What I’ve Been Reading

bookduo

Wicked Lovely, 29/104; Ink Exchange, 30/104

How handy that I found an image of these book covers already edited together! Of course, I did have to cross out the third one because I didn’t read it and don’t plan on ever reading it. Why? Because these books are lame. I bought the first one, Wicked Lovely, because the other night I was trolling through the Kindle Store and saw that it was free (which in Kindle-land apparently means $2.99), and even though I didn’t really like it, I thought maybe Ink Exchange would be okay. I needed some books and HOW BAD could young adult novels about modern faeries be? A: Pretty bad. Okay fine, the writing isn’t terrible, but the plots of both of these books is basically: sexy faery king sees mortal girl, faery king wants mortal girl for possibly nefarious or selfish purposes, mortal girl resists, mortal girl’s resistance proves futile. WHAT. THE HECK. I’ll stick to my post-apocalyptic dystopian future YA novels from now on, thank you very much.

Doing it Gracefully

Or in my case, GREYSfully.

So here’s the thing. I have grey hair. I started going grey when I was just seventeen, although you couldn’t really tell because I started colouring my hair when I was fifteen, and two years later I was a big ol’ goth with this on my hair.

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Ahh, Nice’n Easy Natural Blue Black. The box didn’t look like that in my day.

I still remember the day I found my first grey- I was getting ready for school and when I parted my hair, there in the 1/4″ of roots I saw it. At the time I thought it was hilarious and ran downstairs to show the only other person who was awake at the time, my dad.

“Look, look! I have grey hair!”
“Um, you have black hair.”
“Dad. The roots. THE ROOTS!”

Of course, my natural colour was a light ash brown, so against the black my roots always looked a little grey, in fact my friend Megan Bot used to can me Ol’ Grey Roots.

Of course, what was funny to me at seventeen was less amusing in my twenties, when the grey hairs started multiplying OUT OF CONTROL. I still kept coloring my hair to cover it up until I was 24. I was pregnant with Symphony and had the brilliant idea to grow my hair out my natural colour. I figured if I looked hideous and huge anyway I might as well have terrible hair as well. Oh, what a brilliant plan! This only lasted for a few months before I ended up bleaching the crap out of it, dying it bright red, and adding black streaks. In the last weeks of my pregnancy I got sick of the whole situation and decided to shave my head (I used to do this every time I had a bad hair day), but then I lost interest halfway though. I then put half a box of blue-black dye on my roots (Feria, not Nice’n Easy), which bled into the red ends, turning it various shades of purple. Combined with my irregularly shaved head, the results were… let’s say avant garde.

(Note: I know a lot of people say you shouldn’t colour your hair when you are pregnant because you’ll absorb chemicals through your scalp and have a deformed baby. Before colouring my hair I talked to my doctor and she said it was fine. What you definitely shouldn’t do while pregnant is PERM your hair, because it won’t work, like the curls won’t take and you’ll just have straight hair still. Actually, you just shouldn’t perm your hair ever.)

In the time since Symphony was born I’ve definitely noticed a dramatic increase in the quantity of my greys- I guess kids do that to you (unless you are my sister, who has two kids and no greys at all- at least, I think she still has no greys- she colours her hair too). In the last few years I found myself having to colour my roots every three weeks. I had to do it at home with drugstore colour because going to the salon that often would be both inconvenient and ludicrously expensive, but I started developing a sensitivity to the dye, so then I started going to the salon but yeah, it was inconvenient and expensive. I switched brands of drugstore colour and it was okay, but I still had to do a root touch up every three weeks since the difference between my dyed, dark brown hair and natural light brown and grey roots was so obvious.

Last year I decided enough was enough and it was time to lighten up my hair. I didn’t want to bleach and strip out my whole head and end up with mush hair, so instead I got an ever-increasing series of highlights until my hair was close enough to my natural colour. The last time I got it done the stylist suggested that instead of getting more highlights we just do an all over dye that matched my natural colour. It looked great and I was really happy with it… until three weeks later when my roots showed their grey heads again. Because of course, the thing with all over colour is no matter how close it is to my original hair, it’ll never match up with the greys.

