Today was a good day ! After initial crap, like having a construction digger blocking the alley that goes to the parking spaces behind Heretic. The construction workers were on lunch and shrugged when I beeped and asked them to move the thing. Wankers. It took me almost another 15 minutes to finally get around the block and into the space, what with it being mid-day, downtown on a beautiful day. But, then this fellow named Oak (well, Dan) came into the store and he made me feel better by just being his pleasant self. Then, later in the day, a man went by the store walking -something- on a leash. I couldn't see what it was, because it was very low to the ground and the step up blocked my view, so I went outside, thinking it was something long and low to the ground, like a ferret. I like ferrets. And lo ! It was an iguana ! Hey neat ! I talked to the man leading it, and found out that, though it was about two feet long, it would probably grow to be longer than five when it was fully mature (it is presently only two years old), and it turned out to be a he. A he named Freddie ! Freddie the Iguana, strolled past the store today. Whee !

There's not much to report. I opted to have a quiet night tonight, what with all my working on websites and whatnot. I went to Java to have supper after work, and read about a third of the latest Now Magazine (the best Toronto weekly paper, full of arts listings and whatnot) over a huge, cheesy chicken fajita and pink guava shake. Their shakes are just so damn good, I have one almost every time I go. Yum, yum, yum. I played a bit on the MUD tonight, which is unusual in itself, since I hardly seem to get on it anymore. I figure a couple times a week, no more than that, but I try to make it count when I do. Now, I really should be going to bed, as it's a ROM day tomorrow (oh, yay), but the thing is, I'm not really tired yet.

I wrote an email to Brom a couple nights ago, asking him if it would be alright for me to use a couple of his works on my site, providing I give him credit and link to his page. He replied that it was, and thanks, which is nice. It's nice when people we look up to are polite. It makes all the other jerks in the world seem a lot less important, if you know what I mean. So, after I've finished doing my updates to what is already there, and the updates to Ray's page, then I can work on a little mini Brom page. Oh, and another thing, related to webpages, is that I've offered to run Nadine's (my singer friend, who I went for dinner with last night - a good, solid, fun time, where mostly we griped about being poor artists) site for her. It's nothing big, just three pages or there about, with a headshot and upcoming concert info and a bio. It's going to be fun, and relatively simple. Not too graphic intensive, and it won't require much thinking. This is good. It should be fun. Also, the fee is reasonable. For now, she will just feed me, and when she's in a position to be able to pay me, she will. I think that's okay. Anyway, now I'm feeling a bit sleepy, so I think I'll head for the night.

I've done some significant renovations to my webpage in the last two nights. Last night, created a couple brand-spanking-new pages that get you where you need to go, and today, I've started on Portfolio Redux. Hopefully, by the end of the week, it won't matter anymore what browser you look at my portfolio with. Oh, I also added a new piece of art in the 'illustration' section. It's not a new piece, really, since I did it a couple summers ago, but it's new for the webpage. Once I'm done with mine, I can get back to working on Ray's (though I've sort of started making changes to that, too).

A movie is being shot right next to the ROM at the Royal Conservatory of Music. I noticed it because I needed to go to the bank, which meant I would have cut through the RCM's parking lot, except it was ribboned off with caution tape and pylons. I saw a set, built to match the conservatory's bricks (rather convincingly, too), and thought I'd better investigate. I strolled up Philosopher's Walk and out onto Bloor St and when I passed the parking lot, my kleptomanic need for pylons nearly got the better of me (nearly) and I saw the sandwich board. "Bulletproof Monk to set". Uh... huh. So, when I went back intot he museum, I looked it up on the web and found out that it's a movie due to come out late 2002 (shouldn't they be done filming then?) and it stars Chow Yun-Fat. It's based on the comic of the same name, though apparently not the same storyline. Huh. I'd thought Bulletproof Monk was directed by John Woo, which would have been ultimately cool, but I had misread a site. The real director is an unknown (unless Mariah Carey videos count), named Paul Hunter. My excitement about it diminished when I learned this. Oh well. The fact that it's being filmed next to the ROM makes it kind of cool, though, and I'll still probably go see it when it's in theatres.

So, I took a little walk after work today, not as long a walk as I'd intended, because it was sort of cold and I didn't really feel like walking all that much, but two things struck me as I walked along. I was heading west on Bloor and first came to a group of protesters wearing loud yellow (orange?) pickets, doing their protesting thing outside the Quality Hotel on Bloor St. As I neared them, I was able, first, to hear what the woman was yelling through her megaphone, and then to read their pickets. It seems this dozen-person group was made up of the cleaning staff of the Quality Hotel. It turns out, the hotel is planning to, if not already doing so, pay these workers per room, rather than by the hour. How vile is that? Come on, by the room? Where are we, Mexico? What, I ask, would happen to the poor souls stuck cleaning the room of some hideous slob, a job that might take twice as long as a typical room, rather than the ones cleaning the room that was barely touched? I mean, let's just penalise hard work a little more, why don't we. I thought, as I walked past them, "What a crappy world this is."

A few blocks further west, nearing Spadina, I began to make out the strains of music, but it was directionless, bouncing off the walls of the surrounding buildings and being muffled by the car engins idling at the lights. When I reached the corner, I found the source, a young man, maybe his mid-twenties, dressed like any old joe on the street. He looked like he probably played highschool football before turning to a much more respectable (this is not sarcasm) career in busking. He was playing an electric guitar, and he didn't suck, either. What got me, though, and a whole lot of passers-by, was that he was playing hard rock riffs - at any moment, I expected him to break into some Iron Maiden, or something. Then he took off on a crazy solo (if you can cut into a solo when you're the only one playing) and I thought, "Satriani. He wants to be Spadina's Satriani." I smiled broadly, and went into the drug store thinking that maybe it wasn't so bad a world afterall.

"It was five years of artistry and development. The breakthrough was after we finished shooting. It was about a little over a year ago. Frank Oz was very excited about not having to hold his hand up a heavy puppet and be in a hole in the floor."

~ George Lucus talking about CG Yoda in an interview for The Homing Beacon, the starwars.com newsletter.

I forgot to mention something that happened to me on Thursday before seeing AotC. I was walking down the street, just outside of Heretic, actually, and it was crumby out, damp but not currently raining, and Tanya and I were walking along. There were lot of people walking by us on either side in both directions. Considering what a crappy day it was, it was pretty busy on the sidewalk. Suddenly, a blue umbrella, of the sort that pop out and open, pushes me aside and this man, older, in his fifties, dressed in blue denim, including cap, moves by me. I stop and glance at Tanya, but she didn't see it. He literally prodded me as though I was cattle. He didn't even try saying "excuse me" or anything, he just shoved me aside.
Me: Excuse me !
Him: No, -excuse- me. (nasty grinning) ...There are two of you; you don't have to take up the whole sidewalk.
Me: (stunned silence) Well... Well, fuck you.
Now, I don't normally swear at men on the street, even when they're harrassing me, but the man treated me like a herd animal. There was a time when men wouldn't THINK of doing that to a woman, but obviously now, these days, even the slightest bit of COMMON CURTESY is lost. Shit. What a jerk.

Anyway, yesterday, Mom came and visited. Hey, wow, that was nice ! She not only brought food, but she also brought her wondrous decorating/visually-thinky mind of hers. While the effect is somewhat dulled tonight as I just brought back the remainder of my crap from Al and Carrie's and have deposited it about the apartment, overall, the place is looking spiffy ! She liked it very much, as well, the apartment, itself, though she agreed that my room was unnecessarily dark. That said, I must note that my fancy window fixing -is- mounted and looks lovely. Mom and I had a bit of a picnic in the living room, enjoying the foods she brought, including the first crop of asparagus from her garden ! Oh yum ! It was a nice visit, and I even managed to entertain her with the awesome video game, ICO, which we now have and I am well on my way to being completely addicted to. Following the visit, she drove me all the way to Rick's which was very generous of her.

Rick, too, did good things with food, preparing a really nice, tangy stir-fry. I made the salad, which was nice and crispy fresh. It was a pretty relaxed evening, especially for Rick who got rather personal with the bottle of wine he'd bought. I had been suffering from a headache so I went easy. We watched that old film classic, The African Queen on television through dinner, and then he put in the original Blade from a few years back (so now I can finally see the sequel). Both films were very enjoyable, if, uh, entirely different. Sometimes it's cozy to just snuggle down into a couch and watch movies.

From Rick's I had to come back to my place in the morning to feed my completely ignored cat, who had spent the night alone because Nick was at his parents' and I, was at Rick's. She had NOT been pleased with being left alone and had ripped into the garbage bag in the kitchen. It's not that she likes to eat garbage, or anything, she only does it when she's bored and insecure. Oh, the joys of owning an half-crazy cat. Anyway, much to her horror, I left her again and drove to work. Work was nothing much worth mentioning - some nice people, some less nice people, the usual. I drove home again to give Willi her dinner and to play half an hour of ICO (I died), and then, yet again, abandoned my cat to head up to Al and Carrie's. I let myself in and upon arrival, pretty much headed straight to the cleaning up of my old room. Not even an hour later, I was all packed and ready to go. Spontaneous adventures then happened.

We went to see Star Wars: AtoC ! They bought the tickets and off we went to Scarborough Town Centre (the same theatre we'd seen Ep. I for the first time in '99). There had been talk of Ryan joining us, but, naturally, he didn't. Good thing they hadn't gotten him a ticket too. So, I was thrilled to see it again, and with them. They're one of the only couples that never make me feel like a third wheel. Carrie said the sweetest thing, "You can't be out of place as a third wheel on a tricycle." She's a real wonderful person. Anyway, seeing the movie again allowed me to see a bunch of things I'd missed in the first viewing, and realise a bunch of things, too. There was a LOT of thought put into this one. Sure, it's not going to be nominated for Best Picture, or anything, but a lot of ends were tied up, and things that take place later in the chronology were carefully set in place here. I enjoyed it as much, if not more, on the second viewing, if only for catching the things I'd missed. Ryan missed out, I guess.

