Gah, where to begin? Weekend of craziness. Allow me to try to quickly quickly summarize so that I can get around to actually studying for the interview I have tomorrow. Here's hoping I get some time tomorrow at work to study, too.

I think I owe some other backtracking, too, actually.

Right - Friday was book club.

And shut up with your, "The first rule of book club is you don't talk about book club." I've heard that joke a few times.

Anyhow, this month was Tom Sawyer, and last month was The Tiger Claw, and we talked over both of them. We covered last month's book because last month's meeting was cancelled. I never finished Tiger Claw, and just barely finished Tom Sawyer, due to an impromptu (but much-loved) nap that I had Thursday night, but I made it through in the end.

After book club, I wound up hanging out with N, and she and I had a great conversation about relationships, friendships, sex (in general) and so on. She dropped me off at the bus station a little after 1, I got home a little after 2, and got to ride the bus with the drunken crowd. No problems, in fact there were some courteous people on the bus, but they were smelly of booze and smoke. Not the most pleasant event.

As I got off the bus, rather than do the loop down and under, I jaywalked across the bus route and heard some girls behind me saying they were going to follow me, that I seemed to know where I was going. I wound up walking with them more or less to my street, and listening to their conversation - mostly them talking about the cold, and talking about one's girl's apartment, their destination. At that point, she turned to me and said that I now knew where she lived, and I said that was okay, she was about to see where I lived, and that I was more interested in getting inside where it was warm, than stalking her tonight. Problem solved. :)

I went straight to bed, only to get up just before 9 the next morning to take Thena to the vet for her feleuk booster. She jumped in her carrier 10 minutes before we were due to leave, so with 5 minutes to go I zipped it up, and we sat outside in the sun to wait for the cab - which was late. So she got restless. :P And once the cabbie finally arrived, it was another of the crabby ones, "Did you tell them where you were going!?" Argh. The last time that happened, I hadn't, 'cause they hadn't asked. This time, I had - but they hadn't asked about whether or not I had a pet. Their problem, not mine. :P Ah well.

Got her home, put her out on her harness, grabbed some breakfast, then headed back out (after getting her in) to get my haircut. Always nice. :) I mentioned to her that the paramedic had seen old Hallowe'en photos of me in which I had red hair, and that I might eventually go to red, and she said immediately that she knew what shade she was going to do. I like my hairdresser. :)

It was on my way home from the hairdresser (and some grocery-shopping) that my first of crazy events took place. I called Shawn on my cell, since he'd called me earlier and I'd had to let him go, and while we were talking, I became aware of the fact that a few feet to my left was an older Chinese man, who was busy slapping his crotch and yelling -- in French -- at some other Chinese man (or young Caucasian guy, I was never entirely clear) who was standing a few feet to my right. The crotch-slapper kept calling the mysterious other man "Un Communiste!" and various other stuff I didn't catch, and the young caucasian guy was *screaming* with laughter into his phone and saying, "And I thought it was crazy in Toronto!" and the older guy just kept on slapping his crotch. He started wandering away, but then took to bending over and just sticking his butt out at the assembled masses, then took to patting it a few times, and then finally left. For Shawn's sake, I narrated all of this in the phone.

My trainer had called to cancel our appointment, so I was able to go home and do some dishes, throw Thena outside, and relax. I put Venus on her harness and leash, and Thena was having fun grabbing the handle of the leash and tugging on it - it really looked like she was trying to convince Venus to go outside and join her, especially when Venus was under the kitchen table. :) She didn't really spend much time outside, but I think I'm slowly convincing her. Thena, on the other hand, loved having me out there, and spent a great deal of time pressed up against me, and/or rolling in the dirt. Yay. :P

After awhile, I went inside to watch Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, which I'd rented. Half-way through, Ben called to invite me out to dinner, so off I went with him and his girlfriend.

Here's where the second crazy part of the day took place. We parked the car down a side street, then started walking up to where the restaurant was (on the main drag and over half a block). After a few feet, we were passed by someone who asked the time. I'd forgotten my watch at home, and the others weren't wearing one, so we guessed at the time for the guy.

