serenity on a budget

Upon the reccomendation of my therapist, Deb, I took a book-on-cd out of the library called 'Nonviolent Communication' by Marshall Rosenberg. It's all about learning to listen to people and hear their needs, and communicate your own needs. It teaches the difference between saying things like 'I feel neglected' and 'I feel sad because I think I am being neglected when we don't spend any time together', and it teaches saying things like 'I'm hearing that you have a need for (fill in the blank) that is not being met, and I'd like to learn how I could meet that need'. Stuff like that.

Deb makes me do weird things sometimes (unlike that other shrink I took for a test drive who told me she doesn't use techniques, doesn't give homework, doesn't reccomend readings, she just talks. whatever. I can do that for FREE with any of my friends), so I was a bit skeptical, but I took the CD's out of the library, and uploaded them onto my ipod (is that illegal? Anne, does that violate some library code of conduct?). I've spent the last week or so going for walks in the afternoon listening to this series of CD's, and I have enjoyed it SO much. He has a wonderful voice to listen to, and a lot of what he had to say hit me in ways I didn't expect it to. It's about a lot more than just communicating. I have taken great pleasure in walking around, wearing my hat, and listening to this guy, and taking a look at myself from the outside. I take some wierd joy in knowing that the strangers who walk by me have no idea what I'm listening to, and how peaceful what I'm listening to is.

FYI

I've finally put some more recipes up on the recipe blog. They are both 100% my recipes from my brain, invented and tested in my kitchen. You can read them here.

The Plantetorium

We're in a north facing apartment, so we don't get a ton of light. Some late afternoon sun on the balcony, sure, but not much else. We do, however, have a sky light, and under the sky light grows the plantetorium. The plantetorium started with just a couple of manky plants, but an inherited big blue pot (thanks Marie!) and a crush on the fiscus at the corner store got us our first big one. Then I moved the jade I inherited from Jenn P. (much to the dismay of Kimmie, who got all of her other plants) under the sky light, and gave it a bigger pot, and man has it taken off. Various trips to Ikea and Wonderbucks for shelves, pots, and plants, and a memorable field trip to the Vancouver African Violet Society's annual show brought more and more green to the plantetorium. Those old ladies at the African Violet show sure loved Kimmie (but who wouldn't love a beefy 24 year old guy going ga ga for AV's?). Kimmie and I also became plant pirates, trading clippings with each other, picking up leaves and bits of plants from the street, raiding other plants in the office for trimmings . . . many of the plants in the plantetorium have been acquired in this nature. This past weekend a friend who is leaving town for a while brought us his babies, and now the plantetorium is starting to look like a jungle!

(note to self: acquire some non-ugly pots for new large plants, and stat!)

(Next weekends plans involve going shopping for my balcony plants! Horray!)

Today, in our living room . . .

Paul: Do we have a little ball, Babe?

Me: For what?

Paul: My physio exercises. I need to roll it around under my foot.

Me: I think we have a tennis ball around somewhere. I'll go look up stairs.

Me: (goes upstairs)

Paul: Never mind. I'm just going to use an orange.

Me: (shouting from upstairs) Don't use an orange! You'll squish it.

Paul: Okay, we'll hurry up then.

Me: (rummaging around upstairs)

Orange: (SQUISH!!)

Paul: Woah, Babe, you were right.

Me: What?

Paul: The orange. It did squish!

Me: No duh Babe, no duh.

Nothin Much

I haven't posted in a while since I haven't really felt like I had much to say of an interesting nature. Lets see . . .

Last week I went with some of my staff to a skin cancer clinic put on for lifeguards who work outdoors. It was pretty interesting. We all got our sunglasses tested in this little machine that tells you the percentage of UV rays the glasses actually let through, and my cheap sunglasses from the bay did remarkably well. We also stripped down to our underpants (or short shorts as it were) and got our skin tested for signs of damage by way of a dermatologist (most of us by the non-cute older doctor, but lucky KD by the CUTE younger doctor) waving this light wand around over our skin. We scored some sweet free sunscreen, and some educational flyers we have been putting up at work. We've also been checking the UV index and posting it in the staff room, and reminding people to slip, slap, slop.

Yesterday I had a major brain fart at work and left the chlorine pump for the hot tub on manual for nearly three hours. To put things into perspective, leaving the pump on manual for 1/2 hour would be sufficient to make the chlorine level really really really high. Three hours was enough to change the colours of peoples bathing suits and discolour jewelry. Whoops! My boss was suprisingly not that mad at me, and just gave me a hard time about it, and some 'these things happen' shrugs.

And, I have a cold, and cramps.

That is all.

A tough day being a lifeguard at an outdoor pool in Vancouver . . .

Not quite the same story when it's pissing rain in October, but glorious on days like today.

Lookie what I made

A shopping bag made out of a rag rug, some funky vintage oil cloth, and some webbing from the outdoor fabric store. Total cost of materials: less than $5. It was pretty time consuming, but I think the next ones will go faster.

Quotes

"You are an investment for my heart."

-Paul, who managed to be a complete sweetheart for 75% of the weekend

"Horray horray, the first of May. Outdoor screwing starts today!"

-My Dad, via text message.