Yesterday - Thursday - the windchill dipped to around -30C. Then in late evening, it started to snow. Today was blizzard conditions. Still cold, though not quite like that! Seriously, between the snow falling from the sky and being blown around in gales, we couldn't see the house across the street.

I had been glumly anticipating spending the weekend doing shifts of shovelling out the driveway from its two feet of snow, seeing as I am the only person in the house capable of shovelling, but I am well out of practice at both the activity and being in this weather/temperature, but Dad decided to ring the landscaping company that cuts the grass in the summer to see if they do snow removal. (Many do; year-round income that way.) They do, and agreed to dig us out, saying it would probably be tomorrow. The owner's brother lives round the corner from us, though, and has just had shoulder surgery so obviously isn't able to do his own driveway. I thought I heard scraping outside about 10:00 pm and sure enough, it's all been cleared away! Fabulous *g*. They did put quite a pile at one side of the bottom of the driveway that looks like it's more on the street, which will probably end up spread across the driveway if the snowplow goes through again, but I can manage that easily.

I'm keeping warm in fuzzy pyjamas, fuzzy socks, Snoozies, polar fleece house coat, and blanket. And coffee or tea. I'm drinking more coffee than I would normally because making coffee has been one of my dad's jobs around the house so it's helpful for him to keep doing it and feel useful. We are coping.

The outer edge of Hurricane Bill is at Halifax now, according to the satellite images I can find. Eye should pass over in a few hours. It's currently labelled as a tropical storm, with heavy rainfall and attendant flooding, and extreme winds warnings. Bill has, however, ranged from a tropical storm to a Category 4 Hurricane along its journey, so. Thoughts would be appreciated.

I don't know if it's that, or just a surfeit of people/conversation this week, or what, but I am having a hibernatory, withdrawn weekend. The persistent sinus headache doesn't exactly help me feel sociable, either. And in case anyone was wondering, no, I'm not caught up on LJ, or even reading it atm. I'm just pulling in a little bit right now.

Well, I have heat. Not that it's actually *warm* in here yet, but the radiator is operational now, so that's progress. Though the day ended up being a complete write-off because the guy didn't do mine until nearly five. By that time I was exhausted, not having slept enough in order to be ready for the "late morning" possibility *snort* and not being able to do more than semi-doze during the day; cranky; and still cold. I gave up on attempting to do anything and had a nap. I feel a bit better now, albeit headachey. Food will hopefully help with that. On the plus side, at least I'm not in New England dealing with the aftermath of ice storms. :-/ While this December is apparently the coldest start to winter the UK's had since the 70s, there was still only one night this week that the overnight low was below freezing (it was -1). That makes a few days without heat an unpleasant nuisance, not a potential death sentence.

Y'all may have noticed that I'm a tad chattier than I was at the beginning of the month. This is directly related to having mailed off Christmas stuff to the fam and thus being able to stop thinking about it all the time. I'm having a much harder time dealing with this whole Christmas on the other side of the world thing than I had anticipated. Naive of me perhaps. I didn't expect it to be all smooth sailing or anything, but I wasn't expecting it to be this hard, either. Especially as regards the rest of my family as I haven't seen most of them in nearly five years, since the last time I was in Ontario. But logic, she has precious little to do with emotion, alas, and I'm struggling a fair bit. I keep bouncing between being busy and glad to be so as it gives me less time to think, and finding it more upsetting because there's too much to do and I end up feeling overwhelmed and wanting to just sit in a corner and rock, kind of thing. So, yeah, I'm limping along and feeling like a bit of an asshole because my first instinct is always to withdraw when I feel like this, which isn't fair or even necessarily healthy a lot of the time but is damn difficult not to do. The Race of Champions tomorrow will be good. It'll be the first time I've been in Wembley Stadium, too. I've gone *by* it, to get to the Arena to see Matchbox, but never been in it yet. Should be interesting. *g*

Btw mikeyface, got your card. Thanks, dear. ♥

It's actually a lovely afternoon; I need to go run some more errands but I am reluctant to lose the opportunity to have the window open for a while. My hands are a tad sore from carrying the box back from the post office, but at least it's at the *top* of the hill so I was unencumbered going up. Said box is now open, but I've just put everything back in because other than my requested sweatshirt, it's all wrapped! And, and... my stocking is in there. With stuff in it (also wrapped). I totally cried. I know, I'm wicked old to still be getting a stocking, lol; we did quit it when I was married, then picked it up again, as I have no kids for the tradition to graduate to and I think the mother enjoys it even more than I do. *sniffle* ♥

Gah, you know, I keep having all these, "I want to post about that," thoughts and then I actually get a few minutes here with time to do that, because I don't need to spend 3/4 of my limited computer time with work-related stuff, and I go blank. Fabulous. We'll stick to a list because nobody else needs to know how long it was supposed to be, right? ;)

-The spell of hot, muggy weather we've had for about the last two weeks has finally stomped on my allergies. I've been coughing and sneezing my head off the last few days. Apparently, my body knows it's August. :P One of the few areas where Halifax beats pretty much everywhere else is in regards to allergies, so I was kind of expecting them to flare up here, but hoping it wouldn't be too bad. Though, I expect having spent time in London recently didn't help matters; it's really more the coastal areas where there's any improvement.

