We are hosting six adolescent boys and celebrating Junior’s birthday today. I’m looking forward to the cake. The local chocolatier, Cocoa West, makes this incredible flourless chocolate cake that is fudge-like in texture, very rich, decadent. Josef is going to make pizza and we’re giving each kid a pumpkin to carve and take home. I found some electric carving knives, like mini chain saws that I know they will enjoy, being teenaged boys. I can’t believe he’s fourteen! I took him shopping the other day, as he has grown out of most of his clothes. He needs Xtra Large in shirts and jackets, is a 34-32 in pants and wears a size 11 shoe. No more Boys Department and he delights in calling me “Shorty.” This means we need to arrange an excursion to Stanley Park to take his picture next to Lumberman’s Arch. My photographer friend Lincoln suggested we do what he did, photograph his child at the same spot on each birthday. Junior has to whine about it every year but I know some day he will appreciate this lovely chronicle of his growth and development. We should have gone today, the sun is shining.
I don’t think I will get much else done between wrangling kids and dogs but I’m going to try to get the shelves anchored and sort through dozens of boxes of books. I’m determined to be ruthless and get rid of most of them. We shall see if I can do it. As techno savvy as I am, I’m still a page baby at heart and having been spawned by hillbillies, revere knowledge and books. I won’t say they’re sacred but to me, they’re art objects.
Most Canadians are disappointed with the election results, saying things “like why did we bother” and “what a waste of time and money.” I have to agree. I don’t understand either why the Liberals are shopping for a new leader after the election. Isn’t that like shutting the barn door after the horse? Christ, we need a Prime Minister with some charisma and people are nostalgic for Pierre Trudeau whether they admit it or not. It appears his son Justin is slowly entering into the arena. He seems like a pretty bright kid, is his own man, but it will be difficult to fill those shoes.
In between domestic duties, I am working on two assignments today; one involves some sleuthing and is better kept under wraps for now. The other is my art book collaboration with Tina Schliessler. One irony is that I’ve just finished reading a book about a writer who commits murder and incriminates herself with a computer full of screenplays. Yes, a guilty pleasure of mine is true crime, often-Ann Rule, this one called Heart Full of Lies. I read poetry every day too, as a kind of penance and to ensure my brain doesn’t turn to rot.
Renovation is winding down at last, will now need time for a major cleanup, piles of crap everywhere and the house in disarray for much of the stuff that was in the garage is inside to protect it from our incessant rainforest downpours. Very stressful. We need to stop calling it “the garage” and start calling it “the office.” It will be a relief to get all the business machines out of the house. They’re spread across the rooms, from one end of the place to the other.
Woke up recalling a bizarre dream. I was watching a woman punch her child. I said something like “Stop! We don’t do that anymore.” Then I was admiring a purple velvet dress this person was wearing. I felt like a mother and a child simultaneously.
Also working hard on upcoming events; my reading at the Rocksalt launch at the Vancouver International Writers Festival next Thursday, our AURAL Heather CD launch here on the island on Nov. 1, and Visible Verse, Nov. 6. Victoria Stanton is coming to the island too, around the 17th, to perform and I have a stack of festival application and grant deadlines looming as well. All the while we grapple with how to shop for furniture. We can’t agree on what to get. Oy. Ugh. Urf.