The River and the Road

Last night I got to see the river and the road live at the Palomino in Calgary.

It was awesome. So good live. This was the second last show of their tour and they sounded spot on. Their vocals were on point, and they ended one song with an extended drum line of sorts which had the crowd super amped. I said "this is so great" more than once during that drumline.
My favorite song of the night was I'm broke, and Protect your hive was just as great as I'd hoped it would be.

I love the River and the Road. Their album was the soundtrack to fall 2013, and the lyrics spoke to what that time was all about for me. I hope they release a new album soon. Such talented gents! Here is one picture before and one picture after the show. Hair matted down and sweaty from dancing. Both fellas were nice and welcoming, really wonderful.

I know I know, the first photo is only good because it is so damn blurry.

I could have 30/30 made up of just bands and comedians to see before I turn 30. Music and comedy are my two great loves. I could really have 500/30. But I picked two musical acts for a reason.  Live music is so amazing. Unlike listening to the recorded version of the same songs, live music seems to fill up your veins.

The River and the Road is representative of my musical tastes right now. They are big favorites of mine. I couldn't venture a guess as to how many times I've played Shaking Leaf. Their music speaks to me and that is why I chose them to represent music on this list. I chose them as Present-Future music. I chose Jarvis Church (who hasn't been super active recently) to represent Past music. He speaks to my tastes getting to this point, or to 30 really.

Music was always coming from the walls in my house growing up. I was a dancer, so were my older brothers, and music was everything to my mom. It was never a quiet house, and my mom's music taste is amazing. I have a distinct memory of walking down the stairs and hearing my brother play the Philosopher Kings, Charms. And it has been a favorite of mine ever since. I just looked it up. They released that single in '95. I was 8. My brother Michael was 16. That's why I chose Jarvis Church.

Good music changes your body chemistry. The River and the Road makes such good music and performs amazing live. I have a big crush on this band! :)
It was great great great. so glad I went.

There might be too much T in this band t shirt

 

Take my picture with the dogs...NEW ALL TIME FAVORITE PHOTO!!! vegas is ridiculous and cowboy's subtle photobomb. in love. I'm getting this made into a poster.

bleed into this bag

I'm the weirdo who asks too many questions at the blood donor clinic.
Blood is so interesting.
The nurse who poked me last week told me that she poked a teacher once who believed that blood in your body is blue and was teaching this to kids for like 20 years. Dummies!

Post bleeding. you can't tell but the nurse used blue and white tape to match my dress.
My blood was healthy today. and I set a new record for my own fastest bleeding. From poke to filling up the bag was 6 minutes 15 seconds. amazing.
I walked in at 5 and walked out 40 minutes later. I'm practically a professional bleeder.
30/30 goal of donating blood 10 times 1/0 done, yahoo!!!

I've had a request to update my blog

I've had a request to update my blog. Which means someone is reading this and cares.

My list has some momentum! Montreal this summer is good to go, but I'm reconsidering the dates because my brother is planning to fly in from Australia for a visit. And bring his girlfriend! Which is exciting because we have never met. I love my brothers, they are huge goofs and even though I only get to see them about once a year, we just fall into things so easily and they have me laughing within minutes of their arrival.

This may not be the best picture of them but this was in the midst of lots of singing and laughing, and  dancing, and I loved this day. 

Well I didn't think I had a lot to talk about tonight, but I do. I'm looking forward to Montreal. I really need a break from work and school, but it isn't going to happen any time soon. 

This is how I spent my early evening. It's a terrible picture of my beautiful dogs. It's getting lighter in Edmonton and people are starting to feel less gloomy, and I'm included in that. I never feel more content than when I'm with my silly dogs. Most of the time I'm thinking "What can I do to improve my life right now?"(the answer is usually dishes) but that is a really horrendous way to live and a function of my own anxiety. I never have that with my dogs. Maybe because when I'm with them it feels like things couldn't get any better. Uh oh. I'm gonna lose my mind when they die, aren't i? crap. 

I bailed on a tap class, but I'll have another shot

There are a boat load of 30/30 blogs that have been started and never finished. Maybe because the person got too tired or lazy. Ran out of time or money. Or maybe because the person died.

I feel like there's a good chance I might fail at this. I fail at a lot of goals I set. Like take my dogs to the dog park every day. Or don't say anything mean ever. So unreasonable. Sometimes the funniest things are the meanest. I don't want to see my 30/30 fail! But this week I had the opportunity to hit up a tap class and bailed on it. I didn't even have a reasonable excuse. I thought about doing across the floor exercises and got overwhelmed and jammed out. And so I'm beating myself up over it. On Friday night. Which is homework time of course.

Maybe I need to make an entirely more reasonable set of 30/30.

1. Make and eat a BLT
2. Use my slow cooker
3. Make Bread pudding

I might be hungry. These are food goals.

oh!
4. clean my car

So reasonable.

At some point everyone evaluates dreams that they let go of, or failed at, or modified. And I did that and it sucked. I worry about being insignificant. I'm not about to let myself fail, not that a 30/30 would make an impact on my significance. If I were to let my 30/30 be reasonable it would be completely unremarkable. I believe in living a life worth commenting on, I think that sounds ideal.

Completing my MSW

This Semester is wrapping up in 1 month and 1 day.

I have a month and a day to finish a group project and write a 25 page paper. But I'm not crying about it because I chose this. It's on my 30/30 darn it and I'm going to get it done.

My dogs are super interested in Aboriginal Social Work

This week was full of ups and downs in school. I got an e-mail from my potential research supervisor backing out of supervising me, because she says what I'm looking at is beyond her scope. 

