Camping out

Still sort of roughing it here. We have one skillet and one small saucepan to cook with, and we're still eating off paper plates.

But the second-hand fridge and stove I picked up are fab-looking and work beautifully, unlike the filthy, ancient temp units loaned by the landlord last week. I got our Brita filter hooked up and we feel better knowing we aren't drinking city water (which originates from nearby lakes on which motor vehicles are permitted. Yech.).

Yesterday I did our first "real" grocery order, a process that can get out of hand when you don't even have pepper in the house. Meaning, you gotta buy EVERYTHING, all of the everyday condiments and spices we take for granted... but I bought just the basics for now, whatever I could carry home. It's precisely a 20-minute brisk walk to the nearest grocery store, and about a half-hour to the next one, so no matter where I go, I'm getting a workout of sorts, or at least more than I was in the country, where walking alone with your camera and seeing the same-old-same-old closed cottages eventually becomes very dull.

I'm becoming accustomed to the "motel" too. The neighbours are mostly retirement age, and they come and go all day long in their cars. I don't know what they are up to, coming and going all day long like that. But they're a quiet bunch and for that, I bless them. I also no longer feel as though they're trying to peer into my windows each time they walk by. It takes a little while to feel comfortable in a new place and environment, but I'm there now. Whatever city paranoia I tend to feel has dissipated.

The cats are happy because I'm letting them out now and then, against my better judgement. The first time Mikey went out for a couple of hours I was worried sick, but as night fell and I started to wonder if I'd have to go on the prowl with a flashlight (which I don't happen to own), I opened the front door and there he was, lying coolly on the chair on the porch. Much praise ensued.

I've saved the best for last. (I will even repeat this on the other blog.)

My bad dreams have gone away. So have my headaches.

For me, this is nothing short of a miracle. The anxiety dreams and headaches of the past 16 months have evaporated. Just like that. I now have interesting dreams without the frantic fears and nastiness of yore.

Wow.

Lattegirl dons a civilized mask

Just over a week into the new apartment, and it's a whole new world.

Life in a small town is cool. I'm sure I wouldn't think so if I were my son's age, but I am liking it. You can walk clear across town in either direction within a half-hour.

I found out what a snakepit of small-country gossip I was living in until last week. The reverberations are bouncing in from all sides: mostly originating from guess-who.

Even people who swore they could be trusted as friends are revealed as hypocrites with too much time on their hands.

So yesterday, I confided (carefully) in my hairdresser, Liv. She said she'd experienced her share of the same treatment -- people she'd never met coming up to her and asking pointed questions about her private life.

I asked: How are we to live this way, never knowing who to trust, never knowing with whom we can be real?

She had no concrete answer except to say "pick and choose, and always watch what you say."

So: keep busy, lead your life, and hold your cards close to your chest.

Baby I'm a star

Ow!

Prince is still my one and only rock icon.

Oh no let's go!

Did I miss one?

Survey results
Romance Online
Seeking Marriage
Texas Hold 'Em Tournament
Job Finder
Military dot com
Victorias (sic)Secret Gifts
Online Ink Jets
Fitness Program
Dish Deals
Cookie Samples
Cigarette Survey

GO AWAY!

Interview you? meme

Here is an interesting meme fomented, oh, weeks ago, on the Internet. It came to my attention maybe 10 days past via Mr. Fabulous but originated beyond him and has trickled down to the rest of us masses since, with the person of origin forgotten by the lazy-minded such as myself, although if you must know, you can look up Mr. F. and see where he got it.

The meme is one in which someone else asks you five questions. And we all know that you love to talk about you,you,you. So it's a fun meme.

In turn, if you wish, I will formulate five questions just for you. Just ask me in an email with the subject line, INTERVIEW ME.

Now, Kat interviews me.

1. What brings you the most joy in life?
Sleeping well and waking up clear-minded and ready to tackle anything. I spent some years in a bit of a depressed fog and I remember looking out the window on many a weekend morning, watching couples biking or jogging past or walking with their young kids, and I wondered how they could be so active, so alert, so in tune with life. Now I know. It's all about the sobriety. And I can sleep 4 hours or 5 or 7 and still bounce out of bed, ready for whatever the world holds in store.

2. Why and how did you get started doing translation services?
I had a job with a city magazine (Montréal ce mois-ci, Montreal Magazine) as a receptionist in about 1985, a job I had taken as a sort of demotion from another, better-paying job I had held previously with an insurance company. I thought the magazine would bring me more into contact with a cooler world, and it did.

I eventually showed a flair for translation there, and my bosses were thrilled. Although it took a few years to really come into play as a lucrative thing, that was when the passion for translation began. I had always loved languages and done well in French and English,;I was a bookworm from a very early age; the transition from *cough* dry insurance policies to living language, with all its idioms and neologisms, was a natural one.

3. What is the very first thing you are going to do the very first night in your own place to mark the occasion?

I have no idea. If "very first night" means the night we have things to sleep on AND TV, music, and Internet access, I would say, we will probably sit down to dinner and toast with ginger ale.

4. Do you forsee your budding romance going any further?
I already said there were "no butterflies, no romance." I doubt it.

