I did it. I came, I saw. I rose to the occasion, then dropped down the side of that occasion.
*AND Exhaaaale.*
Yes. That's me. Look up... look waaaayyy up.
I have mentioned a few times in the past while how I don't like man-made heights (unless it's an amusement park ride, in which case, giddyup).
I have also mentioned how I decided that, as an employee of Make-A-Wish BC & Yukon, I would put my money where my mouth is this year, and fundraise to participate in the Rope For Hope urban rappelling challenge.
I raised my minimum, and on July 8th, I did "it."
I'll let the video speak for itself, but the fact is, amid moments requiring deep breaths, or realizing how intense I was actually feeling about the whole thing, I was doing it and it was actually pretty fun. The video is pretty "Vlog style", so some of the sound and editing is choppy, but it moves along nicely!
Almost back to sweet, sweet terra firma!
Aaanyway, after a whole day of working the event for Make-A-Wish, it was my turn to tackle the challenge myself. By the time I'd watched so many others go through the safety briefings and tests, and seen the joys and fears on the faces of the other participants, I was actually very ready to go. turns out I have more mental fortitude than I thought :P
As I mention half way down the 400 ft. wall in this video, thanks to everyone who helped me do it, both mentally and financially. There were as many donations of advice on how to conquer this fear as there were contributions to my fundraising goal--and it all helped!
Once again,the video link.Enjoy. I know I did, as much to my own surprise as that was.
OK, enough of the judgy parent bullsh*t a la Gorilla mom at
the Cincinnati Ohio Zoo this week.
Did she do wrong? Oh hells yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s a
zoo. Keep an eye on your kids.
But is she always that bad? I very much doubt it. Epic… EPIC
fail on her part this time around, no doubt…
Listen, we’ve all, as parents, done some dumb, inattentive
sh*t, so let they who are without sin cast the first stone, mmmkay?
Hell, let’s turn it into a fun drinking game, shall we?
in the style of ‘never have I ever...’ (if you have, then do a shot. Your
choice of liquor. I’ll choose Scotch. Keep it sophisticated).
Never have I ever…
…dropped my child when they were a baby
…found my learning-to-crawl toddler halfway up a set of
stairs I didn’t know they were on
…caught my kid drinking from the dog water bowl
…slammed my child’s hand in a car door
…been separated from my child on a crowded train
…been in the sole care of my child when they severed part of
their finger while “playing” with an exercise bike…
OKAAAY, that’s enough sharing. I, for sure, am pretty buzzed
by now.
Fact is, we all suck as parents at times.
Go on, say it. It’s liberating.
Luckily
for most of us, our sucky parenting moments have not taken place in very public
places that lead to consequences so drastic that one of our endangered hominidae cousins
had to be snipered in order to save our children.
I’ll set aside the jokes now. I believe that Gorilla mom
probably loves her little one just the same as you do yours—I know that my love
for my kids is unconditional—and I believe that she probably is a good parent 99.9
per cent of the time, same as you and me.
There’s nothing good about this story. Parent not paying attention. Kid doing
something it shouldn’t. Zoo, giving a paying public a view of one of its wildest creatures so clear that it’s barriers are now negotiable by a four-year old. A precious creature of the
earth, dead.
Nothing will change this situation now. Go back to hating something where your energy
can be a force for good. Like the Trump campaign.
Until next time, watch your kids, and enjoy your
scotch >hic<
We recently decided to give up eating meat at home. And milk,
eggs and cheese, too.
“What, are you going to hire a personal chef now?” replied a friend, in a tone of near-disgust when we mentioned this to them.
“It’s not that hard to cook healthy vegan meals”, was our
reply. And then we laid out some of the reasons we are trying this, environmental
sustainability chiefly among our motivations.
More retorts from the friend about our misguided thinking.
You know what? Fine.
We're doing this at home, just for us, and we’re not asking
others to do it too. If you come over for a barbecue, you’re still likely to get
meat as we have a freezer with a backlog of the stuff.
That knee-jerk reaction of almost-horror or distaste seems
to be common. It’s almost comical, to watch people avert their eyes or grasp at
something to say in response to our attempts at going vegan. Sometimes it comes
out vaguely insulting (see above) and sometimes the responses feign support: “good
for…you guys?”
Look, the reasons really are our own, and we’re not trying to convert you to
some new meat-free religion…unless that’s what you want… JOIN US!
Mwhahahahaaaaaa!
#JokingNotJoking...?
We first turned our minds to the idea when we saw some facts about
environmental impact of eating meat. Some of it we already knew, but we looked deeper. It’s remarkable. Fact is, animal
agriculture is responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, more
than the combined exhaust from all transportation sources put together,
globally (13 per cent) FYI, that’s a stat from the United Nations, not just
your hemp clothes-wearing uncle with the acre of weed growing in his backyard.
