This is my Dad’s adopted sister, Bobbie.

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She has lived a tumultuous life of pain, sorrow and heartache.

She has seen things no one should ever see and experienced things no one should ever experience.

Throughout her life, she searched for her birth mother.

A tiring quest that would get her hopes up only to have them crash.

Leads that would lead to dead ends.

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Until a couple of weeks ago.

After 55 years of being apart, they found each other.

I asked Bobbie, ‘have you always felt like there’s been a part of you missing? That you’ve never been quite whole?’

And she replied, ‘yes, that’s exactly how I feel.  I feel whole.  I’m finally happy.’

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Happy Mother’s Day

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‘Can I please take your portrait?’

I have long had the dream of capturing a ballerina and meeting Jayne makes me believe even further that every person who crosses our path does so for a reason and purpose.

This is not the last you will be seeing of the beautiful and talented Jayne.

~

“Consciousness expresses itself through creation. This world we live in is the dance of the creator.

Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on.

On many an occasion when I am dancing, I have felt touched by something sacred.

In those moments, I felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that exists.

I become the stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I become the victor and the vanquished.

I become the master and the slave. I become the singer and the song. I become the knower and the known.

I keep on dancing then it is the eternal dance or creation.

The creator and creation merge into one wholeness of joy.

I keep on dancing…and dancing…and dancing.

Until there is only…the dance.”

-Michael Jackson

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These were taken at the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts.

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My beautiful sister.

xoxo

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Meet my friend, Amy.

Actor, model and Katharine Hepburn channeller.

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Replica rifle courtesy of Noble Street Antiques

Dogs courtesy of Ky’s Guy’s Pet Sitting

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Here is my story of the greatest school I’ve attended.

While I was in high school I got a part time job at a very small daycare attached to a vet clinic called Hog N’ Dogs; the vet clinic had a resident pot bellied pig. Towards the end of high school, I debated what I was going to do with my life.  Everyone else was going to University, so I figured I should too.  I applied to different programs, got accepted and quit my job because I thought I’d be going to Uni. But it just didn’t feel right.  I hated school and the idea of going somewhere to read a lot and write essays and study and take exams was a nightmare.  But my friends all went.  One was studying to be a pilot, one was a history major and a bunch were working their way to become teachers.  Some stayed near home and some were across the country.  At this time I had a mild identity crisis, felt a bit like a lost soul and a failure.  I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.

I dabbled in acting at one point.  Sorry, I should clarify that.  I dabbled in background acting.  I am in Mean Girls for 10 seconds and the back of my head is in every episode of Radio Free Roscoe Season 1, one of Toronto’s greatest pre teen shows in my opinion.  As much as I loved the fake talk acting, getting my face powdered every day and stealing snacks from the craft table, I didn’t want to do it forever.  At one point one of my extra friends told me to sign up with her talent agency AAT.  They signed me, surprisingly, and sent me to an audition.  When I showed up, the people looked at me strangely but allowed me to audition and subsequently make a fool out of myself.  I later found out that AAT stood for Asian Action Talent and the audition was for an Asian person.  I didn’t get the part.  It was then that I decided I needed to really figure out my shit.  I was only 18 but everyone else seemed to have a vague idea of what they wanted to do so I should too, right?  I handed my resume out all over town to restaurants.  Maybe I wanted to be a waitress? They make good money and it looks like fun, why not?  I got hired at a diner and after my first shift I decided to not go to the rest of my shifts and quit without telling them.  That was an asshole move, I know.  So once again, I was unemployed.   I thought long and hard about what I should do and remembered this dog daycare that I would drive by on a daily basis.  Hmmmm, I previously worked at a daycare and enjoyed it, maybe I should hand in my resume there?  So I did and I was hired a few days later.  It’s now been nine years.  NINE YEARS!  That’s a long time but I honestly can’t imagine spending the past nine years anywhere else.  Within this time I’ve gone to some different schools with the idea of possibly changing careers.  I am a graduate of the Toronto Institute of Bartending. Really Alex? That one still makes me laugh. I would win the award for Most Awkward and Timid Bartender if I followed through with it.  I also attended The Canadian School of Natural Nutrition.  How contradictory can you get?  Learning how to fix alcoholic drinks and then learning how to fix your body from the damage of said drinks.  Needless to say, I never followed through with either of those because I honestly couldn’t face leaving Dogeden and once again, it just didn’t feel right.  So I followed my gut.  I stayed and I learned, and boy did I learn.

