Preludes And Nocturnes

Look at me, being all UK with my football reference.

Anyhoo, this afternoon I bought a nice multigrain muffin and thus ended my non-buying of ANYTHING at the uni spree. I went for 1hr short of two weeks without purchasing anything from the uni. No coffees, muffins, snacks, lunches or the like.

This was both for money reasons and food-value reasons. I have made my lunch and brought snacks. I have had tea for my morning and afternoon breaks (my own tea bags and just grab hot water from the caf). So, yay me.

In other news, I have also met some other goals. Namely the flossing of teeth and the attending of yoga. I am getting three yoga sessions in per week and adding to that at least two cardio/weights sessions as well.

And finally, cleaning goals around the house. Silly basements and closets. Gah. Got the one closet mostly done last night, and I have a stack of stuff ready for the Salvation Army next week.

My reward for my goals these past two weeks? A long weekend.

Whoo!

I find these fun - and I know most of who is here, but just wondering about lurkers. Marissa posting a comment made me squeak, so I thought I’d ask who all is out there these days.

I went to a talk at the uni today (switched my lunch hour) from a woman who is applying to become faculty in the nursing program, and it really got me thinking. It was very much in the same area of my thesis research - although centred around nursing and education. But all in all, lots of talk about the impact of narratives and identity. I miss this. I miss the interaction. I knew some of the people there, I asked some questions, they were good questions, I talked with people, they asked me about my research for my thesis. My brain was tingling.

I need to figure out what job I could have where I would research and write and talk and be smart.

I don’t feel smart these days. Which is okay. These days is more about paying some bills and getting some money in the bank. I’m doing that. But I think it will be okay when this job ends in five weeks.

I don’t know if I want to get my PhD right now - just the money and the loss of work time. But I need to figure out what I could do that would still challenge me and let me have ideas and interactions and research and use all these skills I’ve worked so hard to create.

Or something like that.

Well, it isn’t. But it is a mixed CD that I’ve just made for Podgy. And it is awesome. I have that excited feeling about sending it to her. The whole thing is Ani Difranco and much more mellow than I would have thought I was going to do - but these are my favorite songs of hers. I think I’ll make her a second CD of a bit more upbeat bopping around the house kind songs. This is more sitting and knitting/reading Bitch Magazine/thinking kind of CD.

And for those of you who know Ani:
Not a Pretty Girl
Hour Follows Hour
You Had Time
Shy
Everest
Swan Dive
Independance Day
Cloud Blood
Providence (w/Prince)
Trickle Down
Freakshow
Adam and Eve
Hello Birmingham
Serpentine

And because I’m in that mood where I would, at another time in my life, write out all the lyrics for her (did you all do that too - back then it was always for a boy. But that was back then…):

I am not a pretty girl. That is not what I do. I am no damsal in distress. And I don’t need to be rescued. So put me down punk, wouldn’t you prefer a maiden fair. Isn’t there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?

Hour follows hour, like water follows water. Everything is governed by the law that one thing leads to another…

And you will take the heavy stuff, and you will drive the car. I’ll look out the window and make jokes about the way things are.

Back in the city, the sun bakes trash on the curb. The young men are pissing in doorways and the rats are running in herds. I got a dream of your face and it scares me awake. I put too much on the table and now I’ve got too much at stake.

So I take a few steps back and put on a wider lens. And it changes your skin, your sex, and what you’re wearing. Distance shows your silhouette to be a lot like mine.

I’ve got a lack of inhibition, I’ve got a lack of perspective, I’ve had a little bit to drink and it’s making me think - that I can jump ship and swim, that the ocean can hold me, that there’s got to be more than this boat I’m in.

And did I tell you how I stopped eating? When you stopped calling me. And I was cramped up and shitting rivers for weeks and pretending that I was finally free.
…

Yeah, I’m totally making a copy of this for at work.

So I was just reading Liz’s blog (Mystery Mommy) and she linked back to another entry of hers from last year. Very funny concept of the Gilligan/Dr. Smith award - where on a tv show you pick out who would be killed and eaten if they were all stranded on a desert island. Character is chosen for being lame/annoying or, better yet, both.

I’m reading the old post. I see a comment from “Jenn” and think oh, Liz has another Jenn who comments on her blog - because the comment is nothing I’ve ever written. Although, I must note I thought the comment was cute (Janice from America’s Next Top Model would win this award). So I click on the “Jenn” to see something about her.

Is me.

Oh.

Now, I know that I would not instantly remember every comment I’ve ever made on everyone’s blogs. But I so totally do not ever remember thinking of that. And nothing went *bing* when I read it. Really. To the point where I wonder if Leone accidently commented as me while using my computer - but that was before she moved in here so probably not.

Weird.

Or maybe not. But whatever.

In other news, just had the BEST lunch with Jill. This great Indian/Thai/Sri Lankin (how DO you spell that?) restaurant. And cheap! We had samosas, pakoras to start and each had a curry (chicken and lamb, respectivly) with the crispy bread and the fried bread and rice and a little salsa with yogurt - came to under $30.

If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be lying on the front lawn.

