WHAT THE ...?

I guess I better just accept dimensional space as it is. Trying to figure out a way bend reality to hop between dimensions it just too dang hard. If you want to peep a good show about it I recommend Charlie Jade.

Canadian Trip - Day 7

My last night in Canada. perfect breakfast. I went to visit my Aunts grave today. Tio Tony's name is also on there. It kind of freaked me out at first but that's life. We are finite temporary beings with a beginning middle and end. Only children and fools in denial think otherwise. None of us escape it or should avoid the inevitable. Acceptance is the key. Once you do, life is easy to live. It's like me and food. Once I used to agonise every second of the day about what and when I was going to eat. Now I know what, when and how much I will eat and I'm happy. All choice has been eliminated now I can continue living my life.

At Titi Suzanne's grave I prayed, watered her flowers and had a good talk with her. It was very emotional. I gave my uncle some privacy and looked around and gravely read the stones. I saw the Hells Angel's grave. Large, very impressive. We drove home and the radio was playing American Top 40 with Casey Kasem from 1981. From the hints Casey gave I was able to discern that that the number 2 song was The theme from Greatest American Hero and Endless Love was number one knocking down Jessie Girl from the top spot. Man, I loved AT40. I would listen to that and Dr Demento religiously. I always wanted to be like Casey Kasem, DJing and doing cartoon voices that had to be the life. It was cool to go back to that time. Xmen were in the John Byrne, Terry Austin, Tom Orchezowski, Glynis Wein and Claremont phase. It was a good time to be alive. Correct that. Life is a good time to be alive. Every day above ground is a good day. Even if things are crappy. life will get better and worse. this is the nature of existence. My goal is to milk this life for all its worth. Better myself, help others. love God. Live. Love and one day die. affect positive change, create things I'm proud of. Even if I die tomorrow I can honestly say that I did my best. I put my head on my pillow and know I'm happy. I like myself. I have good people around me that love and care about me. Every day I wake up alive I have another day to do it all over again until I'm done, whenever that is.

When we got home I made Uncle Tony and I Salad and Salmon with Miracle whip, lettuce with whole wheat bread. Arlene came over and it was time to move into the final phase of the painting. Karine , Phil and Roselynn were coming for dinner and I wanted it done. Arelene DJed playing a combo of System of a Down, Tragically Hip and She Wants Revenge.

Aunt Sue's Sister came over and brought me a blessed Virgin Mary medallion from this old church in Montreal that you have to walk up the stairs on your knees while doing a succession of Hail Marys. She also requested I draw a cartoon of her grandchild, Frederique. No problem. I'm honored. I drew a picture of her daughter Olympic basketball player Patricia Mandeville 9 years ago.

Everybody came over right in time. Arlene and I put the finishing touches on Roselynns portrait and we had a fine unveiling. Everyone though the painting was groovy. Dinner was salad, tomatoes, red peppers, mushrooms, capers with homegrown cucumbers. Speckled trout, onions, steamed zucchini and mushrooms with garden grown string beans. After fine conversation and hanging out everyone went home and I said my goodbyes to my cousins. Uncle and I put up the painting. I believe this to be the finest painting I ever did.

Memo to myself: is "6Teen" just a french cartoon? I like the art style. clean.

hmn it's late I have to pack and make breakfast and lunch for tomorrow. I have a long trip back home. Bonne Nuite.

