The shape of things

Sometimes a shape can be funny. Take the shape of a cat. The cat sits in the window and his silhouette is so funny-looking - the ears sticking out on the round fuzzy head which connects directly to the back with no visible neck. I tried to capture this in a photo, but he kept moving.

I walk over and pat him on the head and talk to him in an annoying sing-song voice. I totally do that weird voice-thing when I'm around something cute. Why, why?

Mom has an apron with a very hilarious cat drawing on it. It's as though the cat is totally posing for its portrait. I would really love it if one day she gave me that apron. Then I'd actually use one.

Menno militia

Like the majority of the population, I'm sure, it's a challenge to find something in common with my in-laws (we're not married, but you get the idea). That said, the weekend of the visiting father-in-law was a roaring success. I was a little concerned that there would be gaping holes of awkwardness and too much unnecessary driving, but that was not the case at all. We managed to show him some real highlights of the city, take in a fringe show, avoid major chain restaurants, drink a goodly amount of beer, have interesting conversations, cook him a meal that he enjoyed and walk lots. We even got away with paying for a few things! It truly was an excellent weekend and he genuinely seemed to enjoy himself. I know he was out of his element most of the weekend but he really took it in stride. Poo on me for not giving him enough credit for having a sense of adventure.

One of the places we visited was a Mennonite heritage village. If you really want to hit the message home that you are totally helpless without the comforts of civilisation as we know it, visit this place. Like the guy who had to be a sandwich maker in the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I am utterly useless. I'd love one of those old sewing machines with a foot pump, though.

There was a house there with a little room-divider thingie (that's it in the photo) that reminded me of the old entrance to my grandparents' hotel in Ireland, which was painted white and blue, I think, and had a huge brass knob in the middle of it. I have a memory of arriving in the town they lived in one night in the rain. I must have been about six. I remember seeing that door and feeling just so happy to be there. It forever sticks out in my mind as happiness. Looking at the picture now I don't really know why it brought that memory to mind because they aren't all that similar.

I like doors, especially old ones.

Hey, nice couch

We are the proud owners of a "new" couch. An ad was posted for it in the laundry room for fifty bucks. A couple of days later, it was in the alley. It has been sitting in the middle of our living room for - god - a month now, waiting to be cleaned. I was being really indecisive about how to do that and B just worked around it.

We finally went to the mall last weekend in search of options, and after much running around, decided on a hand-held carpet cleaner. I'm kind of pissed off that this thing is now in our lives because I don't think we'll use it that much - it's pretty bulky and we have no storage space (and that's not just because I hoard stuff!). But at the mall, land of endless stores all selling the same thing, it was the best option. Also, it was like a million percent off at the good old Bay - which figures, because it only half works. We had to hand wash the couch with a soapy rag and then soak up the water using the "vacuum" setting. I say we, but B did it all. He is convinced that we shouldn't return it, that this method is quite effective. That is something Dad would say. Well, the couch looks pretty good now, so I won't complain if the lame cleaning device remains a resident.

We rearranged the furniture so that now it is the two old futons that are in the middle of the living room, on their way to goodwill. Since B's dad is visiting this weekend, they will be gone by tomorrow! Definitely.

Green food

All I've wanted to eat since this heat wave came along is gazpacho soup. After two weeks, I had the brilliant idea of combing some cookbooks for something new and there it was - green gazpacho. It has tomatillos, green onions and peppers, jalapeños, lots of herbs and lime juice. I was really excited to make it. I'm not sure if it was because I didn't use tomatillos (couldn't find any) or because I didn't marinate the vegetables overnight (should've read the recipe through) or what, but I didn't really like it that much. It felt a bit stringy. I will work on that one.

I've been making iced tea nearly every day. I have tonnes of loose green tea and I'm drinking way more of it iced than I ever did hot. It works really well - a few spoons in a big jar of cold water, put it on a sunny windowsill to steep, then add a spoon of concentrated lemonade and shake it up and put it in the fridge. A few hours later, it's gone. Mom made this when we were kids, but with black tea. Yum!

Air con

I hatehateHATE air conditioning. It’s not because I hate being cold. Sometimes, it’s cold. That’s OK. I will dress accordingly. What I hate is that I have to wear socks, long pants and a sweater, and drink a hot drink all day long to keep warm, and outside it’s 35 degrees. It’s absurd. If it was minus 35, or plus 21, I would be fine with taking steps to address the fact that I feel cold. However, nobody should feel cold in 35 degree heat. That is an unnecessary and wasteful cold. Cold in vain.

“But what are other people supposed to do? You can put on more clothes – they can’t take more off.”

Somehow, I don’t see the balance. I am absolutely freezing. I can’t feel my thumbs. You are “comfortable”? Surely we can reach some compromise.

Air conditioning seems to know no compromise. It is either on or off. I would be perfectly fine with an open window, a fan and a cold drink, doing my best to adjust to the heat, since it's hot.

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I wrote most of that a couple of days ago. It still stands, but today, it is ridiculously hot. It is the kind of hot that doesn't go away no matter how still you remain. It is the kind of hot that renders you unable to think of anything interesting to write in your blog. The kind of hot that overheats your computer. It all makes you think you should give up and go to the pub.

Don't just stand there...

