Trivia Moves Online

I had been going to Oakville on Tuesdays pretty regularly over the past few years to play Pub Trivia with Teri and some friends. They had been playing together for a while, under the name Village Idiots, so I joined their team. We did well, and we did very well when I convinced Jason to come along too. We actually placed a couple of times - winning a giftcard to spend at the pub. The people where fun, the questions were the perfect difficulty, and the food was really good (for a pub.) About a year ago the game moved from the pub in the plaza around the corner from Teri's house, which we could walk to, to a pub in another plaza that we had to drive to from Teri's place. It still was worth the extra bit of driving because everything was the same at the new place, and the food was just as good.

Village Idiots, Playing Online Pub Trivia Together

April 14, 2020

Covid has closed the pub (though I think they are doing take-out and delivery) so the trivia hasn't been running. I ended up planning to my Virtual Trivia Nights on Tuesdays in honour of the Oakville one. Well, the guy who runs the one at the pub has decided to try to broadcast it online. I moved the one that I host to Wednesday and last night got to actually play for the first time in a couple of months. We set up a Zoom call with the Village Idiots team members on one of Jason's monitors and had the Facebook Live broadcast of the trivia on the other. We think we got third or fourth - the switch to virtual meant some confusion with scoring and communication.

Happy Easter

K sent us this image with a message that said "Looking forward to the day I can hang out with my peeps again"

Me, Maria, Matty, Teri, Monica 

as Peeps! for Easter 2020 done by K

Super cute! Don't know why she picked a photo where Monica has her eyes closed but the rest of us look good. I don't think I have ever had a Peep, don't they have coconut on them, or is that something else? And I agree with her statement, this self-isolation for Covid-19 is really lonely.

A Virtual Trivia Night

Our government has requested that everyone practice social distancing for a few weeks as the world deals with the coronavirus. I decided to run a Trivia Night over the internet to stay in touch with friends and provide people with some light entertainment for an hour or two. Last night a bunch of people logged in and it was a lot of fun!

I had read details about Google Hangouts incorrectly and we were only able to have 10 people at a time, so Jason had to run a second game at the same time (with the same presentation/questions) on Skype to allow more people to participate. I think I will run it again next week if we are still dealing with this isolation thing. It definitely is a lonely time, so many people around me are super stressed out and I am worried about the anxiety levels I am seeing in my friends and family. It is a strange time.

Let's Go To Virginia, Real Quick

So this past weekend brought a snow storm to Toronto (and the surrounding area). I got a call on Sunday that Steph was trapped at the airport downtown. (Toronto Island Airport that was originally just Porter but now a few other carriers use it too. Also, you used to only be able to get to it using a ferry but now there is a tunnel to walk under the water.) Steph was trying to get to Virginia for a photography conference.

Upon reviewing her options she called to see if she could stay overnight and then figure out a way home to Ottawa the following day - since everything in Toronto was basically shut down with the snow (even though it had basically stopped snowing at this point.) I decided to do one better and offered to drive her down to Virginia so she didn't have to miss out on the conference, or the styled shoot she had scheduled on location as well.

It took 10 hours to drive to Charlottesville and we arrived at her hotel at 4am on Monday morning. I was going to drive her to the shoot but then decided I wanted to sleep and just lent her the car for the day while I hung out at the hotel. When she got back that evening (and how she worked a full day, I have no idea) I drove her up to the Washington, DC airport (where she was originally going to fly in) so that she could grab her rental car and continue onto the conference. Then I drove home overnight from Monday to Tuesday.

It was great to spend time catching up but now I need to catch up on some sleep!

Such Major Changes

As I mentioned before, I am in the process of launching a business. Well, actually, we are open and have been for over a week, so I guess we are launched (doesn't feel like it - so behind where I want to be on this.) Here are just some of the things doing that has meant
- I haven't written on Always Standing in two and a half months
- Catching a cold and wearing socks to bed to try to get over it quicker
- Going for weeks without seeing my friends (this has been the worst part)
- Having over a hundred unread messages in my personal inbox
- Not cleaning or cooking or even BEING at home
It has been a surprising adventure, nothing at all like I thought it would be. I love it but I am exhausted. Hoping to get some updates and photos onto the blog soon. Though also looking to get a blog going for the shop too. But, with what time?

Soup Selfie!

One of my Christmas traditions has always bucked the material/consumer driven holiday trend - Christmas Soup. More than a decade ago, while I was still living in Ottawa, Teri got together with a couple of her friends to make French Onion Soup. Since it is a dish that takes a long time - lots of cutting onions and boiling them down - they decided to make a day of it, hanging out together.

