The Saturday Seventeen...

It's Saturday! Which, on my work week is actually a Wednesday, so it's not really that exciting. But what the heck, you guys get the day off, right? Except you parents, who are all like "A day off? What's that? LOL"

Ryan and the kids left this morning at 5:00 to drive up island and work at a Christmas craft fair at the kids' school so I'm having a super long, quiet, nice relaxing morning. And to celebrate, here are seventeen things I've found on the internet that are awesome. Or at least interesting.

1. A time lapse video of a dandelion changing from flower to seeds.
 
2. The Red Velvet store that Elsie just opened. It's so pretty!

3. Inflatable Street Art. (video)

4. Pencil socks. Consider these added to my Christmas list!

5. "Vintage Twitter" post-it packaging.Very clever!

6. "12 Amazing, Odd and Unusual Fruits"...I learned a thing or two from this article. Do you know where cashews come from?

7. Photos of, and an article about, those Hyena men in Nigeria...they're not drug dealers after all!

8. If you haven't seen the National Geographic's Photography Contest entries for this year, LOOK NOW! Each picture is more unbelievable than the next.Wait, that was a weird sentence. I mean every picture is fantastic.

9. Know your satanic ritual symbols! (video)

10. Dramatic Eagle is even funnier than Dramatic Chipmunk.

11. Halloween in New Orleans.

12. I think this is some clever graffiti.

13. Slayer plays the Jon Stewart show in the '90s. SO GOOD! (video)

14. A completely different kind of music. This guy made his own instrument from PVC pipes and plays at a talent show of some kind, where everybody looks very unimpressed. But he's amazing! (video)

15. In case you live under a rock and haven't seen this before: How To Be Alone. (video)

16. The craziest dance move I've ever seen. And the most painful?

17. An amazing blog written by a travel journalist. Inspires wanderlust every time I read it.

I got mail! And it's hilarious/offensive! And confusing. Help!

 My friend Sam was in China. Now, when I say "my friend Sam" I mean "that guy who was stuck in the same hostel dorm room with me in Mexico City for a few days when I was super sick". We both have blogs, and we are facebook and Twitter friends, so we've managed to keep in touch for almost three years now. Anyway so he's this total world-travellery type guy, and was in China recently.

I saw on the Twitter that he was willing to send people presents from China and I was all like "hell yes, send me something crazy". And he did!

My present came yesterday...

AWESOME TERRIBLE

There is a post card as well. I especially like the part about 

"the late and great mass murder(er)" haha.

 What is it?

No, really what is it? 

He won't tell me and I'm assuming it has something to do with drugs because it's a tiny spoon and that's what I think of when I see tiny spoons I guess. But maybe it's not. Do any of you know what the heck this thingy is?

 

Anyway, thanks Sam! I hate love it.

Silly Christmas crafts...I was bored, okay?

Living outside of town sucks, man. Here I am, doing nothing...bored...again. I'm supposed to be at work by now but road/weather conditions are making it impossible. Snow day? More like blow day. Yesterday I made the house look like Christmas while Ryan was out driving in terrible weather for eight hours to pick up his kids. 

First I went bananas on some scrap pieces of felt I found in the toy room and some string, scissors and white glue I had for some reason in my office. 

Then I set up the tree and wrapped a couple presents to put underneath. Man we have some weird decorations. Every year Ryan lets the kids pick out one new ornament for the tree each...

 But I have a weird one too...this is a photograph of my late grandma Carol...in a plastic ball with some sparkles and ribbon. Everyone in the family got one of these on our first Christmas without her. It's really ugly and weird, but it actually means a lot to me. So out it comes, every year.

Here's the tree, along with a "ghost", moments before that cup of water on the table was knocked all over Ryan's back. It sounds like a funny story, but after two hours of sleep, driving 8 hours, an hour nap and getting ready to go back to work the graveyard shift he had very little sense of humor left. 

-----------crafts are fun-----------

Radiohead Rediscovered

 I realize that only people who really like the band already

are even going to read past the title of this post, 

so this one's for you, guys! 

