I think this is quite brilliant as a working definition - not perfect; there are, after all, homophobic women as well; but damn good and thought-provoking:


I would have done these the other way around if my salon had been open over the holidays, but I got my hair coloured yesterday, and got a helix piercing in my right ear a little over a week ago.
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I've decided not to bother with the Fandom Snowflake Challenge after all, mainly because whilst trying to catch up, I realised that all of the stuff I can point to is old. I'm not really in a fandom anymore! The Est RPG kind of creates its own little fandomy world and that's mostly where I 'play' nowadays. And all of my pups are musicians, who mostly don't even have fic about them written by anyone else, so there's nothing to rec and no one to interact with besides myself, lol. So while I still think it's a fantastic idea, it's not well-suited to my personal fandom behaviour. I'm happy to talk about my favourite co-created works still if anyone's interested in seeing that, though.

This truck is looking_spiffy's soulmate. :D (Too bad it's in Nashville!) The craigslist write-up is brilliant.

Something else that's perfect for most of my f-list: a silver Pashmina with a silkscreened vintage typewriter. If, like me, you can't wear Pashminas due to them being made of cashmere - or you just prefer the texture of silk! - the same vintage typewriter on a cinnamon silk scarf. They also have a lot of interesting and cool silkscreened silk or microfibre ties.

I have this fabric headband in what I think of as Caribbean colours - it's quite wide when the top portion is fully open, almost bandanna-like, which isn't such a good look on me so I fold it in half. And there's a turquoise bit right in the centre, and bright green bits over each ear, and a mélange of red, orange, yellow and purple through the rest.

I discovered that it looks cool when I wear turquoise and green eye shadows, placed to echo the headband with the green at the outer corners. These are a bit softer colours, and shimmery, but I like it, and then just wear clear red- or coral-tinted gloss to complete.

I also have these paua (sp?) shell dangly earrings, in graduated discs, dyed bright red / coral / magenta / dark red / turquoise / lime green. I bought these months later, and it didn't occur to me to put them together with the above until today for some reason. Which is a damn shame because I love them together! So colourful and pretty.

I'm glad I did wear something cheery, because that was the bright spot in my day. Things really kind of suck at the moment. Actually, personal things have sucked for quite some time, like... all of 2010. Unfortunately, work is no longer a refuge, because things really fucking suck there right now too.

Some of the personal shit will get better in January, when my lease is up and I can move into a flat with no goddamned people. At the time when I was asked if I was renewing, I'd only been here a very short time, I was still coping, and we still had a letting agency to go to with problems instead of having to go to the landlord, who doesn't even live in the same county (he got rid of the agency, but he is shit at property management). Now, things are very different, but I'm stuck for a few more months, as an introvert who's constantly anxious and anti-social because she's not getting any fucking solitude. At the same time as I'm lonely. It's a bloody maddening combination, let me tell you! I miss my car a lot lately, solely for the opportunity it afforded me to get away from everything and everyone and be alone with music and wind.

The work shit, well, some of it will get better, some of it will get worse, and some of it I haven't a fucking clue about. I'm hopeful that my upcoming management course will actually give me useful tools. You'd think that managing a three-person department wouldn't be that difficult, but then, you haven't met my two employees. I'm not going to go into detail, but suffice to say that my boss admits that it's a difficult position for an *experienced* manager, which I am not. I have a bit, but really, this is the kind of thing that alternately makes me want to set goddamn strict rules and be an absolutist taskmaster about it, or curl up in a ball in a corner somewhere and ignore the whole fucking thing, neither of which is a helpful impulse.

So, that's me. I'm incredibly stressed, behind on everything everywhere, generally unsociable except for those few people who've actually stuck close (at least in spirit and words since it's not possible for them to do so in body), and often too anxious to leave the house - well, no, my little back corridor, my room and the bathroom, because I avoid the hell out of my housemates and can't quite manage to make myself go into the shared kitchen/lounge unless it's the middle of the night when I can be assured that no one else will be there.

Life is fucking wonderful, yeah. And I'm only semi-informed about what any of y'all are doing, because keeping up with LJ is stressing me out right now too, so I'm kind of dipping in and out and skimming a lot. I'd say email me with anything important, but that's never gone anywhere in the past, so.

