supertongue montreal introduction - part i

so we didn't get her montreal bagels or smoked meat. and the poutine apparently wasn't all that.

the itinerary:

friday the 13th

x 6.40am pickup
x home, shower, food
x keys for duplication
x underground downtown
x plateau / mont royal record stores
x boxing
x party

saturday

x blood donation
x brunch
- foufounes électriques
x the village

sunday

x atwater market
x old montreal
- parc la fontaine
x mont royal
x tam tams
x l'artère

the details

friday:

i knew it was going to be a rough weekend, but i'm pretty sure it didn't need to start with four hours of painful restlessness; my brain as much to blame as my restless legs.

the cruel, wet friday morning saw me yawning while i waited at the bus station, sitting with everything i needed to be productive except motivation.

introducing supertongue to my place, non-stop debating.

a phone call from revenu québec informing me that my file had been processed, which i already knew because they'd sent me the amount owed.

going to gd's work to pick up her keys, making copies for myself.

trying and failing to walk downtown because a horrible downpour forced us underground.

jugo juice shake fail. supertongue speaks french fluently, apparently the guy working there doesn't.

both exhausted, we headed back to my apartment to rest. and watch 20 years of ufc, so it was only a kind-of rest. it's a must-watch!

i was disappointed to see that instead of the weekend being a shitty day followed by two decent days, it would be two shitty days followed by a decent day. not cool.

i went to gd's apartment - now dubbed "home" - to test my new keys, and passed out on the couch. a nap becomes the deepest slumber when there's a time limit! i woke up still in dream-space, with reality seeming distorted and in a distinctly altered state of mind. so much so that i questioned my own sense of self as i made my way to the metro.

i was upset by my kickboxing coach posting the following:
"how a female dresses is her advertisement. if a female shows half of her body, she's asking to be disrespected."
really? if you think that, you're an asshole. what i really wanted to ask him was if his wearing fighting shorts is his way of asking to be disrespected... unfortunately, i can't say anything without messing with our instructor / student relationship so i have to keep my disrespecting his opinions to myself.

gd was going to join us at the fights, and she'd told me she'd be done in forty five minutes so supertongue and i went to her work to wait for her. forty five minutes turned into ninety minutes, and then gd became impatient with our impatience and it was supposed to be a fun evening. if i had known beforehand we would have gone straight there and asked gd to join us, and she probably would have bailed because until we were almost there she didn't actually realize that we were going to see live fights and not just watch something at a sports bar :S

we struggled to find dinner on the way, experienced taxi drama because the cab we ordered didn't arrive even though his gps signal said we were on the same intersection and eventually arrived after intermission, having missed three of my gym buddies in the ring.

$%!@.

at least there were some good second-half bouts.

saturday:

supertongue and i went to hot sauce, a lesbian party, to introduce her to the scene. the bouncer was a short, dumpy angry girl who tried very hard to keep me out in spite of the fact that i was accompanied by a woman and had paid entrance. the music was eclectic and eardrum-damaging loud, but overall the party was good and we spent a fun hour or two on the dancefloor.

the nightbus was simple enough, we ran a stupid-a.m. poutine mission (i picked up deliciously greasy salt and vinegar fries) and we crashed at my apartment around 4.30am.

...

at 9am i got up half-asleep. i was excited to see the first pieces of work on my comics, then woke supertongue up and we took a long metro ride all the way to radisson. napping well along the way.

jesus, the toilets are badly situated! the designer of the mall should be seated on the sherbrooke end, fed fast-acting laxatives and kicked hard in the shins as he gets up to go.

my first canadian blood donation on behalf of vfmp was friendly and pleasant. and i was so pleased that i didn't pass out! the point of the donation was to be part of an effort to convince the canadian government that screening sexually active male homosexuals is stupid.

there was some awkwardness with supertongue and the guys, but not too much. we headed out before them to meet up at aux vivres, and we'd almost boarded the metro when i realized that i'd left my jacket behind. that was close!

we visited a record store on mont royal that gave me the wanna-buy blues.

aux vivres: the food was delicious as always, supertongue and i went halves on blueberry pancakes and chana "sandwiches". there was decadent overeating, funny chatter and a gorgeous blonde waitress who seemed quite into me; i wanted to wingman for supertongue and see if i couldn't refocus the waitress' attentions but i don't think i have what it takes :P

we went to jean talon market, milled around and then decided to split up and rest because we were both exhausted. i woke up just before gd's station with a start as the metro jolted sharply before stopping, otherwise i might have missed it :P

i didn't exactly rest, but i did end up feeling much better. hummus on top of chana on top of supertongue's mother's amazing home-made hummus seemed like a bad idea, but i only thought that through after eating :(

it took a while to wake supertongue up by phone, and we agreed to meet up at berri-uqam. when i left i realized just how tired i was and worried that my lightheadedness was caused by too much post-donation exercise. it was a gorgeous post-rain dark-blue dusk.

we visited a really cool little live acts pub across the road from the station, then walked around trying to find a cash machine. the village was disappointingly quiet, so that sucked, but we got to see a bit of a great performance that was part of les francofolies. we walked all the way up st laurent, seeing rory macdonald win his fight along the way, and arrived at mont royal quite late. plan b (the bar) really was our plan b.

and that was the end of our night.

