Corner of Bourbon & Division

Appointment at the gym this afternoon. Am now a temporary resident of the Land of Owie™.

Writing has been a slog. With luck, that will improve.

It's weird to be off again after only two days of work. I think I'm going to enjoy this new schedule. :)

( Depressing stuff that's not all that interesting )

It snowed!

I will doubtless be less excited by this when I have to shovel. I think I may have to get BorderCrossing some snowshoes for Christmas. :)

I went to get yarn yesterday, and was foiled by my own absent-mindedness. I forgot that the yarn store is closed on Mondays. I shall have to go today instead. I am going to see also about obtaining a car for a couple of hours and hieing myself to Canadian Tire to get an air mattress, and also procuring myself all the things I will need for cooking for this weekend.

In random news, I finally began walking the environmental walk with regards to my coffee intake. I kept meaning and forgetting to buy a Tim Horton's travel mug. So yesterday I made a point of going to get one. I had the following exchange with the Tim Horton's employee who served me:

Me: "Hi, do you have any travel mugs for sale here?" (It's a smallish store, so I wasn't sure if they had any on-site)

Employee: *blank stare* "A what?"

Me: "A travel mug."

Employee: *blank stare* *mumbles something incomprehensible*

Me: "You know, a re-usable mug?"

Employee: *blank stare*

Me: "It's a cup? Made of plastic, with a lid? You put coffee in it?"

Employee: *turns to Employee #2* "Do we have something called a trowel mug?"

Employee #2: "You mean a travel mug?"

Employee: *shrugs*

Employee #2: *to me* "You want a travel mug?"

Me: *thanking God for employees who know what they're talking about* "Yes, please."

Employee #2: *to Employee* "They're over there. In the corner with the promotional items. Over there! Get with it, kid!"

Employee: *searches three times for a mug before finding one*

Employee #3: *comes up behind Employee* "Okay, do you know how to ring this up?"

Employee: *mutters something incomprehensible* *tries to ring up the mug and fails* *charges me for a bagel I didn't order*

Employee #3: *credits the bagel I didn't order*

Employee: *tries to ring up the mug and fails* *charges me for a croissant I didn't order*

Employee #3: *credits the croissant I didn't order* *rings up the mug* "Would you like the free coffee that comes with your mug?"

Me: "Yes, please."

Employee: *looks vaguely panic-stricken and as if he's about to cry*

Employee #3: *rings up coffee*

Employee #2: *rolls eyes* "Have a nice day. Thanks for coming!"

Me: *grabs coffee and makes a dash for the door*

I've had four hours of sleep. Waiting for ashforestwalker to come by and take a look at the place: he may be doing some painting for me sometime in December. Yay painting!

Then BorderCrossing is coming by to spend some time with me this afternoon, and after that we're going to owldaughter's concert.

All of these things are good things. Do I feel like doing any of it? NO! Why? Because I've had four hours of sleep. I will regret not doing them, so I am simply going to bite the bullet knowing that I will have a good time once the ball gets rolling.

What I really ought to do is run out and get cream so I can make coffee. Yeah. I'll go do that.

It's grey out, and kind of cold and rainy. There's something to be said for sitting indoors with homemade spaghetti sauce (the spaghetti isn't homemade... yet), tea, and bright yellow curtains. The cats are all asleep or lounging about, and my new table is gleaming in the dining room (I just gave it a good polish). The Beatles are on in the background.

This morning I got up early and made breakfast for me and BorderCrossing. She was pleasantly surprised to get up and find hot chocolate and steaming sour cream biscuits awaiting. As much as all my relationships (or most of them) have been highly broken, she appears to have never had a relationship with someone who wanted to take care of her, so I'm having fun feeding her and offering a nice place to crash. I also made bacon and coffee for myself, since she doesn't like either of those things.

I've been good about keeping on top of the dishes, too, for the most part. toughlovemuse was telling me the other day that "a new broom sweeps clean," but I hope it's not just enthusiasm about the new place that is prompting me to be a better housekeeper. Having people over regularly, having my girlfriend over, and generally being in a better headspace ought to count for something, right? I just hope I can keep this up.

