Dirt Roads to City Streets

A blog in search of an identity and a focus.

Name:
Location: Canada

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Keep following the wrong gods home...

Just took the coolest little personality test - personality DNA it's called. Apparently, I'm an imaginative thinker, which kind of fits, once you read the criteria behind it. I was a bit perturbed by my low imaginative score, but I was off the charts, empathy-wise, so whatcha gonna do? Wanna read more about me? Who doesn't? ;) Seriously, click the image below to take the test, mouse over the colour bars for a high-level description of me, read my complete results and then take the test yourself. Let me know how you scored.


So, only a few more days, and then Basia and I jet off to Bawston, and all the adventure that awaits us there. We're both looking forward to it - it's been a long summer, and we both deserve a break.

Remember that personal epiphany I mentioned a while back? Yeah, still working on it. I had the chance to participate in a pattern-breaking workshop and I thought seriously about it. For a long time. I literally spent more time thinking about taking a course that committed me to 4 weekends and a week retreat than I did pondering if and where I should complete my last two degrees (if you haven't checked it out already, my personality profile suggests I'm fairly spontaneous). In the end, I just couldn't do it. However, I think it's served it's purpose already - I'm thinking about the stuff I would have thought about there, I'm making some plans for changing that I need to make, and I think I've been nudged in the right direction. Keep fingers crossed for me.

In other news...Mickelous got accepted at a new position within the company. I'm thrilled for him, because he's the kind of guy who has been destined to set the world on fire, you know? One of those movers-and-shakers, the kind that you tell other people "I knew him when...". Heck, he got me my job, which allowed me to quit teaching, earn a schwack of O&G money, support the family farm and now fly first class. So, I'd be a first-class chump if I wasn't happy, right?

Oh, but a large, selfish, childish part of me is not happy. He's been mine for three years now - one of the best friends I've ever had. I see him every day, we eat lunch together all the time, we geek out over sudoku, I know far too much about his personal life... and before that, when I lived in the States, he called and shared his excitement about proposing to Jimmy, and before that, we were tattoo-sisters... In other words, he's the brother I would have loved to have had, and he badgers and bugs me to do his bidding because he can and I let him and it's going to be so very, very strange not to have him close to hand when I want to see him or talk to him or watch the silly look he gets on his face when he's teased me into ranting at him, or he's giving me the gears for not driving in the fast lane on the way home...

Sheesh. Listen to me whinge. The man is moving two floors above me in the same building, and until I buy a house, he still lives in the condo building next door. It's not like he's moving to Australia and I'm never going to see him again. Sure, he'll be out of the office a lot, and he won't be there for me to bug and pester and pick on and just dote over, because let's face it, I harbour a significant amount of goofy love for him, but he'll still be there, and just because I don't love change (see earlier comment re: personality test), doesn't mean that all of the good stuff will stop. I'll just have to work at it more, and that's okay, because he's worth it.

And if you tell him I said all this sappy stuff, I'll punch you in the nose. So there.

What else is going on? Oh, watched the first round of Amazing Race and crafted a very long and highly catty review, which I'll try to remember to post one of these days. I got kudos, although I suspect they could be thinly veiled attempts to disguise shock at how much time and energy I spend on shows that I openly mocked only a short time ago (i.e., before I started betting money on them, and thus felt the urge to pay attention to them, and mock from a position of fandom, rather than superior ignorance. Don't get me started).

Speaking of television...watched the season opener for CSI. Loves me the pretty smart men. Aside: I stopped watching House, although he totally falls into that snarky, smart category that I find so appealing. Why? Well, while he was great, everyone else (other than Wilson - Gawd, I love Wilson, but who doesn't?), the stooges...er, ducklings, were so vapid as to make my molars ache, what with the grinding and the clenching. I bet that's something the Nielson people don't hear a lot: I stopped watching the show to make my dentist happy. Or maybe they do hear it a lot. What the hell do I know?

But CSI. Grissom shaved off the beard, and has finally grown into that baby face of his. Darling Nicky shaved his head and looks like a doofus. Again with the bad 'do. Greg was almost non-existent, which made me sad, and Bobby D and Archie were invisible, in spite of all the gun testing and video footaging going on. And Hodges still isn't a regular member of the cast, but Sophia is? WTF? And Cat got drugged by roofies (which, okay, why haven't they pursued that angle before, and wouldn't it have made more sense if it was, say, alcoholic Sara?), and I swear to God I will scream if they turn that into a major plot point over the season, in light of how they basically ignored Nick's day-in-the-life-of-an-undead-corpse and how that will really fuck you up for more than the first 2 or 3 episodes of the next season. Ditto with the screaming if we have to see Grissom making the goo-goo eyes at Sara. This is what is going to drive me away from the series - I could care less about McDreamy, I just wanted to see Nicky dance with Gil. Or Greg. Or Greg and Gil. Or if he must hold on to the illusion of heterosexuality, at least learn how to dance like a straight man because come on! Oh, and the plot bounced around like a pinball and I didn't really care about any of it, and they seemed to be phoning in the a-ha moments, but let's face it - I really want to watch that Cirque du Soliel show with the acrobats running and dancing on the theatre wall, because that was just too damned cool.

