Last post for a week.

I'm leaving for my cottage in about an hour. I should be up there by about 5-6pm. Ray's accompanying me, which is nearly meaningless since he tends to sleep in the car. I'm dropping him in Ottawa where his daughter will pick him up. There will be lots to do up at the cottage tonight. I'll have to vacuum (ech) and sweep, and clean out the drawers and uncover all the furniture and then dustbust the furniture... All the deck stuff is under the house (I hate going under the house), and the outhouse will need to be cleaned out to rid it of spiders. BLEH. Oh well, I'm a big girl and I'll manage.

Ryan's going to visit and spend a night, coming this Friday and going back to Ottawa on Saturday. That should be fun. We've not spoken much in months, especially since he left Toronto. It will be some quality time without anyone else around, and it's been even longer since we've had one of those visits. Anyway, I'm looking forward to that quite a bit.

I don't have much else to report. Be well, and I'll see you in a week or so.

The Vomit Bullet. That is my new name for Tobe. She just coughed up a hairball that rocketed out of her mouth like a bullet to ricochet off my computer desk - a brown, projectile arc. Earlier, Willi peed in my chair again. This leads me to one question.

WHY MY ROOM?! There's a whole house to vomit/pee in and they choose my room. Is it the spaciousness? Is it the fact that I'm keeping it clean now? Why MY room?!

I'm aiming to leave here around six tonight to head for the Petes, but on top of the work I'm doing for the Leukemia peeps and Booboo, and with all this bodily juiciness going on, it will be a miracle if I get out by then.



Nerdslut


What's your sexual appeal?
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I'm home, finally, after a long night of political social whatsamawhosit. It was Booboo's official campaign kick-off tonight and it was held at the Abbey at College and Rusholme. It was a little hot, but not humid so the patio with all the umbrellas up was livable and the inside was lightly air-conditioned and nice. There was food supplied, which was very generous of the pub, which was delicious. Unbelievably good ! It included two enormous platters of fruits and veggies, a platter of little sandwiches, another of some very delectable bruschetta, and the most amazing wraps ever (portabellow mushroom, sweet orange pepper, asparagus, and spinach dip to hold it all together). The drinks, of course, were not free, but they do a very good Cosmopolitan and a not-half-bad Bourbon Sour. The speeches were pretty good, nice and enthusiastic, and the candidate himself was in fine form. The event was a little under attended, which was disappointing, but there was a good amount of social mixing going on, and not too shabby on the donation side of things. One of my jobs was to run around and solicit money. I see a pattern (the ROM, the Peterborough Symphony, the campaign...). Anyway, I think a good time was had by most, and certainly a number of us stayed until after 11pm, and there were still a few remaining after that.

Last night was the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds show at the Koolhaus (my least favourite venue) and, not surprisingly, it was WAY TOO LOUD. Rick's ears were still ringing today and we both had headaches. The show was pretty good - nearly a full two hours - and Nick was in fine form. The accustics of the somewhat funked up warehouse do not suit any band or group that I've ever seen there, although Judas Priest fit the venue before it was renovate. Rick and I stayed on the couch in the corner, where we had a decent view of the stage and where I could hide behind all the people when they were standing to use as noise blockers. When I go see Dave Gahan there next month I will definitely be sporting earplugs. I enjoyed the show on the whole and have the tshirt to prove it. Following the concert, Rick and I went to Sneaky Dee's for some nacho goodness and it was good.

Saturday night, we had our most enjoyable D&D session yet, with Rick as Dungeon Master. He's found his rhythm and we've all started to gel as characters. My little gnome monk, Mumbee Wimblewarren - that's Apples to you - managed to successfully trip Rick's nasty cleric and leave him open for a brutal assult by Bill's raging barbarian. It was a lot of fun. Lots and lots of smashy-smashy goodness.

And now, back to the Kitty Front. I'm starting to think I should retitle this log as "News from the Kitty Front" but that might be a somewhat limiting subject. Increasingly, Willi is becoming neurotic. The cats were doing so good, and we know that they can share space and even beds, so there's no reason for Tobe's constant hounding, but whatever, it still happens. Willi peed in my black chair, which was startling as it's her favourite place for sleeping, and even moreso because she did it right in front of me. Happily, I caught her and stuffed her into the litter box and locked her in the bathroom so she only managed to wet a bit of the rug draped over the chair. I cleaned the chair, just in case, and I'll take the rug home tomorrow for washing. I am pleased to note, however; Willi is NOT the only one with weird peeing habits. Tobe, too, is a weird pisser. While not liable to go in strange places, she does press her rear so high up against the wall of the litter box that the pee runs out between the lid and bottom. Yes, that's right, despite using a BOX, Tobe manages to get urine all over the floor anyway. Disgusting ! God, sometimes it's like Stew and I live with a couple of disturbed two-year-olds.

