quadruple haiku movie review - disney's earth

since when did the earth
belong to disney? did I
miss the announcement?

cute and truncated
scenes of anthropomorphic
extinction babble

is it paradise?
or the three bears' dying days?
what's the intention?

the best parts ran through
the credits and showed humans
filming animals

question: what did you do for earth day?

mompoet - skip the movie and plant your own tree

triple haiku movie review - adventureland

growing up in the
eighties was embarrassing
for the best of us

some of us survived
and made good movies from it
this film is one such

hey! open your eyes
Kristen Stewart open your
eyes open your eyes!

question: did you survive the eighties?

mompoet - lavish with the syllabication (mmm, I like the sound of that)

unintelligible translink alert

Tonight, before I sleep, I check Translink Trip Planner (the website for how to go where you want to get by bus, skytrain etc). This way, I will know what time I need to leave the house, and thus what time I must rise.

I find that I must be at the bus stop at 7:26am, which is okay, but I also discover a Trip Alert!!! So I ask for details and discover the following:

Stop #51401 Canada Way at Sperling. From Monday April 20 to Friday May 1, this stop will be temporarily relocated to Sperling at Canada way due to construction

I wonder just how far Canada Way at Sperling is from Sperling at Canada Way. I think I must wear my walking shoes and change into my pumps after I reach my destination.

question: do you think this will show up on google satellite maps?

mompoet - plotting the distance between point A and point A

door to door

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon going door to door with Shannon Watkins, our riding's NDP candidate for the May 12 provincial election. Shannon is 27 years old, and has been a Port Moody City Councilor for 3 years. I have seen her at council meetings and city election all-candidates meetings, and I know her father, who is a School Trustee, but I have not met Shannon until yesterday.

I am impressed with her knowledge and compassion. I watched her engage with voters at their doors, listen to their concerns, and discuss their lives and the lives of the people in our riding and province. She is smart and mature, and eager to bring new energy and a younger generation's perspective to the legislature. This is Shannon's website.

It took me more than a week to get down to the campaign office after I received my first call from the volunteer coordinator there. I guess I must be a bit tired of elections, after so many in the past 6 months. We have one more to go, with a by-election looming in our federal riding since Dawn Black resigned as Member of Parliament to run provincially. Also, we were bombarded with phone calls as soon as the election began officially. We received at least one call each day, for a week, at home at supper time. I remembered some of the responses of people who I connected with on the phone during Dawn's campaign - faithful supporters who were weary of the constant interruptions. I thought to myself there has to be something else I can do this time to help. So I chose the door-knocking job with the candidate, which is very nice, and something different from all of the fliers and the phone calls and the emails.

I will also do some flier-dropping, and sign-waving (watch for me Monday morning while you are driving to work), and of course I'll work election day - even the phones are okay for me that day. And I know I'll sign up to help with the federal by-election campaign when it begins. After that, I'm really looking forward to at least a year without election hoopla-buzz-buzz. Let our people get to work in the House and the Legislature and City Hall, and be done with electing and electing.

question: how are you finding this election, this time?

mompoet - Just a little more than two weeks to e-day

vancouver poetry slam

This short film, made by students at Vancouver Film School, shows some of what the poetry slam is all about in Vancouver. These are my friends, my community, my art.

Monday night, we celebrate the slam season with Van Slam Finals. Eight of our finest poets will compete to form the team that will represent us at North American Nationals this summer, and our Canadian Festival in the fall. Monday's show is at 8pm at the Rio Theatre on Broadway just west of Commercial. Doors are at 7. Tickets are $15. Show up early. You don't want to miss it.

question: do you know the slam?

mompoet - mmm-hmmm

spring finally

Local garden guru, Brian Minter, said on CBC radio this week that we are "three weeks behind" in our growing season this year. I wore open-toed shoes on Tuesday before work to walk the dog, and nearly froze my toes off. It's looking brighter, and the days are longer, but it's still pretty chilly. Still, the flowers and insects are doing their best, and the robins are lurching around on the lawn, daring us to walk AWAY FROM THE NEST, YUP, THIS WAY PLEASE! (Robins are valiant protectors.)

