Category: Art

wandering around town….

Poked my head into the New West library to pick up the next two books in the Aubrey/Maturin photo-15.jpgseries; purchased soy sauce (how is it I haven’t purchased it earlier???) and other comestibles including items which will make the young’uns happy, also beer, also picked up a Georgia Straight and a very satisfactory haircut both in terms of the gossip quotient and the results; also satisfactory in that the first words out of Shelene’s mouth were “Girl, you’ve lost a ton of weight,” which of course made me crack up.  I’m thinking I should cruise down to the office and weigh myself, I can’t trust the scale I’ve got here….  Now all I have to do is piles of laundry and wait for 7 o’clock to roll around so I can get dressed for a party.   Part of me wants to get entirely dolled up (plucked eyebrows….MASCARA!) but the sober portion of my personality has said, “They are engineers – if they do notice it would only be to make fun of you for taking the trouble.”  Sad, but I think true.  So I won’t wear the outfit I bought for Katie’s grad, but I will wear something comfy.  Maybe that flight suit?
I had amazing bus luck today.  I never had to wait more than 5 minutes.  On the way back I had a ‘brrrrr’ experience; the lad sitting across from me on the 145 was a DEAD RINGER FOR STEPHEN HARPER, right down to the icy blue eyes and man boobs.  The poor kid.

I can’t stop smiling.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me…. or what’s right with me.  Subjects were removed on the house; looks like the deal is a go.  Something may go wrong between now and the end of July but I’m good with everything.  I will roll with whatever comes my way.

Zeek! has been to the vet, courtesy of Paul, and he has a lesion on his chin which Paul got cream for and which seems to be working.  Zeek! and Kira appear to be otherwise happy and healthy and adjusting to the new place okay.

I light a candle for all my friends, who have stood by me in a lot of ways, not all of them readily apparent, while I’m going through the transition.  I feel so blessed, so borne up by the good wishes of those who love me, that it’s getting increasingly easy to feel positive, stay positive, and not be so easily moved to anger and irritation all the time.  My current emotional state reminds me of how I felt when I was expecting the kids; occasionally worried, but mostly, thanks to the hormones, feeling almost imperturbably happy and expectant.  The world’s an awesome place.

And I’m practicing mando at least an hour a day.  My guitar is bitching me out from its corner…. pick me up YOU!

I’m going to see a gal from a recreational group I was a member of for a brief while a couple of years back.  She and I are on Livejournal together and her relationship of 27 years busted up under much the same circumstances as mine.  We will get together tomorrow and compare notes, hopefully with buckets of tea and much self-deprecating laughter.  I am SO looking forward to it.  One of my requirements of myself is to quit hanging around with male engineering types who are fifteen years my junior and start hanging out more with sympatico women my own age.  My  visit with Gail made me realize that I am hungering for circumstances under which my childbearing and my middleagedness and my life experiences will be grist for the mill, not something to be shrugged off.  I want to own my life, not have to make excuses for it all the f(cking time.  Although I can’t make excuses for being happy.  Because I am.  I can walk around naked in my apartment!  Who couldn’t be happy about that!?  (Okay, there are three of my regular blog readers who just threw their hands in front of their eyes, but there are also two at least who are thinking other, possibly less critical thotz…)… Oh, and I saw Anne McLeod, one of the revered church elders, in the Safeway in New West today.  It was good to see her!

Quiet Day

Today I thought it was my hair appointment but I was wrong by a week – fortunately I was also after seeing Katie and Keith for lunch in uptown New West (overate, of course) and getting a new outfit for Katie’s Graduation, and visiting the New West library (oldest in BC) for the latest Aubrey Maturin book.  I read Desolation Island and I have to say I didn’t like it much except for the end.

Keith brought along the first two digests of Fables, and, while no Strangers in Paradise, it’s very entertaining and quite well done.  So I’ve done nothing but read and buy bread and hang with the kids today, and by heaven I needed to.

