gracious, child! how you gobble!

day 4 when jess learns that pole-vaulting is one of the most exciting sports in the world

2008-07-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

on day 4 my intention was to stay in portland. but after a day of being in the city, i wasn't too interested in being in a city anymore. but i went out for breakfast anyway, trying to figure out what i would go see and where i would go. turns out that i would go to eugene since i was reading the paper and found an ad for a public festival at the us track and field olympic trials in eugene that was happening that very day.

two hours later, i was parked at antzen stadium at the university of oregon waiting for the free shuttle and 20 minutes after that, i was at historic hayward field in the land of steve prefontaine (and yes, he certainly does live), track town USA and the land of nike.

i saw the pole-vaulting, javelin and 1500 meter run for the decathlon, the women's 800 meter, men's 800 meter, women's high jump, javelin, and women's steeplechase. i have to say that of all of my sports-watching, that this was one of the most exciting, riveting and engaging events i have ever been to. and when 3 oregon boys won the men's 800 meters, it was one of the loudest. i have NEVER heard a crowd cheer for any sport as loudly as they cheered when they won.

eugene is a place where people watch track. they know all of the stats, they know all of the techniques that enhance all of the disciplines of track and field (i.e. watching the pole-vaulting, "well, his elbow was just too low on that one.... lift it up and he should be fine"), and they are serious about ritual. having never been to a "real" track meet where the sport lies on the cusp of professional / amateur, i had never experienced the etiquette of track-watching.

there is A LOT of clapping. in fact, much of the "cheering" is expressed through clapping. athletes will ask the crowd to clap before performing sometimes (pole-vaulting) or most of the time, the clapping is this crowd-together, rhythmic clapping that follows the runners around the track. and on the last lap of any race, as the runners approach, you rhythmically clap, stand up and then stay standing until the race is done. it is exhilirating.

so here are the pics. as you can tell by my long rant here, i liked this day, and it will make watching the olympics that much more special. watch out for my main man, tom pappas. he is the shit.

day 3, or the day in which jess got tired

2008-07-06T14:59:00.001-07:00

on day 3 i woke up, hopped in my car and was off to portland. i got a wee bit lost driving around once in the city, but found a free parking spot next to powell's book store on a sunday morning which felt like i was going to church. an hour later, refreshed with the literary spirit and 2 books in hand, i started to wander around. made my way to pioneer square, pioneer place mall, the riverfront (of the willamette since i am so intent on listing rivers), whole foods for lunch and then found a hostel where i could lay my head for the night.

went back downtown later where i went to the public market (and bought a cool mug) and then went and saw a movie since i was so tired and needed to stop moving. came out of the movie theatre and walked back to the hostel in one of those delicious summer thunderstorms that broke the heat. then hung out with folks at the hostel and had an early night.

just to prove how tired i was that day, i only took 3 pics. one is of the riverfront and the other is of my bro and niece's alter-egos at the portland market. my bro would be the one playing the accordion, while my niece would be the one playing the kazoo. a match made in heaven that is guaranteed to start bringin' in the cash.

oh and since when does a city plan for skate routes? or have a gazillion cyclists around with bike routes to ensure they don't get completely schmucked? or have free transit downtown?

one mo mountain

2008-07-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

alllllll riiiiiiighhhht. blogger has been giving me some more attitude about photos and i've been giving some good 'tude back.

all i wanted to do was post one more photo of mt. st. helens. and it only took me 24 hours to do so. yeesh.

(but ain't it gorge?)

day 2

2008-07-05T21:58:00.001-07:00

day 2 where i went to mt. st. helens, which was akin to travelling to the moon. it was hot hot hot (almost 100 degrees farenheit) and this alabaster princess was trying not to burn.

it was incredible. a HUGE lesson in the unbelievable smackdown power of Mother Earth and how life can crumble and be devastated in the space of 180 seconds. and yet there is the lesson too of the possibilities and wisdom that arise from 1400 ft. being blown off the top of a mountain and the resilience of nature and humankind. the river which was encrusted with 300 - 400 ft. of lava found a way to continue to flow, the lava dome grows and flowers grow.

when i got to the top, i parked the car and was face to face with a whole posse of corvette drivers that had climbed to the top together. nothing like cars and america, which is why i took this photo:

ya - here's the mountain with some arty flowers:

and here is proof that it's pretty barren there and looks like the moon. and yes i stole some rocks. (just 3 little ones...)

flowers.... which seem all the more beautiful there, for good reason:

and a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to prevent her skin from shattering in the harsh warm light from that giant thing called the sun:

that night

2008-07-05T21:51:00.000-07:00

i went and stayed at dash point state park just near federal way, in between seattle and tacoma. it was pretty and sunny and i had big hair in the big wind.

mo for my bro

2008-07-05T21:44:00.000-07:00

i thought this sign was sooooooo fitting..... i love how at the end of the "book spiral" is a copy of Muscle & Fitness. that seems just about right...

this is a photo of the intersection of the study carel light with a support beam with the glass. yum.

this is the intersection of multiple edges of the exoskeleton of the building:

and this finally is the floor through the stacks of the spl letting you know where you are in the dewey decimal system:

day one, for my bro

2008-07-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

here's a treat for col since he "suggested" that i go to the seattle public library and take pics. when he ruined his own surprise by asking a week later if i was going to go to the library for him (which i've heard is something that i also do) i chastised him for ruining the surprise of me taking pics as a treat for him.

all that to say that here are the pics because he doesn't like the library. no, he does not.

p.s. i'm now completely obsessed with rem koolhaas's work and want to travel to beijing to see his new building which is affectionately called by some locals as "big shorts" since the building is composed of 2 leaning towers. love it already.

spl from the outside:

the main floor of the spl:

map of the spl, which shows how you can go up to the top of the library and then weave your way back down. on most levels you can see at least 3 or 4 levels at a time. it is amazing:

trippety trip trip

2008-07-05T21:30:00.000-07:00

here are some pics from my recent journey to seattle, mt. st. helens, portland, eugene and the oregon coast. i don't really have the time to post my kootenay pics, although i will, but not chronologically, so i'll just go day by day and hope that this works tonight.

growing

2008-06-20T18:01:00.000-07:00

and here are a few from my garden.
i did a photo shoot with my friend derek with my garden, but still don't have the photos. *cough, cough*
so here are some gold nuggets to tide you over in the meantime.

wee baby collards:

nasturtiums which are growing like mad:

and my 5 buck glow-in-the-dark buddha who oversees everything from the corner pocket behind the shelling peas. he makes my day everytime.

fsj photo-taking

2008-06-20T17:43:00.000-07:00

still gerunds.... i have been trying to post these photos for a week now, to no avail. maybe because it's friday, the blogging gods will let me do what i want and let me post the damn things...

SUCCESS!!!

so here's the peace river from a lookout point. it's purdy and contends with the kootenay for open valley beauty in the purdiest river contest.

people routinely drive their cars off the lookout for fun. some cars make it further than others, and some cars have been rotting long than others.

we crossed the peace and this is it from the other side.

then i had to take a picture of the flowers since they were pretty too. i actually bought a wildflower book since i am seeing such amazing flowers (oh, don't worry - you'll see them too) but am still stumped as to what this one is other than beautiful. i was kind of hoping it was an albertan wild rose since i did a project on alberta in gr. 4 and the allure of the blue skies, fields and provincial flower hasn't exactly worn off yet, but we'll see.

see - it's not a dustbowl!

travelling

2008-06-14T13:53:00.001-07:00

i recently went to fort st. john which was great. my work went well, i met some great people, and it totally defied any expectations i had of the place and people there.

a) i thought it would be a dust bowl. it's very green.

b) i thought i would be a redneck's paradise. it's not a redneck paradise. it's a boomtown. there's a difference. it might have all of the accoutrements of a redneck paradise, but the median age is 28, the culture is completely transitioning from the influx of younger folks and money, the infrastructure is new and alluring, and the town (sorry -city) is buzzing with energy. it also has a diversified economy based on forestry, oil and gas and farming.

c) i thought that it would be cold. it was hot. much hotter than vancouver and the sun set at 11 PM and rose at 4:30 AM.

most of these expectations might not have been countered if the local rec programmer hadn't taken me on a tour after the roundtable. we got into his truck and drove to a lookout on one side of the peace, crossed the peace and looked back and then hit the hot spots. it was lovely.

i also realized looking at the peace, that i've seen some pretty rivers this year. here's the list:
* skeena
* bulkley
* nechako
* thompson
* fraser
* kootenay
* peace
and i'm off to the columbia river tomorrow.

wrestling

2008-06-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

today is the day of the gerund. see other blog posts for an -ing kind of day.

so i haven't posted in so long since i'm wrestling, scrabbling with, tossing around a number of larger issues in my head that needed to simmer in my brain before being blurted out in the blogosphere. and most of me was pretty sure that they didn't even belong here, but now, after much fermenting in the old cranium, here they are.

the past couple of months have been consumed with a whole lot of homesickness in its various forms, all which raised the following questions:
* If everyone is getting older, and i want to be around them when they are around, how can i live on the west coast and make it work?
* If Air Canada and every other airline on the planet is charging fuel surcharges on the only mode of transportation that allows me to see my family, can i really afford to live here?
* And if my friends and family are spread out over the globe, where is home?
* And who is trusted and safe and feels most like home, if my energy is not infinite and i have to be discerning with my time?

and smaller issues like:
* I love my job, but what's the next step?
* How can i live my dream of having a hobby farm, doing and teaching yoga and meditation, writing the great Canadian novel and snowboarding?

i gotta tell you, i'm stumped. but maybe simply by asking the questions, i'll get some answers.
i have a funny feeling that i'm either becoming a grown-up or am one already. probably the latter.

viva espana

2008-04-16T09:07:00.000-07:00

i know, i know, i haven't done a proper post in ages, but i've been busy and floaty at the same time and am not in a super-reflective mood. (case in point, i haven't been reading novels, only magazines. it's been that kind of month.)

but here, my friends, is progress, and a glimpse of things that make me swoon with hope for the future.

you should play in public!

2008-04-15T21:17:00.001-07:00

this is for my mom and col. i think they will appreciate it the most.

note how no one takes his battery out. they could learn a thing or two from my fam. and hey, at least he doesn't just hit the memory key.

immortal diamonds of the world unite!!!

