Begin Again

Hello & Happy New Year! Some of you are probably wondering why I've been MIA. There's a very good reason: 2018 was rough. I struggled with my health all year. By struggled, I mean I spent NINETY TWO out of 365 days at medical appointments. (I'm not kidding.) I'm not going to get into all that though because living through it once was more than enough. Let's just say I was spending what little energy I had surviving. It left nothing in the tank for blogging. Life happens!

We also lost three family members to cancer; one in February, one on Solstice and one on Xmas Eve. To say 2018 was brutal is an understatement. I am glad it's over. I am hoping 2019 is a kinder, gentler year.

Despite feeling terrible, I was still busy behind the scenes. I wrote a couple blogs for The Rick Hansen Foundation. They invited me to write about invisible disability for them. I shared what it's like to have a hearing impairment and after a lifetime of struggling, to finally be fitted with hearing aids. You can read all about it here. In case you missed it, my first blog post about how invisible disability affects my life, can be found here.

I wrapped up my 5th cohort of UBC Health Mentors students in November (I am really going to miss them! They were hilarious and made me laugh.) and began working with my 6th cohort in September. The work continues to be rewarding-I learn as much as my students do and my new students are lovely young women.

I worked with the UBC physiotherapy program in October, helping students get their patient interviewing skills. I've done this twice before and they are a lovely bunch of people to work with. I am going to be working with the program again in a few weeks. This time I'll be helping students learn about assessing patients with rheumatoid arthritis. I did this twice last year and enjoyed the experience, so I signed on again.

I also volunteered to speak with 1st year UBC Pharmacy students about the impact pharmacists can have on people's lives. I figured it was the perfect opportunity for me-I have so many drug allergies, plus I'm complicated and my pharmacists have been invaluable in helping me manage the medication end of things. It was a great experience and it sounds like the students loved it so the program will be expanding next year. I hope to be able to do it again.

Next week I have a phone interview. I've been short listed as a potential patient adviser for a committee that is looking to making improvements to medical imaging. I am hoping to be selected, as I have a wealth of personal experience with this branch of diagnostics and there are some aspects that I feel definitely need some work. I'd be happy to be a part of that process. I want to make things better for everyone. *fingers crossed*

I started a project, using the 1 Second Everyday app. Essentially you do a 1 second video clip every day for a year. It's 1 second out of my day so I am pretty sure I can manage to stick with it and it will be cool to see the video at the end of the year. Anyone want to join me? Let me know if you take this on!

Right before the holidays, I started printing a bunch of the graffiti photos I've taken using my HP Sprocket printer my son gave me for Xmas last year. My plan is to make a book with the prints. I have a fat stack to work with. It's a work in progress.

I treated myself to a couple new stencils from Stencil Girl that I've wanted forever. One is called Tall Reeds and the other is Circles Circles. They got here lightening fast-I wasn't expecting them to arrive so quickly, but I'm thrilled they did. I can't wait to play with them!

Okay, this is a good start. It feels good to begin to get back in the groove. I'll be back soon with  more to share.

Tending My Life

The View From Here

Hello!  I realise it's been awhile since I last posted. This has been the longest hiatus I've ever taken from my personal blog since it's inception 11 1/2 years ago. By way of explanation, I've been busy tending my life. Sometimes you just have to step away from the computer. It wasn't planned-it just sort of happened and obviously, I needed a break.

The Clinical & Population Health Committee 2016

So what have I been up to? Well three weeks ago, I flew out to Toronto to do medical grant reviews for the MS Society of Canada. I was assigned to the Clinical and Population Health committee. You can read more about that here and here. The work, as always was deeply satisfying and I am a bit sad to have it come to an end. (Community Reps can only serve for a maximum of 2 terms.) I learned so much about MS research and the grant review process. It was a gift to have the opportunity to serve in this way and I am grateful.

Selfie!

It was -14C (not taking into account the wind chill factor) the whole time I was there, so it was pretty freakin' cold. That didn't stop me from wandering the city in search of graffiti on my last morning there though. I had a great time just wandering the streets on my own and photographing as I went. It's one of my most favourite things to do in any city. I was thrilled to discover the TORONTO sign from the 2015 PanAm and ParaPanAm Games was just a block from my hotel. Of course I had to go do a selfie there!

Vivienne posing so we can practice shooting people.

Since I've been home from Toronto, I took a class (Which I won! YAY!) with Vivienne McMaster at Camp Tech on taking better photos using your iPhone. It was a great class-I met some really nice people and I felt like I instantly improved my skills.

Here are a couple shots I was especially happy with:

I also won a spot in an online class with Tara Leaver called Practical Intuition: Make Your Own Oracle Cards. 

This is the deck I have been working on so far. I made cards from my Gelli prints. I cut 48 cards so far, no two alike. Now I just have to decide my next move. It's been interesting seeing everyone's decks as they progress.

