Cozied up

Lizard poisons Spock...

Bob l'eponge

Mum's the Word

Would you like a top-up?

bleary eyed

just wrote 30-odd emails to confirm details for american thanksgiving (observed). i'm declaring today a bye for the 100 word entry and i'm going to bed.

Traditionally Speaking

I’m big on traditions – particularly those associated with Christmas. I always decorate the Christmas tree while listening to Brenda Lee sing “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”. All decorations, movies and music are officially allowed after American Thanksgiving. Traditionally, I decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving while eating lots of leftovers. These are things that I remember from when I was a child.

When I was in Vancouver for my first Christmas away from home, I went to the Van Dusen Festival of Lights with amazing!P and her folks. It’s a tradition we have continued with friends, hot cider and good cheer.

Art(east)

On Sunday, amazing!T and amazing!P and I attended the Eastside Culture Crawl – well, we made it through two of the warehouses anyway. There were over 300 participating artists of all creeds and the venues were scattered east of Commercial Avenue and running between Alexander Street and 10th Avenue. There were many pieces that I didn’t understand but for the most part there was a lot of really neat and inspiring art. I have such respect for people who can create art – through whatever medium. I saw many paintings that I wish I could have adorning my – or a friend’s – walls.

Something in the Air

While at the “Evil Dead” musical, my friend and I were party to an unintentionally amusing situation. The air was periodically rank with some of the worst gas I have ever encountered. I believed that some audience member had a horrible bowel disease and tried to discreetly breathe through my scarf. My friend broke with social norms and actually commented on the stench during intermission. I hadn’t wanted to say anything in case the suffering person was within earshot but my friend thought that it was more likely produced by some of the stage equipment. I concurred but still wondered.

Evil Dead: The Musical

Last night I saw “Evil Dead: The Musical” in all its blood spray and glory. It has been a long time since I’ve seen the movies and I’ve actually seen “Army of Darkness” more times than I have either of the Evil Dead movies. Still, I love Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell is an amazing comedic actor with a flair for camp. There wasn’t as much blood spray as I was expecting given that there are 6 rows in the splatter section. The production scenery, costumes and singing were all over the top and awesome. A really fun night out.

Eee-vil!

sleepyhead

brown eyes, what what??

Peep Peep!

punkins. :)

hi-dee-do

Although I can appear to be an outgoing person the truth is that I am quite socially awkward. I tend to be quiet and retiring when I’m in a group of people that I don’t know. I have managed to be more outgoing in one shining initial attempt – when I joined my soccer team. I toned down some of my more ribald jokes and behaviours but I was essentially myself. This was a feat that I have not yet been able to reproduce. I feel threatened in large groups: my conversation skills insufficient, my gestures too wild and wholly overwhelmed.

office retreat

orange i glad..

a friend won this monkey in vegas and his first thought was, gee, that looks like kirsten....

dreaming...

I saw the Arts Club production of “White Christmas” this evening. I typically wouldn’t watch the movie adaptation so shortly before attending a theatrical adaptation but in this case I have the movie memorized anyway. The production this evening did alter the plotline to incorporate more Irving Berlin songs and suit the limitations of the stage. The greatest weakness I felt this adaptation exhibited was the need to talk through each character motivation and subtle portrayals that the original cast of “White Christmas” had. Overall I had a great time and there were several large tap numbers which was awesome.

Working hard

Christmastime routines

My two favorite Christmas movies are “White Christmas” and the 1947 version of “Miracle on 34th Street”. Christmas and Halloween are my two favorite holidays – they both have such wonderful decorations. But Christmas also has wonderful food and scents, movies and music. By the time American Thanksgiving rolls around I’m usually well into the mood of music and annual movie viewing. I’ve started listening to Christmas music as early as October, I was stressed and it made me happy, and this year I’m watching “White Christmas” in mid-November. I’m looking forward to putting up my decorations and starting my baking.

Puzzling

This evening I attended a potluck with a friend and the group of us played Cranium. I really do enjoy board games so the more people I know that play them, the better. I also joined two close friends who have many board games and bear with me that I am perpetually late. Growing up, my family often played card games and board games. I like playing and goofing around so to have an organized method is awesome. There are so many board games out there as well – I think I’m going to have to visit some game stores soon.

hmmm....

Take a look at me now...

My skin has a perfect balance of adolescent acne and the beginnings of lines. Laugh lines I don’t mind, I'm happy to be smiling that much. The furrows along my forehead I’m less thrilled by as they are the tracks of my confused expression. My eyebrows draw in and sometimes one is raised if I am near enough to question someone. A ‘’V’ forms above the bridge of my nose and I squint a bit – if I do it long enough I get a headache. Which makes sense, since I’m confused. Then there are the lines from my surprised expression…

Catch some zzz's

Writing style

“It was a bit soppy…I left out that bit about her name being entwined around my heart as a rose vine around a cottage door.”

I love Jeeves and Wooster, it is such an amusing show. Stephen Fry as Jeeves is just a treasure; his response to the above about writing love letters is fantastic. I think that at my most sentimental I tend to lapse into prose that evokes the spirit of Jane Austen (in my mind). I like the fact that such language today is a bit playful but also resonates emotionally.

Sometimes I channel Anais Nin instead.

AYSO jersey -- Circa 1994

who-da-whatta

Through the social medium of facebook I’ve found out about my ten year high school reunion this summer. I’ve not been contacted directly and I won’t be attending in any event. I do find it interesting however, to peruse the group and read the comments and suggestions of these people that I grew up with. So many of them are married, with one or more children, and living in the area still. I don’t want to go back and see these people who know all about me and the person I used to be. I want to keep moving forward.

