Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Good-bye Winnipeg!

Well, the time is finally here. When I wake up, I will showering and then heading out the door, en route to London. I won't have time to blog, so I might as well do it now!
My last few days in Winnipeg have been delightful. My going away dinner was nice - a good assortment of people from different eras of my life. I spent my last evening with my wonderful friend Fiona, who I will miss terribly. Luckily, she was strong and didn't cry, as that would have started me crying as well.
This afternoon we packed everything into the trunk of the car. There is a fair amount of stuff to go in the back seat of the car as well, so it will be a cozy road trip. It was intense to put everything I am taking with me into one trunk. Also intense to know that I've been really detailed in my packing, so I know that I have everything I will need and, even if I don't, I can get anything I will need where I am going.
Just like when my sister moved away... my old computer room/office has been transformed into a new room for my mother. Heather's old room became a 'sitting room' and mine has become a 'tea room'. It's mildly delightful, but annoying in as much as she was nagging me to clean that room so she could redecorate rather than helping with the other, more pressing move.
I should probably get to sleep, although I have the feeling that excitement will prevent me from having a suitably restful sleep.
It might be a while before I post again. Once we move into the new apartment, we'll have to figure out how to get phone and internet service; nevermind the meetings, shopping, and organizing I will have to keep me busy upon my arrival. I'm not even sure of when classes start, but I have a feeling that a few weeks will have passed before I have my bearings about me. But more likely than not, I will find a way to blog in the midst of it all. For now, I will leave you with this:

Goodbye Winnipeg. I will miss you. You have been my home for a lifetime and will remain as such in my heart. Almost the entirety of the memories in my head involve you; almost the entirety of my friends are connected to you; almost the entirety of my life, my being, my existence has taken place within your borders. I will miss you and the people you house. I look forward to the days when I return to you with new perspective and experiences so that I can better appreciate you.

I make it sound so dramatic... but for shit's sake, I'm gonna be back in a few months' time for Christmas and such.
But for now,
Toodles!

Monday, August 27, 2007

Today, we gathered everything that I'm taking with me and my dad decided that it would fit in the trunk easily enough. My parents had contemplated buying a roof rack so that we could strap any extra stuff to the roof, but I don't think we need to. I am a bit of a control freak / packing crazy man whereas my mother tends to overwrap everything and make sure that nothing could even come close to possibly breaking. My way of ensuring things don't break is that everything should be stuffed with other things and jammed so tightly with everything else that nothing can move or jostle, thus nothing breaks.
Don't think I'm crazy, glass and breakables are amply padded, but why waste valuable bubble wrap when I have so many ties and knitted items which have to be packed anyway, they might as well serve as protective packaging. The difference: my mother had carefully put all my kitchen stuff into 2 boxes. I took everything and fit the majority of it into the microwave. One of the pots which was in a box became another means of packaging. I fit 4 mugs, shot glasses, cutlery and spice shakers into the pot. Knitted mittens served to protect the glass and keep everything snuggly in place.
I finally got to talk to someone at Manitoba Health today. They sent me a PDF of the form I need to send in to get reimbursed for prescriptions. I filled out most of the information so all I will need to do is attach the Rx receipts, sign and date the bottom, and then send the form in. He told me that the whole process from me sending it in to getting a cheque shouldn't take more than a week.
I also went to my pharmacy to order as much as I could for the next few months at least. They reminded me that I will need to get a prescription from an Ontario doctor, cause they won't recognize the one from Manitoba.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Today was the end of my last weekend in Winnipeg. I didn't really think about it or make a big deal about it, in fact it just hit me tonight. I'd been drawing out the goodbyes for months now, but I realized tonight that other than my farewell party on Tuesday, this is the home stretch - these are the last times I'm going to be seeing Winnipeg people.
I spent a good deal of time this evening with three friends that I've gone to university with for four years. We've gone out many times and had good conversations, laughed a lot, and made beautiful music with one another.
As we walked through some of downtown, it hit me that I'm actually leaving. While I've been openly and truly excited about leaving and the wonderful things I'm going to learn and experience, the other part hit me tonight: it is sad to leave people behind.
2 of those friends will more than likely be at my going away party, but Chris has to work at the farm, so he might not be able to come in -which I completely understand, it's busy season on the farm. As I hugged him, I realized that it might be for the last time in a long time. With Chris, every time you see him, there is usually a hug involved. I would be lying if I said that my eyes weren't tearing up as I walked to my car.

