Category Archives: Travel

What 2012 looks like for me.

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It doesn’t include the end of the world, let me tell you that.

Nope

If the apocalypse comes, I am not at home. I’ve read enough fiction to know that. Sheesh.

I should probably disclaim at this point: my plans are always nebulous. I’ve had enough curve balls thrown at me to (hopefully) not be too set on any plan I attempt to predict the future with. I am no prophet.

Anyways, my plan for the next year comes in three parts. I had originally planned to go back to school in January. I was gonna take 6 courses, it was gonna be awesome. And then, (curve ball ahoy) my funding (in the form of a long-shot bank loan) for next term did not appear. At that point I took a long hard look at my bank account and– I get to work for the next term!

As much as I am regretful about not being able to go back and study Celtic History and Logic and Greek/Roman History and Psychology and French and Global Short Fiction– all those courses should still be offered when I get back Next winter. And I am so looking forward to being able to look at my bank account and feel I’m snubbing bankruptcy. (Right now our flirting is about toescalate to tongue-kissing, to illustrate the state of my bank account.)

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Transit across the continent achieved!

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The obligatory picture of the view from my hotel room.

Guess what? I’m in San Diego! Yes, the palm trees were a bit of a tip off, I’m sure.

I flew in two days early for Clarion to let me start to get over jet lag, which bit of planning I am profoundly grateful for. I got in at noon local time, which my body thought was 4:30, on two hours sleep having woken up at 2 am. I stayed up for another nine hours out of pure bloody-mindedness, but it’s not as though anything useful happened in those nine hours. When you find yourself too zonked to do a facebook quiz, you know you’re out of it.

This morning I got an email from the first week’s instructor, who was imparting quite a bit of information. The part I have worked past hyperventilating (but not past the stomach ache) about is that one of my stories is going to be workshopped on the very first day. The instructor (the lovely Nina Kiriki Hoffman) is highly encouraging us to write stories while we’re in San Diego, and to give us two days to panic something out she has arranged the first two days to be spent critiquing submission stories, and I’m on the block for day one, week one.

I’ve never workshopped or anything of the sort before, so I really don’t know what this will be like. (Other than painful.) I’m especially worried about my ego, to be honest, because I submitted those stories because they were the best I had and I couldn’t see how to make them better. Seeing these stories in particular torn to shreds is going to be special. But I’m also very excited about this, because I don’t have to worry for long about what they’re going to think of what I write. I can just dive in the deep end and hope I don’t belly flop.

And I won’t be telling you how the experience went for another two months. I actually won’t be blogging during the whole of Clarion for a variety of reasons. I will now lay them out in a list, because I like lists.

  • Blogging is a prime way to distract myself, particularly if I have to start searching for pictures to illustrate my posts. I am already very good at distracting myself and not exactly the most EXPERIENCED person going into this thing, so I want to roadblock this avenue to failure and despair early.
  • The likelihood of feedback on what I write from people outside of Clarion would just make me post some incredibly winy rants. They didn’t like my story! I don’t know how to use punctuation! Someone laughed at me! I spilled my coffee on my shoe! Oh, cry me a river, self. I haven’t even WRITTEN those posts yet, and I’m boring myself. 
    • And, y’know, whining all over the internet doesn’t do a whole lot towards making me seem more mature. 
  • As a going away present, the people at work gave me this really pretty diary and pen set. The pen clicks and the diary has a magnetic clasp. It’s just begging to be used!
  • Yay bullet points!
Right! So as I alluded to in that wonderful list, I won’t be blogging but I will be diarising. (I mean, duh. This must be preserved!) I also bought a fancy camera, so I’ll be using that. :D It makes lovely shutter noises! Ca-chunk Ca-chunk. #easilyamused
See you around!
Down below those clouds is St. John’s.

“It’s kinda a big deal.”

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And with seven hours (max) of sleep, we headed for Sin Jawns! The youngsters were all going to Camp Delight for eight days, and us adults were going along to drive, and- well, um, *waves hands vaguely* see people. You know, as adults do.

All the camp people crammed into the van of excitement and hysteria, and Daddy, Slonner and I were exiled to the car. *Looks at Van crammed full of excited children* *looks at VW full of space and a working radio* *compares*
Clearly, we had the short end of the stick. It was tragic, I tell you.

Daddy and I spent the 4.5 hour drive in listening to the radio, and talking art and marketing. As one does. Then we dropped off the children at Camp, where they took the absolute minimum amount of time getting settled in. THROW the luggage from the van. LUG AT HIGH SPEED to the cabins. HUG parents. Bye now! Trapezoid especially was very efficient. I was still helping small girls carry suitcases bigger than themselves when he had finished carrying three suitcases and a bag taller than him to his cabin. Then he vanished to do arcane boy things with his cabin. I didn’t ask questions.

