My relaxing weekend at my parents; went to Durham Highland games in Uxbridge!!!!

Olive trees and Cedar trees

As I go about my day to day tasks enduring the hot Hamilton sun, half way around the world, people endure the heat under their sheet metal roofs and within their concrete walls as to avoid aerial shells, rockets and bullets... stray or intended.... Yes, the reality and presence of the Arab-Israeli war is illuminated again in Lebanon... and continues as it always seems to have been continuing , in Gaza and the West Bank. I could speak for hours about my feelings and frustrations relating to this war, especially in regards to the evangelical church's unconditional support for the state of Israel, but this blog is intended really to make it's readers to pause a moment, and think about Arabs, Christians, Jews, Atheists and everyone living in the perhaps the most beautiful part of the world under a militarized state that is only getting more restricted, violent, racist and intolerant. Please for a moment, consider the fear, stress and despair these people experience as they simply try to go to the market, raise a family, have a nap... My words do little to express some of my feelings if any.
So please, if you have time, peruse a website or two to learn more about this conflict because in recognizing the gravity of the experiences of others who endure conflict, we give recognition and legitimation to their pain, their histories and thus their identities... the act of recognizing each other in this way is essential to being human and to feeling whole.... if we do not do this, the people in the Middle East will remain as "other"... the people who live "over there"... "not here" but they are not, they are us, we are them; people...

Websites:

http://www.electronicintifada.net

http://www.electronicintifada.net/lebanon/

www.zatoun.com

I love Tolstoy

Some of you may know that Leo Tolstoy; great Russian thinker for the late 1800s, is my favourite intellectual. He used to be an aristocrat, a rich snob, arrogant, seeking the world but his experiences in the Crimean war made him think about how senseless all those things truly are. He pondered deeply about what spirituality is in comparison to the shell of an institution that the church can be. Here are some amazing quotes, some of his, some that he quoted in his work "What is Religion, of What Does its Essence Consist?"

"True religion is that relationship, in accordance with reason and knowledge which man establishes with the infinite world around him, and which binds his life to that infinity and guides his actions."
- Tolstoy

And here are some descriptions of great thinkers who influenced Tolstoy:

"Friedrich Ernst Schleiermacher (1768-1834). German philosopher and theologian who, rather than defining religion in terms of reason or morality, sees it as a feeling of the absolute dependence of oneself as a finite being on the infinite. The infinite whole, taken as a set of things, is God, and the individual is beliebed to gain his identity, or life-unity, by developing an awareness of his particular place in nature and history..."

"Ludwig Feurbach (1804-72). Bavarian philospher and theologian... He defined religion as "the dream of the human mind", and viewed all spiritual development as properly relating to man, rather than to God. He advocated this as a conscious activity conducive to the well-being of the human speices".

Anyways, some of these thoughts inspire me because religion is not defined as a system of beliefs that you inherit or subsribe to but rather an innate human desire, passion, something that comes from within, that connects us to eternity... to existence... to God... to whatever you want to call it..... Lovin it.

Adrian's Birthday

Jacob wishing Adrian such a happy birthday!!!



Adrian in front of his snare drum chocolate cake

Margie, oh Margie... Doing the honours of punishing Adrian for being an hour late for his own birthday party because he "wasn't feeling well".... hmmmmm....

Joyful noise

Just a note: the photos go in reverse order of what I tried to do... my bad.... My weekend involved a lot of spasticity... music... oma and yes even pirates, but we musn't forget giant cokes and mc hammer car bouncing.
So... where to begin.... Friday, I left work at the Freeway only to return a couple of hours later to meet Miranda and Erin to see some emo music at Absinthe. Came back to Freeway, enjoyed the Acoustics to be followed by helping Adrian and Carolyn close while practicing Kung Fu on Adrian while wearing 4 inch heels, YES!!!!!!!!!! I ended the night with a pita from the pit, nice.
Day 2... Saturday.... Weils bakery and fair trade coffee.... rush to Adrian's to accompany him to a jam session. So, I got to see him play serious drums for the first time ever and let me just say that he just became 10x hotter. Im crazy about him anyways but he is actually really, really good. I'm sure I just sat there with my jaw dropped the whole time. His bandmates are pretty good too, it sounded like Metallica, nice!!!!!






