Category: ragdoll rambles

Morning Bells, Awkward Spills And Writing What Not

The bells on the church just behind our house just rang out. It’s an odd sound to hear in this day and age, and it always makes me think that I’m living somewhere else where church bells still ring for specific reasons. As they went off at 9:39 AM, it’s hard to say, but I’m assuming they’re just testing out the bells for some sort of celebration or for tomorrow’s services.

Anyway, I half-fell off my bike on Thursday morning on the way to work, and it was more of a shock to my system than anything. And, as much as I complain about the idiotic people in cars downtown when you’re a biker, this time, this almost-accident was entirely my fault. I was going the wrong way up a one way street when a car came roaring around the corner, not expecting me, who was biking a bit too far away from the curb as well. I live in a quiet (for the most part) neighbourhood and it’s rare that any car turns on to that street for the two minutes I’m actually on it before getting to College Street. Regardless, I had to slam on my brakes, and it’s a slight downhill so I was going really very fast, and almost toppled over my bike. I slammed my arm on the handle bars and skidded my feet to stop myself from crashing into the back of his car. But what hurt the most was I jammed my poor tragic hip so hard that it brought tears instantly to my eyes. Oh, it hurt.

I limped while peddling the rest of the way to work and then was sore all day and most of the night, and then didn’t bike yesterday, which was okay because I had things to do after work. But after so many months of not being in pain, it’s still a shocker when my tragic hip wakes up and says, “Whoa, don’t do that to me, come on now!”

However, I’ve certainly noticed how much stronger I am this summer compared to last. I am doing restorative yoga once a week, swimming like a fish all weekend at the cottage, jumping on the trampoline at least once per weekend, and then biking during the week. I still haven’t lost a pound, nuts or no nuts, but I can feel myself have more energy, especially with the swimming. Where I could do one lap in the lake (halfway to the little island and back) kicking with the noodle three weekends ago, I’m now doing two or three, and even floatation device free for one of them. I can make it up bigger hills in the city now, and have more confidence in my step now that my legs aren’t so wobbly. Small victories, right?

We’re not up at the cottage this weekend, much to my chagrin, but it’s also probably for the best. I’m a bit behind in my latest abridgment, and do need to get cracking before my September 1st deadline. I’ve taken the last week of August off to spend up north with that manuscript and my own story, and I’m thinking about which classes to take this fall at U of T, before I can apply for the Humber School for Writers again in the winter.

It’s a long life, this writing life. There are days when it seems forever just to write one sentence or get caught up here, on the blog. I finished my first new freelance assignment, which I’ll expand upon once I know it’s been accepted, approved and another one’s coming. While it wasn’t hard per se, it was certainly different, and I’m worried that my tone wasn’t quite right and that I haven’t done a good job—which are always the concerns when you put virtual pen to paper for someone other than yourself.

Oh, wait, it’s even worse when it’s for yourself: you’re utterly convinced that it’s sh*t.

Hot Water – Hooray!

They came this morning and fixed the hot water tank, which was apparently never installed properly in the first place, so they need to come back tomorrow and fix the vents. This will cost us $400.00. Isn’t home ownership lovely?

However, nothing can dampen my mood today as I’m working from home for the first time in months with wide open windows, gorgeous sunshine outside, and the brilliant smell from the chocolate factory wafting in with each breath.

And in other good news, I got a new freelance gig that I’m pretty excited about but I don’t want to jinx it by talking about it too much before I actually hand in my copy. Needless to say, my mother would have been tickled pink, but more on that later.

Oh, and I’m pages away from actually finishing a book. A real book!

Quick Updates On The Fly

Our hot water tank broke this morning so my dream of having a lovely hot shower after four days up north at the cottage spilled out all over the cold, basement floor. This did not start off my day well.

As a result, no bike ride in because I was so late that my RRHB had to drive me to work. I hate driving to work.

I did not manage to finish a single book this weekend although I did watch Zodiac and half of Perfume. Well, that’s not exactly true, I read Dramacon, my very first manga, which was super-cute although I felt old just flipping the pages. Oh, and I also felt old because I had to learn how to read the books. Yes, even reading manga is a new experience for me. But the Tokyopop website is just so cool, isn’t it?

Now I’ve got conditioner in my hair, I’m exhausted because I just couldn’t sleep, and I wish I was still up at the cottage because the weather was just so luscious this weekend I didn’t want to leave.

How are all of you? I feel like the summer is whizzing by so fast that I haven’t had a moment to catch my breath.

The Girl Who Has Nothing To Say

I’ve been at a work conference since Sunday, and haven’t been home a single night this week to really blog, so here’s a quick catch-up:

1. My delicious RRHB downloaded (shhh) the current episodes of Rescue Me that have aired in the States on FX but won’t show in Canada until September. I do not feel remotely guilty about this for many reasons, the first of which being the evil company that ruined my life actually airs the show so bully on them. But most importantly, it’s an amazing show, one of my favourites, that gets me thinking about all kinds of issues and shocks me at every turn, and I simply could not wait. It’s beyond frustrating to try and avoid the spoilers, which is almost impossible if you move in the same virtual circles that I do, and try to be patient for months before the show airs here when he can click two or three buttons and we have the entire season almost at our disposal.

2. Men who walk around in my neighbourhood without shirts to show off their impressive physiques are somewhat like overly made-up ladies who wear white thongs under their white pants: they’re simply giving me too much information.

