Also A Talker

Things I'm Missing - Post #4

2008-07-26T10:00:00.000-04:00

The hammock at the House of Science.

J.

Teaser

2008-07-25T16:15:00.004-04:00

I am in the lovely and quite un-crowded computer section of the Bisbee Public Library in Arizona. We have been on the road for a week and I have enjoyed almost every minute of it (Albuqueque left a lot to be desired). We have two nights left at The Shady Dell vintage trailer park and then we start the long journey back home. I have taken about 900 photos, but I don't want to fuss with them all here in the library, so here are a few favourites to keep you all going until I land back at home.

See you soon,

xoxoxJ.

Things I'm Missing - Post #3

2008-07-24T10:00:00.000-04:00

Front porch hang out.

J.

Things I'm Missing - Post #2

2008-07-22T15:56:00.000-04:00

Cooking in my own kitchen.

J.

Things I'm Missing - Post #1

2008-07-20T10:00:00.000-04:00

That lovely, lovely animal.

J.

Out. Of. Here.

2008-07-18T23:00:00.002-04:00

Megan's looking in on my apartment and checking up on my car. Another Megan (+Brigid+Chris) is taking care of the dogs, and then my parents are taking care of the dogs. Lesley's feeding the cats. Everything seems to be kind of taken care of. I've even got some blog posts done in advance and scheduled to appear here like magic over the days that we're gone. My bathtub is dirty, but the rest of the apartment is in good shape, waiting to welcome me home after a long trip. As of tomorrow morning we're on the road. I am too tired right now to be excited. I desperately need to go to bed. See you all soon! Hooray for summer!

J.

p.s. Save Saturday, August 2nd for a night of My Brithday Fun and karaoke at the Shanghai.

CBC Summer Check In

2008-07-17T16:00:00.002-04:00

Apparently, to work at CBC radio all you need to do is have the last name "Brown". At last count we have Ian Brown (who I ADORE) on Talking Books, Jim Brown (also great) hosting The Current, and Bill Brown (meh...) on Ontario Today. Yes, it's a common name, but I don't see three Mr. Smiths hosting radio programs.

My friend Bryan who moved here from Michigan, said that he didn't like CBC radio because every time he turned it on someone was introducing a phone in show with the topic "Songs That Remind You of Feelings." I love CBC radio, but then, I also love songs that remind me of feelings, so that assessment still makes me laugh. Especially because today, while driving around, I tuned into Ontario Today and they were accepting calls about... wait for it... songs that remind you of feelings. Those weren't the exact words they used, but they might as well have been. Of course I totally listened to the whole thing.

And Some Mail...

Dear Rainbow Foods,

Why do your staff insist on being so snotty? No, I am not in your store regularly. This is because it is NOWHERE NEAR MY HOUSE! I only come there occasionally when I need hard-to-find natural facewash, and a wider selection of snacks than my closest healthfood store provides. I was there today, in fact, spending lots of money on the aforementioned facewash and a bunch of road snacks for my upcoming vacation. And I was treated, by each staff member I encountered, like some kind of idiotic healthfood neophyte. Yes, I am sure I want the vegan version of those snacks. No, I am not a "member" of your store. Yes, I am aware that it costs 50 cents for a grocery bag. Yes, I will put these apples in my purse. Any attempt at normal conversation is thwarted by their barely-concealed sighs. Snap out of it, jerks!

Perhaps this is my comeuppance for working so many years at The Wheatberry, a store also not known for stellar, non-patronizing customer service. But I still think I was friendlier (at least to friendly people) than the staff at Rainbow.

xoJ.

Dear Martha Stewart,

Really? Really? Is it really the electricity in the air that makes my dog afraid of thunder? And are you really suggesting to me, in the latest issue of your magazine to which I am subscribed by accident, that I rub my dog with a dryer sheet when she starts to freak out about thunder? Because I can not picture myself prying her off the Man of Science's face long enough to pat her down with some Bounce and then magically everything is better. Should I also swab her with a dryer sheet when fireworks go off? Or when the guy upstairs moves his furniture around? Or how about when I play that Cat Power album with the recorded thunder in the background? Because all that stuff freaks her out too.

