Take your time; give mine back!

You know? This having a life thing is tough! Cramming a day’s worth of stuff to do into the 6 hours between work and sleep is turning out to be less easy than one would think. Between hitting the gym, editing photos, filling out forms (don’t ask), keeping the house clean, planning a move, and trying to plan a birthday party (yeah, I’m getting older soon, big whoop), one realises time is not quite as elastic as it seems when you’re sitting at home wondering what to do. Or maybe it IS elastic, only all of a sudden it’s been let go and all the stretching that time has done over the course of those days when I had precious little to do is coming back to smack me in the face at high speed?... Anyway. On evenings like this, I pine for that feeling of having nothing -- and I mean nothing! -- to do. Just sit around and look around. Maybe put an extra pillow under my head. Or watch cars go by. Or count random imaginary mammals. Or whatever people DO when they’re completely unoccupied.

Rant over.

To continue with this time-themed post, I have a life-altering (ok, maybe not) link to send you to. Ever wonder why clocks with Roman numerals on them use 'IIII' to indicate 4, instead of 'IV'? If yes, then you’ll be thrilled to find the answer here. And if you never bothered to look or wonder, then I have a feeling you may start to notice the IIIIs on clocks from now on. Ha!

Another update-y post

I haven’t been writing on here very much. I also haven’t updated my photo blog very much. I haven’t been on MSN a whole lot, and I’ve been very absent from facebook as well. In fact, I’ve all but disappeared from the digital world. Those are the symptoms. The disease, I’m afraid, is that I’ve developed a life.

Funnily enough, when I had oodles of time on my hands and nothing much to occupy it with, I always found something to blog about. Now that I’m constantly somewhere other than in front of my laptop doing things other than thinking up blogs, I have even more to blog about… except no time to do it all justice, nor the ability to make it sound any good when I try.

In short, and in point form, here’s what has been occupying my time lately:

• The job. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but it does take up 8 hours of my time every weekday. It gives me plenty of reasons to laugh and rant alike, so complaints are limited.
• Jeff. Hanging out with him is, in fact, one of the most exciting ways to spend one’s time. Not a day goes by without a good laugh, something new to learn, and a sizeable amount of love, all thanks to this wonderful guy.
• My future apartment, which I will move into in early May. After a search that seemed to go on for ages (but in reality took about a week), I finally got to see the apartment I’d been holding out for. Another week later, my lease application was approved. The lease is to be signed early next week, and arrangements for move-in dates shall be made. For the moment, I love the fact that I am now allowed to obsess over paint colours, furniture, décor and BAR STOOLS since I have a legitimate reason to, rather than just a whim.
• Moving my new dance shoes around. According to Jeff, I have been converted and am becoming a salsera. I have my reservations. But the shoes are cute.
• Photography, although the dosage has been more limited than I’d like. I’m hoping for a comeback (and an update to the photo blog!) this weekend. For more details, please go to http://anagherasim.blogspot.com, where my photography-related ramblings will be located from now on.
• The gym. Again, not quite as often or as much as I’d want, but I have been trying to get back into some kind of a routine. Also: contemplating freestyle step aerobic classes, possibly at uOttawa.
• Episodic bouts of cooking. Jeff is also owed large quantities of thanks for getting me to stop buying my lunch every day, and bringing it from home instead. Doesn’t sound terribly exotic, but I love how much money (AND calories) that’s been saving me, not to mention how much fun it is to have a lunch buddy who can throw you into giggle fits by waving a spoon in front of your face. (Don’t ask.)
• Periodic raids of my stuff, trying to get my belongings down to a more manageable volume (also in view of move) and get my drawers to close properly.
• Sleep. Sometimes.

Things that have happened lately: a reverse chronology

• My wonderful boyfriend (also known, in his human form, as Jeff), had a birthday yesterday. If you failed to give him a present, send him a card, relay a birthday hug or write something on his wall on Facebook, I guess you'll have to settle for taking a peek at his photo blog (http://jeffhuangphoto.blogspot.com/) and telling him how awesome his photos are. Just sayin'.
• A cold virus found a hole in my immune system some time between Friday and Saturday. It has since set up residence half way down my trachea and is now working on putting up a white picket fence around its somewhat rustic but yet perfectly appointed cottage. Hence my odd humour.
• Apart from messing with my ability to think in a straight line, the above-mentioned cold has also turned me into a couch potato (apart from time spent at work, during which I become an ergonomic chair potato. Subtle difference) , incapable of physical activity beyond reaching for the nearest Kleenex box. This, as most erudite scientists would agree, sucks.
• I must also apologise for the lack of updates on my new and quite lovely photo blog (http://anagherasim.blogspot.com/), which has felt quite abandoned since about February 11th.
• February 11th, incidentally, also marked my 6th Canniversary (i.e. 6 years since I've first stepped foot in Canada). It was celebrated with brownies and sparkling wine.
  
