first day at the new job

first, let me open by saying, i am currently eating the best lemon bars known to man, made by my absolutely wonderful new roommate. yum yum yum!

so, the bad stuff first:
- i have been so stressed about this i managed to acquire not one, but two great big coldsores
- i started getting dressed this morning to discover i didn't bring any bras with me (i was drying them before packing and completely forgot them) so, i have one, that i will have to wash every night and cameron will have to see hanging on the shower curtain, i'm sure it's his dream.
- this morning i discovered to top it all off, i have my period
- i got to work and my manager was late so i had to sit around in the lobby looking goofy for half an hour
- once i got settled into my office (that will be in the good stuff list) i realised i didn't have a working phone, and i wasn't set up on the network at all
- they haven't been able to get me a security pass yet, the bathroom is outside the secure area, so every time i have to pee someone has to buzz me in, and i drink a lot of water, so, well, i pee a lot
- i had a long convoluted lunch adventure trying to grab a quick bite at the cafeteria (too long a story to go into, but just believe me when i say it sucked)
- and just in general, first days are always exhausting

the good stuff:
- so much went wrong that i'm guaranteed that next week will be better
- i have a big wonderful office, with a door, and a big wall of windows.
- i have a fabulous view of some green space and the parliament buildings
- everyone in my office seems really really nice
- i still love my manager, it wasn't just a fluke thing from the interview, she's super cool
- i was told that the hope for this position was that it would go long term, they hired me with the view that i would be there for a while, long past this initial 1 year contract
- i was assigned the lead on a really big project my first day, so i really must have impressed these people
- i am totally psyched (yes, i just said totally psyched) about the job, the work seems exciting and right in line with what i love
- i came home to find my dear dear roommate had left me stunning lemon bars to eat
- i have a wonderful roommate

so, as you can see, the good stuff FAR outweighs the bad stuff, since the good stuff is long term, the bad stuff is short term. so all in all, i am very very happy right now.

sing it babeee, sing it!

happy birthday to meeee,
happy birthday to meeee,
haaapppyyy biirrrrrthhhday deeeaaar meeeeee,
happy birthday to me.

i look like a monkeeey.... aaaannnnddd i smell like one too!

HEY! WAIT! NO I DON'T!


so, today is the day. today i turn 29, for real, for the first time, there is no multiple of 29th birthdays in my life (so far).

where would i be without the fidgiting?

goodness.

WASHINGTON - Thin folks who tap their toes while they work and fiddle during routine activities could be burning hundreds more calories a year than plumper couch potatoes.

just read this online (and actually heard it the other night on as it happens, but somehow i missed the fidgiting bit).

i don't know how i would fit in the study, 'cause althought i don't for a second dispute the findings, well... i'm fat, and fidgity. not fiddle with a pencil fidgity (well, that too, but you know...), no, i mean, fling my body about in various directions fidgity. as i type right now in fact my leg is pumping up and down, up and down, up and down at break-neck speed.

i remember watching me on tape with a bunch of people (we were singing in fact). i was watching it with a good friend and suddenly in the middle of it i blurted out "do i ever fucking stand still!?!"

she gave me a very perplexed look then quietly said "do you seriously not know that you are in constant motion?"

i didn't. it wasn't something that had occured to me. it's just me. move move, sift, shuffle, move some more, tap my feet, maybe dance to the music in my head a bit, move, move, shift shuffle. wash, rinse, repeat.

so, given this study's results, well, damn, just how big would i be if i didn't move constantly?

saving the world one catchy tune at a time...

came across this on the CBC site today:

Ex-Beatle Ringo Starr will become the focus of a new animated superhero show being developed by comic book legend and Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee.

The as-yet-untitled show will feature an animated alter ego voiced by Starr that is described as an "evil-battling, Earth-saving – though reluctant – superhero with a great sense of rhythm."

just the low down on my party last night

my birthday / yay new job party last night was a delight.

i commented to someone that the thing i love about having a party is that i really like everyone there, unlike going to someone elses party where it might be hit and miss.

anyway, it was wonderful, conversation ranged from lively debates on US politics on through to discussions of 'writing your name in the snow'.

close to midnight everyone started filtering out, which was a shame 'cause i just didn't want it to end, i was having a great time.

but then as we were all gathered in the kitchen and people were putting on their boots and coats to face the winter my brother came over, with a piece of cake with a fun sparkly thing on it instead of a candle. as he handed it over to me everyone in the room started singing happy birthday and it was, well, wonderful. we were all standing in relatively tight quarters, and there are a bunch of actual singers in the crowd, two who are in choirs, two who are musical theatre folks. so, given everyone standing quite close to each other, and the support of some actual singers, it was the most lovely happy birthday that i have ever heard. it sounded great and it filled the room.

then everyone left, john went to bed, and my brother and i sat up until about 4am chatting.

