Sundance

Oh, would I ever like to go to the Sundance Film Festival.

Here's an article about Steve Buscemi. One of my favourite actors.

I am now officially procrastinating by blogging, so I will list the rest of my favourite actors (male only - I'll think about female actors another time), and also my non-favourites. Then I will go to work (maybe).

Favourites besides Steve Buscemi

Tim Robbins
Ed Harris
Edward Norton
Michael Caine
Anthony Hopkins
Gary Busey
Rob Schneider
John Candy (I miss him)


Used to like them but not so much anymore

Gary Sinese
Robert DeNiro

Un-favourites - not that they're bad, I just don't get what all the fuss is about

Brad Pitt
Russell Crowe
Hugh Grant - okay, he's bad. I call him "Mr. Stammer and blink." I don't think he acts. I think he just shows up as Mr. Hugh Grant and that's old now.

So now you know that I can be kind of mean when I'm procrastinating. I will now stop, and go to work and be nice, but on the way I'll stop by the video store, return Absurdistan and find something else good.

question: what do you do when you are procrastinating?

mompoet - clickety click

Another movie

I stayed home this morning and watched Born in Absurdistan, an Austrian movie made in 1999. It's about two couples in Vienna whose babies are switched at the hospital. One couple is deported to Turkey and the other couple (the husband is an Austrian immigration official) go to Turkey to find their baby. It's lightweight and romantic, but makes some good points gently. The director uses a device of re-playing some scenes more than once, so you see the action from a different point of view. This is really effective and is, I think, the main point of the movie.

There's not much on the web about it, but you can read a negative review here on IMDB. I found the review almost as entertaining as the movie.

Without spoiling the outcome, I'll say that the ending of this movie is not realistic, but satisfying anyway. I viewed and enjoyed it as social commentary, which I prefer to have served up with curiosity and playfulness. This is a loveable movie, but not silly. I fell for the characters and the situation, and enjoyed the outcome. I recommend it, definitely.

question: what movies have you seen lately?

mompoet - enjoying my new year's resolution

not either, but better

butter and silk
yup
mmmmm

question: is it possible to make more space to move around inside your body?

mompoet - glidey insidey

treatsy

hee hee ha ha, I get a massage! Tomorrow is Wellness Committee employee massage day at work. I'm going first thing in the morning before I go to my office. When I arrive there, I will either be sparky and invigorated like a purple pipecleaner, or molass-easy and pretty un-productive for the rest of the day. We'll see.

Oh yeah, before that I'm going to get the oil changed in my car, I wonder if it will be like a pipecleaner or a chair full of goo? hopefully neither.

tra la la

question: did you ever get a massage at work?

mompoet - it's not as ookey as you might think

speaking (or not) of froot

link

wordless

A quiz for Sunday

Quizbox still isn't talking to the new blogger, but you can take my new Apathy Quiz right here (if you care).

question: do you care?

mompoet - I am a cotton-head and I still care

They are trying to close our school again

A few years ago the School Board did a "consolidation" of elementary schools. In response to declining enrolment, they reviewed 8 schools and closed 3. I helped lead the campaign to keep our mighty little neighbourhood elementary school (about 180 children, kindergarten to fifth grade) open.

Now they're at it again. Numbers are down further, and projected to continue to decline. Our little school is about 80% occupied, but the bigger school near by could easily absorb all of our kids with room to spare. Alex and Fi are now in secondary and middle school, so we don't have anyone enrolled at the elementary any more, but it's an important part of our community that we support wholeheartedly. If it closes, our neighbourhood will lose one of its anchors.

There's a meeting at the school Monday night. Stakeholder will present to school district staff who will write a report that will come out in February, recommending which schools to close. I'll be at the meeting to give my love and support to the parents who are leading the charge this time. It doesn't feel so hopeful this time. But still we can hope.

question: did you ever fight to keep something that was important to you?

mompoet - heavy-hearted

this is the cold that

never ends
yes it goes on and on my friends
somehow you started sneezing it
not knowing what it was
and you'll continue coughing it
forever just because
this is the cold that never ends
yes it goes on and on my friends
somhow you started snotting it
not knowing what it was
and you'll continue snorting it
forever just because
this is the cold that...

question: got kleenex?

mompoet - don't catch this if you can help it!

craving

Campbell's tomato soup (with spinach added). I got both at Safeway on my way home last night. Most of the household are chicken noodle people, so we usually don't have tomato on hand. Now I got me a 12-pack (soon 11).

question: what's your comfort food?

mompoet - that and white cheddar mac and cheese - "President's Choice" - hopefully not GW

frozen solid

Crack Head

It snowed here Wednesday, and froze overnight Thursday. I have been avoiding driving during rush hour and at night. I know I can get around, but why add one more vehicle to the slipperiness out there? We get so little snow and ice here, a couple of days of re-adjusting schedules does not hurt a bit.

Yesterday afternoon our daughter and two friends went sledding at the neighbourhood park. It has spectacular hills, and they have the new foam core super-slipperly sleds. I was delighted that 13 year olds still want to go sliding at the park.

About an hour after they went out, they returned. Fiona looked a bit strange, and told us that she had crashed into the metal pole on a chain link fence surrounding the tennis court that sits at the bottom of the hill. I asked for details of the crash and asked the usual questions to assess if she might have a concussion: dizziness? nauseau? let's see your eyes, headache? I asked her friend if Fi lost consciousness at all, and it sounds like she stayed conscious, although she did not remember the moment of impact. I decided that we'd better watch her and also wake her up a couple of times during the night in case it was a concussion. First aid: hugs and "I'm glad you're okay."

Red Neck

Then Fiona noticed that the back of her neck was red with dried blood. I checked her scalp and found a pretty impressive cut. So her friend went home, and Fiona and I drove to the hospital.

Numb Skull

Luckily Emerg was quiet when we got there. The doctor froze the area, cleaned it up and put 7 staples in to close up the cut. Back at home we had a late supper (Andy took over cooking when we determined a trip to the hospital would be necessary) and some ibuprofen. The headache felt better and Fi phoned her friends to tell the story.

I'm glad it wasn't worse, and I'm proud of how brave she was. Getting staples in your head can't be anybody's favourite thing to do! The staples will come out in a week and there may be a small scar, but it will only ever show if she decides to shave her head.

In the meantime, we have a healthy crackhead, red neck, numbskull kid. The night-time drive wasn't even so bad. Funny how your perspective changes when your child needs help.

question: did you ever get stitches or staples?

mompoet - still dispensing hugs as needed

weeeeebl

New cartoon from weebl & bob.

question: are you allergic to cat pants?

mompoet - Once I had a bird hat but it flew away

Jan's Tree at Night

It snowed so much than Andy and I each shovelled twice. When nighttime came, the neighbours came out to do one last clearing of their driveways. It was like a party out there. There were kids and babies, moms and dads. Shovels were shared and war stories told of the drive to and from work during the day. Most of the Christmas lights on our houses are out now, but our neighbour Jan has left her tree lit up. I'm glad.

question: did you every have a party by accident?

mompoet - marvelling at winter's surprises

I know it's Wednesday, and I'm supposed to be wordless, but geeeee...

I'm just looking at the new Avon catalogue, and I would like to award Avon the prize for the purplest prose ever.

Here are some luscious samples:

be...tempting eau de toilette
A breathless floriental bouquet
(floriental? I guess that's better than Afghantabulous or Venezualianted but still...)

be...tempting bath products
A captivating collection that goes from the bath to the boudoir, and everywhere in between
(like the hallway? the towel closet?)

Good Luck Purse Charm (jewelry for your purse)
Jade-like focal stone teamed up with green pearlized beads and lucky charms (horseshoe, clover and elephant) on a silvertone chain, Lobster closure
(Gotta have one of those lucky lobsters on my purse charm, yup!)

