* Miss Jenny Lane *

2007-04-08T20:45:00.000-04:00

Oooopf. I haven't updated in over a month. S'bad. I do better. It's all facebook's fault, and there's so many updates now. I might have a limited time to do this since I'm on Jimbo's computer and he might want to go to bed any time, so here's a condensed version. It may be short.. but I'm back babeh. I'm back.

THINGS!

1.Ima doing more paintings :D One is a portrait of a baby. It's turning out grood and it's going to be my most expensive commission yet :D :D :D :D :D JOY.
2. I have Ireland updates! Ima buying my plane ticket when my credit card comes in. My friend Jen found me a mad cheap one. I might leave June 14th if it works out. I found a neat hostel called Jacob's Inn, which is right downtown, cheap, supa-nice and vacant when I need it. HOLLLAAAAA.
3. Google Earth is SOOOO COOOL!
4. It's Easter right now and I'm at my mawm's. My bad short haircut is growing out and looks prettier now, but I put some 'natural' lightner in it and it bleached it all shitty so I'm going to have to dye it brown again :( Fugg.
5.Things going dandy wif Shawn. Vereh dandy. Heart him muchly. I'm moving into his house in June. SHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Will post details later.
6.I'm kittysitting for Jen this summer :D GOLDIE!
7. Can't think of another one.

If you're reading this, I love you!

2007-02-20T20:28:00.000-05:00

Ooo, I keep not updating. Bad Jennie! Bad! I just read Bizessy's blog and it made me laugh my arse off as usual, combining x-tremely entertaining prose with the funniest pictures I've ever seen. The "Fuck Off" Sesame Street one was amazing.
Call me crazy - after two years of growing my hair long, I was suddenly thinking about CUTTING it whilst on the train yesterday! I love how my brain is so wierd and tries to force me to believe two opposite things at once sometimes. "You love long hair!" "NO! Short!" "NO! LONG!" etc, etc. Then my rational brain sez: "Who cares, it's just hair, bozo." Then they both shut up and I get nowhere with my dilemma.

I'm in Brockville right now! Totally randomly. I was on the phone with my mom yesterday and she was like "Yo I have tomorrow off" and I realized I did too, so I took the train home for a blitz! THEN it got better - I talked to Skinnah randomly on MSN and it turns out that she was gonna be in Brockville for one night and one night only too! YAY!! We're gonna go to the 'STORM tonight and get all hammie. Yay! Heartbeams. Oh yeah, so that interview that I had as a veterinary assitant went pretty well! I find out on Thursday if I get the JORB or not. Turns out it's all talking to owners and reception stuff and taking kitties to the back room, and paperwork. Sounds aiiight. Shifts are 6 hours long and everyone there was all happy and chatty. Plus the pay is mad above minimum-wage which rox, and the owner is supa-nice and said she was so glad that I came in. Whoooooties. Also fun: I went out with Laura and otha friends on Saturday night and brought Mr.Shawn, and guess what, he got along with my friends! A BOY THAT I LIKE GOT ALONG WITH MY FRIENDS WITHOUT INCIDENT. This is unprecidented. I like it.

Gotta fly. I don't like to linger too long on Jimbo's computer just in case he needs it or I eff it up somehow.

KISSES.

2007-02-07T10:22:00.000-05:00

Wooooot woot! Alright, this marks official day number one of intense job-hunt. I've really enjoyed only working 20 hours a week since.. well, X-mas, actually. But enough's enough, and I need to save up some Ireland dough, so it's back to work I go. I've been really procrastinating though.. see, with 20 hours a week at Arbour, which pays quite well, I have just enough to pay my rent and squeak by if I'm clever with my money.. which basically means that four days a week I get up leisurely, enjoy the sunshine, have my tea, go for a run, and then do whatever I enjoy doing all day - playing with my friends, drawing, going on adventures. I could definitely get used to this. Only problem is, I end up having mashed potatoes every night because I'm broke and I'm not saving anything. Boo. What I need to do is find a job that pays extraordinarily well so I can stay on my three-day work week but live like i'm working a minimum-wage five! oh, lolz. I'm not lazy, I just hate my freedom being taken away! There's a cute little coffeeshop called Planet Coffee in the market that's hiring right now that might be groovy.. anyways, that's what I'm doin' today.
Other news! Jen's kitty benefit party was a success. The house was packed, and I got totally drunk. The only sad thing is, that Shawn's laptop got punked. Poop! It was his school one, too. Joke's on whoever lifted it though - apparently it's got an elaborate password thing set up on it (the man's in computer engineering.. do they think he hadn't thought of this?) so it's basically useless except for parts. Fools!

Hmm, what else is new.. Laura and I discovered the joys of veggie-bacon and tomato sandwiches on a cold day. I got my Montreal pictures developed, which'll end up on Facebook soon, for all you fellow facebook nerdz. Also, I'm thinking that my first purchase when I get a decent job is going to be a naughty, naughty pair of 70's style terrycloth booty shorts to go jogging in when it's warmer. You know the ones I mean. Slits up the sides, and they're striped. Aww yeah. Also, I re-read the Secret Garden this week and it was beautiful. What a nice story.

KAY BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

2007-02-02T09:08:00.000-05:00

YO! Oh mah mah, updates. Montreal was a bucket of fun. Ima have to point-form it, or I'll get too long-winded.
-Delicious pomegranate martinis at Sarah's with Josh and Rachy when I got there - it was so good to see everyone!!! :D Lovely pretty shirt present from Sarah, and two bundles of kitty-love to play with. Sarah has a new kitten named Fidel that just so happens to be the the most lovable creature on the planet.
-Drunken drag show in the village, which made me die of joy. Costumes and choreography, oh my!! It was too good.
-Messed up, drunken pizza at seediest place ever
-Rachel saying "Tabernac" in the cab so many times, followed by "Do you think the cabbie can hear me?? I'm whispering!!" (She wasn't whispering)
-Extreme hangover followed by Sarah's Russian Film class the next day - it was pretty interesting. I got to sneak in and watch some movies.
-Lolloping around the city with Rachy n' Jorsh. Rachel bought a "Tabernac" t-shirt, lol
-St.Hubert!
-Shrooms. Oh god. The Shrooms. Five hours of hilarity and wonder. You know how you're not supposed to look at your reflection in a mirror when you're shroomed out? I was like "what the hell" and did it anyway, but it was actually really cool. It wasn't freaky or anything. Sarah's yellow kitchen was the sparkliest, prettiest thing I've ever seen. Rachel's blond hair was so luminous I couldn't stop looking at it. Oh, and my hands left rainbow trails every time I moved them. We watched some ridiculous video on youtube with some guy apparently dancing with a Dora the Explorer mask on his head and I came within a fraction of peeing my pants I was laughing so hard. I had a mini shroom-induced emotional crisis where I started getting sobby about Shane and the whole mess, but I felt better soon with much comforting from everyone. I think I just had a lot on my mind but hadn't thought about it much, what with all the fun going on in Montreal. Still... shrooms = fantastic.

Now I'm back in the O-town! Ah, good times. I would've liked to stay longer, but that was all the Jennie could afford with her birfdey monies. Oh, Jess to answer your question from my last postie, what happened with Shane is that I'd been thinking that it was about time for him to get out on his own (After over a year and a half) soon, and that starting to date Shawn was a little extra motivation to ask him to get himself together in the near future. I mean, he'd been living out of a backpack in my room for all that time. By "I did what I had to do", I meant mustering up the courage to get Shane to get himself in gear. Not really easy, considering that I was accustomed to seeing him every morning and ever night since two summers ago, and I know he was comfortable and used to being here too. He was pretty sad for a while, and it was hard on me to be around him like that, but he got his stuff together while I was in Montreal and now he's at his parent's place in Pembroke trying to get a job with his uncle's company. He left me a fairly friendly note saying that he still wanted to stay friends and everything, and that he might end up back in Ottawa at some point in the future, which isn't too shabby considering how pissed off he was at me. I still really care about him, and hope that everything works out okay... but all the same, it feels really right and relieving to have my own space back. I can come and go and have people in, and it feels great.
In other news, my mom n' Jim are coming to town tonight, and Leigh and I are taking them to the Tragically Hip show for Momma's B-day!!! :D HOORAH! It's gonna be so fun! My mom's so sweet, she deserves a wacky night in Ottawa. Then on Saturday, it's Jen's benefit party for her kitty! I'm going to make kitty-shaped cookies today for it :D Pure joy.
Time to go get a bunch of crap done! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

2007-01-27T19:17:00.000-05:00

AAHAHA! HAHAHAHA!!! Oh man. I love my apartment. I just got the mail, and Paul got some envelope full of coupons. I hear him open it in the other room and it turns out that it's only coupons for tampons. HAHA! He's like "FUCK! TAMpex! The only thing I CAN'T use!!" Now he's in his room listening to outrageous 80s hair-band rock and they just keep yelling "SEX! SEX! SEX! SEX!" for the whole song. It sounds like a whole choir of Bon Jovis.
So it's a Saturday night, and my day at work was a total blur. I've barely slept in two days, and I'm effing delerious. Did I spell that right? Anyways, yeah, total insommnia. It SUCKS. I just couldn't turn my brain off both nights. Iunno exactly what the heck's bothering me.. but I think it has somethin to do with the fact that I'm feeling some mad guilt over sompin. Ever since I started having mad dates with Shawn, Shane's (god. the names.) been effing down in the dumps and being horrible. It's pretty bad. He appears to be all heartbroken and stuff. But in the worst way.. it's squishing my heart right up to see him like that. I could go on describing the antics of late, but in a nutshell, Shane's been walking around like a lost soul and it's making me supa-sad. And it just keeps bothering me when I leave, and when I spend time with people and when I'm trying to sleep. Conscience overload. I did what I had to do, but it ain't easy, and I can't deny that it's pretty rough. I betcha it wouldn't be so bad if I had some sleep though.. maybe I'll update the ol' feelin's in the morning.
Anyways! Things of lately! Went to Jessy R's place and played with kitten tons! YAY! Leigh took me out for Japanese food SO good that it totally gave the 'Couve a run for its money. (Van still has the best sushi ever though.) Shawn made me din-din on thursday night, and then on friday we went to the Museum of Nature together. Larks! I was kind of pooped though, because it was day one of no-sleep. Grr. I hates that. It's only 7:30 right now but I have every intention of going to bed in about an hour's time. Today I worked a nine-hour shift and almost fell asleep in the hemp clothes. I'm so sleeping tonight though. DETERMINATION STATION! And then on tuesday it's MONTREAL!!!! :D :D :D :D :D HELLS YES AND WOOT!!!!! :D I miss the Sarah and Jorsh and Rachy!!! Oh, there'll be updates.
Time to go brush the baba gannouj out of my toofers. I'm going to watch three episodes of Sex and the City and then go to bed. Why Sex and the City you ask? Because those women have perpetual man-problems and me feel like less of a dumbass. Booya.
NOITY NOIT, PUNKS!

2007-01-22T16:48:00.000-05:00

Oh no ya don't, facebook... you wont steal ALL of my computer-blathering time!!! I've had this blog way too long to quit it now. To the updates!
I had my yearly doctor's appointment-o-rama, and I'm pleased to announce that I have a clean bill of health. Woot for another 12 months! Doctor appointments for ladies aren't a walk in the park, though.. there was a lot of pokeage and prodage, and I'm always glad when I get to escape into the afternoon. Not that I'm doing anything terribly exciting.. it's a loaf-around day, methinks. Last night I went out to Mod night with Jen (and Shawn. heehee.) and ended up drinking GIN of all things. Gawd! Drunk. We didn't really get to go dancing though, because they wouldn't let Jen in due to over-drunkiosity. We were all just as trashed as she was, but I guess she shows it more or sompin. Tomorrow night I have a hawt dinnah-date with Shawn again :D He keeps sending me the cutest little text messages all the time. Aww... nerd dates. I keep trying to pace myself and put at least 24 hours between our delicious dates just for good measure, but it isn't easy when he's inviting me over for shenannigans all the time! He's such a good effing kisser, too. Dammit, 24 hours be OVER!
Other news! Some paintings going on for Jen's kitty-benefit. It was supposta be on Saturday but got switched to february because everyone in the house has like ten colds. This is good though, because it means I can get some cartoons and paintings done of GoldieCat so we can try to sell them at the shindig to raise funds. YAY! Tomorrow I'm going to go out and spend some of my birthday monay and try to get my life in some kind of order - y'know, laundry, groceries, finances... bah.

FUN THINGS:
1. My hair now goes down to the top of my boobs. HELLLLS YES.
2. When I was doing kitty cartoons for Goldie at Arbourshop this weekend, a lady asked what they were for and she ended up giving us 15 dollars towards the kitty cyst-removal cause! AWWWWWWWWWWW! *heartbeams*
3. THE GREEN PARTY FINALLY PAID ME. In full. I'm not even going to complain that it's five months late. What a shocker!
4. I like being in my jammies.
5. My doctor said "You're lucky to have such small breasts, because it's easier to detect cancer in them!" LOL KIND OF.

2007-01-18T21:10:00.000-05:00

Hooooorayyyyyy 24!! Wooty McWootersons. Yep, 24 is gonna suit me fine. However, I think I'm beginning to learn that you're only as young as you *look*.. on monday, the handsome gentleman who took me out for dinner didn't get carded when we ordered beers, but I did - funny thing is, I'm two years older than he is. Ah hah. Fine, so I look 12, big whoop.
Speaking of handsome gentleman, the one I've been seeing lately is working out nicely. It's just a new thing and all, so I'm not getting any kind of expectations up, but we're having a lot of fun together. Guess it's about time to delve into some details.. he's in computer engineering at Carleton, and he's smart as a whip, which I find dreamy. I love nerds, and this one takes the cake. The kicker comes because he's totally pretty, too - I observed while his fine self worked out a physics problem full of equations and graphs the other day and ended up in his lap before he could finish it. I'm serious, that kind of thing drives me crazy! Another great thing is his excellent taste in music. Hope that doesn't sound too shallow, but I think you can actually tell a lot about a person from their music collection. And c'mon... tell me it isn't hot when a guy can sing along with Van Morrison without missing a beat. Jeezuz. There's a poster of Albert Einstein making a funny face on his wall, and he wears one of those adorable sleeves-are-a-different-colour-than-the-rest-of-the-shirt baseball shirts like every day. He has one in every colour. And a Holden Caufield ear-flap hat. Oh, and did I mention that he's crazy about me? Mmm hmm.

I should move on before I jinx everything. Soooo I didn't end up having a big to-do for my birthday this year.. just smallish things like a tea or something here and there with friends. Iunno why.. usually I find some gigantic silly plan involving a lot of alcohol and a night on the town, but I think I was too busy or sompin. Right now I'm in Brockville - my gramma made me this awesome photo-album totally filled with family pictures since I was born! AWWWWW! I got some Ireland $$$ too. I went out for Chinese with my mawmz and granny tonight, and got so stuffed that I needed immediate jammies when I got home. Tomorrow morning I'm back in O-town for an art-gallery date with Hottie McPhysics. Saturday I work all day, but then my friend Jen is having a benefit-party for her kitty Goldie who has a cyst that hasta be removed.. two dollah at the door, and if everyone shows up, he'll be at the vet the next week! YAY! Ima get drunk.
AIGHT time to go.

2007-01-15T10:20:00.000-05:00

Jeez, here I am with my blog, my facebook, my email, my effing cell phone with its text messaging and picture-sharing and actual calling-abilities... I've never had so much opportunity for communication and access to information in my entire life! And just a few weeks ago I had none whatsoever. Feels wierd. The only way people could talk to me would be if I called them from a payphone or they showed up at my backdoor. I'm like this hippie with all these crazy techno-devices. Techno-hippie. Aight, no more flow-of-consciousness writing this morning.

I had a sweet-ass date this week. Oh, make that two. This adorable guy named Shawn is suddenly interested in spending all this time with me! On thursday we hung out for like eight hours, and it was so fun. Then on Saturday night we went out for beers and then later did the making-out for extended periods of time. Excellent! Tonight he's taking me out for dinner for my birthday. He's loads of fun and smart and cute as a button. Oh, and I very much enjoy getting smothered with his kisses. Too good to be true, I ask? We shall find out.

Meanwhile, on the job-hunt, no call-backs yet. That's okay. I'm resigned to my fate, now. I'll be working at a coffee-shop again. I need hours and money and tips and stuff, so fine. I'm going to hit up the Bridgehead in the Glebe and some other junk. Now that I have Second Cup experience there's no way that I can't kick ass! My Ireland funds-can is stalled, and it's sad. It needs more money in it for sustenence. I have enough now for the plane, and for half of my estimated lodgings-costs. Guess I'll hafta eat too, so it's back to work I go. Since my New York trip is in May, I'm thinking of pushing Ireland back from May until June. Orrr maybe mid-May... I don't know if I can wait that long.

It's a blizzard out today! :D

2007-01-11T13:09:00.000-05:00

What the eff - I can't get into your blog anymore, Bizess! At least, not on this computer. The sign-in box never appears. WIER-ED. So! Have I told everyone that I have tele-communication now? It's true. And there's a camera on it, too. Joy! Even crazier - I can send pictures from my phone over the internet to people. This is definitely the most technologically advanced I've ever been.
Soooo, I made up a batch of resumes this week, handed a few out, and then got lazy. Lazy mostly because my 16 hours a week at Arbour cover my rent, and I have enough food money to last me for at least another two weeks. Why I NEED a second job though, is because I wont be saving a single penny for Ireland without one. Grr.. I just know that I'm going to end up at a coffeeshop again. Maybe I'm lazy, maybe I'm too easily irritated, but I like having my days off to paint and enjoy my life, and I'm TOTALLY procrastinating when it comes to getting that second jobby. Sure, I let myself have a week off at the beginning of January, but we're now closing on week two, and I haven't gotten a call-back from anywhere yet, and I'm out of rezoomies. Mind you, I AM 3/4 of the way to the Ireland mark, so maybe taking my time isn't such a bad thing... smeh. Updates to come.
A cute boy named Shawn asked me to meet him for coffee today :D Yay! Updates to come on that, too.
Nothing much else new... did a big fat mural on Aynsley's wall, text-messaging star trek quotes to everyone, x-cited to go to MTL at the end of the month!!!
luv, j-funk.

2007-01-04T22:50:00.000-05:00

AN ASSORTMENT OF FACTS!

My friend Jen got fired from Arbour. NUTS. And balls. It's kind of a wrongful dismissal thing, if you ask me. It's wierd and complicated. I came in this week to get my paycheque, and found that she wasn't on the schedule. Manager McGee said that it was because of a combo of not having enough hours for her *and* that she supposedly called in sick due to a hangover after a night that we went out... but I don't remember her ever calling in sick for that reason. I recall her calling in sick because of migraines... anyhoo, turns out they'd even tried to wiggle information out of me about what night we'd gone out, under the pretext that they were actually interested in the lives of their employees... hmm. I can't see anyone I work with or for actually being sneaky like that.. kind of disappointing. I think she should've been kept on, personally, even if hours were crappy. So wierd.

Another FACT. I went to the 'gym' for the first time ever this week. Interessant! I just kind of went for jokes because I had a week off, but I enjoyed it. My back is kind of twisty and stupid, and also triceps only exist as a wobbly sack of skin, so I figured there must be things that could improve these situations. Also, I love to run, but my stamina's kind of shitty, so hopefully I'll health-it-up and improve all that stuff. I like the big exercise balls!

I'm going to brown-henna my hair tomorrow, because the remains of my red-henna are sad, and my roots are big and brown anyways. I'm just excited because I love the SMELL!

Facebook is fun.

Tomorrow I'm going to have scones and tea with Eff! And then perhaps yoga! Then the next day, (which is Effy's actual B-DAY!! HAPPY BIRFDEY F!!!) I go back to work, but that's aight. Things of fun are headed my way this weekend.

It turns out that the Shopper's store in the Glebe has a bunch of awesome food, which is great, because I have a hilarious 75 dollar credit there. JOKES! They have soy milk and smoothies and pasta and all sorts of stuff! Oooh and teas! Time to gorge for free. It's actually a really good thing, because it'll help out as I look for a second part-timer job and end up kind of broke in the meantime.

I have to go drink a beer and copy some recipes into my book now.

2007-01-03T16:48:00.000-05:00

Phew... what a New Year's. It started out with me working all day at Arbour, blasting home at a thousand miles an hour, getting changed, picking up fondue stuff, and then hitting up two parties. First I went to Laura's and gorged on fruit n' chocolate fondue, which was awesome. I had a couple of drinks with her and the roomates, and got to snuggle up a certain little orange kitten that belongs to one of her roomates! Ooo! So cute. I had punch and beers and wine, and got a bit trashed. They were all going out around 10, so I split to Hull to Gareth's party, only to find Shane ALREADY passed out on the floor. HAHA! He'd drank like ten beers in an hour and was totally out. I put him to bed and proceeded to get staggeringly drunk with everyone else there. The party was interesting.. it was mostly a combination of well-dressed french girls and bearded hippie types. What I remember most, is trying to play a trombone and getting a big sloppy kiss from a french girl who insisted we were the same person. LOLZ! It was actually really, really fun. I don't think I've ever had a disappointing New Year's. Shane and I didn't go home until the next morning, and we spent the entire day wrapped up in blankets trying not to puke, and later eating really, really bad Chinese food and cookies while watching cartoons. It was great.
Now I need to find a second job again. Fart.

2006-12-29T10:31:00.000-05:00

There's a big long-winded post about naked-guy underneath this one, in case you haven't read it.