I've recently begun re-loving Radiohead. They were one of my go-to pretty and fun to sing along to bands in high school, and over the years I got too "cool" or "hard core" or something for them. But now that I'm old enough to not give a care who knows what I like, I'm saying it loud and proud. 

One of my walking in the snow songs of choice these days is Exit Music (for a film). If you have never listened to this song, give it a chance. You have to be alone, somewhere quiet. And wait for it. It's an excruciatingly slow build to a quick crescendo near the end of the song, 

but you won't be disappointed if you just let it roll over you.

Here, I'll even do the super cool emo blogger thing and put the lyrics underneath the video, 

so you can sing along if you want or whatever. 

Wake from your sleep, the drying of your tears, Today we escape, we escape. Pack and get dressed before your father hears us, before all hell breaks loose. (chorus) Breathe, keep breathing, don't lose your nerve. Breathe, keep breathing, I can't do this alone. Sing us a song, a song to keep us warm, there's such a chill, such a chill. And you can laugh a spineless laugh, we hope your rules and wisdom choke you. And now we are one in everlasting peace, we hope that you choke, that you choke, etc.

 

Here are a couple more of my olde tyme Radiohead favorites, since I'm already totally doing this.

 

Just. This is one of the best music videos ever. Also, the song is catchy as hell.

 

Fake Plastic Trees. As a lusty teenaged girl I briefly thought I fell in love 

with Thom Yorke after seeing this. (haha, ew)

Paranoid Android. I also love singing trying to sing to this one, and the video is fantastic. 

 

Creep. Who didn't slow dance with someone to this in middle school 

and then when the chorus came on 

try to headbang and totally ruined the moment? Just me?

 

---

 Any other closet Radiohead lovers in the house? 

worst day ever.

Yesterday was a bust. 

It was cold out when I left the house. Not like, "I'm gonna die" cold. More like "gosh my fingers hurt after thirty seconds outside of my sleeves" cold. 

I always compare the weather here with the weather in central Alberta, where I grew up. The temperature is never as extreme. But here's the thing I have to remember: when I lived in Alberta things were different. I had a completely different lifestyle. I never ever walked 2.3km to get anywhere. And here I do it twice a day between the bus stop and my house.I never waited outside for the bus either. I had a car. They plow the roads in Alberta. They don't here. People know how to do winter in Alberta. They don't here. 

-9 degrees Celsius is really tough here.

I should have just stayed home; called in 'snow day'. Instead, I psyched myself up (literally telling myself "You can do this."), put on layers upon layers of clothing, and went about my day as usual. I waited at the bus stop for 25 minutes out in the blustery cold, but hey, it's winter right? Suck it up, buttercup. It was fine.

I got to work...which was totally dead so I left after a few hours. Victoria is like a ghost town when it snows and yesterday was no exception. And it was really starting to come down out there.

The 12:00 bus was super late, and when it arrived at 12:35 around thirty people got on with me. The bus was completely full by the next stop. I'm talking double decker full, which hardly ever happens. It holds over a hundred and twenty people. 

And, long story short, my twenty minute bus ride took four hours. 

The traffic was so bad. 

SO BAD

I'm looking at various news reports right now, and they're saying stuff like "literally countless traffic accidents occurred" because "police stopped taking calls for minor fender benders", they barricaded a bunch of main streets for "snow related closures" throughout the city, and along my bus route "a dozen or more vehicles were involved in a chain reaction pile up".

It was such a mess. 

After a couple hours on the bus with a hundred people, you start to make friends. I was lucky, I got a seat upstairs. There were probably forty people packed like sardines in the stand-only area downstairs. ("Standees", the bus driver called them.) Some people had to pee. I was really hungry though. Some people had packed whole lunches and stuff. My seat neighbor was eating a roast beef sandwich so I didn't ask to share. But if it were veggie...maybe I would have.

I read about a hundred pages in my book, stared out the window, laughed along with others' jokes about a hundred car pile-up that wasn't even funny, texted people about where I was now, and played an entire game of Tetris on my phone. And we still weren't there! 

