Last night at Wings

I am actually sitting in the lobby at Cameron, my Wings office, on the last night before the summer break. I have been wanting to retire from this part-time job (sometimes its almost full-time) for a while now but circumstances keeps on preventing me from doing so. Anyway...we changed our format for the year-end show having it over two evenings and it was a brilliant new format. Parents rotated clock-wise as their children moved from one station to the next with the usual "whoo -hoo" performances on the big floor in between rotations. Parents watched their children the entire evening and it was great. We did it twice on Tues and again on the Thurs but it worked. So on this last week, we do try-outs and assessments for next season and gymnasts say farewell to the coaches and friends at the gym for the summer. With the very long wait-lists we are doing registration earlier for the returning members. It is an Olympic year and you can bet that my phone will be ringing off the hook come August for potential olympians...but we may already be full...kids just don't leave the club and the siblings come and we have that endless waiting-list. I have a family that have been waiting for 2 years now but there is never space in the program they want or the age category. Those competitive gymnasts are so bonded and attached to the hip that the only way they retire is to become a coach. Such is Wings...a huge part of my life...sometimes a very tedious chore but maybe its just giving back to the community. So...there we go...on another note...Chrissy brought home a little rescue puppy. She has named it Benji and he is very cute but three dogs arrggh....the bunnies need to go...thats what has to happen. She picked up her final report card and I have to admit it was stellar for her...the lowest mark in her 4 courses was a 79% and the highest a 95%. She also received a letter that she has won the 2008 RH "Slim" & Margaret Davidson Award for education excellence...no idea how much this scholarship is worth but it is for going to school next year when she gets around to deciding what she plans to do...so it must be worth something.

Greek Day at Kits

Today's adventure on my transit pass was down to Greek Days in Kitsilano. We parked at the University/Production Way skytrain station, took the skytrain to Broadway, and then took the 99-B line down to Kits. Like all summer festivals there was the smell of food, loud music, bustling crowds and street vendors. Several city blocks on 4th Avenue was shut down for this event. We went for greek food at the Olympia Restaurant just outside the main stage so could see and hear all the entertainment.
We listened to Premier Gordon Campbell (in the pink shirt) and Mayor Sam Sullivan (guy in wheelchair) give their usual public speeches (see photo). It was a fun way to enjoy a summer day just the two of us and we will be doing this on Sundays with my transit pass. We took the bus back to Granville Station, and back on the skytrain.

Commencement 2008

It was ...thank goodness...a sunny day. It would have been awful for all those grads in the caps and gowns congregating on the Granville street entrance of the Orpheum Theatre to get drenched. We got there just before 6pm and the line-up had already stretched down the block but we still got the seats we wanted on the balcony where we sat for Caiti's commencement. Finally, this day came and is over! Chrissy fussed about the cap and gown. She did get her hair done again. I liked the speech by Iain Black, not too fussed about the rest and completely enjoyed the valedictorian address -the funny thing was the book he read out was the same book that Auntie Connie who also came this evening gave to Christina when she was first learning how to read. It was actually nice sitting up in the balcony and watching the grads go by, one at a time. There was really not much opportunity for photos after the event. We were all so starved so we headed to Tanpopo for late-night sushi. Ate too much and then it sat in the tummy all night.
Anyway, this marks the end of the public school system for us for now. Now we hope that real life will come into play and Chrissy will find her way to the best of her abilities. She frustrates us so much at times, we hope she does make some decisions and moves on ahead and forward on her own steam since does have some issues with this.

Lonestar Concert at Red Robinson

It's free ticket time again...got my email from Tracey Oake asking me if I could help unload tickets for Lonestar at Red Robinson around Noon today and by 2pm she had dropped them off to me at Glen Pine. Gave away all of them. Came home from work...we had steak for dinner and then off we went to the concert. Dogwood had also been given tickets so it was like a reunion there of all the members who still miss me so much! It was fun waving at everyone. The concert was pretty good...knew many of the songs. It was a little louder than I wished. It was over by 9:30 p.m. We walked through the casino but it has been a long week and so we headed home.

We have seen two free shows this week which was awesome!!! Now, in jammies waiting for Chrissy to get home. Today was the last day of school, and tomorrow is Commencement so once that is done then its all finished for us with children in the school system....thank goodness!!!!

Corteo -Cirque du soleil was awesome!

What an amazing evening on the opening, full dress rehearsal of Corteo...free tickets in seats that tomorrow someone would sit in the same seat paying $125. I have always wanted to go to a Cirque du soleil performance, and this was as close to the stage as anyone could be, and it was stunning. Darcy and I went with Chrissy, and her friends Rita and JJ. The music was wonderful, the acrobatics and gymnastics were breath-taking...a nice way to spend an evening.
I am so glad that we went and I switched work days with Karen so that I could go. I am looking at the website and my hunch was right...almost the entire cast have eastern european, russian-like names. It was so chilly but thank goodness inside the big top it was pretty warm.
The weather has really been cold and wet and does not feel like summer time at all. Just wanted to make note of a spectacular show.

Transit outing

I am on the transit pass program at work and on Sundays and holidays I can take one adult and up to 4 children on the bus, skytrain or seabus anyway on the Lower Mainland. We never tried to use it before but today Darcy and I did. We parked at the Holdom station and then off we went first we switched at Commercial to the Expo line and got off at Granville. Walked around and ate some pizza slices. Then we walked down to Canada Place and caught the seabus across the water to Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver...see the photos from the seabus. We walked around the market and then we came back across back to Canada Place and on the skytrain to Stadium station where we walked over to Tinseltown to watch a movie called the Children Of Huang Shi with handsome Jonathan Rhys Meyer, Chow Yun Fatt, Michelle Yeoh and Radha Mitchell. We enjoyed the tale of dedication and based on a true story it was great. Then we took the skytrain back and took us all of 15 minutes to get back to our car at Holdom. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

It has been a rough few days for me. My sisters all called and I just found out that my dad never told my Mum about what had happened to the girls until a few days ago. All along I thought he had spoken to her and that her way of being supportive was to not speak of it now that the girls are moving ahead and holding up so well. Needless to say, it has quite emotionally draining. I do need to make a visit home and I would like to go but am afraid of the difficulties that will come about. My dad has pretty much isolated me from everything because of his inability to come to terms with the traumatic news. As my sister Joce said...everyone needs to move forward and let the past behind...of course easier said than done. I need to work out my passport and see when I can make this trip home. Life has not been easy for me...I know that!