It Pretty Much Went Like That

And just like that, almost two weeks went by...

I wasn't so overly busy I couldn't post, I was just lacking the motivation to write anything. I think I kind of burned myself out on the Christmas posting and just needed a no-guilt break from posting for a little bit. It was well-worth it. Still, life continued on while all was quiet on here so let's glance back.

1. My goal of listing everything each week is still going well... kind of. I got a little overzealous after my last post and wrote a list which was three pages long. Granted, it was a lot of small (but important) tasks written on pages only 20 lines long, but it was still long. Monday and Tuesday, I attacked that thing like McCarthy attacked suspected communists.

Image from Hyperbole and a Half. Specifically this post.

Full disclosure: I love Ali Brosh with all my heart.

Wednesday I looked at the list and did a few things but just couldn't find the motivation to keep it up for more than an hour (plus there was snow to play in!). Thursday, I woke up feeling achy and unable to concentrate for longer than 5 mins at a time. Friday was full flu-epidemic in my world. Dammit.

Monday and Tuesday had taken the list down to one page so I'm clinging to the idea that had I not been incubating a petri dish in my nasal cavities/head/throat/achy back muscles, I totally could have gotten the list completed. And I totally would have cleaned all the things!

2. It snowed in Victoria. It was beautiful. I don't have pictures because a) I had to return the camera to its rightful owner and b) just like you don't bring a knife to a gun fight, you don't bring electronics to a snowball fight.

But it was really pretty. The temps stayed low enough that it stuck around like proper Alberta snow instead of turning into the slushy, icy, deathtrap snow that it usually is in Victoria. Then one night it started raining and when the city woke up the next morning, the snow was gone. That's the way I wish it would happen every year.

3. Season Four of Merlin has started. Yes, I watch Merlin. Judge me all you want, I like it.

It's cheesy fun times with adorable accents and awesome sets. And seeing as Doctor Who isn't on right now, I need something to watch while I enjoy my Sunday morning coffee. Also, James Callis (aka Gaius Baltar from BSG) has a guest appearance on it this week so my geeky heart is just jumping with excitement. I will defend my love of this cheesy, cheesy show. Now, if you really want to judge me...

4. The Challenge: Battle of the Exes has started on MTV. Strangely enough, I don't actually care for 'The Real World' from which this was born. The Challenge is different. I always make an effort to watch it. Judge me. Please. Goodness knows, I'm judging myself for admitting this. The first episode aired this past Wednesday and I was way more giddy about it than any 30+ year old has any right to be.

5. I'm back to work in the office. I've been put in charge of a new project which is both awesome and intimidating. I'm the only person in my building working on it, while all my contacts either work in the other building or work for a different ministry/business partner. It's strange to go from a position where all my thoughts on a program had to go through my supervisor for approval before being signed off at the ministry to a position where all my thoughts go through me and, within my little sphere of influence, the ministry doesn't have to sign off on it.

Check back in six months for my update about how I ran the program into the ground and brought the entire government to its knees with an excel spreadsheet.

Guess where I borrowed and modified this from.

6. Remember when I said I was working on a vlog? Almost done. Just thought you should know that. You know what else is almost done? My final Ireland post with reviews of places we stay/ate/visited. It turned into a book so I'm going back and editing it down to a more bare-bones, less trying-to-be-funny, review post. Strictly reviews/suggestions for other travellers.

7. More judging: I'm going to Underworld: Awakening tonight. Is it going to be crap? Probably. Will I love every crappy moment of it? Definitely. I have an unhealthy love of that series... even the second really crappy one. For all my 'I read science blogs and non-fiction books', I have crap taste in films and have no right to judge anyone's film preferences... unless it's Twilight.

But not the second one. It barely had a story.

8. I got my DVDs of Firefly back from the person I lent them to. Between lending them to three different friends, I haven't had them in over six months. Obviously, I need to rewatch them. I'm toying with the idea of a 12-week Firefly Friday post series. Just giving you all fair warning that it may get really nerdarific up in here!