Thanks, though, for making so many of your featured recipes vegetarian this month.

xoJ.

Dear Car Battery,

Why, oh why did you have to spontaneously die in the parking lot of a daycare I was desperate to escape earlier today? Didn't you understand that the staff of said daycare were going to come outside and insist that they help me, then complain about each other with thinly veiled hostility, then try to start my car themselves, then go harass a clueless convenience store clerk and bring HIM over to try to start my car?

I am thankful, though, that you chose a time to die when my brother was close by and not at work, and that he had jumper cables, and that a bunch of guys with gigantic pick up trucks took time out from their sweaty landscaping work in order to push my car across the lot so it could be properly jumped by their truck engine. Just please, don't do that again.

xoJ.

Edited to add... I'm late to the table on this one but did anyone else know that: "Beginning in September, CBC Radio’s arts show Q will follow The Current, and air from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Jian Ghomeshi will continue to host." I don't know if I'm ready for Jian Ghomeshi at that early hour. And I liked having a more random, less specialized show in those early hours.

Chickens Just Back From the Shore

2008-07-16T19:16:00.001-04:00

Leslie Feist once enthusiastically complimented a mixed tape that I made for someone who was a mutual friend of ours. We were driving downtown in Toronto on our way from a show that her erstwhile band had played in Port Credit at a weird hockey arena. The boys in the band took their van and Leslie rode with my friend Lisa and I. Lisa was playing a mixed tape I'd made for her of female fronted bands from the 1950's to the present. Leslie said, "You should sell these! As an introduction to, like, stuff you should know!" Her debut album "Monarch" had just come out and, truth be told, I was dazzled by both it and her.

I didn't buy any of her subsequent albums because my taste shifted to louder pastures, but I've enjoyed the bits and pieces that I've heard of her ubiquitous hits.

That said, I absolutely can not stop watching this Sesame Street video for the following reasons:

1. It is adorable.
2. It involves monsters, penguins, and chickens.
3. It is shot in what appears to be mostly one take, which is perhaps why she seems so stoked at the end of it.
4. I like that all the puppets sing along with her.

Another coup for Sesame Street.

J.

I had the morning off.

2008-07-15T14:08:00.002-04:00

I should have maybe been doing some errands, like returning library books and taking leftover garage sale stuff to The Double V, but instead I stayed home in my pajamas, had tea with Lesley, and did lots of sewing. My organizey compulsion is still going strong, and now my sewing basket, which was formerly a nightmare of tangled string and bent pins, is all the better for it.

My closet is tidy, too. I am starting to calm down about leaving the city, knowing I will return to a non-wreck of an apartment. Plus I got some travel medical insurance for the both of us, started playing with my GPS, gave Lesley instructions on the feeding and care of the Cats of Science and Stockton, and downloaded a gigantic audiobook onto my iPod. Whew.

J.

The Following Things Are Nibbling At My Brain Like Rats

2008-07-14T21:28:00.002-04:00

1. A loooong while ago I ordered a shirt from Herbivore which I mistakenly thought was a woman's large. In American Apparel t-shirt sizes I am usually a large, and I wanted the shirt to be long-ish, so I figured I was fine. Turned out it was a men's large. So it is, uh, roomy. I stalled on returning it, so now I feel obligated to keep it. I've been wearing it as pajamas. But I was pulling it around in the mirror the other day and I think that the only parts of it that are excessively too big are the shoulders and if I could convert the regular sleeves to raglan sleeves then the shirt would be completely wearable. However, every time I try to find instructions on how to do this I end up with a diagram like you see to the left. And I don't know about you, but I find this diagram about as readable as Finnegan's Wake. So I have yet to alter my shirt. I am afraid to resort to my usual M.O. of diving into a sewing project without proper instructions and making a mess of it. I am an adept quilter, but my sewing knowledge does not extend much further.

