The Best Bits of July

A busy week followed by a busy weekend, and I'm having as much of a meltdown as this ice cream. If only I was half as soaked in cognac. On the plus side, the martini was for me. Something else for me?

The last of the birthday presents! One day I'll stay up late enough to cheers Craig Ferguson with it, but probably not until the internship is over. That's in exactly a month. Then it's the rest of my life.

Storm's aBrewin'

I haven't been very forthright lately. I think this is mostly due to a sense that complaining about my current situation does nothing in aid of ameliorating it. Because don't get me wrong: complaining about my current career path, or at least this particular stretch of it, is in no way a bid to quit. The work itself is, well, intern work. This doesn't mean I hate it; on the contrary, I simply feel underused, and worry that I don't have the opportunity to exercise my other talents. No, the internship itself is not the problem. It's perhaps the definitive knowledge that this is a new stage. I have talents and value now that I didn't see or have before. Some things that seemed insurmountable are so easy. I can take things by storm if I want to, and I managed to get to this point in a field that I love. But the fact of the matter is, this is not an ideal situation. I've mentioned my daily schedule, and I'm doubly burdened by the fact that this was my choice. Every day I wake up and think that if I just lived in Toronto I could sleep in for another three hours, but. When I get there, my discomfort is overwhelming.  It's not Toronto's fault, guys. I know plenty of people love it. But just as in Vancouver, where when asked how I liked living there I invariably answered "well... it's... um... actually, I don't," I don't mean it personally, or that I actively hate anything about it. I'm just not a city girl.

But what's THAT in aid of? Well, nothing. I'll have to move there anyway. My only hope is that having a small box to call my own, in which to read and have quiet and be unseen for a little while each day will make Toronto bearable, and will fix the funk I've been in. It's not a depressive funk, not really. On weekends I experience a strange inability to speak, which may be an unwillingness to talk about work coupled with a lack of any other subject matter. This turns into indulgence, of course. Not of booze or anything else, but indulging in nothingness. In not having conversation trickling in to every moment of the day, no outside noise, no irritating need for decorum or professionalism. It is not sad, this funk. I love it. I love the quiet, and I love it in what feels like an almost ruthless and cruel way. I will fight for it. I will lie and cheat and steal to get my fix. I cannot go out, I might moan, for I am exhausted from the travel. To my delight, it works every time.

Well, it is true. It's exhausting. In any case, I'm finding it to be tremendous motivational. I don't have to lie or cheat or steal because all I really need to do is get a paying job. If I get a place to myself in Toronto then I'll have SO much time to myself and to feel like this that, yes, I'll likely get bored of it and stop being so antisocial and brooding. I'm not turning into a supervillain, although it sort of feels like it. So. The best way out of this is up.

In other news, MomBlom's garden is filling out nicely!

The clematis is going just INSANE for some reason, but we haven't been able to figure out why. I feel like his chair might have a bee problem because of it. Wouldn't know though: haven't sat in it.

This is what is officially the last peony of the year. Pure white and slow-growing, but perfect. Once it's gone, it might as well just be Christmas though, I mean what's the point.

Oh yeah. Now it's the time of year for the best gardening of all! Functional (i.e. delicious) plants!

Ever wondered what a baby cucumber looks like? This little guy is maybe an inch long:

Now you know.

Commuter's Weekend: Bloomsday Edition

Welp, this is my life these days. My me time. The time for reading books and writing theses. More the former than the latter, but I guess if books are what I do... it's all research really.

But at home, it's Father's Day and Bloomsday. Very recently I lost my grandfather, my mother's father, which I meant to post about first and completely forgot, but I suppose this is more timely. Anyhoops, MomBlom and I decided to spend the day together, in honour of both our fathers. We tried to think of something that they would both enjoy, but apparently all they really did together was work on a pig farm, with my Grandfather's quiet stoicism and my father's ensuing feelings of inadequacy (a city boy, you see). Consequently, we just decided to go out for lunch (and a Guinness), watch some Sherlock, and finish the evening off with some Irish Whiskey.