it was a very very very good night, and an excellent way to close out a kind of weird emotion filled day. thank you everyone.

the end is nigh

okay. so. here i sit. my last day at my old job.

i have a strange mix of emotions going on here. i'm very excited to be going to my new position, my new ministry. i am also very nervous. so many big changes all at once. new ministry, new city, new job, new abode, not seeing john everynight, all those things bundled into one.

i am also very sad to be leaving OMAF. this ministry is full of really wonderful people who do excellent work. (there are of course some people who are not so wonderful and don't do such excellent work, but that is the case in any large company). on my way back to my desk after lunch i was stopped by no less than 7 people, all wishing me well, all wanting hugs. each subsequent hug was harder. by the 7th person i had to escape so i didn't start crying. this has been my 'home' for the last 4 years, it is VERY hard to leave.

i do know i'm making the right decision and i'm off to bigger and better things, but sometimes i think to myself "geeze, are you crazy, how can you leave this behind!"

oh well, deep breaths. this sadness will pass and the excitment will stay. i just have to keep reminding myself of that.

and tonight, well, tonight i'm going to enjoy the party and my house and probably drink to much and just let it all flow.

renos in an evening

john and i have managed to 'redo' our bathroom since i returned from work today at around 5pm.

pretty cool huh?

amazing what a little bit of paint, a new mirror, some new fixin's and new knobs will do.

yay!

a quick entry from work (shhhh, don't tell!)

okay, so i'm doing a blog entry from work. not the best in workplace behaviour, but i only have a day and a half left here, so i figure i can be forgiven.

i just couldn't wait to tell you about how i made a big ass of myself today. i mean, really, that's not the type of news you can wait until you get home to share with the internet world.

today i walked out of the office i'm currently inhabiting (New Guy is in my old desk, since, well, it's his perm desk, so it only seems fair, so i'm in the director's office) into the main area of our office and promptly went over on my ankle.

now, i'm not talking a little subtle twisting of the ankle and a few mutterings of "ouch" and "bugger" and the like. no, i am talking about a full fledged 'event'.

my arms flung themselves (because obviously i wasn't doing the flinging, i would never do such a crazy thing) into the arm with a great flourish as i plummeted to the floor, in front of my co-workers.

after the chorus of "are you alright" died down and I said "i'm alright, but i'm going to continue laying here for a moment" and then looked in their direction and noticed them all still staring and said "no, seriously, i'm going to lay here for a minute, but you can stop looking at me".

at which point New Guy (who is earning his stripes as a sarcastic bastard who can keep up with the rest of us sarcastic bastards in the branch) said to me "i told you, no more martinis for breakfast!" to which i replied (while lying prone on the floor) "oh, damn, i thought you told me *more* martinis for breakfast!"

yes, that's right folks, even in pain and laying on a floor i can carry out that oh-so-witty-repartee that you have come to know and love from me.

and now, well, now i'm going to tread lightly for the rest of the day and try and avoid the falling...

and now, more from ikea...

okay, so it would appear that i have nothing to write about, so i'm going to take you back, waaayyyy back, to our trip to ikea a couple of weeks ago...

after the woman teaching her daughter to flush the toilet with her foot, i had another vaguely toilet related incident (maybe i should call this the toilet blog from now on.)

while walking through the bathroom accessories area of ikea i noticed an older man (late 60s, early 70s) tug on his wife's sleeve and point to a stainless steel toilet seat. she walked up to it, shook her head and says "what next" then sighs, then says "i mean really, what next!"

apparently that stainless steel toilet seat rocked her world view in the way things like the fact that people paid full price to go see something like jackass the movie does for me.

crazy co-workers

okay, so there is this woman in my building, she's on the same floor as me and uses the same bathroom as me.

a bit of backfround on our bathrooms, when you walk in and enter the main part of the bathroom you are facing the stalls, and the stalls have relatively large gaps between them that you can kind of see through if you actually look at them, so most normal people avoid looking at them.

not this woman. noooo.

so, there i am, minding my own business, happily sitting on the toilet, and someone walks in the door and from WAY too far away to see my shoes she says "hi megan", and then wants to chat.

do you have any idea how akward that feels?!?! do you? huh? do you?!?

now, i have no problem carrying on conversations from inside a stall, even with perfect strangers, but at least have the decency to pretend you didn't see me! sheesh!

