Bonus: Listened

Three people listened to me today:

1. My brother
2. Ms. Sharon
3. My brother (again)

December 8: Calories

1. Feeling the love: film directors and learning the art of.
2. Feeling the love: grandmothers and beaming smiles from.
3. Feeling the calories: Izzy and sharing free birthday cake with.

November 25: Turtles

1. Playing Animal Yoga with my nephews after lunch. ‘Be a tree!’ [Stand tall.] What else? ‘I know! Let's be turtles!’ [Get down, curl up, tuck head into shell.] ‘Let's be bacon!’ [Lie down flat on back. Sizzle as frying pan heats up.]

2. Walking with my brother in the late afternoon. Walked right into the nail salon, where my hands and feet got some much-needed tender loving maintenance.

3. Biking with my Toque eastward at sundown, facing a full moon and a warm wind. Biked right into Izzy on Bloor Street, where we got some much-needed Linner.

November 20: Passcard

Random 1. It was quite warm outside, so I biked (again).
Random 2. A girl at work swiped me in with her passcard.
Random 3. Leftover mini-cheesecake, coffee bean on top.

AND my brother called me tonight. Myliu, broliuk!

October 4: Zen

1. The building manager gets me a contractor, pronto.
2. My dad arrives to help negotiate the bathroom job.
3. After a near heart attack over the whole affair, Zen where I least expect it. I spend a couple of hours sending faxes. Paper sliding, fax humming, low frequencies buzzing... it is unbelievably soothing.

September 30: Advice

I spent the whole day with old people at the nursing home. I left with a sense of urgency: to enjoy my youth and my body now!

The elderly tell me:
1. ‘A man can be nice – but not too nice! If he's too nice, he won't be strong.’
2. ‘You can be nice to a man – but not too nice! Be nice – but never beg!’
3. ‘The most important thing in this life is to be healthy. And to be young!’

September 3: Family

1. Waking up to a smiling little boy's big brown eyes.
2. Enjoying prepared black English tea with breakfast.
3. Sipping German red wine from grandma's glasses.

August 29: Picnic

1. Listening to my nephews' voicemail messages to me.
2. Picnic brunch at a tucked-away lawn bowling club.
3. E, for documentation in an administrative nightmare.

August 17: Chat

1. Matthew: called to announce that he built a yellow Mega Bloks tower for me and that I live inside at the top.
2. Mama: called to warn that the temperature outside was dropping (she and my dad were worried about me).
3. Tammy: confirmed Saturday's details and scheduling in an online conversation from our respective workspaces.

August 15: Afternoon

1. Seeing my brother made me very happy.
2. Seeing Bourne Identity for free: bonus.
3. Seeing two friends at the shopping mall.

How come Bourne always has cash at the ready?

August 12: Snip!

I spent the day sewing. I am not even done. My back is killing me. Respect to anyone who, hunched over, sews.

As mentioned in a previous post, I have a few t-shirts I'd like to modify. They are souvenirs, cut for the male chest. Basically, I want to look less like David Beckham and more like his wife.

1. In the basement, my dad found me two pairs of incredibly sharp scissors.
2. At the mall sewing centre, the saleslady offered me some great suggestions.
3. At the dining room table, my mom saved the day. She and her magic hands stepped in when I inevitably screwed up.

In related news, I lopped off another set of pant legs to achieve jean shorts. Snip, snip, snip!

August 8: Advice

1. Fashion advice from my (exasperated) dad.
2. Career advice from a seasoned professional.
3. Industry advice from a friend who knows:

‘Don't accept any drinks and don't buy any land! There are a lot of film people out there who'll whisper sweet life-changing promises in your ears, and then the next morning you'll be waking up next to the Pillsbury Dough Boy looking for your shorts and wondering why you have a title deed to a swamp in Florida.’

God bless you, R, G and E!

August 7: Romeo

1. ‘All the world's a stage’ – A woman was pacing through the streets calling out over and over, ‘Romeo!’ I'm not making light of it; it was beautiful.

