a parcel for eritrea

I have a package for the mail today. Barb has requested Canada pins. She and Kim hand them out to their students. Our MLA, Dawn Black, gave me a big bag of pins and a Canadian flag. I am also sneaking them a dvd. They recently acquired a dvd player. If you put a dvd in the parcel out in the open it might be confiscated by the censors, so I have concealed it inside the cover of a notebook. If it gets through successfully using this ploy, I will send more.

What video? Canadian Bacon, starring John Candy. Might as well stick with the theme, eh?

question: have you mailed any Christmas parcels?

mompoet - going to buy a big chocolate bar before I seal the thing up. Must always include chocolate in all parcels to Africa.

A good day

I have to work Saturday at the Finale of Saturday Storytime at the Mall (it's a literacy project where we bring a storyteller in to the mall once a month, with a tie-in to a visit to the library afterwards - they love it!). That gave me Monday off work. I love a day when everyone else is doing their usual routines and I get to freestyle during that time period. No special treats or pampering, but several very nice things emerged to make a very satisfying day:

• Mom returned from India. I let Dad have her all to himself for the day but we talked on the phone.
• Irene phoned. I always like it when she does.
• The drier repairman came and fixed the clothes drier which has been broken since Thursday. phew.
• I got all of the backed-up orthodontics claim forms filled out and ready to go in the mail (that means we will get some money back).
• I cleared off two computer desks and the table in the hallway that were filled with miscellaneous junk.
• I organized the volunteer list and schedule for the Christmas recital (4 shows and a dress rehearsal, about 25 parents per show so it's a big list!)
• I read my novel for about 2.5 hours total. It's The Time Traveller's Wife. I'm loving it.
• Kirsi came over for tea. I always love when she does.
  
• The ladeez are planning birthday supper for me. They are peaches and jewels and treasures in my life.
• I waited for Alex after school. He took us on an errand and for a practice drive. He is getting to be quite a confident and skilled driver.
• I finally remembered to book a couple of appointments that I usually only remember in the middle of the night.
• I made corn chowder and grilled cheese sandwiches for supper.
• Dog and I went for a long walk and it wasn't raining.
• I had my first chai tea of the cold and damp season. mmmm
• I went to bed at 10.
  

Nothing spectacular, but the day felt like a good balance between productivity and rest. I got a bunch of things crossed off my nagging "to do" list. I stayed home pretty much all day except for the driving with Alex. It was a good day.

Question: what do you do when you have a "discretionary day?"

mompoet - not jealous of anyone's couch just now

Welcome home Mom!

My Mom has been exploring India for a month. She flies into Vancouver on Monday morning. I will be very happy to see her. My Dad will be even more so!

Welcome home Mom!

Welcome home Mom!

Welcome home Mom!

question: why is home really home when your mom comes home?

mompoet - daughter of mompoet's mom

Two photographs

The broadleaf maple tree is my favourite, located on my walk behind the house. I have loved it for years. In summer it provides a big patch of shade for salmonberry and huckleberry bushes. When the kids were little we spent lots of time under this tree, exploring and foraging. Now I like to look at it every morning when I'm out with the dog. It changes all the time. This year, birds made a nest in its branches.

The rose is blooming in our garden in November. Our friends gave it to us about 14 years ago when we lost a baby mid-pregnancy. At the time, it felt good to plant and grow something to remember a sad time and also as a symbol of hope and the sureness of living things. Now I just love the tenacity and delicate beauty of this rose. And if we'd had that baby we would not have Fiona.

These are the things I saw on my walk yesterday.

question: what sights and signs are yours today?

mompoet - pieces of the cosmos sliding in to place, I think

something about this time of year

Despite my current blip of discombobulation, I am loving this time of year. The slide into Winter Solstice is dizzying and delicious with sensory and emotional wonders all along the way. Late fall has always been my favourite time.

Almost constant rain, sudden and early darkness, skies heavy and low by day. There's an excitement in the contrast between interior and exterior, warm and cool, wet and dry, dark and light that excites my senses more than any glorious sunrise or day that goes on and on. Bright colours look best on a dark background. All that is bright and good and safe and warm can be seen so clearly these days.

I know it's a time of increased hardship for homeless people and those who suffer from seasonal depression, but I love this time of year for myself. Wet or dry, cold or mild, there's not a chance of Indian Summer, no turning back. Only one direction - onward to the longest night.

question: what is your favourite time of year?

mompoet - only 12 days until my birthday

things that made me feel good today

• my phone did not ring at work today (well, it did once or twice, but not incessantly with multiple voicemails showing after every call)
• my good friend Cathy read this morning's post and brought me a gift of chickpea curry and the secret to perfect bluejeans for us peasant-legged types
• the book I had a hold on was ready for me at the library and I remembered to pick it up
• organic spring greens with wine vinegar, olive oil and some nice feta
• my warm winter coat
• my son's even warmer coat for the dog walk this morning (mom's perogative to hijack son's coat whenever she pleases)
• on the subject of coats, we found the coat for Fi's Christmas recital at the very first V.V. Boutique that we visited, then we had fun finding lots of really awful coats and threatening to wear them in public.
• some pretty bad shoes too, and a device called "Sit and Spin" (I do not exaggerate)
  
• a Great Dane leaned on me and smiled
• Ugly Betty is on TV tonight
• somebody told me I look beautiful
• remembering The Sound of Music hilarious crew show 30 years ago when Fiona asked about when I was in musical theatre
  
• the dog stole a box of chocolate almonds from my briefcase in the middle of the night and ate them all and she didn't barf or poo all over the house while we were at work and school today (phew and thank goodness for poor quality chocolate that is harmless to dogs)
• kudos from 2 bosses on the email first thing this morning for our team project at work (a presentation at the Parks Commission meeting last night)
• no more nights out this week
• Andy cooked supper so I could sit and post blog when I got home and wait for supper to be ready
  

That's pretty good for just one day. Now supper's ready.

question: what made you feel good today?

mompoet - well, now a bath with candles would be just a perfect ending, wouldn't it?

nesting

One of the signs that I am overwhelmed is when the phone is for me and I resent it.

Normally I feed on the energy of the people around me, and feel good about feeling good with people and them feeling good with me. I'm feeling that other inclination these days, which is a sign of needing a rest. The other sign is when my normally absolutely unbelievably good luck turns around.

On Tuesday I had a minor car crash. A lady was distracted by her kids in the back seat, and slid into the back of my car on a wet road. We're all okay, and the cars weren't even damaged because I saw her coming and moved forward as much as I could before she hit. But to me, that's another sign that I'm overextending myself to the edge of where the going is good. It's like God or the cosmos saying, "take a different path."

Also, I notice myself being jealous of really mundane things. Like driving in the car I see a house, with the lights on in the living room and some people sitting on the couch and I say to myself, "I wish I could just be sitting on the couch." I remember this impulse at its silliest, back when I was a student teacher, having an absolutely terrible practicum, doubting my ability to function effectively, I drove past the old Oakalla Prison every morning where the guards were on strike and picketing. I said to myself, "I wish I was a prison guard on strike and not a student teacher." Now how silly is that?

So now I have to back up and listen to the little voice that is probably just telling me to spend fewer nights out and more time at home. I also have to take a look at work and do some re-framing so I'm not feeling like I'm hitting the ground running every morning, and squishing my office door shut on yelping undone tasks at the end of every day.

I have the power to feel better. Enjoying zesty days is my forte. I just have a bit of work to do right now. I'll start with some nesting. Family, book, couch, bed, answering machine - all good.

question: do you ever notice yourself sliding?

mompoet - time for self-care

slam decathlon

Our amazing The Svelte Ms Spelt organized a Slam Decathlon as a fundraiser for the Individual World Poetry Slam that we'll host in Vancouver in February. More than a dozen poets formed two teams and competed playfully in events like cupcake haiku, scrabble, and box of doom cover slam. As you can see, there was also a puppet show, mime and a cowbell. It was a night of stepping out of the box for a good cause. Good fun-raising and fund-raising.

Hooray for the Vancouver Poetry Slam and especially for Ms Spelt, who is also Artistic Director of iWPS 2007 in Vancouver.

