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[Dec. 28th, 2009|10:49 am] |
Off to Sechelt for a couple days! Well, just overnight, actually, but I have a giant stack of luggage because I'm bringing my jola to play for mom and dad, and then that means I bring a rolly suitcase because wearing another backpack along with the backpack banjo case is too tricky, and then as long as I have a goddamn SUITCASE I might as well cram it full of extra books and my favourite blanket and some stuffed toys so my laptop doesn't feel like it's in a rock tumbler, and in short order I'm a one-woman caravan. Joe's coming along this time too, and he, by contrast, has a one-third-full daypack, plus a gameboy in his pocket. I think I could have fit all his stuff in my purse, and then folded him up - he's very foldable - in my suitcase to save on ferry fare, but then I'd have a terrible time on the escalator, and besides, I have a BC Ferries gift card anyway. (This was the HINT HINT HINT present from Santa, who has recently moved to Sechelt as I understand it.)
I love crossing the Lion's Gate Bridge! (Or is it the Lions' Gate Bridge? Or the Lions Gate Bridge? All three versions seem plausible. There are two lion sculptures being all gate-y, and then the bridge is sort of a gate to The Lions, two mountain peaky items, and then it depends how possessive all these creatures are feeling, and perhaps how hard they growled at the municipal registrar and/or the Queen.) The majestic view of the port cranes and the sulfur piles!!! And I suppose Stanley park, the mountains, the Pacific ocean, the gulf islands, and the forest, yawn ho hum. NEON YELLOW SULFUR PILES!!! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 27th, 2009|10:45 pm] |
Curses! I cannot find the words to Frenobulax! It was my earnest desire to torment my husband by singing this haunting anthem in the car, but instead I shall have to sing over and over the opening lines, which are all I can remember.
We're on our way home from our dear friends' annual wine & cheese party, where I heard the most wonderful toast:
"To absent friends! And to absent-minded friends! Actually, that's probably why they're not here." |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|10:08 am] |
I had a morning latte with my parents, after almost a week of no coffee on account of illness, and felt Very! Energetic! upon my return and determined to mount on the wall the lovely framed photo of Joe & I they gave us for christmas. All of the hammers in this house have gone in to hiding. If I needed a plumb bob, a mitre box, an enormous vise, a mason's pointing trowel, or a metric wrench, no problem, but the hammers are off taking their stat holiday in Cuba I don't doubt. Anyway, after a frustrating but ultimately fruitful half hour in which I employed the services of a copy of the Merck Manual, a can of soup, a 1.25lb dumbbell plate, a butter knife and finally a piece of dental floss, I succeeded in mounting the picture. As I stood back to admire the placement, I knocked the neighbouring photo, my favourite wedding photo (Joe is pretending to be a zombie eating my brains and I look quite sad about it) on to the slate floor and the frame shattered. ARGHH! But I had a spare frame of identical design, and after a bit of sweeping up and confiscating bits of glass from the cats, the front hall looks very dapper and I feel terribly accomplished. Now I think I will have a bit of stollen and try to stop wiggling quite so much.
I sent my father home with a guitar! He is keen to pick it up to be able to jam along with me when I visit! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!!!!! He plays violin and flute, (in a "I was in a local symphony 30 years ago but only pick them up once or twice a year these days" kind of way) but we've never played together. (I don't think he knows any guitar, but I have pictures of him playing mandolin in the 70s. I'm sure he'll pick it up right quick.) He was SO happy when I took up first guitar and then banjo. I had years of piano lessons as a child and we had a lot of tearful "I want to quit!" "Noooooo" "Okay maybe six months more" exchanges until I finally gave it up. He despaired of having any musical children, (I was in choirs on and off, but it's not the same, see) mourned over it, and then out of the blue I fell in love with the banjo. I'm so excited to get to play with him soon. I think this is my best christmas present, much as I am in lust with my new hat. |
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| Use recipe books with pictures of plates on the front! Do I have to explain everything! |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|10:42 pm] |
I am MUCH better! Amoxicillin, kiss kiss! Well, no kiss kiss yet, I might still be infectious, but tomorrow perhaps.
