The hills are alive.

The summer is upon us, and how good a thing it is.

The weather here in Mayberry has been so unbelievably beautiful lately. Every time I step outside I want to stretch out my arms, raise my face to the heavens and spin in circles like Maria.

Sometimes I do it.

Sound of Music Cover PhotoEven during rainy days and thunderstorms and tornado watches I’m happy. It  seems to be that perfect temperature at all times: that temperature somewhere around 68 degrees and breezy to where if you open your windows you can hear the leaves and branches whooshing together and you feel like you could maybe even fly a kite or something.

I have so much to work on, finish, accomplish, succeed at, and I feel like this summer (racing by already) it will be.

Poor Kyle and I are collaborating on a project that might even turn into a business.

I am writing a book about marriage and haven’t forgotten.

And the best news of all is that tomorrow night I will host my end-of-term piano recital, complete with certificates and treats afterward, and not only will we celebrate the end of a fantastic period of young musical growth, but also the beginning of HOURS AND HOURS OF FREE TIME COMING MY WAY.

Don’t get me wrong: teaching piano is not a bad job. I would not say I love it because that might be a lie. But I have grown quite fond of my little kidlets with their weekly updates of newly loosened teeth and the mysterious colourful smudges on their sticky hands—have you ever noticed how kids always seem to have inexplicably smudgy and colourful hands? Why is that? Markers I guess, from school. Or maybe M&M juice.

But now that the season has come to an end I find myself fantasizing about all the free hours coming my way, and daylight hours at that! What will I do with all that time, I ask myself like an interview of someone who’s just won some sort of outrageous sweepstakes of minutes and seconds.

Well, I might sit outside on the deck one day.

Maybe I’ll get to look at my plants growing in their pots while it’s actually still sunny out.

I could mow the back lawn.

I’ve thought about sweeping the floors.

I might even go crazy and finally take that shower I keep talking about.

No matter what I end up doing, I can assure you I will do it carefully, thoughtfully, and with very much pleasure.

I will not squander my minutes.

Posted in awesome., Canada, change, It's All Good | 4 Comments

American Idol Season 11 Marathon Predictions

Tonight Poor Kyle and I are getting caught up on American Idol. I can hardly believe that the finale was three days ago and I have been able to keep my head out of the internets long enough to be ignorant of the winner still. It’s a first-world miracle.

American IdolI don’t think my luck can hold out much longer, though, so we are having a marathon this weekend.

We are caught up to the Top 6; just finished watching the Queen episode (which was very good [with the exception of Hollie] but how could it be anything less? I love Queen music), and I am going to announce my predictions right here and now before we continue.

Well, actually I’m going to announce TWO predictions: one for the outcome if it were only up to me and my perfect world, and one for what I think will actually happen (because I am usually WAY out of touch with the majority of American Idol watching-and-voting public, so much so that I stopped watching the show altogether the week Alex Lambert was voted off back in 2010 [when Ellen was a judge, pretty much the glory days if you ask me, remember David Archuleta and Brooke White?] and never watched another episode until just this season when Poor Kyle basically forced me to get sucked back in)…

So here goes:

IN MY PERFECT WORLD:

1. Hollie Cavanagh would be gone this week. (Sorry Hollie, you’re nice but you’re in over your head.) (Truthfully I think it was a terrible shame she outlasted Colton Dixon, who was kind of annoyingly emo but still way better than Hollie.)

2. Next to go would be Jessica Sanchez. Seriously, Jessica? You’re like 12. You’re whiny and fake and I suspect a bit manipulative and your pouty face isn’t fooling anyone. Go away.

3. Then Skylar Laine. I know, she seems like a really nice girl, firecracker and all that. I get it. I like the spunk. I’d probably even like her as a friend. But country music, with the exception of maybe twelve songs, needs to die.

4. After Skylar should be Joshua Lidet. I like Joshua’s voice. A lot, actually. Smooth, svelte, it’s rich. I’d probably even buy one of his albums. Just after the next two people’s, is all…

Elise Testone and Phillip Phillips5. The finale would be between Elise Testone and Phillip Phillips, and neither of them would lose. Instead, it would be a two-way tie and a surprise wedding ceremony all in one. Elise and Phillip would get married and tour the world together and produce beautiful music-making babies.

Elise’s voice? Get out, it’s everything I wish mine was (WTF am I even talking about? My voice is so bad even WISHING it sounded like Elise’s is embarrassing).

