Canadian girl out and aboot

I attended my friend's wedding this weekend. This was pretty cool because it was the wedding of the first friend I ever picked by myself. I think we met at preschool when we were three. We lived in the same neighbourhood and were good friends throughout childhood. We stayed in touch over the years, even though we have not lived in the same city since we were 17.

I drove home to Saskatoon on Friday to go to the wedding on Saturday. It had rained really hard leading up to the wedding, but Saturday was blessed with good weather. The wedding was on an acreage outside of the city. I got to the site in good time, and met the groom and his parents who were waiting outside the house. I also got to chat with my friend's aunts and numerous relatives.

The ceremony was touching and personal. My friend wore her mom's refurbished wedding dress. The dress had been purchased in the 1970s and had a high neck and long sleeves. They removed the sleeves and neck and made a simple shift/slip dress using the original fabric. After the ceremony, which included personal vows, we drank champagne in the garden and mingled. There were only about 40 of us there.

The rest of us continue to mingle and ate appetizers while the immediate family had photos taken in the front yard. Later on, some of us (myself included) helped with the food preparation, mixing up salads that needed to be taken down to the dining tent set up on the lawn We then clustered inside a tent to eat food that was mainly prepared by the bride and groom! The day before the wedding, the bride and groom had made about 7 salads and a poached salmon with dill sauce. They also served roast beef and vietnamese salad rolls and three kinds of cheesecake, which were catered.

After the dinner, we sat around the bonfire and talked and people played Bocce Ball. It was a really a beautiful wedding, a great chance to visit, and a reminder that weddings don't need to cost an arm and a leg or be a huge, major production to be beautiful and meaningful.

Yesterday I came home after dance class to find a message on my answering machine from my esthetician. I have been going to the same woman for the whole time I've lived in Edmonton. I get my brows and other waxing done at a spa near my house, but I have built up a relationship and a friendship with one woman there. I always requested her specifically and we'd talk a lot about our lives as she did my waxing. Well, she left a message on my phone to tell me that today (Saturday) is her last day at the spa. She is not going to another spa, but is moving on to something other than esthetics. She also said that she wanted to let me know that she was leaving, and to tell me that she has really enjoyed getting to know me over the past couple of years.

I was very touched by her phone call, but I feel sad that I'm not going to see her any more. I know this may seem weird or trivial, but you can build up a very personal relationship with someone who does your hair, or your waxing, or gives you massages or reiki. Fortunately, my mom called right afterward, and I was able to talk to her about my feelings. But I still feel a little sad today. I might buy some flowers and take them to her, since it's her last day today...

I was in Calgary for five days this past weekend. I managed to do a lot of work, and a little bit of socializing. A and I were good Calgary tourists. I finally made it to the Glenbow museum , which is both an art and history museum. It was pretty darn great, except that we got museum-ed out and didn't see the whole thing.

I personally really liked the Alberta mavericks exhibit, the Asian art exhibit (duh) and the Kent Monkman exhibit. The Monkman was over the top and risque and portrayed with the stereotypes of native people in art and cinema. It also inserted tropes about gay culture into the art.

The next day, A and I went to the Crossroads market to meet up with two of my friends from university and their amazing 3-year-old daughter. She was wonderfully chatty once she warmed up to us, and was generally just a really nice and sweet girl. I haven't seen her since she was about 6 months old, so she was quite a treat.

I'm back in Edmonton for a while, which is nice. Last night I went to a dinner hosted by my publishers. My publishers are putting out 10 books of poetry instead of their usual 4, so they invited all their past Edmonton authors to come out and meet the new poets. Tonight they'll be hosting the actual launch of the new books. Should be fun.

