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ShinyHappy - Thoughts for August 3rd - 15th
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I gave myself a serious kink in my neck doing my artsy/craftsy stuff today. Either I'm getting old or I need a more workable workspace. And no jokes about me getting over the hill or anything because my 30th birthday is coming up, O.K.? Most of ya'll are either older than me or turning 30 soon yourselves anyhow, so play fair!
However, I am again pleased at the progress made on my wee mask project, so the kink is worth it. Advil Migraine will cure me of my pain. It's the wonder drug. I've never found that it actually cures migraines once I have them, but it seems to blast away every other ache or pain I am prone to. Once we get set up in Ottawa and I have an actual art space to work in I think I'll be less likely to get a crick in my neck from bending over my little makeshift surface made of boxes and stuff. Feeling like I'm not ignoring my artistic abilities is important to me, though, and I've been really enjoying this sudden burst of creativity. There was a time years and years ago when I always had a little something on the go, even if it was a painting that I worked on from time to time over months. I've neglected all this over the last few years and feel like pushing myself to start up again is a very good thing.
Besides masks I'd like to also take up oil painting again. The downside of course is the smell and the hassle, but I loved oils. Acrylics are nice, but just not the same. Oils are so forgiving of mistakes and you don't have to rush. Sigh. We'll see.
So tonight we went to Dan and May's for dinner and watched All The President's Men with them. May made her patented spaghetti sauce and also a delicious cake with french chocolate frosting which went down very, very well with those of us who could eat eggs. As a consolation for not being able to eat the cake May let Andrew eat leftover icing right from the can and he also had delicious Baskin Robbin's ice cream, so it's not like he sat and watched us eat cake while he hungered.
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I actually haven't seen many Robert Redford movies and was surprised by how much I liked him in this. I wasn't overly thrilled with Dustin Hoffman's performance, but probably only because he played a character that I didn't like and played him really well. It was a very gripping and interesting film, but I was a bit surprised at the abrupt and sudden ending. Not like Before Sunset at all!
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So, since Colin had me out my current art project in the comments I can say that yes, it's a mask and I'm very, very pleased with how it's coming along. I've always wanted to make masks. Lots of masks. I don't know exactly why I'm so interested in them, but I like them as art to hang on the wall as much as I like the idea of people wearing them. There's a ton of mask information on the web, as it turns out, so I've been pondering for a long time learning all kinds of mask making methods. Right now my medium of choice is paper mache because it's cheap and easy, but my next goal is to learn how to do an alternative to leather mask making using felt.
This piece that I'm working on has been the poor experimental piece so it's probably not going to be quite as nice as future projects that I hope to accomplish, but it really is coming along even better than I'd hoped. So again, I do promise that if we can borrow a digital camera I will insert pictures here when it is complete.
Today we'd made plans to go out for dinner with Pez and Skye to Salad King. I'd never been before. Andrew and I have always intended to go but just never did get around to it until now. I was very, very impressed with the place. It's clean and bright with a funky, modern look. The service was really fast and polite, the waiter taking down our orders on a palmpilot and filling up our water glasses every time we took two or three sips. And the food! The food was excellent. I had the Hot Chicken with Cashews and it was fanfreakingtastic! While Pez and I ate, however, Andrew and Skye got misty over the old, skanky atmosphere that the place used to embody, when the food was served cafeteria style and everything was a little more unappealing. Hey, I like it as it is and what I don't know doesn't hurt me!
When we were finished our meal we all walked to the Queen Mother on Queen street and had dessert and drinks. I was torn and couldn't decide which of three desserts I wanted more: the key lime pie, the white chocolate mousse cake or the Grand Marnier chocolate cheesecake. Finally Skye wrote them down on three pieces of paper and I chose one at random, which turned out to be the key lime pie, but at the last minute just as the waitress was starting to walk away I changed my mind and got the white chocolate mousse cake. I'm glad I did, but next time I'm definitely getting the key lime pie. Definitely. Unless I get the Grand Marnier Cheesecake. Or the Turtle Brownie Cheesecake.
And then we came home. Andrew is putting together a song list for a wedding that he's deejaying at the end of the month and I've been sitting here listening to a strange and varied series of songs. I'm actually really enjoying La Bottine Souriante, a Quebecois folk group that I first heard during Colin's birthday cottage weekend. Sandwiched between stuff like Lady Marmalade and Bhangra music it's ... interesting. Not unpleasant, though.
