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November 30, 2005
Politics
Take a look at this picture taken last week of the four party leaders of Canada and tell me that their poses/body-language don't reflect them to a tee...
The aloof and in-your-face Layton
The standoffish and separatist Duceppe
The uptight and close-minded Harper
The focused and lost-in-space Martin
This election is going to be interesting....
Posted by Nikolas at 07:53 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBackPhantoms of the Past
Last night Mason and I went and saw Phantom of the Opera at the DCPA. It was my first time seeing it and I liked it, but was a little disappointed at the very heavy opera feel to it. Mason states that it is usually not like this, and much more musical. In the end though we had a nice time and I enjoyed the evening out with some good friends. I still don't understand how people don't dress up to go out to the theater. It's one of the little pleasures I have whenever we go - to get dressed up and feel like a part of something glamorous. People were actually there last night with jeans and T-shirts!
One of the things I noticed about the play though was how they had the stage decorated - like an old theater with a great big chandelier and golden ornately decorated stage coverings. As I sat in the modern theater watching this play about an Opera House in the 1800's I was sad that there are not more old buildings like that around. I love walking into old buildings with their history and intricacies. I love to see the ornateness and detail that went into these dwellings. We are a culture so stuck on bigger, better, faster, more that we build things today with sleekness and technology, but the art or architecture and design is sacrificed for the new and angular. The one thing I have always been saddened about in Denver is it's lack of history - having only existed for a little over 100 years most buildings lack any history or style. Our own 105-year old house is placed into a category all its own and revered for it's age, but this is nothing compared to the houses I grew up around in Massachusetts where they were built in 1608 and involved in the Underground Railroad hundreds of hears later. Those houses are even further removed from dirt plots back in Greece that I use to play matchbox cars in...next to shards of pottery from the 4th century B.C.E.
Denver use to have a beautiful old Opera House called The Tabor Grand Opera House and it was considered the most opulent building between Chicago and San Francisco at its time in 1881. The "Tabor Grand" changed Denver's image of itself overnight; from an upstart cowtown to a place worthy of world-class culture. The building was regarded as the best-equipped theater between Chicago and San Francisco, and cost in the neighborhood of $850,000, in 1881 dollars--a truly phenomenal sum for the time. As usual however, time and decay made the building obsolete. As tastes in entertainment changed and the American west faced it's booms and busts, The "Tabor Grand" fell into disrepair and was demolished - it was razed in 1964 to make room for a parking lot. Sigh...
I just find it sad to see such beautiful things of the past destroyed for the benefit of the future. While I am all for progress and advancement, there has to be a happy middle where the present can accomodate the grandure of the past, while at the same time blazing the advencements of the future.
Posted by Nikolas at 04:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackNovember 28, 2005
Patience
I know that you are all probably sick to death of hearing about Canada by now, but it’s my journal/blog and I’ll bitch and cry if I want too. Mason and I spent the weekend relaxing and eating, talking and debating, planning and shopping. In the end we both admitted to each other that both our minds were on the big pink elephant in the middle of the room – Canada.
It has now been 9 months since we sent our application in – 8 months since we received our first correspondence from CIC letting us know we are in the “queue.” Each day one of us rushes to the mailbox for the next letter – the one that says, “OK…on to the next step!” (more or less) and generally allows us to begin the countdown clock for a move. However, much to our dismay – the letter hasn’t arrived and we both seem to get a little down as the days pass by.
Mason says to not let it get to us…that we need to go on living as though it’s not going to happen so when it does we’ll be surprised and happy. The issue with that is that even if the Canada thing doesn’t go through we have always planned on moving from Denver. As we sit and wait for the Great White North to send up a flare welcoming us home, Mason passes up some good job offers in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, etc. All places that I wouldn’t mind living in, but none of the places sing to my soul like Toronto and Canada does.
The one thing that I have learned in the past – in every Tarot card reading, every psychic fair attended, every past life regression experienced is that my one major lesson to learn in this lifetime is patience. Patience with how I deal with my schizoaffective clients, patience in my relationship with my parents, patience in finding my soul mate, patience in the changes happening within myself…and more recently patience with this Canadian process. There is a lesson there that I need to learn, and while I am ready, willing and able to experience it and thank the divine for it…there is a force deep within me that has no time for patience and begs the Universe for an “advance forward three spaces” card.
So I keep waking up every morning with hope and go to bed every night with disappointment, but always focused on the horizon, always…waiting for the next day to dawn.
Posted by Nikolas at 03:25 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBackNovember 25, 2005
An engagement for the Engagement...