Alright, it's Saturday, I only woke up an hour ago - my alarm clock is not the boss of me - and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is out in stores. I'm not joining the queues for it, as I haven't even read book four yet. I take them slowly, with other books in between, because paperback is just so much cheaper than hardcover. Anyway, to my friends who pre-ordered it, enjoy it, and DON'T spill the beans, please.

News from the Kitty Front: Well, shortly after my last kitty update, things went downhill pretty fast. Tobe decided she didn't like being this sweet, affectionate, non-violent creature, and jumped Willi several times. In the last few days, we've had several installments of Alone Time. That said, a strange and intriguing development has materialised. Twice now, first in Stew's room, then in mine, the girls slept within a couple of feet of each other, on our beds, laps, etc. So, I begin to see that much of their disagreement is unnecessary and they clearly can share their people and their rooms. Silly animals. Of course, when Stinky Bee and I go to my cottage next week, Pork Chop will pine.

I'm pretty excited about going up to the cottage. It's been forever since I was there in the early summer, but of course, I'll be there before blueberry season. Gar. I'll be opening it up for the first time, too, so, that should be an adventure with mouse poop. I've invited Ryan, who's living in Ottawa, because I think we need a day together, or at least dinner. I think he'll enjoy the cottage too, and it will allow him a chance to decompress. I called his cell and it was like, "You've reached.... senior policy advisor for the Right Honourable Joe Clark...." So, I left a message reminding him that Joe retired and signed off as, "Maya Hirschman... Director of Visual Communication to the President of the Federal NDP...."

I have a ridiculously busy few days coming up before I leave. I am continuing with my work for the Leukemia Research Fund of Canada (thanks to Booboo) and I'm busy with some campaign work for Boo, as well, plus I'm working at the ROM tomorrow followed by the Nick Cave concert and on Monday night, Boo's campaign kick-off party. Yeesh. So, naturally, I have decided to write in my weblog. I'm such a wise user of time. ;)

Anyway, I know I promised my conclusions about Detroit, but they'll happen when they happen. Currently, I'm just not in right place to revisit them. Maybe when I finally get my pictures developed. Now, back to work. I have an hour and a half before I have to think about getting to D&D so I had better get cracking.

Holy shit, I updated my portfolio. Okay, not a huge update, but I put up some of my graphic design and resume... The former reflects the future look of the whole thing. CHECK IT OUT.

Appologies, I'm not going to talk about the things I said I would just now, because it's kind of late. Go to bed !

Gay Bear


Which Dysfunctional Care Bear Are You?
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I had Grumpy Bear when I was a kid. I love this kind of continuity. Nevermind the obvious...

So, on the 14th, I got to help Joane (at the ROM) develop a scavenger hunt within the Egyptian gallery. She didn't know that much about Egypt, which might have had something to with her trouble coming up with questions. Anyway, we got really into it and as we came up with half decent questions, she got an impromptu guided tour. I'd forgotten how much I actually know about Egypt despite having dropped out of archaeology. Making up the questions killed close to two hours of an otherwise ridiculously slow day. SARS, on top of the renovation gallery closures in the museum have combined to nearly wipe out our visitor numbers. You actually have to wonder why they even bother to open... Now, normally, I would never say this, but really, the ROM might consider closing two days of the week, or something, like on Mondays and Tuesdays, or something. It would save money considering how few people are coming in.

Following the ROM, I came home and changed and then headed over to Booboo's house to help B______ and K________ set up for a community barbeque. The barbeque was the follow-up to the Holly Jones Take Back the Day Walk that Booboo was helping to head up. Here are some newslinks: Pulse24; The National Post; The Toronto Sun (cough). Anyway, that was a fun event, and we were filmed by Global and CTV as well. I might have been on television, but if I was, I missed it. *laugh* Today, while I was out canvassing, he showed me a couple of clippings about yesterday's event. It was very successful, even if it did mean that B_______, K______ and I had to lug all the supplies a couple of blocks to the park and then cook up two hundred weiners.

