Things I Love Thursday – Community

It’s been a tough week – not so much on me, I’m far removed from it, but it’s still kind of tough to be on the other side of the country.

My dad went in for surgery earlier this week, but it sounds like everything is going fine. I’m left thinking about how I’m so far away and how nice it would be to be “home” during this time – where home is with my parents in Edmonton instead of my new home, with my chosen family – JC, Emmie, Kes, Marmo (aka Football), and our ever changing motley crew of foster cats. It would be nice to be able to visit the hospital and chat and annoy my father directly, but conveniently, cell phones are no longer banned in the hospital, or at least not in his ward, so I can call and bother him all I want (so I do).

So this Thursday, one of the things I love is Family. My collections of families; genetic, chosen, by-marriage, the digital world of connections, the feline family that has chosen me. I feel lucky to have it all.  Even when I don’t always particularly like them all… I love them all.

Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo, aka National Novel Writing Month, continues, and I’m plodding along slowly, but actually hitting my word count goals or somewhere close to them on most days (yes it’s only been 6 days…) My story is also giving me nightmares, which of course manages to fuel my writing further. Win-Win really.

I think what really helps this time around is having supportive friends that are also writing their own novels. In past Nanowrimo attempts I hadn’t really tried to tap into some of the more friendly fun social aspects of this wonderful month of writing. Are you participating too?

 Urban Parks

Another one of those things…  the wonderful parks we’ve got right here in the city. High Park is the closest to me, but there are so many more and it’s nice to be able to go into the forest every once and a while, and get surrounded by trees, and nature. My love of parks was definitely inspired by my parents – we would go into the Edmonton River Valley regularly, or just walk in the forests in Lessard and Rio Terrace. We’d go off trail and find wild horseradish and Saskatoon berries just growing merrily in the woods and forage before it was “a thing”.

Happy memories in the parks of Edmonton, and now I’m building new happy memories in the parks of Toronto.

Park People – Toronto Alliance for Better Parks put together a Park Toolkit, on how to get active with parks in your community. Whether that means just visiting, hosting an event, making the park better, or whatever, it covers a lot of options. Click the image below to check out all of their guides.

And if you’re thinking… why would something like this even be needed. There is a great article on it in Spacing this month asking (and answering) that very same question.

Running

I hate running &  I love running. Most of the time, I hate running while I’m running. If I’m thinking about running while I’m running, I’m having a bad time. But it’s such a great time to think. Or sing. And the after effects are so positive it keeps me coming back for more.

My love of parks doesn’t extend to running in them and we’re renting a treadmill right now, and so it’s right in front of my standing desk, so I see it. Waiting for me. Calling me out. Shoes at the ready. Set. Go.

If you’re interested in starting a running routine, I think Couch to 5K is still one of the most reasonable programs for people starting out that I’ve seen.

Zines

I wanted to mention this Cat Butts zine. It’s funny really, because I first heard about it from the person that ended up adopting George,  one of our fosters a few weeks ago. And now here it is. The finished product.

As an added bonus, all of the proceeds from this zine will go to Annex Cat Rescue, which I’m excited about, plus I just love zines. A lot.

Pebble

And finally… I got a Pebble smart watch last week. So I feel like I’m living in the future, controlling my thermostat from my watch, reading my email, hanging up phone calls, and tracking my walking and sleeping habits… but ultimately – I realized the real reason I got this watch all along.

The Kit-Kat Clock watch face. If you want to see the clock in action, I posted a short video of it on instagram.

Other things I like/love in rapid succession.

Nona Vegan Cheese Sauce (full review coming up eventually). This horrifying/delightful craft project based around the Weeping Angels from Dr. Who. (I just have to figure out a good feather replacement). I liked this article on possible directions for the Body Positive Movement. And this interesting thought experiment on how Banksy might be female. A really important statement from the amazing Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multi Cultural Women Against Rape. (Please take care of yourselves and each other). This article in the Beaverton poking fun at how busy we all are (“Toronto friends plan to meet for coffee four months from now.”) This beautiful photography series of a “Male Feminists view on African Women.” And finally, Malala Yousafzai is my hero and one of my favourite people on the planet. So much love. Seriously.

Hope you are having a beautiful week.