CategoriesArchivesJanuary 2009 |
Chewing the FatFor those times that I want to blather on about whatever. drawing to a closeToday is the last day of the SIWC. I have one more panel to be on, and then I go home to my boys. I am so ready. I’m used to having enormous chunks of solitude, alone time, and am feeling a little emptied out from so much interaction. A woman I met in Calgary, while I was still fully me, told me about a Jewish term that she felt applied. “Wide,“ she’d said. And I knew what she meant. I do feel, in most of my life, full, wide, grateful of all the blessings, am able to sit and hear what my heart and belly tell me are true. But I don’t feel wide now. It like everything is tucked up inside me as far as it can go. It’s not a sadness or anything, it’s just a been-public-for-too-many-days and I need to go home sort of feeling. I long for my normal day-to-day. Tomorrow I go to Toronto. I’m tired, but the thing about Toronto is I am going to be reading in the libraries and I am really quite excited about that. When I was a girl, every weekend, we’d take the ferry over to the main land to get our groceries, then we’d swing by Buckerfield to get the chicken feed, and the grain for the cow, and finally when all the chores were done…we’d go to the library! We would always check out the maximum books allowed and when we’d go home, we’d read all our chosen books and then swap and read all our brothers and sisters books as well. And the books that we read. The places we travel. The things that we experienced through the books that we borrowed, really helped shape me and my vision of the world. So, although there is a part of me, that longs for home, there is another part, the little girl inside that is dancing around, because these next few events I will be talking and reaching and sharing myself, my stories, my writing with children who are bused in. Children who, like me, use the libraries to grow and stretch and understand the world beyond the walls of their own lives and homes and that is a wonderful thing. Ahh… writing about it just now, has lifted my heart already. Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, October 21, 2007 in Chewing the Fat SIWCWell, I wasn’t stunned and amazed. The portion of Surrey I’ve seen looks pretty much how I imagined. A little bit more upscale I imagine from the Surrey of old. With a ton of condos and new looking malls. I was stunned and amazed however at yesterday mornings announcement that the city of Surrey was (okay, I’m going to mash this up a little, I’m not quite sure of the phrasing, ) voted the arts capital of Canada (or something like that, I wish I’d been paying more attention) What I do remember was the person saying that Surrey was awarded $2,000,000 dollars! That is sort of a hard figure to forget. So looks can be deceiving! And when you think about it. The Surrey International Writers Conference, with over 800 attendees, was started 15 years ago by one person (name and gender is not coming up) in one room and now it’s this huge thing with over 70 workshops and blue pencil cafes (I’m doing that. Sort of odd holding people’s precious scrap of writing in my hand and I’m supposed to tell them how to fix it. Humbling actually. And I sit there praying that I don’t steer them wrong. Tell them to take everything I say with a fistful of salt as I am no expert) Yikes! They stop serving breakfast in 10 minutes. Have to get dressed and skaddooodle. Bye. Posted by Meg Tilly on Saturday, October 20, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Whoa Nellie!I just clicked on Futuresource.com metals…November gold is up $7.60 today! Spot price for November gold is $766.30. Now I know what gold prices do during the day doesn’t mean anything, what matters is how it closes, because there are a lot of speculators out there. But…my goodness, gold has been on a tear lately. I’m really surprised that you don’t hear more about it, read more about it. That the general population is unaware of the metoric rise in the price of an ounce of gold of the last few years. Inflation anyone? Not to mention that yesterday or the day before (when you get to my age the days start blurring together, sort of like ones eyesight) oil hit $88 a barrel! Lets just pray for the people who live on the East Coast that it’s a mild winter. For those of you in the States, if you think you are going to have difficulties managing to heat your house this winter, I was reading about this program called “The Low Income Home Energy Program.