ĭn'də-strē

c'est la vie

the woman I supposed to stay with in Newfoundland left me high and dry today. I had to scramble for a hotel room in St. John's. Now I'm out $1300; money that I was going to use to rent a car and do some travelling. I'm disappointed but I still have a lot of things I want to do, I'll just be doing them in St. John's. Ten glorious days in the city won't be so bad. It will give me the opportunity to really decide if I want to move there next year.

I'm almost done cleaning my camp room. It feels as if tonight was made for doing laundry, scuttling around in my PJ's, and watching JAWS. I was hoping to get up to some fun and frolic but alas. Tomorrow I will be packing up my car and will be on the road by 8:00 am, Thursday morning.

by the numbers

I bunkered down under my duvet with a hot cup of tea and watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, last night. I went in with low expectations. I wasn't fond of the second movie so I was pleasantly surprised how much I laughed and enjoyed At World's End. It's Johnny Depp, hunny and that's always a good time.

I've had a librarything account for heima since July 2007. I decided to make use of it and have been liberally, albeit slowly, adding books to it. I have 181 books archived so far with many, many, more to go. That's an understatement. Really. I'm really proud of my library but also a bit shocked at how many cookbooks I own. I encourage you all to browse through it.

Since it's been a rather slow news day, I offer you my top 27 most played songs on my ipod:

1. The Imperial March - John William
2. Anything But This - Static-X
3. April Suits - Taproot
4. Bad Blood - Ministry
5. Battery Acid - Queens of the Stone Age
6. Before I Forget - Slipknot
7. Bleeding Me - Metallica
8. Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) - Concrete Blonde
9. Brainfog - Static-X
10. Bruises - Unloco
11. Carmina Burana: I. O Fortuna - London Symphony Orchestra
12. Dirt - Depeche Mode
13. Fuck It - Seether
14. Fucking Hostile - Pantera
15. For Whom the Bell Tolls - Metallica
16. Get Inside - Stone Sour
17. I, Suicide - Throwdown
18. I'm So Sick (T-Virus Remix) - Flyleaf
19. Scenotaph (DJA Infected Remix) - Emanuel
20. The Sharpest Lives - My Chemical Romance
21. Starfuckers Inc. - Nine Inch Nails
22. Sun Going Down - The Tea Party
23. Technical Difficulties - Julien-K
24. White Rabbit (SPC ECO Mix) - Collide
25. Tangled Up in Plaid - Queens of the Stone Age
26. Symphony No. 9 in D Minor - Beethoven
27. If I Was Your Vampire - Marilyn Manson

swell

This post is dedicated to stormgazer for all his wonderful comments that, unfortunately, I can’t answer on my macbook due to a shitty wireless connection at camp.

sw33t sw33t b33r—I’m a fan. I would like to try Bock beer, I even bet it has a nice nutty flavour that would go smashingly well with pumpkin bread. I’m going to make this pumpkin bread as it is new and interesting to me. I haven’t used my oven yet in my apartment. The stove, surely, the oven, nay. Plus, who wouldn’t want to drink a beer named after a goat?

My equinox went really well. Sunny and surprisingly warm and my dental surgery didn’t hurt a bit. That’s probably because I had the worst of it over and done with two weeks prior. I hope your equinox went equally as well. Nothing compares to autumn. It truly is the perfect season. More so at home then camp, but there are ways to cope, such as lots of hot tea drinking, time spent under my duvet reading, bubble baths and quality time shared with others ;)

Vulgar Display of Power is, in my opinion, one the greatest metal albums ever made with Fucking Hostile my favourite song. I know I’m not alone on that sentiment. I noticed my viewing, listening and reading habits have taken on a nautical theme lately. Perhaps it’s my unabashed excitement of seeing the mighty Atlantic Ocean for the first time. Or it could be I have a pirate fetish. Who knows? As for NCIS, there’s a whole lot more Jenny and her man getting in season 5 but I will leave it at that.

