weekend heat

friday:

strip search has totally broken the reality show format and remade it beautifully. friday's episode was so exciting and cathartic!
***SPOILER ALERT***
for those who've watched it: did anyone else enjoy the pun in "come from behind victory"? it would have been good if either of them had won…
***END SPOILER***

dress code! that's broken too. i was all stressed about it, but i decided that friday was the perfect day to test my colleagues. i wore a t-shirt and my 1999 mr. price specials (black baggy trainers with excess laces and pockets), and everybody was happy with it. none were as happy with it as i was!

ccl brought in vegan treats as a goodbye gift to the leaving interns, and they were delicious. but horrifically crumbly.

---i began the day with the cto, excitedly embarking on a rescue mission to restore the missing (and vital) segment of our codebase. that excitement was soon crushed, however, during an urgent meeting with megaman in which i was informed that our cto has once again taken on the role of an entire marketing division in selling (to a huge corporation) software that we don't have, under a deadline so outrageously unrealistic that all we can do is grind while praying for miracles.

---on thursday i convinced aota to seek medical help - she's been feeling awful ever since we returned from panama. on friday afternoon she returned from a battery of tests and informed us that she's been hit with hepatitis, which one specifically she didn't say. firstly, i'm really glad she listened to me. secondly, i'm kinda a little concerned that i might've been hit by the same thing - although i strongly suspect that that's not the case as my own health issues are unrelated and i've been feeling much better since i started training.

---back to work: my new primary assignment is to clean up moonlighter's mess while he focuses on something else...

at 4pm we upped and left for happy hour, and we walked out of the office into a perfect summer day, replete with crowds of smiling people dressed like they were off to the beach. it was wonderful! the drinks began awkwardly but as the guys relaxed they got more social. as i got up to leave (early, to get to training on time) i banged the back of my hand on something (the chair?) and it became rather tender. i worried about it until class began when i discovered that it made no difference.

i managed to get to the bank, and the teller explained to me that i qualify for an account upgrade. whoo hoo! i haven't been this financially stable in... ever.

---the boxing lesson was good, and tough as hell. the toughest part was my learning that i simply shouldn't train with girls. after the previous night's amazonian incident, i was set to sparring (body shots only) against a girl at least a head shorter than me and with large breasts: i literally couldn't see past them. so i was pretty much guessing for most of my shots, which seemed to be okay until she eventually stopped to glare at me and ask "are you aiming for my tits?!"
i explained that she was giving me too much credit, and was very embarrassed.

not only that, but she's much faster than i am so overall she beat the crap outta me.

i stayed behind to watch a couple of the guys sparring with full gear, and explained to them that i'm far from being ready to enter the ring. i'll go in when i have some idea of what to do with my feet and i've developed useful responses to strikes coming my way. at the moment i'm simply a reluctant sponge.

---on an arbitrary note, dilbert's translation to an animated series is surprisingly good.

---saturday:

i got up a bit later than intended, ate breakfast, slopped on some sunscreen and slapped on my blades, and headed to the office. it took less than an hour to get there and back without pushing too hard, and most of the route i picked turned out to have a bicycle lane! an unmarked bicycle lane on a long boulevard. very cool, montreal, very cool.

i finally got it together to return my snowboard today, and at 1.30pm i called to find out poubelle du ski's hours. today was their final day before closing down for the summer, and they'd be open until 2pm. so i'll have to return my equipment in august...

---i spent the afternoon reading, resting and shopping. it was on my way back that i began to stress about having dinner with my uncle. the man is so unpleasant, and i suddenly realized that i don't need that shit in my life. i suddenly found myself wondering how pg ever went back at all; i didn't want to go and i didn't want to tell godmother why not because that wouldn't be fair to her.

so my day went from awesome to ugly and stayed that way until i actually arrived. once i was there it was okay, and my uncle and i ignored each other for the most part. i get the feeling that the feeling's mutual... at one point he told me that i do stupid things, to which i unashamedly responded that he thinks everything i do is stupid, so whatever.

at least the worst-case scenario that'd been playing in my mind didn't happen, although i can't say that it's off the table. it's that point at which he performs like he did last week, and i let him know precisely what i think of him before getting up and leaving. i grew up with a father who made me feel like that, and life's too short to let jerks who don't matter make you feel like shit.

---after dinner i felt over-fed and drained so i promptly returned home. i've spoken to my mum and to a fellow poet (horseman) who wants to know what's got nocence so excited. as i've said to them both, i'm happy to share it with him but i'm not going to invite him to join us unless we can work together as a team. it's my project, and my project is to keep the work as close to shakespeare's vision as possible while making it as accessible as possible: this is a fine line to tread and it'll be all too easy for multiple cooks to spoil the broth.