Life in Cowtown

There’s a neighborhood in Calgary that’s called Marda Loop, named for the owners of Marda Theater demolished long ago.  It’s a pretty area, one of the few non-homogenized pockets of the city, owing to old houses and independent businesses. Every year Marda Loop hosts the Marda Gras Street Festival – a one day event that riffs on the culture of New Orleans, and is a fun outing aimed at families. The streets are shut-down, traffic re-routed and kids and dogs get equally excited.

I haven’t been in a few years, and this year a friend and I went over, spurred by her proximity to the festival and the gorgeous weather, something that’s been in short supply this summer.

Every store was spilled out onto the sidewalk:

There were booths everywhere, selling absolutely everything:

Clothes:

Shoes:

Sunglasses:

There was tons of entertainment too, like belly dancers:

A mime:

Sidewalk chalk:

And the largest cutest dog I’ve seen in ages – the size of a small pony:

And of course, the food.

Oddly enough there weren’t that many food vendors out, we only saw about five or so, but the set up was great, with each vendor having small, fixed price dishes that you could enjoy at one of the many outdoor tables.

First we saw the Red Tree:

Where we had some amazing ribs. Very flavorful and moist, they were a sweet and tangy treat.

Then we moved on to Rasoi:

Where we had great veggie samosas. Crunchy with a delicate filling, they were full of potatoey goodness.

And some beef kabobs, seasoned with masala and oven roasted peppers.

These were a mild disappointment. The kabobs were made out of some overly-ground beef and had a very mushy texture. The seasoning overpowered the meat and the sauce they were slathered in was simply not very good. The ‘roasted’ peppers were barely broiled on the bbq, and didn’t really offer any roasted flavor or texture.  But washed down with some Kingfisher Beer they still went down like a breakfast of champions, to the tunes of Santana played by local musicians on the patio.

And of course, the festivities weren’t complete without some mini-donuts.

All in all it was a great way to spend a Sunday, and I look forward to going back again.

I am a prolific dreamer. I’ve been blessed with the ability to dream frequently, often and in color. There are often times I wake up in the middle of the night and decide to fall right back into my dream. Provided it’s a good one, of course. I also have a number of recurring dreams, some of which I thought I’d share with you today, because it’s Friday.

For the record, I do not subscribe to dream interpretation. If I have a particularly insane dream I love to google the meaning, for kicks and entertainment, but just like reading your horoscope, I won’t ascribe any more significance than that to it. I believe dreams are a way for your brain to shake off the day, process some stress and relieve some boredom, for the most part. I also have a number of family anecdotes of prophetic dreams, so I don’t believe my theories 100% either. Is that confusing? What I’m trying to say is, I don’t know. But dreaming sure is fun:

• The staircase to nowhere dream: in this one I am coming home to my apartment on some floor or another, and the staircase abruptly ends at the missing landing. There is always a huge gap that I have to skirt on a narrow ledge to get to the next staircase. As I traverse this narrow ledge, in my head I’m asking myself ‘Why on god’s green earth do I live here? This is absurd!’ Even though I’m pretty scared of heights in real life, in this dream I’m not scared. Just baffled at my lodging choice.

• The hot air balloon dream: this one does play into my fear of heights, in it I am sitting on a tiny swing attached to a monstrous hot air balloon, soaring way way way above the ground. The earth looks like it does off an airplane on takeoff – miniature and green. I’m terrified of being up so high with no support system, and am again questioning my sanity in getting up there in the first place. It’s exhilarating but very discomforting.

• The flying chicken dream: Some people are comfortable soaring above the ground like Superman, enjoying their wingless prowess as they swoop and glide over their dreamscape. Not me. I can’t fly very well in my dreams. How sad is that? Instead of flying like an eagle, I fly like a chicken. Even see a chicken try to fly? Well, that’s pretty much what I do – push off solid objects like the ground and walls, and hover maximum ten feet above the ground before gently descending and needing another push.

• The crappy car dream: This is my own twisted version of the ‘being chased and can’t run dream’, only my lazy ass has a car in it. Running is for chumps. In this one, I’m in a little car that is the Little Engine That Couldn’t, and whomever is chasing me ON FOOT is having no problems keeping up.  I always want to pull a Fred Flintstone and use my feet to give it help, but I guess I get lazy and putt putt putt along barely ahead of my pursuers.

• The galactic water dream: I often have bodies of water in my dream, and they are stupendous. These dreams hardly ever have a point or a story, they are just me interacting with large bodies of water on a huge scale. At times I am on a boat in the ocean on a stormy night. The boat rides the primordial waves that are larger and more turbulent than anything I’ve seen in real life, which is not saying much since I’ve never done a long oceanic voyage. At times I’m in a vessel that could be a spaceship that is watching a galaxy sized whirlpool. The sheer size and power of these dreams is immense, but not scary. In the dream I have a healthy respect for the power of the waves but it’s not a fear at all. More like an acknowledgment that I’m a small voyager in a huge ocean of life but a part of it too.

Please feel free to share your favorite dreams, recurring or otherwise.  My all time favorite one time only dream was that I was kidnapped by leprechauns from Africa, and they drove a Jeep, and wanted an obscene amount of money for my release that was not forthcoming, but by then we were friends anyhow, so it didn’t matter. Analyze that.

Recently we had a tiny visitor, a small birdie that landed on the railing of the porch and chirped merrily away. He trilled and gurgled and in general made a great deal of noise for such a tiny guy.

He soon had a very appreciative audience.

They held an executive conference.

And Cheney was nominated for the honors of capture. Much bellowing and yelling ensued, while Alfie cheered him on from the sidelines, making that amazing hunting noise cats make.   Unfortunately for him, the pet proof screen we put in last year foiled the master plan. Them pet proof screens are amazing. They’ve destroyed several regular ones over the years mainly by hanging off them like Christmas ornaments off a tree.

Tweaks just watched impassively. She’s been down that road already.

And the birdie – didn’t even react. Just went about his chipper business. Cool customer that birdie.

P.S. The screens are available here. The service is awesome – they just come to your house with a truck and the screen fabric and install it on the spot. Well worth not having to replace screens every month.