To continue the nautical thing, yesterday I purchased the following for the flights to and from Newfoundland:

1. Master & Commander by Patrick O'Brian
2. Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian
3. H.M.S Surprise by Patrick O'Brian

Alas, there won't be any beer drinking in my dry camp wilderness but there will be plenty of frolic, hot tea drinking and time spent watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Only 3 more days until I go home and 8 more days until I'm on a plane to Newfoundland.

a day in the life of - #2

the books:

1. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
2. Monkeewrench by PJ Tracy
3. The Art & Science of CSS by Cameron Adams, Steve Smith, Jina Bolton, and David Johnson
4. The Green Beauty Bible by Sarah Stacey and Josephine Fairley
5. Coastal Style by Sally Hayden, Alice Whately, and Paul Massey

the music on heavy rotation:

1. Vulgar Display of Power by Pantera
2. Load by Metallica
3. Resident Evil: Extinction
4. Singles Collection by Skinny Puppy
5. The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance

the DVDs:

1. JAG: Season 2
2. NCIS - The Fifth Season
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
4. JAWS
5. The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

sour girl

***Note: I apologize for not answering comments. I can't do it from this win-machine as the browser is too old to support the new Typepad upgrades. I will respond hopefully tonight from my macbook because my macbooks are future friendly, like me.

I'm going to spend tonight cleaning my camp room. It used to be organized and neat as a pin. Alas, it has now de-evolved into a primal pig-pen. The amount of time I spend looking for...well, anything is a good indication that I need to clean and clean until it hurts.

I either fall into bed or struggle to fall out of it every morning at 04:45. It's difficult to muster up the ethusiasm to sort'n'fold when the darkness of fatigue creep into the corners of my vision promptly at 21:00.

I know what it is-- lack of nutrition. I don't remember the last time I ate a piece of fruit (and I'm a fruit junkie) let alone a glass of fruit juice. I've been fueling my body on carbohydrates and caffeine. I'm so tired lately that I haven't been to the gym in over a month. I think it's time to get back to some good habits.

btw, I don't like the new ipod nanos. In fact, I think the colours are rather wretched.

lusty

One small joy of working in Northern Alberta is I get to enjoy autumn before the masses. This morning is was wonderfully cold and dark as I walked to work. It's almost cold enough for gloves and my winter coat (which I hauled up with me from Moose Jaw this weekend). Last night is was stormy and wind was howling so I drank hot tea, did a load of laundry and watched DVDs on my MacBook.

Tomorrow I'm going to get a jump on Hallowe'en and string up a set of jack-o-lantern lights on my office bookcase. Just one set though, as a tease. One drawback of shorter days is time management. Saskatchewan doesn't observe daylight savings time so soon home will be an hour ahead. I'll have to make sure to remember that. Another is waking up in the dark. I've slowly ajusted, over the past 2 years, and become a morning person. However, waking up in the dark is damn hard. I bought a set of tea-light lanterns from IKEA to help ease through the adjustment.

Since I have a spotty wireless connection at work, I've gone back to using a paper dayplanner. It's a pretty shade of blue and makes me happy. I was using iCal + my iPod touch to manage life but not being able to access the internet has led to updates withdrawl. So I have a new dayplanner to carry around with my moleskin paper journal. I'm both digital and analog and surprisingly it doesn't seem strange.

I brought my tripod and camera with me; I should bore you all with pictures.

journey

The other night I had a dream that I was 18 years old and left home to get a degree from Dalhousie University. 4 years later after graduating, my parents asked me what I was going to do. I told them that I had met an old man in a fishing village in Nova Scotia and he agreed to take me on as an apprentice boatbuilder. So off I went to become a boatbuilder.

Odd thing is, I get really sea-sick and don't spend much time on boats or ships. My sister told me a few weeks ago that my wanting to move to Atlantic Canada is a result of being homesick for the ocean. She may be right but I'm not moving back to BC.

