Today I broke a mirror. Not just any 'ole mirror. A HUGE mirror. You may recall it from the virtual tours of my home, or from my account of trying to move it out of my bedroom last summer. I'm not good with estimating, but this mirror was taller than my door frame, nearly floor to ceiling (so perhaps about 8 feet tall?) and wide enough to be seriously cumbersome, nearly the length of my wingspan (1. maybe 4-5 feet wide? 2. do humans have a wingspan?).
So I'm packing this morning for my weekend trip, plugged into my ipod- Radiohead- and I think I must have bumped the drying rack that has been located in front of the mirror for ages. With that, there is a tremendous crash, followed by the soft twinkling sound of shattering glass. All I can do is listen (I can't even recall if I watched). And then I assess the damage. Yes, the mirror is so very far beyond repair. Yes, there are a few small gouges in the hallway wall, since the mirror is taller than the hallway is wide. Yes, those are my just-dry socks on the rack that is wedged under the mirror and the shower of glass shreds.
All I can do is slowly retreat and drink my tea with honey.
The story has a happy ending (simply because I am not superstitious, although, I believe that staring at a mirror broken into so many large and small bits has the capacity to make one doubt her lack of superstitiousness). I slowly and carefully removed the large pieces, praying constantly that I would not trip down the steps (God is good, I did not slip and fall and scrap my hand until the very last trip, when I was not carrying glass, but only a tall, not so dangerous segment of the plastic framing) and as I opened my front door with the intent to ask my neighbor if such large pieces of glass were acceptable for our black rubbish bin, who drove up but Belfast City Council Waste Removal! I chatted with a bin man and he said, sure, no problem as long as the glass is IN the bin. And I said, well, mostly, it is, let me go get my bin.
And the bin was dumped into the truck, which will be dumped into the landfill, and therefore we have no large, treacherous glass pieces in our garden and I can learn to stop being so vain!
Sunday 30 March 2008
Thursday 27 March 2008
These weeks fly by when I am away every weekend. One more to go, and then a bit of rest perhaps!! Last weekend, though, was amazing. I have decided that Scotland is my Disney World- the best place on earth. It was freezing and windy (located on the same latitude lines as Moscow!) but unbelievably beautiful. I spent most of the weekend in Edinburgh with H. It's great to be frugal, because we picked the biggest and best of the tourist attractions and then just spent the rest of the time walking. and walking. and walking. I saw so much of "the other side of Edinburgh" that I could almost...just almost...pretend like it was my city. We walked the several miles out to Leith (Edinburgh's port) and we walked up Arthur's Seat (the hill that overlooks the city) and then I walked down to the Meadows and the University of Edinburgh area and through the Grassmarket. Everything was just perfect (well, ok, a few degrees warmer would have been okay). It was nice to spend Easter weekend away, and still get to focus on Easter. I went to a very cool Good Friday service at St. John's in the Prinices Street Gardens (and was really impressed with their church. They have a fair trade shop, a Peace and Justice Centre, socially relevant Easter murals each year) and then on Sunday H and I went to a service in the church on the Royal Mile, St. Giles, where the Church of Scotland broke from the Church of England for refusing to let the King (or anyone other than God) be the head of their Church. We sang all of the great Easter hymns. Then on Monday I wandered around Stirling. I was worried that maybe I had created this romanticized memory and that, in reality, it would just be another little town. But no, nine years later it was still breathtakingly beautiful. The view from the castle is unreal- fields of green and sheep, snow capped mountains, the William Wallace monument on the horizon, hills and mountains for miles, and clouds of snow moving across the landscape. I'm working on getting the photos up, check the links on the left.
This week is the women's retreat with church. I'm glad for the chance to get to know people better, but I'm sad to be so far away from home on a weekend that so many people from my past will be gathering.
F and I are finishing up our first girls' group this coming Tuesday. After that we'll jump right into another that's meant to be more issues based, action, group work-ish.
I suppose that's life- not much going on in Belfast when I've spent so much time away,
This week is the women's retreat with church. I'm glad for the chance to get to know people better, but I'm sad to be so far away from home on a weekend that so many people from my past will be gathering.
F and I are finishing up our first girls' group this coming Tuesday. After that we'll jump right into another that's meant to be more issues based, action, group work-ish.
I suppose that's life- not much going on in Belfast when I've spent so much time away,
Wednesday 19 March 2008
Working with young people is an experience in emotional extremes. Our girls' group last night went bad halfway through, after about eight weeks of quality and class. We were painting canvases for a second week in a row and to keep things interesting, we decided to also have hard boiled eggs to paint since this Sunday is Easter. And after awhile they started flying. I think only one was smashed in the room, but of course, D and I get overly excited to get the girls out of the building, and I follow them a bit down the street- but not far enough. A few minutes later they came back and left rude messages on the glass of our front doors...in boiled egg yolk. In case you've never cleaned squashed hard boiled egg off of two big windows, let me assure that it's gross. So we're angry and frustrated and the other three girls who are left offered to clean up. And they wash the window and they brush the step and then they bring out soapy water and WASH the step. They were amazing.
