natural gas

Urgent business first: my son is looking for a bachelor apartment or an apartment with shared accommodation. He is not rich but he is charming, funny and a great cook, and I say that objectively, not just because I'm his mother. (Ha ha!) If those of you in Toronto hear or know of anywhere that might house a very tall 24-year old waiter/bartender/funnyman, please contact me asap and I'll pass on the information.

And second, my dear Vancouver friend Bruce, Mr. Grammar Stickler, emailed to correct my last post: it's "Beatles' " and it's "Paul is marrying someone other than ME." No matter how you say it, the sad fact remains.

It'd be easy to be gloomy today. The day is gloomy enough - though mild, it's dark and pouring with rain, the black snowbanks slowly melting, garbage strewn everywhere. My mouth aches after two and a half hours at the dentist yesterday, while he prepared an upper left incisor for a crown. I had a fight this morning about natural gas prices with someone in Bombay, before paying a bill for over $600, which was what the dentist cost too. Yikes. Those costs hurt more than needles into the gums.

And our beloved Obama is beleaguered, poor man. Does he have the stomach for the grotesquerie and viciousness of American politics? Imagine, the Republicans, who torpedoed the economy not only of their own country but of the entire world, have the nerve to complain about the rescue proposals. And even more incredibly, they're still whining about tax cuts! You'd think they'd have the decency to skitter away like clouds of cockroaches, never to return, but no such luck.

So that's the gloom, or some of it. On the other hand - it's mild, not bitterly cold. My dentist is a very fine man, a Quaker who volunteers during the summer at dental clinics in South American villages; I know he is charging a fair price, and the fact is, I looked pretty horrible with a big chunk of tooth missing. And it's my fault I locked into a contract with Direct Energy - was I in a fog? I had no concept of the rise and fall of natural gas prices until today, but from now on, I'll be watching and when my contract runs out, I'll have some options. 

Yesterday, Wayson gave me a great book about editing - The Artful Edit, on the practice of editing yourself, by Susan Bell, which I can't wait to read and put into practice in my classes and my own work. CUT! My son came over yesterday, too, to hang out, and my daughter is coming over tomorrow.  I love this new phase of our lives, where they come and we talk and I do my best to fill them with as much love, support and food as I can, and then they leave and our independent lives resume. 

What else can I be cheerful about? A high school student emailed me from Halifax, Nova Scotia - she's doing a project for school on The Jewish King Lear, one of my great-grandfather's plays, could she ask me some questions? I wrote back that by a wonderful coincidence, I'd be in Halifax next week, and now I am not only meeting her, I'm speaking to her entire class. That will be fun, talking to young people eager to know all about the theatre. As I was, once, a very long time ago. I'll probably tell them about some of the now-famous people I've known or worked with, because kids love that - Dan Ackroyd, Michael J. Fox, Kim Cattrall, Halifax's own John Dunsworth, the repellant Mr. Lehy on Trailor Park Boys. It's always interesting to think about the ones who became famous and the ones, equally talented, who didn't, and why.

I also went to the Y, I ate lots of dark chocolate and drank lots of red wine which are my medicines, I talked to my best friends Chris and Wayson, and I worked on an essay which I simply cannot figure out how to make work. Maybe my new book about editing will help. And tonight - a new Law and Order, and as always, Jon Stewart with a pussycat on my lap. Who could be gloomy with riches like these?

There's always hope - even in mid-February, as the rain continues to fall and the black snow melts.

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Ooo - how pretty is that? Besides correcting my grammar, Bruce suggested a delineation in these posts when I'm veering off into new territory, and there it is. 

I made a mistake about Wayson's appearance in the spring, which will not be at Ben McNally's bookstore but at one of his Books and Brunch series. So you'll get Wayson AND food, and then get to go to the beautiful bookstore later. 

I love stars.