Blah Diddy Blah Blah Blah

Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerd!

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 03:14:59 GMT

The Sisterly One couldn't wait any longer to give me my birthday present, so I ended up getting it a whole week-and-a-day before my birthday.

What do I get? The 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master Guide, Player's Handbook and Monster Manual! Oh, and a complete set of dice!

SO nerdy! I loves it!

Also, still going to see Batman at 10:15 at the Varsity Cinema on the 18th for official birthday celebrations! Come show your love!

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:28:15 GMT

3 Word Survey
MUST USE 3 WORDS. (no more no less)
Not as easy as you might think...

1. Where is your cell phone?
in my pocket

2. Boyfriend/girlfriend?
In Michigan. Boo!

3. Hair?
should be cut

4. Your mother?
In Alaska, maybe.

5. Your father?:
With my Mom.

6. Your favorite team?
Go Leafs Go.

7. Your dream last night?
About work stuff.

8. Your favorite drink?
Lots of tea.

9. Your dream guy?
In Michigan! BOO!

10. The room you are in?
The computer room!

12. Your fear?
Just about everything.

13. What do you want to be in 10 years?
Monstrous cyborg being.

14. Who did you hang out with last night
The Sisterly One.

15. What are you not?
Feeling that good.

16. Are you in love?
In Michigan! BOOOOOOOO!

17. One of your wish list items?
No more debt!

18. what time is it?
Time for watch.

19. The last thing you did?
Checked my e-mail.

20. What are you wearing?
Unmatched flannel pyjamas

22. Your favorite book?
All of them.

23. The last thing you ate?
Ate Shredded Wheat.

24. Your life?
Could be better.

25. Your mood?
Sick as dog

26. Your friends?
All far away.

27. What are you thinking about right now?
Caveman type speech.

28.Your car?
Actually my Mom's.

29. What are you doing at this moment?
Answering this survey.

30. Your summer?
Busy busy busy

31. Your relationship status?
In MICHIGAN! BOOOOOOO!

32. What is on your TV screen?
The TV's off.

33. When is the last time you laughed?
While reading comics.

34. Last time you cried?
Friday- illness sucks.

35. School?
Must retrieve diploma!

Cough cough... hack hack..

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:19:01 GMT

I was really looking forward to Casa Loma. Dude, I was going to get to play ANNE BOLEYN. I had all sorts of bits figured out. It was going to be awesome-tastic.

Friday morning I woke up feeling like death. Bad enough that I called in sick and had my sister take me to the doctor. So instead of dressing up pretty, entertaining people from all over the world, hanging out with some cool people, and generally having an awesome time, I've been feverish and watching daytime TV.

Making this situation even weirder is that when my fever was at it's worst, the weather guy from CTV was actually at Casa Loma watching Zoltan do fire eating.

Let me tell you something- when you have a fever of 102, DO NOT WATCH FIRE EATING! It's kind of freaky.

In other news, it's two weeks to my birthday! Wooooooo! I'm partying like it's 2008 on Friday the 18th at some theatre in Toronto and going to see The Dark Knight. Exact time and location to follow, but probably around 10:00 and probably the Varsity. So come show your love for me (if you didn't go to the midnight opening and you don't live too far away) and we shall boogie down.

Upper Canada Medieval Festival: A Brief Recap

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:02:17 GMT

Yeah, so I've been back for three days and I still haven't written about the Upper Canada Medieval Festival. The thing is, it was periods of "HOLY CRAP EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING AT ONCE!!!" mixed in with "Is it quitting time yet? How 'bout now? Now? Now." It's all kind of jumbled, but here are some highlights:

*The drive up! Nick and Kerba and Heather (Nick's friend who was going to be working at the Kettle Corn booth) picked me up from the GO station after work, and we drove to Etobicoke to pick up Kerba's friend Jesse, who would also be working the Kettle Corn booth. We stopped to get gas and meet up with Lauren, my fellow Knotty Knicker. I ended up driving up with her because a)we needed to run lines and b)I don't think I could have survived a four hour drive in a van with four smokers. Bleaaaaah.

Lauren and I entertained ourselves on the very long and very dull ride to Morrisburg by finding dirty sounding road names. Hee... Cobbledick Road. Hee... Lauren also found out that I do not own a bathing suit- I fear two pieces coming off due to my total lack of chesticular endowments (I've had it happen!) and one pieces need to be teeny tiny to fit my aforementioned lack, but they tend to be shorter as well. They tend to ride up. OW. So I haven't had a suit in years. Since there was a pool at the hotel, Lauren declared that we were going bathing suit shopping after the faire on Friday.

*Kids day! HOLY CRAP. The last year of the Ontario Renaissance Festival we were getting around 9000 people through the gate every day. That's after nine years of building up loyal fanbase, etc. On the Friday, there were 4100 kids. Just kids. And that's only the ones that pre-registered. Then there were their parents and chaperones. And there were also people who just stopped by. And this is for a FIRST YEAR EVENT. Holy crap.

It was also blisteringly hot. Lauren and I got pulled off of doing street work to help in the Kettle Corn booth (it's owned by the same group that runs the Knotty Knickers show) because they also sold lemonade, iced cappucinos and snow-cones. The line was rediculous. Lauren helped in the booth while I tried to manage the line and keep people happy.

We were there for two. Whole. Hours. And the line never got shorter than twenty people. Waaaaah.

