The New Floodgates of the Mind

Sure does.

Last night Chantale and I decided to head out to Moe’s in the West Island for supper. Got there at around 9pm and had a REALLY delicious meal. Chantale had the jumbo smoked meat (wow!) and I had the Park Avenue Sandwich (grilled chicken, peppered ham, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, and a STACK of french fries). Most incredible it was. And the service was excellent. I haven’t been to a Moe’s in more years than I care to remember, but I know we’ll go back soon. Too many yummy things on that menu NOT to 🙂

Afterwards, we crossed the street and spent the next hour at Chapters looking through all the bargain books, cooking, new age, etc etc. Lots of fun in a very relaxing way. Almost reminded me of some of the leisure time spent during the DPM years 🙂

Today, SHOPPING!! Oh my! Went to The Bay and picked up a slew of things from our Registry. Lots of cozy linens and sharp knives. Not kinky, just practical 🙂 From there, spent about an hour at Loblaw’s. Oh, so much yummy food! Mmmm! 🙂 Got home, and put a lasagna in the oven. Chantale’s mom came over for supper and to spend the night. The dogs had a great time in the house – you can see they enjoy it here 🙂 supper was excellent! We cleaned up and then headed out on the patio for coffee. I ended up having my last Vanilla Cigarillo 🙂 The last one before this was last winter after coming home from taking Chantale to Cinema-Show at the Casino.

Wow, time flies…

Tomorrow, Chantale and her mom are heading to Markham to pick up Chantale’s sister who’s finally coming home. She starts her new job on Tuesday and will be downtown, close to me. Cool. 🙂 So, I get to hang with “da dawgs” tomorrow. Wonder if anyone will notice if I dye their fur blue… 🙂

It took me long enough, I may as well post the answers! 🙂 They made me smile after all…

The Weekend Beckons. Very strongly. I want to do nothing. But, of course, that doesn’t really happen. 🙂

I’m communion assistant again on Sunday. Which means, if you remember, that I’m the one distributing the wine to those who come up for communion. 🙂

Had an interesting revelation walking home last night. If I walk fast enough, I can get into a heightened sense of awareness in which my creative juices start flowing and my energy level doubles (if not outright triples). By the time I got home, I was functioning at such a level that when I tried to stop to gather it down… I found I couldn’t understand myself. Bizarre. It was almost as though I hit upon a place where I understood more than ever, but just had no way to properly express it. It was as though words were inadequate.

I wonder if it was my constantly repeating my mantra in my head as I walked? It took me a month to get rid of that bloody “chicken-dance” song from my head and then this week I couldn’t escape from Q-92’s “one-minute” song. It was driving me completely insane so to keep it at bay, I started chanting a mantra: “fuck”

Hey, it worked. And you just can’t argue with success. 🙂

Considering my friend Kirk is in the band, how can I not write about this? 🙂 (Kirk, btw, is part of that other group of friends who occasionally play at Kelly’s Pub: The Black Cadillacs). Anyhow, here’s the news!!

Come Celebrate with THE ECHOHUNTERS – “20 YEARS”

You are cordially invited to join the festivities as we launch our CD entitled “Twenty Years”. We’d love to share this very special event with you, our friends and families.

This fine evening of entertainment with the Echo Hunters will include additional performances and special guest musicians.

Admission Options:
– Purchase a ticket at the door $10.00 (Risk of being sold out…250 person capacity)
– Purchase a ticket at www.admission.com ($17.15)

Ticket sales and seating will begin at 7:00 P.M.. CDs will be on sale

When/Where/What/How/Why:
SATURDAY OCTOBER 4 2003 AT 7:30 P.M.
PETIT CAFÉ CAMPUS 57 PRINCE ARTHUR EST near St.Laurent street
MÉTRO SHERBROOKE –
INFOS 844-1010 – www.cafecampus.com

http://www.echohunters.com

I couldn’t believe how cold it was this morning. When I left the house, it was nice and sunny. Since I slept SO badly last night (weird/ bad dreams from 3am on which kept me awake the entire time), I was so tired I fell asleep on the train. When I got off at Lucien Lallier, it was like stepping into Antartica or something. Sheesh.

In other news, Chantale has joined an indoor soccer league. Her first game is October 4th. Very cool. She’s been wanting to do something like this for years now, and she’s finally getting her chance to get back in the game. I told her she can go to her first game alone, but I’ll be there for subsequent ones cheering her on. 🙂

Well I’m hungry now, so off to Cora’s I go. I need comfort food. My face hurts way too much (but a lot less than the last couple of days). You’ve heard of SARS? I feel like I was striken with MARS. 🙂

Yup, a much better day today 🙂 Maybe yesterday’s blahs were due to it being the official first day of Autumn and the entire day was spent in rain. Who knows. All I know is I woke up much happier this morning and when I got off the train, some Maple Leaf representatives were giving away free lunch 🙂 So, I got myself a frozen soy lasagna dinner which I ate for lunch 🙂 Yum 🙂

Busy day, lots of meetings, and am running off to another one right now! LOMA 301 class just finished which was a lot of fun, too 🙂 It’s nice to have a good group 🙂

All right, c’est tout! Enough for now, time to go!

