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Showing posts from May, 2011

So Many Heavy Hearts

I'm not even sure what I'm feeling right now.  Coming home, I turn the corner onto my street, and see all kinds of sirens and emergency vehicles at the next corner.  Looks like something serious has happened. So admittedly out of curiosity I grab my dog and my phone and walk up the street to check things out.  I see two kids on their bikes frantically biking up and down the street as I hear a cop car barreling down in the opposite direction.  He blocks the intersection and no more cars can pass.  I decide to ask the kids what happened. "Yeah a car went spinning in the air and there's kids hurt.  One of them's stuck under the car, they're trying to get 'em out."  I asked them if they needed to call anyone but they were going back to kid 1's place to call their parents.  Couldn't have been older than 10, saw the whole thing happen. After dealing with the death of that little boy in December, I figured I should go now and see if I can help o

Plays Healthy

Yesterday I arrived at the theatre at 7:30 am, excited to find out what play I'd be performing in 12 hours later, at 8 pm.  Turns out I got to do a hysterical absurdist play.  It was awesome!  A very intense day but luckily the snacks I brought sustained me throughout the 16 hours I spent inside the bricked-out theatre. I am feeling quite good, overall I feel lighter, more connected and "flowy," like my joints are less stiff and I'm able to walk without feeling sluggish or tired.  I had a tremendous amount of energy that lasted into the night yesterday, so I'm feeling way better than I did earlier on in the week.  My head is still sort of expecting a wake-me-up coffee, but each day I feel improvement. Yesterday I had millet with cinnamon and sliced Macintosh apples for breakfast.  That kept me going strong all morning.  And it was easy to make; I used my rice cooker.  That thing is a godsend.  I threw the millet in and let it cook while I got ready, threw it i

Four.

Today I still feel a bit glum but am hanging on.  All I feel like doing is escaping to the woods, sitting by a lake and snuggling with a warm blanket.  And a man.  Snuggling with a man would be nice.  lol I've begun to notice things happening with my body.  My lower back has been pretty achy so I have a feeling something is working itself out there.  I've read that when you detox, old wounds will heal themselves because they finally have the nutrients/time/space to do so.  Pretty rad.  The skin on my face feels like it's improving too, it's less itchy and my pores seem to be shrinking.  This makes me happy.  All this time I thought it was smoking that left them gasping for air, but oh yeah, coffee is pretty dehydrating too.  Good stuff. I wish I could say I was going to take it easy this weekend, but I've signed up to do The 24 Hour Plays at Theatre-Ste-Catherine, my home away from home.  We show up tonight at 8, meet with a few writers and directors, then go ou

Day three

Boo.  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.  Detoxing ain't for wusses.  The inner complainer has been out all day, whining about all kinds of things.  My head hurts.  My muscles ache.  I can't sit comfortably.  Boo.  Wah. This past night I was woken up at around 1am by the sound of a car alarm.  Perks of living in the city.  It wouldn't have been so bad if it had just been shut off a few minutes later.  But no.  The owner was either sound asleep and slept through the whole thing or too lazy to get up and deal with it.  I even checked if it was mine, and my car doesn't have a car alarm.  I was upset, but let go of the anger and slept in soundly until my own alarm went off. But now, 5:21 pm, I admit I'm feeling discouraged.  The headache is still there and I'm being stubborn about taking advil for it.. But I think I will.  No sense fighting with it.  Mind you they say taking meds like that will prevent the body from correcting itself, but I ain't about

'git out the gunk

A quick day 2 update: Today's coffee-free headache was intense, lasted all day...  I didn't realize how bad I'd been treating my body until I forced it to restore itself as I am doing right now.  I can't imagine what it must be like to go through withdrawal for serious drugs!  This is the detox phase, and it sucks.  I just wanted to retreat and stay in bed all day.  But I toughed it out and made it to work just fine. Shifting habits is a challenge!  It's letting go of so many familiar motions and thoughts and compulsions... And it would have been so easy to just say "F-it, I'll start another time."  The withdrawal is pure proof that drinking coffee every day probably isn't that good for you.  Anything that creates a dependence can't be. My food was pretty much the same today, had the granola-gourt with blueberries for breakfast, snack was a rice cake and almond butter... Lunch was quinoa nori wraps that were leftover from last night. Had

