Brokeback Mountain

I just saw Brokeback Mountain and I can honestly say it was one of the best movies that I have ever seen. I read the short story years ago, and while I was moved by it, it didn't resonate with me the way this movie has. It is an amazingly beautiful movie, both the story and the cinematography, about love and loss and longing and heartbreak. How anyone could see it and not be moved, or be offended by the material, I cannot comprehend. They must have no soul.

No excuses

Wow, I have been really lax lately in updating this blog. Unfortunately, my life has not been jam packed with exciting activity, leaving me no free time to update. There really has been no good reason for it, except pure lazyness. And procrastination. Although, I don't win the prize for best procrastinator - that award goes to my brother and sister-in-law, who have still not mailed their christmas presents to me and my parents. No, I am not kidding. Apparently the three of us will be having a hybrid christmas/valentines day. Although there is no guarantee that they will be here by then.

In other news, I am training for a marathon. It seemed like a really good idea at the time, but OW!!!! Ow, Ow, Ow. Running is not fun. I keep waiting for the day that I will wake up and love to run, but so far that has not happened. Since I left my old job that was making me sick, I have been feeling much, much better. So much better that I started out working out and running again. I used to run a lot years ago. I was thinner and a lot younger then. So, anyway, with all of the feeling good, I got this book "The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer" which has a 16 week program to running a marathon. Right now, I am still in the getting in good enough shape to start the program part of the program. I am now running 3 miles 4 times a week, and I start the 16 week program next Monday. The marathon is in Halifax on the 21st of May and hopefully my sister, who is starting to train as well, will be running with me.

Touchy feeley

It is amazing how many times a day I unconsciously touch my nose. Ouch!

Betcha can't guess what I got for Christmas...

A broken nose! My big goofy dog, whose giant head is apparently made of rock, hit my face with that giant head while we were playing and broke my nose. In his defense, he did feel really badly about it, and while I laid on the floor and cried, he laid down beside me and cried too, licking my elbow every few minutes to make me feel better. It is actually not completely broken, just a hairline fracture, but I still have a swollen face and 2 black eyes. Just the thing for pictures around the christmas tree. And, in case you didn't know, a broken nose is very, very painful. Sneezing will make me scream in pain, and I am now terrified of people hugging me, because that brings them a little too close to my face for me to be entirely comfortable. Last night, my friend playfully pretended to grab my nose and I immediately burst into tears just from the thought of the pain. I sure am a fun party guest.

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Christine,
Happy birthday to you!

Now you have to imagine that sung in my very off-key voice and accompanied by the many and varied snorting stylings of Desoto to get the full effect. I hope you have a great day! Happy Birthday Christine!

Countdown

I go back to work tomorrow. I cannot believe that I have been home for almost a month already and tomorrow it is back to reality. Although, what is making this ok is the fact that I am going back to a new position, with a supervisor that I have worked with before, who is awesome. So other than the part where I have to actually go back to work and work, I am kind of excited about going back to work. It is kind of embarrasing to note that I have accomplished nothing in the time I had off work. Unless you count sleeping a lot and watching movies, then, well, I did a shit load of stuff.

I dream about wolves

Lately, I have been dreaming about wolves chasing me. Big, growling, scary wolves. I don't need a dream analysis book to tell me what these dreams mean. They mean that my giant, bed hogging dog growls in his sleep. You know when some dogs are asleep they make cute little yips and barks, and their legs twitch like they are chasing cats or cars in their sleep? When Desoto chases stuff in his sleep, he makes big, LOUD, scary growls, like he is Cujo and he is going to eat your head. And when his legs twitch, I gets scratches and bruises. One time, I landed on the floor.

While it is very easy to suggest to me, as does everyone I know, that I just don't let Desoto on to the bed, carrying out this plan is a whole other ball game. The dog is as big as I am, weighs as much and is very determined not to sleep on the floor. So until I convince Desoto that I am the alpha dog in this relationship and I get the bed, I'll be dreaming about big, scary wolves chasing me.

I have been busy

I have been busy lately trying to keep Desoto from eating my laptop. I watching a movie on the laptop the other day and there were cats in the movie. Desoto was lying on the couch with me with his big giant head in my lap and he heard the meowing coming from the laptop and he became convinced that there are kitties living inside the laptop. He hates the laptop anyway because sometimes I pay more attention to it than to him, but now he is just biding his time until I am not looking so he can destroy it and the kitties too. It is quite funny really watching him smell it and look all around it, convinced that if he just stares at it long enough or hard enough, he will find the kitties. I really shouldn't encourage this as it is mean and he really could eat my laptop if he was so inclined, but it's pretty funny.

Unbelievable

These are the 100 most challenged books from 1990 to 2000. As compared to the last list of books, the best english language books from 1923 to 2000 of which I had read 23, I have read almost 60 of these.

Bring on the Lost

Ok, it's Wednesday night and I am ready for Lost. I am all settled in on my couch with a pizza and a pitcher of pomegranate martinis. I am ready. Ready to watch Sayid put the boots to Ana Lucia. Go Sayid. And maybe Sawyer will take some clothes off. Go Sawyer.