And Phillip. GRACIOUS. Phillip. I don’t even care that he sort of assumes the face of a serial killer when he sings: his voice is phenomenal, his personality is hilarious, and his refusal to bend to anybody’s expectations is exactly what this country needs for a role model right now.

WHAT WILL PROBABLY HAPPEN BECAUSE AMERICA ALWAYS GETS IT WRONG:

1. Hollie will get voted off (come on, even America can’t get it wrong enough to miss that).

2. Elise, because America hates strong women who sing rock.

3. Skylar, because America hates strong women who sing country only slightly less than strong women who sing rock.

4. Joshua, because America likes him but not as much as Phillip and Jessica.

5. Phillip, because America is too in love with Jessica to let an actual hero win.

6. Jessica will win, because I’m due for a good outrage and America is so easily deceived.

So there’s my predictions. I honestly wish I hadn’t got so sucked in to watching this season, but at this point it’s not like I can very well just NOT FIND OUT.

But I’ll make sure to try really hard not to get sucked back in next season.

Okay, back to the marathon. Wish me luck and don’t spoil it for me if you already know!

–cpsf

Posted in good tunes, It's All Good, thisandthat | 2 Comments

Our pathetic backyard

I like gardening. I like plants and growth and life. I like yardwork. I fantasize of a beautiful, private backyard, real Secret Garden-like, with nooks and crannies, hidden worlds to be discovered behind overgrown vines or under long draping willow trees. I’d even go so far as to say I crave that sort of place in my life.

But I am beginning to lose hope that I will ever have it.

Over the years our backyard has seen some good times and some bad times.

The time below (circa summer 2010) was good-ish; I’ll admit the fog was pretty and a little bit romantic:

foggy backyard

But let’s not kid ourselves: the bad has far outweighed the good:

snow in back yard


And sometimes really really outweighed it—that weed was six feet tall:

six foot tall weed

Yet even after all that our backyard has lately sunk to pretty extreme lows:

overgrown weeds in back yard

The picture above effectively captures the general state of everything in my life right now, which I will summarize in one succinct word: half-A.

Note, if you will, the fence posts standing tall and fence-less as they’ve stood for the last two years since we originally knocked down our fence because it was falling over anyway and we meant to replace it with a lovely white vinyl one (see just a bit further back to our neighbors’ far lovelier [and finished!] fence) only we failed to think of two things before we took a sledghammer to the old brown fence: 1) that white vinyl fences cost a lot of money, and 2) we don’t have a lot of money. Also that although the fence part came down easily enough, the actual posts were cemented in and not coming out without the help of some sort of tractor, which of course would cost money to rent, which money, as noted in 2), we simply didn’t have.

Oops.

Then note, if you will, the random patches of dead and cut-down trees scattered throughout the yard as they’ve been for the past four weeks, just as we left them after one hearty weekend full of cheerful ambitions and chain saw oil, followed by a slew of rainy weekends, out-of-town weekends, scheduled-to-work weekends, and weekends during which we simply couldn’t muster the energy required to peel ourselves off the living room sofa and finish the task of clearing up the dead trees.

Note also the tiny visible strip of poured concrete footing, poured years before we ever bought this house by previous owners with visions of grandeur and a detached garage. Also note: NO GARAGE IN SIGHT.

I do believe this property is haunted.

We were doomed to half-A-ness from the start.

Posted in failures, Green Living, mediocrity | Tagged | 8 Comments

Downhill

I’m back from Vegas and that was a good time.

It’s weird; lately every time I go to write a blog post I have to check my actual blog to see what it was I wrote about last.

Maybe because I go too long between writing. Or maybe because there’s no real narrative to my life anymore, at least not a streamlined meaningful one like there used to be…

It used to be I was the newly married girl. I was the girl who moved from Mesa Arizona USA to Southern Alberta Canada and struggled with culture shock and climate shock and other shock. I was the girl who was fighting her way through a bachelor’s degree in English. I was the girl with funny stories. The girl with things to say.

Who am I now?

Five years is too long to be a newlywed. It’s too long to be struggling still with culture shock. I graduated. I have a job. My stories are all work-related or husband-related or church-related, and none of them feel right to write about here.

It feels like there’s nothing to say anymore.

And I get to thinking this kind of thing and suddenly it strikes me: I’M WASHED UP.

My best years are behind me.

I’m a has-been.

Only 25 and my glory days are over.

And the worst part? They weren’t even very glorious.

Posted in awesome., blogger finger, failures, looking back, mediocrity | 6 Comments