Met Jacqueline Carey-an epic fantasy author. She signed a few books for us, and another of her fans took a picture of us. It was interesting to hear her speak. I thought she was maybe looking at us all as potentially weird characters that may show up in her books…the crazy cat lady with the purple hair and the wailing child and crocheted hat, the gothic teenager with inky emo tears… She was very sweet and had a really funny self depreciating sense of humour. Most of her fans have whole worlds in their heads from reading all her numerous novels…I’ve only read the first two, so I didn’t have as extensive a knowledge to draw on to ask questions as some of the other people there did. Mostly, I thought of some good ones to ask after the Q and A had closed. But she seemed very kind. Though no doubt she’s used to a slightly livelier crowd-I think some people in the crowd were just shell shocked that she’d was actually deigned to visit, that she was here, in the flesh, and were overcome with sudden shyness at being this close to their idol.

…Also, boning up on dinosaurs again, and here’s an interesting link about pterosaurs.

http://naturalhistorymag.com/samplings/292036/sailing-ancient-seas

that website has some fascinating articles-at least I think so because it lets me explore my geek side a little bit. (I’m discovering I’ve always been big geek anyway, but I’ve kept that side of me quiet for a long time. What happens when I let the geek out? Oh the fashion nightmares….)

After 6 months, I have finally been able to talk to Drew again. He has his hand on a cellphone and a calling card. I missed being able to talk to him. Then again, 6 months of no communication is pretty standard when he moves to a diferent town, made even more difficult by the huge timezone change.

Drew is actually the only long distance relationship I have ever really had. Then again, we have always spent a good deal of time on the phone–that makes things easier for sure. It sounds like he is having a great time, and congrats to him for making it work. Hopefully next trip Kate and I will be able to join him.

Live by a Luthiers-see sad people bring their broken stringed knicked gouged shattered guitars and violas and violins in to be brought back to glossy health

Chillin’ to some icy funky tunes today-a mix up a mash up why not skys the limit and it’s a beautiful day, dancin’ in my skivvies with the window wide because the breeze is cool and refreshing and I’ve sugar in my veins

Kicking through drifts of pink cherry petal snow

scenting the fragrance of  java and Jamaican pastries on the corner-love that deep saffron yellow, love that Dutch licorice just beyond, but don’t you think it’s time you sold wooden clogs instead of these new modern kind, which really just look like glorified refined white sucre crocs?

Today’s a dance swing round round round jump one two three why not

today everything is gilded in the first glimmerings of summer, scattered with silver eddies of rain and twisting bird song. Think I saw a finch with it’s rosy head. Saw a hummingbird again, little propeller wings just a whirl.

It has been a crazy month. As mentioned in an earlier post, Aaron and Christine came out to visit. It was a great weekend, filled with good food, great friends, and lots of laughs. We did a lot of wandering around Victoria, finding a great diner, a bakery, and some small out of the way bookstores. We saw Percy Jackson that weekend – a fantastic movie which I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend.

We also had the chance to test out a couple of new roleplaying systems: Elemental Axes and Burning Wheel. Eric and Aaron both ran a session for several of us. And it was good to get the dice on again. It has been far too long.

A few weeks later, Kate’s father came out to visit for a few days, with the majority of our stuff that was still sitting in Edmonton. Of course we are still in the process of sorting out everything. The living room/bar area is mostly set up now. We have our books out and sorted, the furniture where we want it, and everything else in the spare room. It is nice to finally get our stuff here – I didn’t realize how much I missed some of my things. We still have a bit of our stuff back in Alberta – but the big things are all here.

It really makes the place feel more like a home.

Sunday we watched some of the Olympics, mostly the skating competitions, and some of the skiing ones too. I was glad I wasn’t working on Valentine’s Day, for once. We got to relax and just enjoy the day, which was a wonderful treat. We went for coffee and ice cream later, and had a nice little walk.I thought it was just perfect.

I think working retail On Valentine’s Day has made me bitter towards the day. People get so greedy and fussy and they’re SO unbelievably rude I feel like being bitchy back, but of course you can’t. You just have to suck it up while they get in your face about the things you haven’t got because they came too late, and gee, we sold out, big surprise. They always think you’re holding out on them, that you’ve got a lot more product hiding under the counter and they think you’re secretly laughing at them. People think Valentine’s Day is a test they have to pass, and everyone fusses that “he doesn’t love me enough because he didn’t give me a big enough gesture,” or ” is it too soon to say I love you?” I can’t stand the crap people buy for each other; in a desperate attempt to “prove their love” they fling cheap ugly toys and uncomfortable lingerie, too much chocolate and expensive wilting flowers at their loved ones. It isn’t thoughtful, it isn’t romantic; and the gestures are meaningless when you start sticking a price tag onto the things you buy to show how much your love is worth. Sometimes I wonder if my customers ever asked their lovers what kind of flowers they really like, what colour is their favourite, what would be romantic to them? Valentine’s Day heaps on the stress, and I have seen so many people the day after St Valentine’s Day in tears or bitterly disappointed because “he just didn’t get it RIGHT, you know” and “how could he not know meeeeeeee?” I think, is that all you are doing? Holding up a metre stick to measure how successful your relationship is? Do you guys actually talk to each other? Do you know your lover at all or are you just thinking this is where you SHOULD be, and if you’re not there, why not? Do you reserve all your romance and sense of fun for one day only in the year and ignore your lover for the rest of the time? And you wonder why you’re breaking down and getting frustrated. Get real.

