*Before…

It was still a really good show and we head down and we start to ungear and getting our stuff put away and then with some time left we actually go over to the rides and the games were everyone else pretty much is and we get our passes out and we go on a few of the rides and just have some fun for the last hour or so.

It’s kind of funny how many people are stoked to be on rides with us and we talk to folks and sign things and take a lot of pictures in between the rides and having fun.

It’s still really, really romantic being on rides with Rayne.

I love the Ferris Wheel. I mean I’m not afraid of heights but here it’s placed so you can see all the fair easy and you can see out over town and then there’s the other side where you can see out over the lake.

And lots of kissing and that good kind of deep making out kissing too.

Oh yeah the complete stereotype but so amazing really when you get to do it.

I’m really all sorts of floaty and happy as we end up heading for home after everything is shutting down.

*And Now…

We make our goodbyes and we head for home and it’s nice to be home sort of early for us.

We all go our separate ways to go and get cleaned up and things and as usual I wait for after the other girls go and do their things.

Instead I go to the kitchen and make sure my hands are good and clean and I start some batches of bread dough and there’s a lot of that plus I take out the chicken bones and things from the roasted chicken the other day and I tie them in cheesecloth with some fresh herbs and I get a pot of soup started like I planned on doing.

Actually looking around I go through all of the veggies we have that should be used up and Rayne comes over and nuzzles my neck and asks if we need anything as I’m cleaning things out.

We make a list and once everything is raising and on simmer we head to Wal-Mart.

Yes it’s a big box place but actually pretty good on grocery prices and there are some things that we need and that we go through all the time like frozen juice, onions, carrots, celery, turnips, potatoes and milk and then there’s things for lunches and I buy a few things because there’s something that I want to make.

Cabbage rolls.

I like cabbage rolls, I’ve had them a few times when they’re done just really, really right.

Which means the list for that and we don’t have rice so we get a couple of big bags of that in different kinds and Rayne gets us a rice cooker.

Which looks easy to use from the package and all.

It’s funny the looks that I get from Rayne especially when I buy not just the ground meat but kielbasa as well and sweet red pepper jelly and two cabbages one that’s red and one that’s purple.

Plus there’s some things that Rayne and the girls look like they’ll be needing as she gets tampons and pads.

I think and nod that time is coming up and everyone will be going through that but me if they all sync up.

Yeah we stock up on some other munchies too and Midol and since we actually don’t have even one in the house a couple of plug in heating pads.

I do a turn around for some good ice cream bars and stuff that will hit some of those cravings.

Rayne’s smiling. “It’s actually so nice to even to afford things like these and the rice cooker. It’s been so long since we...actually we’ve really never been in the position ever that we could just buy the things that we need when we wanted them.”

I nod. “Things weren’t tight at home it’s just we never really did this kind of domestic stuff after mom died.”

It did cost a lot but at the same time it didn’t either.

And it was so worth all the smiles on Kimmie and Brooklyn and Molly’s faces as we all unloaded stuff.

Especially Molly.

Who was just beside herself that we bought period products for everyone and she doesn’t have to spend money out of pocket for things.

(Sniffle.) “Seriously, I know that you guys might not get it but home...home it was dirty, shameful and fucking cheap assed. Those no name fucking pads like diapers because tampons are for sluts.”

She was putting things away looking at them as she went on. “And once I got out of there. It’s fucking expensive too. The blood tax on top of the fucking pink tax.”

I nod. “That’s shitty, and price gouging like I like pink but is the coloring that expensive?”

We all sort of laugh at that and I put out there. “We start buying more then, we take some cash and buy this stuff for the shelters and we’ll write too.”

Molly looks at me. “Write?”

“Pad and Tampon companies, heck they’ll likely give to charities right?”

She’s smiling. “Seriously?”

“We can blog on our pages on it too, maybe even do a little on camera talk on how much it’s needed by girls and women that literally have to decide on buying pads or tampons or eating, paying that decisive twenty dollars on a bill.”

Molly hugs me hard. “I’m going to get right on this.”

Rayne nods. “I’ll talk with my boss too. As bad a rep as Wal-Mart has as being redneck they might want to get in on this.”

She heads off with Molly to get a start maybe and I add a few more things to the pot of chicken bones and herbs and things like a box of stock and some bay leaves, onion, celery and let it go as we put things away.

Kimmie wants chicken and rice soup.

I’m good with that.

But I make her clean and set up the rice cooker and get some rice actually cooking.

“You’re just doing that because I’m Asian.”

“No...I’m doing that because you want chicken and rice soup.”

She sticks her tongue out at me.

“No thanks, you’re sweet Kimmie but I’m taken so please put the mouth boner away.”

We end up giggling.

But first I toss the green cabbage into the pot to cook and blanche. I mean we might as well since it needs doing anyway and then there’s it just adding flavor to the soup.

The bread’s ready to knead down and rise again and Kimmie offers to get the pans and stuff all ready and I go with Rayne to shower asking Kimmie if she can shred the purple cabbage up for me and some onion too.

She gives me a thumbs up as she’s getting the bread pans and the roll pans out.

Rayne joins me in the shower and it’s so good too just us and some tunes playing and our hands and the sudsy shower puff washing away the day as we just sort of fall into that intimate moment of just us.

Which does lead to more fun in the shower.

