my poor workplace

oh wee fan base, wee wee wee fan base. tiny fanbase. Minute fan base. etc.
On on my second sick day at home and may just go into work tomorrow, weakness, nausea, cramping and all just to get out there in the real world. I mean seriously. Those of you who know me, picture me sitting around for two days. There you go.
My poor workplace. The following things have happened there over the last while: I feel okay about posting this because a.) no one reads my blog and b)I'm not saying any names c) no one reads my blog d)I haven't said the name of the school

1.) A co-worker died a few months after being diagnosed with lung cancer
2.) 2 students died - one of a heart attack about a year ago and one of non-contagious TB on Dec. 31, after time spent in a coma.
3.)the fathers of two teachers recently died
4.) a father is quite ill
5.) stage 2 breast cancer has been diagnosed, resulting in quite a lot of time off of work needed with no long term disability
6.) an operation is needed, might be serious
7.) just last night, a co-worker's wife gave birth to their second child and the baby did not survive. That's a tough, tough one. I wasn't at work today when it was announced but seemingly people cried. He was very excited about this baby and i'd met his wife the other week and she was very pregnant and glowing. It stops you in your tracks.
8.) there's been a few stress leave situations

So a whole lot at once. And it's not like we are a big organization - I believe at peak times in the summer there are no more than 70 teachers or so.
I remember when the teacher died of lung cancer - we had a nice memorial service of sorts at our Professional Development afternoon where people got to share memories. For all of our dysfunctions, we do rally around each other.

Such a depressing blog, Karen! Well, yeah. What can you expect though, I've been sitting around for 2 days and listening to the evil Dr. Laura.
I have to send an e-mail to Dr. Laura just now - she did a book signing at Walmart and Walmart is pure evil.

Be Good Tanyas

I totally dig a Vancouver all female trio, The Be Good Tanyas. Sort of folk, sort of not.
All awesome.
I've been playing their latest CD, Hello Love, repeatedly. So today while at the West Vancouver Library (the loveliest library in the land in my opinion) I borrowed an earlier CD, Chinatown. Here's the lyrics to The Junkie Song. It's much better heard of course. For my out of town fanbase, Marty for example, if you give me your address I'd be more than happy to mail you a CD. Or I guess since you are far more computer literate than I am, you could download some of their stuff.
I've been feeling all mushy vulnerable the last few days and these guys are the perfect band for me when I feel that way.
The skytrain they refer to is like Vancouver's version of a subway, but mainly above ground.

The Junkie Song

Took a walk in my neighbourhood
two in the morning, by the skytrain station
streets were full of junkies and homeless
and they all wanted somethin
they all wanted somethin

what am i supposed to do
there are too many of you, too many of you
give some change look you in the eye
say that I too am human, I too am human

and don't we all hover
between apathy and compassion
fill up all our days with so much distraction
it makes it easier not to see
what we don't want to
but we all live here, we all live here
we all live here

Sinn Fein and things other than that group

I just heard on the radio that Sinn Fein has been elected in Northern Ireland. Amazing. I've e-mailed my Northern Irish friend so she can give me all of the scoop that is scooped. Schnee, you must have an opinion on that. I know you have a moral stance against my "censoring" of my comments but my readers need an enlightened comment on this topic.
In other news, insomnia creeped up on me again last night. Well, it didn't creep, it sort of pushed its way in. This has filled me with panic in a way. I've been sleeping pretty well this last couple of months, due mainly I think to my half a pill of Trazadone at night. But last night I woke up at 4:00 a.m. and stayed awake for a long time - felt restless in the pit of my stomach. And then when I did fall asleep, it was restless and filled with restless dreams. Today I feel rather wretched. I don't want to go through again the wretchedness I went through earlier this year. For me, insomnia = huge amounts of anxiety and despair. I'm trying not to obsess (ha!) because of course that makes it worse.
Interestingly, oh wee fan base, the Effexor DOES have a good effect on my thinking. I've been down to a very low dose - 75 mg - in an attempt to get off of it. It is so low as to be useless really. I talked with my great shrink about this and said I noticed that I was becoming more obsessive and much edgier. So I'm going to try 150 mg - much lower than I was taking before but a dose that will take the edge off. Some of you are shaking your wee fan base heads in confusion - up/down,up/down,up/down - yup, that's the way it is.
So there it be. Because I'm insomnia tired I'm not thinking too clearly today. Nonetheless, I'm off to Milestones in West Vancouver to meet Toaster Melanie and take her out to lunch for her great help with my computer.
As you were.

