How VERY Dare She
Hiking, Menopause and an Existential Crisis.
Cramps. Yes. I said CRAMPS. (Dear Men, this post is about menopause and hiking…if either interest you, maybe read on…if not, all the best, till next time!) Cramps. Cramps. Cramps. And not the period kind, thank fuck…although about two weeks ago, I was CERTAIN that after more than a year of menopause I was getting my period. Which was maddening and hinted at a physical chaos that I wasn’t ready to indulge. BUT I think THAT almost-period was just a hormonal surge that still happens almost every month. And this cyclical event is something that I’ve discovered through my OWN…
Just SING.
The first time I knew that I could probably sing, I was standing in the pit of the auditorium at Hill Park Secondary School on Hamilton mountain. A little sidebar, I actually thought Hamilton Mountain...which is really an escarpment...was a REAL mountain until I saw the Rockies, which is not the point of this tale but I thought it needed to be said... ...because perspective is absolutely everything. That day in the auditorium pit I was thirteen years old, leaning on an old-as-dirt upright piano, with Ms. Mac (for short...I cannot remember what it was short for...that is what we…
I‘ve Got A Good Life…and…
I’ve got a good life. I really do. It’s taken me almost 55 years to begin to believe that when my life is good, it won’t burn up like the paper on a cigarette when you light it and take a drag…or that the other shoe won’t drop. Yes, I still miss smoking almost 25 years later…I don’t do it…but sometimes, yes, GOD I miss it AND I love shoes…except when they drop. I don’t write on here a lot anymore. It’s strange, now that I write as part of my living I use my creative time for that and…
HAPPY PANCAKE TUESDAY. WE MADE IT.
Three years ago this week, having no idea the pandemical shit storm that was coming, I went to Grant and Tim’s house for PANCAKE TUESDAY. Grant and Tim, who’ve been my friends for years, are creatures of tradition…something I am greatly thankful for. They always host PANCAKE TUESDAY at their home and I’m always thrilled to be invited. Besides hosting the Shrove celebration of fluffy pillows of carbs and the lord, Grant and Tim are faithful card senders, and career supporters. We may not see each other all the time, but when we do, I always go home filled with…
Hold On, Humans. Happy Holidays.
Yesterday, I put up my five year old Urban Barn Charlie Brown XMAS tree. I treasure it. The story that I’m writing here, finally writing today, has always felt a bit hard to describe…it always made sense in my head, but I’ve never been able to put it to page…maybe because it leaned on all my shit too hard…but this year I will indeed try to sound it out. The first Christmas I was alone my heart was brutally cracked and while I felt thankfully tethered to my work (I will be grateful for that till I take my last…
A Woman Named D.
It was sometime during the past summer that I saw a woman start to set up residence under and inside the awning of a stadium that I live nearby. She started small in her quest to make a place for herself while living rough. From what I could tell from her first few weeks of inhabitation, she spent her days organizing the few things that she’d collected into neat piles and configurations. I saw her every time I took Jo past her place on our morning training stroll. The first time we spoke she was standing, just outside of her…
You Just Never Know – NYC NOVEMBER 2022 – Part 2
This is me with my rained out beehive AND Ari with his optimistic outlook, INSIDE the Central Park view of my INSTAGRAM post of a few days ago. THIS post to be exact: What a view, huh? Looks ideal, right? Well, moments before both of those shots were taken Ari and I stopped in the middle of an exhausted and VERY rainy cross-Central-Park trek from the westside to eastside towards The Met when I saw the above view and asked him to get my phone out of my pack for me so I could take a picture and when he…
Red-Headed Trumpet Gal – NYC November 2022
So, I am sitting in a previously warmed leather coach chair in the NEW DRAMA Books on 39th Street in NY, USA. It’s a quintessentially rainy, NY fall day where walking in midtown with an umbrella is literally taking your life into your hands. And your eyes. When we got here last night, walking up onto 33rd out of Penn Station, I was so surprisingly overwhelmed by all that is NYC that I didn’t know if I was okay. I am not overstating. It was a lot. And then I remembered that while the world continued to spin somehow through…
Mailbox.
See this? Now, this might seem like just a mailbox...and to you, it actually IS just a mailbox...but to me...it's...something a bit more complicated yet simple. Two things at once. I bought this mailbox when I got my first paycheque from Canada Sings back in 2011, just after my ex-husband and I moved into our new home in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. We'd gone to a store in Stratford...an expensive garden store that I loved...because I'd seen this mailbox in the window, could never afford it, and NOW I wanted it. The price tag was just over $150.00. Which…
RED CARPET, RED EYE, THIRD EYE, PHANTOM HEART, FULL HEART, AND LETTING GO.
I just had the best day...actually the best FEW days...ACTUALLY, maybe the VERY best week of my life. No hyperbole. The week I just had in LA led me on a merry journey through so many dynamic and different views I feel like I need at least the same amount of time to unpack it. (Turns out, I did) Let me start by saying this...I love LA. Like Randy-Neuman-song LOVE LA. (Google it) I love visiting, I love driving the valley, walking the canyon, climbing the hills, even SOMETIMES sitting on the clogged highways...because I like the taking in of…