See you, in September....

Today is September 1st....and while on one hand I am thinking, "how can it be September 1st already", I know that this summer, and time in general is moving faster and faster.

I read a blog that I follow the other day and the writer gave a summer synopsis of her summer, all the amazing things she did with her family, personal obstacles she herself had conquered over the summer and all the good times she had. I really enjoyed reading it and gave me thoughts about my own summer.

Overall, the last 2 months have been pretty good. The one thing that I thought I would do more of than I actually did was go to Canada's Wonderland. I did get a pass this year and thought since so many people I knew had passes, that would lead to evening and weekend visits with friends, and their kids, etc. It didn't really happen that way, and that is okay.

The one time that I did get to go was when my niece called early one Saturday morning and asked if I would go with them for a few hours. I jumped out of bed as fast as I could and made it to my brother's house in record time. I loved riding the ghoster coaster and a few other rides with my nieces. If I had to only go one time this season, I am glad it was with my nieces and nephew because that was one of the reasons for buying the pass. Maybe I will get to go with them one last time before the season ends.

One weekend in July when we hadn't planned on going to the Jays game at all in July, ended up going twice in the same weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. We should have actually booked a hotel downtown and had a staycation, but never thought about doing that until it was too late. We attended a game where Carlos Delgado's name was put on the Level of Excellence wall at Skydome. There were a lot of former players there and there was a commemorative baseball that was given out that of course we had to go very early to get.


One of the things I have learned to appreciate is that sometimes it is the little things that happen day to day that sometimes have the most impact. Like having my family over to swim at the pool in the condo. After swimming three adults and two kids managed to sit out on my balcony and eat freezies, snacks and watch the cars and motorcycles go by. Other time they came over and I made lunch and we went swimming again.

Yesterday I spent the day with a teacher friend. She worked at camp all summer and will be starting back at school on Tuesday. We went out for lunch, went back to school/fall clothes shopping and then ended at Starbucks. It was nice to catch up and spend time since the summer didn't allow us to do much of that.

Now I am on my way to an end of summer bbq at friends house. Enjoying the last weekend of "summer" as we move into fall, our Jewish Holiday season and all that has to bring to the table.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and looking forward to the new season and hopefully continuing to see more of my friends, enjoy a meal, movie, coffee or even a walk.

Have a great day, and thanks for reading, I always appreciate it!

as time goes by

About a month ago an old friend of my brother's who lives out of town came for a visit. He surprised my parents and I at their house when we were all getting together for a family dinner. We hadn't seen this friend for many years, and it was great to have him over, and enjoying a meal and his company like we had done so many times growing up.

At the dinner table, it was hectic as usual. The last time he sat at our dinner table we were four. We are now a family of eight, and as he looked around the table at the craziness, he commented that this felt like old times, except now my brother has a wife and three kids.

And that is exactly the way life is....the same yet different. Because here we are again - one year later, nine years later, on the anniversary of Aviva's passing.

If you ask someone of our parents generation where they were when JFK was shot, they could tell you. When you ask someone of our generation where you were on 9/11 - we could all tell you. Life events have a way of staying with you. You will remember birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and of course loss. I think that when someone you love passes, family or friend, old or young, you will always remember the details.

I wrote about it last year and many times before.

This year I am remembering 'time' by looking at my family. When my brother's friend said that our dinner table felt the same, but the fact that my brother had three kids, it really made me think. Aviva didn't get to meet any of the kids.

I look at my oldest niece, and her dynamic personality and think of Aviva. She has a great laugh, and that was one of the amazing character traits that V had - her laugh was infectious. She had a larger than life personality and she would have loved my oldest niece.

And my middle niece - the softer, sensitive one. She would have probably had lots of fun with V as well. Creative and artsy, and a serious thinker. I could imagine that they would have lots to talk about.

And my nephew. She would have just looked at him and thought, a son for my brother. How great will that be now and moving forward. She would be right. The sparkle in his eyes always lights up the room, and she would have loved that.

Last week when I starting thinking about today, I 'googled' the name Aviva Barth and several links showed in the results.

