sweet daddy siki

anyone who knows me very well, (i.e. has had to endure a road trip with me) will know how i love signs. if something looks like it would be fun to say, i have to say it out loud. it can be something as simple as a restaurant announcing a "stack o' pancakes" breakfast special or a repair shop offering a "tire sale". i especially love some of the signs i've seen on churches. two great examples both seen in london:

1) god loves everyone, but he loves the toronto maple leafs more. go leafs go!
2) yeah, that love thy neighbour thing...i meant that. -- god.

i don't know if this goes back to the long road trips i had to endure with my family (and which i wouldn't trade for the world), bored and car sick and trying to focus on anything to keep my mind off the fact that i just barfed in the bag that held all my archie comics.

this love of signery (signification? roadside poetry?) continued it's hold with each drive into charlottetown when we passed the north river fire department that announced local birthdays ("lordy lordy look who's forty") and bits of cliched wisdom ("today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday").

one of my favourite sign stories happened in toronto when i was driving around with my friends andrew and meadow and reading out almost everything that passed in front of my eyes. eventually, they picked up the habit as well and as we were driving along queen street east, meadow read out "karaoke saturday nights hosted by sweet daddy siki". i freaked out. sweet daddy siki was a strangely prevalent part of my childhood. when my dad was a musician in toronto in the 1970s, one of the guys he used to play with was a wrestler named sweet daddy siki. i remember sitting in the basement fiddling around with my dad's drum kit or steel guitar and staring at the picture of the big black wrestler with his white hair and white trunks, standing in the middle of a ring with his arms raised in the air.

new cool word: enigmatology, (n.) the art of making or of solving enigmas.

current music: art brut, bang bang rock n roll. you have to find this album and listen to it. it's cool, post punk, brit pop with a great sense of humour. my favourite song may be "my little brother", though "moving to l.a." is also very funny/cool. but then, the song "modern art" starts off with this great line: "modern art makes me want to rock out (wooh!)." oh forget it, the whole album rocks!

that 70s picture

i like this one, because it looks like something i would come across in one of my grandmother's photo albums. all off kilter like it's the family's first camera, and the colour is a little washed out. (i'll admit, i messed with the light filtre a bit. it's a fun toy...)

me and my babies

well, here are my boys, together in a photo. it isn't the most "together" photo. more of a snap and dash. darcy looks like if he has one more picture taken he's going to smash the camera, and bingley looks like he hasn't quite figured out where he is yet. they're pretty cute. i feel sad for my friend chris missing his cat, and i know i'd be sad without mine, even when they wretch up hairballs like tumbleweed and lick their arses all day long and cry in the middle of the night because it's time to play and bite me when i don't wake up fast enough. what would i ever do without them?

perfectly adjusted organisms

i have got to get a digital camera. there are so many funny things that i see in the run of a day, that it physically hurts that i can't post them all on here. one example, a toothless wonder on dundas street wearing a dirty white t-shirt that says "i love (heart) party girls". sigh, well, until i can afford one, i'll just have to become a better writer. and maybe that will be good for me.

the past two nights, i've watched friday the 13th parts 1 and 2 (it's the 25th anniversary). all these years as a horror fan, and i thought i had seen them. i've definitely not seen them before. and i have to say, i was pleasantly surprised. why they went on to produce so many parts (are they at 11 now?), i don't know. i have to see the third installment, but they probably could have ended after the second one. if you want to see the first one stop reading right now. i mean right now as of that period you just passed. all this time, i thought jason was the killer in each of the movies, so i was really surprised to find out that his mother is the killer in the first one. which has got me wondering now who was the first female serial killer in the slasher genre. i may have a project on my hands here.

in any case, i think it's time for coffee and reading. i just finished e.m. forster's a passage to india. i'm a big forster fan, but i've been putting of reading this book for a long time. it's such a beautifully written book, but even forster himself said after 30 years that the book was dated. i think it is in part, still quite relevant, but i guess the Anglo-India mentality is further removed from me.

most of life is so dull that there is nothing to be said about it, and the books and talk that would describe it as interesting are obliged to exaggerate, in the hope of justifying their own existence. inside its cocoon of work or social obligation, the human spirit slumbers for the most part, registering the distinction between pleasure and pain, but not nearly as alert as we pretend. there are periods in the most thrilling day during which nothing happens, and though we continue to exclaim 'i do enjoy myself' or 'i am horrified' we are insincere. 'as far as i feel anything, it is enjoyment, horror' -- it's no more than that really, and a perfectly adjusted organism would be silent.
~ e.m. forster ~

the glory of the food court

i was at the food court in the craptacular galleria today for lunch, and an old man was looking for an extra chair to bring to his table. a mother and daughter had just abandoned their table, so he scooted over there and placed his palm flat in the middle of the chair. left it there for a minute. stood up straight and paused. then moved to the next chair where he did the same thing. this time he moved his hand up and down along the seat. straightened up and paused. then moved to the next chair. did the same thing, but moved his hand along the seat a bit faster and then grabbed it and took it back to his table. very curious. i couldn't help but stare.

