2006: The Photo Cafe and the Bridget Jones Inspired End of the Year List

I have to admit that 2006 didn't start out very well. About 4 PM on December 31, 2005 I said, "I'm not feeling terribly well" and several weeks later I was still having nightmares where I'd wake up saying things like "please stop talking about cheese!" or "No! No! Not soup!" I'll spare you the details of where I was when my party guests were downstairs clinking glasses of champagne at midnight but let me say that the metaphoric value of my view at midnight was not lost on me and I was worried. Happily, this turned out to be one of the best years of my life despite its unpropitious start. In the spirit of reflection, I've assembled a Bridget Jones-inspired list to convey some of the highlights. Recently, I've been playing with .mac's home page builder and ended up creating a photo gallery to be a companion to the blog. I'm sending out an announcement of this site with its password: if you don't receive it, please email me and I'll send it out to you. Anyway, thanks for reading and for your comments throughout the year. Happy New Year!

Bridget Jones Inspired End of the Year List

Library degrees finished: one
Train trips taken between London and Windsor: 26
Ghastly stomach viruses caught: 2
Times said "I am sooo happy we don't have to leave Windsor" since May: 963
Seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer watched: all 7
Seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer just purchased last week: 7
Seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer re-watched this week: 1
Amazing jobs accepted: 1
Times laughed so hard I fell into shrubbery: 1
Times I heard Alec respond "oh no" to my statement, "You know, I've been thinking": 1
Times Alec probably thought but did not voice "oh no" to my statement, "You know, I've been thinking": it's probably best not to know.
Library school assignments completed: way too many
World Series play off games attended: 3
Times I made friends laugh while they were drinking something and it came out their noses: 9
Times Julie said "YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!" when the above happened to me: 3
Number of Monk-e-mails sent: 25
Jokes made about large hunks of floating amber gris since seeing a Bjork film with Nick and Johanna: 19
Number of Phone Calls from Dwight Schrute sent: 12
Number of people who are probably thinking "so that's who sent me that phone call from Dwight" after reading this: 2
Number of people I do not know who will receive a phone call from Dwight Schrute because I typed Susan's phone number incorrectly: 1
Number of people thinking "hey, how come I didn't get a phone call from Dwight Schrute?": too tough to call
Perfect black kitten heel slingback shoes purchased: 1 pair
Consecutive days gone without drinking coffee: 17
Tofu hotdogs consumed at Tigers games: 0
Times grumbled about unavailability of tofu dogs at Tigers games: 238
Amazing exhibits about hats seen: 1 When Philip Met Isabella
Times thought "this is the most amazing day of my life": 5 or 6
If pressed, the day I'd call the most perfect of the year: this day in Newfoundland
Tigers games attended: over 25
Futons removed permanently from our living room and replaced with real grown up furniture: 1
Exhibits at art galleries that took my breath away: 1: Janet Cardiff’s “Forty-Part Motet”
Times thought: "I love my life!": 4982
Times moved to speechlessness after a play: 1 for Ann & Seamus
Amazing meals had: Inoteca (NYC): they had a cheese list larger than most wine lists; Bin 151 (Windsor); Atlas Global Cafe (Detroit); Blossom in Charleston; Green Onion cakes at the Folk Festival; a 6 inch veggie sub at a Subway in Ottawa as my flu waned
Times I've said, "that movie was alright but it was no Nacho Libre": 8
Length of conversation I had about my frustrations with a freelance project on the phone with a total stranger before I realized that she was not Julie and she realized that I was not Sharon: 5 minutes
Times total strangers on the phone have wished me luck with finishing my freelance project: 1
Desserts had that have, I think, made me a better person: 1 Otherworldly good cherry ice cream between two thin chocolate wafers at a restaurant in Toronto with Ken and Alan
Perfect cafes opening in Windsor that have improved my quality of life tremendously: 1 Taloola Cafe
Times at the Reference Desk when people have sincerely asked for "a book... I don't remember what it's called or who it's by or really what it's about but it's green [or red or blue]": 3
Cafes that tempt me to fly to NYC just to buy their coffee: 71 Irving Place
Number of men who look like Dale at any given time at any given Canadian Tire or Home Depot: 12
Number of men I have briefly talked to at Canadian Tire thinking they were Dale: 2
Times asked "Do you have the British Parliamentary Paper online?" at a party when it was revealed I was a librarian: 1
Times I forgot that riding my bike at 7 AM in 30 o C weather on trash days is a really, really bad idea: 3
Times Dale and I have come really close to adopting more cats after visiting the Humane Society's Adopt-A-Pet section of Petsmart: every time we buy cat food
Times I worry I'm going to be one of those crazy old ladies with 90 cats: every time we buy cat food
Number of those little orange pencils they give you with your ballpark score card currently at the bottom of various purses and handbags: 9
Number of envelopes of baseball cards sent to our cat Maggie on Free Baseball Card Day: 1
Best Wishes to you for the New Year: infinite

I laughed and I laughed until I stopped

Tucked into a Christmas present from my parents was a tiny scrap of newspaper which I have appended here. The delivery of this little gem was brilliant-- subtly yet overtly tucked into a very thoughtful gift. When I saw it, I laughed and laughed and laughed. In fact, I probably haven't laughed that hard since I saw Nacho Libre. Some of you who know me well-- especially those of you whose names rhyme with "Men Keadows"-- may also find this rather amusing. Those of you don't know why this is amusing, well... that, my friends, is another blog. In conclusion, I will say this: my parents are funny, funny people.