2. Another spacial thing I am not especially good at is the reading of maps while driving. I am great at following directions while driving from one place to another (this is something I do almost daily for my job) but reading a map takes more concentration than I am able to muster while in a moving vehicle. Plus I get instantly car sick when I try to read anything while in motion. I was getting quite nervous about this, picturing our impending road trip descending into a mess of "I don't know!"s and nausea. So today I bought a GPS. It was suggested by several people who felt inclined to give me "how to take a long road trip with your partner and still like each other at the end of it" advice. Which, while not solicited, was certainly appreciated. Now I just have to become a thumb-typing GPS expert so that I can be an effective navigator as well as just another pretty face in the passenger seat.

3. My work computer is still (STILL!) broken. And all my plans of getting all my work perfectly organized before leaving for vacation are vanishing into the mist of technical problems. Boo. I will hate returning to a pile of overdue and disorganized paperwork.

How To Make Me Cry On The Street

2008-07-14T08:09:00.003-04:00

When I was running an after-school program in my life prior to entering the illustrious Ontario Public Service, I had a core group of really wonderful kids who were around seven years old when I took over the program, and around eleven years old when the program closed*. On Saturday I was on the phone with the Man of Science negotiating DVD rental choices when one of those wonderful kids (we'll call him "S") walked by me with his equally awesome mom. I stopped talking and flagged them down. It's been about three years since I've seen them both and I actually had to tell them who I was (I look a bit different now than I did then) before the hugs and "how are you"s began. S is now totally gigantic, a teenager, with a lower voice but his same trademark dreadlocks and bright smile. He was always a lovely kid and I don't think I ever once had to tell him to correct his behaviour in any way, and besides that he was a happy and interesting kid who did great stuff like take dance classes and listen to a lot of old Stevie Wonder CDs.

We talked for a while, getting superficially caught up and then talk turned quickly to the after-school program. S's Mom gripped my arm for emphasis and said, "It was really a formative experience for those kids. They never felt that happy anywhere else afterwards. Just the other day I was talking to S about how he feels about being the age he is now and his one complaint was that he didn't have your program in his life anymore."

It's hard not to cry when someone talks to you like that, especially about something that took so much hard work and caused so much stress at times. I have never had a job with such dramatic highs and lows and I probably never will again. I am happy to have the job I have now, but I miss those kids a lot.

*For a variety of annoying reasons.

Yard! Sale!

2008-07-12T12:42:00.002-04:00

It was a smashing success. Thanks to everyone who came and bought our preloved paraphernalia.

J.

I Can Hear Music

2008-07-11T09:12:00.002-04:00

I got my first job when I was fourteen years old. I remember being encouraged to do this by my mother, which probably wanted to rid the house of my sulky, preteen insanity if only for a few hours a week. I got hired quickly at Walker's Dry Cleaners on highway seven, which was a relatively short walk from my house.

The job wasn't that exciting, but most evenings were pretty quiet so I'd spend most of my work hours chatting with whoever I was on shift with, eating candy from the vending machine, and sometimes watching the tiny black and white TV in the back room. I wasn't even expected to cash out at the end of the night, the manager always did it the following morning. I was essentially paid to be a warm body behind the cash register and to occasionally retrieve customers' clothing from the giant racks behind me.

The job did allow me to make my own money, money which, when I turned fifteen and discovered sub culture, I used to buy cassette tapes, band t-shirts, and second-hand dresses. But midway through my grade ten year, I cottoned on to something that was more enticing than all the ill-fitting 1950's prom dresses in the world: the opportunity to get out of the suburbs.

The school board was offering a trip to Switzerland for students who wanted to spend their summer taking French credits. We'd stay all together in a dorm-type building, and go to classes all morning. Afternoons were for "improving our French conversation skills" (which we did by walking around town eating ice cream and speaking to each other exclusively in English).

This trip was my ticket out of suburbia for an entire month of the coming summer. It would mean doing something way more exciting than reading Margaret Atwood novels behind the counter at the dry cleaners and being forced to occasionally care for my little brother, who at that time I found completely unpalatable. My parents said they'd pay for half the trip fees if I paid for the other half. I immediately started squirrelling away my paltry, minimum wage dry cleaner paycheques. The last thing I bought before I stopped spending money on random stuff, was a Sonic Youth "Goo" t-shirt that I still own.

