Time Out Of Mind

I stayed up until almost 2:00 a.m. last night cleaning my kitchen, rounding up the garbage, doing laundry, and putting together a wall-mounted two doored little storage shelf unit thing for the other bathroom.  Well, it’s the en- suite, but it’s the size of a closet and somehow that name has never sounded right.  So when a room is too small for words I like to put more stuff into it.  Just to see if it’s possible. There’s a three door cabinet under the sink which is jam packed full of a small amount of toilet tissue and a large amount of stuff that I might need someday;  there is one small drawer full of things that I don’t want to throw away yet,  and there’s also three (THREE!!) basket type boxes with lids on the teeny little counter, one so stuffed full of crap that the lid won’t close.  The other day I added a personal fan to the counter top.  There was a four inch square space not being used.   

So I suppose I was feeling a bit claustrophobic in there, because now that has all dramatically changed.  I could do my own little house and garden tv get-organized show.  All from my own home.  For weeks on end, never running out of subject areas.  The extra storage thing went up in the wee hours and is now filled behind the little doors with tall stuff that wouldn’t fit in the boxes;  the smallest box is on the little shelf, and the bigger and biggest boxes now hold, respectively, ’stuff I use every day’ and ’stuff I might need to find in a hurry if I suddenly decide I want to use it’, with both lids closed and the containers stacked one on top of the other under the shelf.  Whew.  My after-midnight sorting skills are quite amazing.  The clutter is contained. 

Then I went to bed and read for a couple of hours.  When W. is away time gets all messed up for me.  I love blaming absolutely everything on him – he’s very handy for that.  So not having him around to tell me to for gawdsakes turn off the light and go to sleep, I have no idea what time it was when the book hit me in the face and knocked me out.  I still get up at the same time most days, no matter how short the night may have been.  I catch up with naps. 

I don’t know where these bursts of creative ambition come from, or where they go.  I’m kind of like a cat that way.  You know how they run around like crazed fools for five minutes and then curl up somewhere and crash for 18 hours straight.  I guess it’s a good thing I have a four day a week job to go to so that I can keep some semblance of order in my life, even though it makes me unbearably cranky to have to stay conscious for an entire eight hour shift.  It’s also interesting how I have no problem whatsoever at work cleaning up and throwing stuff out.  If something goes missing, people are always asking me did you throw that out? and I’m always saying yes I did.  I wonder why I can’t do that throwing out thing at home instead of just rearranging it all?  I wonder if the neighbors enjoyed listening to five minutes of nail pounding after eleven o’clock last night.  I wonder why we keep all the screwdrivers in the basement when we never ever use them down there, and have to make six trips up and down the stairs to find the right one for various stupid things that we’re putting together.  

I was going to wonder where all this blather is headed, but then I realized the answer is nowhere.  A day is not wasted if at least one mystery has been solved.  Glad I got that accomplished and can now feel free to shamelessly waste the rest of it.  

  

And then there were eighteen…..

Bottom four guys:

Andrew, Justyn, Derek and Clifton.  Can I make a perfect prediction or WHAT?  HEY???  Try not to expect this kind of accuracy from me though.  Everybody can claim a lucky fluke at least once in their lifetime.

And CI goes on sans Justyn, Derek, Christine and Maud.   I’m content with those results.  Also trying not to pick hard favourites yet – there are eight more to go.

Some CI BS (part 2)

And now for the girls of the top 22, season five.

Tara Oram: 23 yr old from Hare Bay Nfld. , lead singer in a country band, staying true to her country roots. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is such a lame song. Not one that usually gets you so excited you can’t breathe properly. Jake said it was breathy and rushed but okay. Farley said she was feeling some nerves. Sass said the thing is she has wonderful energy, a sweetness about her, and did a good job. Zack said it was opening night jitters, just do your thing and dont’ be kitchy. And I say – she does have a nice voice in a Carrie Underwood kind of way, but I can’t help the nagging feeling I have that she’ll get a spot that should really go to somebody with a whole lot more talent and personality. It’s the Idol way.

