What a strange week this has been: some great blessings mixed among the hardships. I don't have to stop and make myself think in order to see them; they are clearly evident.

My apartment flood hit remarkably few valuable and precious things. This seems almost miraculous. Several years ago Sylvie gave me a small replica of Van Gogh's Sunflowers, ( Read more... )

I've been seeking words to articulate the evaporation of my libido. This is hard, because I don't know whether any of my friends share the experience, and I feel isolated by it. Last month I said half-jokingly to a lesbian writer friend that I was considering coming out as asexual. She guffawed and asked when I had last had sex. It had been two ( Read more... )

Religion seems to be the theme of the week. This morning the Rainbow Chorus performed at a service in Waterloo in which Parkminister United Church made its formal declaration as a new affirming congregation.

For those of you who live elsewhere, the United Church of Canada is our most liberal Christian denomination. It's structure is highly ( Read more... )

I've had lots of fun with the video function on my camera lately, and here is my first experiment with Windows Movie Maker. It's coverage from Toronto Pride 2007 on June 23 and 24. Brenna and I toured Church Street on Saturday evening, so the first few episodes come from that. On Sunday marian_w and growingratitude joined us to attend the parade.

My friend Dave came ( Read more... )

The Phoenix rises. Out On The Shelf, Guelph's queer library and resource centre, is moving to a new location. This started because the Canadian Mental Health Association, which hosted the library free of charge and provided some funding, lost its budget to do so.

From the moment we learnt about this less than three months ago, the people who run ( Read more... )

I just got home from the most fun evening I've had in a long time. After our concert, a number of us went to the Guelph Pride dance, hosted at Holiday Inn.

The crowd filled the banquet hall, and Tammy was an excellent deejay as usual, playing a good mix of dance songs, new and old, that appealed to everybody. For a few minutes the dance floor ( Read more... )

This has been a strangely agonizing month, culminating in a horrifying meltdown Saturday evening. It's frustrating that I've barely managed to write about this until after the fact, but perhaps the story isn't over yet. Hopefully Saturday was a watershed or catharsis, because things can only go up from there.

Okay, I love my job. It's interesting, ( Read more... )

Feels like pressing through a fog these days. The distance is indistinct. I keep reminding myself how far I've come lately, and must be truly fortunate to enjoy this job so much. But my understanding of how to manage the rest of life seems to have come apart. Questions once settled have again raised their cobra heads. Maybe I'm just so used to ( Read more... )

I've submitted another story to 1001 Nights Cast. If it's selected, Barbara Campbell will read it live on the website at sunset in Sydney on Tuesday, which works out to 4:06 a.m. EST (1:06 Pacific Time). I don't plan to stay up, but will post a link to the text tomorrow. The main character in this story is transgender.

( Read more... )

Music brings back memories, mostly happy ones. "Love Will Turn You Around" puts me back in grade 13, infatuated with D. I would drive past his house at night to be near him. I fell in love with Country and Western to be like him. He and his sister took me to stock car races, which didn't interest me in the least, but it was an excuse to go out with ( Read more... )