Hella Stella

How do you deal with the post-Christmas blues? Do you get them at all? I love this time of year, and when it's all over I definitely feel a little bummed out.

I think what does it for me is the fact that Christmas is such a nice reprieve from winter. We haven't even really gotten sick of the cold yet, but there's this marvelous break for family and food and gifts and music. How lovely!

Then the break ends, and we have another four months of snow and frigid temperatures. There are ways of dealing (hibernating for me, mulled wine, hearty winter cooking, bulldog snuggling), but in the end, you don't have a truly exciting holiday again for a while. Valentine's Day doesn't count, and Easter is right at the end of it. I would amp up our Passover celebrations, but they're in late April as well.

What do you do to keep the winter craziness away? I'd love to know.

Now 2010 is ending, and 2011 is starting up. It's safe to say that 2010 was the nuttiest year on record for my BH and I. We did the following, beginning on Jan. 2:

- Started looking for a duplex after being driven crazy by our new landlord.
- Endured awful awful awful renovations to our building that were not only intrusive, but illegal.
- Came home to our unlocked apartment, not once, but three separate times! Thank you, Landlord-Who-Will-Burn-In-Hell.
- Looked at a few places, all of which were fixer-uppers we didn't want to fix. Like that place with the spongy floors. Yikes.
- Saw the listing for our eventual home, viewed the place that day, bought it on the spot. Fixer-upper that we liked!
- Dealt with some very shady behaviour from the owner of the home. Persevered and pushed the sale through.
- My BH finished school. Oh my gawd, that was exciting. Salivated over the possibility of a second income.
- We decided that Morty needed company and started looking for older dogs to adopt. Found Frida, our furry angel. Became a two bulldog household.
- Took possession of house. Began extensive renovations within hours of getting the keys.
- Replaced the floors, bath, tile, knocked down a few walls, built a closet for laundry and one for a studio, knocked down the garage, had a fence built, had a shed put up, replaced the furnace and old hot water tank, replaced disintegrating sewage pipe, put on a new side door, had duct work done, tried (unsuccessfully) to grow grass, painted everything, removed ancient wallpaper.
- (My BH was studying for his registration exam while this was happening)
- Our lovely tenants moved in and I learned how to be a landlord.
- We moved in. Continued small renos for several months.
- My BH passed his registration! Started looking for jobs.
- I bought a new guitar, some recording gear, and began teaching myself how to make an album in a closet.
- My BH found a job that required a car. We bought on used. He started work!
- I decided to Get In Shape, and abandoned my plan very quickly. Why lift weights when I have a studio in the house???
- Morty and Frida now love each other to pieces, despite being opposites and not totally 'getting' each other at times.

Wow. Crazy to think that at this time last year, I was getting pre-approved for a mortgage that would start this crazy train rolling. Thank you for continuing to read - I know this blog isn't always the most exciting place to hang out, but I feel very happy that you keep wandering back.

I'm back at work this week. It may seem odd that I took last week off instead of this week, but since I'm taking over for my boss while he's on Christmas vacation, it was a good option to rest up earlier.

I think that's actually the best way to do it. Last week was so calm, so productive and so creative. I knew Christmas was still a couple of weeks away, so I could just focus on relaxing instead of the stress of the season. If I can, I'll do the same thing next year.

Now we're in the final stretch. All my gifts are bought, but only some of them are wrapped. I'm trying to intercept some parcels from UPS, but they are making it difficult. Generally, things are under control (grumble grumble UPS).

Back to the calm productiveness of last week.... I actually wrote three songs! If you've been reading a while, you may know that I've had a long stretch of writer's block. Like, three years long. The stalemate was broken after my friend died this past summer. I wrote a song for him, and slowly started to write about other stuff. It was an odd feeling.... Like a dam had been opened. It makes me excited about recording a new album this winter. It's also a bit sad to be writing about such sad things, but that's how it goes, I suppose.

The recording itself has also been coming along. I've set up the studio and am learning how to use Pro Tools (the program I'm using to record with). My mic is working, my fancy new headphones are getting lots of use.... It's pretty fun. That being said, I'm going to need to improve a whole fuck of a lot if I'm going to record this album myself. So far the recordings sound distinctly (and understandably) amateur.

I'm thinking of starting either a Youtube or Vimeo account to post some of my new songs. Question, dear readers, music-types especially: which should I go with? Youtube is all over the place, so that's good, but Vimeo is sleeker. If you were making an account for promotion and to stay in contact with fans, what would you use and why? I'd love to hear your pros and cons.