and there she be

I've been thinking of my pal Kyra a lot recently. I've lost contact - didn't know her phone number or e-mail address - and darned there she was right downtown this afternoon. Kyra! I said and she ran away. Ha! No she didn't. Well, not really anyway.
I feel rather mama-bearish toward Kyra. A bit of background. I met her at a taping of the now defunct Vicki Gabereau show back in October 2001. I was there to watch my friend Thea Gill be interviewed. Thea was on Queer as Folk at the time and Kyra was a big fan. Thea rather enjoys the fawning fans (who wouldn't) invited Kyra to come for lunch with us. And there it was.
"I can't believe I'm sitting here with you," Kyra kept saying, meaning Thea, not me apparently.
At any rate, I kept in touch with Kyra because she is very sweet and her story is rather heartbreaking. She was 22 in 2001 and was living with her parents in Surrey, B.C. and going to school to be a teacher. She was in love with her girlfriend, Sam, who lived in the U.K. and whom she'd met on an exchange program when she was in the U.K. Well, Kyra's parents are fundy Christians, the type that would tell you Jesus loves you so much now help us make these anti-gay posters. Kyra came creeping out of the closet to them and they freaked out and insisted she rush back in. Her older siblings felt the same way, even going so far as to stage an "intervention" when she visited them in Ontario.
Kyra was very shy, introverted and hadn't let out the power I knew she had in her and she knew she had in her. So she continued to live with her parents, not wanting to be disowned by them. A very difficult situation.
I saw Kyra on and off and even got to meet Sam when she was visiting a couple of years ago. Sam stayed at Kyra's family's but in separate bedrooms under the guise of friendship. Denial land was the home of Kyra's family.
Over the years I suggested to Kyra she may want to move out, particularly once she finished her degree.
Back and forth to England she went and then I ran into her today. She moved out of her parents' house two years ago and now lives with Sam in Burnaby. Sam is here on some kind of a work visa. Her parents have almost completely shut her out of their lives. Her mother, she says, calls her selfish for being a lesbian. She spent this Christmas Eve with her family at Sam's insistence. They both have hope of eventually rebuilding something there. It was okay, says Kyra, as they avoided the subject. Encouragingly, her father actually asked if Sam had found a job yet.
She misses her family, particularly her younger brother.
Her mother says she gets "very distressed" when she imagines her daughter's sexual relationship with Sam.
"Don't think about it!" Kyra suggests. Apparently mom doesn't spend anytime thinking about her straight children's sex lives.
I told Kyra today that she seems way happier and at peace and way less oppressed. She is, she says, she is very happy.
Because I feel mama-bearish toward Kyra I want to call up her mom, whom I've never met, and tell her a thing or two about a thing or two.
But I won't of course.
Hopefully Kyra and I will stay in touch now. "I need a lesbian friend," I told her, "you could be it. How cool I would look. I could say, 'I'm going to visit my lesbian friend Kyra now. Off I go to see lesbo Kyra." Ha, joking, in case you didn't catch the joking tone.
So there it be. My head is spinning in a weird head spinning kind of a way, so I'm going to get off of the computer and lay my wee head down. Lots of viruses going around this time of year.

