xmas party just around the corner

December is just around the corner which 'tis the season for parties! Click on the image for details and ask me for specific digits.

a typical justine pose

Ai-yaaahh... (my favourite Chinese expression of exclamation) I've totally gotten myself even worse off than my usual 3am bedtime this week, averaging about 6am each night (or morning, depending on how you look at it). Crazy I know!

In cleaning up and organizing all my files this week, I came across this classic photo of how you typically would find me -- at the computer, with my trusty canteen of hot water, papers strewn about like a tornado just passed through, burning my midnight lamp... I'd completely forgotten Florence had taken it! :P

I still swear though, that if the world was operating on a night schedule as its norm, I'd be a day person. I like the quietness that comes from the time when the rest of the world is not stirring. I like breaking the norm.

thoughts on giving & taking

Another successful RJD party. Thanks Becks for the practical idea of giving gifts to kids in needy countries by packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. It was a great way to catch up, have fun and share a meaningful purpose in our gathering.


Ta daa! Don't the boxes look so pretty... I don't know why, but in my head I thought we were wrapping all the individual gifts up so there'd be more fun to unwrap. Naive of me to forget that we live in a world where wrapped gifts are a threat while en route to international destinations. So we had fun wrapping the boxes instead (uh, correction, Dilys, Lynn and Jeff diligently wrapped the boxes -- not as easy as you might think! Thanks guys!)


Once the boxes were wrapped, the men left (I figure because the task was done :) and the women began another activity... knitting! Lynn was ambitiously knitting a teddy bear! He was so cute that we all wanted her to knit one for us! :) Apparently knitting is quite popular in populations that are not necessarily the stereotypical granny-type of person. My aunt taught me to knit years ago, but I never learned how to start a project or finish. I just know the stitches. Oh well, I don't think I'll be picking that up again -- I simply don't have the patience to finish any project!

Ironically we bought most of our gifts at the dollar store down the street. Ironic, I think, because I can't help but wonder if some of the very items we bought were made by the very children we are seeking to bless with our gifts. My sister borrowed a book from the library while she was here that I felt compelled to add to my collection of books. It's called Take It Personally: How to Make Conscious Choices to Change the World and is quite eye-opening about ethical and fair trade business, globalization and other related issues.

I realized a little while ago that I worship the mighty dollar in a different kind of way than the typical "earn lots and save/hoard lots." Rather, my expression of worshipping the dollar is more like, "I want the lowest cost possible on services and products -- at any cost," which is an illusion because while I may be getting a cheap price, you can almost bet it's coming at the cost of something or someone:

• It could be costing me health safety or the environment damage, if it's a product that's been produced by a company that cuts corners in its production practices (check out this site that shows detailed info on the safety of the personal care products we use -- interestingly the cheapest brands are often the highest hazard, but expensive labels are also producing toxic products).
  
• It could be a product made using cheap child labour in some country far away.
  
• It could be the 3 year old daughter who never sees his father who slaves away at the print shop I use (I've been there at 3am, 8am, 3pm... there is only once of the dozens of times I have been there when Dave, the owner, is not there).

To stop taking from others (and myself!) in these subtle ways is hard and intentional work for this slow-reader -- I can barely keep up with daily news let alone research some of these crucial issues. Seeing the implications of our choices are not as easy as I'd like. Ignorance can be bliss, but I can't ignore that part of God's mandate to human beings is to be good stewards of creation (which includes this beautiful world we live in, but more imporant, people!).

RJD doors are open again!

Come one, come all... Rebecca, Justine and Dilys are opening the doors to the RJD pad again for the following two events:

Almost time for our second games night on Nov. 7!


And, at Beck's thoughtful and festive suggestion, we're having a shoebox party! We've changed it to Sunday 5pm. Ask me for more details if you're serious about coming...

