I would like to start this blog post by introducing you to Jen, one of my closest and dearest friends. Jen is made of 100% Pure Grade-A Awesome. We met in grade 6, Ms. McCann’s class (Jen: please correct me if I’m wrong. My mind is a little fuzzy in my old age :D). I have memories of both of us painting on glass windows with window paint, chatting lots on the phone about anything and everything, and for some reason, I have a vague recollection of us trading books. Which books? That’s a mystery to me. Did I even read books back then? Needless to say, a close friendship was formed. Although we don’t see each other nearly enough (it’s been several years, actually…), she remains one of my greatest friends :). My artistic pursuits stopped shortly after the window painting, but Jen went on to pursue her passion for art and earned her degree in Studio Art and Art History. She’s now a Fine Artist in Ottawa, and extremely talented!! You can find her website at http://www.jenkershaw.ca/.
So what does this have to do with the Double Rainbow of Awesome? First off, if you haven’t seen the fantastic YouTube video of the guy who becomes emotionally overwhelmed by the sight of a giant double rainbow, you must watch it. I’ve embedded the video at the end of this post. It’s no secret that I have a thing for rainbows and fireworks. But double rainbows?? Oh my God…
So anyway, yesterday was a good Wednesday. I finished a continuing education class on SQL Server 2008 that I was taking, the weather was sunny and moderate for a change, and all was peachy in Calgary. I picked up some dry cleaning, had some pants hemmed… generally, life was good. Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any better, I returned home, opened up my mailbox, and found……. a mysterious package!
GAZOOKS!, I exclaimed. What could this be? Immediately I knew who had sent it. Obviously, it was Jen, since I just wrote all about her… but how did I know right away that it was Jen?? She had recently sent me a message wanting to confirm my address because she was updating her address book. I don’t think she was updating her address book. A clever ruse, she says. You win this round, Jen. You win this round. There’s nothing quite like getting a surprise in the mail that isn’t a flyer or a dreaded bill! So you know that scene from the movie Charlie and Chocolate Factory where Charlie runs all the way home after he finds the Golden Ticket?? Yeah, I didn’t do that, because I was already home and I was holding a bunch of dry cleaning; however, with Charlie’s gusto and enthusiasm, I walked up the stairs to my place, put my stuff down, and began unwrapping the mystery before me. What I opened can only be described as BRILLIANT, EPIC, and ABSOLUTELY AWESOME:
That’s correct, folks. A DOUBLE RAINBOW T-shirt!! Seriously, can it get any better than this??
Jen had mentioned that when she saw this T-shirt, she immediately thought of me and my affection for all things YouTube and meme-tastic. It’s true. I like YouTube. And I like memes.
So Jen: Thank you. This was incredibly thoughtful. I send you my love and a gigantic virtual hug the size of a giant double rainbow. I will wear this shirt with beaming double rainbow pride. You truly made my day. 🙂
HIKES & HAMSTRINGS 
That shirt is freaking AWESOME. 1000000 interweb points to Jen. In Double Rainbow related news: I was chatting with a friend about this just yesterday. When I was teaching my students about the double angle formulas (you know – sin(2x)=2sin(x)cos(x), and cos(2x)=2cos(x)-1=1-2sin(x)=cos^2(x)-sin^2(x)), I so wanted to say”Double Angle, what does this mean? Oh my god, double angles, they’re so beautiful”, and then maybe start weeping. I didn’t. But I still have time to pull this one out. Class doesn’t end until next Friday.
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Woah! So intense! (starts laugh- crying while whoooo-ing at the screen) Your memory is so bright and vivid! All the way! Woah! ;)I am so glad that my little surprise brought you chest-bursting fireworks – levels of joy, which is what I imagine is happening in your re-enactment photos to bring on such weeping 🙂 That, or it was the combined effect of t-shirtness, fresh dry-cleaning, and pants hemming, the trifecta of awesome, I hear tell.It has indeed been far too long, my friend, since I last saw you. I believe it was my last year at Guelph? 7 years? Woah. Too long! But when we talk, it’s like no time has passed at all. Dan? You should TOTALLY express your joy of double angles to your students with weeping and incoherent exclamations. I recommend wind chime accompaniment to underscore the awesomeness! 😀
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LOVE IT!
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First I would like to say that I agree completely with your statement “Jen is made of 100% Pure Grade-A Awesome.”She really, really is!That is one sweet shirt! It looks great on you!:)
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