Thursday, July 12, 2012

Oh DannyBoy It's Spiderman



Hello All

Those of you who know me, know that I tend to be a very silly person. I can be very serious, I actually have short fuse which MAY surprise you! Ok, probably not. Unfortunately, many of you have been around when I've sort of...blown up. What can I say; I'm not very good at hiding my emotions. Some days, I'm honestly surprised that anyone talks to me.

But I digress...

And...back to silly. That's me! I love performing and when I was younger, I was all about being very DRAMATIC and making people cry. Now, not so much. I love to make people laugh. Plus, being silly is just more fun.

Last year, at a Miramichi Kitchen Party on the Irish Festival weekend I participated outside of my comfort zone: I sang. Normally I serve and clear the desserts and whatnot, but until that night, I'd never worked up the courage to volunteer to bust out a tune. Now, you may be confused. Welcome to my world. It's a glorious place confusion, is it not? Are you not sure? Have you forgotten what we're talking about? Are you confused? Welcome to my world....

OOOPs! Ok, I'm back. Now, you may be confused and be thinking "But, Cindy, why would singing be out of your comfort zone? I thought you loved to perform!" And oh, my trusty blog fans, you are correct, but I'm only super duper in my comfortable performing zone when I'm ACTING. When I sing, I feel more like "ME" than another person and "ME" gets nervous about singing. "ME" will get a tight throat and sing like a church mouse. "ME" has hardly ever sung solo in public.

So the cure for calming annoying, throat clogging, vocal chord tightening nerves is simple: Sing a Silly Song.

Last year at the Miramichi Kitchen Party I mentioned before, I sang a most glorious rendition of "Spiderman" to tune of the Irish Classic "Danny Boy". It was a feat of glory that I hope to repeat tomorrow evening, but as sneaky peak for all you out there in Blog Land, I give you the video version.

Here you go my dears. a little song I like to call 
"SPOIDERMAN".




I hope you enjoyed this extremely silly moment, brought to you by me. It's not the best quality video I'll grant you, but I think you can still really feel the raw emotion that is felt when one sings about Spiderman and all that he does for his city.  I'd like to send out an apology to the lovely Irish man who witnessed me sing this last year. After the show he came up to me, shook his fist and said "Tanks a lot! Now I won't be able to 'ear Danny Boy without hearin' bloody Spoiderman!"

I wonder if he'll ever find it in his heart to forgive me...

Good night my fans and remember to always be,

As Silly as Cin

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The Tradition of Change

Hello All

I wrote this article yesterday for Bread 'N Molasses, a local online magazine that features many great writers from around the area and the province. Once again, they have kindly published a story I have written and this story is actually the second published about Sorcha and her Canada Day dress.

Enjoy,
Cin



The Tradition of Change
By Cindy Rule

A couple years ago I wrote an article for Bread 'N Molasses about a tradition in our family. Some of you may recall the story of my daughter, her Canada Day dress and a picture. For those of you who are not familiar with the tale, Sorcha was given a dress decked out with Canadian flags when she was 20 months old. The dress is a sort of tent style cut which means that as long as we can get it over her head, it will fit her.
Every year on Canada Day Sorcha wears her dress and while she holds a picture of herself from the year before wearing the dress, we snap another picture. The dress became less of a dress and more of a shirt by the 4th picture and by the 6th, a bit too snug under the arms to have on comfortably for very long. And even when the dress started to become difficult to put on, the picture was still taken because that's our tradition.

Last year, we didn't think the dress would fit, but with a bit of struggling we managed fandangle Sorcha into the garment. As she smiled dutifully for her picture we assumed that the photo taken on Canada Day 2012 would be quite different. We assumed that more than likely she would be not only holding the 2011 picture but the dress as well.

But we were wrong. The dress still fits.

This year, instead of Sorcha posing with last year's photo in front of door in our house, the dress was taken south to Florida and my parents happily carried out our traditional picture taking on Canada Day in Disney World. For the 10th Canada Day in a row, Sorcha donned the beautiful little dress and with her favourite Disney character Goofy, the Canada Day photo was snapped. 


She looks happy, she looks older... she looks uncomfortable. It is quite obvious that this year's picture will definitely be the last one taken in this manner. We're not quite sure what we'll do next year as I in no way wish to alter the dress to fit Sorcha. Like many things in life, change is common and even traditions have to change from time to time if you want to keep them going.  Sorcha outgrowing the dress was an inevitable happening and as she changes and grows so will our tradition.

Unfortunately, some changes are ones you don't expect.

The first picture taken of Sorcha in her Canada Day dress, the one taken in 2003 that started it all, was taken at a Canada Day party in the back yard of the parents of a friend of ours. Our friend's parents have held this annual party at their place for many years and every year, as the people attending get older, the yard becomes filled with more children and grandchildren, new spouses and new friends.

This year however, the party was not only filled with laughter, children, games, old friends and new, but also with sadness. The host of the party, Pat, had passed away in April. Donna, his wife, wanted to keep up the tradition as it was an event that Pat loved and it was one of the only times of the year that this group of people all got together. Unfortunately, we were not there for it, but we were told that at one point Pat's son Sean gave a touching toast to his father and everyone at the party had moment of silence for Pat.

In the article I wrote 2 years ago, I talked about how the picture was not just a tradition, but a reflection of how our lives had changed over the years. It showed the passage of time, the changes in Sorcha and presented to the world our history as a family. Now, the Canada Day pictures that we have taken of our daughter every year for the past 9 years have gained a deeper meaning. To me these precious photos now say that while things will change around you and events good and bad will occur that you did or didn't expect, life is still beautiful and certain traditions, even if they change from year to year, should be and need to be continued.

Pat, this one's for you.