Martha Joy: 16 yr old student/self confessed mommy’s girl from TO. I think she’s absolutely beautiful, has a lovely sunny personality and makes Tara look like a complete sour puss in comparrison. She sang Don’t Want to Miss a Thing perfectly. But apparently that’s a problem. Farley said there’s no question she’s the best technically, but that was too academic. Sass said she’s gifted and her mom must be very proud, but she needs to find out who she is. Zack said her big challenge is to find out what’s going to sell records, cuz it ain’t broadway theatrical pageantry. Jake said he agreed with everything everybody else said and he didn’t feel it. Well I would venture to guess that at sixteen there’s quite a few life experiences she’s not able to draw from yet. Duh.

Montana Martin Isles: 16 yr old student from St. Julienne Quebec. Crazy little french girl who right at this moment knows exactly who she is and exactly what she wants to do with it and tonight it was to sing a song about somebody crawling like a worm (The Bird and the Worm) to some freaky nightmare circus music. That was seriously one of the most wicked things I’ve ever seen and heard. I think she’s brilliant. I was mesmerized. She made Sass say Holy Crap, one of my all time favourite expressions. The judges got goosebumps, threw out words like drama, intense, fantastic, awesome, unique and contemporary. Farley wanted to scream and hug her. Farley rarely gets that excited, so she MUST be good.

Mila Miller: (the artist formerly known as Kamila) 17 yr old student from Toronto with afro hair, an awesome speaking voice and a beautiful bluesy kind of style. She sang I’m Goin’ Down and made some interesting faces doing it. Zack called her young and sassy, fresh with an all over star vibe. Then there was some discussion about Zack being responsible for Mila’s afro and Jake’s jacket, and confusion about horizontal and vertical stripes, followed by Sass finding Mila exuding a sense of humor in her performance. I don’t know – maybe you had to be there. General concensus is the judges like Mila and not one of them told her to figure out who she is so as to not get herself confused with Ben’s mother.

Maud Coussa-Jandl: 25 year old promotions co-ordinator from Sherbrooke Quebec who likes Alanis Morisette. She was bent forward and almost hunched over for most of Dreams , her vocals weren’t strong, there were some very sour notes, and the words that come to mind for me over all are Forgetable Fluff . There just wasn’t anything substantial going on. Jake told her to pick better songs and get away from the stylized stuff. Farley was not won over. Sass said she was pitchy but charming. Zack called it an idolized horrific bummer.

Annika Odegard: 16 yr old student from Calgary with personality plus off stage, but somehow it didn’t translate into her performance of Helplessly Hopelessly. It started off all growly and off key and maybe it ended up that way too, I don’t remember. Farley said she didn’t take a risk. Sass said it was in too low a key. Zack let her know this was not a Miss Teen Canada pageant and there would be no tiara. Jake called it limp and cheesey. Limp cheese. Ewww. Annika left the stage with a big smile frozen onto her cute little barbie face.

Naomi Joy Blackhall: 25 year old account manager from Halifax NS with rock star dreams and great hair that does front to back flips on command. Wooo! Despite how great she looked the song, Judgement Day, was a pitchy disaster, something the judges all agreed on, saying things like ‘the vocal didn’t happen for you’. Zack said it was very 1975 and done in the key of ‘huh?’

Christine Hanlon: 21 yr. old singer/songwriter from Rexdale who got put through to the top 22 instead of Jessica, and now I suppose a whole lot more people are wondering why. She sang Possession which the judges all agreed was totally wrong for her and then they moaned and groaned about how she’s lost her edge. Jake said she had vocally strong moments, but was not in the pocket and not in the groove. Amen to that.

Well this last little bit has all been quite brutal, but we’re not done yet! Now we get to see why Scarlet was not originally chosen for the top 22.

