Bec's Happybox

This is shaping up to be a weird week. And I don't like weirdness.

It's weird because we don't have one normal at-home evening and we usually have five. On Sunday night, after a very enjoyable but overly active weekend, I thought that tomorrow, when I'm going to see The Tempest, was the only weird night this week. So I looked forward to some restful evenings.

But because the weekend was so crazy, I didn't get the grocery shopping done and had to do that Monday night. And let me tell you, Monday night is not a good time to grocery shop. I thought Saturday afternoons were busy, but they don't hold a candle to Monday nights. The place was a zoo....

At Thrifty's

First of all, on the way to Thrifty's, Sahsez and I met an old friend of Tobias' on the bus. We didn't even know he lived here and he said he had been looking for us but couldn't remember our last name (see Footnote 1). So that was pretty exciting, and I was looking forward to telling Tobias I found his friend for him.

Then, in the bread aisle, I saw Fiona, an old friend from high school, and we started chatting. Now I will tell you a secret that I didn't tell Fiona, and may never tell her: I have seen her before, on campus, and I haven't said hello. The reason I haven't said hello is because I was angry at her. How can you be angry at someone you haven't seen for years? Well, I was angry because she was very good friends with Shaye, and I was angry that she hadn't told me about her death and that I had to find out about it on the freaking internet a year later.

But, oh shit de merdeymerdeymerde, here's what happened during our conversation in the bread aisle:

REBECA:
So....did you go to Shaye's funeral?

FIONA:
What?

Rebeca:
Oh. No.

FIONA:
What are you talking about?

REBECA:
Oh no, no, no. Fiona...you don't know.

And the conversation unravelled in a predictable way from there, with both of us very upset amongst the bagels and jam.

Unfortunately, moments later another pair of old friends happened by, and, despite my excitement at seeing them, I had to as politely as possible explain that I couldn't talk to them.

So that was lovely. I never thought I'd be the one to be telling Fiona about what happened to Shaye. I assumed she would have been one of the first to know, and would have attended the funeral, and I've wasted energy feeling hurt and angry that she didn't contact me, when instead I should have contacted her when I found out this summer, so that we could have grieved together. Bugger.

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I managed to catch up with my other friends in the fish department and finally made a solid plan to have them to supper, which is something I've wanted to do for a couple years. I have been a bad friend since, oh, 1995.

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Tuesday was supposed to be normal, but Marg invited Sahsez for a sleepover, and so Tobias and I decided to go to the movies, and then it wasn't normal.

By this morning I was feeling sort of run down. Of all possible recreational activities, I find sitting around doing nothing at all the most relaxing and rejuvenating. And I hadn't done that since last Thursday!

So I was pretty excited when Tobias said he would work late today, because it meant I could actually have three hours absolutely to myself. Well, two hours to myself and one hour of cooking and dishes and stuff.

The first thing I did was go to the gym for aerobics. I was sort of torn about going because the weather was so nice I thought it would make sense to jog. But it requires so much more motivation to jog, so aerobics it was. Then, the class ended up being cancelled, so I went jogging anyway.

Then then then then THEN, it was so warm after my run that I sat on my porch and had a crantini. Squeal. And now I feel all better.

Tomorrow I go to the opera.

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Reading: The Rainbow Comes and Goes, the second volume of the autobiography of Lady Diana Cooper

Listening to: Peer Gynt Suite

Eating: Scallops with Seville oranges and watercress. Man that was good.

Footnote 1: I can't remember whether I've ever explained the last name thing here. It's not complicated. My maiden name is Twizzleton (note: that is not my real maiden name). Tobias' maiden name is Fyfe (note: that is not Tobias' real maiden name). When we got married we became Rebeca and Tobias Twizzleton-Fyfe (note: that is not our real last name). Since my name comes first in our combined name, people looking for Tobias Fyfe in the phone book won't find him, but those searching for Rebeca Twizzleton have a much better chance.

Friday the 13th Freebies

So this morning was the Victoria Reads on the Bus Book Club. It was great fun. Did I mention that I bullied Tobias into emailing for an invitation on Tuesday? Well, I did. So the whole Twizzleton-Fyfe family went to the party.

Tobias and Sahsez didn't end up saying anything on the radio, because you had to be a ltitle assertive if you wanted to say something. The announcer, Dave Grierson, would sort of throw out a question to the whole bus, and whoever raised their hand or nodded their head or something would be the one to talk next.

