So, there's actually been stuff happening that I haven't been posting about. *gasp* No real reason why, other than me being busy getting ready for my trip to Canada and then being on said trip! But in the wake of the deaths of a family friend, my cat, and my employee in early summer, I took some actions - work-related and personal life-related.

( More about all that...Collapse )

Walking home today, there was a section of sidewalk where a car had parked half on the sidewalk, leaving only a narrow strip to walk past the building. I saw this guy coming from the other direction and figured I'd wait, no big; wasn't really paying attention but he stopped and waved me through, which was nice, and when I said thanks he looked up from fiddling with his mp3 player and gave me this gorgeous big smile, and I was like, oh holy shit he looks like Mark! And my stomach kind of fluttered and I almost laughed right there but kept walking. It was just fucking weird. *pokes M!Rob* Keep it to yourself, dude. We are not looking for life to imitate art here and I am not picking up random twenty year olds because you think they're pretty. :P

And then one of the stores I went past had a guy in cut-off jean shorts and a tank top fixing shelves. He was mostly a blur of longish dark hair and arm muscles as I walked by. He seemed older? LOL. I don't even know anymore. *facepalm*

Ahaha, Boy1 is making dinner. Apparently he's in a good mood today, as the dish clanking is accompanied by horrifically off-key singing instead of him cursing a blue streak. *finds both entertaining*

I'm having 'em. There are a few things I was going to post on tonight, but I've been distracted by finishing up a log with oh_johnny_ (that will be posted tomorrow), posting another one written with asknosecrets (that turned out to be absolutely gorgeous, thank you again, Jack), and gathering stuff for the Reading festival, because we leave Thursday morning. And my ticket arrived today, holy fucking shit last-minuteness people! The whole ticketing thing with this festival is bloody nerve-wracking, with the "okay, tens of thousands of you click at once to buy tickets" way back in fucking MARCH and then not even sending them until the week of?! Aie. I may choose the HMV route next year, assuming of course anyone I wanna see plays next year, lol.

Hey, nightsofcydonia! You've got two more days, girl. You grown that penis yet? ;D

Oh, yes, and shirtless boys. It was raining on the way home tonight so of course my glasses were all rain-blurred and I was squinting at the guy stretching in front of the house preparatory to going for a run and it took me a moment to recognise him as Boy1, mainly because I think it's the second time I've ever seen him *with* a shirt on. He lives in a pair of shorts, lol. cookie2697 can confirm this. :D And then the pretty blonde boy from upstairs (looking_spiffy, the one who wanted me to call the landlord when the fire alarm went off b/c he'd run out of credit) came into our kitchen while I was doing the dinner thing and asked if I had a can opener he could borrow. Which I do, actually, lol, and he even washed it before returning it, bless. But he wasn't wearing a shirt either and I was standing there thinking, when did I turn into the house mommy and does it have any perks besides making me feel really fucking old? Because, damn, he handed it back and said, "Cheers. Pleasure," and went back upstairs, and I'm like, oh you had better be over twenty for what that one innocent word is making me think, boy.

Tonight was actually the kick-off of the Stay Gold 2007 Canadian tour, so those of you in Canadaland wishing to see The Bouncing Souls may get your chance! :D There's a couple dozen dates in the big cities and some more obscure places right across the country, and the last stop is Victoria, BC. I assume TBS has a website where you can get details, though I've never gone looking for one; if not, kung fu records should have info.

