Summer Stock Sunday - 25

My vintage look at summer for Summer Stock Sunday, hosted by Robin at Around the Island.

Just got back from a Girls' Overnight in Halifax, which for me and my friend Shelley amounts to a staycation. I have to say I'm a major fan of staycations. Several years ago my friend Lisa came for a visit from Ontario, and we stayed at the Westin Nova Scotian - walking distance to everything, luxury, pampering and the freedom to enjoy ourselves without having to take a flight anywhere (for me, at least.)

Last night I left work, walked through the pedway as I would if I were catching the ferry home, started the walk through the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel which forms part of the indoor route for commuters - but instead of continuing on, I turned down the corridor toward our room and met up with three of my high school choir friends.

All four of us moved away after high school, but two of us returned while one of our group lives in British Columbia and one lives in Seattle. Whenever possible, we get together when the stars align and we're all in the same city. A few weeks ago, Maureen was here for a family event but wasn't expected to be here this weekend - but Shelley told her to catch a quick flight and what a great surprise when I walked in and there she was!

So for my walk down memory lane for Summer Stock Sunday, here's a few shots taken in 1981, when I was heading into grade twelve and many of my close choir friends had just graduated and were about to head off to university.

The four of us who reveled in our Girls' Overnight were part of this close-knit crew, though only Maureen and I were at this particular barbeque.














Clockwise from left: John, Maureen, Michael, me, Philip, Ted and Katherine
















Clockwise from left: Mark, Philip, Ted, Katherine and John















Me with Katherine



















L to R: Philip, John, Katherine and Mark


















L to R: Maureen, John, Philip and Michael

Poetry Train Monday - 111 - In His Neighbour's Boat

Ride the Poetry Train!

For today's piece of found poetry, I'm heading back into my 1980 diary.

That summer I lived the thrill of my first romantic relationship. This is from an afternoon and evening spent at my boyfriend's house. He lived on a lake and was one of seven kids. Coming from a family of two sisters myself, I just adored being gathered into the mob of his large family.


In His Neighbour's Boat


Mr. Savage found me a
Bathing suit

Philip, Barney, Brigie and I
Went swimming

The water was
Warm

I stayed for supper
Clam chowder, which was
Good

Pat lent me his
PA High School grey sweatpants
And an orange jacket

I went sailing
With Philip
In his neighbour's boat

While the neighbour
- Peter -
And Philip
Set up the boat

I held onto Hannah
Peter's delightful little baby

Sailing
Was a lot of fun
We had to
Watch out for
Speedboats
Skiers

The waves
They made
Were fun

- Julia Smith, July 26, 2009 / original text July 22, 1980













Dorothy says I loved being part of my friends big families, too.

Shelley Munro says I loved the sense of fun and family you showed us in this poem.

Louise says Loved it, Julia :o)

Poetry Train Monday - 104 - I Can't Handle It All

My computer's still in the shop, so my blog schedule is a bit of a challenge right now.

Here's my latest found poem, taken from a diary entry from 1980 when I was in grade ten, my first year in high school. All through the school year I'd had a crush on Philip, a guy one grade level ahead of me. We were both in choir together.

This poem follows a memorable moment for me, one which helped me to decide that he was perhaps as interested in me as I was in him.



















I Can't Handle It All


I can see it in his eyes
Can sense it when I'm next to him
So much happened to me today
I can't handle it all

While walking to Math
He saw me
Backtracked through the crowd
Told me he'd see me
The last two periods in the afternoon

At the beginning of Study
He came right out to
The Music portable
To work on Romeo and Juliet
With me

Fate must have been with me

I learned from Mike
That I'd be getting last period off
Phil had last period off
I forgot Romeo and Juliet at home
We got our books and walked
To my house

I didn't have the key
I had to crawl through the window
And run to unlock the door
To let him in

He'd had to carry his sax
All the way to my house
The saxophone is heavy

We listened to Dave Brubeck
He got out his own saxophone
And played along to the record

We went in the kitchen
And worked on Romeo and Juliet
It's going to be funny
I can't wait

My sister came home
He helped her clean the fishbowl
He made himself and me
Some good British tea

He asked me to come see him perform
With the jazz band at 7
So Connie and I went
We came in just as
Phil was doing a solo

The movement caught his attention
His eyes flashed
As he looked around Mr. March
At me

His excitement to see me
Danced all over his face
Over the top of his music

When I waved at him
He gave me a wave back

When the band finished playing
He hurried over
To sit beside me

It's so wonderful

- Julia Smith, 2009 / original text June 6th, 1980

Ride the Poetry Train!

Akelamalu says Ah a poem about a first crush - sweet.