“ LIHEAP that help lower income families pay their heating bills. Look it up. Maybe you qualify. Check into it. It doesn’t hurt to ask. According to this report I read Plan ahead. It sucks being cold in those freezing winter months. I should know. Yikes! Be right back. Well, that was close. I almost forgot the butter drop cookies I had baking in the oven. Got to them in the nick of time! Nice and golden brown soft and spongy with crisp crunchy edges. Yum! I made them for Will to have when he gets home from school…but I think I’d better go taste a few…just to make sure… Bye for now. Next time I blog, I’ll be slooshing around in the rain enjoying the beautiful metropolis of Surrey. (Actually, as far as I know, Surrey is not considered one of Canada’s more beautiful cities. Just don’t want to mislead anyone into taking their honeymoon here. I’m not dissing Surrey, I’m sure it’s quite nice and the people who have chosen to live there like it well enough. It’s just when one says Surrey, I guess it’s the way it rolls out of the tongue, well it just doesn’t conjour up the most picturesque images.) I am hoping to go there and to be suprised and amazed. Posted by Meg Tilly on Thursday, October 18, 2007 in Chewing the Fat helloHi Everybody. I’m trying to get my sister Becky to do a guest blog! I think it would be fun. Hey, Becky if you don’t want to do a chatty blog, you could post a poem. That would be good. (Psst…I don’t know if I’m going to be successful in convincing her to do it. But I’m nothing if not persistent! Hee..hee!) Love you Becky. Posted by Meg Tilly on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 in Chewing the Fat An Open Letter to Woodstown FarmsI am writing this blog with the hopes that someone reads this who either works at Woodstown Farms or knows somebody who does. I tried finding them on the Internet. I did find a Woodstown Farms somewhere in mid-west America. I called them, but they were a different Woodstown Farms (handled grains and fodder) The Woodstown Farms I want to get a hold of are the Woodstown Farms that make the delicious “Thick Sliced Seasoned Side of Pork Smoked.“ They are a product of U.S.A. and sell this truly sinful bacon at the over-priced, albeit fabulous Whole Foods, for all the organic product they carry. This bacon is truly my favorite bacon in the world. Not only that there are no nitrates added. The ingredients are just: pork, sea salt, raw sugar and white pepper. And a couple of slices of this bacon are a meal in itself. HOWEVER, there is a matter of great concern with regards to this product! On the package they have:
This has worried me greatly! It is fine for someone like me to pick up this package of bacon. I’ve been cooking all my life and KNOW bacon needs to cook longer than that. But for the novice cooker. Someone just married, or a child attempting to surprise a parent with a breakfast in bed…DISASTER! They might not know that the Woodstown people meant if you are microwaving it. (Not that I would ever, ever use a microwave. I just don’t trust them.) But they don’t mention the word “microwave” anywhere on the package. Just tells you to place in a cold frying pan! When I read that I envisioned droves of people being raced to the hospital with gastronomical ailments. So WOODSTOWN FARMS you have wonderful bacon. PLEASE change the cooking instructions on the package so I can get a peaceful nights sleep! Thank you. (I’m saying thank you like it’s already been done, that way the Universe will know I’m expecting it.) Posted by Meg Tilly on Monday, October 15, 2007 in Chewing the Fat home againI’m home from Calgary. Happy and tired. Porcupine sold out which was nice, but I felt bad for the people who wanted to buy it at my last two events. Felt sorry for the bookstore too though. Must be hard to know how much to order of any one book. Especially when you’re dealing with 80 authors! My boy and husband are at the Canucks game and it’s the end of the first period and the Canucks are ahead. They called me in the break and sounded really happy. The dogs did a crazy celebration dance when I walked in the door. You’d think I’d been gone for way longer than five days! Funny dogs. Sure make you feel appreciated. They are still dancing about, squeaking their finest toys all around my writing room even though I’ve been home for 45 minutes. Oh, now Molly’s collapsed on the floor by my desk and is pretending she’s a rug. It’s funny how they do that sometimes. Flatten out, seem to lose all their bones. Well, I suppose I ought to unpack, take a nice hot bath and climb into my bed. I really am happy to be home. Posted by Meg Tilly on Saturday, October 13, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Dinner at Cynne and Jack’s houseOkay, lets get one thing straight. If you ever, EVER, get lucky enough to be invited to Cynne and Jack’s house for dinner…GO! This was no big pot of stew Cynne made. (Which if it had been, you can bet your guzungas that it would have been the best pot of stew your mouth had the good fortune to meet.) The woman is a gourmet cook of the highest order and Jack, her sous chef is no slouch! I walk in and there are these beautifully laid out tiny pancakes with tasty Peeking duck morsels, elegantly laid out. Each one has just the right amount of duck, plum sauce (which was way better than any plum sauce I’ve ever had in a restaurant) and every single one had a bit of crispy skin for texture. DELICIOUS! Apparently Jack was responsible for the pancakes that were soft and tender with crispy edges and you could taste the hint of butter that he had used in the pan. A glass of red wine slipped into my hand. I tried not to make an absolute pig of myself and failed miserably. Then Jack walks in with barbecued prawns on little wood skewers. I don’t know what they basted them with…but YUM! We chat, David arrives bearing wine, then Betty with a gift of lovely white serving plates in a reusable Christmas bag. And bless Cynne’s soul, not only is she an amazing cook, but she’s wonderfully thoughtful as well. The doorbell rings. “Oh, it’s David,“ she says. Then she goes to the door. “Hi David!