I got to recommend The Fish Can Sing by Halldor Laxness and also Wild Swans by Jung Chang which I read back in 1996. I couldn't tell whether I sounded clever or sounded like someone trying to sound clever, or downright dumb, or what, but Tobias said it was good, so that's good enough for me.

I wish I could say the best part was the scintillating conversation with Victoria's brilliant literati, but what I liked most were the door prizes. We both got CBC stuff like mugs, t-shirt, pencil, pins, etc. and I got a library bookbag and Tobias got a really nice CBC bookbag and Tobias got a copy of The Last Crossing, one of the five Canada Reads books. Best of all we got a free bus pass for a month and ten free individual ride tickets. Booty!

Sahsez also cashed in today because I won a draw last weekend at this education fair and today I picked up my prize, which was a big marbleworks toy. Sahsez is a bit too old for it, but that didn't stop her from playing with it for an hour tonight.

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More Talking

There was lots of geeky, conspiracy theory fun on Slashdot yesterday with the Windows source getting leaked (no link because I wouldn't want them to get Happyboxed. Heehee). Which led to a less-fun-because-it-wasn't-online discussion at the WICS get together last night.

It started like this:

As a response to that time-worn question, "What do you plan to do after you graduate?" I answered that now that the Windows source was leaked, I figured a career as a hacker was the clearest option. I mostly said this to get a rise out of the co-op coordinator, whose goal in life is to see all her students get good, morally-upright, and legal jobs. I didn't get a rise out of her, but it did prompt a discussion on that time-worn topic "Microsoft: good or evil?" The obvious answer, of course, being, "Neither. Morally neutral" but nevermind.

So we had one big Microsoft proponent who started everything off with a general statement of how persecuted she and her Microsoft cronies feel in the department. She went on to complain about how a certain professor that shall go unnamed feels free to deliver 25-minute anti-Microsoft rants during lecture, and that these rants unduly influence the second-years, who are, as Tobias would say, stunned as me arse, and take certain professor's words at face value. According to Ms. Gateslover, these second-years are now at a disadvantage because they now won't bother to learn Microsoft-propriety technologies and, let's face it, they should learn them, in order to be competitive.

Anyway, Gateslover made a good point about the frothing-at-the-mouth hatred of MS that goes on, which is just ridiculous. And, being an operating system agnostic myself, I thought she was mostly very reasonable, aside from the whining.

But I also really enjoy those twenty-five minute anti-MS rants, and think that if anyone gets to second-year university, much less second-year computer science, without knowing about the worldwide prevalence of MS products, then they don't deserve a job anyway. So I think the argument about the poor kids who are being led astray is bunk and I will never complain about a professor giving his or her opinion on topics related to our area of study, even if I disagree. Which is pretty easy to say when you study computer science. It's not religion or something. At least not to me.

So I chimed in a bit, saying that I think the anti-MS brigade feel that their position is sort of a Fight the Power kind of thing. So when a professor talks about MS in a negative light I think he honestly believes that he's just trying to do his part to hold back a little bit of the MS avalanche.

I shouldn't have said "Fight the Power."

As soon as I did, another person, lets call her Tuxlover, heard and came over and said "Yeah, Fight the Power!" and, basically, started frothing. Now I really respect Tuxlover and think she's very smart and I agreed with a lot of what she said about academic freedom and stuff, but let's face it, she's one of the frothers. And she came over and started frothing in such a way that I started to believe what Gateslover was saying about persecution.

As much as I love lively debate and especially when it's women being lively, I wish the discussion hadn't gone south so quickly when Tuxlover came into the conversation.

And I seriously doubt that she singlehandedly convinced Air Canada to stop using MS products on their website, as she implied.

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Overall, the WICS party was not a success due to a crappy turnout. But it was great for me because I chatted for a long time with a bunch of faculty members about grad school. Grad School. Hm.

And it looks like I'm going to give that NSERC thing another try this year, this time with Charlie, my operating systems prof from last semester. I know I said I would only do my last co-op with a company that I could work for after graduation, thus providing the perfect segue from school to work, but I got stars in my eyes last night with Charlie whispering sweet nothings in my ear: "NSERC", "kernel hacking", "grant money", "sensor networks." You know how it is. I got weak in the knees.

The kicker was "Well, okay Rebeca, you go ahead with your plan, but remember, anyone can get a job at IBM, but only a select few get NSERC grants." Swoon!

So I'm applying again. We'll see how it goes.

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For the misheard lyrics file: "In Rapunzel, the bad Rapunzel, the lion sleeps tonight..." - Sahsez

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Reading: Still The Last Tycoon. I'm slow these days.

