 |
free hosting image hosting hosting reseller online album e-shop famous people |  |
  |
||
|
free hosting image hosting hosting reseller online album e-shop famous people | |
|
||
ShinyHappy - Thoughts for February 16th - 29th, 2004
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
02/29/04 If common sense is so common, how come it's so rare?
It's been pointed out to me that it might be nice if I organized the links I include in my weblog into an easily accessible format on a dedicated page of their own. Now, while I highly endorse the concept of personal responsibility and the use of the bookmark/favourites function within most browsers, I also think that this is a good, sensible idea. It's not much extra work for me, and apparently repeat visitors don't have to scrounge back through a month's worth of entries to find whatever interesting link they thought they remembered. Win/win!
Of course, doing the initial work of (loosely) organizing the existing links has made me realize how very much I am ruled by the Id. Damn it. And of course the article I've linked to actually uses chocolate in its illustration of a pleasure-driven child. As if my paranoid fears weren't already out of control.
My friend Dan has seen fit to share his blog with a broader range of people, and in reading it today I was quite fascinated with an eating philosophy he'd provided a link to. It's called the No S Diet and it seems, on the face of it, laughably simple. The basic idea is to avoid snacking, sweets, and second helpings while adopting a more physically active lifestyle. The site itself goes on to explain in-depth the benefits of such a simple approach to eating habits, and makes a lot of points that I agree with. I showed this to Andrew, who pulled out a book on sailing fitness that says that it's as simple as expending more calories than you take in, while using common sense about the foods you eat.
Exactly. What appeals to me about the No S Diet is that it is really a set of guidelines that focus on changing your behaviours, not teaching you a science of eating. It does not set out for you a list of verboten foods beyond avoiding obviously sugared items, nor does it describe an exercise regimen. What it does is something extremely important, which is it takes away the idea of a restricted diet. I have done dieting to death. I've been an Atkins low-carber, I've paid my dues at Weight Watchers. And in fact, while we were in Ottawa I told Andrew that I was going to go back on the W.W. points system after we got back to Toronto because I've put on about ten pounds since moving. I was not excited about the idea of doing so at all, because I've been down that road and it had me thinking constantly about my next meal, how many points/carbs I had left in the day, how I would use them, the maximum amount of food I could eat for the least points/carbs possible. I was obsessive and food was still a negative in my daily life, just in an entirely different way.
So the idea of a 'program' that is more about developing a series of healthier habits rather than adopting a strict, regimented system involving tracking nutritional numerical values and writing down every bite that goes in your mouth is appealing to me. I believe the most important factor in weight loss and improving physical fitness is the state of mind, and if you have no desire to adopt better habits, you won't get leaner. The No S Diet encourages patterns of behaviour using simple alliterative memory tools and a huge portion of old fashioned common sense. This may beg the questions, "Why do you need something so simple to lean on? Why not just suck it up, eat in a more healthy manner and excercise on your own, you ninny?" Well, yeah, but in our society of super-sizing upsells, out of control restaurant portioning, targeted advertising and the contradictory images we're sold of rail-thin actors chowing down on fatty foods and chugging sugary drinks, it's difficult at times.
The site author is not a doctor or dietician and I'm not recommending that anyone begin this diet now. I'm thinking of doing it myself, because my worst problems stem from my bad habits in eating. I never want to go on another 'counting' diet again, so this is definitely worth consideration, especially with my newfound love for a delicious chocolate product I'd already told Andrew I was only going to buy one bar of a week.
I think what I basically want to say about it is that I really appreciate the "Holy shit, relax already!" approach that the web author takes to excercise, diet, and our views regarding them.
Anyhow, we went to Rayna's place tonight for the Oscars, which was very nice. They're such a long process, however, and I was frankly pissed off and bored by how thoroughly The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King dominated the night. After seeing and being moved by movies like Whale Rider and Lost in Translation it was a disappointment to see them garner little recognition, although Sofia Coppola did get the Oscar for best Screenplay.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
02/28/04 Not quite a saint, but getting there!