Question: would you rather cupcake haiku or more cowbell?

mompoet - puppet-maker to the poets

quiet

it is impossibly quiet for 10 in the morning
upstairs, the son and the husband slumber
in the basement 4 girls and a dog
the dog is especially happy
(denning is a rare treat)
this morning I opened the front door quietly to get the newspaper
everything helped
even the coffee-maker whispered
and the cat stopped yelling because I fed her very quickly
I turned off the speakers so no one would hear the Windows fanfare
checked quiet email
drank water not too cold
so no shock waves would stir the sleepers
but now
cinnamon buns are shouting molecules of of joy up and down the stairs
tantalizing sleepy brains to rise
rise like bread dough
pop out like popovers
rub crusty eyes and stumble
up stairs or down
to the centre of the house
where I'm mixing gooey white frosting
and saying
Good Morning!
yes! they're almost ready
let's have some now
we'll go skating today

question: when do you find quiet?

mompoet - I love long weekends

the house isn't there any more

We dropped Fi off to a rehearsal in North Vancouver today and I realised we were just a couple of blocks from the house where I lived when I was in grade 3. So Andy and I drove up the street to find the neighbourhood. The house has been replaced with a much bigger house, which is too bad, but not surprising. That house had such a cool back yard, with pathways and a fabulous tire swing and rope swing suspended from a beam between two cedar trees. The house is on a corner, with the front yard sloping down to the road. I remember in the summer we slid down the long grass on flattened cardboard boxes. The ditches have been filled in. We used to excavate down there, and catch tiny snails in jars. The alley is still unpaved, with blackberry brambles up the back, which is beautiful. The secondary school and elementary school are still where they belong. I remember buying 5 Archie comics (when they were still extra-large format) at a fun fair at that secondary school for 25cents. I thought I was the queen of the world. Down the street, the old grocery store and the thrift store and the movie theatre are long gone. There's a PetroCan and a Save On foods a little ways up Lynn Valley Road.

It was a great year, grade 3, in many ways. That was such a fun place to live with the woods and the snow and the ditch and the tire swing. The commute over the bridge to get to the university to work drove my dad nuts though, so we moved into Burnaby after just a year, which turned out to be a pretty good move after all. The Burnaby house is still there, just the same as I remember. And Burnaby house #2 they bought, so they are still there today.

It's funny how a place can stick in your mind like that. It feels good to go have a look and be sure that it looks the way I remember it. Things change, but enough stays the same that I know my memory-thread is real and true. I wonder what our kids will remember and where they'll go back to look? They haven't moved around like I did, but they have attended different schools and made friends in a variety of places. I bet they'll want to go back and look one day too.

question: have you returned to a place to find it changed but the same?

mompoet - long roots

long weekend - short movie reviews

Akeela and the Bee (dvd)
Starbucks move (?!?) about a girl from an inner-city school who makes it to the National Spelling bee. Laurence Fishburne. True-life braniac children under pressure. Big heart. Starbucks ending (I'll have a latte AND a mocha. So there.)
Rating: 1 sniffle, 2 awwwws, 1 snort

Borat (big screen)
16 year old boy raved all the way home. The more scenes recounted, the less inclined mom is to want to see it except for that impulse to look at something run-over by the side of the road kind of curiosity. Maybe the part about trying to stuff Pamela Anderson in a sack so he can take her back to Kazakhstan and marry her?
Rating: 16 years THE BEST I HAVE EVER SEEN!
44.999 year WELL, MAYBE

Stranger than Fiction (big screen)
This one sneaked up on us (Fiona and me). Will Ferrell less Ferrell-ish than usual (very good). Emma Thompson (good). Dustin Hoffman (portraying a cross between God and Mr. McGoo). Maggie Gyllenhall (good). Queen Latifah (I want to look like queen latifah). Much more subtle than Being John Malkovich or Adaptation or all of the other reality-warp movies with which it is being compared. I want to go back and look again for all of the little-rary references.
Rating: 13 years - thumbs up
writer/reader/Will-Ferrel-fan-not mom - thumbs up

Coming Attraction
Tsotsie (dvd) - tonight in a living room near us

question: do you love the movies?

mompoet - I love the movies

Real Live Dead People

I saw the Body Worlds exhibit with Fiona's class, and 3 other grade 8 classes today. It was very interesting, emotionally powerful and scientifically fascinating.

Part 1: the Real Live Dead People
It took 90 minutes to walk through the exhibit, and I would have taken longer but we had to go up to the Omnimax for the Human Body movie. The exhibit is nicely set up so you can move from one thing to another and return to re-check a part if a subsequent display makes you want another look back ("so that's where the pancreas is - let me go back and look at the pancreas in the display case"). There are bones and organs and nerves and blood vessels in small parts and whole human beings. The whole people and parts are arranged/posed for dramatic effect and to illustrate how the parts work and fit together in the body. There are healthy and diseased parts (including a cross section of a 300 pound man, body fat intact), even artificial parts. One female body has an artifical knee, elbow and ankle. The exhibit is arranged from the easiest to view (bones and muscles) to the most difficult (embryos and fetuses).

I was surprised by a few things - mostly size and proportion:

• The lungs are much smaller that I thought they would be, and the thoracic cavity takes up much less of the torso than the abdominal cavity does. This makes sense, even when I look at myself in the mirror, but I always picture lungs as really big when they fill up with air. Flatten your hand. The outline of your lung is about that size if not a little smaller.
• The aorta and vena cava are gigantic! I pictured the big blood vessels like outdoor power cords, but they are closer to garden hoses, not quite, but almost. You could put your thumb inside your aorta.
  
• Human muscles look like meat. Okay. They are meat. Still, it's really something when you see it.
• The bones of the inner ear (hammer, anvil and stirrup) could all fit on your baby finger nail with room to spare. They are impossibly tiny.
• Kneecaps are not much bigger than pop bottle caps.
  
• The bones of the feet are as delicate as those of the hands.
• Blood vessels are everywhere.
• The small intestine is quite alarming when it is unravelled.
• Fetuses make me cry.
  

By now you will know for sure if you would like to see this show. I like all of this, so I loved it. The people whose bodies or parts are on display gave their permission (in the case of the babies it was the parents who gave permission, I suppose). You can walk all around everything and see it from every angle. It is absolutely spectacular. Some of the poses are sensationalistic, but at the same time they do demonstrate the body's amazing capacity to for physical performance. They are all doing things that people do.

Part 2: Watching the Watchers
The teachers were aware that the trip was controversial. They offered to excuse any students who chose not to attend (it would not affect their marks) and welcomed all parents who wished to attend. Not many parents attended. All but one student in Fi's class chose to attend.

While we were in the gallery, there were grade 10 students, grade 8s and a bunch of elementary school kids (probably grade 4 and 5). There were also adults who weren't part of a school group. I followed 3 nurses for a while. Every piece or person prompted patient stories. It was fun to overhear some of them. I chatted with quite a few people at the displays. Lots of people were talking to other people about what they were seeing and what it meant. The displays of disease (arthritis, leukemia, hemmoragic stroke, polycystic kidney disease) prompted discussion of illnesses of friends and family members. The teenagers were respectful and thoughful, if quick to bypass some displays. I saw two girls about 15, say to two similar-aged boys, "Look, a tumor of the testes." But they weren't giggling or grossing out. They were interested. Nobody seemed to be concerned by the penises and vaginas and anuses on display. I guess when you are looking at someone's liver you don't mind looking at sex organs too. It felt like we all knew we were looking at real people. We knew it was a special experience. Mostly what I felt myself and around me were curiosity, amazement and awe.

Contrast that with the Omnimax experience. The Science World Lady is reciting the rules (turn off your cell phones, don't take pictures, bla bla bla, no laser pointers) as laser pointer dots dance around her head on the screen behind her. Even so, the movie was good enough that the kids settled down and paid attention. They were delightfully grossed out by the churning stomach contents, especially when the bile squirted in, and by the zit-pop scene.

I'm glad I went on this trip with the school. I look forward to a second viewing with Alex's school later this month. I bet grade 10s and 11s will be fun to watch too, along with the real, live, dead people.

question: do you think you would like to see this exhibit? or if you did already, what do you think?

mompoet - real live live person

field trip

I will not go to work today. Instead I will go with the middle school to see Body Worlds at Science World. I am very interested to see the "plastinated" human bodies, and equally interested to observe the real, live middle-schoolers and their teachers.

question: have you seen it?

mompoet- delighting in curiosity

a word or 2: Transit of Mercury!

