Great things about being blind. Another ice cream adventure.

As As I was writing about my ice cream adventures with tulia the other day, I was reminded of another ice cream story.  This happened with my first guide dog Gwenny.  Near where we were living at the time, was a little diner.  They had excellent burgers and fries and an interesting owner and cook who read constantly.  He even read as he was cooking your burger.  I had many conversations with him about books.  They sold ice cream too.  Once in a while, they would have mango ice cream.  I love many kinds of ice cream (especially chocolate ones and chocolate mint) but once in a while what I really love is mango ice cream.  Whenever he had it, he would call out of his door to Gwenny and I as we walked past, "Kim.  I have mango ice cream."  Sometimes I didn't stop.  But, often I did.  One particularly hot day, as we were walking by, I got the call.  We had to climb quite a hill to get home and mango ice cream sounded awfully good.  Gwenny was my first guide dog.  A wonderful black lab (not quite as small as tulia) full of personality, a great worker, and as most labs are, quite passionate about her food.  Into the diner I went, got a mango ice cream cone, and proceeded towards home.  The cone was in my right hand, Gwenny's harness in my left hand as we walked.  Gwenny kept glancing up at the ice cream.  She was looking back at me.  Not sure if she was hoping for melting, tipping, falling ice cream or what exactl.  Maybe all of the above.  But, as she looked at me, she ran herself right into a sign.  Smack!  I had been about to tell her to pay attention to her work but figured the sign did that for me.  She sat down right away and hung her head.  If a blakc lab could turn red with embarrassment, perhaps she would have.  After that, she kept her eyes and her mind on her job and off my ice cream.  I still love mango ice cream and whenever I eat it, I think of her.

If you are in Ottawa Canada sign up for my wonderful workshop

Hello all,

Please register for this wonderful workshop on creating and telling your own autobiographical stories.

Storytelling is such a useful skill for everyone to have.

I need more people for the workshop to go forward.

Please pass this on to anyone who might be interested.

I know that some of you can't take such a workshop during the week.

If you are interested, but would rather do this in the evenings or on weekends, please contact me at

kimjkilpatrick@gmail.com and let me know.

Intro to Storytelling with Kim Kilpatrick

We all tell and listen to stories by our families, friends, co-workers. What is storytelling and how is it different from reading or from telling jokes? In this very interactive and entertaining program, learn what storytelling is and learn to find, gather, create, and tell stories. Everyone has stories to tell. Kim Kilpatrick has been telling stories all of her life but officially has been a storyteller for ten years. "I love creating and crafting autobiographical stories and helping others to learn how to do this." We will also talk about many genres of storytelling. From folktale to literary work, from historic to epic, there are so many kinds and styles of storytelling. Come and find your voice and find your stories. You'll be glad you did!Tues 1:00 – 4:00 PMMay 17 – Jun 21 (6 wks)Fee: $120

Registration: Crichton Community Cultural Centre

2nd Floor-200 Crichton Street

Ottawa, ON K1M 1W2

phone: 613-745-2742 fax: 613-745-4153

communitycentre@rogers.com

www.crichtonccc.ca

Great things about being blind. Always there!

I always thought that  international guide dog day was on april 29.  I found this particularly appropriate because it was on April 29 1992, that I was introduced to my first guide dog.  The other day, I was horrified that guide dog day seems to have moved to april 27.  However, for me, guide dog day is april 29.  That was when my first guide (black lab Gwenny) came bouncing into my life.  I've had four guide dogs altogether.  I thank them all.  My howling blakc lab Gwenny (she howled when she got excited).  She was a fast fast walker!  A calm and steady worker.  A hard puller.  Hated the rain (as does my current black lab Tulia).  She showed me what guide dogs could do.  My yellow lab Margaret.  Very animal distracted.  One of the nicest dogs ever.  Barked a lot in the house.  Taught me how to handle with creativity challenging guide dog behaviours.  My golden retreiver Gia.  Steady and calm, sensitive and compassionate, quirky and fun.  She loved stuffed animal birds, she made fun squeaking noises when she got excited.  She guided me through my terrible arthritis flare with class and dignity.  My tiny shiny black lab Tulia.  Who wakes up happy every morning ready for the adventure.  With a phenomenal memory and a fun cute personality.  for all of them, who have been there through everything.  If I reach a hand out, there they are.  Beside the chair at the dentists, at my feet in planes, trains, buses, and cars.  Inboats and canoes.  Guiding us through heat and cold, blizzards and around and over snowbanks, across icy patches, in subways.  They sit through meetings, classes, workshops, storytelling perforamnces and concerts.  They are steady through sickness, loss and grief, laughter and fun times.  They have been up for walks and hikes and equally willing to lie quietly while I work at my desk.  They make me laugh, cause me to cry at their loss, fill me with independence, allow me to travel with dignity.  I thank them all.  I also thank the raisers who raised them and gave them up and the guide dog trainers who showed them their jobs.  Happy guide dog day.  Always the 29th for me.

Great things about being blind. the ice cream finder!

