Omigod. Shoes.

This is a very girly post, but I have to admit that shoes are a major fetish of mine. Well, boots, really. I don't think of myself as a major shoe buyer, and I'm sure that compared to many, I am in the minor leagues. The funny thing is that I usually wear the same boring pair of Blundstones day in, day out, because they are the most comfortable. But they are getting tired, and they don't look very glamorous. So here is a photo essay: the footwear I'll be sporting this Fall...
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These are the workhorses: my Blundstones, from the Australian Boot Company. Fit like a dream, you can walk for miles in 'em without pain. So they're not very flashy; who cares? However, it might be fun to wear these as an alternative:










I just bought them today, as a matter o' fact. Max & Co. blue leather. They seem very comfy, so I look forward to getting to know these guys a lot better in the next few months. But when I want to add some height to my short stature, or glam up a pair of jeans, I might turn to...

The understated yet classy pair. I scored these from my mom's very rich friend Sheil, who only gave them up because her feet were a little wide for them. I looked up the brand- Sartore- on the internet, and let's just say they'd be out of my price range if I bought them new. As it was, they were free, free, free... and she'd had them re-soled, too! But being ankle boots, they won't go very well with skirts, so then I'll turn to...










The might-be-leather-but-they-smell-kinda-chemical pair I got a few weeks ago. I thought these would be my go-everywhere boots when I bought them, but there are a couple of snags: they're really warm, as in they don't breathe at all. And although my calves are actually not that big, the left boot in particular is hard to zip up all the way. So we'll see. Anyhoo, on to some shoes...








These are dead gorgeous, in my humble opinion, and vintage, to boot (no pun intended). When I want to channel Dorothy of Oz, or a retro housewife, I will wear these ruby retro beauties. I wish I could say I'll wear them all the time (I'm actually wearing them right now), but given that they are heels, and I can't really wear heels, they'll probably decorate my closet more than my feet. However, so far they are surprisingly comfy given their height.











Now, there's an event coming up that my poor feet suffer through every year, and that's the Pumpkin Patch. Why do they suffer? Because it's hard to find footwear that's warm and waterproof, that's why! But fear not, feet. This year, you will rest easy in the fuzzy, waterproof comfort of...
The Rocket Dog lined rain boots! Stylish and waterproof on the outside! (Love the side buttons.) Lined with black fuzzy material on the inside to keep your feet warm even when you're playing music outside for 7 hours at a time! Finally I will be both stylish and comfortable at the Patch!!!











And on those rare days when it's not raining out there, I have...Yessss. Kenny Rogers Signature cowboy boots. Actually, I may turf these. I don't really have room for them now that the blue boots are here. My current rule is: buy a pair, chuck a pair. But sometimes you gotta have cowboy boots, so I dunno. Maybe they'll get a reprieve until after October...







Well there you have it. The contents of my closet, or at least the shoe/boot portion. I have neglected the flipflops, Crocs and other sundries you don't really need to see. You know what the cool thing is? With the exception of the Blundstones and the black ones, all the other stuff you see here is second hand. I know some people have a thing about wearing secondhand footwear but all I have to say is Can't you see how much you're missing out? Get over it! Or don't, and let me keep snapping up all the bargains out there, 'kay?

88 keys

Recently, I learned to juggle.

It came from too many shifts at the kite store, where we happen to sell those beanbags for jugglers. Bored, I picked up three of them to see what would happen, and in tossing them up in the air, remembered as they fell every which way that I had tried to teach myself many years ago, and had always failed. But my hands, though too clumsy to actually catch the bags, remembered the form, so I kept trying. Last week I had a breakthrough; up to 50 catches before a bag fell!
Now, when I have a spare moment at the store I pick up the 3 little beanbags and toss them, sometimes perfectly, sometimes...not. I am not consistent enough yet, but I have improved a lot and it was an excellent reminder of two things: muscle memory is powerful, even if it's been years since that particular motion, and regular practice really does make a difference.

It's been a timely reminder, what with starting piano lessons last week. I've been taking it slow, learning to walk again before I try running (although my teacher is always telling me to slow down, so I guess I'm not walking slowly enough). Certain things are so different from when I was last practicing as a kid: half-hour lessons go so fast! Practicing every day is fun! And certain things are like old friends I haven't seen in a long time: hello A minor harmonic scale, haven't seen you for a while. My fingers stumble where once they would have flown. But I have advantages now: I carry extra experience on my shoulders: years of playing instruments, hearing patterns, writing music. Every day I play those chords and scales like a mantra, like a Tai Chi exercise. I may be walking slowly, tentatively now, but as my hands learn the chords and scales again- easier this time because I enjoy the learning- I will begin to sprint.

