family

Day 13

Day 13! Every day I’m feeling stronger and stronger! Moves that were hard the first few days are sooooo much easier now. I may not have them completely perfect by Day 30, but I’m getting there. My weak spot is definitely my core, which once again explains my belly fat. I will get stronger there as well!


I know you’ve all been wondering why hasn’t she mentioned The Addams Family yet. It was on the list, but what better day to mention them, than on DAY 13!


When most kids were watching Spiderman or Superman or any other type of cartoon, I was watching The Addams Family. To me, this was my ideal family. Creepy factor aside, they loved each other, had each other’s backs and would literally kill for each other. Morticia as a mother and a wife was what everyone should have been aspiring to, not June Cleaver. Morticia and Gomez, should be your couple ghouls. (see what I did there) Everything about this show was perfection.


If for some reason you’ve never seen the original Addams Family… which I find odd… here is a link with more info about the history, including its original beginnings.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Addams_Family

Day 6

Day 6 was harder and WTH happened to my core strength! Belly fat is not my friend. Begone belly fat!

I’ve been thinking a lot about being grateful. Grateful that I get to fulfill a creative life. Grateful for my family, the family I created and friends. Grateful to live in Canada. Grateful to find the love of my life. I know I go on a lot about it and many of you are making the barfy sound right now, but I am grateful that Zed Dulac came into my life. He encourages and inspires me. He gets me and most of all he willingly goes along with my mad plans.

Who joined in today? What are you grateful for right now?

Redheads Writing in Cafes — there will be some swears, but for a change, it wasn’t me.

Oh. There you are! I’d wondered if I’d see a blue sky again. Of course, I feel a storm brewing, but not the weather kind. I’m currently sitting at the kitchen table, attempting to write and instead am listening to my father curse. I think he’s to the point of his tirade that he’s making up swear words. You see, at some point during the night, the basement sump pump broke and now the basement is flooded. This is what happens when your house is built beside a former swamp and it hasn’t stopped raining for days. There will be swears and lots of them. Mom and I are steering clear of him for the moment. Oh, the swearing!

Susan Strasberg in Seth Holt's SCREAM OF FEAR (1961). Courtesy P

My Mom had her staples removed and the doctor reported that things are AOK.  Such a huge relief for everyone. While staying here, I’ve been doing most of the cooking and we have figured she may also have a form of IBS. I have convinced her to take her diet down to the basics, keep a food diary and cut out foods that are likely the irritant, then discuss with her doctor. All was going well until last night when there was indulgence in greasy foods. Hopefully, the mostly whole foods, plant-based diet will get her tummy back on track. It would be awesome if she went all Vegan, but… baby steps.  We have found a few really good sources for an IBS diet and if she sticks to it, she should be back to normal quickly.

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Now that she is healing up and 75% more mobile than when I got here, I can return to Toronto. Look for another edition of Redheads Writing in Cafes except when it’s on a bus unless I fall asleep, the bus leaves here at 8 am and I haven’t been sleeping well. Remember that episode of Seinfeld with the pull-out couch that had ‘the bar’ — I’ve got the futon couch/bed, with ‘the bar’. I’m looking forward to being in my own bed and back to writing in actual cafes.

Carol Burnett in Once Upon a Mattress

02 May 1960 — Carol Burnett as Princess Winnifred in the musical comedy Once Upon a Mattress, taken from the fairly tale of the Princess and the Pea. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

I hope the rain holds off tomorrow. I want to make another trek to the Salvation Army to see if I can find some treasures. It was also suggested that the drugstore downtown may carry books written by Diane Madden. I’m on the hunt for her books titled Tale of the Unusual, More Tales of the Unusual and Yet More Tales of the Unusual. I’m not a 100 percent sure these are the books, but they sound closer topic wise to what I am looking for. Sometimes, when I can’t find these specific types of items, I often wonder if I dreamt them up. Anyone else do this? It’s incredibly frustrating.

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The cursing has at least settled down a bit. I’m still at the kitchen table trying to will my laptop to charge faster. Seriously, charge faster, I want to retreat to the covered front porch. Hopefully, it will be quieter and I can get back to working on Freaks and Grimm.

Till tomorrow… stay ghoulish.

/nb A question for my readers. Do you read my posts via your browser or directly from your email?

Ode to my choosen family!

“If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.” -Maya Maya Angelou

Ain’t it the truth! There is something about sharing love that makes you feel whole inside. It gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling that you never want to let go of. I’m fortunate to have a group of people in my life that I get to care for, spread the love to.  In life we have our family that we are born into (who I love and adore) and then there is the family we get to make. This post is about the latter.

Making a family can happen in different forms, different avenues.  Avenues such as children, marriage, cohabitation and many other traditional ways.  Or and in my case, a single woman creating a family from a rag-tag fugitive fleet.  Yes, yes, I’m quoting the original Battlestar Galactica and all kidding aside, we truly are a lovable band of misfits who belong together.  That’s right folks, I’m not really all that traditional in the sense that society feels is the standard.

I’ve been a loner for much of my life.  Content to come home to my dogs, write and socialize when cabin fever sets in.  In these last couple years something changed, shifted.  I evolved.  I shed my old skin and like the pieces of a favourite puzzle, I’m building a new foundation and my own non-traditional family.   I’m truly blessed to to have found these people.

Yes, it’s true, I’m being all warm and fuzzy here.  The last couple years have been this amazing journey for me. The people who have come into my life have changed it and me for the better.  My chosen family is a group of loving, talented and beautiful people and because of them and the love they give, I find I’m almost bursting at my seams and not from eating too much Halloween candy.

My point. Sometimes, I don’t feel I’m telling you all enough, how much I love and appreciate you.  I never want anyone to ever feel as if I’ve taken them for granted. I know what being on the other end of that is like.  It’s the shittiest feeling in the world.  I am grateful, but mostly I’m blessed.

Now, it’s show and tell time!!!

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(nb/  There may be a few people missing in the photo’s.  Am trying to find pics of us together 🙂 )