Fun Fact!

Did you know that a group of clownfish is called a harem? And if that wasn't wonderful enough, did you know that in a harem of clownfish there is only one female, and that when that female dies, the biggest male changes sex and becomes a female? It is called "sequential hermaphoditism." I did know that once upon a time, and I learned it again today in my procrastination. Amazing the things you can learn when you are putting off learning other things!

Night of Yay!

Well, when I said that I would try to write something soon, I didn't actually mean less than 24 hours, but what do you know, I had a wonderful last hour. It is currently 3:58 in the morning, and I just got home from work. Although work wasn't the best ever, I discovered that tomorrw (actually today already) is slurpee day and 7/11 is giving away free ones, so me and Nashly and Vij decided to stop in for a slurpee on our way home. Well, my highly honed sweet talking skills came in handy, since apparently the giveaway isn't supposed to start till 7 am, which is a whopping 3 hours away, and the guy we talked to said he wasn't allowed to let us but we could talk to the the guy behind the counter, so I explained to the guy behind the counter (whose name was Horatio, and now looking back I really should have tried calling him "H" just for CSI Miami times sake) that we work the night shift and we wouldn't come back the next day for another slurpee if he would just let us have one now pretty please. And he let us. And I had a coffee flavored slurpee which, looking back, it is almost surprising that it tasted good.

Before you go telling me that my last hour of excitement was infinitely better than your last hour of boring sleep, let me tell you what else happened. That's right, there's more. Well, it was raining when we left work, and there was pretty regular and impressive lightning, which is already enough to make me in a good and smiley mood. But then the most amazing thing happened. We were on the cloverleaf at the perimeter and Pembina, and this prolonged and very bright flash of lightning flashed (what verb should I have used here? This sounds a little redundant) and it was so bright that it tricked the street lights that it was day time, and they all went out (or at least got very dim) for a few seconds before realizing that God tricked them and it was actually still night and then turned themselves back on. Then I realized that conveniently my Sheree Plett cd was in the player at that very moment, so I switched over to the track with the line,

"It's silent, just the crickets and my breathing
And the God above is practicing his flash photography"

I officially love night shift.

Hmmmm...

Well, it has been brought to my attention that it is time to blog. The fact that this is the main reason why I am getting around to it at this moment suggests that this post does not have very much promise. But we'll see what I can come up with. At this point, it is a mystery even to me. Mysteries aren't all bad. They can be pretty good. Like Nancy Drew for example (great movie by the way, especially if you have amazing sisters and sister's friends like I do).

If you could be any animal, which animal would you choose to be and why? This is a question I used to ask people when I was in youth group to "break the ice". I always used to say that I would be a gorilla because then I could have hairy legs and not have to apologize for them. I don't know if I am a very good ice breaker. I sometimes try to talk to a person when I first meet them and I don't want them to feel awkward so I just talk and talk and talk and I get a little nervous so I don't talk as smoothly as I like to think is normal for me and then I finally let them speak, and when the "conversation" is done I feel foolish and wish I was one of those people who just didn't care if I didn't strike up conversation with a new person in the room. Anyways, to answer my own question, if I could be any animal, I would perhaps choose to be a blue whale. I actually probably wouldn't, but saying that gives me the opportunity to disclose a couple interesting facts I just learned. Did you know that baby blue whales gain a ton of weight every month when they are growing? And not "a ton" meaning "lots", but a real ton as in 2000 pounds (by the way I just looked up what a ton was in pounds because I didn't know. I'm Canadian, okay? We talk in tonnes, which I did know are 1000 kilograms. And while I'm at it, that means that a tonne is bigger than a ton, so if you ever feel like being difficult when someone says the word ton/ne you can ask them to clarify the spelling so you know what they mean). Crazy. Also, an adult blue whale's heart weighs 1000 pounds (or should I say, half a ton). Just think about that for a second. The heart of a blue whale is the size of like 7 grown adults. I love God. And biology.