In other news, I'm embarking on what I'm calling "a lifestyle change." I'm going to start eating better and doing some strength training. At least, that's what I'm planning to do. I want to be healthier and more toned. So my diet will include more whole grains, and less processed foods, less wheat, and less cheese and junk. I am looking into the strength training based on what [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] has told me about the program she has been doing based on a book called "The Female Body breakthrough", which I read yesterday. So it's just all starting slowly so that I can adapt to everything, but I'm kind of excited about it all.

So I spent most of the morning hanging out with [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com], before getting ready to take off. It would take me about an hour to get to the Harbourfront, so I left early and then wandered up Bay street and looked at Nathan Phillips square and part of Queen St West before getting on the streetcar to get to Harbourfront. It might be the time of year, but I didn't see a lot of trees and green in Toronto. I also think it's weird that people bike in the downtown area without helmets. Seems that helmet wearing is law in Vancouver, but not in TO. I find it odd.

Finally, I got down to Harbourfront, where I took pics of some of the waterfront. It was okay, but not as interesting as the Harbour in Vancouver. I was more excited to see some of the areas where they have the International Festival of Authors. After getting lost, I managed to find my way to the Pearl Harbourfront restaurant. I thought this was kind of a dumb name, until I got there and realized that we were having Chinese food! My comfort food! Deliciousness! There were a bunch of poets there and so I sat next to two very nice women and we ended up chatting all during the dinner and I had a good time meeting some of the poets and the judge. Most of the poets were teachers or publicists or media types of some sort, which was pretty interesting to me.

After we were done eating, we wandered over to Harbourfront in a group. One thing that was weird was that most of the other writers said I "looked familiar" and asked if they had read with me before. Because I live in Edmonton and not Ontario, I was doubtful and had to negate them. It was kind of funny. There were a few people from Guelph, Hamilton and Windsor, but the majority of people were actually from TO.

We were ushered into the Harbourfront room, and then 2 of us went backstage to use the greenroom bathroom and pick up some things. I got to sign the archive book, which was signed by all the authors that had gone to Harbourfront. So I got to sign a few pages after Sherman Alexie. (I squealed with excitement internally)

Since I didn't know anyone in the audience (my friend was going to come but her neighbour/friend had a heart attack), I felt really awkward, so I was hiding backstage until the actual event. We read in alphabetical order, so I was 8th. I think I did a good reading, and a lot of people told me that they enjoyed my work. It was a very eclectic evening and there was a lot of different work read. People were nice and I ended up chatting to another poet and her friend in the line for the bar. However, after the entire event, we had to stand around to sign books, and I just ended up feeling very awkward because most people seemed to know a lot of other people, since they were from TO, and I am not. Still, it was interesting and I met a lot of neat people and it was fun to read in another city. They still didn't tell us who "WON" but said a short list would be announced in the next couple of days. Last year they picked 6 poets to come back and perform, so it will be neat if I get picked. I'm not going to think about it any more though.

So to sum up- great reading, awkward standing around after. This is my weak point. I'm really good one on one or in small group situations, but I tend to feel a little awkward at parties or in large groups because I never know who to talk to.

I've been feeling a little overwhelmed and here's why-

1. I've been working and driving a lot since the end of January. This is the busy season for ag conferences and so I've been on the go a lot. In the past 2 weeks, I have been to Leduc 3 times, Red Deer, and to a variety of meetings in Edmonton. Next week I'm in Morinville and Red Deer. The driving and the hours of listening do take their toll. However, I'm learning a great deal and it's hard not to get excited about my work and some of the things I do. Last week, I learned about the possibility of pennycress for biofuel. This plant is a weed, but produces better oil than canola, making it immune to the food vs fuel debate. The plant also has phytoremediative characteristics and can take metal out of soils. It's already been proposed as a growing project for Detroit. Actually, Detroit itself is very interesting right now. The destruction of the auto industry in the city has resulted in many opportunities for growth in urban agriculture. I'm going to keep my eyes and ears to the ground on this one.

