Go Big Then Go Home

 I composed this blog post on an early morning flight from Calgary to Toronto. Usually, I write my reflections on the weekend but it was impossible to complete since my laptop was in Calgary and I was on a ship near Vancouver. I'm coming home. I just returned from my very first cruise, a wonderful trip to Alaska.

The theme for this contemplative essay leapt immediately to my mind after a few days of this travel experience. Before I explain, I need to thank my sister, Mary, for inviting me on this adventure. Alaska was not in my plans at all, but several months ago, my sister contacted me to ask if I might be interested in being her travel companion. Her hard working husband had just acquired a new job and was unable to go with her on this trip. She offered this proposal: if I was willing to get myself to Calgary, would I be interested in an all-expense-paid trip with her to Juneau? The dates worked for me, as they fell on the last week of August and I was still on summer vacation, so I happily agreed to go.

Everything was so BIG. I had never sailed on a cruise ship before. I was told that there are bigger vessels than the one I was on, but to my novice eyes, the Celebrity Solstice was massive! The line-up to check in and board was also huge, but it was very orderly and proceeded quite rapidly, considering that three separate ships were coordinating the boarding of their respective passengers on August 25 when we first set sail.

The meals on the ship were absolutely delicious and would satisfy the biggest appetites. The all-you-can-eat buffet at the Ocean View Café (on Deck 14) offered so many choices; yet, I was only able to eat a single plate for each meal. There were no second helpings for me because the first round filled me adequately. My sister and I ate at the Grand Epernay restaurant for dinner each night; this location had the advantage of reserved seating, which we appreciated because the buffet could get busy at peak hours. Once again, the meals were incredible. Shout-out goes to Rahul, our attentive waiter/server who took care of us so well.

There was a t-shirt I saw for sale that said something like, "If you thought Texas was big, you should see Alaska". This is true. Alaska is the largest US state in terms of land mass. We visited three cities in Alaska during our cruise: Icy Strait Point, Juneau, and Ketchikan. Even though there were many wonderful moments, there were three highlights I wanted to focus on for this blog post that loom large in my memory and are also enormous in their own rights.

Hubbard Glacier

On Wednesday, August 28, our at-sea destination was the Hubbard Glacier. You'd think seeing a big piece of ice wouldn't thrill, but it was incredible. The Hubbard Glacier is 7 miles wide, 76 miles long and 600 feet tall. It is North America's largest tidewater glacier. My sister had booked a room with a balcony, so we were able to witness this huge natural wonder from the comfort of our own cabin. 

My cell phone now contains dozens and dozens of photos of the glacier. At one point, a small piece of the glacier broke off. It sounded like a huge thunder clap. Our ship's captain should get a lot of credit for skillfully navigating us through the fog so we could get a clear view of the Hubbard Glacier.

Humpback Whales

My sister is an experienced traveler, so she booked two shore excursions for us. When we were in Juneau, she arranged for a luxury whale watching tour. Initially, I was a bit nervous about this portion of the trip. The last time I went whale watching was with my friend Denise Colby in Newfoundland and I was violently seasick. However, this time, I had no need to worry. The water in the north Pacific was calmer (as the name Pacific implies) than the choppy north Atlantic, and we were aboard a yacht with six other passengers and a capable crew consisting of Shannon the captain and Savannah the first mate. We saw SO many whales. Humpback whales are enormous. There's an art display of the actual size of the tail of one of the regular humpback whales seen in the area, and it is humongous. Not only did we see their backs and tails as they rose for air and descended to feed, we actually saw one rise out of the water. Photos are really difficult to capture. Our guides advised us to take video instead. One of our fellow explorers, Alan from Miami, shared these stills he captured.

I consider myself doubly lucky. The next day, as we went from Juneau to Ketchikan, I was quietly saying my rosary as I gazed out on the ocean. (It was part of my effort to reinvigorate and re-establish my spiritual routines, reactivated after my July visit to Fatima, Portugal.) Right in front of me, a humpback whale breached even higher than the one we saw on the whale watch. It was an incredible sight to behold and completely unexpected.

Alaska King Crab

While in Ketchikan, my sister and I enjoyed a lumberjack show and afterwards had a bite to eat at the Ketchikan Crab & Go. It was my first time eating Alaska King Crab. Readers of this blog will know that I like to eat crab (and my trip to Baltimore at the beginning of August proves this) but usually I eat Dungeness crab or east coast crab already assembled into crab cakes. Thank goodness I got the "kids portion" of the Alaska King Crab. My sister chose a single jumbo leg to eat and, as you can see by the photo below, it was incredibly large.

