Whistle while you work

Friday, May 1, 2009
Ah, Friday is here again. I thought yesterday felt like Friday, so today is kinda weird. The snow is slowly melting and HUGE icicles hang from every building. I decide that I should shovel my “sidewalk” or my front lawn…so that I could get to my apartment. So yesterday I borrowed a shovel and cleaned it up a bit. Today I didn’t have to wade through the snow. Now I just have to worry about walking close to roofs. Yesterday on the way home from work I looked up at the roofs and all the snow up there. One park in the middle of a building had already sloughed off. At that moment I was thinking, “boy, I’d hate to be here when that comes rushing down!” Not but 2 seconds later, wooosh! The snow from the roof comes rushing down….and it missed me by a few feet! I was lucky!
Today was a balance between getting work done that really means something, and doing busy work. I emailed some of our staff to tell them about a change in their housing assignments and answered some of their questions. That was the “meaningful” work. On the other hand, I printed out and cut up names for all our cubby holes, and laminated them. That’s the busy work. I think everyone was looking forward to the weekend, it couldn’t come soon enough. This week was definitely weird with the snow.
I did manage to package up our Peace Crane Project, and prepared it for shipping to Japan. We (staff and visitors) folded 1,000 peace cranes to send to the Hiroshima Children’s Memorial. The story goes like this: In Japanese culture, if you fold 1,000 cranes it is said to bring you good health. A child effected by the A-bomb was suffering from cancer ( I think). She decided to fold 1,000 cranes, but failed to make them all before she died. So, now, it is an inspiration for people around the world to fold 1,000 peace cranes because of this story…and send them to the Children’s memorial. I guess it’s a big deal with elementary school children. We did it too! Because we are the worlds first International Peace Park (with Waterton Lakes, Canada), we decided to send these 1,000 cranes as a symbol of peace between all world countries. It was very touching to complete the final stages and send them off!

Weather: 30’s, Partly cloudy. Some sun! No wind!