Author Archives: Heather

the jeff tweedy show was amazing, awesome and a-fantastic (i really wanted the alliteration, sorry). i’m no reviewer, but it was three times better than i ever could have hoped it would be. i was actually tempted to drive down to seattle to see him again there. that’s how good it was. christopher took some great photos of the evening to help document the experience. we saw my officemate, sean, and all his music-playing buddies there and even the reclusive gillian gunson was in attendance (although, i was kind of disappointed she didn’t bring her cat).
consider me a completely besotted fangirl now. oh, jeff, i love you! *squeal*
i had a day off work yesterday to both recover from the late night out and to have lunch with my friend jim, who was to be in town for One! Day! Only! alas, the lunch didn’t pan out, as a windy night backlogged boats and ruined his plans for an early arrival. we just can’t seem to ever get together. it must be a sign. so, instead, christopher and i met up downtown and wandered around and managed to waste the entire afternoon and evening.
now, it’s 6:50 and i’m supposed to be ready to go to work, but i’m still in my towels from my shower and the very last thing i want to do is get in my car and go earn my living. thankfully, i have plans tonight to look forward to, otherwise i might just have to sit here and sob.

big night! jeff tweedy! i’m so excited i could spit! yay!

such a great weekend.

i’m feeling a little bad that all you new visitors had to be subjected to my mindless meme the other day. if i’d known that jen would tag me (or more specifically, my photos) as one of the best vancouver blogs of 2005, i’d have left a little more content up at the top for y’all. i think she must have been drunk when she submitted that; but, i’m willing to forgive her because she thinks i’m so cool.
otherwise, my days are going by in a sleepless blur. friday night found me across the city at a birthday party where i drank too much beer and had to leave my car and perform a triathalon of transportation events to get home: walking, bussing and finally a taxi over the bridge. seven hours and a huge hangover later, i was back on a bus heading out to retrieve my car so i could go to the airport to have lunch with a second-cousin i’d not seen in twenty-one years while she waited for her flight to toronto. despite the repercussions, i had so much fun on friday it was completely worth the pain. look, there are even pictures, duh.
last night, after dinner with jamie (no link for him until he starts updating) and colene (no link for her until she changes her URL), we went to darren’s election result mixer at the library public house downtown. it was good to see some old faces and it was really weird to see so many new faces. the vancouver blog scene ain’t what it was in 2002, let me tell you. of course, when you’re shy and never introduce yourself to anyone, how do you expect to meet anyone new? sometimes it’s a wonder i talk to anyone, at all, ever.
the big news for me is the jeff tweedy show one week from tonight. i’ve found someone to go with me which i’m hoping will only serve to enhance the experience. doing stuff like going to shows or movies solo is fine, but it’s always more fun to have someone to deconstruct it with afterwards. so thrilled! it’s been a long while since my last show and i’ve never been to the commodore, if you can believe it. for those of you not from vancouver, the commodore ballroom is an institution. it’s been around for over seventy-five years and has seen untold numbers of acts from bob dylan to devo. i’m looking forward to seeing the venue almost as much as the act. i’m such a nerd.

jamie & colene came over last night for dinner. we were planning a mexican cooking extravaganza, but, as is our modus operandi, we changed our minds and, after a trip to the grocery store for supplies, made ourselves individual pizzas instead. that didn’t stop us from making and drinking margaritas as per the original plan, though!
it was fun, all three of us in the kitchen, everyone with a task: colene on mushroom slicing, jamie grating cheese, me working on peppers and getting the baking implements arranged. the pizza was yummy, the drinks were strong, we yakked and tried to find something on tv to watch (and failed) until it was late enough that col had to drive jamie to his bus.
yup, i could totally get used to having friends over.
it’s friday. there’s actual sunshine streaming in my office window for the first time in what seems like months. i’m wearing my new shirt with the sparkles. my new safety shoes are cute and comfy. i’ve been invited to a party tonight. my bills are paid, and i don’t feel sleepy. i certainly hope this day continues feeling this great!
as you can see from today’s photo, i’ve hung my julie b. andersen original photograph (here’s a detail), with the help of j&c. it’s just so perfect for my room i can’t even stand it. now, i just need my dresser and my room will be complete.
oh god, i sense a serious case of good mood coming on. this could be dangerous…