It really doesn't sound that bad on the outside but...have you ever taken a city bus for so long you've wondered what happens if it runs out of gas? Have you ever been in traffic that literally took half an hour to go two blocks? It was mentally exhausting. It's really hard to explain...I felt so trapped and there was nothing I could do because that was my only way home. And I really wanted to be at home.

Finally, after almost four hours we made it past...nothing. Just all of a sudden the traffic was normal. It was so weird. Ryan told me he read that it was the traffic lights in the city themselves, and the ultra slippery roads that was causing people to slide, not be able to get going for an entire traffic light's length of time, and then have to stop again right away. That, plus the mass exodus of people trying to get home early and all the little fender benders...ugh.

When we made it to my stop, I phoned Ryan right away and shouted into the phone "I'M FREE!" but then had to hang up in a hurry because it was FREEZING out and my hand was too cold to hold the phone. I walked home. The wind was so strong my hood wouldn't stay on my head and I had to hold my hat down too. I thought my chin was going to get frostbite, and for the first time in years I wished I had worn a scarf. 

When I burst into the door twenty minutes later I was so exhausted and hungry, and my hands were so cold that I couldn't unzip my boots. I literally sat on the floor and just started crying. 

Terrible stupid day. 

-----

Hey, my coffee's ready. And it's my day off. And all I have to do today is lay under blankets and watch movies with my cat. 

Things are lookin' up.

jacket button win!

My winter jacket was in the closet. When I pulled it out, I was almost late for work. I was in a hurry. I put it on and went to button it up...

But it was missing both its buttons!

NOOOOOOoooOOOOooooooOOOO!

So I did what any irrational human being in a rush would do; I checked the pockets.And yeah, there was a button there. But only one. And I didn't have time to sew it. 

So I safety pinned it on. And then I took the decorative pin that was on the collar, and used that as a second button. Three days later, they're both still working out well, and I think it looks kind of cool. 

 

(don't mind the cat hair)

Check out the winter boots. They're "Alberta rocker chick"

according to my boss. I just thought they were pretty. 

(boots by rocketdog)

My jacket is like a metaphor for the entire unpreparedness of  this city for the sudden winter. I mean, look at this mushroom! The flowers! The leaves!

The bicycle that maybe should have gone into the shed!

What a funny place I live. 

300th post and a tattoo party

My three hundredth post! I wish I could host some kind of giveaway like all the cool bloggers do, but yeah...it's not gonna happen, haha. Maybe for my 400th. Stay tuned!

Yesterday we had an impromptu tat party.

(click any photo on my blog to see larger size)

You can see my new tattoo on my boss' blog if you CLICK HERE. I had been recently talking about how I didn't have any skin-rip tattoos, and then yesterday I was all "gosh I wish I could get a tattoo soon" or something and Gerry was all like "pick one and we'll do it" and I was like "yes!" and it was as easy as that. I ended up choosing a really funny little thang, a lady in a bathing suit and a shark fin, plus it's a rip-out. So it's the most awesome. It was the easiest tattoo I've gotten in a really long time; pain-wise, very little, time-wise, very quick, quality-wise, fantastic. A-plus!

Today it looks really really bright...I guess because most of the tattoos on that arm are black and grey.  At first I had this plan to have an all b+g optical illusion arm, but that's so ... confining. I'm steppin' out.

Then, because for some really weird reason nobody was coming in to the shop even though it was a Saturday, Bryan and Cody also had time to get tattooed by the best boss ever. 

Their tattoos are a little more hard-core than mine...HAND TATS...but mine's bigger. (haha) I took a few photos of them getting tattooed. Unfortunately when I was trying to get a good one of Bryan's new hand rose I must have been really excited or something because they're all blurry except for this one:

Just trust me, it's a cool little rose. Or you can go back to HERE and see it. 

Then Cody got a funny little baby holding a gun on his hand, which sounds crazy but trust me, it's awesome. I took like eight hundred photos of it. It's hilarious, and if anybody can pull it off, it's Cody.
Here are three:

Sometimes I can't believe how freaking lucky I am to have such a cool job, and to work with such fun people. Gah, lovefest. Sorry so barfy, I'm just so excited and happy about my new tattoo. What a great day!