Thursday 30 June 2016

Happy Long!

Happy almost long weekend my Canadian peeps!

And a happy birthday to our neighbours to the south too.

It always makes me smile that we have our celebratory days so near to each other.  Fireworks galore and all that good stuff!

Happy Summer northern hemisphereers.

Wednesday 29 June 2016

Mmmmmm

It's fruit season here.

Which means yummy yummy yum, and a fruit section of a grocery store that smells like heaven.

I like me some fruit, y'all!

(This post brought to you by oh, right, I didn't make time to write again.)



Edited this morning to add: Beach on Monday.  Saw mosquitoes.  ARGH!  Didn't think any got me (or perhaps I just hoped)  All the bites showed up this morning.  So... that's about two days (well, a day and a half or so anyway) from bite to nasty itch, which explains why I rarely know when I got bitten.  Sigh.  Guess I need to bring deet to the beach along with sunscreen eh?  *sad face*

Tuesday 28 June 2016

Crap

Is what I just said (at 11 something last night, technically... because it's then right now but won't be when this posts, you know?) as I was heading off to bed, and realized that I didn't have a post ready for tomorrow.

See what happens when I get out of my writing routines? 

We get posts like this. 

This is why we can't have nice things.  And/or Thanks Obama!

So yeah.  Post.  Here.

MAGIC!


Monday 27 June 2016

Newbie

Just like I was happily surprised by how much of a difference it made buying a new vacuum (well, technically using VISA points, so yay even better!) after... oh, I don't know... far too many years... I'm honestly not even sure... ten?

But just like having that new vacuum is awesome (even if the VISA points vacuum does have a holder type thing that falls off pretty much every time I use it... sigh.. but still the cleaning is much more efficient) I am also amazed at another recent upgrade I made and how much better it is.

See, I figured if I was going to be driving myself to Burning Man this year (which I... suppose I still am, but am still not quite thinking about it because panic...) I should consider getting a new GPS.  My GPS is fine, works, and I don't use it all that often, but again, it's older.  I just never really thought I'd bother upgrading as I have updated maps and it works well enough.

But... I looked into GPSsesses and found one that got really well reviewed and then found it for sale at Costco so... I went ahead and got it.

And man oh man... so much faster!

I mean, even just connecting to satellites, it's a minute rather than a few.

I haven't actually used it all that much yet (although I did spend some time programming in some of the spots I think I may stop at on the drive down) but I did use it the other day and think I should use it some more so I get used to how it gives directions.  Best, I think, to learn these things previous to, say, you know, going on a solo trip into the wilds of the United States of America?

So yeah.  I got a new GPS and it was much easier to program, and is much faster to connect and I'm looking forward to trying it out and see if it's that much awesomer than my old one.

(Now I just have to convince Jason to let me use it when he's in the car since he's the one I go on drives to shoot with right now and he's convinced GPSes are some kind of evil or something.  Or that they never work around him or something I don't know.)

(Sigh.)

Friday 24 June 2016

You Guys!

I have a new time warp!!!!

No, but really, I think I might be turning into a very minor superhero who has the ability to ever so slightly alter time.  But not, like, in a helpful way.

See, you know how an iPhone and an apple laptop both sync to the same... uh... place... company.... magic server iCloud I don't know but they do?

Yeah, except this week mine went off for two days.

Only by about thirty seconds or so but still.  And I only know this because my calendar alerts me for things at nine am on that day and this weekend, I noticed that my phone would alert, and then about half a minute later, my computer would, so I looked, and they were on slightly different times!

I know, I know, it's not really all that exciting, but if you put all my time warps together, I AM CLEARLY MAGIC!!!!

Well, that, and my writing seems to have scared off the banana peel person.  Maybe.  Unless I've just missed it or something.  (Should investigate)

Oh, and also, my alarm clock stopped working apparently for a few days (I hit it when I realized it wasn't working and it seems to be ok again?) but I didn't notice because it was the weekend but then on Monday I luckily woke up at the same time and went huh... my alarm didn't go off at all, woah!  (I thought maybe I'd turned it off over the weekend, but no... it just maybe is time to retire it.  It is... well, it's been around for a while.  I'm pretty sure I had it in high school... I think?)  So yeah, some kind of superhero origin story going on y'all.  Maybe one of those mosquito bites was extra special and that's why they itch so darn much!

