Back in the Blessed Land

I've completed the first leg of my incredible ecclesiastical journey around Canada! I spent most of last week (Since Tuesday) in Ottawa for the ordination of two friends. I met them both when I went to that summer school in Oxford, and then one of them (Kerri) also participated in the Theological Students International Internship Program with me (she went to Jerusalem).

Ottawa was great. My friend Kirsten is doing an internship there, so I was able to stay with her. She's sharing a really nice house about two blocks from Rideau Hall and three or four from 24 Sussex Drive. I managed to see the Parliament Buildings, the Currency Museum and the War Museum. I also managed to see all the restaurants and pubs that I heard about this year from my friends Patrick and Mallory, who were at VST from Ottawa. They were in town for the ordination, so I got to catch up with them.

I got to Edmonton last night, and aside from a brief mix up regarding Jude's phone number ( I had it in my phone as a 403 number; a quick call to Mom sorted me out) the trip was uneventful.

This morning I got up and went to another ordination, this one of two United Church friends from Edmonton. The service was in Hawrleck Park, and since it was a lovely day, that was really great. The service was 3 hours long, and included retirements, ordinations, receiving clergy from other denominations, the installation of a new president and communion. The ordinations were nice though.

I'm here till Friday, then off to Montreal for the final ordination!

school project

My class was on people with mental health concerns in the er-we had to do a photo representation and this is what we did:
I really like what we did :)





The caption reads:

Stigma: Mental Health in Emergency Rooms

Voicelessness, lack of political will and fear

The larger photo represents the lack of power and voicelessness. The view is one of the person behind the seclusion room window, looking outwards towards the open door-going anywhere is unattainable. The words on the window are faint and no one outside of the room is listening.

The smaller picture represents both the suffering of the patient and themes of mental illness. Judgement of society and the health system represented by the red hospital cross. The person is alone.

Ideally we would have been able to place the cross visible in the other room, so that the pictures were combined.

Really

I was reading the paper today and there was a story about a bear in a backyard in Vernon. The couple, Michelle and David, named their children:
Jesus and Krishna

Badgers in Bali

2014 a trip to Bali, Indonesia. Trip of a lifetime, you can rent villas there with a butler, near the beach. Non stop flights from Los Angeles( unless Lisa books, then it is via Sweden and Mongolia). I think most people will be done school by then, and it gives people enough time to save their money. Geoff, Theresa and I are going who wants to come with us?

Visiting Rocky

Sam and I got here around 1 today, and Theresa made us chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, comfort food. I have been battling a cold for the last 10 days, last Saturday it won. I stayed home from work most of last week, snuffleing, coughing and blowing my nose. When I woke up this morning, I still felt congested, but that was all, not really sick any more. Hurray! Allison stopped by on a mercy visit in the middle of the week, and brought me some meds, orange juice and flowers, very thoughtful.

When I went to pick up the car today, I gave my last name, and the lady said Allison or Judith? She told me Allison had also booked a car for today. And they were thinking that one of the reservations was bogus, since Sivak is not that common a name. So I said to say Hi to Allison for me, when she came to get her car.

what a picture

We found this picture on line it shows our old house on fire, it is the ball of fire behind the last town house there. It is amazing how it impacted me even though we have not lived there for 4 years and the inside had been changed so much. Wow

Happy Birthday Theresa

Always smiling for the camera, the best big sister a person can have!!!

Slave Lake

I have heard from some folks in Slave Lake and it is burning. Apparently houses about a block away from where we used to live have burned. It is unbelievable, the good thing however is no reports of injuries. It is hard to comprehend. The last big fire was 10 years ago and I remember how scared I was. My heart goes out to all the folks there.

National Nude Gardening Day (advisory)

And may I stress my gratitude for our nice high fence.

Part time starting to look likely

I spoke to Darrell the manager where I work now, and he seems on board. He asked if I could wait until July, which was my plan anyway, so I agreed. They have some hiring tickets and hope to have at least one person by then. It still has to go through HR, and the request for their approval will not happen until nearer July. And Darrell's boss is away on vacation so it still could get the kibosh, but at least it is leaning in the right direction. Then I looked at the U of A website for jobs and found the perfect one, half time, pay was alright, it closes on the 16th. So maybe I will think about that. I did not say that if I could not go part time I would be quitting, but that too is an option if anyone up from Darrell says no.

Congratulations Will, sorry I could not be there to see the festivities. I went on line to look at the Church you will be working at. looks pretty good from the website.

I am participating in the Relay for Life on June 10. If anyone would like to sponsor me you can do it on line at Relay for Life, follow the links or you just let me know and I will sign you up. This will be my third year. Thanks

Just got in from raking the lawn, not a job I like but have to keep busy. The flowers you gave me last year are coming up fine Mom. Looks like I will have Iris's and day lily's this year.

I hope everyone has a safe trip home from the coast.

I wish I was in Vancouver with all the Badgers! Happy Mother's Day to all and happy ordination to Will.

(Alternatively, I wish I was at the VSS conference in Florida again... boo, didn't get my data until after the abstracts were due, so no beach for me this May).

However, since neither of those seem likely, New Haven will do. I've been asked to stay at the lab until the end of the summer and do a bit more research, which seems like quite a compliment and also means putting off any more Guelph for a few months. However, apparently when I applied for my visa, I signed a form saying I would not be staying more than six months (which I'm sure is true, since I signed whatever they sent me). So I am waiting around for Yale's International Student department to decide what to do with me. Very awkward, since I would need to start finding a place to live for July and August. (I would stay here, but my housemates were kind enough to sublet a room for May and June without notifying me of when the girl would be looking at the house, so I didn't get a chance to meet her. Hopefully she's fine, but if not I didn't want to sign on for two more months with someone I haven't had a chance to suss out).

Fingers crossed... I really don't want to be condemned to another Guelph summer!

Van city

I got here yesterday after my 2nd class for masters. I made excellent time. The Sheraton is some nice hotel-Mom and I have a quite nice view of St Paul's Hospital-which is right across the street. I looked it up on the internet-psychiatric programs-and wondered if it would be super weird if I went to see what how they do things there. It was raining quite a bit yesterday and this am, but is now cloudy but no rain.
We went to The Templeton for breakfast-tasty, and then came back to hotel room. I had to nap, and others went to Granville Island. For some reason I woke up at -730 this morning? I had the feeling this would lead to me needing a nap.
I have a conference next week-Journal of Ethics in Mental Health-that I am quite excited about. And with this week's and next week's masters course-on the Historical, Social, and Political Context of Nursing-I am all about learning. And time off work, though not off of nursing.
We are all on the 9th floor here. We thought perhaps they should take off the 9th floor button from the elevator, like they do for the 13th. There were quite few beer bottles in the recycling container. Will's favourite beer is quite good.