I just found out that today's the day that the planet Mercury crosses between us and the sun. You can watch it live beginning around 2pm Eastern Time on discovery.ca. Think of it as a very tiny and valiant eclipse. We now return to wordless wednesday.

question: is it anthropomorphizing when applied to a planet?

mompoet - planets are my friends

wordless wednesday

in the aftermath of the flooding

I, Politician
do take credit for rainbows.
Earthquakes are your fault.

question: ???

mompoet - lucky to live on high ground

dog walk haiku

on my umbrella
oak leaf high-five swift and light
courage whisks skyward

question: what did you see this morning?

mompoet - I like to walk in the rain

how your mom turned into a witch (and back again thank goodness)

It is a dark and stormy night. Well, actually it is 4:10pm on Sunday afternoon. But it is stormy, or rainy anyway, and it is getting dark.

On her way home from errands, mom notices that all of the other houses in the neighbourhood had no Halloween decorations left. She reckons it is time to get ours down too. But when she arrives at home, nobody shares her conviction. Vague responses are given to her inquiries about the timing of decoration-removal. Not satisfied with lukewarm assurances that the pumpkins and cobwebs will be gone before the Christmas lights are put up, mom goes outside to do it herself.

As mom dresses in old jeans and a launder-able waterproof jacket and gumboots, a smallish wart pops up on her chin. She goes down to the basement to find a pair of pliers but cannot find them in the tangle of discarded tools. A biggish wart pops out on her forehead and one on her nose also. Her fingernails lengthen and take on a greenish cast.

Outside, mom commences pulling one-point-five quadrillion staple-gun staples out of the carport in order to remove a huge variety of halloween lights and decorations. With each twist of a staple, she grunts a witchy grunt. With each grunt, a tuft of her usually shining and bouncy hair turns iron-black and straw-like. When she pinches her finger with the pliers the wart on her chin sprouts 3 long whitish wirey hairs. Her greenish grayish eyes turn slitty and yellow.

Now mom climbs up on a plastic patio chair chair to remove the staples too high for her reach. Rain gushes from the clogged eavestroughs onto her head. She clutches a handful of staples in her gnarled fist and feels her teeth transforming into long yellowing fangs.

Lights and decorations removed, mom turns her attention to the styrofoam tombstones and fake cobwebs. Scooping armfuls of soggy cobwebs out of the branches of the lavender and boxwood plants, mom notices a large hump developing on her right shoulder. As she moves toward the garbage shed with a dripping tangle of cobwebs and attached branches and leaves, she notices that her usually confident and springy walk has transformed into a freakish shuffle. One foot is noticibly larger than the other, the the toes of her running shoes are now pointy and curled up at the tips.

Finally, the pumpkins. Mom muses on a radio spot she heard earlier this week, touting pumpkin-scented oil as the ultimate aphrodisiac. "Not from these pumpkins," she thinks as she carefully drains rainwater from the slimy interiors of the jack-o-lanters lining her carport. She carries 2 pumpkins to the trash with no mishap, but pumpkin number 4 turns out to be full of pumpkin slimewater even though it appeared to be empty. A reeking cascade soaks the front of her jeans and trickles inside one her of boots. Mom's lips shrivel and turn black. Her nose and chin grow longer and curl inwards toward one another.

Half an hour later, mom is inside, unwinding with a glass of wine. Dad and daughter come in. Nobody says thank you, but somebody notices that the rather large coffin was not brought into the house. Pale, sulphurous smoke curls from mom's ears. Her tongue turns green with orange spots.

*****

Forty-five minutes later, mom is mom again. She finished the wine, posted her blog and reminded her family that she says "thanks" for jobs well done and appreciates their thanks and recognition. Now she is no longer a witch. The healthy supper that she cooks for them is not poisoned with magic toadstools. When she tucks them into bed later, they hardly even notice the warts.

question: what job do you detest?

mompoet - working on working out resentment because it gets yukkier and yukkier if you hang onto it

the home stretch

I just checked the calendar. I have 30 more workdays until the end of the year. This is a bit alarming because there's still to much to do, but when the days are done I'll set down what's left undone, go on vacation, and come back to pick it up when I return. It will still be there.

Work has been busier, more challenging and more stressful than I can remember since 1988 when I helped to open a mega-big rec centre. This is different thought. It's just everyday demands compounding and accelerating. I'm not sure yet if it's cyclical or a trend that will continue indefinitely. I certainly hope it's the former.

Luckily, I work with a team of energetic, even-tempered, ambitious and down-to-earth people, including a good and compassionate boss. My co-workers are able to laugh hysterically when the demands get ridiculously overwhelming, and not get too upset by some of the near misses and minor catastrophes that come with over-business. The other day in a team meeting (which included a yummy supper - shared food helps too) we just burst out laughing for a few minutes, then got back to work. We stay aware of each other's home lives and interests and thus reinforce the important idea that this is just work, that the important part of life happens before and after. And we go home, and we support each other so we can take days off for field trips, orthodontist appointments, vacations.

Which brings me to vacation. For the first time in my full-time working life (which began in 1984) I will take 3 weeks paid vacation time all at one time. That's 15 workdays plus the surrounding weekends, plus the first day back to school - a lovely luxury - to just unwind. Before this I have taken only 2 weeks at a time so I'd be sure to have enough to cover all of the important holidays and times with the family. This year I have more paid vacation, so I'm going for it. I'll have a whole week off while the kids are still in school, and I'll take that first day when they go back, just to get ready to return to the office.

I wonder what I'll do? I'm sure I will sleep in, work out, read books, see friends, hang out with my family, watch foreign movies (remember my New Year's Resolution?), and I think there's another 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle in the plan.

I'll also help out with our daughter's Christmas panto. She's in a production of Aladdin that will run right through Christmas. Besides driving her back and forth to the theatre I'll help backstage. I have even volunteered to be "half of a camel" for at least some of the performances. I know, "WHICH HALF?" Here's my stock answer to a question that I have now hear at least a dozen times:
"WHICHEVER HALF IS EMPTY."

Here's the show. If you make it, be sure to applaud both halves of the camel. One of them might be me.

For now, I will enjoy the last 30 workdays and try to stay healthy. So far not one sick day this year and we need the whole sick pay rebate (in excess of $1 kilobuck) for a math tutuor for semester 2 Math Principles 11. Tra la la!

question: will you take winter vacation this year?

mompoet - counting up/down with anticipations

More Dead Poets' Slam

These photos were taken by Franci Louann.









question: if you could be a dead poet, which dead poet would you be?

mompoet - all poets, all dead, all the time

after the storm

on the boulevard
newly naked trees greet me
like old friends returned

questions: do you love this time of year?

mompoet - I love this time of year

something you should know (or already do)

I was riding home on the bus and
what usually happens
happened
everyone could hear my thoughts
I think about this almost every time I ride the bus
the people are sitting there
looking oblivious
and listening to everything I think and feel
I think, “I gotta pee”
they think, “she has to pee”
I think “That guy with the ipod and the track suit looks like my brother
they think “that guy with the ipod and the track suit looks like her brother”
I think, “If I thought about murdering someone or robbing a bank or having sex with someone on this bus, would everyone hear that?”
They think, “yes, we would hear that.”
It only happens on the bus, most of the time
But never on the 97 bus because 97 is a prime number
It’s the B-line, and if B was a letter, it would be a prime number
Because B is two
B is the only even prime number letter
C is a prime number also
but it’s not even
even so, the C24 bus is safe too because if you add up the number 24 and the letter C
you get 27
which isn’t a prime number
but it’s the cube of a prime so it’s even better
so on some buses the people can’t hear my thoughts
but on most they can
they act natural because they all agreed ahead of time that that’s the best way to deal with
listening to my thoughts
like they had a meeting or something about me
everyone in the world
or
everyone who rides the bus, anyway
they all agreed to just act natural
so I try to think thoughts like elevator music
so I won’t give away too many secrets

a secret
another one
I sometimes imagine that someone I know is watching me when I’m all by myself
I imagine that the person is admiring me
thinking I’m pretty amazing or talented
or at least loveable
or at least funny
I imagine they’re sneaking around, disguised as someone else
or they hired someone with a hidden camera
or planted a spy camera in a room where I’ll be all by myself
and they’re watching on a monitor
in a van down the street
I’m usually pretty careful to act
admirable
or
loveable
or at least funny when I think they’re watching
but then I realize I just ate my entire salad with my fingers
dipping leaf clusters into balsamic vinegar
then I licked my fingers
then I farted
but I stood up first so I wouldn’t squeak the chair
I hate when that I fart-squeak the chair
it's so undignified
then I realize it’s probably just as well that nobody is watching
or at least if they are I hope they think I’m
loveable
or
funny
enough to like to see me eating salad with my fingers and farting off the chair

sometimes I think babies are really
old, wise aliens
they are sent to earth to observe us
and send data back to their planets
they can understand everything we say
and hear our thoughts
and sometimes they even control our thoughts
to see if we’ll do what they telepath us to do
then they grow up and turn into ordinary kids
after they’ve done their work
and transmitted data
about how we act around little babies
up to their mother ship

one time I peed my pants at the Vancouver Art Gallery
not just a little squirt
a whole gusher
I just couldn’t make it to the bathroom on time
I threw my underwear in the trash
mopped up as best I could with t.p.
wrapped my hoodie around my waist to hide the wet patch on my jeans
and went to look at tom thompson anyway

my mother says as you get older you lose a bit of your control
but I’ve always been this way
she says you also understand better that you never had
as much control as you thought you had
and I think she’s right about that
sometimes I talk to my mother when she’s not there
sometimes, when she’s there, I don’t