*The Positive Girl! Lauren and I were only contracted to work until 5 pm, but we hung around afterwards and, quite literally, did a dry run of the show. Buckets were empty, nothing in the water pistol, dry mops etc. Lucky us, a little audience gathered 'round so we had participants. In the Knotty Knickers show I play a character called Teensy Knickers and is my job to put underwear on people's heads and act stupid. My dream job! TJ, one of the knights stuck around and watched the show. I made him be Bob. Don't get it? Come and see the show some time. That is, if I ever get to perform it closer than a four hour drive away.

After the show, some of the kids mobbed us, demanding we sign their arms. They asked us questions, we asked questions back. No one can remember exactly how this came up, but the following conversation ensued.

Lauren: Are you sure?
Girl: Yes!
Lauren: Are you positive?
Girl: POSITIVE MEANS YOU'RE PREAGNANT!
Lauren, TJ and Me: 0_o
Girl: I know! We had a health class! It was gross!

She then proceeded to tell us jokes that she admitted she didn't understand. And no, I shall not repeat them.

Steve, aka Captain Jack, came by and sat with us. The girl was fussing with her wrist band, because it was too tight.

Steve: Do you want me to cut it off?
Girl: Yeah...
Steve: (reaches into pouch and pulls out Swiss Army Knife, reaches for her wristband)
Girl: DON'T CUT MY WRIST, I'M NOT EMO!

She also had me write "UNDERWEAR ROCKS! TEENSY IS AWESOME!" on her arm. Weeeeeeird little girl.

*Nick's Birthday! Friday was also Nick's birthday. I chipped in on his big birthday present (we bought him a guitar. I know nothing of guitars, but it's black and accoustic and doesn't sound like a cat being murdered, so yay!) and I also gave him a hat. The hat was GOING to be a renaissance suit cut down from the one I made for Matt for The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), but it's kind of hard to sneakily get someone's measurements.

"What are you doing with that tape measure?"
"I'm giving you a, um... tape measure hug? It is more loving?"

Yeah.... no. So I made him a hat. I know we have the same size head because he almost bought my red top hat, but I got there with money first. He gets the suit when I get his measurements. Woo.

A whole bunch of people went to the restaurant/bar in the hotel for dinner/Nick's birthday. It also happened to be all-you-can-eat buffet night. Nick had three rounds. I got most of the girls at the table to give Nick lipstick kisses. Yay!

Happy birthday, Sweetie. I love you!

*Swimming! Lauren did take me out to get a bathing suit. We found a little shopping centre down the road from the hotel. There was actually a place that advertised selling sportswear, so we checked there first.

Only string bikinis, all forty dollars and up, and nothing in my size.

We asked the sales lady if she knew of anywhere else that sold swimsuits. "Ugh... maybe the Giant Tiger in Town, if they're not out."

"In Town" turned out to be on the other side of the traffic lights. But before we went there, we checked out the mall some more. We found a suit at The BARGAIN! Store (seriously- that's what it was called). Only 12 bucks! Sweeeeeeet. I went swimming with the knights and the squires and we played Marco Polo. I was only It twice before I got too cold and had to go in. Yay!

*Fun with stages! Upon getting the schedule for Saturday and Sunday, Lauren and I realized a problem. We were scheduled on the Empress Mathilda stage, which is right by the jousting list. The jousting list is where both the joust (duh) and the Birds of Prey show are held. These shows are the biggest draws in the whole festival.These shows are also mic'd with a reeeeeeeally powerful sound system.

Of course, we were scheduled at the same time as the birds of prey. Natch.

Furthermore, our stage was almost as far as possible from the water supply. It takes about 8 buckets to fill the large barrel, and then the buckets themselves need to be full. We had to carry them by hand. Twice a day. Ooooow. I'm still sore.

The shows themselves went well, though. Woo!

I'm sort of running out of steam. The only thing left to really write about is the King's Feast, which was a big crazy ball of craziness. The schedulers used the same scheduling that Gregor's Crossing had, but that was for Chelle and Duncan's wedding so things were a bit different. I will write about that.... later. Right now... bed.

Okay, enough of Gregor's. Now, THE FUTURE!!!

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:02:46 GMT

I honestly am too excited about this to sit on it any longer.

On Monday I got a call at work from Meg, the director of the Knotty Knickers. I sent in a resume to her a loooooooong time ago, but never heard back. Le sigh!

She also played Queen Guenevere at Gregor's. Apparently, she liked me! Woo! So when one of the Knickers had to back out of performing in Morrisburg, she called me!

Woooooooooooo!

The only problem was I had an e-mail agreement with Chelle to perform at Morrisburg as Lettie. But Meg and I both figured she'd still be getting mostly the same performance, just with periods of being on stage. So Meg called up Chelle to sort things out.

Good thing she did. Between planning two festivals, starting the planning for a third, AND planning her own wedding... I fell between the cracks. So I wouldn't have been paid at all for Morrisburg. So now I get to go to Morrisburg, AND I'm getting paid more than I was when I was going as Lettie. Good times all around!

I'm going to be Teensy Knickers, and I have been type-cast as stupid and crazy. At last, I have found my niche! I'm not complaining. I'm GOOD at stupid and crazy. I SHOULD be cast as stupid and crazy. I had a rehearsal today, and it was soooooooo much fun! I figure it's a good thing when everyone gets all giggly over a script they've all heard/read/written before.

