Cup 16 - Dan

April 20, 2014

You may have seen him, over the years, in local TV commercials.  You may have heard him on CBC radio or seen him on Breakfast Television.  You may have seen him back in 2004 in Kevin Costner's movie, Open Range, or on the front of a June 2010 Calgary Herald being touted as "Calgary's Smartest Person".  You may have heard about him winning gold medals at three consecutive Olympics, but only if you follow London England's annual Mind Sports Olympiad. (It's a real thing!)  Me? I most recently recall seeing him causally sipping cappuccino and eating cinnamon buns on his back deck with Brier, by his side, sleeping in the sunshine.

Did I share one of my 52 Cups with a celebrity?!  Well, I looked him up on imdb.com and he's not there....yet... although there are 25 of "hims" on LinkedIn.  Google his name and you'll learn there is an NFL player with the same moniker, but that's not who made me my Tassimo or fed Brier bacon treats.

It was Dan.  Just Dan.  My friend and colleague and mentor.  The person who showed me that Principal's needn't take themselves too seriously (although there is a time and a place for that) and that you should find something about the job to laugh about every day.  (And, really, in a School that's not too tall of an order.) An administrator's job can be impactful and fun at the same time. In four years of sharing an office beside his, I watch Dan charm anxious parents and woo inquisitive executive.  He speaks with passion and writes with ease and excellence.  He maintains both a sense of humour and sense of confidence in everything he does.  He sets goals for himself and then immediately goes after the prize.

Many have heard me claim that I rode Dan's coattails during our years together at RJ as I received shared credit for many of his visions and ideas.  Time and place is everything and I was fortunate to be his partner during some formative leadership years and thus able to watch, and personally learn and grow.  I strive to emulate much of what Dan taught me (and what I watched him get away with!)  It will be a fun and rewarding ride if I'm able to pull it off.

He isn't a celebrity....in the "traditional" sense of the word....but he is easily one of the most talented, creative and influential people I have met.  If the paparazzi don't know to be watching what Dan will do next, well that's their loss!  I have enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy, my view.

Cup 15 - Janet

April 13, 2014

While the dates of my blogging are a little off, I'm pleased to say I'm keeping up with my coffee dates. A recent Friday at Starbucks was when and where I caught up with Janet.  Janet is a former colleague but someone I'm pleased who wants to keep in touch with me!  Lol.  At a glance, many people might only assume our relationship was professional but behind the scenes, and over the years, we've had some important and meaningful conversations.

Janet is fun to talk to because we can banter about guilty pleasures, such as reality TV, but also delve into the "big stuff" like family and health and career.  She is open about her own life and genuinely interested in mine.  I love and appreciate how optimistic and encouraging she is.  Her professional knowledge of all things literacy is almost intimidating but I learn so much from her when our conversation veers this way.  I applaud the insight she holds toward our profession, its institutions and the big and little people within the walls.

She's clearly more than a pretty face but truly does have this pretty face as well!  A tall, athletic blonde, Janet wears her clothes in that way many women envy.  She's one of those maddening people who can indulge in her comfort foods of burgers and fries and indulge her sweet tooth with candy without "consequence".  Competitive, varsity volleyball was one of her talents; now she's just competitive!   As sweet as Janet appears on the surface, she'll tell you there's a fire inside of her if there's anything to be won!    This also applies to poker - I wonder if her church friends know about her fun money gambling habit?!  I know many of these things about Janet because a few years back I was her "secret pal" at work. She wouldn't mind me telling you her favourite colour is purple.  She might mind me telling you she's a Twi-Hard, and I've seen her do a mean "Running Man" dance, but I've already referenced guilty pleasures and we all have them!

Being friends with Janet is not something anyone would ever feel guilty about, however. 

Cup 14 - Jill

April 6, 2014

Jill is my talented friend who is always doing something interesting and/or outdoorsy and who I had to put my foot down a couple of times after invites to events I knew were not in my wheelhouse.  It was because of her that I actually had to verbalize what I had previously only thought to myself, "After 30 a person can stop doing things they have already determined during their 20s they don't like doing."  In Jill's case, I had to expressly apply this rule to her invitations for me to both join her at Folk Festivals and hiking expeditions.  (I have a similar rule of, "After 30 you stop asking your friends to help you move, and hire movers."  but this has nothing to do with Jill and everything to do with how wise I thought I was after I turned 30!)

My vetoing of folk music aside, Jill and I have enjoyed many glasses of beer or wine at our homes and on patios while listening to other varieties of music.  She made cool CDs for me - back when we still listened to CDs!  We have visited other types of festivals - ie, Lilac - and have enjoyed walks by the river (being not on a steep incline, I endorse such activity!).  She taught me how to make jewelry and introduced me to the Ironwood Grill in Inglewood.  I vaguely remember one Stampede together where we enjoyed an Alan Jackson concert followed by dancing and Denny's with strangers during Stampede.  Currently, Jill is one of my online Scrabble buddies. We taught together in Airdrie for a few years before my going on sabbatical afforded her taking over my contract.