Thanks honeys!

Oh hai!

I've been watching Muppet Christmas Carol on repeat. 'Tis the season, and damnit, it's just a great movie all around. Is anyone else fond of this movie too?



On other news, it seems that my French teacher and I don't get along. We tend to argue for the length of our lesson (politely), me messing up verbs in my frustration, and her reverting to broken English to make her point. Today we argued for an hour and a half about copyright laws. The upside is that I commited some words to memory that I usually forget.... "supposition," "mal gérée" and "consommateurs." We're both taking some time off for the holidays, so maybe we'll be blessed with schedules that don't gel when we return. I think she'd be happy to get a student who isn't so quick to argue, and I'd love a teacher who isn't quite so formal.

I think nearly all of my gifts are bought for Christmas... The only missing link is the tree. We haven't had a chance to pick one up yet, and it's starting to bum me out. I like to have the tree up for as much of the month as possible, since we only get to do this once a year. Maybe this weekend, if we're lucky. Fingers crossed!

In music news, it looks like I might be recording a (very inexpensive) music video sometime this winter! Details to come, when I've sorted them out.

So!

This past week has been stressful, for lack of a better word. My life seems to have morphed into a scattered collection of bills, receipts, post-it notes, To Do lists, grocery lists, Christmas lists..... GAH.

Even writing about it is stressful.

I've also given up on the grant I was applying for. No time to make it good, and damned if it wasn't giving me anxiety attacks. Next time, perhaps.

To compensate, I've been taking pictures of the dogs, planning Christmas meals, and vacuuming the carpet. Repeatedly. I don't know why, but it helps.

I'm sure I can push aside all that badness and focus on a few good things.

My BH is well into his third week of the new job, and he's become a fountain of information. I think that happens when you start in a brand new field.... Your brain gets filled up with interesting (and occasionally mundane) stuff. It's great to see him doing such a good job, although having him as a househusband was pretty rad. Heh.

We've been buying stollen, my favourite Christmas cake with marzipan filling, because it's finally in the stores again. Stollen and clementines. That makes up about 80% of my diet these days. I'm not complaining.

We're going to Toronto this weekend! I've got a gig at the Free Times Cafe, and we're going to eat at our very favourite dosa restaurant in Little India. Try as we may, we can't find a decent dosa in Ottawa. I'm still haunted by the amazing dosas we ate in India.... *drool* In case you aren't familiar with dosa, there's a little bit of eye candy here.

I've ordered most of my Christmas presents. As a rule, I try to have all my shopping done before December hits, but this year will be different. I need to go easy on myself. Having the gifts mostly bought isn't so bad.

What else.... Well, this doesn't fall into "good" or "bad," but I've developed a weird compulsion to put spice on EVERYTHING. It started in the summer with a particularly yummy hot sauce, and now I go through chili peppers like a mad woman. I've started to look at food with disdain if it's not piping hot. What is the deal with my taste buds? They've gone wacky!

Okay puppies, that's all I've got. Hopefully I'll be able to post something before I leave for the T Dot.

I'm officially excited for Christmas. I'm already listening to my favourite Christmas music, planning what cookies to bake, and buying gifts. Do you think that's weird? Given that I'm mostly Jewish?

Anyway.

My choir is also going to be doing carolling (at my insistence, hehe) and that's got me excited too.

My BH, an avid fruitcake fan, is already steeping candied fruit in booze. I don't like fruitcake, but I've learned to stop questioning his devotion. Once, at a wedding, I saw him go from table to table scooping up people's discarded fruitcake favours. He looked like a kid in a candy store, except that the candy was strong-tasting cake that could break your teeth.

Gotta love that that guy.

My studio is all tiled, so now we have to hang a couple of shelves and we're done. I can't wait to start recording - oh man oh man.

You know what else? Thanks to our awesome vet, Frida has a functioning ear canal and is... Get this..... RARELY ITCHY. Can you believe it? When we got her, if she wasn't sleeping, she was scratching until she bled. We are overjoyed that she's feeling better.

Her happiness has also translated into her being more playful with Morty, which for Frida means that she lovingly bats him in the face. Repeatedly. Until he plays with her. Bulldogs!

More soon...

A few things:

I'm selling some household items for the first time on Craigslist and Kijiji. It's been... Interesting. Somebody who wanted to buy my used stove called himself "Grandmaster Sexy." I'm cutting my losses and not responding. Not looking to bag myself an internet psycho, thanks.

