Sunday, July 31, 2011

I guess melancholy brings out creativity.
single.
broke.
homeless.

so much for reinvention. 


the only thing worse than the aforementioned is doing it all in a city that isn't yours.

fuck.
I don't have internet - I'm just stealing it from a café for 20 minutes.

i'll.
figure.
something.
out.

worst.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

a brief note

I hate how I feel right now!
I am weak-feeling
tired
nauseous
sweaty
anxious

etc.

I think it is probably due to dehydration from drinking too much coffee and wine over the weekend and not compensating with water, especially in this crazy heat wave where I sweat my life out everry time I breathe

But when I don't eat or drink enough then it causes a cycle where I don't want to eat or drink.
So now I am eating morsel by morsel some pineapple.
How come these things happen before big days? A double shift at work today and at the on-set of it I just want to go back to bed with a cold cloth on my head.

Tell me, how do we fight these feelings? How do I triumph over morning uneasiness? Some days I feel wonderful in the morning, and then there's days like today.

At the heart of it, I am afraid that I will feel crappy at work and have to come home. 
Unbelievably, I have an entire scenario worked out in my head of how disastrous my day COULD be and it hasn't even started.

oh please please please go away unpleasant feelings and thoughts.
grant me the serenity
grant me the courage
grant me the strength
I myself am the only thing keeping myself down. 

another piece of pineapple.

what is wrong with me?

in slight desperation,

k

Monday, July 11, 2011

01.42 - July 11, 2011

Salut!
I sense a huge sense of neglect for la blog. So sorry. I really am.
I'm sorry because the blog is my release and I love writing in it. 
So I finished training at work and tomorrow I work my first real-employee shift and it's a double! This is exciting.
It's funny how I still become nervous (much the same as the first day of grade 7) when something "new" is on the horizon. Last week I completely turned into a shell of my real self...less than a shell..an exoskeleton of myself when the parade of very sophisticated, beautiful, tanned, apparently perfect co-servers came in for the night shift.

Alas. I'm 5 foot four a half for lordy's sake. I don't have to be afraid of anyone.

So this weekend was Folk Fest and I have to admit it was a bit heart wrenching not being there. Do I miss putting my contacts in beer caps? Yes! Yes I slightly do!
What I missed the most though was sleeping/dozing under trees/the brilliant sunshine while listening to the clean, crisp voice of the newest singer/songwriter on the folk scene. 

However, on this side of the St Lawrence (which, actually I think is the same side that Winnipeg is on too...have to work on my geography, apparently), I managed to have a lovely weekend. 
A friend was visiting and we had a lovely time eating Thai food and then getting stuck in a torrential downpour. We found solace in a Mexican restaurant/bar where we dried off with brown paper towels (those horrible rough ones found in most department stores and offices) and two shots of whiskey.
A man asked if I could salsa and began stroking my hair.
"well, no sir. I can't."

mmm....awkward.....move on.

Saw a Johnny Cash cover band (don't worry Eric, they have nothing on you! Does Eric the Great read my blog? Maybe? Hopefully. Let's agree on hopefully.)
and talked to the wee hours when I hopped into a cab and had the most ludicrously fabulous taxi driver who kept commenting on my accent (this is becoming a theme in Montreal. Apparently the accent is a big deal. Especially being tanned right now...I keep getting asked which Mediterranean country I'm from.)
Eventually we had to stop so I could get money out of a bank machine, and it sounds silly but I had a very beautiful moment in the lobby of the bank. They were playing (rather loudly) Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat major and it was 3 in the morning and I was alone and I closed my eyes and hummed and smiled. 
Such a silly little moment but I fell asleep with a smile on my face that night thinking about the number of beautiful moments I've been experiencing. I want to collect them all, stream them altogether, and continuously realize I'm living the dream.

Spent Saturday poolside and ate chorizo sausage hamburgers (if heaven is a meat processing plant, these sausages were god). Slept for 13 hours and then spent my Sunday shopping for work clothes.