The last time I had my hair coloured was at the end of January (I did put a temporary colour over it before going on vacation but it is loooooong gone- the sun and sea took care of it) and my roots are CRAZY long, probably he longest they’ve been since that failed growing out experiment in 2001. Let’s have a look, because really, what better way to start your day with a close up of someone’s scalp?

Old Grey Roots

Soooo all those light hairs that look blonde? They aren’t blonde. They’re white, and grey. You can sort of see where the line between coloured and non-coloured hair is (hint: it’s where the white & grey stop) but idk, from further away (the way most people would see me) I don’t think it’s too obvious.

Old Grey Roots

(Please excuse my sleepy, no-makeup face. Oh, and the fact that I’m wearing the shirt Taylor was wearing yesterday, haha.)
I mean yeah, it’s a little obvious, but not as badly as when my hair was dark. I know I posted a few weeks ago that I was thinking of going dark again, and I think that if I was to do another all-over colour I would. But I’m just sick of the endless upkeep! Doing root touch ups every three weeks is ridiculous. I’m starting to think seriously again about just growing it out. Maybe getting some more highlights to make it less boring and help blend the lighter roots with the still-darker ends, but no more all over colour for me, and maybe when it’s all grown out I can be as fine as this silver vixen.

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I figure at the rate my hair is greying I should be there by 2012! No, just kidding.

Sort of.

Get Me Out of Here

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Greater Vancouver Regional District

Sometimes I feel like I’ve always lived downtown. Nevermind the fact that although I was born in Vancouver, I grew up on Vancouver Island and didn’t move back to the city until I was 17. Also nevermind the fact that in the sixteen years since then (SIXTEEN YEARS??? I’m old, y’all) I’ve lived in East Van, South Van, Surrey, Coquitlam, Victoria and spent a brief time in Nelson. Mostly though, I’ve lived in the West End, and I’ve always loved it. Everything is always open! It’s only ten blocks to the beach! You almost never have to drive or take cabs or even the bus because everything is right there! I always said I’d never want to move out of downtown… until now.

Maybe I really am old, but I think I’m kind of getting sick of it. It’s too noisy, even on my side street. I’m tired of getting cussed out by panhandlers and living in fear of crackheads climbing in my windows (that totally happened). My neighborhood used to be awesome but recently it seems like all the people I like are moving out and skanky people are taking their place (I dare you to ask me the pantyliner story. I DARE YOU).

Another reason is work; basically, I’m tired of it. I want to quit and focus on doing art and working out and maybe having a baby. Taylor is totally amenable to this plan once it becomes financially viable, but the sticking point is this apartment: it was designed to be a child care, so to live here I have to keep doing daycare. If I was to quit we’d have to move, but we couldn’t afford anything so nice and big in this part of town. We’d either have to MASSIVELY downsize (which is impractical if I want to upsize our family!) or get the hell out of dodge.

Obviously I haven’t actually started making any real plans (don’t forget the part about it being financially viable) but I have picked up one terrible habit: realtylink.org. When I’m on my break I start looking though lists of houses for sale and imagining they are MY house. For some reason I’ve mostly been looking at places in North Vancouver – it’s the most Douglas Coupland-y of the suburbs.

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Look at these places! They are SO CUTE. The green one has a detached office and covered porch and the yellow one has a garage/artist’s studio and six (SIX) bedrooms. They both have huge fenced backyards, perfect for me to fill with puffy little dogs.

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Soon, my pretties, soon.

Now I just need eight hundred thousand dollars to buy one! This is like, the pipiest of pipe dreams but maybe someday…

Sadie

Apologies to everyone from SS who has already lived through this nightmare.

Symphony’s grandma manages a Salvation Army Thrift Store. This means she’s always bringing us stuff. ALWAYS. When I was still with Symphony’s dad and worked at the vintage store, she’d bring me bags and bags of fur coats and rhinestone brooches and weird old clothing for me to consign. Now she mostly brings down arts & craft supplies (I got the crystals I used on my rope light chandelier from her), and clothes and books for Symphony. Sometimes she brings down toys, and this past weekend she brought Symphony a doll.