• I am currently too sick/tired/lazy to think back farther than February 11th. But please stay tuned. I'm hoping for a photographic comeback, as soon as I can breathe without the help of nasal decongestants!
  

New things!

Welcome to February, folks! As it turns out, this month brings quite a few changes with it in the wonderful world of this blog. In chronological order:

1. Jeff, a.k.a the boyfriend, has launched his own blog/photo blog. It is pretty and well written, and you can find it at http://jeffhuangphoto.blogspot.com/
2. This blog has undergone some visual changes, because I felt that it could look better this way. Comments/suggestions on these changes are welcome.
3. Taking a page from Jeff's book, I have also set up my own photo blog. It will showcase some of my better photos, hopefully on a regular basis. You can find my brand new photo blog at http://anagherasim.blogspot.com/

In case you're wondering, this blog will continue to exist, and to publish my miscellaneous thoughts every now and then. Thanks for dropping by, and please keep doing so!

NOTE: entries on my photo blog will NOT be imported to facebook. So please take the time to visit (and bookmark) the above link. Thank you!!

Blues that have nothing to do with winter

It's Saturday. But more importantly, it's one of those days when it's not raining, but it might as well be because, for reasons that won't be discussed here, I'm feeling completely miserable. I'm achy, whiny, tense and incapable of standing, walking, or having anything to do with stairs. And that's just my quads. Apart from that I also feel stifled, confused, annoyed, dismayed and slightly deflated.

Still. There are people, things, and also stuff, that I love even right now, and that do make me feel slightly better. For example:

• The sky outside my window right now, for being bright and blue with scattered white clouds. If I try really hard, I can imagine myself outside, taking pictures of it through a polarizer, instead of indoors with a storm cloud over my head.
• My mom, for being wonderfully fun and pretending not to notice the above-mentioned cloud.
• The thought of getting my all-around awesome apartment (which I haven't seen yet... and yes I'm aware of how pathetic that makes me), which will be sunny and friendly, and where I'll never have low-fat sour cream in my fridge.
• My gerbera daisy, for continuing to be pretty and making me think that maybe I am doing something right after all.
• Schubert, Bach, the Scorpions, Phoenix, and Lily Allen (among others).
• The prospect of a long bath at the end of today, followed by the use of an entire procession of cosmetics and beauty products, to possibly make me feel more like a human being again.
  
• Sweet potatoes, which I'm about to attempt to cook (curried sweet potato "fries", to be exact) without causing permanent damage to any part of the kitchen.
  

Sighting

A moderately tall man, with a slightly hunched back and a bit of a limp. Bowl cut. Skin that reminded me of the surface of the Moon. Long dark overcoat. Modest briefcase. In all, someone you'd readily imagine as a Capuchin monk, and of whom you wouldn't dare suspect too rich of a sexual imagination.

The monk, however, carried a large white La Senza bag; and I was confused. For the 20 or so minutes that he sat next to me on a bench in Rideau, I was fighting off the urge to peek inside that bag, while cursing my lack of X-ray vision. I'm still oddly curious to know what the last man you'd expect to see in La Senza had bought...

Question of the day

What’s so special about sliced bread?

Enough about the best thing before sliced bread; what is it that makes sliced bread the ultimate divider in the history of the best thing? When and how did sliced bread become to popular culture what Jesus Christ is to the Christian calendar?

Ana is: in love, therefore always right

A lot of inane things have been said about love, and almost as many have been written. Some become washroom stall door material and get ridiculed to no end; others become famous and traumatize people for life by filling their heads with unrealistic expectations, one-size-fits-all ideals and/or how-to guides to their feelings.

Today’s fodder:

“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

Thankfully, this little brain fart has been parodied often enough that I don’t have to state the obvious (i.e. “WRONG!”). But in the interest of sarcasm, let’s assume, for a moment, that we lived in a world where, by some pretzel-esque twist of the imagination, this might be true. Such an assumption would, of course, mean that love prevents you from being, among others:

• clumsy (“I’m sorry I stepped on your foot/elbowed you in the face.”)
• sympathetic (“I’m sorry your dog died/you lost your job/you bought the wrong hair dye and your entire head is now bright pink”)
• conversing anywhere noisy (“I’m sorry, what did you say?”)