Aside from all that, I have been busy with the Health Mentors program. I am in the middle of my 4th cohort now. I am also getting ready to head to LA for NMO Patient Day in early March. I look forward to hearing what's new in the world of NMO research and connecting with my fellow NMO peeps. 

So...I think that about catches things up for now!

Hello TO!!

Last week I flew to Toronto to meet with the Canadian MS Society's Personnel Grants committee. It's mind blowing that it takes the same amount of time (just over 4 hrs.) to fly 3/4's of the way across Canada as it does for me to drive through the mountains to my in-laws' in the interior.

Along the way, I got to see two of the Great Lakes-Lake Superior (left) and Lake Huron (right). When we were landing in Toronto, I was stunned to discover there was no snow on the ground!! Here I'd purchased brand new snow boots just for this trip and there was nothing! It's a good thing I'd packed a pair of shoes. Crazy!

I took the Rocket bus from the airport to Kipling Station to catch the subway (left) into downtown. It reminded me alot of the subway in NYC. So different from our skytrain here-it's a much older system and runs almost entirely underground. I was also surprised that they have actual people sitting in the subway to collect fares, rather than having automated ticket machines like we do in BC.

It was about an hour from the airport to the hotel I stayed in, which was a Hilton right downtown, just a block away from St. Patrick's station. The photo on the right was my view from my hotel room.

Monday night, the Canadian MS Society took our team out for dinner at The Queen & Beaver. We had a lovely dinner and then everyone headed back to the hotel to rest up for the big meeting the next day. I won't go into detail about the all-day meeting on Tuesday-that's another post, but let's just say it was intense, hugely interesting and I came away with a full heart and a deep sense of satisfaction for the work our team did together.

Wednesday, I had the entire day to sight see before catching an evening flight home. My friend Jenna, whom I write with on NMO Diaries lives in TO, so we finally had a chance to meet. We had dinner together Tuesday night and then she picked me up on Wednesday morning and drove me all over the city. I really appreciated her taking time out of her busy life to be my tour guide. She did a fantastic job.

We started our day having coffee (tea!) at Casa Coffee in this cool little neighbourhood. Jenna said that in the summer, they close the street here to traffic and it becomes a funky street market. I love the indie of this coffee shop-it had a whole old school candy counter at one end and the ceiling was decorated with a ton of globes. The photo doesn't really do it justice. The conversations of the locals were highly entertaining-it's such a small space that you can't help but overhear what other people are saying. I kept catching snippets of things like "She was only wearing a g-sting and a fur coat..." and "Here comes the Russian Mafia!" and "I am totally dressed for fashion week man!". I had to keep my back to the locals because I couldn't stop laughing.

Here's Jenna and I in the coffee shop. I think I need a selfie stick!

 Afterwards, we made our way to the alley ways where Rick Mercer does his rants for his show. Of everything you could see in Toronto, this was the one thing I was most wanting to see. 

The lane ways seem to go on forever. There's so much amazing graffiti and I only managed to see a small fraction of it. Part of that had to do with how cold it was: -13C. It was too cold to be standing around for too long and taking off your mittens to take iphone photos. I might have fared better with my DSLR camera, (I can operate it with gloves on) but I opted not to bring it this trip. I did however record my own rant which I will be posting to Rick Mercer as soon as I get a chance to upload it. Silly but fun!

We did a drive by of the Hockey Hall of Fame, or as die hard Canadian hockey fans would call it, church. (Hockey is a religion in Canada.) Really cool building-Toronto has some gorgeous architecture. 

And then there was of course, the obligatory viewing on the CN Tower. Jenna very kindly offered to take me up, but as we were sitting there on the street, the observation deck was being swallowed up by clouds. No point in going all the way up to see absolutely nothing! I was fine with it-I've done the Space Needle in Seattle, so it wasn't really a big deal to not go up.

I loved the little trolley buses. This shot shows the old ones. The new ones look very much like Japanese bullet trains. I had hoped to find time to ride one, even briefly, but just didn't get to it. 

For lunch, we went to Trattoria Nervosa in Yorkville. It was a really cool Italian eatery. We ordered a traditional Italian pizza and a Caesar salad to share. The selfie (right) was taken in the entryway. I loved the medallion on the floor. The bike was just around the corner in front of one of the many trendy little shops. I had a great time visiting with Jenna and getting to know her. We'll see one another again in early March when we both fly to LA for NMO Patient Day.

Jenna dropped me off at one of the subway stations after lunch and I made my way back to the airport, just in time to get through an enormous backlog at the security checkpoint. Fortunately, I was able to go through an accessible line, which was a life saver. My flight home was rough-we had major turbulence the entire way and I didn't get out of my seat the whole time. Normally, I don't mind turbulence-that's how you know you're flying, but I was feeling a bit under the weather and so it wasn't as much fun as it normally would be. Fortunately, our flight arrived 1/2 hour early, so that kind of made up for it.

