Unusual Attitudes
Erin Oh interviews her dad about being a pilot.
Dad, why did you start flying?
Ralph Fowler was the next-door neighbour to our place. And he had a friend named Lincoln Ray who built his own airplane and flew it. Ralph was quite the engineer, the back- yard engineer. He was building for as long as I knew him. Well into his 60s and 70s he was building an airplane. But he never did finish it. He never did get his pilot’s license.
Chosen Family
There are ten people at my table on Christmas morning.
Two of them bear the chromosomes responsible for my quiddity and the quiddity of my sister, who is also at the table. One of the people at the table is me. The other six are a smattering of idiosyncrasies who possess a coveted, longstanding invitation to the most hallowed of all brunches: that which happens on Christmas Day at my parents’ house.
On the Construction of the Bauer Lofts Behind my Family Home, Kitchener-Waterloo, from 2003 – 2008
The soiled roots of our sister-cities resisted gentrification by any means at their disposal, and their tactics proved highly effective. Secret societies of dirt began the good fight: asbestos vined its way towards God between steel girders and damp drywall. Mould splatted spores like Pollock’s paints, feeding on a blank canvas.
You Loved Me
Family is a concept I have never “gotten.” There was no light bulb inside my head that went off at one point or another and left me feeling totally secure in myself and “my family.” I’ve never felt particularly illuminated about the notion of family. It’s abstract and almost always out of reach. It is this grand idealistic, dreamy support system that I have never known.
My Brothers
I love my family. I have a mom, a dad and four sisters. All of them are wonderful and unique, interesting and smart, and beautiful in their own ways, inside and out. I love my family.
What You Make It
If my second-year roommate had not thrust a Blueprint copy editor application into my hands in the winter of 2008, my life would be very different. As a relatively shy student, I needed a friendly nudge to get involved. As soon as I was hired, I found my voice and gained the confidence that comes with being published for the first time.
A Blueprint for Community
Once, in the hallowed pages of the Blueprint, I proclaimed that I was ‘starting a cult’. At the time, it seemed like a cult would be the solution to my problems and needs. Lonely? Why not be surrounded by a sea of dependent others.
Eclectic Daughter
I was born and raised in Canada, which makes me Canadian. However, I grew up in a household with Peruvian, Spanish-speaking parents, making me bilingual at a young age.
On Dickens and Depression
I am related to Anne Boleyn and therefore, Queen Elizabeth I. I am related to mayors of London, and members of Marie Antoinette’s court.
Family Foibles
I knew by the age of 13 that I was going to adopt my first child. I was convinced that I would never find a boy to fall in love with, let alone want to reproduce with. Barely one year into high school I already knew my future would be atypical. I’ve always preferred the idea of being someone’s mother rather than someone’s wife. I never really saw myself, ladle in hand, child on one hip, waiting for my husband to come home at the end of the day.
‘Make It Look Trippy’
The most important thing I learned at Blueprint was how to make every cover look “trippy.”
The Great Divide
Stuck in traffic, nine exits away from where I was going, was the last place I wanted to be. Edged in first by the buildings lining the highway, then by the highway itself, then by the sea of other cars, then by my own car, and finally by the seatbelt rubbing against my neck.
Distance
I’m sitting on my couch, 3000 kilometres from Waterloo, ocean air drifting in the window. My friends are sitting in prison. I watch the rage and resolve flow out in a stream of articles and photos and sentences and I can’t help but think that “distance” needs some serious redefinition.
It and Other
It is found in wild and untamed,
Uniting and holding up thousands.
Many have them and lose them.
The Tofurky Manifesto
About A Boy is one of my favourite movies.
Maybe I’m a sucker for cheesy coming-of-age stories, or romantic comedies, or Hugh Grant. Or maybe there’s something cathartic about the particular journey of its protagonist.
Twenty
My grandmother pulls up a chair to his grave
After kissing each small effigy of his face, his saints
The crucifixes all mean something different
In the garden-like calm
Of a thousand bodies sleeping
Disjointed
Torrential clouds of grey trouble bubble overhead
as we sit unified around papa’s mahogany table.
Hand in hand we give thanks and say grace
while projected smiles create our little family fable.
Baby Shoes
Were they hiding this?
I saw it. It was inoffensive. It was rational that it stood on its own, as stately and customary as it was: a testament to normalcy. So unsuspicious.
Customer Appreciation Day
The light summer air of early June tousled the hair of the crowds enjoying customer appreciation day outside of the small business. The store catered to the needs of farmers, selling animal food, grain, seed, and fertilizers.
Kept Woman [kept] [woo m-uh n]
![Kept Woman [kept] [woo m-uh n]](http://www.blueprintmagazine.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/half-150x150.jpg)
Sarah sits at the table while her mother’s friend fills her in on the past two years. As the words baby, house and husband float from her mouth and hang in the air around them, Sarah’s index finger and thumb pick at the deep fried appetizer in front of her.
Family Cover Art
When I think of family I think of returning home and how the idea of family is attached to the house itself.