I saved enough for my half of the trip and happily flew off to Leysin, Switzerland for the month of July. It wasn't quite what I expected. My roommate, Erin, was fantastic, and a lot of the other kids were okay, but the bulk of the group was made up of very wealthy older teenagers who were taking the trip as a kind of last hurrah before they graduated. I'm willing to bet they didn't have to work minimum wage jobs to pay for their trips. Especially since a few of them actually had family members and boy/girlfriends who flew in to visit them while they were there.

That summer was when my obsession with music was first taking it's dramatic hold on me. I had discovered a lot of new bands that I liked, and was slowly edging away from popular music. That said, I wasn't yet in full punk-rock snob mode and I was happily obsessed with all kinds of music, loving, as I still do, a great pop song regardless of who sang it. I was also a ridiculous romantic, and my over-the-top crushes on various boys were made more insane by the soundtracks I attributed to them.

Leysin was quiet and sleepy for most of the summer. The notable exception to this was its week long gigantic rock festival that zillions of people travelled to each summer. The year we were there I saw The Pogues, The Soupdragons*, and Jesus Jones at the festival, and it was highly exciting for me. However, I couldn't afford to see the headliners, INXS, who were playing on a different night. I remember thinking that I had kind of outgrown INXS, who had been one of my favourite bands in the heady days of grade six, but I still loved, loved, loved the song "Never Tear Us Apart". I listen to it now and I have no idea what I liked so much about it. I can't get that feeling back, but I can sure remember how much I liked it.

On the night that INXS played, most of the rich kids went down to the festival to see them. Erin and I stayed in our room and promptly fell asleep on our bunkbeds. But I woke up when I heard the first strains of "Never Tear Us Apart" drifting up through the mountains and in through our balcony doors. I climbed down off my bunk, wrapped in my comforter, and stumbled over to the balcony. Pushing open the swinging wooden doors, I was treated to a view of mountains illuminated by a dizzying blanket of stars, the music festival a glowing roar far down in the valley.

It was quite a feeling, a rush of appreciation for my own life which suddenly, through travel and the discovery of something, music, that was all mine to love and obsess about, had become drastically more independent than it had ever been before. I sat on the balcony and listened to the song until it was over. The crowd roared and applauded as I felt my way back to bed in the dark. Erin slept through the whole thing, and asked me in the morning how I'd managed to knock all of her possessions off the shelf by the sink.

*

That Leysin experience came to mind last night when I was sitting at my desk and I suddenly heard the strains of "Sloop John B" wafting in through the window. Oh that's nice, I thought, Someone's playing a Beach Boys record...Wait! No! It's not a record! Brian Wilson was playing at Bluesfest and thanks to a quiet night and perhaps a lucky wind direction, I could hear him from my apartment. I rushed out onto my back steps and climbed up to stand on the railing, holding onto the bottom of my upstairs neighbour's fire escape to steady myself. Our back lot was quiet and dark, lit slightly by the glow of all my neighbours' windows. I stayed balanced up there through "Wouldn't it be Nice" which has always been my favourite Beach Boys songs. A song about longing for an adult life and the independence that goes with it. And on my way back inside I thought about my fifteen year old self, longing for a life of music and adventure, and accomplishment, and how she'd probably be pretty happy with the way things turned out. Even thought I don't like INXS anymore.

J.

*They were my favourite of all the bands (though I now think The Pogues really should have taken that title) and I brought home long sleeved t-shirts for myself and my friend Mona. We wore those shirts to death for all our remaining high school years. Mine said "Love" on the front and "God" on the back, which I always worried would make people think I was religious.

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

2008-07-09T18:18:00.003-04:00

Hey, you know how a while ago the Man of Science and I were planning to go on a breathtakingly lovely walking tour in England? Perhaps you noticed that we didn't go. First, we postponed it because the Man of Science suddenly got embroiled in fish-related political insanity at his work. He simply couldn't leave the country until the summer. But when the summer rolled around, we checked the airfares and the prices made me want to lie down on the floor and die. I was very, very sad. Which is why I didn't blog about it. Those who know me well know that I never shut up about, oh, everything, except when I am really, seriously bummed. And then I don't talk about it at all.

