Even years later, I am still swooning over this one

Anyone who has ever asked me for a book recommendation has undoubtedly received my heartfelt endorsement for "The Brothers K". It is my favourite book and has been for about 7 years, ever since I first read it. My previous favourite was by the same author, a book called "The River Why". I may have given you the pitch for this one as well. I can't say it changed my life, but it definitely filled my heart in only the way that perfect storytelling can, and forever changed my expectations for a good novel.

That was just setting the scene for the rest of this post. I was thinking the other day about nice things people have done for me, and recalled a postcard I received in 2005, while I was in Switzerland.

So, in lieu of a sappy valentines post, I thought I would post the least sappy, most amazingly thoughtful thing that perhaps anyone has ever done for me.

When I was in Switzerland, the coming of the mail was an exciting event. Email access there was a bit limited and slow, and letters from home were always more thrilling anyways. I got lots of nice letters and postcards from Joel. He often sends me postcards because his parents are in the postcard business and as a result he has a bit of an endless supply of Edmonton and Jasper themed items.

One particular day the mail came just before lunch. I grabbed my mail for the day and headed down to the Chalet where I would be eating. It was a formal lunch, which meant that we were having a group discussion, but I spent most of the meal puzzling over a postcard I had received. It appeared to be a Kelly family special featuring Edmonton's river valley, but the stamps on it were decidedly American and the message centered around fishing and "a note from one Joel Kelly, asking me to drop you a line". I couldn't make out the signature.

It took me until the end of the meal to realize that I was holding a personal note from my absolute favourite author.

Knowing of my love for David James Duncan's works, Joel decided to write him a letter sincerely (and knowing Joel, probably very earnestly and politely) requesting that he fill out the already-stamped and addressed (to me in Switzerland) postcard with a personal message for me. So he did it. Joel had no idea when he sent it to him whether he would do it or not, so he was almost as surprised as I was when I called to let him know what I got in the mail that day.



Swoon.

Something to look forward to

"Taco in a bag" is fast becoming a favourite dinner party choice for me and a certain bunch of friends. We had our second T.I.A.B. night at the end of the holidays and it was, once again, a hit.

Also added this time was a couple of incredible rounds of Pit. I'm not kidding about it being incredible. We used to play Pit when I was little because my parents had the deluxe edition with the orange bell, but over time we ended up using the bell to play school instead of actually playing pit. So the game was more of a distant memory for me when we started playing. I can still picture the styrofoam card-and-bell holder that we had colored on with Mr. Sketch markers in an attempt to make it prettier. This beautification attempt was a failure, just in case you were wondering.

Steven took a video of a round near the end, after too many snacks and beers, without any of us knowing it. Steven is behind the camera and counter clockwise around the table are Joel, Reba, Kevin, and me.


As you can see, it was one of those nights that we never could have planned.

In other news, I am now completely wisdom toothless. It feels so good to know that I will never have to get them out again. I realize that I am not safe from other dental calamities, but this is one thing that I have been dreading pretty much since I was 10 years old. It feels good to get it off my list of things to not look forward to.

I swear they began talking about you

Tonight I had a crafting date with Caylie and Natasha. I spent the entire time transcribing some of my favourite poems into a book where I keep my favourite poems. It was a good time.

They hassled me about not blogging, so I thought I would toss them a bone and share this link: Click here to see the wooden laptop case of your dreams. Seriously.

A favourite poem:

Carry
By Billy Collins

I want to carry you
and for you to carry me
the way voices are said to carry over water.

Just this morning on the shore,
I could hear two people talking quietly
in a rowboat on the far side of the lake.

They were talking about fishing,
then one changed the subject,
and, I swear, they began talking about you.

visit from a friend

My friend Kenton, who I met in Switzerland, came to visit me last week. What I remember most about him at L'Abri is that we always had good laughs together and that he taught me that it is better not to wet your toothbrush before you brush your teeth because it is more effective in cleaning them when you don't. We still have good laughs together, and I still think of him sometimes when I am brushing my teeth. It was fun to see him in his Australian goodness after all this time.

In other news, my Christmas break is drawing to a close. It was filled with family dinners, a baby baptism, a sister being in town, some movie watching, good friends from out of town, and a bit of skating.


But it's not over yet. Taco in a bag party happens tonight.

I ran 5K today

Interrobang?! Jonathan Adler!

My new(ish) job is located close to The Artworks, a very cool store located in downtown Edmonton. When my one friend at work is busy at lunch time, I sometimes wander over there to check out their very hip, sometimes expensive jewelery, cards, flowers and decor items. A past trip there resulted in the impulse acquisition of a Jonathan Adler mug.


As time passes, my feelings for this mug are only increasing. To the point where I have considered naming the sweet girl and boy faces that grace its opposite sides, and where I felt the least I could do was introduce them to you all. Pictured on the left is Mabel, on the right is Frederick, and in the middle, is the mug sitting on a chair that Joel recently purchased at one of my favourite haunts, the good ol' VV. The chair, which is modeled after a "Tulip" chair by a designer, would be worth over $1,000 if it was brand name. But brand name chairs are a whole separate blog post.

So I will leave you with the question: do you know what the INTERROBANG is? I thought it was a grammatical myth until Nate pointed me towards its Wikipedia entry, which of course proved to me that it was very, very real. Check it out HERE. While I have a real distaste for the "?!", I feel I could, with time, come to love the interrobang.

One step forward, one step back.

This week has been saturated with municipality.

Our own dear Edmonton announced earlier in the week that it was thinking of delaying the opening of the south LRT stations to save themselves a measly $4 or 5 million bucks. My exemplary boyfriend decided to respond to the call of civic duty and write a little letter to the city outlining some of his thoughts on the matter. It was a good letter. I hoped that someone would take notice.

So, it was with this news in mind that I went over to my parents' house for dinner the next night. When I got there, I noticed a rather large set of wicked-witch-of-the-west legs sans the ruby slippers being featured on the front page of the journal. As I picked it up to read the story, my mom filled me in on what she thought was a ridiculous and terrible thing that was going to happen at the new Southgate LRT station. This ridiculous and terrible thing was, in fact, the city's awesome 1% to public art policy gone awfully wrong: a set of GIANT feet and legs set next to the new LRT station.


She was practically livid, which set me laughing pretty hard and telling her that it wasn't so bad because they could use them as a sort of landmark. "Hang a larry at the first intersection after the big legs and follow it around to Malmo Road..."

Her livid-ness (lividity?) drove her to write a missive to the mayor, which was then published in the Journal this week!

More than anything, I was awestruck by the decision to construct giant legs lopped off at the knees at Southgate LRT stop, and it got me thinking about public art. I was trying to think of what I would actually like them to put in that spot.

The first thing that came to mind was Chicago's Cloud Gate, which is beautiful and incredible and really considers the space around it. Google image search it. It is amazing. But I don't know if an LRT stop at Southgate merits such an awesome piece.

I think what irks me is that when I think about the big legs and clogs they are going to put in as public art, I feel fairly certain that they came to the decision via the following dialogue.

Person #1: Hey, we need to get some public art
Person #2: Right, I forgot about that whole 1% thing
Person #3: Hmmm, well, let's just get something really big
Person #1: Okay, like what?
Person #3: Doesn't matter, just make sure it's big
Person #2: Hey, do you guys want to come over tonight and watch "The Wizard of Oz"?

That's my prediction on how they came up with it.

Oh, Edmonton.

The good news is that Joel got a response from a city councillor who says he doesn't think they are going to delay them after all. One step forward, into a future filled with mosaic-tiled clog feet and striped stockings.