I Am a Rocket Ship, I'm Out of Control

I've been kind of quiet with posting lately. Not much new is going on. I have a phone interview on Wednesday, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that. If it's the one then I can stay in my apt. Otherwise I need to get over it already and give my notice. I'm just not ready yet. I know I'm somewhat of a broken record on the matter, but I just can't get over it.

I got back from a nice solo trip up North. I do get nervous sleeping alone there by myself. I guess it all depends on the situation. I can hear noises outside my window here and not sure if someone is in our "backyard". I use that term extremely loosely. But I got over it. I sat on the deck and took in the breeze, feed the chipmunks, and took the occasional dip in the lake. The water was magnificent. I ate mostly food that was already there, which was nice. I also vegged out on some tv. I should get a new antenna for my tv here. It's such a waste for it to sit in my living room unused. I also use the word living room loosely. Because really, how could you define this space? On Sunday when I had to make a meal, clean all of my dishes and then sweep and vacuum I was missing having a second pair of hands there. But being able to just melt into the deck chairs and not worry about what anyone else thought was pretty brilliant. Lemonade on a hot day is pretty brilliant too.

I wasted almost all of my phone battery taking videos and little photos of the chipmunks. And I liked one of the videos enough that I uploaded my first youtube video ever:

I wanted to name the chipmunks but I only got around to one of them. I called him scarface because he had scarring from a gash on his head, about 1cm long, which was most of his head. Nikki and I had named the stubby tailed chipmunk Quoi de Neuf from that time we were there and the only channel available on tv was an ad for a French quiz show called Quoi de Neuf. What of nine?

I just finished rereading Alias Grace. I heard it was being adapted into a movie and I wanted a refresher. And I just read that Sarah Polley is directing. I am very much looking forward to this. Since the time Jackie pointed it out in a bookstore and I read through it like butter I have been in love with this novel. I even tried to get my mom to pitch it to her book club. They said no, but she's going to read it anyways and try again for next year if she likes it well enough.

Anyhow. That's it for now.

Ten Bucks And A Headstart

I just got back earlier this week from a trip up north. Dom and I started with a long weekend at the cottage, and then headed north from there. Destination: Kenora, ON. I have a friend from Calgary that lives there, and another gf from Calgary was having a small family reunion so I took the opportunity to turn it into a reunion of our own.

Monday we headed towards Wawa, stopping only at the Big Nickel in Sudbury (and for gas and food). We actually brought a small cooler of food to start and save on money. But after the first day our use of pre-bought food dropped. I had a sandwich on day two, but it was pretty nasty. By day three the whole cooler and all of its contents smelled of rotting sandwich meat. We defaulted back to crackers and licorice for on-the-road sustinance. The second night we stayed in Ignace which was no big todo. They had not much to do, and a place with overpriced burgers. Who charges $6 for a burger, and then $4 for fries and coleslaw, and then another $2 for a soda. A place that should be considered a big old boony rip-off is who.

Wednesday morning we headed towards the Manitoba border. I mistakenly thought the border entrance had a big old Manitoba province cut-out, but that was at the MB-SK border. We stopped at the two tourist centres. I asked the Ontario guides if there were any cool falls along the way. They pointed out Kakabeka Falls, but we had already caught a glimpse from the hwy on the way through. They said no, but the answer should have been "I don't know." I found out a day or so ago there was a falls right next to a town we stopped to eat in. http://gowaterfalling.com/waterfalls/aguasabon.shtml Nothing earth shattering, but I would have liked to have seen it. Oh well. Don't know if I'll be up there again any time soon, or ever again.

Kenora was a blast. I went out for dinner with Jenn on Wednesdsay, and then the three girls got together on Thursday night, and Dom came with. We stopped at DQ and then hung out in Jenn's basement for a while. She's staying with a friend in a really nice house. She also gave us a quick driving tour of Kenora, including the "Bermuda Triangle" which turned out to be a small patch of grass maybe 10-12 feet on each side of the triangle. A supposedly very troubled patch of grass.

On the drive back Dom and I stopped again in Wawa and on the way down made a few stops at some pretty lake side parks. Old Woman Bay, and Katherin's Cove were the two stops we made. I had taken notice of Katherine's Cove on the way up and noted the name for a Southern stop. The rock beaches were just gorgeous, and we happened across this neat inukshuk. There were actually two, but this one was just perfectly proportionate, and stunning (in my opinion). Then it was back into the car just in time to miss the start of the rain. And it rained almost all the way back to the cottage. It felt good to do almost nothing on Sunday. I even took a mid-afternoon nap while Dom prepared a delicious pasta sauce from scratch for us.

And that was that. Back to life. And really, it's time to get a job.

