And when the winds of change begin to blow I’ll whisper “you’re my lighthouse” - in case you didn’t know…

Today my beautiful, amazing, accomplished, confident sister/cousin/friend Lisa is leaving us for the last time and my heart feels like it’s shattering into a million pieces of sand.

All I Know So Far

To the utter shock of exactly no one, I had a misadventure in Qualicum Beach a couple of months ago. It was an accident (definitely not an on purpose) that included a very common set of Andrea Circumstances - a whole lot of not-thinking, a bit of recklessness and my really ridiculous belief that nothing bad will ever happen to me, so why not “do that thing that my common sense is suggesting I probably shouldn’t do?”

If You're Not Trying to Make Something Better

Yesterday we were handed the 'framework' for changes that are coming to healthcare in BC on April 1, 2026.

They are huge, they are complicated, and they are going to cause no end of concern, fear, disillusionment and anger amongst healthcare professionals. 

So you're a faller

I was hanging out with a friend who is a faller the other night, which inevitably has given me pause to spend some time thinking about my grandpa, James Hennesey Way (Jim or Jimmy) who was a ‘lumberperson’ his entire life. He was all sorts of things – camp manager, sawyer, logger, millwright, faller, river driver – seems like he did all of it at one time or another.

Bulgarian Death Trap

After a few days of living in factory housing in Slovakia, I realized that my first impression of “luxury” was about five stars off the mark. Granted my room had four walls, a bed and a bathroom. It also had tap water that ran a very worrisome bright red colour, no screens on the windows, no pillow and was located overtop the factory workers bike shed.

My bar was set a bit high clearly. 

Also, my room came with built in roommates. One was four-legged, and came up through a hole in the corner. I named him Melchisedec (anyone else read A Little Princess as a kid?) I'm not a big fan of mice type things in my living space, but I was on the second floor and had been told that the first floor was overrun by rats (and they don't like to live in the same space as the mice). Fair enough then, settle in wee Melchi.

Fix It Dear Henry!

DISCLAIMER:  I don't think I have any puritanical friends who will be offended that sex is about to be mentioned. So this is for anyone who has stumbled accidentally on this blog and is about to be offended by this post. If I don't know you, I honestly don't care. Click your way to somewhere else on the Internet, especially if you have no sense of humour.

Some songs are about having sex all night long, for instance, “All Night Long,” by Lionel Ritchie or, more up my alley, "Shook Me All Night Long", by ACDC. Recently I was invited to contribute to a magazine responding to the question "What song do you think means something entirely different than how the world has interpreted it".

There is ALWAYS Room for a Tolkien Quote

This is the "why are you taking my picture right now Burton?"face

I've been having a battle with myself about whether to post this. I hate the idea that I'm somehow bragging. And yet it feels like this was one of those surreal moments that I need to recognize as having meant something to me - not just the acclaim, because that's a thing, but mostly because this was Justin, standing in front of the House of Commons, tearing up because I matter to him.

And so I'm going to post this, but I'm going to post this several years after it happened. Because my co-conspirators on this work are now both gone, and I miss them terribly every single day, so it seems appropriate to finally get my brave on and share this.