Category Archives: Photos

it’s finally friday. i can’t even begin to express how glad i am of it. i can go home tonight, take off my pants and watch a movie, then sleep in saturday morning after which i will drink large cups of coffee & eat chicken bacon and fried egg whites, then go to grocery store to fetch baking supplies, come home for copious amounts of birthday baking, clean my bathroom, get all tarted up and then go to a party where i will drink vodka and laugh with pretty people i don’t know very well.
ahh. the life of a single girl in the city. don’t you wish you had my life?
oh, if i’m feeling really daring, i might even order my ibook on sunday.

– i’m cute today
– byron is still good to talk to.
– my supervisor is away for the day.
– i have chicken fajitas and the best yoghurt in the free world for lunch.
– if the weather holds and i don’t get shy, i should go out photgraphing with vandigicam people tonight.
– mel and i double-dog dared darren to invite dooce out for beers when she’s in town (actually mel did, i’m just being reluctantly drug along with it *cough*).
– it’s one week until i order my birthday ibook!
– my hair has sensed its impending choppage and decided to look really lovely this week.
– i love coffee.

wow, wednesday already. and i still haven’t gone to bed early or gotten my bathroom cleaned. i did manage to slay the dustbunnies from hell monday night, so i’m not feeling too unaccomplished. baby steps, right? tonight i have to buy ingredients as i have some birthday baking to do for jeremy and wade.
byron the temp is in helping me with crappy uniform stuff today and tomorrow. he seems okay so far. if he is interested, he might be coming back to fill in for me in august while i’m doing sean’s job. that would be nice. he’s not bad to look at and seems to be able to hold up his end of a conversation which is a total requirement to spend two weeks with me in this office. he vaguely reminds me of morgan in the looks department, except much shorter and with more, albeit just as buzzed, hair, which means i kind of got an instant crush on him, but i’m sure it’ll wear off soon.
the weekend was crazy busy helping mom settle into her new apartment. by the time i got home from my whirlwind island adventure, i was ready for another two days off. but this time with actual relaxation. i think i’m recovered now. if only i could figure out why i’ve been waking up at 5:30 when i really don’t have to until 6 everything will be right in my universe.

sleepy.

how many books do you own?
not as many as before i moved last summer. a very quick count, excluding textbooks, reference books & highschool yearbooks, but including graphic novel anthologies (but not individual comics): 85. some of those might be loaners and do not include any not currently located on my one bookshelf.
what is the last book that you bought?
oh, geez… um. that’s tough. excluding textbooks, i don’t think i actually remember. it was probably ‘hey nostrsdamus’ & ‘all families are psychotic’ by douglas coupland. i bought them on colene’s last day at the bookstore, which was last year sometime. i’m on a self-imposed book-buying fast. i’m borrowing mostly (or receiving them as wishlist giftage). sorry, authors.
what is the last book you read?
the last book i finished was ‘the other boleyn sister’ by phillipa gregory. the last book i had opened and read is ‘silk’ by alessandro baricco.
name five books that mean a lot to you.
‘the deed of paksenarrion’ by elizabeth moon
‘still life with woodpecker’ by tom robbins
‘shampoo planet’ by douglas coupland
‘the secret garden’ by frances hodgson burnett
‘jane eyre’ by charlotte brontë
now “tag” five individuals to provide their own lists.
uh, no. that’s just mean. the only reason i’m doing this at all is that today is jodi chromey’s birthday and no one should be denied anything on their birthday (remember that in 27 days, people).

very disturbing dreams about euthanizing my mother. woke up crying. phoned her just now, but got the machine. it’s moving day for her. tomorrow, i take a boat to hook up her electronics in the new place.
p.s. 30 shopping days until my birthday.
p.p.s.
my new favourite website by someone i don’t know and won’t ever meet: latitude13.
my new favourite word: pleonasm.

