Duets and Song Mates

Do you know what needs to be invented?

A dating service. For singers. Or for people who like to sing but don't consider themselves to be "a singer".

In my teenage years I was lucky enough to find my vocal soul mate, or song mate if you will, Trudy. I think we were sitting next to each other in church and as we were singing the hymns we discovered that our voices blended really well together. We sung a song in front of the older couples we were serving dinner to for a youth activity and bam, the rest was history.

I had never sung in front of people except in a choir until Trudy came along, but after the first song we sang together, we became official. We were a duet. We sang several times a year in church and at various church-related functions.

Even when we were hanging out, we usually sang. Her mom would play the piano and we would flip through the hymn book singing whatever took our fancy. Yeah, we were the coolest of the cool kids.

But alas, as we've grown up our lives have taken us in different directions and I have lost my song mate. I think the last time we did a duet was Christmas of 2012. We would certainly jump at the chance to sing together if it comes along, but I don't think we'll have one for a while.

Though my heart still misses Trudy, I believe the time has come for me to find a new song mate. Not to replace Trudy, but just a song mate for while I am here in GP, where Trudy is not.

So here goes, my personal ad for a song mate:

I am a 24 y.o. female seeking a female (preferably), but open to a male. Age is no issue.
I sing alto confidently and can also sing tenor if the alto part is boring or if I have a cold.
The highest note I can hit and still sound good-ish is a D, the lowest note being an F.
Prefer to sing hymnal music, but also willing to sing pop music if it has good harmonies.
I enjoy singing recreationally and am not afraid to sing in public.
Looking for a semi-serious relationship, but also open to one-time gigs.
Call me at 1-800-HOT-ALTO ;)

The kind of post my mom would scold me for

It is after 10 pm and I have to be at work for 9 tomorrow. But here I am blogging because I am an adult and I pay rent so I do what I want.

I saw someone post an article earlier today that said something like "15 things couples do when they leave the honeymoon phase". I skimmed it and it made me think of the days when Joe and I were in the honeymoon phase, but more specifically it made me think of the day we left the honeymoon phase. (and just to clarify, I'm defining the honeymoon phase as that time in a new relationship when the couple still feels the need to put on their best selves around each other. Not the literal honeymoon phase where the couple has just gotten married and is still enjoying the perks of - well, you know...)

Anyway, sorry for the long parentheses. Where were we? Oh yes.

The day Joe and I left the honeymoon phase, or in other words: the day we broke the fart barrier. Everybody knows that when the fart barrier is broken, all other walls come tumbling down. It's impossible to go back to the honeymoon phase once gas has been passed between two lovers.

I can say with a mix of pride and shame that I was the one to break the barrier, but it was Joe's fault that it happened.

I think we'd only been dating a month or a month and a half when it happened. Joe was over at my house and we were just messing around in the living room. Somehow we started steam-rolling each other. Then Joe got the bright idea to turn himself so that he was steam-rollering me from top to bottom instead of side to side. As he did so, I said "No don't! I'm really gassy!" (which in itself, was a first in the relationship for one of us to even admit we had gas). But instead of respecting my womanly dignity of not farting in front of men, Joe just got this look in his eye that said "Oh really??" and he began to focus his steam-rolling efforts around my abdominal region (I was lying face-down, btw, otherwise that would have really hurt).

He didn't have to try for long before the demon was released. At first it was funny because of the noise it made and the fact that when I laughed, it came out in time with my laughs. But then Joe got a whiff of the monster and jumped across the room so fast you'd have thought someone released a stink bomb - oh wait...

I was rather embarrassed and worried that it might have been a deal breaker, but thankfully Joseph was able to see past my stench and he learned to love me for who I really am: a smart, talented girl whose farts should be taken seriously. Honestly, I'm pretty sure he only did it so that he would finally be allowed to fart around me. I later found out that until that point, his stomach used to hurt so bad from holding in the gas when he was with me too long.