Toronto highlights

My time in Toronto flew right by -- but is that any surprise in this city whose default pace is warped speed?! Some quick highlights:


My sister's convocation! (aww, doesn't she look cute?!) The whole family gushed with pride as she walked across the stage and got "hooded." It was fun being my sister's official photographer because her fancy schmancy digital SLR made me feel like such a pro.

Great cuisine ...food is always a highlight of my travels! Ironically I ate and enjoyed every ray of the Asian rainbow: Japanese (yay for Toronto's sushi pizza, but the best Japanese still resides in Vancouver), Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Thai. Managed to convince mom to break out of the mould and had Greek. And got my fix of ice cream (Demettre's, Greg's roasted marshmallow flavour and I got to try those new dippin' dots ice cream -- feels just like sticking your tongue on a frozen metal pole, which is why I'm grimacing as I eat them!).



Family time... It was good to spend time with my family, and even better that we were able to be there and help my sister find an apartment. After checking out a few places (including a shoebox size condo on the waterfront for $1000/month), we found Flo a great little apartment on the main subway line. She thanked me for my help and goodwill, but I must admit I benefit from the apartment too as it'll be my accommodations for future visits :)

Now it's back to life in Vancouver... gotta take a deep breath before I dive in again! Let's hope I don't sink...

from sunny vancouver to rainy toronto

Left sunny Vancouver yesterday at 5am only to arrive in down-pouring rainy Toronto a few hours later. The flight my sister and I were on was supposed to arrive one minute after the flight my parents were on so we could meet up conveniently at the baggage carousel... only problem was due to the rain they had only one runway open! Then it took us 3 hours to sort through luggage, van rentals and drive to our B&B in downtown Toronto in the middle of rush hour gridlock traffic. Ah, the joys of big city life!

I must say though, I know I haven't had much time to blog recently. Life has been so insanely hectic in Vancouver. I was desperate to get away for a break to round up the family for a little "vacation" in Toronto. You know you're wound up when you think Toronto will be a restful place for vacation compared to the leisurely pace of Vancouver!

But it turns out it's still enough of the change of pace I needed to slow down and open my eyes. I don't usually have fond memories of Toronto itself -- other than all the visits over coffees and meals with friends each round of 3 weeks I spend out here every year. But I found myself quite enjoying pointing out the sights to my mom who was sitting beside me in the van while my sister and dad sat in the front navigating the rush hour traffic, weaving through express ways and one way streets.

Florence and Dad were like two peas in a pod in the front seats and really worked well together in getting us to places. Mom and I were like two peas in another pod, chatting on and off in the back, nodding off here and there because we had both been up all night getting ready for the trip (surprise surprise). If there was ever any doubt about how my sister is a carbon copy of my dad and I am cut of the same cloth as my mother, this trip expels all question about that!

I noticed for the first time in awhile the endearing mom and pop shops and character of the older brick buildings around town, compared to the slick shiny glassy buildings of Vancouver. Of course there are the usual franchise stores, but a lot more family shops and restaurants to balance it out. I was reading in my dad's CAA guide that Honest Ed's is the best bargain shop around still (a few floors of Army and Navy type of goodness)... no big box stores to be seen here!

Then I was reminded and inspired to take mom and dad around all the neat little neighbourhoods around town just to walk around and take in the sights. I hope we get time to do that... the trip has turned from "vacation" to helping my sister settle in and find a place to live (she got her dream job with CBC Toronto as a Media Librarian... a perfect combo of her background in history, journalism and library sciences... way to go Flo!)

Overall I think we are in a healthy place in our relationships with each other, but still am noticing our communication patterns that can be improved. It was quite funny tonight when my sister said in a hushed voice to me, "I didn't realize how loud our family talks!" I couldn't hear her over the fan of my laptop, so I kept saying, "what?! what? I can't hear you!" and she finally said more loudly "I didn't realize how loud our family talks!" Classic irony. :)

Anyway, I should probably go to bed now... I thought I had adjusted to the three hour time change forward due to being wiped from my previous all-nighter which got me in bed at normal Toronto time last night, but here I go the second night in town now staying up until 4am local time... I guess my insane hours are more of a pattern than I wish, no matter which part of the coutnry I may find myself in!

