Death, Smoking, And Sex

One time I was watching a newscast about pizza in Italy with my friend/babysitter Jasmine Turner. I remember a reporter asked this Italian kid who invented pizza. He said "the Americans!" and got the back of his head slapped by a passing lady. Jasmine cracked up, so did I, it was so funny.
Jasmine is dead now, she committed suicide almost two years ago. The last time I talked to her I was still coming down from the crazies. I miss her everyday. I think she is in a better place, away from users and abusers. But I still wish she was here, and I know her children who are in foster care have been cheated out of getting to know their mom as adults. That is really hard.
I am lucky to have survived suicidal nights. I remember a few nights when I came so close to doing it, so much emotional suffering and bleakness. It's like you can't see the future. It's so rank.
I haven't been depressed in a very long time now, almost two years. Although I have been a little sad lately.
I think I know why. I have quit smoking. It has been ten days since my last smoke and I'm doing well, doing the patch everyday and enjoying being able to smell the spring air and not smelling like a yuckster AND not tasting foulness. I can actually taste good food again! It's been quite liberating, but I notice I still have morning cravings if I forget to put my patch on.
But I miss smoking, I miss how it was always there for me. This idea (which I know is wrong) that I can relax with a smoke. That I can start the day with a smoke. It's so addictive, and they say it's harder to quit than heroin or cocaine!
I've been getting some good support about quitting, but the sadness comes in waves, especially when I realize I can't EVER smoke again, because I will just get hooked again.
Which makes me think about my old addiction to meth, a very very long time ago, and back to Jasmine, who was the one who told my mum about it and tried to get me to stop. That wasn't what made me stop. I was talking about it with a friend I met on the beach in Vancouver. I had just come off a binge and was dumped by Ivana, my best girlfriend. I was depressed and in danger of becoming dependent on meth. My friend must have noticed this because he then told me ALL about his addiction to meth and how he beat it, all these things it did to his body. I will always remember that talk on the beach. I never smoked it again.
Life is strange, so many things come and go, and death is an ever present force. I have lately lost some faith in what happens after death. I used to be so certain of an afterlife, and now I am not so sure. I haven't seen or heard from Jasmine again, except in a dream. I also dreamt of another friend who has died, Carla Marie Powers. I dreamt she had a girlfriend on the other side!
I often worry about whether or not there will be sex on the other side. I've heard various opinions, some people say it's a physical thing and then other people say it's a spiritual thing so who knows???
The one thing I am looking forward to because of quitting smoking is that my dating options will widen to people seeking a non smoker. Hurrah! I am now officially a nonsmoker!
Well enough silly rambling. I will write more when I have something else I am thinking of.
Oh, and by the way Dr Saffy had her baby, a girl!

I miss you Dr Saffy!

My doctor has gone on Maternity Leave until September 2010. OH! So long without her! She's my favorite doctor I have ever had and now she's starting her family so no more feeling reassured by her bedside manner.
In fact, even though she is a GP she did come see me when I was in the hospital and stopped by my bed. It was hilarious because I was half asleep and still mildly delusional and started talking about the importance of the Paris Expo. And she wrote it down in my file!
She looks kind of like Saffy from Absolutely Fabulous, so my mom and I call her Dr. Saffy. She's even super smart like Saffy.
It was really nice to see her at the hospital, she was one of the only GP's to do rounds in the psych ward. And it's so important to see people you know when you're in a place like that. I have always enjoyed seeing the people who have come to visit me, even when I'm in a funny state like that. I'm sure I said some crazy things to all of them, but mostly I just appreciated not being left to rot. I felt bad for some of the patients, like some of the elderly ones, who never seemed to get visitors.
I also feel bad for patients who have to rely on Medi clinics. Not having that regular continuity of care sucks. Even though my doctor's on leave, at least my file is still going to go to the next doctor and they'll see years of notes.
Dr. Saffy is the one who got me into the psych ward the last time, my mum was making appointments for me with her and talking to her about what was going on and I was just out of it so I don't really remember too much about my interactions with her. Just the appointment on the day of going in to the hospital and I was so sure I was dying because I felt weird and she said I was fine except she thought I needed to go to the hospital. And I trusted her so I went.
And it was fine.
She's been there for all kinds of medical issues, from burning off warts to doing pap smears to testing me for whatever bizarre things I thought I had, and sometimes I was
right.
Even when I was considering transitioning she was being an excellent doctor and looking into what my medical needs would be.
I will miss her terribly and look forward to being in her care again.

My gamer past

I've never been big into video games. I remember the first ones, that were just blocks of colour moving around like Atari's ET, which was the worst video game ever. All that would happen is he'd fall into a pit and you couldn't get out. His neck would move up and down and he'd walk back and forth, but that's all it was. ET falling into a pit.

And then there was Pacman, and I even convinced my mum to buy Pacman cereal. And then of course that notorious feminist Ms. Pacman.

Gauntlet was great fun, my cousin Luke and I used to go to the arcade on Broadway with some quarters and play for as long as we could. But because it was in an arcade, we didn't play ALL DAY! We could have though, it was fun.

Then there was Nintendo, with such favorites as Caveman Games, where the object was to do caveman things like start a fire with two sticks and swing a woman around by the hair and throw her. Yeah, I was a kid but even then I thought that was a bit much.

But Mario Brothers sucked up most of my time. Super Mario Brothers, all the way to Super Mario 4.

As an adult I've seen my best friend have a serious addiction to Katamari Damacy, and I loved that game too, enough to buy the PSP 2 console just to play it. But since Mario Brothers I've never had an addiction on a game. My Mum was addicted to Dr. Mario once, and another friend's mom was addicted to Legend of Zelda.

But today I came SO CLOSE to signing up for World Of Warcraft, thinking I should give it a chance. And then I thought, No. Too many people get addicted to that crazy game and let it suck away their lives.

I'm not big into video games anymore, but I sure do love facebook.


Here is someone more successful at ET than me.

Needs Curtains

The first time I went crazy I ripped all the curtains off the windows. And the weird thing is I remember how much work went into those cheap little curtains. A friend remarked how he had never gone into a house without curtains before.

I don't have curtains again, but I didn't rip them down in a fit of pique this time. They just never got put up. I was standing on my bed today and looking out the window and thinking to myself: If I ever want to convince someone cute to have sex in this room, I ought to have some curtains. After all, one never knows when something particularly acrobatic could occur.

Don't ask why I was standing on the bed.

Since lighting this love candle I've felt small changes in my life. My libido's going back to normal instead of non-existent, and I'm noticing cute women, and I'm actually curious about who I'm going to meet. Instead of just feeling sad about my last affair.

I mean look, I must be nesting if I am thinking about curtains. It's the practical things.

And I admit I have had some smokes. But I really am quitting this time. I keep putting my patch on and go for several hours before smoking. But even that has to stop, and it will.

I think I have an addictive personality. I like things that can fit in my routine and make me feel better. Like writing, or coffee, or cigarettes or any of my other vices. Well, writing's not a vice, except when you're suffering extreme hypergraphia and have manic energy and a world wide platform like the internet.

I've definitely had an interesting life so far. And I'm 31 years old now! I'm getting old. I still don't have many white hairs, but they are there. Actually I've found white hairs starting when I was nineteen. But there weren't many, ever, even now. My Grandpa's 90 and some of his hair is still dark, he doesn't have much dark hairs left, but still, at 90!

I had my bipolar duty to go get blood levels checked since they hadn't been checked since October! Anyway, I had thought it would be a smooth operation (I don't know why, my veins are little titchy goobs that no one can find!) so I was watching her put the needle in and then she couldn't get anything out of me but one feeble spurt. So she got another nurse (or technician or whatever they are) to do it and she got it really fast and it didn't involve all that poking around the last one did. OH MAN! I thought I was tough but I got a total queasy tummy looking at all that and all that pain and I was worried I was gonna throw up. And still I had to get a prescription and an appointment with the nurse, all while just wanting to go pop some gravol.

By the way, ginger gravol really works!

Grubby, but not grubs

It's high time I had a shower. Since lighting my love candle I have noticed myself taking care of myself better in the hopes it will attract someone more than grubby careless me. But my hot water is off because I couldn't pay the bill. So I am unable to shower unless I go to Mum's. And I haven't been to Mum's in a couple days.

Grubby me all over again!

When I got out of the hospital the first time I didn't shower as frequently as I should have. I was so depressed I didn't have the energy to shower, nor did I see the point.

The other day if you were around my house in the morning you might have seen a chubby half naked lesbian chasing a little orange pussy, and that would have been me. That bad Schrodinger got out and was making a daring escape for it while I was checking the mailbox. He's done this to me before, which makes me think I should change the way I check my mail. Wearing clothes while doing it would be a good start.

In truth I should get a bathrobe. I used to have one, but it got burnt because it was the bathrobe I wore for 6 weeks straight in the hospital. And it was covered with tobacco stains besides. Pretty gross!

I'm hungry. I'm waiting for my mommy to pick me up so I can have a shower and eat. I slept some this afternoon. Tomorrow I'm working two short shifts, with a doctor's appointment in the middle.

Oh noes! Nausea!

Maybe I should get some pepto bismol. I am home sick from work, I went and everything but as I was sitting there doing my job I started feeling REALLY sick, like seconds away from vomiting. So I had to go tell the in charge and go home and I feel bad about it. It seems to be passing, but then it will come back in like waves. Waves of nausea. GRODY!

