I realized today that it's been a while (almost ten days) since I posted anything. This is not in keeping with my goal of writing more. Today's entry is kind of scattershot, and slightly tangential. It may also be kind of, um, nonsensical - I took cold medicine a little while ago and it's starting to work. I can tell, because the room is slightly wobbly. Or maybe I'm wobbly. Possibly both. This should be fun...
Update on tanning: I'm still going, but I have decided it would be in my best interests to wear my bathing suit while tanning. This is because I have developed heat rashes in uncomfortable places. I will say no more on the issue, other than reporting that it's (kind of) working. The parts of me that normally tan (arms, upper chest, shoulders, face) have color, and my legs look less pale than before (they don't qualify as "tan" yet, but they no longer glow in the dark - progress!).
I have "Where is My Mind?" stuck in my head right now. Answer: No idea. None.
It's probably stuck there because I watched a bit of Fight Club the other night. About two minutes after I started watching, Edward Norton and Brad Pitt go raid a liposuction facility for fat to make soap. I lasted until the fat bag snagged on the barbed wire fence, then I had to change the channel. And concentrate on not barfing. I flipped back a few minutes later, just in time to see Brad Pitt dump lye on Edward Norton's hand. I decided to skip that movie for now - especially since I already know the "twist" at the end.
I was supposed to go curling at a mid-singles event last week. I had a presentation the next day though, and I didn't feel entirely prepared for it, so I skipped curling in order to work on the presentation. Turns out I needn't have bothered - I was over-prepared. Lame. Curling would have made a great blog entry. It's the ice sport kind of like darts, but instead of throwing darts you slide stones down a lane of ice and try to get them to stop in a target. You are allowed to broom the ice in order to get the stone to slide where you want it. You can also knock other people's rocks out of the target area. It could have been really fun. Stupid presentation :-(
Our ward choir, for which I am the accompanist, performed yesterday in church for Easter. We did two songs, There is a Green Hill Far Away (the Hymnplicity version) and Long Ago, Within a Garden. I was slightly loopy from lack of sleep (thanks, cold!), and mixed up two pages of There is a Green Hill. Thankfully I realized the mix up right at the end of one verse, so the choir sang the next verse a capella while I switched my pages, and then I joined them on the third verse. You'd almost think we'd planned it that way :-) The second song went better, until the very last four measures, of which I managed to butcher three. B the choir director swears up and down that she didn't even notice, so she's sure nobody else did. I'd have been more embarrassed and annoyed (considering I'd been faithfully practising it for a month and had the ending NAILED the day before), but I was too tired. I even crapped out on cleaning the temple this morning, after ducking out last Friday to go see The Hunger Games. But I'm making it up this Friday, presuming I'm not still plague-ridden.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS!! I really liked The Hunger Games, but there were a >couple< of small details I feel they could have added or changed. The camera work, for one, drove me crazy - I'm over the handheld "technique". Really, if I wanted shaky camera work, I'd watch my family's old home movies. God invented tripods and camera stands for a reason - don't disregard them for the sake of "art". And I think the mutts at the end, which were already CGI'd, should have looked like the dead tributes the way they're described in the book. There's an element of mental screwing that's missing when they're just giant bulldogs. Also, anyone else sad that Peeta wasn't so dying that Katniss freaks out when they take him away on the hovercraft? I think that'd have also sold the whole mind-screwing aspect of the games as well. Otherwise, though, I loved it and I will be seeing it again when the crowds die down but next time I will sit in the BACK of the theater. Shaky camera work viewed up close is barf-inducing.
I have wasted far too much of my life on a wonderful little website entitled Reasoning with Vampires. It's by the lovely Dana, who does a nearly page-by-page analysis of everything that is wrong in the Twilight series. She goes over grammar, spelling, and punctuation issues; she also points out just how screwed up the characters are, and you know what? Bella and Edward are loathsome people. I will confess, I was into Twilight and eagerly read the entire series. Then came the movies, and seeing them acted out...yeah, Bella and Edward are screwed up - particularly Bella. I seem to recall a conversation between Becca and me, after seeing New Moon, in which we agreed that Charlie should have had her committed after finding her in the woods when Edward left. NO BOY is worth going catatonic over, and pursuing dangerous hobbies in order to hear you ex-lover's voice is so monumentally screwed up that I need swear words to accurately describe it, which I won't use because my parents read this. Anyways, so yeah, Reasoning with Vampires = new favy site.