But not

just

any

doll.

She brought us Sadie.

SADIE

This is obviously a haunted doll, possessed by an angry and vengeful spirit of a murdered girl, just itching to come to life and kill us all in our beds by sucking out our souls. When Grandma pulled it out of the bag I gave her one of these O__o and said “ARE YOU SERIOUS???” and she said to me “It’s made of fabric!” The fabric of nightmares, maybe. Someone asked me if her face was wooden, but it’s actually cloth painted with the blood of the innocent. When the bachelorette party was here on Saturday one woman said “I think it’s lovely! Wouldn’t you rather have your daughter playing with a toy like that then with some Barbies?”

SADIE

NO. NO I WOULD NOT.

Someone online told me I should shut it in the closet, but then all I could think about was the closet door skreeeeeeeeeeeing open and the tip-tap of Sadie’s little nub feet skittering across the linoleum as she comes to kill us.

The Feet of SADIE

Sometimes Sadie gets angry.

SADIE is Mad

Sometimes she has too much redbull and gets really alert.

SADIE is Bright-Eyed

Sometimes she is filled with a rage that burns hotter than the fires of Hell.

SADIE

(Or maybe she’s a harlequin ichthyosis baby, idk).

When Sadie is feeling EXTRA possessed she can see into the very depths of your soul and she wants nothing more than to just scrape it out and leave you a hollow, empty husk with a scorched inner landscape, howling with insanity.

SADIE CAN SEE INTO MY SOUL

hellllllllllllllllllllp meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

OH GOD SOMEONE HELP ME

But like everyone, what Sadie wants most is to be loved. Sadie loves you.

SADIE <3's U

WHY DON’T YOU LOVE HER BACK?

Cheap is NOT my Middle Name

It’s my first. Back in the olden times of the internet, whenever I googled myself the only results would be in Polish, and I just could not figure it out until I plugged “Tanie” into a Polish-English translator and welp, this is what you get:

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Perfect. I think it’s pronounced differently (my name is like Tammy with an N, not like Janie with a T or Tawny like Tawny Kitaen) but it’s spelled exactly the same. EXACTLY.

Nowadays if you google me you get results from my twitter followers and flickr contacts, as well as the list of people who donated to Vancouver is Awesome this year, instead of a bunch of websites of cheap Polish things (you still get that if you google just my first name though). However this morning I had a blast from my cheap past- a girl I know online only tagged me in some pictures on facebook. I’ve never met her in real life- she goes to school in New York and is currently spending a semester in Prague, so I was confused as to why she’d be tagging me in pictures.


OH! She’s visited Poland! lol thanks Lindsay 😛

Weekend Recap with Bachelorette Party Highlights

This weekend has been hilarious!

On Friday night Rich and Jenn came over- my original invitation was for beer & Lethal Weapon, but we all ended up playing Apples to Apples with Symphony instead. I let her stay up until 11 to hang out. Bad mom! It was really funny, especially because someone kept getting mad that certain people made silly decisions when they were the judge.

Normally Symphony stays at her dad’s on Saturday nights be he had a big MMA fight so instead she went to her grandparents’ house for a spoil-fest. Grandma picked her up early Saturday morning, and after quickly getting ready I dragged Taylor out shopping with me. I had my friend Bonnie’s bachelorette party that night, and we were all supposed to wear black shirts. I only wear grey so my only black shirts are like, old faded tank tops I wear to the gym.

After going all over downtown in a futile search for a black shirt that wasn’t too skanky/tight/see-through/plain I gave up and just came home with a new rainbow-y measuring cup, a knife for cutting wavy shapes, a new garbage can for the bathroom and a cute little clutch from Club Monaco. That store drives me crazy- I worked there in 2006 before I started doing daycare and all the clothes were awful, but now that I don’t get a discount anymore every single thing is cute!

