On the Home Stretch to Sanity

It's after 6am, and I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I have actually nearly made it to the halfway point in my Communications paper, and once I send this sucker off this afternoon, I can start living like a human being again... wow, fancy that. Sleeping at night!

Now I Can Safely Spill the Beans

Erich proposed to Caroline over the weekend! She said YES!

I had no idea if he'd sent her a link to my blog, but I wanted to wait until the coast is clear before I mentioned anything here...

I'd posted this twice before, because three weekends in a row I thought it was *the* weekend. Erich kept saying "next weekend" but he never said the actual date. He proposed to her last Saturday, which was his birthday.

So, what's below was actually written on Saturday, October 4.

I was given word on Tuesday (Sep 30). I was pulling my hair out that afternoon, trying to get presentations done, make some headway on this Psychology paper, and was mired down on issues with graphics and logos and stuff that was pretty much out of my immediate control. And I was famished... I needed to get out of the apartment and away from all this stuff!

Then the phone rang. It was Erich, calling me down to the Vancouver Club, one of those posh exclusive clubs with a membership fee akin to a golf membership except... without any golf. But the fees are similar. (I mean, at least with golf, there's an activity!) Ross and Lee have had a membership for years and years, so I've been there a few times, but not with Erich, who is the only other person I know with a membership. So, I headed down there... it was "wine night," i.e., wine at cost, so how could I say no???

Anyway, after making myself look presentable, I made it past the guardians of the Vancouver Club (not unlike Cheers, "where everybody knows your name"), found Erich, and he broke the news: they were going to Banff this weekend to celebrate his birthday, and he's going to propose! This is big news! I've known Erich for over four years, and I've met a couple of his ex-girlfriends... suffice to say, Caroline is definitely the only one I could see Erich marrying. Even a year ago, before he'd met Caroline, we'd discussed women at great length over the weekend of his 40th birthday, when I'd taken him down to Seattle as a surprise to see Janeane Garofalo at the Paramount Theatre. He'd broken up with Michelina in the spring, and I breathed a giant sigh of relief (a whole other story). But at the same time, at milestone ages like 30 and 40, I think people wonder about the emotional security they feel they are missing when they don't have that special person. I was 30, so I'd had those thoughts myself, but maybe not to the extent Erich was having them. It was a revealing weekend, because for the first time since I'd known him, I learned the entire chronology of his adult life. How often do you do that with your friends? It's a particularly strong memory, probably fuelled by the atmosphere and the vodka. We were in the Baltic Room and everything was red. People were streaming in, and over martinis I was hearing new details. It was a revelation!

Here's the link to the posts from that weekend, in which I don't mention much except a trip to the Seattle Art Museum, and how small our hotel room was:

Erich's birthday trip to Seattle

I'm going to Seattle again on Saturday, to see Michael Moore at the Paramount, but I don't think I'll be staying overnight. We're celebrating Maddy's birthday on Sunday, and I haven't seen the kids for nearly two weeks!

Satan's Laundromat

Have a look at this!

Satan's Laundromat

"This is a Brooklyn-based photolog with an emphasis on strange signage, urban decay, and general weirdness." -- oooh, my kind of blog!

Monday Morning Graph

The reporting deadlines at work and the mid-term deadlines at school have me pining away for the days when all I had to do was produce nice graphs. So I thought I'd share one that I did not make, and has no relevance to anything I'm working on today.

Interesting that this graph has no time scale...

Indian Summer Makes an Appearance

Indian summerFor all those who've only heard about the torrential rains and flooding in recent days in this corner of the country, here is a pic (it's actually brighter than this, but I took the exposure down a stop to bring out the cloud definition). The view from the balcony -- the literal one, rather than the metaphorical one -- is pretty good today. But it seems ironic to be studying sociology away from the buzz of people. If only I could figure out a way to leave my brain at home to analyze information and let my body go out and do what it would really rather be doing.

Normally this is my day with my brother's kids, but I've had to postpone our weekly outing until next Sunday. 'Tis a shame. I received the "You Must Declare Your Major" letter from SFU the other day, so at least I know I've reached the mid-point of my degree. This is the quickest yet most demanding two years I've ever had. It seems like I'm always playing "Beat the Clock"... I've got online calendars, wall calendars, text message reminders on my mobile phone to work on this and complete that, send this in, check that, follow up on this and verify that... I've got all my bills set up on preauthorized payment so I don't have to think about it, and post-it notes for the rest. I don't know what I'd do without the mobile phone, I use it for everything: reading my e-mail on 10 accounts -- work, school, retirement party, personal (my home computer checks 18 accounts), it's one of my alarm clocks in the morning, a reminder device for tasks and birthdays, SMS, and oh yes, phone calls. Thankfully I'm on a grandfathered plan from when I started on Clearnet in 1999 (which was bought shortly after by Telus), so I get a wicked deal:

