corner of my mind
above is the picture of the first house i lived in. we lived here until i was about five years old. i don’t remember anything about this house except for the floors creaked. i have other memories that i think are based in having seen photographs of the house and heard stories. like the story about how my brother threw an aerosol can in the fireplace one day. you can imagine how that turned out.
i also remember sitting on the roof of our blue station wagon and watching the activity of the street. my parents have pictures of me running up the windshield of the station wagon. they must have had a lot of confidence in my agility.
it is amazing how a physical place can trigger so many memories that have otherwise been lost. i saw the park to which my friends and i would ride our bikes and hang out. the old outdoor skating rinks (really? outdoors? whose idea was that?). the bowling alley that my mom would go to and i would hang out in the daycare in the bowling alley. the place where my brothers would get their hair cut and i would get a lollipop. it has been years since i thought of these things. it’s nice to be reliving them. finding those memories is helping this place feel less foreign and more like home.
back in the tundra
i’m back in winnipeg. this place is cold. seriously. friends who live south of the border…you don’t know cold. ok, maybe you milwaukee peeps and maybe you chicago peeps, but those of you in d.c. or even new york, you really don’t know cold. it is minus 11 right now as i write this. and the interwebs tell me that “it feels like” minus 37. and that’s farenheit people. the other night papasquared and i discussed how people must have settled here in the spring or summer. thinking it was nice, lots of space, moderate climate, rivers, farming land, they stayed. and then winter came. and there was no escaping. it was too cold to go anywhere and nothing close enough to escape to. thus, came winnipeg. yet, people have stayed. miraculously. and the population slowly continues to grow.
the job part of this adventure has kicked into overdrive. lots to do and learn before the touring starts next month. the babies seem to be doing really well. napping, eating, playing all like regular happy babies. it will be interesting to see how they adjust to life on the road. i’ve gained a new appreciation for all the detail involved in the band work. i’ve already started about three different checklists/spreadsheets in an effort to organize everything that feels so new to my brain.
sadly, an awesome mexican-american-canadian singer passed away last week. lhasa de sela. i first heard her at the winnipeg folk festival sometime around 1998. i was mesmerized and made sure to catch all her performances that weekend. i even remember being backstage with mamasquared and catching a glimpse of lhasa and swooning. we were the same age and she died of breast cancer. such a talent. such a loss. check out the clip above.
banjos and babies 