Just to be clear, since it seems to be causing trouble for people -- I have not gone off the pill in an attempt to get pregnant. I have no interest in having a child at the moment, as I have a great deal of things I would like to accomplish first (the hardcore porn career being only one of these things).

For those who aren't clear on the concept, the birth control pill is a hormonal means of impeding pregnancy. Introducing extra hormones into a stable system can mess with said stable system; see: pregnancy as an extreme example. See: bodybuilders who take steroids. Therefore, introducing a combination of estrogen and progesterone into a stable hormonal system can and often does have side effects.

With yours truly, said side effects include but are not limited to migraines, emotional imbalances, and possibly weight gain. In an effort to reduce the drugs I have to take to cope with my special brand of migraines (non-aura migraines that mean only vast overdoses of over-the-counter drugs have even a remote hope of working), and to avoid having to buy additional medication to address the problem brought on by the aforementioned drugs, I opted to discontinue the pill.

I also lost one of the packs in our move, and didn't feel up to buying another months' worth, especially if I'm not positive they'll allow it.

Finally, I have had pill-free sex in the past with no negative repercussions (i.e., pregnancy), as I was quite careful in my condom use. The only reason I had gone back on the pill over the last few years was because my doctor got freaked out at the idea of a condom-using sexually-active chick such as myself being loose in the world, and we opted to try another method to see if it would help.

Now, I can't be certain that my weight gain is tied to the pill use, but it can certainly be a factor, especially given that I switched to a generic some time ago, and my weight gain appears to have been concentrated over the last year. The conspiracy theories, they abound!

So there's that little rant. Do I seriously seem that baby-crazy to some people or something? I mean hell, I would assume most of my friends would imagine I'd never have babies, the way I do go on about them.

Granted, the worst thing I've said about children applied to a family member of mine, so most of my friends have probably been spared my most strident anti-children comments.

I do also try to keep them down on here, as I do have friends who have kids who read here, and I don't want them thinking I'm talking about them.

Which segues nicely into a point I was thinking earlier, and started to nonsensically write up -- that is, it amuses me how easily people adapt what they read on here to suit their emotional needs at any given time. That is to say, it seems as though I could write a seriously generic statement like, "You made me happy today," and have any number of you readers (okay, two of the three of you) assume that it was meant to apply to you.

Sucks if someone takes offense to something that wasn't written about them, especially if I didn't even know that they read here or might've thought it would apply to them, but sometimes a bit funny, too.

But that's also why I do restrict myself on here at times, as I know that there are some who read on here -- with varying degrees of frequency -- and it would just be my luck for me to say that so-and-so was a useless twat, and that would be the one day of the month they had read what I'd written.

At the same time, I think it just factors in to how much we each want to be important to someone, even at just the friendship level. I know that I can get bummed out if I've been in frequent or semi-frequent contact with someone (especially when flirting is involved), only to have them reduce the frequency of said contact or disappear entirely. I could name names as to people who tend to appear and then disappear (SHAWNATHON), but I wouldn't want to call anyone out.

Today I was hanging out with a girlfriend of mine, and she was asking me questions about my experiences with BDSM. I was describing some of the things I'd tried, and we started talking about our shared interests in certain pseudo-fetish gear wear -- leather bracelets and the like. I mentioned one item that I find to be significantly arousing, and suddenly, bam -- rush of heat between the legs. It's been so long since I've felt that I almost mentioned it, but wasn't sure she'd care to know.

It's going to be ... interesting being back off the pill.

I find it both amusing and frustrating that some people in my life have a hard time dealing with me as a sexual being, and it makes me wonder sometimes about their own sex life. I'm hardly pushing my sexual activities in others' faces, even when I was single, but yes, I am fairly open with my thoughts and experiences while online (re: the Whore's Boudoir. I certainly don't force anyone to read it, but I appreciate those who do -- especially when I hear back from people that I have echoed their thoughts or experiences in my writings. I think talking and musing about sex is a healthy thing to do, but I don't force anyone to do it with me.

I mean, I'm 28 years old. Certainly there are those with more experience than me in the world, and there are those with less. I've turned to many of my friends for advice on sexual matters, and I've had friends do the same to me. I like being able to provide advice or even simply a sympathetic ear. It's good to hear someone else say, "Yeah, I've had that happen, too" because it makes you feel like less of a loner and can lead to guidance as to how to cope.

So I can't help but wonder sometimes about people who have a difficult time talking about sex, whether it's with their friends or in general. Are they able to communicate effectively with their partner? Is their partner having a good time in bed? Are they?

I find it helpful to be open about my interests. It presents an easy opportunity for someone else to say whether or not they like the same thing, or elements of it. It provides for conversation topics (re: earlier this evening). And it lets people think of me as a freak if they're so inclined. But being open about things means that people will ask you questions or seek advice they may not feel comfortable going elsewhere to learn. That's a pretty nice feeling all around.

Today is one of those rare but exceptional days where I'm feeling in touch with my feelings, honest, and able to own up to my (many) shortcomings.

It also appears to be one of those blocks of time in which people are feeling nostalgic and interested in getting in touch with one another -- I've had one person from my past reach out to me, and over the last few days/weeks I've been doing the same to another.

At least as far as the second goes, reflecting on the past is showing me that I did in fact act poorly in that circumstance, something I knew at the time but was unable to address because of my insecurity, dislike of hurting others, feeble attempts not to do so, and a general lack of knowledge as to how to properly address that which was going on. I'm not proud of it, but my relationship with this person doesn't appear to be suffering for it, since we're both able to look back and deal with it maturely.

Combined with today's honest phase, it's meant that I was able to apologize to him for how I acted, which he both graciously accepted and said was unnecessary. But I still feel a bit better for having done it, and a part of me wishes I could go back and do things better.

But that was then and this is now and all we can do is look backward and move forward. So, moving forward and possibly even spending some time with him when I go to visit my Nanny in March. We'll see what the weather and so on brings, but it's something to discuss and even anticipate.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm also feeling somewhat flirty and possibly even horny -- so I think I may be ovulating. Fun times! Ah well, it's nice to feel this way again. Damned birth control.

And let's share the brilliance (and yes, that line you're going WTF is true):

Hi (contact),

At your request, I am writing you regarding final invoices for
our old rental property located at (address), Ottawa, On.  There are four
charges total to us, but we believe that we should only be paying for two of
them.

As per our signed contract, we agreed to have the carpets steam
cleaned upon vacating the premises due to the fact we had pets.  As well, we
caused minor drywall damage as we were moving out, so it is fair to pay the
repair cost to the entrance.  However, we do not agree with the charges for (company) junk removal and (company) Housekeeping.

