Day 61: Two More Weeks

Well, Kelsey is moving back in as of tonight - Alicia isn't gone until next week (have I written about this? Probably not. Long story), but, you know, rental agreements tend to go through the end of the month. Kelsey's roommate is moving in, too, 'cause the place they found turned out to be not very safe. Let's call the other girl... umm... Brooke.

Tomorrow some editors are supposed to come in and talk about this one manuscript (did I say that that was today? I was wrong). I've read the manuscript and know which parts of it I don't like, but I need to figure out how to fix those things... which I will probably do on the bus tomorrow. It would make considerably more sense to work that out now, since then I could actually look at the manuscript again, but what fun would that be?

Don't look at me that way. I have a good memory for fiction. Sometimes a scary-good memory.

Work was pretty entertaining, really. One of my boss's students came in, so I started in on another manuscript while they talked. Somebody came by with a manuscript, and - oh, I can't explain why it was funny (the interaction, not the manuscript), it just was.

Helpful, I know.

Anyway. I should go see if Alicia's back yet; I need to give her next month's rent...

Day 60: "You're Missing the Fireworks"

More rain.

Work was fine; entertaining, even. We found a problem with one of the Amazon pages for one of our books, which led to finding problems with two more Amazon pages (the information for two of our books was completely mixed up and weird). We sorted that out, though, and sent off about ten emails about it, and talked about a manuscript that we're starting work on. Tomorrow I think an editor, a different one, is coming in.

Brian came by and we got another ten and a half pages done. It's kind of cool to see this from both ends of the process - from the author's perspective, I mean, but also from a more editorial perspective. I can tell where things might need tweaking, farther down the line. Not that I'll be here by then, but... still kind of cool.

And now... I am home. I did some knitting and watched some Law and Order and am now holed up in my room. Am not feeling terribly social this week. There are fireworks tonight - it's China's turn - but I didn't want to get home around midnight again. Too tired.

Day 59: Humanity

It rained today, rained and rained and rained, and I got soaked walking back from the bus stop (seeing as I took the Granville route again.... smart, eh?).

Today I am disenchanted with humanity. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Day 58: Row, Row, Row Your Boat

I went to the Maritime Museum after work today; it's a short walk from Granville Island and I want to log some museum time before leaving. I'm glad I went, as a lot of it was quite interesting. The best part was the St. Roch, the ship around which the museum was built (literally). You only get twenty minutes on the ship, but that was enough time to see what there is to see - the deck, of course, and the little cabin with the steering wheel, the crew's quarters, the private cabins for the captain and the like, the little library/reading room, et cetera. You can't go into the hold, probably for fire safety reasons, but there was still a lot to see. Evidently a native guide went with the ship, and he and his family of seven slept in a tent on the deck for the entire trip. The tent, which was there, is... tiny. One person could sleep comfortably in it. Two would be... doable, but cramped. But seven?

Also, while the ship was pretty cool indeed, a claustrophobic person wouldn't want to live in a ship. Or in an igloo, for that matter.

After the museum I got tea (was so very very tired) and wandered around for a while before settling down to write postcards and knit. At six-thirty I headed back to the office for class - it's sort of a follow-up for the classes I went to in June, but in the office rather than at UBC (thank goodness; takes much less time to get home) and seven people rather than twenty. It was actually really interesting, probably because there were fewer people. Everyone seemed more comfortable, cracking jokes and asking questions.

Tomorrow one of the people in the class will come in to intern; she started last week but I was at SFU. I'm glad she's starting, because I only have a couple more weeks and somebody has to take over The List (Lauren's going away for four months starting in August, or she would; my boss... well, he's organized, sort of, but it's all in his head rather than on paper). Okay, so that's a kind of selfish reason, but I've put a lot of time and effort into that list.

Anyway. Home now. Bedtime.

Day 57: Fatigue Hits

Today can be summed up in three words: I am tired.

Or one word: Fatigue.

Or a sound: Zzzzzz.

Day 56: Otters and Eagles and Whales, Oh My

Yesterday I went whale-watching.

I got to Granville Island around 9 to check in, signed a liability form, and was assigned a giant red suit for protection from the elements - mostly wind, but they're water-resistant as well, and quite warm. There was half an hour between checking in and leaving, so I wandered off to find a bathroom, Kleenex, et cetera. Then it was back to the office to suit up and put my phone and camera in plastic bags.

We walked down to the boat, clad in our giant red jumpsuits. Imagine twenty people in bright red snowsuits - that was us. I got a pretty good seat, we got a brief safety lecture, and off we went.

The boat went west and then north, weaving in and out of the Gulf Islands (and, incidentally, over the U.S. border). First we saw otters, sunning themselves on the rocks. Then more otters. Then we saw eagles - a bunch of bald eagles and a lone golden eagle. Some splashes up ahead indicated porpoises, but we couldn't get close enough to see them well.

Then there were whales.

We saw two pods of whales, both of which were resting. "Resting" means that they're sleeping, sort of, but still moving - you'll see them surface, then submerge again, then surface again a ways ahead, then submerge again. The first pod was deep enough in its rest that the whales came right in front of our boat - like, rocking-the-boat close, let-me-reach-out-and-touch-you close.

We went looking for the second pod because the first one was resting, though the second one turned out to be resting as well. Near the end, though, they started to wake up a bit, and one of them sort of... sat up to look at us (I got a good picture), and then another breached three times. It was pretty excellent.

We went home via open water rather than through the islands again. Most people dozed, but I stood by the rail and watched the ocean go by. It's so cool - sometimes it was a deep, deep blue, and sometimes it looked like sunlit jade, and sometimes it was the colour of slate. The view didn't change much, but the ocean never stopped changing.

I went home long enough to grab a bite to eat before going out to Kits to watch the second night of fireworks. It was the U.S.'s turn, and they were really pretty fabulous. At one point there were hearts in the sky; later it was spirals; after that it was stars.

There's also some other stuff that I don't think should go in here just now. Away I go to do laundry -

Day 55: Definitely, Maybe

Work today was fun and busy. Lauren was there, plus my boss, plus an editor, plus (for a while) another publisher and the printer from the other day. I did more sorting of edits to a manuscript (it's almost to the "physical proof" stage), then helped Lauren figure out an ad, which she had made look fabulous but which neither of us could come up with a heading for. Then she left, and my boss and I talked for a while about another manuscript - the author has a good voice and overall good writing, along with some other plusses, but the plot is weak. Eventually he dictated an email to the author and editor, stopping every minute or so to discuss another point with me. When we got to the end of the email I pointed out that it - the email - would have to be edited, and (with his go-ahead) did a quick chop job.