I just second guessed myself
I looked up prime numbers on the internet
97 is a prime for sure
the next one after it is 101
if we rode the 99 bus together it would be a prime because us and 99
add up to 101
we should ride the bus together one time
you know what I’m thinking
even when the bus
is safe

question: am I the only one?

mompoet - suspecting not

Our Halloween

I worked on Halloween Day, but came home early in the afternoon to prepare. Everyone in our neighbourhood gets into Halloween in a big way, and we get lots of trick-or-treaters (almost 200 this year). We sit in the carport to hand out candies, and I serve coffee and brownies to the parents. It was really cold out, so the coffee was popular this year. Here are some pictures from the office and our neighbourhood.

question: did you have a good Halloween?

mompoet - spooky

The Dead Poets' Slam - Allen Ginsberg, Dylan Thomas and the Other Charles Bukowski and Edgar Allan Poe

The Dead Poets' Slam - Two Emily Dickinsons and our Host, Guy Fawkes

Dead Poets' Slam - William S Burroughs, Professor ELLEN PARJEET SEAMUS HERNANDEZ O'FLANNIGAN, The other Charles Bukowski and John Keats

Ladeez PJ Party

The hoody ones gathered on Saturday night to welcome Myrna back to town. We cooked a lovely supper together in our pajamas. We tried on Halloween costumes and played with Halloween candles.

Question: Who do you know who likes to hang out in PJs?

mompoet - lucky to have such warm and fuzzy friends.

Nelson's Vacation

Nelson the rat just got his photos back from Costco. Here he is with Mr. Disney and Mickey Rat. Thank you Kirsi, Allan, Jesse and Nolan, for taking Nelson with you to Disneyland. Thanks especially for bringing him back.

question: where would you take Nelson?

mompoet - (shhhh. Don't tell Nelson about the "mouse" thing.)

frightened by tall lights

They're filming Alien vs Predator on the back street of Port Moody every night. By day it's a busy commuter route. By night it's a movie set. There are explosions, army tanks, smashed cars, dressing room trailers, police cars and orange cones and barricades everywhere. The worst part is the big giant lights on cranes. There are two big lights, as bright as soccer field lights, but horrifyingly temporary and tall and skinny. They disappear in the daytime. At night they sway in the breeze, 5 or 6 storeys above street level, not really crooked and not really straight. They remind me of the creatures in the the movie War of the Worlds. Their scale is scary. Their light is scary. I will be glad when they are gone.

question: what frightens you?

mompoet - don't walk into the light

a great big field trip

The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee thinks schools should be closed for 2 weeks during the 2010 Olympics so students and their families can volunteer and attend the games.

Do they have any idea how many students that is? I sure hope there'll be enough seats and free tickets of course. Won't it be fun to take all of the kindergarteners to watch the bobsled races? Well, maybe they can all watch it on TV.

And all of those moms and dads taking vacation for 2 weeks to look after their kids who are out of school. We'll probably also have to close most of the banks and stores and even the hospitals and police station.

Let's all go to the Olympics. YAY!

question: does this sound silly to you too?

mompoet - okay, enough cynicism. I have some sewing to do

bushisms abounding

Matthew Baldwin's blog Defective Yeti is always smart and funny. Here's his riff on GWB's "the war in Iraq is a comma" comment.

question: what's your favourite punctuation mark?

mompoet - I have quite a few I might apply to His Royal Bushiness

dreamsy

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are coming to a small local theatre near our home. Oh my, It's the James Cowan Theatre in Burnaby - about 500 seats. Michele and I get tickets. We arrive late and I brought the dog with me, so I have to figure out what to do with her, then a balcony materializes but the view is pretty good from where we're sitting, and it sounds good. But I'm distracted and the people in the audience keep getting up and switching seats and saying things like, "What show is this, anyway?" So Michele and I leave, but I don't seem to care. And later I think, "Wow. I missed that show. That's disappointing." And at the same time we hear music and cheering and then see a couple thousand people crossing the street from the theatre and running down the beach all happy and excited and I think, "I could go back there, but now it's too late."

Then I'm in a press conference/fan Q and A session with the band and there's only about 20 of us in the room and we can ask questions and all of the members of the band are just chatting away. But I brought this good novel so I'm slouched in my chair holding a book up in front of my face ignoring the whole thing. I think maybe I look kind of cool, not being impressed by the event. Then some manager person screens the band's latest rock video for us and the band members run to a limousine and drive away and I missed them again.

question: what do dreams mean?

mompoet - thinking maybe I should stop, look and listen?

nesting and sewing

I took last Friday off work to hang out with the kids who were on a pro-d day from school. Then I ended up attending a funeral instead. It was good that I could do that but I felt like my treat day was taken away.

So I booked today off. Only the kids are in school. I am going to nest with my sewing machine and put together my new Halloween costume. Construction-wise it's not that much different from all of the lime green munchkin dresses I sewed last Spring. The main difference will be that it's much more DEAD. Just wait, I'll post a picture when it's ready.

It's been raining for a few days. The furnace is kicking on in the morning. I found my wooly socks. Perfect day to be inside and not in a hurry.

question: do you ever reclaim and misplaced treat?

mompoet - self-indulgent in a positive way

thank you dr. bruce

I got that tooth fixed. Not broken after all. Just decayed. My excellent dentist knows I like to watch so he gave me the mirror whenever I wanted to look. Tooth decay is pinky/brown and yukky. Ooooohhh! such fun to look at! Now I have a beautiful white filling that looks like the day the tooth first erupted. Now I can crunch an ice cube without screaming. Yayyyy! Thank you wonderful dentist!

By the way, while I was not watching the tooth decay and the amazing white stuff and the magical filling-hardening-light I watched my favourite close-caption television. I know I could do this at home, but I save it for a treat at the dentist. The close-caption simultaneous translator must have a very difficult job. The guy on the morning show was interviewing a guest from Science World. They were making SLIME for Halloween. But the close-caption guy did not know how to spell slime, so they were making "slim" for the whole segment. I was killing myself laughing. Do not laught immediately after the dentist injects novocaine. You will feel the novocaine in your elbow. Honest. Also, don't do it while he is drilling. I think I am now in Dr. Bruce's nuisance patient book. Also, the close caption translator captioned "ameliorate" like this: AMELIE OR ATE............AMELIORATE. (I could just hear him/her saying "OH CRAP!")

I still want that job.

question: have you been to the dentist lately?

mompoet - finding sources of amusement in inappropriate places

wednesday night in suburbia

drink three glasses of (wine)
with the ladies and counting
to seventeen is


...impossible...


question: is that too much information?

mompoet - chardonnay blows haiku all to crap

The Clean House

I saw The Clean House at the Vancouver Playhouse on Saturday. Each playhouse season is like a survey of historical periods, dramatic forms and styles. This was "the new play." It is absolutely wonderful. Very funny, absurd, tinged with a bit of surreal, with a big heart. I cried. I want to learn to speak Portugese. I want to write the world's funniest joke.

question: are you a cleaner-upper or a joke-teller?

mompoet - joke-teller

bye mom!