Recovery

“What’s a Truckee? What are you referencing?”

If it’s one thing I love, it’s explaining my hometown’s name. Everyone seems to think that I am joking when I say that I’m from Truckee and then I get the jokes about truck stops. (Which everyone knows is really Baxter – the truck stop that burned down and was never rebuilt.) Growing up in a small mountain town didn’t do me much harm – aside from instilling the need to move away! I grew up playing in a National forest as my backyard, plentiful hiking and swimming in lakes and lots of team sports.


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When one project isn't enough...

I can be a bit overly optimistic about my personal goal setting. For instance, I always used to plan to get up early in the morning and workout – or at least do some yoga. I’ve given up on that concept as there’s not much that will get me out of bed in the morning. Lately I’ve been coming across people who are taking a self-portrait picture every day for a year. So I’ve been thinking that would be an interesting project to post between writing segments. It would be a fun way to play with my camera and my perceptions.

Toothy grin

I’m not sure what I changed about my routine that I feel so tired in the mornings. I used to get up at 6am and be productive – eat my breakfast, clean the dishes and make my lunch and get out the door in a timely fashion. These days I’m lucky to get out of bed let alone out the door. Something has to have changed in my eating habits, exercise routine or just my sleeping pattern. Actually, I worry about my teeth. My boss had an abscess and she was always tired. I have nightmares about my teeth falling out.

AO-Hell

“You've Got Mail” is playing on TV and it makes me laugh because of the heavy integration of AOL and chatrooms. At the time that movie was released, relationships that came out of meetings in chatrooms were not the stuff of social acceptance. Certainly nowhere near as accepted as all the dating sites online today.

What’s more amusing are the sequences where the computers access the internet through a dial-up connection. I remember the high occasion when my family got a computer and then the slow process of connecting to the internet. Thank goodness for fast cable internet these days.

Rainy days

Vancouver is an umbrella kind of city. It rains, the sidewalks are a sea of umbrellas. It’s cloudy, umrellas are stashed in purses or in hand. It snows, the sidewalks are a sea of umbrellas. Wait, what? Snow? I grew up with snow – one does not use an umbrella for snow. Unless one is in Vancouver. In a city where umbrellas are so prevalent, it would be reasonable to expect that the sidewalks would be easily navigated. Wrong. Major offenders include the golf umbrella wielders, those who can’t pass another umbrella, walking under covered walkways with an umbrella…oh the irritations!

Sotto voce

From time to time, I am called upon to help answer phones at my office. This has been the case at all of my positions in my working history and I’ve found one prevalent trend: my voice changes. It’s not that I think that I have an overly gruff or irritating voice under other circumstances but I guess I have some notions of how I should sound in a professional manner. Which could just as easily translate to a higher register of vocabulary and enhanced pronunciation. But I don’t stop at semantics, my voice gains a saccharine and sing-song tone.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall...I am my mother after all

My mother has several bits that relate to our family in her comedy routine. One of her bits is about putting away dishes in the dishwasher or emptying the dishwasher. I have been revisited with her frustrations, with a vengeance, at my office. Two people out of ten will put their dishes in the dishwasher; the rest will merely put them in the sink and expect a fairy to do the rest. I don’t understand it. If it’s a chore you expect your children to complete, the least you could do is lead by example. Even while in the workplace.

Shut the front door

I have come to an interesting point in my career wherein I have one vendor that I would seriously contemplate working for part-time – just so that my company’s invoice would stop being such a nightmare. This is arrogant of course because I have no idea what accounting system this vendor uses nor the client volume, though I expect it to be fairly significant. Even so, I can’t help thinking that since I have outlasted five accounts receivable clerks in as many years then I might just be able to handle whatever they’ve got. If only to preserve my own sanity.

Best convo ever

*ring, ring*
"Oooh hellllloo formerroommate!K!"
"Hellllooo lady friend!"
"Oooh, lady friend? *lascivious tone intended* does that come ...with privileges?"
"oh Kirsten, if it hasn't you've taken them anyway."

YES. I have the best friends ever.

Bathroom Reader

I’m going to take a moment to talk about the bathroom. Yah, it’s a place where we do business that isn’t the stuff of polite conversation. (Unless you’re a runner, in which case then guaranteed the moment you run the half marathon distance you’re gonna talk poo.) The communal bathroom of my building suffers from people who cannot flush the toilet, aim while hovering over the toilet and the subsequent offence of not cleaning up after failing in their aim. If you can’t hover and aim, then you are a part of the problem you wish to avoid! It’s elementary.

auto-focus

I find it difficult to write my entries for this project when I am writing more outside of these parameters. It may be work related or personal correspondence but I find that the ideas I have for this project get relegated to the word processor in my head. This often happens with email replies that are long overdue or issues that I don’t particularly want to address. In a sense, this writing project is an issue that I don’t want to address as it makes me focus on what I want from my writing. I’m not very good at focusing.

le chat noir

So I have mentioned before that I am a cat person – I have oft repeated that I am destined to be the cat lady up on the hill in the purple house. Over the past week I have been taking care of two cats at two apartments and I have come to an important conclusion. Being on meds for the rest of my life is one thing – I need to make sure they are effective meds. Allergy pills? Benedryl? Reactin? Not highly efficient. I think that where there is a cat in my future, there will also be allergy shots.