volume one hundred and four

noticing: a list

📍Written two days later than planned because this Barbie gets intense SAD and Monday and Tuesday saw a sudden and drastic drop in temperature and the arrival of rain.

---

🎤 Upcoming shows:

Just Kidding Comedy, Fable Diner & Bar, August 3rd

Too Funny Stand Up, The Show Cellar, August 15th

🌈 LIVE PODCAST RECORDING of My Dad Stole My Limelight at Vancouver Pride Festival!

---

Even though this is being written late (by my schedule) and I felt for two days like I may never write again (seriously, that is the intensity SAD takes me over with), I am ever so thankful for the always wonderful

Maggy Navin (Regarding Dew)

who is the queen of all writing prompts. In her recent FieldTrip, she invited us to write on: What are you noticing? 

• The Vancouver Burrard Street Station’s underground level smells exactly like a restaurant I used to work at, which is odd. But it makes me crave my go-to order of a veggie burger with no onion, adding mushrooms and a side of fries with white vinegar.

• The instant change in me — that I didn't notice instantly — when the sun reappeared. On Tuesday afternoon around 4:30pm I clued into the fact that I had put music on for the first time in two days, and I was singing. For two days background music even felt too much, singing was out of the question and yet here I was, without even thinking about doing it, singing along with Todd Rundgren.

• My fear of crows is almost non-existent when I am wearing a cap.

• I don’t notice anniversaries like I used to. I used to countdown, plan celebrations, and tell everyone. This week my 8 years in Canada arrived and I only knew because my calendar told me.

• On the nights that I get to see the moon, I sleep better.

• The toddler who lives across from me (with their family, not a toddler that lives alone) is starting to sleep later. I am awake for longer before her attempted words fill the air between our opposite two-story windows.

• The largest popcorn at the movie theatre is too much but the next size down is not enough.

---

Subscribe for FREE just by typing in your email, there is no need to make an account.

---

• It is amazing how put together I can feel if I just add one more necklace to my throat. 6 is my record so far.

• I get bored on my Digital Sabbath Sundays and it is the best. The boredom doesn’t last but it exists because I do not have an email or a text or an app to distract me. Instead, I get to fill that time with delightful things like reading an entire book in a day like I used to when I was a child.

• I am getting better at saying no, when yes used to be my go-to answer for any request. The world is still spinning, who knew?

• I do not own any pink clothes. (This was noticed while finding an outfit to wear to watch Barbie).

• I play with my earrings a lot and I think… I think my earlobes are getting longer because of that.

• Why do men use the decorative bar of soap when there is a pump bottle of liquid soap right there?

• I am back to being a two-coffee-a-day person and I don’t think I ever stopped, I just stopped thinking about how I felt during the day and how I could change that.

• The more things I let go of and donate and gift and throw away, the more things are easier to live without.

• A good pair of sunglasses will fool people into thinking you are a lot cooler than you are. They make a statement in the laziest way and I am here for it.

• One of my (both night owl) roommates doesn’t ever empty the strainer in the sink that is there to catch food so each morning while the kettle boils I clean out the sink and wipe down the stovetop and it has become a part of my morning ritual.

• I haven’t worn my cowgirl hat once this summer and that needs to change.

• I can tell how long it has been since I had a sip of water based on how pink the water is because I put strawberries in it to try and make me drink more water.

• Reading my old journals is very much giving me the realisation that I for a very long time had a shadow career.

Lovely reader, what are you noticing?

---

I’m so grateful to those who read my substack 🧡 because I really love creating it for you. This substack will always be free, however, should you choose to become a monthly paid subscriber of this reader-supported publication, you’d be putting a little tip in my pocket as thanks for the work I put into every post.

 🧡🧡🧡 Comments, likes, the chat, shares, listening to my podcast and kind messages are all other ways you can support me, too.

---

here are three things I struggled with this week:

🌧️ Seasonal Affective Disorder.

🛞 Burn out, being very busy, getting ready for another big shift. All very exciting, all very time-consuming.

🌪️ A jaw that refuses to not be clenched (cannot confirm if this happens when I sleep but I would not be surprised).

here are three blessings from this week:

💋 Barbie with my bestie.

💒 The absolute honour that is being invited to someone’s wedding.

🕯️ White sage incense sticks.

here are three goals for the coming week:

🪂 Allow that air to flow and find gaps in the schedule: The Never-Ending Battle. But know it is all temporary as I prepare for the next exciting adventure.

🍓 Not let my water get so pink.

🌲Plan the remaining 3 “I want to do these in Vancouver before I leave” activities.

here is something I enjoyed this week: 

I revisited this poem with a friend this week and it is just… perfect.

pics or it didn’t happen:

in an attempt to embrace the weather from earlier this week, I went outside

I love you. Now I am off to listen to Boygenius on repeat as I am very lucky to be volunteering at their concert tonight (Friday) and have never listened to their music. How could I with my multiple playlists from the 60s, 70s and 80s on repeat? I am an ashamed little queer, I am sorry. Tell me your fav songs!

LD

xoxo

🧡 get to know me a bit more over here