Random Updates

1. One year ago today:

I was just getting over a sickitude, was finishing up my MA essay, and was still getting used to the weird dreams my headache drugs give me. I watched Milk recently, and when he turns around and sees the gun pointed at him, I kind of knew how he felt--because of that crazy dream where I died! (Great movie, by the way.)

2. Here's the facebook moods I was in a year ago. Hey... I stopped updating moods when facebook changed. Doh! I liked Moods. It was fun to look back on. I'll have to start again.



3. Just caught up on the blog I often read, of that woman who lives half in San Fran, and half in London. I used to call her That Woman Who's Living My Life! (because of the whole London thing) ... except for the fact that she doesn't have cats. Well now it seems she and her husband have separated and are divorcing. Sadness! She seemed very attached to him, but who knows what the reasons are. I think they were together a long time, so that's gotta be tough--though she seems to be doing well. She's learned how to pump her own gas for the first time in her life! Yay! It's almost an Anne Murray video.

So I really can't be jealous anymore. I don't mean her life is Terrible Because She Is Husbandless... I just mean, I'm glad I've got my cats and my particular husband. The Fernando, the Nombly, the Bones, the Halzebub: They all have to stay, I'm afraid. I couldn't even give them up for London, going out to restaurants and the theatre every night, and a fabulous house on the side of a gorgeous mountain outside San Fran.

4. Speaking of San Fran: I've decided not to go this summer. At the earliest Stepmommy & I will go in the fall, when the weather is supposed to be at its best. But we might go next year. Thing is, I haven't gotten back to plotting my San Fran novel and I don't want to go too early, then miss researching something I needed to know. So... no rush. My savings aren't going anywhere. Er um hopefully.

5. Watched Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist tonight--great little romance. I'm glad I married a man who loves romance movies. (Unfortunately for him he didn't marry someone who wants to watch endless episodes of Star Trek and Stargate. Better set him up with the newly single blog woman.)

Off to bed now. I've been trying to keep proper bedtime hours, even on my days off, but this weekend I failed. FAIL!

Haley the Wannabe Library Cat

Ever since I met her, Halzebub yells at me when I get out of the shower. I assume she learned in childhood that shower = leaving the house for 9 hours.

But I've confused her! Because I don't always shower before work, and sometimes I shower the night before. However... she has adapted.

If I shower at night, she doesn't give me the Song & Dance. But if I shower in the day, or if she sees me standing at my cupboard door getting dressed, then she does. She's accurate about 90% of the time.

Meow! Meow! Meow! Meow!

I hold her, I sing Bob Marley songs to her, but nothing helps.

I'm not sure if she's mad that I'm leaving, or mad that I'm not taking her with me. I suspect she aspires to be the Dewey of my bookstore. A more aggressive version, taking swipes at booksellers if they're about to shelve the book in the wrong place. Attacking the children riding the plazmacars. Selling the discount card.

Oo what a pretty country I live in!

And I'm glad I've seen lots of it! Yellowknife, Vancouver, Nanaimo to Victoria (and all in between), Tofino, Penticton, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal, the Gaspé, Ottawa, Toronto ...and towns there and about.

Rolf Hicker

REAL spring

Reader and Friend of the Blog "GMC" (alright... it's just my dad) writes that my spring counter is broken. This is because people foolishly use the Vernal Equinox as the beginning of spring. While this March in Quebec has been quite sunny and nice, it's usually just as crappy as February. So I set my spring countdown to the first of April. (An early April Fool's joke you might say. Ah ha ha ha.)

But we'll get a snowstorm fo shizzle in April. So really... spring starts After the Last Big Crappy Snowstorm.

A History of Me: In boots!

Fernando and I were shopping today, and we were talking about what I wanted for my birthday, when I spotted this from the corner of my eye, in the window of the home brew store:

When I was in grade 2 or 3, I think, our mother brought home 2 mugs just like this--one for me and for my brother. We loved them. We had a ritual every Friday night where we would watch The Dukes of Hazzard and have a bag of chips and a bottle of pop each, and this became The Favored Pop Mug. If you drank from it at the right angle, it splashed pop in your face... which was the whole fun, of course.

We are now the proud owner of two mug boots.

And the public offer is going out to Brother Pablo--if he wants one of the mugs, I'll give one to him. Otherwise, Fernando and I will sit on our little couch, with our little boots, and carry on the family tradition.

what to reeeeaaaad... the exciting conclusion!

Canada Reads is a "battle of the books" on CBC that started during my days at the bookstore, in 2002, but I've never set out to read one one of the winners.

This year Canada Reads came to a close at just the right time--when I'm cycling 'round to a Literary Mood. Because I was more interested in researching my writing, I didn't read a lot after finishing school last year. Only a couple months ago I got Back in the Mood, and I read:
- a serious mystery
- 2 romances
- 1 chick lit
- 1 *cozy* mystery
- 1 serious mystery

Which means now my mood is turning either to sci fi/fantasy, or literature. So I ordered me up a copy of the Canada Reads winner: The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (45% off at indigo.ca !) Incidentally, it has a different name in the US and some other countries, because the word "negro," which is sort of mildly distasteful in Canada, has much more pejorative connotations elsewhere, and they were afraid black readers would disdain to even pick the book up. The title comes from an historical document the author found, detailing the African-Americans allowed passage up to Nova Scotia in the 18th century.

I expect to get through a lot of reading this month, as I'll be cat-sitting for a friend, and therefore commuting longer.

My parents had to put down their very sick little lovebird today. :-(