Shelagh Rogers AND Rick Mercer, does it get any better?

okay, this is a fabulous clip. god i love these people. the best line is "there's a testicle in my throat!"

and of course, who could forget this classic of pierre burton teaching the nation how to properly roll a joint shortly before he died last year.

who would you marry?

okay, i have to say, i LOVE The Monday Report, and not just 'cause Rick Mercer's such a hottie.

anyway, tonight i was watching and there was a wonderful bit on an ad the conservatives have put out against same-sex marriage that says "Where Do You Draw The Line? We’d Like To Know Where You Stand" and then has two boxes to check in it to get more information or something, and they both are saying essencially 'i'm against same sex-marriage".

so, in response they've put up this survey with the following tagline:

Vote if you’re straight. vote if you’re gay. Just don’t vote if you’re married.
We don’t want our survey to lead to polygamy.

cleanliness is next to godliness

witnessed (well, auditorily) in the stall next to me while in the bathroom at ikea the other week:

voice of woman: are you sure you can reach it?

voice of little girl: yeah, i wanna try.

woman: okay, lift your leg a little higher and just get your foot on there, do you need me to hold on so you don't tip over.

girl: nooo, i can do it.

woman: okay. yep, like that, now just push with your foot.

*sound of flushing*

woman: very good! you did that really well.
____________________________________________

yes folks, it was the sound of someone teaching a little kid to be so afraid of germs that they should flush the toilet with their feet. yay!

procrastination and organization

so, i went out for birthday brunch with my friend e today and we started talking about self-help type books.

e: i bought two books, one on procrastination and one on organizing your space

me: oh yeah? what are they like?

e: i don't know, i haven't gotten around to reading the book on procrastination and i can't find the one on organization.

perhaps it was a vampire...

so, i would appear to have no blood anymore.

seriously, it's 21 degrees in the house and i'm freezing. normally we keep it at 19 and i'm fine.

not only is it 21 degrees and i'm freezing, but i've got socks, slippers, pants a shirt, a sweater, a vest and another sweater AND a hat on. and i'm still freezing.

i'm not hungry. i'm not tired. (the two things that tend to make me cold) i'm just inexplicably freezing.

so, my new theory is that i was visited by a vampire who sucked out a bunch of my blood, but just enough for a snack, not enough for a meal, and so i didn't notice, except for my sudden inability to get warm.

seems plausable to me...

the silly thing kids say...

a conversation between me and my mum while walking down the street one day:

me: (pointing up) look at those birds mum, they're fighting!

mum: (looking up) ummm, meg, i don't think they're fighting...

...

...

...

right, what i forgot to mention was that i was probably 26 or so when this conversation took place. *sigh* oh well, at least i'm cute.

it's all about the context

No really.

It's all about context.

It is.

So, let me set the stage. I was in a play (yes, I know, you all know this, I talk about it ad nauseam, but you have to bear with me, it was a big part of my life for the last couple months, so lots of my stories come from it). Now, in community theatre generally you don’t have a lot of space to work with in terms of dressing rooms. Couple this with the fact that you have a bunch of extroverts in a room and you’ve got a situation where co-ed dressing rooms are pretty much the norm.

We have all seen each other in our underwear and bras. Well, to be fair for the most part the men aren’t wearing bras, but they generally are wearing underwear

It’s nothing new for any of us in the cast and there is very little self-consciousness about it. I wandered about in my skivvies all the time waiting to get dressed. It’s just kind of like the change room at the gym, except there are men there too. Oh, and it tends to be less sweaty, and a bit dryer, and there aren’t lockers, and… okay, well, not much like the gym except for the people in various states of undress.

And here is the story about how it is all about context…

I have this really fun new shirt that has snaps instead of buttons. When pulled apart the snaps sound vaguely like ripping. So, I can ‘rip’ my shirt open. It’s really fun.

Anyway, one night I was getting changed and I walked up to my friends Jeff and Tim and said “I really love this shirt ‘cause I can do this.” And I promptly ‘ripped’ it open. Eliciting a startled gasp, and “oh my” and a quick turning of the head away from the offending breasts from Tim. Which was bloody funny to me, since for over a month these guys had seen me parading around in my underwear, so really, not a new sight for them.

But it was the context. The context people! The context! It was the ‘ripping’ open of the shirt, not the breasts (neatly stored in a bra) themselves.
It made me giggle. (and yes, I know, everything makes me giggle, but this *really* made me giggle…

let's celebrate!

okay, so my job has been officially announced so i can tell you all in blog land what i'll be doing...

starting january 31st (the day after my birthday actually) i will officially be a senior policy wonk. right now i'm just a plain old run of the mill policy wonk, so this is understandably exciting for me.

so, right now i am a policy advisor for the ministry of agriculture and food in guelph. in a week and a half i will be a senior policy advisor for the ministry of community and social services and the ministry of children and youth services. yep, you read that right, i will be in an office serving two ministries...

anyway, i'll be working on developing logic models, performance measures, planning, and accountability in general. which i realise probably sounds deadly dull for most of the population, but i'm a big geek and it is really exciting for me.

plus, i think there is a possibility that i will get an office... with windows! instead of a cube far away from natural light.

so, there you go, details for all!

