comfy cozy

the aftermath

      I have a crick in my neck. A big one. I am a tree in winter waiting to feel life in me again. Actually, if anything it's the opposite - a little too much life of late. All the festivities of love and food and boardgames have led to me sleeping a full night face down in my pillow, thus the crick. I am presently warming up my muscles beneath a hot beanbag. In fact, I think it's time to curl up under the covers with a big book and read till I blur into dreams. Good night!

to you!

BC to AB

      First of all, thank you everyone for your movie suggestions! I am planning on making a trip to the library to see if they have any of your recommendations on hand and from there I'll move onto possibly renting them off of the web. I can't wait! Watching old movies seems like such a perfect wintry thing to do, doesn't it? Quilts and pillows and warm drinks. I found Oliver! (1969 musical) for $8 the other day and have begun watching it. What wonderful songs! They've been looping through my brain ever since.

      On Sunday we began a beautiful trip in which I spent the bulk of thirteen hours gaping out the truck windows.


      The Okanagan valley swirled through fog, cream in amber tea.


      Most everywhere else was in the thick of December. Trees lined the road like we were royalty, a ribbon of grey highway our red carpet.




      Mountains snored winter under cloud blankets.

      And we with parcels stacked in the back seat, luggage tarped over in the truck bed, laughing at stories from The Vinyl Cafe.


      We're spending the bulk of our holiday in central Alberta where there is snow, glorious snow! Mittens and coats and boot stomping, exactly the way I like it. Merry Christmas to we!

her words

    "The cold was our pride, the snow was our beauty. It fell and fell, lacing day and night together in a milky haze, making everything quieter as it fell, so that winter seemed to partake of religion in a way no other season did, hushed, solemn."

Patricia Hampl - A Romantic Education

take me back

      Isn't there something so wonderful when, after days of cloud, the sun cracks through a break in the grey and reminds you that he's been there all along and it was only a matter of time before you'd once again cross paths? That was this morning and now it's dark.
      Lately I've been enjoying old movies. I'm not familiar with very many and was hoping some of you might be able to flashlight the way for me. What are your favourite black and white films? The Thin Man movies were a series I discovered through the Yellowknife library and I adore them. If you ever get a chance to watch them, do - the banter between husband and wife is witty and so sweet. Hence! Thus! Tell me things! Tell me things forthwith!

broken and beautiful

      The Nutcracker's Arabian Dance has always been one of my favourites. Such a haunting suppressed pain pushing underneath it, I feel more than I hear. A heart at war with itself - seducing and lamenting. Arms stretched out like slow pulled taffy. A river winding deep blackmail. Its victims, their blind hands braille the dark walls of night alleys. Oh, it just aches with story.

that delicious feeling

      Today contained one of those lovely eeeeeeeeee! feelings I couldn't contain whereupon I burst into spontaneous song as I was driving home. It seems a million ages since I last made up a ridiculous tune that involves purposely singing loud and off-key just to make it funnier but I think cheese may have had something to do with it. (Cheese often does.) I had just picked up some cambozola (which I'd sadly surmised I'd never taste again and lo! Costco!) and cranberry chevre for Christmas. Snow also had a million things to do with it because it was falling thick and happily (I've missed you, Snow) and people were everywhere but no one was going crazy or swerving wildly or cutting others off, tires spinning without promise. It was just right. I'd also just seen the sweetest, messiest knot of kidlins in sheep outfits and sagging shepherd cloaks singing carols and that always makes a heart feel good.
      So! What have we learned today? I think it's that joy will find a way out and is brought to you by the letter eeeeeeeeee! and the number 8 because that's what the cheese'll be when I'm through with it.

maiden voyage

As a girl I remember being spellbound by our Christmas tree.


A black hole of pine needles and colour pulling me in until lights blurred and sugar plums danced.


Dreaming distant things, thoughts without words.


Looking in and into the tree until small lines strutted out of each twinkle like those old pictures of nativity starlight.


I could do this for hours.


Still.

in a perfect world

I'm frustrated.
I'm frustrated that I have to write about fruitcake.


