Wordless Wednesday

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/13/sports/olympics/20100212_CEREMONY_PANO.html

Lent Break

Well, I'm taking my lent break again. If you don't remember this from last year (or you're a new reader of my blog) click here to read more.

My recap of my day downtown during the Olympics this Saturday and then my night at the Men's Olympic Hockey game on Tuesday will just have to wait until I'm back in April.

Oh, I've set up a post to publish tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday. It's a link you have to click on and it has to do with the Olympics.

Go Canada, Go!!!

Olympic fever - Day 2

On Thursday we heard that our friend, Michael Bu.ble, was going to be carrying the torch downtown ... so, off we headed after work. We decided not to drive right downtown thinking that all the traffic and road closures could make it a nightmare, so we hopped on the skytrain in Surrey and walked through downtown. Granville St. has all these cool statues and things set up and is closed to traffic.

A lot of businesses had signs hanging off their buildings.

There were camera crews everywhere (from all around the world) doing interviews with random people on the street. Bren reminded us to have a good answer ready if we got asked a question. We heard them ask, "Who's your favorite Olympic mascot," "What sport are you most interested in seeing?" etc. Let's just say I'm glad they didn't ask me anything.

Then, the moment we'd been waiting for came. I decided to take video instead of pictures as he ran by us because ... well, mainly because I don't really know how to work my camera yet, but what I do know is that my "sports" setting doesn't allow you to use flash and if I didn't put it on sports setting and used my flash, they would've been blurry. I'm glad I went with video.

As soon as he had run past us, we kind of stood there in awe for a second because we couldn't believe how much security he had with him (a little different then when Mary Jane had run it). Did you notice him high fiving everyone as he ran by? No? Go back and watch it again. I'll wait ......... Isn't he great? Such a nice guy. Anyway, after about 10 seconds, we looked at each other and said, "Should we run to where he's passing it?" Yup! Off we went. There were so many people there that I could barely see anything so I just held up my camera and hoped for the best. We'll just look at the next few pics in silence.

Here they are extinguishing Michael's torch. Sad moment (although I will admit, it wasn't as emotional for me as when Mary Jane ran with it. This was more of a media frenzy and for me, wasn't as focused on the torch itself).

I'm not sure what he was saying to the crowd here, although I do like Kori's guess of "... Fiona, where are you... I know you're here..." hee hee :) He would've remembered me from last summer, right?

After the VanOc dude that he passed the torch to took off, the media swarmed Michael. Couldn't even see him for a bit.

Then he walked right in front of us and this is the picture I got:

Sheesh! See that blur of white in the middle of the picture. Yup, that's him. Awesome, hey? See, that's why I'm glad I took video of the run. Pics wouldn't have turned out. Oh well. I'm glad we went and saw what we saw. Still bummed I didn't get tickets to his concert, but am counting on him announcing a 2nd Vancouver show anytime. He can't announce a 2nd show in Calgary and Toronto but not in his hometown ... can he? No, he wouldn't do it ... and I WILL get tickets.

So, after that excitement was over, we stayed and watched a bit of the party at David Lam Park.

I loved all the patriotism hanging from people's balconies. Very fun.

Then we decided to just walk around and enjoy the feeling of downtown. As we were walking by the Bell party, we stopped to see what was going on. The girls outside told us that Steve Na.sh was inside and that Wayne Gre.tzky had left about 20 minutes ago. Shoot! They said he had walked right out and into a taxi (yes, a taxi). Wish we would've seen that. Oh well. We heard the loud music and they were playing Bare.nake.d Ladies. We started walking away and I saw this Alberta sign so I stopped to take a picture.

All of a sudden I thought, "That music sounds live!" I turned around and went close to the window and sure enough, this is what I saw...

The were right there!!!

We stood outside and watched for awhile and looked through the crowd to see Steve, but didn't see him anywhere.

Might've even tried to get in if the lady with the clipboard of "invite only" names hadn't looked so daunting.

Oh well, it was a great night anyway and I'm SO glad we went.

Olympic fever - Day 1

Last Sunday the torch came through Abbotsford and it was SUPER exciting! We went down to the spot where my friend, Mary Jane, was running and waited for her to come by.

We were right at the point where she would pass the torch, so about 15 minutes before she came through, they dropped off the guy who she was going to pass it to. He was like a rock star. People crowded around him immediately asking him questions and taking pictures. I don't think the grin ever left his face. I heard him say that he was "super excited and very nervous." So fun!

THE TORCH!!! Well, one of many. :) Apparently you could pay to keep the one you ran with. I think I heard it was $300. I would've bought it for sure.

Here she comes!!!

Way to go, Mary Jane. We were all super proud of her and for her. We all got a little teary eyed as well.

After the torch left our area, we went into the local recreation centre where the Japanese speedskaters had been practicing earlier in the week and now the Russian figure skaters were practicing. Very cool to see them up close.

What an exciting day!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Makeover time!

Well, my 20 year reunion is coming up this summer. I know, I can't believe it either. One day I was looking in the mirror and realized that my hair was pretty much the same as when I was in High School ... long and frizzy. I thought that if I was going to change it up, I should do it soon in case I didn't like it. My hair grows pretty fast so I thought that if I didn't like it at least it would grow a few inches and the colour can always be fixed as well.

So, I went for it. Cut off about 12 inches at the back and about 10 inches off the sides. Oh, and I went BRIGHT red! Of course when my hair dresser does it, it looks all nice and sleek and shiny. Here's the side view.