iron penis (Jiu Yang Shen Gong - penis gigon)

um, okay, so you know the worlds strongest man competitions they used to (and probably still do) have where people did things like dragged tractors and busses and stuff?

well, apparently those people who use their whole bodies are just wimps. apparently the way to drag a truck loaded with 100 passengers is with your penis. that's how the real men do it.

tip o' the hat to dalai on this one.

american idol

okay, so tonight i was flipping through channels and the first american idol show of this season was on.

now, this is a show that i generally don't watch, but i also don't despise it, so i do occassionaly stay there for more than 30 seconds when i'm flipping channels mindlessly. tonight i saw something that made my skin crawl. it wasn't the bad singing, in fact, it was pretty good singing, but...

it was a sob story about a woman who didn't have enough money to get to the auditions but she wanted it so badly she hawked her wedding ring to get there. she's 28 and has a 3 year old kid. apparently they raised the age and this is the last year she can audition (previously it was set at 25 or something i think).

so, she does her audition, she has a great voice, she sings, she makes it to HOLLYWOOD.

her kid and husband are there when she gets in and she tearfully says "this is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me" or "this is the greatest moment of my life" or something like that.

ummmmm. what about, you know, meeting your husband, marrying your husband, having your child, your child's first words, your child's toothless grin as she smears toothpaste all over her face, or any number of other things that seem to me would be far more important that getting past the first round of american idol.

seriously, how would you feel if you were that kid?!?

i know i might be over-reacting, but it really hit me as a pretty thoughtless thing to say. my bet is she won't win, and someday that kid is going to see that thing and think "if it weren't for me mommy would be a rock star right now" or not. maybe the kid will just think "gee, it's nice mommy is so excited" but yeah, it, well, apparently it just struck a cord with me.

okay, i'm done ranting now. night all!

self-congratulations

me: hey, me!

me: yes me?

me: i just heard that you (i, we) got that job that you (we, i) really wanted! so, i just wanted to congratulate you (myself, us) on that!

me: yeah, thanks! i am very excited about it. i'm going to put it on my blog as soon as i am allowed to release any details about it -- it's still a 'secret' at this point.

me: ahhh, right, i understand, well, congratulations anyway and i'll keep an eye out on the blog to find out what the hell it is that you (i, we) are talking about.

me: sounds good to me. i will post something the minute i can, promise.

me: great! sleep well, enjoy that conference you (we, i) are going to tomorrow in TO

me: thanks, i plan to!

no email!?!?!?!?!

so, my home email and my work email are both not working at the moment. i feel lost.

just exactly when did i become quite this addicted to email? i miss my email. please email, come back. i miss you email.

chemical weapons "lite"

so, yeah, apparently there is an effort to develop chemical weapons that will reduce moral, like, the bad breath bomb.

dalai wrote about, check it out here

meeting new people

so, tonight was a going away party for jeff. jeff is the guy who played the emperor in the play i finished just before christmas. he's the penis part of the boobs and penis show... he's also the one i told you about that i really liked a lot and was courting in that fun developing a new friendship kind of way. well, it worked, i've sucked him into my web, er, i mean, he's now a friend...

and, now that i've got this great new guelph friend who i really like a lot, who is smart and funny and caring and has that little biting edge that i like to see in my friends, well, now he's moving away. *sigh* ;) actually, it's really great, he's going to be a host on a cruise ship, which is a great opportunity for him, he'll get to travel, get out of here, try a new job, and if he ends up hating it, it's only based on 4 month contracts or something like that.

so, yeah, background finished, now onto the actual posting...

tonight was a going away dinner thing for him and i met a very very very wonderful man. seriously. his name is scott. he's a lawyer. we have all sorts of mutual friends and aquantences (mum, he knows robbie, in fact they've worked on cases together...) and it was fun to go through that list with him. he's smart and funny and biting. he's all those things i look for in a friend. i'm not sure what it is, but i *loved* this guy. seriously, he rocks! i would love to have him as a friend, to sit and drink coffee with him and just yak and yak. and normally in this situation what i would do is, well, the same thing i did with jeff. court him essentially. you know, in the friendship platonic kind of way. but yeah, courting nonetheless. but, the catch here is, he lives in hamilton and won't be doing anything with theatre for the next year. and i'm not sure that just hanging out for a couple of hours at a mutual friend's goodbye party is enough to get to the point where i can email him or phone him and see if he wants to hang out. even i don't move that fast when building friendships. but yeah, he's great. and i'm at that kind of anti-climactic dissapointed state where i'm pretty sure i'm not actually going to get to be friends with him.

*sigh*

oh well, i had a fabulous night with some great people. thanks jeff, and as long as you come home then it will be all good. *grin*

this one is for louise... (it's the hotel soap funny story)

louise darling, i hope you're feeling better soon.

this one always cheers me up. it's the first thing i ever got forwarded to me over email 10 years ago or so...