So, the more observant among those who checked out the new picture of Andrew and I that I added to the Us section of the site might have deduced that it's not really us. In fact it was created using the South Park Character Generator. I've been having so much fun with it that I suckered Andrew into it too and we created characters to represent a few of our friends to amuse them with. I've heard that the unofficial rule is to wait for someone to create a character to represent you rather than doing it yourself, but I am so uncool that I didn't really care about that rule.
It's a bit limited when it comes to hairstyles despite what appears to be a wide range, which resulted in some people not being rendered as faithfully as we'd like, but we really did our best, I swear. Try it yourself and have fun!
Tonight was our Survivor episode marathon night. The group of us that watch Survivor together weekly had missed three episodes in a row due to many reasons, most having to do with travel and none having to do with indifference, so we all of us got together plus a couple of extra people too and had Sushi Survivor night. It was excellent fun, especially the episode where we got to see Big Tom slammed around with various giant puzzle pieces while the tribes stumbled about blindfolded. In the end I was disappointed to see my dear Richard Hatch ousted, even though he took it with enormous good grace, as I figured he would. Survivor nights have been keeping me sane for a long time now, so I was very happy to have this extended one!
Now, I am becoming more convinced by the day that keeping this weblog is a good thing. Not only am I reaping personal rewards, I am also making a difference in the world! How am I making a difference? Well, to begin with I have brought a brother into the Get Fuzzy fold. This one is slightly sketchy in that it was really through email that I got my faboo friend John to discover the incredible hilarity that is this daily cartoon, but it was in an email that was more intended to get him to read my weblog, so I think it counts. But my second and even more compelling humanitarian effort was fulfilled today. I got a message from a fellow Torontonian telling me that he was very glad to read about Cocoa Camino as he has been looking for a fair trade chocolate as good as the one he used to buy in England. YAY! Thank you, Pete, for making my day and then some.
This leads directly into the personal rewards that I am reaping. We arrived at Dan and May's place tonight for Survivor night bearing a bit of a gift embodied in a twelve-pack of Coke, as we always drink their Coca Cola when we're there. May trumped me, however, by telling me that to prove she's been keeping up with my weblog she'd bought me a gift. And what does she pull out from behind her back? A Cocoa Camino bar!
In love and thanks, I have written a haiku.
What a friend have I
Who brings to me this candy
But she is more sweet.Yay, May!
Hee hee. Andrew is already in bed and I just listened to him having an extended but unintelligible conversation with himself. I went to the bedroom door and said his name, which shocked him awake. After a bit of questioning I managed to get from him that in his dream he and I were talking about our apartment being a great place to meet drunk people. Would that it were true!
On that note I myself am going to attempt sleep. Goodnight!
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
02/27/04 The first step is admitting you have a problem.
Damn me and my damnable self-indulgent curiosity!
Yes, I went to the Cocoa Camino website today and checked to see how many vendors in Toronto carry their sinfully good chocolate bars. As it turns out, thirty-six do, and the nearest one is less than a five-minute walk from me. And most of that is taken up by waiting for a streetlight to change.
Of course, I know it's a five-minute walk because I walked it and bought two bars. And no, I have not eaten them both! I have not even eaten one. Entirely. When Andrew gets home I'm going to make him eat at least four squares of the first one so I can say I didn't eat them all myself. Clever, no? Oh, and I must point out that my love is for the Milk Chocolate bars. I have not tried the semi-sweet or bitter dark, because I usually don't like those in general.
But this is all incredible badness in the worst possible way. I'm supposed to be embarking on a quest to eat healthier foods and get more exercise, and a sudden jump in my chocolate intake isn't exactly an auspicious or sensible way to begin. I am pretty sure that I can have enough self-restraint to ration myself to a square or two a day as a treat and still fit that into a more-or-less healthy diet seeing as how I know where and when I can get it locally. And although I have not been especially militant about it in the last few years, I do prefer to eat chocolate that wasn't made by overworked underage labourers, so should be sticking solely with what I know is good for my conscience. Plus, it's not exactly easy on the wallet, so I'll definitely need to space it out and make it last. It all comes together nicely when I think about it, so if I can control myself, all is not lost.
Rationalization rocks!
