Sunday, August 31

Sage-More please...



Well dear ol' Sage continues to surprise us by improving all the time and having much more comfortable mobility, getting up and down quickly, jumping ( d slowed her down) out of the truck at the beach and proving once again...she is a feisty old girl.
Her fur is coming in now again too.

She has also rediscovered food with a vengeance, and has taken to rattling her stainless steel foodbowl about by putting her paw in it once empty and banging it into the wall for more food....lolololololol!

I am extremely relieved to be leaving her like this for two months, happy and healthy ( touch wood ) and loving up life. It is a long way from where she was after the vet misdiagnosed her and put through so much crap.
I know D can handle what comes but I want her here when I come home! Please send her your hopeful healthy vibes too.

Paws are crossed and hopeful.

Saturday, August 30

Ny day 2 -Broadway Bound


Whew...we made it with moments to spare, and the four of us went to Bubba Gump Shrimp for dinner....hmmmm imagine Senor Frog's on shrimpies........Dinner was really good though. "Run Forest Run!"

Then we walk through the now truly insanely busy streets, okay Mumzie was right, Monday had been quiet.
Holy crap...holy crap, there are a lot of people on the streets and all seem to be heading to a broadway show.
We are heading to "Spring Awakening" at the Eugene O'Neill playhouse.

We walk in and the smell of old theatre hits me like a familiar memory you didn't know you had.
it was just a beautiful small theatre....we settle into our seats....and wait.......I am so excited.

The show begins and I am transported. What an unbelievably edgy, minimalist, and emotional journey this show it is. I won't go into a huge song and dance about it ( ha ha, get it song and dance?) but run, don't walk if it tours to you. It is breathtaking. The sharpness of the young energy contrasted with the turn of the century text and ideas.......Oh man.,.....just amazing.

I float out of the theatre and we all agree it is the best show ever. it remains R's favourite Broadway show ever.......and he has seen a lot.

We finish the night off with martinis at a swanky lounge with chrome and neon lights and fish...I found nemo, he is alive and well and living in a tank outside the bathrooms of this lounge.

baggage...

my list is now small....and big.......one thing left..


PACK!!!!!!!

OI..............!

A week today I will be in England......watch out Queenie, here I come.

NY..day 2....Museum and subways and umbrellas..oh my!



Oh boy..I am so excited when I wake up and realize I am THIS close to Monet, Manet, Renoir, Rothko and Seurat, Gottlieb, Pollack and Oh Boy!
So, I pull out my trusty NY guide to all things arty and prepare for the Museum mile and think I can achieve visitng 4 museums in one day.


Okay stop laughing, it is not that funny!
I didn't know!!!!!!

D and I embark on the subway experience and other than getting on the wrong way, yes, it was my fault..sigh...we realize quickly and head to the Gugenheim.......so excited.........walking from station..oh boy there it is....... and I look at a sign..

'UNDER RENOVATION"

WHAT???????? nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
We go in anyway, at a reduced rate, to see 2 small ,....small....really small room of sketches and drawings and can sort of see the general architecture of the museum.

We mock a pompous tour guide discussing abstract art to an eager group of looky loo's...sigh.
I visit the round ladies room ofcourse, wouldn't miss that Miss Kramer... tee hee....and then decide to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and spend the rest of the day there....yes....I have realized 4 museums isn't going to happen...stop giggling already..i was hopeful.

We hop in a cab and then find it is ummmm right there..around the corner...oh well...we are in!
Holy crap batman! The place is ENORMOUS !
We decide to focus on the Impressionists and the Greek and Roman sculpture.
I walk in a state of emotional turbulence....the sights, the energy, the brush strokes....the colours...amazing.

D and I spend hours taking it in and discussing in hushed and reverent tones ( sometimes not so reverent..bawdy artists :) ) and I am totally overwhelmed at the magnificence of some of these paintings.
Sitting on a bench with a security guard in one corner, tourists and looky loos taking in the art through the lens of their cameras..(what is with that anyway?) I am swept through the past and into worlds I had imagined but not in full colour.