Are you getting the idea that I'm kind of just writing down whatever comes to my mind that will take up space? Well, that's what I'm doing. Hmmm, maybe I will ask another question and then answer it in another poorly constructed paragraph. Oh, here's a good one. If you had to work a week of 10 hour days, which 10 hours would you choose them to be? Now, I have a little bit of an educated opinion on this one, because of all the possible answers, I have actually tested 2 of them. I would have to say that if I could choose when to work a 10 hour shift, it would start at 4 pm and go till 2 am. That is how I am feeling right now at least. This week I am working from 5 pm and 3 am, and it is almost great. It is a lot closer to what my body wants to do than when I work 7 am to 5 pm. If you work till 2, you get to bed by 3 and you sleep till 10. Then you have a good 5 hours in the nicest part of the day to relax and hang out with people before getting ready for work at 3. Yes, that would be great, don't you think? I think. Okay, I don't think this topic is really intersting for anyone anymore, including me.

That is all. Sorry if it left you hungering for more. I will try to have a more organized post that actually has a point in the near future.

What Time Is It?

Here is a little diddy that I am singing today for reasons I'm sure you can figure out.


What Time is It?


What time is it?
SUMMERTIME!
It's our vacation!
What time is it?
Party time!
That's right, say it loud.
What time is it?
The time of our lives!
Anticipation!
What time is it?
SUMMERTIME!
School's out, scream and shout!

Finally summer's here
Good to be chillin' out
I'm off the clock (not)
The pressure's off
Now my job's what it's all about (not)

Ready for some sunshine
For my heart to take a chance
I'm here to stay
Not movin' away
Ready for a summer romance

Everybody ready, goin' crazy, yeah we're out.
Come on and let me hear you say it now, right now

What time is it?
SUMMERTIME!
It's our vacation!
What time is it?
Party time!
That's right, say it loud!
What time is it?
Time of our lives!
Anticipation!
What time is it?
SUMMERTIME!
School is out, scream and shout!

I've got no rules, no summer school
I'm free to coil till I drop
It's an education vacation
And the party never has to stop

I've got things to do, I'll see you soon
And I'm really gonna miss you all
I'll see you and you
And you and you
Bye bye until next fall

Everybody ready goin' crazy, yeah we're out
Come on and let me hear you say it now, right now

What time is it?
SUMMERTIME!
It's our vacation!
What time is it?
Party time!
That's right, say it loud!
What time is it?
Time of our lives!
Anticipation!
What time is it?
SUMMERTIME!
School's out, scream and shout!

Now I'm waking up at 6 am, cause coiling agendas is my role
Enough already, we're waiting, come on let's go... out of control

Paper cuts let's show them
Pay checks, I've earned them
Premier is my home
Navy and white

When it's time to work, I do it
When I come home I'll groove it
I'll live it up, party down
That's what the summer's all about

What time is it?
SUMMERTIME!
It's our vacation!
What time is it?
Party time!
That's right, say it loud!
What time is it?
Time of our lives!
Anticipation
What time is it?
SUMMERTIME!
School's out, scream and shout!


From High School Musical 2 (a classic if there ever was one) with some modifications to fit my life.

PS - for those of you who don't have the weather channel on 24/7 at your house, the post time of this is significant. It is the first minute of the summer!

Personality Revamp

I went through a moderate personal crisis the other day. I think I am getting over it, so don't go spending too much time worrying about me. Just in case you are curious to know what my crisis was about, I will tell you. You may or may not know and have taken a Myers-Briggs personality test in your day (if I know you from Prov, you probably have, because in my experience they are all the rage at Prov), but if you haven't you just might not get everything I say in the next few paragraphs. Tough.

