A Trip Down Memory Land ...

I find myself having already started my summer travel adventures, without even finishing my last few updates from Manitoba. Oh and I just realized that my last blog entry may have read wrong - it was suppose to say my blog entries will almost always be life updates, as it seems like that is all i have time to do. This is further proven by the fact that I made the executive decision to not bring my computer along with me on my travels - one less valuable and electronic to carry and look after ... and maybe the longboard won the coin toss haha.

Anyways to round out some highlights from the last week, I went to two graduation ceremonies. It's that time of year! First started off with a trip to Skownan Reserve to attend their grade 9 farewell night. It was great to see there biggest (9 students) and their most successful (17 sport banders!!!) class yet. Also fun to see how much the kids have grown in only the 4 years I have known them - I'm excited to see what they do in the future because they have the potential to make so much positive change in their community!

Secondly I continued my Northern trek up to Thompson and spent the weekend with my aunt, uncle and cousins. It was my youngest cousins Nicole's graduation, which is still surreal because a part of her will forever be the 6 year kid that would sit at our kitchen table in a soaking wet bathing suit quoting all the 'bad' lines from the movie Home Alone because I let her watch it haha. But it was so cool to see how mature she has gotten over the last couple of years - she played bass twice and spoke during the ceremony, which only confirmed the confidence that she has in herself and the endless talent that she seems to have. And she won two awards which can confirmed I don't just have a family basis of praise haha. The rest of weekend we hung out, read books, when to the lake, had a bonfire, watched a movie and the soccer games, ate and drank!

All in all it was worth the northern expedition and sitting through hours of ceremony formalities to get to see all these young people be excited about what they had accomplished but be eager to move on to all the things that come next.

(And until I get my camera in working order the pictures are going to be few and far between)

"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail" GD

Mich

Vintage Moments

As luck would have it, and my Uncle as usual always providing surprises and unexpected gifts called me at 2:00pm yesterday to ask whether I wanted to go see the Dixie Chicks and The Eagles at 6pm that night!!! So I know what some of you maybe thinking that I'm not a big 'country' fan, but to be honest I have made a few exceptions over time haha. For some reason the Dixie Chicks have made their way into monumental periods in my life and their music means something to me. It was really cool to see them be so passionate about what they do and what they stand for and putting up with everything that comes with it - having a Canadian crowd to encourage is also fun haha. Than The Eagles followed ... well all I can say is thank you Mom and Dad for instilling in me the interest in all types of music - even if my Dad was slightly basis towards rock of the 60's, 70's and early 80's :). Needless to say The Eagles were a favorite listen during Saturday house cleaning or car rides to school in the morning. So getting to experience these guys live, I kind of felt privilege and a part of something - it was really cool!! They haven't lost their touch in performing, not like I can compare to another show of theirs haha, but comparing to concert of younger artist they provide an authenticity that may be lost in some of today's shows. I mean the one-legged hop guitar routine by Don Henley come on! You could know nothing about classical rock and have watched the movie School of Rock once and appreciate that! Anyways all in all I was so happy I got to go and it was something I won't soon forget.

One of many reasons these ladies are pretty inspiring ...

A little comparison ... :)

"When the train rolls by, I'm gonna be ready this time." DC
Mich

What's next??

Officially done school, at least for a while, as of last Saturday morning (were I felt slightly abused my numbers but lets not go there), so I have a new form of free time. For some reason things to occupy my time just appear at the end of the day when I have already done them and my check list of things to do is still full - either with unfinished tasks or task that came about that day. This would be referred to a alternating harmonic series - in calculus terms - and yes I just made that reference haha. But none the less it is a way better feeling knowing I can do some of the more exciting to do items, such as longboarding, read a book in the sun, or go to a concert, without the guilt of school trying to creep in and ruin it. So for now I hope to get back to some interesting blogs about random stuff I'm up to and hopefully start to figure out my plan for next year. This is a bit of transition summer for me, as I'm not playing at U of M next year and my life won't be centered around Friday and Saturday game nights, it's time to do some self discovery and see life after bison basketball - yeah I don't think that is going to be 100% possible, that was me just trying to sound philosophical - don't think it worked haha. Anyways keep you posted ...


"No news is good news sometimes!"
Mich

The Missing Skits ....

When trying to finalize the video in time for the wind-up, as usual doing it right down to the wire, I forgot two skits. Unfortunately or Fortunately for them they were a bit left out of the self-humiliation and ego checking haha. I'm posting them mostly so the girls stop asking for them and so they can see them. And iDVD update is I got one to work so we should be done mass production in no time! Enjoy them ....

Lauren's Skit from Michele Hynes on Vimeo.

Vanessa's Skit from Michele Hynes on Vimeo.

If people want to see more of these skits (there are 22), the team will have a copy of it so they can watch them whenever, but if others are interested in seeing more let me know!

"I got a fever! And the only prescription is more Cowbell!" SNL
Mich

Books, Boarding, and No Boredom

I can't believe it has almost been a month since I last posted. Apparently times flies when you aren't paying attention to it. Here's a really quick recap of everything that has highlighted the last 3 weeks:

- I finished another course, glad to have microbiology over and done with!

- We had our last JRB tournament, where we finally played age appropriate in the US (AAU tourney), so although we had some tough games we played hard. We came second in every game and 4th in our pool haha.

- I have officially started a new obsession with long boarding. I'm still really bad at it but I love just going out for rides and trying to just stay on the board (using both feet is my new goal haha). It is definitely therapeutic for my transition from playing university sport and basketball running my life, so I'm just enjoying the simplicity of my novice skills haha.

- I have started to try and plan my life for next year but it seems like I'm just getting more options added to the possible equations so I'm just focusing on finishing this last course (calculus for engineering 2 - which can consume my brain in the most confusing way that if i don't focus on it my head may explode - so it's a win win haha).

- And finally, I have been working diligently on trying to get our Bison Basketball Wind-Up video finalized. Whitney, Mubo, Eric and myself put in some countless hours to make this video funnier than last year. Which I think overall was a success! I'm just in the process of trying to get this massive iMovie video into iDVD so that it can be shared for years to come, but I'm having some technical difficulties at the moment (I'll keep you posted girls ... be patience haha). I'm hoping to post some of the videos but unfortunately if you don't know some of the people we are 'reenacting' the humor can be lost on you but you never know! Whit and Mubo could both be on the SNL cast if there current career plans don't work out so there is potential to make everyone laugh :).

Well that's the update for now ... hopefully get back to posting a little more often. Oh and did I mention how much I'm loving summer - yeah the amount of rain we have had it not fun but it makes studying easier and that much more appreciative of the sunny days!

"Don't it make you scared to know that life is more than who we are?" GD
Mich