2008-03-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

here's the highlight reel of my easter weekend (so far):

* movies on thursday night. "into the wild" is amazing and beautiful.
* yoga on friday. hung out with my friend after and then walked home from kits.
* 11 hour sleep on friday night. (11 HOURS!!!)
* tea party on saturday where i found out 2 things: one, i have metal kneecaps (for protection) and two, i am a wild woman goddess girl who is blessed. oh, it was a healing tea party and there was an energy worker there and it was amazing.
* yummy lamb dinner with family, chased by my first ever pavlova which was goooooooood.
* went to church this morning which was great.... a little "jesus christ is risen today" and a sermon whose moral was "you are an immortal diamond, so shine!"
* hanging out today with a walk in the rain, tea, fruity hot cross buns and then historical "drama", the other boleyn girl, which was good if a wee bit historically inaccurate.

and do you know what the best part is? my weekend ain't done yet! one more day of bliss and rapture and then back to the olde grind. i might spice it up, though, by bringing back the olde pentagonal headpiece a la anne boleyn or catherine of aragon. i may be single now, but not for long after i don one of these babies. trust.

why is a short week always so loooong?

2008-03-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

and why haven't i posted in so looong? well, my uncle had complications after his surgery which is pretty much a gross understatement, i got homesick and depressed and then i got busy. really busy. and i went away and saw awesome people and places and now i'm finally home (at least for a couple more weeks).

my uncle is getting better slowly thanks to the amazing dedication of my mom and thanks to the wonders of medical science, but my homesickness is still there. i just want a mom hug.

and my work travels have been fun (ok, okanagan was waaaay more fun than the cariboo, but still, travelling and tv are almost always good). i have a couple of boring solo pics from the okanagan which are much less fun than the pics that jan took that are on facebook but the cariboo pics are stuck on my work laptop which means i have something to do while at work tomorrow! along with my work, that is. :)

and it's wednesday and all i want is thursday to come since i get friday and monday off! praise jebus! and chocolate! oh and jebus again! (i still haven't figured out exactly what he was doing on easter monday, but i'll take all of the holidays i can get. this girl needs a break from the travelling and compressing of everything into short timeframes due to travelling and this girl definitely needs a little sleep-in.)

here are some of the okanagan pics:
they walk on water there! and talk on water! (speaking of jebus)

sun at silver star!

sun and cloud! (can you tell vancouver is a little grey?)

and originally i thought this was a very nice pic of me but then i realized that this is my fakey fake smile, and now i howl whenever i look at it. oh and i howl when i look at my goggles / faceshield too (but it only cost me $20! and my glasses fit under them! and probably a small cat could fit under them too!)

i'm out. must do sexy things like wash dishes and pick up clothes that i have been throwing all over my apartment this week in the hopes of being dressed for work. that's right... who's bringing sexyback? jc (jesus and jess....!)

xoxoxoxoxo

i heart my uncle

2008-01-29T09:53:00.000-08:00

today my uncle has open heart surgery. so here is what i'm giving him... a healthy heart. fingers, toes and eyes crossed all day that all goes well.
xo

finish up

2008-01-27T10:41:00.001-08:00

apres-surfing shot:

shell haul:

it was cold, see? we're talking -2 and chilly.

but thank god for this and the woodstove.

there, all done.

more wick

2008-01-27T10:35:00.001-08:00

i really liked this beach, so bear with me.... believe me, i am streamlining my photos as much as i can! :)
and a note about the shells... see how they just kind of sit there in the sand? they just seem so TIRED. it's like they have come all of this way, and have finally plunked down in the sand for a rest. i felt kind of bad disturbing them (nevermind anthropomorphizing them) but then i thought i was takin them home for a good rest. yes, that's it.

next beach... wickaninnish

2008-01-27T10:26:00.000-08:00

this was my fave beach by far. it was very sunny and filled, make that FILLED, with shells and other good stuff to pick through. i felt like a 4 year old at the beach stuffing my hat with all of this good stuff. nevermind when i got home and realized that it is part of a protected biosphere and i'm probably stealing important things that shouldn't be stolen.

(mom - this is where i called you from)

looooooooooong beach

2008-01-27T10:18:00.001-08:00

here are some shots of the movie theatre in tofino and man, it puts on a good show... sunset, surfers and waves, waves, waves.

ok - i'm not sure what this thing is other than pretty and gross at the same time...

morning hikes

2008-01-27T10:08:00.000-08:00

day 2: hike in the morning where i ended up in this never-ending loop and was 10 minutes late because of it. but look at what i saw...

by day 5: it was going to rain. and i liked this tree.

ukee days / haze

2008-01-27T10:05:00.000-08:00

just got back from a work trip to ucluelet which was AMAZING. most of you already know this since i have called you and told you how beautiful it is, and how i want to own there, and how it was such a great break for 5 days. no internet (and no celeb gossip!), lots of work which went insanely well, lots of morning hikes and sunset walks on the beach and finally, my first surfing lesson ever (which was VERY humbling).

here begins the photo dump. and i mean DUMP.

oh, to rock out in a fur coat

2008-01-19T11:03:00.001-08:00

this is why the beatles are amazing. not only do they play on rooftops, but they play on rooftops in fur (john) or furry (george) coats and faces (paul). ringo is his usual self. this makes me want to have been alive when they were huge and to feel the ebb and flow of beatle-mania. i think i would have publicly wavered between being a john or paul freak but would have secretly harboured true love for george the entire time. ringo doesn't do it for me, but he's still soooo cooool. this will influence my entire weekend. somehow.

addendum

2008-01-14T21:56:00.000-08:00

cutest thing ever. i went to my yoga class tonight and came home with groceries in hand. i opened my door and found a scrawled note under the door in the front hall. the note was from my upstairs neighbour and said that her magazine was blown out of her bathroom window (i did not ask about logistics) and was resting on my bathroom window ledge, and could she have it back please?

i went to the bathroom and opened the window and gently eased her mag off the window sill and realized that i was holding a copy of the latest new yorker, and i had this sudden wave of compassion. it was folded in half open to one of the main articles and she was obviously in the middle of it (and potentially on the loo) when the wind swept it away, leaving her completely half-satisfied.

so i ran upstairs, introduced myself and told her never to apologize about it if it were to happen again, since i am also a new yorker reader and understand what she must have gone through for 2 agonizing hours staring down at her magazine on the ledge.

funny thing too was that i totally recognized the typeface through my window.

my lucky day

2008-01-14T17:53:00.001-08:00

luck be a lady! and let that lady be jennifer aniston!

today...

1) i made it to work on time.

2) i made myself a really good lunch and surprised myself by loving all of the food i brought to snack on during the day. yay me!

3) i saw JENNIFER ANISTON on the walk home. JENNIFER ANISTON!!! i knew she was in town, but really. for those of you who don't know, i am not bisexual but i would run away with jennifer aniston in a heartbeat. really. my friends have mocked me for this but i don't care. so today, i saw her BACK. she was wearing a green sweatshirt and was in the middle of filming so she was at least 100 feet away in the hyatt which was masquerading as a seattle's best. and i have to say.... her hair is extremely highlighted. tone it down, jenny! oh, and i never saw her face. but i know it was her. mostly because everyone around me was saying it was her. and i didn't wait for her to turn around. seeing her back was enough.

4) i made it home and one of the previous tenants ordered the west coast seed catalogue and there it was! that's like the farm version of jennifer aniston!

and then
5) a little girl who lives in the building was giving out free cookies. so i took one and ate it.

not bad. not bad at all.

2 more

2008-01-03T09:29:00.001-08:00

my mom got a new fridge. here's the old one:

and then here's the gratuitous auntie shot. we were reading the duck story.

and, yes, as per usual, now that i'm back, i'm tired and crabby and homesick. i will focus on exercising and try to get over it.

xmas photo round-up

2008-01-03T09:02:00.001-08:00

it was such a good xmas. relaxing, filled with much quality family hangtime and sleep and food (lots of meat, incidentally, which was weird). only one massive glitch which was that my uncle is sick and so we missed him for xmas.

here's the photo dump - fave photos of my fave people on the planet.

mom and isa making muffins in the morning:

my fave xmas photo even though it's mostly out of focus. note col in the background as a tired dad, me reading the three-fingered abe note and isa just about to lose her shit. priceless.:

loot shot:

my second fave photo of xmas. col and jen laughing, loot everywhere and mom in her chair with her book well on her way to reading with her eyes closed.:

ganga-lion, rawr!

2007-12-13T10:57:00.000-08:00

um, so the ganglion in my wrist might have just gone away. i have no idea if i've written about this before, but i have a ganglion in my wrist from when i fell on my ass on my way from the mall to work after lunch one day. and it took forever for the docs to figure out what it was (ganglion? no! bursitis? no! aah, yes, ganglion) and i have an appointment for next week to have the sucker removed which i was all stoked for (except for the shaved arm part).

then i fell on my way back from the mall two days ago (yes on the way back to work after lunch - different place) and suddenly there isn't really a bump or at least a big bump. but my wrist is still sore and i feel like there's a little something there. anyhoo - now i'm going to see my doc on monday and keep my appointment on tues just in case there is something still there. drama!

so i went on the internet to see if they had any pictures and this was the best excerpt from an article that i could find:

Media file 4: A ganglion cyst that has been operated on in the past. This ganglion returned because this person plays the cymbals in her school band.

oh, how i wish i had my ganglion because i PLAY CYMBALS IN MY SCHOOL BAND!!!!!

i am still giggling 10 minutes later.
how i love the internets.

p.s. they used to call them bible cysts since you used to smash them with a big book or bible. *shiver*
p.p.s. mine is / was not as big as cymbal girl's.

the great sea of blue jello

2007-12-11T21:26:00.000-08:00

here she is in all of her glory. note the treasure chest. it has an x marking the spot on the other side.

and here is the shark attack victim.

priceless.

wow, what the eff happened to craig david?