Edmonton, we hardly knew ye.

• Cost of 2 return tickets to Edmonton: $575
• Cost of 2 nights in the (kindacrappy) West Edmonton Days Inn: $250
• Nerves after 2 flights in 3 days: Frazzled. (even though said flights were short and smooth.)

• Seeing your sweetie reunited and laughing with his high school buddies from Cape Breton (class of '88): Priceless.

So it wasn't the wedding I would plan (see above cake for details). But the bride and groom seem to really love each other, and if that's there, everything else is just icing. Purple and white buttercream icing, in this case.
More importantly, it was a rare opportunity for J & his friends from Riverview High in Cape Breton to gather (they all live on the prairies now, typical Maritimers fleeing their beloved East coast in search of work), pick up where they left off, and of course, get some serious drinkin' done there, b'y. They don't see each other very often, even the ones who live in the same city. But they gather for the important life events, they re-connect even though their lifestyles are varied, and I know that if Jon was in trouble, they'd have his back.
And I like them too, which is a bonus. Plus, I got to glam up for the wedding, which was fun, and a great excuse to wear my new Little Black Dress. You can't really see it here, but I really enjoyed wearing it. And here I am, posing in front of a Prairie phenomenon, the subdivision with the man-made pond (no swimming, fishing or boating allowed).
I can't say we really got to know Edmonton (hence the title of this post). We were stationed in West Edmonton, which I can only describe as a soulless hole filled with drab brown houses and motels. Oh yeah, and The Mall. (The world-famous West Edmonton Mall, eighth wonder of the world, if you believe their publicity material. Yes, it's big. Really big. We killed some time there today before our flight home. I would way rather have seen downtown Edmonton but there was no time.)
It's good to be home, though. It's good to be on solid ground, not hurtling through the air in a narrow, combustible tube of death with wings. It's great to be back in the mountains again. Thanks be to whatever gods there are that theatre school brought Jon to Vancouver and not flat, brown Alberta. But thanks, also, to good friends who are still laughing together over 20 years and 5000 miles from the Old Days.

Still exploring ways to chase away the blues- I've found a few more tasty recipes for that in the last few days, helped by the fact that the weather remains amazing. We are finally getting the summer we never really got when it was summer!

Monday's solution was to get outside- on kayaks, this time. It would be pretty hard to find a better way to appreciate our coast than this, I think. Gliding softly past seals and even sneaking a September skinny dip off a tiny island in Indian Arm (luckily there are no pictures of this, and if there were, I wouldn't share 'em). For someone like me, who loves the water but isn't thrilled at the idea of being too far from land, paddling in a sheltered, narrow inlet is perfect. How can you not love a view like this? (That's an old power station in the distance, just one of the curious sights you can see from the water here.)
Today was Kid and Friend Therapy, with Galia's twosome providing gummy grins and 3 year-old curiosity galore. I love finding new things in my own backyard, so to speak, and Galia introduced me to the Avalon Dairy, hidden away near her son's preschool. A century old, and you can buy milk and eggs there, as close to the source as you're going to get in the big city.

Tonight is Wonton Wednesday at my mom's: homemade wonton soup and apple crumble for dinner. This could be the start of a new tradition...

Recipe to cure the Post-Summer blues:

• Wake up early (for you). Read the news and your favorite blogs, and realize the weather is getting better by the minute. Decide to head to the farmers' market for dinner supplies. Stop in at your mom's on the way over, on impulse, and invite her along. Pick up some delicious locally grown produce. Run into friends and pat their grinning baby. Head home to sleepy man.
• Cajole sleepy man into hurrying so you can hit the great outdoors. Drive through the 'burbs to a nearby Provincial Park. Hike 5.5 km up and down a rocky trail. Hear the wind rustling in the trees around you. You should watch for bears, but not too vigilantly. Relish the scent of sweat and sunscreen on your skin. Your heart will pound at first as you hit the first steep part, but you'll adjust. Try not to feel too peeved as your pack-a-day boyfriend cruises by you. The temperature will be perfect, the trail a lovely mix of sun and shade. You will hear people in the distance, but only a few other hikers will actually cross your path.
• You'll come to a small, rocky beach at the trail's end. At first it'll be filled with kayakers, but be patient. Soon they'll push off again into the water and you can explore alone. Marvel as you so often have that here within this huge city are such pockets of absolute beauty and nature. Vow that you will do this much more often.
• Have a home-cooked dinner of local corn, tomatoes stuffed with home-made pesto and baked, small spicy sausages.
  