I don't spend time analyzing my dreams but this one is unusual and I know has meaning for me. I'm going to spend some time tonight giving it some thought.

a pirate's life

I survived the 12 hour drive home and did so as an unlicensed driver to boot. I had no choice as my livelihood depends on my ability to get to work which is very far away from home. I had tried to get my driver's licence but the good folks of Saskatchewan were confused by my German birth certificate. I barely managed to get my licence this weekend using my Canadian birth certificate. They really struggled to comprehend that yes, some Canadians are born overseas and yes, they are issued different certificates.

It all worked out though, which is good for me, because it's a post 9/11 world and I know that I would have a snowball's chance in hell of sweet talking my way onto the plane bound for Newfoundland in 2 weeks. They've guaranteed my picture ID will be in the mail by Wednesday. Here's hoping.

So I did frolic in the pumpkin patch is weekend! A few pumpkin lattes were enjoyed while I shopped for jack-o-lantern lights. I didn't make the stew though as I told the boys up at camp I would make it for them when I got back from Newfoundland. I did however find a recipe for potatoe and apple soup. Imagine. I'm hesitant  to try it because I've never had apples in a soup before.

It was a really good, relaxing weekend. I scuttled around Chapters, bought some magazines and a new book on the Apple iPhone 3G. I got my hair trimmed and dyed as close to my natural medium brown as possible. After that, I set up camp on my queen size bed of goodness and watched the second season of JAG on dvd, read the National Post, and Globe and Mail. Pondered the US financial fuck-up and cursed my own Conservative government. Oh and I made popcorn. I haven't made popcorn since  I moved from BC in May 2006. It was fun to do something so familiar and home-y.

Tomorrow I'm on the road by 6 am bound for Medicine Hat, AB. I have the second part of my dental surgery and then another 12 hour drive to camp. My job is very stressful lately and despite having a relaxing weekend, I'm feeling a bit anxious knowing that I'll be tossed back into that war zone Tuesday morning. Lately I've been daydreaming about going back to university to finish my degree. It is realistic but not right now. Once I move to Atlantic Canada and save some money, I'll consider going back to school.

yonder

My current whereabouts (or pretty damn close): Latitude: 57° 45' N, Longitude: 111° 20' W.
My soon-to-be-whereabouts: Latitude: 50° 23' N, Longitude: 105° 35' W.
Current temperature at my current whereabouts: 8° C
Current temperature at my soon-to-be-whereabouts: 18° C

I truly live two different lives. At camp it’s cold, grey, windy and wet. At home it’s sunny with some clouds and easing gently into autumn. At camp I see construction work, jack pine and oil plants. I live on camp coffee, camp food and too little sleep.

At home I will get to browse my favourite haunt (Chapters), drink pumpkin lattes, make homemade stew (and maybe bread), and buy some new wool for another scarf. All of which I highly recommend—of course.

Although I’m going to be flat-out busy this weekend, I’m still going to enjoy sleeping in my queen-size bed, reading good books in my wretched pink bathtub, organizing my library (yes, I have a library), and watching movies. So I plan to be 50% flat-out busy and 50% flat-out lazy.

All I have to do is survive the 12 hour drive home.

darkly

this morning was wonderfully cold and foggy which gave a lovely spookiness to enjoy with my coffee. It's that time of the year when I look forward to October (my favourite month) and Hallowe'en. That is a time for all things pumpkin including but not limited to; pumpkin pie, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin smoothies and pumpkin stew. Not to mention jack-o-lanterns, jack-o-lantern lights and the one time of the year I put aside my dislike for the colour orange since it pairs so wonderfully with purple, grey and black.

I saw this last night and it made me happy.

oh, and I purchased Death Magnetic by Metallica, some Skinny Puppy, and the first season of The Border for my ipod. I took a sick day so I spent the day in bed and some quality time with my macbook. It's been awhile since I was able to get in some good quality geekery.