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ShinyHappy - Thoughts for March 16th - 31st
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03/31/04 At least we get along.
Andrew and I went grocery shopping tonight. It wasn't a major haul, just a trip to get some necessities, but while we were looking at bread and stuff Andrew saw an apple pie that didn't look glazed. Important because the glaze on store-bought pie is always made of egg, and he can't eat it. So he picked it up, glanced over the ingredients for the usual eggy suspects, and no egg. Woo hoo! Pie he can eat. So the pie comes home with us. When I was about to put the pie in the oven I notice that it says on the box, "No Sugar Added!" Oh, really? Then I see the obnoxious, swirly Nutrasweet symbol. Blech. I hate Nutrasweet! We picked up a diet pie.
Needless to say, it was crap. I tried to eat my piece, but I just couldn't do it. Andrew ate his, but admitted it wasn't great. So the rest of that pie belongs to him. Aspartame is evil badness, Splenda is wondrous goodness!
Today we got some great news. Andrew received a letter from Carleton telling him that he got a scholarship and a T.A. position, which translates into some financial relief. We were a bit concerned about money going into the fall, but this will be very helpful, and for Andrew especially as he now won't have to hold down a job outside of school. I'm glad, as I think it's going to be really great for him to focus on school and only school during the year. What with his extra-curricular activities and being a teaching assistant, a job on top of all that would just be in the way!
So, knowing that makes it easier for us to conceive of staying in Toronto until just before the school year. We still need to come to a final decision on that, but it looks more than likely and I think it would be nice. I'd like to experience Toronto in the summer, although I've been told by a few people that the heat and smog are pretty bad. I remember reading about it, and Andrew was saying tonight, that Toronto's smog made it as far as Kingston last summer. I have a feeling that S days will see me frequenting Dutch Dreams more and more as the weather heats up!
I read Colin's Blog today and took the OK Cupid love personality test that he discussed there (and I posted my results there as he requested). I was a Random Gentle Love Dreamer, otherwise known as The Window Shopper, which sounds much worse than it really is. So out of curiosity I browbeat Andrew into taking it too, and what do you know, he was the male equivalent of me! However, I take slight issue with those results, as Andrew's just not that sweet. Seriously, which is why I love him so. I might want to slap that Boy Next Door around after a while.
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03/30/04 TTC Follies.
Tonight Marcus, Andrew and I caught the bus down Bathurst street to St. Clair as we usually do after Survivor night at Dan and May's. We waited for quite a while at the bus stop and were glad to see it when it finally arrived. We got on and got settled in our seats. We had not even reached the next stop when the bus pulled over to the side of the street behind another one and we were told to transfer off and onto the waiting one, as the one we were on was now out of service.
Fine. It seemed a little laughable that we'd been on the bus for less than a minute, but whatever. That's life. So we get on this "new" bus (the quotes indicate the ridiculousness of that term as applied to what we actually climbed into) and quickly discover that we've been relocated to The World's Worst Bus. Marcus ended up sitting across from us, as we were seated on the bench seats toward the rear. He is fairly soft-spoken, but even had he not been, hearing him would have been near impossible. Andrew must be some kind of crazy lip-reader, as I don't think I heard a word that Marcus said. This bus, for some reason, made more noise than any other vehicle I've ever been on, and I've ridden in some loud, obnoxious vehicles with holes in their catalytic converters. I suppose it was an engine sort of noise, but there was also an intermittent screech that I have no idea about. I thought it sounded like some kind of buzzer or alarm, Andrew thinks maybe brakes, but whatever it was, it was horrific. And there was certainly a deficiency of shock absorption going on, because every bump was a bang and clatter.
I'm assuming our original driver was done for the night and that's it, but I don't know. It seems incredibly wrong to me to take people off of a perfectly serviceable, quiet, first class bus and make them ride the little bus of horrors. We'd been doing a fair amount of bitching and criticizing of public transportation in general as we stood at the bus stop, but I swear I actually said nice things about the TTC. I did, I did, I did!
Anyhow, it did not kill us, although I'm sure the two guys sitting against the rear window had ringing in their ears for the rest of the night.
I haven't said much about hair lately because I inevitably got self-conscious about my unrelenting enthusiasm. However, I feel the need to update about the conditioner only washing method that I started doing a while back. I've decided to definitely alternate it with condition/wash/condition, otherwise known as the CWC method. Plus, I don't know for sure, but I think the honey conditioning may have been giving me an itchy scalp. My real hope was that I'd eventually be able to go a day between washings (of my hair, not my body), which is something I've never liked to do, as with such straight hair the greasies show up a lot. Doing this means I'd pretty much have to wear my hair back every second day, which I rebel against. I think it doesn't flatter me at all, as it seems to make me all face, no hair. So I was telling Andrew and Alannah that in order to deal with this, I'd have to have lots of really nice hair toys to make it more positive for me. I like hair toys and want to collect some, but now I've also gotten the idea in my head that I'd like to make some, specfically hairsticks. You can buy hairstick blanks and fixings and make your own funky ones. Sounds like something I'd definitely enjoy, as I like to collect hobbies.
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03/29/04 Work sucks.