So I'm home again. Wondering what to do. I have been wearing the patch for about three hours now and no smokes, but I might have ONE last one. I am wondering if I am getting nausea from the patch? I really shouldn't have one. Dammit!
See, this is what happens when you blog from freely flowing thought, you argue with yourself on live internet.

Okay, I'm having one but I put the rest of the pack in the freezer so I can't see it on the desk and automatically reach for one. I am smoking it now. I like not smoking, but there's always this idea that I can have the ideal last cigarette. Whatever that is.

And hopefully I don't drop dead after my last cigarette. But anyway, here goes.

So far it is like any cigarette I have ever smoked. It is merely average. It is a DuMaurier Distinct King Size. I've smoked a lot of different kinds of cigarettes, but this is the brand I smoked primarily, even though it was more expensive and I lived in Vancouver half of my smoking life with no treaty discount. All those taxes. This brand used to be known as DuMaurier Light King Size. They were legally required to change the name because it was alleged that people smoked lights more often because it sounded healthier, when they are all the same in regards to what they do to your body.

I used to really like smoking when I wrote.

One of the problems with my smoking is the ashtray. It often smolders and could possibly start a fire.

It never has, but one of my close friends started a fire with her cigarette. And all the spontaneous combustion cases I have heard of involved a smoker. Like poor Mary Reeser.

My smoke is over, and so is my smoking life. Actually it turned out to be a very nice smoke, because I thought so much about it and wrote this.

I'm looking forward to being a non-smoker. No more gross mouth, no more ashtray. No more smelliness. I never have a girlfriend when I am a smoker. And I've smoked on and off for eight years. My last dates were while I wasn't smoking. There is just something about it, I'm almost certain my pitiful love life has to do with my smoking. And probably the four combined years of recovering from episodes. All in all I've been always moving around or not able to be involved for whatever reason. It's been strange. But I'm still hoping that just by quitting smoking again, I will magically attract non smoking girls.

Right now my stomach feels fine. What if it's morning sickness?

An interesting fact: Parthenogenesis can happen to a woman all by herself, one egg will somehow (I forget how they explain this works) fertilize another egg from the same woman.

This makes me worry I am knocked up by some fluke egg collision.

Which is hilarious.

Another interesting fact: Since there are only X chromosomes in eggs, the resulting baby would be a girl.

It's also called Virgin Birth, as I mentioned in the last post, which makes me wonder . . .

If this is what happened to Mary, Jesus must have been a woman.

I don't know anything about intersexed people and parthenogenesis. So I'm not sure if Jesus could have been intersexed. But that's possible too I imagine.

So there you go, a female or intersexed Jesus. It boggles the mind. Well, not really.

Wet and Wild

It's a monday morning, I have to go to work soon but I thought I would write a small blog first.

I am quitting smoking today! Yes! I have the patch on, smoked my last three cigarettes, and am just going to quit like that.

My little kids are fine. I call them my kids but they are the dog and cat. They've grown up with each other and are best friends, it's very cute. When I first got the dog, the cat would attack him, and he was just a tiny bad kitten then. The dog was a year old already and would give me this look as the kitten was wailing on him and I would try to seperate them but the cat freaked out everytime I put him in another room or his crate just to give the dog some peace and quiet. Poor Mister.

In other news, I still seem to be hung up on my last, for lack of a better word, girlfriend. I miss her terribly and wish I could go for coffee again with her, because she was like my best friend while we were together and it was always fun, until I went crazy. She says she's forgiven me for all the crazy emails I sent her, but she doesn't want to see me again until I can be open with my friends about wanting to see her. I am open with my friends about wanting to see her again and they all just say that I should be over it already.

But I lost my virginity to her, which already makes her special, and then I fell in love with her twice, once when I was a teen and once when I was an adult, and it's hard to shake that. I really did want to just marry her and even have babies with her, though I don't know where we would get the sperm. When I was crazy I thought we could get a baby through parthanogenesis, and then it would be a virgin birth! And then we would raise some lesbian saviour or something. It was all very convoluted, and probably one of the reasons she doesn't want to see me again. Pushing my bipolar eggs on her.

I've been stable for a long time now and it makes me feel like I could do a relationship again, no major issues and all that. But I feel bad for my next girlfriend because I am still hung up on my last one. I know that's mostly because I haven't MET my next girlfriend yet and don't know all the delicious surprises in store, but I still feel like I'm cheating her out of having someone whose heart is fully open to someone new. Someone told me I should go for different types, but when I think of all my past lovers and people I've necked with, I've never had one distinct type or anything. I've had butch and femme lovers. And I fell in love with a butch once, really hard! I dunno.

Spring is bringing my sex drive back, but I am still seeing my psychiatrist this week to get a reduced antidepressant dose to try and bring me back to where I was, all wet and wild and happy.

Big Boned Gals

I worked my first midnight to seven shift last night and am still decompressing. I know I need sleep because at 10:30 i'll have been awake for twenty four hours, which can't possibly be good. Oh man! Oh yay, I am yawning! Well, what's new? I am doing relatively well, except for some financial issues which have impacted my life, but that happens all the time. Stupid bills.
I still have not had my major breakthrough with my video. I don't know why. I need to reinspire myself I think.
I started a love spell! It's not on a specific person, it's more a bring someone into my life kinda spell. Unfortunately I did not have the inside scoop on the best place to buy witchy candles, and I needed a pink one, and all I could find was a huge pink candle, which has been burned at regular intervals over the course of two weeks and is still only halfway down. I feel like it should have been a smaller candle. But who knows, maybe I will get bigger love!
I personally like big girls. I've dated all sizes of girls, but the bigger ones are just a little more sexy for some reason. I think because when I'm with a big girl I'm seeing a type of sexy naked body that isn't reflected in the media. So the rarity of it makes it more delicious. I've seen skinny naked girls everywhere, but chubby naked girls? Not since the pick a fold and fuck it ladies in the back of dirty mags. And you don't see the average chubby naked lady represented, it seems to be either skinny or hugely overweight, not those middle grounders.

Plus, I must say, big girls generally have big breasts. I do! And I like ample breasts.
Well, soon I am going over to mum's where there is no computer! Which means no internet. I have a fun fun day planned of sleeping and eating and waiting for the cuz to call and for us to go for some beers. It IS the weekend after all.

I am a bad blogger

I haven't been writing much lately, mostly because I am working so much right now. I haven't been working on my video either, like I said I would. I've been bad creatively altogether.
But my trusted psych nurse, who I see mostly because she gives me insight to things I otherwise wouldn't have, thinks I am in remission. I certainly hope so. It's been well over a year since I was depressed. And two years since I was manic. And I got to go off one drug altogether. I am doing well, to sum up. And no thoughts of conquering the world. It's been really nice.
I am up past my bedtime. I should get to bed soon. I just came from a lovely dinner party. I haven't been to one in ages, besides the ones my mom has. My mommy.

My Mum and I have been getting along a lot better since I moved out of her house. Unfortunately I owe her money. And it's about the same amount I owe to Student Loans.

It's not as bad as you think, I'm treaty, the vast majority of my education was paid for except for the tiniest fraction, which I got a student loan for. And some of it was already forgiven, and it was a summer session anyway. Still, I know just on principle I will pay my mum back before I pay my stupid tiny student loan.

Being in remission again makes me want to get a girlfriend. But where? So far two people on facebook have mentioned Toronto, but I don't particularly want to live in Toronto. And I had a girlfriend who lived in Toronto, and she wasn't interested in living in Vancouver until I moved away from it. And by then we were long since broken up because she said there was no way we could be together because of the distance. I remember I had a nightmare that she dumped me because of her phone bill, and that she would have kept going out with me if Sprint had done it's cheap long distance plan while we were still going out. Who knows.
I'm feeling optimistic about my future lately, not necessarily because of the job, maybe mostly because it is spring and everything looks better in the spring.

UFO's and Artist types

Well, me again.

I'm starting to feel more grown up and recovered than before doing all this work. It's given me some kind of structure and purpose, more than the call centre job I must admit. Because the call centre was something I had done for so long.

But I do really want to be making art too. I really like that. I need to figure out a way to make it so someday. Just live from grant to grant with some award money and stuff thrown in. Or win 649.

I don't get it. I think I blew my wad on Unusual Occurances Allowed Per Life like winning the lottery when Laurel and I saw those two UFO's out by Cranberry Flats. It was such a weird situation, because they were out there for three hours and we saw them show up. In that strange way they did, like streams of light bouncing back and forth in the sky in a circle, and then widening to oval white lights, and then an hour later they were green balls that were shimmering and starting to jump around in the sky, and then they could turn into solid balls of light. And we still don't know what they were, hence they were UFO's. What the hell? What the fuck was that? SO WEIRD! I wrote about it on my old blog, Fit Of Pique.

So seeing UFO's, AND winning the lottery? No way, I so don't see it. But it's nice to dream isn't it?

Being single for so long, I am starting to worry about myself. I used to get so many crushes, and I haven't had any for a long time. Not even an all consuming crush on a movie star. I'm not even aroused by Angelina Jolie anymore! Something is wrong. I am lowering my antidepressant soon in the hopes the problem will be alleviated. I feel chemically spayed. Blech.

I am saving up money for my next tattoo. I am getting cherry blossoms in an oval on my left forearm. I want them because I always used to get depressed in the winters in Vancouver and I would promise not to do anything until the spring, and by spring things looked way better.

