fall forward

Aching left shoulder - got my flu shot today, the booster for old folks. A demographic which somehow, for some bizarre reason, includes me.

Sunday, walked across town - an hour - to Christie and Bloor, to take Stella to dinner for her 60th birthday. We went to the Indian restaurant Banjara, next to Christie Pits Park. I wandered in the park beforehand; the trees were beautiful, even in the fading light of dusk, and the whole place smelled divinely of curry. The weather, still, is warm and soft and heavenly. (click to enlarge)

Yesterday, most of the day on the computer for CNFC, though also had an important discussion with my beloved friend Chris. It turned out that something I'd done, or not done, had irritated him, and something he had done, or not done, had done the same for me; we had it out, both explaining ourselves and coming to an understanding of each other. Oh human beings are complicated. As he wrote at the end, "Friends forever!" We are and will be.

Speaking of complicated human beings, that night, the most difficult assignment for my Ryerson class, an emotional truth-telling that demands everything. And they aced it, all of them. Luckily one of them had brought Kleenex. I say, chuckling, how much I love to torture writers, but really it's about forcing them to dig deep, and they do. I pointed out that only a few weeks ago, they were a group of complete strangers, and now they're telling each other their most powerful, important, and often painful stories. The air in the room is transformed afterwards. It's remarkable.

Also had my early assessment from the U of T class: they seem to like what's happening. One wrote, Great instructor. I count days for the next session and listen to every word Beth says, with such an amazing personality and depth of experience and knowledge she has. 

Thank you, but if my children read that, they'd laugh out loud at the concept of listening to every word I say, they who learned to tune me out at birth.

Stopped my bike on the way back from the doctor's office to photograph a magnificent sky through the buildings. Toronto is growing so fast, soon it'll be like NYC, we'll be grabbing desperately for the bits of sky we can actually see. But not yet.

 Onward.