Debate and nerd carolling

Ok so I was realizing that I'm not really letting my nerd flag fly. I mean how can I be a plain nerd if I don't talk about nerdy goodness? So first let me say that I judged debate last week and it was awesome! I had a wonderful time and got to see so many people and chat with them in a very open space. Ran into a guy (thankfully not literally) who was in my physics class in first year. It was really good to see him. He's now substituting at my old high school, funny in that small city way.

We had a really good time judging and listening to all the debaters. There were a few really hilarious moments. One in particular was a kid saying "Am I right?!" realized what he had said and followed up beautifully with "Yes. I. Am." Simply perfect. Sarah had a really great moment where a 14 year old kid clarified something for everyone: "Now I'm not a scientist...." yeah, we guessed that.

An excellent night and got me really pumped up for my real project that I wanted to talk about.

Nerd Carolling.

Sarah and I did this a few years ago but I was off the continent last year so it had to wait. Basically this is a simple concept that requires way more explanation than I expected. We (Sarah, Emily -when she gets back- and I) go around to various houses and sing to people. The people we sing to have either given us money or someone else has given us money to sing to that person. Like sending a singing telegram. We're singing nerdy songs, some to the tune of christmas carols and some that just need to be sung because they're so amusing. The money we collect is going to Child's Play Charity (http://www.childsplaycharity.org/)

We thought it would be a nice thing to do to encourage people to donate to help sick kids have something fun to do. We emailed Jonathan Coulton and The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. They both said we could use their music. Very exciting!

So our first day of singing starts tomorrow... er later today. I can't wait! I hope to get some recordings and put them up on youtube. Now just to find my camera.

Thursday night -

Last of my yoga classes and wondering if I'm going to go next year. They give me vast amounts of compliments on my flexibility (which I love and is a huge boost to the ego) but I'm not getting anything from the stretches. I'm mostly finding myself feeling as if nothing is a challenge. But that will require more reflection on my own time. I'm here to tell the story of my night.

So I'm sitting there in my sweat pants and old t-shirt and feeling like I'm looking pretty rough around the edges. Then I get a text that turned my night around:

"Hookah. Suits. Now??!"

And I was off. Got showered and changed and got to the hookah lounge around 10. Everyone was looking fantastic and so many hugs came my way. So happy. I spent the evening bouncing from conversation to random statement that would catch my attention for a moment. It really did improve the night to be dressed up. We all seemed that much more focused, interesting and adventurous. It also helped that we were a very large group. I think we might have gotten to a total of 18 or 19 at the largest. We decided that dancing was the thing we needed. Off we all went, loosing people here and there. We eventually got together at the club. Our numbers had dwindled to 12 but we were all ready to dance our asses off. We ended up finding one guy on the dance floor. We all rushed in and joined him. Thus our instant dance party effect took hold. Two girls joined the floor, then another two and more and more. We were dancing with all we had. We looked and felt like an amazing wedding party.

I ran into a friend of mine from elementary and high school and caught up as well as you can in a few lines. "How are you? What are you doing these days? We haven't talked in ages. What is your number now?" All the while my friends keep coming off the floor for drinks, me handing out my community water cup to make sure people stay hydrated. I told her about our dance parties, she said it sounded like fun and then she gave me a huge compliment.

"You look like you're really doing good. It is always good to be around you, you seem to know how to get the most out of life." I was deeply touched. It is an exaggeration for emphasis to be sure but I felt the slight truth to the statement. We were having a lot of fun hanging out and all of us were experiencing a collective joy to the evening. After the 4th or 5th time of my group trying to get me back out on the floor I finally gave in to the pull of the music. After promising my reacquainted friend that we would catch up when she was out of the insanity of finals I dove back into the people.

When the last song had played we headed out. We were rather disappointed with the choice of country song to end the night, so as an alternative Sam and I lead the group in singing Barrett's Privateers outside in the snow. A guy came by and stopped to listen and joined in our circle to dance. Other people stopped and stood around to listen. When finally we finished one of the guys listening, who had started clapping along asked "What channel was that?" Chris in all seriousness, "7." We all dispersed and went home. An excellent end to wonderful night.

A good start to getting back to writing

Estelle's request for an update was read, mentally agreed to and then pushed away into a back cupboard of my head. So here I am. Back to write and wondering what bits to include. I had started writing up a little observation about the transition to fall, but now with winter actually here and smacking us in the face it seems a little pointless. Winter came at us in a strange way this time around, or maybe this is the way it happens every year but I just noticed this time clearly.

The blizzards kept coming and melting over and over, and then one day it just stuck. Winter was here. No small snowfall, just blizzard after blizzard. I noticed especially because of my job. I've been driving around the province taking pictures for elementary and high schools. Really enjoyable and I got to see a lot of the province that I've never had a reason to go explore. But what caught my attention was just the wall of winter melting into a field of late fall, or a small town being the line where the green grass grew up to and then was replaced by sheets of ice. I especially love the contrast of calling a school to find out if photos can even take place, they say they're having a lovely fall day, while I dug for two hours to get my car out of the drive way.

And yet I'm ridiculously happy. I'm looking forward to Christmas. This is huge for me, I've not been a fan of the season for the past 15 years or so. And now I'm looking around and thinking about hosting Christmas parties and getting gifts for people ahead of time. It isn't a struggle to find SOMETHING good about this season, I'm just over achingly pleased about the days. I'm even getting some of my rage at the cold under control... however I have thought about going to the airport on numerous occasions and just slapping down to some money for a one way ticket to Spain or someplace. I think I'm feeling free. Now being done school and having the options to go anywhere. The possibilities are so vast and everything seems possible. A pep talk from my 95 year old neighbour really helped me along with this.