Mid-Autumn Festival.

Today my dad was giving a talk about feng shui at Edmonton's Chinese Garden in Louis McKinney Park. He was invited to participate as part of the Mid-Autumn (moon cake festival) festival's roster of activities.




There was a dragon dance, martial arts displays, moon cake & egg rolls for snacks, crafts for kids... and general people watching. I caught this girl on her tricycle. So cute! And a future cycle chic advocate, I'm sure. Just look at the shoes!




I'm in weekend casual. Wearing a beret I got in Quebec city, an MJ hoodie, and a big blue pashmina. Oh, and Don found my gloves in the front closet! I'm also incredibly excited about the stone dog. At first I thought, "What a coincidence, there's a statue of Dougal over there!" The smile on my face is alarmingly similar the the one on my mom's face in an older photo. SCARY.







Then I realized there were statues in the garden representing each animal in the Chinese zodiac, only some of them were missing because that park is prey to vandalism:( It made me really sad. There's this whole community getting together to raise money in an effort to create a beautiful space for people to enjoy. Then some hooligans who don't have anything better to do, come and break things.

The first conclusion people might come to is that we need more police to keep things in check. That's certainly one way of looking at it. On the other hand, I'm presuming the people who are in the park late enough to trash garden installations probably don't have parents at home who care about what they're doing. That's why I think it's important for our cities to invest in things like libraries, recreation centres, cultural centres... things that people aren't always that excited about paying taxes for. My observation is that our society often has a very reactionary way of responding to social problems. What should we do with homeless people? Prison! What should we do with people with issues of substance abuse? Prison! What should we do with vandals? Prison! It seems like we spend a lot of money on cops, prisons, and prisoners.

I'm always too lazy to look up the numbers, but I do believe that prisons are very expensive to run. It's confounding to me why people are so apt to have the less desirable members of our societies locked up. What I mean is that it's strange that it seems to be the prevailing solution. Isn't it sort of reactionary as opposed to taking proactive approaches to helping people? I know that building libraries or having strong communities isn't going to cure homeless or eliminate crime altogether in the next few years, but I think planting these long terms seeds could like result in more kids feeling a sense of belonging. This could eventually lead to... *gasp* social change!




On a less serious note, here are my people. I refer to my very close friends as my urban family. They're the people you can hang out with and not talk. The people who have seen Don and I have fights in the early morning hours after everybody has had less than 4 hours of sleep for weeks on end during a political campaign. Actually, it's members of our urban family that seriously proposed that Don should run in the first place.

And, more importantly, it's members of my urban family that got me biking! I often refer to my bike friend, Dan (red shoes), who custom built my road bike for me.




I remember it vividly. We were having dinner with Dan and Leanne (green jacket) when I was going on and on about wanting to get a Vespa scooter for the summer. The ever-practical Don talked me out of taking a big trip like I was used to doing every summer up until then (piano teaching means no work in the summers). I figured having a scooter would be a great way to feel like I was on vacation, right here in Edmonton. They pointed out that biking is better, because you can ride through traffic instead of riding in it. No money needs to be spent on gas. No need for specialty clothing (because on the scooter you go faster and it's colder, without the benefit of having the locomotion generate body heat). And the thing that really persuaded me was the thought of being able to get exercise while going places. Two birds with one bike! I'm all about efficiency.

They also started telling me about which routes I could ride and how long it would take for me to get to the various places I frequent. It was never even an environmental thing for me in the beginning. It just became that way after I started. Meaning, after I began riding, the reason I continued is because biking is so much fun. And such a great way to display one's sense of style.

Major props to Dan who spent copious amounts of time on the internet finding the sort of bike I was looking for, since we all know I wasn't going to ride an ugly bike and have to wear ugly sport clothes. Dan is also my friend who is obsessed with weight. The lighter... the better. So he found me one of the lightest cruiser style bike around, the Electra Amsterdam ladies sport 3. We found out that a local place was getting some in that coming spring and I ordered it. The rest is history.

Thanks, Dan!




Here's Chris, the new baby whisperer in our group. Dexter was so tired. He already had his afternoon snack and had a fresh diaper, but he was so determined to stay awake and check out what was happening instead of taking his much needed nap. See that intensely furrowed brow?




And I love how baby D sticks his little fingers through the holes in the crochet blanket my mom made him.




Man, this blog post turned out to be way longer than I intended.