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We went to Michelle's party tonight and had a great time. She has the cutest apartment ever, and it's a great place to have a group of people hanging out and socializing. When we arrived Dan and May were there with Noah, and Marcus and Jen F. were also there. Noah is now able to walk in shoes, so I was thrilled to see him motoring around in them. For a while I guess it stymied him that his feet couldn't exactly feel the floor when he wore them, but he's gotten past that and now walks like a real little man. He's also gotten over his fear of Marcus and it's very cute to see them getting along. I guess he's forgiven him for all the pinching and stuff. (Tee hee.)
However, Marcus had a gig and Dan and May had to get Noah home to bed so they left not too long after we arrived. Jen stayed so we chatted for quite a while about this and that, and I gave her the Guy Gavriel Kay book I'd surprisingly remembered to bring along with me for her. She threatens also to loan me a book that she assures me is incredibly good, so I'm looking forward to that. I can't remember what it's called, but I know I'll like it based on the description she gave me.
Anyhow, we hung out and socialized for quite a while, despite the fact that Andrew and I both had headaches and were both bone tired, neither of us having gotten a satisfactory amount of sleep the night before. I'm having trouble maintaining sleep in the morning, and Andrew is having trouble getting to sleep at night. Not good for either of us. Thankfully tomorrow is Saturday and we can (hopefully) catch up on some much needed rest before going out with Pez and Skye tomorrow night. We've been suprisingly social this week, actually, and while it's fun, I'm tired out.
So, after I drank a bunch of white wine and Andrew drank a bunch of coffee porter we shared a cab with Jen F. and came home to our little apartment, where Andrew very quickly crashed in bed for the night. I tucked him in and came to write my trusty weblog entry for the day.
Nothing terribly exciting happened during the day except that I've been working on an art project that's actually going terribly well and I'm kind of excited about it. I'm thrilled that at the new apartment I'm going to have so much room for arts and crafts. I want to make a bunch of pieces that we can put on the walls, and I've been promising Alannah and Mimi pieces too, so I guess I'd better get cracking once we get there. The project that I'm doing right now is very small and doesn't take up a lot of room so even though it's coming along slowly, it's not overtaking the living room as much as my Christmas projects did. Hopefully I'll have it finished this week and if we somehow get a working digital camera (or borrow one at least) I'll be able to link to some pictures of it.
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08/12/04 Red Bean anything is just wrong.
Tonight the plan was to meet Dan and May at Greg's Ice Cream at around 7:30 when they were finished an appointment in the area. I knew I'd be the early one, since Andrew and I would be arriving separately, so I wasn't surprised that I didn't see anyone else there when I got there. I went and browsed around in the Shopper's Drug Mart across the street, as I'm considering putting a blue streak in my hair and wanted to see what they had in the way of blue dye. More on that later.
Then I moseyed back over to Greg's and decided to get my ice cream early and eat it while I waited. I went for the large (3 scoops) in a cup rather than a cone, since I always eat it with a spoon anyhow, cone or not. I was a bit disappointed to see that instead of just plain Grape Nuts they had a Grape Nuts/Banana combo that didn't really appeal to me. The deliciousness of the Grape Nut is that the ice cream itself tastes Grape Nutty, see. So, since they didn't have Sweet Cream either I decided to go for the Toasted Marshmallow. When I asked for that the girl serving me suggested I get two scoops of that and make the third something different, just for kicks. I thought that was a good idea, but for some reason chose to make my third scoop the Cinnamon Strawberry. What was I thinking? Cinnamon Strawberry is not a good flavour by itself, much less melting into two scoops of Toasted Marshmallow. Flavours at Greg's are always kind of a crap shoot, you know? I figured I'd get the worse flavour out of the way before enjoying the good part so worked my way through that, but by the time Andrew arrived I was getting stupidly full of ice cream and ended up giving him most of my Toasted Marshmallow anyhow. Sigh.