H'okay! I'm headed back up to o-town today wif my mumz and sistah. What a nice five-days off... ahhhh. The longest break I've had since summer. I really wish that I only had to work a few days a week. I'd never get bored! Even when I'm broke I can always occupy myself. Ahh, well... it's winter anyways, and I gotta save up for my adventures. YAY! Here's something scary, though: I sitting down last night with a cup of tea and a clementine and my old recently-found children's literature textbook, when this suddenly occured to me: "Wouldn't it be delightful to get married?" GASP! How strange. Suddenly my thoughts are filled with visions of a sweet little country house, with kitties and a vegetable garden, and rugrats chasing butterflies, and of course my unfathomably gorgeous husband bringing me tea whilst I frolic in the yard. Shit, I gotta get back to reality.

Otay. Going out for tea and sconeage with Sarah and then back to O-town I zip!!! PEACE!

2006-12-26T20:43:00.000-05:00

I'm wearing a vest that I've named "J.T." because it's just like the one that Justin Timberlake wears in one of his videos. I'm so lame and sassy.

Ok, I'm an ass because I love facebook and I've been ignoring my blog, and I've had no internet for days, so the vastly interesting (tiny) happenings of my life have gone unrecorded for a week! *gasps* It's time to remedy that shit. It'll still be kind of condensed tho, because I'm in Brockville right now and I'm definitely going out for drinks with Sarah in about twenty minutes. Wooot! Merry Xmas everyone!!!

Remember that list from the last entry? It's time to elaborate.
1. Who recalls about three summers ago when I worked at Phase 2 on Bank street for the summer and I got flashed by a naked guy? Everyone probably remembers me talking about that forever, but long story short, this dude waited until I was alone, said that he had to try on 'costumes for a party', and asked if I was open-minded and wouldn't mind giving him my opinion. Well, that was four years ago, I'd just moved out, and I was pretty green, so I was like 'sure!' Well, it ended in total penis flying at me. Not cool. Aaaanyways, last tuesday, myself and Aynsley were working at Arbour, and I went downstairs to prepare us some crackers and brie at about eight o'clock. I was on my way back up the stairs when I heard Ayns say... "Yeah, sure I'm open minded." I was like NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! And I came upstairs to find a naked dude in the change-room wearing nothing but one of our HEMP COOKING APRONS. It was the SAME DUDE!!!! SCREEEAM!!! As if! I went to the cash desk and wrote "Aynsley! Don't be fooled! He's going to show you his dick! I've run into this guy before he's a pervert." But it was too late. Penis had already been revealed. A bunch of people came in at about that time, and the guy threw his clothes back on and fled. My boss called the cops the next morning, and it turns out that this guy waits until a shop is empty, and there's a female working there alone, and then he goes in, tries something skimpy on, asks if the shopkeeper is 'open minded', whips out his peener, and asks shit like 'does it turn you on'???? God! The cops said that they'd been trying to get him for years. Imagine.
2. Oh yeah. The painting fiasco. I have so many long-winded stories. Turns out that I initally got a LOT less dough for the paintings than had previously been agreed upon. Shitty. Disappointing. I'm not about money, but I'd worked REALLY hard, and that cash was supposed to be for Ireland, and it now all felt like a big time-waster instead of a good thing. Tears. But three hoorahs for Shane - he went and talked to the lady (I HATE squabbling over money.) and ended up getting her to pay me a fairer price. I'm going to get him beer.
3. I had a date with an Italian guy named Antonio! He's cute and he runs benefits for charities and is in Medieval studies. He grew up on a farm and can speak Italian. We're going to go rock-climbing after xmas break.
4. My staff Christmas party was a riot. We all got so drunk, young and old. All of us younguns smoked joints with 60 year-old hippies and it was such good times. And I got to play with kitties and a baby and Jen and I sang an 'environmentally-themed' Christmas carol and won SO MUCH free booze!!! I love my job!
5. Two days before we all went home for the holidays, Laura and I infiltrated the swanky swanky Chateau Laurier and had some shmoozy over-priced drinks in their exclusive little bar. It was jokes, and the service was amazing. We felt like such impostors, but it was so great that we're going to make it a tradition.
6. Christmas updates!

OH MY GOD! Best present ever: my mom is taking me to New York City in May for three days!! All paid! :D How great is that?!?!?!??! I'm so excited! My sister and gramma are coming too! What a great idea for a present. Actually, I got lots of very suitable things in the last week... sweet ol' Shaner actually got me a painting easel. That's so effing nice. What a surprise.. it knocked my socks off. He's a huge support for my painting. Leigh got me an incredible raw-foods cookbook (endorsed by Woody Harrelson!) and my boss gave me pot! I've been having such a rockin' time the last few days. I really really heart my fambily. I've been grossly sick though, off and on for the last three or four weeks, with a horrible cough and swollen glands. WTF? It goes away and then comes back again, over and over. I have a doctor's appointment on the 10th of January and if it's still around I'm gonna have to do something about it. Blah.
Tomorrow, Leigh and I are going to head up to Kingston to see my dad :D It's been hard to get up there the last couple of years, and we've ended up going way after Christmas, so it makes me happy that we've all got our act together and we're going early this time.
What else is new... I watched two amazing Star Trek (TNG) movies last night. I really want to marry Picard. I have three more days in town before I head back up to work at Arbour on Saturday and Sunday, and then it's New Year's! I'm not sure what's going on yet, but it's probably going to involve Jessy R, Laura, perhaps a few of the Arbour gals, and MAYBE even Jessy Wright!!! :D :D :D :D JOY!!!!! After new year's I have to look for a second job. Again. Let's not talk about that right now.

Happy holidays y'all, and I hope you're all having fabulous times! I send everyone buckets and buckets of my love.
*squishes*

2006-12-20T13:14:00.000-05:00

I have so much shit to blog about, but it's gonna hafta wait because I have exactly three minutes to write this.
This is a point-form recounting what happened this week:

1. naked guy in my store
2. painting disaster
3. date with italian guy
4. ganja-filled staff party
5. laura and i infiltrate the chateau laurier
6. xmas updates

I have the next three days off and Shaner and I are gonna spend them in the country!! YAY! Stargazing, boozins, crazy rural truck adventures... when I get back, or if I can steal the computer out there I'll elaborate and tell the full stories behind those six condensed happenings. Oh, and country tales!

Love yas :D

2006-12-14T15:00:00.000-05:00

Yuh oh. Now that I'm on facebook I keep neglecting my blog. You can make notes and messages complete with any picture you have on the computer! I'm so smitten. And nerdy.
Tomorrow Carol comes over and pays me for all the paintings!! YESSS! There's six cat portraits and three dog ones. Bling. Way to send me to Ireland, my dear sweet client. Painting for a living is totally where it's at... for every short dry spell you have, there are three people running at you to give you money for doing something you'd do for free anyways.
Arbour Xmas party this weekend!! YAY! I'm making Black Bean Soup, and Jen's making guacamole, and Anne's making broccoli quiche.... not to mention the whole lot of us drinking ourselves silly and then working together the next morning. Jokes! I went in to Amy's Second Cup today to mooch some free coffee with Shane, and I was suddenly overjoyed that I don't work there anymore. All I can think of is the bleachy, espressoey, muddy mop water I had to use every night. *shudder* I'd rather clean up barf or poop rather than rotten gross unedible foodstuffs.. all I can think of is how horrible it'd be to have to eat it. Last night I gave the kitchen here a good scrub and almost yakked when I got rotten sink-food all over my pants.
Have I mentioned my kitty-shaped cookie cutter yet?? Tomorrow's plan is to make cat shaped cookies and give them to everyone I know that I'm too broke to get a present for. Hot Gareth is definitely getting a tin of kitty cookies when I go in to get some violin books.
Other things that are fun: I got such a neat sweater-coat thingy second-hand this week! It's all wooly and 70's and it's from Iceland! It's so neat and snugg. A really cutiepants guy named Antonio asked me out for tea this week too... updates to come! Oh updates!!
Love y'all.

2006-12-09T22:19:00.000-05:00

Oh shite. Facebook is fun and addictive. Pictures, messages, wall-writing, 'friends', pokes, updates, news, party invitations.... everytime I go to my facebook site someone's left me a bunch of fun junk. And I can post pictures of my paintings on there too! God.. hello computer addiction. Does anyone reading this have it too? I'm collecting 'friends'. Facebook me, a-hole.
Hahaha, that reminds me - Lilia at work was calling everyone a 'buttwipe' today and I almost spewed my juice everywhere everytime she did. Buttwipe... what a long-lost classic.
Smeh.. nothing much happening this weekend. I'm chained to my paintings because a bunch of them are due tomorrow. Everyone either has family stuff or exam studying to do tonight, so it's just as well... still, I'm feeling slacky after a full day of work, and I'm already tired of painting. Last Saturday's Heroes and Villains party kind of made up for it though! Holy hangover.
Hmm, what's new.. Effy and I had an x-travaganza on friday complete with delicious scone-age. Turns out you can get a whole jar of that Devonshire cream for only five bucks! A spoonful of it is enough to make you feel fatted-up.. if I had a jar of it it'd be armageddon. And Effs, how much do I love Starbux coffee now? It's so toasty and strong and delicious.. total caffeinated heartbeams. Why must you be so tasty?

Le sigh.. tomorrer's back to Arbour for another day of people barging around doing frantic xmas shopping. We made like ten times what we usually do on a regular non-christmasy saturday! Crazeh.

Gotta go paint kities. Mrow.

2006-12-06T21:50:00.000-05:00

Second last day at the Second Cup today... it went by supa-fast, and I'm finally feeling less sick. Hoorah! Some dumb highschool kid with a blowup doll was running around the place at lunch time pissing people off, and we were hating on him behind the counter when a guy came into the shop, gave the kid a mad shove and the dirtiest look I've ever seen and it totally freaked him out! We laughed our ass off and gave the guy free coffee.
More updates: three dog paintings done, and two cat paintings done. One more kitty to go, and I'm free. Hells yes. Also: everyone's been harassing me to join 'facebook', so's I did. Search my name and I'll pop right up. If anyone has any pictures of me on their compies, send 'em my way... ye olde facebook is looking pretty bare so far. Ghetto.
Did I mention that the Super Heroes and Villians party went down as one of the most fun parties ever? The house was packed and the kereoke was effing awesome. We got so drunk and danced all over the place. Hot guys to boot. Zorro answered the door.

Xmas craft updates to come! Fair-trade or home-made. Joy.

2006-12-04T12:57:00.000-05:00

Holy shit. So good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjpxXUNn39g

Have I mentioned that this song is actually responsible for my very existance? My dad heard it when he was a young man and decided that he should get married and have kids before too much time passes him by. Hence, there was me.

Also, Graham Nash is (was) yummy.

2006-12-04T11:28:00.000-05:00

heh heh.

2006-12-02T19:25:00.000-05:00

Ah, another long Arbour Saturday completed. Lovely dollahs, come to moi. Tonight's the Super Heroes and Villains party complete with kereoke and open mike!! Haha! I was going to be like, catwoman or something of that sort, but after a fruitless search for kitty ears, the only costume that I could throw together last minute was "Super FlowerPower Girl" or something. Basically, I have a flowered cape, flowers in my hair, a flower 'staff', flowers on my face and flowers just about everywhere else. Smeh... it'll be colourful. Jen was going to be a catwoman-esque figure with me, but at work today it occurred to us that she should just effing go as Rainbow Brite, since almost everything she owns is Rainbow coloured anyways. Rainbow Brite was kind of a superhero in a far-flung way, wasn't she? She was always kicking ass and fixing the world when it got all dirty and brown and colourless and stuff. Yeah, it counts. If I had more time, I would've tried to be She-Ra. C'mon! How awesome would that have been?? Ah, well.
So I don't think my December schedule is going to be nearly as horrendous as I thought it was going to be.. turns out they overbooked me by accident, so I wont be scrambling like a crazywoman anymore! Yay!
I had such a strange dream the other night. I dreamed that I was walking through my grandfather's garden, and it was summer, so it was in full bloom - carrots, peas, all that good stuff. And then I saw that there were huge, towering plants of some kind that I could barely recognize! They looked like they were 12 feet tall from my vantage point. Then, I saw my Grampie sitting in a porch-chair by the garden like he used to, and I was SO happy that he was alive again - it seemed like it had all just been a huge mistake, and I was so relieved! I couldn't wait to go tell mom. I asked my Grampa what the hell the big towering plants were, and he said that they were only corn. Then I realized that it wasn't the plants that were too tall, it was ME who was too SMALL! I was a little kid again, playing in grampa's garden like I always used to, a million times. I woke up feeling kind of sad again about grampa not being around anymore, and things being different with my family now, but in a way it was really neat because I kind of felt like I had really gone back in time for a little while, and had gotten to see him again. It was one of those really realistic dreams, too. I had such a neat childhood - I barely remember being afraid of anything, or worrying at all, or being sad for any length of time. Growing up in people's gardens has its perks.
Time to go flower up - tomorrow: mad partay updates!

2006-11-30T18:02:00.000-05:00

Holy poopins! Shenannigans outside of the cawfeeshop today - someone resisted arrest at the Royal Bank next door so they called four cop cars, a fire truck and an ambulence. Hahahaha! SO much commotion! My boss, Wally, dashed outside for jokes to see what was going on and brought us the news. It was all still going down when I left to go home and I heard some copper laughing about how all the siren lights were making it look all Christmasy. Also, this eccentric professor that I had for Celtic history classes at Ottawa U came in, and although he didn't recognize me of course, I had to stifle extreme laughter the entire time he was in, because not only did he make the scariest slurpy-sucky noises between sentences during lectures for some reason, but I'd also drawn cartoons of Merlin the wizard all over the last essay I'd handed into him, expecting him to yell at me for it... but it turned out that he loved them, and left comments of joy all over the paper. (Which was a shock to me, since the man appeared to have absolutely no sense of humour.) Then he sat down at a table with his tea and looked for all the world like a hobo. That's the funny thing... that scruffy guy sitting by himself with his tea at the coffeeshop you see all the time? He could be a filthy rich professor with four degrees or he could be a filthy vagrant who just hopped off a freight train that morning. You nevah know. Actually, it was a pretty funny day at the Shop... as I was counting my tips, this totally drunk 20-something guy came in (like, falling-over, can't speak properly drunk) and was like "Heyyy couldja make my latte like, kinda quick?? I gotta cab waitin' outside! Haha it's gonna cost me a fortune!!" So Sam hurries to get his latte all done, and what does he do? Forget all about his cab and sits down at a table to sip his latte for a while. Too much.

More funny: my roomate came into the living room last night to announce that he'd just done a bunch of acid. LOL! Things were okay until the Facts of Life came on the TV and he got freaked out by the "Tootie" character. Hahaha! Then he went to his room for a while. It sure did make me want to import some of those sweet, sweet chocolate shrooms from Montreal though... I need a magical little break from reality now and then.
Good news: the dog paintings are DONE! Ohhhhhh lordy!! They took SO LONG. Seriously, I'd get up, paint all morning, go to work, work all day, and then come home and paint until bedtime. GOD. I need to never see them again. I have all the cat paintings to do now, but thank the lord they're tiny. I'm so spent that I ended up making my body all run-down and sick. Screw that.. it's taking it easy and time-off in the near future for this Jennie.

Well... looks like it's just me and Amy's twenty episodes of Sex and the City tonight... gotta go figure out my Catwoman costume for the Heroes/Villains party this weekend. peace out.

2006-11-28T12:08:00.000-05:00

Dayim. I just got my December schedule from Arbour and it looks like I'm going to have precious few days off next month... Egad. With all these paintings to get done, plus doing all home-made Xmas presents this year, it's gonna be a busy month! Adding to the frustration, is the fact that I've spent SO MANY HOURS painting lately that I feel like I'm out of creative juice completely. I keep starting to paint, lasting five minutes, and getting frustrated. Stuff's turning out okay, but it's taking me forever because I need a damn break but can't afford one. Le sigh... at least I have some time off after Xmas. It'll all be worth it!
I got totally smasherooed at Mod Night this weekend. Oh god... yesterday was such a hangover blur. At least I had some time to paint and watch about 2000 episodes of Futurama. Next weekend I get to hang out with Jess and her lovely new KITTEN and then go to a SUPER-HEROES AND VILLAINS dress-up party that a girl I work with is having! Hee hee, it's gonna be silly. Oh! And speaking of kittens, I'm officially taking care of Jen's kitty GOLDIE SIMON for an entire week in December! He's big and orange and full of love.. I can't wait! Total kitty spoilage! I'm not even going to go out, I just want to stay at home and squish Goldie.
Ok, gotta go paint. Then go to work. Bleh.
Love and beans,
Jennie.

(beans???)

2006-11-23T13:49:00.000-05:00

Woot - I just quit at the Second Cup!! My boss said he was going to miss me. Heartbeams all around, but I'm glad to be LE GONE from that coffeeshop. The peoples are really okay.. it's just the job itself that gets me. Like... there's no recyling policy there. NONE. And they're all like "let's save the world! foster kids!!" but then they're totally *trashing* the world. With trash. Yep. Also, I had no idea how bitchy people could be until it was 8:00 a.m. and their latte was thirty seonds late. Not good for the soul, no sir. So I've got another week or two there, and then it's full time ahead at Arbour for all of December, followed by a sweet-arse Xmas break. Then it's back to the job hunt, I suppose. Maybe I can find a health food or art store or sompin that'll hire me.. or I could look for a "real" job, I guess... degree and all. Whatev, my main plan right now is to get my butt to Ireland this spring! Man the torpedoes.
Other news: I'm making soap today! Yay! It's an experiment. I got the 'recipe' out of a natural living book. I'll record my progress. Also, I'm reading the Da Vinci Code.. I know there's a lot of hype out there concerning it, but so far, I gotta say.. pretty good. The writing itself is really simple and direct (that could be taken in a good or bad way) but the author is effing creative as hell. My brain feels so happy when I read it.
TIME TO EAT HOMEMADE POUTINE! JOY! BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

2006-11-21T14:09:00.000-05:00

LOL! Ok, you asked for it.. I'm leaving to go back to Ottawa in half an hour, which gives me more than enough time to post 8-year-old Jennie's story about "Indian ghosts"...

here is a storey
(a ghost storey)

once thir was a girl named Dawn. who went to commonwelth public school. one day her best friend Ann (who also went to that school) asked Dawn to her birthday party. of corse Dawn said yes. 25 minutes later an indian girl (whos name was samantha) [LMAO!] asked Dawn to her party. it was on the same day and time as anns. but Dawn did not like samantha very much. so she went to anns. but samanthas ansestors were now ghosts. indian ghosts. and little did ann or Dawn know the school they went to was bilt where a indian camp used to be.
Chapter 2.
when Dawn told samantha that she does not like her and does not want to come samantha got mad. Il get you! she said. and when I do you will be sorry! and she ran off. that night Dawn had to stay after school doing some work. she had to stay a long time then it got dark. realy dark for some reason. it was only 4:30. must be a big storm comeing. when she turned to ask the teacher if she could go home the teacher wasent there. hmmm. she said. must be in the washroom. she went on with her work. then she herd a noise. booing, booing, booing. what was that? she wondered. must be the teacher. so she went back to her work. then she herd it again. but it was diffrent. hee-hee-hee. ha-ha-ha. hoo-hoo. Im getting outa here! she said. and ran out.
Chapter 3
Dawn was just about to run out the door when suddenly the sun came up. out of the clouds. the clouds dissapeard and a toad came out from under a rock and onto Dawns head. Dawn caut it and took it home. (she had a collection of toads and frogs) [As if I spelled 'collection' right.] when she got home she started to think about all the noises. that night she could not sleep thinking about the noises still. so she went downstairs to watch TV. and she grabed a box of oreos and some ice tea and went into the TV room and swiched to channel 3 where there was as how on about bears itw as 12:04 then she herd a noise grrrrr grrrr she hid under the blanket. then something jumped on her! it was her cat! you stupid cat! and they wached the show together.
Chapter 4. [ok... where are all the Indian ghosts??]
the next day Dawn came to school very tierd because she was up till 3:30. samantha gave Dawn a pack of gum! it was grape. samantha asked if she could eat lunch with her. Dawn said yes. after at ressese they played tag together with ann. after school ann Dawn and samantha played dolls. after they wached the little mermaid and samantha and dawn went to anns place for supper at school the next day they were all friends! they made a club and they were all friends.
The end.

Man.. it just starts off with the potential for so many 'indian ghost' spooks and 'ansestors' to scare the shit out of Dawn, but it never goes down except for some stupid sounds after school. What was I thinking? Incredibly, the scratch-and-sniff sticker on the front still smells minty.
Time for some VIA rail Ottawa shenanns...

2006-11-20T18:18:00.000-05:00

Here I am in Brockville.. and guess what I found - the rest of my elementary school 'journals'!! HAHAHA! So now, due to popular demand, are some more memorable entries.

wed sept 5 1990
we went to the hanted house in gaanoquay. it was so creepy I never went thir agian.
[included is a drawing of my family screaming]

[no date]
hobbes is my frend. he is a bear. i don't mean a stuffed anamal. he is real! and if you dont beleave me he will eat you

[no date]
me and hobbes are moveing out of my house and into the woods in my back yard tonite at 4:00 PM [exactly at four o'clock PM???]

[no date]
we are moveing to the Yukon. all my best frends are comeing
[accompanied by a drawing of me, my cat, three dinosaurs, and a bee with suitcases. Even the sun has a suitcase.]

[thursday (unreadable)]
when I get home i'm going to make some inventshuns.

[tues sept 25 1990]
I'm going to stay in a tent all winter

[wed sept 26 1990]
I think the end of the world is comeing this winter. [WTF??????]

[fri sept 30 1990]
I think I want to be a skunk

[mon oct 1 1990]
I invented a gun that terns you into a cat and Im going to tern my self into a cat

[thurs nov 9 1990]
my sister is babysitting my baby today [there's a rabbit sticker on this entry and I've drawn it smoking a cigarette.]

[1992 03 11]
we are going to have 2 short plays. jessica made puppet world. I'm the goose and Jessica is the count

[1992 03 23]
my cats fur is changing to white. he came along and got fur all over my pop-tart. I think he did it on purpose.

