Pix 'n Prose: Feb 2019 - End of Weeks 7 + 8

Where did we leave off?
(Opens tab, looks at last PixnProse entry.)
Right.
Court case, kids over for supper.

That seems like foreverago.
So Mon Feb 4 - Sunday Feb 17 is what this blog post will be about.
Do YOU remember what you did 2 weeks ago on Monday?
I sure wouldn't be able to without the help of calendar.

Calendars are one of my very favorite things.
This is my purse size version.
Those of you who know me well, know I rarely carry a purse, so this is mostly dumb.
But it's in my purse. Which is never with me.
I'm a woman. Don't try to figure me out.

Lots of room to write what I plan to do/what I actually did on each day.

Plus these pretty filler pages:

I particularly like this one ^. How lovely is the silence of growing things.
I also have a colourful wall calendar at home, in my desk area. (Don't all homes have desk areas?) and I have a desktop one at work. My work one is not pretty. Just functional. Aren't you glad you popped by to read my blog today? Haha. Rambling about squares with numbers...

Anyway, according to my calendar, last Monday (Feb 4) I went to work, then to the gym. Life. Is just too exciting some days. To be honest, as I recall, I was thrilled to have an evening with no plans. The week before had been full and exhausting. And it was lovely to do laundry. And eat leftovers. I must be old.

I went out for lunch on Tuesday, (for pizza), with a friend from work. Then stayed late and worked til 6:30. I skipped supper and drove out to Abby (Northview) to attend week 4 of The Thinking Series. I sat in the parking lot at 7:02 and had to pep-talk myself into going in. (Due to weather conditions, the drive took a bit longer than expected, and I was 2 minutes late.) I dreaded walking in. Everyone would be sitting at tables, and I didn't know where I was going to sit. So far every time I'd gone, I was at a new table with strangers. The older (80 year old?) lady I was sitting with in week 2 hadn't shown up again. I wasn't expecting her to be there again tonight.

Greeter: Hey! Welcome! What's your name? I'll make up a name tag for you!
Me: Jane
Greeter: So glad you could come! First time?
Oy, he was my table leader last week. I definitely made an impression.
Me: No, I've been before.
Greeter: Great, then you know how this works. Find a table with a empty spot.

There were fewer tables this week. (Every week there are less tables. People are dropping out like flies.) After scanning the room as I walk towards the far wall, I spy only one table with an empty seat.

Me: Is this seat saved?
Young man, talking his crap off the chair: Nope, it's all yours.

I'm at a table with 2 young (late 20's) couples, (I'm sitting between them) a young woman (teen?) and an older (late 70's/early 80's) couple (directly across from me). Our leader is sitting to my left. I don't know anyone at the table. Actually, I don't know anyone in the room.

There's an awkward silence at the table, and then a few random statements are suggested and I'm just confused. No clue what's going on, until the guy with the mic at the front says, "Two more minutes, then I'll ask each table for their ideas."

I look around my table, and wonder what they're working on. Our leader says "How about this?" And proceeds to lay out an idea in full, to his wife, so his back is to me and I can't hear a thing. His wife nods and smiles and is enthusiastic and says it's wonderful. Everyone else agrees. I still haven't a clue.

More silence at our table, and about 5 minutes later the guy with the mic says, "Ok. One more minute to work out the details. This is gonna be great."

Our table is quiet. (Well, couples are talking to each other and the young single gal touches our table leader's wife's hand and says, "You have a very pretty wedding ring."

It was a long night.

(The ice-breaker game was, each table needed to come up with a premise for a TV show, including a title and a budget.) I just felt old and out of place. Not sure if my ice was broken.

The topic is Why Is There Evil? First we watched a video. Then we were to discuss 3 questions.
The older woman usually responded with a Bible verse. Her memory was amazing. The younger gal would suggest a Sunday-School-type answer. And the other person to speak was the 20-something gal. She'd answer, the leader would prompt her to think deeper/expand her thoughts as he guided her to the correct answer. She'd do a fist pump and raise both hands in victory when she got it right. It was important for her to win.

Then there was a teaching time. And more table questions. I contributed two ideas, which led no where, so I just stopped talking. The fist-pumping winning gal was on a roll, our table leader was happy with her progress. I was glad she was feeling good about herself.

The question and answer period was interesting as the panel weren't in agreement regarding the answers.

