Riding the Skytrain this morning, I had Rose Melberg in my ears as I watched nondescript buildings zoom by me. I felt a little melancholy. Only momentarily, until the song finished. I love her, but she can sometimes bring me down if I'm overtired or in another susceptible state.
For a minute I felt like my old self again, the fun one. Recalling last night's events, I was hopeful that things are turning around in my head. I haven't been to counseling this year; partly to see if I can maintain normalcy on my own, partly because I haven't felt like making an appointment. I'm really trying to be more open to everything and I think that's helping me be a bit more consistent.
Last night after work I met up with the Langara people for a 12-course Chinese dinner at a restaurant in Metrotown. It was great food and I tried everything, including the chicken feet (though it was only the skin, I think... It was hard to tell). Everyone was fun to talk to. One of the librarians I hadn't met yet asked me early on in the evening if I was partnered or had children or what my status was. When I said I'm single something clicked in her head and she asked how old I am and what I'm looking for. I mentioned that I'm trying not to date gay men or hardcore drug users, and I'm not good at dating stupid men. She said she's been a matchmaker for a couple of successful pairings and she'd keep an eye out for some possibilities for me. This, in turn, made a couple of surrounding ears suggest a couple of faculty members that were single and hot, and soon everyone at the table was offering suggestions. There was one ringleader who knows pretty much every faculty member on campus (she deals in reserves) and kept bringing up new faculty and giving their status. A few of them were pretty adamant about getting me hooked up with someone; at least the ones they'll choose for me already pass the not-stupid criteria since they're all teaching at a college. I loved the gossip part, especially since I'm only there when everyone else is gone for the day and I don't get any of this stuff at work.
After dinner I headed up to the Old Admiral (location of my shameful condition mere weeks ago) to see Terry perform and meet up with friends. I actually missed Terry by a few minutes, which was disappointing, and didn't get to talk to him because he was doing sound. But I did have a couple of drinks with my other friends and reveled in the fact that someone else at our table was ridiculously drunk at the Old Admiral. John, at one point, banged his hand on the table to the beat of the song about a plastic Jesus on his dashboard that he chose to serenade us with. It was touching. After discovering Christy missed the allegedly rigged 50/50 draw, we went next door to the Liquor Barn to get supplies and walked over to Alfie's for drinks and to hang out with his dog. (She confuses me. Sometimes she loves me, but sometimes she pretends she doesn't know me. It is unfair, and since I don't see her often enough for her to grow deeply attached to me, I think I might have to start carrying dog treats in my pocket as a bribe/conditioning thing. She will love me... Oh yes, she will.) It was there that I was challenged.
I mentioned John was drunk. Alfie and I were talking about the bourbon cake (he brought it up, not me) and John said something about that cake not being that good. Rich and Christy got all in his face about it, and I said, "I'd like to try one of your cakes."
"Anytime," he said. "I can make something better than that cake." Poor, silly, drunk John.
Immediately I suggested that we have a bake-off, to test both our cake baking abilities in a juried competition. He got all grandiose about it, saying he'd kick my ass, and Rich gave him a look like he was an armless fool suggesting a knife fight in the back alley for territory rights. "She bakes for fun," exclaimed Rich. "You're gonna get your ass handed to you."
Now, I'm going to point out that John's girlfriend was looking at him in disbelief and asked him how he was going to bake since they don't have baking tins and she's never seen him bake anything. But he was adamant that his grandmother's cake recipe is going to beat out my upside down cranberry cake. I said I'd make some cupcakes as an appetiser and John freaked out that that was cheating. Rich said, "If you do that then you just win automatically. There's no challenge then." So I'll stick with my cake. He looked a little scared when I said I baked 5 desserts for my birthday and then accused me of trying to make them feel sorry for me that I had to bake my own birthday cake. I'm excited by this challenge. Apparently this all goes down next Sunday, but we haven't agreed on the terms or the location. I'll have to see if Rich can organise the finer details. Those that had that cranberry cake, do you think it could beat a vanilla cake with chocolate icing sugar icing?
I'm pretty excited to go to Jason & Debbie's tonight for their going away party. I mentioned to a friend that they're going to Antarctica and he made us sit and research how that was possible and what they could expect as far as weather and things to do are concerned. I'm supposed to ask a lot of questions and get back to him with a summary of my fact finding mission. I'm excited to be able to meet up with Rachel and get some drinks in us. Fun!
Oh, on Thursday I finally got to talk to my friend about my trip to Chicago. He promised to take me to Hot Doug's (woohoo!) and suggested that we could go into all sorts of ridiculously huge, fancy houses in Highland Park since he has security clearance. I just have to book somewhere to stay (must do that this weekend), and then I'll be at a whole new level of excitement. More than I am now, and I'm pretty fricking excited. Glee! I've also been reading up on Italian beef sandwiches and think I'm pretty close to being able to order one with just a little more practice (beef, dipped, hot, mozz).
OK, so this is the kind of nerd I am (if you haven't already figured out:
This is my newest obsession and I'm trying to come up with who in the City I should be sending this to with questions as to why something like this hasn't been constructed in Vancouver.
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