Picture of the week

I miss my kitty!

My Long Weekend

Nothing crossed off of the list this weekend, sadly. I did have a rockin’ good time though! We left Friday, but due to cloudy skies and some time constraints, we took our regular route, rather than the Cowboy Trail. It was super cloudy, and there were strange cloud formations going on over the hills and fields. I was disappointed, but we hoped to take it back to Lethbridge. We went right to Adam’s house for a big Easter dinner, turkey, potatoes, the works. It was quite fun, but it was served quite late, so I didn’t get any time to puzzle-around with Adam’s mom, Martha.

Saturday morning I woke up quite late, and started my day very, very slowly. I went for a walk with my parents in Carburn Park, which is this lovely inner city park that sits beside the Bow River. It was very scenic and there were a lot of animals. My parents had always talked about feeding the deer that hang around in the park, so I got to take part in that. I was a little freaked out at first, I’m not used to wild animals, but they are very timid and friendly, and just want to eat.

There were also chikadees that would actually sit on your hand and eat. They were super small and freaked me out. I’ve had bad experiences with birds, being attacked by these stupid starlings that hit people in the head as they walk. Stupid birds. Anyways, it took me a few tries to actually stand still for the little bird to grasp my finger with it’s teeny-weeny foot and take a seed. Too cute!
After the long walk, we made our way down a part of the park that was mostly washed away by the flooding in Calgary a couple years ago. The path was falling away rapidly, which made for an interesting walk. I saw a muskrat lodge, and an anthill though, so it was worth the precarious ledge.

Saturday evening was the *insert random metaphor* of the weekend. My mom and I left to meet Gwen, Ashley and Sarah at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Due to stupid downtown Calgary, it took a bit to get there, but we made it. The food was delicious! I love the all inclusiveness of it all! After a filling dinner we headed to the Vagina Monologues at the Martha Cohen Theatre. It was a different interpretation than I have seen before, but it was very good! I took a sneaky film of the end of my favourite monologue “The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy”. Here is it, just for you!
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=qumj9_oJeOE%5D
After the play, we headed to Aussie Rules, but didn’t stay too long. We had a rocking good time though, and it was my mom’s first time there, as well as Ashley’s.

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key, dinner with the family and such things. I am back in Lethbridge after another cloudy, gloomy drive along the main road. The only excitement was Adam getting pulled over for not wearing his seatbelt. Woot. Lots to do in the next two weeks, before I head off for my whirlwind trip to Toronto/Guelph!

When the Dust Settled

Alright, so there’s not much going on in way of the the list, but I do have some plans for the weekend. Adam and I are going back up to Calgary for Easter and whatnot, but instead of taking the boring Vulcan or Claresholm way, we are considering going the much more scenic Cowboy Trail, from which we assume we should be able to get a gorgeous view of the Rockies.

Friday night we’re doing Easter dinner at his family’s house and booking our U-Haul to move back to Calgary at the end of April. Adam got a rockin’ job for Smart Technology, and I am…*looking*. I did have a job interview today for a week long marketing project here in Lethbridge that should make me enough to cover my trip out to Ontario and Quebec, which would be pretty effin’ sweet!

Saturday is going to be exciting! Gwen, Sarah, Ashley, MY MOM! and I are going to the Old Spaghetti Factory (excited because I never get to go on account of it being in downtown Calgary next to the strippers) and then to see the Calgary production of the Vagina Monologues done by Pink Mafia Productions (Marsha Meidow). I was in it last year, so I am excited to get to sit and see it. Not that I didn’t see it Tuesday night for the University of Lethbridge production… I’m going to be all vagina’d out. We’re going to Aussie Rules after that, hopefully. I’m super excited because my mom is coming out and actually said, *deep breath*, she ACTUALLY SAID she was “up for anything”. My mom has gone crazy and I love it!

The rest of the weekend seems pretty tame, but I have no complaints about that. My last trip up to Calgary before I move back. Exciting, but a little sad, I like living on my own! Ah well.

Where I want to be

This is a picture from my brother’s trip to the Bahamas. I want a tropical beach, a fruity drink, and nothing due tomorrow.

A girl can dream, right?

When Mom Comes to Play

So a while back I made a mini-list about things I wanted to do in Southern Alberta before I move back to Calgary this April. My super awesome mom came to visit me this weekend, and helped me cross quite a few things off of the list! We of course got photo evidence of the whole shebang!

She got here Friday at around 10 and helped me finish my dishes like the doting mother she is, and then we went for lunch at the Red Dog Diner (we she enjoyed as much as I do!). Then we did some unexciting things like getting groceries. In the afternoon we went to the Galt Museum and Archives, which was so much fun! We had the whole place to ourselves, so we gallivanted around and did as we pleased. This included, making an awesome newspaper article in which I stated I would most remember “not learning Blackfoot”, as all of the Blackfoot sound recordings weren’t working. There were also awesome medieval dress up clothes that you could wear (meant for kids) but that didn’t stop me! We also played some stupid medieval game neither of us understood and I battled with a knight. After the excitement at the Galt museum, we went to find where these stupid giant tower things are by the river, but you can’t get to them. We found the road there, but it’s some business access road. I still don’t get it, why they have this ancient water tower and lookout deck but you can’t get to them. Odd!