“ Then when they arrive in the kitchen, “Meg, you remember David.“ What a dear sweet woman she is. Same thing when Betty arrived. She found a way to work Betty’s name in to the conversation three times in the course of a minute. Now I remembered both of them, their faces, the things we had talked about at dinner the other night, and now…I remember their names. With a hostess like that, you feel in safe hands indeed. Then into the dinning room we went. Accompanying these beautifully laid out bowls of…well I don’t have the words to do it justice and to say, “soup” just doesn’t seem right. A mix of savory, subtle spice, a blop of something dairy with a sprinkling of tiny chives, the accent, a tang of green apple perhaps? And I’m eating and trying not to dance in my seat. So happy that I’d told her of my secret desire to do an eating tour of France. Now I don’t have to, Calgary is so much closer! Then rack of lamb, on a bed of orzo pasta, a yellow and green peppers that I usually avoid, but these were so delicious I gobbled every last scrap up! And finally…THE DESERT! A concoction of ice cream and the best…THE VERY BEST chocolate sauce I have EVER tasted!!! I’m telling you, I am an expert on these things and this was, without a doubt THE BEST! It was so good that if I had been at home I would have tipped the dessert cup to my mouth to get the very last drops and I might have even had to indulge in sliding my finger around the inside for the bits around the sides. You will be happy to know, dear bloggers that I managed to restrain myself, but just barely! But that was only half of the dessert, also on each plate was a banana and caramel tart. Homemade and fantastic. All complemented with a pipping pot of tea in the most darling teapot I have ever seen with a painting of a clothing line, and socks and knickers and what-not hanging by wood pegs. The conversation was real. Genuine. Nobody posing, or trying to be more-than. A home in which one feels instantly welcome, warm and incredibly fortunate to be in. It made me wish I lived in Calgary so I could have the opportunity to talk more, laugh more, be irrelevant with this wonderful group of friends. Posted by Meg Tilly on Friday, October 12, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Calgary Girls’ SchoolOh my god. My heart is full to overflowing! I just came back from Calgary Girls school and…oh my. These girls. This school. Caroline Parker. The teachers. What a beautiful gift they gave me. I arrived this morning still carrying my midnight worries in my pocket. Sarah driving me in her husband’s (very clean and classy) car. There was something about Sarah that radiated kindness and helped ease my insecurities a bit. We arrived at a rather nondescript school, but when we walked inside… it felt like home. It felt safe and embracive. And the staff that I met, their eyes weren’t tired. Disillusioned. It’s like this group of educators decided to create a new way, a new mold within to teach, and from the amazing intelligent, curious, insightful questions the girls asked and the enthusiasm with which they participated, this group of dedicated professionals are obviously succeeding. And get this…I walk into the school, insecure, questioning, doubting and Caroline greets us with shining eyes and a warm smile and she tells me that ALL OF THE FIFTH GRADE GIRLS HAVE READ OR ARE READING MY BOOK!!! They’ve read it! Not only that…THEY LOVE IT! (I’m smiling now at my computer screen) And that they are very, very excited to meet me and that the fourth grade is asking to read Porcupine as well, and then on a tour of the school I met the librarian and she said that she thinks the 6th and 7th grades at their other school would enjoy it too! We’d peek into classrooms and I’ve spent half my children’s childhoods teacher’s aiding and working in the libraries and art studios, baking cookies and I have to say, this school is something really special. How wonderful it was to be able to talk with these girls, hear what they thought, see their affection for Jack, her life. A zillion hands flying up. Me wanting to answer all of them. It was scheduled to be an hour and 15 minutes but I read and we talked and we talked and we talked and we went over the allotted time and none of us cared and finally two and a half hours later, we exited the school. I have to say, I could have stayed there all day. That’s how much fun I was having. Much love to Calgary Girl’s