GO OILERS!!!!! (no.... I am not a bandwagon jumper)

Last night, after 16 long years, my Edmonton Oliers defeated the Anaheim Mighty Ducks to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. While it is nice to see Oilers jerseys and t-shirts all over the place, it is pretty much the same sort of thing that occurred a couple years ago when Calgary made a huge run and all these closet Flames fans came out of the wood work. While it is nice to root for a Canadian team, Edmonton has always been my fave team. I really started to get into hockey in 1990 when I saw the Oilers come from behind 3-1 in their first round series with Winnipeg to go on to win the Cup. Messier, Ranford, Kurri, Anderson, Lowe, etc put on a hell of a playoff run that year. But since then, the Oilers gradually became a glorified farm team, being forced to trade all of their top talent for financial reasons. But despite those hardships, I remained a fan. Every year, once the Oliers were eliminated, I prettly lost interest in the playoffs. Now, in the new salary cap era of the NHL, the Oilers are back in full force. Dwayne Rolason is standing on his head, Chris Pronger is playing like the best player in the league and the Oilers are dominating. I've always liked hockey, but when YOUR team is doing great, it is an unbelievable feeling. It's been a LONG time since I've been this excited about sports.

Xavier Rudd

This past Wednesday, I had a chance to check out Xavier Rudd with Jeremy Fisher at the Broadway Theatre in Saskatoon with my dad. It was an amazing show, and definitely the most unique live show I've ever seen. Jeremy Fisher opened up, playing some well-written, literate acoustic pop songs and telling some amusing stories in between and during his songs. He was running a bit behind before the show so he never made a setlist, so he was basically just making things up as he went along but it definitely worked.

As for Xavier Rudd, I've heard his recorded material and it has a definite Ben Harper/Jack Johnson/Dave Matthews stoner vibe, but this guy is a one man band. He simply has to be seen to be believed. He was playing various slide and acoustic guitars, digireedoos, percussion, wind chimes, and a gong more or less at the same time. The only thing he was really missing was a cow bell, but I'll let him off the hook for that. I guess he's been at the Winnipeg Folk Festival for 3 years, so hopefully he makes his way to the Regina Folk Fest in the near future.

Happy birthday to me (a.k.a. Holy sh!t am I getting old)

Today is my 30th birthday. The big 30. 30 seems to be a defining age where you are apparently supposed to have all your shit together. It is also an age where you are supposed to know that you are DEFINITELY not 20 anymore. But the truth is that a lot of my friends are roughly the same age as I am, and most of us are in roughly the same position. A generation ago, it was a lot easier for people to get great-paying jobs and it was possible for a family to live on one income. As a result, people got married a lot earlier in life. Now, even with a university degree, a good job is not guaranteed. People have to expect to bounce around a few jobs or careers by the time they retire and they have to expect to marry later on in life, if at all. So as I hit 30 today, I don't want to sit and dwell and where I should be right now or what I could've done differently, because good bad or otherwise, everything I have done prior to this day has led me to where I am and for the most part I am a pretty happy and lucky guy. I have had the privelege of making numerous lifelong friends over the years, I have an awesome girlfriend, I am a few short months away from my second university degree, and I have plans to work overseas for a year or two. And right now Safeway is paying me to NOT work for them. So as much as 30 can be a "line in the sand" age, I am far from washed up or dead. I'm still full of piss and vinegar and I'm only getting started. So happy birthday to me.

More new music to check out...

There are way too many good albums coming out at once lately. I picked up the new self-titled Pearl Jam album and it is by far their best since Yield. Their last couple albums have been a bit more mellow and experimental in nature so it's nice to see them have an urgency in their songs again. There's nothing fancy here, just good, straight ahead, aggressive rock songs. I also purchased Stadium Arcadium by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's 2 cds with 28 songs so it's a lot to get into, but so far it sounds pretty cool. I'll have to wait a bit to give it a final verdict. I also highly recommend Broken Boy Soldiers from Jack White's new band, The Raconteurs. 10 songs, 33 minutes. Perfect. I am also a big fan of Bruce Springsteen's new album of Pete Seeger traditional folk songs. It makes for good clean Bush bashing fun.

While on the subject of birthdays...

It's a day late, but I have to also extend a belated happy b-day to a future Mrs. Ruda, Shades. Even though your b-day celebration at McNally's got ruined because of some uncalled for melodrama, happy birthday. Shades and Rude Dude have been dating longer that April and I and they seem like the ultimate happy couple. She is one of the sweetest and kindest people you will ever meet. So cheers to you. And also thanks for letting me steal some pics fromm Tues.

Happy B-day Tina!

Today is Tina's birthday. Our birthdays are 4 days apart so for the last 2 years we have had week long extravaganzas to celebrate. Unfortunately this year, Tina is in Calgary so we won't be able to see each other for our birthdays. So Tina, if you see this, try to have a wonderful birthday. It seems like our whole group will be splintered up this weekend, so we'll have to make the best of it with the friends that are still around.

It's already been a year...

Wow. Today is me and April's 1 year anniversary. Even though we were for all intents and purposes dating for a while before this date one year ago, May 18 marks the first day where we officially decided to do the "boyfriend/girlfriend" thing. We were spending so much time together that it was foolish to try and just pretend we were just "hanging out" or whatever. And now it's been a year. Time really does fly by. In some ways it seems like yesterday when we first started dating, but in a lot of ways it does seem like a long time. A lot has happened in this past year. We have both had close friends move away, we've moved in together, we've had countless amazingly good times (with a few unfortunate bad times thrown in for good measure). I think the first six months of any relationship is the part where all you see is the good side of the other person. After a while, you gradually start to see that the other person does indeed have some flaws, just like everyone else on the planet does. I'm generally not a big confrontational person and I'm not a big fan of the fact that April and I have been fighting a lot more frequently than in the past, but I think it is largely due to a lot of outside circumstances. Mainly, I think our living arrangement adds a lot of unneeded stress. 5 people in a 3 bedroom place is just too cramped for everyone involved. I think all of us are starting to get on each other's nerves with the usual roommate-pet peeves. We just don't have enough privacy. Most of the time I don't even feel at home. I feel like it's a big come and go centre. I think once September comes and our lease is up and April and I can get our own place, things will be ten times more better. But even though things may not be as rosy as when we first started dating, I still think I'm in a relationship that can last. I still love April with all my heart and I think if we can survive until September, then we can survive anything. Right now is just a major test for us, but I think we can pass it relatively unscathed. We've both put a lot into this past year, and I think we've built a solid foundation for a wonderful future together. So happy anniversary honey!