I know, I know... you all are probably thinking, "Well, it's about time she is posting another blog entry!" After all, wasn't that the New Year's Resolution... to be a little more regular with these here blog entries? And now what, it's been almost a month since my last entry... and I take full blame! It's not that nothing has happened... life has been absolutely crazy. So much so that it's almost impossible to keep up with living it, let alone writing about it. But tonight is the night that I'm going to give an honest attempt at trying to catch up :)
Ok... so where did we leave off? Guess I'm going to have to go back and check the last posting :) Oh geez... it really has been almost a month since I last wrote anything! And so much for my awarding good points and bad points to the various Olympic moments ;) Suffice it to say, the Olympics were very successful in almost every way except for the winter weather... we get a FAIL on that. It was just way to mild out ... so much so that our local mountains were not getting snow. I'm not sure who made the decision to hold some of the snow events on one of our local mountains. After all, last year was the exception to the rule when Vancouver and the local mountains got tons of snow... most years, the city doesn't get snow, and the local mountains can be 50/50 as to how much snow they get. Whistler/Blackcomb... not a problem, and there wasn't a problem this year either, so I'm not sure why they didn't hold all the events up there. But around the world the big joke was that Vancouver had no snow so why was this city awarded the winter Olympics? Well, that was a little misleading... the ONE local mountain didn't have a lot of snow, but the rest were fine. The city itself, not even an icicle... but that was fine because there were no outdoor events in the city proper... so no snow meant people could be wandering around in their red jerseys
As you can see... "Red" was definitely the colour during the 17 days of these games! Even now, with the Paralympics coming to an end, the city is still dressed in all it's finery! Here are some random pictures of Vancouver...
Zip-lining through downtown Vancouver! Usually, if you want to go zip-lining, you would go off somewhere to the woods, where they would have a zip-line set up to go through the trees and above the rivers or waterfalls... but during the Olympics, if you didn't mind the long lineups, you could zip between the building and above the traffic :)
The red Olympic mittens were the hottest item of the games... even Oprah Winfrey got in on the excitement and one of her daily audience groups were all given the red mittens, and she did explain that the money raised for these $10 mittens was money that went to funding the Canadian Olympic athletes training. So, wherever there were hands or paws, the red mittens seemed to appear... and yes, I have my very own pair of red Olympic mittens :)
And then there were the buildings:
Uh... what's wrong with the picture above?? These games were in February, during the dark of winter... and you can see for yourself, in front of the supportive buildings, the cherry trees are in bloom!! Spring arrives early, in February, before the Winter Olympics are over... a good 5 weeks early to be exact :)
And then for some random, Olympic moments...
Still, one of my all time favourite displays at the Olympics was this light "art show" called Vectorial Elevation. These lights would dance in the night sky, every night of the Olympics and they were just magical. Even with the tall apartment and condo buildings so close by, they did not shine on them so those living there were in no way inconvenienced... yet you can see, even by this one picture, the wonderful night time photo opportunities there were... every night!
Hehehe... I guess you kind of get the picture... I was very, very impressed with the Olympics and the amount of work and organization that went into pulling this huge 17 day event off so smoothly. No, we did not have any threats of violence or terrorism... although there was very, very tight security so that this would be prevented. The nice thing (and I actually quite marvel at it), is you KNEW that security was tight and they were very, very serious about it... but as a local or tourist, you could never see what was going on behind the scenes. From the perspective of a layperson, you could see the police were out on foot, on horseback and obviously be vehicle. For the most part, they were mingling in the crowds and it was noted over and over again how friendly the police were to everyone. They would take tourists' pictures when asked, or pose in pictures with tourists. They were always relaxed, smiling, laughing and joining in on the fun... meanwhile, the whole time they were trained to keep an eagle eye on what was going on around them. They would have noticed triggers for trouble before any of the rest of us would have noticed anything. And, as was noted by more than one US commentator, they were amazed at the amount of police/law enforcement around the venues and on the streets and there was no sign of a gun anywhere. Well, that's a bit misleading... of course the police are armed, but they were not wearing their guns in sight to make a statement. And that really did seem to work in that everyone knew they were the police, but that they were having as much fun (or so they made it appear) as everyone else.