[1992 03 30]
me and Jessica are makeing comic books. we are going to make 100 00 00

[1992 04 06]
when I grow up I will walk to kingston. I will bring lots of food and gum

I remember other students having normal journals about their families and toys and shit.. my teachers must've thought I was a little messed up. There are all these comments that they've written after giving me a checkmark, such as "I don't think that the world is going to end this winter, Jennie" and stuff like that.
Hahaha oh shit I just found a story that I wrote!!!

[1992 4 13]
"The Vampire"
Michle [?] had a friend and the friend was a vampire. nobody new exept Michle the vampires name was allen. [hahaha 'allen'] allen was sitting in a tree outisde Michles apartmint bilding it was 8:30 allen flu over to Michles window tap-tap-tap! Michle came to the window and oped the curtens. allen! hi! he said what are you doing? allen asked. Im SO exsited! were going to the phantom of the opra! wow! said allen can I come? I dont know? wait the playes at night you could fly! its in kingston. well said the vampire. I could hide in your trunk! you know the trunk in your car! thats not all said Michle. were takeing the trane there. oh. well! said the vampire thats easy! I could sneek right in! yah! said Michle but what about your coffin? thats another storey.

There are six more chapters after that. Fuck! I had a longer attention span when I was eight than I do now. There's also a story about a "Indian ghosts" in here! Haha what was I thinking?? INDIAN ghosts??? There are pictures of teepees and arrows everywhere. There's another story about two girls in 'grade 9' who drive off a bridge and drown, but it turns out to be an April Fool's joke.
Alright, enough of my grade three writing accomplishments for one night. I had another weekend of pure debauchery and I'm so effing tired. 80's night at Barrymore's is so fun. I'm pooped, but it's really nice to be able to hang out with my mom all day - oh, and my Gramma bought me a pair of 'skinny jeans'! Aaaaa they look hilarious. Jimbo spoiled me rotten with this magical seafood pasta dinner that he brewed up out of thin air, too... damn, hanging out in B-ville for the day makes me happy. PS - I have such a horrible confession. I appear to actually like a new song out by a 15 year old pop-star named "Jojo." Pop music... such a guilty pleasure. Oh! One more new thing - Jess Rashotte's boyfriend Scott bought her a kitten! Eeeee! I'm going to make it homemade kitty treats and go have a visit tomorrow night! Pure joy.
More Brockville updates to come... PEACE OUT!

2006-11-16T11:27:00.001-05:00

Effing Second Cup. I got such a nasty burn there yesterday - no wait, make it three burns, all on the same spot. Dayim! First a coffee burn, then the espresso machine went apeshit and sprayed me, and then the crazy boiling-water-dispensing apparatus got me on the same spot. I said bad words. Speaking of bad words, funny things happened too: this super well-to-do stuffy lawyer guy who happens to be a regular came in and was like "Hey! Look at my shirt!" It read 'I'M A FUCKING GENIUS.' Um.... lol?? My bosses were so confused. I just laughed my ass off. But it gets better - he showed the guy behind him in line his shirt, who in turn, ended up walking out in a huff. Well, no shit.. he was a PRIEST! AAAA HA HA HA HA HAAAA!!!! Ohhhhh so funny. The lawyer with the obscene t-shirt told me that if I made him a nice latte then he'd make me famous. I tried my best.
I have to go back there for five hours again today. I just wanna skip and go see the Borat movie more than anything. Sometimes when I'm at work making drink after drink, my mind wanders and makes lists for fun. Here's one I came up with yesterday:

Top Three Reasons Why It's Cool To Ride A Bike: (besides the obvious.. no pollution, exercise and such.)
1. Cars have to slow down when they get to all those speedbumps you see all over town. (The signs call them speedHUMPS but we wont get started on that.) Bikes don't -if anything, speeding up before a speedbump makes it more fun. I love speedbumps.
2. If you're a girl, you're pretty much guaranteed to look hot on a bike. Think about it.. your legs are all flexed and extended, your bum looks all 'up' and great, and your hair's flying in the breeze... sassy. You can wear your pants tucked into your socks and a windbreaker while cycling in the pouring rain and still look like a babe.
3. Sometimes when I ride my bike I pretend that I'm driving a hovercraft.

Shit.. gotta go to work and make more lists.

2006-11-16T11:27:00.000-05:00

2006-11-14T11:30:00.000-05:00

Oh shit. Ell oh ell. So if you go to this site, it's supposed to let you see what your name looks like in Russian. But it doesn't do that. It does something else. I highly reccommend trying it.

http://www.callme.nm.ru/

2006-11-13T11:13:00.000-05:00

Mmm. A hardboiled egg is a thing of beauty. So much deliciousness all inside one tidy, bouncy, perfect package. I always eat the white part first and then save the lovely ball of yolk for last.

Aight! So much shenannigans in the last few days. I feel like such a hedonist. On Saturday, I came to work at nine o'clock to open as usual, with my co-worker Lilia. Upon opening the shop, we came to notice that business was verrrry slow. (It was rememberance day, but the Glebe is usually bustling regardless of the occasion..) We then got a call from Val, a lady who works during the week, that went something like this: "Do you guys know that it's totally illegal for you to be open right now? No non-essential services are allowed, by law, to be open until 12:30 on rememberance day... if a bylaw officer comes by (the Glebe is swarming with them) we're going to get slapped with a 5000 dollar fine!" We were like 'holy shit!' because the night before, our boss, Sean, had told us that it was hours as usual for rememberance day. WTF! We looked outside and there wasn't one single other shop open. Laaaame! So Sean freaked out and told us to turn off all the lights and split until 12:30. So there we were - still technically getting paid with three full hours to goof off until we had to return to work. We did what came naturally of course: went straight to the Wild Oat to get tea and watch all the gorgeous men who work there. Bless you, Arbour. While we were there, we ran into Lilia's mom and ended up going to Lilia's place and laughing our asses off at random shit on Youtube.com for the rest of the time. Jokes!! Best morning at work ever. Then that night was The Spades concert - woot! Ahhh they're so good! They have new material now too. Like.. mix old Tragically Hip with a 70's 'The Band' type thing and a little bit of folky country. It was so effing awesome and sexy. Then there was work again the next day and MOD NIGHT! My new favorite night of the week! Babylon is amazing. They played all sorts of old 60's Motown stuff and I danced my pants off. I went with roomate Amy, who wore her pink corduroy party pants and I got so shitfaced. AND I ran into a girl named Marissa (BCI folks'll know) who I haven't seen since OAC.. her hair used to be down to her bum but she's cut it all off into this really terminally hip hairstyle and she looked so different that it took me a minute to recognize her. I get such a kick out of seeing high school peeps at random places. Speaking of high school, Amy and I decided to get all grade-10 again and steal some traffic pylons on the way home. Oh god.. it was jokes. We brought them into the living room and made little gift tags to put on them for our other roomates - hahahaha they say "here is a present for you, Paul! Love Jen andAmy!" They must've been like "what the hell" this morning! Hee hee. Ahhh, they'll end up back outside at some point. Something else magical happened last night too - we went to an Irish pub on Bank before going to Babylon, and the bartender came over to our table and asked if I was Irish. Is there a flashion neon sign that says IRISH on my forehead that I'm not aware of? I said yes, and it turns out that he's actually from County Cork in Ireland. I told him that I was going there in the spring if all pans out, and he got all happy and told me that if I come by during the week he'll lend me a sweet Ireland travel book - haha he had such a great accent. Random.
Yesterday was just interesting all around. While I was working at the shop, this girl named Julia who I went to classes in University with but never really got to know farther than an aquaintance dropped in and was really really chatty with me. Turns out that she lives a few blocks away from me and sees me all over the place, but I'm always on the other side of the street or going to work or something. Out of nowhere, she said that she'd love to hang out with me and so we exchanged emails. She always seemed like such a shy type, and it was funny that we never really spoke at school, but that she was so into being friends now, out of the blue. Then I got an email from her this morning, basically saying that she'd very recently broken up with her long-term boyfrind (happily for her, but not so happily for him, I guess) after a long, long shitty battle of a time, and moved out. She knew that I'd gone through something like that a few years ago with Max, and really wants to get toghether to talk with me. I actually found it a little bit moving, that she'd reach out to me like that. It makes me feel less disconnected to people in general.. there's so much to argue about, but there are so many feelings, fears, obstacles that almost everyone has in common.
Today's my day off! I'm going to run amok and do errands and then make some french soup called Soupe Au Pistou with Laura. Ooooh la la! We're going to get wine and a baguette and candles and pretend we're in Paris.
This week: more painting. Coffeeshop. Trying to find a way to make tofu taste good. (turns out that my 'healthy' diet is severely lacking in protein. Snap.)
Peace!

2006-11-10T11:34:00.000-05:00

Mmmmmmm. Cat Stevens a la mid-1970s is the epitome of hot.

http://www.jimmccrary.com/pages/page5/images/02cat.jpg

Yummy. Well, since I can't post actual pictures on here because of having to steal my roomate's computers all the time, all I can do is post links. Here's another one!

http://www.jimmccrary.com/pages/page5/pages/03cat.htm

Awwww, Cat Stevens!! Stop being so dreamy and awesome. Before I was born. Dammit. Anyways, dread update: they failed. Yes, it's true.. well, I made them fail, I guess. The upkeep was disasterously time consuming and my extremely whispy white-girl hair made it all the harder to maintain. Disappointing... but oh well, I guess it's just hair. I ended up taking them all out one by one last night, and it took almost twice as long to get them out as it did to put them in, and I think I did a real number on my hair... getting the knots out was horrendous. Not to mention the beeswax - I just washed it three times and it's still stiff with the stuff. Eeek. While I was removing them paintstakingly hair by hair last night, I started thinking though... had I really just put dreads in so I could stand out and feel more 'special'? Sometimes you do things with subconscious motives. I don't feel like I should have to have crazy hair or something like that to feel like an interesting person. Maybe it's better that they didn't work out - a girl has to feel worthy in her own skin without the need for embellishments. I should learn to appreciate what makes me 'me' naturally before I run out and try to change myself all the time. Beeswax removal updates to come! Oh, lol.
Other things: I worked all week, but it was a fun sort of week. God, I was so sick on sunday and monday that it felt like I'd won the lottery just to be outside and feeling better by tuesday. I've started the second dog-portrait painting, and Carol stopped by and said that the first one was effing faboo and to keep going with it. Sweet! On wednesday, Jess and I went out to Kereoke at the Well and one drink turned into too many. Fun times though! An adorable shaggy french guy tried so shyly to flirt with me all night - he ended up getting pretty drunk though, and ended up just hugging me at the end of the evening saying 'you're magical!' Hahahaha!! Work was pretty rough the next day, but free coffee (or lattes or espresso or cappuccinos)in the workplace is definitely an advantage. Which brings me up to today - a fantastico day off. Too bad my head hurts so much from ripping all my hair out. I'm going to work on doggy painting #2, go-a-shopping at the Natural Food Pantry, and then maybe get myself a wee present from the Quicha (sp?) fair-trade pretty-stuff store on Sparks. What's one more colourful scarf to add to the collection?
Here's a wierd update though: I'm actually starting to enjoy my job at the Second Cup. I mean... I had FUN there this week. I think it's because I know how to do everything so easily and fast now - as though I was born instinctually knowing how to made a vanilla bean latte. And dammit, I make them so well. The hilarious girl from Taiwan (the "You might notice I have a big head!" one) who I always work with was so wound up yesterday that she kept grabbing my bottom and saying "Oh! So firm!" and singing (insert random recognizable tune here) "BUM! BUM BUM BUM BUMMM!!" whenever one of the hobo fellows who hangs around came in to try and score something for free. I actually think I might miss that place when I'm gone. The sight of a toonie in the tip bowl sends my heart on a screaming joyride.
Tonight I'm going to stay in and make sock puppets or something, but tomorrow night the Spades are coming to town and there will be much rejoicing. Much hoorahs.
One more link before I go: I found this on youtube. I think everyone should watch it every morning when they get up. Just TRY not laugh. Turn the sound way up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjCpT8NbmME

2006-11-06T23:18:00.000-05:00

Shaner and I are having pints and watching this hilarious show from the early 90's called "Living Single" and it's making me LAFF so much!! It's about these four sassy, sassy black ladies who are living the single life and being hilarious. Oh, and it stars Queen Latifah! I'm laughing so hard right now! They're all so bitchy! Eeee hee hee!!! So sassy!!!
It's day four of my great dread experiment, and all is well. A total stranger at Bridgehead today told me that they were beautiful! They feel so natural :D Wheeeee! I'll add dread updates to my blogs, so if they stay awesome or get fuzzy and shitty and need more work, I'll keep a record.
Today I went out with Laura while she was delivering resumes to restaurants, and then we went out for tea n' cookies. After, the lady I'm doing the dog paintings for came by for a meeting so she could see the finished product - she loved it!! Woot! I'm trying to finish her stuff before December, so I can start on some l'il presenties of my own.
It's doobie time.

2006-11-05T13:54:00.000-05:00

Update relevant to last blog entry! Jess and I put my dreads in and they look quite fabulous. Hoorah! They're long and pretty :D They'll be a bit difficult to get used to I think.. I feel like I'm getting a lot of stares when I'm out, but that's the way you feel whenever you have something new attached to you that's a little out of the ordinary. I remember when I was something like sixteen, and got my nose pierced I felt like everyone was staring at me for weeks afterwards every time I went out, but now I almost forget that it's there. Today I've got the ol' dreads in two braids and it looks pretty neat! I wish I had a picture to post.. but in the meantime, if you want a visual, they're about the same size and length as the girl's in this random picture that i came across on the 'net.

http://dreadlocks.hypermart.net/dreadlocks_pictures.jpg

Actually, apart from mine being brown, they do look a lot like those ones. Woot! I put flowers in them for work yesterday and they were a big hit with the Arbour ladies. I really love them... why didn't I do them so long ago???
Ahhh... I'm off sick from work today, which is bad because I'm losing funds, but good because I feel quite le horrible and definitely need a day on the couch. Shane's making some art project out of big pieces of fabric and I'm having soup and tea.
New roomate Mike is going to the Bob Dylan concert tonight. Dammit... envious. Time to go be slothful.

2006-11-04T20:05:00.000-05:00

Early morning post! It's only 9, and I've already been up for a while to finish the doggy painting. Ah... c'est fini. Only two more to go... d'oh. Oh well, time for a break though! It's such a gorgeous day outside! There are smashed-up pumpkins all over my street right now.. it's a feast for squirrels out there. I hope y'all had a joyful hallowe'en! I know I did. It involved Montreal, all-night partying and substance abuse of three different varieties. lol! Ah... Montreal is awesome. How happy was I to see Sarah again??? Stupid summer being so fun and busy.. there's bound to be another MTL x-travaganza before xmas fo sho. For when Sarah reads my blog: **LOVE** and thanks for having me up!!!!! :D :D :D I love how we tried to go out and explore the neighbourhood the next day after Hallowe'en but just.... couldn't. Hahahaha, worst hangover ever.
More news! A girl at the Second Cup gave away a brownie to her boyfriend yesterday (as we're generally allowed to give reasonable freebies to friends and loved ones) and the boss YELLED at her that she was gonna get fired, and then cut her shifts in half permanently! wtf! Remind me to be an angel at work from now on. Holy shit. S'aight though... one more month at this job and then I'm outie. Joy.
Yet more news! You'll never guess what I'm going to do to my hair. Is it more henna? Perhaps a fancy haircut? Shall I go Picard-styles? NON! None of the above! I'm going to put my hair in pretty pretty DREADS!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!! I've always wanted to do that, and now I finally have the balls. There's already about six in there that I did as an experiment, and they still look rad after a week. Sweeeet. I'm going to do the rest of them up today. Ahh pure love! I feel so happy about them! Why didn't I do this years ago? If I can find a way, I'll post a picture. I'm going to brew up a pot of tea, put on some tunes and just giv'er on my hair today.. it takes about three hours, but it's worth it. I might have to get Miss Rashotte to do the back though, to guarantee that it's not uneven and botched up tho.

AIGHT! Time to go start my awesome day off. TA!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-10-29T20:53:00.000-05:00

UPDATES, YO!

I'm chilling out with the roomates right now watching the end of "Mr.Deeds" because Shane found a TV in someone's garbage and now it's ours. JOKES! Also, I'm in the middle of painting a huge kickass dog painting for that Carol Woman. It's coming out really well, which is once again proving my theory that a few glasses of wine seems to improve my painting ability. Mysterioso. Super awesome: if all goes as well, this commission is going to be financing a huge chunk of my Ireland trip!!! GORGE!
Fun! And repulsiveness: on friday night, we went to the 'celebrity' costume contest at the Hallowe'en x-travaganza at Capital Music Hall. I went as an extremely wretched and skanky Xtina Aguilera, hoping to win the grand prize of dinner for SIX at Fat Tuesday's. I totally went all out - Amy and I watched the video for "Dirty" about six times, taking notes for outfit details, such as the word 'nasty' on the butt of the kilt, gross makeup, children's red tights worn as a shirt, hooker boots.. I went all out. It took me three hours just to get ready, I wanted to win that sweet, sweet prize so bad. So I went out and skank-danced and acted the part all night, only to win to some girl dressed up like Tom Cruise. Smehh?? Damn. Well, it was still fun, AND I won a runner-up prize.. that's right. A pair of BonCopBadCop brand novelty handcuffs. LOL! Anyways, as disappointing as it was not to win, I did get a horrible photograph of myself posted on the internet. Oh god.

http://www.barshots.ca/default.php?city=Ottawa

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Ohhhhhhhh shit. I love Hallowe'en. Check out my hair though, isn't that sweet? I braided all that blond in myself. Stupid Tom Cruise.

Friday was also Scone day with Effs! Mmmmm Vanilla sconeage with cream. I'm thinking that we need to start a weekly Sconetravaganza. More fun - Tuesday = Sarah and MTL!! So x-cited! So many updates to come.
Looks like we're going to watch a movie called "Wicker Man" now. Pace.

2006-10-26T10:03:00.000-04:00

Ohhhhhhh sheeyit. The last molar on the left side of my lower jaw just BROKE. Yep. It broke. In half. Apparently the filling that I'd had back there since I was a little kid fell out at some point, and half of my toofer couldn't take the loss and decided to just crack right off. WTF! There's a nice big hole back there now. Shit! I don't even know where the tooth chunk went either.. I must've eaten it?? Tears! Here's the wierdest part though - it doesn't hurt. There's a big hole right down to my gums and there's no pain. So strange! Anyways, I think the tooth is probably done for, so I'm going to get the whole thing yoinked next week. It doesn't really do anything anyways, all the way back there. There's the possibility of getting it built back up with some fake-toofer material, but it'd cost a fortune compared with just getting it taken out and not having to worry about it anymore. (If it'd been one of my front ones though.. different story!!!)
Anyways, enough about that horribleness. I had a meeting with the woman that I'm doing all the dog portraits for yesterday and she's soooooo kickass! (Her name's Carol) She's 55 but looks 35. Amazing! She's a pilates instructor and her dog Robin is a Wheaton terrier, and you just hafta love it. It's medium sized and all peachy coloured with a McDuff beard and can do all kinds of tricks. We went out to get all the materials yesterday and she was so cute an excited. I started one of the portraits last night, and so far I'm really pleased with it. She's going to pay me many a dollar too, which will benefit my Ireland fund. Coool beaners.
This Saturday it's that hilarious 'dress like a celebrity' Hallowe'en shindig at the Capital Music Hall, where I shall showcase my SCANDALOUS Xtina costume. Hey, it's Hallowe'en and she's scary as hell, so I'm all for it. I'm not sure whether to be Xtina for the actual Hallowe'en in Montreal, or to think up something different. I still kinda want to be a kitty.
Whellll, today I work all afternoon, and then I'm going to pick up some costume thingies. Then on Friday, it's SCONE O RAMA with Eff!! That night isn't going to be fun, though.. Caroline's coming over and Kirsten, the one who got stuck with all the unpaid phone bills in her name because of her, is going to rip her a new one. She's furious. And I'm scared to be there! There's going to be tears. From Caroline. I've never seen someone as ragey as Kirsten in my entire life. Eeek!
Alright, time to do some le painting before work. Everyone wish me luck on my rotten toof. Dammit.

2006-10-24T01:09:00.000-04:00

I just got back from the 2nd cup. Effing night shift. We hates it! My hands are so burnt and dirty and dry they're turning to dust. They're also very orange because last night, Jen and Lilia from work and meself had a henna-party! Henna for hair, though. I put more red in mine, Lilia put strawberry into her blond, and Jen turned her blond hair like.. black. Jokes. Then we smoked a joint and painted on the walls, and it was sooooooo grood.
MTL hallowe'en is confirmed! Also, this Saturday, Laura and I are going to some bar where you have to dress up like your favorite celeb or some shit.. so I'm going to be Xtina Aguilera. HAHAHA! Like, the DAAARTAY version! Not new and classy. C'bon.
Oh wait, I just remembered something actually good about work tonight. Someone left this super-awesome orangey suede 70s jacket all abandoned weeks ago, and it fits me perfectly so now it's mine :D But it makes me wish that I hadn't henna-ed my hair again though because it's precisely the same colour and looks silly together.
SNAP!

pace!

2006-10-23T15:30:00.000-04:00

Wheee! So much to blog about, and so little time before work. I'm going to have to condense this biznass.