... time passes
O.K.. Andrew and I did end up going out for pho, and he did eat four squares of my delicious chocolate. Our plans for the evening were up in the air for a bit as we'd received an invitation to spend time with Pez and Skye, a fun and wonderful couple that Andrew has known for a long time from work. We weren't sure how things were going to come together pho-wise, but eventually Andrew and I went out for pho and then made our way to Pez and Skye's place and watched a movie with them.
Pho Hung was as usual. This time our meal came all together at the same time except for my cold rolls again. Andrew immediately asked after them when he noted they were absent, but they yeah-yeahed us and brought them out quickly. What was funny was that this time as we were eating and chatting they brought a second plate of cold rolls to us! I was incredibly tempted to just take them in spiteful retribution for the angst I'd suffered at our last visit, but they were the shrimp kind and neither of us eats shrimp so I did the 'right' thing and said we hadn't ordered them. If only they'd been shrimpless! I was, however, in danger of popping open right there at the table by the time I'd finished my pho so it's just as well that they'd been the shrimp variety. I even left a quarter of one of my rolls uneaten.
We watched Lost in Translation with Pez and Skye. For some reason I'd been feeling ambivalent about watching this film, but that was entirely wrong on my part. What a fantastic movie! I don't like being incorrect any more than the next person, but in this case I really am glad that I was. I've always liked Bill Murray as an actor, and this movie proves why. There was never a point where I thought to myself, "Why don't they just get on with it?" And the ending ... ah, the ending. It was perfect. Of course I can't say more. Just watch the movie. Love the movie.
Lastly, I've added a nice new picture of Andrew and I to the Us section of the site. Enjoy!
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
02/26/04 I talk about food a lot
Andrew and I recently watched the Christopher Guest movie Best In Show. I had seen it before, but had been slightly tipsy at the time and wanted to make sure it was just as funny sober. It really was, so tonight Andrew brought home A Mighty Wind. I liked it, but it wasn't quite as feel-good as Best In Show, I thought. They are focused on two entirely different themes, of course, but I think that my problem with A Mighty Wind concerned the lack of a set of characters that were truly happy with each other. I missed that giddy little thread.
We have a musician neighbour living directly below us and he plays his bass and guitar constantly. That sounds potentially annoying, but the fact that he is an amazing musician makes it really not so bad. Over the last few months his practice sessions have been joined by a singer, and recently some other elements have been making their way in, like percussion and other synthesised effects. All of it has been sounding rather fabulous and we've mused that it wouldn't greatly surprise us to hear the songs we've been getting familiar with somewhere other than through our floorboards. I've been tempted to go downstairs and lurk in their hallway during practices in an effort to get a better sense of the singer in particular. I don't think that I'm really getting the best picture of her abilities from one floor up. At times what she's doing seems a bit disconnected from the music.
Well, hopefully people apart from Andrew and I are enjoying the talents of our downstairs neigbour.
I am once more a disproportionately happy girl because Andrew and I are going out for pho again tomorrow night. Not for any reason other than that we like to go out together and pho is a cheap and fun thing to go out for. Yay for me, as it feeds my addiction. I'm really quite happy that I have a vice that is as healthy as this one, really. My other vices, Coca Cola and now the Cocoa Camino chocolate bars, are nowhere near as sensible. At least I don't know where to buy the Cocoa Camino bars in Toronto. Yet.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
02/25/04 Longest entry EVER!
It's very, very good to be home!
The combined best and worst part is coming home to the pathetic gladness of Halo. We are cruel enough to go away and leave him for days at a time alone in a boring-ass apartment, and all he can do when we get here is purr and meow in ecstasies of relief at our return. It never occurs to him to say to us when we arrive, "You shitty bastards! Don't look at me! Don't talk to me! Someone should have had the Humane Society breaking down this door two days ago!"
We do leave him with plenty of food, water, litter, and assurances that we're coming home, of course. Nobody really has to call the Humane Society. O.K.? O.K..
The remainder of our trip was very good. I went with my parents on Sunday to visit my Grandma in Prescott and we really only had time to go out for dinner before I had to be in Brockville to catch the train. We went to a very questionable restaurant that my Grandma raved about, but my mother and I shared a lot of sidewise glances over the course of the meal (yay, snobbery!). We were the only patrons although the waitress assured us that the Sunday buffet had exhausted her. We missed the buffet (which I think my mother was very glad for) so I ordered the ham steak. It was a monster of a steak with a disturbingly suggestive decoration of two pineapple rings with maraschino cherries in their centers. Before I received the slab of disembodied breasts Mom and I visited the salad bar which was a disappointment of room-temperature fruit salad and sad, rubbery iceberg lettuce.
