I also ate eleven pounds of cherries over three days

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Things are coming together. I traded Gustavo a photoshoot for a working PC, (which should completely solve my computer issues), I found cheap playa bikes on Craiglist, and Ray and I bought a bike rack together that he’ll keep after Burning Man.

Next up: processing Gustavo’s photos, dropping paperwork off at social services, transferring some debt money, finding a basket for my bike, attaching it, replacing the seat, putting air in the tires, cleaning house and rinsing out the jam jars for Sunday Tea, getting on top of the laundry and the mending, readying my room for vaccuming, testing the camelback I won in an on-line riddle contest, finding my wedding gown skirt, (which might be in Seattle), cutting up t-shirts, packing clothes for Burning Man, finding a desert sun hat, making a photobook, finishing Tanith’s haircut, tossing out the shredded old blankets, putting the videos someone left here a year ago out free in the alley, finishing my website, (self-portrait gallery and About page), dying my hair, checking my tent for Lung, emptying out the bench and putting it up on Craigslist, cashing in the change tin at the money counting machine ($150!), conjuring groceries out of the result, as well as four caster wheels for the little pink table, magic wrap for the broken hose, and a replacement handle for the chest of drawers, all while trying to find a job.

music, death from above, shaving my pussy

Yesterday…

  • Tony, Gustavo, Will, Nicole, and I went to Justice Rocks to see the gypsy music voodoo of Maria in the Shower, who rocked damned lovely. My favourite part was when the trumpet player climbed on top of the upright bass for a solo. It was, in a word, epic.
  • I stepped on a bee. Sliding the dark, needle thin stinger from my toe was easy, seeing the soft yellow and black fur attached to it was not. I like bees and it makes me sad when they die. Because I’ve been stung hundreds of times, stings don’t really hurt anymore, but I still had a tiny venom blister today.
  • David and I tried shaving one of the cats, as they’ve been getting sick from heatstroke, but due to a very thick coat, it didn’t work. In the end, David declared the cats to be sheep and I had to use scissors to finish the job. Gustavo recorded everything. If it goes on the internet, I’ll show you the video. Now Tanith has a short patch on her left shoulder. We can’t tell if she’s happy about it or not.
  • this week in brief

    Things I have not been mentioning here: I attended Matthew David Cale and Sarah Rose Edward-Noelle’s wedding on Monday, and, coincidentally, am planning to attend Matthew and Sara Rose’s newlywed picnic next Sunday. I hope for all the best to both couples and idly wonder if I should introduce them. Jim asked Mishka, finally, if she would marry him. She said yes. I am to be their Maid of Honour next summer and in charge of photography. I tapped Lung to do the honours while I’m standing up front, trying not to drop her ring. He and Tony and I went to see Twilight last Saturday, which was even more hilarious than the last movie. I accidentally left my hat there, but recovered it Tuesday. My mother is leaving on Friday to NYC for three weeks, where she’ll meet Van Sise in person before I do, as Lung already did. I am going to be recording her show on Thursday with Paul and T. Crane before she goes. She will be out of a job when she returns, as well as down one local child, as one of my brothers just moved to Montreal to learn Asian languages in french at the Uni of Montreal. A different family member was recently arrested and spent a night in jail, but we’re hoping it will turn out okay. The lawyer seems positive that charges will be dropped. At home, David has been given a raise and I am still looking for work, though not finding any. EI is still threatening to dock my social assistance, which has already dropped by a hundred dollars, no longer covering my rent. In hopes of softening that blow, I have been updating my Etsy shop, as I cannot rely on photography until my wrists have recovered. Also, to complicate matters, I am running out of space to put digital photos, a situation that will only grow more dire the longer I do not have access to my work computer, which continues to blackscreen during boot. On a more positive note, Van Sise sent me a vintage medium format pinhole camera so I will be able to take pictures at Burning Man. (I’m unwilling to risk my camera with playa dust). I have not used one since highschool, when I made a shoddy one from a shoebox, so it should prove to be a very interesting experiment.

    “When life gives you mascara, make masquerade”

    365:2010/07/07 - preparing

    Tony and I have decided to go forward with our trip to Burning Man!!

    Even though we’ve been planning on going together practically since our first kiss, we were a hair’s breadth away from cutting Lung free to try it alone this year as my injuries cascaded, stranding me immobile on the chilly shores of chronic pain and disability. Tony wavered, delighted to take me on my greatest adventure, yet terrified of the idea of abetting further or possibly permanent damage to my body. It was last week’s miraculous physio appointment, (where my dislocated ankle was put back into alignment), that finally tipped the balance, as well as this: my arm is no longer in a sling, in one week my broken toe should be fully healed, in two weeks my strained wrists should be better, and in three weeks my previously dislocated ankle should be almost fully functional. My right shoulder’s still an internal ruin and my recovering ankle will be tender and tire easily, but by the time we get to Black Rock City, I should be recovered enough that it won’t be actively dangerous for me to attend. Not any more than for other people, at least, what with all the DIY fire throwers and all.

    So far we’ve booked a minivan rental, bought warm vintage fur coats for the cold playa nights, and Tony’s hooked me up with a truly sweet pair of dust goggles, as seen in the inset picture.

    This week’s plan is to find a truly fabulous wide brim hat, three cheap-as-pity bikes with fat tires and good brakes, and acquire at least one Lawrence of Arabia outfit, the better to survive a week of searing desert sun, that which I am most afraid of. (Some people merely flush a bittersweet bloom of pink, but my flesh reduces to crispy ashes in under twenty minutes. My thin skin, pale like paper, burns as such, and the last thing I want to do is spend my trip hallucinating from pain with a back like peeling, bleeding bacon.)

    Does anyone know a good source for such things? Local, (Seattle/Vancouver), or on-line.

    No wonder I’ve been perpetually wiped out.

    Good news!!


    In the past two weeks, I’ve gone to the physiotherapist twice. First for my shoulder, second for my ankle. The first appointment was nothing special. He gave me some isometric exercises to practice at home, to strengthen my muscles and ligaments without moving them around, and hooked me up to a TENS machine that left bruised hickey octopus sucker marks all over my skin. The second appointment, though, which focused on my ankle, was a little bit life changing. Turns out, and why none of the doctors ever figured this out, I don’t know, my ankle was dislocated! The physiotherapist did a few motion tests, prodded conclusively with his fingers, then, incredibly, just pressed the bones back into place. It was a very peculiar feeling, but the relief was immediate. There’s still pain, but it’s a dull ache instead of a chronic, constant sharp pressure, and the brain fuzziness that accompanied it is almost entirely gone.

    It seems that when I went rollerblading in broken boots all those years ago, the compression of the ill fit slowly shoved my bones out of place, wrecking some of the connective tissue and setting a precedent in the flesh for it to slip out in future, much like my shoulder, which is why my injury would flare up randomly when I ran or even stepped off a curb the wrong way.

    To finally have an ultimate solution, to be able to stand and walk and know what was wrong, has been revolutionary. I have been given exercises to keep it in place – standing on one foot on a balance board, twenty minutes on a stationary bike, pushing with the other foot to give it a ride, and fifty pound leg presses, as gently as possible – and the fellow that sold us my new ankle brace recommended a very good series of stretches, where you trace out the alphabet in the air with your toes. My problems now are only healing and strength. Healing, to get over the tiny soft tissue tears from misplaced bones, and strength, to make sure it doesn’t happen again.