the open(ish) road

Just back from a little bike tweaking at OCB. The ride to the shop was a hard one, as we (Tangiene and I) had to actually cross Broadway and go up part of Main to get into an area safe enough to ride (we pushed our bikes up from my house, just to be on the safe side). It turns out my tires were a bit on the flat side, making it harder than it needed to be, but rode like a dream on the way home.

The tweaks were simple enough and our bike guides were most helpful and patient. This is the first time I've ever used any sort of tool on a bike. The last time I rode a bike was 6 years ago in my mountain village in Japan, and it was such a bitch to ride the mountain bike that I abandoned it. (FYI: the place to get air in rural Japan is not at the local gas station; it's at an actual bike shop, and can only be filled by one of the workers there.) Before that I rode a ten-speed in high school, but it, too, was abandoned towards the end of grade 12. I am a huge fan of this bike, though: a 5-gear Glider from the UK, a find at the Sally Ann in North Van.

The bad thing about today is that my chest cold/congestion seems to be getting worse. I have no idea what it is, but it feels weird and makes me dry cough. I'm meant to go to a couple of highly-anticipated events this evening, but I'm not sure I'm going to make it to any of them. Cough. I'm such a sissy.

Last night I went to a fundraiser for elementary school art programs at the Lamplighter. Was pretty fun, though I came home a little more deaf (why don't I carry earplugs anymore?).

Oh, I did see you on the corner of Main today. I realised it as you passed and I was in mid-conversation. How was the Robot Train?

Currently listening :
Overcome by Happiness
By The Pernice Brothers
Release date: 19 May, 1998

keener

Today I went to campus to get my student ID and U-Pass. I'm, like, hooked up. It took less than 5 minutes to get it all done and the picture is tolerable, though barely. I did it all today because I don't relish the thought of lining up with 18-year-old freshmen. Can you imagine me, a wrinkly old lady, around kids that have never left home before in a confined space for more than a couple of minutes?

Hahahahahaha.

It did really hit home that I'm going to start school in a few weeks. This is both terrifying and exciting. More towards the terrifying right now. Classes are a concern, sure, but enduring the 99 B-line bus on a daily basis, packed full of people, is the most terrifying. I need to get some earphones for my CD player ASAP. No need conversing with people if I don't have to.

Additionally, I got my hair colour evened out, so I don't have my mousy brown roots with blotchy blondeness anymore. Oh joy!

in or out

This morning I am beat. At 1:27am the fire alarm went off and rang for the longest 7 minutes in history. I watched the clock.

I'm sure the correct thing to do in this cirumstance is to leave the apartment when the alarm goes off. But I always think it's some stupid drunk pulling it because it never goes off during waking hours. Ever. The last time it was 3:30am and I didn't go outside then, either. If I don't see smoke in the hallway and don't smell it in my apartment it is something that can be waited on until I hear the fire trucks. And the fire trucks have yet to visit my apartment building.

Really, it's pretty easy for me to get out. I open my patio door and walk outside. If I'm feeling really sociable (if it were an actual emergency) I could wander up to the sidewalk. But at 1:30 in the morning I'm not feeling very sociable; I just want the noise to stop.

It does make me wonder what I would grab if something really did happen. I really have no idea. I could probably stand at the door and chuck stuff out onto my patio. Probably would just grab my money-related documents because I'm so nutty about documentation for my taxes. Maybe a picture or two. A china teacup/saucer selection. Ya, I don't know. And, frankly, don't want to know. This is why I have insurance.

Just finished "Too Much, Too Late" by Marc Spitz yesterday. He really does write some unlikeable characters into his books. But I'm so interested to see what happens with "How Soon Is Never?", if it winds up a releasable movie. There was a mention of a Marc Spitz in a Simpsons episode, but I can't figure out if it would have been another Marc Spitz because there was very little context behind it. Just something Homer said that was unrelated to everything and really just a mention. Hmmm...

Oh, and it's almost a sure thing that I'll be getting a PC notebook. The Macs aren't as friendly with PCs as I need them to be.

what to do? what to do?

Since I always seem to need to have some sort of problem to deal with, real or imagined, I figured I'd get feedback this time to determine whether or not it's actually a problem. Here's my current issue (realising, of course, that it's hard to pinpoint just one, but still...):

My school works in a PC environment, so some of my classes specifically require the use of a PC and PC-only programs (like Access). You may recall that I bought a Mac Mini earlier this year, which I love... seriously, I can't believe that little box treats me so good. But I must use PC programs... This seems like a problem.

I know you can get Microsoft Office for Mac now... Is it worth it to go get it when I can, in theory, get a relatively cheap notebook that will likely have it included already, knowing that my classes are PC-based? Can you actually run Access on a Mac with Virtual PC? Has anyone ever tried Virtual PC and, if so, what would be the cost differential to just getting a notebook?

