Need some distraction from the DIY detox recovery. Have some MMVA. (lots of pix & linx and things)

It's taken me four days to write this.  It's almost Friday and you know we like some Johnny on a Friday.

Ahhh.  Okay.

So folks, although I'm still spending my time sweating it all out and sleeping it off, I'm slowly getting better.  I'm feeling better enough to start getting impatient.  I'm starting to look forward to living again.  Hey.  Did you know I used to actually go outside?  As soon as everything's less loud and shocky I intend to be out there again.

But hey! I can now look at a computer or read for a while before my eyeballs get all prickly.  Can't watch TV yet.  Tried to watch So Ya Think Ya Dance Good Do Ya and wow.  Flashy!  Shocky!  Ow!! SO happy I can read and type without getting all shocky and shooty, because while I was lying here in a dark room clenching my jaw in agony I occupied my mind by inventing stories and now, I gotta write 'em all down!!!!

I didn't watch the MMVAs on Sunday night.  I stopped caring.  It was my second time  I'd left the house in almost three weeks and I was worn out.  I didn't want to look at anything by evening.  That's what INTERMITTENT NET is for.  Why don't I just do a little commentary on a show I didn't watch, I mean, why not, chances are good you didn't watch it either?!

PICTURES: They came from the MuchMusic website, a couple of Canadian national newspaper sites, and my favourite - GO FUG YOURSELF.  In fact for a complete and funny commentary just go read Heather's take on it.  I snickered.  She totally did the Carpet-and-drapes joke I was gonna make.

First, I'd like to start with something I should just make a regular feature here at Hick Chic called DANGIT AVRIL!  Gah.  I tried to be all disdainful of the gum-chewing wise-cracking punk princess pink hair thing.  (Yeah the pink hair thing was totally my idea first.) I'm kind of neutral about her music but I give her credit for writing it herself, being able to play guitar and for **singing live** so basically what I'm saying is,

DANGIT AVRIL you won me over again, again.

SHE'S JUST SO DARN CUTE!

How can I stay irritated with that smile?  

I am irritated with one of the intermittent net news sites which claimed that Avril arrived in a lime green Camaro SS.  FOREHEAD SLAP.  First of all, I don't know where this is called lime.  This is classic Generous Motors Early 70s Slime green.  Duh!

Second, THAT IS NOT A CAMARO.  Duh much?  Clearly by the shape of the door and quarter window it is a Chevelle or Malibu.   Isn't it obvious by the double headlights that this is a Chevelle?  Did the Camaro have double headlights in the early 70s?  No it did not.  Just duh.  Non-car people should CHECK THEIR FACTS.  So frustrating!

See now my eyeballs really hurt.  Break time.

Okay I'm back.

Sadly, Avril's outfit is also visually uncomfortable.

Dangit, Avril!

So the host of this little shindig was a totally adorable young lady who I have only heard of because she's got this boyfriend who grew up around my neck of the woods meaning that even more than the rest of the planet there is no escaping the Biebs out here in farm country I'm not even kidding.

 I'm not up on what her thing is or if she's good at the thing she does.  I just know she's really cute...

...and because I am the mother of a 17 year old girl, I want ask this 18 year old girl, "Have you been eating well sweetie?  Are you getting enough sleep?"  Especially since it was all over the news that she'd been hospitalized the week before.  Well no wonder, the way she's been zigzagging all over North America.  The noise in Stratford alone a couple weeks ago would be enough to bust her head.

Anyways, Famous Boyfriend was supposedly not going to be there.  Yeah right.

This picture cracks me up.  He's all, Dude! Check out the hot chick with the high-waisted jeans on my T shirt!  It's VINTAGE! She's gotta be like, THIRTY-FIVE or something now!!!  Yeah baby!

Is that Tiffani Theissen?  I always wondered if she was of the Manitoba Mennonite Thiessens.  

But whatevs, Biebs.  I was onto that like, thirty years ago.  When your mom was a baby.  Cuz Dude, I had A SHAUN CASSIDY T SHIRT.  

It was just like that but in royal blue and I think my auntie gave it to me.  I know she gave me the Hooked On Horses T shirt.  Anyways, my Shaun Cassidy shirt totally erases his shirt.  Just does.  

This picture of The Gombiebs makes me snicker.  Look at the little horndog's face.  Oh yeah, just lean over juuuuust like that, in your dangerous little halter top, uh huh.  Teenage boys are so sneaky that way.   Yeah it's normal and all, but watch where ya put that hand there, hotshot.

