friends

Lots to celebrate concerning my friends these days.

Sandra, an Ottawa friend proud of her Prairie roots, won the bpNichol chapbook poetry award in June. Here she is in an interview being very articulate about Lift, her winning chapbook.

Congratulations to Shirley & Dave on the birth of their daughter Makayla. I had to find out the hard way...by snooping around Shirley's "Wall" in Facebook. As far as I can determine, the blessed event happened in late July. That's OK, I'm sure she would have told me sooner or later. I'll let the dust settle a bit before I contact her to see if she feels up to having company. Between her paid employment as a programmer and her second (unpaid) job as a farm wife and all that entails, Shirley has created a third position for herself: quilter extraordinaire. I guess she's just added "mother" and all the variations of that title to her résumé.

Congratulations to Tawny & Terry & big brother Logan (formerly known as Team T-Lo) who welcomed daughter & baby sister Lane to their family. (Does this mean they'll be known henceforth as Team T-LoLa? or T-squared L-squared?) I think Lane was born only a day or two ago. Tawny loves to sew, and many of her creative projects can be viewed at TawnyBee on Etsy.

Then there's Renée, who together with her husband Jerry decided to pack up their family for a missions spree. (Is that an oxymoron?) They're going to live among the limes, coconuts, frogs, and geckos for a year in their BelizeQuest. (A link to their blog now appears on the list below-left.) It'll be like Survivor, except without the flimsy shelters or voting people out. (I hope.) They won't have to concern themselves about scurvy, since it sounds like there's fresh fruit aplenty. Renée will have a chance to live her dream: being a kindergarten teacher. I've heard say that in her misspent youth, Renée once held a cousin of hers captive behind a makeshift desk in a poorly ventilated, top-floor room in the middle of a prairie-summer heatwave while she taught writing and arithmetic.

Paula, a friend ever since "The Lyric" honors seminar brought us together in our final undergrad year at UofM, has been out in the Ottawa area visiting her parents with her husband and two children. You may have heard me mention a friend who lost her sense of smell as a result of a childhood biking accident, and then regained it as an adult through craniosacral massage therapy. CTV Winnipeg broadcast a story on her recovery in 2003 or 2004 or thereabouts. Paula and I last saw each other about 12 years ago. I drove out to Arnprior to meet her, and we made a lovely afternoon of it: lunch with her family, then window-shopping at the local bookstore and gift shops (all the while dodging her aforementioned family), topped off by girly drinks (she and her white wine, me and my daiquiri) outdoors at Danny Mac's. Between running a daycare out of her home and taking counselling courses, Paula writes. A few weeks ago when we were planning how to meet up, she forwarded a handful of the most hilarious anecdotes. (I'm hoping she either starts a blog or that she'll allow me to post a few of her darling non-fiction moments.) So glad she found the time to see me.

"Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other one's gold..." something Sally allegedly said and Christopher Cross recorded.

Anyway, here's to friends!