• Go to the Fringe Festival and watch some theatre, the first time you have done this in years.
  
• Savour the feeling of being comfortable in your body for the first time in days. Sleep soundly.

Ennui

Back at Kids' Only Market yesterday, feeling even more too old to be working there, let me tell you! 34 seems so definitively... well, almost middle-aged, if we're talking three-score years and ten. I know, I know, it's all about how you feel, etc. Well dammit, when I'm at the kite store, I see that almost everyone else who works in that market is either a) the store owner or b) some little college student earning her rent money and I feel that I'm getting closer to the owners' age than the students'. However, on the plus side, as it's pretty quiet there in the fall and winter, I am perfecting my juggling skills (we sell juggling balls, along with the kites & puppets) and yesterday I had a major breakthrough, probably because I practiced for a couple of hours. Quick, add another skill to the resume!

We closed "Letters" last weekend, and of course, it already feels like years have passed since then. Certain emails drift to us from different cast members indicating that they miss the whole experience... J & I on the other hand, aren't feeling the post-show blues so much this time. Sadly, if we'd pushed the run dates back another week we would have had much better weather than we had to endure. As it was, we were rained out 3 nights out of 10!

My body, perhaps, is feeling the post-show blues, even if my mind denies them. Ever have times when you don't have a specific illness but you feel as if your body is not quite right? I feel restless, slightly grumpy; my tummy seems dissatisfied with any and all food I try to feed it... I think it may be time for another cleanse or some such thing... at least I've been smoke-free since the show ended. I saw a David Mamet movie called Redbelt last night and it inspired me to get healthier and learn a martial art or some such thing. But gyms seem to charge a lot of money for their classes...

Anyway, this is a time of transition, which I never seem to find comfortable. I seem to be doomed to be caught in the middle between 2 warring sides of me; one that hates routine and the other that fears change. Still, there are exciting things afoot: piano lessons start next week, J & I fly to Edmonton for a wedding next weekend, I have meetings about a new project that could be very exciting...

Now I need to get healthy so I can face the Autumn with all the confidence I require.

STUFF

"I don't wanna be like G & D," I told Jon the other day, "They have too much stuff." Their crime? Accumulating video games and action figures like they're going out of style, buying video gear for G's business as a kids' film teacher, and of course, the giant flat-screen tv that J covets. Part of me loves to see them buying stuff together, a funky gay professional couple and a great match for each other, cementing their lives together. It's the stuff itself that I fear, even though I love spending the odd evening on G's couch playing Rockband; the accumulation of things that will fill up a tiny apartment so quickly. "But you like stuff too," Jon counters, knowing me all too well, "You just like buying different stuff than G & D, that's all."

Busted. Because of course, it's so true. The gorgeous new boots that sit in my closet. The new haircut- although one could argue that my head takes up less room now than it did before. The new clothes I bought a few weeks back. And a week or so ago. And last weekend. Ok, I like my material possessions as much as the next person. The big-screen tv that J wants so fiercely? I protest at every turn because I don't want to admit that I love slouching on the couch with a season of "Dexter" to watch. "I want to watch less and do more," I can be heard whining whenever J teases me that he's going to buy a giant tv. But although I'm a hypocrite through and through, I think I have a point. And to this end, I'll be "purging" our apartment of unwanted items in the next week or so. After all, when you live in a place that's less than 800 square feet, you'd better do some tidying occasionally.

Show update: we did it last night, because the rains were kind enough to (mostly) hold off until we finished. New lesson learned: a tiny bit of rain on the train tracks means that the miniature train cannot move once it's stopped. Its wheels will spin in place, actors will have to push it, and I will have to stand in front of the audience for what seems like an hour (but was only about 6 minutes) singing a song to cover until the other half of the audience and actors arrives from the Lithuania site. Today it rains again. So we'll see about tonight...