After almost 6 hours, we relaize it is time to head back to the hotel and get ready for dinner and "Spring Awakening..our first Broadway show.

I leave D at a dark entrance under construction and use the ladies...not round.... and when I come out , D is chatting up a little bird faced woman with tight, short curly dark hair...thick round grandma glasses and the best Bronx accent. She asks me for my drivers license>
"huh"
D says..."show her we are from Victoria.....
"huh. okay...pull out license......and woosh...we are immediately escorted into a preview fpr the highest subscription holders. "the money" for the Turner exhibit that is not scheduled to open for a week. Regular subscription holders were being turned away in droves yet D managed to convince her to let us in. :)
He is so good at chatting up people.:)

The looky loo's left behind, no sign visually of security guards and a lot of art officianados who you just know have money trees in their swanky apartments, and their walkers, we are taken into the world of this brilliant man who was the predecessor to all thing Impressionist.
The absolute silence....the space to see the paintings...the PAINTINGS.....oh how to describe what that was like....that feeling that we had been taken into something so special, that was such a gift. A place tourists don't get to experience.....the heart of the art world.
No one was looking through the lens of a camera.
It was amazing.

We stayed and then we had to leave in a hurry......eekkk.......mom and R were waiting at hotel.

We run out to catch a cab and woah.....there is a sideways drenching , sheeting down rain/wind storm. I buy a $5 umbrella from a dude on the museum steps, stay dry for 5 more steps and the umbrella then turns inside out and whacks me upside the head. This is not how I imagined leaving the sanctitude of the museum.

I am determined to grab a cab...I stand in front of the cab stand and stick my arm out, waving like an idiot all the while getting drenched in my white and yellow suntop..quickly becoming invisible.

I try a new tact 10 minutes later and move to where the locals kept stealing my cabs down a ways from the cab stop.....I hail.... a cab stops......I start to sit down , hand on door and seat....soooooo excited...and BAM....I am tackled by a whirlwind of fast talking aggressive, TINy New Yorker woman....she tackles me but I stand strong, i argue..."this is MY cab" she is relentless and pulls me out of the cab...seriously...out of the cab.

D is astonished as he was heading for the other door and I am pissed.....no really....really.....pissed!

I am soaking wet, more wet than any west coast storm ever.....I am late..R will be waiting and I am pissed and the cab drives away.....now what?

at that exact moment, I have my "sex in the city moment"

A long dark black limousine pulls up to me.....I expect Big to appear..really...but instead a window rolls down and an angelic voice says " Do you need a riode?"

Do I????? hell ya I do.....
I ask how much to Times Square and amazingly it is about the same as a cab...we hop in.
sigh...the luxury, the DRY TOWELS! the leather seats....sigh...it was a perfect New York moment.
A perfect New York day.

I realize why people love this town in that instant. It is unlike anywhere else.....it should have its own gravititational force.....it is simply New York.

I know that " I heart NY!"

to be cont....

Thursday, August 28

nessa for president?

Well turns out that she has had enough of us yelling at the TV and is taking things into her own paws...



(just copy and paste to link, I am not smart enough to do that yet...)
http://www.inews3.com/pres.php?first=Lunassa&last=La+fey&send=Send

NY NY



What a wonderful town!

 Monday, June 23......So we arrive by car; my mom, her husband, D and myself, through New Jersey...(yeesh it is all true, not a pretty place.) and then we hit the Lincoln Tunnel...
tee hee hee hee hee tada there is the skyline, right there as you come out into the light! Sooooooo exciting!

We drive into Times Square , one snail's pace car length at a time, and our NY home for the next week "The DoubleTree Guest Suites"
Check in amidst the noise, and hustle and bustle...(I feel a bit like I am inside Donald Duck's brain and he did acid..) and venture out onto the street. 48th and 7th, our corner.