Dessert saved the day. I got to have black forest pie. I nearly went with the cherry cake. You know, that white cake mix with the red flecks in it? The waitress was really pimping the pie, however, so I went with it, which turned out to be a very wise decision despite the giant piece of pig I'd stuffed myself with.
Anyhow, my parents got me to Brockville early enough that I waited for an hour and fifteen minutes in the train station. When the train arrived (late) I got on expecting to just sit and stare straight ahead David Putty-like for the duration of the ride, as it was dark out and I knew I'd be in an aisle seat. I sat beside a very large man who looked a bit younger than me, and who did not look at or speak to me after the initial, "Yeah, you can sit there," was out of the way. But I must be getting more sociable in my old age because I was bored enough to force him into conversation at around Smith's Falls by asking if he knew how much longer until we reached Ottawa station (and I know how long it takes, believe me). Once the dam was breached, however, words flowed from him non-stop and we talked until the trip was over. He was very nice and I spent the rest of our time in Ottawa referring to him as my 'train boyfriend' for Andrew's benefit.
So Monday was spent visiting with Andrew's grandparents and checking out a railway display that Andrew's dad had organized for the Winterlude festival on the Rideau Canal. I got to have my first Beavertail, which lived up to all expectations. It was delicious! I went with the raspberry which of course resulted in jam on my jacket, shirt, and pants, but it was worth it.
We stayed with the lovely duo of Colin and Jen who had arrived home safely from the wilds of snowy Nova Scotia, as did May, Dan and baby Noah, thankfully. I was prepared to hear about how awful it was for them, but instead they were glowing and enthusiastic about the whole epsiode and armed with a boatload of pictures illustrating the weirdness that was the East Coast Snow Bomb. Colin's Blog has a fantastic series of photos he took that illustrate the scope of it wonderfully. This page is a direct link to the full series of pictures. Colin takes some very amazing photos, so comb through his weblog for examples. One of my favourites was taken in the Distillery district here in Toronto during a visit they made a few months back.
Tuesday was the day of the Barenaked Ladies concert. I was expecting Alannah and Mimi at around four in the afternoon, and spent the whole day reminding Andrew that I come from a family where we are always on time, if not early. So I was a little apprehensive when a walk to Bank street was suggested in the afternoon, but Andrew's sister Jenny was visiting and it was a gorgeous day, so we went. We visited an organic shop that Jen likes and it was there that I discovered something very, very dangerous.
Backstory: Back in December when we stayed with our friends Gavriel and Emily in Ottawa they very generously put a chocolate bar under one of our pillows. It was funny at the time because we didn't discover it for a full day, but we took it home and I put it in the cupboard where it stayed for a few weeks. One day I decided to make chocolate banana boats so pulled it out. After assembling the boats there were a couple of squares left and I ate them. I have not been the same since. It was literally the best damn chocolate I have ever eaten in my life. Seriously. So I looked at the wrapper and saw that it's some kind of organic chocolate that I'd never heard of or seen before. I made a mental note to ask them where the heck they got it, and tried to carry on.
So, back to yesterday. I was checking out the deodorant stones and hemp wool and beeswax body products and ended up wandering over to where I'd seen some maple candy as we were coming in. I looked up and there's a shelf full of these chocolate bars that have been in the back of my mind for weeks now. A store with a steady supply of dangerously delicious chocolate in a city that I'll be moving to sometime in the near future. I foresee a future of elastic waisted pants.
They're called Cocoa Camino chocolate bars and my taste buds think that they're orgasms wrapped in purple paper.
So then we visited an organic bakery and ate a loaf of olive bread dipped in honey (weird, but delicious) and headed back to Jen's place where Alannah and Mimi were (of course) waiting outside in the car for us. I know my family, and we're always on time. Sigh. They weren't too pissed about finding us gone, thankfully.
