Luck Change

So June 16th was my second "I Choose Dign!ty" rally. I went to my first one two years ago, since the one that was supposed to occur last year was cancelled due to bad weather. If you weren't following me two years ago, the I Choose Dign!ty rally is an event where people who feel that they have not been allotted their fair share of dignity gather. The beginning of the rally begins at Extend-a-Family and continues onto City Hall.

While the rally is organized by an agency that focuses on people diagnosed as having developmental disabilities, it is meant to include anyone who agrees with the message that we are all full human beings and deserving of dignity. In the past, LGBTQ has made the most effort to stand shoulder-by-shoulder with us. This year, we had a woman choosing to wear Hijab make a speech on why she chooses dignity.

For years, I've been told by people that I'm featured on the I Choose Dign!ty brochure, but the image isn't online, so far as I've been able to make of it, and whenever I ask people about it, they seem sure they've got a brochure on hand, check themselves, and realize they don't. When I showed up at the rally, I shared this sentiment with someone I knew, she gestured to a huge billboard-sized image. I was on it.

It's the group image taken from the top of city hall, but since I carry some unusual traits that make me more visible, I guess I caught the attention of a number of people. I was in the middle of saying "Dignity" too, since that's what they were saying instead of "Cheese" and my mouth is positioned accordingly. Coupled with me waving my flag that says "Nobleness" and I just presented as being really into the event.

I chose a flag that says "Worthiness" this year. I'm in the banner again and a number of photos. Not all of them were that flattering.

 The person who did my second-year student placement with me at WALES came for the rally. A professor we shared in common was also being thrown a retirement party down the street, so we went their after the rally.

Everything seems to be moving in my direction this summer. In May, everything seemed to be moving against me. Any time things were left to luck, I'd be put in an inconvenienced position, you know? I couldn't even win at Big Game Hunter (wildlife shooter video game).

But this month... I'm doing the program with someone that was doing her 2nd year student placement when I was doing my first. Different girl from last year, if I ever mentioned that. I'm working with someone who did the Summer Program two years back, and another person who did it one year back. So I know all these people, and they each don't know each other.

First day is a workshop on citizenship. We are asked to present what the greatest obstacle for us is in the development of community. Each section of the organization is sitting at different tables. I present the concept of the "Monkey Sphere", which is a concept that people are only capable of perceiving a finite number of others as individuals, and afterwards become a statistic, with large cities making people fall outside the proximity of most people's sphere even though they are in their immediate presence. My group is floored, wants me to present it. I do so, and receive the only applause of all the other groups. The spokeswoman shouts us out throughout nthe workshop after this.

When the group came together next week, we were all assigned the task of developing ice breaker activities. When my boss says the first one will be based on names, I tell him he stole my activity, and so he asks me to lead it. After my explanation, I ask if that's what he was planning and he says it was "So much better"

As an team building activity, my team had to beat another team at building a structure made of spaghetti, string, tape, and a balloon.The other team developed a really strong strategy and my team just messed around, but we took the win.

 We were asked what we thought of the deep green shirt colour that the Summer Program has used in previous years. Everyone agreed it was great. I shared a concern that it was similar to other program colours, and so now we're using a deep orange.

We had to build a castle out of material such as construction paper, balloons, popsicle stick etc. Me and one other person were requested to be stationary while other members rotated. My castle won.

I got asked to help in leading an Extend-a-Family history workshop. I got asked to lead parachute games.

Last season odds were against me and it was proper to play safe. This year things are in my favour and I should probably make strong movements.

Bridges

This is going to be difficult to explain.

So I'm not with Facile anymore. Or at least, I was with Facile for its full run, but they've changed their name to Bridges to Belonging, and I didn't cross that Bridge from Facile to Belonging.

It's a good choice in name change. "Facile" is the French word for easy. I think they used it because "Facile" sounds like "facilitation" and facilitation should "make things easy". Unfortunately, facilitation is not really intended to make things easy, and actually, it should present challenges.

In England, the term "Facile" might mean, "to make so simple it is ridiculous". Considering the population that I serve, and the stigmatization they often, it might be seen that a change in vocabulary was overdue.

I first came on when there was a need for new workers because of a sudden influx in funding from something called the Independent Facilitation Demonstration Project (IFDP). This was a project funded by the government to assess how valuable independent facilitation was for the populations we serve. Before this project was put into place, Facile operated on a "fee for service" basis, people paying out of pocket for a service they knew they agreed with.