Keith Here

Keith is here, letting me know about his recent comic acquisitions.  With the end of Strangers in Paradise, I’m casting about for a new jones, and I have decided to go for Fables, which he is currently telling me all about.  He’s a dear lad but he didn’t bring me the next Aubrey Maturin book so I growled at him.
I have to go in to New West to get my hairs cut and meet with the Number One Daughter for lunch.  Keith will join us after his workout.

I am going in to work tomorrow, but I realized I committed to going to church, too, so I’m double booking myself…. again.  I should go in around 2 pm.  I really do have to go, it’s the last time we’re in that building before we start up in the Gathering Place in the fall.

Squee

1.  Sorry about the spoilers.  I figured only Dr. Filk and Mike would care.  I suck, but you love me anyway, right?  And besides, when you see the expressions on Katchoo’s face (oh god, and CASEY, you will CROAK when you see it –  you’ll forgive me.

2.  TWO offers on the house, one serious, one not.  We may get full price for this puppy.  Wish us luck.  The family that Paul showed through the place absolutely loved it – they spent more time in the legal rental suite than they did in the upstairs, where they would be living.  All the time I spent cleaning that f/cking apartment has come into sharp focus as being, you know, a good thing. (Also all of Janice and Paul’s hard work). Real Estate Magician we hired is working on moving in the removal dates (of the subject-tos) but we may be hopping from one foot to the other for another week.  I have no doubts but that the house will clear the building inspection, and the financing on the solid offer is just that, solid. Fingers crossed.  Oh, forgot to mention that closing date is a month from now!

Great evening

went straight to Metrotown from work, riding down the hill with Patricia and Scary Clown, then a meal in the food court (U Grill) and then bought myself a summer jacket with all the latest hardware detailing, drooled all over some fet gear in that weird shop with the dragon out front at Silver City, then Pirates of the Caribbean, (LTGW said it was an art film and he was mostly right) & then a meal.  Keith cued it up so that Paul came to the movie as well and we had a very civilized and comradely evening, including a stopover at Chong Lum Hin (where else) where Sue gave us a rapturous welcome, and I got to read episode ninety – the last – the very last – of Strangers in Paradise.  It has a happy ending!!! Me so happy!!! they Both get pregnant and live happily ever after.  Okay, this will only mean something to maybe two people who read my blog, but I was terrified Terry Moore was going to kill off Tambi, and he didn’t.  And I gave Paul back the Powerpack and a piece of mail that somehow got included in my mail forwarding.  And somebody saw the house, but no offer.  Open house this weekend, wish us luck.

I’m glad my evening was so great, because work sucks a Greyhound Bus Station Men’s Restroom Mop right about now.  Not people, just work to the ceiling.

More cleaning

Yesterday I got to the Augur Inn, where I a) returned the penultimate Strangers in Paradise, b) cleaned the downstairs bathroom, removing paint spatters and glue which had been there since we moved in, cleaning the door, and putting the light fixture back up so that all that remains is scrubbing the floor and painting the door c) cleaned the railings in the deck, d) rewashed some windows, e) ran the loveseat cover Janice got through the laundry and hung it to dry as Zeek! bled all over it, f) started detailing the downstairs kitchen, g) scrubbed out the laundry room sink some more (it isn’t done), h) washed the exterior of the windows in the garage.  Partway through my day Katie took me out for breakfast.  It was yummy, and you can get steak and eggs at the Big 6 for $6.35.

