The Fish Bowl
There are lots of ways to look at life...
through the looking glass...
through rose-colored glasses...
or my way...
|
Monday, December 1, 2008
And so it begins...December is officially here and already in some stores, Christmas displays are disappearing in favor of Valentine’s Day! What is that about? Can Cupid Claus be far behind? Argggghhhh!
 Tonight is the Sagacity Christmas Gathering. It's always one of my favorite Sagacity things...everyone seems to be just a little nicer, a little gentler, and maybe...just maybe...a little more tolerant of the differences in people. It's funny that a community that prides itself on tolerance can often times turn its back on its members merely because they look fat, skinny, old, young, scruffy, plastic, or simply confused. Maybe we are all so ingrained with the intolerance of the Vanilla World, we forget that it's okay to take a step back and make our own choices about what we find acceptable...people, ideas, or activities.
 Kinky Klaus (and his naughty elves) will be on hand to pass out gifts, and folks will bring cookies, candy, and lots of other yummy things to share. We'll have punch and coffee (and maybe a Meatman Cosmo if I'm lucky) and we'll listen to cheesy Christmas music (who can resist Dolly Parton singing "Hard Candy Christmas") as we all laugh and enjoy the evening. One of my favorite things is watching the expressions on people's faces as they open their gift exchange present. At any given moment, you can see delight, disgust, disappointment, or just plain confusion! One year I got a pair of used boots (not even my size). Another year I got a wonderful set of nested mixing bowls that I still use. I guess it's sort of like kink...you just never know what you’re going to find when you rip off all the paper!
 For some reason, the Sagacity Christmas party always fills my mind with images of previous holiday gatherings. Over the years, I have hosted the Annual Christmas gathering in my home, Xchanges Gallery, Luxton Hall, Traveller's Inn, and now at the Victoria Event Centre (maybe the Westwing Ballroom at Harbour Towers for next year!). I have watched the faces come and go...sometimes moving forward to new adventures and sometimes simply walking away in search of something we don't have.
Yup...today is the beginning of a new month...and the end of another year of Sagacity events. Both good things...I think.
|
Saturday, November 29, 2008
A wet, gray morning. The calm before the storm. A last chance to breathe deeply before the Chaos of Christmas swirls into my world and runs amok with my sanity, bank account, and overall emotional stability!
 Funny...seems like Christmas is that time of year you love...hate...and generally can't avoid regardless of your preference. The family, the presents, the baking, the tree, the friends, the laughter, the sadness. A giant conflagration of emotions igniting your heart and mind and rebuffing even the Grinchiest of extinguishers.
 Only 25 days to go and I have so much to do. Packages that have to be put together and mailed off like yesterday (yet another drawback to having family that lives so very far away). Christmas lists to be cajoled from people that claim to be happy getting "anything"...which is, of course, the furthest thing from the truth. Boxes of Christmas history to dig out of the closet...a vast collection of gold spray-painted macaroni ornaments and faded red and green construction paper chains. Holiday cookies and candy to be made...always a very ambitious list that is reduced down to a few dozen cookies by the time it's all said and done. Wrapping paper and ribbon supplies to inventory and recycled gifts bags to refurbish and unwrinkle.
And somewhere in that maelstrom, there will have to be time for work. The stuff of dollars...the reality of Santa's magic toy bag. And there needs to be time for friends. My Sagacity network of special elves that keep the workshop humming along all the year through.
The calm before the storm...hmmm...time's up! Let the holidays begin!
|
Friday, November 28, 2008
 Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, leaving lots of leftovers...and a series of memories. Fisherman chopping mounds of onions and celery...Nova the Cat eyeing all the preparations with feline misgiving...J&J donning Pilgrim hats with the rest of the family...A&K reminding me of what it is to be young and in love...D enjoying the meal and recounting his last few Thanksgivings so far away from home...E&A behaving like kids behaving like adults that really want to be kids.
It's quiet right now. Everyone has gone back to their regularly scheduled lives. But there are leftovers still to be enjoyed. Leftovers of pie and turkey and memories of people that are special to me and make me thankful for who I am and what I have...well...mostly!
|
Sunday, November 23, 2008
 I can't believe that American Thanksgiving is only days away...that Christmas is only weeks away...and that I haven't written a single entry in the Fish Bowl in seven months!
Have there been trials and tribulations in my life? Have there been changes, good and bad? Am I older, wiser, thinner? Do I still live for House, MD and loathe lima beans? Am I going to try and update all those things now that I'm back?
Ummm...no...
|
Thursday, April 17, 2008
 ONE hot summer’s day a Fox was strolling through an orchard till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch.
"Just the things to quench my thirst," quoth he.
Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning round again with a 1, 2, 3, he jumped up, but with no greater success.
Again and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up.
He walked away with his nose in the air saying "I am sure they are sour."
