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Tag Archives: writing
Wild Etta
For three days every week, Charlotte nannies for Oscar and Etta. Oscar and Etta are kind of magical, precocious, loving children. The kind you come across once in a lifetime and are so grateful for.
Oscar 4, is bright and questioning and endlessly compassionate. He’s thoughtful and knows how to take care of himself. For example on one afternoon Charlotte came into the living room to find Etta wearing all of the hats she could reach, dancing, screaming and sticking her tongue out; what we call “Wild Etta”. Oscar however, was pressed against the wall facing her with his dimpled hands covering his striking green-gold eyes.
“Oscar are you ok?” Asked Charlotte, worried for the little man allergic to the world.
Oscar uncovered his eyes and looked at her,
“It’s too funny.” He replied.
Charlotte smiled and her heart kicked around inside of her chest with love for these children. Of course she thought, as she remembered that sometimes when things were too much for him to process, mostly funny things, Oscar just took a little break by retreating behind his eyes. Smart, charming self care tactic.
Where Oscar was quiet and thoughtful, Etta 2, was…untamed. On the other side of her nestling, affectionate self was an endlessly entertaining and unpredictable gremlin.
With her brother in half-day school, Etta had free roam of the house, with Charlotte of course, until they left to pick him up. There would be breakfast, getting dressed and then play play play until naptime. Even naptime had it’s own perfect schedule. Once the hour started nearing Etta would grab Charlotte’s hand and motion to the stairs, where sleep happened. She would sleep undisturbed until she awoke calling “CHOTTI!”, ready for the afternoon.
On this particular day, Etta had gone down for her nap as usual and was sleeping soundly, as usual. As the time went on however, Charlotte noticed that Etta was having a remarkably quiet nap. No murmers, whimpers, soft singing. So she crept upstairs making sure not to step on the spot that always creaked too loudly. She listened outside the girl’s door – nothing.
“Etta are you –” She whispered as she slowly pushed open the door and her hand flew to her mouth to cover the loud gasp that escaped.
Between her and the crib were the following:
footy pyjamas including snap buttons
teddy bear
pacifier
stuffed bunny
afghan, blanket, sheet, under sheet – all from crib.
underpants
diaper
These items lead a jagged trail to the crib where Charlotte arrived just in time to see the naked Etta squatting and peeing onto the vinyl covered mattress. She was smiling a crooked grin.
“Wild Etta”
Charlotte only had a minute to stare in disbelief before she had to hurry to restore the balance in time to pick Oscar up from school. As she picked up the wildly distributed clothes and blankets she could not figure out how this 2 year old child managed to wrestle with bottom to top buttons, diaper Velcro, and a fitted sheet. She couldn’t get a clear image, much less ponder into what erupted in this little girl’s mind to make her take such drastic actions. Charlotte couldn’t guess if the pee was the end goal or just something that happened as a flourish.
Etta watched, nonplussed as her masterpiece was delicately dismantled and put back on her bed and body. When asked, she had no explanation for her actions and just answered
“Chotti!”
With that, Charlotte couldn’t help but smile as she swept up the goblin princess into a tickly embrace and hurried to get Oscar. Or as Etta called him – Osky.
Filed under Read
year of the dragon – bring it on.
Guess what?! I got into school! As of this September I will be attending George Brown college for ASL and Deaf Studies, hooray! It all happened so fast. Like a lightening rod, one night me and a couple of friends were chatting about getting older, futures, maintaining our sanity…somehow the topic of me as an ASL interpreter came up and both of my friends (bless their hearts) both exclaimed “YES! Why haven’t we thought of this before, you would be so good at that!” well I didn’t waste anytime, got my application in and the rest is history.
I am connected to a wonderful, sexy, vibrant crip (disabled) community. It has embraced me throughout my journey with fibromyalgia and the fall out of that reality. So I am around ASL frequently, and particular, a certain interpreter who changed what I knew of sign language. She is charismatic, emotive, earnest and expressive. Whenever I have seen her interpret I have been moved and find myself watching her as much as the performance, lecture etc.
Within the interpreter community, there is definitely a slightly homogeneous demographic. I come to ASL as both an interested and committed student as well as a queer woman of colour and activist. I have found it so grounding when I am at an event and the people in the room represent where I am coming from. Black. Homo. Disabled. There are so many other bits to me of course 😉 but it can feel less alienating when you look around and aren’t the sore thumb.