Now I'm home, and surprise, surprise, I'm running through the job ads on mandy.com, a site Megs-in-Philly just turned me onto. It has tons of entertainment jobs, though a good many of them are short-term, low/no pay jobs. I wouldn't mind hitting New York for fifteen days to get my name in the credits of someone's film. At least it would be experience, though, granted, not the sort that pays the bills. Anyway, I've sent out a couple of inquiries about a pair of jobs that need some artistic vision, or something. Hey, pick me !

I think I forgot to mention that Nick bought a Playstation 2 at a substantial reduction. Tonight, I played ICO for the first time and it's amazing. I want to produce games as fresh and captivating as this. It's unbelievable in its detail and depth. The story comes clear slowly, though the game moves quickly, and the characters become utterly compelling. Beautiful.

I dropped by Al & Carrie's earlier, too, because on Sunday night I'm going to swing by and get all, or at least most of the remainder of my junk from their place. I walked in the door and Pepper, the matching cat (with tiny stripes) to Willi, looked up, so I called her. Her response was a huge meow and she leapt down to greet me. That was sweet. I think she missed me. Heck, Al nearly did the same with his need to feed me - I guess they miss having me around. I kind of miss being around, too, but I'm really starting to like my place now, too. It's feeling a bit better, more like home.

I'm very pleased with how the living room is shaping up - a little more art on the walls and it will be almost perfect. I'll have to get up in the morning to make my windows just right, especially since Mom is coming for a visit. At least the house is pretty clean. The bathroom could use another scrub, but I'll get on that at another time. Mom's bringing me potting soil. I'm glad of that, because I really enjoyed planting flowers at Manning Ave. Flowers help make a house into a home, in my opinion. Mom always has wonderful gardens, no matter where we live.

There's an internship with MNR that I'm going to apply for. Sure, were I to get it, the money would be good, I could pay off my debts, and have a stable income, but it would mean moving back to Peterborough, at least for the duration of the job, which would be about eight months. I don't know what I would do with my place here at the house with Nick. It's not a job I'm terribly enthusiastic about, though it would definitely be interesting. It would be just long enough for many of my computer skills to become even less relevant, though the income would allow me the improved video card for Natasha and a drawing palette, among other things, but... Well, I'm going to apply, and I'll worry all about that stuff when the time comes, if I get hired.

First of all, let me provide you with LARGE SPOILER WARNINGS !

Yes, I'm about to talk about Star Wars, Episode II, Attack of the Clones.... You have been warned.

I made fun of Ep. One when it came out and still I went to see it five times... I -must- see Ep. Two again ! Soon ! It was cool. No, it was pretty damn good, with a steady momentum (though too many men with under-developed senses of maturity would say the first hour is slow, stupid, or weird) up to one Hell of a finish. All of a sudden, you're sitting in the theatre and you realise that everyone has started shifting in their seats. Why? Because suddenly, they're getting excited. Really excited... and tense.

Yes, the love story is so played up it's almost cheesy, yes, the lines are sometimes... unlikely, and yes, someone should take the writing pen out of George Lucas' hand - but that wasn't so bad, because he had a co-writer that obviously pointed Mr. Lucas to a screenplay 101 book for at least a couple of important scenes. It was amazing how many men giggled through the love scenes, which were ripe with emotional tension, and how none of the women did. No, this flick actually appealed to its female audience. Anakin was believable as a 19 year old man with no experience in love, suffering the un-controled emotional swings of a teenager trying to figure out his place. I had an old friend in highschool named Max... Anakin IS Max, seven years ago.

The acting was a whole lot looser than it was in the last film and there were no immediately noticeable bloopers, at least not on a first viewing. It's funny, and it's dark, though arguably not as dark as it might have been. I still found it pretty dark. The slaughter of innocents is ALWAYS dark, you just can't get around that. The effects are so stunning, you don't find yourself saying, "Wow, that was an awesome effect," you just find it all... believable. Sure, there were the requisite Star Wars chase/race scenes, and ya, we've seen them before, but boy did it look good. The same with the make-up and costumes - perfect (with the exception of the nipple shirt, which was actually a pretty neat shirt, except I'd like it in a fabric a little more, um, substantial). Palpatine looks older than he did in the last one, a good deal older, Obi-Wan definitely passed for a man in his late 30s, and Padme had the poise (rather than stiffness) of a woman in her mid-to-late 20s.

Okay, so, let's take a minute to talk about the action. Holy wow. Ya, I missed Darth Maul, we all knew I would, but... well, this was damn cool and no one got cheesily cut in half. And Yoda kicks some serious Sith ass. My God, he moves fast - it was awesome ! Big guns, big light sabres, big fun ! Oh, and Jar-Jar really does only have a small part, fear not. And really, everything can be blamed on him. *joy*

Am I going to see it again? Probably VERY soon. I'll probably write more in depth about it when I do, as well, because, well, that's something I do.

As for the social activity of yesterday, it was good fun. It seems that Tanya, Carrie, and myself all have major blonde days, as did the wait staff in Java, with spilling, general not-too-swiftness, and slowness. But it was nice and fun to see people. I've missed seeing Tanya, she's an excellent conversationalist and a good friend. Hopefully, Carrie and I will converge upon her in London later in June. That is the plan.

Now, I have to put on socks, wander over and get my car, gas it up, and go uptown to get the keys to A&C's appartment so I can do some cleaning out on Sunday night while they're back in the Petes.

Ack, I've said the hateful word 'blog' twice in five minutes !

Okay, so Star Wars.... Ah ! Er !! Waaaa ! Must see Ep. III NOW ! Urk ! Gah ! Breathing... *faint*

... er... more on it tomorrow.

Yesterday sucked. Not because it was a crappy day, because it was gorgeous out, or because it was slow in the store, because it wasn't, but because my mood is still in the tubes. I won't go into the details, because I've told myself that there are other things to concentrate on in the meantime (like Star Wars, which opened today !).

A very interesting man, named Gordon, came into Heretic yesterday. He'd been in Japan for the last ten years acting as an English teacher. He had wonderful stories, and interesting ideas on how to go about getting jobs, and which jobs were the best to get. For instance, the Nova school, or whatever, will hire any old schmuck, like me, with no experience at all, so long as the applicant speaks English. He told me it was better to get a certification in teaching ESL in order to get one of the more serious teaching jobs there. Pretty neat. He also said that Tokyo is a souless void and to keep away at all costs. It's perhaps not surprising since they flattened Edo, the original city on the spot, in order to build up. He was most happy working in the places that I'm most interesting in visiting, Kyoto, Kobe, and Osaka. Anyway, should I be interested in teaching English in Japan, he gave me a couple websites with information and jobs.

I tried to score a ticket for Eric M. to join us at Star Wars tonight, but when I ran to the Paramount on my break, the tickets for the 10:30pm showing had sold out on Tuesday. Too bad, and a bit of a disappointment for Eric, but now that we're back in touch, we'll hopefully stay that way. He's such a good guy. I've missed his presence in my life. Anyway, it turns out, however; that Derek has a ticket for the same show as us, and so he'll be joining us, and that's a good thing, because he's a fun guy. Which is better than being a fungi, as I originally typed. I have to finish tidying up the living room this morning, in order to prepare if for Tanya's visit. I'm quite excited. She'll be joining us for Star Wars tonight. Presently, my biggest concern is which fan fiction shirt to wear. Despite my abhorance to tie-dye, I might have to wear the 'Obi-Wan Night Stand concert tour' shirt, simply for the humour value. Well, it's not my biggest concern, but at this moment, it's one of them.

Hey, last night, I ran into one of my old friends from highschool: Greg Legros ! I haven't seen him since, um, highschool, so something like six years. I was walking along Queen St W, staring into the windows longingly, heading for the Silver Snail too see their window display, when I happened to glance across the street. I saw a figure, walking in the direction I'd come from, who looked an awful lot like Greg. I immediately did an about face and startled some fellow strolling along behind me. Matching this Greg-like figure's stride, I carried on along the south side of the street, staring. My thought process went something like this: That guy looks like Greg. Could it -be- Greg? Is he even in the city? Hm, probably he is, and that guy looks like him. He walks like him. That even looks like Greg's old jacket, but would he still be wearing the old coat? Well, I'm still wearing -my- old leather - It must be him ! At this point, I darted out between parked cars and crossed the street. About ten paces behind him, I called out his name in that I-hope-it-is-you-because-otherwise-I'm-about-to-look-foolish way and lo ! He turned around !

So, I walked with Greg for about 40 minutes, talking about where our lives are at (not surprisingly, him being an actor, me an artist, they're about in the same hole) and doing some catching up. He was stunned to see me, and recognised me immediately. With a resounding and simoultaneous, "HOOOOO-leeee Sheeeet" we hugged each other like we hadn't seen each other, well, since high school. He looks good, and remarkably similar to how he used to, only a little older. He's as funny as ever, only with even a better sence of timing thanks to theatre school. For some reason, every homeless guy on the street thought we were money machines, to the point where it became silly. Anyway, he's apparently in a movie, destined, at least, for Showcase, and invited me to the screening, whenever that is, but I have no lofty ideas about continued contact, though I did give him my phone number. Do we really, ever call the people we run into on the streets? Not usually.

Anyway, I must do something artistic with the empty boxes in the living room and make other things... presentable. Tanya will be arriving around 2pm. I haven't seen her since Christmas, so this will be nice.

I'm incredibly depressed. Beyond all reason.

Today, I am having one of the singularly most boring days at the ROM in ages. The E.O. has me re-entering addresses into the database, which had originally been entered incorrectly. He told me that often they were mistakes by me, so I gather this is some sort of punishment. They're stupid mistakes - typically dyslexic. However, I've been tracking, and considering I probably enter more new members into the system than anyone else, my errors aren't so much higher in number than a few of the full-timers. Still, yet again, I feel stupid.

So, let me change the topic and write about my wonderful weekend.