About 3:30 I bailed and Paul drove me to the liquor store and I picked up beer, wine and vodka (the only mix I have is orange juice….) and helped me in with MORE boxes and some pictures (I left them in the garage) and then I spent a lovely four hours with Gail, Jerome’s mum, who’s a simply fascinating woman who has raised three simply splendid children, and whose brother Bruce wrote that Vancouver Map Book (before there were computers).  This is a book which shows what Vancouver looked like in ten year increments and which lived next to my bed from the time I got it to the time I moved (of course I can’t find it, but I will when I’ve finished unpacking…)

 

Then I unpacked my new vacuum cleaner and I LOVE it. It’s a new Hoover canister and it does everything a vacuum cleaner should do and there’s only two attachments and it looks like a bug eyed alien and is bright orange. I vacuumed my apartment (well, not the bedroom, the bedroom is a disaster still) but the rest.

This morning I got up and washed the pot and pans I got at Ikea and made myself coffee and breakfast, and now I’m going to figure out when the first bus comes and then go over to the Augur Inn.  Katie was going to take me to see Spiderman and Keith and Paul invited themselves along but that’s okay….

The weather has clouded over.  There are many, many birds here,  I could birdwatch all day.  This morning I watched a hawk kill something.

Burnt and his new bride are probably honeymooning somewhere.  I will get a full report on the wedding from LTGW on Monday, or so I hope.  Men never remember the details women want to hear, unless they’re gay or making a heroic effort.

I have started reading Master and Commander.  Stephen Maturin’s comments about thinking he was gonna die are very funny, and Jack Aubrey is the most admirable mixture of low cunning, high spirits and cluelessness that ever walked on the foredeck of any ship, real or imagined.  Sigh,  I can hardly wait for Pirates of the Caribbean III.

Paul has made revisions to the separation agreement (as have I) which I have not yet seen.  He says he’s not putting the house on the market until the separation agreement is chopped, and also I shouldn’t have moved out because it’s costing a lot of money.

Uh…. I wasn’t thinking about money when I moved out. I was thinking about my sanity.  I had a little hiatus there while I didn’t do much, but that had as much to do with the unbelievable YogSuggothian hor-ror of work as any other emotional background noise, and I was still going back to the house to clean rather more than I want to, because I am actually serious about getting the house sold.

I already know what’s going to happen.  Paul will stall until the house selling season is over, then move back into the basement and rent the upstairs.  He can do what he likes.  I still own half the house and when the time comes to renegotiate the mortgage, he can buy me out and experience the joy of doubling the size of the mortgage on one income with a renter who may or may not work out.  Even if housing prices plummet I will still be free.  This is why I find what Paul’s doing so amusing.  He keeps talking about money. He never talks about the emotional stuff, only about the inconvenience, and how the house which he spent many many hours complaining about has now majickally turned into a haven.  I already got what I wanted.  I have contemplated how I would feel if I lost every penny on the house.  I would be plenty cheesed, but you know, life goes on.  My spiritual advisor has lost just about everything, twice, in the last ten years, and all it’s done is make him a better person with a clearer understanding of what’s important.  I should be so lucky as to have life events that did that for me!

I want to sell the house and get the best buck possible not because I am a raving acquisitive bitch, but because I want to have the wherewithal to help my children.    Happy Mother’s Day, everybody.

Course today

I tried to find a way of conveying how much happier I am to be going on course today as opposed to going to work but the only analogy I could think of was both so violent and so vulgar that I decided not to sear my ma’s eyeballs with it.

My apartment is a sty because I’m never here when I’m not exhausted…. I detailed the laundry machines and cleaned the rug in Dr. Filk’s old bedroom last night. Also saw Katie back at the Augur Inn as she did laundry and tried to figure out what of her stuff is going with her over to Suzanne’s. Dax has moved out.

I have picked up Tom and Peggy’s housewarming present, with thanks and love. It is two little rosemary plants to replace the monster rosemary my mum planted by the front door of the Augur Inn. The rhodo is in full bloom in front of the old place… another thing I will miss. Next up at the Augur Inn. Windows, downstairs. Dan T. is also working flat out on the house which is great.

Keith was nowhere in evidence at the Augur Inn last night and much missed. He loaned me Jeff’s copy of Master and Commander so I will now start a Patrick O’Brian jag.

err

I am re-reading Doris Lessing’s excellent “love, again”.

