Re-Inspired

Where have I been?

I got a new camera! It took me a long time to research the make and model I wanted and an even longer time getting pushed around in the Boxing Day line-ups but it happened.

Fucking great camera.
I've been watching a lot of Sopranos.
Every second word in my mind is fuck or shit.
(Christa calls that an inner mobalogue - usually

develops after marathon Soprano-watching)
I have a Silvio Dante face going on here, don't I?

It's a Fuji. Apparently they have some special kind of sensor that makes the pixels hexigonal instead of square so the resolution will seem better. Also, it's 12mp so it's like a Cadillac of point and shoot cameras. And it's black and fancy and pocket-sized.

So I got excited to try some new projects that have been on my mind. This weekend I've been trying out resin casting to make some pendants.

I was kind of nervous to start, I think because I had been wanting to try it for so long and I was worried I'd do it wrong or my idea just wouldn't work. But I set myself up for disappointment and powered through.

I did a tester set and even though I layered them wrong and there were tons of bubbles (pretty much unusable) I could tell I was going to pretty happy with the final product once I ironed out the kinks.

It takes a minimum of 24 hours to set so we'll see tomorrow how these first non-testers turned out.

It's kind of like making ice cubes, but with chemicals and
without a freezer. And it takes longer.

Etsy!

I just set up an Etsy acccount and I'm curious to see how it goes.

calendars!

I'm finally finished my latest project.

They cost so much money (ink, double-sided photo paper, binding at the print shop) and I ended up with less than I thought I would, but they're done.
Most of them are christmas presents (sorry to ruin the surprise if you're getting one) but the remaining few are going up in my new Etsy shop that will exist in a matter of days! I have no idea what to expect from Etsy. We'll see....

memory

our minds are only capable of so much.
but isn't it kind of sad that you can't remember things that you probably should?
if i am the only one experiencing my life from this perspective, it's kind of sad that i forget things about it regularly.

neckwarmer

i just finished it tonight. i like it. it's like a scarf
without all the wrapping.

grown up shoes

They're not flip flops, they have big buttons
and they make me taller.

and here's what i'm working on

I've been working on a neck warmer. To keep my neck warm.
I've got some cute ideas to spice it up at the end.

it's a dress!

it's a dress!
Originally uploaded by jadester

I had a surprisingly painless time finding something I could wear to Ted's sister's upcoming wedding. (I pretty much found it by accident.)

What about shoes??? I wonder if i can get away with flip flops (they'll match, of course.)

I can't remember the last time I put a dress on. Feels a little special.

I'm allowed to vent, right?

1.) I walk past people and needles and drug deals and screaming and swearing and just general unhappiness and restlessness every time I go outside. It scares me and it should scare our government. These people need real help. I don't know of any significant action being taken at any level of government besides reversing services and cutting budgets that have been in place for years. The problem is not getting smaller, it's getting bigger, very quickly.
What really scares me is the effect it is having on other people. People in the building I work in are expressing resentment, anger, annoyance at these people and I see how it is creating a huge split in the community.

2.) I'm in line to buy something. Someone ahead of me turns in their lottery ticket and the little song plays and then they spend however long they feel they need to playing again, and maybe even again. If I got to the front of the line, bought my shoe polish and then paid for it, and then I decided I wanted to buy a can of tuna, I would have to leave the counter, go find my tuna and then get in line again. That is what these people should do. Or I know, don't waste your money gambling with the government... you won't win.

3.) Someone stole our Safeway club number and now every time I buy something they say "Thank-you Mrs. Johns." So my name is Iris now. It's really annoying. Is she redeeming our points? Was this her plan all along? Was she behind us in line one day and heard us quote our number and then decide she would hack into our Safeway account? And I tried to change it back... we have to get a whole new account and give up what points she may have left us with.

4.) I was buying some groceries and the guy put my 4 items in to a plastic bag (I was already choked that I had forgotten to bring my reusable bag) and then tied it into a tight knot. I was pretty annoyed about that... inner monologue "how can I get into it without ripping it... I won't be able to use it again... why did I forget my effing tote-thing? it's right by the door, I knew I was going to the store..." Then, he got another bag and put the bag he had just packed and tied up into another bag and started to tie it. I interrupted the conversation I was having with myself and stopped him. He was pretty upset... I guess he was on some sort of roll.
Here's a conservative assumption:

Extra grocery bags per customer (average): 2
Customers this guy bags for each day (average): 50
Shifts per week: 5
Weeks per year: 52
2 bags x 50 customers = 100 extra bags/day
100 bags x 5 = 500 extra bags/week
500 bags x 52 = 26,000 EXTRA bags/year.
And that's just that one guy, in that one store.

I work for waste diversion in our region. I know that the plastic bags aren't a pressing volume issue in the landfill. But still... come on.

done.

i am a MACHINE.

Granny Time

I've been getting in touch with my granny side lately.
I'm pretty excited about my new stripey items.

This is the first of two wristwarmers.

I like the way they feel... the yarn is cotton with some stretch to it.

