The only thing I really miss about my old apartment is the kitchen. It's not as if the appliances were any better (the appliances are actually slightly nicer here), but the old kitchen was more spacious and had lots of natural light. My current kitchen lacks any natural light. Short of knocking down part of a wall (I highly doubt that will happen but I've still got sketches of what I would do if that were possible) there is no way I can overcome that. When I first moved in, the lack of natural light was a bit of a hindrance to my wanting to cook (I'm a bit of a sensitive soul, take me away from the sun and I wither away), but I've since overcome most of my issues and have made my triumphant return to cooking at home.

I'm celebrating for a number of reasons. For one, it's much more economical to cook at home. On that point the gentleman and I are in complete agreement. Secondly, although I don't think I need to congratulate myself for making a meal (I don't think cooking is really all that difficult), I do feel some level of accomplishment for not letting myself ignore meals. I have very bad eating habits when it comes to just me. I skip breakfast, I sometimes don't eat lunch until 2 or 3 in the afternoon and if I'm eating dinner alone I am less inclined to make a big meal. I never see what the big fuss is about feeding just me. When it comes to feeding others though, my behaviour is quite the opposite.


For others I will prepare elaborate meals. I'll try new recipes both simple and complicated. The other day I roasted a chicken (only the third time I've done that). I'll make special trips to the grocery store so that we can have fresh fruit for dessert. I love cooking for other people. But cooking for just me fails to excite me. Even tonight, it's already after six, and the only thing that is motivating me to cook supper is that I will be making enough so that there are leftovers for the gentleman when he arrives home from his weekend away (even though I know he'll probably already have eaten, but then the leftovers can be used for lunch tomorrow). Ridiculous, non?

When it comes to making sure I cook more at home I endeavour to come up with plans to eat with others more often. I need to keep meals at home social to make up for my general lack of enthusiasm when it comes to just cooking. Unlike a lot of other people, I like delicious food but it doesn't motivate me the same way it does other people. I am appreciative of good cooking and would consider myself a pretty proficient cook, but I am not a foodie. The financial incentives of cooking at home are nice too, but saving money doesn't make up for lack of dinner companions. I hate eating alone and as a result detest cooking for one. Maybe the solution to my problem is to always cook for two and hope that someone will show up as a guest to dine with me.

But there was nothing pretty about being outside in all that mess. I hope it disappears as quickly as it came.

I had been promising a coworker of mine for weeks that I would show her my vacation photos. I'd been putting it off since I haven't actually finished going through them all yet, but I gave in and finally showed her the ones I have posted so far, along with one of the videos compilations I made on Sunday afternoon. I'm not exactly skilled with shooting video with my camera yet, but I won't get anywhere without practice. And practice I did with these travel videos.

And what did I learn? That panning makes me sick, that I have to take some more time to setup my shots and that I need to set up them up differently than when I take photographs. I also learned that sometimes I need to let action come to me rather than try to pursue it without a steadycam. I need to learn to remain stationary and record movement rather than be the one who moves.

But for some amateurish home movies... eh, they're not bad.




spring break (part two)


One of these days I'll get around to writing up longer form entries about my trip. These video summaries will have to suffice for at least a little while. My newest work project is consuming much of my mental prowess these days.

The spring cold is certainly miserable, but after spending most of last week cooped up in my apartment alone, alternating between sleeping, sneezing and working, I was desperate for some human interaction. Alessandra had just finished her degree and she was getting together with some friends for a finale celebration of sorts. For the past year and a bit she had been organizing this event called spzw after getting the taste of reading her poetry in front of an audience (it had been part of one of her classes). So she started getting together with her über cool friends to read poems or short pieces of prose that they had written, strum their guitars, recycle jokes from more talented comedians and support the local economy with their beer-swilling.

This was the seventh and possibly final spzw event, and it was also the only one that I was actually available to attend. So sickness be damned. I telephoned Tom and asked him if he wanted to accompany me, thinking that we could also fit in some nighttime shots once the poets and troubadours closed up shop for the night.

Alessandra and her beatnik gang used to meet at Hulbert's in Belgravia before it closed down, but eventually they found a more regular home at The Underdog on Whyte. It's a fitting location, small, dark and intimate... shadowy enough to have quiet conversations about existentialism but too small to express yourself in dance form like Audrey Hepburn.




The evening started off with the Brothers Pettifor singing a little ditty with brother Cole on guitar and brother Fraser providing backing vocals. Later on in the evening Fraser sang a Pettifor original backed with the soaring falsetto harmonies of his brother. Sandra describes the Pettifor's as the cutest family in the world. They'd be cuter if they played the banjo.




