Useless ramblings on the second-last day of the year
Geez, it only took me seven gazillion years (okay, maybe a month) to get to the Aveda store. Hair, you can breathe a sigh of relief. I'm not subjecting you to that imitation volumizer torture anymore.
Note to fellow Ontarians who are planning on visiting the LCBO before tomorrow night's festivities: do it sooner, rather than later. It was already starting to get a little nutty just before dinnertime today! Here I must give some big props to Rachel for that chocolate banana concoction of Saturday night. I've told a couple of people about it and they are rather intrigued and thinking of trying it!
Hey, here's a fun thought. Everyone should leave their favourite New Year's recipe (food or drink) as a comment! Because... well because I asked you to. :)
I miss the deck squirrel. He had already been named either Squirrel or Skippy, but personally I think Peanut might be more appropriate. Did all his deck snow food storage spots melt on Sunday?
The last few nights I've had some really strange dreams. Last night was no exception! In my dream, someone I met awhile ago whom my friends nicknamed Stupid Boy (long story! :)) was dating Paris Hilton.
My dad's artistic creation -- we feed hungry elves! ;) Bubble made the elf and my dad posed it. It was sitting on the stairs for a few days until it became an obstacle course unto itself and needed to be moved. Note the knife and fork. (Maybe you had to be there?)
I am back. Seriously, my arms are tired. Suitcases are heavy! I actually had to sit on one to get it closed, because it was very full and had my puffy winter jacket on top of everything!
Now it's back to my smaller meals for awhile. I love Christmas, but it makes me very fooded-out. Bubble's amazing pies, apple strudel, some other baking, turkey, perogies, cabbage rolls, bigger meals than I usually have to start with... wow. Yesterday my body was freaking out from it all (freaking out by feeling very bleh) but was very happy and relieved when I found some salad for dinner!
After I unpack and find my download cable and install some software, I'll have to put up The Best Picture Ever from this morning. Way too funny!
I think that might be soon, too, cos judging from TV Times there is crap all on television tonight, and I am in my usual state of post-travel mehhhhhhh so I'm not going anywhere. That means I really should unpack. One suitcase has to be unpacked at the bottom of the stairs cos it's too heavy to bring upstairs right now!
A big wave to anyone I know reading this! How are you? Welcome to Boxing Day. :) Christmas was great, family, food and presents! The rundown (alleviating the need for the "What did you get for Christmas?" question). I must say, I'm spoiled this year! Under the tree I found a new winter jacket, puffy white and down filled, it's sooo warm! The challenge is keeping it clean. I've also got an MP3/CD player, which rocks, because I wanted an MP3 player and the Discman I got back when I was in high school has seen many, many miles of walking and a lot of plane rides. (In other words... keeping it working has become very tricky!) Also, a lighted makeup mirror (ha ha, now I can put on makeup in the morning while sitting down), a new book by Wendy Holden and tons of fun stocking stuff, including Crayola crayons! I should probably explain this. Back in October, I mentioned that they were discontinuing some Crayola colours. In an e-mail survey I'd answered last week, for the question that had asked if I was a crayon, what colour would I be, I'd answered periwinkle and mentioned how much I missed my 64 pack of Crayolas from childhood. The funny part is, my parents had only seen the weblog entry and not the e-mail survey, but this crayon bonanza has a 64 pack of Crayolas and a package of all the discontinued colours, along with a collector's tin. So funny. ;) Yes, I realize I'm 23, thanks. I'll be using my crayons for my New Moon lists. (Yasmin Boland, for the curious.)
I'd also gotten some Christmas money and some gift certificates. This morning I went and got a new digital camera, the HP Photosmart 735. I love it! 3.2 megapixels, 15x zoom (3x optical, 5x digital) and all the manual setting options I wanted (ISO, exposure, lighting, picture effects, etc.). It rocks. :) With either my Chapters gift certificate or my Amazon.ca one, I'll be getting the 2004 Writer's Market -- I've got lots of work to do!
So, stay tuned for pictures of anything and everything. ;) Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! What did you all get for Christmas or the holiday you celebrate?
Homer Simpson says Merry Christmas (and have a beer)
I think this is drinking and sledding. The Simpsons in a sleigh along with some beer are part of a Christmas display I went to see the other night -- Merry Christmas to all, and to all some good beer! ;) (Or if you're like me, no beer, so maybe a good club soda or whatever you prefer.)
