Ugly Pillowcases

hello comrades! i believe i am overdue for a post, i am sorry to have kept you waiting for so long. im sure you were all very sad and upset. actually, i think at this point my sister has even stopped checking in with me here but im not sure. perhaps i will post a loud picture so that she sees there is a difference in her little thumbnail thing of this page on her homepage.

alright, now that that is done, i guess i can write about something else. the reason i havent been around lately is because i have just been way to stressed out to write about anything positive or even really string together a coherent thought. this is due to a variety of things that i am not going to elaborate on here but lets just all agree that i deserve your pity in the form of cash. as you all know, i like to keep things upbeat around here, or at the very least morally outraged, so that is my lame excuse for my silence.

anyway, to those of you who might have stuck it out this long (or to those of you who didnt even notice my lack of posting because you havent been, either- im looking at YOU all of my fellow 20sbers-) and are still reading this idiotic post allow me to share with you some happy news. after three or four years of collecting cat hair and dust, i finally opened up my grandmothers sewing machine that i received after she died and had my dear friend chandra come over and teach me how to use it. so i am going to dedicate the rest of this post to chandra and her awesomeness.

chandra is one of the most original and unique people i have ever met. she is very uninhibited and free spirited and seems to know how to do just about everything except cut up vegetables. she is a gifted artist and a kind friend, a receptive listener and an honest and fascinating story teller. she is one of the only people i can think of or imagine who never lies. really. she doesnt. its actually kind of shocking. she also has impressive diction and good taste in footwear. anyway, i have always admired her and i am grateful for all of the things she has brought into my life. the most recent being the ability to make ugly pillowcases, which i am going to go and do right now.

Safe Spaces

hello and happy monday, comrades! we are finally FINALLY seeing some sunshine here in steeltown, and it is supposed to last all damn week. i try not to be a weather complainer (actually, i try not to be a complainer at all, really) but i must admit even i was not immune to the bleak drearyness that happened last month. but thats not what i wanted to write about.

i recently discovered through the magic of facebook that one of my old friends from high school is a lesbian. i am also fairly certain that one of my other high school friends is also lesbian but isnt saying so on facebook. anyway, the reason i mention it here is, neither of these two were out in high school. meanwhile, my very nearest and dearest, the beloved and famous TREVOR did come out in high school, which had its pros and cons, and i was there for all of it. all of this got me thinking. i started wondering about these two girls and however many untold friends or acquaintances i made over the years who might have been struggling with their sexuality. high school is confusing for everyone, and i think gay teens really have a tough time with things. it sucks because it seems like its a lose-lose situation. often they are harassed or bullied or ostracised if they do come out of the closet, but just as often they struggle with emotional and psychological problems if they dont. throw a heavy dose of puberty and hormones into the mix and is it any wonder many of these kids have mental health issues and get involved with drugs and alcohol???

that being said, i hope that my closeted or confused friends in high school knew they could always confide in me and i wouldnt have judged them. im not saying i wish they had told me or i feel hurt that they didnt (frankly, i think that would be a little self centred) im just saying i hope they knew i was there for them. i guess i feel a little guilty because it never even occurred to me that my friends might be struggling with their sexuality. i know that isnt my fault, but i suppose its something of an assumption on my part. i think i just always take people at face value and dont look for more than they are offering.

anyway, to all of you friends of mine who i have been in and out of touch with over the years, i hope you know that i care about all of you and like you just the way you are. whatever your struggles and trials in this life, you have a friend in me.

One Good Turn Deserves Another

well comrades, the canadian federal election is over, and even though the robot harper (who i have heard called the harperbot, which i also like) got his much desired majority governement, there have been a number of fantastical things that happened to be this week which take the sting out, and i shall enumerate them here:

1) the super cool, super excellent jack layton of the NDP is the official leader of the opposition. this is a historical first (the ndp being the opposition) and is super exciting because jack is the man.

2) saturday: i got a new knapsack from mountain equipment co-op which i am totally in love with. the co-op is officially my new favourite store.... it might even squeeze out the aquatics store and the tea store, but not by much. its not every day you walk out of a store with the EXACT product you had in mind. and with the money i saved on the bag (it was half the price of what i was prepared to spend) i was able to get a platypus hydration system to use with it, which is something i have wanted for years. all in all, good news day on saturday.

3) tuesday: despite having a completely miserable, freezing headwinded, rain-drenched one hour bike ride to work tuesday morning, i turned that frown upside down. i was on my way to a client's whose mother can be a little difficult with support staff sometimes. she is also fanatically anal retentive and her house is like a museum. i enjoy secretly spiting her by doing things i know would irritate her when shes not around, like putting my soaking wet bike clothes in her dryer. anyway, when i arrived drenched and freezing but with a change of pants at least, i had every intention of doing just that when she left, when lo and behold she OFFERED TO WASH AND DRY my soaking wet clothes for me! i realise that most normal humans would have offered to do this and you are probably wondering why this is a big deal, but it is. she is not usually helpful like that with support staff, and it was a small gesture that spoke big volumes. im not going to get into the whole thing, it would take too long, but believe me, it made my day.

4) wednesday: not only is anne's progress with not using her wheelchair going way better than i could have hoped, but i finally took my orthotics in to be repaired. i have been suffering from pretty severe pains in my thighs from my running training and i was beginning to believe that my ancient, dissolving, too-small-for-my-shoes orthotics were exacerbating if not causing the problem. anyway, because i had put off doing this for the last two years, i assumed that ship had sailed and the woman at the orthotics place was going to tell me i needed a brand new $400 pair. since i do not have health benefits i would have had to make this purchase out of pocket, and although i did not want to do this, i was prepared to because i thought it was for the best. i went to the orthotics office with a heavy heart, ready to part with almost all of my savings. i explained the situation to her and half an hour later, she returned with my repaired orthotics, and they are BETTER THAN NEW. when i asked what i owed her she said NOTHING, because she didnt build new orthotics, she just "adjusted" the old ones. i knew that "adjustments" were free, but i also knew that my orthotics are two years past their guarantee, so i was really surprised and elated. my legs are feeling better already. also, i finally got my odometer for my bike, which my bike guy had been holding on to for who knows how long because he "lost my number and knew i would come to the shop eventually." money well spent, my friends. my ride is pimpin.

so that has been my excellent week so far. i dont know what today and tomrorow hold, but this weekend i think dave and i are going out to celebrate our anniversary, so that should be fun too. until next time!