It's 2011 -wait 2012…..yeah 2012.

Hey Y'all.

I think I did maybe head to Cowtown for the holidays (which flashed by like a peep show) with the intention of blogging sometime along the way. And then I snapped out of the daydream where I am that person who takes time out of a busy day to blog. I do not have the mental organization to have those skills. I get too caught up in the moment. *I shouldn't phrase that like it's a bad thing. But immortalization of said moments is rarely initiated by me.

The holidays got dressed and left rather indecently. Moozh and I landed the day before New Year's Eve and that evening I sat in my chair and sighed, "I can't wait for Christmaaaaa…..how did this happen." The whole season was a blur. It feels like Starbucks came out with their red mugs what seemed like way too early and the next thing I knew, I turned around and I was hung over on New Year's Day. Our midsections, bank account and general belongings inventory are all showing the signs of a holiday season. But instead of pupils right now, I have the blasted Apple rainbow wheel. "Thinking, thinking, thinking…oh yeah you did do all that. You drank too much. But you really enjoyed your time. Save changes?"

It really was fun though. Cowtown was shockingly milder than Bankybear the whole time we were there. Which made me stoooooooked that I packed my huge wool jacket when I ended up wearing my leather jacket everywhere. It was a good cure for homesickness though. Making the trip home, I was able to make it to my younger sister's musical theatre performance and take my other sister out for dinner. I was able to just chill on the couch with my bro and listen to him tell me about what he's interested in. Eat gruyere and drink beautiful red wine with my dad. Gab with my mom over pedicures and makeup. Went out for ChaiNogs with my sister-in-law and laughed and cried in the middle of a Starbucks until nearly four hours disappeared. Bake with my Mama. Moozh and I cooked for everyone. He made stew and I made bread and we were able to kind of express what we're wanting to do with our lives that way.

On either end of our trip to Cowtown, we spent time in Victoria, getting our tattoos started and, in my case, nearly finished. My aunt truly is one of the most talented people I've ever met and I am truly blessed have her ink permanently on me. When Rik and Zara (my aunt and uncle) moved to Victoria last summer after their year of travelling and a year living up island, Zara opened up her own tattoo shop. She has a loyal following of clients from the shop that she worked at in Winnipeg for years and then built a further international client base the year they were travelling. If you have any desire to have some ink, especially if you want something original, check out Zara's site, Fly the Cage Tattoo. My tattoo really just has some minor outlining and then some water-colour bubbles in the background and then I'm set for life. Moozh's sleeve is still in progress but it gets exponentially more amazing with each session.

ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL!!!!???

The craziness didn't stop once we got home from Christmas. After New Year's Eve, where I thoroughly embarrassed myself (story for another time), we had New Year's Day to recover and then we both started our programs January 2nd! We're a week and a half into
Moozh has been learned the obsessive and compulsive tenets to Fine French cuisine (The entire first week is just knife skills) and I have learned over a dozen different bread recipes and the science behind flour, gluten formation and composing an original recipe. I come home from school with on average about four loaves of bread. We start croissants on Friday!

My latest

To track our progress in school, I've started up another blog called The Oven Wall. The name derives from the origins of bread, where the Egyptians would bake their flatbread on the hearth of the oven but also on the walls of the oven, like naan is traditionally made today. We have pictures of our spoils and some run down of each of our days. We'll be taking pictures as we experiment at home as well. We've recruited everyone we know as a recipient of our learning curve, regardless of their knowledge or not. My Chef is amazing. Aside from being flamboyantly Italian and hilariously crass, even at 630 in the morning, he teaches the food science and biology behind food. And this coming Tuesday, he leaves for Italy to represent Canada in an International Gelato and Ice Cream competition. I am truly blessed, and entertained, by his tutelage. Moozh's chef is just a bad ass French dude. He doesn't say much and he pretty much represents the last of the French Old Guard, as far as cooking goes. Our school is very fun. It's very small and so you get to know everyone pretty quickly. Our instructor from our wine class that we took in October still remembers us!

In contrast to my time at the Yoob, I have so much excess mental creativity at the end of the day, I find blogging so incredibly cathartic. At the Yoob, I was always mentally exhausted by the time I got home. Through this process, I will hack out some semblance of a balance for myself. My return to creative writing will probably be a slow one but I have prepared myself for that wait. In the meantime, there's some pretty tasty food to be had. We make stollen in week 3, which makes up for my intention to make it during the holidays. We make chocolate and cakes. I'm especially excited for ice cream, given who I am learning under. I'm off to study laminated dough because 'laminated dough is challenge.' Viamo!