When we first took over
the property on Nov 1st, 2007 we arrived to find the home in a very poor state
of cleanliness.  The agent we were dealing with at the time actually informed us
that they had not had a chance to check the house and no one had been in to
clean.  We were forced to delay our move by two days so we could properly clean
the house, as it had seemed it had not been cleaned the entire time the previous
tenants had been living there. I spent a complete day trying to clean the
upstairs bathroom trying to remove a year's worth of soap scum in the shower and
tub which had almost turned to tar.  We also spent a complete day cleaning the
kitchen as it had not been touched in quite some time. The fridge had old
spilled juice inside, the counters were coated in dirt and the pantry was full
of soil.  The stove top and oven were also in rough shape. As an added bonus, a
box of used vaginal suppositories was left in the fridge as a gift from the
previous tenants.  In total, we spent roughly 12 hours each cleaning the house
prior to our arrival.  I also saw no indication steam cleaning had taken place
prior to our arrival, despite the previous tenants owning a dog.  Before our
departure, we spent three nights of five hours each cleaning and preparing the
home for the new tenants.  Our only concern was the bile in the carpets (not
feces as the note states) from a cat having vomited. We knew however the steam
cleaning would remove this, which we had previously agreed to.  It is not fair
to us that we should be charged for house cleaning when we left this house 100
times cleaner then the way we received it. 

As for the junk that was
left in the house.  Everything that was left in the house when we left was there
when we arrived with the exception of the garbage in the garage that was slated
to go out on Friday for pick up.  The previous tenants told us that the owned
had left behind some stuff for the tenants to use such as the giant TV, a broken
lawnmower, a broken BBQ, an air conditioning unit and a garage full of lawn
tools and various other things. The storage room in the basement also contained
quite of bit of junk such as paint, wood and old fixturing.  Since we were not
shown the house by an agent and rather by the tenants themselves, we had no
choice but to believe the tenants about the contents of the house. Everything we
left behind was there when we arrived.

However, since there was no clean
up crew prior to our arrival, no one noticed how much of a mess the house was or
how much junk was left behind. We were left to deal with the problems
ourselves.  It is not good business to let one client go and not check up on
them and charge the other one. I would gladly make up an invoice for the time
invested with our cleaning services prior to our arriving for 12 hours at 70$ an
hour and we could deduct it off our current bill if it will help ease matters. 
We are not trying to stiff anyone, we just want to be treated fairly.

If
you have any questions, don't hesitate to write back or call

Thank
you

In response to the letter we received from our housing company, the DB wrote a brilliant email to them that had me cheering and laughing as I read it. I'll share it later so all two of you can appreciate it as well. It was interesting, since it was the first time I'd read something he'd written in a professional/business style, and I thought it was very well done.

Then in the evening I became annoyed with him again, since that's sometimes almost my default, depending on the day.

I exaggerate for comedic purposes -- hyperbolize, if you will. These instances are usually quite obvious, like claiming I'd eaten a bazillion pounds of chocolate over the weekend, when in reality I may have only eaten four chocolate bars or something equally bad (and I don't think I've done that since I was a kid, so stop judging me). That said, when I'm relating information on how much money I spent on something/how much time I invested reading something/how early I went to bed, I'm unlikely to exaggerate -- there, my point is to get some sympathy or recriminations or whatever.

So, when I tell the DB that I spent 13.5 hours at work yesterday and he tells me I didn't, I get annoyed. Especially when he claims that I only spent 11 hours at work, with a 2 hour commute.

Not so much.

I am usually at work for 7:20/7:30ish. Yesterday, in light of Budget day (everyone's favourite day!), I was at work until 9:00 p.m. -- count it, 13.5 hours. I got home around 9:30 after the taxi I took almost got into a major car accident -- and to be honest, I was almost too tired to care -- and in the mornings, I leave my neighbourhood at 6:40 or so in the morning (and then walk from where the carpool lady parks, hence the slightly later start).

So yes, it was a 13.5 hour day, plus an hour or so commute.

I almost wouldn't care, but he's done it almost every time I've worked over 10 hours -- he consistently tells me that no, I didn't work the 11/12/whatever hours I'm claiming I worked. I don't know why; it's not like I'm trying to ask him to cover my overtime, or be the one to come in to work the next day or something. I'm simply trying to explain why I'm so tired/crabby/hungry/whatever, and being told that no, I didn't do something I know damn well I did, well, it annoys me.

Much like when he claims I never reread my books, use something I'm hanging on to, watch a given movie or television show, or listen to a particular type of music. Just because he doesn't see me do it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Hell, he doesn't see me shower in the mornings, and I still do that every day. He doesn't see me catch a carpool, go to work, or do my job -- and yet somehow I do those every day.

(I was going to go with bodily function themes here, but opted to be kinder to your mental pictures of me. Especially since I'm a girl and apparently we don't do those things.)

I need to wake up enough to get up a good head of steam, but I will say this; if the Liberals/NDP/Bloc do take down the current government, I am seriously going to cut a bitch. I do not want to have to go through all of this crap again in a few months' time when the coalition government or newly-elected government has to present their own Budget and all of that. I also think it would be seriously irresponsible to try to bring down government at this particular point in time, but that's another issue.

I know this is a continuation on a previous theme, but I like this:

Me: "How's your day going?"
Him: "Lousy, why?"
Me: "Want to call our previous housing company and tell them to go fuck themselves?"
Him: "Why?"
Me: "Here's a letter they sent, here's stuff they're claiming, here's the amounts they want us to pay. The first two we agreed to; these others are part of the bullshit."
Him: "Okay, bye."

I am so mad I'm shaking, but I would be too fucking polite to tell them what I really think -- or at least to make it stick. Sure, I talk a good game, but deep down for the most part I'm a complete wimp.

Luckily for me, he can play the bastard when it's necessary and make it work. It may be too late in the day to have resolution now, but at least I have the wheels in motion.

I'm not entirely sure where my mind is at. I don't know if it's because the daily grind is getting to me and there's no end in sight, or if I feel a bit at loose ends without school hanging over my head, but some days, I just don't know what to do with myself. Yesterday, for example, I was greatly looking forward to doing little to nothing all weekend, aside from going out tonight for a friend's birthday. When the DB got home yesterday, he said how he hadn't bothered getting anything from the store for dinner as he had thought about taking me out for dinner, then halfway home realized he'd made plans to go to the casino with his friend.

This bothered me and didn't on a few levels -- one, I had to go back to the store to pick up dinner fixings. Two, I hadn't been considered in the plans for the casino, which, when I thought it was just the two of them, didn't really bother me. When the friend arrived and his roommate/fwb/girlfriend was also there, I was a bit put out, though not hugely. I could've gone with them if I had really wanted to, but, like the night we all went to see Tropic Thunder, I would've felt as though I was possibly inviting myself along where I was, while not unwelcome, not necessarily invited.