3. People who ride mopeds in the bike lane are annoying. Truly.

4. I’m in the middle of reading a book about email. It was given to us at work to help improve our email correspondence. Apparently, we get too much of it and it annoys some people. Okay, I’ll admit it, yes, I mocked the book when I saw it sitting on my little assigned seat. But I’m prepared to eat crow. Because it’s actually a really solid little book full of amazing tips and fascinating bits of advice. Oh, and now that they say that “Dear Comrade” has gone completely out of style, I’m on a mission to bring it back. Perhaps I’ll start each post with Dear Comrades…today I?

5. Dear Comrades: I certainly wish that I hadn’t shown up at the office on Sunday a full four hours before I was supposed to, regardless of how much work I managed to get done before our conference actually began.

6. I’ve been catching all kinds of sh*t for defending the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice. Apparently, being the last person on earth never to have seen the truly superior (or so I’m told) BBC version has opened me up for a world of ridicule my esteemed pop-culture brain just isn’t used to. What say all of you? How wrong am I to enjoy the latest version? Or do I hardly expect any of you to own to it?

Birth Day

Bittersweet are these days where you technically turn a year older but feel no different. Today is made even more bittersweet by the fact that I’m at work, which I have managed to avoid for five years of birthdays in a row.

Last year we were in NYC, which was amazing, and hot. The year before that I was in Paris and then Ireland, which was life changing, and hot. The year before that I was preparing for hip surgery and on the cusp of a nervous breakdown (silly boss from hell, sillier ragdoll for getting that caught up in the nonsense) but was on holidays and we went to see Spider-Man 2, and it was a wonderful day. Then I spent two weeks up at the cottage, which was amazing (even if I ruined my book club just prior to it. Don’t ask!). The year before that we were in PEI, and the year before that we were in California, which was also life changing and not the least bit hot, much to my surprise.

And so tonight we’re going to see a special screening of the new Simpsons movie, and to celebrate, I’ve created my avatar. The red shoes are an homage to Sam Lamb. While it’s a work day, and I’m not in Paris, or Ireland, or California, or at the cottage or on the east coast, it’s still something out of the ordinary, and by the time you get to be my age, isn’t that all that matters?

Rhymenoceros & Hippy-crites

So, last night we (the RRHB and I) went over to have dinner with Scarbie and her lovely hubbie, as she calls him, the Dog. Dinner was delish, of course, but we were talking about The Flight of the Conchords, which has been cracking me up and is now one of my favourite summer shows (the others, in no particular order, are So You Think You Can Dance, Big Love, and Entourage).

The episode we watched the other night included Bret and Jerome chillin’ and illin’ with their hip-hop monikers, “Rhymenocerous” and “Hiphopopotamus.” I can’t even say how much this cracked me up, but as a girl whose favourite joke is “What’s brown and sticky. A stick,” it obviously doesn’t take much.

And then later on in the evening, the Dog referred to himself as a ‘hippy-crite’ — one who knows what they’re doing to the environment and feels bad about it almost instantly, but still goes ahead and does it anyway. And again, we cracked up. So if that’s not a contender for the Urban Dictionary, I don’t know what is. They we got into a heated discussion about carbon credits, because I’ll often make the argument that yes, I did get my hair dyed, but then I donated x number of dollars to David Suzuki to make up for it. It’s all about balance. In my mind anyway. But that’s besides the point: I’m guessing I’m a self-defined hippy-crite too, doing my very best but still driving my car to the cottage and buying things on the internet.

What’s the point of this post? Oh, the humour, of course! I totally think that the Rhymenocerous should rap about being a hippy-crite. How awesome would that be? And if you haven’t seen it already, check it here:

Holiday!

Tomorrow we’re off to the cottage for an entire week. One week of relaxing, of writing, of listening to music, of watching the lake, of swimming in the lake, of reading books, of playing cards, of drinking a beer or two, of seeing my family, of celebrating my family, all of the things that deserve high kicks and sh*t eating grins.

And corn. Lots of corn. What’s the cottage without corn on the cob and cards? Seriously?

Not to worry. When I get back there will be plenty of updates. I’ll have finally finished two of my challenge books Nowhere Man and Love in the Time of Cholera, plus hopefully quite a few more.

Have a great week all!

Thought Process

Catch a glimpse of Faith Hill and Tim McGraw on the cover of a Toronto newspaper this morning on my way in to work.

Think, “Wow, what a cheesy photo.”

And then, “Wow, they’ve been married a long time.”

Remember the freak out Faith Hill had a the Grammy’s last year that was splattered all over the inter web.

Get “Jesus Take The Wheel” stuck in my head for the entire ride in.

Sigh.

Facelift

So yesterday I decided to pick a new template for the blog as I got kind of sick of the plain Jane one I originally launched with all those many, many months ago. But I’m still not 100% convinced I like this one either. And I noticed that I picked the same one as Kate’s Book Blog, which was unintentional, of course, but I’m giving her props anyway for working the template to the best of its ability over there. Gosh, I love her blog.

Annnywaaay. I’ve been toying with the idea of late of migrating everything over to Typepad and paying for the blog just to be able to use a slightly better behind the scenes system. Who knows. The summer’s so busy so far that by the time I actually get around to customizing a look and feel, the internet might have blown up.