Also, Meg is built like me so she has costumes that actually FIT me! YAAAAAAY! This is always exciting. Making it even better, one of the bodices is purple and sparkly. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! And I have been encouraged to not wear matching socks.

If it's at all possible, come on out to the Upper Canada Medieval Faire in Morrisburg. I doubt this will be many of you, because it's a 4 hour drive from Toronto, and as I recall most people that read this and actually know who I am live west of Oakville, making it even farther. But if you can, come on out. Pretty please?

Okay, I'm done. WOO!

Gregor's- soon

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:45:11 GMT

I got back from Gregor's Crossing.

I am tired, sunburned, bruised, sore, and finally over my swollen head.

And that's an actual physically swollen head. My ego-swollen head is just as bad as ever, thank YOU! It might even be a little bit worse, because I think things went really well.

However! I am far too tired to actually write about my adventures right now. I shall do so TOMORROW! Huzzah!

Gregor's Crossing- part the first

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:41:17 GMT

Wednesday, I booked it out of work as fast as possible so that Nick and Chris could pick me up and we could head out to Chatham for the Gregor's Crossing Medieval Faire. But first, we had to make a quick stop in Cambridge so that Chris could do stand up. Cool.

Got to the hotel, checked in with no problems and had fun exploring the room for a bit. I must state that I haven't had a going out of town overnight type vacation in six years. The closest I have had is a)visiting people in Toronto and sleeping on various couches, b)camping overnight at a ren faire after a party. I actually got to stay in a HOTEL! And the only non-smoking rooms they had had king size beds. Awesome. Also, there was a fridge! And the TV was in a cupboard.

Yes, I am easily amused.

Got up bright and early on Thursday to head to the morning meeting. We only had time to grab some fruit on the way through the lobby, since call was at 8:30. Eeeeeeewwww...

The meeting was quick, though, so there was time to run through the faire and say hello to all the folks. There were the Faires in Time folk- Ravens Hoard and Merchant's Wife and Kai Nyra and Wire to Weave- and there were the Knights of Valour folk- Stitches in Time and Elysium Merchant (although Katherine wasn't there)- and booths that are more independant like the one that sells the wraps and I can't remember the name (they brought their new baby and her name is Rainy Sky and she's ADORABLE!). There were also some reenactors. I have a love/hate relationship with reenactors. There's the ones that know their stuff, but are okay with playing around with the history for the sake of having a bit of fun. Those ones are cool, and that's the kind that was at Chatham. Yay! But then you get the ones who are ONLY about the history and ignore the need for entertainment. Ick. Also, they let me store stuff in their tent and decided they would keep me. Yay! Oh, and this only really refers to the SCA reenactors. There were also Viking reenactors, but they scared me! Many swords and fires and things. Eep!

I eventually headed out to the front gate with Nick and Chris. They went to sleep, and I encouraged small children to go and tickle them. Hooray! It wasn't long before busload after busload of kids started to arrive. I had fun asking the kids if they wanted to be my friends, and when they said yes I would squeal with delight and dance about so my bells jingled. The kids would then push their friends forward, saying "He/she wants to be your friend, too!" I would then squeal and jingle some more.

A little girl in a pink princess dress asked me if I took baths. "Well," I says to myself, "It's education day! Let's be educational!"

"Well, on special occasions, yes. But I mostly get by with a good washing."

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW! I take baths every day!"

"Gasp! You'll catch your death of cold!"

Giggle giggle giggle. "Do you brush your teeth?"

"With what?"

"With a TOOTHBRUSH!"

"Well, I clean my teeth. With a pointed stick or a bit of rag."

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!! That's so bad for your teeth!"

"Well, do you have all your teeth?"

"Samantha does!" Samantha gave me a big grin, showing off all her teeth.

"Very nice."

At this point, the queen came out and I kissed the dirt. It was at this point I discovered that the socks my sister knitted me aren't quite long enough for such maneuvers, as my medeival dress comes up above my knees when I do a face dive. The girl in pink poked my bare knee.

"Do you shave your legs?"

"Why would I? Normally, no one sees them."

"Beth shaves her legs!" Beth stuck her leg out to show me. Now this was just getting AWKWARD. Luckily, it was then time to go in.

Later in the day I decided to do the counting bit- point at the sky, yell out "ONE! ONE! ONE!" until someone comes over and sees what I'm doing, then yell "TWO! TWO! TWO!" I will actually tell people what I'm doing when they ask "What are you counting?" Not "what are you looking at?" "There's nothing there!" etc. What I am doing is counting the number of people I can get to stare at nothing.

I got a crowd of six little girls around me, heard the magic question, told them that I was counting them, then ran.

The only problem was that they followed. Eventually they caught me and asked why I ran.

"Because I TRICKED you! It was a little bit naughty."

"Did we scare you?"

"A little bit. You were chasing me!"

The girls then went and told their classmates that I was scared of people chasing me. The boys of the class decided that they were going to try their hardest to chase me, and the original six girls took it upon themselves to protect me by blowing kisses at the boys, who would run away in turn. They followed me everywhere! I had to go and hide in the first aid booth so they would lose the trail!

When they got lost, they looked for me to guide them back to their friends. One of them climbed to the top of the jousting bleachers that I was leaning against and gave me a back massage. They guided me around, always on the lookout for the boys from their class, never wanting to stay in one spot in case the boys found us.

Very cute, but aaaaaaaaargh!

Also, I got to meet Pester the Jester and Captain Jack, a couple of performers from the States. They are quite the cool dudes and are going to be at Morrisburg as well. Woo!

