misery and company

friday:

mission to medical aid application
the day began with a hunt for my sin card - not something one wants to lose. i'd put it in a logical place but couldn't remember where that was; my memory was not helped by pg's certainty that she'd seen it somewhere else. memories are fragile things. tensions got high.

we were almost there when i remembered that we'd need passport photos. we had left them at home. the only place to get them done would only open in two hours.

we arrived at the place i'd been told was the place, only to be informed that it was the wrong place for what we wanted. by that time it was too late to return to the metro and start again.

the excitement of the first best buy pickup was pre-empted by ups automation frustration: we received authorization to have the package shipped to the local ups store, but the automated telephone service kept denying me access to an agent. apparently, the voice-command system understands expletives. when i eventually managed to get through, i spent a literal half an hour with an agent because my simply request overloaded her humanoid circuits. eventually, almost satisfied that i'd been understood, i was put through to payments and the woman there was efficient and helpful, running through everything that the agent had made a mess of within two minutes and providing me with all the confirmation numbers i could possibly want.

it felt like christmas, after a massacre.

[unpleasant health issue] the sight of large quantities of my blood did not make me feel any better. [i must have over-blown my nose]

then i entered the metro, running super late, and i would have caught the train if it had only stopped. wtf???

...

everything about work was better, except that i was feeling washed out and functionally braindead: people were having to repeat things slowly to me; internally, packet errors abounded.

dinner at godmother's (sans my uncle) was boisterous and incredibly amusing.

pg and i shared an uncomfortable moment on the way home. that was essentially the trigger for saturday's news.

---saturday:

i dragged myself out of bed to go to the bank. the closest branch was closed, so i sighed heavily and hit the metro. the metro was terribly hot and stuffy. i arrived at my branch, and after a quick chat with the helpful guy at the info desk understood that my experience on thursday had little to do with my id, and everything to do with my not having issued a formal withdrawal order. the fool teller only had to tell me that, and i wouldn't have to return again on wednesday :(

i shouldn't have listened to yang: i found breaking bad on netflix and i'm now hooked. it's really as amazing as everyone says.

pg and i watched le crime est notre affaire (a really fun film!) before napping in preparation for nuit blanche. it was upon waking up that we had the rather important conversation that led to my pressing pg into making a call; one sentence was all it took to break off our engagement.

...

the snowfall over nuit blanche was perfect and perfectly fitting. we had a crappy meal at a downtown amir, got the gist of the fireworks (we were behind buildings, and they were still damned impressive), and stared at some excellent building art. the lack of signage and the dodgy nuit blanche app left us wandering aimlessly. getting coffee at the tim hortons was a horrid experience - even with other patrons trying to help us out, the organization was ridiculous and frustrating - and we entered a building that was four levels of utter disappointment.

it was time to go home. neither of us felt like going to sleep, so we drank and played fluxx until quite late.

---sunday:

i woke up late, after long and detailed dreams involving a flood on eastern boulevard and playing with a pit bull puppy. i watched some more breaking bad and then pg offered to go shirt shopping with me. no way was i going to refuse that - i eventually came away with two more shirts and the impression that zara is a place for men who try too hard. but... why the hell can't a man buy simple, cheap collar shirts anywhere?

we had excellent bad mexican food - well, i've heard it's bad but we found it delicious and the service and atmosphere were great - after which i sat with godmother for a long cup of coffee to discuss the disengagement and the way forward.

dinner and galaxy quest: such a great movie! then lots of internet stuffs and now it's bedtime.