I've missed my little corner of the Internets. It feels good to be back.

Backtracking Through Ireland

The great thing about travelling with someone is that they take pictures of you so you get to relive all those silly things you did which you wouldn't take pictures of. Before I post the final two Ireland posts, I've decided to backtrack and post a couple of Al's photos that I got from her today.

This is how you do a pub crawl in Dublin:

And that's why I needed a sexy hot coffee the next morning:

See, I told you I made friends with that horse!

This is my 'wind so strong it's going to knock me over' mime dance at Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. It was closely followed by my 'let's get the hell back to the sheltered bus' mime dance.

If you complain about the lame rip-off that is the Donegal Castle too loudly, they lock you in. Or maybe this was the morning after the night at the pub. I'm not sure. To be honest, the whole two days there are a little hazy.

And thus ends my overly narcissistic blog post (all posts are somewhat narcissistic, it's the nature of the beast, but most posts don't have photos of only me). Until the next time I feel the need to say "look at ME!"

Overload of Posts

After a week of not even a peep on the blog, I'm going to bury you in a plethora of posts today. That's how all the lazy successful bloggers do it, right? I could just make it one really long blog, but I think this way works better. And it's my blog so there :P

Yes, I just did a 'tongue stick out' emoticon. I'm mature like that.

For my Victoria peeps (or Victoria-adjacent-and-willing-to-travel), Saturday night is Matoto's AGM. Once the AGM portion wraps up (which you are also invited to attend), then we're going to have a celebration because...

*drum roll*

...our school in Kubian, Guinea officially opened its doors on October 5th of this year!! There is more information about our AGM and Celebration Gala on our facebook event page. We'd love to see you out!

Things I Think Are Awesome: Part Two

Part two of no segues has arrived. (There will also be no segways. We've been over this.)

1. This Photo

For those of you born without the geek chromosome (oh, how boring your life must be), that's Nathan Fillion, Felicity Day, Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Anthony Head all in the same photo! On top of that, the photo was taken in the house of Joss Whedon!!

Throw in a Wil Wheaton, and I would have stolen a car and driven to that party... three days late, but whatever.

2. Sleeping masks

At some point this summer, I noticed that I was waking up really early regardless of what time I went to bed. I started sleeping with a shirt strategically placed across the top half of my head and noticed a huge difference. After a conversation with my mom, I got one of their free-from-a-plane-trip sleeping mask and it's love. Well, lust.

I've noticed that it's much easier to fall asleep and when I wake up, I've actually slept the whole night. I'm waking up at 7:00am (without an alarm clock!) feeling completely refreshed. I'm also not waking up through out the night because of various street noises. I'm attributing this to the fact that I'm reaching REM sooner and staying in it longer because the light from the outside streetlamp is no longer affecting my sleep patterns.

Of course, I'm not a scientist, so this could all just be mumbo-jumbo bulldroppings.

But it sounds impressive, right?

The only downside is that the cheep sleeping mask can occasionally get a little hot and sweaty. An upgrade to a higher calibre of mask is on the horizon (although I'll stick with this one for now).

3. Fernwood Village

I felt it was time I threw a little love at my little corner of Victoria. It's a funky area to live in and I don't always give it the props it deserves. When I first moved to Fernwood in 2003, the NRG was pretty much a non-entity,  the George and Dragon Pub was the site of the worst service I had ever experienced in my life (and I was spat on by a waitress in Paris, so, you know, the G&D was pretty crappy), the dark square and questionable 'residents' meant I never walked through the area at night, and the largest building sat boarded up.

I would tell people I lived in Fernwood and I could see that look in their eye.

