I've just had a bath. Baths aren't for everyone; many people prefer showers. I, too, enjoy a shower, nice and hot, but tonight there was nothing for it but a bath. For a change, the cats didn't bother me so I was left with uninterrupted reading time. I prefer to read mindless or leisure books in the tub, for two reasons. Firstly, I take bathtime as me time and, secondly, I would really hate to drop an expensive historical or art history book in the water. I did that when I first moved out here. Call it over eagerness, or something, but my "Concise History of the Crusades" has never looked the same. My current bathtub reading is "Eragon", which I scavenged from the Arts Centre lost and found after it had sat unclaimed for at least five months. It's that fantasy book that was recently turned into a not-very-good fantasy movie (or at least, so I've heard). It was written by a very literate, articulate teenager, and all the vocuabulary in the world isn't going to change his age and breadth of world knowledge. It is, without a doubt, a very basic story. Sort of like "Star Wars", only with swords, word magic and dragons instead of light sabres, the Force, and X-Wings. Like I said, mindless reading for the tub.
Anyway, I thought I'd actually stun you by going back and rehashing some of my Christmas holiday. I think I'll offer some highlights, rather than a blow by blow acount. I'll start with the Bioware Corp Christmas party, which I attended in Edmonton. My friend Brian works there and I was his date. Let me tell you, I have never attended a work party like this before in my life. Three or four open bars, including a martini/cocktail bar, dinner (which I missed due to my plane landing late), a stand-up comedian, live dj spinning a decent mix, enormous dance floor, Guitar Hero on the big screen (awesome game, that), a midnight mini-buffet, dessert tables and did I mention the open bars? Oh ya, and everyone got a taxi chit to get home. I made friends with the girlfriend of Brian's friend Stan. Her name is for the moment escaping me, but it will come to me eventually. I blame the steam from the bath. Anyway, she's tall, gorgeous, and rollickingly funny. And she's coming to Whitehorse with her choir in May ! Woo !
Christmas with Mom was beautiful. It always is. We had it real easy this year, which was nice, because I was kind of pooped when I arrived home on Christmas Eve morning. She was waiting with coffee brewed. That was possibly one of the nicest things I've experienced in a long time. We talked for a bit, then we both went to bed. It only took Chester an hour to decide that having me home was a good thing, too. He's a great cat. Then there was tree decorating, present wrapping, a quiet dinner just the two of us, and then Church. Christmas day was equally subdued, but in a nice way. I was just so happy to be home. I didn't even mind the lack of snow. In fact, I was rather relishing the unseasonably balmy weather.
Christmas is my favourite holiday, without a doubt, and quite possibly the single most persuasive argument against my ever having a bat mitzvah. Sure, it's supposed to be about the birth of Joshua, I mean Jesus, but since it's pretty clear he wasn't actually born at Christmas, and the whole shebang is essentially a conglomeration of all the best bits of several Pagan traditions, I'm okay being a mostly-Jew celebrating Christmas. Though maybe I'll start calling it Yule. All that aside, I love Christmas. Some of my happiest memories, even when the holiday could have been ruined by other awful things (a father in lock-up, a mother straight out of killer surgery, etc.), I only look at it as the best time of the year. I might not belive in Santa, and I held on to that belief for years, but I do believe in magic, particularly that created from love and closeness. Thanks for that, Mom, you're the best.
Okay, it's 12:30am, so I guess I'll leave off for now. But since I can't get enough talking about Gareth, I will most likely be back with more content.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Man, this Blogger/Google business has obviously been screwing with Blogger, because the last three times I tried to update this journal, what they're calling "Old Blogger" has been down for maintenance. I would really hate to have to close this journal after six years because the new site owners are twats.
At any rate, I promise to return with a full holiday update, but for tonight, I'm going to talk about more recent things.
I've just come back from picking up Kid Koala (one of the world's finest turntablists) at the Airport. I went with Matt and I made a sign that said Mr. Koala with a happy koala on it. Eric, the Artistic Director was also there and he told me to put the sign away because the Yukon Arts Centre doesn't do signs. I told him it would be an exception because it was a fancy homemade sign. Kid Koala came through and was clearly looking for a sign, saw it, smiled and I got to say to Eric, "hah." Yes, I'm that small.