The minor egg disaster was not enough to dissuade us from our own little egg dying party after work. Our QC friends came down with another friend or two and, thanks to the egg kit from mom and dad, dyed lots and lots of fantastic eggs. I can't wait for deviled eggs...
Currently reading: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Translated from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim.
The minor egg disaster was not enough to dissuade us from our own little egg dying party after work. Our QC friends came down with another friend or two and, thanks to the egg kit from mom and dad, dyed lots and lots of fantastic eggs. I can't wait for deviled eggs...
Currently reading: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Translated from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim.
Monday 17 March 2008
My two month hiatus was a failure. I have written, maybe, one journal entry, and while I started off strong with the emails, they've faded quickly. So I'm back at blogging. Letting the whole world know what I've done day in and day out. But this time it's completely for selfish reasons (those who debate the ethics of blogs may think blogging is always selfish...). At least if I blog regularly I'll have a record of my life in Belfast, and that's worth my time. So read and comment and don't read at all- I won't be bothered.
It's an appropriate day to restart. It's a good parallel to the first time- another (partially) diabolical weekend residential. I think that overall and "officially" it would classify as "good," but a day later and most of the good parts have filtered themselves out. The good news is that it wasn't a FS residential, and, in all fairness, all of the kids have serious family issues happening in their lives and some were completely dead on. It's just that the few who weren't were really good at being disrespectful, crude, headstrong and unruly. I wish I had had a tape recorder, because I don't think that most of you can imagine the strings of cursing and insults that these kids come up with (occasionally, I do have to give them inner applause for their creativity.) We did get to do lots of archery, I attempted a climbing wall for the first time, watched some banana boating (but couldn't handle the thought of wading into the icy water), played some pool, ran about a HUGE ball pit with a free fall slide... I'm also still musing over our "performance" as youth workers. I don't think I've ever worked with people who were so communicative and reflective DURING an actual event. It was kinda cool to "talk strategy" as were trying to figure out how best to encourage the young people to sleep at 4 am, and it was definitely beneficial since I was unfamiliar with the policies and preferences of the organization. So yes. That was my weekend- I came home cold, sick and knackered, and decided that hot showers are God's gift to youth workers.
Today, though, is a new day. And it happens to be St. Patrick's Day. I feel like a bit of a slacker for not pubbing and drinking lots of Guinness on St. Paddy's Day in N. Ireland, but I did go to the "carnival parade" and free concert in city centre. The parade was good- a bit silly and small, but it's only the third year there's even been city council sponsored events in the city. The concert was also really good (3/4 of it). There were two traditional Irish bands, an Irish dance troop and then the headliner. Lots of people left when the headliner came on, and I did too when she restarted her first song after coming in at the wrong part of the karaoke-type track. But the weather was absolutely gorgeous today, so C and I took a walk through town just enjoying the sun.
Check to the left for some random pics from the past few months.
And a new feature (to keep me accountable and to assure Heather that I am trying my best not be a failure in life:
Most recent read: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (great book, but still didn't motivate me enough to get very high on my first climbing wall attempt...)
It's an appropriate day to restart. It's a good parallel to the first time- another (partially) diabolical weekend residential. I think that overall and "officially" it would classify as "good," but a day later and most of the good parts have filtered themselves out. The good news is that it wasn't a FS residential, and, in all fairness, all of the kids have serious family issues happening in their lives and some were completely dead on. It's just that the few who weren't were really good at being disrespectful, crude, headstrong and unruly. I wish I had had a tape recorder, because I don't think that most of you can imagine the strings of cursing and insults that these kids come up with (occasionally, I do have to give them inner applause for their creativity.) We did get to do lots of archery, I attempted a climbing wall for the first time, watched some banana boating (but couldn't handle the thought of wading into the icy water), played some pool, ran about a HUGE ball pit with a free fall slide... I'm also still musing over our "performance" as youth workers. I don't think I've ever worked with people who were so communicative and reflective DURING an actual event. It was kinda cool to "talk strategy" as were trying to figure out how best to encourage the young people to sleep at 4 am, and it was definitely beneficial since I was unfamiliar with the policies and preferences of the organization. So yes. That was my weekend- I came home cold, sick and knackered, and decided that hot showers are God's gift to youth workers.
Today, though, is a new day. And it happens to be St. Patrick's Day. I feel like a bit of a slacker for not pubbing and drinking lots of Guinness on St. Paddy's Day in N. Ireland, but I did go to the "carnival parade" and free concert in city centre. The parade was good- a bit silly and small, but it's only the third year there's even been city council sponsored events in the city. The concert was also really good (3/4 of it). There were two traditional Irish bands, an Irish dance troop and then the headliner. Lots of people left when the headliner came on, and I did too when she restarted her first song after coming in at the wrong part of the karaoke-type track. But the weather was absolutely gorgeous today, so C and I took a walk through town just enjoying the sun.
Check to the left for some random pics from the past few months.
And a new feature (to keep me accountable and to assure Heather that I am trying my best not be a failure in life:
Most recent read: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (great book, but still didn't motivate me enough to get very high on my first climbing wall attempt...)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)