Things I can’t do:

• Eat coloured candy (e.g. Skittles or M&Ms) in a random order
• Go up or down stairs without counting how many steps there are
• Touch walls with matte paint without getting the heebie jeebies
• Beat Chris’s high score at Wurdle, no matter how many hours I devote to obsessively playing that stupid game

Things I can do:

• Read an issue of Mike’s ( Read more... )

Today marks the one year anniversary of the date when I stopped needing to wear pants to work.  I am celebrating by getting dressed like a normal human being (well, one that wears jeans, a sweatshirt, and running shoes) and working in a new venue:  the library.  I know!  Can you even handle the excitement?

I'm staring across the table at an entire ( Read more... )

I think I am getting dangerously close to the border between Slightly Crankypants Land and the Republic of Curmudgeonikstan ( Read more... )

I had planned to undertake Phase 2 of Operation Find Leonard Cohen's House and Have Him Write Poems About Me by myself while Mike was in his last conference day, but I decided to wait and head to that part of Montreal with Mike in tow (lucky him) and it is a good thing I did.  Leonard Cohen lives in a part of town that is best described as " ( Read more... )

The New Kids on the Block were at their height of popularity when I was about 10 years old.  Say what you want about them, they were the highest paid entertainers for at least a couple of years in the 90s and that is no small feat.  When their tour came to Detroit, I got to go.  Getting tickets was a lot more complicated before the internet, and I  ( Read more... )

The train came very early yesterday morning and now I am comfortably situated in downtown Montreal.  I heart Montreal.  Can I get that on a t-shirt?  The weather is great, it is slightly European, and there is brie.  What's not to love ( Read more... )

Ghost Town ( Read more... )

In my dream last night, I was standing in the changeroom at the gymnastics club I used to go to when we lived in Sarnia, when I noticed it was infested with bugs (including a "milk-worm", a giant unkillable worm that I am pretty sure my subconscious invented).  A scorpion detached itself from the window and landed on my shin with an awful, heavy ( Read more... )

Confession:  I am starting to like fall a little bit.  I have always disliked fall, mostly due to its unfortunate proximity to winter.  Once it starts getting cold, it's all downhill for the next 8 months, as far as I'm concerned.  People say I should take up skating, or skiing, or bobsledding, and then I will learn to love winter.  All I really ( Read more... )

Flash fiction - fiction characterized by extreme brevity.  Something new I'm trying.

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Can I fill your glass again, Janey?  More ice?  Here, let me get you more ice.  You’ve been holding that same drink in your hand since lunchtime and everything is all melted.

No, she won’t be home for another hour, at least.  ( Read more... )