I called the temp agency today to check on the training dates for the temporary position. I had to leave a message for my case worker, and she called back to ask me if I was still looking for work. I said, yes, of course, and she said she had a different temporary position available immediately if I was interested. Then she put me on hold for about five minutes and came back on to say that the very client for the job she was calling about called while we were talking and canceled the position. I was deflated but not terribly upset, as I hadn't even known what the position was. So I asked about the start times for the other job, and she said she was still waiting to hear back from them but that she'd let me know as soon as she knew anything.
It seems that things are not as concrete as I thought there, but I'm still pretty confident that I'll get in the (paid) training, and from there I'm certain I'll be included in the study. When it comes to learning new programs and electronic toys I do pretty well.
Andrew came home extremely frustrated with workplace issues and I felt bad having to tell him about my (non)work woes as well. At least this particular temp agency seems on the ball as far as keeping me in mind for projects is concerned, which seemed to be an issue at the others I applied at. The best thing about this particular one, actually, is that they don't deal with any call centres at all. Huge bonus, as I think I'd rather sell my non-vital organs than do that again. How many of my organs are non-vital, I wonder?
I made spaghetti for our dinner tonight. Andrew was going to make his special macaroni and cheese dinner for us that he's been threatening to make for a long time now, but ended up having to work a few hours of overtime. Because of this I took care of the eats. We always use the same organic spaghetti sauce from Loblaws. It's a yummy tomato and basil sauce that I love, but since we also always add ground beef to it I kind of feel like I've desecrated it somehow. I'm not sure that if the beef were also organic I'd feel any better about it. It's a weird mindset. I just asked Andrew why we don't buy organic beef and neither of us are sure, so perhaps from now on we will. I think we should.
Tomorrow is Survivor Tuesday and I'm looking forward to it as usual. We did get to see Dan and May in Ottawa over the weekend, but Survivor nights are more 'cozy', I guess. We also have not seen Rayna or Marcus in well over a week, and Hilary has made positive noises about going as well. I don't know if Colin and Jen are Survivor people or not, but if it continues after this season, we may have to try to bring them into the fold to continue the tradition in Ottawa. I'm sure that there will be plenty of reasons to get together with them that don't include television, but it's a nice anchoring factor, I find. Besides, there's nothing wrong with maintaining familiarity with at least one aspect of pop culture, now, is there?
I talked with Jerome briefly tonight and he reports that his audition did not go well, but that he has a callback. Jerome is a talented actor who is in at least two productions a year, so his abilities are not at issue here. I know he'll be fantastic, because he just is. Besides, having a callback is like a reset! I'm hoping very much to go see him in at least one role this year. I have not seen him in person for over a year now.
Now, I've been wavering back and forth on whether to include a particular link as something interesting here in my weblog for a while now, but I've decided that it's too bizarre not to share with those I care about. Imaginary Girlfriend. It's probably one of the weirdest things I've ever seen, and I have to admit that I'm oddly tempted to be one in my more despondent unemployed moments. Come on, it's pure creative writing! However, I listen to the chill that runs up and down my spine at the thought and do not apply.
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03/28/04 Some people just need to be beaten with baseball bats.
I am pissed off angry. While I was off whooping it up in Ottawa, being bitchy for no real reason, my mom's house was being broken into and her computer and jewelry were being stolen. Lucky for her she wasn't home at the time. They found a garden spade by the computer desk that had been brought in from outside. My mom wondered why it was there, and the cops pointed out that the robbers probably brought it inside with them in case anyone unexpected surprised them while they were in the house. I'm furious that someone as kindhearted and inoffensive as my mother could be victimized, and I really wish that there was something the cops could actually do to prevent these pricks from doing shit like this. However, it seems that once it's done, there's not much for the police to do but record it.
Douglas Adams readers will know the dangers of perspective, but I was in sore need of some after the last few days, I suppose. I'd prefer to have gotten it in a way that didn't harsh on my mom so badly, though.
Tonight Andrew and I watched an episode of Firefly. I didn't watch it at all when it was on T.V., but after seeing a few episodes of it with Gav and Emily over Christmas I was hooked. So this weekend Andrew asked if he could borrow their DVD set and we're going to watch the rest of them together. This makes me very happy, as it's really very, very good. I'm kicking myself for not giving it a chance when it was on the air. I'm always like that when it comes to great shows, it seems. I come to them later than everyone else, or as in this case, too late period. The only show I can think of that I loved from the start was Big Brother, and my favourite season was the first and worst one. I even came late to Survivor, catching the first season when they ran it the second time for those of us who realized at the end what we'd been missing.
Oh, earlier though we went to a friend's place for dinner, which was very nice. Her husband is an excellent cook, having worked as one for many years, and made a fantastic lemon chicken, asparagus and basmati rice dish. She is due to have her baby in about six weeks and is at a very uncomfortable stage in her pregnancy, it seems, what with having constant bronchitis and the baby's butt stuck up directly against the bottom of her left ribs, causing actual torn muscles that won't heal in one spot. That sounds like no fun at all, but she seems very happy and ready to start her maternity leave.
I'm still feeling 'off', I think. I'm still at a loss as to why, so I'm just waiting for it to blow over as it doesn't seem debilitating or serious. I thought for a bit last night that I could feel the beginnings of a cold, so perhaps it's related to that. In the interests of sharing wonderful things that cheer me up, I invite you to visit The Institute of Official Cheer which is located at Lileks.com. I've added it to my page of things that amuse me as it's just that good. Be sure to seek out The Art of Art Frahm, as it's a personal favourite of mine.