Thursday 23 June 2016

Just Me?

One thing I don't think tv shows do a good enough job of being honest about is what people wear when they're home alone.

I mean, I know as soon as I'm home, I'm in my comfiest comfies.

And, yes, that means no bra for SURE, and depending on the weather, whatever soft, easy to wear "clothes" work.

Sometimes it's pjs.  Sometimes it's a robe.  Or a sarong.  Or sweat pants and a t-shirt.  And a hoodie. 

On tv, everyone seems, especially the high powered women laywer types, to wear their super nice clothes.... Really?

Or, when they do get all casual, it's still super pretty and, well, I mean, I would not wear out what I wear to relax in my house.

Just sayin.

Wednesday 22 June 2016

Hugs

It occurred to me... you probably don't realize it, because I'm not all that... openly talking about anything much at all right now, but you're... witnessing a person going through a fairly intense but ultimately positive transformation right now.

I don't quite know where I'll be on the other side of this, or when that will even be, but I'll maybe start talking more about things... soon. 

But yeah.  So....

Just thought I should say it.  Yes, there has been transformation and change over the years I've been writing here, but this... this is, well..... faster, or more compact, or something.  All of the above.

I'm glad you're here.  Thanks for that.

Tuesday 21 June 2016

Nooooeewwwwwwww

Here's a lovely flower to distract you from the fact that I'm going to talk about a bug.

Lying on the couch last night when I see something out of the corner of my eye.  It's a ginormous silverfish, eww, and I don't have anything close by I can squish it with.  Ugh.

But, it's super clumsily slow moving so I hustle up, go to the kitchen, grab some paper towel and come back...

And it's gone!

So now, there is, somewhere... I mean, I know they're all around us all the time but this one I know for sure, you know?  There is somewhere in my apartment a giant silverfish that only pretends to be clumsy and slow moving!

Gah.

Monday 20 June 2016

No, But Really, What A Difference!

I thought for sure I had made this post already, but I can't seem to see it, and even if I did, I have to say it again!

I got a new vacuum and it totally sucks!

Friday 17 June 2016

Unrelated Photo For The Win!

Ahem.

So, it appears that my time warp situation has now morphed (or warped?  ha!  Ha?!) into a... I don't kind of exist or something situation.

See, automatic doors seem to be having a problem "seeing" me.

As in, I've stood in front of them and waved and jumped.

Or, in one case, just pushed the darn thing open myself.  Sigh.

And then there's this....  I got into my car yesterday morning and the rear view mirror was crooked.

And I mean, so crooked I couldn't have driven with it without noticing.

Which brought up the question.. how the bleep did that happen?

I don't remember hitting it getting out of the car.

Sometimes those window screen covers can knock them, but I don't use them when I park at home, and if I'd used it earlier in the day, I wouldn't have been able to see out of my rear view and so would have fixed it.

So... ghosts?

No, but really... I can't figure out how my rear view mirror got so twisty without me knowing I did it.  HELP!  I live in a time warp, am invisible to sensors (the hand washer/towel dispensers don't see me either) and there's a ghost borrowing my car overnight!  (A short ghost I guess, seeing as they moved the mirror so much!  Or maybe a ghost just needed to fix their ghost makeup/hair?)

Thursday 16 June 2016

36

Thirty six.

Do you know what that is?

It's the number of spam comments I got the other day all in one sitting.

All from the same commenter (yes, reported) and all the same comment and man, oh man, I just... wow.

I mean, I'm *almost* impressed. 

Well, not that it's that hard to copy paste, but still.  Thirty six?  That's ... well, honestly, that's just weird and kind of dumb.

Thankfully blogger makes it pretty easy to delete spam comments and mark them as such but still.  I had to click 36 times.  That's a record.  By far.

