5 on Friday -- Set 190

Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

I'm just returning from an art emergency trip to Montreal, to see work by Dale Chihuly with my mom, an ardent admirer of his work.

So this week's set is complete randomosity!

1 - Got to Give it Up - Marvin Gaye  

2 - A Girl Like You - Edwyn Collins

3 - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) - Spiller featuring lead singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor

4 - Here With Me - Dido

5 - The Fear - Lily Allen

Thursday Thirteen - 264 - 13 Bits of Randomosity

1 – This was my reaction to a whole bunch of sale prices in the dairy aisle last night:

"Why is there so much of this stuff on sale? Is there something wrong with the refrigeration unit?"

I totally passed on the yogurt, even though I wanted some. 

2 – The bus that rolled up to take me to work this morning had my birthday numbers on the front. I took that as a sign it would be a great day...and it was.

3 – Not that I'm recovered from Lady Sybil's sob-fest-inducing departure from Downton Abbey. *sniff* 

4 – Very busy this week highlighting all of our authors on our Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada Facebook page. Drop by and Like us!

Once you sign into Facebook, it takes you right to our page. Meet our members and get all the latest on what we're up to.

5 – My husband just asked me, "How many of your thirteen have you done?" and laughed when I said, "Four."

6 – That's because I've been sitting at the computer 'working' while also watching a rerun of Supernatural season 1 - Nightmare - immediately followed by the newest season 8 episode - As Time Goes By.

See: My Obsessions 

7 – Just made the mistake of glancing over at the TV again. James McAvoy on The Graham Norton Show. 

NO

Keep writing.

8 –  Feel good about today, however, as revisions on Book 2 of my Scorpius series is shaping up nicely.

9 – Hope this gets posted tonight. The wind is howling out there...the TV flickered a few times during Supernatural, but we made it to the end of the episode. Phew. *typing fast typing fast* 


10 -  Thinking a lot about the upcoming production of Romeo and Juliet at The National Ballet of Canada. Wishing I was going to be in Toronto this March to see it.

11 – If anyone watches dancer Guillaume Cote in the above clip wondering at the end how opening night will work out in the end, here's what critics thought of the new production that premiered in 2011:

Ratmansky's Romeo and Juliet - DANCE magazine

Argh! I'm just making it worse for myself...

12 – I also find myself dreaming about attending the rather new society event for Halifax, the Halifax Dance Viennese Opera Ball.

Maybe next year, I'll be there draped in my finery, watching the young women from Halifax Dance and actual soldiers from the Princess Louise infantry unit swirling in waltz time to Symphony Nova Scotia...sigh... 

13 – Okay. It's 1:00 am. Have to get some sleep. Still have one more day at the day job before a three-day weekend. 

5 on Friday - Set 136

Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Here's a bit of randomness due to having to clear a path wide enough to allow our old fridge to clear the basement when I would have been getting this week's set ready.

So here's to fresh starts.

1 - Don't Stop Me Now - Queen

2 -  You're the Devil in Disguise - Elvis Presley

3 - Southside - Moby with Gwen Stefani 

4 - Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode

5 - Battle Without Honor or Humanity - Tomoyasu Hotei

Thursday Thirteen - 193 - 13 Bits of Randomness For a Snowy Day

We're in the midst of a massive snowstorm, which was preceded by my Julia's Migraine Weather Network forecast of 'Beware'. My migraines are triggered by low pressure systems, and two of them are colliding over Nova Scotia as I type. I began to feel the system's arrival on Monday. By Wednesday - Snow Day - I really felt crappy. But a year-and-a-half into acupuncture treatment for migraines, and I was able to make it into work, when previously I would not have been able to get out the door.

The Ordeal home from work only added to the misery. An hour's commute became a two-and-a-half hour odyssey, including trudging home for about forty minutes through the pelting snow from the last bus terminal on the route because the bus couldn't make it past the icy intersection onto the road.

Since the storm ate into my blogging time, here are thirteen bits of randomness for your winter reading:

1 - One never knows where blogging will take you. I was approached this week by the local professional theatre to preview their winter season play because the marketing department googled Halifax arts bloggers and found me.