In other news, remember how I only had three peonies last year? No? Well I don't really feel like linking to that entry, so all you have to know is that there were only three flowers on the shrub, but I learned that if you cut the blooms off on the first year, you'll have a lot more the next. Well turns out that's true! These are just the six biggest as of today:

in the same vase in the same place! But I won't leave them out in the sun like last year because a) they wilted in an hour and b) there isn't any sun.

Oh my god, what is going ON back there? Well that's MomBlom's fantastic new garden in the works. Here she is plotting exactly where the vegetables and herbs are going to go. Immediately after a little gust of wind!

Oh yeah hey, remember that whole thing about Peonies and ants? True:

Apparently they like the sweet coating on the unopened buds, and may help to weaken the structure such that it's easier for the flowers to open quickly, but there's nothing to say that the flowers can't open without the ants, or that the ants pollenate the plant, so it's not really symbiosis. It's just something cool that happens. Also, a brief dunk in the pond rids any cut blossoms of their ants and does no harm to the blooms either!

Other things about the back yard: I'm in charge of the pond this year! Which of course means no goldfish, and the lilies are totally taking over again. But there's a pretty flower about to come out so I don't have the heart to choke them out with, say, water hyacinths.

Lots in the works for the garden, and while I'm sad to miss it during the week, it's really nice to see such progress on the weekends. Next up: these plants have to go somewhere...

Apologies/Announcement

I've been trying to get on top of things, but things keep happening. I'm currently typing through the bleary fog of exhaustion that's been clouding my judgment for the last two weeks. Why? Oh I haven't even TOLD you yet!

I think we'd left off at the fact that I didn't have an internship anymore, and I didn't want to talk about it. Well, it was a no-hard-feelings kind of situation, and I wasn't in a huge rush to muddle about at a government-run company that had never had an intern, and especially not in a city that is notoriously short on publishing companies. Plus, still being enrolled in the Ryerson certificate program for publishing meant that I was being sent a huge number of employment and internship opportunities nearly every day. So I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to find a replacement position; my biggest concern was preserving the six-week holiday I'd set up for myself. Fortunately, I was called in for an interview with HarperCollins Canada nearly immediately.

It was my first opportunity to use my newly designed resume and a nicely fattened portfolio, which I put together with the most ancient binding machine imaginable:

I guess it payed off though; I was offered the position pretty quickly too. One of the small projects I was to work on was binding special sales catalogues. When being shown the ropes for it, an identical binding machine was pointed out, and I was asked if I had ever used one of these before. I just laughed. I'm in the right place.

So yeah, thanks to new carpets and a paint job in the offices, my start date wasn't set until May 27th, meaning I got my six weeks vacation. I spent most of it making paper flowers, some of it at Erin's wedding, much more watching Kids in the Hall until my brains turned to mush.

So where was I? Oh yeah! The fog of exhaustion. Well, I'm still living here in Waterloo. I'm hoping to get a permanent position in the industry come September, but it may not happen, and I've been moving so much that I don't want to move AGAIN for potentially only three months. Once I get at least a year-long contract, then I'll move.

But the commute? Oh man. I get up at 5:00 am, am on the train at 5:45, arrive in Toronto at 7:53, am at my desk by 8:20, leave at 5:00 pm, catch the train at 5:45, arrive at 7:42 (but it's always late), and get home by 8:20. It's... it's do-able. But this exhaustion-fog is quite... pervasive. In fact, if anything distracts me from lying down and taking a nap right now, I think I'll just cry.

Speaking of, I think that's all I have energy for. Those six weeks gave me material for a whole summer's worth of blog posts though, so worry not. I'll be back.

Preparations for a Wedding

Erin and Andrew's wedding is just around the corner now, and it's keeping the crafting hands busy. First thing when I got back to Waterloo was the wedding shower! There was a food and drinks table with jumbo straws that I wish I had stolen every time I have an avocado smoothie (a new favourite).

And a Bronwyn Snyder cake which, despite worries, was delicious. But the sudden realization dawns that I never got a strawberry... 

Some BORING punch. Actually it was delicious AND there were mimosas outside.

But all I really did was provide transport and show up, basically. Oh, and tack up some flowers in doorways.

Hannah, on the other hand, cross-stitched badges for everyone.