With the introduction of the new fiscal year, there were some severe funding cuts to people in the IFDP, and five of my six people were effected.

So guess what I'm doing this summer?

That's right! The Extend-a-Family Summer Program! Before me and my Facile supervisor spoke on ending my partnership with the organization, I had already within a week been offered and declined the Summer Program position. I was like "Love you guys, but I'm way too old and busy and successful to do this job"

A week later and I'm like "Hey... any chance there's any room in that old Summer Program?"

I picked up some independent support contracts to tide me over until the summer program begins, and I still have my Extend-a-Family people. Even if I don't have much planned until after, this Summer I will be even busier than last year.

Driver's Training

My brother has been accepted into the University of Guelph! You know what this means, right? This means that my brother is a Guelph Gryphon!

(I've spoken on how the U of G's mascot is the Guelph Gryphon, how people think I'm named after a sports team, and only in Guelph do people spell my name correctly, right?)

He's taking a general program with focuses in computer programming, English, and biodiversity studies.

Also, I'm taking driver's training! It's been... four years since I was behind the wheel of a vehicle. Pretty sure I was blogging about it back then. I learned to drive from my grandfather in a pickup truck out in Canadian Shield country. I went for my G2, but according to my instructor, while I hadn't made any disqualifying errors, I'd made an "accumulation of minor ones" disqualifying me. I was a little salty over the vagueness of that reasoning.

I was worried about driving in a normal car. I was worried it would be way more sensitive than what I was used to, and that it would be difficult to adjust. I was also worried about learning to drive in a large-ish city, compared to the small towns I was used to. For comparison, where I'm learning now is referred to as the "tri-city" while the nearest city I drove in when I was learning before is called the "tri-town". When my instructor first showed up, he was like "Hey, have you ever driven, would you like to drive?" in one breath. I was impressed that he was willing to sit in a car with someone when he didn't even know if it might be their first time.

He said my steering and my confidence were good, which I appreciated because my confidence was NOT GOOD. At one point, I was driving and he asked me if I worked in the area. I was so focused on the roads, I wasn't really taking in landmarks. I looked at a few street names and said "No, why?" He said "You seem familiar with the area". I then realized we were in the area where I used to live, in our interim place between student housing and where I'm at now. I thought it was cool that he could tell I was familiar with an area based on my driving, even though my brain was too focused on the technicals of the area to register my general environment.

I hate driving around children. They're such a combination of fragility, unpredictability, and value. Some kids were playing in the road and my instructor said "Don't worry about the children" I gave him kind of an exhasperated laugh in return and he responded "These are Canadian children, they are accustomed to being around traffic".

At one point, I was driving around some children, an older couple walking a dog, and a mother with a baby carriage. My instructor was just like "Don't worry about anything", probably picking up on the fact that I was worrying about everything.

I thought he was talking up my competence to boost my confidence, but then he suggested I downgrade to a bundle with half the lessons at almost half price, saying that he'd be robbing me otherwise.

These driving schools are funny. I was looking up Google reviews on local driving schools, and it seems like each driving school only has one or two instructors. Mine is a chain, but there are schools like "Mary's Driving School" and "Sarah's Driving Academy" in which Mary and Sarah are literally the only instructors for their respective schools. Even my school has reviews referencing only two different instructors. Each school picks you up, too, so it doesn't matter the location so long as you're in the right city.

My instructor has his students finish their lesson by dropping off the next student at their house. So I get to deliver someone home, and then someone delivers me at the end of the day. I've only seen female students other than myself. Why is this? Men don't take driver's training? I'm in a female-dominant population again, it seems...

Edit: WHOAAAAA, this is my 666th post! This is the blog entry of THE BEAST!

Crowne Plaza

This weekend, I'm been at the Crowne Plaza! It's one of the swankier hotels in Kitchener. It has its own pool, hot tub, sauna, exercise room, ping pong tables, mini golf, bowling, arcade and more!

I know it sounds odd that I would spend a weekend at a hotel in the city that I live in. It's work related.

I did wind up getting a plot in a community garden. Not the one I was after, though. This one's a bit of a hike out, but whatever. I've planted snow peas, sunflowers, zucchinis, cherry tomatoes, and impatiens. The impatiens are to attract bees, since I learned that the reason my zucchini plants always flower but don't often turn into zucchinis is because there aren't enough bees to help cross polinate. So I decided to get a flower that is more consistent to establish it as a hot spot for bees.

