So now I play the waiting game... transferred my domain registrar and hosting, and while the hosting account is all set up, my e-mail still bounces from all external accounts til the new nameserver propagates throughout the rest of the internet. Fun fun fun.
What a week! I need pieces of this weekend to just chill, relax, enjoy the quiet and most of all, get some writing done. That is at the top of the list.
It's been an eventful, draining few days, from a mixture of doing something altogether different from my usual life (which resumes next Friday) and from watching a friend going through something I went through a year ago. It is astounding what people can do to one another, isn't it? I wish I could fast-forward her to that space and time where you are ready for new things and new adventures; when it's been so long and you've realized so many things that everything that happened is entirely inconsequential and you start to wonder what kept you there in the first place.
Especially when you hear of things in passing that make you realize just how lucky you are to have gotten out, even if it wasn't your own choice at the time.
Anyway, enough of the serious stuff! It's Friday, yay Friday! And I'm craving apple cider like you would not believe!
This is a message to friends with Hotmail or Yahoo accounts... my domain provider has been bouncing e-mails sent to me from Hotmail and Yahoo (and probably other domains that a lot of spam mail comes from) lately. I'm about to fix this by transferring my domain to another provider and will e-mail you all when it's fixed. I'm not too happy about this!
I think we're all fleeing this recent dawn of the new Ice Age
So yesterday I paid a visit to the Passport Office. Oy.
Vey.
Brilliant me for not getting one last year and then going when it's peak travel season for people. And brilliant them for putting such a popular place smack in the middle of downtown, aka The land of jam-packed parkades so you all have to park at the meters that only let you put money in for an hour, no longer, traffic-riddled, pulsing slushcone central.
Everyone who works at the Passport Office is very nice, pleasant and helpful, though. Big props to them, cos they were dealing with more people crowded into and lined up outside of that place than IKEA on a Saturday.
Am I going somewhere? Well, I hope. ;) If wishes count for anything! Probably not what you think, though.
And all that's left is this empty bag of marbles... ;)
Cos this life is too short to live it just for you... ~ Powerless (Say What You Want), Nelly Furtado.
I love that song, especially that line. How true is that? You can ask for and respect the opinions of other people, your friends and your family, but ultimately, can you live with what you choose to do in life? Do you enjoy it? I think that, insofar as it doesn't affect other people (i.e. hurt them, or make them upset because you're upset), you have to live life for you. Life is short, it's about experiences and taking opportunities as they come. I'm a control freak over my own life by nature; I am often very resistant or scared off by change. I've heard this is a Taurus trait, and it's definitely true of me. So I've been doing something different, actually trying to welcome change, to take chances and opportunities as they come. You know. Going with the flow, trying to take deep breaths if I'm experiencing new things and they overwhelm me. Otherwise, I could end up in complete redundancy at the ripe old age of 23.
Not to say I don't feel apprehensive about changes and that I haven't expressed this... but I'm at least giving it the chance, for the universe to have a voice, rather than me try (and probably unsuccessfully) force my opinion and stagnation on it.
I should be in bed. Sleeping. Ahhh. What a week! Lots of changes. (And busy!) It's funny, how if you look back to a year ago, there aren't that many similarities in my life from then to now. I think fundamentally I'm still the same person... still, I've changed (and I'd like to think) grown in many ways. I'm embarking on a lot of new things this week. It's kind of cool, in a way, like the cycle completing itself. Renewal. Growth.
My horoscope from yesterday says a lot as well. Check this out, it's from Jonathan Cainer. Italicized parenthetical comments are mine and mine alone:
Several long-running sagas are now coming to a conclusion at once. (Yup.) You are tying up more loose ends that a garment finisher in a knitwear factory. (That's one way of putting it.) In one way, it's a blessed relief, in another, a scary proposition. (Big YUP.) What are you going to worry about or be constantly preoccupied by once these problems have sorted themselves out? (Don't worry, I'm sure I'll come up with something. :P) Fear not. (Okay.) A host of new factors that consume time, attention and energy will soon arise. (Seems that way.) The new lot, though... will prove much more worthwhile. (Good to know!)
That's all, chums. ;) Nighty-night, sleep tight, sweet dreams and awesome slumbers.