And also, good vibes are needed for my dear friend Jerome, who is under mountains of stress and worry at the moment. His underpants aren't in a twist for nothing, as his life is throwing various curve balls at him left and right. He has an audition for an upcoming Shakespeare production tomorrow night, so here's hoping he breaks his legs.
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03/27/04 Ottawa treats me well.
I am home from our weekend away. It's always nice to get back, even though we leave good friends behind us in Ottawa.
I have to say, I was not at my personal best this time around. I'm not sure what was wrong with me. The trip itself didn't start off as well as it could have, initially. When we met at Union Station on Thursday evening Andrew and I were both in extremely vile moods. His was due to a wretched day of work under his belt, mine was seemingly baseless. I was grumpy about the traveling, mostly, but that might have been simply because I needed something to grump about. Taking the subway with all my bags always makes me hot, sweaty, and irritated, and this time was no exception. I made a few cutting, snarky remarks about the inconvenience and tediousness, but since Andrew actually loves the entire process we weren't seeing eye to eye on it at all, so I gave it up.
Plus, I'd hardly eaten a thing all day, what with procrastination and rushing around packing at the last minute. So once the food cart came by on the train and I got to eat my usual ham and cheese sandwich with the lettuce picked off I felt slightly better. Andrew perked up too, so we were a happier couple in general. The trip itself was just fine. I was amused by the two kids sitting behind us for the most part, which also helped my mood. They were a brother and sister on their way to Ottawa without adult accompaniment to see their dad, and the boy's name was also Andrew. He spent pretty much the whole ride listening to music, sleeping and ignoring his sister, so every time she'd try to get his attention she'd say, "Andrew. Andrew! Andrew!" This, of course, would get my Andrew's attention every time.
Little Andrew, who seemed around twelveish, and his sister, who seemed a couple of years younger, got along about as well as brothers and sisters do at that age. He was a 'relaxed' traveler. His sister, who remained nameless, was not. She kept popping out of her seat to visit the loo, to get something out of her bag up in the luggage rack, or to ask the poor Via employees questions. Finally when we were nearing the Ottawa area she woke him up to ask him if he wanted her to wake him up when the train reached the station. His withering response of, "You think?" was, in my opinion, entirely justified.
So we slept Thursday night at Gav and Emily's place and woke up nice and late the next morning. We had no concrete plans for the day, but what we ended up doing was visiting New Mee Fung, the Vietnamese restaurant that Colin swears is the best pho place in town. And he must be right, because it was fantastic! I am still loyal to my Pho Hung, but New Mee Fung has a nicer decor, reliable service, and bigger noodles. The cold rolls are exactly like the ones at Pho Hung, and I discovered there that I do like bubble tea. In fact, bubble tea is almost a meal in itself, and I will have to be careful in the future as by the end of my meal I could have rolled right out of there. My biggest fear with bubble tea has always been that one of the tapioca balls will shoot into my throat and go down the wrong tube, causing me to have cough hysterics, but nothing like that happened. Andrew, however, did accidentally swallow a bubble whole and grimaced about it for a while.
After this came Dan's big birthday get-together at the Arrow and Loon. We arrived to find most everyone already there and merry. I was still plagued by my odd funk, however, and worried that it was going to ruin the night for me, which would have sucked as I'd been looking forward to it for a long time. Luckily Pat the waiter had the cure, and by my second Long Island iced tea I was feeling much more mellow and sociable, and was able to overcome my mood. I had a thoroughly enjoyable time talking with our friends, and meeting some wonderful new people as well. I ended up having four drinks in total, but one of them was a Killer Koolaid. When I asked Pat to make me one he sort of hemmed and hawed and said he'd only made one once before, but he was sure he could remember how. So he brought me a nice red drink that looked like a Killer Koolaid, and tasted twice as much like one! I like them because they go down so easily, but this one was really boozy. So I was a little drunker than I think I'd have been if I'd stuck to one kind of drink all night.
I was too wiped out before bed to make the effort of drinking a lot of water, so I was a bit concerned that I'd be sick this morning, but I was fine. I woke up relatively early and even had my crap together in a timely manner for when we had to leave. The gang all came over to Gav and Emily's for around two and we had a big Chinese food feast from So Good, a restaurant that lives up to its name in every way. It was so nice to just hang out with everyone together in the same room. I was probably quieter than usual, still not feeling excessively perky or chipper due to the blahs, but I had a moment where I was struck by how much I liked everyone that was around me and how lucky I am to know them, and those are good moments to have.
Gav was nice enough to drive us to the train station for around five-thirty. We swung by the location of the old Somerset theatre first, however, as it was torn down today and both Andrew and Gav were a bit sad about that. Andrew especially, as he has a real fondness for the old single-screen theatres. The Uptown here in Toronto had been a real favourite of his, too, and we managed to visit it one last time during the film festival last summer before it was demolished, which meant a lot to him.
