For the first time in many days, I write this blog not surrounded by fruit flies. Not sure exactly what happened, a combination of me being a bit of a pig and leaving the door open for the kitty, but the kitchen and later the rest of the apartment started to come alive. This apartment does have a healthy bug population and I'm generally pretty happy to live harmoniously with spiders and whatever the little squirmy things on the floor happen to be, but fruit flies are the inneffective pussies of the insect world. They're just so useless and annoying, and though they fly fairly slowly, are impossible to kill.

Speaking of pussies, I was having fun with this rather small-town minded boy at the Fringe awhile back, shocking him with my perversity and such, and I mentioned that I far preferred the word "cunt" to "pussy" in reference to my own pleasure spot. Everyone at the table was quite shocked, but my reasoning is not just that I like to see people with their mouths hanging open. Pussy is a weak word, it is used to describe weakness and I like to think of my genitalia as a strong and powerful thing. Cunt is not exactly the perfect word, but there is no connotation of weakness there, in fact merely this word has a huge amount of power, being one of the only "curse" words that people actually react to anymore. As I said, I'm not saying it's a great word but if I had to choose between the two I'd rather go with the stronger term. I also like the fact that it goes well with the word "cock."

But I'm trying to think if female genitalia has a good word associated with it - I mean, generally people don't use penis and vagina, these are terrible terrible words in erotic situations, but men have far more viable expressions for their throbbing members than women do. Can we think of something good here? And I don't mean beef curtains or poontang, something we could actually use without either laughing or feeling offended?

Warning: I'm having some thoughts but its early and I don't have much time so eloquency might be out the window.

I read in the G&M this weekend that because of this baby with genes for severely advanced muscle developement, scientists are looking into seeing if we can create this kind of muscle developement in atheletes by giving them this genetic abnormality. There was this whole question about whether or not this is the same as cheating through drugs like steroids. This question did not fascinate me terribly as in my opinion the answer is Hell Yes it's the same type of cheating as steroids.

However, they also mentioned what it would be like if we all got this, if we developed a race of super humans or something. I then started thinking about the kids who just couldn't seem to develope muscle in high school and how they got picked on and had the stupid thought of - well hey, in a milder form, this could help them out a little. Yes, it was a stupid thought but it then led me to something else.

I got to thinking about how all the so-called "geeks" in high school become more coveted hombres later on and how the Chachies are now the guys girls my age laugh at. (Actually, I always laughed at them especially when I decided that out of curiosity I would sleep with one and he turned out to be "5 Second Boy"). How much of who these fabulous "geeks" turned out to be had to do with their physicality?

Certainly I know that my height deficiency has totally affected who I am. It's made me less afraid to ask for help, but also louder and more gregarious so that people notice me. Perhaps because of the way people have always sort of patted me on the head, I've developed the ability to be stupidly cuddly and cute and also extremely foul mouthed in order to prove the short=cute & innocent theory wrong. Maybe even my interest in children's literature, which so often has to do with the small being able to conquer or at least succeed amongst the big has stemmed from my height. I mean, look at my obsession with hobbits for fuck's sake. And I'm damn happy to be who I am, it's just that I'd never really given that much thought as to how my physicality affected my personality.
I've never really given into the whole body image thing, I eat what I want, have never dieted, no food issues, so it's kind of hard for me to try and distinguish between not caring about the body image stuff and also recognizing that my body may have a lot to do with who I am. Is this making any sense?

Anyhoo, just a thought.

The holdover show I went to see last night was the One Man Lord of the Rings. I have not laughed so hard in years, I swear to god. The incredibly talented Charlie Ross is no longer in Edmonton, but he'll be coming to the Victoria and Vancouver Fringes and will be in New York performing as well. I haven't seen his One Man Star Wars, but I hear that's the show he does more often, which is a bit of a disappointment for me, but perhaps not for others. If you have seen the films, I beg of you, go see this show! check him out at his site

The Fringe is gone again. They started taking it apart quite early yesterday as no one was around due to the rain. Despite this year's Fringe being an odd one, not so many people and not as many stellar performances (though according to reviewers, not as much utter crap either), I still got addicted to the live theatre everyday thing. I for one am glad that they have holdover shows as this way I can wean myself off the constant theatre going rather than quitting cold turkey.

Cactus, Dear Penthouse and Little Room were my picks this year, though I'm not sure if they are going on to Vancouver or not - the Vancouver Fringe site is not up for this year yet.

I was really happy to be a part of the Fringe this year and Becca got some really nice reviews in the Journal - stating she, among only 3 others mentioned, was a new talent to watch. The balls to turn your own short stories into a one hour stage show staring only you - they must be dragging on the ground.

Guess it's time to go change my answering message - the Fringe is over. Sigh.

Two words for Fringe goers: Little Room.
Go see the most honest and vulnerable 18-year old boy ever. Might not be for everybody, but I left smiling at his beautiful darkness.

Just thought I'd state this again (it's also on Asylus' blog) - thank you to everyone planning to come out to see the show and let me assure you that you need not buy advance tiks, there will be plenty left at the door, trust me.

As well as being a virtually unknown one-woman show, it's been much talked about that this year has had one of the lowest audience turn-outs in awhile. Even the big shows are not selling out. I see no 3 hour line ups this year. It's odd.