*my* night ended with ice cream and chocolate before bed.

sunday:

in spite of sleeping well, i was still buggered. gd and i had a good, late morning while supertongue didn't answer her phone - i was just about to go over and check on her, worrying that she hadn't made it home or something, when she finally responded.

my mom and i had a fight over skype - i think it was over how i'm dealing with my employer's silence over my papers.

i carved up a watermelon but had to abandon it to pick supertongue up from the metro; it was a glorious day, and the spores kind of made it feel like it was snowing. we demolished the watermelon when we got back.

supertongue and i had an argument with gd's friend who'd come over for a haircut, who's an anti-vaxxer. gd kept to the sidelines and although things got pretty heated i think it went okay.

i took supertongue for a walk along the lachine canal and through atwater market before we headed to old montreal, where she decided that she does, in fact, want to move here. it was a great day to visit the old port, and we caught a bit of a science show for kids that was a lot of fun. and made us both feel good about our french :P

[continued...]

positive start

okay, so... i slept beautifully - so much so that it was really tough getting out of bed - and traded rather pleasant messages with pulse, which is kinda weird but whatever. i didn't know what to expect at 11am, so i was a little nervous... but the call i got was simply to explain the interview process and it doesn't sound like anything i can't handle. plus, unlike the disaster interview i did a short while ago, i'd actually have a heads-up on what's expected of me.

so i know which skills to brush up on. the same ones as last time. that's cool.

...

i just stopped posting this to speak to my mom, who's just informed me that she's having an operation next week. i pray everything'll be fine.

---this response to anti-vaxxers is excellent, though i could have done without the drunken typos... but penn and teller at the end of the page? i love those guys.

bar's out

well - i had to wait six years to put my tongue bar back in; it's a year and a half later and i've finally decided that it's not worth the limitations. goodbye, vestige of a childhood.

---thursday:

bladed to university, left my shoes in my locker. i hope i don't get stopped at the entrance, because then i'd have to tread barefoot all the way to my shoes.

first class: tons of exercise carrying the giant speaker from the student union to the classroom. only to discover that the cable we'd been provided with was absolutely useless.

rushing between classes (and returning the speaker) to grab a bowl of noodles, and eating while walking was kinda weird.

---sonnets. between wyatt, spenser and shakespeare we had ourselves a field day - only one example from each, but it was nothing short of inspirational. unfortunately, i ruined shakespeare's first sonnet for everyone - the lecturer didn't want to continue - by suggesting arnold schwarzenegger's role in junior as an example of increase being brought about in a male subject...

i tend to say a lot during most of my classes, and i'm always worried about being "that guy", the one vocal idiot who's always ruining it for everyone else. i'm always careful (or, i try to be) to give others a chance to speak and sometimes i open my mouth and feel bad for doing so. that's usually the end of it, except that when this class was over co-conspirator made a remark about the quantity that i share and the lecturer pounced: "are you trying to shut him up?". when i put forth that i *had* felt like i'd gone too far, i was taken completely by surprise by an aggressive outburst from another student: "NO! please! don't stop! i also hate it when people talk too much, but everything YOU say is intelligent and interesting!"
she went on a little more than that, and i was overwhelmed and a bit flustered... very pleased, though. i hope i appeared to be as flattered and grateful for the compliment as i am.

anyway, the sonnet masters blow my mind (all the italians included), and analysing their works is intense.

---it was then time for the orientation course - we have a schedule problem, and we're definitely going to have to sort this out. my part of the lecture didn't go nearly as well as i'd planned...

i bladed home to pick something up that needed to go to work, and occupied myself there for a few hours before returning to watch an episode and a bit of the wire (i passed out after the "bit"). i went to bed early, and slept well.

---friday:

i spent the morning deciding whether to continue working with flex and upgrading my sdk. then i met up with sorter and we went to play on the roof of my apartment's patio. it took a couple of hours and it doesn't look like much, but it's cheap and i suspect it might just do the trick! and if it doesn't, then we were all wrong about the source of the problem and i didn't spend thousands of shekels on something unrelated.

i spent the afternoon coding and blogging, and fighting with pg over rubbish (i think we both feel bad about that), then went to her parents for dinner. i ate too much and have been doing so a lot lately. i suspect it's related to the sleep deprivation. after dinner we played with magnet balls, and it turns out i have a knack for them :)

---today:

waking up early, getting picked up by cousins to make a video for kc's wedding. it was a really fun morning filled with hilarity, which was followed by a huge lunch at her parents' which was absolutely delicious but demanded siesta. i woke up and had a loooooong talk with my mother (we eventually understood each other, we're apparently in interesting times) and am waiting for botchman to get in touch with me because i've had a magnificent artistic idea and i need to put together a group to execute it }:D

now for a movie, or something.

