So far, Mr. A is winning: I’m pretty sure “Di-hards” is my favourite suggestion regarding club names to make us sound more cool. (Well, he suggested it along with “fans”, but I’m just not sure I pull that off.) To me, you’re di-hards because you rock no matter what. You’re here for the funny stuff and the sad stuff, whether we’re discussing poop or politics. You inspire me every time I write. If you weren’t here, I wouldn’t be either.
What do you think? Are y’all down with your new monicker? Because the polls are still open – if you have more suggestions, feel free…
Okay, back to business. Would you like to meet my new friend? Here she is.
In my mind, I call her Lady, in honour of the yoga ladies. She is damn gorgeous.
Here’s how we came to be together.
Sometime in early 2007, Dilovely heard this guy play this song on CBC Radio 2, and promptly fell for both (you may remember it from the Pick-Me-Up Playlist)
Sorry for the six-day postless void, dear readers. I’ll blame report cards.
(Speaking of dear readers… all the cool blogs replace the word “readers” with something funkier. I’m thinking we must also be cool. What should we be?? Send me your suggestions, please!)
E has some new words. One of the special ones he’s learned since Christmas is gyroscope, because my dad gave Sean a set of space-age gyroscopes: they spin in an amazing way and demonstrate the principle of space flight!
Also thanks to Christmas, E has learned what a ukulele is, although at first he was confused because he thought we were saying “yoga lady” (Auntie Em has two statuettes we call “yoga ladies”, rather like these, in her room). Not really very similar to a ukulele.
Other turns of phrase he’s trying out:
Certainly, as in “I certainly do like peanut butter!”
Suppose, as in “I suppose it’s gonna be there all winter.” Continued…
Almost two years ago, I went to see the first of Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes movies and reviewed it. Last Sunday, Sean and I left the little guy with Grandma and Grandpa and went to see the new installment, A Game of Shadows. (In both cases, I saw the movies long after they arrived in theatres. You may have noticed that my reviews are not exactly cutting-edge. Sorry ’bout that.)
Critics apparently aren’t loving it because they say “it’s more of the same”, but audiences are happy. I concur with the latter: I liked the first one, so why wouldn’t I want more?
When I saw the trailer for this one, it actually lowered my expectations. I thought it looked kinda cheesy and unthrilling. Then, somehow, I found the movie not cheesy at all – and totally exciting. (In fact, I’m pretty sure they axed at least one of the trailer’s cheesier lines in the final cut. Not to mention a kiss.)
I enjoyed all of the same things as last time – but perhaps even more so.
The art direction (isn’t that the thing where they create the atmosphere and mood?) is incredibly evocative, transporting, with lots of variety (we went from university to warehouse, mansion to forest, underground lair to mountainside castle, from England to France to Germany to Switzerland) but still somehow cohesive. The outside view of that castle – especially in the dark – was awesomely chilling.
This week, we went to our local cemetery in Sebastian’s honour – for the first time.
We were told by a friend (thank you, C) about something called the Angel Tree, in the children’s section of the Memorial Garden. Bereaved parents were invited to put an ornament on the tree in remembrance of a deceased child, and after today, all the decorations will be removed and buried there.
I bought four little wooden cutouts, two hearts and two stars, and Sean and I got our inner artists out to paint them. We made one for the Angel Tree and one for our own Christmas tree.
We had hoped to visit the cemetery earlier in the holidays, and earlier in the day, but you know how the Christmas season is – way too busy, and vacation (if you’re lucky enough to have it) slips away much too fast. We went on Wednesday after school, but left later than we meant to, and the daylight faded as we crossed town to get to the cemetery. It was pretty dark when we arrived.
I’ve spent some time in cemeteries before, and they can be lovely, peaceful, beautiful places. This experience was tranquil and quiet, but bleak. I was taken aback to find that even though the Angel Tree was so tiny it only reached my midsection, it was not at all full. Our decoration joined only a few others. It’s possible some were removed earlier, if the tree got too full to hold more… or it’s possible not very many people knew about it. I hope it’s the former – not because I hope lots of parents have lost children, but because I know they have. (Sadly, the only information I could find about the Angel Tree was a short paragraph in the local free paper – I couldn’t even find anything on the cemetery’s own website.)
