Loveguns

I'm proud to say that I've had a rather interesting week! Usually, the days pass, I go to work, I go home, whatever. It's good, but it doesn't make for interesting posts!

Anyway, this week I was at the Real Property Institute of Canada workshop from Tuesday to Thursday. I was really lucky because I got to go for free (the three days costs $1200) because I was there volunteering. This consisted of sitting at the registration desk, working powerpoint presentations for speakers and other random tasks. When I wasn't busy, I could sit in on workshops. I also went to all the luncheons and the gala dinner for free! Only problem was, I had to be at the congress centre every morning for 7:00 am, which meant early mornings waking up at 5:30 (gross!)

So I encountered some really intersting people at the conference. At the gala dinner on Wednesday, the keynote speaker was Paul Rosen, a former NHL hopeful. What an amazing man: his leg broke in 14 places during a hockey game and after many surgeries, his leg was amputated. And yet he persevered and ended up playing for Team Canada's paralympic sledge hockey team, who placed first is Torino. He even waved his prosthetic leg in the air! He was truly inspiring, talking about the importance of following your dreams and never giving up. If you'd like to learn more about Rosie you can read his story here.

I also had the opportunity to meet another truly amazing man; Bob Gray. Some people know him as "Backward Bob" and he teaches people how to improve their recall, which helps to remember names, dates, just about anything you want to remember. Anyway, this man has some pretty unique talents: he talks backwards, writes upside down and backwards at the same time, can memorize a 30 digit number and recite it back to you and can name the capital, area and population of every country in the world. And he's an amazing speaker! I highly recommend you check out the videos on his web page . Anyway, I ended up being picked to sit at a little table after his presentation and sell copies of his book on improving rapid recall. Lucky me, he told me to keep a copy for myself and he even signed it for me... backwards, of course!

Not quite related to the conference, I had an interesting run-in with a cabbie. After the gala on Wednesday night, I grabbed a cab to take me home. The driver claimed to have second sight. This was apparently the result of being born in a leather bag (???). He tells me that sometimes in his country, the birthing mother may be placed in a leather bag and therefore he was born from a leather bag and this apparently results in a child with second sight. Sure. Okay, because that makes sense. So anyway, this man (who kept calling me Sweet Nancy) decided to tell me all about myself: I'm shy, I don't always tell people what I'm really feeling because I don't want to hurt their feelings. Well, he got that one right, I mean, how could I tell him that he's a complete nutjob?! And then he told me my future: I'm going to be happy and successful and live in a big house. Could you be any more vague? You know, I have second sight too: I predict he was looking for a big tip...!