2007-12-10T13:50:00.001-08:00

being sick gives you all of this time to search around and find QUALITY stuff like this on the internet. i think he hired the back up dancers from c+c music factory.

what happened to seven days, craig? *sob* and okay, a *giggle*

justice

2007-12-10T09:57:00.000-08:00

today is a big day for justice. the pickton trial yesterday, michael vick and conrad black today... but the one that means the most to me is the pickton trial. yesterday, i had my coat on and everything and was just about to go grocery shopping when the cbc cut out of regular programming to declare the verdict. and i plunked down and cried.

there is triumph there and this horrific trial has finally and in the most horrible way lent a voice to the women who have been literally missing from the streets and figuratively missing from society's dialogue for so long. it is tiring and so oppressive and just so wrong that this happened. these women were someone's daughter, someone's mother, someone's sister, someone's baby.

it's weird too - i think of bernardo which encompassed most of my teenage years, and now pickton which has encompassed most of my twenties. i remember leslie mahaffy's face on the cover of the toronto star and all of the warnings at school about guys in camaros, and i remember too just 6 years ago when one of my friends from work had a friend who was working on the pig farm in the first dig-through. these stories and these atrocities change you and all you can do is hope that these beautiful women didn't die in vain. (*sigh* - and people wonder why i'm a feminist...)

grab your families, your friends and your babies: hold them close and keep them safe and loved.

jean valjean

2007-12-09T10:15:00.001-08:00

this is very unlike me - but really jean chretien is the shit.

i was just doing my sunday morning thing and listened to the sunday edition ("i'm michael enright"). chretien is such a jerk and yet, is so honest and hilarious. he fully admitted that he didn't get along with paul martin merely because of power. that's it. just because the guy wanted his job.

i don't care how shady he is at times. he's a hard worker, a tough guy who admitted he just likes being quiet and reading and listening to music with his wife, who by the way, most definitely wears the pants in that relationship.

so in chretien's honour - sponsorship scandal be damned - we should wrap it up with a rousing
VIVE LE CANADA!

*swoon*

teaser

2007-12-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

i only have one pic of the pirate team. (my co-worker's computer was giving her attitude and wouldn't let her send more than one at a time.)

it's a group shot and gives you a good idea of our costumes and just a wee glimpse of the glory of the good ship canker sore.

this is what winning looks like...

and as for this weekend, i went over to prem's last night for dinner and it was so good. his friend and his girlfriend came over for dinner. i got to watch grey's that prem had pvr'd for me and then i made the most kickass vegan chocolate pudding cake. really - i astounded even myself. this morning, i'm fighting a tickle in my throat and now have to organize the next 3 weeks of my life (groan) in order to get everything done. oh, xmas!

buuuutttt i think i'm going to go play outside and i'm going to pump some iron and craft away.
i'm also a little behind in posting since i still need some pics from last weekend's snowshoeing and pedicures from this week! my toes are so pretty!

jingle the dinner elf

2007-12-03T20:16:00.000-08:00

okay, i want the bipolar shit to stop. and i'm going to blame it on my lightbox. (i get completely amped on it and yet i am so tired and can't come down and this is only after 10 min. a day)

first off - sorry for no pirate pics. they'll be up tomorrow. my co-worker is bringing them in tomorrow.

secondly - i have had a headache for most of the afternoon.

thirdly - i am so bored. and yet have so much energy. it's so annoying. i worked out really hard on sat, went snowshoeing yesterday and decided not to exercise today, and now am running around in circles in my brain trying to think of things to do other than the boring routine house chores of laundry, cleaning, cooking and washing dishes (i guess that falls under cleaning).

fourthly - december is such a drag (it's only the 3rd and in my bipolar mood, i'll probably post tomorrow about how quickly it's going). i want it to be xmas NOW. i don't want to have to go through the rigamarole of buying presents, cleaning house and having houseguests, flying home and trying to wake up at an okay hour in the morning without using defibrillators and without having every minute of my life scheduled.

fifthly - where is jingle the dinner elf who will take care of all household chores and dinner? i would like some yummy curry that someone else made for me instead of doing the usual crap of looking into my fridge and coming up with some stirring tofu, chard and tomato combination that i've eaten variations of for the past 2 days. (i know jenn is looking for her house-cleaning elves, but really, all i want is a yummy dinner).

sixthly - i have nothing else. i know there is nothing worth complaining about, but i'm just antsy and a little nervous for all things xmas to come and bite me on the ass. i love xmas, but i also love dreading xmas. hence, this entire post.

and now - seventhly - i'm going to go and make myself happy and stop annoying myself and the entire internet.

oh and p.s. eighthly - i went snowshoeing yesterday and it was AMAZING. so so so much fun.
and p.p.s. ninthly - if you were one of santa's reindeers, which one would it be? julia is vixen, i'm donner (cuz the name is pretty funny) and andrew is robbie (rudolf's son). who you? (mom and col, i dare you to leave a post!)

it won't stop!

2007-12-02T09:41:00.000-08:00

i wish wish wish that i had a camera so i could take one of those rare pictures of vancouver encased in snow.
it's been snowing for 2 days and shows no sign of stopping.
it's incredible.

in other big news, my brother won his moot court competition on thursday and i am so proud of him. and he did it for my grandad which is also amazing (no wonder he won).

and in less earth-shattering, but equally exciting news, my gingerbread team at work won the gingerbread competition. hands down, greatest gingerbread of all time - the gingerbread pirate ship, the "canker sore".
pics will be posted tomorrow (hopefully of snow as well).

and even more importantly, i'm home! i feel like i've been away for ages, and yesterday, had such a good hang out day at home. i did laundry, ran errands, went to the gym and totally pumped iron in the meat locker area, as opposed to the women's only gym and felt really powerful. then i walked home and tried to catch snowflakes on my tongue.

today - hopefully some snowshoeing and playing around in this white gold.

island adventures, part tres

2007-11-27T21:28:00.000-08:00

on saturday, we had a huge bday party for juanita and bryn which was really fun. bestest part was playing "run around the house" which involves... well, running around the (outside of the) house. soooo goooooood. i am trying to think of ways to convert this to an urban apartment setting to not much avail.

anyhoo - that day, we made some apple cake with liberated apples and then headed over to decorate. but i stupidly didn't take any pictures. i was too focussed on enjoying the company and rocking out to timbaland and one republic's ultimate slow jam.

here are some pretty fleurs growing in a tub and niki borrowing some apples for our apple cake to make up for it.

thanks to everyone for such a great weekend!
xs and os,
jess

p.s. and now that the adventure is over, i'm at home and have my period and am generally feeling a little bloated. nothing a few days and a solid dose of vitamin i won't cure.

island adventures, part deux

2007-11-27T21:20:00.001-08:00

then on friday night we went to the bar and it was fun. it was jam-packed with people, including 8 of our own, and there was good people-watching.

really good people-watching. case in point, monsieur daffy duck. turns out that some of us at the table knew him from high school, so after waiting to strategically take his pic, kim just called him over. and here are the pics to prove it:

turns out that even though we had been berating his fashion choice most of the evening, that he was wearing it for a good reason. his girlfriend had been pissing him off earlier in the day, so he decided to piss her off by wearing this sweater. solid gold!

and here's the birthday boy, bryn, and his lady, tacy:

island adventures, part 1

2007-11-27T21:14:00.000-08:00

alas, this posting is not about some fabulous trip to maui, but instead is about a very fun trip to vancouver island. hot hot temperate rainforest island.

i had a roundtable in ladysmith and then toodled down to duncan, where i drove onto niki's farm and surprised her with coffee and chocolate. then she showed me around the place and we went for a nice walk to see if the surveyors had cleaned up the gate properly. it was full moon night, see?

here's niki in the field:

good things (my version of american thanksgiving)

2007-11-21T11:35:00.000-08:00

here is a list of good things before i go away:

* i joined the YWCA and pumped iron. my biceps were looking gooooooood.
* smoked tofu sandwich from capers. so yum.
* i get to travel and do my last roundtable before the spring. i am going to ladysmith, nanaimo and then duncan.
* my intuition is telling me that it will snow soon.
* my friends call me and chat with me. (really, this is more important than it initially seems - julia called me from bangladesh, and lisa chatted with me on gmail last night from slovenia). oh and my cousins / friends write me (jules sent me a very nice note earlier this week).
* egyptian licorice tea (finally, i bought some)
* helping friends who almost get schmucked by cars. luckily she is alive and well and able to share delicious smoked tofu sandwiches with me.
* seeing the sun. although this impacts how much snow is on the mountains, i was definitely craving some vitamin d.

there - off to lay-dee-smith.
xo jess

blue randomness

2007-11-18T19:42:00.000-08:00

blue is not just my fave colour (okay, it's turquoise) but it's also how i'm feeling.

this weekend was good - busy - with lots of present buying and making and lots of bodywork which is probably contributing to my pleasant pleasant mood (detoxifying, anyone?). and i'm not sure why i always forget that the november blues always sneak up and bite me on the ass right about now, and then there they are and i'm scrambling for my lightbox in the hopes of any mood other than total sluggishness.

so here are some reasons for being blue:
*i think it's cuz it's birthday season and i want to go to my brother's and niece's birthday party and would have done anything to have been walking around the detroit zoo instead of being at a yoga workshop all day yesterday.
*there is no daylight. the sun gets up around 8 am and sets around 4 pm. it is 11:30 pm around 6 pm, if you get my drift, and i miss the sun.
*it's raining, but not cold enough to be snow on the mountains, or it's not raining and melting all of the snow that's on the mountains.
*i've had so much bodywork and have been working on myself (counselling, yoga) for the past 3 weeks and i am frankly a little tired of myself.
* lisa just left for slovenia and although i have many many close and wonderful friends, i will miss her. (although, i did make her the cutest mittens out of my old sweater. my craftiness reigns supreme.)

arrgh.

how to solve having the blues:
* eat cupcakes and by cupcakes i mean really good vegetarian food
* work out intensely and distract myself from depression by staring at my sweet sweet pipes
* turn up the old lightbox
* start dating someone fabulous and get distracted by their issues and / or dreamy eyes and / or scads of cash that they want to spend on me.
* stop watching bridget jones for the 300 billionth time.
* go shopping and make myself look and feel fabulous

there. i almost feel better already. almost. now where are those damn cupcakes?

cinnamon angst

2007-11-13T17:35:00.000-08:00

so here's the deal - now that i'm older, i am beginning to feel older, and quite possibly look older.