-Even with as limited as I've been forced to play so far, I'm enjoying the Est and having fun with the writing and posting parts both. I can't wait to be able to get properly involved when I have my laptop back. I'm also finding it absolutely fascinating to deal with Rob at different points in time (there are, of course, flashback scenes). It's so interesting to get past a certain point in writing something set *then*, and then realise how it affects who he is and what he thinks/feels/does *now*, and that it's actually really critical to his character development. Whee.

-Semi-relatedly, I am getting to the point in some things where I am somewhat less comfortable posting from the library, lol. Not that that'll stop me, but it appears I do have some sense of propriety after all. I'd say something about y'all being shocked, but by this time, I sincerely doubt it!

-I need to post about this in more detail, and possibly steal some of cookie2697's pix, but we went to the BBC Proms last Sunday, for the Doctor Who Prom, with muffinkath7's sister and a friend of Anne's. This is not a formal graduation dance type thing, btw - that's what I thought it was the first time I heard of it, that some school had gone all fannish on their formal! - but the Proms are a series of orchestral concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The DW one was # 13 and it was amazing. It wasn't the first time, but it was probably the strongest that I've wished that I were a really, truly obsessed fan for the show, because the entire thing was a glorious exercise in the best kind of fan service. (No, not *that* kind, you naughty people.)

That's all I've got time for now. Off to Wales in the morning (so excited!)!

It's a very depressing day out there; been raining since the middle of the night sometime. One of those days that never quite reaches daylight, y'know? I'm going a bit cross-eyed and brain-scrambled from staring at the computer (not to mention my protesting back) so I think I'll acquiesce to the urge such days always induce in me and have a nap. My brain is so sluggish today that I'm having a hard time wording things, and I'm not going to get this done in time to take it to the library to print off, so I'll keep working on it this evening and go print it in the morning. While that feels last-minute-y, it isn't, really; still hours before it's needed. Yes, hush, I'm totally justifying my procrastination to myself here. But I really am at that blank stare stage. I hate this kind of stuff so much. Unless it involves spelling, grammar, proofreading or writing, I'm horrible at 'selling myself.' Those are the only areas in which I feel firmly confident. :/

Belated happy birthdays to rainjewel and hector_rashbaum, and a happy day today to cathrynbarnes. *smooches* to y'all. ♥

On Saturday, I spent the afternoon/evening hanging out in London with looking_spiffy, beatupcar, jou, and feels_like_fire and her mother. There was much silliness and laughter and it was good. Kat was kind enough to rub our faces in her most recent amazing luck by wearing her Mother Mary T-shirt with the FBHT logo splashed across the back. :P

Yesterday, beatupcar and I went for yummy Mexican and then explored Camden Market. It's the first time I'd been there but it will definitely not be the last! Fabulous place. She wanted to get some new Converse so we ended up in a shop that has an autographed photo of the Green Day boys under the glass at the payment counter (beneath his signature, Billie has written "shoes" with an arrow pointing down to his feet, lol), and even better, right as we got to the entrance they started playing a medley of older GD songs. :D Best part, though, was Laura's eventual purchase, which is made of awesome and I might get myself a matching pair once I have some discretionary income again - she said she wouldn't mind if I had the same ones, yay. And then later, we stopped for a drink at the World's End pub, which bills itself as being the biggest pub ever and it *is* enormous, and they played American Idiot. The ALBUM, not just the song - front to back, the entire thing! We were there a fair bit longer than we'd planned and chatting like mad all through it. I've never been in a bar that's played an entire album before and it was so unbelievably cool when Jesus of Suburbia started and we realised what they were doing. *gleesquee*

I noticed on our way into London yesterday that one of the straps on my handbag was thisclose to ripping free, so I did splurge on a new one in Camden. I quite like it, especially that it has three different handle choices - small hand-sized ones, a standard shoulder strap, and also a detachable across-the-shoulder strap so it can be worn like a messenger bag (and it's very nearly large enough to be one too). And it's lovely red pleather, w00t. I also bought a funky fleece blanket that will go nicely with the few decorative things I have to put up in my new place. If you've known me for any length of time, you know I need to have some colour!

Today is the bank holiday and stargazerdavid and I met a couple of his friends for lunch, and otherwise we've just chilled as the weather has finally, finally turned to rain and we've both been sleepy. I swear, I've gotten a stupid amount of sun exposure since I moved to England. Can anybody tell me what's wrong with that sentence??? Heehee.

Tomorrow I'll be getting drunkhanging out with beelzezuk and nene, and then back to Southampton to get on with it again and do things like exchange my rent money for keys and all that. There are also a few items I need to pick up in preparation to move. At some point I need to type up my now way overdue Barcelona report too oy.

