Settler words&music in S'ólh Téméxw, (leanpub.com/upsun) living where privilege meets precarity in MST country. she/her/they———– Novels: Midnite Moving Co., Upsun; Sweep Off Those Waves coming soon, Hair Sinister after that. —Restore All Indigenous Lands!
Janice’s bf D (we were celebrating his birthday and St Patricks Day) and their friends are THE MOST wonderful and hospitable people. I had a tremendous time, and my ride didn’t wake up until church was in the rearview mirror. I lasted until 1:30 am, who could credit it!
We made a lot of music.
Mercy me. Moonshine is one of the background characters in Justified, and now it appears that artisanal ‘shine is making the big distillers lick their chops.
Downstairs toilet at home went kablooie. Hope Jeff is coping with it okay.
Timothy Olyphant being adorbz on Ellen.
Timothy Olyphant demonstrating that nasty rotten lousy miserable trick men have of getting MUCH HOTTER as they get older.
Ok, gotta go pay some bills now.
Visited with Sue this morning to help her download from her daddy’s funeral. He was 102. Meshuggas about the inheritance; waiting is.
LOVELY visit with Mike last night (funnily enough I’d been kvetching to Paul, with whom I was practicing yesterday, about how MIKE WUZ NOT RETURNING MY CALLS WAHWAH) and he called around 8 and I kinda forst him to let me come over. I brought Otto and sang Theo’s Theme and John Scalzi’s Blog and Compost and Grateful and It’s Just So Nice When Someone knows your Name, and Lemming’s Twofer, and the first verse of Wanted to Believe, and Mike sang the drop D version of Dylan’s Tangled up in Blue and another song, I can’t remember which. We talked about various things, including how trying work is for him right now, and how the insomnia really doesn’t help. BUT HE FOUND THE TAYLOR. His parlour guitar was lost in the move but he found it again, and so me happy. I was VERY BAD and drank two beers, which made me so drunk I collapsed on the sofa and slept from 10:30 til 8:30 the next morning. Two beers. I always was a lightweight, but this was ludicrous. Also worked on Rozo for a while, her shoulders were a reticulation of weenie little knots. While I was there Mike called Brian and I got to talk to him for a while. There is nothing like the sound of a friend’s voice, yanno?
This morning I came home and promptly started brekkie for Jeff, being melon and bacon and pamcakes, and then Sue called and I went off and had a second breakfast of more coffee. Also, getting checks signed so I can pay some churchy bills. Then I wandered into a sign shop and ORDERED the John Caspell Memorial Pinball Parlour sign for reelz this time, and then my other errands got shunted aside as I had to trot home due to the coffee.
Now I am looking up the language of flowers on the internet for a bouquet I’m buying for the minister tomorrow and as soon as I change my clothes – ew, slept in my clothes, what am I, frosh at some scummy college??? – I’ll be off to buy a floral bouquet, pick up some more spray paint, and buy some eggs and butter to get going on some biscotti. Roast chicken for dinner tonight. MMMMM chicken.
I cooked a pork roast the other night with basil and lemon thyme from Suzanne’s deck garden. It was nommy too, although Jeff owned that it was a little overcooked. We did agree that pork roast should be roasted, it doesn’t cook right in the crock pot.
Paul and Keith are off to Seattle for the long weekend. Katie is doing cat care this time; I should call her. The only reason I know she’s alive is from her facebook comments.
Miss Margot has been extra barfy. I need to brush her very very thoroughly and give her a lot of kitty malt.
SO LOOKING FORWARD TO SINGING NEW SONG FOR MINISTER. he he.
So I completely blew the interview yesterday – fell apart during the test. I solaced myself with beer and lobster afterwards, so thoroughly downcast was I, and my Lumosity score fell like a rock this morning subsequent to me having two beers, so, note to self – alcohol does make you demonstrably dumber, please avoid (yesterday’s score was one of my highest ever, so it seems germane to mention the difference). No I did no driving yesterday, for the safety minded among you.
The stye has come to its fruition and no longer hurts; it’s just making me look like Margot with the ludicrous amount of eye gunk it is producing (which is actually impacting my ability to see out of my left eye. Very glad it’s in my left eye, my right eye doesn’t produce enough tears so I’d be in a very sad way.)
Margot fell off some boxes in my closet and trapped herself in my clothes. I have never heard her make that much noise in that short a space – she really is getting more noisy, which means she’s just barely audible.
Amazing science / health news.
He only posted it yesterday and I’ve already set it to music. OH GOSH HOW I LOVE THIS POEM. Mind you I wrote the choon two days ago.