It was so much fun. I skipped the 2 opening bands and got there just before midnight (doors opened at 10) as I'd never heard of either and frankly the idea of standing around for *five hours* by myself isn't that appealing. Esp since the first time I went to see a band in a bar-type venue in Hfx, we actually showed up at 10 to discover the opener didn't get around to starting until half past, and there was no one else in the bar yet. LOL. So I rarely go before 11 pm now unless the first opener is a band I wanna see. Anyway, it was an interesting and very diverse crowd. I *would* have said relatively well-behaved, except, well, about halfway through TBS's set the mosh pit right in front broke the barrier. *dies* Seriously, the metal just snapped. The band stopped playing and the singer was like, "Let's hear it for these 3 guys for holding it up in the first place! Go easy on 'em." They actually had to get a bunch of us to step back so they could remove it entirely. I was most amused. Very, very dangerous place to crowd-surf, though - really low ceiling, with ducts and stuff, and the spotlights were basically centred over the mosh area so surfers risked getting burned on those. I got shoved more by bouncers diving into the crowd to pull people down than I did by any of the moshers! Stayed to the left side of the stage, about 3 people from the guitarist. :D I was a little farther back for Strike Anywhere, who were also awesome and I bought their most recent CD afterwards (I'll share some when I've listened to it). I loved some of the TBS merch but didn't get any - most band T-shirts tend to be too small for the ol' boobs, lol.

Speaking of which, there's something bizarrely comforting about wearing a low-cut top and subsequently having one's chest ogled. It sort of restores my faith that the universe is working properly and we're all not dead yet. Some of y'all will understand that and the rest will be all, huh? but that's okay. :D Although the person who did actually hit on me was female. She was adorable, very petite with dark hair. It's nice to know that my flirting radar still operates perfectly well regardless of gender. :-)

I think, though, that I'm going to need to start wearing earplugs to small venue concerts like that. :-/ I always seem to end up near the monitors b/c I wanna be close but not in the centre, and I can tell it's done a bigger number on my hearing than a stadium-type concert does - Dropkick Murphys was the same way. Mreh I hate wearing earplugs! But I'd rather do that and still be ABLE to hear, y'know? Oh, and the number of people wearing DM shirts tonight was hilarious, too. A good third of the crowd, seriously.

I did take a bunch of pix with a disposable; didn't quite finish the roll but I'll do that soon and post them once they're developed. Hopefully some turned out; I definitely had a good vantage point but it'll depend on lighting/movement, of course. And on that note, I'm going to go scrub my face and collapse. My cosmetics-still-perfectly-intact face, heh. MAC lipliner is the best thing ever!

P.S. If something makes no sense, feel free to ask. It's 4 am and I'm not exactly thinking too clearly. Also, I haven't even looked at LJ today so apologies if I missed something directed at me. I did get to *read* my email but had no time to respond to anything. *mwah*

I got suckered into going to a sex toy home party tonight and I can't get the uber sweet strawberry scent of the dick-numbing cream out of the back of my hand - nor has the feeling come back all the way, lol. I say "suckered" b/c it was a bunch of people from work and assorted daughters and friends and stuff. Although my horrified visions of it being like the candle parties wherein you order stuff at the party but it is delivered later (and in that case, brought to work *eep*) were unfounded: either you took it home on the spot or she'd hand-deliver it the next day. Nothing that interested me, though, even if I'd wanted to spend the money. I had a good giggle to myself at one point. I came in late, of course, b/c it started at 8 and I had to work til 9, so I was sitting right beside the party hostess and she passed me everything first and then it went on around the room. (Very bridal shower-ish, really. Only gigglier.) She handed me this vibrating cock ring - turning it on first - and one of my coworkers hadn't heard what it was so she asked, and I matter-of-factly said what it was, and she cracked up. Because apparently it seemed right weird to be hearing such things out of me. *snicker* Most people still find it utterly shocking when I say, "fuck," too. It amuses me. Personally, I think it has to do with the whole thing where I sound like I'm still twelve or so lol. I really oughta do a voicepost one of these days. Or a fake one, anyway, since the international ones are currently not working bah.