Every year since that start they have gotten together for an afternoon/evening in December to make soup together and then eat it afterwards. I joined the tradition a few years in and over time the group has grown with spouses and even a baby now. We just got together yesterday for Christmas Soup 2019 (see photo), made a delicious green minestrone one.

Time To Share

I haven't given an update on what is happening in my professional life. Basically I have spent the last 6 months or more working towards opening a mini-donut business. This added element into my life is probably a major component as to why I haven't been posting as much on Always Standing.

I did so well in October, with the intention of spending November sharing information about my new enterprise publicly on this blog. But time slipped away and I didn't know how to explain to the world - using this medium - what was going on. My groups on WhatsApp and close friends over texts get lots of updates. I have sent emails to friends, family, acquaintances and work colleagues. I am using Facebook to share details. But writing about this donut venture here has been escaping me. (I am sure that most of my audience - that is even still around - duplicates from those I speak with more intimately.)

I realize that for me now Always Standing is a bit of a journal. A public repository of what is happening in my life. I don't want to stop writing because I don't want to lose the ability to look back at this time in my life, I love doing TB posts and the chance to see my thoughts from years ago. So the blog is going to continue as a means of documenting my life. There is over a decade of writing, can't stop now!

Much Nicer!

Fun staging tip - Use boxes under a blow-up mattress to give the appearance of a bed. (The suggestion online said milk crates, but we didn't have those.) Obviously you can't sit on it, and we used a king-size sheet to cover the boxes. I looked into renting things from a professional staging place but it was all really expensive. I figured that using ideas from the internet and borrowing from friends if we didn't have the right stuff to use would work out just as well. Luckily we have friends with awesome taste and were able to use some really great pieces to highlight our basement.

Also, this picture below is perfect for the end of our demolition photo reel that shows the progression from inspection to the end of the tear-end.

Staged The Apartment -- Posted To Rent

The Bedroom

April 2018

TB - August 2007

Throwback Thursday - Scroll to the bottom of the month and read up. Or click on the earliest post in the month (to view the post and the comments) then keep clicking Newer Post until you finish the month.

AUGUST 2007

This month saw some considerable shifts, I made the decision not to go back to Carleton full-time and instead took a contract extension with The Department of Natural Resources. I do detail my plan to take two night courses, which I think is where I meet/met Jenn and Erin. (I also feature an adorable photo of the other ERin at the start of the month.) The other change is that Anna and Wes moved out, which I remember being sad about.

Also, I mention Brian and Tina going to Japan, but I can't remember who these people are. Did I meet them at school, or work, if so which work? Were they friends through another friend? The link that I reference in the post is long gone.

When doing these Throwback posts I like to edit them and provide updates, mainly adding in more tags or fixing spelling. Grammar and editing wise I had to do a lot with paragraphs and spacing, what was I thinking? Did I believe that I was writing stream-of-consciousness, and if so that it didn't need to be put into paragraphs?

Noted Post: I don't think the writing is very interesting, but I love the photo of my smile in the Humour post.

The Reckoning - Fitness

I went to Ottawa a couple of weeks ago and in the middle of my visit had a pretty sizable emotional breakdown. It wasn't depression based, instead it was about my body. I try to be open about my struggles with mental illness, but I am less open about my relationship with my body - its appearance, fitness level, weight, etc. Part of my reason for this is that I just don't think about it very much and the other part is that I have a different relationship than is usually depicted, or that I see from friends and family.

I am fine with how my body is/looks as long as...
- I am still fun, aka I am not holding others back from having a good time

I am often the slowest person on a hike or the last to finish a run. But I can still participate, I join in and enjoy various activities with my friends and family. This is very important to me and every time that Jason and I don't make it to the top of a mountain because we run out of time - my heart breaks and I hate myself and my body. This might seem like a very specific item but it has happened a number of times and it always makes me feel pretty awful about myself.

In Ottawa I felt the same way but at a magnitude never experienced before. Jason and I went to go skating on the canal and after doing up my skates I was unable to actually skate. I am not a good skater but I have never had issues doing it before. Even holding my body in position to skate was painful and the actual motion was exhausting - I was panting and sweating.

It was humiliating. I was devastated. After returning to the bench and taking off my skates, we went right to the car - I couldn't stop crying. To have my fitness level that low made me so angry at myself. I have never experienced these types of feelings about myself and body in this way. Instead of staying for the rest of the weekend in Ottawa, I decided to go home early. It was truly a shattering experience.

