Category Archives: Photos

i think i’m avoiding settling into my new apartment. i don’t seem to be spending a lot of time there. i was there for four days before i left for minnesota and in the week since i’ve come back, i’ve been out for most of it. part of me is just really enjoying being with people (and goodness knows i have to get my fill of that before the sensation disappears), but there is definitely a part of me that is using the social activities to avoid spending time at home.

that’s not to say i don’t like it, because i do. i like it more every day. i just think that i’m still a bit overwhelmed with all the things left to do (i need to post a new list to keep me on track. hm, maybe later.) and the slight disorder of still unpacking and such is make me a little antsy and uncomfortable. for example, i know that not having my curtains & bamboo blinds up is driving me FUCKING BATTY. the white trash curtain was amusing for the first week, now it’s making me angry.

i’m really grumpy because i have all these things to do and i could do them all if i wasn’t at work, but i have to be at work to pay for all the things which need doing, but when i get home from work it’s too FUCKING HOT TO BREATHE so i just sit around in my underwear, sweating to death and staring at the white trash curtain until my eyes bleed.
so, anyway, how are you?

it’s friday and i’m really sleepy and sore today. i went downtown with karen last night to see harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban before it stops playing in theatres. i took the seabus over and then we wandered around looking at the orcas and then walked over to denman street where we looked for sushi to eat. mm, sushi.
the denman cinema actually has double features, but i was way too tired to stay for another movie and if i had, i probably would have ended up missing the last bus back which would have pissed me off, so we left early. actually, it was good because i met pat, one of my old teaching assistants, on the seabus and we chatted all the way across.
the only negative of the whole outing was my wearing the absolute wrong shoes for extended walking and my feet are pretty sore this morning. ah, i’m tough, and god knows i need to walk more. i should go wander around downtown with fun people more often!

tomorrow, i’m going back to ikea with meghan and rosemary (meg’s friend from school whom we’ve hung out with before, but not often because she lives far away and mark doesn’t much like her husband jason). i love ikea. i spent way too much time the other night going through their website and picking about my dream bedroom suite (all in the antique stain because white furniture is icky). i was kind of tempted to buy at least one of the pieces now (and still am because i really need a bigger dresser), but i refuse to buy a nice frame for my current hand-me-down bed because i hope to replace it with a queen size in the not-so-distant future.
then, on sunday, i’m going to yet another movie with karen. this time it will be the village. if you’ve seen it, don’t you dare tell me anything! i refuse to have another m. night movie ruined for me by babbling.

more minnesota stories later. this entry took me, uh, three hours to finish thanks to way too many interruptions and one painfully longass phone call from a person who doesn’t know how to shut up. ugh. thank goodness i’m having sushi for lunch (yes, again). sushi makes everything okay.
p.s. don’t forget to mouse-over the photos for my very witty captions.

so, what about jeremy?
i’ve written about him before. about how he’s one of the very best, supportive, intelligent, witty, caring, sarcastic, generous and easy people i know. how i’d met him on a talker some eight years ago and how, even though i wanted to, it was okay that we’d never met in person. well, we’ve done that now. that was the primary reason for my recent visit to corn-land. to finally spend some of that hanging-out time we talked about with one of my very favourite people.
so, how’d it go?
it’s funny how the mind works. for years and years i pictured him as about 5’7″ with really short, blond hair. when i first saw a photo of him i remember feeling quite off-balance. he’s nowhere near that short and nowhere near that blond. over the years, with some conscious mental restructuring, i’d constructed an almost 100% accurate mental image of him, so there was very little to surprise me when i first laid my eyes on him. although, he really didn’t seem thirteen inches taller than me.
just like the lack of surprise with his physical self, there wasn’t much which surprised me about his personality. sitting across or beside him and talking was pretty much exactly the same as typing our conversations via icq. other than it was fun to see his face move, have eye contact and find out he actually has teeth! he’s just as smart, funny, caring, et cetera in meatspace as he is online. i’ve met a lot of net.people over the last ten years and this was probably the best experience of them all.
so, what about his wife?
well, i was understandably nervous about meeting her. i was paranoid that she’d hate me and demand that jeremy never speak to me ever again and then i’d just have to go jump off a bridge or something. or, at the very least, enter rehab to work through the withdrawls. luckily, that didn’t happen (well, i hope it didn’t happen. she didn’t seem to hate me too much.). his wife is a perfectly wonderful person. she’s so smart, personable, funny, quick-witted, beautiful and nice. not to mention she and jeremy are completely perfect for each other. watching them together is like… yeah, i don’t even have an adjective for that. it’s amazing and what i assume everyone aspires their relationships to be.
i came away from minnesota hoping that i could develop a friendship with her just as i have with jeremy, which is more than i could ever have wished for.
so, what now?
well, i’d really like them to come to vancouver so that i can return the tour guide/entertainment-director favour and, really, just to have the chance to spend more time with them; because, that’s what you want to do when you find people you like very much, right?