Soul to Soul

Wow, I'm so tired.  Brendan Brazier talks about how drinking coffee is like borrowing time for energy.  I totally feel like I'm paying it back now.  It's day one of my cleanse and I haven't gone a day without a coffee in ages.  All day I've felt zen, but now I just feel straight up zonked.  I've been reminding myself that it's for a good cause (my health), so it's worth it. Here's the link to the cleanse I'm doing, in case you might be interested in trying it out:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=197392353629210   In short, no coffee, sugar, alcohol, and I have to start my day with a glass of lemon water, plus eat either kale, broccoli, cauliflower or brussel sprouts once daily.  Jae Steele insists on going to your personal extreme and not beyond, so for me that means it's okay if I eat the food I already have in my fridge, and in this case it's soy yogourt, which contains cane juice as a sweetener.  I had one this morning with

The cow bleeds and I benefit(ed)

I had a really intense dream this morning that I'm still trying to piece together.  I was trying to express myself to a young teacher who'd given out an assignment.  Something about writing a letter to yourself, and I thought it would be important to keep the letter handy, in order to draw from it when needed.  There's way more to it, but I've lost the philosophical reasoning since waking up.  But I will try to honor my dream by writing myself a letter: Dear Katie, I think it's pretty safe to say you had a good week.  More than that, you had a great week.  A fun week.  A crazy, burn-the-candle-at-both-ends kind of week. Enough's enough.  Time for a shifting of gears.  Time for a detox. Jae Steele invited you to do a liver cleanse that started one week ago.  Do it.  It's 2 weeks long and totally reasonable.  No refined sugars, no coffee, no alcohol and no dairy.  2 weeks.  You can do it girl.  Challenge yourself to do the vegan thang like you've bee

Laughter does the body good

On my way to work this morning I saw a little boy picking dandelions with one hand and holding his mother's with the other.  He had a schoolbag on so I can only assume they were on their way to daycare or school.  He looked about 5 or under. It reminded me of the conversation I had with a teen at my high school yesterday, who is on the brink of graduation.  We were talking about our personal paths, our life's projection, and how sometimes we put obstacles in our way when it's not necessary.  Like taking on a negative outlook, we see things as challenges that prevent us from moving forward.  I was trying to convey to her that it's important to keep an open mind as well as an open path. When I saw the little boy picking flowers on a city street, my first thought was, "ew those are probably covered in dog pee," but then I enjoyed the boy's carefree appreciation of a simple dandelion.  Life is full of flowers; sometimes they simply beautify our background, s

And I see Katie...

I learned a very valuable lesson in improv class last night, beyond recognizing that I overthink things and can't make offers that progress the storyline, but that's not what this entry is about.  In an effort to keep things positive, the teacher, Eric, instructed a student who was peering into his neighbor's yard in a scene: "Don't tell us what you don't see, tell us what you do see." I immediately got it.  Well I still have some improv skills to work on, but the life-lesson behind Eric's words was perfectly clear to me.  It's all about being grateful.  Appreciating what you do have in life.  Focusing on everything that is lacking will only bring you, and all the people around you, down.  We know that.  But people take on that outlook.  I have met so many people who seem to be drawn to the negative, everywhere they go drama follows, leeching on their bad perspective.  They can't seem to shake it.   That's all it is though, it's only