Again, this wouldn't be that big of a deal if it wasn't for the pending possible Cuba trip. While we have a deal lined up to go to Hawaii (or Florida, or Las Vegas), the DB is going to look into whether or not this can be postponed, because his friend E (the same guy from last night) and his cousin A are looking to go to Cuba again, and the DB thinks it would be fun to go with them. Okay, cool -- small group, good times, good people, no pressure to spend every waking moment with them, great.

Except then the roommate/fwb/girlfriend is probably going to go. Okay, five people, no big deal. Then the DB says that it's getting to be a pretty big group -- another guy from the store, and maybe L, A's brother... so now we're up to 7 and maybe growing. And as the DB points out, no, we don't have to spend every waking moment with the group, but now... now I'm less eager to go, and I feel like a jerk about that.

Because, despite my social nature, my ability to make do in most situations, and all of that, I'm not a party person. I'm really strongly an introvert, and I need my decompression time. I hated being forced into group work when I was in school, I hate that my carpooling to and from work means that I am semi-obligated to make small talk for two hours a day, five days a week, I even sort of hate having people come to stay with us or us go to stay with them because of the social customs obligations. And that's me -- I'm the out-going one out of the two of us. I at least make the effort, most of the time, to be social in social situations. The DB, on the other hand, practically turns himself inside out in an effort to become tiny and disappear so as not to be obligated to socialize, make small talk, or whatever.

However, put him down with some of his friends, and he can be quite the reverse (though not usually when it's family). I'm the same around my friends, though some days I'm quite quiet and content to just let the conversation go around me. If I haven't socialized in awhile, I can be a bit difficult to shut up (even at work, my poor colleagues).

I know I'm almost certainly getting myself worked up over nothing, and I'm certain I have friends who can relate to how I feel and others who can't even come close to understanding it, but I just feel unsettled about this, and definitely less excited about the prospect. Granted, I don't even know if the DB has contacted the Hilton yet to see if we can even postpone the trip, but I definitely would love to go to Cuba. I just know I wasn't too enthused about going with a couple of partiers (which A and E are), but at least there I know that we wouldn't be expected to spend every waking moment with them, and no hard feelings. But if suddenly the group balloons to 7-plus people, many of whom are much more excited about the prospect of unlimited drinks than I am... I don't know. Especially given that I really don't know at least two of them who are going.

Yes, the DB would and probably will tell me I'm being ridiculous if I bother to tell him how I feel. But I just feel as though lately we really aren't spending any quality/couple time together, which is one issue, and I liked that our last trip I was able to spend tonnes of time on the beach, reading, taking naps, and relaxing. Sure, on the one hand I would've liked to have spent a bit more time doing things, but that wasn't the goal for him, and that wouldn't have been nearly as relaxing. I know this time I'd like to go to one of the clubs one night, but I also want a lot of that quiet time. I really haven't had a break since August, as the October wedding was a bit spoiled by my grandfather's death, and I worked through Christmas -- and I imagine the DB feels the same way, minus the death aspect.

I booked a trip to go and visit my grandmother in March, so at least I have that. And yes, I do have weekends at least, but they fly by and are usually a combination of too short, feeling frustrated because I want to go out and don't want to spend money/can't drag the DB out of the house/don't really have anywhere in particular I want to go/want to sit at home and do crafts/read/play on the computer, then back to frustrated because the weekend has flown by and I don't feel as though I relaxed, accomplished what I wanted to, got out of the house enough, didn't stay in enough, or *whatever*.

I guess this is just my seriously long-winded way of saying I don't know if I'm *happy* right now, but I don't know what it would take to make it that way.

Okay, so no one has commented on my last post, it's been over 24 hours and clearly no one cares, so screw you all.

Also, hair cuts in my world are serious business. Which is funny if you look at my hair on a daily basis like I do, because I really have no concept of how to actually style my hair, and it randomly rearranges itself into insanely stupid styles every time a camera gets near it. Then my face teams up with my hair to make me look incredibly stupid, and you get gems like these.

Some recent:


Some older:




The stunned:


The DB is a jerk:


The "should be okay, but I don't like it":


And:


And yeah. Continue that trend.

At the same time, every now and again I get one I do like (here it's nice if you don't focus too much on my face):


Or here:


Ah, photo posts, how exciting you are, especially when you feature this face.

Anyhow, as I was saying before I got so rudely interrupted, yesterday I proved my dedication to my stylist and my poor hair by walking 7.5km to get my hair cut -- and then a further 1.5km to the nearest shopping centre, in the hopes of increasing my odds of catching a cab. I took some photos along the route as a bit of a recommendation from a coworker, and maybe I'll share them later.

In the end the cab part didn't matter, as the DB offered to come and get me, but I did still have a fair bit of time to kill -- and fortunately for me, the shopping centre features a Future Shop, Michael's, and Chapters (among other stores), so I'm pretty much set for quite some time. I figure the money I saved on cab fare I more than invested in Michael's. :/

Red wine... mother, teacher, secret lover.

I'd also like to say, on another random tangent, I really hate when people say they're going to do something and then don't, whether that's call, keep in touch, lend you something, return something, or whatever.

I had an unrelated realization about some guys in my past/friendship circle about arrogance/confidence/insecurity/sliminess/girls, but I'll save it for a more awake/sober time.

I did however learn yesterday that my reputation precedes me at work; apparently one girl from the IT division who undeservedly grumped at me over the phone was asking others about me, and the word that got to her was that I was cool, had a really dry sense of humour, and was good to work with. She and I had a nice chat over the phone today, so I think once she was assured I wasn't a complete tool, she felt like she owed me a fair shake. I win!

(As a warning, this is long, meandering, and some of it originally started as me reacting mentally at least to this article about girls and video games... then never got anywhere near it. Also, since this was total stream of consciousness, I believe it'll have more than a few run-on sentences. You have been warned.)

For some reason this week, I keep waking up with songs in my head. I actually listen to the radio less than I used to while living alone (I don't turn it on in the mornings anymore, for example), and yet twice in the last week I've woken up with earworms.

Earlier it was "Beautiful U" by Deborah Cox, and I think it was because I'd heard it on the radio a few hours before bed. This morning it was "Eye of the Tiger", which I can at least blame on having played Rock Band 2 last night (though again, hours before bed). Though maybe having been unable to sleep well, my psyche decided I needed some sort of motivating to get going... though it's going to learn that annoying 80s rock is not the way to do it.

Of course, after playing it again last night and remembering this post and having played it last night, suddenly I have it stuck in my head once more. *sigh* My psyche hates me.

Beyond all of that, I'm now fully enjoying my post-post-graduate phase, and throwing myself into other leisure activities. Last night, for example, I was falling asleep on the couch while playing Rock Band 2 at 7 o'clock at night, 'cause that's how I roll.

