morning gruel

nesting instinct

I had heard about this thing they call the 'nesting instinct', but I never really knew what it was. Until a couple of weeks ago...

Morgaine: Let's go for a drive.
Me: Where to?
Morgaine: Just a drive.
Me: Okay.

Time passes and Morgaine pulls the car over on a quiet residential street.

Me: Why are we stopping?
Morgaine (pointing to a lovely bungalow): Welcome to our new home!
Me: Huh?
Morgaine: We move in next week.
Me: What?
Morgaine: Well we better get back, we've got a lot of packing to do.

Sure it was a bit of a shock but I really gotta hand it to her: MORGAINE GETS THINGS DONE.

moving on up

Wonderful Friends,

Last week I only posted twice. That's the least posts I've had in one week since I started this blog. The thing is, we're moving. And stuff like packing and booking movers and juggling my work schedule have kept me from my trusty laptop.

So please don't hate me if you don't hear from me again this week. I might post a quick update, but I can't guarantee anything.

The great part of this is that our new home is fabulous; we've got the main floor of a lovely, well-maintained bungalow. I'm really looking forward to moving in. And why not: It's the place where our baby will be born, the first home of our expanded family, the place that I'll come home to and have my child greet me...

So don't fret, I'll be back very soon with many tales to tell. You'll probably hear all about the move, more about our new home, not to mention all of the other gruel that's simmering...

peace, craig.

p.s. I think donuts are appropriate moving day food, are they not?

i can't hold out forever

There's a Tim Horton's downtown that I walk past several times a week.

The nice thing about most donut shops is that they have doors. You see, when I walk up to a store that has delicious donuts inside, I am relieved by the fact that it has a door. Because the small pause in momentum that a door provides allows just enough time for my willpower to kick in and tell me that I don't really want a donut. Yup, that little bit of awareness that opening a door requires is all it takes for me snap to my senses and walk on by. And it's not that difficult to keep walking because to be honest, I don't really want a donut. But at the same time, I REALLY WANT A DONUT.

So maybe they had people like me in mind when they built this new Tim Horton's downtown without doors. You see, it's inside the walkway to a Skytrain station. A Skytrain station that I use... often. No door between me and the donuts means there's no barrier to force that moment of personal reflection. So all I'm left with now is simple willpower. Eek.

On the subject of donuts, these are my favourites in no order of importance:

- bismark

- old fashioned glazed

- crueller

- chocolate dipped

- chocolate dipped with sprinkles

All the rest run a close second.

unrestricted

Last year I underwent laser surgery to correct my exceptionally poor vision. I had the worst eyesight of anyone I had ever met outside of those who were blind or required any kind of 'special' lenses. At the laser surgery clinic they told me that there was just barely enough corneal tissue for them to work with considering the amount of correction required for my eyes. This meant that if they got it wrong, there was no do-over. Ever. 

Fast forward to a year after surgery. My eyesight is now very good but not quite as sharp as it was back when I wore contact lenses. I sometimes wish that I could see just a little bit sharper, though what I see now is sufficient and I'm just glad that I don't have to deal with glasses or contacts anymore.

The thing is, I missed my very last post-surgery check-up -- the one where they would have told me what my new prescription is. So I've never known exactly how good (or bad) my eyesight is now. Which is fine because as far as I'm concerned, my eyes are fixed.

Then last week I had to go renew my driver's license. So I told them that I no longer needed corrective lenses because I had surgery. They said that I'd have to take their eye test.

Suddenly I started to panic; what if my eyesight wasn't quite good enough? What if, after only a year of freedom from 'corrective lenses', I needed to use them again? But all of my worrying was for nothing. The test was a piece of cake, even if I did have to close one eye to make sure I got the answer right.

abracadabra

When I was a kid, I used to try to take artistic photos with my Kodak Instamatic. But when you're ten and you're trying to take a photo that looks like a magazine ad for Ferrari but ends up looking like a snapshot of your pet lizard, it's easy to become disappointed. So I gave it up.