IT IS EASY TO DESPISE WHAT YOU CANNOT GET
|
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Today I:
- Refilled all my bird feeders and replenished the squirrel's peanut stock out on the fence (they get aggressive if I don't);
- Made a poster (Have You Got The Look?);
- Got totally pissed off at Fisherman for putting me in a Catch-22 position (no worries though...this could be the impetus for that tennis bracelet I've been lusting for)
- Put Fisherman on the Victoria Express back to Port Angeles for the week (the Coho is in refit and even if there wasn't an Express, he would have probably opted to swim to WA rather than spend another minute listening to me rant and rave);
- Edited 4 articles for the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (there are no weekends when you own the company);
- Cooked dinner for and organized Fisherman's 2 boys (12 & 15 - good kids and pushovers for Smokies, Tater-Tots, and Baked Beans);
- Spent an hour on the phone talking about some possible changes to The Great Pirate Adventure' for this year (too soon to know anything but watch for an update soon);
- Devoted 30 minutes to entertaining our 4 cats, Nova, Bubby, Orca, and Tank (a catnip high is a powerful thing);
- Took a shower and washed off the residue and detritus of sex with Fisherman (he always leaves me with all sorts of laundry);
- Chatted on MSN with Fisherman while I worked on some Sagacity stuff (I live to multi-task);
- Looked at the clock and realized it was almost 2 AM (I am such a submissive to time);
- Shut down my computer, brushed my teeth, pushed the cats off my side of the bed, and turned out the light (I turned the TV on but programmed the sleep-timer for 30 minutes - I have no idea what was on during that time - hope I didn't miss any good infommercials).
|
Saturday, February 9, 2008
So it's already the second week of February and I can't begin to remember everything I said I wouldn't forget. All the things I wanted to write about in the Fishbowl...all the e-mails I wanted to reply to...all thousands of little Sagacity details that seem to grow faster than the hair on my legs...the dustballs...the laundry...the projects...the responsibilities. Is it any wonder that smart people reach for the lifesaver that is BDSM? Who wouldn't take advantage of something that offers you the opportunity to step out of reality and into freedom, if even for just a scene or two? A little pain, a little pleasure...a little time and space to clear your mind of the normalties of Life and recline in the rush of endorphins and power exchange. Hmmm...wait a minute! I think I forgot to do that too!
In only a few days now, Fisherman and I will leave for Edmonton and the EOS event, Lupercalia MMVIII. We went last year for the first time and really enjoyed ourselves. We must have done something right (it might have been all the bribe $$$ we generously handed out) because we were invited back this year to present another workshop.
We are very lucky this year to be invited to stay at the home of Don Carlos and tori while we are in Edmonton. We had the pleasure of getting to know them a bit when were at Lupercalia last year and they were the winners of the Pirate Adventure tickets that Sagacity donated to the Luper Silent Auction. Tori and I stood toe-to-toe at the Pirate Whack-A-Thon and there's nothing like a little marathon beating to help you get to know someone on a pretty personal level! We talked about a whole lot of things, but I can promise you that recipes and labor pains weren't included!
It will be great fun to stay at Don Carlos and tori's home instead of a hotel and my head filled with lovely fantasies after tori told me about the yummy hot tub they have set up outside. I was quick to conjure up a naughty image of floating around sensuously in the steamy, bubbling water as snowflakes gently fell from the sky and Fisherman adjusted my water wings. I shared this with tori while we were making final arrangements over the phone. Without missing a beat, tori very sweetly said, "Well, although we can't guarantee there'll be snow, it's a pretty sure bet that at -23C there will be plenty of condensation from your breath!" Yikes! I'm a tropical fish! The closest thing I've got to boots is flip-flops with socks! Expose my water wings? Chap my nips? Not this fish! Forget the seductive skimpy thongs...it's warm and wooly long-johns for me!
Besides getting ready to head to Lupercalia, there's also Domlander on the horizon. Actually...it's closer than the horizon...it's actually only 4 weeks away! Four weeks to make a poster, organize the judges, coordinate with the Producer, and all the other cast and crew, and basically create what is one of Sagacity's trademark events. Just writing about it has worn me out...yawn...I think it's time to turn off my brain and the lights and snuggle in with my Fisherman...at least that's what the Post-It on my pussy says!
|
Friday, January 25, 2008
It's 3:21 in the morning. Only my fingers on the keyboard lift the covers of silence as the rest of the world snores lightly and dreams of mysteries and magic. I know that I'll be sorry in a few hours that I didn't go to bed at a sensible hour. In the daylight hours of today, I have a million things to do in preparation for Saturday...a long day...workshops, a play party. The sleepless hours I've played with tonight will come back to bite me on the tail at some point this weekend.
Yet, there is something soft and comfortable about being up this late because I want to be. Something luxurious and a little naughty about knowing you should be long asleep and yet you aren't. I'm not awake because I have to be...there's no work to be caught up, no sick kids to nurse. I'm not wallowing in the angst of unrequited love or misunderstood intentions with my lover. Nope, I'm sitting here at 3:38 in the morning because I want to be. Because my feet are warm and toasty, there's a purring cat on my lap, and because it's fun sometimes to do something that only a child would do!
I know it's late. I know I'm not a child. I also know that watching the sunrise can sometimes be more renewing than 12 hours of undisturbed sleep. I can sleep another night. For now, I think I'll sneak in a sunrise.
|
Thursday, January 24, 2008
|