Ooh, the basement is almost totally finished! There's a couch, a TV, a rug, and a fireplace! The fireplace is one of the fake electric heater kinds, so it's cozy without baking you on one side. The rug is SUPER CUTE with giant pink, green, orange, and blue flowers. The couch is a grey sectional that can double as a bed (Gillian, visits? Maybe?), and we got some cute throw blankets to keep the cats from kneading it to death. And the TV is a big ol' LCD. It's a very nice basement. Now I just need to remember to set the PVR to record shows down there. Right now all I have are some episodes of The Walking Dead.
I think I'm gonna have to start reading The Walking Dead graphic novels. I know the show doesn't follow them exactly, or we'd have been rid of Shane long ago, but I am interested in knowing their story. It'll have to wait, though - I am not committed to purchasing them, and the waiting list at the library is over 50 people long. Anybody wanna let me borrow theirs?
Okay, I'm done now. The letters on the screen are starting to wiggle of their own accord. I think I'll go lie down.
Monday, 26 March 2012
Saturday, 17 March 2012
Idol Sun Worhip
So, this week I embarked on another new adventure. It didn't require me to go far, and it's something I have wanted to try for a long time, but have never been brave enough, until now. Were it not for the necessity created by a) finding the CUTEST red high heels that I REALLY want to wear to church and b) being informed I was to be a bridesmaid in April, I probably would not have tried it. But while looking at dress patterns, and later while showing off my red shoes to Cathie, I realized the awful truth.
I was paler than shaving cream on a snow man.
Cathie saw this, looked at me, and suggested I consider self tanning at least my legs before I show them off in any way shape or form. "Beyond butt white" "dead fish-belly white" and "corpse-like pallor" are all terms that aptly described the condition of my legs. And I could blame it on winter in Edmonton, like, when are my legs EVER going to see the sun, but honestly? My mid-summer "tan" is only half a shade darker than my legs in mid-winter, if that. Or has an orangey-yellow look I like to call "jaundice" resulting from experiments with self-tanning lotion. I concurred that something needed to be done, since I didn't want to have an entirely bottle-provided tan. So I decided the time had come to join the ranks of naturally pale-skinned people everywhere, and do something for which I used to mock others (including my own family members).
Yup. I went indoor tanning this week.
It was a little weird, walking in to the neighborhood tanning salon. The girl working there was really nice, and I feel kind of bad, because I walked in (nervously, like I was part of a shady drug deal, or something), she said "Hi, can I help you?" and I let loose with a torrent of explanation, backstory, and anecdote that went something like this:
"HisoIwantedtofindoutabouttanningI'veneverbeentanningbeforeandIamgonnabeabridesmaidinAprilfor mybrother'sweddinginCaliforniaandmylegsarereallyreallywhitebecauseit'swinterherebutalsobecausemylegsjust don'ttanatleastthebottomhalfofthemdoesn'tusuallyandifIlayoutinthesunformorethan20minutestheytend togetarashthatlookslikebloodblistersbutIwanttogiveitatrybecausemysister'ssuggestedittomelikefifty timessoIfigurednowwouldbeagoodtimetogiveitawhirlandalsomaybespraytanningalthoughIdon'tknow howthatwouldlookonmesoanywaywhatareyourprices?"
She was very nice. She didn't laugh at me when I showed her just how pale my legs were, and she was very patient in explaining their pricing options and whatnot. I didn't sign up that day - I wanted to think it over - but on Thursday this past week, I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for a month membership (which was pretty darn cheap, especially compared to their single session prices). I then had to purchase eye protectors and lotion, which threw me for a minute, but I managed to convince the girl that no, really, I was okay with the cheap stuff, I didn't need tanning lotion that cost as much as a purebred dog and was edible. I almost wanted to shout, "Do I LOOK like a girl who needs edible tanning lotion?!"