Why do you have to write about fruitcake? you may query.
It is because fruitcake and fruitcake recipes are what I have photos of I will say.


The thing is that at least half of you hate fruitcake with all your heart.

The rest of you probably eat it in the dark away from the mocking, condescending remarks of haters who won't let you love in peace. If you hear one more remark about using fruitcake as a doorstop you will cry.
So there you are,
in the dark,
eating.
Eating fruitcake.


What can be said?
Baby steps, that's what. Yes, baby steps.
Turn that light on and munch for joy!
Next year, turn the light on and invite loved ones to witness!
Two years from now you'll be having theme-related parties like Dress Up as Your Favourite Fruitcake or Let's All Only Eat Fruitcake for Dinner!


A girl can dream, can't she?

from inside

      The wind is hugging my window in long owl hoots. Silence and then an extra squeeze. (I think he just wants to be close.) Watching whipped clean sidewalks, the dry scaffolding of trees from a warm house. A warm me. Pale sky. Cool sun. A blank, bright day, erasing everything written on it.

rhubarb

      You would think I was a big fan of tea what with the tea posts of late but lo, I am not. I try to be a fan though. It seems like such a nice thing to like. There are certain things I keep trying because I think to myself who wouldn't like that? Take for example baths. What could be better after a long day on one's feet? Hot water! Bubbles! Who doesn't like this? ME is who. I can't do it. Nope! And I finally figured that out. Every time I needed to warm up and relax I'd pop myself into a bath and think boy that sucked and then, before you'd know it, I'd find myself in a tub again. Now I know - three minutes in a bathtub and I feel like I'm stewing in my own juices. Wow. That sounds remarkably terrible.
      What else? Candles. Not a fan. Unless I was in some sort of old cathedral or medieval-y kind of place and there were pillars upon pillars of flame. That would be cool. I do like old fashioned Christmas candlelight services though. I guess it's hundreds of candles for me or none at all or ... something. Unless they're on a birthday cake. Geepers. This is starting to sound like one of those old grammar rules with several addendums - "i before e except after c or when sounded like a as in neighbour or weigh; and except seize and seizure and also leisure, weird, height, and either, forfeit, and neither." (The Complete Word Book by Mary A. DeVries [yeah but don't forget friend and heist and reign and codeine and beige and ....!])
      Hot chocolate. No thank you.
      Scrapbooking - pass.
      Hand lotion - hate it.
      Tea? Still trying. It has its moments and I remember liking the aforementioned Twinings when I was a kid. Oh! And London Fogs. They just plain old sound delicious.
      So what sort of person is this? This bath-loathing-candle-disdaining-hot-chocolate-spitting-scrap-scrapbooking-lotion-hucking-tea-trying Ogre of a Person. Well ....
      Puddles rock my world.
      Bubbles divorced from bathwater are seriously awesome.
      Maple syrup and waffles.
      Train rides.
      The word rhubarb.
      Rabbits with floppy ears. (Do you love me now? You can't be a terrible person and love rabbits.)
      Ping pong. In fact I used to have my own paddle stored under the front seat of my car in case I happened upon a game a paddle short. (I also travelled with bubbles. You never know, right?)
      In closing, please accept me, because I'm never having a bath again and I don't want to be lonely.

brrr.

      I'm currently shivering my timbers at my parent's place in Kelowna. It's a gorgeous, cool, sunny day and for the life of me I can NOT get warm. I have a steady ache in my wrists and ankles as though I'm in a constant state of thaw but never quite getting to a state of puddle. I love Canada so much but I am hardwired for Arizona. At least I think I am because I've not actually been there but I've heard it's hot and dry and that sounds heavenly right about now. However, I'm going to bundle up and walk up Glenmore Road towards a coffee and maybe a little chocolate something something in hope of obliterating the Ice Cube Blues. Heh, I have this picture of a coffee dangling from a stick in place of a carrot to encourage me outdoors and uphill. I think if I start moving that will take care of at least half of my coldness. I don't care if my skin is cold - it's when my insides are cold that misery sets in. Too bad a morning of hardcore shivering doesn't qualify as a workout. It should.