So if there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that you should break the fart barrier as early as you can in a relationship in case there could be health risks associated with holding in your gas for too long. If you truly cared about your loved ones, you'd let them fart around you.

Dear mom,

Thank you for all you do for me and the siblings. You've taught me so much and I am grateful for the example you've been for me. I don't think I realized how much I looked up to you until I moved away, which only makes me miss you more. You know I hate being mushy so I'm just going to make a list of my favourite memories I have with you.

• Thanks for always making sure we spent lots of time outside whether you were kicking us out to play at the park or you were taking us on an outing to explore the outdoors. Whenever we went to a park and there was a plaque to read, you always read it to us so that we could learn something about the area we were in. 
• Remember when we used to sleep in the living room on Sunday nights and watch Star Wars? The goal was to watch them all, but us kids always fell asleep before the first one was over. You probably did too, but no one can prove it. 
• Thank you for making us macaroni with mushroom soup and tuna. Best. Thing. Ever. 
• Even though I was in swimming lessons, I don't think I would have learned half the stuff I did without you. I remember when you taught me how to dive and I was so proud when I finally got it. You also taught me how to kick both legs at a time like a mermaid when I swim. That was pretty much my favourite thing.
• I miss going horseback riding with you. I love all the memories we have of the rides we went on with Carla's horses. Remember the time when Tuffy bolted and I fell off?? And then you made me get right back on? I think I earned my Real Horseman status that day. 
• Thanks for trusting me. In high school when I asked if I could do something or go somewhere with my friends you always said yes. I figured out this wasn't normal when I saw how strict some of my friends' parents could be. Because of that trust, I never did anything to break it. 

As I've gotten older and moved out of the house (and back in and then back out again), I've enjoyed spending time with you more and more. I didn't realize how much I've grown to be like you until I came to GP for the first time. There were so many moments when something would come out of my mouth and I would say, "woah, that's my mother speaking". But it's okay that I've turned out like you, because you are a level headed, practical woman who is always willing to help someone in need. Thanks for being a great example for me. I hope that when my turn comes that I can be as good a mother as you have been. 

The Month of Change

It's that wonderful time of year again.

October!!! 

My most favourite month for selfish and non-selfish reasons:
a) My birfday. I just turned 23, boo yah.
b) General Conference! If you've never seen it, you should! There are four 2-hour sessions. There were two today and there will be two tomorrow (Sunday) at 10 am and 2 pm. To tune in live via the internet, go here.
c) A billion other birthdays too, including Joe's and my dear friend, Trudy's!
d) Hallowe'en. I love any excuse to put on a costume!
e) It's pretty. I love watching the leaves change colour as long as I don't think about the imminent winter on its way.




This year, however, October is special to me for another reason.

Remember when this happened?

Today is the anniversary of the fateful day I crashed our favourite car. Although it was an awful experience, I am grateful it happened (and more importantly, grateful we came out of it okay!) and it is the reason why I am where I am today.

Did you ever wonder what made me choose to move up to GP this summer? It was this stupid accident. Before the accident, I was completely set against living in GP, even after I graduated. It was just too far away from my family. I wanted to at least move to a middle ground where we'd have family 3 hours away on either side of us. After the accident, I changed my mind. Joe had stayed home for a whole month and given me a taste of what it's like to live like a "normal" married couple. When the time came for him to go back to work, I was so sad that I knew I didn't want to do long distance any more. Initially I wanted to quit school after that semester and move up with him that year, but that was just the concussion talking. Luckily I came to my senses and knew that I needed to finish school before moving up with him. So the next best thing was for me to move up to GP for the summer. And I am so glad I did. My summer there changed my attitude about the city and made me realize there are good things there too.

So for my Lethbridge friends and family, now you have something to blame for me leaving you. And to my new GP friends, you now know what brought me into your lives. I just hope that for future life changes, God chooses a more subtle way to point me where I should go.

