The pandemonia has affected us all greatly on a personal level. And if you’ve been working through this time, you know the precautionary measures have been stressful as well. For employees as well as for your customers, clients and gen pop.

For those folks who have lost their jobs or their businesses… it’s more than just losing income. For some, it’s losing part of their identity. Worries and uncertainty have increased. (I’m not a big fan of that B uncertainty.)

Even if you were planning to leave, the pandemic affected your choice. Choice is empowering. But some have chosen to leave out of concern. Not all job sites are following safety protocols. So though it might have been a personal choice to leave, it put a strain on household finances.

Some folks had the opportunity to work from home. This also came with relationship struggles. Kids were out of school with not a whole heck of a lot to do. Students didn’t get the education they were expecting. Graduations didn’t happen or looked radically different.

Pandemonia has challenged those folks who are retired, too. There may not be a loss of income. But there was a huge losses in social lives, activities, recreation, exercising… surgeries and healthcare were put off.

The whole reason for calling COVID-19 a pandemic is that it is highly contagious and deadly. This virus has taken a lot of lives. This virus has changed quality of lives. There is a profound loss for families, friends and communities.

I can remember a day early in the pandemic in March 2020… Trudes had already announced All Canadians must stay at home. I was walking outside on my lunch break, taking advantage of the lovely weather.

I suddenly realized there was no sound around me for those few moments. No cars, no air brakes on trucks, no buses, no people, no pups, no coffee shop lingerers. I don’t even remember chirping birds or puppy barks. That area is typically bustling at lunch. (Well the entire day, really.) The only sound I could hear was paper gently nuzzling the street in the spring wind.

It was amazingly fascinatingly surreal. How could a microscopic thing –and to boot, one that I hadn’t seen myself–impact us on an individual, municipal, federal and global scale? This thing that’s not quite living is changing our health, economy, societal structure, relationships, state of being… It was a particularly a-ha moment for me. I felt like I was viewing a slo-mo video. But nothing visual was really going on.

New virus variants, some Canadian airlines volunteered to remove sunny destinations (temporarily), masking/distancing/vaccine-ing. Living with the new normal.

Kells & I love to be positive. We love to put a smile on people’s faces. We both try to enjoy life and get inspired to write and take fun photos for y’all. This helps both K & I to be mindful of the positives that life has to offer. But it has been a struggle in the past months. So, we wanted to let y’all know that though we’ve been a bit MIA, we still love and appreciate you N&Kers. And we’re going to bring you more content. Stay tuned! xo, N&K

How are you guys managing? Drop a comment below.

2020 is a year of changes. And here is the evidence…

Two VBC instructors are on preggo leave³. So, the interim instructors² are bringing in new hot exciting classes.

Nals is taking a tap class. Hmm how does tap tie into contemporary burlesque? Excellent question. Guess you guys will have to come out to watch how Cleo Victory whips us into shape.

Kells is taking chair level 2. Yes you heard that right. Level bloody 2 with Chastity Twist! Kells is learning how to contort in new slithers. The performance promises to be sizzling.

We are both taking a second class which is with newbie Ginger Avenue¹. We’ll be bumping and grinding down under¹, to classic burlesque moves.

So come check us out at The Rio Theatre on Thursday, March 12, 2020.  

Footnotes: ¹Ginger is a new instructor but has been performing for years. She’s an Aussie! ²The second instructor is Portia de Favro. N&K were itching to try one of her classes but she’s only doing intermediate and advanced. After a year of burlesquing, we feel that we’re past beginner stage but not quite intermediate.³Congratulations to Cherry on Top and Ariel Helvetica on bringing 2 new tinies to the GVA!

Labour Day is today in Canada and the US, N&Kers.

After Netflixing the Alcasser Murders (#ElCasoAlcasser) and monitoring the #hkprotest, I reflected on our freedoms.

As females in North America, Kells & I are:

• lucky to have a (safe) say in living our own lives.
• privileged to have post-secondary education.
• lucky to be able to work in our chosen fields. (These are fields that we actually enjoy working in!)

People who want a higher education or a better-paying job are not able to get what they want due to lack of resources or system biases.

People are hungry, exhausted, hopeless, depressed…

And imagine other countries where freedoms are less-than, especially for us ladies*.

Sure, there’s room for improvement. But let’s take a moment, this Labour Day, to acknowledge and celebrate how far we’ve come:

1. how bad working conditions were;
2. what freedoms our predecessors fought for;
3. that workers efforts’ deserve respect and appreciation.

It took only one person’s courage to speak out and gather the masses to discuss how to make change.

What should our next steps be?

Equal pay?

Addressing Positive and Negative Discrimination?

Equality vs Equity

Happy Labour Day everyone!