Scarlet Burke: 18 year old spa receptionist from Toronto who tries to do Whitney. GAH. I Learned From the Best has it’s bright moments, but there are just not enough of them. Jake tells her to leave Whitney alone and try not to be so uninspirational. Sass suggests a higher key. Farley lets her know that the beginning and the middle and the end of the song are all equally important. Zack says he couldn’t hear half of it. Lucky Zack.

Khalila G.: 23 yr old daycare worker from Dorval Quebec sings Family Portrait and gets us all out of the grand funk we’ve sunk into during the last five (count ‘em – FIVE) sucky performances. She and the song are both quite lovely. Farley says she’s poised, composed, cool, calm, collected and beautiful. Sass says she lit a fire. Zack says she is livin’ in the moment in a truly honest way and that gave him shivers it was so great. Jake says she is real, believable and in her element. Thank you Khalila. You go girl.

Carley Rae Jepson: 21 year old student/waitress from Mission BC. She seems much much younger when you listen to her talk, but then she sings and pretty much blows the kid thing out of the water. Put Your Records On is beautifully done and it’s all Carley Rae. This girl is definitely going places. She may even be able to keep up to Montana, you never know. Sass calls her a ray of sunshine, vulnerable, adorable, and adds an I love you. Zack says see, there’s no need to step it up into idol mode, that felt right and she’s top ten. Jake says its not as good as her top 22 audition but he’s hopeful she’ll tap into that again. Good gawd Jake. Take a pill. Farley says she has a natural youthful vibe and will be in the top ten. Considering the many performances tonight that sucked, I’d say that’s a sure thing.

I’m glad I stuck with it to the end, but I must say they nearly lost me somewhere in the middle. There’s quite a few to pick from for bottom two.

Based on tonight I’ve got no problem picking my top five girls. They’d be Montana, Carley Rae, Khalila, Martha Joy and Mila. I know one of those will be bumped for Tara and I suppose I can live with that.

I think it might be nice if Scarlet and Justyn made their exit together tomorrow night.   I’m such a romantic.

Some CI BS (part 1)

I’m suddenly overcome with a very strong urge to post recaps of Canadian Idol on my blog.   Just, you know, for the helluvit, and because I can’t think of anything else that’s all that interesting to waste time doing these days.  I’m not saying this will be mind boggling insights, or even that I’ll keep it up for long.  I posted the original of the following on a chat sight frequented by my fellow semi-recovering idol addicts.  (It’s a hard bug to shake.)  I’ve added some details, done some corrections, and generally tried to convey to all the skeptics out there what it is that keeps me watching this kind of mind-numbing t.v.          

Jaydee Bixby :  16 yr. old blonde clean cut boy next door type from Red Deer (who has been singing in bars since the age of 11) kicked things off.   Surprisingly for me he was a really nice start to the season, considering that I hate “Rockabilly” with a passion.  His performance of Johnny Be Good made me smile all the way through.  And I hadn’t even been drinking!  Maybe I’m just happy to be sitting around doing dick all, who knows.  Jake started the judging aspect of the season off with a pickle or two up his ass.  He told JD he expected more from him.   Farley and Sass were okay with it, and Zack said ‘I dig whatever it is you are’.  All the little girls are gonna be gaga over Jaydee.

Clifton Murray:  27 year old singer/actor (he was on Boston Legal!) from BC who made the mistake of saying in his auditions that he would like to be the next American Idol.   Ooops.  I get the feeling he’d actually be a better fit on that version of the show, with his big glory notes and his big ego.  Zack called his performance of  I’ll Be old school goat cheese. I like that analogy. 

Derek Hoffman: 17 year old student who has his own band in Aurora Ontario.  He’s an Indy singer/songwriter, and a head twitcher with Ken doll hair and facial stubble.   He sang Move Along, looking like he was very much missing his guitar.  It started off for me as an off key mess, but the judges all agree that they liked his substance and style. I’m much more shallow than they are, and could not make it past the hair.  Not to mention the constant flinging of same. 

