Reflections on 2009

Looking back, I think I grew more in 2009 then I have any other year of my life. Not physically of course, I'm not any taller or wider then I was a year ago. But mentally, emotionally I've grown. I've learned to put things into perspective, to let the little stuff go and accent on the good rather then the negative. I've learned to think about how my actions will affect others and solve my own problems, while asking for help when needed. I've gone (ever slightly) outside my comfort zone and tried new things. I've become more aware, observant, confident, capable and relaxed. I'm working towards my goals and my dreams, and step my ever tiny step they are coming into form. 2009 was an absolutely amazing year (with a slight hiccup of not-greatness at the beginning). Now I can look ahead into 2010 with excitment and plans of greatness. Check back with me in a year to see how that went for me. :) ;)

Skiing Update

Well, a few days ago when we went skiing it was a good day. I made 6 runs total, a few on the easy main run, a few on a harder one and I always went up the chair with my mom or my uncle or my cousins. The first few runs that day were a little hard and slow for me because I had to get my ski legs back. On the harder run, it's called 'Panhandler' I was going a little fast over an icy bump on a steep hill, and I crashed over the bump, lost both skis and poles, rolled over a bunch of times and almost slid into a tree well. It was fine though, I landed in powder.

Today, my cousins went up to the hill at the crack of 8am with their friends and I went up with my mom and aunt and uncle around 10. My mom didn't feel up to skiing so she stayed in the lodge and socialized and I went up with my aunt and uncle. My aunt needed to get her ski legs back today so my uncle coached her a bit and I took off alone. At the bottom I couldn't see anyone so I went back up the chair alone. It's a long bumpy lonely ride alone and so was skiing back down alone too. I passed my cousins and their friends a few times. Usually I skiied under them when they were on the chairlift. I made 5 runs alone and then I had to go in and get some feeling back into my fingertips. Back on the hill a while later I met my uncle on the top of the hill and we were going to ski down together but I got going ahead of him and I actually had to wait for him at the bottom before going up one last time.
Total runs made today: 7
Total times I went down the hill alone: 6
Total times I went up the chair lift alone: 5

It wasn't until later that everyone told me how fast I'd been going. I was just plowing down that mountain every time they caught sight of me they said. My uncle (a very experienced skiier) said he tried to catch up with me like 3 times and he couldn't because I was going so fast. This I should mention is only the 6th year I've been skiing in my life and I'm very impressed with how capable I've become. That's one thing I've noticed throughout this year is how capable and confident I've become with almost every aspect in my life. It's a wonderful, in control feeling and I'm proud I've achieved it.

The Days Following Christmas

It's hard to believe, my fifteenth Christmas come and gone. Christmas morning itself gets less and less exciting every year older I get. I got nice presents; a few hoodies, books, chocolate, manicure set, a bunch of writing stuff. My mom gave me a ticket to Cirque de Soleil when they come to Victoria next September which is a totally awesome present!!! It utterly amazes me how flexible they are!! I think a girl at my school used to be involved with Cirque de Soleil in some way. And my aunt from Japan called us and it was nice to hear from her again. Japanese Christmas is like a big date night, so is Valentines Day and Thanksgiving doesn't even exist!!

Christmas Eve we did all go over to my aunt's parent's house for dinner. It was fun, good food, nice people. We all went over there again this morning (well, afternoon really) for brunch-lunch. I know all my family on my dad's side in Victoria had Christmas dinner together at my grandma's house. I almost wish I'd been there because I'm always saying they don't get together enough. But there's always next years Thanksgiving for that. As for our family back east; I'm sure our distant family in Oakville had a huge, happy family Christmas, and if my aunt, uncle and cousins in London are reading this... I'm sorry we haven't called you yet!!