First off, the new dinosaur exhibit at the Museum of Nature was LE KICK ASS. Homg. So good. Fossilized crab! Gigantic ancient sea turtle that could've fit about five of me within its ribcage! Carnivores! Pleseosaurs! That one with the big crest that goes 'honk'! It was effing amazing. I think I spent two hours at the dinosaur exhibit alone, reading everything and being astounded. Also, the curators were hanging around and told me that they liked my "talk nerdy to me" t-shirt. Jokes. There was also a really rad Albert Einstein travelling exhibit that happened to be there for the opening too, which was huge and so fascinating. I wish I could borrow his brain for about an hour so I could understand the mysteries of the universe.
Update #2 - party at the apartment last friday was hilarious and awesome. Matty got here at 8, and I'd done up tons of food and nibblins and made a very boozy mango-punch, set up candles, pretty lights, the whole bit... and we ended up sitting there for like three hours drinking by ourselves, being like 'boo we have no friends'. That is, until the clock struck 10:30 and HOARDS of people filed in! Hahaha it was unbelievable. So many drunken people in my house at once. Robin's friends all came too, so I barely knew half the people there. I'd busted my record player out for the occasion to ensure sweet tunes, and there was so much dancing and joints and randomness. Swheet. The last group of people left at about four, and then I had to get up at eight to work at Arbour the next day. It was funny though, because everyone I was working with that day had been to the party the night before, and we were ALL so hungover and exhausted! There was no work done that Saturday. I crash-ed at 8 that night.
Other news o' fun - I'm 1/4 of the way to my Ireland total! I just got another job too, painting a triptych of this lady's terrier for her husband's Christmas present. The bux from that'll be added to the can too, which'll give it a rad boost. By Xmas I should be about half way there, and by spring I should hopefully have enough pennies saved to loot the Emerald Isle. The job with the Green Party is finally over too, and not a moment too soon - I don't think I'll be working for them again. *swear word of exasperation*

Time to go work at the Second Cup all night, eating everything in the pastry counter.

2006-10-13T23:34:00.000-04:00

AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!!!

Ok, I'm blogging for the third time today, but it's not because I'm a nerd, it's because I'm sick and have nothing to entertain myself with right now. (It's all the dinosaur and astronomy books that qualify me as a nerd.) Everyone stop whatever they're doing and read this article from Vice magazine. Kids effing rock. I want like, four, right now. They're so funny.

http://www.viceland.com/int/v13n9/htdocs/toys.php?country=ca

If I have kids someday, it'll probably just be for my own amusement. Kids' random chatter entertains me for hours. This article is all about three kids comparing old-school toys with their contemporary counterparts. Was I this funny when I was 9?

2006-10-13T22:32:00.000-04:00

There's a picture of my rear on the internet!

http://www.sixonethreemedia.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=29&pos=3

Well, it's not my butt really, but it's a picture someone took during critical mass (crazy people riding hundreds of bicycles through town every month for jokes) last month. I'm the one wearing the green sweater and peach scarf on the left, and Shane is beside me in the grey coat. I'm so... famous.

I'm not so cranky anymore about my little dispute with my GP employers - I guess crap like that just goes down sometimes when you're working with art n' junk. Sheeyat happens.

There's a picture on cuteoverload.com of a cat driving a truck that fills me with joy.

2006-10-13T15:39:00.000-04:00

reeeeeeeer.

The Green Party may be environmental, but they're not being very friendly. I Just gave them 200 cards of the 300 that I'm set to do, and I get this email about how they'd 'rather have a different kind of paper.' Great. I just spent DAYS doing these, which are on 100% post-consumer paper, like I was supposta, but they want a 'fuzzier' paper. F-word. It really blows to spend all your time off working on something only to have it all be pretty much obsolete and you basically have to start over.. especially when I'm broke and they haven't even paid me for the first job I had with them yet. I swear, if I didn't need this money so badly, I'd tell them to shove it all up their smug keisters.

Anyways... lighter notes. Happy birthday to Jessypants!! :D Woot to the 2-4!!! There've been birthays all around lately. Hallowe'en's coming up soon too, which totally rules. There should definitely be multiple hallowe'ens a year. Oh yeah, and today's Friday the 13th! Haha, jokes. Actually I feel really sickly-gross today.. spooooky bad-luuuck day!!! Ooooooo!!
My roomate just came in with his friend and they're getting hammered on beer at 3:44 in the afternoon. Heehee. Sketchy.
If anyone's going to comment, leave me happy-sunshine-joy remarks .. I'm so peeved right now.

2006-10-10T23:33:00.000-04:00

I had such an interesting experience the other day. I had the night off, and it was really warm outside for October, so I threw on a sweater, grabbed a music magazine and a fizzy drink of sorts, and headed down to read by the canal. The sun was just setting, so I nestled myself under a street lamp in a pile of leaves and read until it was dark. I was really into the magazine, and almost didn't notice that the sun had already set until I looked up and noticed that the only light was coming from street lamps and lit windows, and all at once it seemed so breezy and magical, with leaves swirling all over the place, and nice fall smells. All of a sudden I felt precisely like I was about eight years old again, on one of those really awesome temperate fall nights that are warm but crisp, and your nose is cold but the rest of you isn't because your parents made you wear two sweaters, and you've just been running around and jumping through leaves because something about the night air in the fall gets you really wound up.. and suddenly you look up because your mom is calling to tell you that you only have another ten minutes before you have to come in and get into your jammies because it's getting late. But you don't want to go in because the wind feels so nice in your hair and you can run around forever without getting tired or sweaty, and there's something about blustery fall nights that makes you really excited. I'm not sure if there's a word for the way it feels to be eight years old on a mysterious fall night at dusk, but I wish there was, so I could describe it.
After I had my fun in the leaves by the canal, I walked home and called my Gramma to see how she's been doing - it might sound bad, but I was almost hesitant to call, because hearing her sounding sad makes ME so sad. Mind you, it's not like I wouldn't call, it's just hard.. even though she's doing as well as can be expected. Then after I called my Dad because I hadn't talked to him in a while, and he told me that he was sending my mom and Gramma sympathy cards, which I personally think is a really great thing for him to do, considering that he hasn't even talked to either of those people in a long time. Then we talked about music and records and Judy Collins and stuff like that for a long time and it made me really want to go visit him. Another October project!
It's pretty late right now, and I was hoping that I'd have another Somerset apartment spook tale to post, but so far nothing more! Lame! I want my closet to be more haunted. Hee hee.
Other things of note: Vice magazine cracks me up SO MUCH. On my next post I'm going to link to a few things from Vice online that made me curl up with laughter. Oh, and I booked off Hallowe'en at the Second Cup to see if I can split to MTL!!!!! FUN TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope I get it off! Hallowe'en with Sarah and Josh and all the other MTL lovelies would be beyond compare.

Ok.. does anyone else just allow their brain to go and think and think and come to ridiculous conclusions that are obviously bogus? Yesterday, through a runaway train of thought, I came to the conclusion that nobody will probably ever want to marry me because I'm too wierd. It seemed so true at the time, and then I was like "wtf am I thinking??" Now it seems pretty unreasonable, even logistically speaking. Streams of consciousness veer into strange directions.

I have this dumb song in my head.. the one that goes "KemosaBE! Jump onnIT! Jump onnIT!" lol! This post is quickly becoming intelligible!

Everyone wish me luck on getting Hallowe'en off! Updates to come on card makin' (150 down, 150 to go, and another job after this one), Hallowe'ening, and favorite Vice magazine links!!!
*LOVE*

2006-10-07T20:10:00.000-04:00

I can feel a random post coming on.

I am so. Effing. Hungover. Beats n' Eats didn't really happen - Jess and I showed up there and the Mercury Lounge was already full to capacity, so they were like 'oh, you'll miss the music, but we can bring the eats part down to you if you wanna sit and have drinks at the Collection downstairs.' So, that's what we did, but they totally forgot about us. Mind you, all was not lost: WHO was the bartender at the Collection, but Julia, the 'boss' that Jess and I had at the Promised Land! Haha, Jess is like "WTF" right now. She's back from T.O. and gave us many a free martini. Oui oui. Then we danced and got TRASH-ED. I rode my bicycle home last night at four in the morning in a floor-length skirt, and smashed into the wall of the new pedestrian bridge at full-speed when I took a corner too wide. I actually remember saying "fuck it" and laughing as I started pedaling again. When my alarm went off this morning I thought I was gonna die! Nine hours at work, with two new girls to train... fugg. The real sad part though is that Shane's old roomate Gareth, who happens to be devistatingly attractive, is making us some fancy curry dish at his place right now, and I have to miss out on all the action because I'm too effing depleted to make the bike journey to Hull. Smoh well.
Hahaha - hilariousness at work today though.. Jen and I were ringing a sale through and bagging it up when this horrendously gorgeous guy walked by the window with his shirt off - we both stopped what we were doing and just STARED without realizing what we were doing. The guy thought it was awesome and laughed at us. I was just reading Effy's blog about being horny all the time, and let me tell you girl, I feel your pain.. maybe it's just some biological clock of mine, but it seems as though there've been a huge amount of hot guys around lately, and I want to put them in my bicycle basket and take them home. DAYIM.

Horrible confession: That Maneater song by Nelly Furtado came on last night when I was out and I got really excited and busted a move to it. And I told some random guy who was hitting on me that I was a paleontologist. LOLZ.

Ughay! I'm going to go try to cram some food in my tired face. Au revoir!

2006-10-05T10:21:00.000-04:00

I had no idea that my 'journal' from grade two was going to be such a success! Here are some more random entries:

1991/10/02
these are intersting bugs [with pictures of a slug, 'caterpiller', ant and snail]

1991/09/08
for my birthday last year i got a play dough bakry set from rachle. yesterday rachel came over but it was only wite and blue play dough yuck nintendo [???]

1991/09/13
Today is Friday the 13th don't think about ghosts

1991/11/25
[this is the entry where we had to write a letter to our desk partner]
Dear amanda,
It is report card day. when it is ressese, do you want to go and snuggle agenst the side of the fence? and talk and eat too? have a nice day!
from jennie

1991/11/18
this is my mine viddio game It beeps late at night!

1991novem
i like vampiers I think my cat has a girlfriend

hahaha WTF. I have about four more of these at home stretching from grade one to grade four.
Well, I'm back in O-town after the funeral and wake extravaganza that was the weekend. Being at home is great for a couple of days but I usually can't wait to get back to eating how I want to eat and getting coffee at places that aren't Timmy Ho's. It looks like my fam wont really be doing the Thanksgiving thing this year since it's usually at my grandparent's place and.. well, it might be kind of hard to pull off with everything that's gone down, even if Jimbo and Momz had it and their place. But since we were all crammed together for the last four days we figure that we've covered the family-time thing pretty well. Shaner's not going home for Thanksgiving either, so we're going to make some sort of hilarious feast here at my place - so here's a special announcement! Anyone who'll be in the O-town area and isn't going to be having TurkeyDay with the fam, c'mon over to Chez Jennie and let chefs Stratton and Norris whip you up a random Thanksgiving treat! We're pretty much going to adopt any stragglers that we know of and stuff them. Also, there will be beer. And, as a special note, once at the Sally Ann, we found this sweet old cookbook from 1899 called the "White House Cookbook" that was published by all these ex-presidental wives on how to cook sweet meals suitable for the president, so we're probably going to get our recipes out of there. It's funny shit though, because it's so old - check this out!

"To Keep Meat From Flies"
Put in sacks, with enough straw around it so the flies cannot reach through. [Oh yeah, I'll just go out and get some straw from my barn.] Three-fourths of a yard of yard-wide muslin is the right size for the sack. Tie it tightly and hang it in a cool, dry place. [Thank GOD for refrigerators]

"Carving"
Carving is one important aquisition in the routine of daily living, and we should try to attain a knowledge or ability to do it well, and withal gracefully.
[Sorry, I forgot to take Carving 101 in University. Guess I'm riff-raff.]

Oh, but here's the best part!! This is the menu that the el Presedente would've had in 1899 on Christmas Day. Effing SIGN ME UP!

Oysters on Half Shell, Game Soup, Boiled White Fish, Sauce Maitre d'Hotel, Roast Goose, Apple Sauce, Boiled Potatoes, Mashed Turnips, Creamed Parsnips, Stewed Onions, Boiled Rice, Lobster Salad, Canvas Back Duck, Christmas Plum Pudding, Mine Pie, Orange Jelly, Delicate Cake, Salted Almonds, Confectionary, Fruits, Coffee.

Holy shit. Why are there like four different kinds of meat? Anyways, the book is huge and constantly hilarious from our 2006 point of view.
Now I get to go make lattes. But tomorrow, Jess R and I are going to something called "World Beats and Eats" where you listen to world music and then eat the nibbles that accompanies it. Word! That sounds like my kind of friday night. Peace out, suckas.

2006-10-03T19:23:00.000-04:00

I just found my old 'journal' from when I was seven, and I'm going to reproduce it, word for word, on my blog. Get ready to be astounded.

09/03/1991
dinosaurs are my favorite animals. my very favoite dinosaurs are tironosaurus rex.

09/05/1991
This is a tiger.

09/06/1991
My frend Rachel on her birthday she is going to get a kitten or two only she has to pay for the kitten the catfood and the cat toys

09/13/1991
Tonight I am going to have a party in my bed and look for ghosts

09/25/1991
This is outerspace

09/27/1991
when I grow up I will bild this car and it will be mine it will go 10000 mph. It will run on water.

10/16/1991
Im not very good at marbles. I brang 5 to school today and lost 3 games now I only have 2 left.

[no date]
halloween is getting closer. Im going to be a vampier. Leighs going to be my dog

FriNovember 1991
I swiched desks yesterday. I like this spot better. because when we have to go to the carpet all I have to do is turn around

Mondaynovember11th1991
I finaly won a marble

[no date]
this is the last page in my Journal.

LOL
Little kid me rules.

2006-10-02T22:43:00.000-04:00

Note: If you haven't read the post underneath this one yet, then this new one will make no sense! Read the othah one foist.

So today was my G-pa's wake, and might I just say, "holy shit" at the fact that there were probably upwards of FOUR HUNDRED people who filed through there in four hours. Maybe there was much more.. I could hardly believe it. It was actually super, super cool. I had to meet everyone who filed through, from G-pa's friends, to my thousands of cousins (the man had nine siblings) to people Grampa worked with, hung out with, visited with G-ma.... I guess when you live in the same place for 72 years you get to know everybody. It made me feel really happy though - hundreds of people! Imagine! That man was well loved. It was like a president had died or something and the whole city was slowly filing through to pay their respects. Not a dry eye in the house.
Also, just for the record, there was a picture of G-pa at a party about two decades ago, totally smashed, and pouring a nasty-looking mixed drink with two smokes in his mouth at once. LOLs all around! Also cool, is the fact that people who'd grown up with mom saw me in the wake-meeting-line-thing and their eyes popped out of their head because they were all like "SNAP YOU LOOK LIKE YOUR MAWM WHEN SHE WAS YOUNGAH!" about a million times. It's cuz we have the same colour hair and we're the same height and .. well, my face looks just like mom's from back in the day. Neato. Also I look a lot like my G-pa's mom, who was apparently aborginal? That was news to me too.
K, mom's kicking me off the computer now. I guess there'll be funeral updates to come, but I'm not feeling sad - no, I'm feeling really happy tonight! I can't wait to get back to Otown and see all my friends and call all the ones who're out of town. I miss Shaner too. Love ya all!! :D

2006-10-01T20:45:00.000-04:00

Hey folkies! Greetings from Brockville. Well, as some of you may or may not have heard, I'm not exactly in B-ville for a thrilling occasion.. yesterday morning when I was at work, my mom called me at Arbour to tell me that my Grampa had died :( It was pretty sad. I got kind of blubbery in front of customers. Luckily, since I'm kind of a demi-boss there and because the owner (Sean) just happened to be in delivering rainbarrels that morning, I got permission to leave and to skip work today, too - also, the Second Cup gave me tuesday off, because that's when the wake is. The funeral's tomorrow. I know that probably all of you can understand this perfectly well, but boy, is it ever surreal to have someone who's been around for your entire life suddenly just not be there anymore. It's actually difficult for my brain to grasp the concept of my vivacious technicolour grandmother without my quiet, calm, buddha of a grandfather. Grampa was 72, and had a really good life, lived on his own terms. He was from the country, like my grandmother and there are countless hilarious pictures from the 50s and 60s of him leaning against his favorite car, smoke in mouth, sunglasses on, and the whole bit. It's funny to see him in those old pictures, looking every bit the party animal and suave lady's man, with the contrast of the stoic peacefulness that exuded from him in his later years. It's hard to feel sad for someone who's lived a long full life - mostly I just feel sad for my grandmother who has to get used to life without him after over 45 years of marriage. If anyone can do it with flying colours though, it's my granny. Even today, she had her nicest sweater on, sassy makeup and everything, ready to give it her best and hang out with the family. I wonder what it must be like for her, being alone for the first time in the house that she'd lived with my grandfather since she was eighteen, where she'd raised her kids, and lived all those years. She's only 67, and healthy so I know she's got a ton of good time left.. I kind of hope that she adopts a nice dog, redecorates the place a little, and just gives'er. I'm really happy that my grandparents had almost half a century of adventures, good times, memories, and hilarity. Sometimes when I get uber-cynical about marriage and long-term relationships, particularly because my parents' sort of crashed and burned, (not that I disagree with their separation of course) I think of my grandparents, and of all the pictures of them through the years being so happy with eachother, and I kind of change my mind a little bit. I think what made their relationship work so well was the freedom that they gave eachother, and respect. They're both very different people, but somehow they worked with eachother's strengths, and made life easier and fun. There are so many photographs, both old and recent of the two of them in random places laughing together.. there's even one from just a few years ago with my grampa's hand right up my grandmother's skirt whilst riding a TROLLEY somewhere no less! I almost spewed my tea laughing when I saw that one today. Anyways, wherever my grampa is, I want to thank him for making my gramma so happy, and for giving me such an awesome mom. I hope that in time, I inherit a little bit of his serenity and charm.
In other news, my mom bought me a shirt that says "talk nerdy to me" today, and I fully plan to wear it to the re-opening of the Dinosaur exhibit at the natural history museum in ottawa on the 14th! Apparently, Shane's going to shake off his nerd-jokes for the morning and go with me - actually, I'm really impressed with him right now. Yesterday when I had a few hours between getting off of work and heading home to B-ville, Shaner hung out with me the whole time, even though I was kinda sad, and cheered me up a lot with Bridgehead coffee snacks and an awesome walk along the canal. Woot to that sheeyat. Also, woot to having youtube.com at my disposal right now.. Leigh and I are having constant dance parties as a result of the fully downloadable random music videos on that site. XD HAHAHA omg Sean Paul makes me laff SO MUCH!
Time to go raid my mawm's gorgeous eats. I'll be back in o-town on tuesday night or wednesday morning, so give me a holla, and I fully expect to go out for a random boozy night this weekend.
Peace OOT!

2006-09-29T22:37:00.000-04:00

Ah... a friday eve blog post, from my comfy l'il living room with the tiniest cutest l'il roomie's laptop in the world.
Updates! Okay. No more spook activity in the apartment since the last post. That's good. Speaking of activity though, I had an amazing Shawarma plate for dinner last night, and here I am 24 hours later with a stomach ache that I've had ever since. It's the same violent stomach ache, only it keeps moving around. It huurts. It didn't stop me from going to Critical Mass tonight though - what bicycle fun was had! There were about a hundred of us and we went up the Queen Elizabeth Parkway this time. Ho ho.... jokes. It was supa-cold but I was toasty - you know, I always thought that leg warmers were just a pointless fashion accessory until I threw a pair on over the space between my boots and my pant cuffs.. those suckas work. Woot to zero drafts up mah shins this eve!
I was going to write a bunch more stuff but I'm soooo le tired. I can't believe I have to get up tomorrow morning and work another weekend. Even though I heart Arbour and everything, this routine is getting a little rough. As luck would have it though, Mark (boss) asked me randomly if I wanted October 14th off - which is exactly the date that the new Dinosaur exhibit at the Natural History museum opens!! I WILL be the first in!! Anybody wanna go on my nerd fest with me?
Okay, peace out until I'm not too tired to remember the other stuff I was going to write about in here...

love, laner

2006-09-26T12:06:00.000-04:00

I'm taking a break from cardmaking right now. I have to cut out three hundred paper butterflies and put two on each card. There are rainbow butterflies taking up the entire living room right now and I'm only about half way there.
SAVE ME FROM THE BUTTERFLIES!!!!!!
Later Jess R. and I are going to have cawfee and then go pick up some baby clothes for her brand new adorable niece. I love having a hand in picking them out - I also love that I have no babies of my own to shop for yet :D :D :D :D :D :D Then I'm going to check out roomate Robin's photography show at Timothy's on Laurier .. it's really nice stuff, mostly landscape photos from Hawaii. Laura and I are going to talk to the gal who runs it about putting up some of our paintings and junk too - hahaha I'm starting a new series of psychedelic Joni Mitchell portraits.. heehee.. joy.
I hope everyone got my email from my new address - if not, send me one to my oldie and I'll send thee a shout from my new one! Also: I was thinking that 'Check it out - I'm bread-man' is getting a little stale for the ol' blog too. After all, this IS post number 301. (holy shit) Any ideas, y'all?
TAY! Time to cut out more butterflies. SOB.

2006-09-25T17:13:00.000-04:00

SPOOK HOUSE UPDATE!: Homg. So I'm all alone right now, and I just went down the hall to get a sweater and noticed a flashing light coming from Robin's room, and it's the light in her closet turning on and off. Soooo it's only our closets that are haunted?! Robin, come home!!!!!!

2006-09-25T16:01:00.000-04:00

The pedestrian bridge over the canal that connects my street to Sandyhill is now COMPLETE!! Now all of my random bicycle jaunts to the downtown area will take mere minutes instead of going around the long way forevah! Woot! I keep wanting to call it a 'land bridge' like the Bering land bridge that connected Siberia to Alaska back in the day. As in 20000 years ago. Lolz. I'm wierd.

