country) being a little unrealistic amended it to...

"be a torchbearer for the 2010 Olympics".

So, to those saying that I have realized my dream...just carrying an Olympic torch is not my dream...it is to BE a torchbearer for the 2010 Olympics. I was specific ;-)

It does not look like this dream will happen. I may be a torchbearer for a later Olympics. Who knows? And to be quite frank, I am a dreamer enough to still believe that somehow perhaps something could happen to make me a torchbearer. The Relay hasn't reached my province yet. But I am realistic enough to fully appreciate the experience I had last night...and today as I sit to write this with the Olympic Torch in sight.

I will chalk this up to a partial dream, and learn from the experience if the full dream doesn't happen.

They're Just Walls

It doesn't matter what's in front of you
It's smaller than it seems
So don't you stop
Until they fall
They're just walls
(Walls by Ross Copperman)

A few weeks ago, I read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. If you think back a year or two, you may remember the professor who had terminal cancer and gave a "last lecture" - Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.

My mother was reading it over Thanksgiving weekend and I got it the following week to read.
The timing of me reading this book was perfect since the possibility of me achieving one of my childhood dreams is just around the corner.

You will know that in the last month, I have been thinking about my Olympic dream and trying to find out how to make it happen.

My favourite quote from The Last Lecture is:

Brick walls are there for a reason:
they let us prove how badly we want things.

I have been talking about brick walls a lot in the past few weeks. I have been thinking about all the brick walls I have come across with relation to my Olympic Dream in particular (and my other dreams).

Yesterday, one of my favourite singers posted a song on his My Space page. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard it. You can listen to it at www.myspace.com/rosscopperman

Here are the lyrics (as I hear them):

Maybe it's the way they look at you
Their eyes telling you
That everything you do
Is never going to be good enough
They'll try to crush
The love you have inside
When you're just about to fly

So don't give up
Find your way around
Yeah don't give in
Til they all come crashing down
It doesn't matter what's in front of you
It's smaller than it seems
So don't you stop
Until they fall
They're just walls

I'm my own worse enemy
Sometimes I can't see
The forest through the trees
I get lost
I get paralyed
Then I realize
That I can see a light
Breaking through the other side

So don't give up
Find your way around
Yeah don't give in
Til they all coming crashing down
It doesn't matter what's in front of you
It's smaller than it seems
So don't you stop
Until they fall
They're just walls

When I told my husband (who has a blog about coincidences) he said (and this is my favourite quote for today):

"That's not a coincidence, that's the definition of synchronicity".

So, my dream to attend the Olympic Games may still not come true. I'm not saying that just because I read a book or sing a song that I will be able to surmount the walls I keep coming up against, but it is giving me motivation to try to scale them, go around them or knock them down.

If my dream doesn't come true, I will remember another great quote by Randy Pausch:

Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

2010 Olympic Relay

The Olympic Torch Relay began today. Is Canada excited?

I got invited (along with million others) to join the world's "longest wave". Petro Canada is broadcasting people on webcam doing the wave. You can view it here. But seriously...I want to be there!! Not doing the wave in my living room. Is that too much to ask?

I think I was excited in 1988 when Calgary hosted. From where I am presently sitting, I can see my "Share The Flame" book from the '88 Torch Relay.

So, we have another Torch Relay in this country...and it makes me want to cry rather than cheer.

At the moment, I can't imagine wanting to buy a book about the 2010 Torch Relay if I'm not part of it. I can barely watch the news about it. I feel that I should be excited about the torch arriving in my home country...about us hosting the Games. I was so excited when it was first announced (at the time I thought I would be there)...but now it makes me want to cry...thinking that I won't be a part of it.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not bitter enough to not want to go to the Toronto celebrations when the Torch arrives (it's been on my calendar all year - although it's been in my calendar with the assumption that I would be carrying the torch...but it's still in my calendar now that I know I won't).