I love the show ER so much I want it to be in space. Yes, Trauma 3000, in which our fearless surgeons and internists rotate between a mother hospital on the ground and a microgravity trauma unit in orbit, including tours of duty with trauma units at the front lines of an alien war. And I want an alien social worker. I want it to be ER x Babylon 5 x Battlestar Galactica. w00t!~
Social media has turned modern friendship into a pixellated bar that serves kittens, soundbites and RPGs. – A Sloman.
Tony Scott, noted director and producer and brother of Ridley, committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. He left a note. He was 68. Depression’s a hell of an illness, and my condolences to his family, friends and associates. …added later – he had inoperalbe brain cancer.
What the hell I don’t even. Binge drinkers are happier. Science sez. I only post this because this was the first weekend I really really really wanted to buy beer, but I managed not to. Most of the time I don’t even think about alcohol but I came piteously close to purchasing same when I came out of the Heather Dale concert, and no jokes about how she drove me to drink.
Should get a call back about work today. Guess I need to run some laundry.
Saw the Helen Mirren version of the Tempest. Loved it.
Margot breathes at 14 -16 breaths per minute, which is apparently low. She’s very noisy right now… I’m assuming she’s asleep. Eddie did a phantom barf yesterday morning. Jeff and I both heard him and we looked everywhere and couldn’t find it. Speaking of Eddie, he’s scratching at the door, so I’ll get up and let him in.
I find this article really disturbing and can’t articulate why.
It was a solstice party (1 pagan in attendance, check), a housefilk (whenever two or more of you are gathered together in the name of the typo, amen), a hootenanny (small children running around and massacring harmonicas and tambourines while Tapioca is cooked), a religious/cultural interpersonal therapy session as we sang the hums of our people (Falling Free, Frobisher Bay among others), an impromptu poly gathering (6 people in attendance openly poly, plus lurkers), a-a-a-and a shameless attempt on my part to get everybody to compliment me on my sheer good sense for buying Otto. Who is a boy, Katie K confirmed it. She also arrived with a housemate in tow and La Merveilleuse Tillie‘s fraking awesome rosemary infused vodka/vermouth libation, which despite the no drinking rule I tasted cause I had to. And I ain’t sad to. I’m glad to. Still a taste left, if ScaryClown comes over tomorrow I’ll feed him some. Stayed away from the beer, but Mike left 3 in the fridge, so at least I haz some to offer guests. Day before yesterday I made biscotti, and then shared them out liberally at the party, sending some home with the LET’S SING SONGS ABOUT DEATH (literally her first words when she unpacked the bass) Peggy and the ever useful and opinionated Tom. Also dispensed biscotti to Mike, who sang The Weight (ah, the piercing harmonies!) and Tomorrow Wendy, and to Rozo, who spectated with that sleepy and mischievous smile I’ve gotten so fond of. The glorious and unabridgedly awesome Cindy added that special soupçon of harmonious madness without which no housefilk can be characterized as ‘good’. Or is housefilk like sex and pizza? ah, erm. Anyway, we sang zombie songs (dead people), Frobisher Bay (freezing to death), Tomorrow Wendy (which has lots of death in it), Dead Flowers (roses on your grave), and really really kept the theme of somgs about death on track more or less by accident. Paul sang Last Page and Cindy sang Runtime Error, Type Mismatch so Lady Miss B was there toooooo. Although regrettably not in person, possibly because I neglected to invite her? Duh.
I cleaned my house and wrote a song yesterday, and people came over and we laughed and chatted and sang and played. Success! My brother has been feeling meh but not enough to crimp fun (he slept in the guest room, but Eddie the wonderkitty kept him company).
Due to overwhelming popular demand (two facebutt friends), I will be setting words to my new song, which is the third I’ve written in the Game of Thrones universe. My Needle and I, and Funeral March of Lord Tywin (instrumental) were the first two. This one is called The Maid of Tarth. Oh Otto, you are demanding instrument, but I will rise to the challenge. And now I realize that it’s 4 GoT songs, I forgot about Sam the Slayer. When I get into a Universe I seriously fracking commit.
Now…. how do I keep my house clean enough so I actually throw housefilks more than twice a year? I mean apart from a chartreuse flamethrower and a tank of oxygen….
Yesterday:
Heaps of Stargate Atlantis, but also talking to the outplacementthingy and the HR gal at Schneider as it turns out I had NOT actually signed everything I was s’posed to, booking appointments, paying bills, getting programs to run properly with the new OS, hanging out with Keith and calling my mother. Cause you cain’t call yer mother enuf. I did not actually leave the house yesterday. But I made cookies. And cooked chicken and zucchini with black bean sauce over yakisoba noodles (Keith provided the sauce and noodles, I believe to nudge me to make something) and we had leftovers so that’s one less thing to disturb me today.