- free incoming calls (no airtime deduction)!
- billing by the second
- weekday evening starts at 7pm (looks like all the networks moved to 8pm)
- free SMS/text messaging
- free e-mail retrieval
- free browser

... and I got a new phone free, too. When I returned from New York in January, I got a bill for $750+ from Telus (most of it was US roaming), and my jaw dropped to the floor. I had expected a large bill, but nothing quite that big. After a bit of haggling, I got them to write off nearly all of it. Amazing. I really learned a valuable lesson: negotiate everything. I would have had to pay about $650, since the office pays the plan and taxes and all that, which amount to about $100 a month. The Telus plan gives me more daytime airtime than I'll ever use (500 minutes) since none of my incoming calls incur airtime. After the business with the New York bill, I told Telus in January: "You've bought my loyalty!"

Taking a Break

... from evolutionary psychology and physiology. Not exactly a stimulant after a late night (5-something in the a.m.) and an alarm-induced start to the day.

Fondue at "Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins'" last night was a welcome respite from recent downside undulations in life such as this damned cold trying to break my immune system (my voice keeps coming and going), sad news, academic stress, and general feelings of wanting to jump on a plane to just be somewhere else at the moment... but, I'm still here and still plugging away at the books. On a brighter note:

I am now officially a member of The Co-operative Auto Network! My car is still in Sechelt, undergoing diagnostic testing, but at least I have a means to get to the office next week. But, I still have to figure out a way to get my car back to Vancouver...

Serendipity strikes once again! In the process of trying to hunt around for some other information on the internet, I stumbled across a photo of someone who looked really familiar... I had a feeling I knew who it was, but curiosity got this cat to e-mail him and ask him if he was so-and-so from my days in Banff in 1990/91... got home last night from North Vancouver and found a reply: it was him! He doesn't remember me but I'm not surprised, since those days in Banff were fuzzy at best for most people (alcohol consumption had a lot to do with that), and I have a better-than-average memory for faces and names. I hunted down and sent along some photos today that might jog his memory. He might not consider his photo particularly flattering, but hey -- it was taken more than 12 years ago! He looks pretty different now, but I probably do, too. I used to hang out with his roommate Tom at their staff accommodation at the Inns of Banff. Tom had two roommates -- this guy, and his friend who was also from Montreal. I remember the three of us would sit around and drink and shoot the breeze together, but this was so long ago I can't remember what the other guy looked like, and I can't find a photo. What I do remember is that these two Montrealers were really funny... for me it's a distinct memory, which is probably how I was able to make a connection between the photo of him now and the one that's in my album. Wonder how many synaptic transmissions it took to bring THAT about???

Anyway, I e-mailed him my phone number, and he rang me today and we chatted a bit. He's got a friend from Montreal visiting, but we arranged to meet sometime later this week. Trippy, or what?

Last night was very Montreal. Mark, Vicky and I went over to Tosca and Mike's for a catch-up after their wedding on September 6 and honeymoon in Italy. They went to school together in Montreal, as well as Colette, who was Tosca's bridesmaid -- she'd flown out all the way from New Jersey to attend. Mark went through Tosca's school yearbooks and they discussed mutual friends and classmates... oh so many moons ago. Talking about high school brings back memories of big hair, unflattering clothing, and strange liaisons!

In Loving Memory

Maureen Ann Hawker, age 73
Loving mother, grandmother, wife, and friend to many people, passed away Wednesday morning, October 8, in hospital, Wolverhampton, England.

Received the sad news by registered letter yesterday from my friend Lucy. Grandma Hawker was my surrogate grandmother, taking interest in my life when I was living in the U.K., and even after I moved away. I spent Christmas and holidays with them, and visited with her on every trip to England except last year. Made it to the post office last night before they closed to send a condolence card, but have to admit I'm feeling a bit blue about it. Lucy's family is very close, and I'm sure they are devastated.

Society and the Media

Has society become infatuated with gore these days, to the point that newswires such as AP/New York Times feel it necessary to make repeated references to decapitation and limbs being torn off in reporting yesterday's Staten Island Ferry tragedy?? I've looked at a few of the news services which are listed at Google's news site, and not all are as filled with details about body parts.

[Google's news site uses computer-generated algorithms rather than human judgement to show how news is reported from thousands of news sites around the world. You can list list in chronological order, with the newest listing first, or by relevance. I like to use this site when I have time, to get a more global perspective on major stories. News is largely a matter of perspective. The majority of what the public is spoonfed come from sources aligned with political and financial interests. I try to keep that in mind when reading news, and look at other sources, especially indie sites. This is one of the easier ways I've found to do this.]