Fingers are wonderful things even if my side of it’s pretty different than hers is she still is good with it and she still knows all the right spots to work.

And well the breast play, the intimate foreplay is just getting better.

It does a lot for my dysphoria when I can get out of the shower now and at least from the waist up everything looks right. Naked and unassisted they stand out now, still small really but they are there especially when I turn sideways in the mirror.

Cleaned and showered and really, really refreshed we get dressed in our comfy clothes and head down and join the others.

Kimmie’s got things all done and panned off and she grated the cabbage and the onion. She’s online with her tablet and she’s talking to Max and she heads to the living room once I’m down there and settles in doing her homework with Brooklyn while talking to Max.

I take the ground meat some beef and some pork and put it in the frying pans and get it cooking and there’s a little acorn squash that I bought and that gets a few knife cuts up near the stem and the whole thing goes in the microwave.

Fourteen minutes and it’ll steam from the inside out so easy that you can spoon it out.

The cabbage roll filling is easy...The ground meat, the ground up red cabbage and onion and salt, pepper, some garlic and then the ground meat and all of the juices and rice. You want or I want twice the rice to the meat and lastly I peel the skin off the kielbasa and I grind that up in the food processor too and add in the whole jar of the red pepper jelly and the cooked squash.

It should have this sweet veggie and cabbage flavor with hints of spice and heat and the flavors from the meat doing this whole sweet and savory thing.

I mix the whole lot together and let it set.

See the raw ground cabbage and onion will cook and flavor everything as will the kielbasa giving it this nice sort of like Polish flavor to it all.

The rest is easy...taking out the green cabbage and letting it cool as I put the bread in and the rolls into the ovens to bake off. Then it’s peeling off the leaves and using a paring knife to cut out the hard stem parts of the leaves and it’s rolling them up and tucking things under.

I make three pans of them with two for here and one for Dad and the boys.

I top each pan with just a simple mixture of two cans of tomato soup and a large can of tomatoes with a can of cream of celery soup all buzzed up in the food processor.

Done...all except for the soup to cook off and the bread to be finished baking in batches but the soup can simmer as long as it needs to and honestly the longer the better really and the bread is set with the oven timers.

I go out and join the others in the living room as we’re just hanging out and being online and finishing up editing the videos for Lorna McAlister.

We actually get them done.

One is a presentation video for the Fall Fair and while the fair isn’t finished we’ve cover like all the best parts. We go one to talk about the people and the work it makes and the spin off from all of that and all those interviews and all of the people. And then there’s all of us with other interviews and comments on how The Fall Fair this year brought in tourists and how successful the music was and that Harper’s Point as well as the county, and the province could earn serious tourism money from having a Canada Day Festival, a Summer Music Festival and a Winter Carnival that lasts more than just a week but has rides and fun things to do downtown in a shopping district that needs an infusion of people and traffic.

Molly actually even had some rough numbers of things that we know was going on like booked solid places and I double down in talking on camera about just how much music and band tourism does make as people are going to more and more events like this these days.

The next video is talking about Sawyer’s Funrides and how it’s an endangered cultural deal for the province and how these things and these traditions are going by the wayside and that some of these businesses deserve saving and deserve help. We include our videos with the patrons and the staff and as much of those opinions that we can and our videos that we shot there with them and that kind of spin off as well. There’s a thing both for the province on how they and the county and town will benefit from helping such a company in both money and tourism but from positive press as well.

The last video is for the town and it’s more for the chamber of commerce but it’s showing all the other spin off from the Fall Fair. All the charity stuff and how many good things and the community spirit that Harper’s Point showed this year. We talk about what kind of a town this is and the businesses that are starting and popping up and some of the renewal going on. We talk about Lucky’s and the Pine Tree and how those things have changed and We talk about The Amsterdam and it’s old touring bar legacy and how that’s coming back. We talk about how close to Toronto we are really and all the things that makes us an easy getaway. And even kind of propping the whole thing that Harper’s Point is a really good place to not just visit but that things are changing. That you could come here and live.

That all takes a lot of work but Molly and Mike have been working at this all through the fair and they really, really did a whole huge amount of work.

We make copies of them all, a whole bunch of them for Lorna to take and to pass around too.

This, this is a big deal for Starlight Entertainment & Music.

I feel really proud of all of us too.

It’s pretty funny that we celebrate this with fresh bread and butter and rolls with bowls of hot chicken soup once all the bread and things are done and the cabbage rolls are in the oven and with the timer set I’m leaving them in there to cook and cool overnight.

We actually kill the entire pot too while we write our letters to Kotex, Always, Playtex, U, Up & Up, Stayfree to start and we make a little video shoot with it all in between bowls of soup from all of us as we talk about how important it is to have these readily and available to women and girls that can’t afford them. Molly tells them her side of things from the way it feels to have the right choices the esteem differences the basic respect and then how hard it is on the street. We all do our part with it as a band and then put it up to the site and attached to the letters/e-mails to the companies with a link to know our talk is out there on our site already.

It’s one in the morning but that’s fine...more than fine as we really got so much done.

So much done and we’re stuffed too.

We hug and hug then Rayne and I head off to bed together. So much one of the best sleeps and cuddles we’ve had really.

It was like I could feel the energy in the house of all of us having been part of doing this. It’s a big deal, we’re all really young and that took a lot of work and a lot of focus really.

Everyone went to bed really upbeat and happy.

I think I love my life.