The relay is described as reaching most Canadians...going within an hour or of 90% of Canadians. At the moment, I want to find a friend who will be carrying the Flame and go cheer him/her on wherever they are rather than watch a stranger carry the flame on Yonge Street at the end of my street!! I'm also planning on being downtown for the celebrations.

I have been on the mailing list for the games for a couple of years. I looked into getting tickets when they first went on sale, then chickened out when I realized how much it would cost for a family of 4 to go to Vancouver for the Games.

I mentioned on an earlier post about the dreams I listed in 1996. One was to attend the Olympic Games.

In 2008, I amended that dream to running in the Torch Relay (instead of attending). I figured this was a more realistic goal. At the time, it never occurred to me that I wouldn't be chosen. I figured that for my dream to be to go to the Olympics...running in the relay would be so much easier...no travelling involved...and really, being involved with the Olympics is my destiny, right?

Apparently not!

I am still trying to make this dream a reality...but it's not easy.

The relay was depressing me...except that two of my favourite Olympians got to carry the torch today...Simon Whitfield and Alexandre Despatie...that brought a smile to my face.


and really, if Simon Whitfield and Catriona Lemay Doan don't get the torch to themselves (and Alexandre Despatie and Silken Laumen get to share, what chance do I have?)

This post is changing to a chronological event...

7:52pm I start writing this blog
8:30pm my husband comes upstairs to ask me a question...but changes it to "have you been crying?"
I let him read the beginning of my blog...he starts to understand my mindset and is hugging me when the phone rings.

8:35pm our friend calls. I think he's calling because of my question I asked him about accommodation in Vancouver during the Olympic Games (he said he would call me rather than email)...

When I get on the phone with him, I realize that he is calling because the Olympic Torch is about to reach where he is and he wants to share it with us.

I put him on speaker...we call the kids up and we all hear he, his family and friends cheering as they watch the Olympic Torch go by in Victoria.

Tears of joy this time!! So happy to see a wonderful friend experience the magic of the Olympic Flame!! I look forward to having my turn in a couple of months...even if I won't get to touch it.

Perfect timing?

Living my Dreams

Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me
(Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall)

Four months ago, I attended a presentation by Brenda Jasmin of Mothers on Fire. You can read what I wrote about it here.

This morning Brenda returned to my mother's group for another presentation. I had meant to write about this morning's presentation, but reading that last post has sidetracked me. I will write about this morning on another post soon.

Reading that last post I wrote about Mothers on Fire, I don't know whether to laugh or cry...or both.

I was so hopeful...even when I chipped my tooth while writing it....but I had our new puppy for 3 days at that point...I didn't know what was to come.

If I was to look back over the last four months, I have had so many wonderful experiences (I should go back and look at my calendar and photos to be reminded)...but they have been mixed with some lows. The lows may not be many...and in the big picture of life are minor lows...but I have been letting them get to me.

I have recently started to come out of it...and am kind of annoyed at myself for not having handled the situation better...but live and learn.

Last week, I was going through my notebook where I had listed some dreams I wrote in early January of 1996. My dreams were:

1. Two children by the end of year 2000 (born end of 1996 and 1999)
2. Own a house with yard (bought it in 1997)
3. Own grand piano (with my house...not going to happen and perhaps not that important)
   
4. Have comfortable sitting area by bay window (I used to have this...but it became our son's bedroom...hmmm)
5. Get big dog and dog house
6. Write a song I like (Jan 29, 1996 - the first dream I realized)

etc. (there were 56 dreams)

Wait a minute...let's go back to #5. Did I really write get a big dog? Am I in the process of realizing a dream and didn't realize it?

(The dog house was for my mother's sake so I had somewhere to put the dog when she visited...turns out that a dog house is not realistic because there's no way I would want my dog outside with the racoons (I grew up in a small town with dogs living a couple of doors down in a huge fenced in area and huge dog house)...so a dog sitter will have to do in the city).