Yike, Likety

I thought the heat wave was over for the summer, but I clearly thought wrong. There was actually a good stretch of days that I didn't have to use the fan. I even contemplated packing it away in my closet. I would have had to unpack it because dangity dang it's hot out. My neighbour said nice night and I told him it was too hot, but he replied that I should think back on this weather in January and decide which I prefer. I think it's a close call, but I would rather sweat to the oldies without lifting a finger rather than wake up because my nose is so cold I can't sleep. But it was a close call.

Work has been really terrible for me lately. I've made/contributed to 2 major errors, and now a 3rd project of mine is taking a turn for the worse. It makes me want to just pack up and leave, but that's just taking the easy way out. I have a "talk" with my manager coming up, so who knows what that will lead to.

I've been doing some getting away over the past few weekends. From a full house cottage weekend to a day trip to Sim's new place, I've been busy. The weekend after next I'm going back up north and then from there embarking on a two week trip to the Maritimes. If I had the time or money I would extend the trip. But I can't afford to cover my work wages plus pay for vacation costs for that long. Even two weeks is pushing it, but I figure I'm only young once and I can always earn the money back.

I wanted to write more but the heat is getting to me. I missed the buskerfest last week because the timing didn't work out. But I did pick up a wicked piece of advice from that day, which I shall share: ♫Whenever scrambled eggs start getting you down, you can always go -- eggs benny♫

Just So You (K)now

I had a fairly enjoyable day at work yesterday. There are a group of people that can make my office a fun place to be. A crisis was averted, yet several others seem to be emerging. But my manager admitted that the most recent of tragic turns for the worse was not my fault, and was unforeseeable from my position. I do still feel responsible for the rework effort required.

In good news I have secured my time off and will be embarking on a two week journey to the East Coast in September. The trip shall start and end with time at our cottage. I'm not supposed to know this, but I have it on good authority that we will be getting a hammock up there. That is perhaps some of the sweetest news I have heard in a long time. I can picture the good times already. So from the cottage I'll drive across and down through Ottawa and begin to look for some places to happen and make some stops along the way. I already have a draft route in mind, including: Fredricton, Hopewell, Summerside, Charlottetown, New Glasgow, Halifax, Lunenburg, Saint John, and perhaps a few QC cities on the way home. Not all of those are going to be overnights or I might find myself in an even tighter money situation. I have been putting money aside to prepare for my first down payment, but I feel this trip is more important.

I had a great weekend up north this weekend past. There was a family wedding, and my Aunt and Uncle from LA are up visiting. They are just the coolest people, and I wish I got to see them more. Apparently a family trip to LA is in the works for next summer. I stayed up both nights talking to my uncle, and during the day we sat on the patio and he played guitar for us. Very good stuff.

And last night was a night like many others. I met up with Adam and went for a coffee at Tim's on Davenport, where he shamelessly admitted to the clerk I didn't want a donut only because I had just gorged on pizza. Thank you Adam. Then we skipped down to Woodbine Park to see what the good word was. With the darkness and the fog we couldn't see much, but we took a nice walk down the boardwalk. I think I'd like to mark that down as my first of ten required new Toronto activities this summer.

Take it to the Nth Degree

There's this neighbourhood cat that likes to sleep in my driveway. Twice now I've made that tight turn into the one way alley to find an orange and white tabby taking a snooze. First time he jumped out of the way, but the second time he meandered, and then sat calmly as I drove past. It made me laugh but really it scares me. I worry about the kittens. They're not actually kittens, I just more often that not refer to all cats that way.

I took a trip this weekend to Kincardine. I got kind of surprised at the volume of traffic remaining on Saturday morning at 10:30. What is everyone else doing being a lazy git like me and not leaving bright and early, if not Friday night? The time on the road was a bit too extended for my liking but I quite enjoyed walking around Kincardine. I stopped first at a beach and took some photos and read for a while. I didn't want the main street to shut down before I had a chance to look around so I headed that way shortly after. I can't romanticize the trip because it was an ordinary somewhat uninspired trip. I just have a burning desire to travel every nook and cranny and of this country. Looking back now I wish I had kept a better diary of my trips. I'm still young, there's still time.

I'm reading 'Franny and Zooey' by JD Salinger. It would have perhaps sat on my shelf unread for decades to come if Adam hadn't picked it off to borrow one weekend. He found out that the Royal Tenenbaums was loosely based on the characters from this book. Very smart but unusually bizarre. It took a bit to get into, but I've enjoyed it. I'm excited for the next book selection. I must say, I can't afford to continue buying books, I really must stop. I have spent at least a few hundred on books this year alone. I have enough unread to last me a while, so I best reign in that spending.

Dinner with Shmucks was not what I was expecting yet still hilarious. Randomly ran into Adam Mansour from LP. All grown up and married, very exciting.

I challenge myself to do 10 new things around the city before the summer is out. Be it parks or cafes or pubs, I must explore more. I'm also going to start going to bed earlier and taking better care of myself all around.