He saved the day by buying a cup of Pear and Ginger, which was utter fabulousness and I kept snitching spoonfuls. The ginger is nice and strong. So we sat and ate ice cream and hung out while waiting for Dan and May. I also watched people walking by and listened to the crazy kids behind the counter as they bantered and yakked. Greg's always has energetic and funny young people working and I find it highly entertaining. Eventually we had no reason to be taking up a table as we were both finished our ice cream and the place was getting crowded, so we went next door and bought bubble teas at the bubble tea place then went and sat in the parkish sort of area at the corner of Spadina and Bloor by the high school. I sensibly bought a strawberry bubble tea, a flavour both delicious and fruity. Andrew inexplicably bought a red bean bubble tea. Ick. I can't let him kiss me on the lips when he does things like that.
Dan and May's appointment ended up going very late, as a result of which they eschewed the ice cream and just took us back to their place with them to hang out. None of us had eaten an actual dinner, so we ordered a delicious meal from Jerusalem and Marcus also came over. I was still full of ice cream so didn't eat a heck of a lot, but it was amazing. What a great restaurant. Then we watched Before Sunrise, as yesterday Andrew got a call from a place where he'd been put on a waiting list for it a while back and then forgotten about it. We wanted the DVD, though, for the special features, so figured we'd watch it again. It was just as good the second time around, I have to say.
As for the blue streak in my hair, it's something I've wanted to do for a really, really long time now and the whim just doesn't seem to be going away. I figure I might as well do it and get it out of my system now so it'll have time to grow out a bit by the time our wedding rolls around, at which point I might not want to have a blue streak in my hair. I know I could disguise it fairly easily even then, but you know. It's good to think ahead.
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08/11/04 Let there be light for a low, low price.
O.K., well, I didn't go to Bi-Best today to see if my sense of child-labour appropriateness was being offended yet further. I have no doubt that it is, really, so why make the trip if I don't have any real reason to? Instead I made a small trip to the Raglan Milk Mart to buy a Jones soda. Mmmm, Jones Cream Soda. My cap fortune said, "Your ability to listen makes you wise." How do they know me so well?
Yeah, yeah. Ha ha. Otherwise it was a slow news day on the homefront. Julie emailed me to say that their new place doesn't have light fixtures in the living room either so they need to take their lights with them, which they were going to sell us if they didn't need them. What is with rooms not having light fixtures? So silly. Anyhow, I'm actually O.K. with that as it gives us the opportunity to go to Chinatown and find some really funky lanterns. Andrew seems on board with that. We'll probably get something very similar to the big round paper lanterns that Julie and Gundel had, which was what they'd bought from Dan and May who had installed them in the first place.
I'm considering having a housewarming/Halloween party at our new place at the end of October when we've settled in a bit. I love dressing up for Halloween. I'm just not good at it. Seriously, I'm costume challenged and last year's costume was a bit of a fluke. I'd intended to dress as Medusa and spent days trying to make tons of little snakes out of pipe cleaners braided together. I got them all made and when it came time to figure out how to attach them to my head realized that I couldn't find a way in hell to do so. So, at the very last minute I ran to the Goodwill and bought a bright yellow t-shirt, put stripes of black electrical tape on it, made antennae out of two black pipe cleaners twisted onto a headband, cut a knife shape out of cardboard, spraypainted it silver and went as a killer bee. I was very, very pleased with it, actually, and I think it's one of the best costumes I've ever worn. Andrew went as a Technics record player and won first prize for his costume at the party we attended.
I don't know what to do this year, though. I had one good idea (or so I thought) but it isn't doable, so now I'm left wondering what else I can do. I like trying to think of something really original and unique. My problem is that often I can't come up with something I'm satisfied with and end up doing nothing. Year before last I tried to go as Willow from Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and it was a failure. Probably because I tried to throw it together the night before and it wasn't exactly obvious to the untrained eye. I'm thinking of making a funky mask to wear, so we'll see what kind of inspiration hits me between now and then.
I also need really good Ottawa job vibes. Like, serious meditating, praying, offering of sacrifices, what-have-you. I'll do the boring actual looking for a job type stuff, but anyone who wants to wiggle their fingers in my direction and chant something helpful would be greatly appreciated by me.
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08/10/04 Think of the children! Or, at least this poor kid.
