everyone, and i do mean everyone, should see the pianist. it is beyond description.

1. Do you wear any jewelry? What kind?
funny you should ask this. i usually wear an 18g silver hoop in my left ear and a 20g hoop (either silver or blue — blue at the moment) in my nose. and that’s it. but, just today, i’m starting to wear the diamond & sapphire ring my mother gave me for xmas. i’m eventually going to have it made into something different because the style is a little too clunky for my tastes, and it will give me a chance to incorporate the white gold i have from my parents’ wedding rings.
2. How often do you wear it?
the hoops in my head, all the time. i change my nose ring a couple times a year, but only for special occasions. the ring? i don’t know how long that will last. i’m really uneasy about wearing real diamonds. i’m afraid i’m going to lose it or i’ll get mugged for it.
3. Do you have any piercings? If so, where?
yes. five in my ears (three left, two right) and one in my nose (right side). i’ll probably get a nipple or two pierced at some point, but i’m not in any hurry for that.
4. Do you have any tattoos? If so, where?
no tattoos. yet.
5. What are your plans for the weekend?
my only plans were to take the car to the mechanic and see what kind of damage he could do to my bank account. as previously posted, he did a mighty fine job. *cough* otherwise, i hung out and did small things around the house. whee.

i very nearly bought a juicer yesterday while watching the shopping channel. they made watermelon juice. it looked so tasty i really wanted some, but i spent $600 on my car instead.
i could have bought two juicers for that.

you know, i’ve worked entirely too hard for a friday. at least now i have a minute or so to catch my breath. *pant*
wicked winds woke me from a dead sleep at 1:01 this morning. i thought my windows were going to blow off the side of the building. while i was up, i witnessed the transformer across the street blow up. that was fun! trying to go back to sleep was not. i’m not exactly sure when i finally passed out, but it was far too close to two am, if you ask me. which you didn’t, but i thought i’d tell you anyway.
next week is looking freakishly busy. monday, i’m going to yet another movie karen won tickets to. tuesday is a double-feature at the ridge i really want to see (but probably won’t). wednesday i’m supposed to go to the dentist, but i think i’ll cancel that because i don’t think i want to go to the hockey game (!!!) after having fillings replaced. thursday is a union meeting i must attend. friday we’re going to pho for lunch, but the night is free which is good because i start my next course that saturday. phew. oh yeah, and i’m taking my car in tomorrow to get it all ready for the rest of winter and, hopefully, going to the art gallery.
now, about this plebiscite business. the more i hear that hat-wearing, swaggering ex-m.e., larry campbell prattle on about “giving vancouverites a voice”, the more i want to scream. not because accurately gauging public support is a bad idea, on the contrary, i totally agree with that. not even because i worry that the ioc will get nervous if we show any waver in our support for the bid, which i do. why it irks me to no end is that mister mayor seems to think that only the residents of vancouver city should have a say in this. well, buck that, fuddy. if the entire olympics and all its venues fell within your council’s borders, then sure. go right ahead. hold your vote and make it definitive.
what da vinci seems not to realize, or care about, are the other communities in the lower mainland who will equally bear responsibility for hosting the games. hey, is that whistler residents and business owners i hear screaming bloody murder? wait, what about the north shore mountains? don’t forget about all the poor people in other municipalities who will have to deal with the influx of people and traffic and just general inconveniences brought by having the world focus on such an event. don’t they deserve a chance to speak, too?
mr. campbell’s arrogance — maybe it’s in the name? — astounds me. then again, this is the same man who wants to set up safe injection sites for heroin addicts. yeah, that’s a great idea. maybe it really is in the name. sounds just like someone else named campbell who wants to proliferate alcohol through our communites as much as legally possible. buying beer at a gas station is such a good idea, too!
by the way, i never vent on politics, so i reserve any and all rights to be wrong, sound like a moron or just generally be a whiny bitch about things i don’t know very much about.

while sitting on the futon & knitting while i waited for my laundry to finish so i could start scrubbing down my (shamefully disgusting) shower, i seemed to notice a lot of commercials for pull-ups on tv. you know which ones i’m talking about, those cute commercials with the little kids giving their tips on how to potty train: “don’t forget to flush!”
somehow that made me think about how much pressure those poor kids are put under. i mean, it can be a seriously stressful time for a child. the little things have happily been pooping or peeing whenever they wanted to and now they’re being told that they have to change their elimination routines to fit societal rules.
that’s when i started thinking about how different life would be if our ancient ancestors hadn’t started using designated areas, away from their living spaces, for bodily functions. what would the world look like if we shat or pissed whenever the urge struck, just like animals? i don’t think there’d be wall-to-wall carpeting, for one. i also think we’d have a very different olfactory system — either much more sensitive (to filter through all the fecal odours) or much less descriminating (to block out anything offensive).
no, really. this is the kind of thing i think about.