The train ride home was remarkable in one way. A man got on the train in Brockville and started walking through each car asking all the passengers to donate money so he could buy a train ticket from Belleville to Toronto, as he'd only had enough to get him to Belleville. I'd never seen anyone panhandle on a train before, and neither had Andrew, and I wondered if that kind of thing was at all tolerated on passenger trains. We gave him a toonie on his way back through, and he disappeared into the next car. A while later one of the car attendants was walking by and a lady a few seats back flagged him down to complain about it. We didn't see or hear anything else about it on the train, but when we got to Union station we saw the guy walking near us, so at least he made it to Toronto.
That about does it for our trip. I'm still not sure why I had such a case of the blues over the last few days, but at least it didn't prevent me from having a good time when it counted. I have a week or so before training for my new job starts, I think, so while I'll still be looking for permanent employment in Ottawa, at least a little of the pressure is off here in Toronto now and maybe that'll help.
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03/24/04 Feed the beast before it eats you.
Smart-assed Google search phrase of the day: hair obsessed people in toronto named Keltie
Apparently I have a real comedian reading my weblog. My first guess is that this is Jerome's handiwork, but I'm not one hundred percent on that. Hmmmm. Anyone willing to fess up? You may want to take up Googlewhacking as a hobby, you know.
Anyhow, my interview today was great! Getting there was only slightly nerve-wracking, as my beloved navigator Andrew made sure I had clear instructions on how to get where I was going by gathering map information and a bus number. Good thing he did, too, because I thought I knew where I was going and as it turned out, I did not. Being who I am, however, I had to ask the bus driver if he was indeed going to Victoria Park avenue, which is where I'd been led astray the last time I was in this situation, but thankfully he just glanced at me and said, "Yeah," as if I were another tedious aspect of his job. Which I suppose I was. I knew to look for a Pizza Pizza as a landmark, however, so things went all right for me.
The lady who interviewed me seemed to like me just fine, and at the end she was so impressed with my data entry scores she actually called another lady over to look at them, and she was also suitably impressed. So the world had better watch out. I may not be very tough, but I can kick anyone's ass in a numeric keypad test! Thankfully she didn't even bother giving me a Microsoft Office test. I hadn't eaten any breakfast or anything out of sheer nervousness so my ability to sit and go through timed tests was reaching its limit by the time I left. When I get really, really hungry I (very irrationally) hate everyone and everything around me, as Andrew will attest, so it was a good thing that I got out of there when I did. However, it seems that I more than likely have the job, as she told me that training starts in April and she'd tell me when.
Tonight Andrew and I went to the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre where there was a support rally going on in reaction to the hate crimes that are being perpetrated against Jews here in Toronto. We got off the bus to find cops directing traffic and people crowded in a huge mass outside the building. At first I thought something had gone wrong, but nothing had. The enormous turnout meant that what we were seeing was the overflow of the overflow! There was no room inside, there was no room in the courtyard, so people were packed all the way to the parking lot. There were news vans all around the periphery of the crowd and of course groups of teenagers screaming and hollering and waving signs. We did manage to find Marcus and Hilary in the crowd, surprisingly, but didn't really get a chance to talk or socialize much. It was cold and loud. There was sound piped outside and a big-screen t.v. which we couldn't hear or see, but it felt really good just to be a part of it.
Andrew and I are going to Ottawa for a few days. It's Dan's big three-oh birthday tomorrow and they're celebrating in Ottawa, so that's where we're going, too. It should be fun. We'll also get to see Colin and Jen, and Gav and Emily, which is awesome. I won't have the opportunity to write my weblog while I'm in Ottawa, which is going to feel weird. It's such a part of my daily routine now. I'll probably dash off something quick before I leave tomorrow, and write my brains out when we get back on Saturday.
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03/23/04 This sentence shall not end with a preposition.
Yeah, I think that the mehndi design actually got darker today. Woo hoo.
Andrew came home from work today a bit frustrated with the kinds of people that he encounters through his job. He gets to see all the manipulative tricks that people will pull when they think that their issues are more important than others. However, it doesn't kill his sense of humour. One person told him today that he's thinking of giving up on using Macs and switching to Windows because the Mac platform is getting too complicated. Snort. So Andrew told him that he didn't think that switching to Windows was really an improvement, but that he was sure the guy could find a nice abacus in Chinatown.
Andrew had to go pick up our train tickets for our trip to Ottawa this coming weekend, so I figured I'd actually get out of the apartment and accompany him. When we were thinking about leaving he suggested that we also go for pho! Of course that made me deliriously happy. We also tossed around the idea of going to see a movie (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which I'm dying to see) but since I have to get up earlier than usual in the morning I wasn't keen on it, and timewise it just didn't work out for us anyhow.
Surprisingly, the service at Pho Hung was flawless tonight! The food came quicker than it ever has before, and even though my rolls were the last thing delivered, they came soon enough that I barely had a chance to furrow my brow. Woo hoo! And I also finally tried Andrew's bubble tea and loved it, despite it being coconut. I'll be trying the strawberry next time we go. So when we were finished there we hopped the streetcar to Union Station and got the tickets, then ended up hanging out just chatting for a while in the great hall. It always surprises me how much knowledge Andrew has stored away in his pretty little head. I realize intellectually that he knows far more than your average person about trains and train stations, but seeing it in practice is another thing altogether. Not until he fairly effortlessly tells me about the architecture and how the ceiling is really hung do I grasp it. Things like that.