Today I was met with this lovely mass of hyacinths as I walked into Kyle Centre to pick up Fi after rehearsal. A bee even drifted in, and posed for just a moment.

question: where is spring?

mompoet - longing for tulips and juleps

new glasses

I picked up my new glasses yesterday morning. I had waited more than a week, so I was very excited and also a bit anxious. This is my first pair of dual-vision glasses (formerly called bifocals), and I had heard that adjusting to using them can be weird. My excitement came from having a new pair of frames and also from the thought of no longer struggling to see things up close and far away without major contortions.

For over a year, I have been taking my glasses off to read or do close-up work. The dimmer the light, the worse my close-up vision is. But even in a well-lit room, it's glasses on/glasses off. The worst situations are meetings (where I take my glasses off to read my notes or write things down, and put them on to see the people with whom I am meeting) and cooking (where I take my glasses off to read the recipe, measure ingredients, chop and mix, and put them on to see where I am going in the kitchen). Sewing is awful, and simultaneously reading the newspaper and watching the news on TV is impossible. I think some days, my glasses have been on top of my head more than they are on my face.

At the glasses store, the lady fitted the new pair to my head, then showed me a magazine. I looked at it, and could read every word clearly, with the glasses on. I have a slight reading correction now, so I see better up close than I did when I was simply taking the glasses off to read. To look at things more than a foot or two from my face, I look through the top part of the glasses. They are "advanced progressives" so they're supposed to be easy to learn to use. Before I left, the lady warned me to "tilt your head down when you go up or down stairs, so you are sure of what you are seeing."

I did pretty well through my first day. The floor seemed to be rippling wildly under my feet, and I did tilt my head down for stairs. I managed to drive while wearing my new glasses, and resisted my habit of pushing the glasses off to look at things up close. I can see things very well up close now. The strangest revelation was eating lunch and supper. I had not realised that I have been eating without seeing my food very well. How lovely - a salad with eggplant, lettuce, tomatoes and feta cheese! I thought I was going to eat a green and red and white blur like yesterday!

By the end of the workday I was pretty tired, and I did experience a few moments of queasy tummy. I told myself that my brain is readjusting to the new visual input, so a bit of disorientation is normal. When I stopped by the produce store on the way home, the edges of the display case warped and swayed like two ends of a bent teeter-totter. That was kind of strange and also funny. I wonder if this is what it's like to hallucinate?

At home, nobody even noticed I had my new glasses until I left the new glasses case (with my old glasses inside) on the computer desk. I guess my new frames don't look much different from the old, and the lenses don't have bifocal lines so they look just the same. Even though I was tired, I had an easy time getting around the house. I think I do a lot of my daily routine without really looking at things, and I know where the stairs are in my house.

I think I am going to like these new glasses. I'll have to get over my old habit of switching on and off, now that it's no longer necessary. In the meantime, I can always wear the new glasses on my eyes and the old ones on top of my head - just for old times sake.

question: do you wear glasses?

mompoet - I asked the lady at the glasses store if the employees who have perfect vision wear fake glasses because they work there. She avoided answering me, even though I asked twice.

the pajamas are in the mountains - with wendy

Check the pajama blog! Wendy just sent me a photo of herself, wearing the pajamas while skiing in the Rockies. Now she will send them on to someone else, who will enjoy their flannely goodness, take a photo for the blog, and send them on again.

question: did you every receive pajamas in the mail?

mompoet - liking unusual and delightful surprises by mail

condiments - like and not like

This is my list of condiments that I like and do not like:

mustard - like (all kinds) especially sweet/hot and horseradish, but even ordinary bright yellow hot dog mustard is fine. I like mustard with egg salad, and on grill cheese sandwiches. Mustard is good.

ketchup - don't like - not on hot dogs, but once in a while on mac and cheese or with french fries, but really, french fries deserve mustard/mayonnaise

wasabi - like like like the nicest shocking surprise. WOOOOOOO!

