For my latest reporting assignment we had to do something that gave us “new insight” into a possible feature topic. Being the adventurous person I am, I decided to do drugs. Salvia Divinorum is an herb, much like marijuana, that when smoked or ingested produces a hallucinogenic high (similar to one experienced on LSD or magic mushrooms – I have not done those, it’s just what I’m told!). It is completely legal in Canada.
Here’s my trip… Enjoy!
It’s Sunday night, shortly after 9pm. While most of my friends are catching up on homework, I’m sitting at my boyfriend Dane’s kitchen table, with his roommate Rayne, carefully measuring the right amount of dark green salvia leaves into a lime green bong.
My mission however is purely academic. I’m smoking salvia divinorum, a drug that is legal in Canada, in the name of good journalism – hoping to find out firsthand the drug’s psychological effects.
Despite hours of background research I have no idea what to expect. The clerk at Crosstown Traffic, a marijuana paraphernalia shop, where I bought the salvia, told me trying to explain a salvia trip to someone who has never tried it, is like explaining the colour red to someone that’s been blind his whole life.
It’s 9:07pm; I light the saliva, place my lips around the top of the bong and slowly suck in the murky air.
After a minute, my skin begins to feel tingly and refreshed, like I’ve just jumped into a cold pool on a scorching summer day. I become very aware of my surroundings. The lights, the smell of burning salvia, the music, they all seem more intense.
I move to sit on Dane’s lap, feeling nervous, and put my head on his shoulder. I close my eyes. It feels like the two of us are flying. I look up, and see that we’re attached to a giant red balloon, speeding high above lakes and treetops. I can feel the wind on my cheeks and can smell the scent of pine, coming from the forest below. It feels so real, but as soon as I open my eyes the sensation stops.
I close my eyes again. Now I’m sitting on a swing high above the ground, under a red and gold tent, surrounded by a cheering crowd. I’m an acrobat. Beneath me I can see elephants and clowns, every face staring up at me. I lean backwards and forwards, while the audience applauds. At first I feel confident, and then I worry that I do not know enough tricks to keep them impressed.
I’m jerked back to reality when Dane grabs my arm. He says I almost swayed off his lap and onto the floor.
After that my high begins to end. My body still tingles, but my mind is sound. It’s only been about 5 minutes, but I feel exhausted.
So, with my journalistic curiosity fulfilled and my salvia mission accomplished, I head to bed, wondering how I’m ever going to write what I just felt into a story that makes sense.
-alex
Yes, the political nerd in me LOVED this last one. Whatever.
My journalism assignment for this week: Find someone different from myself and introduce them in a 400 word profile.
Voila!
Scantily clad in lacy, purple polka-dot lingerie and shiny black stilettos, burlesque dancer Koston Kreme captivated audiences with her flirtatious style of dance Saturday at Ottawa’s Sexapalooza, but it wasn’t her outfit or her routine that had people in Lansdowne’s Exhibition Hall amazed.
In front of a few hundred people, Kreme writhed, wriggled and stripped down to a pair of shiny purple pasties, all while seductively spinning a shiny silver hula-hoop around her trim torso.
The 26-year-old is a member of the Ottawa area burlesque troupe Rockalily, and has been perfecting her unique style of dance for the past 2 years.
Kreme says she realized her knack for the hula-hoop while trying to get back in shape after a nasty break up. She says she remembers being skinny as a kid, so decided to do the things she used to do when she was young – and thus began her mastery of the hula-hoop.
“I learned how to take my clothes off while I was hula-hooping because it gets hot when you hula-hoop in your apartment in front of the TV for too long,” says Kreme.
After hearing about Rockalily from a friend, Kreme, who’s always had a passion for burlesque, says she originally wanted to work behind the scenes.
“I didn’t think I’d have the…guts to do that, but it looked and seemed like so much fun, and all the girls were really confident so I figured I’d try it out,” she says.
Now, she says the only problem she has with her burlesque dancing is her family’s reaction to the occasional publicity she receives.
“My family found out because we were in the Ottawa Citizen and my grandma read it,” she says with a laugh. Since then she’s decided to take her mother’s advice and only use her stage name Koston Kreme in public.
So what’s the best part of burlesque dancing? Kreme says for her it’s the confidence boost she gets after performing. “Everybody always gets off the stage and feels amazing about themselves.”