I really enjoyed my trip to Toronto. I'd never been before and that's now as far east in Canada as I've ever been. I plan to write about the actual work I was doing there for the Canadian MS Society, but it will be posted over on their site, when I do. 

So...I am home now and playing catch up with various things-laundry, emails, blogging, etc. (Oh the glamour of it all!) I have a few projects in motion that need my attention. I'll be making a list first thing tomorrow morning. No rest for the wicked!

As 2014 Fades to Black

Contrary to popular belief, I have not fallen off the face of the earth! I've just been super busy not only with the usual holiday hustle and bustle, but also reviewing 24 grants for the Canadian MS Society. It's alot of very concentrated reading and then equally thoughtful writing. I've managed to get all 24 reviews written and after New Year's I will work on editing what I've written. It's challenging but interesting work.

In between times, I have also managed to steal some time to make myself something! Two weeks ago, I decided I really wanted to make myself a journal for 2015. I took a really old book I'd been saving and started working on transforming it. I bought it originally because it was small, (I love books that fit comfortably in the palm of my hand) it was leather and it had some cool gold hinges printed on the cover.

As I began pulling it apart, I realised that this book was printed in 1914, making it 100 years old this year! Really cool! The middle photo is of the journal lying open to show some of the pages I sewed in. It's about an inch and a half thick. I love a good chunky monkey journal. 

The final photo is how I altered the cover. The photo on the cover is actually a vintage photograph I picked up in an antique store. I loved the strong women of various generations standing in their garden. It called to my prairie roots. I didn't feel bad about using an original photograph because 1. this journal is mine and 2. oddly enough, there were several of the exact same photo in the pile when I bought it, so I bought them all.  I've already been working in my 100 year old journal! (It was just too hard to resist!)

I have begun preparing for my trip to Toronto in late January. (I am flying out to TO for 3 days to meet with the Grants Review committee.)  Unlike the west coast, Toronto has snow. Being a Winnipegger, born and raised, I know all about snow so I knew I would have to get myself a decent pair of winter boots. Before the holidays, I decided to pop into a store just to see what they had. I looked at aisles of the most ridiculous boots-boots that were basically "fashion" boots-not warm and with heels high enough that if you hit a patch of black ice, you were just spoiling for a fractured ankle. NO THANK YOU!

Anyway, getting down to the end of the aisle, I spotted some boots that looked like they would do. They were mostly black with a hint of lime green trim and really good tread. I found my size, opened the box and was surprised to find the exact same pair, but in buffalo plaid!! I love buffalo plaid!! Of course I had to have them and I got the last pair in the store.

(Photo credit Delish General Store)

 The funny thing was that Delish General Store had a buffalo plaid infinity scarf I had been coveting for forever. My husband know this was on my Xmas wish list so Tamara, owner of Delish General Store was able to make sure he got the right one when he came in to buy it for me. I am now suitably outfitted for TO! I shall be warm and toasty! (And stylish!) I am laughing about the boots because living on the west coast where we don't get weather warranting the wearing of snow boots very often, (if at all) my new boots will last me for a very long time. Good thing I love them!

What would Xmas be without a new toy to play with? My son and his girlfriend very sweetly gave me a Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 in vintage aqua. (Pictured on the left.) It's prints credit card sized photos (3 3/8 tall x 2 1/8 wide) which are the perfect size for adding into a journal. The camera is very light weight, since it's made from plastic and measures about 4 1/2 inches square. I think it will tuck nicely into my carry-on bag for my trip. 

Tonight marks a special occasion-my husband and I are celebrating the 25th anniversary of our first date. It's hard to believe that happened a quarter of a century ago. Man, I feel old! In typical Canadian fashion, our first date took place at a hockey rink, watching the Canucks vs. Philadelphia game. (My husband is a huge Philly fan.) We were fated to be together.

Truth be told, I had the best intentions of writing some end of the year, sum-it-all-up post, but just never seemed to find the time to do it, so this will have to do. I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to leave me comments over the last year-I appreciate it! I want to wish you a happy, healthy, creative 2015 and may we all continue to find ways to make this world a better place.

Here's to 2015-may she be a good one!

Hot Off the Presses: Bella Grace!

Two weeks ago, out of the blue, I was contacted by Stampington to see if I would be interested in reviewing their latest offering. Bella Grace. Would I?! I had been hearing about this publication all over the Internet and was dying to get my hands on a copy. Of course I said YES! Bella Grace's tagline is "Life is a Beautiful Adventure". Since I was just heading off on my own beautiful adventure  when my copy arrived, it seemed a fitting travelling companion so I tucked in in my suitcase.

The first noteworthy thing to tell you about this publication is that it's not just another magazine. It's presented as a soft covered book. The cover has fold over both front and back, which, if you're like me and never seem to have a bookmark handy, means you can use it to help mark your place in a pinch. The pages are nice and thick and it has that wonderful new book smell. (Though I seriously doubt Stampington is marketing it based on how it smells, but these are the kinds of things I notice.)