Once the proverbial ice was broken, it didn't take to much coaxing for Alessandra's boy toy Warren to deliver his piece about Adam and Eve and the missing period.




And so the night continued. The beatniks had a strong presence, but they were kept humble by contributions from the writer, the joker, the musician, a last minute poet, and a reluctant comedienne.




The darkness did make it a little difficult to photograph. Even with the beast in high ISO I felt it necessary to convert the images to b&w. I shot a few second video clips here and there and strung them together in a bit of a longer piece. No fancy camera work, no crazy editing here. Just a little something for my sister so when she loses herself to the corporate jungle she can look back and remember when she was a ringleader of beatniks and a motley crew of artistes.

 The end of a vacation is always a bittersweet time for me. Although it's nice to get back to our homes and regular routine, there is a brief period where I resent that return to the norm. Thankfully though, I can prolong some of that vacation euphoria through the editing of my vacation photos and video. Since I was already bogged down with camera gear, the gentlemen elected to bring along his laptop and let me use it throughout the trip. I had thought I might have a bit of downtime in the evenings to post updates of our american adventures, alas internet access was sporadic and we were busy all the time. I'll probably write up a few posts to provide more detail about the specifics of the trip as I add more photos, but for now you will have to suffice with this summary. Consider this the highlight reel.



Our ten day trip covered two cities, with travel by foot, bike (well Sarah, Don and Tom all toured about on bicycles at some point during the trip), car, train and plane, as well as an accidental encounter with American cheese (tourists beware, American cheese is not cheddar, rather this horrid abomination). Most people that I've spoken to about my trip have asked me the same question, "Which city did you like best?" I find it difficult to pick one since the two cities we visited were vastly different - one being the political capitol and the other the cultural capital of the world. Travel wise, it made a lot of sense to pair the two together, both from a geographic and economic perspective. A ten day trip to Washington would have been exhausting. Even in ten days you couldn't do all of the museums justice and you would surely be suffering from information overload. A ten day trip to New York would have been prohibitively expensive, unlike Washington where the museums are free, New York is a place where you want to spend money (oddly enough I didn't really buy anything in New York, although I did do plenty of window shopping). That said, I would do a ten day trip to New York if I could afford it, for the shopping opportunities but also because I felt like I could have spent more time there to explore some neighbourhoods that I missed.

Anyhow, here are the two cities in very brief summary.

Washington = monuments + museums + interesting architecture + the much anticipated blossoms + meeting up with my long-time flickr friend




Washington was also very clean and quiet, despite it being a very busy tourist season (aligning with spring break and the cherry blossom festival). Our New York experience is a bit harder to describe because our activities were so varied in comparison to Washington. The streets were much cleaner than I expected and I only saw one rat scurrying through the subway. But I was prepared after seeing much larger rodents on display in the Natural History Museum in D.C.
 
So, how to best summarize New York...


New York = opera + alec baldwin + random urban explorations.





In all, for my first visit to the States I think it went pretty well. I had a little taste of Americana (and by this I am not referring to the gastrointestinal error that was American cheese), experienced cultural differences between the US and Canada that were both slight and painfully obvious (healthcare reform bill). Both cities I want to visit again. I'll tell you why in forthcoming posts.

The past few days in Washington have been (predictably) busy. We've visited museums, walked past the White House, photographed the cherry blossoms, took a tour of the Capitol Building, visited Arlington cemetery, and sampled the "true heart" of America. But this portion of the trip is winding down (tonight is our last night in the city), tomorrow we're off to New York.

I just read Sarah's blog post about our upcoming trip to Washington DC and New York, and let me tell you that all it has done has made me even more anxious to leave tomorrow. I still have to finish packing (which will have to wait until later this evening) as I am still finishing up some work projects. Need to make sure that there will be content posted to the City blog while I'm away (and thanks to the wonder of technology I can even moderate any comments that might come in on my iPhone. But not too much. I will be on vacation after all).

Sarah had lots of pictures to post from her last trip to New York, alas, I have not been even really visited the States at all (unless you can count a layover in the Miami airport) so I have no pictures to share. But there will be plenty of photos to share when I get back. While we're in Washington the cherry blossom festival will be on, and although we will leave before the blooms peak, I am really hopeful that there will be at least some flowering while we are there.




Last year I didn't see any blooms in Edmonton until late in May. And while that might be true to the saying, April showers bring May flowers, my fingers are crossed that while visiting Washington and New York that the blossoms might come out a little bit earlier than expected. But I can't force nature to bend to my will, so I'm not getting my hopes up too high.

