a love affair

i have had since grade seven....that's eighteen years.

my ears are still ringing,

my voice is still raspy,

there is still a bass pounding in my chest.

but lets start at the beginning.

it was the summer between grade six and grade seven and we were up at cowichan lake on the island. we were at our friends cabin enjoying a piece of summertime, while music played softly in the background. vinyl records of a band i had never heard of before. todd showed me his whole collection. i was in awe. i was twelve.

when we returned home and before grade seven started i bought my very first tape, ever. i wasn't sure which one to buy, i had not remembered which album i liked the best from the time up at the cabin, but i had to choose one. so i did. zooropa. i played it over and over and over. flipping it from one side to the next. playing it in my walkman as i weeded outside. falling to sleep before the side was over and then hearing the sound of the play button popping up would wake me in alarm...time to flip it over. it was a great album.

over the years my mom and dad would tell me to turn my music down, what were they singing about anyway? and as i grew, i found other bands to listen to, the cranberries, sinead o'connor, ani difranco, jack johnson...but the constant, U2.

having being the lucky recipient of a friend who bought me tickets in grade twelve, i attended their "pop" concert. not the best, but it didn't matter, i was with my four favorite boys. adam, larry, the edge and bono...the world could not get any better than this.

then...

i was at camp with the boy of my dreams. it was a concert night and the band (russ smith) played mysterious ways, with reference to God so to be applicable to bible camp. i was so excited...but what made it even better, this dream boy of mine was beside me and grabbed my hand, put them up and the air and waved them back and forth, back and forth. are you serious, my life could have ended right there and then, i would have been fulfilled. sigh. side note...this boy doesn't remember any of this, but it's true!

so then,

they were coming to vancouver...dude, so excited...but don't have tickets. so sad. julie had VIP tickets, everyone was going, not me. until the afternoon of the day they were playing...yesterday. my dream boy found us tickets, we were going to hold hands during mysterious ways one more time...my heart was racing. for the rest of the day my armpits were sweaty with excitement. and then it hit me. there are 65,000 other fans who feel the same way about them as i do, and they (the boys), don't even know i exist. how is it possible to feel so excited about someone, somebodies, who don't know you? how is it possible that so many other people feel the same way about them that i do?

somehow it doesn't matter. half way through the concert i threw my arms around scott and hugged him tight.

i saw U2 last night,

my love affair continues,

my ears are still ringing,

my voice is still raspy,

there is still a bass pounding in my chest.

thank you scotty for a wonderful night.

there is still a smile on my face.

this is how i documented the night.

section 441, row zz, seat 4.

the very back.

in the parking lot...the start of the adventure on the train, it has been a really long time since we have done anything just the two of us! the stage the back row dude, here we go

the edge larry their first encore was a set of three songs, "one", "amazing grace", and "where the streets have no name"...this was the highlight of the highlight.

are you serious, i have to stop typing, i am getting excited all over again.

thanks scotty.

my mom

i have this mom, and she is not just any mom. i am sure that all of you reading this would think that you too have one of these moms...the kind that isn't just ordinary, the kind that should be the model on which all moms should base their mommyness, but i am telling you, you don't have that mom...i do.

let me try to capture my mom in words;

when in school, my mom was the one who drove and participated in every school field trip, and i mean every. there is not one time i don't remember having my mom there, and in a great way...until i did something that required her to look at me with those "no nonsense" eyes. she was the mom who back combed robin millers hair, she was in the lunch room (because she was also on the school parent teacher committee) to hear that i had suggested to the public health nurse that sperm just walked across the bed and into the mommy, she and mr. noren made up for every other parent that had to come on school trips.

when running for the bus in the morning, my mom listened to me bang the front door and watched me frown at her every morning as if it were somehow her fault that i was about to miss my school bus, but still she made me my lunch every day all the way through to grade twelve.

she is the kind of mom who found us a new piano teacher after hearing that the first one would slam our fingers under the lid to the keys and walk away from us getting his wife to finish the lesson. never did she question the fact that perhaps her kids didn't practice enough, instead she stood strong beside our case and found us a teacher who, well, had other faults, but we could live with.

at least twice a week, my mom drove more than thirty minutes into town to take us to church, pioneer girls, or youth group, which were all activities that she also volunteered with.

when she wasn't sure her love alone could protect me, she followed behind me slowly in her car, while i rode my bicycle to school.

she had my back when i decided to play the tenor sax and then diligently listened to my woes when i wouldn't carry it "all" the way home because it was so big and banged against the backs of my legs.

when i became involved in musicals in grade seven, my mom drove me to every practice, dress rehearsal and show for the next six years, even attending more shows than any other parent and encouraging me in a job well done.

in dealing with boys, she would read my letters from camp about a boy named scott and smile when i gushed over him at home. she was the first person i phoned when he asked me to be his girlfriend. she encouraged me to let him grow in the Lord when he broke up with me and was disappointed in me for talking about other boys when i went to switzerland. she was the first person to know we were engaged and is a constant source of praise about my wonderful husband.

she is the mom who after hearing from me in the morning that penelope was born two weeks early, drove across on the ferry to spend a few hours with us before having to go to work the next day.

these are the kind of qualities that make up my mom. this is the kind of love and commitment she makes to her kids. she makes sure that everyday we know she loves us...beyond a shadow of a doubt.

so every once in a while we celebrate her.

we celebrate her loveliness, we celebrate her beauty, we celebrate her years.

this was for her sixtieth year.

tea at butchard gardens with some ladies that are dear to her heart.

some friends and family, some ladies who have walked with my mom, some women who encouraged her and uplifted her during moments of her life. this is that look...the "no nonsense" one, except here it is done in fun, when it is for real it is a bit different. after tea was cake with family family photos of grandparents with four granddaughters and two great-granddaughters and so i say thank you. thank you to my auntie pat, who work long hours on this quilt for my mom for the past two years. i can't tell you how thrilled she was with it.thank you to my grandma for encouraging us as we planned this celebration, who stood beside us in our decisions and who talked on the phone with us until the operator told us to stop calling. thank you to my sister who helped to put this all together, who values and cares for, and who loves our mom dearly. thank you to the ladies who came and made this day possible, thank you for celebrating our mom with us and letting her know just how beautiful and wonderful she really is.