Wow, first I am hit with the heat...the intense heat and humidity like a wall against you all the time, and then I notice the smell.
Yoinks-the smell knocks you over in Times Square. It isn't a constant smell, oh no, it wafts up from the deep dank bowels of the city and that is exactly what it smells like.
It took a little getting used to.
I have to say, my first day, I was not such a big fan of NY. I thought it was all like Times square and this country bumpkin was a little overwhelmed.
It is okay though...I got over it :)

We go for lunch at an Irish pub, all the staff are Spanish and D happilly chats in that language with them and then we walk...and walk...and walk some more. I can't stop spinning in circles and looking up...up...UP!

Once outside of Times Square the architecture truly hits me and I start to notice the iconic images everywhere....oh look there is Carnegie Hall....oh look there is the Dakota...oh look those are the towers from Ghostbusters... oh look it's the fountain from Friends...and on and on.

We take a carriage ride through Central Park, our horse billy and driver bruno, give us a great history of the area and then we head to the Stages deli for dinner......mmmmmmm pastrami and corned beef.....a mile and a half high!

My mom keep saying how quiet Times square is...I am ummmm...a little worried..."this is quiet?" yikes what does busy look like?

We wonder and shop and plan for the rest of the week.
D and I make it to Rupert's Deli outside the David Lettermen Show and rupert signs a tee for us. tee hee..."hey lady want to buy a monkey?"
and then the heat does us in and we call it a day cause i have 4 museums I want to get to on Tuesday.....( insert goofy music, little did I know how big 1 museum was)

More to come...


Monday, August 25

d rocks!

He makes the best food on a regular basis but his nachos,....lord luv a duck..his nachos are divine and I am eating them right now!!!

AWWWWWW....FREAK OUT!!!!!


well maybe just a little.
I have a secret....it is a little thing......something to be discussed quietly cause well we all know how super uber brave and courageous I am right?????...lolololololl!

I am a little afeared!
 Just a bit, enough to keep me sharp and research ready for what may be....but along with all the excitement of the journey there is a little voice saying......

"what if you pack the wrong outfit?"

I mean come on, I direct for a living, plan the scene to be visually everything I imagine, the right lighting, sounds, costumes.....what if I imagine wrong and I get to Greece and everyone is in , hmmmmm, let's say leapoard print and I have packed turqouise and white flowy things?
You can see my dilemna.......

there is only one real solution......only one way to calm the voice of fear......

watch Shirley Valentine again...and speak to "wall"!

Saturday, August 23



Today is a good friend's wedding and my mom is finally meeting the breeder of Golden retrievers to get her puppy ( well once they are born ofcourse)

The wedding is exciting for all the good reasons why seeing a friend happy and with the person they are meant to be with does. A good party always help too :)
I hope there is sun for them this afternoon.
I raise a glass to the two of you!!!!!

The visit to the breeder is exciting because my mom has been pining for a dog since our family dog passed away in 1987. 
Her hubby thought  ( much to my mother's chagrine) that they should wait to get another dog until they retired, as they travel a lot.

So now it is "D" day. They are to be approved by the breeders and put on a waitlist for the next available puppy. her hubby has been threatened to not blow it by sarcastic comments or they will be marching directly to the nearest SPCA and bringing home a dog today...lol!
Personally, I am a fan of rescue dogs, but she has her heart set on a golden.
Of course if there is a teenager available, they will happilly take that now. 
It would be a wonderful distraction from my abscence for two months. 
I am hoping for a teenager!

Paws are crossed!

Thursday, August 21

lists continued...

Okay, so I have one and it is long and I plan to spend the day trying to check most of it off....sigh...

Are lists in another language more interesting do you suppose?

On the upside......15 more sleeps til I leave!

Wednesday, August 20

Blonde ambition...



Well the only saying once a blonde always a blonde seems to be true.

I started life as a blonde and though I rebelled into the redheaded culture for the last 20 years...I welcomed being a blonde again for ease of travel upkeep.....