Goodnight... or perhaps shall I say, good morning!

4 things

Ok, because I'm in full procrastinating mode, here is a post I started months ago but never got around to finishing. It is inspired and requested by Queena's list of 7 things and I was reminded by Jocelyn's list of 4 things to revisit and finish my list. I've combined both of their lists and taken Joc's cue for 4 instead of 7 (it was hard enough coming up with 4 for each!). Here they are, starting with the easiest to answer progressing to the most difficult to answer...

4 places/provinces I've lived:

1. Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Regina)
2. Ontario (Ottawa, Toronto, Guelph)
3. British Columbia (Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam)
4. Alberta (Calgary)

4 places I've been on vacation:

1. New York City
2. Vietnam
3. Mexico
4. Spain/UK

4 places I still want to see:

1. Africa
2. France
3. Nunavut
4. Israel

4 favourite foods:

1. Sushi (especially alaska rolls from Sushi Garden!)
2. ok this is terrible, I can't think of anything else that ranks high enough, so I'm going to specify my favourite sushi rolls for the remaining three on this list (because sashimi goes without saying!)... so #2 is chopped scallop roll
3. a good barbequed eel roll
4. pretty standard house roll (crab, avocado, tamago, tuna and salmon)

4 TV shows I like to watch:

1. CSI (most often Miami, but also the other two)
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Law and Order
4. The Apprentice

4 movies I could watch over and over:

1. Finding Nemo
2. Matrix (the first one)
3. Lord of the Rings (all of them)
4. Ocean's Eleven

4 jobs I've had (I'll list my favourite ones):

1. Parliamentary Page (aka Glorified Gopher and PR program for the Government of Canada... check out if you can spot me in the goofy group photo I found online)
2. Graphic Designer and Customer Service at a print shop in Calgary (worked with the most amazing family who owned the shop)
3. Employee Communications at Campbell Soup (the best cafeteria and cheap Godiva chocolates around)
4. My current job I love, but don't have an accurate title to describe it :) I like it because I get to work with ideas and people for a God that I love

4 things I want to do before I die:

1. Travel from one end of Canada to the other
2. Learn to consistently live out a Sabbath-keeping life, or else I will die sooner with my natural pace of life!
3. More officially develop and launch a line of inventive wedding invitations
4. Get married (gasp! dare I utter it aloud? anyone who knows me well would recognize this as a miracle that God is working in my heart...)

4 things I cannot do:

1. Look at a document without considering its visual appearance/design and/or making a subconscious note about its usage of fonts
2. Sing harmony without the help of a strong voice beside me
3. Travel to a city and not call everyone I may know there
4. Eat without doing something else at the same time (read, talk with someone, watch tv...)

4 books that resonate most with my life:

1. Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace
2. What Color Is Your Parachute?
3. Life Inside the Thin Cage
4. The Bible

4 things I say often:

1. "in the sense that..."
2. absolutely!
3. no worries
4. can't think of a fourth... you tell me what I say the most! :)

4 things that attract me to a guy:

1. Self-awareness that fuels their own continual growth as a person
2. Other-awareness that translates into caring for others and for creation
3. God-awareness that recognizes, seeks out, follows and surrenders to the Divine
4. Walking on a similar path, headed in a similar direction (i.e. complementary calling in life)

Tag, you're it (people I want to see do this, should you feel the urge to procrastinate):

1. Florence
2. Shannon
3. Hengz
4. Matthea

deep cove kayaking

Went kayaking with Amy at Deep Cove... fun as usual. Different than out at Jericho. Beautiful in a different way. Much more enclosed, surrounded by forest-clad islands.

