One year ago, I moved into my new place. One year ago today, to be exact. It’s a bit staggering to me that a whole year has passed, but in terms of where we are at globally with this friggen pandemic, seemingly not passed at all. But the following word jumble is NOT about the pandemic…ish…it’s about fucking Christmas. I hope that “fuck” does not scare you off. So, as of TODAY today? I’m laying in my bed, all comfy in fresh sheets, if not a bit sweaty from wrestling the fitted sheet on my Tempurpedic mattress because about fourty…

“Sharron, what do you think was the most important thing you learned this year…within the pandemic…with your trip into the forest and your cross country trip…just within it all?” Last week, I had an absolute life affirming blast during an interview with Shoshana Sperling and Lisa Brooke (you can find it at @orangeisthenewparkdale on INSTAGRAM). It happened at an exact moment in my life when I REALLY needed to feel affirmed. Like really really. You never really know when life is gonna hand you a left turn of the fucked-up description. Somedays, you guys, it feels like I’ve taken ten…

While I sit my apartment, drinking two fingers of MEDICINAL scotch, listening to the act one finale of Sunday in the Park with George for the 28th time, I KNOW I’m not the only fan of Sondheim who has felt compelled to sit down, and write about how this man changed their life. There is a bit of poetry in knowing I’m one of a million people writing their stories tonight, and though THAT VERY comforted me, it almost kept me from continuing to write…that fact and the following ghosts that are hovering in and around me: The ghost of…

 THIS is my orchid.   Very late last night, just before I went to bed, wearing slippers, underwear and a sweatshirt, I YOUTUBED it and staked her. To be clear, I was wearing the outfit, not my orchid...obviously. Just after the staking, from said bed, I ordered proper plant clips, but till they arrive, I lent her mine. Cute bangs, right? Given to me by Dave Campbell and Tim Webb after I sang at their 25th anniversary, I’ve had this orchid for just over three years. They gifted it to me the night I sang at their party, which was…

Today, my second last day on the road, my drive around northern Lake Superior, was INDEED amazing. Thank you to the sweet baby jesus and the bunnies…and also? The kitties. Let’s not forget the kitties. It's a long drive from Thunder Bay to Sault Ste Marie (7:25 without stops) and I wanted to do ALL the stops, so I left at 9:00am, because of the time change that makes the sun set at 3:00pm...or at least, that is what if feels like. THIS is my favourite part of the Ontario drive. MY FAVOURITE FUCKING PART. I drove out of the…

This picture was taken at the very top of a mountain, at the gorgeous (as you can well see) Kootenay Valley Lookout Point in Kootenay National Park, by a woman named Pat, who was in the middle of a drive from Seattle to Calgary, in her Hyundai Sonata. Pat was on the way to see her newly born granddaughter. Pat is a 72 year old retired nurse who is afraid to fly, is afraid to do anything alone really (so she told me) but really, really, really wanted to see her granddaughter something awful and has found herself standing with…

It’s bonkers the things we remember, right?…the little scraps of memories that we’ve torn off from the full stories of our lives, and stowed away for later, that pop into our minds at the weirdest times, but on further reflection, maybe NOT so much the weirdest times. Sometimes, the memories we save SEEM to make absolutely no sense. I mean, who really cares that you sat out front of your corner store when you were around 12 and ate Bottle Caps (the candy, people) in your favourite new sweater from the Biway on Concession Street? Is this memory about the…

Well, I’m almost ALL the way to my goal. Tomorrow, weather and the goddess permitting (there was a weather bomb out here...no joke, look it up!), I will reach Tofino. That will be a total of 4668 kilometres in my KIA, since October 9th, not counting side trips. Don’t clap for me yet, even spiritually, I still have to drive home…but I DON’T have to think about that, yet. In the moment, Matthews. Stay in the moment. Yesterday, I drove the almost five hours, from Jasper to Kamloops. It was hard to leave Jasper, I’m not going to lie. Being…

1981. Grade 9. Spring High School Dance. On that most fateful night, the Hill Park Secondary School gym had a very interesting and alluring mixture of smells...part Polo, part Jean Nate, with just a dash of...what is it now....oh yes...humiliation, thrown in for good measure. The dance wears on, and we find ourselves at the moment that RAISE A LITTLE HELL segue ways, NOT seamlessly may I add, into the dreamy intro of Stairway to Heaven...close your eyes humans and listen...can't you just hear it? Can't you just see it? I'm standing along the gym wall in my pink, drop…

Let’s scroll back in time a bit. Truth: I keep wanting to finish this, and put it up, but also, this trip is ALL about going with the flow…so I’m trying to be mindful of that and….wait a minute…you don’t really need to know my flowery issues. Just know that I started this last week. Okay. LAST WEEK, Ari took a picture of me on a hike in Thunder Bay. I’m not going to lie, in the middle of our hike, when we got to a particularly visually pleasing rocky and rolling section, we paused and had a WARRIOR photo…