shopping cart chain

no doubt the shopping cart was a great idea. it definitely beats the basket, especially if you have to buy heavier items like milk. The cart is great but I have on major problem with it. It isn't that the push handle has more bacteria than a toilet seat and it isn't the squeaky wheels or the wheels that don't work it is the chain to make you return the cart. not all grocery stores have the carts where you must put in change (a quarter or a loonie) to get your cart out but those chains I don't like. during the shopping experience if I want to stand on the bottom of my cart and glide around the store, which I still do, that little chain nub digs into my chest. It's not very enjoyable. Another reason I don't like the chain is when I am returning the cart to the row of carts. the length of the chain is such a pain. When you go to push your cart in the row you can see the chain of the cart in front dangling there but it poses a problem because as you push the cart in the chain gets wedged and so inevitably you end up having to push the cart in then pull it out enough to dig the chain out. All of this for a quarter! if the length of the chain was shorter then it would not get wedged in the cart which would be nice. If the chain was longer you could retrieve the chain and elevate it while you push your cart in to prevent the wedge. Of course the ultimate way around this dilemma is to put your chain up in the area where small children can sit to prevent the wedge from happening to the next person who will be putting there cart in the row. the next time you're at the grocery store you will think of this blog!

reflections of quitting christmas

So as I decided and blogged some time ago I had decided to give up christmas consumerism. Of course, I am not immune to the pressures of the season. I certainly felt the pressure, and I did cave..... kind of.

I participated in an office gift exchange which over the weeks I probably spent about $40
I bought a t-shirt for someone else.
I spent $50 on my partner
I donated $10 to the food bank
I donated $20 to another charity to contribute to building and outhouse and a goat in Africa
I also worked 12 hours of gift wrapping with the proceeds going to the local sexual assault centre.

I also bought myself some presents but I don't know if I count that as christmas spending or money I would spend on myself or giving myself an excuse to spend money.

anyways, here are my thoughts:
to my own surprise when it came closer to the day instead of receiving lots of questioning and teasing I hardly received any. Almost everyone seemed to respect my decision and thought it was ok. at least this is my interpretation.

One thing that surprised me as that for the few gifts I did give out I expected bigger reactions from the recipients. One particular case sticks out where the recipient said thank you and as far as I can tell enjoyed the gift but I wanted more of a reaction. I felt like "it's a big deal that I am giving this. you're special because you ARE receiving something when others close to me are not. give me some gratitude" I then realized that it was just my ego wanting to be overly fed and that the response I had received for the gift was completely appropriate. I didn't need anything more but I think I had expected more of a thanks.

part of me did miss the excitement of shopping and giving and receiving gifts. the excitement of buying for others and thinking about what to buy them, wrapping the gifts, and of course waiting and wondering what is in the gifts for me and anxiously waiting for others to open the gifts I had bought them.

On the other hand I did not miss anything as far as the reasons for quitting christmas. I didn't miss the stress of shopping and more than anything I did not miss having an empty wallet.

as a final conclusion: I'm glad I did it but at the exact same time I don't know if I would do it again, or if I did do it again if I would do it as rigid as I was this year. maybe I could just tone it back. it was certainly a learning experience.

scholarship

a couple of weeks ago I went to a dance convention in vancouver. In the weeks leading up to it I was debating whether or not I should even go. There was the money factor plus there was not going to be any tap dancing which is one of my favorite forms of dance. After much internal debate and one swipe of my credit card I decided I would go after all. One of the main reasons I decided to go was to dance for me and for nobody else. When I typically dance I dance for the exercise, for the social elements, and for the people watching and to put on a good show. Of course I dance because I love to dance but this was more about focusing on the art of dancing just for myself and for nobody else.