"Nature reigns here in all her wanton luxuriance, adorned by a thousand wild graces." Frances Brooke

Hey y'all, it's been a while! Many, many moons ago there's was a date known as July 11th. This was the day that I was supposed to return to the 'real world' from my vacay away, finish up some "minor" schoolwork and then have the rest of the summer to putz around Bankybear. But then July 11th arrived with a strange expression on its face. And then that 'rest'? That didn't happen. And then I got my ass kicked.

Moozh and I departed to the Land of Plenty in the middle of a distance course that I was working. Canadian Literature, I thought, 'Pssh, no biggie. I've read Atwood and Munro and a little bit of Cohen. I wrote a friggin' feminist rant on Ondaatje's 'Cinnamon Peeler'. I'll be fine." And then my teacher and all the course work laughed and said, "Ha! Oh NO YOU AIN'T!" So July 11th rolled around, a day I may here forth reference as The Rapture, after which I had taken a leisurely day of wine cocktails, sleeping masks and examining my tan lines to recuperate from my 'jet lag'. I planned to return to my course work with a fresh mind and some pithy anecdotes to use to introduce myself to new classmates and to endear myself to friends. My last course of the summer, Modern Jewish History, began on The Rapture, and that would be a uniform and convenient date to move ahead with everything. And then the jazzy tan faded on my rose coloured glasses as I sheepishly realized that I was in for more work that I was expecting. A HISTORY CLASS -what the frick was I thinking!!?? And then on top of that, I realized that missing over a third of the distance course I was working on, even though my teacher didn't get to see my vapid expression everyday, was a serious incident.

And of course in the midst of this is always interpersonal stuff. Moozh and I made a serious course correction. Moozh is doing culinary school! His Sommelier and Cicerone course starts in the fall and then his culinary arts course starts in January. He has a pretty pretty set of special wine glasses for his wine course that I am not allowed to touch because I break EVERYTHING. And 'My wife broke my wine set' doesn't really hold up. Sounds kind of like "My dog ate my homework." Our life is so empowered now. The idea of 'vision' or 'direction' was totally foreign to me. I'm not the kind of person that plans out my whole life. But the past month has shown me that vision is not about that. It is about having something that your life is pointing towards. Regent, as holistic and beautiful and considering how many gifts it blessed us with, was not that vision. This decision, this redirection of Matt's, helped us to envision OUR life, not just my life with writing and Matt's with theology. In the midst of deciding on a new direction for Matt, we were able to decide on a new direction for us.

So when I witnessed the date today I felt a bit out of the loop. It has been over a month since the Rapture. Both of my classes are now finished. My Modern Jewish History class I did actually pretty well in it which is only indication that there is a God. The jury is still out on my literature class but I felt the final exam went better than the entire course. My history course only fuelled my morbid fascination with Jewish people. I stood outside the Hillel house on the Yoob campus after the first few classes trying to convince myself to go inside. I decided not to. I have a fat stack of books on the Vichy Regime of France during the Second World War on my desk and I totally will read them. I will then need to watch SNL or maybe Seinfeld. I watched Defiance the other day and it kind of made me feel better. "See the Jews do fight back! Sometimes." Even though Daniel Craig has his model pout going almost the whole movie. Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell are so sweet in it. Can I say that Jewish names in historical movies are the bomb? Tuvia? Zus? Fiddler on the Roof has Tzietel and Bielke. Cutesters.

And Vic was wonderful. We got to see my aunt and uncle who just relocated there. Their house is amazeballs! And they live in one of the coolest neighbourhoods in the city. But we got to see everything we wanted to see and eat everything we wanted to eat. We saw our old place, Fifth St, Bubby's. And then some of my favourite friends from Vic that I had fallen out of touch with we ran into by accident on the street. Totally sweet.

Well, happy August to everybody. I know it's seriously belated but I just realized I got here.

P.S ~ I start volunteering at the UBC farm this week! I had my orientation yesterday and I am so pumped. I'm starting late in the season but I just want to get my fingers in some ground. They grow so many beautiful things there, including hops! They have their own smokehouse and their own bees. This is on my bucket list!

P.P.S ~ Radiohead could seriously be on the soundtrack to my life. I know that I have previously said that I want the soundtrack to The Assassination of Jesse James to be the soundtrack to my life and that stands true. But Radiohead is allowed to be on there. This was the song my sister and her new moozh danced their first dance to at their wedding. My number one favourite part of weddings is seeing the groom's face when he sees his bride for the first time. But I have decided a serious runner-up is the song they choose for their first dance. I know not everyone puts a ton of thought into it, but I love that moment. I teared up during their first dance as my sister's sang "You're all I need" into her new husbands ear quietly as they danced together. Oy, beautiful. Matzel Tov and all that. Sheesh, getting all teared up writing on my blog.