I'm not sure if I'll go next week. I might be too old for life's big questions/and thinking about them.

My thoughts on why there's evil?
It's because God isn't a puppet-master, dictating our lives. It's all about choice. He could've created a world where we'd all abide by His rules and we'd love Him because He made us to. But that was never His plan. Right from the get-go, He gave us options. He wanted us to choose Him. Of our own free will. Some of us have. Others haven't. If evil is an option, there are people who're going to check that box. Because we're a little bit selfish and lazy. And some of us don't want any God to be the boss of us.

Anyway, the rest of the week was more fun. Dinner with Donna on Wednesday, back to the gym on Thursday night, and an unexpected SNOW DAY on Friday. I stayed in bed til noon and smiled for hours. I was so ready for a surprise day off. To celebrate I went to the gym in the afternoon (!) then met Val for supper in Chilliwack on my way to the lake. Where it was verra verra cold.

How cold was it?

My lake was freezing up.

Our dock fell apart:

It was only my corner of the world that was angry, it was calm at the other end of the lake

and it was colorful and happy in Yarrow:

I went to church on Sat evening, and had dinner with Karm afterwards. And Sunday? It snowed. So instead of the gym, I shovelled the driveway during the afternoon. Then again in the evening. And ached all night.

Monday was another snowday. As was Tuesday. (But they were 'please work from home' snowdays, so I mostly sat in front of my computer and tried to do things while severely handicapped as I (and my team) aren't connected to our server.) So I did what I could, mostly feeling guilty that I wasn't able to put in 8 hours.

Temporary office in my mom's kitchen.

Twas pretty outside tho:

And on Tuesday night, The Thinking Series (Part 5) was postponed til next week. So I went to the gym and took some pics along the way:

Back to work on Wednesday, and then over to Maxine's for dinner (YUM) (best cook ever) and games night with her fam. LOVED these new games, especially Azul.

I love playing games. Thanks Lewis fam for introducing me to some new ones.

Thursday was Valentine's Day! And it was the coldest Valentine's Day on record since the records began in 1937. The temperature outside matched the temperature of my cold, cold, heart.

Haha.

My Facebook feed was filled with love stuff:

If you have love in your life do all you can to keep that ember burning... let it be the pilot light that keeps the furnace of your passions blazing on through this crazy life. Hold hands, smile, laugh, have little lady and the tramp spaghetti kisses. In a time when so little of that is happening please do it all unabashedly.

On this day of grand romantic gestures, let's remember that love is really about consistency, not intensity.

In North America, Valentine’s Day ranks

2nd for volume of seasonal greeting cards sold [after Christmas] (cf. Greeting Card Association

2nd most popular holiday for eating out [after Mother’s Day] (cf. National Restaurant Association)

3rd for sales of fresh flowers and plants [after Christmas and Mother’s Day] (cf. aboutflowers.com)

4th highest for candy sales [after Halloween, Easter and Christmas] (cf. National Confectioner’s Association).

After work, the snow started falling again.
So I picked up Heather (I have a 4x4 so I ignore weather conditions. My adolescent belief is that when I'm in my Escape I'm invincible on the road. This makes me fearless.) and we went to the library. As one does when one is on an adventure.
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO THE SURREY CENTRAL LIBRARY?
YOU SHOULD GO.
LIKE, FOR SERIOUS.
(I didn't bring my camera; I was going to a library. I found these online.)

This is going to be my new hangout.

In my alternate life, I'm a librarian and this is my turf.
On Friday our office closed at 3 so we all could get a head start celebrating Family Day weekend with our families. I went home and had a nap. Then picked up Terry and went to see a movie. Afterwards, when most people in my time zone were sleeping (I blame the nap), I followed a bunch of internet rabbit holes and landed here.

I love this prayer calendar: (click to enlarge)

Anyone else want to pray for the influencers and entertainers? Two different names per day. Imagine the difference it will make if we pray for those who write, produce, act, create the shows/books/movies/music we love?
If you want to know more about this ministry, here's a video:

On Saturday the sun came out. And it was Pokemon Community Day. So we hung out in Fort Langley catching Swinubs and evolving Exeggcutes.

And then I drove to the lake, where the winter weather continues. Walked the Vedder today (Sunday) and it was 0 degrees AND THERE WERE MEN IN THE RIVER, FISHING.