I went to Mezzetta with Rick for dinner, which was very delicious. You just have to love the lamb shish and Sultan's Stew... Also, I desperately wanted an iced tea for some reason, which is unlike me as it's not my drink of choice. It did hit the spot, however; following the barbeque. We came back home and watched Blazing Saddles before I needed to conk out. I was just exhausted.

Strangely, this morning, I woke up to discover I needed to throw up. How nice. I had to call out of work - annoying since i need the money - and went back to bed. It was awful. When I awoke at two in the afternoon, I felt magically delicious, as if I'd never been sick. So, I got up, went and bothered Stew, played with the cats and got dressed. I took Stew on a search for lumber (he's building shelves) and then went to join He Who Shall Not Be Named (though he's quoted in one of the above links...) for canvassing fun. We had some good success and I'll be ready to go solo next time, now that I know the spiel. It was fascinating. You can tell a lot about the people living in a house just by how their garden is tended. Following that, we ate in a local Cuban restaurant and then went home to do work, to our respective homes, rather.

New on the Kitty Front: THINGS ARE GOING MUCH BETTER. More news to follow and remaining Detroit comments in the next few days.

Oh, it's been a little while since my last post. I wasn't exactly busy, but I wasn't feeling inclined to write. Last Sunday, Mom and Ray came into the city to help me clean my apartment. I cannot thank them enough for all the work they put in, especially to Ray for his obsessive attention to detail and to Mom for the beautiful planting she did out on my balcony. Stew got in on the act, too, tackling the one item in the house that no one wanted to touch: the stove. He did a great job. What did I do? I hung curtains, threw stuff out, mopped floors, windexed things, carried stuff about, mopped more floors, cleaned the surfaces in the kitchen, and basically did what I was told to do. When it was all done, we feasted on salad, Cora pizza (the second best pizza in Toronto, after Pizza Gigi) and drank juice and tea. THANK YOU, MOM AND RAY !!! Through all this, Tobe the wonder cat followed everyone around and chattered, she ran in and out on the balcony, ate the newly planted ornamental grass, and generally left Willi alone. Willi, on the other hand, only wanted to make herself tiny, positioning herself with her head under the window fan in the living room so that her haunches rose up like a headless mound. She hates cleaning.

On Monday, I had a much anticipated job interview at Iler Campbell, coincidentally, Brendan's father's law firm. The world is small. This law firm does everything, but they specialise in not-for-profit, charity, and human rights law. How keen is that? Am I surprised? Not at all, not from what I know about Brendan and what I've seen of his father. It's a casual work atmosphere with pleasant, humourous staff (from those I've met) with a social conscience. Anyway, the interview went well, though I got more and more nervous as I waited for my turn to go in. I could hear the other interview going on, and while I was waiting, the next interviewee after me arrived. I feel like there was a lot more I could have said about myself, about my strengths and why they should hire me, but it's a little late now. Anyway, I called today to find out the status of their decision and they haven't decided yet, they're still going over their notes and whatnot.

I went back to the Petes for a few days following the interview, bringing Stinky Bee with me for some much deserved Tobe-free time. I didn't do much of anything in the Petes, spending most of my time, I have to say, sleeping. Willi got to go outside and catch things and aggravate the birds and my mother. Scarlette went in for her spring/summer tune-up and unfortunately decided she didn't like having her axle welded. Some grease exploded and shards of metal and grease went into the mechanic's eye (no, he wasn't wearing a mask) and he had to go into hospital. I was required to spend an additional night at Mom's because this horrible mishap meant that everything got backed up. Scarlette had to spend the better part of 24 hours up on the lift. Anyway, the mechanic went into surgery yesterday, and hopefully he will make a swift recovery. My car is running very nicely, but I did mention to her that what she did wasn't very nice. I think she feels guilty. I know I do.

I'm going to take a break from writing about Detroit for a moment - I haven't run out of things to say, I just feel like talking about something else at the moment.

First of all, I found one of my favourite, terrible, mildly demented, strangely sad, and kind of amusing short films. I saw it first before a screening of Rocky Horror a few years back and I loved it. It helps to be in that sort of mind frame to begin with, but it's still amusing on its own. I couldn't remember what it was called, though, until today. Titler. Yes. Imagine Hitler, dressed in black ladies' evening wear, singing rewritten showtunes and there you have Titler. I'm not promising that it's mature, or not UTTERLY OFFENSIVE, but if you're willing to see something weird and silly and can put your bleeding-heart liberal, politically corrected mindset in a box for about seven minutes, go here to view it. You'll have to scroll down a bit, but not much. Look for the black and white image of someone smoking. Titler has a website, too, titler.com, but it sucks because it's trying to be cool and instead comes out as visual vomit, tripped out on acid.