After that we wandered over to the Royal York Hotel and just browsed in the windows of the stores in the underground. There was one store that had a ton of novelty chess sets. There was a Coca Cola set that I have my eye on for Mimi, a Simpsons set, Star Trek: The Next Generation (although the Riker knight piece looks as if it has a thyroid problem), Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and some not-as-interesting sports themed ones. Pretty funny stuff.
Then we just took the subway home, but had to stop at Shoppers Drug Mart for a few things. I have found myself wanting some hair sticks now. They're much gentler on hair if you get the right kind, so I was browsing the hair toys. All they had were some cheap-ass Goody sticks with sharp plastic seams, and the Cover Girl hair stuff was no better. Ugh. However, what I am really lusting after are these funky things! They're exactly my style, and beautiful besides. Sigh.
Anyhow, I have to get to bed if I want to be fresh for my interview at the temp agency tomorrow, which will likely involve yet another typing test. I'm tired of typing tests. And Microsoft Office tests. Blah.
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03/22/04 More employment tenterhooks for me to be on!
Today was Alannah's birthday! Yay! I'm very, very glad to have a sister like you, La. Happy Birthday!
Today was a good day for me, too. Firstly, I got a call from a new temp agency and have an interview scheduled for Wednesday morning. I'm determined that nothing is going to go wrong this time, so I'm not going to call these people back or anything now that the interview is firmed up. I'm just going to go to their office and get that interview over with, come what may. The job itself is really very cool. Every day of the week I'd be assigned to someone different. I'd have to basically shadow them and record everything they do over the course of the day in a palm pilot. It's in a hospital setting, so if they stopped and consulted with a doctor for a few minutes I'd have to record things like the conversation length, what the topic was, if the issue was resolved, et cetera.
Maybe this sounds arrogant, but I can't see why I wouldn't get this job. Here's hoping!
Secondly, today I figured out how to conditioner-only wash the right way! I'd been not-so-thrilled with the results over the last week or so, but now that I've done the research and tried something new, I'm happy as can be. I'd read on the Long Hair Community site about honey conditioning being wonderful for hair, so I mixed up a tablespoon of honey with two huge tablespoons of the conditioner I use for C/O and soaked my hair in it for about a half-hour before I took my shower today. Apparently the important part is letting it sit on your hair for a while, which I hadn't been doing. Anyhow, my hair is great today. It doesn't feel like there's any residue left at all, which has been my main dissatisfaction with the whole thing. Too bad I don't have the time to do that every day, but even letting it sit for ten minutes before I get in the shower should be enough, I'm sure.
Oh, and after making snide little comments about the Long Hair Community a few times I discovered today that whoever checks the visitor stats for their site saw this page as a referring URL and came here. And now I feel bad because I'm lurking there and considering asking some questions in the forum. Sigh. Not that anyone there is going to care about what some random stranger has to say about their site.
I didn't mention yesterday that I had also done a rather intricate mehndi design on my left hand that covers my palm and goes up all my fingers. I did it properly, sealing it with lemon juice and sugar and washing it off using lemon juice rather than water. I wasn't expecting great things from it, really. I was more or less just curious to see how the addition of sugar to the henna mix affected it, but it darkened up a lot and it's going to be pretty noticeable when I go for my interview on Wednesday. I'm hoping it won't make a difference to the woman interviewing me one way or another, but I'll have to try to remember to keep that hand turned down just in case.
All in all things have been quiet and uneventful around here the last few days, what with both of us feeling under the weather. It doesn't make for a lot of variation when it comes to blog entries, but I don't mind us just spending some peaceful evenings together like this. We're going to have a very busy few days starting on Wednesday, so I suppose we should enjoy it while we can and get ourselves rested.
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03/21/04 I decided to 'know S' this week.
Tonight Andrew and I were supposed to go and visit some friends of ours who are expecting a baby in seven weeks. We'd like to be able to visit them at least a couple of times between now and when the baby arrives, since their lives are going to be drastically altered then and visits won't be quite so easy for them to manage. However, Andrew has been feeling very sick since Thursday and felt really awful today, so we canceled. I'm not feeling great myself, but nowhere near as bad as my poor Andrew.
What he did was fall asleep on the sofa for hours tonight, and so he's up again and not able to get back to sleep for a proper night's rest. He's trying to exhaust himself with some hard-core Halo playing now. I spent those hours quietly puttering around online and realize I've developed something of a hair-care obsession, I'm afraid (duh). I have in the past been guilty of mocking the Long Hair Community site, but the women who post there are really into their hair and detail countless hair-care regimes in their daily writings, which sucks me in like a black-hole. However, I read tonight that without actual hair-cutting scissors I probably shouldn't cut my own hair, as household scissors aren't sharp enough to do it without damaging the hairs. That sucks, as I was getting kind of excited about it.
Anyhow, it's not the end of the world. I'll have to look into pricing some hair-cutting scissors. What I did do was henna my hair today, as I'd said I was going to, and ended up doodling some mehndi designs on my feet. I henna my toenails when I henna my hair, which is very good for them like it is for hair. I find that the easiest way to get henna on my toenails is to use one of the cone applicators I have left from when mehndi used to be a hobby of mine, so while I sat around with my head covered in plastic and towels for four hours I decided to practice my mehndi drawing. I had to shower to get the henna out of my hair, of course, so the designs on my feet washed away too soon to have any staying power. As a result, the stain barely shows on my skin, but nails keep and hold henna like crazy so they're fairly dark. It's not the most attractive colour for toenails, but I have a 'thing' about my feet so this is preferable for me. Plus, if you paint over your orangey-brown toenails with blue nailpolish it makes a beautiful rosey-purple sort of colour.