there’s not so very much going on, but i still feel pretty busy. last night i went to my once per election campaign all-candidate’s meeting. it was held at the centennial theatre and it was jam-packed. i like to see a lot of interest in these things, especially when the highschool students come in with their notebooks, it makes me have a little hope people aren’t as apathetic as they seem most days.
early in the evening, the NDP candidate excused herself from the stage; later, the MC informed us that she’d been taken from the theatre by paramedics. oy! i hope she’s all right, but this puts a real kink in my voting strategy. one of the reasons i go to these things is that i don’t always vote entirely along party lines. who is running is just as important as their platform, in my mind. since i’m historically an NDP supporter, not being able to hear directly from my candidate leaves me feeling a little uninformed.
alas, i can’t say what i heard last night helped me solidify my voting decision. i do know that, after having my accelerated west wing education last summer, i’m left wondering what these people’s campaign managers are smoking. one candidate mentioned her husband more than herself in her opening comments. another barely said anything about her party’s core platform or ideology. don’t these people get any coaching? of course, i’m being way too harsh. goodness knows i would never put myself in that position. more power to those who want to serve the public good!
here ends my political rambing.
the fantastic photo the lovely and marvelous julie b. andersen sent me for xmas has been professionally matted and framed. i picked it up last night and i’m absolutely astounded by how incredible it looks! i can’t wait to get it hung in my bedroom. this is the first piece of original art i’ve ever had and it makes me feel so very good knowing it was created by someone i know and admire. don’t worry, once it gets hung there will be photos.
speaking of photos, jamie might have pulled off the impossible last week: a not so very awful photo of me. feel free to go and leave flattering comments. just kidding!
after talking to jim the other evening, i’ve realized that i really want to start inviting more people over to my home. for all those years i lived in the tiny apartment i never felt i could entertain, so i didn’t. now that i feel at home in my new place (when will i stop calling it my new place? i’ve been here almost two years!), i find i really want to have people come spend time there with me. not only does it give me impetus to keep the dust bunnies at bay, but i like my place. i like spending time there. why shouldn’t the people i like spend time there, too? now i just have to convice people that north vancouver isn’t freakin’ siberia and that crossing a bridge won’t render them impotent or some other nonsense.

this weekend was chock full of excitement and adventure. chock full, i say!
friday night was the bowling extravaganza with beer, cameras and fun, creative people. saturday took me on a car-ride with my papa, found myself with a new widescreen lcd monitor and, after dark, a transformer exploded plunging me & my apartment into darkness lit only by some tealights and the flashing of the firetruck lights outside my window. sunday took me across the water and to the big, tall downtown where i walked myself into three blisters, a sushi lunch and a viewing of tristan & isolde.
somewhere between all of that, i caught up on some television, did the laundry, cleaned the kitchen, made a magnificent chicken stir-fry (if i do say so myself) and chatted with friends, new and old.
and i wonder why i’m always so tired come monday morning!

there was a period of about 36 hours where i thought i might actually get a new intelimac. alas, the astounded chuckle when dad saw the price (before taxes) pretty much confirmed that my becoming a switcher on his dime was just a pipe dream. just when i was getting all excited, instead of ambivalent about leaving the windows world behind, too. le sigh.
it was fun ordering him a new computer online last night. he was aghast when i suggested it and told him we’d use his credit card ON THE INTERNET! but, he soldiered through it very well and in two weeks he’ll have a new athlon64 pc and 19″ widescreen lcd monitor to read his email with. again: le sigh.
tonight, i’m going bowling. cosmic bowling, actually. i’m ridiculously excited about it, too. even with all the strangers friends i haven’t met yet, i’m still really thrilled at the prospect. bowling is one of those things you can do with people and everyone has a good time ’cause you can be as wild and silly as you want. i mean, really, you’re wearing communal shoes. what’s not absurd about that?

