In bed by 9:30 pm … awake at 5:30 am … at work for 7:15.

X today, tomorrow and the next day.

~ Working for the Weekend, Loverboy

So, rather than write about things that are stressing me out (mainly of my own creation, of course … things that are of concern but not ledge-worthy though my thoughts sometimes spin in an attempt to convince me so), I thought I would write about something positive …

Yesterday, CBC Radio 2 revealed the 13 songs resulting from The Great Canadian SongQuest.  Rich Terfry and Drive are on every day when I get home (I leave the radio on all day for George) so I thankfully stumbled upon the show in which the results were revealled last night … and couldn’t bring myself to turn the radio off until all the remaining songs were aired.  THIS is the kind of initiative I can get behind!  I love it when a creative idea is backed (usually by CBC) that is capable of bringing Canadians together (and, no, I do not include trash like Canadian Idol or So You Think You Can Dance Canada).  I mean things that tap into our distinct characters AS Canadians.  True Canadiana.  The Greatest Canadian (CBC, again) is a fantastic example of bringing Canadians together through new media … as is The Great Canadian SongQuest.

I’m not simply being biased when I say that the song inspired by Ontario is my favourite – you know, what with having been born and raised in that province.  I mean, Joel Plaskett wrote a song about the Cabot Trail to represent Nova Scotia (Cape Breton Island) – and I’m growing into a huge fan of his.  Martha Wainwright wrote a song about the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield to represent Québec – my Dad is from Wakefield and I have been by that place countless times.  But, Hawksley Workman’s song about Algonquin Park to represent Ontario in the Quest is a GREAT song.

So, I downloaded it from iTunes last night along with a few other tracks of his.  And I dig it.

Today I visited his web site to find that he will be touring in the new year – including a stop in Victoria on March 6th.  Now, my first thought was: why not Vancouver?  He’s stopping all sorts of random places but not in a big city that would probably harbour a lot of his fans – Olympic-related scheduling clashes?  Oh well, I’ll just take the ferry across the Strait.  Good timing too as it is 10 days before my birthday – so, I can make it a sort of early happy-birthday-to-me treat, of course including a visit with near and dear.

Did you listen to SongQuest? Do you have a favourite?

~ Your Beauty Must Be Rubbing Off On Me, Hawksley Workman

The most adorable ad I’ve seen in a looong time:

~ Sugar Sugar, The Archies

He asked me what Twitter was.  He wasn’t the first and I’m sure he won’t be the last.  But while I was trying to explain I realized that I, myself, didn’t actually care.  I could say what it was but not why I did it.  So, now I don’t.  I deleted the account and removed the box from my blog.

No judgement.

Simplify.

~ A Million Dollars, Joel Plaskett

Came back to the city today.

My apartment feels like home.  This little apartment on the side of a building, fourteen storeys above the ground, smack dab in the middle of downtown Vancouver is home because it’s where I keep my stuff.  When I open the door marked 1407 I see my belongings and the small space on this earth I pay a hefty rent to call my own.  But the city doesn’t feel like my place.

This sensation increases in strength each time I leave for a time and return.  It’s difficult to explain.  I still love Vancouver itself.  The mountains.  The skyscrapers.  The ocean.  But, it can be cold.  Not as welcoming as the smaller towns and cities I leave it to frequent.

~ Weighty Ghost, Wintersleep

“You guys, I seriously love British Columbia”, I announced to a car full of people during the ride home from The Keg in Langley.

This confession might have been induced by the three “keg-sized” caesars I had with dinner – but it should be pretty darn obvious to anyone who knows me.  My love for this place and my life since moving here is no secret.

I’m spending the weekend with my ’second-parents’, aka my favourite Aunt & Uncle, in Maple Ridge.  Despite the almost constant rain, perpetual threat of flooding, river-stink of rotting salmon and the migraine auras I’m having a fantastic time.  I mean, I get to spend the weekend relaxing around with two of my favourite people, eating good food, shopping at Bruce’s Fish Market, watching movies and reading books.  Not a whole lot here not to love, really.

Real life awaits back in Vancouver tomorrow.  But before returning, I will buy some more local groceries, fill another bag full of home-made foods and learn how to bake a blueberry pie from scratch as instructed by the Master, my Aunt.

When I think about how none of this wonderful stuff – this weekend, and in my life generally – would not have been possible without my having moved, well … I love British Columbia.  Seriously, you guys.

… At least tomorrow’s headache will have been a consequence of something other than atmospheric pressure changes, for a change.  Lol.  Hope you’ve had a good weekend, too.

~ Turning Japanese, The Vapors

I was awoken this morning by a text from my Leo (in Victoria) asking me to help him figure out why his ringtone wasn’t working on his iPhone.  Hmmm … let me have a look at my iPhone … oh wait, I don’t have an iPhone -thanks for rubbing it in, btw – so how would I know?

It made me laugh.

So, I did some searching and sent him some troubleshooting links.

Then, I realized, I’ve had my current ringtone for about a year and a half.  It has been set on “Shipping up to Boston” by the Dropkick Murphy’s since Spring of 2008 (or earlier, I can’t remember).  I suppose my cell phone doesn’t actually ring that often, so I don’t really get bored of it (my cell is pretty much just for texting and emergencies).

My only other two ringtones (over the last 8 years) were Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Take Me Out’ and a bagpipe rendition of ‘Scotland the Brave’.  Nope, ringtones have never really been that exciting to me.  My phone is set on vibrate for calls more often than it is on ring.  Odd considering my fascination with music, non?

