birds fly south for the winter

On Saturday I hung out with my "favorite new person," as of this summer. Robin is this boy who I played soccer with in High Prairie this summer, and he quickly became one of my most favorite people, thanks to numerous arts and craftsing dates and Tuesday night trivia. Anyway, I haven't seen Robin since the summer, because he's been teaching art in Red Deer since then, but we got a chance to hang out this weekend. We met for breakfast at Café Mosaics on Whyte Ave. I had some really delicious fruit and yogurt and granola, and we talked about the show he went to at Latitude 53 the night before, and I gave him a sad little picture I made for him. It was a acrylic gel transferred picture of me and him and his brother sewing some little pouches onto postcards at the North Country Fair this summer. Then I also stencilled on some white flying birds and the words "birds fly south for the winter" - both stencils I had made in 2005 - because we both lived up in mid-northern Alberta for the summer, and came down south a bit for the fall and winter. It looked cute, but, like I said, kind of sad. Especially because Robin is an artist. Oh, well. It was the thought that counts. Afterwards we went to the Strathcona library so I could drop off some cds, and then we went to the Farmers' Market. I bought some carrots and potatoes, and Robin bought us each two honey sticks. I got cinnamon and green apple; Robin chose sour grape and plain honey. Cute. Then we drove to the Reuse Centre downtown. I bought some envelopes and old maps and old sewing patterns for future arts and crafts projects. The best part of our visit there, though, was going through a bunch of old cards and reading what people said (or didn't say) to each other. My favorite was a Father's Day card in which an apparently middle-aged son informed his father that he had "met someone special" named Shannon. Shannon's name had, like, little sun rays coming out of it. Adorable!!! After Robin and I had our fill of other people's emotions, we went back to my house and watched Arrested Development episodes. All in all, it was a good time, and I wish Robin lived in my area code. Maybe one day...

After Robin left, my sister Emily and I got ready for the Shumka fundraising gala at the Jubilee Auditorium. Our sister Alyssa dances for Shumka, and so our parents kind of forcefully encouraged us to attend. Mom and Dad and our Auntie Lorraine drove up from home, and we all went together. The whole affair was pretty long and painful. I liked watching my sister dance, but that only took up about 5% of the time that we were there. The rest of the time was just spent waiting around, listening to speeches, and hearing how hopeful people were that they would be the ones to win the raffle prize, which was $2000 worth of holiday liquor. Huzzah. I was just not built for formal events.