Jill loves to paint her house.  Jill is afraid of birds.  Jill speaks three languages.  Jill has hilarious stories to tell about many blind dates she endured prior to meeting and recently marrying Adam. Jill is creative and uber-thoughtful.  She drove all the way to Invermere one afternoon to buy me a handmade bracelet with blown glass beads; a gift from my staff and school the summer before I embarked on my sabbatical and subsequently transferred away from that school.   She loves to learn, works hard and embraces change.  She clearly has an abundance of patience and energy as well; she and Adam recently adopted two beagle puppies!

When we worked together we obviously saw each other a lot.  Then we only lived in the same quadrant of the city but it was still reasonable to get together on short notice.  Now she lives down south and teaches in Chestermere, but thankfully my ever-roving hair dresser took me to her neck-of-the-woods.  (We have vowed to get together with a little more frequency, as my appointments dictate.) We caught up over burgers at Earl's this week and I am so glad we did.  Her wedding pictures are stunning and her shop-talk inspiring.  

"After 30, it's wonderful to be secure in one's friendships and able to meaningfully catch-up, even after many months, even years."  

Cup 13 - Dave

March 30, 2014

See?!  I don't have only female friends! Dave is a "teacher friend" though and it may be his "fault" I am a Principal today.  But, first-things-first, going back several years he is also my answer to the question, "Where were you when 9/11 happened."  I was carpooling to work.  With my friend Dave.  Oblivious to anything that was happening in the world....

I guess that means I met Dave 13 years ago.  Although not a new teacher he was newly hired to the middle school where I had already worked for six years.  Even though he was teaching grade eight, and I was teaching grade five, our classrooms were side-by-side.  I helped him....decorate? What do guys do to their classrooms?  Whatever they do, I helped him do it.    

Living close to each other in the northwest, we also decided to carpool.   On September 11, 2001 it was my turn to pick him up in Silver Springs.  I was driving "Big Red" as Dave called the Buick Park Avenue, with 500,000+km, my dad had given me so that I could get rid of previous car payments for awhile.  (A quick aside, Big Red didn't last long...)  As though an out-of-body experience I can distinctly remember reaching for the volume knob to turn down the radio as he was coming out of his house that morning.  A newsman on the radio had just reported that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Centre Towers and, as I was adjusting the dial, I recall thinking some rookie pilot clipped a wing of a small plane.  What else would it be?!  Dave got into the car, we drove 30 minutes to Airdrie and upon our arrival learned the world had changed....  But this post isn't to be all profound because I don't really remember much about our ride home, or the next days, or anything associated to each other after that.  We were new friends but still mostly just colleagues.  He's just the answer to that question.  Everyone has an answer.

But he's also the one who inspired me to start my Masters which was a precursor to where I am in my career today.  He had already began his Masters and just hearing him talk about it piqued something in me.  I realized I "felt like learning something" again.  I think I enrolled the following semester into the same program and it was great!  (And, in retrospect, I am SO glad I did my Masters while still teaching.  I have colleagues who are finishing theirs while already working in administration and I can't even imagine!!)  Dave and I had a few courses together.  A favourite university story is around the project he and I completed for one of our Statistics courses.  We had to come up with a hypothesis which could be measured both numerically but also qualitatively. Dave and I sat outside La Vie En Rose (a lingerie store) in Market Mall and tallied how many people, and of what gender and apparent demographic, looked directly at the displays in the store window and who averted their eyes.  Like the previous story, I don't actually remember tons of details after that.  I just remember we had some laughs while doing our "research", and I think we got an A-. Why not make learnin' fun?  That's what we try to do for our students!!

Dave and I are both administrators now.  We haven't worked together for a long time, and don't see each other all that often, but have still kept in touch through mutual career pursuits and he is still one of my favourite people with whom to talk shop.  Other than seeing each other at meetings, we meet two or three times a year, over baked lasagna at a small restaurant in Silver Springs.  He generally makes me feel bad about myself while there because, as though the baked cheese on top of our pasta weren't enough, I usually also drink beer or wine.  He rarely does. His excuse is generally that he has to run 10km on the treadmill, or stop off at the pool to swim 2km on his way home. Dave does IronMan triathlons.  So this is where talk about anything we have in common ends!  

Thirteen years has passed quickly and although our personal lives have changed a lot, the ease by which we can find things in our jobs to talk about and laugh about has not.  He likes to point out how I'm much older than him.  I like to bug him about his fashion sense (he is a LuLu Lemon and Banana Republic snob!).  He's a solid guy and a good friend.  Glad he needed help decorating!