Frida's itching didn't improve so we took her to a new vet. The new vet was horrified that her old vet didn't do more, and sooner. Now I'm angry. Poor little Frida.

I've pulled something funny in my neck, and it's affecting my shoulders, back, right leg and ankle. WTF? I'm all hurty!

Lastly.... I've started Christmas shopping. Don't freak out, I know I'm crazy, but DUDES. It's just so much easier to get it done early. I'm telling ya.

Have a great weekend! We're doing a million things. Approximately.

I hope you all had wonderful holidays!

Our Christmas was really lovely. It started with a gift exchange between my BH and I. We got a little carried away...


This is one of the many gifts I got my BH.

Morty discovered that he loves to tear up wrapping paper. Unfortunately we thought it was so cute that we didn't stop him, and he spent the following three days attacking every present he found so he could get to the paper.

He sunk his teeth into a pretty nice Monty Python box set before we realized it was probably a really bad habit to encourage.

I went to see my folks on Christmas Day. They had a lovely tree.

My fam is rad, no? Now you see why I'm so weird. These are my kin.

We made very blue pancakes. They had some very leaky blueberries in them.

My Bubbi was there. She's the cutest! She also bought my BH a real fruitcake, because she knows he's the only person in the world who eats that stuff. Thoughtful gal.

My mom took pictures of my dad. My dad made a lot of faces.

I discovered my mom's fridge poetry. Dirty! So that's where I get it from...

Speaking of dirty, Morty got a new toy for Christmas. It looks like a dildo.

What? Look at that thing! Don't tell me I'm wrong.

He loves it, naturally.

In other news, Morty got a new Christmas sweater from my mum in law. He looks like a fat Santa!

Destroying paper in his fat Santa suit.

Only he can make this look regal.

Onwards and upwards.... Here comes 2010!

It hit me this morning like a ton of bricks. I want to get back in the studio. Like, now.

There are a few reasons why I'm not recording at the moment. One, because I have only a few good new songs. Also, I really can't afford it.

I suppose the logical thing to do is apply for those grants and wait to see if I get any money. BUT. Then I have to wait until the deadline passes in January, then wait around for a few more months to get a response, and if I don't get the money, that's a winter wasted.

The alternative, I think, is to save up a little bit of money and chat with my engineer about how much time I can buy. Then I'll go in and lay down some very quick tracks. At least then I'll have something to work on while I figure the rest of the money out.

Anyway. That's the tentative plan.

In other news, other than having bought all the gifts, I have zero else prepared. No wrapping, no decorations, no baking, nada. Damn this crazy month! My lofty plans will have to come down a notch, but that's cool. At least we took the time to stock up on booze.

Yesterday was weird.

I had an unexpected day off work, which was great, except that I couldn't really decide what to do with myself. I puttered around for a bit before I decided to walk my lazy ass down to Preston and get all my knives sharpened.

There's something about walking though Centretown with a giant bag full of knives, let me tell you.

Now I have knives so sharp I'm scared to use them. I was washing them in the sink after I brought them home and sliced my heavy duty sponge in two. Eventually I'll graduate from sponges to actual food. The reason I got them sharpened in the first place was to avoid the mess I become when I'm cutting onions.

So. It's December. Consider my mind blown.

Obviously I knew it was coming. I have a calender. I know that December follows November. But I know how quickly December slides by, so I'm already wondering if I'm going to blink and find myself in January.

Here are some of the things I'll be doing to make December as great as possible:

- make mincemeat pies

- make chocolate candy cane bark for my co-workers

- have a million dinners with my friends

- order my final two or three Christmas gifts

- buy more Hannukah gelt

- bring out my Christmas decorations and do up the apartment

- listen to a lot of loud choral music

- hang out with my puppy and my BH as much as I can

- send out some holiday cards with pictures, especially to family in India

- sing in the choir!

- make some lists (funny, I wrote this down before I noticed the irony)


How about you? What are you going to do to make sure your month is fun fun fun?

I had a really great weekend.

The Colombian was in town. Seeing as how we get to visit about once a year, it was pretty nice to see him. The second he walked in the door, Morty showed him his bum and wouldn't move without a good pat. It's like a toll at our apartment.

Luckily, The Colombian is highly skilled at doggy bum rubs.




My gig in Wakefield was really fun... The room was packed with regulars and the bar was charming. It seems like the kind of place I'd want to hang out if I lived a bit closer. People seemed to like my set, and my buddies played super well too. Below, Ashely, Brian, Chris and Neil.