I miss being in school, not enough to go back, but enough just to remember happy times when I was all hypomanic and editing all the time. I loved film school. I love film and video. I need to bring it into my life a bit more, it's my passion but I feel like in the last two months I have made no progress on my big project. I feel like a stagnant video artist. Terrible! Well if this is the year of big changes, then I will vow to work on my art more. I need to do some new comics too.

Anyway, I gotta crash. Night night internet world.

update

It's been a long time since I have written.

I have gotten a new job which has taken a lot of my time, not to mention my internet was down. DOWN! I hadn't been able to pay my isp for a long time, and they cut me off until I could pay. Which I finally have, and so I am writing from home, most happily facebooking and all those other things I do online.

I have a smouldering ashtray in front of me. Fucking ashtray.

I come up as number two in google suggestions when you type in Thirza! I'm famous! And I have a weird name!

I like being me these days. Which is good. I'm doing pretty well, and I can get up early for work, which is also good.

I've been so bored without the internet and television! NO SIMPSONS! Oh lord, it was brutal!

My mum is here to go online. I will write more later.

Looking for work in all the right places?

I've been doing well these days. I have a lot of energy, not manic energy, just a lot more since getting off Seroquel and drastically reducing my pot intake. I have an interview tomorrow with Sasktel to be an Operator, I'm pretty excited about this, especially since it pays 20 bucks an hour!!! I think I would be an awesome Operator, but I have to really think and spiff myself up so I Look good in the interview. I had to do a typing test and get 40wpm, and it freaked me out a bit when I was sweating and typing as fast as my fingers could fly. But I passed and moved on to the interview part of applying, so that's good.
There is also another job I am applying for, but I don't want to jinx it so I'm not going to talk about it much.
I"M SO TIRED! Oh man, I stayed up too late last night because I was reading my diary from when I got out of the hospital the last time, and it was kind of nice reading all that stuff, my thoughts. I lost my diary recently, I had a beautiful bluey green diary and it just up and walked out on me. I don't know where it is for the life of me. It MUST be in my apartment somewhere, I know I didn't take it out the door. There were some goals in there I wanted to achieve and now I can't remember what they are.
I'm sleepy! Wah!
I really do hope I get one of these jobs I am applying for, I need to get something that pays better than what I am making now. And I need to know I can move away from call centres into something else, something more substantial. Call centres have generally been there for me when no one else would hire me because I was too damn butch looking, but they don't pay very well and it's getting difficult to realize I do all this work for only ten bucks an hour. Even with a bachelor's degree. And I can't do film work, like, on set, because the hours and the stress of working on set for other people gets to me. I could be an editor quite happily, but getting yelled at everyday, nope nope nope. Nevermind that I get yelled at on the phones by people, that's different though, they just yell because they're annoyed, but on film sets people yell because they think that's how a set should be run. UGH!
I talked to my ex Velveeta last night, who is now an elvis impersonator (but not a drag king she says) named Velvis. You can see her here. She always makes me laugh, and she makes a great elvis!
Anyway, I have a big day tomorrow so I should hit the sack. I'm showering in the mornings now, but my hair still ends up looking unruly, I'm growing it out and it's all kinds of bizarre right now. I just want to put a bag over my head until I can finally show off my new bright red locks.
Hey, my friend Shavonne has a new blog you should check out! And I mention this because she first posted the following video on her blog Tussy Talk and the song is now embedded in my head.
I Seen Beyonce at Burger King!

Some updates on this and that.

I didn't win 48 million, but I did get a nice artist fee that paid off most of my debt to my mom. And there's still the Millionaire Life draw!
I had a burger at the Broadway Cafe with Mum for dinner tonight, it was SO good! And I was SO hungry! I slept all afternoon because I was still tired from last night, Ryan Wonsiak had a goodbye party at Walkers and tons of people were there. It was a lot of fun, until the end when my drunk cousin Sharlene splashed a beer in her sister Deanna's face and it got on me. Deanna splashed back, which I think surprised Sharlene but I was kind of rooting for her to get back at her at that point. Do two wrongs make a right? No, but at least Sharlene had to suffer the indignity of being covered with beer too.
I'm drinking a beer and then I'm going to bed, I am still tired and the Seroquel withdrawals have eased up. I can now go to sleep much easier. I DID get pot to help me sleep, but I don't think I need it anymore. I'm sleeping good, and waking up nice and early. This afternoon I slept a lot, because I was up really late last night and still had to get home this morning to feed the animals.
I love my animals. Right now the dog is sacked out on his favorite chair and the cat is awol in the house, probably on my bed right now. The dog and I were wrestling earlier, he's fun to wrestle with. He does his play bow bunches of times and it's cute.
If you're reading this on Facebook, it is because I am importing my blog into my notes. No I don't usually write a lot of notes like this, this is just me blogging as per usual.
Well, it's almost 11 o'clock, time for bed! I'm liking going to bed early these days, I used to be more of a night owl, but I find going to bed at a set hour better for my bipolar.
So I'm off the seroquel and still doing well, next I'm reducing my antidepressant to get my libido back. I'm really worried about that, because I've had a terrible time with depression. But I will still be on it, just half of what I'm taking now. I have to wait to see my shrink before I cut back though.

Sooo TIRED!

I am in the process of getting off my Seroquel because it makes me sleep in way too much. But it's been two nights without it and I'm having a hard time sleeping. It's pretty frustrating, especially when I know that if I just smoked some POT I could get to sleep better. But I shouldn't self medicate, but OOOOH just a joint before bed would put me out. It's so bothering me.
It's Friday the 13th. I don't know why THIS day is supposed to be unlucky, hopefully nothing bad happens to me today. I'm home sick because of various reasons, mostly to do with feeling sick. BLEH!
I was going to apply to a call centre, but they are looking for speakers of native languages and I don't know much Cree besides Tansi Atim, which means Hello Dog! I don't think that would be the best way to address a person on the phone.
I do have an interview with RBC next wednesday, I'm pretty excited about that, I am applying to become a teller. Client Service Representative is the actual term. I hope no one tries to rob the bank.
Oh man, I'm SO freakin' tired. I just want to roll over and go back to bed. I might have a nap, but I should stay up and try to get my sleep back on track. I haven't had sleep problems the whole time with Seroquel, but I have been OVER tired, which is a problem. I'm wondering how long it will take for me to get back to normal.
Ughy, I have to get something to eat. I think I will go to mum's.

I was in the grocery store with mum the other day and we were looking at the nutritional information on the back of two packs of soup. She asked me how much sodium my favorite ichibans had. 1290mg. That's a LOT! I'm trying to eat healthier ever since learning from my dietitian that I have high cholesterol. And I don't want to have a heart attack soon. I feel like there's still a lot I want to do.

It was funny seeing all the rubber food the dietitian had. Rubber carrots, rubber fish, rubber potatoes and rice.

It depresses me to think of having a heart attack. I have to do something about this.

I read somewhere online that one guy lowered his cholesterol levels just by quitting smoking. I AM smoking right now, but I still want to quit. And I think I will. I'm almost ready.

I've gotten used to drinking diet colas now. It's really nice actually, I thought I would miss regular cola a lot more than I do.

If I had a cheap non toxic option to smoking I would. But nearly everything gives you toxic bluckies when you smoke it. Smoking's not very natural, we should be eating it.

My cousin has moved into her new place, I'm happy for her, I'm glad she has a place to live in town.

Me chastising myself for better habits of an artist

I've had a ton of fun this weekend, saw more of my friends than I usually see these days. It felt like having a life, besides cleaning, and editing, which seems to be the two things I'm always doing. when I'm not on the net. The difficult thing about editing at home is that I can always veer to the internet when I'm supposed to be editing. And I haven't been doing any writing besides my blogging. I feel like I blog to keep up my writing skills, even if it's all drivel. Just to know I'm at least writing SOMETHING every so often.

But I haven't been working on my short screenplay or my final report(s) or my next grant either. I've been a bum writer, writing for short lived internet jollies. And I haven't even written my more serious editorial pieces or anything. Just goofiness.

I'm still aspiring to live a healthier lifestyle. And when I say lifestyle I do not mean being queer. I hate when people call being queer a lifestyle, like it's up there with being a fitness buff or something. No one ever calls heterosexuality a lifestyle.

But I did fall off the no smoking wagon. I feel guilty and bad about it. Oh man, especially when I think who would want to kiss a smoker? I don't mind kissing smokers, but it just makes me one point more appealing if I quit. And I need that one more point of charm!

And I do have yoga to do now, which is actually a lot of fun. The whole point is relaxation, which is nice. I like it so far. I can do Corpse really well!

I have to go to bed now.

the Buzz

Last night I went to my first of three yoga classes. We learned some basic poses, like Child's Pose and Pyramid and Downward Dog and Tree, which always makes me fall over. Timber! I did pretty well on my poses, had a little trouble with three of them, which is to be expected for a newbie.
Tonight I am going to go see Milk at the Roxy with some buddies. I'm excited, I haven't been to the movies in a month or so. I think we're also going to watch some of my videos. That will be interesting. I don't know if I have a copy of Untouchable though, I do but in 3/4" format.
I haven't had pot in a week or so, two weeks actually, to be honest. I kinda wanna get stoned now that it's the weekend, but no dineros for pot. I talked with my psych nurse about pot, she told me I'd have even more stability if I abstained from it. But I don't really want to give it up for good yet. I do like it, I just want to use it more responsibly. No more binging. I have two weeks before I'm letting myself buy again, for Valentines Day. Or the Fifteenth. Or whenever the weekend is really.
I'm considering seeing an addictions worker about it. I'd like to hear what they have to say anyway. At least it's not heroin. But it still does a number on your lungs.
That all being said, if my movie buddies tonight passed me a joint I sure would appreciate the buzz!