Well I do think they're a nice little couple.  In their line of work they can understand each other. 

And I'd keep going if I could turn this computer screen down a little but it won't go any dimmer so it's time for another eyeball break.  

Aaaand I'm back.  At least I can type now without electric shocks going up and down my arms!!!

Enough sugar coating.  TIME TO ROCK.

BILLY TALENT.

 I love these guys.  

Tell me, worldwide friends, are you aware of this band?  If not, go check them out !  We've seen them live a couple times and man, what a show!  They are a scream and a half live!!!   

Love the tunes, love the playing, love the lyrics.  

And by the way, Billy Talent is the BAND.  The frantically hot little front man is not Billy.  Billy Talent is a band not a guy. Very good band with four very good guys.

I got distracted looking up their videos ("Surrender" is a particularly good one). And now I need another eyeball break.

Okay it's tomorrow morning now.  I'm back in bed to sleep it off and sweat it out and YAY my nice dim screen isn't as hurty as it was yesterday!

More rock star.  City and Colour.  Dallas Green is like a hero to me.  In our family we have a habit of listening to his music, whether it's this band or Alexisonfire, and sighing, "That man has got the voice of an angel."  And a great songwriter too. Honestly I think he's a national treasure. 

I really wish I would have said HI (or something less dumb or anything) to him when we were in the same elevator in 2007.  But I was talking with a friend so I just settled for a weird eye thing that kind of went like, "Um I totally know who you are and I think you're awesome but I'm talking to my friend right now so instead I'm shooting admiration vibes at you" and "I'm not sure if I should know you but I might have seen you before? and the skulls on your dress are kinda neat."

I'd heard that Johnny Galecki would be there.  The Big Bang Theory is the #1 show in Canada so it makes sense that he'd show up. But it was he himself, not Dr Leonard Hofstadter.  But y'know, I kind of think he looks a little bit like Keanu in this picture.  Kinda cute.  And I love Leonard.  

Not sure what's going on here but the girls behind him don't really care cuz he's not Gombiebs.

Also in attendance: Colin Farrell.  He always looks slightly perplexed.  I think it's those terribly expressive eyebrows.  

Apparently he's in town shooting a movie.  He looks like he just woke up on a red carpet but it's a music thing not an acting thing and he's not sure if he should be okay with it or sneak out the back when nobody's looking.  One of the news sites reporting that when asked, he couldn't name a Canadian band.  If this is true, what?!  It's not so hard... Canada is basically a big Musician Farm.  Entertainment is our big import.  Second biggest city in Canada is Los Angeles.  Come on, can't name a Canadian band?  What about mono-monikered divas?  This isn't so hard!

But Colin looks good in denim and I'm shallow that way about dudes, so, okay.

Worn out.  Nap time.  

It's today afternoon now.  Here I am.  

So.  Gaga.  

It must be said... this time out she really, really shocked me.  SHE WORE STUFF THAT RESEMBLED CLOTHES AND SHE WAS COVERED.  Mostly.

Also she wore a suit of black feathers.  Cool!!!!

I might have to start a new feature called DARNIT GAGA.

For now, let's do something I call WHAT THE HECK DOES SHE ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE?!

She was up to her usual shenanigans when she showed up the day before for soundcheck looking like THIS. (for soundcheck.  The one time you'd get to show up in track pants.) (but this is an outdoor gig and y'know... there could be cameras, so...).  

We expect this kind of crap by now.  Big giant Whatevs.  Except for two things.  One, as I am a big advocate for Backside Pride, I gotta point out that her bottom appears to be rather upright.  And two, without the stupid get-up I might not have recognized her, because I think she kinda looks like Dita Von Teese.

Anybody else see it?  But I doubt either of them look like that on couch-magnet-TV night.

I've seen this pattern on splint boots at the local tack shop.  Guaranteed to look good an any horse.  

Come to think of it, that pattern might be a little too busy on a spotted Appaloosa.  Or attention-grabbing diva.

The wig trunk alone must have been huge just for this gig.  She had to have at least three.  

Just to make sure we don't forget who she is, Gaga pulled a little strip show which launched thousands of carpet and drapes jokes.  

I know - EW.  But also,  HAHAHA!  We are so freaked out by body hair!  Even fake stuff!  Hahaha! And also, Ew!

She reminds me here of a combination of Madonna and Alanis Morrisette at the Junos a few years back with the bathrobe & bodysuit stunt.

"We are living in an surreal-ial world..."

haha.

That wig is fantastic.  I want one in pink.  

