30: ANOTHER BON VOYAGE

We had a surprise bon voyage party for Giosy, as she is leaving us next week for Italy. It was held at Kat's condo downtown - it was my first time there and boy was I impressed, both at the place and at her amazing cooking skills. She made us so much good food!!

First we had appies, with my favourite, the baked brie.

She had also set up lovely place settings at the dinner table.

The building has a gorgeous downtown view:

And it even has its own bouldering wall (!!!):

We had THREE desserts: Cupcakes (Rae's contribution), creme brulee, and chocolate espresso pudding.

Why are all my friends moving away? Everyone's living in different cities, countries, and continents now! I miss having everyone in the same city as me. Anyway let's end this off with a poem I wrote.

IN ITALIA

O mio dio Giosy! You are leaving soon

You surely must be over the moon.

Leaving Vancouver and living on your own

In Firenze, in Italia! Where you will hone

Your language skills, your cooking skills,

Your making-eye-contact-with-strange-men skills!

You’ll be such a pro with these Italian men

I bet you’ll have four or five or maybe even ten

Feeding you grapes, and shining your shoes

Wearing aprons and cooking you stews.

They’ll be eating off the palm of your hand

Your Florentine life will be so grand!

I’m jealous of all this pasta and pizza and gelato and more

You’ll be eating so much food your jaws will get sore

While you’re there you have to try a Florentine steak

It’ll be even better than a Dairy Queen ice cream cake

(With extra cookie); My mouth is watering as I write this line

That thick juicy slab of meat, I wish it could be mine…

But don’t eat too much gelato without brushing your teeth after

I know you’re asking, “Why does this even matter?”

Well your teeth will fall off, and then you’ll need dentures,

And you really don’t want that kind of adventure.

Our Eurotrips were the stuff of legend

How I wished they would never end

The travels we’ve done have brought us closer

To a true friendship (you know I’m not a poser)

For the next seven months I will miss you dearly

And I mean this very sincerely

You’re one of my ragazze, my traveling sister

You will never be replaced by any mister!

Your stay in Italy will be so awesome

It’s the time and place for you to blossom.

With confidence you’ll speak Italian that’s perfetto

While drinking espressos, wearing stilettos.

I demand that you keep in touch (hellz yeah I’m bossy)

Ma e’ perche’ ti voglio bene, la mia carina Giosy!

204: PEER INTO MY SOUL

And you will find that I like Pablo Neruda's work, despite my cold, cold heart.

Saddest Poem

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.

Write, for instance: "The night is full of stars,
and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance."

The night wind whirls in the sky and sings.

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

On nights like this, I held her in my arms.
I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her.
How could I not have loved her large, still eyes?

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
To think I don't have her. To feel that I've lost her.

To hear the immense night, more immense without her.
And the poem falls to the soul as dew to grass.

What does it matter that my love couldn't keep her.
The night is full of stars and she is not with me.

That's all. Far away, someone sings. Far away.
My soul is lost without her.

As if to bring her near, my eyes search for her.
My heart searches for her and she is not with me.

The same night that whitens the same trees.
We, we who were, we are the same no longer.

I no longer love her, true, but how much I loved her.
My voice searched the wind to touch her ear.

Someone else's. She will be someone else's. As she once
belonged to my kisses.
Her voice, her light body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, true, but perhaps I love her.
Love is so short and oblivion so long.

Because on nights like this I held her in my arms,
my soul is lost without her.

Although this may be the last pain she causes me,
and this may be the last poem I write for her.

by Pablo Neruda

82: REFLECTION

Flower petals line the street
On the grass, on the windows, on the trees
In the reflection of the glass
Cherry blossoms raining down
Petals swirling in the wind
Love!

Ok I know it's pretty lame. I was so moved by the cherry blossoms that I felt compelled to write a poem, but I just realized that it doesn't rhyme. So here is a rhyming one instead:

On the reflection of the glass
The ground is covered with grass
In the middle stands a young tree
Its flowers very pleasing to me
Pink cherry blossoms they are
Petals sticking to the windows of the car
How I love these flowers in the spring
Even though allergies are what they also bring
People sneezing with red itchy watery eyes
Coming to me, asking me what to buy
I just want them all to go away
So I can go outside to play!

45: HEARTS ON FIRE

There's something in the air tonight
A feeling that you have that could change your life
There's something burning up inside
I reach out for you and our hearts collide
With hearts on fire I reach out to you tonight...

Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Chinese New Year! And Bilodeau won Canada's first gold medal; today is a day for glowing hearts indeed.

With this theme of hearts, I leave you with my favorite poem:

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet) i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

-e.e. cummings