There are community outreach projects in her name.
There are blogs written by people that knew her.
There are flyers and documents from the Underwater council of Ontario on boater and water safety. 

I am sure if you knew V, you are nodding your head right now in remembrance. And you are hopefully smiling at the good times you shared, and her laughter and her smile. They will never be forgotten.

I will never forget you V,

Lisa

Transforming and growing

I wish I could write every day. I think about writing every day, but life, work, facebook all get in the way of expressing all the things I would love to talk about.

I also find myself talking about different anniversaries of things often. I don't know if it is normal or not to remember the things I remember in as much detail as I remember them, but I do. I remember dates, places, the people I was with and especially the music that is connected to the event or memory. If you are a friend of mine on facebook you know that music keeps me going. It is my heartbeat.

Well, one year ago, I was dancing at Decks, beginning my amazing JWRP journey of TAG - transform and grow trip to Israel. I remember standing with one of the girls from the trip and crying. After we looked at each other crying we just laughed. It has been a crazy amazing journey from that point and the twelve months that have followed.

As I have talked about before, one of "grow" parts of the transform and grow mission was to continue learning by attending classes when we came back home. It really has been an amazing year. Every six weeks we embark on a new topic that is our baseline for the next six weeks. They have ranged from Judaism 101, really understanding the who, what, where when and whys of our customs, holidays, traditions and stories. Our group all come from diverse Jewish backgrounds, some with more knowledge than others and some who just need more explanation on who we are, and why we do what we do.

Most recently the class topic has been why do bad things happen to good people? We have been working through this for almost six weeks now, and even though we have covered so much, I know that we have barely scratched the surface. Sometimes after the classes I am left with more questions than answers. But I suppose that is normal.

"everything happens for a reason" and that everything has a purpose and a meaning is another underlying theme that plays out in almost every discussion we have. Even getting to go to Israel on this particular trip would fall into the category of everything happens for a reason.

As I think you know by now, I applied to go on this trip before in the summer of 2011 and didn't get on that trip. I am so happy that I didn't get on that trip. That trip wasn't for me. I was meant to go last year. Meant to meet a specific person who has helped me with my spiritual guidance. There is a master plan working in our lives at all times. Getting back to why bad things happen - we aren't supposed to know that at that time. We will understand it when all the cards in the deck are dealt and the hand is clear. For the most part it isn't clear for a long time, and maybe for some things, never will be clear.

I am so grateful for the gifts I have been given.

"I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason.
Bringing something we must learn. 
And we are led to those who help us most to grow, if we let them.
And we help them in return.
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true, but I know I'm who I am today because I knew you..."
- From Wicked

A year in life

Whenever I seem to write reflective pieces I seems to always start out with the Seasons of Love from Rent. It always seems fitting because the words are really true. What happens in 525,600 minutes (a year in the life)is too much to write about sometimes.

However, yesterday I was driving home from dinner and realized that a year ago I was on a plane, heading across North America and then over the Pacific Ocean to my amazing vacation in Hawaii. It wasn't until I got home from dinner that I realized that there was another anniversary that our community and so many people in my facebook community were thinking about as well.

It was the passing of Sy Benlolo (Sy Sylver).

Let me rewind briefly. I jumped on the smartphone bandwagon quite late in the game, and while everyone was already upgrading to Iphones, I was still (and still am) new to blackberry. I knew I was going to Israel after Hawaii and I had my phone 'unlocked' thinking I could use a US sim card and use my phone in Hawaii. When I arrived in Chicago for my first connection to Hawaii, I went to the electronic store and asked if I could buy a SIM card. She said, "sure". Great. Next question, "what about data?". Answer - it doesn't come with data. I didn't know that I had to buy a data package before leaving home! DOH! So much for using the phone in Hawaii.

Met up with B in LAX, waiting for our flight to Honalulu. He was busy showing me things on his Iphone and my Ipod and then we boarded to fly off to paradise for 9 days.

The first couple of days in Waikiki were busy and there really wasn't time to use wifi (not that I really knew how to use it on my blackberry) so I did not. No emails, Facebook, chat....which was fine by me (surprisingly). Busy spending time with B, going to the North Shore, Diamond Head, Pearl Harbour and more....