My parents and Joseph and I are watching "one last episode," (the tenth today) of Black Books, which I was given for christmas - yay! Mum and I are laughing ourselves stupid and I made a new icon while we ate some christmas chocolate.
Joe and I hosted xmas dinner at our house for the first time, and both of our families came. Ohhh the eatings. We made: braised rabbit with pancetta & fermented black beans, wisconsin-in-a-pan (taters, onions, kielbasa, thick-sliced bacon, and rather a lot of heavy cream,) broccoli & cheese sauce, creamed onions, a million mashed potatoes, a cheese plate, lemon meringue pie, grumpy punch, and a green salad. It was such a Lunderville event: the evening ended with Tom, Ben & Dad driving off to my sister's apartment to fix the fuse box and rewire some things. Hee hee hee. (Well, that makes it Such An Abbey Event too. I just really, really found the right family to marry in to.) It feels so right to fill our house up with people and feed them way too much food. (Speaking of which, are you all coming to our New Year's Eve party?)
Joe and I made a safety llama! My parents moved to Sechelt a couple months ago and all their neighbours have hideously ugly lawn ornaments - buoys, driftwood sculptures, plastic animals (the neighbours have a wasp,) etc. Except for mom and dad! They're outcasts! We had to remedy this situation. Seph bought a wicker reindeer, pulled off all the christmas bits (which made it look rather less like a deer) and spray-painted it orange. I made a jaunty sequined scarf and a shiny rainbow-checked-lycra saddle blanket for it. It's very, er, subtle. Now I just have to make sure it actually leaves the house with them tomorrow when they go back home.
I got the most awesome hat from santa. It's the same style as my beloved burlap cap which I lost in Seattle last February (I blame the space needle,) but soft brown fabrics with a wee embroidered bee and some crazy honeycomb hexagons. Traditionally mom & dad give me a really ugly bee ornament of some kind, but this is actually quite tasteful and I may not take it off for the next week. <3 |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|11:54 am] |
MY THROAT DOESN'T HURT! Oh god time for KD stat. I am putting on PANTS and eating SOLID FOOD without crying in pain! Still super dizzy, so I think some frisky strep are taking a nap in my ear canals, but Admiral Amoxicillin should evict them pretty soon. Despite being too dizzy to stand up for more than a few minutes on end, I've had to be talked out of going to work twice so far. Wanna be at worrrrrk! At this point there's so little left of the work day that I think I'm resigned to not going.
Bacon permeates the air here. Joe and I watched the star trek episode with the soliton wave, which looks like SPACE BACON. Then I proofread a short story in which a *spoiler* *spoils* a pound of raw bacon, and exclaimed "BACON!" Joe poked his head in my room to announce "There's a bacon probability cloud in the fridge! There are two regions in which P=1!" This morning I am going to collapse the probability cloud by observing it. Inside my belly. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|05:57 pm] |
I got here in my semi; finding a parking spot that would be safe for 7 days that wasn't on a hill that wasn't too far from the labyrinth and where the truck wouldn't get mired in beach sand was tricky, but I managed. I took out all of the furniture, ran it through the conveyor belt, and put it back. Everything is topsy turvy and will need a lot of rearranging later, but oh well, this only happens once a year. The sky is blue blue blue, the grass is green, the goal posts are white, it's time to enter the house of transdimensional amazement! This year it's a series of rooms. You have to solve the puzzle and choose the right door to exit. Everyone has a headband which alters the correct answers to their puzzles. Mine is orange, made of flagging tape. I'm doing quite well! I run in to vixy a lot in the maze - she has a purple leather headband, but we're on the same track a lot. Eventually we are in the lead! But then we and everyone else get stuck in the s00j puzzle room. You have to remember very clearly the details of the first s00j book to pass it. Tiptoe along the tightrope, chanting happy birthday, then the bell rings the number of times of how old she was in that book and you are left with the correct length of rope to lower yourself to just the right door to exit, and there are a dozen doors to choose from. Well, we both read the s00j series as proofreaders and they changed the age for legal reasons and we just can't get it right and it's SO annoying. Vixy frowns and puts on a fox mask and decides to be an alarming gargoyle enhancing the atmosphere if she can't win anyway. I go through the wrong door, again, in to the intermediate level of ladders and river stones and candles and sand, which loops around back to the start, and use my pocket knife to cut a hole in the canvas walls. They are having a picnic with birthday cake and so many strawberries in the centre of the lawn and that sounds better than the grand prize to me. I can't even remember what the grand prize is. Strubberies! I save some in a napkin for vixy when she gets done being a rampaging fox gargoyle.