Seriously.  WHAT THE HECK DOES SHE REALLY LOOK LIKE?????  

Man, I would rather not devote this much time to her - it's like rewarding a tantrum-throwing child in a store by getting all flustered and making an even bigger public spectacle then buying the kid the junkfoodtoything just to make the noise stop - but hey, she really worked for it. She puts effort into grabbing all the publicity she possibly can.

However she exhausts me on a good day.

Break time.

Okay. I didn't sleep but I closed my eyes.  It was nice.

I made the most wonderful discovery as I looked for pictures and news from the event... I saw a picture of four delightfully curly haired denim wearing bearded hoser dudes and thought, heh, I'd invite them over to play a show on my hay wagon.  (I mean as in, the hay wagon is the stage.  For those Imaginary Gigs I can throw now that I have a hay wagon.  Didn't mean it as a desperate and vague euphemism okay!)  The caption simply said, "The Sheepdogs."

Well, I says to myself, any band calling themselves the Sheepdogs has to be okay.  And nothing bad ever came out of Saskatchewan right?

Being pretty much holed up in my bedroom, I have time to do some digging around.  I searched the name thinking, "please be awesome, please be awesome! Don't lame out and disappoint me!  Please be awesome!"



HOLY CRAP I THINK I JUST FOUND MY NEW FAVOURITE BAND!  

This is what I thought  Kings Of Leon would sound like when I first saw their picture.  These guys aren't pin-up purty, but they have something better ....THREE PART HARMONY!  Southern Rock from the Great White Prairies?  Oh heck yes!!!

How did this get past me???  These guys have been doing this thing for at least four years... (we were IN SASKATOON four years ago for a big music event...) and here they're in a contest to be on the cover of Rolling Stone?!?!  What the heck - I was only knocked out on anti-depressant withdrawal for like, three weeks?!!!  I almost didn't catch this????


Once I can actually do a whole blog post without taking naps or shaking, I'll tell you all about another cool discovery I made before things went totally sideways here.  It involves Finnish trolls and Bob Dylan!

And I'm spent.  I need a drink of water and then I need to like, write a whole novel.  Nothing like an easy slow recovery eh?  Ha. 

Can't believe the Internet goes down and I lose my mind.

Seriously, ten years ago I barely knew how to turn on a computer and now I've spent two days wailing and moaning and because I can't get internet.  I can't believe how weird this is.

Also the whole process to post pictures looks different on my screen and stuff like that weirds me out too.

Tomorrow I'm going to write about rock stars.

The (MISSING) Hick Chic Guide to Raspberry Patch Maintenance

...I'm sorry. Blogger just ate it. Pictures and words and everything. I have to go do stuff now and I just don't have the heart- or time- to write it all over again!!! IF you want to see it bad enough, I'll try again some day this week but geez...that's an hour of my life I'll never get back! Gahhhhhhhhh!

A Beautiful Day Full of Sunshine and Words and History

A little over a week ago, I traveled to the pretty little town of Sharon Ontario (all on back roads of course, with my highway avoidance thing) to attend the Words Alive Festival. It was the first annual, and judging by the turnout, we'll be there again next year. The weather was perfect, and the setting...was just unbelievable. (I took lots more pictures but Blogger thinks I've spent too much time loading photos today!)


This is the Sharon Temple.


(North side, first side seen from the entrance to the grounds.)


(South side)

It really is an incredible building. I do think these pictures are magnificent, but I want you to imagine being in there. The air was cool, the sunlight spilled in through all those tall windows, and every sound reverberated around those high ceilings and bounced off the wood surfaces. I need to go back there someday for one of their famous musical performances.




It was built in the early 1800s by a group of idealist optimistic pacifists! Well being Mennonite I can relate, sort of. The Children of Peace built their temple, planned to change the world, but were derailed by the late 1800s by disagreements among their ranks. Which in a way is the same sort of explanation as to why there are about fifteen different kinds of Mennonites in North America. Instead of splitting into Conservative Children of Peace, Old Order Children of Peace, Reform Children of Peace and Brethren of Children of Peace, they just...walked away. This gorgeous building was surrounded by grazing cattle by 1917. In the 30s a Historical Society was formed to restore and care for the property. It's a couple acres of history and this is the first time I'd actually been on the grounds, exploring everything and soaking it in.

For more information go to the website!

I attended an author reading in this amazing little house, which was built by an early settler and moved here a few years ago.



I loved this house. I wish I'd gotten a shot of the main room downstairs. The fireplace dominated the room and there were hooks everywhere to hang stuff off of, you know, like your oregano drying, and your laundry. The guest Author and I, and two teenage girls, checked out the whole house and groaned about how much we loved it and that we'd live in it right now.