The content of Bella Grace is really lovely. When I was reading through it this past weekend, I was struck by how much it felt like the kind of important life conversations you would have with your best girlfriends over coffee. It's about women (and surprise, a few men!) telling their stories in the most authentic way possible, giving you a glimpse into their artful lives and how they've evolved. As I was reading, I had many moments of feeling a kinship with the writers. When you share your truth, it's relatable and I think the honesty of what's been shared in issue one speaks for itself. My favourite piece was called "Notes On How To Be A Dark Horse" by Jillian Lukiwski. I loved it because she talks about dog ski racing. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love snow and ice adventure. I am now following both her blog & instagram.

Another huge appeal of Bella Grace is of course, the photography. The images they've used are dreamy and ethereal and really quite magical. They've done an excellent job in matching images to content seamlessly. The photos are large enough so you can really soak in every little delicious detail. You can get a sneak peek of what's inside the premier issue here.

 One thing I really liked about how Bella Grace is put together is that there is a wide variety of fonts and font colours used. It makes reading the content that much more interesting. While I really do like this feature, my only constructive criticism of it is that there were places where they used a very fine grey or light blue handwriting font superimposed on a photograph of a similar colour and/or used a very tiny font size. As someone with visual issues, I found had to skip over bits and pieces of the content because it was difficult to see. I think these are things they could easily fix this in the next issue to make it more reader friendly. Other than that, I really enjoyed the eclectic look of the text.

What sets this publication apart from other magazines is that it's also meant to function as a journal of sorts. Bella Grace invites the reader to become a part of the experience by way of prompts within the articles. Each prompt has space for the reader to write whatever comes to mind. It's a unique and personal way to create an interactive experience and one that guarantees that you'll never want to part with your copy.

On the whole, I think Stampington has created a winner. It looks like they plan to publish Bella Grace twice a year, in winter and in summer. I think the quality of the content, paired with a fresh take on how it's presented makes Bella Grace the kind of publication I would happily spend $20.99 CDN on twice a year. ($19.99 US) 

Now the really good news, if you've read this far: Stampington has provided me with a copy of Bella Grace to give away to one lucky reader. Awesome right?!? If you'd like to be entered into the draw, just leave me a comment telling me what you've read recently for creative inspiration. One entry per person! I will randomly draw a winner on Friday, September 19th in the morning. Please be sure there's an email attached to your comment so I can notify you if you've won!

Good Luck!

2013: A Year in Review

Things I celebrated:

-Being awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal

-Indy turning 5

-Pete's birthday (Any birthday while you are battling cancer is a big deal.)

-Our 23rd wedding anniversary (Happily every after!)

Things I survived:

-Two NMO relapses. Treatment was pretty rough.

-Indy & Pete being attacked by a Pit bull and both badly injured. We were all traumatized.

-Pete had surgery to repair his injury which meant 3 months of recovery just as he was recovering from having his kidney removed for cancer. The day he went for surgery, the company he'd worked for for 23 years folded. It never rains, but it pours!

-Breaking my wrist for the 4th time, XC skiing. Took me 2 weeks to realize it was actually broken and not just a bad sprain. I spent 8 1/2 months in either a cast or a splint.

- The 1 yr. anniversary of Pete's cancer diagnosis

-In October, I spent 15 days sick in bed.  Caught what I refer to as "the plague" and couldn't shake it because I am on immunosupressants.

-Surgery on my wrist & arm almost 6 weeks ago. This has by far been the hardest thing I've had to go through medically (even worse than chemo) for a number of reasons. It can't heal fast enough.

Things I volunteered for:

-Universal Access-Ability Advisory Committee

-UBC Med Student Interviews

-MS Society's Peer Support Program

-Canadian MS Society someonelikeme.ca blogger/mentor (I wrote 10 posts this year.)

-Skiing is Believing program photographer

-A friend's political campaign

-Volunteered at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Conference

-First ever 5 km walk/run for NMO Guest speaker at opening ceremonies

-Health Mentors Program interviews

-The Terry Fox Run

-Health Mentor Program, 2012-2013 & 2013-2014 cohorts

-UBC Patient Panel guest speaker (NMO)

-UBC NMO Day guest speaker

-Organizing Committee for the BC Provincial Wheelchair Curling Championships

-UBC Faculty of Medicine Health Mentors' Advisory Committee

-Assisted with MS fundraiser at two Billy Talent Concerts

Things I did that were fun and/or cool:

-Shared my story on MV-1 Canada's Life Without Compromise website & e-book

-Filmed for 5 days for a tv show which still has not aired-it keeps getting delayed.

-Was invited as an honoured guest for the Ferry Ballet on Canada Day with False Creek Ferries (Your loss Rick Mercer!)

-Saw Melissa Etheridge in concert at the PNE

-Went to Cranberryfest

-Attended my friend Andrea's thesis defence at UBC. She is now a Doctor of Philosophy!