Which is to say: still have a fever! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|01:41 pm] |
Blech, called in sick for tomorrow too and (here is how you know I really am sick) cancelled tonight's banjo lesson. There were gonna be banjo cookies! But none for me, boohoo.
I'm on antibiotics now, though, so I should be on the mend soon. My doctor is on vacation, but she has The Most Irish Locum Possible in her place. I was charmed out of my socks. (Well, no, my socks stayed on. Charmed on to a tongue depressor?) His eyebrows were like 3 inches tall and oh the incomprehensible brogue! It matched his terrible handwriting. "Aren't you a bit old to be havin' strep throat, my dear?" But I do, more's the pity. Since he is about a hundred years old, he isn't one of these silly young doctors who prescribe macrolides at the drop of the hat when amoxicillin would do perfectly well. Which is an issue I feel vaguely strongly about in the abstract, but am quite adamant about in my personal health care. Because chewable amoxicillin (at least, novo brand) is quite tasty and all the liquid macrolide formulations are really disgusting.
I'm on christmas vacation now, I suppose! Having called in for tomorrow, I'm not back at work until the 30th. Here's to, er, being able to stand up for more than a minute without getting dizzy, hopefully in time to cook christmas dinner. Joe is on vacation too as of today and is out shopping for our feast. I'm making rabbit with pancetta and fermented black bean. (And some without this last, don't worry allergic brother-in-law.) And I will eat it no matter HOW much my throat hurts. Because BUNNY. BACON bunny. I win.
Now I will go lie down a lot. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|07:46 pm] |
Boo, I just called in sick for tomorrow. Don't WANNA be sick! Wanna STAB people! But I'm dizzy when I stand up and uh... no. Boss Lady teased me when I called in, saying she bet there would be a flurry of people and she'd overtake me in injection count! But she's done about 75 and I'm at 490, so I think my Stabby Crown is safe. Especially since we only have 150 doses in the fridge, heh.
I tried not taking the codeine on the theory that I'm totally all better and I was just dizzy from the drug, but alas, now I'm still dizzy AND my throat feels like I gargled a liquid pain solution, so so much for that. So! More codeine down the hatch and back to bed with me. If I can stand up long enough I might make some KD, which I feel certain has therapeutic properties, or anyway is pretty slimy and easy to swallow. I'm totally going to have to send Joe out to do all the christmas shopping, so everyone's probably getting 500-packs of resistors and herring snacks.
The moon is totally smiling at me! Go look outside!
When I'm awake I'm watching TNG episodes. I think I have a crush on Ensign Ro. I'm blaming my fever. Meanwhile, Dr. Crusher, who was always my favourite character, is so totally annoying this time through. I know enough about medicine now to be really irritated by the bad science she gets to pronounce. "It's some kind of... histaminic reaction." "Is there anything you can do, Doctor?" "No." WHAT! LET ME FAX YOU AN EPI-HYPOSPRAY. And while Patrick Stewart and LeVar Burton can salvage even the most retarded technobabble line, Gates McFadden really can't. But really I think this is all about my transition from the shy, quiet girl I was in 1990 to the outgoing cranktopus I am today.
La la la! Meanwhile while I'm not awake I'm still having pleasantly odd fever dreams. In the last one I was diving in and out of an enormous grid of celtic knotwork. Each square between the knots led to a different alternate pocket universe - a bit like Drywall from Scud the Disposable Assassin was having a pagan phase and bought a celtic coverall at a ren-faire. Anyway, each tiny universe had one inanimate object on display - my favourite was the eggplant universe. I don't like to eat eggplants generally, but they are very handsome vegetables. The paperclip universe was beautiful but dangerous (there were paperclips small enough to breathe in accidentally) and the national anthem universe was like being in a kaleidoscope. I woke up several times in the middle of this extended dream and I'm hopeful it will still be there when I fall asleep again soon. We'll see. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|02:13 pm] |
Who has front stairs? BROOKA HAS FRONT STAIRS! Hooray for my home insurance company.