Packing... gah! It's getting there. My goal for tomorrow will be to get everything out of my upstairs office room and into boxes, with the exception of my computer which will be a last minute deal. Once that is out of the way, it's just a matter of putting everything in one place and seeing how I can most efficiently pack everything

Saturday, August 25, 2007

We just finished our Park family garage sale. I used to love doing garage sales with my parents when I was a little one, but I have been working every saturday since high school, so I haven't been around for one in AGES. Today I was.
We sold so much stuff, and for so cheap. Speaking of cheap, that's the only word to describe most garage salers.
At garage sales, there's a lot of junk, but there's also a LOT of good shit that people just want to be rid of. We sold a fully functioning 18-speed bike for 35$, my guitar with the case for 55$ (the case alone is easily worth 60-70$). But no matter how good of a deal these are, people will almost always try and bargain.
Anyway, the biggest reason for the garage sale was to try and get rid of as much of my old stuff as possible, and I think we were successful!
Before the garage sale, it forced me to go through a lot of my stuff and decide to pack, store, or sell it. Now I think I am in a better position to just pack up what I need and go.
After all, I only have 4 more full days left in the city before I move! And I do think it will take about that much time to get ready...

I was productive yesterday- I bought new jeans and I delivered all the paperwork I needed to get filled out in Winnipeg for my student loan document. I knew that if I didn't get that done before I left, I never would.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Some pictures


A faithful reader had requested a photo of my poster from the RWB, pictures of things in glass encasements don't work very well, so you get 2- one in focus with a bright flash in the middle and another out of focus.
I don't even know if they are clear enough to see what the people wrote, but that's mostly for me anyway.
The poster is 26*32 inches. The span between my armpit and fingers is about 24-25 inches.... so it was incredibly awkward to try and carry down the street, but well worth it!

I know I haven't been posting as much as I usually do, so I apologize. I hope that I will be more consistent after the move. Anyway, I should get back to garage sale organizing and packing and cleaning and whatever else.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

I called my cell phone provider today to ask about canceling my phone. I have been out of contract for a few months now, meaning that I've kept the same rate but not locked in. At one point I was just going to call and cancel it for the end of the month, but I'm not completely sure about if I will be getting a landline. Long story short, the lady was super helpful. My service is currently set up to be canceled on the 6'th of September. If I call before that, I can cancel the cancellation and keep my same plan with an Ontario number.
Talking about options.. It might be cheaper to just do pay as you go which could work out closer to 10/15$ per month rather than over 30 that I'm paying now. But, because I'm planning on canceling, if I decide to stay on with them, they offered me 50% off the first 3 months of a new plan.
Hopefully my roommate and I will split a voice over IP phone for super-cheap and I can just cancel my cell phone and not worry about anything. I bought a watch recently, so I don't even need my cellphone as a clock anymore.

Tomorrow is my last day at the ballet, ever. I'm excited. Today I got my framed poster signed by some of my co-workers. I wish that it was signed by more people, but it's hard to get people to do things during the summer. Nevertheless, the poster looks fabulous and there are many a kind word written to and about me on the matte. I got to choose whichever poster I wanted from many many in the ballet publicity office. I ended up choosing one for Carmina Burana which I sang both as a child in the Winnipeg Boy's Choir and with the University Singers more recently... but the poster I have is from 2002, before I even started with the ballet, and not the time I sang with UM in 2004. Oopsie, but it's a marvelous poster. It's huge and takes up too much space, so it won't be coming with me to London, at least not right away.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

I finished burning all of my cd's into my laptop so I don't have to bring the actual discs with me; they can live in a filing cabinet downstairs. I also got around to cleaning out another drawer of my desk.
The bottom drawer has had the exclusive purpose over the last few years of housing everything to do with composition that I've been finished with. I had a few revelations as a result of reviewing and organizing these papers.
-I really haven't written very much, only nine pieces of which I would only consider 3 or 4 of them to be of any quality.
-I have learned and improved a lot over these composition attempts.