mayonnaise - like (when it is tinted with mustard) or in sushi, otherwise neutral, not on anything hot

salsa - like - hotter the better - also good with eggs (try mango salsa, mmmm)

chutney - like - don't get this often because I'm the only one in the house who eats it, but it is good

soy sauce - like - was surprised to find out that only European people put soy sauce on plain rice

teriyaki sauce - like, but not my first choice

mint sauce - don't like - poured over beef, it smells like socks

hollandaise sauce - don't like - too gooey and fussy to cook, use salsa instead

pesto - like like like like - on pretty much anything, well, maybe not on ice cream. Come to think of it, I have not tried pesto on ice cream, so I can't really say

salt and pepper - like - highly underrated as seasoning/condiments

sweet chili sauce - like much, on most food, looks like a lava lamp, tastes like a circus

balsamic vinegar - like with veg or bread, tangy and deep

olive oil - like very much, especially with balsamic vinegar, or plain, on pasta with salt and pepper

caesar salad dressing - like, but must be careful, does not like me

ranch dressing - don't like - reminds me of a boring person wearing a flashy hat for attention

cheeze whiz - don't like - tastes like it sounds (something not for eating)

relish - like - it is made with pickles so it is, by definition, good

That's all for now.

question: which condiments do you like and not like?

mompoet - complimenting most condiments because most condiments complement compliments

dreambits

In a fragmented night of dream stories, I am pretty sure that I:

• ate my friend's share of the cold noodles in the fridge at work, then felt guilty and tried to decide if I should 'fess up, or just let her miss the noodles.
• explained to the audience at a poetry show that I was not able to conceive children any more, well maybe one or two, but time was running out.
• looked for a cheap vacation place in Osoyoos, and discovered my favourite campground was transformed into a cross between a bed and breakfast and a skid row single room occupancy hotel.
• ran to a concession stand at an outdoor music festival, to fetch drink refills and food for my friends, and returned with a small metal box full of goo, and realised I had mixed Worcestershire sauce into their drug stash.

Fortunately, after this, I woke up.

question: have you been dreaming?

mompoet - glad for the difference between the dreams and the real

haiku

crows fly carrying
sticks to build hard-knuckle nests
in bare grey branches

drug pipe

I was walking the dog this morning, when I saw this by the side of the fire road up behind our house. It's a closed-off bit of road available only for emergency vehicles, with bush on both sides. I have seen discarded condoms there before, but this is the first bit of drug paraphernalia that I have noticed there.

I looked it up on the web to be sure, and sure enough, there are instructions. This one appears to be made from:

-a light bulb
-the top part of a disposable water bottle
-a piece of clear plastic tubing
-duct tape

It reminded me of the bug catcher that my little neighbour showed me on the weekend, made from a glass jar with a tube and some cheesecloth, but this was definitely not a bug-catcher. I think it must be someone from the neighbourhood. People don't come into our neighbourhood from the mean streets to smoke drugs. And I bet they get it from around here too. The internet article that I read says it is a "vapourizer" that can be used to smoke cannibis or other stronger drugs. I hope it wasn't anyone I know. I hope it wasn't stronger drugs.

I picked it up with a piece of paper and put it in the trash. It made me feel sad all day.

question: did you ever see one?

mompoet - wanting to hug every kid and every parent in the whole neighbourhood and say, "You are worth the effort," and wondering who really needs the hug?

grand march for housing

Yesterday I joined in the Grand March for Housing with my friends Cathy and Myrna. We assembled at Thornton Park - one of three starting points around the city, and marched to the Vancouver Art Gallery for a rally.

Our route took us up Main Street, through part of Chinatown, then along Hastings, through one of the saddest, most neglected neighbourhoods in Vancouver (in Canada, I'd guess), then on to downtown. We saw single room occupancy hotels that a fellow walker declared "should be burned down, they're so bad." She told us that her daughter had lived in one of those for a few days before deciding it was so foul and dangerous that she returned to living outside on the street. We passed vacant lots where other buildings had been torn down. We passed old buildings being re-built in a wave of gentrification and new buildings replacing old ones, squeezing out even the foul places where a person on welfare could afford to stay. We turned and marched up, into downtown Vancouver, with its stores, hotels and bank towers, and ended up at the Art Gallery. There we heard from a number of speakers, all advocating for an end to the problem of affordable housing. With us on the march and at the rally were homeless people, people from various organizations from labour unions to social services non-for-profits, and ordinary interested citizens, like us. We wore t-shirts that said YOIBY. This stands for "Yes, in our backyard," and is meant to counter NIMBY or "not in my backyard."

