Catching Up

As promised, this will be a mini catch-up blog to cover the little tidbits that I didn't have a chance to talk about in the 3 months that I was off doing whatever. I thought I'd have time in July, but I was sailing every other evening. Then I thought August would be more convenient, but then my parents went off on their cruise. And when the Olympics started, forget it. I was glued to the TV at all hours. Then September started, and I had the film fest occupying my time. So here are a few things I wanted to share with you:

Scenes from the Side of the Road

I mentioned in my film fest blog that I was late for the recruiting session for reasons beyond my control. Well, everything was going just fine that day. After work, I was driving towards downtown, but I heard a strange, repetitive sound coming from my car. I couldn't quite figure out where it was coming from. Like an idiot, I ignored it, and sure enough, just as I was about to transfer from one highway to another.... Luckily, I was already in the left lane, so I pulled straight into the left shoulder. My suspicion was confirmed - the rear passenger side tire was dead. Not just flat, but exploded. What's a girl to do? Call her daddy. What floored me was that when I asked him if I should wave off any tow trucks and tell them that I'm waiting for the CAA, he realized, "Oh yeah, I should renew my membership." Twenty minutes of waiting on the side of a highway during rush hour in the middle of a hot summer day was a little nerve wracking and sweaty. One older gentlemen slowed to ask if I needed help, which was nice. Another guy was waving frantically at my car from the right lane, pulled his car over, but then decided to keep going. Curious, I waited for a gap in the traffic to see if my car had suddenly experience some other kind of calamity, like it had burst into flames and I just didn't see it from my angle. Nope, tire was still busted.

My father eventually showed up, then called CAA. But...I was late to the recruiting session, so the best daddy in the world stood by the side of the road as I took off in the car he came in. I learned later that the comedy of errors continued as the tow truck guy got lost trying to find our car. Then there was no choice but for him to change the tire on the side of the road, with my father waving cars away from the shoulder. For some reason, a taxi thought he was trying to hail him. As for me, the tire episode resulted in me missing out on some good volunteer shifts, as well as being late to meet some friends for dinner by almost an hour. But they all forgave me once I told my tale.

Chinese Charms

As everyone knows, the chinese zodiac consists of twelve animals, one animal every year. What you may not know is that, based on your own animal and the animal of the current year, there are certain animal charms that you should carry during the year to bring luck. In my case, I'm supposed to carry a horse, a monkey, and a pig. For some strange reason, my mother decided I should carry them this year. The last time I did it, I was hired for my first job after university. This year, not long after I started carrying the charms in my purse, I was offered a new position at work. It's not a promotion, but it's definitely a chance to try something new and add another line to my resumé. I have to admit, it took me a while to make up my mind. I had no desire to leave my department, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to try. Plus, I wasn't going to turn my back on ancient chinese secrets...

One Step Closer to Piracy

Learning how to sail was the main highlight of the summer. I took an adult class on Tuesday and Thursday evening through the month of July, along with one full day on a Saturday. We learned in a two-person dinghy called a 420. We were taught how to rig the boat, as well as the basic physics of sailing. My geekiness came to the surface at that point, remembering vectors and forces and fluid dynamics. Unfortunately, most nights we were left bobbing around on the lake on perfectly calm evenings, or else scrambling to get back to the dock before the thunderstorm reached us. I capsized three times, twice on purpose. The one time I didn't mean to was during the Saturday lesson. There was a very slight breeze, so we got out into the lake, but then it died, and then it rained, and then the breezed picked up. REALLY picked up. At that moment, I was in the forward section, handling the jib, while my partner, a really nice German lady, was steering. We both freaked out a little when the boat started to take off. Trouble really started when she turned a bit to quickly, and the boat started to tilt. Then she dropped the tiller, and we started to turn around in circles. Then she over-compensated, and we started to turn in the opposite direction. I spent my time throwing my body from left to right, trying to counterbalance the boat so it wouldn't tip over. And, naturally, just before the whole thing started, I was trying to tie my water bottle to one of the lines so I wouldn't lose it. Finally, the wind won, and the boat went sideways. A lot of things happened really fast at this point: in my head, the only thing I wanted to save was my water bottle and our lunches. Plus, I was still hanging on to the side of the boat that was now up in the air. So I jumped into the water, really quickly asked my partner if she was okay, swam like mad around to the centreboard (the board that goes through the bottom of the boat to stabilize it), waited for my partner, counted to three, then we both pushed down hard on the centreboard, and the boat popped back upright. This whole time, I was still holding on to my water bottle, so I pitched it in the boat, swam to the aft, got my partner to shove me in, and then pulled her in too. Strangely enough, everything that was in the boat was still there. One of the instructors came up to us laughing, saying that he saw the whole thing, and my partner had jumped into the water before the boat had totally capsized. On the other hand, he was impressed that we got the boat upright again so quickly. I told him I was highly motivated.

"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me"