When I was dancing I got everything out of the convention that I had hoped. I was challenged and danced all kinds of styles and learned new things. Beyond that going to a convention like this re-inspires. When I walked into the big room and saw all the different dancers and different clicks of different and exceptional skill levels its and interesting emotion that came over me. Excitement, anxious, nervous, intimidated, lonely all bundled into one. A great weekend

At the end of the weekend there was a segment giving out scholarships to different levels of dancers. I signed up as a teacher so I was not eligible for a scholarship. the organizers announced the people who won different levels of scholarships and then told all those listening that a teacher scholarship was introduced. I, having danced all weekend was tired didn't think I would win. I especially didn't think I would win because I had seen a number of other dancers who I thought were very deserving. Long story short, I won the scholarship.

I was ridiculously surprised. After I giggled to myself and realized I won and the reality of the moment hit me the implication of the scholarship hit me. And it was the implication of the scholarship that really made me feel good.

first off, there were a tonne of dancers in that room that were phenomenal so winning the scholarship validated that I could at least keep up with those dancers. I KNOW I was NOT one of the best dancers in that room but I at least kept up with them which is a wonderful validation.

winning also told me that the teachers saw something in me. I doubt that the scholarship was won exclusively on dance ability. I dressed up on halloween, tried to be friendly, and did have a chance to talk to a couple of the teachers. I guess winning the scholarship told me that there was something about me that makes me different (in a good way). In a room of over 150 dancers it could be hard to stand out. I was the only person in the room with a beard. maybe the beard won.

Finally, the scholarship gave confidence and renewed passion. In a way winning the scholarship gave me my mojo back . I went back to the dance studio reinvigorated with my own dancing and in my teaching and choreography. So much more than the little piece of paper that is the scholarship winning it has done great strides in building my confidence as a dancer/teacher/choreographer. So something that I didn't think would happen and that I was eligible for has turned into a magnificent building block for my dancing moving forward.

how many times?

I was contemplating the other day how often parents say their kids names. Then I began to wonder what the actual number of times a parent says their child's name. Please feel free to guess in the comments link at the bottom of this post. So if you care to venture a guess here are the rules: the time period is from when the child is in the womb to when it turns 18, and the name only counts when the parents is referencing the child or talking to the child. my guess is 350,000 times.

highway lines

I was driving on the highway the other day and I noticed in a way I hadn't noticed before the line (or multiple lines I guess) that tell us which lane we are in and drive over when we switch lanes. I began to wonder how long these lines are. I always thought of them as quite short but when I looked I began to wonder how long they actually were. when traveling at 100km/h it is hard to judge exact distance. I came up with the idea that the lines are probably about 8 or 9 feet each. When I asked my beloved partner (out of the blue) how long she thought they were she said maybe 2 or 3 feet to which we disagreed, examined the lines, looked at the lines seperating oncoming traffic and decided that they were longer. So i pose this question to my readers. how long do you think one of the white lines of the line divider are? and if you do think about it when you are driving, does your mind change from the original answer you have reading this before looking at it while driving. I have no idea how long they actually are. these are the things that I think of.

already failed

so my intention was to quit christmas consumerism and I have already failed in the essence of completely quitting. without my knowledge I was put into one of my jobs "seceret pals" it is the equivalent to secret santa and goes every week until christmas break. so I have already had to make purchases in the spirit of christmas. This is even before Halloween. Oh well, I'm still sticking to it the best I can.

don't lie

in chatting with a coworker and friend the other day we came to the conclusion that adults are really just a bunch of hypocrites. This all started how we were talking about how wouldn't it be wonderful if we were all as honest as children. Kids just say thing without any ego, any worry of how it is interpreted, and any worry of sparing feelings.

How wonderful would it be if we all were so bluntly honest. People would express their true feelings and call other people on their shit much more often.

as good as that would be I thought about how we lie and are hypocrites. One lesson fed to kids over and over and over again is the importance of honesty. I am one of the most honest people I know but I certainly lie from time to time like anyone else. So here we have a situation where the adults and grown-ups of the world are spouting the importance of honesty and punishing dishonesty when we ourselves go through the world lying frequently.