The experience of the march was humbling - there's so much that needs to be done, and such a shame that progress is so slow. It was also inspiring. There were people in wheelchairs, grandmas and grandpas, moms and dads with babies in slings, old-timers and Gen-Y young people - all united to take a stand for safe, affordable housing for everyone. I hope that we can keep up the energy, push public will and awareness and pressure our governments to make this a priority. The way it is now just isn't right. That's everyone's problem.

question: do you know someone who is homeless? have you ever been?

mompoet - learning from experiences and growing in compassion

more pics from the grand march for housing

and now, from the far rear corner of my right brain...

I just finished filing Andy's, Alex's and my income taxes using Quick Tax. This is my first time doing this. Previously, lovely Avril did it for us, but she has stopped doing taxes, even for her most beloved friends. So I, hater of all operations financial, tackled the taxes because I am smart and I can do it, even if I hate doing it.

Having completed the taxes, I turned off my left brain, and worked on a poem, written to a prompt, provided by lovely RC, facilitator of the Friday writing group that I attend. This may not be the poem that I share at the meeting. I have written a number of poems since receiving the prompt, and the thought may evolve to something different by Friday. Anyway, here it comes, right at you, from my right brain:

Sky Whale Breaks up with Elroy Jetsam

your kisses, like woodpecker bites
your crazy, upside-down smile
your fold-up gangle
rotten banana peel - suspended
how I fell for you, I'll never know

when we met, I offered my hand in friendship
you extracted a DNA sample
I opened to your embrace, raised my face to yours
and found you tangled in my hair
red eyes gleaming

"let's take it slow," I said, "just talk"
I wasn't ready for your gift of echo-location
pinning me to the spot in every conversation
"I know where you're coming from," you'd say
I wish you didn't

now your claws grip deep into my insulation
I can't extract myself from this embrace
sure, it's flattering
you flattening yourself this way
whispering, "you drive me batty" close against my face

fact is, you creep me out
who needs a freaky, flying flesh-rat
when I have astronauts crawling up my ass?
I'm going to take off
conjure lightning from the sky
blow this guano heap

cling if you will
call me hard-hearted
I'm going where only titanium survives
you and your bones and pulse and breath
will feel the rush of acceleration (mine)
the searing scrape of disintegration (yours)

you will fall from the sky
lost in the jetsam of
another perfect liftoff
watch the ocean rush up fast
no dead-stick landing for you
you're all ash and regret before I can even say it

still, in orbit, when the light's just right
I'll tell the guys I miss your smile



question: been there?

mompoet - glad to get that out!

transitions

On Palm Sunday, April 5, our minister will be away from church, caring for her husband who has just gone through knee surgery. I will co-lead the church service with my friend Cindy.

Julie, our minister, gave us the suggestion of the themes of expectation and identity for the reflection (or sermon) part of the service. Cindy and I agreed to focus on the expectations of the people, as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and to tie the scripture story in with our own stories of changing roles, identity and expectation. Cindy will describe leaving her work as a trial lawyer to become a full-time mom (she has Emma, 3, and baby Xander). I will describe the experience of returning to work after staying home with the children for a few years. This is my story:

After Fiona was born, I quit my outside-the-home job and stayed at home. To help support the family financially, I opened a licensed family day care in our home. For five years, my world was our house, the family, the neighbourhood and my client families.

As Fiona neared the age to start school, Andrew and I decided together that it was time for me to transition back to work outside of the home. I put out feelers at my old place of employment, and was stunned to receive an offer of full time work within weeks of my inquiry. Within a couple of months, I closed my daycare, found out-of-school care for Alex and Fiona and returned to the same workplace that I had left 5 years earlier. It was almost like I had never left. But in some ways it seemed overwhelmingly different.

Every morning, I rode the bus and the skytrain to work. Getting off the skytrain at Metrotown was a shock. I was faced with a sea of people. Waves of strangers moved in every direction all around me. I felt insignificant and vulnerable.

