Boxing Day is a Federal Holiday

In Canada, I think Boxing Day is a bit like Black Friday. My day has been a bit different than I thought it would be:

9am – wake up and notice that it is snowing.

9:15am – wake up again, call my brother, S., because he had to work yesterday.

9:16am – leave a message for S., who doesn’t answer the phone.

9:17am – lie in bed again.

9:45am – get up.

9:50am – stretch for exactly 8 minutes.

9:58am -flip the TV on.

10:00am – watch pointless TV, because it is about the 90s. I remember the 90s with fondness and a brief shudder.

10:45am – decide to clean the house before I shower.

10:46am – vaccuum the living room rug.

10:55am – sweep the main floor.

11:15am – collect the garbage.

11:18am – decide I should shovel the path to the garbage in the back lane.

11:20am – outside, in my pyjamas and shoes, shovelling.

11:40am – deposit garbage in bin, after clearing 18 inches of snow from the lid.

11:41am – decide to shovel the path to the front of the house too.

11:55am – finish shovelling the half of the stairs that are clear.

11:56am – back inside, roll up my wet pantlegs, notice that my hand is bleeding a little.

11:59am – decide to clean the bathroom surfaces before showering.

12:10pm – finally showertime.

12:11pm – decide to soak in the bath first.

12:17pm – getting into tub.

12:18pm – reading in tub.

12:40pm – showering and getting out of tub.

12:45pm – notice the tap is dripping still.

12:47pm – can’t turn the tap off…so I go get dressed.

12:55pm – still can’t turn the tap off. I put a bucket under and decide to watch it.

1:15pm – hm. hot water collecting. I google “how to fix a leaky faucet.”

1:17pm – general consensus is that I need to turn the hot water off first.

1:19pm – move the guys’ kitchen shelves to access the hot water tank. I follow the hot water pipe all the way along the ceiling and into K’s room. No place to turn it off.

1:29pm – look everywhere I can think of. Nowhere to turn it off. Reread googled instructions…definitely need to turn hot water off first.

1:32pm – fret about wasting hot water and the bill that we will get.

1:38pm – email D, who is on his way back to town. Ask for our fix-it guy’s number.

1:48pm – jiggle the tap some more. COME ON, turn off!

1:58pm – text D to ask for number.

2:01pm – D calls and gives me the fix-it guy’s number.

2:05pm – I call fix-it guy. He is going to a family gathering soon and the roads are treacherous…the valve to turn it off should be in the closet just outside the bathroom.

2:08pm – I empty the closet in search of the valve. No valves. No pipes. I wonder if he meant the cupboards, and I check in them too. Nothing.

2:30pm – I call the fix-it guy again. He will see what he can do after his family shindig. I decide to find a creative solution for my ripped lampshade, using materials found in my closet raiding.

2:38pm – D arrives home. He has adventures from the roads.

2:45pm – D checks out leaking faucet. I go back to my lampshade.

2:50pm – D does stuff and looks around for a solution. This includes pulling out the drawers UNDER the cupboards where I previously looked. Pipes, check. Valves – no check.

3:10pm – It is worse. And I don’t like the lampshade.

3:20pm -I do dishes using the hot water that is collecting in our bathroom.

3:30pm – D and I ask what we should do? D doesn’t like messing with plumbing (or auto mechanics, apparently these are the two things that should be left to the pros) and calls fix-it guy again.

3:40pm – D on the phone with fix-it guy. Trying to find the valve.

3:45pm – fix-it guy is going to come later. D has turned down the hot water.

3:50pm – it sounds like someone is running a bath. I write this blog. It has recently stopped snowing.

4pm – Arrested Development Season 2 begins.

4:10pm – snowing again.

4:25pm – fix-it guy is en route.

4:50pm – fix-it guy arrives.

5:20pm – fix-it guy is done. All fixed. Back to TV.

5:30pm – Arrested Development.

6pm – The IT Crowd.

7pm – Law & Order.

Christmas Holidays

Things to do this Christmas:

• buy Christmas gifts for family and friends. Roughly 14 people.
• read books. Let’s say 4 of them.
  Under the Banner of Heaven
  The Kite Runner
  Baroque-a-nova
  Spiral Staircase
• host my parents & grandpa for a week.
• make puzzles with said family.
• do things with my little brother.
• bake – I think this should include fudge.
• write – at least five pages of something.
• renew my driver’s license.
• shovel snow. wait. snow!? in Vancouver? yeah, that’s what I thought. too bad we don’t own a shovel.
• sleep. lots of sleep.
• watch TV. too much TV. watch Christmas specials just because they are on. watch crime TV because we all like it.
• wrap gifts.
• open presents.
• clean up after the family leaves.

INFJ

I have done a few Myers-Briggs(esque) personality tests, and across the span of things, the results are the same. I am apparently an INFJ. The following are things which are true of me as an INFJ, but perhaps unexpected:

- guarded in expressing their own feelings, but easily sympathetic with others
- easily hurt, but avoid conflict
- vivid “inner life” and imagination
- realistic about others’ motives, hard to fool
- may yearn to be spontaneous
- prefer to influence quietly, behind the scenes
- high expectations for themselves and others
- have difficulty leaving unhealthy relationships

Limbs & Branches

This is the new, acoustic Jon Foreman album (lead singer for Switchfoot). His lyrics are captivating. I sometimes wonder if these lyrics count as lists, but I think so. I’m listing my favourite pieces so I can remember them and mull them over and maybe someday write something half as lovely.

I want to see us work, dear
To reach the other side
Our treachery is love, dear

We’re on both ends of the fight  (Behind Your Eyes – possibly my top favourite)

I’m heading home
But I’m not so sure
That home is a place
You can still get to by train (Southbound Train)

I could try and point the finger
But the glass points in my direction
Sure you’ve got your sharp edges
But my wounds are for my own reflection
You’ve got nothing I could ever hold against you
I’ve got fatal flaws to call my own
Please don’t go
Please don’t leave me alone
A mirror is so much harder to hold (A Mirror is Harder to Hold)

Here, my dear
This is where
We’ll shake the nightmares free
I dream to hold you in my arms
I dream to hold you in my arms
To hold you in my arms
Wide awake in my arms (In My Arms – my other top favourite)

Looking Forward

Good things that are coming up:

• Hanging out with the brotha.
• Working on a Saturday (no seriously, it’s a good thing).
• Dinner party!
• Interview/meal with potential new housemate.
• Spoken Word/Readings
• Working from home next week
• Cable TV
• 8 Minute Abs (“These exercises are safe, effective, and fun! And they work!”)
• My parents are coming to visit.
• They are bringing my grampie.
• They are coming for Christmas.

We’re Going Down…

Last night, as I was driving home listening to my iPod, I heard a quadruple hit of no-longer-in-love songs in a row.  They are four of my favourite angst-ridden tunes.

• The Runaways – Anberlin – “It’s your fault, you’re like a rare disease. I know you’re in love with love, I believe.”

• Tainted Love – The Cure – “I gave you all a boy could give you, take my tears and that’s not nearly all…”
  

• Love You Madly – Cake – “I don’t want to sit across the table from you wishing I could run…”
  

• Slow Dancing in a Burning Room – John Mayer – “This is the deep and dying breath of this love that we’ve been working on.”