Shelley Berman from his book a hotel is a funny place.

****************************************************

Dear Maid,
Please do not leave any more of those little bars of soap in my bathroom since I have brought my own bath-sized Dial. Please remove the six unopened little bars from the shelf under the medicine chest and another three in the shower soap dish. They are in my way.
Thank you,
S. Berman

Dear Room 635,
I am not your regular maid. She will be back tomorrow, Thursday, from her day off. I took the 3 hotel soaps out of the shower soap dish as you requested. The 6 bars on your shelf I took out of your way and put on top of your Kleenex dispenser in case you should change your mind. This leaves only the 3 bars I left today which my instructions from the management is to leave 3 soaps daily.I hope this is satisfactory.
Kathy,
Relief Maid

Dear Maid -- I hope you are my regular maid.
Apparently Kathy did not tell you about my note to her concerning the little bars of soap. When I got back to my room this evening I found you had added 3 little Camays to the shelf under my medicine cabinet. I am going to be here in the hotel for two weeks and have brought my own bath-size Dial so I won't need those 6 little Camays which are on the shelf. They are in my way when shaving, brushing teeth, etc.
Please remove them.
S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,
My day off was last Wed. so the relief maid left 3 hotel soaps which we are instructed by the management. I took the 6 soaps which were in your way on the shelf and put them in the soap dish where your Dial was. I put the Dial in the medicine cabinet for your convenience. I didn't remove the 3 complimentary soaps which are always placed inside the medicine cabinet for all new check-ins and which you did not object to when you checked in last Monday. Please let me know if I can of further assistance.
Your regular maid,
Dotty

Dear Mr. Berman,
The assistant manager, Mr. Kensedder, informed me this A.M. that you called him last evening and said you were unhappy with your maid service. I have assigned a new girl to your room. I hope you will accept my apologies for any past inconvenience. If you have any future complaints please contact me so I can give it my personal attention. Call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM.
Thank you.
Elaine Carmen
Housekeeper

Dear Miss Carmen,
It is impossible to contact you by phone since I leave the hotel for business at 745 AM and don't get back before 530 or 6PM. That's the reason I called Mr. Kensedder last night. You were already off duty. I only asked Mr. Kensedder if he could do anything about those little bars of soap. The new maid you assigned me must have thought I was a new check-in today, since she left another 3 bars of hotel soap in my medicine cabinet along with her regular delivery of 3 bars on the bath-room shelf. In just 5 days here I have accumulated 24 little bars of soap. Why are you doing this to me?
S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,
Your maid, Kathy, has been instructed to stop delivering soap to your room and remove the extra soaps. If I can be of further assistance, please call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM. Thank you,
Elaine Carmen,
Housekeeper

Dear Mr. Kensedder,
My bath-size Dial is missing. Every bar of soap was taken from my room including my own bath-size Dial. I came in late last night and had to call the bellhop to bring me 4 little Cashmere Bouquets.
S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,
I have informed our housekeeper, Elaine Carmen, of your soap problem. I cannot understand why there was no soap in your room since our maids are instructed to leave 3 bars of soap each time they service a room. The situation will be rectified immediately. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.
Martin L. Kensedder
Assistant Manager

Dear Mrs. Carmen,
Who the hell left 54 little bars of Camay in my room? I came in last night and found 54 little bars of soap. I don't want 54 little bars of Camay. I want my one damn bar of bath-size Dial. Do you realize I have 54 bars of soap in here. All I want is my bath size Dial. Please give me back my bath-size Dial.
S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,
You complained of too much soap in your room so I had them removed. Then you complained to Mr. Kensedder that all your soap was missing so I personally returned them. The 24 Camays which had been taken and the 3 Camays you are supposed to receive daily (sic). I don't know anything about the 4 Cashmere Bouquets. Obviously your maid, Kathy, did not know I had returned your soaps so she also brought 24 Camays plus the 3 daily Camays. I don't know where you got the idea this hotel issues bath-size Dial. I was able to locate some bath-size Ivory which I left in your room.
Elaine Carmen
Housekeeper

Dear Mrs. Carmen,
Just a short note to bring you up-to-date on my latest soap inventory. As of today I possess:
On shelf under medicine cabinet - 18 Camay in 4 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
On Kleenex dispenser - 11 Camay in 2 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 3.
On bedroom dresser - 1 stack of 3 Cashmere Bouquet, 1 stack of 4 hotel-size Ivory, and 8 Camay in 2 stacks of 4.
Inside medicine cabinet - 14 Camay in 3 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
In shower soap dish - 6 Camay, very moist.
On northeast corner of tub - 1 Cashmere Bouquet, slightly used.
On northwest corner of tub - 6 Camays in 2 stacks of 3.
Please ask Kathy when she services my room to make sure the stacks are neatly piled and dusted. Also, please advise her that stacks of more than 4 have a tendency to tip. May I suggest that my bedroom window sill is not in use and will make an excellent spot for future soap deliveries. One more item, I have purchased another bar of bath-sized Dial which I am keeping in the hotel vault in order to avoid further misunderstandings.
S. Berman

mmmm... ikea... (said in that homer simpson kind of voice)

we're going to ikea any minute now. mmmm. ikea.

