Jowita Bydlowska was
born in Warsaw, Poland, and moved to Woodstock, Ontario, as a teenager.
Her work has appeared in an assortment of magazines, newspapers and online publications, including Salon, The Huffington Post and Hazlitt. Drunk Mom, Bydlowska’s memoir, is an account of her relapse into addiction after the birth of her son.
Hi Illusive Man!
Up at 6:37 am this morning to find Maggster waiting for me in the kitchen for her breakfast, poor little thing. Was very pleased to find her so vocal, demanding to be fed, as was her usual wont, before her deteriorating health affected her usual prodigious appetite. At any rate, I prepared her food, (We are now giving her small portions as often as she squeaks for more), and she ate everything and after rubbing up against my legs and "sanding" them with her chin, she settled on the throw rug in the hallway for a few minutes, sphinx-like, before returning to sleep beside Cora Lee, still snoring gently in our bedroom!
After spending the morning answering email and trying to make a dent in blog backlog I went to listen to Andreas Schroeder interview Jowita Bydlowska about her memoir,
Drunk Mom, according to her, "an imperfect account of the
events that occurred from 2009 to 2010 when I relapsed after three and a
half years of sobriety." I really like him, both as an author and as a
moderator. I had a chance to talk to him,
briefly, a few nights ago, and he mentioned, in passing, that he had
been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour a year or so ago so he has
had some considerable medical procedures to endure/recover from of
late.
Session was wonderful in spite of, or perhaps because of Jowita's harrowing tale. She is so articulate, (in spite of learning English as a teenager after her family emigrated to Canada), and was so relentlessly honest, without being an exhibitionist, that it was simply mesmerizing to listen to her tell her story, or as much as she could remember due to the endless blackouts which were part and parcel of her crippling addiction. Once again, Andreas was the perfect foil, his questions probed but did not violate.
Back home to do a few household chores, (The Islay Inn hurricane site still shows too, too many signs of post-extended holiday wreckage, flotsam, jetsam and other chaos produced disorder!), and run a quick errand to nearbye No Frills for a few groceries and then it was back to Granville Island Stage to the session: In The Beginning, with Amber Dawn, Helen Humphries, Priscila Uppal and Jowita Bydlowska, once again moderated by Andreas. Cora Lee was already there when I arrived, sititng with a close friend Tony, (She and her husband live in the same Co-Op, across from Spruce Harbour Marina, as Ragin', now only Sandy, of course, once did.), in front, side row. I thanked Tony for saving my seat and Cora Lee told me to buzz off! Last time I'm going to invite her to Languedoc!
Found my own seat a little higher up so I spit on The Sisterhood! (Funnily enough I had to ask a few other women to let me squeeze by to get to my seat. One of them had a cast on her right arm and we joked about it as I moved past her seat. After performance I met her outside, with Cora Lee. It was a former colleague at VPL, Jane Cobb. I knew her, but in passing only, so didn't recognize her. Had wondered why she wanted to belt me with her cast. The Sisterhood Polizei are everywhere!) This event was just as dramatic, perhaps even more so, than earlier session, because all the other women's stories were so incredible. I had heard Priscila at an earlier session but her memoir of the intensely emotional reunion with her mother, (not a positive experience for either of them), in Brazil, who had abandoned her twenty years before, is so gripping, and paradoxically, unbelievably funny, that it was wonderful to hear more and listen to her read more, about her quest.
Amber wrote some of her memoir, How Poetry Saved My Life: A Hustler's Memoir, about her experiences as a sex worker, almost a decade before she had it published. She is also a filmmaker and performance artist so she read one of her own poems, a very powerful, insightful piece about what it means to be human, within society at large, using the device of the john/prostitute encounter/relationship, as the starting point for her exploration/musings. I didn't know any of Helen's work, although Coriandre had read some of her novels. She read from Nocturne, which started as a private letter to her deceased brother. As she described it, it eventually turned into a work which examined the nature of grief itself, much like Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, or Joyce Carol Oats' A Widow's Story. Seemingly a different story from the one's told by the others until one relaized that they were all mourning, in some way, without trying to be simplistic, for the loss of something: a mother, innocence, or self, perhaps most apparent in Jowita's experience. Her reading, this time, was absolutely astounding and painfully funny as she chose a passage describing a therapy session with a psychologist in which she parallels her answers to his questions with the unrevealed, undisclosed thoughts and observations racing around in her brain as her startling perceptive mind dissects him attempting to dissect her.