"Night smoke rose from the boil of the sunset…" E.Birney

Whoa. Whooooooaaa.

I basically have the best husband ever. I will love him now and until forever, if not because I truly love him and he is in general extremely loveable, for this moment alone. On Sunday, we were trying to clean my computer out. It was becoming really slow and thus we decided to transfer some stuff to the hard drive and do a system clean. The only problem was that the moments directly following that were extremely traumatic. We decided to empty the trash (don't ever empty the trash!) and then found that the folders we had tried to back up (aka all of my course work for my summer classes, some of which were due within days, and ALL of my creative writing) was gone. G-g-g-g…empty. So basically I cried. And then drank some wine. Cried some more. Kind of felt like I was going to puke. Talked myself off a ledge. Had Moozh talk me off a ledge. And then I moved to distraction tactics.
In the days following, my husband, my majestic, indefinable, incomparable Moozh, searched my laptop and our hard drive for any trace of my missing files. After a day of searching, I was ready to give up but Moozh soldiered on. (I feel like I'm writing an epic.) And then, as I was trying to write my term paper from scratch at the Yoob, Moozh calls me with a little giggle in his voice and tells me he found it. He sends me a file that is the identical to my term paper. In fact, it is my term paper! I raced home, cried a little more and then kissed him all over his face. And now I am finishing my final paper with no drama to be found. He's a gooder. And so good to me.

It's firework season in Bankybear. Last Saturday was the first entry of the fireworks competition. It was China and it was really impressive. The windows of the apartment buildings in the West End look as if their lacquered with sequins. They mega sparkle.

Apartment Therapy had this wicked post that had 20 Unforgettable American Movie Interiors. One of my favourites, It's Complicated, is on the list. Meryl Streep's kitchen, nay her WHOLE HOUSE in that film is unbelievably beautiful. Slobber. I also loved, funny enough, Meryl Streep's house in The Hours too. Totally different place but still so cool.

I have decided that I want to make pickled blueberries. And this recipe by Tigress in a Pickle seems pretty good. I love pickled peaches and blueberries have a similar glorious sweetness so why wouldn't that taste good? The recipe suggests it as a chutney on top of meat or on top of ice cream. Seems like the kind of thing that I would eat off of a spoon. Or the palm of my hand. Obsessive.

Sunday we go to Vic! Moozh and I are making a trek over to the Island for our anniversary trip. Our anniversary was actually last week but it was so hectic last week that we didn't get to truly celebrate. We haven't been back to the Island since we moved to Bankybear so this trip will be so great. We have our old haunts all picked out.

Coffee and a scone from Union Pacific

Union Pacific Coffee

Fifth Street Bar and Grill. We seriously love the people here. They took such good care of us when we were in Vic. Great people. Great food. Great atmosphere. 

Victoria Grid Project

Rebar! I will chew my food properly this time because I will be prepared for the goodness. Last time I just go too excited and had indigestion for a full 24 hours. 

Eat Drink Victoria

Irish Times! Great scotch. Great Guiness. Great Music. Moozh and I did our first vodka tasting. It was kind of impromptu (meaning it was impromptu) but they've got some great vodka available. At least it sure felt that way after six shots. 

Irish Times Pub

And Bubby's! That pie is kick ass to the core. But we will also get there in time for their Shaker Lemon Pie which is uh-maaaaazing! Make the trip, just for that.

As of noon on Saturday I am home free. Be thinking of me and be wishing profoundly analytical things regarding Canadian literature my way. 

A Hundred Miles in a Million Years

Heyo! I'm back! Actually I was back last Saturday and it has taken me this long to find my ass with both hands. I probably found it with my right hand somewhere around Tuesday but the left's always a little slow.

So.

I'm still tanned. Even though I haven't seen the sun in 7 days.

You know when you would play in those bouncy castles as kids and you would run at a bouncy wall expecting it to be totally fun. But then you hit it and it "bounces" you back to the ground a bit faster (and harder) than you expected and it knocks the wind out of you and you're trying to play it cool because your not a baby (AND IT'S A FRIGGIN' BOUNCY CASTLE) but you kind of hurt your butt? That's kind of how I feel about school right now. It's just BIG. And I know I can handle it. I just kind of hurt my butt.
(And what are you talking about you never ran at a bouncy castle wall. You totally did.)