This is the scarf I've been plugging away at.
Scarves take so long. Now I'm 1/3 done and I'm
already wishing it was a creamy-coloured scarf.

Censorship at Work

Sorry if this is a bit rage-enducing.
(But I want you to feel rage about this.)

Home and English.

Here are some (but not all) of the hi-lights:

There was some beautiful weather.
(Which was lucky. The forecast was
constant rain the whole week.)

My cousins and uncle and me.
I spoke so much french my mouth hurt.

Me and my sweet Grandpere.

Sugar pie. Usually eaten after a meal of
meat and fries. It is what it says it is. (Say no.)

Gilles and his baby backpack.

A luminous Ted and a Gilles on the bus.


Someone bought the Dog the Bounty Hunter book.


Metro!


Bumpy Metro.


Heidi tamed the dogs while I was away.


The End.

En Francais!

The alarm went off at 3:10am. It felt like 3:10am. Heidi was so awesome to drive me to the ferry because at that time of night you really need some modern comforts like good music and friend with dog and Tim Horton’s. I finished explaining to Heidi how amazing it is to just drop off your bags and hand over all of the pre-travel stress to someone at the Air Canada counter (who is always wearing a crappy tie). “Here take my bags – they’re heavy and I’m on vacation now.” Then they just tell you where to go and when to be there. So I did just that and proceeded to my gate.

When I got to security they asked me if they could swab my laptop, which they have done many times before. This time they detected explosive materials. So immediately I graduated from simple Vancouver Islander with a backpack to somewhere between that and the Unabomber. They gave me an intimate pat down - but only after they got to know me a little better thanks to a procedural questionnaire that is probably already sitting in my master file in the world vault ready to haunt me when I apply for a visa.

I still have no idea:
1) How explosive material got on my laptop;
2) Why they let me and my potential bomb-encountering computer board the plane; or
3) If they lied to me for training purposes.

Regardless, I got on the plane and a little turbulence, one movie (Evan Almighty, meh), five sudoku games, one bag of pistachios, 15 hours and some awkward French-speaking later, I am at my Grandpère’s home in small-town Quebec winding down and thinking about sleep.

The French is going to be a challenge, as is vegetarianism and not smoking. By the end of this week I’m sure to be a meat-eating, Quebecois-speaking, chain-smoking Vancouver Islander with a backpack full of bomb dust.

No photos yet. Be patient.

Busses and Rainbows and Spiders, Oh My.

A really great weekend.
Two hours of sleep and then a weird power nap on the bus. I woke up to a beautiful day in Vancouver, which was definitely out of the norm. (Note: every time I go to Vancouver, the sky empties itself.)






This is the bus in the alleyway behind the Commodore. There were hobos and rats and a tonne of garbage. But the sun was shining on all of that too.







The Commodore is a beautiful venue and it was eerie to see it empty.

Had to see the Ted off which was extremely sad. But, when you love someone, let them go {on tour].

I had a great time with Lydia. We had a bit of an adventure when we got home. She discovered a spider of record-breaking size in the bathroom.






This is the spider.






This is a failed attempt at encouraging him to leave with a hairdryer.






This was a successful attempt at evacuating the spider using the showerhead.

But the rest of the trip was pretty much rainbows. Great people and sleeping in and just general niceness.

Busy Like Breakfast

Bi-weekly posting is unacceptable.

Today was brilliant. I have two days off. i forgot how much i get done when I have days off during the week.

This morning, a delicious breakfast at the Shine Cafe. If you use the business of breakfast joints in Victoria to gauge how quickly it has gotten so huge you'd be surprised. Even a couple years ago, if you wanted to go to breakfast mid-week, you were pretty much guaranteed to have the place to yourself, if not have plenty of tables to choose from. Last week we went to the Blue Fox on a Wednesday at 10am. Packed. We managed to score a table for two after a 20 minute wait, which I was fine with, we weren't in a hurry. But then soon after our coffees were poured, a waitress nudged a nearby table about two inches away from ours and proceeded to stock it with cutlery and mugs. Sure enough, minutes later we were a table of 4 1/2. It was a little uncomfortable, and the 2-inch buffer didn't make it any less weird.

So this morning at the Shine we set ourselves up for a quiet breakfast, but 10:30 on a Thursday is apparently asking too much. Maybe we should start sleeping longer in the mornings. I swear all you'd have to do to make a living and retire at 35 is a breakfast joint in Victoria, BC. I can't think of one that is never packed in the morning, well except Avalon for some reason. I can't put my finger on it but they must be doing something wrong in that location to never be busy. I've never been crazy about it. But maybe I should make up with Avalon and give her another chance for the sake of peaceful breakfasting. There is that delicious oaten toast.

After breakfast we attacked the basement and put everything into labelled boxes and shelved them away. It is absolutely amazing that that huge area is just storage, that over the 97 years that this house has been around, no one has put a suite in it or finished it at all. It is huge.

I also made some delicious cookies. They are sweet and seedy and delicious. Christa gave me the recipe.
Big morning tomorrow. I'm off to have some Jade time avec-ipod around downtown Victoria. Mission: art projects. Then I buy my ticket to Quebec. What a nice day. I think I will eat breakfast at home though.

nottoo

i cancelled my tattoo appointment today.

happy birthday ted.

a day at home for your birthday.