I went to Derek's last night to watch The Animatrix and, sort of like when I saw The Matrix Reloaded, I was kind of disappointed. Some of the animation was incredible - there's a piece by the same studio that put out Final Fantasy and it's pretty impressive. There's one that looks rotoscoped and I enjoyed it quite a bit, and another of more classicly styled anime with a girl and her cat... It was okay. Out of nine, or however many shorts, I really liked two, sort of liked two others, and the rest was just sort of nice eye-candy. I also watched the incredible and utterly unMatrixy film, Baraka. It was amazing. I don't know why I always refused to watch it with Derek at other times, but this time I did and it was stunning. It is without dialogue, telling its story only through awesome imagery of the world's places and people... If you haven't seen it, do so, but only if you have a screen larger than 21" as it's in widescreen and visually demanding. If it comes back to the rep cinemas, I'm going to try to see it again.

Anna and Massimo's wedding, going back to last weekend, was a pretty nice wedding. First of all, no one tried to kill anyone, despite the large amount of imbibing that was going on at the open bar. As I previously noted, we ate for three and a half hours. That's a lot of food, let me tell you. Seven courses, including pasta, chicken and veal, salad, seafood, and of course, lots of wine. It was pretty good, though the seafood was a little lacking. Anna's dress was very beautiful, simple lines with simple beaded embroidery and skinny straps (she can get away with that sort of thing). Rick and I shared a table with his parents and other family types and conversation flowed freely. At one point I was persuaded to hang a spoon from my nose... it's a party trick that people just don't tire of, for some reason. There was a dj as well as a live band that didn't suck, but way too many couply songs were played. I was impressed by how all the Italians knew how to dance all sorts of ballroom styles. I wish I better knew how to, as well, it looks nice and it's fun.

Rick and I stayed in a nice hotel paid for by his parents. Kingsized beds rock. That's all I have to say. It was also very nice to take a whirlpool bath at 2am. It wasn't as nice a bathtub as the one at my Mom's place, but it was quieter. After that, sleep came easy and deep.

Alright. Enough for now. I have to go to the gym and put my membership on hold as I'm currently too poor to afford it and I'm not going so much now that it's nice outside.

Walking around the neighbourhood was very educational. It is a living example of urban neglect and how people on an individual basis try to make more of what they have. I traveled down many streets, across lush abandoned lots and through the rubble of abandonment. I witnessed new development sharing blocks with renovated and rebuilt homes, only strides from buildings caving in on themselves. In about an hour and a half, I took something near to 36 photographs and coverered an area of about 8-10 blocks in and around the Inn. My favourite spots were the pair of abandoned apartments, the Lancaster and it's much more dilapidated neighbour, the Wau-something-or-other. The latter's roof had collapsed into the third floor and great chunks of brinks were falling free from its eaves and trim. The former, of the same style, obviously was lived in longer and was more than likely housing homeless as it's door was ajar. It took every ounce of willpower I had, not to open the door and go in, though I did fully explore its stoop and porch. It had, on its door, a poster that read, "This building is being watched", in response to Hallowe'en arson. My other favourite building was the peeling, crumbling farm-style house that had a completely functional, well-kept dinner built onto its front. Talk about random.

Everyone I met on my walk was very nice, offering greetings and waving at me from afar. On one street, in very good repair, I met the ONLY white man I saw living in the area. He was mowing his lawn with a hand-push mower and had a very happy black and white dog and an equally pleased black and white cat, both watching him from his porch. Everyone else I saw was black, as the white population fled Detroit for the suburbs three decades ago. As a point of fact, though a slight digression, almost every white person I spoke to or met in Detroit was biggoted, right-wing, or utterly boring, coming into the city only for a ballgame. The lovely woman at the Aquarium on Belle Isle was impossible not to like, despite her unbelievable comment, in refering to not voting Republican this time around, as she almost always has before, "Lieberman is starting to look alright, even if he is a Democrat and a Jew."