A blue-skied Christmas Eve plus every other one I've ever had

It's the afternoon of Christmas Eve: it's warm and blue skied and I think I observed bits of new grass popping up in my front garden. It hardly looks like Christmas Eve but somehow it still feels like it. With the two of us staying here, Christmas silently sneaks up on us since there's not a lot of planning or as my grandmother would call it "all that to-do! Geesh!". We've not lived in the same region as our families for over 13 years and I think of those 13 years, we've only made it home twice. We've grown used to making this holiday our own and each year it's what Christmas should be; quiet and lovely and happy. In discussing holiday plans, friends' reactions to our staying here is always mixed: some indifferent, some envious, some sympathetic, some incredulous and, once and a while, some harsh. One such remark has had me reeling more than I should have let it-- so much so that I called my dad and said, "someone suggested we evidently don't love you very much because we're not going home for Christmas-- I sincerely hope you don't see it that way too." My dad laughed his comforting laugh and said, "of course not... the best present is to know that you're safe and tucked into your warm houses-- not driving in a blizzard to get here or stuck in an airport or crammed on a plane with hundreds of stressed out people." My parents and Dale's have certainly seen enough blizzards, blinding snow and black ice in December to know that traveling at Christmas can be perilous and they're the first ones to say "please come in the summer instead." We've also seen enough cars in the ditch and delays at airports in winter to say, "ok. See you in June." Although other people might view it other ways, I realize that my Dad's wish for us to be warm and safe at Christmas is about as potent a statment of love that you could wish for. And I also know that because we don't see each other very often, my family says things to each other we probably wouldn't say to each other if we saw each other everyday. Distance makes relationships different-- not worse-- just different.
Last night we were tucked in our warm house and I was thinking of my dad's gesture of love in wanting us safe. Watching the delays at Heathrow and Denver, I know he was right. Instead of camping out in airport lines, we're happy to be tucked in with our cats, books, tea, games and groceries for a number of really great meals. And, indeed, because it is quiet, I have time to think and imagine. Distance and time fade away and suddenly I'm anywhere I want to be and with anyone I want to see. Last night, I had my tea sitting on a silver tray my Mum had given me last year. It was a gift from my Granny's staff at the theatre she managed and it was engraved "Merry Christmas Mrs. Whyte, Christmas 1973." Looking at it, I could imagine her with me again. And, I thought about doing our annual Christmas puzzle with my mum. And my dad and me sneaking down to the stables after closing to put up apple-filled Christmas stockings for our favourite horses. Or giving my beloved horse Rhett his bag of Christmas carrots. Or looking out to the black silent sky over our farm and thinking maybe that red blinking light is Santa's sleigh. It's all very comforting to feel time and space disappear and to feel that love and happiness again. This, I realize, is what Christmas is. Anyway, Merry Christmas to you wherever you may be! Much love to you all, H
PS: the odd image up top is the view out my front door window-- my own white lights and my neighbours' red and blue.

This week on ITunes: Sarah McLachlan Remix

I've been writing all week (sadly, drafting an article not working on the novel) and all my usual writing albums weren't quite working for me so I went in search of a new album on iTunes. I've loved iTunes from the moment I bought a new album while writing papers in my basement room in London at 3 AM. This week, I was grateful for the fact that In a matter of minutes I'd found and purchased a Sarah McLachlan remix called Bloom without having to leave my office. I've been really happy with Bloom: it's fantastic and does what remixes should (I think) do: give you something new and exciting to listen to and also make you hear familiar things anew. I've been listening to this new album most of the week and am about 2 pages away from a really solid draft of my article. Hurrah!

Yuletide Site of the Week: Scared of Santa

This one's from Cindy: Nothing says Happy Holidays like a photo of sweet little toddlers screaming at Santa. I'm not sure what's funnier the kids or the Santas.

An interesting story from the Guardian

Museums boost economy by £1.5bn a year, says report
Britain's museums are not only vital to the economy, but are also the glue that binds communities together, reflecting society and providing ways of understanding the world in which we live, according to a report published yesterday.

Sock Monkey Santa

Nick and Johanna got us this Sock Monkey Santa and I just had to share it with you. I named him Socrates and Lily is totally captivated by him. And, really, what's not to love about a sock monkey Santa? And then there's the matter of the sock monkey dress, the Vulcan sock monkey(thanks Dale), and the Princess Leia sock monkey.

Site of the Week: New Wonders from the Deep

This is pretty cool. CBC has posted a gallery of New Wonders from the 2006 Marine Census. Click on the "Open in Full Screen" option to see them in all their sea-creaturey beauty. Favourites include the Jurassic Shrimp (not quite Pepe the King Prawn) and the Yeti or Furry Crab.

Finally. Windsor gets the attention it deserves.

In today's travel section of the Globe and Mail, Noah Richler wrote a really lovely piece on Windsor. Dale and I have had this feeling toward Windsor since we moved here. It's nice to finally see someone take the time to see Windsor and notice that, if you're willing to see it, this is indeed a gem of a city.

Hi Brad. How are you?

Apparently, I am not blogging enough. So, here's a photo from today-- which happens to be a lovely snowy and sunny day. More photos of such day are on flickr.