Because a request was made to see my funky bright necklace. The colours of the beads are a bit off in places - the orange-y looking ones are actually yellow - but I tried!

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This is still weird to me. Not that the sunset is pretty - that it's so *late*. At midsummer, we had a grand total of sixteen and a half hours of daylight. I actually had a nap after work one night and woke up around 8:30 and panicked that I was going to be late for work, because it seemed like it had to be morning, it was so bright out. Fortunately, not. lol. It has cooled off some tonight finally. I'll have to close the window soon, though, which sucks - then it will get really stuffy in here. With such a wide, sliding window, there's not really any such thing as leaving it open a crack.

I bought a necklace recently that makes me happy. It's simple enough - coloured string and plastic marbles, essentially - but it kind of looks like gummies all strung together. It's bright and playful and summery and it just makes me smile to look at it. Bonus, it wasn't expensive, either. It also makes me think of linzeestyle a little bit because of all the people I know, you are probably the only one who would actually wear it, as opposed to coughing up something like, "That's very you, Tas, now get it away from me." *g*

And now it is way, way later and the sun is all gone and the window is closed. Delay caused by phone call from the parents. ♥

Because that is exactly what some of us need in order to wear leather riding gloves and sex toys as accessories.

*wanders off, whistling innocently...*

So to make a proper post, since I see I haven't done so for a few days, I've been having fun and relaxing, too. Wandered round central London early in the week. My feet were not exactly thrilled about the extended hours of walking but I enjoyed it. I browsed and window-shopped and just generally took it all in (no photos, sorry). The weather has continued to be lovely, spring-warm and mostly sunny - even the one day that it rained hard, the cloudbursts were interspersed with sun. Me likey. I have a teeny umbrella that packs into a case little bigger than a standard glasses case, and it doesn't bother me at all to pull it out my bag every so often. It amused me to note, though, that most women had umbrellas, whereas the men were split between those with umbrellas (who also usually had suits), and those who simply ducked into a shop doorway and waited out the cloudburst. None of the shopkeepers seemed to mind the non-clientèle clogging up their doorways.

I found a row of secondhand bookstores on Charing Cross, mmm. I was good; I didn't even buy any from the bargain bins out front. But I sure enjoyed looking and breathing in the scent of books. :D I also explored Soho somewhat, Trafalgar and Leicester Squares, and some back streets near the bookstores that I hope like hell I can find again, LOL. There was a M.A.C. store in there, though I didn't go in as I don't need anything right now. There was also the London Bead Store, which was awesome and I definitely need to go there again. It had all sorts of loose beads and findings, and also had completed jewellery. I managed to escape with one silver and red necklace. I very nearly got an adorable fuchsia ponytail holder but talked myself out of it because duh, no hair left for that. Though speaking of, I think I might need to get it cut again already, oy. Hopefully it'll be able to hold off a bit longer stylistically-speaking when I figure out how to use the straightening iron to do my bangs.

I went into this other store named Accessorize and had to control my giggling because they had a lot of hats and headbands, many semi-updated old-fashioned style, and there was a black satin headband with a froth of ostrich feathers that reminded me hugely of the 'emo princess' headband I bought in Boston last spring, only a much fancier version that cost like three times as much. I did not try it on, though I was tempted.

I also stopped twice for coffee (read: vanilla latté), once at Costa which was indeed lovely, and once at a café on Charing Cross, I think, called Caffe Vergnano 1882. That was a great place, really cute. The low benches in the back where I sat were upholstered in espresso velvet; it was all sleek blond wood and chocolate. Which actually gave you a wee chocolate with your order, hence me remembering the name. ;D

Yesterday stargazerdavid and I spent the day at the home of some friends of his and stayed for dinner, which was completely lovely. I had a very nice chat with Y about her experiences teaching various places and teaching English as a foreign language in general. Dinner involved a scandalous amount of food. I was vaguely surprised to find myself capable of movement after that!

