Goal number one: spend day in my new Christmas pj's.... minus the obligatory dog walk where I will wear warm comfies then promptly slide back into my flannels for the day
Hey look! It's my 50th post! Somehow it has been a month since I last posted anything, I don't know how time passes so quickly.
Here we are at the end of 2009. Can you believe it?
J and I have a New Year's tradition that we started a few years back. We each choose a word for the upcoming year. We don't tell each other what we've chosen until close to New Year's. J told me that she chose her word months ago.
So, for 2010 we usher in J's year of Balanceand my year of being Fearless. My word came to me just last week while painting the bedroom. It's funny how much those words come up through the year... it has become one of my favorite traditions.
J and I are getting married, after 8 years of being together. It didn't always feel so important to get married, it didn't seem like something that would change things, and I am not sure how it shifted but it did. She is the love of my life and makes me laugh every day. I want to be able to call her my wife, I want to know that when our kids are born we will know that there is that legal piece of paper saying that we choose to be together and that it was important enough to make it official in front of our families. So August 7th is the proposed date.
And... I got in to grad school, I start in January. That is amazing too.
We had Jersey spayed last Tuesday. By Sunday morning she wasn't healing well enough and the vet said to keep our 6 month old, 43 pound puppy, still for another 10 days. As her mommas, we haven't been diligent enough in restricting her movements and now we're being punished. How do we keep her still?! She's on leash in the house and HATES us for it. She's been chewing on her elk antlers (fallen antlers, a bit easier on my vegetarian mind!), which the people at our favorite pet place told us would last for months (based on their pit bull's track record)-- she's finished hers in a week. Wish us luck!
I love this song and saw this video a while ago- seems à propos for all that is going on in the US with gay marriage and with, of course, the daily struggle we all face.
Ah, yes, the Tuesday-mid-afternoon-blog. These are things that make me smile. Most times I can't be bothered to sit at the computer and write after a day of doing just that at work. I am off this week as our pup (who now weighs 43 pounds at 6 mos, and weighed just 20 at 4 mos) is at the vet getting spayed. I took the time off to watch over her and her stitches-- she is a very active puppy and I imagine she'd be a prime candidate for ripping them out.
I am trying out a gluten free diet to see if I am celiac. Anyone have any tips to keep things interesting? I'm a vegetarian so the options are limited.
Ok, so, blogging hasn't been my forte this month. Sue me. Things are calm, things are good, I'm off next week to be around while Jersey recovers from being spayed. Hopefully it will calm her down a bit! Today I submitted my proposal to Grad School. Now we sit and wait.
...time flies... I don't know how, but it does. The long weekend was a nice treat (Cdn Thanksgiving). We've had cold weather though, Jersey has had her first taste of snow.
Happy birthday to me!
It's just past noon so I cracked a beer. Tell me I can't. C'mon, I dare ya.
My birthday tradition over the last 3 years or so has been to book the day off and take myself out on a date day. Thanks to the last minute cancellation of a meeting, this year is no exception. So, this morning I took J to work as usual for 7 am and then decided on a spontaneous trip out of town for a coffee. I drove myself to a cute lil' prairie town where J and I had originally considered buying-- only 20 minutes outside the city.
So here I am, home again. The dogs are now napping (moments ago I saw Jake chewing on something-- I went to investigate and found a baby tooth of Jersey's in his mouth. Uh huh. Weirdo) I've got a beer, I turned up the furnace because it is chilly (calling for snow tomorrow, nooo!) and I think I might change into my pj bottoms and watch a movie...
J is taking me out to dinner tonight, but I've got loads of time....
...is arriving. I don't mind this time of year. J and I spend more cozy time, more time cooking big batches of spaghetti sauce or lentils or soups on a Sunday afternoon with music playing and a glass of wine... this is what I think of when we come to this time of year.
Yesterday I realized that in the past few weeks J and I have had more time to spend together like we did before we moved from BC (where it was just us) to our prairie town (where the rest of my family lives and I grew up). When we moved here we lived with my brother and his family for 7 months, when we bought our house J's sister moved in with us the first week we moved in. So here we are, with J's sister spending more and more time with her new boyfriend, and us learning to be *us* again.
What happened to this week? I was out watering the gardens tonight and when I opened the gate to the front yard I saw this on the fence... I have always loved ladybugs and they are EVERYWHERE in my yard. In the spring our yard was overrun with them, I'm talking hundreds. Love it.