After the faire, Nick, Chris and I stopped by the $5 pizza place across from our hotel, grabbed some dinner, then went back to the hotel to eat said dinner, watch "Don't Forget the Lyrics" and have a nap. The plan was to then head back to the faire grounds for a rememberance party (I don't have a better word for it) for Frank, a vendor who was killed in a car accident this past year. I didn't really know Frank all that well, but I would still have liked to have been there.

Unfortunately, I woke up from my half hour nap some four hours later. Whoops. I just ended up sleeping on until morning.

Friday is kind of a blur. I did get to see Kathrine's sketches for my fairy fest costume, as well as the skirt and bodice fabrics (I'm going to be SO PRETTY!!!!!) and we chatted a bit about my pirate fest character. I have full permission to roll about in the dirt and mess up the costume. YAAAAAAAY!!!! This is going to be so much fun!

However, the reason why the rest of the day was a blur happened just before the second joust. I was walking along, balancing my mug on my head, when a medium sized kid stopped me. The kid was short enough I had to look down to talk to her, but she was tall enough that she could reach my head. THIS IS IMPORTANT.

She was being as annoying as possible- Why are you wearing that on your head? What's your name? What's your REAL name? You call THAT a toy? You're so stupid, blah blah blah.

Now, when people ask why I carry the mug on my head, I usually tell them it's so I don't have to carry it in my hand. This isn't just a funny bit of patter, it's true. The mug is VERY HEAVY. When looking down at a child, I can't wear the mug because it would fall off. The conversation with the bratty child was going on for so long that I put the mug down. I eventually got real bored of the whole thing and tried to leave. Kid grabbed my mug and said the immortal words "I want to put it on your head!"

KLUNK! The kid whacked me right on the top of the head with my very heavy mug. Spontaneous tears, half of pain, half of absolute blinding RAGE. I very nearly hit the kid back. I growled at her to give me back the mug, grabbed it, and ran across the site to the first aid booth.

I wasn't concussed, but I did have a rather swell... uh... swelling. The very nice first aid lady had me keep ice on it, and kept me with her during the joust just in case. The kid was found, her bus driver was paged and she was evicted from the park. She had to wait in the bus until her parents came and got her from London.

Now, that last part is all hearsay- I was still a bit dazed at this point and everyone was asking me questions and giving me bits of info all at the same time, and there was one woman who would NOT STOP telling me over and over again how she got hit in the head the day before and it hurt sooooooo much. By the time I was allowed to go on my way again, I was ready to hit her in the head! ARGH!

However, it IS very heartwarming to contemplate. Stupid kids.

Friday night was a party, sort of like the Court's Keg back at ORF or RAF- except we had to pay for our own booze. I wasn't drinking of course, though I sort of wanted to. I figure head injury+alcohol=bad idea.

Over the past two days, Nick and Kerba had mastered a new balance as taught to them by Kobbler Jay. Basically, Nick ends up standing on Kerba's shoulders. Kerba has his hands on Nick's ankles, and that's it. It's freakin' awesome.

Anyway, with all the balancing going on between Kerba and Jay, they decided to have a balance off, with Nick as the MC. Jay won by one point, but he also stabbed himself in the chin with a claymore, so Chris came out ahead.

That's two and a half days. It's taken me two days to write. I will post what I have and continue tomorrow with the adventures of the actual weekend.

THRILL as I get in a tickling fight with a jester!
GASP as the court of Queen Catherine of Aragon acts like a bunch of wenches!
SIGH as you witness the nicest wedding I've been to all weekend!
SQUIRM UNCOMFORTABLY as Kerba wears really unfortunate costumes!

And that's just Saturday, folks! STAY TUNED!

It ares official! Also, a request

Thu, 15 May 2008 02:19:45 GMT

I checked my degree audit thingy this morning. All the different sections say "ALL CRS REQM SATISFIED," which translates to me officially having everything I need to graduate. Boom, baby! You can't tell, because this is text and not video, but I'm TOTALLY doing a victorious booty shaking dance. It kind of annoyed the sisterly one, though, so I stopped.

So I guess this means I'm now officially a grown up. Which means I need the help of all the people out there who actually know me in person and don't just read this because they randomly follow my adventures on the internet.

Please please please don't let me fade away and not talk to people or go out or anything? I'm disgustingly good at convincing myself that nobody likes me and they don't want me bothering them. It doesn't help that I've been flat broke and couldn't have seen anyone if I wanted to. This then leads to people thinking that I don't like them because I never talk to them. (If I haven't seen/visited you, it's not because I don't like you, it's because I've been flat broke, and couldn't AFFORD to see anyone, so I kind of hid. I'm sorry. I loves you all) This cycle of "I don't talk to you, so you don't talk to me, so I won't talk to you" then leads, tragically, to me becoming emo.

I will sit at home alone, listening to sappy music while making unfortunate fashion decisions. It's already begun- I quite enjoy Panic! At The Disco (haven't heard the new CD yet, so the exclamation point stays). Today, I caught myself looking at black hair dye in the drug store- I told myself that it's because I'm playing an evil fairy at the Guelph Faery Festival next month and golden blonde (let me have my illusions!) isn't all that evil, but who am I kidding? I am getting saturated in emo. What's next? Sullen behaviour? Overdone eyeliner? CRYING OF STARS?

Please, ladies and gentlemen, only you can prevent emo-Chris.