Today David drove me down to Southampton and we met up with looking_spiffy and her mother, got me and my stuff all transferred over. There were sections of the motorway that were tree-lined and it took me a while to put my finger on why they looked so different. But it's both because the trees themselves are fairly well-spaced, giving each other lots of room to grow, and there is a distinct lack of underbrush. Forests in Canada (and the northeast USA) tend to be *packed* with trees, growing all but on top of each other, with shrubbery and bushes growing underneath them at knee- to waist-height in most places. The grass also still looks different. Hilariously, though, Canadian grass seed is apparently a popular gardening item, billed as being hardy in cold weather (duh). Hee.

Obviously we've sorted me for Internet access already - ooo and I found a power cord for only ten quid, not twenty, so I got that. Still need to get a voltage adaptor but that's not as critical as being able to use my laptop. So here I am, sat on the sofa at Jade's, WS on my lap and one of the dogs cuddled up beside me in much the same spot as David's cat has been for the past week. Life is good. :-)

Today has felt long, in spite of being only 23 hours. I was apparently more buzzed than I thought when I went to bed last night because I completely failed to notice that the computer clock said 3:30 a.m. but my bedroom alarm clock said 2:30 a.m., ergo I set the alarm and got up fifteen minutes after we had planned to leave this morning. Oops. *laughs* We rescheduled brunch for next Sunday and just leisurely got ready and went to the Home Show. It was nice, and the mother got the questions she wanted answered and got some contacts for stuff she wants to get done maybe, so that was good. Interestingly, one of the people manning the city planning department booth was the mayor. That was unexpected.

My family - my non-immediate family, that is - sucks at communication. My mother is like the hub of all knowledge for all of them, because it seems that they all talk to her but nobody talks to each other. Gah. So DRC called me yesterday for my birthday and was like, "You're doing what now?" Followed a few hours later by an email from his brother asking the same thing. And my aunt - who's been kept fairly aware by the mother, enough so that she put "Enjoy England!" on my birthday card - wants to know every last detail, which, sorry, not making available for general consumption. Blargh. Anyway, so I have a list of family email addresses now and am in the process of composing what amounts to a "Welcome to Tas's Life, Current Edition" newsletter. (Only, without the Tas part, lol.) Oy. I love my family, and I miss the hell out of them sometimes, but sometimes I am reminded that there are reasons why I live two thousand kilometres away!

Despite having accomplished some major, critical stuff this weekend, 'twas mostly intangible so I don't feel like I've done a lot. I need to organize my time better. I just have so much scheduled for this week outside of what I need to do in the house! A few more appointments of various types (yeesh, and my jaw still aches a bit from the last dentist appt. The tooth area is fine, it's the back hinge where the big-ass freezing needle went that bruised like an SOB!), and also tomorrow night I have the Hawksley Workman concert that was my birthday present to myself. I haven't even listened to Between the Beautifuls all that much yet, though enough to know I don't love it the way I do Treeful of Starling. It should be an interesting evening to myself. I didn't bother asking anyone if they wanted to come with as no one I know likes his music that much.

Lastly, I have this cute little wallet-type purse with a wrist strap that's meant to hold essentials whilst clubbing, basically. I used it once and found it much too small for my needs; it won't fit a regular candybar mobile phone, for one, and for another, I always have trouble editing my bag contents down *that* much, lol. But it's SO cute and I'd kind of like to send it to a new home instead of throwing it onto the pile of "stuff to donate," so if anyone's interested, let me know. (And email me your address if I don't already have it!) First person to request it, gets it. So you know what I'm talking about: front, back. The shiny bit showing in the back shot is the clear plastic ID holder; it normally sits right down inside and it's attached at the bottom, so all you have to do is pull it out enough to show your ID and then slide it back in.

I suppose the "big gift" - despite it technically being also *free* as it's an upgrade to the very old existing - is my new cell phone. :D It's beeyootiful and it takes pictures/videos and plays songs and has the tiniest memory card in existence that I shall worry about losing LOL. *wriggles excitedly* I already put all my phone numbers in it (I don't have that many, as these things go) and have figured out how to text message. Though speaking of, if you'd texted me between yesterday afternoon and about two hours ago, I didn't get it (i.e., if you got no answer, I got no text). They were supposed to wait to deactivate the existing phone until the mother called today to activate the new one, but it apparently went offline yesterday. *eyeroll* Still, ze new is all functioning and had been set up in-store so that it was essentially plug-&-play. I have a photo of Nibbs that I took set as the wallpaper! There was also a cute little red leather case for it. Whee! Who knew I'd ever get so excited over a damn phone?!