---anti-vaccination crisis - they were going too far from the beginning, but this?!

bye bye brat

news of the day: i finally had it out with chc, after becoming increasingly irritated by her over the last while. we'd arranged to meet (she really wanted to, i didn't know what was up), i'd explained to her that i was leaving work to meet with her, and she stood me up. i wasn't even impolite... at least i wasn't until she sent me an sms explaining how she was so disappointed and had been looking forward to seeing me - she'd try again today.

i replied with a curt: "don't bother, i'm not giving up money that i need for a maybe - probably not."

"you're being reactional and bratty. why? i've spent the entire day doing for others and haven't had time for myself. i'm not doing this on purpose"

"you see? that was the incorrect response*. i think i've had enough of wonderful chc, the ever-flowing and perfect and better than all of us yet still quite inconsiderate of everyone around her. i'm not used to giving up on people, but i'm sorry, i just don't have time for you anymore - i hope one day you'll understand."

* as usual, the only correct response was silence. she couldn't have known that.

it's just... it's hard to do a quick review and understand just how manipulative and insincere someone has been, and to know that a part of you was aware of it at the time but you still maintained hope. i became suspicious about two weeks ago, but every sentence exchanged and every inappropriate random encounter since she "left" has made her seem less and less trustworthy.

i let her know today when i had my locks changed. i wish i didn't have to throw that money out, but better safe than sorry. she'll finally be coming on friday (apparently, but now that doesn't bother me) to pick up her stuff.

---i began yesterday with a run to secure the poster (50x70) - it came out *beautifully*, and inspired me to consider making a syndicate one as well ^_^
[although i'll wait a bit before shelling out the cash for it - like, say, when i have a real paying job]

i found the visa guys (not the embassy), and sat down with them to fill out the forms and... and not apply, because i'd only brought one passport after they'd explicitly told me that i shouldn't bring the other. i found myself decidedly disappointed by the service.

the hours at work were spent setting up the development environment and failing abysmally. the guy in charge came down to check it out personally, and got even more frustrated than i had...

i returned to meet with scrapper and botchman (our storyteller); we shopped [and i wondered about flirting with women at supermarkets], cooked (not a bad meal, far better than the previous one) and proceeded with a brilliant session that was as awesome and fun as it was painful and complex. the storyline's really clever and our characters kick ass, even when they're getting theirs handed to them in return :)

---i was exhausted, and was actually nodding off during the tail end of the chapter [my character had been knocked unconscious, and i was manifesting that :P]. the guys asked if i was alright, and i could barely manage a response. after sorting scrapper out (he crashed on my couch instead of driving home) and saying goodbye to botchman, i climbed into bed, and lay restless the entire night.

today was simple:

1. get up at 7.50am to hand in my passports for the indian visa application.
2. sit online until i could eat breakfast
3. fail, once again, to put eyedrops in my eye. i wouldn't care much if i could re-try, but that's not a good idea with steroids
4. discover that the excess fee on my stolen camera is just about as much as the camera costs :(
5. shuffle (seriously) to discover that i don't get a free month of medical travel insurance because i got released after age 27. i nodded off in the waiting room because i was feeling so pap - i don't understand why my heart was racing when i walked in the door :S
6. shuffle home, contemplate napping but instead find a locksmith - discussing politics with the locksmith while he works? meh.
7. breakfast and wired. another brilliant month :)
8. slow blade to work, deal with more environmental issues*
9. convince an anti-vac mom to at least read the material** i sent her
10. eat dinner with singer and the cycling girl i bumped into two weekends ago - we've agreed to learn to ride down stairs together :)
11. argue with singer while waiting for her bus, and decide that i probably just shouldn't talk to people. chatting online seems safer. and less loud.

* environmental issues:
infinitely recursive directories
i think i'm finally onto the primary problem - flex builder has some severe inconsistencies with defining a debug environment for any app that needs to run on a web server. i only arrived at that conclusion because i eventually gave up and switched computers, only to find myself facing the same damn problem :S

** there're a number of important things to note, and cool articles to read
wakefield's interests
the war on science
the placebo effect (the conversation turned to alternative healing)

---it's nice to hear sugar man playing from a co-worker's speakers :)

---beautiful: i'm suddenly reminded of justina robson's selling out; it's like a combination of the demon market and spirited away

isn't ted supposed to be about ideas? this dude's dancing is impressive, but i don't get why he's not on "somewhere's got talent"...