Ostensibly, this blog is about teaching and education. How do all these things link to learning? I can say that, for the first time in what seems like forever, I didn't have any "back to school" dreams like I usually do around this time. My mind was too preoccupied with this last hoorah of the summer, this incredible trip. I'd also suggest that, although bigger isn't always better, this (and other) extra-large experiences can really make an impression on our minds and hearts. I picked up a few things to use with my students to help integrate Indigenous knowledge more into my teaching practices. The impact of climate change is made so much more immediate when I learned from Milos, the resident science lecturer on the ship, that there are some other glaciers that no longer exist. Making a big impact can make lessons more "sticky" and memorable.

Today is Labor Day, the last day of summer vacation. Tomorrow is the first day of school. I really hope that this year will make a BIG, positive impression on the students I am honored to spend time with, and that year 28 of my teaching career will bring with it great joy.

Adult Fun and Responsibilities

 When was the last time you went to a place that you visited as a child? Last Tuesday, my friend Sarah and I spent time together touring the Canadian National Exhibition, aka the CNE, aka The Ex. I never went to the CNE when I was little. Niagara Falls was more of my family of origin's choice for a vacation destination. However, Sarah used to go to the Ex all the time with her family. Based on my shaky recollections, it's been about 10 years since I last went to the Ex. (We took my son and a couple of his friends to the CNE for his 12th birthday, and he's turning 22 this year - happy birthday in advance, Peter!!) Naturally, I was keen to see how things had changed and how they had stayed the same. I was also intrigued to see how Sarah and I (both women in their 50s) would interact with and enjoy the Ex.

Well, Sarah and I definitely enjoyed ourselves. We wandered through the Home and Garden Pavilion, then perused the International Pavilion and warehouse/shopping outlets all in the Enercare Centre. We watched a short show about the planets in a mini-planetarium. We indulged ourselves at the Food Truck area by the Princes' Gates and played a few games on the Midway. We checked out the Food Building and the Arts, Crafts & Hobbies building. We looked at a display called "Carnival - The Exhibition & Archives Exhibit" and enjoyed both traditional and unusual treats. (I even bought pretzels to take home for the family.) I must have taken a dozen photos of Sarah drinking her immense watermelon smoothie, served in a half of a watermelon!

The adult me noticed how expensive things have become (and the impact of shrinkflation). I was particularly surprised by the cost of the carnival games. We played 3 games and it cost $22. I also noted, to my disappointment, that I can no longer eat as much food as I used to. I only had Saigon Chicken Bites (YUMMY!) from Los Vietnamita, an ice cream waffle sandwich, and a Beavertail pastry. I would have chomped on so much more if there was room in my belly.

My adult fun continued later in the week. I flew to Calgary to visit my sister. The two of us will fly to Vancouver to board a cruise ship for an Alaskan adventure. In the meantime, my sister and I have enjoyed spending time together. We have eaten out at some delicious local restaurants and pubs (Borough, Rising Tide, and NotaBle), gone shopping together, chatted extensively and even tried baking Portuguese custard tarts like we had in Portugal when we were there together in July.

Adult fun has to be balanced with adult responsibilities. I brought my laptop with me to work on my ESL Part 2 AQ assignments. I won't be able to continue my studies on the ship - Internet access is too costly and I don't plan on gluing myself to my computer when the rugged beauty of the north is right in front of me - but I will try not to fall behind with my studies.

I also wanted to stick in a summary of a conversation I had with my Cross Fit coaches. I attend three times a week when I am home, but I'll be honest; I don't enjoy going. Unlike my husband, my gym buddy, who savors the post-workout burn of a job well done, I dislike the pre-gym, during-gym, and post-gym time. I only go because I know it's good for me and my husband and I do it together. He's probably a bit tired of hearing me gripe about going to the gym, so he encouraged me to ask our coaches about this attitude of mine. When I brought up the topic to one of the coaches, he had a tough but practical response. "Are you a child? Sometimes we have to do things that we don't like. You don't have to do Cross Fit specifically, but you have to do some sort of exercise to keep healthy." The cockles of my heart weren't exactly warmed by this answer, but he is right. The reason why I attend Cross Fit is because I know I'm not self-motivated enough to go to a gym and push myself to complete a proper workout. With a coach telling me what to do, I get stuff done. My next grumpy question was when I'd get to stop attending Cross Fit class. Again, in his sharp but smart way, he replied that some people would love to be able to work out but just aren't physically able; ergo, continue to work out while your body is capable. It wasn't the reply I exactly wanted to hear, but it was practical and one I couldn't argue with easily. 