Also, who has celery, ice cream, children's tylenol, and cucumbers? Brooka does! Hooray for my husband, who understands that the key to my heart is bringing me food. (Or is at least very susceptible to the pathetic meeping noises I make when I'm sick.) |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|12:45 pm] |
Still sick! Harrumph. I have resorted to T3s, which finally make my throat feel like it isn't trying to secede, but which also rob me of my ability to use apostrophes correctly.
Still have a fever and adding codeine on top of that makes me sooo sleepy so naturally I have a case of THE FEVER DREAMS! They are not very different from my normal dreams, except they seem more real or anyway I'm worse at telling if they were dreams or not.
1. I have stolen Avi's baby, for the second time, and taken it on the train to Portland to try to sell it to Powell's Books. I remembered the enormous hall of cans from before, a sea of multicolored cans which are simultaneously paperback novels. But alas! Unlike the jolly free-for-all of prior years, now they've sorted the cans by colour and used them to pave the hall in an orderly way, and while they will technically still allow you to buy a can/book if you spot one you like, they unofficially disapprove of it, since it will leave an annoying gap in the flooring of the book stadium. Hmph! I bought a few hardcovers from the indoor sections and took the baby and left. I went to a football game where Avi was waiting longsufferingly for me to give back his baby. I left it in a basket in his box, with an apologetic note. "Boy, he puts up with so much from me," I thought. I was all set to apologize again on IM this morning, only, er, wait, Avi doesn't have a baby.
2. Oakridge shopping centre has a secret passage to Juli's house! My camera has broken in two, but Juli fixes it with an astounding yoga move. She feeds me carrot sticks and pats my head while I lay upside down on her bed trying to decipher a national geographic map on the wall, which turns out to be a cunning forgery - there isn't actually a country called the Corivatican, and so it is no surprise that the chart of their principal exports is somewhat fanciful. I am busy trying to decide if I'd rather take the Amtrak train the long way home or go through the secret passage and take the Canada Line home when I wake up and am rather annoyed to realize that there /isn't/ actually a short-cut to Olympia.
Oooh, I can have more tylenol now! Yay. I think this dose will make my throat not-hurt enough to actually eat some food. I am craving celery so hard.
I hope I'm well enough to work tomorrow - it's injection clinic day, damnit! But also don't want to cough on people coming in to my store for a preventive intervention, so well, we'll see. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|03:06 pm] |
Having planned out a busy day, I have instead "decided" to stay in bed with a high fever and no voice. Whee! I AM my solstice candle! Burning with fever's delicate glow, glistening sweatilydelicately in the light of the setting sun! Am I not elegant and heartwarming? Well the latter at least. Technically speaking.
My icon is from a charming solstice card ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) reluctance gave to me many years ago, a poem rendered in ridiculous TheDraw fonts. Heart heart heart. It is, ironically, getting a bit hard to read after being pinned on my wall and exposed to sunlight, so I will reproduce it here while I still can:
"When days grow short and dim, we must resist responding in kind, instead setting ourselves alight, blazing brilliant and tall, bringing the sun back in our own thoughts and actions. Burn low and long."
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I still /want/ to go to the oldtime jam tonight, but Joe looked at Fever Dream Action Figure Brooke this morning and asked me to, er, consider not leaving the house. Sigh. I'll be good. Probably. It is a struggle.
If I'm still sick tomorrow, everyone's gonna get postage stamps, neo-citran, and slightly-used hats for christmas, wrapped in pages from atheist magazines and attended by fruit-flies. This probably wouldn't go over all that badly with my family, since they're, y'know, MY family, but I am hopeful I can actually make it out to the shops tomorrow anyway. |
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| Retroactive New Year's Resolutions 2009! |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|04:56 pm] |
It's almost 2010! That means it's time again for Retroactive New Year's Resolutions! (Well actually I'm a bit early this year, but I'm bored, see.) The regular kind are way too depressing - who can keep them?