But the up part of it is that another faculty member offered to sit down with me and chat about my research and potentially supervise me and she is hilarious and might be a really good fit. 

I want to do qualitative research looking at the attitudes of Clinical Social Workers in regards to talking to their clients about sex. It's really exciting and interesting stuff and I'm not at all being sarcastic. Seriously. 

This week I also became the mouthpiece for the class and that might have some negative consequences…but I'm waiting to find out. I need to learn to keep my mouth shut, but that doesn't seem very social worky of me. 

No more procrastinating! I'm off to finish a paper about childhood obesity. Did you know prevalence of Childhood Obesity in Canada is sitting around 8.6% in kids age 6-17? Learn something new every post! 

Kaylin my Spooky Ghost

Kaylin has attached her name to a 30/30!

Kaylin suggested we float down the Pembina River and camp! Two birds....say hello to one stone!

Kaylin and I have been friends for 4 years, she's an incredible and passionate social worker.

The picture of us in those vests is from the day we volunteered for battle of the bands. I remember laughing my butt off this day, as I always do with Kaylin. She makes my stomach and cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing too much.

 I love kaylin because:
1. She has a weird and hilarious sense of humor, it almost comes out of nowhere sometimes you just get knocked over by it.
2. She knows who she is, and that's admirable
3. She's honest, if she doesn't want to go for drinks, she doesn't mess around with excuses but just says "I don't want to" and I love it about her!
4. She's smart and interesting and passionate, she speaks my language when it comes to social justice
5. She's into bugs. She's super creative and driven and she is going to paint me a picture of a buffalo


Honestly, I could go on and on about how much I love and admire her. I so wish I were as boss as she is.
I can't wait to float down the Pembina and camp with you!

That's us drinking what I think was pink champagne before my yearly clothing swap!

Canadian Blood Services is cramping my style

Today I went to start my 30/30 with something easy, donating blood.

I've donated 7 times in my life and I've been turned away probably more than 7. Today was only 56 days since the last time I donated and so I was turned away again because my hemoglobin was too low. I was looking forward into bleeding into a bag.

At least I learned that dogs have 13 blood types.

I also learned that the chances of me needing blood at some point in my life is 95%.
And you too. So I'll try again to bleed into a bag. 10 times before I turn thirty.
0 down....10 to go.

Why are you doing a 30before30 project when you need to get your life together?

Cool question from one of my closest friends. Who has seen me through more than a year of "What am I doing?" 

Valid point Valid point. cue one of what will be many Pete Holmes references- whose podcast has changed my life over the past few years. 

I think the answer has to be that I see this 30 before 30 project as a journey to get my life together, to reignite a flame that I'm sure I'd love to say was snuffed out by some outside force, but the reality is that I've been a passive participant in my life. How distressing. 

Henry David Thoreau said "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams" Although I remember it as BOLDLY not confidently, google clarified. 

Can you imagine spending the prime of your life being nothing more than a passive participant in your own dreams? Ugh I want to barf thinking about it. 

But beside me I have two research papers about bullying, and on the speakers is Robyn's Call your girlfriend. which seems to be the song du jour. 

And laying out before me is the next three years… and 4 months. And I'm laying out plans to get my life together. To experience things I've never seen before. 

I'm not tired of being an introspective, ambitious, overly self-critical human, but it certainly can be exhausting. Lately I've been reflecting a lot on what it means to be "lit up". I know comedy, music, social work, dance, food, friends and family light me up. I'd love to think I light certain people up and certain people light me up. Through all this reflection, have I ventured any closer to lighting up the things/people that I want to light up?

So I'm going confidently, in an effort to stop being a passive participant. I have a long way to go. 

Here is my 30 Before 30 List

1. Complete my MSW 
2. Learn to drive a standard
3. Visit Australia
4. See Pete Holmes live
5. Attend the Just for Laughs Festival
6. Hike the West Coast Trail
7. Road trip to Portland
8. Attend the Vancouver Comedy Festival
9. Swing dance with all the top male pros
10. Go Cliff Jumping
11. Learn Zook Dancing
12. Read The Odyssey and (finish)1984
13. Read one book by Emily Bronte and one by Charlotte Bronte
14. See a Broadway show
15. Watch Rent staged
16. See the River and the Road in concert
17. See Jarvis Church in concert
18. Work my French back up
19. Camp once
20. Take a tap class
21. Stay up all night to dance
22. Donate blood ten times
23. Donate 50 hours to a cause I believe in
24. Make a Russian Layer cake
25. Visit my only living Grandparent
26. Learn to play and sing my way through Be Good by Waxahatchee
    
    PEI in 2013: where puns aren't huge 

As you see, I'm a little short. I've asked several friends to come up with ideas that might encourage me to be a better person, something I need to experience or is representative of our friendship what we can complete together. I anticipate that it will be a fluid document and I'll have to kick some of these things onto my bucket list (which I really don't have) but there may be changes and I'm okay with that. 

I consistently push myself. And do scary things. I've accomplished a bunch in dance. I did stand up. twice. I've loved hard and choreographed things I'm proud of. I read, I write and I have an insatiable appetite for stand up. I've seen Louis CK and Conan. I swam with dolphins and kissed a sea lion on the mouth. I've done stuff that lights me up. And I'm genuinely excited for the next 3 years and 4 months. Today I was speaking to someone about transition. I'm going confidently in the direction of transition, are you?

 On the speakers now? Rivers and Roads by The Head and the Heart.