Boxing Day here, my uncle and cousins went skiing but I woke up in a total non-wanting-to-ski mood so I stayed behind. I'm regretting it hugely and we're going up again tomorrow fortunately. I'm a much more confident skiier then I was a few years ago and I've long abandoned the rope-tow. The chairlift no longer scares me and I even promised to try the t-bar at the top of the chair lift to get up to the bigger runs. I can't go home again having not tried that. I'm sure my uncle will me fine to take me up the first time. And I promise to not freak out!!!

Today after brunch we went for a ride in my cousins Teryx (an off-road 4 wheeler that my uncle adapted a bit. It's about the size of a smart car. I rode on it a couple times when I was here in the summer and I even got to drive it a few times, and I only put it in the ditch twice!!!) It lives in a warehouse on the edge of Kitimat during the winter so my mom, my uncle, my 2 cousins and I drove out and rode it through the woods halfway up the side of a mountain (in the snow I might add!!). It was so cold the wind was just whipping through my quite warm winter jacket and the part of my face my helmet didn't cover; my eyes, ears and mouth were just frozen solid. But it was so beautiful. Just picture it: a forest full of trees and not a single leaf on any of the branches, but sparkling virgin snow layering the trees, covering the ground in a thick blanket and showers of icy sprays filling the air now and then.

My aunt and some of her family were waiting for us when we got back. They made another trip or 2 up but I only went once. But one time when it was just my aunt my cousin and I waiting in the car because it was so cold and she asked me if I WANTED TO TRY DRIVING THROUGH THE PARKING LOT!!! I actually said no at first (I'm studying the driving guide book, but I'm not 16 till February and I was scared) but eventually I said yes. She was very patient with me: "Put it in drive, now forward, okay stop, now into reverse, good, now shoulder check and back slowly then back into drive..." and more of the same. I did a few slow loops of the parking lot and actually enjoyed it. Everyone else was just pulling into view like a second after I parked. My aunt said I would tell my mom I was just sitting in the drivers seat but after they babbled about the ride it just popped out. My mom and uncle were both shocked and impressed that I'd done it. My cousin wanted to drive too, so badly, but my aunt wouldn't let him. He's only 13 after all. However he can drive the Teryx and he did a bunch of donuts and even I got to drive it again. At first my donuts were "lame" as someone put it to me, but then I got the hang of "gunning it" and they got better. It's much easier than driving a car.

So, a very eventful day for me. More tomorrow to report on my exciting skiing experience!! Wish me luck!

Christmas Eve

How an entire year has gone by this fast and we've once again returned to Christmas Eve is absolutely beyond me, but we are. It seems like the older I get the faster time goes. Will it be like that forever? I don't know.

But that doesn't matter. It's 11:30 on Christmas Eve morning and I've got to wrap some last minute stuff, have lunch and get ready for the get together at my aunt's parents house. Her whole family is here and we go there for Christmas Eve dinner every year we're here. It's always lots of fun, even though they're not my family. They're still very nice. Well, gotta fly! More tomorrow!

JOYEUX NOEL!!!

The Journey North

It suddenly occurs to me that I never did explain how we got to Kitimat. It's a two day drive here from Victoria and an absolutely beautiful one in the summer. You can either take the ferry to Vancouver and then drive halfway up (to about Quesnel or Williams Lake) in one day and then the rest of the way the next day or drive to Port Hardy at the north end of Vancouver Island (an 8 or 9 hour drive from Victoria) in one day and then take a 15 hour ferry trip to Prince Rupert the next and drive 3 hours to Kitimat from there. I've done both ways several times and it's absolutely beautiful.

However, it's December and it's not so beautiful a drive this time of year so we flew. We couldn't get a flight out of Victoria so we ferried to Vancouver and flew out of there. After spending the whole day in the airport (we went hours early so my mom could go to ikea. Yeesh!!) we were finally ready for takeoff. But then there was a mechanical problem and our flight was delayed for about an hour while we waited for a replacement plane. While waiting, another flight going to Smithers also had a mechanical problem and several others were held up because of weather at their destination point. One flight to Cranbrook had to be redirected to Edmonton!!! That means bussing back across the mountains in the middle of winter. Not fun.