Sweet.

2 - I have had the pleasure of meeting three blog friends in Real Life - Wiley Kinson, Leah Braemel and Apprentice Writer - and hope to add to that number this summer when I go to the writer's conference in New York.

3 - Sixteen years after graduating from film school, I'm looking forward to working on a short project at long last. I did work on several other gigs over the years, including my very first paid writing job for a TV documentary, but this will be the first time I'll be doing something of my own again in years.

Yeah, baby.

4 - I'm preparing to launch a web site this year. Graphics already being designed as you read this. I had to use it as a carrot during NaNoWriMo.

It worked.

5 - Eight years ago, I joined my local chapter of Romance Writers of America. I already had my film degree and felt I was a strong writer.

However, it has taken all of these eight years to really refine my craft and learn how to write a novel as opposed to a screenplay.

6 - During this eight-year period, I battled chronic pain issues from an injury and from recurring, debilitating migraines. I still managed to write, and even started this blog four years ago, keeping up a regular posting schedule.

Since beginning acupuncture treatment a year-and-a-half ago, my pain issues resolved themselves enough to allow me to complete the revisions that kept me from finishing a challenging manuscript. Sometimes roadblocks are sneaky. Sometimes they're not creative or motivational. They may seem unrelated, but some roadblocks may be physical problems, financial problems or social obligation problems that are not the obvious source of one's frustration.

If you can identify them, however, you can tackle them just like any other creative block.

7 - Why friends are so awesome:

Here in Halifax we have a small dance community, but not one big enough to place a book like Apollo's Angels on the fly-off-the-bookstore-shelves list. But when I caught up with my friend Alan in Toronto, he mentioned it right away, as he knew it was quite obviously written with me specifically in mind.

It's a comprehensive cultural history of ballet, written by a former dancer and historian, and it made the 10 Best Books of 2010 list by the New York Times Book Review.

When I went with my bookstore gift card money to the World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto to get it, the clerk in the Performing Arts section said they couldn't keep it in the store. He immediately called over to the Eaton Centre Indigo Books store and had them put one on hold for me, telling them, "She'll be there in ten minutes." Holy mackerel! I raced over to grab my copy before it dashed out onto Yonge Street in someone else's bag.

Thanks, Alan, for knowing I couldn't live another day without it.

Thanks, Toronto, for being the kind of city where Apollo's Angels can create this kind of emergency.

8 - When I was at the matinee performance of The Nutcracker during my vacation, a little girl a few rows behind me sang along when the children's chorus began during the snow scene at the end of act one. Not only did it not bother me, it delighted me that she could sing the entire thing perfectly.

9 - I received a lovely bottle of Glenlivet single malt whisky from my brother-and sister-in-law for Christmas, and made the error of not packing it in my checked luggage for the flight home. I'd had visions of crushed bottles from tossed suitcases. Silly me.

As my husband and I wound our way through the security lines, we realized there were too many millilitres of liquid for it to make it through as carry on. I told the security woman when I got to her: "I've got whisky in here."

She very seriously told me to check that piece of carry on as luggage, as if the very thought of having to toss out single malt would make her seek professional therapy. I loved her reverence for my Glenlivet. Highly appreciated, anonymous security person!

10 - I'm quite certain there was not enough shortbread in my Christmas this year. I think I got some at my writers' potluck at the end of November.

11 - Someone who saw the pictures I took of my sister's wedding thought they'd been taken by the professional photographer.

Awesome.

12 - Meanwhile, my friend Marianne - who takes fantastic photos - checked out my camera while we had lunch together and promptly told me to read my user's manual, as I clearly know nothing about my own piece of equipment.

LOL! Because it's true.

13 - I met with writer friends Chris and Charlene for lunch while in Toronto, and the two of them (and I believe a few other friends of theirs) always declare each year to be the Year of Something.

This year is the Year of Re-Invention.