"She's lost her mind!" said the man in the yellow hat...
Curious George, the curious little monkey, oh what fun to run and jump and play...
That? Is stuck in my head right now. I'm blaming it on an e-mail forward I got last night about rejected children's books. And I thought I'd share. Now I've gotta run!
Polar bears are left-handed. How cool is that? (No pun intended with the "polar" and "cool.") No wonder I like them so much. I really have to get back to the Toronto Zoo this spring or summer, and spend all day watching them and taking pics with the digi cam!
How cool is it also that I finally got my burnt orange-coloured sheets? I found the colour I'd been searching for several years for at Linens-and-Things a few months ago, but hadn't yet bought them. I went on Saturday, and it turns out that after Christmas they discontinued them so they were on clearance. Half-price, people, for 300+ thread count sheets in the colour I searched everywhere for until Linens-N-Things opened here.
Yes, I kind of freak out when it comes to linens...
And yes, I'm also a big fan of orange if you couldn't tell. ;) These match both a colour in my comforter and in the rest of my bedroom though, so there is a reason beyond my orange fixation!
Mmmm. Saturday. :) A sleep-in day, after the craziest day possible yesterday. And, a dinner party day! Now I just have to decide if I'm making lasagna or cheesecake.
So, the news from here is that for the next three weeks, I get to take a bit of a break from my regular life and do something completely different. But, I can't actually say what that is. Just that it's different, and I'm looking forward to it!
A big shout out to the fellow Aveeno'ers -- whether they have done this by e-mail, telephone or weblog comment -- I got the lotion tonight, to try in conjunction with the cleansing bar. It feels really good right now, like it's moisturizing in the right way. My skin has been kind of dry because of it being a gazillion and one below outside with quite the wind for the last while, so maybe this will balance out the dry skin! (So while we're on the topic, anyone ever try out their face masque? ;))
It's been quite the eventful week! Tomorrow is going to be busy, busy, busy (like so busy with a few different things going on that it's hurting my brain to think about it), but then it's the weekend.
So, on that note, sleep is needed. Have an awesome Friday, everyone!
(Too. Cold. For. Civilization.) Hello there -38 windchill (might as well say it's -38, wind does not stop). And our ever optimistic high of -25°C, how YOU doin'?
Hee. This started over on TWoP, when we were having an airline discussion and someone said "O (Air) Canada, my husband's native plane..." So I wrote the rest. A new national anthem -- sing it and be proud! (And if anyone wants to offer an alternative middle section en français, be my guest!)
O Air Canada
O Air Canada!
Our husband's native plane!
True nausea, trans-fatty snacks again.
With lumpy seats we feel thee rise,
An anal probe for me.
From far and wide,
Air Canada, we throw tax money at thee.
Paul (Martin) keep our flights
Delayed and so grumpy.
Air Canada, we throw tax money at thee.
Air Canada we throw tax money at thee.
(Car) Travel Health Advisory: TMoASG, the latest in Canada communicable diseases
Oh. My. God. What is up with the static? Seriously, I can pick up my jacket and it's like static is now living in the lining -- how did it get there? And that's not all... I start all of my days off static-free, right until I get into my car. The Mother of All Static Generators lives in my seat belt. It's scary.
TMoASG got one of my car passengers last night, too. I don't understand! I don't know where it comes from! Did it hop onto me at work (that's where it started, I swear, from the 197598710685076082 computers in my building), and then I transmitted it to my car? It's like the latest in communicable diseases. And no matter what I do (put water on my brush and comb it through my hair, static guard myself, etc.) it lives in my hair for the rest of all time, or until I take a shower that night or the next morning.
But, dammit, I am entirely static free until I leave the house. Make it stop, puh-leaaaase!!!!!
Chasing Liberty is such a cute movie! I was going to try and do this à la pamie.com to the effect of "I saw [action verb reminiscent of running after, only more high-speed] [not Amy, but what they say they are often in pursuit of in the U.S.] tonight, the movie that has [singer/actress who is a colour chameleon when it comes to her hair] and [new actor who incidentally shares the name of a Canadian singer, only with an added "e"] in it..." blah blah blah, but then decided that damn, that's hard to do! So instead I say it's a very cute movie, made me laugh (sometimes in places laughter probably wasn't intended, but everyone in the theatre laughed too, so...) and was worth the time to see! (Side note: it was kinda odd seeing the Harvard campus in it, having been there and it was all, yup, they're really there and I walked around there.)
