Silken Laumann, Drunk Eddy, Aurora Borealis, and Finally a Job!

Silken Laumann just looked directly into my eyes and smiled with a warmth and vulnerability I find hard to describe. Let me go backwards in time for a minute. I've travelled nearly two hours getting from downtown Vancouver to the airport via city bus. When I arrived at the door to the South Terminal (the little sister chucked on the far side of the Main Terminal), my tummy let me know it wanted something to chew on, so I walked the entire length of the terminal - a whopping 20 metres - and stood in line at the only cafe available. Five guys in coveralls were ahead of me in line, all joking and playing around like boys at summer camp. They were humorous and entertaining to witness. After just saying 'yes' to the second option of quiche (due to a lack of comprehension on my part of the waiter's thick accent), I took a seat and waited patiently for my quiche to come and tried not to eat my brownie first. This tall woman walked by and stood in line, looking back once in my general direction and I immediately recognized her as the rowing champion Silken Laumann. I've always been fond of her - she seems, from the times I'd seen her on T.V. (not that I watch T.V., right?), to be compassionate and very.... well, human. She seems like one of those 'celebrities' that doesn't like being put on a pedestal, but doesn't mind being considered an inspiration to others. And once I'd overheard that she ordered a double cheeseburger with fries, I almost ran up to hug her. Well, not really, but I was pretty happy to see that she's really just one of us, on her way from one place to the next, and her belly too told her it needed to munch on something. As she walked past me to find her own seat, she looked right into my eyes and held the stare for a moment or two longer than seemed normal, and I smiled and gave back to her what she was giving to me: a silent, warm 'hello' or acknowledgement. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but this was my experience, my truth, and I find it so lovely to know that we are the same. After Silken found a seat, her double cheeseburger platter number was being called by the waiter, "Number 97. Number 97. Number 9--" Silken claimed ownership just as the five guys in coveralls said, "No, she's number 1!!" Silken gracefully said thank you and turned to her meal. As I ate the rest of my nondescript quiche, I imagined questions I would ask her if I had the gumption to interrupt her double cheeseburger, and all that came to mind was, "What's it like being normal?" I'm not entirely sure precisely what I meant by that, but it's just what came to mind...

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Drunk Eddy and his buddies were sitting behind us at the Keg in Edmonton last weekend. We were taking out our friends Jamie, Stephanie, and their son Ethan for a fine ol' meal and putting the tab on our $100 gift card from Brian's Aunt Joan. During the course of our meal, the gang at the table behind us made a succession of noises including dropped glasses on the floor, knife jabbing into the table (eek!), a few swear words here and there, and over-the-top drunk-hugging of the poor waiter serving them. To be honest, their noises didn't really bother me much because I was concentrating on Jamie and Steph's stories, as well as trying to overcome a short burst of heartburn. Anyway, at the end of our meal, the waiter came to our table with our bill and said that the fellow behind us in the red ball cap, Eddy, felt that no one should have to put up with their nonsense during dinner out, so he put $50 toward our tab. That combined with the gift card meant that we left the Keg with $15.28 extra in our pocket, but we didn't get out totally scott free; Brian went to Eddy's table to say thanks, and Eddy grabbed Brian's hand and in an attempt to say something without slurring, he began to cough and sputter right onto Brian's death-gripped hand. "Uh... thanks."

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The day after the Keg incident, Brian and I had the pleasure of introducing our mom's to each other in Thorsby, AB. On the drive through the country back to Edmonton, we stopped the car on a side road to get a better look at the glowing night sky. I've never seen aurora borealis like that before! Wow, the whole sky was dancing in green in a glorious show that seemed like it was just for us.

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Now that Brian and I are back in Nelson, I'm about to start a new job. Yep, I got myself some work! Yippee! I'll be a lab technician for a wildlife genetics company in town. My first day is tomorrow, so I'll let you all know how it goes. I'm really excited.