Video I love it

My life has been going well since I've started making healthy changes. I am going to a Yoga class tonight where it's for total beginners, to get you ready to do drop in classes. It goes for three weeks, which is perfect. It's pretty tricky stuff, yoga, I never realized how much it would push me until I did the free queer yoga class through the Avenue Community Centre.

I'm making progress on my video. Right now it's still a jumbled mess, but a shape is starting to take form. Which is good. It's such an ambitious project, and the next video is similar in scope, although totally fictional. I haven't got a structure worked out yet. Normally I would be sitting down writing out a flow for the tapes I make, and I haven't actually DONE that yet. Maybe because my narration is still untaped.

The funniest thing happened to me at work, I called my ex at HER workplace. I felt funny about it, we were both professional and just dealt with each other like any other call, I didn't dare try to strike up a conversation in case she slammed the phone down, which was probably for the best. But I did feel kind of sad that we didn't talk to each other like ex lovers do. Or whatever.

I was going to go for a ski today, but I think I will go tomorrow instead. I will now go edit more of my video. VIDEO!!!! i love it!

More videoing

Is videoing even a word? I don't think we used it in film school. But I did do some shooting today of my mommy's interview. I hope that it will round out my video. I also have to shoot some footage of myself, but I want to know what I have to work with first.

I've been okay, I'm trying to better my life still. I only partied once this weekend, which was nice. Last night I just stayed home with the pets and goofed off. I have to clean again because my place is YET AGAIN a huge mess.

I'm excited for editing, I have tons of footage now and think I have just enough to make a good video. I may just use myself to do the voiceover, maybe a little bit of me talking.

I really want to get the whole damn thing done by March so that I can apply for a big grant again in April. I want to do a Mars recruitment video. But I really need a script to show the funders, there's a better chance of getting a grant if I do it. So I also have to work on that. Plus festivals are starting to ask about showing it, and I really do want to get it done for their deadlines.

I'm pretty impressed with the things Obama has done so far. Pretty exciting times for those americans. Even to be canadian is exciting, what with the coalition rumours.

I have most of tomorrow off except for 3 to 6 when I am working. It will be kind of nice, I hope to clean and edit. Clean and edit, clean and edit, clean and edit, that's my life. I wish there was a coffee shop I liked to sit in, so I could write down ideas. That's where I do my best writing, in a coffee shop. There are some in Sutherland, a short bus ride from where I live, and I'm sure once I get a weekend routine going BEYOND partying I could sit in there and write.

I guess at a certain point in everyone's life, they want more than cheap thrills and actually want to focus on career goals and other important life things. I'm smoking up WAY less and I have noticed a difference, I have more motivation for one thing, more energy, I don't just SIT around anymore. I actually got it together to videotape my mom today, which was good because I'd been avoiding it for a while.

It's funny that my career has nothing to do with how I ordinarily make a living, which is as a market research interviewer (since 2002!). But I have had BIG grants twice during that time, where I either worked on a video or wrote a screenplay.

It's funny, you know what really made me want to stop smoking so much pot was my creativity. It gets dulled from too much pot use and as a practicing artist I can't afford to keep flushing creativity down the loo. I think slowing down has been a positive influence in my life.

I've decided to do this First Step Yoga class with the City of Saskatoon, it's three beginner yoga classes that get you ready to do drop in yoga classes. I'll probably do my drop in yoga at the Y, but I'd like to know some of the basic positions before I step into that.

Things are going remarkably well in my life, as a result of all the changes I've been making. I still wish I kept a cleaner house though.

Shame

I think one of the most annoying things about my last manic episode was losing the password to not only my email, but also my blog which I had meticulously tended for four years. It was one of my longest running weblogs and I was pretty proud of it, UP until I went crazy. and normally I erased stupid manic shit when I was back down to the ground putting my life back together. But this time I COULDN'T! Oh man what a shame!
I have often felt subsequently embarrassed by thoughts I expressed during mania, because they often don't make much sense to anyone, including myself, and often focus on topics like religion which I actually don't think about very much when I'm sane. And ironically enough, often of Christian themed topics.
I blame my Grandma, who always roped me into Bible Camp every summer, even though I never read the bible.
I'm trying to look on the bright side. Like that certain people weren't named, or that I did stop before I went REALLY nuts, but it's still embarrassing. I'd like to think maybe some psychiatrist or C/S/X will come across it and use it to help write about thoughts people in hypomania have.
It's been a year now that I've been stable. No depressed episodes, and no manic episodes. It's kind of amazing. I've NEVER been stable for this long. I don't remember a time in my life where I felt so good, and not in a manic way. I just feel very normal. It could be remission. I'm not sure. I've never really been in remission. I always got depressed just when I thought I was okay. It's a little scary to think it took until I was a few months shy of turning thirty to find real stability with this bipolar I diagnosis I have. If I'd known when I was struggling with depression at the age of 11 that it would be almost 20 years of on again off again struggles with my mood disorder, I might have given up. That IS a long time. I haven't even had a rage in a long time either. When I was a kid I used to get frustrated at something small and go apeshit and trash my room. I've since learned that wrecking your own stuff because you're In A Mood is just bullshit.
One other thing I'm embarrassed about concerning my manic episodes is I tend to fixate on women I like. I freaked one out in my first episode by sending her a weird note, and then the next woman I sent BUNCHES of weird emails to and really did make her super weirded out by me. Fuck I felt like such a creep, and was so ashamed because she and I really did have a nice time together until my mania began.
But you know what, maybe that had to happen so I would take the damn thing seriously and stay on my meds.
I've also been taking iron everyday, and I think that resolved some of my issues with the depression. Not all of them, I sill have to take my celexa or I get really down and listless. It's like being the walking dead. Ugh.
Shame about the things I've done or said while crazy. Shame about being crazy. It's still there, even though I've been open about my bipolar disorder since it cropped up in my life during the montreal mania. I think it's mainly shame about losing control, being in an altered state for a significant period of time and being embarrassed about that. I've never been on a drug that's given me the same terrifying highs of mania. It's so enchanting to step into that world, but to have it make often lasting impacts on one's friendships and relationships and so on, it's shameful. I wish it wasn't.

scrapings

Day One of no pot. Well, I did scrape my pipe and smoked it. Didn't get high. So, day one of no pot. Well I cheated. I know I did. I almost bought a tenner of pot, which is pitiful and so small no one I know would actually sell it to me.

I have this friend who's always on an eternal quest to buy just a gram. Just ONE gram of pot! No one I know has sold to him. He's on his own!

I knew places in Vancouver where you could buy small amounts, but even then they wouldn't sell just ONE gram.

It's like selling some crumbs.

I shouldn't even talk about marijuana if I'm trying not to use, but it has been a constant friend, even longer than cigarettes. And besides, how do I know I want to quit?

Because it makes me jellybrained and sleepy.

The sleepy part is kind of nice, except for when you pig out on a bag of chips and then crash for four hours in the middle of the day. Ugh.

Lots of people I know can use pot sparingly, except for me. I don't know why I'm such a porker when it comes to the green, but I am. I sometimes only perk up about social occasions when I find out pot is involved somehow. IT MAKES ME FEEL PITIFUL AND ANGRY AT MYSELF`! Woah, sorry about the all caps. It does though, because I feel like I had all this potential when I was younger and what did I do with it? Became a stoned old blogger with no romance in my life smelling of smoke and looking for my next high. fuck!

I am also thinking I should switch to diet soda. I think all the calories in real soda are contributing to my weight gain. And I already have a hard time with weight since I've been taking pills.

Oh dear, bedtime. Off to work I go tomorrow~! No more pot for me! I can do it if I believe!

Without it

I've had a longstanding use of pot. Since I was 19 I have been using on and off. But now that all those years of use have passed I wonder if I could have done more with my life besides sitting around stoned for so long.

I'm not liking who it is making me either. I'm feeling desperate more often than not, and that's just no good. It's also costing me a lot of money, and it's not really worth it.

Plus I think it's killing my creativity. I can't do or think of good things while I'm sitting around looking like a burn out. I've been thinking abut this for a long time. I'd like to go back to a different way of life, one where I do things with myself like sit in a bubble bath with candles, instead of just inhaling burning plant materials to make myself feel better. It's a bummer for a lot of reasons.

It will totally change the dynamic with my friends, some of who are also chronic users. I do have clean friends though.

Maybe I should take a LONG break. Like a few months. Although if I like being clean, maybe I could stretch it out. I don't know if I can honestly say Never again, but I can always take it as it comes.

Who will I be without weed? I'm really curious. That's mostly why I want to do it, I want to find out who I will be without it.

A break? An epiphany?

One day I was walking with my mum in a spot where we used to roll joints when she ripped a plant out of the ground and said "Smell this and tell me what it is!" So I did and I said, "It's weed!" I dn't know how that little plant managed to grow that big without any of us noticing what it was. I used to live at another place that had real opium poppies growing in the backyard.

Accidentally growing drugs is funny. I don't grow drugs. I just grow little household plants, like this funky little tree I bought last year.

Anyway, I'm still recovering from New Years, I partied pretty hard and it's made me tired. I can't do that again for a while.