I got lunch and then came back to take dictation from Brian. We've fallen into a Wednesday & Friday schedule, which actually works pretty nicely. Today I managed again to get through the thing with nothing to fix at the end, which is a nice feeling indeed. My typing is noticeably faster, too.

James called while we were working on that, so I called back at five and he invited me over to hang out for the evening. I said sure and went to waste the intervening time in a coffeeshop and a bookstore.

Speaking of the bookstore, I have changed my life goal: I want to work for Papyrus. They have the most gorgeous, amazing, fabulous cards, and I could stare at them all day long. I love cards. I love their cards.

Anyway, I headed over to my relatives' house, and James and I wandered down to Blockbuster and rented a movie - Definitely, Maybe. We decided that the goal of the movie was to tell three different love stories, and that it was cheesy but fun (and that the little girl - can't remember her name; she's in Little Miss Sunshine as well - is adorable).

I took the 10 bus home, which meant walking back from Granville again. Don't ask why I did this; I don't even know. I could've just taken the 17 and gotten dropped off a block away, but I guess I really wanted to walk eight blocks. In the dark. With inadequate street lights.

Oh well. I made it home, right?

Remind me to write about people climbing through the bathroom window.

Day 54: Happy Birthday

My boss was back today (back for real, that is), so we dealt with mail and talking to a printer that we might be contracting with and revising some publicity sheets and sending out more mail and rejecting a manuscript submission and various phone calls and finding email addresses and sending out more emails and... so on and so forth.

It was 2:20 when I left, and I was really freaking hungry, so I went to Starbucks. When the line didn't move for five minutes, I left, deciding to take my coffee business elsewhere. Yay coffee.

I got home and did not much for a while, but my aunt called around 6:20 to ask if I'd gotten her email. "No," I said, "what email?"

Apparently she had invited me for my cousin (James)'s birthday dinner, but because we communicate via facebook message, I hadn't gotten it - I don't usually know that I have a facebook message unless my email tells me. Anyway, she said that if I didn't mind heading out again, I was still welcome, so I hoofed it to Kits and made it there just after seven (actually - I just checked facebook, and she said to come around seven anyway, so...).

The dinner was fun; it was my aunt and uncle and cousins and one of my step-cousins, plus her boyfriend and Rory's boyfriend. Food and cake (pumpkin cheesecake) and silliness and gift-opening (lots more silliness there).

Later we watched bits and pieces of video from my other step-cousin's wedding, and then Diane and James and I went to buy a secondhand bike frame, found on Craigslist, for James. Once that was successfully completed, they drove me home.

D'accord, off to bed I go.

Day 53: Fireworks

Aaaahh need sleep -

Dreamed last night that Jehovah's Witnesses came to the door and I asked them to please go away and not come back (I asked more politely than that - or, I was polite until they told me that the people in my house were considered in too much need of saving for that to happen).

Work: spent pretty much the entire time a) answering the phone and b) sorting out some notes that a proofreader sent my boss. Basically I compared the notes to the manuscript and sent my boss answers to the proofreader's questions (which - well, basically she was right, but her questions being in question format was... sort of a matter of hierarchy/deference). It shouldn't have taken me as long as it did, but then, I wasn't exactly sure what he wanted from me (his emails to me tend to be not very clear. Last week, an email from an author cleared up the mystery of one of my boss's emails...).

Anyway. At lunch I went and registered to go whale-watching this weekend. Bryan came by after lunch and we churned out another ten (single-space) pages. Word crashed, actually, killing some of what we'd done - but thankfully it died only a paragraph or so in, so there was very little to redo (after that particular incident, however, I saved about every minute and a half.). Better yet, today I was able to clean up the entire thing as I went - when I did a scan for errors before printing the pages, I turned up only one typo.

After work I went home, unpacked and repacked my bag, grabbed a bite to eat, and caught the bus to Kits, where my aunt lives. We (me, my aunt and uncle, and James) had fruit and tea and then walked to the beach to watch the fireworks: every year Vancouver hosts an international fireworks competition. There are always three countries competing (this year they're Canada, China, and the U.S.), and each gives a show on a separate night. The last night - the fourth night - I believe the winner gives a second show.

Tonight was the first night, Canada's night. It was good, lots of fun, et cetera... hopefully I'll get to see more of them, too.

The downside: trying to get home at ten-forty-five at night when the streets were mobbed with other people (and cars) trying to do the same thing. I had the luck to catch a bus to Broadway (I even had a seat, but then a very drunk idiot who was trying to talk to me sat down in the next seat, and I thought I would prefer to stand - somewhere else) and then a bus down Granville. Walking back from Granville to Oak was not the most fun thing ever, but it's a short enough walk and most of it was well-lit.

Anyway. Home now. Bedtime.

Soapbox: On Another Note

This coming year I'll be the president of SAAFE (Sexual Assault Awareness for Everyone) at school. I'm doing this for a number of reasons, but the number one reason is that nobody else wanted the position or was willing to do it. Without a president, an organization loses its status as a constituted org (loses funding, etc.). I am/was very, very unwilling to let that happen to SAAFE, my thought being that, of the many, many organizations on campus, this is one of the very last that should go. There are other orgs that I am more involved with, that are more important to me, but I believe SAAFE to be more important overall.

We're a women's college. Students get riled up about unfair press against Hillary Clinton, about animal rights, about sexist remarks made on television.

They don't get riled up by assault. Most of them do the opposite; they downplay it: they say, "Well, it doesn't matter as much here. It's safer." "I'm not affected by that/nobody I know is affected by that." "That wouldn't happen to me."

I don't understand this. I don't understand how otherwise-intelligent people can perpetuate the silence and refuse to acknowledge this as a problem. Are they afraid that if they talk about it, they will make it real? Are they afraid that they will have to recognize that one in four women is assaulted in her lifetime, and that might mean them or somebody they know?

Guess what? It is real. It is a problem. And yes, unless they live in a vaccuum in which nothing ever happens, it will be them or somebody they know. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away.

There's a discussion - if you can call it that; people would rather discuss cute animals than rape - on the online communities (forums to you people who live outside the bubble). It started with a well-meaning post; the second post pointed out that nobody talks about it (at a women's college! I don't get it!); the third post (mine) listed facts from the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center's website ( http://www.barcc.org/ ); the fourth post said, and I summarize, "well, I get what you're saying, but it doesn't matter as much here"; the fifth post pointed to an error in logic of the fourth poster but didn't say much.

5 posts.

Number of posts about Vanity Fair: 22.
Number of posts about which cell phone to get: 24.
Number of posts about Sarah Jessica Parker/Sex and the City: 39.
Number of posts about vegetarianism: 49.