sure, i've got my woman body and i'm very comfortable with that, and yes, i have earned every laugh line i have (i think i had laugh lines at age 10 but seriously, isn't it better to have them than not?), but i have an aging thing that is quite unique, i think, to the strawberry contingent on the planet.

i think my hair is getting lighter and a little bit less red which is TERRIFYING. here's the history - i once met a friend of my grandma's who had pink hair. as in "i used to have red hair and now i don't because i'm old and it's pink". no shit. and she was really lovely and i really liked her, but she also served as the totem of the horrors of crimson fire aging.

so, with that image burned in my mind - it didn't help that she was in florida and wore outrageous sweatsuits all the time - we come to this fall where i am posting all of my pics of my travels and i notice in the self-portrait of me in front of a mountain in the kootenays that my hair looks a little less red. maybe it's the light, i think.

but then i hang out with my friend adam who is also a redhead, who now is strawberry blond since he's just past the big 4- 0. this is a man who had deep red hair, who is now strawberry (he likes to call it cinnamon sugar instead of strawberry). and then i go back to the picture, and think, "those ain't my highlights talking".

and then to top it all off, nicole kidman has to go and get a lot of press and ends up looking like this. look at it closely - she is GREY. with strawberry at the bottom.

is THIS what's waiting for me (without the botox freeze face and an effed up marriage to xenu himself and then another weird marriage to a fellow aussie who always has his shirt open and has more highlights than me)????

anyhoo - take note. get pics of the red because it's going down soon.

overdue

2007-11-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

so, i've been 29 for 10 days now, and i have to say that i like it. funny how a number increasing by one can make you suddenly get your mojo back, and make you feel like you have your shit somewhat more together.

here are some pics of my illustrious birthday gathering, which ROCKED by the way.

i have amazing friends and i am one lucky lucky 29 year old girl.

(oh, and when i blew out my candles, i had one boyfriend left. sweet. now whether that candle remained lit because i didn't blow on it purposefully is a secret i will never betray. i do like, though, how it's one boyfriend, and not a series of jerkass chumps, cuz that would be depressing.)

be more constructive with your feedback, please!

2007-11-08T15:47:00.001-08:00

i have a day off today and i cannot stop watching this. and when i am watching this, i cannot stop laughing at it. i am OBSESSED. enjoy.

ooh! ooh! it's my birfday!

2007-11-03T10:03:00.001-07:00

just a quick post since i need to get down to important birfday things like lying on my couch waiting for the phone to ring.
i went on dlisted and here's michael k's list of fellow "birthday sluts":

Dolph Lundgren (50)
Gemma Ward (20)
Jasmine Trias (21)
Dwight Yorke (36)
Hal Hartley (48)
Adam Ant (53)
Dennis Miller (54)
Kate Capshaw (54)
Roseanne (55)
Anna Wintour (58)
Lulu (59)

while most of them are crap, which i already knew, look (especially col) at birthday slut #6. ADAM ANT!!!!! "stand and deliver" was probably a song about him getting his birthday presies. but, holy crap, he's 53!!!

craziness amongst the scorpios. what else is new?

don't eff with my dip

2007-10-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

seriously, i don't care what time of year it is - don't try to dress up my vanilla dip doughnut with novelty sprinkles!!!
this is for a variety of reasons:
1) the bat sprinkles actually taste different
2) it ruins the aesthetic pleasure of the doughnut and makes it kind of assymetrical - dark black heavy sprinkles across from the dainty colourful balls?
3) just don't. nuff said.

fort st. james

2007-10-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

burns lake

2007-10-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

i liked burns lake. i drove down to francois lake and watched the ferry and then i went for a walk around loch lomond (no, not the one in scotland).

there is so much crap in burns lake that most people don't actually swim in it. i found some debris on the shore.

houston

2007-10-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

home to the world's largest fly rod....

bulkeley valley

2007-10-27T10:02:00.000-07:00

the hazeltons

2007-10-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

terrace (which in its bad moments was tear-ass)

2007-10-27T09:42:00.001-07:00

loooooooooong trip

2007-10-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

i am so happy to be home.
it was an okay trip from terrace to p.g. with lots of driving, meetings and beauty in between. here's the short and sweet blow by blow.

1) AC lost my bags. both of them. with all of my workshop supplies and clothes.
2) the roundtable went well despite wearing the same clothes as the day before and not having any of my supplies. i got my bags after my roundtable was done (of course).
3) it rained 95% of the time i was in terrace which stank.
4) the rain lifted about 45 minutes out of terrace and then it was all beauty.
5) the hazeltons are really pretty.
6) smithers was fun and very swiss-like. i got to go to a community meeting for the morning which was really interesting.
7) burns lake is beautiful too. i liked it there. and it was full moon night too (miakonda night) which made me happy.
8) the rcmp can kiss it. they pulled me over for not having an n on a rental car which still infuriates me so i won't say anything more about it. but because of my travels and going to vanderhoof and then back to fort st. james, i had to go through the road blocks 4 times which made it really funny.
9) fort st. james was great. if not open.
10) it was cold and a real big sky trip. it was nice to see the sun for so long.

some realizations that i came to on this trip:
1) i am a big body of water kind of girl. i.e. i prefer lakes and oceans to rivers.
2) the mountains in the skeena valley were HUGE.
3) i don't know how people up there do it - and by it, i mean drive insane distances just to get to the next town. but i guess you trade off certain things for living on the land surrounded by insane amounts of beauty in nature.
4) if i lived up north, i would officially get nothing done. if i had that much beauty around me at all times, i think i would spend most of the time staring off into the distance and being outside except for maybe when it's absolutely freakin' freezing.

and now for the photo dump.

t minus 14 days and counting

2007-10-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

why, oh why, am i blowing candles out?
weeeellllll that's because when i was home with la famille, we had a birthday pie (thanks harrow united church and grandma) and i got to do a little pre-emptive candle-blowing-out.

so in anticipation of my favourite national holiday (unrecognized by the ignorant masses), here's the list.

WARNING: these gifts are not practical, but, hey, it's a wish list!
* le creuset kettle (a half one - the 80 dollar kind)
* a little cast iron skillet
* an ipod shuffle (shockingly, i don't want it in turquoise - green or pretty pink please)
* 1 skein of noro "silver thaw" wool from dyelot 5A only available in the states. pooh.
* the "duh" list - the new nigella cookbook, the new (and hopefully not the last) rebus novel
* meaningful gestures from lovely people

party news will be going out SOON.
yesssssss.

(on a completely random note- look at the pic closely - you can actually see my eyebrows! rare occassion my friends)

and there shall be no more sea

2007-10-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

one more...

2007-10-06T15:13:00.001-07:00

the purdiest river you ever did see...

finally...

2007-10-06T15:07:00.000-07:00

fernie and back

2007-10-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

more cranbrook

2007-10-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

and trip to kimberley and south to moyle lake

cranbrook pics

2007-10-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

hewers of wood

2007-10-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

my trip to cranbrook was AMAZING and filled with side trips to kimberley (thurs) and fernie (friday). which is good since it took about 9 hours to get there. sure, the calgary airport is nice, but i would have prefered to spend less time there than i did.

i have to say up front, though, that the happiness of the trip is muted and muffled by the sadness of the fact that when i came home last night, i found out that my grandad died on friday night. and now i am numb and struggling to express all of the wonder i felt when i was away.

so here's the short version - i'm sure there's more in my head, but that's been erased or at least painted over by grief.

* industry - again, the resource economy is nuts and out in the kootenays, there is the lumber industry and the mines. sure those rockies are beautiful, but people are still working so hard to get by. one of the women i worked with is essentially a single mom since her husband works 4 days on, 4 days off, and yet, if he works overtime, which happens often, he's only home for a day and a half.
* speaking of industry - the interplay of nature and man is pretty evident. (i.e. huge mills set against the backdrop of the rockies)
* i'm not surprised too that these folks sometimes identify more with alberta since the landscape is pretty much the alberta flag (plus cows in the field).

that's all i've got right now, which is more than i thought i would have, frankly. i'm going to post the photos and then i'm off to ontario for the week.

love to all.
j. xoxox

fun facts

2007-10-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

prince george was THE prince george - as in the madness of king george.
lose the states, but keep this city?
awesome.

mo' geo'

2007-10-03T09:03:00.001-07:00

georgie photos

2007-10-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

who was prince george anyway? (i'll look that up, but in the meantime enjoy the pics.)

P to the G

2007-10-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

here's the first update /photo dump from my trip. i arrived in prince george on monday morning and got to the workshop at 10. when did the workshop start? 10 am. ha ha.

anyhoo - the roundtable was grrrrr-eat. the people were amazing, the mood was pretty casual and we got a lot of great stuff going. we also played disc golf on the new course in p.g. where i learned that i should not quit my day job and become a professional disc golf player. i actually almost took out someone behind me. (really, i was just doing it so the group would have a central joke. yes, that's it.)

after work, i dumped my stuff and watched some cable tv in the hotel room as a cold snuck in and threatened to overtake me. but a good dinner, and some company with some of the folks from the Roundtable in the hotel bar helped stave it off and made for a great evening.

yesterday, went to a regional meeting for work and met some more great people and had a tour of the new northern sports complex. it's HUGE! 2 indoor soccer pitches and a gym with 3 basketball courts. (saw some workers installing the seats on the bleachers, which i realized is something i take completely for granted). and then there's a track above it all. it's nice, but i felt bad for jenn, leone and lo since it's here after they have left. it also felt weird to be up at UNBC where the 3 of them have spent so much time when they're not here.

after the meeting, we went to the art gallery and saw 2 great shows. then my 2 other co-workers flew home, and i toodled around p.g. on my lonesome which was FUN. i walked around and hit the local yarn shop (leone - did you go to darlene's? was that your wool hook-up? her dog is sooooo cute) and then like any sane traveller, i went to the railyard and took pictures. (mom - it was bright out, i felt safe and didn't go play amongst the trains, merely took pics of them).

so after this long winded post, here are my impressions of p.g. (those of you who have lived here, feel free to comment):
* it's pretty - all of the cottonwoods are GLOWING yellow.
* they actually experience this thing called "fall" which causes all of the ontario cells in my body to react and feel like i am somewhat at home
* pine beetle sucks - they had to cut back most of the park where we played disc golf because of the devastation.
* capitalism doesn't work and resource economies are fickle things - despite the riches of the forestry industry, there is so much poverty here and so many systems in place to exploit the poor. bars are loaded with video lottery and horse racing betting machines.
* i could see how it could get stinkin' cold here. this morning it's 2 degrees. yikes, and yet, i LOVE it.

there you have it. pics to come in the next post. off to cranbrook today (via calgary - it's so weird - leave the province to come back).
i'm having fun being away and meeting all of these great people. gotta run and go work out at gold's gym before my butt and brain explode from too much TV watching. and really, who comes up with the crap on TV these days? although i am LOVING watching music videos (although the new james blunt makes me want to stick skewers in my ears).

ridonculous

2007-09-26T21:44:00.000-07:00

ok - i'd been warned but really - this middle section of grey's anatomy season 3 is incredibly overblown.
here's the things that got me:

1) the neurotoxin????? she took a supplement and it turned her blood toxic and then a patient can wipe out an entire hospital?