they should

make an after school special about coming off of Effexor. I mean really. Remember those after school specials? I remember the one with Patty Duke (then Patty Duke Astin) and her son, Sean. This was 1981, so Sean was about 10. Nancy Mckeon was in it too as the babysitter. Patty hit her son you see. Hitting was bad, we learned. I went through a period where I had wanted Patty to be my mother. Also Victoria Principal from Dallas And Judith Light when she was on One life to Live.
But I digress.
Efucking fexor.
As some of my wee fan base knows, I am weaning off - titrating is the medical term - this drug. Some of my wee fan base are anti-drug and will think, thank god. I find that most who are anti-anti-depressant are those who haven't ever needed to be on one. So my point in talking about this is not to be anti-anti-depressant, I want to be very clear on that. They have helped me in the past and are very good for many, many people, certainly they have been literal lifesavers for a few people that I know. "Go all natural!" scream the anti-antis. Again, they don't get it and there you go.
Back to the weaning.
Almost a year ago I switched to Effexor, after a long and eventually useless try at Paxil. Effexor is stronger, newer and good for we obsessive anxious types. I'm not just talking slight obsession or anxiety, I'm talking really bad times here. You get the idea.
Long story short - I ended up, after about 8 months, on the highest dose of it, 375 mg. I didn't feel that it was really helping me, so, knowing the weaning process of this drug, decided to ask my doctor how to wean off of it. She said 75 mg less every two weeks.
The first while was easy. Down to 150 mg. I noticed no ill effects and surprisingly, no increase in my negative thinking/anxiety etc. But that of course is difficult to determine.
Then, and I knew this would happen as I got closer to the end - 112 mg., not too bad. But then, 75 mg. Eeek. I haven't had the brain shocks as widely reported. Thank god not yet. But the nausea is like no nausea I've experienced and being 41 almost, I know for nausea.
Yikes.
And dizzy.
And a few other things. The nausea is the worst though. Absolutely awful.
I decided to slow down this train ride.
I have a new and EXCELLENT psychiatrist. I'm more than thrilled. After a rather wretched try with another shrink, I found her. I found her through good pal Tracy, who used to work for another shrink who recommended this woman. I've seen her twice now - she has great evening hours so no work time needed off. She is relentlessly positive, which at first made me go, "uh oh, how will this work with my relentlessly negative" and I was going to write her off. But wait, she knows what she is doing. She's like a friggin calm oasis for me. I've heard others say this of their shrinks, but never believed it could happen to me.
She has recommended I go back to 112 mg for awhile, why suffer with the nausea says she. Slow the train down.
I'll do that.
I've read online that some people call Effexor, "the heroin of anti-depressants." In other words, when you're on it and if it works all is well, but getting off of it? Good luck to you. Some people are even suing the makers of it. To be fair, Effexor works wonders for some people and has turned their lives around. Remember, wee fan base, if you read this post as a diatribe against anti-depressants, then you've read it wrong.
Off I go to a travel fair today. I went to a travel clinic yesterday and received a typhoid/Hep A shot and a tetanus shot. I also am to take anti-malaria medication (not the bad one that makes you go crazy.) and some traveller's diarrhea stuff. Excellent, I say. This is all expensive but may be partially reimbursed by my insurance through work. I hope so but either way it's been worth it. Good pal/workmate Kristina recommended the doctor, as she just saw him for her impending trip to Costa Rica. My typhoid/Hep A arm is sore today but other than that it's fine.
I also seem to now have Windows XP instead of Windows 98. Not sure how that happened but it is 800 million times better. Yee haw.

