Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Remembering Jim

I've been thinking this week about Jim Teskey. It was on June 29 of last year that he passed away, in the most graceful way. As I wrote about here, I was struck by how he handled the news that his time was limited and the details of his final farewell that could only be his. I think he touched more lives than he realized.

During Jim's final days his catch phrase became "stop and smell the roses" ...such a great way to live life. As Lynda moved into Petrolia and left the farm behind, I wanted to help her feel at "home" so I gave her a gift card to get a rose bush. This week she emailed me some pictures of the first blooms on Jim's rosebush. She planted it on their anniversary and it was blooming just in time for this anniversary.

Sending a big hug out to Lynda and thinking of Jim. XO

Holiff at the Hyland

Last night I attended a hometown premiere of the movie "My Father and The Man In Black". I had a vague recollection that Johnny Cash's manager, Saul Holiff, was from London but hadn't given it much thought. Until this week when a tweet from LFPress caught my eye. There would be a screening of the movie at the Hyland and a Q&A with Saul's son and the movie's writer/director/producer to follow.

I believe it was a record attendance at Hyland with about 50 people turned away! The Hyland, for those that aren't familiar, is an art-house movie theatre and more than once there have been less than 10 people watching the movie with me.

As a Johnny Cash fan, I really enjoyed the "insider information" in the movie. It was full of audio recordings, phone calls and letters between JC and his manager. The movie focused on Holiff and how he handled the pressures of managing a star that was wildly out of control (he brought him through the years Johnny struggled with addictions and many cancelled shows) as well as his estranged relationship with his family.

Following the movie, Johnathan Holiff took to the stage and fielded questions from the crowd. Quite a few former neighbours, babysitters and friends of the family were there and shared stories from the past, some of them meeting the Man In Black.


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Here's To Dad...

This weekend people everywhere gathered around BBQs and picnic tables to celebrate dads. Dads play a huge role in our lives and our relationship with our father can have lasting impacts. Unfortunately there are a lot of absent dads, which leaves a gaping hole in forming one's character.

My dad is a straight shooter. He's a hard working farmer. He's an inventive jack-of-all-trades. He observes more than he speaks. Despite his exterior, he is sentimental. He is conservative and cautious proving slow and steady wins the race. He needs time to process things and is sometimes not the best communicator. He has years of life experience adding to his dad cred. He is my dad and I love him.

I am made up with 50% of his DNA which could possibly be why we have clashed sometimes over the years. We may not see eye to eye on every subject but as we get older, dare I say more mature, we see things differently. Maybe he's used to my spontaneous and frivolous tendencies and maybe I am willing to accept that we are different. But despite our differences I'm sending a big shout out to my dad. Love you loads!

Saturday, June 09, 2012

Family Photo Booth

In honour of my dad's birthday tomorrow, I hosted my family for a BBQ today. It was perfect weather to be outside, eating great food with my favourite people. I planned a fun activity, with hopes of doing a further project with the result. Having a "photo booth" at events has become quite popular and I did one of my own. I included some of my favorites!

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Remembering Grandma Mills

It's intriguing how certain dates trigger memories. Birthdays are an obvious one, anniversaries less so, and then there's the "other" category. It could be your first date, when you started your job or something more life altering like a car accident or the death of a loved one. In fact, as I type this I can hear my coworkers discussing the date they were previously laid off.

June 6 is a sombre day for me each year. I don't intentionally mark the day but when I look at the calendar or somehow realize the date, I pause to remember that it was on June 6 that my grandma passed away. I was only 6 years old and it was my first real encounter with death. Perhaps that is why it is engrained in my brain.

Looking at this picture of the 2 of us reminds me of the details of our time spent together. Memories like: listening to her stories while we laid on her bed, riding on the back of her wheel chair, combing her long, grey hair, and playing hide & seek.

Sunday, June 03, 2012

Honest Ed

This weekend I trekked to Toronto to visit my friend Sarah.We hit Ikea and then hopped on the TTC to head downtown to meet up with some of her friends. We were going to play ping pong. Yes, ping pong. A crazy but fun idea! The place is called Spin and it's like a pool hall...but with ping pong tables instead. In fact, it's owned by Susan Sarandon. (interesting side note)

Sarah's friends were a lot of fun and we all enjoyed some table tennis action, some of us better than others! When our table time ran out, we set out for the nearest patio for dinner. (this is when I ordered the worst caesar salad...but I digress) At some point we started talking about how her friend Ed has never used his oven. I was astonished and asked him what he eats. "Subway" was his reply. As someone that detests the smell of Subway, I could not imagine. I decided to probe the subject further. I soon discovered that Ed had made some healthy changes in his life recently, meaning he quit smoking and switched from McDonalds to Subway for his daily food intake. Clearly Jarrod is his role model!

My questioning revealed that he goes to Subway not only for lunch ever day but dinner too! That is some serious sandwiching. I hated to break the news to him but Subway is not that healthy. Sure, it's healthier than McDonalds but deli meats, cheeses and bread are all processed and full of unhealthy stuff. He was shocked. I must have been a major killjoy to this poor guy because I then told him that diet coke wasn't a great option either.

The best part of the conversation came when he revealed to us how he orders his coffee. I think that up until that point everyone else knew of Ed's eating habits but the coffee was a jaw-dropper to us all. He only drinks 2 cups of coffee each day. His first is a large and contains 15 sugars. FIFTEEN! His second coffee is medium and he scales it back to 10 sugars. I'm still shocked nearly a week later as I write this. I wonder how you determine that 15 sugars is the "sweet spot" for your morning java.

We finally let Ed off the hook and moved the conversation on to other topics but I promised him that I was going to blog about his intriguing eating habits. Thanks for being honest Ed and I wish you well on your road to a healthy lifestyle :)