Elementary My Dear Watson

Back on the wagon…

elementarymydearwatson — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 04:34:46 +0000

I remembered my blog today and thought I should go check out when my last post was. A year ago? Weird. It is also weird that the things happening in my last post were a whole year ago. The end of school feels so recent.

Anyways, after a few weeks/months of feeling down (I’m feeling better now), I have decided to use the blog as a means to think on all the positive things happening in my life. My hope is to post at least 5 things I am thankful for as often as I get a chance. There are so many ways that I am incredibly blessed, but I often find it easy to forget those things and focus on the negative things, which is completely unhealthy. So. Here. We. Go.

Today’s top five great things.

1) Long weekends.

2) Easter and the amazing reminder of God’s incredible love for us.

3) Making music and worshipping with great people.

4) reconnect, toronto. (I am actually thankful for this community….but I did mention this in the blog specifically to see if Ryan’s magical ways of the interwebs will actually alert him that I have mentioned reconnect in my blog….)

5) Wonderfully, fantastic and long spring bike rides along the lakeshore.

Still full of Joy.

elementarymydearwatson — Tue, 04 May 2010 02:53:18 +0000

Another list of things that make me happy.

1) Being finished school.

2) Having so many people rooting for me to get an awesome job.

3) Relaxing.

4) Realizing how amazing the last year was- purely based on the fact all our instructors gave us goodbye/good luck hugs.

5) Laughing at how much of a joke the AVT marks were.

6) My first experience with Somalian food (though maybe having it right before bed was a poor choice)

7) Sunshine. (Lollipops…and….Rainbows- I couldn’t resist)

8 ) St. Paul’s

9) Ingrid Michaelson.

10) Clean rooms.

11) The following clips from Outnumbered .

Thankful.

elementarymydearwatson — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 01:27:14 +0000

Today’s short list of things I am thankful for is as follows:

1) Waking up. I have NEVER been happier to be alive and well.

2) Being almost finished placement.

3) The sweet feeling of revenge in pulling garlic mustard from the ground. Take that invasive species.

4) 31 cent scoops of ice cream.

5) Sweat pants.

6) A really awesome profession.

7) Love.

8 ) Laughter.

9) The way that things always work out- even when they feel like they wont.

10) Community.

Could life get better?

elementarymydearwatson — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:41:30 +0000

So it has been an interesting morning. Long story short- I now have a bit of a bump on my head and I am taking the morning off of placement to recover a bit.

Anyhow, last night one of my roommates and I were enjoying listening to some Bon Iver. This morning I stumbled across this cover of one of their songs and I’m pretty sure that it made my life.

Ladies and Gentlemen- The awesome Bon Iver song “Skinny Love” covered by the incredible Ingrid Michaelson. Life is good.

The View From Bathurst St.

elementarymydearwatson — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 02:47:46 +0000

Sex Education. Yes. I am going there.

I’ve tried to be gracious and understanding when people have expressed their frustrations with the McGuinty government’s sex education curriculum for Ontario schools. I am actually disappointed that the new curriculum document will not be used in the 2010-2011 school year. If you have been living under a rock for the last little while, I suggest you take a little interweb search and read up on the proposal that has now been ‘shelved’.

My personal beef with the many people that have been protesting this new curriculum is that the only thing they are stopping is children learning about important, real life things. By sheltering kids from learning about sex we presenting children with one of the two following views: a) “sex is bad, if I ever desire to have sex (outside of marriage) I must be a bad person and I must never talk about this with anyone” or b) “no one will talk about this sex thing so I am going to rebel and put myself in potentially dangerous situations. I might be exaggerating a bit and being a small drama llama- but I do this to show you the issue of avoid discussing difficult topics.

Now. I have also heard “well, they are teaching about homosexuality and gender identity at the grade three level. This is such a young age to learn about such things”. This statement makes me crazy. I’m not going to go into the whole debate surrounding the ‘morality’ of homosexuality. If you are a decent human being, and especially if you proclaim to be a Christ follower, you should be loving and accepting of all people no matter their sexual orientation- It doesn’t matter what you believe is ‘sin’ or not. I refer you back to the passage where we learn to take the plank out of our own eyes before we try to take the speck of dust out of our brothers. So what is so wrong about learning that Heather has Two Mommies, if it teaches children that not everyone has the exact same life as them. Don’t we live in a society that celebrates diversity?

My point on this issue? Objectively teach kids about the things going on in the world and they can form their own opinions based on what they have learned from school, their family values and their faith. By avoiding the difficult topics we create an unnecessary fear surrounding the topics of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity. As children become older, this fear has the potential to grow into more fear, judgement and hate. I’m pretty sure that these are not three things that we are called to do.