thanks, Toaster Melanie

Darned if Toastmaster Melanie didn't spend THREE HOURS fixing my computer last night. She had the box open, pushing and pulling and prodding. then she had the computer doing different things with the mouse and the keyboard and at one point, a rhesus monkey and a small piece of the Berlin wall. I tell you, this is a talented woman.
I simply sat there, offering a cinnamon treat or two.
I will be taking Toaster Melanie out for a wee meal (she and I love the White Spot and are not ashamed of it). An incredible kind thing did she. I only know a couple of people with such computer skills and she gave hers without question. Melanie, if ever you need to write a sarcastic letter to someone, I can help you.
Speaking of writings, my landlady has seen fit to put up a notice in the elevator and on the bulletin board in the lobby.
It is riddled with spelling errors - bizarre ones too - like the word "evict." Seems someone must have complained in an uncool way about the "improvements" to the building (painting the elevator and doors mainly) and this really upset her. Grow up! Is the title. It goes on to talk about "have the balls" to talk to her directly and if anyone knows who it was who complained, a note can be left in her office. The offender (even if it was a guest of the tenant) will be evicted. And it is signed thanks, and her name. Her name is spelled correctly and that's about it. Leona is not E.S.L. and can speak in full sentences, I've heard her. I couldn't resist - well, I resisted for one day - I wrote spelling! in big red pen. And she knows my rather awful handwriting too. I lacked the balls to sign it.
Feeling unwell today, so unwell that I decided to take the afternoon off of work. I took a nap, probably won't sleep tonight but I felt I needed it. Don't know if it is one of the myriad of the viruses going around and/or my continuing to get off of that medication. I'm on very little right now, almost weaned (after stepping down for 7 weeks) and this is the crunch time apparently. Side effects galore. Oh and the boss will talk with some of us tomorrow - seems the next two session will mean less work as people are returning from holidays to return to teaching. Oh well, I'm glad I'm taking my holidays within the next two sessions.
What else? How I've missed my wee fan base. Oh, toaster Melanie, can I disable the firewall? With it on I can't access MSN Messenger and Youtube isn't working for some reason. Bless you.
And finally, I'm looking for a waterproof money belt for my trip. I've read enough horror stories of passports/money being stolen, even in a supposed "secure" place and I plan on spending most of my time in the water.
I'm back fan base!

computer problems, oh the tragedy

Wee fan base - my computer has died a sad death. Luckily i was there to comfort it (well, kick it but you get the idea) Now it is 8 years old with Windows 98, so it was a natural passing from old age.
But, wait, my friend Toastmaster Melanie and general computer guru is going to check it out on Tuesday night and she if she can put it on life support for awhile. these things always come at bad times - I'm going to buy a laptop but as we all know I've just booked a big trip so I can't right now. Oh, the withdrawal symptoms. I'm at the library right now using the free computer but that is of course time-limited. Eeek.
So your comments/e-mails may not appear/be answered for a few days.
Eeek.
Pray for my computer if you would.