Justyn Wesley: 22 year old singer/songwriter and producer from Toronto. I have no clue what he produces. During the auditions he fell madly in love with his duet partner who initially did not make the top 22, but then by a strange twist of idol fate has now ended up in it with him.  Sigh.  That little story is almost as gag inducing as Justyn with a y’s fake New York accent.  Now normally I like this bluesy kind of music, but I did not like his rendition of Some kind of wonderful. At all. The judges called it schmaltzy, funky cool, wedding singer with a spattering of soul. Sass seemed a tad confused by the performance and made her first completely unintelligible comments of the season. I can’t see Justyn lasting very long.

Dwight D’Eon:  28 year old lobster fisherman from West Pubnico, Nova Scotia, with a goatee.  Rocker/Shouter who sounded right pissed off about something. Hahaha. Sorry, it’s my strange way of remembering people. (You make me wanna) Cry made Zack conclude that Dwight is a real contender. However, I’m thinking he may have been swayed in that direction by Dwight’s leather jacket.  Jake said he lit up the room. Farley said he pushed it really hard. Sass said….intensity, blah blah blah pushed too hard, did what you can really do and could somebody please smack me I can’t shut up so God Bless you. Or something to that effect.  Dwight is a little Chris Daughtry-ish.  That’s a good thing of course.

Greg Neufeld: 23 year old singer/songwriter house framer from Abbotsford BC.  YAY!! I am SO happy Greg is back.  (He was cut before the top ten last season)  This Love was an awesome song choice,  he has a great voice and he did a fantastic job. I loved it, along with his killer smile. And the fact that he was able to keep right on smiling when Sass had a giggling fit about the ‘Greggy Hop’. She is in fine Sass form, no doubt about it. 
 
Tyler Mullendore: 19 year old construction worker from Lake Ainslee Nova Scotia, wears aviator sunglasses with ’70’s haystack hair.  Is able to give ‘er and has a very strange style of dance never before seen (by these eyes anyway.) His performance of Brown Sugar made the judges wax poetical to an embarrassing level. Uninhibited, unique, unshackled, unchained melody, new flavour, authentic, rock star, unabashed – I think Jake was crying.  Okay, we get it! He was interesting. Not my favourite by any stretch, but should be fun to keep around.

Andrew Austin: 27 year old longtime musician singer songwriter from Sarnia Ontario who should stop trying to dance. It’s kinda creepy. Freedom is so over done. Nobody can sing it like George Michael, so why try.  Farley said it was so-so and not great singing. I agree with that. Zack said it was clunkers. Jake liked it and even professed to have detected a bit of soul somewhere. Perhaps he lost one of his pickles.  Sass said – so it’s personal opinion so whatever okay but not with something or other and it lacked charisma and that’s what I thought. Even she is having problems following her own thought patterns so I don’t know how the rest of us are supposed to keep up.

Matt Rapley: 18 year old student from Regina SK, referred to as the Monster Man, who wants to cause some shock and awe with his killer voice. I love the song Isn’t She Lovely and I think he did it really well. Jake had written down the ‘charisma’ word from the last set of comments, so he said Matt didn’t have any. Sass countered that by saying he has a lovely charming smile and when he sings everything melts in a big way.  Which I suppose is preferable to having everything melt in a small way.  Farley likes him and Zack thinks he’s the whole package. I don’t know about that, but I do know I like Matt a lot. He can SANG.

Brian Melo: 24 year old construction worker from Hamilton.  He’s another band boy.  He makes One of a Million sound like a million bucks.  He is the little guy with many hats. WOW. Beautiful voice, perfect song choice. Zack says he’s clearly top ten. I think so too. Sass suddenly has another fake orgasm and shouts YES!!! Sorry to keep picking on her but tonight she was just on such a roll I cannot help myself.

Liam Styles Chang: 17 year old student from Victoria BC.  “I’m not as depressed as I look” crazy hair boy who listens to quasi scream stuff sings This Magic Moment. What an incredibly weird song choice. Sass calls him Liam the dre-am, and is thankfully done blathering for the night. The remaining sane and sober judges call it smooth, seamless, effortless, damn cute and the performance of the evening. Personally I wouldn’t go quite THAT far, but it was definitely good. I’m okay with seeing lots more of Liam.