(Seriously- I'm always in Toronto since I started the new job, and getting to Hamilton on weekends is easy-peasy. I would invite people to my place, but there's NOTHING TO DO IN OAKVILLE!!! I'm bored and lonely and miss people.)

Oh... right... work.

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:08:50 GMT

I just realized that I've been working for a whole month and I haven't said a thing on here about my job.

I file things, answer questions, take payments, fill out paper work/help bankrupt people fill out their paperwork, book appointments, do banking and mailing, answer the phone, and all the usual secretarial stuff.

Oh right. That's why I haven't written about it. There's not much to say.

(One month til renfaire! *boogies*)

I tempt fate once again

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:39:32 GMT

Dare I say it? I've made this post before, only to be horrifically shot down. But I think I'm okay. I went into the exam with a B-, and I'd have to get less than five questions on the exam right to fail. And that exam was pretty easy, with questions such as "An allegory is a)a creation story b)a narrative using symbolism c)a large lizard similar to a crocidile."

Okay, they weren't quite that easy. But it was close! And there was a question asking what an allegory was.

I've got all my credits and all my requirements. My average is actually higher than it's ever been.

So I think I might be safe. I think I can actually say it.

Ladies and gentlemen... as of this evening, I finished my BA.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

EEEEEEEE!

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:01:39 GMT

Oh my goodness gracious me! I did it I did it I did it!

"What did you did?" I can hear you asking. After scolding you for your HORRIBLE grammar, I shall tell you!

I've been hired as a street act at not one, but TWO festivals! Gregor's Crossing, which is out in Chatham, and Upper Canada Medieval Festival, which is in Kingston. EEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Okay okay okay. So why is all this different then what I've done before? Because this is the first time I'm performing as a "free agent." I've always been on the cast before. It's been a case of people saying go do this, this and this. This will be me figuring everything out for myself. It's my own ideas and entirely my own performance that people will be seeing. Kind of scary, kind of awesome.

I'm sticking with the name "Lettie," but dropping the last name from Abingdon. It's basically the same character, so I might as well keep most of the name. But I'm not necessarily the farmer's daughter, and I don't have a twin sister that looks nothing like me, and I do NOT have an obsession with cabbages, so I'm not Lettie Gail Radcliffe. Shush, it makes sense in my head.

In random experiments with costumes, I have discovered that my two chemises layered together give a pretty good medieval look- to be perfect, it would have to lace up the back, but I should be all right.

If you didn't feel like reading all that, I'll just sum it up with GLEEEEEEE!

Plug plug pluggity plug!

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:04:06 GMT

I just finished reading Elizabeth C. Bunce's A Curse Dark as Gold. Before I say anything about the book, I must admit that I internet-know the author, elizabethcbunce. And I also must say that that only influenced me to pick up the book, not my actual thoughts on it.

Because HOLY CRAP AWESOME!!!!! I plowed through the book in only a few hours. I had been sitting in the living room reading while other family members watched TV, and I honestly had to leave the room because I was gasping and waving my hands around in excitement.

The book is at heart a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin set in the industrial revolution (you know how it's the miller's daughter that has to spin straw into gold? Well, it's a TEXTILE mill! Clever!) And it makes sense for Rumplestiltskin to want the baby, and there's a good reason for the miller's daughter to try and figure out his real name.

A++++++++++ Would read again.

Not a good week for writing

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:17:56 GMT

Well, not blogging, anyway. I wasn't quite up to sharing. But now I am. So... share I shall.

I mentioned sort of in passing last week that my grandma was in the hospital. I went to see her on Friday.

Grandma was in isolation, so I had to put on a gown, gloves and a mask to go in and see her. I held her hand, and her eyes moved around, but she couldn't squeeze my hand and I don't know that she even really saw me.

The next day I spent at home, but I couldn't stop thinking about Grandma. I needed a distraction. So I called up Nick and we agreed to meet up at Kate's birthday party (which I'd forgotten about, but I think I can be excused because I was juuuuust a little out of it). Kerba picked me up (he was at work, so he was closer) and we drove out to a place called, appropriately enough, "The Place" for Karaoke. Kate was already there, Stuart (ANOTHER person who I haven't seen since Abbingdon- I'm terrible at keeping up with people) showed up not long after we got there and Nick and Shawn showed just when I was about to go on stage. Yay!

I tend to lose track of time at karaoke type events. Some songs seem to never end, so it really throws me off. As it turns out, it was 11:48 when I flipped open my phone to check the time. I know this because 20 minutes earlier my mom had left a message on the phone. With the almost deafening roar of off key caterwauling (some of it coming from me, especially while we sung Happy Birthday to Kate, and I contributed by bellowing the "You look like a monkey" variation at the top of my lungs) I didn't hear it ring.

I didn't even bother to check the message I just called home. My Mom answered on the fourth ring.

"Mom? Did you call me?"

"We got a call from Uncle Bob. Grandma's gone. Come home." Gone, with that tone of voice that makes it pretty clear she hasn't somehow been misplaced.

I can be sort of flippant about it right now, because it's nearly a week later and I handle most problems through sarcasm and laughter. I couldn't do that at the time, though.

I sort of stumbled through the bar. Nick asked "What's up?" and I tried to tll him, but before I could get a word out I started crying.

He gave me a hug and after a few moments I managed to sob into his neck what had happened, that I need to go home. People hugged me goodbye, not really clear why I was crying (I couldn't deal with saying it again) and Nick took me home.