Two Unrelated Things: Baseball and Does This Make me a Grown up?

1. Does this make me a grown up? There have been moments this year where I should have felt like a grown up: things like signing a contract for a full-time permanent job or signing on the dotted line to have our house re-sided and re-roofed or, subsequent to our re-roofing, finding myself saying things like "Huh. Look at the downspout on that house." Oddly, it has only been this week that I've been singing The Pursuit of Happiness's "I'm an Adult Now." What is this transitional event? I no longer have a living room furnished with a futon. For the first time in my adult life, I have actual grown up living room furniture. Earlier this evening, I found myself staring at this odd furniture that cannot be unfolded or taken apart or turned into some other kind of furniture and I began to compose a new verse to "I'm an Adult Now." I must confess that my sojourn into real life adulthood lasted as long as it took to write those previous sentences. As I was writing that last sentence, I thought I'd get a handful of jellybeans which, I was miffed to discover, Dale had put in the highest basket in our kitchen. See photo, left, for the Heidi-eye view of those jellybeans in their top basket. I stood on my toes and couldn't reach them. I tried to jump up a bit but to no avail. Finally, I ended up poking them from below so as to dislodge them enough so they'd fall and I could catch them. Futon or no futon, it's hard to feel all grown up when it takes three attempts to dislodge candy from a too-high spot.

2. Baseball. In the "who am I and what have they done with Heidi" category, I found myself doing two odd things this past week. The first was meandering through the Tigers' website and then excitedly emailing Dale to tell him that the Tigers were offering 27 game packages for next season and did he not agree that going to 27 games next summer was "rather do-able." The second odd thing happened on our trip to Louisville, KY over the weekend. I was not only amenable to going to the Louisville Slugger factory, it was number one on my list of things to do in Louisville. Then, in the actual tour of the factory, we were handed some of the bats they produced for the pros. I meant to whisper, "This is A-Rod's bat!!" but it came out as a giddy squeak not unlike the squeak one might hear coming out of a thirteen-year-old girl who has just seen Justin Timberlake. And then I saw the 2006 Tigers' World Series bats. Well. Really. Who am I and what have they done with Heidi?

Anyhoo, there are pictures a plenty of Louisville on my flickr site. Make sure to view them in the two sets: I've still not quite mastered how to upload photos in order. Check out the sets "Little Curtis's Journey to Kentucky" and "Louisville." If you want to learn how to pronounce Louisville, click here.

Site of the Week: Rappin' Chaucer (no, really)

Courtesy of Alec, here's this week's site of the week: Rappin' Chaucer. This site certainly has a tone of oddity to it but I actually think it's also pedagogically very interesting. Check out this translation of the Pardoner's Tale. . There are also some neat audio and video clips available. Runner up to the Rappin' Chaucer was "Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog," Peter's reply to the site Alec sent around. "Were you aware of Geoffrey Chaucer's recent discovery of the lyrics to 'Borne to Waxen Woode'? It's starts thus:
Maketh motor for to runne
Shoopen vs to to heigh-waye
No aventure shal we shunne
In what-evir cometh ower waye
Ah, Chaucer, who knew he could be so much fun? Certainly I did not as a toted my 9 lb Chaucer text around for 2 semesters.

There are times when I miss the Mother Province and times I do not.

This is one of the times I do not. Notice the pluses and minuses
Edmonton:








Windsor:



And then there's my dad's optimism (which is always missed) as gleaned from an instant messenger conversation. Me: "staying warm?" He: "It's been quite cold, but we're okay. Somewhat refreshing, and a total absence of flies, bugs etc." Me: :)

Site of the Week: Knitted Cupcakes

This week's site of the week picks up on two recurrent site of the week themes: cupcakes and weird knitted things. And no, it's not a typo: this week's site of the week is indeed devoted to knitted cupcakes. Check it out. Hmmm. A little fibre-y for my taste but just thinking about cupcakes makes me pine for a pink Magnolia cupcake like the little pink blob of cakey perfection pictured here.

This Week on iTunes: Chris Isaak's Forever Blue

Yesterday I was listening to Dale's show (Steel Belted Radio on CJAM, Tuesdays at 5-6, available on archive here). He'd dusted off some CDs in our collection including Chris Isaak's "Forever Blue" (1995). This morning, we listened to this CD in the car on the way to work. It brings back lovely memories of driving along the North Carolina coast. I'd forgotten what a stellar album this is. If you've not listened to it recently or ever, it's really worth a re-listen/ listen.

