This past weekend, I flew back to Ontario for the second time in as many weeks to celebrate the marriage of my baby bro and his beautiful fiancé. Rob and Holli-Ann met when he was posted at Base Borden in the summer of 2010. He had just finished basic training and was starting his training as a supply tech, when he found himself working alongside a beautiful civilian worker. The two of them took a trip to her family’s home province of Newfoundland, and have been together ever since.
The event was made extra special by the presence of my mom. She has been low on energy the last few weeks due to radiation and chemo therapy treatments, but managed to not only attend the wedding but to stay out for the entire duration of the reception. I may have even caught her sipping a few sips of wine during the toasts. Her dance with my brother brought both my sister and I to tears.
I don’t do well at events like this, because I’m intimately involved and want to make sure everything goes perfectly. Not only was I the best man, but also the MC for the reception and a jack-of-all-trades prior to the event. It took a while—and perhaps a few bottles of wine—but I somehow I eventually made the audience made up of close friends and family laugh. Tough crowd.
Overall, the wedding was fantastic. I’m so proud of you, Rob. And Holli-Ann, remember my advice from my speech: let him win once in a while.
Wow, what a whirlwind the last two weeks have been. I’m feeling incredibly stressed and anxious about several things going on in my life at the moment, but in the last two days I’m starting to come up out of the fog and into the sun. It’s a lot more clear up here.
This week, however, was a super special week. Not only was I joined by my two good friends Bill and Ed, but we also had a very special guest. I already spoiled the surprise on Twitter, so I won’t ruin it for you. Have a listen; I think you’ll enjoy it :)
My friend James Shelley and I have known each other for nearly 10 years now. I first met James when he was a youth pastor at a local church I occasionally attended, but our friendship grew playing squash at ungodly hours in the morning. James is one of the brightest, most thoughtful people I know. While practically every word he says carries more weight than anything I could muster up in a week, it’s his willingness to listen to the ideas of others that truly inspires me.
I’ve linked to the Caesura Letters—James’s daily devotional for people who don’t read devotionals—before, but today I’m writing about the project because of some very exciting news. As of today, you can now receive the daily issue in your RSS reader instead of just your email inbox.
A few months ago, I had set up a rule in Gmail to forward all of my Caesura Letters to Instapaper, which I found to be a much better reading environment for the content than an inbox. However, lately I haven’t been keeping up with it because I wasn’t receiving the daily reminders in my email.
I check my RSS feeds multiple times a day, and while I don’t read everything at once, I do tend to go back and read articles I’ve saved at a later date. Having the Caesura Letters in my RSS reader will definitely make reading them on a daily basis much easier.
Of course, that may not be the best system for you. If you’d prefer to read the Caesura Letters in another format, there are plenty of choices:
Obviously, the RSS Feed
The tried-and-true daily email
A new weekly digest email
A quarterly e-book, and for those who still love that old musty smell,
A quarterly paperback book
My congrats to James and the team behind Caesura Letters for a great update to an awesome project. If you haven’t picked up on it already, I really think you should be reading it.
A few years ago, I was at a really low point in my life. I had just been dumped, I had lost my religion, and I was living at home with my parents at the age of twenty-four. For the first time in my life, I used alcohol to assuage my pain.
One night during this time, I was hanging out with a couple of high school buddies—Simon and Mike. The three of us had grown up playing in various garage bands. We played our first gigs at the community youth dances; performed together in the battles of the bands in our school’s cafeteria; recorded demos of our songs first on a little 4-track tape recording, then eventually with a cracked version of whatever audio software was available at the time.
Simon and I had gotten to know each other pretty well as we worked together at the local grocery store. Our friendship carried through college and into our young adult years and we had continued performing in various ensembles throughout that time. Mike and I, on the other hand, had not been particularly close through high school, and hadn’t stayed in touch beyond it.
