I am having a really good day.  Although I did all the work wrong that was required for the task group i am leading at work things seemed to really work out in the end. 

Plus. Dan and i are all happy and in love again.  When we don’t have to deal with things like Dan’s school programs, or dan’s loss of job, etc. etc we get along so well.  We went biking yesterday, watched a movie together the night before and cooked supper together and cleaned the house while listening to music.  Its just good.  He is one of those guys who is willing to try all kinds of different activities, go get groceries and make supper, visit with my crazy family, or drive me to work when i am running late (which is pretty much everyday).  Why can’t he just figure out his professional life!!!

I never went to saskatchewan.  Its rainy and awful here so i thought i could go to Dinosaur Provincial park — the desert of Alberta. 

 It was really neat.  You camp in the hoodos and they have buses going into the natural preserve (UNESCO heritage site) where you go and find fossils, etc.  It only rains 2 times a summer there and we happened to be there after one day it did.  The rain washes away new layers of the hoodos and you see fossil bones, etc.  Very cool.

we planned to stay for longer but the weather went downhill.  After getting hailed on we packed our stuff and made our way back to the city.  I stayed away from work Monday and went to the National Park just outside of Edmonton where they let the buffalo roam free.  Biking and buffalo are not a good combination.  They are normally not violent animals but I guess because you come up so fast on bikes if you encounter one you have to hop off your bike and hide behind a tree because their eyes only see to the sides and not straight ahead. 

Came back to work 2 days early.  i’ll use the days instead when i go to MOntreal.

I am leaving tomorrow morning for Waskesiu, its in northern Saskatchewan about 7 hours away from where i live.  Not sure why we decided to go camping here instead of going to warm BC and the beautiful mountains again.  I guess change is good. ANd I can pick up Dan on the way there because he is still working in Lloydminster.

The weird thing about this 5 day camping trip is that i am going with Dan and my parents.  when i told my dad taht i was going he went “oh that sounds like a really nice trip.  When are you going?” So invited him to go casually and he accepted.  He has a fancy boat which is nice.  But really, Dan and i would have been happy renting a canoe for awhile and relaxing. 

I am a little nervous about how the trip will go.  My mom is a bit frantic and i don’t think she has every camped without 10 kids, doing dishes, cleaning everyone up, cooking, etc. I am not sure what they’ll do in the evenings.  They don’t play board games, they don’t read, they don’t walk…..On the last few holidays i went with them we drove somewhere every night, checked out towns or art galleries, just kept moving.  THere is nothing in northern saskatchewan….just more forest. 

Oh well.  We still have our holiday in San Fran.  SHould be nice. i rented a really fancy and expensive hotel — the hilton off of union square.  I hope its nice.

Becoming Jane was really good Di. It hasn’t lost its A&E type charm.  Its not perfect but i wasn’t disappointed.  Go see it so i can talk about it with you when i am in San Fran.

I ran into my old best friend Gabrielle at the movie.  She was the crazy one that  Alyse and i terminated the relationship quite abruptly with about 7 years ago.  She was walking into the theatre and i was walking out.  I was so baffled by the end of the movie that i ran up to her and went “can you believe the ending” but with more details that i won’t share here because i don’t want to ruin the ending for anyone.  She just looked appauled and stammered out that she was walking into the theatre and not out and that i had ruined the ending of the movie.  I couldn’t stop laughing.

Edmonton Folk fest was a bust.  I just went to check out Martin Sexton and was hoping to spend the rest of my night in the beer gardens catching up with old friends.  Instead, i forgot my ID and they wouldn’t let me into the beer gardens so i bought a milkshake and while i was walking by a basketball court these damn 14 year olds threw the ball and it hit me in the chest.   I lay there winded and covered in chocolate milkshake.  I was so pissed off i went home at 9:30.

 Sat. we went to Dan’s families bbq in Edmonton.  It was a going away party for that awful Sandra.   She was a horrible bitch as per usual.  Dan was rubbing my face because i had some scratch and it startled me and i spilled wine all over their kitchen table and my pants.  Sandra yells out “what…you get all startled becasue your not used to your man touching you”.  Who says shit like that. Seriously.

I got her back a bit when we were washing dishes.  She kepts yelling across the room to stop helping her family clean up.   I turned to her sister, mother and aunt and said “i have a loud mouth sister like Sandra who says for no one to help because she is lazy”.  They all laughed at her.  I don’t have a loud mouth sister, i am usually the loud mouth.