I missed my own foto friday because j and i went to spend the weekend with my mom and one of my sisters and her 3 little ones. My mom lives at a lake (hard life, right?) in a (very) little place she calls Jubilee Cottage... This was the first time all summer we had a chance to get out there. This year my mom didn't have the dock put out, she needs to have a new one built. Even though the season is about over, J spent her Saturday of the long weekend voluntarily building a 'sitting area' for my mom down by the water. J is a woodworker (I admit, it's a turn on) and a hard worker to boot. It was a serious 'awwww....!' moment for me when I came back to the cottage from being in town with my sister to see what J had done (all while looking after the dogs and 3 little ones). So, here's to you J... kisses! Now, I didn't take any pictures of the dock-sitting area, but I can post some pictures from last summer and last winter from my mom's place for my foto-friday-on-a-monday. Happy long weekend!
Meet 4.5 month old Jersey. She was a stray brought in to the Humane Society in July with her sisters, both sisters died of illnesses and Jersey has just come out of quarantine for the second time and was up for adoption for 2 days before we scooped her up. She is a mix of black lab and, they say, cocker spaniel but we think it is actually border collie. she and jake got along great from the get go so we knew it was a good choice.
so off we go into the world of housebreaking... poor little thing is exhausted from her busy day and sleeping at my feet.
....evvvvver. We've been watching for a while now and we still haven't figure out what it is actually about. Oh, Chloe Sevigny, what were you thinking? ...we're getting cable tomorrow. yes, cable. we broke down. It's because of crap like this.
My brother was cleaning out his garage and found a collection of old cell phones... my favorite was the one bigger than a modern cordless. Remember the days when a colour screen on a cell phone was the next big thing? (Or remember when no one had cell phones at all and everyone had a rotary phone on the kitchen wall!?)
Our long-awaited vacation is coming up and it is so close I can almost taste it.... J and I are headed to Vancouver, taking our time driving out, going to see J's bro and his family who we're very close with. They have 2 little boys, a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old (the 3-year-old is one of those amazing kids who was walking by 9 months, running at 9.5 months and riding a two-wheeler sans training wheels through the trails and doing tricks on his bike before the age of 3)
While we're going to see them, the focus is on us.... so, off we go on 'our' vacation. I love BC and miss living there, I can't wait to see the ocean. We don't have many plans but we'll go to Vancouver Pride, pay a visit to Davie St, travel through the Okanagan, do some wine tours, get some fresh fruit, take our time, stay in hotels and just have time for us.... The countdown begins...
J's mom is in town. The other night J pulled out a large blank canvas (our home is filled with home-made art) and she and her mom decided to create a monochromatic painting together. J chose green as the colour ('cause it was supposed to go in our kitchen which we are painting a great shade called 'goblin green'--love it!) J and her mom got to work on the painting. Then my parents dropped by, which was momentous in itself (my dad lives overseas and I don't see him much). Then my mom joined in on the painting action, and I grabbed the last blank corner... et voila... a painting created by me, my wife and our mothers.
Eek it has been busy! The trip to Ontario was to get my sister and her three little ones (3, 5, 7) out here-- she was finally moving home and needed help driving a huge u-haul and her car, so my other sister and my dad and I were all out to help. The trip was great, very fast, and I have been trying to keep up all week but I'm exhausted. How can a road trip be so draining? I got back late afternoon on Sunday and should have taken Monday off! I did get lots of pictures of the gorgeous prairies though... for those of you who think it is boring landscape, get some glasses and take another look. More pics another night, time for this girl to crash.
Are the residents called Fuckers? What are the mothers called? What would you be learning at the Fucking High School? Does the Fucking Hospital help you with anything else? If your friend came from another town, he wouldn't be your Fucking friend. There is a sign in the town that says 'Bitte! Nicht so schnell', which in English translates to 'Please! Not so fast!
Part of me is disgusted with myself, and part of me is disappointed with society, and the rest of me is completely fed up with the L key on my laptop that all of a sudden is sticking ike, I mean, like, crazy. So Saturday was pride in my little prairie town. We looked forward to it, planned for it, got up and walked downtown for it... oh, what a tiny little gathering there was. Next year we'll be joining Dawg's crew in Toronto. My first instinct was to bail, and the rest of me was thinking, well, someone has to march, right? The last time we went to pride was 5 years ago, and we thought that one was pretty small. We ended up walking in the parade by accident-- not only that but we ended up walking with the group carrying the banner 'Senior's Pride' and I walked next to a woman driving a scooter. I digress... I guess I shouldn't have expected so much. Pride isn't advertised here, and if I want to go to a big parade I guess we should go to Toronto or Vancouver. I didn't manage to get the courage to join the parade, and J and A were happy not to join either. So we went to one of our favorite little pubs and had our own little pride celebration... This is likely the one and only time that J will allow me to put a picture of her up on my blog. I am relishing the moment. Rel-ish-ing.
