Quick September Summary

It seems impossible that I have reached the end of my first month of real retirement. Not only did it pass disturbingly quickly but it was also a bit of a chilly vacuum. Most of that feeling springs from a kind of decompression that was necessary for me to go through in order to even begin to feel retired. And to the lousy weather that we have had this particular September - really more like November or mid-October at best. Still and all, it was also a busy month when I did have things to do, and often a lot of fun. Here is a brief run-down:

The month began with the Burlinton Rib Fest, chilly weather and a lot of rain. We skipped our usual Saturday outing as did the friends that have attended with us for years. That gave me extra time to prep the pulled pork and peach pies for the neighborhood Contra Rib Fest on the Sunday. Lots of people came and we made it through the feast on the Penney's front lawn before getting rained out with an evening downpour. Even that didn't put a damper on the event as people retreated to a number of porches and open garages. We hung out until the night chill and the mosquitoes drove us home. Monday afternoon was clear enough that we met a few friends for beer and cider down at the Rib Fest where we listened to Jack de Keyser's Blues Band.

I also registered my younger granddaughter for Modern (Limon) class at the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre (CCDT) formerly the Canadian Children's Dance Ensemble. They've been around for 30 years so they have grown and are wonderfully professional. Thus I have begun my weekly pilgrimage to TO to lunch with my mom and to take my granddaughter to her class. We have established a routine: on our way she has a 6-inch plain Italian Subway sandwich, vegetarian with extra cheese, lettuce, cucumber and green peppers with a bit of salt and pepper and no sauce (not bad at all for a seven year-old!), chocolate milk and two cookie combo. If she needs something after class, there is a gelato place close-by. We have tried cabs and streetcar, but really, the fastest route is my car via the Gardiner and Parliament. So
as much as I love GOing and TTC, I may drive on Thursdays, especially in inclement weather. The timing is right for quick highway traffic and there is parking right in front. She is loving it and so am I.

During TIFF I was delighted to be taking in films with friends and sisters on school days. I saw seven films over three days: three on Monday, two on Tuesday and two on Friday. In order of seeing them with a brief review: 1) The Silver Cliff from Rio in Portuguese was good but did not have enough content in places - it would be better cut as a long short than as a feature; 2) Anonymous from England in English was fabulous, loved it; 3) Lena from The Netherlands in Dutch and Polish was excellent; 4) The Oranges from the US in English with fab cast was intriguing and hilarious, loved it too; 5) W.E. was Madonna's directorial debut about Wallace and Edward with excellent performances but something off about the pace of the story development which made it good but definitely not great; 6) Union Square from the US was a small budget indie starring Mira Sorvino and great little cast about the relationships between sisters and their families, excellent; 7) The Turin Horse from Hungary in Hungarian was not only a massive disappointment but quite possibly the worst film I have ever seen at TIFF, excruciatingly devoid of any story even though the programmer described the director as the maestro of storytelling, soundtrack like nails on a blackboard and we finally walked out after two hours and twenty minutes, something I never do. I love TIFF and finally became a member. Got a lovely mag in the mail with interesting film articles and a program of events giving me a list of too many things that I would love to do from the Grace Kelly exhibit to her movies to Hitchcock's films.

Since TIFF I haven't done much. I spend a lot of time with my feet up, TV on, playing solitaire. This is my way of decompressing. The miserable weather kept my gardening efforts to a minimum, but I did manage to harvest tomatoes enough for a batch of a secret family recipe for Tomato Marmalade. My grandmother and my mother made it every year. It has its own unique delicious taste. Mom was delighted to get a little jar. I also saw more of my sisters than I ever have in one month. I stayed with Jean a few nights, went to TIFF with Jean and Mary, visited Helen's new digs - I'll see Margaret at Thanksgiving and Evelyn the week after. Yay for sisters! We also started a new tradition of rotating family dinners, just the immediate family, with the first delicious one at Erin's. Our Victoria branch keeps in touch via phone and fb. Yay for family! My new freedom has also allowed for more time with friends: TIFF with Sandy, Val and Mavis and chats with Aileen and other neighbours. I even canvassed half the street for The Arthritis Society (something I put off to the last moment making it clear that this is not a task for me). And perhaps the most important bit, I tied off the tiny frays of the loose ends from work, completing and submitting long overdue reports. This gave me an excuse to drop into CALC and say hi to a bunch of folks there, and to enjoy Private Lives at the Royal Alex with Pam, a colleague, without any school pressure hanging over my head.

I bid September good-bye with new colour and cut at Atelier, and a pedi at Salon Soleil. When it turned out that my appointment for a free Tango trial at Blueheel Dance Studio had been double booked, I was disappointed but rebooked for early October. A whole new month stretches ahead, with fewer items on the calendar and adventures waiting to unfold.

Dancing Granddaughters

What greater joy for an arthritic old dancer grandmother than to have both granddaughters taking dance classes. One is thirteen, taking 5 classes a week, mostly ballet, way out on the west coast. I don't get to see her much but she reported today that she was so happy to be back in dance regardless of the aching legs she has after that first September class. How well do I remember that feeling - the agony of descending the stairs at school the morning after the first class, thighs afire. It is definitely good pain, though. You know you are alive and have once again connected with the ecstasy of dance. I can't wait to see the DVD of this years concert.

Closer to home, it was my great pleasure today to accompany granddaughter number 2 to her first modern dance class. I have enrolled her in Modern 1 at Canadian Children's Dance Theatre School so I know that the technique and teaching will be exemplary. It is the first indulgence of my retirement after going to TIFF on school days. I will come to town each Thursday to take her across town to the school and bring her home afterwards. The 30-40 minute trip each way will give us a chance to have a good visit. It was a bit of a gamble, since she wanted to take 'pop' dancing which I interpreted as the 'popping' done during hip hop. Too young for those classes. So I told her that Limon technique was very beautiful, with a lot of circular motion, fall and recover, suspend and release - kind of like a pendulum. Needn't have worried - she loved it and we had a good time on our travels. She will be ready to go back again next Thursday. I am so proud of my granddaughters and happy that we have dance in common.

No Back to School for Me

Yesterday everyone went back to school. I did not. In fact, I slept in until 10:20 and after groggily making a cup of coffee, I sat and watched the last half hour of the Marilyn Denis Show. Then I watched Murdoch Mysteries and played solitaire until noon. I managed to get showered and dressed and was finally beginning to consider my To Do list by mid-afternoon. First: call the Canadian Children's Dance Theatre to find out how I can enrol my granddaughter for a class. Second: visit a neighbour to pick out a few films for our first day at TIFF next Monday. Hmmm. Dinner time. Cooked so much for the neighbourhood contra-ribfest that I really didn't feel like preparing food. At all. I put some potatoes on to boil and raced up to Longos for a BBQ chicken. We had it with the new potatoes, leftover green and yellow beans from the garden, leftover marinated salad and the last of the pies I had baked for the fest. The leftover pulled pork will do for tonight. Later, having tea in front of the TV, I got out my iPad and logged onto TIFF. I found out that, although I can buy up to 4 tickets per film on-line, most of those we chose are Off Sale. But if we get tickets for one of the evening performances, we can work backward from there and will probably end up at the box office taking our chances that morning. Checking my gmail, I was sad to learn that the Edible Arrangement I had sent to CALC for the Ed-Vance staff meeting had not arrived on time. It was waiting for the principal afterwards. That shop will hear about this from me. I did want to send a tasty little greeting to the staff to wish them a good year. Just so happy that I did not have to be there and could simply laze the day away.