No Easing Out or In (and Educating ELL Educators)

This can either be seen as well planned or poorly planned.

I ended the school year in June by plunging into a conference, followed by a significant vacation. (I've only been to Europe twice in my life. The first time was to France in 1990. The second time was to Portugal in 2024.) It was a very abrupt switch, to go from lessons with elementary students to lectures with academics to immersing myself in a completely different country. 

I'm going to begin the school year this September in a similar way. I'm going to go on my very first cruise just before school starts.

Usually, I spend the first week of July and the last week of August puttering around my school, tidying up and getting things in order. Last year, I examined my school library collection and helped with a huge inventory project in the summer. I like to attend the TDSB New TL Unconference and Fan Expo Canada with my daughter in late August. It's like slowing inching your way into a pool; it helps me to adapt to the new routines and slowly say goodbye to the slower days of summer. There will be no gradual acclimatization for me this year. To mix my metaphors (from swimming to driving), it's pedal to the metal and start the race immediately.

How might this change impact me and my students?

I'm not sure. Let me try and list some potential positives and negatives.

Energy

+ I'll be fresh and full of stories from my summer adventures

- I'll be tired from travelling all over

Preparation

- I'll not feel as "ready" as some of my colleagues

+ I'll feel more akin to my students, creating more empathy

Decoration

- I won't have "Back to School" displays already up

+ I can create and co-construct displays with my school community, giving more agency

Stress / Mindset

+ I won't be worrying or overthinking before school begins (hello school anxiety dreams) or doubting my abilities because I'll have something else fun to focus on (Have I packed everything?)

- I may not be able to take that "pause" time to mentally prepare for anything that's thrown at me, which could add to my stress

One thing that will be a consistent presence during this time (other than my family, of course) is the AQ that I'm currently taking as a student. My York University AQs that I teach are summer-specific. I taught 3 in July and 4 in August; they only last a month for a very intense learning cycle. I am taking my ESL Part 2 AQ with Queen's University. It qualifies as a "Late Summer" course, which means that it runs from August until October. 

I've only worked on two of the seven modules in the course so far. The top thing that I've embraced from the course so far is :

Like being a TL, it's important to look inward and examine how your own culture and identity impact the way you [might] do your job.

For instance, I really liked this reading from Unlocking English Learners' Potential, where they asked us to reflect on our attitudes and beliefs around certain topics, such as punctuality, the role of the teacher in class, student participation, student non-verbal communication, student interactions with teachers, independent vs collaborative learning, and plagiarism. The point was to see that there are different cultural norms associated with these, and great variability even within cultures and social groups. Culture is complex, dynamic, evolving and manifests in different ways. Teachers are inclined to see their cultural norms as "correct" and then see deviations from this norm in their students as evidence that the student is not successful or doing poorly.

Admittedly, this is true, especially for me and "discourse behaviours". I come from a West Indian background, where talking over people and interrupting (notice my choice of descriptors?) is natural. However, as a:

• female who has seen "mansplaining" a bit too often, 
• someone born in Canada (second generation of immigrants), and 
• teacher who took Tribes TLC training, which focuses on "attentive listening" (wait your turn to speak). 

I've internalized and adopted that method of conversing so much that having loud, overlapping debates irritates me. I like things a bit more orderly. I need to remind myself that it isn't necessarily rude, but just a different way of interacting. I need to tell myself that those talks I gave in the past when I was heavily a part of the GamingEdus about respecting "gaming culture" and "school culture" as two separate but equally worthwhile creatures, also apply to other forms of culture too.

This chart outlining the three "levels" of culture is helpful.

I'm not sure if there will be an "easing in" period with my new position as a 0.5 teacher-librarian and 0.5 ESL teacher. I know it will take a few days to organize the schedule of seeing the primary / early junior division students, based on the classroom teachers' schedules, the number of students that need service, and other factors. I'm grateful that I will be sharing this role with Connie Chan. She will be responsible for the late junior / intermediate division students and I will lean on her heavily for support and guidance as I "transition in".