Like: (love) J an I were going through pictures and videos and I came across this one. I took it almost a year ago-- J and I were in the U-Haul moving from Vancouver Island, the video was taken just after getting off the ferry coming in to Vancouver. J has that 'get that camera off of me' look. Cute. video removed
Don't like: Today my sister-in-law, A, brought home her 'Betty' dolls (she's in school to become a stylist), and I am thinking that they need to be locked away before I can go to sleep tonight. See below: Simon and the Betty dolls; A and the Betty dolls... I'm so completely creeped out by these things, especially that they have REAL HUMAN HAIR on their heads.
My cats like boxes... all types. Simon managed to squeeze himself into this one.... Kale looks on in box envy. You can see my butter churner in the background, it is my prized piece in my home, belonged to my great grandma. My great uncle put a motor on it for her at some point, parts of it are still there.
J and her sister A are in the kitchen making Saturday breakfast. It has been a busy few weeks, A has been living with us for about a month now & will be with us for about a year, and their dad is also here helping J build front and back decks, a side gate, and lay the new flooring in the bathroom and kitchen. Full house, lots of work (and lots of beer!). Today is a glorious Saturday. I picked chives from the garden to go in the home fries with brekkie-- I loooove this time of year. It has been a few years since I've had a veggie garden, and the weather has been so awful that it is not growing very well, but hey... I see beets, lettuce, onions and lots of rhubarb so far. So here is to Saturday, I hope you're all getting the gorgeous sun that we are going to have today (I have nothing to back this up but my fingers are crossed)...
On Saturday we were out in the yard from 7:30 am and it was hot, the best day we've had this spring. I followed my personal tradition of renouncing sunscreen in the first sun of the year in order to tan some of my pasty Icelandic-English skin-- by 2:30 I was wearing a hat remembering the time in 7th grade my class went on a fieldtrip to a lake on the day of our elementary school graduation and I burned so badly (I mean so badly) that I was a virtual lobster. It feels great to have our own yard. We rented houses for years but I never wanted to do more than the basics to fix it up, especially if we knew the landlords didn't give a crap about the house. Now we have our own and inherited a yard that had been as neglected as the house. We had a load of dirt brought in and we've planted the gardens and lots of perennials including a rosebush, hydrangeas and lilacs. I've also scattered the wildflower seeds-- that mix includes poppies, my absolute favourite.
After the day of sun we went for dinner with friends which was great, except for the flirty waiter. I was annoyed but part of the conversation we were having had to do with a story that J had told about a straight guy at her work having been completely offended and disgusted that a gay guy had tried to pick him up. J had said that she didn`t get it, why can`t someone just say ‘thanks but no thanks’ and let it be at that. She`s right, of course. Anyone finding you attractive should be great... this waiter, though, deserved a swift stab with a fork from under the table for calling me, ahem, “lil’ lady”, “miss”, and “lil’ miss”, all within a 3 hour period. First of all, gay or not, I’m 27 and it turns out I actually look it because I don’t get ID’ed anymore, so don’t call me “little”, and don’t ever call me “miss”. So then when we were ready to go and he asked how we wanted the bills split he had a hard time understanding. He said, “so split it across like this” (motioning toward me and one of our guy friends, and then to J and our other guy friend, assuming that we were on dates, I guess) and I said, “no, like this” (motioning toward J and I and then the second bill for the two guys). “Like this?” he asked, making the same motions I had, and I said, “yes.” The waiter missed a beat and then said, “Ok, ‘cause the way I have it now is split individually... so...” I said, “nope, split in two is perfect”. Is it that difficult? At least he didn’t come around then and pass the bill to J, which often happens because as you know, someone has to be the guy in the relationship. (insert gagging here).
And here we are at Monday morning, day one of my week off. It’s crazy working in a place where I HAVE to take my days off, can’t just bank my vacation days. So I took this week because J’s dad arrives on Thursday and we’re rebuilding decks, laying some flooring and putting up a new gate. I thought I would get a bit of painting done before he gets here... I just have to get myself motivated to get out of my chair right now.... here we go....