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And there you have it, my haul this year, lol. Dinner is in about 45 minutes: potato pie, pasta salad, lobster and lobster bisque. We already had the shrimp cocktail this afternoon and a proper (and rare) fry-up for breakfast, accompanied by Kahlua-laced coffee and thence Kahlua and cream. I had a pretty good buzz going before noon. *giggles* Yes, I know that's highly untraditional but we're allergic to turkey, man. No bird for us. The mother decided on some brand new stuff this year and having had a bowl of bisque when I came in last night, it's yuuuummmmmmy. :D

I give up. I cannot find a silver charm bracelet at all, never mind a child-sized one. The only bracelet I even found that had links delicate enough to accommodate the charms was a) kind of a funky style that would look very strange indeed when the clasp was closed on an inner link instead of the end bit (as it would be too large), and b) too expensive. I'm not paying $35 for a bracelet for a four-year-old. No matter how careful and responsible a child she might be - and I have no idea if she IS or not! - she almost certainly will lose it eventually. Augh. You know, if I had done this whole search in the summer and realised I was never going to find anything, I could've gotten one of y'all who live in SoCal to go buy me the damn kiddie charm bracelet in the Princess Store in Downtown Disney, where I originally got the charms. (I did not get a bracelet because it was much too small for me. :P I never found an adult bracelet that would accommodate the charms then, but I also didn't do the same kind of exhaustive search.) I checked the Disney store here but they don't have anything of the sort. *sigh* I think that I will just put them with an invisible-wire choker I have, that came with my hand-beaded 'T' pendant. I know THAT is skinny enough to allow the damn things to close over it! And I don't wear it because I don't like chokers. It'll be a bit big on her, but it shouldn't be too bad. I'd come up with something else but I have no idea what else at this point, and we're mailing the box later this week so today was it and I didn't find anything else, so this will just have to do. I think that I will send only half the charms, though (there are eight) and if any of y'all are in DD, would you look for the bracelet and pick me up one? I'll happily reimburse cost + shipping, and then I'll send her the remaining charms on the bracelet *next* Christmas!

Oh, the party last night: it was okay. I find that I've lost most of my patience for small talk. I know it can make other people uncomfortable - and me too, sometimes - but if I don't have anything to say, I just don't say anything anymore. Not that I was ever a chatterbox but really, there are only so many ways you can say, "It's fucking cold!" The dancing part was fun and the DJ was much improved over my previous outings to that bar. I ended up sitting with E and her partner, both of whom are hearing impaired, anyway. Bit strange to know they're chattering away at each other and I can only catch the odd word; I know a tiny, tiny bit of ASL from my time as an assistant in an autistic classroom, most of which I've forgotten in the years since. It's hilarious to see people do a double-take when E dances, though - or wears a discman at work. Hee. She can feel vibrations just fine and she has a bunch of heavily percussive music that she can enjoy. I'd not met her partner before, but she seemed very sweet, too.

I did manage to find a top to wear yesterday afternoon - in fact, I bought two tops! Er, both black. LOL. The one I wore to the party has a deep V-neck and is gathered over the bust with a large, circular "brooch" holding it together, and then falls almost like a babydoll top. The other one I debated about as I'm not crazy about the sleeves, but it has one of those trapezoid cut-out necklines, and a matching one in the back, which was what really sold me on it. I have turtle issues and clothes that leave a great deal of my upper back and shoulders exposed can make me feel twitchy, but because this has a band that goes across the top of my shoulders at the back and then a large opening beneath that, it doesn't bug me. Although, seeing the patch of skin and spine indent there kind of has me going, "Hmm. Needs ink." Heh. It *would* actually be a perfect place to put a tattoo, except for the ridiculousness that would be involved in trying to clean and moisturise it properly as it's not an area I can easily reach myself. I mean I can wash my back obviously but the nitpicky kind of cleaning a fresh tattoo requires would be nigh impossible. And no, I can't see the mother agreeing to help with that, lol. It'll have to wait until I have an amenable roomie or a partner, I think. I know what I want though. :D Maybe I can get someone to draw it for me in the meantime. Or, if I do end up getting a summer vacation this year, get it done right beforehand and coerce whoever I go visit into helping. ;-D

A handful of links to stuff wot y'all might find amusing:
Human Costume T-shirt - Inspired by Doctor Who but really, lots of fun regardless!