School. Thank you for taking me and Jack into your hearts. Posted by Meg Tilly on Thursday, October 11, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Sleep eludes meWhy is it that on the days were you need sleep the most, it dances out of your reach laughing at you? It’s 5:27AM, my time (6:27 Calgary time) My wake up call isn’t for another hour and a half, and yet for the last 45 minutes I’ve tossed on the bed trying to sleep. Same thing last night. I came back from author frivolity, talked to my husband on Skype. He tried to get my dog, Molly, to do that funny thing of looking into the camera and trying to figure out why I was in there and why I wouldn’t come out. But she’d already figured it all out on Tuesday night. So it was sweet that he was trying to get her to do it because it had made me laugh and feel loved the night before, but his efforts were kind of pointless. He was like a little kid, “Molly! Molly! Molly!“ But the more he tried, the less interested she was. Finally I had to gently steer him away from his determination to make this have the outcome he wanted. Anyway, we hung up. I went over my talk tomorrow and then finally around 11:30PM, washed my face, brushed my teeth and went to bed. I was very tired, but thoughts chased around my head like starving mosquitoes, driving sleep away. When I woke I tried to hang onto my sleep wave but I was seeing all these authors faces, hearing their voices, and feeling small. I read a lot, but names, titles elude me. Whereas they pull them out of the air by the fistful. It seems that this writing world is a very small community. Everyone knows everybody and every single book that anybody has ever read or reviewed since the beginning of time. They all have tons of awards and all their books are best-sellers and published in a gazillion languages…And then there’s me. I feel like that Sesame Street song. “One of these things is not like the other…“ Interesting huh? Here I am, a woman, 47 years old, I’ve accomplished a lot, have a wonderful life, and yet I feel like I’m six again, at a new school, standing in the playground at that very first recess, not sure what the rules are and where to go and if anyone is going to want to eat lunch with me. In the Authors Hospitality Suite yesterday evening, everyone was talking about what one should read and what one shouldn’t. “Humor. You have to read something funny.“ “Or something gossipy. Everyone loves gossip.“ “Never read something serious.“ “Oh god no! Not with teenagers. You’d never hold them.“ “If I notice them getting restless I have them to get up, run around the room.“ “Don’t read for longer than 5 minute segments.“ And I’m panicky inside, because I don’t do any of those things. The information they sent us said to read for 15-20 minutes, so that’s what I prepared, but apparently that’s a no-no. The humorous things that happen in my book aren’t laugh-out-loud-clutch-your-belly humor. Now there are some exciting things that happen in Porcupine that I’m dying to read and talk about, but they happen later on in the book, and I don’t want to ruin or give away the story. I want it to unfold for the reader, catch them up in the pages. Anyway, this is what I discovered last night. The section I’m reading is apparently the polar opposite of what I’m supposed to do. Phooey. The upside is I got to see Hal Niedzviecki (don’t ask me how to pronounce it) again. I met him at BookExpo last fall. We were reading together and it was my very first reading EVER of Gemma! I was terrified and he was kind. And there is this really sweet author Cary Fagan, who wrote My New Shirt. I am struggling mightily with myself. It’s the kind of book I want to buy for my grandchildren, but I don’t have any yet. And I worry that if I start buying stuff for these someday-in-the-future-someday-maybe-not grandchildren, that it will put undue pressure on my children. Another good thing that happened was that at the fancy dinner on the very first night, the Gods were looking out for me, because I was lucky enough to be seated at a table of wonderful, interesting conversationalists. (Most of their names have evaporated like a mouthful of mist. Big surprise huh? For those of you who know me.) I had a marvellous time and was really surprised at the end of the evening when I turned around in my chair and realized that the rest of the banquet hall had already left! Well…Cynne and Jack (I hope, think that’s his name…) have invited me to dinner tonight and she’s going to make a big pot of cozy home-cooked something and I am really looking forward to it! Oh and one more thing. Maureen (who did the introductions at our talk yesterday) said she has this recipe that everybody begs her to make every time there is a big get-together. “Dream pie” She says it’s delicious and easy to make and I told her if she faxes it to the hotel I’ll post it on my Blog. So bloggers, get your mouths ready for some of Maureen’s Dream Pie! Posted by Meg Tilly on Thursday, October 11, 2007 in Chewing the Fat WordFestI just did