swimming, a little L-Word

Swimming was a dangerous contact sport tonight. With only two lanes for length swimmers, I got elbowed once and somehow punched in the leg resulting in a big bruise I bet. Ouch. Remember lane swimmers: stay on the right. In Canada anyway. Schnee, would it be the left in England? Marty, in Australia? Oh and congrats to Marty and Debbie, seems they are expecting their 6th (yup!) sixth child. Doctor says June or July, Marty wrote to me. My goodness, Marty, you are a well-spermed man. And I mean that in the best possible way. And Debbie, your 40-year-old eggs are obviously working well. And Marty, I'm still waiting for Debbie to reply to my e-mail with family photo. Please remind her. It's hard to believe. I knew Debbie when we were both 21 years old and she was sleeping her way through Vancouver. Ha! Just joking, Marty. And now she's been married nearly 15 years. Remember when we met back in 1991, Marty and you'd only been dating for 6 weeks? I still have some photos. Are you still in touch with your friend, James?
Anyway.
The L-Word. A new season has just begun and it is not airing in Canada on a regular channel yet. I watched some of it on Youtube last night, although because my computer is so old it was choppy and I couldn't see all of it. While I will of course continue to watch it, I must say I'm a bit disappointed with it.
If you don't watch the L-Word, and 99 per cent of my fan base don't, you will not understand a thing I am writing. Nonetheless, I have L-Word thoughts to get out.
The L-Word premiered 3 years ago and was considered "groundbreaking." Airing on cable, it is able to push the limits more and its stories of a group of gay women in L.A. is always filled with lust and faked sex. I don't find this shocking anymore, the U.S. Queer as Folk cured me of that.
And yes, it is titillating. Gorgeous women pretending to be well, pardon my French here, fucking.
Oh and there are storylines too. It's very much a soap opera. Although, because it is the first show all about lesbians, the lesbian community seems strongly invested in it.
The only actress who was really known when it started was Flashdance's Jennifer Beals. It's filmed in Vancouver and she lives here with her Canadian hubbie so I guess it was a perfect opportunity. Pam Grier of 70s "blacksploitation" films plays her straight half-sister. Two other actresses were mainly known for who they knew - one dated k.d. lang for five years and one is a cousin of Gwyneth Paltrow.
The first season was quite good I thought. Soapy of course of course and melodrama up to your ears, but intriguing. Jennifer was part of a long-term lesbian couple and the others revolved around her life.
The next two seasons became less good is all I'll say.
And this season, it's all glam, glam and more glam. They've hired some sort-of big names - Marlee Matlin and Cybil Shepherd with Rosanna Arquette reprising her role. There are a zillion new characters.
I find this problem with a lot of shows that gain bigger and bigger popularity - they get kind of arrogant almost (in this case that would be the arrogance of creator Ilene Chalken, seemingly hated by lesbians everywhere for destroying "their" show). This arrogance results in, well, characters and stories that are too over-the-top and sometimes make little sense.
Cybil Shepherd has been promoting the show and saying she was thrilled to be on a show with such strong women characters. Skeptically, I think she is just thrilled to be working. I'm not so sure of Matlin's reasoning - she's done good work on the West Wing and other shows.
So, the first episode of the fourth season. Now, Shane jilted her girlfriend, Carmen, at the altar in Whistler. Yes, Vancouver plays Hollywood (and in this episode, Delta played Northern California). So Shane, emotionally confused and upset and stilted, goes to Rosanna's house, where Roseanna is conveniently having a drug-fuelled party filled with butch lesbians and gay men without shirts. Shane, normally thrilled to have sex with Rosanna, prefers to drink, snort cocaine (shouldn't it be a more cool drug like crystal meth?) and swim and sink to the bottom of the ocean a few times. Oh, the pain. they must have filmed that ocean swimming in L.A. or Shane would have not only gotten very cold but the water pollution alone would have given her some kind of diarrhea, making her become even more skinny. Not good.
When I watch this episode on DVD (a big thank you to Schnee and her husband, Kevin for getting these on DVD)I will fast forward past anything with Shane. I don't find her tortured angst interesting or in the least bit creative. Oh, and at the end of the episode she finds that she will now have to care for her young half-brother. Uh yes, the predictable arc to parental responsibility.
I'm annoyed by Shane and find that her as the anti-hero is BORING and silly.
Jennifer Beals will be sharing custody of cute wee Angelica (the best actress on the show) with her straight- again ex-lover. Ex-lover tina is now involved with Henry. I read that they looked for a long time for an actor who could play bland. I've liked Stephen Eckholdt in other roles and here he does bland very well.
Jennifer will be involved with Marlee and Cybil will be involved with Alice.
Jenny dumped Max's ass (well, Jenny now identifies as lesbian, much to the first season chagrin of partner Tim, who is now on Ugly Betty, a great big career move up me thinks. Max is a transitioning female-to-male person, so, that would be a problem. Also, Max cannot act. Mia Kirshner must sob after every scene with Daniella Sea. Schnee thought Sea's acting had improved an iota and I must say she is right. I wasn't taken out of the scene for 2.5 seconds longer than last season. Good work Sea acting trainer) and is now having all kinds of sex with Claude, a Montreal lesbian she met in Whistler. In this episode Max saw them having some kind of pseudo-bondage sex.
These women have sex all of the time. Busy, busy.
Oh and they have taken one character, Helena, and completely changed her personality. Same actress but she might as well be a completely different person. Aargh.
Now, I feel bad. I still enjoy the L-Word. I just think it is slipping more rapidly than any other season and pulling in the "big" names to try to keep things going. There is to be a new character this season, Papi, whose claim to fame is that she has had sex with about 1,300 women. I'm the opposite of prude, but that and Shane's 1,100 women is being played as a great thing, a thing to be admired. Is it? I don't think it is but that's just me. to me, that's lazy writing. At least with Brian on QAF who had had about the same amount of men, he had somewhat more depth. Well, and he was hot. I realize that it is important to show all aspects of the lesbian community but it gets lazy for me when it just comes down to how many people they have fucked.
But I go on.
So I'll stop there. Those of you who don't even own a TV will probably find yourselves concerned that I put so much thought into a TV show. Well, I actually was thinking about this during my swimming jaunt tonight.
I wonder if they get the L-Word in the Dominican Republic? That would be nice.