Today I took another trip to Bi-Best. I complain a lot about that store, but I still go there all the time. It's where Coke and other yummy sodas are cheap, and sometimes they have good hair stuff. Plus, every now and again one can purchase an interesting grocery item. So I went in the early afternoon to pick up some stuff, and noticed that there was a kid behind the counter. He was there last time I went, too. This kid looks to be all of nine or ten (possibly older, just youngish and outside of my ability to accurately judge the age of random kids, but still too young to be working behind a cash register).
Anyhow, he rang up my stuff and did a good job of it, like last time, proving that he does this a lot. I took my stuff and went home. When Andrew got home from work we decided to buy drinks at Bi-Best before heading off to Dan and May's place for Tuesday night goodness. When we went to pay for our stuff, the same kid was behind the counter! This was at least six hours later than the last time I'd seen him. I feel damn sorry for this poor kid. It's summertime and he's working tons of hours at his parent's business instead of having a carefree vacation.
If he's there tomorrow (which I most likely will be), I'll really be ticked.
So, as I mentioned earlier, tonight we went to Dan and May's which was a great time, even though we didn't get to see Noah before he was put to bed. Michelle, Jen F. and Marcus were there tonight too and we had fun eating pizza and hanging out. It turns out that Jen F. is a big Guy Gavriel Kay fan and very, very good about returning books that are loaned to her (besides being a fast reader) so I'm hoping to loan her the GGK books she hasn't read before we move. It's so nice to find someone else who appreciates his genius. I still haven't bought his new book, which I'm dying to do. I don't collect many things, but his books are a must for me.
Speaking of moving, everything for the apartment is now settled and we're definitely moving in. Things were pretty firm before, but we've gotten everything signed and cheques delivered, so phew! It's such a relief to know we have a home in Ottawa waiting for us to move into. Plus, Julie and Gundel are being incredibly helpful about sending me info on job opportunities, so that is also comforting.
Oooh, Marcus made me very happy tonight by reporting that he has also given conditioner only washing a try for about a month now and found it to be good. He said he didn't notice much of a difference in his hair, actually, but I thought it looked great tonight, so it's doing good things in my opinion. Conditioner only washing! Not just for crazy people! Moms do it, musicians do it! You can do it too!
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08/08/04 Pets A. (Inside joke for Andrew.)
I have come to the conclusion that 237 ml bottles of Coke are not enough Coke for me. Too bad, as they're very cute and true Coca Cola devotees know that it tastes best out of a glass bottle. They're just a tease, though, and I find myself wondering where the rest is when I get to the bottom of the bottle. The 355 ml cans are just the right amount. I must be Momma Bear, as I find the 500 ml bottles to be just a bit too much. Average, that's me.
Above average, however, is the movie Before Sunset. Andrew came home from work today seeming fairly tired, but he mentioned possibly going out for dinner and a movie. I was not really feeling up to it myself but after a bit of back and forth it was decided I'd have a shower (there was no way I was going anywhere without washing my mop) and then while my hair dried we'd decide whether to eat in or go out for dinner. Jenny solved this nicely for us by calling just after I finished my shower and having a good long conversation with Andrew, thereby making going to a restaurant our only option time-wise.
We went for the tried and true: Pho Hung. As we made our way there Andrew wondered what wacky kinds of mishaps would make our meal interesting and I speculated that perhaps to be different nothing would happen at all. When we got there we were pointed to the patio, where the only available table sat scrunched between two others in the high-traffic center of the area, bare of anything except an ashtray. No chopsticks, no sauces, no sugar, no spoons. Nothing. I was immediately ornery about this, not liking the idea of being cramped and forced to beg our neighbours for condiments. I knew that I'd spied an empty table inside when we arrived, so I went in to see if we could get that one and ended up getting us an even better one. Yeehaw.
The service was remarkably good and pleasant tonight. When our pho arrived the waitress hesitated before handing us our bowls. I always get the all-rare beef pho, Andrew gets the rare and well-done pho. For some reason the assumption is always that the male customer wants the rare, and that I, the woman, would want the other. Not so. This time Andrew said that the Pho Tai was mine before they were placed in front of us, and the waitress asked, "How do you know?" Uh, because one has a pile of raw meat in it, while the other has big pieces of gray meat floating around?