Things that happened in my artistic life:

-Got addicted to Gelli plate printing thanks to my friend Penn

-Was published in Uppercase Magazine (Subscriber profile)

-Had some work accepted for publication in a book due out in spring 2015

-Attended the Vancouver screening of Indie Kindred with my friend Carol (I think I would have had more fun had I not been 2 days post-op and loaded up on pain killers.)

-Had Skiing is Believing photos published in Ski Cross Country Magazine

-Hit the milestone of receiving my 100th Etsy order!

Things I won:

-A year's subscription to Uppercase Magazine

-Tickets for a horse drawn tour of Stanley Park (Which we did on Pete's birthday in October.)

-Tickets to see Shane Koyczan, spoken word poet at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

-A beautiful necklace from the Vintage Pearl & all kinds of paper goodies from Curly Girl. They also sent me $25 gift certificates for both companies, which I have yet to use.

-Tickets to the Knowledge Networks premier of Home. I submitted a self portrait and wrote about it to win.

-Tickets to the BC Sports Hall of Fame

-A Sochi 2014 Olympic pin

-A box of Purdy's Turona chocolates (Which should be in the mail tomorrow!)

-Ipad mini & keyboard-this was a gift from my husband's boss and his wife, but it felt like winning!

My word for the year was FOCUS. Clearly, this was a year where that was important, with so many things going on. One of the things I really wanted to focus on accomplishing this year was to do more public speaking about NMO. I was really happy to have the opportunity to be a guest speaker at three different events and I hope to continue to do this in 2014. 

Speaking of 2014, we've been through alot in the last year and a half and I think I am more than ready to have a really good year. I'm hoping 2014 is a kinder, gentler year. 

Things Worth Celebrating

Back in March, I went to Whistler with the Para Nordic Cross Country Skiing is Believing program to do some photography. My friend Andrea had asked me to come do some photography for them to provide to their funders. There was also the possibly some of the photos being published in a BC XC ski magazine. I was more than happy to support this amazing program. (Which, if you missed it, I posted about here.) 

I now have copies of the magazine! This is it:

It's distributed BC wide.

Two of my photographs appear with an article that talks about the program. One is at the top with the header (two sit skiers racing) and the other is the second down on the right. (A group of sit skiers practicing what to do if they should tip over.)

Here's my photo credit! I am really chuffed about this because it's the first time my photos have been published outside of artistic publications. I am still not quite comfortable labelling myself as a photographer-I am not technical about it at all. I shoot and edit with what feels right to my artistic eye, but I can't for the life of me tell you what a f-stop is, nor do I care. All I know is that I enjoy shooting and editing and I really loved the opportunity to have this experience.

Speaking of Andrea, last Tuesday, I went out to UBC with my friend Courtney to support Andrea as she defended her thesis, which was her work on AthletesFirst. Andrea did an fantastic job staying cool under pressure. I think the Doctors who were hearing her defence were very impressed with her as well because in the end, she was granted her Doctor of Philosophy degree! We are all *SO* proud of her!

This was the final slide of Andrea's presentation. Recognize anyone? It was sweet of her to include this photo. (I guest blogged for AthletesFirst at one point, which is why I was included in the presentation.) Another lovely thing about attending Andrea's defence was that I finally got to meet Josh Vander Vies and Meyrick Jones. Both great guys-Josh is super smart and Meyrick is really funny.

Soon Andrea will be off to the UK to do some post-doctorate work. Congratulations Dr. Andrea!!

A Funny Thing Happened To Me...

A few weeks ago, I entered a photo contest. The idea was to post a photo that made you think of home and to write a short piece about "Home is...".
So I submitted this photo:

...and didn't even give it a second thought. A few days later, however, I had an email from the Knowledge Network who was hosting the contest. They said they had a question about the image I submitted, as there was talk that was a copyrighted image. They said it didn't look like a photo that was taken by me, that it had come from somewhere online and could I confirm where the photo was taken? They were concerned that I had just gone to "images" in Google and downloaded it. Yikes!!

To say I was stunned, was an understatement. I have never had someone imply that work I've submitted wasn't mine. So I emailed them back and assured them that the work was indeed mine-the photo is a selfie I shot up at one of the lakes where I often walk Indy, so it doesn't get any more personal than that. In fact, I sent them the link to the blog post where I first shared it.

I also sent them photos of the progression of editing the image and another selfie, this time shot out at UBC with me wearing the same shoes, socks & jeans:

They believed me, thank goodness. I can't imagine someone submitting a stolen photo to a photo contest. That would just be foolish-it's so easy to check something like that out. I told my best friend about the whole thing and she thought it was kind of awesome. I suppose it is, when you think about it-apparently I create real commercial quality images...I think I'll take that as a compliment.

Anyway, the upshot of it all was that last week, I got an email saying I'd been chosen as one of the winners! My prize was two tickets to an advanced screening of Take Me Home which features 36 BC artists, athletes and personalities sharing what home means to them and a reception afterwards.