Flash forward five years and I'm back into the neighbourhood. The NRG is a sizable organisation which has bought and developed the Cornerstone Building (which houses the awesome Cornerstone Cafe), all available building space has been taken up by independent, locally owned businesses, the Fernwood Inn is actually a decent pub with decent service(!!), and the more questionable residents have been 'encouraged' to vacate, leaving behind the fun, funky artist and Bohemian types who make this neighbourhood so awesome.

As a community, we came together for a day and painted the poles. How awesome is that?

The Cornerstone Building is hiding in the background.

From the annual FernFest to small street parties, Fernwood really is about making the neighbourhood a neighbourhood. It's impossible to walk around the area without meeting someone you know from random conversations in  the cafe, the pub, or one of the restaurants.

I'm so glad I moved back to the area and got to give it another chance. I couldn't imagine living anywhere else.

PS. One of the people who makes Fernwood awesome, is Terry.

4. TARDIS Cat scratcher

Doctor Who!

Cats!

Together at last!

My mind = blown!

Okay, so it's not really the first time they've been together. In fact, if google is anything to go by, most Doctor Who fans must also be cat-owners. But my mind is still blown!

Tip of the Catnip to THR for sending this my way. More pictures can be found here.

5. Bakingdom

I woke up to find this announcement on the Bakingdom facebook place:

I pretty much had to sweep up my mind so it could be re-blown.

Fingers crossed she finds a way to make this happen!

6. Munro's Books

In anticipation of possibly going to Guinea next year, I wandered into Chapter's to peruse their French section. I had two goals while I was in there: 1) create a mental list of the type of French books I'd like to take to the school, and 2) check out the selection of sewing books to gauge if there's any with lots of pictures and very little writing.

While the children's section in french took up a decent chunk of space, it was the same eight books over and over and over and over. Okay, so perhaps there were more than eight, but the point is that there was a lot of repetition.

I mentally noted a couple of books and then headed out to Munro's. It will never cease to amaze me that a book a book store that would take up less than half of one floor of our three story Chapters building has a better book selection. Not only did they have more options for children's books in french, they also had an adult section in French, German, Italian and Spanish.

When it comes time to actually think about ordering these books seriously, you'll find me at Munro's (or Bolen's, love them too).

Also, Chapters, you kinda suck. But that's a different post.

Shoot for the Moon. Earth's Gravitational Pull Will Prevent You From Obtaining Orbit But Maybe You'll Land Somewhere Interesting.

After a fabulous weekend in Nanaimo during which we visited Gabriola for the Theatre Festival, played a total of 11 games of rummy (so, roughly 100 hands), drank a few bottles of wine, drank a few gallons of tea, and discovered I had injured myself, the rest of Summer has flown by.
Did you know it's September 1st today?

I know!

I realised that out of all my plans for the summer, very few of them actually happened but I'm okay with that.

Camping plans fell through at the last minute. Hiking plans never happened due to something else happening pretty much every weekend. Travel to Vancouver and Seattle never materialised for the same reason. I did a lot of running but conflicting schedules and then injury stopped my goal of four-times-a-week.

I did get to catch up with some old friends at Shawnigan. I sat in the gardens at Government House and read a good book. I had multiple BBQs with awesome people. I verbally committed to going to Guinea in December 2012 and teaching the Kubian village ladies to sew school uniforms.

Wait, what?

Yeah, you read that right. But don't worry, go back and reread it just to make sure. I'll wait.

Through the magic of links, I'll remind you of the time I said:

5) MoonDance is talking about going back to Guinea for another dance/drum intensive learning holiday in 2012. Actually, Lynn suggested it a few years ago and then later said it wasn't a firm plan. Tonight Erin and I decided that we're just going to talk about it like it's happening because then it will. So, I'm totally going to Guinea in 2012. You heard it here first.

Erin and I were (sort of) joking but it worked. Moondance is going to Guinea in 2012 for dance and drum lessons. (While I have verbally committed to doing this, I will refrain from saying I'm actually going until I can sit down and do some accounting math and planning.)