Anyhow, we almost didn't get our usual bubble teas either, as we'd been informed that there was none anymore, but then the friendly man behind the counter called out to us that there was bubble tea after all. As I was drinking mine I was thinking that the tapioca bubbles actually look exactly like bunny poops. Andrew wondered why I was making the face I was making so I explained, and he spat one out in his hand to take a look at it. He said that there were specific differences in shine and texture, but I pointed out that a bunny poop soaked in liquid would probably fluff up and appear shiny too. We know where we can get some bunny poops to perform the experiment, but ... we probably won't. I'm sure you can imagine why.
Then we were off to see Before Sunset. I wasn't sure what to expect at all. I'd read only a couple of reviews and then quit because I didn't want to find out too much beforehand, and I'm glad. I'd read that Ethan Hawke had aged terribly and that it really showed in this film, but it wasn't a negative thing. He'd aged, but who hasn't in the last nine years? Julie Delpy aged better than he did, perhaps. She looked like she'd become mature, not less beautiful. Anyhow, I have to say that the ending was far more than I'd hoped for. The one thing I'd regretted reading was that this ending was similarly ambiguous to the ending of the first movie, but I don't feel it was at all. I don't even feel like I'm reading into it simply what I want to. I think that we were given enough knowledge to know fairly clearly what happens next, and I'm totally satisfied with it.
Special treats during the movie itself are the car scene and the cat. Watching Julie Delpy in the car scene was one of my favourite parts of the entire thing. Also, the cat is adorable and is obviously a true professional. My only moment of frustration was one part where there was a bunch of French dialogue and the people around us were laughing. I knew that I was missing out on some funny stuff. Sigh. Anyhow, it's a fantastic movie. You have to see it if you liked the first one.
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Today was a basically uneventful day, which I don't think is a bad thing, really. I like days where Andrew and I can hang around together on his day off doing not much of anything. He did have an errand to run to York University, but I was feeling kind of tired and not-so-well for a while, so took a nap while he was gone.
At one point we got to talking about my legs. Yesterday I used my Remington Epilator on my legs, a time-consuming and yes, painful process. The website says that it gently removes hair from the root. Well, if yanking it out from the root with great force is gentle, that's true. However, it's totally worth it. Usually for about 24 hours my legs are a bit red and irritated and Andrew pointed this out (never happy is he) and I was explaining that it happens, but encouraged him to feel the results and see that they're worth it. It doesn't feel as smooth and perfect as a razor shave, though, as it does leave a tiny hair here and there and he said that yeah, he'd noticed a few that remained. So I grabbed my epilator and did a little seek and destroy. Then I offered to demonstrate the pain factor on him. He surprised me by agreeing, so I said I'd do one of his knuckles (come on, all guys have hairy knuckles, right?) and took his hand to do so.
Well, as soon as the thing grabbed a couple of hairs he yelped like a puppy under a clumsy man's foot. I was thoroughly amused. I don't think that I deal with pain especially well, but if I can sit there with an epilator in my hand and voluntarily pull out all the hair on my legs from the root without crying, I must be some kind of tough. And it's not like waxing, which is painful but fast. This takes time. It's not masochism, but it's something near as twisted, I think, to endure that for unnaturally smooth legs. Unless you're my mom or Jen and not prone to indelicate things like leg hair.
On the upside, I made a double batch of Chocolate Crackles this morning. Andrew seems to like them as much as I do, so they're running out kind of fast and I may need to make another batch in a day or so. Some may make their way to Dan and May's place on Tuesday if this happens. I think May liked them well enough, but I didn't really see Dan actually eat one, come to think of it.
Other than these fascinating events, the rest of the day was quiet and nice. After Andrew got home from York we had supper and watched more Buffy episodes. Now that we have season one I think it's inevitable that we'll collect the rest of the seasons, and Andrew said something along those lines tonight, so I'm happy. Then we can collect all the Angel episodes and our lives will be complete!
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08/06/04 It was Andrew Appreciation Night.
I would like to point out that I have a very wonderful fiance. He highly amused me at least twice tonight, besides being all-around great.
Our evening didn't start off so upbeat, however. He'd had a hard day at work (still not feeling totally up to par) and by the time he got to Dan and May's place (where I was awaiting him) he was tired and worn out, needing to be cheered and loved. We all did our best to accomplish this and I think it was pretty successful. He chose the movie we rented, settling on The Limey, which was excellent. I guess I really do have a thing for older British gentlemen. Sigh.