We had a brief taste of warmer weather but spring sure hasn't been in a hurry to arrive.  The other day, it was warm and fairly nice though.  I felt like having an ice cream.  Two people and one guide dog went for ice cream.  The ice cream place was in a food court of sorts.  I'd never been there before with Tulia and had only been there once or twice before.
We weaved through tables and past other food places and then the person I was with, turned in to the ice cream place.  I told tulia, "Left.  Inside." and she followed.
We ordered and retreived our ice cream and sat down and ate it.
Afterwards, I told Tulia forward outside, and she found her way out.  We did a little more shopping around that area.  Then, we were off to get our bus.  We walked through the much mmore crowded food court.  I heard people's voices all around us.  I smelled various types of food.  We were in a wide open space.  I find navigating large, open, echoy areas somewhat challenging at the best of times.  It id difficult to know where you are and where you are going.  With a guide dog, this is somewhat easier although you often have to trust your dog and can't always provide precise directions.  Tulia was walking along, I could feel her moving left and right weaving through obstacles.
Then she made an abrupt right turn.
Who was I to say she shouldn't do that?  perhaps something was in our path.
Then I heard a cash register and a voice saying,  "Are you back?  Do you want more ice cream?"  in quite a surprised manner.
Tulia was sitting down at my left side.  I heard the swish swish swish of the furiously wagging little black tail.  "I brought you back here.  I did I did I did!  You were so happy when  you were here before!  With your delicious ice cream."  I laughed so hard.
Tulia has a phenomenal memory for finding places we've been to before.
Maybe she wanted an ice cream?
What flavour do you think?
Squirrel flavoured?  liver flavoured?  lamb and rice flavoured?

Great things about being blind. Touching colours.

Yesterday I wrote about colours and sounds.  Today, it is colours and textures.  Textures have always been very important to me.  Similar to those of you who can see items of clothing, I will not wear an item of clothing if I don't like the way it feels.  I couldn't stand to do that.  Even if someone said it looked better on me than anything else in the store, I would absolutely refuse to wear it.  Textures also remind me of what colours must be like.  I also associate textures with people's voices.  The feel of velvet which I love, I associate with some people with rich deep voices.  Velvet also reminds me of dark colours.  Soft silky and thinner material reminds me of lighter colours and people with high, clear bell-like voices.  Polar fleece somehow reminds me of reds or oranges and people with mid-range and full rich voices.  I love the feel of my guide dog's silky ears, smooth feeling cool stones, knitted sweaters and scarves, inticrate tapestires that I can touch, pottery dishes, the materials I discussed above.  I hate the feel of raw hamburger, burlap, slimy tofu that comes packed in liquid, any bumpy cloth,  outdoor walls that are bumpy and rough.  Some people's voices that I don't like remind me of some of these materials.  Now all you storytellers will be bombarding me with messages asking what your voices remind me of I'm sure.  I may or may not be able to answer!  None of you sound like burlap though.  That is reserved for certain people like my kindergarten teacher who wouldn't let me do anything in class.  When my retired guide dog Gia died a few months ago, I worried that I wouldn't remember what her fur felt like.  I still do remember it.  That long silky golden fur.  Touching that reminded me of water gently flowing over rocks or the sunshine.

Great things about being blind. Hearing colours?

I was bothered for several hours by that quote about 80 percent of a storytelling experience being visual.  It really perturbed me a great deal.  I thought,  "Wait a minute.  Here is something I thought was so accessible and you are telling me it isn't?  Darn sighted people!"  And then I thought more about sounds and how I am so lucky to hear what I hear.  I think what I hear is more tuned than what those with sight hear.  Not that my hearing is better or more acute.  Just that I focus on it more.  People often ask me about colours.  How I perceive colours.  I usually think of them as textures or sounds.  Tomorrow, I will write about the textures.  For today, I will focus on sound.  One of the things that drew me to storytelling was the sound and rhythm of the human voice.  The way people tell stories, there speech patterns, intonation, cadences.  Of course, I've always been a voratious reader so that storytelling was a natural fit for me there too.  But, back to sounds.  Voices evoke colours for me.  I imagine those bright, high clear voices as being gold or silver.  Deep rich voices as being dark colours.  Calm, soft quiet voices as being greens or blues.  Also being a musician and lover of music, music does for me what I imagine beautiful paintings or sunsets or awesome landscapes give to those who can see.  The hearing of an orchestra with all of its different timbres and colours would be (I would imagine) like looking at a painting.  Hearing beautiful harmonies sung is like that too.  So beautiful, so calming, so inspirational.  The cello is a dark colour, the flute is gold, the guitar is a rich blue, the drums are red or orange.  Every genre of music has a different sound, a different feel, a different colour to it.  When people say they feel sorry for me because I can't see, I should say that I feel sorry for them because they aren't hearing all they can hear. 

Reminders of upcoming storytelling events.

Just a few storytelling reminders to share.
I will be performing at the tea party 119 York street with fellow storyteller Lynda Joyce on Tuesday May 10 from 7-830 Pm.
More music stories.
Hear about my first music festival experience?
My brush with a famous musician?
My first chaotic day of work as a music therapist with people with dementia?
Lynda's first and last performance as a concert pianist?
Her travels with her violin?

I am giving a six week workshop about storytelling and especially about creating and telling autobiographical stories.
To find out more about either of these opportunities, contact me at
kimjkilpatrick@gmail.com
Also, I am an artist with MASC going into schools and also working with seniors and adults.
My profile is at
http://www.masconline.ca/
I am a member of the Ottawa storytellers gig group.  Find my profile there and book me as a storyteller for your event.
http://www.ottawastorytellers.ca/