Well, we finally got on our flight and not 15 minutes out of Vancouver there was another mechanical problem and we had to go back to Vancouver so they could fix it. They told us to wait an hour for another replacement plane, but while we were waiting I heard someone say they'd fixed it after about 5 minutes. Aurgh!!! It's less than a 2 hour flight from Vancouver to Terrace but with a 3 hour delay that adds up quite a bit. Oh, plus then there's the 45 minute drive from the airport into Kitimat. And they got snow here a few weeks ago that wasn't very much and wasn't really worth plowing, so everybody drove over it and it turned into slush which then froze and iced over every street and driveway in town, very much like the odd time it snows back home. It's like, no matter where you go you can never really win. Life's funny like that isn't it?

Blame Game

People fascinate me. Like, the relations, the interactions, the feelings and emotions, thoughts and actions everything. Sometimes I wonder if some of what people do is simply human nature and can't be helped. What I'm really thinking of right now is blame. For example, think about when something bad happens. Most people seem to imediately say "It was her fault..." "It was his fault..." and it just goes on and on, everyone trying to put everyone else at fault for whatever it was that went wrong. Nobody wants to be the bad guy but everyone wants to be the hero right? Another thing I've noticed people do is blame themselves. "This is all my fault. If only I'd... If I hadn't done... If I'd looked sooner..." you see what I mean? It just goes on like that. But maybe that's just part of what we as a species are. Maybe it's just human nature and unstoppable. It's an interesting thought don't you think?

Good old Kitimat!

The thing I love about coming to Kitimat for vacation is the sense of relaxation. There is absolutely nothing that immediately needs to be done. Like, at home there's always school and school related activities, there's weekend courses and volunteering and shopping, there's groceries to buy and carpets to vacuum and you see what I mean? There's always something!! But here, it's really vacation. I mean yeah, it's my aunt and uncle's house and there are things and chores that need to be done, but we're only ever here at Christmas or in the summer and we can fall totally into vacation mode. And there's family and snow and it's just so wonderful and magical. I get that the rest of the year it's just like us, work and school and things to do, but that's why we all need vacation right? To get away from the chaos of real life. And in 3 days it'll be Christmas, after which will be the last week of 2009. How the time flies. I don't know if I like that or not.

End of Victoria Christmas

Once again my mother and I are making the preparations to embark on our journey to Kitimat up north for Christmas. School ended yesterday, our tree is down, and our Victoria Christmas is pretty much over. But we still have much more Christmas to enjoy, and New Years too for that matter. Here's a picture of our Christmas tree, I decorated the whole thing myself. There is also a little one that usually spends December in my bedroom.

An Incident with Fluff

Well, the days leading up to Christmas are getting busier and busier. School ends on Friday and we're all getting hyped up for it. Our band concert in tomorrow night, and our last carol band gig was this afternoon. It's so much fun to do! The music's easy enough we can all sight read it pretty well but it gives me such a warm feeling of self-succession to be able to produce this music for others to listen too. And I'm playing better every day. I'm sad to see our line dancing almost at an end since it's about the only thing I like about PE, but I want to ask my teacher if we can do more line dancing throughout the year. Maybe every other Friday at break they could just put on the music and a bunch of people could show up and do a run through of the songs. I think enough people in the whole school like it that it'd be worth it just to ask.

