Hot Diggity.

The past two weeks = fantastical fun.

Some highlights:

1.  Meeting up with friends to go and watch a friend of ours, Kat, perform her stand up at Yuk Yuk’s.  I can’t think of a much better way to spend a Wednesday.  She’s small, funny, sweet, and full of more awesome than you’d think possible to fit into her tiny frame.

2.  Seeing Inherit the Wind at the Pumphouse Theatre with my good friend, Jim.  A funny play about the Scopes Monkey Trial in the US.  Not a very accurate rendition of the events, but a good “summary” if you will, with some “Good Old Religion” thrown in for good measure.  Which is awesome only if you want to be singing that damn song in your head for weeks to come.

3.  Spending a quality night with my girls, Gizzy and Kelly.  It was originally scheduled to be a movie night, but when you have such good company, it’s often way more fun just to sit around eating crackers and drinking wine while chatting about life, the universe, and everything.  Someone once told me that your girlfriends will keep you sane through the hard times and will magnify the joy during the good times.  I could not ask for better girls to have in my life. (more…)

The Camera Experiment

Today, while looking through a friend’s blog, I discovered a post that reminded me of a conversation I’d had with him a long time ago.  The Camera Experiment, he called it.  This is someone with whom I’ve enjoyed many many great conversations.  And yet out of all of them, as it always seems to happen, there are those handful of seemingly random ideas and pieces of advice that will stay with you for the rest of your life and which are remembered as vividly as the day they were given to you.

The Camera Experiment has stuck with me ever since the day he told me about it.  Being the overemotional sort at times, I will often need a kick to the head to remind me to count my blessings and to take a moment to evaluate the beauty and goodness that surrounds me.  I’ve got a great family, a solid support circle of good friends, a place to come home to, and best of all, I get to live here… in this city, in this country, in a world that’s full of ugly but also full of beauty at the same time.

I have taken more photos in the last two months than I’ve taken probably in the whole year prior to them.  And I’m a significantly happier person for it.

So, without rambling further I’ll simply say thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

Summer in Saskatchewan

Summer in Saskatchewan, originally uploaded by Ethyl Alcohol.

This is what family reunions look like when you come from a farm in Saskatchewan. It may not have mountains or crystal blue sea water, but it has a beauty all on it’s own. Behold, my cousin consuming a cold (very likely alcoholic) beverage while wandering through one of our fields last weekend. It was a very hot day and the cold drinks flowed freely as aunts, uncles, cousins, small nieces and nephews all came out from all across western Canada.

My parents throw a sweet family weekend. Good times. :o)