see why i miss chipotle? look at the size of that burrito! you could seriously wound someone with one of those if you were to be met by thugs in an alley after stopping for your weekly chicken fajita burrito. hey, now there’s an advertising campaign! i should email them again and tell them about that, and beg for a vancouver location.
so, minnesota. it was really nice. it’s very pretty, especially the twin cities of minneapolis and st. paul. somehow i totally lucked out with the weather because it was a blissful 25°C (that’s 76°F) with a steady breeze almost the entire time i was there, which is exactly right for summer.
i made a big deal of the fact that if you drive five minutes in any direction, you find endless fields of corn. they made fun of me, but it really was quite astounding. considering i’m a city girl and the geography hereabouts doesn’t lend itself to agriculture (unless you take an hour’s drive east to chilliwack), i’m not accustomed to that much corn so close to where people live and work. that being said, i feel a sudden urge to go run around a corn maze or five to prolong the minnesotan sensation.

just a quicky to prove that i’m alive and all that. i spent sunday doing laundry and reminding myself that it wasn’t all a dream and i actually do live in a huge (relatively speaking, of course) new apartment. now i’m faced with the daunting task of decorating!

yesterday found me and m&m at the race track for equestrian gambling fun! i’m totally doing that again, with or without them.
anyway, i’ll try to sum up the minnesotan adventure when i get a chance to catch up with work and life and all that. i hope to get out to see a movie with karen tonight. photos of the trip will be appearing over the next few days. i didn’t take the camera out very much at all. i was too busy staring at the corn.
p.s. i already miss chipotle. *sniff*
p.p.s. i want to have an amazing race/apartment-warming party some time between now and september 11th. please either email or comment if you’re interested in attending and we’ll go from there. merci!

i got in at 4:21 this morning. more after i’ve slept some and conquered Mount Laundry.

gone to minnesota, back in a week. yeah, sure. you betcha.

the cute, nice cable guy came over and gave me access to the world again last night. after that, the evening was a blur. i ate my first meal in my new home (beefaroni and wine gums), watched some tv, made my lunch and went to bed at a reasonable-ish hour. i actually had a decent sleep, waking only every couple of hours instead of a couple of times every hour.
please take note of my white trash curtain. yes, that is a bed sheet nailed to the wall in front of my balcony doors. i made the super take down the broken and crappy vertical blinds which were there. i thought i could live with the wide open window until i got back, but i like to run around in my underwear way too much and there are way too many more windows facing mine now to do that, so this is my temporary solution. ain’t i just a classy bitch?
i really can’t wait until i get my new shelves & tv stand and paint my old shelves so i can start really settling in. i’m really not sure what the hell i’m going to put on all the blank walls. they’re really intimidating. i need a debbie travis facelift. someone should nominate me! *hint*
tonight is Project: Chesterfield Clean-up. i’m going to attempt to get the old apartment all cleaned up so the very last thing i have to do is let the carpet guy in and out on thursday morning. the landlords are anxious to get in and reno the bathroom, so this will please us all. i really hope it doesn’t get too hot tonight.

don’t even fucking ask.

i spent two and a half hours inhaling bleach fumes while cleaning the cupboards at my new apartment last night. maybe i really am turning into my mother and grandmother. or maybe i just have higher standards for cleanliness than most people (at least for the starting point of a new residence). regardless, i’m practically obsessed with having ensured that this new place will be as clean as i can get it before i start hanging my hat there.
tonight i’m going back to line all the shelves and drawers and then wash down the insides of the closets, which i was just way too fucking exhausted to do last night. i was absolutely dripping with sweat. by the end of these two weeks of cleaning and moving, i should hopefully have made up for not exercising for the last two months. especially considering how FUCKING STEEP the stairs in my building are. oh, boy. are my friends gonna hate me on sunday.
i’m sorry, friends!
in other news, there is no other news. i’ve a union day tomorrow, then a baby shower and a night out with strangers on thursday, then a friday lunch out with the co-worker i don’t really like but can’t seem to get rid of (but she’s paying, so i’ll go fake it for an hour), then it’s moving days!
i’m sorry, readers. i know you’re all sick and tired of me talking about the cleaning and the moving and the packing, but i really am this boring.