So after much deliberation and brainstorming and a little bit of what-if-we-don't-go-anywhere? anxiety on my part, we decided to go on a road trip through the States for a couple of weeks. And the absolute best part of this plan is that we will be driving west until we end up here:

What is The Shady Dell, you might ask? And why would I be so excited to travel thousands of miles to visit it?

The Shady Dell is a campground. I hate camping. But you know what I don't hate? Airstream trailers. In fact, I have an obsessive love for Airstream trailers. Especially vintage ones. And the Shady Dell happens to have a whole bunch of them waiting for travellers just like us.

The interior of each trailer is decorated in an appropriately vintage manner. There are records. And movies to watch on old TVs. And martini shakers!

I think that perhaps this is what my own personal heaven will be like.

I have now booked us into The Shady Dell for three blissful nights in late July. And I am finally starting to get legitimately excited about our vacation.

(the photos are from a great site called Bygone Byways.)

Cartoon girl/ Hallmark card...

2008-07-08T20:55:00.002-04:00

I am working on a comic for my friend Mike's zine, Go Metric. It's about our fun-but-less-than-perfect experience at The Fest last year. I love comics and I read more than my fair share of graphic novels, but I find them incredibly frustrating to draw. Something in me doesn't understand why my obsession with amazing comics doesn't translate into an easy, personal talent when it comes to creating the same. I know, I know. It's fine to have good taste. But great art actually takes practice.

Anyway, drawing comics is a challenge for me, so it's something I'm happy to do. But man, does it ever take a long time. I started the rough draft (didn't know it was going to be the rough draft, but I got through it and decided to start all over again...) at work the other day while waiting for the techies to fix my stubbornly blue-screening computer. Then tonight I plunked myself down at the kitchen table and worked for another two hours. I got three panels done. And I mostly like them all. But trust me, they do not look like they took three hours. However! I will be proud of it when I am finished.

A fringe benefit of working on the comic is getting to remember what a fun trip it was, and also getting hyped for this coming year. Tickets go on sale soon, and I have the weekend marked down in my daytimer already. I can hardly sit still just thinking about it.

"Whatever I say, you won't believe me/ whatever I say, you say no..."

2008-07-07T19:13:00.005-04:00

Reading Evey's posts about getting ready to go off to university has made me think back to a conversation that Michael and I had not too long ago. I forget how it started, but it came down to us asking each other what one piece of advice we'd give our nineteen year old selves.

While there are many things I'd like to jump into the past and tell myself ("Don't go to the hippie university in the small town! Stay in the city!" "Learn to cook!" "Dating musicians only seems like a good idea!") my most important advice for my past self can be boiled down into one sentence: Calm the fuck down.

Yes, that is what I would say to nineteen year old me. Because, though I spent my teenage years with a hearty sense of self and big hopes for the future, when I turned nineteen and went away to school I started worrying obsessively. I worried about my first boyfriend dumping me. I worried about being alone "for the rest of my life!" I worried about becoming boring and settling down and never becoming a writer and never living in a big city and basically I worried as though I had absolutely no control over what my life was going to become.

And that's how I felt. Like I had no control all of a sudden. This worry robbed me of a big chunk of my personality, the fun, goofy, daring part. The part that loved spending time by myself. The part that had faith in me to make the right decisions. And wow, I had never been so miserable in my life. It took until my 25th year to start being myself again. That's when I got back into interesting music, started writing a book, and learned how to sew. It was when I got pets, and a social circle, and learned about feeding myself well and not eating junk. It was when I started becoming who I am today, which is the most relaxed, happy, confident version of myself I've ever been. This self is an awful lot like the one that came before that age nineteen downfall.

Michael's was similar to mine, something about telling himself to wait it out and he would find a place where he belonged. The Man of Science says that if he could tell himself "there is no truth, only predictability" it would have helped his academic career. And last night Adam thought about it for a while and said that he'd tell himself to start working out sooner because it is easier to get in shape when you're young. All good pieces of advice. What's yours, internet?

J.

Sunday Shots and Bluesfest Details

2008-07-06T22:04:00.002-04:00

Catie on a comfy stack of blankets and pillows.

Grocery shopping is done! Hooray for impending breakfast.

The Man of Science got me a Winnie The Pooh figure in a squishy penguin suit out of a vending machine at the movie theatre yesterday.

