I bought an acoustic guitar the other day. It doesn’t have a brand name on it, but it’s quite old. Yesterday I shined it up prior to taking it in for repair. I’m hoping the repairman will have some idea who made the guitar. If I had a decent digital camera I would post a photo – but right now I don’t. Later on I’ll post a photo of it and hope some people reply.
Now all I have to do is learn how to play!
Every day should be love day, don’t you think? I hear a lot of people complaining about the commercialiality (is that a word?) of Valentine’s Day. How they are opposed to conforming to society’s expectations of expressing love merely because it is February 14th. As my friend says on a daily basis “are you picking up what I’m laying down?”. Well, yes and no. Valentine’s Day is horribly commercialized, but a little bit of magic remains I think due to the fact that so many people do buy into the myth, and collective unconsciousness being what it is, the love can be felt if you just let it.
My Dan took me out to a wonderful dinner on Valentine’s Day. I did him the great honor of actually dressing up instead of wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Of course, he’s known me for 30 years so he knows I can clean up decently when I want to. So things were off to a great start.
We went to Timber’s. A great steakhouse he took me to once before. Apparently, he was so happy with the previous date (my second date ever!) that he chose to repeat it. He’s not an adventurous sort, but he knows a good thing when he experiences it. Anyways, we arrived at 8:30 because I had to work late. He had made reservations so we only had to wait a short while for our table. Speaking of the table, I really liked it because it was shiny and black. I like things that are shiny and black – if I ever own a home all my floors will be shiny and black.
Across from us sat an older couple who were a little annoyed that their food was taking so long, but the restaurant was packed so what’re you gonna do? Next to them was another older man and woman who looked like gangsters. Mr. Capone apparently has an eye for the younger ladies because he was eyeing me like I was going out of style. His woman was wearing a red satin mini dress – and she was pushing 50. So it was flattering in a tacky sort of way.
I had the filet mignon. Blue rare of course. I generally like my steak still moving. And I don’t know who they had in the kitchen that night but he knew what he was doing. It was the best steak I’ve ever eaten. Two inches thick and soft like butter. Dan was incredulous that I was eating what was almost raw steak. He actually asked the waitress how many other people had ordered blue rare that evening and she said I was the first. The things that impress men!
Afterwards we stopped at William’s to get dessert. I chose a cheesecake and he opted for some sort of torte. They were both unimaginably delicious. I managed to finagle a bite of his and then in a fit of selfishness wouldn’t let him try mine. He thinks that kind of behaviour is cute. More power to him I say.
I won’t go into the rest of the evening because I think some things should be personal. However he did give me a gift: an IPod Shuffle. Yay! Now I can get rid of my old Sony Walkman cassette player! I didn’t even have a disc player. Well, actually I did at one time but it broke and I threw it out (with side 2 of my Jesus Christ Superstar disc!!). Now I have to figure out how it works. I gave Dan a lovely silver bracelet (are they called bracelets when men wear them?) and a nice Guy Laroche bathrobe. He had informed me a few months earlier that he is all about bathrobes. I chose that one because his middle name is Guy.
Oh, and I forgot the roses. The day before I received a dozen white roses at work from him. Unfortunately the florist had not put an envelope on the card so all my friends and co-workers got to read his little love message! And in case you’re wondering ‘why white roses?’ it’s because they are my favorite. He has informed me that he’s going to give me every color at least once though. So as of now I’ve received red twice, yellow, and white. I think pink will be next. Everyone at work was suitably jealous.
I hope this posting doesn’t make me sound too materialistic. I certainly don’t expect to be treated so well. But it’s nice when it happens. And I think it will be happening a lot from now on…
I approve of the sudden and unexpected chain of events occurring in my potted plants.
They are arranged next to the north-facing glass doors in my living room where they receive their daily 6 hours or so of sunlight in this glacial wonderland we call Canada. I often have the doors open a few inches (despite the subzero temperature outside) to allow proper airflow in the room. With the portable heater aimed at them on and off, they go from feeling the freezing breezes of February in Canada to the blast of heat from the built-in fan. And for some reason the plants have begun to bloom. Some of the plants are of the blooming variety – so it’s not a huge surprize to see flowers in the middle of winter. But some of them are plants that I have a hard time believing were meant to give birth to such exotic petalled plummage. It’s like the twilight zone in that corner. Every day I discover some strange freaky flower lurking under the leaves.
Yesterday I saw a pillbug traipsing across the carpet. As an interesting aside I’d like to note that another difference between California and here, is that in California the pillbugs are often called potato bugs (spawn of the devil) and are much rounder than their flatter cousins up here in the North.
Anyways, I knew the cat would get the pillbug (and I dreaded the crunch) so I quickly picked him up with a napkin and plopped him into the big funeral plant a friend gave me (the funeral plant is also blooming).
Then, worried that my new pet might need nourishment I promptly looked up ‘what do pillbugs eat’ on Google. Turns out they eat rotting vegetation. So that was okay since I was certain there were a few leaves rotting underneath the foliage.
When I told my friend this story she asked why I hadn’t dropped it off the balcony. She said I looked absolutely stricken when she said that, and of course I was. Poor little bugger wouldn’t last a minute at minus 9 degrees. At which point we started to debate whether the fall would kill him first. Ultimately I think we both came to the private realization that it was a moot point.
Believe me the thought has not escaped me that perhaps there are many pillbugs living in the dirt of my potted plants. I know for a fact they’re there in the summer when the pots are on the balcony. Which begs the question: how did they get there in the first place? It’s not like they fly (see above). They must arrive in the plants from the nursery. Which supports the information I read on the internet – that pillbugs are everywhere and nothing short of lighting them on fire with gasoline will rid you of them. Kinda extreme.
I just hope they stay in the plants. I’m still not sure where that pillbug thought he was going yesterday when he was struggling valiantly across the gray pile carpet of my living room but I’ll tell you one thing – it wasn’t towards the exit.
I can now lift a 50 lb bag over my head and toss it onto to the carts we use at work. Yesterday I helped a co-worker lift an entertainment unit up a flight of icy stairs and into the store. I got a nasty gash across the front of my shinbone when it slipped a little (Mr. Butterfingers shall remain nameless!) but my legs are so scarred it hardly matters…
It’s been three weeks now since I started this new and exciting physical aspect of my job, and while I really don’t have to do it, it improves the morale among the people I supervise to see me actually doing what they do all day long.
But the true and selfish reason I have been doing it, is that it is helping me lose weight and gain muscle. It’s basically a free gym membership! Actually it’s a gym membership that pays me…and if the temperature would just climb above minus 10 it would be ideal!
