Friday, December 31, 2004

bonne annee! New Year's Eve in Paris.

happy new year everyone! we just rung it in with great fanfare in the streets and a really impressive sounding fireworks display (we can't see it from our apartment). people were pouring into the streets to wish each other a hearty parisian 'bonne annee'. grown ups were hanging out of windows (little kids too) yelling bonne annee across the street to the people in the apartments across from each other. the energy was wonderful. it was an amazing thing to see. we were too exhausted to go anywhere, but in some ways it was really nice to see how it's celebrated in an average neighbourhood in paris.

i'm going to bed now 'cause john and i were out walking the streets of paris for 11 hours today and our bed is actually calling our names, no, seriously, listen *mmeeegggaaann... jjjjooohhhhnnn... mmeegggaaann.... jjjoohhhhnnn...* see, could you hear it? yeah, me too. i mean, come on, it's 12:22am, we made it into 2005, and now, now we must sleep.

here's wishing you a wonderful 2005 everyone. be well, and party hearty tonight. and for those who are usually partying at our house tonight and can't 'cause we're, well, in paris, raise a glass for us and just pretend we're all souced and someone is deep throating a champagne flute...


Thursday, December 30, 2004

Happy Birthday to John, Happy Birthday to John, Happy Birthday deeaarr Johhhhhnn, Happy Birthday to John

Today is the birthday of the man I love. So, I’m taking a quick break from Paris blogging in order to tell the world (well, the few readers I have anyway...) about him.

John is 33 today.
John is smart.
John is witty.
John is hansom.
John is caring.
John is a store of useless (but interesting) information.
John is an actor.
John is a singer.
John is a techie (theatre and computer).
John is a designer.
John is creative.
John is loving.
John is patient.
John is strong.
John loves to learn new things.
John makes me laugh.
John appreciates the finer things in life.
John drinks dark beers and red wine.
John hates Strongbow (well, he can’t be perfect now can he?)
John figures out how people learn before he teaches them something new.
John follows me around in stores picking up without complaint the stuff I’ve clumsily knocked over and haven’t even noticed.
John joins in laughing uproariously at burping and farting while my mum and I are gasping for breath because for some reason we think it’s so bloody funny.
John has been my partner for 10 years and almost 9 months now.
John loves to take things apart and put them back together again, usually still in working order.
John does all our plumbing.
John chipped away our stone wall by hand to get at a pipe just ‘cause he felt like doing it that way, instead of, say, renting a hammer drill.
John makes the best Kraft dinner ever. Seriously. Best ever. I have no idea how one would make better Kraft dinner than someone else, but this man manages it.
John is the biggest cat suck I’ve ever met. (I come a close second)
John takes fabulous pictures.
Things are better when John is around.
John makes me happy.
John gets along really well with my mum.
John has really funky glasses.
John quit smoking after 20 years of pretty serious smoking, it’s been four months smoke free (well, mostly smoke free, he has had a couple while here in Paris, but seriously, I’m talking a grand total of 3 in the whole smoke filled trip).
John looks great in charcoal gray.
John is uber competitive, but he knows it and is able to joke about it.
John hates shopping and loves it when I come home with new clothes for him that he hasn’t had to go into a store for.
John comes shopping with me even though he hates it. He even comes into Winners with me, even though it’s his most despised place on the planet.
John loves video games.
John loves to read.
John likes movies.
John reads to me when we go to bed (and I to him sometimes).
John has a fabulous ass.
John stuck with me through six months of hellish depression (before I was diagnosed) very early on in our relationship when most people would have bolted.
John made me feel safe.
I love John more than I ever thought I could love someone.
There are many things about John that make him one of my heroes.
I love John very very very much.
John is an all around wonderful person.

Happy birthday my love.

If you know John and want to leave your observations about him in the comments then I welcome them here and I’ll make sure he gets them.


In the meantime here are some photos of the man I adore so very much who celebrates a birthday today:


Who else can manage to look galant on a subway?



He's so cute right after he's been tickled...


The next four are a small project he's undertaken during our visit in Paris. Cheesy photos he takes of himself in front of tourist destinations.


From the Eiffel Tour



In front of the Louvre



In front of the opera house



In front of Les Galeries Lafayette


And just a normal not camp picture of my love.
This has been a big public declaration of love from Megan Mooney (mainja) to John Bourke.
big hugs and kisses to you as you enter your 34th year my love.