um, hi.
happy new year!
i’m not dead, although the cold got worse before it got better, but the doctor gave me some cough syrup with codeine and the resulting drug-induced sleep was so good for me i started to feel better before i actually was well which meant i got to come back to work and wear myself out. what a way to start a new year.
the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur. not because they’ve been very exciting, but with the holidays, the illness, start of the year work busyness and some socializing the days have just been zooming by. you’ll have to forgive me if i leave some things unblogged.
but, i know that there are at least a few of you out there who are curious about how my new year’s eve “date” with dante went. well, it pretty much didn’t. i showed up at the pub in my sparkly new outfit (earrings all the way to shoes new) looking damn scrumptious, if i do say so myself. he was there, but totally ignored me for about half an hour. when he finally came over to sit by me he was acting… odd.
then came midnight. let’s see… if YOU had a date for NYE wouldn’t you want to be where they were at midnight to get your kissing action? yeah, that’s what i thought. my date was nowhere to be found at midnight. he was somewhere completely else inside with other people. i was pretty unimpressed, to tell the truth. so, i just kissed meghan and mark instead!
a couple hours later, very near leaving time, he had suddenly taken more interest in me. we had been sitting at the bar talking for a while. he’d leaned over and kissed me, just a peck, but he was sitting really far away. he kept talking about what i thought of being with him in 20 years. i was thinking “but you totally dissed my NYE kiss”. shortly thereafter, m&m and i were offered a ride by a sober regular and i hastily paid my $92 bar bill (HOLY FREAKING GOD!) and ran out into 2006 after an awkward hug (honestly, i got more better hugs from people i’d never met before that night than i did from dante — being a good hugger is very important).
he phoned me the next day. i was still in the middle of my plague and i’d completely lost my voice during the night. it was a really good phone call, actually. he asked if i wanted to go to lunch on monday since i had it off work. i told him to phone me at eleven and we would if i felt up to it. well, monday came. eleven came. eleven-fifteen came. eleven-twenty-five came. i got fed up and went to the clinic (where i sat for an hour beside the puking kid), ran some errands, picked up my prescription, bought some noodles at the mall and then went home. when i checked my messages i heard:
“hi. it’s me. call me back.” at 11:46.
there’s just so much wrong with that. first, he was late. i hate that. if you say you’re going to call at eleven, you call at eleven. secondly, what kind of crappy message was that? you can’t be courteous and considerate to my voicemail? “hey, i hope you’re feeling better. call me back if you want to go get something to eat.” third, he was LATE!
even after all that, i’m feeling really, really lousy that i haven’t called him back. the rest of monday went in a trying to get better before going back to work haze. then work got busy and i was doing nothing but sleeping when i got home. then the weekend past. now it’s nine days since that message and i wonder if i should even bother calling now. there’s no good excuse. i really am the worst call-returner ever — ask anyone — but, he doesn’t know that and probably just thinks i’m a big jerk.
at some point i’m going to go back to the pub and he’s going to be there and it’s going to be weird. i don’t want to date him. i wouldn’t mind being his friend, but there’s just nothing there for me to get all fluttery and goofy over. yeah, it’s nice that there’s this guy who wants to sit beside me at the bar and thinks i’m neat, but… i’m finally willing to wait for the right thing instead of taking the thing right now. i deserve to get what i want and what i need. we all do. settling is for suckers. don’t do it.