I'm waiting for some inspiration to hit. I'm really stuck again.

I've also realized I am ready to meet someone new. I think I am anyway.

I had a dream about a friend who had died. She was exactly the same as she was in real life! It was so vivid for a while I thought she had come back to life. Then I woke up. But I still felt happy.

these days I have been noticing I'm a bit down, but I think that's because I had lower back pain. I still kind of do. I don't know what it's from, so I think I should see my doctor about it.

I really need my creative juices to start flowing again. I've been watching the Simpsons and Corner Gas whenever I can, and then I'm just reading the news. Barely even writing, much less editing. I also need to shoot more.

I'm sad to report that my rhino video got pulled from Youtube. It still remains on my facebook. There are tons of other rhino sex videos on youtube, but male on male rhino fellatio gets deemed inappropriate. It was cute! Aw, oh well.

In other news, well, nothing. I found out I didn't get a grant, which sucks but is okay because I haven't worked on it enough. As an idea. I may apply for another screenwriting grant or research-creation grant. I have to get my video done first though, which is why I'm waiting for my creativity to come back.

Maybe it is the weed smoking. Maybe I should go on a really long break, until I get some work done on my project. That would be a good idea. And I should clean.

I think I'm gong to do a long break off of drugs and real quit tobacco. I haven't smoked tobacco all day, which is good. I'm still on the patch. I did smoke some pot, but after that I have n more left, and that's fine by me. Maybe I'll be more creative without weed in my life, more stable even. I'm going to experiment and find out. It will be my New Year's resolution to not let weeds fill the cracks in my life and learn who I am without it.

Hmm, so I guess we will see how it goes!

But I will still drink beer!

2008? 2009!

Happy New Year All! Soon we will be entering 2009, a brand new year close to a decade after y2k. I remember New Year's Eve on Y2K, I was so happy when the lights were still on.

2008 was a good year for me. I had my grant, I moved into Coop housing, and I went out more and more.

I went to Ness Creek for the first time and met some bears. I went down a waterslide. I went to Scotland and connected with my roots there for the first time.

I've come up with some good resolutions for next year. Mostly I want to take my work more seriously and papertrain Mister so he'll only poo in one place. and I want to quit smoking, seriously! I haven't had a smoke all day and it's a good thing. I'm back to the patches.

It would be really nice to fall in love this year. I'm so used to being single, it would be kind of nice for a change to have someone to love.

Trying to think of a Christmas Message

I just found some government cheques I hadn't cashed. And at a time when I need money too!

Christmas is nearly upon me and ever since we scaled back family present shopping to immediate family, my shopping list became teeny. Basically I bought the Beatles LOVE Cd for my sister and my mum is going to a movie with me. I can spill the beans on my prezzies because Sky can't read the internet, or anything really beyond the word PIZZA, and Mum already knew what she was getting.

The Christmas Brunch this year was nice and small as usual and we got crunk. MUCHO boozing. Today was my last day of work before Christmas and I got a present and had some nibbly things. It was nice to get a present from work.

I must have had an off day though because it was hell trying to make quota, not usually a hard thing for me.

I signed my subsidy agreement for 2009 at the coop office today, so next month's rent is pretty wonderfully small and affordable. I never imagined I would have such affordable housing, and in the middle of a housing crisis!

I was trying to think of an inspiring Christmas message to impart, but all I could think of was, well, nothing actually. I've been fretting about money this Christmas, I had to part with 25 borrowed dollars to pay for my meds today. That's still cheap compared to what others pay for psych meds. The only reason I do pay any money is because I get my meds bubble packaged. I take about five different meds twice a day and it's hard to keep track all by myself.

So maybe my Christmas message is to fellow money fretting folk. Making presents is just as good, if not better, than buying them. And maybe you can't get everyone what they want for Christmas, but you could arrange some holiday cheer activities like going toboganning or inviting people over for a potluck party.

There's my message.

Anyway. back to me. LOL. I'm currently waiting on some weed and friends, which to me is the best thing possible. I'm easy to please that way.

Goody Two Shoes

I have no time to blog tonight because tomorrow I'm going for breakfast with mum before we pay my bill. I pay my bill and she drives me. ANYWAY, I finally heard about the shoe throwing and I have to say it cracks me up. I watched it on Youtube and I could not believe the amount of times they showed those two shoes sail through the air towards George W. Bush's face. And they MISSED!

Ah well, now more people want shoes thrown at various other people, mostly politicians. I never wanted to see Bush murdered or anything, but a shoe, that's pretty good. Two shoes!

So in lieu of a proper entry, watch in two different angles at variable speeds, the shoes that were thrown at Bush.

Kissing better

I'm home from work today because I feel crappy. Oh well. So much for my spotless attendance. It really is too bad because it means 60 bucks less on my cheque. So I think I'll go into work on Sunday.

I've been shooting this week for Grandpa's 90th birthday, we're doing greetings. Everyone's is different. It's pretty cool, got to videotape family all week. Some of them were hilarious, and at the end Grandpa gets a dvd of his whole family wishing him well. I just need to shoot Auntie Beth still and I'm done. Oh yes, and I have to edit it together, but that won't take long. Think I'll start this afternoon while I'm home. The whole family is getting together on Friday for wine and cheese and cake presumably, with Grandpa and Grandma. I love my grandparents, they keep trying to get me to go to the gay and lesbian church services in town so I can meet somebody. I just might too.

I've been realizing that I want children in my life somehow. Not to raise necessarily, just to hang out with. Kids are fun. But I think I may have to wait until my cousins have kids of their own that I can hang out with. It will happen.

It's been a nice long time since I have gone crazy. I'm glad. Going crazy is a big fucking health concern, because it takes so long to recover from and it does have a very long lead up period. So I'd estimate it takes about a year to go through the whole thing, the lead up, the actual crazy time, and the recovery period where you just sleep and sleep to build back up your seratonin. Even with the amazing meds we have today, craziness still wreaks havoc on one's life.

I really like my job, which is a good thing. I actually feel bad that I'm not there today to interview people. I like interviewing people, it's interesting to find out everybody's opinions on things. Even little things. And the office environment is good, very chill yet professional. It's a good place to work.

Not like another call centre I worked at where the supervisors bitched out the callers once a day about this or that en masse. You really need a supportive office atmosphere to do calling, otherwise it just feels like no one appreciates you, and for sure a lot of the people we call don't appreciate getting calls.

I'm stuck in my big video project I'm working on, Homelands. I have a title finally but I'm stuck on the narrative flow. It's one of those situations where I know I have to shoot a little bit more to get it to work.

I'm still not smoking, and this time I think I might just be able to stick to it. I haven't been bumming smokes and the patch is working. I don't know if I'm rotating the place I stick it to enough though, I've just been jumping from shoulder to shoulder each day. No ill effects so far! And I smell better, and I can taste better, and I can KISS better, and I also have a better smelling apartment. Plus no more wasted money, especially now when money is so tight for me. I'm currently broke and in debt to my mom, who I will be paying back for a loan with my artist fees. I've got a bus pass now though, and some groceries, and rent is paid until January. Also my phone/net/tv bill got paid. I just have to pay my electricity with my next pay cheque and I should be all caught up.

The life of an artist, money or poverty. I wish I had some extra dough right now, especially with christmas coming, but I'm only buying for my mom and my sister this year, which should be easy. Sky's happy with a dvd and mum needs something thoughtful. None of us really needs anything in particular this year, I bought all my major needs during my grant period. Like my red microwave. I use it ALL the time. This is the first time I've had a microwave, and I honestly don't know how I lived without it. It cooks things so fast!

I do need a kitchen table and chairs. I want to have my Christmas Brunch at my house this year but I'm not sure how to do it without a table and chairs. I guess some people could sit on the floor. But I'd feel like a bad host.

Christmas Brunch is the only annual party I do up really. It's just an excuse to eat lots of food and drink and smoke up. It's a totally lush event. The point is to get as drunk as possible midday and therefore sleep it off for the rest of the day. Last year Carrie Gates, Shavonne Somvong, and Ryan Wonsiak came over and it was great fun. I don't know yet who will come this year. Probably Deanna.

I can't NOT do it this year, but I have very little money which means it's going to have to be a potluck brunch again.

Anyway, enough about that. I have been having dreams about girls lately which makes me think I am lonely. I need to get it on with someone, but I don't really have a specific target these days, besides one girl who seems cute and funny. Is cute and funny enough to build a relationship on? Do I even want a relationship? It seems like a relationship would fit into my life, now that things have calmed down for me and I have a job and am committed to taking my medication, instead of just being committed. And now that I've quit smoking I would taste better if someone kissed me.

One of my exes who's tried and failed to quit smoking once told me one of her other lovers said to her "Your pussy tastes just like a cigarette!" "Which I thought was kind of harsh" she said. No doubt.

My pussy no longer tastes like cigarettes.

Long absence

I've had no access to the internet for the past couple of weeks or so. No phone either, and no television! But today I finally managed to pay my bill and I'm hooked up again! It's a relief, because I just finished rereading Slaughterhouse Five and wasn't in the mood to find another book to fill my time. I've quit smoking again, it's not going SO well, keep slipping. But it's getting better everyday!

I'm poor again, it is true, but I've started my new job and I quite like it. Market Research Interviewer again. It's a good gig really, pay is okay and the only problem is figuring out a schedule where I can get a few more hours a week. I may have to pick up a Sunday shift, which is okay generally except on Easter when people get pissy on the phones.