Listening to: Wrens and Unicorns.

Eating: A recipe from my favourite blog (sorry to my friends who blog but if you want to be my favourite, you must have pictures of food), Chocolate and Zucchini. The author, Clotilde, calls the dish Which Came First Donburi and you'll have to follow the link if you want to know why. Anyway, it was delicious, but as usual, what should serve four only served Tobias and I. We are pigs.

Talking

On which book I'm going to recommend at the Victoria Reads book club on Friday...

TOBIAS:
Well I don't really know what to suggest. From the books you've considered, it's hard to tell what your intent is.

REBECA:
Quite honestly my intent is just to not be embarrassed on the radio!

TOBIAS:
Ah, so you want to appear clever.

REBECA:
Well....I don't want to appear to want to appear clever, that's for sure.



At work, in Coworker's office...

REBECA:
Ah, I see you've got the sendmail book. I was just reading about that today.

COWORKER:
Of course I do! I have two! Want one?

REBECA:
Sure!

COWORKER (suddenly realizing that he has offered me one of his send mail books):
Well, uh...Well! Yes! You can borrow it any time you like!

On the way home from daycare...

SAHSEZ:
Wah, I'm sad.

REBECA:
How come?

SAHSEZ:
Because no face paint today.

REBECA:
Oh well, you can't have face paint every day. (Aside: the daycare teachers frequently paint the kids faces in the afternoon)

SAHSEZ:
Yes we can! In the good ol' days we always used to have face paint every day!



At work, in Boss' office

REBECA (whispering):
Why does your man walk so slowly? Every time I see him walk by I want to say "Speed it up buddy, you won't live forever!"

BOSS:
He's got multiple sclerosis.

REBECA:
I am an asshole.

BOSS:
Yes you are.



And a joke from Sahsez: Why did the chicken cross the road?

To poop on all the stores and houses.

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Six-thirty on Monday morning can be a very bleak time. Luckily, I knew this Sunday night and got to bed at a reasonable hour. We had a guest for dinner, and I would have liked to stay up and talk longer with him, but, you know, six-thirty.

I had a great weekend, and I'm a little sad it's over, but I have a fun week ahead, for once, so I won't weep onto my ThinkPad.

Here are the exciting things the upcoming week will bring:

• Tonight: tuna steaks for dinner. I love tuna steaks and we haven't had them in a really long time. The guy at the fish counter gave me some tips for cooking them, which I accepted graciously, but mentally sent to /dev/null (meaning I tossed them in the bin) because I already know what I'm going to do with them. I'm going to fry them for a moment, till they're just slightly unraw, then I'm going to serve them topped with roasted red onion relish, and accompanied with tiny potatoes and mixed greens.
  
  
• Tomorrow: Sahsez will spend the night at Grandma Marg's while Tobias and I go see The Decemberists at Lucky Bar.
  
  I was listening to CFUV, which is the only station I can get in my dungeon cell, about a month ago and they played a song I loved. So, I paid attention to who the artist was, and it was The Decemberists. The DJ went on to say that The Decemberists were playing Lucky Bar February 10.
  
  Because I had never heard of The Decemberists before, I got excited and emailed Tobias to ask him if he would go to the show with me. I fully expected him to write back and say "Who are The Decemberists?" I should have known that just because a band is new to me doesn't mean that my husband doesn't own all their albums and hasn't seen their live show ten times. So much for my short-lived fantasy of for once being the one to introduce Tobias to something new on the rock music front.
  
  
• Thursday: The Women in Computer Science group is having another party, this time sans pizza. I love these parties, but hate the grub. Pizza is the answer to the catering needs of EVERY SINGLE event on this campus, and man, I've had enough to last till I graduate. So at the last party I suggested that the next one be catered by the International Women's Catering Co-op, a group in town that makes luscious pan-ethnic delicacies.
  
  Now I don't know that the party this week will feature food by the IWCC, but in the email I got, the coordinator, Marilyn, specifically said no pizza, so I've got my fingers crossed.
  
  
• Friday morning: I will be participating in CBC Radio's "Victoria Reads on the Bus." I don't know exactly what this entails but I suspect that I will ride around on a public transit bus with other bibliophiles and eat and talk about books on the radio. Woohoo!!!
  
  I won the invitation to the event this morning by emailing when they said "The next five people who email us will receive invitations to the Friday morning book club". I'm very excited about it, but I'm anxious about picking a suitable book to recommend for Canada Reads.
  