My Mom is in India for a month, traveling with a pack of artists from Australia and Canada. They are all interested in dye-ing (not dying). Fibres and fabric coloration, that is.

I hope Mom will read my blog from India. We will also email one another. She'll be back in time for my birthday. Yay!

Dad's a home. Hey Dad, come over for supper soon, okay?

question: where would you like to go?

mompoet - exploring the infinite boundaries of the internet

when the going gets tough, eat candy

the bowl of eyeballs
on my desk has been eaten
pre-Halloween stress

question: what is it about chocolate?

mompoet - keeper of the candy dish

real beauty is on the outside

Check out this video. I know the company that runs this campaign sells beauty products, but I like how they're selling them, with real size/shape/look models looking beautifully like themselves. This video is an eye-opener in more ways than one.

It's on the outside of all of us. It's just too bad too few of us see it when we look in the mirror. Let's work on that. Together.

question: did you know that you are beautiful?

mompoet - look! I can see it! BEAUTY!

More Halloween

Andy and the girls (Fi and some friends) decorated the carport yesterday afternoon. It's kooky and spooky and lovely. We might get a giant pumpkin today. We'll wait to see if the Great Pumpkin drops one off.

I'm just thinking about the clown hat that I mentioned in an earlier post. It happened about 10 years ago. I sewed matching clown outfits for the kids and me. They were beautiful: red and black with dots, strips and rick-rack, pompoms and ruffles. Harlequin-style and elegant, if I do say so myself. The sewing pattern included dunce-style caps which I stiffened with some sturdy iron-on interfacing and secured with elastic chin-strings. When we got dressed on Halloween night to go out, Andy looked at the 3 of us and said

"Klown Klux Klan."

Now I don't really like the hats so much. He's right, you know. They do look like that.

That's the story of the clown costumes. Maybe I'll post a photo on Wednesday.

question: will you dress up for Halloween this year?

mompoet - creating faux pas and floobdobbles from time to time

procrastinating

some variations

procreastinating - getting pregnant to avoid painting the house

procrapstinating - going to the bathroom to avoid cleaning the bathroom

precrastinating - planning how one will procrastinate in the future

prochristenating - attending a baptism to avoid paying the bills

procroysternating - eating oysters to avoid washing the dishes

pyrocrastinating - burning down your house to avoid cleaning it

question: do you procrastinate?

mompoet - really should be doing something

weekends are too short

If I were the queen, we would all work two days and take 5 off. There are too many things to do for just 2 days.

question: will you join my queendom?

mompoet - freed from the tyranny of work for the sake of work (in my imagination anyway)

A New Contributor for My Generation

Local poet and writer, Megan Hyska has joined the writing team of The Now Newspaper. Here's a link to Megan's first column.

question: who are the artists in your neighbourhood

mompoet - happy too, to live in the city of the arts

Link for the Quiz

Quizbuilder is not talking to blogger beta yet. So I had to post my quiz to ohmyquiz. You can take my quiz here.

question: beta?

mompoet - yeah right

skribbitzes

I just finished reading Scar Tissue, the autobiography of Anthony Kiedis of The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I found it to be an eye-opening, depressing and endearing read. I left the book amazed that this man is still alive and writing and performing, after so much drug use and so many accidents, injuries and bad mistakes. The character who emerges is an intense and intensely impulsive man with a good heart. Anthony Kiedis is a young soul. His story provides an insight into the power of addiction, life in the rock and roll fast lane and the interdependence of performers who work together for years. Most surprising to me was that Anthony is really insecure about his singing ability. I enjoyed learning about the events that inspired the songs, and about the process by which the band members write and record their songs together. I was amused by the love stories. It seems like this guy just has to look at a woman, like what he sees and say, "Hey you! Be my woman," and she will, for months or years of intense sex, fighting and sometimes drugs together. It's an adventure to read this life story.

***

I have another broken tooth and my arms are too short. What I mean by the latter is that I now have to take my glasses off to read when I am tired or if the light's not good. I need new glasses and I need my tooth fixed. It's to be expected, I guess. I'll be 45 in November. In the meantime I reassure myself with feats of physical prowess. Yesterday I hopped from one fitness class to another at the gym for a total of 90 minutes cardio flat out AND I LIKE IT! Thank you to Lisa the cycle class teacher for playing "Love Cats" by the Cure and a Peppers song, each at just the right moment. It's amazing what our brains can trick our bodies into doing.

All this is not to say that I'm in denial of aging. Here I am, right in the middle of my walking, talking life. I want to feel zesty now and for a long time. I think I'm on the right track.

***

New breakfast sandwich: toasted baguette with pesto and tomato slices. It's good. Try it.

***

Work continues to be an overwhelming avalanche of everythingness. I have been taking a few minutes to organize my stacks of work so I don't miss anything critical. I am taking time everyday to sit down and talk and laugh with my co-workers. I am not taking work home. I am trying not to take myself or my work too seriously. It's just a busy time. There have been busy times before. Every day there are nuggets of joy and moment here and there of, "Oh yes, that's why I love this job." So it's tiring but okay.

***

Halloween is coming. We'll decorate the carport this week. I'm thinking of sewing myself a new costume. I have a fabulous clown outfit (matching ones for the kids which they have outgrown) with an unfortunate hat (I'll tell you about that another time), and a beautiful kangaroo suit which is warm and snuggly. I haven't made a costume in a few years, since a sewed a cow suit for Fiona. Maybe I'll go to the fabric store after work today. That would be fun.

***

Scribbitz, grzl, skrink. Autumn wiggles in through the crack under the screen door. Let's put on our sweaters and find out what happens.

question: what befalls you as autumn arrives?

mompoet - sap going back down to the roots

what I saw this morning

crouching on wet lawn
chicks fledged and gone, robin stays
habit prevailing

question: what will poor robin do now?

mompoet - finding poetry in my morning dog walk

the perfect husband/the perfect wife

Two illustrative scenarios:

#1
10:49pm, the man and woman have just finished making love
she: Love you sweetie. 'Gnight."
he: Hey wait! You're going to sleep already? What about me?
she:I'ts almost 11. I'm really tired. What do you want me to do?
he: Put your head on my chest and tell me I'm great.
she:You ARE great. Really great. I'm just tired.

#2
9:17am, just before cycle class (the women are talking about their husbands)
wife #1: My husband is willing to help around the house. He just has no idea what to do.
wife #2: My husband eats an apple every morning and leaves the little fruit identification sticker on the counter beside the sink.
wife #1: Well, at least you know where he's been and that he's eating his fruit.
wife #2: Yeah, he's a good husband. But if he'd just put that sticker in the trash he'd be PERFECT.

question: I wonder, is that all it takes for us to go from good to perfect?

mompoet - pondering the nuances of human relationships

oh my gosh

I just watched Kandahar. It was beautiful and surprising and very sad. I am enjoying this movie-watching project of mine. One of the scenes that got me in the movie: a man who just scammed a crappy pair of artificial legs tries to sell them to a man who has legs. Who knows? there are land mines everywhere. It's good to have a spare pair with you just in case.

I need to watch some really funny ones now, for a break. Also everyone who is reading my crying poem is contacting me to find out if I'm really okay. I'm really okay. Really. Toss me a funny movie. I'm ready for laughing.

question: what's your pick for something funny that is not made in Canada or the US?

mompoet - thinking a lot about Afghanistan and looking forward to a day when funny movies will come from there. Can you imagine the Afghan version of Bollywood. Yes! In our lifetimes, I pray.

I could cry for one hundred days

all of the cakes, baked partway, collapsed and discarded
the late-dawning mud clots, slumped outside my window
the bite-down-hard nuggets of resignation
shame parading as forgetfulness
neglected intentions, accumulating like overdue fines
for unread library books
hurts endured, inflicted and ignored
the shortcuts that never tasted as sweet as I thought they would
the whole damn list that I have chewed, swallowed
spit out and written down again

all of these things would come squeezing out, sour and hot
my disappointment in myself
wetting my lap, leaving me soggy-sleeved and empty
snow-blind and pretending

I could cry and cry and go on living
cry while I sleep
cry while I eat
cry at work and in the car
cry talking to my children
walking the dog
making love
praying
washing the dishes

at the end of one hundred days
I would shovel damp tissues into the trash
wring out my sodden sleeves
change into dry pants
and begin the next one hundred

because I simply don’t know what else
I can do.