My class runs until the 29th. By now I have a handle on what I'm doing and we're slowing entering territory in history that I'm more familiar with. Modern Jewish History is basically huge. 1500s until today and it's pretty much all sad. Haven't encountered an uplifting thing yet. But that's uplifting in itself, I guess. That through all of their sadness, through persecution based on their religion, through all this time, Judaism still exists and people come together and tell their collective story. And there's humility in that. But our last reading was on the Sabbatean movement, where a dude named Sabbatai Zvi (say that aloud to yourself right now) showed up in the 1660s saying that he was the Messiah, walked around trying to change things, and some of the Jews totally bought in. And then he converted to Islam.
Boom.
What the…what?! That's kind of what Jewish history is like. Something good looks like it's going to happen and then something bad happens. Something really disappointing. Like escaping famine by going to Egypt and then being enslaved there for hundreds of years. Case in point. One historian has said though that for the Jews, the best of times and the worst of times typically occur in the same situation. And that's just the way things are done.

But we just got back from doing things that were fun so let's talk about that! I will go into greater detail in a later post about everything but the two weddings were so perfect! My sister's wedding was so cool and Moozh and I did great at the reception. She looked so beautiful and my bro-in-law looked swank! I will hopefully post pictures at a later date but I want to be respectful to them. They're still waiting to get their photos back and I know what an agonizing process it can be waiting for wedding pictures. And Sasa and Curtis' wedding was amazing as well! Holy, can't wait to get those pictures back too! The Mill that they got married at, whoa. The weather cooperated for both, the pictures I did see turned out miraculous. Moozh performed Sasa and Curtis' wedding and I couldn't have been more proud of him. The words of encouragement and exhortation that he had for them were beautiful and what he chose to emphasize and include things that were important to them made the message so meaningful to even those that were just sitting watching. Again, pictures hopefully later but I will post some pictures that Moozh took while we were in Maui. Man's got skills!

This is where Sas and Curtis got married, to give you a taste.

This is a sunset from the West part of the island. But look at
the perfect placement of that boat!

Jellyfish at the Aquarium. The Maui Aquarium is awesome!

We actually saw quite a few turtles by accident while we were
snorkelling but this one was at the aquarium too. How cute
is his face?!

This is how pineapple grows. On short stalks with long,
angular leaves

This was the view from the rehearsal dinner.
Again, Moozh did well with the timing. 

It feels very strange and not totally great to be back in Vancouver. I think I got too accustomed to being able to wear my bathing suit under everything. I'll get back into the swing of things. Can't wait to see all the people that I love here!!

"And have you tell me that wherever I choose you go…"

Here we go y'all. Twelve hours from now I'll be butt-skipping into Cowtown, groggy but ready to party. I get to see my sister wear a bow or something similarly outrageous on her head and open presents. My sister gets married in a week! Makes me smile.

This week is going to be packed with family stuff and wedding stuff. Bombaniers here I come. It's all candy covered almonds and tinted cellophane for me this week. It's all good. I love crafts.

I hope that the next four weeks are filled with lemonade, and tanlines and hopscotch and sunsets. Mine will be. And there are rumours of a sister blog to this one in the works. A travel blog! And by rumours, I mean my brain is tinkering away at it. 

Happy  Friday!

P.S~ Go Canucks!

"Aruba, Jamaica oooh I wanna take ya to Bermuda, Bahama come on pretty mama. To Key Largo, Montego…"

I have a tan line from my hair. That is some serious sun exposure.

This weekend was incredible. Friday, Saturday and Sunday I pretty much spent every waking hour in the sun. I was in amazing company and lost track of how I was…situated. So now my face is tanned a bit…lopsided. Monday I tried to stay out of the sun a little bit to see if it would mellow. And it didn't. BUT IT WILL. I'm trying to be positive. And even if it doesn't, I will have rather interesting documentation of tanning gone awry in all of the pictures at my sisters wedding. No big.

Four more days muchachos. I become more excited with each day. And I've made lists! My husband (and my Mom) would be so proud. Chances are likely that I will have my poop in a group (or as BJ would say 'terd in a herd') by Friday and I will be able to spend four weeks away from home without a hitch. And by hitch, I mean, "Where's my…oh man!"

It's all about keeping the weddings separate, at least in my mind (and my suitcase). Or else I'll end up wearing shoes that don't match and four bracelets. Which would be excessive. Moozh looks killer. Hot bod + tan + crisp suit = the best ever. We're going to do our best Posh and Becks with a healthy dose of Tim Burton and Helena Bon Bon. A little quirk never hurt anyone. Especially emcees. A game where the bride and groom have to take off their shoes and a numerous jokes at people's expense. We got it in the bag. Trust.

