Look Before You Leap: It's the Friday Five!

Borrowed from the RevGals:

Hello from your Fifth Friday Five team, will smama and Songbird~

It's Leap Day!! Whether you're one of the special few who have a birthday only once every four years, or simply confused by the extra day on the calendar, everyone is welcome to join in and play our Leap Year Friday Five.

Tell us about a time you:

1. Leapt before looked

I think that every ridiculously ambitious crafting project that I've ever "leapt" into and not finished would fall neatly into this category. Eventually, I came to these sad realizations.

2. Leapt to a conclusion

In 2003, while cleaning up a baseball diamond after umpiring an intramural game at Colourful U., I got a searing pain on the left side of my chest and it became very very difficult to breathe. I immediately leapt to the conclusion that I was FINE, JUST FINE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Despite being exactly a half-block from the hospital, I turned in the other direction and WALKED HOME. BECAUSE I WAS FINE. By the time I got home, I could barely breathe at all, and was in tears. I had to revise my previous conclusion and thanks to the Greatest Roommate Ever, the decision was shortly thereafter taken out of my hands, and an ambulance (and mom) were called. I had suffered an almost complete collapse of my left lung... Spontaneous Pneumothorax, they call that.

My mom still maintains that the fact that I so easily allowed myself to convince myself that I was FINE, was the first indication that I really was in dire need of help.

3. Took a Leap of Faith

In 2004, our church's music director put on a performance of Bach's St. John Passion as a part of his requirements for his doctoral program in choral conducting. I thought the music director was quite nifty, so in celebration, I bought him a really REALLY nice bottle of red wine. Clearly, this was not a gift that he expected to receive at all, but he gave me a huge hug as a thank you, and I remember thinking at the time, "Oooooh... good hugger... duly noted." It only took me (us?) another 8 months to hold hands. What can I say... some leaps of faith are littler than others.

4. Took a literal Leap

I was planning on competing in high jump and the 1500m in our junior high track meet, and at the last minute, added long jump too, just to see if I could. By some complete fluke, my first jump (4.0m - not impressive by Olympic standards, but pretty good for 12 year old girl standards, I thought!) was enough to win the gold, and unseat the Girl Who Always Won Long Jump. GWAWLJ was not impressed. Especially because she probably had a reasonable chance to do well at the City level meet that followed, where I flaked out completed and couldn't manage one clean jump.

5. And finally, what might you be faced with leaping in the coming year?

I think that there will lots of decisions that WH and I will have to leap through in the next year: decisions about career, and family and home... they are exciting decisions, but intimidating ones at the same time.

A Middle Name Meme

I've been tagged by Crimson Rambler to do this fun meme on my middle name.

1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name or your mother's maiden name).
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok, here we go!

E-- Elgar, whose music I enjoy singing very much!
L-- Lauren Bacall, my fashion icon.
I-- Ice Cream, Cherry Cherry, to be precise.
Z-- Zoology - the field I think I would have entered had I been a scientist.
A-- Altos rule the world!
B-- Baking, which I find an immensely satisfying and rewarding task. Tonight, it's Banana Bread!
E-- Eggs. I like them over-easy.
T-- Tim Horton's and other bits of Canadiana that I love.
H-- Henry V, my favourite Shakespeare play.

I'm going to beg off on tagging, as many folks I read have already done this one. But if you haven't, and would like to, go right ahead!

In which Chorus Muses on a Variety of Topics

Ahem.

1. I don't think that Skinny Jeans look good on ANYBODY, with the possible exception of Audrey Hepburn in her prime. If you are wearing Skinny Jeans, and are not Audrey Hepburn in her prime, you might look a little silly.

2. I wonder why it is that the person who wins the Oscar for Best Costume Design always seems to be wearing the ugliest outfit.

3. The response to my hair cut from 6 or 8 people has been along the lines of, "Well it makes sense, now that you're married." I don't know what that means.

4. I am contemplating pursuing more formal training in conflict management. They just seem like they would be useful skills if I'm going to pursue a career in policy development at a high level.

5. Baseball starts soon. This is a very exciting prospect. Barry Bonds seems to be surprised that nobody has phoned his agent begging for the slugger's services in the coming season. Are you kidding me?!