Ultra color rich lipstick
Avon's Intuitive Technology reads your lips and self-adjusts the creamy richness
(artificial intelligence applied to lipstick? Read my lips!)

I also learned that I need to get the static out of my eyelashes, and that I can buy special teabags made just for soothing tired eyes. ($5.99 for 10 teabags)

Avon has a lot of good products, and some excellent values, but some parts of the catalogue are a bit over the top. It makes for a fun read! I once thought it would be fun to write copy for a greeting card company. Writing for Avon catalogues would be fun too, but I might get myself into trouble.

question: have you read anything purple today?

mompoet - fuschia, mauve, aubergine

wordless wednesday

the spider

My friend Irene sent me this You Tube link. You may think you have seen this before, but watch the whole thing!

question: if you were a spider, which spider would you be?

mompoet - scurrying 2-legged back to work today (caffeine spider?)

New post from the Eatburns in Eritrea

There's a new post up at the Eatburn Chronicles - Chrismas, New Year and our niece Maya's 16th birthday!

question: did you ever give your shirt to a guaza tree?

mompoet - missing them and laughing at their adventures

don't you hate when this happens

After having a cold for a week, your nose is so fragile that you itch it (on the outside only - honest) and you get a nosebleed. Then for the rest of the evening, even though you have the frequent and urgent need to sneeze, YOU MUST NOT SNEEZE (unless you are far away from other people and have previously wrapped your face up in tissues, and even then it's bound to be a mess). Especially DO NOT SNEEZE NEAR THE RICE KRISPIE SQUARES THAT YOUR DAUGHTER IS MAKING TO PACK IN HER SCHOOL LUNCH TOMORROW. I REPEAT: STEP BACK FROM THE RICE KRISPIE SQUARES...aaa AAAA aaaaaaaCHOOOO! Oh bother.

question: too much information?

mompoet - here's more, once, on the way to a day of llama treking (almost to the trailhead) I had a giant nosebleed sneeze in the car that completely airbrush coated the whole front of my white sweatshirt, so I just turned the darn thing inside out and got on with my day

ps - Never sneeze on a llama, under any circumstances, even if you don't have a nosebleed

it's a bird, it's a plane it's...

superducklings! Check this link to my guilty web pleasure - Cute Overload.

question: do you not love the tiny winglets?

mompoet - wallowing shamelessly in anthropomorphism

this is what the poltergeist brought back

Here's the CD that I have found again. I have been enjoying it on my last few long drives to and from the theatre for Fi's shows. I wonder why listening to something new always reminds me of something old. This has sent me scrambling for the Beatles, the Kinks and (I think) the Clash. I must also now find a copy of this CD's predecessor because the reviews all say it's even better.

question: heard anything good lately?

mompoet - everything is connected to something else, especially in the listening part of the brain

today is the fulcrum

between holiday and every day. The kids go back to school today. Andy, despite his awful cold, has been working through the holidays. When I booked my days I decided to keep "the first day back" just for myself, so I return to work Tuesday instead of Monday. It's delicious to have just one more day before I return to the routine of every day.

Three weeks has been remarkable. I'm thinking about what I did on the first day of my vacation, and it seems like ages ago. Having the kids out of school for a whole week after New Year's Eve has also been great. We spent relatively little holiday time building up to Christmas, and most of it relaxing afterward.

I think this is the laziest, most relaxed vacation I have ever taken. We did not go anywhere. We did not tackle any major projects. We even had relatively few social commitments. It was mostly spontaneous. Fiona's show went well, and even the driving to and from West Vancouver was nice (except for that night that the roads were flooded and my car made a weird noise every time I made it wade through a puddle, then we saw a car identical to mine stalled in the middle of the highway - very reassuring).

A lot of things I thought I would do I did not do. A couple of things I didn't think of I did do. Getting sick was a definite negative, but I'm getting over it, and I was less stressed to be sick on vacation than I would if I was missing work and not being able to get the kids to their activities and regular responsibilities done.

I think I can go back to work tomorrow and say, "Yes, I am ready again." But I'm not going to think about that today. Today I will enjoy one more lazy day.

question: did you ever enjoy a planless vacation?

mompoet - recommending it

in honour of team canada juniors and the vancouver canucks

Will it Blend? 3 hockey pucks in a blender.

question: don't try this at home?

mompoet - thanks dad

schnuzzle is duzzle

Better and better

Yay! Hooray! I made pancakes today!

You still don't want to sit next to me on the bus (cough, sneeze, snort, snuffle) but I'm feeling great compared to the last couple of days.

I got up early and drank coffee and undecorated the Christmas tree. This is a job that I usually do not like to do, but it was okay this time. I'm sad to see those coloured lights go away, but I can turn on our little white patio lights that we have on the deck year-round, so I don't go cold turkey on twinkling stuff in the dark. Today I was supposed to get up, get dressed and take Alex out for a long practice drive but it's snowing! So we're still all in our pajamas at half past noon, and I made pancakes and waffles for the kids for lunch. I'm still eating that citrus salad (I made a really big batch). Maybe it's the secret to my recovery?

Next I will put away all of the Santa pictures, which I display in a bookshelf every Christmas. It's fun to look at the kids growing up with Santa. I have all of my usual pottery and candles and vases and stuff in the boxes that I took the Christmas ornaments out of, so I just switch them back. I'll say goodbye to the ceramic nativity set, the crystal bowl full of fake red apples and gold-painted pinecones, the dried pomegranates (my big find this Christmas). Dried pomegranates are about 1/3 the size of fresh ones and hard as rocks. They are really beautiful though, displayed in a simple china bowl with some nuts. The dog found them when I first put them out, and tried to eat one, but gave up. I'll put away the candles that smell like cranberries and almond biscotti (the ones that we didn't burn up over Christmas). I'll put away the advent candles - almost burned down anyway. I'll get out some gorgeous blue and pearly stuff, and new table runners and mats. The house will seem bigger and cleaner and more open. The snow is an inspiration - all clean and white and fresh.

The other good news is that the poltergeist has loosened her grip on my stuff. When I'm tired or stressed or just for no reason at all, I have this thing that takes my stuff away, then returns it to totally obvious places where I have looked. The P.G. has taken my cell phone, my keys, clothing, books, movies, money, jewelry, event tickets. Invariably these lost items turn up (eventually) in precisely the place where I searched for them, so I know they were really gone. The most extreme time was when the P.G. took my house keys for one whole year, then returned them to the pocket in my knapsack where I always keep the keys, exactly one year later. I looked in that pocket a dozen times. It was a big set of keys and a small pocket, used only for keys, and it was empty for a year, then POOF there were the keys again. That was a couple of years ago. This time it took my season's tickets to the Playhouse, my favourite sweater, and a CD I had just bought and not even listened to all the way through. That was the last week of November. My tickets showed up a couple of days before Christmas (on the table beside my bed). The CD showed up yesterday (in my nearly empty briefcase which I have cleaned out and searched a couple of times since I lost the CD). Now I need my sweater. But I'm sure it will turn up. I just have to talk to the P.G. and tell her that I'm tired of the game and I want my stuff back. P.G. is full of mischief and also annoying, but usually she's telling me I need to make a change. Having a really good rest is the change I needed this Christmas. I'm convinced that getting sick and really resting - flat out - brought back my music. Now I just have to enjoy these last few days of holidays and figure out what I really want to do, and my warm, smooshy, beige marshmallow knit sweater with the zipper on the front will come back.

question: did your stuff ever disappear and reappear?

mompoet - give me back my sweater now, please

maybe not so fast

Are you supposed to get sweaty just sending emails?

mompoet - creeping back to the couch, but with a book this time so I must be on the mend

when you have the energy to complain online with a specific list of deficiencies

you are probably feeling better.

question: how are you today?

mompoet - coming out of the viral fog

how sick?