I realized as I typed this reflection that I have almost no photos to accompany my post. That's not appealing visually. People like hearing about my recent Fluevog addiction, so I'll end this post with some photo highlights and wondering at what point I'll stop purchasing ones for my collection. I'm at 17 pairs so far and every time I think "I won't get any more", I find a great deal on Facebook Marketplace or on one of the Fluevog groups I belong to (or I go shopping with my sister or my friends that wear Fluevogs). To connect it back to the theme of today's blog, even though I "eased in" to being a "Fluezzie", I have a feeling I won't be able to "ease out"; I think I'll have to "quit cold turkey" and leave all those lovely Facebook groups to resist temptation. After all, in March of 2024 I only had six pairs (with three new pairs added back then) and now look!

This is my collection, not counting my two most recent acquisitions. (15 + 2)

The bottom two rows are the ones I wear the most. Putting them all together like this also helps me notice trends / patterns (I really like round toes and Mary-Janes) and "gaps" in my collection. (Some brighter colors, like orange, blue and green, along with some more pointed toes, might add some variety.) These Leonoras might be a consideration for the future once they go on sale.

And yes, I take "shoe selfies":

TLs make great friends!

 It's easy to get bogged down by academic projects. Right now, I've got 4 courses that I'm teaching for York, with a particularly large number of participants this term. I'm getting mentally ready to take my ESL Part 2 AQ with Queen's (it starts Monday August 12) and I've been chipping away at a project on Digital Media Literacy with CSL. Thankfully, I've been able to make time to see some friends this past week.

My "citation savior" Joanie Proske was in Toronto recently. Joanie lives in BC and we first met when we were both taking our Masters of Education courses online with the University of Alberta. We had lunch together at the delicious Pigeon Café on King Street West. (Excuse how wet we look in this photo. We got drenched while walking.)

My long-time friend Wendy Kaell turned 50 and I attended her birthday celebration on Saturday. 

My TDSB pals Wendy Burch Jones and Kim Davidson went for lunch mid-week in Scarborough.

I was also rescued by the wonderful Jennifer Brown from Peel DSB on Thursday. My scheduled guest speaker for my York TL AQ had to drop out unexpectedly last minute and Jenn kindly agreed to sub in and give the same presentation she gave to my July 2024 cohort. We had a good time playing with new Zoom features, like embedding Jenn directly into her slides as a background, and the listeners were absolutely enthralled with Jenn's presentation.

I noticed that a large number of my friends are educators. This should not come as a surprise. You make friends at school and at work, and I'm surrounded by teacher types. What I wanted to comment on was on how many of my friends are teacher-librarians and how utterly wonderful it is to have friends that are school library professionals. Having a friend that's a TL has all sorts of benefits. For instance, TLs are very generous with their time and skills. Jennifer Brown (a TL) willingly volunteered to give up part of her evening to support new TLs in my course.  My friend Joanie (a retired TL) helped me immensely when we were both in the Teacher-Librarianship via Distance Learning program with U of A. She patiently taught me how to do proper APA citations. TLs are also great conversationalists and (usually) attentive listeners. They are (in general) intellectually curious and eager to continue learning. Joanie and I both teach TL courses for Queen's, and she shared so many ideas and resources. We are both keen to embark on a project so we can work together and invigorate graduate-level scholarship in the field. Wendy Burch Jones and I drove to Wendy Kaell's party together and we couldn't help but "talk shop". As OSLA president, Wendy has some ambitious plans for helping the state of school libraries. TLs are action-oriented people; they like to get things done! TLs can be counted on to give good book recommendations even if they are in casual social settings. When Kim and Wendy (both TLs) and I went to lunch, the book titles mentioned peppered the conversation. TLs are good researchers, friendly, and good connectors. It turns out that our server and the sous-chef at the restaurant we ate at were former students of Kim's, and they had nothing but positive memories of "Ms. McNaughton" (her maiden name). TLs also seem to have good memories. I can't believe some of the things my friends remember from the past. 

This doesn't mean that I only have or want TL friends. Some of my other friends are "TL adjacent". I exchanged a few nice emails this weekend with GamingEdu alum Andy Forgrave. He's super-organized like a TL might be and is a great resource and source of stories himself. I had a short but sweet picnic in a local park with some members of my teaching staff.

Some of my other friends have nothing to do with education, so they ensure I don't exist in an echo chamber. My husband had "the boys" over for some gaming on the weekend. 

Either way, it's great to have friends and great to have friends that are TLs.

The ABCs of Early August

 Sometimes it's hard to tie in multiple topics into a single blog post. Today's entry works alphabetically.

