Corner of Bourbon & Division

I'm sorry, you say I got that wrong? That it's Valentine's Day? *peers out the window* Snow Day seems like a perfectly apt name for it. :P

Happy Valentine's Day for those who celebrate it, whether you're single, dating, married, shacked up, in a polyamorous relationship, whatever permutation of humanity floats your boat. Love is for everyone, and doesn't come purely in the form of romantic love, no matter what the greeting cards would like to have you believe.

The proof is in the pudding, after all. Lots of friends get together on Valentine's Day to do something special. My father always made sure that both my mother and I got a symbolic present on the day, too. It wasn't about being a couple, it was about love, and he loves both of us.

It'll be the same tonight. If I can get through all this snow, I need to run some errands in order to make tonight special. I haven't figured out what I want to make for dinner. It has to be something Bean will eat (hah), but I'd also like it to be a little fancier than our usual fare. I also need to wrap the tiny presents I got. I was going to knit little Valentine's hearts for the two of them, but I think I won't have time. Maybe next time. :)

I keep meaning to get back into knitting, but I haven't yet found a pattern that I like and that will use only the yarn I have in my stash. pdaughter seems to really like her Doctor Who scarf, so at least there's that. I should check my stash again, and see what I might be able to get away with.

Also, in my copious amount of spare time, I'm thinking of trying to learn to draw better than I do now. That's not hard, as I can't even manage basic drawing right now. If I ever manage to get myself out of the house today, I'm planning on a trip to Michael's for stitch holders and for a small drawing pad and pencils. I may borrow pdaughter's copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and do some of those exercises (I had my own copy, but a long time ago my cats peed all over it and ruined it. My cats are one of the numerous reasons I can't have nice things.). I wonder if april_drawing is still taking place? I've been out of the loop.

I miss a lot of the things I used to do before work ate my life. I miss dancing and learning languages. Dancing isn't feasible these days, schedule-wise, but I may look for some language books and see if I can't immerse myself back in German or Italian, or maybe start a new language. Spanish seems a pretty likely candidate. The last time I tried Mandarin was an unmitigated disaster, so I think holding off on that is a better plan.

We're getting new software to help with the job at work. The new software needs its own console and a live administrator, which means we're getting a new set of computers and setting up a new work station inside our already-cramped central. Today two of the supervisors spent the day moving furniture around: shifting cabinets, unscrewing and re-screwing desks and sundry other bits of office equipment, and generally being loud and disruptive and spreading chaos in their wake. They weren't particularly graceful or efficient about the job, and so the rest of us mocked them mercilessly the entire time from the safety of our desks while we worked.

Otherwise, today was quiet, if bitterly cold. It was -15˚C, and with the wind chill it felt more like -26˚C. Not the coldest it's ever been (2003 was notable for it's -40˚C temperatures, which recurred all through February), but cold enough that I felt chilly when I went outside, which is rare for me (feeling cold, that is, not going outside). I think it was mostly the humidity and the wind that made it bad: I don't know how fast the wind was blowing today, but at times it felt as though I was in a gale. The corner of Greene and St. Catherine is particularly bad for its "wind tunnel" effect, and at one point the wind actually kept me stationary as I walked into it. Trippy.

The "cold" emoticon looks unhappy. This isn't the case for me, but there's not much I can do about it. Bah.

Once again, the year is going by in a blur. I can't believe that Thursday is Valentine's Day already. My streak of not having a date on Valentine's Day continues unbroken, but mostly I'm noting it simply as an academic interest. I've come to a place in my life where I don't know if I would welcome the complication and added hassles of a relationship. I haven't sworn off love 4-Evar!ZOMG! but at this point I have made the "selfish" decision to not have to worry about someone else at all. Relationships are a lot of work, and I'm not willing to invest the time and energy these days, with everything else that I've got going on. If my soulmate happens to drop into my lap I won't say no, but I doubt that's going to happen.

Tonight I am aiming for a relatively early bed time. I got to bed late(ish) yesterday, and paid for it today. So tonight is catch-up night.

First off, I'd like to apologise for not posting anything other than my serial lately. (Bazillions of new installments are up at secret_history if you're remotely interested. Okay, fourteen since the beginning of the month. Don't get discouraged)

Mostly it's because Life is eating my brain. I'm never home early enough in the evenings to post anything coherent, and I don't want to post junk.

Anyway, I'm breaking my "no junk" rule (if you can even call it a rule) tonight, and whingeing, because it's Valentine's Day. No, I'm not one of the people who hates Valentine's Day. I don't go crazy about it, either. I just like the fact that there's a day out there when people get to celebrate love in all its forms.

( In which Phnee whinges for a while )