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

french food, it's good, but, well, even it can get boring, oh, and a hammam, and paris transit, and, well, random stuff

okay, so here's the thing about french food. it's delicious. it's rich. it's often beautiful.

but it's also a little monotonous. (for me, 'cause, well, i don't eat fish, and we're going to cheap places, 'cause, well, paris is expensive. even cheap places are expensive. i do know that there is a great variety available if you look for it and pay for it. here's the other secret though, i generally don't like most french food, the stuff i like i really like, but it's stuff like, oh, i don't know, steake frites)

i'm the type of person who likes some variety in what they eat. i like different ethnic foods. so, i'm hoping that starting tomorrow we can stop eating in cafes and start eating in indian, african, japanese, chinese etc etc etc restaurants. i anticipate this will not be an issue, since where mum and mark live in rural south of france, there is pretty much no 'ethnic' option, and i think mum is going through withdrawl.

a little update on what we did today... well, lets start with yesterday actually. yesterday my mum and i went to a hammam at the grande mosquée de paris (yep, that's a mosque). there's loads of stuff about hammams on the interweb, but the two articles that brought us there were this from a newsletter, and this from an expat's website. mum described our visit on her blog, so, with this wealth of information, i really don't feel a need to go into it, basically, just that it was amazing, like stepping into another world. it felt like i was in a movie or something. very cool.

but i do bring it up because it does in some way inform today. while in the hammam you cover yourself with this slick soap stuff, then hang out in a room made entirely of marble. you following me so far? well, in the hottest room there are these steps up into the pool, and i wanted to sit on the steps, so i (very very very carefully) started climbing the wide steps (there are only 4 steps or so) and got to the top. where i gently lowered myself down to sit, and promptly slid off. zip. thunk. thunk. thunk. did i mention it was marble? you'd be surprised, i'm sure, at just how little give there is in marble. as a result, all the give had to come from my body. so, well, it did. now i have a big bruise on my ass, and i have whacked myself out of allignment, my hip is all wonky (i need my chiropractor, whaaaaa!). basically, it means a lot of pain, and a big wimp walking (seriously, i'm useless walking right now. *sigh*).

so, today was lots of busses. you know, build your own bus tour. that's the joy of having a carte orange (metro pass), not only it is bound to be cheaper, but you don't hesitate to take a bus for a block or two. anyway, it was pretty cool. we explored a couple of touristy places, like momartre, place des voges (i can't spell these, but i'm tired, i'll fix them later).

tomorrow we're going whole hog tourist, toure eiffel, arc de triomphe, le louvre. we figure we'll do all the really touristy stuff in one day.

oh, i just remembered what else we did today, we tried to go to st. chapell, but there was a huge line up. oh, and yesterday mum and i walked by notre dame and there was a line up to the back of the square (where the metal detector was christmas eve) so we breathed a collective sigh of relief that we had gone when we did.

and now i should get some rest for the big day ahead.

Monday, December 27, 2004

language mix-ups

okay, i'm exhausted, but have much to tell. so rather than slaughtering it in my exhausted state i will just relay a story my mum told me over wine in a cafe today...

we were talking about someone having their "fingers in lots of pies" and she said that it reminder her of a story. it made us laugh loudly (i know, hard to believe, my mother and i laughing loudly together, that *never* happens *grin*)

a friend of hers told her about a fench woman that he knows and a conversation they were having. this woman speaks very good english, even has a grasp of colloquial sayings, which i must say always impresses me.

so she was talking to graham and said (imagine this in a french accent) "he is a very busy man, he, how do you say it? he has is fingers in many tarts"

and we laughed and laughed and laughed. see, sometimes it's dangerous just picking out the french word and substituting it for the english (or, in my case the english word said with a french accent a lot of hope).

night folks.

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Exploring Paris, and delicious French Food, yay France!

so, i'm not sure exactly where we went today, but i'd say we stayed in the 11th arrondisment 'cause we walked. and walked. and walked. we were walking for a little over 6 hours, but with a break for lunch in there. it was fabulous. i took some pictures that i promise to post someday, but i'm too tired tonight and have to go to bed.

anyway, it was great, just exploring and seeing everything. it's not the paris i remember from my childhood, in fact, it's a lot like the cities i've been to in the south of france. i suspect most of that has to do with the area we're in, although i do wonder how much of it has to do with seeing it through the eyes of an adult and not the eyes of an eight year old.

and then for dinner i had one of my favourite meals, which is always better in france... roast chicken (bought from a butcher with an open store front, you know, the pre-roasted kind), parisian potatoes roasted in the chicken fat (mmmmm, chicken fat *grin*), baguette with cultured butter, and half a cucumber sliced. it was soooooo good. yum yum. anyway, it's always better in france because all the ingredients, which are available at home, are somehow better here. (geeze, i'm talking about food again. apparently paris is all about food for me).

the one funny experience that happened today (other than the declaring myself a prostitute this morning, which i already blogged about) was when we were walking home. a couple guys were on a scooter on the sidewalk and i damn near got run over. but all was forgiven because the driver (very hot driver i might add...) exclaimed "ooh la la" and we all burst out laughing. i'm telling you, a big smile and laughter can get you out of most jams.

so, now i am going to retire to bed and dream of the flea market day ahead of us tomorrow. maybe we'll go to some touristy spots too, we'll see. stay tuned and find out. *grin*

an unintended result... i didn't mean it like *that*

okay, here's a quickie before we go out for real today.

apparently i implied that i was a hooker at the local bakery.

yep. you read that right.

john and i went to the bakery this morning, the one with the amazing croissants, to pick up some stuff for the bread and stuff (which were of course, delicious).

so, i ordered everything, then told john how much it was and i laughingly said to the woman behind the counter "i'm here because i speak french, he's here to spend the money" or something to that effect. then we both laughed.

then as i was leaving her and the woman with her broke into uproarious peals of laughter, and really, it wasn't *that* funny. so, the only explanation i have come up with is that it sounded like i was saying 'i'm a woman for hire'.

yep. uh huh. fun fun fun. and it's the closest and best bakery around, so i have to go back in there every day. *sigh*

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Christmas in Paris, yep, Paris France...