I hadn't actually planned to tan that day - I was going to make an appointment for the next day, and bring my swimsuit with me, because the idea of tanning nude kind of weirded me out, but after hooking me up with eye thingies and lotion, the girl was like, "I'll have you try bed 8, and we'll start you at five minutes, just to make sure you don't get a rash" (I think she was really worried that I'd break out in hives and sue the pants off the salon - which, when you consider all the release forms I signed, and the warning labels everywhere, would be rather difficult, but then, we do live in the 21st century, a.k.a., I'm suing McDonald's for making me fat century, so...).
So I ended up tanning au natural (scandalesque!), which wasn't as weird as I thought it would be. Also, tanning lotion smells so good! But I decided that if I was going to do this five minutes at a time, I'd be lucky to be a shade darker when I go home. So I made another appointment for today, and went for >gasp< 10 minutes! It took a bit of talking to convince the girl (not the same one from Thursday) to let me, since Thursday's girl had deemed me skin type 1, e.g. Very Pale and made note of my sun allergy. But I promised I wouldn't sue if I broke out in rash, explaining that it usually took between 20 and 30 minutes for my legs to react that way, and the rest of me was usually fine, and she was like, "Well, you signed the waiver, so whatever, go for it."
And again, it was fine. I was a little worried towards the end, because the bed started making some sort of sound like water boiling, and I was worried it'd explode, which would be an embarrassing way to die ("Woman, 28, dies in tanning bed accident! Corpse-like pallor suggests it was her first time!"), but my session ended about thirty seconds after the noise started, so I didn't worry about it. And I've been checking periodically all day, and while my legs are still pale (although maybe a smidge less than before? No? >sigggghhhh<), they have yet to break out. Yay for indoor tanning!
And in a couple of weeks, I will (hopefully) have enough of a base to try the next frontier - Mystic Spray Tan, dun dun DUN!!
I was paler than shaving cream on a snow man.
Cathie saw this, looked at me, and suggested I consider self tanning at least my legs before I show them off in any way shape or form. "Beyond butt white" "dead fish-belly white" and "corpse-like pallor" are all terms that aptly described the condition of my legs. And I could blame it on winter in Edmonton, like, when are my legs EVER going to see the sun, but honestly? My mid-summer "tan" is only half a shade darker than my legs in mid-winter, if that. Or has an orangey-yellow look I like to call "jaundice" resulting from experiments with self-tanning lotion. I concurred that something needed to be done, since I didn't want to have an entirely bottle-provided tan. So I decided the time had come to join the ranks of naturally pale-skinned people everywhere, and do something for which I used to mock others (including my own family members).
Yup. I went indoor tanning this week.
It was a little weird, walking in to the neighborhood tanning salon. The girl working there was really nice, and I feel kind of bad, because I walked in (nervously, like I was part of a shady drug deal, or something), she said "Hi, can I help you?" and I let loose with a torrent of explanation, backstory, and anecdote that went something like this:
"HisoIwantedtofindoutabouttanningI'veneverbeentanningbeforeandIamgonnabeabridesmaidinAprilfor mybrother'sweddinginCaliforniaandmylegsarereallyreallywhitebecauseit'swinterherebutalsobecausemylegsjust don'ttanatleastthebottomhalfofthemdoesn'tusuallyandifIlayoutinthesunformorethan20minutestheytend togetarashthatlookslikebloodblistersbutIwanttogiveitatrybecausemysister'ssuggestedittomelikefifty timessoIfigurednowwouldbeagoodtimetogiveitawhirlandalsomaybespraytanningalthoughIdon'tknow howthatwouldlookonmesoanywaywhatareyourprices?"
