in the book shop under poetry
two strangers whispering
the first, “why is poetry so expensive?”
the second, “because poets are starving.”
I think that I could stand
to lose a few pounds
and then wonder briefly
whether it’s best
to stop writing
or skip dinner.
before dawn
ahead of the sun
able bodies gathering
to breathe together
some inner dialogue
Good vs Evil brain, a conversation.
Good: I think I’ll write something today.
Evil: Are you sure that’s a good idea?
Good: Sure, why wouldn’t it be?
Evil: Are you kidding? Read your drafts! Every word written there is barf.
Good: That’s a bit harsh.
Evil: It’s the truth.
Good: Well screw you, I’ll write something anyway.
**writing**
Evil: ….. so?
Good: You’re right, this is really shitty.
Evil: You should have just listened to me to begin with.
**crying**
fin
and why
Everywhere you
look people are
ferociously chasing after
nothing in particular.
Perpetual unemployment
Apparently I have a knack for two things: disappearing and unemployment.
I don’t think either are necessarily bad things. The summer when I was 20 I decided to go live in Japan for three months without telling anyone (except for my parents because I was a courteous daughter and still living with them at the time). I remember the Friday before I left my friend asked me to hang out the week after and I replied with a maybe. Then when he messaged me the next week asking what time I could meet I wrote back “Sorry can’t make it, in Japan.”
I don’t know if I thought I was being exceptionally devious or what, but the funny thing was the next year I did the exact same thing to the same friend when I went to visit Ireland for a month. Whenever we hang out now he always says “see you later, assuming you’re in the country.”
As for the unemployment part… I’m sure some of you recall my constant posts complaining about my job. Well as it turns out last month my mom was going to be travelling to BC for a couple weeks and invited me to go with her. So I requested a week off with the manager..
“Absolutely not,” she said, “in fact I’m giving you far more hours than you even agreed to work that week without asking you because I’m so unreasonable and crazy.”
“No worries,” I replied, “you can put me on the schedule as much as you like, just keep in mind that I won’t be showing up because I’m quitting this dumpy hell hole.”
Then I trashed the place.
Okay, that’s not exactly how it happened. (The more boring version includes me handing in two weeks notice and her spending a full hour trying to convince me to stay.)
Anyway, I was clearing the hundreds of photos I took off my camera just now and thought I might as well share some of them with you guys rather than letting them rot away in hard drive obscurity 🙂
The morning of departure:
I kid you not I did not place Rupert next to my stuff.. he went and sat there because he knew something was up and he hates to be left behind. Unnecessary worry because he had a reason to come on the trip anyway.
What I really like about driving through this part of Canada at this time of year is you really get a full spectrum of weather.
Field is an awesome spot to stop to let the dogs out because they have a lovely park to walk through right by the highway. Case in point-
Pretty, right? Got a pic snapped with the mountain. The snow was pretty deep there.. to give an idea..
Join me for a snowy picnic, anyone? Of course by the time you get to BC it’s all lush greenery and nice temperatures.
Hope is absolutely one of my favourite places. Real small town in the middle of the mountains. It’s just gorgeous and has a really unique feel.
Finally made it to our destination (Chilliwack) after splitting the drive into 2 days. Chilliwack is a nice city in the Fraser Valley, it’s also surrounded by mountains, they’re just not as on top of you as they are in Hope. It’s a big farming place:
Seriously look how green it is! Maybe it’s just cause I live in Calgary where everything is either covered in snow or brown and dead, but I can’t get over it. So nice 🙂 I like this pic because it is Chilliwack to a T. This is just a hobby farm, so this is a picture of someone’s backyard with their cows and their green space… you know how it is.
Speaking of cows
I got to visit a whole bunch of them! I know a lot of people think they’re gross, but I think they’re so cute. This baby cow wagged its tail at me and kept licking my hand, like a puppy. Mad love it.
You know you’re in farming country when…
One lady commented “surely there are better things to take pictures of” when she saw me snapping this. Umm, no. There really aren’t. I found it pretty amusing that they needed to specify so many different animals.
I entered Rupert into the dog show while we were there, here we are competing against the rest:
This judge didn’t end up picking Rupert, can you believe that? We both took it pretty hard. So we trashed the place. And then Rupert took a nap.