• I have checked email only once yesterday and once today.
• I watched TV all day yesterday and today.
• That included daytime TV.
• I have not read anything except email.
• There are piles of things all around the house and I don't care.
• I am not interested in coffee.
• I think Tyra Banks and Maury are mildly interesting and might even have some social value.
• I know all the new commercials before the kids do.
  
• I do not want a glass of wine.
• I wore pajamas to sleep last night.
• I have postponed Macbeth.
• I got Andy to return my videos and I did not ask him to bring me more.
• Snot is my destiny.
• The dog has been waiting 3 days for me to take her for a walk.
• I have not taken any photographs for a week.
• We might keep the Christmas tree up until Valentine's Day. Who cares?
• I am tired now so I am going to watch more TV.
• The dog wants to go for a walk with me, but otherwise is in heaven. Ditto the cat. They like it when I am still.
• Husband and kids are getting tired of it, but are being very kind.
• I have a hard time following through on
  

question: did you try this cold that's going around?

mompoet - yukko blukko

resolution?

Lazy Daisy pointed me to the random resolution generator:

In the year 2007 I resolve to: Reunite the Spice Girls. Get your resolution here.

Happy New Year Daisy!

Happy New Year everyone. Try not to make any resolutions today. Make them tomorrow or last week. If you have to make one. Make it randomly.

question: would anyone like some citrus salad?

mompoet - making citrus salad, not resolutions (thanks mom and dad for the 10 lbs each of grapefruits and oranges!)

happy new year

This is me with my husband, who has more than 1,000 pieces and is much better than schnuzzle. Thanks for the photos Cathy!

mompoet - happy

quite often, it's more fun than you think...

This morning I can not talk. That's okay. Last night was so much fun! Myrna knows how to throw a party, and just when you're having so much fun, she says "Let's have more fun!" So after swallowing helium and talking about resolutions and scaring all of the teenage boys at our family gathering down to the basement, she comes up with this crazy plan and she needs a helper. Well, that would be me.

So while the other moms and dads have regular fun, Myrna and me, we put pantyhose on our heads and sneak out around to the back of the house and creep up the the basement patio doors to scare the boys. That was fun. Only the boys just kind of looked at us then continued watching their movie, and they locked the door so we couldn't get back into the house. That was actually so funny it was fun too. Then we came back inside and resumed having regular fun.

question: do you like my hat?

mompoet - my hair actually looked better after I wore pantyhose on my head - go figure

me 'n' the schnuzzle OR rhinovirus woman celebrates the new year with her family

I slept in this morning and skipped church. I just couldn't drag my snotty coughing self out of bed in time to shower, press and dress for Sunday service. Besides, I feared a coughing fit that might rival "hacking in tongues" during the first hymn. So I slept until just before church time then got up because I was bored with sleeping. Everyone else slept for another hour at least, including the dog and cat who ate their breakfast and went back to sleep. I turned on the Christmas tree lights, made some coffee and zoned out with my schnuzzle. Schnuzzle is a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. A Ravensburger for those who know puzzles. It is deliciously intricate and perverse in its design - a "Christmas Fair" with people, buildings, dogs, birds, trees, snowbanks and sign-boards that are almost all identical to at least one other same element somewhere else in the puzzle. By the time I finish this puzzle I will have named all of them. As it is, I have named the different puzzle piece shapes. Looking for the right shape is just as important as looking for the right piece of the picture. Schnuzzle and me happily stuck together pretty much all day. People got up, showered, dressed and ate. Dog was walked (not by me). Friends of daughter arrived. Errands were run (not by me). About 2:30 I showered and changed out of my cozy pajamas into some cozy sweats (aka daytime pajamas). My toes stayed inside fuzzy slippers. Schnuzzle oh Schnuzzle, I have conquered about 500 of your 1,000 pieces. When the light failed (I like to do Schnuzzle by natural light) I quit and made everyone something to eat for lupper (that's late lunch early supper). The girls were scrapbooking their summer Disneyland adventure and singing warped Elton John lyrics (my fault) so I was entertained. Andy was playing poker online for play money so he was distracted. Alex was programming his new cell phone and watching sports on tv. The dog and cat were sleeping, having eaten their lupper too. Then Andy took the girls to the theatre and Alex laid low (I think he does not want me to ask him to help me with Schnuzzle - although he did agree to read MacBeth with me this coming week, in preparation for his final English 11 assignment). After Andy and the girls left I loaded the dishwasher and put together some foods for the potluck New Year Party we'll go to tonight at Myrna's house. I made a lovely big citrus salad with grapefruit and oranges and mango and pomegranate. I'm also bringing lots of pickled garlic. So I think I have a fighting chance to make it to midnight without coughing. Then again, if I'm feeling crummy I can come home early. Schnuzzle will be here.

question: what are you doing/did you do for New Year's Eve?

mompoet - schnuzzzzzllllle

too funny to let slip by

My dad chased all the links on Matthew Baldwin's Holiday Guide for Slackers. Especially funny is this Sports Illustrated article about a real life experience with "The Beer Belly."

question: did you every sneak something in somewhere where you shouldn't oughta?

mompoet - illicit peanut butter sandwich and carrot stick smuggler from way back

I got it too

Despite a minimum of smooching, careful direction of coughs and sneezes, conscientious hand-washing and a last-ditch defensive series of echinacia and zinc missile-lobs I have got the cold. Andy was sick with it right through Christmas - sick on the couch and in bed with a headache and coughing his head off every fifteen minutes kind of sick. I am hoping and hoping I won't be sick. I'll settle for scratchy, snotty and sexy-voiced (the only good thing about this bug that I can figure) . I will now go work on a jigsaw puzzle and drink hot water with honey and lemon.

Merry Chrissshhh-blzzzl-snchitz!

bobpoed - that's how I say id wid by node blugged

more movies at home for winter break

Last week I watched Scared Sacred, which I missed in the movie theatre. I watched it twice, the second time with Fi. In this documentary, the film-maker, Velcrow Ripper, visits the scenes of humanity's worst atrocities to humanity. He goes to Bosnia, Cambodia, Hiroshima, Israel and Bhopal India. In the middle of making the film, the World Trade Centre bombings happened, so he went to New York too. In each place he talks to survivors about how they find light in the darkness. They tell him how they made it through the worst and darkest days and how they are able to trust, love and find meaning in life after what they have lived through. The answers are what I might have expected - people find the will to live and to keep believing that life is good through art, faith, societal reform, love for one another, helping with the healing of others and making the world safer for the people who survive - but the immediacy of the personal narratives blew me away. I keep playing the interview with Aki from Cambodia over and over in my head. This man was captured by the Khmer Rouge as a young boy. His parents were murdered. He was forced to be a child soldier and plant landmines all over the countryside. He was tortured. He was not allowed to cry. It was a rule that everyone had to smile and laugh, despite their pain and fear. As I watched him smiling through the interview I thought, "This is a broken person. How can he ever be well and whole again?" But then there he is, digging up and disarming landmines - sometimes 50 in one day, to make his country safe again. In the film, he finds a landmine and cheerfully demonstrates where it's safe to touch it and where one must not touch it. He casually slaps it with his hand and his stick before turning it over to remove the fuse. Something about that scene makes me cry even thinking about it. The narrator explains that he has disarmed thousands of these landmines. This is what he does. The film makes a convincing case. It says that for survivors, telling the story of what happened, and contributing to the healing of their place and people is a healing experience for themselves.

Today I watched Elephant. It's the story of high school massacre, shown from the point of view of individual students. As I watched it, I knew where it was leading, and I was dreading it. I was also fascinated by the portrayal of student lives. The camera mostly followed each of the actors around, often just 2 steps behind as they moved from one place to another, and interacted with one another, their parents and teachers. Each character became more intensely human but also surreally robot-like as situations were viewed from 2 or three different perspectives with slightly varied time-frames. The effect was to put me inside what might be the thinking of someone preparing to go into the school and start shooting. As the people in the story looked more and more like Sims characters, the idea of planning and executing a massacre became more intellectual and less real. The climax of the movie makes it all real again, brutally so. This isn't an easy movie to watch, but it is excellent for what it is and does.