my first WordFest reading. They bused kids in from a school and we read for them. Afterwards, looking into their faces, it felt like I was looking at, remembering myself as a child. What an honor it is for me to have the opportunity to share Porcupine with them. My book that is such a big part of me. I talked with one of the teachers from the school who teaches band and language arts. And he told me this was not something that these children would normally have access to. That WordFest paid for their tickets and paid to bus them here so they could experience this. You could tell that some of them didn’t have a soft comfy existence. Not by their clothes or the way they behaved, because this group of kids was truly wonderful. It was more a look in the eyes, that said, “I’ve seem more life than a lot of kids my age. I know what it is to work.“ I wanted to scoop them up in my arms. Tell them my life story, let them know that many of the most accomplished people I know come from places and homes like theirs. Like mine. What a privilege that WordFest has given us authors access to kids like these. Who I believe need books and the written word even more than those who have so much. I feel very lucky to be here. Posted by Meg Tilly on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Housing trickle down worriesWhen I read this article by, Leva M Augstums, AP Business Writer on Yahoo, and how this huge home furnishing convention she went to was basically empty, I got that clenching in my stomach. “Hold on,“ it said. “It’s starting.“ I’m not going to reprint the whole article, just a paragraph where she’s wrapping up towards the end, to give you the general gist.
Why I got scared is because I worry that this is just the beginning, the tip of the enormous iceberg that our ship in grinding into. I think the housing slowdown is going to have a much bigger effect than expected. And not just in construction, house sales, and home furnishings and the financial sector, the mortgage companies (like American Home Mortgage who was cut off by Fannie Mae, had to file Chapter 11, and who I read recently, has apparently been bouncing checks all over the place.) Many banks as well have made ridiculous loans and what-not. I am concerned. Ever since the Variable Mortgage rates have began to come due, there has been an epidemic of foreclosures. Now, if people are having a hard time coming up with the money for their mortgage, they aren’t going to run out and buy a new car or new furniture. Those are not purchases that are necessities. Then the next tier to cut back on is fancy vacations, visits to the spa, fancy meals out, private schools for the children and the list goes on and on and on. Now if you’re somebody who already is not able to indulge in the above list you might think, “Well, that won’t effect me…“ But the thing is, it will. Because these businesses employ a lot of people, teachers, waiters, financial advisors, bank tellers, factory workers, truck drivers who transport the goods. Anyway, I could go on all day with my worries. And I don’t want to worry all of you. It’s just I feel that if you see a whole crowd of people sitting down to have a picnic on the train tracks and you can see that there is an enormous train bearing down on them at full speed. You have an obligation to say something. So please, be careful everyone. Try to cut back on your spending. Save for a rainy day. Feeling safe, having a safety net is way more important than buying that gorgeous pair of shoes, or going on that vacation that your high interest credit cards are financing. And I know that sometimes when people get scared about not having enough, scared about bills and money, what do they do? Run out and buy something, to try and fill that hole. And it helps short term. But long term, it is a killer! Try build up a minimum of six months living expenses, while making sure to put away for retirement. I hope that I am wrong, but if I’m not, and this financial storm hits at least this way you won’t be caught unawares. Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Rosie’s bookI’m very excited. Rosie O’Donnell’s new book Celebrity Detox come out in bookstores tomorrow. I’ve read a previous draft which I found very brave and honest. She really nailed what the experience is like to find oneself suddenly famous. Personally, when it started happening to me, I found it terrifying. I remember very clearly the first time someone recognized me from one of my films. It was at San Vincente Foods 1982. He was very nice, complimentary, but the idea that someone who I didn’t know, would know me, scared me. I guess again, it goes back to my childhood, and how I kept myself safe by being a good hider when my step-dad was in a beating mood. And then suddenly, I was famous and I couldn’t hide anymore. I loved acting, but the famous part sucked. Imagine. You are pregnant with your first child and suffering from severe morning sickness, you are in a restaurant bathroom with throwing up and someone is banging on the bathroom stall, sliding paper and pen underneath for you to sign. They can hear you throwing up, they know you are sick, but they don’t care because in their mind, you aren’t a person anymore. You are a monkey in the zoo. Just one of thousands of incidences that just boggled my mind. Binoculars trained on the house, the bedroom, the bathroom? What?! Some people might say, “Well, why did you become an actress then?