Marinela Enjoyed your poem :)

Wordless Wednesday - 92

Naughty Meme of Firsts

Isabella Snow tagged me for this naughty meme, and I saved it for Friday the 13th, a wicked sort of day just before all the hearts and flowers tomorrow.

Isabella's blog is one of the blogs I have to save to read at home. It's definitely Not Safe For Work. But it is delightful and joyously risque. And very frank. Isabella is a woman who is very secure with her sexuality. It's a wonder to me that more women aren't. But the popularity of women's erotica gives me hope that more and more women are taking charge of their own sexual lives.

Rules to Isabella's Naughty Meme of Firsts:
1. Please post these at the beginning of your meme.
2. Please include a link to Sex Talk For Men.
3. Please include as many sordid details in your answers as possible - if you haven't got any, make them up!
4. Tag 3 people.


1. First French kiss?

That would be my first boyfriend, Philip. We had a long build-up to my very first kiss. I was 15 and he was the first person I was truly attracted to, more than a crush. We were part of a large group of music and drama nerds who all hung out together.


















It took several months before I could believe that it was more than just me being attracted to him. He was attracted to me! So when The Kiss finally happened, it was more romantic and more super-charged with desire than a normal, awkward teenage kiss. I actually remember thinking, "So this is why they always say kisses taste sweet."

That happens to me a lot. Things happen to me, and a part of me 'records' it in my writer's sense-memory bank.

2. First boyfriend/girlfriend.

Philip again. He was a perfect first boyfriend. He was very, very charming. Of course completely cute, tall, light brown hair, gray/blue eyes, parents from the UK so he had a bit of residual accent, played saxophone and a little Irish tin whistle, and acted in plays and musicals. He came from a huge family whom I loved spending time with. He was extremely romantic, wrote me little poems, sang me songs, packed up picnic lunches and sailed me over to a little island on the lake he lived beside, took out the tin whistle and played music for me.

We were only 15 and 17, though, so the only time we had alone together was often out in the woods. Which just added to the romance. One of the most romantic, steamy kisses we ever had was at Conrad's Beach, when we went for a walk along the shore, leaving my family in the distance. When we were out of sight, he grabbed me and we kissed. For awhile. It was great.

I go back to those feelings I shared with Philip all the time when I'm writing romance. It was the first time I felt desire directed at me from a man. Okay, he was 17, but to me he was older and sophisticated. All those feelings - Does he know how I feel about him? Can it be true? Does he really love me? He does love me! - that all of my fictional characters go through, they were at their most intense with my first boyfriend.

3. First type.

My first type is still my preferred type now. Tall, dark hair, blue eyes, British ancestry. Creative, very dark sense of humor, genius, compassionate. That sort of guy.

Exactly like my husband Brad.














4. First time you had sex.

This may be hard to believe, but my husband is truly my one-and-only, in every way possible.


















Even though I feel strongly that women should be free to have sex if they want to, without being labelled for it - when it came to myself, I couldn't separate sex from my feelings. Until I truly, truly felt like he was The One, I kept my romantic partners technically at arms' length.

5. First celebrity crush.

That would be Les McKeown from the Bay City Rollers.
















He's born on Nov. 12th, and I'm on the 11th, which has been a common attraction for me ever since. I can't resist those Scorpios. Like Gerard Butler, born on the 13th.












Or my husband. He's a Scorpio, too.
















6. First sexual fantasy.

See if you can guess...














7. First person you fell in love with.

That would be my second boyfriend, Patrick.















He was the first person to truly see the real me. We had a very intense, very intimate, very mature relationship for our age. We went out for almost two years. He was a bit of a musical prodigy, and still plays bass for a living. He also wrote poetry for me, had a truly sinister sense of humor that kept me in absolute stitches, went to foreign films with me, came from a large family whom I adored spending time with, matched my intellectual craving for more, and dared to push me creatively.

I treasure the time we had together.

8. First proper sex toy.

No toys for me.


















9. First porn video.

When my husband and I lived in Toronto, and I was in film school at Ryerson, Brad worked two jobs, including overnight shifts at a 24-hour video store. One New Year's Eve, I stayed at the store with him all night, and because the customers basically disappeared after awhile, Brad and I replaced the regular playing-in-the-background current release with Tracy Takes Tokyo.


















Photo by Steve Granitz

10. First sexy lingerie item/sexy briefs owned.

I can't say I'm much for those. I need industrial-strength girder engineering on top, and those are never really that exciting. It's like cats - I'm allergic to them, so I don't let myself get too attached to how cute cats are. I can never have one, so I don't go there. It's the same for sexy lingerie.