Something that made me happy was a treat I whipped up today. I'd asked my mom to send me the recipe for the Chocolate Crackles that she used to make for us when we were kids, as I've recently been hit with a sudden enormous craving for them and had to have them as soon as possible. Mom came through very quickly and got the recipe to me, so today I schlepped off to Loblaws to pick up the ingredients I didn't have around the house (Corn Flakes, corn syrup and cocoa) and then pretty much made a batch as soon as I got back home in my own kitchen. Now, I've been a bit disappointed to find, this late in my life, that I'm not really the greatest cook ever. I kind of always thought I could be if I applied myself, but I don't seem to have a natural 'feel' for cooking good food. Admittedly, Chocolate Crackles aren't the most involved recipe in the world, but I've discovered that I can thoroughly mess up an ostensibly simple recipe just by being scatterbrained.
Thankfully, my Chocolate Crackles turned out just as good as I remember Mom's tasting, so phew! I made a very small batch just in case everything went horribly, horribly wrong, but the next batch will be far more plentiful.
After having a very lovely time with Dan and May we headed for home, walking to Bathurst to catch the bus, but one blasted past the street as we were nearing the end of it, so we had a bit of time to sit and chat on a bench while we waited for the next one. When we saw the bus coming we got up and headed for the stop, where Andrew, fumbling for a token, accidentally sent his token holder flying into the street in front of the oncoming bus. There was time enough for him to dash out and grab it so he did so, me cheering him on from the side of the road. When the bus pulled up and we boarded, however, the bus driver admonished him for his daring, saying something like, "I'd have let you on without a token rather than run you over, you know."
I found this highly amusing, but not as amusing as the fact that we appeared to have gotten on the bus for lonely single guys, as everyone on the bus was a sad-seeming man sitting alone, shoulders slumped.
When we got off the bus at St. Clair Andrew expressed a wish to go buy candy at the 7-Eleven, and since that meant I could get candy too I was all for the idea. We went in and picked out our treats, and as we were leaving noticed little six-packs of little bottles of Coca Cola. Andrew decided to buy a pack and as he was paying I wandered around looking at stuff. While I did this, I heard him wondering if the bottles were recyclable (which apparently they weren't), then, to my amazement, heard him complaining to the clerk, "When I was a kid we used to collect pop bottles in our neighbourhood and get refunds for them!" I was dumbfounded by the fact that he seemed suddenly to be possessed by a cranky, curmudgeonly old man. Then, thinking about it more, I wasn't.
He may be a curmudgeon before his time, but he's my curmudgeon!
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08/05/04 Secure building indeed!
Well, I didn't write a weblog entry last night because something unprecedented and strange happened. I fell asleep. Yes, it can happen, even to me.
Luckily, nothing of note happened yesterday. Really. I can't think of anything exciting off the top of my head at all, except that I drank a bottle of Stewart's Original Cream Soda and it was excellent. Yum. I'll be drinking more of that. Oh, and Andrew talked to Julie last night and it appears that we've firmed up the when of moving into the apartment, which will officially be the end of September. Andrew will have to be there from the end of August to attend school and necessary things like that, but at least he has places to stay in Ottawa until the big move.
Today Andrew was pretty sick so was home for the day, which was nice for me if not for him. Even when he's not feeling well, he's pleasant company. I tried not to disturb him too much except for when I couldn't help myself and had to kiss him or torment him, but I think I kept it to a minimum. At one point I took his mailbox key so I could check the mail, a novelty for me as we only have the one key and it's on his keychain. We could have gotten another mail key, we just didn't get around to it, is all.
Anyhow, I went down to check the mail which was disappointingly a bunch of flyers and valu-pak coupons. As I was closing the mailbox somebody banged on the main door, startling me. A woman stood outside holding bags and glaring at me through the glass, yelling, "Open the door!" I was taken aback by this and went closer to the door. She gestured at it and once more yelled, "Open the door!"
I opened it a crack and said, "Do you live here?"
She then shoved the door open and pushed past me. I said, "I'm not supposed to let anyone in who doesn't have a key, you know."
She was mad about that and said, "I'm going to apartment 25. Do you want to come with me and check?"