so, it’s finally friday. i managed to survive the object oriented analysis and design final exam last night and i think we might be finished our assignment enough for me to submit it today, a whole day early. with that, i’ll be rid of school for a whole two months! hurrah!
no more pencils, no more books! no more teacher’s dirty looks!
today at work we have a temp in to cover the vacationing trish. jodi chromey would be in heaven. he’s a very cute redhead. think prince harry with a few fewer freckles, or one of the sedin twins with slightly a subdued hue. his name is james, which immediately puts him out of the running, even if he were to be single and amenable. dammit.

big plans tonight! gotta go clean some cupboards, i do! yeah, my life is exciting. but, hey, i also get to go to ikea on sunday. i bet you can’t say that!
i still need to call hydro about switching my account. i really have to get packing again, which means i have to take over the boxes i have packed so i have room for more packed boxes. i bought a swiffer last night! yippee!
wow. random. it’s official. i need to get out more.
lately, i’ve also been suffering serious lack-of-special-boy-ness. i really want someone to hug and squeeze and call george. someone with whom i can hang out, go out, let it all out. someone who calls me just to say goodnight. ugh. i can’t think about it anymore or i’ll get all schloopy.

so, you all have to know about skype. you install it on your computer, create an account and then you can call me using your microphone to speak and your speakers to listen! it’s absolutely free and the quality is amazing. i’ve gotten both my mom and my uncle hooked up after testing it out with jeremy.
one of the neater things i’ve yet to try is that you can also use your computer to phone any telephone in the world for extremely low rates (~2¢ per minute to 25 countries). they call that skypeout. i don’t do a lot of long distance calling, but if i did, i’d seriously consider it as an alternative to paying my telco, that’s for damn sure.
what are you waiting for? you could be talking to me by tonight!

GUESS WHO GOT HERSELF A MOTHERFUCKING ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT!
yeah, that’d be me! one bedroom, corner suite, second floor walk-up, hardwood floors, four closets, pink bathtub, no downstairs neighbour, balcony, parking, heat & hot water included, and it’s two blocks from pretty much everything one would want to be two blocks from. hurrah!
now i’m panicking about all the stuff i have to get done in the next month. since i hadn’t given notice to my current landlords, i’ll have two apartments for the month of july. this is good because i can move over a couple weeks which will take the pressure off, but i still have a lot to get done. then there’s the added stress of going away both at the beginning and end of july. ack. i need boxes!
so, who wants to help me move?

this weekend was a very interesting combination of really good and really crappy. i watched some good movies, i spent time with my friends laughing and playing, i took my dad out for daddy’s day and he was really pleased with the outing. then there was the crappiness which consisted of an almost complete lack of sleep and the sudden and violent onset of summer heat resulting in my apartment reaching 32 degrees celsuis (that’s 89.6 fahrenheit, btw) and making any kind of activity unbearable. including sleep.
one of the better things was breaking down and buying a pair of jeans which actually fits. i had forgotten that i could wear pants that didn’t make me feel like some gangsta punk with my crotch at my knees. now i need to find a pair of non-jean, non-black pant-type things for the upcoming even more unbearably hot minnesota trip.
yeah, i think that’s it. i mostly just wanted an excuse to post this photo. besides the caving in of my forehead from lack of sleep, i forgot my glasses so i’ll be blind by the end of the day, too. yippee.
how was your weekend?

while at the dentist yesterday, i got chastised by the hygenist for not flossing often enough, but she said my brushing is really good, so my teeth and gums are still in pretty good shape (for someone who doesn’t floss, that is). we also talked about the fact that my dentist has had the same artwork on the walls of his office since, at least, 1985 when i first went to him. the only thing that has changed at all in there are the colours of the walls (just last spring), the staff and the waiting room chairs, although i think he just got the fabric replaced because they’re really sinky-into.
i had the best sleep ever last night. for the first time in i don’t know how long, i fell asleep and slept right through until my alarm. even after, the time went slowly, so the extra half an hour i snuck felt like much more. the dreams were kind of weird, though. mummies, motels, running around naked trying to buy clothes, smarmy coworker leering after my ass. i love dreams.
so, you do realize that it’s only 16 days until my birthday, right? that’s almost exactly the perfect amount of lead time to send me something pretty! i like flowers. and dvds. and books. and digital cameras! but, honestly, i’d be thrilled with a card. my expectations are very low. that doesn’t give you permission to forget, though!

don’t wanna be here. i’m not getting to bed until very late lately and it’s taking a toll. i think my cardboard box injury is infected. i’m about *this* close to going to buy a dvd player on my way home tonight. the stanley cup was won by a team in florida (don’t even get me started on how fundamentally wrong it is that they have a team (let alone winnng the cup) in a place where they have never seen ice that didn’t come out of a freezer). i hate florida. i need to get more flowers. i love my tv. i need a haircut. the clicky noise is gone from my car, only to be replaced by pings and rubbing noises. baggy pants are really annoying. i should try to learn how to drink coffee black.
this concludes the random tour of my brain. we hope you enjoyed your visit. come back again soon!