Adam and I hit Bluesfest tonight and saw the entire Les Breastfeeders set and also bits of The Acorn, Snoop Dogg, and Primus. Les Breastfeeders were the undisputed highlight, lots of my favourite kind of pop punk songs all sung in french which pleased Adam immensely. The Snoop Dogg set provided for excellent people-watching. While listening to the gigantic Mr. Dogg I learned all about his passion for both "the ladies" and "getting fucked up". We ate mildly over-priced veggie burgers and fries while sitting on a hill looking out at the river, watched Primus for the short amount of time that any one person ever needs to watch Primus, and then decided that we'd had enough of Bluesfest and that what we really wanted to do was drink juice on my porch. A nice night, all things considered.

I apologize in advance for the sheer number of links in this post...

2008-07-06T00:41:00.003-04:00

Whew! Apparently blogging every day in June wore me right out. Not sure why I've been silent for a couple of days. To be honest they passed in a blur of not-having-to-think-about-work which is A OK with me.

Friday I, blissfully, had the day off and was able to ride my bike around town willy nilly. I treated myself to breakfast from the Herb and Spice and took my blueberry scone and fizzy juice home to eat on the porch while I watched the weirdo parade that runs up and down my street with a fair amount of consistency. I spent the rest of the morning sewing and then biked down to Birdman Sound to pick up a record. Okay, it was kind of cheating, given my Buy No Crap resolution, but my rationale was this: I ordered it waaaay before I started the resolution and I didn't want to leave it sitting at the store for two months because Jon is a retailer who has always treated me well and I go out of my way to support him. After that I couldn't resist a visit to Octopus Books, where I chatted with Lisa in the tiny office upstairs where I used to spend every day of my life. It feels like home up there, and it was a great way to finally banish the end of the stress from the week before.

Friday night was agility class with the Man and Dogs of Science. Catie both pooped and peed on the floor, thanks for asking. But it seemed like all the dogs were a bit off. A gigantic Great Dane named Monty, who is normally fairly docile, took off running like a galloping pony every time he was let off his lead. This would have been harmless, except he came up running behind Oreo who doesn't like to be surprised. An attempt at face biting ensued. Luckily all humans were apologetic and mellow about the whole affair.

This morning dawned all gorgeous and breezy, so I went for a nice morning run along the canal and then was energized enough to make a big breakfast for myself and the sleepy Man of Science. We followed this up with a matinee (Hancock. Not bad.) and a nap. Can't get much better than that.

There's more I could write about, like how I've just started watching Mad Men and I love it, or how we have a vacation coming up, or how the Talking Books podcast is perfect to listen to while running, but really I'm kind of running out of steam and it's late and time for bed.

Tomorrow: Bluesfest with Adam and hundreds of Snoop Dog fans!

J.

Tea for One

2008-07-03T16:09:00.002-04:00

To cheer my sad-ass self up, I chose today to purchase my one unecessary item for the month of June. It is a Bodum Tea Press with a stainless steel infuser. Can't go wrong with glass and stainless steel, unless I smash it to bits which I will endeavor not to do because it was significantly more expensive that my Value Village Probably Killing Me With Lead Paint From China teapot. It would be a shame to break it. Knock on wood.

I am home from work early (well, there are still e-mails to answer, but I'm still home, thank heavens) and I can hear the Bluesfest soundchecks through my open bedroom window. I am not getting a Bluesfest pass this year, but I think I will go on Sunday to see a few bands play. Adam and I have already discussed the potential for crowds of weird mismatched fans, given that Sunday is the night when both Primus and Snoop Dog are playing.

J.

I'm sure it's been said in the finer print/ you make me look legitimate...

2008-07-03T08:21:00.003-04:00

Perhaps, like me, you need a laugh today. Look! The Sweet Potato Cafe is being sold by Federick Yam. Yam! Thanks to Megan for pointing this out to me on our way to the Canada Day Party.

Despite that hilarity, I am feeling kind of like garbage today, mostly due to an extremely stressful day at work yesterday (summed up to the Man of Science by the sentence, "I was belittled by lawyers and reviled by the community!") which led to a panicked awakening (with extra heartburn!) at 2 AM. I sat up in bed and cried for a while, which actually made me feel better, and eventually I slid down into the pillows and went to sleep, spooned up around Oreo for comfort.

