Surprisingly this did not appear in a Google search.
Do you know what did appear?
Vacuum sounds like Chewbacca.
Vacuum sounds for babies.
Vacuum sounds like my xbox.
Vacuum sounds like vacuum.
None of which where overly helpful with my vacuum dilemma (although I did listen to the Chewbacca one), so I did the next thing anyone would do.
I dismantled it in an attempt to figure out what was wrong.
Oh, not the next step?
Right.
That might explain why I can’t seem to put it back together.
Yeah.
Filed under stuff and things
frustrated over work at the moment. had a massive writing block this week, which i thankfully overcame but it pushed a lot of other stuff off my desk that i needed to deal with. i think if i was more confident in my writing ability, i wouldn’t second guess myself so much, and it would make for a much smoother process. my next creative writing class starts in a few weeks, so hopefully that will put me in the right mindset for my next column.
thinking it’s that time of year to start stock piling homemade soup, but first i’m going to attempt gluten/dairy free cupcakes. seems everyone in my life has either an allergy to one or both, so i’m trying out different recipes. i’ll report back if they turn out. or if they don’t.
excited to have three concerts to go to in November; Cuff the Duke, The Lemonheads and The National.
wondering how you properly pronounce the name “Lawlor”…my friend just had a baby boy and named him this. in my head it sounds weird.
probably far too excited about the fact that i can now open jars without assistance. the main reason i started going to the gym again. also so i can shout ‘victory is mine!’ after i open anything.
currently…you are?
Filed under stuff and things
Last week at work while waiting for our monthly speakers program to start, two members sat next to me discussing tire brands.
The conversation was as dull as it sounds, except for one tangent that caught my attention.
“Back in Kelowna -”
“Oh, you’re from Kelowna?”
“No, I just lived there for 45 years.”
I smiled to myself overhearing this. How funny we are attaching ourselves to various places, or proclaiming the opposite; oh no, I just live here, I’m really from over there.
The more I travel, the less I attach myself to one particular place, but many.
I am from all the cities I have lived; Stratford, Sarnia, Kingston, Vancouver, Newcastle, Smithers, Maple Ridge…
Continually, I find myself homesick for these places, yet I also find myself attaching myself to places I want to go. They impact me just as much as the places I have lived even though I have never set foot there.
I also think this is a more interesting question.
Yet maybe that’s just the nomad in me talking.
What about you, where are the places you’d like to go?
Filed under i am where i'm supposed to be, nomad diaries
When I was a teenager and in a melancholy state and listening to music (mainly certain songs on repeat), I would take to sitting on the floor, sandwiched between my bed and the stereo in the corner of my room. To be closer to the repeat button, or to rewind the tape, of course. Also because it was the closest I could get to recreating a blanket fort at that age.
All throughout university when in that state, I’d take to stretching myself across my unmade bed, staring up at the ceiling, desperately wishing the cracks would spell out the answers. They never could, mind you.
Today, having moved into less run down housing, I am no longer forced to just one room, can play the music as loud as I want, and there are no cracks in the ceilings to distract me with. Thus, I have taken to occupying my couch in my living room, wrapped nicely in a warm blanket (same blanket that occupied the previous beds), and with nothing to focus on, I merely close my eyes, or scribble in a notebook if the mood fits.
What got me thinking of where and how I listen to music was putting on the new Dum Dum Girls album Only in Dreams, specifically the song Coming Down. Maybe it was the overcast slight chance of rain weather and the steam hitting my face from my fresh cup of tea on my desk, but I suddenly wanted to be on my couch, eyes closed, music filling the house. Not because I wanted to be sad, but because I was and I needed to get that out, if only for a bit.
Our listening is so mobile today, which is blessing and a curse. I think sometimes I need to be reminded to digest an album like a book, with no other distractions. To let the music envelope, and do its magic. Even though I’m partial to the music in the car, the albums that really stick out to me in my mind are always the ones I took the time to be with one on one. You know those albums that you played so much you had to get another copy. Or the ones you put on and then followed along with the lyrics in the booklet.
Yeah, those.
I don’t re-read any of my favourite books whilst computing or doing other chores. Good music needs a captive audience too.
Where do you do your best listening?
Coming Down – Dum Dum Girls
I was talked into doing a Hallowe’en event at one of the museum’s next month.
I’m always hesitant about doing events in the fall because of the weather, and people’s reluctance to go anywhere when it’s raining. Which frankly, given our climate perplexes me. Anyway, a few publications offered us free advertising and we were already planning on decorating the house, so I agreed. We’re keeping it simple as it is a kids event; a craft, treats, and a tour.
It’s hard to keep the craft simple, as the venue doesn’t really work well with anything messy, so paint is out. Right now we’re thinking Q-Tip skeletons, paper cup bats, or paper bag gargoyles. Any other ideas? Suggestions welcome. All my staff are keen to dress up as well. Haven’t decided if I will, but it’s nice to see everyone so enthused. Perhaps I’ll go as Dizzy and wrap metallic wire with silver stars around my head. That’d be fitting, no?
Best Hallowe’en costume you’ve seen?
Filed under curator chronicles, stuff and things
This just in.
Very sad to report the demise of the exclamation point. It ceased to mean anything this morning at 9:21 am PST. Cause of death: overwork.
Doctors and grammarians warn that the quotation mark is also in very bad shape.
I was listening to too many songs with Hey! lyrics today.
Also, I would argue the ellipsis is on the verge too.
Something that made you smile today?
Filed under interweb, tumblr finds
hoping that the weather forecast is right, and that the rain will lift for this afternoon. we’re co-running an event at the museum, and most of it is outside. although, admittedly, i won’t be to disappointed if i don’t have to set up all the stuff outside.
trying not to let other people’s inaction upset me.
happy to be able to wear stockings and boots now. goodbye summer dresses.
even happier that The National added another date to their Vancouver trip. now, i just need to find someone to come with.
not surprised i enjoyed Patton Oswalt’s latest comedy special more when i just listened to it as a record opposed to watching it on the t.v. there’s just something about listening to a joke, much like reading a book, where you can imagine the rest that makes the voice stronger.
already thinking about pumpkin pie, even though Thanksgiving is three weeks away.
thinking that i’ve underestimated the saxophone.
currently…you are?
Filed under stuff and things
To be filed under where words fail, music speaks.
Some new Radical Face, as the tops of the trees turn red.
Filed under music
She pops onto Skype and sends a waving emoticon at me through a chat window.
I hit the video call button, as it seems repetitive to send another one back.
Hi (waves).
Hi (waves).
Hello.
Hey.
She’s laying down on her couch, wrapped in a Hudson’s Bay blanket. Sick, she tells me. She nods to my blanket cape. Migraine, I say. Collective sigh. Updates on life in the last few weeks since I’ve seen her. I ask her how the weight of her ring feels. She laughs, weird.
She shows me pictures of the wedding, which I was at, but can’t seem to recall all that clearly even though it was only a few weeks ago. Everything looks different airbrushed. She tells me she is submitting them to a magazine called Real Life Weddings, or somewhat. I bite my tongue about to make sarcastic comment on the name of the magazine. She, however, can see through my “poker face” and tells me to go ahead.
I tell her about the job I almost applied for earlier in the day, and we make a pro/con list about contract work and moving. Had this conversation been taking place 5 years ago the outcome would have been different, but even in my restless state, I can feel the roots starting to poke through. I want a bigger reason to jump ship besides just the money. Yet if you’re planning on moving back East anyway, what’s stopping your from taking a contract job in the city over now?
Nothing. Everything. Because at the end of that contract it would mean I’d really have to move back.
And?
And.
I just don’t know, is this it?
