Housekeeping!

So many little things collecting in my brain, and I haven’t set any of them down here. Time to remedy that! *Rolls in my trusted bulleted list.*

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  After a decade wondering what it would be like, I was on the radio. Not live radio, but radio all the same. In a studio, with a schmancy microphone. Sheryl MacKay interviewed me about Mighty Ugly for British Columbia CBC’s arts and culture show North by Northwest last weekend. It’s the first segment in the May 8th podcast, which you can download here, or here’s a direct link to the mp3.

• After six weeks wondering what it would be like, I held the very first Mighty Ugly workshop at Plush on Main last Monday. It was full, it was fun, and there’s video evidence of it here.
  • Speaking of, I’ve delved into previously barely-explored territory in using YouTube for Mighty Ugly. Till last week only a casual watcher of videos, I’ve now set up a channel for the project and embedded a playlist and everything. My early-adopter-o-meter is sitting perfectly still in the too-late zone, but whatever.
  • The next workshop at Plush is on Monday, 7th June. If you’re in Vancouver, you should sign up!
• I never wondered what this would be like, but that doesn’t diminish the pleasure I feel when I say, “I was profiled on MSN Money.” Uh. I swear I don’t mention stocks or refer to human beings as numbers. I’m actually very happy with how she (local journalist Kerry Gold) put the article together – Can You Make a Living by Blogging?
• I’ve been making stuff. Behold:
• Yesterday I ordered a Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner. With taxes, it cost nearly $800 CAD. Which is an obscene amount of money to spend when you’re on a pretty tight budget, on a household appliance that probably averages around $150 in price. But when I asked the Twitter, 9 times out of 10 people responded that we should get the Dyson. And not only that we should get it, but that we won’t regret getting it, and that it will work wonders on the little tufts of gift Cleo leaves all over our house, all year ’round. I’ll let you know if it changes our lives after we get it in a couple of weeks.
• Last week I drove a reader away with my clearly stated opinion about a writing style. I consider this to be indication I’ve crossed some sort of invisible threshold of blog success. I’d thank her, but she no longer reads the blog.
• I skipped book club last night because we’re in the final throes of our adoption application – compiling photos of ourselves and writing a letter to birth moms. The former is annoyingly narcissistic (“Does this photo portray us well as, you know, people?”) and the latter is downright uncomfortable. Not uncomfortable because the thought of conversing with a birth mom is uncomfortable, but rather because we have no idea who will read the letter. Writing one generic letter to be read by any number of women who have different personalities, different sets of values, and are approaching their adoption plan from completely different perspectives just strikes me as somewhat insulting to them. I’m doing my best to get over it and just perform this part of the process like a good prospective adoptive parent, but it’s hard not to want to reach through the paper to look the reader in the eyes and say, “I can’t imagine what you’re thinking and feeling as you read this, but I’m a human and you’re a human, and I respect you. For what it’s worth.”