2) the ferry accident????? and all of the docs completely phased and wandering around emoting? puh-leaz.

3) ellis grey coming back conveniently only for one episode??? at least keep her lucid for an episode and a half!

4) izzie. can't stand the girl - thank god she spells her name differently than my niece otherwise i'd be pissed.

oh, and i'm so watching the rest of the season.

Golden afternoon

2007-09-24T18:07:00.001-07:00

another bonuw thing - lisa gave me a teddybear sunflower which looks like the lionel marigolds in alice. or are those zinnias? botanists, weigh in.

acute monday-itis

2007-09-24T17:34:00.000-07:00

oy.

after a great weekend of drinking my face off on friday, moving hay bales and watching british murder mysteries starring mr. mrow on saturday, then restoring a creek on sunday, i came home and found out that my grandad fell and broke his hip and is now awaiting surgery on tuesday or wednesday.

i had a good sleep and went to work where i realized that i only have a week until i go away for the first 5 days of october and then the craziness really begins with thanksgiving as part of 4 days off, 7 days away, 4 days home, 6 days gone and then home for good.

when i got to work, i scalded myself with the steamer - think soy milk and steam EVERYWHERE - and then the office ran out of coffee. then i emptied the dishwasher because it said it was clean and realized it was dirty, so i loaded it up again only to have co-workers to discover dirty dishes in the cupboard because i hadn't grabbed those. then i sat through a 2 hour strategic planning meeting which gave me a headache and then had another meeting in the same room in the afternoon. and then i got a ride home with my crazy co-worker, which was nice, but she's a little crazy and i would almost rather have taken the skytrain to recover from my monday-itis.

i'm going to the doctor tonight about my wrist but i think i'm going to complain about my monday-itis instead. but, knowing my doctor, she'll make me make another appointment to talk about it since she wants as many dollar bills as she can get.

oh, and my ipod crapped out.

thus ends my glass half empty rant.

here's the glass half full (can i do it?):
i saw my friends from t.o. on friday and it was FUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN. (too much fun - please refer to glass half empty rant - specifically the part about the hangover).
i had a great time in chilliwack and didn't even have to use the directions this time, so it felt like going home.
it didn't rain all weekend, and it was the perfect fall weekend.
i'm a temporary resident of swoonsville and that's all i'm gonna say.

those mamas and papas were right - monday, monday, can't trust that day. i think i'm gonna go drown my sorrows in some denny, john, michelle and some big ol' mama cass.

ah, technology

2007-09-17T21:33:00.000-07:00

below is a pic of my niece's and my mad hatter tea-party (literally, actually, we were both wearing our new hats).
man, webcams and skype are cool. i have to get some books so i can read some bedtime stories to her.
at the end of our conversation, isa said "i miss jess" and then my heart shattered into a gazillion pieces. don't worry - i taped it back together and went and had an amazing crab dinner (fresh from the docks) with liz and her sweetheart, eric.

so, it's september and the gargantuan maple leaves are falling already and it's time to start bundling up for fall. the past couple of weekends have been fun - visiting, visiting and more visiting. lots of ups and downs - mostly ups - and tons of work at work. things are shaping up quite nicely. so nicely, in fact, that i don't have too much to process (at least publicly) and the piazza of my blog has been quite empty and void of traffic.

i think that's all for tonight - i just wanted to check in. and now i have to go to bed early in order to avoid the frantic wake-up i had this morning after dozing through 2 alarms. impressively, i still made it work on time. asleep - but on time.

in other impressive news, tonight i got my elbow stand for the first time in front of my teacher. a proud moment which had been accomplished in private, but it was still really nice for my teacher to come hug me on the shoulders and tell me i've come a long way.

10

2007-08-31T08:41:00.001-07:00

as of this morning, it has been 10 years since i came out to live on the left coast.
10!

and just like the first morning when i woke up in whistler, my sleep came to an end with reports of princess diana's death and memorial. it was like a very weird flashback, and it's even weirder that my arrival here is connected with her death. auspicious beginning, no?

anyhoo - am taking the morning off work since i have to work a booth at the PNE (super dogs! mini doughnuts!) so have time to contemplate my 10 years here, and all i can say is, i have survived. and then some.

i have a book that reduces the phases of your life to a pie graph and between 20 and 30, it says "maturing". i concur. lots of maturing has happened (granted, i'm not 30 yet so there is still more to come).

here's a list of my accomplishments in the past 10 years (seriously, 10!!! that is NUTS):
* made it through my extendo university life
* taught myself how to snowboard
* developed a healthy addiction to all things yoga
* lived in 2 university residences and 10 different apartments with a total of 15 roommates
* worked at a host of different non-profits and built my career
* hopefully made a difference in the lives of kids and yutes out here
* made lots of friends and worked on making my urban family
* got my woman-body
* negotiated living 1500 miles away from my family (ongoing)
* remained a good daughter and good granddaughter (for the most part - a couple of glitches along the way)
* dated some good people, some ok people and some people who steal your tv
* recovered from dating people who steal your tv
* became an aunt
* got my driver's license and first car
* went on some great vacations (including a country that is now on fire)
* had some great visits from fine friends and family
* saw some friends / family get hitched
* was amazed by friends / family who had babies
* had 3 pairs of glasses
* found a fabulous hair dresser

yes, all of those accomplishments - from the sublime to the goreblimey, as my mom would say.
and yes, there will be a partay. and it will be HUGE - like the number 10.

as they say, i am in double digits. huzzah!

a whole bunch of ms. canoeheads

2007-08-31T08:36:00.001-07:00

went on a great canoe trip on the weekend to alouette lake.
soooo much fun.
here are some pics.

this is me in my natural element. i was feeling so ill before i left, but then i got in a canoe and everything was fine. as in, i had a huge cheshire grin on my face the entire time just because i was in a canoe.

us in full action mode - staring off down the (oh-so-sunny) lake.

at the end. doing our glam shot poses. 8x10 glossies are available for a nominal fee.

one week

2007-08-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

what a difference it can make.

i went on yoga retreat and now everything seems so much easier to deal with. it doesn't mean that nothing is happening but somehow it's more manageable. (things that have happened upon my return - clearing the air between friends, hanging out, mourning the loss of a lovely cat, strategic planning with lots of wonderful people and one person who LOVES the sound of his own voice and is an arrogant prick when he is at work - otherwise he's lovely too - chores, and test-driving a new gym).

and i am completely back on the animal. i was totally veggie (except for at my cousin's wedding since everything veggie had serious amounts of dairy) for about 4 months and all it took was a day long yoga practice and all i wanted at the local pub was a bacon cheeseburger. and there were tonnes of veggie options too. today i had chicken for the first time in a long time and my brain totally said "welcome home" when the chicken went in my mouth. maybe it's a seasonal thing too.

anyhoo - not sure what my intent was in posting this but, hey, it's words that are filling up space in an unoffensive manner. i have a new yoga toy - toe-spreaders - they hurt but they work. on the retreat we just called them "toe torture".

here's a yoga freak off the internet. where did her hands go?

now to bed.

poop on a scoop

2007-08-15T20:44:00.000-07:00

life is not bad. don't get me wrong. but it is definitely hump day and i am feeling the pain.

too much going on. work is good, but i don't have a lot to do right now. my volunteer work totally picked up and was in crisis mode for the past 2 days which was tiring, and now i'm volunteering to write a stinkin' report for my former workplace which i so don't want to do, but is now very close to being overdue.

and then my grandad had chest pains and he's ok, but it brings up all of this family stuff which is messy and hard to process at times.

and then my freakin' wholesome bread which i bought at market on saturday is already mouldy so i cut off the bad parts and barely assembled a veggie dog for dinner which followed my amazing appetizers of yogurt with choco chips and crackers with cheez whiz (aka orange plastic). and i just had a fruit bar to top off my fabulous dinner. *groan*

honestly. i am going on yoga retreat this weekend and it cannot come fast enough.

ugh.

the word of the weekend is....

2007-08-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

quiet.

after running around and funning around all week, i'm pooped. more to the point, i am knitting and loving nesting and talking on the phone and having minimal plans. i also like delaying plans, as in, i will clean my house tomorrow and i will continue to sit on my couch next to all of the stuff i have dumped on it during the past week.

so yes, i'm knitting a scarf and it's pretty but somehow i always think the actual skein of wool is prettier than the actual knitted project. it's very weird. i think i like seeing things in their randomness rather than all prettified - my wool is beautifully dyed and just seems a little cheesier in the rainbow stripes that it knits into.

anyhoo, here's hoping i have enough wool for an actual scarf, and not just for a scarf that also doubles as a placemat.

i'm off, with no plans. sweeet.

me and my mom

2007-08-11T15:52:00.000-07:00

my mom and i had a great visit and here are some of the photos.
we went to the farm, harrison, whidbey island and seattle. then we did full family wedding extravaganza, and i have spent the last week recovering from all of our fun (but more specifically, from ripping my quads in various dance-offs at my cousin's wedding.)

here's the highlight reel.

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i think we're related...