Finally, we watched Oliver the 1968 Academy Award winning musical. Well, I watched the first half of the 150 minute movie then went to bed. Fi watched all of it. She'll be in her school production of it this Spring. Holy smokes, that's a good musical. The production numbers are hard to fathom, especially given the age of the film, and no special effects to make the scenery look more grand. The song "Consider Yourself" must have employed 200 dancers, spanned 4 city blocks of studio space with roads, buildings, houses, horses etc and it is over-the-top with creativity. There's a whole section in which butchers are chopping meat and dancing with pieces of it and they become part of the music. It sounds macabre, but it's beautiful! I missed most of the dramatic part of it, quitting at intermission. I'll have to try act 2 some time this week.

question: documentary, drama or musical? which would you choose for your next view?

mompoet - some of each, please

end-of-year-brain haiku

ankle deep in leaves
I peer at bare limbs and think
maple or oak - which?

question: do you ever wonder what you're wondering?

mompoet - duh

Christmas images

which was the real gift?

If you haven't read my quiz (posted Dec 24), please go there first, or reading this will spoil the fun. If you've been waiting for two days to find out which is the real gift, thank you very much! The answer is right here. If you want to pick one up today. There were tons on the shelf at London Drugs Lougheed Mall in Burnaby on the 23rd. Bet they're on sale now.

question: did you give or receive anything preposterous this Christmas?

mompoet - recycling the wrapping paper and trying to prevent the cat from ingesting ribbons

A Sour Pickle Christmas Treat (because I like bad things)

Of all the songs of Christmastime, the one most often slaughtered by under-qualified singers is O Holy Night. Last night at church our music director sang it beautifully, with power, subtlety and skill, and it was like all of the almost-there and really awful versions I have endured this season were cleansed from the music part of my brain. Thank you Carlan!

That was last night. This morning, I read Matthew Baldwin's Holiday Survival Guide for Slackers. The entire article is great. At the end there's a link to what I think must be the worst O Holy Night I have ever heard. If you listen, please hang in there to the end. I guarantee it will curl your hair and cause your toenails to fall off.

question: how is it that the truly terrible borders on the sublime?

mompoet - delighting in the freakish vulnerability of humanity

4 lies and 1 silly but true

Which of these five Christmas gifts is real? (the other 4 are made-up)

1. Sassy Hoe-Down Barbeque Pants - double-insulated front and back for 360 degree body protection. Choice of boot cut, clamdigger or stirrup pant styles. Men's and Women's XXS to XXXL. $79.89 ($89.89 or XL and XXXL)US.

2. The Jerky GunTM - Just load up your Jerky Gun with raw ground meat, press the plunger and extrude ribbons of real homestyle beef, pork, salmon, or turkey jerky. Now available - The Jerkey GunTM with spice caddy - add your own mesquite or cajun flavour 19.99CD

3. Auto-Glow Car and Truck Tint - Transform your white, grey or even black automobile with this semi-permanent auto-rinse. Makes a subtle but impressive change to your car's shade for up to 12 shampoos and/or rainshowers. Available in peakcock blue, mango orange, rocket red and key lime. $14.99/gallon (1 gallon will do 1 pickup truck or SUV or 2 small cars).

4. Math-pro Sudoko Helmet - Wear this aerodynamic beauty, and you'll shave minutes from your fastest sudoko times. Made with .02% titanium alloy for maximum synaptic optimization. Sizes: baby genius, child prodigy, smart daddy and fat-head. $234.56 or $789.01 for two.

5. Breast-Max Turkey Conversion Kit - This breakthrough product converts your ordinary turkey from white and dark meat to all white meat with only an 18 hour soak. Includes 1 pint miracle anabolizing enzyme brine mix with measuring beaker and teflon-lined turkey bath to fit up to a 22 pound bird. $7.99US

question: guess which one is an actual product that you could buy someone for Christmas!

mompoet - answer available on Boxing Day (when it will be on sale for half price, no doubt)

today's news

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and the family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luke, Chapter 2, verses 1-7

question: have you heard the news?

mompoet - remembering Christmas

me and lyrics

When my parents moved my family to Canada just in time for me to begin kindergarten, one of the first things I learned at school was our country's national anthem. I was so proud to be part of "O Canada, our homo-native land!" This was 1966. To me, "homo-native" was akin to "homogenized" as in milk. I had some hazy idea of all of the people in Canada being shook up together real hard so we'd make a nice uniform consistency - or something like that. I guess I was a word-hound already. I'm sure I knew what homogenized and pateurized meant by that time (and what the difference was between the two).

Even before kindergarten, when I learned the ABC song, I decided that my favourite letter was ala-mano. You know, the letter just before pee.

A little later I was in grade 8 (or thereabouts) at the height of Elton John's popularity. At some point I owned a copy of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, but mostly I listened to Elton on CKLG AM Radio, with my tiny, tinny transistor and an earphone for listening in bed. I know Yellow Brick Road came with lyrics - I remember a story-book format with illustrations? But mostly I sang along to slightly fractured versions of his song lyrics. Here are some that I can remember:

Daniel's arriving tonight on a plane
I can see the red-tealed eyes, heading for Spain

***

Rocket man burning up the sleeves of error-gone

***

I remember when rock was young
Me and Suzy had so much fun
Holding hands and skimming stones
Had an Ogo-Shebbee and a fez of my own

***

What do you think you'll do then
I bet they'll shoot down your plane
And it took you a couple of actors in town
To get you on your feet again

***

Even on a Friday that's all right
Evil-astic on a Sa-day night

I know, I was a dork. But remember, there was no internet with instant searchable lyrics, just us 12 year olds, hunched around crummy little radios speculating about "what's he saying anyway?"

Makes me think of one more - also from kindergarten which was in a church because they didn't have them in public schools when I was in kindergarten (this is not Elton John by the way):

Our farmer, who art in heaven
Hal Owen be thine aim.

question: what did you hear wrong?

mompoet - hearing wrong all the time, and sometimes preferring it

Gym 0, Cookies 1

I skipped my manic pedal workout today in favour of baking. I have made almond shortbread and some amazing chocolate chip cookies using a Terry's chocolate orange and some pecans. There's a whole wheat banana loaf too. I'm listening to Elton John and remembering some of the things I thought he was singing when I was a girl, listening to his music on AM radio. I'll post some of my favourite mis-interpretations later today. Right now, the house smells heavenly, the dog is happy because I fed her some pecans, and soon I'll go over to Mom and Dad's for lunch, then Mom and I will make wreaths.

question: do you bake?

mompoet - when I was in a real grump-funk as a teenager, my sweetie would ask me to bake him some cookies because he knew that would cheer me up

some good things about today

or how I spent my winter solstice day...

