YYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Loves 'em all!


I bought my painting: here it is in my house.kitty is going to the UK in two weeks. She's got new shoes. I'm proud.
morningtime at 1-156
fattus mcblurrington

My painting and those infernal guitars.
my mum is back from Scotland. I took her to lunch and did her hair and make-up. She's so beautiful and I don't know whay I'd do without her. I wish I looked more like her than I do my dad's side.






I'm going to Victoria for a couple days, to lecture a university class about writing about pop music. Crazy! I will take lots of pictures and write lots when I get back.

You know, I always hear about people getting "fixed up" like "we're fixing my friend so and so up with Mr. X" or something like that. Not once have I ever been "set up" in my life. I'm not super disappointed (lie) but I just feel excluded. Maybe you just have to be more whiny about it to people you know, which I just couldn't do.

Anyways, enough with the teenage diary bullshit.
All I'm sayin' is some cuddles wouldn't go amiss around me these days.

Gold Bi-ike! It's the bike, the bike with the golden touch..........

So, as regular readers know, I had my bike ripped off, again, some weeks ago.

I got a shitty new one from the pawn shop for 40 bucks. The brakes squeak, and when I bought it, it had these foam handlebars on it that were disgusting and sticky and wraught with germs. I had the guy put tape around them for the ride home. I know it's bad karma to buy fom pawn shops, but I have given enough bikes to the stolen bike bank to earn a withdrawal, and besides, the dude at the store said the bike had been there for a while so if it belonged to anyone who *really* wanted it back, they had opportunity to find it on skid row.
Anyways, I got it in my head that I would spray-paint it gold with gold car paint, and so I did. All pictures below were taken by the lovely Veronika.

This would be the"before"
Note the (failed) attempt to not spray my gears

Town eccentric.

I mean it.
Finished product. A shitty bike with its own theme song (sung to the tune of goldfinger).

Fuck you, bikes thieves. Just try and steal Gold Bike.

whatever happened to Edward, my friend from Seattle. Edward, are you out there?

Strokes review in today's Vancouver Sun (you can't read thw whol thing unless you're a subscriber, so you have to buy the paper. So buy it)

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastlife/story.html?id=a34efeac-25e7-471d-857f-d1bc180a11bb

Okay.

So today, I taped my first spot with CBC Radio3, got an awesome new shirt made of soft cotton that feels like cuddles (for free! All I had to do was steam things. Thanks Vdog and VT), had an amazing session with my counsellor, Carmen, who I really adore and wish I could keep ( I don't think I can, when I get better, I likely have to give her up - luckily thats a ways way) re-packed what I unpacked in my session and then headed down to the Plaza of Nations to review the Strokes. I took the lovely Miss Kitty with me who was on time (a first ;)), rode my bike down with Elly saw my good friend Chris Nelson, biked home like a mad woman and got my copy, which I'm actually happy with, in to the city desk ON TIME (a first), I saw the ANTM finale, and the nice girl won.

sigh. thanks, day.

link to an http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=70b6471a-d39f-4b5c-b00d-06f51edafc50 I wrote on the strokes for the sun

by the numbers (with apologies to Harper's index)

$40 Cost of new bike bought at pawn shop after realizing the old one was not coming back

3 Number of bikes I have had stolen in the last 12 months

14 number of months I have lusted after the painting "Ribcaged heart" by Gretchen Gammell

48 number of pawn shop bikes I could buy for the cost of "Rib-caged heart"


1 number of paintings I acquired this week(sort of)

2 average number of diet cokes consumed on a day when I have a piece due

3 number of diet cokes consumed by me today

$1,000,000,000 Amount of the cheque I made out to my cat today.




$1.79 before-tax cost of a pouch of Whiskas' Brand "Temptations" cat treats

6 number of health professionals currently directly involved in my care (weekly).

1.5 Smallest amount (in litres) of bleach available at average supermarket in East Van.

4 Number of times this week I have fallen asleep with Golden Girls turned low on the tv

In other news
I tape my first spot on CBC Radio 3 next Wednesday.

My mum is in Scotland. The airline lost her luggage. I miss her.

I taught a creative writing course at the adult-learning annex this week. It was fun and weird and I had to heavily medicate myself to do it. Two women in the class were bi-polar, so I probably wasn't the most heavily medicated in the class.

A very nice editor/professor at the University of Victoria has asked me to come out to the island and guest lecture his class on pop music writing. I am going to do it, even though I have no honest right to.

I am eating like a horse. One of the side effects of not feeling like you're in a pit of despair all the time is constant cravings for pancakes and grilled cheese.

Saw Neil and Greg and played them "Record rainfall in January" and they really like it. Greg can now play it better than I can. I'm hoping he'll help me record it. Cause I really like it.

Elly is back.

Kat is not gone on her trip yet. Boys are ginks.

In fact, for the first time in my life, I can honestly say that I'm not looking for one.

GONEGONEGONEGONEGONEGONEGONE
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

I left it for two hours locked up outside with a kryptonite lock. I never leave it outside. Even if I'm drunk I haul it up the steep-ass stairs. I can't believe the love of my life, the thing that's been helping my so much lately, is gone. There are no words. Except four letter words.
The person who stole it better hope I don't catch them, cause I will seriously not be responsible for my actions.

bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

I have to admit, it's getting better, a little better all the time.


Hey Dudes. I got some great news today about some work (freelance). Enquire within, I don't want to broadcast it in a public forum. I'm feeling much better (look at the photo- I'm smiling, and I didn't even have to Photoshop any misery out of my face!). I've been feeling a lot better, I've got a regular GP and a couple of therapists who I really like, so I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I don't think I could have survived without my mother, and my awesome friends, who really could not be any better. Now is where the tough work begins, but at least I feel ready to do battle.



Here's Veronika (left) outside of my disastrous Franz Ferdinand/Death Cab review incident, where I filed my overnight review 20 minutes late and full of typos. I had used Dane (not pictured)'s laptop because I thought I could be one a those fancy reporters who files from the show instead of a scruff who zips to the local internet cafe on her bike, but there was no wi-fi at the coliseum, and also the subtle differences between my computer and the laptop made me inept in a way usually only ascribed to rhesus monkeys. It got filed though. Not my best work by a long shot. That's Elly (right) before we went for a nice catch-up lunch at Locus the other day. She's in Toronto for a little while, seeing her friends, getting some parental love and, I think much in the same way I got outta town for a while, taking a break from Vancouver.

It's worth mentioning that both of the girls pictured here are much, much more beautiful than the photographs belie, but that's my shitty photography and nothing else. Also, you can't see how beautiful either of these ladies are in their souls in these photos, but they truly are. They, and a number of others who I don't have photos of in my camera, have really taught me a lot in the past few months about being a solid friend.

I went for a bike ride both yesterday and today, yesterday was really windy and all the cherry blossoms were blowing around like a snowstorm. Also, all the downtown buildings have planted amazing , colourful gardens, of which there are some photos below. I managed to stay out a good two hours before the valium wore off and I had to go home, but that's a long way from where I was.

Later, in a moment of sloth, I watched Wife Swap and Nanny 911, both of which made me cry for some reason. Also, there was a fellow on the Colbert Report (which, btw, is getting really good these days- sometimes better than the Daily Show), Jon Meacham, who's written a book called American Gospel, about the history of the separation of church and state in the US. It was really enlightening, you can watch it here:
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/?lnk=v&ml_video=63548


I'm going to try and find the book and take in a read. Right now I'm working on Assassination Vacationssass, by Sarah Vowell, which is about U.S. presidential assassinations. S'very good.