uncovered

i realized this evening that i most certainly could not live in london. it's been over a week and a half of grey, overcast misery, and as i left my apartment the clouds began to part, allowing a sense of freshness into the air that was otherwise psychologically stuffy. i walked to the closest tattoo parlour, and my mom called just as i arrived so i stood outside chatting excitedly for about half an hour: my mom has some very good news that i'm extremely pleased to hear!

standing outside gave me a good sense of the vibe of that area - only about five minutes' walk north - very student-funky and fun, possibly related to the cégep school at the end of the road. as we finished the phone call, i realized i'd been standing outside for half an hour with no gloves, no sweater and a bare head: spring! i sprung up the steps and into wizard's.

i waited about five minutes, explained myself badly twice, and when the guy understood me he said "ah! i have a tool for that."
i thought he meant he had a tool to help me get the helix back on, and i said that if i needed a tool to do that i'd rather buy a different one. he wasn't listening. he'd taken my helix, he pulled out something unidentifiable, and then returned my helix. he'd stretched the metal! so now it clips and unclips really easily. too easily, i suspected, but i've tugged on it a bit and it's all good :)

"umm - thank you! what do i owe you for this?"
"nothing, man, you have a good evening!"

boy, did *that* all put a smile on my face. it was with a lightened step that i walked back home to catch a bus to the mall to check out rollerblades. the first guy i spoke to didn't know anything, so he brought over another guy who managed to get what i was looking for and found me some pretty close fits... not close enough, unfortunately. but after twenty minutes trying them on and rolling around, he made me feel secure with my indecision and advised that i check out a competitor. satisfying service, twice in one evening!

i walked out of the mall into a breathtakingly magnificent sunset. i can't even describe it well, and my camera certainly couldn't get a hold of it: looking north, light blues and yellows blending from the east into an orange and violently pink north-west corner of the sky, slashed across by deep purple clouds creating a diagonal from that corner and passing through indigo into grey cloud on the right edge of my vision. when i stood staring while waiting for the light to change i wanted the moment to last forever; when i crossed the road and arrived at the stop the bus arrived with me.

i picked up a starbucks soy latte on the way home, and arrived totally psyched to work on my comics. huzzah! i got through two pages (covering four lines of verse) before realizing that two hours had passed and it was late... i'm *really* excited about what i've done! so i made dinner and ate it watching a great episode of community and then the last half hour of the penultimate episode of the ultimate fighter - team gsp vs team koscheck. great ending!

all that because the weather played nice ;)

---tuesday:

i woke up around 3am for midnight snacking: humus and carrots. the new training me can get pretty hungry.
the weather's shittiness was felt, and i was not in the mood to be anywhere. let alone arguing with cheshire cat lady because she doesn't understand that we should develop solutions to fit needs and not compromise by using existing solutions that only make our jobs harder :/
the afternoon was a confused mess of multitasking and security issues that made no sense whatsoever.

i left a lot later than i'd intended, and had to literally run to the shops in order to get to training. and i was still half an hour late. then i partnered up with a kid who made a great partner, but whose ass smelled... like ass, and every time he caught my head with his leg i had to hold my breath. ugh.

kickboxing was killer - i didn't give up, but the last five minutes was a blur of dizziness and pain. i do believe it's making a positive difference, though: every step i took today i could properly feel my stomache muscles. which means they exist!

---today:

i woke up a little earlier than usual and so took the morning slow, beginning with the latest episode of strip search. another great one :)

i still felt bad today, and thought about going to see a doctor. apparently that's practically impossible here in quebec, and my medical coverage (when i receive my card, which should be any day now) isn't valid outside the province. as soon as i get that card, i'm going to go camp out in a clinic until i can find myself a gp.

today was a long day of meetings, but they were all up, interesting and positive. i'm not getting my hopes too high, but they did inspire a little more confidence.