I drove out to the Petes on Thursday night after Heretic. I wrote a long note for Nick about how to care for cat and plants while I was away. The following morning, after much finishing up of laundry, I took Bernadette (Mom's car), which has the joy of a tape deck, and headed out. Mom kept Scarlette and took her in for a much needed tune-up. The drive was uneventful, but pleasant, though the wind was fierce. I stopped at Silver Lake, as usual, but rather than the nice picnic I'm used to, I had to sit in the car while it was rocked by the gale force winds. I kid you not when I say there were metre-high waves on the lake.

Arriving in Calumet around dinner time, Jean made me a dinner - she just whipped it up, boom, like that. I talked with her and Mike and got new gossip, and argued about the merits of the Ottawa Senators versus the Toronto Maple Leafs. Then I headed up the Avoca Rd and landed at Kristina's. Derek wasn't back from work yet, so it gave Kris and I lots of time to bond, and time for me to meet Emma - the gurgliest baby ever.

Saturday, I slept rather later than I'd intended, missing out on a social call by Kristina's mom. Derek and I went up to the cottage, which was still boarded up for the winter, in order to check the damage. The deck is in rough shape, half rotten in several places, and the panels beneath the house have given glorious habitat for porcupines. It will be a costly affair to fix, but necessary. The beaver certainly have made a mess of the wood lot, too. We went back down to Jean's where Kris met us and we all talked about repairs and whatnot. Mike and Derek went up to cut the dead top off the oak that grows from the deck, and Jean persuaded us to stay for dinner. No surprise there.

Saturday evening was quiet, with Derek studying, Kris studying Emma, and me reading 'Akira'. Kris fell asleep on the couch with the dog, and Derek found my conversation an excellent diversion from helicopter maintanance. He's a good guy, with good values and high moral standards. Kris could certainly have done a lot worse. I like him a lot.

Sunday, I woke up a good deal earlier than the previous day, and Derek was busy making a Mothers' Day omlette for us - as thick as a quiche and just as delicious ! After lunch, Kris and I went down to the house Anna (her sister) is building. Their mother was there (much hugging and kissing) as well as Anna's two daughters. It was bloody cold, and when the freezing wind wasn't blowing, the black flies were trying to devour our faces. We helped put up the final wall (yay, I can say I helped build Anna's house !), and held it in place while the boys banged it into place. All too soon, though, the bugs and cold were getting to us, so we went back to Kris' for hot chocolate. Yum !

A few minutes later, Kristina offered to let me hold Emma - something I NEVER do. People that know me, know I do. Not. Do. Babies. Well, I made a happy exception this time, and Emma squiggled in my arms for a while and it was wonderful. Sadly, I had to relinquish her in order to hit the road. One more stop at Jean's to say goodbye, then to the Marche du Pont for some alcohol and tasties of the region, some poutine at Jos', and back home to the Petes.

About a forty minutes southwest of Ottawa, I found some die-hard Leafs fans at the side of the highway, dressed in their blue and whites, waving flags and heckling the Ottawa Valley drivers heading toward the Corel Centre. I honked enthusiastically at them, which made them whoop merrily. :)

I spent the day, yesterday, doing some more laundry, mostly to rid my clothes of the masses of pet hair I'd gathered on my trip. I talked about jobs with Mom, and how it's so disheartening to have spent so much money in order to be educated, so as to remain unemployed. It's depressing. And now, back in Toronto, I'm still doing this stupid address correction stuff, and I realise just how much dyslexia can screw a person up. I feel like saying, "I'm not this stupid, really," only no one in here would listen, anyway.

Star Wars soon, though, and that will be much fun. At least it can't possibly suck as much as Ep. I did, right? Too bad the whole gang isn't going to be there, but whatever. I'm still plenty excited.

I was out with Stacey tonight. It was good fun. I was really late to meet her, though, because the Dufferin bus just stinks to high heaven. First I wait for nearly 20 minutes, during rush hour, no less, and then three pass the stop because they're too full to take more passengers. Hello, do you see a problem here? I think that maybe MORE buses for rush hour would be a help. Meh, what do I know?

I ended up sleeping until sometime after 1pm, which was sooooo nice. Oh man. I did some chores, and then showered before leaving to meet Stacey. We walked from the ROM to Sneaky Dee's for dinner - the marvellous King's Crown nachos and the Veggie Plate. Oh, wow, so delicious it was ! We each had a pint of Amsterdam, hers blonde, mine nut brown. It's a nice, rich ale without being too heavy. No, the nachos were plenty heavy. I may never get out of this chair again, I'm so full. I'm amazed I made it home at all.

Tomorrow, I'm going to get Star Wars tickets for myself, Rick, and Tanya, and if Al and Carrie call, maybe they'll come too. I'm still going to see if I can track down some other people to join us. Maybe I'll call Eric M. He used to be so much fun at movie openings. And hey, maybe Nick will come... and Evelyn ! Whee. I shall ask. Actually, I don't even know if Evelyn is for sure coming to visit, but, whatever.

Anyway, I must get some stuff together to take with me tomorrow for home and cottage. It's not going to be all fun, I have to go up and check out the damage to the deck and the beaver situation. Apparently it's really, really bad. Well, I'll go up on Saturday and have a look.

You know what's weird? My CAT is weird. She's sleeping in my bookshelf right now. Between the books. Bizarre.

Anyway, I just thought I would add to the proof that the world is absolutely going insane. Holland had it's first political assassination. While part of me cheers because he was a right-wing, half-facist bastard, assassination is still disgusting. At least, for a change, it wasn't one of the good guys being shot, but I doubt the man's family would agree. It's sad. The Netherlands have been such a voice of reason to the world since the second world war, and now everything is turned upsidedown. It wasn't enough that the entire parliament had resigned due to their belief that they were responsible for a Yugoslav town's sacking. They were unprepared, but it wasn't their fault. Even the best guardians can fail sometimes. But now this.

On a positive note, an old Gestapo officer has been put on trial in Hamburg, Germany. Naturally, he's giving the 'only following orders' excuse. I can accept it from a nazi soldier. The soldiers were just that, soldiers. Most of them were the remains of a tattered and impoverished army that was happy to serve again, for a while, anyway. But the Gestapo? Hah, not quite your average infantry, I'm afraid. Okay, so maybe this wasn't exactly positive, but it wasn't exactly negative, either.

I think I want to say a lot of things, to talk about a lot of things that are upsetting me, but there's hardly a way for me to express it in even half-accurate words. Last Friday, outside the ROM, there was a group of Muslim and Jewish people standing in a peaceful protest to have the war in Israel/Palestine brought to a close. It made me sad. I don't know what's wrong with people. Part of me doesn't want to contemplate the world I'm entering into.

Well, now that I've brought the general mood down, I'll just go away. Tomorrow I have a dinner/drinks date with Stacey, from the ROM. We haven't socialised in months, so this will be good. Another good thing is that my half-sister, Gina, emailed me a picture of her from around Christmas time. My God, she is beautiful. She is stunning. I hope she, and Nicole (the youger one), pass through adolescence without succumbing to the awful things this world has to offer. It would be a tragedy. Anyway, it's very nice to be talking to them again, and now with the regularity of email, it's even better. It's more immediate, and sometimes more candid.

Anyway, I've wasted another few minutes, putting off going to bed for no good reason. Goodnight, lovers.

Holy crap ! Do a google search for mambolica (me) and... there I am !

I would never have thought that Honest Ed's (the enormous discount wannabe department store in town) would have people lining up outside before it opens. I remarked about it to my cabbie (since I was running late, a taxi was the only choice I had) and he thought it was bizarre too, but apparently they're there every morning. Maybe if you don't get there early, all the bargain cutlery runs away. Or something.

Barbequing didn't work out last night, nor did my window fixings. It seems Nick had been awake since Saturday and when I got home, he'd passed out. He'd better not be asleep tonight, though, because my beef isn't going to last forever and I'm not home tomorrow for dinner. I can see that having the patio off of his bedroom might become a problem, though. He keeps his door closed and I often have no idea if he's home. In the summer, he's going to have to keep it open for the sliding doors to ventilate the house. This was something I hadn't thought of when we saw the place. After all, it was the winter at that point and outside was something best left to the... outside.

Anyway, tonight is going to be steak night, and I'll go pick up some tasty veggie something or other, snow peas, I think. That will be delicious. After that, I'm going to help Nicole some more by taking her up to the Home Depot for things. I don't mind doing things for her, since I'm getting a $250 corset for free. Good deal.

Last night, Willi was incredibly irritating. She woke me up at 3:45am for breakfast. So, I got up, fed her and promptly shut her out of my room. Normally she'd sit outside and pick at the underside of the door until I let her back in, but maybe there isn't enough room between the floor and door for her to get her paw under and twisted around. Whatever the reason, I was able to sleep peacefully.

Silly me, I forgot to mention, yesterday, that I got an email from my sister, Gina ! I was worried they'd moved and not given me a change of address, or anything, what with the phone number being disconnected. It turns out, they just got new numbers, including one for Gina herself. Both sisters have email addresses and so now it will be a good deal more difficult to lose track of them. I am much relieved.

It's a weirdly muggy day today, with a lack of sun, coolish breeze, and general warm-going-to-rain air. Less than charming, but better than cold. It is supposed to rain, which is good, and it's basically going to remain at nice temperatures for most of this week. I hope they hold out through the weekend, too, since I'm going up to the cottage to visit new-momatron, Kristina. I'm pretty excited.

The OPSEU folk went back to work today, finally, after most of eight weeks of striking. They voted 78% to accept the deal, which is very good, and mostly they're satisfied. The nasty thing is that they all know they were used. There is no good reason that the government couldn't have settled this from the start. Bloody politics. Anyway, I'm very happy that Mom's going back to work today. I sent out an email that said, "Whether you were walking the lines, writing the lines, raising hell, raising money, or honking your horn, you're all great !" Or something to that effect. It was my welcome back to some of Mom's co-workers (and her too). I got happy responses of thanks in reply. I'm glad it's over.