This makes me so angry. I don't understand why people aren't out in the streets shouting for justice - or, at the very least, at their computers, banging out angry editorials. But what are they doing? They're saying, "No, it doesn't matter."

You know what? I don't even want to understand. I just want them to care.

Day 52: Copyediting and proofreading, pt. 2

Today was the second part of the SFU workshop, covering proofreading and some general stuff. Again, a good class. The professor's fantastic. However:

-When you proofread (as opposed to edit or copyedit), you don't get to fix all of the errors - only typographical errors, factual errors, et cetera. Spelling you may fix. A poorly written sentence you may not.
-I really need to learn American/Canadian punctuation (this hasn't been a problem yet - I mean, I know it well enough to be consistent - but I default to British.).
-The question of certificate course vs. Master's program is a conundrum (long story).
-I am quite good at copyediting. I am less good at proofreading. I need to work on that.
-I'm sorry that the course is over. I wish it had been longer - though had it been longer I might not have been willing/able to rationalize missing more work (would my boss mind? Probably not, since I'm an unpaid intern anyway and I'm here to learn. Would I mind? Yes, though I'll admit to having enjoyed the semi-break).

Deletion?

Hmm.

Decided to delete this entry, only I can't figure out where the "delete" button is, if indeed there is one.

So - consider this deleted?

Day 51: Copyediting and proofreading, pt. 1

Today was the first part of a two-day workshop on copyediting and proofreading. It's at SFU's downtown campus - lucky, that, as the main campus is in a different bus zone and I didn't want to have to sort out schedules and fares and the like. As it is, I took my normal bus but stayed on until the last stop (on that note: as we went past some buildings undergoing construction, there was a crashing noise and the bus jerked to a stop. I swear I thought a crane had dropped something on us - but, happily, all that'd happened was that the electricity wire things the bus gets power from had slipped loose.).

Anyway. I made it there without any trouble and found the classroom (by dint of running into somebody holding a pamphlet about the summer publishing workshops and asking if she was there for one of them...). Then began the class.

It was... pretty cool, really. It's generally pretty basic stuff - grammar, punctuation, capitalization, signs used when copyediting/proofreading, that sort of thing. Spelling, even (I aced the spelling quiz). The rest of the people taking the workshop come from a wide variety of backgrounds (I ate lunch with an MD; some people work for publications or do transcription; others just fell into it accidentally), though - surprise, surprise - I'm the youngest one there.

Today the professor covered some general stuff and copyediting. Tomorrow she'll finish up copyediting and move on to proofreading. It's interesting stuff - and already it has improved my copyediting skills. Plus, the workshop runs all day, 9 to 5, and I didn't even start to feel lethargic until 4:20.

Anyway. Nothing else to tell, really.

Day 50: At Six I could Probably Tie my Shoes...

Quickly, cause I have to go to bed:

I went to church this morning, mostly because my dad called at 9:30 and woke me up. The service itself was nice; after church I talked for a while with the woman who'd been sitting behind me (she commented on my knitting). She's been knitting all her life; she learned when she was about four: it was the Second World War and her family more or less lived in air raid shelters. She said that she knit her first sweater when she was six.

Post-church I went for a wander; I walked around the Indian neighborhood for a bit (I tried on a skirt covered in very noisy little bits of metal, which was kind of cool, but I fidget waaay too much to wear anything like that for more than five minutes), then went a bit farther up Main for a while before coming home.

I could probably come up with more to say, but it's definitely bedtime.

Day 49: Speaking Terms

Well, we didn't do the Grouse Grind today, for various reasons (reason no. 1: more house drama). Instead I got on the bus and wondered, for the first ten or so minutes, where exactly I was going. Downtown? North Van?

Then I thought oh! I know! I'll go down to 10th and Trimble and see what I can see. So that I did: I took the bus, and then another bus, and then got out and walked, and stuck my nose in various stores (tried on a dress that i desperately wanted to like - felt nice, was 50% off (at a consignment store), and matched my tattoo perfectly - but I would have had to mend a strap, and the cut wasn't flattering. On the upside, no money spent ^.^). When I got tired of walking I turned around and walked back (and... kept walking... and then kept walking some more... and eventually caught a bus).

It's odd - I realized today that I don't feel hunger first in my stomach, I feel it in my legs - an "if you don't feed us we're going to collapse. Food! Now!" feeling (and yes, I got food).

On the subject of food - I made pancakes this morning, but they weren't quite as stellar as I could have hoped. Oh, they tasted fine (it wouldn't been hard for them not to - they were "just add water" pancakes out of a box), but whenever I tried to flip them they'd sort of... crumple. Advice? Anyone?

Day 48: The Weather Report Predicts Cold Showers

Work was more or less uneventful today; Loren was in and we got some stuff done (not much, as there wasn't much to do). We didn't end up getting lunch because neither of us could, so I grabbed a bite on my own before going back to the office to meet Brian. Oh, and another aspiring writer came by to drop off a manuscript. I think he was a bit disappointed not to meet the actual publisher (i.e. my boss), but, well, can't help there.

I have figured out the shower here - sort of. I can't make it hot, but I can avoid the frigid freezingness that happens every eighty seconds or so. This is my shower:
-twist the cold tap cautiously until water comes out of the showerhead.
-give the hot tap a few full turns.
-test the water.
-give the hot tap another turn or two.
-get in the shower.
-lather.
-feel the water pressure drop.
-step back, out of the stream of water, just before the water transitions abruptly from lukewarm to frigid.
-wait.
-get sick of waiting; splash palmfuls of frigid water over self in an attempt at rinsing.
-feel intense joy at the increase in water pressure, and, correspondingly, water termperature.
-duck back under the spray and rinse as quickly as possible.
-get out before the showerhead decides to shoot icicles at me.

Aren't you sorry you don't have my shower?

Day 47: Technical errors?

Well, I can't actually view my blog at the moment, so there is a possibility that the last post did not actually post. But hey - I have backup.

I spent some time at work sorting through financial details, thwarted only by the fact that we're out of paper so I can't make any more copies. My boss returns this weekend, but I'll be gone Monday and Tuesday (copyediting/proofreading workshop at SFU), so I've written a note explaining which parts are done and what still needs copying.

There wasn't a whole lot to do after that. I put together a list of all the superintendents in British Columbia and will set about emailing them tomorrow (needed confirmation from my boss that it was fine to do this - I wrote a draft email, so now I just have to tweak it and then copy-paste-send).

...except that I just distracted myself by doing the tweaking, so now it's just copy-paste-send.