The actual funeral was on Thursday, and it was a wonderful gathering. Nick came and met half my family, most of whom I have trouble keeping straight (but they liked him. Yay!). Family and friends from all over were able to make it out. Mostly people were happy about being together, rather than sad about losing Grandma.

Grandma was a classy lady. She pretty much was the phrase "You can do whatever you put your mind to" personified. She was a fantastic crafter, who really did just about everything. She sewed, cooked, wove fabric, made jewellery, played musical instruments, danced, dyed scarves, knit, crocheted and I don't know what else. And all this with hands and feet that were badly deformed from getting horrible frostbite when she was a kid. We're talking "the doctors want to amputate" case of bad frostbite. She had an absolutely wicked sense of humour, but she knew how to be a lady, too.

I love you, Grandma, and I'll miss you terribly.

And that's all I have to say about that.

I am SO FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!!!!

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:45:31 GMT

I did it! I did it! *insert booty shaking dance here*

That place that I interviewed for? THEY'RE REALLY HIRING ME! For real! None of this "You're the best candidate for the job, but we're not hiring you." No "We'll contact you if this other person doesn't work out." Actually hired for real. On the table next to me I have an honest to goodness offer of employment. It's addressed to me, it has my name on it, and it has a goodly sized number on it which is how much they will be paying me.

HOORAY! *shakes booty some more*

I'm so cool.

Busy WEEK!

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:23:24 GMT

The week of holy-crap-everything-is-happening-at-once began, appropriately enough, on Monday. On Monday I had an interview at which I kicked metaphorical butt. I don't kick actual butt at an interview, as this would lead my would-be employer to believe I am a violent person who would be a danger to other employees.

Anyhoo, interview went awesome, I was told to come back on Thursday. At this point I knew there were only three other candidates. So, woo!

Also, I got an e-mail from Kathryn (costume lady, owner of The Merchant's Wife and one of the head people for Flights of Fantasy) asking me to play a lady-in-waiting to the unseelie queen at Faery Fest. Unseelie means evil naughty fairies. Kathryn asking me to do it means I get a cool costume. Victory is mine! Also, since I'm court it means I get to punish Nick and Kerba when they steal stuff. Mwahahahaha...

Tuesday I had night class. Only four classes left! Woo! However, I also found out that my grandma has been hospitalized. She has a nasty cough that won't go away, as well as some complications with her diabetes. Not woo.

Wednesday, my Mom headed out to Woodstock to visit my Grandma. I stayed at home because I needed to be around in case I got a call about a job. I also started making cookies.

However, as I was measuring out the butter for said cookies (almost a full cup. Mmmmmmmm...) I got a call from Mom to start the roast for dinner. It had been... well, marinating isn't the right word, because there's no liquid involved, but sitting in the fridge absorbing tasty herbs and spices. I had to remove the herbs and spices, rub it with oil, brown it in the oven, and slather it in garlic paste.

This is the most complicated roast I have ever dealt with. The recipie is three pages long and it takes two days to make.

Let me just say, trying to make cookie dough and that roast at the same time is confusing! However, both roast and cookies turned out deliciously- no garlic in the cookies and no chocolate chips in the roast. And neither one was burned, though I think the roast could have been a bit more cooked, but that's my own personal preference. Hooray!

Thursday! Interview v. 2.0! Oh it went well. Basically I was just meeting with the higher up boss to see if we could work together. I also found out that there was only one other candidate. Eeeeeexcellent. They also asked for my references, so it's right down to the wire.

Yesterday evening I went out with Nick and we saw "The Other Boleyn Girl." It was really very good. I may or may not have totally geeked out about Jane Boleyn, nee Parker, getting screen time. For those just joining us, I've played her a couple of times at a few different faires. Also, it was just a gorgeous movie, with very pretty Jim Sturgess- I mean, costumes. Yes. That's what I meant to say. What?

This morning, I got a misdirected e-mail from the place I've been interviewing with- they accidentally sent me what they've been told by my references. Whoops.

But I have gooooooood references.

I'm hoping to hear back by the end of the day. I don't know if that will happen, but here's hoping.

Also, today is Pi day! Woo! Have some pie!

Busy day

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:38:37 GMT

I had my interview today! It went REALLY well, and they want me to come back on Thursday for an interview with the big boss! Woo! I do a happy dance.

The rest of the day was spent sleeping. I've had a horrible migraine for the past few days. I was able to be chipper and cheerful through the interview, but I then went home and slept for about five hours. Awesome.

Also, there was a creepy guy on the train that kept getting me to verify which station we were at and wanting to know when I was getting off the train. Creeeeeeeeeeepy.

Also also, I ran into a girl I was in band and theatre stuff with in high school. I could not for the life of me remember her name at the time, so I just didn't use her name. But I also noticed she never used mine. It was kind of weird. I honestly don't have any contact with people I knew in high school except for Sarah (she also took theatre at Mac). I'm one of those people who ran away to university and was filled with glee that no one knew just how much of a socially awkward nerd I was. Don't get me wrong- I'm still a nerd. But I'm no longer a socially awkward one.

And on that note, the Tylenol is starting to wear off. Nighty night.

Touching things hurts

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 03:07:04 GMT

Yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment. I have seriously destroyed my fingertips today. So what do I really want to do? Type. Yeah, I'm smart.

