thinking/art/yoga room

This afternoon, my lovely roommates and I took a look at our freshly painted extra room and decided to do something fun with it. We put up a gorgeous piece of art that my friend Erica made for me, based on a poem I wrote. I could never figure out how she had put the pieces together initially, so Kitty and Krista and I rebuilt in in such a way that we can switch the panels around to create new colour combinations. Inspired by this, we sat down in a pile of poetry books and picked out favourite quotes to paint on the walls. My first was written by Dennis Lee, and completes the phrase I have tattooed on my back. The second was a line from another favourite writer, George Elliott Clarke (the cutoff word in the picture is Respect). Krista is in the process of completing a visual poem by Ondaatje, and Kitty is going to pick something from Dionne Brand or Sylvia Plath for her quote.

Living in a house full of English majors is great. To add to that statement, earlier this morning I was sitting on the patio, drinking tea and sadly staring at the rain, when Krista came out and said, "Hey pathetic fallacy face." It was very apt.

Here are some pictures to give you an idea....but it's nothing like being in the room.

This is my now!

Well, it's certainly been a long time since I updated this guy. I was working so hard in the first half of the semester that I stopped using the internet except for research purposes, and in the second half it was difficult to get it up to do anything at all, including shower.

A lot has happened over the past few months though. I got through my first year of MA, switched supervisors, and switched programs, so that I will now be writing a 100 page paper by next april. One of my papers, about typos, is going to be presented at a conference in Toronto in October, which is terrifying and very exciting, and my professor told me she thinks I should try to get it published in a scholarly journal, so I've been slowly trying to put that together.

In less good news, the boyfriend, Cheyne, came and left unceremoniously, leaving me single again in the spring, (as I am so often, it seems!) The season of twitterpation has come upon me free and able to twitterpate as I choose. Since this traumatic split, I have been finding myself relating to the strangest things. On driving with my mom:

mom: There's so much construction in Vancouver. Last time I was here, there was a building on that corner, and now it's gone!
me: [in my head] That's how I feel about my life.

Dear god. Even worse, I was watching Jordin Sparks sing the Martina McBride song "This is My Now" on American Idol, and found myself tearing up. A sample of the lyrics:

There was a time I packed my dreams away.
Living in a shell, hiding from myself.

There was a time when I was so afraid.
I thought I'd reached the end,
But baby that was then
I am made of more than my yesterdays.

This is my now, and I am breathing in the moment.
As I look around I can't believe the love I see.
My fears behind me, gone are the shadows and doubts

That was then, this is my now.

How will I ever live that down, just to myself?

Anyway, time to get it together. I'm feeling great in the Montreal heat, and I'm honestly feeling quite good about everything now. Wish me luck, and i promise to avoid American Idol at all costs.