AND made adorable cupcakes! So it's almost like you were there now, isn't it? Hm?

In other news, I've been helping out some since then. I got my sewing machine all oiled up! I am way more excited about this than most things. That sewing machine is a good reference point for me in life.

In any case, I brought it over to Erin's for some quilting madness!!!!!!!!

We got all of the rows done so it shouldn't take too much more time to finish, because of Erin's sensible choice of quilting method: knots!

And, during downtimes, putting together giant paper flowers has taken over all other duties. These are amazing. Instructions available here and I highly recommend making a bunch of these without having any purpose in mind. They're fun.

The Tallest Lasagna and the Things I Left Behind

I got busy, and I'm sorry. For the first two weeks of April, most of my time was spent thinking about how to eat the lasagna left over from Easter. I used the Fine Cooking recipe, but I'm pretty sure you need a membership of some kind to access it so I'm not going to provide a link even though that's probably the polite thing to do. Oh fine you can find the recipe here. It's supposed to make three small lasagnas, but I only had one deep dish on hand, so I halved the recipe and made half a lasagna on top of the lasagna. The recipe assures that the pre-cooked lasagna can rise above the edge of the pan, because it settles quite a bit while cooking. I was apprehensive, but they have a picture with two whole noodle layers towering over the edge. 

But no. It still bubbled over, and it was still the tallest, deepest, heaviest lasagna. 

Other ways I altered the recipe: well... I used hot Italian sausage instead of mild. I also didn't have much spice on hand, but the seasoning from the sausages permeated through the lasagna very nicely. I just love the word lasagna, don't you? Lasagna, lasagna, lasagna. 

And: there was some packing up and moving back to Ontario to do. Some things to leave behind. Like my lovely little coffee plant, and a pennant from the magazine project (I was going to bring it with me until the E fell off, and then I figured by the time I got home it would probably just be a brown triangle. i.e. clutter).

And books! Most had to be left behind for weight considerations. I feel like there's a pro-Ebook argument to made here, but I wouldn't have been sentimental about these books in the first place if they'd been electronic. Aww, remember that one on the right? That's the book with nothing in it that I was so excited about. I feel guilty about every one of these books. Except maybe for the Editing Canadian English, which I have only used a) to ventilate my old laptop and keep it from overheating and b) as part of my Mennonite halloween costume because it looks the most like a bible out of all my books.

Fortunately, I sent a couple of things on ahead, like this Super Mutant Magic Academy poster that I just had to have.

In other news, I'm enjoying my mom's house (and company!) so much that I've decided to commute to Toronto for my internship. Or at least give it a try. If it drives me insane I'll find a place to live, but with the way I feel right now I really wouldn't mind having a few hours every day to sit and read or write or think or sleep or whatever. I was brought up on road trips, and 401 traffic has an oddly calming effect on me, as long as I'm not driving (but even then). Without homework to stay behind or rush home for, it feels like there are six more hours in the day.

The only problem now is GETTING the internship. What happened and why don't I have one yet? Oh I don't feel like getting into that. Just wish me luck.

Impulse Crafting

It occurred to me a few months ago that I can do cameos of more than just people, but I didn't have the time or motivation to go out and buy any materials. I figured I'd wait until I got back to my Ontario studio, and it turns out I didn't have to wait very long! I would have liked to maybe try a colour other than black, but that would mean going to the store when everything else was within reach.

So I made this today. 

I also notice that it's been nearly a month since my last interesting thing. That's not true, because everything's changed. Everything's overwhelmingly up the air, but without classes or homework, I guess I've got no excuse not to tell you about the lasagna I made last Easter. I'll get to it, don't worry.

Update: I have a confession about this cameo. You might notice that the antlers are looking a little shaky. This isn't because I've cut down my caffeine intake, but because I apparently never put the brushes away last time I cleaned them, and left them in the bathroom. Since I haven't lived here in the last eight months, obviously the brushes had to go somewhere that wasn't in the toothbrush holder, and so they went on my shelf in the hutch that fits over the toilet. So... when I was blearily looking for some allergy medication, I dropped my tiniest brush in the toilet and couldn't bring myself to do anything but throw it away. Thought I was careful enough not to need it. Guess not.