But Easter is a long time away, Jesus has to be born still on Christmas before we get to him dying a horrible death and then coming back to life.

I never understood why he came back to life and then buggered off. I mean, he ressurects, and then his whole physical body goes to heaven? It confuses me. Are there toilets in heaven?

Mum is getting a dog today, hopefully. She's already bought a crate and little dishes and a teeny harness. It's a smoothcoated mini dachshund, and she's naming it Hermione. I hope Hermione and Arthur, the thuggy golden, get along well. Arthur hates little dogs except for my little guy Mister, so he should take to the new pup well. It's exciting, new pets are always exciting. And mum likes dogs. She just wanted to go look at the pups at Petland one day because they had some doxies and fell in love with one of them. The last time we went her sister was gone, but the one mum wanted was still there. So HOPEFULLY by the time we get there this afternoon she'll be there.

I'm so happy to have internet and television back. Hurrah for la interneta!

Golden Avenue

I'm waiting for my phone to recharge when I would rather be talking to my mother. I'm down to one old green lighter, most of mine are totally dead. I have to invest in a new lighter. Even when I stop smoking, I will always need one around!

Schrodinger is crying in my room. I don't know what he's crying about.

Mister chased a garter snake and I got worried it would bite him and anyway, I got made fun of by Mum. And now she is spreading the tale! We went for a picnic out at Blackstrap. We were all surprised to see a snake still out. Mum chased it yelling look, a snake, look! And it was slitherng as fast as it could go, which was at a pretty good clip. Fast little snakey.

Anyway, now I look like a wuss.

Halloween weekend was quiet for me. No major partying or anything. In fact we stayed in on the actual night. Which was the first time I'd done that in ages.

I had one trick or treater. I suspect the stairs were too forboding. Well, there were three of them anyway, and now fifty pieces of chocolate have all been consumed. I could not believe how much chocolate I ate, and my cousin too. It was wild. We even listened to The Monster Mash, Purple People Eater, and the soundtrack to Rocky Horror Picture Show.

And then we watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show, but without props. dammit! We were going to go down to the Broadway, but it was on too early and we had no props.
We also dressed up as Zombies. I had a big slash on my face like a Z for ThirZa!

Yep, that was Halloween 2008. I've almost always gone out. We didn't get seen anywhere in our rad zombie makeup except the McDonalds drive thru. And I still haven't found Golden Avenue.

Working and NOT making babies

I've got some work this week and next week, which is REALLY good because I need the money quite desperately. I also have an interview tomorrow for cfcr, the local coop radio station. I'm pretty psyched. I really hope I get it because it sounds like an interesting job.

Anyway, I'm tired of being poor already. Mostly I just want something with set hours and a future, temping is a bit dodgy just because you don't know when the next job is coming. Plus I have to get up early for work tomorrow, ai! I hope I can do it. Also I need to get my paystubs in to the coop here so I can get on reduced rent.

I'm doing well aside from that, had a very quiet week after I got home from the festival. I mostly just adjusted to being back home, hung out with my cousin and did some goofy stuff. Now I have to clean my apartment. I guess because it is horribly messy. No way could I seduce a woman in this trash heap~!

My libido has ebbed away into a mere whisp of itself. I don't know if this is the medications, but I can be around perfectly cute single girls and not feel a smidgen of lust. It's terrible! I think I should talk to my doctor about it. I need viagra to get it up at all! LOL. I've never taken viagra. I hear you see blue dots on it.

Penis meds. Ha ha ha! I'm glad I don't have one of those, they look way too sensitive to tote around. Breasts are sometimes sensitive, but they get jostled around all the time. Dildos are fine though, that's all you really need unless you're Making Babies. A queer friend at the imagineNATIVE festival voiced an often felt weirdness about the idea of sex being reproductional, and I have to say it does make me laugh. Making babies.

At this point in my life I have decided not to have babies myself. I think I'm too selfish to care for a child. Is that a bad thing to say? Certainly in the future a foster kid wouldn't be out of the question, but I would have to be in a different place in my life to do it. For me, 30 is still too young to have a child. For ME. I don't know about the rest of the world.

I think I like the idea of a child much better. Someone to look after, someone to look after me when I'm old, but see then it starts going back to selfish reasons for a child. And just because you have a kid doesn't mean they're going to want to bathe you when you're old.

Back home to my animals

My hair is GREASY! I haven't been able to wash it yet today, having had to check out immediately upon waking. I've been on a plane or in an airport since roughly 12:45 Saskatoon time. Mum wanted to know all about the festival so we had a nice chat while she read the ENTIRE list of delegates and asked about who actually showed up. I had an excellent reception to both videos, and people REALLY loved the vampire one so I think it's going to get a lot of play for sure. I saw my sweet ex-girlfriend/best friend Margaret Flood and met her man, he seems very nice although I think it ended up being mostly girl talk. Poor dude. I also saw my good friend Mikiki and caught up, the eminem porno came up again and I think we're going to do it (long story that I won't get into right now, suffice it to say it's a genderfucked raunch tape that we've been talking about making together for a while).

I also got to talk to him about bloodplay and Daddy/boy/girl roleplaying, which was fun. I love it when dykes and fags find common sexual ground.

The parties were ridiculously fun and I met tons of people. I heard some great music and watched some great films and now I'm very beat but still buzzed on festival fun. I also met some people I'd only known through facebook previously, which was cool, and made some new friends. But I was definitely ready to come home today.

I have a few things I want to try and blog in the next few days, but I have to gather my thoughts about them first. In the meantime, enjoy this link to an awesome blog bashing Sarah Palin. I must admit, while she freaks me out, I haven't followed the campaign in any meaningful way, so this says it better than I ever could.

Sarah Palin is a Bitch . . . There, I said It

Here at imagineNATIVE

And I'm hyaving lots of fun. I can't believe how many friendly people I know, they are extremely nice and I got a good reception to Madness In Four Actions. People are excited about the vampire flick and I think a lot of my friends are going to come out for it. I've been busy with festival things, going to movies, going out schmoozing with the artists and programmers and other filmy related folk. I've seen some good work, and I've met some really interesting people. I love the comraderie of a film festival.

This afternoon I have nothing scheduled so I am kicking back and enjoying a lazy few hours before I head out to watch more more MORE films and videos!

Staying in the hostel is actually not too bad, even though I am in a six person dorm. I sleep in every morning (something I have to stop if I am to catch my plane), and then I head out to the festival. I stayed out pretty late last night and I think tonight is some kind of party. They sure do know how to party it up at this festival. I met a woman from Australia who lives in the bush with the crocodiles, she was the subject of a doc on the opening night. I saw my friend Cheryl L'Hirondelle perform last night, where I ran into my ex stepmom and an old friend who used to live in Van like me.

I'm having a lot of fun, which is good. I had no expectations when I arrived, which maybe why I'm having such a good time. I've already seen more friends than I saw in Vancouver when I was there recently.

Anyway, that's about the scoop. I managed to snag two copies of NOW with my review in it, the actors want a copy so I might just keep a photocopy for myself and give them the originals for their scrapbook.

Sleepless in Saskatoon

For whatever reason I didn't reorder my meds, thinking I still had about a week left of them. Now either I lost a week of medication or I ate them all. Anyway, I missed two days of night meds in a row, and while I did manage to sleep the first night, by the second night I was totally sleepless in Saskatoon, rolling around in bed in total darkness occasionally snuggling the dog just for something to do. It was awful. All day I've felt slightly ill, the kind of ill that comes from lack of sleep. Just cruddy and awful.

So, since it was a thanksgiving weekend, and with my normal pharmacy closed, I had to get pills from somewhere else. And bipolar medications aren't sold on the street, that's for sure. Lucky for me my psychiatrist had given me a new prescription that I hadn't taken down to the pharmacy yet. So we got it filled at Safeway pharmacy today and I'm so relieved to have my lovely little pills again. I was worried I'd really go off track with this not being able to sleep issue.

I'm taking Seroquel, which helps you sleep aside from being an antipsychotic, and without it I just can't sleep easily at all. So it's pretty necessary, especially since before I had a prescription for it I often suffered from sleep disturbances like insomnia.

Insomnia is fun when you're manic (because it just keeps getting you higher and higher, which is also bad!), but brutal as all hell when you're depressed. You start thinking about all kinds of shit that happens, or makes you feel suicidal, and it totally compounds the depression into this complex black mass of pain.

On another note, my mum and I have been rereading the Harry Potter series ever since we went to Scotland (one of the b&b's had the first book in their library, which started it all, plus that's where the books were written), and so I spent part of the night finishing The Goblet of Fire. I'd forgotten Rita Skeeter was an Animagus. Very fun and gripping reading, and Voldemort chills me more and more with each reading! What a fun series!

Sexy Single Vampire Loving Lesbians Wanted

My film got a good review in NOW Toronto, so I am hoping a bunch of sexy single vampire loving lesbians will come out to see it! You never know!

It's getting on to the time I spread my wings and fly to Toronto, I leave on Wednesday and I have only Tuesday to get my travel grant. I know for a fact it is coming, but when? It would be nice to be able to use my own money to go, if I had any. I did already use all my money to buy that ticket.

I've officially started to smoke again, it's really been about a week or so I've been smoking. I do want to quit again, I think I might have better luck if I stay on the patches for the ten weeks or whatever recommended. Which means I'm going to use up my Indian Affairs one time payment for patches, they cover a course of withdrawal for ONCE in your life! And those patches are expensive man! So I have to go to my lovely Dr. Saffy to get a prescription for Nicoderm.