Be nice to me or I'll dance on your grave!

It's random fact about me day!  

I may or may not have unintentionally danced on someone's grave. I never knew the person to whom the grave belonged to, so it was nothing personal. But still, it happened. I felt bad about it but still laughed at myself because who actually dances on people's graves??

Here's the story:

One summer, many years ago, I was invited by a not-so-close-but-close-enough-to-say-hi-to-in-the-hallway friend to come play night games with him and a bunch of other kids in the local cemetery. I had spent several summers in my childhood playing night games before, so when he asked me to come out, it was a no brainer to say "YES!"

We all arrived at the cemetery in the late evening just as the sun was setting. While we waited for it to get darker, me and another girl decided to explore and check out the graves of the cemetery. We went around reading the headstones and learning what kind of people were buried there. We came to one headstone and when we read the name, something about it sounded like something you would hear in a song so we started singing their name to a funky beat. Inevitably, I started dancing to the beats we were putting out. When I stopped my friend laughed and said "You just danced on that guy's grave!"

I immediately apologized to the deceased individual and promptly got off their grave. We laughed about the situation for a moment and then joined the rest of the group to start the night games. The rest of the night was pretty fun, and don't worry, I haven't been haunted by the angry spirit of that grave!

This post started out as nothing special but then turned into an awesome tribute to my best friend.

I want to blog, I really do. But lately I haven't felt like I have much to share.

So I've decided that today I will make myself sit down and write something and I won't stop until I have something.

Ready? Go.

• When I was a kid I loved the Ninja Turtles. My favourite was Raphael. Me and my best friend, Cassandra used to yell down the sewers to talk to them. Her favourite was Michaelangelo. That's why we were best friends, because we rarely ever fought over boys. Or turtles.
• The only thing me and Cassandra ever fought about was who was going to be the pink power ranger. Or poison ivy. Or baby spice. When we fought there were usually some tears shed and then one of us would go home. We always got back together though. Either an hour later or the next day and it would always be like nothing ever happened.
• I think Cassandra wore the pants in our relationship because I believed everything she told me. We used to have bike races that went from speedbump to speed bump and I'd usually cross the finish line first, but then Cassandra would say, "Nu-uh! The finish line was back here! You lost!" And so I would think I lost because I went past the wrong finish line.
• When I moved to a different school after grade 4 I was devastated because I didn't want to lose all my friends. But I made new friends. The relationships I had with these new friends were different because we didn't play pretend like me and Cassandra used to, but I'm still friends with several of the ones I made at the new school so I think it worked out.
• Seriously, Cass and I played pretend until we were 12, maybe 13. The last thing I remember us playing pretend about was the car my family had in our backyard. We'd go in there and pretend it was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and we pretended it took us to all these crazy places. Or we were secret agents like in Charlie's Angels and the car talked to us like it was Charlie.
• Technically speaking, you could probably say we played pretend straight into high school because we used to make up scenarios in our heads that usually involved a boy we liked and so we'd make up different conversations we could have with him or whatever. Seriously, we were retarded.

When I look back on my childhood, I think it was the best childhood anyone could possibly have. Cassandra and I had some crazy imaginations and when we got together it made them even crazier. We don't see each other as often as we used to, but that's okay. Kids grow up and make new friends and follow different paths in life. Even though we spend less time together these days, she still is one of the few people I can really be myself and be totally comfortable with. In fact, I knew that Joe was a good fit for me because the relationship I had with him mirrored the one I had with Cassandra, but it was even better.

So thanks, Cass, for teaching me how to have fun with nothing but your imagination and for showing me what a good friendship should look like. The statement.

Turning Points

There are a few moments in my life I can look back on and say that if they hadn't happened, I wouldn't be where I am today. 