Wee interview with Gerard Way about the end of the Black Parade and pushing the sexuality envelope, in case any of y'all missed that one. It's cute. :D

Purrcast. Yup, it's exactly what it sounds like: podcasts of purring kitties! *smooches* to femmenerd for the original link.

BANDSMUT.com, a new site/forum/zine for any and all aspects of bandom, helmed by screwthedaisies. As the info says, "Both BANDSMUT.com and the BANDSMUT zine are pan-bandom. Is it about a band? It's allowed. Is it about a musician? It's allowed." Go, join, pimp, enjoy!

This is a French ad for the soft drink Orangina. Uh, NSFW. Not that there's much actual nudity, but it's sort of set in a furry strip club, so there are skimpy costumes and some butt and the exploding juice boobs. Heh. *raises eyebrow and points to icon*

(Before anyone asks, the answer is: the same way I find all the weird shit, aka the Hansel and Gretel method! ;-P)

In more mainstream linkage ;-), I want this bracelet! So pretty. I'd actually like quite a lot of things from this site, like the Celtic cross scent locket (with extra diffuser pads, natch). Yummy stuff.

Forward Motion is a writer resource site maintained by a published author with lots of articles and workshops about every aspect of writing; there's also a free e-book there: Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love AND Money.

Working on several projects - some writing, some other - and completed something today that I quite like. Yay me. *pleased*

So far, my extendo-weekend has been...uh, not very productive. *sheepish smile* Yesterday and today have been beautiful September days, though - sunny, warm sun, cool breeze, cool at night. Me likes. But I've spent the bulk of my time reading, sleeping, or watching stuff. Though I did do a buttload of laundry. And I consider the time spent flailing and squeeing last night about Matchbox Twenty's interview and new video to be important, if not precisely productive. ;-D It's...wow, I still feel giddy that it *exists* and they actually did NOT break up, in fact they're more of a cohesive band than they have been in forever. And then there's the fact that they fully acknowledged the political potential of the song and used it, overtly, to make a statement that is pointed but not blunt-instrument-to-the-head, which would never work for them. Billie Joe can get away with bitchslapping the audience but Rob needs to seduce and he DOES and oh, God, I love it.

Semi-relatedly, Rob's wife Marisol guest-designed a couple of adorable T-shirts for this site, Presents for Purpose. It's a very cool concept - portions of the price of every item sold on the site go towards a charity (which depends on the collection and/or the buyer's choice, depending on the item). Though the apparel is weirdly sized and only for teeny people. :-/ But, I did fall in love with this Golden Buddha necklace. Eeeeee so pretty.

I slept funny on my shoulder or something on Thursday night and the muscles over my right shoulderblade have been spazzing since; it's very annoying. It'd gotten a lot better by last night but it was really sore upon waking again so I must've ended up in the same position. *scowls* I might sleep on the couch tonight instead.

I also woke up to a rather disorienting dream involving my ex. I was at a work function, but apparently also at work, i.e., went over to the party or w/e during my breaks, and just as my lunch was about to end, he called and was asking something about when we could get together because we'd agreed to be friends and I basically brushed him off saying I'd call him later as I was going back to work. And then when my work day was over and I went back to the party, he was there, hanging with some people I knew (in the dream; I don't recognise a soul other than him from RL), and at first I was all resentful and avoidy, pretty much stewing about it but staying away from him, and then he finally cornered me and brought up the same thing, that we were supposed to be trying to be friends. And I...let him have it, actually. I was very calm and very angry and I can't remember what-all I said but I know it ended with me telling him that I can't be friends with anyone I can't trust and don't fucking talk to me again. It more or less dissolved there, being as I woke up, but it was interesting to say the least. (We did, btw, attempt to be friends. It was short-lived and reaaaaallllly not a good idea in the first place. That dinner party remains the most bloody surrealistic moment of my entire life.)