Shortly after I moved to Halifax, there was a big to-do about Sex?, the then-new Health Canada educational pamphlet handed out to 14-year-olds. Various people were all up in arms about it, particularly because it had a section on anal sex. I distinctly recall one older white male city councillor's objection that he'd been married for some forty years and had never had any need of "that sort of information." My first, flippant thought was that it sucked to be him then, didn't it. But the reality is that that information was included because the incidence of HIV was rising among teenage girls because they were engaging in unprotected anal sex as a pregnancy-free alternative, not having been properly educated that it's extremely high risk behaviour so far as disease goes - more so than vaginal sex. Far from being all, "Hey, you should do this," the pamphlet's purpose was to explain why, in fact, you might not want to, and if you do, how to do it without endangering your or anyone else's health. The age of sexual consent in Nova Scotia is 14. (Canada-wide, it ranges from 14 to 16 and back again, depending on who's in power and what part of their real job they're trying to avoid by pointlessly re-legislating the age.) People who are legally capable of sexual activity - I'll leave any moral, etc. discussion out of this - should be properly equipped with the information they need to make informed personal choices. I find it unconscionable that in this day and age, there are still teenagers who believe that you can't get pregnant the first time, or that you can get pregnant from using a boy's toothbrush. Actually, I find it inhumane. And while I do respect parents' right to educate their child(ren) themselves, the sad fact is that they frequently don't, or they do a half-assed job of it because they're crippled with embarrassment. I would consider a carefully researched, medically accurate pamphlet like Sex? to be a Godsend if I were the parent of a teenager, even if I expect that my kid would already know most of that directly from me already. I'd far rather embarrass the hell out of them and myself than possibly subject both of us to the potentially disastrous consequences.

So, why am I talking about issues a few years out of date in a place I'm not living right now? Well, because my anti-censorship button has just been stomped on by this bit of news from the BBC: When does kinky porn become illegal? A bill outlawing the possession of "extreme pornography" is set to become law next week. But many fear it has been rushed through and will criminalise innocent people with a harmless taste for unconventional sex. O_o So having, say, this icon on my hard drive could potentially be construed as illegal, depending on whose subjective definition of "extreme pornography" is being used. *borrows David Tennant's Doctor Who voice for a moment* "What? What???" Does not compute and oh holy hell, DO NOT WANT. This sort of thing right here is why I have to wear a damn retainer to protect me from teeth-grinding. My brain does not stoop to that level of idiocy.

In less inflammatory England-related news, it's been raining steadily and often quite hard today, for the first time since I got here. It seems I've been rather lucky in that department lately. :D Tbh, though, it's nice to see some rain after getting too much sun in Spain. The greyness of the day is not, however, helping with the sleepiness. I got a decent amount of sleep but have been fighting off the desire to go back to bed since about fifteen minutes after I got up. I'm afraid today has been completely useless so far as accomplishing anything goes. Well, unless one counts more or less catching up online as an accomplishment. I didn't comment on much but I at least skimmed everything.

On the lack of accomplishment list is feeding myself properly. I have gotten out of the habit of thinking of food planning and preparation, and I'm finding it exceedingly difficult to swing back into it. Granted, this was one of the reasons I wanted out on my own, which empirically speaking does seem eminently dumb, but emotionally was, I think, necessary, because my mother is one of the most voracious readers I know and cooking and baking fall a not-very-distant second to picking up a book for her favourite activity. So anytime I wanted something that was more complicated than warming it in the microwave, I just asked and she was genuinely happy to make me food. Which is good, and it was certainly convenient and welcome when I was tired, etc., but at the same time, it twinged on my dependency scales, even when it shouldn't have. I have a lot of knee-jerk reactions when it comes to my mother. What can I say?

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. :-)

Lazy Sunday with loud cars on the TV. I seem to be destined to spend April watching other people drive, lol. Actually, adjusting to being car-less in England is going to be possibly harder than any culture shock type stuff. Oh, well.

metlab alerted to this cover of Basket Case. It's an acoustic folk version. O_o I don't know *what* to think of it, to tell the truth. It sounds pretty enough, and it does kind of hit what I usually like in a cover song, which is to say that it reinterprets the original material in the cover artist's own fashion, but ultimately? Do not want. Partly, I think, because it isn't just slowed down insanely, etc., but also, the melody line is unrecognizable. If I couldn't hear the lyrics, I would not have known it was supposed to be a cover. :-/

It's a lovely spring day today, sunny and warm-ish enough to have the windows open during the afternoon. This is yayness.

The mother phoned yesterday. She has my computer located where she wants it and working. More or less, lol. She does not like it, but that's not an uncommon reaction to suddenly having to get used to a new set-up, etc.. Every time I moved desks at work, I had to reconfigure everyfuckingthing so it would work properly. She'll get it how she wants it soon enough. In the meantime, she said she's glad I'm only in Montreal right now so she can get cheap technical assistance right at first!

ETA: Forgot to mention - if you didn't know, this year's NASCAR theme song is How Far We've Come. When the race coverage starts up and it plays, the MB20 boys are part of the little montage and Rob looks like a kid in a candy store at getting to omg!touch the car. LOLOL

I am ensconced at evaine's in my pyjamas with a big mug of tea and the Storytellers: Matchbox Twenty DVD playing on the lovely big screen TV. :D My idea of a good night with a friend indeed! Flight last night was uneventful, save for a little damage to one of my checked bags, grr. It's along one of the back edges so it should be fine to continue to use for this trip, and then I'll prolly get rid of it/eventually replace it once I'm settled. Eh, as the mother noted, it wasn't a crazy expensive suitcase, so hardly the end of the world there, just annoying.

