HiHo

On YouTube there is this super cool channel called HiHo Kids and their Kids Meet videos are absolutely fantastic. It's quick little 7 minute (or less) interviews of various kids meeting different types of people. My favourites are Kids Meet...a Drag Queen, a Magician, a 101 Year Old, a Burn Survivor, a Ballerina, and a Person with Alopecia. The kids ask excellent questions and it's especially great to watch with kids and expose them to new people, careers, syndromes, and walks of life.

Another Dream Coming True!!

Lucas the Spider plushie has been ordered and he's so cute I wanna die!!! (You can get one too, but apparently only til June 23rd of this year.)

Fresh from the Fire Academy!

Couldn't be prouder of this fabulous fella.

(Totes kidnapped this from Bryan's IG account. I'm shamelessly stealing photos from that app...)

Our Farewell to Bertucci's!

A couple weeks ago I drove by the old Bryn Mawr Bertucci's on Lancaster Ave and saw that it was closed. I was shocked. Back when I worked at Pier 1 in Ardmore, I would have one of their Margherita pizzas every single day. It was my go-to place (prior to going vegan and realising that their pizza without cheese just doesn't do it for me anymore) and I could often be seen at one Bertucci's or another with Donna, Ashlee, Nicole, Rachel, Wayne, Marina, and mostly, Mum and Terri. The day after I was in Bryn Mawr, I Googled to see if Bertucci's was going out of business and sure enough, they have filed for bankruptcy. Since Mum, Terri, and I hadn't been out together in years and I couldn't even recall the last time we'd gone to the B, I sent out a group text to the ladies and let them know that the end was nigh and let's meet up at Mama Rosie's. So yesterday we did just that and got in some good ole fashioned gal-talk and gorged ourselves on our favourite pizza. I even hid my veganism in a box under the stairs and indulged in the real thing, just one last time. (ps - it was even better than I remembered!) It was great to be reunited over a delicious meal, but more so to sit, just the three of us, and rant, laugh, reminisce, and comfort each other as we had before the twins were born and our Terri had to place her focus on raising the kids. Eight more years and we get her back...

(check out the gorgeous roses from my godchildren - pretty fab, huh?)

An Irish Proverb from an English Friend

This is Our Home

The World Is Quiet Here

I don't even remember how I came across this site. I feel like I saw the URL on a sticker in Ireland or maybe when researching places to check out around Dublin I found it. Either way, it's something that Cerpts would and should do and frankly, already kinda-sorta does with The Dark Forest. The skinny on Tapes. is as follows: Tell me about yourself, tell me a story, and I'll fill in the blanks. I make playlists for individual people on air to fit their words and stories. Here is the playlist for week one,
31st January 2017. The only song I knew from this list was Bon Iver's Perth and I'm truly tickled to find a place to discover new music!

Duolingo

My new favourite app is helping me learn Spanish! It's wee lil' baby steps, but I do feel like I'm making progress. The cartoon characters are all super diverse and include a handful of familiar faces...

Look! It's Murtaugh and Riggs from Lethal Weapon:

 
Well, hello there, Billy Shakes...

Handsome 1970s marathon runners:

Steve Irwin!!

Sexy spinster cat-lady:

Cute hipster couple:

Fran Fine??

Snazzy librarian:

Tough prep school kid:

Late 80s mullet-headed metal dudes:

Punk-rock lesbian couple: 

Kid 'n Play as young'uns: 

Classy Indian gal with early 90s side-ponytail:

Adorable oso that wants you to know that he eats fish.

Christopher Roule

I was flipping through an old journal and came across the clipping for Christopher Roule's rings. I absolutely loved them and always wished that one day I would have one. Sadly, I don't think he makes them anymore, but they sure were fabulous.

In the Catskills

(pic kidnapped from @timeouthomes IG page - photo by Ryan Resatka - @ryanresatka on IG)

Back for Sale Items!!

For some reason Fishs Eddy's website is more expensive than the items purchased in house. Kinda disappointing, but regardless, I scored some fab little treats yesterday and took more pix of my favourite shop in all of New York.

Link Link Circus

Earlier today Kim and I went to New York to see Isabella Rossellini's latest monologue, Link Link Circus. It was really good and had me laughing out loud, when I wasn't suppressing "awwwwws" at her adorable pupper, Peter Pan - Pan for short.

After the show, we took straight to the basement to use the loo and leisurely wandered back upstairs. When I reached eye level with the floor I saw lil' Pan and then I saw her owner, Ms. Isabella Rossellini. She was chatting with producers and family members of the people that assisted with the production. I was not going to approach her, but rather stayed back just to watch her and think, "Wow, that is Isabella Rossellini. Cinema royalty." Kim wanted a photo with her or a selfie. I refused. I wasn't going to ask for a photo and I wasn't going to pose for one or take one. It just felt like it would have been an invasion of privacy. (Crikey, I didn't even take a pic of Pan, and I kinda wanted to...) I would rather not have a photo of someone than get a picture but be made to feel super awkward; as if I was putting them out or annoying them. It's like asking for an autograph. I just don't like it. I much prefer the memory of meeting celebrities such as Noel Gallagher and Dan Aykroyd and Bruce Campbell more than having a photo taken with them or an autograph. I like that I spoke with them and had a real (albeit brief) human interaction. Is it fun to do a brag-post on Instagram so everyone can get all excited? Heck yeah. But not for the price of even a little humiliation. Kim did say "Thank you for a great show" as Ms. Rossellini walked past, and she smiled, said "thank you" then "ciao" as she left. It doesn't technically count as meeting her, but she did speak to Kim and smile at me, so that was enough. That was cool. And she is truly even more breathtaking in person, if you can believe it.

(lovely photo of Ms. Rossellini © Brigitte Lacombe - kidnapped from visiteursdusoir)

Pale as Can Be

Actors on Actors

I've watched several episodes of this series on YouTube and the only one that I truly enjoyed was Bryan Cranston and Jason Segel. The other ones were either boring (as in the actors themselves were immensely dull) or the actors came across as pretentious and self-absorbed or worse yet, spent most of their time smooching eachother's bums and going on and on about how amazing the other actor is, to the point where I had to stop watching most of them. The discussion between Cranston and Segel felt like a genuine conversation about their work and was engrossing.

I was particularly moved when Segel spoke about David Foster Wallace (who he portrayed in the film The End of the Tour), specifically Wallace's book Infinite Jest and a character that had jumped out of a burning building. Segel said of this, you cannot take for granted that the thing you're trying to escape is worse than death. I thought that was so perfectly put. He went on to speak of another character in the book: a woman goes into the hospital after a failed suicide attempt and the doctor says, "why did you want to hurt yourself" and she laughs at him and says, "you'll never be able to help me if you think I was trying to hurt myself. I was trying to stop the pain."

I used to think how terrible it was that I've spent so long contemplating putting an end to my life, how against nature it is to plot out my murder when it is I who is supposed to love me the most; the one that's supposed to protect me and care for me more than anyone. Recently I realised that ending my life would actually be the kindest thing I could ever do for myself because I would finally be free from disappointment and failure. I would finally feel nothing at all, which must be better than the depths of misery I have felt and still occasionally feel today. I just finished uploading Wallace's The Broom of the System on audiobook and hope to listen to it next week. More on DFW in future posts!