Apparently, Spring

We had a freak cold snap this past week, where temperatures dropped to minus 30 in the mornings. For now, it is dangerous to start imagining and trusting in the concept of 'Spring'. There is little evidence of it yet, though it has warmed up to -5 again as I type.

While I wait for crocuses to bloom and the annual putting-away of my snow boots, here are some odes to the beauty of what Winter can be. (Have fun with your T-shirt weather, everyone else.)

On Creating

These days, people always shoot their eyebrows up in surprise when I tell them that I majored in Theatre in university. I suppose being an introverted individual, living in a somewhat isolated + isolating community of 800, doesn't automatically lend itself to being a natural match for a life in the Dramatic Arts.

BUT.





From the age of 15 (when I was part of my first play, Audience) to the age of 25 (when I moved away to London), I was on stage. A lot.

I have been a green oompa loompa. A student revolutionary in China. The greek goddess of wisdom, Athena. I've dropped trou and displayed granny panties on stage; been cast as the "sassy lesbian"; played the awkward and disillusioning aftermath of a sex scene in Vienna, in 1900. I directed and created and starred in an ensemble-based show, called The Secret Keeper, inspired by the Postsecret website--which was simultaneously the single most rewarding and shit-my-pants inducing time of my life.

I (almost) fell in real love once, on stage. With a boy.