I am not a romantic. I am practical, for the most part. I like affection but I don't enjoy sex a whole lot. I have intimacy problems. And the guy, well... you know the BIGGEST part of that equation, don't you. So, no, I don't see the relationship going further than a FF.

5. Do you have any regrets? (This is just a great question for every one to answer)
I did. I'm not sure I have them all now. There is a small part of me that rues my 30s, the waste thereof, and another part of me that says "eh! better late than never."

So yes, I regret some things I had no power to change. I regret that other people did things to make me what I became. But I don't regret being me, or bringing my Teen into this world, with his sense of humour so uncannily like my own that I fail to find the words to describe how events that I might have regretted led to him.

So, no. Life is pretty good.

The fairest of them all

I got my cheval mirror at last.

It is like this one, but in a cherry wood finish. I LOVE cherry wood finish. Even if the mirror were made of papier mâché, if it had a cherry wood finish, I would love it.

There, I managed to say cherry wood finish four times.

I wonder where they got the term "chewed paper" from.

Second best sandwich in the world

I can't quite remember all of the ingredients for the First Best Sandwich in the World, but it involved chicken, salsa, and two kinds of pesto.

The world's second-best sandwich lives at Mikes™ Restaurant. It is:

-Fresh focaccia
-Grilled chicken
-A mix of pickled tomatoes, red peppers, onions and egglant
-One slice Swiss cheese
-Lettuce

That is all.

Neologisms

Two things.

I just used the word "Internetiquette". I don't think I coined this, but I haven't seen it anywhere else. It's so damn obvious I feel pretty sure someone has said it before me.

If not, however, I am a genius.

Second. I just used "PayPal" as a verb.

In which I prove I really am a good person

I was chatting with rom over coffee very, very early this morning (got up at 5:15) when her head pain "kicked in."

She went from 0 headache to a 7/10 within a nano-second.

I am accustomed to this, of course. That's easier for me to say than it is for her, naturally... it must be hard to be "accustomed" to a chronic headache. I would go mad. Some people do. They commit suicide. That's why rom takes such industrial-strength meds.

Anyway... I did what I've often done in these cases, which is stand behind her and grind my right elbow into the horrendously bunched-up muscles in her neck and upper back. This releases toxins and usually gives her instant nausea, but it helps her head.

I know she's been talking up a storm about me lately... more than usual... I know this because others tell me. I know this because OTHER PEOPLE are getting my latest news without me even having spoken to them.

Whatever.

Bird bedlam

Before the last snowfall, I had pretty much stopped feeding the wild birds. Then we got a bunch of snow, and today I felt sorry for the INSANELY LOUD blue jays sitting in one of the trees out front.

So I filled the feeder that hangs by the driveway entrance and promptly got inundated by hungry birdies. At last glance, there were a dozen (NOISY!) jays, a half-dozen blackbirds (almost enough to bake in a pie), and a single downy woodpecker.

It's so gratifying to feed critters. But NOISY! VERY NOISY!

Saturday night party of one

I hate to say this because my friend Leigh has some terrible insomnia lately (or perhaps has simply turned into a full-on vampire), but I went to bed at SEVEN PM last night and slept (with a one-hour wakeful period in the middle of the night) until SEVEN THIRTY this morning.

Oy vey!

I was bored stiff. I was sick of my computer. I had read all the blogs (I really do read 'em all. Daily. It's just that not everyone updates daily. So sometimes the reading takes no time at all. One of these days I'll get a feed thing going so that I'll actually know when people have updated.)

There was nothing good on TV, or else there were too many uninteresting shows being recorded by someone other than me, and I didn't feel like engaging in the usual PVR wars.

I set the machine to record "Shut Up! It's Stacy London" -- the premiere of her talk show -- and "What Not to Wear - Behind the Seams."

I have watched one, will now watch the second, and then I'm going to bed.

Life over 40 is really interesting. Hah!

I got a new apartment... details over at the other blog.

Peace out!

Cats do the darndest things

Look at this big silly stripey cat, sitting on my brother's back as he does some home reno.

Staking my claim

Technorati Profile

That is all.

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War paint

Kat asks if we have more makeup than she does.

I think we might be pretty close on this one... except she says she hardly ever wears any of it, whereas I wear everything seen here.

Except for all THIRTEEN shades of lipstick. I usually alternate between just two at any given time.

When you can't remember if you took your anti-depressant, what do you do? Take a chance and pop another one, or don't take one at all?

I decided to forego it, just in case. I'm not in much danger of getting depressed today.

It was a beautiful day and I had a very long walk, then our neighbour Christine came over with some sauerkraut and pork -- wow. Good stuff.

I'm not even sure there will be any left if rom decides to get up today.

Boom

I have finally decided that my youngest cat (who is about 3 years old now) is going to get a real name.

I've been calling her "girlie" -- just because -- but I've decided to call her Boom.

It's a word I use often with her, anyway, whenever she walks up to me and bumps her head on my leg (or arm, or piece of furniture, etc.).

Bop to it babies

www.jeremyfishermusic.com/

Click and listen! Dance!

Thanks for the link, Louise!