Still shaking my head.... woke up to thirty six comment notifications and thought, wow, someone must have had a lot to say or did one of my posts have something controversial I can't think of?

No... just thirty six spam comments!

All links too, so I can't even share with you "fun" content.

Le sigh.

Thirty six though.... seriously.

Wednesday 15 June 2016

Ok, So

I feel like a really mean plant Mom.

(And in utterly unrelated news, I love this photo, I really do)

I have a spider plant that is very very happy.

It was happy when I bought it and I soon discovered that that's because it's root bound.  For spider plants, apparently, being root bound makes them want to spread out and... well, to put it delicately, they try to make new spider plant babies!

So there's my happy spider plant sending out shoots and then shoots off of those shoots and sometimes I try to make those shoots into little plants, but the last time I tried that it didn't go well for some reason (whispers... because I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing and just wung it.  you know... the past tense of "winging it".)

But then, just recently, it sent out a shoot and instead of baby shoots, this one flowered!  AWWWW, PRETTY!

But then I felt horrible!  Oh geez... my plant is trying to have babies... it wants to be pollinated or... cross... pollinated or whatever and I don't have any bees, and I don't have another flowering spider plant that I could even "fake" pollinate with and man oh man do I ever feel guilty.

(No, but really I do feel kind of a little bit bad for real!)  My poor plant is trying so hard to... reproduce or spawn or whatever it is it wants to do and I'm just...

Well, I'm not letting my plant have sex.  And I feel badly for that.

(Yes, I know that sounds weird.  I'm ok with that.  You should be too or you wouldn't be reading anymore.)  (Actually... hey... wait a second.. hello?  Anyone?  Bueller?)

(In other news, one of the flowers, which adorably close at night because awwwww the sun is down how cute is that?, has turned itself into a seed, so I may actually look into how I might be able to make that seed .... become a new baby and future adult spider plant!)

Tuesday 14 June 2016

Really You Guys?

We all know my issue with mosquitoes.  The fact that they LURVE me and their bites then go on to itch horribly for a week or more.  BUT I AM SO TASTY!

Sigh.

So there I am, the other night, innocently sleeping away when I wake RIGHT UP and open my eyes to a mosquito flying right over my head.  Yeah, saw it in the dark and all. 

So I get up, grab my "thing to hit mosquitoes with" and turn on ALL THE LIGHTS to try to find it.

Can't get it to land so am angry enough that I swat it out of the air and then when I can't find it, I eventually find it dead on the ground because I guess my swat was full of enough "I JUST SPENT WEEKS ITCHING ALL DOWN MY LEG THIS IS NOT OK FOR YOU TO BE HERE!" rage that I killed it mid air.

Go me.

Went back to sleep, and woke up the next morning and when I rolled over to get up there was a dried blob of blood just under my pillow, at about shoulder height.

Oh, come, on, really?

So now I have to figure out did I move mid bite (which is when it flew away and I saw it maybe?) so the wound didn't get properly sealed or something?  Or.... did I get a mini cut some other way during the night.

Was the night after I'd just freshly washed my sheets too, by the way, just to ad insult to injury you MEAN HORRIBLE BITY THINGS!

Turns out yes, there was a bite vaguely shoulder-ish that could have resulted in the blood of mine, but anyway... le sigh.

Fast forward to a counselling appointment I had yesterday and OUT OF NOWHERE, in the middle of the session, what comes flying at my head?  A MOSQUITO!

Of course, I then have to explain why I can't keep talking or listening because of no, I swear I'm not crazy, see?  (And fortunately my counsellor did indeed see the mosquito) And now I'm just waiting to see if it bit me and sigh....

They're following me, y'all. 

Not my fault I'm so tasty.

Monday 13 June 2016

Stop

I make a point of not being political here.  Or even topical.  I don't talk about the things that flood social media or fill our newspapers and cable news reports, I don't.

But damn if I'm not tired of everything that's gone on these last few weeks.  This weekend it all caught up to me and Jason and I shot an event that pushed me over the edge and we drove to a beach after and I cried and cried and cried.