2007-08-11T15:47:00.000-07:00

here's me and my niece eating a vanilla dip doughnut (her first!) in may. i think that is the same look of complete satisfaction and focus.

ha ha

l-i-g-h-t

2007-07-30T18:32:00.000-07:00

i went to fireworks on saturday night.

why do people drive all the way from the burbs to watch a half hour light show???? (that being said, it was really good...)
and why are people such jerks after they drive all the way in, get shitfaced and then watch the fireworks?
at first i was thinking that they should hold municipal elections at the same time as the fireworks because voter turnout would be huge, but then i realized that they're all jerks and for a moment, i was all for limiting democracy to the sober few.

but the firework show itself was great. i was beside a dad with a kid around his ears, slurping on a giant rocket popsicle, who kept saying "cool!" and made the half hour much more enjoyable. oh, and there were hot cops out too. for once i was all for excessive cop presence.

but another fireworks related thing - i like fireworks for the sheer evanescence of it all. they don't stick around - you're there or you're not - the sounds reverberate throughout the entire city, but a picture is never enough. you have to be there for the people, the sounds, the art. and it's lovely, and i realized, kind of sad. cuz that's all there is. the fireworks, the big bang, the ooooohs, the aaaahs, the clapping and then it's over. which is kind of a bummer in its specialness. it's kind of the same feeling i get on starry nights. they're so beautiful, and you feel so small, but so much part of the universe, so you feel special and bummed at the same time.

my mom comes out and visits tomorrow and i'm a little nervous - mostly because last time she visited, i was living with a bigger jerk than all of the fireworks jerks (ooh it rhymes!) combined. we're going to have fun and drive around and go to the island and then to my cousin's wedding. i bought a very pretty dress yesterday and i am very stoked to wear it and feel girlish. it should be fun. i'll try to do a mar and jess post while my mom's here just to introduce her to the technology.

ok - off to call my mom (whoops) and then out for a walk on the seawall with some dinner to go. oh, and i rode my bike yesterday which makes me happy and i rented "annie hall" which makes me even happier. lines like "i haven't been the same since i quit smoking" "when did you quit?" "14 years ago". AWESOME. i love woody allen. i know he's a perv, but he's a smart perv and something about the smart woman, neurotic guy thing reminds me of my parents a little. it helps that my dad bears a striking resemblance to the younger woody allen and that i think my mom is just as fabulous, if not more, than diane keaton. (although my mom does not say "la dee da".) and my parents would both totally wear these outfits. actually, the tennis scene where annie plays in a shirt with an upturned collar and alvie plays in his tennis whites could be a fictional rendition of my parents' style. so here are my fictional mom and dad - except my mom doesn't move to california and my dad is not in psychoanalysis or married to his adopted daughter (blech!).

do it for the eggs.

get this

2007-07-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

i am a victim of FRAUD!

really!

i went to the grocery store on monday night and embarassingly, my card was rejected. but not in the old-fashioned "insufficient funds" kind of way. this time it was in the "limited card use - refer customer to branch" kind of way. so i started to sweat a little, while trying not to let on that i was having mild cardiac arrest. i left the grocery store with lisa, strolled back to her / andrew's place, numbed my brain out with cable (oh, sweet, sweet cable) and then dragged my butt home. i tried to access my bank account on line before bed but nope, wasn't happening. so i crashed out and woke up at 2:45 AM with a full panic attack (you know, the kind of panic attack where you try to force yourself to cry so it will break, but you're so panicky that you can't even do that? it was definitely not as bad as the one panic attack i had at age 20 where i couldn't move while i was washing my hair in the shower. i thought someone was going to have to peel me out of the shower but like any "attack", it passed. but i digress...). i got back to sleep maybe 45 minutes later after putting in my stupid nightguard to help my jaw relax and woke up 3 hours later in order to get to work. bit of a groggy day, and at lunch i called my bank.

another digression - i have a really old bank card. the top coating of plastic was peeling away, and i ordered another bank card and got one, but the old one was such a good conversation starter that i just couldn't get rid of it until it officially died. which it did on monday. point is, i had another card and all i had to do was use it and it would be activated. it all seemed so simple until the woman on the phone told me that i would have to go into a bank branch and tell them that face-to-face. so i had to leave work early, sweat on the skytrain and run to the bank before it closed so i could tell my sob story to the teller. she had me repeat my story twice, and then like the lady on the phone, essentially put me on hold while she stared blankly at the screen and called the manager over. he asked me again why i had come (apologies, bankers, i got a little salty at this point) and then told me that my card had been tagged because of potential fraud.

so then he escorted me (and kept calling me miss!) up to the offices and had me wait to meet a rep. my rep was sooooo nice and we talked through the whole thing. turns out that i have very set patterns. grocery stores, grocery stores, more grocery stores, bills, clothing stores, grocery stores, so it was pretty easy to pick out the irregularities. grocery store, $30, ATM $60, $500, $500, $400, $300, grocery store $30. uh, the three digit ones would be the fraud. those pesky sneaky thieves got $800 though they tried for more.

long story, short.... wait, it's long already... well, i got the money back, had to change my PIN and now am only ever using official bank machines and i'm going to start carrying a large billfold (yah, right). although, honestly it's so arbitrary as to when the criminalz got my info. it honestly could have been anywhere. the weird part was when my rep asked me where i'd been the day the money was taken out. luckily, i was with people for most of the day, and then i was with mr. harry potter for the night. that's an adequate alibi right? "i was looking for the deathly hallows!" while the lightbulb swings overhead.

i really liked the woman who helped me. i might even see her at the farmers market on saturday since she said that she lives in the neighbourhood and has never gone. i'm excited because she was nice, but at the same time, what do you talk about with the woman who fought crime in your bank account? i'm scared it's going to be all jokes about PINs and other lame ATM jokes ("hide your password! want some kale?").

so that was the "mayjah" drama of the week. then on tuesday night, after it was all settled, i got my period at 2:45 AM. sick joke. so wednesday was a bit of a groggy day too. i went for a swim at english bay last night which was amazing and refreshing - fecal chloroforms be damned! it was lovely. then my friend and i got dinner and ate it at the beach with the hordes of fireworks freaks. we finished our dinner too early though and didn't want to wait another hour and a half until the sky exploded so we went back to my friend's place and watched cable. (oh sweet, sweet cable - see what i mean about patterns?)

and now it's thursday, which means tomorrow is friday and i am almost done week 3 at le job. it's been a rough week but it's been ok. just pretty tiring.

now to yoga (a home practice cuz the class i was going to go to is just too close to when i get home and i have to get all caught up on dlisted and perezhilton and laineygossip), then food, then maybe some cuddling with the new yorker. talk of the town, indeed.

a circle has no beginning

2007-07-22T09:37:00.000-07:00

but the harry potter series has an end.

and what a glorious end it was. i started it last night at 6 pm and read until 10 pm, slept for the perfect 8 hours and woke up at 6:15 am and just finished it at 9:30 am. wow. i feel like i shouldn't even write about the experience since it still has to seep in.

granted, plowiing through it doesn't help me remember details which should be in my brain when the crucial moments come (one moment literally had me mentally saying, "huh?" but i kept plowing on anyway, and i actually still don't get it - maybe that's what the internet is for...). but it was great. and i am sad that the series is over, but happy for the messages it sent out - believe in yourself, love each other, be a good friend, life is difficult and suffering is part of life, it takes all kinds, read books, live life and most of all, life is magical. this to me is the key message and having spoken of my excitement for the book and movie all week, and hearing people respond by saying, "i just don't get it", i have come to the realization that what they don't get is the magic. literalists may have a hard time with this series.

so now i have the rest of the day to do something and i think i might go up to whistler to watch some dudes on mountain bikes. that's not totally for sure, but i want to get out of the city.

and here are some people who "get" the magic factor. i am sure that the kid on the right gets it - he's soooo coool. this is my fave pic of all of the muggle potter freaks on the planet.

and a p.s. being who i am, i was kind of pissed that it was all masculine by the end of my reading, but then i remembered Lyra from the Golden Compass and felt happy again. so if you get pissy about the bro effect, then pick up "his Dark Materials" and revel in it. but only after you've read mr. potter and friends. okay, must stop - so close to saying too much.

waiter, there's a magnet in my cup

2007-07-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

really, there was a magnet at the bottom of my o.j. this morning. it had fallen off the fridge and into the fridge but i couldn't find it, so i just shut the fridge door and went on with life. a couple of hours later i decided to finally drink the glass of o.j. that i'd left in the fridge for about 3 days and found the magnet.... at the bottom of my cup.

i'm pooped. all this getting up and going to work stuff is overrated, but necessary. the funny thing is, the hours are humane, so i'm not as exhausted as i used to be and i still have a lot of energy to do stuff which is new and funny-feeling. i was all set to sit on my butt all weekend and watch endless movies but i've actually been outside for most of the weekend, save this morning. (ok - i saw the new harry potter last night which ROCKED... run, don't walk and make sure you go pee before it).

so the job is good. i have some political issues with it, but overall it's a good job and i can translate my concerns into good community development. it's just a bit of a headache at times. the people are so friendly and fun, but they are recreational programmers and it seems like every sentence starts with "i was out for a run last night...." or "i'm on a soccer team..." which just makes me want to light up a cigarette while they're talking.

