christmas
it’s hard to believe that christmas is over. it was hard to believe that it was christmas time to begin with, really. the holiday was dwarfed by having a new job, and adjusting to a different time schedule.

this christmas was the same but different. it was the same, in that we made many of the same recipes that we always do – particularly eggnog, with plenty of rum – but different, as all my older siblings were in india.

we always decorate the tree on christmas eve while sipping eggnog; it’s fun to go through the decorations and remember ones that were gifts, or where we found a particularly unique bauble. we don’t exchange presents during this holiday, so the focus is always on people and food. lots and lots of people, and lots and lots of food.

for christmas dinner, we had turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, squash, cranberry sauce, stuffing (my favourite part), applesauce, and broccoli. dessert was a delicious polish cake with fudge icing. we made soursop sorbet on boxing day to accompany beef tenderloin in a mascarpone sauce, with roasted potatoes, small green beans and pine nuts. we enjoyed a very good wine that accompanied christmas dinner; it was called boekenhout the wolftrap (a red wine).

holiday tradition
besides eggnog, we always make kahlua truffles during christmas, and this year the truffles were as good as always. my mum makes delicious poppy-seed nut cookies, and almond crescent cookies topped with icing sugar. this year my parents made sugarplums, with tamarind and nuts, which we’ve never tried before.

favourite memory
i would have to say one of my favourite memories of christmas is the year we got our cat mishka, around christmas time, and she decided to climb the tree one evening. we didn’t realize what she was doing until the tree fell over. quite a shock, for us and our little furball!

2006
this year has been a mass of changes. every year is, i know that; but this year in particular has brought with it alterations i would never have anticipated. i learned so much from producing a dance show to dealing with an acidic work environment to graduating from the IM program to finding a job. not to mention being able to visit croatia for the first time in my life, and learn about the place where toni is from; or the opportunities to learn new languages (a rediscovered love, for me). it has been a very difficult year and a very amazing one.

here’s something interesting (via kottke.org) and i decided to follow suit:

Hamilton, ON, CA
Buffalo, NY, USA
Stratford, ON, CA
Kitchener-Waterloo, ON, CA
Brela, HR
Dubrovnik, HR
Plitvice Jezera, HR
Makarska, HR
Split, HR
Solta, HR
Montreal, QC, CA

2007
i have no idea what this coming year will bring. i am still learning to inhabit the space brought with my new job; and i am still hoping and praying for sustained strength and endurance, and the ability to persevere. in the coming year, many gifts will be realized; and not only do i promise to cherish them for the rest of my life – i am deeply, unspeakably grateful for them.

resolutions & hopes
i hope to keep growing, to keep getting better, to keep learning and garnering wisdom. i wish my friends and family many moments of peace and happiness, and – hard as it is to see the possibility, to even write the possibility – i hope we can transcend the faults with which our civilizations inflict us. it is hard most times to believe there is any possibility, but i can still hope.

slainte mhath,

sappho

Labels: year-end post

from the film Meet Me In St. Louis
Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane 1943

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
gather near to us once more.

Through the years we all will be together
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Labels: christmas time is here

i decided to re-post the suggestions for content so you don't have to search for the challenge post if you need to come back for inspiration.

◦ include what you like and/or dislike about the holiday tradition in canada or whatever country you are currently residing in (molly!).
◦ describe something you and your family do, as a personal tradition, during the holidays. perhaps also you can include information about culturally specific differences that are particular to your own celebration of the holidays.
◦ describe a favourite moment (or a family story that involves you) that occurred during the holidays from childhood.
◦ tell us what you eat/ate over the holidays. please.
◦ look back on 2006. what kind of person were you, at the beginning? how have you changed? what has happened to you this year? what are your favourite moments from 2006?
◦ look forward to 2007. where do you think you are heading, as a person? what do you think will happen? what do you want to happen?
◦ new year’s resolution(s). c’mon. a new year isn’t a new year without them.

happy holidays, darlings!

love,
sappho

Labels: year-end post

thanks to tulip who alerted me to the fact that comments haven't been working (it's not something i can fix, alas). and thanks to those of you who voted :)

the winner is:

2006 - staying connected

so now we have our title in perpetuum, folks. let's get writing!