So that was last week. I think this was a turning point for me. No I'm not past the hardships of adjusting to a puppy in my life. I will still have down times...but I am hoping to accept them better in the future.

I wrote in that Mothers on Fire blog post about the dream collage. At some point, I had read or been told to just collect images of things that spoke to you (made you happy, were beautiful to you, made you go aaahhh, etc.). I'm happy to have found those magazine clippings I mentioned I couldn't find. A few weeks ago, I looked for photos of dogs...was this part of my dreams (I hadn't looked at my dreams notebook at this point)? I didn't find any.

I just went through the folder again to see what kind of clippings I did have. There are probably over 100 images including:

• couples
• 
• tidy houses ;-) and beautiful closets
• beautiful scenery (of all seasons)
• travel scenes
  
• a woman reading in bed (book club anyone?)
  
• baking with a daughter
• a mother taking a photo of her son's first steps with a D-SLR (it's an ad for the Nikon D40...with the tagline Your First Digital SLR for all of life's "Firsts") I would end up receiving a D80 for my birthday a year later (although I think taking the photo of family moments was more my attraction to this photo)
  
• girlfriends toasting with red wine
• on the back of an autumn scene is a Free The Children ad (didn't know about Free the Children when I cut it out)
• "Golf is Taboo" ad (with fall colours...it's one of Mike Weir's official courses, so it's been a dream of mine to play there..maybe with my son?)
• downtown scenes
• James Blunt in concert (huh...his song just began in my random playlist (of 400 songs) after I wrote that)
• sleeping scenes
• 
  

This is SO me (ok, perhaps not with a smile like that early in the morning...but I'll try)...but I love that extra 10 minutes...it may be hard to tell with the smaller copy of this ad, but the photo beside her is of a dog! Didn't notice until I went to scan it.

I also found this one:



I don't know why I didn't notice it the last time I looked. So having a dog was definitely in my dreams.

I was thinking in the past week about when I had babies. Every time things weren't going the way I hoped and I didn't know how to resolve the issue, I would grab a parenting book and research on how to parent better. I would talk to my friends, my mother, my older sister (who had 4 kids) or anyone who seemed to have wisdom.

So I realized that this is what I need now. Like parenting when I had no experience with babies (never babysat or taken care of kids), I have no experience with dogs. I liked them, but more from afar.

I had bought a number of books on taking care of a puppy (and got as much as I could find from the library), but that was generic initial puppy training. I read them before getting the dog (and in the first month or so), but now my needs are different. More specific help on the type of dog I have would be helpful.

Yesterday I bought a book entitled High-Energy Dogs: A Practical Guide to Living With Energetic and Driven Canines. There are lots of references to Australian Shepherds!!

So when I have difficult days I will remind myself that I am living one of my dreams. Who says that dreams are supposed to be easy?

And speaking of my dreams...I also have to include this clipping I found in my folder. On and off I have been talking about going to the Olympic Games since Vancouver were awarded the Games (well actually since I was a kid, but was considering actually doing it since Vancouver got the Games). I will expand on this story in another post...but read the first "thing to do while you're alive" in this ad:



I'm thankful to have seen Brenda again this morning which prompted me re-reading my post and make me realize that perhaps I haven't been a Mother on Fire since I last saw her, but that doesn't mean that I can't be in the future.

We Are The Take & The Temper Trap

Isn't it fun when something unexpected happens?

Last week I wrote about not having found many new bands this year. You can read that post here if you missed it.

So I started listening to Absolute Radio UK and one of the bands that caught my attention was The Temper Trap. One of their songs is on their A-list which means it gets played a LOT.

On Sunday I spent some time downloading some of their songs and I was enjoying them.

Monday morning, I saw a post by a local band that we like saying they were playing The Horseshoe Tavern the next night. I started making plans to go, but they weren't concrete.