We don’t have a gravesite for Sebastian. We keep some of his ashes in our pendants, but we have not yet scattered the rest – we have plans for that for next July. We never really thought of a gravestone, simply because it’s not our style, but I can see how it would be comforting to have a permanent marker in such a historical, communal place.
It was sad to be in the Children’s Garden at nightfall, after Christmas. I mean, baby graves are sad at any time, but this was particularly melancholy. There wasn’t even any snow to light our way – it’s been a rather dark, snowless winter so far. Still, we found the children’s section easily, despite being unacquainted with the cemetery, because many of the graves had coloured lights on them. When we looked at them more closely, we found many had Christmas gifts as well. (Fortunately, it was not as dark as it looks in this picture.)
You know how sometimes, people suck? You know those days when you look at the world and go, “How did we even get this far? We’re shallow and violent and self-centred. We hurt each other and we waste and we destroy and WE SUCK.”
Then there are those other days: the days where you’re reminded that humanity is freakin’ amazing.
Today I did not go to school, because I didn’t really sleep last night. Rarely in my life have I had insomnia, but suddenly it was like my body forgot how to sleep. Even though I didn’t feel anxious in my mind, my physical self was in the grip of unplaceable jitters.
This happened on Saturday, too, but for only a couple hours (instead of five) and I chalked it up to “going back to school” syndrome. The first day back at school was fine, so I have no idea what last night was about. I guess I have to get accustomed to myself no longer always being quite the self I used to be.
Anyway, boring story. Today, I slept in but am still rather out-of-it. I felt I was up to the task of [beginning the work of] cleaning out my inbox. I found this fantastic TED Talk, originally sent to me last April by my musical father-in-law, about Eric Whitacre and his virtual choir – and I’d never watched it. I usually don’t think I have time to watch things when I receive them, but this one reminded me that sometimes it really is worth the fifteen minutes.
I cried watching it. Not that it’s so surprising – I am somewhat sleep-deprived… and there’s no question that in the last six months, tears are always closer to the surface for me.
But this is just plain awesome. I’ve written a lot about music and its power and importance. I know first-hand how incredible and transformative it can be to make music with other people. I believe strongly that it makes us better, both as a species and as our own selves.
This is a perfect example: take that power, and combine it with the potential uniting force of the internet, and you get this. An individually self-chosen community of people who love to sing beautiful music, and want to give it back to the world. Seemingly random souls, with their bedhead and their earphones and their baseball caps, coming together from countries all over the world, just singing.
I dare you not to be moved.
Here’s the full version of the second song, called Sleep:
It made me think of Ze Frank’s Chillout song, created in the same way but on a smaller scale. (I’ve linked to this one before in my Top 10 Pick-Me-Ups, but it bears re-linking.) The story of how he – and a whole crowd of strangers – just up and brewed this simple, beautiful thing when one of his fans wrote to tell him about what a rough time she was having… well, it’s worth many, many points in the “humankind rocks the casbah” column.
Makes me wish I had a whole lifetime to spend just on discovering all the ways that humans spread love and awesomeness through music – and joining in.
We note down E’s fun sayings in all kinds of places. If I’m near my laptop, I note them here, but otherwise it might be the white board or any random scrap of paper. Sometimes I find them months later… but it’s never too late to blog ‘em, right?
Here are some as-yet-un-archived tidbits from the summer, noted by Auntie Em on days when she was caring for E:
Auntie Em: You ate all your beans! Do you want some more beans? E: No. I had enough. (E puts truck in the bean water.) It’s all wet! I have to change him. Change his wheels.
E: These are goblets. Auntie Em: I don’t believe you. E: I don’t believe you. A few minutes later… Auntie Em: These are – what was it??? E: I don’t believe you. Auntie Em: (laughing uncontrollably) E: Bleems! Bleems, bleems, bleems… Emi’s laughing. [Bleems was his favourite made-up word for a while. It made him grin like a little maniac.]
E is banging on the wall next to the change table with his car. Auntie Em: Don’t bang on the wall! Be gentle. E strikes the wall softly, looks to check Auntie Em’s reaction, then rolls the car over the wall gently. E: I’m just rolling it. Feel better now. Auntie Em: Who’s gonna feel better? E: The wall. The wall, feel better, ok? Continued…