Speaking of annoying, it snowed all day today. Ew. It was weird to see all the existing snow that hasn't melted yet, actually, because it's all gone in Nova Scotia. We didn't do a whole lot today; I spent a good chunk of the morning asleep and then napped later in the afternoon, too. I feel a lot better for that after getting verrry little for the last few days. We *did* have a wonderful lunch at a boulangerie called Première Maison. OMG. I had a fabulous sandwich of Brie, pears and walnuts on a teeny individual baguette, warmed. *droool* Neither my ass nor my allergies would thank me but I could eat that every day. Mmm. And now, I am snacking on dill pickle potato chips, w00t. Also not good for my ass but they're my favourite and I won't be able to get 'em after this week, so whatever, lol. Tomorrow we're going to run some errands - I forgot to get my suit jacket drycleaned and I'm going to need that for interviews and stuff - and Ev's also going to let me drag her into Sephora, because they have a few stores in Canada now. Wheee! I'll have to be very careful about what I spend, but honestly, I don't normally spend nearly as much money in there as I do time playing with stuff and deciding what to treat myself with. *hearts Sephora*

In case anyone was curious, I feel like I'm just on vacation so far. I'm kinda thinking that won't change until later, possibly quite a bit later - like maybe not even until I actually start working again.

I'm oddly calm considering that I have about 28 hours in which to accomplish everything. But all of the necessary paperwork is in my handbag (which has been emptied of the assorted crap and re-filled with more important crap!), and the suitcases are open on the bed and slowly accumulating clothes et al. Which are the most critical things so if others get left undone, well... it sucks to be Mom then, I guess. lol. Although my lack of flail may be due in part to the grand total of four hours of sleep I had. Perhaps I'll be more excitable later? I don't think so, though. Now that it's down to the wire, I feel settled about it. :-)

Also, it's sunny, warm-ish and hella windy today. I am LMAO that "windblown" no longer has any meaning for me as a descriptor.

J has a sign on his desk that says that. It makes me laugh, esp as he is a spring-y sort of person. We tease him about being in a perpetual game of whack-a-mole b/c he has this way of just popping up so all you can see is his head over his cubicle wall when someone says his name. It's awfully cute. We may actually have gotten out the inflatable Sponge Bob hammer and whacked him once, also.

Anyway, I forgot yesterday was the vernal equinox, so a tardy wish for blessings for all. I assume the fact that the roads were a skating rink in the morning and the car had to be chipped off before I could leave the house - not scraped, chipped - due to several hours of freezing rain might have had something to do with it. :P The later warm-up to plain rain at least got rid of the ice. Today, of course, it's snowing. Uh-huh. Coming down pretty good right now. Supposed to snow tomorrow, too. Joy.

Despite the nice big window of time I left available by going to bed early and not having anything planned for this morning, I managed about six hours of more or less solid sleep before the cough forced me upright. Ugh. The parents have just gone out to run a couple of errands at the few places they know are open today (too bad my frigging work is open) and they are going to stop at a drugstore because one of us remembered that Buckley's now makes pills. I have a habit of taking cough medicine whilst standing over the kitchen sink partly due to Buckley's liquid, because it stayed in my body for about ten seconds before it came right back up, ew. But pills should be fine, and hopefully they *work* as no other cough pills I've tried before do much of anything. Hell, not even the Nyquil liquigels do much for me despite the syrup being very effective. I wish I'd woken up a couple of hours earlier as I would have taken another dose, but 7 a.m. is too late for it to be adequately out of my system before I have to go to work. *sigh* Gonna try to doze a little on the couch here at least.

I am waiting for my head to explode. From the feel of it, it could go any time now. OMFG everything above my shoulders hurts: head, neck/glands, throat, jaw, nose, teeth, ears, facial bones, eyeballs... merf. I've had enough of this sick thing, plzkthx. Seriously, there's so much pressure in there that my ears pop when I sneeze. Fucking weird is what that is. And I've been so out of it and exhausted today that I wasn't even bored with nothing to do (soooooo quiet at work). I did manage to get to leave a bit early at least and get home in the pouring rain and fog before it was 100% dark, which is good. I'm not quite ready to go to bed yet; wanna just sit and breathe for a while, and get some more drugs into me, lol. Not up to doing anything packing-related tonight in any case.

Though we got a fair bit of that done last night. The mother had asked how she could help and I asked her to sort the boxes in the garage into books and not-books, and as there were not that many that were not-books *facepalm* she just emptied almost all of those, washed the stuff (all kitchen-y home-type things) and had it spread out all over the table and countertop when I got home last night. So I did the keep/donate dance and weeded out quite a lot of stuff. This is, honestly, one reason why I continue to procrastinate on this sort of thing (continue in the overarching life sense, not in the immediate sense!), because when I have to go through it at speed without the time or the room for sentimentality, I am so fucking sick of it all that it's easier to just cut it loose, and I have yet to truly regret giving something up. Anyway, so there is lots and lots of stuff leaving the house, and my mom is awesome. 'Course, I'm highly disorganized compared to her, so there is that to factor in. ;-)

Not that there isn't still a tonne to do, but it feels more manageable now, despite the sick and therefore the lack of doing anything but relaxing tonight. And as has been pointed out, it's not the end of the world if I miss a few things, either. Bless those who are probably ready to choke me by now but have remained patient and supportive. I've had a number of remarks that I'm brave over the past few days, as the news has circulated around the call centre, but I'm not, not really. It's not something I could have done alone. ♥

