Thursday, April 26, 2007

Song of the Day

It's been raining since yesterday morning, and quiet in here, and hollow. And I have just burned an entire half of the back of my right hand with scalding soup, and there is no one here to laugh at my clumsiness and insist on frozen peas.

We haven't had a song of the day here on M&C for a while, but here's one to bring back the tradition. I can't think of a song that better describes today:

My Old Man ~ Joni Mitchell

I couldn't find a copy to upload, so you'll have to investigate for yourself.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Today I am a psychologist

While they stand at the bench "backing bridal bouquets or improvising a winter arrangement to deliver to Victoria Hospital's Palliative Care Unit or unpacking cedars (they come twenty bunches to a box) Larry and Viv discuss Michael Jackson's stage style or Margaret Trudeau's maternal instincts or lack thereof. Their fingers move and so do their mouths. Yammer, yammer. About economics they admit their ignorance, and their right to their ignorance. They talk about the penny shortage in the States, the danger of radon in basements, the inflated salaries of professional football players, and about the pros and cons of whooping cough shots -- on this particular topic Viv managed to persuade Larry not to have his three-year-old son, Ryan, inoculated after all. The two of them reminisce about the time a guy walked in and ordered a dozen dead roses to send to his ex-wife, and how Vivian took the order, then calmly phoned the police.

~ Carol Shields, Larry's Party

Friday, April 20, 2007

The Vancouver Bus Chronicles,

Volume 1: Issue 3

(TM protests that I should use Roman numerals to mark my vol/iss., but I protest that as we don't wear togas, and I can't count past L, that THIS IS MY BLOG AND SHUT UP! to which my mom will say DON'T YOU TELL TM TO SHUT UP... she always takes his side, so unfair)

I was on a busy bus on my way home today and standing at the very front of the bus was this woman SHOUTING into her cell phone. Can... CAN YOU SPEAK UP?? I'M ACTUALLY ON A BUS RIGHT NOW.
In 10 minutes she received 3 phone calls including a job interview, an internet service provider (or something) and an invite to something going on this evening. This I could here above the music on my headphones - SHE WAS THAT LOUD.
The rest of the bus was silent during this period -- there wasn't really any point trying to carry on your own conversation, all you could do was be a party to hers.
In this sort of situation, normally people just suffer through it. They clear their throats, they look at eachother and commiseratingly roll their eyes. But no one actually SAYS anything. They might think about it, but in the end, what if she's psycho and goes off on you?
Today though, apparently, the bus driver didn't care. Maybe he might even have welcomed it. Maybe in the 10 minutes before he spoke up, he imagined the different scenarios and saw himself at the end of his tether, shouting "You wanna go? Because I have no problem right now with hitting a passenger, a patron, or a girl!" In any case, he had clearly had enough, because to my great delight he turned to her and uttered words which have truly made my entire weekend.

"Quit yelling on the phone."

Now, you have to understand, text cannot do justice to the disgust and annoyance that were infused in this man's tone of voice. Clearly he had taken the 10 minutes just to rehearse it. And can I just say, it came off perfectly. It was one of those embarassed, but jubilant silences when everyone in the vicinity stops dead for a moment to make sure they actually just heard what they think they heard. One of those POW! moments when someone resoundingly and unequivocably gets TOLD.

When I got off the bus I turned to say thank you to the driver just before I stepped down. I hope he knew I wasn't just talking about the ride.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Because I am too lazy to post something I wrote myself

For my brother, if he ever happens to read this, which I think he doesn't actually, but never mind:
This is exactly how I feel about French Rap too

Monday, April 16, 2007

At least he's good for something

*WARNING* Do not open the following link and start reading while at work -- you may have a hard time containing your laughter, and your shoulders may shake to such an extent that, in the event that your boss happens to find you on your office/cubicle floor in a pool of your own saliva, you cannot hold me accountable for having directed you to the following site. You can however, as far as I'm concerned, hold this girl's boyfriend responsible.

Between giggles I think I've decided that I would actually really hate this guy, but at least he makes for good web postings.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Not to excessively revisit the theme of aggravating inner-contentment, but...

There is nothing quite so satisfying as lying ensconced on one's big puffy couch on a Friday night with the whole weekend ahead, a little iBook warming one's lap, a tummy full from dinner that was MADE FOR YOU by one incredible man, and the sweet knowledge that there is nothing, at all, that you need to do for the next two days.

Aaaaah.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Weekend Recovery

The switch back to reality has left us both a little sleepy this week. I did manage however to load some of the photos from this weekend up onto my flickr. After that tremendous effort I must now go and collapse into unconsciousness. Excuse me.

Watch the slideshow
Visit my flickr page

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Did the Easter Bunny visit you too?

Our trip to Vancouver Island was a complete success -- everything went according to plan and we spent 3 lovely, if rainy, days touring around. As it is getting late, and I have to get to work on time tomorrow, I'm not going into detail. BUT! We did take a drive through the UVic campus on Sunday, because we got a tip from TM's sister, and additional info from my cousins that the campus is over run with rabbits. Bunnies, bunnies everywhere -- and how appropriate given the holiday. There will be lots of pictures from the whole weekend up soon, but in the meantime, here's a video treat that I filmed with TM's cybershot.