i bet i haven't been in a couple of years.

there's nothing quite so exciting to me as the smell of press board and the self-serve warehouse. the reasonably priced mediocore quality furnature you have to put together yourself, seriously, how can you get any better?!?!?

see, it sounds like i don't like ikea, but actually, i really do. so we're going to go, have our $1 breakfasts and wander around and see what highly stylish things we can buy. yay for ikea!

i'm wet...

tee hee, i wonder what kind of people are going to get here through search engines with a title like that...

so, it's January 13 and today i didn't wear a jacket, it got up to something like 14 degrees, and there was a warm spring rain on my way home. which was actually relatively plesant, until the warm spring rain was suddenly accompanied by bone chilling wind that rips not only through your clothes, but right though your body too. it leaves you shivering and feeling hallow (did i mention that i didn't wear a jacket).

on the plus side though, there is a place on the way back to my new toronto home that sells shwarma, so i was able to get some on my way home. mmmmm. shwarma.

my new life in toronto

so, today marks my first day of my new life in toronto.

right now it's in a strange state of flux actually. i am working in toronto a couple days a week and staying with my dear friend cameron. he agreed to take me in as a roommate for an exceptionally reasonable monthly rate, which is very very nice of him since he has a tiny space and i imagine i'll be under foot a lot.

the space is in what he calls the "gaybourhood", an area of toronto that i am very fond of. not just because of the great energy it has, but also because of it's short and easy walking distance from my office.

the first day in the office was an interesting time. the toronto office is much quieter and, well, more formal (?) than the guelph office. people don't joke around. they in fact barely talk. i imagine this will change once i've been there for a while, but it's all very foreign for me.

anyway, when i'm not here i'm still living in my lovely house in guelph. so i'm a weekend guelphite and a weekday torontonian. eventually the plan is to move here, but i don't want to pick up and move here for a short term contract.

i realise this isn't the most interesting of posts, but, well, i just thought i'd keep people updated on my life.

oh, and i have an interview for a senior policy advisor with the ministry of community and social services which i would really love.

the story of jack and jill continues (not the fairy tale one, the blog one)

so, it would appear that jill is till going up the hill with jack. she wrote a guest post about it and here it is...

***************************************

Hi everyone, Jill here. You might remember me from [this post] back in December. You know, the girl who asked Jack for his phone number, and he replied all cryptically that he couldn’t tell me just yet, but as soon as he could, he would?

Well, I’m sure you’ve all been waiting with bated breath to find out Jack’s reasoning. I know I certainly have! But worry no longer dear faithful Mainja followers, I have the answer: he was still living with his ex-girlfriend until he moved out during the holidays, and wanted to wait until he had that sorted out before telling me what was going on. Now this leads to some other important questions, like, why did he feel it was necessary to keep this from me, and how long exactly have they been ex’s - was it before we met, or after? But on the other hand, he’s very sweet, pays for dinner, makes me laugh, and did I mention the good sex?

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions before. Still living with an ex is better than still living with a spouse, right?

Jill

why some men are afraid of their gay friends

okay, so i had a bit of an epiphany the other day.

you know how there is this stereotype of guys assuming their best friend wants to sleep with them when he comes out to them? so, for instance, jim and joe are best friends. jim like cock. after much soul searching jim decides to come out to joe. jim tells joe he likes cock. joe automatically assumes it's his cock that jim likes.

i've always wondered about this, since generally when beth tells betty that she likes pussy betty doesn't assume it's her pussy that beth likes.

well, i had a sudden thought the other day...

you remember that theory put forward by harry in harry met sally? the one that says men and women can't every just be friends. that men will always on some level want to sleep with their female friends.

well, i don't subscribe to that. i don't believe it. the women i've talked to about it also don't believe it, but it would seem that men are not as convinced. this is all vast generalizations of course, i have no doubt that there are women who believe it and men who don't. but yeah, it seems that there are more men who believe this than i would have expected.

how do these things relate?

well, if joe is friends with beth and betty and he on some level wants to sleep with them, and all his other female friends, then i guess it kind of makes sense that he figures jim must want to sleep with him if he's gay.

makes sense? i don't know, i'm tired and a bit inarticulate tonight, but it was just a bit of a lightbulb moment for me so i thought i'd write about it.

oh, and yes, of course, i want to sleep with *ALL* my friends, they're all just that fabulous, so none of this applies to me. ;)

damn you extreme makeover home addition!