And the back view. I can't wait until it grows a bit because I think I'm going to go for even more of an angle from the back to front.

It was quite shocking at first and every time I walked past a mirror it startled me. The reactions from people have been amazing. My desk faces the door out to a long hallway and most people just say, "Hi" and wave as they walk by. Well, the next few days they'd be walking by as usual, say their hi and wave and then I heard their footsteps stop ... and backup. Then I'd hear, "Whoa!" wait a few seconds and then I'd hear, "I LOVE IT!" You know how you can tell when people are lying or just being nice or don't say anything at all because you can tell they don't like it? Either these people are all amazing liars or I think people actually really like it. After all these positive comments, I figured it was ok to go out in public (work doesn't really count as public because it's something you HAVE to do - I couldn't rightly call in sick for 2 weeks). Since it was ok to go out into the world, I went into Vanco.uver last weekend with Bren and a complete stranger told me he loved my hair. What? That hasn't happened to me in FOREVER!

I had posted the before and after pics on Fac.ebook, but I think it was Kori who said I should add the brunette picture from a year ago in with it, so here they are:

A couple people have called me brave, but really, it's just hair and it'll grow back, right? :)

This week on Fac.ebook it's been Doppleganger week. You're supposed to make your profile picture someone that looks like you. I couldn't think of anyone from before the haircut or after, but then, when I was straightening my hair the other day, it came to me ...

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Quote

Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together.

- Vesta M. Kelly

Modern Family quotes

This is one of my new favorite shows this year. Here are a few quotes that made me howl (although half of the fun is how the actors deliver the lines).

Phil: I'm a cool dad, that's my thang. I'm hip, I surf the web, I text. LOL means laugh out loud, OMG: oh my god, WTF: why the face

Cameron: I got all medieval on the florists.
Mitchell: Cam, I heard you on the phone, you said you were displeased, but that's hardly going medieval.
Cameron: Excuse me, I said very displeased and I used my cowboy voice.

Phil: Cheerleading in my college was cool. The football players were so jealous they wouldn't even let me and my buddies, Trevor, Scotty and Ling go to their parties.

Gloria: Every culture has their own traditions. For example, in our culture, the Baby Jesus is the one that brings the presents, not the Santa Claus.
Jay: That doesn't make sense. How could a new born baby carry all those presents? They don't even know where their hands are.
Manny: At least a baby could fit through a chimney.
Jay: How could you sit on the Baby Jesus' lap? You'd squish him.

Phil: We raised our kids right. One of them will come forward, or the other two will rat them out.

Manny: In Colombia, they open presents at midnight and stay up til morning.
Jay: I'm sure they do, but if you notice from the absence of goats in the streets, we're not in Colombia.

Gloria: We can't get Luke a crossbow, he pokes himself in the eye every time he uses a straw.

Claire: Getting everybody out of the house in the morning can be really tough. Especially the first day of school.
Phil: From the moment we get up at seven until we drop them off at school it is: go go go.
Claire: I get up at six.
Phil [mocking]: I get up at five.
Claire: Seriously, I get up at six.
Phil: That's you? I thought we had a raccoon

Gloria: Jay, I'm home. Did Manny call?
Jay: No, because he's fine. It was a slumber party, not a gang fight.

Haley: Okay, mom just doesn't trust me and it's not fair.
Phil: She trusts you, it's just the weird stuff that happens at concerts. Boys get urges.
Haley: Eww! Dad! Is there something you want?
Phil: Yes, there is., to connect with this girl right here. Now come on, pretend I'm not your dad. We're just a couple of friends kickin' it in a juice bar.
Haley: What's a juice bar?
Phil: Okay a malt shop, whatever.
Haley: Dad, I don't...
Phil: No, who's dad, who's dad? I'm Marcus, from Biology. Hey Haley! How's it going with you and Dylan? Does he try anything inappropriate with you, girl?
Haley [answering her phone]: Hey. I don't know, nothing, just talking to some dork I met in a malt shop

Cameron: There's a fish in nature that swims around with its babies in its mouth. That fish would look at Mitchell's relationship with his mother and say, "That's messed up."

Cameron: I'm sort of like Costco. I'm big, I'm not fancy and I dare you to not like me.

Seriously, if you're in need of a laugh, you've gotta watch this show. HIL-ARIOUS!

Wordless Wednesday

Reading ROCKS!!!

I was just going through some of my old posts and realized that I started this post but never finished it. I had found this quote and didn't write down who said it, but it's exactly how I feel about reading, so although I can't credit the correct person for saying it, I wanted to be honest and not take the credit myself:

When I was growing up, I was a voracious reader; I loved sitting in my house and jumping into new worlds. But more important, I loved meeting new people. Reading was a way to make friends or enemies, a way to discover how all these different people exist in the world and to rub shoulders with them. The ability to feel as if you've met someone, as if that person exists in flesh and blood and that you relate to them somehow, makes you feel a lot less lonely. And it also makes you feel very brave. When you read stories about triumph and about struggle and people coming to terms with how scary life is, you begin to think, "What could I take? What could I do? What would I do in that moment?"

I've always loved reading as well. I remember when I was about 9 years old, my friend, Susie, and I would each have 10 books on the go. I would read a chapter from one book and then put it to the bottom of the pile and then she would read a chapter from her book. We had TWENTY books on the go at the same time! How did we ever keep all the stories straight? Crazy. Now I try to only have one fiction book and one self-help type book on the go at the same time, but I do still love reading ... which is a good thing as you'll see in a couple of weeks.