Here are mine! I mean, here were mine, which uhh.... I totally just found in a sealed envelope from last January.
1. Don't start smoking.
2. Don't start any fist-fights. Or gun-fights! (Well he STARTED it. But no one got shot at, so yay.)
3. Release an album! Won't mom and dad be proud?
4. Win a Pegasus award.
5. Wow, that was a really arrogant resolution to make! How about something more altruistic, like remember to feed the cats all year, EVEN if they insist they would like to go on a diet.
6. Let's see, last year you went on one rollercoaster, so this year go on... FOUR rollercoasters! You can do it, you wuss.
7. Don't get fired! This was kind of a close one, since I quit. But then I hit ctrl-Z really fast, so it's all okay.
8. Administer 500 vaccinations! (ALMOST done - 10 more to go, and 11 days to do it in. No problem.)
8.1 You know, that's kind of far-fetched, not to mention illegal for pharmacists in B.C.
8.2 Oh well, who knows what can change in a year.
9. Give a bitchin' Interfilk guest concert! Those crazy auction people deserve their money's worth! (Well that wasn't what I originally had in mind, but it was still pretty sweet.)
10. Start taking banjo lessons! You've been thinking about it for years.
11. Eat a lot of bacon AND lose 30 pounds. (I have to admit that seemed unlikely, but here I am, baby.)
So like, I don't want to brag, but I TOTALLY kept EVERY SINGLE RESOLUTION. I am SO resolute.
What are your 2009 retroactive resolutions? |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|11:31 am] |
I wonder if anyone in town will have a midnight xmas eve showing of Sherlock Holmes? I'm trying to figure out how to balance "My parents will be staying at my house on christmas day until boxing day" with the obvious need to go drool at Robert Downey Jr. ASAFP. Honestly I've never cared about him before, reserving my imaginary boyfriend job openings for... well, mostly amusing inanimate objects and abstract concepts, but also Captain Picard. And I've never been a particular Holmes fan, even when Data was involved. (Okay, honestly, I do have romantic interests outside of Star Trek, I just can't name any. They're hanging out with Sarah Palin's newspaper subscriptions probably.) But the combination has dissolved me with lust and if I have to wait until the 27th I may drown in my panties.
What a pleasantly gloomy day it is today! It is appropriate to the day before the solstice. Maundy Nosunday perhaps. One contemplates and sips tea and listens to Various Positions on repeat. Though the effect of the poetry is somewhat spoiled for me by having listened to this album over and over during a particularly obsessive Nethack phase, so images of the gnomish mines and the Valkyrie quest levels interpose themselves in the lyrics. Not that a dungeon is a bad fit for the longest night either. Is tonight actually long-night? This is somewhat immaterial to my purpose I suppose.
I have a busy solstice planned. First meeting the contractor who will un-treehouse my domicile, then a flurry of short errands, and maybe one of my blitzkrieg art gallery visits, and after dark an old-time jam at the ANZA club. It's a slo-pitch, so clumsy players like me can keep up, but it's being run by my banjo teacher and his friends, so the creepy banjo guy who tries to get his arms around me on bluegrass nights won't be there. Woo! And then maybe burning a lot of candles. I haven't been to church in yonks, I think not since the day after John died, but the Unitarian desire to burn a fuckton of candles at the least excuse I have retained. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 19th, 2009|08:03 pm] |
Joe's first act upon returning from Korea: frying me a pound and a half of bacon. (Okay, his second act. First: presenting me with Korean candy!) Was it some territorial instinct? Did he detect the lingering scent of Amy-bacon on my pyjamas? All I can say is I WIN AT MEAT I MEAN LOVE. I am redesignating my sweeties as meaties from now on. Err... or not. But baby I just feel so underSTOOD.
The bus ride home tonight was full of people who were dressed up just for me:
-a man in a conservative suit with one yellow sneaker and one green sneaker.
-a man with an elaborate silver pocket watch. He opened it to check the time and it contained a cheap casio digital watch.
-a couple having a baguette sword-fight.
