Source Unknown

Make new friends,
but keep the old,
some are silver
and the other's gold.

- unknown

I'm sure you've all heard this before, but have you ever really pondered it? I guess as time passes this quotation can become a tangible reality. Is it fair to call some friends gold and the other's silver? Labelling your friends can perhaps invite a certain stigma. I guess without the label, a friend's level of importance becomes inevitable anyway. Geez, if you really think about it it's so sad. When does silver turn to bronze, then to copper, then to something worthless, something of no value, not worth keeping? In essence, a piece of tacky jewelry with no value, ready to be sold at a garage sale or just tossed out with Friday's trash.

Perhaps though, this item may not be of any use anymore, however, it can hold a lot of sentimental value. Something that was once so important to you in the past that you can't let it go. How can you weigh out the pros and cons of such a thing? Maybe this worthless, yet sentimental, "jewel" should just be hidden and tucked away in a drawer and visted every now and again. One of those things that you pick up every couple of years and say to yourself "awww... I used to love this thing", then toss it back in that drawer until it must be pulled out again for some specific reason.

Something to ponder on as we enter 2006. What a positive note! Well... Happy New Year!!!

Christmas Morn

Well, it's almost noon. I awoke a tiny bit ago but must now wait until my sister arrives to the house until my family can open our gifts. I can't wait. She won't get her until about 4pm. In the meantime I'm off to Jeremy's family's house and do so exchanging there.

Last night was full of Christmas Eve tradition and I didn't sleep until about 4am. It consisted of some last minute wrapping, anticipation of the relatives arriving. 10pm mass, which was nice cause I got to see some friends. A midnight meal. A gift game exchange. And a lot of watching my 4yr old niece open all the hundreds of gifts everyone bought her.

Here's wishing you all the best for Christmas. Cheers.

T'is the season to give the finger

A couple months back Jeremy and I had driven to Heritage station and were going to catch a bus to take us to Mount Royal. As we parked we noticed that our bus was already at the stop so we ran as hard as we could to catch it. Phew! We made it, just in time! As I knock on the door of the bus that is still fully parked the driver looks at me and gives me a hand signal of the number 5. "Five minutes! Next bus comes in five minutes!" Then he drives away. "What an ass" I think to myself and then not much more.

So... the other day as I attempted to make it as early as possible to school in order to study for one of my exams (5 down! 0 to go!) me and this younger girl ran for a bus that was just about to depart Heritage station. We were so close, I'm sure the driver saw us running, yet he continued to drive away. Then the girl was ambitious and began to run in order to meet the bus at the red stoplight. I followed. In fact, I passed her and made it to the bus first, which was fully stopped at the red. Again, I knocked on the door and again it was the same driver. This time he waved his finger at me in a disapproving way, in a "tsk, tsk" sort of manner. And again the man who has the power to push a little button or not, did not open his door. What was I to do? He doesn't even have the decency to verbally communicate with me, he resorts to this pathetic non-verbal signal, how dare him? What could I have done? Banged on the door in a desperate plea? Shout and scream at the man through a closed door? No, instead I simply turned around and as I walked away I flipped the middle one.

Now that I have returned his non-verbal communication by giving him my own symbol of how I feel, he proceeds to open the door and yell at me! "Excuse me! If you wanna get on my bus you be at that bus stop on time! You will never get on my bus by doing that!" And on and on he went, I didn't hear the whole thing as I had my earphones in. I simply kept walking and gave him the finger again. Ha ha ha.

Ironically, that evening as I was driving and stuck at a yeild sign a guy honked his horn behind me urging to me race the oncoming traffic. I didn't (I drive my mother's 1986 Dodge Caravan for crying out loud), so when I finally went he zoomed by me and... yep, gave me the finger.