Today:
Gotta get Buzz set up properly and restrung. Also buy more instrument stands, hopefully one of those threeway bluegrass ones for three different sized instruments. Also I am tired of my tuner; I am going to get contact tuners because balancing that black box in my lap while trying to keep fretted instruments from sounding like the wailing of the damned is TOO DAMNED MUCH. See how low my frustration tolerance is these days? Ha.
The Grass. This is exactly the kind of weather that makes grass tall, lush, and impossible to cut. Lots of overcast and rain off and on with the occasional blinding sunshine. Very, very occasional. If it dries out the least bit I gotta do it before it attempts to eat east Burnaby.
Checking with Kathleen that we’ve paid the church rent and figuring out how much it is (it changes from month to month) if we haven’t yet for May. Also getting hold of Lady Miss D for an interview about what it’s like to bake / construct hors d’oevres for a living. I will probably bake biscotti, it’s such a crappy day, heating up the kitchen with nice smells seems like a plan. I already made Granny’s recipe oatmeal cookies mit chocolate chips this morning for Jeff (I can’t eat them because le migraine keeps whacking me. I’ve had scintillating scotoma every day for a week now… it’s fraking tiresome although late last week I got visuals I’ve never seen before; imagine rainbow coloured fish scales about two inches across at arms length dancing across your ENTIRE visual field – and it disappeared as fast as it came on thank goodness). I’ve also loaded the dishwasher, taken out the trash and played with Margot, who did not actually come in and cuddle this morning, darn. Her eyes are much less disgusting, the allergies must be lightening up somewhat.
Completely dejunking my head, a la Getting things Done. I have a program (Thinking Rock) that helps with that. Considering how many balls I’m going to have in the air for the next little while I need to marshall my time intelligently.
Deal with the exercise issue. I’m completely on board with Lady Miss Banjola’s recent extremely useful and heartfelt rant about weight loss; what I am not on board with is actually stirring my stumps and getting enough exercise to overcome the fact that my weight is stressing my whole body. IT AIN’T THE MASS IT’S THE MOTION. Ahem. As in, the lack of it.
Booking the camping trip in the US in August. Planning a circuit of the Island. I have a strong urge to drive onto a ferry and go to Haida Gwaii, and precious little to stop me.
Just last week I was saying how I wasn’t going to go to Jericho any more because it’s so far on a school night. Now I’m thinking I can do it every week for the whole summer! Woot! So that may be my evening.
And soon the Dandy Warhols.
I have had precisely four beers since I ‘quit drinking’. What I have learned. Alcohol makes me happy for about five minutes. Then it irritates my bladder, fogs my thinking, prevents me from driving or leaving the house, screws up my nights’ sleep, makes my stomach hurt and gives me a mild to moderate feeling of wretched blankness the next morning which coffee can usually shake off. So for the purposes of keeping tracking June 4 is now my official quit drinking date. Unless it would be rude not to (a wake, toasting the bride and groom) I’m not going to consume alcohol any more. Nothing bad has happened in its absence except I’m spending a sizable amount less (like, 200 dollars a month, which is not an inconsiderable amount).
Mike, Rozo, Jeff, Katie and I consumed bevvies (I had one Carlsberg and you may all laugh, I feel quite hungover) and ate nommies and listed to live music last night at the Heritage. Who’d’a thunk we’d actually gerroff our asses and go out someplace?
Also yesterday Katie K called me up having read my facebutt post on my unemployment. People are being very civil to me about it and I’m finding it quite heartwarming. We had a lovely long chat and how good to hear her voice.
Today I’m going to make more lists, practice my mandolin. watch some Stargate Atlantis episodes, drink coffee, commune with my cat by waving long stalks of grass in front of her face and commiserate with my daughter about how the first day of her 11 days off is such a sucky day, as we have “BEACH” on our list of things to do and the weather is uncooperative. Also, trip to the Island at some point. Also, shopping trip to the US possibly. (I don’t actually intend to buy anything but I can always provide the wheels.)
Christ, gas prices.
Upgraded the MacBook’s OS to Snow Leopard yesterday. It was lengthy, but painless. This will hopefully stop all of my various programs from saying I’m running an outdated version of things. I can’t tell any difference but I suppose that’s the point. Everything seems to be working okay. I have to say I have been completely underwhelmed by the attitude of the MacStation employees when you walk into that store on Brighton…. their cold dead eyes, their complete lack of enthusiasm to see you. Impressive tattoos, though.
I have a deep deep hankering for doubles today from D Roti Shak. I will get some, but I think I’m also going to learn how. It’s a fried bread chickpea sandwich, how hard could it be?
I also have a deep hankering for more cinnamon buns, so I suppose after the dishwasher quits swishing and clanking I should fire up the breadmaker.