Question: could you?

mompoet - the rain came today

a video for people who have spent too much time looking at album covers

I found a link on dooce to this excellent YouTube video.

question: which covers stick in your mind?

mompoet - the worst thing about downloads is no cover art

haiku

her ears are soft but
not near as soft as the day
when I first met her

question: whose ears?

mompoet - dog-eared

bad dreams

The brakes don't work on my car, and there's an Indie road race happening in the parking lots along the route where I'm driving, with race cars darting across the road I'm driving and flag-people are trying to get me to stop to let the race cars through and I can't and the kids are in the car with me. My car goes forward and back like someone is moving it with a remote control.

A new houseplant. Someone pushes a button and laughs and the "Little Shop of Horrors" flower spins off the plant like a helipcopter and buzzes around my head and lands and now it's a bug with a green grasshopper head and it bites me on the hand. Everyone is laughing and thinking it's funny and cute but it hurts and I am scared.

question: what do dreams mean?

mompoet - needing to let go of some stress, I think

who couldn't love these lyrics

Oh I could throw you in the lake
Or feed you poisoned birthday cake
I wont deny I'm gonna miss you when you're gone
Oh I could bury you alive
But you might crawl out with a knife
And kill me when I'm sleeping


or these


As I lie between these covers
I wanna tell her that I love it
When she chokes me in the
Backseat of her riverboat 'cause
She's my man
And we got all the balls we need

I'm listening to Scissor Sisters an American group. I got their new CD "Ta-Dah" then I had to buy their first one, "Scissor Sisters." They sound like Elton John meets the Bee Gees in some 1930s cabaret with a bit of Duran Duran around the edges. It's a weird combination that's tickling my music bone right now.

question: what are you listening to these days?

mompoet - oh, and there's a beautiful lisp too

Lotsa Movies

On Thursday, Cathy and I went to the Afghan Film Festival at Inlet Theatre in Port Moody. While we were there we enjoyed the wearable art show, which included a natural turf bra, which no doubt needed watering through the run of the exhibit.

Although the festival schedule promised two short movies we were treated to three, Kabul Cinema, Shabnum and Gulchera. In between the movies two hosts answered questions and gave background information to help put the works in perspective. All three films were very sad. All three featured children as their main characters. Of the three, I enjoyed Kabul Cinema the best. It's the story of a boy who loves the movies so much that he salvages a projector and some reels of film from the burned ruins of the Kabul Cinema. He constructs a miniature cinema on wheels to show bits of movies to himself and anyone willing to pay. The writer and director is Mirwas Rekab, who also made Osama. We felt like we had enjoyed a rare treat to see these films and to hear them discussed by the hosts and audience members.

So now I've rented Kandahar, but I haven't watched it yet.

This morning I watched Nobody Knows from Japan. It's beautiful and heart-breaking.

So many movies, so little time.

question: seen any good shows lately?

mompoet - giving thanks for the world on my tv screen and in a theatre near home

words I like

conch
umbrella
jalapeno
otter
fidget
halitosis
warp
blip
ottoman
mambo
arugula
allegory
dart
amble
bubble
gallop
early
tarantula
fajita
azure
occipital
calculate
burp

question: what words do you like?

mompoet - this is only a partial list

ps - two more

"logo" and "slogan" because they sound ugly.

(see post below)

mompoet - done now, I promise

some words that I dislike

These are words that I think are misused or worn out or should otherwise be discarded:

plight - outdated and hysterical-sounding, usually applied to a collection of people, sounds like a big cow-pie of trouble
suggestion: be more specific about what the problem is - poverty? disease? war? talk about it (but don't say "war-torn" or "poverty-stricken.")

infrastructure - used to describe any services that we or someone else don't have enough of, as in "infrastructure problems."
suggestion: be specific - say "The sewers are wearing out. We need new pipes." or "There aren't enough doctors and nurses at the hospital so people are waiting too long for surgery."

strife - in the same category as plight. With the exception of the plant name, purple loosestrife, I think we should nuke this word. Used mostly in poems and songs, when people can't think of a better rhyme for "life."
suggestion: get a life, find a better rhyme

solutions - as in "business solutions" or what I saw on a sign today "specialty coffee solutions." As if all of your problems can be solved by the right software - or apparently the right caffeinated drink.
suggestion: call it what it is - "business software systems" or "coffee"

concerning to me - as in "It is concerning to me that the school district may cancel programs because of the ruling on school fees." Do you mean, "disconcerting?"
suggestion: be concerned and use the right word

Honest, I am not grumpy today, I am thankful and happy and well-rested for a change. Wrong words are just frustrating me because they distance the speaker and the listener from the real meaning. Most often, a simpler, more direct approach is better.

question: what bugs your ears?

mompoet - going to quietly eat my turkey now, having blown off some steam.

are people still talking about pluto?

I've been meaning to write a poem about Pluto since August but my poem ducts are blocked right now. I'm thinking that by now, Pluto's demotion from planethood by the Official Astronomers of the World is old news so the poem portal has passed. But here's a Weebl and Bob 'toon about it.

question: how do you feel about Pluto losing planet status?

mompoet - still sad about it

au revoir Nelson!

I am over the moon with joy and excitement. Just got an email from Kirsi, who's leaving with her family tomorrow morning for Disneyland:

Susan, Nelson is really excited, he won't go to sleep. I told him to calm down and sleep or he might spend the week with FRITZ ( in the cage, aaaaaahhhhh!!!!)

Kirsi is taking Nelson the rat to Disneyland. I told Nelson we would take him with us in August, then I forgot. I have been feeling so guilty. Now he will go on an airplane (his first trip on a plane) and have a great weekend. We'll take care of Fritz at home.

Thank you, my friends, for making Nelson's dream of the magic kingdom come true. He'll calm down if you rub his belly and give him some potato chips. He likes honey dijon the best.

question: what is your favourite chip flavour?

mompoet - glad that honey-dijon is available only in Sechelt - right??

wordless wednesday

Body Worlds

I have signed up to go on a middle school field trip to Science World, including a visit to the Body Worlds exhibit. It's controversial. I admire the science teacher for taking the kids. They'll have the option (vetted by parents) to see the Body Worlds exhibit or not while they are there.

I am fascinated by how the human body works. I think it will be very interesting to see this exhibit. I believe that when you die, your body is as useful to you as your car or your clothing. What's intensely important in your life on earth is the opposite in the next life. If people want to donate their bodies to an exhibit, and other people want to see them, I think that's okay.

I am an organ donor. My family knows that I would like everything useful that's left of me donated, including the option to donate my used car of a body to a med school. I don't want to be plastinated, but mostly because the idea might upset surviving family members. Also, I've heard there's a waiting list to be in the show, so I'll leave it to those who really want that.

question: what do you think of this?

mompoet - intensely enjoying the outer part while it's meaningful, ready to give it up when the time comes

what the push-button angel said today

"The more you complain, the longer God keeps you here."

question: whu?

mompoet - not complaining

Afghan Film Festival in Port Moody

I just read about this. If you live out here in the 'burbs and are having trouble finding time to get in the the Vancouver International Film Festival. You could catch an Afghan movie at the Inlet Theatre.

question: seen any good movies lately?

mompoet - spongebrain square eyes

make your own official seal

Try this website. You can have an official seal today. You can have a new one tomorrow.

question: vexat?

mompoet - ad libitum

Photo Scavenger Hunt - Comfy

Here's my comfy photo. Thanks to Daisy for inspiring the post. Comfy for me is in my kitchen (in my pajamas) cooking some comfort food. This one is curried squash soup from last fall. I think the squash was named Bruno. Don't get too comfy with me. I might cook you for supper.

question: what's your comfy?

mompoet - comfy with squash

who me?

On our camping trip this summer, my dad told me he thinks I'm an introvert, telling myself I'm and extravert. I've been thinking about this. He says if I was really an extravert I wouldn't write poetry.

I've been thinking about this comment, and my own sense of ease in my life, and I'm wondering a lot about it. I think there is some truth in what he says. We agreed that very few people are one thing or another. We're all lots of different things, and for each measure. In this case it ranges from extreme introvert to extreme extrovert, with all kinds of calibrations in between. Further, a person could be inclined differently in different situations and life phases, while basically being one way in general.

