School Starts Tomorrow

So school starts tomorrow for all of us. (except Tina of course) I've been praying a lot (for me) lately for a number of things.

1. For Griffin and Emi who are both attending new schools.
2. For Griffin who is nervous about being a small fish in the big pond of middle years school.
3. For Me that I will not be frustrated with only straight lecture classes.
4. For Me that my practicum will be an uplifting and growing experience.
4. For safe travels for all of us.
5. For Tina as she gets the kids ready for school each morning. (Emi can be a handful)

I hate change. And the first day of school means the beginning of a new routine for all of us. Maybe by the end of the month I'll be happy again.

cheers
Bud

End of Summer Report

Well seeing as Summer is over I thought I would do an end of summer report on the goals I had for this summer.
Comments are in red.

1. Go Fishing at least twice (maybe we'll even catch something)
Didn't happen. I suck at planning things
2. Find 10 geocaches
Found 5. Looked for four more at St. Vital Park but no dice.
3. Make many trips to the pool. (I need to make back what we paid for the season pass)
I'm pretty sure we made back what we paid but the summer was so crappy we didn't head out very often.
4. Have a golf game below 100. (Which means I actually have to golf)
I shot a 94 at Steinbach. I was very excited about that.
5. Memorize my lines. (I actually don't have much choice in this one since off book is July 6th)
Yeah I memorized my lines. Is it creepy to be checking out a nun as she walks away? (that was a reference to my character btw)
6. Finish 2 books.
I read Toll the Hounds. That was a 1200 page beast. I also just finished a book on CD. Does that count?
7. Host 2 or 3 parties.
I hosted one. Or at least tried to. It didn't work out as well as I had hoped. Not for lack of planning though.
8. Not play more than 1 hour of computer a day. (wishful thinking)
Yeah, didn't happen. I went through a rough time in early August.
9. Continue exercising. (wishful thinking)
Had I started?
10. Finish painting my dwarf army. (I doubt it)
Nope
11. Stain the shelves.
Almost done. Final coat of varathane goes on today.
12. Put the door jams on the bedroom.
yeah, not really
13. Build some more terrain for my warhammer table.
My mom gave me a package of trees to put together. That was fun.
14. Play 3 games of warhammer with someone other than Griffin.
Not even 1. Griffin and I have been playing some Lord of the Rings though. That was fun.
15. Go Fly a kite.
No
16. Play Settlers.
No. I think you actually need friends for that. Ok Friends you get together with.
17. Go to 2 Bomber games. (I think I'd need a job then)
I'm actually glad I haven't. If they get better maybe I'll go in October. Yes I'm a fairweather fan.
18. Get a job. (After July 25th)
Pleasant surprise of the summer. I worked one or two days a week with my dad insulating or drywalling houses. I made enough to pay off the fridge that died, the dehumidifier that died, car repairs plus more. Ugh, On monday I worked for 7 hours and then went for an oil change and had some other stuff done. Figured out that between the oil change and driving to Winnipeg I made about 7 dollars. That was a little depressing.

How do you tell a 9 year old his teacher died.

It's going to be a hard day for Griffin. Yesterday we found out the teacher he had for the past year in school, Miss Jackeline Lawson, was killed in a car accident. I hurt for the family of this young woman who had just finished her first year of teaching. I also hurt for my little boy and the pain he will go through because of this. Griffin is a very sweet, caring, and emotional person. This will hit hard. I wish I could take all his pain upon me but I can't. There's nothing I can do but hold him tight. And there will need to be a lot of that I think. I feel for all those kids. They really liked her. I talked to her on a number of occasions during the year. She was one of those teachers who understood Griffin. That sometimes (like any boy) he just needed to move around. She challenged him in things like Math so Griffin wouldn't get bored. She challenged him in English because she knew he could do better. And she would joke around with them. I think one of Griffin's favourite things was coming to school after having figured out some exponent like 5^4 and asking his teacher. She told me she had to sneak out a calculator to see if Griffin was right. My favourite story was when Griffin was getting into some trouble and Griffin looked at her and said, "Your hair looks really nice today." That caught her off guard. She told me that story at a parent-teacher interview. I'm not sure how long the initial pain will last but there will always be a little part of his heart where Griffin keeps the memories of Miss Lawson and the pain of her leaving. She cried on the last day of school as her students departed. And now we cry as she does. Goodbye Miss Lawson. Thank you for being my son's teacher and the fabulous job you did. You left far too soon.

A Few Quick Hit Thoughts

I'm not in the mood to do a long spiel about what's been going on so I'll do it in quick hits ala Don Banks. (SI writer)

-Went to the Pioneer Days parade in Steinbach on Friday. My mom built a float for it and made costumes for the kids. Griffin and Emilia were a part of it. I think the float is incredible. My mom is awesome. And the float won for best theme.