As extreme luck would have it, I have two days off in a row this week! A good thing, too - this weekend at Arbour was a little wacked out. On Sunday, not only did I have two new employees to train, but the power went out. Lights, the cash register, even the phone - hahaha it was messed up. People kept flooding into the store to buy stuff, too. We ended up doing sales manually but it was mucho chaotic. I felt bad for the ice cream place next door, and the Italian cheese joint beside it! Maybe I should've waltzed over and offered to help them 'dispose' of their soon-to-be unsellable product... hmm...
So! It's been decided: I'm going to give away most of my stuff and pack a suitcase for Vancouver sometime after Christmas, if everything goes as planned. I'll try to stay on at the Second Cup until December 1st, and give my two week's notice then, so that I only have to bargain with Arbour as far as going home to see the fam. I'm going to really have to work my ass off for the next three months, but then I'll have enough loot to see me through. Shane's in Van right now, but he called me from his hostel last night to tell me that he'd be hopping a Greyhound early this morning to be back in Ottawa on Thursday morning. Actually, he also told me that he's cutting his trip short because he misses me. It really caught me off guard - I've never heard him sound sad like that before. We've had our troubles in the past, but it amazes me how good things are between us these days - even just in the last three months. He's changed a lot from the person I met last summer in the produce section at Hartman's.

In othah news, I can't stop reading Lao-tse!

"I have three treasures,
Which I guard and keep.
The first is compassion.
The second is economy.
The third is humility.
From compassion comes courage.
From economy comes the means to be generous.
From humility comes responsible leadership.
Today, men have discarded compassion
In order to be bold.
They have abandoned economy
In order to be big spenders.
They have rejected humility
In order to be first.
This is the road to death."

Funny how something written thousands of years ago on the other side of the planet can be so relevant to the way things are today. There's a lot in the Tao Te Ching about recognizing when you have enough. Enough of anything - whether it's money, material posessions, influence... When a person strives for more and more of anything, seeing how much they can get, never being satisfied, always wanting to be on top, be the best, have the most - how can they ever be satisfied? On top of that, if what they've spent their lives coveting and accumulating is suddenly taken away, the results are disasterous for them. By realizing what really is enough - enough to simply be content - the mind is so open to happiness and free for different things. If further blessings should come their way, all the better; yet if all that is lost, happiness still remains. I'm finding out personally, that I have too much. Too much of a lot of stuff. And I'm realizing that by not knowing that I had more than enough, I continued to seek and seek to fill a void that I created myself, wasting time and energy on collecting and persuing things that would never make me happy. So many 'needs' are created. A full closet, shelves of books that just sit there after I've read them, praise from strangers - these things don't make me a better person. Or happier. Enough is a friend to visit me, a place to sleep, enough to eat, the freedom to walk around as I please .. everything beyond that is just extra. I want to be able to smile even if everything I own and any recognition I've ever received is taken from me.

2006-09-22T18:43:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-1aui-wluE&mode=related&search=

Hee hee! Check this out! It makes me think of Bradley McCountryseed.

2006-09-22T12:35:00.000-04:00

HELLS YES!!!!!!!!!

Your results:
You are Jean-Luc Picard

Jean-Luc Picard		100%
Spock		55%
James T. Kirk (Captain)		55%
Will Riker		55%
Data		35%
Worf		35%
Geordi LaForge		35%
Leonard McCoy (Bones)		30%
Mr. Scott		20%
Mr. Sulu		15%
Beverly Crusher		5%
An Expendable Character (Redshirt)		0%
Uhura		0%
Deanna Troi		0%
Chekov		0%

A lover of Shakespeare and other
fine literature. You have a decisive mind
and a firm hand in dealing with others.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character are you?" quiz...

2006-09-21T18:45:00.000-04:00

Dammit: my house is haunted. I should call that 'Canada's Most Haunted' show or whateva. Fuckin' ghosties... can't even let me sit around after work in my own house without being bothered. Today I came home after a long-ass shift at the Second Cup, and Robin was sitting on the couch looking really freaked out. She was like 'SHIT I'm so glad you're home!' Turns out she was just about to fly out the door because she kept hearing something MOVING AROUND in MY CLOSET. It's in the main hallway across from my room. She said that she heard the hangers jingling and no one else was home.. like someone was rifling through the clothes in there. She said that she had a really freaked-out feeling about it. So I was like WTF and went and opened the door to the closet. There was nothing in there of course. Then I closed the door and we were standing there talking for a second and something KNOCKED ON THE CLOSET DOOR FROM THE INSIDE. Knock knock knock, just like that. Fuck. We both took off down the hall and into her room. But wait - there"s more. I saw a person dressed in white cross Robin's room the other day - I thought it was Robin wearing a white hoodie, but then I recalled that Robin wasn't home. Great. Also, all three of us regularly hear someone walk down the hallway and then stop at the bathroom. At least six or seven times, I've thought it was Shane getting here on his way to my room, but then I when I go to my door to say hi, there's no one there. The girl who lives below us told Paul earlier today that she hears screaming coming from somewhere in the place really late most nights and has even called the cops about it, to no end. Lastly, the last three nights, I swear to god I've been awakened by coyotes howling outside. I know this sounds completely retarded, but whether it's spooks or not, this all happened. I remember having passing fancies that 115 Goulburn was haunted too, but it was never this in-yo-face. Effing spooks - you don't live here anymore.. stop being so dead and creepy! Maybe I can appease them with sacrifices of fruit salad and guacamole. If anything else creepy happens around here, I'll post it in here.. I'll call it the spookblog.

Anyway, moving on from all things unsettling .. I was sick today but I had to make lattes all afternoon anyhow. Heh heh. Enjoy your delicious creamy latte, with a side of my DISEASE! Heeheehee!!!! I tried not to sniffle and snort around all the nice people's drinks. My boss is such a cranky arse sometimes.. he gives me sass all shift long and then praises me at the end of it for being such an awesome employee. What the H. Oh well, thanks anyways, WALLY. At least I brought sweet sweet S&G to work today - this other kid I work with named Jess who's like 18 is obsessed and I thought she was going to melt into a puddle of joy when I put the cd on. Then I drew her an S&G cartoon and she almost pissed her pants! Garfunkel had a huge 'fro.
Gah, I'm so ill. Someone told me that if you eat a whole bulb of garlic that your cold will go away, but I don't think I'm quite that bad yet. Shit I almost deleted this thing by accident - I'm using an apple computer and I keep fucking things up somehow. Alright, updates to come: Green Party cards, spookstories, Vancouver research!
adios!

2006-09-19T22:40:00.000-04:00

I was on the autobus today blasting up the transitway, when the bus stopped and let about 15 Japanese teenagers on. They all sat in a huge cluster with me like an island in the center, and they were all talking a mile a minute, so I closed my eyes and listened and pretended that I was on the subway in Tokyo and it was neat.

I had a sweet day off today. I went and had a delicious cawfee at the L'ange cafe on Sparks St. It's so cool. And French. It was a rainy shitty day but inside it was painted like pure sunshine! The walls are bright yellow trimmed with red, and all the tablecloths are so pretty and colourful. Also there were amazing paintings of the countryside and fun stuff on the walls and the chefs wore traditional uniforms and everything! Also my waiter was hawt. I don't think he was Francais tho. After that I went to the Village of Value and rigged myself up a big fluffy fall sweater of goodness that'll keep me toasty as I continue to ride my bicycle stubbornly until the chain freezes and my tires can't take it no mo'. Then I went to Laura's and had tea.

Now I'm sitting here contemplating whether or not to spend a year or two in Vancouver. But it's not because I hate Ottawa or anything.. actually, it's not a bad place, I don't think. It's really green, lotsa bike paths, fun museumy stuff going on, and all in all I feel fairly safe here.... but I think I'm just feeling the need for a bit of adventure and a bit of change. I'm still just thinking about it though, so updates to follow. Vancouver IS pretty cool, though. Whatcha think, folks?

Other random news: I'm trying to make it to MTL in the next coupleo' weeks! Yay! I have the best present for Sarah that I've ever brewed up! I think it's because it's from Van. :D Also, I'm going to be a stripey kitty for hallowe'en! Now it's time for sleeps.

2006-09-17T19:38:00.000-04:00

Special congrats to Jpantaloonz on her almost-400th post - that's a whole lotta bizessyinfo! I'll be up to 300 in eight more posts. Dayim. It's interesting to go back in the ol' archives to random dates and see what I was up to today, even if it was little more than picking my nose.

So, I'd posted earlier that nothing exciting was going on this week - but it turns out that I'm a liar! A LIAR!!!! I got the bestest job of my life to date - Elizabeth May, newly elected leader of the Green Party has asked me to brew her up some 300 of my cards to send to peeps who helped with her campeign! Holy shit! She's a pretty cool lady, and I get to meet her and stuff. Neato. I just don't know how I'm going to pull 300 cards out of my ass in time. It's time to get innovative. It's a paid one this time too! :D Hoorah! My little biznass is back in biznass.
Also interesting this week: last night I went to the first bachelorette party of my life. Smoh yesh. Laura's roomate in residence, Renee, is getting hitched next month, and I got invited to come along for the madness that went on last night. We went to some new pub that just opened up on Elgin and proceeded to get really smashed, on behalf of a bachelor party that also happened to be there that night. The band wasn't half bad, too - they were a cover group, but they did tons of Tom Petty and there was mucho dancing. The only crappy part happened when I stepped on a nice big piece of glass that got wedged between my foot and sandal. Shit. Laura and I hobbled my sorry ass to the bathroom and she actually got right down with her hands on my bloody filthy foot to pull the nasty shard out - now there's a friend for ya.
Ooog - I just ate two avocadoes and now I have to go unbloat myself. Updates on ze way.

2006-09-15T23:24:00.000-04:00

I'm bringin' sexy back.

'Tay! I'm gonna do that thing that Jess did on her blog. Ready??? Ugghay.

A) Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Haha, barista, also. I make the prettiest drinks of all, wif kitties made of syrup.
2. Chicken-wing fryer.
3. Girl who paints flowers on people's old radiators
4. Toy store clerk

B) Four movies I could/would watch over and over:
1. Motorcycle Diaries
2. Mel Brooks' History of the World Part One
3. Woodstock documentary with all the awesome music
4. Sense and Sensibility. No apologies.

C) Four places I have lived
l. Brockville
2. Ottawa
3. Vancouver (temporary!)
4. St. John's Newfoundland (temporary!)

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. The Nature Of Things!! Suzuki for president!
2. Kids In the Hall
3. Futurama
4. Things with David Attenborough as narrator
5. Star Trek. Sorry.

E) Four places I have been on vacation:
1. New York city
2. Halifax
3. Vancouver
4. L'anse Aux Meadows (Viking settlement!)

F) WEBSITES I VISIT DAILY:
1. Hotmail
2. blogs of friends
3. cuteoverload.com
4. threebrain.com

G ) Four of my favorite foods:
1. Guacamole
2. poutine
3. Japanese food
4. dried fruit

H) Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Montreal
2. Vancouv.
3. Anywhere near the ocean
4. soaking in the tub

The battery on this laptop is about to DIE!!! udpates to come when I can steal it from Amy again. Word.

2006-09-12T14:29:00.000-04:00

Alright, lots to blog about, but first and foremost, please read this article that I clipped out of an Ottawa newspaper yesterday morning.

"HAMBURGLER HITS!"
"A robber who can only be dubbed the Hamburglar hit a Gatineau gas station last night. The man, with a McDonald's bag over his head, walked into a Gatineau Ave. Ultramar at 9:45 p.m., armed with a hand-gun. He then fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash. No one was hurt in the holdup. Police searched the area but didn't find a suspect. 'It wasn't Ronald McDonald', said one Gatineau cop."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Hamburgler Hits!!!! McDonald's bag over head!!!!!!?!?! 'It wasn't Ronald McDonald'!!!!!!! OHHH SNAP! I was reading this during my break at work and I almost spewed my thieved cup of soy milk everywhere.
Anyways, onto real things that have happened to me this week: Quebec city was AWESOME!!! So much funz! Laura and I went up with her two roomates, Julie and Susan, and Susan's friend Russ who drove and had rented a gigantic van that seats seven. Shit. Hilariously, I brought about four times as much junk on this weekend trip than I did for my three-week Vancouver adventure. Funnay. The drive up was really pretty, and Laura had never been out that way before, so it was great. We brought all sorts of snackins and stopped at ST HUBERT, the first of about thirty that we saw on the highway on the way. Both nights we went out and got absolutely smashed - I seem to recall dancing on a table. When you order red wine at a bar there, you get this teeny tiny child-sized-like mini-bottle of wine for about six dollars, which actually contains about three glasses of wine, so there you go. We went to some crazy, insane place with three levels - on the first there was an insane band with seven people in it playing rock covers with so much enthusiasm that it rivaled seeing the real acts. It was nuts. I've never seen so much energy come out of performers before - then upstairs there was a gigantic dance place that had extremely elaborate lighting effects and hilarious dance tunes - Jess, there was so much JT. And Shakira. Days were spent really hungover, but it didn't stop us from getting up at seven each morning to explore the city. We stayed in this absolutely gorgeous little bed and breakfast right in the middle of Vieux-Quebec (aw.. I know a little bit of French.) - it was almost four hundred years old! It rained the first day, but we got our umbrellas out and strolled the misty cobblestone streets, having tea, visiting shops and old buildings and parks.. and the water was beautiful. There was breaky at a little French diner, and a visit to the Quebec museum of Civilization, and also a tour of the Hotel Frontenac by a ridiculously cool lady in period costume. The next day was completely sunny and gorgeous, and we went out for ice cream and spent a lot of time on the boardwalk. Ah... it was such a perfect weekend. Does Quebec just BREED gorgeous men, also? Seriously. I had to avert my eyes at some points.. it was just too much.
Haha, and I just remembered something - last night we were telling Shane's friend, who happens to be from Iraq, about this four hundred year-old Quebec City that I'd just been there, and he was like "Oh yeah? That's nice. The city I came from is 9000 years old, but that's cool, too." HAHA! Riiiight, cradle of civilization, riiiight......

Nothing interesting is happening this week. I'm serving coffee. I was reading an atlas of the Universe this morning though, and read something cool. Turns out that if the big bang theory is correct, one of two things will probably happen: 1. The universe might just keep expanding forever, in which case, eventually all of the galaxies will lose touch with eachother, and eventually die, leaving a black, radiation-filled wasteland of a universe. OR 2. The universe will retract and close in on itself, destroying everything. Either that, or cause the big bang to happen again. Maybe for a billionth time. No one knows! So go eat your ice cream and lay in the sunshine, kids!!!

2006-09-03T19:36:00.000-04:00

SUCK IT, SECOND CUP!! They booked me every day this week again. Goddammit.

I'm not that mad, though. Fall is juuuust starting, and it already looks pretty. I like Autumn. I'm glad it's the season that comes just after summer, because it's so rockin', and its awesomeness distracts us from the fact that Summer's so ovah. Colourful trees, punkins, Hallowe'en, drizzly beautiful rain, (call me wierd if you want), bright sunny crispy days, tea and hot chocolate and wind and comfy sweaters and a new fall coat... ahhhhhhhh. Yep, Fall is great.
I went to The Spades on Friday night with Jess, and it was all bouncy and fun. Working at Arbour all weekend was long and tedious, but I got a pair of these Bundstone boots that come from Australia and they're SO AWESOME! Not only are they totally weatherproof, but they also look like my favourite old Doc Martens but without the irritating laces. New boots might be something boring to blog about, but I love them to pieces, and mine are specially made for Canadian Winters!

http://www.blundstone.com/product_info.cgi?subpageID=results&keywords=550#

I have the day off tomorrow :D I'm meeting with a girl that I met the other day who wants to commission a painting, and then Jess an I are going to go to some fancypants French coffeehouse on Sparks street that I've been wanting to go to since I moved here.
Let me end this blog, with a conversation that I had with a happy little old man today while I was getting on my bike to ride home in the rain.
Man: "It's a little wet to be riding today!"
Me: "Yeah, it wasn't raining when I left this morning!"
Man: "You'll be in for quite a ride!"
Me: "That's okay, I like biking in the rain!"
Man: "Me too! But only when I'm naked!" *extreme old man laughter*

Aw, pervy.

2006-09-01T22:20:00.000-04:00

I LOVE SHAKIRA!!!

SASSY.

2006-08-31T20:00:00.000-04:00

Sheeyit. I thought I was done posting for the night, but I'm not:
Check out this old Peter Paul & Mary clip - I've watched it half a dozen times but it's so beautiful that I bust a tear or two every time I hear it ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPnLK1WnXxg

2006-08-31T19:16:00.000-04:00

Thanks y'all, for the awesome responseage from two posties ago - now I have a glorious list of books to read, AND you guys agree that the Bridgehead guy is the personification of AIDS! Hahahahaha - thanks, Skinnah. Next time I have a craving for one of their delicious caffeinated buzzy treats, I'll kick that guy in the nugs and tell him that it's his tip that Laura forgot to give him the other night. I mean, as a coffeeshop woiker, if I put myself in a similar spot, he looks even dumber. Suppose I was working the nightshift and some guy that I thought was pretty came in with a buddy. Would I give him something for free and then charge his dear friend for his overpriced beverage?? Please. They'd probably sit right down and be like WTF just like the Laura and I did, and then instead of wistful glances, I'd get angry, overpriced-drink glares.

While I'm on the topic of coffeeshops, I've come to the conclusion that there are two, and two alone, perks about working in one. The first thing is the tips. If you divided the tips that I made per hour today, then instead of earning 7.75 per hour, it was 13.75 instead. Wow! The second thing, is the free goodies. I made myself three vanilla steamed milks today and devoured two brownies while my bosses weren't looking. Awesome. Everything else about it sucks, though. If I have one more angry business man with gigantic red ears who hasn't smiled since 1973, telling me how to do my job, I'm going to snap at him. Who cares if I get fired for it - minimum wage jobs are as unavoidable as the plague.. it took me all of six hours to find this one and get hired. Actually, I'm going to hit up Megan this weekend and see if she can sneak me out a job with the Green Party for the fall. No filthy uniforms, no espresso ground into my skin, no one yelling over their non-fat, decaf, half-sweet, extra-large shitty-ass cup of swill.... alright, I'll stop.

Onto other things! I did something very grown-up today. I opened up a bank account all by myself. Go me! I hate doing stuff like that, but it was kind of encouraging today. I've never actually opened one on my own before - I had a little-kid one when I was younger, and then Jimbo opened me a new one when I went away to school, so that mom could check up on what I was spending and where. Well, school's over now, and no offense, but I think I'd rather manage my own finances without anyone else knowing every last detail. Mom doesn't really need to know about random things, like a mysterious 40 dollars spent on random booze at some daaarty bar that I wasn't even planning on spending anyways, or funds secretly tucked away for across-the-ocean adventures. Hee. Speaking of grown-up things, a lot of that stuff has been happening around me lately. I personally know two couples - TWO! - that are getting married next month alone. Oh, and another pair that are getting hitched at this time next year. Holy matrimony, Batman. Meanwhile, I sit cross-legged on the floor eating oatmeal straight from the pot at three in the morning watching music-videos.
Hmm, guess that's it for now. I'm working all weekend, but it's The Spades tomrrow night with J.Rashotte :D Oh, and did I mention that I left an angry note on somebody's car today? Thassright. Some awesome buffoon had parked their car in a no-parking spot DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF A WHOLE BIKE RACK. Seeing that pollutionmobile jammed right up so that I couldn't even touch my usual bike rack was a nausatingly aggravating symbol of a lot of things that piss me off. Sigh.. alright, seriously stopping now!
Fanx for the book listies, and let me know if you think of any more!
luv, J-lane

2006-08-30T20:02:00.000-04:00

Hee hee. I went into Subway for lunch today, and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot was playing. I ordered, sat down, ate my sandwich, cleaned up, and while I was leaving, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was still playing. I love you, Canada.

2006-08-29T21:26:00.000-04:00

Alright - opinions wanted, please. I'm trying to guage whether or not a social situation that I was involved in the other day was bizarro or not. It all happened last night actually.. Laura came over after dinner, and as usual, within about two hours of hanging out, the conversation turned to food and going out to aquire food, so we ended up paying a visit to our neighbourhood Bridgehead for something chocolatey and caffieney. When we got there, we were the only two in line to order, and a very attractive male working behind the counter became very talkative and flirty, in a college-kid coffeeshop-worker kind of way. When it came time to pay for our drinks, he told me that mine was on the house - which I gladly accepted. Mind you, when Laura's drink came up, it came to this: "That'll be 4.97, please." When we both sat down at our table, we turned to eachother and were basically 'WTF'. Iunno. If two people come in together, and you give one of them a free drink for whatever reason - whether you think it'll make them like you or you think it might be a suave thing to do or whatever - do you still make her friend pay full price?! I'm not saying that we both deserved free drinks or anything, but I'm just thinking that it was really rude - Laura was pretty pissed-off, because it seemed so blatantly unfair (not to mention kinda insulting) to charge one and not the other? You'd think that even if you were only into one of the people, that you'd let the friend have a freebie too, out of goodwill, because being an arse to someone's friends doesn't exactly win you brownie points with them. I actually wanted to say something at the time, but how do you find strong words for someone who's just saved five bucks? Laura felt like it was kind of a burn. I'm thinking so too. What do you guys think? It was wierd.
Also! I need everyone to get all interactive with me, and do me a favour. Here's whatcha do: compile a list of the five or ten (or whateva) most important books that you've ever read - whether they were important to you personally or you feel that they're important in a historical or social context - and either post 'em for me on your bloggy or post 'em here in a comment. I've got my eye on you especially, Miss English-degree Richards!!!!! I ask all this, because I'm almost done my current read and I want a nice big fat list of goodies to search out and devour with my brain. Reading is awesome. I sound like an educational program. Keep in mind that I've already read, or am already planning to read, lots of JD Salinger, Virginia Woolfe, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, and the Sisters Bronte. Also, I kinda like classics and oldah books. But they don't have to be fiction even - whatever you want to include, do eet. Kid's books can count too. Do eet up!!!!
I have to work at 6 am every day this week. Gotta go to bed. Send me comments about the two things listed above!
- jennieeeeeeeee

2006-08-26T20:33:00.000-04:00

Wow.. wierd to think that the summer is kind of drawing to a close. I'm not sad that it's going away, though.. the changing of the seasons always feels comforting to me. Like, if it was steaming hot in the middle of october, I'd be worried and pissed, not happy. Also, I like sweaters. Ima go to Goodwill and load up on 'em this week.
Anyways! I've had the best *best, I tell you*summer of my entire life. It had almost everything. First, I find a gorgeous new apartment. Then, I quit my crummy-ass flowershop job and take some time OFF! Oh. Man. I needed that. I barely worked for almost two weeks in Ottawa, and then had another three completely off to go to Vancouver. Which, besides being the highlight of the summer, was also one of the highlights of my life. What can I say, besides thanks, Jess. Orcas, Stanley Park, mountains, airplane, sushi, avocados, Beyonce, museums, beaches, nudity, buttered muffins, Italian coffee, exploring, beers... now that I have more $, i'll be sending some hilarity out your way soon, Jess! Oh, so then I get back to Ottawa and get some work with the Green Party, and later go to the ex with Hil. We actually went on so many rides that I felt sick! You know it was fun if I actually feel nauseated after. Best summer since grade five, before all this 'work' and 'responsibility' shit happened.