This is one from a bunch of photos I took today along the boardwalk. Pictures just look so much better with sun. And my tattoo looks like the Adidas symbol. Strange.

Happy Tuesday! I hope it is sunny where you are. We will all meditate in flip flops to generate warm weather. Unless you're in Philly. Then you're not allowed to think of anything hotter than Donald Trump. Gross.

"There's a ghost in this house. When it sings it sounds just like you…"

I met John Fluevog today.

He goes to our church. Vancouver is so funny that way. Matt saw Ryan Reynolds right after we moved here, talking on a pay phone. I saw Joshua Jackson walking on Kits Beach. After Randy Quaid went bat-crazy, we saw him and his wife staggering along outside of the Starbucks by our place.

I've been so caught up with the gorge weather here I totally missed the anniversary of Moozh and I moving to Bankybear. June one is our one year. This means we're going to have to buy a card and some nice lingerie to make it up to Bankybear. Especially because she has been so jazzed up and looking pretty for us the past few days.

It's already been a year! I was trying to think what I was doing this time last year. I know Moozh and I were both job hunting but we were also enjoying the weather and seeing the sights. Our friends were so good to us, showing us around and introducing us to the city.

What have we done in that year?
~ We've picked a church and left that same church.
~ We've church shopped (which took a while).
~ We've picked a church and stayed :) (Yay!)
~ We entered our first year as a jobless household, trusting the daily (and at times, frightening) financial pragmatics to the Lord.
~ We met Regent College. And it's blessings began.
~ We met some of our favourite people in the world for the first time.
~ We had our first Vancouver winter. (BIG sad face)
~ Moozh's sister got engaged! Wooooooooot!
~ I went to Flo-rida! Spent the first time EVAR away from Moozh. A whole week! But got some bitchin' girl time (plus we had the pool to ourselves because we're Canadian and anything over 13 degrees is considered swimsuit weather).
~ My sister got engaged!
~ Moozh got connected with the Arts program at Regent. He started writing, painting and designing again!
~ I got into the Creative Writing program!
~Moozh turned 30!
~ We survived our first Vancouver winter. (BIG happy face)

So much has happened! And here we are at the outset of year two in Bankybear.
I fly home this Saturday! This week is going to be a blur.

"I see your grace in the light of the day. I look up to the sky and say, you're beautiful."

I found this off of Tomboy Style. I love finding new blogs and I especially love question-survey type things. The good ones make you think about things you may not have thought about before. 


If not in Bankybear, I would live in… Lahaina, Maui. Final Answer. Estes Park, Colorado; San Francisco, California; Montreal, Quebec are all yummy too. 

My dream holiday would be to…drink wine and eat bread in Provencal, France. Or to go to Lahaina, Maui -which is what we're doing this summer!!

My current obsessions are…wearing jersey, eating goat cheese out of the container, short shorts (without leggings underneath!), listening to Fleet Foxes while I watch the sun set over the bay, yeast breads, freshly painted nails, tea with fruit. 

I channel my childhood self when I…wear leggings, talk to myself on long walks, or eat peanut butter toast. 

The fictional character I most relate to is…Lilo (From Lilo and Stitch).

If I had to be outdoors all day I would…plant a garden (an homage to my ma-in-law), walk barefoot, go for a hike, read a book in the grass. 

My favorite qualities in a man are… self-awareness, sense of humour, accountability. 

My favorite qualities in a woman are…self awareness, humility, and honesty. 

I'm terrified of…Oprah going off the air. This is big. 

My cocktail of choice is…red wine, a gin and tonic, or a mojito. But I'm picky about my mojitos so I don't order them often. 

If I could go back in time for one decade it would be… the 1920's. I want to be a flapper and have fabulous clothes and dance all night long to live jazz music. 

As a teenager I was totally into…live music. Looking back I spent a lot of time listening to music I didn't particularly like because I LOVE live shows. Must be the musicians in my family that live music and performances were so much a part of growing up.

I tend to splurge on…fresh produce. There is nothing like fresh grapes, with the turgid texture on your teeth. It makes the sound,"krsssss". Or salsa with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and cilantro. Food as it is meant to be eaten. 

I finish up my class this week! No more talking about campylobacter virus. Moozh and I both finish up classes this week and then it's just a a countdown to matrimony. My sister gets married in less than a month! Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh!


Happy Wednesday!