Last night my husband and I went to the advanced screening and had a great time. The MC, as it turns out, is a fellow Winnipegger. As I was listening to him talk about where he calls home (the North End of Winnipeg) I was smiling and nodding-home is that intimate knowledge of where you come from and the common experiences of that place. I not only heard his words about my hometown, I connected with and deeply understood them.

 The series of films for Take Me Home were so beautifully shot. As an artist, I really appreciated the care taken in crafting of each piece. They were all, in their own ways, visually stunning. The people who they chose to feature were incredibly interesting. There were poets, (like my all-time favourite, Shane Koyczan) Paralympians (Josh Dueck and Donovan Tildesley) authors, astrophysicists, hockey players, Olympians, landscape architects, singers/songwriters and more. What I really loved was seeing just who calls British Columbia home. It's so inspiring to know you are surrounded by a community of creatives and dream chasers.

Afterwards, there was a reception, which we attended very briefly. On our way out, we crossed paths with Donovan Tildesley and had a really nice chat with him. We traded business cards and he was amused by my Moo card-he could tell right away, it was different!

If you get the Knowledge Network, I highly recommend watching the 3 part series that premiers November 14th at 7:30 p.m. (PST) 

I'll be tuning in. I hope you will too!

This Week's All About Colour

We had a beautiful weekend for our 23rd anniversary. It was warm (17C) and sunny. My husband and I, along with Indy hopped the False Creek Ferry to Granville Island. It was the perfect day for a leisurely cruise and lunch in the courtyard.

The trees are spectacular this time of year. Everywhere you look, it's a colour feast for the eyes. I can't tell you how happy this makes me. Autumn is so incredibly beautiful in this part of Canada.

Over the weekend, I picked up some new stencils and some new shades of paint, so I made some prints on my gelli plate. It's always fun to experiment with colours.

This week and next are going to be busy and then things will slow down for a bit as I have surgery on my wrist and arm on Nov. 19th. NOT looking forward to having bones sawed (I am actually a bit freaked out at the prospect) but it's been almost 8 months since I broke my wrist for the 4th time and it's not healing on it's own, so surgery's a necessary evil. I am hoping everything goes smoothly and at the very least, it will relieve the pain. I am tired of being either in a cast or splint after all these months. I'd like full use (such as it is) of my right hand back!

I saw this last week and I wanted to share it with you-I found it uplifting. I hope you do too! 

Under the Weather

Yes, I am still alive. (Barely!) I came down with a very nasty throat infection 12 days ago and have been in bed ever since. Fortunately I have antibiotics now, so hopefully I'll be feeling better and have my voice back soon.

In between doctor's appointments, I managed to take Indy for a walk in the park yesterday. Walking around the lake was a challenge because I am feeling pretty wiped out, but Indy needed the exercise and I needed the fresh air after being stuck at the hospital all morning. The leaves were just beautiful. Maple leaves are always my favourite (for obvious reasons) and I love oak leaves too. There aren't as many oak trees in BC as there are in Manitoba, so when I see oak leaves, it's a sweet reminder of home.

Just before I came down with the plague, I had a fresh bust of inspiration to work on finishing issue #4 of Manual Dexterity, which has been in the works for some time. All the art is completed, (the image above is a wee peek!) now I just need to work on the written content. My goal is to have it completed before I have surgery on my wrist. Since I'm still waiting to hear when that's actually going to happen, chances are good I'm going to manage to get it finished! Zines are alot of work, but I really enjoy making them.

Gearing up for Thanksgiving this weekend. It's probably going to be pretty low key as I am not 100%, but there will be turkey, one way or another and I am determined to enjoy CranberryFest tomorrow!

Good Things

Copyright Lelainia Lloyd 2013

1. Friends who recommend good iPhone photo apps. After admiring Roben Marie's Instagram pics, I finally had to ask her what apps she's been using. AremaC does pretty things like I did to this simple photo I took at the PNE a few weeks ago. Love it!

2. Online art classes. After finding an unexpected windfall in my email yesterday morning, I decided to treat myself to Roben Marie's You've Got Mail Art class. I've been wanting to take it and decided now was as good a time as any, especially with the prospect of hand surgery looming. I doubt I'm going to be able to do much once that happens, so I'd better get my art fix NOW. I'm diving in today!

3. This video, by a local artist Bodhi Jones, shot at the corner of Granville and Broadway in Vancouver as one single, continuous shot.  If I remember correctly, he said in a recent interview he stood out there for 14 hours straight. It's amazing- see for yourself. (Be forewarned there's the occasional f-bomb in this song if you're easily offended.)

3. The gift of blue plums. We have friends who have a tree and last night my husband came home with a bag full of them. They are one of my most favourite things. YUM!

