More Everyday Heroes

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Let's end on an uplifting note, shall we?

Sunday Seven

Things that happened this week --

ATTENDED: the Alberta Baroque Ensemble's annual Christmas concert Music for a Festive Season. The orchestra was joined by the University of Alberta Madrigal Singers in the performance of a Magnificat and a Bach Cantata. This is always their most popular concert of the year and the church was packed!

FINISHED: my art classes for this year. Now I have a month off until the new ones start in January 2024.

WINTER WOES: we got snow and freezing rain this week, but luckily it was on a day when I didn't need to drive or walk outside.

UPPED MY BEAUTY GAME: got my hair cut and my eyebrows waxed. "Alright Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

SPEAKING OF POSING FOR THE CAMERA: building management had security cameras installed this week throughout our parkade, presumably to deter vehicle break-ins and drug use. My car's only been broken into once in nine years, which is pretty good for downtown living. In the last couple of years, however, there's been a lot more open drug use by transients in the parkade, which I think scares people.

LISTENED TO: a full recording of Handel's Messiah. Yes, I know it's the chestnuttiest of chestnuts, but I still love it. Since the pandemic, I've stopped attending an annual live performance of it at Christmas so listening to the oratorio on CDs has become the way to continue my now 38-year tradition.

WATCHED: a Christmas rom-com called Happiest Season (2020). It has a great cast, including Kristen Stewart (Abby) and Mackenzie Davis (Harper) as star-crossed lesbian lovers. Daniel Levy plays Abby's gay best friend. Lots of good dialogue, funny quips and dysfunctional family of origin fun. Recommended!

TAD & FFO -- "Snowed In"

I'm linking this art post with both

Thursday Art Date with Rain 

(whose prompt this week is "snowed in")

and with Nicole's Friday Face OFF.

This is the only coloured pencil art

I have with snow in it.

And it's much too blue.

Oh well, snow is hard to do.

So was the polar bear cub

but it's still pretty cute.

And here's an even cuter one!

[Art & photo of art © Debra She Who Seeks, 2023]

Yikes! The Festive Season Is Upon Us!

Sunday Seven

A roundup of this week's excitement --

FELLOW CANUCKIAN BOOMERS: will recognize this week's banner as being from the classic but controversial 1960s CBC current affairs program This Hour Has Seven Days, with legendary Canadian journalists Laurier LaPierre and Patrick Watson. I wasn't even 10 years old when this show was on, but I loved it! It kickstarted my lifelong interest in Canadian politics.

I CELEBRATED "NOIRVEMBER:" by watching the 1946 film noir classic The Big Sleep. Lots of smart-ass quips from Bogie and Bacall as they confronted "a corrupt labyrinth of gamblers, blackmailers, pornographers, hired thugs and murderers" (as one reviewer summed up the impossibly convoluted plot).

STARTED REGISTERING: for a new bunch of art classes in early 2024.

COFFEE CATCH-UP: met a friend at Second Cup for a delightful couple hours of conversation.

DON'T WORRY, I'M NOT PLANNING ON GOING ANYWHERE ANYTIME SOON: to accompany my updated will, enduring power of attorney and personal directive documents, I met with a funeral home this week and bought a preplanned end of life package. Immediate cremation, no funeral.

ASHES TO ASHES, DUST TO DUST: also obtained formal City of Edmonton approval to be scattered in due course at a Memorial Scattering Garden in a nearby cemetery where I once went on a Halloween ghost tour. It's a charming place. But every time I drive by that cemetery now, you know what I'm thinking about. 

WHAT I DID FOR NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH: wrote my own obit -- but it's a very short novel, only four paragraphs long! I've always been a succinct writer. Picked out a decent photo to accompany it as well. No, NOT this one --

Friday Face OFF -- Afghan Girl

For this week's Friday Face OFF link party

of art featuring faces, hosted by Nicole of

DVArtist, Art, Food, Gardening blog . . .

Remember that famous National Geographic

1985 cover photo of the Afghan girl?

We did a copy of it in coloured pencils class.

As usual, my facial shadows were done 

in too dark a brown, but oh well.

And trying to reproduce that hijab

damn near killed me.

But her eyes turned out well

and they are the most important

and haunting element

of that incredible photo!

[Art & photo of art by Debra She Who Seeks, 2023]