July 25th, 2008 - I tore my ACL. One silly ligament was enough to send me down a very different path from the one I had anticipated back in high school. I didn't get to play Pronghorns that fall and as a result, I was able to play a large role in the single adult ward I was attending. I formed a network of friends that were good influences on me and helped me to be a better person. 

December, 2008 - I created a friendship with a girl who I think eventually helped me to meet my future husband. Starlene. She was from a small town I'd never heard of called Cherry Grove - the place where Joe grew up. Star and I became pretty close and were always together at every church function. So when my future sister-in-law, Anne Marie, moved into the ward in the fall of 2009 she stuck close to us because she knew Star from back home. Annie and I became thick as thieves that semester, so when her big brother, Joseph, moved down in 2010 there was no way our paths weren't going to cross. 

January 4th, 2010 - The very first time Joe and I laid eyes on each other. My first impression of him was, "Holy biceps, look at those arms!!" and "Man, that boy sure can talk". We didn't actually spend a lot of time together that night, mostly because I avoided him because he was so good looking and I didn't want Annie to catch me staring. In fact, we didn't see each other again until May. Joe lived on the westside of town so he was in a different ward from us and floated in a different group of friends. 

May, 2010 - Joe started hanging out with our group of friends. And we had a pretty good group going, so I don't blame him for coming over to our side. The rest, they say, is history. We started dating in June and by the end of the spring semester in 2011 we were engaged. And now, we've been happily married for a year and a half tomorrow! 

Four and a half years ago I would have never guessed that my life would be the way it is now. Had I not torn my ACL, I would have gone on to play for the Pronghorns. And because that would have taken up so much of my time, I would have never developed that network of friends that I had in the beginning. And if I'd never made those relationships, I could have missed out on meeting Annie and eventually, Joseph. 

So I guess the moral of the story is, even when something may look like a setback (like my ACL), it can really be God's way of telling you that He has a better path in mind for you. But the question is, will you fight it? Or are you willing to see where the path will lead?

Do You Remember?

I have far too many things I have to do, so naturally I'm putting them off to blog instead.

I read an awesome post at 1000 Awesome Things where he talked about his favourite TV shows from his childhood. This is probably one of the best topics you can talk about when you're getting to know someone. I was working an Operation Red Nose shift this year and as we waited for the calls to come in we all just sat around the table getting to know each other. When someone brought up the question of what was the best TV show you watched as a kid, everybody lit up. We were humming theme songs, debating favourite characters and trying to remember the name of vague shows in our memories.

So here are my favourites, in no particular order because I loved them all for one reason or another.

Little Bear - My mom taped a few episodes of Little Bear for me and I used to watch them over and over and over again. My favourite character was Duck because she was crazy.



Recess - Seriously, who didn't watch Recess as a kid? TJ and the gang were the kind of kids we all wanted to be. Spinelli was my fave, nobody messed with her. Fun fact- I know the tuba part of the theme song off by heart. Best opening theme music EVER.



Sailor Moon - We didn't have cable at my house, so I couldn't watch this show at home. But my Gramma had cable so whenever we went over, you could always find me glued to the TV watching my shows. I loved Sailor Moon, my favourite part was when she changed into her sailor costume. Me and my friend used to act that part out twirling around in the background pretending to change from our little girl clothes into magical sailor costumes!



Arthur - I'm pretty sure I can still sing the theme song for this one. There is one episode I will always remember where they sing about their favourite books and Brain sings about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. "Jekyll, jekyll, hyde, jekyll, hyde, hyde, jekyll!"



Gargoyles - There are so many shows I watched as a kid that I absolutely loved at the time, but as an adult I realize just how corny they were. Not Gargoyles. This show is just pure awesome. Brooklyn was such a stud, Goliath such a beast, Hudson so legit and how could you not love Bronx? A couple summers ago I relived the awesomeness by watching the entire 2nd season of Gargoyles on the Youtube. Best decision ever.



There are tons more shows I could have mentioned, but there just isn't enough time. Maybe I'll bring them up again later.