Canadian Trip - Day 5 and 6

Friday: I woke up prayed, meditated had a perfect breakfast sat on the swing and chatted with my Uncle then got straight to painting. Arlene assisted she also shares my moms ability to draw and is methodical and a bit of a perfectionist. A good quality especially because time is not on our side. Teamwork made the the dream work. We painted until it was time to make dinner. Pink Salmon w/ miracle whip on toasted Belgian whole wheat. Our Salad was romaine, red and orange peppers, cucumbers and capers, cherry tomatoes from my uncles garden with balsamic and extra virgin olive oil. A baked yam. Steamed mushrooms, zucchini and spinach. I saw an episode of 2 and a half men. That show makes my uncle laugh so much. I love to hear him laugh. Afterwards we did dishes. Next we set up for Karaoke night. Roselynn, Karine and her boyfriend Phil came over and we rocked out. I learned something important about Karaoke. You don't do songs obscure tunes you're into. That's only fun for you. You need to do songs people know. Also the doing the Smiths were bringing folks down. Things started getting fun with tunes that everyone can get into like Funkytown and Fame (Irene Cara not Bowie). My Uncle and cousin are wedding singers so they had a ton of karaoke versions of songs. I really hearing them sing. It was like a an all request concert just for me. I loved hearing Mercury Blues, Delilah and my cousin Arlene and Karine sang Dancing Queen by Abba and Spiderwebs by No Doubt (I forgot that was such a great song.) My cousin kept pointing out I do a shtick when I sing. A kind of mocking parody of singing. I'm no singer although I have been recently dreaming of songs that don't exist and I call my phone and record it on my computer. It's gotta be for some reason. Time will tell.



Me on the ferry wearing a Wolverine tshirt. He's Canadian eh?

Saturday 10:12am I am in a car on a ferry crossing the St Lawrence river to Berthier (berty-eh?) I'm staring at Gods face moving along the water. we are on our way to My cousin Marjorie's pad and swimming. It's 31 degrees with a humidity index of 40. That's multiply by 2 add 30 to switch Celsius to Fahrenheit. Sorel is a town that has a lot of bikers. The Hells Angels have a lot of homes here. This means a lot of cool custom motorcycles that would make Johnny Blaze jealous. On the ferry a guy gave a peek at his custom bike. Wen we came off the ferry we saw a whole bunch of custom cars. A ford cobra gt, a few Ferrari's and more motorcycles. Wow.

Noon time writing a friend: I am sitting in a comfy chair in the shade of a tree overlooking a swimming pool. A warm breeze rustles through the tree and fans me while I sniff at the freshly cut grass and write this. I am having a perfect moment constantly. Each moment gets better. I have so much love for God and my family and friends and my life I am so grateful for it. I've done a lot of thinking and speaking about life and death here. It truly is all good. It's all God.

3pm chilling poolside. Swam. Floated. Mmm. Nothing wrong with cruditiés. (San dip) Cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, mushrooms, yellow and orange peppers. Writing to capture moment is a little ridiculous especially because I am always trying to be present. 2 small pickles. Salad: curly leaf lettuce, yellow pepper, tomato and celery, a side of Marjorie's famous chickpea salad with cucumbers, onion, tomatoes parsley and love. The fish of the day was Pangasius with onion, steamed broccoli.

I spent the rest of the day being present , conversing listening to tunes. It was fun to see my cousins interacting with each other, quibbling and egging each other on with affection as only siblings can. It made me appreciate the relationship i have with my own sisters. I'm glad I had time this trip to spend with each of them one on one as well as together. We had a whole span of time to make up for.


Cosmo Girls:
Karine, Marjorie and Arlene

Canadian Trip - day 3 and 4

Marjorie Montreal

Wednesday: Made breakfast. Today my Uncle and I meet my cousin Marjorie, a business woman in Montréal. We took the train which was pretty fun and we birdwatched for a bit before connecting with Marj. We have planned to go to her house Saturday and swim at her house Saturday. We saw a nice church with a violinist and ate at a swanky restaurant, people watched and saw some sites from Montreal including the Old Port, the artist area and their Chinatown. We returned home and I had dinner with my cousin Arlene and hung out with my cousin Karine and her boyfriend Phil. We had Tuna fish on wheat, and salad. My uncle has asked me to do a painting for a wall in his house and during my meditation I was inspired to do a portrait of Roselynn my niece, Karine's daughter, whom was born a year after my last Canadian visit.