I told them I would be participating fully in that year. Here's a few thoughts on re-invention from Carla Rieger, a motivational speaker:

"I was discovering a new purpose that wanted to be born into my life.

What took so long for me to get through this process was that I didn’t want to let go of the old identity because it was familiar, I knew how to make it work and I was attached to the social approval I received for this kind of work, not to mention the income and sense of security that provided. Yet, trying to hold on was actually creating more problems in my life.

When I finally let go of my old identity and let myself go into the dark and the unknown I started to discover amazing things, parts of myself that wanted expression. The truth was that I didn’t need to change what I was doing but how I was doing it.

It takes courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful for you. There is actually more security in taking an adventure into the new, because in movement there is life and vitality again."

Thursday Thirteen - 154 - 13 Things I Did This Week

1 - Even though last week included Good Friday, and this week included Easter Monday, which meant a four-day weekend for me, I worked so hard for the three days I was at my scanner - including two overtime shifts - that I gratefully embraced my Friday off. We're at an especially high-volume time for my department. I'm so-o-o tired.

2 - To make matters more trying, I battled a migraine last week which culminated with Thursday's rather exciting color-prism aura which developed in the afternoon. Since my acupuncture treatment which began last June, I have gotten to the point that my pain medication has been radically downgraded. But once the prism-aura started I went for my narcotic painkiller. Within 20 minutes the aura was gone. I guess it's true that if you're in enough pain, you see stars.

3 - My husband and I went to our every-other-Saturday morning acupuncture treatment. I told Wei about my migraine adventure, and she 'listened' to my chi along one forearm, and then after awhile along the other forearm. (The points she's feeling are not the same places western doctors feel your pulse.) Her expression was a mix of confusion and solemn concern. After awhile she pronounced, "Weak," as though beyond comprehension that my chi could be in such a state after all my treatment. I wonder if she's ever treated anyone before who visually appears to be living, but is registering as half-dead in the chi department, as I apparently do. I'm nothing if not a challenge.

4 - Was contacted by a major Acadian genealogy figure here in the Maritimes about our shared family lineage due to a blog post I did two-and-a-half years ago. It was my 22nd Thursday Thirteen - Introducing 13 of My Ancestors. That post has legs! It has led to a most incredible set of developments, including the upcoming DNA testing of my cousin through the AMERINDIAN Ancestry Out of Acadia DNA PROJECT.

5 - Went to lunch with some of the women from my writers' group on Sunday, then stopped in at Chapters before the meeting started and snagged a book by one of the Popculturedivas, Kayla Perrin.

6 - Learned about the YA market (Young Adult) at the meeting, with a workshop given by Renee Field.

7 - Worked overtime on Monday. It's like shooting at 18th century redcoats. No matter how many go down, the formation remains intact and the line continues to advance.

8 - Luckily, the second-last episode of Spartacus cheered me up. It ROCKED. Of course, it turns out that it was directed by Michael Hurst, who played Iolaus on Hercules. My three favorite episodes of Spartacus have all been directed by Michael Hurst.

9 - On Tuesday, Mom picked me up after work and we went to dinner at The Great Wall, my favorite Halifax Chinese restaurant. Then we found a parking space near St. Matthew's Church, nipped into Niche for an hour for coffee and headed to our choir rehearsal for our upcoming concert next Tuesday.

10 - It was the first of three rehearsals at the performance space, so there was a lot of rearranging of our physical placement as well as musical rehearsal. Here's a little preview of part of the Schubert mass we're singing, as performed here by the Ocean Springs High School Choir from Mississippi:



11 - After working overtime on Monday, and having a long rehearsal on Tuesday, I once again worked overtime on Wednesday. And my acupuncturist wonders why she can't find any sign of my chi.

12 - Today I discovered why it's a good thing to fully read work emails that say Wear pink to support anti-bullying. I thought it meant Friday. But it was in fact for Wednesday. So even though my manager sported a spiffy pink dress shirt with matching pink tie, and three other members of my team were radiant in pink, and even though I have several pink outfits I could have worn, I showed up today in my tiger-skin-print shirt. For Anti-bullying Day. Tiger-skin-print.