Now, as previously mentioned in the last post, I’d bought some earrings the day before. That meant that when we actually got to town, I didn’t have my usual monies to spend on books or theatres. My normal Modus Operandi would have to be ADJUSTED. Therefore, while my industrious father went to take the ferry over to an old iron mine to take pictures of an indie turkish rock band, bringing my lovely mother and energetic small brother, I stayed in the hotel and chased a sunspot along the couch.

After this long and involved exercise, and after- incidentally- my family in town were barred from their ferry and had to wait for the next one, we had chinese food and entertained a newly married couple who were slightly younger than I. The entertainment mainly consisted of talk of schools and the music industry, and coffee and timbits. Which obviously is the best of all possible conversations. :D

After we’d exsausted the coffee, I was brought out in state to help grocery pick, and be driven about town at night, and see the new apartment. The new apartment was, of course, lovely. We watched the Taking Of Pelham 123, which was significantly less lovely. Profanity can be used effectively in a story, but I really don’t think professional people use one word as the noun, verb, adjective and other modifiers in one sentence. And it’s all the same word? I mean, if I’ve met people who REALLY swear, they at least have two or three words they alternate between. This was just awkward and tiring. The only person who really pulled it off was John Travolta, who was quite believably insane. ^_^ But yeah, the story was so muddled it might have been good- but I really have no idea, I cared about a random sniper more than the MC, and the triumphant ending was- really not. SIGH. If you’re going to present a conflict, people, have the goodness to resolve it! If you’re dealing with layers of lies, either wink and nod when you leave, or TELL THE TRUTH, don’t just wander aimlessly into the sunset. *glares at storywriters* John Travolta was the best part.

In the morning I woke up. Which I put as a point of interest, seeing as I was up until 2:30+ the night before, and then up at 8, and I don’t function well on less than nine hours. YOU DO THE MATH. So then we, hmmm. *thinks* We went to costco, and McDonalds, where someone named James- I love you James, learn to be observant- neglected to get my salad dressings or tell me that he had to tell someone else about out for 15 minutes. Which when you’re standing by the counter of a fast food restaurant, is a LONG TIME. And then we went to Long and McQuade, where I stayed in the car and read, and then went home.  The trip back was spent looking at the views, talking Churchill, computers, income and jobs. As one also does. 

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It’s 6:51. That’s AM. I’ve been up for over an hour. I also didn’t really sleep last night. So when I say “up,” I mean only that I’ve been continuously vertical, in a purposeful fashion. And my eyes have been open, though consciousness is debatable. My feelings on the matter can be summed up in one word.

Ouch.
Will the bus please hurry up and arrive so I can sleep while going home? Pretty, pretty please?

I write this as I download the Free Single Of The Week from itunes via Chapters/Starbucks. Yep. ^_^

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I’m in Chapters, using free internet and considering buying some very definately not free coffee at starbucks. Slonner and I have had a good time roving about the mall. I bought some eight dollar canvas shoes at Wal-mart! I found that I’d only brought sandals. Which are lovely and all, but they aren’t really set up for long distance walking. Next we rove some more, and then off to Value Village! :D

“I just spent 500 pound on an unauthorized expense.” “And you think you still work here?”

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PT’s home for the weekend! He’s grown a fetchingly red goatee, which was disconcerting to witness. I pinpointed the source of at least a little of my disconcertion when I realized that, from the angle at which I was staring at him, he looked a little like a faun. Despite my mind’s willingness to dive into Narnia or Classical Greece at any time, it has not yet progressed to presenting me with fictional beings at the dinner table. So that’s why I was staring, PT, sorry. It looks lovely, really it does. :D

So there has been much celebration upon the advent of PT’s return for four days, and upon the morrow we perhaps shall venture unto T’gate, there to climb cliffs and take profuse pictures of our siblings participating in the aforementioned vertical activity. Moreover, I have not the slightest idea why I am talking in this manner, unless it is perhaps attributable to the Tylenol, Midol and Coffee I have been eating over the course of the past five hours.

I’ve discovered the effects pane in iphoto, which causes me much joy. And yes, that is a tree I was wearing in my hair yesterday. I was gardening, see.



“Look! We’re in Orc Country!”

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I am writing this in the front seat of Fraulein’s van Carrie, as she drives down the TCH. We are listening to John Mayer on my computer, and just finished milkshakes.

Is this a epic road trip, or is this an epic road trip? You’re right, it’s an epic road trip! You’re so clever…. *pats you on the head*

We left our town yesterday, to travel to the West Coast (of Newfoundland), specifically, to /Location Censored/. Our friend Historian was getting married! Though of course, at this point, the proper tense is “is now married,” but I’m hardly a grammar stickler. Only when i want to be. :D (Woah, Police car.)