On Saturday, I finally got to try out The Imperial. They had some nice looking things on the menu, and some fine looking posters on the wall. Some of them made me laugh...

The Imperial is located next to Barrymore's, and it's just the kind of spot this neighbourhood needs. They has some really nice herbal teas, too. I had the rosehip one, and it kicked ass. Give it a try if you go!

I got the veggie breakfast, which I think looked better on paper than it did on my plate. Not that it was bad, but my bread was dry, as was my frittata and my beans. I think with some tweaking they could have a really stellar thing going on, but some butter for the toast would be a good first step. I'll be back to try things out when they've gotten the hang of things.

This weekend was my last solid gig booking for a while, minus some small fun things in December. I'm hoping the winter will give me time to write some songs, and play some nice little shows here and there.

So... Just throwing this out there... But do you think we are looking at a green Christmas? I'm starting to wonder.

Admittedly, I didn't know what to expect from the gig last night... I had been given very little information about it, and there was virtually no promotion around town. I had low expectations, despite being excited to play at the NAC again.

Maybe it was the fact that I had no idea how the night would go, but holy, that was an awesome gig. The crowd was very receptive to my set, and they bought me out of CDs. I had brought most of a box too - pretty unexpected. I'm usually surprised if I sell a couple in a night.

Now I have enough cash to cushion the Christmas rush, and some extra to put aside for Japan. This is a much appreciated break from the norm. I was starting ot get anxious about the inevitable spending on the horizon.

Tonight I'm taking it easy. I went to bed pretty late because of the show, and I've been hurting all day because of it. I think I'll do some laundry and then go to bed. EXCITING TIMES.

Tomorrow I'm playing at this great venue with my dear cuz. And did you guys know that there's an Ottawa version of the TED conference coming to town? It's called TEDx Ottawa and it looks like I'll be playing at the after-party. Tres excitant.

In the spirit of TED, Here's the link to one of my favourite talks with percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Enjoy!

Some quick things while I'm rushing around:

1. The Colombian arrives today. God knows when I'll see him, because his planning sucks so majorly, but at least we'll be in the same city for a few days. I wonder if I can get him out to my Wakefield gig on Saturday.... Actually, never mind. He'd arrive four hours after the show was finished. (Oh hey, I'm playing in Wakefield Saturday. Y'all are invited, as always.)

2. I'm playing at the NAC Fourth Stage tonight in a benefit for a public school's arts program. I love playing the Fourth Stage, so I'm thrilled. Also? Christmas dinners are piling up, so I could use the extra cash. I sure hope the audience is in the mood for CDs.

3. While I've been obsessed with Dan Black's Un record for some time now, I've entered a whole new level of appreciation for him lately. Partly because I think he's a fantastic songwriter, artist and all around crazy dude, but also because I can't seem to cover his songs. Usually I can manage a pretty decent cover, but every time I play his stuff, I find myself longing for his version. He's just so GOOD. I can't pull off what he pulls off. I love you, Dan Black. Please keep making music. Also, Cocoon and Let Go break my heart into a million pieces every time I listen to them.

4. Christmas baking has begun, and I'm getting fat. I'm not usually one to care about a few extra pounds over the holiday season, buy holy fuck dudes, it's not even December yet. Must slow down. There's delicious curves, and then there's delicious curves, if you catch my drift.

5. I have a couple more gifts to order, and then I'm all done my Christmas shopping. Packages seem to be arriving in the mail every second day. It's excellent fun.

6. Grant applications are making my brain ache. I'm making several backup plans in case I need to finance my own recording again, even though that will make me so much more broke than I am right now. It's going to be quite a process, so be patient with me. I'm thankful that my BH will be working soon - all the more room to funnel money into my music addiction!

I don't know what's gotten into me. I just scrubbed the kitchen floor and cleaned out my oven because I had nothing else do to.

Usually when I have nothing else to do, I devour my chocolate stash or I watch a movie. As long as it involves sloth or greed, I do it.

Maybe I have swine flu of the brain?

Now I have a sparkly kitchen, with the only downside being that I raked my hand across some broken glass during the mad clean and now I have teeny cuts. Boo.

This weekend seems blissfully clear of obligations. Do you know how happy this makes me? SO HAPPY, let me tell you. Obviously it's my own fault that I tend to over schedule, but still. An empty weekend just looks so good right now.

Maybe I'll clean the bedroom. Or maybe I could do what normal people do and procrastinate all the things I want to finish.