But more importantly, it assumes that, when one is in love, they (and their partner) can do no wrong. Am I the only one to find this a little creepy?

Words of wisdom

1. Heard on "As It Happens" today, read by the author: this article. Proof that CBC Radio 1 does have some highlights.
   
   
2. And in local news, overheard in the Rideau Centre food court: 2 girls, talking at length and misinformedly about the Ottawa bus strike, reached the following conclusion, bound to become the war cry of every Ottawa-dwelling woman: "The OC Transpo strike is ruining our boots!"

Resolutions for 2009

This year, the boyfriend convinced me to sit down and write out some New Year's resolutions. I've postponed, procrastinated and put off in typical fashion until he sat down with me (via Skype) to get me started.

I briefly considered putting into practice one of those famous Stop-Start-Continue ideas, the point of which is, so they say, to help organize your goals into "actions you ARE doing that you should Stop doing" (i.e. beat yourself up over the amount of chocolate you've been eating and vow to never touch the stuff again), "actions you AREN'T doing that should Start doing" (which are often the vague things one always starts "tomorrow"), and "actions you are (or are not?) doing that you should Continue doing (or not doing)" (i.e. now that you've beat yourself up over what you should Start and Stop doing, pat yourself on the back a little for the good things you are -- or aren't -- doing; though I'm not sure "continue not to smoke" is what comes to the mind of someone who's never been a smoker).

This idea abandoned, I reverted back to making one of the hodgepodge lists that we know and love, free from imperatives other than my stream of consciousness. And so, here goes, my list of resolutions for 2009:

1. Will get myself a nice apartment and move into it by July 1st.
2. Will help the boyfriend get settled once he does get back to Ottawa (less than 2 weeks, yay!!) and try not to be too bossy about any of it. Also: will stop calling him "the boyfriend" on this blog, since his name has already been mentioned more than once.
3. Will start carrying with me, and therefore stop impulse-buying any of the following items (unless, evidently, I finally run out, or real emergency situation occurs): pens; hair elastics; tampons; make-up; lens cleaners; nasal decongestants; lip balms and glosses; hand cream.
4. Will wear my glasses more often and stop complaining about getting nose dents.
5. Will put more effort into my photography and concentrate on the following things:
   
• panning and reverse panning (because it takes practice and patience I don't have)
• using my telephoto lens more (to get used to how insanely heavy it is and to its stupidly long minimum focusing distance)
• getting a replacement for my little kit lens, possibly in the form of this Sigma one (better suggestions welcome)
• going on more photo trips/walks/anything, and updating my Photoshop gallery at least monthly
6. I’ll also do more towards getting into a non-round shape (I should really stop making that joke, since I AM in some kind of non-round shape, thanks to my brilliant trainer), including:
   
• Going back to doing BodyStep and BodyFlow at least twice a week each
• Start running again, and do at least a 5k if not a 10k in the May running weekend.
• Lose that damn 10lb of fat I’ve been “losing” for the past year.
7. Will take a vacation somewhere with the boyfr Jeff, quite possibly the Maritimes, and quite possibly on a train.
8. Will finally get my driver’s license (still only have my G1. Sigh.). Hopefully G2 by the end of summer.
9. Will update this blog more often, and convince Jeff to comment on it.
10. Will get a batch of cards ready and see if there’s any interest at a couple of local paper stores.
11. Will learn how to cook properly and let myself get taught by Jeff (in exchange for baking tips) and my mom (in exchange for actual baking – i.e. at this moment chocolate-raspberry brownies).
12. Will learn to take better care of my plants (also in preparation for move), especially my gerbera, so it keeps having pretty flowers and not wilting for no apparent reason.
13. Will postpone obsessing about apartments, moving, furniture, lighting, paint colours, breakfast bars and size of windows until I actually have the intention and possibility of moving within 3 months. (crossed out as aware it won’t happen. But good try.)
14. Will read all the books I’ve been meaning to read and which have been gathering dust in my bookcase due to lack of time.
15. Will get more organised when it comes to doing periodic maintenance-type things, such as washing make-up brushes once a week, rotating and flipping mattresses 4 times a year etc.
16. Will also: get my finances in order (including changing accounts and credit cards, saving as much as I should, and figuring out some sort of budget), figure out what to do with myself career-wise, spend more time with my friends, remember birthdays, and keep my skin clear.
17. Evidently, once I’m done all that, I will end world hunger, establish a global governance system leading to world peace, and stop being sarcastic.

Stay tuned throughout this year to see how this all turns out. And above all, have a great 2009!