Virginia Woolf and the Colour Red

Lately, it seems that almost every minute of my week is booked and when I have minutes that aren't booked I have no idea where to begin. This morning I was so happy to wake up to a blank canvas of a day. Given the grey coldish weather, it seemed like a perfect day to settle in and get back on the "page a week writing pact" I made with Susan a year ago. I'd been very good about writing weekly until baseball took over my spare time and writing energies. So, today, I realized I had no excuses. I'd met my page quota last week so was on a roll. Writing two weeks in a row is a very good sign. I thought I'd write for an hour or two and then do some other things. At 10 I sat down to write my page and at 3 I was summoned out of my writerly trance by an adamantly squawking blue jay on my back deck. When I turned around to look at him, I realized the first snow of the season was falling and a whole field guide's worth of birds were congregating in my overgrown cedar hedge. The branches are all swaying and the noise is deafening. My little Lily cat is also excited and a bit bewildered by the snow. There seems to be a communal shock between humans, birds and cats that snow is indeed falling, even though it is the third week in November. Yesterday I rode my bike around on some errands and, heading out to the garage to get my bike, I was saddened to see all my lovely plants grey and twiggy. But, I was also cheered by the small signs of life on my rose bushes: flowers are still coming out and there are even a few small shoots popping out. I admire their determination to grow in spite of the cold and the decreasing number of hours of sunlight; they're not yet going gentle into that good night of winter dormancy. As my own way of rage rage raging against the dying of the daylight, I bought 20 short stemmed red roses at the market yesterday (for a mere $5!). Apart from my laptop, they're the only things glowing in my living room and dining room on such a grey day. Staring out to the snow I noticed a bright red cardinal who is so lovely against the grey and fading green. Red is such a remedy for grey. If one can be grateful for a colour, I am grateful for red.

It's well past 4 now and I realize I've spent over 6 hours writing which is a bit alarming but a lovely way to spend a day. Like buying red roses for one's self, spending the day writing fiction seems incredibly luxurious and indulgent. Perhaps because I've not only had a room but a house "of one's own" for the past few days, I've been thinking about Virginia Woolf and, just now, I turned to her perhaps as a way of appeasing my sense of indulgence for writing all day. And, as she has done so many times before, Virginia's got the right words at the right time for me: "Therefore I would ask you to write all kinds of books, hesitating at no subject however trivial or however vast. By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream. . .So that when I ask you to earn money and have a room of your own, I am asking you to live in the presence of reality, an invigorating life, it would appear, whether one can impart it or not."

This week on iTunes: Shuffle

Today is a grey-ish winter day. From my lovely office window, I can see one small tree that has somehow kept its bright red leaves and a large tree that has defiantly kept its Life Saver orange leaves. Other than that, the only colour is the Tims cups students are carrying as they scurry to class. I have to admit to feeling a bit of seasonal malaise today. Not trusting my own musical choices in such a mood, I put my iTunes on shuffle. Like a friend who knows you so well that they know exactly what you need to be perked up, Shuffle has brightened my day considerably. It started with Gomez's "See the World" and then offered a nice helping of the Raveonettes, Paul Weller (Studio 150, I am reminded, is a very fine CD indeed), Mark K and Travis. And, who can be in a bad mood listening to Fountains of Wayne's "Hey Julie"? Right now it is playing Gomez's "Detroit Swing 66" which I've turned up to a very "un-librarian" volume. All feels right in the world again. Thanks iTunes shuffle!

Site of the Week: November 11

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

- John McCrae

This week's Site of the Week: The Canadian Letters and Images Project

Good grief: Has it come to this?

I was looking at a glossary for library terms and found this among the biblio-ephemera. "Book: handy, portable printed information storage device commonly forming a large portion of a library collection, and not requiring mediating technology for use." I know not what to say.

A weekend without baseball

Hmm... apparently life does go on and I had a very lovely weekend sans baseball. I had to work on Saturday but after work, I walked along the river from campus to the Art Gallery and dawdled along, camera in hand. Photos (like attached one) are on Flickr. It was a beautiful fall weekend even though November is probably winter. Dale and I also spent a few hours raking up 6 bags of maple leaves from our front yard. It's odd to gather up 6 bags of our nation's emblem to send off to a giant composter. I'm sure there's a nationalistic editorial in there somewhere. Our yard is much less pretty now without the blanket of yellow but I expect our neighbours will be happy that we have tended to our allotment of fallen leaves. Photos of bagged leaves are not on Flickr, though, if you'd like, I can arrange it.

It's the Great Pre-Raphaelite, Charlie Brown!: this week's Edu-Tainment site of the week.

Aside from "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," one of my favourite Halloween tv moments comes from Cheers when Frasier and Lilith come to the bar on Halloween dressed in their costumes. When no one knows who they are, Frasier declares indignantly, "I'm Dante Gabriel Rossetti!" Lilith is dressed as his sister Christina Rossetti. In keeping with the odd Halloween associations that exist, in all likelihood, only in my mind, this week's site has a Pre-Raphaelite theme. It's not terribly funny but it's an interesting "edu-tainment" site that accompanies an exhibit on the Pre-Raphaelites called Waking Dreams. We're planning to go to it in December. There is one funny thing about this site and I'm not sure if this is funny ha-ha or funny odd but Elizabeth Siddal, Jane Morris and Fanny Cornforth all have MySpace pages. It's pretty cool to think about IM-ing Elizabeth Siddal. I wonder what kind of conversations we'd have. Maybe:
Heidi writes: Hey Lizzie, what's up?
LizzieSiddal writes: Not much. Am feeling sort of glum.
Heidi writes: Drag.
LizzieSiddal writes: Yeah. :(

