a funny thing happened on the way to the playa...

it's been waaaay too long since i last posted and since, so many huge things have happened, both personally and politically. so, let's start with the good.

my boyfriend and i got engaaaaged. it's lovely and crazy and beautiful and life has already turned into a world of party-planning, venue-booking & dress appointments. (oh, and pinterest. lots and lots of pinterest. *facepalm*)

in other news, it's almost impossible not to spend everyday watching the news in depression, shock & disbelief. today I wrote to my member of parliament urging Canada to increase the number of refugees accepted & act on the U.S. travel ban, not just tweet. here's an easy template from the Canadian Civil Liberties Union: https://ccla.org/contact-your-mp-re-us-travel-ban/

*exhale*

okay. also. here are things i'm loving these days:

Food: i'm on another fad health kick. this means lots of Oh she glows chia puddings & overnight oats & yolos & these coconut dark chocolate truffles. i figured i should reduce my sugar intake but somehow that has only resulted in me making lots of alternative desserts (which are really still desserts but what can you do).

Reading: i'm almost finished re:jane, a re-telling of Jane Eyre set in Flushing, Queen's around 9/11. soooo satisfying. other books I've read & loved recently have included Homegoing which i read as part of my new book club, the poems of leonard cohen & the hours, which i finally got around to reading after loving Virginia woolf & the movie for years.

Travel: in early January, my fiancé & i visited CUBA which is such a fascinating, beautiful country. we spent days wandering Havana & then horseback-riding in Trinidad, snorkelling the coral reef, taking sketchy rides in taxis from the 1950s where we understood only half of what was going on, eating cheese sandwiches & way too many guavas & hiking to waterfalls. (oh, and getting engaged, that happened...)

 

 

Music: the other night, my bestie, fiancé & i attended a bear's den concert at the phoenix, site of all my earliest concert going experiences in high school. their music is fun & beautiful & mellow. the stand-out song of the night was where they unplugged their amplification as the diligent toronto audience fiercely committed to staying quiet enough to hear them play and sing acoustically. despite my bias as a classical musician, i was amazed by how much more i enjoyed the music stripped of all its digital & sonic enhancements.

singing-wise, my favourite performance experiences lately have included singing this movement from a bach cantata at my church job:

& collaborating with my amazing guitarist friend on a gig for Robbie Burns day last friday night. it was our second time collaborating on this gig & we've enjoyed it so much that we're hoping to record a set of burns settings. here's a taste from a rehearsal.