As long as we could get wireless internet in it. We'd all use candles and lamps but darnit we need our internet. Kinda sad but that's how it is now.

Seriously I loved this house.

And I loved the author too. Gale Zoe Garnett. What an interesting woman. She has been an actor and a musician before throwing herself into writing. I'm reading one of her books right now! VISIBLE AMAZEMENT is proving to be gripping and enjoyable. She started the book I'm reading now because the character popped into her head and demanded her story be told. Wow...do I know how that feels!!

I also attended a workshop by Molly O'Keefe. She spoke to us about the process of getting published and the myths of all the riches earned from writing! I got a copy of one of her books, UNDERCOVER PROTECTOR, and I gobbled it up in two days. I could not put that book down! I'll tell ya, it's not your grandma's romance novel! Molly is enthusiastic and fun, and I appreciated the time she gave me afterwards, answering my many questions!

I spent some time inside the temple too, listening to Barry Dempster on inspiration, and training the Muse. Yes, training the Muse! You really can't sit around waiting for your Muse if you're going to do this writing thing.

Not hard to be inspired in a setting like this...

I stood underneath the stairwell to the second floor, called Jacob's Ladder, to take this picture.


Then I moved over and took a picture from the side. Apparently, musicians in the old days used to lug their brass instruments up the ladder!




Looking up from the centre. Just wow.

Yes it's easy to be inspired here, and I was, and I still am almost two weeks later! The trick is to take it home with you. Every day. Even when you don't feel like it. That's what I've been doing for the last year...along with training for that riding lesson gig I'm aiming for. Sometimes my goals seem so far off and so sketchy. But it's all there.

I'm going to live on 50 acres in the future, and I'm going to look out my window at my horses while I'm sorting out words in my head, with my fingers on the keys. I'm going to build a cabin in the bush.




I'm already thinking forward to next year's Words Alive Festival.

Moving Manure, and other kinds of piles...

So on Saturday afternoon, I was on my Dad's tractor, taking the manure pile apart and taking it over to the compost pile, one bucket load at at time.



Today, I'm on my butt, moving links and other people's blogs over to this new template, one website address at a time.

Holy crap, I would rather be on the tractor.




It was so easy and so therapeutic. I got better at handling the hydraulic bucket every time I took another chunk outta that pile. I could see progress as the pile got smaller and the compost pile got bigger. I was getting back into the hang of shifting the tractor without chattering the gears.

But this...this Blogger thing...it's infuriating! I can't find where all my links went! They said they'd save a copy of my old template but I don't know where it is!! I feel like crying, I'm so frustrated! I'm sure I'll like this LAYOUT better than the old TEMPLATE once I get it all together, but you see, I fear change. And, I'm not very good at guessing where things should go or what to do next.

Driving the tractor though...well after a few minutes I felt like I always knew how to do it.


I started driving this tractor and the AR when I was about ten years old. I don't get many chances to get on it anymore. But I love it. Some people say you never forget how to ride a bike but not me- I haven't forgotten how to drive a tractor.

The bucket thing was new though.

I have a clue how to blog. But this layout/template thing is new.


I guess all of this comes down to the same thing: moving s**t around.

Both feel like a monumental time suck.

Both take a learning curve.

Both stink.

It was so hot that day I had sweat dripping down the sides of my face. When the rain started I kept going. I don't want to keep going with this because it isn't fun but I have to fix it up. I have many other things I'd rather do today but dammit the pile's gotta get moved. It ain't gonna move itself.

(My Photographer took these pictures from the upstairs bedroom window because she didn't want to melt in the rain.)


(Please remind me what your blog address is if it's not up in the list yet. I'm going on memory here and well, my memory's just not very good.)

(And please feel free to tell my how awesome I look in my thrift store overalls and my new John Deere hat. I need the cheering up!)

A pictureless Friday...sad little me...

Well kids, there won't be pictures today, and I'm really sorry about that because I enjoy them as much as you do. Maybe more. Today we'll have to use our imaginations. You do have an imagination, right?

Finally the world is coloured, bright tulips against a backdrop of vivid green, but the gloom I fight with every spring lingers. It will pass, it always does. I’m doing my best to accept it and get on with it but man, there are times when I just have to get a little shot of Cheer Up.

(This is where I would have put a photo of Johnny Depp with a white horse...if Blogger was co-operating today.)
Works every time. Doesn’t last long enough but then I just have to go back for another hit.