Tomorrow, I am spending the day with my closest friend here YAY! Augh I never get to see her anymore. We're gonna shop (I need to take back my headphones, they are weird and suck boo) and then if they still have the cheap tickets, which I expect they will, we're gonna go see Hedley. *grins* We're both sort of eh about the band's music - they're okay, nothing all that special - but zomg JACOB. I haven't gotten around to my Crushes thingie yet but the singer is SO on there. And has a habit of losing *at least* his shirt. *droooooools* The nosebleeds are about two bucks more than a movie would be since the concert is part of some basketball thing (we're totally skipping all that part LOL) so it should be fun for not much money. *snorts at MuchMusic's irony* *happily watches the hip lines*

Got mah hair cut today. I was going to do it next week but it's been royally pissing me off so since I was out where there was a decent salon I asked about walk-ins and got it done. It's not quite as cool as the last person cut it but it's good and my bangs aren't in my fucking eyes anymore woohoo! The mom and I are going to finally colour it tomorrow. Since I didn't do it before the Dropkick Murphys concert and got sick right after, I figured I'd just wait until a week or two before I left for SF so it'd be nice and bright then. And, well, that's only two weeks away now! OMG!

We had a repair guy in for the phone line this morning, waaaay too early for me. My mom noticed she couldn't keep a dial tone but the 'net was okay so she sent them an email, and next thing she knows, there's a guy at the door. *dies* I'm glad I don't keep anything incriminating in my walk-in closet b/c the base jack is in there!!! (It used to be bare under-stairs space; I had the closet built before we moved in b/c we failed to notice that my bedroom is closet-free, oops.) I don't even have any Christmas presents in there yet that would have sucked to have been found. He was actually pretty good looking and my dad tells me after he left that he went to the Stones concert and is going to the Guns 'n Roses one too. *pokes the dad* I would've checked for a wedding ring if I'd known that beforehand lol. Or maybe not. *points to next item*

Note to self: when purchasing a CD from a guy you think is cute, who you've seen before and thought was cute (he's Billie-size but kinda looks like Dave G.), and he's making conversation and asks if it's raining yet, and you inform him that it's pissing down outside, and he smiles and comes back with, 'Sounds like a perfect night to curl up on the couch with a bottle of wine'? FLIRT BACK GODDAMNIT! *headdesk* Even if it IS pre-haircut and you think you look like you totally just rolled out of bed and left the house which you did. Yeesh. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just, like, broken for good, man. Like the time when the bartender fucked up and opened me a beer when I'd asked for something else, and the cute guy beside me bought the beer. Five minutes LATER it hit me that I could have said more than 'thank you'. Because really, who does that just to be sweet?

Btw, the CD I bought was Eagles of Death Metal. There are a few albums I wanna pick up, but their music makes me happy and the price was good. Now I can't get anymore for a while. *sighs* \m/

I got home about an hour ago. The party was a lot of fun. The band that played the last time was there - the guitarist is Teresa's cousin - and when the bass player was goofing around with a bunch of us in between sets and asking for requests I was drunk enough to tell him Green Day was my favourite band, so for a kiss they played When I Come Around. Which almost made me laugh b/c that's actually my least favourite song (I still have radio overplay twinges) but then they played half of Basket Case too, and Weezer's Perfect Situation before going back to classic stuff. Hee. And it was just a little peck kind of kiss. The, er, making out kind of kissing didn't happen until about 3:30 this morning after everyone else left. I'm not entirely sure what I think about all that; I may post about it later or not. I'm not feeling bad about it or anything, just amused/confused/thoughtful. I *am* feeling kinda queasy this morning, which is a first, but just a little bit, not the imminent-danger type lol.

I was unsuccessful in my mission to get the new Hawksley Workman CD today. (Okay, yesterday, since it's technically tomorrow already.) There must have been some issue shipping them or something; no one has them. I talked to the guy at CD Plus though and he'd thought it was in March, but upon checking the computer discovered I was right about the release date but they hadn't gotten any, so he ordered some. :D I'm not too broken up, though, b/c he ALSO told me that HW is playing here soon! Wheeeeeeeee! The info's in the indie paper, which I haven't read this week's issue of yet so he showed me where the ad was and I took the paper with me. OMG it was so cute - he was bouncing up and down trying to balance on one leg whilst using the other as a prop for the open paper. I almost said something about the counter being right there but it was fun to watch. :D Actually, he was cute and wee and had Dave Grohl-ish messy long hair and I was rather kicking myself later for not flirting harder. I'se out of practice, and the bouncing kinda threw me off LOL. Anyway, the concert is on March 10, 2 days before Rob, tix are $25 and good seats are still available. More than I'd like, but the Cohn is usually $25-40 so I was expecting it when he told me where it would be. SOEXCITEDOMGZ. Damn but March is going to be hella busy for me. *grins* I need to find something to do the last weekend, b/c the other 3 have gotten pretty fucking crammed!