Now, I wasn't really mad about her barging in. The super often props open all the doors in the building on hot days, and anyone can get in through the fire escape doors. Security is not the issue. What I was mad about was the way she just hollered at me to open the door in such a bossy way. If she'd tapped on the door mildly and kind of gestured with her bags to show me she was having a hard time, I would have opened the door and let her in with a smile. I do it all the time. Just ask Andrew. But no, she had to be a jerk about it.
Anyhow, I guess I got over it eventually. We decided to order pizza tonight as I wasn't in the mood for cooking at all. For some reason I ordered a plain cheese pizza instead of my usual Hawaiian, which turned out to be not such a good idea. It was O.K., but could have used more fruit and ham. The thing of it is, the pizza guy actually came right to the door of our apartment, which is weird because somebody other than us had to have let him in the building proper. Again, security not so high a priority around here.
I am feeling conflicted about Halo having been boarded at the vet clinic while we were gone. When we go away for a few days and leave him in the apartment, he's not happy about it and is glad to see us come home, but this seems to have had a more lasting effect on him. Andrew and I definitely felt more secure about him and his safety, but he didn't like it at all. He's been way more clingy and neurotic since we got back than he usually is and I feel bad for him, like he thinks we're going to parcel him off at any given moment to scary places. Sigh. Next time we'll get someone to look in on him at home instead, perhaps. I think it'll be the least of three evils.
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08/03/04 Back to reality. Thankfully, it's pretty good.
Many days since I have written in my weblog. Yikes. However, those days were well spent in the wilds of Quebec (for the most part) with lovely friends. We left on Friday for Ottawa in a rental car with three friends; Hisani, her boyfriend Wade and Jen F.. The drive felt endless. Traffic on the 401 was stop and go, and we finally bailed it at Belleville. From then on the ride was more pleasant, but still felt long and arduous. In the end it took about six hours to get there. Not optimal, but still not as bad as Dan and May's seven hour drive earlier in the day with a patient and forbearing Noah.
On our way to Ottawa we received a call from Gav telling us that Emily was beginning to go into labour, but that we were still welcome to stay at their house as they needed someone to keep an eye on Aladara, their daughter. This was exciting news and I informed Colin and Jen of this when they called to check on our progress. It was very pleasant to think we'd be around for the wonderful event, as Gav and Emily are having their second homebirth. However, we discovered further into the ride (on another call) that it was false labour and Emily was remaining pregnant for a while longer. Sigh
So, we did not see a bouncing baby before we left for the cottage the next day. The drive to the cottage was fun. We sort of convoyed there (in a loose fashion), all twelve of us meeting at the SAQ and a depanneur to pick up booze and snacks. We arrived at the cottage in the late afternoon, so we quickly got into making dinner after arriving and soon after dinner a bunch of us took a swim (obviously flouting any good advice given by well-meaning sorts about swimming after a meal). Before the trip May had given me a lovely bright yellow bathing suit, as I didn't even own one, but of course the one thing I forgot to pack was the freaking bathing suit. So, I swam in my pajama shorts and a t-shirt and really hoped that my butt wouldn't be hanging out in the mornings for everyone to see. I think it was O.K..
Andrew and I spent a bit of a crowded night the first night as I'd volunteered us to sleep on a fold-out bed in the living room that appeared to me to be large enough although it was meant for one person. I made this deduction, however, by eyeballing the thing before it was unfolded, and when we unfolded it before bed I was dismayed to find that the interior was smaller than I'd anticipated. We scrunched onto it, however, and although Andrew slept far better than I did, I managed to get a couple of hours worth. I have trouble sleeping when not in my own bed anyhow.
On Sunday (which was also Colin's 30th birthday!) Julie and Gundel had to go back home to Ottawa, so they kindly left Andrew and me their air mattress, which sent me into transports of joy. I spent a lot of the day looking forward to sleeping on air. Sunday was also the day of the talent show, though, and I spent other parts of the day thinking about it and whether I really wanted to do the talent I'd prepared, or get thrown in the lake as a result of refusing to do any talent at all. At one point in the afternoon I was looking for Andrew and couldn't find him anywhere. I asked around and nobody knew where he'd gone to, so I finally decided to go for a swim with a bunch who were in the water, annoyed that he'd just disappear like that. He reappeared after a while and came for a swim as well and I gave him a bit of heck for being so thoughtless and irresponsible as to take off without a word to anyone, but got over it eventually.
