a nice, nice day

It's been a challenging week. Byron's been working in Calgary, I was disgustingly sick earlier in the week and we've been getting some insane rain storms. I love 'em, but it's hard to get anything done outside when you're in the midst of an ark-worthy deluge.

I'm on weekend duty, and that always ensures my weekends are less spontaneous and lazy than usual. I love weekend duty in its own way, though, it's a chance to do my regular job at a totally different pace, under different circumstances, and in a familiar environment but with all of the external distractions removed. I think I'm very good at it. My 9-5 job definitely does not provide the optimal setting for me to excel.

As I was leaving on Friday I was told to expect a call from a very aggressive and unreasonable client on Saturday morning. I'd worried that this might be a hellish weekend, and wondered if I could make it a good one by wishing it so. This is probably wishful thinking (and rightfully so), but I believe it worked. Here are some of the things that made it a nice, nice day:

*I woke up not feeling tired, and early enough to get some yard work done before having to go on duty. The sun was coming up, and it was perfectly clear with a tiny chill in the air. Some birds were at the feeder, enjoying the fresh food. There's one hot mama purple finch that all the boy finches are fighting over, a pair of cardinals that feed each other, and a dizzy mourning dove that likes to just walk around the yard. I love watching them.

*I also did some laundry and was able to hang that up on the line before heading out to work. I love hanging clothes in the sunshine.

*I inflated my tires and rode my bike to Broadview station--my triumphant first bike trip of the season!) I didn't feel nervous riding in traffic (minimal traffic, but still, a successful venture)

* I got to King and Yonge just in time to go on duty and turn on the phone, then went to Starbuck's and had some tea and people-watched, ready to spring into action as soon as the phone rang. Downtown is delightfully empty and quiet on early weekend mornings. I had a good 20 minutes to myself.

*apparently was extremely helpful to all of my clients, and actually had fun being helpful to most of them. I've made a few changes in the way I work, and felt very organized. Only said "WTF?" twice, I think.

*accidentally found myself in the midst of a huge gang of walking photographers, and talked to a few of them. There were SLR'ers, digicam folk and even iPhone-cam wielding enthusiasts. am invited to check the website and come out on a walk with them.

*streetcar-ed it home, thankful to be leaving downtown just as the walking-along-and-being-macho MMA fans were swarming in.

*biked home to enjoyed a panzarotto on the back porch, with the birds and some enlightening IM'ing.

*heard from a guy on craigslist who is selling his metal forge and gear; we'd inquired, but it all appeared to be spoken for. Now it seems that's iffy, and he'll let us know if it doesn't get sold tomorrow.

The aggressive unreasonable man? He did call. He was indeed very aggressive and unreasonable. He also came across as ill-informed. I finally had to tell him I had to up because I couldn't help him.

So, over all, I think a fair rating of this is a nice, nice day :) of course, there's always Sunday....

nothing and everything

well well well, it's been a couple of weeks since our whirlwind trip Quebec city. It was a great and refreshing getaway, full of good food, wonderful sights and bonhomie.

In the weeks since then, I've had renewed energy and have thrown myself into reading (The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge and The Reformation: A Very Short Introduction by Peter Marshall), becoming active on a couple of Asperger's forums, getting out in the garden and being as happy as a little clam at work. My cubicle mate got moved, so now I have the whole cube to myself, and am no longer self-conscious about interacting with my clients the way that works best for me. All in all, these are some pretty good days.

Perhaps due to the assessment I had earlier this year (and the subsequent Asperger's diagnosis), I've come to feel that this year already has been pretty eventful. I've discovered new ways of thinking, slightly different ways of interacting with people and expressing myself, and seemingly more successful ways of managing problems. In the past I'd call each of these mini-triumphs an epiphany, but this all has been much more than just an epiphany...it feels more like a convergence of epiphanies.

To celebrate all of this, I went out and got a tattoo today. I had originally wanted an enso tattoo in white ink on my palm, but most tattoo artists flat out won't do palms, and many won't do white tattoos. I found a lady who suggested we do it in black, and then successfully talked me out of doing it on my palm (this is apparently a terribly painful place to get a tattoo, and is the optimal site for infection and other problems). We ended up doing a white enso on my right wrist, and you know, it didn't really hurt much. I think I could have handled the painon my palm, but she's probably right, being unable to fully use my right hand for a month might have become a bit of a hassle.

