Tag: canada

Planning For Days To Come

Our snowy Canadian retreat.

I have forgotten what day and week of social isolation/distancing we are in. I am reminded it is April 1st, only because Instagram tells me so, but my normal markers of time are all thrown off. I rely on KWeeks and his schedule to let me know when the weekend is, but in the words of Morrissey, every day feels like Sunday.

But, shockingly, I believe in dreams. In my very best moments, when I am not beset by the constant thrum of anxiety, I like to imagine and plan and design and create.

Side note: all of the posts talking about how you should stay busy and MAKE THE BEST WORK OF YOUR LIFE can fuck right off, though. Right now I am just trying to find my ass with both hands, and that’s the best I can do most days when so many uncertainties are afloat.

But I digress.

If I can, for just a few moments, put aside the facts of the day, the very horror that is not only this lurking virus but also the dawning realization that no one in our government gives a rat’s ass, so long as we KEEP SPENDING MONEY, then I can magically transport myself to sunnier times.

Like this.

grey concrete floor with masking tape outlining the floorplan of a small house
And so it begins.

This is the basic floor plan of the house that we will build in Canada. We taped it out at Khristian’s studio this morning, against official orders to stay at home. This was not a strictly essential trip, as the state defines it, but we saw no one and properly sanitized ourselves before, during, and after our foray.

The cabin will be hand-built and 144 square feet. To the right, between the two unconnected taped lines, there will be a large glass window overlooking the Bay of Fundy. All of the other necessaries are there, too (bed, kitchen area, wood stove), and we will eventually build a walkway to another platform so we can watch the seals and pilot whales as they rest in the Bay.

For now, it was enough to get the outline of the place and to imagine drinking coffee, overlooking our foggy spot, or falling asleep to the glow of the stove and the light of the moon.

One day, Canada will open back up to filthy Americans such as ourselves, and we will travel gratefully north to start construction.

The state of Maryland may not feel that today’s trip was essential, but for me it was. It was essential to remind myself that there is work to be done, things to create, and lands to see.

31 Day Social Media Fast: Day 23 & 24

In which I skip out on Instagram and Facebook for the month of March but still allow myself the internet.

Gone in sixty seconds. And yes, this IS the way you are supposed to eat pizza. #welldone

This post is brought to you by this gluten-free pizza, which I put in the oven as soon as I dragged my weary self through the door after two days of driving from New Brunswick, separated by a terrible night of sleep in a very comfortable bed (said terrible sleep brought on by a neighboring room of giggling girls who were enjoying life well into the wee smalls through no fault but their own indefatigable youth).

We are home, and I will say more about everything tomorrow.

Goodnight.

31 Day Social Media Fast: Day 22

In which I skip out on Instagram and Facebook for the month of March but still allow myself the internet.

Alive, thanks to the patient ministrations of the lovely Khristian Weeks. I was totally fine, and then I wasn’t.

Still, I lost probably the nicest day here in terms of weather, and that sucks.

We manage to make it out to pay our property taxes in the drizzly wet day, ironically the warmest since we have been here. Saint John has not put on her most dazzling coat in the rain. There are still slabs of salt-filled ice six inches thick and a foot or more wide acting as ramps from the street to the sidewalk. Picking up dog shit seems to be against the law here (Khristian calls them canine fecal sculptures), and I will never complain about the occasional pile in a tree well in Baltimore again.

Regardless of weather, it is sad to leave this place, although I think we are ready to come home, given what we can’t really do right now on our property due to lingering illness and weather.

No pictures accompany this short missive today, and fewer pictures in general, I have noticed. It is odd that I take fewer pictures since my sojourn from Instagram. I just don’t see the point, necessarily. You take pictures to share, or to keep a record, and I have no need for either of those things right now.

Things are shifting. I have not figured out how just yet, but they are.

31 Day Social Media Fast: Day 20

In which I skip out on Instagram and Facebook for the month of March but still allow myself the internet.

Never is the tyranny of the every day posting more oppressive than when traveling.

There is so much to report, so many things happening, but this is not meant to be a journal or travelog. And yet that is the temptation when I am not surrounded by familiar things. But I will resist. For me, writing here and in poetry is a way to process things, and the little book I keep by my bed is the journal – and rarely shall they intentionally meet.

There is an element of travelog here, but, I realize, not enough to give my three regular readers a full and complete picture of our experiences in Canada so far.

That’s ok. I am still trying to process things, decide which way I am pointing in terms of my creative practice and what will happen when the clock ticks midnight on April 1. These days on this blog are violating pretty much every rule when it comes to building a following, but that’s ok, too.

If you are following along, that’s just lovely. Thanks.

31 Day Social Media Fast: Day 19

In which I skip out on Instagram and Facebook for the month of March but still allow myself the internet.

Self portrait.

And a happy belated birthday to my darling niece, Claudia, on the last day of spring. <3