I couldn't imagine continuing to stay in Ottawa that weekend while feeling that awful - and I didn't feel comfortable disclosing to all the people I planned to visit that I was so upset because I felt like a useless disgusting fat worthless pile of crap. It isn't nice to hang out with people when upset, but I have done it during depressive episodes before. This was different and I am less comfortable with the realities of the situation. My friends were understanding and, while I still don't like talking about this, I decided to start writing about it to explain a bit to those who were there. This also allows me to share a bit of what is going on with me right now with others.

Somewhere Changing

Back from a weekend in Niagara Falls with the following:

- Joy from three straight days with great friends
- A Massive headache
- Guilt from keeping Tessa awake

- The sound of Kristen singing Kesha stuck in my head

- Reminders from Taylor to do a safety check
- Sweat drenched clothes from the humidity
- A lavender plant
- Memories of the 45oz blue margarita
- Plans to go out on the Friday night next year

Journey Behind The Falls has ponchos too!

I never know where to look when I am the one taking the selfie

Me, Tessa, Taylor, and Kristen

After skipping a year because of my wedding, we are back with tradition. Third time is the charm.

Sleepovers - Child Vs Adult

I just got back from a quick four-day trip to Calgary. Jason used his Aeroplan points to get me flights out west for my birthday, so I could spend some time with ERin and Anne. (It was going to be during Stampede but got postponed to August.) I thought I would discuss the weekend as a comparison to sleepovers, specifically birthday party ones, I had as a child:

Length of Time
Not just a single night! Since I am in Toronto, Anne in Calgary, and ERin in Edmonton, if we are going to spend time together it only makes sense for it to be a few days. I flew out on Wednesday evening and back Sunday night.

Location
Instead of gathering in the living room or basement of our parent's house, we stayed at Anne's trendy apartment in the Kensington area of Calgary.

Sleeping Arrangements
We don't need to all be in the same room, and our bodies are too old to sleep on the floor. I got the fold-out couch with some awesome memory foam.

TV
Morning cartoons, fun movies, or late night television? Nope! An episode of Chef's Table in the afternoon.

Snacks
No chips, candy, or popcorn, instead we helped ERin by taste testing some new chocolate flavours.

Meals
We traded in the pizza and hot dogs for Anne's fabulous cooking. She made us orzo salad, fennel and zucchini soup, fish tacos with homemade mango salsa, and more.

Dessert
I used to love decorating cupcakes. But this weekend we helped ERin make two different fancy cakes (I was minimally helpful.) We started with the very complicated Pacific Cake that took much of Thursday, and then quickly whipped up a modern version of an Opera Cake on Saturday.

Restaurants
Our choices for a Friday night out on the town were not kid friendly at all. First stop, for appetizers and margaritas, was Anejo, where they make the guacamole and salsa right at your table. For dinner we went to Klein Harris, where I had beet salad and hanger steak. We also made a few breakfast/brunch stops at a pie place in Anne's building - I kept getting the quiche, so good!

Daily Essential
It used to be such a regular thing to visit the corner store, usually for ice cream or candy, during a sleepover, but now that we are older - it is coffee! Made at home or quick visits to a cafe.

Amusement
Hard to remember all the things that I did as a child at birthday parties; swimming, movies, games. In Calgary we went on a road trip to the mountains, visits to ice cream shops and the grocery store, dinners out, dinners in, a cat cafe, and lots of walking around the city.

Conversation
Did we talk about boys? Yes. But also our families, friendships, pets, careers, travel, health, education, and more.

Friendship
I think it gets even better as we get older. It was a wonderful weekend, I love those two so much.

The Lost Summer

I ran across a video on Facebook called 25 Years of Summer Songs and all of them brought brief flashes of life back to me, except one. It was so strange to recognize each one, remember the song, reflect on my time during that year and then be confronted by a blank. It was jarring but I assumed it was probably an American list and that song wasn't popular here.

Then I thought about the year - 2004. I don't know if I would say it was the worst summer that I have had but it was a rough one: staying in Ottawa after my first year at Carleton in Engineering, to take summer courses. Working at a minimum wage job across the city that took over an hour and half on transit to get to. Dealing with a long distance serious relationship. Not many friends around because so many people return to their hometowns during that first university summer. However, that minimum wage job was at Extreme Pita, so that is full-time radio listening and I am surprised that the song didn't stick in my mind from that.

The song, Burn by Usher, seems to be pretty universally agreed to be the main song for the summer of 2004. While I recognize other songs from that same album, that one just isn't in my memory. I don't totally agree with all the picks each year, in 2001 I can remember Drops of Jupiter being a major summer song, but that might have just been personal experience. I might not be big on music but songs are still often a serious memory link.