Once we arrived on the big Island, Hawaii, the Sheraton resort fee included 15 minutes of free internet daily. While walking around the hotel, I 'wandered' into the business centre and logged on. Opened up Facebook and saw in private message from a friend. The message was very short - "did you hear about Sy". WHAT? what about Sy? No one was on line and I didn't know what was going on. I sent a message back to this friend and a few others to try to find out what was going on. My 15 minutes was up and we were leaving to go to Maui later that day.

Once we arrived on Maui, the Westin has wifi all over the property and is included in the resort fee. The light bulb finally went off and I started to use my Ipod with the wifi at the Westin.

We were busy in Maui as well, but took some time to finally relax by the pool, B went to the spa and it was a great time to sit back and enjoy the view of paradise.

By that time, I had heard the news about Sy, and what was going on back home. It was a very strange feeling, as I haven't seen him in person in many years, but always followed his life, his successes and his global travels and adventures. It was a very strange time for me, being in paradise but feeling homesick. If that makes any sense.

So, fast forward to today. I am seeing posts and photos and messages to Sy and that one year has past. I know what these very dear family and friends are thinking about today. I think about it every year when the anniversary of Aviva happens. The first year was the hardest, and every year you remember, because you will never forget. We never forget the people that have touched our lives. Which is one of the reasons why you should make sure that the ones that mean something to you know it all the time, because once they are gone, they are gone.

Today's musical interlude is not going to be Seasons of Love, but I just called to say I love you.

Have a memorable day!

I confess

When I write for my travel blog, I know that I am sharing personal stories about the places I have been and what I have seen and been able to do in my life.

When I write in this blog, it is personal and sometimes feels like confession. Now, I am Jewish so I have no idea what going to confession is really like, but I have watched my share of tv shows and movies so I have some idea.

Why blog? Why share personal details about yourself, your life and the way it makes you feel. Well, I think firstly there are probably a lot of you out there, that I may have more in common with on the inside than what appears on the outside. It is a way to connect without haven't to put anything out there. Many people have told me, "wow, I feel the same way about what you wrote about", or "that happens to me too".

So, here goes the confession part of this post.

By now you probably know that I live in a condo. A beautiful, but small condo. Perfect size for one person, you would think. But what happens when you have pretty much outgrown the space you live in? Well, again, one would say, "you need to get rid of some of your 'stuff'". There in lies the problem and what has brought me here today.

When I lived at my parents house I used to collect 'things'. There were always incentives at work - at one point, there was an incentive for gift cards at...wait for it...Consumers Distributing (you all remember that store). I would go to the store, and buy dishes, and pots and pans, and all kinds of 'stuff' that I was keeping until I had my own place.


Little did I know that when it finally came time to pack up and move to my own place, I HATED everything that I had collected over the years. Well, that isn't totally true...

I heard that UNopened Disney movies were (are) worth something. So, I would buy TWO, yes, two movies (VHS) one to keep sealed and one to watch. And every movie had a corresponding mug. I should say that I do use the mugs and they sit happily in the cupboard and are used for tea/coffee all the time.

Fast forward to moving to the condo. After going through what was coming with me and what was not, boxes were labeled and away we went to the condo.

For a while things were great...oh, I should rewind....what about all the visits to the annual Mikasa sale? What about you ask? Well, again, I was living in my parents house, but that didn't stop me from buying beautiful serving platter, glassware, candle sticks (oh let's not get to talking about candles).

WAIT...there was the William Ashley sale that came through town every November. It still does, but I no longer go to the sale.

Now you are starting to see the potential problems arising in my beautiful condo.

And now we come to the home office....seems to be the biggest thorn in my side.

I worked from home for almost four years that ended almost a year ago. During that time I have gotten rid of the 'work from home' elements - brochures, extra filing cabinets. But what about all my arts and crafts, my scrapbooking supplies, magazines...I could go on.

But I really don't want to go on. I want to throw away the food and drink magazines, but then I look at them and think about the pretty cover, the recipes, and more....really? When was the last time I looked at the magazine?

I want to fix my home office. I have someone who can customize this for me. I have someone else who has already shared her vision and drawn it out for me. I have a vision.

