Tag Archives: Calgary

23 October 07 -- Tuesday

where’s the [North American] football?

By Kate


It’s now creeping up to the end of October and I am painfully admitting, I have YET to receive any raging updates about the WARRIORS football team in Calgary. I miss the violently crazy aggressive moments of watching high school boys run around in their man-tights freezing while Megan and I sit in the bleachers, fighting off the violently cold weather with scooby snacks, hot chocolate, mittens, and a blanket, just hoping for the sneak-peek at the coach (well, Megan anyways…I was much too hardcore to be gazing at Steve…) or the intensely aggressive plays. I mean, to the end of those fortunate evenings, I was sacrificing my warm spot on the bench to jumpy up and violently yell cheers (and jeers) for “our” team while aggressively asking my counterparts exactly what was going on. When I used to watch Ken (as a halfback? fullback? running back? goalie? — just kidding Steve) play football in my first year, I lacked in any of the necessary education to really enjoy him in the sport. The Warriors experience is something on an entirely different level… and I cannot believe I haven’t been kept up to date on “our” progress… what the heck.

I am supporting the boys from a province over… and boys they are, because unfortunately, I am borderlining 23 years old and some of those guys are what, 14? I swear, I go for the watching of sport in it’s purest form – accompanied by conversations with Megan and my really cute toque (really cute), I am sure missing ‘home’ today…

So get it together and give me the scoop… I tried googling it and realized that it’s much too late to call to find out how ‘our’ boys are doing. Consider yourself blessed you have such a devoted fan… and they better be kicking Churchill’s butt… my affiliation to that school wishes them to be aggressively and violently slaughtered. GO WARRIORS!..

[disclaimer: my prof wanted us to use the words raging, violently, and aggressively in our diagnostic paragraphs today... hilarious... coupled with some descriptions of football, they can be very effective]

1 comment   |  tags: , | posted in Adventures, Characters

1 May 07 -- Tuesday

perks of home

By Kate

I always kind of know what to expect when it comes to four months at home. However, I forget sometimes that children grow up more in eight months than your average teenager or young adult. The child in question is my 9 year old sister. Jayme’s days start so early that I guess she gets lonely in those morning hours…so lonely that she took an empty shampoo bottle this morning and “blew” it in my face so I could “smell” it. Needless to say, I was very unimpressed…and confused why she felt she had to do that. She’s normally a bright kid but she seemed to miss the boat on this one. Maybe she just missed me.

We arrived uneventfully yesterday. Dad had a couple minor scares, he was pulling the UHaul trailer and I guess the weight of “my life” (my stuff, rather) was trying to get ahead of him in the Tahoe so it seemed to gain on him once in awhile…making for a very slow drive. But it was very, very nice to surrender my keys and say “peace out” to 12 Edgepark Villas, retirement community un-extraordinare, where the youngest person next to me and my roommate was probably 64. I am so so so SO glad it’s over. I can’t emphasize that enough.

Now I am home, back to my makeshift room in my parents downstairs den.. and I can’t wait for the summer to start. It was gorgeous today but Jayme and I are anticipating a thunderstorm (my favourite in the Okanagan). I have come down with a nasty cold and sore throat (thanks, Mark) and am very tired, so I am grateful I don’t start at the RDOS until Monday. It’s just been good to be home…when we got to Armstrong I was just thinking “HURRY UP!!” and see my mom. Dad left early this morn for Duncan.

The only trouble is fitting in again… the adjustment period can be tough but I think the older I get, the better at it I am. Funny how that goes!

The added stress of applications is getting to me… I just looked at my GPA…I can’t believe how low it is … I am genuinely fearful for what happens next. Genuinely. I just want to know why when you put SO much effort into something, didn’t hang out with friends hardly, and basically devoted 8 solid months to school, for there to be zip for reward.

In the words of my boyfriend, Michael Scofield, I guess I “just have to have faith.”

Cheers.

2 comments   |  tags: , , | posted in Adventures, Characters

10 January 07 -- Wednesday

city sounds

By Kate

Yep. I am back. My holidays turned into being more enjoyable than I ever dreamed. One solid week of sleeping, eating, and visiting in Penticton then another two weeks up in Smithers, with the same itinerary as Penticton, minus the sleeping. I’ve never felt so at home in the place I consider home. Imagine that, 21 odd years later and I finally felt a washing of peace to be there, where I was truly myself and it was oh-so-wonderful. Once I get pictures, I will post a blog in full dedication to my gallavant up to snowy, beautiful, northern BC… or for a detailed recount of some of it, check out Meg and Steve’s.

However, tonight I come to you from the tiny crevace of my world to tell you that it is good to be back. For three years I have been here in Calgary, mostly wrestling with transit and maps and trying to understand the hustle and bustle of the busy city life. It has been all I can do to not convert to those ways of rushing folks who are speedily trying to reach nowhere in particular. Consider it a silent vow I made which in turn, has overloaded me with unexpected bitterness toward the kind who do. It’s not my fault, but I have come to terms with the phrase “city life is not for me” and applied it to Kate. Until tonight, which found me laying in bed, reading some English theory. I open my window and crank the heat (sorry, energy company) because I like the fresh air but also being warm. And seeping through the windows came the sounds of cars driving by, which caused me to imagine it being me, taking a roadtrip down the dark streets, or remembering those times it actually was me, out until all hours of the night. I heard sirens, and the wind; people on a balcony and barking dogs; a garage door opening and closing and a streetlamp cascading light through the blinds; the silent shudder of the promise of the cold winter air. And it dawned on me, as only these things do.

Inviting, coaxing, deliberately waiting. The city, in its confining, claustrophobic, and smog filled skies told me something that the open fields, sandy beaches, and pear trees never has: There’s a whole world out there. Imagine that?

Now… what noise am I going to make? Contribute? …Awaken?

Calgary Winter

1 comment   |  tags: | posted in Adored

23 November 06 -- Thursday

dave matthews

By Kate


“What I want is what I’ve not got, and what I need is all around me.” ~Dave Matthews

Someone extremely special to me introduced me to Dave Matthews a few years ago. At first, I thought he was way too mellow, borderline emo laced with an underlying whine. But I find, after two years, one month, and fifteen days (give or take, did you know it as been that long?), I’ve found something unreal. Listening to new music or locating a good band was such a headache for me: how do you know that when you pick up a new cd or download an unknown song, that it is going to be any good? Try it. When I didn’t like the first four songs, what made me hold out for the fifth? Perseverence. What about Dave Matthews made me keep listening to him to find a love for him? Trust. What if I had deleted him from my ipod and never burnt any of his cd’s? I never would’ve thought about it again. How did the song “Number 41″ or “Crash” or especially “Christmas Song” play its way into my collection of favourites?

It’s qute simple really: I stuck it out. And so did you. And I am going to keep doing so. Because what does the quote say that we love? “Dont ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” This, and you know what I mean by this, has made me come alive. So if I have to wish it was right beside me or a building over. If it means trying to act like it is. If a lot of time passes before the next time. If I am here. And you are there. Atleast we have Dave Matthews.

“Turns out not where but who you’re with that really matters.”~Dave Matthews

3 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Adored, Unfolding

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