A = AML Think Tank

On August 1, the members of the executive board of the Association for Media Literacy met for their annual Think Tank. I enjoy this get-together for several reasons. It's always held in-person, and there's something special about gathering together in the flesh. Even when we are chatting informally prior to any established agenda, we are "doing" media literacy. One of our newest members, Sarah, brought this really cool adult Happy Meal box and we all loved passing it around and remarking about all the great discussion possibilities. I brought my Portugal scrapbook and people really looked intently at how it was set up and my choice of photos. (Why do I always pick pictures of Karen Ambrosh eating food?) The meeting itself was very productive and helped set the stage for the upcoming year.

B = Baltimore

My husband and I took a mini-vacation to his hometown of Baltimore (although technically we were in Baltimore County) for a few days. If you recall, last year, we took a 3-day trip to Huntsville between my AQ responsibilities. My husband doesn't like to travel as much as I do, but he agreed to use the Civic Holiday weekend to visit his mom with me. We just went to Maryland in March of this year, so it's only been a few months since our last jaunt. The focus, in addition to the familial time together, was for crab. 

My relationship to crab is a fascinating one, and shows that time and influence can alter even the hardest opinion. I used to intensely dislike crabs. When my hubby and I were engaged and I first visited his family, they bought a bushel of crabs for us to eat, and I didn't partake. I found it yucky. Even the favored spice of Maryland, Old Bay, was gross to me. As my husband tells it, many years afterwards, during one of our summer vacations to see his family, I asked to try one of his fried jumbo lump crab cakes and discovered that I actually liked the taste. Now, I'm more crab-crazy than he is. I ate:

• crab fries and a crab cake from Conrad's for dinner on Friday
• a crab cake dinner from the Double T Diner on Saturday
• Chesapeake Benedict (eggs benedict with crab) for breakfast on Sunday AND crabby tots (potato tots smothered in crab imperial and cheese) and a crabby pretzel (a huge soft pretzel covered in cheese and crab imperial sauce) from Red Brick Station on Sunday
• a crab cake from Casa Mia on Monday (with some Chicken Chesapeake Pasta we bought to take with us and eat tomorrow!)

crab from Conrad's

crab from the Double T Diner

crabby tots from Red Brick Station

the sign in our hotel

crab from Casa Mia

C = CNE Job Fair

I was tempted to use the C for crab, but I wanted to mention something that happened just the day before August began. My son is still looking for employment, and he applied for work at the Canadian National Exhibition. He was given a link to register for tickets to a job fair on July 31. This event actually made the news, because 37 000 people showed up to this fair, even though there were only 5 000 jobs available. (You can read about it here from Now Magazine, from CBC, from CP24, and from BlogTO.) He lined up at 11:00 am and at 3:00 pm he threw in the towel and left, frustrated and discouraged. This is a terrible situation. My son, and many other young adults like him, are eager and willing to do almost any job, but despite the signs claiming that businesses are hiring, they aren't. When I was young, our teachers used to tell us to do well in school, otherwise we'd "end up working at McDonalds". Now, it'd be a dream come true for my son to be able to snag a job at McDonalds. How times have changed. Doing well in school and earning a diploma or degree does not guarantee you a job. I hope I'll have better news to share related to my youngest one's quest for a paying position. 

(This is a photo of me finishing my "Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults" book and making a serious dent in my "Education for the Age of AI" book while waiting for my son at the CNE grounds. I "took notes" by taking photos of pages I thought made good points. My shoes were super-cute but gave me bad blisters!)

So, even though it's August, there's lots of learning going on. This coming week, I begin teaching 4 TL AQs for York, and the following week, I start taking my ESL Part 2 AQ as a student with Queen's. My activities during those first few days of August show that learning can be social, unexpectedly transformative, and challenging. 

Review Requests

 This week has been a productive one. I've completed many pages in my year-in-review scrapbook. I hosted two guest speakers for my York University TL AQ courses (thank you Jen Giffen and Joseph Jeffrey!), had a Zoom meeting, and finally got around to having my finger checked out on Friday after seeing the doctor about it in June. I had a really good experience at the facility that provided my ultrasound and x-ray. As I was about to leave, one of the technicians asked if I'd be willing to leave a Google Review for their place. I happily agreed. 

This was my review. 

This made me wonder a few things.

1) Why is it important for a medical establishment to get good online reviews? I looked after I posted mine and there were very divisive opinions about the service. They either received 5 out of 5 stars or 1 out of 5 stars. Do they have to compete for customers? 