So after subjecting poor Jen to a half-hour's worth or so of our high-octane snarkiness and insults we were on our way. The issue of where to go for supper had been looming for days, and Andrew eventually made the executive decision to take us to a restaurant called the Cock and Bull by pulling in and parking. I tried to find a website for it because I wanted to share my enjoyment of their sign with a picture of a bull with a rooster on its back, but no such luck. There was some question as to why Andrew chose that particular restuarant, but we got through the meal without too great a surplus of locker-room humour.
Eventually we did end up at the Barenaked Ladies concert, and it was great. I've never actually owned any of their music, even though I can't say I've ever heard a song of theirs that I've disliked, so I was actually surprised at how much I truly enjoyed the show. They seem to enjoy doing concerts, even after all these years, and I think that's a large part of why I had fun. Of course, watching Alannah try to ignore the inappropriate PDA couple sitting in front of her was fun, too, but the show really was highly enjoyable. A particular highlight was watching a woman being escorted off the floor, apparently for wearing a really ugly and tasteless outfit.
I decided during the concert that I'd rather take the overnight bus home to Toronto with Andrew than go to Kingston with the sisters and take the train from there today, so we got them to drop us off at the bus station. I'm really very glad that I did so, because I was a little worried about how sad my poor little Halo was without us. As I've already mentioned, he survived our absence, but every time we go away I promise him I'm not going to do it again. And then I do it again.
All right. That's more than enough out of me. I have a chocolate bar to eat.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
02/21/04 Sometimes I can get it wrogn
So Alannah informs me today that the unholy smell in Shoeless Joe's is gas. Just gas. Whew! I was worried for a while there, but I surely do feel better now! That's O.K., folks, no need for alarm! Our gas leak won't kill you. Or explode you. We don't think.
What worries me is that Mimi didn't know this. Or maybe she did and the gas leak is destroying her brain! Alannah knows someone on the inside other than our baby sister, so that's how she found out, but I think Mimi should have been in the know as well.
Spending time in person with those crazy ladies since starting this weblog is slightly surreal, though. Mimi was reading over some prior entries while we were at Alannah's this afternoon (Mimi doesn't have a computer. She lives in a cave and drinks dew off leaves) and was taking me to task for apparent misinformation I've been spreading. Here are some retractions in random order:
Mimi does not think that Patrick Stewart is sexy. The waffle fries at Shoeless Joe's are not called waffle fries, they're called lattice fries. The cheesecakey oreo thing I ate with her is called Cookies and Cream Cake (although I'm still not entirely certain I have this one correct). The cheap pop booze that Alannah drinks is actually called Canadian Coolers and she doesn't only drink cheap pop booze. (This last is obviously a retraction on Alannah's behalf).
I hope that's better. I'm very glad that whatever global upheavals which might have resulted from these grossly erroneous statements of mistruth have been averted.
So I didn't end up getting wasted with Alannah and her lushy friends in the end. When I thought the party was at her house I did consider it, but she was going somewhere else and I was getting together with Mark later in the day, so I decided that I should probably stay sober. I did think that Mark and I were possibly going out to grab a bite to eat but I was mistaken in that assumption as well, so by the time my mom got home I was hungry and she took me out to Denny's as a special treat. "A special treat?" you say uncomprehendingly. Yes, a special treat. I have great affection for Denny's restaurant, and my mother loathes it, so it was obviously a gesture of love on her behalf. I've spent many a very late night there chatting it up and drinking many, many refills of Coke with wonderful people (who weren't even truckers that were already there). When there's nowhere else to go, there's Denny's.
Hmmm ... I wonder why they've never used that line in their ads?
It looks as if this will be my last weblog entry until I get back to Toronto on Wednesday the 25th, I guess. I'm heading off to Ottawa tomorrow and will have a very busy few days there with Andrew until the Barenaked Ladies concert on Tuesday night with my sisters, and won't have free access to a computer for personal use. I think we can all use the break.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
02/20/04 Celine Dion, did you fart?
I'm hungry. Mom, Mimi, July and I are supposed to be going out for supper to Shoeless Joe's, and it's not happening fast enough for me. I'm waiting to be picked up. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Hungry, hungry, hungry.
