sayonara

I'll be in Victoria in 12 hours. Headed back to Saltspring for a 5 day visit to see the ocean and the rocks and be back in a place where the right things matter. There's some shit going on right now that I need to get some distance from, and I'm pretty sure that the island will help. I'm super excited about it, other than the 4:30am wake-up time to get on a 6am flight... who the hell booked that? Oh right, I did. Jerkface.

Here's hoping and alternately not hoping that my dear uncle Tut passes while I'm out there. It's gonna be any day now, so I might be changing a flight to be able to attend the service. Since great-uncle John died just a couple of weeks ago Tut is now the last of the three brothers that started this crazy family, and since I lost my grandpa 18 years ago he's been like a grandfather to me. I guess we'll see what happens, but it's gonna be soon and it's gonna hurt.

And life goes on and on and on until it doesn't. Cheers.

yargh!

Found the building tonight that I want to live in. 1 block from the river, downtown highrise, huge cement balcony, a view of the riverbank for miles and miles and miles, 2 huge elevators, super stocked workout room, a hot tub and steam room, a games room with a pool table and shuffleboard table, an in-house confectionery, ample parking, and an underground squash court. (An underground squash court! Like I would ever use it!) Aaaaaannnndddd... I can't afford it. Well, technically, I can really afford the one bedroom corner unit that we looked at but damn I want a 2 bedroom. I just know I will feel so cramped so soon in a one bedroom. Shit! Fuck! Lame!

Also looked at a funny little place by the university with an inner courtyard and hardwood floors and a fireplace and huge bedroom and underground parking but... the bedroom is right beside the courtyard where everyone's doors are and if there is one thing that I want (ok I want more than one thing but this is most definitely one of them) it's to be able to sleep with my windows open after 4 years of not being able to for fear of break-ins. And leaving my windows open in the summer while I'm gone. That would be sweet. There was a hilarious moment tonight while the agent and I fought with front door keys for about 5 minutes, not being able to get the damn thing in at all before realizing that duh... that door just opens and it's the INNER door that requires locking. Ha ha. She was rightly embarrassed. It was cute. And so the search continues...

dear richard

(tell me if this is too obvious)

Dear Richard,

Truth be told I had a dream the other night about you
and I shirtless
rolling on the floor in front of the bar at Amigo's.
The floor was clean. It was real good.

I'm asking if you'd add me to
the list of girls who want to ask you out.
Would ya save a dance for me at the rockabilly prom?

(Me or somone who is similar to me may or may not have sent parts of this to someone who may or may not be named Richard. Shh.)

I'm officially old

My little brother is 30 today. 30! 30! THIIIIIIRRRRRTTTTYYYYY! Holy crow time goes fast when you're... working and eating and doing all the day to day things (like spending $350 to fix your damn water heater's thermocoupler). Happy birthday little brother. It all goes downhill from here :)

I wish I was in hot water

Well, coming home has been awesome and I spent most of the weekend curled up on my couch, clearing out the PVR of all the shows I missed while I was gone and chilling the fuck out. It was so good. Saturday night while I was sleeping I felt something on my back. Jumped up and shook out my shirt cuz sometimes there's spiders in my house and saw something scurry into the corner... ew. Then noticed in the shower that the hot water was quickly becoming scarce. And I can't get the damn pilot light to light again. So I hit my mom's for a shower and bought an old-fashioned mouse trap and now I'm waiting (im)patientily for a $70 plumber appointment and I'm crossing my fingers that it's something simple and I don't have to replace a water heater before selling my house this summer. That would suck. But I caught the mouse (sorry mouse) and the bank is trying to approve me for $230,000 which I know I can't afford but if my $54,000 house sells for $180,000 like they think it might then I'm laughing all the way to my 2 bedroom condo with a view.

snippet

"I like your eyebrows" he said. "But one is pointier than the other."

"Thanks. I took a hockey puck to the head when I was a kid so the one side is kind of fucked and hard to manage".