2) I've been asked by one of the places I take my car in for work to fill in their company-specific survey, but it's always prefaced with instructions that anything less than a 10/10 means that they've failed, so please don't give any scores lower than 10. How is this kind of feedback helpful? How would one accurately be able to say that the service was satisfactory when the expectation is that is has to have the highest possible score? (This is why I haven't filled out any of these surveys, even when asked. They don't really want my true opinion; they just want high scores.)

3) Sometimes these reviews are used as "revenge". I know someone who worked at a business where someone was fired for legitimate reasons, and to retaliate, the person went on Google Reviews and left a scathing commentary, which conveniently left out the fact that the reviewer used to work for the company. How can readers know if the reviewers have an axe to grind with the company that has nothing to do with the service?

4) Do these reviews actually result in change? I know of someone else who has a boss that frets over the results of their Google Reviews, but it seems like it translates to short-term stress and not always to long-term transformations.

5) Is it bad to ignore reviews? This coming week is the final week of the July session of my York University AQs that I teach. I encourage all the participants to submit course evaluations, but I'll be honest - I haven't read mine in a while. Last year around this time, I wrote about how the really awful course evaluations stick in my head and lead me to forget almost all the positive ones. For my own well-being, I delay reading these forms. If there are any serious issues, hopefully my employer will alert me. They seem happy with my work, and our August sessions are busting at the seams! (However, there's still room - click this link if you want to register for a York University AQ course [not just mine!])

6) What if I substituted the word "review" with "assessment/evaluation"? Are my five questions still legitimate even in an educational context?

These are remarkably heavy thoughts for a sunny weekend in July. 

As for my finger, the ultrasound technician was able to pinpoint precisely where I was having the issue. I worried that the problem had just gone away with time and that I was wasting their time, but it looks like I've been using my hand in ways so that there's no pressure on the sensitive spot; the problem still persists. 

Compliments from Strangers

 What do I talk about on my education-themed blog when it's summertime? I just re-read my summer entries from the past two years and I noticed that I share reflections on excursions, summer PD/learning, comments on my AQ teaching and I stick in potentially controversial topics that have been simmering in my mind but I didn't want to draw too much attention to with a during-the-school-year post. 

Today's blog stems from a ten-second interaction at a Tim Horton's. I was in the middle of an errand-filled day and was grabbing donuts for my husband and son, who were getting their hair cuts nearby. As I exited, a man approached me and said, "I don't mean to be rude, but I have to tell you that you are extremely gorgeous." 🤯

I was not expecting that at all. I thanked him for the compliment and walked back to the salon, eager to report the interaction. "My boys" had some interesting theories about what elicited such a comment. They suggested the cut of my clothes inspired the words. (For reference, I had no makeup on and was wearing a Just Cozy t-shirt, Just Cozy biker shorts, and sandals.) My family and I wove the phrase "extremely gorgeous" into our conversations for the rest of the day, watching to see how long it would take my daughter to notice and ask what was up. (To her credit, it didn't take long. Mary is very observant.)

I'm not vain, but I have to be honest - that compliment really made my day. I was tickled by the kind words because there was nothing transactional or sinister about it. The person giving me the compliment was younger than me, and it didn't feel like he was angling to receive anything in return. 

It made me wonder how likely it would be for me to do something similar. Would I tell someone I have never met that they were beautiful or athletic or wonderful? Even though I'm quite confident, I'm not sure if I would. It's one thing to praise someone that you are already having a conversation with - I've frequently lauded the gorgeous nails I've seen on cashiers when I'm in line paying for things - but it's another when I need to initiate, when the person I intend to flatter isn't aware of me at all. Why would I hesitate to appreciate someone? I suspect it's because I'm not sure if they'd take the compliment just at face value. I worry that people would wonder what my ulterior motives were, or that they'd think I was creepy. Considering that the man prefaced his compliment with "I don't mean to be rude", I presume that he didn't know how I'd accept the admiration. It reminds me a bit of the Fluevog community, and how delighted people can be when strangers approach them to praise their unique shoes. 

The young man's commendation (can you tell I looked up synonyms for "compliment" halfway through writing today's blog post?) has inspired me to make an attempt to "pay it forward" by admiring people and communicating it in an appropriate way more often. It also encouraged me to buy some more Just Cozy t-shirts! I'll end today's post with a family selfie, taken at The Prague (a fantastic Czech restaurant in Scarborough). (Please excuse my handsome husband's expression - he often responds to my demand for a group photo with a mix of skepticism and bewilderment.)