Paul Hatcher, Embodied

Okay, I don't know how to post videos directly into blogger, but this is DEFINITELY worth clicking on a link!

Bri and Carly

Last night, I hit the town with one of my best friends in the world. We went to see "The Holiday" (which was really a warm and lovely movie). We then went to The Macaroni Grill for dinner, and got completely sloshed drinking martinis, spending well over 2 hours catching up over salads and huge bowls of chicken pasta. We then hopped over to the Buffalo Club on Granville Street to see a (decent) punk band play, before retiring back to her downtown condo for a girl's only sleepover.

What can I say about this friend that will convey how wonderful she is? We bonded instantly when we were working together in Toronto at a restaurant, spending long nights with gossip, laughter, hangman and deep conversation. I have never met anyone who is so much like me - we're both positive, bubbly, happy and social people. We have the same taste in movies, music and nail polish colours ... but beyond the exterior, we also share the same philosophy on life, love and our futures. We spent so much time together last summer in the Beaches and I was grateful to have a new friend in my life.

Needless to say, I was wrecked when she moved back to Vancouver (her home and mine) to pursue her career as a restaurant manager. It's been 4 months since she left, and Toronto hasn't been the same without our adventures together, shopping at the market, cooking together, watching sex and the city or going to see random bands playing in random bars.

Finding and keeping female friends is so hard. I have had many girlfriends in my life, most of whom I have lost touch with when one of us gets caught up in a relationship, gets married or moves to a new city. Females ... I dunno. There's just something about my relationships with girls that has always been different from my relationships with boys. All of my 'best' friends have been boys. Girls tend to judge you, tend to be jealous of you, tend to talk about you behind your back (I know ... because I am one,and have done such things although I'm not proud of it). Girls compete with each other, which I always found really hard to handle.

Carly and I haven't had any of those problems. We cheer each other on when we succeed and demand that we pick our asses up and try again when we fail. I know her weaknesses and she knows mine and we love each other anyway. No one has ever been less judgemental of me- she is on my side 100% when one day I want to move back to Calgary and teach and the next day I'm thinking of opening my own theatre school in Toronto. Her response is always the same "I love it!".

Having a friend like her, I love it too.

30 Things to Do Before I'm 30

It's make promises you have no intention of keeping New Year Resolution time. This year, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be setting too many goals for myself - I hate feeling guilty. That's a good resolution - stop feeling guilty. Step one? No more resolutions.

2007 is going to be an exciting year for me. I'm in a steady relationship, I'll be finishing up my B.Ed degree and starting my first job teaching high school. I'll be moving again, and really making the final step towards becoming an 'adult' - supporting myself on a full-time, salary with benefits pay cheque. That's the pinnacle for me. I've put myself entirely through university, but it's not until I have a good income, a financial plan and a way to get out of debt that I'm really going to feel like I've made it. I can't wait. Living like a student is SO overrated.

Anyway, that's not what this post is supposed to be about (I love to talk about myself, I know, but I'm getting to the point). I want to make a long term list of 30 things to do before I turn 30. It's like a New Year's Resolution list, but with more scope (like a commercial, "now with MORE aspirations! Greater depth!) I'm 23 right now, which gives me until July 15, 2013 to finish my list.

Here We Go. Hopefully this is all feasable:

1. Take a painting class
2. Purchase a home
3. Climb a volcano in Hawaii
4. Visit New York City at Christmas time
5. Get into the best shape of my life
6. Coach a soccer team
7. Pay off all my students debts
8. Get married
9. Learn how to garden and grow my own vegetables
10. Buy a piece of art
11. Hike the west coast trail on Vancouver Island
12. Be an extra in a movie
13. Attend the Olympics in 2010
14. Be someone's mentor
15. Establish a daily creative ritual
16. Get my Masters degree (make people call me master)
17. Start a family (at one point in my life, I assumed I would be married at 24, start a family at 25 and have all my kids before I was 30.... wrong!)
18. Learn to identify the constellations
19. Learn how to dance
20. Get braces or veneers to fix my one crooked tooth
21. Write down my grandparents' stories
22. Bake a pie
23. Live simply
24. Go to Paris with Steve
25. Buy an expensive SLR camera and learn how to use it
26. Teach in a private school
27. Learn to play chess
28. Find a 'forever' friend
29. Climb a (small) mountain
30. Take snowboarding lessons (just so that I can wear those awesome outfits!)
!)

A Time for Action

Today is World AIDS day. HIV and AIDS are diseases that have had no effect on my immediate life. I've never known or met anyone who has been infected or affected by Aids or HIV - at least, not to my knowledge. I'm not ignorant, but I'm also not actively involved. Yet I am entering a time in my life where I am going to act as a role model and influence for teenagers who will be shouldering the responsibility of AIDS and taking on the challenge to find a cure. I have never been affected by AIDS, but I hope to inspire my students to strive for equity, social justice and change.

Today is World AIDS day and I don't know what to do to help. A classmate of mine spent 2 months last summer teaching high school in Africa, in a school where 70% of the children were AIDS orphans and more than 50% of them were infected themselves. She handed around an AIDS awareness magazine produced by the AIDS club at the school and I was struck by the students' connection between AIDS and God. They didn't believe that God could save them. They didn't believe that God was punishing them - they believed that God would bring light to their lives, despite the challenges they faced. I don't really have a comment on the religious aspect of that (not sure what I believe in) but their spirit -through their writing- was SO inspiring.

We can use Drama to talk about AIDS and HIV. We can talk about fear and we can talk about labels and we can create images and ideas on stage to investigate, to feel and to understand. That's what I love about Drama - it gives students a global education. It allows them to feel things. Please take a minute to feel something about AIDS today, wherever you are in the world and whatever your contribution has or has not been.

I should add - good luck to my handsome and lovely boyfriend tomorrow when writing the LSAT - I believe in you!