So, today was Christmas Day in gay Paris. It was a really lovely day. I know that some people are going to balk in horror when I say this but… I haven’t left the apartment all day. Seriously. I know that seems like some horrible thing to do when in Paris, but you know, I don’t feel one big guilty. I had a wonderful day.

It started with the best croissants I’ve ever had, from the bakery just down the street and were so fresh they melted in my mouth (oh, that might have been all the butter they use when making croissants…) because, although I didn’t leave the apartment my mum woke up early and headed over to the bakery.

We also had our traditional Christmas morning panatone, but this was also the best panatone I’ve ever had, also very fresh. In Guelph the panatone is not so fresh. My guess I that in Toronto you can probably find it fresh somewhere, but I always just get it from Mr. Kiwi (okay, Market Fresh) where they import it from Europe. It’s good, but just not *this* good.

So, we dug into our stockings like children and laughed and joked and generally just had a wonderful morning. And then we followed that up with the embibing of champagne and eating some of the best hummus, tzatiki and other random dips I’ve ever had, and a showing of the play I was in (which was taped on our second last performance). It was the first time I’d seen it, and although it’s always painful to see yourself on screen (well, it is for me anyway) I really enjoyed it. It was a reminder of what a great production it was.

Then mum and John went out for a little walk and I cleaned up the Christmas remnants and had a nap. The little walk was 3 hours long, and my nap was probably a good 2 hours of that. Oh, and I dreamt about the show, which was pretty funny. I’m in that strange space where you’re glad it’s done because it takes so much time and energy, but also really really missing it, missing the people in the show, missing the audiences, missing the pink wig, missing it all in general.

When mum and John got back John laid down for a nap and mum started dinner. It was a delicious Christmas dinner, braised lamb with white beans, brussel sprouts (I can just hear Kate drooling now *grin*), really amazing green beans, and potatoes with a feta and herb spread and a, well, spread that was pretty much just pureed garlic (for those who remember it, think Krista’s first Christmas dinner party “hummus” only really really tasty – nothing like inside jokes on a blog eh? *grin*). This also involved Champagne, and red wine, and for mum and Mark and John brandy (I’m not so much a brandy kind of girl myself, who knows, maybe I’ll learn to love it someday, for now it’s just too boozy for me, I’m a booze wimp) We then played a hand of Euchre where John and I got severely trammeled by mum and Mark, which seemed a good time to move on to dessert. No trifle this Christmas dinner, but something just wonderful and not something I can make with relative ease, so really, it was better. Unfortunately I can’t remember what the hell it’s called. It’s something they only make for Christmas and New Year’s here, it’s a something de Roi I think. It’s basically some kind of pastry, shaped like a pie, with an almond filling like you would find in an almond croissant at home. It normally comes with a crown, and there is a toy in the pie. The person who gets the toy (which was me in this case) gets to wear the crown. Kind of like the money cake idea at home, only with a bit of public humiliation mixed what with the required donning of a crown… Yum yum yum!

We followed that up with another rousing hand of euchre accompanied by some rousing, well, flatulence (I blame the beans and brussel sprouts). And, since my mum and John and I have the sense of humour of an eight year old we were reduced to peels laughter every time someone farted, which was really quite frequently). And much laughing at other various things, ‘cause, well, that’s what my mum and I do when we get together, we laugh. With gusto. Frequently. And loudly. It’s so much fun, and an excellent abdominal workout to boot.

Hmmmm. Anyone else notice that this post has seemed to revolve completely around food? No, me neither. Nope. No food here. I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Okay, so, maybe all that could have happened anywhere, what with the whole not leaving the apartment thing, but it didn’t, it happened in Paris. And if it weren’t Paris I couldn’t have had the best croissants I’ve ever had, or the yummy dessert thing, or listen to the people on the street below as they banter back and forth in French…