Now. I cannot properly articulate or transcribe the conversation that took place, for many many reasons. For one, I want to get to studying and go to bed soon. For two, I was too busy laughing during parts of it to truly understand what was going on. For three, I didn't even understand what was really going on - and neither did Ben or his SO. For four... there was no sense to that which was discussed. Just believe me when I say this whole conversation flowed about as well as I'm illustrating it here, and it took somewhere in the realms of 10-15 minutes to actually unfold. For your sake, I'm just going to use jot notes to try to get it across:

* Asked us what time it was
* Talked about how hot the weather was (now earlier that day, I'd seen someone in a full parka with the hood up, so I guess one man's heat is another man's cold)
* Told us where he was from (which I've since blocked from memory) and talked about how this temperature is winter there
* Talked, I think, about the gay marriage protests that are going on. None of us quite figured out what his position was - for or against
* Talked about how two women (Ben's SO and I) or two guys (Ben and our friend) couldn't marry
* Talked about how he thought Ben's SO and I were a couple, then talked about how he thought I was Ben's girlfriend (I think because we were dressed slightly alike - i.e., both wearing black t-shirts with white writing, and I had on a black jacket)
* Talked about how Ben's SO "shines," and that I would always be loyal to her
* Said we'd all make a happy family
* Also mentioned in there that he thought Ben and I were brother and sister
* Told us that he was Muslim, that he wasn't allowed to do various things (including drinking, which we're fairly certain he'd been doing), including stand too close to a woman, then apologized to Ben for having shook and mimed kissing his SO's hand - this was after he'd already done it
* Shook all of our hands and asked our names, mimed kissing my hand (but thankfully didn't do it)
* Told us to start walking to our destination, and said he'd walk with us, whereby he segued "seamlessly" into the Iraq war (we think)
* Talked about how we should say hi next time we see him, that everyone knows him and says hi
* Said that next time, he'd like to join us for dinner and buy us a huge meal
* Pointed out that he was wearing a hat, that he wasn't bald, that he was 42 (?) and had all of his hair, but that he hadn't showered that day

... and I'm *sure* I'm forgetting much of it. During the first few minutes, I spent a lot of time laughing into my hand. I'm not sure he noticed. During the last few minutes, I was very ready to say that we were late to meet our friend for dinner - I was worried he was going to follow us into the restaurant. Thankfully, he didn't. Weird day.

We had some great Asian-blend food, then headed over to the ass end of town to join up with Shawn, Gord, Jacob and random others to play some really bad games of bowling. Mostly it was a lot of groping, heckling, dancing, and more groping. Good times had by all.

I did manage to convince the paramedic to come out and join us for a bit, although he showed up shortly before people decided to start leaving (though in the end, we still had at least a half hour of gaming time left). I groped Shawn, he threatened Shawn, I groped him, he groped me, he threatened me, he groped Shawn... it was all good. I'm sure someone wound up pregnant as a result. He drove me home, we hung out for just under an hour, then off he went, and I finished watching my movie. I went to bed around midnight, slept until 11 on Sunday, and seemed to catch up on most of my missed sleep. :)

Sunday I went to the gym and worked out with my trainer, came home, loaded up my new mp3 player (I traded in my old and busted 128 RCA Lyra for the 256 RCA Lyra), then headed back downtown for work. Work was boring, I was crabby. My mood picked up later, and then I wasn't well for a few minutes (note to self: you know that chugging hot chocolate doesn't work, stop doing it), then went downstairs and met up with the paramedic, who was picking me up.