This Week with My Flu: An Homage to Bridget Jones

Hours on train to and from Ottawa: 16
Hours at Union Station: 5
World Series ballgames watched: 1.5
Books read: 1 (Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss. Really powerful and beautifully written)
Ballets seen: 1 (The Kirov's Swan Lake. Absolutely amazing, beautiful and awe inspiring)
Former Governor Generals Seen: 1
Coffees consumed: None!
Coffees pined for None. None? None!
Times wished I were the kind of person who could imitate Rocky and yell "Adrienne! Adrienne!" as the Former Governor General is introduced at Kirov Ballet: 1.
Wonderful friends seen: 2
New albums listened to: .5 (Badly Drawn Boy's new one)
Times said to self "I will never take feeling well for granted again": 287
Amount of train trip spent listening to iPod: 30 minutes
Stores visited at or near Toronto's Union Station in search of Gravol: 6
Bottles of Gravol found: 0
Bottles of things purchased thinking "oh well, maybe this will work as well as Gravol": 2
New York Times crossword puzzles begun but not completed: 1
Lovely joyous walks through downtown Ottawa: 2
Conversations had on train with strangers about their Harley Davidson: 1
National Libraries and Archives visited: 1
Dreams about going to the Gap and Orange Julius with baseball players: 0
Nightmares involving food: 9
Foods I may never eat again as long as I live: 1
Cats in sweaters seen at train stations: 1
Text messages sent to Dale saying "I feel really ill...": 1
Times said to self "Even with the flu, this has been a fantastic trip": 8
My favourite Sleep Number on my hotel's Sleep Number Bed: 56
Times felt joy at living in Canada again and being Canadian: 20
Conversations had on train with strangers about their pet parrots: 1
Number of times I will write blog entries about the flu in the future: 0

Vote for Curtis!

In the past few days, I've been surprised to find out that people have actually been reading this baseball blog. Thanks for your nice comments. I've been felled by the flu so this entry will be short. I've found a link on the Tigers website that allows you to vote for this year's Tigers MVP. At this point, Curtis has a mere 146 votes and, probably, that makes sense given the other options. But, all summer I've been blogging about underdogs and longshots and my admiration for Curtis. So, faithful Cafe visitors, I issue you this challenge: if you've become a fan of longshots and underdogs, go here and scroll down to the bottom left corner and vote for Curtis!
PS added later: Oh, I feel guilty since Craig Monroe should get votes too. Vote for Curtis or Craig. Or Curtis AND Craig.

World Series Game 2: Last Baseball Blog

This will likely be my last baseball entry of the year since last night was the final game for which we have tickets. I'm sure I'll mention baseball here or there but this concludes my baseball blog exercise. Since the Tigers still have a few more games, I'm not in much of a concluding mood. As such, I thought I'd pick up on an idea from my last entry that seemed to resonate with a couple of café visitors: "Next Sunday when I’m at what I assume will be the first World Series game ever attended by a Saskatchewan Martin, I’ll be cheering our team on. But I’ll also be there for my grandfather, looking, listening and taking it all in as he would have done." Here are a few observations based on my own looking, listening and "taking it all in."
1. Last night was sort of like Christmas. Like Christmas, it's a special, magical time and people were kinder, gentler and more patient with each other than they usually are.
2. Light fluffy rain is beautiful and silent in the ballpark lights. It looks like the sky in the Charlie Brown Christmas special.
3. Cold is cold. Even though 46o F is technically warmer than 44 o F, after three hours of sitting in 44 o, the fact that it warmed up to 46 o in the later innings didn't make much difference.
4. There are some really nice dads out there. Like the man who sat next to us who took his 10 year old daughter to the game. They were so happy together, I don't think they even noticed the cold. At the end of the game, he was taking pictures of her against the scoreboard and I said, "Do you want me to take a picture of the two of you with your camera?" and he said, "No, that's ok... Well, ok." I snapped one that was so beautiful I thought he and I would both cry when we looked at it.
5. The creativity of these two vendors made me smile. 1: " Hotdogs...Get yer hotdogs here... They double as handwarmers... Get yer handwarming hotdogs here." and 2: "Mildly cold beer, here... Mildly cold beer."
6. There are lots of songs that have the word "Detroit" in them and I heard most of them last night. Some are better than others.
6.5 Case in point: that Journey song "Don't Stop Believing." You know those lines: "Just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit/ He took the midnight train goin' anywhere." I've heard it a million times but it never occurred to me that there isn't a South Detroit. Dale overheard guys in the mens' room talking about this as the Journey song was piped through the park. "There's no South Detroit!" "Sure there is. It's called Canada." I'm stunned. No South Detroit. Hmm. Even though I live in what I guess is "South Detroit," it never occured to me. I guess this is why you should never learn geography from bands with mullets.
7. I love the Supremes. I mean, I really really love the Supremes.
8. John Mellencamp came to sing his "This is our Country" song/ commercial. It's kind of catchy and, if I were American, I think I might be moved by it. I can't imagine a Canadian writing a song like that. I'm not sure what that says about our nations. But it was cool to see him. And then Anita Baker sang the national anthem which was stunningly beautiful.
9. I'm going to miss my Tigers. I'm trying not to think about it. I know the leaves have just turned here but, how long til Spring?

Sites of the Week: Weird Librarian Stuff

I've been running into these weird little sites here and there for quite a while... this week I thought I'd assemble some of them for your amusement/ enlightenment.




Flickr site devoted to librarians' desks
Library Cats Map "Locate the closest library with a cat on premises"
Librarian t-shirts
Librarian Trading Cards
Weird Library Musical
"Reading on a Dream: A Library Musical"

We're all Behind our Baseball Team, Go Get Em Tigers

1. This is a great article about Granderson. And, check out the picture: I think he's a Mac user!
2. I used my biblio-powers for good not evil and found a sound file for the 1968 song "Go Get 'Em Tigers"
3. Here are the lyrics so you can sing along
we're all behind our baseball team,
go get em tigers!
world series bound and picking up steam,
go get em tigers!
there'll be joy in tigertown,
we'll sing you songs,
when the bengals bring the pennant home,
where it belongs......
we're all behind our baseball team,
go get em,
detroit tigers,
go get em tigers!