Funnily enough, the reports on animal agriculture practically make
energy production look like the new environmentalism (OK not quite true), from land destruction to
water usage to off-gassing, etc. the list goes on. but the fact that we focus so much hate on the energy industry and so little on animal agriculture is strange.
Enough of the stats . Suffice
it to say, these are several of our motivations for trying this veganism thing.
So far, our experiment at home has been fun. It’s really
switched up our cooking routine, which frankly was growing repetitive and
stale. It’s made MY guts feel better for sure. I won’t go into the gory
details, but let’s just say that dairy never agreed with me anyway.
The kids have entered into this thing a little more trepidatiously,
and fair enough. This is being forced upon them a little bit. But it's pretty funny to watch. There are regular stink-eye sessions at the
dinner table a la Calvin and Hobbes.
‘What IS this?”
“Cheesy stuff!... made from cashews… and... nine other
ingredients… try it, you’ll like it!”
Little does our son realize it, but his gravy was recently
made from his number one food nemesis: The hated mushroom. And he loved it. Sucker.
On the whole, things are going well. We’ll continue on
with a pilot phase for a while, but so far, all signs point to being satisfied,
full, healthy, etc. No, I am not wasting away from calcium deficiency. Yes, I
get enough iron. Protein? If anything, I need less.
But we really don’t want you to worry. If you’re coming over for a
BBQ, we’ll still have something for the grill. If you’re at a restaurant with us, we aren’t
going to be those obnoxious people picking apart the menu and complaining that
there’s nothing for a vegan to eat. In fact, It’s likely I’ll still eat a
proper burger, and the kids will have their pepperoni pizza and mac ‘n’ cheese.
In the end, we will live our lives, you can live
yours, and I hope we can still be friends that can look each other in the eye.
The Chase family recently had an incredible vacation. Five
days in Florida, exploring the mammoth campuses of the Disney World parks. Then,
it was down to the British Virgin Islands for another five full days aboard our
own catamaran, island hopping at our leisure. 12 of us altogether on this whole
adventure. Kids age 2-9, and we all got along!
It was all amazing, as outlined in the videos below!
But seriously. Let’s be real. No one wants to hear about the
picture perfect. They want disaster scenarios. So, here’s as close as we got:
One finger crushing injury in a hotel door. Six stitches for
my son on that front. Hallelujah for good extended health, ‘cause who wants to
have to pay for the US medical system?!*
One MCL injury, adding yet another knee damage story to my sister’s
life-long list of leg traumas.**
One five year-old who melted down so hard it required
complete extraction from a Disney park and a return to the hotel for a day, to
settle their overloaded sensory system.***
And here: some specifics about one epic day of travel in the middle of it all, with one small piece of luggage that caused big headaches. Read this from the perspective of ‘here’s
how to barely make a flight’ despite best intentions.
11. When it’s four a.m. and an airline employee
tells you a piece of your luggage can be gate-checked (a paddle in a case, in
this situation), don’t believe them. Give them your money and check it.
2.When you’ve been through a 90-minute security
line-up and your flight leaves in 20 minutes and ONLY THEN does a TSA agent
says you can’t take that paddle on the plane, and you’ll have to go back to the
airline counter, don’t argue. It wastes precious seconds. Just nod, accept that
you might miss your flight (pro-tip, being nice to the TSA means they might
help you through the line when you come back), say goodbye to your family, and
run like hell back to the airline counter.
Two years in a row, this same paddle bag, via the same airport, has caused me grief. Cursed?
3.To try and save your ass, tell the airline
counter staff they have an impossible question to figure out in the next 30
seconds:
a.My paddle needs to be checked. If I, as a
passenger MUST travel with my luggage, as per FAA rules, and they choose to put
my paddle on the next flight in three hours, then so be it. BUT:
b.My main luggage is ALREADY under the plane
departing in (checks watch) 17 minutes.
c.I have a connecting flight at the airport, so if
I miss THIS flight, I probably miss that one, too. SO, do you as airline staff:
i.Delay the early morning flight long enough to
take my luggage off, missed connections be damned, or
ii.Delay the early morning flight long enough to
check my fu**ing paddle, and let me run for the plane?
4. When option ii. is accepted, run like Hell
again, back to the security zone. Get quick access courtesy of kind TSA agent
who had my description and was expecting me.
5. Sweet talk a few passengers in front of you at
this point, to whip through the body scanner.Run like hell again.
6. Thank Jesus Allah Buddha
that the shuttle train from one terminal to the other is arriving just as you
run up to the platform.
7. Run like Hell some more to get to your gate once
you get off the train.