She was very nice. She didn't laugh at me when I showed her just how pale my legs were, and she was very patient in explaining their pricing options and whatnot. I didn't sign up that day - I wanted to think it over - but on Thursday this past week, I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for a month membership (which was pretty darn cheap, especially compared to their single session prices). I then had to purchase eye protectors and lotion, which threw me for a minute, but I managed to convince the girl that no, really, I was okay with the cheap stuff, I didn't need tanning lotion that cost as much as a purebred dog and was edible. I almost wanted to shout, "Do I LOOK like a girl who needs edible tanning lotion?!"
I hadn't actually planned to tan that day - I was going to make an appointment for the next day, and bring my swimsuit with me, because the idea of tanning nude kind of weirded me out, but after hooking me up with eye thingies and lotion, the girl was like, "I'll have you try bed 8, and we'll start you at five minutes, just to make sure you don't get a rash" (I think she was really worried that I'd break out in hives and sue the pants off the salon - which, when you consider all the release forms I signed, and the warning labels everywhere, would be rather difficult, but then, we do live in the 21st century, a.k.a., I'm suing McDonald's for making me fat century, so...).
So I ended up tanning au natural (scandalesque!), which wasn't as weird as I thought it would be. Also, tanning lotion smells so good! But I decided that if I was going to do this five minutes at a time, I'd be lucky to be a shade darker when I go home. So I made another appointment for today, and went for >gasp< 10 minutes! It took a bit of talking to convince the girl (not the same one from Thursday) to let me, since Thursday's girl had deemed me skin type 1, e.g. Very Pale and made note of my sun allergy. But I promised I wouldn't sue if I broke out in rash, explaining that it usually took between 20 and 30 minutes for my legs to react that way, and the rest of me was usually fine, and she was like, "Well, you signed the waiver, so whatever, go for it."
And again, it was fine. I was a little worried towards the end, because the bed started making some sort of sound like water boiling, and I was worried it'd explode, which would be an embarrassing way to die ("Woman, 28, dies in tanning bed accident! Corpse-like pallor suggests it was her first time!"), but my session ended about thirty seconds after the noise started, so I didn't worry about it. And I've been checking periodically all day, and while my legs are still pale (although maybe a smidge less than before? No? >sigggghhhh<), they have yet to break out. Yay for indoor tanning!
And in a couple of weeks, I will (hopefully) have enough of a base to try the next frontier - Mystic Spray Tan, dun dun DUN!!
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Small Thanks
Today I have several things that I am grateful for. Really grateful, not sarcastic grateful. I feel obliged to share them with the world, and acknowledge that, yes, Heavenly Father really IS watching out for me.
First, the mirror issue. Yesterday I went to get my mirror fixed, because it's really hard to drive around without a passenger side mirror. I kept feeling like I was going to sideswipe someone because I couldn't see properly. So I went to Parts Source, which is a car parts store, but when I asked about just the glass (because the rest of the mirror was intact), I was referred to Crystal Glass. When I went in for my appointment at Crystal Glass, it turned out that I needed the backing for the mirror as well as the glass - but they didn't have the backing, so they referred me to Rodway Auto Wrecking, in the hopes that they would have an entire mirror unit for cheap. I'd looked up mirrors on-line the night before, and they were generally priced around $200. At Rodway, I got one for $50. Then, when I was trying to figure out where I was gonna get the thing installed, another customer down the counter told me where he gets his car work done, Jeff's Auto Electric, and told me to tell them he'd sent me. The guy from Rodway who sold me the mirror then looked up the address and phone number of Jeff's, so I'd be able to get there quickly. Yesterday I got there right before closing, but I took my car in today, and in less than an hour, and for $63 I had a new mirror on my car. I am grateful for all the guys in the various auto stores who were willing to help out a damsel in distress while being courteous and kind, instead of condescending.
I am especially grateful that my mirror only cost me $113 total to fix, because as I was waiting for my temple recommend interview tonight, one of the brethren waiting for his interview was telling about how his mirror got clipped off by an ambulance, and it cost him $500 to replace (the city reimbursed him, but still). So yeah, grateful that the mirror was fixed with minor cost to me. And quickly, too.