The rest of the evening was pretty low key, we went to dinner at Montana’s with Adam and then went home bloated and watched Amnesia which wasn’t that entertaining for a show with Dennis Miller in it.

Saturday we got up early, had a delicious breakfast and headed out to do my recycling. We decided on a whim to go to Taber, as I had some things on my mini-list there. Taber is hilarious, it’s just such a little town/city with NOTHING going on at all. We saw the giant corn stalks and giant woman, and stopped at the library to ensure we’d found the giant woman and so I could use their gorgeously clean bathrooms. There were also Hutterites on the computers which my mom found funny. We saw about 100 churches and the best museum ever (which was closed) called “the Irrigation Impact Museum”. IMPACT Museum haha. I think everything except the Walmart and library was closed in that place.

Coming back from Taber we stopped at a place called Chin, thinking they had a sign we could get a picture by because it’s an awesome name for a place. They didn’t seem to have one,but they did have a giant garbage heap, I mean this thing was GIANT! It was also creepy, because it was on someone’s property and they have about 25-30 cars just crammed full of stuff, with trailers and stuff. It almost looked like a place tourists went to die… eep. And they also had a bunch of old PMQs as houses, which we found strange.

Once we got back to Lethbridge we stopped for lunch at Sam’s Donair and Hamburger for the best burger’s EVER. I want another one right now in fact. We got bloated and full, and then headed for Fort Whoop-Up. Well, we had a stop over at the wind gauge in Lethbridge on Scenic Drive. I don’t get it, but whatever. Historic point of interest or something.

Fort Whoop-Up was pretty fun, but a bit creepy. It’s only like 5 bucks a person too! You can sneak in really easily though, and most of then rooms only are accessible from one door, so you end up trapped in these smelly little rooms. There are some neat setups of western-esque rooms, with a bar, and lots of axes laying around randomly. Since no one else is there, it was sort of creepy. It was fun nonetheless. I tried roping fake cattle, got another picture with a buffalo, and saw how short people used to be. We bought candy and souvenirs, including $2 rabbit pelts (yes rabbits died so Fort Whoop-Up could make $2 a pop) for the cats at home to see if they would like them. I got a bear purse and a little white buffalo statue. After the Fort, we wandered down to the river and got some pictures, but it was too creepy for us there too, too many bushes and no one around.

Click here to see all of the pictures from the weekend

In Process

I added a new page on the top bar entitled “In Process” which just list all of the lengthy ones I am currently in the middle of, or the ones I have set plans for.

Oh, Winter, How You Instill Creativity

Here I am, in the winter outfit I crafted for my walks to the bus stop. It was really cold here and I don’t have a scarf, but I do have this awesome polka dot thing! Adam quite enjoyed it.

The art in the far background is by my friend Keith

Crossed Off! #298

One more thing crossed off of my ever growing list. Today, Adam and I went to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump near Fort MacLeod, which satisfies #298 on my list. It was pretty interesting and Adam and I learned a lot about the art of sending buffalo careening to their death. It was really very windy, you can see Adam and almost I blowing off of the giant cliff in the pictures.

I think, to be very honest, the best part was the astounding view from the top of the cliffs. It was just amazing, you get see for at least 50 kilometres. It would have been better without the road, farms and other man-made crap ruining what should be mile after mile of unspoiled prairie.

The interpretive centre was very well done with lots of things to take pictures of. Oddly, lots of buffalos!! In stuffed form and in bone form!

I think Adam’s favourite part was the puzzle he managed to put together, which I took a picture of to display his puzzle prowess.

You can see my full array of pictures at my photobucket account.

Inga Musico and Other Uplifting Events

Yesterday I went to a talk by Inga Musico the author of Cunt, which as I stated before is one of my favourite books EVER. She gave a great talk about race and gender in terms of out dying Western democracy. Later at the “wine and cheese” (read: giant crackers and cheese cubes) I got a picture with her (and Brittany, far right). She’s brilliant! Her new book Autobiography of Blue-eyed Devil I sadly have not read yet, but I am sure it is amazing. She writes how I think and I sincerely enjoy her. I encourage you to buy her books/get them from the library and go see her speak if you get a chance (and here you thought book reviews were over for the month.)
I spent the rest of yesterday selling fabulous t-shirts for the Vagina Monologues on campus! I also encouraged my mum to come down for Saturday, but she declined and said she would come next weekend. YAY! I’ll have to think of fun things to do with her when she comes. I also went back to the Red Dog Diner with Adam last night, because it’s so delicious!