8. Smile sweetly and say thank you to the gate
agents when you slide up to the gate at 6:11 a.m. for your 6:11 a.m. departure
time.
9.Acknowledge your family’s delight and relief to
see you stepping on to the same plane as them!
I’ll spare the rest of the details of the day, but:
1. All that rush was for nothing as our next connecting flight was delayed by
several hours, much to the delight of the parents in the group who now had to entertain
a buncha kids in a boring airport terminal for the interim.
2. The paddle DID NOT make it to that connecting airport as
or where expected, thus forcing yet further arrangements to ensure the paddle
was found, and delivered to the next plane.
3. All the waiting around was for a 24-minute flight.
4. Even at the final destination, the paddle didn’t show. A
lost baggage claim was filled in at this point, and we said goodbye to airports****
as we headed for our final destination, Tortola, BVI. Flip flops on, feet up,
sand, sun, snorkeling, family time. Ahhhhhhhhh.
*The wrapped up finger turned into an all-access golden
ticket for my son and anyone associated with him when he went back to Disney
later in the same day.
** The knee issue remains as-yet unresolved, as Universal
Health Care doesn’t always move at any sort of speedy pace.
***The five-year-olds’ day at the hotel did her introverted
soul a world of good. Smooth sailing for remaining days at Disney.
****Paddle was found, I was reunited with it at said airport
one week later.
I have either lost my mind, or my phobic fear of heights.
If you’re laying bets, I’ll give you a hint: it’s the
former.
I have signed up to rappel from the roof of the Hyatt
Regency Vancouver on July 8th. If you know me, you know that this isn’t
actually my idea of fun. I have VERY few pictures of me in high places. I can
offer you a photo of 18 year-old me, standing on the glass floor of Canada’s CN
tower, looking terrified / mildly ill, and I have a smattering of photos from
behind the windows of tall office towers in and around Vancouver.
In the case of the CN Tower, Kate basically forced me to be
there (she will contest this, but it is true).
In the case of the office towers in Vancouver, it’s always
been work-related. I wouldn't go to these places 'just because'.
A view from in flight. Planes are safe,
tall buildings are not. Makes sense, right?
Man-made heights… I just… don’t… like them. The Lion’s Gate bridge in Vancouver
terrifies me, though I have used that crossing enough to learn how to control
myself. Don't ask me to explain any of it. I love flying, I love rollercoasters...but I hate chairlifts. It's a phobia. The whole point is that it's irrational.
None the less, the phobia exists. So why… WHY… have I signed up to go OUTSIDE on the roof of a
36-storey building, and go OFF the side of it? Let me pause to wipe the sweat
from my brow and check my pulse before I tell you.
*whew*
I’m doing it for the kids, okay? My job at Make-A-Wish BC
& Yukon is immensely satisfying. I love everything about it. And, in the
course of my work, I have decided to prove my love and commitment by participating
in our own fundraiser, the Rope for Hope rappel challenge in support of Make-A-Wish.
I was given various ‘outs’ by my colleagues.
“You know you don’t HAVE to do this, right?”
Fears be damned.
In the comparison to kids age 3-17 fighting
life-threatening medical conditions, I have zero to be afraid of, nothing to
fight against other than my own phobia, and a guaranteed result of arriving
safely on sweet, sweet terra firma just a few minutes after I start my journey.
So I can do this. I will do this. I AM doing this.
Probably the ultimate kick in the pants here is that my
mother-in-law—30 years my senior—is joining me for a rappel of her own, and is
excited beyond belief. She would BASE jump this thing if they let her. How is it gonna look if I can’t stack up against
my own mother-in-law? Major pride on the line now.
Each rappeller is required to raise $1,500 for Make-A-Wish.
The BRIGHT side is, if you DON’T get me to my goal, I won’t be able to rappel. Oh darrrrrn, wouldn’t that be just terrible if
I had to stay on the ground?! So maybe this is my way out! If I only raise,
like $1499, I won’t be able to go!
*Gulp*
SO whatever you do, DON’T get me to my goal! I won’t have to
live my fear! Yay! However, if you’re just sadistic enough to want to see me
tortured through 36 storeys of my own personal hell, by all means,click
this link
As an added bonus to all you sickos donating to make me do
this, I’ll see about wearing a GoPro or something, so that I can record every terrifying
second, and I’ll cut a video to show you what it’s like when I wet myself 600
feet off the ground.
Thank you for spreading Hope, Strength and Joy… in the lives of children in BC
and the Yukon living with life-threatening medical conditions, that is. For me,
this is torture.
If YOU think this sounds like fun and want to
join in, there are still spaces available! Check out www.ropeforhope.ca to sign up.