I’m going to close with something from yesterday since there should be something in here that involves me being out in public in Paris. I discovered a cultural difference yesterday that I haven’t noticed in my previous trips to Paris (although I’m sure it’s not a Paris-centric phenomenon). In Paris old men have no compunction about checking out younger women. None. Seriously. Yesterday I was walking through a market and I must have had about 7 different old (okay, not old, but WAY too old for me, probably mid 50’s and up) men check me out. And not subtly. I’m telling you, they would walk towards me, check me up and down, look at my boobs again, then look up and me and get this really smarmy grin on their faces. A couple of them even raised their eyebrows in a ‘come hither’ kind of way. I was telling my mum about it and she said that it was just a French thing. I don’t know, I mean, I guess I should feel a little bit flattered, and if it were younger guys I probably would, I mean, it’s always a bit of a nice warm fuzzy feeling for me when I get checked out (I know some people hate it, but what can I say, I’m an ego hog, and it boosts my ego), but the old factor, well, that kind of made it creepy. Well… some kind of mix between creepy and funny. I do remember when I was in the Aude a million years ago for a couple months while I was helping my mum renovate her house at the time I did have a kind of funny attempted pick up from someone (remind me to tell that story some time, it’s amusing, but not tonight, this post is already stupidly long), but he was probably only in his late 20s (I was probably about 24 at the time, but I’m one of those people who can look older or younger depending on the day) and one of the first things he asked me before proceeding was how old I was.

So, there is my cultural lesson. Women, when coming to Paris be prepared to be eyed by older men.

Okay, so, this is ridiculously long now, so if you stuck it out and read the whole thing thanks a bunch and I’ll see about being more brief in the future.

Friday, December 24, 2004

Maybe I'll do a travel log...

So, apparently when I said I wasn’t going to write in my blog while I was away I lied.

I think I’m going to use it as a kind of travel journal. This will all depend on how much time and/or energy I have of course. So, who knows, maybe the journal will just be this one post.

My plan is to post some photos too if John lets me use the camera.

So, today…

We arrived this morning, yep our plane, that actually did manage to make it out of Toronto, despite the horrible snow. I won’t bore you with tedious details of the flight. It was like all cross Atlantic flights. Long, cramped, stuffy. Although, on the way out I did steal (shhhh, don’t tell anyone) an unopened courtesy pack from first class that someone had left behind.

Anyway, we got to the apartment and there were no keys. And no mum and Mark. So we got into the main part of the apartment and I left John to guard the luggage (and rest) while I went in search of a phone card (payphones here don’t take such primitive things as coins), but the only tabac I found was a tabac/bar combo and was stuffed to the gills with old French men chain smoking. Seriously, not one woman in sight. So, I did as any yellow bellied lily livered young woman would do, I turned and walked the other way, continuing my search for somewhere else. Unfortunately, that wasn’t so fruitful and in the end I was in the first tabac with a million guys, although there was now one woman, behind the counter. I got the card, found a payphone and proceeded to try and call mum’s cell phone. Apparently I am not skilled in the use of telephones. Well, not French ones anyway. It took me a million tries (well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but only slight mind you.) and I finally figured out that I didn’t have to dial the 33, ‘cause I was already in France, so yeah, the country code, not so necessary (but hey, gimme a break, I hadn’t slept much in the previous 24 hours). In the end I got hold of mum, who was just around the corner, we met up, got into the apartment and all was golden.

Then mum and I went out to buy food, figuring not much will be open Christmas day so we’d better get our asses in gear and get some food in the fridge. We went to a lovely café for lunch, where some very loud old drunk Frenchman professed his love for Canadians. At length. Then after a brief reprieve, he started again. Still very loud. And again at length. Oh, and he was slurring (see previous comment regarding blotto state of being), which meant that his very loud very long diatribes were also very hard to understand. Lunch was delicious. John was in the apartment sleeping while all this was going on.

We got back to the apartment and John and I traded places and I slept. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Tonight, we went wandering.

Part of our wandering took us to Notre Dame. We decided to go inside. On Christmas Eve. I know this is going to surprise everyone very much, but apparently a catholic church is a popular place on Christmas Eve. Okay, so no one is very surprised by that, but what did surprise me was that you had to go through a metal detector and then run the gauntlet through several (very hansom) security guards to get anywhere near the church itself. I kid you not. A metal detector. Now, to be fair, everyone was setting off the metal detector and they weren’t stopping anyone from going in, so my guess is it was meant to be a visual deterrent and that’s about it, but still. I mean, a metal detector to get into a church?

Inside was amazing. You couldn’t see much, it was packed and there was a Christmas Eve mass going on, which was really bloody cool. I’m not religious or anything, but I am a theatre grad and lover, so I have a great appreciation for the proceedings, simply as theatre. And then the choir sang. It was wonderful. They echoed through the whole place, you could feel it in your body.

So, that’s day one. Stay tuned, who knows, maybe I’ll keep writing…

Thursday, December 23, 2004

tra la la, gay paris...

well folks, i hop onto a plane today to go to gay paris (thanks for the ride kate).

i may or may not be blogging while i'm gone, just so you're forewarned.

so, a fabulous holiday season to you all, and i will do my best to post pictures.

toodles!