Working Title: A Terrorizes the Easter Bunny

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Faire son courrier

The further I move away from Guelph, the more mail I seem to send. Makes sense right? When I moved to Kingston I suddenly had to send birthday presents through the mail. Now that I'm out here, I have to send stuff to the people in Guelph AND the people in Kingston. I suppose it will just continue to grow as I continue to move throughout my life. I will never again be as central as I was when I was a kid, and I'll probably spend a fortune on Canada Post.
This is all logical I suppose, but it still surprises me. In addition to my electronic pile of mail to tend to -- emails, ebills, etc. I have a rapidly growing pile of physical mail. It's so big now that I'm going to have to sit down next week and actually put things in envelopes and address them (Christmas presents in April! Finally done and I'm SOO excited about them). I guess it just seems incredibly Victorian. I feel like I should get a little writing desk and use a quill.
When I was in France in 1997, my class at school went through a barrage of eccentric science teachers -- biology, geology, physics, chemistry, etc. A new teacher every couple of months or so to fill our science slot. In physics we actually had three teachers throughout the year. I don't know if they were continuously suffering nervous breakdowns or what, but each was more tightly wound than the last. The first one, a very old man with a beard like Pavlov, for the few weeks we had him (not sure what happened to the crotchety old bugger after that) didn't understand why he had to put up with me, this foreign kid in his class who might possibly require extra tutelage. The solution? Make fun of me at every opportunity.
Of course, by the time we got to physics I was pretty used to everyone laughing at me. I basically functioned in a mascot capacity -- the "American" girl who misunderstands things in a comic fashion, but strangely seems to beat us on test scores.
One day, the teacher began giving a lecture -- and I began studiously to write it all down. At one point he stopped talking, and as I was finishing copying down what he'd just said, it was a moment before I looked up and realized that he had stopped to look at me.
"Tu fais ton courrier?" he asked me (Are you doing your correspondence?)
Thinking that he had asked me if I was doing my course work (Tu fais ton cours?) I said yes, yes I was doing my course.
The class erupted into laughter, and I erupted into blushes. My neighbour explained "courrier" and I understood my mistake (in retrospect though I might as well have been writing letters for all that I learned in that stupid class).
Now though, I'm not sure a lot of people would understand the question were it put to them in their native language. Correspondence? Like taking classes from home?
The future is E, and letters are what you write when the situation is formal. A letter of complaint, a Thank You letter, a letter of apology, a cover letter. Who has pen-pals any more that they don't write to in e-mail?
"Faire son courrier" is even more foreign to me now than it was then.
Envelope glue smells nostalgic.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Buses, Brassieres, and Blind Men

Today held more brilliant Vancouver transit adventures, as the bus drivers are disgruntled and ready to strike. I just missed my first bus when I was running up to it, but found my way blocked by a blind man with his guide dog. In the 5 seconds I had to decide I realized there were two options: shove the blind man out of the way, or jump in front of the bus. While I hopped up and down and waved at the bus driver, he closed the doors, pointedly ignored me, and drove away. Work to sub-rule anyone?
When I finally got into work, after a frustrating hour negotiating the fellow commuting discontents, I found this article in my google alerts inbox. It hasn't really anything to do with lung cancer, but since I have a history of breast cancer in my family, I was intrigued enough to read it anyway. Then I decided I'd share it with you. After all, who doesn't need one more excuse to be a little more liberated in life?

Monday, April 02, 2007

I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE

Heh heh.

I recently installed Google Analytics on my blog, which, among other fascinating statistics, tells me exactly where my hits are coming from. So for example, because most of my hits are coming from Burnaby, I know that TM is wasting valuable office hours. I also see all my hits from the G-spot, from Ottawa, and from Owen Sound (Hi guys!). Plus I get to see all those places people are visiting from where I know absolutely no one. Sweden for instance. Pretty snazzy.
I was complaining to TM yesterday that the lengths of my visits seems to be around 10 seconds on average. TM laughed and said that perhaps if I were to post something new once in a while, people would have a reason to stick around, instead of dropping in to check.
SO in the interest of KEEPING your interest, here I am posting and probably weirding you all out. Just wait...

TM & A happily Easter vacationing

We are going on an Easter vacation! We're heading out to Vancouver Island this weekend, since TM has Friday off, and I have Friday AND Monday off because my employer likes me more. Hopefully today we're making some reservations at a place on the beach in Parksville, and from there we can drive around and visit the area and my extended fam. We are all very excited:

TM and the duck in a rare moment of comraderie

We had a pretty fantastic weekend here in Van city. It was sunny and sweater-only shopping weather. We saw some Lions in 3D, bought some stuff at future shop, bought some SHOES! and went to a concert at the Orpheum.
Yes it is Monday. But this is going to be a short week!