"I work in the dead of night, when the roads are quiet and no one is around…."

Whew.

I am back from the land of the free and the home of the brave. I am currently eating airplane cookies (crumbly Biscoff -soooo good) that I found in the jacket of my pocket today on the bus. I was saving them on purpose. Really.

Saturday kicked me in the ass pretty much. I got in Vancouver at ten at night which according to my research meant I had been upright and operational for 22 hours straight. For a university student, not really a big deal. For a total weenie, a big ass deal. Moozh picked me up at the airport (with a car! *sigh) and then  I proceeded to (and he can verify this) cried for two hours straight. He got me home and he had pulled out my ugly comfy pajamas instead of the sexy chilly ones and made the bed and had white wine chilling in the fridge and all of the things that convince me that he is my soul mate. I had a love letter and a bubble bath waiting for me. And I was still crying. It was a combination of missing my Moozh like mad and jet lag but it was hefty. Ladies, as you can see I am someone who understands what can happen when tears get feeling independent but when your Moozh has done all of these things and you are still crying, do your man a solid and either 1) GET YOURSELF TOGETHER! or 2) explain to him what is going on because it is coming across so NOT how you want it to. And come up with something good.

So now I am officially detoxing. We were really very responsible eaters while we were away, lots of salad with a day where I ate an entire bag of Munchie Mix and baked my skin to a crisp. But I'm pretty sure I should get a 'star contributor' pin from Heineken and Barefoot wineries. I did figure out that the key to avoiding a hangover was simply to stay drunk.

I read the tiger (much of it aloud) and that book is the BOMB. This are the main points that I gleaned from the book: tigers are scary, Russians are crazy and never go to the bathroom without your bathroom buddy. John Vaillant is a genius and I am willing him to cross my path so I can make him sign my…notebook. In case you couldn't tell, ENDORSEMENT ENDORSEMENT ENDORSEMENT. If you have 300 pages worth of free time, read that book. And buy it. It's worth it.

I did not meet Cinderella and I did not see a Manatee. In fact, according to my sister there are a lot of Russians in Florida and I didn't even see any of them!

I got to hang out with the lovely ladies of the Porcheron Love Connection and have unstructured hang out time that we haven't had in years. We got Ariesmell's wedding dress and Cami's birthday present. Before we left for Florida I got to hang out with my Dad and Re-Re and then on the trip back I got to hang out with mah Dempseys which was so fun. The Dempseys made Taco Salad for dinner which in my opinion deserved being mentioned. (And it is absolutely capitalized. It is my favourite meal -I am cheap fun I kid you not.) And I got to see Sarah's ring in person! Boom!

Being back in the scariness of school was a realization a bit too soon. Russian midterm on Friday and three group projects on the go. THREE! I should have put on my application that was something I was really not ready to do. And then at the end of March, all of four weeks away, I submit my portfolio to the Creative Writing Dept. Rah! And I am okay with that now.

Have soup for dinner tonight. Eat it on the couch with your Moozh (or Moozhka) with a grilled cheese and watch a movie. Matt and I watched Toy Story 3 on the weekend. I always cry in Pixar movies and now I think I have a permanent lump in my throat. Like a goitre.

Happy Tuesday!

"I wanna grow something wild and unruly…"

I'm off!

I'm making a list, I'm checkin' it twice, I'm going to get to the airport and realize I still forgot something. But I have my bathing suit (and my passport) and that's all that's important. I have The Tiger, I have a C.S Lewis compilation the size of the Magna Carta that I borrowed from Moozh. I have yarn. I have my i.d ;)
I have my Mom and my sister-pants who put the shama-lama in bing bang. Even though I will have to coach myself, I am not going to think about school. NO. NOT AT ALL.

And while I am gone to oh the places I will go, here's some photo candy:

I am my lover's and my lover is mine

Pictures from the Granny Isle!

So you know those pictures I mentioned that Moozh scheduled for my birthday weekend?

Well…

THEY'RE AWESOME.

I will include some here at a later date because I'm obsessed in a big way but to see them all and to see the rest of Marcus and Meghan's handiwork, head over to Bluebird Creative and stay there for hours. I did.

Yesterday, my lovely laptop Percy Shelley had a bit of a hissy. He was fine (FINE I tell you!) when I left for school yesterday. And then I got to class a half hour later and he had decided in that time that I had sufficiently done something to wrong him. So he wouldn't start. He would only taunt me with the startup sound and then blink his sad face in the form of a blinking question mark. Could he talk, he would have said, "I'm PMS-ing." So I took him to the Apple store and cried and batted my eyelashes and begged him to come back to life.