(i know... i shouldn't be so critical, but it's the first week and i'm just trying to suss out what i'm dealing with and how i'm going to operate in this group of folks. it's good but just a little different from the social justice framework that i'm used to living my life in.)

anyway, life's good - i just have to do some errands because i don't get to stay home tomorrow. and my mom is booked to come out for a visit and i am so excited.

random post for a random day and now it's time to buy some soy milk.

lady, he's a sandwich

2007-07-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

the title of this post is one of my favourite sex and the city lines. miranda has walked past a man in a sandwich suit handing out flyers accompanied by "eat me" which she finds harassing to women. so she walks in and complains to the manager who tells her, "lady, he's a sandwich". and in response to her continued complaints, he responds, "but lady, he's a sandwich."

which is how i'm feeling right now after day one at le job. i woke up early and successfully got out of bed (thoughts of my brother and mom saying "two feet on the floor" propelled me to accomplish just that), had a wonderful morning complete with latte, and then strutted my ass down to the skytrain and did the morning commute. a lot of people do the morning commute, and after watching copious amounts of sex and the city, i felt like maybe, just maybe, i was in new york.

and then i got to work, met with my manager and then had a team meeting. the people are so nice and everyone seems really targeted to their jobs and seem pretty great. i had meetings with a bunch of different people with different roles and had a tour of the building (showers upstairs in case i ride to work) and got up close and personal with my cubicle.

my cubicle is nice enough, but it's a cubicle. i used to think that dilbert was a funny commentary on corporate america and that the office was priceless comedy, but now i am feeling how strongly rooted the comedy is in the daily lived experience of being under fluorescent bulbs with no windows. if i brought a plant into work it would die (unless it was a cactus - thank you lisa for the suggestion). if something's gotta give, first thing is going to be your sanity.

but i digress. my office has people in it - 18 more than my previous office - that's right, it's an office of 19. and it has a kitchen with plates and a dishwasher and an espresso machine and fridges and tables where people can eat. and when i was chatting with my manager about personnel policies and contracts, she actually said that they were trying to create an environment where people felt safe and respected. i nearly cried.

and this is where i wander into my wishy washy miranda anger. because after today (and i fully admit that i am tired and therefore not overly rational) i feel angry. angry that noone told me that this is what work should actually be like, that there are places where there are pre-existing systems that you don't have to worry about inventing, or creating time to invent them, and where people are nice and concerned for your well-being. this place stands in such sharp contrast to some of my previous workplaces where the people are concerned for the well-being of society, but exploit your passion for humankind in the interest of their workplace budgets. and that is bullshit. (i also take responsibility for letting them exploit me and for being so passionate, but still, these are older professionals who have jobs where they are safe and respected and know better, and still knowingly take advantage of people). i keep thinking: egregious, egregious, egregious behaviour.

so i just remember my high school french teacher who told me that i have to control my passion. she didn't mean this in a limiting, derisive way, but instead out of love, told me that i need to reign in my passion and remain objective about my work and my subject matter. objectivity created better work - she was perhaps my first yoga teacher. go inside yourself to go outside yourself and detach, detach, detach.

like padmini and the sandwich manager would say, "lady, it's only a job". and a good one at that.

last day of freedom

2007-07-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

uh oh.

starting tomorrow, i'm back in the land of the working. back in the realm of wake up early, make my lunch, try to get everything together, pack up my bag, leave my house, go back to my house because inevitably, i forgot something, then go to work.

i have to admit, i am excited about it. about having something to do, and having some more motivation about getting things done, but i am also not excited about getting up early and getting on the skytrain. i am also, in true girly style, more concerned about my wardrobe than about my actual ability to do the job. so today, i'm going shoe shopping since i will actually have a workplace where i can't wear my flip flops to work (correction: my $5 Old Navy flip flops - i might get some nicer leather ones).
argh - i hate being so materialistic, but i am recognizing this as an opportunity to build my wardrobe and get some appropriate clothes.

i am living my mom's dream for me - i have finally found a job where i sit in an office and work and have to wear professional clothes. i think this is the universe's birthday gift to my mom. really, it's her birthday today. and she is the best mom EVER. (i know some other contenders for "best mom ever" but hey, she's my mom and hence the best.)

i be employed

2007-07-05T07:54:00.000-07:00

just got a job doing community development.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

i am very very very happy.
it's one of those things where from the minute i saw the posting, i got that "i like that" tingle combined with the "i want that" shiver. and i like and got it.

only thing is i start on monday which is soon but, hey, i've had 2 months off and it's not like i have to postpone it in order to do anything other than lounge on the beach and read. which is what i'm going to do today, along with lots of SHOPPING.

mama's gotta brand new bag, biiiitttccchheeez. that's in a figurative and possibly literal sense - i've been eyeing some bags at roots and today might just be the day jessica wessica stops drooling and coveting and just buys the damn thing.

and it's my dad's birthday - happy birthday, dad!
now for some coffee. (yes, i lived on the wild side and actually did something before ingesting my morning drug).

why i love america (and marvin)

2007-07-04T13:05:00.001-07:00

i can't believe i'm posting on independence day and not on canada day but whatever.

only marvin can turn a national anthem into the ultimate slow jam. i really need to find out where he got those beats cuz i need some of those for when i'm walking down the street. oh yes, and the shades too.

i totally sat on a bench

2007-06-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

yuppers, i did not go swimming.

it's good - not to get all diary-entry here - but i think it's positive that i'm not being so hard on myself, and that i can actually just go for walks and sit on benches and get into novels and not feel like i have to "improve" my life somehow. i think i might be liking myself a lot more. i've been going for walks down by the seawall every night and have been laying low, while slowly coming out of the hideout and doing what i have to do and what i want to do.

so today i am going to the farm to help out and i'm also going out for lunch. yahoo! i'm very excited for both of these things. and then i'm coming back either tomorrow night or on saturday morning for yoga and then my friend's arrival on saturday night. i'm going to try to spend more time at the farm if possible - but i've also gotten some interviews, so i have to make sure i'm prepped for those as well.

oh man, i'm boring myself. i wish i had more exciting things to say but i don't. other than i see herons all the time when i go for my walks and that feels very special somehow. i like how they crane their necks before they thrust their heads in the water. i also like when they go through that entire process of craning their necks, staring off into the water for about 7 minutes then the thrust and come up with nothing. they're cute when they shake their heads and then they just do it all over again. seems like a metaphor for something larger, but i just think they're cute and majestic at the same time.

and a question: can a heron "crane" its neck? or is that reserved for cranes? yes, that was my deep thought from my walk last night. off to frolick in the kale.

i have nothing interesting to say

2007-06-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

really, i don't.

other than i have reached the height of laziness and am really feeling the urge for direction in my life. i have been sleeping a lot even though i'm totally well rested and now am waking up at 5:30 because i'm done sleeping and also because the birds are freaking out. (i go back to sleep and get up at 8:30ish). it's nice that i'm so relaxed but i'm also concerned that i'm almost toooooo relaxed. (for example, i have to set my alarm for 8 am.... my alarm.... and i normally hit snooze).

my version of doing nothing normally involves lots of something, but in this case, nope, it's actually a whole lot of nothing. and my friend is coming back from the island tonight, and i'm going to have to come up with something that i did in the 4 days that she was gone other than "i lounged around in my pjs".

anyhoo, i'm making myself go swimming so i don't feel like my ass is swollen all the time, but i have to be honest in that, i'm concerned that with my laziness, i'll just go down to the beach, soak up some rays and then come back home.

now that i've written that, it really doesn't seem so bad.

first houseguest

2007-06-13T22:27:00.000-07:00

in my new pad.

i'm typing away in the living room while she sleeps in my bed (i could not bring myself to go to bed so early so i'm crashing on my murphy bed).

yay for friends from faraway who are suddenly so close.

sweet dreams.

attention fellow watergate nerds

2007-06-13T08:19:00.000-07:00

i am a die-hard woodstein fan.

i could watch all the president's men over and over and over.
i get goose bumps whenever i hear the words "bob woodward", "carl bernstein", "ben bradlee", "katherine graham" and "segretti" mentioned together or alone.

so you can imagine my excitement when i was digging through a slide show of archived items at the ransom literary archives courtesy of the new yorker and found this pic....

if you look closely, you can see that it's bob woodward's first notes about the watergate scandal and his press pass.

follow the money, people. follow the money.

his hotness

2007-06-11T16:13:00.001-07:00

here's my new boyfriend, simon, as he crosses the line.
booya.

p.s. don't look too closely cuz you will have a billy blanks tae-bo moment. julia, you know what i'm talking about....

do the math

2007-06-11T15:51:00.000-07:00

yesterday was such a great day.

i woke up to a phone call from my family and chatted with my bro and mom. then i surfed the internet which i finally have again at home and then decided to go for a walk as a pre-emptive strike before going completely insane. so i walked to the end of my street and discovered the international triathlon. i watched women zoom by on their bikes and then walked down to the seawall and watched them run by. and they were fast. and they were brick shithouses. seriously - these women were HUGE, but lean in their hugeness. most of all, they were and still probably are, fit - very fit.

i heard that the men were starting at 3 so i walked along the seawall, got a coffee and walked far enough to get to the end of their swim so i could see them transition to their bikes. i plunked my ass down on a log and watched this line of extremely fast arms splashing through the water out in the bay and then watched them run out of the water. if the women were brick shithouses, the men were brick shitmansions. seriously, they were HUGE and lean and pretty much amazing specimens of manhood, at least from an aesthetic point of view. then i walked along the seawall back towards the city and watched them do 8 laps on their bikes. they were so fast - and i had just finished "it's not about the bike" by lance armstrong earlier in the week so was totally transfixed by what i will call "le peloton" or the pack of really fast dudes and then the other "peloton" which was a larger pack of not-as-fast dudes. and then they ran 4 loops and simon whitfield - the canadian triathlete god - won the race. yyyyyesssssss.

which brings me to math and today.
i was feeling so inspired that i looked up "my first triathlon" websites all morning and then decided that i would go up to north van and ride my bike and be all "lancita armstrong" and shit. but i'm not that good at math which had a deleterious effect on my ride. i threw my bike in the car (which always makes me feel kinda dumb - i mean, why not just ride there?) and drove over to the mountains.

so first miscalculation - leave the city which is threatening to have some serious sunshine for the grey grey mountains in the distance.
then on the way out the door, throw on your velour jacket since you don't need no stinkin' goretex cuz you're HARDCORE.
then drive and sing your heart out in the car, and choke your heart down as it rises into your throat as you put the wipers on full throttle going over the bridge into the land of mordor (sorry, north van).
then go for a ride which is distinctly uphill.
then try to ignore the fact that your hands are bright red, as are your ankles cuz you wore capris and shoes with no socks cuz it's summer, right?
then grind by two elderly cyclists who are coasting downhill the other way in matching bike jackets who tell you "it's cold up there!".

this is where my calculator started to work:
"it's cold". yes - hands frozen and ankles.
"up there". wha? am i not "up" enough? there's more "up" "up there"??
and finally the large equation "it's cold up there" which meant it was even colder up at the top of the stupidly long hill i was on and had been for the past 2.5 k.

so was i lancita armstrong? hell no, because lancita armstrong is a freak of nature who wins hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money not to mention the endorsement cash that comes after winning epic races which necessitate training of this sort.
i am not lancita armstrong, although i would like to think i am. i instead, am jess who really wants to go to a yoga class tonight and doesn't feel the need to die of hypothermia before then.