“ An understandable question. You see, I liked acting, thought I would try to make a living, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would get leads in movies become recognizable. I just liked diving into other people’s skins is all. And if I had known what being famous was like and that it was going to happen to me I don’t know that I would have made the same choices. Rosie takes the mask off the cult of celebrity and generously lets us peer inside to the human. It took a lot of courage for her to write this. Even more to publish. And I have to say, it moved me deeply. I’m flying to Calgary to participate in WordFest and I’m going to buy her book to keep me company. I’m planning on blogging, but if I can’t figure out the hotel’s Internet situation (i.e. make it work) then you won’t be hearing from me for a few days. I have five events to do in five days and the big question is…do I have the foggiest idea what I’m going to wear? Did I learn from my last near fiasco? Of course not! And I don’t have to even wait until 8:30 pm to start packing because today is Canadian Thanksgiving and I imagine all the shops are locked tight. And to make matters even more dire, I received an Author’s Information Pack from Ian, (the lovely man who’s in charge of organizing this whole thing.) a couple of days ago, and there was a mention of media. “ You can expect a fair number of television Cameras and news crews to be at the major venues, especially our official photographer and our major media sponsors (the CBC and the Calgary Herald) Eep! So it won’t be just a school full of children, or some kindly white haired gentle readers who shall witness my lack of apparel finesse…No it shall be recorded, photographed for all of those people out there who were unable to attend WordFest, but still wanted to have a good laugh. And yet, what do I do? Am I scurrying like a mad woman, throwing clothes by the armload onto my bed. No. I’m figuring I won’t be reading at one of the “major venues” They didn’t mention which ones were major. And then of course, I have the old Mark-of-the-hiking-store-string trick in my back pocket. So I’m set. I’m good to go! I’ve got all these outfits from days-gone-past that surely will fit now that I’m armed with my new weapon. It would make sense I suppose for me to have tried out the string trick before I started counting my clothing chickens. Oh well. I like to live dangerously! Hee…hee…hee! Hmm… I just read back over this blog. I think it’s interesting how these two subjects (Ro’s book, Wordfest and my lack of preparation) are side by side. I suppose how I deal with my fear and being public now, is by being me. Refusing to act or be seen as anything other than who I am, foibles and all. Because I have to tell you, when I walked away from being an actress, I thought that would be it, I would be able to finally disappear again. So many new films, actors, but I hadn’t counted on Cable. That the films would still be playing. I had thought if I let my hair go grey, wore my glasses and wore undistinguished, disappearing clothes, no one would know it was me. But people did, do. So I’ve had to make my peace with it. Allow people in, to see the real me, hence this website. That way at least, hopefully, I become more of a person to people than a thing. Because this strangers knowing me situation, is not going away. Posted by Meg Tilly on Monday, October 08, 2007 in Chewing the Fat All fixed!Okay…the audio download problem has been solved. It was some button that hadn’t been activated. There is some technical term for it, but when Susie explained it to me, the term and description just went flying into one ear and out of the other. It’s sort of like what happens to me when somebody tells me their name. I know that I’m really bad at remembering names (sequencing numbers as well) so when I’m in situation where I’m meeting new people, or even old friends, when I get to the name situation, my brain starts panicking. And then I’m cooked! I might as well give up and go home because the harder I try to pull people’s names up out of the mushy recesses of my brain, the faster and more throughly the names elude me. And this isn’t just treatment reserved for new names, I have been in social situations (yes…even I get invited out once in a while…) where I turn to introduce a very dear old friend of many years, and their name will just evaporate like a mouthful of smoke. Gone! I could tell you all sorts of details about that person, their family, their weight loss or gain struggles, their disappointments, lost dreams, sense of humor…But give you their