Kreme says that the ladies (and one man) of Rockalily plan on expanding this year. “We’re trying to make our shows bigger and maybe a little more often,” she says, adding that the troupe plans on adding a Montreal show to their line-up and possibly embarking on a mini tour.
“We try and have a…variety of people…we don’t want a bunch of skinny little girls,” says Kreme of Rockalily. “Everybody in our troupe is completely different and brings something completely different to the troupe.”
- alex
Now i must resume my packing... I've got a train to catch tomorrow morning!
Watch out for more blog posts this Christmas break ;)
-alex
I was recently shown a post on another blog where the author listed 100 things she disliked. That post inspired me to make a similar list where, instead of being a Debbie Downer, I would write off the top-of-my-head about the things that make me a super happy camper. So here we are, good luck making it to the end (maybe I have already bored you and you didn't even make it to the end of this little blurb -eeeek) ...
1. Driving alone at night and belting out your favourite tunes circa 1999
2. The smell of walking past that little Christmas tree lot right after Brewer Park on the way home from a boring day of classes
3. Peanut butter and jam on a tortilla
4. Watching stop action videos on Youtube
5. This blog (she actually just listed things that make her happy too, how fun!!!)
6. The build-up to Christmas/everything about the Christmas season: the lights, the gift-buying-to-match-someone’s-personality, and the anticipation of having your brother wake you up at 4:30 a.m. on Christmas morning
7. The cycling segment of Wii Sports Resort, I look absolutely ridiculous when I try it
8. Sprawling out over my double bed after months in a single
9. Anything colourful, i.e. both my bedrooms
10. The instant connection felt between me, and the perfect pair of jeans (these jeans usually belong to Alex)
11. My weakness for LuluLemon bags, its almost fatal
12. Walking on the beach in Ireland and remembering the time when I would run along the same shore and collect seashells and pebbles
13. Making colourful and time consuming paper collages wherever there a blank wall waiting to be filled
14. The Ikea scene from the movie 500 Days of Summer
15. Coming home from university to a house where there are candy/chocolate dishes on every other table. I am munching on a mini Toblerone as I type.
16. Warm, fully-matching pajamas, i.e. my purple asian pjs – the roommates know what I mean
17. Realizing that whatever journalism assignment you are working on isn’t as hard as you thought it would be
18. Positivity – screw reality, things are more fun when you dream
19. Any non-espresso based drink (minus caramel macchiatos, they are good!) from Starbucks
20. Organized closets
21. Living with six girls and having there be no stupid, girlish drama
22. The mall at Christmas time
23. Grilled cheese with ketchup
24. Realizing that I do have the ability to make double layered birthday cakes that only mess up a little
25. The most amazing store in the entire world – The Papery
26. Ariel’s Indian man impression, especially when she talks about keeping plastic on her sofas
27. Dancing/belting/being insane while listening to Taylor Swift songs
28. Impromptu dance parties with my roommates in that little space between the dining room and the kitchen
29. Italian wedding soup with extra Parmesan cheese
30. Making incredibly personalized cards for people and being super excited to see their face as they read them
31. Making lists – so organized, so comprehensive
32. The show LOST and its addicting ability to make me watch four seasons in three short weeks
33. Dropping my cell phone and realizing that “HA, it’s not broken AGAIN.” Take that cell phone gods!
34. Chasing my brother around the house when I am trying to hug him
35. Watching the recording of my third birthday party, it may be semi-narcissistic but I am an effing hilarious child
36. Creativity and crafts - fun craft blogs!
37. Chris Bailey when he is not doing one of his weird toddler/old-man voices
38. Doing something psychotically weird and having my roommates give me that oh-so-familiar “what the hell” expression
39. Playing neopets and scamming 13-year-olds while doing so
40. The noiseyness of a type writer’s keys
41. Doing Benjamin Button impressions
42. Childhood innocence
43. Whistling at the dinner table with my dad to make my mom angry
44. Leaf fights
45. Snow fights
46. Watching Glee with all my roommates + often Dane and Rayne and squealing/screaming during the entire hour… then going to my room and downloading all the songs from that episode and putting them on repeat.
47. People who are happy and optimistic. Sure I worry and complain, but in the end is that REALLY going to get you anywhere?
48. Good looking houses
49. Wrapping my Christmas present and all of my dad’s because he incompetent
49.5 Ending lists with a weird half-number because it is exactly what people weren’t expecting
WHEW. I apologize for the length.
-hilary