-Steinbach puts on a really good parade. I hate the Winkler parade. The difference. Steinbach had actual floats. Winkler has tractors, rv's and semi's. ugh

-Spent part of the day with my grandparents. That was special. I remember when my grandma used to set up a booth a Pioneer Days. It brought back good memories.

-Some people I know joke about the Mennonite Heritage Museum being for old people. Well I can understand why they go. For many it's a reminder of what they went through. A peak back at their childhood. It made me relfective.

-One man told me Steinbach is throwing away it's Mennonite heritage as fast as it can. To a certain extent I can understand why having lived in Landmark. I'm not impressed that things like dancing were so repressed. I'm 35 now and wish I could have been dancing my whole life. It's the legalistic things like that that have turned off so many people my age. That's why new churches coming up don't have the word mennonite. Or they change the name of the church to take it out. I think there were some things the older generations of mennonites got right though. I don't have the time to get into that.

-Worked for my dad again today. I made more insulating a house than I would doing a 3 evening shifts at a job that pays $9.50. I really should be doing this all summer. But then there's childcare, and all that driving.

-Bad things come in threes. And just when we're trying to save money. The fridge died, the car needed repairs and now the dehumidifier is on the fritz. AAAACK!!!!!!

Well that's it. I'm off to Winnipeg tomorrow to drywall a house. Good times

cheers
Bud

The Dog Days of Summer

Well July is almost over and I must say it was pretty busy. The biggest thing was being in "Playing Doctor" with Poor Theatre Company. What a great time that was. There were a lot of talented actors who were a joy to hang out with and get to know. I'm pretty sure I'll be getting together with some of them in the coming months/years. (Josh you know I'm talking to you). It's too bad we were in the Kenmore Theatre. I'm never going to complain about the P.W. Enns again. Part of what made being a part of this production so good was that I got to see a different approach to doing some things such as programs and advertising. It also created a bridge that may see more Winkler people going to Morden or Morden people going to Winkler to do theatre. See, theatre can bring the world together. So that was a lot of evenings. I think I needed that. It's hard to spend the whole day with the kids and then the whole evening. I don't know how parents do this all the time. Let's just say I'm looking forward to school. Ummm, we also went to the Fringe Festival and saw 3 excellent shows. Two of them had a number of friends from the University of Winnipeg in them. They were so good and I'm sooooo proud of the work they put into the shows. They were both best of fest for their venues. Three people from flatlands also performed at the Fringe and good pretty good reviews. I was so excited to hear that they even sold out a few shows. So much pride for my friends. Well, now that the last show is over I'm already memorizing for the next one. Tina and I are performing for a Leisure Travel Van rally. It's a play we did for ACT Manitoba a few years ago. It will be fun to act with Tina again. We also have rehearsals for Pink Panther starting in August. It really does never stop. Oh Well.
Anyway, that's what's going on for now.
cheers
Viva Forever
Bud

An informal class reunion

Last Friday was interesting. I met with three people I haven't seen in about 14 years. I had lunch with Jenn Wiebe, Kim Coulter and Bonnie Goertzen. I'm using maiden names. I was in K-12 with Kim and Bonnie and K-2 and gr.5-12 with Jenn. It's amazing how you can just sit down with people and continue as if we'd just got together the week before. There weren't anyway akward ummmmms or soooooooooo, yah huh? moments. It was great. It's been too long. I can't believe it's been 17 years since I graduated. That's a long time. I'm rambling. Bonnie had to go back to work after lunch but the rest of us went for a walk. I probably could have gone on all afternoon. It was really nice and I think we should have a 20 year reunion. Or just try and get together with old classmates a little more often.

Another Openin' Another Show

If you recognize the title of the show I'm impressed. It's from the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me Kate. An old Broadway hit. There is one particular verse that is a part of me today. "Four weeks you rehearse and rehearse, three weeks and it couldn't be worse. One week will it ever be right. Then out of the hat, it's that big first night." I think we had our "three weeks and it couldn't be worse" this evening. In case you didn't know I'm doing a show in Morden at the end of the month called Playing Doctor. It's with Poor Theatre Company. It's a group that started off as university students but now they've all gotten older (or most) and have opened up to old people like me. It's a really fun group and I'm having a great time. Well this evening was the rehearsal where things seem to go really slow and scenes are getting repeated and my lines aren't memorized and others aren't either and cues are missed and you think this show will never be ready. I'm not worried though. We went through the same thing with Little Women. In fact I remember one cast member saying "this show is going to be crap" they were so frustrated. That was a whole week and a half before opening. It's amazing how much shows come together in that time. So I'm not going to stress. In the words or my dear friend Bernie I'm going to sit back and enjoy a batch of doughy cookies.
cheers