I did, however, not leave empty-handed. The City and Colour CD was on the 2/$25 deal and I didn't see anything else I wanted right away, but while NotDave was bouncing I saw Black Rebel Motorcycle Club so I got them both. I don't even know that much BRMC: one song (that I adore), which is on this CD. Between that and how much feels_like_fire enthused over them, and the fact that anything I've listened to that she loves I've at least enjoyed if not fallen head-over-heels for, it seemed a safe bet! C&C is the side project for Dallas Green, the singer for Alexison Fire - the one who actually sings, not the screamer, lol. It also has possibly the coolest liner notes/art *ever*. They were all done by a tattoo artist based in Toronto, Scott McEwan. (I was going to link to his site, but it appears to be down.) Will post some songs when I've had a chance to listen. Well, maybe not from the BRMC; it's a Sony release and I'm very leery of ripping anything from them after that whole rootkit/spyware debacle. :-/ But C&C for sure. :)

Erm, I also came home with a Green Day poster. This one. Which everyone and their kid sister has, which is why they were six bucks, lol. I can't help but think of what rainjewel said about Mike every time I look at it, though. xD I was trying to think of what the last band poster I bought was, and I came up against a total wall. I don't think I EVER bought a band poster!!! I had lots of magazine pullouts and a Duran Duran calendar (stfu) but my actual posters were mostly unicorns or dance-related. Wow, that is a weeeeeeird revelation. I rarely even had movie posters. The one exception was the absolutely *massive* black and white one of Brandon Lee as the Crow that served as a headboard in the apt. in Toronto while I was at uni, lol. The last poster I bought period was of Big Sur, in that little art gallery somewhere off the Pacific Coast Highway in California that I was telling luthien123 about.

Hmm, can't remember what else I wanted to post about. Once again, I was sidetracked by the music. *facepalm* It's both sad and amusing that my friends and I agree that the most likely reason I'll ever go to Ontario to visit my family? Is because there'll be a concert I want to see. *sporfles, somewhat embarassedly*

OH! *squidges* to mikeyface and oneandonlytrey. Welcome to my insanity. :D *squidges jetblackmirror for fetching me last night while she's at it*

I was talking about chicken soup when that exited my mouth, but it made me laugh. Wouldn't be a terrible life motto, I suppose. lol

I borrowed a couple of Mike's Emm Gryner CDs today, so I can familiarise myself with her music a little more before we go see her next weekend. I think he was nervous that I'd hate it, lol, despite Cass having already told him that yes, I do know who she is and I like what I've heard. I know I'm known for loud rock but I DO have other speeds! And he is such a goof. He says the most ridiculously outrageous things to me, lol. I think he's trying to get a rise out of me, and is puzzled as to why most of what might possibly be considered offensive behaviour by some just kind of rolls off me. The thing is, he is SO MUCH like A when he and I first got together--and even before that when we were just friends, so I had years to unlearn the being embarrassed by public weirdness issue. Seriously, when you're dating a guy who's wandered around at a pool party in a pink and black polka-dot bikini with frickin' screws stuck in the top so they look like really disturbing nipples, and your response to the, "Doesn't that bug you?" question was, "At least he's not naked anymore," the weird tends to not bother you much. LOL

But here's something that *is* actually weird to me: I'm completely NOT attracted to Mike. Not that I'd have pursued anything obviously but you'd think I would be at least a little bit interested when he's so much like someone I spent eight years with, and I'm not, at ALL. I enjoy spending time with him and that's the end of it. It makes me wonder if maybe I wasn't even more delusional than I'd thought about my relationship with A.