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

same-sex marriage - check another one off the list

well, in a very happy trend Newfoundland and Labrador has joined Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and the Yukon in legalizing same-sex marriages.

yay for happy holiday news.

i'm not holding my breath for Alberta any time soon, but I do wonder what is taking Manitoba, Northwest Territories and Nunavut so long.

oh well, i'll be happy with what i get.

so, yay for legal same-sex marriage in yet another province.


Sunday, December 19, 2004

real life vs. the internet

okay, so i'm guessing every in the world has seen this but me, but i just got introduced to it through bree.

it's the redvsblue.com video of a PSA for real life vs the internet. it's very funny.

pictures from the show

so, tonight was the last show of the play i'm in. *sniff*

but, the good news is that i can post the pictures from it here for all to enjoy now that it's done.

so, below, some pictures from the penis and boobs show, er, i mean, the emperor's new clothes...

oh, and sorry that they're all in seperate posts, it's annoying, but i don't really know how to do it otherwise.


"check out your new suit, your new magic suit"  Posted by Hello


"we are what we are..." Posted by Hello


Me and my big brother. He's not in the play, but he did don this fun hat (which I wear in the play) for photographic interest... Posted by Hello


"some folks say that we're just a couple of scum bags..." Posted by Hello

Friday, December 17, 2004

yay for snooze

see, thanks to people like snooze and lee i don't actually have to write my own blog entries 'cause theirs just tickle me so much that i can just link to them here.

snooze tells of her friend's (very amusing) take on the saying (which i've never heard before and am actually vaguely curious what the hell it actually means...) When the river runs red, take the dirt road

a good holiday laugh

i think lee at glitter for brains is my new hero.

in his post "The Top Ten Christmas Facts" he made me laugh out loud several time.

my favourite had to be this one (mum, this is the kind of thing you and i would sit and laugh uproariously at while john and mark rolled their eyes)

* Every year, it is traditional for the reigning British monarch to broadcast a jovial Christmas message to their subjugated masses while they are enjoying their customary luncheon of coal and jam. Our current sovereign Queen Elisabeth II has recorded forty-seven of these messages and, over the years, has accidentally said 'fuck' in them ninety-eight times. The current fastest time for the potty-mouthed princess was the 1976 broadcast which came in at 3.08 seconds when it started with "So, is this fucking thing on, then?" There then was a sigh, followed by "Fuck. I've fucking gone and done it a-fucking-gen, haven't I? Fuck."
seriously, the man is my hero, who can just think of this shit out of no where.

lee, if you weren't gay, already married, live a million miles away, and i wasn't already partnered, i would ask you to marry me.

oh what the hell. lee, will you marry me?



Thursday, December 16, 2004

stocking time

so, soon it will be time to hang for john and i to hang our stockings by the fire with care..

well, actually, it will be mum and mark and john and i. and it will be in an apartment in paris, so there will likely not be any fire. oh, and probably we won't do it with much care, i foresee a lot of wine on christmas eve (i'm clarvoiant you see)...

today i went stocking stuffer shopping, and although i hate shopping, man i love getting stocking stuffers. and this year there was an added challenge, because i needed to make sure that everything was able to be consumed right away, cheap enough to enjoy for the day and then leave behind in the apartment, or useful enough to actually want to bother carrying back on the train. it was fun to add that little element in there. man, i love getting stocking stuffers for my mum. i could just get bags and bags of stuff, just for her. *sigh* it's sooo exciting to be able to stuff her stocking again this year. of course she and john both read this blog, so no, i won't be outlining any of my exciting finds.

also, just for fun, i bought us all stockings. they were at a dollar store. so we'll have actual stockings that we can just leave behind. fun fun fun!

i can't believe we leave in a week. hmmm. maybe i should do something about arranging transportation to the airport. hey kate...


Wednesday, December 15, 2004

continuing with the movie theme...

my 'little sister' and i went to see alfie tonight.

okay, so, confession is good for the soul, right? well, i confess, i've never been too much for jude law. i enjoy him as an actor, but he doesn't have the same makes me weak in the knees effect he seems to have on so many others.

that is, until i saw alfie.

oh my god. he may be the most beautiful man on the planet in this movie. i nearly melted into my seat. (side note, cameron, you owe it to yourself to go see this movie)

sexy sexy sexy. i wanted to jump up into the screen and be with him. and i mean "be with" him.

how one person can be quite so sexy is a bit beyond me.

very well worth the price of admission to sit and objectify him for a couple hours.

oh, and it was a pretty good movie too.


Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Blade Trinity

so, gregg and i went to see ray last week. which i enjoyed by the way, but really, not the point of this post.

while in the lobby of the theatre i saw a poster for blade trinity. here is the not-actually-noteworthy exchange that happened when i saw it.

me: groan
gregg: what?
me: i can't believe they've made a third blade. i mean, come on...
gregg: uh, okay
me: and you know the worst part about it?
gregg: no
me: you know i'm going to go see it... *sigh* *hanging head in shame*


anyway, this morning i read a wonderful post at glitter for brains that confirmed my fears and may in fact induce me to wait until it comes out on video. thank you lee. thank you for watching out for my movie going money.

it was very funny and made my morning, you should go read it...