*cough* Is it legal to be on a laptop in a car? I think it is…. It’s not as though I’m the one driving, or anything. (Heheh, we just passed Boot Brook, where someone has nailed rubbers to the highway sign. This amused me.) ANYHOW. Yes, Fraulein is the one driving. It is her car, after all. I am merely a humble passenger.

We made the incredible and amazing five hour journey yesterday, and arrived at the church just as the decorating committee arrived. (That was a tire by the side of the road. Strangeness.) I should probably mention that the journey takes a normal person four hours, and certain members of Historian’s family all of three hours. But we’re nice law-abiding characters, and also we stopped at Wal-Mart to buy sandals and band-aids. Fraulein got some lovely strappy sandals, and I got a pair of black leather gladiator sandals. (This amuses me too.) (You know who makes good music? Terry Penney. You should go buy some. Especially the album “Time That Town Forgot”. Go, look on itunes, gosh. *sings along to Plan B*) However, we did have a little tiny bit of trouble getting into Wal-Mart. We drove into the wrong parking lot, which didn’t have an exit in the way we wanted to go. Well, that’s no problem. We’ll just cut across this flat empty lot and get into the right parking lot that way- It wasn’t flat. That “empty” lot contained a marvelous selection of novelty potholes, to the extent that we conducted an impromptu test of the suspension, seat belts, and cup holders. The cup holders failed the test, but everything else passed with flying colours. GJ Carrie! (Which is the name of Fraulien’s van, in case you’ve forgotten.)

When we got to the church, we helped blow up balloons at the church, set out tables, twisted streamers, and generally assisted in making the church basement beautiful. Then we went back to Historian’s house, where Fraulein and I hung out played wii fit, tried on dresses, and talked with his sisters.

Oh! There was a previous triumph I should mention, where we dispensed with the mapquest directions and used an actual map to find the church. It was very exciting. Oh, and in case you haven’t noticed, I have thrown continuity out of the window, there to shatter spectacularly and be run over. If you can’t figure out what I’m saying, you don’t deserve to know what’s going on in my tremendous life! And the girls wanted to straighten my hair, and I said something about it previously having taken three people two hours to do so. They viewed this as a challenge. So my hair is now straight, and I don’t recognize myself in the mirror. :D

In the morning we got a crash course in how to use the video cameras, and then we filmed the ceremony in the afternoon! (Someone left a red jacket by the side of the road.) This was the first ceremony that I’ve been to where I actually knew the people involved, which made it rather different. I was priviledged to be able to be zoomed in, via camera, on the faces of the (deliriously) happy couple, and they were very, very cute. *grins* They spent the time beaming at each other, and then being embarrassed about the people there, and then forgetting to be embarrassed and beaming at each other. Everybody together now, say “awwww!”

Which leads me again to hope our filming job was good… *nervous*

However, both Frauelien and I are working tomorrow, so we had to leave right after the ceremony. And now we’re pelting down the highway, heading for home.

I hope we get to a Tims soon, I could really use some coffee.

Fraulein: “Your name is Fred!” *bites gummy snake* *pauses* “Oh, I really shouldn’t have named my snake before I ate it.”

“And if anything about this flight or the service doesn’t meet your standards, please feel free to lower those standards!”

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I went to Moon Unit’s church on Sunday! She attends a Reform Presbyterian church. This was the first time I’d attended that particular denomination, and it was quite interesting. I realized the bulk of my church attendance, that I remember, at least, has been either Highly liturgical, fairly Charismatic, or home churching. And this was none of the above. :D *thinks* There’s stained glass, and no organ or piano? How do I cope?!? 

However, I liked it. There wasn’t the mega-church effect that inspires panic attacks in me, I agreed with the theology I heard, and the people seemed genuinely friendly, without stalking the new people. Also, there was coffee after the service, and then potluck. *big grin* Free food? I’m there! 
Then we had to go back home, get my luggage together, check for things left behind, and go to the airport. *cut to Moon Unit and I remaining determinedly up-beat the whole way, despite shakiness* We got caught in a small amount of traffic on the way. Not much, but just enough to make getting checked in and through security more URGENT than usual. 
So I checked in, in a matter of less then ten minutes- God Bless West Jet- and hurried down through security. Zaktrik had come to see me off as well, which was nice of him. At that point of panic about missing my flight, however, I waved, said good-bye, and dashed off through security with a minimum of protracted farewells to anyone. And I made my flight with minute to spare, which I am sure is a tribute to the power of prayer. 
However, once we got to Toronto, it chanced that only one of the runways was open. So we circled the city for some time. 