I am also thankful that my shoes were waiting for me today. I originally saw them yesterday, and I REALLY wanted them, but I decided to wait, to make sure they weren't an impulse buy. When I went back today to get them, because I knew life would not be complete without them, I realized that they were the LAST pair in my size in the store. I think I would have cried if they hadn't been there, and I am thankful they were, because I rarely find beautiful heels that I a.) love and b.) can actually walk in. Usually it's one or the other, but not both. So yay! My shoes were there for me!
I'm grateful that I happened to catch the bus at the same time as my adorable VT companion, W, because we had a great chat, and now I have someone to go see The Hunger Games with when it comes out.
I'm thankful for the little old man who runs the car wash I use, because normally he just feeds the money in the machine so people don't have to get out of their cars to do it (it's a little hard to reach) because today he scraped the two inches of accumulated snow yuck off my running boards, because the car wash can't get it all, which I usually just deal with. Today, my running boards were almost clean when I went in the car wash, and they were super clean when I came out. It's been a while since my car was this clean.
Finally, I'm thankful to Prof. T, my metacognition teacher, who found me a bunch of articles related to my topic for the final paper for his class. He did this for everyone in the class, which is going above and beyond what is required of him as a professor teaching a graduate course where we have all learned how to use the library search system to find relevant articles. Then he even burned them on a handy dandy cd. Actually, I kind of felt like I was in a spy movie, because he burned the information onto a disc, which he then left in a secure location (his mailbox in the grad lounge), then left me instructions on how to recover it, because he's leaving for Bangkok tomorrow. Yes, sometimes I hum my own theme music, what of it?
So, those are some things I'm legitimately thankful for today. Okay, I'm done now.
First, the mirror issue. Yesterday I went to get my mirror fixed, because it's really hard to drive around without a passenger side mirror. I kept feeling like I was going to sideswipe someone because I couldn't see properly. So I went to Parts Source, which is a car parts store, but when I asked about just the glass (because the rest of the mirror was intact), I was referred to Crystal Glass. When I went in for my appointment at Crystal Glass, it turned out that I needed the backing for the mirror as well as the glass - but they didn't have the backing, so they referred me to Rodway Auto Wrecking, in the hopes that they would have an entire mirror unit for cheap. I'd looked up mirrors on-line the night before, and they were generally priced around $200. At Rodway, I got one for $50. Then, when I was trying to figure out where I was gonna get the thing installed, another customer down the counter told me where he gets his car work done, Jeff's Auto Electric, and told me to tell them he'd sent me. The guy from Rodway who sold me the mirror then looked up the address and phone number of Jeff's, so I'd be able to get there quickly. Yesterday I got there right before closing, but I took my car in today, and in less than an hour, and for $63 I had a new mirror on my car. I am grateful for all the guys in the various auto stores who were willing to help out a damsel in distress while being courteous and kind, instead of condescending.
I am especially grateful that my mirror only cost me $113 total to fix, because as I was waiting for my temple recommend interview tonight, one of the brethren waiting for his interview was telling about how his mirror got clipped off by an ambulance, and it cost him $500 to replace (the city reimbursed him, but still). So yeah, grateful that the mirror was fixed with minor cost to me. And quickly, too.
I am also thankful that my shoes were waiting for me today. I originally saw them yesterday, and I REALLY wanted them, but I decided to wait, to make sure they weren't an impulse buy. When I went back today to get them, because I knew life would not be complete without them, I realized that they were the LAST pair in my size in the store. I think I would have cried if they hadn't been there, and I am thankful they were, because I rarely find beautiful heels that I a.) love and b.) can actually walk in. Usually it's one or the other, but not both. So yay! My shoes were there for me!
I'm grateful that I happened to catch the bus at the same time as my adorable VT companion, W, because we had a great chat, and now I have someone to go see The Hunger Games with when it comes out.