I have learned all about dogs; the different breeds, behaviours and temperaments.  I have learned what it means to be patient, what it means to forgive and what unconditional love means.  I have learned how to communicate without using words, how to be a leader and how to gain respect.  I have learned what being present truly means and how to live in the moment. I have learned that yelling, anger and physical force gets you nowhere, but calmness, understanding and confidence does. I have learned how to block out sounds and how to ignore the most annoying behaviours.  I have learned to ignore the negative but praise the positive.  I have learned that I am better at communicating with animals and children than adults and that if I can be comfortable controlling a room of 60 dogs, I can handle anything that comes my way.

These animals are more than just dogs, they’ve been my teachers.  Some I have known the whole time, some for only a little while.  Some I have seen grow up from puppyhood and some I’ve met later in their lives.  Some I love more than anything in the world and some test my patience more than anything in the world.  But they’ve all impacted me in different ways and have taught me a lot about myself.

I truly believe that if I didn’t work here and learn what I have, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today and Wild Eyed Photography would have never happened.

Meet some of my friends.

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The Sporting Group

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 Riley

Brittany Spaniel

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Brownie

Chesapeake Bay Retriever 

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 Matisse

Golden Retriever

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 Ginger

Labrador Retriever

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Nova

Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever 

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The Non-Sporting Group

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 Puff

American Eskimo

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 Rolo

English Bulldog

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 Sophie

French Bulldog

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 Pepper

Boston Terrier

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 Rosie

Bichon-Frise

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Remy

Standard Poodle

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The Herding Group

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Boomerang

Australian Shepherd 

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 Carly

German Shepherd

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 Ripley

Shetland Sheepdog

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Faith

Border Collie

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The Toy Group

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Bagger

Coton de Tulear

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Coco

Shih Tzu

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Bubba

Pug

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 Justin

Yorkshire Terrier

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 Drew

Chinese Crested Dog

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The Terrier Group

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Cece

Jack Russell Terrier

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 Hamish

West Highland Terrier

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 Kellie

Cairn Terrier

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 Randall

Another Jack Russell Terror, I mean Terrier

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The Hound Group

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 Connor

Basenji

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 Gertie

Beagle

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Louis

Dachshund

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The Working Group

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Bella

Rottweiler

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Maya

Bullmastiff

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 Leo

Samoyed

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Mo Chuisle

Portuguese Water Dog

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Nell

Leonberger

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 Sensei

Akita

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 Stella

Great Dane

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Journey

Boxer

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 Guinness

Standard Schnauzer

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 Duchess

Bernese Mountain Dog

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Titus

Siberian Husky

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 Dakota

Doberman

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The Mutts

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 Ben I

Jack Russell + Pug = Jug

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 Lucy

Chihuahua + Dachshund = Chiweenie

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Marbles

English Bulldog + Beagle = Bugle

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Max

Golden Retriever + Standard Poodle = Goldendoodle 

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Mocha J

Pug + Beagle = Puggle 

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 Odyn

English Bulldog + French Bulldog + Pug = ?

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If you live or work in Markham, send your pooch to Dogeden so I can be friends with him/her!

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These are all iPhone  images.

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Spaghetti, spaghetti, all over the place,

Up to my elbows—up to my face,

Over the carpet and under the chairs,

Into the hammock and wound round the stairs,

Filling the bathtub and covering the desk,

Making the sofa a mad mushy mess.

The party is ruined, I’m terribly worried,

The guests have all left (unless they’re all buried).

I told them, “Bring presents.” I said, “Throw confetti.”

I guess they heard wrong

‘Cause they all threw spaghetti!

-Shel Silverstein

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It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig,

is clad with radiance.’

-William Sharp

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]]> http://www.wildeyed.ca/nicole-and-david/feed/ 1 http://www.wildeyed.ca/morocco/ http://www.wildeyed.ca/morocco/#comments Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:15:18 +0000 admin http://www.wildeyed.ca/?p=1683 In the middle of our Spain trip we did a little hop, skip and a jump across the strait to Tangier, Morocco for two days.

Morocco has long been on my list of places I neeeeed to experience and while I’m incredibly grateful I got to see what I did,

it just left me hungry for more.

 I will be back, hopefully sooner than later.

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I will end this post by telling you a story about one of the funniest experiences of my life.