Anyway. When I eventually set myself free I went to Kits to check out a craft store that sells yarn, and dithered for a long time before finally picking out yarn (can't tell what, or for whom...). Then I stopped in an outlet store and tried on a cream-coloured silk skirt, which was, as I told the saleslady (she asked), "gorgeous on the hanger but not so gorgeous on me".

But oh! I found these little packets of "instant tea" in one of the Chinese groceries that are so ubiquitous here. The stuff is probably terrible, but that's why I bought it - they were four for a dollar, and there were four different tea flavours, so... one of them claims to be 3-in-1: sugar, tea, and non-dairy creamer all in the same packet (sugar is first on the list of ingredients). I expect that it's the most dreadful of any of them. Heh.

Anyway, I need to go sleeeeep.

The Real World Again

Yesterday Tim and I were making dinner at the same time, and he asked me some questions about what I'm studying in college, why I'm in Vancouver, et cetera. Then he asked why I didn't go out with guys much. He seemed to think that it was a bit strange. I explained that I don't see much in the way of guys ever, so it feels perfectly normal to me to not be around them (in fact, it's kind of odd living in a house with two other females and three guys - soon to be one other female and four guys).

He was really surprised that anyone would choose to go to a women's college (a "single-sex institution of higher learning" - but don't worry, I didn't say that) because, as he put it, most of the girls he's met in Texas are "ho"s.

...

So after I'd finished laughing and he had apologized about four times, I explained why women's colleges are important and why I love Wellesley in particular. Believe me when I say that, when it comes to women's/civil/gay rights, I am the most educated/liberal person in my household (I have been doing my best to drop random bits of gayness into the conversation, just to see what happens. So far all that's happened is that they've changed the subject).

Day 46: Laundry Day

Have I mentioned how much I hate making my bed? No, really, I despise it. In 11th grade, when I had a... less than ideal... roommate, I'd do laundry and then set the clean sheets on top of my bed. I'd go off and do something else (homework... hanging out with friends... avoiding my unmade bed...), and then I'd come back and talk to the laundry. "I hate you," I'd say. "Maybe I should just leave you there. I don't need sheets. And I hate making my bed."

I'd have this one-sided conversation out loud, and if my roommate was in the room she would listen in amusement. Eventually she'd get sick of my griping about the damn sheets. "If you hate it that much, I'll do it," she'd say. "Here, give me the sheets."

I would leap up from my chair, from whatever disgruntled pose I had collapsed into, and promptly set about making my bed. "No, no," I'd say, "I'll do it. I'm doing it. Stupid sheets."

Part of the problem was that my bed was lofted and it was an acrobatic feat to get the sheets tucked in. Part of the problem was that they were both flat sheets (as is part of the problem now). Most of it was that I am a perfectionist and, if the bed looked wrong, I would rip the sheets off and start afresh.

I don't like making my bed.

Anyway. Obviously I did laundry today. Otherwise it has been a slow day - finished reading a manuscript at work (not a huge fan of it - the main character strikes me as unneccesarily immature and suffers no consequences for frequently idiotic actions) and finally vacuumed. Vacuuming I actually don't mind, although 1) this vacuum is pitiful and 2) What the floor really needs is an intense scrubbing with a mop.

...not that I am going to mention that, because who do you think would be doing the mopping?

(Actually, I quite like mopping [insert NCSSM anecdote here]. It's the moving of carpet and furniture and what have you that I'd mind.)

Brian came by and we worked some on a story. It's coming along... today I noted a discrepancy, which I mentioned when we'd almost finished (when I was doing my skim-through for mistakes). I don't like there being mistakes in things, but I like finding mistakes. It was a very copy-editor mistake to find.

...and now I am just plain tired. And possibly going through caffeine withdrawal, as I ran out of milk and cannot make a proper cup of tea.

Day 45: Highlights

1) Got up; went to work (had a bus driver I like - she smiles in recognition when she sees me reading)

2) Did a lot of work-related reading and did a bit more sorting out of things for the website

3) An illustrator is coming by at some point this week to pick up some books. I had the dubious honour of finding said books, which were in a box, on top of many other boxes (and thus out of my reach without standing on a rickety chair), with more boxes (even more out of my reach) piled on it, in the back of the closet. All of the boxes, being full of (hardcover) books, were heavy. Don't let's get into how hard it was to get the boxes down without falling, knocking over the Leaning Tower of Boxes, or completely destroying my back.

3a) And, after all that, the illustrator didn't come today.

4) Met up with Rory and James (cousins) for lunch. They are good company.

5) Went home via Granville Street, because I needed carrots. Okay: I had carrots, so I shouldn't have needed them, but they went missing from the fridge. Now, I didn't mind when the butter went missing (I had more - and I barely use any anyway) or the cheese (if it wasn't bad then, it didn't have a lot of life left in it), but that was an unopened bag of carrots, dammit.

5a) Which brings me to a dilemma. If I buy food on an as-needed basis my fridge shelf isn't completely full (yeah - I don't eat much). Then various flatmates put stuff on it, which I don't really mind except that i. they put it in front, so it's hard to get to my stuff, and ii. apparently then they tend to mistake my food for theirs (when the grapes go missing, we will have war. Count on it.). I don't mind sharing either shelf space or food, but, but, ask before taking my food? Please?

Now. If I buy more food than I am likely to need, I can get my shelf to be, or at least look, full. Then people are less likely to use the extra space (since there isn't really any) and therefore less likely to think that my food is actually their food. However, then, since I have bought more food than I need, some of it goes bad before I can get around to using it. Either way, I don't get to eat all of my food.

6) But I went to the library today, too. That makes up for food problems, because now I have reading material.

7) Also? I'm not homesick, but - I miss Wellesley.

Day 44: And the Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round

Today was sort of... disheartening, I guess.

Work was fine and perfectly uneventful; I did some more clean-up work for the website, finished reading that one manuscript, and started reading another manuscript (I'd planned to vacuum, but, as it turns out, I don't really want to. Vacuuming has been postponed until... I dunno... Wednesday?).

A wanna-be author came by to drop off some supplemental material. It won't help his case any, but I didn't tell him that. If he pushes hard enough he might get a faster answer - but the answer isn't going to change (note: I don't know what my boss thinks of this guy's work, nor have I seen it. For all I know my boss will read it and think that it is the best thing since sliced bread. My point is simply that, for better or for worse, a person's work has to speak for itself).

After work I went to the Service Canada Centre to see about some documentation stuff. It turns out that I don't have the right forms with me, but it doesn't really matter - I can do it by mail when I'm home again.