The enso can be said to represent any number of things, depending on who you ask or what you read. It can represent enlightenment, rebirth, the cosmos, the void, the cyclical nature of life. To me, it looks like a representation of change over time, as the brush loses ink and the brush stroke tapers off. The act of painting enso is sometimes used as mindfulness practice, where each enso is a one-off, representing the energy of the moment of its creation. No other enso drawn will ever be the same. During my reading I came across the idea of wabi-sabi, the belief that nothing is permanent, complete or perfect. The white ink is likely not going to be permanent; for me, this is part of the appeal. It made sense to me to get a tattoo (itself a symbol of permanence) that will eventually fade and become a scar over the years.

At the moment the tattoo looks like I was bitten on the arm by a rabid child (it is only 7 hours old), but I will post a picture at some point. :)

Quebec City, day 2

Day two in Quebec City started early, with a nice little basket of breakfast delivered to our room. A fresh croissant, jam and a little muffin and some coffee provided enough fuel in our tanks to get us out wandering up the hill into the old part of the city. The snow that was forecast for today held off, and we spent 7 hours or so wandering the cobblestone streets, browsing some galleries, looking at statues, climbing up and down many many stairs. This, of course, is a lot of work! So we had to make frequent stops for pastries, coffee, and lunch.

After a return to the hotel for a well deserved nap, we were up in time to make our reservation at a local restaurant specializing in rabbit. Good old traditional french homestyle cooking! I like to imagine that our dinners were originally very practical dishes whipped up by French farmwives with a surplus of varmint. We had rabbit rilettes to start, a lovely spread that reminded a little of flaked tuna in texture. Byron had a cassoulet with rabbit leg, and I chowed down on rabbit pie.

Now we're pooped...it seems like we're doing a lot of indulgent eating, but we did pretty much walk our feet off today, so hopefully it'll all even out. We'll see what tomorrow brings, perhaps a trip outside the city to explore the Ile D'orleans...

A load of photos to be posted once I have the energy to ;)

Quebec city, yay!

hahah! it's been ages since I've posted. so typical. It's not that I don't do anything, or that I don't do anything exciting, I just have such a short attention span that by the time I've got the laptop in hand (or on lap, as it were) so much other stuff has happened that I feel overwhelmed and I usually can't even bring myself to attempt to record any of it here. I blame Hans Asperger for identifying a number of traits that would later be collectively described as a syndrome that I dislike to name, because in my head it always is spelled Ass-burgers, which makes me giggle, and then brings great shame, because I know I'm being juvenile. If it weren't for him, I'd be able to be simply quirky.

But I digress.. the past 24 hours have been exciting. Here's what I (and Byron) have been up to:

Thurs, 6:00 pm: my first metalworking class, yay! got to handle an oxy/acetelyne torch, burned holes in my glove, a piece of sheet metal the work table and my finger. It was not a magic torch, it took much effort and several attempts to do all of this damage. I also almost poked my kind workmate (a huge south american gentleman whose smock proclaimed him to be Ella) in the face with a piece of wire, which he assured me was ok. My self imposed homework is to attempt to practice mindfulness.

Thurs, 10:00 pm: home to finish laundry, pack, try to ge to sleep early (manage to get to sleep around 1:30) Byron indicates a desire to 'sleep in' til 7 if possible.

Fri, 5:30 am: Byron wakes up to find my scantily clad and crawling around on the kitchen floor and being noisy. A seizure of some sort? sleepwalking, perhaps? no, just trying to catch a mouse. Sorry, Byron!

Fri, 6:30 am: on the road, Quebec City or bust!

Fri, 10:30-ish am: stop at Trenton for coffee, nibbles and a stretch. making good time, lovely, sunny weather.

Fri, 12:30 pm: stop at Benny Poulet on Autoroute Felix Leclerc (near Antoine de Lavalrie) for some poulet et frites delicieux! light snow.

Fri, 3:30 pm: beinvenue a Quebec! our hotel, the Hotel des Coutellier, is a lovely little place facing the harbour in the old part of town. snowing steadily, time for a quick peek around the 'hood.

Fri, 5:00 pm: looks like the area is full of galleries, antique stores and other neat little boutiques, time for eats! Time to mosey back to the hotel for dinner at the restaurant downstairs, Moss--specializing in Belgian food. What's Belgian food? Apparently, it includes good bread, beer, lots of mussels, and steak tartare! Yummy. Found a bonus layer of capers in my dinner, I love capers. Tricked the host into thinking we spoke French, right up until about 40 seconds in, when he asked if he could take our coats. I was pleased with myself. Snowing heavily!

Fri, 6:30 pm: up to the room, for some quiet time spent loafing around in hotel bathrobe and surfing the 'net, possibly bedtime soon :)

Looking forward to what Samedi brings...more snow, apparently, but also perhaps a visit to a cabane a sucre and more attempts to speak the local lingo.