the screaming pages

Once more I grace the pages of my blog with an admission of my fallibility and an acknowledgement of my addictions. First it was brads and eyelets. Now it’s office supplies. Granted, this should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who’s ever met me and been in my presence when pens share space with my roaming fingers. I have to test them out. Writing fluidity, weight, balance, colour – all these things combine to make pens fascinating to me. As much as I love computers, I’ll never be able to break free and leave the world of paper and ink behind me.

I can spend hours in office supply stores searching for the perfect pen. I dragged my poor Filipina friends from store to store in numerous malls searching for pens I’d seen or used at work. I once gave money to a friend traveling to India so he could buy and return with bags of pens (all for me!!!). I’d discovered a pen I loved when I was living in Bangalore in 2003 and, to my eternal pain and suffering, they weren’t available in North America. Of course I hadn’t realized this until after I’d landed back in Canada. It made perfect sense to load my friend up with a whopping $5.00 and have him acquire as many of the pens as he could while he was there. I even gave him my last adored pen to take with him so he know exactly what to buy. He returned with 50. I’ve been using them as my “daily use pens” ever since. Soon, I’ll need to find a way to return to India so I can buy more. Sometimes having quit my globetrotting job to go work in academia sucks.

Today was a wonderful day at work. I had a desperate need for some DVD’s and data storage units so I could generate backup copies of all our courses. So, like any good office worker, I trotted myself over to the goddess of all things office related – our office admin. She placed the order and then allowed me access to the tickle trunk. No. Costumes for Mr. Dress-up, Casey and Finnegan are not stored inside K’s cubby. Instead, it’s where the standard office supplies are stored. Sure it houses staplers, scissors, and sticky notes. But it also houses the cream of the crop – pens, pencils, markers, sharpies, high-lighters – it’s like a little dose of heaven to go scrounging inside the boxes stacked on the shelves. You never know what will be in stock.

*sigh*

One red rollerball, black staedtler fine liner, and purple highlighter later and I’m in heaven for the rest of the day.

Today is filled with good news.

My friend Rosanne is a HUGE Elton John fan.  Last year when he came to town she wasn’t able to get tickets.  They’d sold out long before she could get through to ticketmaster to put her order in online.  This morning ticket sales began at 10am and she managed to score 3 seats.  Along with our friend Amber we’re going to have an awesome night out in September.

I got my grade back in my psych class from last semester.  I managed to pull off an A- in my final exam and ended up with the same grade as a final mark.  I’m still on track for grad school apparently…

Finally, I traipsed down to the dentist this afternoon and didn’t have to suffer through any freezing or fillings.  Turned out to be a nice, simple checkup that I could quickly run away from.

Darcey’s such a sweetheart.  He’s got one of the best weekly blues pod casts on the net and a few weeks back he held an 80’s night for me simply because I suggested one.  What an awesome fellow.

Last night he held a second 80’s night and I missed it.  I was out celebrating with my band-mates at the annual ceilidh.  Once we’d all gotten over our initial performance anxiety it turned out to be a great night.  Although, I’m sure there were a few people in the front rows who saw more than they bargained for when the men were sitting at the table playing their chanters.  You read that right.  Men.  In a girls band.  The inclusion of men in the beginner classes makes the EGPB a pretty forward looking organization in my books.  See, the hubby and I wanted to learn how to play together and didn’t want to have to learn in different bands.  We wanted the same instructor – the awesome Pat – and apparently so did our pipe major’s son.  The band put it to a vote and the guys were in.  I guess you could call them honourary members.  However, the band is still entirely made up of women.  Alex and Drew are learning to play with the girls but won’t actually be full members – they won’t be playing in concerts or competitions.

Entertainment was provided by the boys of St. James Gate.  For those who’ve been to the band ceilidhs or the Up Yer Kilt/Scottish Imports sponsored Robbie Burns nights in the past, no introduction is required.  The boys are based in Red Deer and always put on an amazing show.  The senior band played Jimmy’s set, in honour of the late St. James Gate’s band member Jimmy McMullen, in public for the first time.

But enough about the ceilidh.  The real celebration today is that it’s a few minutes before 2pm, all my papers are finished and have been sent on to the prof’s through the university’s tracking system.  Nothing else is due until Friday at noon so I’ll be spending the rest of today catching up on my psych and enviro chem readings.  I may even manage to find time to fit in some laundry and vacuuming.  Ummm.  Never mind.  I think I’ll go over to the Broom, crank my computer speakers, listen to 80’s music and bury myself in my textbooks.

It’s C-day today.  The ceilidh is this evening and in a few short minutes we’re going upstairs to put on a kilt and drive off to the Shrine hall for hours of fun and frivolity.  Since I was working on a psych paper that was due last night I wasn’t able to help set up the venue yesterday.  While band can be fun my classes and continual march towards getting the shiny piece of paper take precedence over anything else.  Course, that doesn’t mean that I won’t take time out for the ceilidh tonight.  Aside from playing our chanters with the other beginners we’ll be selling tickets and bidding on silent auction items.  It’s the band’s only fundraiser each year so enviro chem paper or not (due Sunday) we won’t be missing it.

Don’t get too excited. It may have been a strange dream but everyone was still wearing all their clothes. However, that shouldn’t stop anyone from trying to analyze my psyche. Last night I dreamt that the hubby was in a chess match with an unknown foe, kicked his ass, and we celebrated by eating popcorn. Drew loathes popcorn.

I’m still locked in the basement trying to finish off my assignments for the week. While I’m busy trying to make sense of all the strange words and theories (anyone for cognitive dissonance?) you can visit a few of my favourite places:

• If you can get past Gregg’s donair-ophelia, you can check out Joy’s experience as a robbery witness.
• Take a few minutes to make cutsey faces and visit Amy’s Babies. She’s on a work hiatus at the moment but she’s an excellent source for cunning hats. If you’re fond of the colour brown and are in need of a fix Amy can help you out. Just don’t keep her too busy I’ve got plans to overwork her again soon!
• Visit Darcey and the broomers for your dose of politics with a Metis flavour. Make sure you take your antacids (or beer) beforehand or you may be in for a shock. To skip the politics and spend the evening with the best blues podcast in Canada, check out this site on a Friday night.
• While I’m slowly making my way through my degree at RMC. Take time to visit The Torch to learn about the Canadian Military.
• I have no idea how she manages to do all she does and still have time to work on her chicken coop. Visit Dawn for a glimpse at life as a homeschooling mom in Alberta. While you’re at it, drop by and say hi to Sirdar. I know, he’s mysteriously not posting again. Perhaps it has something to do with the Mac that’s still residing in my basement. We should be making arrangements for ye old switcheroo soon. But not Saturday. I have to make funny noises at a ceilidh. Sunday perhaps?
• If you haven’t discovered The Guild yet get your butt over to their site and watch all ten episodes NOW! The Guild is a hilarious web comedy starring Felicia Day and a cast of familiar characters to anyone who has spent time in a basement gaming…
• For those of you with a sense for the ridiculous and a hankering for the return of a certain canceled Joss Whedon show, check out Mosquito [movie] [web comic].
• Last, but certainly not least, drop in and try your hand at Carmi’s caption contest.

Since I’m still trying to figure out how to get to Vancouver for CSTS (bad Edmonton for not hosting a screening this year!), I guess I’ll just need to sit back and wait for my copy of Done the Impossible to arrive.

And do more homework.