On the way there, though, there was this mildly annoying woman on the bus. She was talking to the guy behind her, and also the woman across the aisle from her, and was nice enough but seemed to lack... tact, or something. While the bus was still moving she got up and moved forward, presumably to ask the driver something. The driver, having his eyes on the road rather than the passengers (sensible man), stopped for a yellow light. The woman careened forward, just barely caught herself on a pole, and slammed her face into the same pole. When she'd caught her breath, she moved forward again to ask the driver why he'd stopped so suddenly (because of a changing light) and couldn't he have gone through it (he'd had to make a judgement call) and to tell him that she might have broken something. She turned down his offer to call an ambulance, though, returning to her seat to mutter about "the way they drive the busses these days".

I hope she wasn't seriously hurt. I do have to give her credit for staying more or less calm (and regaining her balance without falling flat on her face). On the other hand, the bus was moving when she got up, she wasn't even trying to hold on to anything, and the bus didn't actually stop all that suddenly (well - the bus didn't exactly roll to a smooth stop, but believe me, the busses here almost never do that).

Plus I kind of like it when bus drivers, you know, stop for red/yellow lights and keep their eyes on the road.

Ai yi yi.

Day 43: Eye-Opening... and Nerve-Wracking

Oh boy.

Okay. I didn't go to church this morning after all; instead I went down Marine Drive to have a look-see. I googlemapped it, but skipped the first bus and figured out my own route (I mostly use google maps because it tells me which busses go where; from there I can figure out how much of it is walkable and where I want to actually catch the bus).

So I wandered for a while ($3 tank top!) and decided to go to the library. Most of the libraries are closed on Sunday, but two of the branches downtown are open, so I took a bus up Main Street and got off near Hastings.

Let me just say this: stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

I wouldn't call Main & Hastings a shady location, per se. I wouldn't call it a dangerous location, either (though at night I would, no question). Depressing might be a good word for it. Undesireable. I wouldn't call it violent; it's not run by gangs or anything like that (if Vancouver has gang-dominated areas, I hope that I never figure out where they are - or that, if I do, I can stay away from them).

It's just... decrepit. Run-down. There were a couple of blocks where I didn't see a single person who was noticeably not homeless. By looking in people's faces - which I tried not to do; I was wearing a sundress and very clearly did not belong there, and did not want to attract any kind of attention - it was obvious that many, many of them were addicted to drugs of one sort or another. I mean... I see people who are homeless all over Vancouver. I've seen people who are homeless in every city I've ever visited or lived in. But - this isn't a person or two begging for change or sleeping in a doorway. This is dozens of people, hundreds of people, thronging the sidewalks. Drug dealers, prostitutes, beggars, addicts - it's not pretty.

In a way I'm glad that I saw it. It was eye-opening, to say the least. I just... wish that I'd seen it wearing jeans and a heavy sweatshirt, not carrying a bag, not standing out quite so much. Or perhaps I wish there'd been somebody else along. I don't know.

It's not that I felt, at any time, that I was in danger - nervous, yes, but mostly because I was so completely out of my element - just that it's really not a nice area. Not somewhere to get lost, or to look lost (I wanted to pull out my map and find an alternate route - but I also didn't want to stop or look like a tourist. And... since I was there, I sort of figured that it wouldn't harm me to have my eyes opened a bit), or, hell, do anything other than try to avoid attention. So I was very glad indeed when I eventually got out of there, and even more glad to get to the main branch of the library.

On another note entirely, I came home to find Alicia showing a potential tenant around; she might be moving out in the next couple of weeks. John will take over the lease if she does, so I'm not at all worried there, but it's... kind of exasperating and mildly stressful to think that I might have to get used to another new person.

Day 42: People keep Trying to Save Me

Guess who rang the doorbell again this morning?

Actually, that's not the real question. Guess who was stupid enough to answer it, even though she knew who it would be (nobody, and I mean nobody, uses the front door)?

Yes, it was Jehovah's Witnesses at the door, and yes, I answered. The same younger guy as last time, but with him was a woman, not a man. The guy - nineteen, maybe? - looked every bit as uncomfortable as last time. The woman said that they'd talked to George last time, which might've added to the guy's discomfort (I suspect that George told them to bugger off).

They gave me their spiel (Alicia came up behind me about halfway into it and I told her not to worry about it) and went away. Why o why o why did I forget to get a hijab-like scarf? Or why didn't I just tell them thank you, but they were wasting their time, and shut the door in their faces?

On second thought, I'm pretty sure they know perfectly well that they're wasting their time.... and it probably doesn't help my case that George probably did tell them off. So maybe the question is, why is nobody else ever up to answer the door on Saturday? Maybe next time the doorbell rings I should hide under the table...

Except we don't really have a table. Or rather, we do, but it doesn't serve as a table, as we have no chairs. We eat at the kitchen island (which does have chair/stool/things) instead.

ANYway. Once that was all over and done, I went to Safeway to buy sunscreen. Turns out today was the annual local fair-thing - a bunch of local businesses do sidewalk sales for a few hours. While I was in the process of buying a fifty-cent copy of Jane Eyre, a woman started talking to me... which was fine until it turned out that she only wanted to give me information about her church (which had a nearby booth). I took the slip of paper quite good-naturedly, tucked it in Jane Eyre (sorry, Jane), and plan to either trash it or use it as a bookmark.

I made it to the beach eventually, where I sat and read and baked in the sun. My arms are quite dark by my standards, which for a normal person means... uh.... still kinda pale. I think my scalp is burned, too. There were a bunch of idiot males nearby, and I made sure to avoid eye contact, because I most assuredly did not want to be the subject of any of their cracks. Or, at least, I wanted to avoid being the subject of them while still in earshot.

Dunno what the plan is for tomorrow - church, perhaps (why are churches the main focus of this entry?), and then wandering... somewhere... to do something... I don't know what yet.

Day 41: In which I Babble

Loren was in today (look how useful names are!), but because we get along well neither of us got much in the way of work done. I mean, I watered the plants and checked the answering machine and emailed my boss's class and requested photos from every single author and illustrator we've ever contracted with and organized said photos and made some more additions to The List and read more of the upcoming novel - but let's face it, when all is said and done I did most of that between nine-fifteen, when I got in, and ten-oh-six, when Loren got in. Not exactly a hard day's labour.

We've decided that when she comes in next week we'll get real work done and then go out for lunch.

After I ate this afternoon, I wandered around GI for a while, as I had time to kill. I ended up in a weaving shop that also sells yarn - I've walked past it almost every day for the last month, and haven't gone in.

Their yarn, it is pretty. It is oh-so-very pretty. Now I have 350 yards of hand-dyed blue wool (it was a toss-up between that and the green). I don't know yet what I'll make with it, but whatever I do is bound to be lovely, just because the yarn is so nice.