I did my first personality test almost 2 years ago and discovered that I was an ENFP, which was fine with me and I really felt was a fairly accurate representation of my personality. However, in the past while I have had a few conversations with other people as well as with myself (don't you have conversations with yourself?) about things that bother me, and one of my biggest pet peeves I have discovered this year is when people cancel plans last minute. I never before realized how much this bothered me until this year. I have a pretty busy life, and I like people a lot, and I like a lot of people, and so in order to see them all and also get all of my work done, I generally have to plan ahead somewhat. What drives me crazy is when I book a night off for someone and refrain from making plans with other people and then I end up at home because someone realized they forgot about a prior commitment. I work hard to make sure that I am able to follow through on my commitments, and it irks me (yes, I did use that word) when other people don't do the same for me. On a slightly different topic (but enough the same one to stay in this paragraph), I find that I have developed a large amount of appreciation for being able to use time well. That means such things as: finishing assignments on time (even if they were only started hours before they were due), doing work when it needs to be done, keeping tabs on commitments, not spending vast amounts of time doing nothing, etc. The thing is, that I also like being able to enjoy my leisure time to the fullest. I don't want to waste away a day off - I want to relax to the max (is that a saying for real? because I feel like I just made it up right now). I feel like I can't do that unless I have finished what needs to be finished first. Then my mind can rest and I can REALLY have fun, without things I need to do still weighing on my mind. Okay, this is turning into a rant so I'd better move onto the next paragraph.

All that suggests that my former identification as a "P" is in no way possible. I have concluded that I am a "J", and I have done a couple tests in the last few days to check up on it. So that's that, apparently something has happened to me in the last yearish that has changed my personality type. Crazy. And since I base all of my self worth in the personality type that I am, you can see how this really was a hard week of soul searching and questioning who I really am (please understand that I like to use sarcasm [and brackets today apparently]).

So, in conclusion, I would like to suggest to all of you personality test junkies out there (I find that those who love personality tests are the same type of people that love blogs) that you don't have to become complacent and conform to the personality type that you once believed you were. Change is possible. Life is bigger than those 4 small letters. There are 8.

On a side note, I discovered two things at this wedding I attended last weekend:

1) I am actually capable of enjoying myself while dancing. (who knew?)

2) I don't enjoy being around drunk people very much.

That is all.

I Like

Every once in a while something occurs to me that makes me ridiculously happy. Sometimes it is something that really isn't that significant to the typical person, and that some would roll their eyes at me for enjoying as much as I do. And then there are some things that make me ridiculously happy that make a lot of people ridiculously happy, and those ones less people make fun of me for (although there are a few people in my life who would pretty much take any opportunity to make a little bit of fun of me). Understandably, there are also those things that irritate me to no end, and for some of these things I have a fair amount of support in my frustration, and others are pretty much unexplainable, and maybe just weird. Apparently this is the most blog-worthy thing bouncing around my head right now.

This year, I have been surprised at how incredibly irritated I am when boys wear pants that do not fit them. First of all, I don't understand how it can possibly be comfortable to wear baggy jeans all the time. Secondly, it looks terrible. Now, if the reader happens to be a baggy pants wearing male, I apologize if I have offended you, but I will not take back my opinion. Baggy pants look bad. Baggy pants make me gag a little bit. But then, my gag reflex is quite reflective.

Some other things that potentially excite my gag reflex: hair in the shower, the smell of garlic on the breath of other people, the taste of garlic in my mouth hours after the reality of garlic in my mouth, unidentified mushy food at the bottom of the sink, the memories that the scent of green apple Palmolive bring to mind, ranch dressing, commercials on TV, TV in general, shopping malls on a "Janna hates consumerism" type day, the abundance of cell phones everywhere (including in front of me in class, all around me on the bus, during prayer at a church event, and during conversations with people), the ten minutes before a performance...

Now for some happier things:
I love cold nose. Not the cold nose you get when it is -40 out and you get frostbite and your nose falls off and you have to have reconstructive plastic surgery. But the cold nose you get when it is late fall or early spring, and you go for a walk, and it is too cold to do away with a jacket, but not so cold that it hurts, and your nose starts running just a little bit, and you know that it isn't the same as a runny nose you get when you are sick, and you don't even really realize that your nose is cold and then you touch it and it is cold, but it just makes you feel alive and happy and fresh. I got cold nose yesterday, and it was wonderful.

