Happy Spring Moments

Today it is warm and sunny in Vancouver. All is beautiful, except I have a migraine. In spite of this, I managed to go to the market with Peter where we munched on lovely Vij's curries with pickled daikon and I scarfed a lemon poppyseed icecream cone from Earnest Ice Cream. It was a like a cheesecake in a cone. I loved it!

I slept all afternoon, then managed to pop down to the Mount Pleasant Community Garden to choose my plot. I am so excited to have a place to grow a proper amount of veggies, flowers, and herbs for my workshops and home use.

I often get migraines on holidays, so I just have to make the best of it. Peter is cooking some B.C. shrimp for dinner and hopefully tomorrow I can get on with my spring tasks. Spring elicits a kind of joyful panic: I must plant seeds, clean the house, weed the garden, prune the roses and on and on. . . .

Bach and Twigs

I am grooving on the Bach Fugue we are singing in choir--I keep humming it to myself at bus stops. The other day I was forced to wait in line at the bank while the business customers went ahead of me in line (which ALWAYS pisses me off) so I decided to sing while I waited. This made the staff very uncomfortable and I was served quickly. I highly reccommend this tactic and I will use it again.

Collecting twigs for workshops and bits and bobs for supplies.  I'll say this for the 100th time. I NEED to organize my workshop supplies. ACK! Anyway, between Ruby Dog and Urban Source I have been getting fun things to work with at low prices and getting back into the materiality of art.

Picked up a blood-orange curd-filled doughnut at Lucky's today. As my friend Lois says, "What is it with hipsters and fat?" And then there's all these annoying people who have given up some specific ingredient for lent and make everyone run circles trying to accommodate them.  Strewth. Wait--why not try to give up selfishness for Lent?

I'm not giving up doughnuts, obviously. I'm giving up on Lent. Shrug.

The Roots of Liberalism

I am really enjoying the tidbits thrown up by the Open Culture blog, and today I share with you, some of Bertrand Russel's ideas for a healthy democracy through liberalism:

1: Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.

2: Do not think it worthwhile to produce belief by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.

3: Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.

4: When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.

5: Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.

6: Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

7: Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

8: Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

9: Be scrupulously truthful, even when truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

This American Life

I'm very late to the game I know, but I have just discovered This American Life on DVD st the library. I fell in love with a story about a boy who is fourteen and has decided he is NEVER going to fall in love because of all the problems love causes. I sat down and watched with Ules and Peter and I laugh more every time I see it. Will Joe ever find love? Oh yes, and love will find him. Ira Glass is kinda cute too. The episode is in Season One of the tv show. I watched some of the other episodes with my son--they are more hard-hitting and contain ethical dilemmas, weird Americans and much food for thought.

Feelin' the Luv

Feeling the Luv today. Many thanks! I have been working hard and took the day off today to indulge. Back to the salt mine tomorrow, as my father would say.

RIP Stompin' Tom: As someone who belongs to a choir who can't abide toe tapping in its members I salute you and shall stomp with pride in your memory at the next rehearsal.

Speaking of indulging, I have been bloating myself on old episodes of Lovejoy. Now I have a Lovejoy hangover. I couldn't watch another thing. Some episodes are lite and fun and some are bone-crunchingly bad bad bad. But sometimes bad can be good if you are in the mood to forget about "how bad things are."