Happy Birthday John Denver

Some of my friends thought I was kidding when I said the greatest tragedy of 1997 was the loss of John Denver. I guess some were more upset by the death of the Diana. Oh well. We can disagree.

John's music makes me remember being a kid. And it reminds me of the Judester which makes me happy and sad at the same time.

So if you're ringing in the New Year tonight drink a toast to John Denver before midnight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkGS263lGsQ

Towelhead - DONE! One down, 7 (at least) to go!

Can't blog, reading.............

Under Pressure

You know those dreams where you show up at school naked? Or where you have a test but you haven't gone to any of the classes or read the books? Why am I having those lately? Mind you in my naked dreams I'm going to work - not at my current job but I'm usually starting back at the bank or at the bookstore after years of being away - I am taught how to use the computer systems, how to swipe in for payroll purposes, etc. And usually I've forgotten my pants. Or I'm wearing something inappropriate - like a floral shirt.

I am feeling some pressure lately in regards to reading - I keep agreeing to read books that are recommended to me. I often have these books at home (being an obsessive book buyer) so access isn't an issue - time is! I read so much for work - books that I have to sell in upcoming weeks plus manuscripts that we are considering acquiring. Plus I feel the need to read teen fiction put out by rival publishers so I know what else is in the market and what kids/teens are into. Reading all those books takes time away from my pleasure reading and definitely from my family/friend obligation reading!

I have 8 more days off and way too much to read before I have to go back to work - two manuscripts that are saved on my laptop, the Birth House by Amy McKay, Slam by Nick Hornby (for bookclub), Towelhead (because I promised my sister ages ago that I would read it), Too Close to the Falls (so I don't feel so left out when my mom and sister talk about it in front of me)...plus more. I can put off the 3-4 fantasy novels that the cottage cousins are expecting me to read because I won't see them til the long weekend in May. And I can delay book 3 of the fantasy series I'm reading because I find reading too many books by the same author in a row doesn't work for me. So I'll mix it up a bit and squeeze some obligation reading in before starting book 3! And finally I have Dreams of My Father - the only book I actually rec'd for Xmas this year (thanks Liam) which I want to read but doubt I'll get to before the inauguration!

Dreams - Trust me I know you don't want to hear them...

What is it with dreams? They are these little movies in our heads yet are impossible to remember. I can wake up briefly have a finger on the edge of what I was dreaming about and then slip, it's gone. So weird!!

Don't you hate it when people corner you at work & tell you way too much detail about the dream they had last night? "...and then I was in this room and my mom was there, no wait it was my Aunt, and she was wearing clown shoes and suddenly, oh this was weird, my brother turned into a baby"....um, no one cares about anyone else's dreams. They're boring. I don't know why they're boring - maybe because there is no plot, we can never see them ourselves and we have our own weird dreams to think about if we can remember them.

I have a harder time remembering my dreams lately than I used to. I also can't keep peoples names in my head anymore. If I'm introduced to someone - BOOM - their name is gone a second later. Unless I see it written down. And if I'm introduced to two people that's even worse. I can sometimes remember one name but not which person it belongs to. Yikes.

Celebrity Look-alike?

Is it just me or does this look a bit like Paula Abdul?

Half a Christmas Tree

Our living/dining rooms are smaller at the new house so we've only put up 1/2 the Christmas tree. You can't actually tell because we've pushed it up against the dining room wall. It was David's idea and I think he's going to be one of those annoying guys like you see in movies - he's going to ask everyone that walks in "notice anything about our tree?". Of course no one will notice.

We've had a to adjust a bit by not using all of our decorations and it already seems kind of full under the tree where I've been putting gifts for the nieces and nephew, etc already. There will be significant overflow by the 25th, that's for sure.

We're hosting 19 for dinner on the 25th - I have the Christmas playlist made on my ipod, dinner planned, a tablecloth purchased (do I need to iron it?), napkins taken care of. I will have to plan a trip to the beer/liquor store before the last minute because I can't stand lines....Okay time for me to go make myself an actual list so that I don't forget anything.

When did being the birthday girl get to be so embarassing?

I'm not embarassed about my age but I feel so self-conscious when it's my birthday and everyone is paying attention to me. I guess I've always been most comfortable having attention paid to me when I do something to make it happen. Sure I make jokes in meetings and everyone turns and looks at me like I'm crazy or funny or about to lose my job - but that's my choice. It's weird to have people wishing me happy birthday simply because I successfully navigated the birth canal oh so many years ago. My mom really did all the work, not me.

Not that it isn't nice, having friends and coworkers take a moment to wish me well. It is nice. And I guess since it only happens once every 365 days it isn't something that I will likely get used to...especially since I'm still finding it odd after 41 years!

Maybe I'm still on Denver time....

It's almost 3 am and I can't sleep. And as I lay there (lie there?) trying to get to sleep I keeping rehashing things from the past that I'd rather not think about. I used to be so proud of myself for being someone who kept a journal, someone who confronted her own thoughts and fears. Now, I push so much to the back of my mind because I don't want to deal with it. I'm constantly saying to myself "I'll deal with that tomorrow" and then I say the same thing when tomorrow comes. I wonder what happened to the introspective me? Did I simply become weary of my own self-indulgent navel-gazing? The last thing I want to do is go back and read the 20+ years of journals that I kept until perhaps 1999 or even later but I'll hang onto them.

I'm lucky no one actually reads this blog so they won't have to deal with this boring post. Going back to bed now. Maybe I'll read a book.

Sidewalks are there - use them!

I've heard from runners that they run on the road, not the sidewalk because the road is easier on their knees...but what's with all the people I see walking on the road when there is a sidewalk? And pushing baby carriages on the road when there is a sidewalk? Know what belongs on the road? My car! And bikes...those are way too often on the sidewalk! Do we need a refresher, people?