While we were circling, I realized, with a shocking lack of panic, that I had 35 minutes to make my connection. Before I started being delayed. Mmmmm. Well, if I got stuck in Toronto, I know people to call! And there’s free internet, I could go to the Lush store, and it would make a great blog entry! Yes, that is the way I think, in actuality. However, we landed only a few minutes late, and I started walking quickly through the airport. Speed walk… And while speed walking, I hear the final boarding call for my flight come over the intercom. That is a marvelously motivational thing to hear. You find that your speed walking in heels can indeed accelerate even faster. 
Fast enough to see two other women closing in on your gate just ahead of you, and the door still open! Yay! We scurried down the tunnel onto the plane, the door closing behind me, and hurried to our respective seats. Whereupon we then sat on the tarmac for ten extra minutes, while the one usable runway was opened up. Air travel is so logical, timeline wise… 
Then I got into St. Johns, yadda yadda yadda, got my baggage, blah blah blah, took a taxi to Ms. B’s house, yabbla yabbla yabbla, went to ring her to let her know I was there- and she doesn’t have her apartment set up with a bell. Okay, I seem to remember something like this in the planning session. I am just gonna call her cell phone. Only I don’t have a cell phone. Right. Okay, I’ll ring the other people in the building who I know. They don’t answer. No need to panic, no need to panic, I’ll just log onto the internet- I have the password from when I stayed here before- and msn her that I’m here. A quick check later, I can’t see her internet router. Maybe panic is a good idea… No, wait! I can just sleep here on the bench in the lobby until someone comes in, and get them to let me into the building! Only, I seem to remember that it’s almost 1 o-clock, and I’ve heard complaining rumors about people coming in loaded drunk after midnight to this building, making all kinds of noise… So, uh, uh, uh, I’ll go out and throw rocks at her window! Sadly, (and yes I am saddened by this, at this hour), I can’t identify which one is her window. It’s a three story building, and even shouting in my best WHERE-ARE-THE-NEFARIOUS-TRAITORS-WHO-HAVE-COMMITTED-THIS-TERRIBLE-TRESPASS voice does not provoke a magical turning on of lights or head at the door. 
This is about where I sat down on my luggage in the wet grass and reassessed my situation. It was after midnight. I was tired. I had no phone. I had no cash. I apparently had no place to stay. I was in the student ghetto. It was dark (but not raining!) 
What to do? I could go to the mall, which I could see, only they close at night. And so does the Tim’s in the mall, obviously. And so does the University library, oddly enough. But there, there’s the hospital! I can see it! Open 24 hours! And I know people there, I know the cafeteria, I even know where there are vacant couches! Plus, I only have to get on the bus in 6 hours, now. I can stay awake for six hours, if needed. Right? Right. Cue me standing up and getting ready to progress down the street. But then one little niggling bit of social graces in the back of my head mentioned that it’d be hard to explain why I didn’t show up at Ms. B’s apartment, after making all those arrangements. Plus I might need to explain to my parents…. I decided to try the other doors in the fire escape and such. Just in case. So I could say I really couldn’t get in- oh look this one opens i don’t have to sleep on the side of the hallway!
And I got inside, had a lovely time chatting and not sleeping with Ms. B, slept on the bus, and made it home without further drama. I even had a welcoming committee. 



The committee had put up a banner for me. :D

*stares*

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I’ve successfully traveled overseas, using two different flights, AND I still have all my baggage. I even got in early. How about that West Jet, eh? The whole process of passing from one airport to another, in fact, was startlingly uneventful. I’m afraid this makes for poor blog entries, but I think I’ll defer my complains, for now. :D  

And then I got to Ottawa, and Moonunit and Rose was there too meet me at the airport! With Moonunit’s parents, and a sign with my name on it! It was totally the most exciting day of my ENTIRE LIFE!!!! *pauses* Well, maybe not, but it was pretty awesome. I would have run down the escalator (and caught my skirt and tripped and spent the next little while in the hospital), only there was someone in front of me. So I had to wait while the whole escalator moved the whole length of the whole baggage claim. And then I attacked Moonunit, and she attacked me, and Rose watched- it was very exiting. Oh, and Moonunit’s parent’s took pictures! So I guess I need to get a copy of those. 

Now I’m at the College, where I’m staying for the next couple of days. The only thing is, I have no internet. No one knows what the password is for the College access, so I can’t log on. I have no idea when you’ll get this, if at all…

EDIT: Here, have some pictures.

Newfoundland, from the sky!

Killing time in Halifax.
Yes, those spots are on the window, you’re not just passing out. I thought it made a nice effect. And see, that’s the plane that brought me to Ottawa! Isn’t it shiny?

The lovely Ruth uses the borrowed internet-computer. It made the rounds…

Later, Moon Unit uses the same computer to send in her last assignment. Doesn’t she look harmless? :D