The Second Cup job is humming along nicely. I can make all the drinks there now in rapid succession. Except that nine people *NINE* just quit, one full-time is gone for the week and the other one's out for two weeks with appendicitis. So guess who works every day next week and apparently is the captain of the Second Cup after only five shifts. Yeesh. I actually have to train people while I'm still being trained. It's kind of a fun job, though. When you whip up someone's fancy-ass drink just so and make it all pretty and put some real care into it, it can make them really happy. Then you feel all warm inside, and then they give you outrageous tips. I worked five hours on friday morning and made 31$ in tips! I think I'm going to start a tip-fun and save up money for ludicrous things, like when Laura and I run away to Quebec city next month for a weekend. Egad! Posts to come about that, I'm sure.
Ah.. but in the meantime, it's workworkwork for me. Non-stop for the next two weeks. It's not all bad though.. I'm sitting here at the compy with a deliciously alcoholic drink, contemplating a summer well lived. Now it's time to make the fall just as great. The only thing that my summer really and seriously lacked was some Sarah-time. Maybe that's what fall will be all about? It's time to get Chinese in MTL. *love*
Alright.. Shane and I are going to go make nachos. Oh mah. On behalf of my overworked and slightly drunken self, I wish you all a fantastico ring-in to the autumn! *stiff breeze that smells like cider and rotten leaves*

ps - If you live in Ottawa, don't buy cheese from Boushey's Fruit Market on Elgin street. It's a fine establishment, but I bought some cheese there tonight that had expired in July. It smelled SO. BAD.

2006-08-22T15:52:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv4cyGSfr8s

heehee.

2006-08-19T18:53:00.000-04:00

Ever been to youtube.com? You can search for pretty much any music video you can think of, and it'll probably be there for you to watch right away so you don't have to download it. It's really neat. Leigh and I watched everything from "Bootylicious" to Bjork videos when I was in B-ville, and it was extremely entertaining! There are many non-music videos there too, but I haven't ventured into that world yet.
Brockville was only about 30 hours long, but it was fun. Momma and I went to the Goodwill and I got me some corduroy pants. Also, I got to see my grandparents AND have yums from Don's Fish and Chips - the ONLY fishn'chips shack I've ever seen that keeps their chips in a bathtub before frying.
I returned on friday to frolic with Indie and then go to my second shift at the Second Cup - once more it was fun. It actually makes me feel kind of happy to work there, because I worked with two more girls who told me straight up that they loved me and were excited that I got hired. One of them is a 25 year old girl from Switzerland named Livia who moved to Canada with her husband for jokes. The other is a hyperactive 18 year old named Jessica who loves Kids In the Hall and her English degree in the making. They're cute. Some other random newbie came in though to check her schedule and she was so scarily rude! We said hi to her but she just GLARED at us, walked to the schedule, and then left without a word!! WTF. How do these people get hired anywhere?! Today I worked nine hours at Arbour but it totally sucked because I couldn't sleep last night for some reason. I was tired and everything, but it just wasn't happening. When the sun started to come up I was pissed, and that made it worse. So today was a sluggish cranky sore-foot blur. Bank street was blocked off today for Max Keeping's "dancing in the streets" fest though so it was fun and bananas outside all day, which was entertaining. The whole world seems like a much friendlier place when there aren't any stinky noisy polluting cars screwing up your view.
Haha! Oh yeah! At work today the three of us were sharing assorted ghost stories and shit, and I remembered something that happened to me that was so freaky! It's inexplicable. Either that or I'm completely non-observant. It goes like this: there's this supa-old graveyard just on the city limits of Brockville near the water that I like to bike out to sometimes because it's huge and has nice trees and paths and stuff.. one day last summer, around dusk, I was riding around and decided that I might get off my bike for a minute to look at some of the older graves because it's kind of cool to read old names and dates and everything. I must've been in a particular section of some kind, because it seemed like everyone's names were of Greek origin all around me. I was moseying along, looking at stuff, when I noticed that there was a candle lit on one of the graves. I looked around to find at least six other lit candles, some of them in little hanging lanterns on a bunch of other graves. I'd been in the graveyard for at least twenty minutes, seen nobody else the entire time, and yet these candles were freshly lit and I somehow hadn't noticed them when I'd walked by two seconds before? I'd like to say that it was interesting or magical or something, but it wasn't - it was scary, and I could feel the hair on the back of my neck stand right up. I tore out of there so fast and went straight home. I think I had a beer.
Anyways, enough spook tales for one day. I'm going to go give Indie some snuggles! My cards for the green party are all nice and flowery, and Megan liked them when she saw the today. Yay! Time to make forty more. Boo.
Byeee!

2006-08-15T16:45:00.000-04:00

le update.

My first shift at the Second Cup was jokes. I worked with two girls who are roughly my age and size, so we all looked pretty funny running around behind the counter all night making cappuccinos and stuff in our teeny aprons. One's named Kate and the other is Chris, and they're totally not assholes. Awesome. Also, I love free muffins and tips. I can definitely do this two nights a week.
My day started out crappy because I sliced my finger right open on my shaving razor that was in my backpack when I was literally right on my way out the door. The effing thing wouldn't stop BLEEDING!! I actually had to call Arbour to tell them that I was going to be late due to the fact that I couldn't stop up my bleeding gash no matter what I did. My day got better though, because when I got to Arbour they said that I deserved a raise because I've been givin'er for them for so long, and it'll be on my next paycheck! Ah, that's one more bound away from minimum wage. Also, the Green Party emailed me and ordered 70 (!!!) of my cards to be used at thank-you notes! Let the production begin! They're due on the 22nd.
I'm going to go to B-ville on wednesday night, methinks. Just for 24 hours though, because I need to get my ass back here to feed and love Indie. That's where I am right now, actually - he's such a roly-poly bucket o'love. He even comes into the bathroom and rolls around while I'm trying to pee. Awww.

2006-08-14T14:49:00.000-04:00

Mmm. Chai tea wif milk and sugar makes me happy.

I'm kittysitting at Troy's right now! Indie is full of snuggles. He chirps when I come in the door because she knows that sweet brushins await him.
So I start my new jorb at the Second Cup today. Hahahaha - there are all these online 'lessons' and 'tests' and shit that you have to do before you start. I can't slack around at it though, because they can log in and check your progress and scores. Sneaky. I'm glad this coffee shop thing is only a few days a week. My mission is to scam as many free snacks as possible.
Hahaha.. I went to a party at Shane's old roomate's house (Gareth) on Saturday night and there was a rockabilly kid with a banjo, a Russian guy with a triangular Russian instrument, and then Gareth with a mandolin. They played a song together and I sat there being drunk and listening to it. It was oddly beautiful.

Ugh. Time to get ready for the cawfee shawpp. Updates to come.

2006-08-11T10:26:00.000-04:00

Gorgeous things. I'm turning my room into a Jennie-oasis. The trick is, to make everything as awesome as I'd like it, while keeping it as portable as possible, because I've got a feeling that my moving days are far from over! With my love of second-hand shopping as a definite factor (also, my love of pointless junk) I'd been finding that just too much shit was accumulating in my room, and it looked like a 12-year old lived there. Not that that's neccessarily a bad thing.. but I was finding that I was avoiding spending any amount of time in there, because of the cluttery garishness. I mean, all that junk starts to own YOU after a while. So I decided to minimize a bit, and it kind of looks like a *gasp* grown-up room now. Oh yes. I have curtains now. And my bed is pretty. Also, there's a bowl with flowers in it, and I'm actually going to make some artwork to frame. Yes, FRAME! Sorry, tattery posters. Ahhhhhh.

Oooo, I have a job interview at the Second Cup today. I just want to work my ass off so I can go to Europe in the spring. Woot! It's kind of all I can think about. I'd really like to try moving to another city for a short time, and some other stuff like that, but I just can't seem to get motivated on that stuff until I fulfill my obsession with going to the UK. Right now I'm only at one sixth of my $$$ requirement, but I shall perservere.

Everyone look at this: http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2006/08/cataloons.html

Oooooo hooohooohooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Updates on crummy coffeeshop job to come.

2006-08-07T11:23:00.000-04:00

Hahaha - the weekend. On Saturday night, Jess and I went to Zaphod's to see the "Mudmen". It was heavy metal fused with two - TWO mind you - sets of bagpipes. Then we ran into my sister who bought me way too much booze, and there was so much dancing. And then work the next day. HUNGOVER-ED!!! I'm so glad I'm not sick anymore!!

Ranger ate a frog this morning.

Oh yeah, also, my roomates have officially moved out and I don't have the internet for a while. D'oh!

2006-08-04T18:02:00.000-04:00

Shitty shit poop. I'm STILL SICK. I'm so glad that I'm still only working part-time for the time being. If I'd actually scored myself a second job this week, it would've been curtains for me. Two mysterious glands in my neck are swollen up like marbles! WTF. I felt better last night and then this morning I feel like ass again? No comprendo. I hate being sick. But.... one thing happened that's made it much more bearable. Ok, so I read the Diary of Anne Frank when I was maybe eleven or something, and of course it was interesting to me at the time, but I forgot about it pretty fast because I was eleven and had just discovered the joys of french fries and tye-dyed t-shirts. lol. But yesterday morning, feeling inhumanly wretched thanks to polluted-ass Mooney's Bay, (I'm pretty sure), I found a copy of it in the apartment and started it just for the hell of it. I definitely got hooked and ended up finishing it by dinner-time. After dinner I left my apartment (to go to the grocery store two blocks away) for the first time in two days, and it occurred to me then, as the gorgeous warm night air blew over me and the stars sparkled above that Anne Frank didn't leave her hiding place, where she lived in fear, for two years. And that was only to be discovered and quickly dispatched by the Nazis. I realized how effing lucky I am to have what I have and to be where I am. I never want to complain again!
Soo, even though I'm still feeling pretty grody, I'm in better mood today than I was when I woke up yesterday morning. And today's actually been kind of fun, despite the illness factor - Shane's dogsitting at a house in the Glebe, and I get to hang around HERE and be sick instead! Hahaha - this place has perks. First, there's two hilarious dogs, Bula and Ranger. I think Ranger is a dumb name for this particular dog, but that's just me. Anyways, the guy who owns the house, Nelson, is originally from Chile and works for customs at the airport. He had to drive to Georgia (?) for a month for some reason, so Shane got this sweet (paid!) gig hanging out at his gigantor house and frolicing with his doggies. Bula is five years old, and apparently Nelson rescued her when he was just a few weeks old from the streets of somewhere in Chile. She's some kind of breed that doesn't really exist anywhere else in the world, and has been in South America for centuries. Neat! She's about medium sized and really friendly, but she seems pretty depressed ever since Nelson left. The other dog, Ranger (why do I hate that name so much? Someone who reads this is going to have a beloved dog named Ranger.) is smaller and still kind of a puppy. He's so retarded and I love him. He's all frisky and spotty with gigantic cat-like ears and his original owner was a girl, so every time I sit down he's on my lap smiling. I'm not sure if I'll ever own a dog myself, but spending time with these ones is pretty awesome. Also, Shane scoops up all their shit and I don't have to. Hah hah. Oh yeah! Also, Ranger chased after a toddler in the park today, barking and growling like he was enraged! Hahahaha, it doesn't sound like it was actually funny, but it WAS!
Also news - all of my roomates are LEAVING. Mikey and Caroline move out tomorrow, and apparently some "nerd" is taking their room. Hmm. I haven't met this guy yet, but apparently they found him while I was in Vancouver. There's another girl taking the smaller room in a day or two named Amy, who I also haven't met. If they're nice, great. If they're assholes, I'm moving out. Hahaha. Robin is staying for a few more months though.
Alright, I'm going to go perish on Nelson's couch now. His whole house is swarming with neat stuff from Chile. Oh, and there's lots of neat books here too, including one on how to speak Arabic! I can't stop playing with it. Al-xarabiyya lugha Saxba wa laakin jadiira bi l-'ihtmaam. That means "Arabic is a hard language but very interesting." Mmm hmm.I tried to do the writing too, but I was useless at it.

2006-08-03T09:17:00.000-04:00

Oh my god. I was sicker than I've been in a LONG time yesterday, and I still feel like trash today. Basically, every bone and joint in my body was in intense pain and there was absolutely no way to be comfortable. My throat was swollen so badly that I couldn't get an apple down, and I was alternately burning hot and freezing cold. I think the last time I was that wretchedly ill, I was 12, and had my mom taking care of me - there were definitely times yesterday that I wished she would magically appear!! The worst part came when I tried to go to the kitchen to get myself water and I suddenly couldn't feel my arms or feet and started seeing spots. Sweet, fainting time. Poor Mikey found me some time later (no idea how long) sitting staring into space in my jammies at five in the evening and I think I freaked him out pretty bad! Haha whoops! I eventually made it back to my room (somehow) and Caroline brought me OJ and stuff. Honestly though, being that sick was definitely scary. It's trippy to not have control over your own body like that. At one point I was totally delerious and it felt like winter in my room and that horridly catchy song from the 70's, "Brandy", (Branday... you're a fine girl... what a goooood wife you would be...) was playing over and over in my head at top volume. Augh! Aside from the kitchen episode I didn't actually get up all day. Shane came over after work and ended up calling some telehealth hotline thing just in case.. the woman basically just told me to drink copious amounts of water and try to eat pretzels. LOL! Can do. Anyways, I'm feeling well enough this morning to sit here and hog my roomate's computer and relate this horrible tale, so I'm definitely somewhat better.. I just still have that never-want-to-move-again feeling. And I'm supposed to take Laura to the museum of civ for her first time tonight! Moh. I'm going to watch 18 episodes of star trek and see if I get any better this afternoon.
ps - I think I might have gotten this by accidently swallowing some water at Mooney's Bay the day before. Beware!!!

2006-07-31T20:58:00.000-04:00

Bling!

What a hot stuffy weekend at Arbour. Holy eff. The place was an oven! Butt, my momz and Jimbo were up both nights and took me out for two fine dinners. Awesome. Also, being the weekend boss at Arbour is sweet.. it's all breaks whenever I deem fit (which is extremely frequent) and employees that heart me because I'm not on their ass to slave away for me every second of the work day. It's a tiny ghetto store, not a forced labour camp.
Projects of the week: portfolio time! I've been getting some nice happy art jobs lately, and my portfolio is a discombobulated piece of shit, so it's time to get at 'er. I'm going to borrow some poor sap's digital camera and take pictures of all the crap that i've done at Arbour and all over the place, plus some of my school stuff, illustrations and things from B-ville, and then i'm going to print them and stuff them all into something that doesn't look like it's been under my bed for six months.
Also this week I'm going to go to the beach and to the art gallery and try to get employed at a coffeeshop on my street, heehee. I wanted to go to Ireland this fall, but I spent a wee bit too much in the 'Couv, so I'm going to have to buckle down and save up again. WHUPS! Haha oh well... I've been having the best summer ever, so whatevah.
Food obsession as of late: miso soup. I could drink gallons.
Shane and I are going to go watch more mammal documentary now :D HOOT. Updatez to come.

2006-07-27T10:15:00.000-04:00

Whoops... long time no update. Oh well! I'm back in Ontario now! The bus ride home was redonkulous. Being in a different province every DAY is quite memorable! There were a lot of people my age on the bus though, and we all sat at the back being bad-asses while all the grumpy older folks sat in the front. Heehee. When I got home though, I slept for about a thousand hours.. sleeping on the bus IS possible, but only at the expensive of a temporarily broken neck. I think it was something like 68 hours. There were definitely some surreal parts... sleeping on a bench at the bus station in Calgary.. noticing that you can see about a billion miles in any direction because the prairies are so flat.. going through a town in North Ontario that had just gotten hit by a tornado (no kidding!). I've officially been to every province in Canada (no territories yet) though, and it was a really great experience.
During the last couple of days in Vancouver, there was definitely some nude-beach going, sushi-munching, and Stanley Park shenannigans. I'm gonna miss that place!! Jess, the skin on my boobs is peeling still from the sunburn at Wreck beach! :oO Holy sheeyit. So much fun though. Oh, and a whole swarm of tiny crabs scuttled merrily over my feet that day. Prancing nekkid on a gorgeous sunny beach was sublime. I get my pictures developed today from my trip, so I'll see if I can't scan them and post a few on here somehow. (no nudies though.. apparently it's forbidden to take any kind of pictures at a nekkid beach.)
Life's been exciting since I got back! The first two days of my return were spent working at Arbour and being tired due to catching up on mucho sleep. Then on Sunday night, Rachel came down! Joy! She'd never been to the province of Quebec before, so we decided that drinking in Hull was very important. We fixed ourselves some coconut rum goodness and watched a beautiful sunset, and then found ourselves a little pub in Hull, complete with rowdy french people and the snootiest bartender I've ever met. Then we went to Fat Tuesday's for extremely strong martinis and to a nameless pizza place on Dalhousie for grotesque amounts of french fries. Yay! The next day we got to hang out again and went to Chinatown for real Chinese food. Mmm.
I've also been busy with the doodling - a friend of mine named Megan from Arbour who works for the Green Party got me a wee job designing t-shirts for them! I'm submitting the designs today, and if it goes well then I may have another (not paying, but whatev) project, designing their volunteer booklet for the season. They're going to give me a big fat letter of reference at the end of it, which is going to look very pretty in my portfolio. WOOT!!! Yay for the Green Party.
Oh, and I henna-ED my hair again. I left it on for four hours and it looks like the sunset caught fire, it's so red. I heart it. It makes me never want to wash my hair again so it stays uber-red.
Last night I saw Clerks II. It's so funny. The very first scene made me laugh the most.
Ok, hope everyone's awesome! Ima go watch a little bit of "Life of Mammals" with David Attenborough (JOY) and then draw more. Hoorah for summer.

2006-07-14T00:18:00.000-04:00

Quick blog update!
So much to blog. I'm going to use short form.

- We climbed Grouse mountain in North Vancouver today! It was so high I thought my heart was going to explode! The forest was so green and magical on the way up. You could see all of Vancouver from the top and it made me so happy.
- Also we went to the UBC botanical gardens and I hugged a 600 year old fir tree!!!! :D JOY. There was also a big striped snail that was the size of my hand and I picked it up! It oozed all over me and wiggled its eyeballs around. So cool.
- Dancing at some club on wednesday night that was having an 80's-90's music night. Requested "Strangelove" by Depeche Mode and had three dollar drinks. So drunk.
- I got some rad henna and dyed my hair an amazing red!!! I really like it! It makes my eyes look all neon blue and my zits less red. lol
- I love Vancouver.