The best thing about nesting is having people with whom to share the nest. :)

Today is a good day. There is still sadness, but that can't prevent me from appreciating what I do have, and I think that's important.

So with everything that happened today, I only got about two hours' worth of sleep.

Needless to say, I don't feel like going to work, especially.

If I'm lucky it'll be quiet and I'll be able to catch a cat nap.

Bonus: I'm meeting BorderCrossing for breakfast. She's coming to fetch me after work. My girlfriend is willing to get up and meet me at 06:45 on a Saturday morning for breakfast: truly, I have scored myself a pearl among women. :)

Well, yesterday was a mixed bag of clusterf*ck and just plain awesome. Let's try this in point form:

1- Shave To Save Wrap-Up

I had never been to Fairview Mall before (little did I realize that it was right near the Chapters in Pointe Claire: if I'd known that, I would have saved myself a lot of hassle), so I consulted Google Maps, which has never led me too far astray before. This goes to show that there is indeed a first time for everything.

Google Maps took me directly to the Beaconsfield Golf Club. This was not only singularly unhelpful, but also far away from where I wanted to go. I ended up driving around Pointe Claire Village in the dark at 05:30, swearing under my breath because there wasn't a single solitary soul to be seen anywhere. The only gas station I found was closed, so no way to ask for directions. I finally spotted a car with its hazard lights flashing in someone's driveway, and a woman came hurrying out of the house. I pulled over and hopped out, caught her before she could make a getaway, and asked for directions. The lady (whose name I never got) was super super nice and actually led me all the way to the mall! I thanked her profusely and went to the Shave to Save Wrap-Up bash.

The event itself was kind of anti-climactic. There was breakfast, the radio hosts chatted away into their microphones, more people got their heads shaved, I talked to some people I didn't know, and they gave a cheque for $436,000 to the Québec Breast Cancer Foundation. It was nice, but unremarkable except for the really big cheque. :)

2- Hallowe'en Prep

After the event, which lasted a full hour longer than I had anticipated, I rushed off to do grocery shopping and to buy a pumpkin.

Then I hit traffic.

Then I hit construction.

Then I hit the traffic trying to avoid the construction.

Then I hit more construction.

Then I hit more traffic trying to avoid yet more construction.

Then I hit traffic due to an accident on the 20.

I got home at noon, and spent the next hour flying around Montreal trying to get everything done. I had originally planned on being home by 10:00 to get things done. I managed to buy all my groceries and three pumpkins, but didn't get to Home Depot to buy Teflon plumbing tape. That'll go to next week, I guess.

I got called "sir" on two separate occasions, by service people who saw me from behind. I refrained from answering: "Thanks but that's not the gender with which I'm choosing to identify today!" I figured it wasn't the right day to be messing with people's minds. ;) They were very apologetic whenever I turned around: from the front I am very visibly female.

By 15:00 I had cleaned out all three pumpkins but was running horrendously late on everything else. I resigned myself to the thought that I wouldn't have time to cook the carrot soup and vegetarian lasagna that I had originally planned to make for when my guests arrived, and resolved to ask them if they would be okay with pizza.

BorderCrossing arrived at 16:00, dressed as a zombie! After I poured some squash soup into her (poor girl was so busy all day she'd forgotten to eat!) she gamely helped me with the rest of the Hallowe'en decorations while I carved the jack-o'-lanterns (one was a bat and the other was a typical scary face type of thing: I didn't think to take pictures, sorry) and pureed the third pumpkin to make pumpkin pie. BorderCrossing did a great job with orange and black balloons, yellow hazard tape, and glow-in-the-dark fake cobwebs with plastic spiders hanging off them. The place was suitably spooky by the time she was done, and fairly screamed "Hallowe'en."

The first trick-or-treater caught me unprepared at 17:00. I hadn't yet lit the candles in the jack-o'-lanterns, nor had I put candy in the big bowl. I am forever shamed. Nonetheless, I scrambled a bit and managed to provide candy for the little tyke.