Now it looks like the good people at the Metro Zoo are going to go on strike. We were discussing that (well, me and some of my old buddies in Vert. Palaeo.) on break today in the caffeteria. Not happy times for them, I guess. Good luck to them.

Speaking of zoos, I'm going to barbeque up some steak for myself tonight. Heh, I'm such a sick girl. *laugh* I have to buy some snow peas and garlic powder on my way home, for seasoning and side dishes. Yum ! Hopefully Nick won't be sleeping, because I'm not going to put off my steak craving. There's definitely a down-side to having the patio off his room.

I am such a moron. I just discovered that the curtain rods were packed in with the window fixin's. Knob. I am SUCH a knob. I guess I have a project for tomorrow. Yeesh.

Today, the first scent that I took notice of (other than Rick's cigarette) was that of Fresh Cut Grass. Oh, deliciousness ! What a wonderful, green, lovely smell that is. It's full of potential and beautiful things. I think it set the tone for the rest of the day, for I had a really excellent one.

Heretic was full of fun people, including Marcus, the magical fellow who fronts the band, Vampire Beach Babes, which somehow combines goth music with surf tunes. Amazing ! He's keen and full of pep ! He said he was meditating along the street. Heehee. Also, many fun tourists who bought things, as opposed to the poopy ones that don't.

Last night, Rick and I went for a less than excellent dinner at the Sushi Bistro, which is disappointing, because previously, it was my tied-for-second favourite sushi place. The rice was too sticky and heavy. Neither of us were able to finish our dinners, and if you know us, you know we can both hoover it up ! Then we walked to the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in order to hear Hotel, the band with which Nick is friends. I had a good time being hit on by Miles, the rhythm guitarist, and I had an even better time pointing out my boyfriend who was looking suitably nonplussed. I'm so mean. Hotel rocked, which is a damn good thing, because the band before them absolutely stank. Stank as in making my eardrums scream for the agony to end. At one point I asked Rick, only half jokingly, "Are my ears bleeding?" Anyway, Hotel was very good. Good, good, good. And fun. And I did bunches of dancing, which is more than most people were doing (okay, a few were dancing). Also, I met Matt 9. That's a bit of a long story, which I'm still not sure I understand, so I'll just let it go. He liked my bondage pants, and he knew too much about me for someone he'd just met.

I had a really good time at Rick's after the show, and I must thank Nick tremendously for coming home to feed Willi and then go BACK to WORK for the night. Rick and I both appreciate it. I arrived home after work tonight, though, and found piles of kibble in Willi's bowl, though. I think Nick was a little overzealous. By about three handfuls.

When I arrived home tonight, after walking from work to Dufferin (about 40 minutes of long-legged sauntering), I fully intended to put up my wonderful window fixtures. My plan was foiled, however; by a lack of curtain pole from which to hang the grilles. I hope they're in the back of Scarlette, who is presently parked in the old neighbourhood, rather than having been forgotten in Peterborough. It's very frustrating having my car quite some distance from my house. I finally got the landlord's info for the street parking, only now, because I was a good girl and paid some money to my phonebill, I don't have a letter addressed to me at this address. Tomorrow I'll request a new bill so that I can get the permit on Thursday morning. Nothing is ever easy.

Anyway, ROM tomorrow, and I dare not be late, so I'm off to bed.

Things aren't so good with the whole Episode II thing... No one will be entirely happy, but overall, I think I've come up with a better solution than ditching Tanya. How I didn't think of this solution immediately, I do not know, but I didn't. Ryan and Colleen can see the movie with whomever they like in Scarborough. Tanya is going to come with ME and whomever else back in my old childhood neighbourhood that is full of Star Wars freaks. I'm going to invite lots of people, and if they don't come, that's okay. I'm not going to ditch Tanya.

Fuck. Why do relationships have to be so complicated? You'd think that we could all just be adults and get on with it, right? No, I'm just as retarded as everyone else. Foolish to think otherwise. *guilt* This too shall pass, I suppose. All will work out, somehow.

Speaking of working out... Things are looking excellent on the OPSEU strike side of things. The union settled with the government, and with the exception of a nay to dental coverage, it's a mostly positive contract. The most important thing is that the goverment has promised to keep its hands out of the OPSEU pention fund, which is the major reason behind the strike in the first place. It was such a STUPID strike, though, and it should have been averted from the onset, but the government, ever the crisis-creators, fabricated the crisis for political reasons. Now Eves looks like a hero, he won his bi-election (not brilliantly, mind you), and things can get back to status quo.

Row, row, row your boat
gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily;
life is but a dream.

Huh.

Goodness ! You'll never believe who I spoke to last night... Ryan's invisible girlfriend, Colleen ! Well, at least I -think- it was her. I can't be certain, of course, since it was over the phone and not face to face. Anyway, she's a good deal funnier than I thought she'd be, in a dry, sardonic way, which is good, because I like that sort of humour. Anyway, that was sort of weird. I talked to her for about half an hour, altogether, or there about, while Ryan made babbly noises the whole time. What a nerd. I was at Ryan's in order to paint miniatures. I painted a banner for his troup, a nice griphon rampant en argent, so to speak. Painting afforded us a lot of time to talk. I expressed my feelings on how 'the group' had been treated over the last several months, and we discussed Tanya wanting to come out for Star Wars while working out the Colleen factor. There is no easy solution. Ryan admitted that this wouldn't have been a problem had he dealt with everything from the beginning. Oy.

Anyway, I'm going to go back to Ryan's next Wednesday, following doctor things, and we're going to paint some more, and he's finally going to teach me Mordheim. As he put it, referring to my Sisters of Sigmar Mordheim miniatures, "Your sisters are so pretty... I want to trounce them." Or something to that effect.

I'm at the museum right now, feeling kind of 'meh', in that I'm sick and tired, though not of anything in particular. Rather, I'm sick. I'm also tired. I was late for work again, and the Evil One, who has not been evil in... well, really since he discovered we're obsessive about the same band, said, "Is 9:30 getting too hard for you?" My response was, "Uh, this week, ya," with a big sheepish grin. And ... that was the end of it. I might have to stop referring to him as the Evil One. *laugh* I guess that's a good thing.

Oh my dear lord... will you check THIS out? I'm not sure if I should be laughing or crying.

***Okay, this is what I could not post YESTERDAY***


Last night was the Nick Cave concert. I was so excited ! Of course,I'd bought the pair of tickets for Rick as an anniversary present and after waiting for three months, I was finally going to see Nick Cave. I made myself so pretty - silver and black tank with my bondage pants, make-up done to perfection. Rick would meet me at the store and we'd get dinner before heading to the Kool Haus (the stupid rename of the Warehouse).

Unfortunately, this was not going to work as planned. I got to work and, despite a crappy day outside, everything was fine. Until the migraine set in. Ya. Migraine. I took one med and phoned Sandra to let her know what was up. She told me that if it got worse, I was free to close early, since there were few people braving what had turned into thunder storms.

It got worse.

I left work and from the store door to the alley behind the store where my car was parked, I got thoroughly soaked. And even with the more powerful second medication in my system, my head only got worse. Had I been able to sleep when I got home, I would have been able to attend the concert, but around 4:30pm I had to phone Rick. No, I'd not been able to sleep. No, the migraine was far from getting better. No, I'd not be able to go. I cried on the phone.

Several hours later, after an hour of dry-heaves and fitful sleep at best, I finally fell into a deep sleep that cleared my head. Sadly, I woke up at midnight, around the time the show was ending, without the pain. I was extremely disappointed. So much so, that when I phoned Rick to see how it was, I told him I didn't want details, and then I started to cry again.

It was a bad end to what had been a wonderful weekend. Friday night was a super D&D session with Al & Carrie, myself and Rick, and Ryan at the helm. It was a lot of fun, and very roleplay intensive. Al and Rick's characters stuck to the strategy, while Carrie and I held to our rp guns. Carrie and I were passing notes and at one point she passed the note back to me and in it was written: "Want to be a bridesmaid?" I said that I would be honoured, and then I had to try not to cry. I was greatly touched. THANKS CARRIE !

Saturday, I worked at Heretic, then went to Derek's house for dinner and movie fun. We watched "Shaolin Soccer" (sp?) which was hysterical, and LOTS of Muppets ! It seems he bought the several-dvd set of Time Life Video "Muppet Show" episodes. Some high points were the Peter Sellers episode and the Marty Feldman episode, both which were classically ridiculous and on-the-floor-laughingly funny. It's weird, because I told Derek that night, "tomorrow, I'll probably have a migraine." I hate it when I'm right about things like that. Anyway, it was good fun at his house, and the Thai food was great.

Today, at the ROM, the branch took out Sara for her goodbye lunch. We managed to cram thirteen people around a table that had been set for ten. It was fun, since it's been forever that all of Membership has done anything together (not including the site-sellers, who never get included anymore). I'm really full. Yummy fried noodles.

This is a test. Blogger hasn't been working for me from work.

I forgot to mention one very odd, out-of-the-blue incident that happened yesterday. I checked my cell phone messages, as I generally do every couple of days, and found a message from a fellow named Chris. Heturns out to be the step-grandson of the man who lived with my Nana in the last seven, or so, years of her life. He was phoning for information regarding Nana's death. Chris's step-grandfather, John, had passed away in the summer, something that was a surprise to us, though something of a sad one, and he'd left the condo he'd bought for Nana (in Florida) to Chris. Because Chris was adopted, the Kings County folks in the records office, wouldn't release the death certificate that proves the initial heir was dead.

I phoned him back and spoke to him for a bit, then decided it would be better to hand him over to Mom, who had a little more recollection of events, at least the ones from my earlier childhood. This led to me going into the creepy cold-storage room in the basement and digging out a records box that had been sent to us after Papa's death. It mostly contained photographs that had been in Nana's hands and had passed to Papa. Naturally, this meant that I had to go through just about every picture in the box, which must have been hundreds. To make a long story short, I dug up the records of Nana's death, Zaida's death, various report cards of my father and uncle, their own certificates, Zaida's military service documents, and Nana's original immigration papers from Russia, which I absolutely cannot read. I learned her last name was Belanski (I think that was how it was spelled), but upon naturalisation into the U.S.A., it became Bell. Interesting stuff.

