PYJ

Not so perfect, not so young

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

The festivities continue

Mmm. Gift certificates. Daniel and I got a nice assortment of these for Christmas. Gap, Starbucks, HMV, Jacob. . . all good. Today we braved the post-boxing day crowds to try to redeem them. It was hard work. Daniel is extremely fussy about clothes, and every time we found a shirt that he liked, the stock was so picked over that there were only XXS and XXL sizes left. We gave up on that one. HMV was also a difficult one, because there are so many good CDs and movies to choose from. We gave up on that too. We're going to wait for King Kong to come out on DVD. That way I can zip past all the icky bugs/swamp worms and get to the parts where I can bawl like a baby (basically whenever Kong and Anne are on the screen together).

I keep interrupting my typing to tell Daniel to be quiet, and he told me to add to this blog entry how annoying I find him right now. What he likes to do is say, "Well, you see, that's the problem." I can never keep it straight whether his irritating phrases are from Napolean Dynamite, or from Office Space. Apparently, this particular line came from Kip. Daniel likes to say it a lot. He'll say it for no reason at all, in response to nothing. He also likes to start the phrase at a very high pitch, which he sustains for a long time.

"WWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLL you see. . . "

It's hard to take, to say the least. And he just said it about 5 times in a row. I feel better now for having talked about it. Maybe I can pre-empt future irritation by adding that he also likes to say "GOSH!" (in a frustrated tone) often. And "Um, yeah. . . " like the boss in Office Space.

I've gotten distracted from my original gift certificate topic, but it's probably more entertaining to read about my domestic frustrations instead of my shopping lists. I'm so grateful that Daniel doesn't have a blog, or care to vent about all of the annoying things I do and say. That would be trouble.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Festive times

My family is here to celebrate Christmas a few days early, because they are traveling to New Brunswick for the holidays. Last night, we had the big turkey dinner and opened all our presents. Too much fun. I've never been a huge fan of Christmas (I like to celebrate the birth of Christ, but the expectation that everybody will suddenly glow with good cheer has always been a bit of a problem for me) but celebrating a few days early could definitely grow on me. Anyway, the early Christmas thing is great. There's not enough time for the buildup of holiday cheer, and therefore the whole thing can't be anti-climactic. Yay.

So much other stuff has been going on. I've finished all of the courses required for my master's, and now it's just practicum placements and thesis work for about a year or so. Our class had a big "grad" formal to celebrate being finished courses, and to say goodbye before going our separate ways. Daniel and I have gone to our share of Christmas parties and concerts, and of course, Daniel also had his monumental debut singing with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (okay, the whole choir sang, but it was the most exciting for my soccer-playing, new-choir-member husband to be part of such a big event).

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Home sweet home

I went to an opera tonight (Filumena). It was excellent. My favourite part was when they sang about Moose Jaw (it's my hometown!).

It's probably not easy to write Moose Jaw into a libretto.

Out of the blue


I don't enjoy terse, abrupt emails. I don't mean ones from a friend quickly confirming when to meet for coffee. I mean ones from colleagues or superiors that are, or should be, professional in nature.

I admit, some people are very busy. I propose a solution: many people hate emoticons, but I really wouldn't mind if they were used as frequently as punctuation. If you don't have the time to use verbal 'cordialities' such as "hello", at least give me a smiley face. Smiley faces would go a surprisingly long way to making me happy, as far as email is concerned.

I'll be honest. I take the small stuff too seriously LOTS of the time.