Happy New Year! - Cecilia Takes a Look back at 2005
Feliz Navidad! Happy Holidays! Joyeuses Fêtes! and Happy New Year!!
Greetings folks! Here we are at the cusp of a brand new year… In attempting to write this year's round-up of memorable happenings, I realized I'm starting to have difficulty trying to figure out how to start off these reviews in new and exciting ways… So how about we just get started, shall we?
In last year's update, I mentioned I had started working for a podiatrist (foot doctor). This year I got to see first-hand a lot of the stuff I learned about in school, like what happens to a diabetic foot when it has been neglected for too long, and what toenails look like when they haven't been cut in years. Sound a little grodey? Well, except for the sad human element that brings people to this point, the actual functionings or, in some cases, mis-functionings of the human body are absolutely fascinating. People say to me all the time that they are embarrassed by their feet and that theirs must be the ugliest feet I've ever seen, but I always tell them after what I've seen this year, most feet are close to godly.
On top of the day-to-day care of feet in the clinic, I also still do a little reflexology on the side. This year I was encouraged to join a group of reflexologists who together try to increase public awareness about this alternative therapy by participating in many shows and conferences all over the city. Aside from this being a great networking source and opportunity to learn from experienced reflexologists, I'm secretly hoping continued exposure to this bunch will result in some rubbing off of their incredible energy and ambition on little ol' moi.
This world of feet is still kind of new and a little tentative mostly because being part of the corporate world is still so fresh in my mind and quite honestly something I kind of miss from time to time. No more meetings, staff lunches, and internet access au but, not to mention the camaraderie and, well, of course, office gossip. It's hard to know whether the career gamble you've made will be a winner or a crash-and-burner.
But sometimes a sign of hope comes right when you need it most. A friend had suggested I read The Celestine Prophecy because she thought I might connect with its metaphysical theme. Although a lot of it was a little melo-dramy, I did find myself relating to the theory that there are no such things as coincidences, and that life is full of cosmic events leading us to our destiny. I wasn't sure how this was cosmic thingy was happening in my life, but I thought the premise downright titillating in the realm of What Ifs.
I suppose it was kismet that I read this book when I did. One day an old friend called out of the blue to tell me of an available position – an opportunity to re-join the corporate machine! The proposition was deeply enticing since at the time I was feeling a little frustrated and unappreciated at work, and I was tempted to give it a shot, after all it was a chance to go back to where I had once been so happy – hello big money, hello power suits, hello company Christmas parties … It took me a minute but eventually I remembered why I left that world in the first place and it helped me realize that while my new path may seem daunting now, it sure beats being at the beck and call of someone who could quite easily replace and forget you tomorrow. Knowing this, I passed on applying for the position and found renewed courage and faith in the road ahead.
Being newly-focused on continuing my quest, later in the year I took several classes which some might consider on the eccentric side yet were surprisingly stimulating nevertheless. One class was a hands-on course in chair massage (God, I love it when people touch me!), and another was called "Focusing" which is a kind of self-therapy developed at the University of Chicago. The idea for this process came from the fact that not everyone in psychotherapy gets better and some of those who respond best to counselling are those who are able to get in touch with the parts of their body that manifested what they were feeling emotionally. It's hard to describe, but in a nutshell that pain in your back/neck/stomach/etc is your body speaking to you. And when you listen, it can change your life.
For our summer vacation, Charles and I went back to New York City. Eager to try something new, upon first arriving we headed straight to Broadway and plunked down some big cash for tickets to see Glen Gary Glen Ross, starring Alan Alda and Liev Schreiber, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, starring John Lithgow. I've heard it said many times but I finally see why people claim there is nothing like watching a bona fide Broadway show. It was unbelievably thrilling to be sitting in the 4th row, literally spitting distance from Alan Alda, and boy did he sprinkle up a storm. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a musical, was even more mesmerizing. I think I beamed in sheer delight the whole time. My face was hurting from all my dumbfounded smiling.
Our NYC adventure continued as we also went to see a taping of The Daily Show, saw a gazillion dinosaur bones at the Museum of Natural History just off Central Park, and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. But perhaps the most moving sight was going to Ground Zero. We hadn't planned on making it part of the itinerary, but once we had crossed the bridge, it was just across the way so why not go see the place where our current global reality was birthed. New York City is a monstrous beast of a city, and walking through the streets you sometimes actually feel like a mouse in a maze of skyscrapers that tower endlessly overhead. Reaching the block where the Twin Towers once stood, we entered a space of stark silence and emptiness. It was unmistakably the "Empty Sky" Bruce Springsteen sang about in his song. To be surrounded by tall buildings right up until you turn the corner and then suddenly - - - nothing. The mere thought that those gigantic structures could have fallen in such a narrow space simply boggles my mind.