I'm alone at Mom's, as I have been for most of the day. Mom had to work and I wanted to sleep as long as humanly possible. I spent the afternoon mostly futzing around on the computer, trying to track down new pictures from Mom's personal collection for the site. I got a few good ones of the kids that I'll put up when I get back to Toronto, but I was really looking for a picture of my mother herself. It appears that she destroys all pictorial evidence of her existence, so I will have to see what I can do.
This reminds me that I am stressing quite intensely lately over the loss of a few things dating from around the time of my move from Kingston to Toronto. The two items that I can't find anywhere are my glass cutting board and my box of photos and negatives. The cutting board is a shame because I am phobic about germs and wooden boards (the kind of cutting board that came along with Andrew), but ... if those photos and negs accidentally ended up at the dump, I'm going to be truly heartbroken. All of my important pictures were in there, along with their negatives. I'd hoped that perhaps they were left here at my mother's place, but I've had a brief glance around the basement and I'm not seeing the box. The crazy thing is, this is the second time in my life this has happened to me. In college during a move I lost my major photo album that had pictures that were extremely important to me as well. It's a curse. Or something.
... time passes
Well, we've been back now from Shoeless Joe's for quite a while and it was ... O.K.. Mimi works there and she pointed out that the place smells funny. At first I didn't notice as my sniffer is still not up to par, but as I was coming back into the restaurant proper after making a call from the pay phone I realized that she was right. There was a slightly eggy, sulfurous, unholy sort of smell that wafted around, not engulfing the entire place, just here and there. Apparently customers have pointed it out to her from time to time. It's one of those buildings that has housed a variety of restaurants, none seeming to last very long. It was originally built as a Nickel's, the chain of restaurants that Celine Dion allegedly created. Perhaps the smell is the physical manifestion of the hatred a past restaurant spirit (not naming any Nickel's) has for the seeming success of the current business. Or maybe it just stinks in there.
My money's on the stink. Anyhow, my meal was all right, but I wish I'd gotten the Thai beef stir fry with angel hair pasta rather than the ribs with waffle fries. I think the barbeque sauce and the gravy both had MSG because I'm feeling not so fine now. Not sick, just unpleasant. Then I had to have a few bites of the Oreo something-or-other cheesecakey dessert that Mimi got, so I'm feeling as if I ate a brick.
Lastly, I thought this was interesting: I was fiddling around with MSN, looking at the Chinese horoscope section and it gives the option to see if you and your 'sweetie' have much in the way of compatibility. This is what it had to say about Andrew and I: "Never at a loss for words, the attraction is dynamic between two Tigers. You make a secure dependable couple, to many people's surprise. Of course, you knew you were made for each other all along. The Tiger duet resonates with mutual joy in passionate adventure and excitement, if you can quit talking long enough. Disagreements are subject to marathon analysis. This is a good combination, with an eye for the future that ensures financial success.
Not bad.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
02/19/04 Hey! Yo, yo!
And here I am in Kingston. I am slightly worried about our friends. Dan, May and baby Noah have taken a trip with Colin and Jen. They're all in Halifax, where a state of emergency has been declared over the incredible amounts of snow that have been dumped on them. Andrew and I had originally planned to make the trip as well and I was disappointed when things didn't work out that way, but now I'm just hoping that they're all doing O.K. despite callously leaving us to go and party it up in glamorous Nova Scotia.
BE O.K. YOUSE GUYS AND COME HOME SOON!
Coming to Kingston has been good so far. As I mentioned yesterday, today is my mom's birthday and we had a big dinner at Alannah's place with meat and mead and delicious cake. O.K., there was no mead, but I had two Cokes which I'd say is just about as healthful. There was meat and it was delicious. When Alannah decides to cook, she's not kidding around. Plus, she made the incredible no dairy, no eggs cake that has weird things in it like coffee and vinegar but doesn't taste like it has either. It's so good yummy that it's literally called The Best Chocolate Cake Ever. Or something like that.
I've gotten ahead of myself a little bit, however. My train ride from Toronto to Kingston was O.K., but traveling alone is very, very boring. I used to be the type to want to just stare out the window and hope that whoever sat next to me didn't want to talk, but I must be mellowing in my old age because I would have given my right kidney for a little conversation. However, this time a surly french businessman sat next to me from Oshawa onward and I had to listen to him answer his mobile phone and babble business-speak every five minutes. Usually it was in english, but every now and again he would talk in french and I'm pretty sure that he might have said something not so nice about me at one point. I'm not 100 percent on that as my french skills are worse than poor, but I have a suspicion. And do you know how he answered his phone? Every time, without fail, he said, "Hey! Yo, yo!" He has to be the president of his company to get away with answering like that.