Mason and I came to the late realization this evening that his niece’s Engagement Party is tomorrow evening - his sister was kind enough to call and remind us, also to question why Mason didn't RSVP (I gave him the invite over two weeks ago to call.) So know I've got to find something presentable to wear tomorrow evening and re acclimate myself to dive into suburban Republican religiosity for the evening...bleh! Anyway, as we were talking about it on the couch I got a little confounded by the fact that a gift is expected at such events. So let me get this straight (hardy har har) since I never had all of this...just a commitment ceremony. They get Engagement Gifts, Wedding Shower Gifts, Barchelor/ette Gifts and Wedding Gifts? Good lord!
So what is an appropriate gift for a young 20-something couple for their Engagement party? I was thinking a bottle of wine...but I thought I'd check to be sure....
Emily Post says:
Q. If one is invited to an engagement party do you bring a gift?
A. An engagement present is certainly not a requirement, though people have felt recently that the converse is true. When you see gifts at a large party, don’t feel like you’re the odd man out—there is no faux pas here. If you are invited to a small dinner party or other intimate gathering in honor of an engagement, those invited are presumed to be very close and would likely take a gift. Remember—this is not required, but appropriate in more personal settings.
Searching on-line I've seen everything recommended from picture-frames, to snow-couple ornaments, to matching champagne flutes, to a keepsake box.
What to do, what to do?
Posted by Nikolas at 09:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackMoo!
Oh my gods....why oh why to I have the tragic Greek stuff-food-down-your-throat-and-make-enough-to-feed-enough-for-the-army-in-Iraq Gene.
Moo.
Posted by Nikolas at 09:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackNovember 24, 2005
Happy Thanksgiving
Bird's in the oven, stuffing is done, time to sit back, relax, play PS2 and get drunk!
Happy Thanksgiving to each and everyone of you - I am more thankful for your entrance into my life then you will ever know.
Have a good one!
November 21, 2005
I'm not dead, but I feel like it...
Sorry for the long absence from blogland, but this past week at work has been extremely tiring and draining. Couple of assaults, couple of runaways, and a smattering of court hearings asking me to do the impossible. Just another week in the life of Super Social Worker!
Ugh.
The slight upturn in my mood has been the salvation of this past weekend. Mason and I spent the day yesterday shopping for odds and ends, and window shopping at the mall. We haven't had a day like that in a long time. Reminded me why I love this man, and how happy he makes me. We came home, opened up a bottle of Beaujolais and started getting ready for Thanksgiving.
Since I haven't spoken to my mother in well over a year, or seen her since my Papou died and Mason is now almost at two years of non-conversation with his, we will be alone this year. It's not that we mind. We love having the day to ourselves and I LOVE to cook for this holiday. We offered to have an "orphan" dinner for some of our friends in Denver, but all of them have called and mentioned they will either be flying home to their parents, or spending it with boyfriend's, etc. So we've decided to spend the day at home stuffing ourselves silly, being thankful for our good fortune and then playing PS2 till we pass out. I'm thankful for the short week this week coming up...
More later...
Posted by Nikolas at 07:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBackNovember 12, 2005
Over My Head
The past few weeks have been difficult for me. Ever since Bear Bust, ever since Between The Worlds, shit ever since Pride in Toronto this summer. At times I feel lost, alone, bobbing up and down in this enormous sea with no way to know which direction I'm heading, but feeling as though I am in the same place...anchored to the seabed, not allowed to break free.
I have this unending yearning to leave this place. My time in Denver is more then over - I feel like a bottle of milk that is two weeks past it's expiration date. Yet here I am rooted and waiting, watching as the world around me starts to disassemble and head in it's own directions, but I do not want to follow. I do not want to engage and develop feelings or memories when there is a desire to leave...stronger then when I was 18 and scared and boarding a bus for this unknown place out west known as Colorado.
Maybe that's what this undying depression I have felt lately is - this unbelievable melancholy that seems to taken hold of soul and is not willing to let go. Patience I'm told, it's in the cards, the Universe has taken care of me, but in the end all I am left is with this feeling of sadness and desperation. I see the future at times, the city by the lake, the undiscovered country and I can feel my self gently push towards it. My own damn fault for binding myself to a beautiful little island on a summer day.
Lyrics from The Fray's, Over My Head (Cablecar)
Posted by Nikolas at 04:28 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBackNovember 11, 2005
Veteran's Day/Remembrance Day
Thank you for protecting the ideas of freedom, liberty and democracy when other's would not.
Thank you for sacrificing even though you may have never known what for when other's would not.
Thank you from the depths of my heart, while other's may not.
November 05, 2005
Happy Anniversary
I realized as I was going about my work tonight that this is the 1-year anniversary of Mason and I's decision to move to Canada and start the application process. It was one-year ago today that we decided to start the process, downloaded the forms and started researching our lives
Wow...as much as I bitched, that went by quick.
Posted by Nikolas at 07:43 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
