So I'm back on the wagon (aka Canada Line) and looking to confuse folks as I have tshirts from Tues & Wed (and one from a week & a half back) to write about and will probably back-date them all for accuracy's sake.
Today's tee is a bday giftie (from this most recent birthday!) from my Newfoundlander family who travelled 7,500km (with a toddler powered by Energizer bunny power and a far-too-cute-for-her-own-good 5-month-old) across the continent/country to attend my wedding. Yes, I got married during my blog hiatus (and aged out of a marketing category two days later). It's all about timing...
For those who have never been lucky enough to visit St. John's, NL, the tee depicts the city's harbour with Cabot Tower on Signal Hill on the left. It's a beautiful vista, almost as lovely as the people who live there. And the geekery factor of the 8-bit text-game presentation is amaze-balls.
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| Most similar Google Image I could find to the tee graphic |
Part of knowing where you are has to do with knowing who you're with and, perhaps, making a conscious judgement call as to who is and who isn't a positive influence in your life. Family is family and there is an innate acceptance where they are concerned. Everyone else is present by choice - mostly a combination of theirs and yours. Some people are hard work and there can be times where the pay-off isn't worth the investment.
I'm living proof of this.
And then there are some precious few who belong in your life no matter how far apart you live geographically or how many changes your life goes through.
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| Then and Now: You really should be focussed on how much camera technology has improved ;) |
I met Brian Kidney in the summer of 1996 in Hamilton, ON, at the annual CanJAC convention (he wasn't tweeting then). He was the tallest person I had ever met. His humour, warmth, and confidence was (and is) striking and of all the people I met that week, he is the only one I have kept in contact with over the last seventeen years. We wrote actual letters to each other (and even mailed them), sent birthday cards to each other (I have the advantage in remembering his birthday as he shares the day with my brother) and made odysseys across this great country of ours to see each other (his wife, Lori, won a cross-country VIA trip and they made optimum use of it, coming to Vancouver, while I took advantage of the most skookum airfare deal ever to go see them get hitched). As is common with many of my guy friends' significant others, I learned a lot about Lori before ever meeting her - police decoy, seal enumerator, lucky horseshoe, rescue beagle delivery person - and she exceeded every expectation. Add super-mom to the mix now.
He and Lori have travelled extensively in their work and play and never fail to generously add to my Hard Rock Cafe pin collection on every excursion. This trip was no exception. After my wedding, they packed their happy little family into the mini-van and traipsed down to Seattle and back (before the bridge on Skagit collapsed, thankfully) and I found a new HRC pin from the Seattle store tucked in with my tee (which, appropriately, smells of baby powder - the tee, that is). I should also point out (if my faithful readers hadn't already clued in) that a large section of my tee collection originates from the East Coast thanks to Brian and Lori.
Of the many, many blessings I thank the 'verse for, I cherish the good people in my life who keep my feet on the ground, my head in the game, and my heart in the right place. Whenever, I need a guiding star, they're there no matter how far away the GPS puts them physically. And that, ultimately, is probably the key to knowing where I am.
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