Hell, a Friday night recently both the DB and I were ready to go to sleep at 10 o'clock. I don't know about him, but the only thing that kept me up until 11 was that we were watching an episode of CSI: Miami I hadn't seen, and I wanted to know how it ended. *shame*

I think sometimes the DB doesn't enjoy watching television with me simply because I do heckle or mock the conventions, stereotypes and other things that I see that annoy me. I can certainly turn my brain off and enjoy something that doesn't have much in the way of educational value, but at the same time, I can get seriously irritated with the misogyny, misandry, stereotyping, insulting, blah blah blah that occur in the show.

I know of plenty of people who hate Sex and the City, for example, and I can completely sympathize with the reasons why, whatever they may be (though some, like the attractiveness of the characters, is a completely subjective issue -- as I for one think that Parish Hilton is incredibly unattractive, but there are those out there who would love nothing more than to be all up in her grill). But I think for a lot of people -- men and women -- a great deal of the appeal to the show was our ability to relate to the issues that the women were going through. Financial difficulty, divorce, adultery, exes, new relationships, going crazy in a relationship, childbirth, conception... many of us have experience with some or all of those issues, and while perhaps we didn't react in the same manner, we could at least analyze why the characters acted the way they did.

But there are certain say, genres, of commercials that simply drive me batty. Beer commercials, on the whole, are one of those. Commercials for cleaning products are definitely there -- 99 times out of 100, it seems as though the person doing the cleaning or bemoaning the lack of an effective cleaning product is a woman, and if a man happens to be present in the commercial, he appears to barely have the wherewithal to dress himself competently, let alone use whatever cleaning product the woman is currently having orgasms over. Let me tell you this -- I have never, in all of my 28 years of being female, had or witnessed a woman in any kind of throes of ecstasy over a new toilet scrub, mop, broom, Swiffer duster, counter scrub, paper towel, or anything else of that nature.

Now, as a caveat, I believe it's a variation on Rule 34 -- there is a fetish for everything. There are men and women, I am certain, who have fetishes for cleaning, cleaning products, etc. That said, I am willing to go out on an unsubstantiated limb and declare that these people are in the minority -- so why the fuck am I subjected to their all-pervasive fetishes on television at all hours? To my mind, it's akin to every commercial that plays off sexuality using furries as their basis; certainly, there are furries in the world, but they are not the majority, by far -- so why would their fetish be used as the baseline/norm?

Oddly enough, I haven't actually seen any cleaning product commercials in recent memory; most of my tv watching lately has been DVDs or PVRed shows whereby I get to fast-forward the commercials. Either that or it's been Spike/whatever other network runs CSI marathons, and I keep seeing ads for Patrick Swayze's new show, Beast (yeah, I just participated in viral marketing -- but I'm still not going to watch it, do you hear me Spike!?)

Newsflash, Proctor & Gamble, SC Johnson, Unilever, and all of you other companies (and I don't even know if these ones make cleaning products); there are lots of men out there who do some, most or all of the cleaning in a household, even when there are woman around! While I take ownership of the laundry in our house, it's primarily for two reasons: one, I don't have to subject the DB to my dirty undies; and two, I have a lot of sweaters and pants that can't go in the dryer, and rather than try to tell him which is which, it's just easier to do myself. Beyond that, though, he cleans his own bathroom, I clean mine, and he does the vacuuming. We both deal with garbage and the dishwasher, and previous to living with a boy, I handled all of these horrendous tasks on my own -- and he handled all of them on his own, because he hadn't been dropped on his head repeatedly as a child and actually understands how to use cleaning products without having his mom or some other female presence nearby to read out the big words to him and/or explain that sometimes things get dirty and you need to use something to clean them.

If I were to see a trend towards advertising agencies/companies showcasing men as just as capable and just as likely to be doing the cleaning in their ads, I might just become a brand-loyal consumer, that holy grail of consumers. As it stands, we're as likely to buy no-name as not, if there isn't a difference (I have learned where it doesn't pay to go cheap, like garbage bags, for example). And as a caveat to this -- this doesn't mean that you try for the ironic approach, like that commercial that ran in the last year or two that sets us up to expect a woman by panning up the backside of someone bent over a stove, focusing somewhat on his/her butt and then giving us the surprise reveal when a man turns around, wearing a frilly pink apron, wearing oven mitts and complaining about having been slaving over a hot stove all day to his executive wife. This is not the same thing as subverting stereotypes, since you're simply calling attention to them and then reasserting them by making the average consumer react like, "ha ha, that's not right! Men don't cook, wear frilly pink aprons or care abuot slaving over the hot stove all day! Women don't have high-powered jobs, or if they do, they're supposed to be the ones coming home to cook a hot meal!"

And to try to pre-empt the argument I've heard a few times -- "But it's just one commercial, it really doesn't mean anything... and quiet down, you're scaring people" -- yes, it's just one commercial. One of anything in isolation won't usually have much effect on something. But when this message is repeated day in and day out in media after media... it has a serious cumulative effect that isn't even always immediately apparent.

To illustrate my point -- if one stranger one day told you that you were fat/ugly/stupid/whatever, it's easy to shrug off. But if you were to be told this over 2,100 times a day (the number of ads we see in a day, and if memory serves that figure comes from the 90s, so up it), then it's going to affect you. Assume maybe half of those ads aren't saying anything negative about you -- after all, we see ads for diapers, which aren't usually sexualizing women or equating romantic love with a consumer product -- that's still over a thousand times a day that random people are telling you that you're fat, ugly, stupid, and so on. Add to that the fact that not only is consumer media telling you this, but the people around you are advertantly or inadvertantly reinforcing this message, and it's enough to make you want to scream. Which is where I come in.

See, it's things like this that make me fairly certain I fell into the right degree (for clarification, BA and MA in Communications with focus on media studies) and sort of career path (government communications, focusing on media and some web designing; bit of a bird of a different feather, but still related). Right now, as I think about it, I didn't immediately see the application of my degree to my career, and even though I was fairly certain that I remembered maybe 1/100th of what I learned, I think it's all slowly coming back out as I go day to day.

I've also become much more aware of and comfortable with discussing feminist issues, which is going to be the next eventual degree (after paying down some debt), although I think for career development purposes, the web designer role will be the next one pursued. I know a friend of mine from school wants to get into hosting a webzine, and I'm going to be the lead on the tech side of things, which sounds fun. In the meantime, though, there's the exercise goal that comes first, as well as life in general.

I don't have specific goals for the next few years, but I've always had vaguely-defined ones. When I first signed on with my financial planner, he asked me what my financial goals were, and I really didn't have an answer. I was 23 when I first started contributing to my RRSP, and my declared goal was to own a house before I turned 30. Voilà, goal achieved.