"BA HA HA HA HA. We truly are Canadian, hey?"

blame calgary

In the past 40 hours I have: gone to a burlesque show, seen some good magic tricks, been to 4 trendy bars, eaten olive tapinade and roasted eggplant, drank at least 10 pints, been on 3 C-trains and 1 bus, taken 3 $20 cab rides, plugged a jukebox, met 3 interesting intelligent single men, played a game of poker, went to the infamous H & M and was totally disappointed, seen the sketchiest Bay ever, bought new underwear, been told that I'm so pretty, gone to a Newfie family house party, been invited camping next weekend with the Newfie family, seen a live rock band, went to Blame Betty on 17th and ogled a $265 purse, turned down an 80's dance party, and been kissed twice. Not such a bad weekend.

thai a little tenderness

This is the fab view out of my hotel room. That blue building behind the wholesale club is work. Every day I wake up at 6:30am and drink coffee and smoke cigarettes until it's time to jump in the shower and head out the door for an 8am start time. And anyone that knows me know that I hate 8am start times. But I'm doing really good, not falling asleep during the day at all which is surprising the hell outta me since I can't seem to fall asleep anytime sooner than at least 11.

It's going good, I guess. 4 days later and I finally have access to everything I need to do the work that they sent me here for. And even without the proper access to everything I blew the average out of the water today with my 112 tasks completed to the norm of 80. So either I'm doing something wrong or I'm just being my usual incredible self. I'm going to go with the latter.

It is INCREDIBLY frustrating being so close to so much knowledge and not being able to access any of it. If anything it's worse here than at home, at least there you know everyone and can go talk to anyone you want to. Here it's like one person knows only one thing and to me and my stack of 50 really important questions that doesn't really help. But I am picking tidbits wherever I can. And I found out today via a mass announcement email that I didn't get the job that I didn't really want. They gave it to someone that is going to be really bad at it. Guess I'll just keep rockin' where I am.

Oh yeah the thai restaurant down the road is delicious. Glad I made myself venture out into this weather to eat spicy peanut curry. Cuz it's the perfect rainy day food indeed.

it ain't heavy, it's my suitcase

Well, I'm in Calgary and I've been here for almost 2 hours and I'm already annoyed. It's so damn crowded here. Sure I got a decent hotel room with a window that opens with a lovely view of the parking lot and the ventilation system for the hotel. That should lull me right to sleep. I was getting cosy at home, and didn't feel like packing it up again quite yet. The last 2 weeks has been the longest stretch of time that I've been home since January? Something like that anyways.

LOURD. It's french for heavy. I stuffed everything I would need for 2 weeks into one suitcase cuz I didn't feel like struggling with two. Getting the shuttle at the airport was a scene. Walked and walked and walked and walked and finally found the sign for the airport shuttles and look! My hotel is way back the way I came from! Ok let's walk back there and walk some more and walk some more and ok "please use the phone to call your hotel for a shuttle". Walk back to where the phone supposedly is, oh hey! It's broken! That's even more awesome. "Use the one inside" it says so back I go inside and walk and walk and a plan just landed from... Pakistan? Iran? All I know is there were 200 Muslims in my way and where the fuck is the shuttle phone and I'm slipping on flower petals and I finally found it and I can't hear the chick on the other end so I just shout "I can't hear you please send the shuttle" and hang up and wait. And wait. And wait.

Was supposed to go for coffee with a new dude yesterday but apparently he doesn't believe in making plans and when I called him on it he mysteriously disappeared... funny how that happens. If I ask you on a tuesday to make a plan for saturday, you don't tell me on friday that "hey, I'll be online tomorrow afternoon let's make a plan then". Uh. I've been trying to make a plan for the last 4 days. I'm not going to sit around waiting for you. I got shit to pack and a house to clean and things to gather.

And I got a lot of hair cut off and I mostly hate it. I only like it maybe once out of every 5 times I look in the mirror. I was going for something older and more professional and I now look like I'm 25 instead of 34 and now I'm stuck going to the Calgary office with a dumb haircut. Fuck it. I'm going to the bar for dinner.