It occurred to me, during the crying, that over the past year I've gotten pretty used to not being upset about things. I like my job, I love my partner, I have great friends, a wonderful dog, a nice apartment, a reasonable family... Whenever a problem comes up, I've been pretty good at talking myself out of worry and strife. All the stuff that's happening now at work will be stressful for a while, but will eventually get fixed and be done with. There's not a whole lot I can do about it, except keep showing up every day. But I've been struggling to maintain a professional and reasonable attitude about it and not crumble under stress when I'm dealing with people at work. So maybe that's why the crying helped. It had to come out somewhere.

J.

p.s. Today while I was making my toast the toaster actually spit it right out and it landed in the centre of the plate that was waiting for it. It was cartoony enough to make me smile.

Canada Day Included...

2008-07-01T21:05:00.003-04:00

Baking...

Which resulted in cupcakes...

Which Megan and I brought with us to a party rife with local bloggers...

Which we eventually left in order to go pick up our first delivery of veggies from our CSA.

I wonder what you'll do/ when you can not play those songs...

2008-07-01T08:12:00.007-04:00

The Man of Science dreams about his ex-ladyfriends fairly often. The other night he told me a story about a fight he'd had with one particular ex and, lo and behold, he spent part of the night fighting with her in his dreams.

I also have quite a few dreams featuring my most recent former partner. Usually we're trying to be friends in the dream and it is all going disastrously, but sometimes the dreams are pleasant and we have a good conversation or do nice things for each other. I had a dream of the disastrous variety last night, he was telling me that he was leaving town to find a place where cocaine (cocaine?!?) was easier to come by.

I think the dream was triggered by listening to this song:

which always makes me think of him when I hear it. It's also getting close to the anniversary of our break up. In fact, Canada Day that year was one of the catalysts for the break up itself. Oh, happy, happy Canada Day...

On a more positive note, I've been dipping into a lot of great music lately, mostly because I'm in the middle of a Top Secret Sewing Project and therefore am in the living room for hours on end with my records and CDs readily available. It's nice to throw myself back into both sewing and music. I've been addicted to podcasts for the last little while because they keep me entertained and engaged when I'm driving around for work, but as a result of that I haven't been listening to as much music as I was before. Today I'm going to plow through the Sleater Kinney discography while I continue with the TSSP. And then Megan and I are going to bike into the depths of Centretown and retrieve our first load of veggies from our CSA share. Anyone want some turnips?

J.

What I Biked Home In

2008-06-30T17:31:00.002-04:00

Who knew?

2008-06-30T08:17:00.003-04:00

Do you have things that you think about in order to calm yourself down? Like maybe when you're falling asleep at night and you just need pleasant thoughts to occupy your mind?

The Man of Science makes fun of me sometimes for this. It doesn't help that he can guess EXACTLY what it is I'm thinking of to sooth me. ("Hmmm... airstream trailers...winning the governor general's award for literature...Ira Glass...") At any rate, I knew I'd turned some kind of a corner when the other night I was getting riled up about something and in order to calm myself down I thought, okay, calm down... think about your finances and how well organized they are.

And then I had to laugh a little bit.

J.

P.S. If you are a creative person, or a person who longs to be creative but isn't sure where to start, please do yourself a gigantic favour and listen to the podcast of Lynda Barry's talk at Philadelphia's Free Library. She has very inspiring advice for getting beyond the "does this suck?" stage of creative work. And she is hilarious. You can listen to the podcast or subscribe to it here (it's free!). There are a lot of other great Free Library podcasts to listen to as well.

Birthday of Science

2008-06-29T10:27:00.005-04:00

The Man of Science's birthday is next week, and because I am extremely nice and also grateful for all of the lovely things he does for me on a regular basis, I took him to the fancypants Hilton at the Casino in Hull for a night of drinking, eating, and hoteliness. Here are some facts about our experience:

Fact #1: The hotel has great views.

