the railway club bouncer is a cowcunt

ohmygosh.

we went to the railway club for ang's bday tonight. but got stopped at the door. the last time i got stopped at the door, it was in first year when we couldn't get into some place because we didn't have proper ID.

tonight, we stopped at the 7-11 to get money, but had to wait for these two women in line. we joked around a bit with them (as will happen to canadians standing in lines) and learned that the bank machine was broken. as we were following them out, one said, i hope they just let us in to use the bank machine, because i don't have money for cover.

we followed them up to the railway club, where the bouncer let them straight in. i was like: listen, we were just trying to use the bank machine at 7-11 too, but it didn't work, so can i use the one here and then come back to pay? he was like: no. it's broken here too; there are lots of other bank machines. and i replied: you just let those two women in - can i just tell my friend what's happened. and he's like: no, it's too full in there. and then he let the next two people in!!! and i was like: it's so full, but more people can come in? so, i tried to call ang, to let her know what was going on, but it was pretty loud in there... after the 3rd time, dalia came by! YAY! so i gave her ang's present, told her the bouncer was a dick and that we were leaving, please tell ang we were here. as i was leaving, i could hear him saying that i had misunderstood him, that the women that he let in, had been in before. but there is no f'ing way they had been, because they told me they needed money for cover, and that he'd have to let them in to use the bank machine.

my fury is strong and fierce.

oh, and i refuse to go to the railway club ever again. not that they'll miss my business... but it truly is the principle.

yummy

i've sort of gone off the cleanse. i mean... i'm still (or i was) mostly sticking to it. and there are still some things i'm avoiding. today, for example, instead of full-on bread, i chose a wrap. and until dessert last night i had an awesome cleanse friendly meal at the stewart house.

it was too long. and making me sad.

dead pixels

it's been a crazy busy week down here in the rock. i've been finishing up some contract work... turns out i have mad skills in the illustration department (the one that exists on a computer, not on paper with a pencil).

and i've been connected to a new contract position. it's only for 2 months, but it'll do for now.

i've also been thinking of flowers and such for the wedding. i saw some magazines with flowers in them today (i think they're the same ones that were being talked about last night at dinner - unless there are more than 2 $12 wedding flowers magazines out there). neither of which i bought, because that seems a bit steep for an f'ing flower magazine.

oh, and i've been busy trying to find my brother a place to move to. for those of you who don't know, he was decertified last November and (obviously) decided that he'd move out. mental health in misson basically did jack to help him find a place, so now he's living in this woman's living room. and clearly would not listen to me try to convince him otherwise. okay, there is a lot more to this story than i'm willing to get into right now. but i will simply say, some poor decisions were made on both his and mental health's parts, and now i'm left cleaning up the mess, without a broom and dustpan. so that didn't work out, and i'm basically waiting for him to go off his meds. i hope i'm wrong. in fact, i would love to be wrong.

today's title? i have a line of dead pixels on my screen. grrrr.

it's time!

in case you hadn't noticed, i haven't been much into blogging lately. i don't have a solid explanation, but i do have an idea of why... i've been busy. and when you're working an office job that's so boring and frustrating (and doesn't allow blogging) you don't really feel like sitting in front of the computer when you get home, unless it's to play scrabble. :o)

now that i'm working mostly from home, i will be more likely to share all the little things with you - my people, my fans, my voters... oh... right. well, whatever.

recently i've been looking for a new job, and doing some contract work. i've been mostly doing illustrations for product manuals. which is actually really cool, but not enough hours.

and of course The Wedding. oy. the good news is that things genuinely are coming along in that department. yay.

extra good news is that today i'm having a girly day with danielle. we are going to forget all of our woes (this includes my family, and being poor). can i get a whoot?

oh, the irony!

today i got hit by a van. multiple times.

i was walking from the hospital (VGH) to kits. busses should take interac... but that's another story. i decided to walk down arbutus, cause i like that road. i was crossing the road near an elementary school (it was the proper place to cross) when a blood services van stops at the corner (as it should). so i continued crossing and it inched forward, and hit me. then it did it again. i had to yell at him repeatedly but i'd say it's hard to hear a pedestrian when you're on your phone and only looking to your left.

i'm okay. but i'm pissed.

a not-so-subtle sign

today, as i was leaving work (rushing to work-out, no less) i paused in the kitchen and was chatting with a co-worker. there were some chips on the table (everyone leaves food out for sharing) and i was like: sweet! cleanse friendly, i'll just have a couple. then my manager came in and he said, oh you've found the chips too... i'm just going to get a bowl of them. and did.

