something to blog about

Friday, September 18, 2015

Catch up, dog days

Down to the last days of "summer". Time flew by and here's the summer catch up, mostly in pictures.

I volunteered at the Vancouver International Soccer Festival

Trip to Victoria, best friend, best little girl, best coconut milk latte in the northern hemisphere

Trip to Prince George, also awesome (but more on that later)

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Took some extra days and some extra people and hit up my favorite campsite. Even got the coveted corner spot where the river wraps around us- and as usual we were one of few up there. We fully intended on going up to the lake, but instead parked ourselves at the rivers edge and did not move. For 3 days

When we finally packed up and left and went to the lake it was wonderful and warm enough for this fair weather swimmer.

Man, camping makes me truly happy.

Monday, July 6, 2015

not sew good: quilting accident

Who knew? Let this post be a lesson to you all... The perils of quilting. There are some dangerous tools involved in making quilts: sharp needles and pins, scissors and apparently the most hazardous of all, the rotary knife. You put life and limb at risk every time a baby needs a quilt.

Sewing took a turn a couple weeks back for me. I was working on a baby quilt at my kitchen table, cutting fabric into strips when I dropped my rotary knife on my foot. So. Much. Blood.

I manged to get a few band aids on and hobbled over to VGH emergency. 4 nurses later, 3 hours later, 2 stitches later, I got home. And sewed that last strip. Considering it was only my second trip to a hospital for me in 38 years that's not too bad, but I still never want a repeat of it. Wear shoes when quilting people!

Saturday, June 20, 2015

"is there a NURSE on the plane?"

I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge my brother KD who has just graduated from UBC Nursing. He has been an LPN for about 5 years and went back to become an RN Registered Nurse. He did preceptorships in mental health, children's hospital and maternity.

He does a job I could never ever do. With patience and care and sensitivity on a level I could never achieve. I am very very proud of him.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

stumped

The first camping trip of the year came and went- it was as usual, not disappointing.

This time we were a mash up of 5 of which some of us had never met each other, camped together or been to this site before... My coworker DZ and 2 friends at GK and I.

The first luxury was that the boys foraged ahead and set up camp, tents and stocked our firewood. The second was that it was a long weekend so we had time to relax.

We did a day trip up to Ross Lake, which in previous years I actually swam in- but I'd never seen anything like it- right now as far as you can see.... grass. I had heard it was a field before it gets flooded each summer, but I wasn't expecting apocalyptic terrain.

Stumps. Stumps everywhere. We hung out in the sun and wandered around for a couple hours...

I'm always mildly creeped out by the darkness of lakes not knowing what is underneath you, but now I know: it's chewbaca fur

(That's the dried grass on the bottom of the lake)

Rest of the weekend was cooking and eating and beer, a round of all terrain bocce and rousing game of "would you rather" and so much laughter.

And ceasers

And excess veggies

Yes, that's a tarp of veg

We also found this crazy little bridge over the river

Fabulous as always!

Thursday, March 19, 2015

running away to join the circus

It's sort of happened in a round about way. I remember watching Circus of the Stars as a kid (remember that?)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NkX-mDRRTHY

And I was the kid climbing to the top of the tree. And hanging upside down from places I shouldn't.

It might have been a weird thing to want, but the flying trapeze was something that I locked away in the back of my mind and knew it was something I'd like to try.

Then about 10 years ago a former coworker moved to Montreal and I think the first update we got from her was a short clip of her doing just that. Trapeze. And then a couple years later a blogger I had been following from New York wrote a post on it as something her and her husband did as a date.

It was getting closer...

Last year I went to a special event at the revitalized New Westminster Quay and who was flying above us? Inside? People on trapeze. I nearly lost my mind.

So a couple months ago when I saw a deal on Social Shopper for a trapeze class for 2 at ANOTHER trapeze group in Vancouver area I immediately told the first friend I saw, mr CH and as I was uttering the words "who would ever go and try this with me..." I realized I was talking to that very guy.

We booked our session, which normally takes up to 10 students in one class, but in the end it was just us 2 and 3 instructors to ourselves. It was only a 2 hour class and I knew there was a ground lesson, but I did not expect to be climbing up a 24 foot ladder, with a safety harness in less than 20 minutes.

Seriously.

Yep. Climbing that ladder.

Forgive me, but I realized the gravity of what I had signed up for only when I was suddenly standing up there. That was the hardest part. Leaving the platform.

There was one instructor up there attaching me to safety harnesses, holding me back (I realized after, only with their bare hands), getting the bar to me and an instructor on the ground manipulating the safety ropes when needed to control my fall and shout instructions.

Seems like simple instructions, but the panic sets in and I felt like I was hearing nothing. Just follow their voice.

NOW. And NOW. NOW.

My first attempts I could not get my legs over the bar- note to self: the key word is momentum.

The best run, it worked- not smoothly- but it worked.

BTW believe it or not the dismount from the bar is a back flip. I thought they were crazy- it wasn't a suggestion, it was expected- and that it would be totally impossible, but that's what I'm doing there as I dismount from the trapeze bar.

Oh thank you net!

And it felt so damn good.

Once that basic was mastered, in less than an hour we moved onto the catch. One of the other instructors got up there too and the idea is if you do everything right- they grab you and off you go swinging with them holding you by your arms. They literally catch you in the air. For me, at this point I was running out of steam, and never quite got there, but CH got it on his 2nd attempt.

Not bad. Not bad at all for less than 2 hours.

Great and talented instructors. Cool space. Thank you so much to the team of high fliers!

In the adrenaline of it all we signed up for 2 more classes. In the adrenaline of it all I did not realize how sore I was.

Not going to lie, I'm in pretty rough shape. Right now I'm at 48 hours later. I feel like I've been hit by a car. I think I sprained a toe on my last dismount- it's purple. I can't lift my hands/arms above my head- so I can't wash my hair or put it in a pony tail. I sneezed tonight and had to brace myself, and this evening sitting next to a 9 month pregnant lady who asked me to pick something off the floor for her I was no help. But, we will recover, and we will go again.

Check them out:

West Coast Flying Trapeze

http://www.westcoastflyingtrapeze.com

Monday, February 16, 2015

Sew good: Selfie Doll

So today there was this super fun event at work-

(But honestly... not going to lie. Last week when I was asked to do it I was feeling all sewn out, ottomans and all)

There was a student event this week that the counselling department was hosting: a Selfie Doll workshop

Last week my coworkers were asked to make some as samples for the event, and as time went on we all got more, and more and more into it. By last Friday we spent most of the afternoon fantasizing about all the outfits we were going to make for them. I went home from a night out on Friday, which was basically Saturday, and then I sewed till 2:30am.

Then, it REALLY got a bit crazy when it was valentines day night, and I'd hit some kind of new level when I had been working on an infinity scarf for over an hour. For a doll. A DOLL.