oranges and lemons

Okay - so what has been going on you ask. Why no posts?

I got behind and then more behind.

I went to London in July and stayed there for six weeks. I planned to keep you updated but just got too busy. I still plan to add some photos from the trip. Heh heh.

While I was away the people who bought the house where I lived evicted me. They said that one of them needed to move into the coach house. There was a hearing and a lawyer and endless emails. All while I was trying to pack up and find a new place to live. Which I did with the help of many.

I found a nice new apartment not far from the old one and moved on October 5. Now life is easy peasey lemon squeezy for me again. Difficult, difficult, lemon difficult is all over.

I have been getting sorted. Unpacking was more fun than t should have been. Mum and Dad came over every day for the first week and helped unpack and fold paper and boxes. They kitted out my bathroom with curtains and mats and hooks.

My cousin took me to that Swedish housewares store and I ordered some bookshelves and a fancy fold-away desk. I have been assembling furniture and moving it here and there.

And I have started a couple of new projects.

So busy lizzy orange fizzy is why there has been no juice here.

updates

it has been a long time between posts but i am just back home and not doing anything that interesting. had a party here on july 1st to celebrate canada day. i think it was fun. seemed to be. celebrated july 4th -- u.s. day -- with my american friends. well some of them. sparklers and cheese. and since then i have been trying to stop being on vacation and get back to work without huge success.

freedom day is coming

It seems ridiculous that my last post is about a wintry walk when we are in the midst of the summeriest of springs here in southern Ontario.

But I am BUSY! So many little projects and events. I am saving up my free time for getting out of the house, away from the computer and talking to real live people face-to-face.

Still blogging regularly here and here.

This weekend I am going to this. See you there?

May 15th is FREEDOM DAY. I return from this symposium in Montreal on May 14th at 4:15 p.m. On May 15th I lie on a chair in the backyard and read a novel -- please neighbours, have mercy and do not drill holes in bricks that day. (The garage builders added a new awning yesterday. To the house, not the garage. The neighbour to the north moved away -- we were surprisingly sad about this -- and the new people are renovating. Until now it has been a quietly tappy sort of renovation but today it has become loudly drilly.)

And on May 16th, we are launching the Crazy Wisdom Parade and I am going to this:

Beyond Active Listening:
Story and Diversity in Adult Literacy Teaching and Learning

Part of the International Day for the Sharing of Life Stories, this workshop is about what practitioner-researchers from two community-based adult literacy programs are learning in their research project on story and diversity.

The research is about the many ways we use story in literacy teaching and learning and how our own stories are at play in our practice whether we acknowledge them or not. How we came to be literacy practitioners and why we continue to do this work is part of our stories. In literacy practice, we are usually working across social differences of race, class, educational level, etc.. In this research we explore moments of complexity in working across differences. We are trying to learn how to do the work of honest self-reflection that helps us to listen and hear in more authentic, non-oppressive, generative ways.

We invite literacy practitioners, advocates, researchers and other allies to learn about this group’s work and to engage with us for an afternoon in your own reflective process about story and diversity. We will use simple arts-based ways of working together.

When: Friday, May 16, 2008 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Where: OISE/UT, 7th floor, Peace Lounge
Department of Adult Education and Counselling Psychology
252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, (St. George subway station)