Brian came at three and we worked more on the manuscript we'd started Wednesday. It's coming along, although it feels as though every day my typing skills are different. I managed to keep the mistakes very minimal for the last couple of pages (means less cleaning up later...) by virtue of noting when I made mistakes and fixing them whenever Brian paused. It helped that today he was reading about a sentence at a time, them pausing for me to type madly to catch up, then starting up again. Sometimes he reads slowly but steadily, so that it's easier for me to keep pace but harder to catch typos as I go (when this happens, I try to keep the typos of a type that Word will recognize - if I accidentally type "hell" instead of "help", I'll add "hjk" after it so that there's something obvious enough to earn a squiggly red line).

I did a bit of controlled wandering after work and ended up with an inexpensive dress that was so totally not my style (halter neck, little white hearts all over) that I couldn't resist. It's cute, in a... not-me kind of way.

Tomorrow... who knows? The beach, maybe, though I don't want to take my towel because I just did laundry yesterday... drip-drying is a possibility. On the other hand, if I don't take a towel I can't stretch out and get a good sunburn. Oh, the things one must worry about! Heh.

Note to self: buy sunscreen.

The Cast

Home:
Alicia, the person whose name is on the lease. Just back from a vacation.
George: formerly dating Alicia. No longer in the picture.
Kelsey: former flatmate; moved to a more permanent location a week and a half ago.
John: New flatmate - dating Kelsey. All-around nice guy.
Matt: here for six months before going back to school in Britain. Bit of a wiseass, but generally nice.
Hannah: dating Matt; also planning to go back to school when the six months are up. Good sense of humour.
Tim: very new flatmate. No idea what he's doing here. If I didn't have a fake name for him I'd be stuck, as he is too new for me to be able to remember his real one.

Work:
My boss, also known as the publisher. Appears disorganized, but can tell you exactly where anything in the office is, along with when each thing is being published and what needs to be done with it.
Brian, the author from whom I take dictation. Fairly soft-spoken; knowledgeable about Vancouver.
Loren, another intern. Comes in on Fridays. More easy-going than I am, but still gets her shit done.

Vancouver family:
Diane, my aunt. Am very very glad that she lives in Vancouver.
Rory, my cousin. Just turned nineteen, but is a mature nineteen (this said from the loftly experience of twenty).
James, my other cousin. Almost fifteen, but again, a mature fifteen. Lots of fun to be around.
Paul, my step-uncle (or uncle, depending upon how you look at it). I don't know him terribly well yet.

Note: yes, all names have been changed, and yes, there is some rhyme and reason to the names selected. Also - now I can use names when I talk about people! Err, some of the time. And fake names, anyway.

Day 40: And with Windchill, it's... Cold.

I spent most of my time at work today reading - one of the tasks on my checklist is to read a manuscript that we're planning to publish... oh, wait, I already said this somewhere. Anyway, I didn't want to vacuum, so I packaged up a book to be sent off for consideration for an award (though it won't be sent until my boss gets back). Then I read. I actually quite like this manuscript; it's good writing (some of the prose is a bit purple, but that can be sorted out) and a compelling story so far.

I left a bit early; I'd gotten there very early (since... well, we had no toilet paper in the house, so I waited to go to the public restrooms. The toilet paper situation has since been remedied.) and was antsy to leave. One of the perks of being alone in the office is that if I want to leave I can, with nobody the wiser.

...but I'm still too much of a square to do anything other than show up and do my work ::shrugs::

I had plans for the afternoon, but it was so incredibly windy that anything other than going home and putting on something warmer was out of the question. I was rather annoyed with the wind, actually, as a cute and lacy skirt does not look (or feel) so cute when the wind is giving you goosebumps and trying to shove the skirt up your thigh, so I changed into jeans and a sweater and left again.

Next year I might apply to Simon Fraser's Masters program in publishing. I haven't seen the campus yet, but I don't think a campus is so important for grad school, and they have a good reputation, and I rather think I'd like to live in Vancouver for a while... or perhaps I could apply to UBC, if they have a publishing or creative writing program. Which would be more useful in finding a job? In the real world? In a publishing house? In academia? Which would be more useful if I were trying to get something of my own published? Or maybe I should just get a job. Or stay in Boston. Or move to New York (uhh.... or not).

Aaaaahhhh. It's not even senior year yet. Is all of senior year going to be like this?

Day 39: Umm.... what?

So it appears that I have a new flatmate.

There's a lot of backstory that hasn't gone into this blog, but basically somebody was going to move in and then I thought they weren't going to (due to various circumstances) and then I came out of the shower and here was that person.

So... huh.

One thing that I forgot to mention yesterday was that we had dragonfruit for dessert, which was a fascinating experience. It's wildly pink and green on the outside, but white with black seeds on the inside, and tastes like... slightly sweet water.

Work was nice and uneventful; I managed to check a number of things off my list, including the dreaded website runthrough. Well, okay, the site still needs work, but I thought I'd let the webperson deal with the current changes before figuring out what else I need to dump on her. The mouse didn't make any more appearances, but I have named it Max. Short for Maximillian Ralph, I think, but I'm not sure what its last name is. Remember those books about the mouse and the motorcycle?

The dictation-author (I really, really need to give people code names) came by after lunch and we got through ten pages of material. That's single-spaced, which I think is not a bad speed.

Later I went down to Kits to check out a craft/hobby store, but by the time I got there it was closed (boo). I'll have to try again at some point.

One of my flatmates wants to go up the Grouse Grind, and asked if I might be interested - his girlfriend will come, too, but she might take the cable car up rather than hike it.

Day 38: Don't Shave When your Leg is Bruised

I went in to work a bit early today so that I could justify leaving early. Well - I almost always get there early, but usually I just wander and people-watch. My boss is on vacation, so he left a list of things for me to do in the next two weeks. I got a decent chunk of it done, too; I sorted a bunch of papers (well - wheat from chaff; I couldn't get it all organized but there's an improvement), summarized the phone messages to email to my boss, got The List more or less finished, and read the first six chapters of a book we're going to publish in... 2011? Maybe 2010.

Tomorrow I might work on the website some - a rather onerous task (since I don't actually get to touch the site, only figure out what needs fixing) that I decided that I really didn't need to do today.

We have a mouse in residence, by the way; it ran back and forth for a while today. I debated doing something about it, but I'll probably wait until my boss is back and then ask him if he has a cat.

I met my mum, aunt, and cousins at two, and we had a look at a reeeeallly nice ceramics shop before heading down Main to find an outdoorsy fabric shop so that my cousin can make some sandbags for lifeguard competitions (little sandbags, used to stabilize a neck). Then, because my family is, well, my family, we went to a knitting shop. I didn't buy anything, but, but! So much pretty yarn.

