Listen Up

Don't whine. It makes you ugly.

~Maya Angelou

DMB or Bust 2005

Well, I'm back from seeing the DMB and the concert itself was...just...I cannot find words adequate enough to describe it. It was incredibly magical. The trip...well, I'm just not sure how to go about describing it really. I think it just needs to settle in a bit as there are parts of it I'm refusing to believe actually happened. I think I just want a shower and a whole lot of coffee right now and hopefully that will have me on my way to feeling human once again. More to come.

Ahh, Mr. Lewis, you've done it again

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket --safe, dark, motionless, airless-- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

- C.S. Lewis.

Me & Ella

I've never been a great fan of cats, seeing as I never grew up with them and so I don't know how to read them. It didn't help that some of my friends (you know who you are) have clinicly insane cats. Up until now the only cat I've loved and that loves me is Becky's cat Gretyl (only because I cat sat for her and we got to hang out on our own terms). But things have changed with the appearance of Mia who is Kim's, my sister's, barn cat. I like her now too. Now the best part is Mia had 5 kittens-4 boys, 1 girl-and we're keeping the girl as another barn cat. I've named her Ella after the great jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. So this is me and her this past week. She's 2 weeks old and her eyes and ears have opened though it doesn't seem like she can see super well. I don't know a lot about cats but I know what I like and I love this one.

Foxy!

Since my realization during the summer of 2002, I just can't help myself: Dave Matthews is one foxy man. I can't quite pinpoint it, but I know it has something to do with the fact that he sings and plays guitar. And the little dance-type moves that he does. Please don't be mistaken: hot and foxy are 2 different things. It's much harder to be foxy than it is to be hot.

I'm seeing the Dave Matthews concert this Sunday night at The Gorge and I'm so excited that I've been having trouble falling asleep these past couple of nights. Being so excited about something that it interferes with things like sleep happens so rarely to me that I cannot remotely imagine, let alone remember, the last time it did. I'm usually able to keep my cool a lot better than this. At least until after the said excitement when I might freak out a little. My love/admiration for Dave is clearly out of control. I wonder if they have some sort of 12-step program for this type of problem? Maybe I could spearhead D.M.A.: Dave Matthews Anonymous.

"Hi. My name is Lindsey and I love Dave Matthews." "Hi Lindsey..."

Speaking of the shelter...

Yesterday I was out and about combing the town for 2 kazoos. You would not believe how hard it is to find kazoos. What do people put in their child's loot bag at birthday parties nowadays? For crying out loud, I went to 3 loonie stores, Save-On-Foods, Zeller's, and Superstore before I found a pack of 5 kazoos for $1.39 at a 4th loonie store! You'd think I was looking for someone to donate a liver. I think that would have been easier.

While I was wandering through the mall with my Mom, I heard someone say "Lindsey!" and I turned around to see a former client of the shelter that I had worked at. We chatted for a couple of minutes and he looked fantastic! My last week working at the shelter he had gone into a treatment facility and I was so hopeful and excited for him because he was one of my favorites. It had been so heart-breaking to watch his deterioration from an artistic man with a soft and open heart that I had built a relationship with to the angry, tired, smelly, thinning, hardly-functioning mess he had become. For me, it was one of the times at the shelter when my heart ached so much that-in my short-sighted humanness-I had to ask God "why". He (the client) completed the 3 month program and is now out and appears to be doing well. It made me miss working at the shelter. It was by no means an easy job and there were days when I had had enough and just wanted to quit and walk away. But I miss the people there, I miss building relationships with them, I just miss something about it that I cannot quite put into words. But I will steal a bit of verse that I now love that a friend posted on his blog (thanks Jon):

Some wish to live within the sound

Of Church or Chapel Bell.

I want to run a rescue shop

within a yard of Hell.

C.T. Studd

You're Hired

This falls into the miracle category of my life. God's provided me with another job whelst I continue to keep my sweet ABA therapist job. I'm going to be a server at Boston Pizza. Orientation is September 1st. I am scared. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing but I have to remember that that's the way that I came to work in lingerie at Sears and as a resident care worker at the homeless shelter and both of those turned out more than alright. So here's to yet another new adventure and another random job!

You are what you wear

I'm not usually one for posting about obscure, yet insanely phenominal, websites that people may never actually visit but this one merits mention. I found it on another friends blog (Thanks Derek). Some will make you smile, others will make you chuckle, and a few will have you laughing right out loud. Enjoy!

www.randomshirts.com

Accident Free: 3 days

So, summer doesn't appear to be the high time of blogging. I mean, a lot is happening in that wide wild world but who has time to blog about it?

Remember seeing those signs at work places like mills and even department stores (I miss you Sears) that post how many days they've been "accident free"? The mill that's just east of Silver Mirror Lake in Mission comes to mind. They're on a serious accident free roll...that sign hasn't changed in months! Seriously, the number is always the same. Doesn't go up or down. I'm onto them. Well, I've been considering wearing one of those signs right around my neck. Or maybe I could get it printed up on a shirt and have velcro numbers that I could change. Summer may not be a high time for blogging but my clutz quotient has sky-rocketed!

Let's see, earlier this summer I was bare-backing my sister's horse, got swept off him by a big branch and got a concussion. Last week I was sliding down a banister and I suppose I was a little over-zealous because I ended up falling over backwards and grabbed for whatever I could. So instead of riding my head down a flight of stairs I sprained my thumb. And disaster struck when I went to the fireworks last Saturday for Sweden. We were on the verge of being late, running toward the Burrard Street Bride when the toe of my flip-flop caught on the sidewalk. The Skittles I had presently been holding were strewn all over the sidewalk, as was I. My flip-flop was busted stuff-you guessed it-as was I. A friend fixed my flip-flop but my knee bled through my pants and has some pretty incredible bruising and we had to go to the emergency room for one of my hands because we couldn't get the gravel out. But my dear friends Heather and Lindsay made triage fun. We took some pictures and even some video. Last, and the very anti-climatic least, I walked into a stool at a friends house and now am the proud owner of a brand new big fat bruise. That was Monday. I've now successfully navigated my way through Thursday. My t-shirt (if I had one) would read "Accident Free 3 days".

All this, especially this last week, has been such a physical reminder of the way I feel coming to God sometimes. I try so hard to love Him, to show Him my devotion, give Him my heart, only to be blind-sided, fall over and have to come to Him for yet another band-aid. Just another reminder that my feeble and finite ways will never be enough. I need just rest in Him and leave the rest up to Him.

So I end another day. A little worse for the wear, but a little closer to the prize I strive for and a lot more thankful to still be alive.