We are under a winter snow warning! This has been the snowiest winter I’ve seen in Calgary since I moved here in 2007. A lot of the snow has gathered on our trees and mailboxes, as you can see here, in the blue early morning light: A lot of people hate that we don’t have door-to-door delivery anymore and have these central boxes instead, but I like it. It’s not waiting at your door for a person to steal but is carefully locked away. It is fun to walk to the box in anticipation and unlock it to…
Dreams can come true! When I was really little, maybe 5 or 6 years old, I was given a Hello Kitty colour-changing washcloth. Hello Kitty was in a hot air balloon with her pet cat. I remember thinking, “It’s so cool that the little girl dresses as a cat and HAS a pet cat!” Cuz why would a cat have a PET cat….but I was later corrected to seeing Hello Kitty as a cat outright….and looking at her hands or feet, that made sense to me. Now, they say that 5 year old me was partly right, so now I…
When I was a child I read a lot of books about the past. I obsessed over Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables. My dresses from that time are a direct reflection of my tastes in literature. One is a brown dress with a peter pan collar and a small pattern of white flowers and small green leaves. It has long sleeves and goes well past the knee. I could have walked off the set of Little House on the Prairie or Road to Avonlea. I longed to live on a farm, washing my clothes on…
Today is going to be a very self-indulgent post. I just have to get some facts straight and writing helps. I really thought about not posting this, but it is a part of me and I am generally just stating facts so there you go. Plus, I’m allowed to air my side of things. I have a voice and why should I silence it. I am not doing this to hurt people but to just say facts from what I’ve seen. I grew up in small town Saskatchewan, in a town of around 3,500. Out of all of the…
I went on a ramble about Japan yesterday! And guess what Husband found in the back of the cupboard? A western version of a Japanese staple! It was given to me by one of my fave people on Earth and I meant to open it but then forgot. I have been snacking on it all day! So good. It’s this: For real, try it. It looks weird but it is so yummy. You can use it in recipes, on sushi rice, as a chopped up topping ….but I have been eating them as if they’re wafer thin…
Today was tiring. Hunter has an ear infection and his fever fluctuated between 101-103F today. He puked at 3am and again 3 times during the day. I set him up with shows on a laptop upstairs and a bottle of coconut water. He sat quietly and watched, saying it hurt too much to lay down and that was what was causing him to throw up. Smart. So he sat up, surrounded by pillows. I came to check on him every 30 minutes. The kid I babysit was in the basement, also set up with shows since he also seemed low…
I used to be so cool. I’d wear my Dad’s work boots and climb trees with the boys. I used to be so cool. I used to play Little House on the Prairie, even when playing with boys and make them be the girl characters too. I was very assertive and convincing. I used to be so cool that I would fall asleep colouring; I was so intent on that task of creating a new colour scheme for the trees, sky and grass. I used to be so cool that I would wear whatever I wanted. I loved finding every…
“When you gonna love you as much as I do?” Winter, Tori Amos. Sitting in my room and listening to Tori Amos makes me reflect on 13-year-old me that discovered her. Her video being featured on late night MuchMusic may have changed my life. Through my tough teenage years I fled to my room. I filled it with things that I loved, including a ton of books and a bottom dresser drawer full of music magazines. Details, Rolling Stone, Spin and Jane were my favorites. I stopped reading Cosmopolitan, Seventeen and the like when I read in Cosmo that “your…
People seem to pigeon-hole each other. I grew up in a small town and by the time I was ten years old my identity had been locked in. I was the shy and nice one. I was the shoulder to cry on occasionally. I tried to change my identity in my teen years but others would say “Oh, that isn’t you at all,” then giggle and add, “What are you thinking?” I find that people do that to each other. I see it all the time. I used to move around quite a bit. I was often plunked down in…
I was at my mom’s many moons ago, and I found the little books they let you make in grade school, even the special hard cover ones. I loved writing even then. But in grade 2,3,4 I was bright-eyed and confident in myself and my writing was courageous…brilliant even. I mean, it was small sentences in grade school language but I had humour and grace. Now I second guess myself and every word seems not good enough. I was in Grade 8 when I got separated in to a different classroom than all of my friends. I became the punching…