I do not understand people who do bad when there is so so so much beauty in this world to be seen and felt and experienced.

Why is there so much hate when it's easier to turn the other cheek and find something dear to you to love?

I know these rhetorical questions have deep rooted answers, I know there are more than two sides to every story I just don't want to keep having to dive into the bad that swirls around us.

There are reasons I don't have cable.  Don't watch the news, don't read the papers.  I can not handle all that goes with all the bad that can happen in our world.  It's all too much.  The stories and anger and hate that have come across my feed... whatever that "feed" may be it's too much.  I need it to stop.  I need to disengage.

I can do that either by hiding, facing the corner, or by just turning my back, taking a deep breath, and reminding myself, and anyone else who wants to listen that there is more to life than the bad things people sometimes do. 

Too much, I say, this weekend it all just got to be far too much.

Thursday 9 June 2016

Huh

Continuing my re-reading of books, I picked up The Fionavar Tapestry to re-read.

I always assume that if I've kept a book it's because I liked it a whole lot and usually the fantasy ones I've kept I really liked. 

But I picked this one up and, first of all, didn't immediately recall the story.  Which is fine, means I get to re-read it and likely not know what's coming, but now I'm not sure I'm enjoying it.  Which is confusing and surprising me.  I'm going to keep reading, maybe it's a slow start, but yeah.  Strange reading it and going... huh... I liked this?  I guess it's ok?

Maybe not all the books I've kept are as good as I remember them after all?

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Again!

Got caught in a time warp again, you guys!

Decided (against my "this will keep you up tonight" better judgement) to have a nap on Saturday, and when I closed the laptop it was probably 10:30/11:00.

I dozed happily for a while and when I woke up, or started to feel it was awake-enough time, I figured I'd had about an hour's nap.

I glanced backwards up at the clock on my wall and it was 3:30.  Woah, what!

How had I managed to sleep that long?  I wasn't even that deeply asleep, just dozing, I had no idea... had I really passed out for three or four hours and somehow not noticed?  Oh man, this would really mess with my sleep. 

Checked the clock again... wait... it's.. still... 3:30.

Sat up, looked at the second hand... it was caught in a non moving forward loop.  Am I actually, literally in a time warp?  (Still sleepy, apparently) But I checked my phone and no, it was only 12:30ish, whew.  (Or maybe 1, I forget now, just certainly wasn't three thirty!)

Turns out my clock's battery was very very sleepy and the clock had gotten itself stuck at 3:30 ... who knows when, and I had only just noticed then.

So, yeah, still weird stuff going on with time in my apartment, but yet again, it worked out just fine!


Tuesday 7 June 2016

Bliss

It was nine thirty last night when I realized I had no idea it was nine thirty because it was still light out.  Just... kind of sunset, maybe a bit past.

But I could still see, inside my apartment with my blinds open and no lights on.

I love it.  Love, love, love these longer days.

I think, sometimes, that I should move closer to the equator; get longer days more equally throughout the year or something.

But then I go for a drive with Jason to take photos at some beautiful beach and I think ah, well, I guess it's maybe worth the short dark days to live so close to such natural beauty.

But man, oh man, if these long, drawn out days aren't awesome.

Monday 6 June 2016

Whew

Well that was a warm one this weekend.

Warm enough to bring the fans out in the stores and for me to keep my blinds down all day.

Warm enough for me to remember that when it does get this kind of hot, my place lacks in airflow greatly.  And when it's feeling stuffy in my place before noon, it's not likely to get better until after dinner.

I did buy more window screens, so I can crack open the tops of my windows now too, but I still am missing a window that would allow for a cross breeze of any kind.  It's the stagnant air that gets me, even with a fan going it just... blows around warm air.

I spent a few hours Saturday at the beach, so that helped while away some of the hotter hours, but also meant sunscreen and then, somewhat ironically, still burning through my shirt.  Just a little though.

So, yeah.  The weather's to break later this week, but if we get another warm stretch of days, I may have to abandon my apartment until the evenings.

And drink more water.