Other things I learned this time in New York: their public transit system is completely air-conditioned (yup, the buses and subways); the Kosher food in Brooklyn is to die for!; and on Broadway some theatres hold a lottery before each performance for leftover seats – if you win you can buy those tickets for roughly $20 bucks.
Over the summer we spent many a weekend in Plattsburgh where Charles' mom has a little place. There's nothing like a trailer trashin' it wheres alls we do is eat 'em fried chickens and swim in them there pool. Yee haw! In September we happened to witness some of the festivities surrounding The Battle of Plattsburgh, which by all accounts was a major turning point in the attempted re-appropriation of the U.S. by the British in the war of 1812. Where it not for the strong gust of wind that never came, leaving the British fleet to flounder in Lake Champlain, the American forces would not have been able to regroup in time to ward off further advancement by the Redcoats and so on September 11th, 1814, 14,000 British soldiers were defeated by 5,000 Yankees. As we were discussing the historical significance of this momentous victory with Elaine, the nice lady at the post office, she could not help but thank her lucky stars things turned out the way they did. Knowing they had come this close to becoming British subjects, and surely later on Canadians, was a fate she quite vocally was thrilled to have avoided. After the sting of the unintended and clearly oblivious affront wore off, I realized we both share a comparable gratitude and could only in turn thank my lucky stars that I am not an American.
For me, 2005 has been a year notably marked by a keen new interest in reading. A major reason for this has been The Daily Show which Charles and I record and watch regularly. I have to admit, I haven't been this interested in current events in many years and it's difficult to say if it's specifically Jon Stewart's show that has sparked my interest -- or the continuing abysmal reality of the George W. Bush administration. In any case, Jon Stewart has had many authors as guests on his show, and I have checked out a number of their books on more than one occasion.
The one I enjoyed the most was Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. It is a wacky, weirdly enthralling exploration of the first three presidential assassinations. Vowell, a woman obsessed with death and U.S. history, goes on a pilgrimage of sorts to the sites and monuments that pay homage to Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, including the Joseph N. Nathanson Collection of Lincolniana at McGill, the most unique and extensive collection of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia north of the U.S. border. The section on the Lincoln assassination was thoroughly fascinating, and I was also particularly impressed when Vowell pointed out the similarities between McKinley's preemptive war against Cuba and the Philippines and the current war in Iraq. Incidentally, Sarah is the voice of Violet from The Incredibles, so if you have the DVD, you can check out the little bit on her and her fascinating book. For an excerpt of Assassination Vacation, click here: http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?sid=33&pid=505481&agid=2
On the Hit, Miss and What's This? List…
Things that lived up to the hype: 1) Sidney Crosby – man, what a player! 2) Million Dollar Baby – no one knows how to get beat to a pulp in a movie like Hilary Swank; 3) Seeing the look in Brad Pitt's eyes in a scene with Angelina Jolie in Mr. & Mrs. Smith – that's not acting, folks. It's love. 4) The Amazing Race comes to Montreal for the season finale – God, I love that show!!
Things that made me go "Ugh": 1) Most of the new TV shows and Lost - will someone please tell these people to get on with the story already!! 2) Montreal's new computerized parking meters – a faster and easier way for the city to rip people off; 3) The Canadiens; 4) The sad and pathetic world of Canadian politics and their disgusting waste of tax payer money.
Things that came out of no where: 1) Alien vs Predator – I was quite impressed, but probably because I went in with pretty low expectations; 2) The Exorcism of Emily Rose – if you like court room dramas and spooky stuff, this is a pretty damn decent film; 3) the internet – although this remains quite frankly a keystone of my daily existence, it still manages to deliver unexpected gems of classic entertainment, at least for my sense of humour; 4) The wedding of Charles and Camilla – proof that love can survive and win against the odds.