But, the reason for my blog title happened today. I wore one of my favorite tops that I bought when we were back east this summer (a black v-neck peasant blouse with embroidery down the front) but since it's been so cold lately with even a bit of SNOW (in Victoria!!!) I didn't want to wear just that so I grabbed a sweatshirt on my way out the door without really looking at which one it was. Well, I wore it all day and my last block I was baking. So I took of my white sweatshirt and revealed my beautiful black, white fluff covered shirt underneath. It covered my front and back, it ran down the sides under the armpits and over the shoulders and worked itself into the little emroidery on the front. You know what happens when you accidently leave a kleenex in something you threw in the dryer? That's a little what I looked like. It looked awful but I was able to rub and pick most of the fluff off and it gave everyone something to laugh about. I laughed too of course, how could I not? When life gives you something to laugh about, the only thing to do is to laugh. Too bad I didn't have a camera. :)

Windy, Winter Weather

It's hardly rained here since December started. It's been beautiful in fact: crystal clear blue sky, bright sunshine beaming down all day, night begins and 4:30pm and ends just after 7:00am and it is absolutely freezing cold from dawn until dusk. I am so much in love with my winter coat; it's warm and thick and just wraps me up in warmth. And it's zip out liner is an atractive coat for late fall and early spring. I had band first block today (after going to the orthodontist to get an imprint for a new retainer... Ugh!!) and about half an hour in the power went out. It's been really windy the last few days so that wasn't anything really major and we made due. But about 20 minutes later both the vice principals came in and asked if one of the bass players had plugged in an amp that had overloaded the outlet and one kid said yes, he had. There were already about six plugged in and the cold weather hadn't helped that situation. They were quite exasperated by that and so was the band teacher. At the end of class when we were about to leave he made us stay and said: "The band program has broken the school." That was what had blown out the power. He also added "The band program had also broken the neighbourhood." So we blew out the power for everything around us too. We all laughed and cheered and said "Yay, go us!!" then they got the power back on and we continued our day. Ah, the memories you make in high school.

Creating a Dream

Last year in late January I got an idea. I own like 6 books from the Chicken Soup for the Soul series (people often give them to me for Christmas) and so one day I was flipping through one of them and I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be a cool idea if my school had something like this?" It didn't sound like a totally horrible idea, so I told some of my teachers and they seemed to think it was a relativly good idea so I decided to make it happen. However, like so often happens to 14 year olds who have ideas and no motivation nothing happened to it for about 4 months. Then I thought of it again and I still wanted to make it happen so I tried to make it happen for September this year. But when September came it was a madhouse as everyone tried to fix their schedules and figure out their classes and planning my "Reynolds Soup Bowl" became a lesser priority. But I was bound and determined to make it happen, I talked to a counselor who was helping me with it as well as a peer mentor in grade 12, then the principal who loved the idea and then the English department head. Finally, nearly a year after I originally got the idea to create our own Chicken Soup for the Soul book, it will happen. I've now written about 4 different proposals and edited my idea with help from many people and my final proposal will be given to all the English teachers this week and my idea (I whose ideas never work or get anywhere) will come into existance. I am SO excited. But it just goes to show: If you want something badly enough and you put in the work and the waiting, anyone is capable of doing anything. And that is a valuable message worth carrying on.

Tuesday Night Out

Tuesday this week I proved to myself and the world that I actually have a social life. Well sort of anyway. We had a carol band performance right after school (the entire band and audience all got to witness my stand colapse and all the music in my folder go flying across the floor) and we got back to school around 5pm. Then, for the first time ever I took the bus by myself all the way downtown (in the dark I might add!) and met up with one of my friends at the Conservatory of Music after her singing class and we walked down to the Royal Theatre for Stuart McLean's Christmas Show 2009. I went 2 years ago with Mer (my friend in question) and my dad and his girlfriend. It was great then and it was now too, only it was so much better because we were alone!! No grown-ups!!! I listen to the Vinyl Cafe almost every week and I love it! The stories, both true and fictional (Stuart is SUCH a great writer!! Just like I will be someday) the appreciation of young musical talent and one thing I love is he always has something good to say about whatever town or city he ends up in. I doubt there's a place in Canada he's been to and hasn't loved. I'm the same way and believe me I've seen a lot of Canada in my short life. My mom picked us up after and we dropped Mer off and then came home. I had to do my homework on the bus on the way down there as well as before the bell the next day but it was an evening I'll never take back no matter what!!