They thought it was my hard drive. No big right? (UMMMMMM no.) All of my work was backed up (Thanks Jesus) unlike last time my hard drive died (Yes it has happened more than once) where I lost everything. And I cried and had a crisis of faith, I moved on and here I am having a meltdown again. But it wasn't my hard drive. It was my hard drive cable which was about $150 cheaper and didn't require me to do anything unsavoury. There was a moment when they brought my computer back out to me where I said, "It's alive" and then felt compelled to explain the literary joke. That never ends well.

And thus, Percy Shelley has been restored to me in prime working condition. And I will baby him and beseech him to be nice to me. And then I will likely take advantage of him again at a future date.

I leave for Florida in two days. Two days! This time two days from now I will be IN THE AIR. I am committed to those seven days being filled with booze, laughter and nail polish. I will likely have a crisis getting to sleep when I don't have my cuddle toy named Husband. This is the first and longest time we have ever spent apart since we've been married. That is a big moment!

Go up to someone you love and tell them that they remind you of happy days. And then sing the happy days song. :)

"Sit back and watch the bed burn…"

Best Birthday Bazaar! (I will really do anything for a satisfying alliteration.)

This weekend really was hysterically fun. Friday I drank hot chocolate and ate bread in my pajamas all day while I conjugated perfective genitive sentences in Russian. And then I jazzed myself up for dinner. Moozh made me this delicious dinner and I sat and ate and ate and ate in my tiny dress and then….PEOPLE SHOWED UP. Which was a hilarious and wonderful surprise but I was in a tiny dress. So I put on something more…appropriate. And then proceeded to have So. Much. Fun. This is awfully biased of me but our friends are the best in the world. They are sweet and generous and they know how to have a good time.

And then we met with our lovely friends Marcus and Meghan of Blue Bird Creative on Granville Island for pictures. Marcus and Meghan are based out of Winnipeg but are currently in Vancouver for Regent. If you are in either place or are desirous of a photographer or web designer, just go look at their site. Just go look. You will lose all restraint, I promise.

And then Saturday evening, Moozh took me to see Blue Valentine which I have been wanting to see FOREVER. It was a heavy, heavy movie but the way it was handled, it felt so authentic. One of those movies where you're sitting there next to each other thinking, "That totally happens to us." **Proviso: The relationship in the movie is not my marriage. But it feels real and it feels true.
After that we went to a tapa bar I've seen downtown called Red X Red Tapa bar. With all of the Russian insignia and imagery, I expected it to be…Russian. But I think they saw the hammer and sickle and used it as more of a jumping off point. It had three different kinds of perogies on the menu and over 100 different varieties of vodka to choose from, but beyond that there was nothing distinctly Russian about it. I was getting very excited (and somewhat anxious) about what would happen if I could speak in Russian at the restaurant. But that was not necessary. I had a very tasty dirty vodka martini and Moozh and I enjoyed sweet potato perogies and a charcuterie platter.

Finally, yesterday was the Superbowl. Sadly, the Steelers couldn't quite pull it off but it was a great game. So close, both played hard and I got to eat corn chips and guacamole ALL DAY LONG. We got to meet a whole bunch of new people and had our ol' reliables. Overall, such a great day. And I'm beginning to understand the rules a bit more so I'm not THAT GIRL: "What? What happened? Why did that man do that? Did they win -I mean score? It's a home run, babe! They got a home run!"

One more week of school until Reading Break. And four days until I fly, fly away. Five days until Cinderella, and alligators, and warm weather.

Happy Monday!

P.S ~ To all the lovely people who leave comments on my blog that I do not find until later: You. Make. Me. Smile.

P.P.S ~ I have a problem with the use of commas. I feel like I use commas when I don't have another key to press.

"I said I want to touch the earth. I want to break it in my hands."

I am mesmerized by Egypt right now. You have a nation of people that have unified and are fighting for their freedom. When you watch the footage, which CNN has going 24/7 right now, you have these breathtaking shots of what looks like millions swaying through the streets. Their chanting and carrying signs. We are seeing people fight for their freedom. Freedom. People ARE dying and being wounded but the military servicemen are forming protective squads around people as they walk through the streets. Men and women are protesting in the streets with their toddlers on their shoulders. The civilians are protesting but they're also praying in rows in the streets. When your government has removed all of your agency, what are you willing to do?


And they cut off the internet. That can happen?


And apparently a diagonal PMS streak is tearing through the US. Everything from El Paso to New York, SW to the NE, is gonna sit down after a slap fight. But guess where there is NO SNOW? I'm not even going to say it out loud. Two weeks. Two weeks.

paul+photos=moody. Flickr. 