Three things I'm thankful for:

1. (I'm watching Lion on Netflix. It's breaking my heart.) SO thankful this isn't my kids' story.
2. Furnaces and thick socks.
3. Full moons, starry nights, blue skies, snow covered mountains, music that makes your soul happy, quiet prayer moments, down-filled comforters.

Til next week,
xo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Proudest moment this week: Coming up with an affordable solution to our Basecamp storage situation at work. (Basecamp is the project management software the creative team uses to keep us organized. We were out of room, so I emailed their SUPPORT dept and asked for advice.)

Most embarrassing moment of the week: Creeping on Facebook and accidentally sending FRIEND requests to strangers. Oy.

Funniest moment of the week:

Biggest achievement of the week: THIS. Posting a blog entry. I wasn't sure I'd get it done. Yay me. Cupcakes for everyone.

Best moment of the week: Today (Sunday) making plans for NEXT Sunday. (Getting together with my kids to test mattresses (for new beds at the lake) then dinner afterwards.) ONLY 7 more sleeps.

Best holiday memory of the week: This is the Family Day long weekend. A holiday! First one since New Year's Day! Yay! My kids had other plans so I've spend it alone, at the lake, watching Netflix, reading books and eating tuna casserole.

Best advice I heard this week: Get Basecamp 3.

Most grateful for this week: Friends who feed me, entertain me, support me, love me.

Favorite family memory of the week: :( No family memories. ~~Haven't seen any of my kids since we had dinner two weeks ago.~~ I saw Max for a few minutes on Tuesday while he shoveled the driveway.

(He is not a fan of me taking his pic.)

Biggest regret of this week:

Did you know Instagram keeps track of how many minutes per day you spend on their app? I spent an average of 18 minutes per day here. Which I guess, isn't awful. But I have three instagram accounts, so in total? It's almost 60 minutes per day. I'm sad about those lost minutes. So I'm going to use their daily reminder feature, and limit my time on Insta; down to 20 minutes total.

Best thing I learned this week: I learned some Pokemon things. You wouldn't be interested.

Biggest change I made this week: No changes.

Best gift I received this week: Olive Oil from a print supplier and box of chocolates from Val

New friend this week:

Most inspiring person this week: David Heinemeier. He wrote this book (which I am reading)(and I love. I'm underlining something on every page):

... in case you didn't read ^ this, he co-founded Basecamp. And when I emailed their SUPPORT address, HE replied. (These are abbreviated conversations; the important thing to notice is THE TOP GUY ANSWERS SUPPORT EMAILS.)

Me: Hi Basecamp Support,

It looks like we’ve almost used up all our storage again.

Sigh.

Wondering if you could advise us on what our best solution should be?

Basecamp Support: Hi Jane,

Eeks, sorry about this! Let's get it sorted out. We have a number of larger plans you can upgrade to... But yeah, the best deal really is upgrading to Basecamp 3... Let me know if you have any questions. Also, as the co-founder of Basecamp, I just want to thank you so much for using Basecamp since 2006!! It warms my heart whenever I see this. 13 years in business together. What a milestone 🙏❤️ David

Me: What? The guy who wrote the book/co-founded the company answers support emails? Haha. Whoa. (Had a couple snow days here, so I’ve been reading It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work. It's Brilliant.)

Thanks for your response.

Basecamp Support: Haha, we all do! It's our Everyone on Support ritual; we all take a turn...The one downside is having to change systems, which I know can be a bit of a drag. But you're a pro at that having already gone from 1 to 2. Our version 3 really is a very nice, a big step forward. Thanks again for your loyal support. David.

Word to describe this week: Wintery

Unexpected obstacles I faced this week: Three lost production days due to snow. Ugh. Was lovely not having to go into the office, but it's almost impossible to make up for those lost days.

Unexpected surprise this week: Snow days! Sleep in days! (Also having the guy who designed Basecamp answer my email.)

Best place I visited this week: Surrey Central Library!

New skill I learned this week: How to pay late fees and sign out books from the library.

Biggest obsession this ~~week~~ month: Changing my profile pic on Facebook everyday with a different heart pic. HeatherW sent me a beautiful photo she'd taken awhile ago, to be included in my series. Sadly it didn't work because of sizing so I'll share it here:

Best food I ate this week: Spaghetti squash with all the leftovers in Maxine's fridge baked inside of it. And Hamburger soup that Kathy left for me at work. I love having friends who share meals.