Burning Man training, I always joke to myself, but that is also a reminder that being inside something (or under a shade structure = "inside") may keep you out of the sun but will also be hotter, or stuffier, or... a different kind of hot.  We all know too much sun exposure isn't great, so it's always about finding that balance, and as I learned in 2013, it's best to keep my body as cool as possible and not just suffer through hoping it'll "get used to it."

Friday 3 June 2016

Unsure

There's no manual on being an adult.

Or, particularly, on being a human in general although I'm sure some religious folk might argue that point.

I just mean there are so many little incidences that happen that no one really prepares you for.

For me?  It was my neighbour screaming.

And I don't just mean an "eek, a spider" kind of scream, I mean, the type of bloodcurdling scream that you know, instinctively, means something is not ok with the human that just made it.

I froze.

Mainly because it was that terrifying of a noise, and that loud, and that out of the blue on a random Saturday afternoon.

I froze because it scared me, but then I didn't know what to do.

There was just the scream.  Nothing else.  No banging or yelling or anything, but, my adrenaline was pumping and I.... wanted to help if help was needed.

I texted Jason "someone just screamed a horrible scream, what do I do."  I mean honestly, I was assuming I knew which apartment it had come from but even in that I wasn't sure.  Jason asked if there had been any other noises and I said no and he said, well, they're probably fine, it was just a spider or something.

I didn't think so but didn't know what else to do other than leave it be.

A few days later, I was leaving the building and walked past the door of the apartment below me and heard a girl having a very upset, very yelly conversation with someone, while bawling, on the phone. 

This, in some ways, made me feel better.  Maybe the scream was just from a piece of bad information they'd received... or a breakup, or something.  But they were upset, but also talking to someone.

A few days after that, there was another scream, followed by a loud noise or two and again, I didn't do anything.

What, really is there to do?  I know I've had at least one yelling match in my apartment (albeit short) that I hoped didn't upset the neighbours, but I also hope that if I was in trouble, my yells would be heard and help would come.

I dunno.  But I do know I was never given a rule book or manual when I moved out of my parents' and out on my own...

Not really sure how to adult sometimes.

Thursday 2 June 2016

Pause?

June, huh?  I know March wasn't as speedy as some months have been but still, it's nearly Summer.  And I don't want it to be nearly summer because I like Spring and Summer and don't want them to be gone yet!

Which... really... mindfulness.

I keep being reminded and having it pointed out to me that this is what mindfulness is all about.

Noticing the longer days.  Noticing all the trees and plants and flowers.  Noticing today.  This moment.  Right now.  And trying to live more in that, instead of what if and when if and then then then.

To be more present in the now, not just to enjoy it, but to extend it

Time really is relative, and I'm no philosopher or physicist, I just.. I like right now.

Pause.

You know?

Wednesday 1 June 2016

Oh Dear

Ok.... so I am kind of embarrassed by this but I'm going to tell you because that's what we do.

I injured my finger.

But I injured my finger in quite possibly the dumbest, and kind of most embarrassing way!

I had a massage yesterday and I, for whatever reason, didn't quite know where to put my hands.

Yes, I've had massage before but for some reason, it felt weird to have my hands out yesterday so I slid them under my thighs.

And it was at some point when I realized the finger on my right hand that had a ring on it was feeling quite uncomfortable, so I moved my hands and stretched the finger... no biggie, right?

Except that now my finger is killing me.

It feels like what I would call a pulled finger muscle, or tendon or something.  My best guess is that I somehow bruised something internally with too much pressure (my thighs must not be all that lightweight, ahem) and sort of bruised or did some sort of damage.  Oh man!

It's not even a good injury.  Like I can't say, oh, I was rope climbing or playing fetch with a dog or jumping off a swing, I basically sat on my finger for too long, and yes saying that makes me kind of want to cringe and hide.

So my right ring finger is really quite sore and I'm pretty sure it's because I'm apparently kind of dumb.

I'm hoping it will start to feel better because I can't imagine going to the doctor or physio with this one... "yeah, I'm not really sure what I did but I think I maybe lay on it for too long?"

Sigh.

My poor finger.  And my poor Ego!