Month: October 2014

Saying good-bye to my sister and family is bittersweet. I am very ready to get home, my longest stint away, but I have really come to love hanging out with my family. I got a chance to know them all over again. I bow for the last matinee, tear off my clothes in the dressing room, yank on my jeans and fly past the director and playwright with slapdash hugs and a bag full of hot rollers. I literally run to my car and drive seven hours straight to Anita’s. “Look at you, you still have your show hair!” she…

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I am going to be home in less than forty four hours. My niece Hunter said, “Oh, it is so sad that you will be leaving us, Auntie Cia.” And little Scarlette said, “Yes. Sad but also happy. I get my room back.” I am distracted. I have many papers to mark and plays to dramaturge and drafts to rewrite and all I can do is think of my Nora’s birthday party coming up, pickling the beets in the garden, what meal I am going to cook first for my Fellow and his boy. The art of life is downstage,…

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I know it’s mostly meant as harmless flattery, but I am not a goddess. Where and when did we shift from the goddess movement and the acknowledgment of the Feminine Sacred to acknowledging ourselves as goddesses in some pop culture approved form of self grandiosity? A goddess is a female deity with supernatural powers. Wouldn’t it be strange if a man walked around declaring he was a god? Yeah. Are we Gaia, the white Tara, the female Christ, Mazu, Mami wata, Brigantia, Isis or Aphrodite? Why would we want to pretend to be? Sure we toss around the term goddess…

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“The first time I introduced Gio to your Nonna Lucia…” says Louisa in her kitchen, handing out cognac with the pumpkin pie I brought, “Gio was wearing these high heeled disco shoes, what do you call them-” her daughter, Nita, interjects, “Platform shoes, Ma, everyone wore platform shoes in the seventies.” Louisa continues, Giovanni grins sheepishly in the background, “He was wearing the platform shoes I made him wear because I didn’t want him shorter than me when we went dancing. Anyway, typical Italian family, everyone is downstairs. So, we go through the living room and head down the stairs…

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“Mom, I have something very sad to tell you…” my pixilated daughter says over Skype. She hangs her head down with a half gasp, unsure of how to speak it. Her curls fall across her cheek and I can see the little dark gap where her bottom eye tooth used to be. It’s a little bloody. It’s a little more painful than the others. “What, honey? You can tell me.” “I…I don’t believe in fairies anymore.” Her voice breaks with emotion, like she’s betraying the unseen kingdom, causing a Tinkerbell to die. I hum and nod my head, waiting for…

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I am visiting Poul and Janice and he is showing me a picture of a halibut he caught. Halibut have eyes on only one side of their head because they bottom feed on the other side. This is a fact that I know, then forget, then get reminded again and always say, “Really?! Wow! Wait, I think I knew that.” Poul explains the nature of halibut to me with such animated passionate interest for knowledge it makes me want to go fishing, write a book about it or – okay, let’s be honest, serve halibut cheeks with miso orange sauce….

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I sit at Bill and Renita’s table over a mountain of Mennonite crepes. It’s a beautiful morning in Rosebud, the sun toasting up the rolling hills like hot cross buns. Bill shows me how to operate the breakfast: line the mid crepe with crab apple sauce, then roll, then top with a layer of whip cream, then a drizzle of maple syrup. Bacon on the side. Cheese if you’re – (he wrinkles his nose) if you’re a cheese eater. Delicious. You see, Renita puts her whip cream inside the crepe then rolls…Norma makes her apple sauce without sugar…both of these…

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On my way to dinner I merge off of Deerfoot Trail at 100km/hr onto Memorial. The driver in front of me to the left decides to merge into my lane and then she hesitates, slams on her brakes and wiggles about unsure if it’s too late to get back onto the main highway, waiting for an opening. I have to slam on my brakes so hard, there’s nowhere to go, I nearly smash right into her and the guy behind me nearly smashes right into me. Blink! Dead! Gone. My heart thumps in my chest. Why? Why, did I almost…

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