Seriously, I don't want to buy another computer. I love my Mac. But I also want to get through this Masters without having to spend a lot of time at the school because I don't have the programs at home to work in the middle of the night when I work best (MP, we should talk). So... do I just buy a new notebook (which I'm sorta leaning towards anyway. Might as well dip into that credit line while there's still loads of room on it) or see if maybe Virtual PC is going to work and/or buy Microsoft Office for Mac, even though I'd still have to use Virtual PC because Access is seperate anyway and it's really the most pressing program to have right now, since I kinda want to see if I really like databases as much as I think I do? Does that make sense?

The summarise: buy a notebook or struggle with the possibility that I won't have any frickin' idea what to do with Virtual PC on my Mac?

Additional: if the notebook is the answer, who wants to go shopping with me?

Has anyone ever signed up with FreePay? I'm wondering if my friends would stop talking to me if I sent out the request for them to join so I could get a new free notebook.

Also, I picked up my David Sedaris ticket on the weekend and got my Bumbershoot ticket on Tuesday. I am looking forward to the distractions.

who lacks self-control?

Lately I've become reckless with my money. It's a little scary. I think, during this time of preparing to be poor, I'm doing everything I can to ensure I will be poor.

This morning I ordered a lot of T-shirts. When I say a lot, I really mean more than I need. A few days ago I decided to order a couple from a shirt company in Idaho. I didn't finish the ordering until this morning when I saw a listing for a band I like selling their CD and a shirt for $15. What a deal! It's a slippery slope. The first one felt so great that I decided to get the other two, which then lead to 12.

Yes, I said 12. Twelve.

The three shirts would have been enough. Three would have been more than enough, but nooooo. Not me. No, I have to go overboard and order a subscription for a shirt a month. Each month, starting in September, I'll be getting a subscriber-only exclusively designed T-shirt in the post. Because I'm just that kind of nerd.

Maybe the one magazine subscription I have wasn't enough. Maybe I am so desperate for mail that I want to guarantee I'll get something other than bills for the next year. Maybe I shouldn't have been on the computer at 7am on a holiday. But I am looking forward to the first shirt. I just have to not spend any more money on anything until I pay off this latest round of insanity.

I hate money. But I sure love T-shirts.

Have you seen the trailer for "Beerfest"?! It will become an instant classic. I am excited. It looks completely awesinine.

The Bridesmaids, Part 15

That wedding I'm participating in in September is starting to really worry me.

I talked to the bride a few times on Thursday night. She is at a loss as to why The Bridesmaids are going so nutty about this wedding. The maid-of-honour and I aren't even close to being as excited and we've known her the longest. The bride and her partner don't even refer to it as their wedding; they refer to it as one of the bridesmaid's weddings because she's more excited about it than the bride and groom. She also, when talking about the wedding, will refer to it as hers by mistake.

The whole dress situation is the most obvious problem. The bride is somewhat surprised that the dresses the two bridesmaids chose are so wedding gown-like. Both are fancier than the bride's dress. Really, it would be hard for her to choose something more elaborate than the one, for sure. It is just lucky that she's so easy-going and laissez faire about the whole wedding thing. If she cared even a little more, it could get sticky. I'm talking fistacuffs. They all look like scrappers.

Because the m-o-h is living overseas, she decided to come a month-and-a-half early to buy her dress and help with final wedding stuff. The Bridesmaids have been corresponding with me that they want to take her to the shop where the other two got their dresses. I conveyed to the bride that that wouldn't be the best idea and to please try to sway them from that. She agreed. But I realise also that, once they have a collective thought between them, they are hard to sway, as evidenced by the dress frenzy.

On a happier note, yesterday I did the trial run of the pattern I wanted to use for my dress. It's a very easy, three pattern piece, 1952 retro wrap dress. It was made with cheap fabric ($2.99/m) and, with the pattern included (which, by itself, was about $4), cost about $17. The skirt is cut on the bias, hangs lovely, and needs less than 5 metres of fabric (for a 1952 pattern, that's shocking). A few parts need some tweaking, but it is CUTE. Super cute. (See for yourself: search for Butterick B4790) So I have to pop over to one of the sari shops on Fraser and/or Main and see if I can barter for some light pink taffeta.

Yesterday I also went to my cousin's Vancouver wedding shower. She lives in Victoria, but has a couple of friends in the city and so I got an invite to high tea at the Sutton Place. It was a lot of fun, even though I've never met any of her friends and haven't seen her for a few years. (Our family is huge and weird.) We were supposed to take something funny or something blue for a gift. Stealing the idea from my friend Laura, I gave Carmel a ClearBlue pregnancy test, which won me a prize for most hilarious gift. The shower was very low-key and relaxing, and I wished we could do something similar for my friend's wedding.