As far as I’m concerned, the ones that can leave are any of the following: Clifton, Derek, Justyn and Andrew. Oh yeah, and Sass. hahahaha.   Actually, she should be much better tomorrow night when there’s not so much testosterone in the air.

Coffee Chat

If we were sitting here right now drinking coffee (which I am actually doing, and if you’re not, why aren’t you??) here’s some of the mundane stuff I’d be blathering away about.  I should be downstairs walking on my treadmill, but I’ve got ALL DAY to get around to doing that.  There’s really no point in rushing it.  Today started off beautifully warm and sunny and now it’s suddenly overcast and gloomy.  If it’s anything like the past week, any moment now thunder will start to roll, and rain will begin to pour.  And just as suddenly the sun will be back smiling away like nothing happened.  And the grass will have grown another three inches and be too wet to cut. 

The bugs this year are horrifying.  I have been seriously considering buying one of those new crazy bug zappers that are supposed to work over a huge area of like three acres or something.  It could make me very popular in the immediate neighborhood if it works.  But I’ve only heard about it and not researched it myself yet, so I don’t know what it costs or where to get one.   By the time I get around to figuring it out,  summer could be over.  So if that’s any indication, I guess I’m not as horrified by the bugs as I initially let on.

I’ve been home alone for the past ten or eleven days, and I don’t know – I’m thinking I’m a pretty boring person to have around.  Spending time with myself is getting tiresome.  I know, hard to fathom isn’t it.  HAHA!!  But all I do is drink coffee, make stuff to eat, watch tv, feed the cat and check out facebook. I expect everyone there will be removing me as a friend shortly due to harassment.  For extreme excitement I attempt the most difficult version of Spider Solitaire. 

W. phoned me on Friday night sounding pretty bored himself, except of course for the fishing part of his holiday, which even if it totally sucked he would find fascinatingly brilliant.  Maybe eating fish is good for your brain cells, but the process of catching them destroys millions.  I offer W. as scientific proof of that fact.  I asked him if he was all set for tomorrow (meaning Saturday, the day of his parent’s 60th anniversary party.)  The conversation unfolded something like this:

It’s on Saturday.  (Yeah, I know. Tomorrow is Saturday.)  Nope, tomorrow is Friday, this is Thursday.  (I worked on Thursday until 9.  If this was Thursday I wouldn’t be home yet.  But it’s Friday, my day off.  I’ve been home all day.  It’s definitely Friday.)  Are you sure?  (Yep, I’m pretty sure.)  Really?  It’s Friday?  SHIT!  How did I miss a day?  (Well, you take your watch off when you get there, you don’t listen to the radio, and if I remember correctly the calendars are all stuck on different months in 1997.)  Geez.  If this is Friday, I was supposed to go in and help decorate the hall this afternoon.  (hahahahahahaha!!!)  I wonder why nobody called me?  (Come on, these are people who are related to you.  They’ll just be mad at you for not showing up. An untimely death might be the only excuse they’ll accept, so I don’t know if you should say you lost track of what day it was.  Maybe tell them your boat sank.)  So tomorrow is Saturday.  I’m supposed to be the M.C. you know. (Got your speech all prepared?)  Nope.  I haven’t really thought about it.  (Oh well, have a few rums.  You’ll be fine.)  Are you SURE this is Friday?  I wondered why mom and dad left here a day early……

Sigh.  What would he do without me.  Show up at the party in god only knows what kind of grubby outfit thinking it’s decoration day I guess.  So at least he wouldn’t have missed the whole thing, but that would probably have made it to the top of his mother’s list of things W. has done that made her want to choke him.