2006-07-05T09:29:00.000-04:00

Holy shite!! I'm in Vancouver!!
I wish I had about five hours to fully describe all the cool stuff that's happened even just in the first 48 hours. This place is effing beautiful and fantastic. Like pretty much about as cool as I thought it would be, and then times it by a couple of infinities. I want to blather on for a hundred pages, but I'll condense the highlights, since it's 6:30 in the morning, and Jess and I are gonna blitz it out the door shortly as she's working at S-buck and I should leave at the same time so they don't hafta leave the door unlocked all day!
I should start off with my first plane trip. Well, it was like magic. Watching the ground shoot away from me like that and seeing my entire world - houses, cars, people, trees - become mere two-dimensional patterns on a gorgeously rounded earth was in the top three coolest things that have ever happened to me. It was like a fantastic dream. Flying?!?!? My brain kept telling me that surely what I was seeing wasn't real. And then I'd tell it that it was, and it would short circuit with glee. I saw green, green Ontario, the uber-flat and expansive prairies, Alberta with its crazy big scars and dents and then all of a sudden MOUNTAINS! Huge, gargantuan, black mountians with snow on top!! In July!! I saw most of Canada in a morning. Awesome. It was surreal and so beautiful. I cried a bit (with happiness of course) when we first took off and the two chubby sailor cadet girls next to me thought I was a moron, but I cared about .0000001%. Even the clouds were indiscribably incredible to see.. and from above! Who sees clouds from above?! I'll definitely never forget that plane ride.
The first day we went to Kitsilano beach! It was magnificent. And there were crabs!! Lots of them! Mostly dead, but oh well! Hahaha! The air here is so fresh and cool, even on hot days. We soaked up the sun and went for my first swim in the Pacific ocean. Extreme coolness. That night we went out for the best (and cheapest?) sushi of my life! Mmmm we ordered so many fantastic little things at Tsunami Sushi downtown and devour-ed them.
The place I'm staying is right near the Skytrain station on Commercial drive, and it's kind of hippie-village around here. Hempy shops, organic grocery stores, coffee houses, thrift shops, trees, and lots of shaggy patchouli-smell. I've got a feeling you'd only have to walk for about three minutes around here before you found someone to sell you pot. It's diverse and pretty cool and lots o' fun.
Yesterday we went on a bike ride around Stanley park! We rented these cute little silver bicycles and went all the way around the perimeter on a bike path. The mountians and huge trees (and palm trees!) were such a sight, and we rode for around two hours! The sun came out and the blue sky was reflected perfectly in the water. And let's not forget all the crabs on all the beaches! They come in blue, beige and red! Hahaha wheeee!! I poked so many of them! Some of them are the size of my thumbnail and some of them are tea-cup sized and in-between.
Other fun things!: We went through Chinatown, ate at Foo's Ho Ho Restaurant (lol) and also had coffee at Cafe Calabrio, a super, super neat Italian coffee house on Commercial. It has these plaster greek/roman statues all through it, and murals and it's really European-styles and cool! The best cappuccino I can remember.
One thing that's also worth blogging about is... well, the street people. There are a lot of them. They're all over the place. I mean, I've seen people panhandling and sleeping on the sidewalk in Ottawa and Toronto before, sure, but I've never seen so many people slumped over on the sidewalk in broad daylight in a heroin stupor. It's tragic and it feels like my heart falls into my belly everytime I see one, which is often. Also, the crazies here are extra-crazy. They're like, loud and in your face crazy because they're probably also on something. We've crossed the street more than once to avoid the situation. It's going to be hard to get accustomed to this sort of thing.
To end on a lighter note though, I'm having a beyond fabulous time. I LOVE it here!!! There's something fascinating around every corner, and the air smells like it does in the maritimes because of the ocean, and it makes me feel happy. There's so much nature everywhere and the city is really creative.. even in the less hippy-dippy parts of town there are neat murals and statues and crazy, crazy stores all over the place! Today I'm going to go to the Anthropology museum while Jess is at work, and then later tonight we're going to go out on the town. SOOO GROOD!
More updates to come! Miss you all! Leave me comments! :D :D :D :D :D
LOVE, VANCOUVER JENNIE

2006-06-27T21:16:00.000-04:00

Woah. Severe hangoverage today. Last night I went out with Laura and Jess to another one of those Cirque du Soleil cast/crew party things, and ended up at the Fox & Feather and then at Dunn's (lol) until four in the morning. Pure insanity. I woke up this morning feeling like a thrice stomped-on eggplant. Yes, that's it exactly. Luckily it's been one of those super-rainy, windy, shitty sort of days outside (although I do heart the rain) so it's the perfect excuse to stay indoors all day and fart around! So I did just what the average person does when faced with a horribly hungover sort of morning - I sat down with a nice juicy pear and watched The Exorcist. LOL! Haha it totally freaked my roomates out. I've seen it a few times before, but it's so sweet and extra scary. I've been thinking of a good excuse to watch it lately, but it's been so nice out that I feel like an asshole wasting a free evening in front of the telly, so this feel-like-shit/shitty-weather combo was just what I needed. Then I tried to slice an avocado and almost cut my little finger off. WHOOPS. There was some major bloodation and I said a lot of bad words very loudly in front of my adorable small and sweet new roomate. Haha! She bandaged me up tho, and it doesn't hurt any mo'.
So yesterday I picked up one of those wicked travel books, all about Vancouver. I can't believe the cool shit they have there! Anthropology museum, Chinese botanical garden, huge-ass bike paths... ah! I made a big list of cool junk that I read about and sent it to Bizessy today. I'll post it on here later! Woooot!
I was going to watch "The Pianist" today too, but decided that one disturbing movie is enough for one rainy day. Tonight it looks like I'll be a computer nerdface - Shane got Caroline's sweeeet laptop working in my room! Yay! Oh man, I like these things so much better than a huge hulking desktop. It's actually ON MY LAP.
Tomorrow, Shaner's going to see if he can steal his mawm's car so we can go do something cool. Camping might be out due to the fact that it's definitely supposed to rain for my entire week off (snap), but I'm sure we'll think of something interesting.
I think it's nap time now.

2006-06-26T08:51:00.000-04:00

That was some x-treme emoticon action. I wish I could make one big fat one large enough to fill the entire page. Well! Welcome to Jenniefest 2006. I officially kicked off the opening ceremonies this morning with a bowl of oatmeal covered with strawberries and an episode of Kids in the Hall. Allow me to explain: I worked a huge amount all winter long so that I could save up some cash to have some time off and adventures this summer, and today is the first official day of such! Not only did I work my ass off all winter, but it was kind of a crappy winter on top of it, so I definitely don't mind this glorious, glorious break. It begins with this week - a whole week off. I'm not looking at any clocks, and I'm not working for the man, either. I'm going to get stuff ready for my trip, hang out with friends, read, draw, sit in the park, and generally do whatever the hell I want. For anyone not in the know, Shane and I decided that living in the same city and trying to ignore eachother for a while is futile. We both caved and decided that it wasn't a bad idea, but that it wasn't the answer to anything, especially since I'm going to be out of the province for three weeks coming up anyways. So my trip is going to be our break from eachother and this week we're going to go camping. LOL! Ah, we're redonkulous. We just have too much fun together and then miss eachother, even though we bitch at eachother now and again. Anyways, more Jenniefest highlights: After my week off, there's Canada day and then two days later, Vancouver! Looks like I'll be there from the 3rd of July until the 19th at the latest, when I'll have to get aboard a bus to make it back to Ontario in time to work at Arbour that weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to update my adventures while I'm away! I arranged a big flowery bouquet for the folks at Arbour this weekend to show my gratitude for giving me the time off with a minimum of fuss. Super nice. At the end of July when I come back I'm going to have to get another job. You know.. for food and rent and stuff. Ha ha. But at least I'll have my sweet sweet memories of Jenniefest.
*love*

2006-06-23T09:33:00.000-04:00

Today is my last shift at the flower shop. This feeling can only be described in emoticons.

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Ahh.

2006-06-21T10:01:00.000-04:00

Hee. The keyboard I'm typing with is all set up for typing in French, so there's all these new keys - check it out. èÈàÀ! Oooh! Le accents!! Hmm.. I'm way too impressed over this.
I just had two days off and they were gorgeous. I've worked it out so that I can have a minimum of work this summer while maintaining some sort of workable budget. So far, so good. Next week before I go to Van, I might have a mural job at my roomie's co-worker's house, which would be awesome.. my only paying art jobs lately have been signs for Arbour, and I'm in the mood for something larger and creative. I made up some new 'business cards' on the porch yesterday and started sewing flower patches on my hempy backpack for my Van trip. I also went out to MEC and got some stuff, like a teeny tiny ADVENTURE TOWEL! Haha it's actually called that! It's miniscule and wraps up into a little thingy. I wanted to get one of those heavy-duty water bottles too, but I was too cheap to spend eight dollars on it, so the search continues. I've been watching some sweet World Cup soccer action, too. Laura and I went out and bought all sorts of rad snacks like huge dates, chocolate with chili peppers jammed in it (OMG) and brazil nuts and devoured them whilst watching Spain destroy Tunisia in a crazy game. It's so funny watching the commentary in another language like Spanish or Italian because the only word that seems to be universal is: (with random European accent) GOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!!!
I've also been thoroughly enjoying 'In Cold Blood.' Can't... put... it... down. I even snuck it to work with me. Damn, I have to work today. Why can't I mysteriously turn into an eight-year-old every summer? Updates to come: Vancouver plans! World Cup! Weekend!

2006-06-17T19:01:00.000-04:00

WORD!! Fifteen days until Vancouver! Amazing! Arbour gave me an incredible THREE WEEKS OFF, instead of my requested two! I love those guys. They're going to be getting some flowers from the Jennie for granting such a request, let me tell you. Other fun numbers: three days left at the flower shop! It wasn't the worst job I've ever had, and I love 5-10 shifts, but enough's enough, and I'm going to Van, dammit. Vandammit. I'm getting my bus ticket for the long trek home from BC tomorrow. After my blitz at the flower shop ends, I have five days off before I leave for my trip, which is just peachy. I plan to use them to research the Van, get stuff prepared, and generally go to the beach. Yay!
I found a penny from 1940 in my cash count at the shop last night. All of a sudden, it dawned on me that World War II was indeed a'ragin' at the time that the coin was made, and what a lucky-ass kid I am that the closest I get to that war is a black and white photo in a textbook. I've read so much about it and everything.. and yet I still can't grasp actually living through something like that. I even have dreams about it frequently. Peace is so precious. I hope I never take it for granted.
So, what happened this week... lessee... well, my computer is completely infested with spyware most heinous, and totally pooped out on me. Well, everything on it pooped out except for MSN messenger. Hmm. So I'm doing this post from Caroline's computer right now, and it'll probably stay that way until I get the damn thing reformatted. Hil and I had an awesome date with ice-cream, kitty, chatz, and clone-high earlier this week and my leftover poutine made the memory last for days! Haha. Oh, gravy. I'm about to call Hil after this post to see if she's still on for some 80's night action at Barrymore's this sunday. Woot to that! Well, I've got 'taters on the boil. TATERS!!!!!!!!!! More updates soon! :D

2006-06-14T13:42:00.000-04:00

So, Shane and I had a talk today. About an hour ago, actually - and we're not going to be seeing eachother for a while. I don't know whether that's going to be a little while or a long while, but I guess it does have to happen. Basically, most of you know that he did something last October that really pissed me off, (and I'm not going to talk about it much right now because I don't feel like it's going to help matters) and I've been ragey about it ever since, off and on. The important thing about that though, is that nine months after the fact, I still get upset, to the point of having to cancel my day's plans, when I think about it, and this happens more frequently than I'd like to admit. I don't really understand why this happens. It kind of beats all logic and reason, and I can't seem to commit to forgiveness, either. I keep thinking I have, and that I'm 'over it' but then surprise! I'm not. And it bugs me. I think what actually happened, is that my brain kind of.. well, short circuited, or something, and I've been uncontrollably paranoid that Shane's going to do the same thing again all this time. Basically, it's probably some ancient, instinctual part of my brain trying to protect me from repeat trauma by making me irrationally paranoid and p.o'd, while causing intense emotional and physical reactions to things that, according to rationality, shouldn't affect me so much anymore. Shane said that he wouldn't do it again, and I in fact believe him - but another part of my brain doesn't buy it, because I can't emotionally afford another episode like last October. Crud. I've been trying to make myself emotionally healthy again all this time - and I mean really trying hard, and it's not like I haven't made progress - but I had to tell Shane today that I can't help it.. I'm still mad. And I wish I wasn't, because look at what a mess it's caused. Shane and I do make a good pair.. our core values are the same, we share sooo many interests, we laugh together, have fun together, and are at ease in eachother's company. Even just this morning we strolled down to Bridgehead and enjoyed reading our newspapers without awkward not talking to eachother, and then afterwards had a nice little chat. So nice and comfortable, like any pair of old friends or lovers. I don't know what caused me to tell him about all this crap I feel later this afternoon, but it came out, and I mean.. Shane doesn't want me to feel like crap. He doesn't want me to feel like I have to hide it, or change for him, and I appreciate that. Realistically though, he also knows that some time apart so that I can try to calm this anger is probably necessary. At first I didn't agree - isn't that like running away from the problem? But I guess it's not really. Without the cause of the symptoms lingering all the time, maybe I really could get better. I guess I don't know yet. Bah, I don't know what to think. I feel like my crazy, lingering, irrational emotions just ruined something, and it bothers me. Maybe time will tell. In the meantime I'll just spew out all my troubles onto my blog, which actually helps! Shane gave me a really nice ring a couple of months ago, that I wore every day, and I just took it off for the first time since. It was a constant reminder that someone cares about me, and it made me really happy. Now it's sitting on my table. I don't even want to look at it.. this whole thing is kind of depressing.
Maybe my Vancouver timing is even better than I thought - a change of scenery is going to be nice. Tonight I'm working one of my last shifts at the flower shop (yay) and I spent yesterday evening playing with Hillary and her adorable and sweet kitten, sans-fur (also yay). Good things are happening too.. I need to stay positive.

2006-06-09T09:21:00.000-04:00

JOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought my very first plane ticket yesterday! I took the bus down to the airport, and it took me about fifteen minutes to even find the ticket kiosk, heeheehee. It was very exciting. People who have been flying since they were little kids might not see why I'm so utterly thrilled right now, but I can't even describe how amazing it is to know that I'll be aboard a giant aircraft, hurtling through the atmosphere at insane speeds, thousands of feet above our beautiful planet. Of the 200,000 years of human history, only a small handful of us have had the privledge of experiencing the long dreamed-of ability of flight. I think that airplanes are one of the most fascinating inventions that human kind has ever come up with. The ticket guy was like "I bet you want a window seat!" Yay! I've been wanting to travel by plane since I was little, and now after mucho working and saving I'm finally able to do it. *dance* It'll be the morning of July 3rd.
Yesterday I was on my way to work and I heard someone about 20 feet behind me start running in what sounded like stilletos, which isn't an uncommon thing to hear downtown. But then I noticed, after a block or so, that the stillettos were right behind me and I turned around to see a woman in her late 20's trying to catch up with ME!
Stiletto Woman: "Gasp.... wheeze.... where did you get your pants?"
Me: "Um? Oh. I got them at a booth in the market, right in front of the Keg."
Stiletto: "Cough... wheeze..... they're really nice. I want some. Gasp..... "
Me: "Oh yeah, they're really comfortable, too."
Stiletto: "How does someone as little as you walk so fast??"
Me: "lol."

I have a new musical obsession: Lhasa de Sela. Oh mah. I was stealing her music off the internet, but now I think I might actually go spend money on her album because it's so good.

Can't wait for Saturday dreamcatcher party at Tron's!! The other day I was telling someone about how we were going to make dreamcatchers and they thought I was talking about a mixed DRINK called a Dreamcatcher! HAHAHAHA!!!
pace! :D

2006-06-06T22:00:00.000-04:00

Poop. I'm trying to get my affairs in order for my little bee.cee adventure, but it's causing me le stress a l'il bit. The thing is, I know I have to get out and have myself a merry trip, and I SHALL... oh lordy, I shall. But I feel guilty about a few things, and it's making me all P.O.'d. First off, it's hard to screw over the people I work with, as I'll be gone for a while and for some reason they don't have a single person that can sub for me. Secondly, Jim's parents' 50th anniversary crazy weekend party thing is on the 8th and 9th... when I'll be gone. And my mom's not terribly thrilled about that. It's been in the making since last fall, and it's a big formal to-do, but dammit I have to go live my life! I've had some adventures planned in the last few years that have really fallen through due to circumstances beyond my control, but not this time. The last year's been alright, but it's been rather shitty in places, and I've worked so hard to save up my loot, so I'm not letting another opportunity fall flat. Maybe I'm going to piss some people off, but I'm going, and that's all there is to it. I wish I didn't have these stupid guilty feelings. I'm just going to have to get my ticket(s) this week so I don't cave in to pressure.
Haha Jess, thanks for doing my mini-survey! I want a pair of those underpants! With you still IN THEM! Hahaha! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Oh guess what - remember how I was going to go get some hilarious fiddler crabs? Change of plan! I've throught it through and now decided against it. The reason is this: in our apartment right now, is a small turtle who lives in an aquarium. All he does all day long is try to figure out a way to bust out of the tank. He seems really pissed. I would be too though, because instead of being in a real pond, he's in an aquarium with a big picture of a pond superimposed in it, and he'll never ever meet a lady turtle. Ever. So I feel kind of bad for him, and for that reason, I will be getting no fiddlers. I mean.. imagine making a crab all sad. I just couldn't do it. Crabs deserve to be free on the beach, where I may watch them from afar! And occasionally from up close, as they scuttle away from me. In the meantime, I will continue to post amusing pictures of crabs, both great and small, up here on my blog! Hee.
Today I went for a long-ass bike ride with Shaner. We went all along the canal and then along the water and to Hull.. it was so sunny and pretty! I need to hit up a beach soon. I had a single beer after being in the sun all afternoon though and it made me all tired, so there was some cartoon watching. It's so sweet that summer's here.
Bye, y'all!

2006-06-05T23:25:00.000-04:00

Ooops.. I think I love Shakira.

Last night, Jess R and I went to the Urban well to a Cirque de Soleil cast party was going on. It was funny. There were all these tiny gymnastic girls and these tall guys with afros who were clowns in the show and then all the regular people who are just ushers and doormen and stuff. There was definitely some disco ball action and a lot of crazy music and I danced a lot. I wish I'd taken pictures - there was this one guy who looked so much like Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons that it was beyond cosmic.
Ah... I had such a sublime moment today. I went to my bellydancing class which turned out to be really fast-paced and invigorating and then afterwards I stepped out into the warm mellow sunshine of early evening and everything was so perfect and happy. Man, it turns out that bellydancing isn't just blobbing around being suggestive with your tummy hanging out - it can get all complicated and intense. I think i'm going to keep going with the intermediate class in August though, because it just makes me feel so damn good. Usually we dance to modern middle-eastern dance music but we had the traditional Egyptian dancing music on today and it was really neat.
So Shane got an apartment in Hull - it's short term, but better than nuttin'. It's with this guy named Gareth who works at the Folklore Center and has two kitties. They make a good pair, but it's kind of sad, because the room is available only because Gareth's (ex)girlfriend just moved out. :( The apartment is neat though - it's in an old house and he converted the den into a sort of recording studio with all sorts of neat stuff in it. I'm starting to really settle into my apartment too - I think the mixture of being uprooted, feeling crummy about it, being sick, and the stress (financially and physically) that comes with moving gave me a shitty feeling about it at first, but now I feel a lot happier here!
Woot.
Ok, now for something completely different.
You know how there's always those damn questionaires that you get sent via email that have questions like "what is your full name?" and "have you ever been in love?" Well, I made a new one up, and you all have to follow suit in your blogs too. Do it! Or else... you'll get the herps.

1. What is your favorite time of day?
(after dinner-ish)
2. Describe, in detail, the underpants (if any) you are wearing right now.
(from the kid's section at Zeller's. Elastic-band panties, pink with white polkadots, very comfortable.)
3. If you were a food, what would it be?
(Raspberries)
4. Would you rather cut off your baby toe all by yourself or have all your teeth fall out?
(I'd cut off the toe.)
5. Type the first words that come into your head when you hear these words: Sandwich, Hitler, Grass stain.
(meat, mustache, jeans.)

Otay! Fun. Time to put up posters!

2006-06-03T00:12:00.000-04:00

I almost forgot!
Do this: Go to www.handspunhats.com and then go to "Big Flower Hats".
Look at the picture in the middle with the red flower on it. If I have enough cash sometime this summer I'm going to try to order that thing for fall. So sweet.

2006-06-02T23:13:00.000-04:00

Gots high speed internet now. Yeff. :D
Friday nights have turned crappy for me lately. I usually work until close at the flower shop and then have to get up damn-ass early on Saturday morning to go work at Arbour, so I have to go to bed at a half-decent hour to get through my 9 and a half hour Environmental Shop blitz.
The flower shop I work at is right in the middle of the business sector of downtown, and as I was walking to retrieve my trusty steed of a bicycle tonight I realized that it was a Friday night downtown in a big city and there wasn't a soul to be seen. There wasn't even anybody waiting for the bus, and it was eerie. Then I thought of one night in Manhattan, where I was out after midnight and there were throngs - throngs, I tell you - of people, all over the place, just like it was noon or something. It was so fun and surreal at the same time.
Oh, guess what! My bike is famous now. It's going to be on T.V.! Really! Hahahaha! Yesterday I went down to unlock it from a signpost outside of my apartment, only to find that there was a camera crew filming it, with some guy standing over it and talking. I was like ?????, and the camera guy was like "Oh, it's okay, you can walk through the shot, we're not quite ready yet." But then he saw the keys to the lock and was like "OH! Oh, it's your bike! Haha. Mind if we use it for a documentary?" Turns out that they liked the Canada sticker on it and were using for a shot in a documentary about how kids today are too chubbed out and don't get enough exercise. It's going to be on some Canadian channel.. I can't remember which.. at nine p.m. this Sunday. LOL! I'm just going to scan for it and see if I find it. If you see a blue bike with a snappily dressed guy hovering over it on T.V. it's mine.

Heh heh.. oh yeah. I almost forgot. This happened at the flower shop tonight:
College Guy: "Um, I wonder if you could help me with some flowers."
Me: "Sure, what can I get you?"
College Guy: "Well.... I fucked up really bad and now my girlfriend hates me and I need her to like me again. What flowers are good for that?"
Me: (trying to restrain my laughter)" Um.. do you know of any flowers she likes? What about daisies or something?"
College guy: "Well, I messed up pretty bad, so.... how about something exotic?"

Haha, how about you apologize, you twit! As if the more exotic the flower the less she'll hate you? Well, actually, if someone bought me a cool orchid or something I'd probably be more likely to forgive them.
Well, it's Arbour workin' this weekend and then some days off next week. Doot doodle oot doo, doo doo!

2006-06-01T23:41:00.000-04:00

Yesss.