Seeing this post, I thought about signing up to get news from The Temper Trap (and other new bands and artists I was finding) and as I'm doing that I saw that they were playing The Horseshoe Tavern on the same night as We Are The Take....and the concert was free!! This blows my mind...how can a band from Australia and based in London (since May) who are on Absolute Radio's A-List of songs, come to Toronto as the 2nd band of a 4 band free evening then be on Jimmy Kimmel two nights later? (Check them out on Thursday night) Kudos to The Horseshoe for this one.

I was looking forward to a fun night of music, I knew I would enjoy We Are The Take again, but because I don't know The Temper Trap's music that well, I didn't expect to be blown away by them...but I was.

We Are The Take played some new songs and were as good as they were the last time we saw them...the bummer for me was that the batteries (that I had just charged) ran out on my camera so I only got one video :



We had the D-SLR for photos so got some good photos.






Another disappointment is that they didn't play one of my favourite songs, but I guess it's a good sign that they have a lot of material to choose from.

The funny thing I found is that the whole front row were photographers with D-SLRs (except for one who was a loyal fan or a friend of the band's). The Horseshoe is one of the few good venues that allow any type of camera so it's a great opportunity to catch some great shots without a photo pass.






After We Are The Take, my husband left to go buy batteries. How lucky for me because The Temper Trap were amazing and I managed to get some great video.





I look forward to seeing these two bands when they are headlining. It's like we have seen them from their early days and there can only be great days ahead for them.

Best Song of the Noughties

Absolute Radio are kicking off voting today for the Best Song of the Decade (or Best Song of the Noughties).

You can vote for any song that has been in the UK charts (top 75) at any point in the last decade.

It's so difficult to choose. In a way I wish there was a list of all the songs, but in another, I guess it forces you to think of which songs are still in your mind...so forget Crazy Frog or Bob The Builder (got to love the UK Chart) who made it to #1 on the weekly chart but hopefully won't for the decade list.

Often I am choosing the most popular song by some artists because for it to represent the decade, it shouldn't be personal to me although obviously the artists are personal to me (so no Rihanna, Shakira, Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Girls Aloud, Pussycat Dolls, Britain's Got Talent/X-Factor/Pop Idol, etc. who will be high on the list but don't do it for me).

I also tried to select from various years and various styles. I could easily have chosen 10 for each year and 10 bands, 10 female, 10 male, 10 Brit, 10 Canadian, 10 American...you get the idea. There has been some amazing music in the last decade!!

So here are my top choices.

1. Viva La Vida by Coldplay
2. Somewhere Only We Know by Keane
   
3. Beautiful Day by U2
4. Where is the Love by Black Eyed Peas
5. American Idiot by Green Day
6. You're Beautiful by James Blunt
7. Bad Day by Daniel Powter
8. Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol (spent almost 2 years on the charts - 91 weeks)
9. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor by Arctic Monkeys
10. All These Things That I've Done by The Killers
11. These Things by Natasha Bedingfield
12. Smile by Lily Allen
    

Well, that's my top 12 (I couldn't keep it to 10)...what are your choices?

Check out www.songofthedecade.com to see if your favourites are eligible (it's the UK chart so not much Canadian content (Nelly Furtado, Shania Twain, Hot Hot Heat, Nickelback, Arcade Fire, Avril Lavigne, etc.) or American rock (there is Bon Jovi though, just for you C.)...there's lots of rap and dance though.

You can view #1's over the years here.

Absolute Dave Gorman

I got an email last week that said that Dave Gorman (I will explain who is in in a minute for those who don't know him) was going to have a radio show on Aboslute Radio UK!! I love Dave Gorman. Many years ago, I saw him perform his "Googlewhack Adventure" in Toronto. My husband saw an article in the Globe and Mail in the morning and he called to get tickets for the show that evening.

It was the best comedy show I ever saw. He is hilarious.

Now, perhaps it's not fair to say that I love Dave Gorman, because I did start following him on Twitter a while ago, but then stopped following him. I can't remember if it was that I didn't follow what he was twittering about or if it was the language he used. I'm trying to find a clip of his Googlewhack Adventure on You Tube, and am reminded that he does use the F word quite a bit (that's an understatement).

