WOTS Guest Blogger

As part of her job as Marketing and Special Events Coordinator for The Word On The Street (WOTS) festival, Kristen manages the WOTS blog. There are a number of guest bloggers who review various books, I am going to do a series on The Toronto Book Awards. I have already started and it is a lot of fun. I will let you know when various posts go up. I have also added a link to the WOTS blog on the right.

See my bio HERE
See my first post HERE

A Famous Boat

My parents big sailboat, Meridian, was featured on the Weather Network website for Port Dover. I gather people can just post photos that are weather related on the site - the sailing one mentions that it was choppy and windy that day. Someone on the shore took a picture of them heading out on Race Night.

Waking Up

Life is shifting.
Waves pushing through weak currents.
New directions, not just on TV.
Lost but not drifting.
Broke and broken.
Sleeping, yet thankfully not sick.

A Sad Day For Canada

It was announced this morning that Jack Layton has died. We have lost a great political mind today. And I am sad that there is one less Canadian silver fox, quickly becoming an endangered species. I'm glad that he brought such hope, vision, and victory to the NDP and it is so tragic that he will no longer be there to lead them as the Official Opposition. I saw him three times when I lived in Ottawa (two of which he was biking) and I was always so excited. It is a very sad day indeed. RIP Jack and condolences to your family.

BUI

Have water on the water and leave the beer on the pier!
--Don't Drink and Boat--

Random Post

Heard an advertisement on the radio that used the word napsack, I always say backpack.

DeVry University set me an email with the subject line: Earn a degree that makes a difference in your career. Hey, what are they trying to say? What do they know?

English is his second language but Yen might be schooling me in poetics. In a reply to an email that I signed off as Where does the summer go? Chris, Yen added at the end of his response, BTW - The summer went in your memories.

Are You A Donor?

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, Blood Donation is an important and amazing thing. I have been unable to donate blood for the last year since you have to wait a year after visiting Northern China, but I plan to make an appointment by the end of the month. They called me to tell me my wait time was up and I'm nervous but still excited to get back into that chair and give blood again.

But this post is about another type of donation - organ donation. There is such a huge shortage of organs and tissue in Ontario that the need outweighs the availability. More than 1,500 Ontarians are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant and thousands more are waiting for a tissue transplant. Every three days someone dies in Ontario waiting for a life-saving transplant. It is frightening that it could end up being someone I know and love, or that it could even be me one day.

One donor can save up to eight lives through organ donation, and help up to 75 others through tissue donation. You may have signed your donor card but that isn't always enough. (I actually don't even know where mine is, though I know I have signed at least two of them in my lifetime.) The card may not be available when the information is needed, so be sure to discuss your decision to donate with your family and friends. My parents know that I am a full organ donor with no exceptions. Though I'm sure medically a number of my organs will not be viable (eyes for one, and if I keep drinking maybe the liver and kidneys.) They also know that I am open to donating my body to science if that is a more viable option. Also, I know that my parents are organ donors but not comfortable donating to science. Discuss these things with people close to you. Everyone has different preferences and it is important to be clear what they are.

Even beyond the donor card and making your decisions clear to family and friends, the best option is to register the information with Ontario Health. When you register your consent to donate organs and tissue, this information is stored in a Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care database. The ministry will disclose information about your decision to Trillium Gift of Life Network, Ontario's organ and tissue donation agency, for the purpose of ensuring that your decision to donate is known and respected. By registering your consent to donate, you ensure that your decision is recorded and can be made available when it is needed.

REGISTER NOW

Bugs And Bad Internet

I know I complain about the internet every single time I come to the cottage. It takes me forever to get on it and then all I do once I'm finally connected is check a few things, look at emails, and write a quick post about how horrible the internet is here.

However, this is the worst so far!! It is 1:15am and I am out back (non-beach-side) with my laptop plugged into the outside outlet sitting in a lawn chair as far as the cord can reach, which is the very end of the slab of concrete that is the back porch. Seriously I needed the extra three feet that this gives me past the back of the actual cottage so as to get signal to send an important email. Sure it is lovely with the crickets and sounds of waves. However, it is dark, the back light is dim, I'm tired, and totally getting eaten alive by bugs!!