3- Hallowe'en Proper

tcaptain and maya_banana landed on my doorstep at around 18:30, looking very snazzy in their top hat and blue wig (respectively).

Things were moderately under control by then, and the trick-or-treaters were arriving in regular bursts. There was one wee little boy dressed as a Mountie! So cute! I told him: "Maintain the right, young man!" and he waved. Did I mention cute?

tcaptain and maya_banana very nicely volunteered to go forth in search of pizza, leaving me to flap around the kitchen continuing to get stuff ready while BorderCrossing helped and tried to get me to not be quite as hysterical. She doesn't know me well enough yet to know that I find it physically impossible to *completely* relax when I'm hosting for anything more than one person. Two people makes it a party, and that means that I want everything to be just so, even when it isn't.

The pizza was delicious, and I had at least provided enough beverages for the evening. We had a great time hanging out, eating, and giving out candy to the trick-or-treaters, who were all unfailingly polite, as usual. Only one small boy, who was dropped off by car, didn't say "thank you" for his candy. One kid out of the whole night really isn't bad.

Memorable little kiddies:
- the girl dressed as Pippy Longstocking, who had braided her hair and threaded a thick wire through it so that her pigtails stuck out horizontally: very ingenious
- the teeny tiny Mountie mentioned earlier
- the little cowboy (about seven or eight) who was so shy he hid under his Stetson the whole time
- the sproglet in an indeterminate animal costume who beamed at me and said "Bye!" about eight times while never moving to go at all in spite of his mother's entreaties
- the vampire siblings, who giggled a whole lot when I teased the sister about not biting her brother

tcaptain and BorderCrossing made the unexpected discovery that they used to live about 15 minutes away from each other in Ontario in their youth. Their was much reminiscing about local landmarks and the like, which got very exuberant and was lovely to behold, if mostly incomprehensible to both maya_banana and me.

My Great Pumpkin Pie Experiment turned out pretty well. I used a recipe from allrecipes.com which called for vanilla ice cream to be used instead of whatever is normally used in pumpkin pie. It was good, but had a weird foamy texture that was reminiscent of quiche. Next time I may try to find a more traditional recipe. It was good, but not what I wanted to make.

maya_banana made my cats' night by fussing over them and offering tons of pats and scritches and love and overall attention. Gretzky, Pan-Pan and George all made fawning idiot of themselves. It was great.

luvenditti made an appearance about ten minutes (possibly less) after tcaptain and maya_banana had called it a night. She and BorderCrossing sat down and chatted and commiserated about their jobs in high schools ("I don't have a name at school. At school I'm 'But Miss!'") while I took the opportunity to tidy up the kitchen, which looked like a bomb had gone off in it. The good news is that the kitchen is now sparkly clean!

Of course after that the night was kind of short, as I had to be at work at 06:30 today. I left BorderCrossing half-asleep under a pile of cats (not her choice, I might add: the cats love her in spite of her best efforts) and hauled myself off to the bus stop in a timely fashion.

Work today was a giant clusterf*ck. If I have time tomorrow I shall post about it in a f-locked post. For now, my bed awaits, as I have work again tomorrow. Whee!

Got up this morning to pre-made coffee and pre-made muffins. Can't remember the last time I had breakfast ready right before leaving for work. Interesting. Not sure I can repeat the experience on a regular basis (it involves getting up stupidly early), but it was nice this morning.

Bus leaves in 15 minutes. My lunch is pretty much packed (macaroni and cheese! yay!), I'm on my last cup of coffee, and I still have to fix my makeup.

I don't really feel like going into work, but it's only an eight-hour day, and tonight I get to see BorderCrossing, so further yay!

Gotta go. Later!

I've had a busy weekend.

