ciroccoj | Jan. 8th, 2011

Left work today at 4:45 and it was not yet full dark. I love post-winter solstice. Hate feeling like I've been dropped down a hole for three months :(

Of course, it was full dark as I got home an hour later, but still. Light! After 4PM! Excellent.

It's funny, a little while ago I was riding the bus and thinking to myself, you know, it's great that I like taking the bus. It means I don't have to stress about driving, often read or decompress or do crossword puzzles, save on gas and downtown parking, sometimes feel very connected to the city and my fellow Ottawans... although who knows how I'll feel about it when it's, like, winter, and snowing and dark outside, and... hey. Wait a minute. It is winter and snowing and dark outside.

Ah. I guess that's all right, then. ::feels kinda dorky::

I really do like riding the bus. You get to see other people, watch the city moving around you. Listen to bits of conversations, though most are predictably dull and some are icky. And a few weeks ago everyone at the Billings Bridge Station was treated to about twenty minutes straight of some poor guy getting raked over the coals in rapid-fire shrill Somali or Arabic, by someone I can only assume was his wife because nobody but a spouse could possibly keep up such a steady stream of grievances, and nobody but a spouse would put up with it for that long before just checking out.

Funny how I used to hate the bus. Though I'm still not thrilled that, to OC Transpo, "schedules" are like the Pirate's Code: more like guidelines, really ;)
On an unrelated note: I did my first matter for my very own client today. Felt all lawyerly :) :)
Also, Chris spent an hour talking to Justin's teacher today. Many topics were covered, but Chris really wanted to make sure Justin understood one thing: his teacher thinks he's just awesome.
And I can't believe I missed the first episode of Pillars of the Earth last Tuesday. I'll cry if I miss any more. I've only been wanting to see it since first finding out it was being filmed.

Of course, it's entirely possible that upon seeing it I will also cry, especially if it butchers the book. Then again, my standards are pretty darn low when it comes to book adaptations, so ::shrug:: meh.
My clothing seems to have shrunk over the Christmas break. A few of my colleagues commented they found the same thing. I wonder if there was something weird in the water over Christmas?
Actually picked up my guitar a few weeks ago. Think I'll try to play at least a little every week, so that I can actually learn to play and get - and keep - calluses.
Taekwon-do tomorrow. Am determined to get back to it, once a week at least.
I am still slightly traumatized by a piece of writing in which it was suggested that in a romantic setting a you should put your arms around your beloved's waste.
Overheard Chris talking about a conversation he'd had at a gas station the other day. The pump dude made some comment about "nice weather, isn't it?" and Chris replied with, "Yeah - actually, no, it's not. This is Canada, in December. It should be freezing." The pump guy said something like, "Yeah, true" and that somehow led to global warming, climate change, the Rideau Canal, people who don't get it, the Alberta tar sands, hell in a handbasket, cats living with dogs, yadda yadda yadda.

A while later I asked, "The pump guy - was he, like, at Esso? Or Topia?" (local "green" gas stop)

"Oh, Topia. Why?"

"Oh thank god. I thought you'd just started ranting to some poor dude at Shell or something, who's thinking, Holy crap, all I said was 'Nice day' and the guy loses it - hurricanes, droughts, forest fires, Polar Bears, Polar Bears - POLAR BEEAARS!!"