Mom called Chris back, and promised to mail him a photocopy of Nana's death cert. and ended up talking to him for quite a long time. There's a very sad story of his mother (John's daughter) breaking contact with John, which led to Chris losing contact with John for 18 years. It's a real shame how stupid families can be. John was a wonderful man, and while he was never a replacement for my Zaida, he was as good a man as I could have as an almost-grandpa.

I'm actually in Toronto now. Imagine that. I got the tire fixed and Mom was generous enough to pay for it, even though she's only marginally more financially able. Frigging strike ! I have to get a job. A real job. I can't go on like I am; June will see OSAP knocking at my door for payments, and I'm dreading it. I applied to the job in Montreal, which meant writing a covering letter for the first time in ages. Thanks to a little tweaking on the part of Mom, it stopped being a so-so letter and became an awesome letter. Thanks Ma ! I attached it, and my resume, to an email that I wrote in French (since the job description is in French and the job is in Montreal), that required just a little help from the old bilingual dictionary, and sent it off. Hopefully, I'll hear something. I don't imagine that I will. But I'd really LIKE to hear from them. :)

Anyway, on a final note, Willi is having some trouble acclimatising to the new home. This is to be expected, of course, in that this is neither Mom's house or the old place on Manning (which is presently being rented for $1500 a month !). She walks around and yells a lot, sometimes calling out for the other cats (I suspect), and sometimes to located me. She's very unsure of herself, that is certain. Hopefully, she will get used to the place quickly and together we can start thinking of it as home. It helps that I got a bit of art onto the walls tonight and started to seriously fix up the kitchen - even if the microwave stand came with two (B) panels instead of an (A) and (B). Good thing Mom leant me her wonderful drill. Willi's currently half sleeping on my bed, so I think I'll go join her and we can both fully sleep.

Well, it's not quite what I had in mind, but it seems fate has conspired to keep me in the Petes one night longer. It turns out that Scarlette has a rather serious lasceration to her left front tire, probably made when something dinged my car on the 401 (since it wasn't there when I left Toronto). So serious, in fact, that I have to take her in to have the tire replaced. This is NOT something I can afford. Mom can't help either, because, well, she's been on strike for six weeks. So, anyway, getting Willi into the carrier and as far as the gas station and back was like a practice run. I have to get up in four hours to take in my car. Goodnight.

It seems that my going out to visit Mom in the Petes has left my journal ignored. I have no excuse other than my own disinterest, as coming home means lovely distractions. That and the fact that Mom has something of a monopoly on the computer here. It still makes me blink when she says, "Just let me check my email." I'm just not used to her being an email junkie ! This makes it sound like she's checking every ten minutes, but really, when she's on the computer, she's dealing with strike stuff. It seems she's no longer just in charge of the ministry stuff, but has taken to putting the spin on other releases from various ministries, province wide. You can read her releases, of course, at littlesquares. She's really enjoying it, though at the same time, it's exhausting. She's working hard, as are the vast majority of the strikers, but it's really frustrating to make next to no money, week after week. I wish I was in a position to help her out, but I'm so broke, it's painful.

I've had a pile of positive feedback from the people who have seen my website, which is very nice. I'd like to get its browser issues fixed by tomorrow night so that I can get back to fixing Ray's site. I think I'm going to give it a visual overhaul, too, though nothing drastic. Also, tonight I'm going to start sending out my application to jobs. I wish they weren't all out in Montreal, but if that's the way it is, then there's nothing for it but to apply to work in Montreal.

Anyway, let me talk a little bit about my weekend. On Friday, driving out to the Petes, I saw the Aurora Borealis glowing in beautiful green stripes in the sky. By the time I'd found a place to pull over to look at them, the clouds had already covered them. Saturday, I helped Mom work the subscription renewal table at the Peterborough Symphony. I handed out roses to the people who were renewing their seats. It was fun, and I'm such a good shmoozer sometimes. The symphony, itself, was ... FANTASTIC. The guest soloist was Alistair Kay, a trombonist of excellent proportions. The treat for me, however; was the conductor. He was ... dynamic ! I told him after the concert at the reception, "You absolutely rocked the orchestra out." He LOVED that. Anyway, what a nice man, and his parents were there, too, and they were very nice. He really did rock the orchestra out, too. The last time I saw the PSO, I had a nice time, but they had some serious togetherness issues. He has them playing complex, dramatic music, and it's clear that they love him.

Sunday, Mom was on television helping to host the PSO TV Dream Auction. It was such a bizarre sort of community TV event, with next to no script, malfunctioning monitors and screens, and yet, it was clear Mom had fun. I accompanied her to the hardware store to pick up fixings to make my room in Toronto look nicer. Tonight I'll be hanging up the window fixtures, while helping Willi to become accustomed to her new home. I also did a bit of miniature painting, which was very necessary, I must say. I finally painted a miniature for Rick to use in our Toronto gaming sessions. I think he'll like it, I put a lot of work into it.

Oh, and did I mention that it snowed? Yes, that's right, yesterday was full of snow. This led to a rather interesting conversation of what astrologers and soothsayers might have said about things were these the years of Roman rule. To list the weirdness, there was the weekend's rather unlikely earthquake (which I sadly slept through), snow after a week of 30 degree weather. Then there were the odd celestial happenings: aurora borealis, the five planet alignment, as well as the comet. The final conclusion? Things are going to get worse before they get better. How did I deal with these depressing thoughts? I painted more miniatures.

Anyway, I must get my laundry folded and into my suitcase. I plan to be leaving here in the next couple of hours. I really don't want to leave, but... I can't run away from real life, at least, not for long.

It's a ROM day today. I hate being cooped up in this unhealthy-aired, stuffy building on beautiful days. It is beautiful today, too, because despite the still ridiculously high temperatures, there's a pleasant, cool breeze blowing. The trees are already coming into leaf, which is just... stupid. It's supposed to be a high of 10 tomorrow, which is about 17 degrees cooler than it is today, and they're talking about going below freezing Saturday night. Oh, and did I mention snow? Ya. The high on Sunday is supposed to be... 3 degrees. I think there are some seriously crossed wires.

In other news, unrelated to weather, one of Canada's favourite topics, I finally got my portfolio online last night. Sure, there are some MAJOR browser issues, for instance, it's only viewable in later versions of icky Internet Explorer, but I'll have that finished soon. Find it here. It's great ! (I hope my link works. I'm not used to having to type in my html to blogger, it usually gives me the little make-link button.)

Also, here's something nifty - I did indeed get my cartoon up and posted on Mom's union strike site and it looks nifty. Scroll down and hit the "Back to the table?" link. I think it might get put in the newsletter, too. Go me !

Anyway, I'm getting remarkably little done at the ROM today, so I think it's best if I, you know, went back to work. ;)

Tonight, Rick and I saw Atanarjuat, the fast runner. It was an absolutely incredible film. Poignant, beautiful, horrible, funny - it's all these things and so much more. And, in case you think that some film about Inuit people sounds dumb (you should be spanked, but nevermind) it has all the makings of a great film: jealousy, deceit, anger, love, lust, nudity, murder, friendship, magic, and ancestors.

Rick and I walked and talked our way to the theatre, which was very nice. It's been a really deep day for me, with lots of emotional discussion and whatnot. Rick and I had another talk about The Future, and all its scariness, and I've come to the conclusion that things will be as they must be. I know it's not a satisfying answer to anything, but it is the only way I can conceive of the things to come, and the possibilities that we will face, together, or alone. The end.

Before meeting up with Rick, I spent the afternoon with Ryan talking about, over lunch at MoMo's on Harbord, Isreal, war, defense, and generally our pessimism over the insanity that this world is spiraling into. Ryan, who comes at the world from a right-of-centre view point, and I, who comes at it from the left-of-centre, don't often agree, but in this we did. Completely. We talked of other things, too, as we walked from up there down to Queen St., and then all along the lake front. It was a long overdue visit.

Anyway, I ran into my exboyfriend, Neil, on the street car. He's still a loser. I win ! How uncharitable of me. Hah.

I'm going to eat some yogurt that Rick just brought me, and try not to scratch my sunburn now. Goodnight.

Okay, so the walk took one hour and fifteen minutes. I am STILL a sweat ball and I got home at quarter past seven. I need a shower.

I just tried to call my half-sister, Gina, as today is her birthday, except that the phone number has been disconnected. I'm worried. I haven't heard anything from them, and I'm not even sure Gina would remember to call Peterborough; she might only have my old phone number. Of course, if she dials it, it will still send her to my cell phone number. Grr. I had better write and mail a card tomorrow, then.

Oh, and here's a treat... enjoy the weather while you can... it's going to below freezing again over the weekend.

Today is a glorious day. I'm not typically one for extreme heat, but since this is the first real hot day of the season, I can get away with feeling some wonderfulness. It's about 30 degrees out (which for you Imperialists is about 85 farenheit). It's more with the humidex. Oh, and it's bright and sunny.

I went for lunch with Christian (one of my old pals from when I worked site sales downstairs at the ROM) and we went to Ned's, a little cafe restaurant that is, I believe, affiliated with Victoria College. We ate outside and proceded to burn in the sun. Yes, within half an hour, we were decidedly pinker than when we initially sat down. We strolled about, and I treated us both to our first soft ice cream cones of the season, which, while not as delicious as real ice cream, is satisfying and delicious in its own way.

We made the mistake of sitting beside a crazy woman who insisted on talking to herself and spitting beside her - long drooly threads of spittle. She didn't -look- crazy, just a little eccentric, but we realised how wrong we were. She took out a tiny bottle of Crown Royal and proceded to drink, spit, drink, spit, and at that point, we left her for another bench. Christian said, "Why would anyone, even a crazy person, spit out Crown Royal?" Good question. Christian was also the first person of the year to make those two absurd comments, "Hot enough for ya?" and "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." Inside, back at the desk, he added to Stacey that it was a "real swelter out there." Christian is awesome. It was nice to actually see him, even for only an hour. He's a good kid.