It's the weekend, yay weekend. I have a three-day weekend ahead of me. :)
It was weird, yesterday (by yesterday I mean Thursday, because this will blog as Saturday), when I remembered something about the day in passing. Had to wonder if it also flitted through anyone else's mind. Darn memory needs reprogramming!!!! :) It's worse than a freakin' palm pilot, I swear.
So, it's -24°C out there, -34°C with the windchill. The Manitobans and Northwestern Ontarians who got this deep freeze a couple of days before Eastern Ontario did are probably going to tell me to stuff it, but I don't care! I never said I liked winter or cold, and most people here have some kind of misconception that this is the banana belt in comparison to where I grew up and because of that, tell me I should be this hardy northerner who delights in the cold (or at least doesn't gripe about it so much).
Yeah, I got news there. I'm a wimp, and/or I'm not a crazed, frostbite-loving moron. My body tells me I'm meant for much warmer weather.
In better news, all of the heating vents in my apartment actually work this winter. Very, very odd. But muchly appreciated. :)
Wow, January 8th is quite happenin'! Happy National Bubble Bath Day, Happy Clean Off Your Desk Day (yeah, we'll see about that) and Happy Elvis' Birthday Even Though He's Not Alive Day.
That's right. You heard me. I'll be havin' none of that "the King is alive and living in a van down by the Ottawa River" back talk from any of you! ;)
Right about now I'm wishing I'd taken today off for the pure and simple fact that the high is going to be -21°C. (Y'know, before windchill, but seeing how the wind never actually seems to fully stop when it's cold... let's just call it a gazillion and one below.) My apartment is nice and warm, my PJs are nice and warm, out there is so BRRRRRRRR CO-O-O-O-L-D.
That Staples commercial with the printer ink cartridge pseudo-bingo? Is awesome. :) That is exactly how I feel sometimes, looking for ink cartridges! Kudos to the genius behind that.
I can't believe how sleepy I've become lately! I'm a need less than 6 hours of sleep per night kind of girl (usually averaging 5 1/2), but I've become Sleepy McNapper this week. Hello there, winter. Now bugger off.
Hah, and now that I had a nap tonight, I definitely will not be asleep before 2.
My personal favourite is the part about the link to civet cats, the possible virus jump. Hmm, here's a thought. DON'T EAT CIVET CATS. I realize that might be common fare there, but ugh. Ugh ugh ugh. And if they were linked to SARS before, why wouldn't they be linked again?
The first best discovery of 2004 is Aveeno's Clear Skin Bar, with natural colloidal oatmeal. It looks like bar soap, but is soap-free and amazing. It clears up blemishes and makes your skin soft and glowy! It made me switch from the Oil of Olay foaming face wash I've been using since I was 13 or something. At this rate, I won't even need concealer when putting on makeup in the morning, and I don't use foundation to start with, so just a light dusting of powder will do it.
Lurrrrve this stuff. It's not a gazillion dollars, either, but is making me consider getting some Aveeno lotion that is pretty pricey. I shall see!
Trying to get D into shape to start blitzing literary agents and publishers. Lots of work, lots of time. Even though I was out last night, and had all the New Year's fun, this is making me kind of hermitish! "What are you doing right now?" "Writing. Editing." "What are you reading right now?" "My book." (Heh, well I'm reading a Wendy Holden book too, so maybe I'm not entirely consumed.)
Big thanks to the family, friends and TWoPers who have asked about D and thus keep me inspired and motivated! Think I've got to go to Chapters this afternoon and pick up the 2004 Writer's Market. Thus, my pajamaed self needs a shower.
I've been having a lot of really vivid dreams, lately, and remembering them upon waking. Some I write down. Most have been good dreams in their own way. I had a nap after getting home from work today and had a dream that somehow told me a lot of things.
A lot more relaxed now after an entirely depressing day at work. It was a co-worker's last day, and there will be another one of those coming later on in the month. The thing I love most about my job is the people I work with, so it's sad.