There'll be joy in Tigertown: Tigers Going to the World Series

I was thinking a lot about the prairies last Saturday night. Maybe it’s because we were facing west and I could watch the sun set behind the Detroit skyline as the game unfolded below. Or, maybe it’s because I’ve written about how odd it is to be a prairie kid and stare out over the Detroit skyline and have that skyline seem like home. More likely, I was thinking about Saskatchewan because the man sitting next to me told the man sitting in front of him that his father had just died a few days ago and that his father had been a lifelong Tigers fan since the 1920s. I realized listening to him that there were many more people present at that game than the gate counts could ever register. Among them was my grandfather—a crackerjack shortstop in his day. I figured he’d think it was pretty cool to have a grandkid watch the Detroit Tigers win the game that got them into the World Series.

I’ve been putting off writing this blog since words have consistently failed me when I’ve tried to describe what that game was like. My colleague Bill asked me about the game about half an hour ago and I described to him what I saw. He said, “you should write that down.” So, thanks to Bill, here it is, written down: “It was the bottom of the 9th, crowd was buzzing and chatting and grumbling. I turned my camera toward the scoreboard to capture that suspenseful moment: bottom of the ninth, two outs, Magglio up to bat. A second later, I turned my gaze to home plate and heard a perfect pop! of the ball. 42,000 people are suddenly silent and I swear I heard the ball soar across the Detroit skyline like a shooting star. It just goes whoooooosh in front of our eyes. It takes 42,000 people a second or two to blink and realize it's fair and it's a home run. We’ve won. We're going to the World Series. Men who were, 4 hours ago, complete strangers hugged each other; the two Silent Bob look alikes next to Dale nodded at each other and Dale put his arms around me and we stood there silent and incredulous at the chaos around us.

As a writer, it’s distressing when words aren’t there for you when you think they should be. But, I’m starting to think that maybe it’s ok that words fail to appear sometimes. Maybe there are things that you don’t need words for. My Dad once quoted his Dad (my grandfather), as saying: “God gave us two eyes, two ears and one mouth. Thus we should always spend twice as much time listening or looking as we do talking.” My dad then reflected: “When we miss him, we remember his words and we remember to look and listen.” Next Sunday when I’m at what I assume will be the first World Series game ever attended by a Saskatchewan Martin, I’ll be cheering our team on. But I’ll also be there for my grandfather, looking, listening and taking it all in as he would have done.

1 picture: a thousand words; 2 pictures: speechless

Site of the Week: Monk E-Mail

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This Week on iTunes: The Decemberists

Hello Ken, this week I've been listening to the new Decemberists album which I've been describing as English Major Rock. English Major Rock? Well, check out this description from their website. "The album’s unquestionable centerpiece is the 13-minute murder ballad “The Island,” with its subsections “Come and See,” “The Landlord’s Daughter,” and “You’ll Not Feel the Drowning.” As the lyrics chronicle a tale of abduction, rape, and murder, the instruments chart a far-flung course through multiple musical genres and influences. In short, a masterpiece in itself. However, set alongside the urgent, anguished rock of “When the War Came,” and perfect pop confections like “O, Valencia” and “Sons and Daughters,” it begins to seem like a statement of purpose."
Here is their website. I have to admit one of the things I really like about this band is their album art. We saw them live a few years ago; they were very good. Anyway, will talk to you later. H

Baseball Blog: Caught up!

Phew. I've finally had a chance to type up my blog entries for the past four games. Photos are going up on Flick'r shortly. Just so you know, I've posted the entries in a order that makes them more linear to read. To get you in the mood, click here.

Mapping the Terrain of Fanhood: Game 18 of 22+

Game 18 of 22+
Summary:
Score: Toronto 7 Detroit 4
Temperature: 65o
Attendance: 26,430
Winner of the Dunkin' Donuts Race: No Donut Race! Can you imagine?

It is Saturday, September 30 and I am writing this, the entry for Wednesday’s game, while standing in a rainy corridor in Comerica waiting for the rain to stop. I think I’ve been delaying writing this entry because I’m not sure what to say about it. It’s not that there’s nothing to say about Wednesday’s game but I’m not sure how to say it. Baseball, I am realizing, can be a beautiful, elegant game but, as Wednesday night’s game showed, it can also be awkward and clunky. Wednesday’s game was not the prettiest I’ve seen and I am wondering if one can say things like this and still be a fan. Fanhood, I realized, has snuck up on me and I find myself attempting to navigate its terrain. Is a fan obligated to look the other way at times like these or can a fan be honest and frank? Can a fan say to her team, as I overheard a woman say to a man last week, “no, I’m not mad at you. I’m just disappointed. That’s all.”

