i'm officially on vacation! yay!
tonight, christopher & i are having our own little xmas (since i'll be away). tomorrow, i go away. then, after returning on boxing day, i get the rest of the week off to enjoy.
i can't wait.
so, in case i don't get another chance, i want to wish all you friends, readers, commenters and lurkers a very merry and a joyous happy. if i could, i'd give you all a hug and a nanaimo bar.
you're the bestestses!
let's see... i couldn't quite figure out what day it was supposed to be today when i was going to bed last night. i was planning as if it were to be thursday, instead of the wednesday it is. i'm not sure if that's the reason, but something conspired against me during the night because i woke with the worst headache i've had in months. and it's not going away. i've dosed myself with breakfast, caffeine and ibuprofen, but nothing has worked so far.
i wonder what a boot to the head would do...
i'm stressed out. too much to do, not enough time to do it.
but, i'm still happy. go figure.
it's been a pretty crazy few days. my computer and bamboo blinds suffered catastrophic failures due to the big wind storm thursday night. the computer now has a new power supply, but the blinds will soon be buried with honours for a job well done.
i bought a new camera at the camera show. i stood in line outside zellers in the snow in hopes of obtaining a Wii, but i was #3 and they only had 2 for sale. i hosted a fajita party. i attended a kickass winter party. i spent time with christopher's (very large and very awesome) family. i didn't sleep much.
the week ahead is very busy. i will be going full-bore at work because i took a day off on friday and will be working downtown on thursday, so there are a couple of days to make up for. ugh. it'll be tough to work so hard during the week before xmas -- when everyone else is already in vacation mode and doing not much more but eating and talking all day long.
my last present has been bought. if i have time this week, i'll be baking a little more, but otherwise i am completely prepared for the big day. i didn't get cards done this year, which i'm slightly upset about, but i'm not fretting. afterall, cards don't make xmas.
i'm so happy, i feel like busting out all over.
i'm dealing with a double-whammy of pain today:
1. i went to see The Decemberists last night, so i'm running on 4 hours sleep.
2. ohdeargodthecrampspleaseyankmyuterusfrommybody
the ibuprofen isn't working, so i may have to move up to naproxen after lunch. bring on the drugs!
speaking of lunch, it's potluck #2 today. i brought in baking! lots and lots of baking. so much baking, my officemate was mocking the bags of baking i hauled in. all i know is there will be yam rolls and the superawesome garlic noodle thing. that's probably all i'll eat. then i will be in a carbohydrate coma for the rest of the afternoon. whee!
i get to work downtown again next week. maybe this time, i'll do more than make a costco run during my two-hour lunch break. cross your fingers.
so, the weekend is fully booked. seriously fully booked. crazy fully booked, even. but, i'm looking forward to all the goings on. i'm even planning stuff to be going on in the new year. crazy.
speaking of the new year, is there anything good happening on NYE? last year, i did the whole casino night at the pub, which was fun, but i've a history of quiet nights in on december 31st, so i'm not up on what the cool kids do to ring in the new year. i'm totally open to suggestions, though.
have you ever just wanted to avoid every other human being on the planet? yeah, that was pretty much my weekend, starting with thursday night when i realized that i'd totally forgotten that i needed to make chili for the upstairs potluck.
friday started out with a huge case of the mean reds and i couldn't pull myself out of them to save my life. i warned christopher, but he still seemed to want to spend time with me, so i picked him up after work and subjected him to my stinky, boring crabbiness for most of the weekend. oddly, i didn't once want to kill him. considering i wanted to kill, or at least maim, everyone else i've ever known, that's a pretty huge accomplishment. although, i wouldn't have minded swatting him upside the head. just once. not even hard. more like a love-swat. upside the head.
really, there wasn't much going on, which was fine by me. i ditched the boyfriend saturday afternoon to go home and clean. i even managed to cross two things off my long-term to-do list, which was awesome. sunday, i got up early, went to the grocery store and spent all my money on baking supplies and came home to start baking. i managed to get a double-batch of ginger cookies, a batch-and-a-half of butter tarts and one pan of nanaimo bars done. tonight, i'll attempt to get the biscotti done. that just leaves mint chocolate chip cookies, and i can do that on tuesday, unless i feel like staying up late tonight.
since the new couch arrived, i don't want to go out. i want to stay at home. it's my favourite place to be. it's comfy and i know that the coffee is always good and what's on the menu. plus, depending on the company (or lack thereof), it can totally be a pants-free zone. it's probably got less to do with the new decor than the fact it's december, dark all the time and colder than i got used to. by the time i get off work, there's no light to shoot with, so why not go home and hang out and watch movies and... oh my god, i'm totally craving pizza RIGHT NOW. sorry. my lunch was crap, so i'm a little bit on the starving side right now. i should go see if i can go scam a snack from upstairs. mm, snack.