Moondance is very closely related to Matoto as Matoto was born out of Moondance's last trip to Guinea. At at working bee last week, we were discussing our school in Kubian which will begin teaching students this October! (very excited about that) when the topic of school uniforms came up. I remembered a project in Tanzania where the local women were taught to sew the uniforms which in turn gave the additional income to the mostly single women.

Why can't we do that?

Except we need someone who sews.

And that, my friends, is how I ended up verbally committing to going to Guinea.

(Actually, I told them that if I am able to make the trip to Guinea, I would teach sewing but that the *if* is quite substantial at this time. They gave me a 'uh-huh' look which clearly states they expect me to fully make it happen. I do, after all , have 15 months to get it sorted.)

Something else I need to get sorted out in that time? French.

Guinea's only offical language is French. While I know that many of our teachers will have some English and many of my fellow travellers will have some French, I'd like to be able to do most of the teaching with as little translation as possible. In other words, I should have started learning French yesterday.

I'm nothing if not ambitious... and slightly crazy.

Mostly crazy.

Why I Hate the Bus Eireann and UlsterBus Websites

(And Why I Love My Family!)

One of the more exciting parts of my upcoming Ireland trip for me is that my friend, Al, is going to be joining me. I have a friend with me and for the first time ever, I get to tell my family to shove their "but you have to come over for tea... again" and go be a tourist.

Okay, so I would never complain about meeting my family for tea, but it's lovely to know that I have a built in excuse to leave the family trail for the tourist trail. Like Donegal. I haven't been to Donegal since I was nine. I miss Donegal, but I don't have any family that lives there so it's not high on the list when I go. Well, this time it is because I think it is the most beautiful part of Ireland (take that, over-touristed South-West!) and that everyone should go there. (But don't tell them that I sent you, they'd probably revoke my Irish passport for ruining their little secret.)

Given that it's not just me going, I want to make sure that we get to where we want, when. I know that my family would be more than willing to drive us between points but I want to know that if no one is able to go from Dublin to Armagh until Saturday and we want to leave on Thursday, we can do it.

Via Monaghan, of course, so I could stop at the cemetary and pay my respects.

Enter Irish Public Transit.

I had a problem trying to get DART information a few weeks ago and even took to ranting about it on facebook.

Bus Eireann and UlsterBus blew them all out of the water!

There's a Bus Eireann/UlsterBus multi-day pass and I wanted to have a rough idea if point-to-point would be a cheaper option. I figured looking at the fares would be the easiest way to do this. Oh, how nieve I was!

Bus Eireann was confusing and would give fares going to the North on one page but not on another; once you got to the fare page, you couldn't then click a 'home button' to return to a new search quiery; the default stop for most cities was not the main bus station but other smaller stops (often on regional busses so then you get "transfer at the main station, blah, blah, blah"); in short, it was frustrating and not the least bit user friendly but I was able to get a few rough ideas of time tables and prices.

A couple of our trips would be entirely in the North. As this region is covered by UlsterBus, I didn't expect Bus Eireann to cover the information (and it didn't) so I headed over to UlsterBus to get a few price ideas. Given that they had three links on their main page which said "UlsterBus Fares", I had high hopes. Yet every time I tried to get fair info, it ended with this message:

Every.

Single.

Time.

RAWR!!!!

I again took to facebook to rant.

Within five minutes, I had four different messages from my cousins all saying that they (or their parents, love how we children are so willing to volunteer other family members) will gladly drive me and my friend where ever we need to go.

"I work until three most days but then I can run you up to the North."

"If we need to meet somewhere and drive back, you can just give me a call."

"Why are you bothering with UlsterBus? You know my dad will be more than happy to take you where you want to go."

"You know my dad's retired, right? I'm sure he'd love to pick you up and run you around ."

And that's how crappy, crappy websites reminded me of how much I love my family... even if they do live eight time zones away...

