What I did with my summer vacation...so far.

As you may or may not know, I have been writing a cartoon about my cat for just over 4 years now. I have had a lot of encouragement over the years to DO something with it and I have always resisted.

Resisted, for a number of reasons but maybe the main one being, I had doubts about it being good enough. Good enough for what? Well, I don't quite know. Why does it have to good enough? And good enough for who? And what is good enough anyways? Why do I have a hard time looking at Cooptown and claiming it's greatness. I am proud of it, but when someone new sees it, I get a little embarrassed. Which is ridiculous, because usually when someone new sees it they ask to be put on the mailout list.

Not everyone is going to enjoy it. That is the nature of the world. But I get feedback every week from (dare I say it) fans, who LOVE Cooptown and LOVE getting it every Tuesday. So when am I going to get on board and embrace it and be outwardly proud of it (instead of in secret)?

I believe that happened this week!

During my 6 weeks off work, I made a goal for myself to self publish a Cooptown book. I started by researching online self-publishing companies and after careful consideration chose Lulu. I then spent a couple of hours every day, picking out my favourites, redrawing them, scanning, uploading, converting, arranging, fixing, cropping, straightening, etc, etc, etc. Until I had 64 of my best all ready to go.

I had intended on putting 65 in the book and when it came down to my last week of holidays and I had done 64, I did what I do and just stopped all production. I took a couple of days off but in the back of my mind I just kept saying to myself "One more left, don't stop now! Finish it! Follow through!"

Finally one night, I stayed in and had every intention of picking one more, redrawing it, scanning, cropping, converting, uploading etc, etc, etc. And at 8:30 that night, I hadn't even picked up a pencil. I finally realized that I wasn't going to do it. I wasn't going to follow though and finish it. I had one moment of complete self annoyance "What the hell is wrong with me!?" and then I realized that there is absolutely nothing wrong with me.

Instead of struggling to not be me, why not give in to being me and leave the book as it was - at 64. That way IT WAS ALREADY FINISHED. As soon as I realized that I was making up the rules and that I could change them to suit me, my heart lept into my throat and I got a little teary and a lot dancy. (I danced around my apartment for a full 5 minutes - rejoicing that I finished my Cooptown project). I went onto the website and hit 'complete'. It did it's thing and 3 minutes later, I got an email saying my book was ready for printing.

OMG - my book. My BOOK. MY BOOK!
I HAVE A BOOK!

I clicked on 'buy' and ordered one copy to be mailed to me. I wanted to see it before going crazy and ordering stacks of them. I wanted to hold it in my hands and flip through it. I'll be honest here - I wasn't expecting much from it. On the website, it looks a little grainy and pixelated so I was preparing myself for it to look only ok. Plus you know, I still felt a little sheepish about the whole thing - who would want a Cooptown book?

It came in the mail on Friday. I got home from work and had a notice in my mailbox that there was a package for me to pick up. I went and got it and then walked up the street to meet Stef. It was in a box all sealed up and I grinned like the Cheshire cat and giggled all the way to meet Stef. We got to her car and I tore it open.

Cooptown by kt

I have a book. A self published one but a book nonetheless.
We got in the car and drove downtown (we were meeting LT, Jdub and 4 year-old Lizzie for WALL-E) and I spent the whole drive kind of in awe. I flipped through it quickly and then again more slowly, I smelled it and held it up to the window as we drove past people mouthing to them "I wrote this" "This is my book."

I re-read each comic and for the first time I thought to myself "This is really good." Seeing it in this format finally made me see what everyone else sees.

I am so excited about my Cooptown book. It is beautiful.

It is also for sale! It's the perfect coffee table book! You can order it off of the website or you can order it from me. The price is the same either way ($15) but if you order it from me and live in my city or are going to see me soon, then you don't have to pay any shipping fees - and they are spendy. If you want to order it and you live in a different city than me, then I can probably ship it to you for cheaper than Lulu will.

Here is the link to Cooptown online.

Oh, and did I mention, I have a book!

My life's purpose!

If you found out that you were dying, what would you do with your time left on earth?

And why aren't you doing that anyways?


These two thoughts ran through my head last Sunday. The first thought came to me and as I was frantically listing what I might do with my limited time left, the second thought came to me.
Why aren't I doing that anyways?
Why aren't I?

Why? Well, I've got a load of reasons and excuses but they are all incredibly lame. I wrote a list about a year ago about all the things I wanted to do, be and have before I die. And then, because I'm not dying, I tucked the list away and got on with doing nothing.

So here is just one thing that I want to do with my life. I want to support and inspire other people to live their best lives. I want all of us to be making the most out of what we've got.

A year ago I went through a process to figure out and define my life's purpose. I am sure there are as many different ways to do that as there are people in the world but I followed Jack Canfield's system of figuring out your life's purpose. It is in his book The Success Principles.

What I came up with is this;

My life's purpose is to use my creativity and enthusiasm to support and inspire others to live their best lives in authentic and harmonious ways.

So now, I am going to make this happen. I have a plan brewing in my mind and I am working on making it a reality.

What to do, what to do.

It is definitely time for a new post and while a lot has happened recently - my sister's wedding for example - I find it so much easier to write about smaller things than a big event.