Really. This morning, it’s like I just want to be left alone. I didn’t even bother taking anything with me this morning when I left – just my jacket and umbrella. In no mood to read, write, or anything. It’s quite bizarre considering I had a really good night. Chantale made another wonderful supper and then we sat back and enjoyed the last few episodes of Babylon 5 Season 3.

But this morning… all I could (and still can) think about is how soon can I go home? I just want to go back to bed and stay there for the day…

I finally got to put my new lawn mower to use yesterday 🙂 Filled up the gas, added the oil, and vroom vroom! Off I went! 3 garbage bags full in about an hour. What power! 🙂

It seems to have been a somewhat mini fix-up weekend, too, since my parents came over on Sunday to help put up a gizmo to roll up our water hose in the back yard. Chantale also spent some time clearing out the garage and making space there for her dad’s giant toolbox from his days as an airplane mechanic 🙂

—–

My face has broken out in a way unlike anything I ever experienced. I don’t think I ever had as many painful zits on my face in even my worst adolescent moments! Holey hell where did all this stress come from? And just as I had started a new workout routine last week to try to relax me more…

—–

Today has been insane. I’m tired. And so far, my Wednesday is ENTIRELY booked in Meetings. Can I just bash my head in a wall somewhere? Sigh…

Well, I just made myself a nice Almond Tea. It usally relaxes me as it brings me memories of the Ovarium… Maybe I should set up another appointment there… I’m in the need to be pampered it seems…

Realizing it’s been ages since I last added content to my website wasn’t the issue. Actually being able to make the time in order to add content, now that was an issue.

Luckily, I was doing some hard-drive cleaning today and decided I may as well take advantage of the brief respite in order to do just that! And so, a few more “Last Word” articles have finally found their way onto my Articles section.

Comicopians, of course, have seen this stuff in previous issues. Non-copians are, of course, encouraged to peruse for their own amusement 🙂

Future updates should be a little easier. It’s nice when life actually gets a chance to stabilize a bit…

I just finished watching “Chasing Amy”. I have to say it again, I love Kevin Smith’s work. I find what he does fresh and funny and, in some strange way, “real”. I always feel like he puts things in our faces not so much to get a rise out of us, but to make us think about various things. Maybe try to get a little realization out of who and what we are. … Anyhow, he does that to me. He often asks the same kinds of questions I’ve asked about different situations. I guess I feel a kindered spirit in his work.

One thing this movie did for me tonight was bring back a lot of memories about comics conventions. It’s strange. I’ve been to so many science-fiction and media conventions that I’m quite comfortable with them. I’ve been there as a fan, a guest, a panelist, etc. I always enjoyed them, enjoyed talking with other fans and giving my opinions on other’s works. I enjoyed holding panels and getting the audience involved in the subject. I loved making new connections and becoming friends with others in the fields; watching their progress from year to year, and exciting in thier triumphs.

Yet, there is something about comic conventions, especially small-press, that is so different in a similar sense. The same kind of networking goes on, the same type of friendships are made, the same excitement is felt upon watching everyone else attempt to succeed. But things just seem a bit more personal in that world. Now, I can’t really say how it is at the “big” conventions, but having been a player in the small press, I can speak about those. At the small press expos, it’s like you know the stories of everyone you encounter, simply because you’re living the same kind of life/ existence. You’re trying to make the same kind of hopeful sales while staying true to your own belief/ character/ and marketing objectives. You want to sell your craft without selling out your soul.

I miss it.

I miss checking up on everyone else’s progress two or three times a year. I miss joining in on their joys and sorrows as they attempt to bring a product (which is really a personal vision) to market while struggling financially with it. I miss sharing stories of juggling deadlines, family, day-jobs, and other committments while attempting to reach an audience. I miss that camraderie.

Mainly, I miss being knee-deep in the creation, distribution, and marketing of a product, and of myself. I miss the face-to-face discussions with fans who’ve put down cash to pick up a book I worked on. I miss telling people about “background” information on putting together a story. I miss sharing ideas with people.

I miss the excitement of setting up a booth on the first day of a convention and watching the doors open and people walk in, wondering what’s going to happen and who you’re going to meet. I miss the “not caring” about the slow days as it gave us all time to walk around and chat with other creators and find out what other conventions are upcoming or worth attending.

I know that it’ll happen again some day. I know that I’ll be forever greatful that it DID happen at all. I just find myself wondering how everyone else is doing, and what they’ve been up to lately…

It’s just been too bloody long.