Life And The Art Of Honda Maintenance

I got off work early on Friday so I could get home at a good time and head out for the weekend. I mean it's no big loss for my employer since I don't get paid for a second more than I'm in the office. God I hate being on contract. Nik showed up at my place shortly after and made last minute preparations for our trip. She had picked up a bunch of treats from the bulk barn, including the candy necklace featured in the picture. It was strange heading out and arriving at our destination so soon. Short trips rock.

So we stayed the first night in Belleville, north of the downtown in a Choice Hotel. It was fine, but we should have taken the ground floor smoking room just so we could have opened the door to get a breeze. We were blasting A/C on full and it was still hot. Woke up bright and early so we could get breakfast and have good time to check out. First we stopped at a craft show at the community centre. There were a few cutie things, but we didn't stay for too long. Then it was off to Picton to check into our next location.

Prince Edward County is a cute little place to drive around, and everything is so close. We took the hwy down through Bloomfield and stopped there. Again we went into a small church craft sale. There was a lot of knitted and crocheted items. Which were nice, but just not for me. There was a rescue kitty there that was up for adoption. I put my hand into the cage and she came right over and let me scratch her head. If I wasn't so allergic and poor I'd be interested in a furry bundle of joy of my own.

Then it was back in the car and off to Picton. I almost pulled over on the way to get a soda from the trunk (ice cooler) but we were there in less than 10 minutes. We stopped at the information centre, which turned out to be completely useless, but we picked up some pamphlets for later use. We headed to the motel to check in and were pleasantly surprised with the way the place looked. We approached the desk clerk and asked for a room for the night. She asked if we had reservations and we said no. Then in a completely snarky unsatisfactory tone of voice said something along the lines of "Well good luck getting a place in town, there's a fishing tournament on." Who does that? Isn't customer service your JOB. Ack.

To hell with Picton, we carried on with our PEC adventure without it. Up the road and around the corner we stopped at Lake on the Mountain to check out the view. Got some neat photos of both Lake Ontario and Lake on the Mountain. And also saw some old cars who were there to, as we learned later, participate in an old car show. The skies were starting to grey and the humid air accompanied with burst of winds we knew the rain was a-comin. Back in the car for us.

Down the street and around the bay we headed towards the Black River Cheese Company to take a look around. We both picked up some cheese and fudge, delicious. Across the road was a kitchy type gift shop so we stopped in there to see if anything tickled our fancy. I did get a good chuckle from the sign that said, "All unattended children will be given an espresso and a free kitten." Back in the car.

Up and over we headed towards the Sandbanks. As we were driving the rain started. And even though I really wanted to see them, I didn't want to pay a $10 admission fee to walk around in the rain. No thank you. So we turned around and left.

We headed back to Bloomfield as Nik found a Gluten Free store on her phone in the neighbourhood. Turns out we had already passed it once before but missed the giant "GLUTEN FREE" banner. Most of the Gluten free goods were frozen but the guy had a fresh loaf just cut and he sold it to her. Then it was back into Picton so we could walk around and check out the city. I bought a few books, we checked into another cafe advertised as being gluten free (they had a handful of gluten free snackies and that was it - disappointing). After a stop into Giant Tiger we decided we needed to find a place to stay for the night. It was between Trenton and Kingston (or maybe Bath - but only for comedic purposes), we settled on Trenton. Unfortunately, like Belleville, the hotels are off the hwy and not in the downtown core so we didn't get to walk around Trenton as we wanted. I was pretty pooped though so I didn't complain too much. We got some dinner, checked into another Choice and called it a night. Nik slept while I got drunk and watched The Life of David Gale. But I too eventually could not keep my eyes open anymore.

We couldn't find a single thing to do on the way home. Even most of the PEC attractions we went to came recommended, we didn't just find them. Last time I made a random stop on the way home from Ottawa it was to see the Marmora Quarry, but that came recommended by Nik so we were fresh out of ideas. I even went through a list of 30 ghost towns but none were on route. Though it has given me ideas for future weekend trips. Possibly just day trips. And now I need to do that house cleaning I never did, and get ready for work tomorrow.

Mount Robson

I put up my new wall art today, "Mount Robson" by Lawren Harris. I picked it up from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, ON last Sunday. It was the perfect outing for a beautiful Sunday. I was googling Alex Janvier when I happened across the McMichael site, and it was the second last weekend to see the Woodsland exhibit (a collection of Native art including Alex Janvier and a new favourite Norval Morriseau). We were lucky enough to get a fantastic lecture from one of the gallery staff about the significance of a totem that was on display. It was quite interesting.

I let someone in front of me on the hwy today and he blew me a kiss. And although it was a strange and creepy gesture, it was nice to be acknowledged. It almost makes up for all the jerks that cut me off without even signaling. Almost.