goodbye assertively unhip

Hello The Cold, Cold North. To go with my new Canadian life, I have decided to kill this old blog and start a new one. We all know that I am inescapably hip anyway. It's best to just accept it. So I hope you'll join me up here in the Cold, Cold North.

the annointed one

I am somewhere in Nebraska, wending my way to the cold. cold north. Thought you all might enjoy this. It cracked me up:



Light of the World

Not as bad as a terrorist

So at the CWC, I've somehow gained the reputation of being mean and scary. T. has had to to assure several staff members that I don't hate them. I've heard this sort of thing before about the way I come across to people, so I'm not totally surprised, but I've never heard these comments with such frequency. It might be the scowl, it might be my distaste for small talk, I'm not really sure. I do have a few theories, but they would take far too long to explain. Regardless of the cause, pretty much every staff member at the CWC has at some point thought that I was scary. My supposed scariness is now a topic of open discussion, so much so that new employees are assured in advance that I am not mean.

Last night was my farewell party with the c-dubbers, where of course my meany-meanness was the subject of conversation and laughter. I asked our newest employee (a Marine who did two tours in Iraq) whether he also thought I was scary. "Not really," he said. "But I fought terrorists."

Well, there you go.

Thai, Tattoos, Tequila

This just in: Scarlett Johansson has an album. Just in case you want to buy it.

Now that we have that tasty news out of the way, the real news is that to mark my marriage, to mark my departure from Utah (or just for the hell of it) I now have a tattoo. That's right kids. It's my first tattoo (except for those ones I got from the radiation tech back in the cancer days).

Tif and I organized an alliterative evening (she's a supreme tattoo facilitator, encouraging and accompanying anyone who mentions the slightest whiff of interest in getting a tattoo) with Thai food for dinner, the tattoos and then tequila. Since we went to Port-o-Call, Tif also said it should be my goal for the evening to kiss one of the guys in the bar. Then we could have added Tongue to the list. It was Port-o-Call and there were a lot of leering guys in the bar and it was my bachelorette party after all, but I decided against it.

Port-o-Call and the tequila shots were exciting, but the real excitement of the night was my tattoo. I would post a picture, but it is currently covered in plastic and kind of puffy; but if you see me, I might show it to you. I've been contemplating getting a tattoo for years, so now seemed a fine time. I was nervous about the thing, not about the needle which doesn't bother me at all, but about the idea that I might not like the thing, that I might instantly regret it. But I love it. love it. While I was getting inked, I was thinking about another design I could get to turn my little medical tattoos (which bug me in the way they remind me of bad days) into something of my own. Tif says tattoos are addictive.

Anyway, I feel all emboldened now. Maybe I'll make an album.

ottawa fashion

Last week, Ottawa held its first ever fashion week. There were a lot of scarves in the show:






I feel like this is not a very good sign.

But from looking at the pictures, it is clear that just like Liz Lemon in Cleveland, in Ottawa I can be a model.

To see more, go here and scroll down for Ottawa Fashion Week Day 1 & 2.

i've been reading the wrong things!

This morning I read this review in the NY Times about a new compilation of the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die." The article links to the list, which of course led me to assessing myself.

I've read eighty-five of the books on the list, which isn't very good I'm afraid which means, I guess, that I have been reading all the wrong things. I did surprisingly well in the 1800s which I guess can be explained by my college obsession with all things Thomas Hardy and Edith Wharton. If you add the books that I have started, but never finished I am up to 97. That's almost ten percent

I gave myself credit for Last of the Mohicans, even though I've only read the Pioneers, but I think if you've read one of Fenimore Cooper's books, you should get credit for all of them. I also think that because I have started a half a dozen of Dickens' books but haven't finished any of them, I should get credit for at least one of them.

One of the books on the list is Joseph Andrews, which for me is the symbol of all of my failings as an undergraduate. I keep a copy of it on my shelf which I promise myself I will one day read just to make up for all of the assigned books that I failed to read. (I think my guilt is mainly caused by the fact that even though I didn't read many things, I still got very good grades). I didn't count Joseph Andrews, but I think maybe I should because of my good intentions.

If you count all of the film adaptations I have seen (of books I have not read), then I can move my number up to 128.

If I add the books that I have heard so much about that I feel like I have read them, I am at 157.

If I add the books that are on my shelves, but I have not yet read I am at 171.

That's still not very good.

But if I consider that I am only 34 which means I have only been reading this sort of book for 18 years then that's an average of four books a year that I've actually read. That's respectable.

And why are none of the Faulkner books that I've read on this list? Whatever.

weekend wrap-up

ok, I know the weekend isn't over yet, but really all I'm going to do today is clean the house and run lame wedding-type errands. And enjoy the sun--finally!--in my tank top and flip flops.

The main outcome of the weekend is that I NEED to get a concertina. We went to living traditions last night and listened to this Irish band for a bit. We didn't like them too much, but one of them was playing a concertina which I have now decided I must have. I've found several on e-bay and a beginning instruction book. sigh. I will just have to wait until after the wedding and after the move, when I have cash to buy random things that I am certain will make my life better.

But, I did buy one random thing that is in fact making my life better. It was only like $15, so it's ok. We stopped by Starbucks in American Fork (it is hard to find Starbucks in the Happy Valley) and there was this cd, which I bought without thinking. It's a new wave compilation. Most of the songs I have on various cds, so I could probably have made the mix myself, but I didn't have Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" or Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love." I could have spent $2 on Itunes instead of the $15, but whatever. I'm listening to it now and it rocks and it will make house cleaning easier, if i ever get off of my computer and on to the cleaning.

The weekend was mostly about wedding stuff, which I am no longer stressing about. It's all but done, and it's going to be lovely. My sisters gave me a shower on Friday which all but one of my aunts and many cousins and even a couple of uncles came to. It was very sweet of them all to come and a bit overwhelming. I spent a lot of time explaining where we were getting married and why and who was marrying us. I'm one of a few of the kids who has not gotten married in the temple, or at least at a Mormon church by a Mormon bishop. They don't know what to make of me some times, which makes it all the lovelier that they all came to the shower. One of my uncles is perpetually begging me to come to the wedding (oh, the curse of the small wedding).

As part of our wedding chores, we stopped at Chocolatier Blue in Alpine, which if you haven't been to you must. They sell the chocolates at Caputos, but they're at least twice as much there and if you go to the Alpine shop and chat with Mr. Blue about how much you like his confections and chocolates in general he will give you free samples of delicious things. Like yesterday, he was telling us how Amedei is working with him to be the exclusive confectioner for their chocolate, which rocks my world. He had big hunks of couverture which they sent to him to experiment with. (he joked that someone was going to break into his shop for those; he shouldn't have said that because really, I was considering. . . ) He broke us off a couple of chunks and told us that when we pick up our wedding chocolates maybe he'll include a few of his Amedei experiments for us. yes, please. Anyway, if you like chocolate, his chocolates will make you cry. Just a little. Not in an embarrassing way, don't worry.


Finally, in other news, I got accepted to the PhD program. Tomorrow is the decision deadline. Any last words of advice, caution?