"oh i know who you are, you are a story colletor."

toronto was a whirlwhind. you must pronounce the second h. it's there to guide you. don't let me down. thursday was not as busy. most of the morning i was in a room with jimmy, and graham, and our facilitators, lucy and brian. they were presenting their action plan to me and i supported them. i also made them add s's when they were missing--minor but meaningful.

we ate at the clubhouse. we had beef tacos and a cabbage non-mayo slaw. i sat beside a lady with an exotic name which i don't know how to spell, but she was lovely. then graham came and sat with us too. after lunch we had a kind of boring zoom meeting with clubhouse international and then jimmy and i went back to the hotel for a rest and i did not return. i kept on resting. as an admin, i was kind of free to do as i wished.

my housing guy back home was having a crisis and was being supported by pascale and i was sending support to them both. so i caught up on those texts...and i actually rested.

that night we couldn't decide where to eat and 3 of the genesis club came by and asked us to join them so that made our decision easier. chinese food. lol. i didn't eat one ethnic food that we can't find in vancouver/richmond, but oh well. the 3 of us shared and the 3 of them got their own individual things. i ordered scallion pancakes, pan-fried dumplings, crispy tofu. and graham got another order of scallion pancakes (and why not. they're goood), and a 5spice beef short rib (yum) and jimmy added soup dumplings (so good) and chicken and noodles dish. we feasted. then we got free sesame balls, fresh, chewy, nutty and slightly sweet. and we had some good talks. i love clubhouse people. i really do.

then i made choices and stayed up until 4am like a dumdoydum. the stupidity of that really hit me at 7:45 when my alarm woke me up. i got ready, noting for the first time, how loose my "it's a good day to be happy" shirt is on me now. i gave it a messy half tuck. packed up all my stuff...negotiated some space in jimmy's checked baggage for some of the extra stuff i got, mainly the training manual which i had no room for in my carry-on. it was already bulging with the progress place swag and my jacket. jacket was a big mistake. did not wear it one time.

we met in the lobby. checked out and stored our luggage in the luggage room. then we headed to progress place for the last time. first on the agenda was our farewell breakfast which consisted of homemade cinnamon buns, fruit cups and many toast/bagel opportunities. we said good bye to one of the groups who had to leave that morning. they got certificates and said words and we cheered them.

after that i joined the upstairs clerical unit. dwayne suggested i join a member on reception so i sat with bruce who explained everything to me rather thoroughly. bruce and i were deep in conversation when dwayne came in to let me know i was being paged to the 1st floor. all the admin people were paged. p.place's director criss had called us down to see the videos that each unit did for their yearly agm report. it was very cool. and fun. and way more impactful than the boring reports we do every year for our agms. there was a guy in the room with us. he was a member who had just returned after some time. i stayed and talked to him for a while. he was super interesting. was recovering from a quadruple bi-pass. he was into urban abstract photography. he felt isolated and so forced himself to come in. while i was talking to him, this other guy steven found me. he had previously given me a cannucks hockey card. now he was talking to me again about vancouver and how his family was from there but sent to internment camps during wwii. he had trouble with his phone, so i fixed it. he said he would give me 20 bucks. :) 

after that i returned to bruce. he was telling me all about how the american political system worked when it was time for lunch. lunch was part 2 of the farewell dinner. the 3 clubhouses that were left were all called up given certificates and we got our chance to say a few words too. then we ate pizza and chatted. before we knew it it was 2 minutes until our taxi would arrive to the hotel. we had to book it out of there, hugging people on our way out, waving hugging, and hugging some more.  then we were out on the street brisk walking back to the hotel. the driver was waiting for us. we got our bags and loaded up and left.

i was in the front seat and was still in the mode. the talking to people and finding out their stories mode. within minutes i knew the driver was doing this for 20 years, had 3 daughters, one graduated from york university, now married, the middle graduating this december, and the youngest with one year to go. i had to stop myself from asking him more.

jimmy and graham were flying air canada and i was flying westjet. both flights were supposed to leave at 4. of course this birthed a competition. "may the best man win" i said to them. we were in totally different terminals so we said good bye and agreed to meet up at yvr and taxi home together. jimmy and i agreed to text the time of wheels touch down and the time we got to the gate. but my plane was 30 minutes late so i didn't win this time.

the flight felt so looooong. i was sitting on the aisle seat beside a dad and his 3 or 4 year old who was in a car seat next to the window. the mom and 2 year old were situated directly behind. they were very organized with snacks and tablets and not a bother to travel with at all. i spent the first part of the flight in a head rolling gaping mouth sleep. i woke up for the flight attendant service. the flight attendants were both young guys. i had an interesting connection with one of them. when i asked him for ice water he smiled at me benevolently. and when i chose cookie rather than the other option of pretzel (boring) he almost gave me the cute crinkle nose. like i think he would have patted my head or pinched my cheek if he could. he was like that every time. like he thought i was such a cute and special little girl. you know? not that he was condescending, but i felt like our ages were reversed in a weird way. the last time when i asked for a cookie, over pretzel, he beamed at me. "i'll give you two," he said and broke the cookie in half. a kind of joke you would do to a kid. but then he gave me another package. and said "what does your t-shirt say? 'it's a good day to be happy?', that's a lot more polite than the t-shirts i wear! do you know how to watch the movies?" he added. i shook my head no. "connect to the internet and go to westjet.comblahblah and you can pick a movie from there. i guess i should have told you that 3 hours ago..." he laughed as he walked off. i didn't notice him treating anyone else like that. i just had a thought. did he think i was special needs? why did he treat me like the cutest little girl he ever saw? lol. i didn't mind it though.