then the other lady (that we hadn't been talking to, but was also in the kitchen) asked if we wanted any more chips, and i was like, oh no thanks (already feeling bold for having had the few i did) and my manager said something to the effect of: i'll fill up this bowl a bit more when i'm done with this one. then the woman moved the bag to where she was sitting (i thought just so they're closer for her dinner) and my manager was like: oh, were those *your* chips? and she was like: yes. but then proceded to be very kind about the whole us gorging on her chips. but let me tell you... i was mortified. the 1 freakin' time i eat any of the heaps of food the people leave out for everyone, and it's not even for that! we have had potlucks that i haven't participated in, chocolate like crazy at Hallowe'en, fajita day, random cookies left out, birthday cakes, retirement cakes and so forth. no no no.

lesson learned.

now i've got to get that lady some chips...

firm but fair

today a guy at work was annoying me so much i asked him: don't you have something you should be doing? in my defense, what i wanted to say was: 1. shut up, 2. mind your own bee's wax, 3. you really are not being helpful because you don't even know what we're talking about.

also, we were supposed to hear about our contracts being renewed today but we didn't. i've got my fingers crossed that something comes up before i get suckered in to signing anything.

*argh*

a moment of shrek

since my cold cleared up a few weeks ago, i have had this clogged feeling in my ear. i thought it might be cold related so i waited it out a bit. i *finally* went to the doctor today... it's a wax build up - YUCK!! anyway, he was all like: Q-tips are the road to the devil. but i was all like: dude, i have eczema, if i don't use a Q-tip, the moisture will irritate my eczema. he accepted that. or at least pretended to.

now i have to put oil in my ear before i go to bed to soften the wax up, and lay a towel on my pillow so the oil doesn't stain my pillow. in a while i go back and he'll drain it for me. how freakin' gross is that? but i have to admit, i'm desperate to see what it looks like. yuk, awesome!

my self

last weekend gerry and i went to visit my brother in mission. mission, kind of like the name suggests is a part of the bible belt, so really, what happened there, is not 100%, or even 30% unexpected. perhaps my reaction was.

we were driving to the cinema and only by fluke did we end up going past at least 2 kilometers of people lined up along the sidewalk with placards... all oddly dressed in black. it didn't take me long to figure out that these weren't the Conservative Party representatives that i had initially mistaken them for (although, i guess in a way, they probably were... but i think the Christian Heritage Party is fairly popular in those parts, so my thinking they were Conservatives was a jump way left of these much more conservatives conservatives).

well, to finally get the point, they were an anti-choice demonstration. i think (i may be wrong) that it would normally take something 'special' to get me to start yelling at people on the side walk of a fairly busy road. turns out they were special enough. it took about two seconds for me to roll down my window (i wasn't driving) and yell, 'shame on you!' (over and over) to the protesters. one guess thought i was supporting him at first and gave me the thumbs up, then he realised i meant *him* not the ladies exercising their ownership of their bodies. it was fairly comical to see him understand the situation. i did practice self-control... what i really wanted to do was open the door and get gerry to drive really close to them and squish them all down. i was pretty f'ing worked up to be honest (in case you hadn't noticed). it was hard for me to calm down afterwards. and really, i might have been a bit embarrassed about such behaviour normally, but drastic times, drastic measures. i wanted to join the lady and her kid and dog on the other side of the street with her pro-choice sign. but sometimes you can't just join a protest when you've gone to pick up your brother and take to dinner and a movie. maybe i should start carrying poster board and a jiffy marker in my car. you know, just in case.

p.s. this obviously only reflects my views on anti-abortionists. although mikey was ready to join in with me which was pretty cool. gerry, while he said he would, seemed a little half-hearted on it. *but* he didn't roll up my window... i'm sure that says something.

in other body news, my arms getting totally ripped. still chubbiness abounds on the 'wing' part, but that's getting worked on. now, if i could just stick to this food allergy business.

some fun pics

Nicola, Elaine, Me, Gerry out for drinks and dinner at the beach


Ivy (a girl I work with), Elaine, Nicola, and Nick (a guy I used ot work with) outside the Olive Garden in Langley


Elaine, eating in the NerdMobile

Suz, Gerry, Me, Nicola, Elaine: eating and drinking at the beach (do you see a theme here?)