Once we got home and had something to eat, Taylor went to the gym and I started cleaning the house. I’d tidied up during the day on Friday, but somehow it got really messy again. Since most of Bonnie’s friends live in the suburbs, everyone was coming here to get ready/pregame, so I didn’t want it to be gross. As usually happens when I have limited time to clean I started a rearranging project. Since last fall I’ve had all these bits of wood and a frame from my unfinished library bookcase project lying around, and I finally decided to just scrap it. I had to heave it all out to the garbage room myself, and moving it reveal heaps of dirt and dust bunnies, but I’m glad I did it. I have some new ideas for the library, and now i can focus on other projects that I’m more interested in.

I managed to get almost everything done (Taylor finished it up after i left) by 4:45, which was good because at 5:15 I had to be across the bridge at Tantra Fitness for a pole- and lapdance class. I’ve always been kind of eh about pole dancing, and when my sister got really into it a couple of years ago I was not impressed. Well, let me tell you, I TAKE IT ALL BACK. It was so fun, and even the small amount of stuff we did kicked my upper body’s butt! My arms, shoulders and chest are super sore today. I am definitely considering going back and taking some actual classes there.

Before we left the gym we had a visit from the police- oh wait, I mean the exotic dancer in a cop outfit. Now, I’d never seen a male stripper before, only lady strippers, so I was kind of worried it would be really awkward, which it was, but it was also hilarious and kind of fun. I’m glad I wasn’t one of the women singled out to undo buttons or pull of boxer briefs, but I did definitely have a close encounter of the genital kind. And that’s aaaaaaall I’m saying about that!

We came back to my place just after seven- Taylor had gone out for drinks with an old friend so it was just us. Everybody had drinks (including shots of Baja Rosa, apparently this portion of the evening took place in 1999) and food and then got changed out of our pole dancing clothes into our club outfits. Since I hadn’t been able to find a black top I just ended up wearing a black dress over my jeans, haha. Bonnie wore a white shirt with a ~bachelorette~ sash and tiara. The SUV limousine picked us up, and we spent the next our driving around the city, drinking champagne and woo-ing. Taylor and his friend we one the patio of a sports bar near our house and they actually heard us go by!

At ten the limo dropped us off at the club, where we were given the world’s teeniest VIP area and a bottle of champagne. I don’t really like clubs but I still had an okay time. There were definitely lots of creeps there though! Luckily I’m like, skeezy nightclub dude Kryptonite so unlike most of the other girls I didn’t get danced up on. Oh, and there were girls on the dance floor with no shoes on. WHO DOES THAT? Ugh, so gross. Later on I had a huge panic moment- our VIP area was at the top of the stairs on and I dropped my new clutch (with my phone, keys and super-expensive Balenciaga wallet inside) down a gap between them and the railing. It went all the way down to the bottom floor and by the time I got down there it was gone! Fortunately the coat check girl had picked it up and I got it back but holy close call!! Also fortunately nothing inside got broken because I’d brought a little dish towel to help open the champagne in the limo and it cushioned everything.

The limousine picked us back up at one and we all came back here for more food and drinks and so everyone could pick up their stuff. Taylor was home but passed out in all his clothes in the bed- apparently he drank a pitcher and a half of beer, which is not usual for him. All the girls left at two and I tried to wake Taylor up to go get poutine but he was too unconscious. Then I tried cleaning up but I was too drunk to deal with half-full cups of vodka & grape juice. Ew! I ended up just leaving everything where it was and going to bed myself.

This morning Taylor and I both woke up around ten. I’d managed to wake him up enough to drink a bunch of water the night before but I didn’t drink any myself so I was really hungover. I drank a ton of water when I got up but the food and drinks from the night before grossed me out so much I threw up! So lame. However after that and a quick shower I feel much better and was able to o get some much-needed coffee and Advil. Taylor had plans to go meet his moms for lunch at the airport- they were flying home to Kelowna from San Diego and had a couple of hours between flights.

Unfortunately our lunch took a terrible downturn- right when we met up with them they got a text message about an emergency- it turned out that Taylor’s stepmom’s father had had a heart attack and was on life support but not expected to make it. Not the sort of news you ever want to get! He is in a hospital here in the Lower Mainland but they decided to go back home anyway and come back tomorrow.