Bad! Bad Driving Man! Bad!

Okay, picture this scenario: There I am driving home in my sporty black car, listening to tales of Mormon strife in the 1800s on my CD player. As I drive north on Bayview past Sunnybrook I notice a black BMW SUV kind of shifting a bit closer to my lane just ahead of me, to my right. So I keep my eye on this gas-guzzler and proceed cautiously. Then I pass the SUV, not because I've sped up, but because it has slowed down. As I pass I glance to my right, the guy at the wheel has his hands on the wheel with his blackberry in his hands, texting madly - his eyes totally on his blackberry. I move on, frustrated, yet keep my eye on him, as he falls into traffic behind me, still in the lane to my right.

Eventually we end up side by side again. I notice again that he's slowing down because he is texting and is not looking at the road at all! So I slow down a bit (first making sure no one is right behind me) and honk frantically trying to catch the jerk's attention. Does he react in any way to the sudden blast of honking? Nope. Either his music was up to high or he just chose to ignore it. Didn't check his rear view, didn't look sideways at me, nothing (unless I missed it when I looked forward)...so I had no choice but to drive on. And you know if he crashes into someone he's likely to come out okay in his monster-mobile.

AWKL 223 - that's his license plate in case anyone knows the jerk.

Judy Coull March 2 1969- May 20,2007

Happy Birthday Judester, I miss you.

Townhouse Hunting

I admit, I did exactly what I warned my kids not to do. Last week we went to see a beautiful townhouse that is for sale in our neighbourhood. Being new to house hunting I warned the kids in advance to not make comments about the decor and to focus their attention on things that would remain when the current owners moved out - the size of rooms, the fixtures, the closet space, etc.

I was pretty impressed by the window treatments, oh and they had this great bench in the basement. And what a flair for decorating! Faucets? I forgot to look. Appliances? No idea but I do remember their fridge magnet!

So today David & I went to see another place - this time I kept myself in line and looked first at floors, space, closets, faucets, even pipes (even though the only thing that would worry me about pipes would have been rust or leaks). And I loved this place too. Someone else was making an offer tonight so my heart is broken.

But I'm not ready just yet to take the plunge & buy a place. I need more time to save and more time to sort out what we can & can't afford. So I'm thinking maybe I should stop looking for a bit. It's like taking me to a purse store making me fall in love & then dragging me out bagless. Or worse - letting me play with puppies then not letting me take one home.

In the meantime I'm doing a big purge of stuff we've got cluttering up our place. It's hard to get rid of books but some are going. Clothes we never wear are on their way out. Goodbye to plastic bottles, old tupperware containers and mismatched socks. Why do I hang onto this stuff? I hope that when we finally do move we'll only have stuff we actually use. (Ha! like that'll ever happen)

What I've Missed by Being a Snob...

How could I have known?

I consider myself a fairly educated reader and try to avoid trash. That isn't to say that I don't delve into drugstore type books now and again. I will admit (gulp) that in the past I have read Nora Roberts, Maeve Binchy, Robert Ludlum and Dan Brown among others. But something was keeping me away from Chick Lit. Maybe it was because I work selling children's books and that tends to be what I read. And when I do read a "grown up" book I go for literary fiction - award winners, Canadian authors, etc. While working in the bookstore I mostly read adult books that had teen-crossover potential so I tended to stay away from books that were geared towards sexually active women! Okay, so here's what my years of staying away have done - they've deprived me until now of the joys of the Shopaholic series!

Why didn't anyone tell me? I'm listening to the first book on audio CD in the car & I LOVE IT! It is absolutely hilarious. Mind you it is making me simultaneously want to shop and want to cut up all my credit cards!

I did listen to "Good In Bed" on cd as well, which qualifies as Chick Lit. I did enjoy it but not to this extent.

So to all of you Shopaholic fans, I am sorry. You were right. Actually I never said they weren't good books or disuaded anyone from buying them, I just didn't get on the bandwagon myself until this week. And now I'm hooked.

Anna Karenina and Scrabble

I've been listening to the audio book (unabridged) of Anna Karenina on my computer at night while I obsessively play Bejeweled. I was doing alright for a while, even after having a brief confusion between Vronsky and Ablonsky's names. But then suddenly we were in the country or something with Levin and I was confused. So I rewound (which I hate doing) and will relisten (ugh) to that part again. I think I'm a fairly smart person and can follow complicated plots but here's what I think happened to confuse me: Scrabulous. Okay I am obsessed with this Facebook application. Totally obsessed. So obsessed that I sometimes calculate word scores while lying in bed thinking of possible words to play. I know how pathetic that sounds.

I had played a bit (poorly) before Xmas but it was in London at Christmas time when we played an actual game of Scrabble that suddenly I couldn't get enough. So now we play Scrabble at home, I played tonight at my mom's and the entire family is fighting to use the computer to put in their latest word on Scrabulous. How did this happen? Is it improving our vocabularies? Hmmm..I know that xi is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet but that doesn't mean I'll ever use it that except when playing Scrabble or perhaps if I do a crossword puzzle.

It's like when we had Sim City on our old computer. I was so hooked - I'd stay up til the wee hours of the morning working on my city, raising taxes, laying pipes, etc. Then I'd think of it everywhere I went - pipes, road curves and industrial smokestacks in Toronto would seem so much more obvious to me. I'd drive through Scarborough with Dave & make comments about "Low Density Commercial", etc. It was insane. Same thing when I played too much Tetris. Or Solitaire or handheld Boggle (where oh where is that game?). I clearly have an addictive personality. Why don't I get addicted to doing my dishes? Or getting up early for work? I wouldn't be at all surprised to come home one day from work & have my family in my living room waiting to have an intervention.