Blondes have more fun? Well maybe, maybe not, but I am willing to find out once more.

My Faery



Turning 40 this year was momentous simply because it is so welcome.
Gosh everything is a little easier when you say, "well... I'm 40"

To mark the occassion though, i did have a large tat done....a faery to carry with me forever.
Thank you to Gerry Kramer at Tattoo Zoo who made it so amazing.








Questions asked often...

did it hurt?
Well...yes and no...the foot....YES!
The leg.....more of an annoying awareness
Never enough to not have it done.

How long did it take?
It was done in two sessions, the first outline and shading about 3.5 hours and the second for colour about 3 hours.

Would you do it again? 
Hell ya, wait til I turn 50!

Lists

I wonder.....
What did human beings do before the invention of  "THE LIST"?

I mean, how on earth did anything ever get done in a timely fashion, be remembered and be efficient?
What did we do with our time before it was listed, sorted, sanitized and organized?

I am willing to find out about now.
I am drowning in to do lists! Someone, send me a life jacket please.

Harumph....honestly, *rolls eyes at the very thought of one more list* 

Tuesday, August 19

www.govegan.net

This is my friend Sarah and her new vegan cookbook for busy peeps on their travels....
www.govegan.net

"Vegan A Go Go" is the title which I think rocks, but then so do the Gogo's, and I am taking it with me to Europe.

She is probably the only other fabulous diva woman I know that makes me look like I am standing still...look at her site...order her books...check out her blog...come on..ya know ya wanna!!!!!!!

Truth


Nessa is the cutest cat in the history of all catdom.

Really, sorry for all the other kitties out there, but well....she is, it is the truth.

Sunday, August 17

HAppy Birthday Madonna!!!!!!


50....REALLY??????

Oh my god, how did that happen.
Madona, 50, inconcievable!

The girl that taught me wearing my bra on the outside was cool, that gave me permission to add crinolins to my wardrobe, not just my dress up box....sigh......50.

I suppose it was meant to happen, I mean we are all aging right?
But how we allow an icon to go gently into the night? Well apparantly we don't.
Our icons are not allowed to age gracefully..NO, they must be tucked and botoxed and stretched into the image of them we have in our memories.
Shame really.
She has an opportunity to break the mold again here but she is succombing to the public pressure.

Madonna..Happy Birthday, my wish for you......be real...and show us all how naturally great 50 can be!

Saturday, August 16

Next.....


Haven't written for a bit.
I needed some time to truly take in what the loss of my mentor and friend has meant.

Death has a funny way of sending you inwards, introspective and quiet.
I have felt a bit like the ground was shaken by this passing, disconnected someho however, the service of almost 500 people outside in a park, helped to remind me that time may pass, but the people you make authentic connections with don't disappear from your life, they are simply the echoes of your life, calling back to you when you need to hear their voices, never truly quiet or stilled.

I am 3 weeks away from leaving this town I know so well, the people, the places, the familiar....in order to head to a great unknown for truly the first time.

I can't help but think that this all happens for a reason and while looking inward for that reason I am reminded once again about the strength of inner calm and quietude.
J taught me that, and until his passing, I had let go of it a bit, not realizing that the very gift he gave me is so needed as I step out into my two months abroad.


I am excited and planning and uplanning and changing plans and can't quite believe it is coming so quickly.
Does everyone feel this life changing obsorption when they travel? Is that why it is so addictive?

I am about to discover things in the world I have only read about, things that I have only dreamt of......and yet....there is a calm included in my excitement that wasn't there two weeks ago.
A knowing that it is all as it should be, the universe is unfolding and like a lotus, just starting to reveal all it has to offer......

I am open........oh hell ya....I am open and ready!

NEXT!

Tuesday, August 5

in honor of....

There are people who come into your life for a season, a  reason, a time that changes you for the better forever and shows new ways of seeing the world.

I recently lost just such a person.