Co-op Living is working out well, I've finally joined a committee, the Maintainence committee. I can't even spell it. Oh well. It's very exciting being part of a co-op because you get to help your community and housing run efficiently. Plus once I get a job with pay stubs I can have a lowered rent. $460 would be okay a month, right now I'm paying $551 a month, which is still a really good deal for the gorgeous apartment I have. which is currently messy.

I learned early on that I do better living alone because I am so messy. I got tired of the inevitable roommate squabble over who didn't clean what. And plus it was always way more stable when I lived alone, no other drama's interferring with my own. Being bipolar sets one up for many dramas, and just cutting down on them by avoiding another person in my living situation relieves some of the stress.

I don't know how it would be to actually live with a lover, as I have never done so thus far in my life. My only girlfriend where it got serious enough to possibly consider it lived in Toronto, and I was in Vancouver, so it was just never going to happen. And when I did mention moving there to be with her, she dumped me. AW! Sad! I had a broken heart for a year. Or more.

If someone wanted to move in with me now they would have to pay an $800 share capital before moving in. Well, actually you can pay it fifty bucks a month on top of your rent, but I paid mine all at once because when you have a grant such things are possible.

But it's a good excuse to keep people from moving in! I don't imagine I would be willing to leave this place anytime soon, no matter how many sexy single vampire loving lesbians invited me to move in with them.

Sore tummy, too much coffee!

God do I ever need a haircut, I'm getting a mullet and I don't like it. Someone once told me to embrace the mullet as a symbol of being lower class, but I never hung around with mullet wearers and I was raised X class.

X Class is what bell hooks calls people who work with art and so on and are cultured but don't necessarily have much money. At least, that's what I remember from my teen years as an avid reader of bell hooks.

I'm still poor today, no cheques have come in the mail. My mum is taking me out for tom yum soup today, which I'm looking forward to.

I just spent two hours looking at people's shitty tattoos on Facebook. They were pretty funny. Some of them were executed well but unfortunate nonetheless. And I saw a lot of misspelled kanji. Based on what I've heard about kanji tattoos, people really shouldn't get them unless they can read it. The meanings can be VERY different from what you expect.

The temping thing is not paying off right now, I've had no work all week and it looks dubious for the future. So I'm looking for work AGAIN. There's a dishwashing job at the university which would pay me a little under $1500 a month, which is a far better wage than the call centre. And it would be steady work. I'm determined not to go to the call centre again, I don't want to still be working in them when I'm fifty, and there are a lot of fifty year old callers! Anyway, something will come up. I don't want a career, I just want something that can pay the bills. Although I still think I should be getting editing jobs and I'm not.

Le sigh.. Oh well, maybe when I'm forty I'll have a masters degree and teach somewhere like the rest of my family.

But I really just want to be a full time artist.

I have to write a script for my Mars Recruitment Video. I could be doing that. I could be editing my film. But instead I looked at Lesbian Hair for a while. Lesbians do have cool hair. But it's very difficult to get a proper boy's cut in a salon, because hairdressers are always trying to make sure people gender conform. Well, I'm sure some of them have an awareness of gender non-conformity, but not many and definitely not in Saskatoon. You have no idea how hard it can be to get them to use the number two shaver.

The trials and tribulations of being a butch.

Butches can have a very hard time finding employment simply because of the way we present our gender. It's a rotten deal. There should be employment equity for butches! It should be on employment equity forms, are you butch? Do you have butch hair?

I dunno, But being upset about the lack of jobs for butch women isn't going to get me a job either. Unless I could start up a non-profit dedicated to butch visibility. But I think Harper would cut the funding on that.

psychiatrist appointment

My appointment went well, nothing major to report. I got a number for a local bipolar/unipolar support group, and I'm getting my blood tested tomorrow for cholesterol, blood sugar, and epival levels. She also thinks I would do well with light therapy, so I'm being referred to a group that does light therapy and lends it's lights out so people can see if they work.

Anyway, that about sums it all up. I was happy to touch base with my shrink again and make sure I'm okay.

Money, that's what I want

I had $675 in my hot sweaty little hands and it vanished onto my mum's credit card to pay for my flight to Toronto. Lucky for me I have a thousand dollar travel grant coming to me to help pay most of the cost of my little jaunt to the imagineNATIVE film festie. I am World Premiering You Are A Lesbian Vampire there, and I am also showing Madness In Four Actions there. I'm pretty stoked, plus my best friend/ex girlfriend Margaret Flood might come up from Guelph to see me!

Anyway, when I do get my travel grant, most of that money is actually now rent money. dammit!

I am also waiting for a cheque from the National Gallery, they said it would come in October, which is a little vague, but at least that means my income hasn't dried up totally yet.

Ah, the grant was so lovely. I will hopefully get another grant in January for my MARS recruitment video.

Anyway, enough about my money, or current lack thereof.

I'm listening to a lot of Tegan and Sara these days, it's awesome to support queer canadian artists. Here's one of their songs I really like.



I do love living in Canada, for a lot of reasons. Even though we currently (and hopefully not for much longer) have a Conservative government, we do have socialized medicine, same sex marriage, and good bacon. Yay for streaky bacon! It's what I missed most about Canada, Scottish bacon is kinda weird, and not smoked!

My friends Carrie and Shavonne had bacon mints and even bacon flavoured rolling papers with little pigs everywhere. Bacon everywhere! Once a lover asked me in the middle of the night if I ate bacon, and she was at the time a hard core vegan. I thought she was going to kick me out of bed!

OH MAN< OFF TO SEE THE PSYCHIATRIST! I'll let you know how my first appointment in ages goes!

Pain!

Last night at midnight a horrible sharp ache stabbed me in the right side and refused to go away. Worried my appendix had burst or some other thing ruptured, I called the Healthline and asked a registered nurse what to do. She told me to go to the hospital. And of course I had no money and no car, so I caled my mum to take me but it was 2:30 in the morning. So I had to get an ambulance, ugh. But they took good care of me.

It was weird to see them write "psych" for previous health problems. It's true, but I was worried they would just think I was bipolar and making up some health problem.

Anyway, they thought it was indigestion or a stomach bug, because I was also throwing up from the pain and had diarreah. Ugh! It was awful!

It was five in the morning when I was done with the doctor, which didn't actually take that long. The hospital paid for my cab home, which was nice.

I was so exhausted I came home and crashed for ages. I still don't really know what that pain was.

Vancouver was fun, though I only got to actually see one friend. Oh well, I was only there for three days, not even, two really.

I'm done writing my grant! Now I just have to wait for my mum to come pick me up so I can buy five blank videotapes. I have to get my support material together, and it's going to take me too long to get it together to burn 5 dvds. Tomorrow I'm off to Vancouver for an interview with Storytellers In Motion. I'm pretty stoked about it. I haven't been to Vancouver in two years, not that I will be there for very long. I'm back home on Wednesday night.

I really hope I get this grant. I am just going from grant to grant these days, which I guess is the life of an artist. But I won't be able to apply for another Canada Council grant until I am done this video. I'm excited about this grant though, it really seems like it would be fun to work on. Well, all my videos are fun to work on. It's just something I like doing.

I think I will still always make short videos without grants though, as long as I have access to the equipment. It's good for me to be able to make something without relying on the green light. It means I can experiment with ideas.

I'm excited about going to Vancouver. I also applied for a travel grant to go to Toronto, but I haven't heard back about it yet. I imagine by the time I get back from Vancouver I will know.

I have to remember to bring photos of myself as a child to this thing. Right.

It's kind of funny that most of my videos are still in analogue form. I should really update. My goal is to make a complete DVD of all my works. At 14 videos over a period of 13 years, it's kind of a lot to handle.

This Damnable Blog!

I am working on my next grant. And I still have grant writer's block. What the hell. It think I wrote ONE new paragraph this afternoon thus far. And I have at least two more pages to go. Fuck! I sometimes hate writing. Someone once said (and I paraphrase) writing is sitting down to a pad of paper and concentrating until blood pours out of your forehead, and it's true!!! It's brutal sometimes. So why am I writing in this blog for fun? I don't know. Maybe because this is where I can be silly and write whatever I want. Whereas a grant, I have to be very clear and specific about what I intend to do with the money.

Today I had to pick up tapes, and it took forever. I didn't get together with Mum until about 4:20 (ha ha I know) and then it took us ages to get over the bridge because of an accident. I'm not kidding, it took half an hour to get over the brudge. But we made it to Media Group five minutes before closing so I could get my tapes. And I was close to giving up, in tears!

But I got my tapes!

Now I just have to sort myself out more.

I've made fourteen videos now and the battered compilation tape I had has gotten legs and walked off. So getting my whole collection together is kind of a pain in the ass. I should be better organized, but some of my stuff has been in storage and it's moved around a lot too.

I AM getting organized though, and that must surely count for something!

My mom used to tell me to talk to my mental health professionals about being messy and disorganized, so I did and they told me some people are just messy.

See! I told you mom!

Anyway, I have to burn 5 DVD's of two videos this weekend, and I have to finish writing my grant, and I have to do laundry, and I have to clean my apartment. And yet tonight I am going out to an opening. And still oddly enough, I am still pecking at this damnable blog!

Swimming in footage

I'm listening to this song these days:



I'm absolutely swimming in video footage. I don't know where to start! It's crazy, absolutely crazy. I ordinarily love editing, but yeah, it's pretty common for me to sit down and feel lost. It's such a crazy process, making videos and films. What I should really be doing is making more sequences with the various pieces that I will eventually put together.