Excellent temporary relief!

(Here I planned to post a photo of Johnny wearing a blue plaid shirt in an extremely opulent room with heavy curtains and old furniture...which in my mind is actually the library of my large palatial victorian farmhouse. Eh?)

Look at this: the street that T-bones ours is undergoing a massive reconstruction. Right now I couldn’t care less about how much this work is needed- all I know is, my damn house is vibrating! I’m the second house in from the corner. I’m not happy. Two years ago the same crap was going on in my own yard. I still haven’t recovered entirely from the Construction Project That I’m Not Yet Ready to Talk About.

My ten year old Boy, however, is thrilled because there’s an industrial John Deere parked in view of our front window. I gotta say, I can’t help but look at that thing and think what a nice machine it would be for moving the manure pile every spring. Ohhhh yeah. (This is where I would have posted the picture I took last night of the heavy equipment lurking on the street corner, right beside the Porta-Pot.) Also, my Boy thinks it’s completely awesome that there’s a Porta-Pot on the street corner. The other night he went out for a bike ride with his Walkie-Talkie and beeped me that he had to go real bad and wanted to just duck into the Porta-Pot before biking home. I told him to just get home.

On Monday there was a white car parked in front of our house. At quittin time, a young fella got out of the passenger side of a construction company pickup truck. He walked over and popped open the trunk of his little white Pontiac. He was tall, slender, and had skin the colour of dark chocolate. He set his lunch box into the trunk, then got out a towel and vigorously wiped his hands. He rubbed the towel over his arms and neck before bringing out a pair of running shoes and setting them on the gravel behind the car.

I decided to see where this all went. He bent over to untie his work boots, pulled them off, socks too, and set his bare feet on top of his shoes. The boots, socks stuffed into them, went into the trunk.

Then he unbuttoned his pants. (Ha ha, I don't have pictures of this!!!! Sorry!!!! Although his car is in front of my house again...but of course Blogger is not co-operating...) Sure enough, the young fella stripped off his dirty jeans, and again carefully stood on top of his shoes. He was standing there in his boxers as he reached into the trunk for his nice clean denim shorts. When they were on his body, he stepped into his shoes.

Next he pulled his dusty T shirt over his head and replaced it with a clean red T shirt. He appeared to do a bit of rearranging in the trunk and then closed it up, unlocked the doors, and got into his perfectly clean white car.

Fascinating. That boy’s mama sure raised him right. He’s not even getting into his nice new car with his dirty clothes on. He changed his clothes on the side of the street instead.

Had to think of myself and how much I’ve fallen! Growing up on a farm meant never wearing your barn clothes anywhere other than the barn. Now that I live in town and have discovered a barn whose owner needs a helping hand, I get into my truck in dirty clothes at least twice a week! I even often park my barn boots- gasp- inside the front door of my house!

If the barn was in my backyard I’d never bring my barn boots into the house. But here, I admit, it’s kind of like a little poke at townie life. Ha. I have barn boots and I’m not afraid to use them.

So I’m not happy about this construction project ruining my life this summer. It’s going to go on until September. gahhhhh. I am going to get out of town. (I wanted to put up a photo of the little "steam roller" on the street. The Boy wants it. Real Bad. It does not operate on steam, so I don't know why we still want to call them steam rollers, but I guess "diesel roller" just doesn't sound as cool. In any case you don't get to see it so picture it with Wile E. Coyote on it if you must.)

A weekend in my natural habitat should cheer me up a little. Hopefully a lot. I want to ride our horses and visit our mothers and maybe even move a manure pile with a John Deere!!

But before I go, I’ll share with you some things I cheer myself up with when I’m not hanging around at my friend’s barn:

Tulips from my garden: (Trust me, they're lovely. They look really colourful against the grey dining room wall.)

Pictures of my horse: (Again, trust me...you will see him. Lots and lots more of him.)

My funny dog: (yeah there will be more pictures of him too!)

My extensive file of Johnny Depp pictures: (Because some of you are here mostly for the Johnny content, I know.)

I fully intend to be back in form next week. I’m planning on it. This week I’ve accepted that I’m feeling kind of low, but I know it won’t last. (Putting up new photos on Monday will cheer me up a little bit I'm sure.)

I want to write about the process of editing a novel, and about Mystery Ailment, and about the incredible fact that I am about to become the mother of a teenager. There’s even a possibility that I’ll bring you along on a riding lesson.

Have a great weekend and to my Canadian Friends-

HAPPY MAY 2-4!!!!