Here is how wikipedia describes his Googlewhack quest:

At 31, Dave decided to give up his stupid ways, grow a beard and write a novel. As a result Dave believes people took him more seriously and a new novel was commissioned. While trying to write a novel for his publisher (Random House), Dave became obsessed with Googlewhacks when someone notified him that his site had one (Francophile Namesakes), and caused him to travel across the world finding people who had authored them (one of whom turned out to be one of the Dave Gormans he had met in his first adventure). He eventually spent his publisher's advance on the quest, and had to create the Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure show to pay them back.

By the way, a googlewhack is a Google search using two words (without quotes) that gets one result.

To give you an idea of what he's like when he performs, here's an excerpt (but please remember the F word warning - although this video isn't as bad (language wise) as the other one available on Youtube).



I have never laughed as hard as I did that night. Perhaps some of the appeal was that I arrived not knowing what to expect. So the way he performs, the speed, the PowerPoint presentation, his facial expressions and the hard to believe story is hilarious.

So now, Dave Gorman has a radio show that I am listening to now on podcast. The live show is at 10 am on Sundays (in the UK, so 5 am where I am). I look forward to listening and hopefully laughing out loud.

Blog Action Day - Climate Change

If I could fix everything for you, believe me I would
Do you feel the same, feel the same as me?
Its hard for me to know, well maybe I should just let go.
But what if it all means something?
(What if it all Means Something by Chantal Kreviazuk)

I was happy when Climate Change was the topic chosen for Blog Action Day, but it is such a vast topic. Climate change is one of the major problems in the world today. It has such consequences but it is something that we can all do something about.

Last year, I was writing "Green Tips" for my mothers' group to give ideas on how we can live greener lives. There are multiple websites where we can sign up to show support for living greener lives including the World Wildlife Fund and A Million Acts of Green.

Most of us know what to do though...simply put...Reduce Reuse Recycle, so I didn't want to blog about what we can do.

I could have gone in so many directions with this topic, but my recent visit to the Toronto Zoo got me inspired to write about polar bears.

I have a daughter who is an animal lover. Being exposed to her love of animals every day has raised my awareness of issues facing animals today.

We often go to the Toronto Zoo. This summer, the new 10 acre Tundra Trek was opened and three polar bears came back after being in Northern Ontario during the renovation.

Along with getting a chance to see these beautiful animals, the zoo is using the new exhibit in order to educate the public to the dangers of climate change to the Arctic.

Polar bears are one of the animals most threatened by climate change. They depend on ice platforms in order to hunt seals. Climate change is causing less ice to be formed, or for it to be formed later in the season. This is causing many bears to die of starvation. The leading cause of death in cubs in Hudson Bay was found to be lack of food or lack of fat in nursing mothers.

Lack of opportunity for hunting is also causing polar bears to venture into villages and towns.

There is less sea ice because we humans are producing more green house gas emissions which is making the earth warmer.

In 2008, the Arctic sea ice shrank to its second-lowest level since satellite measuring began in 1979, ending the year 34% below the long-term average for 1979-2000.

Of course, I have to add a musical reference. Chantal Kreviazak visited Churchill and spoke with a polar bear expert for Polar Bears International.




So what can we do to ensure the polar bears don't go the way of the dinosaurs? We can continue to do our share to help decrease greenhouse gas emissions. We can encourage our governments and companies to do the same.

The Toronto Zoo is going more green every year. They have information on their website about their conservation and green programs. They are even offering a one day event for executives to teach them how they can make their companies green.

The bottom line is that Climate Change is a problem that can be solved if we all work together to make a difference.

Thankful Lyrics

Happy Thankgiving, Canadians!!

I don't think that I could outdo my Thanksgiving post from last year (or I would just repeat it all)...so if you would like to read that one, you can read it here...for this year, I thought I would share lyrics about giving thanks or being grateful.