the friday five:
1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year?
quitting smoking, although it doesn’t feel like an accomplishment because it didn’t take a lot of effort. the runner-up is going back to school.
2. What was your biggest disappointment?
morgan.
3. Will you be making any New Year’s resolutions?
probably. the usual: exercise, eat right, go to the doctor, be a better human being, etc.
4. Where will you be at midnight? Do you wish you could be somewhere else?
i will be with my friends at their house with a glass of champagne in my hand. if i could be somewhere else, it would be in jack black’s arms. ;)
5. Aside from (possibly) staying up late, do you have any other New Year’s traditions?
when i was little, we always banged pots. now we just yell a lot.

penguin cam!

for some reason it’s been bugging me more each year that right after “how was your xmas?” comes the question “what did you get?”. maybe it’s because i never really get big-ticket items to brag about, but i’d like to believe it’s more a case of my becoming less materialistic as i age.
regardless, my xmas was very nice indeed. my father and i spent a lot of time together, as did my mother and i. i even got a glimpse into another family’s holiday traditions by spending xmas morning with m&m and her parents. small and sometimes plentiful gifts were exchanged, lots of food was consumed and many laughs ensued. all in all, it was one of my better holidays of recent memory, even though no one bought me a new car.

there was a little shopping done while on the island, of course. i bought myself a whole bunch of new underwear and spoiled my mom rotten with a new coffeemaker on top of all her other gifts. we saw star trek: nemesis and rented the importance of being earnest & happy accidents. i re-learned how to knit thanks to the mom-unit and i’m currently in the process of knitting my own damn crazy scarf because i refuse to pay $40 or more for a damn scarf.
the only real let-down to the whole experience was yesterday morning as i was leaving for work. i’d left the car too long without running her and she died without a hope of restarting. i woke up my poor father and he came and took me to work (and even picked me up and took me home). as for the car, i forced her to warm up to operating temperature last night then took her for a spin and stopped in at my mechanic’s to make an appointment to take her in on saturday to get the oil changed and get it winterized. this morning she started, and kept going, fine, but i nearly lost it twice on ice while on my way to work. bleh.
oh, remember that little treat i had mentioned a couple weeks ago? here it is. aren’t i just the cutest little thing? that was my friend tammy o’guru. somehow i got invited to participate in the obon festival with her during the summer of ’77. they took me to the stadium, dressed me up in a kimono and i got to dance around with all the other cool japanese kids. i don’t remember much about it except goofing up the steps at one point and being really embarrassed.

sometimes you just don’t want to ever wake up from a dream and that’s the kind i had last night.
i was in line to see jack black in concert. for some reason, we were all standing in front of a big wall of lockers and our tickets were combinations for the locker we were closest to. so, i opened my locker and got my secondary ticket out. when i looked around, jack was standing next to me rooting around in the locker he had opened. i immediately turned back around and started talking to myself inside my head:
oh. it’s jack black! wow! he’s right next to me! i should say something. no, you can’t say anything, he doesn’t want to talk to you. c’mon! he wouldn’t be out there if he didn’t want to be noticed! what would you say to him? i don’t know! hello, maybe. yeah, that’s intelligent. why can’t i say hello? he’s just a normal person.
before i knew it, i’d closed my locker door, looked at jack and said “hello”.
he looked up at me with a slightly surprised expression, then he smiled and said hello back. the next thing i knew we were huddled into a conversation which went something like:
jack: so, what’s your name?
me: heather.
jack: oh.. that sounds like “hun” to me. *batts lashes*
me: *blushes* what’s your middle name?
jack: harlon
me: *laughs*
jack: what? it’s not that funny!
me: yeah it is!
jack: is not! why is harlon so funny?
me: harlon? oh, shit. i thought you said “harmless”!
jack: *laughs*
me: *laughs*
we talked a little about other things and i gave him my card, then he had to go get ready for the show, so we said “nice to meet you” and “goodbye” and went our separate ways.
when i got to my seat, i started flipping through the program they’d handed me at the door. inside was an envelope with my name typed on it. i looked around to see if anyone i knew was there and then opened it. inside was a memo, a gift certificate and several small pieces of torn paper. the memo said “jack black requests the pleasure of your presence at slipknot’s after-show party. be prepared for the ding-ding-bling”. i read it several times, unbelieving of it’s authenticity. the gift certificate was some odd, unrelated voucher for a circus symphony which was to take place in the spring. the small pieces of paper turned out be most interesting. they were no more than quarter-sized notes written in a messy hand by jack himself.
when the show started, out he came now dressed in suit and tie, and he started his first set. he was all wired for sound and totally hilarious. at one point, he started walking around through the aisles and he passed by my seat. as he did, he recognized me, did a double-take and flashed me a huge smile. before i knew it, it was the first intermission and he’d snuck up behind me. we sat there in the balcony talking about our parents, why sunny delight tastes so good and totally grooving on each other.
the show continued, then he came and sat with me for the next intermission and we talked some more. before the last set, he asked me to wait for him backstage after the show. i said i would and he sent someone to escort me to his dressing room. suddenly he was back and we were alone and his stubbly face was kissing my neck and shoulders. of course, fantastic sex ensued. i’m still quivery thinking about it.
after the fantastic sex, we snuggled and such. i’d decided that i had better make a quick exit so he didn’t think i was a clingy person, but when i tried to leave, he pulled me back down into bed and kissed me hard. “i don’t think so, hun,” he said.
then i woke up. dammit.