On the concert scene: Duran Duran (finally!!), Bruce Springsteen in Ottawa, Him (a cool group from Finland), and the love of my life – Bryan Adams! Bryan Adams was quite possibly the ultimate score since I have been waiting to see him literally my whole life. Well, at least since I was 14. Of course, this dream come true would never have happened without Charles' impressive talent for wheeling and dealing on eBay. Our tickets were for the 5th row but we ended up running up to the stage where we were just a few feet away from the man himself. Bryan started the show with "Here I Am" and as he sang the words - here I am, this is me, there's no place in this world I'd rather be, here I am, just me and you, tonight we'll make our dreams come true - I started to bawl my eyes out. I must have cried for the entire first three songs, right up until a behemoth of a woman (who looked like that serial killer chick from the movie Monster) nearly ploughed me over to get closer to Bryan so she could give him a rose – she might have had more luck if she had at least washed her hair and put in her front teeth. But oh, what a night to remember. At the end of the show, Bryan said Montreal had a special place in his heart since this was where he first started to make it big and that we are all very lucky to be Canadians and to remember that right at that moment two Canadians were being held hostage by terrorists in Iraq, hoping to stay alive.
Other memorable events of 2005: several friends took a chance on love and won (hooray!); a couple friends and my brother individually did mucho mucho traveling (i.e. a charity mission to Panama, a road trip from Texas to the southern tip of Central America, Polar Bear watching in Churchill Falls, and a journey to Pakistan to help victims of the earthquake); the comic book convention in Toronto – thanks to Charles' instigation, it was the first time I introduced myself as a fellow illustrator and it seems cute chick artists are quite the rare and alluring birds who gets lots of attention :)
Closer to home, Charles completed his internship and obtained his Masters so he is now officially a card carrying Psychologist and I could not be more proud. He and I spent Christmas at the country house with the whole family where we treated everyone to Charles' absolutely amazing lasagna. During dinner, I saw my adorable little 19th month-old niece Sheyla doing the cutest thing with her 'talking' index finger while grunting "Redrum". Aww, isn't she sweetest?
Looking back, it doesn't feel like a lot has happened to me personally event wise so I don't know where all this blah blah came from... But I am so done with 2005 and raring to welcome in 2006.
Thanks to my friends who were there when I turned to you for support - you'll never know how your love and understanding saved me from those blue days.Thanks to my parents (who celebrated their 35th wedding anniversay this year) - you gave me so much while we were growing up and I really appreciate everything you've done for me.And thanks to Charles for bringing new treasures to our life, encouraging me to try new things, and for making me feel beautiful and loved.
So Happy New Year to you all! Wishing you all the best this life has to offer and more...,
Cecilia
Greetings folks! Here we are at the cusp of a brand new year… In attempting to write this year's round-up of memorable happenings, I realized I'm starting to have difficulty trying to figure out how to start off these reviews in new and exciting ways… So how about we just get started, shall we?
In last year's update, I mentioned I had started working for a podiatrist (foot doctor). This year I got to see first-hand a lot of the stuff I learned about in school, like what happens to a diabetic foot when it has been neglected for too long, and what toenails look like when they haven't been cut in years. Sound a little grodey? Well, except for the sad human element that brings people to this point, the actual functionings or, in some cases, mis-functionings of the human body are absolutely fascinating. People say to me all the time that they are embarrassed by their feet and that theirs must be the ugliest feet I've ever seen, but I always tell them after what I've seen this year, most feet are close to godly.
On top of the day-to-day care of feet in the clinic, I also still do a little reflexology on the side. This year I was encouraged to join a group of reflexologists who together try to increase public awareness about this alternative therapy by participating in many shows and conferences all over the city. Aside from this being a great networking source and opportunity to learn from experienced reflexologists, I'm secretly hoping continued exposure to this bunch will result in some rubbing off of their incredible energy and ambition on little ol' moi.
This world of feet is still kind of new and a little tentative mostly because being part of the corporate world is still so fresh in my mind and quite honestly something I kind of miss from time to time. No more meetings, staff lunches, and internet access au but, not to mention the camaraderie and, well, of course, office gossip. It's hard to know whether the career gamble you've made will be a winner or a crash-and-burner.
But sometimes a sign of hope comes right when you need it most. A friend had suggested I read The Celestine Prophecy because she thought I might connect with its metaphysical theme. Although a lot of it was a little melo-dramy, I did find myself relating to the theory that there are no such things as coincidences, and that life is full of cosmic events leading us to our destiny. I wasn't sure how this was cosmic thingy was happening in my life, but I thought the premise downright titillating in the realm of What Ifs.