I want to thank you
for giving me the best day of my life
Oh just to be with you
is having the best day of my life
(Thank You by Dido)

Thank you India
Thank you providence
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you nothingness
Thank you clarity
Thank you thank you silence
(Thank U by Alanis Morrissette)

Some call it faith, some call it love.
Some call it guidance from above.
You are the reason we found ours,
So thank you stars
(Thank you, Stars by Katie Melua)

Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me
(Thank You for the Music by Abba)

Didn't expect any of this
But it's really nice,
Didn't want you to cause a fuss
But it feels alright.
So thank you very much,
It's really nice to know
That you enjoyed the show
(Thank You Very Much by Kaiser Chiefs)

And I thank you for choosing me
To come through unto life to be
A beautiful reflection of his grace
See I know that a gift so great
Is only one God could create
And I'm reminded every time I see your face
(For Zion by Lauryn Hill)

Got my dreams, got my life, got my love
Got my friends got the sunshine above
(Happy by Natasha Bedingfield)

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
(Lucky by Jason Mraz)

And I thank you for bringing me here
For showing me home
For singing these tears
Finally I've found that I belong here
(Home by Depeche Mode)

Well tonight
Thank God it's them instead of you
(Do They Know It's Christmas by Band-Aid)

Who will rise?
It would be so nice to hear you say
"Thank you for the good times"
Before the good times fly away
(Thank you for the Good Times by Oasis)

Oh its such a perfect day,
I'm glad I spent it with you.
Oh such a perfect day,
You just keep me hanging on,
You just keep me hanging on.
You're going to reap just what you sow,
(Perfect Day by Lou Reed)

Generosity is the key
Yeah
Thank you very much
(15 Minutes Away by K'naan)

Nothing is perfect man
That's what the world is
All I know is I'm enjoying today
You know cause it isn't everyday
That you get to give
(Take A Minute by K'naan)

Outside the sun is shining,
seems like heaven ain’t far away
It’s good to have you with us
Even if it’s just for the day
(Exitlude by The Killers)

Ah la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life is meaningful
Ah la la la la la life is full of
Ah la la la la la life is so full of love
(Life is Wonderful by Jason Mraz)

And finishing with a song of the beauty in the world...

I see trees of green........ red roses too
I see 'em bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.

The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty...in the sky
Are also on the faces.....of people going by
I see friends shaking hands.....saying...how do you do
They're really saying......I love you.

I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow
They'll learn much more.....than I'll never know
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world
(What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong)

Happy Thanksgiving!! Do you have any lyrics to share?

Attention Deficient

I currently have 30 tabs open in my browser (and a few more on the PC).

Some are basic ones I always keep open...gmail, yahoo, twitter, etc. but others are mostly of articles I want to read or things that caught my attention. It's funny because everyday I will go look at my favourite sites looking for interesting articles to read...but often, they end up as opened tabs to read "later".

Seeing how many there were, I figured I should start at the oldest and deal with them in order to make my browser more manageable.

I had to laugh at the title of the article in my oldest tab:

"Information Rich-Attention Poor"

It was an article in the Globe and Mail from September 15th.

I haven't read the article yet, but the title makes me think that there is so much information out there, but how much time do we spend on each topic? I am so guilty of this. I will see an article that I am very interested in, yet will not take the time to read it because something else catches my attention.

So what does this say? I am interested in a lot of things, but not enough for them to hold my attention for 15 minutes? Or do I like to savour the anticipation of having something to read? Or am I afraid that I will miss something by taking the 15 minutes reading one article rather than scanning the headlines, twitter updates or websites?

How often does someone say to me, did you hear about...? and I know what they're talking about because I saw the headline or have saved the article...but never actually finished it?

Many of the articles I have opened are not earth-shattering.