-a girl with a six-colored mohawk pointing in six directions, in an elaborate head-to-toe homemade 80s punk outfit, including a handdrawn fabric patch on the back saying "Caution! Do not feed me whiskey!" with an adorable little cartoon whisky bottle.
-an elderly man in natty old-man clothes with a silk leopard print bandana on his head.
♥♥♥♥♥
483! I'm SO CLOSE. I think I'll crack 500 on Wednesday, my next work day after tomorrow. Happy Christmas to me! I injected several nurses today, for some reason. Injecting health professionals always makes me slightly nervous - what if they tell me I've got it all wrong? But one complimented my technique, so that was fine. I had a seven year old who was totally ready to freak out - mom and dad had told him about the lollipops but not the shot - until I told him to look at my scenic Safety Toilet Seat while I gave him the shot. He cracked up, didn't notice the shot, and picked out a lemon lollipop, after chastising me for being out of red ones. Heh.
At work today was posted a WorkSafe BC poster advising employees of the risk of armed robbery. GEE REALLY? My cashier from the night of the robbery was working today too and we cracked up when we saw the Helpful Poster.
OMG SO MUCH BACON FAT. The cats are affecting disinterest, waiting until the pan cools I don't doubt. I'm on to you, little cats. If I find tongue prints in the bacon again... well, okay, they might be mine. Husha. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|08:00 pm] |
468! I forgot that the public health mass clinics are ending today, so I may get more patients for H1N1 shots than I thought. Yay! I have two favourites today: a lady with fibromyalgia who was BADASS FUCKIN' STOIC about getting an injection in to a muscle during a flare, and a guy who asked, timidly, if it was okay to drink alcohol after getting the flu shot. I put on an earnest expression and said "Well, if you pick up a really heavy beer, your arm might hurt." Boss Lady heard me from the back room and cracked up. Sometimes I think she puts up with all my vacation requests just because I amuse her.
Today there was stabbing AND punching! By which I mean, less excitingly, giving injections AND making capsules by hand, in which process the act of filling a gelatin shell with powder is called "punching." I have turned my thumb bright yellow with phenazo again, despite carefully wearing gloves at every step, so I am choosing to believe it has teleportational powers, and thus I should be grateful it restricted itself to my thumb. Yeah, that's the ticket.
I might have stairs soon! Ish! ICBC assigned me an adjuster who is leaving today for 3 weeks of holiday, can you feel the love, but my homeowner's insurance adjuster was a grand relief: they're going to fix the stairs ASAP and fight with ICBC over the bill later. Yay! My sister wants us to put in a slide and a rope swing instead of stairs, but I don't think I opted for the replacement value as determined by a fanciful eight year old option, so alas, this is not to be.
Seph will be home tomorrow!!! I have to work, but I imagine he'll sleep all day after his long overnight flight from Korea anyhow. I miss you, sweetie! The house is oppressively low in tallness! And absent-mindedness! And er, front stairs! Although going to Madison for half of your absence was a brilliant strategy in the boohoohoo I miss you department, I gotta say. It's almost, okay, not at all like we planned it! High five, we're accidentally geniuses!
Okay, off to a panty raid downtown. Wish me luck and don't ask questions! |
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| Altoids & Adventures In Americaland |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|02:57 pm] |
| [ | muzak |
| | Stacy's Mom - Fountains Of Wayne | ] |
derek, his friend des (i know him from sfu as well), and i made plans to head down to the states for a day of shopping on wednesday. derek requested for a wake-up call that morning at 10:30am, so at 10:36am i called him.
"okay, i'll call des and see what's going on," derek said.
at 11:07am, i called derek again. "did you go back to bed?" i asked.
"maybe."
"did you call des?"
"maybe not," he answered, "i'll call him now and i'll call you back."
by 11:30am, i thought this day trip to the states wouldn't be happening. but then at 11:40am, derek called me back, "i'm gonna leave in about 15 minutes."
we finally left at about noon. by the time we met up with des, who lives near the airport, it was almost 1pm. des had invited his friend cliff to join us and he drove.