Oh my God, what if I meet Cinderella?
Oh my GOD, what if I see a manatee?!


Happy Monday!


P.S ~ Links!
~ What a wicked necklace! You may actually have to look at the whole shop. *whispers* They have octopuses....
~ You have probably heard this song on a Chevy commercial. Real Tuesday Weld is awesome.
~ I think Helen Mirren is one of my favourite actress. She just hauls. And she's a DAME.

I feel like they're speaking in a language I don't speak. And they're talking it to me.

What do you *really* wish you were doing right now, and how soon do you think you can make it happen?

I wish I was living overseas right now. My husband could be in Grad school, that would be awesome. St. Andrews

in Fife, Scotland, the third oldest University in the English speaking world (first and second being Oxford and Cambridge, respectively). I'm more articulate just talking about it so just think how brilliant I will become if I can rub shoulders with all those weird PhD students.

Scandinavia has really been on my mind lately. Norway, Sweden, Denmark. They is a different mind set there, I don't know how they

do it. The advances they make in gender relations, climate change, medicine, urban planning, geniuses all of them.

Vancouver has had a really profound effect on both Matt and I since we've been here and it's had a really profound effect on our marriage.

Victoria will

always be special to me and it still makes me smile to think of it and our time there but it was really useful for Matt and I to articulate what we needed as a couple and weren't getting in Vic. It is so obvious to me that the Lord has us here. In other words, I am very happy here but he made a fascinating, dynamic world and I want to see it.

I wish I was making my living off of my word (because that simply sounds so romantic I can't get over myself).

This semester has been really hard for me creatively because I hit a bit of writer's block. The

more I write the more I get the hang of it. I encountered a similar obstacle last year, struggling to write anything or find any momentum in the process, and then in the last cycle of WRIT 100, I hit it out of the friggin' park. At least I follow a similar pattern. If only I could speed up the stretching period a little. I know part of it this year is I'm just not inspired in this program. Last year, I was simply blown away by my professor. Not that my professors here are in any

way less so but at UVIC the professors seemed to this energy about writing which I haven't quite encountered here yet. But UBC is probably three times the size of UVIC so there are other factors at play. It blows my mind daily how many students actually go there.

This is from an Australian blog and it is genius. I should go to Australia too.

I wanted to include this because Calvin and Hobbes is always appropriate.

P.S ~ I also wish I was done school but I didn't really think I should include that. Seems a tad whiney.

*Ya Zn-eye-oo moy moozh ochen sympat-ichni

Bloggity blog.

Life is busy. We are busy. I have resorted to my post-secondary diet of something slathered in peanut butter. That is how I get my daily dose of protein and corn sugar.

(Did you know that they are trying to rename high fructose corn syrup to corn sugar. It's so that people don't panic when they see it in EVERYTHING. Kind of defeats the purpose if you're telling everyone. "It's the same thing we're just calling it something different." They talk in the article about HFCS being no different from sugar nutritionally and that there's nothing fundamental to it that is bad for you. But it's in EVERYTHING and it's never in a reasonable dosage. It's mega syrup in everything from bread to batteries to chocolate milk to soda pop. This is my soapbox.)

We have plans that do not include (or even really accommodate)

anything school related every evening this week. That is rare for us but we are engaging our community, and pushing ourselves out of our shells and good for us and all that. Whew. Good friends, great conversation. Thanksgiving was fun and it already seems like such a long time ago.

Workshopping will start up soon hopefully. I did a really great job of making the snow ball and then setting it down on level ground so nothing has happened as of yet. We'll find a hill somewhere. This is Vancouver. The application to Creative Writing is at the end of March. Let's all be praying for this and I will write my fingers to nubbins in the meantime, yeah?

In Russian today, she talked to us a little bit about major cities in Russia, like Moscow and St. Petersburg. Seeing pictures of the landscape and the cities filled me with this desire to go there so bad. I was at a meet 'n' greety thing last night that was really fun and there was a girl there who taught English in Eastern Europe, specifically Moldova. She said there is such a profound need for people to be invested in those cultures. They are third-world in their economics and their society but they are first-world in their values. It is in that push and pull that everything breaks down. I don't know what I will do when we get to Russia but I believe God has put it on my heart all these years (almost a decade!) for a reason. Apparently, a Russian writer described St. Petersburg as like a lady: a total mess during the day but once the sun sets she shines and stops you dead.

I'm far better at night than I am in the morning too. I totally get it.