I had "Bust a Move" in my head the other day

Your best friend Harry
Has a brother Larry
In 5 days from now
He's gonna marry
He's hopin' you can make it there if you can
'Cause in the ceremony you'll be the best man

If he's your best friend's brother, then why are you the best man?

Unemployment, 4 ways

It's not that I'm unemployed - I'm not. I am just working so little at the moment that some days it feels like I don't have a job. Until things pick up, I will count this as the fourth of The Unemployed Periods of My Life. Here are the other three:

1. The winter/spring after the summer after I graduated, I was jobless for an entire nine months. I was living with my uncle and grandmother at the time. That part was amazing. I really didn't like having so much time on my hands, though.

2. When I was first living with Lolabola, I had no job for about a month. One day I called her at work to talk about a butt crack I had seen walk by our apartment. She was too busy. I thought, I need a job.

3. A few years later, I was living with Ando. We were job-free together, for a month or two. I watched "Best in Show" four times in one week. I can only think of five movies that I've seen more than once since high school, so that is a lot for me.

On Monday, a workless day, as I wandered around my neighbourhood eating chips and drinking pop, for the first time ever I kind of wished I was 16 because then I wouldn't have felt guilty for wasting time. I really don't ever, ever want to be 16 again.

Camping, canoe and camera

B, now back from Atlanta (yay!), and I spent the weekend camping with a couple of friends in an almost-desert. 50 mm less rain annually and it would have made the cut. It rained while we were there, walking through the dunes.

We also took a canoe onto the river. We paddled hard upstream and didn't have to do much at all going back. I have no idea how long we were out there, but long enough to knock us all out once we got back to the campsite. It didn't rain at all while we were canoeing.

The river winds a lot so the view from the canoe changed with every turn. There was one point, when everyone else was doing the work, where I could just sit and drink in the scenery. Everything seemed so serene. I didn't have the camera with me, but it was sunny, and a little bit hazy, and the trees drooped over the river bank except for a little bit of a clearing where you could see the rail line. I don't think that that point was any more beautiful than any other part of the river, but it made me feel really peaceful.

I don't actually have a camera. I'm not really interested in taking pictures. Now that I've started this blog though, I think I need to start taking at least a small interest, just enough to make the writing a little more interesting - like a picture book! So, I've borrowed a camera for a few weeks from my institutional learning facility. I will take many pictures in that time.

Sad little bird

Look at this poor little guy, all covered in dust. I've had him since I was about four. His cage has fallen apart a few times, and now it's held together by a complicated arrangement of invisible string. If it didn't look so daunting, I would take it apart and dust him off. He wouldn't know himself.

Em pointed at this when she was over with some friends and exposed me for the packrat that I deny ever being.

Old emails

Since going back to school, I have revived some old skills. Procrastination is at the top of that list. The other day, when I should have been writing, I sifted through my email folders. The 'sent' box had about 900 messages. Maybe this kind of procrastination was warranted.

I have kept some of my oldest emails around to remind me of what a dickhead I can sound like. Here's a sample:

can I wish you a
happy millennium, or is the assinine word itself
enough to drive you bananas?  Ha!  Happy millennium!
I am saying it as often as possible, every opportunity
I get and THEN some.  I am obnoxious.

What did you do for the MILLENNIUM?
i got wasted and sang karaoke - with a few friends,
but mostly strangers.  Jesus.  I traded toques (that word is
Canada-wide, right?) with a guy.  Yeah.  I loved mine
to death, but, having had it for years, it was time to
let go, it really was.

Anything I write embarrasses me after a while. The thought of this blog, out there, in oblivion, for anyone to read, is a scary one.

Ankle trouble

I sprained my ankle a few weeks ago. It puffed up and I hobbled around for a few days, then it healed – but only to a point. At week three, I decided maybe it was time to address this. I went to a physiotherapist, found in the phone book and chosen over all others because she was close, and I think a little bit because she was a woman. She turned out to have a positivity that was infectious.

She did some tests on me and determined I had damaged three ligaments, which were just taking their sweet-ass time to heal. She gave me a horseshoe-shaped piece of foam to wrap around my ankle. Trying to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do with it was like an episode of Mr Bean. I finally had to get her to show me directly. This is what she meant:

Apparently this is good for the swelling. I have also been instructed to do squats, spell the alphabet with my foot and flap my feet as I cycle.

Flap flap.

8 Random Things

Lolabola tagged me:

1. I don't swim very often. I have never taught swimming, and I haven't competed since I was seven, but swimming is the thing I do best.

2. When we were kids, we lived in a desert city for a while in a fun neighbourhood with a lot of other kids. Em had a red tricycle. One of my happiest memories is standing on the back of it, holding onto her shoulders and riding around as the sun went down.

4. I am not very visual. I don't see things around me. I am better with listening. It's kind of funny that I studied art history in university. I think it was the idea behind the art that drew me to it.

5. Inside my lip, just as it joins the gum, I have a sore. I have no idea what it is or where it came from. It is really sensitive, but only if I move my lip around, which I cannot stop doing because it feels kind of good.

6. Last winter, for the first time ever, I ice-skated as a means of getting from A to B.

7. Short stories are my favourite things to read.

8. I am an incessant list-maker. I once met someone who asked me if I wrote things on my list that I had already done just so I could cross them off. I wish I kept in touch with her.

I am new to blogging, so I will tag someone later on...