Tomorrow Adam promised me we would do something fun and exciting, but he hasn’t told me what it is!! I have a love-hate relationship with surprises (especially after the pink cat fiasco *wink*) when Adam is concerned, but I’m sure it will be fun. I’d even be down for a movie.

Less than 1 month until my super short and SUPER FUN trip to Guelph!! All I have to say is that it better stop fucking snowing by then. Apparently J and Cal are trapped in their new house (the mansion) because of the storm, which has nothing in it.

Also, only a little more than three months until Montreal/Toronto/Guelph. I’m so excited for French, beaches, and gay men!

Book Reviews for the Contemporary Man

5 days late, but I’m still doing it! February’s book reviews, in accordance with My 2008 New Years Resolutions. This month I am dubbing “Old Favourites” though I also could have called it “Books about larger than life men who roam around doing whatever they see fit”. I took in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind, and Candide by Voltaire, translated by David Wootton. These are all books I have read multiple times before and are right up on my favourite books of all time list. Needless to say it was an enjoyable month and there will be nothing less than three 5/5 reviews.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is an amazing book, but most people know it by the film version starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. The film is stunning and amazing, and for a Hollywood film is strikingly true to the book, but the book has (of course) scenes the film is missing. Hunter S. Thompson is brilliant and this is (according to me) his masterpiece. The Rum Diaries are equally as compelling, but there’s a certain appeal to Fear and Loathing that gets me hooked every time. The general plot is a journalist and his attourney are assigned to cover a sporting event in Las Vegas and instead inbark on months of misadventure involving a satchel of drugs and fake names. I cannot put this book down once I start. It is so hard to imagine these two men roaming around Las Vegas like two strung out bats out of hell, but somehow once you get past the second chapter there is no doubt left in your mind that these atrocities took place in one form or another. The dialogue is superb, albeit slightly out there and some references leave you desperately googling phrases and events, trying to make sense of Thompson’s uncanny ability to throw in the most obscure references to 60’s and 70’s drug culture via Raoul Duke’s character. The eccentricities make the characters so endearing despite their obvious flaws. My favourite part in the entire book is when Dr. Gonzo, the lawyer, declares that he has a has a powerful lust for red salmon. I have no idea why, but the idea of lawyer so far gone on mescaline and acid screaming for his “lust” for fish is just my idea of a good story. While this book does involve the explicit description of drugs, weaponry and general tomfoolerly that could land a person in jail for life, it is an amazing read and there’s a much deeper side to it all. Thompson’s obvious disillusionment with the drug culture (and Nixon) underlines the entire story. I highly recommend any of Thompson’s work, especially this book.

Next up is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind. This is probably my favourite book ever. Even in its translation from German into English, the poetic genius of the writing is not lost. Its simply beautiful to read. Being a history major, the historical detailing of the book is incredible, and at times you almost feel the stinking drudgery of life in 18th century Paris. Set among the rues and rats, the story is based around a man named Grenouille (French for “frog”) whom we follow from birth until death. While wholly a common man living amongst the millions of Paris, Grenouille does have one intricacy and that is his ability to smell. His “heightened olfactory” abilities lead us through this tale. At some point in his life he discovers two things: the most perfect scent in the world and the art of perfuming. I will not give away much more but the title “story of a murderer” should hint to some other aspect of this book. While every page of this book is a delight for me to read, I have to say the best part is when our main character ends up living in a cave in the side of a mountain for years, eating frozen bats. This is another book I highly recommend to everyone and anyone I discuss literature with.

The last book I read was Voltaire‘s Candide, as translated by David Wootton. This is a book that I would adore to read in its native French, as I am sure a lot of the little things are lost in translation. This is not to take away from David Wootton who does a superb job at translating, ensuring in all his footnotes to address language barriers, history, and Voltaire’s personal life (which adds more to the story than one might think). The first thing I shall say about this story is that it is completely and utterly absurd. It is literally one misadventure after another. I can almost say it is an 18th century version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, with men roaming around the world in search of happiness and that dream of a better life. Candide is the main character, and is quite naive until the very end of the book. Under the guidance of a philosopher named Pangloss, he gets himself into one problem after another remaining ever optimistic that life is exactly as it should be. The elements of fate play well into each other in this book, with characters separating and coming back together with the greatest of ease. It is well to say the main point of this story is fatalism and optimism, but I have to say it is a rather depressing book about how shitty life is no matter what we do. Through the course of events involving rapes, loss of buttocks, running the gauntlet and an “auto-de-fe” in South America, Candide does grow to lose is optimism ever so slowly. In the end, it turns out the meaning of life is to just work your land (or farm?). While it is quite scholarly in a sense, and moves at an insane pace, it is brilliant and makes you laugh at the horrible state of the world. It also causes some reflection on how the world really hasn’t changed much since the time that Voltaire roamed around Europe being all bisexual and investing money in the red sheep of the Andes. Good read if you want something short but action packed. It’s like a Jason Statham movie!