Monday, December 13, 2004

holiday season, what's that?

okay, a few things have conspired against my being even the slightest bit prepared for the holiday season this year.

first, being in a play that rehearses 5 nights a week, and then runs the last 3 weekends before christmas (you'd be surprised how little time this leaves you).

second, planning the premier's summit on agri-food (not to imply i was the sole planner on this, far from it, but it's a big big job, and even as one of the many planners/implementers it took up a lot of my time and energy)

third, looking for a permenant gig. don't get my wrong. i love my job, it's loads of fun. but it's just a contract. i want something permenant, you know, so i can get my teeth cleaned and stuff.

so, the fates have conspired against me and the holidays this year. today i had two exciting moments. first, i realised that next week i fly to france (john and i are meeting my mum and her partner in paris for christmas and new years). second, i got an email from my dad saying that we were having christmas dinner tonight. yep. that's right. tonight. he sent it on wednesday, but i was in toronto with the aforementioned premier's summit and haven't been back to my office until today, and for some reason he didn't copy my personal email on the message.

tonight i bought my dad's christmas present on the way to christmas dinner. now, to be fair, i knew what i wanted to get him a long time ago. like, 6 months ago or so. i just hadn't managed to get my ass out the door and buy it yet.

so on the way to dinner john and i stopped at canadian tire and bought him his very fun present. (a combo battery operated tool set, it's got a reciprocating saw, a circular saw, a drill, a dustbuster and a flashlight, all of which work on the same battery - oh, and it comes with two batteries, it was really sweet, after we'd all opened presents i made him open it up so i could play with it, i felt a wee bit like i was 12...)

while at canadian tire we also bought wrapping paper, scissors and tape.

then we stood in the parking lot and wrapped this set of tools (which is very big by the way) in the minus a million (celcius) weather. it was fun.

the best part was when a woman walked by and cheered us on and said something to the effect of "now that's the way to do it".

yay for holidays...

now, must sleep. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Saturday, December 11, 2004

flash resume - how to make your resume fun

okay, so, this is from some fellow who is currently attending university in montpellier, a couple hours drive or so from my mum's place (in the south of france for those who may not know that my mum is there, the blog in my blogroll that is 'aude, france' is her blog).

there is a french version and an english version. cadence and rhythm is better on the french version, but if you don't speak french then make sure you watch the english one too so that you can be blown away by how much stuff this guy has done. plus of course the english one has him singing in english with a very appealing french accent. if you know both french and english then watch both and marvel at the excellent translation into english, except for a couple areas it was really excellent. god i hope he had someone else translate it for him. if he's able to do a french to english translation that well on top of everything else then he's just too talented to be a real person and next time i am in france visiting my mum (well, not next time, 'cause next time is in a couple of weeks and we're meeting in paris, but the next time after that) i will track him down and prove my burgeoning theory that actually he is from an alien race... sorry, where was i?

oh yeah, and by my calculations (which are pretty easy since he says he was born in '82) he's only 22.

btw, tip o' the hat to john for this, although he just thought i might think it was interesting, but actually, for some reason just adore it and have watched both the french and the english a couple times now..

his website is http://www.alstudio.fr.st/. there's a picture too, it would appear that on top of being stupidly talented, he's also a cutie.

Friday, December 10, 2004

something you've probably already seen...

tip o' the hat goes to john for this one, although apparently paddy has it on her blog already and i'm sure it's a million other places too.

right wing americans dissing canada


***UPDATE*** (which doesn't have anything to do with the topic, but rather with my complete lack of grammar acuity, or apostrophe acuity perhaps...)

OMG! how could i do it? i put an apostrophe in that link where there clearly shouldn't be one. i have now fixed it, but i will shamefully post my original mistake here so that if you've just come to this post and are wondering what kind of drugs i'm on, just know that they're really cheap drugs and not very good. oh, and the original stated: right wing american's dissing canada (arrrg. see, just looking at it now makes me cringe. what would have possessed me to put that apostrophe there? my only defence is the fact that i have had very little sleep this week)

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

off i go

okay, so, i'm off to work shortly. that will mark the beginging of what will likely be the 3 most stressful days of my past year (perhaps of the past several years, who knows).

i was going to spell it out for you guys, but that's not that interesting, just trust me, it's going to be insane.

what i'm saying is, there is very little chance of me blogging until saturday, unless i manage to find a) a free moment, and b) somewhere to blog from (i'll be in toronto).

toodles all!

oh, and if you're in guelph, don't forget to come check out "the emperor's new clothes" at guelph little theatre (www.guelphlittletheatre.com)

Monday, December 06, 2004

alternate explanations...

okay all you wise folks out there in the blogosphere, i'm looking for some possible alternate explanations other than the one that initially came to mind for me and the party in question...

here's the situation.