• 4 tabs are reviews of the U2 concert I saw at Rogers Centre
• 3 tabs are finance articles
• 1 tab is about rock concert photography (which I wanted to blog about)
• 1 tab is about dreams (that I was thinking of blogging about)
• 1 tab is an article about my neighbourhood terming it "yonge and restless"
• 1 tab is the girl impact blog (the group my friend is with in Africa at the moment and blogging daily)
• 1 tab is about Free The Children (Me to We) who had an event in Toronto on Monday
• 3 tabs are about the author of the book series I'm reading - she's in Toronto next week - and I had not read some interviews I had seen before finishing the 6th book which was out 3 years ago. Now that I did this week, I thought it was now safe to go read those old interviews and Q&As (she wouldn't reveal anything about the new book that I just started...but ugghhh...I still find out something I didn't want to know that I guess she had planned for the 5th book, but hasn't been revealed yet)
• 1 tab is an article about why we should own music
• 1 tab is about Stonehenge (and a new finding close by)
• 1 tab is a reminder to put a Corinne Bailey Rae song on iTunes (from my CD) that I heard on Being Erica. I searched for it wondering if it was new material...hoping it was new material, but it wasn't.
• 1 tab is for the President's Cup which is starting today.

So you get the picture...lots of information...all of it interesting to me..ok, maybe not the finance articles...but I figure the information would be useful with the state of my finances these days.

On top of these 30 tabs, there is also my Google Reader that has lost control. I used to keep up with the information that used to come into Google Reader...but lately, I haven't had the interest in it. I have unsuscribed to a lot of blogs or sites I used to get feeds from. Some of them, I actually miss and wish I could remember what they were to find them again. But now that I have over 2500 items unread, I find it overwhelming to look at it. Perhaps I should just mark everything as "read" and start over.

So is it better to have a wide range of information...but not so much depth or is it better to have in-depth knowledge of a few topics?

I just read the Globe and Mail article and am reading the comments about it. Funnily, one of the comments talks about people having 50 or 60 tabs open in Firefox...I'm not doing too badly then ;-)

So now, I'll go and read the U2 reviews to see if they did a better job of reviewing the concert than I did. And I will make a stronger effort to keep my focus on topics that interest me for longer periods of time (which I guess was the point of starting this blog a year and a half ago...if I look back at my first blog post)...and even spend time to think about them and have real discussions about them because really, that's what I want deep down.

Perhaps this lack of attention is part of the problem I am having lately. I'm bored of the superficial and want more depth...not just with knowledge, but with life as well.

Best Music of 2009

You may think I'm a little early if you thought I'd tell you my picks for the best of 2009. I am realizing though that we are in the last quarter of the year and I started thinking about what I would pick as my favourite songs of 2009.

It's been a great year for music for me. I have been to more concerts this year than possibly the last two or three put together. So we can't say that I didn't love music this year.

Here's my dilemma. I don't think I have discovered anyone that I absolutely love this year. It has been a year of new music by artists I already loved or liked. Looking at my iTunes library, most of the music I have downloaded this year has been by artists I already knew.

There have been many other artists and bands that I have read about but haven't taken the time to really listen to. Many of them, at first listen didn't appeal to me, even if they are getting rave reviews from critics and friends.

So in order to try to make a more comprehensive list of my favourite songs of 2009, I resolve to take more time to listen to new music instead of just my old favourites...but then, perhaps the new artists of 2009 are not for me. We'll see in the new few months.

Wake Me Up...

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends

(by Green Day)

In a way, getting a puppy in the summer is great...training when it's nice out has great benefits. I don't even want to think about owning a dog in the winter, even less trying to take a puppy outside every hour in the winter.

The disadvantage to getting a puppy in the summer, is that the season dragged (on my bad days)...but also went so fast. Where did summer go? One of the upsides though was that this summer, the weather wasn't as hot as I like it, so at least I can't say that I missed the great weather.

I actually did enjoy quite a few mornings or afternoons on the back deck since it was the puppy's favourite place to hang out.