I've also always wanted to be married and planning if not starting a family before I was 30 if life worked out that way, but that was a harder one to pinpoint. After all, saving up for a house is mostly dependent on me; meeting someone compatible who feels the same about me and wants the same things out of life isn't as easy to pursue. I did my best, dating all over the place, even when I knew I wasn't seeing someone long-term. That was a learning process in and of itself, as I've said many times on here (it's a bit like doing a year of an undeclared major in university -- get a feel for what's out there, figure out what interests me, and make efforts to pursue that).

However, I can't and won't specifically set lines in the sand for when personal life goals must be achieved, especially when they involve someone else as significantly as marriage/babies do. We're talking about going down south again this spring (originally the date mentioned was April; now apparently it could be as late as May), and so I have a fitness goal I've finally began working on and I have a deadline of sorts in place. Am I going to stop my efforts when we return? Hopefully not. Am I hoping I will look good in a bikini for once in my life by then? Certainly. Will I beat myself up if I don't? No. I'll be disappointed, certainly, but I can't turn it into a make-or-break issue, otherwise I'll simply see it as too daunting and I won't work on it (see: research paper). That's partly why I haven't talked about it and I'm only slightly talking about it now; if I go around telling everyone that's what I'm going to do, it's additional pressure that I just don't want. I'd rather simply surprise everyone. :)

So yes, I have my personal goals that I'd like to work towards, but when you're dating someone who's both stubborn and seemingly doesn't like to plan beyond maybe a week (or on rare occasions, a few months) in advance, it can be challenging. When we first moved in together, it was me who raised the issue and it was sort of not really out of the blue. My lease was coming up, his landlord brought another person into the house without consulting him, and we were practically living together already -- but we basically talked about it once or twice and then got started on looking for a place (which I found, go me). We had both hoped to have purchased a home by then, but neither of us wanted to buy a house without having lived together first, obviously.

I tried to raise the issue of post-lease arrangements once or twice, but when there was still 8 months to go, it was still somewhat early and I recognized as much. In August, when we were in Vegas (with about 2 and a half months left to go on the lease), I raised the issue again -- and that gave it a bit more momentum. But again, there wasn't a great deal of in depth conversation on it, and while on the one hand I don't have any problems with how we went about everything to date, on the other hand I sometimes have a concern that we might have been perceived as impulsive, or uninformed or something. There was definitely a lot of advice given pre-house-purchase, but no one (aside from the Arrogant Bastard in his own way) came out and said, "Don't do this."

We have had brief conversations about marriage and babies, but it's only in bits and pieces that I learn what it is he wants for that kind of future (career-wise, I already know; he's way ahead of me on that count). I have no clue when or even if my friends talked about how many kids, what kind of school/religion they would have, where they see themselves personally X number of years down the line, etc., with their spouses. I've been told that marriage counselling is great for getting these issues out in the open and discussed, but I can't help but feel as though these should come about before engagement happens.

I chatted briefly back in the summer with my French friend Ben (otherwise known to some of you as the Marshmallow), who talked about buying pets with his fiancée after the kids are grown and out of the house. At this time, they have no children, either together or apart, and it kinda startled me to hear about someone talk so long-range about their life -- but at the same time, I felt like maybe this is how you should think if/when you're planning a future with someone. Maybe you're supposed to look beyond the now and into what about 10, 20, 30 years from now.

However, you can also get hit by a bus tomorrow and not have this future, so maybe you shouldn't try to plan too far ahead.

So I do know a few things, here and there, but I often have to bargain to get them out of him. It's one of my few semi-ongoing frustrations about our relationship, the inability at times to have an actual serious conversation. He claims I'm just as bad, but I feel I initiate more of the serious conversations, and that when I do, I'm able to stay serious through them longer. Maybe I'm biased about it, and I know that it's as much a security measure for both of us as anything (hell, I joked at both of my grandfathers' funerals, because I'm just that awesome), but that doesn't mean it can't be annoying.

That said, there has been at least one conversation in recent memory that was serious all the way through -- I think I alluded to it on here. I'm not sure that the issues raised at that time were resolved (for all I can tell, we've regressed right back to where we were then), but I found it encouraging that a few hours later when the DB returned home, he said that he had thought about what I had said and agreed with me on a number of points, and brought up ways to address them. As I told him then and as I'm repeating now, I hadn't wanted and I wasn't trying to engage in any finger-pointing -- I know that many of his bad habits are just as equally mine -- but it was nice to hear that my concerns were recognized and shared, and to have constructive ways presented to try to address them.

In other news, I finally found a treat that even Venus likes -- so yesterday ended on a pretty positive note.

This represents the end of an era. I have officially, finally and completely finished my masters' research paper, turned it in, had my grade entered into the computer, and so on. It's all done, and despite the DB waiting until I have my degree in my hand to formally congratulate me, it's over.

Such a relief, and in a weird way, I don't really feel anything from it.

I don't know if it's because it's taken me so long to get here, or if I somehow don't feel it's that big of a deal, or what, but at least I know it's out of my life.

And I get to call myself a Master of something -- with the paperwork to back it up. ;) (And in this instance, it's a MA in Communications, with a focus in media studies).

Okay, eventually.

Anyhow, the admin assistant at the uni (who gave me a hug when I dropped off all the copies yesterday), my prof supervisor, and even the career counsellor I had the final session with today have all asked me what it is I want to do next -- academics I guess figure everyone else is equally devoted to academia.

I realized some time ago I'm at my happiest when I'm learning. That was part of what kept me at my last job for the extra year and a half plus -- I had learned new skills and was doing something I found interesting. I'm hoping to keep this sort of trend going, which is perhaps why right now web design interests me a little more than communications in a broad sense; there's more to learn with the former, and the technology is always evolving, whereas while trends change in the second, it's a bit more concrete overall.

In the meantime, we're going through the sub-bazillion degrees freezing stretch that we always get at least once during the wintertime. I blame Jay; in a post about <a href="http://lunarbovine.com/blog/2009/01/skating-on-the-canal/">skating on the Canal</a>, he made a point of saying that Ottawa winters are nothing compared to Winnipeg winters, and how hardy and awesome and wonderful he and his wife are compared to the rest of us. Well, thanks a bunch, Jay! I shake my tiny internet fist at you.

Day one of the new schedule - pick up at 6:30 a.m. to be downtown for about 7ish. As it turns out, my ride parks about six blocks from my work, so I have a nice walk twice a day to get me to work. Ah well, at least it's exercise -- but it'll definitely suck on the cold days. Then again, here's hoping the transit strike will end soon and we'll be back on buses. Especially since I've learned I'm now able to take the 6:30 express (there are two; 6:30 and 7:30) instead of having to catch the bus at 6:00 a.m. At least I only have to get used to early hours once. Or several times a week, given that I have to do this 5 times a week... and I hate being up early.