i have this friend, lets call her jill. she's sort of seeing this guy, lets call him jack.

she met jack on nerve and they really hit it off.

the one weird thing is that jack never gave jill his phone number, all the contact came through email and through him calling her. but, to be fair, jill had never actually asked jack for his phone number.

well, tonight she did. as he was leaving she said something to the effect of "you know, i still don't have your phone number, i should grab that from you"

he said something to the effect of "yeah, um, i can't let you in on that yet, but i'll tell you all about it soon"

then he hugged her and left.

then she called me and said "i hate boys, well, sometimes i like the, but sometimes i hate them" and told me the whole story.

now, the first thing that popped into my head, and her head, and john's head was "married". maybe not married in the sense of an actual wedding, but married in the sense of living with a partner.

but we're curious, jill and i, what other explanations may be possible.

i suggested that perhaps he lived with his parents and was embarrassed. she said she was pretty sure he didn't because he recently went to visit them.

john proposed the idea that he was perhaps in the middle of a messy divorce and didn't want to get jill in the middle of it. this one is vaguely plausible, but still very odd that he wouldn't just be forthright with that kind of information

i suggested the idea of him not actually having a phone and only ever called her from work. but then we agreed that would be a pretty silly thing to hid.

i don't know, perhaps he's just completely daft and thinks this would be a good way to build some intrigue into a burgeoning relationship.

what do you think? can you think of any other explanations?

one things for certain, jack better tell jill what the heck that oblique little comment meant or jack and jill won't be going up that hill together again for a while...

a time to reflect (and apparently time to vent for me)

so, today, december 6th, 2004, is the 15th anniversary of the 1989 shooting of 27 women (killing 14 and wounding 13 others) at montreal's l'ecole polytechnique.

they were shot because they were women attending an engineering school. well. to be fair, they were shot because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. they happened to be in the class room on the day that a psycho decided to go to school and kill as many women as he could before killing himself.

i do think that it's a good thing that out of this terrible tragedy good movement forward has been made, and at least there is recognition of problems. but really people, saying that this guy shot 27 women because he was anti-feminist is kind of like saying billy shot those kids in his school because of that heavy metal he was listening to, or how jimmy killed himself because he was playing dungeons and dragons. (i know those are both male names, but in truth, i've never heard that kind of argument for when a girl/woman does some crazy thing). i guess i just get frustrated at the fact that it feels like people are saying 'if only women were seen as equals this wouldn't have happened'. the guy was nuts. what society thought didn't so much matter. because no matter how unequal we feel as women in a 'man's world', which was probably worse 15 years ago than it is now, it doesn't mean that world condones the murder of people based on their sex. it means we get paid less on the dollar. it means we deal with a glass ceiling. it means that people call us sluts and men studs. it means a lot of crappy stuff, a lot of double standards. but it doesn't mean disposable life. not in canada anyway, not now, and not in 1989.

i was in highschool when this happened. i remember how horrified everyone was. there was no one saying 'who cares, they were just women'. the guy was crazy. not a product of a misogynistic society.

okay, sorry, apparently i needed to vent. i'm done now.

but yes, take time today to reflect on this terrible tragedy. and to reflect on the hardships other women face. then think about how far we've come. how much strength we've gained. and how much more we'll gain in the coming years. i know i'm an optimist, but i believe that someday, likely in my lifetime, men and women will be seen as equal.

Sunday, December 05, 2004

bras bras bras, those wonderful bras...

i thought i'd already written this on my blog this week, but in looking at what i've written apparently i just dreamed that i wrote it.

i have a question about bras.

while asking this question i will be speaking with vast generalizations, i do realise this doesn't hold true for all women, but this is speaking from my personal experience and from conversations i've had with many other women...

now, the question (i can tell you're dying to know what the question is, i'm just trying to build suspense, the anticipation makes what is otherwise a mundane question that much more interesting...) why do you suppose it is that:

when you're young, in say, grade 7 or 8, you fight the idea of wearing a bra tooth and nail. there is little that you can imagine being more mortifying than having someone, especially a *gasp* boy, notice that you are wearing a bra. about the only thing more mortifying at that age is the idea of someone finding a pad or tampon in your backpack (wait, these both seem to have something to do with growing up, hmmmmm....) but...

when you're an adult the idea of leaving the house without a bra on is unthinkable? or, well, not unthinkable, but it usually accompanies the grotty jeans and sweat shirt that you are wearing to go grocery shopping at some stupidly early hour on a saturday morning (which for me is something like 10am, stupidly early is completely relative) and you are assuming that the chances are one in a million that you're going to see anyone you know so you don't care. but then, inevitably you see someone, probably that hot guy from the video store that you are always flirting with in that totally innocent, but still really nice feeling ego-boosting kind of way, and you spend the whole conversation with your arms crossed in front of you hoping that he will overlook the dishevelled unwashed hair, the ripped sweatshirt and the 13 year old jeans (the ones that are the most comfortable pair of pants in the world but have only reached this level of comfort enlightenment by sacrificing the shallow values held by other loftier pairs of pants, things like attractiveness, a flattering fit, a lack of holes, etc.) and just, well, just not notice that on top of all that you're not wearing a bra.

wait. where was i going with this?

oh yeah, why embarrassed to be wearing a bra when young, and embarrassed to not be wearing a bra when old... er... um... post-teen?