In other news... NCIS is back, and I'm equally bored with the plot lines there. Someone shoot the Director, shave Gibbs and put him back in his many hot-man layers, strip Tony down and make him the office coffee boy (ditto Palmer, because those dimples are going to waste in the morgue), lose the new girl, send Zi-va off to a new agency, give Abby and Bert the farting hippo more screen time (maybe McGeek, too) and just put Ducky in charge, since he apparently knows everything. Because come on! I'm not watching this show for the crime, people!

I sure spend an inordinate amount of time talking about television, considering I've cut back to only a few hours a week. Oh well...the ranting keeps my brain relatively sharp, and keeps me from thinking about my ever-growing pre-holiday to-do list.

Before I go: a couple of fantastic video bits you've got to see:
Where the hell is Matt (world's worst dancing set to amazing soundtrack - watch the 2005 one first). And a great bit by Flight of the Conchords - do a search on watch all their stuff - it's great.

Monday, September 11, 2006

A lion's just a great big cat, a lady pig's a sow...

[insert ususal non-sincere apology for length between postings here]

So, time goes by and once again I'm writing. In the immortal words of the Commodores: What's Going On??

Books
Not a lot of reading of traditional books going on here...still plowing my way through a few of the books I mentioned after my last trip. Been reading some wonderful and occasionally smutty online stuff, which is free, although periodically chains me to my computer, which I could live without. Nothing to really recommend at the moment, but that will change, because...

Vacation
Coming up soon! 15 more sleeps, proclaims Basia. Can't hardly wait, sez I. It will be good. We've got only the vaguest of notions of where we want to go and what we want to see, so we're winging it a lot more than usual, which can only be for the good, in my book. If I see sand and water and the occasional literary mecca, I'll consider it a good trip. If I spend very few hours in a mall, that'll be even better (I'm a kamikaze shopper - get in, risk life and limb, and get the foik outta there). Depending on the internet connection we get at the hotel, I may blog from the east coast whilst the memories are still fresh.

Friends


  • Ryman is officially a legal celeb, with his very first magazine cover. Swoon!
  • Lisel is back from a recent and amazing trip to Mongolia, and is currently dancing with a mailman.
  • Banana is getting married. Sniff...our little Gilster, all grown up!
  • Jer just sold us an investment share in a strip mall...and when did people I know start to get all responsible and shite?
  • CarrieAnne is happy and healthy and loving her job...it's a trifecta of sqeeee for her (go Carrie!)
  • Mickelous, of course, has exploits to steamy to mention...not that that stops him. Bastard.
  • Dawnski is adjusting to her empty nest...can't wait to hear where her next adventure takes her
  • Jimbo (aka Big Ugly Jim) is gearing up to leave the city...wtf? Won't be the same without ye...
  • Haven't recently heard from George, ApplePie Dave or Gavin recently, but that's more my fault than theirs. I will one day get my poop in a scoop and try to renegotiate those friendships. Fingers crossed.

House news
Still not house-poor, although we're creeping closer. I think I finally have a good idea of what are the must-haves and what are the nice-to-haves in the equation. We'll see how that goes...

TV season
After a blissful season of non-television, we're gearing up for the new season. How do I know this? Because
tells me so (whoo - weird flashback to vacation bible school there...). Just got my first snarky recap of the season: Cane-Free but still Lame (referencing House). I've also got my pools lined up for Amazing Race and Survivor, which is another clue. None of the new shows really capture my interest, at least based on their frantic write-ups, although I watched about 30 seconds of some new FBI kidnapping show featuring Brian from QaF. Plus: hot FBI guy with a gun. Minus: no naked men cavorting. It won't last the season. I'll be tuning in for CSI (even though the relationship between Gil and Sara makes me cringe; he totally should be with Nick. Or Greg. Or Nick and Greg. And I'll watch NCIS, even though Gibbs and Tony have yet to consummate their complicated relationship. What? Is it wrong that I see hot gay sex where none exists? What?

Other stuff
Well, I've got this whole weird kind of personal epiphany thing going on, and I'll keep you posted in the manner in which it eventually manifests itself. I've been using some of my quality hermit time to actually get all introspecty on my ass, which is weird and so unlike me. I prefer my personal insights to be alcohol-fueled and as seldom as possible. Still... maybe this is the kind of thing that happens when you get all, old and shit.

Well, so much for the "sharing" portion of our telecast. I'm going to wrap things up here, because I can and you're not the boss of me. Did I mention my sisters (plural!) were going to Switzerland? Yeah, still hate my sisters...