Well, I had planned to be at the tattoo studio, rolling up my pant leg about now so the remainder could be coloured in, but it's not quite ready for that. I knew the skin was still extra sensitive, but then when I shaved that part of my leg today in preparation (which I've obviously avoided doing until now), it was really uncomfortable just dragging the razor over it, which means it needs more time, which is exactly what the artist said when I called to ask about it and reschedule. Unfortunately, I'd scheduled it for today in the first place, instead of next weekend as I would've preferred, because Amber's going to be out of town then for almost a week. They *were* able to squeeze me in later; the shitty part is that it's in the afternoon on the 28th, the Friday that's my last day of work. I will just be up front with my manager that I have an appointment that's been unavoidably scheduled for that day, so I'll use my one remaining personal day for my final day. It's not ideal, but it's never busy on Fridays anyway and it's important to me to get it completed. More important than that job is now, for that matter. I mean, I *could* have gone in last Monday and given notice then; I had my visa and my plane tickets; but I chose not to because that's complying with the letter rather than the spirit of two weeks' notice. If I end up needing to take one damn day out of the extra week that I'm giving them, so be it.

This coming Monday is going to be a bit of a rude awakening going back to work, actually. Not just b/c I've been off for two weeks, but my head is so far beyond that place now that it's going to be difficult and weird to find myself in it again. I'm wondering if that will somehow make it all seem real finally. Because it doesn't, really, not yet. Packing to move is old, familiar news in many ways so the scope of it being so much bigger this time hasn't struck me yet. I don't think it will until I've actually set foot in England, possibly even later than upon arrival, after I've been there for a bit and it sinks in that it's not a visit or a vacation but a relocation.

In other news, it's just as well that I'm not going anywhere tonight as we've got about four inches of snow and it's still merrily coming down. Mreh.

I've now done my duty as the only granddaughter and explained myself to all and sundry. (Can you hear my eyeballs rolling from wherever you are, because no matter where that is, I think it should still be audible. :P ) Yeesh, the only time that was worse was after I got engaged. Seriously, as soon as you get a ring on your finger, everybody expects you to have your entire life figured out - AND thinks that they have a right to the details. Fuck off already. But, for my godparents, brothers and my grandmother, I will grit my teeth and play nicely. *long-suffering sigh*

I was out this afternoon and came back to the house to eat as I was starving by that point and it was mid-rush hour which is obviously a shitty time to drive around, and I figured that by the time I'd had dinner, everybody would be home and that would be good. Except that by that time, it was also snowing like a mofo and I would have had to brush off the car just to leave the house again and I was like, 'Oh, fuck it.' I have to go back to the dentist tomorrow afternoon, so I will just leave early and go finish my errands before my appointment. God, winter, go the fuck away. I realize we've had it a hell of a lot better than Ontario this year but still. BUH-BYE NOW.

I am at that point where I'm not quite sure what to tackle next. I don't really have anywhere to PUT anything else and the 'Oh God what now?' thing is making me flaily. :-/ (So is the fact that three weeks from right this minute, I will be several thousand feet in the air. Not. Enough. Tiiiiiiime!) Which, of course, is why I'm posting. lol. Okay. One step at a time, right? Gah.

Well, I did eventually go to bed early-ish, and I did get a lot of sleep. So much that despite having been up for quite a while now, I am having one devil of a time getting my ass in gear. I kind of want to just curl up on the couch and snooze some more. The weather is not helping: grey and nasty, with freezing rain. The mother said that if she hadn't been able to steer and thus turn the car upon coming out of the driveway this morning, she would have kept right on going into the neighbour's lawn across the street. (Of course, his is pretty vertical on this side too, so she wouldn't have done much damage since she would've slid right back down onto the street. :P) It's better out there now, after the salt trucks have been by, but I'm not looking forward to driving to my dentist appt. later today all the same.

My leg has been itching interminably and doing a huge amount of peeling. Yay because it means the tattoo's healing, but in the meantime, it's on the gross side. I feel like a Skin! The very last bit that she coloured in is still lagging behind but as that section is fully complete, it won't matter if it's not 100% healed when I get the rest finished because it won't need to be touched.

So scattered that the rest of my post has fled. I think I actually will curl up for a bit; gotta leave in a couple of hours anyway. Can't be bothered to put makeup on to go to the dentist b/c lipstick and stuff has to be wiped off anyway or gets splattered with water, etc.. Not worth it!

Happy March, y'all. We are ushering in the new month with a freaking snowstorm. It is all kinds of nasty out there. Ergo, my plans to go watch a belly-dance exhibition downtown tonight have been cancelled. We already bought tickets so K finally managed to get someone at the club holding the event - actually, she spoke with one of the dancers (possibly she works there normally?), and after explaining the whole situation, the dancer said she'd arrange for us to be able to use the tickets to tomorrow night's show instead; we'd just need to be there very early and talk to the door staff. W00t! I doubt that'd be the case for everyone, but the situation is a little more complicated than, "Oh noes snow": K is currently out in the sticks at her parents' house with her very pregnant sister. Unexpectedly so, since their brother and his wife were going to stay there (the parents are on vacation), but they're both sick. Where K and her husband live is kind of in between me and downtown and I know how to get there using less-traffic roads no problem, but I've been to her parents' before and no way in hell am I driving out there in this at night. So I'm back in my jammies and shall shortly get to doing stuff.

