scrappy

oh oh oh... I do love to use clever little titles.

pooped.
yup.
I'm pooped.
Friday night eh-Tanya and I headed thru the great white North (it was snowing) to the town of Harwood for our third annual Scrapbooking weekend. Ok, don't give up on me here... hang on.
Each year, a group of 8 of us go to Elijah House for two nights of cropping and pasting. oh... right... and Bonnie's Karaoke machine. Each year eh-Tan and I make complete fools of ourselves as we attempt Cher, The Commmitments, and Elton... Each year we vow we'll be better... and we never are. *sigh* at least there's some great footage for eh-Tan's wedding.
I was pretty pleased with myself... I finally got some stuff done on my Watoto book (ok, yeah, I got a little sidetracked there) AND I completed 12 pages in my Togo book!!!! my plan (when I finish this one.. which will be soon) is to just start at that point in time with the scrapbooking.. no more of this working on past events.. I want to start "creating memories" of the now, my friends, my family.
I do have to admit though that the working on these books has been so good for me. It's been my debriefing, despite the fact that I never get to share them with anyone (because lets face it, you don't want to flip thru page after page of people and places you don't have a connection with) in putting together these books, I've been able to process a lot of the things that I saw and felt over the course of being there. Going back and reading journal entries, remembering activities and events....
When I came home from the year with Watoto... I jumped right into a different world ... one that was falling apart around me, and in leaving for Togo, I left just as things were beginning to stabilize... but were still so unfamiliar.
I find daily I'm still trying to figure out up from down. Still trying to sort out who I've become from all these experiences.... Having a weekend focused on just that discovery process was so so good for me.