I have neglected my blog

I have been neglecting my blog. Present perfect continuous. By this time next week, I still will have been neglecting my blog. Future perfect continuous.
Sorry, blog. I've been lazy/tired and busy on the internet planning the all important winter getaway. After much painful consideration ad nauseum, searching the internet until my eyes are nearly bugging out of my head, after going to Flightcentre and having the poor employee spend 45 minutes ! looking up flights for me and then saying, "no, way too expensive, I'll go to the internet" (she dropped her pencil and tried in vain to not look TICKED OFF), after more internet research and figuring I would never get this together. After considering about 8 places and reading about them all, I present: the winter vacation - solo, of course, but in a lot of ways i don't mind that (really)
Dominican Republic, from March 8-23. What the flightcentre people don't tell you (despite pointed asking), what travelocity or expedia doesn't tell you is about itravel2000.com That website checks charters to sun locations. So instead of a 22 hour flight, with three stopovers in the U.S. with layovers of 6 hours or so in an airport, I've found 10 hour flights with a stop in Calgary. Right to Puerto Plata. Mind you I'll probably be flying with honeymooners and near-retirees but there you go. Nothing's perfect. I'm all excited. I have my Lonely Planet Dominican Republic and I'm ready. I just need some vaccinations - Hep a and B and Typhoid and perhaps some mosquito netting. And remember, don't drink the water. That I will have to be careful of - people are ripe (pun intended) with glorious stories of their friends' near death food poisoning experiences. Kristina had some good advice - only eat fruits that have peels (bananas are an island specialty) and make sure everything is cooked. Excellent. I'm a little nervous about all of that but not overly. The beaches will be amazing. I'm also a bit worried about not meeting anyone to hang out with but since i am staying at the non-inclusive hotels (hopefully the dirt cheap kind with just a room) i hope to meet some travellers and bump into some locals. being robbed? apparently a possibility.
Co-worker Vicky just returned from her honeymoon in DR and gave me some good tips. A handshake with an American bill will ensure an easy (read: not having suitcase torn apart) customs time. And bargain.
So I'm excited. It always takes me a good while to get things together and I stress out far too much but then I do. Yee haw. Here's to little traveller's diarrhea.
So there you go. Now that I'll chill out a bit on the internet for a bit, hopefully i'll be back up to blogging par.
Sun, sand, swimming.
the good life.