So, with having puppy keep me busy (or kept me reading or on the computer when I didn't want to disturb him), my house is SO disorganized.

I thought I would get in a routine when school started. I did a bit (more than I did in the summer) but now, I really want to make a stronger effort.

So with a new month...new beginnings...Wake Me Up When September Ends...but not the minute it does...let me get a good night's rest to get energized.

Animal Parents Day at the Zoo

♫Just a perfect day
feed animals in the zoo
(Perfect Day by Lou Reed)

(hope you enjoy the audio while you're reading)

Yesterday was Animal Parents' Day at the Toronto Zoo so they have special activities for people who have adopted zoo animals.

For my daughter's birthday this year, rather than receiving gifts for her birthday party, she wanted to adopt an animal at the zoo. With the donations, she ended up adopting 3 animals (she couldn't choose)...snow leopard, red panda and spider monkey. She would have chosen the polar bear if it had been available but they were not accepting donations for them because they had been moved during the renovations.

Being the procrastinator that I am, I never reserved a seat for a special presentation so we began our day by getting on the stand-by list for that. Turns out that yes, they are quite particular about reserving a seat...but with the weather being less than ideal, there would end up being no problem with us getting seats.

There was also a quiz which was sort of a savenger hunt going around the zoo finding answers to questions. After filling out the answers, you could enter for an adopt-an-animal package.

So we went to visit the snow leopards while we waited for the presentation to begin. Tiga, the mother was up on the perch lying so serenely. The two cubs were at the back, but we had a good view of them wrestling and looking at us from the side fence.



We then went to the presentation where Diane Morrison, a zookeeper told us the story of how she and other zookeepers at the Toronto Zoo nursed a baby golden lion tamarin after he wasn't strong enough after birth to hold on to his mother. He kept falling off, so the zookeepers took him. They fed him. They took him home at night where he would sleep in an incubator and where they would feed him every hour on the hour.

Once he was two weeks old, he would normally be holding on to his mother all the time, so he started hanging onto the zookeepers all the time. The zookeeper said that this was how it was worse than having a real baby who you can put down. She couldn't put this baby down because he would just leap back up on her. They walked around for weeks with the baby golden lion tamarin on a pseudo-snuggly that they made. You can see a photo I found on Flickr of Hayden on the snuggly here. They put the snuggly in the cage once he was back with his family.

The other funny thing she mentioned was that at 3 weeks old, they start eating what their mothers eat, so it was difficult for her to have dinner because the baby would jump onto her plate.

So once the baby was strong enough, they tried to reintroduce him to his family. It took a couple of tries and although they were told that it could not be done (that they would end up with a zoo pet), the baby was successfully accepted by his family. Although he is still attached to the zookeepers, he is also very attached to his family.

Unfortunately though, after hearing such a great story, we're told that we won't be able to see him because he is being transferred to another zoo (with his brother and another golden lion tamarin).

A barred owl was brought into the room for the second part of the presentation. This particular one had been injured. It lost one of its wings and has cataracts. Its feathers are so soft though...helping make its flight soundless.

After the presentation, we went to see the Red Panda, but they were off display for the day. :-( We haven't had great luck at seeing them in the Toronto Zoo, but we did have a great look at them at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. in the spring (which was instrumental in my daughter's decision to adopt the Red Panda).



We did see the spider monkeys (and the polar bears in the newly renovated Tundra Trek) It was great to take our time as normally we go to the zoo for a couple of hours (while my son is at a driving range in the area). This time, we enjoyed lunch and a leisurely walk from pavillion to pavillion trying to find the answers to the questions on the quiz.

When you adopt an animal at the Toronto Zoo, you get your name posted on the Adopt-an-Animal board. We had forgotten to check for my daughter's name on past visits, but we ended the day by going to the board to find her name.



So this parent day at the zoo may not be as good as the $500 donation package which gets you a behind the scenes look like my daughter's friend got...but it was still a wonderful day.