I dropped over 3 bills in IKEA last night but I now have enough chairs, ice cube trays, cutlery,  also a shower curtain, plates, bowls, serving tray, bathmat, 3 lamps, oven mitts, etc ….  and I did it all in less than two hours door to door.  I still want a footstool.  The living room is (except for the box carcasses) pretty much as it will be – but I still need a TV stand – and a TV.  I’m looking at the deals at tigerdirect.ca.  I don’t think I want a refurb.

I picked up my first piece of mail, patronized two local establishments (small grocery and the optician, where I got the broken nose pieces on my glasses replaced for 5 bucks), collected my phone books, and shoved stuff around.

I wonder what horrors await at work this morning.  There is an all staff meeting.  They’ve already announced layoffs – I am not currently affected.  I know that what they are doing makes sense for the organization, but I’m heartsick nonetheless.

Painting, cleaning, laundry

My chest cold is now to the point where I am rarely coughing – I’d like to thank my poor beleaguered immune system. I still need a good swift slug of DM-D-E to get to sleep and still wake up coughing, but hell, wakeytime was 5 am today and that is really an improvement over nights past.

I painted three of the sills in the plant room (the side by side comparisons with the old ones are quite humorous) and have started a list of stuff to go on freecycle.org (thanks Brother Jim!) and craigslist. I finally managed to subscribe to freecycle, so I’m happy about that too; the last time for the life of me I could not get my password to work and whoever the moderator was turned out to be friendly but not helpful. I have also done my laundry, the touchup paint in the bathroom, vacuumed out the plant room (holy COW it was disgusting) and walked around the house making a list of stuff I can actually do with my back bein’ the way it is and all. Oh, and I read the Serenity comeeks Dax bought Katie (!?).

Kate spent 250 dollars on a ring for Daxus’ 20th birthday. This news will be met by cascades of disgust and disbelief, I’m sure. I justabout threw up when I heard it. It certainly hasn’t changed his attitude towards life, the universe, and being an adult.

I will be calling movers today and finalizing the moving date based on their input… despite my scads of moving karma from when I was living in Toronto, it turns out that I don’t have much here (at least in terms of putting together a truck) and I thought about it and … you know, this is going to be a relatively fast and easy move anyway. I will only have about ten sticks of furniture, a couple of awkward parcels (pictures, hangings, bags o clothes) and the rest is all banker boxes, which make for super easy moving. So I’m going to outsource and then if folks want to volunteer to help me unpack, I’ll go for that.

Katie found the clothes Janice put in the garage. I don’t think she’s ever going to forgive either her dad or Janice for cleaning out her room without bothering to pick up the phone and call her first. When she said that she would rather that Dr. Filk had cleaned out her room (as if….) I knew she was choked.
I am investigating my new computer. I had really good luck with TigerDirect.ca and Katie’s phone (thanks Brother Jim!) so I’m thinking…. put the bait on the hook and get a monster gaming computer. And then I’m thinking. Two fans. Do you really want to be listening to TWO fans? I’m also thinking about a big screen TV, but I’m also thinking… hey, I NEVER watch DVD’s when I’m by myself! Watching stuff is a social activity for me, strangely enough, so unless I want to be looking at a thousand bucks I only use when company’s over, maybe I should pass and keep my recently bumped up credit card in my pocket. It would make more sense to get a decent stereo.
I’ve mentioned Brother Jim twice, and I should post the pix he sent to me … suiting up in a bombproof suit! That’s where he’s working now, a company that makes bombproof suits. I want to ‘shop the last one and title it, Ready for Another Day of Work in Customer Support.

The Dandy Warhols are coming. Oy. I should phone Doug and LE and try to make a date. There will be life after Paul, and it will be interesting.

Keith has entirely fallen in love with the oeuvre of Patrick O’Brien, and why not? He’s an amazing writer.