Anyway, I am feeling somewhat better today than I was last night, but we'll see how I am this evening. I think I'll walk home from the ROM, just to see how long a walk it really is. I figure it must be close to an hour.

Tomorrow I'm going to lunch with Ryan and then we're going to walk around, then I'm seeing Rick and spending the night at his place. Tonight, though, I -must- do my webpage.

Well, deary me. Tanya has been doing fun and exciting socialite activities. I am very pleased at how her life has developed since leaving Peterborough and... uh... cutting out the deadwood, so to speak. I really must go and visit her in London sometime soon, which leads me to wonder whether she'll be staying there over the summer. Also, she's apparently been counting the words in my web entries, and one, probably the BIG one from Philly, had a whopping total of something like 1900 words. Yes, that IS an essay. And to think, the web entry, at LEAST as interesting as half of my papers and probably three times more entertaining than most, only took an half hour to write, rather than two days and a night.

Anyway, I'm going to visit my oldest friend (not age-wise, but duration-wise), Kristina, who recently had her baby (Emma Jane). Kris lives out around my cottage, up the next road, in fact. I'm pleased to be going to visit her, which presently seems like it will be over the second weekend of May. I was -supposed- to visit Tracy at the end of April, too, but since she's driving to Florida with Tammy (and not me - *sniff*), she said it wouldn't be worth it. Lord knows I don't see her when she is living in Toronto, so I suppose I'll make due with some time around our birthdays.

Ya, I'm feeling a little sarcastic. It's a pervailing attitude I'm suffering from today, as I'm not in the best of head spaces. I had my tarot cards read, too, by John at Heretic, too, and the reading took an hour. It was very deep, or thick, as John said. It was heavy, is what it was. He simply confirmed all the crap going on in my head and then gave me ways to clear out my junk. And it was about me. It was entirely about my own issues, not those around me, which automatically makes it harder to listen to, and even harder to follow.

Our job description came in at the ROM, and Sara and I have already gone to the president of the union local in order to find out what our options are. In regrading our job, it seems we fell short of the income raise by less than 2 points. Ya. Ask me if I'm pleased. I'm not ! It was quite clearly a situation where they bumped up certain factors that had little weight, rather than those that actually matter, despite what we -actually- do. Imagine that. Gah.

Another thing that didn't please me was that I have been working steadily on my webpage, finally getting it near posting tonight... only it died ! I mean, half-way through the portfolio page I was working on, it ... crashed? No, it just, disappeared. It seems in some moment of lesser concentration, I did something I ought not to have done, and lost the changes I had made. I couldn't recall them, either. The 'undo' button was unselectable, and no amount of digging brought the file back. Frig. Oh well, at least I remember what I'd been doing, and I'd already done the finicky scaling of images, so I'm not too upset. It will be done tomorrow night, before bed, hopefully. I'm only focusing on the portfolio just now, because there are jobs I need to apply to that REQUIRE a webpage for visiting. If things don't work by tomorrow, I'll take my images to Kinkos and print them out for mailing.

Anyway, I see that my cartoon is STILL not up on my mom's union local page. I drew it because I was being pressured for cartoons. It's been a week and a half since it was done. Nevermind. But I'm certainly not going to concentrate on any more requests. That aside, I am very pleased with the webpage, as it's so well written and so... devoid of rhetoric. A nice, fresh change in the world of politics.

This entry is all over the place, so I'm just going to go take myself to bed. I need the sleep or I'll end up even crabbier tomorrow.

So, let's go back and revisit the wedding from a week past - more even. I worked the store that day with a great feeling of fun and frivolity. There was a big sign about the early closing due to the wedding, so people kept coming in and congratulating... me. Duh. People are silly, but I did pass the congratulations onto Sandra later. Rick met me at the store and at 5pm I closed up. We dressed in the store and got everything together. Boy, did we ever look fancy. We cabbed it to the Women's Club of UofT where we saw the wedding party returning from a photo shoot. Inside, there were several tables set up around a largish room, and many people wearing varying degrees of masques - some drugstore costume variety, others more complex, others made by hand to all levels of skill and creativity. Rick and I definitely stood out.

Dinner was good. No, dinner was excellent. Imagine that ! A wedding where we were served a rack of lamb ! Each ! There was wine on the tables, and a cash bar for those more alcoholically inclined, for instance, Melissa, one of the store's jewellers, who got trashed. The speeches went on a bit long, as the floor was opened for all sorts to offer their congratulations and best wishes. Naturally, after the wedding party did their speeches, I got singled out to make the first "open" speech. I think I handled it quite smoothly, with grace, wit, and silliness - that is not an oxymoron, really. I finished it by kissing the bride and groom before returning to my seat.

Dancing was fun, and many more people arrived to participate in the reception, including all the girls from the Children's Own Museum where John (the groom) works. It was fun, though weird to dance on carpeting, but the dj had to close it down a bit early when the fraternity house next door was raided by the police. Hah. People asked to take my photo; apparently my masque simply rocked *blushes demurely*, and I shelled out the money for the photographer to take pictures of me and Rick. It's amazing how good a person can look when you get posed as though you were a real model. Rick's not all satisfied, but I think the photos are amazing. One day, when I figure out how to do it, or rather, take the time to try, I'll put photos into my weblog. Tonight is not that night.

Sadly, following the wedding, I had to pack. That sort of put a damper on things, but overall it was an enjoyable time.

Rick and I saw Julius Caesar on Friday, put on by the Canadian Opera Company. It was good, though I felt the stage direction ... lacked. I would have made it a good deal more visual than it was, with a more creative use for all the screens that were used. Considering it's so costly to attend, it really makes me wonder whether it was quite worth it to attend in body. Not enough, I suspect. The woman playing Caesar was a somewhat limited actress, but her voice was unbelievably rich. One of the countertenors, the fellow playing Cleopatra's brother, Tolomeo, had a voice that caused goosebumps. Yum ! Cleopatra, herself was quite delightful. We did both enjoy it. And it seems there were claques (sp?) in operation in the upper balcony. They shouted ONLY for certain people, regardless of that particular scene/aria was worth it. *laugh* But JEANS? People wore JEANS to a Friday night production. Okay, Wednesday matinee, sure, I'll accept it, but Friday? Christ ! Save me from the unwashed masses ! I mean, people are killing themselves on stage, putting forward their best abilities, the least people can do is dress up.

This just in, Maya's a snob.

Wow, it dawned on me today, as I was helping Nicole and Mark move the studio to their new place, that I never wrote about the wedding. Well, it was damn cool, if a little weird. You know what, I'm going to hold that thought until tomorrow. I don't feel particularly texty tonight.

Nick is cooking us dinner and it smells fantastic. I know, it's a bit late for dinner, but well, I was out until nearly 10pm and then we were both doing stuff.

It's time, now that I've had a full night of sleep, to recount the fun of Wednesday. After D&D, which was worthy of a comic - an idea that Ali and I are quite keen on producing - Ali and I retired to her room where she showed me many of her sketchbooks, and then I showed her my demo reel. She was quite excited about it, which was very nice, and it was much fun sharing art and ideas, and talking in grand terms of the future. Sleep was good, especially since she didn't steamroller me again, but not quite as long as I would have liked, since we went to bed very late, and I didn't want to sleep through my last day.

Ben was kind enough to loan me five bucks to see me through the day, and I headed to the Art Museum of Philadelphia, a fine, classically styled, established museum of no mean proportions. I think it is the best museum I've ever attended, or one of. I went into rooms I hadn't been before, for instance the armoury - WOW, only making limited use of the map as I rather enjoy being surprised, so some of the exhibits I found were ones I'd seen last year, but others were quite new and exciting. I happened into the temporary Barnett Newman exhibit, which isn't something I normally would have sought out, as he's one of those stripes-on-canvas artists from the '50s and '60s and I have little in the way of patience for such things... normally. I found myself in a large, sparse, pure hall, with enormous windows with white gauze over them, and fourteen or so equally massive canvases hanging on the vast walls. It was his "Stations of the Cross", in its entirety. I've seen a lot of art portraying the Passion, in many styles, but never in my life have I been so moved as I was by this one. He used the canvas in its natural state as a colour which he juxtaposed with black and white in lines, some rough, some smooth, that ran vertically over the broad pieces. It was so simple, so meditative...

That was not the only awesome surprise I beheld, either. I found, to my utter joy, one particular piece that I've studied many times in various classes. It was Roger van der Weyden's Crucifixion Diptych, which was painted around 1460. You can find it here, but they list it as separate left and right panels. Irritating. Anyway, I was happily stroling through some early Renaissance works of both Northern and Southern styles, when I turned a corner and passed through a salvaged piece of gothic cathederal only to be stopped dead in my tracks by this awesome work. It hangs alone on a section of wall that rises from the centre of the room in which it is located, with stools sitting before it should the viewer wish to contemplate it. The first thing that struck me was the awesome intensity of the red drapery that hangs behind each character set. Then I realised what I was beholding. It was so much larger than I'd imagined it could be, and it was completely breath-taking. There was no one in the room but a security guard so I wept in solitude. The power of the work, in person, was awe-inspiring. The magnificence was unbelievable. No work has ever made me weep. Especially beautiful animation has, at times, been known to cause such a response, but never before a painting. Words cannot express how I felt.

I bought half of the books offered on the sales table, and then quite spontaneously, I bought a student membership ! I figure, I've been there twice in a year, and if I can make it back once more, I'll get my money's worth. There's a massive Degas exhibition coming next winter/spring, so perhaps I'll make it for that one. I chatted with the women at the membership desk, and every one of them was Jewish. Crazy, in fact, one was telling me that their new Rabi was a woman who comes from Toronto. Nifty. Anyway, I returned to Ben's and proceded to pack my bags. Ali decided she would treat me to dinner, though I'd planned to treat them thanks to the Master of the Card, but she didn't let me. We went to a retro-styled malt/burger joint where we had excellent milkshakes and slightly less excellent burgers. Following that, we hoofed it to the station, and let me tell you, this was a lot of walking considering we were alternating my luggage full of artbooks and covering many, many blocks in very warm weather.

