Signs of the Future (title for now)

I was exhausted...but not in a bad way.  I had just came from a workshop called "Learning for Life: Web-based Skill-Building Modules".  It was a job skills workshop that left me both exhausted.and exhilherated!

Most of the workshops that I have or will go to have two times: one, for the deaf and one, (in the afternoon) for the hard of hearing.  That afternoon, the facilitator signed the whole workshop and an interpreter was on hand to interpret Karen's spirited signing and for those of us (only two) who were hard of hearing and didn't understand ASL (American Sign Language).  That will be yet another course I want to take and am already trying (when I can) to practice some of it.

Was there silence in that little room?  Oh, no!  It was actually pretty noisy and exciting.  When you get six people signing all at once(including the interpreter), it's very noisy!  Donna also signed anything I or Joanna wanted to ask or say. 

I looked back and forth between Karen and Donna, trying, alternatively, to listen to Karen and to read Donna's lips.

I'd been to many employment skills workshops since my youth, but nothing, nothing, came close to today's feeling of wanting to be prepared for work.  I felt validated, hearing the stories of other people's struggles with employment; for instance, bosses that don't want to take the time or trouble to listen a little longer or provide what could help the employee perform their job better.  It was also good to hear that I wasn't the only one, where people just assumed I could read lips.  I do better than I used to, but I still have a ways to go and need to ask repeatedly what people say.  Some say "just talking to myself" or "never mind."  They don't help with communication.  I really want to hear what people say.

I still have over a week of more workshops and look forward to them all!  It is so empowering to be around so many great people with different ranges of hearing loss.  The facilitator can drive!  I know, I shouldn't be surprised, but one of the reasons I've held off on getting my license is my inabiltiy to hear some sounds behind me.  If Karen can do it, so can I!

Kitsilano High

I am at Arbutus Coffee on Arbutus and West 6th.  I'm sitting on a bench at a wobbly table outside the coffee house.

I'm trying not to get a free high from the fellow around the corner smoking weed.  Luckily, he is away from the main entrance of the coffee house.  Because I am going, in an hour, to the Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, I don't want to be even slightly stoned.  That stuff is pretty potent--I still smell it. 

My table is right across the street from another old building, probably a store in the original incarnation, now set up as apartments. It has bay windows and has been maintained well by whoever owns it with great respect for the time it was built. 

Talk about a high--I"m looking at a side of Arbutus with a long row of cottage-style old homes, mature trees, and a pinscher cross, who trots happily towards me even though he is on a leash.  He becomes a friendly companion for a short time and I pet him, his intelligent eyes looking up at me.

There are modern apartment buildings in this area as well, but they do not grab my imagination or yearning.  Then again, anything to someday live here, sitting outside a coffee house, feeling high without weed.

Renewal on the Water

Sitting on a bench on Kitsilano Beach,

not wanting to move.

I'm afraid of missing something.

I can't be everywhere; I just want to be here...for the moment at least.

The slapping of balls by palms or fists over volleyball nets (several games at once),

Bare feet dancing and hopping in the sand, trying not to let the ball fall.

The salty, fishy smell of the beach and the people not caring what time or even what day it is.

I don't want to leave this haven in the city, where a young man pulls out his guitar, adding to the music of the sea.

Container ships wait in the bay, companions to the smaller boats --- sailboats, kayaks, and water taxis, and...unfortunately, power boats that scar the smoothness of the water.

Thankfully, I can't hear the ugly, macho-driven speed monsters.

Luckily, the sound of guitar strumming, chatter of power-walkers, and laughter of children are drowning it out!

Walking on Water or Flying?

I cannot truly say what attracts me to this picture. Is it the young man's body as he seems to effortlessly fly across the water?  I watched him for quite a while.  His arms stretched out in different directions, he could almost be a bird in the sky surfing the clouds.  Somehow, he reminds me of the Silver Surfer I'm sure I've seen in some comic books.  He seems like he's holding the sky and the twinkling water in his control.  While I'd never do it, skimming across the small pools of water seem like walking on water.

Kerrisdale

I'm looking down West 41st, once again accompanied by the memory of my favourite travel companion, Jason.  No, he's not really here and I truly hope he's at peace. 

At different times over many Christmas and summer holidays spent in Vancouver, he and I walked, hand in hand, down West 41st enjoying some of the little specialty stores and sidewalk cafes.  We crossed the East and West Boulevards (it's actually Arbutus Street, I think, but, in this area, the signs simply say "West Boulevard" and "East Boulevard").

A long band of green space in the middle divides the boulevards and an unused (at least by a train) track runs down the middle amongst the greenery.  Only children and walkers use this now.  What is it about train tracks that make it irresistable to me and others? 

Going down the streets off the main road, mature trees stand majestically.  I walk by where my sister and her husband once lived while still living in Vancouver.  The street and area is still beautiful with character houses--some being renovated.

As usual, I feel Jason's actual absence, but am determined to enjoy it and dream for the both of us.  I sit outside a cafe, nursing an iced mocha and watch people going back and forth, feeling happy and energized as time goes by. 

A lone feather, at the time I'm writing this has landed on my foot. Vancouver has a great many birds, especially seabirds so I don't react at first, but it's alone.  Who knows?  I remember once Jason told me he wanted to come back as an Eagle!

Fire Clouds in the Sky

I was walking with my mother on Crescent Beach tonight after my math class.  The sky over the ocean as the sun is going down is capable of such change.  No two sunsets I've seen over the water is ever the same.  On the way to the beach, Mum pointed over to the ocean and said that "it looks like the sky is on fire!"  and it did!  Colours of bright red and orange lit up even the sides of houses and cottages almost like a huge fire.

In the sky, I noticed that when the light hits it, actually looks like an ocean above the ocean with waves and ripples.  A pointy orange cloud looked like a volcanic mountain in a distant sea far above the ocean (if that makes any sense).  A whole new world seems to exist every night depending on placement of clouds and sun.

Vancouver--Bloom off of the Rose?

I discovered something yesterday--while I still love Vancouver, I realized it couldn't always give to me!  That sounds selfish, I know, but I was hit with a heavy fit of depression and was thinking: why aren't you cheering me up, Vancouver? I was, and still will credit the city for inspiring good feelings in me; however, I know that I have to bring something to Vancouver as well!  It inspires me to write!  I need to write!  I can't wait for it to glow and inspire in order for me to write.  I need to do it!  I was expecting Vancouver to cure me of loneliness, grief, and hopelessness.

I don't know how many of you know Evita! (the musical), but there is a fabulous song in it when Eva Duarte-Peron is arriving for the first time in Buenos Aires and she sings how she's looking forward what it can give her.  She also talks, in a song before, that she wants to "B A part of BA Buenos Aires"!  While I have no intention of doing what Eva did to get to where she got (slept her way up to first lady of Argentina, I admired her spirit of putting herself out there!