...and even if one of them joked that the websites were IQ tests, I've failed, and now I won't be allowed through customs.

And By the Way...

Did she mention my name? Did she mention my name just in passing?

I should really start playing a game on this blog called: Andrea references a quite-possibly-obscure-to-everyone-else song and you tell me who I'm singing.*

Anyway, in amongst all the whining bitching complaining crying frustration of the last blog, I forgot to mention my exciting news: I GOT MY PLANE TICKET BABY!!

Now it's not just official that I'm going to Ireland to visit the famdamily because I keep saying I'm going but because I actually have a ticket in my hot little hand (well, I have a booking confirmation which will turn into a ticket but you get the point).

That means it is 72 days until:

I wander around Dublin (although this time will be sans the ice cream but probably still with the latest copy of Four-Four-Two. Oh, and the overall shorts are loooooong gone, you'll be happy to know.)

I pop into Bewley's to laugh at their ridiculous outfits enjoy a cuppa after a day of walking around Dublin.

I arrive too late to catch the All Ireland Hurling or Gaelic Football Matches but that doesn't mean I won't be joining in the good natured ribbing of anyone who talks smack about 'my' teams. For the record, I am happy when any of the following teams win: Monaghan (ha! Good luck with that ever happening), Tipperary (my stepmom's family comes from there and her cousin-in-law was a hurler although he's been retired at least 10 years now and unlike my other teams, they actually win with some sense of regularity), Armagh (uncle lives there, it's where I spent most of my time when I  was not in Dublin on previous trips), or Galway (I lived and worked there when I was 19).

Story behind the picture. That's my dad and his friend, Alan, at Alan's Dublin home in 1996. My uncle (dad's brother-in-law) is from Wexford (the flag shown) so we were all pulling for them in the All Ireland Hurling Final but Alan is from Limerick. My stepmom had made a bet with Alan on the Limerick-Tipperary semi-final game and lost. When she demanded a chance to win it back, Alan was more than willing to make a bet with her on the final. He ended up making £10 bets with multiple members of our family. When Wexford won (1-13 to 0-14**) we took a little bit too much joy in going around Alan's place to collect our £60 worth of bets from him.

I visit possible locations for the Zombie Apocalypse.

I hang out with cousins, aunts, uncles, and possibly some sheep.

I cheat death on Monaghan's back roads. Seriously, I love my family but the whole country drives like it was supposed to be somewhere 20 minutes ago.

I make my family take me to tourist spots and then make them stand with me in the pictures.

My family and I get into the beer and start playing the "do you remember...?" game. Eventually someone will try and be funny and whip out the old "do I remember? Will I ever forget?" and we'll all have a good laugh before the story teller of that particular memory says "no, really, do you remember?". I can't wait to whip out the "do you remember when we all wore short-shorts and Barry McGuigan shirts?" If Alan wants to win back some of that £60 (however many € that would be now), I'm willing to bet they all remember but none of them will cop to it...

See you in September, Ireland!

*If people do want to play along, I'll answer this answer in the next post if no one gets it (which would mean my mom has stopped reading my blog). NO GOOGLING FOR ANSWERS!!

**Hurling is a sport that I love to watch (I've been to three games in Croke Park--all with my uncle Frank--and they were easily the best live sporting matches of my life) but I don't really follow because, well, hello, I live on the west coast of Canada. I say "I like hurling" and people respond "Curling?" We had two hurleys growing up and I used to take them to the lower field and practice flipping the sliotar up from the ground and then hitting it in midair. I've described hurling as 'field hockey played by rugby players' and an aunt calls it 'open warfare with a referee'. Both are pretty apt. If you don't believe me, I've linked to an instructional video. I may do a post about it in the future because it's an awesome sport. It's also played in some of the larger cities in North America with sizable Irish populations. I encourage you to try and catch a game to see what all the awesomeness is about.

EDIT: incorrect links in original posts. My bad!