Holiday prep is going well. We have a homemade wreath, we have highly alcoholic mincemeat for pie making, and I listened to my first Christmas CD yesterday. It's choral Christmas, so it doesn't always sound super festive (often Gregorian and depressing, as it turns out), but still. Tres excitant.

One of my BH's gifts came in the mail today, and I ordered his main present yesterday. I'm already having so much fun. Thank goodness for internet shopping.

I should go pass out now, since chiseling layers of grime out of my oven managed to exhaust me. As a parting gift, I leave you.....

MORTY'S ASS.

That's how you know I love you.

My BH asked me what I would like for Christmas, and the answer turned out to be surprising.

I keep a list of potential gifts for him that is as long as my arm - I'm always coming across things he would love, and every time I do, I write it down. It's all about the lists with me. Without them, I would never remember anything.

I thought I had a similar list for myself. I told him as much: "Oh, I'm easy to shop for. I can send you a bunch of ideas if you want... I have lots of fun things bookmarked."

But when I went to send him this supposedly long list, I realized that I was completely wrong. All my bookmarks and wish lists, Etsy, Amazon, eBay, etc, were full of things for other people. Seriously, just STACKED with ideas for friends and family. I had the occasional cookbook marked for myself, or a print that I thought was special, but that only accounted for about 5% of my stash. It was a weird thing to realize.

I threw together a few ideas and sent them his way. There are always practical things I like... Books, a deep lasagna pan, silver earrings (I love me some silver earrings), a trip to the spa. Nowhere near the collection I thought I had, but that's okay. I would be thrilled if he made me dinner, with no need to spend money, but I know he's not going to settle for that.

In the meantime, I am having a blast getting his Christmas gifts together. He's the only person I go nuts for during the holidays, so I'll cut myself some slack... I'm pretty tame the rest of the year. And it's not even that I'm spending much money - I'm just excited because I know he'll really like his presents.

Next in my holiday planning: mincemeat pie. My mom made us a wreath out of the vines in her backyard, so we're getting there bit by bit.

What can I say? I love this time of year. After I cut mall shopping out of my Christmas routine, I started to ADORE the holidays. Now I have a low-stress, handmade-heavy, food-centric season to enjoy.

I'm pretty happy about it.

PS,

Not sure if I'll be able to update while I'm gigging in Toronto this weekend, so have a great couple of days! I'll see some of you at the show!

This weekend was a busy one. List after list of errands to run, a night of sexy readings and music at Venus Envy, a whole lot of people on the Hill for a climate change rally, and lots of Bones.

A great weekend, actually. My mood was a bit volatile for parts of it, but I am managing it better now. I'm going to try shutting down instead of erupting. I'm really more of an erupter, but this time I'd just rather be quiet. Jury's out on how that will work.

I'm amazed, and a little scared, that October is drawing to a close. It's okay; it's been a good month, but man, did it ever fly.

While I realize that Halloween hasn't even arrived yet, I've got a confession: I'm planning for Christmas / Hannukah. In fact, I've got over half my gifts bought. NO, REALLY.

Here's my thinking: As this year progresses, I will become more and more broke. I'd rather stockpile Christmas gifts now and leave December for family, friends and baking. I'm not over-spending on anyone, but I am trying to pick things that are thoughtful and unique. We'll see if I manage it.

Meanwhile, my BH and I are going to a concert tonight that promises to kick so much ass, I can't even explain it. I'm a little behind on the concert scene lately, so I only found out about the show a few days ago. I read the lineup, got out my credit card, and bought the tickets within three minutes.

Oh yeah, baby.

I'm getting excited for:

- Songwriting time while my BH is house sitting. Oh, to be able to play guitar without a puppy howling outside the door! It's going to be like Christmas but I'll be alone and there will be no snow. So... Nothing like Christmas at all. But at least there will be music.

- A wedding coming up in a few weeks that promises to TOTALLY KICK ASS. No catty bitches this time, just love sweet love. And pie. You know how I feel about pie. We've also been encouraged to wear something colourful, which means I get to break out my fuchsia silk dress from a couple summers ago.

- Bluesfest. I'm going to give it another try, because the lineup is calling my name. I cannot resist. In fact, I'll be there tonight! Iron and Wine, anyone?

- This Saturday in Toronto. I haven't played a gig in Toronto in a long time, and I've never played at this particular venue. A bunch of folks are coming out for the show too, so it will be great to see them! I shall issue myself a challange to stay sober and behave. HAH! Just kidding. That would be completely out of character.