Our contact lens student did her practical exam on Sunday and called me last night sounding completely drained.  She doesn’t think she did well, but the way she described things sounded so much like the way I felt when it was over (and I passed the damned thing) that I’m very hopeful for her.  If she didn’t pass, she can try again in February;  she’ll get a detailed summary of her marks in each section, so be much better prepared the next time around if it’s necessary.  The thing that upset her the most was that during her ‘follow up’ part she examined only the right eye of her patient, and didn’t do the left.   I couldn’t stop laughing!!  I suggested that maybe the examiner will think she just didn’t want to be repetitive.  She kept saying OMFG, I skipped the left eye.  Nobody skips the left eye.  I can’t believe I skipped the f***ing left eye!!  Too funny.  I hope the examiner chalks that one up to nerves and isn’t too hard on her.  The rest of it apparently went well.  We won’t know the results for EIGHT WEEKS!  That’s just cruel.  She already has no fingernails left.

Tonight I’m excited to watch the first elimination round of Canadian Idol Season FIVE!  So far I’ve watched the top twenty two selection only, which was last week’s show.  The audition process is painful tv at it’s most excruciating and I made a point of not tuning in for that.  (My whole immediate family makes a point of not tuning in for any of it at all, and can’t understand my interest.  I guess you either love it or hate it.  There’s no middle ground.)   This year looks like a LOT of great talent!!  I don’t vote, I just bitch at the results.  It’s fun.

Okay, I’m officially caffeinated now, so time to find my running shoes.  The day is half over.  I’d like to get sufficiently organized today to make a trip to home depot to pick up some stick on floor tiles and finally get rid of the carpet in the bathroom, which many people in my life find sick and disgusting.  (Carpet in the bathroom????  EEEEWWWWWWW!)  Whatever.  I don’t know why it’s any more disgusting there than anywhere else.  But I’m finally succumbing to the pressure.  

Damn those fridge magnets!!  There are dangers everywhere.  What can you do.  Gotta run. TTYL.

  

Mug Shots

Here we go with the most egomaniacal blog yet in the history of Breathing Space. 

This is six year old me.  They could dress me up like a girl, but they couldn’t always make me look like one.

This is twelve year old me.  I worked really hard on that giant wave on the right side of my head.  Stop laughing at it.

This is my grad photo from Teacher’s College where, even with a new fat bottom lip following an unfortunate car accident and eleven stitches, I am able to pull off some semblance of professionality.  (Teachers are allowed to make up words.) 

Brock University.  Where I majored in husband hunting, beer drinking and evil stares.  I was hugely successful at all three.

This is me after life with W.  HAHA!  I don’t know what happened.  This is the actual picture taken this year for my driver’s license.  Perhaps you find it scary.  In which case I will not post my passport picture, because that one would cause you to immediately drop dead. 

And finally, this is me with blonde hair, attempting to look like Judy Dench.  Missed it by this much.  I had to edit it to black and white because the original picture was the weirdest shade of yellow, and God forbid anyone might think I paid good money to end up with banana hair. 

            

Now I completely accept the fact that one day I could look like any of the above, and I’m okay with that.  I have watched my mother age gracefully, so I know it’s not something totally out of my grasp.  However, there are days when I feel like I am almost certainly headed full speed ahead in this direction.  

I guess only time will tell.

Baby Face

These are two of my favourite pictures of the K.’s. 

Amazing how fast the baby days disappear.  And how treasured are the memories.

Gorgeous People

I took this picture from my nephew’s facebook page without asking and am shamelessly posting it here.  Because I think it is a great picture of him and his two gorgeous sisters. 

And I just wanted everyone to know I’m related to them.

The Frozen Pond

Messing around on the computer yesterday I came across some interesting stuff about Pond Inlet. Even read a bit of the history of the doomed Franklin expedition.  Which doesn’t even interest me much, so I guess I was verging on terminally bored. 