Okay, my last order is silly because it won’t be here for another month+ as I am getting a translation and an older children’s book (the book is not necessarily for older children - well it kinda is I guess - but the actual issue is that it is not as recent so some sort of longer order process).

So I’ve put in an order for NOW books!

Lenore Comic - Issue 3
Genderqueer
Five Seasons of Angel

How freaken exciting is that!!

In other news, I haven’t had the guts to call in as a collection agent to try and find my hairdresser. I’m with Jill, that is one of the funniest things I’ve heard and I LOVE it… but yeah.

I don’t know what to do. Other friend was going to a new place so I asked her today how it went. She said “I cried and cried when I got home.”

*eep*

I’m thinking of just cutting my own damned hair.

It is bizzar to think I’m considering using this as the final straw to justify a trip to Vancouver. But no, I’d rather wait until I’m done work so I can go for longer than just two days.

So to cheer myself up, I have bought my cactus soil and collected some rocks from the park and will plant all my new succulents this weekend.

Yay!!

They have fixed it - but my worst fear about online and gift certificates and money and what not have come true.

They lost $50 from my account…

After a horrid evening of freaking out and sending them emails, they replied today.

It has been fixed - but I’m still not feeling stellar about the whole thing. And they don’t know why it happened.

And she tried to reassure me that their system always had the $50 ($49.05 if you are keeping track of such things). And that no matter what, they would take care of it.

But I pointed out that if I hadn’t noticed and contacted them, I would have lost that money. It is only because I’m anal and write down these amounts that I knew things were wrong (I had deposited close to $150 over the past few months due to birthdays and presents of amazon gift certificates). If I didn’t track these things, I might just think that I had spent more than I remembered. She didn’t have much to offer for that.

So the account is fixed - but they had to give me $25 in promotional because one of my gc just refused to show on my account.

And I’m having to reconsider the whole gift certificate/amazon thing. Blah.

Okay, I’ve made it.

I have recovered, finally.

Now I just need to make it through basic daily stuff. Like work. And the fact that my hairdresser left the salon and I can’t get them to say where she went. Grrr.

Went to yoga today (made up for missing saturday morning) and am going to try to make it to yoga again tomorrow. They are now running three classes per week. I’d be very happy to get to two.

Done well on my goal this week to NOT buy food/drink at work. I hate giving them my money - not to mention the calories and such. Two days good, so far. I bought some strategic groceries and I’ve been resisting afternoon coffees or muffins. I take two containers of fruit, a lunch item, low-fat yogurt, and some kind of veggie.

And with my extra time now throughout the week (my first week with no teaching/marking/prep) I’m going to try out some recipies for homemade muffins, treat cookies, or granola.

In other news, I hate it when I bring my bag home and then don’t unpack it - only to get to work the next morning and see I’ve brought random things back to work. Case in point this morning - my dirty gym socks.

Ewww.

Yep, mine has gotten just a bit too long.

Ended up on one of those spur-of-the-moment night out with girlfriend type evenings. Dinner led to wine, wine led to cab rides downtown, let to the country and western bar (what were we thinking?) and a smirnoff Ice, led to the next club and a mikes hard lemonaid, and then - oh yes then - deciding we should hit the new hot spot in town. With the youngsters lined up. We quickly acknowledged many of them were a good 10-13 years younger than us, but we didn’t give a rat’s ass.

As we get our little wrist bracelet from the door girl “oh, are these the over 30 ones?”

We think we are too funny!

And we dance. And dance. And keep dancing. Until I realise it is coming up on 2am and that 1:30 is when things shift to skanky. I suggest to my friend (a very nice woman from work with two lovely little daughters and a very nice living room set) that if she likes so we can keep fitting in, I could grid against her from behind as she bends over and plays with her boobies. I’d even smack her ass as the one gentleman was doing with his, er, date.

We laughed again.

God we were funny.

She noted that the one fellow needed some different detergent as his shirt must have been itching him - he had to keep pulling it and tugging it and riding it up his chest as he danced on the speaker. She thought she might let him know about the new Tide Sensitive.

And then we were ready to head home.

Our words of wisdom - “let’s leave while this is still the night where we had TOO much fun for words.” And it was. Being all responsible, I waited the fifteen minutes after the cab dropped me off and then confirmed she was home. We chatted for a while about how drunk we ended up, how spontaneous that all was, and how much freaken fun we had. It was a blast. We should totally do this again.

Then came Saturday morning.

At around 5:30 pm I managed to get myself dressed, controlled my headache, put on my shades, and got to her house to get my purse (we had ditched such baggage before heading out that night). She woke up from her spot on the couch to get the door when I arrived. We sat on the porch and agreed - we won’t be doing this again any time soon. She confessed “thank god it is father’s day weekend and [her ex] has the girls.” I was just glad that I only had cats. They thought my day spent on the couch watching Pretty in Pink followed by The Breakfast Club was perfect.

Last night I was well enough to get some marking done, and today I got up early, got groceries, cleaned the kitchen, and did some more marking. I think I’ve made up for the lost time, and it was so totally worth it for the fun we had (that we both really really needed after the last silly week we’ve endured). But yeah, my recovery time has really changed. And I’m okay with that. There’s no worry I’ll ever take to drinking away my paycheque!

(Unless we’re talking soy lattes.)