Keanu and tools, but not Keanu using tools. He could know how to use tools, though.
Saw Something's Gotta Give tonight. Keanu looked rather terrific in it. That surprised me, because any pictures I'd seen in magazines over the last while didn't look quite so good. They made me long for the days of Speed! Thank you muchly, Hollywood stylists.
Revelation of the night: for anyone wondering about this, for the regions of southern and eastern Ontario, apparently guys who still know how to use tools, build and fix things live in Mississauga. General male usefulness is not, in fact, a lost art in those regions of Ontario, they're just concentrated in one spot. Thank God. I'd started to fear for the world.
(I had my own electric screwdriver at age 5, people. This is important to me!)
Have you ever been at IKEA, the greater part of the way through the store, when you decided that you needed to go back to a part of the store you'd already passed through early into your shopping expedition, way back there somewhere before the OOOHAHHH candles, the BYJIMINI cabinets, the EHOIGEIH area rugs and the shelves full of lucky bamboo?
When you walk against the way those arrows are pointing you, in the opposite direction from the oncoming shoppers, doesn't it just seem like everyone is staring at you? You just know they're thinking and whispering to each other, "What is WRONG with that girl? She's breaking the Laws of IKEA! How does she think she can just ignore those arrows on the floor and go the other way? It doesn't work like that. DO NOT DISOBEY THE ARROWS!!!!" And they're all ready to club you with their Big Yellow Bags filled with lampshades, woks, a few storage containers and a snazzy-looking futon, and they would do it, except that IKEA is far too orderly with its meticulous, unchallengeable layout and clearly laid-out walking instructions, and you've already caused quite enough ruckus with your inability to just go with the flow, young lady, for them to even dare think of creating an additional display of such outraging chaos.
A forward for all 20-somethings - nothing new, but nice to read
Got this as an e-mail forward from my friend Allana tonight. It has the message at the end to pass it along to all of my 20-something friends, but it's so entirely relevant to pretty much everyone I know, I thought I'd post it here. Enjoy... and relate! :)
They call it the "quarter-life crisis". It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now. You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but they are as confused as you. You look at your job...and it's not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you. Or maybe you find yourself so confused by family and your social scene that all you have is your great job to lose yourself in. Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what is not. One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling onto the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are, or move forward. You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or lie in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone but love someone else, too, and cannot figure out why you are doing this because you know you aren't a bad person. One night stands and random hook-ups start to look cheap. Getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself...and while winning the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender. What you may not realize is that everyone reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out. .....Pass this to your 20-something friends...maybe it will help them feel like they aren't alone in their state of confusion.
Morning procrastination as I mourn the loss of the lawn and the pavement for traction. (I only mourn the loss of the pavement for traction, not the lawn.)
Ha ha, hey Jen: Guess which song was on the radio this morning when I woke up? As the DJ so eloquently put it, one by "Jon Bon Hair Salon" -- that's right, from your comments a few days back, Livin' on a Prayer. Don't ask why weird things amuse me early in the morning.
So, I've finally figured out the ultimate, "You Know You've Reached the Height of Laziness When..." When I'm about to hit the snooze button for the fifth time in a row and think, wouldn't it be great if the alarm clock had a remote control, so I could just hit snooze from way over on the side of the bed furthest away from my nighttable without having to roll over and do a go-go-Gadget-arm to do it?
Cursed white flakes of frozen torturous misery (but how do I really feel?)
So... when did it start snowing, exactly? (Not the first incidence of snow ever in recorded history, I'm talking about the snow falling in O-Town right now.)
I was out for a long time this afternoon. There was no snow. Anywhere. Not on the ground, not in the sky. No white stuff. I was hoping to keep it that way.
How bad is it that I'd just like to knit and write all day? Hibernation, here I come. I can be happy it's Friday, though, because that means I can just knit and write all day tomorrow if I so choose. (Might be a plan. Christmas shoppers on a rampage vs. calming activities? Yeah. Well, one store in the Glebe I may have to go to, but I can walk there if it's not too cold and it shouldn't be as insane as, say, a mall.)
Today, a new prime minister. Shuffle that cabinet baby, and let all the dominos start to topple...