no, i’m not dead. although, for the past four days i’ve been feeling like i’d rather be. for xmas, santa brought me a cold. a cold which has been running roughshod over my body. i might have been better if i hadn’t been some form of loyal idiot and went to work yesterday. today, i know better. after waking every hour on the hour to cough up a piece of lung, i finally phoned my boss’s boss at 5:45 to tell him i was staying home. i still feel horrible guilt, but at least i know i’m taking care of myself. there was soup and a mandarin orange. soon, there will be a long, hot bath and a nap.
my holiday weekend was quiet and fairly uneventful. a trip to the island, seeing the cousins after a year, too much food, the chronicles of narnia, and a boxing day shopping debacle. i wasn’t expecting gifts, but i still managed to get entirely spoiled. mom got me lots of little things i like and need, then meghan blindsided me with the 50mm lens i’ve been coveting for over half a year (now don’t i feel like crap for getting her a dinky gift. ugh).
sleep hasn’t been very good to me the past few weeks. first the lack due to too much socializing and an early work start. then the uncomfortable spare bed at the maternal unit’s. finally, the lack of breathing due to disease. seems whenever my sleep gets choppy, my dreams get funky. xmas eve night, i dreamt of morgan. all night. i was so happy to see him, i literally ran into his arms. when i woke the following morning, still emotional over the fantasy reunion, i tried to track down the reason fof the timing of the thoughts. then i realized: his birthday was the 24th. the next night, i dreamt of rick and a disapproving mark & meghan. maybe it’s the holidays bringing past lovers into my nocturnal thoughts. all i know is that i’ll be very glad when i can again sleep through the night and awake oblivious to my dreams.
i’m in the middle of trying to re-frame my life. i’m feeling the need to change some things. to work harder at work. to spend more time in creative endeavours instead of parked on the futon, watching tv. to go outside. to read more. to listen to more music (which reminds me, i really have to buy my jeff tweedy ticket today). to take more photos. to spend more time with the people i enjoy and less with those i don’t. it’s not so easy to change habits you’ve had since your first memory. i don’t know if i’ll succeed. i don’t know if i want to even say that i’m attempting it. seems like i’m tempting failure that way. i guess we’ll see. just like everything else…

i’m getting spoiled this xmas and i don’t feel very deserving of it. i received two new cds in the mail, i was gifted with a flickr pro account and my bank account got plumped up just to name a few things. *sigh* i’m really lucky and beyond grateful. i can’t say “thank you” enough. i want to hug the stuffin’ out of these amazing people in my life.
there’s still not enough sleep (there never is). there’s still baking to be done. there’s an apartment in complete and utter chaos (and i’m not even exaggerating this time). there’s laundry & packing to do. there’s lots of neck and back pain and no time for massage. there’s plans to pub on friday night and travel saturday morning (oh, the hangover). then there’s still all the work to be done at work (and every day has felt like friday — ugh).
the upcoming two and a fraction days on the island should be good as long as i don’t think about the things i could be doing if i were over on this side of the water. i’ve made a couple decisions this week which will hopefully start my new year off on the right foot. i guess you could call them pre-resolutions, but i figured i might have more luck making them stick if i got them started in 2005. oh, the tricks we play on ourselves!

too much to do and not enough time to do it! i think i’m going to have to leave work early today just to fit it all in. god, i really hate being this busy. HATE it. i like doing stuff, but i don’t like overlapping stuff or stuff every. bloody. day. plus, i’m only three days into this week and i’m at least four hours short of sleep. ugh. i can’t wait until saturday when i can just sleep all day.
amazingly enough, i did manage to make peppermint bark before jamie came over last night. he wanted to go to the pub for chips’n’fish, so we did. luckily, i’d forgotten that it was tuesday and therefore music bingo night (which jamie won, dammit)! m&m where there, which was awesome since i didn’t think i’d be able to see them at all this week.
jamie and meg got a chance to chat a little more, which for me was both very cool and kind of nerve-wracking as i’m always concerned that my different groups of friends won’t get along with each other (as evidenced by the m&m vs. jason debacle), but i really shouldn’t have worried with those two. all in all, it was a pretty great night.
tonight, i’m going to colene’s work party. excepting the fact i also have to make chili when i get home for tomorrow’s potluck, i’m kind of stressed about it. i don’t know any of her co-workers, i still don’t know where it is or how formal these people are and, dammit, i haven’t had time to iron anything! STRESSFREAKOUTALERT! hence the leaving work early tonight. maybe just an hour to give me a little more breathing room.
*pant*
so, was i lying about the superhawt glasses? i totally don’t think so. feel free to lavish me with attention, propositions and gifts. especially the gifts. ;)