name? Ha. I wish I could be hypnotised or something to be a cracker-jack name rememberer. Except, I’d never let myself ever be hypnotised. The idea of placing myself into someone else’s power. Someone I don’t even know. To just walk in because they have a sign on their door saying they’re qualified! No way. Now I know this isn’t fair. I’m sure there are wonderful hypnotists out there. Many people I know have been able to quit smoking by being hypnotised. I think my fear and distrust comes from my childhood. Feeling like I had no power over myself, my body and the things that happened to me. Actually, in all truth, that feeling followed me well into adulthood. No, being hypnotised is not for me! My dear friend D___a went to a hypnotist once to get hypnotised to stop eating chocolate. It worked too! That is until I came into town. Called her up, invited her to take in some theater in the West End. This was, oh maybe 15 years ago. I don’t remember what show we saw. What I do remember is being so pleased that I was back in England after being sequestered in the wild wood of Whonock for months on end. Friends, adult conversation, West End theater, and best of all…English chocolate. Keep in mind, this was well before they started selling Maltesers and Minstrels on every street corner. D___a went to powder her nose in the ladies room and I headed straight for the concession stand to load up. I bought myself a huge box of Maltesers because I knew that I would not be eating alone. D___a could sling back the chocolate with the best of them. I tried to wait until she returned from the ladies room, but my mouth wouldn’t let me. I opened up the box, pulled a delicate little malt covered morsel out and laid it in my mouth. I let it rest gently on my tongue for a while, like a secret. Then, when the chocolate was nice and creamy soft I crunched the malt portion between my teeth so it could mingle with the chocolate. When D___a returned I has managed to restrain myself from devouring the whole box of these wickedly delicious candies. “Do you want some?“ I offered generously, ready to pour out a whole handful. (That’s the thing about growing up poor, I find I always give away way more than people actually want.) “No thank you,“ D___a demurred. She’s just being polite I thought. I know the deal, done it myself. Said no when I wanted to say yes because I didn’t want people to think I was a greedy pig. “Really, it’s okay. I bought a big box. There’s plenty for both of us.“ I rattled the mostly full box at her. “Oh…It’s so tempting, but no,“ D___a said. “Are you sure?“ I asked, worried that maybe she had a fever or something. “I’m sure,“ she said peacefully. “I’m trying to stop eating chocolate.“ “Why? You aren’t overweight.“ I can’t remember what she said next. I do remember her seizing my arm as I went to tuck the Maltesers into my purse. I do remember her throwing a large portion of them down her throat all the while muttering “Oh shut up…“ I do remember later, her confessing to me that she’d paid good money to a hypnotist to stop eating chocolate. And that she had managed to hold off for three whole months before I rolled into town. I do remember how horrified I was that I’d unwittingly foiled her stop-eating-chocolate plan, but how I felt even worse because when she told me about it, the visit, the hypnotist putting her under, how the whole time she was throwing the chocolate back she was hearing the woman’s voice saying in a witchy, disgusted tone, “sickly…sweet...chocolate.“ I couldn’t stop laughing. We laughed so hard that tears came. And my poor friend, even now, to this day, 15 years later, every time she indulges in chocolate she has this woman’s voice in her head saying, “sickly… sweet… No. I am not a good friend to have. Dangerous is what I am. But I’ll tell you this right now. I’m never, ever going to frequent a hypnotist on my own free will. Hmm… I think it’s so funny where these blogs go. This was just going to be a short hello to inform you that the audio downloads are now up and running. Oh and Don says to tell you that it’s going to take around 5 minutes for the download to complete (is that the right phrase?) Posted by Meg Tilly on Wednesday, October 03, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Yikes!Hi everybody, Posted by Meg Tilly on Wednesday, October 03, 2007 in Chewing the Fat Singing Songs Audio BookThe audio version of Singing Songs is READY! I’m kind of excited. I spent a good deal of the summer working on these. It’s hard to believe that starting tonight people will actually be able to HEAR them. Kind of exciting and kind of scary! Wow. Just writing that down made my heart start pounding… OH! And I noticed Rosie put it up on her blog so I guess it’s okay to say it now…Rosie’s optioned Porcupine and she’s going to direct it and I’m writing the screenplay and I’m so excited I could p__p my pants! Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, October 02, 2007 in Chewing the Fat |
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