I think I live the life of an extravert. I don't take/have/demand a lot of solo time. I do crave it, and I find it in my own ways - during my blogging time, in which I entertain myself with myself, and in the car (that's when I sing, recite poetry and sometimes cry) and probably when I exercise, now that I think about it. Even in the cycle class, once the endorphins kick in, I zone out and take a private thought expedition quite frequently. hmmm

During the course of a normal, busy day, I am surrounded by people at home and at work, and in my leisure life. I thrive on laughter, intellectual stimulation, attention, appreciation and enjoyment of friends and family. It feeds me. I seek it out, build my life to get as much as I can and do as much as I can. Mostly it is very satisfying. I am blessed with good physical and mental health and abundant energy that allows this high level of interaction and activity. I go for it almost all of the time.

I think part of my resistance to acknowledging the other side of myself comes from being snobbish about jumping on pop-culture waves. So I am resisting the "simplicity" movement and everyone who says they're looking for "balance." Even if these are good things, I don't like to join in the mantra of the masses chanting precious platitudes about this year's version of how to live the inner life.

But that other side is there, even if I don't refer to it in terms of balance. It's the part of me that wears pajamas until the last possible moment when I have somewhere to go. It's the part that carries a book around in my briefcase so I can hide in a corner and read, even for five minutes when the opportunity arises. It's the part that writes poetry, blogs and actually loves doctor's waiting rooms, buses and long car rides. At its heart, it wants its very own quiet place to be alone for indefinite periods of time.

So if I refuse to look for "balance," maybe I'll just have to think about this part as a partly overlooked part of myself, talk to it once in a while and find out what it needs and what it can do for me. Hey there intro-self. What's up?

question: how many parts make a whole?

mompoet - asking my intro-self if she wants an apple muffin

does your chat wear un chapeau?

A friend at work is creating an art installation consisting of photographs of cats and dogs wearing hats. She has sent us home with little straw hats in which to photograph our friendly beasts. Your dog or cat (or hamster, budgie, gerbil etc) could be part of this work of art. Just send your picture to me by Canadian Thanksgiving (October 9) and I will forward it to the artist. The display will be at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby and I'll let you know the dates later.

Here's my special email address for pets in hats only

dogsandcatswearinghats@yahoo.ca

question: do you dress your dog for special occasions?

mompoet - our dog was a fairy princess once for Halloween

New Year's Resolution

I think I just found my New Year's Resolution. Before you start thinking, "How Type-A can she get?" I'm not trying to be super-organized or fix myself. At least not with this impulse. September has always seemed like more of a new year to me than January. More people start more new things and more cycles of activity commence in September than ever do in January. Maybe I won't even bother with a New Year's resolution when January rolls around.

If you know me you also know that I like New Year's resolutions that add something rather than take something away. I am not into denial and deprivation. I prefer enhancement.

Yesterday I watched another movie from the foreign movies section of our local video store. I enjoyed it so much I think I'm going to try to work my way through those movies and any others that I come across. That's my resolution. Watch more foreign movies. They're mostly rentable in packs of 3 for $9 for a whole week, so it'll probably be in binges. Heck, I might even go to the theatre to see some.

Yesterday I watched Osama. It's a movie made in Afghanistan about a family living during the time that the Taliban were in power. In the story, a young girl who is made to dress as a boy so that she may go outside the home to support her mother and grandmother after her father and uncle die. The movie was filmed in Kabul after the fall of the Taliban regime. The actors are local people who the director found there and asked to be part of the project. As I watched it, the stark landscape and constant menace of the Taliban made me keep thinking I was watching science fiction. But I knew it was a true story, that represented the reality of the lives of the Afghani people in Kabul during the time of the Taliban. I kept thinking that it is impossible that in one world, life can be so different for people. We are all the same, but our lives are not.

I watched the movie at 5:30 in the morning. I think that I can find a day here and a day there to do this. Seeing the work of film-makers from different places in our world will help wake up my mind and heart to new worlds.

question: are you doing something new this September?

mompoet - happy new year!

wordless wednesday

most of the time

I love my job but today, well, ehhhhh.

We've been extremely busy at the office since I came back from holidays, but mostly busy in a fun and productive way with a bit of manic black humour thrown in. We have this mechanical angel in the back office. When we're at a loss for how to handle things we can push a button and she gives us a platitude. The other days she said, "Keep your temper. No one else wants it," in this kind of Stepford Wife voice. She cracks us all up.

When I left for vacation I knew that when I got back, I would have a report to write for a public meeting. I write this same report every year, so I know how to do it. I have to ask about 25 people to send me data. I compile it all in a nice chart, write a summarizing cover page, and Bob's your uncle. I even thought to ask for approval to submit it to the October meeting (rather than September), seeing as I took holidays later than usual this summer, at the end of August.

So a couple weeks back I emailed everyone asking them to send me the usual stats and trends, but this year's version. I reckoned that I'd have a week to work on it, an hour here and there and get it in to my boss in plenty of time to be edited, formatted and sent out to the official people a week before the meeting. What I forgot to do was to verify the due date. I had some hazy idea it would be in the first week of October.

wrong

Yesterday my boss leaves me a message saying I need to have the complete report in by Wednesday (tomorrow). I felt sick. Not only had I not even begun compiling the information, I knew I was missing more than half of the data. Missing it is usual. I just call around and people say, "oh yeah, I'll email it to you today," and I get it all together in plenty of time. But there was NO time, this time.

So I holed up in my office like some drama-bureaucrat, took no incoming calls and commenced to track everyone down and badger them FOR THE DATA - RIGHT NOW! LIKE, IN THE NEXT HOUR IF POSSIBLE. Boy did I feel like the Nag Hag of the Universe. I was bugging secretaries to chase people out of meetings and leaving double voicemails with backup emails. I think I have not been as obnoxious at work in the last 10 years put together as I was today (well, there was that time I tried to convince everyone to wear Christmas pants to the office party, but that was just silly obnoxious - today I was bossy obnoxious). I was totally embarassed at how I was being. Then in the middle of it, I get a voicemail and an email from my boss. Crunchy Crap! She needs the report "pretty much perfect and ready to go" by mid-afternoon TODAY!!!!

So I went out and pushed the button on the angel and she told me to "Count your blessings. No one else wants them," which didn't make sense but I think maybe I was a more than a bit off-balance by this point.

Anyway, I tracked down everyone, and some of them called me back, and I got the damn thing done. It is not the most polished or creative piece of work I have ever submitted, but it's done. And tomorrow I will start making it up to everyone who hopped right to it and got me THE DATA NOW! when I asked/pestered/demanded. And next year I will confirm the due date before I go on vacation, then build in time so I can ask people nicely for more info, or the info that they owed me yesterday, but there's no problem, plenty of time.

I think the angel might properly say, "You made your own bed. Now lie in it. Nobody else wants you lobbing pillows at their heads." And she'd be right.

question: how was work for you today?

mompoet - hanging in there

Are you an extravert or an introvert?

1. Check your belly button. Is it an innie or an outie?

innie
outie


2. Do you like to suck lemons or spit sunflower seeds?

spit sunflower seeds
suck lemons


3. Which is longer, your big toe or your second toe?

that's personal
wait, let me check


4. What do you do just before you fall asleep?

fart
snort


5. Can you curl your tongue?

yes
no

What does your score mean?
5 - extreme introvert
15 - extreme extravert
any other score - perfectly normal, but probably a bit silly to play along with this quiz

lookeeee!

The CBC Poetry Face Off 2006 CD is now available.

question: what's irresistible to you?

mompoet - still boggled by the whole thing

calendar girls

My birthday is coming. If anyone is thinking of getting me a calendar, this is the one I want.

question: did you ever play twister with a nun?

mompoet - I'll give the firefighters a pass. Send me the women in wimples!

last ride of the season (probably)

Alex drove into Vancouver to Playland for his student driver practice today. He cashed in his skee-ball tickets from the whole summer and we took a couple of rides on The Coaster before heading home (one in the front for the best view, one near the back for the noise and the rush and the whip-around-corners).

Now that we're back from our California coaster trip I can say with assurance that nothing anywhere I have been beats this ride. In particular, the two other wooden coasters we rode in California (Colossus at Magic Mountain and Ghost Rider at Knott's) don't come near to it. Both rides were bigger and more complicated, but they lacked the grace of our wonderful wooden coaster. Our version is every bit as fast and swoopy, with lower-tech seat restraints so more off-the-seat time on hills. Most important, it's smooth. I think someone decided that wooden coasters are supposed to rattle your bones right out of your body to be good. They're wrong. Playland's Coaster knocks your socks off, but leaves your teeth in your mouth, your breasts in your bra and your brain un-concussed. I like it the best.

