Today was a bad day at work. It started off with nasty traffic, thanks to the TTC strike. Pedestrians were going WAY faster than motor vehicles on Yonge. I ended up being half an hour late for my morning home session, but it was okay; I just stayed an extra half an hour and the family was understanding. Anyway, session was a kind of rough throughout and for the final 35 minutes my kid was in full-blown tantrum mode. There wasn't much to do except put him on the sofa and wait until he quieted down, but every time he started to calm down and I approached him he started screaming and headslapping again. Eventually the mom came down and ended the session since time was up, anyway, but it was just bad all around. Onto my afternoon session with another kid. Normally this kid is really easy to work with; he's very high functioning and most people wouldn't even notice that he has autism. But he'd had an off morning and it carried over to the afternoon, so when I arrived at his school he was already teary and complaining of a headache. When we went home he had a major meltdown flopping himself on the floor and crying really hard and screaming "I hate session". After awhile I managed to calm him down, but later on he ran to the washroom and threw up.
That about sums up the work day. But as bad as it was, I didn't feel crappy on the way home. I had a very nice evening, in fact. Much of it was spent in the backyard putting yard waste into paper bags and carrying it to the curb. Char and I should have just carried the big paper bags to the front one at a time, but they were heavy and we didn't want to exert the effort. So we tried to place two of them on a large plank of wood-ish material and lift the plank instead. But it was too flimsy and the bags kept falling off. Finally we got a platform with wheels that my dad uses to transport sound equipment. We placed two bags on it, strung a rope behind the front two wheels and pulled it to the curb. I'm sure we looked like idiots (or geniuses!) to the neighbours. It would have been much faster and easier to have just carried the bags to the curb, but it was more fun our way. Of course, it escalated into us pulling each other around the backyard at super high speeds and even giving Coco a ride.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Monday, May 15, 2006
analyze this
i wasn't sleeping well a couple of nights ago and had a weird dream. i was at holly and caleb's wedding, but for some reason, holly asked me to wear her wedding dress. i stood at the front of the sanctuary in her white gown with no groom in sight b/c she and cae had gone off to tim hortons or something. i was anxious because the dress felt loose and since it was also strapless, it was starting to slip down. then three chinese harps were brought on stage and nathan, stephen and eric began to play. and that's all i remember. pretty weird...
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Tripods!
One of my favourite childhood book series was the Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher (pseudonym for Samuel Youd). It's good! I reread it a couple of months ago and realized that there are many details and references I didn't fully understand as a kid, but I had loved it nonetheless.
The original trilogy was written in the late 1960s and a prequel was written in 1988. It's about Earth being invaded by aliens who roam the planet in gigantic, 3-legged metal constructions. They control humans with 'caps' that are welded into their skulls. The book series describe how a resistance movement is formed and its quest to free mankind from the tripods' oppression.
I recently found out that the books are being turned into a movie and it's set to come out next year. I'm so excited! My mom loves the series, too--in fact, she introduced me to them. So we will definitely go see the movie together when it comes out.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Our Lady Peace
if you went to an OLP concert would you be able to differentiate them from their opening band?
the concert started at 7pm sharp and as the lights dimmed and people started walking on stage, we were puzzled that the john labatt centre was only half full, but we cheered our hearts out anyway. then the stage lights came on and this guy who clearly was not raine maida was standing on stage. oh, right, the opening band. okay, so we sit through the 20-minute set and some of us clapped politely while others heckled (*cough* dor) and called for OLP. after a short break the lights dimmed again and we think "this is it! here they come!" but it was yet another opening band. by the time they were finished it was 8 o'clock. alright, now it's time for OLP, right? that's what we thought, too. so the lights dim for the third time and everyone's cheering and the band starts playing. we don't recognize the song. but it's gotta be OLP, so we think "they must be introducing a new song" and groove a bit and clap along. then they do another new song, and another and then finally the singer starts talking and introduces himself as daniel. huh? does OLP have another lead singer we don't know about? where's raine? what's happening? partway through the group's 3rd or 4th song a guy who is clearly raine maida walks on stage and joins the group. finally, it begins to dawn on us that this was a THIRD opening band for OLP. it took us forever to figure it out, being the doofuses that we are. afterwards we realized the singer didn't really sound like raine and the stage setup didn't look like OLP (there was a keyboard at the front of the stage with bunches of flowers on it), and yet we didn't fully piece it together until late into their set. we were so certain the next band MUST be OLP (who has three opening bands??) that we fooled ourselves into believing it was them.