i can’t be the only vancouver blogger excited to know that heather & jon armstrong (of dooce and blurbomat fame) are coming to our fine city in mere days. the 13 year old fangirl part of me wants to register for vidfest just to hear heather speak and have the chance to meet them. the 32 year old woman part of me wants to go the screenings in a surreptitious attempt to “bump into” them and strike up a delightfully adult conversation.
i’m sorely tempted to try to arrange some sort of meet-like thing, or at the very least, invite them to drinks somewhere while they’re in town. we do have the heather bond, you know. and the D70 bond. and the blog bond. yeah, i know. i’m so sad. but, really, who else can i have a conversation about poop with than her?
this ends the pathetic stalker portion of today’s post.
last night colene ventured out to the wilds of north vancouver, braved the dasterdly dust-bunnies of casa de hessie, skillfully traversed the mean streets of lower lonsdale and then battled the frightful fashions of fine arts patrons in order to go to dinner and a play with yours truly. that girl has surely shown either her desperation or utter come-undoneness by going to such lengths to spend an evening with me. i’m sure glad she did, though. i had fun! i know it might often seem to the contrary, but i’m actually rather fond of fun and do quite enjoy it when it’s thrust upon me.
here’s to more fun-thrusting! um. that doesn’t sound very good, does it?

i was going to do a “what i did in may” retrospective (don’t ask me why, i just had an idea it would be interesting), but i’m training for the other job i have to do as part of my job and my morning got all fucked up. the only thing which kept my head from popping off was the extra-large cup of timmy’s i picked up on my way to work.
click the picture for an extra-large version.
today is all about extra-large.
except my cramps. make my cramps extra-small, please.

have you ever watched tv with someone who wasn’t in the room with you?
have you ever drunk beer on a monday night?
have you ever wondered what it would be like to be someone else?
have you ever gone to bed at 9:30pm?
have you ever realized it wasn’t what it seemed?
have you ever said you’re done and meant it?
have you ever felt hope for your future?
have you ever had to wear earplugs to drown out the sounds of your noisy russian neighbours bellowing until late at night?
have you ever wanted to make a connection?

can i just say right now that i had the best weekend i’ve had in a long while? okay. i’m glad i got that out of my system. now i can go back to being angsty and complaining, right? no? damn. i’m too happy for that? shit. i hate it when when that happens.
i spent saturday out with my friend karen to celebrate her 50th birthday. i can hear some of you gasping. “50! that’s… OLD!” trust me, if you knew karen you’d have no idea that was her age. especially when we’re together. god, we really do act like a couple of teenagers. it’s great!
anyway, we met downtown, had a starbucks. walked around. had some lunch at the shogun noodle house on homer (at least i think it’s on homer. i should check because i really have to go back and try many more things from their menu). went to see madagascar at the big shiny new paramount theatre. walked around. went to london drugs (because no outing with keb would be complete without a trip to london drugs) to show her my future ibook. walked around. got a jubabooba juice thing and took the seabus back to north van. walked along the new promenade. fetched my car. drove up cypress mountain (where i almost broke a toe). went to the keg for dinner. and, twelve hours later, i dropped her back at home.
you know i was having a good time because i didn’t once complain about the heat.

weeks ago, my friend jim gave an assignment to those of us so digitally inclined. i’m very late handing it in, but this is my panorama homework above. it’s the view of north vancouver from the end of the new people space at the revamped burrard dry dock pier. it’s pretty freaking huge, in all senses of the word. please to be clicking for the verilarge version.

before i forget, i really want this for my birthday (37 days!). imagine all that atari goodness in one little package! ohmygawd. i’d be totally glued to my futon for a month, maybe two! centipedes! *thud*
nature flipped the switch on the furnace yesterday. it got crazy hot really quickly. it’s supposed to stay this way until early next week which has totally made my decision for birthday fun with karen tomorrow for me: movie. i don’t cope well when it gets hotter than 23, so we’re going somewhere air-conditioned, dammit.
i finally finished writing my new about page this week. it’s freakishly long-winded and babbly, but i think it’s all right. it’s half bio, half colophon. i think i like it better than the listy one i had before.
is it bad to eat ice cream for dinner?
last night was the flickr going away party which i thought about attending, if only to say i rubbed shoulders with famousish internet people. instead i ate the aforementioned ice cream for dinner and played poker online with wade and a bunch of stupid-betting people. this explains so much.

not super talky. saving it for other things, i think.

long weekend. got a new desk. need a haircut. saw movies. not dead yet.

i was going to write about how to be freakishly prompt today, but then i got myself a pre-migraine to go on the way to work. i did my morning paperwork while trying to keep my eyes closed and my stomach from revolting. i’m home now, soon to be in bed.
my kingdom for strong drugs and a theraputic massage.