I finally got it together to put the rhino video on my facebook. So there it is! I will eventually put it on Youtube I hope.

I am crazy. I've realized I talk to myself an awful lot, not so much in public, but I just mutter to myself throughout the day. Is that normal? I don't know.

My quitting smoking is still going well. I'm starting to not think about it at all! It's definitely an improvement. I'm about to go off Step 2 for Step 3. And then I'm done! So exciting!

Hey, this is my video!

Adjustments?

My psychiatrist had some kind of skiing accident and has been away for a long time. I've been back to my g.p., but lately I've been wondering if I'm fine. I think I need to make new adjustments to my meds, but I'm not sure if that's true. And now I've realized I've just gotten so used to checking in with a doctor about my condition that I have no idea how I really am. I think I've been doing well, but it's hard to get up in the morning early. And that worries me. Plus I've commonly had fall depressions, and I think subconsciously I'm worried about that coming up again.

Good thing I have an appointment with her soon.

I guess I do have mild depression. I'd like to shake it off, but I really think it's related to needing more work and not being able to do mornings for some reason. And the end of the big grant. It lasted a long time, through many adventures. And I miss Scotland still.

Oddly enough I am really liking being single right now. I'm not entirely sure why that is. I guess I like my own company when I am alone. It's comforting. And I've spent so much of my twenties doing things on my own that it's just fine.

Anyway, I am trying to check in on myself and see if I am really okay or if I am slipping into anything like mania or depression.

Well, I'm not overly happy, that's for sure. So mania must be out.

That leaves depression. aw crap. Okay, or middle ground, which would be the best.

Well it was the anniversary of a friend's suicide this past month, that was sad.

But I did come home from Scotland, and that kinda made me sad too.

HMM> i guess there are reasons to be sad at the moment, but it still makes me uncomfortable. I hate having to look out for my moods. It's a part of my illness I find very difficult. So weird to have to look out for your own moods, and the depressions are the worst because there's this dark blackness to them, like you can't see through it to your future. Ugh! I HATE THAT!

Poop on depression.

Plus it's just sad that summer is over. Aw, no more summer til 2009!

Grant writer's block

So I'm writing a grant to do a short recruitment video for the Martian Mining Ship that's going to Terraform Mars for the Indigenous people of earth. It should be pretty funny. It's based on a performance I've been doing here and there. Meaning, Saskatoon and twice in Vancouver.

I have the costumes designed already.

They are black coveralls with MARS CREW beaded on the back in red beads.

It's kind of based in my desire, however far fetched, to go into space.

But it's based on a different idea of going into space, because it's tied in with this idea of home, and leaving home, and making a new home but it will never be the same. There's an inherent loneliness to the idea of space travel.

Anyway, I am having grant writers block and it sucks. I can't for the life of me describe my project. I need to read some of my old notes or something.

I can only get 17 000, which is still 17 000 more than I have now.

Damn block! I can't even write this! I'm going to bed.

Government Supplied Gasoline

This article from the Globe and Mail about various racist comments made by the Conservative party's folks made me shudder. So many stereotypes, so much hate. What a fucked up party man!

I am leaning towards the NDP right now and then also curious about the Green party. But then there is also the Liberals, and really that's the only other big party aside from the Bloc, which I can't vote for since I'm in Saskatchewan. Not that I would vote Bloc. Maybe I should just vote for a fringe independent candidate. Damn, so many choices.

It really makes me wonder about a place like the States where there are only two political parties. Not enough representation of diversity in political opinion. It's kind of weird. Even though it's pretty much been either Conservative or Liberal in power, there have been other people in parliament from all the other parties.

And it's going to be another minority government. Those things seem to have elections pretty quick, and there's always the confidence vote that can do it in.

One good thing about Canada is we do our elections with pencils and papers. No hanging chads, no electronic voting thinglydoos.

Anyway, the real point of this election is to get rid of the Conservatives. Stephen Harper is evil. He keeps axing arts funding. He gave people something like a hundred bucks a year towards their child care instead of funding day cares and the like. In Fit Of Pique I photoshopped a picture of him as George W. Bush's Mini Me. Enough said.

Not to mention the, uh, sobering remarks made by a Tory Candidate's assistant to Native protesters. And that guy who wants me and all my friends to live in Labrador.

LABRADOR?

What will we do there? Sniff government supplied gasoline?

Temping

Well, I'm in the temporary help industry now, where I am making a somewhat better wage doing work in light industry. Tomorrow I'm going to a warehouse to help out from 8 til 5, and the same on Thursday. Monday I was at an industrial laundry facility to count dirty clothes. I made 11 bucks an hour. This is much better than the call centres. I hated being yelled at ALL the time by people I called to take part in surveys. So far the work's been REALLY temporary. I don't know, it's a strange way to earn a living, it makes me feel a bit like a prostitute, being pimped out to all kinds of businesses. At least In Theory. In practice it's just like going to work for a few or one days and then waiting for the next assignment to come in. I'll see if I like it after I've done it for longer.

A friend told me to be glad I didn't get data entry jobs because he said they're BORING as all hell. I guess so. Data entry doesn't sound glamourous.

Of course the fact that I am in light industry worries me a bit because my cousin Christopher died in an industrial accident. I will have to be very careful. I got a pair of steel toed work boots today with some artist fee money because apparently most of the assignments I'm being sent to I need steel toed work boots. They're really nice but I wish I didn't have to lay out so much money. Of course feet never change when you're an adult, so if I take care of them they will last me years.

My quitting smoking is still going well. I am going to a week of Step 2 and then a last week of Step 3, and then I'm going off the patches for good. I am feeling REALLY triggery for smokes lately and I don't know why, I suspect it has to do with going for work again. I used to smoke during my breaks, now I don't. I have to do something else.

And I like the sensation of smoking. I would smoke something totally not tobacco if I could, just for a replacement. But I don't know the good herbal cigarettes or where to get them.

Anyway, that's my life, not too exciting right now. Work is good though, I need the money and I actually didn't mind being on my feet all day on Monday. If I can just keep it up . . . and get fit while I do it!

the lazy entry

I've been sitting around all day today. That's not quite true, I took Mister on a long walk and he had a poo and everything. It was a perfect owner/dog moment. Now he's snoozing by his kennel. I think I should put it away, he was going in and out for a while but now he doesn't care to.

I finally ordered my cable package, I'm not sure I can afford it, which is a bit silly, but we'll see what happens. I cut out various silly programs, like all the sports channels. And anyway, we'll see. There's still nothing on. I'm so bored! I want The Simpsons or Corner Gas or something to be on.

Today I'm mainly sitting around being a bum. It's because I'm waiting for my cousin Deanna to come over and hang out. We're going downtown to goof around eventually and then back to Mum's house for dinner.

It's going to be a nice day. I keep cleaning my house in between writing these paragraphs, and it's made me uninspired. I should quit.

A Bjork Classic

After going on a transatlantic flight, I can somewhat understand Bjork flipping out like this.

Higgs Boson and my Rugby Shirt

Hey, did you hear about the particle accelerator currently looking for the Higgs Boson particle? They did the first collision successfully today, and it's going to be running for the next fifteen years or so while they fiddle with all kinds of things. People are scared it will somehow rip the universe apart. Or blow up earth.

Google has a pretty cute icon of the particle accelerator on it's page.

I love Google. It's pretty much my only search engine, which could be goofy, I know.

I'm back from my interview and wearing my Scottish Rugby Shirt, which makes me happy. It's REALLY nice. And now appropriate for work since I may possibly be doing light industrial temp work. It would be different, and it pays better than what I was doing. I'm going to have to get some stamina. Maybe it will be good we walked so much in Scotland, because I'm in much better shape, although still quite chubby. I ate and drank more in Scotland. I usually don't eat so much. Or maybe I do and it's mostly snacks. I definitely don't usually drink so much, yesterday I went for a pint and it was just that, one pint.

I'm still on my no smoking thing. I haven't had a smoke, not even when I've been tempted. In the UK smokes have Smoking Kills written right on them, and it really freaked me out so of course I didn't want to buy smokes there. And here there is the Bloody Brain, the Broken Heart, and the Cancerous Lungs. Ugh to that!

Either way, I need to get in better shape.

Good Morning

It's early morning and I got up so that I can fill out an online application for employment in a temp staffing office. Yes, I am currently aspiring to be a temp. I think I might like it, I would meet a variety of people by the end of it, that's for sure.

So I have to look extra sparkly today. I had a dream I was buying makeup. That is WEIRD for me, as I haven't worn makeup for nearly eight years, except a couple times when I was crazy.

Craziness brings out the showmanship in clothing tastes, that's for sure.

I'm still really missing Scotland. It feels like being homesick! I'm surprised that I miss it this much. I wish I was still on holidays.

Oh damn! I seem to be chubbier than I was when I wore my tux, the result is my shirt no longer fits. Damn! So right now I am wearing a Scottish Rugby Shirt with a huge emblem of the Scottish Flag on it. It's pretty stylin', but not appropriate for a job interview. So I think now we also have to go interview shirt shopping. Double damn! Money I didn't want to spend, going!

Anyway, I think I had the best summer ever this year, it's going to be hard to top, that's for sure. Hmm, although a summer romance is also something to look forward to. I did have one of those, sure enough, she dumped me around about august.