Then.... off to Oma and Opa's house. Adrian had a fun line up of meeting not only my parents but my grandparents too... at the same time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was fun. Then we randomly decided to see Pirates of the Carribean. Adrian buys the tickets, litters away the receipt and then off to Lick's. Adrian is so thirsty so he orders a large Coke that cost $3.18. WTF??? Then we see why, the pics explain the rest. Get's cold, still not movie time, sit in car, dancing to Hammer and other 80s classics. Car bounces, people stare, ha ha ha ha ha.... Adrian asks if I have the movie ticks... I say, "no"..... Evidently, when Adrian hackee-sacked the receipt away, he also littered away our movie ticks. Nice one Age, nice one.... Luckily the lady remembered us and escorted us through and I had to cut a few ladies off cause they were standing in the way!!!! oh vell, I try not to be rude but I had dirty pirates on the brain. Needless to say, Pirates of the Carribean was so awesome. Adrian got a little scared at some parts so I held his hand and told him it would be okay... he made it through... At the very end, when the suprise ending happened, Adrian shouted out loud, "Oh no" just like how a 5 year old would, nice!!!


Day 3..... Sunday....
Woke up feeling panicky, I couldn't quite fall asleep because I felt like I had so many things to do and not enough time. I had a little stress fest for no reason, strange, why do I do that? Anyways, got on it, did some errands.... No Frills is a scary place on the weekend... have to wait in line just to move your cart... wait in line to reach the tomatoes, geeeeeeez..... finally get out, pick up Adrian and meet my bro and Bonnie and Nick to car pool to SCENE music fest. Stop at Booster Juice, drank my whole juice, felt sick after, too much fruit.... Literally felt like giant blueberry girl from Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory.

Let me tell you what Scene was like.... To summarize; awesome.... 120 bands playing at various venues in St Catherines. We walked to the main stage; Market Square... saw a bit of City and Colour, honestly thought it was boring so Adrian and I walked. Came across a little bar the featured some metal bands so we stopped in... two doors down saw Infinite Machine who are from Hamilton and a bit of the Johnstones. All the members of Infinite Machine were so talented and the drummer was a really hot chick, I was like hell ya, you go!!!!!!

Saw more bands.... middle eastern food for dinner.... Adrian and I were walking and see a waterfront and decide to walk and check it out and when we get closer, it disappears and all we see are highways.... St Catherines tricked us both!!!!!!!!!
Finished the night off with Alexis on Fire then the last of Tokyo Police Club and get back to the Hammer at around 12ish.
It was truly and awesome weekend!

Sleeping

I am always tired. All I want to do is sleep. I get home from work and all I want to do is nap. I usually do not stay up late. I wake up at 7:30, why am I so tired? If you know, please tell me.
Anyways, this weekend I was able to do plenty of what I love most.
But first, on Friday, Erin and I were superheroes. We catered a huge job!!!! I got to The Freeway at 8am and started setting up a beautiful continental breakfast. Erin arrived shortly after 9am and by that time the place was full of Lawson staff. We catered breakfast, lunch and drinks all day for 37 people. The lunch was custom, so we collected all their orders and go cracking right away. Once 11am hit, we were constantly running. All the counter space was filled up and by the time we were finished making all the sandwiches we were out of dishes and sink and bin space to put more dirty dishes. I had never wanted to wash dishes so badly. All in all, it went pretty smoothly. We had a few weirdos in the crowd like a girl who wanted ice for her tea and pouted at us when we told her we had no ice. Or the girl who said she didn't like this place because we didn't have a green bin. Yes... because we are responsible for city by-laws. Take it to city hall sister and pipe down while I get your dessert.... sheesh....
Anyways, 8-6... long day but Adrian visited me at around 4:30 ish and let me release some of my verbal stresses and he dealt with some knots in my shoulders... you are the best! Then as soon as Kristyn and Miranda showed up I was out of there as fast as I could be and on my way home.
Had fun with parents. We watched tonnes of movies including Fun with Dick and Jane which is quite hilarious.
Saturday, family went to cottage but I decided to stay at home and sleep and honestly that is all I had the strength to do. As soon as I would try to get up my muscles would ache and tell me to sit back down. It was all good though because BBC Canada had a What Not to Wear marathon and I watched 6hours of it. Yes!!!!!
Sunday, watched the missed episodes of Cornation Street. Poor Jamie, I can't believe that Danny and Leanne got caught cheating, that was so scandalous, oh my..... My parents and I made some fancy drink cocktails; Fuzzy Navels and read and slept in the backyard. Good sleepy times aided with cocktails.
Monday, my productive day; helped clean house, baked Adrian's birthday cake, yummy yummy!!!!!
But this weekend, I also found out that my dad's cancer is back. He had a surgery this week and we are hoping it is all gone but we shall wait and see. I am not worried until I need to be. But whatever happens, everyone needs to know that he is the best dad ever and he doesn't need to worry about me...