1. Dusk was about 4:25 near as I could tell.
2. I remembered to turn on the bread machine.
3. I watched Fellini's 8 1/2 after the kids left for school. I fell asleep a couple of times, but I think I got the general idea. I especially liked the scene where Guido's wife gets mad at him when he's considering an actor to play her part. She's angry that he portrays intimate details of their life in his movies, but slants them so everyone will think he's wonderful.
4. I cleaned up my bedroom and found the theatre tickets that the Poltergeist took away and hid for a few weeks (phew).
5. I washed my new hair and it didn't fall off.
6. I love my new scarf (thanks Laurie!)
7. I got to hold baby Bowen (thanks Rhonda!)
8. We had Thai food for supper.
9. We had supper with Bill and Linda (in town from Calgary), Richard, Chantal and Bernie (Thank you friends!)
10. I have not caught Andy's awful snotty cold (yet).
11. I have almost talked myself into not going to the gym in the morning, and instead baking some Christmas cookies.
12. It's Maya's birthday Friday - Happy Eritrean birthday! I hope you get to paste an "L" on a camel's butt and drive it down the street in celebration of your 16th!

question: how was your solstice day?

mompoet - just deep enough into vacation to be not sure what day of the week it is anymore

solstice morning images

The dawn came just a few minutes before 8am. Welcome to the shortest day of the year.

question: do you feel the solstice?

mompoet - loving the plain beauty and bones of things today

The camel has been put out to pasture

The panto Aladdin previews tonight and opens tomorrow. My half-role as part of a camel has been eliminated. There will be rhinoceros in the camel's place, but I declined a part time rhinoceros role (typecasting?). The show is looking good, and it's actually a relief for me to be just a mom, driver and audience member. I hadn't spent much time preparing, if you don't count my visits to the sauna with a bag of sand, and my trying to drink water only every 6 or 7 days. On the bright side, my hump is shrinking already, and I have almost eliminated my cud-chewing and spitting habit.

Tonight's show (Thursday, December 21) is free for friends and family - all you need to do is say "I'm a friend" when you arrive at the theatre and they'll let you in for free. As it's the first full technical and costumed run-through, there might be a glitch or two. But it's panto so you probably won't know that it wasn't planned that way. Besides, that's the excitement of live theatre!

question: If you could have 3 wishes, what would they be?

mompoet - I got my wishes already

wordless wednesday

That question

They're asking it again and I'm still flummoxed for what to say:

ARE YOU READY FOR CHRISTMAS????

This is a question that irritates me on many levels, although I know it is asked in innocence and a spirit of friendly, tired cameraderie. I suppose the correct response is, "No, I still have lots to do." The perfect reply to this is, "Good! I'm not ready either. I'm glad I'm not the only one." But I can't get past the implications within this question. What is ready for Christmas? My evil elf imagination wants to shoot back snarky mean answers to equalize the flummoxing:

• YES! I am ready for the birth of our Lord and Saviour! Are you?

• NO! But I'm ready for Easter! For which holiday are you ready?

• (Sob) We haven't celebrated Christmas since Aunt Gertrude died on Christmas Eve two years ago.

• Well, I have purchased gifts for my children, except that I can't find a size large blue pair of wool socks for my son, who needs them for curling practice, and I'm still wondering whether my husband would prefer a pair of binoculars or a can opener for Christmas. I have baked 3 kinds of Christmas cookies and put them into seventeen boxes, but I ran out of wax paper after I lined the 11th box. NO make that the 10th box. So I used aluminum foil and I wonder if that will be okay. The tree is 3 or 4 centimeters shorter than I usually like but I guess that will have to do. I have been having difficulty finding the specific kind of ornament hook that I bla bla bla bla bla bla (well, he/she asked)

• Yup.

I know I should just lighten up, read between the lines and appreciate that people hurry around this time of year, buying gifts, decorating homes, preparing feasts, doing good and charitable acts. That's what's on their minds, so that's what they use in greeting or small talk. But every year it bugs me. Christmas comes at the same time each year. Sometimes some of us buy perfect gifts for lots of people. Sometimes we don't. Sometimes some of us prepare homes and hearths for a warm, gracious family time together. Some years we are smooth, shiny and abundant. Some years we are raggedy. Whatever kind of year and wherever we are in our preparations, Christmas comes. So without dissecting the question and all of the possible meanings and responses any further I'd like to propose that we give this particular question up once and for all.

Some alternatives:

• Are you ready for a hug?

• What day is it anyway?

• Don't you love solstice?

• Would you like to join us at our house for Christmas?

• What's your spiritual practice this time of year?

• Where'd you get that sparkle in your eye?

• I'm going to Costco this afternoon. Can I pick anything up for you?

• Would you mind sharing your recipe for eggnog?

• Have you seen my mitten?

Any of these would be a lovely way to check in with a friend or acquaintance at holiday time, and much less loaded that the "Are you ready..." question.

question: Have you seen my mitten?

mompoet - ready for anything whatever that means

ps - After Christmas, please don't ask, "Was Santa good to you?"

the syllable diet

You have to eat food only with a certain number of syllables each day:

Mon/Wed/Friday - four syllable foods only
(examples - amaretto, pomegranate, arugula, capuccino)

Tuesday/Thursday - three syllable foods
(examples - pineapple, bruschetta, artichokes)

Saturday/Sunday - freestyle add-up day - the food on your plate must add up to count out a prime number of syllables
(example - ham and eggs - 3 syllables - OKAY)
(example - soy sauce - 2 syllable - OKAY)
(example - ham and eggs and soy sauce - 6 syllables - NOT ALLOWED)
(example - ham and eggs and mayonnaise - 7 syllables - OKAY)

question: have you tried it?

mompoet - I think I just made it up. I'm not going to try it.

Good show, Okay show

Saturday afternoon I went with my mom and dad to see A Christmas Carol at the Vancouver Playhouse. It was breathtaking. It was a musical, but not the holly jolly type. More like a kind of semi-macabre light opera with a huge focus on death and ample black comedy but also several definite crying places. The set was minimalist - a bare stage with what looked like a huge paper scroll coming down from the back wall and rolled out across the floor. The lighting changed to convey various settings and moods in an abstract surreal way. Musicians played and sound effects were made on stage, as the actors used their bodies for set pieces and mimed all of the props. (If you saw No Great Mischief a couple of years ago, it was the same sort of approach to set and props). People were beds, chairs, carriages and doors when they weren't being people, and everyone except the actor who played Scrooge played more than one character, including a boy Scrooge and a young man Scrooge. The Ghost of Christmas past was hijacked from a Leaky Heaven Circus Show. Christmas Present came from a beer commercial. Christmas Future was downright ghoulish. Aside from the ghosts, the characters dressed in Dickens-period mourning costumes, but they spoke modern vernacular, with a few key phrases from the story woven in to their dialogue and the songs. I won't say any more but that you must go if you have the chance. Oooo oooo oooo - much better than I expected.

Saturday evening I went with Andy and Alex to see The Pursuit of Happyness. I'm not a Will Smith movie fan, preferring small stories with big heart to special effects battles and chase scenes. This movie promised to be something else, a serious, dramatic break from the typical Will Smith. It was pretty good, but basically exhausting. Will Smith literally runs through this whole movie, which chronicles six months in the (true) life of a failed small businessman who gets an internship at a big financial company. He has to be the best of 20 interns and take care of his young son single-handedly and he has the worst luck. So we see him running for coffee for his boss, running for the bus, running to the daycare, running to get a place to live... you get the idea. In one scene he is hit by a car but he doesn't have time to be injured. He just gets up and goes back to work, minus the shoe that was knocked off his foot in the collision. The storyline was relentless. Even the tender moments with his son were fraught with anxiety about what had just happened and what might happen next. It was just too much like some of my bad dreams to be entertaining. I needed a shift in pace or focus. Instead I felt like I'd just run a marathon right beside Will. Maybe just a different kind of chase scene without special effects?

So I can't recommend it, unless you are searching for something to raise your stress level vicariously for a couple of hours. Maybe you'll like it better than I did. I just don't like running movies. I didn't like Back to the Future either for the same reason - fever pitch panic from start to finish. Ugg.

That's all for now. The kids took over decorating the tree this year and they want me to come in and see their work.

question: Have you seen any good plays or movies lately?

mompoet - two shows in one day - pretty darn lucky!

A day without electricity is quiet and nice

Big windstorms knocked out our electrical power overnight Thursday. Andy left for work Friday morning in the dark just after 4am, and nearly took the lid off his car rounding a bend on the Barnet Highway driving under a fallen tree that lay across the road, thankfully a few inches higher than the top of our car. I awoke at 6:30 to light candles and hand out the flashlights that Andy had lined up for us before he left.