I'm thankful for the little old man who runs the car wash I use, because normally he just feeds the money in the machine so people don't have to get out of their cars to do it (it's a little hard to reach) because today he scraped the two inches of accumulated snow yuck off my running boards, because the car wash can't get it all, which I usually just deal with. Today, my running boards were almost clean when I went in the car wash, and they were super clean when I came out. It's been a while since my car was this clean.
Finally, I'm thankful to Prof. T, my metacognition teacher, who found me a bunch of articles related to my topic for the final paper for his class. He did this for everyone in the class, which is going above and beyond what is required of him as a professor teaching a graduate course where we have all learned how to use the library search system to find relevant articles. Then he even burned them on a handy dandy cd. Actually, I kind of felt like I was in a spy movie, because he burned the information onto a disc, which he then left in a secure location (his mailbox in the grad lounge), then left me instructions on how to recover it, because he's leaving for Bangkok tomorrow. Yes, sometimes I hum my own theme music, what of it?
So, those are some things I'm legitimately thankful for today. Okay, I'm done now.
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Pubbin' on the Weekend
So, I went to a pub this weekend with some friends from grad school.
>Short pause to allow people to pick their jaws up off the floor/restart their hearts/begin respiration again<
It was for a good cause. Really! Some people in my department, including my friend M from 503 last semester, are going to El Salvador next month to build houses with Habitat for Humanity. So they held a fundraiser at Hudson's On Campus, which is a pub down the block from the ed building.
I admit, I didn't want to go. Not because I'm afraid that once I enter a pub I'll suddenly turn into a raging boozer, but because, well, I've never been to a pub before - I wasn't really sure what to expect.
But, part of being up here is about the new experiences, right? I figured I could look at it as an anthropology experiment - sort of like trekking out on the savannah to observe the behavior of African animals around a watering hole.
Plus, as I said before, M is my friend, she invited me, and J was going as well, so Friday night I put on my big-girl boots, prettied myself up as much as possible, and made my way to Hudson's.
The night almost ended before it began, thanks to the stupid dually truck parked on the side of the road where NO ONE is supposed to park, because of the SNOW, IDIOTS!! I ended up clipping the truck with my mirror; the truck took exception to this, and pimp-slapped my mirror so hard it shattered. Not a scratch on the truck (thankfully), but I have yet ANOTHER thing to pay for on my car. (I guess I should be grateful that only the actual mirror came off, and the casing is fine - cracked, but fine - but I'm still stuck in angry mode right now - stupid dually truck!)
Anyways, I made it up to Hudson's without further incident.
Once there, I had to run down and beggar toonies off people, because I had to pay for parking in the parkade, and I had only bills, which the meter wouldn't take. Yay for understanding friends willing to loan you money in a pinch. (I paid them back after I broke a bill.)
Hanging out at a pub - okay, maybe I'm missing something, but what is the point? Besides knocking back a cold one, or whatever the accepted parlance for drinking alcohol. I had a Diet Coke that cost me three dollars, and I was so warm I sucked it down in less than five minutes. Nothing relaxing about it.
To socialize? Because it was really hard to converse with my colleagues and their S.O.s when the music was cranked to 11. I could understand the loud music if there was a dance floor - but there wasn't.
To eat food? I hear the food at Hudson's is great, but I got there about 10pm, so I didn't have any. Also, how can people eat when the bass is thumping enough to give you a stomach ache?
I watched other people, and it seemed to me that everyone (including me) was doing variations on a theme, i.e. Friendly Conversations Masquerading as Shouting Matches:
"SO YOU'RE FROM CALIFORNIA, RIGHT? HOW ARE YOU LIKING IT HERE SO FAR?"
"OH, I LIKE IT JUST FINE, EXCEPT FOR THE SNOW. I COULD DO WITHOUT THE SNOW."
"YEAH, SO COULD MOST CANADIANS. IT'S OKAY, YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HATES IT!"
"JUST DON'T TELL ME IT HASN'T BEEN TOO BAD THIS YEAR!"