The busride home was long, but not obnoxiously so, and I finished my excellent book, Anne Bronte's "Tenant of Wildfell Hall", which so engrossed me that I lost four hours of bus time to flipping its pages. I also slept on and off quite a bit more than I did on the way down. My only complaint rests at Canadian Customs where the officers were officious and assholey beyond any good reason. I am pleased that I'm a citizen and white of skiin at times like that. They took quite a bit longer than we'd expected, so it was a good thing that the bus was only half full. I had the pair of seats to myself the whole trip and I was able to roll myself up and sleep with some level of comfort. Upon arriving in Toronto, I went straight to Heretic and slept for an hour and a half in the changerooms before working my full eight hours. Following that, I couldn't yet go home to sleep. No, I went to Julie's in order to celebrate her 70th birthday ! Mom was there, but sadly suffering from a migraine, but otherwise, thanks to renewed energy in the form of a fifth and sixth wind, I had quite an animatedly fun time. I hope my mom's feeling better today.

Tonight, Rick's taking me to the opera. I'm looking forward to it.

I will update soon. Presently, I am too exhasted to contemplate it.

Much more fun was had today, after much sleep. I won't go into details because I think we're going to have a random dungeon crawl with first level characters, but here's the low-down. Last night, after a nice long nap, I accompanied Ali (the official spelling) and Ben to the video store where we rented many things. I watched some Rowan Atkinson comedy with them, and then on Ali's recommendation, Fantasia 2000, which turned out to be excellent and beautiful, if a little hokey.

I shared the bed with Ali, which was a fun time, almost like a sleep-over, and then passed out. It was a wonderful sleep, even if Ali did nearly steamroller me at some point around six in the morning. I got up with her and as the two of them got ready for class, I got ready to meet up with Megan for Philly phun. We made a pilgrimmage for coffee, which was good, and then we headed to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology. What can I say, it was a fantastic museum. Amazingly good. It had excellent information within every exhibit with language that treated the reader as though they might have a) a mind and, b) something resembling basic intelligence. It reminded me of the older archaeology exhibits of the ROM, which haven't been modernised, happily. Their Egyptian galleries were extensive and fascinating, they had a massive exhibition on the peoples of the Americas. It was completely not patronising and it was very beautiful. Much fun was had.

The one thing that amazed me was that the Arch. Museum had windows that were open, and fans blowing the air around. They don't seem to care how the atmosphere is maintained. It was so very old fashioned that it amazed me. And it was lovely, too. There was an ageless quality to the museum that just made it seem... perfect. It was exactly as it should be.

We walked around South St some, which was sort of fun, though not as extensive as Queen St. back in Toronto. There are some very good shops, though, and many places of food. Terry and Rho joined us (old buds from the Depeche Mode chat) and we went for Indian food on South St. The food was surprisingly good, since the place had the feeling of a pizzaria, even right down to the candy striped tables. We went off for coffee, afterwards and entered into a long, long conversation about all sorts of things, including Bush's stupid war and Canada/US relations. Rho, who is black, entered with me into a wonderful conversation about race and prejiduces and class distinctions - what a smart, awesome woman !

Now I'm back at Ben's and Ali's looking unimpressed with George Carlin on TV, and actually, I'm not finding it so funny, either. Well, okay, I am, but it's more offensive than usual. Wow, he says a lot of stuff we already think and don't ever have the guts to say. Go George ! Anyway, time for D&D. Tomorrow I'm going to the Art Museum. Much fun. Then another horrible bus ride and then straight to work. Crazy !

Hey ho, I'm in Philadelphia. This is my first entry from a foreign (sort ot) country. So far, it's been a blast, though I must say, there is something to recommend flying even if it costs more, just because fifteen hours in travel time is a really, really, really long time to sit in a bus. Okay, so there were a couple of hours of stops thrown in, but you get the idea.

The first segment of the trip, from Toronto to Niagara Falls, Ontario, was greatly enjoyed thanks to the lovely Scottish fellow who sat with me. I met him in the line at the terminal and ask whether I could trust him to look after my things while I ran to buy snacks. His answer was, "I dennoo, cahn ye trust meh?" I just grinned and offered to buy him a snack too. Anyway, I came back and he said, "Ye really shoo not trust strange men," with a big smile. Instant friends ! We sat together and soon enough, the two hours were over and I had to wish him a good journey home, since after seven months of world travel, he was finally returning to Glasgow on Wednesday. He did offer that if I wasn't in a rush to get to Philly, I could stay and wander around Niagara Falls with him and take the night bus to New York (good travel company is hard to find, apparently) but I explained the cause of my journey and he understood my need for speed. We didn't exchange emails, which is sort of a shame as he was quite interesting, but if he ever stumbles on this log, GOOD LUCK, KEN !

I was, naturally, not even bothered at Customs. "You were born in New York State?" "Yes, I absolutely was." "Have a nice trip." Oh well, I'm not sure why it was disappointing, but it was a bit of a let down. I'd hoped for metal detectors or something, hell, even having one bag opened would have been somewhat fun. Shucks.

At Buffalo, I was horribly disappointed to discover that the greasy spoon I like, the one at the back of the terminal that ISN'T the official restaurant, closes at 3pm on Sundays, and naturally, it was 3:30pm when we pulled in. I had a flabby cheeseburger from the restaurant and then got back on the bus. It was suggested I ried the express to NYC, but I declined, as Megs was going to pick me up at 4am in Philly, and I could either sleep on a bus, or sit for four hours at the New York Port Authority. Uh. Ya. Anyway, it afforded me a scenic ride through the Finger Lakes, principally Geneva, where our neighbours at the cottage have a farm - it was a beautiful spot ! Also, I saw Ithica for the first time, and though dusk was setting in, it was still quite a lovely town, full of old, eccentric homes. I had been disappointed by the lame skater that had sat next to me from Buffalo to Ithica, but he got off there, and I had the pair of seats to myself for the rest of the trip into New York.

I slept a bit, on and off, though hardly in any decent way, but by the time we were an hour out of NYC, I woke up and there was no putting me to sleep again. I just got so excited to be gonig home, even if it was only through the Port Authority. I sat bolt upright, watching for that first glimpse of the skyline, and though I knew it would look... wrong, I was quite surprised when the tears rolled down my cheeks. It was that first glimpse, fleeting, over the top of a hill that did it, and when it rematerialised five minutes later, the shock was over. The sight of the city, my home, the greatest city in the world (in my opinion), so changed just by the lack of two buildings remains difficult to describe. Later, in Philly, I told Megan about it and she nodded and said that she felt that way every time she saw the skyline. The city itself was bustling, though, and the terminal was buzzing with thousands of people transfering to buses all over the continent. It was sort of amazing.

The line at the Philly gate afforded me another bonding experience, with a fellow named Vincent, who commutes every month back and forth to school in New Hampshir, from Little Rock, Arkansas. Amazing ! It seems, their masters programme in community development is ranked number one in the US, so he makes the 37 hour bus ride there, stays for three days, and the same bus ride back, monthly He'd fly, only he hates flying. He was quite interested in Canada's take on Bush's 'war' and while I'm not sure of the feelings of the entire country, I was able to tell him that many people were disturbed by the thought of Bush trying to take Canadian soldiers into Iraq, including the Prime Minister. I also explained that Canada hasn't fought active combat since Korea and we weren't entirely keen to be doing it now. We like being peace-keepers. He was very interested in politics and world issues, and his opinions on how communities must act in order to pull out of poverty were quite interesting. He did give me his email and I will write him. He was interesting.

On the bus to Philly, I conked out soundly for most of the trip, thankfully, and before I noticed, my Stephane Grapelli album had played two and a half times and we were pulling into the ctiy. Megan was there to pick me up (bless her !) and we went to the South St Diner. I ate scrapple. It's some sort or pork thing, and after much contemplation and thoughtful chewing, I realised it was a lot like a flat slab version of a Dutch crogeette. Needless to say, it was delicious and probably very bad for me. Yum ! We sat and talked over much coffee and finally, around 7am, she deposited me at Ben's house. I managed to get another hour of sleep (and had a GREAT dream about my mother being given this awesome job in Louisisana where she had to make this old plantation mansion into a viable resort in order to pay for it's renovation. The dream was in vivid 'technicolor' and was something of an Agatha Christie mystery crossed with "Showboat").

I woke up at 9am and dragged myself into the bathroom to change my clothes and make myself presentable in order to go to the Franklin Mint Museum for the Brom exhibition. I was sooooo excited ! We got there late, and I was worried we had caused anxiety to Anthony, but, as it turned out, he too, was substantially late. Let me just express here how FANTASTIC the exhibit was. It was full of his works over the last seven years, or so, up to 2001, and gave a varied spectrum of his talents. I admit that I envy him his talent. He is simply fantastic. What is even more amazing is that so much of his work comes straight out of his head, though it is clear he has studied form and figure, as well as looked at the past masters, and I don't just mean in his genre. He understands that veins show green and blue through translucent skin and that there is solidity beneath flesh. He uses light and shadow to great effect and has an innated understanding of the human figure - and not simply in a comic art sort of way. There was one piece where he'd drawn extensively on the PreRaphaelite tradition, only without the sugary romanticism, yet as evocative of a story as any "lady of Shalot" ever was.