I'm not a morning person.

It was especially fun when I woke up at 4:30 this morning and couldn't really get back to sleep before my alarm went off. And I couldn't get comfortable half the night because of my re-strained back and my sore toe.

Oh, I'm in awesome shape.

But tonight will be an early bedtime and tomorrow will involve ungodly amounts of caffeine and I will survive. Somehow.

Oh, I am this bored.

2008 in Review:

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
I travelled outside of Canada and the U.S.. Got out from under my former manager's thumb.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't remember making any last year; I usually don't.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes, a few of them. Damn reproducers.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes, my Grandpa.

5. What countries did you visit?
Cuba, the United States.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
My masters' degree. Less debt.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I can't believe I didn't think of this first -- November 21, date we signed the papers to buy our first house.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Finishing the research paper at the same time as buying and moving into the new house. Oh yeah, I like to stack all of my stresses together at once.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Scraping my dad's car against another, resulting in some good damage... and holy shit, I just realized I forgot to pay my ticket on that. Fuck.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Just colds.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
The Dear Boyfriend's love. Or a house.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
The DB and I, for moving without any fighting whatsoever. His cousin and friend, for helping us move (again), without any complaints.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
My own, for a few epic breakdowns (though there was only the one when we moved, so that was awesome). A friend or two, for stuff I won't put here.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Bills, debts, the house.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Buying the house (notice a theme?), although I'm honestly still a bit mellow about that. It'll sink in when I have to pay something major on it. Finishing the research paper, though again, I'm mellow -- it ain't done until I see the official statement that it's been accepted by all the right peeps.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
No clue.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier overall.
ii. thinner or fatter? Oh, fatter, certainly.
iii. richer or poorer? Richer and poorer; higher salary take-home, slightly increased expenses.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Sleeping, crafting, focusing on school and debt repayment.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Spending on stupid things, slacking off.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I went home for Christmas.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
I didn't fall, but it certainly grew. Little moments help -- like last night's kindnesses, despite my initial crabbiness (though I did try to keep a lid on most of it).

23. How many one-night stands?
Zero. 

24. What was your favorite TV program?
CSI, House, Reaper, ER and sort of Pushing Daisies.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Naw, I'm too tired to hate anyone new. Doesn't stop me from getting pissed off at people, though.

26. What was the best book you read?
Most of the stand-outs I think I read in years past. I'm sure I read something this time around I loved, but I can't recall.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
My musical tastes declined this year, so I'm not sure I want to share. I've been listening to a lot of crap the last few months, mainly because it keeps me up and going. Otherwise, I'd say perhaps Symphony No. 3 'Organ', 4th Movement" by Saint-Saëns.

28. What did you want and get?
The end of my research paper, the house, a flat-screen tv (I'm shallow, shut up), my books unpacked and organized (still in progress).

29. What did you want and not get?
Some people know the answer to this. All in good time.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Iron Man.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I'm now an ancient 28, and I threw a barbecue on one of the few nice days in August at our first place.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Confirmation I graduated, vindication against my past enemies, possibly the answer to a previous question.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
It classed up a bit work-wise, now that I've cut back on my jeans. Outside of work, it varied between lazy-slob (at home in the evenings) and cover-up-the-fat-oh-god-there's-so-much-of-it.

34. What kept you sane?
The DB, the cats, leaving my last job.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I've reignited my love of Dean Cain.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The Canadian election, since I monitored it fairly closely through work.

37. Who did you miss?
Some of my friends who moved away ages ago and suck at keeping in touch.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
The majority of my coworkers are pretty great. I hit it off with a classmate pretty well.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
If you don't think you have enough space to move the car somewhere, you probably don't. Treasure your family and/or friends, they can disappear in an instant. Someone who can stand you through some pretty epic breakdowns is probably going to stick by you for the long haul -- provided they're the exception and not the norm, I would assume. Kitties are cute and funny.

Dear person sending me work,

There is no point in telling me that you don't need something posted until next week when the email below yours indicates that the text hasn't been sent to you because it is not yet final.

It's all well and good to tell me that 'next week is fine,' but I hate to break it to you -- updates to the Intranet are not something I'm waiting on tenterhooks to do.

I don't know why, some of this just rubs me funny.

Also, I'm wondering if the summer is too soon to go back to school. I may have a sickness.

I've come to the conclusion that my cats may be slightly spoiled, and they may know this, too.

I was looking for candles the other day, and came across the pyjama string that, for many months, represented Venus' favourite ever toy (though the laser pointer comes close to tying it). She has now taken to demanding play time in both her passive and aggressive ways; either by sitting by it, staring at it, until someone caves and starts playing with her, or by telling you that she wants you to play through varying commands. She also loves to sit on my lap desk while I'm trying to cross stitch, thereby blocking me from seeing the pattern and ensuring that I can't really do much other than pat her.

Then there's Thena. In the mornings when I shower, I don't bother closing the door all the way. Thena generally comes in sometime between when I get in the shower and when I shut the water off, and she's perched on the lid of the toilet waiting for me. While I do my morning preparations, she likes to climb into the sink and lie down in it, meaning I can't do anything that involves water (like washing my hands after doing my hair). However, the previous owners did put some kind of directional spout addition on the tap, so I can point it slightly away from her and fill a glass at least. Anyhow, I'm convinced Thena knows how unlikely I am to disrupt her, because the other day she was in the sink with the smuggest expression on her face... although this is the same cat that twisted her head upside down and stared at me with her tongue sticking out, so maybe I'm giving her too much credit.

And for the record, I'm not the only one that spoils the beasts; the DB said last night that he hoped Venus would give him more leg room in bed. When I suggested he could push her off the bed, he said that would be mean -- which is usually my response, but clearly I am turning him to the dark side as well.

That all sounded better last night when I was thinking about it. I fail at entertaining writing.

Anyhow, work this month has been crazy. I've logged over 20 hours of overtime in less than three weeks, and that's nothing compared to many of my coworkers. I took some of the time in leave and some in pay, and I was going to possibly use the money to pay for an iPod Touch, but I'm going to simply put it towards the new flat-screen television we purchased the other day. It's nothing terribly over the top or fancy; there was a good deal via the DB's store for Sony Bravias, so we opted to go for the middle one, 37". It fits nicely in the living room without looking ridiculously large, and now that I have HD cables, it looks good. The cables themselves were discount ($10 marked down to $4), so the quality is lacking overall, but they'll do for now.

Otherwise, Christmas was a pretty decent time. I was apparently rather lacking in sleep, since I'm pretty sure that's all I did every chance I got. We have a small sitting area set up in/off the kitchen (it makes sense if you see the arrangement) near the fireplace, and I spent many hours sitting in our laz-y-boys with the laptop, the fire going, and more often than not, a Thena sitting on the foot rest. I'm choosing to believe that my narcolepsy was out of need and not gas leaking, and it was quite lovely.