After getting settled into our apartment rental, we ventured into town to explore.  We had been recommended a restaurant called Popeye’s that we wanted to find and after some wandering around, we did.  Popeye’s is a fish house where they don’t have a menu.  They serve you whatever they are cooking that day, essentially the catch of the day fresh from the sea.  The minute you sit down you are brought a bowl of toasted nuts, assorted breads, olive oil and olives.  They then bring you fish soup (best fish soup I’ve ever had) followed by a stew of Baby Shark.  Yeah, Baby Shark.  Not happy about eating it but it would have been really rude not to so I ate it and it tasted alright but I told myself that I won’t eat it again.  Until, they brought us the next plate of Sole and Baby Shark skewers.  I ate it.  Now, I will never eat baby shark again!  After this your stomach is near explosion but they’re not finished bringing out food!  They brought out a toasted nut and honey combination and I forgot to mention that the whole time we’re eating they’re filling our glasses with a fig and prune smoothie…that could have been a disaster of epic proportions (fish + 7 glasses of figprune smoothie = Pepto Bismal commercial) but it was all good.  Too much info? Moving along.

Half way through our lunch we noticed the owner of the restaurant approach the table beside us.  He seemed incredibly friendly, greeting the women and adorning them with gifts.  He gave one woman a hand woven basket and the other a tagine.  We sat there wondering if this was normal or if they were friends of his. Turns out he’s a very generous man who gives the women at his restaurant gifts.  We sat there hoping he would make his way over to our table, I mean who doesn’t enjoy being given presents.  I certainly do and really wanted to be given something.  He came over and started talking to us and then put a hand woven basket on the table…for Julia.  He filled it with a terracotta mug, a basket of almonds, some fans and some wooden utensils.  Awesome!  Wow! How cool is that?!  I sit there waiting for my turn and he just looks at me.  Just looks at me with a quizzical look, points at my face and says, ‘you have a zit, I have something for you.’  It was at that moment where I yelled at myself in my head,

‘YOU IDIOT! WHY DID YOU PICK THAT ZIT ON YOUR CHIN THIS MORNING?! YOU COULD HAVE HAD A BASKET OF GOODIES!’

I just sat there looking at him and said, ‘ok?’ He left and went to the next table.  After a few minutes he came back, pointed out my zit again and told me about an oil he wants to give me.  He instructed me to rub it all over my body two times after ‘le douche’ for strong, solid skin.  It was at that moment where I harshly judged myself for wanting to laugh at the word douche…when will I grow up? He left again and went to another table.  We waited a couple of minutes but he didn’t come back so we paid the bill and got up to leave.  As I was almost out the door, he grabbed me and said ‘I give you oil, follow me.’ Julia and I followed him to the back room of his restaurant which coincidentally was also his gift room. I’m talking floor to ceiling of baskets, tagines, mugs and just moroccan presents in general.  My new friend is talking to me about this oil and keeps saying ‘le douche’ ‘strong, solid skin’ and pinching his skin to demonstrate how strong and solid it is.  It is at the point where I know I am in trouble; giggle trouble.  Let me tell you something about myself, I get the giggles and when I get the giggles I get them bad.  Like, have to leave the room because I can’t stop and can’t hold them in and if I try to hold them in I make weird sputtering sounds.  It’s a problem.  Well, the next thing I know, my new friend is dipping his hands into a vat of oil.  Just fully slathering up his hands with oil.  ’What is he going to do?’ I wonder.  He puts his hands straight out in front of him while walking towards me.  I immediately arched my back to avoid this oily mess coming at me, fearing he is going to give me a facial.  He doesn’t give me a facial, instead he gives me a head massage.  Yes, he starts to scrub my scalp with this oil.  I immediately start to laugh that horrible uncontrollable laughter where you know it’s wrong and you shouldn’t be laughing but you can’t not so you hold it in and just make weird noises instead.  You know that kind?  The kind where you pee a little?  It was bad.  He continues to scrub my head, I am making awkward ‘holding in my giggles’ noises and Julia has left the room and is leaning over a strangers table losing it.  He fills a tupperware container with oil, instructs me again about what to do after my shower and sends me on my merry way.

 To sum up the story, I walked away with a tupperware of oil, a greasy head for the rest of the day and the best travel story of my life to date.

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These are a mix of DSLR and iPhone images.

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My Dad is an artist, a writer and a creative force.

Above all, he is a storyteller.

He has lived a life of 1000 stories.

While there, my Dad introduced Julia and I to his new friend Dave.

This man has lived a life of 1 000 000 stories.

He said one thing that will forever stick with me and are now words that I will live by.

‘If you stay in the valley, you never get over the hill.  Stay Curious.’

This is my story of staying curious in Spain.

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These are a mix of iPhone and DSLR images. The ones of me were taken by my sister, Julia.

Check out her blog documenting her move to France!

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They will be getting married in June 2014 and while it majorly bums me out to have them living so far away,

I guess I can get down with the idea of visiting them in La Côte d’Azur.

This was the first of many adventures to France.

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These are a mix of DSLR and iPhone images.

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