Van City!

I'm here Vancouver!

I may have been awake for 21hours yesterday and now suffering from some brutal jet lag but it is so beautiful here today that I can't help but be wowed!

Bonnie and I walked around part of the seawall this morning and went to Capers Market for lunch. A dude pushing a shopping cart down the street thought we were hot. The highlight of my day was watching a guy move a couch down the street on a box cart.

I'll have to take some pictures soon.

a university of guelph graduate

crystal officially graduated today from the university of guelph. she majored in hospitality and tourism management co-op as a bachelor of commerce from the college of management and economics.

graduated with honours with an over all average of 76%. i'm not complaining whatsoever.

packing, painting, cleaning and beer

I would just like to say for the record that beer has a positive effect on painting, cleaning or packing. It is statistically significant if you are doing all three... yes, I am procrastinating and stopped to figure that out.

I am also very impressed that I can pack up my entire apartment by myself, clean it, paint it, pack it and move 75% of it. [I'm making Tim Taylor grunting noises!] Thank you very much. However, to add to that, I also pulled all the muscles on my right side trying to bear hug my 42" tv from my apartment to my car and my right leg is probably considering leaving me.

Still so much to do and so little time. Perhaps I don't feel like I'm leaving yet. So many people want my available time and I have so little of it to give. Dinner with my sister this evening, finish this mess tomorrow, work tomorrow night, move Saturday, party Saturday night and then it's all down hill from there.

Oh, and everyone's invited to the Harriston House of Tobin Saturday night for the moving/farewell party.

Type soon.

the great goodbye / the glass door

My favourite part of the past weekend, while I was training my night audit replacement was watching people walk into the "normally automatic" glass door that locks at night time. It is a true test of your character when you are faced with a glass door that will not open. Most people will try to back up or wave at the door in open that it is just making some kind of mistake. My favourite people are those who yell at the door... obviously it will open if you yell at it. Others will try to force it open with their might. The smart ones look to the left and the right and finally see the sign on the wall notifying people that the door locks at 11pm for security reasons but you can insert your room key into the card reader to open the door.

So what kind of person are you when bad things happen?
a) do you believe that things will hopefully rectify themselves?
b) do you get angry?
c) do you exercise your strength?
d) do you look for reasons, options and alternatives?

Think about that the next time you are faced with a unopening glass door.

A bittersweet farewell..

In Portuguese, there is a term "saudade" that does not have a perfect English equivalent. My best substitute is a combination of homesickness and nostalgia.

Maybe it is the change in weather, but I am feeling very saudade today. I realized this morning that this would be my last Sunday in Guelph, likely forever. Confucius would say that I will likely return to Ontario yet I highly doubt I'll be back to Guelph anytime soon (unless of course I am sent to recruit Guelph graduates). During the last few weeks, I have been consumed by excitement about the sudden changes in my life but I must have graduated a level of my 12-step program to a state of reflection. I'm trying very hard to remember all the good times from the past five years, but my natural perfectionist self is having me remember all the things I wish I had handled differently--I don't regret, it is useless to regret because I would not be who I am today or as knowledgeable as I am without those occurances--but there are always things that we could have handled in a better fashion.

The brief moment of depression was followed by a wave of memories of the past five years... what a long strange trip it has been. I would do it all over again. The hits, the misses, the grovelling, the inspriational people I have met and the lessons I would never have learned otherwise.

This trip is not over, it`s just changing venues. Thanks to all of you for the little things you likely don`t remember and please remember to continue to the journey.