Missing Mike

I'm missing Little Brother Mike! This happens occasionally but especially in the summer since I enjoy hanging out with him at The Cottage, swimming, playing games, etc. His girlfriend is overseas with The Canadian Forces so he took a job at a base in the middle of no where so as to keep distracted and make some extra money while she is gone. The problem is that it doesn't really have cell reception so we can only chat if/when he goes back to Edmonton on the weekends. Luckily I got to visit with him on my recent trip to Calgary and Banff. He came down and went on a pub crawl with us, where all these pictures are from, I believe that they were all taken by Teri.

A Picture For Mum - Smile!

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"Did you smile nicely?"
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A Better Picture For Mum
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Almost Perfect

I'm hanging out at The Cottage for most of this week and it is sheer bliss. However, there is one super annoying factor, and it isn't even that my cell phone costs a lot of money here and doesn't work well - it is the internet! It has some how gotten worse since the last time I was here. You have to huddle in the upstairs back corner to get any kind of signal, and even then it is just one bar. It is difficult to reach a plugged in laptop into a good position and since my computer is so old it has no battery life, it is also super annoying to lug it upstairs when I am predominately spending time at the dining room table working on my MRP. So I go on my parents tiny netbook to access the internet. Even though I used this thing throughout my big Russia trip, I'm finding it hard to adjust. I have a bunch more emails to do but I think I will just save them until I'm back in Toronto for a couple of days mid-week. Bliss is only truly complete with good internet.

Comments?

I have noticed a sharp decline in comments. There is also a slight decline in visitors to Always Standing; I went into Google Analytics to check that someone somewhere out there was still reading the dribble that I post, and a few people are. But I live for the comments, I post better and more often if I am getting feedback of some sort. I guess I'm one of those people, like Tinkerbell, who survive on applause.

Update On Me:
Finishing the last touches on my MRP. Hanging out at the cottage with my mom and having to deal with terrible internet. Starting to think about finding a job and really wanting to get a car.

Update On You:
(Respond in comments, don't be scared.)
What are your plans for the last remaining weeks of summer?

Quick Quotes

The Las Vegas trip was epic! I will do my usual post of point-form observations soon. However, Teri and I noted two amusing quotes that we should remember. We both wish we had kept a log of quotes for the trip; Teri did that for a trip once and JennB, the girls, and I had one for the insane New Years trip in New Orleans. We didn't do a log for Las Vegas though, but besides these two I don't think it was much of a funny quote filled trip. Here are the two good ones:

At one of the pool parties...
Cute Bartender: Wow, you have really nice ears.
Me: Thank you.
Cute Bartender: Yeah, they look like little vanilla wafers.

At one of the nightclubs...
Sleazy Guy: So, I think you should come back to my room.
Teri: Uhh, no, I have a boyfriend.
Sleazy Guy: I have a cat.
Teri: Huh?
Sleazy Guy: Oh, I'm sorry, I thought we were talking about things that didn't matter.

Besides the jerk quoted above, a rude waiter, and numerous airline staff, everyone we met on this trip were amazing. It felt like a city filled with friends; everyone just wandered around smiling and chatting.

Dancing In The Sky

M & M joined Teri and I in Las Vegas for the weekend. They left this morning so we had to make last night count. We grabbed a quick dinner at a casino bar at The Rio, then went to a Chippandales show. After the show, we popped up to the 51st floor of The Rio to go to the nightclub VooDoo but were not totally impressed. We decided to just leave because we hadn't had to pay to get in, we used passes from a promoter. (Ter and I have been totally hooked up the whole time we've been there - it is all very baller, or some other cool term.) We walked next door to The Gold Coast and drank some cheap drinks since the prices in the actual clubs are insane but at some of the casinos, especially the older ones, the drink specials are amazing. After that it was over to Ghostbar at The Palms, another roof top club. This one was awesome and we stayed there for the rest of the night. So much fun!!

Above The Las Vegas Strip
Self Portrait