One of the first pieces I wrote was the piece for First Steps, the dance project from my second year of university. That piece was a double edged sword, marking the beginning of both improvising and composition. The project itself was a glorified way of me organizing my musical/improvisatory thoughts. Originally, I was going to find some pieces of music to play for the choreographer, but then I decided it would be easier to fit music to the choreography. I played some little snippets of music for the choreographer and she liked them. This gave me the permission I needed to play around more at the keyboard. By doing this, I was able to keep what I liked and write it down.
As a direct result, it led to me taking formal composition studies at university and it was my starting point for the structured improvisations that I use for almost every dance class now. I am not saying that I am super awesome at either thing yet, but seeing the amount that I've developed in 3 years is quite exciting.

Anyway, I've avoided packing for long enough.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

I am spending a lot of money, but I justify it by saying that it's the last money I'll spend in Winnipeg and I won't be seeing these people for a while, so I need to enjoy myself while I'm still here. But, the purchases keep adding up, and my account balance keeps dwindling little by little. Yesterday, that worried me a bit; Today I am AOK with it!
After I got home from work today, there was a large envelope from an organize through which I had applied for a scholarship/grant. My first thought was that they were sending all my scores back, so I probably didn't get the money. I was right about getting the scores back, but I was wrong about the other part.
I got the bursary/grant! I feel wonderful. Perhaps it is a mistake, but I'm allowing these scholarships to buff my ego and I choose to take them as a sign that my work and my compositions are worthwhile. For now, it's all good; I just have to remember not to have the same personal attachment to grant applications in the future.
Even more than the sense of personal satisfaction with this success, I am extremely happy that I will have a nice chunk of money relatively close to the start of the year. As it stands, tuition is covered by my school scholarship and I have enough money for the initial move and setting up of things in my new apartment. From then on, I would be living on whatever I make from TA-ing. Now, I have a buffer so that I won't need to stress about monthly costs right at the start of my degree... I can leave that until later this year! haha

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Today I randomly went to Grand Forks with sister, brother-in-law and Fork. I spent too much money, but it was fun. Mmmmmmexican food and mmmmmmmargaritas for dinner!

Update, yesterday's barbecue DID happen and it was splendid. There was a lot of delicious food and a lot of wonderful people. It was nice to share the evening with Heather and Gareth - it would have been a bit much to have had it only be a going away party for me. Plus I still feel that the evening was even more important as a way of my parents wrapping up the nesting portion of their parenting careers. Now they will finally be emptynesters; I think they are ready for it!

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Wow, it's morning now and I'm not hungover. Judging from last night's post, I should be in a lot of pain. I'm not complaining.
I'm about to head off to work.
The bachelor party last night was super fun; I'm sure that if there actually was a bachelor, he would have enjoyed himself.
Let's be honest, I'm drunk!
We had a fale bachelor party tonight. Tomorrow is the fake real think. We will. be camping in rogan park tomorrow night.

There is a friend who lives close by and I don't thinkk that she knows, but it means the world to me that she would be there tomorrow for my [party,.
It is the last time that I will be in town for a party. If she doens't show ups, she might as well say tha she hates me.
Fork - please come or i will probably cry.
Anyway, the moral is that I want people to be hpappy and I will be extremely hung over fotwork tomorrow! yay!!

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

I'm less hairy!

Apparently, haircuts are always worth blogging about.
I went to my local barbershop and a lady cut my hair. I don't think she's a barber... would she be a barberess, or is barber a non-gendered term?
She did a good job.
She told me that I part my hair the wrong way because my crown is on the other side of my head. This is all news to me, I don't ever comb my hair, I just let it do what it wants, so I blame my head for its mistaken part. She was very meticulous with the buzzer. Unbeknownst to me, I had random nose hairs that she felt the need to buzz away. Vibrations feel funny in the nose.

I don't know how things will turn out, but my sister and her hubby might not be able to come in this weekend due to work, so the barbecue might be nixed. I hope they can come in and that everything goes to plan.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Back to work means I'm in the home stretch now!

I'm working my last bit for the summer. I'm a few days in - meaning that I'm almost done already; this stretch of work only lasts just over 2 weeks.
So much stuff to do before I leave. And I've procrastinated so much already!
I have to admit, the scheduling of these weeks is poor - waking up early, but not working full days = michael is tired and cranky in the morning, without lots of money to justify things.