Anyway, I read the AP/New York Times version of the Staten Island ferry tragedy, and wondered, "Are we feeding our own morbid fascination by reading grisly news, or do the journalists feel the public is desensitized enough to accept whatever journalists do to grab the reader's attention?" Maybe both. Along the same vein, I was also wondering whether to see Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. I know it's violent. I loathe violence, and I can barely sit through it when watching a film. I couldn't even bring myself to watch Tarantino's Dusk to Dawn. If I feel any visceral pleasure out of watching Kill Bill, what does that say about me? Is it the same as reading gory news?

Life of a T2200

On Tuesday I picked up the camera and took a photo of part of my home office space, which is not as much a bedroom as it is an office that has a bed in it. Tuesday was a fine sunny day, but with the room having six sides, it's pretty tough to get into a position to take a decent shot of English Bay from the window. You can't see any of the ships at all -- at this angle only the big tree is visible. I tried a bunch of different perspectives, but what I was also trying to capture was the towers of shelving... I need a pan shot for that. But I think what made me get the camera out in the first place was considering how much my bed resembles a board room table when I lay out all my papers... it's better than a boardroom table! Who sleeps on their boardroom table??

Trying to Stay Sane

The past couple of days have been a mix of slogging through the quicksand-like mire of work / school / retirement party / vehicular madness combined with happier events such as celebrating Kevin's birthday today. Allison baked him a birthday pie, but had worked herself into a tizzy because it was only the fourth pie she'd ever made (she counted, even)... she says her husband John is the baker in the family, and she even had to phone him in Vancouver to coach her through it!

On Monday night I studied all the way to 6:30am Tuesday morning before imminent collapse, which did me no favours at all for the rest of Tuesday. Why do I do this to myself??? I am my own worst enemy. The bad news for Tuesday was that the mechanic reported a possible leak coming from the gasket area, because coolant was getting into the engine somehow. That meant they had to take apart the engine, which meant major labour time. The pressure was on for getting an appointment with CAN, the Cooperative Auto Network, because if the car is too expensive to fix, I have no viable means of getting to the office. It would involve hours on top of the four it already takes to get there and back. I made the appointment for the earliest possible time, which is Friday at 5pm.

I did manage to have a fairly productive day yesterday without giving into any temptation to nap, amazingly enough. Phoned Kevin, who was on the highway back to Sechelt from his parents' in the Interior, and decided to catch a lift to the Sunshine Coast with him. I threw my stuff into a bag and ran downstairs to meet him, but also, I wanted him to come with me to have a look around the Renaissance, which is where the retirement party will be held. Kevin wasn't familiar with the layout, and I needed his opinion on layout. Thankfully the hotel is enroute to the ferry, because we had to hoof it over there to make the 7:25 sailing, and by that time I was feeling seriously on the brink of a major cold/flu. All the symptoms were there -- sore, inflamed throat and a nagging achy feeling. I really should start taking vitamins...

At least we had a chance to chat. There are many challenges ahead for the company transition, and if I started to outline them here, I'd be typing until dawn. Kevin and I don't have many opportunities to have a conversation, much less a discussion about anything as serious as our work futures. Plus, contemplating the rough transition road ahead over a BC Ferries dinner (unappetizing, I can assure you) probably didn't help the way I was feeling. I was completely shocked to hear how Kevin's mum was doing... she is so ill she may not make it to Christmas. I can only imagine what Kevin has to deal with at the moment. My stress seems relatively manageable compared to his. When Kevin and I passed the office on the way to his house around 9pm, we saw Ross working away in his office and we wondered out loud about how on earth this so-called "retirement" was ever going to fly...

By the time we got to Kevin's house, I knew there was no way I would be able to read any more textbooks. For the first time in recent memory, I just went straight to bed... do not pass go, do not collect $200... by 10pm, I was in deep REM state.

Until the alarm clock went off at midnight. Midnight! What a shock to the system! Apparently they'd had a power outage and somehow the alarm clock in my room had set itself to go off at 12:00am. It was pitch dark, and suddenly this crazy electronic shriek pierced into my brain, which was in complete shut down mode. If I was over 60, that probably would've induced a cardiac arrest. But my heart rate finally crept back to normal after I figured out how to shut the bloody thing off (no easy task when it's pitch dark -- didn't even notice there was an alarm clock in the room), and I was able to get back to sleep.

I thought I would wake up totally sick this morning, but after a marathon shower, I felt more like a human being again. Way to go immune system!! This would have been the absolute worst week to be sick, that's for sure.