Elaine, Ian, Gerry, Nicola, Suz at the Japanese feast (at the beach)

same again

unfortunately i've been spending most of my time at work, working, and on the road.

i'm still working my top-secret government job and would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that it is much less exciting than the confidentiality agreement suggests. i'm back on the cleanse and struggling (but sticking) with it. and gerry and i are taking a safe boating class. we hope to join the co-op here and get some practice and experience in. other than that, making food for the cleanse and shopping for food for the cleanse takes up a good part of my life. oh! and i've been doing crosswords, usually with gerry.

this is a special weekend though! we saw my brother last night, played a couple of games of cribbage and brought the house some timmy ho's. so now we get to go to vancouver for the night! i'm off to get a massage first, and then it's a quick pack and hop on the bus to spend the night in our fair (but for the first day in ages, rainy) city. one night at the fairmont harbourfront with an evening at the comedy fest. we're going to see a game show! how me is that?! ha ha! and then hopefully a nice organic, vegan and celiac friendly, sugar free, garlic free, cranberry free dinner. my favourite part? open heated swimming pool on the 6th floor. hopefully it's open during the rain.

at last

it's been a very busy few weeks. i'm working full time (boo to the hours, yay to the cash), we've been working on the wedding details, attended a wedding, and had visitors from ireland (elaine, nicola, and suz).

the best was definitely having visitors. and the laughing that went with it. (p.s. suz didn't leave the milk out at all after elaine and nicola left.)

it was mixed weather while they were here, but that was probably for the best since the first day they got here they were shocked at the heat and comments like: are we in africa, abounded.

as is traditional, i've included a recap of funny things that were said:

monkeys / africa: as mentioned above, elaine kept calling the place africa... but to continue on the theme, the first morning they were here, nicola said that the monkeys on the balcony woke her up with their running around and squealing. i think it was actually squirrels running around and seagulls squealing, but i'm open to the idea of monkeys on our balcony.

vagina: one day i picked elain and nicola up after a long day of them in the city, and then we met some work people and gerry at the olive garden (now when will & grace talk about it, they know what it's about). on the drive elaine and nicola asked about this place called vagina that everyone is talking about. they had even heard people discussing it on the bus around stanley park. regina, i explained, is a city in canada. and while people might 'visit' vagina, they were probably talking about regina. these kinds of things are especially funny to me, since my accent issue with tapas/topless bars. good thing i wouldn't mind going to either.

me (naked): it was a pretty warm night, and i had taken a steamy shower for some reason. i plopped on the bed, under the fan to cool off and immediately thought: oh shoot, what if one of the girls gets up, i then decided, and said out loud that they wouldn't. at which point, elaine did. of course we scrambled around to get covered, and totally looked like we were having sexy time. there was much laughing and so on. elaine can't see that well without her glasses on, but still... HELLO! NAKED!

60/50 split the lotto: nicola, having taught maths in ireland decided this was a fair split for the lotto winnings from the ticket she and elaine got. elaine would have split it with all of us.

oh, and my most favourite. elaine, nicola and gerry went to science world. at some point, elaine was standing around, trying to ignore the child asking her a question. finally she looked at the kid and he asked her how far 100 metres is. she pointed to a spot 10 metres away and said to there. this is made extra funny because when we went jet skiing, and elaine took over, she almost hit other boats (you're supposed to stay 100 feet away from other water craft) and had no clue how far she was supposed to stay from the beach. she also probably destroyed that child's chances of becoming anything that has to do with distances.

we hope our visitors had as much fun camping, shopping, eating, making s'mores, jet skiing, eating, shopping, eating, shopping, and of course visiting as we did!

thanks for making the trip!!!

yes, i know

i know that rough times happening in a person's life help you appreciate the good ones even more, but (whoa is me) i think i deserve a break.

and that's all i'm going to say about that. good news now.

wedding dress plans are getting sorted. we have probably found someone to do the cupcakes. more testing (not by me, i'm sticking to my allergy list) will occur in the next couple of weeks. and, although i have found out the florist i wanted to use has sold his business, i'm not too worried (weird) but will definitely start to look into a local one.

i'm still working. and it's still confidential, so there'll be no chit chat about that... except that boring jobs shouldn't be confidential. it makes them worse to not be able to whinge about them. :o)

one week until elaine and nicola come! how exciting is that. i believe events will include shopping, whale watching, shopping, eating, jack johnson at the gorge in george, WA some eating, and some shopping. then suz gets here and we'll do something similar but with dave matthews at the gorge, instead of jack.

whoo hoo!

still going

so, i'm still cleansing. this means things basically suck in the food department around here. what worries me most is that these 'cookies' i made (banana, oats, cinnamon, threw in some nuts for excitement) tasted super gross when i first tried one but by the second day i was like: hey, these aren't that bad!

in other fun news, we got an ikea couch that pulls out into a bed for our guests who will be arriving in less than a month! (by one day, but still!) oh, and on the weekend, with some assistance from my fellah, i made raspberry jam. i've already given a few jars away, so i hope they taste alright. they are, of course, laden with sugar, so i wasn't able to taste it while sweating away over the stove.