And Jew? You mean people still think this way? Holy crap. And yet, the entire staff at the aquarium were black and clearly liked this woman, as did Mom and I, but... Wow. The desk girl on the last day of our stay at the Inn, had unfortunate ideas about Detroit's inner city problems and believed, coming from the Suburbs as she did, that if the city raised the prices, it would attract the 'right' element, rather than the people currently able to afford it. She said that the drug addicts buy the houses for cheap... I refrained from saying, "Why would they bother to buy them when they can just walk in and squat?" Some people absolutely have no idea about the real world.

Anyway, let me return to my previous account. I returned to the hotel room and regaled my mother with stories of the fascinating places I'd discovered and the amazing randomness of the devestation. Before we left Detroit the following day, I navigated our way through bits of my walk, with Mom at the wheel, to see some of the things I'd told her about. She was as amazed by it as I was.

Our major decisions while in Detroit centred on where we were to eat, as our purpose there was already worked out. On our first night, Tuesday, we spent a good deal of time consulting the little binder left in our room. It had restaurant recommendations and bits of info about the Inn, etc. It was hard to choose, though, and we hmmed and hawed for quite some time before I inadvertantly flipped to the back and found the room service menu. It was provided by a restaurant called Union Street and it caught our attention with not-unreasonable prices and a varied, interesting selection of foods. And that was just the delivery menu. We went into the main house to ask the woman at reception, Cheryl (who was a delight), what she recommended and we were taken in hand by the Inn's shuttle driver, Mike. He immediately said, "Union Street," and we said that sounded like what we wanted. He shuttled us there and told us what various buildings were, and when we arrived at the restaurant, it was like an oasis of vibrancy in an otherwise bare neighbourhood.

Jazz and eclectic music was playing on the sound system and many conversations rang like music in our ears as we entered. We were taken to a table near the back, beneath some great graphic prints, and were served by a bright, articulate, funny, charming waiter named Miles. He reminded Mom and I of our family friend, Robert, and, as it turned out, Miles was actually from Windsor, though he grew up in... Toronto. Keen. The friendliness and warmth of Detroit had rubbed off on him, though. He was almost as good as the food and the food... Let me tell you about the food ! Oh my GOD. You have not tasted calamari until you have tasted the calamari at Union Street.* It's in a creamy, garlicky sauce, with tomatoes and onions and I swear, it's better than just about anything. For our entrees, Mom ordered a Kung Pow chicken salad (enormous and very well balanced flavours and textures), and I had the salmon tortelini. I could not finish my entree, I kid you not, despite my best hoovering efforts. It was simply too rich and delicious. I also had a Bourbon (Jack Daniels) Sour that blew my socks off. Wow. We finished off that evening with a scenic tour with Mike, the shuttle driver who had nothing else to do acting as a very knowledgeable tour guide, and then turned in early because we were pooped.

Our second meal took us to Greektown, Detroit's tiny tourist neighbourhood in which is built the Greektown Casino. There were plenty of Greek restaurants to choose from and in the end, Mom and I took the one that looked the least pretentious, the most old-school one we could find. Mom didn't love her spanikopita and rice plate, but she doesn't love rice, whereas I scored pretty well with the cold appetiser plate. Among the goodies on my plate were marinated octopus, which was especially good with the potato dip, and the tsatziki. I had a glass of retsina wine, which is an acquired taste, and it was delicious. Before eating, we had the adventure of finding parking (no shuttle this time) and Detroit's various overpriced and creepy parking lots. Finally, car parked in a lot guarded by a strange, but nice, Sikh man, we headed for Detroit's people mover. When it was built, it was probably a good idea, zipping people through the downtown core like a little ell-train. Now, it seems sort of weird as it winds its way through the half abandoned buildings. On our return to our car, we encountered a homeless man who was in fine, chipper spirits. He asked for no money, chatted with us, and gave us the plastic bead necklesses he wore around his neck. We tried to refuse them, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. They're hanging now from Bernadette's rear-view mirror, mementos of our trip, odd symbols of a struggling city kept living by a weak, but warm heart.

More details to come.

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*Tanya, you MUST go to Union Street next time you go hear the Detroit Symphony - it's fantastic !! It's about a mile and a half up Woodward from the downtown, only seconds from the opera house.
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It was Anna's wedding this past weekend. I'll have details about that sometime soon, too. For now, suffice it to say, it was an eating wedding. We ate for three-and-a-half hours ! How very Italian. :)