Labels: year-end post

it’s been a long four days. only four days, but time stretched like an elastic so every second took an eon. i am still thin, solid, present in 2006, a little tense, a little happy. it surprises me that i’m still here – still so alive. stuff just happens around me – to me, is probably a more correct description. i have little choice in the matter! i am glad of it. of things, of life, happening.

it’s black as onyx out. the windows are reflecting pinpoints of light – like little breathing spectres, each representing a whole life. like the echoes of stars we witness in the sky.

newness
i got a new job today. i will keep my fundraising work going – i haven’t forgotten about the humane society plan i have doing a little jig in the back of my head – but there will be a new haunt for the daylight hours of sappho. it’s a lovely tiny little firm, just across the street. i am ecstatic to have the position. it suits my mind to a t. and taking dooce’s advice to heart, that’s all you’re going to hear about it on here.

painting
for a while i stopped. i just stopped. stopped painting, stopped writing, stopped dancing. i don’t like remembering that time. i painted my first canvas in over a year today. it’s not finished – just the first wash done. it’s from memory – a painting of the adriatic sea. i’ve been forced to start writing again too – which is, i think, turning out to be a good thing. i’ve been scared of far too many things for far too long, and i am happy that i am brave enough to start being creative again. i’m starting to cry so i think that’s all i can write about for now.

don’t worry though.

they’re tears of happiness.

Labels: alive, creativity, news

here are the titles that have been suggested so far. if you would like to add another title, email me and i’ll add it in.

i’m putting letters beside each entry (starting at a). choose your top three favourite titles and rank them using numbers. your comment will look something like this:

1. c
2. e
3. b

1. = 5 points
2. = 4 points
3. = 3 points

we’ll see which title gets the most points at the end of the week. the winner will be posted over the weekend!

a. 2006 last post, by [your name]
b. kiss 2006 good-bye, hello! 2007
c. 2006 – staying connected
d. 2006 recap
e. holiday recap
f. year-end reflections

Labels: year-end post

you'll have noticed many of the links i used to have on my sidebar disappeared when my new template was uploaded. that's because i was lazy. i didn't back them up, and relied on my good, but not great, memory. so i'm slowly building up the repertoire again.

if you see any interesting blogs of note, pass them along.

Labels: blogs, sidebar

first of all, there is a really annoying intermittent series of high-pitched beeps going off somewhere in one of the apartments surrounding ours. it’s like the tintinnabullate version of chinese water torture.

make it stop!

freckles
i am not really a freckly sort of person. MYS fills that category in our family :) however i have noticed new freckles popping up with alarming frequency on my arms and neck. they are tiny little brown freckles; some of them are perfectly circular. i like freckles. but in case these new freckles are trying to start somethin’, i just want to make it clear that i do not intend to be turned into a large freckle. and i will take any offensive freckles to court for their attempt to do so if such a situation arises. freckles, beware.

left, right, left-right-left
as some of you know, i know my right foot from my left foot but not my right hand from my left hand. if someone asks me to turn right or left and i can’t think with my feet, i have to surreptitiously pretend to write, or look at my hands for the freckle in the centre of the top of my left wrist. i can’t visualize my left hand from my right hand, or vice versa. i have decided this is simply a mind-block; why it is there, i have no clue, but i am determined to break it down. so i am going to learn my left hand from my right hand, and vice versa, until i can visualize them easily, and then be able to turn right and left without thinking about it.

IE has a mind of its own
i’ve noticed the layout has randomly messed up again in IE. i don’t know what’s wrong but i will try to find the culprit in the code, and fix it. in the meantime, if you have firefox or opera, please transfer your viewing pleasure over there. thank god some browsers know how to line up graphics. sheesh, IE.

submissions for the post of 2006 are still open. the next post will be a vote to choose the title.

ciao,
sappho

Labels: freckles, the unbrilliance of browsers

here is something to keep us in touch as we are in our different places over the holidays. you can look at it as a little exercise that only we choose to do at the end of each year; also you can view it as an acknowledgement of the year that’s passed, and a simultaneous turning toward the year to come.

