RSS Feed

‘Gail at Large’ Category

  1. Virtual Newspaper Clippings

    May 1, 2013 by Gail

    Gail at Large in Chicago

    at large in Chicago

    I’ve been way too busy lately shooting and editing to do as much reading on the internet that I like, so I’ve been virtually snipping articles in the Evernote extension in Chrome to read later. Here’s a link dump now that I’ve read most of them; you may find them interesting, too:


  2. Cat Not Included

    April 20, 2013 by Gail

    haircut

    I make no bones about the fact I find no joy in getting my hair “done” — a term that conjures up images of ladies in the Deep South wearing gloves and gossiping under those round helmet hair dryers. So I try to go only twice a year, with maybe a third chop in December if my hair is really starting to get on my nerves.

    It’s April and about four months since my last cut, and my hair is really starting to get on my nerves. I was blowdrying it at the gym, and decided I was wasting too much time blowdrying when I could be doing more important things with that time, like hanging out longer in the hot tub after the workout. (You didn’t think I was going to say longer workouts, did you? That would require brainwashing.)

    I got lucky today. I parked my car randomly in Koreatown, in a spot which happened to be next to some stairs leading up to a hairdresser who’d just opened up shop with insanely low introductory prices. I had lunch, walked in, and 20 minutes later she’d cut it and flatironed it for $20 before tip. A fantastically cheap lunch (I don’t think they made any money off me) AND a haircut for less than $27 for both is like finding money on the sidewalk!


  3. London, February 1993

    March 26, 2013 by Gail

    landed in London... I can't believe they let me in

    age 20

    It’s the kind of day that made me want to go home and crawl into bed immediately. In a troubled state of mind, I opted to distract myself by falling down the rabbit hole that is my photo archive. It works, simply because the archive is so deep. I scanned this photo in November 2005 and I could’ve sworn I’d blogged it, but a search turned up nothing.

    It’s an ancient photo that’s more than 20 years old, and I have a such an odd expression. But it represents an eventful time in my life after bumming around for more than 14 months in Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia and landing in the UK alone from Thailand with US$250 in my pocket, no credit card, and no work visa. Of course I got interrogated, and they confiscated my address book, but Passport Control let me in after something remarkable happened, a complete fluke that would likely never happen today. (It’s a story I can only tell in person. Ask me sometime.)

    This photo is a reminder to myself that it’s highly possible to take an objectively lousy situation and turn it around.

    From the archives: February 1993 – “landed in London… I can’t believe they let me in”

    Saint Simeon Hotel, Kensington. I’ve stayed there many times since, and it looks EXACTLY the same, right down to the fake plants.

    I have a strange look on my face. It was probably the 2.5 hour long interrogation at Heathrow Airport the previous evening, for flying in on a one-year-open ticket from… Bangkok.


  4. When I Was 15; Now That I’m 40

    February 18, 2013 by Gail

    Église St-Germain-des-Prés

    Église St-Germain-des-Prés, Paris

    While searching in my archives for something else this evening, something really banal like an invoice I’d sent last year, I came across this text file titled “When I was 15″. My hard drive is littered with text files, mind-dumps at odd hours which — sometimes and eventually — grow into blog posts. According to the date on this one, it sat around for more than two years, waiting for an ending.

    The year that I was 15 was probably the worst one I can remember. There were several incidents that drove me to my mother’s overstuffed medicine cabinet to find an alternative solution. I chickened out, but my school sent me to a psychologist who I’ll never forget. He was a very gentle and kind person who eventually talked me into returning to school. It was a bit of a miracle, but I made it to 17, and I almost didn’t graduate, but the point is I did. It’s no wonder I didn’t want to go to my high school reunion — those years were pretty awful!

    Fast forward to 2007. I happened to be in Vancouver over Easter, and attended a memorial service while I was there. I bumped into the psychologist. Despite the sadness of the memorial and that more than 20 years had passed, he remembered me. I was enthusiastic about seeing the psychologist again and told him how much of a difference he made in my life at the time. David had passed away only a year and a few months before, but I’d already come a long way — I’d moved back to Canada, found a good job, was making my way through aviation ground school. I was coping with much more difficult issues than the ones I had at 15, and without a therapist.

    I’m not quite sure where I was going at the time when I typed out the story of the psychologist into a text file, other than that I wanted to inform him of a happy ending, since otherwise how would he know? If I’d bumped into him now, I’d be able to give him an even happier ending, but relatively-speaking it was good news back then, especially considering the circumstances surrounding our unexpected reunion.

    Now that I’m 40 and 25 years away from that terrible time, I can look back with relief that I’d overcome my self and created a new one who is better-equipped at managing stress and developing coping strategies. If I had a chance to time-travel and talk to my 15-year old self, I know what I would tell her about her future — that it was bright and she would be more in control and this would be a distant memory. That life would give her more opportunities, better role models, more forks in the road, if she would just stick it out for two more years and finish school.

    But of course we don’t have the chance to talk to our younger selves, but we remember those who do. I’m thankful that my school sent me to a psychologist who was able to get through to me at a time when I didn’t want to listen to anybody. I know this is not the case for all teenagers in this fragile phase in life, and those who carry major issues into adulthood without dealing with them can suffer and make those around them suffer as a consequence. Some teenagers don’t even make it that far. I could easily have been one of them.

    Here’s to all the adults who take teenage problems seriously, not trivializing them, helping youth get past the difficulties to reach adulthood safely. Thank you, JG!


  5. Happy Chinese New Year!

    February 10, 2013 by Gail

    Toronto-20130209-00360

    This is my first post in nearly a week. But, where is the Chinese food? There’s lots, but all out of the photo. There’s a friend plucking at a guitar, while some others are drinking various beverages and playing Pandemic. Others are out of the frame playing video games. The familiarity and normalcy of this scene is very comforting to me.

    So what does this photo have to do with Chinese New Year?

    Well, first of all, it is and that’s what the gathering is for.

    More rice? Yes, please!

    Secondly, there’s lots to celebrate right now — just the past week alone I’ve got a whopping list of reasons to bring out the fireworks. Year of the Snake? Bring it on!

    However crappy the phone pic is, it sums up quite nicely my sentiment last night about celebrating Chinese New Year with friends after my airport run: I’m grateful for my life and the people in it, and I’m especially grateful to everyone involved with my well-being over the past week, that I can enjoy the simple pleasures of eating and hanging out on a Saturday winter night. I’m back!

    And I am so very grateful.


  6. Protected: Turning 40 series – Goal Achieved

    February 5, 2013 by Paulo

    This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:


  7. One Week

    January 29, 2013 by Gail

    Untitled

    In one week I will:

    • reach the final stage of the Turning 40 Series, just shy of one year from its beginning
    • find out what I’m made of
    • put someone’s love to the test
    • have some new experiences
    • make people very emotional
    • make people very scared
    • uphold my values and beliefs (not just talk about them).

    There will be some protected posts starting February 5, it’s the same password as for the Turning 40 Series. (I won’t be the only one posting.) T minus 7…