***
des and cliff were apparently playing call of duty while waiting for me and derek to show up. des said he was kinda dizzy from playing the game! haha! i am NOT the only one to get motion-sickness from a video game! cliff made a good point in saying that we grew up playing games like super mario brothers, where there's no 1st-person views. it's one straight line and we control someone going across the screen from left to right -- and sometimes, we wouldn't even be permitted to go back to the left!
***
at the border, we were asked how we knew each other:
cliff: "well, i know him [pointing at des] from school. and he knows him [pointing at derek]..."
derek: "...from hockey. and i know her [me] from high school."
then the guy asked us what we do for a living. cliff answers something about working for rcmp. des says something about radiation therapy. derek says he works in tv, and i said i'm looking for work.
the guy then goes, "are any of you related to her? in a relationship with her?" all the guys shake their heads.
wtf? is that one of those questions they use to try and throw people off? what kinda question is that, and why would he ask it? we were all so confused by that.
***
we stopped at a mcdonald's along the way. i bought a $1 mcchicken! i would have bought a $1 cheeseburger too, but i wasn't very hungry. i didn't even eat the mcchicken right away.
***
by the time we reached the best buy in lynnwood, it was about 4pm! i can't believe it was already so late! some people would normally be on their way back across the border by now! nobody bought anything at best buy.
next stop: target. des bought some altoids. i saw a t-shirt that was too small for me, but for $0.75! i wanted to buy it just to say, "i bought a shirt for 75 cents!" but i didn't. what's the point of owning a shirt that's too small?!
we then hit the kohl's next to it. again, nobody bought anything there.
finally, it was probably about 5:30pm when we got to alderwood mall. i split up with the guys and wandered off by myself. there were no good deals anywhere. ever since i was able to find shirts for $5 or less, i can't even go back to $10 deals! i tried on a couple of things at forever 21, but they were not flattering on me due to my increasingly flabby gut. *sigh* this shopping trip was reminding me of swimsuit shopping: a giant kick to the self-esteem. so instead of shopping for clothes, i gave myself a new task: find a tiny rubik's cube key chain.
at home, the only place i've seen it is at the calendar club store for CAD$9.99. in the states, i still couldn't find it anywhere except calendar club, but for USD$7.99. i don't think those things are worth more than $5, so i couldn't get myself to buy it.
i met up with the guys at 6:30pm, and waited for derek to purchase some twilight-related merchandise for someone on his christmas list. everyone else didn't really find anything either.
we ate dinner at mcgrath's fish house. i ordered a crab and artichoke sandwich. it was yummy.
***
as we drove away from the mall, cliff started feeling sick. so we turned around and went back to the mall parking lot.
"why is it so fucking hot in here?" LOL. i guess cliff was also getting really irritable. he didn't even stop for a woman who was trying to cross the road. so funny.
we parked and cliff ran into the nordstrom's, while the three of us waited in the car. when he got back, we were finally on the way home.
***
derek wanted to stop by a walmart, so we went to the one in burlington, i think. i picked up an ornament-shaped coke bottle ($1) for my mom and a pair of socks ($2.50) for me. i saw some tshirts and thought, hmm. i would wear these, then i looked at the tag. miley cyrus?! i'm not gonna wear any miley cyrus! no way!
des bought five of those $1 coke bottles. cliff bought three coke bottles, and an apple pie-scented candle. derek didn't get anything. LOL. we buy really exciting things, don't we?
***
back at the border:
"where did you guys go?"
"to alderwood mall."
"how much did you spend?"
"a total of about $60."
"between the four of you, you spent only $60? what did you buy?"
"some altoids."
"you went all the way to alderwood to buy altoids?"
"and socks...and a candle...and a 'robsessed' dvd."
LMAO!!! we were all trying not to laugh. the border guy was smirking by the end of his questioning. i guess our story was just too crazy that it has to be true! why would we be making this stuff up?! it was about 11:30pm when cliff dropped us off at derek's car.
***
derek wanted to keep looking for a popcorn machine, so he and i decided to go to a 24-hour superstore. des joined us. "and the adventure continues..."
after superstore, the three of us went to another walmart (in surrey?). i didn't buy anything at either place, but the guys did. by the time i got home, it was 1:30am! it was a long day/night of laughing and shopping so i had a good time. and all i got for myself was a pair of socks! |
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