It's interesting to contemplate, anyway. If the psycho dork isn't my type anymore, what is? Because I have NO fucking clue. Nor am I really sure why all this is swirling in my head right now. *shrug* It's been a long, strange week. My brain is highly scattered, lol.

^That would be how I think of this particular pair of socks, lol. They are black ankle socks with black hearts embroidered on them, and inside the hears are Canadian, American and British flags. :-D I think I bought them downtown the last time Mel was here in the summer! I'm having Mel withdrawals b/c she was here around this time last year. *sniff*

So, at last break Cass and I went on a tea run and the store was really busy, so we left fast and I didn't realise until I got back to my desk that they'd given me fucking coffee. Yuck. I can NOT drink Tim's coffee; it's like battery acid in my stomach! So I went over after work to get my money back, since why would I exchange when I can then go home and make my own damn tea, and there's a bunch of teenagers coming out of the store. One of them looked me up and down and pulled a Joey: he said, "How you doin'?" to me, I kid you not. Inflection and all. I was so shocked I kinda stuttered, "Good," and just went into the store. I mean, WTF??? That's just disturbing, man. I like younger men fine, keyword being MEN, dammit. Not babies LOL. It totally creeped me out!

Not like that should be a surprise. I spent thirty-five dollars that I do not have today, on a latté, this year's Starbucks Halloween bear and SPIN magazine. Funny, I put down the writing mag that I quite wanted and thought I'd just peek at music before I left, and there it was. Never mind that I already have scans of the relevant pages, lol. Although truthfully, the History of Indie Rock article is what made me decide to pick it up. And damn, these bears are getting to be one expensive collection!! But they're so cuuuuuute. :-D

Going to the movies tomorrow night, to see either Elizabethtown or In Her Shoes - depends on what time we make it there. The late show doesn't tend to be that late here, which is a bit of an issue when you work til 9 pm. But we need to get Julie out of the house, and Cass is on a mission to feed me donairs. Once I've crossed that line I'll let you know wtf they actually ARE, lol. Sort of like gyros wraps with sub sauce, from what I can tell...

On the Julie-out-of-house thing, her marriage is kind of imploding. Which I wish I could say I hadn't seen coming a mile away, but she's 24 and he's 22. Lol, he and I basically politely ignore each other whenever there's a group function, which is I suspect partly b/c he doesn't approve of me on a superficial level (not hot enough to hang w/her) but more b/c I haven't done anything to particularly dampen the vibes that I do not like him. I have not liked him since the first time I *saw* him, before I even offically met him, and I haven't liked the way he's treated Julie even before this insanity. But she's been off work all week b/c she's a mess, and I seriously want to kick something really fucking hard. Preferably his head. I tried to stay neutral when it all started b/c it sort of mirrors what happened with A and I, with him being "too friendly" with a female friend, and with me not liking Matt on top of that I was too close to my own memories to even make an attempt at unbiased advice. Now, of course, I wish I'd tried harder but I doubt anything I did would have made any difference. All I can do is be there for her now. Therefore, chick night.

Bah, and Christine reminded Cass of her other mission concerning me, which I thought I had successfully deflected thanks to the donair virginity lol. It was back when we were all gussied up for Rock Star day - btw, the one photo we got is absolutely useless. You can't even tell who WE are, let alone who we were supposed to be. Anyway, so we were talking about the whole fuck-me pants thing b/c of Cass's skintight pleather and she decided that she should find me a guy. She looked quite evil stating it too, what with the devilish smile and piles of black eyeliner LOL, and I was like, oh shit. Today, the military police office across the parking lot was apparently having some kind of formal event b/c there were lots of guys in dress uniform. Christine saw them when she went across to Tim's for coffee and mentioned it to Cass, but I didn't let her drag me out that way on our break, lol. God that's all I need! Yes, I'm totally ready and interested in dating - I daresay anticipatory, even, which is something I haven't felt for eons in that area - but the idea of my 22-year-old friend trying to set me up scares the crap out of me! LOLOL

Hmm. There was more, but it's flitted off into the sunset. Oh well.

