Girl's Night

I had been postponing a birthday celebration with my friends because I thought I might want to throw a barbecue at my house, with big burgers and lots of alcohol and general merriment all around. I finally clued into the fact last Wednesday that I have zero time in my schedule right now, so if I wanted to actually celebrate this year at all, dinner out was probably a better idea. So, on short notice, I sent out the invite to my closest friends, three of whom were able to make it. I was sad that my other friends couldn't come, but totally understood because I'm a flake lately and last-minute is not exactly convenient.

We had SO MUCH FUN! Four girls, just chatting and drinking and sharing good food and good conversation. I'd forgotten the value of actually physically being around people, not just phone conversations and email. For example, telling someone about how you were in the middle of your meal, and suddenly the drunk woman at the next table gets up to leave, then falls into you, practically headbutts you and grabs your boob to try and hold herself up, and then comes back like five minutes later and scares the crap out of you trying to say she's sorry, but leans in a bit too close in doing so. And then the guy at the table behind you gets up and says to you "I thought she was going to try to headbutt you again!" That's hilarious. But I'm not sure if it's just hilarious because I was there, watching it happen to Ems, or if it will translate in print.

All of this to say, thank you so much to my sweet, dear friends. I had a fabulous birthday/new business celebration. I hope that we can start a routine of getting together far more often, and next time I am definitely bringing a camera.

Quarter-life crisis purchases

I am an absent blogger. And for now, I'm okay with that.

This week was crazy, and I think I'm in for more of the same for this next little while. Put together: 1) busiest vacation time of the summer, 2) a business you run based around people's vacations (I have never been around so many different cats in one week in my entire life), and 3) a staffing level teetering on "emergency, emergency, we need to hire ten people", and 4) one of those staff on her way out in the next two weeks. Eeks. But, I have to say that as long as I get my sleep (and I'm talking comotose at like 9PM) the days usually shape up to be not so bad.

So, Friday was my birthday, which was pretty fun. Well, not really fun in a sense that I partied my ass off and got wasted and all those things that used to be fun to do on your birthday, but I didn't go to bed til 11:30, drank way too much wine with my kick-ass bloody steak at The Keg, and actually allowed myself to take a lunchbreak during the work day. Cause on your birthday you shouldn't be cranky due to low blood sugar.

Lots of people gave me cash for my birthday, which was stupendous, because for once I knew what I wanted to buy instead of just paying off my Visa with it or buying Subway or something. I bought myself (along with contributions from my Mummy, my Papa, my Grammie and Grampie, and Sexy Boyfriend) the most bitchin'est kick-ass snowboard EVER!!! I love it sooooo much. Here it is:

I friggin' love it so much I would almost make out with it!!!

I've been thinking about the snowboard for quite a while, and we've gone looking several times, and I kinda had my eye on a different one, but wasn't quite sure, and the prices went down, but then I didn't know if I really liked the design and the colors of the other one (which I know is not the most important thing when buying a snowboard, but the cuter I look, the more I'll want to ride it, right?), and then we went into the shop, and I saw this one, and my heart went pitter-pat and I knew I couldn't leave without it. Now I only have to wait like five more months for enough snow to ride it.

Pair this with the present I got SB for his birthday, a 3-day weekend rental of a Ducati sportbike, which we will hopefully actually get to use this summer, and I think we were hit harder by our respective QLC (quarter life crises) then we would like to admit. But by goodness, we just might fatally wound ourselves yet!

Not much else is happening. I felt a little nostalgic on Thursday, right before my birthday, thinking about all the stuff that's happened over the past year, but I kinda don't feel like writing about that right now. So stay tuned for melodrama and sentimentality. Woop woop.

With a tub of Haagen Daaz, and, oddly, craving a cigarette

I'm having an especially grumpy day.

I'm sick of driving The Shittiest Car on Earth (SB has our camera, but as soon as it's back in the apartment I will take and post a picture of The Beast.) The World Cup is ruining my carefully planned out scheduling (enough with the honking and wooing and slow-driving already! It's fucking 5:00 on a Wednesday - people have shit to do!). And now, while I'm toiling away at stuff I'm trying to get done so that I can go to the doctor tomorrow so I don't run out of crazy medicine and lose my head, someone is singing a particularly horrible rendition of Roxanne on the premiere of Rockstar: Supernova. It's a song I don't hate, perse, but I do hate Sting, and the Police, and I definitely hate this guy who's singing.

Today was my first real taste of stress, and it sucked, but none of it was my fault, which is what made it stressful. When something fucks up and it's my fault, I can recognize it, own up to it, and fix it. But when there's traffic because people without normal jobs, or any jobs, or nothing better to do are cruising up and down the main avenues waving flags and wearing out their horn batteries, and this waving of flags slows down my shit, the thing I thought was cute a few days ago turns ugly and makes me bitter.

The only thing I can say is, thank goodness for Goosie. He always makes me feel better.

Little World

So, it's almost the end of the World Cup, and it's my first World Cup in Montreal. Who knew it could be this exciting?

Montreal is pretty well known for it's diversity. Whereas, say, Toronto (not to name names, but...) has a reputation for being more of a melting pot, Montreal is the quintessential mosaic. People come here, love it here, but are fiercely proud of their heritage and lineage. It makes for very cool little neighborhoods, and sporting events as I have never witnessed them in my life.

Anyway, with the World Cup going on, it's inevitable that people will wear jerseys, and have little flags or something, and maybe gather at a sportsbar on a Saturday to watch a match or two. But here, here the World Cup takes on a life of its own. At 11am on a Tuesday, people were driving their cars up and down the main streets with flags and banners and megaphones and horns, and possible booze. And not just one car - no no no - parades of them, honking and yelling and generally getting in my way, but in a non-irritating way because people should be able to celebrate when their team wins, or scores, or whatever happened.

I was also struck by the vast number of countries that were represented in these little parades. There wasn't just Brazil, Germany, Argentina, you know, the big teams. Portugal had a huge following, as did Italy. Even the French were not too haughty for once to join in. But no one seemed to be disputing. At least not in an overly aggressive way.

On Friday, after Italy won their match against the Ukraine, we took a drive to Little Italy. The streets were closed down and hundreds of people were marching and singing and waving flags. One guy had a giant afghan that I'm guessing his nona made him of the Italian flag. People had tiny jerseys on their tiny dogs while they waved flags, ate gelato and tried not to get anything on their Gucci shoes. Maybe it wasn't exactly like Rome, but at the very least it was like New Jersey, HBO style.

I feel lucky to live in a city like this - where I can experience all these cultures so authentically, from people who care about and are proud of where they came from. And I love that I can be curious about them, without feeling like a tourist.

I just wish they wouldn't slow the traffic up quite so much.