I also brought out the cross-stitching again, and I've been working on a Christmas towel (with about 10 minutes left of backstitching to do before it's finished), and an overall larger piece that I've had for some time. Combined with the Reaper season 1 box set I picked up after Christmas and the reading light from the floor lamp, and I'm usually quite content. At least until Venus comes along and sits on the pattern.

In other news, I hate twitter. I hate that some of my friends have resorted to doing twitter updates in lieu of actual detailed updates that provide context. I'm sure I'm thrilled for you that you're stuck in traffic, but what am I to do with this exiting tidbit? How about the twitter updates that are directed at someone else -- thanks for sharing, I'm sure, but why not simply text message or call that person directly? I don't know, it's your blog, do with it what you will, but at the same time... I just don't see the point. Then again, maybe that's because I use way too many words to say something simple.

"My cats are spoiled. I slept a lot over the holidays. I'm crafting. @bob: OMG that's so unbelievable that she did that."

"At concert. Musician is awesome and loud! Can't wait to post pictures. Stupid person is stupid."

Woo Twitter.

My city is in day 20 of its transit strike (yes, I just gave away my city and location. Stalk on, you crazy four fans of mine, three of whom live in my city already), and it's driving me insane. I actually had a dream a few nights ago that I was back on my regular express route and having a conversation with one of the regulars. I've had sad dreams before, but that's a good one.

They're saying in the news today that they might get Ambrose and Baird to use their federal powers to force a vote from the union on the city's last proposal; the only thing is, even if the drivers do go ahead and vote, there's no guarantee that they'll accept the proposal. It's a ridiculous pissing match between a businessman-turned-bureaucrat who has probably never ridden a bus in his life, who is, according to reports, anti-union (and appears to be ridiculously bullheaded) and the unions, who have not done well in the PR battle.

I support the drivers in this battle, but my pocketbook is hurting. The nearest parking lot to me is $18/day (higher if I'm there past 6 p.m.), and that doesn't include the cost of gas, the stress of the drive in heavy traffic, and the stress of driving in bad weather conditions -- of which there have been many this week. Sure, when I'm driving I don't have to wait for connections, but I don't exactly enjoy the thrill of sliding on icy or snowy roads or driving in first gear. Not to mention, I know the DB isn't exactly thrilled about having to lend me his car for days on end -- especially on days when I'm stuck at work late. Add to that my inability to do anything downtown after work because I have to get back home before the DB's day is over, and it's not exactly a blast anywhere.

I didn't vote for the mayor, and I think after his huge mishandling of last year's snowclearing, and this year's transit battle, he isn't likely to see another term. I hope he isn't going to see another term. Though I have to admit, I can't recall another mayor who had as many pejorative nicknames as this guy has... that at least has been entertaining.

I've been spending a lot of time these holidays catching up on the Comics Curmudgeon website. There are some great bits in there, if you haven't ever read the site. I only have a few minor grumbles about it, but one of the major ones is that I now want to add Mary Worth and Apartment 3-G to my daily lineup so I can keep up with the storylines when he doesn't talk about them. It's also leading me to want to go and critique For Better or For Worse, especially the reimagined strips that were published after everyone's story tied up... some of them really do show she hated her husband early on. Of course, I doubt that I could do as well as Josh does, so it's unlikely to be something I do regularly (especially as I dropped the strip in frustration some time ago).

I was going to go on about passive-aggressive tendencies in relationships and my frustrations with some of my friendships at the moment, but I think I've blathered enough. I don't even have anything exciting to report on my paper, though I will probably be hosting it as a pdf for those of you who really want to read through it once it gets approved. Thrill to my mastery of the academic language, and glory as I try to shoehorn in references to semiotics, Jung, and Joseph Campbell!

I'll be more verbose later, but for now, Merry Christmas everyone.

Rawrgh.

Well, I don't know what it says about me, but before heading out for the fire alarm, I locked up the ATIP package I was examining. Clearly, I am a public servant.

Ah, progress. Progress is my middle name -- re-elect Mayor Goldie Wilson.

Erm, sorry. I'd been wanting to watch Back to the Future again recently, so the DB and I had thrown it on Sunday night to watch with dinner. Family Guy actually referenced it at one point, so it had been stuck in my head for awhile thereafter, and I have to say, I still have lines and their deliveries memorized. I was nice and didn't quote as we watched, though.

I think what keeps me watching Family Guy is twofold; one, to see what new shocking thing they'll try, and two, to see what other pop culture reference they'll make. Say what you will about Seth MacFarlane, he enjoys musicals and drops references to them in his show regularly enough to keep me entertained... or the opening credit sequence that spoofs Police Squad. Sure, the show is regularly fairly goofy, and the plot usually veers off into a totally different direction from where it started, but there are some neat throwaway references that I can appreciate. There are also some gags they beat into the ground, like the chicken fight, or the knee gasping, or the ipecac... but at the same time, I loved the Vaudeville guys, and I'm sure they weren't everyone's favourite.

I also love whenever Adam West appears on the show, 'cause he gets the most ridiculous things to say, and the man does it. While I don't watch American Dad, I love that Patrick Stewart appears on it and also says goofy-ass stuff.

I have no idea why I just went off on Family Guy as long as I did. I'm simply enjoying some peace and quiet for a change, I think.

I did the first draft of changes to the paper last night and sent it back to the prof. The end is in sight, provided he's okay with what I've done. I may have to add more, but I'm hopeful... urgh. My classmate has been pretty awesome through this experience, and I'm thinking of picking her up a small gift for the holidays as a token of thanks. She's Jewish, so if I can do something that has an 8 theme (or even 8 of something) and related to school, I'm golden. Hannukah starts pretty late this year (December 22nd, I just checked), so that also gives me some time to think about this.

Anyhow, we haven't done any more unpacking since the weekend of madness. The DB's parents were in town from Friday to Sunday, and we had a fairly nice visit. We went out shopping Saturday afternoon and bought our washer and dryer set (the washer was the Christmas gift from them), and those will be delivered this Saturday -- due to the delay, Sunday the DB did some laundry at the old house before we returned the keys and bought some new bedding (which we can't wash until the weekend). Apparently they don't do much in the way of set-up, so I just hope that the damn things are on wheels or something so that we can move them around.

This Saturday is also the DB's Christmas party, and Sunday the 14th is the dinner with my friends. The holidays this year look to be fairly quiet, which will be great. We get to spend Christmas Eve in our home together, and then Christmas Day we'll do presents and dinner with my parents, sister and her boyfriend.