Nice to know the best is here at home.

question: what did you do on the first sunny day of fall?

mompoet - coasting

potluck

We had our Shoreline Chapbook group meeting last night at Helmi's place. Supper is always a free-form potluck. It usually turns out very well, partly because Helmi always has a main course and her perfect corn fritters, plus a dessert, so we could pretty much bring nothing and have something. I like surprise potlucks. Planning and committing to bring a specific dish just don't work for me because I'm never sure what I'll feel like, how much time I'll have and what's good on the day of the potluck.

I do have a hang-up about potlucks. I am always afraid that nobody will bring vegetables. I have got over most of my unhealthy food rules/limitations but a meal without veg filling half the plate is something I dislike intensely. I can't enjoy the yummy other stuff unless there's a load of veg to balance it. And the veg has to be yummy too. An iceberg lettuce salad from a styro takeout box does not count. Nor does a veggie platter unless there's something unusual and nice about it.

As a result of this obsession, I always bring veggies to potlucks. Sometimes a big salad with real lettuce and other delightful ingredients, sometimes something cooked. Last night I found eggplants looking like gifts from heaven at the produce store so I made a really easy and simple and yummy eggplant and mixed-veg casserole. Here's the recipe in case you are going to a potluck.

1 big mama egglplant - you could use 1 or 2 of the long Japanese kind if they look better
1 big red onion
as much garlic as you like
2 handfulls of fresh mushrooms
2 red or yellow or orange bell peppers
1 plumpish zucchini
2 handfuls of ripe tomatoes

Wash and cut up the vegetables into big chunks. Toss the zucchini and bell pepper and eggplant pieces in olive oil and roast them in a 450F oven for about 15 minutes, turning to brown both sides. When the corners of the peppers start to get toasty it's time to take everything out.

Meanwhile, saute the onion and garlic and mushrooms just until they let go of their crispiness.

Let the tomatoes sit on the side and toss them in after everything else is cooked. The heat of the other veggies is enough to cook them a bit without turning them to mush.

Throw everything into a big casserole (3-4 litres). Stir in about 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar or red wine if you don't have the vinegar. Season with salt, pepper and oregano, or whatever you think will make it taste nice. Keep it simple.

Sprinkle feta cheese over the top. Take it to the potluck just like that.

When you get there you can stick it in the oven (about 350) until everyone's ready to eat or nuke it in the microwave for about 10 minutes to fully reheat, just before serving.

question: what's your potluck specialty?

mompoet - vegetable assurance specialist

beautiful soup

Today I booked off work to be with the kids who have a Pro D Days (the teachers are in workshops and the kids stay home from school). We had a screaming hot Szechuan lunch, practice driving for Alex and two movies. Before breakfast this morning I curled up on the couch with Elling (made in Norway, 2001) which took my breath away and activated my laughing and crying mechanisms in turn. It is a beautiful movie. I have just discovered a pretty impressive foreign movie section in the Kensington Square Rogers Video in North Burnaby. A movie with breakfast is a wonderful treat. I will be visiting Rogers and bringing home breakfast movies as frequently as I can.

After the Szechuan we went to the multi-googolplex. Fi and her friend watched Barnyard. Alex was going to see The Black Dahlia, but I talked him into seeing Little Miss Sunshine with me. (I reminded him that going to see Napoleon Dynamite was my idea before all the kids at school had caught on to it). We both loved it.

I have to give up the computer now, but it's just as well I don't give the plot away in some awkwardly enthusiastic review. Just go see that movie. And rent Elling if you're tired of reading the newspaper with breakfast.

question: from what source comes such richness?

mompoet - wallowing in happiness

The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee is not my Hero

Our City Council in Port Moody has struck a task force to work on projects around the Olympic Games - scheduled for Winter 2010 in Vancouver. Oh, I'm sorry, did I say Olympic? I mean "The Games." Oh! did I say 2010? I mean 2009+1.

The VANOC has declared exclusive rights to the words "Olympic" and "2010." Our city's group was ordered by VANOC's lawyers to rename itself and destroy its letterhead when it first launched as the Port Moody 2010 Olympics Task Force. Don't worry, the mayor says he will cut the letterhead up and use if for notepads. The task force has been renamed "The Games Legacy Task Force." Now the Olympic Committee's lawyer is busy pursuing the holdouts "Olympic Pizza," "Olympic Powerwashing," and a few homeowners who are unfortunate to have the address "2010 whatever street."

Several other proactive suggestions so we stay out of trouble until after the games are over:

• banks can develop brochures to help people learn what to write on their cheques for the entire year of 2010, when it's illegal to write "2010." If you don't like "2009+1" try "the year that cannot be named."
• Washington State can have a referendum to rename the Olympic Mountain Range and the Olympic Peninsula.
• We can go on using the word "Olympic" but transpose the vowels to make it substantially different and annoy VANOC at the same time. This should be used in reference to the actual games as frequently as possible - "Ilompycs" or "Ylimpocs" both sound rather sassy.
• We can go out and raise a ton of money for "The Games" and "The Legacy" then take it to the VANOC office and say "NOT THOSE GAMES! NOT IN A MILLION YEARS - OR AT LEAST NOT IN 2011-1 YEARS!!

question: did you ever hear of anything so stupid?

mompoet - just call me mimpiet for now - I'm sick of O's

librarians are my heroes

I found this notice at a local library. I think this is just the nicest thing.

I've heard of tax amnesty and gun amnesty. Library book amnesty just seems so decent, civilized and encouraging. It's the nicest thing I saw all day.

question: Do you go to the library?

mompoet - secretly desiring to be trapped overnight in the library

Word on the Street 2006

Coming up this Sunday in Vancouver it's Word on the Street. I'll be there helping at Poet's Corner all day. It's a great event, a huge, free, outdoor (mostly) celebration of books, magazines, writing and word-sharing. I hope to see you there.

question: what are you reading today?

mompoet - word at the breakfast table

wordless wednesday somewhere in the world

what defines "aging?"

I keep thinking about the label "aging rock star" and thinking, "what the heck does that mean?" And just to clarify, I am really asking myself that question, not just asking it rhetorically here as a way to say something little and make it sound more important.

I've been thinking about where the lines are that define young, aging, old. We all begin to age the minute we are conceived and we keep aging at the same rate throughout our lives. It's just that there is a line, and when we cross it, our age is in the "getting older" category, rather than the "in the first part" category. I won't use the "you are as old as you feel/act" platitude. We are, chronologically and biologically aging. What I may disagree with is people's concept of what we should be doing/thinking/feeling at a certain age, although there are some broad guidelines that usually work.

Getting back to what aging means and when it's appropriate to categorize someone as aging. I think usually it's in the second half of their life. I'll be 45 this fall which means that I will be aging, except that several of my female relatives have lived well past 90, my grandma past 100, so maybe by that definition I'm not quite aging.

Aging might also depend on the context. For example, a beauty queen or supermodel could be aging when she's 27. A physics professor wouldn't be aging until she was at least 50. And categories that are defined by generations could have a reverse effect imposed. A 60 year old grandmother is "a young grandmother" in my books.

What prompted this all in my thinking was thinking of the Red Hot Chili Peppers as aging. I think of them as aging because they are about my age. They've been playing since the 80s. They are most likely all in the second half of their lives. They are older than most of their fans too, I'd guess. They're not in the same category as Mick Jagger or Rod Stewart. Some aging rock stars exceed all expectation. I suspect it happens when you have lots of wives and kids. You can't afford to stop being a rock star.

Aging is not a bad thing, in my books anyway. There are lots of advantages to aging. People take you more seriously, and you stop taking yourself so seriously. It gets easier to do your own thing because you've tried lots of things and figured out at least some of what you want to do. You can still do most of the things that you like to do. In the aging category the body still works, the brain's alert, you usually have some money and you have lots of friends and experiences and choices. You've had time to get good at some things that make you feel a sense of purpose. There's been time for spiritual/intellectual/artistic exploration. There's still lots of time to do a lot more. These days, there's a long time between "aging" and "old." The beginning of "aging" is a pretty good place to be.

question: when do you know you are halfway through your life?

mompoet - aging, yup, definitely aging