Oh, how I do ramble :) Let's change the subject... this past week, I think I mentioned that I would have to get more blood work done, a CAT scan and an Ultrasound. Well, I had them all done on different days this week. I will get the results of these scans/blood work on Monday afternoon when I have an appointment with an oncologist who is stepping in for my own oncologist who is on sabbatical while she is working on research (she will be back in May). Am I nervous about Monday? Yes, I am... I'm actually very nervous. It's not that I feel any different... I feel great! And I obviously have a fair amount of energy since I have been volunteering at two different theatres. There's TUTS (Theatre Under the Stars), our outdoor summer theatre, which is a year round volunteer job. I help in the office with various administrative duties and I just love that I have an office to go to in the middle of one of the most gorgeous parks in the world (check posts back in July/August to see the theatre, the office and the grounds around both) :) I am also the Publicist for Metro Theatre, a 360 seat community theatre, as well as webmistress and Editor/Creator of a quarterly eNewsletter. I mention this because between both theatres AND a social life, I am on the go 7 days/week... so if I was ill, one would think that I couldn't keep up that pace, right? But as I mentioned in the last post, my CEA reading has gone up from July to Nov, and then Nov to Feb. So not only are we doing all the blood work again, the CAT scan is of the lungs/abdomen to see if there is any new growth or the nodules that are in the lungs, if they have changed their pattern of growing. The ultrasound is of the kidneys because apparently I have a cyst in my kidney. For the life of me, I don't remember us talking about this at all, but supposedly we did... and it's true, the mind will play games and shut out information it doesn't think is important... which always shocks the heck out of me. Anywho... I will know more Monday afternoon if the scans have found anything that we should be concerned about... and if so, what the treatment will be. And yes, whenever I think about it, I do get somewhat anxious and nervous.
Meanwhile (do I dare babble on more??)... I am keeping myself extremely busy. I mentioned the theatre involvements and one thing I have not mentioned was my major Publicity coup that I have accomplished and am thoroughly enjoying. In April, we (at Metro Theatre) will be producing a Canadian comedy - "Opening Night" by Norm Foster. Norm Foster is one of, if not THE, top playwright in Canada. He has been compared to the US's Neil Simon, or Britain's Alan Ayckbourn. Well, Mr. Foster is actually here in Vancouver, acting in a play the Vancouver Playhouse is producing at the moment called "A Love List" which he also wrote. Other plays you may or may not be familiar with that he wrote are "The Melville Boys" and "Affections of May". So I got in touch with the Publicist at the Playhouse and we talked it over and came up with a plan (that he is agreeable with) for him to come out to two rehearsals at Metro so the cast/director could meet him and talk to him. As well, on Sunday, April 11th, he will be coming to the matinee performance and will participate in a TalkBack Session with the audience (so any of you who are reading this and live in the Lower Mainland, you might want to look into getting tickets for this performance... to see the show and meet the playwright in person!). I have arranged for Vancouver's Jerry Wasserman (Professor of English and Theatre out at UBC, and was the Vancouver Province newspaper's theatre critic for years) to be the facilitator of the TalkBack session. It should be a fabulous event... one that I'm really looking forward to!
This weekend, yes, I've been busy since we have auditions all day today (Sat) and tomorrow (Sun) for TUTS two summer productions -- "Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and "Singin' In The Rain". Tomorrow, we should be finished, packed up and I should be home in time for the televised Closing Ceremonies of the Paralympic Games. I'll miss them when they are gone. Although I didn't get to see any of the events, there was plenty of things happening downtown and letting us know the athletes were here... not to mention, the city has been so gorgeous, clean and pretty while both the Olympics and the Paralympics have been in town. Not that Vancouver is ever really dirty, it's not... but it has been particularly clean and well-looked after!
Soooo... on Monday, I will see the oncologist and have been sending out thoughts that everything is just fine. My thoughts that I send out are that I'm healthy, healthy, healthy!! And after I get that message from the oncologist, or at least the message that everything is stable, I then will come home, feed the dog and then I have to leave and go pick up Mr. Norm Foster and take him to the second rehearsal with the cast and director.
I know there are other things that I've forgotten to write about, but, seriously... even MY EYES are starting to droop at the length of this post!! LOL!! So maybe the next post I'll backtrack and cover some of the things I have missed :)
Hugggggggggs,
Cheryl
1 comment:
I was sorry to see the Olympics end, I enjoyed them. Your pictures are beautiful.
Good luck today! Positive thoughts are flying your way.
Hugs, Maryann
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