Hey, have I ever talked about Jerome? I believe I have, but I don't think I've talked about him enough, you know? Jerome was my first friend in Kingston when my family and I moved there when I was in grade five, and my first boyfriend ever. For almost twenty years now we have been friends. Good friends. The kind of friends that have lived in separate cities for all but a few months of that twenty years and can still see each other and feel like we were just hanging out the day before. That's one of the best kinds of friends to have, I think. Any time that I've felt like going to visit him in St. Catharines I've just called him and said, "Can I?" and he's always said yes. I dearly want him to come visit here in Toronto and meet some of the fantastic people I've met. Hear me, Jerome?
Oh, and he is also named after two giraffes. Jerome from the Friendly Giant, and Geoffrey from Toys R Us. Weird. I've met his parents and they're not that odd. Well, his mom's pretty normal, anyhow*.
I haven't talked much about the No S Diet recently. It's going O.K.. This past week has been mostly 'S' days, however, so it wasn't a stellar building block in the habit-forming process, I suppose. Andrew mentioned that I'd been having lots of 'S' days and I rebutted with the explanation that this is not a crash diet with a short-term goal. However, I did basically slack off this week what with one thing and another, so he's right. Don't tell him.
* Jerome's parents are both kind of weird, actually, but in the nicest, kindest, funniest way possible that makes you wish they lived next door to you. Once his mom threw a frisbee at Alannah's head, which is pretty cool if you ask me.
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03/20/04 You'd think I was vain or something!
My current favourite Google search string that has led someone to my page: buy henna shampoo toronto.
So last night at The Rainforest Cafe Alannah had to admit that she didn't see a whole lot of difference in my hair colour. I wasn't too upset by that as, like I've said before, the effect is very minimal. With hair my colour it's more about seeing an increase in reddish highlights in the light, not going for something drastic, and the fact that any white hairs growing in will be camouflaged. There is a difference, really. I spent a few minutes staring at my hair in the bathroom this morning trying to make sure I hadn't been talking myself into seeing it, but I haven't. I swear!
However, I am going to henna again tomorrow. I might be addicted to it. I just love the way my hair feels after, and since it's really good for hair I should probably do it as often as possible. I've hated how easily my hair breaks for years now, and if this helps, I'm all for it. Oh, and today before going out I put my hair up in a messy bun-like sort of deal, and with the ends high up against the rest of my hair I could see how much redder they are. Of course, that's an indication that they need a trim, as they're pretty dry and split.
This has led me to decide that I'm going to try trimming my own hair. Jen linked to this page on her site a while back and it's been bouncing around in my head since, but the idea has been growing on me more and more. So ... eek. I will probably make the attempt on Monday. We're heading to Ottawa next weekend so if it's a total disaster, maybe Jen would be willing to help me even things out a little ... I'm hoping. Hi, Jen!
You know, this weblog is starting to read exactly like a hair journal from that Long Hair Community site! I have been reading the forum there with some interest over the last few days, but there's one creepy element that I don't like. There are a few men who read and post there just because they like long hair. They're not growing their own long hair, they're just fans of the long hair. So if a woman posts that she got a haircut, there's bound to be a post or two from a man expressing his 'sadness' that she would do such a thing. Usually the comment is couched between statements like, "But as long as you're pleased," and, "Glad you're happy," but it still just makes me feel uneasy. I don't know where the line is between adimiration and fetish with some of these guys. I haven't seen any women posting comments just because they admire long hair without growing out their own.
Andrew and I were extra-productive tonight in a fit of co-operation. Since laundry and groceries both needed to be done in the worst way, I volunteered to do the laundry while Andrew did the groceries. I think I got the better half of the bargain, but I'm not sure if Andrew thinks so. And by the time I was finished folding it I wasn't really that sure either, come to think of it. He also picked up a movie on the way home for us to watch. I had never seen it, but Andrew has talked quite often about Rushmore and it really was a fantastic movie. My love affair with Bill Murray may be in danger of intensifying even more. It was a great movie even so, and exactly what I was in the mood for tonight.
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03/19/04 He's a tiny dancer.
This may be a short entry as Andrew's dad is sleeping (or probably just trying to) on our sofa only a few feet away from me and I have a feeling that my typing may keep him up. It's not that late, but he only had a few hours of sleep last night, poor thing.
Anyhow, today was a relatively quiet day. I did some tidying up as we were having company, and even though Andrew's dad is not the type to be fazed by some clutter, I still tidy up for company. I actually set up our kitchen the way I've wanted it for a long time in the process, which is a bonus. I'm such a procrastinator that it usually takes an event like this to get me to do anything major. Not good, as Andrew and I share this trait. It's evident in our sporadic trips for groceries. So other than having Andrew's dad stop by for a few minutes during the afternoon to drop off his bags, things were very calm and boring around here until the evening. Alannah called right around six to tell me that she and the kids were just about to head for The Rainforest Cafe, and while she was on the line Andrew called to say he was leaving work too. So far, so good. I told Alannah that we'd head out as soon as Andrew got home and would meet her there between 6:45 and 7:00.