He's Ba-ack!

Carl is back!

Except this time, the noise is coming from the opposite side of my apartment and only when my patio door is open.

This Carl is a real person playing a real ukulele on one of the balconies.

I'm secretly hoping that it's coming from the same apartment I could smell the tea and bacon coming from this morning. Then I secretly hope that I figure out which apartment it is and that we become friends and then they start inviting me over for weekend breakfasts which I will eat while they serenade me on the ukulele.

I wonder if my soon-to-be new found friend will mind if I just call them Carl?

"Life is Either a Daring Adventure or Nothing" ~Helen Keller

At about 10:00am yesterday morning, knowing that I wasn't scheduled to work in the office today or tomorrow, I decided to take a last minute whirlwind trip to Vancouver for tonight's game seven.

I'm currently sitting on the ferry between Swartz Bay and Tsawwassen with 5 million other Canucks fans* on our way to a huge party in downtown Vancouver (assuming Vancouver wins. If Boston wins... egads, I'll be booting it out of downtown as quickly as the SkyTrain can carry me).

Technically, I won't be in downtown Vancouver. I'll be across the bridge in Kitsilano (hanging out with THR and Shannon), but it's closer than Victoria and unless you're from Vancouver/the West Coast, it's still Vancouver.

Also, I'm camera-less so I bought a crappy disposable which needs to be sent to a 'photo shop' to be 'developed' so pictures of my daring adventure will not be instantaneous to the blog (and will probably be pretty sketch once they are up).

This is also a preemptive apology for all the Boston slander I may or may not tweet about and/or post on certain Boston-based bloggers' sites (who have done nothing to deserve the slander themselves, but a few beers in and anyone in Boston is fair game.)

LET'S GO CANUCKS!!!!

*I may be exaggerating. Maybe. Just a little.

Sloppy Dismount,You Only Get a 6.9

After a gloriously sunny weekend and ensuing week, winter decided to poke its head out for one last hurrah today. It was overcast and down right chilly. I had to put on pants and a jacket just to go the coffee shop... in June... I KNOW!! Anyway, the clouds lifted a little this evening so now I'm enjoying a beautiful pink and orange sunset.

The upside to the less-than-stellar-weather is that I took my laptop to the coffee shop (jaunty beret and black skinny jeans not included) and actually did research for something I want to write. I momentarily felt like a student again until I remembered that I would never have spent eight straight hours researching anything in university. Hmm, maybe that was my problem. The research I was doing? Well, you'll soon see it on here.

The Canucks lost last night. I don't want to talk about it. Instead, I watched my sleeping cat roll of the back of her favourite chair and giggled. She jumped back up like she hadn't just displayed the grace and dexterity of a wired chihuahua and promptly returned to sleeping. I tried to sneak up to take some adorable photos but she was having none of that. I did, however, managed to talk her into some glamour shots.

"That's it, baby! Work the camera. Fierce. Give me fierce!"*

"The camera loves you, darling. Don't forget to smize!"*

As for the rest of this evening, I have some crafts I have to do in conjunction with the research I did today. I bet that piqued your interest!

Good night!

*These make a lot more sense if you've ever sat through America's Next Top Model.

The Date

I was apprehensive about the whole idea but he had been persistent. It's been a while since any guy's advances towards me could have been described as persistent so I decided to throw caution to the wind and say "why not?" Well, here's why not:

We had agreed to meet for an early dinner. I set the alarm on my phone to go off so I could fake a reason to leave if I needed to and then walked to the pub a couple of blocks from my house while my phone remained neatly on my dining table. I had no exit strategy. I finally understood how George W. Bush felt about Iraq.

I arrived at the pub and quickly found him. We made eye contact as I approached and he stood up to greet me. I reached out to shake his hand while he went in for a hug. Midway through this awkward disaster-waiting-to-happen he realised his error and moved to shake my hand instead. Except in his haste to bring his right hand down and across he punched me in the boob. Hard. So hard I winced and grabbed my boob in full view of the entire pub.

