February 26th odds 'n' ends

Thumbs up:

• Old Dutch baked dill pickle and salt & vinegar chips
• Wilco
• my L.L. Bean slippers
• my nephew saying 'uncle' and 'Matt', often in conjunction
• selling the van
• Everton beating Manchester United ("the enemy of my enemy is my friend")

Fail:

• patrons doing drugs in the library washroom
• my lower back when I wake up in the morning
  
• that I open my mouth and talk when I should close it and listen which = my overall lack of wisdom
• me accidentally running over my cat's tail with our dishwasher (not the bone, just the hair at the very tip, which got torn out in a big clump!)
• Courtney Love and John Mayer: would you both just shut up for once??? Oh, Elton John, you too.
  

Meh:

• the Olympics (have had essentially zero impact on my life)

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I have set my 'back to running' start date for March 1. I made a deal with my friend Crystal-Anne that I would run the Royal Victoria 8K with her in October--I did this so that I would actually have someone depending on me and thus I feel compelled to follow through on what I said. It's going to be painful getting back into the running shape I was in four years ago when I ran 50-60 kilometres per week, but I think I'm mentally prepared to endure the pain and the physical rehabilitation. Well, at least I hope I am.

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Caitlin celebrated her birthday this past Monday. I love Caitlin. She is such a rad wife.

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I've been on a bit of a writing tear lately, though I have yet to finish any of the pieces that I've started. With any luck, that whole 'finishing' thing will happen soon. I am finding this very therapeutic and it's a nice way to get my head out of library/work-related stuff, which demands a great deal of my time.

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I've been thinking about mourning and lament lately. I plan on reading the book of Lamentations because I find myself more and more curious about it and I've never read it before. It seems like our society doesn't allow much leeway for the full expression of human emotion, especially the negative. Am I wrong in thinking that? I know it's definitely the case within the church community...

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Because January and February have been so warm, I've been enjoying my time outside going for walks and hikes. A recent hike at East Sooke Park was really awesome and I hope that Spring is truly on the way so I can spend more time in the outdoors. I can't believe all the cherry blossoms in February! I love Victoria!

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My friend Matthew just had his first novel, Deloume Road, published by Knopf/Random House and I am very excited to crack into it--I just purchased my own copy with my Bolen Books birthday gift certificate! I've known Matthew for seven or eight years--he's a fantastic writer and an incredibly kind, funny, and humble guy. He will be doing a reading from his book at the Bruce Hutchison Branch of Greater Victoria Public Library on March 17 (St. Patrick's Day!), which promises to be a really cool experience.


That's all from my end of things. Diggit.