January 2025:

The year began with a sluggish start. I was feeling under the weather to begin and didn’t really feel 100% until about 10 days into the month. There were a lot of positives in the month. Pizza was made, we visited a lovely Ethiopian restaurant by the name of Ethiopian House (aptly named). It felt like visiting the home of a very hospitable Ethiopian-Torontonian you happen to know. Some new foods were tried and enjoyed. Some strong, cardamom-filled coffee ended the meal.

Also had some nice visits with old friends and new friends. Shared some wine and stories, raised some questions to ponder and answered a few with jokes and laughs along the way.

Saw a coyote stalk squirrels to no avail in the park, cat / house sat for a bit, experienced some extremely cold days, and snow has been on the ground just about every day of the year thus far.

Enjoyed working on a new screenplay script and being a part of the online reading of it. Some more art ended the month when I saw a production of Winter Solstice by Roland Schimmelpfennig. I think the pace, transparency, and immeidecy of the writing is engaging and extremely true to real life whilst capturing the heightened theatrics of family dynamics. The staging was minimal and I felt that everything onstage and the staging was necessary and that nothing superfluous was included. It made me excited to perform onstage and also to look back at writing projects of my own. It reminded me that you can be overt wen writing for the stage, it’s doesn’t have to be veiled as if talking to a person in real life-you can even create your own blend of the two.