4. Volunteering. I decided to volunteer for the annual Terry Fox which is being held at Blue Mountain Park at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15th. (This Sunday.) For those of you who don't know who Terry Fox is, the short story is he's a beloved Canadian hero. The long story is here. My husband knew Terry and his siblings-they went to school together. I am volunteering in my husband's honour. He was diagnosed with kidney cancer a year ago on September long weekend. My husband will be walking as a survivor on Sunday. If you are local please come join us-you can run, walk or wheel or just come to honour Terry's memory and legacy. Terry's sister Judith will be speaking. Need more details? You can find them here.

What's Been Going On

Last Saturday night my husband and I went to the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) which is the big annual fair. They always have a summer concert series and last night, the fabulous Melissa Etheridge was playing. I've loved her for a long, long time and years when my husband and I were first married, we got tickets to see her at the Orpheum. He didn't know who she was, but he was so impressed by her, he fell in love with her too.

The beauty of the concert space at the PNE is that the view is so spectacular. You can see the north shore mountains, as well as several of the big attractions at the fair all lit up. Add to that a world class artist who knows how to throw a party and it's magic.

At one point in the concert, Melissa brought out a gorgeous electric guitar in vintage aqua, the same colour as my studio. I have no idea why, but this made me insanely happy and I sat there with this big stupid grin on my face the whole time she was playing it. I WANTED that guitar. The crazy thing is, I don't play but I seriously wanted that guitar. If I had that aqua guitar, I would learn to play, even with numb hands.

At one point in the evening, she talked about being cancer free for 9 years and not just being a survivor, but a thriver and then she sang "I Run for Life", her breast cancer awareness song. Saturday night she added lyrics to include male cancer survivors too. Listening, I was trying hard not to cry. It's become so personal for me, especially right at this moment when we're almost at the 1 year anniversary of my husband's diagnosis of kidney cancer. My heart's a little tender about that right now. This year has been one of the hardest of our lives on so many levels. It's our deepest hope that at some point we'll be able to say he's 9 years cancer free too.

It was a fabulous concert and it cheered my up greatly. The only downside was the yahoos sitting around us. There were three separate couples who decided to have loud arguments while Melissa was playing. Who does that?!? They were so obnoxious I was having trouble hearing the music. (And if you know anything about Melissa Etheridge, it's that she rocks the h*ll out of her concerts, so that tells you how disruptive they were being.) One couple was actually arguing about how many strings were on the guitar she was playing, if you can believe it. I'd have liked to El Kabong them with it just to shut them up!

I know things have been kind of quiet here lately. I've been struggling with my health again. I've spent alot of time in bed and it feels like my left leg is going to stop working any second now. My immune system just refuses to stand down, so they've upped my immuno supressants again and we'll see how it goes. At this point, I am just tired of the whole thing. Nothing seems to work.

Yesterday I finally met with the hand surgeon about my broken wrist. After a very painful exam which left me dizzy and about to toss my cookies, he did two diagnostic injections of steroids and freezing into the two parts of my wrist that are the problem. Let's just say when a needle hits bone over and over, it's torture. The pain from that is excruciating and it's going to be days till it settles down. In the meantime, am gobbling pain pills and icing it as much as possible. I was extremely grateful my best friend was there to hold my good hand while all this was done and to make sure I got home safely. She was a huge help and comfort to me. 

I see the surgeon again in six weeks and then we decide which of two surgeries is going to happen. One involves removing a bone and the other involves shortening a bone. I'm pretty freaked out about the whole thing, especially the bone shortening prospect. That's got to be painful. Clearly something has to be done and I am hoping it will be taken care of before 2013 is over. This is dragged on for almost 6 month now as it is and I'd really like to have my right hand functional and pain free again.

When I got home from the hospital yesterday, there was a message from my husband saying he'd been injured on the job and he was at the ER. He tripped over a metal bar that the carpenters left sitting on the deck at his job site and fell between some columns, landing on the shoulder on the same side he had his arm surgery on a few months ago. He is okay, thankfully-nothing broken or torn-he's just understandably sore. Yesterday was about all the trauma I could handle in a single day.

On a positive note, I was asked to be a guest speaker at the 2nd annual NMO Information Day. I will be presenting on the Interprofessional Health Mentors Program that I've been involved with. I am so pleased to have this opportunity and look forward to sharing with other NMO patients how our stories matter to the medical community. My friend Nancy will also be presenting on the first ever (anywhere in the world!) NMO walk/run that she organized this past May.

If you are local and are interested in attending NMO Information Day, you can register here. If you're coming, be sure to find me and say hello!