One more week until my birthday. (I always have to put that "more" in there b/c otherwise, my brain starts feeding me the Barenaked Ladies song and, no.) Which I am not so much looking forward to, despite it just being a number. Actually, I'm having a hard time grasping that it's March already, too. Surely we just finished Christmas? Some of that is b/c while I have lists and stuff and I'm aware of just how much I need to accomplish in the coming weeks, I also cannot allow myself to focus on that as a big picture very much or I'd get wicked anxious and then nothing would get done b/c I'd be too busy panicking. Clearly not a desirable state of being. I need to have things broken into manageable steps to get anywhere. While I haven't made as much progress as I'd hoped, I'm not doing too badly and the planned crunch time is coming up as I'm now off work until St. Paddy's. Notwithstanding the various dentist, etc. appointments I also have scheduled, oh joy. But, crunching through it is better in a lot of ways anyway. It doesn't give me the time to get sentimental about shit so it makes deciding what to keep very, very black and white. The only thing I'm not even looking at is photographs - those are all going into a Rubbermaid tote to keep.

I feel somewhat less like a slacker queen after getting a bunch of stuff done this morning. Of course, the down side to that is that I'm already tired, thanks to not sleeping very well. Pretty sad when it's in the neighbourhood of the time you'd normally haul out of bed on a morning when you didn't have to do anything, and you'd really like to crawl right back in there. But the dryer'll be done in five more minutes and maybe the tea will perk me up at some point? It was so cold when I went to bed last night that I put socks on and wore a long-sleeved nightshirt and was still huddled up by the time I fell asleep, and then the temperature ended up rising dramatically - it's now several degrees above zero and raining/blowing like a mofo. I can't keep up, man. That's why I slept shittily b/c I woke up in the middle of the night totally overheated and never got properly back to sleep. *eyeroll* I will probably be draggy all day and then wake up around 7:30-8:00 p.m. as I am wont to do.

Mkay time to stop whining and go hang clothes up. Joy. Happy Monday, y'all. :P

Took the day off. The parents were out early this morning and roads, etc. were already a mess and the snow had only just started to get heavy, so I decided to avoid all that like a sensible person and stay home. Of course, work's weather line said that all centres are open as usual. But we *are* talking about a company whose weather line said, "Halifax associates, take care driving," or something to that effect, the day after Hurricane Juan. Yeah, they were still open - at least until the provincial state of emergency lockdown went into effect. *eyeroll* It's been very quiet all week, though, since New England and the mid-West are also getting socked with snowstorms and lots of people there are being sensible and not going to work, ergo not making any work for us.

The only thing I feel at all bad about is that A was going to bring in an outfit for her date tomorrow night so I could help her accessorise it - assuming that she even managed to get out this morning and buy it! But, I have a reasonable idea of her style and I know what earrings she's going to wear, so I'll just bring a few different things with me tomorrow. It's awfully cute, actually: it's her first proper dinner date. She and her boyfriend have been together a while but she only turned 19 a couple of months ago so she hasn't exactly had much opportunity for nice grown-up evenings in establishments that serve alcohol. Hee.

Man, am I ever craving chocolate now, lol. The dad told me that the Food Network was having an all-chocolate-themed day so I've had the TV on instead of music. By now, I'm thinking that I should have made sure I had chocolate in the house before listening to all that! Though the one woman squicked me pretty badly by having ice cubes in her glass of milk. Ew. Also, I now understand what all the fuss is about re: Nigella Lawson. Wow. (I don't mean her cooking, though proper hot chocolate and chocolate cheesecake do sound yummy.)

Five hours of sleep ain't enough. But once I'd woken up, I was *awake*, brain chugging along, so I gave up on trying to get back to sleep after about fifteen minutes and got up. Now, however, I'm running out of steam. But it's much too late to nap, especially since I have to be up really early tomorrow to go to the dentist, mreh. New dentist, btw; I haven't been back to the other one since getting the filling filed down a couple weeks after the root canal he fucked up. Ergo, I'm in dire need of a proper cleaning and said fuck-up is going to need to come out. :-/ Not tomorrow - hopefully I can make an appointment for next week for that (and there goes another day...).

My cat is a freak, in other news. Not that that's news by now. But, it started out raining today and finally switched to snow, so it's been snowing pretty good for the last few hours and there's about 10cm out there. Nibbs just went out onto the back deck and is puttering around in the snow, playing hockey with the small snowballs the mother is throwing at him. Hee!

It snowed today. Not a lot, but that makes every damn day this week that it's snowed. And it is supposed to snow Sunday, and thence after every day next week, including a nice little storm on Thursday that shall dump 40-50 cm+ on us. Happy White Valentine's, suckers! Augh. You know, I actually like snow, normally. I think it's beautiful and it can work like a really excellent foundation makeup for city landscaping. But I can't love it the way I did winters like this as a child, because I can't walk two blocks to school and spend the rest of my time tobogganing and making snow angels. It doesn't work like that as an adult, unfortunately. And only the handful of other people who love to drive the way I do will understand how frustrating and depressing it is that I am *so* anxious behind the wheel in fresh snow now. I can't even express how much that pisses me off.