That would have worked, too, but the minutes ticked by, and no Andrew. At around twenty to seven I was getting huffy and started calling his cell phone, which would ring once or twice and then go to a fast busy. I tried calling Alannah to tell her that we'd be late, but it went straight to her voicemail. It was all getting very frustrating, so I finally called Andrew's work at around seven and was told he'd just left the building a minute or two before
That's when I started getting truly mad. Andrew will be the first to admit that he's fairly relaxed about being late, and even though I complain a lot about it, it doesn't really bother me except when we're meeting people who aren't used to it, or when we're going to the movies. And since I figured Alannah had a schedule to keep, driving back to Kingston tonight and all, in my mind being late was a very bad thing. So when Andrew called a few minutes later to say he was at the corner and did I want to meet him there, I'm sure I froze the airwaves between us with my tone.
Poor guy. He was still feeling sick, had had a relatively crappy day at work, and his boss had chosen tonight to pull him aside at the end of the shift for a talk and it wasn't something Andrew could just walk away from. So being the fabulously understanding person I am, I got over it and we had a great time with Alannah and the kids who weren't mad at all about us arriving later than we'd said. As it turns out, the place was incredibly, mind-bogglingly busy and La had to make reservations for 7:45 just to get us in. So it all came together in the end.
Most entertaining was a dance that Sehrin performed for us quite a few times. It's rather inexplicable, but I can try to create a visual. You know that John Travolta disco move where he points from his hip and across and up repetitively? Well, it's kind of like that but alternating arms and pointing more from the groin. Surprisingly graceful, though, and apparently our waiter stopped to take it in at one point, although I missed that.
So then we came home and now here we are trying to be quiet as mice. We'll likely hit the sack early ourselves.
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03/18/04 Henna will take over the world. I am in thrall to it.
Whoa. It's one of those days when I don't even know where to begin!
First off, I have to say to Colin: You made my day today! When I'm on a tear about something like I am about henna recently it just revs my engine to have someone express the slightest interest in it to the degree that they might try it too, and now you've gone and done that. Here I was thinking that if anyone decided they were somewhat willing to do it, it would be Jen (who I think should also try it). Andrew was actually kind of wavering about it tonight, but he's really not feeling well so I will have to wait and see if it's just because he's in a weakened state.
So, if you're truly interested, Henna for Hair is the place to start. It's where I've done all my learning about henna and its applications. You said in your comment that you were thinking of it to cover up white hairs, so this is the part of the site that pertains to that. I don't think that the pictures do it justice, however, as the model's hair doesn't look particularly great in the after photo. You probably already know this, but henna is a translucent stain, so it will turn your white hairs into reddish-gold hairs, which I think is very cool and is one of the reasons I'm starting to henna now, as I recently found my first white hairs. Sigh. And after a few applications, they go darker red and blend more, if that's what you're after.
And as for you, Jen, I was very happy to read more about C/O washing at the Long Hair Community site! I guess I can't make fun of it any more, now that I'm actually reading it. Sigh. Again. And reading the recent thread about C/O washing made me determined to keep at it. I was feeling iffy about it for the last couple of days as I didn't think the conditioner was washing out well enough, but I see that there's an adjustment period for your scalp that can last a couple of weeks, so I'll try to tough it out. Ever since May pointed out in the car that time that you and I have the same kind of hair I've been interested to know what you do to manage yours. I have to say, henna seems to be very good for it ... tee hee.
So, after bitching a while back about the woman at Subway not giving me extra olives when I asked for them, I had the opposite experience tonight at Harvey's. Andrew, feeling sick, had crashed in bed and left me to my own devices, food-wise. We are in desperate need of a grocery outing, but rather than go alone I opted to do the fast-food thing and walked to Harvey's, where I had either the friendliest or the most mocking man in the world dress my burger. I went for the Big Harv, their new bigger burger (that I'll never get again, thankyouverymuch). When it was ready to be decorated I said, "Just pickles, please. Extra pickles." He looked up at me and said, "Just pickles?" I said, "Yes. Just pickles. Extra pickles."
So he started in on the pickles. And when he'd piled on what I deem a goodly extra amount of pickles I said, "O.K.," but he laughed and put on twice that amount! He thought it was hilarious. Then he wrapped up my burger and put it on the tray, after which he went to get my fries. When he came back he gestured at the condiments under the sneeze-guard and asked, "Why do you not want the ketchup or mustard or onions?"
Sigh. Again. I said, "I don't like them." He shook his head in utter amazement. He was probably a nice man, fatherly, with a sense of humour and real concern for his customers. But if you're putting condiments on food all day long for people, why does 'only pickles' seem so bizarre? I'm sure there are weirder requests. I think that getting hot peppers on your burger is weird, but I don't mention it (unless it's my mom, because they tend to make her throat close up and she still insists on getting them). It was around ten at night and the place was dead, so maybe he was bored. I don't know.