lastly, my belly dancing class is going well. um... well, okay the teacher is a good belly dancer, but i don't know that i would say she's a good teacher. it's only one more class, so i don't really mind, and i do feel like i've learned some stuff, and even more importantly, had some nice sweaty work outs.

working 9-5

*shock & horror*

i've been temping this week. and will finish the week with it too. in fact, i've got something (or should have, i'm just waiting for the confirmation email) lined up for the next month after this.

busy me. busy bee.

have i mentioned that i think i can taste one of the medicines prescribed to me? i can't which. they all have a similar weird smell.

control

as many of you, my massive audience of 2, know, i have a serious problem with eczema and psoriasis. both of which can be very painful and fairly disgusting. well, let me clarify... it doesn't bother me to see it on other people, but when you have it, you know people are staring at it, and you know most people think it's disgusting.

it also leads to other things, like arthritis, scarring, hair loss, etc.. basically, it's not the worst thing out there, but it's not super either.

so, in my attempts to get a grip on this thing, i saw a specialist again, on tuesday. i told him where i am having problems and he looked and talked to the other guy there (student or whatever). he rambled off some stuff and filled 3 sheets of prescription paper.

so, i went to the drug store and had to wait *ages* for everything. then when i got to the till the total was $200! and let me tell you, it is hard to figure out what is going on with all this stuff. i will admit, it's a good deal my own fault cause i should have been more demanding, but i can never remember that stuff anyway. and i guess cause i've started a cleanse under rachel's guidance, i was a little more ambivalent about the prescriptions from the MD.

basically, i want to use the prescription stuff to clear up the issues, especially on my scalp and arms and i'm hoping with rachel's help, i'll be able to cure the problem.

also, please take this as a warning that not only am i going to be PMSing, i'm also going to be a psycho needing some peanut butter, chocolate, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, sugar, bread, dairy, etc..

on that note, i will do one more blog and then go to sleep.

get well soon

ugh!!

it's been a good week and a half that i've been sick. bouts of voicelessness, coughing, sneezing and muscle aches have been ruling my world, so i've been staying very close to home lately. except for when i had to go to the doctor... in HOPE!

seriously, it is so frickin' hard to get a doctor around here. in fact:

dear mr. campbell,

please recruit more doctors and while you're at it, increase health care benefits cause the current situation SUCKS!!!

yours truly,
ursula

luckily i already had an appointment for my doctor, for my gimped shoulder, so when i was there she checked out the cold situation and ordered me to rest and fluids.

so what exciting things have i been doing to keep myself busy? reading garbage, getting my butt kicked all over the Wii Friends Network by Jen, Reid and Conor, watching wedding shows and law & order (same thing really, isn't it?) and doing all kinds of fun wedding things like save the date cards and planning website details. and of course, sleeping like crazy. i've also been trying to get off the nyquil now that i have deemed myself not so sick that i need it to sleep.

tonight we have a meeting with a potential photographer and more excitingly, drinks with ang and lief.

whoot, there it is.

staycation

since wednesday i've been home-alone. as you may know from previous posts, when i'm left alone at home i like to stay up late, do housework and especially organize.

this time alone, i've decided to treat it as a vacation, or because i've stayed home, a staycation.

i've been staying up late reading trashy books, having naps in the afternoon, and really not straying far from home. it's been nice. it has of course been spattered with some laundry and food making. an appointment here, and meeting up with some people there. for the most part, a fairly relaxed pace of enjoying the sunshine and letting my body dictate the hours it wants to keep.

tomorrow i have a lesson to give, but that's already planned. and of course, it's saturday, so i'll be visiting my brother. otherwise, i have a dessert to make for the father's day barbeque at rachel's and then i might pull out my sewing machine to make the yoga mat bag i've been meaning to for ages. hmmm... i guess i should make sure the cord is still in there, from when i first got all of the supplies. maybe this project will be delayed until next week. it's less convenient to want to whip something up when there's no longer a fabric/craft store to get your supplies from for free. :o) and since i'm on staycation, i wouldn't want to go out of my way, and have to stop at a store.

a little something like this

not exactly, but the idea is there. oh, and p.s. i don't look like her in it. in case we haven't met.

try this on for size!

tomorrow i have an appointment to try on some wedding dresses. we'll see if the pictures i've ripped from wedding magazines come even close to some resemblance when they're on me.

i'm bringing rachel for this fun escapade, and hopefully she'll be able to take pics. is itbad luck to post wedding dress pictures before you're married? hmm...