Category Archives: Words

unlike Of Montreal’s last show in Vancouver, where the crowd at the Plaza Club was not only warmed up by the opening band, Panurge, but lit on *fire*, the headliner’s appearance and first few songs were received with tepid enthusiasm by the sold-out crowd. doors opened at 8:15 and the audience was subjected to two and a half hours of DJ Trevor Risk’s 80’s soundtrack with bass & drum transitions — although, the songs coordinated well with the wardrobe of half the hipsters in attendance, i must say. by the time 10:30 rolled around with no band on the small Richard’s stage, my friends and i were either willing to ask for our money back and leave or triple-team the DJ, forcing and end to the torture.
luckily, Of Montreal can’t seem to disappoint even if they were to try. once they made us forget about the near three hours of our lives we wasted waiting on them, it only got better. by the end of the night, we three were bouncing and singing along (so much so, my throat still feels raw this morning) and so happy the band came out and performed a four-song encore before heading back to their Double D Coach with the Georgia license plates.
only two things could have made the evening better:
1. showing up at 10:30pm to avoid the shitty DJ.
2. sitting in a spot NOT directly underneath the air conditioning outflow. brr.

i’m pretty sure there were a bunch of other things i wanted to write about yesterday, but i got caught up in the blow-by-blow and, well, why would i want to detract from that beautiful photo of my boyfriend’s back with pesky words? of course, now that i have time and inclination i can’t for the life of me remember what it was i wanted to mention.
oh, that’s not true: christopher brought me flowers on saturday. pink tulips. i love flowers. i especially love flowers from my boyfriend.
i’m such a schmuck.
actually, i’m a thirsty schmuck. i’m going to get a dr pepper.

mel‘s doin’ it. col‘s doin’ it. jen‘s done it. julie‘s done it. soon, i’ll be doin’ it, too.
what’s that? a detox/cleanse.
god knows i need to cut crap out of my diet and get some weight off, and eliminating wheat, sugar and dairy for twelve days can’t hurt. who knows, maybe i’ll even feel better by the end of it and learn to live without such things in my body.
so, i’ve got the food list and instructions (i’m not plunking down $30 for the pills and drops — this time). i was looking at the calendar for a good day to start and it’s not until the 19th! i don’t know…. i’m all gung ho to start and would totally begin tomorrow, but i have a tribute dinner to attend next friday where i’ll have nothing to eat but rubber chicken and soggy vegetables. okay, what about starting the next day? well, that would put my amazing race party right at the end of that stretch, and i refuse to be hosting a gathering at which i can’t eat what i’m preparing and, more importantly, can’t drink beer.
so, the day after the party it is. hopefully, by then, i’ll have started getting delivery from spud (i’ve made that decision — it’s just whether or not i can get a spare key from my building manager now) so i’ll have lots and lots of fresh, organic veggies & meats to eat. although, i’m not sure how wise it is to start a cleanse on a monday morning considering i don’t know if i can bring myself to drink coffee black. wheat, sugar, dairy AND coffee withdrawal all at the same time? wow, i’m going to be cranky.
but, the upside is i can eat sushi. mm, sushi.

sushi is good.
sushi with good company is even better.
sushi and making a new friend is the absolute best.
i got all three last night. yay.
p.s. rabbit, white rabbit.

there’s been a lot of chatter online about flickr in recent days. with their new 3,000 contact limit, 75 tag maximum and the mandatory merging of your yahoo! id with your flickr account. as with most change, i’ve yet to hear anything positive about these upcoming developments. just today, i read a blog post by Kara at Colors…Pretty which really summed up the whole flickr user experience for me. a quote:

i’d like to add a little something to that definition:

don’t get me wrong, i love flickr. it’s introduced me to so many things: new friends, new (old) cameras, new techniques, new talent. but, i’m neither a flickr fangirl nor a staunch anti-change protestor. i don’t really care if i have to merge my yahoo! id or people could put santa hats on my photos over christmas. i appreciate the site and community around it for what it is: a place to pimp my photos and get my ego stroked by random strangers.
all i do have to complain about is the lack of an archive/download feature. if my hard drive crashes, at the very least, i want to be able to reinstate the photos i’ve uploaded over the past two years.
love it or loathe it, flickr is good. it’s fun and it works 99% of the time. that’s a more than you can say for a lot of online services. including this blog.

i’m feeling completely over-whelmed and over-extended and everything in me is screaming to run home, lock the door, turn off the phone and hide under my covers for a week.

i just ate the sweetest baby carrots i ever have. yum! sorry, just wanted to record that for posterity. they were that good.
weekend summary:
– ate yummy chinese food
– had my dad over for coffee
– saw a fantastic play
– played zelda
– went to the art gallery
– sat not five feet from fred herzog
– ate not-from-a-package ramen
– visited jen at work (twice!)
it was a good weekend, just not enough time to get stuff accomplished, which always bugs me. it’s the work/home/life balance i struggle with these days. i want to have time to relax, but i can’t relax when my house is a mess or i haven’t done the laundry. and how can i play zelda, watch a dvd with christopher and go hang out with friends at the same time? oh, and sleep. can’t forget the sleeping.
the next few weeks are chock-full of social obligations. i’ve had to decline almost as many as i’ve agreed to! it’s going to be a very spendy february, it seems.
if i can get an extra key from my building manager, i’m going to sign up for spud.ca. i think that having groceries delivered will be a huge load off my mind and time. they have a ‘harvest box’ of produce which, for $40 every other week, looks like it will have far more food in it that i could manage to eat. they also sell meat, bread and dairy products. conceivably, if it all works out, i could only ever have to shop for beer and junk food (which i’m trying to avoid by having more healthful, organic food delivered). i’ll keep you posted on how it all turns out.