So we did go shopping - for several hours, in fact.  After which we were all tired, and agreed that our desk jobs do nothing for shopping stamina.  I am apparently the reigning queen of girliness, b/c I know lots about hair dye, makeup, clothes matching & fitting, and accessorizing.  LOL.  If either Cassie or Christine's hair looks like crap on Monday I am in deep shit! O_o    My purchases for the day were small: blue platinum eyeshadow; a CD; a VHS copy of Almost Famous for five bucks; and one of those long, skinny scarves - it's black crochet with sort of coloured "coins" crocheted in the pattern, and tiny iridescent beads on the open-weave black portions.  Plus fringe, of course.  I don't actually own any of this type of scarf b/c they're too long and skinny to use as a regular scarf imo, and I'm not really looking to call attention to my hips by wearing it as a belt, lol.  But I totally fell in love with this one, so I guess I'll figure out some way to wear it.

Julie didn't end up coming with us; she and Matt were up extremely late fighting, and it's just not good.  Not my place to discuss their issues in public here but I will say that I'd like to kick his ass.  Fuckwad.  Cass and I may go over there tomorrow, partly b/c she was going to do our tattoos this weekend and I know she needs the money for something she's supposed to pick up on Monday, but also just as moral support.  *sigh*  Boys.  Remind me why I want one again?

this is!  Yesterday was Cass's birthday and we're throwing her a surprise party tomorrow night at her boyfriend's place, so Julie and I have been kinda sneaking around organising things, lol.  Plus we did go out for a little bit after work yesterday to celebrate.  I'm not a big fan of the lying part, though; someone almost spilled the beans today and Cass asked me point-blank if there was something happening on Friday.  I *think* I managed to defuse suspicion, but yeah.  So tomorrow's going to be a reallllllllly long day, b/c I have stuff to do in the morning and then God only knows what time I'll get home!  My poor cat is so confused by my variations in schedule these days, LOL.  Work is really busy too, of course, because it's office supplies and September and those just go together.  Back to school and all.

I've also gotten considerably better about having my cell on and with me, lol, after having missed a couple of calls and getting soundly chewed out about it! :D

And then shopping and self-inflicted pain on Saturday.  lol.  I talked to Julie about the shadowing and we agreed that it wouldn't look right for this one b/c it's supposed to look like the quill has just written the text, but the quill's going to have a drop-shadow.  Apologies to those of you who don't want to read about tattoos b/c it makes you want one ;-) but I'm nervous and excited and that leads to babbling.

What else?  I met a cute guy yesterday.  Well, "met" is overstating it: I was briefly introduced to a cute guy who is a former co-worker of Christine's while they caught up.  They did include me in the general conversation, though I'm sure I would have been a somewhat more scintillating conversationalist without the massive headache.  After he left she confided that she'd gone for him when they'd been working together and he'd shot her down gently by saying she was too young.  She's only 3 years younger than him, lol.  Wonder what he thinks of older women?  Hee.  Seriously, maybe the headache was distracting me but the cool part was that I didn't feel all shy or self-conscious even while being aware that I was definitely attracted to him.  Or maybe that's age since I literally haven't dated since I was a teenager.  Either way, it was nice to just feel attracted to someone without also feeling freaked out, lol.  I'm pretty sure I'd recognise him if I saw him again and I would definitely say hi.

It's another spirit week at work so I've been doing that all week, too.  Tomorrow is pyjama day so I'll have to take clothes with me too.  As much as I like my fishie p.j.s, I ain't wearing them to a party, LOL.  Today was funny picture day, so I took in the one of Anne and I in our safari hats at Disneyland last year. :D  Speaking of pictures, I got to work too late to be included in the Polaroid alas, but Tuesday was crazy hair day.  In lieu of doing anything that would be wicked damaging like teasing my poor locks into afro-size, I used an arsenal of hair clips and gems and also pinned in some strands of silver beads.  It actually ended up looking pretty cool, if a bit much-ish.  But I would totally do a way toned-down version, especially with some really small, subtler/nicer beads (as opposed to the Christmas garland, lol).

I think that was it. :-D