2. ‘And all the men and women merely players’ – There really are good-looking gardeners all over suburbia.

3. ‘They have their exits and their entrances’ – I left the house late; I arrived at work early.

‘AND...
...one man in his time plays many parts’ – Thanks to my dad, who scanned Sunday’s Letraset. I added some colour and am quite pleased. Click here to view the result.

July 22: Catching Kisses

1. Matthew blew me kisses, which I caught like volleyballs. Then we switched and he caught my kisses (‘Woah! That's a big one!’). Together, we sent our beachball-sized kisses down an imaginary bowling lane, knocking over all 10 pins.

2. Matthew filled my imaginary teacup with all things savoury: chocolate, popcorn, a teddy bear, magic markers, a little boy, a shoe (‘What kind?’ ‘A Birkenstock’) and yucky mud. Mmm!

3. Little Lukas offered me handfuls of sand, followed by a playground wood chip straight from his mouth. Nothing imaginary about it. (Except, perhaps, in all he cannot yet verbalize. What is this kid thinking?!)

‘Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!’ - Theodor Geisel

Bonus: Little Lukas

I took exactly one break from my solitude today to go flop around in a swimming pool with my nephews. The surest way to coax little Lukas from the farthest reaches of the deck into the shallow end, jumping madly, is to make a big production of clumsily tumbling into the water. I keel over, sunglasses and all, and emerge a sputtering, giggling wethead. He goes wild with laughter and runs to Messy Auntie Julia.

Let me know if this works with your little ones.

July 4: ‘Foon’

1. Food: My sister made me an incredible scrambled eggs breakfast using cheese brought back fresh from Holland.

2. Foon: When I showed my nephew a spork (spoon+fork), he studied it carefully and logically concluded that it was a Foon.

3. Fool: I went biking in the warm, pouring rain, but it was fun. Then I had a cigarette, but I liked it. I watched my neighours; my neighbours watched me. Maybe they'll tell my parents. Maybe I'll tell my parents who here calls the cops in the middle of the night long after they are sleeping. It's a strange place, this Crescent, beneath its shiny veneer.

July 2: Smashing

1. My nephews attacked me with hugs. Lukas loves smashing his head into my face.
2. Izzy prepared an incredible dinner, including some smashing French red wine.
3. My friends in Cleveland were getting smashed and decided to call me up so I could be there with them.

June 27: Confidence

1. Vote of Confidence I: Email. I received a very encouraging message from someone with my best interests in mind.

2. Vote of Confidence II: Groceries. Matthew and I pet a live lobster's ‘whiskers’ while Lukas proudly held up every fruit and vegetable: ‘Apple!’

3. Vote of Confidence III: Youth. A younger colleague invited me to join her in July at her VIP table next to a star DJ (who is ‘old, late 30s’... uh oh). I don't go clubbing, but I'm in!

June 24: In absentia

1. During our echoey conversation - spoken entirely into the swimming pool wall skimmer - my nephew told me I was pretty. (Talking into pipes, holes in walls, etc. is a variation on Darth Vader voices via the oscillating fan.)

2. I caught my wireless internet signal on the front porch. It was the perfect sunset home office setup (glass of wine included).

3. After I knocked all my red wine onto the white stone wall, Yee brainstormed with me over the phone how to tidy up the scene of the crime. We washed and sniffed that wall clean - she in absentia, I in presentia.

June 20: Dino Dig!

Sweet things happened when I babysat two toddlers overnight and for the day:

1. 06:21 - ‘Good morning, Auntie Julia … Oh no! You had a bad dream? … Which kind was it? Dinosaurs, dragons or monsters?’

2. 08:00 - The kids wanted to watch Baby Mozart, so I got to sleep for 45 minutes.

3. 14:30 - I turned to TVO Kids, home to great Canadian children's programming, to find something interactive to do instead of watching TV. Matthew and I are huge new fans of Dino Dig!