We spent the night playing guitar, singing songs, drinking, making each other laugh, reminiscing about old times and sharing with each other what life had brought our way in the time since. As the night came to a close, we stood at the front door and talked about a new project the two of them were gearing up for. It was the rebirth of a band called Boss Rebel that Mike had started a few years prior. They had recorded a couple of albums and performed all over Southwestern Ontario, but eventually broke up due to internal conflict. I was six months into a sabbatical from playing music after burning out from a year of rehearsing and performing multiple times every week, but the idea of doing something with two old friends peeked my interest.
My time with Boss Rebel went on to be some of the best years of my musical life. I had always taken music incredibly seriously, dedicated in my devotion to developing both my craft and business, but Boss Rebel taught me that music was meant, first and foremost, to be fun.
In the two years we were together, we recorded a full-length album, shot and released two music videos (one for the title track “Heavybad” featuring yours truly in his favourite style of swimming attire, the other for “Name in Lights”), and played some of the craziest shows I’ve ever played; everything from a breast cancer fundraising show to an axe throwing competition and everything in between.
But aside from all of that, what Boss Rebel really did was save my life. It gave me something good to cling to when everything else in my life felt like it was falling from under my feet.
Getting ready to clean my apartment this afternoon, I did a double take as I opened Rdio and noticed a very familiar image staring back at me from my collection view: the album art for the only Boss Rebel album I was a part of. I have had no part in handling any of the business affairs of the band, so while I knew it had been available on iTunes since its release, I had no idea it had been added to Rdio’s collection as well.
Suffice to say, I’m pretty fuckin’ stoked!
If you’re into bands like Sublime, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Rancid, Ill Scarlett, Black Belt Jones, or Weezer, or if you just like fun, energetic party rock, Boss Rebel might be your kind of thing. If it is, definitely check out Heavybad on iTunes or Rdio.
I had the chance to get away from the city this weekend to spend some time with a dear old friend. I took the ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay and drove the rest of the way to Victoria on a wonderful spring night. The first night was spent eating venison chili at Fisherman’s Wharf then catching up with Corrie, whom I hadn’t seen in nearly a year.
The next day Corrie and I planned a night under the stars and drove into town to pick up supplies. We stopped at a bunch of great little stores in Victoria’s downtown, a few of which were simply for our enjoyment.
After realizing we were still too many important items away from our great camping adventure, we spent an ungodly amount of time in Value Village, followed by nowhere near enough time driving along the coast.
The next day we drove from Victoria to the Juan de Fuca trail. A slow start meant we didn’t get to spend as much time as we had hoped, but the time spent at Parkinson Creek was well worth it.
I haven’t been eating well the last few days. It started last week when I ate gluten for the first time in a few weeks. I had a donut from Tim Hortons.
Since starting on Paleo, I have only had gluten once, otherwise cutting it out completely. I haven’t had fast food all year.
A big part of my success is due to my location. I live next to a grocery store and a butcher shop. While I can’t say for sure, I imagine it might be harder if I moved to a place where these amenities aren’t as close.
Two weeks ago, when I left to visit my family and friends in Ontario, I was nervous about my eating situation. First, there is so much food in my parents’ kitchen, which I used to gorge on late at night watching Buffy reruns. Second, I drove everywhere, which meant I passed numerous fast food operations frequently. The first week, I made it. However, the second week I was not so strong.
As I said, it started with a donut. I was driving home from visiting friends and was starving. Just before I got out of the city, one last sign caught my eye. The red, white, and yellow glow drew me in, and suddenly I found myself at the speakerbox.
“A large chocolate milk and a Boston Cream donut to go.”
And then I paid. And then I drove. And then I ate.
It was so rich. More artificially sweet than anything I’d eaten in months.
My streak was blown again, but I wasn’t out of the rough yet. My new streak was blown a mere three days later.
In the past, this would be the point where I give up. I realize I can’t do what I’ve set out to do, and then fall back into my old patterns. I would gain the weight I had lost, closing myself off from the world with food.
Today, I’m back on track. I picked up some groceries last night. I’ve planned to go for a run after work. I’m moving on.
I’m starting to learn to let the small things be small, and the big things be big. In the end, the donut was a small thing.