13 - It's 1:00 in the morning. Time to get off the computer. Only 5 and a half hours till my alarm goes off.

Janet says #4 - How cool is that? As soon as I'm done this comment, I'm off to read that blogpost and check out the link. Fascinating!

Anne MacFarlane says Hope the migraines - and the ot - settle down soon.

Sandy Kessler says #7 priceless.

Thursday Thirteen - 153 - 13 Things I Did Today

1 - Woke up at 5:00 this morning in a lot of pain (migraine.) Struggled to get up in order to take acetaminophen with codeine. Slept till 7. Second wake-up was much more tolerable.

2 - Spent the morning dealing with an avalanche of paper (I scan documents,) wondering if anyone had sent out the Saint Bernard to dig me out.

3 - Smiled repeatedly at the signatures of elderly people on the document avalanche. I love their characters which shine through the squiggliness.

4 - Enjoyed break time with my sister, who works in the same office as me. Cool!

5 - Worked like a perpetual motion machine, trying to stay one step ahead of the avalanche.

6 - Kept the pedal to the metal and worked two hours overtime, but got to sing along to my playlist with no one else there but me. Party!

7 - Thanked God when the bus that includes a 3-minute walk for me rolled up first, rather than the one which includes a 20-minute walk. Woo hoo!

8 - Enjoyed the moody fog in the woods as I walked those three minutes between the bus stop and home.

9 - Gave my wiggly-waggly overjoyed-to-see-me dog lots of lovin'.

10 - Made a cup of green tea after supper.

11 - Rolled my eyes at this headline in the Chronicle Herald:

Cardinals claim opposition to gay marriage, abortion fuelling ‘hate’ campaign

12 - Changed into my comfies and sat at the computer.

13 - Put my earphones on and relaxed with a little bit of Richard Armitage therapy. Here's a current favorite on my You Tube playlist. Love the editing job that Liisakee did *applause* Song is Where I Want to Be from the musical Chess, sung by Josh Groban. Clips are from seasons 1-3 of BBC's Robin Hood.



Ms Snarky Pants says I know at least 4 other people, including me, who had a migraine today. Obviously there was something in the air!

Frances says You definitely know how to make lemonade when life hands you a lemon - and first thing in the morning to boot. Waving at you from New York.

Kelly Boyce says Sounds like a pretty good day. Mine was dull, dull, dull. Boss was away and I forgot my flashdrive with my mss on it at home.

Thursday Thirteen - 109 - 13 Things I've Been Doing While My Computer's in The Shop

My computer has needed an overhaul for quite some time. So I had to surrender it into the care of my best friend's husband, who is an IT guy. He already performed heroics on a previous computer when my current WIP was trapped on the hard drive of a tower whose battery went dead.

So what have I been doing in the meantime?

1 - Well, I did try to stay on schedule with my book review for Stella MacLean's Baby in Her Arms. However, that will have to be pushed back to next week. My day job work schedule has been very grinding of late. Over the years, I've gradually learned to put balls down when my juggling act gets too ridiculous. That has been a lifetime lesson, I assure you.

2 - After work, once I've finished my daily visit with my mom upstairs, I generally head downstairs and hop onto the computer. But every evening this week I've headed into the garden instead. Sigh. That's been nice.

3 - I've had way more Pack Time on the couch. Because we are two humans and a dog, we are a Pack. Pack Time is my favorite time of day. We all pile onto the couch, where my dog and I fall asleep curled up together and my husband watches TV. Bliss.

4 - I've headed over for Pack Time much earlier than I do when I'm writing. So I've gotten way more sleep. This morning I woke up at 4:00 because my body is used to waking up with only 5 hours of sleep. But I realized I could go back for two more hours. Mmm.













5 - I watched the hockey game. Stanley Cup play-offs on Tuesday night, game 3. Lots of woo-hooing in our Cole Harbour house for Sidney Crosby!

Normally I would be at the computer with the game on TV to my left, which I would glance at in between writing. What luxury to simply sit down and watch the whole thing.

