The write stuff

Meet my new roommate for the next two weeks, Klara! She's a very sweet 7 year old kitty with stage 4 kidney failure. I'm staying with her while her folks (theatre pals) are out of town. She lives like most other kitties but has a special diet and needs subq fluid once every few days. Her and I seem to be off to a good start. I'm staying at her place - a nice 2 bedroom apartment on the 35th floor of a downtown building.

I remember one day years and years ago, I was drinking a Starbucks caramel macchiato and perusing the new and notables shelf in a Chapters when I spotted a book that piqued my interest. Well...probably a lot of books did but this one sticks out in my memory. It was called Wicked and seemed to be a story on the Wizard of Oz from the viewpoint of the famous villain, the wicked witch of the West. I like that kind of thing so I purchased it and read it. If I'm being totally honest, I didn't really like the book. It was kind of confusing and odd. There was an interesting role reversal and a worthy cause to rally with as the reader but still it just didn't work for me. Years later I start hearing about a popular new Broadway show called Wicked and discovered that it's based on the book. As I mentioned before I didn't really like the book, but I do enjoy theatre so when an opportunity to see it came up this week, I took it. My friend Michelle and I got dressed up in our pr

I had a few friends mention this new sci-fi series called Orphan Black. I decided to make this series my first TV show marathon after coming into my gainfully unemployed status. I didn't really know anything about the plot when I started, other than it had something to do with clones. The first show opens on the street-smart and feisty Sarah with a cockney accent and a bit of a swagger.  She ends up seeing a well-dressed and professional looking woman (with her face) drop her purse and walk off the train platform into an oncoming train. This was obviously unnerving, but Sarah's natural survivor instinct compels her to grab the purse and run. Sarah uses this opportunity to take over the other girls life. From there she winds up on a journey of self discovery that puts her and those she loves in danger. I don't want to give too much away but there's a lot of interesting characters, a common enemy, and some fantastic acting. I had never heard of the Canadian actress who st

I was pretty excited last Fall when I was entering Heritage Park to enjoy their Harvest Sale and noticed that they were building a new exhibit, "The Famous 5 Interpretive Centre"! I love Canadian History and and am especially interested in the role women have played in shaping it (something sadly lacking in the education system). I'm lucky to have friends who also find this kind of thing interesting. So, this week Michelle, Danaya, and I went on an afternoon adventure to the past! After a Yiddish lesson at the Montefiore Institute, shopping along the Main Street, an outdoor performance, and fresh baked cookies, we made our way to the 4pm tour at the Famous 5 Centre. The house is a duplicated (though somewhat modified) version of the house Nellie McClung lived in while in Calgary. The house itself was nice but nothing special. What did shine was the passionate and well-educated tour guide. It was a pleasure listening to him tell the story of Nellie McClung and her fight wi

http://www.cbc.ca/books/books100quiz.html CBC came out with a list, 100 novels that make you proud to be Canadian! The page allows one to go through the list and check off the novels they've read (I've attached the link above). To my disgrace I had only read 2 of the 100 novels listed in full. There were 2 others I started reading last year but have yet to finish. Suddenly not feeling like a very good Canadian. I've been too intoxicated by American and British authors. Time for a change. A new goal that may even potentially tear me away from exorbitant Netflix usage! I'm going to try and go through at least 10 novels from this list for this year. I have lots of other series I'm working through so I don't want to make an unrealistic goal but I do want to encourage reading over TV viewing. So far I've read: 1. Fifth Business by Robertson Davies 2. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill I started: 3. The Outlander by Gill Adamson 4. Life of Pi by Y

Long time no see blog land. It was my fault really...life got busy. Days blurred into weeks, blurred into months, etc. Things have changed and I am getting back to my roots - my passions (like writing). I was recently laid off from my job as an insurance claims rep with a reputable insurance company. Anyone who's been laid off knows the shock and upset this can cause. Was it me? Did they not like me? Was I not a good worker? Sure these questions came to me but perhaps the most telling thing was not the questions, but the feelings. My first feeling after shock, once I realized what was happening, was relief. Odd feeling to have. Was I not happy? They were a good company and pay was the highest of my career so far. It's interesting how being busy can completely disconnect you from yourself. I had spent my time in insurance working hard, taking classes, and making connections as though this was my chosen career, but I had not really stopped to decide whether or not this is what I