The Tigers are losing their lead and every inning is starting to matter. Wednesday’s game was not pretty. In fact, Wednesday’s game was darned depressing. The Blue Jays made the Tigers look like the Tigers of a few years ago. The stands cleared out and conversations around us had nothing to do with baseball. The women behind us spent 20 minutes describing every perm they’ve ever had: “and then, in 1987, I had one that…” Three people in their early twenties behind us debated whether the cheapest fertilizer you could get at Home Depot was made from sheep and cow manure or from Detroit area raw sewage. It occurred to me—as it has a number of times this season—that often people are only interested in their teams when they’re winning. I was reminded of what games at Comerica used to be like: missed opportunities, glimmers of promise, and hopes dashed. I’m wondering if I’m allowed to worry about my team in the next few weeks. Will all of our hopes be dashed in the next few games?

Wednesday’s game was pretty hard to watch and I found myself blocking out the fertilizer debates and perm chats to think about our time at this park over the past 6 years. I remember our first games here and think I would have been surprised if I’d known 6 years ago how attached to this park I would become. We got to the park pretty early on Wednesday and walked around the park for a while. I walked as close to centerfield as I could get. I saw the little patch of grass that Curtis treads and looked at home plate from his vantage point. I saw exactly what he was talking about in an interview when he said, “playing day games here is very difficult as well because the view we have behind home plate for some reason isn’t the best. You have a slight opening that you can see the street level so you have a contrast of dark and light. The early part of the season when there were fewer fans behind home plate, the tabs [silver baseballs] that signify what seat you’re in, if there’s no one sitting to block those, it looks like a million baseballs coming at you at one time.” It was pretty cool to see things from his vantage point and I realized how much I’ve learned from having a favourite player this season. Baseball has become more emotional and personal than I’d imagined it could be. I’ve learned so much cheering for Curtis and watching the game through one player.

I am wet and cold and tired and the rain is showing no signs of letting up. Dale notices that I am cold and wet and tired and asks if I want to leave. I see people heading to the exits and realize that cold, rain and fatigue aren’t enough to send me home. I want to see my team play tonight. These are my Tigers. I’m here for them.

Ooh, baby, baby,/ Where did (y)our love go?: Game 19 of 22+

Summary:
Score: Kansas City 9 Detroit 6
Temperature: 56o
Attendance: 40,071
Beach balls released: 1
Winner of the Dunkin' Donuts Race: Biggie Bagel

Tonight Comerica Park was absolutely pumped. The Tigers had the potential to win their division and people came expecting a victory. While Wednesday’s game reminded me of seasons past, tonight was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. After a fairly lengthy rain delay, the crowd were in a mood to go insane. They went nuts for the grounds crew, the tarp guys, the national anthem. They cheered for the game time temperature like it was a double play and the players came out amidst a deafening roar. The first Royals hitter got a single and then it all started to fall apart: by the end of the first half inning, the Tigers were down by 7 runs. The crowd got quieter and quieter; by the end of the game, the crowd that had been crazy for a victory was half as big and shuffled silently out of the ballpark. The lengthy rain delay had allowed me to write my blog entry (by hand) and also re-watch the rain delay video that I’ve mentioned before. Again, I was intrigued by this video because it outlined the sheer drama of this deceptively simple game. Commentator after commentator kept saying that the thing that made baseball amazing was the fact that anything can happen and nothing is ever certain. I kept thinking about these comments as the Tigers managed to scrape together 6 runs. Coming back from 7-0 is difficult, but it’s not beyond the realm of the possible. People kept pouring out of the park despite the fact that anything can happen. Many people, it seemed, came expecting to see a fairly certain victory but didn’t quite seem prepared to see a loss. I’m still mulling over this fanhood thing, when you commit yourself to a team, aren’t you committing yourself to a team in sickness and in health, for better or for worse?
Over this past season, I’ve come to see the person who selects the end of game music as a genius so I was intrigued to see what he or she would select for this game. At first I thought The Supreme’s “Baby, Baby, Where Did Our Love Go” as an odd selection, but the more I thought about it, the more apt it seemed. I wondered if the song was meant for those who left when the team was losing. I too wondered, “Hey, where did your love go?”

Heidi, are you grieving, over Comerica Park unleaving?:Game 20 of 22+

(Of the 23 games we had tickets for between August and October, I couldn’t go to 3. This ends my regular season baseball blog)
Summary:
Score: Kansas City 10 Detroit 8
Temperature: 65o
Attendance: 26,430
Winner of the Dunkin' Donuts Race: Again, no Donut Race! Ack!

Today was a beautiful and sunny day. It was also the final game of the season and I have to admit I was feeling pretty sad entering the park. At the beginning of August 22+ games seemed like infinity; it was a magical 2 months and I was feeling pretty sad to have it end. Every fall, I think about one of my favourite Gerard Manley Hopkins poems, “Spring and Fall to a Young Child”* and I found myself nerdily rewriting it to suit today’s mood: “Heidi, are you grieving over Comerica Park unleaving?” The taste of last night’s loss was still in all our mouths today and again the possibility of taking the division championship was on everybody’s mind. When we paid the toll on the Windsor side of the tunnel, the agent said, “Kansas City’s going to sweep ‘em.” Dale and I rolled our eyes and thought, “as if!” Surely, after last night’s loss the Tigers would come out fighting and take it all. At the end of the third inning, a homerun from Inge made it 6-0 and I remember thinking, “winning today would be even sweeter than last night … it will prove that nothing in baseball is ever certain. They’ll win for sure today.” I spoke too early since in the 4th inning, Kansas City started acquiring their ten runs. As the game hobbled along, we watched the outfield scoreboard and watched Minnesota beat Chicago. Our loss coupled with their victory meant that Minnesota had won the division.
On Monday, people at work asked me about the game and “heartbreaking” was the only word that seemed to fit. It wasn’t so much that the Tigers had lost the game and the division, it was that the team looked awful and that they’d blown a 6-0 lead. The game went 12 innings. A woman behind us was yelling at players to step into the pitches: “Come on, let the ball hit you! If four of you get hit, you score a run, you win the game and I can go home and make dinner.” At one point, I whacked Dale with my ball cap and cursed him for getting me so attached to this team. It didn’t seem quite fair that a team that had done so much this season could end the season like this. I thought about Curtis’s struggles this season and was heartbroken for him; I wanted things to turn out better for him. And Craig. And Marcus. And Placido. And Magglio. No matter how many times I say “nothing is ever certain” in baseball or “nothing is ever easy,” it seems I’ve still got lessons to learn in that area.