Alannah is coming to town with her kids tomorrow and we're meeting them for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, where we'll once again enjoy the lovely tropical storm ambience. I threatened her that I was going to get drunk there and cause a scene. Can you imagine? I once knew a guy whose girlfriend got drunk at Pizza Hut and got kicked out. I think that's one of the funniest things I've ever heard. Who goes to Pizza Hut to get drunk? It was in Kingston, but there are plenty of other places in the city to get drunk and kicked out of than Pizza Hut. Come on.
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03/17/04 It is possible that this blog is keeping me sane.
Having told Jen I would hunt down my digital cameras and take pictures of my hennaed hair I attempted to make good on my promise and was partially successful. I actually found them both, one where I had left it (despite the fact that I know I already looked there in the past and it wasn't there then), and the other not where I thought I had left it, but in a place that made sense, and therefore really not where I thought it would be. The better camera requires four AA batteries, which I do not have, and I 'm not exactly sure where the cable is for it, which could be a problem. The other, not-as-good camera has working batteries and a working USB cable, but the camera itself doesn't appear to be working. Well, it took four pictures, but when I try to transfer them to my computer, I get a message telling me that the camera is not connecting properly. It must be busticated somehow.
We tested it on Andrew's Mac which informed us that yes, the cable is fine and there's a digital camera plugged into it, but it's such a wussy little camera that it only works on a Windows platform. So I'll have to get batteries for the other and hunt down the cable for it before I can post pictorial proof of my hair adventures. I feel I must reiterate that the change is not drastic at all, although today Andrew looked at me hard for a minute and asked if I'd hennaed again. So that definitely verifies that the final mix was a good one, in my opinion.
I feel bad lately because I'm neglecting my hobbies. I think it's fair to say that weblogging has become a hobby of sorts as it's a time investment that I thoroughly enjoy, but I'd fully intended to expand my artistic loves like maskmaking and beadwork, among other things, in the new year. Nothing noteworthy seems to have come of that, though. I think I'm getting myself into a sort of self-defeating rut over being unemployed which results in not focusing on the creative things I like to do. I think to myself that doing those things would be a waste of time while I don't have a job, even though that doesn't make any real sense, I know. But I just don't 'feel it' right now, which makes me kind of sad.
Anyhow, it's not the end of the world. A large part of it is that our apartment is honestly a bit too small for me to do the big messy artistic things I'd like to, so it's not entirely apathy, thankfully. At Christmastime for my family I made everyone a papier mache bowl to put their gifts in, and I ended up taking over most of the living room to do so, getting glue, paint, and paper everywhere. Not optimal at all. Beadworking is not as much of a production, but I have run out of beads and must find more. If I make a point of doing something creative every day, even just for half an hour, I'll feel good about it.
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03/16/04 Hey, Dan! Cocoa Camino!
Today I think I received one of the best compliments my weblog's ever gotten. My mom emailed me to say that my description of our visit to Miss Saigon made her feel ill. That's awesome! Not the fact that my mom felt nauseous, but that my descriptions of Andrew's wackymeat pho evoked such a response! Wannabe writers live for that stuff. So I'm sorry, Mom, and we'll go to the good Vietnamese place when you come visit, O.K.?
I went for broke and hennaed my hair a final time today to use up the last of what I had around. I know it sounds like overkill, but I found a way to do it that's much more potent. It brightened the colour a bit more, of course, but the main difference is that apparently it has a chance of lasting even longer the way I did it this time. There's a dye release process that has to happen after you've mixed the lemon juice with the henna, and I wasn't giving that a chance to happen before. This time I let it sit covered overnight and it definitely had stronger staining power this time, as it stained my scalp and fingers right away. After this, however, I'll only do it once a month or so, which should be good enough.
Andrew, however, does not seem keen on my rising ambition to henna his hair. He's so close to being a true redhead, this is all it would take! It does, however, require at least a few hours of wearing a plastic baggie on your head and frankly, he doesn't really have the spare time. Grumble, grumble.
Now, you'd think that with the 'wussy/wuss' debacle so recently played out, Dan would have learned not to tweak me about my weblog! But no, he saw fit during Survivor Night tonight to make mention of the fact that I talk often about Cocoa Camino, as if I were some sort of Cocoa Camino obsessive. I don't think I talk about Cocoa Camino all that much. I mean, when you find something as delicious as Cocoa Camino it's only natural to get excited about it, and so what if the name Cocoa Camino seems to crop up a lot in my musings on everyday life? There's nothing wrong with being happy about finding a bar of chocolate as delicious as Cocoa Camino really is, and I take pride in spreading the Cocoa Camino word. Cocoa Camino is a fair trade product that needs all the good press it can get, and I am proud to call myself a supporter of the fine company that produces Cocoa Camino. And I hadn't mentioned it for days, unless you count yesterday's minor mention of a Cocoa Camino Google search, which I think hardly counts.
Cocoa Camino! Ahem.
I have noticed for myself and have been informed by others that the comments function is acting really buggy. It is, and I wish there was more I could do to fix it, but the good folks at Enetation do try to keep on top of things when they're made aware of these glitchy happenings. If you comment and it doesn't show up right away, it likely will in a matter of hours. If not, click on the 'Edit Comments' link at the bottom of the comments window, and if your comment doesn't show up in the window it opens up, you might have to re-comment. I know, I know, it's a lot of trouble for a little old comment. They make me ecstatically happy, though, so just think of the joy you're giving little old me if you do it.
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