It all started because I got looking at some pictures and thinking about our friend Karen who worked there and other places in the NWT as a nurse, is now remarried and living in Whitehorse, after raising her two kids in Kingston.  We sound like some kind of demented world travellers, don’t we?  Flitting around all over the place and some of us actually choosing to go BACK TO THE NORTH!!  Personally I think she’s crazy to want to live up there, although I only have my own experiences to base that on.  It could all be quite different now for all I know.  But I can’t imagine that even with global warming there’s been a big change in the bone chilling cold.  A few weeks ago when she was down here for some kind of educational conference and dropped by to see us, she asked me if I still had my Pond Inlet painting.  Well, I do, but it’s stuck away in our storeroom somewhere.  That she remembers it and asked about it kind of astounds me.  I don’t have those nostalgic feelings for the place.  The people, yes.  But the place itself, not at all.  Tundra is ugly.  The climate is harsh.  The ocean scares the crap out of me.  Mountains look remote and cold.  Glaciers are just big dangerous iceburgs waiting to happen.  There’s something very disturbing about being in such a remote location where it is not possible to drive out of it.  And flying has never been my favourite thing. 

Wow.  It’s a wonder I was able to get out of bed in the morning.  But I always knew it was temporary.  We flew out four times in the two years we lived there for holidays.  We had lots of friends coping with the same culture shock.  And eventually we left it behind.  These pictures were taken at the nursing station residence shortly before we moved to Yellowknife. 

They could have been taken anywhere that didn’t have a place to get a good haircut.  But they were in the middle of this.

This shot is actually one I found that was taken in 2005, so there are several new buildings, including the one with the red roof which is apparently the new hotel.  There’s also a brand new medical center.  And an arena.  And a new school.  Amazing.

This is the beach road.  We lived on it, but I never heard it called that – perhaps it has been renamed.  If it even had a name before.  It was right on the ocean.  A beach road that is frozen for 10 months of every year.  Lovely.

The beach road from the opposite direction.  Yep.  Still frozen.

We laughingly referred to all the crap left lying around all over the place as arctic daisies.  They emerged from the snow in the early summer.

This is the hill behind our house where my children went to see Jesus.  What a gruesome sight.  I don’t know why the catholic mission thought it was a good idea to put it up, or why no one has ever taken it down.  Or how it has lasted through so many decades of winter.  Or why I felt like posting a picture of it, as far as that goes.  The north does strange things to your mind.  I mean no offence whatsover to the people who live there and like it and are enjoying watching their community grow and prosper.  Tourists find it amazingly interesting.  As for me, I’m happy to say we came, we saw, we got the hell out. 

The Spirited Child

The other day at work we had a couple of little screamers in the vicinity, and my young co-worker made some remarks about her fear of some day giving birth to a hyperactive little monster.  I assured her there really is no such thing – just varying degrees of bad parenting, and children who are very spirited, or not so much.  Isn’t that just such a much nicer way to describe them?  Some kids are passionate and intense.  They feel things more deeply.  And a lot more loudly.  And they are busy, busy busy! 

They have busy days at the office.  (HELP!  Send somebody right away!  I’ve dropped my monkey! Why is that dog staring at me?  MOM!!!)

They have busy days doing invisible food prep.  (Do you require utensils today, sir?  No?  Excellent choice.  Now eat it.  I don’t care how.)

They are into fitness and dance before they can walk.  (Hang on to me, Aunt Ann, I’m gonna busta move.  Let go and I’m bustin’ my head!)

They are busy librarians, reading and sorting books.  And then they tell YOU the stories, THEIR way.   

They are often busy dabbling in the medical field.  (Yes HAHAHA! – he does have a pulse!  Right now, anyway.)

      

They are constantly busy helping with household maintenance, even though their personal assistants never seem to pan out.

In between one busy activity and the next, there’s always just enough time for some quick research and experimentation on the unsuspecting.  (I pinch and pull, he yells.  Cool.) 

When it’s bed time, they are busy watching tv, playing, and drinking copious amounts of milk.  Just look at those big bright eyes!  A spirited child does not know the meaning of the word tired, except as a third party, watching others collapse from exhaustion.

And then, one fine day, VOILA!

All grown up. And that’s when the spirited part becomes the very best part of all.