Today is the last day of my teaching job. I'm feeling a little strange - though I will certainly appreciate having my mornings back and not feeling like the proverbial headless chicken, I'm a little weirded out by the thought of having time to think. All of a sudden, life and my future have opened up completely and I've got a lot of thinking to do about what's going to become of roo in the next while, though I guess I don't have too much to worry about for awhile as there's still a 10 months til I finish my MA. However, I've been offered a flat of my own (that comes with weekly cleaning service) and a job in Northern Italy for next Sept and that idea does not seem so terribly bad.

Maybe I don't have to think so much after all, perhaps I just have to take what is given me...

Just to update, the creme de la creme at the Fringe would be Cactus and Dear Penthouse. I am in fact going to see Cactus again as it seems to be a tradition that I pay to see this man perform twice at each Fringe.
Dear Penthouse is my kind of show and I would recommend it to any others who, like me, spend a good six hours a day in deep, full-on daydreams.

Make sure you catch these should they head to the Vancouver or Victoria Fringes.

I spent part of my day getting my feet wet by the legislature building. I was a gov't wading pool virgin before today and I must say, it felt like a regaining of innocense through experience rather than a loss. I do love teaching fun-loving students on hot summer days.

Movie picks:
Control Room - so so good. If you want a movie that will actually make you think about the whole US and Iraq thing, fuck Michael Moore, go see this!

Fringe Picks:
Everysecondweekend (of course, Becca's performance made a few people cry the other day!)

Cactus - I love this guy, if you didn't see his other show at last year's fringe, then you must see him this year - so goddamn funny.

Flint and Feather a more intellectual play -did I say intellectual? Yeesh, I wrote this initially at an early hour. Let me correct myself, it's a more literary play, about the life of the lovely Canadian poet E. Pauline Johnson. Written and directed by the same girl who directed Everysecondweekend, it has become the hit of this year's fringe and I'm so very happy for her. 4 stars people, 4 stars.

I haven't had the time to see as much as last year, but so far these are my recommendations. Not so much is catching my eye this year, but that could be because my eye is one tired puppy.

Thanks to Kanga, I managed to get the bd pics on the blog. For a little teaser, just look down below :)

Roo status report:

Time for another shockwave of honesty about how I'm doing. Well, despite concerns over grandma's illness, my uncle's well-being, and the departing of my first love from my life, I think I might actually be okay. Pickle actually told me the truth about a few things, which was good. Grandma is doing okay, I come from ridiculously longlived and tough stock. My uncle, well that's a story that has not even come close to ending. I had a good weekend, if busy, and received a new talisman from a friend which is hanging from my neck as I write. Life does in fact move on, even if it does so excrutiatingly slowly at times. I haven't buried myself in a bottle (there's a first time for everything!) and though I've wigged out a few times, it hasn't been scary wigging, just the necessary kind.

I was in a hot tub on Friday night, which relaxed muscles which seem to have been knotted for years (though it's actually only been a few months, but I'm generally not Stresserella so my body really isn't used to any jaw clenching that is not drug induced) and took a lovely walk through arid deserts, temperate forrests, japanese flora, and tropical jungles with Kanga today.

So, to sum up, I would say I am slightly off and will be for some time to come but have not gone completely round the bend (though I'm actually quite curious just what is around that bend :)

Am pulling 12-14 hours days right now so blogging may be brief or non-existant. Here's the Fringe play I'm working on EverySecondWeekend.

Let's see, what have I done this weekend? Well, I went to Vixen's bday party which enabled me to do many things:
- I got to actually see Vixen in the flesh for the first time in a while. Vixen's flesh is never disappointing.
- I got to meet many people such as Maneater, the new Mrs. Asylus, and finally I got to see Vixen's boy - or at least the cutest part of him :)
- I got to show off my new hookerific shoes.
- I got to generally see people I hadn't seen in ages and catch up a bit.
- Have free shots of the new Malibu pineapple and mango flavours.

Yesterday I went on a long, pointless walk to meet up with people who never showed (though the walk was nice) and then met up with David to eat some pub food, be amused by his comic antics, and see The Village. I wouldn't really recommend it, even if you're just looking for the thrill of fear. I only had to bury my head in his shoulder twice and had no problems sleeping - this from a girl who is capable of running screaming from a drive-in during the scary music in the opening credits of E.T. It's not bad, the acting is quite good, but the allegory in the story is a little too patronizingly obvious.

Another thing I wouldn't recommend is the new Oral B finger brushes. I saw about a jillion ads for this stupid "Rip, Slip, Brush AHHH" crap while I was in Ktown (I don't own a tv so I've thankfully been spared this trauma here, as well as the trauma of the new PeptoBismal commercial where people are dancing about diarrhea). Last night, two young girls were handing out free samples of the new finger brush. I opened the French-condom-like package and slipped the thing on my finger - it wasn't bad, but you look pretty ridiculous. It's just as conspicuous as sticking your finger in your mouth to pluck food out of your teeth, so why not save yourself the money and do just that? But I did get to laugh my ass off watching David, the PhD student, struggle in vain to try and get his brush package open. He just couldn't do it, so I ended up doing it for him. How awkward! I knew there was a reason I wasn't sleeping with the guy :)

Oh and as a last thought, a very Happy Birthday to Sweetmeat.