let’s each write a post, to be published on our respective blogs near the end of the month (before dec. 31st). i’m going to be really nice too, and give you a structure (which is, of course, entirely optional). and don’t worry. i will be writing one too.

first, for the sake of connection, let’s choose the same title. i suggest 2006 last post, by ___ but, if you have a better idea, suggest it in the comments and we’ll vote on it.

now, for the structure, or suggestions for content – which are completely optional:

◦ include what you like and/or dislike about the holiday tradition in canada or whatever country you are currently residing in (molly!).
◦ describe something you and your family do, as a personal tradition, during the holidays. perhaps also you can include information about culturally specific differences that are particular to your own celebration of the holidays.
◦ describe a favourite moment (or a family story that involves you) that occurred during the holidays from childhood.
◦ tell us what you eat/ate over the holidays. please.
◦ look back on 2006. what kind of person were you, at the beginning? how have you changed? what has happened to you this year? what are your favourite moments from 2006?
◦ look forward to 2007. where do you think you are heading, as a person? what do you think will happen? what do you want to happen?
◦ new year’s resolution(s). c’mon. a new year isn’t a new year without them.

i’m giving you a lot of head’s up so you can work on it at your own tempo (c!) and i think this will become a fun tradition to do every year. here’s who i hope to have 2006 last posts from:

c
spart
tulip
hana
tony!
molly

let me know if you’re up for it, darlings. i know i am.

love,
sappho

Labels: challenge, year-end post

toni is getting better. he is feeling yucky only because of the antibiotics – the last one of which he took this morning. thanks to all of you who sent good wishes; toni and i were particularly worried because neither of us have ever seen him this sick. it was a nasty one. the weather changes are making everyone catch cold – we had such a warm november, and then poof! december hit, with below zero temperatures and the promise of clinking nose-hairs to come. today is the first day where the snow that has fallen from the sky has stayed. maybe we’ll have a white christmas after all.

in other news

nat in ottawa
i had the chance to catch up on sunday with my wonderful girlfriend nat. she moved to ottawa in september and her absence here is gaping for me. aside from the fact that i have become increasingly absent-minded in the past week and forgot i promised to call her on sunday (either due to early alzheimer’s or assuming more than one role at once – i can either be nurse or fundraiser, but not both at the same time it seems) nat was very gracious and overlooked the fact that my head cavity is empty. we talked about everything that’s happened over the past few months with both of us – so much, for me, that i can’t mention here, and so much for nat, with her training to become a teacher and her experiences in ottawa. i can’t wait to see her at the end of december.

nat in kingston
nat and i have been playing phone tag for the past month, trying to catch up :) she’s finally back in t.o. for a short bit, before going back to vancouver for the holidays. there are no words to express how excited i am to see her. i was spoiled, having her as a neighbour in the apartment building just south-west of ours; now that she’s gone, every time i look at the building she used to live in, there’s a little pang as i realize she’s not there anymore. she’s going to be here in 20 minutes and i can barely contain myself with expectation!

holidays
i guess that’s one of the perks of the holidays – people start traveling and you see those friends and family members that you maybe wouldn’t otherwise. this year it’s going to be a bit different in our household, as the older kids are all going to india for three weeks over the holidays. it’s exciting for them; and it will be interesting to see their photos of their trip when they get back. it will be strange for the younger three of us, though – we’ve never spent a christmas like this before. it will be fine, but – i will miss them.

r.i.p. ibm
my ibm is on hiatus – it decided to go coo-coo and its screen has completely pixellated. so i can’t access anything :( when i get my darling laptop back in working order please excuse me if i go a bit nuts with pictures and graphics and things. i’ve been deprived.

consider yourself warned.

love,
sappho

Labels: better, dying computers, friends, holidays

dooce linked the site a softer world in her sidebar, but i had to share this incredible sentence from joey's bio:

Joey is a firm believer in the idea that if you can't be a good example, you have an obligation to be a horrible warning.

that just made my day. i'm off to go grocery shopping.

Labels: too funny

an interesting piece on the alvin ailey american dance theatre.

they are coming to the hummingbird centre in february 2007.

Labels: articles, dance