I have so much more to say on the matter, but I feel I might have said enough for this day.

Top five happy things.

elementarymydearwatson — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:33:20 +0000

So recently I have decided to work on being positive rather than focusing on all the not so nice things in life. Don’t get me wrong, I do love a good serious of unfortunate events as they often make the best stories, however, I’ve realized how negativity plays a role in a) my overall mood, b) how I interact with others and c) how I react to the actions of others. So in the future my plan is to work on reminding myself of the things in my life that give me joy. So to start us off here are the top five things this weekend that gave me happiness (in no particular order):

1) a plethora of new friends

2) a fabulous (and successful) trip to hamilton/buffalo with a WONDERFUL group of women

3) Sunday afternoon nap

4) a fun post church parade

5) people who are genuinely interested in hearing about why I love what I do (50 points to the first person to spot the awesome pun.)

Dragons.

elementarymydearwatson — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 02:27:44 +0000

Please see this movie; it will not disappoint. Well, it might disappoint if you are heartless.

Glee.

elementarymydearwatson — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:54:04 +0000

glee

noun

lively joy; gaiety; merriment
an English part song for three or more unaccompanied, usually men’s, voices

I love Glee more than anything in the world. Sorry Mom. Kidding. Seriously though, I heart Glee.

We’re Baaaaaaaaack.

elementarymydearwatson — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:49:49 +0000

After many complaints about being absent I have decided to return from my blogging haitus. I don’t think I ever decided to stop posting- I just didn’t have a whole lot to say, and then I just forgot about it. So what has happened since November 17th? Well, a whole lot. So since I am back to my old habit of blogging, I might as well get back to my old listing habit. Here it is. If you get bored of the list I encourage you to scroll down to the final entry. It is by far the most entertaining interaction I have had in awhile.

1) I fell in love with being a teacher of the deaf. Best profession ever. I cannot wait to start.

2) I started watching How I Met Your Mother. So hilarious and has taught me so many valuable life lessons.

3) I had a student tell me that if you look up at the sky during the night you will see a hippopotamus.

4) Became increasingly impressed with my ability to consistently win at rock, paper, scissors.

5) Watched (and now recommend) the following movies: New York, I Love You, Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Alice in Wonderland, Date Night (Tina Fey, Steve Carrell- can’t go wrong), 500 Days of Summer (that the most recent watch).

6) Re-watched (and still recommend) the following movies: Rushmore, While You Were Sleeping, When Harry Met Sally,

7) Finally finished unpacking and sorting out my room. I even got a small and beautiful dresser and the most wonderful curtains. It only took me 7 months, but I love it.

8 ) Had an amazing run of Crazy for You- filled with some of my favourite people and favourite moments of the year. Though I am quite happy to have my Post- Church Nap Time back.

9) Realized how much I love my church community. For Serious. It is officially one of my favourite parts about living in Toronto.

10) Realized I have the best roommates on the face of the planet. Seriously though, the amount of love is this house is EPIC.

11) Joined a fabulous small group. It is so fabulous that I miss them when I am away- which has been the last few weeks. Sad.

12) Almost finished school. Soon I will get to actually do the job I love to do. In fact I have even had a couple interviews! Fingers crossed that something happens for the fall.

13) Had the following interaction with someone after church (this past sunday):

Old Man: So, you made the cookies today?

Jenny: Indeed.

OM: Wow, they’re good.

J: Thanks

OM: So let me get this straight. You sing AND you bake delicious cookies.

J: I guess so….. (awkwardly)

OM: So….How long have you been married.

J: (tries not to burst out into hysterical laughter)

So this marks my return to my blog. It could be short lived…so enjoy it while you can. Haha.

November 17th.

elementarymydearwatson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:33:42 +0000

I am pleased to announce that November 17th shall forever be remembered as the day I saw Stuart Mclean.

In the last week or so I have read and listened to quite a few Vinyl Cafe stories and have enjoyed the fact that many of them occur in my very own neighbourhood. After discussing this with my roommates they informed me that he is rumoured to live somewhere in our ‘hood’ (yes, I just said ‘hood’. deal with it). So yesterday I may have wished multiple times that I would see Stuart Mclean someday. Turns out wishes do come true. Less than 24 hours later I was sitting in a coffee shop reading an article for school. Just as I finished the article and began thinking about pulling out “Stories from the Vinyl Cafe”, the man himself walked right by my table. I hope we didn’t make him uncomfortable with our stares. I am not joking when I say I was about to read one of his books. You can ask Shannon. She was there.

My famous person sighting count (not that I’m keeping track) since moving to Toronto is up to 4. That is more than 1 a month. Amazing.