"But Chris!" I can hear you saying. (Well, it's either you or the lack of medication) "However did you manage to hurt your fingertips?"

Well, the answer, my friends, is simple. I have been SEWING! And because I feel like being a luddite, I have been sewing by HAND! I spend around 300 on a machine, and I keep sewing stuff by hand. WHY???

Well, in this case it's because I don't want the machine stitches to show through. I'm sewing the fashion fabric onto the interlining of my new bodice, and it just looks odd to have the machine stitches visible.

The point is, OW! My next project is going to be something with big long seams and no buttons or hooks or anything like that. NO MORE HAND SEWING FOR A WHILE!

In other news, I had a job interview on Tuesday, for serving at a private club. My only experience with serving is the fast food variety, but I think the interview went okay. I also have ANOTHER interview on Monday as an office manager type thing in Toronto, and I'm one of only four candidates. And the pay would actually be high enough that I could start building up some savings, even with the cost of commuting.

In other other news, I spent the evening helping my parents clean out my sister's old bedroom so that it can actually function as a guest room. This means that a lot of the fabric and costumes I had surreptitiously stored in there has had to migrate back to my room. If I die in a mysterious closet explosion... well, now you know why.

I am so smart... I am so smart

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:41:38 GMT

Okay, so it may not be all THAT impressive, but I finally got around to getting my Smart Serve Certification. Woo! Another good thing I can put on my resume.

Because I still don't have a job! Woo!

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:16:58 GMT

When we last saw our hero, she had been working on her new bodice. Everything was going swimmingly. She had actually fitted the darn thing so that it didn't wrinkle or ride up. She had laid out the boning channels so they actually worked for her figure and gave proper support to the garment.

She sewed the boning channels into the interlining (a new experiment- trying not to have the boning channels show through the fashion fabric). She cut out the boning and sanded it so that it (hopefully!) wouldn't poke through the canvas. She cut off the huge seam allowances. She overlocked the edges of the interlining so it wouldn't fray. She was about to attach the fashion fabric when she noticed something horrible.

She had cut the wrong. Stinkin'. Line. The line she cut along? No the seam allowance line! It was the freakin' SEWING line! Attempting to actually sew the stupid thing together would ruin the perfect fit that our hero had painstakingly obtained (literally. There were many pins and shoulders involved, as well as the accidental kicking over of her pin box. In bare feet. OW!)

All is not lost- this has simply become a front lacing AND side lacing bodice. This involved ripping out of many stitches all over the place, putting in another boning channel, cutting another piece of boning and having to redo all the stitching. Otherwise the side lacing would be REALLY wibbly. HORRIBLY ANNOYING!

In other news, I found I have some wire that would work as millinery wire, so I can use some leftover fabric to make a hat.

OOOH! And maybe I'll finally get around to making a bonnet. So many plans...

Boooooored

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:41:39 GMT

I need a job. My brain has far too much time to be idle.

For example, I was looking through pictures from the Pirate Festival and found Jenn's awesome shot of Kevin the Action Figure clinging to the side of a wall and about to rain horrible doom on Scotty, aka the_pirate_show. In other words, this picture

This photo makes Kevin look awesome. Dude, he looks like freakin' Spider-Pirate. But, since I have this horribly idle brain, I decided that it was SCOTTY'S turn to look awesome!

Help... me...

Bodices are fun!

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:11:07 GMT

New bodice, new bodice, hooray!

For once I'm doing this right and actually DOCUMENTING what the heck I'm doing so that I can remember for my next time through.

This is my third attempt at a bodice. My first was side lacing and made from corduroy with hand stitched eyelets. This is my "brownie" bodice, because the crinkly corduroy goes with the crinkly cotton chemise. Also, it's brown.

Bodice two is a front lacing bodice made from the tiniest little scrap of tapestry I found at fabric land for a buck. It seems all right at first, but the fit isn't perfect (it sort of rides up) and the edging is terrible and fray-tastic, and the front lacing is all- to use a technical term- wibbly. I put the gromets closer to the edge than the boning, and if I lace the bottom holes they just sort of curl up instead of lying flat.

So now it's bodice three. Huzzah.

If everything goes according to plan, this one will be reversable- red with stripes on the one side, yellow on the other, with a double layer of canvas inside. Oooooooooh.

From bodice 3

I began with my basic bodice pattern. I made this- gosh, nearly two years ago, now. Basically, I put on an oversized t-shirt that I never wanted to see again, and had my mom wrap me in tape. This is usually done with duct tape, but we didn't have any. So instead we improvised with some blue tarp tape we had lying around. Then the whole thing was Michaelangelo'd- everything that was not a bodice pattern got cut off.

From bodice 3

This pattern then got transfered to canvas, with huuuuuuuuuuuuge seam allowances. This gives me room to let things out if necessary. I didn't think it would be, but you never know. I don't have a photo of this, but I then pinned along the seam lines and tested the fit. I needed to take it in along the front, change the position of the shoulder straps, and take in just a little along the front sides.

From bodice 3

Here's the end result of my tinkering with the pattern. Oooooh. You'll notice some random lines along the middle of the pieces. Those are where, according to a pattern I had, I should put the boning channels. And yes, it is all drawn in with pencil, even though I recently said that I'd never use pencil while sewing again. That's okay, because this is the inside layer of fabric- there will be fashion fabric covering up my drawing. I don't need to erase anything, even though erasing on canvas works much better than erasing cotton shirting.