the show that i always cry at. and that i'm vaguely embarassed for liking. and that is now on opposite monk, how is that fair??!?!?!?!? don't worry, monk is winning out.

shall we dance? (aka richard gere is still a hottie)

tonight camille and i went to see shall we dance.

apparently this got kind of panned. well, i have to say, i *loved* it. seriously, i did.

now, i'll admit that i'm a bit biased here since i've had a crush on richard gere since i was about 12 and i'm a sucker for any kind of dance movie. but still. it was great. it was a joy to watch. it made me rush out and take ballroom dancing lessons. in kind of the same way that bend it like beckam made me want to start watching soccer/football (i thought i'd cover both the names of the sport, just for fun).

also, it has stanley tucci in it, and i have to say, man i love that guy. he's such a great actor.

and for those who may be worried, jennifer lopez did not dominate the movie, susan sarandon got much more screen time. i was also happy to see richard jenkins, an actor i really like and would like to see more of.

it also had one of the most erotic scenes in a movie i've seen in a really long time. and there was no nudity, groping, sexual contact of any kind in the scene. it was all dancing. two of the characters go up into the dance studio, he goes to turn on the lights, she says "no, leave them off." so he does. he walks towards her in this studio lit only by the street lights and neon light coming through the window.

she looks at him with some measure of intensity (and of course the whole thing is rife with sexual tension) and says to him "don't say anything, and don't move until you feel it" so, he doesn't say anything, and neither does she, and they dance. and man do they dance. there is just something wildly intense about the no talking rule, don't know why.

so, now i'm dying to see 'shall we dansu' which is the japanese movie that this is a remake of, because, well, i can only imagine that it's better. that's the way these things tend to work.

p.s. in reference to my post of earlier this evening, i did take pictures, i'm just waiting for the card reader so i can upload them, but as soon as i do i'll upload them into that post... -- update on the p.s. - the embarassing picture is now posted, scroll down and take a look

food, what else? (japanese food this time...)

you know what i love doing? i love introducing people to new kinds of food. and now i have the perfect friend to do this with. my darling friend camille (relatively new, and super cool, friend) has led a very sheltered life when it comes to food.

so, when we go out for dinner i make it my mission to introduce her to something new, and she's always game for it. it's so great!

well, tonight we were going to go to goodys (lebanese food) but it was closed, so we went to samura across the street. i haven't actually been to samura in a long time, it's still really good and i think i need to start going back there (as long as i remember to order my sushi sans mayo, i really hate mayo in my sushi).

so, now i've dragged camille for indian (okay, well, ordered that in, but close enough), thai, japanese, and i'm thinking maybe south american, but i can't actually remember if i've brought her to latino's before or not...

what food treat shall i introduce her to next? any ideas?

(quick note to kate and paddy before you answer this, she's actually been to carden street cafe already...)

we wear short shorts! if you dare wear short shorts, nair for short shorts!

so, one of the joys of going off the pill has been the bender my hormones have been going on. seriously, they're getting trashed on a nightly basis. they're like engineering students, always playing practical jokes on me.

one of the big practical jokes has been the crop of hair they seem to be putting on my upper lip. not just hair, dark hair. conspicuous hair. i mean, not so much that i look like a 70's porn star (well, and i'm not a man, i guess the moustache look being a 70's porn star thing was a guy thing) but enough. well, enough for me to notice. and for my mum to notice (mum's are good like that). not enough for john to notice or my friend nadine to notice, which means, likely my mum and i are the only ones who can see it, but that's enough for me, i now must eradicate this hair growth, i cannot let those drunken hormones win dammit!

so, i've started using nair.

i have just slathered a generous amount of nair on my upper lip. and then i though 'hmmm, i think i'd like a cigarette'.

i then noticed quite how chemically the nair smelled and decided against the cigarette, but still the idea made me giggle. what a perfect image. me with white stuff smeared over my lip, a bottle of cider in one hand and a cigarette in the other. really, it would be nothing short of pure class! in fact, i'm cosidering trying to find the camera and do a small self-portrait because it would be so perfect.

and here it is...



ah, the things i do for art... (staging a photo that just makes you look like an ass and then posting it up for strangers to see, that's art, isn't it? ;)


but just in case you're worried that's what i actually look like, i took another picture once i washed my face.

short term forcast

i'm predicting a flurry of blog activity in the coming weekend. dress appropriately. (what's appropriate? why, fabulous hats and luxurious elegant scarves of course!)

galette des rois

remember when i was in paris and i talked about us getting a delicious dessert called a 'something de roi'

well, it's actually "gaette des rois" and if you're still curious you can read about the history behind it on chocolate and zucchini here

note to self...

try not to mix up the shout wipes with the oral b brush ups when hoping for that clean mouth feeling...