(Trivia for my American friends whose news often doesn't let them in on this -- our new Prime Minister is Paul Martin. And I don't think he has a lot of tolerance for Dubya, either.)
One more thing for tonight! (Have I done enough entries yet today? Well, technically yesterday now, on Weblog Standard Time.) But this is important. (Ha ha. In the "important to a 23-year-old who loved Wednesday night television from March to May" sort of way.)
Dear Andrew Firestone: please feel free to visit Ottawa, anytime. I volunteer to be your tour guide.
Karen called me tonight to tell me about the story hittin' the wires, that Andrew and Jen are no more. It is sad, actually, because I think it was the first time in The Bachelor history that the Bachelor chose the woman I actually liked.
But duuuuude. That boy has been my TV crush since March. Seriously, find me an Andrew Firestone clone in the National Capital Region and it's all over, baby.
This? Is way too funny. Apparently even the x-ray machines can't identify what's in it. Ah, memories of a store I used to work at and the seven gazillion fruitcakes that I'm positive never sold. I wonder if someone, somewhere in national security, just really despises the stuff and thought this would be an effective way of curbing fruitcake production and circulation?
Also strange and weird: I re-taught myself (or remembered) how to knit tonight. For the curious, I had previously been taught to knit as a child. Only then, I was trying to adapt it for left-handedness; now, for some reason, I'm more comfortable with the "regular" (or right-handed) way. Weird.
I'm starting off simple, with a scarf, but it's the boa kind of wool. Different shades of deep, shimmery orange. Love it. :)
So, I did get more sleep last night. No natural disaster nightmares. This could a) be a good omen for the day; b) indicate that my current state of wakefulness unto itself is a natural disaster waiting to happen; or c) not mean a blessed thing. I'll let you know.
Cool thing over the last week, though. Every couple of days there's random early-to-mid-90s songs that will pop into my head and I want to hear, and then when I drive home from work, or drive to somewhere, they come on the radio! How cool is that? Telepathic waves interfering with their musical selections, baby. Oooo-eee-oooo.
I just brought my Christmas tree up from the depths of the basement, amidst a box avalanche waiting to happen. I'm wondering if I've dislocated any spider families; this remains to be seen. So far it's just sitting on top of a speaker in my living room (it's a tiny tree) with the garland and lights that were never taken off of it, and one new addition: a star for the top. It didn't have a star last year, just a bow. I'll put the decorations on in a bit.
I love Christmas lights, Christmas ornaments, Christmas decorations. There's just something so warm and cozy about them.
My favourite sentence excerpt of the week, from CBC.ca's Indepth: Flu, regarding flu shots:
"... there may be short-lived side effects, like a mild case of the flu ..."
Uh-huh. I rest my case.
My favourite paragraph from this same piece, which helps relieve my mind that it's not just journalists/journalism students who can become mathematically challenged, it's the whole damn country:
"While Health Canada says the flu kills about 1,500 Canadians a year, British Columbia reports that 1,400 people in the province die from flu-related problems – such as flu and pneumonia – each year, and Nova Scotia puts its toll at 400."
What does this tell me? Stay the hell out of B.C., apparently. And that British Columbians and Nova Scotians together make up 120% of all Canadians killed by the flu? Does the rest of the country get the flu? Are we comparing the same thing here in this paragraph, and if not, why is it all put together? Help me out here, people.
Also, thanks for spelling out that the flu qualifies as a "flu-related problem" cos, you know, I couldn't have figured that one out on my own...
(This post brought to you by a rather pricey j-skool education and a girl who gets somewhat irritated by all the flu hype.)
If you could afford the vehicle in the first place, couldn't you also afford the mudflaps? We're just sayin'.
Sincerely,
The small cars that share the road with you
Anyone else think that owners of SUVs without mudflaps should have to pay a special user fee or tax that then reimburses small car owners for all the extra windshield washing fluid they go through?
I did some Christmas shopping over the weekend, and put up big star lights in my living room window! I think maybe I would like an advent calendar. Oooh, that reminds me. (Of what? Can't tell!) I don't know if a chocolate one would be the best idea (depends on if the ingredients listing has coconut oil, and how high up it is, meh. meh. meh.) but there's other kinds.
It snowed again last night, right after the rain had washed the snow from the weekend away. That said, I should probably get ready for work now, and give myself extra time to get there.
