just married

this last week has just flown by. the biggest lesson has been about marriage. gd and i committed to each other almost as soon as we met, and i've had all sorts of things to say about the meaning of marriage as an antiquated system of control and an irrelevant social contract. but when all's said and done, after we underwent the (three minute) ritual and signed the papers, we *do* feel different. it's like there's a biological reflex, it's difficult to define but it's most assuredly present. we are married, we are very happy about it, and as uncomfortable as i am wearing rings on my fingers this one is working out for me.

---thursday:

dragging myself out of an absolutely comfortable bed in order to leave early and get to the post office before work, but getting ready too late and dealing with gd's taxes instead. the revenu quebec password system's so "good" it actually caused unnecessary tension.

DEAR WORLD: STOP FORCING PEOPLE TO JUMP THROUGH HOOPS IN ORDER TO AUTHENTICATE THEMSELVES, IT'S YOUR SYSTEM THAT NEEDS TO ADAPT TO THE USERS AND NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

enough with the cased letters, symbols, numbers and oh-shit-what-was-i-thinking-at-the-time security questions. ssl and multiple-factor authentication is not only enough, it's better.

...

a long day fine-tuning tuesday's design

pushap lunch, awkwardness after accidentally insulting someone's mother

finally finishing the short paragraph i'd spent hours reworking and realizing that it was 8pm already
godmother's call to congratulate us on getting married - no awkwardness there - followed by my mom's
the harvey's $3 mayo experience: "thats a LOT of mayo. that's more mayo than fries!" she repeated, about five or six times, while the long line waited behind me. all i wanted was fries for myself as an excuse to pick up mayo for gd without going to the store. i got it, but the full price for the ten packets of mayo ended up being $3 and a minute of indignity.

coming home to indecision, bad eating and then the excision of old photos from my albums.

friday:

not enough sleep and it was filled with dreams: fighting over turning off the heating in an apartment we were moving from, the playground with the amazing view being attacked by "wait, those aren't birds - they're rushing polar bears", the taxi driver not slowing down when we approached the destination, turning onto the highway and lighting up a cigarette with the windows up, then dumping me in the middle of the road after i yelled at him and shouting "yalla!"
fallout-style eloping with the wrong partner

code review reminding me of http://bash.org/?663354
fun fluxx, a slow afternoon that included:
1. a teammate's washing machine and dryer being stolen. and nothing else.
2. a compost payment receipt after i cancelled a week ago
3. gd, eight and a half months pregnant on the day before we get married, getting into a taxi that turned the wrong way down the busiest one-way street in montreal; when she yelled at the driver for continuing to head into oncoming traffic, he made her get out in the middle of the road. which i realized while posting this matches eerily with the last dream i had had.

couldn't make this shit up if i tried. then we got home to find the upstairs neighbours' cat was trapped on their balcony and nobody would answer the door so we had to call the landlord...

candle lighting followed by a good dinner followed by candle unlighting

the wedding day:

not much sleep, militaristic dreams and a morning almost damaged by a horrific russian icon [WARNING: what you will see if you click that link cannot be unseen] before being rescued by a perfect circle

getting lost near the palais de justice, rushing a little but getting there on time. a very quick, very simple procedure with a very pleasant, accommodating official. a rest at starbucks to initiate the social media thing, then off to comiccon. we couldn't do that for very long, but we had fun and saw a lot of amazing costumes. horseman came home with us, we intended to play wedding-day tekken but he left when he saw that wedding-day napping was more the order of the day - i was literally falling over, i was absolutely exhausted. i must've come down with something, because i only started feeling a little better on sunday morning and i've had a few spells since.

gd on her two rings: "the wedding ring is sacred! it's a part of me. but the yoda ring is awesome!"

the COMIX vernissage at abyss was good, and it was nice to spend some of our wedding day at the place where we first met. afterwards we went to p.m. for a wonderful meal before coming home and crashing hard.

sunday:

relaxed start with ratatat - it's incredible, hypnotic stuff. shopping, painting day, giving up on dev env ssl, more shopping

getting halfway through chappie and needing to stop because gd got too emotional

monday:

getting up really early only to leave kind of early, this summer / laser hair removal thing isn't working out for me at all, i can't seem to avoid tanning even if i'm only in the sun for about five minutes at a time and very infrequently. fortunately, after a week of exfoliating every day and continuing to be super-careful the technician managed to work with me. they should prepare the skin with ice packs every time, for everyone. i barely felt the pulses and they were stronger than before.

the pleasant surprise of getting a "wedding day" off, almost losing it due to excessive honesty :P
spot contacted me to congratulate us, and we had a conversation. i'm not sure he sensed that while i'm not hating him anymore, we're never going to be good friends again.

mostly tedious work, broken for a solid hour of sketching with nifty, an hour in a meeting that i predominantly spent focused on my posture, an hour and a half of evaluation preparation and the uncomfortable realization that i've got to handle the ones for my team: i, myself, and not a manager. the last time i evaluated somebody formally was cam2 and i'm still disturbed by his reactions.

the laser treatment clinician's excitement over my following the advice and my finding my plastic protector. the ice-pack solution working well.
chappie: DAMN. that's some hardcore cleverness right there. i can't imagine how non-saffers can follow the language, though, at one point the subtitles translated "jasis" to "yes yes". there were a few narrative issues but i didn't find it difficult to suspend disbelief in spite of them.

chatting with SxS and then my mom

yesterday:

one of the longest nights of pain and discomfort, starting the day nicely and then rushing to get out to de l'église:
"it's raining."
"do you need an umbrella?"
"no. i need winter."

painless effort getting store credit in lieu of replacement stockings, some poetic inspiration, being drenched on the short walk home and finally trying to mine bitcoins three years too late after learning more about the greek economic meltdown.

leaving too early for gd's doctor's appointment that was cancelled after we arrived, getting an invite to a team lunch i can't go to because they've picked the one place i'd explained doesn't have any vegan options.

the unbearable summer heat

napping, fiverring and developing successfully.

today:

t'was a good watermelon, but it was followed by severe rls that kept me struggling for hours. this morning has just whizzed by, so now i'm off for work.