We got back to my place to discover that, long story short, a small section of my apartment was flooded. Not too awful, I was able to cope, but the gross part was that I hadn't swept up the loose litter, and I use the clumping stuff... so I couldn't just throw down towels and be done with it. :P Plus, as soon as I had it all mopped up, more came out - this was fun. :P

I called the company that owns my building, and left a message on their main line, plus one of their emergency numbers (someone hung up on me at the other one). This was around midnight. They called me back at 2 a.m., saying that it was too late to call the unit next door (where the water was coming from, seeing as how my toilet and pipes were fine, and I don't have a magical well in either of my storage closets) -- but it wasn't too late to call me?! -- but that they'd call them in the morning, and hopefully get someone out there around 8, etc. They also asked if I still had a problem, which is when I went out into the hallway and skidded in the newly-formed large puddle, temporarily hurting my foot... yes, there was still a problem.

So they called me around 6 a.m. (after I got to sleep finally around 3 a.m.), telling me that the good news was that it wasn't my unit, that the other unit had had a hot water tank blow up and die. Some of you may remember my tales of my old apartment, where just this thing happened... :P *sigh* Fortunately, the damage this time was much less, and by the morning most of it had even evaporated.

So she called me again at 7, asking if I'd called her, to which I said no, and then she said that the guy was next door and would probably be coming by later to help me clean up. I called my manager, said I was going to be late, turned off my alarms and went back to bed. If the guy came by, I never heard it. :P

I got up just after 9, the paramedic drove me in for about 11, and the day continued in the stupid vein. But it worked out in the end - especially when I got to tell one of my higher bosses that this "fixing" they're trying to put in place is totally *not* helping things, and in fact has broken the whole process even worse, and so he and I are going to talk about it later.

Also, there was some kind of bomb threat/anthrax scare, but I was unaffected. Lucky us, they made an announcement on my floor saying that, "everything's fine now, just stay away from the area" - we were all, "uh, what? and where?" but gossip got around.

Back to the gym, where I leg-pressed 500 lbs, for I am a *machine*, and then I went home, where I finally got the paramedic's present. And he's not going to know what it is until I give it to him, but suffice it to say, it'll go over well. I am the awesomest. :)

Tomorrow I have the oral interview, which I am not studying for - in fact, I watched Without a Paddle, ate dinner, and am now updating here, instead of studying for it, because I am stupid - but the paramedic is picking me up and driving me there, and then I will escape the tyranny of work and not go back. Hah! Also, I will kick total and absolute ass there, so I can get the job and be hired and be happier. And so on.

I'm slowly getting to know the paramedic better and more deeply, and that's pretty cool. Somewhere I have it in my head that this whole process is supposed to move quickly, and I don't get it - I guess because in a lot of cases with friends I've gotten to know them really well really quickly, and I forget that it doesn't always work that way. Or doesn't have to, either.

I talked to my mom for awhile today, since it was her birthday, and she seemed ... oddly skeptical about things between us. She did say that she wouldn't judge, because she hadn't met him, but that's never stopped anyone before. My mom's also made the point, twice lately, of saying that she liked ex-boyfriend J - which is odd, 'cause she never really said anything at the time, and I'm buggered if I know why it would come up again now. I was telling her about the conversation Jay and I had about how his loss was my (and the bf's) gain, and that the bf treats me even better, and she said that she thought J treated me fairly well - and so I said, yes, he did (in that he treated me better than many other exes, but I think she just likes that he cleaned her car - though his reasons for doing it weren't to impress her, just that he's a neat freak like that), and that the bf treats me even better... it was to that she said she wouldn't judge, since she hadn't met him. I think really, she's just annoyed that she hasn't met him yet or something. :P I told her that she'd meet him after I'd met some of his friends, and she was surprised that he'd met all of mine, but that I hadn't met any of his. I said it was just circumstances, nothing more, and that he and PF were apparently planning some double-date - of which eventually I'll be told, so that I can show up and everything. :)

Run-on paragraphs are good for your eyes.

So I can't tell if life is just teeming up to make me mental, or if it's just being back on the pill, or what. :) I'm hoping things will balance out soon, but I guess a bit of conflict and frustration is good for the skin, or something. :P

In the meantime, I think I'm off to bed, and I'll do what I can to study tomorrow. Enjoy reading the tome. :)