The schools were closed, so the kids and I ate cold cereal for breakfast and marvelled at the quiet. No furnace, fridge, tv, toaster, dishwasher, washing machine, computer! I figured out that I could heat water for coffee on the side burner of our barbeque outside, so we had hot coffee. Then we bundled up in the chilly house and were quiet. I did my usually end of the week tidy up, returning the distributed evidence of our week to its proper drawers, closets and bedrooms and took out the trash and recycling. Alex read 2 newspapers and the latest MAD magazine. Fi made Christmas cards. Then we all played a game of Simpson's Clue (it was Bart, in the Springfield Retirement Village, with the plutonium rod).

When it became evident that there would be no power for lunch, the kids informed me that mac and cheese on the barbeque burner was not what they had in mind, and besides, there was Christmas shopping to do. So we drove to the mall, which had power. I helped Fi buy all her presents. Alex bought a couple then bused home, not being one for marathons in crowds. We ate lunch at the food court. Later we found out that Lougheed Mall was closed, so that explained why absolutely everybody was at Coquitlam Centre. I think I'm done with mall shopping, which makes me happy.

On the way back home we discovered that some neighbourhoods still had no power. We also found out that evening dance class and rehearsal were cancelled, but power was back at our house. So Andy cooked a yummy supper, and we enjoyed a family movie evening. I was asleep before 10.

It was a bit inconvenient, and slightly dangerous in one part, but I liked this day. It was like a gift of time stopped and an opportunity to listen to quiet for a few hours. The mall part was raucous but necessary, as it took allowed us to get some crucial business done in a lot less of a hurry than otherwise, and there was a very nice ending.

question: were you electrical or non-electrical on Friday?

mompoet - did you notice it snowed?

Almost on vacation

I have about 29 minutes more worth of work to do before I am on vacation. I almost finished up today, by going back to the office after suppertime, but I had to leave to pick up Fi from rehearsal before I did one last bit of essential office stuff. So I'll sneak back in wearing sweats and a smile on Friday morning and do the last bit of work on my first day of break, then head on out. Fi says I should do something extra Christmassy for myself on the way home just because.

One great thing (among many, really when I think about my work). When I logged back on to my computer this evening I got an email from the wellness committee with an ad for a new round of subsidized massages. About once a year, students from the local massage school come in and do employee wellness massages. We attend on our lunch hour, and we pay, but just $15 for a 55 minute ahhhhhhhhh! Once, I went in with a bad head cold and the masseuse massaged my face and scalp for the whole time. When I got up I could breathe again and I felt so much better. Another time I had just a back/shoulder/arm massage that made me feel about 4 inches taller when we were done.

The weird part is the setup - about 8 massage tables in one big room with low lights and warm temperature. You can stay fully clothed, but most everyone unwraps a bit. With just a sheet between me and my bra and a bunch of brothers and sisters from city hall, I'm always surprised that it doesn't feel more intimidating. But everyone's just into their own experience and there's no ogling that I've ever noticed. Once you lie down on the massage table you forget everything else.

Oooo I can hardly wait.

question - Did you find any unanticipated treats today?

mompoet - uncurling

ps - Three WEEKS. Yes! I have 3 weeks off work. three three three!!!

Elf You-self!

My friend Irene Livingston just showed me how to make myself into an elf.

question: If you could be a small magical creature, which kind would you be?

mompoet - elf for now

haiku from my car

right case - wrong music
random aural daisy chain
CD surprise me

question: where'd I put the...?

mompoet - frequently surprised, frequently delighted

wordless wednesday

weekend pics

home

We had the most amazingly slow-motion love-ly weekend on the Sunshine Coast, Andy and I. And now we are home and I do love our home. I will post photos (but not the ones we took in the hot tub) on Monday. In the meantime, we're home, and there's no place like home.

question: why is home even sweeter when you come back to it after a few days away?

mompoet - hugging my kids, petting my dog, looking for the cat

rock you

Dooce just pointed me at this rock video starring Arlo.

question: rock you?

mompoet - shoutin in the street I gonna take on the world some day

This sound that I love

I arrived 30 minutes early to pick our daughter up from rehearsal. I was pooped from not enough sleep Monday night, and here it was 9:30pm on a work/school night. I sat down on the stairs just inside the rehearsal room door and opened my book. Then I heard it: a small group walk-through/talk-through of dance steps - counting, stepping, repeating; intermittent blasts of Rockin' the Casbah from a portable stereo; excited chatter on the sidelines; choreographer's coaching voice teaching a bit of business to two girls in the front, a half-dozen female voices raised in a capella union - improbably beauty amidst this happy din. I closed my eyes, but not because I was tired. I just let it wash over me, this mish-mash of sounds of people doing just what they want to do. I heard the nervous, excited buzz of a room full of actors each doing his or her own thing but all pointed in the same direction, getting ready, a show about to gel, Aladdin about to be born.

question: what did you hear today?

mompoet - finding treasure wherever I stop

2 more sleeps

More to love about this time of year: a small cabin at the bottom of a cliff (there are stairs). Inside the cabin, a fireplace, small kitchen, no phone, no tv. A porch so close to the ocean that you can't see the land at the edge of the sea. A hot tub on the deck. Three days, two nights. Just Andy and me.

It's time for us to take our Fall trip to a not-too-far-away getaway. We'll leave Friday afternoon and come back Sunday evening. ahhhh

question: now do you see why I love this time of year?

mompoet - better book the ferry

Advent

Here's a poem I wrote a couple of years ago. I've posted it before, but this is a slight revision, and it's time again, and I still feel the same way I felt when I wrote this.

Advent


I.

Slicing crusty rolls for late fall supper
Serrated slip splits open palm
Bread absorbs crimson and she
Flushes with heated riptide
Hurricane-centred
Compelled by shock of recognition
Of one thing, she is sure:
Hurt’s the friend who never lets you down.
As she cleans the counter
Discards buns, rinses the blade,
Hope
Uninvited
Gently lifts a tattered corner and slides
Under the carpet
Stays stuck, insisting
There is more.


II.

Sipping coffee as the dishwasher hums she reads
New York Times online
Glazes over grim stories of places she can
Barely picture
Skips to an article comparing
Relative merits of $50 fruitcakes.
Downstairs, children bicker over Nintendo.
Is there no moment of quiet?
Not here, unless…
Draining her cup she
Rises
Goes to join their game.
As they unite in enjoyment of her
Joystick ineptitude
She finds that moment
Amid gales of laughter
When she asks if Zelda is one of Cinderella’s stepsisters.
Peace
Is possible.

III.

She hates the market
Beelines for milk, macaroni, broccoli
Remembers eggs. Doubles back.
Wonders at slow-shopping lovers selecting artichokes and brie.
At the deli counter the usual
Four hundred grams of black forest
“Would she like anything else today?
Only to break free and run into the night shouting
MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN SANDWICHES!
Plastic handle finger cuts
Misplaced key
She rumbles home, grapefruits rolling in the trunk.
He’s parked his car on the road
Left the carport for her
And at the door, a happy shout
Smiling dog follows her downstairs.
Nothing else matters.
Love
Is here.


IV.

There is no umbrella for
Joy
It falls in silly fat droplets
Splashing, drenching.
Music teacher plays bongo rhythms as the choir
Sings a Caribbean carol.
Believing isn’t a choice.
It washes her with giddy, reckless, gladness. She
Lifts her voice with the congregation
On this, the shortest
And happiest of days
Knowing
All that is solitary and sad
Can be turned right-side-up in
Community.
The fourth candle flares,
She is aflame
With wakening light.


question: what do you do this time of year?

mompoet - one candle burning

Double As (Maybe Triple) Movie Reviews

In a hurry at the video store I abandoned my list and just plunged into the "foreign" section beginning with the letter A. I took the first 3 movies that were interesting and in the store.