This was sign # 1 that I should really just turn around and leave. I didn't. Silly me.

"I didn't sleep well last night because my cats decided to play tag at two in the morning."
"I'm highly allergic to cats."
I have two. This does not bode well for either of us. Not once in the three times in messages that I mentioned my cats did he ever respond about being allergic. So either he didn't really read my messages because he's a douche or he purposely hid this information from me because he's a douche.

After losing his job due to downsizing during the recession, he moved home. Having a brother in the exact same situation, I have no problem with this per sae, my problem is that he is now employed. I asked if he has plans to move out now that he's working. He doesn't. These are my acceptable reasons for not moving out:

• I incurred debt while unemployed and I want to pay it off before I move out.
• I've decided to save money so I can put a down payment down on a house instead of renting again.
• A parent is having some health issues so I'm staying close to home for the time being.
• After the stress of unemployment and having to be frugal with money, I'm saving up for a really nice five star holiday to relax and treat myself. Once I'm back from that, I'll look to move out.
• My parents' retirement fund took a hit in the market. I know that paying them rent is going a long way to helping them out with that so I'm going to stay for a bit to keep helping them out.

This is not an acceptable reason to keep living at home in your late 30's: My mom makes me pancake breakfast at least once a week, why would I move out? A girlfriend won't do that. This girl definitely won't do that after that comment.

We ended up on the topic of hockey as most my conversations do these days. He was honest that he's not a sports fan but he hoped the Canucks did well. I give points for being honest about his disinterest in sports instead of lying about it (which is all the rage in BC right now), but after then I told him I'm a Canucks fan and he called me a bandwagon jumper because all girls just are. I kid you not, those where his exact words. In one fell swoop, he lost all the points he had gained by being honest.

In trying to find a shared interest, I bring up comic books. He had mentioned them and it seemed like a topic I could show an interest in. After a 10 minute discussion with himself about DC vs Marvel, he looks up at me like he had completely forgotten I was there and then meekly asks "uh, what do you think?"
"I'm not a big comic book reader myself. I mean, I've read a few over the years but it's like D&D, I've often thought I'd like to get into that but I just don't know where to start. I'd be like Zach from The Big Bang Theory: "where are the Archie comics?" Do you watch TBBT?"
"No."
"Oh. You should. It's hilarious. Anyway, I do really like the subculture that goes with comic books. Some of the artwork is amazing. I've read a couple of graphic novels. I'm really starting to get into Steampunk costumes and decorating, that came out of a sub-culture of comics and cosplay, I believe. Sci-Fi obviously overlaps with the comic book culture a lot and I love sci-fi. In fact, my friend and I are talking about going to the ECCC next year."
"ECCC?"
"Emerald City Comicon. In Seattle."
"A convention?"
"Yeah." I'm starting to get excited. This is something we have in common and we're only halfway through eating, maybe this will take us to the end of the date!
"Don't do it."
"Why not?" I'm a bit shocked at the attitude he's pulled about going to the con.
"People who go to cons are creepy. I mean, they're grown adults who dress up in costumes for Christ's sake!"
First off, I've just told you I want to go to a con and you've told me that makes me creepy. Thanks a lot.
Second, cosplay is awesome. 'Nuff said.
Third, you're a grown ass adult who doesn't want to move out of your parents home because of pancakes. That is creepy.

When the bill finally arrived, my heart did a little jig. My feet may have even tapped a bit under the table. Now, I had every intention of paying my portion of the bill before I arrived at the pub (I mean, I wasn't going to turn him down if he insisted but I by no means expected him to pay even though he did ask me five times to go on a date before I accepted) but I expected the courtesy of "the bill dance". You know the dance: let me get it; no, no, it's okay, I'll pay my portion; are you sure?; yes. That dance: the world-wide dance done on many a first dates.