I have a romantic idea of the person I'd like to be, she's right out of a novel. She doesn't blush, she makes plans and keeps them, she stays up late and gets up early, she works out 'cause it feels good, she writes novels, she shops often enough to have a pretty good rotation of a wardrobe going, she remembers birthdays and sends cards on time, nix that, early, she spends hours at a time lounging and reading a great book while enjoying a reasonably-sized glass of wine, she has a tasteful tattoo and remembers to go for regular hair cuts and has her hair coloured in the salon, not from a boxed mix, she takes the dog to obedience school, she has a career she is passionate about, she is able to bring dying plants back to life, she walks the dog twice a day without fail, she is motivated enough to write the exams for grad school, she is motivated enough to figure out whether she WANTS to go to grad school, she is well versed in the names of her favorite songs rather than just the general tune, she doesn't open-mouth-insert-foot on a regular basis, she has a relatively strong grasp on regular small talk rather than feeling stumped on something to say other than umm, yeah, can you believe we had snow this morning? In May? Yeah. I like to think that this person exists, but I also like to think that other people feel the same way, like somewhere along the way something just slips away-- you spend your childhood thinking that you will grow up and everything will just happen. I'm still waiting. When I was growing up I wanted to write and I still want to. I just don't have the confidence that I used to have, but I`m working on it.
....oh what a glorious feeling... I'm off work until Tuesday. The weather has been crappy, we had snow the other day. SNOW. It is gone now, but it was enough of a sign that we should go into hibernation for a few days. There are a few simple steps to follow when going into hibernation. 1) Book several days off work. This allows for optimal lounging time 2)Rent enough movies to feel like you are doing something wrong, especially when opting for the 2-vs-5-day rental from Blockbuster 3) Remove mattress from bedroom, add to living room. Set up movie viewing area, complete with closed blinds, bags of candy and a bowl of popcorn larger than your head 4) Take the dog for a good long walk to wear him out 5) Come home and change back into pj's, curl up with your woman, and hit play on the dvd player
Ah... sweet lazy days...
Ok, so, that was the plan for today, but I don't know if that is going to happen. It is an impossibly gorgeous day. We live very close to the creek and there are walking/bike paths that go right along it-- I'm glad for that because I miss the ocean like crazy.
I grew up in this city. We moved here 7 months ago, after years of living on the west coast. Once I finally finished my B.A. we decided to move to the prairies because at least here we can buy a house-- so here we are, surrounded by my family and living in this city that was at one time all I knew as home. I am a very different person than I was when I left here over 7 years ago. One of the hardest things about moving back here is that my old life collides with the current one, over and over again. People I haven't seen for years seem to expect me to be who I was then-- or maybe it has nothing to do with their expectations and everything to do with who I think they knew me to be, and what I think of that person I was. Of course there is good, too, but it is odd how the idea of home shifts. I took me longer than J to adjust to living here, I kept thinking of Vancouver Island as home, and in some ways I still do. As we settle in though I know that I will look around one day and realize that this city has become home again.
I'm waiting for my brand new stove to arrive, how exciting is that? I'm going to bake up a storm and maybe throw in a casserole or two.
J and I have just bought our first house, moved to the snowy prairies from the gorgeous west coast to be able to do it-- it has been our dream for 7 years-- and we've finally, finally made it.
So here we are, into this new phase. I feel like now that we've been through all of the craziness of buying a house we can just focus on the rest of life. I want to do more for myself-- I want to try metal work, J wants to try glasswork. I have always felt like I am always waiting for something, I've been trying to get past this. As J says, I tend to live in the future... Like now, when I'm thinking, I wonder if I will actually keep up with a blog?
We purposefully didn't get a tv because tv is boring. Everything we want to watch is on the internet-- but now need two computers because J likes to watch videos (and was very happy when I bookmarked http://www.onemorelesbian.com/ for her) and I like to read the blogs. I think some of them are a bit much... are people trying to make their lives an episode of The L Word or what? But then I find other blogs like this one http://rutibegga.blogspot.com/ and I think, huh, I wish people like that lived in my neighbourhood. Or maybe they do... (umm, if you recognize the house, come by and introduce yourself, ok?) They certainly aren't a certain neighbour who I met last Sunday when I (sporting what else but bed head and cosy pants) went to take Jake for a walk andthe neighbour asked whether my 'husband' and I had moved in. When I told her that it was my partner and said J's name, she paused... and thought... and thought... and said "Two girls?" to which I replied, "Uh huh." Good thing I hadn't said wife, she mighta had a heart attack...
Ahh, J has arrived home with pizza and wine. All is well in my world.