Similarly, the urban sprawl in Calgary has also resulted in a variety of opportunities. I met a producer who is in charge of helping with the organization of a new farmers' market for Calgary- the Kingsland market. I'm going to do a story or two about it and am very excited about the project. So work is good, even though it's crazy busy.

2. My parents are in China. They flew there on March 16. My dad took a netbook with him, but I didn't hear from them for a few days, which made me a tad worried, mostly because my mom had a cold and I wanted to know that she was able to get into the country without getting quarantined. I wasn't sure if Dad could get through because of the Great Firewall situation. However, he managed to email from his gmail and he is getting emails from my hotmail, although he is unable to open my friend's Picasa photo albums. Parents are having a lovely time in China. However, it's weird to have so much limited contact with the parentals. I'll confess- I talk to the parentals almost every day. This is partly because they are my good friends and partly for security reasons. Since I live alone and travel all around the province by myself, it's good for at least one person to know where I am. When I go on long road trips, I call my mom when I am leaving and when I get back, so that she knows I am safe. I also email my parents frequently and send them links to interesting articles, youtube clips, etc. I feel like a bit of a baby because their absence definitely has an impact on me.


3. My computer has still not been fixed. It's with another tech and hopefully the problem should be resolved, but it does give me more challenges for working and I have a few deadlines that I need to meet. I might end up spending some time at an Internet cafe to get all these things done.

4. I need to sort everything out for my trip to Toronto, figure out what to where etc. This is a very cool opportunity, but it's basically a version of "So you think you're a poet" and I want to give a great performance and knock the judges' socks off.

5. One of my checks was extremely late. I was fretting a bit because I could really use that cash when I'm travelling to Toronto and have some expenses related to my dance recital and dance classes. Fortunately, it arrived and things will be good.

6. I have to acculturize Fergus to Henry and Mari. We went over there last week, and the two dogs were not best friends. Fergus is a very timid guy and Henry is extremely friendly. He jumped all over Fergus and Fergus growled, but as time went on, they sort of ignored each other and Fergus found some comfy places to sleep and hang out. I know that Mari will take very good care of Fergus and I hope that he does not cry too much when I leave him. He's a bit of a suck and a rather timid little guy, but I'm sure it will be fine.

Just writing this all out made me feel better. I'm also going to have a peaceful day alone, do some work, walk the dog, watch some DVDs, and go to the market. Tomorrow I teach my teen writing group and then I'm going to see Shanghai Express, which I've been trying to see for years. This is the movie that defined the concept of "dragon lady" and made Anna May Wong into a star.

On Saturday (almost a week ago), I drove down to Calgary to spend a few times with A. Since I work from home, I thought I'd take the opportunity to work from his home, which was great. I actually ended up doing a lot of work and got to spend a lot of time with him, which was cool. We actually ended up watching Olympic hockey (a first for me) and Olympic curling (another first), as well as the closing ceremonies, which were absolutely insane until we got to the craptastic music. I actually want to see the Michael Buble dance number again, because it was so over the top. I called my mom during this segment and she was laughing so hard that she could barely speak and was almost crying.

Anyway, A and I spent a lot of time hanging out, watched Olympics, went for sushi, wandered around his neighbourhood and went to see "The Last Station." I also got to finally meet Melanie , my co-blogger, and have lunch with my friend Courtney and her daughter Maren.

On Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, I managed to become somewhat ill and was in a super crabby, sick and tired mood for my last day there and my drive home. However, I was already feeling better by Thursday.

I'm working like a fiend and trying to get a lot of stuff done. My bro and his Fiancee are coming to town for some reason. I think they have some shopping to do, so they'll be staying here. My dad was going to bring my dog next weekend, but my parents decided to send him up this weekend since it didn't make sense for two family members to drive to Edmonton in such a short time period. So I have Fergus for an extra week! I'm looking after him while my parents take their first trip to China. I love having Fergus here and it should work out well, since I'm over most of my crazy driving days. I'm excited for him to be here.