Yes, I did watch Oprah today, but I didn't get the idea for the martinis from her show, I have been making pomegranate martinis and bellinis all summer at the hotel. Actually, you can put pomegranate jiuce with almost any liquor and it tastes good. And I cried AGAIN watching Oprah. I really shouldn't watch her, it always makes me cry, but today she and Habitat for Humanity gave 50 families houses. So cool. Don't you wish you were worth a bazillion dollars so you could give away houses and cars and stuff. Not that all the little bits regular people contribute don't count, but it would be so fun to give away BIG stuff. Oh, and I totally cried the other day watching her favorite things show, but that was just because I wasn't getting the cool stuff.

Dammit, I just burned my pizza and now the smoke alarm is going off and the dog is freaking out. This is why I don't cook. Maybe I will just skip the pizza and concentrate on the martinis. Note to self, always take the batteries out of the smoke alarms before going in to kitchen.

Petals around the Rose

I have been playing this game and almost went insane trying to figure out the secret. I finally did, but I may or may not be insane now. Stupid game.

Movies

Since I have been sick so much recently, I have been watching a lot of movies and I have a question...why do so many directors feel the need to make their movies so hard to watch. I have seen so many movies lately that are very darkly lit, use wierd camera angles and/or shaky camera work? Are they trying to look edgy or cool? Is it the sign of a brilliant director when you can only see what is happening in half the movie? For god's sakes, I might think you are, in fact, brilliant if I could only follow what is happening on the screen. It's hard to know whether or not a movie was good if I haven't been able to see most of it.

Christine, Domino sucked. While it isn't the worst movie I have ever seen (or half seen...see above) it is certainly in the top ten. Except for the spanish guy, he is cute, and the 90210 guys.

3 days

So, I have been off work for 3 days now, and I really wish that I could tell you all the wonderful things I have accomplished and all the projects that I have completed. But no. I haven't done anything at all except sleep a lot (on doctor's orders!), watch movies, surf the net, walk the dog, and go out to dinner twice. I could very easily grow to love being a lady of leisure. The only downside has been my asthma, which is really bad, and struggling to breathe all the time is exhausting, hence the sleeping a lot. But so far, loving staying home.

It's a boy!

Congratulations to Peter and Jillian on the arrival of their son, Jake Peter MacKinnon! And congratulations also to his very proud Aunt Christine, Uncle Mike and Grandpa Dick!

Changes

So, it turns out that my job has been making me sick. I have asthma, and with the really old files that I have been working on, my doctor thinks that whatever I have been inhaling has been causing or contributing to my being sick all the time. So, as of today, I am off for a month. And when I go back to work, I won't be in the same place or doing the same job. So what I will be doing or where I will be is a mystery. I will still be with Veterans Affairs, but other than that, maybe a whole new job. Kind of exciting. And hopefully after a month of being away from the nasty files, I will be 100% again. That would be cool.

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, it really made my day! It kind of helped with the fact that I turned old last week.

Happy Birthday to ME

It's my birthday today. My birthday is my favorite day of the whole year. It's all about me today. I love my birthday. So far today, I have had coffee and cold pizza for breakfast, which is always a great way to start the day.

I really have no big plans for the day, just a couple of books, magazines, movies, a walk with the big dog and a visit to my dad. Nice easy day, not much different than this past week when I was so sick except for the not feeling like death part.

Anyway, I am just going to hang out and enjoy my day. happy birthday me.

It's not nice to be mean to the sick person

So, I had a really good day today. I ddn't die, I got out of bed, and I had 2 cups of coffee. While I am not all the way better, I have started on the path. I even left the house for a brief time. Not that I wanted to leave the house, but apparently the big dog needs to be fed every day or he gets a little touchy. Never mind that I was dying for four days, but as I was saying I had a good day.

I decided to watch Stay, the movie with Ryan Gosling in it. I really only wanted to see the movie because Ryan Gosling is in it because he is cute and since he is only about 12, I am now being punished for thinking he is cute. I don't understand. My brain hurts. I have been sick. I took a lot of cold medicine. My brain is not yet running at full capacity. This movie is very confusing. I have a lot of questions. That was mean. I am very sorry I think a teenager is cute, now please explain. Start at the beginning.

I had coffee today

So, I am on the mend, I think. I actually had coffee today. I am still in bed and I still can't talk very well, but I have started to move away from the bright light. Maybe tomorrow I'll try getting out of bed. Something to look forward to.

And: TWO MORE DAYS UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Why me?

I am sick. So sick. So sick that I can't talk and my throat is so swollen that I am having trouble breathing. I tried to call my supervisor this morning but he couldn't understand me croaking into the phone, so I had to email him instead.

I am so sick that:
1. I can't eat the leftover halloween chocolate.
2. I can't drink coffee.
3. I don't even care that it's my birthday in 4 days.

I am so sick. Not to mention cranky, miserable and whiny. Except whiny only in my head because I can't talk.

Dear Santa,

I have been a very good girl all year (well except for that one time, but that shouldn't count, it wasn't my fault). For Christmas I would like a new immune system. I will leave you milk and cookies.

Love Angela

Can I see your ID please?

Know what I hate? 20 year olds with no costumes trick or treating. At least paint your face or put on a wig or something. If I am giving you perfectly good candy that I could otherwise be eating, you could at least make a little effort.