But who am I kidding? It isn't my friend's wedding anymore.

Next up for the wedding prep is scouting out restaurants to have the jack & jill at. Groan. I am a bit worried we're going to get to the end of August with nothing planned, and the party is three weeks into September. I'm not sure they realise how busy September is going to be for me. I've already reliquished any say in the location because my schedule isn't as flexible as theirs this month. At this point, I'd be happy to just show up with a pregnancy test.

The frickin' music selector isn't working again. Get off your fucking ass, "Tom."

to review

I keep meaning to write about various things in a timely manner, but, for whatever reason, get easily distracted and suddenly a week goes by. The speed at which time is flying is terrifying. In a month tomorrow I start school. Eek!

Remember how I told you about the almost instantaneous karma thing I have? You didn't believe me. Add this to the list:
On Wednesday I was working on transferring data from one database to another. This involved copying and pasting. Pretty standard. A monkey could probably do it. Early on, around 8:30am, I copied a phone number to paste in the second database, but something happened and both databases froze up and had error messages all over them. This was bad because I'm about 1/7 of the way through the transferring, but that's still 400 groupings of information, which took about 8 hours to do (it's a slow-moving process with a lot of cutting and pasting). I tried to remain calm, but I wasn't very good at it. So I decided to leave it until my supervisor came in, got settled, maybe had some coffee. But, for whatever reason, the head librarian and my supervisor started talking almost as soon as my supervisor got in and the head librarian must have felt cornered or under attack or something because he blurted out that I destroyed the database. Uh... thanks. So the next 4 hours were spent with me being jokingly blamed for destroying this precious database that my supervisor designed while Systems tried to figure out how to fix it. They wound up getting the backup from the previous day and it was all fine from then on, but, holy shit, it was not fun for that morning. The head librarian felt bad for "outing" me, so to speak, and bought me a Toblerone.

But, on the upside of this (because that's the whole point of telling you all this dull stuff) I got a package from my friend packed full of excitement! I knew the package was coming, but it came much faster than I thought it would. And it made the day end so much nicer than it began. This is easily one of the best packages I've ever gotten, even better than some of the care packages I got while in Japan. It has loads of music, some artwork, excellent blackmail material (teen angst poetry night, here I come! haha) and a cohesive organised system (which is really the part I love the most). I'm always impressed with people who think enough of me to put care and thought into post for me. This is impressive. And makes me want to send post.

Wednesday was also great in the end because I went for dinner at Glenn & Sam's house. Fun, they are. And they like candy a great deal, which you know I love (thanks for getting me hooked, Boffa [fist shaking]). On their patio, they have a resident mouse that runs around, hoarding the foodstuffs Sam puts out to entice the neighbourhood rodents. I've mentioned they're from New Zealand; I hadn't even realised that they don't have some of the local wildlife in NZ. Skunks, raccoons, squirrels... all new and exciting. Except Sam relayed that, after going out the side gate to a holding pen-type limbo between their building and the alley, she saw there were two raccoons right in front of her and the minor terror of trying to get by them (because the door she came out of doesn't have a handle or any way to get back in. It's limbo, I told you). I came face to face with a similar situation when I left, only my rodents were skunks. Two of them. Cute, yes, but I sure didn't want to be sprayed by a skunk, let alone two. The were separated, one on either side of the path, and a little too close for me to just casually stroll by. I waited, waited, answered Glenn when he called at me, waited, called back at him, which I then realised freaked the skunks out so I tried at that point to sprint by them. Once at the gate I quicky opened the latch and got out, then called in hushed tones at Glenn that there were skunks. He got excited and peeked over his fence to see. I've seen skunks up close, but never been faced with the real possibility that, within a small confined space, they could be close enough to spray me. I wonder if there's a skunk whistle in the same way they have deer whistles...

How quaint my life is. You see? I must dodge Pepe LaPue.

Last evening I went for a bite and beer, then coffee with my French friend Fabrice. He is always trying to get me to introduce him to my friends because he wants a girlfriend. He's recently decided that, since I speak of one friend a great deal, I should call him whenever I hang out with her so he can get to know her. It's so ridiculous that it's hilarious. I no longer try to spare his feelings and, instead, guffaw directly in his face. It's just lucky that he's funny about it or I'd have to stop talking to him.

And let this be a lesson to the rest of you: I don't set up friends for dating. I am extremely bad at picking sides in fights.

Crap, I'm going to be late for work. Sorry, I didn't have time to check for spelling errors.