I met BorderCrossing's parents yesterday, and apparently I not only passed muster, but I passed with flying colours. Apparently I won points by being sincere and charming. (I wore my new clothes and told them that I wore my "grown-up costume" in order to impress them, and they thought that was charming) and then by playing frisbee with them. Who knew it could be that easy? ;)

BorderCrossing and I spent the rest of the day together. We went book shopping so that I would have something to read here in Québec City, and I found a bunch of books I'd been meaning to pick up. So that was definitely a win. We went back to my place, and she outdid herself by putting together pretty much single-handedly all three of my bookcases, while I ran around and did laundry and dishes and installed my towel rack and generally tried to get things a bit organized before my departure.

I made a simple dinner, and then we went out and bought ice cream and strawberry and rhubarb pie, and had dessert. BorderCrossing has been fighting off the Martian Death Cold that's been making the rounds of Montreal schools, so we crashed around 23:00 and slept until 09:00 this morning.

Poor BorderCrossing has been earmarked by Pan-Pan as a Potential Purveyor of Pattins, and so he not only jumped in her lap to demand affection every ten minutes or so, but he also climbed all over her during the night, with accompanying sounds of "Mrrp?" inquiring why she wasn't patting him *right now*. BorderCrossing is not exactly a cat person. She tolerates them, but has no especial affinity with them, and thus sported a long-suffering look while she put up with his incessant attentions. I thought it was hilarious, but I did sympathize with her after he spent most of the night stepping on her hair while trying to sleep on her head. :D

This morning we put together the third bookcase. I made French toast and packed my bags, and at noon sharp I was on the road. The trip to Québec City was not without mishaps: I forgot my USB key at HQ (oops), but luckily someone left after me and brought it to me tonight. Thank God. I also took a wrong turn somewhere around Albuquerque, causing my partner and I to get to Québec nearly an hour later than we'd originally planned. Oops, again.

Dinner was fun. We got to meet the other operators who are going to be working with us, and had a grand old time taking pictures and what have you at the dinner table. Afterward I *finally* got to come and check into the hotel, which is *miles* better than the last hotel I had when I was here in July. The room is really nice, doesn't smell of cigarette, and is very, very clean. It has wireless internet, so I brought my laptop, which means I have access to all my online stuff rather than being stuck with the crappy hotel computer I had last time. It also has a teeny tiny pool (over-heated and kidney-shaped, so my thought of doing laps is kind of a bust) and a teeny tiny gym, which I plan to use as much as I can after my shifts, unless the RCMP officers take it over, which is possible. It also has a really nice flat-screen TV with what appears to be a free movie service (I'm going to double-check that, though). It also has a nice leather reading chair with footed lamp, and crappy modern art on the walls. :D

So I'll be able to keep my resolution to post every day for a year even though I'm in a different city. So far I've managed to keep my resolution, although I cheated slightly today by back-posting a quick entry for yesterday. I didn't want to open up the computer while BorderCrossing was there, because it would be rude. She's not a computer person, really, so I don't foresee us spending time in the same room on different computers the way many of my friends do. Ah well. I found out last night by accident that she likes video games, so that's a plus. Maybe I'll be able to get some two-player games that we can play together. I'll have to get a second controller for the PS2, or if that doesn't exist figure out something else.

Anyway, I shall be off to bed soon, as I have an early start tomorrow. I'm going to unpack my suitcase to make sure none of my clothes are too wrinkled. The hotel even supplies an iron and ironing board! It's very exciting. ;)

Good night, all, and I will be posting live from Québec City again tomorrow, at roughly the same bat-time, same bat-channel. Stay tuned for the next thrilling instalment!

The problem with working so much (Only one problem? Yes. Only one.) is that I have to cram a lot of things and events into a very short space of time. Then I get to my work week even more exhausted, and the cycle continues.

Tarasmas was awesome, as ever. I got to play a truly villainous villain. I hammed it up and cackled maniacally and had a fabulous time.

Spent the night at BorderCrossing's. She is something of a night owl, and she kept talking until about 03:00, which was wonderful to listen to, except that part of my brain kept going "Ohmygodit'slateandI'mtiredandIwanttosleep!" and so I kept losing bits of the conversation (woefully one-sided, I am ashamed to say) and kind of drifting off until she took pity on me and we went to sleep.