The Sisterhood can certainly be proud of the strength and power and sheer talent shown by all four of these gifted authors. We all can, of course. Again, I made sure to congratulate Andrea for his consummate skill as moderator. He certainly contributed to the mix but did not dominate or overshadow the ensuing discussions, unlike some unnamed members of the The NRBC! Back home to suit up for another SP Circuit. Quite overcast, rather than foggy and the Seawall was almost deserted so I enjoyed that aspect. Funnily enough, quite a bit of traffic on the road around SP, not that that presented problems. Guess people were taking in sights from their vehicles rather than on foot. Few more commuter cyclists and joggers on return home. Pulled into The Islay Inn at 6:10 pm, just in time for a quick shower/change. Stats for ride:
Then it was back to Studio 1398 to set up bar. Session there was An Intimate Evening with Michel Tremblay and Bill Richardson was the interviewer. We'd both seen some of Tremblay's early plays in Winnipeg in the late '60's, early 70's and knew Bill from Winnipeg and then, more latterly, library connections here, so it was great to catchup a bit.
He, like Andreas, did a marvellous job and Tremblay was a delight to listen to. I was fascinated to learn more about his creative process and his fairly detailed comments on the difference between how he works as a playwright or a novelist. Who should be there as well but Nancy and Guy! Had a chance to talk to both of them, if only fairly briefly, both before and after the session. Invited them for a malt but they had visitors waiting at home. Quite a day and I was ready for bed by the time I was home. Cheers, Il Conduttore! P,
the MT has a PD day
today so I am anchored here. She was invited to a play date but wanted
time alone to read. How could I argue that?
If I could catch her I would tie her up.
Sunday and Monday may work for me for a morning ride.
I did get out to Mark's yesyerday to see his renos. Good ride in the sun. W
Hello everyone,
Hi Pat,
I am so very sorry to have taken so long to send these photos to
you. My story is long, so I’ll spare you. Believe me when I say that I
will feel and sleep much better, knowing that I’ve finally sent these
photos. I so appreciate the ones you have kindly,
and very quickly, sent to me.
Rick, I think you were going to forward the photos to Bill, once
you received them from me. I don’t have Bill’s email address, but maybe
you could send it to me.
Does anyone have June’s email address? She would probably like to have these photos, too.
I’m assuming that everyone has High Speed Internet and that it’s
okay to send 5 photos at once. I don’t know about compressing or
anything like that, so I hope it’s okay.
I won’t get chatty right now, except to say that I think of all of
you often and wish I’d had a better chance to visit and find out more
about everyone’s lives. At least there is email, but right now, my
priority is to send the long awaited photos. Take good care of yourselves, Hugs to all, Linda
PS: Please let me know if you receive the 5 photos okay.
When I emailed the photos yesterday, I did not have your email
address, so here it is now. I hope all is well with you. Please read my
message below...
I’m assuming that it is okay to share everyone’s email addresses, since we all wanted to share whatever photos we took. Take care, Linda
Hello everyone,
I just want to let you know that I have now forwarded the photos to
Pat. I didn’t have his email address with me yesterday, so have done it
today. Cheers, Linda
Hi Georgio!
I'm beginning to wonder if the Kits/Granville Island Peloton is going the way of the NRBC and the Dodo! Glad you made it to Marcus Aurelius' Golden Land!
Hi Georgio!
I'm beginning to wonder if the Kits/Granville Island Peloton is going the way of the NRBC and the Dodo! Glad you made it to Marcus Aurelius' Golden Land!
P,
some interesting events that you have been able to take in. Interesting observations on the audience that cannot sit still.Thanks for the recommendations to Tia.
We better start recruiting for the NRBC. We are soon going to have more authors ready to talk to us than we have readers.Monday forecast is sunny. Should be good for a ride and therapy session.
W
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