Fiend in a Cloud

Little Micra survived our trip to BC. Kristian, Serena and I drove through Banff to Kimberley, where we stayed one night. Then Saturday night we stayed over in Fernie. There are no particularly spectacular (say that ten times fast) events to speak of but we had a grand ol' time. My stomach still hurts from all the laughter.

Today Jordan and I went on another adventure - a search for M.Ward's new album that came out a few weeks ago. We finally found it at Sloth Records and I ended up buying John Vanderslice's "The Life and Death of an American Fourtracker".

Mmm... new music...

3100 Miles
Look at all the people
on the train
rubbing their eyes
not saying anything
Got your headphones on
and you missed your stop again
Get there half an hour late
wear a comatose face
leave an inkblot on the space
below the words time in
slip in round the back,
crawl under your desk,
and then, wait to turn
the punch card clock back to seven
 

Set yourself on fire

It all began with the removal of my tofu from the toaster oven - a tragic case of Burner vs. Flammable Material.
A small flash of light, a puff of smoke and a tear on the sleeve of my sweater.

Regarding my title: the Stars song of the same name has quite possibly the saddest lyrics ever.

Indeed... 

Cookie Wisdom. 

When the teapot is smaller than the cup 

You're my hero, Jord. 

You laugh, but not too hard. You look, but not too far. 

You came Here to leave There 

Watership Down

I think I've taken hypochondria to a whole new level:
I think I'm a hypchondriac.

You see, I don't think a hypochondriac is really supposed to worry about hypochondria. Do you get where I'm going with this? No?
Well, anyway, I figure it's the only explanation for this barrage of obscure symptoms I've been having - it must be all in my head.
The latest on the List O' Symptoms? A stabbing pain in my head when I move!

It's getting ridiculous. Really.
I wasn't sick at all in Mexico. Everyone gets sick in Mexico. But not me, thanks to my "strong immune system". Yet, I have been sick ever since the day I got back to Canada.


Well, I have been watching more television (yeah, that's right, television. I don't like the abbrev.) which is probably why I feel so rant-y.

Did you know that a new, completely digitally re-mastered edition of Bambi is coming out? The things you learn while watching the television.
My mom said Bambi was the first movie she remembers watching and that she sobbed and sobbed for days after.

I had a similar experience with Watership Down when I was little. Did anyone else see that movie?
My parents picked it up for me. They meant well. The cheery bunny-plastered cover looked innocent enough, I'm sure. Perhaps if they had read the tagline:

"All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and when they catch you, they will kill you... but first they must catch you."

Now, I was pretty young. All I can remember is that there was no pink or purple, no sparkles in this movie. The rabbits were brown and gray and needed to be cleaned. One rabbit got its ear bit off I think. And there was a map of a forest or something with blood seeping down it, I guess to show the extent of the bloodshed.
This movie (actually based on a book, I found out later) probably has vast social implications and yadda, yadda, yadda but it was definitely not 'suitable for all audiences'.
I cried and cried and cried.
And I never finished it so I still don't know if those bunnies made it out alive.

Just thought I'd share that with you.
I need to get well. As you can tell, this is making me crazy.

Thanks for cheering me up, Jeremiah 

"Only the children know what they are looking for"

I don't really know where to begin so I will follow Mike's example and start from now and go backward.
My friends - the ol' gang - just left. It was the first time we hung out since I got back.
I slept all afternoon.
We went for Vietnamese food for lunch.
I went to my meeting this morning; it was the C.O.'s visit.

I got home from a party in Delburne (just outside of Red Deer. Why is it that the best parties are in the smallest towns? Toefield, Lacombe, Morningside, Delburne...) at 2:30 a.m.-ish.
Uh, I went to the party in Delburne.

Yadda, yadda, yadda... this could go on for quite some time.
Instead, I will leave you with an excerpt from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery:


"Good morning," said the little prince.
"Good morning," said the merchant.
This was a merchant who sold pills that had been invented to quench thirst. You need only swallow one pill a week, and you would feel no need of anything to drink.
"Why are you selling those?" asked the little prince.
"Because they save a tremendous amount of time," said the merchant. "Computations have been made by experts. With these pills, you save fifty-three minutes in every week."
"And what do I do with those fifty-three minutes?"
"Anything you like . . ."
"As for me," said the little prince to himself, "if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water."

Here are some pictures from Mexico (no logical order). We took over 400 all together of the Mexico City trip alone so expect to see more in the future. In this one (taken by Erin) we are heading out to the Bruja for a beach day. 

At the bus depot in Mexico City. We are pretending to be happy to be leaving. 

From the top of the moon pyramid. 

The sun pyramid - My legs really hurt the next day. 

This is where I was a couple of hours before my flight - the Bruja. 

Where this picture is taken from - the roof of Laura and Ashley's, looking down at Russ' house, is where we slept on my last night in Mexico. 

comings and goings

So.
I didn't get murdered in Mexico City, if that is what you were thinking.
No, I am alive, well (except for this cold) and back in Canada.

Mexico City was fantastic. We didn't even scratch the surface in the short time we were there. Two nights were spent at Bethel and two nights with a family we had never met. We toured the pyramids and got stared at for being the only white people at Six Flags. And then we came home.

I was quite sad to leave Mexico City and all the amazing people we met there.
And I was sad to leave Mazatlan on Wednesday. I was fine until everyone was making plans to go out the beach just before I left and Britanny said, "see you later" and I said it too and then realized that it wasn't true.
So I cried.

I am not sad to be home, though.
I really missed my family.
It's good to have a place that is this soft and comfortable to come back to.

the day of forty-four sunsets

So I should be coming home tomorrow.

But I'm not.
I was thinking of staying for another month the latest date I could switch my ticket to was February 16th, which actually works out really well.

Six of us - Laura, Ashley, Britanny, Angie, Erin and I - are taking a bus to Mexico City on Wednesday. It's going to be a long ride (15 hours I believe) but Laura and Ashley came down here on the bus from Calgary so they are seasoned bus-riders.

We are going to stay at Bethel there. I'm really excited.

As for what I have been doing...
The past week has been really awesome. We had several rad days at the beach. We took this little raft out (apparently a 2 person raft) and piled 11 people on it and tried to catch some waves. We caught a few but mostly we just fell off. I will have some impressive bruises before we tire of this raft.
On Thursday, we stayed all day at the beach (the Bruja) and then had a bonfire.
We also went to an orchestra which was mostly awesome. It was really good until halfway through when a giant electric guitar dropped down above the stage and really long speeches in Spanish were made. It kind of wrecked the mood. But it was still fun.
And of course service has been great, 'service rocks' and all. It wasn't really what I was expecting. We search for Mexicans who know English more than we look for tourists.
The congregation is amazing too. There are lots and lots of people visiting from all over right now - people like me who are serving where the need is great and conveniently escaping the winter. The attendance at the meetings is about double the actual number of publishers. The first thing that I noticed is that everyone sings really loud. I mean really loud.
It's been so cool getting to know people from all over.

This whole Mexican experience hasn't been what I was expecting. For example, I read all sorts of warnings before I got down here about eating from taco stands but we eat at them all the time. They're really good and super cheap.
Yesterday I discovered a smoothie place really close to our house. It's my Mexican Booster Juice. I'll have to take a picture of it.
Anyway, my point is that this experience has been better than I expected.

I am looking forward to my bonus two weeks here.