I suppose it was kismet that I read this book when I did. One day an old friend called out of the blue to tell me of an available position – an opportunity to re-join the corporate machine! The proposition was deeply enticing since at the time I was feeling a little frustrated and unappreciated at work, and I was tempted to give it a shot, after all it was a chance to go back to where I had once been so happy – hello big money, hello power suits, hello company Christmas parties … It took me a minute but eventually I remembered why I left that world in the first place and it helped me realize that while my new path may seem daunting now, it sure beats being at the beck and call of someone who could quite easily replace and forget you tomorrow. Knowing this, I passed on applying for the position and found renewed courage and faith in the road ahead.
Being newly-focused on continuing my quest, later in the year I took several classes which some might consider on the eccentric side yet were surprisingly stimulating nevertheless. One class was a hands-on course in chair massage (God, I love it when people touch me!), and another was called "Focusing" which is a kind of self-therapy developed at the University of Chicago. The idea for this process came from the fact that not everyone in psychotherapy gets better and some of those who respond best to counselling are those who are able to get in touch with the parts of their body that manifested what they were feeling emotionally. It's hard to describe, but in a nutshell that pain in your back/neck/stomach/etc is your body speaking to you. And when you listen, it can change your life.
For our summer vacation, Charles and I went back to New York City. Eager to try something new, upon first arriving we headed straight to Broadway and plunked down some big cash for tickets to see Glen Gary Glen Ross, starring Alan Alda and Liev Schreiber, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, starring John Lithgow. I've heard it said many times but I finally see why people claim there is nothing like watching a bona fide Broadway show. It was unbelievably thrilling to be sitting in the 4th row, literally spitting distance from Alan Alda, and boy did he sprinkle up a storm. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a musical, was even more mesmerizing. I think I beamed in sheer delight the whole time. My face was hurting from all my dumbfounded smiling.
Our NYC adventure continued as we also went to see a taping of The Daily Show, saw a gazillion dinosaur bones at the Museum of Natural History just off Central Park, and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. But perhaps the most moving sight was going to Ground Zero. We hadn't planned on making it part of the itinerary, but once we had crossed the bridge, it was just across the way so why not go see the place where our current global reality was birthed. New York City is a monstrous beast of a city, and walking through the streets you sometimes actually feel like a mouse in a maze of skyscrapers that tower endlessly overhead. Reaching the block where the Twin Towers once stood, we entered a space of stark silence and emptiness. It was unmistakably the "Empty Sky" Bruce Springsteen sang about in his song. To be surrounded by tall buildings right up until you turn the corner and then suddenly - - - nothing. The mere thought that those gigantic structures could have fallen in such a narrow space simply boggles my mind.
Other things I learned this time in New York: their public transit system is completely air-conditioned (yup, the buses and subways); the Kosher food in Brooklyn is to die for!; and on Broadway some theatres hold a lottery before each performance for leftover seats – if you win you can buy those tickets for roughly $20 bucks.
Over the summer we spent many a weekend in Plattsburgh where Charles' mom has a little place. There's nothing like a trailer trashin' it wheres alls we do is eat 'em fried chickens and swim in them there pool. Yee haw! In September we happened to witness some of the festivities surrounding The Battle of Plattsburgh, which by all accounts was a major turning point in the attempted re-appropriation of the U.S. by the British in the war of 1812. Where it not for the strong gust of wind that never came, leaving the British fleet to flounder in Lake Champlain, the American forces would not have been able to regroup in time to ward off further advancement by the Redcoats and so on September 11th, 1814, 14,000 British soldiers were defeated by 5,000 Yankees. As we were discussing the historical significance of this momentous victory with Elaine, the nice lady at the post office, she could not help but thank her lucky stars things turned out the way they did. Knowing they had come this close to becoming British subjects, and surely later on Canadians, was a fate she quite vocally was thrilled to have avoided. After the sting of the unintended and clearly oblivious affront wore off, I realized we both share a comparable gratitude and could only in turn thank my lucky stars that I am not an American.
For me, 2005 has been a year notably marked by a keen new interest in reading. A major reason for this has been The Daily Show which Charles and I record and watch regularly. I have to admit, I haven't been this interested in current events in many years and it's difficult to say if it's specifically Jon Stewart's show that has sparked my interest -- or the continuing abysmal reality of the George W. Bush administration. In any case, Jon Stewart has had many authors as guests on his show, and I have checked out a number of their books on more than one occasion.