My phone broke. One day my phone just wouldn't power on. I always thought it would meet its end due to something charger related, but instead it just started freezing on the front screen. So I brought it in, and the guy said it was just done. If I'd been able to have it last until November, I would have gotten a new one for free, so I was disappointed. Still, the length it lasted put it down to $75 on a phone that is usually over $200.

 I remembered an interaction I had with a guy at the bus terminal. He'd asked for $3 for a bus. I gave it to him and he held out a phone. I said "What is this?" He said "For the $3", I said "You don't have to give me your phone, man", he said "I don't take charity", I said "Fine, but I'd give you the $3 regardless". I then accepted his phone and he offered to give me his autograph, which I also accepted.

So I wondered if this phone might actually work, and if I could just put the SIM card of my old phone into it. I charged it, powered it on, was surprised it was a fully functioning phone, with his contact list, a working calendar and other basic apps, and could work as timepiece. It wouldn't recognize my SIM card though. I wondered if it was because my phone was an android and his a Blackberry (no wonder he was selling it for $3 amiright?). I lamented over a memory of a woman on the street in crisis trying to sell me an Alcatel (same make as my phone) for $20. I didn't take it because it seemed kind of exploitative and I didn't realize you could transfer a SIM at that time.

So I had to go buy one. Even though I had to pay the $75, they soothed that pain by giving me a $100 gift certificate.

So really, the Blackberry was not the cheapest phone I've owned.

My flip was $60.

My Alcatel was free.

My Blackberry was $3.

And they gave me $25 for my Samsung.

This thing is beautiful. It pulls up the keypad on outgoing calls. so I can dial extensions now (shouldn't be a selling point, but after the past year and a half, it is). I just plug it in to charge it. The screen is even larger, and it can go for days without charging. The battery will likely weaken, but the Alcatel was always a daily charge, so it has a better starting point.

Ducks Mating

Recently, I had the experience of seeing ducks mating. I'd heard much about their unique mating habits, but never seen it in person. It's uh... not in agreement with the acceptable standards of human romantic interaction. I don't think I'll get into it here. But here's a Cracked article on it:

http://www.cracked.com/funny-2938-duck-rape/

So... before seeing the actual ducks, I first saw a neighbour of mine staring in abject horror. I followed her gaze to see a crowd of children trying to intervene. I slipped beside her and whispered to her:

"You know it is... what they do right?"

"It looks so mean!"

"It is mean... It's why I don't like ducks."

"Are they going to kill her?"

"No... or else there wouldn't be baby ducks."

She then called out to the children to step back, saying the ducks were just "hanging out". The children contested this. She saw her husband coming over the hill and called out to him, "Babe, look what the ducks are doing! He says it's natural!"

Her husband called back to her "Can't stop nature, Honey".

Except even in that article I linked, they described a variety in duck mating rituals. I think most people get caught up in the morbid side of it, and forget it's not typical. But because I described it as a natural act, and everyone trusts me around here to provide sound knowledge, people took what I said to heart and the consensus became to let nature take it's course even if it looked ugly.

After telling this story to someone else, she did some research and came back to me with some new facts. Actually, ducks typically form pair bonds, and the female duck's evolution is such that the aggression gene in male ducks is currently being bred out.

In other words, because of what I'd told the community, countless acts of aggression by male ducks were not being intervened in. I might as well be doing it to those brave female ducks fighting the good fight to end this violence!

Next time I saw it, I kind of stood by, looking on, not sure what I should do. I thought that, being men, all good and randy, they would either be difficult to distract or turn their aggression on to me. I sauntered up to the group but they took no notice. Then I sent my foot crashing down next to the closest male like a guillotine. If I had aimed for the duck, it would have been crushed. I was surprised by my own force. The group exploded and scattered. The female escaped.

When telling this story to the woman that educated me further on duck mating facts, I said "Now, knowing that I have the power to stop this, I'm never going to let that happen in front of me again."

She said "That sounds like the weirdest Superhero origin story".

Mom's Birthday

Today is Mom's birthday and I'm in Guelph to celebrate it.

I'm not really in a financial position to cash out on presents this year, but I got her a few things.

One of the people I'm associated with does chainmail jewellery, so I got her a multi-colour bracelet from this guy. It's kind of cool, because it's similar to what Mom used to do when she had that entrepreneur jewellery business. I got this at the Side by Side Art Show at The Museum, which is run by Planned Lifetime Networks.