I talked to Andrew for a bit tonight which was nice. He and Halo had been doing some bonding without me which is also nice, because when I'm home I think I tend to monopolize his attention. Halo's, that is. It makes me happy when the two of them spend quality time together because I want Andrew to love my kitty as much as I do. However, I believe I have successfully turned Andrew into a cat person! The other day he came home with a phone number that he'd torn off a poster. Apparently there was a shelter cat that was going to be put down if no home could be found for her, and she was hard to place because she was very shy and not well socialized. So without any prompting or arm-bending from me he decided he wanted to see about getting a second cat! Oh yes. It's love.
Apparently there is going to be some kind of girl party at Alannah's place on Saturday so I'm greatly looking forward to that. Last time I was in Kingston Alannah had some kind of cheap booze in pop bottles that I was really into and I got slightly plastered before Andrew and I drove off to Ottawa to see his parents. I'm hoping there'll be more of that there. Perhaps I should buy my own bottle of cheap pop booze so I can be sure! And no, you can't come!
Not that we need to get drunk to have a good time or anything like that, of course. Of course. Heh heh. Ahem.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
02/18/04 How much is too much information?
It came as no great surprise to me to not hear from the terrible interview woman today. And that is all I shall say about that.
The other night I had a disturbingly vivid sex dream about Patrick Stewart. Now, the sisters and I joke very often about how sexy he is, and really, there is just something about him, but I must have looked very, very pleased when I told Andrew about it because it seemed to trouble him slightly and he asked if he should be worried, which is when I reminded him about the list. If you've ever watched Friends then you'll know about the list you're allowed to have, no matter if you're in a relationship or not, of five celebrities you'd sleep with if the opportunity ever arose, because hey, how often do those opportunities really arise? I've always said that Patrick Stewart is on my list. But I think I now realize that if I was seriously confronted with the chance to actually get in bed with him, I'd giggle helplessly, punch him in the arm and run away.
I no longer watch Friends so I'm unsure if the list rule has been rescinded.
Tomorrow I am leaving for Kingston for a few days. Andrew and I are taking another one of our convoluted trips. When we travel it usually seems to involve a lot of back-and-forthedness that I'd not experienced before him. I've never actually been the world's most enthusiastic traveler as I hate the packing and unpacking process, plus having to use any shower other than my own. Not that I think my shower is cleaner than anyone else's, and frankly, the people we'll be staying with have an immaculate house, but it's a psychological thing.
However, we take these crazy trips between Toronto, Kingston, and Ottawa and can't seem to make our visits very simple affairs. So I'll be in Kingston until Sunday, and then will take the train to Ottawa to be with Andrew until Tuesday. On Tuesday my sisters will come to Ottawa, the four of us will go to the Barenaked Ladies concert and then I will drive back to Kingston with my sisters. On Wednesday I'll take the train from Kingston back to Toronto. Andrew is leaving tomorrow night for Ottawa by bus, and he'll be taking a midnight bus back to Ottawa on Tuesday night.
I'm glad to be going as tomorrow is my mom's birthday, but just thinking about it for the last few days has made me feel very, very tired. I still don't have all my energy back from being sick. In fact, I'm not even fully recovered yet but I said I'd quit whining about it so have been trying not to! Nobody needs to know about my mucous problems, right? And actually, I'm not really having major mucous problems, it's more trying to deal with feeling like all the energy has been leached from my body. I feel like half an orange after it's been twisted around on one of those cone-shaped juicers about a million times.
O.K., so that last sentence might have been a little whiny. Screw you.
I'll be able to make daily weblog entries while I'm staying with my mom in Kingston, but not while I'm in Ottawa. I wish I had a laptop. I'd be able to propagate my evil on the internet from any location!
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs
02/17/04 And you think I'm paranoid ...