But now I'm back at it. You see, Morgaine has been tutoring me in the fine art of photography. And with the use of some of her equipment that's slightly better than my old Instamatic, I find myself clicking away once again. Well, a few weeks back Morgaine had to go out to Steveston for a photo shoot and I went along for the ride. While she was working with her clients, I meandered along the beach taking pictures of all the junk, experimenting with things like aperture and depth of field.

Then when Morgaine was finished working, she found a good spot, stood in it, called me over and handed me her most excellent Canon magic wand. All I had to do was say abracadabra and this is what happened...

 

She did all of the hard work for this one: setting up the shot, post-production, looking great. So as her student, what did I learn about photography?

a) I love taking photos of Morgaine, and b) She's a better subject than my lizard.

not business as usual

saw a dead body yesterday.

It was such a quick moment in my day and so out of the blue that I actually forgot about it until Morgaine reminded me about it later on.

We were walking to one of our (many) favourite cafes for a cup of tea when we turned the corner and had to stop. The sidewalk in front of the cafe was closed off by yellow caution tape and there were police milling about. The officers looked so casual and business-as-usual that it took me several moments to notice the tarp at their feet. But it only took me a split second to recognize what the tarp was covering. I turned away so fast that I'm not even sure how I recognized it. Perhaps I saw a foot or a leg. I didn't look long enough for the scene to sink in. And I suppose that's why, although I felt sadness at the time, I managed to forget about it.

It's surprising that I could put something like that out of my mind so easily, almost like it wasn't anything special. But a person's death is more than just a little blip in my day, more that just something that stopped me from getting a cup of tea. And in my turning away and forgetting that moment so quickly I feel like I didn't give this person the respect that they deserved. So I am taking this moment to remember what happened and say to this person, I saw you.

All the best on your journey...

happy anniversary to me

It has been one year since I started writing my blog. And what a year it's been. Let's break it down shall we (the first one is in order of importance):

- Morgaine and I are expecting a child.

- I learned to freedive. I also attended my first freediving competition (and a couple more since).

- I applied for, was excepted to, and eventually postponed graduate school. 

- I took some of the most gorgeous photos of my life (thanks to my tutor Morgaine, who was also the subject).

- I added 'lemon/ginger' to the long list of scones that I regularly bake.

- I finally cut fish out of my diet, which means I am now completely vegetarian (not vegan though, because cheese is awesome).

- I started a blog...

And what have I learned from this year of blogging? Well, I guess the most important thing I learned was to not write about other people unless I'm saying something nice.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the past year and are as happy to read about my further adventures as I am to write about them...

peace,

craig.

dude, where's my pants?

Occasionally someone comes into my store with no shoes on.

My store is smack dab in the middle of downtown, so it's not like these people are coming from the beach. Yes, there are apartments around but why, WHY, would you leave your downtown apartment barefoot? I mean, your shoes are right there by the door. And this is not a clean city. Not that clean anyway.

Someone walking around my store without shoes makes me feel like the floor is contaminated. Which is funny because the bottoms of shoes are probably dirtier than someone's bare feet.

All the same, being barefoot in the city is kinda gross. So I'll often say something like Dude, you forgot your shoes, attempting a casual tone, when what I'm ACTUALLY IMPLYING is Dude, it's inappropriate that you're in here with no shoes on. But they usually just laugh and say something like, I don't like wearing shoes all the time, they're restrictive.

Well so are my pants, but I manage to keep them on in public.

the new guy

As you may recall, I had to hire a new employee for my store.

So I hired Ryan. Besides the fact that his acting resume is longer than mine (I blame his cheekbones), he's totally awesome! Yesterday I left him alone for an entire shift for the first time and he didn't call for back-up once. That's seven hours without a phone call on his first shift. I figured that was either a really good sign or a REALLY BAD ONE. Turns out it was a good one; any problem he came across he managed to solve on his own.

And on top of this whole being-able-to-think-for-himself thing, I suspect he may be nicer to customers than I am.

Yup, problem-solver, super friendly, great cheekbones... good thing I can't get fired.

wild berry

I took my camera to the beach in Steveston yesterday. There's such incredible biodiversity there, different grasses and trees, flowers and bushes... and these two very different types of wild berry that I found co-existing right next to each other...

I love nature.