*PS: on a Hopkins side note, here’s a lovely line from what my friend Alec calls “one of the best short stories ever written”: “If they also don’t react well when I tell them Gerard Manley Hopkins is one of my favourite poets, I usually downgrade these friends to the rank of acquaintances. People who don’t share the same poetics can’t be real friends” (Yann Martel, “The Time I Heard The Private Donald J. Rankin String Concerto with One Discordant Violin, by the American Composer John Morton,” 103).

Playoff Game One: One perfect evening

ALDS Game 3 of a possible 5
Summary:
Score: Detroit 6 Yankees 0!!!
Temperature: 55o
Attendance: 43,440
Winner of the Dunkin' Donuts Race: No donut race

Getting our quarter season’s tickets allowed us to purchase tickets for one game of all three possible playoff series. Friday was game three of the series and the Tigers and Yankees had won a game apiece. On Tuesday, the Tigers lost 8-4 in New York but they looked really good. Things looked very promising; the Yankees had exposed some gaps in their armour. On Wednesday, the game was rained out and game 2 was played on Thursday afternoon. I had a meeting until 2 and attempted to work for the final innings but ended up piecing the game together via inconsistent video feeds, cell phone calls to Dale and the MLB scoreboard. The Tigers won 4-3. Although everyone was assuming the Yankees would sweep, things looked very promising for our Tigers.
I was surprised at how emotional I felt walking into the park on Friday. This was a series making game and the first home game of the playoffs. We got there early to soak it all up. So too did two young guys who sat next to us. They seemed nervous but excited; almost like it was Christmas Eve. Comerica was all gussied up with red, white and blue bunting and new logos on the field. Everything seemed a little bit cleaner and everyone seemed on their best behaviour. And, wow, the Four Tops sang the national anthem... how amazing is that?
There was buzzing solemnity about the place as if something remarkable was about to happen. I’m not sure words can describe how I felt as we sat in our seats Friday night but the last time I felt that alive was when Dale and I were watching whales off the coast of Newfoundland in May; both of these events were incredible and unbelievable in their own way. People continued to file in and there was a politeness about the evening that I’d not seen before; people are always friendly but tonight we smiled at each other as if we were all about to share something sacred and rare. Although the crowd was louder than I’d ever heard before, everyone seemed a bit nervous as if they didn’t want to jinx anything.
I had tears in my eyes when Granderson hit a homerun in the 7th inning: this is what I wanted for him not last Sunday. Again, the Tigers proved that nothing is ever certain and yet everything is possible. The two guys next to us were trying to pretend like they weren’t fighting back tears. I overheard one of them say in a chocked up voice: “This is the best 100 bucks I’ve ever spent in my life.” “Me too,” the other replied and then they gave each other a burly, manly hug.
The final words of this entry come from Nate Robertson’s fabulous Gum Time blog: “It was really fun, a really fun night. We've all enjoyed it. Man, that was awesome. That is the atmosphere you dream about playing in front of and being a part of. It was different. This fan base tonight was different from this season. There was a different emotion. There was a different feel. There was a buzz that wasn't present in the past. Not saying that there wasn't a buzz, but it was certainly a different type of feel. Even the faithful out there, I think we made even more faithful. Some of the most faithful Tiger fans out there, I think we've expanded that area tonight. I think last weekend is way out of their minds. We're in a position to do something really special, but we've got a lot of work to do. It's not going to be easy.”


Postscript:
And, in case you missed it, the Tigers won the series on Saturday and I was thrilled our pal Dave was there to see it.

Every once and a while someone asks me to explain why I like this team so much. I think these bits from an ESPN story pretty much say it all:

“Moments later, the Tigers emerged from their clubhouse armed with champagne bottles and they uncorked them during a victory lap around Comerica Park, slapping hands and spraying fans who danced to Kiss' "Rock and Roll All Night."

"These fans have been here for some of the worst things," Monroe said. "We wanted them to be able to have a party tonight."

"Nobody gave us a shot in this series," Bonderman said. "That motivated us."

Go get’ em Tigers.

Site of the Week: My paramour is Poe

Oh... I am indeed behind in blogging and Sites of the Week. I've got a stockpile of them to work through but this one from Cindy is indeed worthy of Site of the Week status: the Dead Celebrity Soul Mate Game. My candidates turned out to be da Vinci, Beethoven and Poe. I briefly considered Beethoven ("Looking for someone who appreciates music but isn't completely annoying") but chose Poe for his Heathcliffean allure. I've attached his ad .