Having said that, I will say that the wedding was great. We had a lot of fun and the ceremony was beautiful. I am so happy for my sister and Jason and know that they will have a long and happy life together.

I have three days off before I go back to work and I am not quite sure what to do with myself to make the most of them. I feel like I should be doing something that I am not going to be able to do during the day while I'm working but then I realized that pretty much involves everything from chilling out at home doing nothing, to going to the beach and reading or going to a matinee. Running errands, cleaning, visiting friends - there is so much that I could do so I guess the real problem is that I don't know what I want to do.

The walk that fed my soul.

Well, it turns out, I did neither (see previous post). Before I even logged off of the computer, Stefanie asked me if I wanted to go for a walk and as it turned out, that was exactly what I wanted to do.

We wandered up the street. Other than the house next door, the lots are all empty. They have the beginnings of paved driveways that end abruptly in a pile of dust and dirt just five feet onto the property. The trees are tall and beautiful and are interspersed with the unmistakable red bark of the arbutus trees that pepper the coastline here. Ok, that's it for my poetic writing.

We saw an older couple at the top of the first little hill, sitting on a rock and drinking beer. He was throwing rocks as far as he could and they were laughing and happy. As we walked past they were both saying "battah-battah-battah-battah-suhwwwiiiinnnggg battah!" We exchanged pleasantries and once we were out of earshot, Stef and I speculated that they were sitting there dreaming about the house they are going to build on that lot.

We meandered up and down the hills and talked about life, love, God and nature. I told Stefanie that this was so exactly what I wanted to be doing and that these kinds of walks totally feed my soul and make me happy. We turned around and planted ourselves on a rock looking out at the view and sat there talking and baking in the sun.

The property in front of where we were sitting dropped off in a steep cliff so that the lower branches of the tallest trees were at about eye level for us. I pointed to the tree directly ahead and said, "Dear God, please send us an eagle that will swoop down behind us so we can hear it's wings and have it land on that branch right there. Sincerely, kt."

About 5 seconds later a robin swooped in and landed on the equivalent branch on the tree beside the one I pointed to. ST and I looked at each other in surprise.

"Dear God, good job! Now, please send us an eagle and have it land on that branch right there. Sincerely, kt."

The "sincerely, kt." made Stef and I both erupt in giggles.

Again, about 5 seconds later another robin swooped in and landed on the branch below the one I was pointing to. ST and I looked at each other again in amazement and we laughed.

I need to point out here that it wasn't like these were two robins of many. These were the only two robins to have landed in these trees the whole time we were sitting there.

"Dear God, excellent job, thank you! This time I want you to really blow my mind and send us an eagle to that branch right there. Sincerely, kt."

We giggled and waited. After a minute or so, I said "I guess sometimes you have to wait to get what you ask for". We sat and talked and after another few minutes all of a sudden Stefanie exclaimed, "Oh my God, look over there!"

Over to our right and behind us a bit, an eagle was swooping in. It stayed to our right though and landed in a tree a few lots away. We figured that was the eagle that God sent us, so we decided to walk over there. It took us a minute to find the eagle in the tree but we did and it wasn't alone. It was in a nest with at least one other eagle.

We stood and watched it for a while. It swooped out of the nest and flew right past where we had be sitting and then curved back around to come back to it's nest. It flew in a tight bend around a tree and we heard a loud snap! It had a rather large twig in it's talons and was flying back home. We watched it do this another 2 or 3 times. Each time we were in awe and thankful to be watching such an amazing thing.

We walked back up the hill and found the rock that the couple had been sitting on. It was the perfect rock for two so Stef and I sat down on it. To the left of my foot, one of them had arranged 4 twigs into a square and I pointed it out to Stefanie. My gaze shifted more to the left and I noticed more twigs in shapes. It spelled something. I love poo too.

We laughed and laughed and reframed our impression of couples in their 50's.

We sat there for a while longer and finally headed back to the house. It was the perfect way to spend a beautiful afternoon and I am so glad that Stefanie suggested it.

Pender Harbour

This is going to be a short post because I really should not be sitting in front of a computer right now. I am up in Pender Harbour with my sisters and some friends and everyone is out on the deck right now listening to Dane Cook. The view is spectaular and the weather is perfect; warm but not hot, cloudy but not overcast.

I am having a great time and am just now trying to decide how to spend my next half hour. I could open a beer and go join the gang on the patio or I could pour a glass of red wine and grab my very delicious book and curl up on a comfy chair.

I think I just made my decision - I added adjectives to only one of those options, I think that means something.

Simon's Cat 'Let Me In!'

Links to really cool things.

While perusing the interweb today, I came across some very cool things that I'd like to share.







These are really beautiful pictures of the earth taken from space. Incredibly humbling and awe inspiring. There are three in a row that I find particularly breathtaking. They are about halfway down the page starting with the dust storm over the Sahara Desert. Truly magnificent!http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/06/the_sky_from_above.html






Next we have classic photos redone using Lego. I am impressed that someone had this vision and carried it through to the finished product. Very fun to check out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/sets/72157602602191858/detail/


A Cooptown follower and fan sent me a link to this Youtube video of an animated cat trying to come inside. Very cute and funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rb8aOzy9t4
or watch it above!

Well that`s it for today!
kt