  
• Friday afternoon: Valentine's day party at daycare. That reminds me I have to figure out what to make for the bake sale.
  
  
• Friday evening: Double Diamond show at the McPherson. This is Brandy's big show of the year.
  
  
• Saturday: Sahsez has a Valentine's/Birthday party for one of her friends and I will tag along so I can go on the waterslide at the Commonwealth pool. And then we are going to a Valentine's Day potluck at the family centre. That reminds me I have to figure out what I'm going to make for that. Maybe the potatoes that Jackie wrote about yesterday.
  
  
• Sunday: I get to skip out on Sunday School (only the second time since September that I've done that) to go over to Surrey to see my cousin and her baby and her dad and our grandma. Tobias, Grandpa Bumpa, Pink, and Sahsez will also come. Should be a fun day.
  
  

With all this stuff going on, I imagine the week will fly by even faster than usual. Today sure did. Did you notice how the days are getting longer, though? I like it because I'm not walking to work in the dark anymore.

Day of Action

Well, if I were a student right now, I would have gotten academic amnesty today, because it was the Canadian Federation of Students' National Day of Action. It was also extremely sunny. Nice for the protesters. Unfortunately, I don't get any professional amnesty, so it was a normal work day for me.

The sunshine was lovely, but it apparently posed a threat to the supercrazycomputers at the facility. Our air conditioning arrangement is not the world's best, and there's constantly stress about it. If one of them stops working, a lot of data is at risk. So everyone was a little angsty about the unexpected smell of spring in the air.

It wasn't just the weather that was good today. Compared to the last two days (holy shit is it WEDNESDAY already?!!? The weeks go so frickin' fast when you're a working stiff), today was unique because I was very busy and engaged and interested in what I was doing.

I'm so glad things picked up today because I was getting desperate from lack of interesting work to do. Yesterday I was spinning my wheels all day, doing mundane, unimportant tasks just to pass the time. And it was damn Pilates day, which is NOT getting better. I've had one tiny little victory in that I can now do "rolling like a ball" properly, and manage to come back up again, but other than that, Pilates sucks big time.

But today I got to work on something marginally interesting. No, I should stop trying to be cool and admit that for me it's not marginal, it's just interesting. It was rewriting some PHP code to work with PostgreSQL instead of MySQL. And I liked it. So sue me!

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Tonight Sahsez' best friend is over for dinner and playing, which is great because it gives me a break. I mean, I know it will take forever to clean up the mess left in her bedroom, and there's another kid to prepare dinner for and all that, but Sahsez hasn't asked me to play "kitty" all evening, and that's worth a lot.

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Reading: The Last Tycoon by Scott Fitzgerald

Listening to: Books, Serge Gainsbourg

Eating: leftover roast chicken and pasta salad

Sahsez: I was in the middle of telling her something when I paused to verify that she understood some detail about the story. She nodded vigorously, and said "Yes, yes, I know. Go on."

Good Morning!

Winter blahs got you down? Are you bored? Looking for a new experience? Try this: sometime during your third or fourth REM cycle some weekend night, have someone wake you up by ramming a sharp stick straight up your nostril. Now I'm not saying you'll enjoy this experience, necessarily, but it will certainly be unique.

I tried it myself, early this morning, and it was completely unlike anything that's ever happened to me before. It was 5am, Sunday morning, and Tobias, Sahsez and I were all sleeping peacefully in the family bed. Course it's not a real family bed. It's supposed to be the adults' bed, but Sahsez ends up hopping in with us one or two nights per week. She claims that she has had a bad dream, but I suspect she just wakes up and immediately comes to our room whether she had a bad dream or not.

Anyway, we're all sleeping soundly, when all of a sudden, I am violently woken by something sharp being forcefully rammed up my right nostril. I immediately sat up and as I did, a tiny little hand with tiny little fingers that haven't seen a nailclipper for months slipped out of my nostril, off my face, down my chest and onto the bed. "Ack!" I cried inwardly. I put my hands to my nose, expecting blood, but there was none. I looked at Sahsez. She was sound asleep.

So evidently she just happened to flop her arm across me at the exact right angle and with the exact right force to introduce me to a new, horrifying, way to wake up. I picked her up and put her back in her own bed.

This next morning, I wasn't entirely sure that I hadn't dreamt the whole thing. The dried up blood inside my nose convinced me that it actually did happen. Sahsez is not allowed in our bed anymore.

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In other news, Happy 4th Birthday to Happybox! Tada!