Amazing how many waves one motorboat can produce. Couldn't help but think of the parallel to one person making waves in the world around them. Reminds me of the quote by Margaret Mead on the side of that cafe on Main Street: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

stuck again

Two posts in a day? Must mean I'm procrastinating again... or on the road to burnout. I haven't taken any formal breaks this summer, but then again I haven't been going at a very fast pace either.

My biggest struggle has been predominantly feeling like I haven't been producing anything tangible all summer. I hate that feeling. I hate it because it means that I'm putting too much stock on and giving too much power to the idol of "tangible productivity" in my life. That means deep down I'm really living on the belief that I can't be happy and I don't have meaning until I feel like I am tangibly productive.

Rather, it's been a season of thinking and discussing ideas-in-formulation with various colleagues. The discussions continue as people come back from holidays, but finally I think I am supposed to be entering the harvest stage where I should theoretically be able to produce some tangibles. Yet somehow, everytime I sit down to work, the itch to procrastinate and do everything else but write/design kicks in full gear.

Sigh. I don't know how to get unstuck other than allowing the pressure of external deadlines to push me. The day after the wedding I woke up in time to crank out some last minute documents for two days of meetings... and I wasn't even on time for the meeting. Why can't I work to get things done ahead of time instead of cutting things so close to the wire?

I planned my fall travels for ministry reporting and personal visits to Ontario and Saskatchewan -- alas, but only because there was a deadline on the West Jet seat sale. I am looking forward to it, but it's all the way in November. In the meantime, I hope I can make it until then. Looking to the fall overwhelms me. Thank God for Mary's prayer retreat coming up in a couple of weeks. Without it I don't know if I could slow myself down enough.

The busy-ness with the wedding and finishing up design projects for friends has knocked a bit of wind out of my spiritual sails which I'm trying to gain again. It feels like I haven't journaled in awhile. I haven't been feeding consistently on my spiritual Bread. It's been more touch and go desperate immediate prayer, though I am finding the Psalms are a natural place to pick up from that resonate with my current soul state. I think the saving grace has been others praying with and for me. Thank God my fluctuating feelings (or my productivity or lack of productivity) don't change the way He thinks and feels about me.

a beautiful day

Well, I survived the wedding... I heard mostly negative things about the experience of being a bridesmaid from other friends, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But I am quite pleased to say it was a positive experience.
As would be expected, we were up late the night before with last minute preparations and heart-to-heart talks. So after not much sleep, the day began with a few hours of getting ready for the ladies. As we hung out at the salon getting our makeup and hair ready, I couldn't help but think how much more work it is to be a girl. Blah. We were running late due to a miscommunication with the makeup lady and also due to how thick my hair was to dry and straigthen. They kept suggesting I volunteer my hair to be in a hair ad. Now if I could get paid for it, I may have a new side business....hmmm....I also mentionned I wanted to retry dying my hair into the bright purple streaks again, but it was met with protests. Gotta think some more about that....

Anyway, after quickly getting dressed, we were on our way in a vintage Rolls Royce chauffered by the owner of the car, a cute little old man named Alf. We took the quickest route which happened to be quite scenic (all the way through Stanley Park) and made it to the photo shoot only about 20 minutes late. A beautiful day to shoot photos at Kits beach overall.

Then off to Grouse Mountain we went. The ceremony was simple and beautiful. Viv and Graham both got a little teary-eyed. The visiting was fun. The food was divine. The cake was the best wedding cake I've ever tasted (custom designed, it was white chocolate blueberry key lime). The sugared blueberries had the texture of the perfect cookie -- crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Even the chocolate party favours were colour coordinated to the theme colours of blue and dark brown. Leave it to Viv to throw such a coordinated and pretty party.



My toast to Viv tributed her for her deep loyalty and commitment to her friends and to celebrating. Relationships and celebrations are the intangible and invaluable priorities of life that make it worth living and fun along the way. From her I learned how to throw a party to mix all my friends together for a good time of celebration to value people and laughter. I'm thankful for the gift of being able to spend this day with her.