This weekend, I'm teaching a journalism workshop! My friend Mari works at a community newspaper called The Rat Creek Press . I'm going to teach some news writing techniques to their writers :) I'm a little nervous, but excited, and I'm going to spend a great deal of today planning the workshop.

1. As many of you know, I am a hardcore insomniac. This week, I decided to try an experiment. I stopped drinking coffee in the afternoons. Immediately, I could sleep! Unfortunately, I have been falling asleep at 9 or 10 p.m. and waiting up at 5 or 6, but still! We'll see what happens. (Yes, I'm somewhat ashamed to say that it took me so long to try this experiment.)

2. I had a really busy but productive week. I had a meeting with staff from the Writers Guild of Alberta and we talked about the teen writing group that I teach and some ideas for youth programming in the province. It was an extremely successful meeting and one that will likely provide me with some additional work in the future. I also talked about some of the upcoming projects that the teen group will be doing and I'm feeling really good about things.

3. This week, I had to do a lot of work as there was a major farming conference in town. During the conference, I do deadline reporting, and I have to assemble short bites that go out on an email newsletter. It's a quick turn around, and somewhat high pressure, but it gets easier and easier for me to do. I also had to attend the Outstanding Youth Farmers' event and got to hang out with the nominees, including my friend Tam. She and I are both obsessed with food security so we are always recommending books about farming and food security to each other. She's great.

4. I am loving my tribal fusion class. It's really hard work and requires a lot of muscle strength, more so than classical belly dance. I think our piece is going to look amazing, and I'm already looking forward to learning our choreography. We have different teachers for classical and tribal, and both of them are really good teachers and have a variety of strengths to offer.

On Friday I took part of the day off, did a bunch of errands and then went downtown to see "Nine." My verdict, great production numbers, low on plot. It's a bit like "Avatar" because you have to turn off your brain. In reality, all it is is a festival of boobs. Everyone's boobs are hoisted up to their chins and look amazing. Even Judi Dench displays an impressive rack in this movie. My annoyance with Nicole Kidman continues to grow, especially since she has now had so much botox that it has become difficult for her to move her face.

The camera seemed determine to linger on various breasts and was even more intrusive during a dance number starring Penelope Cruz. In that particular number, Cruz is wearing this tiny little body suit with an extremely thin strip of fabric between her legs. Actually, a lot of the outfits worn in this movie are tiny, and I think a Brazilian waxer must have been employed on set. There are a lot of crotch shots and I think I might have even seen her uterus in one dance move. It was rather disturbing and I felt slightly violated. So yeah, there are some great dance numbers, but I wouldn't run down to see this one. I'm curious as to how the Oscars treat it.

That night, it was Mari's birthday, so 8 of us gathered to go out for dinner. We had good food, but our waitress was probably baked out of her skull. She seemed VERY stoned. One of the diners at our table was celiac. He ordered the salmon, as did our friend Tom, a non-celiac. After they'd been eating for a while, the waitress came out and told us that the wrong plates had been delivered and that Clinton had been consuming gluten. I was more pissed about this than anyone else at the table, probably owing to my severe nut allergy. I had a hard time not glaring at the waitress.

Saturday I did more errands, walked around the area and did a bunch of things, then went to a wine and cheese at my friend Amanda's. Amanda has just cleared the over 30 milestone, and so there were a lot of people (and about 10 different cheeses) at the party. I decided to bring a tray of cut up pears, because I thought the fruit would go nicely with the wine and cheese. It was a massive hit and people just went crazy over those pears. So there's my recommendation to you if you are ever at a wine and cheese party and don't really know what to bring.

Oh, and I finished watching all of Glee. Interested to see what they'll be doing when it starts up again.

I've got a poem in this anthology. It's called "north to south saskatchewan" and it's about my journey from Saskatoon to Edmonton and my relationship with the (north and south) saskatchewan river.


( Read more... )

A lot of stuff happened....


( Read more... )