my boss gave me some bamboo for my new desk to welcome me back to the department. it was so sweet. bright orange and blue stones in a square glass vase and three stalks to signify happiness. how feng shui. plus, if you receive a gift of bamboo it's supposed to mean good luck. i'm going to take this all as a good sign.

just finished watching final destination 2. pretty bad, but of course being a horror buff, i'll watch the final installation when it comes out. as far as sequels go, it held more loose ends together than i've usually seen. if you can just sit down and take it for what it is, it's not so bad. one cool thing was seeing michael landes. he was jimmy olsen in the first season of the new adventures of lois and clark. he was replaced in the 2nd season, by some lame ass punk with floopy blonde hair.

man, before i expose too much geek, i should end this bit now...

current song: Kelis vs Coldplay - Nasty Clocks (Attention Deficit Bootleg Mix)

binge and purge

my job at the call centre has been eliminated. they decided (and not before time) that the "call centre" (which consists of two people with no training telling people someone will have to call them back tomorrow) just isn't working. so they've split the call duo in two. i'm going back to work for payroll and my co-worker nathan is working for benefits. this doesn't seem like a big deal, but i am so happy to be back working with my old boss that i couldn't stop smiling all day. there's also better potential for becoming full time in this position. come on big money big money big money! no whammies no whammies!

this is coming shortly after my first ever panic attack. at least i think that's what it was. i'm still not sure. about two weeks ago, i was talking to my frustratingly ditzy (and now former) boss, trying to explain something to her when my head started spinning and i felt out of breath. i ended up running out of the office and sitting on the bathroom floor shivering and hyperventilating. it was so weird. i hope it never happens again, but i think it was my body finally telling me that i can't pick up after everyone. part of the reason why i've been so remiss with my blog is because i've had nothing to talk about besides how much work sucks. the other half of the call duo is a good guy. we go for drinks, joke around and all is well. but he's a terrible co-worker. i was spending all of my time picking up where he left off. if he dropped the ball, i picked it up. everyone would be coming to me to complain about him, and there's only so much i can say to defend the guy. but now with the office changing around, i'm getting a new desk further away from his "i love triumph the insult comic dog" crap, his "you really should invest in mutual funds, put more money in your rrsp, set a price and watch the stock" tirades. look, i hate triumph and, yes, i suck with money, but i don't want a lecture from some lazy ass conan o'brien fanatic.

well, now that that's out of the way...

back in action

well, moved to a new apartment. the phone number stays the same, and i'm still in london. just found out today that we're here illegally. good times. i have to try and smooth things out tomorrow. this is way too stressful. my roommate has gone to bc for the week, work is nuts and now i find out i'm a squatter. christ.

anyway. i've been having a lot of random memories lately. i keep meaning to blog 'em, but now i've forgotten some of them. i'm sure they'll come back.

here's a gem from back in my junior high days. i was madly in love with all the sk8r boyz, and so decided that like a progressive young girl, i should learn how to skate. so i borrowed my neighbour, christopher's extra skateboard, and bought a copy of thrasher magazine (is it still in print?) and generally sucked really bad. anyway, one day i was skating down to the post office with christopher (he hated being called chris. i'd say 'hey chris' and he'd say 'topher'. anyway...), and i'm struggling all the way, and i think we even ran into another chris i had a major crush on at the time, so i was devastated. i check the mail, and lo and behold, there was a letter for me! i opened it right away, and was so embarrassed by what i saw that i hid the letter in my k-way while christopher bugged me about it the whole way home. it was a response to the first and last fan letter i ever wrote....to wil wheaton. to those of you who don't know him, he was ensign wesley crusher on star trek: the next generation. i had written the letter about a year before, and my crush had long since died. secretly, i was excited that i got a response and a picture (when you're from pei, all of these things are exciting), but it totally ruined my 'i'm-a-cool-skater-girl' buzz. he's now running one of the most popular blogs on the internet (he's old skool) which can be fun to read betimes.

so here i sit, in the dark, on a slow crappy computer, drinking a south australian shiraz called hardy's bankside. it's yummy. i highly recommend. i'm trying to expand my wine knowledge, but i won't attempt a sideways summary at this time.

on a final note, my friend doctor lockett has moved to the rock and has started a blog. he's a little long winded (who loves ya baby?!), but he's always got good things to say. i especially love the kilometre breakdown of the drive out there. if you want to check it out: http://newnewfie.blogspot.com/

hope there are still people out there reading this thing. love all y'all.