The weather is humid, the attitude laid back, the environment exciting. I do miss Winnipeg in the summer time, but Montreal sure doesn't make summer too difficult to enjoy!

Now I have to get a bit back on track and start back up with Kwagala-related things, organizing school...real-life things. Though I'm pleased as punch that there are still many, many weeks left of summer and friends and love and beauty and opportunities to photograph.

Which is where I'll leave off today, with some photographs. I want to keep writing as much as possible and, as you, dear readers, may now realize, photograph. I actually was looking into fine arts programs at Concordia but I'm conflicted. So I want to do everything-BIG DEAL. I can be the first lawyer/doctor/photographer/journalist in the world! I just need to live to be 194 which is a pretty reasonable thing to count on.

I have to figure out school - what's more my calling: journalism or law?
I want to call Refugees International and say "hey...should I do law or journalism? I wanna help. I'm on the cusp of the rest of my life."
Maybe I will.
I have nothing to lose except my life if I ran out into traffic or my hat in this windy weather.
The odds are on my side, non?

I hope everyone is enjoying their life to the utmost and know that if you're reading this, no matter the distance, you're in my head, heart and...well that's all. Those are the only places you are. 
I have been taking lots of film and polaroids but my scanner is in Winnipeg so I can't share yet.
But I will.


My friend Miriam playing Patanque (a fancier word for bocci ball)

more heineken then corona. marketing strategy?



I wouldn't mess around with a girl with solid metal balls in her hands either.


cooking with the awesome new air organ we got ($5!) 

cool tree. cool katie. it almost rhymes.

et ca c'est tout pour aujourd'hui!

xox
k

Friday, July 8, 2011

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

mystery weekend - solved!
an island 350 kms Eastish, accessible only by ferry!
SO great!
biking
scrabble
reading
eating (yes, that IS in fact bacon and cheese on white baguette - the cardiac arrest express!)
dinosaurs
more scrabble
water
mountains
photos
polaroids
childhood memories
story-swapping
more wine
more food
more reading
relaxing like crazy. 

it was so great. I promised a full(er) update of life. I have a job at Newtown, an awesome 4-story restaurant/lounge/terrace/nightclub.
Yesterday I had a $1000 bill (proudly done by a bunch of guys from Stonewall) and received zero tip because I am "still training" and therefore the $171 tip went to my co-workers.
ACK!
I was more than unimpressed with it. 
it'll be my turn soon.
right?
otherwise, my days have been very lazy. hot. I'm used to being back in Canada but still lethargic and unsocial. 
I just want to write poetry and take photos and eat healthy food and watch the weather. I can't say I'm "forcing" myself to go out, but I'm certainly heavily considering everytime I want to do something. 
[sorry to those who have to deal with me!]

Now that I'm "coming into my own" here, I sure wish I closer friends to share it all with. I want to talk and laugh and share and whisper to people I know well. 
I want a trade.
a skill.
to be done school.

It's nice how my priorities have changed. Remember readers when all I wanted was haircuts and flowers? Now I want an education (completed, preferably)
friends
love
and
laughter

Do I sound bleak? I suppose I do. I'm not bleak. I'm not even bored. I wish I had a car to explore with. Plan is to get to Winnipeg and pick up Harpo and drive him back. I don't know how, when, or with whom. But a plan is hatching!

The quality of my writing has gone down hill. And so has my photography. all in one fell swoop. dear oh dear.
friends: I know Folk Fest has firedancingmusiclovedrugsdrinkinghappinesssunshine&awesome
buttt....
come hang out in Montreal instead!?

ok. I'm done bickering. Below are photos from the weekend getaway. Other photos of life en Montréal will just have to come some other time.

I dreamed (dreamt? is that only phonetically?) I had a perfect friend who lived next to me and wanted to explore with a camera in hand the many facets of this city. 
July brings work and heat and music and more laziness.
Also, cheap blueberries at the grocery store.
























xox

à bientôt
K

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