LIX - Newsletter

Hey LIX Chicks,

If any of you have tips for teaching a seven-year-old how to skip rope, please send them along to me. Picture this...my partner, Lucy, butch cabinet-maker extraordinaire, who never played skipping as a child (she says the cute French girls in her neighbourhood were the skippers; she just watched them with admiration and pre-pubescent lesbian lust!). Anyway, there's Lucy attempting to break skipping down into several logical steps in order to figure it out for herself and then teach our daughter, Ana. Meanwhile, I'm doing my femme thing...merrily skipping away...singing the "5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30...." song quietly so I don't interrupt the lesson that Lucy is giving Ana. I'm a fabulous skipper! I skipped my brains out during elementary school! But I don't know how I do it. I don't remember being taught. I think perhaps femme dykes are born knowing how to skip. Anyway, I left them out there so I could come in to write this newsletter. Last time I looked out the window, they'd switched to basketball...way more butch! Lucy looks decidedly more comfortable.

On with this month's report. The LIX dinner/speaker meeting was a rip-roaring success! The food was excellent...thanks to the amazing talents of Carolyn, the owner of The Pantry. Our guest writers, Alex Brett and Helen Humphreys, had us totally enthralled as they each read from their work and then kindly stayed for a question and answer session. Alex gave us a special sneak preview into her latest mystery novel, tentatively entitled The Liar's Lab. Helen read from her haunting and evocative novel, Wild Dogs. What a treat to listen to this award-winning author! Warm thanks to Alex and Helen for honouring us LIX Chicks at our winter dinner/speaker meeting. And a special thanks to Helen's partner, Valerie, for coming outside and smoking with me...thanks girlfriend! [click here for photos]

At our April coffee meeting, the five-minute infomercial was given by moi! And I did a fabulous job if I do say so myself! I have to admit that I needed a boot in the backside from the other gals on the Steering Committee. It's way too easy for me to put in a ton of volunteer hours to LIX and then not promote my own business through the networking venue that we've created. So thanks Kerry, Wendy and Lucy for the kick in the pants. Here's a bit about me and the work that I love.

I am a counsellor in private practice and a workshop trainer/facilitator. Here's a bit of background...I came out as a lesbian over 35 years ago and jumped right into community organizing and queer activism with both feet. I'm a 54 year-old outspoken lipstick lesbian, recovering drug addict, and a cancer survivor. I lost my three closest gay male friends to AIDS. I've been counselling since 1987. I worked at the AIDS Committee of Toronto for six years during the days when death from HIV-related illnesses was at its height. I left in 1993 when I was up to about 300 deaths and desperately needed to heal myself before I carried on. I began private practice work later that year.

I thought it was important to share all this information during my infomercial because I believe that the most important thing that I bring to my practice is life experience. Nothing like having had cancer myself to give me a profound understanding of what it's like to be scared shitless about dying. Nothing like losing my best friends and hundreds of my clients to AIDS to teach me what grief and bereavement is all about. And I know from my own struggles with addiction, that there were times when I needed a counsellor who had been there herself. I needed to do my healing work with someone who 'got it'; someone who could provide me with a 'mirror' into my own behaviour and not judge me.

I love being a counsellor. I have seen clients make incredible changes in their lives. I feel privileged to support and guide people as they learn to build respectful, balanced relationships. As they begin to meet life's issues and challenges from a place of pride and self-confidence. As they gain the insights and understanding that allow them to make choices that bring happiness and contentment to their lives. It's a pleasure and an honour to open the door to my counselling room each day. I recently bit the bullet and entered the world of cyberspace advertising by getting my own web site. Please visit at www.talktomarie.com.

Well that's odd, I don't hear the sound of a bouncing basketball any longer and there's the delicious smell of baking cookies wafting up the stairs. Guess Lucy and Ana have had the biscuit (pardon the pun) with sports for the day! Think I'll go and sample the goods. Plus there are 29 (count them) Upcoming Events of Interest for you to check out in this issue. Who says the Ottawa LGBT community is invisible?

Special Interest Groups and Activities:

1. Conversational French Classes. The conversational French group has just wound up a very fun and successful 3 month class and are planning their next 3 month session to start in April. They've booked their teacher and will be meeting on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. If you're interested in joining them for this next session, or have any questions, please contact Sibyl at sibylfrei@rogers.com. Women of all levels of ability are invited.

2. Women's Beach Volleyball. Elizabeth is trying to get together a team of about nine women for the Women's Beach Volleyball Games held at Mooney's Bay. The league is run by the city. Games are Monday evenings between 6:00 - 9:00 and run from May 28th until August 13th. The cost is $68.50 per player. If you're interested in joining, please contact Elizabeth at elizabeth.youngman@ottawa.ca.