as we were nearing the end of our journey the dad beside me had to take his daughter to the washroom so i got up to let them out and when they got back we chatted a little bit. "i hope we are not too annoying." he said to me. i assured him that they had been great. "this is the worst they have ever been on a flight." he said. the 2 girls had been happy model citizens of the flight. the 2 year old got a little restless and kept asking to go to the washroom, so she could get out of her chair but what 2 year old can sit still for 5 hours? i thought they were amazing. the dad told me that the little one had been on 17 flights already in her short life. they were going to visit his parents in north van. that's where he's from but they live in toronto. they just moved back to canada after some years working for walmart headquarters in arkansas. he said the whole town is made of people working for walmmart. he said it was like a fake town.

so yeah.

jimmy and graham had already gotten their checked bags by the time i got to baggage claim. we got in line for a taxi and soon were in a white one heading home. our driver was nice. more interactive than lots of taxi drivers are. i got dropped off last. that's when i found out my driver was somali. he had just moved to vancouver from toronto. he told me all about his work and how driving airport taxi is better than having to go to bars because traveling people are nice. just tired and want to go home. and he wished we had a somali restuarant in vancouver...and more.  collecting stories like i do.

i fell asleep without my cpap. i woke up at 3am and put it on and slept until 7ish. 8ish i went for a walk. walked out to south arm and around the loop, watched the pickle-ballers having a blast, and swung back home. 53 minutes. felt good. crows were happy to see me.

at 11:30 mom and i went to the christmas craft fair at southarm community centre. it was huuuuuge. way bigger than we imagined. we only had 30 minutes before mom had to be back and that flew by. i found some great christmas lovelies. we went home and mom made dad lunch and i had some sesame chicken. then mom said i could go back on my own, that she could go there herself if she wanted to after dad was asleep. so i did. and i met many a maker, talked to them about their crafts, and bought many a ditty. it was fun.

then i had to get ready and go to a concert at michael j. jox theater in burnaby. proceeds were going to pathways and the sunrise rotary club so a number of us went to it in support. it was ok... it went on a long time. i was tired by the end and took off right away.

this morning i was up at 5 planning my lesson. this was the first youth sunday school class i would be teaching since getting the calling in september. i had special moments of revelation where a concept and how i would teach it opened up to my mind's eye. i could see it all unfolding. those are special moments. by 8 i was ready, but not physically ready, so i washed my hair and tried to use my new hair product as sarah prescribed. "this first cream will leave your hair soft. put this second one in when you have your hair almost to how you want it." so i interpreted that and tired it. and i'd say it was a success. i got lots of hair compliments today. i also wore my red dress and wore a red lip. i even stuffed my feet into my brown booties! it's been a year or 3 since i've managed to get those on. congrats to me!

i had a big class because bro. orr was away, so i had his class too. it was fun. it was energizing. i felt in my element. love working with the youth. love teaching. love the scriptures. we were talking about faith and fears. and i used the magnets i made at halloween as representatives of fears and the white sea glass i found in okinawa represented the holy ghost. we broke down the story of peter walking on water. i had an amazing time preparing this lesson and facilitating it. i hope the kids got something out of it too. they each got to take a fear magnet at the end.

ward choir has begun again. we are preparing for christmas. evelyn has obliged my wish  for songs that are not in the hymnbook and we are singing in the bleak midwinter and a 'er a rose urspringen... i sat next to hannah. she has a strong loud alto and i dig it.

when i got home i gave mom my lesson because i didn't zoom it for her and she sent me a crying emoji.

stake choir was earlier today and tracy picked me up first and then we picked up hannah who doesn't live far from me. on the way i asked hannah to tell the story of how she met her husband and it was cool to hear. her husband and 3 boys are still in nigeria and she's hoping to bring them here.

stake choir was so huuuuge. it's grown since i was there last! and it was so fun to sing. i felt so happy and light. and i loved being lost in the sound of all those beautiful voices and singing out my heart loud. love love love it.

back at home i had some of mom's lasagne and then i warmed up the two super deluxe cookies i bought at the craft fair. one was a thick decadent chocolate chip toffee and the other peanut butter s'more. they looked too artistic to eat. but we ate them. i divided them in 3 and served them with a scoop of ice cream.

when i left dad was in bed but going on about a pig. he kept looking for it and then saying he was looking for it without seeing it etc. i hope he's not getting delirious. his spasma are still going on strong.

and that is a newsy update. congrats. you made it to the end.