Another activity that's kept me out of mischief lately is tutoring ESL. My student has been coming more frequently lately. I hope that in September I'll have more students. I enjoy teaching ESL. It's wonderful to make a positive difference in someone's life. The only trouble is that it's like gardening: you can only plant the seeds and try to offer nurturing care, and hope that the seeds take root and grow. I can only help the student with his/her English, teach what is needed and help whenever possible, and just hope the person learns and grows with it.
I like teaching ESL better than gardening, though! :)
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
June is more than half over
Time to catch up once again.
It's a busy month, as always. I do have the garden growing--some of it. My lettuce is doing fine, and the next row is radishes, and they seem to be okay. The other rows of carrots, beets, spinach all got eaten by birds, I think. Maybe they'll be scattered all over the garden bed, if they come up at all.
Writing has been better than usual. I'm about half-way through the first draft of my murder mystery, and I've rewritten one of my short stories. It's ready to go. Just have to buy a postcard to put in with the manuscript when I go to the post office to mail it off. Yesterday, I took a day trip down to Bellingham, Washington, for the express purpose of buying postage stamps for the "SASE" that needs to be enclosed with manuscripts. I had to laugh at the look on the faces of the customs officers at both the US border going and the Canadian border on my return when I told them why I had to go to the USA. "Buy stamps?!!!"
It was a nice way to spend the day, though. I went by Greyhound, slept most of the journey there and back, and just walked around Fairhaven, a very pleasant district in Bellingham. Next time, though, I think I'll take the bus to the centre of town to go to the library there. I'd planned to go to the Fairhaven library, but the hours are 2pm to 6pm, and my bus home was at 6:15. As it turned out, I just walked around for 4 hours, bought my stamps, had lunch, and then took an earlier bus home. I arrived home about the time I would have been leaving.
So now my short story, "Waves", is ready to be popped into the mailbox, as soon as I have a postcard to address and stamp and enclose with the ms.
Now I'm working on my play, The Wolf and the Saint, the Life of St. Francis of Assisi as told by The Wolf of Gubbio. I'm publishing it in my blog dedicated to that play. I hope people will print it out and perform it, with the conditions that they let me know how it went (Preferably with pictures), and donate 10% of any proceeds to a Christian church or charity such as World Vision or PWRDF, or the SPCA.
It's a busy month, as always. I do have the garden growing--some of it. My lettuce is doing fine, and the next row is radishes, and they seem to be okay. The other rows of carrots, beets, spinach all got eaten by birds, I think. Maybe they'll be scattered all over the garden bed, if they come up at all.
Writing has been better than usual. I'm about half-way through the first draft of my murder mystery, and I've rewritten one of my short stories. It's ready to go. Just have to buy a postcard to put in with the manuscript when I go to the post office to mail it off. Yesterday, I took a day trip down to Bellingham, Washington, for the express purpose of buying postage stamps for the "SASE" that needs to be enclosed with manuscripts. I had to laugh at the look on the faces of the customs officers at both the US border going and the Canadian border on my return when I told them why I had to go to the USA. "Buy stamps?!!!"
It was a nice way to spend the day, though. I went by Greyhound, slept most of the journey there and back, and just walked around Fairhaven, a very pleasant district in Bellingham. Next time, though, I think I'll take the bus to the centre of town to go to the library there. I'd planned to go to the Fairhaven library, but the hours are 2pm to 6pm, and my bus home was at 6:15. As it turned out, I just walked around for 4 hours, bought my stamps, had lunch, and then took an earlier bus home. I arrived home about the time I would have been leaving.
So now my short story, "Waves", is ready to be popped into the mailbox, as soon as I have a postcard to address and stamp and enclose with the ms.
Now I'm working on my play, The Wolf and the Saint, the Life of St. Francis of Assisi as told by The Wolf of Gubbio. I'm publishing it in my blog dedicated to that play. I hope people will print it out and perform it, with the conditions that they let me know how it went (Preferably with pictures), and donate 10% of any proceeds to a Christian church or charity such as World Vision or PWRDF, or the SPCA.
Friday, May 9, 2014
missed April!
I was trying to post an entry at least once a month, but I missed April altogether. Always a lot of busy-ness, Volunteering on Monday mornings making sandwiches at the cathedral, volunteering Tuesdays at the elementary school, and so on. My university course on creative writing finished during the first week, and now I miss it. I looked for my grades online, but couldn't find them. I guess I'll have to try again, not that it really matters. I took the course for the up-to-date information on what's happening in the writing world, and to have some assignments with deadlines and feedback. I got what I wanted, and now I'm hoping to find something equally satisfying for next year.
One highlight of the month was the SunRun. I signed up for the cathedral team--they needed one more person to make the minimum number (10) for a team. I was #10. I think one more person signed up after me. My daughter also signed up--as an individual, I think. But she had training, building strength and stamina by running a bit, then walking a bit, gradually increasing the running time and decreasing the walking time until she was straight running. So on the day of the run, she and I were texting before the start. She ran what she calls a shuffle-run, and I just walked. Her time was a bit more than 20 minutes better than mine, so I guess I did not too badly. It was only 10 km, and I did it in 2 hours and 20 minutes, I think.
