a long-o day-o

Work
Umm so I was a wee bit tired after two nights of 3 hour sleeps. And it was a busy day. My brain could handle it for the first 8 hours, but the second my shift was officially over (and I wanted to work on my own work, as opposed to running the store) every customer received a telepathic message telling them I would be there to fill their every need and dream and they should not let me take two steps without stopping me.

Ordinarily I love that sort of fun-on-the-sales-floor, but I had someone waiting to talk to me, so it just stressed me out. After 30 minutes of this (and after taking off my uniform vest didn't help) I finally took off in an all-out run for the office. Jumped into it like I was leaping into a fox hole. 3 hours later when I tried to leave work, my brain cells were so fried I returned to the office about 5 times in a row, while another manager was holding a meeting in there, because of forgetting things. It was like... Departure Fail. Failure to launch.

Eating
Yesterday I ate pasta while listening to a program on CBC, but I felt fine about it because I started listening while making supper and it wasn't over when I was ready to eat. It was about two Newfoundland Inuit families in the late 1800s who agreed to travel around Europe as part of a zoo exhibit. The Germans didn't remember to inoculate them against smallpox so they all died. One of their member kept a diary in Inuktituk, which the CBC show was based on. Really interesting.

But today at work I worked while eating, simply because there was so much to do. Blech.

Food
I went to the grocery store after, and tooook myyyy tiiiiiime. I wandered slowly through the aisles, weighing my really really empty fridge (emptier than it's been in years, literally) against how much I could carry. Towards the end I came across a new aisle they just set up of international food.

Oh man did I have fun! The municipality I live in is pretty white and oldy, but just north of the grocery store (still well in the burbs) there are a lot more immigrant (or first generation Canadian) nabes. I only know this because if I take a bus in that direction, in the space of one block, I go from being part of the majority to the minority.

Anyway, the grocery store must be finally trying to tap that market because they have a huge new aisle of international groceries. Not the North-American-ized kind (Heinz's Tandoori sauce or whatever) but the kinds of prepared foods you usually see in smaller markets, with 6 languages on the label. Plus ginormous bags of various rices, and cooking oils.

It used to be I couldn't locate a stuffed vine leave for love nor money in that store, and I searched high and low for tahini. This new aisle had a variety of stuffed vine leaves, 6-8 brands of tahini, 8 different kinds of refried beans, and a whole other host of Interesting Yummies. Indian, Chinese, Russian, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Greek... I felt like I was on a Disneyland "It's a Small World" ride.

I took a pass on the gefilte fish, and had to pass the things that would have been too heavy (jerk sauce, refried beans), but I couldn't resist a huge bag of the brightest dye-coloured tortilla chips I've ever seen, a big package of chocolate wafer cookies, stuffed vine leaves, Chana masala spice mix, and back in the frozen section I found samosas. If I have to return to processed food I can at least do it in style!

Books


They're pre-screening this a Fantasia this summer -- a Montreal film festival that used to focus on Asian films, but I get the impression they're now positioning themselves as a "genre film" festival.

I found out today that it's basd on a manga-esque graphic novel called Scott Pilgrim. It's actually a Canadian series, with a Canadian setting, but apparently they've un-Canada-ed it for the movie. Tsk tsk.

I bought the first edition as a bookseller told me it's really good. Will report back! ;-)