Happy Birthday Steph!

It is Steph's birthday today! 

I hope she is having a good one.

Prime seats in front, up top, on a double decker bus.

London, England - January 2008

Photo by ME

It has been nine years since we took this photo, and we have been friends since September 2003, yet she still makes me this happy! Since moving to Toronto in 2010 we don't see each other as often, but we both make the effort and I head up to Ottawa pretty often. We make it work, she is worth it. Happy Birthday!

Quote Of The Day

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

- Mark Twain

A Perfect Poem

The service for Teri's father was opened today with a poem from Edgar Albert Guest, it was an excellent way to remind the gathered group of friends and family about the type of person Gord was:

It Couldn’t Be Done

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done
  But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
  Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
  On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
  That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
  At least no one ever has done it;”
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat
  And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
  Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
  That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
  There are thousands to prophesy failure,
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
  The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
  Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
  That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

- Edgar Albert Guest, "The Path To Home," 1919

The rest of the Celebration of Life this afternoon followed suit and was a lovely string of friends and family coming forward to share their memories of Gord (including beautifully done speeches from Teri and Kevan.) It was a touching tribute to a wonderful man.

Movie With The Girls

Went to a movie (Hidden Figures, highly recommended) tonight with some friends from work. We have a Whatsapp group and talk throughout the day using lots of Bitmoji's. Here are the four of us represented by our avatars:

Clockwise from top left: 

Laura, Lor, ME, Sob

No, Thank You

Just before writing about her Top 5, Steph did a thank you post on her blog reflecting on her biggest year yet with Stephanie Beach Photography. I am so excited about the future of her company. You can read about the many things that has made this past year such a highlight, but for me it will selfishly be her participation at my wedding (which she also mentioned). Here is her sweet message:

I had such a hard time writing the original blog post for these two. This wasn’t because their day wasn’t interesting, on the contrary, Chris + Jason’s wedding was the most unique we have ever been a part of (and this will likely be a true statement for a long, long time, if not the rest of time). It was difficult to write because nothing was ever enough to express just how much they mean to us. When the bride is your very best friend, who has (and continues to) given you so much and always been there for you, expressing all of that in a matter befitting her, such a charismatic and well-spoken person, can be troublesome. Writing down the words that truly show how genuinely happy I am that two people as caring, thoughtful and utterly wonderful as them, have found each other took me longer than usual and to be honest, I still don’t think the words did the entire situation justice. I love them to pieces and getting to document their wedding days was without a doubt, a highlight of my photographic career and I can’t think of any other way I would have wanted to spend these days with them.

Check out the full 2016 Thank You post, HERE. You can also see her post about our wedding, which I love and frequently reread, HERE, the pictures are so beautiful.

Fall Wedding Handicap

Steph has reported on her blog the TOP 5 POSTSs for the year, Jason and My Wedding did make it. (Though we did get a nice little shoot out at the bottom, and included one of my favorite pictures of us hugging.)

I am a bit competitive and like to achieve really high digital and social media stats, so I was careful to link to Jason and my wedding post on her blog as often as I could. I also love the pictures and want to share them with everyone.

I think that we had a small disadvantage since the wedding was at the end of September and the main post went up at the start of November, so only two months of traffic! However, there was a wedding listed that only had a month up on the blog, very impressive, they must have a large network of friends and family.

Steph uses Wordpress, I think, for her blog so I won't be able to ask her how she figured out the top posts because Always Standing is on Blogger. I want to look into it though and maybe post mine later.

Wedding Photos For Your Monday!

Had a great surprise this weekend - Steph has finished our Wedding Photos!! You can see her post about them on the Stephanie Beach Photography blog.

In the text of the post, she included her 'Deceleration of Legality' speech that she gave during our ceremony - it was so lovely and while she mentions that she messed up while giving it at the wedding, I didn't notice. She also describes the events really well and the photos are ordered chronologically to really explain what the whole wedding weekend was like. I enjoyed my mom's description of her experience that she posted on her blog, but since Steph was with me the whole time, her details are closer to how I remember the event - a great read!

Obviously the photos are amazing, and those included in the post are just a small sample of the full set that she has given Jason and I. This was a wonderful wedding present from Steph and Dave and we are beyond thankful.

I have mentioned before that Steph and I always prefer different photos, so I am going to be posting a bunch on Always Standing that weren't included in her blog post to show you my favourites (Basically they are all good and I just want to share more of them!!.) Here is one:

Bridesmaids And Smiles - Before City Hall

Our Wedding - Paperwork Day - September 23, 2016

By Stephanie Beach Photography