I am so excited because Becoming Jane is coming out today.  It will probably be bad because that Hathaway is the lead actress but I keep hoping it will be as good as Pride and Prejudice. 

Yesterday night my neighbour (about 60 years old) came over and invited me to a potluck on Sat. night.  I said i would go because it was for one of the neighbours that it is moving (that i don’t know) but most of my young neighbours will be there.  I know i should be grown up and go to things like that but i am a little afraid that they are all Christians…they just give off that vibe.  And most of them have children.  If i don’t write on Monday you know they took me alive.

Yesterday it finally hit me how lonely it can be to live alone.  I actually became quite manic before i realized that i wasn’t as a happy as i thought lounging around my house. 

When Dan called at 7 i started bawling because i hadn’t talked to anyone in like 5 hours….i know most people would laugh at that but i can’t live without some kind of communication. 

My boss is getting the boot.  WEll its nicer than that.  His contract isn’t being renewed although our project is running late and we won’t finish until the spring.  It shouldnt’ have been a shocker since he really doesn’t do anything but he is so nice.  We have long talks in his office about philosophy and the bureaucracy. He tells me stories about 30 years ago and makes terrible pun jokes.    I also like how he gives me so much responsibility (probably because he doesn’t want to work).  He sends me to meetings where everyone is 30 years older than me and he lets me lead projects and stumble through it.  It looks i am going to have dragon lady as my new boss and will probably have to be job searching again by Christmas.  Very frustrating. 

weekend was good other than Friday night.  Dan’s brother came over.  He is really, really nice but also very, very overweight…maybe 400lbs. He was a bit depressed on Friday and kept talking about his problems with his work and weight.  I went to sleep at about 1:30 am and left those two drinking around the camp fire in our backyard.

At 3:30 am i woke up to someone screaming.  I got up and walked into the kitchen where dan was stumbling around.  I asked him what was going on and he said his brother was drunk in the backyard and wanted his car keys.  Then we heard this loud thump. I walked into the backyard and there was his brother laying on the ground. i guess he fell off our patio and was half passed out on the ground.  Thankfully he wasn’t a very annoying drunk and it only took me about 5 min. to get him up and into bed.  My neighbours wouldn’t talk to me the next day.  if he woke me up screaming he probably did the neighbours too.

Bob came over Wednesday for dinner.  She talked to me about how she was all excited to join this band with someone I dated and really liked from years back. He just moved back to the city i guess.

 She actually asked me if i thought it was weird and i said of course not.  I met him through her (although in the past few years she did say she didn’t want to hang out with him because he was so self absorbed “come watch me play…me..me..me” The idea does make me cringe though.  I have such few friends in the city and going where he is would be akward.  Very grade nine i know but its really his fault. 

WHen he first moved away he used to come to the city and we would meet up for coffee.  I still had a crush on him at the time and he was dating someone else but he seemed to like the attention of two girls liking him and i liked the fact that i could make into a super great guy in my head and have a crush.   He would write when they broke up, etc. etc.

THe last time i did talk to him was about two years back when i was dating that terrible Morgan guy that dumped me on the day i planned to dump him.  Sorry. Back to my story. I was talking to him about how he could run a stage at the music festival i organize but i said only he would get a pass backstage etc.  his girlfriend would have to run/work etc. because he wouldn’t get a guest.  He wrote me back this long email about how he had a “fiance” npw and that he couldn’t possibly not camp with her and me instead. and on and on and on. OH god.  My face was purple because i wasn’t trying to get him to share a tent with me.  So i blocked sendered him and rejected all his facebook requests.  You can’t be friends with people that you really liked.  THey just hurt you all the time.

I am sure they’ll have a great band.  It just sucks that when they play i can’t go watch her…i guess i can but i won’t

Hopefully Edmonton is large enough to avoid him until he or i moves again.  I hate when you run into someone like that after years because you always look like crap.  Remember Erin when we spotted Morgan and he spotted us.  It was raining really hard outside and he was eating in a restaurant on St. Catherine’s that had these beautiful glass windows.  Sitting there in his work suit, staring out at us.  I walked by looking like a drowned rat carrying large Zellers bags full of easter bunnies.