My Valentine’s Day was great: I didn’t have to deal with egomaniacs or fat greedy women or thin belligerent women or angry venomous men or any of the other myriad of people who hate everything and take it out on the girl behind the counter. I spent the day with my lover and it was a lot of fun, and very stress-free.

Victoria did not put on any fireworks to celebrate the new year. It’s the capital of BC, and is a strong tourist spot, and you would think these things alone would prompt the city to put on a fireworks show for first night. The city said there was dwindling enthusiasm for fireworks on new years eve, but I don’t buy it. What about the families with young children and tourists from the states who come up here to visit their families over the winter holidays? Last year, in Edmonton, it was something like -40C, and yet there were people in Churchill Square, and hot chocolate vendors and people selling 2009 flashing glasses, and they still had a fireworks display and music. It is much much warmer than Edmonton here, so I find it a stretch to believe people don’t want to “stand around in the cold” to watch a fireworks show to ring in the new year. I think the city was just too apathetic. I think it was a bad decision to treat new year’s eve like just any other ordinary day, because it isn’t. It should be celebrated, people should make some effort and dress up and put on a fireworks display that everyone can enjoy. And if they feel there’s dwindling interest they should step up and promote it, put some fliers around like they did for Christmas. (The downtown core was offering free horse-drawn trolley rides and free street-car rides, and several pre-Christmas events, and they put out a brochure to advertise it.)

Dev and I dressed up anyway, and went down to the beach for a quiet wander. There was a group on the beach that had bought some fireworks, and they shot them over the water, so we did get to see some little festivities after all. Mostly they were the coloured single ball kind, but one they set off was a crackling zinging sparkling rain.

We also saw Seattle’s fireworks display too, across the water. (Pretty good display actually, in miniature above their city.)

Dev had his first smoke of the new year, and we came home and toasted it in with wine.

Not a bad start to bring in the new year, despite the city’s lack of joy and illuminations. I still get to say I was on a beach for New Year’s, not in freezing snowy minus forty.

First day of the new year started out clear and fresh and mild, a balmy 10 degrees. Went for a wander downtown, taking pictures, and it started to rain heavily, but that was ok. I saw some Morris Dancing at Bastion Square. It was colourful and musical and as well as the dancers there was a man dressed as a horse with flashing mirror eyes, and a man who looked like a holly bush slash mossy stone. It was a fun way to start the new year off, tho I hear they are supposed to wear clogs instead of normal shoes, and bells on their toes too.

I dunno what to say here, though I feel I should say something. I’m listening to hokey music-fake celtic stuff. I’ve just changed what I’m listening to and now it’s vibrant Vanessa Mae, the punky-rockstar electric violinist. I feel the steady building of what I call the “Christmas Awareness”, which is when people go “oh shite, I’ve a million million things to do and no time to plan it/think it through/work it properly.” And they run around like stressed out headless chickens, gabbling at every little detail.

They’ve put some cheery lights on the lampposts in the Inner Harbour, and it feels festive even though there is no snow, only massive amounts of rain like what pours down in movies. Big fat wet hair-plastering drops, very moody and romantic. We tried to use the cheesy lines the other day but we just like wandering in the rain too much to make it corny. I’ve discovered a hole in the sole of my shoe, but I have lots of socks, so I’m staving off the wet feet  that way, plus I have a nice new pink umbrella, so I’ve mostly been keeping dry.

Moving next week, I think it will be a good area to move to, and there’s not really so much to move, so it will be easy.

…I still feel at a loose end, and I have things to do so I’m not sure why. I think I need to get back into the arts and theatre somehow. I find it very so sustaining. It slakes my thirsty soul.

Trying to quit is hitting me harder than I thought it would. I know I am not good conversation. I know I am irritable. I don’t know how to push through either. And this is only day one.

To add to it I feel constantly hungry and bored.

I am not sure how much I want to quit. I am not sure if this is worth the aggravation. I guess that is the nature of addiction though.

The music here is easier-going than in Alberta. The radio stations play more of a mix of styles; In Alberta, there was one station for hard rock, one for death metal, one for elevator music, one for country and so on. They were so specific, and they distained to play something not in their genre. Here, everything is more relaxed, and they seem to feature more local bands, they don’t segregate the styles of the bands so much. Or maybe I just like the pace here, and it overflows into all the day to day minutae.

Every day, one of my coworkers comes in with a black coffee maker, two containers of sugar and a bottle of milk, and another container of fragrant coffee. And he makes java twice while we’re working-one for when we first get there, and a fresh pot for 2nd break. It’s good coffee, somehow better than I could ever do, even though it’s just ordinary. Sometimes another coworker offers a flavoured coffee to use instead of the normal grounds. Then the scent of vanilla or hazelnut wafts over us as we work.

It’s become a little treat-one small thing to look forward to on shift, and we really miss it when my coworker doesn’t show up. We complain and grumble at the lack of the fresh hot coffee, when he’s not there, more so than the fact that we now also have to do his workload. It’s the java we miss, the caffiene fix, the ritual of finding a mug that fits our hand, or our mood, or using the only blue glass mug, which looks like a photograph all the time and is really such an art piece even though it’s only unadorned, coloured glass.

It makes the shift a little more manageable, a little more fragrant, after all.