anyway, it was a good concert when it finally started at 9. i liked how they mixed up their songs a bit, putting the lyrics of one into the music of another and changing the melody, etc. there was a ton of audience interaction--a bunch of people even got to stand on stage behind the band. raine walked out into the crowd a few times and everyone tried to touch him. he took a picture of himself with someone's camera. he even asked someone to record on their mp3 a new song the band was about to perform and then upload it for everyone to download afterwards. i think it was called "kiss on the mouth".
another item of note was the girl sitting directly in front of us. the whole night she kept climbing up and down the seats and dancing w/ no inhibitions whatsoever. then we also smelled pot and after awhile we pieced it together and figured she must have been high.
all in all a great day yesterday. prior to the concert, i had spent the day in london w/ dor's friends from western. they're a fun-loving bunch and i really enjoyed hanging out with them. had some nice chats. lillian and i also thought back to last december when i was visiting and how the two of us sat on the couch so worried about speech-language pathology and wondering if that was God's plan for us. six months later everything has fallen into place and we wonder why we were so anxious. silly us!
the concert started at 7pm sharp and as the lights dimmed and people started walking on stage, we were puzzled that the john labatt centre was only half full, but we cheered our hearts out anyway. then the stage lights came on and this guy who clearly was not raine maida was standing on stage. oh, right, the opening band. okay, so we sit through the 20-minute set and some of us clapped politely while others heckled (*cough* dor) and called for OLP. after a short break the lights dimmed again and we think "this is it! here they come!" but it was yet another opening band. by the time they were finished it was 8 o'clock. alright, now it's time for OLP, right? that's what we thought, too. so the lights dim for the third time and everyone's cheering and the band starts playing. we don't recognize the song. but it's gotta be OLP, so we think "they must be introducing a new song" and groove a bit and clap along. then they do another new song, and another and then finally the singer starts talking and introduces himself as daniel. huh? does OLP have another lead singer we don't know about? where's raine? what's happening? partway through the group's 3rd or 4th song a guy who is clearly raine maida walks on stage and joins the group. finally, it begins to dawn on us that this was a THIRD opening band for OLP. it took us forever to figure it out, being the doofuses that we are. afterwards we realized the singer didn't really sound like raine and the stage setup didn't look like OLP (there was a keyboard at the front of the stage with bunches of flowers on it), and yet we didn't fully piece it together until late into their set. we were so certain the next band MUST be OLP (who has three opening bands??) that we fooled ourselves into believing it was them.
anyway, it was a good concert when it finally started at 9. i liked how they mixed up their songs a bit, putting the lyrics of one into the music of another and changing the melody, etc. there was a ton of audience interaction--a bunch of people even got to stand on stage behind the band. raine walked out into the crowd a few times and everyone tried to touch him. he took a picture of himself with someone's camera. he even asked someone to record on their mp3 a new song the band was about to perform and then upload it for everyone to download afterwards. i think it was called "kiss on the mouth".
another item of note was the girl sitting directly in front of us. the whole night she kept climbing up and down the seats and dancing w/ no inhibitions whatsoever. then we also smelled pot and after awhile we pieced it together and figured she must have been high.
all in all a great day yesterday. prior to the concert, i had spent the day in london w/ dor's friends from western. they're a fun-loving bunch and i really enjoyed hanging out with them. had some nice chats. lillian and i also thought back to last december when i was visiting and how the two of us sat on the couch so worried about speech-language pathology and wondering if that was God's plan for us. six months later everything has fallen into place and we wonder why we were so anxious. silly us!
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
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