Our room had a view of the lake (which was pretty, even in the fog). Our table at dinner had a view of the lake. The bar where we had a drink after dinner had a view of the lake. Our table at breakfast had a view of the lake. Lake! Lake! Lake! Hard to go wrong with a view of the water, even if the highway is running through the background.

Fact #2: It is prom season.

I took that photo using the zoomiest setting on my camera because I enjoyed watching the prom drama from high above. Prom kids were everywhere at the hotel and then this morning we got to witness a whole new strain of The Walk of Shame which can only be called The Elevator Ride of Shame. Two french prom-goers, looking tres, tres hungover got on the elevator with us when we were on our way down to have breakfast. The guy, it seemed, had the good sense to bring a change of clothes, but the girl was in her rumpled purple strapless dress and high heels. Her hair was matted at the back. I felt bad for her, but also like I was about to burst into giggles.

Fact #3: I am not very good at being a grown up, but luckily I have someone around who is.

So, maybe it didn't occur to me that if one wants to dine in the fancy restaurant at one's hotel then one should probably make a reservation so that one doesn't end up nearly fainting with hunger and having to desperately order french fries from room service because they are the only vegetarian things on the menu. Oh dear. Luckily, The Man of Science got the Maitre D' at the nice restaurant to agree to seat us for a real meal at 9:30 PM, so we were able to kill a few enjoyable hours in our hotel room watching TV and having a bath in the nice tub (me) and napping (MoS). See bathtub below.

Fact #3: If the restaurant is good enough, dining at 9:30 is so very worth the wait.

I can not even begin to describe the insane deliciousness of our meal. True to his word (and no doubt encouraged by a generous tip from the wise MoS), the Maitre D' seated us at around 9:30. He even gave us complimentary drinks to "apologize" for the wait. Here, have something free to make up for the fact that you didn't make a reservation and instead had to beg us to seat you!

We made our vegetarianess known right away and were quickly served bread (olive, sour dough, or baguette) and a little "amuse bouche" type thing with remarkably delicious little toasty crackers and an eggplant spread and lovely little carrot. Those all sound like things that I eat all the time, and yet they were all ninety times more delicious than I have ever tasted them before. After that was a green salad with marinated mushrooms (yum!) and then the entree (we had the same thing) which was a roulade* of thinly sliced zucchini, portobello mushrooms and red peppers with a little bit of local goat cheese in the middle (I relaxed the veganism for one night). Holy crap it was good. And for dessert I had this long, thin shortbread cookie thing which was flavoured with pepper (!) and covered with strawberries. At the end of it all, I was high from food.

Fact #4: Casinos are crazy and one should always quit while ahead.

Most of the casino was slot machines. And by most, I mean there is a veritable ocean of slot machines as far as the eye can see. Because of our hotel booking we got $40 worth of chips for $10, so we actually started out ahead. I handed the chips over the MoS because I am not really the gambling type. He played them all at one of the hard-to-locate blackjack tables and ended up doubling his money within three minutes and quickly deciding to take the money and run. We were both daunted by the ocean of slot machines ("It's like we're in The Future!" said the MoS. "And not in a good way!") so we took his big winnings and went for one last drink in the hotel bar before heading back up to the room to watch some bad TV.

Fact #5: I am easily scared.

Besides the lovely bathtub, our hotel room had a gigantic and beautiful shower with a big glass door. This morning, before breakfast, I decided to have a shower and issued a flippant invitation to the Man of Science to join me in there. He declined, but said he'd probably have one when I was done.

I had finished the washing up portion of the shower and was standing under the spray with my eyes closed in that this-shower-is-lovely-and-someone-else-has-to-clean-it reverie when I turned to my right and opened my eyes and there, against the glass, was a perfectly still, naked Man of Science. I shrieked and slammed my hand on the glass (which would have no doubt flummoxed a true attacker...) and then collapsed onto the bench (the shower was big enough to have its own seating) and proceeded to half-cry half-laugh for a few moments while my heart slowed down.

The Man of Science was very apologetic and told me I was beautiful when terrified.

And now we are home and ready to return to our un-luxurious lives. Though the breezy feeling of vacation will probably continue until we retrieve the dogs from my mother's house.

J.

*See what I've learned from all those episodes of Top Chef?