While I was waiting for Matt to pick me up, around 11:45pm, the aurora borealis was just magnificent. Three stripes of bright green with waves of varying intensity moving down them like the "file loading" bar on a computer. Heh, I live in the future, don't I? Anyway, they were quite extraordinary and I was sorry when Matt arrived. When we reached the airport, they had quieted down somewhat. Naturally, when we left half an hour later with Kid Koala, they had stopped completely. By the time Matt dropped me back home, they were back. Subtler, but arrayed in rays and swirls that filled a quarter of the sky, mainly in the northeast. Taking out my garbage has never been so beautiful.
Anyway, in other news, but still related to the Arts Centre, the Curator has accepted a position as the inaugural Executive Director of the new Nanaimo Art Gallery, which means, of course, that he'll be leaving Whitehorse. While I'm sorry that he'll be leaving, particularly now that I've met his wife and I like her very much, I'm very pleased for him. This is a great step in his career. I attended the Board of Directors' meeting with him on Monday for his announcement. At that time he also stated to the Board that the same procedures ought to be followed for the next Curator's hiring as were used for his. A committee made of members of the Board and the community, preferably with the outgoing Curator on it as well, should be struck and the candidate search should be national in scope. Simply put, there is no one in the Yukon who is qualified for the job. There are rumours that someone no more qualified than me has already been approached, but we shall see. If that is the case and the Board chooses not to heed the Curator's advice, I might have something to say, but as it stands, I'll see how it goes. I might be pleasantly surprised.
Those are the big news items as of this week. I have a sink full of dishes I am resolutely ignoring, a pair of vocal and very bouncy cats, a fantastic car, and am currently on a break from school. The next semester starts in February... right when my life at the Arts Centre starts getting ridiculously busy again. C'est la vie.
At any rate, I promise to return with a full holiday update, but for tonight, I'm going to talk about more recent things.
I've just come back from picking up Kid Koala (one of the world's finest turntablists) at the Airport. I went with Matt and I made a sign that said Mr. Koala with a happy koala on it. Eric, the Artistic Director was also there and he told me to put the sign away because the Yukon Arts Centre doesn't do signs. I told him it would be an exception because it was a fancy homemade sign. Kid Koala came through and was clearly looking for a sign, saw it, smiled and I got to say to Eric, "hah." Yes, I'm that small.
While I was waiting for Matt to pick me up, around 11:45pm, the aurora borealis was just magnificent. Three stripes of bright green with waves of varying intensity moving down them like the "file loading" bar on a computer. Heh, I live in the future, don't I? Anyway, they were quite extraordinary and I was sorry when Matt arrived. When we reached the airport, they had quieted down somewhat. Naturally, when we left half an hour later with Kid Koala, they had stopped completely. By the time Matt dropped me back home, they were back. Subtler, but arrayed in rays and swirls that filled a quarter of the sky, mainly in the northeast. Taking out my garbage has never been so beautiful.
Anyway, in other news, but still related to the Arts Centre, the Curator has accepted a position as the inaugural Executive Director of the new Nanaimo Art Gallery, which means, of course, that he'll be leaving Whitehorse. While I'm sorry that he'll be leaving, particularly now that I've met his wife and I like her very much, I'm very pleased for him. This is a great step in his career. I attended the Board of Directors' meeting with him on Monday for his announcement. At that time he also stated to the Board that the same procedures ought to be followed for the next Curator's hiring as were used for his. A committee made of members of the Board and the community, preferably with the outgoing Curator on it as well, should be struck and the candidate search should be national in scope. Simply put, there is no one in the Yukon who is qualified for the job. There are rumours that someone no more qualified than me has already been approached, but we shall see. If that is the case and the Board chooses not to heed the Curator's advice, I might have something to say, but as it stands, I'll see how it goes. I might be pleasantly surprised.
Those are the big news items as of this week. I have a sink full of dishes I am resolutely ignoring, a pair of vocal and very bouncy cats, a fantastic car, and am currently on a break from school. The next semester starts in February... right when my life at the Arts Centre starts getting ridiculously busy again. C'est la vie.