Some other things that make me happy: driving through the night, burnt marshmallows, writing exams (but not studying for them), green beans, rainy Mondays, waking up in the middle of the night, airports, scabs that fall off in one piece with no bleeding, tulips, the yellowness of my yellow jacket, wet sandy feet, run-on sentences and made up words when they are intentional...

... to name a few...

A Game for You

We got a new Crisis Pregnancy Center newsletter today, and as usual, it contained some silly tidbits in the midst of the news. Included was the following paragraph, and there are 16 books of the Bible hidden in this paragraph. Me and my mom found them in about 20 minutes. See if you can find them all:

"I once made a remark about the hidden books of the Bible. It was a lulu, kept people looking so hard for facts, and for others it was a revelation. Some were in a jam, especially since the names of the books were not capitalized. But the truth finally struck home to numbers of our readers. To others it was a real job. We want it to be a most fascinating few moments for you. Yes, there will be some really easy ones to spot. Others may require judges to help find them. I will quickly admit it usually takes a minister to find one of them, and there will be loud lamentations when it is found. A little lady says she brews a cup of tea so she can concentrate better. See how well you can compete. Relax now, for there really are sixteen names of books of the Bible in this paragraph."

A Lesson in Contentment

So, as you may or may not know, last Saturday was national "no driving day", or something like that. I don't know about you, but I certainly didn't do all I could to avoid burning fossil fuels. In fact, I drove all the way downtown two times in one day. In my own defence, I wasn't aware that it was "no driving day," but I confess that even if I had, it probably wouldn't have made any difference.
Anyways, that isn't really what this post is supposed to be about. Or at least not directly. One of the trips that I took downtown on Saturday was in order to take a walk with my parents. We started at the Forks and then walked down some residential streets. On Albert street there is a coffee shop called "the fyxx" and so we decided to stop for coffee. First of all, this coffee shop is pretty cool. It has local art hanging on the walls, and you can look out over the street below from the front window. I am sure that on a typical day at the fyxx, you can see people walking around doing their daily business, but this was not a typical day. This was national "no driving day," and the people on Albert street were celebrating. The street was blocked off to traffic, and there was a street hockey game going on. There were many different types of people doing many different types of things, and me and my parents sat and were entertained by the diversity and quirkiness that we witnessed. We saw lots of things that you don't see every day: a man playing the accordion, a young guy riding a double decker bicycle, a woman openly breast feeding, 4 university students crammed into a small couch watching the game, a 4 year old kid playing street hockey with a 70 year old and a bunch of 20-somethings, a wedding party of elegantly dressed bridesmaids and groomsmen posing for pictures in the net, and then joining in the game for a while. Needless to say, it was entertainment at its finest.
The thing that struck me though, as I was sitting there drinking my coffee, wasn't the wedding or the accordion or the hockey game. I mean, those things did interest me, but they weren't what really sunk in. In the midst of all of this strangeness, I got a sense of contentment that was present in the people hanging out on the street. They were doing something that to me seemed very out of the ordinary, something that if I pictured myself to be a part of, I think I would be uncomfortable and self-conscious. But as I looked from one person to another, I didn't see people looking around self-consciously. I didn't see anyone sitting around with a concerned look on their face. I saw a lot of very different people who were perfectly happy being exactly where they were at that moment. I looked from one face to the next, and everyone looked perfectly at peace. The whole situation seemed to me to be yelling, "Who cares if my school work needs to be done and my family life isn't the best and I have to find a way to pay the rent? This moment is perfect, and I am going to soak it for all it's worth."
This sense of peace and living in the moment is something that doesn't come naturally to me. But I'm not really sure if it comes naturally to anyone. The truth is, there will always be things that I could worry about if I let myself, and so I can't wait for the problems to go away for an experience of contentment. Contentment is a choice to live in the moment. It is a conscious leaving behind of all the garbage that so easily weighs on my mind. And it is so much easier said than done. But even if I wasn't practicing contentment a moment ago, the choice is still there in front of me. Each moment is a new chance to choose to be content, and so no matter how badly I have done this in the past, the future is still an open book. I hope that I will continue to learn how to choose this in each and every moment that is given to me. Maybe I should hang out on Albert street a little more often.