It's one of the first years that I'm slow in buying Christmas gifts, but I'm not terribly concerned about it at this point. I've ordered the DB's main gift online, and in all honesty, I just don't have as many people to buy for this year as in years past. It's the DB, his parents, the sister and her boyfriend, my parents, my Nanny, my aunt Dorothy and my uncle Billy. Maybe I can get away with doing a lot of it online.

Just a quick one, since I still have some things I want to do today (like perhaps eat some breakfast), but... as vain as this is going to sound, I like the mix of abilities I have. For example, I just trouble-shot my internet connection (particularly my router issue), and I'm about to go bake some cookies. I've been decorating the new place with some of my pictures and artwork (finally!), and at some point soon, I have to go change the oil on my bike and get it properly ready for winter (although who knows what'll happen this season).

And I'm also finishing up my masters' paper, but that's more of a HUGE MAJOR STRESS than any real skill. What does it mean when December looks to be the most relaxing month in some time?

So yes, the big news -- we bought a house. We still have one bookcase to bring back (and I'm sure it was nothing subconscious on the DB's part that *that* got left behind), and a few small cleaning supplies, but otherwise, we are moved out of the old place. This place doesn't feel quite like *ours* yet, but it's always taken some time for me to get that to sink in whenever I move anyhow.

Fortunately, I've held my hysterical crying fits to a single one, shortly after I scraped another car with my dad's car. $1200 damage to Dad's car, about $500 to the other -- so really, I got lucky. Only paint transfer, nothing worse. Except for the ticket that I got when the other driver went through the police station because he was told to by his insurance... blah. Last time we moved, I spent about $600 on Venus when she got her UTI; this time around she got comfortable in the house a lot more quickly, but instead I get to spend on car work.

And we possibly get to pay the management company of our old place to repair some plaster damage to that house, done when we moved the couch out. The DB's dad might do it for us, since it's not a lot of work, but we'll see. The painter said if he can convince the management company to repaint the whole house, we won't have to pay for it. We'll still have to pay to have the carpets cleaned, but that was part of our lease agreement, not because of anything we did. Though I laughed when the agent called me to request that we vacuum the house and clean the appliances... my passive-aggressive side was tempted to respond with something like, "We fully intend to leave the place cleaner than when we got it" -- but of course she left me a message and I only thought of that cutting remark much later. It's rare I'm smart on short notice.

We'll be getting a washing machine and dryer this weekend, I believe; the washer is to be a Christmas gift from the DB's parents, and the dryer is to be our own investment. I'm not sure what we're getting, but I do hope I have a say in the selection. :/

I'm definitely glad that I took this week off from work, since I think I might've cracked otherwise. It's been a long week of pack/move/unpack/repeat ad nauseum. And then the late night trips over to clean. And then set up and unpack more. The place looks great, if only because three-quarters of our stuff is still in boxes. I'll be taking some pictures later that I'll probably post -- friends and relatives want to see the place, so I'm sure I can share them here, too.

The other fun part of this week was the mini-physical we underwent as part of our insurance coverage. I learned that I'm about 20lbs over what I thought I was... so soon the DB will have to start rolling me through doorways. I always said the diet/exercise regime was going to start in January, and if that number on the scale isn't incentive enough, I don't know what will be.

A shame, 'cause I do so love my goodies. :( And here I am, off to bake... 'cause that's how I roll. And leftovers go to the office.

Two days down, no fights of note and nothing broken (that I know of, at least). This is good, and shows we move well together.

Though I really do hope we won't be doing it again for some time yet.

I've gotten rid of a bag of clothes and about three-quarters of a box of books. My colleagues were kind enough to remove some of them (well, once I took them in to work), and the rest I'll perhaps try to sell on amazon or something, as well as the DVDs that I have duplicates of. I figure given that I work across the street from a post office (again), it can't be that hard to do.

Progress on the paper is going ... probably not quite as well as it could be, but certainly about as well as realistically expected. Let's face it; I am a procrastinator -- as is the DB, which is why we're packing as we're moving -- and I'm even procrastinating a bit from writing now. I've gotten about 3 pages of the 17-19 page analysis done, and something tells me it's going to run long. I feel as though there's so much I have to say, and when I try to think about how to fill the 17 pages, I can't do it, but when I get going writing, and then think about the other authors I've cited that I can throw in... suddenly 17 pages doesn't feel like nearly enough. I'm taking this to be a good thing -- it's just a matter of making the time between now and Wednesday to get it the fuck done.

I was originally scheduled to be off from work Wednesday-Friday for this move, but as it turns out we were doing most of it up front, so I booked off Monday and Tuesday as well. Monday I'll be on my own for hauling stuff, as the DB has to work, but I'm going to hopefully balance out moving, packing/unpacking and writing. If I only get stuff boxed up, that's not so bad. I should probably spend some time putting away some of my clothes, as there's currently a nice pile on the floor of my bedroom (as always).

Tuesday the boys will be coming over to do the major furniture, and aside from the monstrosity that is the couch, that shouldn't be too hard. It may take two or three trips, but given that we're really only going 2km at a time, it's very little hassle at all.

I've been trying to decide at what point I should bring the cats over, so as to minimize their stress as much as possible, and I've come to no real conclusions. Last time, Thena did fairly well, but Venus was a mess. So far, they've been handling the disruption well -- Venus has been a bit extra-sucky, but that's often the case when one or both of us is home all day anyhow. They haven't seemed terribly phased by the fact that things keep leaving. Last time I brought them over before we had a lot of the boxes and furniture in place, so it was very much a scary new place; I'm hoping that by having familiar things around them, even if the surroundings themselves are unfamiliar, it might minimize their overall stress... and the fact that it'll be the second move for Venus (and the third for Thena, the old pro), might help. If nothing else, we have a veterinary clinic at the end of our street now, and I'm off the rest of the week (aside from some miscellaneous appointments like hair, doctor, and cable/internet hookup).

At some point it'll sink in that this is ours (mine!), but not yet. I guess because I'm still living out of the old place and much of my stuff is still here... it's been 'fun' living out of the two locations, not that we're really living out of the second yet -- just missing things now and again. Like Saturday night, when we were trying to decide on dinner and talking about nachos... and realizing that if we were to make nachos, I'd have to remember to bring back one of my cookie sheets, since I'd already moved those over. Or talking about watching a movie (since the television in the living room has been moved), only to realize that all of the movies are at the new place ... although I did have a number from my trip to Nova Scotia for my grandfather's funeral, so we watched some of <em>Stranger Than Fiction</em> while soaking in the tub... and listening to Venus wander around outside, crying for attention, and dragging her feathers on a stick back and forth. So, business as usual around here.

I think I've just written more here than I have for my paper -- and it's a toss-up as to which is better. Back to it for a bit before bed. At least I remembered to grab my Maalox from the new place, as I don't feel up to waking up again in the middle of the night with acid/stomach pains. I guess I really am stressed, who'd a thunk it?