At Five O'Clock in the Afternoon is a movie about a young woman named Nogreh in post-Taliban Afghanistan. She sneaks away from the traditional Islamic school that her father takes her to every day and attends a modern school where her teacher encourages the girls and women to discuss politics and debate the place of women in Afghan Society. Nogreh decides that she would like to be the president of Afghanistan. We see her exploring this idea in conversation with people she meets. We also see her family's desperate struggle to survive. Finding a place to live and food to eat, searching for lost loved ones and trying to make sense of what has happened to her country seem outside of the realm of possibility for Nogreh and her family. Like the other movies about Afghan life that I have seen, this one is sad, brave, hopeful and ironic. The words of a poem by Federico Garcia Lorca run through it.

I haven't seen Federico Fellini's Amarcord since I was a teenager. At the time I didn't get it. I loved it this time. It reminded me of the movie A Christmas Story in many ways. This movie of boyhood remembrance of life in fascist Italy is funny and sad and enigmatic. I love the characters and the situations and its seeming simplicity and mish-mash juxtaposition of scenes. I especially love the scene where Titta's uncle climbs a tree, refuses to come down and shouts "I want a woman!" and the scene where Titta pursues the sexy Grandisca through a maze of snow in the town square. Everything seems exaggerated and overplayed, but I think that's how it must have seemed to a teenage boy at the time. Oh yes! there's a scene where a giant Mussolini-head made of flowers performs a fantasy wedding ceremony for one of Titta's friends. I would like to watch this again very soon.

The third A is a Japanese movie called Afterlife, about a waiting/processing place between life and death. I will watch it some time this week. So far I'm liking the A section.

question: seen any good movies lately?

mompoet - random, exaggerated and realistic

I love advent

We lit our first advent candle at church this morning. I did the reading and Alex lit the candle. We began singing the carols at the front of the hymn book, the ones meant for the season of advent and Christmas. The colours of the cloths and Tim's stole changed to blue (my favourite). The church was warm and bright and filled with love and expectation. There was even a baptism and communion (which we have only on special days in our church). It was a wonderful, wonderful morning.

I'm beginning to piece together some more reasons why I love this time of year, and I think advent is part of it. Longing for joy and spiritual awakening, and expecting with confidence that it will come are at the heart and soul of this time of year. It's linked to the change of seasons for sure, and the associated changes in social life, body chemistry, work cycles, sleep and waking.

I think what I'm discovering is that all of the things that are happening are connected to reinforce each other in all realms of reality - our physical life, society, nature, intellect, and the spirit. When all of those forces come together the experience is deep and powerful.

And maybe that explains why I love the colour blue, and why I'm so delighted to have my birthday at this time of year, and why I am an optimist, but also restless, curious and inventive, especially now. It has be more than a coincidence. It is a coinciding of things bigger than all of us and I am blessed to have my heart opened just a bit more to what it means.

question: do you feel it?

mompoet - happy

dreams caused by a second quilt or otherwise

It's cold enough I put quilt #2 on the bed last night, which resulted (I think) in strange dreams.

#1
I am going somehwere important but my horse is sick. The vet comes and does surgery to fix my horse. The horse has an incision running the length of her body, now stitched up, but the vet says she'll be okay. She's resting. I think about the important place I'm going. I must have an offering for the important people so I decide I will bring them marijuana (?) I'm conscious in my dream that I have never smoked marijuana in my life (true in real life) but it will be good for me to bring some. The vet - who has morphed into a familiar friend from daytime life - gives me some. Before I visit the important ones, I go to the bank machine to get money to pay for the marijuana and the vet's services. When I get back I am concerned about the horse, who is still resting. I pry open the incision with my hands to look inside. The vet returns and stitches the horse back up again, all the while explaining that everything will be okay. I am upset with myself for just about everything, but my friend/the vet reassures me.

#2
There are about 25 people in my kitchen. I am having a party. Suddenly I remember I must bake a treat for the Parent Advisory Council meeting at the high school, and make a casserole for the church supper. I begin cooking, but the people are getting in my way. Despite it all I bake a batch of brownies but then I realise that I have to rudely tell my friends they may not eat them, and also that I made brownies last time for the PAC meeting and it wouldn't be cool to repeat. Then I remember - NO! Last time I made biscotti so it's okay.

#3
I am now making the casserole. Alex, our 16 year old, helps. I get upset with him for the way he is cooking the rice so I dump the half-cooked rice in the sink. Then I find out we have no more rice to start over again, so I'm scooping half cooked rice out of the sink and dumping it back in the pot and washing it, and trying to figure out how much water to add to make it work.

Question: what causes vivid dreams?

mompoet - more than tv or books or radio, almost all of the time

saturday afternoon haiku

each tiny hair-death
one pluck closer to beauty
office party brows

question: do you think anyone really notices?

mompoet - never a "uni" but often well-canopied (not today!)

They're closing our schools again

Here's the story.

Six years ago we neighbours fought to keep our little elementary school open. With fewer than 200 students and a yawning quarter-empty bigger school a couple of blocks away, it was a tough sell. We held meetings, got kids to make art, posted lawn signs, had a pajama party on the radio, got testimonials from realtors and educators, parents and kids and successfully made our case to the Board of School Trustees. The victory was bittersweet as 3 other schools were closed, at least one in a neighbourhood where I think the impact on families was worse, due to its comparitive isolation. We also realised that money to run a greater number of partly-full schools took away from funds for teaching and other resources.

When the decision was announced to keep our school open a few years ago, the Trustees cautioned us that they would not re-open the issue every year, but that it would be re-visited in the future. The tentative plan was to leave it open for at least one whole student cycle. A child in kindergarten at the time of the decision would be able to carry on through grade 5 before closure would be re-considered. We have almost made it. The re-opening of the issue is no surprise.

Here's our little school.

A school is more than a place where kids go from 9-3 to learn academic subjects. As we clarified to ourselves last time, it's the heart of a community for families with children. Our social and volunteer lives are anchored in the school, as is a big part of our sense of security in guiding our children and our growing up families. It's hard to imagine letting our school go, and moving into a new, unknown school with people we don't know.

Alex and Fi have left that little school for the middle and secondary schools, but many of our friends still have children there. I'll do my best to support the efforts underway to try to keep it open, but it doesn't look as hopeful this time.

question: what have you loved and feared losing?

mompoet - sad about this

haiku

under snow blanket
rhododendron leaves folded
like hands in prayer


question: does "prayer" have one or two syllables?

mompoet - thinking in haiku it must be two

I remember you

I bustled in late to a training session for our new time reporting system at work. The session was underway so I just nodded to the people on either side of me - two co-workers I had not met before.

A few minutes later I breathed a semi-voluntary "yes!" to something the trainer said. The woman beside me looked over and whispered, "I know you! The last time I saw you, you were dressed up as a chicken!"

This left me wondering who she is, and where we met. I admit, I have dressed up like a chicken more than once, at work yet.

question: what do you do when someone remembers you, but you don't remember her?

mompoet - cluck cluck, I don't remember your name! cluck, cluck

letting go by degrees

Yesterday morning, with 6 inches of snow on the ground, I haggled with our son about footwear. In case you don't know how it is with teenagers and footwear, here's how it is: they disagree with their mom. period.

I told him he needed to wear something snow-proof on his feet for the 1km walk to school. "You'll be so uncomfortable, and you might even get frostbite." I warned. After a bit of arguing he walked to school wearing hiking boots, with his trusty running shoes in his backpack.

So our daughter (who listened to the whole discussion) has already left for school before our son goes out the door. With everyone gone, I tidy up the scatter of boots in the entryway. Hmmm, there are our daughter's boots. Wonder what she wore to school? Running shoes?