They left to catch their flight and Taylor and I headed back downtown, although first we had the horrific discovery that the train which only cost $2.50 to get to the airport from downtown cost $7.50 to get back! What a rip off! The trip back sucked especially hard because I was less recovered from my hangover than I’d previously thought and we had to get off halfway home so I could visit a gas station washroom. Lovely.

That and the sad news at lunch aside, this weekend was super fun. I wasn’t really looking forward to the bachelorette party (I have kind of a hate/jealousy relationship with them, hate because I don’t usually have a good time at them and jealousy because I didn’t get to have one!) but it turned out to be a blast, seeing our friends on Friday night was great and I got to spend lots of time with Taylor, which is always my favorite 🙂

Mail Call!!

Is there anything better than getting a package in the mail? Answer: NO IT IS THE BEST EVER. A few weekends ago when I was sick and crabby, my e-friend Marissa offered to get me the matryoshka measuring cups I’d been coveting- I had looked in about a billion housewares/decor/blah blah blah stores with no luck, and I really didn’t want to spend $25 on shipping. I decided what would make more sense was spending $130 on other things from Urban Outfitters (mostly for me, one thing for her) so we could get free shipping to her house, and then she’d mail me my stuff. I paid for the whole order and the cost of her item covered the cost of her shipping to me. GENIUS. But what is even better is she filled the box with extra goodies!

My camera died half way through so some of these are photobooth pics.

Opening the Box
Claire was very interested in the box-opening process. Cats love boxes.

M-Cups
My M-Cups! I can’t wait to use these, I’ve been wanting to make Peppermint Patty Brownie Cupcakes and now I have another reason (I actually bought the peppermint patties for these already but I didn’t have any of the other ingredients so I ATE THE WHOLE BAG omg).

Birds of a Feather Rug
Birds of a Feather rug for my library/music room. This is actually way prettier irl than I thought it would be. I just need to get one of those foamy underpads so it doesn’t skid around- right now it’s kind of treacherous!

LBD front
LBD Back
Crepe V-Back Dress. I was really apprehensive about this dress- I’ve found that sometimes the online only items at UO are online only for a reason, and that reason is THEY SUCK. I really like this though- it fits well, even in the chest area (always a source of anxiety) and other than being super scrumpled I can’t see anything wrong with it.

So those are the things I bought, but here are all the extra things she sent.

Gifts from Marissa!
Little birdy wall hook that completely goes with my house, jumbo gumballs & a Blow Pop, a pad of Comment Cards, WALRUS EARRINGS omg these are great, spiral earrings, a little Le Sportsac bag, a pin and a mini-bottle of Flowerbomb.

Striped Dress
Grey & grey striped dress that is SO ME. So THANK YOU for everything Marissa, you are AWESOME!!

Happy Friday!!

I think today is going to be a double exclamation mark kind of day!!

It’s Friday, the weekend is starting, AND Fridays are an easy work day for me- baby M doesn’t come and neither part-timer is scheduled so it’s just CT, B and then V in the afternoon. EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY. I swear, if every day was like this I’d NEVER complain about work.

Speaking of work, I was talking to B’s mom this morning, and when she has her baby this summer, she wants B to still be able to come here, part-time. I can fit her into the part-time space with K and CP, so I won’t lose her AND it’ll free up a full-time space for a new client. HOORAY!!

It’s sunny today. It’s supposed to get up to 18°, and while it’s not there yet I’m wearing shorts anyway!!

Awkward Shorts

Lol this picture is SO awkward but it was REALLY hard to get one without B in the shot!! Anyway it’s supposed to rain all weekend so I figured I should wear shorts while I had the chance.

Also, look at how light my hair is!! I haven’t had it coloured since the end of January, before my birthday, so there’s a good inch of natural roots. The coloured part is light enough that it all blends together pretty well and idk, I find that even though there’s mad grey in my roots, I’m not hating it. Maybe I’ll grow it all out, or maybe I’ll highlight it again but I don’t think I’m going to do all over colour anymore.

I hope you are all having a great day too!!