Instead he grabs up the bill, loudly complains that it hasn't been separated, states his mathematical prowess while figuring out his portion of the bill, then promptly forgets to a) include his portion of the tax and b) tipped a whopping $0.85. I point this out to him and he writes out the math on a napkin while talking like I'm some simpleton. When he doesn't include the tax after I point it out again, I flag down our waitress and ask for separate bills.

As we're leaving the pub, he asks with all sincerity if he could call me again. Without thinking, I laugh. I feel bad about that for a millisecond before remembering that I'm a creepy bandwagon jumper and simply tell him 'no'. No reasons, no excuses, just no.

When I get home, I find my phone where I left it. It's screaming at its loudest volume "TURN ME OFF! TURN ME OFF!" while the screen blinks on and off. I know exactly how it feels.

After The Ball Is Over...

Life lately has been crazy and awesome and difficult and amazing and stressful and invigorating and soul-destroying and life-affirming. In short, it's been life. And it's been busy. And after this weekend, that will change a little because then I will be done with this:

It's hard to believe all our hard work is actually coming together. I wasn't part of Matoto for their first Gala (nor did I even know about it to attend) so I'm excited both as an organizer and as a participant. I'm also nervous. What if it all goes spectacularly sideways? What if no one likes the silent auction items? What if you can hear crickets during the doundounba (circle dance) that closes the night? What if I trip walking up the stairs while carrying the bottles of wine and smash them all? Why am I more concerned about the wasted wine then the loss of revenue? At this point, I just have to sit back, take a deep breath and see how it all plays out.

I've been working on a vlog (video blog for those not 'in the know'). After all my Irish themed posts, I thought a short story showing off the words that I say 'funny' by North American standards was in order. It's coming... as soon as I can find time to film it.

There's so much more to say but it's late, my laundry is done, and I'm so tired I'm wondering if anyone will complain if I leave my laundry in the dryer overnight.

They probably will. I guess I'll go get it. Until sometime next week!

PS. The title is a reference to Showboat and it's when I plan to finally get some decent sleep!

Happy Sunday, Everyone!

I am spending a relaxing Sunday night listening to Vivaldi, drinking my last glass of white wine and updating my blogs. It is my calm before the storm. I have a busy week coming up, especially seeing as I'm finally feeling better so I've got a million jobs to catch up on, I've got something on every night this week and *drumroll, please* tomorrow is the official start of my "101 in 1001". Yes, I'm taking the plunge and tackling this slightly crazy idea. As I always like to say before I do something (usually) stupid in Rummy, in for a penny, in for a pound. I picked October 4, 2010 as my start date for two reasons: 1) I thought two weeks would be enough time to complete my list (it wasn't, I'm scrambling to complete it tonight) and 2) it makes the end date July 1, 2013. How patriotic of me!!

October 1st was supposed to be my second attempt at Project 365, however, thanks to a few dead batteries, I had to push it back to the 2nd. When I started the Project 365 the first time, I was a person who only took photos while on holidays. I failed miserably due to my own self-consciousness about taking photos of people and things. I gave myself a month to get used to taking photos and not feeling so uncomfortable with snapping every chance I got. I feel much better prepared this second time around. Like last time, you can click on my flikr account link on the right to take you the pictures. Not all of them will be posted in an actual blog.

I also spent a lot of time with my mom this weekend. She and my stepdad are off to Nova Scotia for the Cape Breton Celtic Music Festival and to visit some friends over there. I am just a wee bit jealous of them and it didn't really help that during dinner we listened to a CD of a guy they saw last time there were in Nova Scotia. He played song after song of Irish songs I remembered from my childhood. I hate my mom and stepdad right now and I don't care if they know it. "Oh, we might drive the Cabot Trail again." Yeah, well, I'd like to drive it once so bah-humbug. I hope you guys have a great time, I really do, I'm just going to be bitter about it until you're back.