Catching the 3:20 pm train out of Dodge to go visit ma famille.  I’ve decided I cannot spend two consecutive weekends locked in my apartment with books, no matter how enjoyable that course of action was last week.  Can only do that so often before you go crazy.  Even if it’s just to spend some time in the same house as other people, it’s well worth the trip.  Can’t put a price on company … especially that of my favourite Aunt & Uncle.

~ Swimmers, Broken Social Scene

From my old blog, long since gone:

“You might not know this about me, but I can get some pretty serious migraines. I know the worst of the worst is coming when my right-hand goes numb. Yeah, I mean NUMB… as in, I can’t feel it. The sensation spreads up my arm, across my face, and into my mouth. But only the right-hand side of my body. This leads me to theorize that there’s something wrong with the left side of my brain… hmmm… am I simply over-educated? or am I a hypochondriac? The jury is still out on the degree of my craziness One of my coworkers nicely pointed out that those are the signs of an imminent stroke – yeah, I’m well aware of that. The thing is, though, I’ve been having these headaches since Grade 11. Since then, I’ve only had perhaps a handful of them, but I’m well aware of what’s coming. I’ve gone to the emergency room on three separate occasions for these headaches, and each time they just say it’s an ‘aura’ (think pre-migraine headache) … sometimes they shoot me up with some kind of pharmaceutical to try to … well, I won’t go into biological details, should it contribute to anyone’s belief that this is all psychosomatic… let’s just say the drugs are meant to minimize the headache, though I’ve been told in all honesty there’s nothing they can do to stop it completely. Yay. Oh, and so you’re really not worried, I’ve also been to see Neurologists and had CT Scans concerning all this as well.”

~ March 2008

Pre-migraine aura for over a day now … hopefully it will break or bloom at some point soon.  Oh, this time the problem appears to reside in the right hemisphere of my brain.  My left hand has been consistently much colder than my right.  My lips have been numb.  Have felt an occasional ice-pick stab here and there in my head.  Plan to sleep it off tonight … and tomorrow morning, if need be.  Hope your brain is feeling better.

~ Comfortably Numb, Pink Floyd

Feeling a little hyperactive today – not caffeine induced – and am riding this wave of energy accompanied by some great Canadian ‘indie’ music.  What does the term ‘indie’ mean anymore, anyway (well, it’s supposed to be short for Independent … I know THAT)?  I think it’s a label that has been slapped on a certain sound – just as alternative was back in the 90’s – that kinda doesn’t really encapsulate the music.

But hey, which labels fully encapsulate anything they’re attempting to describe, eh?

Yes, I did just type “eh”.  Lol.

Recently, someone was generous enough to take the time to put together a mixed cd of some interesting music (the best gift anyone could give me, as I have written before) – most of it I had yet to discover – and it has sort of turned me down a different sonic pathway than the one I had been wandering.

I was listening to way to much ‘pop’ music – popular music – again, I take issue with the label.  But, I digress …

So, I have been exploring this ‘indie’ music scene.  This morning, I stumbled across CBC Radio 3’s website on which you can listen to tracks by all kinds of Canadian ‘indie’ talent.  Right now I’m listening to some Joel Plaskett … earlier I attempted again to get myself into Broken Social Scene …  listened to a new Jason Collett track (and incidentally found out that he has a new album coming out in March … my birthday month … coincidience?) … and there’s sooooo much more left to explore!

The site is a pretty sweet find … especially on a day when I find myself tethered to my desk.

~ Nowhere With You, Joel Plaskett Emergency

I deleted my post from yesterday morning … didn’t really seem to say anything.

I’m feeling a little frustrated today – like, that feeling of tension in your chest like there are a million words that want to burst out but for some reason your throat is blocked and nothing can come out.  Stream of consciousness post?  Okay:

• Yesterday morning I was almost hit by a garbage truck while walking to the bus stop.  At the time I didn’t think it had phased me too much, but as the day progressed I started realizing things which were probably a reaction to the incident, such as: the ‘life your life’ without a care instinct which resulted in my taking some bold actions, the the overwhelming impulse to vomit in a planter while waiting at the bus-stop, the fact that I wasn’t plugging into  my iPod until I was safely seated on buses.  It was a near-miss but I think it might have impacted me a little deeper than I had originally thought.
• I missed a text message last night around 10:50 pm.  Having had no previously arranged engagements, I crawled into bed at 10 pm and was out like a light.  I awoke around 11:10 pm to the missed-text beep.  By the time I noticed & replied, the sender must have gone to sleep.  Too bad my sleep was subsequently disrupted almost every hour on the hour as my subconscious kept waking me up, thinking I had missed yet another text.  This morning I stayed in bed an extra half hour, consequently not having time for breakfast, and requiring a Starbucks this morning.
• George was sick this morning.  I thought he was just being a lazy bed-bug when he wouldn’t get out of bed, so I had to pick him up out of bed and over to the door to go for our morning walk.  He promptly threw up on the carpet when we got back.  He wouldn’t touch his breakfast until I soaked the kibbles in some warm water – always does the trick.  As I was already late for work, I couldn’t stick around too long to monitor him.  I’m hoping he curls up in bed and takes a nap for the rest of the day while I’m away.

Nothing too exciting to report, I guess.  I’m wandering in a bit of a haze right now.  I think I’m mentally taking a break before go-time next week … November Graduation.  Lots of extra hours, little sleep, and less time to slack … until Christmas break.  Better to be busy than bored, I always say.

~ Where is my Mind, The Pixies