"HA HA HA! BUT IT HASN'T! SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS SEMSTER..."
And so on, and so forth. Half the time, I couldn't hear what the other person was saying, so there were times when, if after a repetition (or five) I still couldn't hear, I had to take my cues from their facial expressions. I also got the opportunity to practice my lip reading skillz - which are not good, not good at all.
But overall, it was fine. Honestly, wouldn't put it on my top ten list of awesome nights, but neither would I put it on my bottom ten list of horrid nights. I got out of the house, saw some acquaintences and friends for a bit, and got to scream my voice away - not too bad for one night.
>Short pause to allow people to pick their jaws up off the floor/restart their hearts/begin respiration again<
It was for a good cause. Really! Some people in my department, including my friend M from 503 last semester, are going to El Salvador next month to build houses with Habitat for Humanity. So they held a fundraiser at Hudson's On Campus, which is a pub down the block from the ed building.
I admit, I didn't want to go. Not because I'm afraid that once I enter a pub I'll suddenly turn into a raging boozer, but because, well, I've never been to a pub before - I wasn't really sure what to expect.
But, part of being up here is about the new experiences, right? I figured I could look at it as an anthropology experiment - sort of like trekking out on the savannah to observe the behavior of African animals around a watering hole.
Plus, as I said before, M is my friend, she invited me, and J was going as well, so Friday night I put on my big-girl boots, prettied myself up as much as possible, and made my way to Hudson's.
The night almost ended before it began, thanks to the stupid dually truck parked on the side of the road where NO ONE is supposed to park, because of the SNOW, IDIOTS!! I ended up clipping the truck with my mirror; the truck took exception to this, and pimp-slapped my mirror so hard it shattered. Not a scratch on the truck (thankfully), but I have yet ANOTHER thing to pay for on my car. (I guess I should be grateful that only the actual mirror came off, and the casing is fine - cracked, but fine - but I'm still stuck in angry mode right now - stupid dually truck!)
Anyways, I made it up to Hudson's without further incident.
Once there, I had to run down and beggar toonies off people, because I had to pay for parking in the parkade, and I had only bills, which the meter wouldn't take. Yay for understanding friends willing to loan you money in a pinch. (I paid them back after I broke a bill.)
Hanging out at a pub - okay, maybe I'm missing something, but what is the point? Besides knocking back a cold one, or whatever the accepted parlance for drinking alcohol. I had a Diet Coke that cost me three dollars, and I was so warm I sucked it down in less than five minutes. Nothing relaxing about it.
To socialize? Because it was really hard to converse with my colleagues and their S.O.s when the music was cranked to 11. I could understand the loud music if there was a dance floor - but there wasn't.
To eat food? I hear the food at Hudson's is great, but I got there about 10pm, so I didn't have any. Also, how can people eat when the bass is thumping enough to give you a stomach ache?
I watched other people, and it seemed to me that everyone (including me) was doing variations on a theme, i.e. Friendly Conversations Masquerading as Shouting Matches:
"SO YOU'RE FROM CALIFORNIA, RIGHT? HOW ARE YOU LIKING IT HERE SO FAR?"
"OH, I LIKE IT JUST FINE, EXCEPT FOR THE SNOW. I COULD DO WITHOUT THE SNOW."
"YEAH, SO COULD MOST CANADIANS. IT'S OKAY, YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HATES IT!"
"JUST DON'T TELL ME IT HASN'T BEEN TOO BAD THIS YEAR!"
"HA HA HA! BUT IT HASN'T! SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS SEMSTER..."
And so on, and so forth. Half the time, I couldn't hear what the other person was saying, so there were times when, if after a repetition (or five) I still couldn't hear, I had to take my cues from their facial expressions. I also got the opportunity to practice my lip reading skillz - which are not good, not good at all.
But overall, it was fine. Honestly, wouldn't put it on my top ten list of awesome nights, but neither would I put it on my bottom ten list of horrid nights. I got out of the house, saw some acquaintences and friends for a bit, and got to scream my voice away - not too bad for one night.
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