Uncle Tony, Karine and I

Thursday: it is now 1am and I am staring at a penciled version of the portrait. I have to be up in a couple of hours so I'll make it brief. Today was our slow day. I had a perfect breakfast. I was preparing some breakfasts for the future. And my aunts brother said in French I think you may have miscounted (I count everything in my breakfast) its funny to me because I was thinking the exact thing. Was that 26 or 27 squares of spoon sized shredded wheat? Argh. We left to buy art supplies, stuff for the sound system and vegetables, capers and bananas. We saw orange and green genetically modified cauliflower. We got the green one which was crossed with broccoli and it was true it tasted just like broccoli. Maybe there's something to this frankenfoods. Must they be our enemies? We returned and met with Arlene and made dinner. Uncle Tony prepared fresh Salmon. Arlene steamed veggies and I prepared the salad. Karine and Phil came over and I met Roselynn who was a very well behaved child. Bobby came over and helped with the final adjustments of the sound system for Karaoke night which is a big tradition. My Uncle, Karine and Bobby are wedding singers. My other cousins all sing too. Its a lot of fun. While I was setting up the prelims for the painting my Uncle started playing a cassette of Celine Dion that made my cousins wince. I was amused because I was thinking how Canadian was this? All I need is a tuque and some earmuffs and I can take off to the "great white north". Oh I am here. Beauty, eh?

Roselynn and Karines foot.

Canadian Trip Day 2

Chillaxing on the porch swing


Are we having fun yet, eh? Today was a good day in the most Ice Cube sense. I had an almost perfect breakfast, I counted out 27 squares of spoon sized shredded wheat (one ounce) 63 raisins (one ounce) a banana and one cup of Soy Milk (8 ounces) all I needed was milled Flaxseeds which in french are called Graines de Lin Moulues. We looked for it in the supermarket for a half an hour. It was worth it so i can have a perfect breakfast tomorrow. my uncle took me to the local Kmart ish store Zellers and bought me a proper fitting pair of blue jeans. (size 36) the ones I was wearing were size 42. then we had a Mr. Rogers moment we walked past a little miniature neighborhood. then soft dissolve to us walking to a house with a shingle of with a needle and thread that read "coutrureire" (seamstress) on it and we walked in and visited his sister in law, Maryse who is a costume maker and saw all her cool costumes! She hemmed my pants even though she had guests over. she was super cool. from there we returned home and prepared salad and Arlene forked the yams and uncle Tony prepared speckled trout he caught himself and seasoned wrapped in tin foil with sliced potatoes, mushrooms, white onions and salt, red pepper, adobo (of course) and cooked it on a barbecue grill. I also learned how to eat fish properly. After that we relaxed on the porch swing and chatted before going to bed. I didn't even have to use my AK. Today was a good day.

My Cousin Arlene and I relaxing on the porch swing.

Canadian Trip Day 1

I got to the Port Authority early. I had my papers in order. The 8 hour bus ride was pleasant enough. the woman in front of me kept going overboard with tilting her chair back. it only makes me laugh. A Friend hooked me up with this fascinatingly thorough book about the Beatles which I'm in the process of devouring voraciously. Speaking of which I ate my lunch in an away station in Albany: I made: tuna on 15 grain whole wheat bread. lettuce, green and red peppers and grape tomatoes. Also a baked yam and an apple game me the sustenance i needed on the road. I was only had one bar on my phone but I was able to reroute power through my laptop which conked out on the last last lap of the tour. I was pleased to check my facebook and play games against some pals on itsyourturn.com (if you wanna challenge me my username is checkerphil.) i met my uncle at Montreal and we took the Metro to Longueuil where we drove to the lovely hamlet of Sorel-Tracy (2 towns so small they put them together) I hung out with my cousin Arlene and she helped me fork yams and chop peppers and I was able to make a great dinner for my uncle and I. We had Sockeye & Pink Salmon on wheat bread. Salad: Boston and Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, red orange and red peppers and capers. Baked Yams and steamed carrots with red onions. We talked all night about relatives, comparing genetic traits and plans for the week. More adventures tomorrow!