End of summer financial view = Michael didn't really save wisely this summer so things will most likely be rather tight this coming year - Oopsie!

I'm excited for a family, perhaps secret, barbecue this weekend. My parents are inviting all sorts of people. They told me it was for my sister and husband, but then she's also been inviting my friends. Nevertheless, it will be a big shindig to celebrate one of their children's marriage and new house, and the other's moving away for grad school. It will also be a celebration of my parents retirement and the new era of their life that my leaving will present to them! It will be a wonderful mix of friends, family, neighbours and whomever else shows up!
As I've said before, this is a very exciting time in our families life and I hope that lots of people can come to share in the excitement!

Monday, August 06, 2007

This past weekend I went up to Thompson to visit my sister and brother-in-law. They've been married for about 6 months now and recently bought a house, so this was my opportunity to visit them and see how they will be living for the next while.
It was a wonderful weekend. Their house is very nice and they seem to be living quite well. It was also different from when my sister comes to Winnipeg to visit; rather than fitting back into the role of sister and daughter in the Park house, she has a new role as a wife. I was witness to a wonderful dynamic between the two of them, showing that they are both happy!
They spoiled me rotten. I did my best to clean up after myself and help around the house, but they kept on buying me things and making me food and generally being so generous - I can't wait for the day when I will be in a situation to offer them something in return.

I don't generally watch a lot of those idol-type t.v. shows, but my parents do so I am privy to watching it at dinner every now and again. I had remembered seeing episodes where the judges and guest artists gave helpful suggestions on how the competitors could improve, but I'm convinced that all usefulness has disappeared from the commentary. All that I heard from the experts were raving compliments about how great the singer was doing, or some fickle commentary on how it was disappointing and not up to the standards of the competition - void of any instructions on how to improve.
Now, I can understand this for the live commentary right after the performance: the audience probably doesn't want to hear technical stuff or well, anything other than what they currently get, but when the singer is working just with the pianist and the guest artist.... at least give us the impression that the visitor has something of value to say. Especially since these are hugely successful pop stars, they've all worked with coaches and whatnot in their own careers - show us some of that!
Perhaps, they are right; the audience might not care about HOW the singers get better, BUT if the audience is ignorant as to how the singers can improve, how can they assess the quality? Even giving one element of the performance to improve on would give the audience something to focus on and then see if the singer actually makes improvements on that.
And for fucks sake- STOP SAYING "PITCHY" AND "TUNING"!!!!!!!!! These are vague general terms that can't be used for specific incidences unless you SPECIFY! If the singer is singing out of tune, chances are that they don't know how to make the proper adjustments, if they even know where it happens. Singing sharp and flat are completely different problems requiring completely different solutions. GAH! Fucker Mumbly!

Saturday, August 04, 2007

I'm totally not letting illness have any effect on my time in Thompson. I'm having a great time visiting Heather and Gareth: my sister and brother-in-law, respectively.
Today Gareth stayed home and fixed the fence while Heather and I went to Pichou falls (I'm not so certain on spelling) which is a spectacular, though small, waterfall not even an hour south of Thompson; it was breathtaking. After that we went to Paint Lake to see more of the stunning outdoors and nature that surrounds Thompson.
Barbecuing for dinner, going for drinks and playing some pool with friends at a local drinking hole, and coming home to watch a movie on a big screen TV; I submit that there is no more ideal way to spend a Friday! Well, except for the fact that the movie was interrupted by an egging and the pressure washing of windows that ensued. Nevertheless, it all fit into the wonderful charm of the evening.
Who knows what excitement tomorrow has in store! However, I shall need some refreshing sleep before that shall happen...

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

sicky

So, apparently it wasn't the cookies.
It started yesterday morning and now it's all out sickness. I think it's just a cold, but I can't seem to drink enough water.
I hung out with friends last night- I couldn't hear much of the outdoor conversation and my head was a little loopy so I was not all there. Actually the loopy head thing started more today.
Anyway, I'm hoping this goes away very soon, or at least that I find the pills/cough medicine that will make me feel normal while I'm visiting my sister and brother-in-law.
Wow, summer did that thing again where it flies by so quickly. I leave for Thompson tomorrow and then when I get back to Winnipeg, I'll be working within 2 hours.
At least I'll have a few days after working before I have to move.