From bodice 3

Next step was to put two layers of canvas together and sew along the pattern lines, giving me my interlining layer. I can basically treat these double-layered pieces like a single layer, now.

From bodice 3

Another fitting! I pinned the interlining to myself and checked the positioning of the boning. In it's original position, as you can see on the right, it would have done absolutely nothing for me. So I redrafted it to a much steeper angle, requiring a much longer piece of boning, as can be seen on the left. But this way it actually does what it's supposed to do. Whoo.

And that's as far as I've gotten. Next step is to actually sew in the boning channels and cut off the huuuuge seam allowances.

Grump

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:36:17 GMT

Back in September, I officially joined Fight Directors of Canada. This saved me money on my auto insurance stage combat lessons. Unfortunately, I still couldn't afford the full run of lessons, but what will be will be.

This week I finally got my membership card. Woo!

But for some bizarre and unknown reason, FDC seems to think I'm a guy. Everything is addressed to "Mr. Chris McLeod."

Hmph.

I've learned my lesson

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:25:12 GMT

After spending the last 20 minutes trying to clean this shirt so I can wear it, I have learned my lesson:

When trying to mark white fabric for the purposes of sewing, do NOT use lead pencil! It's a total pain in the rear to get out of the fabric, and it shows RIGHT THROUGH.

On the plus side, I finished the white shirt I was working on (it's got buttons and EVERYTHING!) and I'm just hemming my plaid skirt which I made last Christmas.

Not being able to go fabric shopping means that if I want to sew stuff, I actually have to finish what I start. Shocking, I say. Shocking.

A Day of Victory!

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 05:04:23 GMT

This past weekend I somehow lost my cellphone at Union (whoops). So I temporarily canceled service so the phone was useless and waited until Monday to call the GO lost and found department to see if they had it.

I totally forgot that Monday was Family Day- for the non-Ontarians who read this, Family Day is our brand spankin' new statutory holiday that has everyone a little confused- so therefore the lost and found department was closed. Crap.

Fast forward to today! Bright and early this morning I called the lost and found line.

"Hi, I lost a cell phone at Union or on the Lakeshore West line on Sunday- has anything been turned in?"

"Well, we only have one," said the apologetic lost and found lady.

"...is it a bright red Samsung?"

"Yes it is."

"Hooray!"

I gave her some information so someone else wouldn't try and claim it, then hopped on the first train to Union. Got the phone back right away and had to wait half an hour for the train going the other way. Woo.

I took the bus home from the Oakville station. My Mom was kind of surprised.

"Why didn't you call? I could have given you a ride."

"How would I call? My phone is suspended!"

"...good point."

So I set about un-suspending my phone. I couldn't do it over the internet- it said I had to talk to a customer care specialist. So I called the special help line from my phone.

This is where things started to get really, REALLY frustrating. My cell phone company has a vocal voice mail thing- you say what you want, rather than pressing buttons.

The only problem is that they just want you to say a short sentence saying what you want, not giving you any hints as to the options.

"I found my lost phone."

"OK. So you want to report a lost or stolen phone?"

"No! Um... un-suspend phone."

"I'm not sure what you just said."

"Activate phone?"

"OK, so you want to activate a new digital PCS or Blackberry?"

"No!"

This went on for quite some time. I sometimes would get to a message that wanted me to check some code on the back of my phone. I had to hang up, take out the battery from my phone, call from ANOTHER line, only to discover that I've got an older phone that doesn't have that type of code.

At one point- I have no idea how I did it- I actually got a menu of sorts. "If you want to activate your new phone, say 'activate.' If you want to check your account balance, say 'balance.'" There were a couple more options as well, but nothing that was what I wanted.

Finally, in a fit of rage I just screamed at the phone "I JUST WANT TO TALK TO A REAL PERSON!!!!!!"

"You are now being transfered to a customer care specialist. This call may be taped to ensure quality service."

ARGH!!!!!! Why the heck wasn't "speak to an operator" an option... ANYWHERE?????

ARGH!!!

After all that, it actually turns out that part of their system was down, and they couldn't process my bloody request. I would have to call back in 2-3 hours. Thanks! That's awesome.

In conclusion, I did call back, managed to skip the voice mail stuff by saying "real person" straight off, and my phone is reactivated. So all you people who have been just DYING to call me... well, now you can. Woo. (But you're still more likely to get me on my land line)

This evening, I went out with the Sisterly One and the parents to see Enchanted. Awesome movie. It's been a few hours and I still have that "How Can You Show That You Love Her?" song stuck in my head. Also, because it's Tuesday and Enchanted has been in theatres for weeks now, the theatre was completely empty. Seriously, it was just my family. It was pretty cool.

Afterwards we went out for tasty tasty desert at Demetre, a cafe near the movie theatre. I had the biggest mug of tea I have ever had in my life. It had fruit in it. Not as in it was fruit tea, no no no. This had a lemon slice, a strawberry and a hunk of banana stuck on the side of the cup. It was odd, but tasty.

The end!

Bored bored bored

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:41:20 GMT

There is only so much reading and applying for jobs that I can do before my brain decides to go on strike.

Therefore, as a bit of a distraction, I decided to colour this nifty picture that spike20 had drawn. It's full of steam punky goodness. I'm not done yet, but I need to show off.

I'm quite pleased with the shading on the left glove. Oooooooh, glowy reflections. I also think I got a nice leathery look for the coat. But as I said, work in progress, we'll see how it goes.