The one thing about this spring break trip that I am both eagerly anticipating and not looking forward to is all the walking I will be doing. Winter does not involve a heavy amount of walking for me and my cold from the past week and a half weakened my spirit so that I was inclined to take the train whenever I needed to go to the office (okay that and the train is so convenient). I have yet to resume my many kilometre daily constitutional and I fear that after the first day my proverbial dogs might be so weak that they cannot even bark.




But a good night's rest and all will be well. My camera will give me the courage to go on. 

I'm getting a bit anxious for my upcoming trip to Washington and New York at the end of the week and as a result I can't sleep. Blog post to the rescue.

Tonight I went to the 23rd Mayor's Celebration of the Arts at the Winspear. I didn't have any particular reason to go, I hadn't really paid attention to the nominees and I hadn't seen any information about the performance program. But a colleague invited me last week and I figured that I could use one night out this week and a night out supporting the arts would be a good idea.

I wasn't attending the reception prior to the event so I made plans to meet up with my colleague and her band of friends who were also coming along. The recent cold snap meant that I was less inclined to pull out one of my spring dresses to wear to the event, so instead I pulled out a reliable black dress to wear with patterned stockings and a little black shrug. The house is a complete mess right now (there is a shelf that is 2/3 way assembled lying on the living room floor) so I couldn't find a spot that would allow for a decent self-portrait. This shot looking down was about all I could manage.


I left the hall briefly while a standup comedian took the stage, and from the little that I managed to see and hear from the monitors outside his brand of humour was not exactly my style. While I can't say that I was blown away by any of the performances, (although I did like the piano, violin and clarinet trio that was first up), I am glad that I went. I saw quite a few familiar faces and also got to enjoy a night out in Edmonton that was celebrating the arts community. I think that will be a good send off before I head to New York. Edmonton might seem a little bit less depressing if the memory of all of these varied artists are fresh in my mind.


Perhaps one of the best thing of all about this event is that when it wrapped up I was able to hop on the train and only a few minutes later I was at home. No worry or fuss about traffic or icy roads, just a short wait with my friends (all who also live on the LRT line) on the platform where we shared our opinions about the event (my particular beef was with the exactness of dance choreography, my few years in Irish dancing having burned into my brain that everyone must be on the same beat) before hopping on the train for the short ride home.

I'm still familiarizing myself with the quietness of the street where I live. I used to walk this way to work for nearly a year but it was always at the beginning and end of the business day. When coming home late at night I would often hurry down this stretch, wishing I could stop and linger but feeling the pressure to just speed through the last final blocks until I got home. But now I live on this street and when I'm heading back to my apartment I don't feel so guilty stopping to linger to photograph the church across the street. Again, probably a good move before taking off to New York for what I hope will be a photographic orgy. It's good to keep in mind that Edmonton will have its fair share of photographic opportunities waiting for me when I return. Photographic opportunities that might translate into art that might one day be celebrated (locally).

Almost exactly a year ago Tom and I decided to go for an evening stroll on Whyte Avenue.


It was unsually warm for that time of year, so warm in fact, that after a period of taking photos of the evening traffic (both vehicular and pedestrian), we took in our first patio of the season. It was a particularly lovely evening, we didn't talk much, just sort of wandered and took photographs of whatever caught our fancy.


I think we were both in the mood for a similar type of outing this past Sunday. I was hesitant to leave the house, as I was feeling the ill effects of this spring cold, but the gentleman convinced me that some fresh air might do me some good. And with that encouragement I left the house to meet Tom across the river to relive our Whyte Avenue photographic excursion albeit in the daylight. I am pleased to report that even in sickness I managed to reach the Chapters bookstore in only twenty minutes.

When Tom arrived we wandered off aimlessly with our cameras in hand. We ended up taking a rather circuitous route, first heading off a block or two from Whyte to photograph the bakery near Calgary Trail and then roaming a block or two north through residential streets and the theatre district.


The nice thing about these random strolls in familiar places is that you're on the lookout for less familiar sights. When I'm not as concerned about taking in the entire scene I pay a little more attention to the details that might otherwise go unnoticed.


I'm sure others have experienced the beauty of a back alley before... or the the perfection of a reflection in a puddle.


This of course sounds overly sentimental, but the sniffling and sinus congestion of the weekend still persists and is sort of acting as a temporary shield against cynicism. I'm not complaining. I'd rather be cheerful while I'm sick rather than wallowing in misery. The wallowing in misery is something I reserve for when there are people within hearing distance.