Planned Lifetime Networks is an organization that helps people diagnosed with developmental disabilities to create support networks and friendship circles. The Side by Side Art Show was an event where pieces done by local artists, from people with and without disabilities are put on display and sold. They had their most successful year this year, about triple the turnout of the year previous, enough to fill the entire bottom floor of The Museum.

I also got her a painting at this event. Made by an artist I'm not familiar with in this case. I won't be able to give it to her until The Museum is done with the display, though.

The Museum is a museum in downtown Kitchener. I don't really like the name, it sounds arrogant. It's kind of like saying "We are the one and only museum, compared to us, those other places don't deserve to call themselves such." We even have another major museum, the Waterloo Region Museum. Although I don't really like the name of that one either, because it's on the farside of Kitchener, and even though Kitchener is part of the Waterloo Region, considering the rivalry between the two cities, showcasing Waterloo's prominence in the heart of Kitchener feels uncool. I still prefer it to The Museum though.

We have a couple of smaller museum's too. There's one in the University of Waterloo, and one in Conestoga Mall, and we have a more specified Clay and Glass Art Museum. And while The Museum is a nice museum, it really only has one major exhibit going at a time, which the swap out to keep things varied. It's a relatively small museum compared to, say, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, which has enough space to maintain a variety of stable exhibits. It might not be fair to compare Kitchener's major museum to Toronto, considering Toronto's status, but it still goes to show you that between the to of them, if one of them is going to be The Museum, it isn't Kitchener's.

The Museum also has a pub attached to it named "B @ The Museum". The "B" doesn't stand for anything, it's just trying to be modern, I guess, by misspelling the word "be" as if it were text or chat. But people do that because they're firing off a  quick message and don't want to waste time. When they do it, it comes across like they were in a hurry to get their market out and couldn't bother to waste time spelling the words "be" or "at". The person in charge of naming things @ The Museum doesn't know what they are doing.

Mom's birthday always falls near Mother's Day, so she kind of gets the two celebrated in one. Since Mother's Day was last Sunday, I couldn't really get to Guelph for it, because I'd have the awkward decision of taking a whole week off or going back Monday, staying in Kitchener for one full day and leaving the day after. I guess she's got a similar problem to a kid whose birthday is near Christmas.

Community Garden

I've been trying to rent a plot at the local community garden.

There's a fenced off portion of land near where I live with sectioned areas of gardening space. All of my neighbours seem to know someone whose used it, but nobody has done so personally.

It doesn't exactly have an address, but a vague Google of the area, plus "Community Garden" brought up what I needed to know. Apparently it's part of something called the "Community Garden Council of Waterloo Region".

http://community-gardens.ca/content/about-us

On the page for my local garden, I got the phone number and address for a local community centre. This was surprising to me, as I'd lived here for some months and had not noticed a community centre. I called them but got voice mail, then decided to go to the address.

So this part of the story might be quite common, but it's the first time I'd ever run across something like this, so it seems worth telling. Following the instructions to the community centre led me to a townhouse complex. My perspective of a "Community Centre" is a stand-alone structure with a variety of resources, and this didn't quite fit that perception. I found the relevant address in front of a very standard-looking home, except this one was marked with the letter "A". To find the centre, I walked down the street of homes with identical numbers but increasing alphabet letters. Eventually, I came across a unit with a sign saying "Community Centre" in the window, and a sign saying "Open".

It looked like all the other units, so I was conflicted on whether I should knock on the door (typical of a privately owned space) or if I should just enter (typical of a public access space).

I decided to just go in. The inside looked like someone's home. Someone called out to ask who'd come in. I stammered something about not knowing whether or not I was in the right place. The people who greeted me looked like family, furthering the "home-image", but they said they were the ones who ran the community garden. The main guy who started it wasn't there, so they left him a note to call me back.

He didn't call me back, and I've called twice more and have visited three more times. Each time I've visited has been inside usual business hours, but other than the first encounter, it's been closed. Today, I asked a guy sitting outside if he knew what the hours for the centre were, and he said it was pretty random.

It's almost like a family just claimed some unused land, told people that if they wanted access, they'd have to pay, and put up a "Community Centre" sign in front of their window, deciding on a whim when they felt up to having the Centre open to the public. Maybe I could do that.

I've called out several people working inside the Community Garden. When I asked the first guy how to rent a plot, he said he didn't know. When I asked him how he did it, he said it was for a friend. Today, I asked a woman and she just looked at me and shook her head sadly...

Creepy, creepy Community Garden dynamics.