Little Dragons
With that out of the way and a direction beginning soon, I have a teeny tiny bit less stress and am overflowing with creative ideas.
I have recently started three new sewing projects: quilted zine library and computer sleeve, and a patchwork table-cloth. I don’t have images yet but that is my next step. (I am writing on an aging, grey haired laptop)
Samples and in-progress shots to come.
As you might have read, things have been really tough lately. Pretty much the last three years have been struggle in terms of my health and happiness. But something has shifted. I don’t know if it is the stars, the earth shifting or what. I have been feeling a little better (mentally) and am finally getting close to getting help with the pain problem. I am excited to create, still having some writer’s block but hoping it will break!
I feel like life could actually be possible…in this moment anyway.
xo
ps – we also got a new foster dog who I am falling in love with. you can read about him on my dog blog http://blackgirlbigdog.blogspot.com/
no more writer woe
as you might have notices, I am not the most frequent blogger. all of the intention I had when I first started to do consistent postings about meaningful and thoughtful musings began to stagnate when I began to worry about the quality of my writing. Was I getting to personal? I have been in a stank of a depression for a few months now which wasn’t helping the confidence levels. Most of what I have been writing here and there has been kind of downer. But, as some wonderful friends’ and writers have shown me – you’ve just got to write.
So sad some of them may be, look forward to more…and if you are reading this – maybe give me a little loving that you might want to read more? xo
Filed under About Me
Opposite Hibernating
So as you can see I’ve been a wee absent for a while. Despite the fact that the temperatures are dropping and the sun goes down at 4pm – I feel like over the last few weeks I have been re-emerging from my spring/summer visit to hermit-town. I am not hosting any galas or singing from hilltops but I have been slowly nudging myself out the door a lot more.
And all sorts of things happened!
New Zine! Vacancies 2 is my third zine and the second of the series. The first was inspired by some adventures I’ve had with different apartments and different roommates in toronto. This one is more coming from all of the roadways, parks, grocery stores that got me from place to place. She’s all printed with love and ready to read! If you’re interested leave me an email at foldafittedsheet@gmail.com Technology willing, I will have it visible on here too.
I Got Published!
I had the honor of submitting to be a part of the Azolla Story’s entry into Makeshift magazine.
From my friend Mia Mingus who is one of the group of folk who got the ball rolling along with Stacey Milbern:
“The Azolla Stroy: an interdependent, queer, multi-racial, fierce community-movement-home for queer disabled people of color.
the azolla is a southeast asian plant used in growing rice. azolla plants carry the ability to grow quickly, suppress weeds, and give nutrients to other plants in a symbiotic fashion. the azolla has millions of small, overlapping leaves and lives on the surface of water with its roots hanging under the surface.
we, as disabled queer people of color, are the azolla. we are everywhere. we have the power to grow and build community (the azolla can double its biomass in 2 days!) we are beautiful. we give nutrient to those around us but either are invisilbe or called weeds. although we sustain community, the focus is never on us. this space aims at changing that.
<3<3<3
I also got a piece printed in the fourth issue of the ‘zine When Language Runs Dry: A Zine for People with Chronic Illness and Their Allies #4. An awesome little publication that has saved my life more than once. Check it out where you get your zines or look for them on Etsy.
Craft Room!
ok so maybe this is only big news to me but, our roommate moved into a bigger apartment and afterwards I turned his room in teeny office/craft room/music room with a futon for guests. and I mean TEENY! My roommate never opened his door so I hadn’t seen it since we first moved in and no wonder he had to relocate! He had tons of stuff and a queen size bed (jealous). A lot of careful planning and moving around has made it a nice little nook where I am writing this minute.
Reading!
I was invited to read at this hot gay mess of an event called Greasy Spooning organized by the collective of the same name. And it was SO.MUCH.FUN. It had been a while since I had last read and a lot of confidence-cracking things had happened between then and now. But my friend Sarah, one of the coordinators, convinced me and then cheerled me the whole way to the microphone. And I am very glad she did, thanks Sarah!
The night had about 16 performers in all and, lucky me I got to meet so many new kickass artists and friends. Queers I had never seen before filled the lineup and the open-mic spots and it was absolutely thrilling to see so much talent in one room.
* I started writing this three weeks ago but didn’t post it. Here it is and I am bursting to write more.* xo
Fold a Fitted Sheet 