Just kidding. Actually one of the judges who had great taste did take a liking to Rupert and awarded him Winners Dog, if that means anything to any of you.
So a week and a half later and it was time to say goodbye to the green stuff.
We took the Crowsnest Pass home (the longer, more scenic route). Spent the night in wonderful Castlegar (above) and hit up a few touristy spots.
I can always tell I’m getting closer to home when I see the snow creeping up again.
And what’s up with this? For whatever reason the person who designed this map decided to include a single tree on this random stretch of road to account for the massive forest surrounding the highway. Thank you, GPS.
And the continental divide. Once again inaccessible thanks to the mass accumulation of snow. At least this was taken in April so it’s not totally unreasonable. This was the situation a few days ago:
Spring in Calgary. Perfect May weather. Why do I live here again?
It was a great and refreshing trip all in all. The only regrettable thing was that once again I failed to see a moose.
Oh, did I mention you are all awesome? Hope you’re having a great day 😉
stargazer
her shadow turned to ash
and she sat lusting after
foreign stars, imagining
rolling them over in the
softness of her hands
answering every question with a whisper
waiting
spent an evening
awkwardly on the
side of the road
waiting in the snow
for a bus to come
and take me somewhere
I didn’t realise
I needed to go
a place which finally
reminds me of home
as it were
she’s aching
he’s on his best behaviour
they sleep in
lips
many lips
singing their own
praises
This is what mindless work does to me
So after working a mind-numbing job I hate all day I came home unnecessarily grumpy and proceeded to wonder why on earth no one in the world is paying me millions of dollars to write poems and dance all day. I mean that’s not such an extravagant request, is it? Sort it out universe.
Anyway. After that I proceeded to get more and more tired, which led to being more and more grumpy. However, within the last hour or so I’ve moved on to the more fun stage of being over-tired. The everything-I-do-and-see-and-hear-is-funny-but-only-to-me phase. This phase is great for the first 40 minutes or so before you miss the sleep window and then you’re in the twice-as-grumpy-as-before-except-now-you-can’t-sleep-and-the-world-is-awful phase. But before I get there, I thought I’d go ahead and take advantage of the stupid fun and share with all of you unfortunate enough to be reading this what I spent the last half hour of my life thinking about.
You see, I happen to think I’m pretty hilarious, although only my best friend would agree with me and everyone else thinks I’m just an idiot. But let’s junk with the naysayers and assume for the sake of this awful blog post that I’m right. A long time ago (we’re talking 8+ years) I used to write down what I thought were some highly amusing jokes in a journal and assume that one day, when I was a talented artist (which has/will never happen) I’d compile them into some sort of comic book. I hadn’t thought about that ridiculous notion for many years, but then I started to think about comic books, or graphic novels (I’m hip with the modern terms). Then I started to think about villains and superheroes.
I don’t know why.
Anyways, this train of thought progressed until I got it in my head that I could write an awesome graphic novel centred around my dog, Buttercup, who is very much a villian and a hero in one. Pretty exciting premise, right? If you’re not yet convinced, I present you with this:
Amazing.
I envision her as an impossible-to-contain mega hero with zero tolerance for injustice. She strikes at the slightest infraction of the law, and only with the help of me, her sidekick, can she be contained. She is both menace and hero, loathed and loved. I named her the howler because she likes to bark incessantly at home. It drives me up the wall, but now I realise she must be using her barks to alert her superhero friends of various crimes happening around the world that she detects with her superior hearing powers. It’s all starting to make sense.
Actually here’s an incomplete impromptu list of her powers, as I see them:
- A bark that deafens and incapacitates foes.
- Breathes underwater, thus can drag enemies into the depths to drown (she is a water dog so this makes sense).
- Digs holes which enemies fall into and are stranded until someone comes to dig them out. [addendum: Buttercup leans over the hole and drools on them while they are stuck there. And she has an obscene amount of drool, so this is a particular punishment.]
- Menacing growl which paralyses.
- Uncontrollable temper which frightens and strikes fear in the hearts of those who cross her.
- Humongous canines capable of piercing through an arm, or leg…or heart.
Yeah..
I guess I’ll stop there and go get some sleep before I completely lose it. Feel free to unfollow on your way out of the post.
Some call it red 