A Stolen Post of Beautiful Words

I found this on Sajda's site, and I think I've heard it before (either spoken or in song), but it was very nice to see it again:


The Final Analysis (a version of Keith M. Kent’s The Paradoxical Commandments)

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true friends;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you try to help;
Help people anyway.

If you give the world the best you have, you may get kicked in the teeth;
Give the world your best anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it was between you and God;
It was not between you and them anyway.

House Shrinkage

My sister’s daughter sits on the stool
before her grandma’s chair
face twisted in a semi-wince
at the pressure of the hairbrush coursing through
her thick black hair

This is the last time I will watch
her four year-old pigtails
twin braids with pretty hair bands
in the making

her little brother and cousin fight over a picture book
neither one really wanting it
neither one wanting the other to have it
and one of the mothers (one of my sisters) comes to the rescue
seats them both around her and reads the story
until they are bored and can’t remember why they were fighting
to begin with

My other sister is packing
Long-sleeved shirts and pants
Extra pj’s
Extra diapers
Extra pull-ups
Packing summer-wear that she’ll pull out in California
And re-use for winter-wear

I don’t see her
Drink her tea, always cold, before they leave to catch the train
Probably, she had no time this morning

Tree on the Causeway

I promise I'll write again soon instead of just posting pics, but it's been a very busy week
a) getting back to work
b) getting back into the city and catching up with ppl.

Two quick and random "friend notes": baby shower on Thursday for a friend, should be quite fun, and, drumroll please: HADEEL'S BACK IN OTTAWA! (those who don't already know of her brilliance, check my blogroll and start reading!) Of course, you already know she's back if you read her blog, but I'm SO thrilled. We chatted briefly (and I mean briefly) last night, and I can't wait to sit down and here all about her excellent adventures (seriously, I would watch a movie about Hadeel's life if one existed) straight from the horse's mouth...

Now, off to sleep, but first a pic I took last week in Calabogie of a tree on the causeway in the middle of the lake. Good night all!

Random Montreal Pics, Part II

Here's a few from my trek through downtown Montreal via St. Catherine, Renee Levesque, Peel, and McGill College, as well as a few streets I can't remember the names of (K, I know you're probably shaking your head at the "of" at the end of my sentence, and I know I'm not supposed to put "of"'s at the end of a sentence, but I can't remember which grammatical rule I'm violating, and I can't be bothered to find a better way to write the sentence...)

Random Montreal Pics

Back from cottaging, and will have a lot of pictures to post soon (after laundry, eating, sleep, returning to work, etc... so maybe not as soon as I hope!) but for now, some of my random Montreal pics I promised from my trip a couple of weeks ago.
This post includes a pic of my beloved Bell Centre (home of the Habs, for you non-Habistanis), and several shots from our walk through Old Port. In a future post, I'll include my "getting lost downtown" pics.
Hope you enjoy.

Go Habs Go!

Old Port

The View from Old Port across the river (to Laval I think?)

The "BeaverTails Beavers" at the Old Port

Cottaging

Off to the world of lake and canoes and kayaks and tennis tomorrow... Wish me good weather. See you in 10 days, Blogger!

To part, here's a pic from Montreal's Old Port to tide you over.

Lost City...

Or rather, me, lost in a city. That's what happened this morning on my little walk around downtown Montreal... I've discovered that the best thing that can happen to a person trying to get a sense of direction in a new(ish) place is to get semi-lost in it on her own... this forces you to figure out, using whatever internal map and reasoning works best in your head, where exactly you are:

I wandered a little further than any of the directions I'd been given, and in trying to find my way back to my sister's place, I now, for the first time, despite NUMEROUS descriptions of the city grid by my sister, my brother-law, my dad, M, and seemingly everyone else who's ever been here that wouldn't stick in my head, I think I (sort of, kind of, maybe) finally have a little internal downtown Montreal map in my head. Victory!

Random pics of the city to follow in the coming posts...

The Breezer is Back!

All fans in Habs Nation are currently either pulling their hair out and screaming frustration, or welcoming back one of Montreal's most damaged hockey sons in recent years. Consider me of the latter grouping:

Yesterday the Canadiens announced the signing of Patrice Brisebois, who left 2 (3? Can't remember) years ago via free agency after the boo-birds at the Bell Centre made this guy's life so miserable, he developed an irregular heartbeat from their merciless treatment. Breezer, as he's called (or Breeze-by as the crueler fans call him), didn't exactly light it up in Colorado, with his (then) new team, and as his back problems acted up again, he only played about 30 games last season. Even so, Gainey has signed him to a one year, $700K deal, and he'll be used sparingly in Montreal on even-strength and saved mostly for time on the power play.

I'm happy to have him back for the following reasons:

• We, the Montreal fans, always complain that no one wants to come play here. Well, here's a guy who does, even though he knows first hand how abusive and vile we can be all under the guise of our love of hockey
• Last time Breezer played here, he was being used as the #1 D. And he's NOT a number one D. He was playing against the other teams' top lines. This time, Markov, Komisarek, Hamrlik and probably Streit are all above him on the depth chart, with even Dandenault and Bouillon likely to get more ice time on even strength if they play well again. Montreal's D is drastically improved from the corps that once included Patrick Traverse playing regular minutes. Brisebois will not be expected to play the hard minutes, and used in a limited role, he should be effective
• The fans are constantly complaining that we don't have enough D who can make that first outlet pass. Last year, with the exception of Markov and maybe Streit, none of our D did it. This year, we've added both Hamrlik and Brisebois, who can. This is the key to getting out of our zone and getting on offense, so DON'T underestimate.
• Our biggest (read: only) weapon on the power play (ahem, Souray) has gone and signed in Edmonton. Brisebois may not have Souray's crazy slapshot from the point, but he's always been a very effective power play point getter.
• Our poor memories convince us fans in Habs Nation that Breezer had TERRIBLE defensive numbers his entire 14 seasons in Montreal. We go on and on about the -31 we all had to watch. In fact, this happened ONE season, the season he was played on his wrong side the whole year. Otherwise, he never came anywhere close to that level of disastrous Defensive play, and in fact, was reasonably adequate on D and quite solid for points offensively.

I hope other fans are willing to give him another chance when the puck drops this October. Those who bemoan the 5 steps backward the Habs have just taken by signing Brisebois should remember, this isn't Breezer at $4.5M a year playing first pairing minutes against the other teams' top lines, this is Breezer at $0.7M playing third pairing....