I keep hearing this crap & it's finally driven me to blog.

I was just reading this article about the mayor in Fort Lauderdale and how he's decided it's part of his job to ostracize 'the gays' because of all of the sex in public washrooms that they are having.

First of all, who cares who is having sex with who and how and what kind of parts they have and how they are using their parts. What does that have to do with anything? I do not discuss publicly, for example, what Mr. Naugle does with his parts, and I have no desire to. (Because it grosses me out.) Sound familiar?

Second of all, if you are going to target a group of people because you decide to stereotype them as promiscuous, go down to any club any night of the week and start there. We are humans. Some humans are more promiscuous than others.

It's pretty sad that all we have left is a very small potential to work together towards some sort of solution to all of the different kinds of problems that we are being confronted with, and so many people are wasting so much energy destroying all chances of that ever happening.

Any situation that exhibits unconditional love and acceptance and an environment of open communication and positive growth is something that everyone needs... where they find this, if they can, is their own business. If they can find it they are lucky and should treasure it... it is too bad that some ignorant people did not have this background, and apparently had the opposite of it, judging by the way they try to destroy what they are so afraid of.

It's just so exhausting. Like spinning in circles until you get sick.

a bunch of reasons not to blog

laking. the weather has been perfect and nothing less.






hanging out and being an aunty is awesome.
ps i don't advocate hot dogs.




sick dog. he looked like a gargoyle and i thought his eye was going to fall out... and this was after the kennel cough was through.








making the sick dog better.






while gus relaxed on the deck i had some time to get things done around the house.








made cupcakes for heidi.





went to heidi's birthday bbq. the penises aren't as much immature as they are a tradition.







made a giant batch of veggie chili.






packed it up all lunch-style. no more downtown dining for me - it's picnic time!




thinking about a tattoo. a gary oak, made from a photo i took. for my right shoulder... the roots will wrap around my arm in a band... hmmm.

the bus

every day. this is ridiculous.











conserving money? energy?
no. it just makes me want to fix the car and drive every day, everywhere.
ps. cuddling up (pushing me with your bum) does not make me want to move into the middle of the bus where there are no doors and just more bums to push me around with.
I DO NOT WANT YOUR PARTS ON MY PARTS. thanks anyway.

Chaotic

Vancouver: Fun.
Travelling home: 6 hours. (Car broken)
Work: Extremely busy.
Friday night anticipation: Blissful.
Friday night actually: Dog barf clean-up x 48 = Nearly no sleep.
Saturday morning, 4:30am: Mini break-down. Call to Mom.
Saturday morning, 9:00am: Veterinarian. Canine antibiotics.
Saturday late morning to afternoon: Dog barf clean-up x 23 = Things are looking up.
Saturday evening: Period. Canine cough-suppressant. Clean house. Wine.

I Love Fence

This is gus checking out his new fence.


This is gus having free run of the backyard.


This is gus saying thanks.

Feeling Lucky.

When the clerk asked the man in front of me how his day was going he said:
"Well I woke up today. That was nice."
Then he bought two lottery tickets.

goth

Coworker 1: "You're looking colourful today."
Jade: "Oh really? Thanks."
Coworker 1: "Yes, you're wearing something that isn't black... oh but
you've got a black shirt on underneath. Ha Ha."
Jade: "Do I wear black a lot?"
Coworker 1: [Laughs, then chuckles out a "yes".]

Coworker 2: "You look nice and bright today."

You want to know what colour I was wearing? Grey.

I'm officially the quiet goth chick at work who wears all black and smokes cigarettes while complaining about the state of the world.











P.S. This is my halloween costume, not what I wear to work everyday.

Xcited

We went to the Xavier Rudd concert at the Royal Theatre last night. I thought I would have a good enough time, but that furry little man was great.

The whole theatre was totally into it. He invited a huge group of people to come up and dance on stage.

We were on the balcony, which was wobbling ferociously. There was a cute round-bellied pregnant lady shaking it right beside me.

I only wish that we were outside. It was a bit clausterphobic and I wanted to dance.

make-work.

Am I making myself busy or am I just busy?
Are all the projects real projects? Or did I make them up?
Sure, now the house is painted but the weekend is over and I have a paint headache.
Ted is killing the mould in the bathroom that has collected for a while from the previous inhabitants. It was making us sick. My turquoise hallway is in the foreground. The bathroom ended up being a mustardy-green pea sort of colour.

Last week I wished for non-sweetened naturally-flavoured water. Yesterday my wish came true. It was pretty good and wasn't sickly sweet like most cold beverages out there. After paying $3.49 for it, I decided there's nothing wrong with hitting my water with a little essential oil. I'll have to do some research to find the right one.

We watched the fireworks yesterday from a fantastic patio on top of MEC. The city looked beautiful and I didn't feel so much like we were being over-developed. I could still see over most of the buildings.




My work is the building behind the McPerson Playhouse.