11. First time giving oral.

12. First time getting oral.

As each new Number Two says in The Prisoner, that would be telling.

13. First orgasm given by someone else.

"Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself.” - The Prisoner















14. First one night stand.

"I used to be Snow White, but I drifted." - Mae West

My first and only one night stand was with a Greek sailor named Vivkelion Siriannis. Don't really know if that's how you spell his name correctly. I met him when I was out with friends at a Halifax bar, watching a band. Several sailors were there, and you couldn't help glancing over at them. They were dark and swarthy, and Vivkelion was really, really handsome.

I was single at the time, and no reason to say no when he asked me to dance. It was one of those pinch-me-I'm-dreaming nights. My friends were more than happy (wink, wink) to head home themselves, as I had my mom's car.













I drove us out to the Dingle Park (Sir Sandford Fleming Park, but no one calls it that) and we walked under the trees by the water of the Northwest Arm, chatting, arms around each other like long-lost sweethearts. It was really bizarre. I felt so comfortable with him instantaneously. He spoke English perfectly, and in fact was the manager of a sea sponge factory, but was required to put in military duty.

Everything about that night was so magical. We kept giggling with the delight of it all. I wish everyone could have one night like that.














15. First dirty book/dirty mag read.

I'd say my first real look at naughty pictures was in a T-shirt transfer store in the 1970's, when I was in elementary school. There were files to flip through until you found the transfer you wanted to purchase. Somehow I saw 'Ski bums', which consisted of ski bunnies skiing downhill without any pants. I found that strange, to say the least.

Moving on to an actual book: The Memoirs of John Milton Roderick was a favorite of mine. Here's the lo-down:

Torn from the sensual exoticism of Canton where his first initiation in the arts of love was at the hands of his French governess, young John Milton Roderick was sent to England to face the horrors and perversions of the Victorian public school. But it was not long before he was lured by the oriental delights of Madame Sin Sin's voluptuous Limehouse Brothel: and his troubles began. - Amazon.com

I actually adapted the governess part as a student film in third year. I can't resist a little heartbreak along with sexual desire. In 1880's Canton, John has a huge crush on his governess, and now that he's a young teenager, he can't help spying on her as she's bathing. She realizes he's watching, comes at him in a fury and plans to hand him over to his father for caning. He begs her not to.

She reconsiders, inviting him into her room. She says if he saw her naked, she may as well see him naked. She fetches a cane to do the deed herself. But she can't go through with it. The following day they try to get through lessons in the classroom but it all goes wrong. John runs crying from the room, but she follows. They have a huge heart-to-heart, and John sneaks in a very romantic kiss at the end. It's great! My film version differs slightly from the book - I needed it to work as a stand-alone short film, so I resolved several plot threads.

As for tagging anyone - play if you dare.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thursday Thirteen - 19 - 13 Things About My 25th High School Reunion

This past Saturday, my husband Brad bravely accompanied me to my 25th high school reunion. Here are 13 things about the reunion and my high school days, all mishmashed together in true reunion fashion.


1 - I'm the sort of person who enjoys celebrating milestones. Rather than be horrified that I'm 42 and where did all the time go, I'm so thankful that I'm here to celebrate this reunion. We had a memorium to 3 alumni who are no longer with us, so I'm very grateful to be alive and kicking.








2 - Here's Brad sitting down to dinner after some meet-and-greet chatting with people I hadn't seen in decades. I thought everyone looked pretty good! A couple of the hottie guys were still hot if not hotter. Some of the ho-hum guys had morphed into hotties while I wasn't looking. And most of the women looked amazing. It's hard to be objective about yourself, but I feel I'm in the fine wine category - getting better with age.















3 - Brad and I sat at a table by ourselves when dinner started, and I said, "Let's just sit here and see who joins us." Within a few moments, friends from my crowd descended on us with hugs and filled our table like a magic wish. It couldn't have turned out more perfectly.



4 - Next to Brad was ( I believe) Wayne Pace, someone I went through school with but never really knew very well. But next to Wayne was Pat Savage, brother of my Very First Boyfriend.
















He has quite a resemblance to Philip (He Who Gave Me My First Kiss), don't you think?
That's Philip there in the little photo below.



A recent one - he's now an assistant professor of Communication Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. This comes after working for over a decade at CBC Radio in Ottawa and then Toronto.

Brother Pat hasn't done so badly for himself, I must say - he's now the vice-principal at Dartmouth High School (our old rival school.)













5 - I really enjoyed talking with Pat. He pulled up a chair, sat next to me once dinner was over, and said, "So. The next afternoon," he said, meaning after our graduation, "what did you do?" He wanted it all! The whole story. I've stayed in contact with Philip over the years, but it was nice to spend time with Pat, who sat behind me in grade 12 Canadian Literature class.



