Weekend Journal 2

One of my Friday rituals is listening to the BBC Comedy Friday podcast with Sandi Toksvig. Those dude and dudettes are really funny.

I baked some chocolate fleur de sel sables from this recipe, which is awesome.

Saturday I edited my new video with Peter and got my costumes a bit more sorted out. Today I washed one of my costumes--all these details to look after before I go.

I watched an episode of Remington Steele on DVD which was absolutely awful, so consoled myself watching episodes of Silent Witness and Inspector Lewis on Youtube. Much better.

Rehearsed, did research on eating in Montreal and found a couple of interesting places, including this one.

Brunch at Trafalgar's, which was lovely. See Beespeaker.

It stopped raining for a bit today so I walked to the library and of course it poured all the way home, so I stopped at Trilussa for a piece of pizza and bought a loaf of bread. We'll see how the boys like it. We are very fussy about bread at our house!

The Dailies

I've been thinking a lot about habits recently, the negative and positive things we do daily. I think now that spring has come, gardening will shape my daily habits and rituals in a dramatic way. I've got to do a bit of weeding and edging the lawn every day, along with at least one garden project per day. I've got to stake the raspberries this week, attack the lamium and gout weed and finish planting my indoor seeds. Today I planted carrots, beets, and radishes and put in the pea starts I bought at the market. I also watched and listened to the bees in the azelea blossoms for fifteen minutes. I think I'll try to put in fifteen minutes of bee time every day.

I've also done a lot of sketching this week, finding it immensely satisfying, so I'm going to do one sketching project per day. Baking has just about become a daily ritual for me and the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies I made this week went down a treat. As my friends have just returned from Vienna I think this week I'll tackle the Sacher Torte. I'm also getting interested in making truffles again.

What are your spring dailies?

Migraine Ritual

When I can't ignore the pain, I run a really hot bath. As hot as I can stand it. Sprinkle on a few drops of Eucalyptus oil and feel the pain drain from my head immediately as my feet hit the water. Luxuriate in the warmth of the water, wash with lovely puffy soap suds, feel the shoulders drop and the neck relax. Go to bed.

Then get up, cook supper, eat supper, tune the uke and practice, practice, practice!

Dinner: ginger garlic turkey meatballs and rice with greens and nuac cham dipping sauce.

Forward Momentum

Suddenly, ideas that have been grounded for weeks are starting to take flight again. Travel is so good for my creative process. It is really a worthwhile investment. It's like my psyche needs to fly in order to dream again.

Over the weekend I read two novels set in Sicily. I love that it's so hot in Sicily that every time the detective needs to think he simply jumps into the ocean for a swim. So casual. I had a cab driver that I thought was Italian, so I forced him to listen to the 16th century poem in Italian we are singing in choir. Turns out even though his brother lived in Carrera, they were actually born in Palestine. I will perform anywhere.

Be vigilant about bed bugs in libraries. A friend of the family just got infested from library books.
This upsets me to no end.

Auditioning Anxiety

Yes, it's finally over. It was okay--kinda wabi sabi. I rushed things because I was nervous and I just wanted to get out of there. One person on the jury seemed happy. The other two, seemed underwhelmed. Anyway, I survived without loss of body organ or limb and I am SO relieved it's over. It's been twenty years since my last audition--I'm a lot older and wider now. (No, that is not a typo.)


The trick is not to go all low status, which I think I accomplished. But can you believe that I was waiting outside in the cold, locked building for my audition and a dude from another theatre company comes along and wouldn't let me in? Dude, I hope karma bites you in the ASS.