But I can't make the vision come true until I tackle my 'stuff'.

Have I mentioned I have lived here for six and a half years. I would have to say that most of this 'stuff' did not come with me when I moved here. How did all of this get in here and how can I make it go away?

That is the question I am faced with even as I sit here typing this post - I look to my left and see a magazine rack filled with magazines, and I look to my right and see CDs, movies and more.

and then of course I think there is my adult ADD....because I start to look at something while I am trying to type this post.

The internal battle continues...I am off again this weekend. Maybe this will be the weekend that I really get a handle on this. That is what I said last weekend, and the weekend before and probably the weekend before that.

Yours truly,

collector of stuff

Forty thoughts

I think I am going to have to save my money and invest in a laptop. I constantly have thoughts running through my brain and it just never seems to work out that I have a place to write them down or put thought to keyboard when I want to. So, that is thought number one on day number one of my new year!

A couple of years ago, before I was about to turn forty I was having a conversation with the sister of an old friend of mine. She was telling me that things change in your forties. She really didn't elaborate but basically said it is different for different people. That you start to figure things out for yourself, come into your own and really become "yourself". Of course I wasn't there yet, so I really didn't get it. I am now "in my forties" and starting to really get it.



Late last year the Judd Apatow movie "This is 40" came out. I saw it after several of my friends and actually went to the movie alone. Which is probably something that someone does in their 40's that maybe they wouldn't have done when then were younger. I laughed out loud, because I could relate. When I commented on facebook that I enjoyed the movie, one of my friends commented something like "really, I heard it wasn't that good". Maybe it's a "40" thing (this person wasn't quite there yet).

Several people I know are turning 40 this year. There has been a lot of chatter about this number and I remember how I was feeling before I had turned "that number". Everyone says, it is just a number, and maybe I would agree with that, but as I am moving through the last couple of years I am thinking that maybe there is more to that.

As I said, I have a lot of different thoughts in my head right now, and rather than try to summarize them in one post - perhaps I will explore the possibilities of forty thoughts on 40.

I will leave you with this one thought this morning - the word Journey.

The first definition that came up for the word Journey was this:

• an act of travelling from one place to another

Which of course is the definition of Journey but not in the context that I am using the word. I went on further to the Oxford dictionary and it says the same thing, but below that it also says: 

•  a long and often difficult process of personal change and development

That makes more sense to me....
 
Stay tuned on my continued forty thoughts on 40. 

News feed

There are a lot of people that aren't on facebook, or don't like facebook, or think that people put too much out there on facebook. In the last few days (especially in the last few hours) all those people who have negative things to say about facebook should keep it to themselves.

Let's start off with Sarah Watkin. She is a beautiful five year old girl fighting for her life. She has AML and needs a bone marrow donor to survive. This of course hits close to home for me since this is what Shari had to go through three years ago. I was very involved in the bone marrow drives and keeping my facebook profile active with all the details about drives, and information.

People all over facebook (myself included) have been sharing the details of Sarah's need for a bone marrow donor, drives going on, and basic information on how to get on the bone marrow registry.

Several people have commented that they were already on the bone marrow registry because of the drives for Shari. That made me feel good that so many people were made aware a few years ago and took the time to register.

If you are not already on the registry, there is a bone marrow drive for Sarah on February 12th and a facebook page has been set up as well. Click here to get to the page. 

Let's hope that Sarah gets her match soon and another life saved.

And now tonight, where through the eyes of social media we find out that someone in our community is missing a child. How could this be on a such a cold, wintery night like tonight? Who knows why? how? but there is a family out there searching for their child.

Within minutes and hours one person's status update is shared with the community. Some might say "how does sharing a status update help?" But it does. It helps the family know that they are loved and that the community cares and is hugging them. No one wants to hear/read/see a story about child who is sick, a missing child. It is scary.

Tonight it is cold, snowy and we all want to be inside staying warm and comfortable.

My thoughts and prayers are going to the Watkin Family, and the Zimmermann and Bender families for their children.

Make sure you say I love you to the people in your life. Life is precious and we should never forget that. 

Only one thing left to say - I just called to say I love you.