Hello all!
I am so so sorry to be out of touch for so so long!
I've just been so busy over the past months; I've had no computer time at home! Almost no time at home at all!
So here is a very long update which is very long over due!
I miss all of my friends from afar and think of you all often!
There just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I'd like to do that's for sure!
So settle in for a long and hopefully interesting read!
Work news!
Work has been busy and also very interesting and successful.
For anyone who forgets what I do for work, I coordinate a program at our local volunteer centre here finding volunteer positions for people with disabilities. I love all of the people I've met through this job.
Have interviewed over 80 different volunteers so far.
They have to have physical or sensory disabilities.
I've worked with people from early teens to over 80 and it is great!
Some people have had their disabilities for a long time while others are new to them.
I help the volunteers find the right matches for volunteering, help them to learn how to interview, disclose their disabilities, advocate for themselves, etc.
It is great!
I love it!
And I love that I also work with the non profit organizations in our community to help them be more aware of and open to volunteers with disabilities.
I run workshops for them, go and visit their agencies, provide them with resources etc.
The job is so diverse and interesting.
My colleagues at work are wonderful and lots of fun.
The funding for this project ends the end of March 2008 but we are applying now for different sources of funding to keep it going and since the project has met all of its goals and been well received we are very hopeful.
My boss would like to have me working full time instead of 21-25 hours per week so she is really pushing for this and we are hopeful.
I also have a peer matching program in my job which is very interesting and I'd like to develop this more.
I've placed over 50 volunteers so far in lots of different types of places and have many wonderful stories to share about that.
So work is great! Never a dull moment there!
I'm now on a steering committee and coordinating the volunteers for an upcoming awards dinner on the international day of disabled persons so that is also keeping me busy.
I've done a few display booths too which are always fun and interesting!
My other work and the thing I love too of course is storytelling.
We just had our annual festival last weekend and I was festival co-chair this year as a volunteer which kept me pretty busy.
It was fun though and the committee was great.
I also told in a set at the festival on Olympic and Paralympic stories.
Developing that set involved a lot of fun research and writing but it was all good.
After the festival we had two days of workshops given by a storyteller from the US and one from Egypt.
I learned so much with them and it was great!
Just before the festival, we had our annual three nights of historical ghost walks.
Taking us back this year to the year 1857.
I got to tell a nice cheerful story about a young girl freezing to death on Christmas Eve. Historically true and happened in our community.
One of my friends even played the ghost of Queen Victoria!
It was great fun as usual and we do this as a fund raiser for our festival so we don't get paid but it is wonderful!
One of the nights, I was telling my story.
I was standing about a foot away from the front row of people. There I am in the middle of it when a woman in the front row starts patting Gia.
Of course, Gia flops over on her back and begins waving her paws around. This woman's friend hisses, "Don't touch that dog. It's working." The other one says, "I know but it's such a nice dog." I'm trying not to lose focus while listening to this conversation in front of me. Fortunately, they stopped before I had to interrupt my story and intervene.
So I had to spend a lot of time learning that story too.
In the summer I told stories at an event here called accessibility day and my friend with CP and I are still trying to find ways to re-tell our show on stories of disability.
I'll be telling in March here near Saint Patrick's Day with a great Irish teller. Irish stories of course and I love telling those!
Gia and I went to our first national storytelling conference last summer which was a lot of fun!
Vacations!
We spent one weekend this past summer at a friend's cottage.
Gia had a ball swimming and going in the boat and sleeping on the screened in porch with me!
We also went to Nova Scotia to visit Richard's mom which is always great!
This fall we went to a week long Celtic music festival.
The music and people were wonderful and I went to a few lectures too on Celtic music which were very interesting!
We also spent a weekend seeing several plays.
Everyone in the various theatres were very accommodating of Gia and concerned about her having enough room.
One night when we were leaving, we were looking for a cab but there were no cabs around.
One of the actors actually drove us back to our hotel.
We also went to Niagara Falls on that trip.
Gia loved looking at the water.
We went on this path that took us right down close to some rapids and that was very interesting too.
Family.
We have a relative who is having a lot of problems.
She is in her 90s and still living alone and getting more confused and needing more help.
She lives a couple of hours away and we've been spending time with her, helping her out.
She had a mild heart attack and also is very anemic, quite forgetful, but quite stubborn so it is a bit of a challenge sometimes.
As for my health, I've been generally doing really well!
Arthritis is quite manageable most of the time and I am able to walk much more and do more but I still have to be careful not to overdo it and haven't really been hiking on rough trails since I first hurt my knee a couple of years back.
I go up and down a bit but generally am getting better at figuring things out!
That was a hard time for me and I'm glad things are easier these days and I can get out more, walk more, and do more!
I had to really really figure out how to get back in walking shape.
Every morning this summer I would walk about half an hour on my way to work instead of getting the bus close to my house.
In the winter, I won't do that I don't think as I'm still scared of falling on ice.
As if I didn't have enough else to do, I'm taking a course in working in the hospice with palliative care people.
They want someone to do storytelling with the patients and with their families and teach families how to get stories out of patients etc.
The course is once a week.
It is for volunteers and although I will volunteer to do this at first, I'm hopeful some money may come out of it eventually!
A friend is taking the course with me and she is also a storyteller and musician so that is fun!
Gia and I had a scary experience a few weeks back.
We came within inches of being hit by a car.
The car was turning in front of us, doing it very slowly without looking.
I had told Gia forward as the car was stopped and I had the right of way.
She jumped back and someone pulled us back at the same time.
The driver hadn't looked to his right at all where we were.
He wasn't going fast but he didn't even stop to see if we were okay!
ON a similar note, one of the volunteers who helps us out with storytelling was killed by a car when riding his bike a few weeks back.
It was a big shock for me.
He always would say, "Hello Kimberley." Whenever he saw me on the street and he was so reliable.
Gia had angel wings for a Halloween costume this year.
If anyone wants to see a picture of her in them, let me know.
As for Gia, she is doing great!
I've had her over six years now!
So hard to believe!
She is such a good and versatile little soul and so steady and lots of fun to have around!
She will be 8 on December 1!
Where does the time go?
I'm so lucky to have her!
I haven't been on e-mail lists in ages and can't keep up to traffic so please if you would like to write to me, do so privately and I'll try to answer as soon as I can!
Hope everyone is well and healthy and happy!
Hugs and wags.
Kim and Gia
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