Brom was there, himself, of course. There was much pressure from Anthony and Ally (sp?) - Ben's housemate, and Ben for me to talk to him. It's amazing how none of them thought that THEY should talk to him. Anyway, I finally dug up the courage, mostly because Anthony threatened to approach Brom himself on my behalf and went up to him. He automatically reached for the book of his art that I was holding, and I explained that I had come down from Toronto, Canada just to see this exhibition and meet him. He was pretty impressed with that. Heck, it even beat out the couple that had come from Montreal. They only had to travel 11 hours which is nothing compared to my 15 and a half ! I proceded to ask him some questions, including those on behalf of Ally who had managed to just barely avoid clamming up completely, and he answered readily. He did want to know how I'd heard about his exhibit and I said that it was through his webpage and he got all excited and started to talk about how he wanted to do more with it and he was slowly learning the webdesign programme that would allow him to take over the site himself. Anthony mustered up the courage to jump into the conversation, too, and the three of us had a rather animated discussion about the influences his work was having on industries beyond traditional illustration, etc., and we amassed a rather large group of people who were listening to the discussion. I did not have the nerve to ask him if I could send him some of my work, but his email is on the site and he does read it, so chances are, he'll remember the girl from Canada. He had lots of advice for us wee artists apsiring to his level and we lapped itup. And he signed my book in a most excellent way.

Anthony treated the three of us to lunch because we're poor and he isn't, and he remembers all too well the pain of artschool and the confusion that comes after. Anthony is a lovely guy and Ally and Ben thought so too. He also looked at our sketchbooks and gave us all good advice for what to do to improve our skills and portfolios. To Ben and Ally he said they HAVE to work from life, and from the masters, and he was disgusted at how little life drawing was offered at their school. To me he said that it was time I took some of the stuff in my book and start 'working it up'. I know what he means, and I will.

Anyway, now my two hosts have gone off to their evening classes and I'm going to phone my mom and then take a nap. There is a rumour we might play some D&D tonight, since I never go anywhere without my dice. Tomorrow, Megan and I (and maybe Terry) are going to hit the Archaeology Museum and have dinner. As for Wednesday, I'm not sure if I'll go to the Art Museum or to the Afro-American Art Museum. Maybe I'll do the former and save the latter for the next time I'm out, because there WILL be another time.

Oh wow, one more before I go.

I just checked my email and found an amazing link to an image of Earth at night. Here's the explanation that came with it, which may, or may not, have been written by someone I know.

The image below is a panoramic view of the world from the new space station. It is a night photo with the lights clearly indicating the populated areas. You can scroll East-West and North-South. Note that Canada's population is almost exclusively along the US border. Moving east to Europe, there is a high population concentration along the Mediterranean Coast. It's easy to spot London, Paris, Stockholm and Vienna. Note the Nile River and the rest of the "Dark Continent." After the Nile, the lights don't come on again until Johannesburg. Look at the Australian Outback and the Trans-Siberian Rail Route. Moving east, the most striking observation is the difference between north and South Korea. Note the density of Japan. It is a picture of the Earth taken from the Space Station last November on a perfect night with no obscuring atmospheric conditions.

Awesome, isn't it? Too think, in one hundred years we may have utterly destroyed it. However, we can all safely go on merrily through life knowing that it won't be completely devestated within our lifetime, so who cares? Hah, ratify the Kyoto accord? Why? Short-term economics are so much more important.

I need sarcasm tags.

Oh, and for anyone interested in the current OPSEU situation, once again, let me direct you to 362's site. Apparently they're all back at the bargaining table this week, but whether anything will come of it, we'll see. Here's hoping for a breakthrough.

Well, goodness, but my fans have been vocal about my lack of updates. While I don't necessarily feel I -must- explain, I will. It's pretty simple. Until today, we had no Internet connexion at the house. So, my last, lame entry from Tuesday was a sorry excuse to tide people over the course of four days.

I ran lots of errands on my day off (Wednesday), which while not entirely relaxing, did serve to get many things out of the way. In fact, I even made it to the US Consulate for a social security number. There was much security, and they even took my phone for the duration of my stay within the building, but they were all extremely nice and even humourous. They liked me. :) I'm such a polite and personable young woman. Apparently. I bought more fabric in order to cover Rick's masque, and I got money from the bank (so exciting, I know). I met Rick at Moores (the suit people) and I helped him pick out a suit, though my aid was practically unnecessary thanks to the excellent salesman that was helping him. I did, however; encourage him to buy a new pair of dress shoes, since his old ones did not fit him properly at all.

Rick took me out to dinner, which was very nice, and we went to our favourite sushi place, Tokyo Sushi on Bloor just west of Spadina. Everyone should go there, it's great ! Also, the waitresses are adorably sweet. We got to sit in one of the closed-off booths where they sit parties and such - quite fun ! Dinner was, of course, delicious. It gave me a bit of time to talk to Rick in a way that helped my state of mind significantly. Part of my depression has been related to my feeling of stasis. I know I need to get away, to make something of myself, to take some risks, but there are a lot of things holding me back; namely, Mom, friends, and Rick. It's hard to pick up and leave the ones you love and I've been putting it off for so long. Now, though, I've got a social security number coming to me, sometime in the next couple of months, which was my first obstacle in avoiding my future. It was strangely comforting to talk to Rick about these fears. Whatever happens, will happen, and we will do what must be done.

Speaking of getting away, my trip to Philly is a GO ! I have my tickets so it really must be happening. I'll be leaving at 12:30pm on the Greyhound and I'll be arriving around 4am the following day. Oh groan, but what can you do? This is what I must do in order to see BROM on Monday at the Franklin Mint Museum. Megan will meet me in the morning (she's threatening to come in her peejays) and together we shall break our fasts, probably in some divey all-night diner or something. Fun ! Some time later, I'll turn up on the doorstep of Ben's and we'll head for the museum. I'll probably change my clothes between the doorstep and the exhibition, mind you, because there is nothing attractive, or even remotely presentable, about walking around in clothes you slept on a bus in. Uhg. Other highlights will be seeing Anthony as well as visiting the Philly Art Museum again, and going to the Museum of Archaeology. By the way, Anthony is responsible for the fantastic look and art of Unreal 2.

Tomorrow is Sandra and John's masquerade wedding, and tonight, officially, the masques are complete ! Nick took some pictures of the mostly completed masques, and then of the finished pieces modeled by yours truly, and without tooting my own horn too hard, they are FANCY. Nicole lent me her long black gloves, which wouldn't fit except that she cut the ends off the digits. Afterall, she's as long fingered and large handed as I am. Actually, the effect of having the fingers cut off at the halfway mark gives the feeling of talons, which is completely appropriate since I'm going as a black dragon. It's going to be fun. I hope. *bounce*

Anyway, my room is a mess and I smell like a man. A big, fat man, who's sat in the sun for three hours after doing heavy labour. I stink ! Time for a shower, and then maybe I'll get some basic things together in my room for tomorrow. Oh, and don't forget that the clocks go FORWARD at 2am Sunday morning.

Oh my God. I wrote a whole long spiel about all sorts of things, including my upcoming trip to Philly to meet Brom (and visit friends), as well my depression and how I am battling feelings about taking risks... and also about how I won't have a proper internet connexion until Thursday....

And Blogger went down. For a long, long time. Oh well. Maybe some of the stuff I said was better left unspoken.

I get to leave now. Trudging home, through the snow. Hah. It's April.

I was so sure that I'd have lots of time to be on then 'net and whathaveyou, and I'd get on the MUD, and I'd do all these things... and then I hardly had time for it at all. Gadzooks. I've been keeping a bit busier than I'd thought I would, and I've accomplished less than I'd hoped. Heh, no real surprise there. There are just so many other good things that I can be doing with my time, you know?

For instance, there was the fruitless search for evening gloves with Carrie on Saturday. We trouped all over the place, including to the best second-hand store in the city, to no avail. There were plenty of cool things, but no gloves. At least, none that fit my gigantor hands. Apparently hair attachments and things are in fashion. It was a bit repulsive heading into an accessories store to find a wall of hair. Ew. On a different note, we did walk past Chris' store, Eyeball Soup, and read his special closed sign: We are closed for Good Friday, Excellent Saturday, and Ultimate Sunday. Very cute, Chris, we love you.

Another thing that was not as successful as it ought to have been, was working on my masque. The horns are done, but the fins are not, nor is the rest of it covered. Yeesh. Six days to go. *flogs self* That said, I did get online long enough to bring my main character on Realms of Despair back to life after a five month (real time) death. That was AWESOME. I am looking forward to getting online more in order to play her. I missed her very much.

We had company last night, the Muttons came over, as well as Ray, for a kosher Passover feast. It wasn't a seder, but it had all the elements of the plate set out, as well as some symbolic hand washing and so forth. It was a good time, as it always is with the Muttons, especially because this time Wayne brought the puppy. He's an adorable border collie cross named Buster. He was so much fun, though we had to lock the cats upstairs for fear of their coniptions. He's just been fixed, though, and very interested in licking his stitches (ew) so he had to have his Elizabethan collar put on. So, for half of the night, Buster walked around like a hairy lamp.

Today, speaking of hairy, I went riding at Kerri's. I haven't been on a horse since last summer and I got to ride her new hourse, Tarquin, a most excellently wide beast with the longest, thickest mane I've ever had occasion to brush. We're not talking about using a piddly mane comb on him, either, I mean a real, hardcore hairbrush that can rip through tangles and make the most unruly head look decent. Believe me, his needed some serious brushing. We rode first in the ring, myself on Tarquin and Kerri on Ryven, and then we took them up the rode. Tarquin is a wimp and he spooked a lot, but I barely noticed because, unlike most horses that prance and shy away from things, he mostly just sort of tanked upward and then stopped on the spot. I don't mean rearing or anything, I mean he just sort of lifted his back and neck, snorted and trembled, but without actually going anywhere. It feels big, but without the forward motion. It was a wonderful fun ride. Also, I got to play with Kerri's baby, who is growing like a weed and is very cute.

Yes. I did say cute. Clearly, I have more affection for babies belonging to my friends.

The decision NOT to bring Willi back to the big city tomorrow has been reached, as the appartment is a shambles and I'm going away the following week for four nights. I really don't want to upset her by constantly changing my appartment around and then disappearing. I'll be out here again on the weekend of the 20th and I'll bring her then. Hopefully Nick will be able to look after her the last weekend of the month when I go out to visit Tracy for two nights. Here's hoping.

Anyway, the big plan is to GET THE APPARTMENT ORGANISED this week, as well as FINISHING THE MASQUES. Hah, sure.