and tis January

Yup. So it seems that this Sunday, January 7th, is my 20th anniversary of moving out of home in Winnipeg and to Vancouver. Except for a 3.5 year stint as a reporter in Medicine Hat, Alberta in the mid-90s, I've lived in the Lower Mainland. So that's - oh yeah, 16.5 years. Wow. Let's see - a total of 9.5 years in North Vancouver, 3 years in Burnaby and the rest of the time in Vancouver proper. I realize that that means nothing to my wee fan base, I'm just figuring out out loud here.
20 years. Wow. Wow I say again.
So back at work again full time this session. The two sessions after this are rather uncertain in terms of full time but that's okay. It is surprising I am full time this month and it is mainly because some people are taking extended holidays. Yup. For some reason, getting up early and working just keeps me endlessly tired. I'm sleepiing somewhat better recently (fingers crossed) which is good of course. Perhaps a multi-vitamin? Advice, oh wee fan base? And maybe I should finally visit the naturopath.
What else? Sorry this is a bit dull I realize. Holidays. I get three weeks and am required to pick the time I want to take them by the end of this month. Summer is usally out because higher seniority people grab it. I took my holidays last year in May and am shooting for about the same time or a bit earlier this year around. Believe it or not it is a bit difficult to figure out where to go as I travel solo, my other friends being married or partnered and tell me they just couldn't leave their partners for any length of time. Fair enough. But still. Ha!
I do have a friend in Turkey who has indicated I could hang out with her and her soon to be husband and May wouldn't be too paralyzingly hot yet. I've sent out an e-mail to her and am waiting to hear back. I've also begun thinking about Belize, a lovely and apparently beautiful central American country (thanks Kristina for that idea). My thing is cost of course but also energy expended. I'm not into flying for hours and hours and hours and then having to find a place to stay blah blah blah. Been there, done that. That definitely has its place but I don't find it very relaxing. I realize that trying to figure out a lovely holiday is not a big problem. I'm just sharing here.
Oh and poor work Wendy. You remember work Wendy and her 10-year her junior boyfriend. Anyway, Wendy loves to shop and knows for important brand names, like Coach apparently. She has a Coach wallet given to her by a rich friend and the wallet cost over $200. Go figure. Her boyfriend's mother gave her a FAKE Coach bag for Christmas. Wendy figures she bought it dirt cheap on a recent trip to Asia. She knows for fashion, the mother does says Wendy, and wouldn't not know that it was FAKE.
Well, that was a virtual slap in the face, she says. It has put a wedge - or really a bag - in their relationship.
"She could have gotten me white towels for Costco and I would have been happy," said she, visibly upset.
"Do you think she is trying to tell you something in a sly, underhanded way?" I asked.
"Probably."
She's going to throw it out, she tells me and leave it in an alley for a homeless person.
How upsetting for all concerned. Seems next Christmas Wendy would prefer not to spend it with the mother but rather in Europe where her father lives. How worrisome.
On the same Coach subject, another colleague had bought one on E-bay. When it arrived, it was also FAKE. She is pursuing legal action and Wendy was horrified at the ugliness of the bag.
I do enjoy Wendy, I really do. She makes work interesting.
Well, I'm off to back alleys to look for fake coach bags. Carry on.

I'm alright, bless you, Alayne

I received a wee e-mail from wee fan base member Alayne. She is worried that I'm down and also perhaps manic. Would that I were bi-polar, Alayne, I'd get so much done in the manic phases.
Worry not, wee fan base, I'm not any more miserable than usual! Ha!
But seriously, after a week off I'm back at work and finding myself quite tired and a bit under the weather. I'm also weaning ever-so-slowly off of a medication and that is possibly messing with my brain. but worry not. The concern is nice though!
These violent attacks on women near skytrain stations is awful. There was apparently a fourth one the other day near the Nanaimo skytrain station, right in my old hood. I never thought I would feel safer in my new hood, whose motto I believe is something like, "we put the petty in petty theft." I took a roundabout way home tonight because I was near the skytrain. I took the skytrain to Nanaimo and then the bus down Nanaimo. On the whole ride to my building there was this young woman with a one-year-old or so. The whole time she spoke loudly on the phone to her baby's father in Spanish and English, saying, "are you going to ever send money?" and "when are we going drinking?" Then one of her homeys got on the bus and they chatted loudly as well. Hopefully the wee boy couldn't understand her words because all of them involved "fuck" as an adverb, verb, adjective and noun. As I rang the bell for my stop, I thought fleetingly, "I bet they live in my building."
And alas, they live in my building.
A very cute wee boy though, looked happy and unaffected by the melodrama around him. And really, good for her for having the baby at all. I need some big-panted homeys.
Well, off I go to eat now and yee haw! a new episode of the Office tonight!