6. The Ottawa Senators are, without question, the strangest hockey team in history. I don't understand how a team that was unbeatable at the beginning of the season has completely fallen apart, losing the last two games by a combined score of 9-0. Call in the sports psychologist!

7. I have twenty minutes to decide if I'm going to postpone my ten o'clock meeting with the person who took over for me at my former job, or just get it over with. She's a very sweet person, but I haven't worked there for two years now, so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help her. It feels a bit like a waste of time, for both of us.

8. I think I'll just get it over with.

9. I'm wearing pink today - a pink floral skirt, pink t-shirt and a white sweater - because I am sick of the winter and can't wait for spring.

I dislike mail.

Actually, it's less a dislike, and more a kind of resentment.

And the resentment doesn't come from the stereotypical "all we ever get is bills" angle, and it doesn't mean that I don't enjoy receiving correspondance from friends and family who are far afield. Quite the contrary; I love getting notes and cards from people.

No, the automatic narrowing of eyes and curling of lips that inevitably cross my face when I spy the pile of letters, flyers, magazines, etc. on our front porch comes from a more complicated place. It comes from the place deep inside me that is engaged in what I expect will be a life-long battle against piles of paper in my house.

Paper is the number-one enemy in my fight against clutter. And the mail is the worst offender.

We've introduced a couple of methods by which we can control the mail-related paper coming in to the house, most notably by putting a recycling bin on the front porch so that most flyers, junk mail etc. don't come in to the house at all, but go straight into the can. In addition, I am determined to get the upper hand on the stacks of paper that have accumulated in our office since we moved in, so am trying to dedicate some time every evening to sorting and throwing things out. I have found that the problem is not just about quantity; it's also about order. We haven't yet found a good system for handling incoming paper and getting it put in its rightful place as soon as possible, so bits and pieces of paper lie around on the coffee table, for example, untended, which makes me nuts.

So you've been warned, paper. It's ON. And I will take. you. down.

And now we're back!!

Well, we had a pretty wonderful and relaxing time! Among the highlights:
-swimming in the warm outdoor pool
-skating on the outdoor rink (on which I took two pretty spectacular spills)
-eating FANTASTIC food
-playing dozens of games of cribbage while sitting in the lounge drinking hot chocolate and Bailey's
-driving through our province's beautiful mountain range
-resting, resting, resting

And now we're home, watching the Oscars and looking ahead to this week. The cats seem to be happy to see us, and are ingratiating themselves by sitting in laps, licking fingers and purring.

This afternoon after we got home, we watched The Departed, the movie starring Jack Nicholson, Leo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon, about the mob mole in the Police Force and the undercover cop in the mob. I don't want to spoil endings for anybody who hasn't seen it, but suffice to say that it was very entertaining and very clever. If you don't mind swearing and violence, check it out!

We'll be Comin' 'Round the Mountains...

... 'bout tomorrow mid-afternoon, I figure!

WH and I are taking off tomorrow to spend three nights at a nice luxury hotel in the mountains of Prairie Province. WH has some coupons he earned from a previous stay at this chain of hotels, so our third night is free, and we get a free upgrade to a bigger room. We are looking forward to resting a lot, doing some skating, swimming, walking, and eating nice food together. My brother and sister-in-law will feed Mama Cat and Baby Cat and make sure that their ears are scratched in our absence.

See you all on Sunday! Hope your weekends are restful too.

Book Meme

I've been tagged to do the book meme by I'm still Me. This one's lots of fun!!

Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more.

The book is Coffee with Michelangelo by James Hall.

Find page 123.

Ok, did that.

Find the first 5 sentences. Post the next three sentences.

But Bramante, who wanted Pope Julius' last ducat to be spent on the new St. Peter's, scuppered the project, and since then various popes have monopolized my time, ensuring that in each revised contract the tomb shrunk in size.

The final version in San Pietro in Vincoli is dominated by the statue of Moses, which I finished painstakingly. There would have been many more statues like it, were it not for the impossible pressures.

Tag folks. Well, as many people have already done this meme, I'll leave it to you to tag yourself if you're interested. This was really neat!