So today everyone can wear whatever they please. They might be uncomfortable but I think that frostbite is a bit of an exaggeration.

question: so, do you think I'm being too much of a mom?

mompoet - I have 2 pairs of boots. If I could, I would wear them both simultaneously.

snow pics

Beautiful day, eh?

mompoet - warm toes and camera in my pocket wherever I go

up early in the warm with snow outside

shhhh It's beautiful and quiet outside my house, but I'd better listen to the radio

Oh no - cars are slipping and sliding and the man on the radio says "If you don't have to go anywhere, don't." That's good enough for me.

We made it through the snow last night to a banjo-popping earthy hot and wonderful concert at the Cultch. My roots wuz jumpin' up and down all night. When we got outside we discovered about 3 inches of new snow. There was snow on the road all of the way home, but hardly any cars so we drove slowly slowly home from Vancouver to Port Moody. We got up the hill to home and I crawled into bed at midnight. My little Honda with 4 snow tires and two brave women did just fine. And talking to Myrna I kept calm. I told her if I had been by myself I would have been singing my head off just to keep steady.

Now this morning there's more and more and more snow. The dog went out for 2 minutes to pee, and came back in with a white blanket on her back.

The radio will tell me if the kids are expected to go to school. I'll work from my dining room table. Tomorrow is another day. In the meantime I don't need to go anywhere, so I won't.

question: where do you go in the snow?

mompoet - going now to phone Andy who had to start work at 4am - I hope his drive in was safe and slither-free

delight upon delight

It always snows before my birthday, and yesterday it snowed. Andy and I had plans for my birthday supper out, but I got worried that we might get snowed in so I stopped in at the grocery store and bought everything for a special family supper in case we got stuck. But by suppertime it was just snowing and not sticking so we went out and had a great supper and watched the snow falling (but not sticking) through the restaurant window. When we got home it was so cozy and wintry we went to bed early. Andy woke up at 4 (his usual go-to-work time) but I slept in until 9. What luxury to sleep for over 10 hours! It snowed and rained on and off through the night, and it's snowing this morning, and sticking, but not accumulating too seriously, which is good. This afternoon, one of us needs to drive Fi to a rehearsal on the North Shore (where it really snows) and one of us has to take Alex for a job interview. Then tonight I'm going to a concert, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Supper at Michele's house on Friday was lovely and relaxed. Michele and her husband Brent are renovating a 1912 house in New Westminster. It's a tremendous amount of work for them, and it's turning out spectacularly. Michele always lives in the coolest places. Given my choice of where to sit and enjoy a meal and a glass of wine, Michele's house is always #1. I know I said I don't need presents, but Michele and Kathy got me some. Kathy gave me a very homely Christmas angel ornament that she said only I could love, and a bag of jelly belly jelly beans and Sarah McLachlin's new Christmas CD, Wintersong. I really like the CD. It's all very mellow and has a beautiful and unusual alto-line version of "What Child is This." Michele gave me a bottle of wine and tickets to "Diggin' our Roots" with Po Girl at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre - tonight. So I'm hoping the snow will not be too bad, because Michele and Myrna and I are going. Michele also baked me a chocolate birthday cake that she poked and filled up with butterscotch schnapps (mmm). I gave Kathy and Michele candy apple red nailpolish so they can have red toenails for Christmas.

On Friday afternoon I packed a day's worth of work into my briefcase and emailed some documents home, so if it snows a lot tonight I can work from home on Monday. I guess I'm sounding like a real wimp in the snow. The truth is, we live on a hill that doesn't get plowed until the very last of all the roads, and while I'm fine out on the main roads I live in fear of sliding out onto the highway from our steep and unplowed sidestreet and/or not being able to get back up the hill to our house at the end of the day. I do have 4 snow tires on the car and I do want to get to the concert tonight, and Myrna will drive with me and is a strong and inspiring presence, so I have a hunch we'll make it tonight. Just the same, I'll pack boots, gloves and a ski jacket in the trunk in case we have to walk a ways.

In the meantime I am lounging in my pajamas, drinking coffee, and beginning to read The Red Tent. I finished The Time Traveller's Wife. It was spectacular, and a first novel for Audrey Niffeneger, so I can't wait to see what she does next. For a while anyway, let it snow.

question: with what delights has this weekend greeted you?

mompoet - twinkling

treats and love and fun

When I was little, I thought Christmas was about me. My birthday is less than a month before Christmas, and my celebration always seemed like the thing that opened the door to all of the merry-making. This is probably one of the reasons I like this time of year so much. It's pretty much a non-stop bonanza of treats and indulgences until January 1. Another thing that happens (probably because I like it) is the "stretch" birthday. It starts happening a few days before the actual day, and carries on for a few more after.

Today I will begin my birthday. Kathy and Michele (the ones who took me pole dancing last year) have invited me to supper at Michele's house. I'm pretty sure there's no pole dancing on the menu this year, but Michele also wants me for something for Sunday night. This is the same Michele who kidnapped me after work one year on my birthday and took me for candle-lit November picnic with a campfire at a local park, so anything could happen.

I'll go out Saturday evening for a nice supper with Andy, and my Mom's cooking supper on Wednesday (my actual birthday) to celebrate with Mom, Dad, Andy and the kids, then the ladeez in the 'hood have asked me to come for supper next Friday. At our office we have a tradition you have to bring your own cake on your birthday, but I'll take the day off to go on Alex's field trip, so I'll have a bit of an office birthday on Tuesday or Thursday, depending when I feel like baking. Finally, my birthday-almost-twin Louise and I will go for lunch on December 8. We've shared a lunch at the same restaurant for almost 20 years on "our" birthday. So all in all that makes for a 2-week long stretch birthday. Then there's Christmas.

I don't need presents, but I do love the celebrations. Treats and love and fun. Yeah.

question: how do you observe your birthday?

mompoet - Happy birthday to me, and to Louise and to Mary Anne - both celebrating today, November 24

coming soon to a Value Village thrift store near you

Taking its inspiration from the demise of the glass canopy over the Plaza of Nations, the "Expo Jean Jacket" featured earlier this year in "keep it? or chuck it?" is gone. I put it out yesterday for Canadian Diabetes used clothing pickup. I told Fi it was her early Christmas present (my getting rid of the jacket, that is). I kept that thing around for 20 years in all its flashy-80s-big-shouldered-zipperiness. It didn't hurt a bit, seeing it go out the door and onto the big truck.

In other news, I decided to keep the swan salt cellars. They were a wedding present after all. The exercise bike is going over to my mom and dad's place. The giraffe is still lurking - probably a Christmas vacation project. Maybe we'll mail him to the Serengetti where he can be re-introduced to the wild.

question: what will I do now when I want to embarass my children?

mompoet - hokey enough to embarrass with gusto, even without the bad coat

as near as I can tell

the best thing to do when you are facing fears, pedalling as fast as you can with your head just above water in the dark, nearing exhausting, considering surrender to hopelesness is

love

yourself first then everyone around you and especially the special ones

the only thing you have to lose is the opportunity

question: how is it I forget how lucky I am with such frequency?

mompoet - surrounded by love every day

wordless wednesday

for cathy

Chicken and Corn Chowder

1 medium onion, diced
1 or 2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast

3 cups chicken stock
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 small cans creamed corn
1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels

2 cups homo milk
salt and pepper
grated cheddar

Saute the chicken breast until it's cooked. Chop or shred it and set aside. Saute the onion and the garlic. Add the chicken broth and potatoes and bring to a boil. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked. Mash the potatoes partially. Stir in the creamed corn and frozen corn and chicken meat. Heat to a boil. Remove from heat, add the milk and season to taste. Do not boil again once the milk has been added.

Top with grated cheese if you like.

Add hot sauce if you want it zippy.

Variation - Use some crumbled crispy bacon instead of chicken breast or for a veggie version skip the meat altogether and use vegetable broth. The cheese should provide enough protein.

Fast, easy and filling.

question: what soup do you like best?

mompoet - thanks for the chickpea curry Cathy - I ate it for breakfast!