One highlight of the month was the SunRun. I signed up for the cathedral team--they needed one more person to make the minimum number (10) for a team. I was #10. I think one more person signed up after me. My daughter also signed up--as an individual, I think. But she had training, building strength and stamina by running a bit, then walking a bit, gradually increasing the running time and decreasing the walking time until she was straight running. So on the day of the run, she and I were texting before the start. She ran what she calls a shuffle-run, and I just walked. Her time was a bit more than 20 minutes better than mine, so I guess I did not too badly. It was only 10 km, and I did it in 2 hours and 20 minutes, I think.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Lent 2014
Lent 2014 has not had a very good start, I think. Although we did get to Ash Wednesday service at the cathedral--very grand this year--big congregations, and the Dean and Archdeacon were the presiders. But I've decided not to give anything up this year, but to take something on, instead. Last year I went vegetarian for the 40 days, and got bored silly with the Jenny Craig selections that had no meat. Pasta & cheese dishes ad nauseum. So, this year, I want to work on that psalm project I've started but have been avoiding for the past couple of years. Wouldn't it be nice to complete that? Not much done so far. I might do better with it if I went back to the blogsite I started some time ago, and used that rather than fill all the various notebooks I've started. So why do I say Lent has not had a good start? Because I have done precious little about the psalms.
Missed February! Already we're in the second week of March!
Oh dear! Where does the time go? February is already a blur. The weather has been most unVancouver-like. Snow! Repeated snow days. Snow lasting for days on end. At last the rain has returned, and the temperature is almost spring-like. Almost. Not yet.
So what have I done with my month-and-a-half of nonBlogging?
Monday mornings are filled with sandwich-making followed by noontime Mass at the cathedral. Then in the evenings, it's Welsh class. I've started a Welsh study group. Initially it was to be once a month, but then it was confusing as to which Monday night it would be. So, I've increased it to "the Monday after Welsh class"--but February Mondays were filled with other events at the Welsh Hall, so we haven't had a study group since the first one. Best laid plans.... So, next Monday evening should be our second study session.
Tuesday & Thursday mornings are spent volunteering at the elementary school and afternoons at UBC studying creative writing. An hour and a half at school, an hour and a half on the bus, an hour and a half in the university classroom. I get home about 3:30 or so, and am exhausted.
Wednesdays and Fridays are more or less free, as is Saturday most of the time. (Friday evenings it's
back to the Welsh Hall for choir practice.)
March is shaping up to be much the same so far. See next entry, I guess.
So what have I done with my month-and-a-half of nonBlogging?
Monday mornings are filled with sandwich-making followed by noontime Mass at the cathedral. Then in the evenings, it's Welsh class. I've started a Welsh study group. Initially it was to be once a month, but then it was confusing as to which Monday night it would be. So, I've increased it to "the Monday after Welsh class"--but February Mondays were filled with other events at the Welsh Hall, so we haven't had a study group since the first one. Best laid plans.... So, next Monday evening should be our second study session.
Tuesday & Thursday mornings are spent volunteering at the elementary school and afternoons at UBC studying creative writing. An hour and a half at school, an hour and a half on the bus, an hour and a half in the university classroom. I get home about 3:30 or so, and am exhausted.
Wednesdays and Fridays are more or less free, as is Saturday most of the time. (Friday evenings it's
back to the Welsh Hall for choir practice.)
March is shaping up to be much the same so far. See next entry, I guess.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
January 2014 some more
The creative writing course is keeping me quite busy. It is offered on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 12:30 to 2pm. As those mornings are already occupied by my volunteering in an elementary school, located near the PNE, I have to rush out of the school at recess (10:30am) and hurry to the bus stop on Hastings Street. The #14 UBC bus is reasonably frequent, so if I miss one, the second is not too far behind it. It takes an hour and twenty minutes to get to the bus loop, end of the line, at the university, but I still have about a 10 minute walk to get to the Geography building where the lessons are held. If I'm lucky, I can stop for a quick coffee before class, and maybe eat my lunch. If I've missed a bus, however, I have to skip that and just rush to class. Being on the Jenny Craig program is very helpful. I carry a Jenny bar and a Jenny snack and a Jenny salad kit (all prepared in neat containers, complete with a fork), and a bottle of water. It's a busy schedule on paper, but not as exhausting as you might think. Eighty minutes sitting on a bus is very restful--sometimes I get ten or fifteen minutes catnap. I'm only sorry that my time at the elementary school is so short--just an hour and a half--equal to the bus trip. I try to make myself useful there, though.
All in all, with the variety of activity, the healthy diet and extra walking, and the resting (catnaps), it's a good way to spend the day, and I get to do it twice a week.
All in all, with the variety of activity, the healthy diet and extra walking, and the resting (catnaps), it's a good way to spend the day, and I get to do it twice a week.
January 2014 before it's over
Today I learned something about writing these posts: can't use the tab key! I did that and lost what I'd started to write. I wonder if it will turn up again somewhere. If it does, I have to edit it!
I started to say that one of the most important things happening in my life this month is the beginning of a course at UBC: Creative Writing 200. Yesterday, we had a lesson on writing poetry. I love poetry, but rarely attempt to write it. Yesterday, we were given a short exercise to write a poem (essentially just a list of things) as suggested by one of the examples the instructor offered. This is what I wrote:
"Please Take These Things Back"
Gloomy, drizzly, teary days;
Hot, humid, nights with sweaty sheets;
Tasteless food;
Nausea
Pain
Fear
Need to tell loved ones bad news
Need to ask for help
Dependence on everyone and everything
Hospital noises
Death.
~~~~~~I offer this in memory of Ken, who inspired it.
I started to say that one of the most important things happening in my life this month is the beginning of a course at UBC: Creative Writing 200. Yesterday, we had a lesson on writing poetry. I love poetry, but rarely attempt to write it. Yesterday, we were given a short exercise to write a poem (essentially just a list of things) as suggested by one of the examples the instructor offered. This is what I wrote:
"Please Take These Things Back"
Gloomy, drizzly, teary days;
Hot, humid, nights with sweaty sheets;
Tasteless food;
Nausea
Pain
Fear
Need to tell loved ones bad news
Need to ask for help
Dependence on everyone and everything
Hospital noises
Death.
~~~~~~I offer this in memory of Ken, who inspired it.
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