Colin's parents, his brother and his brother's girlfriend came to the cottage to have dinner with all of us, then remained to watch the fireworks display, which I am told were the best and longest of any other year. Andrew was in charge of lighting them and it was actually quite funny to hear his commentary through the trees about each firework and its name as he lit them. However, at this point I'd had a bit much to drink and wonder now if it was all as funny as I found it. Anyhow, I enjoyed them thoroughly and that's what's important. Colin's parents left after this but his brother and his brother's girlfriend stuck around for the talent show.
The talent show was fantastic! Of course all of our friends are massively talented. They can sing, act, play musical instruments and make up hilarious stories on the spot. I knew this going in, but figured I'd do my talent anyhow. My talent was to tie a knot in a piece of rope without letting go of either end of it. Try it and see how easy it is. After doing this I went back to my seat amidst my undeserved applause and waited for Andrew's turn, curious to see what he'd prepared. He hadn't told me his talent, despite my curiosity, and I anticipated something unique. I was still a little tipsy and feeling very relaxed and happy among my friends and when his turn came, well ...
He got up there and started off by saying something like, "This last year has been, as some of you may know, a stressful and sometimes difficult year. However, it's also been the best year of my life, and the reason why is in this room tonight. So, I'd like to borrow the words of a well-known English bard to express how I feel about her now."
Then he looked directly at me, and these are the words he said:
You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs.
But I look around me and I see it isn't so.
Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs.
And what's wrong with that?
I'd like to know, 'cause here I go againI love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you,I can't explain the feeling's plain to me, say can't you see?
Ah, she gave me more, she gave it all to me
Now can't you see,
What's wrong with that
I need to know, 'cause here I go again
I love you, I love youLove doesn't come in a minute,
sometimes it doesn't come at all
I only know that when I'm in it
It isn't silly, no, it isn't silly, love isn't silly at all.How can I tell you about my loved one?
How can I tell you about my loved one?
How can I tell you about my loved one?
(I love you)
How can I tell you about my loved one?
(I love you)Seconds into this recitation I began to cry, of course. Big cry, not tiny little tears. What a man have I. When he was done he came and hugged and kissed me, and told me after that when he'd disappeared that afternoon, it had been to make sure he'd memorized the words completely so he could say them to me that night. Sigh. The words are of course the lyrics to the Paul McCartney song 'Silly Love Songs', in case you do not know.
The night of sleep I got was fantastic. I was bone tired from having not slept too well the night before, having done some swimming, eaten delicious meals, gotten fairly drunk, and just been having a super-wonderful time in general. However, sleeping on that air-mattress was about as supremely comfortable as I'd hoped, and I hardly wanted to get out of bed in the morning. We did, though, and were the last car to leave before Colin and Jen in the afternoon.
Over the course of the weekend Gundel and Julie had told us something that made us pretty excited. The apartment they currently live in is the one that Dan and May had when they lived in Ottawa. I've heard all about this apartment and how great it is, how much Dan and May loved it, et cetera. I knew it had a lot of history with our group of friends and hoped to see it sometime. However, Gundel and Julie informed us that they are moving out right at the time when Andrew and I want to move to Ottawa, and wondered if we'd be interested in taking it over from them.
We went last night to return their air mattress and pump to them, and they invited us in for a bit to look around. Andrew already knew the place well, but I instantly and deeply fell in love. The building is from the 1920's and the place is just gorgeous, inside and out. May has told me numerous times that it felt like home to her, and I can see why. It has tons of character, lots of room, and is the type of place I've always wanted.
So ... after deliberating for a bit and hemming and hawing a bit over the price, we've decided we want to take it. I'm in shock, but it seems to be true. Neither of us can believe that this place has become available right when we need it most, and that it will get to 'stay in the family', so to speak (something that May seems pleased about, and of course she'll be made to spend time there every time she's in Ottawa). We not only have a home to move to in Ottawa for the fall, but we have a home that is in exactly the neighbourhood we wanted, mere minutes walk away from some of the best friends we have in the city. Unbelievable.
We came home today, and though it was a bit tense getting back in time to pick up Halo, we managed to procure him from the vet's office right when they were closing and bring him home before we headed to Dan and May's for some hanging out time with them and Marcus, which was a perfect way to finish off our fabulous weekend of spending time with our wonderful friends.
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