Saturday, December 04, 2004

robots in disguise

so, this comes via bree and is super cool.

she points out that it is vancouver in the background, which once she said it i realised, although i wouldn't have noticed otherwise. but my question is, why is the background for a UK citroen commercial vancouver?

if you're interested in how it's made you can find out here, thanks to marja-leena rathje who left this as a comment on bree's site.

mum's are the best!

hee hee hee. my mum rocks.

i just noticed this in the comments to my 'a fine line' post:
Conceited?!! You're the best actor in the whole world!!! How could you even let the word conceited cross your mind?
Love you, Mum


Friday, December 03, 2004

SCANDAL!

okay, so, for those of you who haven't been involved in community theatre before (which i imagine is most of you), let me tell you, it is always fraught with politics.

somtimes it's fun gossipy politics, like, who's boinking who. but mostly, mostly it's annoying sematic politics.

the show i'm in right now is unfortunately boinking free, which leaves us with sematics.

the show is the emperor's new clothes. those of you who know the fairy tale (which, again, i imagine is most of you) then you know there's a bit where the emperor walks through the streets naked. well, what the emperor will wear in this particular scene has been a major fiasco. first it was just boxer shorts. then there was some concern about the exposure of nipples (heaven forefend!) so they had him in a body suit and bloomers. anyway, the whole thing has been blown way out of proportion, it became some huge drama. because every theatre must have drama. i feel sorry for the guy who plays the emp. he was pretty sick of it. he just wanted one person to make a decision and tell him what he was going to wear. anyway, it's all sorted out now, but man oh man.

then the next piece of drama to do with the emperor is in one scene where he is wearing a skin tight suit and apparently there is some concern with his 'bulge'. because, you know, he can't possibly have a penis. anyway, so this is apparently the controversy of the day now.

but wait! there's more!

i just found out today that people are worried my boobs are going to come out of my bra. i promise you, my boobs are not going to pop out. i will not be doing the guelph version of janet jackson at the super bowl.

so, now, at this children's musical pantomime (which is very fun by the way and people are really enojying it, if you are close enough geographically you should come see it, it's at Guelph Little Theatre) the talk of the cast party seemed to drift a great deal to jeff's penis and my boobs. so, it's the boobs and penis show. the penis and boobs show? not sure which sounds better.

anyway, having said all that, i am really really enjoying the show. i have a great time in it. today the author of the show said i was born to be in pantomime. he said he had never imagined my character could be what she is and he loves it.

oh, and for those keeping track... tonight was opening night and i survived it. i took advil and sudafed and let adrenaline do the rest. other than not actually being able to sing 'cause of my throat (it's okay, the character can get away with not being able to sing) i think it all worked out pretty well.


***ADDED NOTE***

i was telling john this story and he said:

"well, it's like terry (another community theatre guy we know) always says -- "they care so much because it matters so little"

which i'm pretty sure is my favourite quote on the whole thing so i just had to make sure i got it on here for the world to laugh along with me.

cold meds reccomendation

okay folks. i need your help. i have a cold. and my show opens tonight. i have to sing and dance and yell on stage tonight and my throat feels like i've been swallowing sandpaper and my head is full of cotton.

what's the best cold medication out there? what will kick my symptoms into remission for the course of the play tonight?


Wednesday, December 01, 2004

apparently CIBC is trying to cut costs

well, you know, it's not like banks are making a profit or anything. they need to cut costs however possible, right?

**UPDATE**

to my non-canadian readers... (as requested in the comments)

canadian tire is a hardware store type of place that has a wide variety of products. they also do vehicle servicing (although they generally do it quite poorly) and sell gas. it used to be that all the best terrible customer service stories came from a canadian tire experience, although they seem to be getting better. having said that, i just saw a stand up comic on CBC the other night dissing their service, so maybe they're reputation continues.

every time you make a purchase at canadian tire they give you back 'canadian tire money', (some precentage of the amount of money you've spent i assume) which rumour says is printed by the royal canadian mint and is the same paper and process, but really, who knows. anyway, it's just a customer loyalty incentive. you can spend canadian tire money just like normal money at the store, and there are lots of places that will take it at par on certain nights and stuff. like, restaurants may accept it at par on a tuesday for instance. or, fantasia dealers (another canadian thing, think tupperware parties only with sex toys) sometimes take it at par.

many canadians have wild amounts of canadian tire money stashed away. john's brother and sister-in-law bought a breadmaker with their canadian tire money a little while ago. john and i have a big tin on the top of the fridge and we spend it every now and again.

and that is the story of canadian tire money.





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