She made me a fabulous breakfast of a croissant and jam (artfully placed in a shot glass on the plate) with slices of cheese and scrambled eggs and vanilla yoghurt with bananas and blueberries. There was also tea and orange juice (I nearly typoed that as "tea and oranges," as in "And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China," and God I'm a dork). Delicious.

I spent the rest of the day cooking and chatting with toughlovemuse and luvenditti. We had a blast, cooked up a storm, and generally caught up and had a grand old time.

All too soon it was time to come home, and I am dead on my feet. I kid you not. Very, very dead. I have to go to bed *rightnow* because I have to be up again in six and a half hours to go to work.

There aren't enough hours in the day, and not enough days in the week. I love having such a full life, but at the same time, I always feel as though I'm constantly running to catch up with myself.

I forgot to thaw my frozen bananas overnight, so now I have the post in hot water. When they're ready, I'll be making banana bread for the picnic at Murray Hill park this afternoon.

Gretzky is sitting in a sunbeam in a spot of the garden that my mother cleared yesterday. She looks very contented. George is tearing around the garden like a mad thing. The garden is officially the Bestest Thing Evar.

I let Pan-Pan and Smugde outside yesterday too, but predictably that didn't go very well. Pan-Pan went right out, escorted by Gretzky, then realized that there was no ceiling, freaked out and hid under a big ivy plant until I came to rescue him. He came back in with me, and in a fit of anxiety at the contents of his entire bowl of kibble. No more excursions for him. Smudge looked dubiously at the open door, then cautiously edged out until he was *justpast* the threshold, and stopped. Then he freaked out and streaked back inside when I tried to close the door. We repeated this three times until I got fed up. He and Pan-Pan will just have to stay indoors.

My parents came by yesterday. My mother's jihad against the weeds in the garden was quite the success: she got fully 1/3 of the weeds beaten back. I am flummoxed, but pleased. I never expected her to do so well: on the whole my mother works at everything slowly. I guess she really missed gardening. One thing I need to make clear is that garden waste needs to be composted and not tossed into garbage bags, but one thing at a time, I guess.

My father was an ace. He helped me put the lock on the back shed (I was getting to it eventually, but it turned out to be a wee bit more complicated than I thought it would be, so having him there to consult with me worked out well), then drove me places so I could buy cat litter and exchange my too-large towel rack for a more appropriately-sized towel ring.

He also took me to Home Depot, where I finally got this annoying floor problem settled. Within the next two weeks I will no longer have to worry about it. Hah!

The only downside to having my parents here helping out is that they stress me out like woah! They both want my full attention at the same time and in completely separate places.

Paternal Unit: *holding something large and heavy* "Can you come open the front door for me?"

Maternal Unit: "Come look at the garden and tell me what you want done with $thing."

Me: "Okay, I have to open the door first."

Maternal Unit: "Hmph. Fine."

Paternal Unit: "Are you going to get the door or what?"

Me: "Gah! Coming! You two should have had twins!"


After they were gone (mercifully they had a commitment at 16:00, so after much stress and leaving-late, they were gone by 14:00), I barely had time to check LJ before BorderCrossing called, and we spent a very enjoyable evening together. I joined her downtown, we hit Chapters and a couple of used bookstores, where I picked up two more Elizabeth Peters novels in my quest to get the whole series on my greedy shelves.

Upon hearing that she had never heard of Slings & Arrows, I took this as a flimsy excuse to procure all three seasons and inflict it on her. We stopped for souvlaki and bought dessert at Dad's Bagels before heading to her place. We watched the premiere of Season 1, and I think she liked it, although she clearly had her mind on other things. Anyway, I have no complaints. We are going to watch more next Saturday, before Tarasmas.

*looks at clock*

Wow. I started this post well over two hours ago. The banana bread is in the oven, and I must go shower.

It occurs to me on a fairly regular basis these days that, busy as I am, I have very little to complain about in my life these days: I love my job, I love my apartment, I have a great girlfriend and fantastic friends. I have a very fulfilling life. Things that frustrate me are really minor in the grand scheme of things. I could very easily continue along these lines for a very long time and never be unhappy.

:)