sushi anyone?

*** EXTRA EXTRA!! new photos posted in my yahoo photo album!! check them out here or go to the right side margin of this blog page and click on "my photo album". ***


wow... it's been a while!! so sorry for the lack of entries, but I have been one busy woman! it's incredible how much one can pack into a day. I understand now when people say "there aren't enough hours in a day".

so I have a lot on my plate and everything's lookin tasty! where should I start?

well...

LOVE LIFE
I'm single. I've made many new friends and I've been reconnecting with pre-existing friends. it is so much easier to stay in touch with folks when there's no "significant other" in my life. I never realized how much time I didn't spend with those whom I love because of that one person who is supposed to be the be-all end-all of all... not that I'm saying anything bad about that particular significant other - I would never insinuate that it's his fault, I made my own choices - but I'm feeling like that whole phenomenon of ditching one's friend's for one's lover is so socially constructed and expected of us. like we can only have intimate relationships with one person at a time - and that relationship is most often between an anatomical male and an anatomical female. why? where is that written? it's not. it's just "the way things are". does that make it the right way? because it's always been? definitly not. and so I've been swimmin up river, it's quite the task! but it's so easy now and I feel like I could never go back to going with the flow. I sometimes wonder whether that means I'll never fall in love again, whether I'll never "settle down" with someone (not in the traditional sense of course, more in the sense of sharing my life with another individual). I just love spending time with the loves of my life and my loves are so many! I am getting to know my loves as an indivudual, seperate from anyone. they are getting to know me in the same way. it's so beautiful and I've never experienced this kind of interaction before. it's like I'm still travelling, yet in my own city. so whether I'll find someone with whom to share my life is irrelavent I guess... it is as it is and right now it is wonderful. I am doing many great things with my life and I am lucky to be surrounded with so many people who love and support me. that is what it is important to me right now. sharing my life with ALL my loves, not just one.

(but I will say this to my greatest love: "you are still the song I sing to myself when I'm alone..." I'll love you always.)

TRAVELLING WITHIN MY OWN COUNTRY
I have been loving this year!! I have had the oppertunity to travel to places such as: Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Vernon, Kelowna, Ottawa, Calgary, Slave Lake - North Country Fair, Athabasca - Long Lake, and most recently Jasper! and that's other than my worldly destinations!

I was just in Jasper this passed weekend, camping with an old college mathieu student, Ginette. my goddess it was gorgeous!! see pics here.

North Country Fair was an unforgettable experience... from an Oiler's/Pride parade our group organized (actually, kudoes to Kevin for that one!) where we stampeded through RV land and beyond, bagpipes, bongos, and a congregation of about 30-50 er so! to the amazing performances from folks all across north America (GO Fabulous Bee Feeders!!! playing july 21-22 at The Back Draught Pub!)... to just the awesome folks I met there. Unforgettable, that's what it was... ;-)

I'll be vollunteering at the Regina Folk Festival which is August 11, 12, and 13th. GREAT line up! including the likes of Ani FUCKING DiFranco, Utah Philippes, Feist, etc. I can't wait for that! I decided to do something comepletely different for my birthday this year and this is gonna be perfect. I can't wait to write about it! back stage access dudes!! wow...

from Regina, I'll be flying to Montreal to spend a few weeks with my family, just north of the city in St. Hyppolite... right on a lake, in the "mountains", warm august weather... nice!

and without further adue...

come one! come all!!!

FUTURE CAMBODIA FUND
an Awareness Night, July 27, '06
6pm until midnight



this is the event carly and I have been planning for months now and the ball is rolling at such a lovely speed! it's been quite an interesting ride planning this and setting it into motion. but once we did, it just started goin on its own, gaining its own momentum and we have just been going with it and what we're learning has just been such a trip!

the event has been the main priority, thoug we are still motivated to create FCF Canada. that's a bit of a longer process though, we are discovering. a lot of paperwork, a lot of legal mumbo jumbo and jargon. so we figured we should concentrate on:

1. raising awareness; connecting those who want to volunteer abroad with not only our NGO, but with safe, legit NGOs in Cambodia;

2. describing our major and minor projects to hopefuly spread our feelers out even further cuz you never know who that person is, who that person might know, and so on;

3.to give information on the country itself, we've created a time line - a brief history lesson - of the events leading up to this country's present state of poverty, remorse, and corruption... as well as its beautiful and rich culture (the sour as well as the sweet);

4. and to just meet folks and have the oppertunity to talk about what we have been so passionate about since having experienced so much in that wonderful country.

so... we have organized for Kiry - the President of the Cambodian Society here in Edmonton - to come out and answer anyquestions folks might have... we figured it would exactly be a Cambodia Awareness night if there were no Khmers present! there will be a photo auction; selected photos by a co-worker of mine, Maylene, who's father would spend 6 months of each year for 10 years or so in Cambodia. Maylene will have 5-7 blown up and framed, a brief description, costs she incured to do it, and if anyone would like to buy one, they can barderfor a fair and reasonable price... just like how it's done in many countries of the world. a photo stream of the pics we ourselves took while in Cambodia - both of the people and of the conditions - as well as some professional copywritten photos provided by FCF. a ticket raffle for 3 Ani DiFranco concert tickets for the following evening at the Windspear Center - for those who sign up to become members or make donations of any kind. and we have some live myoozik provided by a certain rock star (in my books) named Kathy O'Neill. she's toured on her own, with a group called The Revulvas (mainly in Vancouver area), as well as with Bif Naked across Canada a few years ago. so we're pretty excited about all this!! I'm also being interviewed on Edmonton AM the morning of the event! connections are a wonderful thing. you just gotta put it out there and see what happens!

other exciting news??

I have succeeded in arranging for a table set up in the lobby of the Windsear Center - next to the Righteous Babe merch tables - to promote Future Cambodia Fund!! yup! that was cool to do. I just called up RBR, told a woman name what we are all about, she seemed really gung ho about it and said she'd get back to me since she couldn't give the final say since the concert's being put on by Edmonton Folk Fest. I ended up calling the lovely folks at the folk fest and spoke with an awesome dude named Eugene who just happens to be native of a country in Malaysia - Borneo - and so he was super interested in FCF. the director of the folk fest called me the next day with the OK!! So, I was given some names and phone numbers about ensuring a table for when I get there and any other details specific to the Windspear requirements. turns out, I have to enter through the back entrance which just so happens to be the ARTIST'S entrance! haha I just dreamed this was going to happen this passed Sunday night... crazy. so who knows? but ya, I'm pretty stoked about that.

So I'll be keeping y'all posted on what happens after the events I've described above! wish me luck! show up and support! show your love!!! it would mean so much...

until then,

PEACE in the SOUTH EAST!