6 - Moving along the table, there was a lovely couple, Amer Ahmad and his wife, who ended up being charming dinner companions though I never really knew Amer when we were in school together.




Jazz East



But next to Amer sat Chris Elson, here on the left, current professor at Kings University and active member of Jazz East, an organization that promotes and facilitates jazz performance in Nova Scotia, including the Atlantic Jazz Festival. Chris was a good friend and frequent bandmate of my second boyfriend, Pat Kilbride. Neither boyfriend was in my year. First boyfriend Philip was a year ahead of me, while Patrick was a year behind me. Both of them are very positive influences in my emotional development, so having two people so closely connected to them sitting at our table gave the evening a very full-circle feeling for me.



Here are a few recent pictures of my second boyfriend, bassist Pat Kilbride. In the first picture, from the Toronto production of "The Lord of the Rings" orchestra, left to right: Nick Coulter, David Quackenbush, Pat Kilbride, Levon Ichkhanian



At the Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto, Sasha Luminsky on accordian and the String Quartet left to right: Bogdan Djukic, Jonathan Craig, Pat Kilbride, Wendy Solomon





7 - And here's the man who finally, truly won my heart - Brad Smith. Had to move to Toronto to find my true love, but I enjoyed the journey.




Brad was attending The New School of Drama in Toronto when we met. We both worked as ushers at the Runnymede Theatre (Famous Players cinema) at the time. He went on to appear in most of my student films when I went to Ryerson.









8 - Here's a man who takes 25th reunions very seriously. He flew in from Australia to attend this!



John was in choir with me, and that meant we performed together in several musicals. For some reason I always played the comedy relief roles opposite John. In "Oklahoma!" he was Will to my Ado Annie. And because John is a natural improv virtuoso, that's exactly what he did once we stepped onstage. Was I thrilled? I kept threatening him, wanting desperately for John to stick to the script, but it never happened. Only the onstage magic. Somehow I held on for the rollercoaster ride.

"Actor, Writer Director and Theatresports legend, John has featured in such comedy combos as "The Bouncing Sheep" and as the mad evangelist Billy in "God's Cowboys". He has made films and starred in the long-running Theatresports spin-off "Improzac". He's currently playing The Rookie in "Cops on Heat", fresh from the Melbourne Comedy Festival." Celebrity Theatresports Challenge










9 - Next to Chris is Sean Day, who was the longtime boyfriend of one of my choir friends, Dawn Dort. That meant he attended all the choir parties and we had many spirited times together. Dawn and I stay in regular contact, going away on Girls' Nights when she comes home from Seattle, along with Shelley, who also lives here in Halifax, and Maureen, when she's home from British Columbia. Sean himself stays in contact with Dawn, and stood up for John Knowles when he got married in Australia.

Sean now works as the town planner for Antigonish, NS, a beautiful university town halfway between Halifax and Cape Breton.


10 - This is a photo from high school days of the art teacher/play director, the infamous Sheila MacLean. A hearty Yorkshire lass transplanted across the sea to Nova Scotia, Mrs. MacLean had a personality that projected easily to the back row. She had a wickedly sharp temper that kept all her student actors quaking in their boots. I used to do a perfect impression of her: "LOOK, you TURKEYS!"



Photo by Rhonda Burke






"Funny, every time I think of PA Drama, the phrase, "STOP BEING SUCH BLOODY TWITS", pops into my head. It haunts me." - Peter Yorston, Prince Andrew High School Drama Geek

11 - The reunion was split into three events. The night before the dinner, there was an informal gathering at the Celtic Corners pub which I didn't go to, having been socked with the same migraine I'm still fighting off 7 days later. I wanted to be certain I was at the main event at Brightwood Golf Club. But I soon found out that the pub night was probably the best fun anyone had had in a long while. Musical alumni, including John Knowles and Chris Elson formed an impromptu jam session and played the night away.

12 - The following day was family day out at Rainbow Haven beach. My best friend Connie and I drove out and spent awhile walking up and down a very crowded beach. No one had erected a sign or flag or anything indicating a reunion group. So we sat on our towel, had a great afternoon enjoying the sunshine and fresh sea air, and headed back not having bumped into a single Prince Andrew alumni. Ah well. C'est la vie!

13 - I really enjoyed my 25th reunion. The only thing that would have made it any better would have been if more people had been able to come. But like most east coast migrators (due to limited economic opportunities out here) a lot of our class of 1982 has flown far and wide to seek their fortunes. For 13 years, I was one of them, having the time of my life in Toronto. But I felt so glad to be back in town for this reunion. I would have hated to miss it.