i thought i’d do myself a favour and go to bed really early last night. i was thoroughly exhausted by the time i got home, so i forced myself to stay awake until 8:30 (yeah, i know, pathetic) and then i went to bed. that’s when the trouble started. i woke up around 10:30 when the phone fell off the bed in a loud clatter. i woke at 12:12 because i was too hot. i woke up at 2:22 for no discernable reason. then i woke up at 3:34, 4:40, 5:31… i might actually be more tired now than before i went to sleep.
at least i managed to do some tidying up around the joint. not a lot, because i was pretty gimped up, but enough so that i don’t get that antsy feeling i want to run away or have a hissy fit just from looking at my kitchen.
there should be salad for lunch today. the biggest salad in the world. with chicken. and parmesan cheese. yes. someone make it so. thank you, you will be rewarded in heaven.

just barely made it through the day. forced myself to stay awake just long enough to do emergency laundry so i didn’t have to come to work wearing either a velvet chemise or nothing at all. was in bed and dead to the world before nine o’clock. when the alarm went off this morning i had a moment of confusion. i was truly confused as to why the alarm was bleeping on a saturday. can you imagine my disappointment when i realized i had to come to work instead of throwing the bleeping box out the window, rolling over and going back to sleep?
p.s. are you a strapping lad who has a chivalrous streak? i’m in need of assistance hauling a desktop up a flight and a half of Very Steep Stairs. i’ll give you beer or a hearty pat on the back for your effort. please apply within. thank you.

three hours sleep. timo thoroughly manipulated me like no one has ever done before (except maybe an ex or two). i’m hooked. i still have the baseline in my head and coming out my feet. i also keep smelling the damn fog machine.
there will be serious crashing this afternoon, i wager.

it’s finally friday. i can hardly believe it. i had tentative plans for another blind date, but i don’t know if that’s going to happen or not (and i’m not sure if i want it to at this point). other than that, my only plan for the weekend is going to see timo maas sunday night at richard’s. whee. i heart timo, even tho going to a show which won’t be over until 2am on a work night just might kill me.

everyone seems so amazed by the cleanli/neat-ness of my apartment. i think it’s kind of deceptive just because it’s such a large space with very little stuff in it. you have to realize that i spent six years in an apartment HALF the size of my current living room. i’m all about the big, open, uncluttered spaces now. besides, more stuff just means more dusting and i really hate dusting.
but, i definitely do need something on that wall behind my desk.

like every campaign, i took myself out to an all-candidates’ meeting last night. while i have very clear ideas about who i want to win the upcoming provincial election, i still make it a point to attend at least one meeting so i can say i have actually heard what the candidate i’m voting for has to say for themselves.
what i got from last night is that the incumbent in my riding is a very angry woman who started blatantly blowing off answering any of the later questions put forth. the marijuana party candidate, while being very poised and well-spoken, answered only two questions without using the word “prohibition”. the democratic reform party candidate distracted me by being a veritble clone of my friend ritchie, bored me with being a one-trick pony, yet impressed me with the chutzpah it takes to run for office at the tender age of twenty-two. while i agreed with a lot of what the green party candidate had to say, i still can’t help but think a vote for him is both reckless and wasteful. the ndp candidate was very smooth, engaging and witty, but he has an air of elitism just below the surface which just niggles at me; he’s almost too smooth.
despite the obvious importance of making an informed choice as to who will be running our province for the next four to five years, i think the more important issue we’ll be deciding next tuesday is the referrendum on the BC-STV. a YES vote means changing our voting process from first past the post (where in 50% + 1 wins and any vote after that +1 is basically thrown out) to a proportional voting system (where your vote actually is applied to a candidate of your choice).
after the federal election of a minority government last summer, i did some research on various proportional representation systems. it would completely alter the way we elect representatives and the way those elected representatives would serve their constituents. it would mean that each vote you cast actually had value. instead of feeling as if your vote for a fringe party was a waste, you could actually vote your heart and conscience with confidence your voice would be heard which is something sorely lacking in our current system. here is a great flash animation explaining the proposed system.
i don’t really care who or what you vote for next tuesday, just so long as you vote with an informed and rational mind. and, just remember, if you don’t vote, you can’t complain (or praise) for four years!

back to work today.