i’m not very prose-y this morning, hence the list:
– friday night i ordered pizza and watched tv. yeah, i’m a party girl, all right. i really like the veggie edge from pizza hut, but the centre four pieces are always too soggy for me and i just end up throwing them out. i hate that.
– calgary didn’t win the cup on saturday (that’s okay, they’ll get it tonight), but meg, mark and i were way too drunk to care.
– meghan tried to make me cry.
– mark did make me cry, but in a good way.
– cindy will be pleased that i’m one step closer to a dvd player since my dad bought me a new tv for my birthday!
– last night, after dad bought me dinner at swiss chalet, i spent three hours working on the financial files for his club. i love that i can be of assistance to him in some capacity.
– why didn’t anyone tell me that there was so much sound i was missing with my mono television set? everything is so bright and the sound is so full now! it’s like i was blind and deaf before. hallelujah!
– anyone want to buy a perfectly functional (if not cutting edge) sharp 19″ colour tv, zenith vcr and playstation 1? $150 for the whole lot!
– i absolutely LOVED all families are psychotic by douglas coupland. it’s now the book that i think everyone should read.
– two more movies for my list: saved and the terminal
– can i go home now?

first off, you all must go and wish jodi chromey a happy birthday. yes, i know it’s not her birthday until sunday, but i never post on sundays and she’s observing her belly button today anyway. what are you waiting for? go do it! don’t worry, i can wait until you’re done.
thanks to some computer “glitch” (i love that word), my bank hasn’t been processing transactions correctly for almost a week now. up until yesterday, my account hadn’t been adversely affected. of course, today is payday and it’s usually automatically deposited into my account. note the usually. i logged on this morning and discovered that i ain’t got paid and neither has my rent cheque been debited from my account. so, because of assurances that the bank will not penalize anyone for any problems arising from this situation, i went ahead and followed my normal payday routine and took my allowance out of the bank machine on my way to work. what this does, though, is reduce the currently listed balance to less than the amount of the rent cheque which has yet to be debited. technically, it could come back to my landlord nsf. i’m so living on the edge. fear me!
it’s unbelieveably wonderful to be pain-free. i think that, in conjunction with the full moon, getting 81% and 86% on my mid-term and first assignment respectively and losing the five pounds i’d gained over the long weekend are all contributing to make me one happy camper. not to mention the flowers i bought myself and all that lovely popcorn. mm, popcorn. i’m still really tired, but my insides are happy and that’s what really matters, right?
btw, always be wary of a man in his mid-30’s who says bjork is one of his favourite singers. just trust me on this.

i feel like there’s a lot i want to say, but my head is threatening to collapse in upon itself so the thoughts, which are struggling to escape before the implosion, aren’t in a very orderly state. i think this calls for a list.
– everything i’m wearing today is stretchy. even my shoes. it’s really awesome, but mostly because nothing’s baggy. i nearly stripped down in the middle of the day yesterday just because i couldn’t bear the thought of wearing those baggy clothes for just one minute more.
– despite the baggy clothes that were driving me nuts, a co-worker i haven’t seen in a while looked me up and down appraisingly and said “you’re looking good. doing anything different?” i was so stunned i answered “not a thing,” to which he replied “well, keep doing it!”
– i don’t want to be specific about the very cool and creative thing i did the other day because it would spoil someone’s birthday surprise, but let me tell you: i’m so fucking good it’s scary. just trust me on this.
– recently, i’ve been obsessed with my adorable toes. no, really. they’re so cute you’d be hard-pressed not to want to just gobble them up like little cocktail weenies.
– if i could, i would eat nothing but microwave popcorn. all. day. long.
– off the top of my head, here’s a list (a list within a list!) of the movies i want to see this summer: harry potter 3, troy, the day after tomorrow, mean girls, chronicles of riddick, sky captain and the world of tomorrow, shrek 2, the village, i robot, the stepford wives, 13 going on 30, fahrenheit 9/11, before sunset, king arthur, and the bourne supremacy.
– it’s a good thing i really like popcorn.
– i think there’s a rock stuck in the tread of my front tire. i can hear it “click” on the pavement with each revolution of the tire. the faster i drive, the faster it clicks. the slower i drive, the slower it clicks. it’s really starting to annoy me. you’d think i would try to remove the offending pebble, wouldn’t you? you’d be wrong. i’m going to turn up the radio. yeah. take that, noisy pebble!
– i’m not wearing socks. my naked ankles keep flashing the world from out the bottom of my pants. the sensation of air on them serves only to remind me of just how naked my ankles are. i should go sockless more often. it makes me feel very saucy.