1. Where will you be when you turn 2007?
i'm pretty sure i won't live to be 2007.
2. How did you get the idea for your Livejournal name?
i have no idea, but i still think it was truly inspired. too bad most of you will never know what it is.
3. What song are you listening to right now?
whirring fan by the annoying vents above my head
4. Has the death of a celebrity ever made you cry?
yes. i cried when gene kelly and jim henson died.
5. Do you own an iPod?
nope, but i do have a creative zen micro photo named toshiro
6. What’s your favorite memory from last weekend?
getting home from idea sunday night, putting my new lamp together and being happy and content with my new living room environment.
7. What was the first thing you thought this morning?
NOOOOOOOOOO!
8. What would be your ideal job?
it's really archaic, but i've come to realize i'd make a great housewife.
9. What will you do tonight?
probably watch christopher frame photos and swear a lot. if not, clean my floors, have a bath then lay on the couch and watch a movie.
for a treat, i get to work downtown today. it only happens once every few years or so, which just makes it all the more special. in honour of the freedom from the office, i've dressed myself up in my newest awesome pants and real shoes (as opposed to the steel-toed sneakers i normally wear). one of the better things about today is the 9am start and the two-hour lunch break!
gee, i wonder what i'll do with all that time...
so, i've started wearing my glasses again after a long while of not. when i was so dizzy during the summer, i thought maybe they were part of the problem, so i put them away and, well, just got used to not wearing them. the prescription is for distances from my nose to the tip of my arm. if i look at anything past that, it's all wonky. in addition, the left lens has a fifty-percent stronger correction than the right, so if i want to i can make the world do some crazy things with just the right tilt of my head.
the problem with wearing my glasses is, ironically, forgetting to take them off. if i get up from my desk to go walk somewhere, i usually end up halfway down a hall or up the stairs before i realize i didn't leave them at my desk. so, i mutter "shit" and put them on my head. i kind of wish i could leave them on all the time because i think they make me look really good (or better, depending on your opinion). of course, the only way to accomplish that would be to get bi-focals. i've come to an uncomfortable peace with the grey hairs atop my head and the fine lines around my eyes, but bi-focals? no, i'm not quite ready for that kind of admission of my advancing dotage.
i have noticed that my left eye has gotten progressively worse over the last year. i'd go back to the optometrist to get a new prescription, but my medical only covers exams every two years, so i'm loathe to spend the money. i think it's all the eyeball squishing while i take photos. damn photography! you're making me blind!
speaking of photography (kind of), guess who received not one, but two more prints from her amazingly talented photographer boyfriend? if you said "that lucky bitch, heather", you'd be absolutely correct! he and jen came over last night to hang out and with him, he brought these two 4x5 pinhole photos. he said they were ready early so the surprise was ruined, but i was still very surprised! he totally spoils me. i can't wait until they're framed and hung up. yay! so lucky, i am.
today, i've a union information meeting to go to at lunch and, after work, i have HUGE shopping to do for baking supplies & potluck supplies. oh, i haven't mentioned my baking list yet, have i? well, this is 2006's line-up:
- biscotti
- mint chocolate chip cookies
- butter tarts
- nanaimo bars
- ginger cookies
i've cut down the variety this year, but instead i'll be making multiple batches. the new-for-me item are the butter tarts. i usually make mince tarts, but they're kind of hit or miss with people, so i wanted to change it up a little this year. i found a recipe that looks fool-proof, so i hope i don't mess them up. i may end up having to add the peppermint bark or i could risk retaliation by co-workers who have come to expect it every december, but that's dead easy to whip up in a hurry.
grumble: i'm not liking this whole "write during the day, but not posting it until that night" thing i have going on this week. stupid work internet nazis! the worst part, is i get to watch my officemate surf craigslist while i'm down to checking gmail once per hour and that's all. not fair.
voila! chez hessie version 2.5!
usually, my weekends consist of one day which seems to last forever & one day which goes by far too fast, then i end up back at work on monday morning wondering just where the heck the weekend went. this was not one of those weekends. this weekend was chock full of all the awesomeness i could handle!
because i want to rant about something, i'll conserve narrative keystrokes by just listing the awesomeness for now:
- my new couch (yeah, i know, but it deserves mention again. and again. and again.)
