Tuesday, March 25, 2008

email

excerpt of email to my family/friends to update my news:

Hey Everyone!

At last, I have got a new apartment. It's on the 3rd floor of a little 6-plex building near the hospital. The master-bedroom windows face west and overlook a small park, with TREES! How excellent is that??? The smaller 2nd bedroom, living room and dining room overlook more trees and townhouses, with no hulking large buildings in sight. So, moving to the city is not turning out to be as bad as I might have feared.

An advantage of the north-facing smaller bedroom is that the light will be ideal so I can use it as my studio.

I had a hilarious conversation with my new super yesterday evening. First, I was a bit alarmed to see him lugging a HUGE speaker into the building. "No, no!" he assured me. "You won't hear any noise from my apartment. I'm a musician. I'm in a band. But I can't leave the equipment in my car..." Turns out he is in a KISS tribute band and even showed me the 7" platform shoes that go with his costume. Isn't that wild? (photos to follow, I hope!)

Anyway, we talked some more and found out we have a mutual interest in painting and drawing. When I mentioned that I have done some life drawing, he actually volunteered to be my model! I think it might be a great opportunity for me to hone my drawing skills....maybe....(seeing as how my family has proved to be so reluctant to model for me!) Um....he says his wife would be fine with that.

Me, I don't think you'd ever catch me being a model for an artist, but I've learned to never say never! It is true though that in the actual work on a drawing, the "nude person" disappears when I start focusing on seeing and capturing the shapes, angles, planes, light and shadows. I was in a life drawing class once where the fellow beside me was made so anxious by the idea of the nude model that he quite froze and couldn't get past that thought in his head to draw a decent figure at all! I felt like saying to him (à la Edwards) get into the right side of your brain, ie don't get stuck in the "label".

Meanwhile I've been frozen with anxiety myself, anticipating the movers and their potential difficulties in getting that piano up three flights of stairs. However, I as brazenly claimed this morning to my friend Fiona, I am leaving that problem to them because, after all, that is what I'm paying them good money to do. postscript: the move went well; piano safely deposited in my living room; few curse words overheard; movers gallantly/constantly called me "ma'am", which kinda worried me; movers complimented me on being well-organized (were they perhaps just being nice?) and I nearly kissed them with relief when it was all over! "My boys" are so traumatized from helping me with my previous moves that I didn't have the heart to subject them to that again!

It did remind me of Amsterdam and the lovely old buildings with the beams that project out from the peak of the roof over the street. Mind, their windows are also large enough to accommodate a piano -- even if the older buildings are only about as wide as a piano. Maybe it's the way the sun is shining today that reminded me of my visit to Amsterdam.

This week, I start a 10 km clinic through the running room. Isn't that exciting? I'm already perusing the 10 km races that are coming up locally that I might enter. And on the 30th, I have entered the 5 km "April's Fool" race in Whitby. That should be fun. However, it is not apparently timed (with microchips), so unless I can finally figure out how to operate my watch, I won't know very accurately what my time will be. I'd like to do it under 30 min.

Anyhow, here's what you've all been waiting for: my new address and phone #'s. xxxxxxxxxx

Even though I won't be unpacked, I'm inviting everybody over on Sat evening, the 29th, to a house-warming/Earth Hour party. (Yes, you too, Devon and Don, the hockey game on tv not-withstanding!) And I promise, you won't have to sit on the floor -- or unpack any boxes. I'm working like mad to unpack those boxes and boxes of books before my party, but hey! They might come in handy as extra seating. Now, if I can remember in which box I packed the corkscrew ....

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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

packing boxes

Here I go again. Packing boxes full of my books.

I've been dreading it, so I was surprised at how enjoyable I found it to be. You see, the surprise came in holding in my hands, even if it was ever so briefly, books that I have often fondly re-read several times. You sometimes develop a blind spot for books that sit in their usual place on your shelves, untouched for a while. Having to move is an opportunity to make their reacquantance!

I had to move fast because I have been as disorganized as usual and the deadline/date for the movers is imminent! But, still, I enjoyed the glimpse of certain books, like glimpses of faces of old friends. Here, a book of herbal remedies by Rosemary Gladstar, there A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, by Karen Armstrong, -- aaah! I remember reading this in university -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Le petit prince, The Greens Cookbook, by Deborah Madison, yum, yum, and ...

...OH! I forgot that I still have all this music for the pipe organ! I'll have to play some of it when I get unpacked at the other end, even if I'll have to jump around a bit with the left hand to play the foot-pedal notes...can't decide if seeing my violin music again is a good thing or a bad thing. Did I ever tell you the ambivalent story of how I came to take violin lessons as a kid? I confess, re-learning the violin is on my 43 things to do -- maybe. Am I crazy???

The good news, to bring y'all up to date, is that I have found a nice, bright apartment closer to my daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law, closer to many of my friends, closer to work, closer to my gym, and closer to the Running Room and my running-clinic friends. I'll post pics when I get a bit more organized (sigh of relief that I can remember where I put my camera!)

And I'm already planning where to put plants, of course!