Thursday, May 24, 2012

Bring it on, summer!

I cannot wait for the summer!
Sun, sand and fun, that is all I shall aspire for!
The line-up for this summer is already taking shape for weekdays:

- Softball in the RBC league,
- Beach volleyball at Ashbridges bay,
- regular ballet class at DanceTeq,
- runs by the lake, at least once a week, ideally 3 times a week.

That leaves one night of the week to relax and go out.
But anybody who knows me would know that I will not just stick to that schedule! My life is a race! I have had the bad habit of never saying 'No, I need to rest', so I schedule outings, meetings, playdates, volunteer shifts and whatnots, all one after the other with barely enough time for me to get from one point to another.

My dad used to tell me that I cannot do EVERYTHING, that I have to choose what to do and what not. But I have never understood it. Time lost is never found. Opportunities only come once. If they come again, it is hardly with the same crowd, or the same conditions. The fear of missing out on anything has always been what plagues me when deciding what activity to choose. If only I could skip the 6-7 hrs of sleep my body actually needs, there would be so much more time to do the things I want!

Friday, May 11, 2012

The first of the next....

I became an aunt today.
Although I am miles and miles away from my brother and my sis-in-law, I could not wait for this little one to come along. 

It is a weird feeling to try to explain. How do you already love someone you have not met? How do explain the invisible link that blood establishes. I have spent the whole day showing the few pictures that my brother has sent me as soon as she was born, to whoever wanted to see. And I have re-played the video he has sent over and over again, knowing by heart when she will start crying in the video. Fortunately, my brother has sent me a second video!  

Keira's birth was by c-section, so we knew ahead of time when it will be. That took away the element of surprise, but it did not take away the anticipation. I could barely go to sleep last night and when I did, I passed out so that I did not even hear the message letting me know that both mother and daughter were well. I woke up all panicked, having missed her entrance into the world, albeit halfway across the planet! 

The realization just hit me that I was the last CLW to be born. My father has 5 siblings, all female so none of their offsprings bore the CLW name. I am the youngest of 2. When they put down Keira's last name on her birth certificate that would be the first time in 30 years. My brother was the first of our generation (with only 2 members in that generation, there's only a first and a last!) and Keira is the first of the next. The circle is complete I would say, but hopefully Keira's generation of CLW will be stronger than the mere two of us! 

I wish I was there in Singapore to be with them. But I am saving my vacation for when they visit my grandmother, Keira's great-grandmother, hopefully in December.
For now, I have to wait for the next pictures and videos of her through the interweb!

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Oh Canadian music!

I have heard a very nice song from Amy Seeley about two and a half months ago and it got stuck in my head. It is not the kind of music I would typically listen to, but that one touched me...well, surprisingly so!


















I have listened to it a few times after that and it touched me deeply every single time. Then, I forgot about it....
But I was watching TV the other day and an Ikea commercial came on and I was convinced it was Amy Seeley...but it was not.
The song in the commercial was from Mary Milne, also a Canadian artist.



I guess it is not the same voice, but it is the same feeling. And in my musical ignorance and having not listened to Amy lately, I was convinced, incorrectly so, that both songs are from the same artist. Kudos to me for actually googling it! From now on, I shall broaden my musical horizons and listen to more Canadian artists! (I could not figure out if Amy Seeley is actually Canadian, but she does live in Alberta!)....now, where do I start?