Also in the good news department, my friend Andrea informed me the other day that it looks like two of the photographs I took for the Para XC Ski Program, Skiing is Believing are going to be published in a magazine! It won't be official till we see it in print, (with magazines, things are always subject to change) but we're pretty confident this is going to happen. Andrea's going to make sure I get some copies, so I'll share them with you when I have them in hand. I'm really excited about the prospect of having my photography appear in a sports magazine-that will be a first for me! If you're interested in seeing all the photos from that day, the entire set is here on my Flickr. It was such an amazing day and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Last, but not least, today is A&W's Crusin' For A Cause Annual MS fundraiser. If you're Canadian, please try and stop by any A&W location and purchase a teen burger-$1 from every burger goes to MS. If hamburgers are not your thing, but you still want to help, all locations are happy to receive donations to the Canadian MS Society. You can also use the hashtag #crusinforacause on Twitter on any of your tweets today and $1 for each tweet will also be donated. It's a very simple way to help fund the important research and support programs the MS Society provides to both people living with MS and also those of us rare birds living with NMO. (The CDN MS Society has very generously taken Canadians with NMO under their wing and are offering us the same services as those with MS.)

Scenes From the Weekend

On Sunday, we got up early to take Indy to check out a new (to us) park along the Fraser River. He loves anywhere where he has the opportunity to swim. 

This particular park is across the water from YVR (Vancouver International Airport) so we got to watch lots of planes coming in, which I enjoyed. I even spotted a seal swimming along.

I kind of love this silhouette shot of Indy playing in the waves.

The nosy nose that knows.

Plus a quick selfie, just for good measure. It feels good to be shooting with my Rebel again. I've been neglecting it of late, in favour of getting familiar with my iPhone camera and a bunch of photography apps. It's good fun, but really, my DSLR is my first love. There's just no comparison.

In case you're wondering, the apps I am enjoying are:

Over 

A Beautiful Mess 

Afterlight

Kaleido Lens

Typic Pro

 They are all good, but Typic Pro is my personal favourite of the bunch!

If you have some photography apps you love, please comment & let me know what they are!

Canada Day Long Weekend 2013

So this past weekend marked the 146th birthday of our great nation. We celebrated Canada Day on July 1st. Usually this holiday is pretty low key in our house-we tend to just do some hiking and BBQing and that's about it. It ended up busier than I had originally anticipated. 

Sunday evening, my pal Jenn and I went to see Shayne Koyczan at the Vogue. As I mentioned before, I won tickets from the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. I have to tell you, this was an amazing experience. Jenn and I arrived early to pick up the tickets at the box office and then we lined up. While we were standing in line, this woman came up to us and asked if we'd be willing to do an on camera interview of our thoughts about Shane Koyczan. They were filming with plans to put the interviews together as a video at some point. We thought it would be fun and since we both adore him, we said we were in. It was pretty funny and I can't wait to see what they do with the footage. Funny that I seem to be doing alot of TV lately.

Eventually, we were let into the theatre. The seating was rush seating and since were at the front of the line, we easily got seats in row two, up front and center. Shane ended up performing for THREE HOURS. He is not only a gifted poet, but also incredibly funny. I laughed so much my face hurt. His band was incredible and I was so happy there were so many strings-cello, base, guitar and violin, along with keyboard, trombone and trumpet. The beauty of combining spoken word with music is that the music beautifully underscores the words and adds another layer to the emotion that is being expressed. It's an experience like no other.

The Vancouver International Jazz Festival has never had spoken word poetry as part of their line up. It's really cool that they decided to take a chance to include it.  Seeing Shane Koyczan, whom I consider to be one of Canada's national treasures was the perfect way to celebrate the Canada Day long weekend.

 

   

While Jenn and I were having dinner before the show, I got a message from the good people at False Creek Ferries. (The company that runs the ferry service we often ride from Science World to Granville  Island. It's one of our favourite things to do.) Awhile back they invited Rick Mercer to join them on Canada Day for their traditional ferry ballet. (Think Musical Ride, only on water, using ferries instead of horses.) I told them half jokingly that if Rick Mercer didn't want to do it, I did. Well, Rick Mercer never got back to them, so they very sweetly extended the invitation for me to join them. Of course I said yes! 

I got home pretty late from the Vogue-1am and didn't get to sleep till 2am, but still managed to get up for 5am so I could get downtown in time. The morning was so beautiful. This photo is the reflection of Science World in False Creek. The water was like glass. It was so peaceful.

I waited at the dock at Olympic Village and at about 7:30am, a fleet of 6 ferries came to get me. Nothing like a fleet of boats turning up to make a girl feel special! I hopped aboard and we were off. The manager of the company (in the left hand photo) was calling the manoeuvres via radio.

  

The ferries did figure eights, various lines and circle sequences in several locations along False Creek. People were watching from shore or out on their boats, clapping, waving flags and shouting "Happy Canada Day!"

We made our way up to Granville Island over the course of about an hour and a half. There was a cooling breeze and I was shooting photos, laughing and waving to people the whole time. Rick Mercer has no idea how much fun he missed!!

 

When we arrived at Granville Island, Jenn was waiting there for me! We hung out till I caught the ferry back to Olympic Village. A HUGE thank you to False Creek Ferries for making my Canada Day so special. You guys are THE BEST!! 

This week is going to be quiet, which is a good thing-the past 2 months have been an absolute whirlwind!