2006-06-01T23:07:00.000-04:00

H'okay! I moved! And I have internet now. Go me! It's supa-slow right now though because someone accidentally ordered dial-up, but I heard that's getting fixed soon.. either way I don't care - I'm just happy to have some msn/blog hilarity back in my life! If someone told me that I wouldn't be able to have internet for nine months when I was say, 17, I would've collapsed in a terror coma, but I'm actually kind of glad that I went without for a while. Having no TV and no internet really gave my brain a run for its money. Anyways!
Moving was hijinks. It was hot. So. Hot. The first extremely hot day of the year happened to land on the exact day when I'd be moving the stuff of my entire existance across town. The new place is great now that I've settled in, but the actual process of moving was kind of shitty. Besides the intense heat, I was also sick. I don't even know what the hell I was sick with! One side of my throat and tongue was painful and swollen, my head ached and my legs and feet were killing me. I was exhausted even though I'd slept, and I had zero appetite. Also, I was cranky as hell. It stuck around until the next day too, and even today the left side of my mouth-interior still hurts a little bit when I yawn or eat. Wtf? Wierd. When I moved in too, the kitchen and living room were already in total disarray... Shane came over and helped me clean it top to bottom. It turns out too, that another of my roomates, Robin, has decided to take the room leading out onto the balcony as her actual bedroom, leaving me no access to the porch unless I want to climb up there via fire escape. Not cool. All things combined - the mess, stress, being sick, and apartment chaos - kind of bummed me out for a few days. It made me just not want to finish unpacking or get groceries or anything. But a few night's good sleep gave me a new perspective and now that everything's blitzed into cleanliness and I don't feel like butt anymore, things are mucho better :D The cat is adorable. He's all soft and fuzzy and grey and sleeps on my lap! He's so playful too. Right now he's destroying something in the hallway.
Oh yeah, and a Shane update - he decided that going to Lake Louise for the summer to serve coffee to demanding hotel guests wasn't worth the incredibly expensive air fare and zero days off, so he didn't go. Honestly, I don't blame him. He's looking for an apartment right now and staying with friends and occasionally me. There's a place in Hull he saw that's mega-cheap but it's kind of a ghetto shack... lol I don't want to come visit him in a Hull shack!
More updates to come! Because I have the internet now! Send me emails!
Wheeeeeeee!!! :D
heart, jennie

2006-05-24T08:55:00.000-04:00

So many posts! I just had to do this one though. It's a.... "quickie." Ho ho. So yesterday I was hanging out on the 5th floor of the hospital that my mom works at (geriatrics.) waiting for her to get off work, when I overheard a charming conversation between an old man and an old lady sitting in the "lounge". Jess has already heard it, but I feel I must relate it to you all. Here it is.

Old man: You wet your pants!
Old lady: What?
Old man: You wet your pants!
Old lady: No I didn't.
Old man: Yes you did! Look, you wet your pants!
Old lady: I didn't wet my pants.
Old man: What are you going to do then? Blame it on the cat? You wet your pants!
Old lady: I didn't wet my pants.
Old man: Anyways, I'd trade my pants for your pants. I shit in mine!

Oh fuck! I tried so hard not to laugh at them. The old man was being so mean, too! But then at the end he was so funny! Oh, elderly people.

2006-05-23T08:14:00.000-04:00

Two posts in two days... check eet out... ah, I love Jim's fancy and oddly flat new computer.
So I was just reading Jessypantsies blog, and decided to play the same game that she did on her last entry - time for some cut & paste action!

*Go to your calendar and find your very first entry.
*Pick three lines from it, and type them here, along with the date when they were posted.*
Go to your latest entry, pick two lines and type them also.
*Now list five ways in which you have changed/grown/etc. over that time period.

Alright, so this entry is from Friday, March 19th, 2004.

"omg! Some guy just jaunted into our house and yelled "HELLO! IS MATT HERE??" (there's no matt here!) I told him I'd go check because one of our housemates has a boyfriend named matt, but then the guy was like "Uh.... is this 103?" We're 115. Haha! What a fool! "

And, from Monday May 22nd, 2006

"The dragons fought but then made up and trashed the lettuce. Awesome. Ann and I ditched the customers in the store to go out and see! "

So how have I changed? I'll have to think for a minute. But I do think back to the winter of 2004 and see a pretty different person...
1. Ok, one thing comes to mind first. I can stand up for myself now. I used to be really intimidated by all sorts of people in all kinds of authorities... teachers, bosses, rowdy customers... I'm not a confrontational person by any means, but if someone gets rude or condescending to me, I'm much less likely to let it slide these days. I'm not a door mat!
2. Oh man, another thing - I used to think my skin was gross and my face was kinda wierd and my boobs were too small... well, that's all over now. We're all born with one body, and no matter what happens to it, you have to love it and see the beauty in it. It's the only one we'll ever have, so what's the point in worrying about it?? Keep it in good condition and it'll carry us through all the amazing experiences life has to offer.
3. Back when I first started this blog, I didn't really have any kind of focus or goals for my life. And that's okay. That's the way you are when you're in your second year of university, you've just moved out on your own, and your two main causes are friends and essays. I don't have road map, but I'm definitely embarking on the journey that is living.
4. March 2004? All about the boyfriend. Relationships are great, but hells! I needed a more mature outlook on them, badly. And so I went out, made about a billion mistakes, learned from them, and now I have it.
5. Biggest change? Well, it would definitely have to be... I can't eat crab anymore. LOLZ.

K, now you do it.

2006-05-22T15:05:00.000-04:00

Holy shit... this is my 256th post.

Secret #3 - I always talk about how gross I think fast food is, but I salivate everytime I walk by KFC.

Secret #4 - I think Mike Mills from R.E.M. is really hot for an old guy. I can't explain this. http://www.ilcannocchiale.it/blogs/bloggerimg/20052816542154416.jpg

Telling secrets is cleansing AND hilarious!!

So I'm in Brockville right now! It's kinda nice to get away from the noise, noise, noise and smog that is downtown Ottawa for a few days here and there. I'm kind of sensitive to car pollution - at the end of an afternoon spent riding my bike I always have a sore throat and kind of feel shitty. Ok, I saw the coolest thing on Saturday! I was working at Arbour with Ann, and the guy from the store next to us, East Wind, (they sell Asian housewares and cool stuff) came out and strung a head of LETTUCE from their store awning! We were like: ??? Then the guy explained to us that it was to "attract dragons", and that there was going to be one of those crazy Dragon Dances, where all the guys get into those big long dragon costumes and duke it out! SO COOL! These martial arts guys had the best dragon costumes ever and did an epic battle on the sidewalk complete with other guys banging huge drums and cymbals. It was actually very beautiful! The dragons fought but then made up and trashed the lettuce. Awesome. Ann and I ditched the customers in the store to go out and see!
Ok, top three things I'm going to do whilst at my mom's: 1. Take a bath. In a real bathtub that isn't filthy. 2. Try to lure Sarah to the bar with me. 3. Eat everything in the house. Oh wait, there's a fourth, too - I'm going to try and track down some henna and give myself pretty henna hair chunks. Right on.
Moving day is next week! Hope y'all got my new address and number. I'm going to update again tomorrow because I can.
ta!

2006-05-18T13:40:00.000-04:00

Secret #1: Sometimes when I'm cleaning my apartment and there's no one around, I put on Justin Timberlake and sing while I clean. Sometimes I dance a bit, too.

Secret #2: You know those dumbass black tights that everyone's wearing right now? They wear them with little ballet shoes or cowboy boots. I secretly think that they look pretty cool. If they weren't so trendy, I'd probably get a pair myself.

I got high and watched the South Park episode with Towelie in it last night. I think it might've been the funniest thing I've ever seen.
Kyle: "You're just a towel!"
Towelie: "You're just a towel!"

Got another day off today.... Shane and I are going to get cawfee and then go for a bisikkle ride. Woot! Everyone check their email for my new address and telly!! :D It's not 'til June 1st though. I'm going to be living with two fish, a turtle, two fiddler crabs, a cat and four humans.

2006-05-16T13:24:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was such an effing amazing day off. Since I work so damn ass much, I really focus on making my days off memorable. Shane and I got up at like, 10, which is unheard of for me, and make ourselves the best breakfast/lunch that's ever existed... oranges, pakoras (delicious Indian treat), tea and muffins. Holllllaaaaa. Then I went to bellydancing and shook my ass all over the place, jingling as I went. Not only did I have my jingly bellydancing hip-scarf on, but I also had earrings make of the same jingly coins. I actually got a spot in front of the mirror this time, and I'm pretty much intent on signing up for another class after this beginner's one is over.. I put a lot of thought into eating right (most of the time), staying active and taking care of my health, and it really warms my cockles when it shows. I work a lot, but I'm surprised at the energy I retain and how much better my skin and hair and whole self appears even compared to just a few years ago. WORD!! :D
So last week I worked literally every day through the week, plus two weekends, so this week I'm glad to say that I have some time to take it easy. Listen to this: I have monday, tuesday and thursday totally off, and then wednesday and friday are only half days, before working my usual Arbour weekend. It's amazing! It's like four whole effing days off. I'm going to paint and get stuff ready for my new pad. Joy! Shitty apartment news this week, though.. turns out some beeyotch who used to live in one of the rooms ditched the place early and neglected to pay a month's worth of rent before disappearing. Basically, the landlord told us that either we all cought up her share of the rent (600 bux.) or we're all out on the street by the end of the month. What the shit!! Augh. So, we had a meeting the other night, and even though we're all young and broke, we're all going to pitch in the best we can and hope we can cover this nonsense. Apparently this girl, who ripped everyone off basically, is long gone. Sweet bejeezuz. My new roomies are really cool though! There's Robin, who's just come back from two years living in a car in Hawaii or something, and Caroline who has Pete the kitty, and works somewhere downtown. Her boyfriend Mikey lives with us too, but iunno what he does yet. We're going to have actual internet too, so expect MUCHO UPDATES come the end of may!
Hahahaha oh YEAH! I forgot to write about my heinous saturday night!! So! Laura's been working for the NAC, which means that she gets free tickets to stuff. This Saturday she scored four tickets to something called the Sinking Snowman, which was supposed to be an acclaimed piece involving modern theatre fused with modern dance, dealing with some pretty weighty issues. Sounds appealing, non? Well, guess what - RIP OFF! It was this naked guy - and I mean naked, head to foot, not terribly attractive, penis flapping every which way - doing some improvisational "dancing" - poorly - before taping sheets of paper to himself, talking about his sex life, Japan, and recent movies, and clambering into a snowman suit while pretending to watch television, all complete with totally screwed-up sound and lighting cues. Then some big lady from New York came out in a big red coat and talked about the 80s. Great. It's a good thing we got the tickets for free... it was a nightmare! Basically we stuck around because it was free and we wanted to find out what the hell would happen next. I was praying that he wouldn't get a paper cut on his nuts. This thing was 90 minutes long with no hope of an intermission. A lot of people left half way through.. imagine paying 40 bucks to see this thing! It had nothing to do with the write-up that was in the paper or anything. We laughed the whole way through. Afterwards, the four of us, (two girls from our art classes, Anik and Shanna came with us) went straight to Fat Tuesday's and got drunk. We needed it. I got something called a "topless cosmo" which turned out to be the tastiest and most alcoholic drink I've ever had.
Alright, this is getting long because I don't update often. After this I'm going to go get myself some pretty summer clothes at Value Village! Ima update later this week tho, about apartment stuff and also if Shane ends up actually going to work in Lake Louise or not. If he does, he'll be leaving on Sunday. I'm giving it 50/50. lolrz.
Peace out, bye byeeee!!!

2006-05-10T18:16:00.000-04:00

YO! Ooops, forgot to blog for like, a week. I have an excuse though - I'm working like every day! GEE WHILLIKERS. It's so nice out, which causes me to write in caps. Omg lots of fun things have happened! So on Saturday morning before I went to work, Laura called and was like 'YO wanna go to the ballet for FREE tonight???" I was like GASP! Because I really really REALLY wanted to go see the acts that the ballet were doing at the NAC, but because it's so wretchedly expensive, I hadn't even TRIED to get tickets. However, since Laura does phone calls and stuff as a job for the NAC she gets free tickets once in a while, and because she knew that I wanted to see it so much, she took ME! There were three parts to the show: "Divergence", "The Accidental" and "Nosotros". Divergence was kind of a traditional thang.. you know, everyone in pink, very graceful, big guys pick up little ballet girls and it's all lovely. Then the second one was MADLY creative. An 'accidental' is a bird that gets separated from its flock during migration and runs afoul. The music was part of a symphony bit about birds, and all the ballerinas had these neat costumes with feather tufts on their asses and one minute they'd be supa-ballet-graceful, and the next they'd be making these totally crazy bird movements! Cool! The last one, Nosotros (which is "we" in Spanish... aw. I knew that.) was definitely my favorite. Instead of wanting to appear so effortless and delicate, its intention was to show how difficult and even aggressive traditional ballet can be. Everyone was dressed crazy and in black and it was SO confrontational and intense. Every act was so beautiful... I was so moved, that for hours afterwards it was all Laura and I could talk about! Apparently, the Huston ballet is right on par with the best Russian ballet companies, and I can only imagine that it showed. Oh! And this Saturday Laura's taking me to a play.. how awesome is that? Ahh. I love that junk!

Sooo.. what else is new.. it's really nice out, which is why I'm going to bolt as soon as I'm finished typing this. The other day I heard all these crazy pidgons on my balcony, and I opened the door to be like 'wtf' but it turned out that it was a big fat momma pidgon feeding her two fluffy babies! Haha, she was regurgitating like crazy. I don't even want to know what they eat naturally. It was cool though. In other news, Shane liked his bag of birthday cookies, and has in turn been getting me random presents ever since. He went to Montreal on an errand the other day and brought me back these awesome Indian-styles jingly earrings! Like the jingle-bracelets, but earring-form. I hear jingles all day and it makes me happy. Shane's going to be gone all summer, cuz he got some job at a rich-person hotel out in Lake Louise being a deli tender. I'll miss his constant banter and redonkulous friendship, but maybe I can get out to visit him when I go to BEE CEE this summer.
Well, now I have to go and write a really sappy mother's day card to my mum. I've decided to really warm some cockles this year and thank her for everything she's done for me. For anyone not in the know, my mom seriously rocks.
Peace out, ladies and gentlemen!
- le Jennie

2006-05-04T18:11:00.000-04:00

tsk... here I am, comfortably positioned in front of a library computer for the next 50 minutes and hardly a soul is online on msn.
YAY it was my day off!! And what a day off it's been! Shane and I cooked up a gigantic breakfast of champions and then I frolicked in the rain. Tomorrow is S. Norris' birthday, so I bought him some cookies from the German store (Shane spent his childhood in Germany) and a bunch of beer. Haha!
So this week I've been working at the little kiosk that the flower shop's temporarily set up in the Rideau Center. At first I was like 'A KIOSK again?? SHIT!" But then I realized that it's going to rock. Basically, I had about seven customers in the entire seven hours that I was there. Maybe even less. 90% of my time is spent reading or drawing or arranging flowers. Actually, I thought it might be fun to do some experiments regarding people walking by... for those of you who enjoy statistics, here are some results: (for people who aren't nerds like me, you'll probably want to pass it over.)

I counted 100 people walking past the kiosk, studied their facial expression, and then tabulated the results. 61% of people wore a neutral expression. 26% appeared happy. 7% appeared to be upset, and 6% were visibly lost or confused. Interesting.

Out of 100 people who passed the kiosk, 30% were male, and 70% were female.

38% of shoppers were adults - that is, between the ages of 30 and 50. 34% were what I called 'young adults', between the ages of 19 and 29. 20% were obvious teenagers. 7% were older adults - say, between 50 and 65. Only 1% were "supa-old" (over 70) and 1% were children. This is all based on my questionable ability to judge age, however.

Then I observed men and their facial hair. The absolute majority of men were positively clean-shaven. 10% had a partial beard or goatee. 4% had a mustache, and only 3% of men passing by had a full beard. Guess beards are currently a fashion faux-pas?

Another one I found interesting: 55% of the people I observed walking past were at the mall alone. Either shopping is a mainly solitary activity for most people, or they were just passing through on their way to work. 20% were there with friends, and 16% were there with a partner. 9% of the peeps I counted were with a family unit.

This one was neat: 50% of people walking by had either black or extremely dark hair! DOMINANT GENE-ED!!!! 30% had brown hair, and 17% were blonde, whether natural or from a bottle. Only 3% had red hair.

Guess what, the hippie booth in the market is back open! YAY! I went down the other day before work and bought some sweet flowy pants from India and a jingly waist scarf for bellydancing purposes. It really makes me shake my pantaloons. Peace out everybody!

2006-05-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

Quick update for fun. Jess and I are at her friend Claire's right now, to feed her kitty. Hilariously, it's almost midnight and we're both drunk and the cat loves us. Also, we're playing with Claire's computer, so I thought it might warrant a blog update. This'll be the third in two days and i'm not even at Mom's!
So today I had my first bellydancing lesson and it was so effing sassy and fun. I'm going to love it and then take more lessons maybe after they're done. I actually felt slightly inadequate in the class because more of the girls had.. well.. more "belly" than me to shake around, but I did my best and had mucho fun. Everyone had such a good time and was so into it. I'm going to buy one of those scarves that have l'il coins on them that jingle when you shake your junk!
It was so hot today. Shane and I went out for greasy breakfast and then sat in the park. We tried to play frisbee but I sucked a lot at throwing and hit a high school girl when I chucked the friz. Haha! Then we loafed and I turned red in the sun, like a crab. We watched this miniscule ant carry a big huge spider corpse along the sidewalk, and marvelled at its strength and appetite.
Guess I should take the bus home soon before it stops and I get to walk for an hour and a half. Peace out!

2006-04-30T19:12:00.000-04:00

There's a big new post underneath this little one, but I just had to add this final thing: I have this new flower that I love called a "Ranunculus". It's super-vibrant and perfectly round.. like a daisy crossed with a rose.
OBSERVE THIS LINK!
http://www.paulparent.com/bulbs/ranunculus.jpg

2006-04-30T17:58:00.000-04:00

OMFG!!!!! Check this out!! I got an apartment! A RAD apartment no less! Please read the following information presented in point form! (Scientists have estimated that my new apartment will boost my awesomeness factor by at least 26.5%)

- Location! Off Elgin, on Somerset. Near canal, fruit store, parks, etc.
- Heritage building! Can you believe it? It's gorgeous. Orange brick, at least 100 years old, but in immaculate condition.
- Hardwood floors, supa-high ceilings.
- Porch on the front AND back, sheltered by TREES!! I shall put an easel out there.
- Adorable roomate named Caroline who likes tea and kitties! AND HAS A KITTY NAMED PETE WHO SHALL BE LIVING WITH US!
- Large bathroom, large living room, large kitchen, cupboards with windows in 'em and six shelves for me!
- Plenty of wall-space for decorations! Roomies love that I have much stuff to add!
- I have the second-largest room, which has windows with panes that swing out and are cool. Outside, are trees.
- Cheap rent! Only 400 bux. That's 200 cheaper than my current ghetto apartment! Rad.

I'm going to send out a mass email soon with my new address and phone number and such. HOLLA! There's so much space and everyone can come visit me! We can even have back-porch slumber parties under the ***stars***. Also, I love that I'm well within stumbling distance to bars and that there's a back door, should I have to be discreet. Haha! I get it in June. Rock on.
In other news, I went to go see "The Importance of Being Ernest" last night with Jess, and it was soooo grooood. By the third act I was so delightfully exhausted by Oscar Wilde's excessive wit! lolrz. It makes me want to be in a play. Maybe ima audition for a few in the fall? I want to be the girl in A Midsummer Night's Dream who's all wacky and wants the guy she's obsessed with to whip her "like you would a spaniel!" HAHA! That would be jokes.
Tonight Laura's cooking me a mystery dinner. What could it be? I eagerly await. Right now I'm on her computer because I'm accidentally an hour early and she's not home. Heh.
MORE APARTMENT UPDATES TO COME!

2006-04-26T14:17:00.000-04:00

Ahhh. Yet another glorious day off. I just had myself a little sitdown at a coffeeshop with a brownie and a newspaper and blissed out to the max. GLORIOUS. I'm so relax-oed. Also, quite happy about many a thing. Oh yes! I can't wait for summer. Seriously, it's going to be the best summer of my LIFE. Foist, it's been quite determined that my little B.C. adventure is going to take on more epic proportions than otherwise thought... since Bizessy is going out on July 1st for a longish period of time, ima put my trip off for a few weeks (I was originally going to go in June) and stay with her and FROLLICK to the extreme!! Since it'll be postponed a bit, I'll be able to save a bit more money too, which is nice. Then after, I'll come back to o-town and finish up details for my Ireland extravaganza. I'm giving myself a pretty fair length of time before I commence my journey.. there's nothing worse than preparing all up and then not being ready for sompin. Late august or early fall is my loose goal. Heh heh... "loose." Updates on summer joys to come! Also, I think a fair bit of Brockville-going, and p'raps a Montreal adventure with Laura may be in order. Not to mention all that bellydancing I'm going to be doing. I can't wait to shake my can all over tarnation.
So, today I went out for a blitz and bought some pretty summer clothes. Yay! I got a long blue tye-dyed skirt and goes down to the ground.. it's gorge and sky blue, and it's all fair-tradey from South America. Ima get some new jeans too, second-hand.. mine are literally in rags. Nooo groood. Later today I'm going to get my paint on and start a big-ass portrait of Jim's parents that momma (MOMMA) commissioned me to do for their 50th anniversary. 50 years! I can't even imagine. That's over twice my lifespan, being HITCHED! Holy shite. It's not due until June, but I tend to put things off and then scramble and make them shitty, so ima start it now.
O yeah! So yesterday I sent an email about this sweet room in an apartment in the golden triangle part of Ottawa (sweet.) that's open in June. The girl who's looking for a roomate has a cute little voice and loves kitties - and she has one!! :D It's only 400 bux a month and has a porch too. Holy shit! Ima call her back this afternoon and go look at it! She sounds incredibly nice! I hope Shane finds a place to live before that then. Honestly, it's not really my biz-nass, but he's not really trying to figure things out and keeps talking about being a hobo, and I'm a little worried about it. It'll put a mighty large damper on packing and my new apartment if I know that Shane has no fixed destination at such time. Sigh. I know he's a grown man and everything, but a gal can't help being worried about their friends threatening to become hobos.
Yesterday Matty gave me a tiny little button pin with a picture of millhouse on it. I don't know why exactly, but it made me laugh for about five minutes. Millhouse. I think he's my favorite Simpsons character.
Time to go eat lunch. Byeeeeee!!!