so i graciously turned around, coasted downhill and threw ye olde bike in the car and drove home to the hot hot city.

i'll become a brick shithouse tomorrow. maybe. if there are cupcakes at the end.

annals of the unemployed

2007-06-11T15:38:00.000-07:00

soooo
it's been a while, a long while, since i posted which coincidentally corresponds exactly to when i finished my job. (ok, i finished 5 days later).

being unemployed is good. just stressful in the long stretch of days and the push/pull effect of looking for a job (i.e. wavering between, "wow! i love being unemployed and not having anything to do" and "wow! if i don't get out of my apartment sometime soon i will kill someone, most likely myself". not good.)

since becoming a freebird, i had a lovely time of intense decompression. think lots of movie-watching, quilt-making, frantic making of lists of things i would do while unemployed, frantic unmaking of lists since i was unemployed, goddammit, and didn't want/need lists to propel my day, and finally, lots of sleeping.

then i had the best family visit ever in windsor and just hung out with my mom, my niece, my bro and sister-in-law and my grandparents. it was amazing.

then i came back to vancouver and got the blues. i missed my family and finally clued into the fact that i was not on vacation, that i need a job to pay those dastardly things called bills and then i got angry. the org i used to work for owes me money which they have still to pay (which infuriates me) and i also had shit to do which i wasn't doing. and i got angry at myself for being angry at myself which is nice and circular and always productive. so i gave that up, although it comes back in waves, and i decided to exercise. i've been deep into my yoga practice and i've also been swimming in preparation for a race that i haven't registered for yet, but which i imagine i am in every time i get in the pool and mentally pummel the other swimmers while they happily do their lengths.

i've also had the bestest visitors since i've been unemployed - janet and chachi came and alice is coming in only two sleeps. it's nice that they've been here and it's nice too that i have nothing but time for them. oh and fine hospitality - i have that too. and my friends rock. but a lot of them work although i've been promoting the "freedom 28" lifestyle to anyone that can afford it.

that's all. i doubt anyone reads this thing anymore but i will persist since i have the time.

stupid internet

2007-04-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

wouldn't let me post these with the others. grrrr. so here they are.

now i'm off to get my legs waxed. ooooooooowwwwwwwww. (yet somehow rewarding.)

easter feaster

2007-04-21T12:57:00.000-07:00

uh, so it's been a while. blame that on no internet at home and tons of work to do and actually having a co-worker in the past 3 weeks so i haven't been able to cruise the internet as much as i previously did.

anyhoo - yes, easter was good (if only eons ago). i had cin and jord and lo over for dins. we had a yummy dinner and then tucked into my nest cake which was very yummy and very very chocolatey.

sorry about the easter tree and animals montage, but that's a tradition in my fam, so i thought i would try it on my own. (the internet at this blenz is giving me 'tude so i'm going to have to do another post with a couple more pics - sorry.) i did go to church which was actually really good - the united church is the way to go, i have to say. a gay minister and the lord's prayer which includes "our mother" !!!???!!! i'm sold. at least on the non-churchiness aspect. i tuned out when he told us to spread the word of god. la la la - i'm all for pointers on how to be kind and marvel at the wonder of life, but i'll skip the preachiness please.

had a good weekend last weekend too - went away to saturna island, and have pics of that, but those are going to have to wait since i haven't formatted them yet. i am super-stoked to be unemployed in about 6 days so i can stop being about 3 weeks behind on anything un-work-related, and then i can acknowledge and maybe blog about the following things:
* lo's b-day
* job interview
* life outside of work

yessssssss. but for now - boringness persists until thursday.

oh holy jesus

2007-04-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

i'm sitting in blenz right now partaking of a green tea and some free internet.
i'm also getting a free lecture about easter and jesus by the guy beside me who is edumacating a language student about it.

"no, no, CRUcified.... c-r-u-c-i-f-i-e-d"

*groan*

the irony is that i was even thinking of going to church on sunday for a little hymn-sing. i can't help it, it's the anglican school girl in me. there is something so catchy about "jesus christ is risen todaaaaaaaay, ha-aaa-aa-aaa-aa-lelujah" and of course, #336 (the lord of the dance- not michael flatley or whatever his name is...).

we'll see if this guy doesn't totally turn me off of the church thing, although i can go pretty inconspicuously to the united church on the corner, check the hymns, make sure they're the good ones, and then get gone if i can't handle the whole thing. i think that might be the final plan.

"i'm a bit more evangelical now...." no shit.

anyway, hoppy easter to everyone. don't mind the sacrelige on good friday. just eat some chocolate and think you can live forever more with jebus. ha-aaa-aa-aaa-aa-lelujah! sing your hearts out heathens and lovers alike! and if you're jewish, happy passover to you, too, although the guy beside me has something to say about that too...... :)

My Celebrity Look-alikes

2007-04-05T15:59:00.001-07:00

this really made my day....
how sweet can this get?
i look like james spader AND nana mouskouri??

gold, i tell you, gold. life cannot get any sweeter than this.

(oh yes it can, lisa looks like nicholas cage..... i think we're tied... at least nicholas cage is related to francis ford coppola. james spader is almost related to andrew mccarthy since they starred in pretty in pink together.)

anyhoo, i pretty much resemble any celebrity with dark framed glasses. i especially appreciate the sunglasses at bottom right. priceless. (i can't believe they left out ray charles and stevie wonder!!!)

My cool celebrity look-alike collage from MyHeritage.com. Get one for yourself.

euh, how do you say....?

2007-04-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

yesterday was awful. but so awful that it almost might be funny. i stress "almost might be". now that i have slept for long luxurious hours and have communicated this story to lisa over gmail, i am ok with typing it out for the cyber-world to see.

i'm still feeling kind of nauseous about my mom reading it, but whatever. i was just channeling my dad..... ya, that 's it. (maybe now she won't crucify me.) (ooh, i like my use of crucify especially since it's easter weekend.)

anyhoo, yesterday sucked for the following reasons: (my mom will crucify me for using "sucked", so mom, i really mean "stank".... better? but really, it suuuuucked.)

i gave myself adequate time to go to the drycleaner and get my pants to go with my blazer in the morning and then drive to the ferry. but then i didn't have adequate $ in my bank account so i had to drive to the bank, cash cheques, come back and pick up the pants and by then it was late. really late. and i suddenly got really panicky that i might miss the 11 AM ferry which would get me there early for a 3 PM award ceremony, whose award was sitting in my car.

so i burned rubber to get to the ferry terminal and was 5 cars away from getting on the 11 AM ferry. 5 cars. when i peeled in, the woman was saying that "it didn't look good for the 11 so was the 1 okay?" i asked her if that was a rhetorical question since it wasn't okay, but i didn't really have a choice, followed by some hysterical laughter. then i realized that i didn't have anyone's cell phone number to call to tell them that i would be a little late but that i had the sculpture.

so i waited in the boring ferry terminal for 2 hours, got on the 1 pm ferry, met up thankfully with another woman i knew who was heading to the awards ceremony on the ferry, told her my predicament and told her to tell the others if she got there before me. which she did.

so i peeled into the awards ceremony at 3:20 PM, just in time to pass off the stupid sculpture to the LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF BC to give to the award recipient at GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

i felt like such an asshole and wanted to die.

but then i ate a lot of free cookies and people were very compassionate and i drank tea and wiped my mouth with free government house napkins (of which i took quite a few for my very official living room). i also want to mention that not only was the lieutenant governor in the room, but high-ranking BC labour people like Jim Sinclair, a couple of MLAs and government folk like Joy MacPhail, city councillors and an ex-premier even, Dave Barrett. thank god i am younger and they have no idea who i am. seriously. and they were too busy schmoozing with each other to really care.

(it was gross, i have to say - all the white men in charge of the labour movement. it was really obvious and really weird, especially at an award ceremony for women's rights.)

my day got progressively better when colleagues asked me to join them for dinner, but after 40 minutes of driving around looking for the freaking restaurant and not finding it, i had to book it to the ferry to make sure i could get on the next one home which is the only place i wanted to be.

[i think i might have a sensory problem or something since apparently i was at the intersection and drove around it a gazillion times but didn't see the restaurant (you can't miss it! they said... um, yes - yes, you can.)]

so essentially i spent about 6 hours travelling to drop off a sculpture, eat cookies and drive around for 2.5 hours. yeesh.

i came home, went for a walk and then had a really hot bath and then went to bed. i feel a lot better today since i have short term memory problems and already have kind of blocked it out.

(happy birthday, lisa! - now she's old like me)

newsy news

2007-04-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

i haven't posted in a while, mostly because i don't have internet at home yet (soon, soon!) and have finally finished all of this change stuff and am too tired to try to articulate it.

other than, it's mostly done.

yesterday, i gave up the keys to my old place. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! i got in the car and yelled and screamed a little, then drove to a meeting for work and sat through it with a HUGE cheshire smile on my face. my shoulders feel just incrementally less tight, which is saying A LOT.

i've made a very professional workplan to transition out of my job and am moving full speed ahead on that, and i am getting less and less sad about lu every day.

and shocking, yet true, i am even planning to have some FUN. (fun, oh how i've missed you!) it's a long weekend coming up and i am going to swim and frolick and pick up my bike from the bike shop and i'm going to eat yummy food with family and maybe even throw in a yoga class or two. i am so stoked.

and i just want to make it public that my brother and i share a genetically encoded "love of top 40" gene, along with our lack of chin definition. he left me a message with jt and "what goes around comes around". the beauty was that the message could have been from any of 3 people, and i had to check the phone number to see who it was from. i LOVE the image of him driving my grandma's lincoln with JT cranked.

and i will leave you all with that beautiful image and the promise of more posts to come.

love j. xo

juice-swillin' hootenanny

2007-03-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

two cuties just chilling in the sun, talking 'bout stuff...

kitchen and fave purchase

2007-03-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

finally, here's the kitchen:

and here is my favourite purchase of all time.... throwing out garbage now makes me deliriously happy.

the can and bedroom

2007-03-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

bathroom (with 2 doors!!! and a giant tub which i have soaked myself in twice now and am planning on soaking myself in it tonight after yoga......);

bedroom:
bad pic of the set-up but it has built-ins and my bed, and obviously a reading lamp which isn't working out so much right now. and then the view from my bed...