my very politically incorrect post

okay, so this is bad enough that i struggled with whether or not to post it. i decided i should go for it and post away. i will put forward this disclaimer though, i think that the tsunami was tragic and i am not in anyway trying to belittle anyone's pain, just evoke laughter through the medium of the disaster. ;)

today i read an email that got circulated at work that was asking if anyone had any ideas for what would be a good fundraiser for the tsunami relief effort.

what went through my mind upon reading this was

"i suppose a dunk tank would be impolitic..."

yay for drunken tuesdays...

so, um, yeah, i'm a bit sauced. and damn pleased about it.

although i did promise a friend i'd look at her mum's resume tonight (i'm very good at that sort of thing) and, well, probably i shouldn't be doing that when a wee bit pissed.

my friend nadine came over after work for a quick drink. it's now 8:30 and 4 big cans of strongbow later i'm doing a meaningless and not particularily interesting post on my blog.

man, alcohol can be fun. yay alcohol.

mum, aren't you proud. *grin*

i'm fat, not stupid.

so, i read this on fattypatties

i'll quote the article, but it's worth going to it on pattie's site 'cause she has a well thought out response that she sent in that makes for good reading.

anyway, here's the article that she posted, which is horribly offensive (i was going to say as a fat chick i'm offended, but actually, i think i'd be offended even if i wasn't fat). i'm fat, not stupid, i can make my own food choices. and really, sometimes my blood sugar dumps which is not only uncomfortable, it's also unsafe, can you imagine if i had to send 'thin' people to get my food 'cause they wouldn't serve me. good god!

anyway, here it is:

From Medscape General Medicine™Webcast Video Editorials

How to Prevent the Obese From Becoming "Obeser" -- Stop Eating, Posted 12/17/2004

Ho! Ho! Ho! Here we are in the holiday season right between those 2 great American days of gluttony. What is Scrooge's holiday greeting this year? It is about overeating, of course. How can we stop the obese from becoming more obese? Pretty simple. Stop feeding them. Think about the other common self-destructive human behaviors. On a commercial airplane, in a saloon, or at a professional sports event, if the customer is deemed to be drunk, the keepers of the booze key will lock the cabinet. If a person drives a car at a dangerous speed, the driver is subject to substantial penalties. For young persons known to be at high risk for early chemical addictions, society tries to prevent exposure to the addicting drugs. Overeating with underexercising is now killing more Americans than anything else except tobacco addiction. Yet, an obese person enters an eating joint, or a supermarket, and buys and eats any and everything he or she wants, and nobody seems to care. Does that make any sense to you? Meanwhile, Big Science strives to understand why people get fat; Big Genetics searches for the obesity gene so that stem cells could correct the flaw; Big Surgery lines up the morbidly obese to shunt their stomachs; Big Pharma seeks the next weight-loss pill that will help more people than it kills; Big Nutrition hawks the newest sure-thing, weight-loss diet; Big Fast Food pushes "healthy food" lines right next to their billion dollar unhealthy food lines; Big Soda and Big School Boards share the profit from drowning kids with calories from vending machines; and Big Exercise pushes group rates for aerobics class. Money made by so many special interests. All this while the simple answer is to stop eating; stop feeding the obese until they are no longer obese. Of course, that may be hard to do, and who makes any money that way? Fat chance for this crazy idea to go anywhere. That's my opinion. I'm Dr. George Lundberg, Editor of MedGenMed. Happy Holidays!

Readers are encouraged to respond for the editor's eye only or for consideration for publication via email: glundberg@webmd.net.

George D. Lundberg, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Medscape General Medicine Disclosure: George D. Lundberg, MD, is an employee of WebMD

so, yeah. um. i'm a fat chick. but i still do actually need food to sustain life, it's not just some addiction i'm trying to shake and if i could only go off the damn stuff cold turkey (no pun intended) then i'd be fine, no, it's actually one of the components essencial for life, i'm no doctor, but i'm pretty sure that if you stop eating it's pretty bad for you.

sleep my pretty, sleeeeepppp

so, we got back to good old guelph yesterday and i haven't managed to write yet. and really, probably won't do much of that tonight either.

it would appear all my time is taken up with sleeping. when i say "all my time" this is only a slight exageration.

apparently jet lag and a, ahem, volumous period leads to a fair bit of exhaustion. which is a shame, since, well, i'm up several times a night/nap to deal with the afore mentioned volumous period. sorry guys, i promise, that's the end of the menstrual references for the rest of this post.

so, i've spend a delightful day sleeping, reading blogs, making stir fry for dinner, watching sex in the city. and now, i think i'm going to cap it off with some reading in bed. although, i'm exhausted, so, the reading in bed may only last a few minutes.

basically i am just writing to say, don't worry my fine friends, i haven't forgotten you. i will write soon. perhaps more about paris. we shall see.

night all!