believe it or not, i’m actually in the middle of re-designing the site. i won’t be posting much until that’s finished.
if you see anything amiss in the meantime, please do not panic. i’m just busy making a mess of things. it’s been a long time since i’ve had to fuck with the templates around here and i’m pretty sure i’ve forgotten a lot more than i ever knew in the first place.

so, the problem with writing on your website about how you wouldn’t totally hate the idea of ditching plans with friends to stay home and play with your Wii comes when those same friends read your website and spend the first twenty minutes of your evening with them bugging you about how you almost ditched them to play with your Wii and why didn’t you bring your Wii with you so *we* could play with it, anyway?
once that part of the evening was settled, we had a great night hanging out at nelson’s sweet pad eating gross amounts of sushi and home-baked white chocolate & macadamia nut cookies, catching up on each others’ lives and “big news” items. colene ended up wearing nelson’s pants and we all got to meet his hetero life-mate, david (who may not be a blogger, but is a ballroom dancer which, i think, is just as geeky).
by the time i got home, settled and into bed it was well past my preferred work-night bedtime, but it was worth the lack of sleep. well worth. those are some pretty awesome friends, i’ve got. i’m so lucky. well, i say that until i’m sitting in an ambulance after breaking something on this skiing experience we’re supposed to be embarking upon.

okay, so i had a little freak-out/break-down last night before i went to bed. while i’m not happy nor content about the vision situation, i am running at a much, much lower anxiety level about it all. i’ve made a couple of decisions about how i want to be dealt with by the medical community and have taken steps towards achieving them. these are my eyes and my life and i refuse to accept anything less than 100% of what the doctors can offer me.
note: my “diagnosis” was not based on the puff-test given during routine examinations. i’ve been experiencing visual distortions for the past few weeks which i went to see my GP about. she immediately sent me to the ophthalmologist, who was the one with the very relaxed attitude.
now, onto much happier things in my life…
sunday marked the one-year anniversary of christopher and i meeting. i wanted to go do the same things we did on that fateful day, but we got distracted and then had to go to a family birthday party for him and his father (where i BLEW HIS MIND with the gift i got him).
tuesday was his actual birthday, and i had super-secret plans to take him half-way up Cypress Mountain to have a fantastic dinner & drinks at the Salmon House on the Hill, but when i called for a reservation i found out they were closed for kitchen renovations until the nineteenth. i was at such a loss as to where else i could take him i put a call out to some local foodie-friends for suggestions. in the end, i decided upon the Moustache Cafe in North Vancouver.
the evening started out rough (what with 100kph wind gusts and lots of waiting in doctors’ offices), but it all turned out in the end. we had a cozy corner table with a view out the window (where we got to see the hail, rain, sleet and snow falling), attentive service (there was only one other couple there when we arrived) and a fantastic three-course dinner complete with a half-litre of the most expensive wine which will ever touch these lips. christopher kept saying it was the fanciest meal he’d ever had and the best, outside of home. that’s high praise coming from him. i think i done good.
alas, i think one of the hessmobile’s belts snapped on the way home as i heard this fwap-fwap (shush, heather!) noise coming out from under the hood, but what with all the snow and transit-taking i haven’t had time to get under the hood to check it out yet. at least i hope it’s just a belt: that’s an easy fix.
oh, and i finally got a Wii ordered! i can’t believe it took so long, but it’s on its way to me now and i can’t wait to get to playing. yay!

what do you think of when you hear the word “glaucoma”?
i think of people going blind. no treatment, no questions, just losing their sight. forever.
yesterday, a doctor told me he thinks i have glaucoma. but, he’s not sure. what i’m not sure of is whether that’s a good thing, his uncertainty, or not.
christopher will tell you that the doctor’s über-casual diagnosis and lackadaisical “come see me in six months” means there’s nothing for me to worry about.
that’s what i do, though. i worry.
i’m very worried.
i can’t think of anything but that word. glaucoma.
things are going to change. they have to. i’m terrified, but i’m also determined. maybe this is what i needed. the universe must be very unhappy with me.
i’m so very scared.

this is not going to be a good day. no, not good at all.

i’m starting to think i’ve got a subconscious death wish. either that or i’m getting *really* clutzy as i age. in the past week i’ve:
– dropped a hatchback lid on my shoulder
– bit the inside of my cheek repeatedly
– hit my brow bone with a wooden hanger
– got a bump on my forehead from an un-remembered incident
– bit the tip of my tongue so hard it bled for ten minutes
seriously, i think i need to just stop moving entirely. it’s causing far too much trouble and discomfort.

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.

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…