Whiny Wednesday

Today I composted lettuce for three hours.  I met up with some of my students at Moisson Montreal, the hub of food baskets on the island.  They receive massive donations of food from various suppliers and then distribute to the needy.  I snapped a few pictures which you can check out on my Facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/kleggitt We were sent to the compost spot in the warehouse.  Our job was to remove rotten Iceberg lettuce from its plastic packaging and throw it in the huge metallic compost container.  It would then be dumped into a bigger metallic compost container, which will eventually be sent off to a professional composting center. Each box had 30 heads of lettuce, and there must have been about 60 boxes per palette, or maybe I'm exaggerating.  Either way there was a TON of lettuce. This was clearly a lot of waste, but Moisson will take donations from any source.  Unfortunately many times they receive produce that has passed its prime, which left us to deal with

Boy oh Boy

Had a great conversation with some friends last night.  It involved some much-needed venting, laughter, and pizza. Always a great combination.  We'd come from our regular Sunday Night Improv stint at Theatre Ste-Catherine, and were on our way home when the topic of dating came up. It quickly became clear that I am not the only one who is both confused and frustrated by this form of human interaction. I admit, I suck at dating.  I'm bad at it and as a result I don't really like it.  I get really gung-ho about crushes, have about a million going on at any given time and I love to flirt, but following through and trying to make it go somewhere is not my strongpoint.  I much prefer the thrill of the chase to the intense nerves associated with finally asking someone out, and the subsequent nerves experienced on the first date.  Ick.  I don't know how people get boyfriends or girlfriends anymore, I feel like maybe I need to sit down with someone and take notes. That's

Pay Attention!

Two ducks are sitting in the park across the street from my apartment.  A male and a female, in the puddle-pond, leftover water from the skating rink and the snow that once covered the ground, not so long ago.  It was strange but totally okay seeing two ducks in a park in NDG.  It's not that uncommon for ducks to swoop down and catch a break in some greenspace, but it's cold and rainy, and the park isn't that big. If that's not a sure sign of Spring though, I don't know what is. I stopped and stared for a couple of minutes as Gracie my black lab curiously sniffed the grass in front of us.  A young girl on her cellphone stopped too, but only to respond to a text message she'd received and kept on walking.  She didn't notice the ducks.  Someone on a bike rode by.  Cars drove past.  Nada. I just finished reading a friend's post about his busy life and the duck sighting coincided well with my impression of James' thoughts.  So often we get caught u

Musing Music

You ever listen to the right kind of music and feel like everything's going to be okay?  Music that speaks to the soul: ain't nothing like it.  Sometimes I make a face like I'm in pain because the music is so good and I'm limited to my body's expression, when I just want to burst. I believe I get my love of music from my grandfather.  From way back I always remember him tapping his foot at the sound of a musical beat, flawlessly taking in the rhythm.  I can't help but bop my head the moment a tune grabs my attention.  I used to put on my grandmothers' dresses and do the jive with Grampa, a memory I'll cherish forever.  I love to dance to music and I love to cry to music too.  Jeff Buckley's Grace is my go-to when it's time to purge the tears and has been since I was 15.  Haven't done that in a while, maybe I'm due.  Doing anything to music makes it more enjoyable.  It helps the body find a way to express its reaction to the awesomeness

Trust and Tattoos

I  just got tattooed.  I got an anchor on my foot.  It's awesome and lovely and I'm still feeling energized by the experience.  Tatooatouage was doing a fundraiser for Japan and all the money raised will go to the Red Cross.  I wound up getting something way bigger and more detailed than originally planned but I love it so it's okay. The tattoo artist was Manu Ghiselli, a good-looking Frenchman from Corsica, touring here for three months.  This was my first time doing a "walk-in" so I'm glad I was paired with this guy.  He was superstitious and had a piece of red coral on a necklace, which matched the one I have tattooed on my calf.  A good sign, I figure. Getting tattooed is such an intimate experience for me.  Handing over my skin to a stranger who will mark it for the rest of my life, although exciting, is a big sign of trust for me.  Trusting in people.  Trusting in their abilities, and trusting in myself for making a commitment that big.  Trust is not