- meeting up with the boy after work friday night and wandering around downtown until i got a blister
- waking up early saturday and being able to drive all around the north shore running errands
- finding new throw cushions, curtains (for half price!) and a side table to match my tv stand (for cheap on craigslist!)
- seeing Hawksley Workman perform outside the VAG for free & dancing. in public!
- putting out all my xmas decorations & really feeling the spirit of the season
- seeing meghan, having her love her birthday presents & making plans for a big day out
- getting my adorable coat fixed and my awesome new pants shortened
pretty much everything about this weekend was fantastic. i'm crazy joyful today and i feel like i would run around hugging everyone if i don't control myself. my humour is so good today, even my boss' craptastic mood and forgetting my cell phone at home aren't getting me down.
this wednesday, christopher is going to become an uncle for the ninth time (tenth, if you count his great-niece). how do we know the baby will be born on wednesday? well, his sister-in-law is going to have her labour induced. this seems to happen a lot these days. i know my friend rick's wife was induced so that he and his first-born son would share a birthday. i understand it makes it very convenient to know exactly when and where your baby will be born, with none of that embarrassing "oops! my water broke" messiness while out shopping or visiting a friend for tea, but it seems to me that it kind of goes against nature's design. you're supposed to let the baby incubate for as long as it needs, not say "hey, i'm sick of being pregnant" or choosing a designer birthdate for your offspring for whatever reason seems necessary. babies should be born when they're ready to, not at the whim of your particular lifestyle.
this also goes with women choosing to give birth via cezarian section when it's not completely necessary for the survival of the mother or child. i know it may sound really callow, but i think there's a reason women were built to squeeze out their babies: it's a test of the infant's hardiness. if they could survive that first, stressful experience, then they were more likely to survive life. personally, i've never thought that passing a bowling ball with shoulders through my vagina was an activity i wanted to particpate in, but i like to believe that sharing that particular kind of trauma with your baby bonds you in a very special way that having a surgeon opening and closing your abdomen like a ziploc bag can't.
don't get me wrong, i don't begrudge inducements or c-sections in cases where either the mother or child's health or life is at risk. i'd also be a hypocrite if i spoke against medical intervention during childbirth seeing that if it wasn't for a quick-acting doctor either, or both, my mother and i might have died on that monday in july thirty-four years ago. i just think that it's kind of odd to opt for the easy path when it comes to bringing your child into the world. it's not easy to raise them and nurture them into being healthy, happy, productive adults, why would you start their life with a shortcut? it just seems like you're starting them off on the wrong foot.
update: it's been several hours since i wrote the above. my boss's craptastic mood got to me. grr. i'm going to go put my earphones in and file. maybe that will make things better.
holy crap! it's december! when did that happen? yeah, smartasses, at midnight. thanks. =P
so, my superawesome, grown-up, big girl, red, leather couch arrived yesterday. i wasn't entirely sure the two middle-aged gentlemen (one of which, i'm pretty sure, was a newfie) were going to a) arrive efore five and b) manage to get it up the stairs and around the tricky corners; but, they did, with apparent ease even. *sigh* it's so big and sturdy and soft and squishy and sexy and RED! it makes the room look so different than when the futon was around.
after photos were taken and uploaded to flickr, christopher (who'd come over to await the delivery with me - what a sweetheart) and i quickly popped out to fetch dinner (memphis blues!), then we settled back on the new sofa to break it in while watching the last movie in our star wars trilogy marathon. it's absolutely perfect for movie-watching. lots of room for us both to get comfy and i'm loving the padded armrests -- it gives me something else to lean up against rather than my boyfriend's hip.
although, i wonder how long it's going to take me to get used to it being there. every time i would look around the livingroom, i was suprised to see it. not in a bad way, though. definitely not in a bad way. *dreamy sigh*
of course, now that it's finally here, i need to go out and buy new throw pillows to put on it and new curtains to compliment it and i'm even thinking about getting an area rug to tie the whole room ogether. i guess i know what i'm doing this weekend! well, that and looking for a wii. ;)
while i sat at work the other morning in the dark with no coffee or computer i started composing some lists: xmas gift list, xmas card list, xmas baking list, photo printing list. i've got a lot of stuff i need to do. i think i'm going to have to take one of the weekend days off from socializing just to get some work done on crossing items off my lists. plus, i need to put up my dorky little xmas tree and decorations. i better put that on a list or it probably won't get done.
plus, it's potluck season at work, which means i need to start baking and thinking of things to bring to feed my co-workers. there's one scheduled for the day after the decemberists show, so i'll probably bring chips or cutlery to that one since i forsee a late night and not much sleep.