Anyway, I sort of know where the base for that dream came from, b/c my bf here, C, had been getting closer to her ex-boyfriend and she swore up and down that she wasn't getting emotionally involved (yeah right) even though they were tentatively discussing trying dating again. And then she found out a couple of days ago that he's acquired a new girlfriend and she obviously was upset about it, since he wasn't even talking to her in good faith about all of that. So she's been texting me today about various *other* stuff and I know she's doing that instead of calling b/c if she calls, she'll end up talking about him and probably crying again and she doesn't want to. And the thing is, there really isn't anything I can say that I haven't already said a million times, and it's just not that comforting anymore, y'know? It isn't even that I think being friends with your ex is automatically a bad idea - my first love and my ex-husband were the only ones I *wasn't* friends with after the romance ended, but for the same reason: because I still had feelings for them. And in that situation, it IS a very, very bad idea, because it makes it horribly difficult to move on. *sigh*

On a brighter note, Doctor Who won a Hugo award! Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): “Girl in the Fireplace” (Doctor Who) Whee, that excites me that it's getting that kind of high level recognition for good writing. :D

Speaking of DW, is it entirely insane that I really would like to buy a ticket for the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Hamlet next summer, starring both David Tennant and Patrick Stewart? Because...damn. Can you IMAGINE??? The tickets go on sale the end of this month, though - and to members first, so they might even sell out before the general public gets a crack - and I really can't afford to spend the money now anyway as the cheapest ones run approx. $50CDN but...daaaaaaaamn. Dude. I'd go just for Patrick; between those two voices, I'd be a puddle of utter goo. *wants to goooo*

Of course, that's also predicated on the idea that Stratford-upon-Avon will be a train ride away from wherever the hell I'm living next summer, and that is, in turn, predicated on there not being anything seriously wrong with me. Because if it turns out that it is serious, that it requires ongoing care or something, I'm not going to be able to leave the country obviously; not to move, anyway. The not-knowing has been somewhat paralytic in terms of achieving the motivation to get anything done, this weekend's distinct lack of sorted and emptied boxes included. Not long now until my specialist appt. finally, though, so hopefully I'll soon have at least the beginnings of an answer. And if it turns out that I need to remain in Canada, then I'll start investigating Montreal as my next option.

Well, that was a helluva lot longer update than I was planning, but I haven't said much of anything lately, so there you go! That's what's up with me. And now I need more tea. *grins*

Got mah hair cut today. S'not really much different, just not poking my eyeballs anymore. *g* My stylist gives *wonderful* scalp massages when she shampoos, which just leave me like a limp doll for the rest of the time it takes to actually cut my hair. There are few things I love more than someone playing with my hair. Totally bribe-able for it.

My purse has been dying for a bit now - since not too long after I bought it, actually, which kind of pisses me off. The bases of the straps are attached to the sides about an inch and a half below the top edge, which of course means that once there's any weight in it, it pulls at the leather and it's been ripping, steadily a little more all the time. I bought a new one in MA, which I like well enough, but I really loved this one so I've been putting off the chore of transferring everything. Well, today the main zipper broke, so now I have to. Mreh. Ah, well. Good opportunity to try to purge stuff out of the damn thing so I don't cripple myself carrying it!

The majority of my f-list has not known me mid-TV-related fandom, so y'all wouldn't know that I'm pretty rabidly anti-spoilers where I personally am concerned. There's been commentary popping up all over the place about the new Doctor Who today and bless you guys for using and labelling your LJ cuts. ♥ I have to say, though, that it's absolute torture knowing that I *could* go watch it and squee about it, but Smith & Jones airs here on Monday night and I'm waiting until after that. I might net-blitz watching the rest of S3 after that and also watch week by week as they air, but I really want to watch that season premiere "live" here. There's just something about seeing a TV show on its intended medium, with the imposed breaks, without the ability to pause or rewind or otherwise control what you're seeing. I can't explain it any better than that. And I haven't felt that way about watching anything on TV for over five years now. *squeaks anxiously and protects her heart* It'll be fabulous to have a reason to look forward to Mondays again, though. :D