At the office I enjoyed some of the things that go with work: wearing nice clothes, having a coffee break, getting a paycheque and paid vacation… but I quickly realized that my confidence wasn’t the same as when I left 5 years before. I told my boss I felt like Rip Van Winkle, awakening to a world that looked somewhat the same, but was really more different than I could have imagined. I had lost touch with many of my co-workers. Like mine, their lives had changed. Some parts of my job were exactly the same, others perplexingly different. The simplest things had me flummoxed – How does the new telephone system work? What’s with this new photocopier machine? Who moved the front door to the admin office around to what was once the back? Can I speak in a meeting or over coffee without slipping into mommy-talk?

I realized that more than anything, I had changed. My cares and concerns, my wisdom, strengths and weaknesses had rearranged themselves during the time I had been away. As out of touch as I felt, I realised that my co-workers must be going through the same experience with me. Who is this mompoet, who has come back after being away for so long?

It wasn’t as simple as changing jobs, from stay at home mom and daycare-giver to professional office person. Suddenly, I was both. I had to be a whole new configuration of someone. I had to figure out who that would be.

With the loving support of family and friends, and the kindness of co-workers (some of who also spoke mommy-talk from time to time), I found my feet and discovered ways to be a new someone but still the same me. I got used to interacting with one hundred people each day (instead of a dozen - max) and being part of a crowd of 1000 when on the bus and skytrain. I figured out how to change gears and be the mom, wife and neighbor when I came home every afternoon. It all happened so fast, it’s hard to even know what I expected, but I do know that the experience was intense and profound.

A year later, I looked back on it as a major accomplishment. Eleven years later, I wonder at my energy and the faith I found within myself to make it through the change. Today, when I see a young mom getting off the skytrain, heading to work, I make sure to smile a special smile for her. Just me, remembering, and saying, “Hey, whoever you want yourself to be, you’re on your way. It’s going to be all right.”

question: what are your big changes? how did they affect your identity and expectations?

mompoet - changing and growing, all the time

laughter yoga

Louise and I attended a laughter yoga class on Sunday afternoon. It was at a studio on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. Here's the info. We didn't quite know what to expect, except that we had heard that these classes involve laughing for one hour.

We arrived a bit early, and were welcomed into a beautiful studio - warm, bright and with a circle of pillows on the floor. We sat and greeted other participants as they arrived. By the time the class began, there were about 35 people in the room.

Farah, who leads the laughter yoga club, introduced a new leader, Jeannie, who she called a "natural from the first time I met her." Jeannie had freckles and a broad grin. She welcomed us, then led us through a series of exercises for smiling, breathing and laughing. We worked in a big circle, and also moving around the room, encountering other class members and doing things that made us laugh (zippering open a smile from a serious face, talking in gibberish, giving extravagant compliments). In between exercises we repeated a mantra (ha-ha-ho-ho-ho with clapping and a big YAYYYY! at the end) and congratulated each other on excellent work with "Very GOOD" and namaste bows and more "YAAAAYYYY!" A room full of strangers blossomed into a gathering of goofy-guts friendly people in minutes. A couple of people seemed a bit more reserved than the others, but everyone got into it and shared laughter. The best part was at the end. We all lay down on the floor with our heads in the middle and our feet out toward the walls, and we laughed. Jeannie didn't have to get us started, we just laughed and laughed for probably 15 minutes. It tooks us a while to finish laughing and conclude the class.

We did a check in around the circle before leaving. People felt lighter, energized, optimistic about positive energy in the world, grateful. Louise and I floated out the door. My face hurt. Her belly hurt. Neither of us had ever laughed that much. We want to go back and do it some more.

question: what makes you laugh?

mompoet - I am a good laugher, but this was above and beyond all previous experience

earth hour

From 8:30 to 9:30 we turned our most optional electrical things off (TV, computers, stove, microwave, lights). The fridge and freezer stayed on, and the furnace kept us cozy and warm (it's gas with electric thermostat and ignition). We lit candles and played "YUM." It was a lightweight way to perk up our awareness of how much we take for granted the seemingly limitless supply of cheap energy that's available to us. It also reminded us how distracting the electronic stuff is. When is the last time we played a board game together on a Saturday night?

question: how did you observe earth hour?

mompoet - pass the dice!

homeless march

Cathy and Myrna and I attended a film-showing and forum about homelessness in Vancouver on Monday evening. It was at the Vancouver Library. The film and discussion were both very compelling. It made all of us think about how simultaneously complex and simple the problem is, and it gave us a wake up call about how we can help make a difference.