After dropping off one cousin at her work and the other at his dad's, my mum and aunt and I went back to my aunt's house and did the whole sit-knit-talk thing for a while, then made dinner and talked some more. We looked up my mum's twin's website so that my aunt could see my mum's twin's artwork, and did a bit more talking, and eventually away we went.

My mother is leaving in the early morning tomorrow, which is a pity, though it probably means that I'll have a bit more time. So far I rather like being alone in the office - we'll have to see how I feel later this week or next.

Day 37: I Need Training Wheels

Note to anyone who is riding a bicycle or rollerblading: do not try to pass the girl who cannot ride a bike at the narrowest part of the path.

Note to people who are walking: YOU FUCKING MORON, DO NOT WALK TWO ABREAST ON MY BIKE PATH. I WILL ACCIDENTALLY MOW YOU DOWN AND KILL ALL OF US.

...my mum and I biked around Stanley Park today. It was quite nice aside from the aforementioned incidents. I ran into a wall once, and into the road (luckily no traffic nearby), but I didn't actually kill anybody, so it more or less worked out. I only really fell over twice, which I think is not bad for ten kilometres (esp. considering that this is, what, the fourth time I've been on a bike?)... but I was still quite glad to return the bike to the rental shop.

We got lunch and then drove around for a bit, partly in search of yarn stores (yup, I got yarn) and partly so that my mum could reminisce about her time in Vancouver. She showed me the houses where she lived at various points in time, and looked to see which stores she remembered, and so on and so forth.

We headed over to my aunt's house around four. My cousin made tea and we all sat around on the deck and knit (I know, I know) and talked. And talked... and talked... heh. At some point my aunt moved into the kitchen to make dinner, and we sort of... moved one by one into the kitchen to keep talking and help.

So then there was dinner - pizza with pesto and potato (I never would have thought to put potato on a pizza, but it was quite good) - and dessert and more talk... we laughed ourselves silly discussing how my other cousin could be shipped in a box back to my grandparents (long story for which you really had to be there) and so on and so forth.

Key difference between today and yesterday: yesterday when I looked at my watch I was thinking, when can we go? Today when I looked at my watch I was thinking, oh no, do we have to go soon?

Bonus prize - when I got home I talked to my new flatmate (uh.... long story there) for a while, and then another flatmate came home and the three of us talked. And... now it is way past my bedtime.

Day 36: On the Road Again

Last night, after the wedding reception, everyone came back over to Granny and Grandpa's with a strawberry shortcake for Grandpa, whose 80th birthday was last month. He managed to get 79 of the 80 candles in one breath, which we all thought was pretty impressive.

In the morning we had a weeding party, as the raspberries have gone somewhat unattended this year. There were at least fifteen of us, and we managed to get several big stretches of weeds pulled out, but there was still a lot to be done when we stopped -

- which we did so that my mother and aunt and cousin and I could get to the aeroport to fly back to Vancouver. Uneventful flight, though I think the security people were a leeeetle bit bored (they wanted an explanation for my cable needle, for crying out loud).

The car my mum had rented turned out to be an enormous barge of a thing, an SUV, though at least it runs well. My family only ever rents small cars, but this was all they had... anyway, we did some grocery shopping (food!), dropped it off at my house, checked my mum in at her hotel, and went off to meet some friends of hers for dinner.

The friends were nice - they're in the middle of renovating their house, so both greeted us in paint-splattered clothing. She's French, and both a niece (French) and the daughter of a family friend (Quebecois) are spending the summer there to improve their English. The two girls were very polite indeed, and are both my age, but I rather suspect that they stayed interested mostly out of manners (especially since the girl from France didn't have enough English to follow most of the conversation...).

Eventually - four and a half hours later! - we departed, and my mother dropped me at home. Tomorrow I think we'll attempt to go around Stanley Park on bicycles (on that note, if you hear in the news of a girl who couldn't steer her bike and ended up going over the seawall and cracking her head open - that'll be me).

Day 35: Wedding Bells

I was up far too early this morning to get dressed in jeans and one of my brother's shirts (the one he offered last night was blue and made me look like a pregnant mail carrier. Eventually I ended up with a deep red that was rather better, if huge). I hadn't thought to bring a button-down shirt of my own, and they were kind of necessary for hair madness.

I met my cousin and one of the other bridesmaids at the hair place, and we sat patiently while the hairdressers pulled and curled and sprayed and pinned and sprayed again. Eventually my hair went half-up and entirely curled, as did the other bridesmaid's hair, and my cousin's hair went partly up and a wreath of flowers was pinned to the top of her head. Thus adorned, we made a pit stop at our grandparents' for my dress, then headed back to my aunt's house (my cousin's mother) to meet up with the third bridesmaid, who'd done her own hair, and to handle makeup and dressing and so on and so forth.

My cousin's dress was red and gold - medieval style, sort of - and very pretty indeed (though she did have to be laced in). We bridesmaids were all in cream sundresses, the only requirements having been "cream," "knee-length," and "something you can wear again". The groomsmen wore black pants and white or cream shirts, and the groom's vest was red. Their son (bride & groom's son) matched the groom.

Then it was off to the church/hall (once a Catholic church, but it hasn't had a congregation in forty-something years) for the ceremony. It went of more or less without hitch, although the bridesmaids moved too fast and the ringbearer - the aforementioned son, who is 16 months old - tried to take the rings and so on and so forth... but no major issues.

Post-wedding we went to a relative's house for pictures, which was pretty quick - half an hour? Then it was back to my aunt's house for the reception. Lots of people... lots and lots of people... my grandparents have six kids. All of them were present (including my grandparents), along with their spouses and all of the grandchildren save two. Add in families of grandchildren, plus the other side of my cousin's family, plus the groom's extended family...

Lots of people.

But that was pretty painless too, and I sat around with various cousins and cousins-in-law and aunts and talked and ate lunch and posed for pictures, and everything went off smoothly. On the one hand I recognize that it was a low-key wedding (no Bridezillas!) but, on the other hand, in the unlikely event that I get married, I think I will elope.

...in a long white dress, though.

Day 34: How do you Rehearse for Marriage?

A bunch of us tried to go to the lake today, but we got only as far as the parking lot before being attacked by mosquitoes. We kept going - made it all the way to the beach - but it was a pretty dismal day and the mosquitoes just kept coming.

...we went into the village for ice cream instead.

Later was the rehearsal for the wedding: some setup beforehand (climbing unsteady ladders and messing around with tulle), then the practice itself... walking down the aisle, who stands where, what is said when, moving, timing... yeesh.