The one I enjoyed the most was Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. It is a wacky, weirdly enthralling exploration of the first three presidential assassinations. Vowell, a woman obsessed with death and U.S. history, goes on a pilgrimage of sorts to the sites and monuments that pay homage to Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, including the Joseph N. Nathanson Collection of Lincolniana at McGill, the most unique and extensive collection of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia north of the U.S. border. The section on the Lincoln assassination was thoroughly fascinating, and I was also particularly impressed when Vowell pointed out the similarities between McKinley's preemptive war against Cuba and the Philippines and the current war in Iraq. Incidentally, Sarah is the voice of Violet from The Incredibles, so if you have the DVD, you can check out the little bit on her and her fascinating book. For an excerpt of Assassination Vacation, click here: http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?sid=33&pid=505481&agid=2
On the Hit, Miss and What's This? List…
Things that lived up to the hype: 1) Sidney Crosby – man, what a player! 2) Million Dollar Baby – no one knows how to get beat to a pulp in a movie like Hilary Swank; 3) Seeing the look in Brad Pitt's eyes in a scene with Angelina Jolie in Mr. & Mrs. Smith – that's not acting, folks. It's love. 4) The Amazing Race comes to Montreal for the season finale – God, I love that show!!
Things that made me go "Ugh": 1) Most of the new TV shows and Lost - will someone please tell these people to get on with the story already!! 2) Montreal's new computerized parking meters – a faster and easier way for the city to rip people off; 3) The Canadiens; 4) The sad and pathetic world of Canadian politics and their disgusting waste of tax payer money.
Things that came out of no where: 1) Alien vs Predator – I was quite impressed, but probably because I went in with pretty low expectations; 2) The Exorcism of Emily Rose – if you like court room dramas and spooky stuff, this is a pretty damn decent film; 3) the internet – although this remains quite frankly a keystone of my daily existence, it still manages to deliver unexpected gems of classic entertainment, at least for my sense of humour; 4) The wedding of Charles and Camilla – proof that love can survive and win against the odds.
On the concert scene: Duran Duran (finally!!), Bruce Springsteen in Ottawa, Him (a cool group from Finland), and the love of my life – Bryan Adams! Bryan Adams was quite possibly the ultimate score since I have been waiting to see him literally my whole life. Well, at least since I was 14. Of course, this dream come true would never have happened without Charles' impressive talent for wheeling and dealing on eBay. Our tickets were for the 5th row but we ended up running up to the stage where we were just a few feet away from the man himself. Bryan started the show with "Here I Am" and as he sang the words - here I am, this is me, there's no place in this world I'd rather be, here I am, just me and you, tonight we'll make our dreams come true - I started to bawl my eyes out. I must have cried for the entire first three songs, right up until a behemoth of a woman (who looked like that serial killer chick from the movie Monster) nearly ploughed me over to get closer to Bryan so she could give him a rose – she might have had more luck if she had at least washed her hair and put in her front teeth. But oh, what a night to remember. At the end of the show, Bryan said Montreal had a special place in his heart since this was where he first started to make it big and that we are all very lucky to be Canadians and to remember that right at that moment two Canadians were being held hostage by terrorists in Iraq, hoping to stay alive.
Other memorable events of 2005: several friends took a chance on love and won (hooray!); a couple friends and my brother individually did mucho mucho traveling (i.e. a charity mission to Panama, a road trip from Texas to the southern tip of Central America, Polar Bear watching in Churchill Falls, and a journey to Pakistan to help victims of the earthquake); the comic book convention in Toronto – thanks to Charles' instigation, it was the first time I introduced myself as a fellow illustrator and it seems cute chick artists are quite the rare and alluring birds who gets lots of attention :)
Closer to home, Charles completed his internship and obtained his Masters so he is now officially a card carrying Psychologist and I could not be more proud. He and I spent Christmas at the country house with the whole family where we treated everyone to Charles' absolutely amazing lasagna. During dinner, I saw my adorable little 19th month-old niece Sheyla doing the cutest thing with her 'talking' index finger while grunting "Redrum". Aww, isn't she sweetest?
Looking back, it doesn't feel like a lot has happened to me personally event wise so I don't know where all this blah blah came from... But I am so done with 2005 and raring to welcome in 2006.
Thanks to my friends who were there when I turned to you for support - you'll never know how your love and understanding saved me from those blue days.Thanks to my parents (who celebrated their 35th wedding anniversay this year) - you gave me so much while we were growing up and I really appreciate everything you've done for me.And thanks to Charles for bringing new treasures to our life, encouraging me to try new things, and for making me feel beautiful and loved.
So Happy New Year to you all! Wishing you all the best this life has to offer and more...,
Cecilia
posted by Blogger_Naut | 11:08 a.m.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home