So on Saturday, we'll join the Grand March for Housing. It's not just a Vancouver problem, but being part of a very visible awareness event in Vancouver will help draw attention and perhaps sway popular and political will.

Other things we discussed/learned/thought about that ordinary people can do about homelessness (some pointed out to us by the film and panelists, others we talked about or already practice in our lives):

• Get to know a homeless person in your work or home neighbourhood. Learn your neighbour's name and give that person recognition/consideration/respect like anyone else in the neighbourhood.
  
• Help others understand that homeless people aren't homeless because of some fault or failure of their own (and conversely that we aren't comfortable and safe because we are especially virtuous or deserving). Talk about issues of homelessness with friends and family, and challenge false statements made by others.
• Teach your kids to be generous to people who look and act differently from themselves. Do this by modeling the behaviour yourself talking together about it.
• Volunteer with an organization that helps address issues of homelessness - work at a shelter, collect food or clothing, raise funds, write letters.
• Talk to your MP, MLA and civic politicians and ask them to stop shrugging off the housing problem as "not our jurisdiction." That's getting old. Encourage cooperative efforts. Work on the problem now, and worry about whose job it is later.
• Direct some of your charity giving to organizations that address this issues of help for the homeless and creation of affordable housing.
• Elect governments that care for people, all people.
• Make art that speaks to themes of inclusion, compassion and kindness to all people.
• Give recognition and support to leaders, businesses, organizations and families who practice generous and compassionate ways towards homeless people and the issues of housing.
• Have compassion for those whose hearts and minds are closed to these issues, and keep bugging them (gently) to understand the problem better.
• Challenge NIMBYism (not in my back yard). This problem is everywhere, and belongs to everyone. It needs to be addressed locally and personally, and not passed on to other neighburhoods.

question: who do you know who does not have a home?

mompoet - YIOBY (yes, in our back yard)

comfort foodzzzz

We have a potluck lunch at work once each month, prior to our staff meeting. Each time, one staff member takes charge and declares a theme. We have enjoyed simple themes like "vegetarian" and "Italian" and even "delicious," and also more obscure themes like "opposites." Okay, that one was mine. I encouraged long/short, round/square, hot/cold, sweet/sour, crispy/mushy foods, and was delighted by the creative cooking that came in response.

This month, my co-worker Belinda ordered us to cook "childhood favourites." This prompted a lot of email banter about Kraft Dinner. Strangely nobody actually brought Kraft Dinner. Fiona told me I should bring olives, because olives truly were one of my first favourite foods. Instead, I brought tuna melts, looking for something more universally accepted as a childhood favourite. The rest of our menu included perogies, scallopped potatoes, celery sticks with cheese whiz, celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins, cinnamon buns, chocolate chip cookies, egg salad sandwiches, pizza (that's from Adriana, who grew up with a fabulous Italian cook for a mom, but craved the Canadian food at her neighbour's house) and rice krispie squares. To drink, we had apricot nectar and chocolate milk. It was really yummy. As we ate, we reminisced about favourite candies and cereals and the foods that we wanted our parents to buy or cook but they refused to give us. Those of us with kids agreed that we are all pretty much as hard-nosed or easy-going as our parents were, when it comes to deciding what we'll give our kids to eat. We also all agreed (except for Adriana) that powdered milk tastes horrible. Adriana loved it because her neighbour's mom served it.

After lunch we had our staff meeting. About 30 minutes in, the yawning began. At the one hour mark, we were slurring our words and getting confused. At about 70 minutes the giggling began. Clearly, childhood favourites are not brain food. Perhaps our parents fed them to us to sedate us so we were not so difficult to look after? hmmmm

question: what was your childhood favourite food?

mompoet - olives are good and they do not make you sleepy