Speaking of, I finally received confirmation today - after a month of attempting to contact this chick - that yes, the adjuster is, in fact, going after the other guy's insurance company to recover the entire cost plus my deductible, plus hopefully my "pain and suffering" expenses (in this case, my burnt clothing and my two days' pay), and that *my* insurance company was informed upon their payout that I was completely NOT at fault for the accident. Most of y'all probably didn't know this was even still an issue, but yeah, it's ongoing. *eyeroll* However, that last bit is the most critical part to me. Yes, I'd like to recover the money, obviously - I could definitely use another almost $1000! - but it's the acknowledgement that I wasn't at fault that was what I really wanted to find out about, since that will affect any future insurance rates. Which, granted, isn't currently an applicable concern since I'm on an "occasional" rider right now and will soon enough be totally carless, but it's still important. And truthfully, it's also kind of nice to have had that acknowledged, because I *am* a good driver and I *was* being careful that day. I've gone over it enough in my head to know that that's why I was lucky enough to walk away.

I've privatized my post o' emo from last night; apologies and gratitude to anyone who slogged through it. I'm stressed right now, in case it hasn't been obvious. Change is good, yes, but even awesome changes entail a lot of emotional upheaval and I sort of fluctuate on how well I'm dealing with it. The past few days that's been 'not well at all.' However, I'm persevering and will eventually get through everything. It's just kinda freaking me out how MUCH of said 'everything' there is to be gotten through. :-/ Procrastination is ev0l, kids. If I'd cleared out the shit in the garage sometime in the last... er, almost four years I've been promising to *guilty look* I wouldn't have quite so much piled on right now. Ah, well. Much too late to angst over that now. I just need to get my butt in a faster gear because everything of mine that isn't coming with is being stored, so it has to be sorted, boxed, etc.. Oy. I had too much stuff when I did this routine before going away to university, and I've had fifteen more years in which to accumulate more stuff since then. And this is after purging every single time I've moved!!! Unbelievable, dude. At least I've sort of made the mental transition to hoarding electronic stuff these days, so the external hard drive + WS = small footprint with lots of storage FTW.

All of which means that I'll be pretty scarce around these parts, at least after this weekend, when I hope to have accomplished most if not all of the necessary electronic transferral and have everything set up to shift to using WS exclusively so that I can reformat the desktop for the mother. We had a good chat tonight, during which this computer exchange came up and she was like, "Oh, you don't need to reformat it. If I come across anything of yours that I don't need, I'll just delete it." I laughed and said, "So you don't want my porn collection then?" *snicker* She just gave me a look and laughed. I love my mom. She drives me crazy sometimes but that comes with the territory, really.

And I've now had this open for so long that it's tomorrow and I've forgotten what the hell I was talking about, lol, so I'll bid a good night!

I'm a little tired of snow. Thankfully we did not get the full Nor'easter blast that Mass et al did, but we got a few inches. After it was ten degrees and everything had melted last week. *eyeroll* Of course, the worst part of that is that people are going to get sick now from having treated that like spring. See, ten degrees seems almost warm when the previous two weeks had been in the vicinity of minus ten, so people do dumb things like smoke outside without jackets or not wearing hats or gloves, and so on. And then they get sick because really, ten degrees Celsius is NOT warm, and then the Plague goes around and I don't want it, kthx.

I mentioned that the cable guy was here last week to hook up new boxes, which also came with new remotes, of course. It's supposed to enable HDTV and all that. Laughable, as my TV is so old I have to hook the DVD player up through the VCR because it won't take more than one peripheral. Anyway, I haven't had the TV on much since then but I remembered to watch The Hour tonight (thanks, oh_johnny_!) and realised that the closed caption option had been turned on while the cable guy set the remote up. Okay, fine. Except I can't figure out how to turn the fucking thing OFF. It's obnoxiously located not quite at the bottom of the screen and therefore blocks a good bit of the show. Very annoying. Also annoying is that I feel like a technotard for not being able to figure out how to get rid of it. *eyeroll*

The universe definitely works in mysterious ways. One of the more annoying mysteries is why I get stories clamouring in my head when I do not have time to write them all down. Dude. Why can't they come one at a time and let me actually shunt them out my brain before everybody else starts yelling in there? Damn muses.

At least I do have Internet at home. My computer at work randomly disconnected from the network this evening, as did one other of my team's, and we don't sit anywhere near each other so there doesn't seem to be any logical connection between them. I ended up dusting and tidying my desk and then flipping through catalogues and shit in utter boredom because mine was still disconnected by the end of my shift. Gah. It had better be up and running by the time I get there tomorrow, that's all I gotta say.

Need to finish my book as it's already overdue from the library. I've reacquainted myself with why I stopped bringing a book to work to read: I don't have enough time. Even if I get to spend 15 minutes reading on my lunch break, it's not enough time. I'm just sinking deep into a novel by that point and re-surfacing to do something else makes me right cranky. I am not remotely ADD/ADHD/etc.. I have a very looooong attention span and I like to immerse myself in things and use it. I expect that's one reason I get along well with ADD+ people and kids, and am pretty good at showing how to do things, because I can watch them flit off to another mental landscape and I'm okay with nudging them back on track repeatedly until we get to the station. However, with reading in particular, that means I want to have an extended period of time - at least an uninterrupted half hour, preferably an hour or more - to be left alone with my book so I can absorb it. This is, I think, why I read less nowadays than I did as a child/teenager; I have less stretches of uninterrupted time available in my adult life. And I'm already up later than I should be but fuck it: I'll take my half an hour and my book to bed.