The interviews between showing the various bands at Vfest and whatever videos have been interesting. (Thank God Devin is doing the interviewing! LOL) Rise Against had some really thoughtful things to say. Billy Talent managed to slash themselves in under two minutes by declaring that they were looking forward to downtime over the summer to drink beer by the lake - rub sunscreen on each other and get drunk as an excuse. *giggles* Now they've moved on to interview bits with MCR, with Gerard and Bob. I had thought Bob was a fairly reticent fellow from what y'all have said before but he's talking away just fine here. They should start playing soon, at least I hope so b/c I wanna go to bed but I'd like to see a bit of it before then. Y'know, since I didn't get to actually see them live and all.

Oh, I scanned the jewelry I was talking about in my last post: earring and pendant, in case anyone else was curious. The 'T' is kinda blurry since it's beaded, but enough to get the idea. :)

For the Canadians with MuchLoud, they're covering some of the Virgin Festival that's on in Vancouver today at 4:30 EDT/1:30 PDT. That'd be the one with the pretty kickass lineup (though I confess I can't recall said lineup atm!).

metalicious1 and I went to the tattoo festival yesterday, which was fun. I absolutely fell in love with this one design, which of course belonged to one of the few out-of-province artists. It's kind of a stylised phoenix, all curves and shading. Mmm. If I had any money left, I'd've considered making an appt. to get it done today. As soon as I could figure out where to put it, lol. I did end up with a great pair of earrings and this hand-made initial pendant, all silver and crystal beads. I *loved* this woman's jewelry, man. It's a good thing she's in PEI and not here. Hopefully most people will only see that it looks sort of like a truncated cross, and not ask me why I'm wearing a 'T'. Heh. The earrings are silver, too - big thorn-wrapped open heart shapes with a flame shape coming out of the top of the heart to connect the fishhooks. They are wonderfully heavy; I like being aware that I'm wearing earrings.

The one down side is that the ATM in the hotel lobby wouldn't read my bank card, so I borrowed the $ for the pendant and then we walked down a block to the actual bank after we left. I got back to my car just in time to watch the cop stick the parking ticket on my windshield. *rueful smile* Ah, well. I did park in a no-parking zone, even if I didn't realise that until after getting out, b/c both sides of the damn street were lined with cars and I'd only gotten that spot b/c someone pulled away just as I came up the street. I figure it's karma for not having gotten a (faaaaar more expensive) speeding ticket on my way through New Brunswick when I set out on my trip, considering that I'd just slowed down to 130 km/h in a 110 zone when I passed that cop. I shall just write a cheque to the city. No point in going to court - I knew I was parked illegally!

I don't know who was in charge of the music at the festival, but damn, I wish they DJ'd b/c it was a great mixture of (mostly classic/older) hard rock, metal and punk. And there were definitely a lot of attractive people there, too. Also, it was kinda nice to *not* stick out for a change!

I will do a write-up of my trip, but probably not tonight. I need to finish unpacking still and unlike the rest of the country, I do not have tomorrow off. We get Memorial Day instead of Victoria Day. This year at least, I rather like the way that works out, as I'm not exactly in need of a break from work right now ;-) but having *next* weekend be a 3-day after my first week back will be loverly. I'm really glad I did take the whole two weeks, though - it feels like I've been gone for a long time, which is great. Although I don't think I wanna do without 'net access for that long ever again LOL. Especially when for the first week and a half, someone was using a laptop right in front of me every day! Ahahaha. Which sounds meaner than it was, as they did each offer to lend it and I said no, knowing that checking my email would spill into checking LJ and then...you get the idea. Though leighrowena was most awesome and showed me the new Idiot Club vids. :D *mwah*

Random links: an article on the current popularity of the fantastic in literary fiction (i.e., The Time Traveler's Wife), and Men in Panties. Hee.

ETA: Where are my manners, yeesh. Thank you very much for leaving me comments, emails and text messages letting me know all the important stuff. 'Twas much appreciated. ♥