Jeff enjoyed my foray into chocolate chip cookies, but my brain is not enjoying chocolate at the moment so the next cookies will be Granny’s oatmeal cookies so we can both have something to enjoy. I am thinking of making them as refrigerator cookies so as to avoid having to cook a whole batch at once.
I introduced Miss Margot to Miss Kira yesterday morning. Margot came out to the front porch with me so I scooped her up and tossed her in the car. She attempted to jump up on the extremely slippery dash, with comic results, and then settled into the passenger’s side footwell with nary a cry nor peep. Kira was mewing like crazy as I came up to the door but it died in her throat when she saw Miss Margot, who dashed for the cat tree and then the entertainment system as likely places to hide. I fed Kira and when I called Margot she came out from the entertainment center (working her way through a bunch of loose wires, which looked pretty funny) and I picked her up and took her to Kira who sniffed at her thoughtfully but didn’t fluff her tail or make any noise. Margot growled like a watch ticking, so faint if I hadn’t been holding her I wouldn’t have noticed. Then I stuffed her back in the car, she got back in the footwell, and seemed very relieved to be at home when next I popped the door open. I find it interesting that she cries if she’s transported in a carrier, but not if she’s just in the car.
Heavy sigh. This is now Day 7 of project quit drinking. I don’t know what I was expecting…DTs maybe? Instead, nothing, except I have to remember to drink 20 ounces of water between the time I get home and the time I go to bed or I get dehydrated. That’s what the beer was for, to give my kidneys something to do when they were bored.
Otherwise, no effect on my life at all.
Time to go shower and get dressed and call in sick to work. Yeah, I would like to – it’s May Day! – but I think I’ll occupy my work station and serve customers today.
Katie dropped by briefly at Mike’s place before partying elsewhere; Paul and Keith and Jeff and I hung out for a while. We basically laughed, ate, talked and drank. Just before midnight Keith and Jeff headed out on foot; just after midnight Paul gave me a lift home. It was all very convivial and relaxed. Tom U was there! it was so nice to see him. I took bubbly and coconut curry chicken with onions and taters in a crock pot as well as two six packs of beer. Other folks provided fresh cooked salmon with tons o garlic, awesome corn bread, lasagna, meatballs etc. Trent thanked me for cooking something with no added salt as he isn’t supposed to have any. He also gave me underwear (but I forgot it at Mike’s). (He gave some to all the women – it’s folded and packaged to look like a rose. Katie pounced on hers and pronounced it awesome.)
Today there’s the New Years drop in at Cindy’s place which will involve music and singing and playing and yummy cookies. Also lots of boring laundry and cleaning before I go.
I consulted the tarot about which vice to attack this year and the result was an extremely annoying “Whichever is the most burdensome, and you have a few to choose from, have fun, and quit whinging.” Sometimes I wonder about that deck. Anyway, it’s clear to me what it was trying to tell me and I’m just pouty.
Never in my life have I had pork trigger a migraine as fast as it did last night. It took two hours for the flashies to go away. It was going to resolve in to a headache so I just went to bed. I thank Tom and Peggy and their descendents and daughter in law for their LOVELY meal. Ben made me a mint julep. It was wonderful, but it perhaps also contributed to the migraine, I am not supposed to drink spirits. Happy Turkey day everyone.
It was a perfect storm. I didn’t sleep more than three hours, I had a homily, I didn’t eat a proper breakfast, I sat in the sun for an hour. I had a meetup with someone, and then I had a large dinner with some pork in it. Et voila, migraine.
Feel okay now though.
Don’t all thank me at once for letting you know!
Moosehead Brewery Locks Out Workers.
This is terrible news! I will be advising Jeff to find another beer.
How I love it.
Here’s a picture of a margarita under a microscope. Happy fun drinking time! Da party’s on da inside.
Later this morning I deliver a homily. Then I come home and bake a salmon. There may be biscotti in there someplace.
It’s a restaurant / bar in New West I’ve known about for some time but I’ve never been. Véronique and I had a bit to eat and a little something-something to drink, and it was very yummy and convivial. I am hoping at some point to get custody of the church website, currently her bailiwick, so we worked through my extreme rudeness in asking for it when I wasn’t really authorized by the Board to do that (sorry!) and how any handoff will be handled in this ‘real life’ we keep hearing about.
I recommend the Orange Room; pricey but really nice and comfy.
We also talked about some trends in second wave feminism which includes a culture war with transpeople, which I had been dimly aware of but not really up on, and candidly it’s appalling, but it’s hard for me to entirely sort out how icky it is because I’m not in possession of some background. Anyway, I need more reading material, so I asked for it. I do think gender essentialism, unless you’re talking about the mechanics of getting and bearing children, needs an enema.
Katie has moved into a place with the help of her father. I came home and the top mattress off my bunk bed was gone – so that’s done.