I'm feeling down tonight because my interview today didn't go as well as I'd hoped. It could have, and likely would have, but for the wicked, wicked lies of a TTC bus driver.
In order to get to where I was going I had to take the subway to the Downsview station, which is the end of the line. From there I had to take a bus. I asked Andrew which bus I had to take, and he told me to catch the 106. I trusted him on this because he used to travel that route all the time, and he's far more in the know about Toronto transportation in general than your average person. When I got on the 106 I asked the driver if I'd be able to reach Steeprock road taking that route. He said no, I'd have to get off that bus and get on the 105.
Now, I did not ask this because I distrusted Andrew's instructions. I asked because that's just the sort of person I am. I like to be sure. Now I was unsure. The person telling me to get on the 105 was a bus driver, someone whose job it is to know these things. So I did it. I got off the bus and watched him drive away, then waited about 20 minutes for the 105. When it finally arrived I got on and let it carry me away. Far away, out of my way.
Eventually I got off the damn bus and caught another one back to the station where I got on the 106 and was carried quickly and efficiently to where I needed to go. Because of all the confusion and silliness I arrived there at around two o'clock-ish, over an hour later than I'd meant to arrive. The woman who runs the place had told me that she was holding 'open house interviews' all afternoon, starting at noon, and it was first-come, first-served, so set no actual time for me to be there. Despite this, when I walked in and found her just preparing to leave the building her first words to me upon finding out who I was were, "You're late."
Things didn't really improve after that. I didn't point out that I wasn't actually late, I just told her what had happened. Her daughter had come to pick her up and stood there listening throughout the entire 'interview' which was very rushed and informal. I didn't exactly feel at my ease, and basically the entire thing was a disaster. When I left her parting words were, "Thanks for coming." Not, "I'll give you a call."
So I'm blue. I didn't want the actual job, I just wanted to be making that much money! I was talking to Carolyn tonight and she told me to wait and see, that I could get a call from this woman tomorrow telling me I had the job, so I'll wait and see, but I'm honestly not holding out much hope.
It's a good thing there's Haagen Dazs Caramel Cone Explosion ice cream in this world or today would have been a total write-off.
Archives / Search The Site / Friend Blogs02/16/04 What's your pleasure?
I have a job interview tomorrow. Not an interview for either of the jobs I was enthusing about a week or so ago. An entirely different job that I am nowhere near as excited about, but a good-paying, Monday-to-Friday, nine-to-five job that I'd be lucky to get. So wish me luck!
Today was fairly unremarkable other than getting the interview except for one thing. I am still dealing with a fair bit of unpleasantness related to this cold and was having an issue with one ear which felt like it was all blocked up. That's usual when I have a cold. This time it did a weird popping thing and I was suddenly hit with vertigo like I've never had before. The whole room went loopy and I thought I was going to be sick. So weird. Luckily it didn't last too terribly long and I had a lie down on the sofa until it passed. It was like getting pumped up with Demerol at the hospital, but not as much fun!
And lastly, I have little to no sense of taste. I noticed it today and while that does tend to happen with a cold, it's disturbing this time. Andrew and I decided to do a stir-fry tonight, which is always a slight production with us since basically we end up making two separate ones as I don't want things like fish sauce or mushrooms in mine. Andrew was cutting up his veggies and kept putting broccoli in my bowl of cut-up veggies. I agreed to eat them just to make him happy and later when I was eating my stir-fry I put one in my mouth and started chewing, expecting it to taste slightly unpleasant as usual. Except this time, there was only texture. Nothing else. Unfortunately this carried over to all the other ingredients in my dinner except, for some strange reason, the red peppers. I could taste those.
So it made me think as I was eating that if I had no sense of taste, I'd more than likely be a much healthier person. I stopped eating as soon as I was no longer hungry because I wasn't getting anything else out of it. There was no other motivation to make me continue eating after I no longer needed to. If I couldn't discern the flavour of what I was drinking, I'd only drink water to quench my thirst. If I had the freedom to eat anything at all without having to deal with tasting it, I'd eat boring, nutritionally sound bland meals since I would only be eating for the sake of eating.
I shared this train of thought with Andrew and he opined that I'd have a very sad and joyless life if I couldn't enjoy food. Personally, I think it would just make me focus more on sex.
Home