Photo by Peter Diana

6 - Listening to a whole bunch of CDs that we haven't heard in awhile. We usually use the CD player in the computer to listen to music. With that gone, my husband pulled out the big ghetto blaster and stacks of CDs that have been collecting dust and we've been enjoying some favorites. Like this one:



7 - As often happens, when I'm in the middle of one WIP, I start getting ideas and scenes for another WIP. So instead of thinking about my early Victorian gardener, Robbie (who resembles Ewan McGregor,) I've been doing some heavy-duty thinking about my dark fantasy and the Chamberlain of the Keep, Scorpius (a dead-ringer for Richard Armitage.)

8 - Doing some pre-planning for the mega collage event at my writers' group Book in a Day all-day workshop on June 13th.

9 - Tending to my husband's erupting cyst on his neck. Good times. Three bandage changes a day. Yay.

10 - Mowing my enormous lawn. I actually find it relaxing, in a sweaty sort of way.

11 - Visiting over at my best friend's house when we dropped the computer tower off. Such luxury!

12 - Doing overtime at work to try to get caught up on a huge backlog of scanning. This actually makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere instead of digging a hole in mud, just to watch it immediately fill in again. Added bonus - no one to interrupt.

13 - Taking a tiny chip off the clutter mountain that is our apartment. Yay me!

Janet says You've sure got a lot going on!

Alice Audrey says Even if I'm supposed to be working on one WIP, another keeps cropping up.

Anthony North says I always keep a cheap back-up, so this doesn't happen to me.

Thursday Thirteen - 96 - 13 Random Shots From My Collection

- 1

One happy me at Toronto's Union Station













- 2











Two shutterbugs at my parents-in-law's 50th wedding anniversary, Oct. 2007

My sister-in-law Violetta and my husband's cousin Sheila


- 3










Three high school choir friends, 20 years and counting on a Girls' Overnight in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia

Maureen, Dawn and me


- 4









Three uncles and a niece

My mom's brothers: Uncle Warren, me, Uncle Charlie and Uncle Louie


- 5











Five cousins at the November family dinner, 2007

Myself and fellow blogger Heather, my cousin's wife

My cousin Julianne, her daughter Laura, my sister Michelle


- 6











Six members of my parents-in-law's bridal party:

Groom's sister Pat, groom's best friend Dalton, bride's sister Ruthie, couple's friend Barry, bride Joan and groom David


- 7










Seven Christmas partiers from my old office, Land Registration:

A fellow from another county (in the city for the party,) then my Legendary Scan Team of Yore - Mike H.; Mike J. - the King of Supervisors, me, Ning, my late friend and Eco-Hero of the mega-watt smile Pam Langille, and Chris


- 8












Eight members of my great-grandparents' family:

Isabel, Adelta, my great-grandfather Eugene, Danny, my great-grandmother Emilie, baby Olivette, eldest child Angeline, and my late grandmother Juliette at far right.

There would be four more children before their family was complete.


- 9











Nine writers at the White Point Beach summer retreat:

Elaine, Annette, Pam, Nikki, John, Heidi, Christine, Renee and me


- 10

Ten members of the Dartmouth Choral Society in concert (I'm in there somewhere)



- 11











Eleven old friends sharing stories at my parents-in-law's 50th wedding anniversary, Oct. 2007

Clockwise from left, my father-in-law is 2nd and my mother-in-law is 4th


- 12











Twelve diners at O'Carroll's Restaurant in Halifax when my writers' group took visiting Tor editor Heather Osborn out to dinner.

Clockwise from center: Julianne, Heidi, Pat, Cathryn Fox, two anonymous diners in the back corner, visiting editor Heather Osborn, Annette, Renee, Tammy and Anne


- 13











Thirteen Pension Agency team members who manned the stations for our Amazing Race last summer:

Stephen, me, the CEO, Laura, Karen, Bev, JR, Denise, Jim, Kathy, a member of the White Team, Tracy, and the dance instructor who taught us Irish step dancing