i’ve been trying to settle in on a cozy boxing day to read a book but i keep falling asleep. even when i’m fully caffeinated and rested, i can’t seem to keep my mind focused enough to read for more than fifteen minutes at a time. i swear, the internet has totally destroyed my

it’s snowing!

just when i was starting to think that staying on this side of the water for xmas was an awful idea, circumstances have adjusted themselves to provide me with a much less solitary and much more festive holiday. not to mention people keep giving me presents! i love presents.
speaking of cards, if you asked for one, it’s in the mail. it won’t be on time, but i never did call them “xmas cards” and the holidays aren’t officially over until sometime in early january. maybe i should have been a lawyer!
i’ve been wearing my green santa hat (see the cam shot below) all day long and, even though my scalp is a little sweaty, i’m going to keep it on while i attempt to brave the mall to pick up the pictures i had framed and try to find a suitably sappy card for meghan. i’m not looking forward to the mall. it was hell yesterday when i tried to accomplish these tasks. i took one look at the state of the parking lots and went straight home. i’m not a masochist! at least not in that sense.
in case i return to the muteness of late, i want to take this opportunity to wish all of you, my *cough*lovely*cough* readers, a very merry ho-ho and the happiest of 2003’s. i’m honoured you come by to visit and let me visit with you as well.

beware, it’s a holiday cam-shot otherwise known as “why i don’t nap after work”.

not much to say. today’s my daddy’s 69th birthday (dude) so i’m taking him out for dinner. today is also our department lunch. i baked cookies for my coworkers last night. no, they don’t really deserve it, but i’m a sucker. saw a preview of adaptation with karen on wednesday night. it was strange but not unpleasant. i wish they’d worn hip-waders, though. i kept worrying about leeches. i’m really tired. i need a haircut in the worst way. i feel bad that i can’t accept jim’s invitation. i don’t know what to get dean for xmas. i hate all of my clothes and most of my underwear need to be replaced. i’ve gotten three xmas cards from far away (and made up a song about jodi chromey). have i mentioned how tired i am? god, what i wouldn’t do for a nap.

i’m in a pizza moment and you’re my dough-tosser.

it’s funny, the more i want to type lately, the less i actually get around to doing it. you can usually tell that i’m either depressed or really busy when all i do for several days is post photos or stupid quiz results. well, this weekend was a combination of both, i guess. although, depressed isn’t the right adjective. bored. worn out. hermitlike. unmotivated. they all work better.
the big news is that after a day off work and an almost-all-nighter, i managed to finish all my assignments (including the bonus) and ace my final. yay! no more school! well, for three weeks, anyway. i’m excited because both pat the t.a. and shane are going to be in my class next term. cool people i already know! woot!
one more thing about school. i’ve been going there saturday mornings since the middle of september, right? saturday mornings. the one day of the week i either need lots of sleep or lots of high-quality caffeine. guess what’s in the building next door? take a guess! yes. a fucking starbucks. i’m so bloody annoyed… i could have had three month’s worth of saturday-morning starbucks! oh god, how my days could have been improved.
i think i’m holiday baked out. i finally got around to making the chocolate coconut things and let me say two things: condensed milk is scary and i hope i never see chocolate again. i have to muster some sort of enthusiasm for baking just one more batch, because i promised to bring something dessert-like for our department lunch on friday.
speaking of the department lunch, somehow i got elected to organize it. me! what the fuck? i hate organizing things like this. it’s like wrangling bloody cats. anyway, after a truly apathetic vote between pizza and chinese, i had to make the executive decision to order pizza. i also have to collect the money, buy the plates and napkins, buy the pop, make dessert and order & pickup the pizza! *pant* it’ll be all good. i mean, a friday afternoon with pizza and goodies? yeah, that can’t go wrong at all…
i hate my lunch today. not a big deal, i won’t eat it, but because i thought i was being smart, i made the same thing for lunch tomorrow and i have a fair certainty that i won’t like it then, either. i need a hotplate so i can make ramen at work. mmm, ramen.
useless post. see? this is why i’ve only subjected you to useless photos. speaking of, if i remember, i’ll have a little treat for all you rabid fans tomorrow. oh yeah, if you requested a card, it’ll go out either tomorrow or the next day. that’s if i have your address. if you didn’t give me that, then you’re pretty much screwed.

Bondage movie! You’re into BSDM (Bondage & Discipline, Dominance & Submission) and chances are, you’re fond of whips, chains, harnesses, and tight leather outfits. You like to mix a little pain with a LOT of pleasure, baby!

[thanks, mikey. you naughty boy! *smack*]