Back in 1994, while fresh eyed and super-feisty, I applied for a job at a local community centre.
I was interviewed by the co ordinator and hired to be a one on one worker. 

Now let me also say, I was ready to battle the world head on, red headed and stubborn.....taking on every battle I came up against fighting for justice in every perceived injustice, fighting for life to be fair to young people. My goodness.... but it was exhausting.

While learning life lessons from the children I was working with, learning life isn't always fair to young people and older people alike; I moved up through the jobs, special needs worker, out of school care worker, superviser, acting OSC co ordinator.
This was stretched out across a turbulent 9 years, many staff changes and a co worker that made me want to pull out all my hair on a regular bases. Did I mention I was feisty?

The same man who hired me, became a trusted ally, the "go to" person when I thought I was going to simply explode in a fit of frustration or anger or sadness.
He taught me the art of listening first and reacting "appropriately", not just simply REACTING!
"Pick your battles" became a new mantra under his guidance and learn which ones have far reaching tentacles.
He gave me the gifts of respect and trust and always had time, even at the end of a 10 hour day, to hear out anyone who needed someone to care about the lives of children.

The community centre puts on regular events, seniors dinners, celebrations, etc.
There was not one event that I did not see J working hard at, washing dishes, handing out food, busy behind the scenes with a smile, his camera and all the patience of the world.
 Never too above it in position to get down and dirty and do whatever little job needed to be done. Setting an impressive example for the rest of us.

Over 30 odd years, this man whom I so respect, moved up from being a youth worker, teacher community centre co ordinator,  to being the heart beat of this particular community.
Anyone who passed through the halls was touched in some way by J's passion, dedication, commitment and well.....his sense of humour. He had a wonderfully dark sense of humour.

There were days as OSC co ordinator, that I found it extremely difficult to find any decency left in humanity. It is not easy being a child and after a particularly hard day of disclosures of abuse or neglect, J could walk into my office, give me a long look, and strip away all the stoic pretense I was carrying, allowing me to be vulnerable and cry like a child.
He just had a way of looking at you that made you blubber.
 It was crazy and it was so necessary.
Because of those moments, I have not become jaded as I was allowed to feel and not expected to suck it up. 

I changed jobs in 2000.
I left the employment of the out of school care and embarked on a personal journey, creating a theatre company for children and youth.

It was during my goodbye speech, given by J, who coined the phrase...." You can take the girl out of the community centre, but you can't take the community out of the girl," that once again,  reduced me to tears I didn't know needed to shed, at goodbye.

Funny thing is, I never really left.
I continue to work at this community centre although wearing a different hat,  contracted now to bring music and theatre  programs to young people.
J always showed an interest in what I was up to, supported me through some challenging first years and availed me of opportunities to grow as a company.

I was recently hired to go back to my roots in out of school care and facilitate a workshop on guiding childhood behaviours, to the new OSC staff.
I was hired by J.
 It  allowed me to complete a circle that began in his office all those years ago, bright eyed and super-feisty, well passionate.
It did not go unmentioned and I am glad I took a special moment to go and thank him for the continued faith, support and  the opportunity to make a difference.

 I am  a little calmer now. Still super-feisty however, I do pick my battles more carefully,  ( a little too passionately sometimes);I try to take time to listen and then  react, and I do try to have an ear to those who need it, even if they don't know they need it, making time for people to be to feel.

This is the legacy created by one man, one heartbeat of a community.
I am not alone, I am but one voice whose life was touched by a ray of light that changes the colours of the world you see forever.

I am deeply sad that this heartbeat was taken, mid pulse, from  our community, much  too soon. 

This is for him, a small note of tremendous appreciation and respect. 
A thank you if you will.
The pulse carries on.


Saturday, August 2

holidayzzzzzz

Camp is done and the kids were spectacular.

Now it is time to seriously rev up for my upcoming travels....33 days....wow!

More to come..there is a day to enjoy, sunshine to play in and furries to snorfle.