ETA: Forgot, and just noticed that evaine has already posted about it, so go see her post here for an explanation and a pointer to one of the topics on tonight's The Hour, which was gay cruising. How to, and where to - complete with lists of a few prime spots in each major Canadian city. *dies* Never been in the Dal library, but yeah, SMU and Halifax Shopping Centre would be prime places for concealed-ish public sex. LOL

This entry on the Making Light blog, entitled, "We Give Thanks for Peace on the Border" after the Steeleye Span song, inspires a lot of thought. It's about the USA/Canadian border and the asininity that currently characterises Homeland Security et al's attitudes towards and proposed governance of it. This is a subject I've talked about before, but placed in a fuller, less personal context with a lot of intelligent discussion going on in the comments.

Elizabeth Wein has a funny post about not wanting to be the next Lancelot. If you write, it'll make more sense, but it's good nonetheless.

It's going to snow and everything else again tomorrow, so I went on a liquor run today and I intend to spend New Year's Eve right here with my computer, my TV and a bottle of bubbly, in my pyjamas. I'm not much for NYE partying, anyway - it goes into the same category as prom queen wannabes and bridezillas: too-high expectations ruining everyone's fun. I did the whole Nathan Philips Square thing in Toronto; once. Never felt the need for a repeat, especially since the nearest available bathrooms were at St. Michael's Hospital some twelve blocks away. *eyeroll* No, the one New Year's tradition I indulge in is sparkling wine or Champagne, and phoning/etc. people to say "Happy New Year!" I'm quite happy to watch the fools in various city squares freeze their asses off from the comfort of my living room. :D

I don't do resolutions, either. I think that flipping over a calendar is an arbitrary and supremely shitty reason to make resolutions. If you want to make changes in your life, make them. Now. Whenever 'now' happens to be. Pledging to do things because the year has changed when you may not be ready, or your personal motivation isn't amped up to where it needs to be, or it isn't even something you really want to do but feel like you ought to, is just dooming you to failure. Interestingly, this is something I feel very strongly about despite the ten million kinds of hypocrisy evident in my own difficulty in making life changes. I am, however, going to make two resolutions this year: 1) watch more movies, especially with catching up on older stuff; and 2) get regular manicures. Not even 'getting' necessarily, doing them myself is perfectly fine, but I received six lovely bottles of nail polish for Christmas this year and I want to wear them all without feeling like I need to hide my hands because the cuticles are so ragged. I'm already working on that one and my nails are currently a pretty denim blue. ♥

Christmas has come and passed
The bows and paper never last
Wake me up when the old year ends

Ahem. *grins* Silliness to offset my grumbling that it has just begun to snow in earnest, AGAIN, and I have to leave the house in an hour or so. Well, re-leave the house, technically: returned the rental car first thing this morning. My tiny act of rebellion was to take it back without a full tank of gas. Typically it's supposed to be full or they charge, and more than just filling it yourself would cost, plus it's rude so normally I would have stopped at the gas station on the way, as when I've rented cars in the past. This time, however, they can pay the fee for the top-up as my thanks for dicking me around. :P

I had the TV on last night for a change and Much was playing School of Rock, which I've seen before and like okay. I came to the amusing conclusion that Jack Black looks like a pudgified, unprettified version of Gerard Way. Heh. And I'd forgotten that they're showing reruns of The O.C.; I watched a really early ep of that, the one where Kirsten decides to have Ryan stay. Much earlier than I'd seen before - I didn't start watching that until Colin Hanks made a guest appearance in S2 sometime. It was kind of fun to revisit, although Mischa Barton still annoys the bejaysus outta me. I really should dig up the last season ep where Marissa dies sometime, just for the pure shadenfreude.

I was watching TV on Thursday too, though not on the TV. Finally got Voyage of the Damned all together and saw that, w00t. I liked it. Didn't love it. David was as brilliant as ever but the plethora of clichés got old very quickly, and I felt like it was aiming for this grand pinnacle that it never quite reached. The ideas were good, the plot developed decently; I honestly just thought that Russell's writing wasn't up to his usual level. It gave me the same sort of feeling as when I'm working on something and it's adequate - good, even - but I'm simply not getting that spark in it. I, of course, have the option of junking it and starting over, or even abandoning it altogether to have its component bits reused in other projects later. You don't get that luxury in paid/TV work. Though, I would also like to know if Russell had some kind of childhood trauma involving angels, because the man has issues. LOL.

Also watched some Top Gear! After much poking and prodding and crack!dealing on looking_spiffy's part. :D Have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Funny, funny stuff and there's a lovely sense of reverence about the hosts' attitudes towards cars in general even when they're taking the piss out of something. And I feel better about not being able to drive standard when Christopher Eccleston can't, either. ;-D They may also have endeared themselves to me for life by the mass dismissal of the rear end of the Porsche 911 as being butt-ugly. :D I have hated that car my entire life. I think it's the most heinous thing on wheels and I used to argue with my cousin about it on family vacation roadtrips as a kid/teen because he liked them. *shudder* My best friend in high school's father had a red Jaguar and *that* was a thing of beauty, provided you didn't plan to spend much time in the back seat. I'm short, and I was a lot smaller then, and I had zero leg room. But Mr. D would pick us up somewhere in it and crank the tunes and we felt pretty damn cool at fifteen!

Ahahaha and speaking of cars, my new monthly payment for being a secondary driver on the mother's policy is $14. Sweet. :D