My idea of a small wedding: the two people getting married, the person marrying them, as many witnesses as necessary to sign the papers.

My cousin's small wedding: both sides of the family - sixty or seventy people.

Heh.

Anyway, we got through it - some problems with timing for the aisle walk, but we tried again (and again) and got it to work.

After that my family picked me up and we went into Rossland for dinner (well - I opted out of the real dinner. I... really don't like restaurants. There comes a point at which I freak out and cry, so I try to leave before that point. Consequently - I left.) and to see the Gold Fever Follies, which I haven't seen in years. The Follies are done every year in Rossland, always a different script but the same theme. They're all set in a bar in Rossland and generally involve gold, or mining (it's a mining town), or love, or... yeah. Anyway, to a ten-year-old's eyes they are the best thing ever to be seen, and to a twenty-year-old's eyes they are not quite perfect but definitely worth seeing.

Post-Follies, we went back to Granny and Grandpa's, where an enormous pile of family was congregated (how's that for mixing metaphors?). More dessert organization and chatter and so on and so forth - and so much family! - and now we are back at the hotel and I need to go to bed.

Day 33: Bridal Shower in the Middle of Nowhere

Okay:

Got up, ate breakfast, was picked up by my aunt (and my cousin, and my... step-uncle?). Away we went to the aeroport, where my aunt and cousin and I (my step-uncle(?) dropped us off) got coffee/scones before climbing on a plane and flying far far away.

Only not really that far.

Anyway, my parents picked us up at the Castlegar aeroport, and we all headed back to my grandparents' house. We're all staying in the local hotel, but of course we had to say hello to Granny and Grandpa.

We did some bridal shower shopping (didn't even know there was a bridal shower until this afternoon. Shouldn't I have known? I mean, being the maid of honour and all...), and my mother worked on my dress, which had some hem problems, and so on and so forth... I helped set up food (I'm getting really good at this setting up food thing), and people showed up, and voila! Bridal shower. There was idle chatter, and a make-a-bridal-gown-from-toilet-paper-and-ribbon game - we hauled in my brother and my cousin to pretend to be grooms - and presents and cake and such. Two small children - my cousin's 16-month old son and my other cousin's (ADORABLE) nine-month old daughter.

Later we carried the gifts all downstairs for temporary storage, sorted out details for tomorrow, and now I am at the hotel and getting ready for sleeeeep.

Day 32: You can never have too many grapes

By the time my boss got to work today I had prepared the package he'd emailed me about (two books, five book samples, a personal note, address taped on, etc).

We spent a long time going over the books that are scheduled to come out in the next two and a half or three years, making some changes to The List (as we have taken to calling it). We have pages and pages of ISBN numbers, some of which are in use and some of which are still blank - those are ours to assign books to. It doesn't matter which of these numbers a new book gets, so long as it gets a number.

Next we went over some changes for the website, which needs a major overhaul. Unfortunately, the person who does all of the website stuff isn't around (I haven't met her), so I basically took notes on everything she needs to do (personally? I don't think that either I or my boss should have to deal with this. He should be able to tell her to go through the site, fix the dozens of broken links and errors and so on and so forth. As it is, he and I basically rebuild half the site - but only in Word). Then we went over the stuff I'll do while he's on vacation for the next couple of weeks.

Later, after I got lunch, the author I take dictation from came by and we worked on a bunch of different things. I think we're basically going through a bunch of things he's written over the past I-don't-know-how-long, so not everything is finished. There were some short poems today, some of which I quite liked.

On my way home I stopped for grapes (99 cents per pound!) and milk and, on a whim, a box of Jasmine tea. I don't even know if I like Jasmine tea, but... yeah. There's an egg tofu thing that I want to try eventually, but there's no reason to get real groceries when I'm leaving tomorrow and won't be back until Sunday.

Happy Canada Day

So! I woke up this morning (woke up every five minutes starting at 7:20, but I refused to get up until my alarm went at 8:00), showered (whacking my foot on the corner of the sink - ow), had breakfast with my aunt, and sat and knit/read while my aunt and her husband went running/biking.

When they got back, I helped set up for their Canada Day barbeque: I set out chips, organized and iced cupcakes (the cupcakes are a test for my stepcousin's wedding later this month. The cupcakes themselves are excellent, but the icing is causing problems), adorned said cupcakes with strawberries, cored and sliced ten or twelve bell peppers, et cetera. I love that I was just able to jump in and not feel underfoot. I have a lot of relatives, but I don't think I could possibly have better relatives than these to live near.

People started showing up around two, about twenty-three people total. It was a little awkward at first - most people didn't really know each other - but once the food and drinks came out everything went just fine. I stayed off to the side and mostly watched, as I am wont to do (I come from a family of knitters and readers... not a family of socializers), but it was all really low-key. Have I mentioned how nice my stepcousins are?

Oh, side note: my cousin's boyfriend tried to tease me about "celebrating another country's independence day" - but he failed, because I am a Canadian citizen :)

Anyway. Later, when everybody was gone, my aunt and I cleaned up (my cousins had gone to their dad's for a bit; my aunt's husband was out). Another aunt called to say that she was in the area and the bridges were way backed up, so we hauled out our knitting and sat down to wait (and knit. And talk.).

So my other aunt came by, and brought up her knitting, and we chatted until the internet said that a bridge was open again. The travelling aunt (okay, that's a weird way to say it) took a detour to drop me off, and... here I am back home. I'll see them all on Thursday, when we fly off for my cousin's wedding (yet another cousin. I have lots of them).

Vancouver, day 30

I suppose I could've posted from work yesterday, but I am avoiding all non-work related blogs while actually at work, on matter of principle.

Anyway, yesterday was fine... I'm still working on my spreadsheet, which is slowly expanding as we think of more things to go in. It started with one ISBN number (the ten-digit one if possible), the title, author(s), illustrator(s), age range, year of publication, and whether it's paperback or hardcover. Next I added the thirteen-digit ISBN numbers, then information for books that have both paperback and hardcover editions. On the suggestion of the sane intern, I added a new page for awards, shortlists, and nominations (and then, when that was done, I added a column noting who had reviewed each book). Next up: my boss suggested that I add a column - entire Excel page, more like - containing the blurbs in the catalogue.

This project is my baby.

Anyway. Eventually I departed and got lunch (and watched a street performer, who was really quite good) before heading over to Kits, where my aunt lives. I had a wonderful evening - talked to my aunt for a while, helped put dinner together, ate with my aunt and my cousin and my cousin's boyfriend, walked to the beach with my cousin and got excellent gelato, etc. My aunt had put me up in my other cousin's room for the night - he was staying at his dad's, I think - and so I had a lovely comfortable night.