No time for goodbyes

As the semester comes to an end (3 exams done, 2 more to go!) it begins to sadden me that I won't be able to enjoy my teachers' lectures any longer. You never really get a chance to say a proper thank-you and goodbye. I have this deep appreciation for teachers and you want to express it but it seems that there's never really a given oppotunity to do so. You see them during your last class, but it's not goodbye time because they always say "ok, I'll see you guys at the exam". However, you don't really "see" them, for one thing you normally in a different environment (ie: a gymnasium or a different room from your regular class) and 98% of the time you've got your head focussed on your test. And then when you hand in your paper, the room is really silent, so all you can do is quickly whisper some form of comment. Perhaps share a moment of non-verbal cues with some eye-contact and a smile. Then that's that. You may pass this teacher down the halls in the upcoming semester and say a rushed "hello".

Is that all this person deserves; this person who has so passionatley shared their own knowledge with you for the last 10-11 weeks, not to mention tidbits of their own personal life and their own unique personality?

Sometimes I have this urge just to ask my teacher out for a drink or a coffee and sit down and talk to them on a personal, one to one basis. What would we have to talk about? I only know them in the context of their teachings. I'd love to tell them what influences they have made on me and how what they have said has made an impact on my thoughts and ideas. "I get it! I really get it! I understood what you meant when you said... "

Merry Christmas my dear teachers... Thank-you.

Co-existence

Is it rude and unthoughtful to say "Merry Christmas" to someone you barely know? What if they don't celebrate Christmas and don't even want to hear the words?

At work, I share an office with a Jehovah Witness and of course she has to sit and listen to all this jibberish, I wonder if she minds? Does she just tune it out, or does each and every comment anguish her. I can relate to her to a certain degree, coming from a gay point of view I guess. When I hear a bunch of straight people talking about very straight things, I tend to clam up and hope that the conversation will quickly pass. At time, I'll just ignore it altogether and not even notice. Its even worse though when I'm in a situation where people don't know of my orientation and they just assume that I should know of these things of which they speak. When confronted with a question I am often at a loss. My co-worker often doesn't speak up and proudly say, "well, my religion doesn't believe in that, we actually believe this..." because she's a minority, she's out-numbered.

Knowing where she's coming from, I wouldn't actually mind being informed about how her religion actually works. I don't want to convert, but I'm not saying that I'm closed off about the topic. Is religion such a "hot" topic that can't be discussed that we have to go about this tip-toeing all day at work? Its a double whammy isn't it?

Today, I just finished my Religion course which I so fondly enjoy. I have learned that living in the pluralistic society that we're in, its okay to converse about religion openly. Bring about the juicy topics, what's the harm in it? Someone might actually learn about something?

I remember a few years ago, I had a jewish landlady occupying the top floor of my suite, on Christmas day I went to her door and gave her a gift. She was a little taken back, it didn't even occur to me what I had done. However, a few hours later, she came a knockin' and gave me a gift as well. I reckon it was a re-gift from one of her students (as she's a teacher), but it was quite kind of her to do so. Think of what she had done though. She left her religion under the carpet and for a quick moment assimilated into mine.

Or, I could be absolutley wrong! She may just forget about the whole religious connotations that Christmas brings along and has just assimilated into the cultural aspect of Christmas.

Geez, we can be so ethnocentric sometimes eh? I remember when I was in India I was talking to an Indian man and mentioned Christmas. He asked me when that was I was shocked that he didn't even know when Christmas was, I figured that at least he'd know that it was at the end of December. With that being said... does anyone know when Depavali is celebrated, or when Hannukah is, or when the Ramadan starts? Exactly.

So should we expect people to reverse these thoughts and attitudes? Well, I believe that in Canada we should all be able co-exist. With respect. I said Merry Christmas to this girl I used to work at Telus with the other day and she said, "yes... uh... you too." I know that she's a Sikh, but again I completely forgot. So was I being disrespectful?

Did U Sell Out?

I feel like a 14 year old girl writing this. Lately I've watched bits of the few remaining episodes of TLC's search to find a 3rd member. Chilli and T-Boz say that they're not replacing Left Eye, only looking for someone to join their group, or something like that.


They've chosen a very young and enthusiastic girl who has named herself "O'so Krispie". I just don't know what to think of the whole thing. Am I being a conservative in thinking that TLC should not evolve into something new. Have they passed their period, can they still be a hit group after all these years? Some things just shouldn't be, I wanna remember TLC as T-box, Left Eye & Chilli. Not her...