commas and ampersands

I smell like I've been in bed all day. Probably because I have been. On the bright side, the chicken soup I ate for supper is staying down quite nicely, and maybe I've kicked this thing. And I really need to shower before I crawl back into bed for the night.

I've booked Colin's flight down here for March. It doesn't look like I'll be going to Calgary for spring break, mostly because he works nights that week, so it would be kind of pointless since I'd hardly see him anyway. He'll be down here for the full week before spring break, though, so at least we'll have a week together and he'll get the vacation time. I still have to keep an eye out for his flight back to Calgary, but at least he'll get down here, which is the important part, right? ;o) (You mean it wouldn't go over so well if I kidnapped him and kept him here? Too bad.)

I'm watching the first few episodes of Being Erica. Cute show. Someone in the Dragonfly (insanityjones, maybe?) said that it has sort of a Wonderfalls feel to it, which I can see. Doesn't hurt that Tyron Leitso is in it, but the similarities go beyond that. I'm remarkably impressed--maybe Canadian TV is finally catching up? (Oh, Canadian art, which is so far behind...) Also, Erin Karpluk kind of looks like Alyson Hannigan. I don't notice it so much in stills, but in motion, there are distinct similarities.

There are some distinctly Canadian phrases ("I was in my second year of university," in particular) that reminded me of a conversation I had before Christmas. I was talking to an American and a Brit, and the American commented that Brits and Canadians take out the "the" before certain words; for instance, "going to university" or "going to hospital."

The Brit agreed, but I had to protest, saying that any Canadian I know would never say, "Going to hospital;" like Americans, we'd say, "Going to the hospital." As for the use of "university"...

Americans refer to all post-secondary education as "college." Whether you're going to Harvard or Murray's House of Learning (thanks, Jackson), it's referred to as "going to college." There are, of course, the distinctions between junior college, two-year college, state school, private university, Ivy League, etc, but in general, the language used is that, when you're finished high school, you go to college.

In Canada, there's a distinction made between going to college and going to university. If you're going to, well, a university, you go to university after high school. If not, you go to college, which could refer to a technical school, a trade school, a Bible college, a community college, and so on. I have an accredited Bachelor's degree, but because my school wasn't specifically a university, I say that I went to college.

So, no, I wouldn't say that I'm "going to university" in the same way that someone might say that he's "going to hospital." If I was going to the physical location of the university, I'd say "the," just like I'd say "the" if I was going to the hospital (I'm going to the university to study; I'm going to the hospital to get my gallbladder removed). I'd also say, if I was, for instance, a student at the U of C, that I was a student at the University of Calgary. However, in the broad sense of going to university to get an education, there's no "the."

(Also, Canadians don't talk about our freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years. We refer to our post-secondary years as the first year, second year, third year, and fourth year. Which, incidentally, CalArts kind of does, too. We're referred to as BFA1, BFA2, BFA3, BFA4, MFA1, MFA2, or MFA3s.)

(And also, in another scene, Erica talks about being in grade eleven, which is also quite Canadian, as opposed to saying "eleventh grade.")

Anyway. That was a kind of pointless diatribe.

Oh, when I booked Colin's flight, the confirmation screen (after I'd paid) showed a different total than the emailed receipt. I printed out the confirmation page and I have the receipt in my email, so I'll check the credit card in a couple of days to see how much it was charged for and contest it if I have to. Weird.

Wow--a week since I posted? I guess so. It's been a fairly uneventfully eventful week, in the way that transitions often are.

Last Wednesday night was the first choir practice (which was why we didn't leave until Thursday morning--and why Colin flew back today instead of staying longer), which I went to, just for fun, even though I won't be singing with them. I'll be writing the narration again, so hearing the cantata again is always a good thing--even though I helped Colin put it together, so I've got a pretty good sense of the whole thing. I'll still need to listen to it several more times before I even think about starting to write.

Colin worked Wednesday night, so he got home an hour before we had to leave. Enough time to shower and change, basically, which meant that I drove and he slept for about the first 6 hours of the trip.

The road trip was uneventful, in terms of any major catastrophes. We realized just how much pulling the trailer affected our gas mileage last year. I mean, we'd known that all along, but it doubled the amount of gas that we used. This year, I was thinking that the first shift (we switch off at every tank of gas) felt a lot longer than it had, but I mostly attributed that to the fact that Colin was asleep and there was no one to talk to. We realized, though, that we stopped for our first tank of gas in the same place that we'd stopped for our second tank last year. And it's always a nice change to go to the U.S. and start paying American gas prices, even though they're still high. When we left, gas in Calgary was the equivalent of $5/gallon, give or take (and at its highest point this summer, it'd been around $5.40 or so), so it was a nice change to go to gas that was just under $4. It certainly makes a difference when a full tank is $60 as opposed to $85.

We stopped in Salt Lake City for the night, getting in at around 10. Had some dinner, thought about going to a movie but couldn't find a theatre in time for a show, ended up watching HIMYM on my laptop instead. Low-key, but it was nice to get a good sleep after all the night shifts and weird hours.

The next day, we slept in a bit, had breakfast, and were on the road by about noon. Except for gas and bathroom stops, we drove straight through to L.A.--no stop in Vegas this year. My friend Kim lives there, and we'd tried to see if we could meet her for a late lunch, but it didn't work with her work schedule, so we just kept going and made it back to my apartment by about 9.

I was telling someone just before leaving Calgary that I was having that "moving itch" in that I had all these new things that I wanted to buy, even though I didn't actually move anywhere. Still, on Saturday, we did a little bit of shopping and I got a few little things. One of the biggest things I needed was a new bookcase--mine was sorely lacking in space, and I wanted to go with something bigger (a corner unit and a full-size shelf) rather than getting a second one. However, we couldn't really justify spending the money on the ones we really wanted, even though they're pieces that we'll keep in our house after we get married, so I got a $20 one that's similar to my old one instead, and we bought some spray paint to do it a dark espresso brown.

I still need to get a second one to replace the one I had originally (because they're small enough that I do need two full bookcases, and that's just for some of my books), but I'll do that and paint it in a few weeks, once I'm working again, and I'll get enough paint to do some of the other furniture in my room that needs to be painted as well. Right now, I have about 5 different colors of furniture, because they're all mismatched pieces from all over the place, and while I know that I'm not investing in anything really good because we're going to be putting together a bedroom within the near-ish future, I still want it to match and look good in the meantime. Spray paint is just about the cheapest way to at least make it somewhat match.

Anyway, we also got some hanging lamps and a remote light switch, since my room doesn't have an overhead light and I was tired of banging my shins on my bed when I crossed the room in the dark to turn on a light. And, since my mattress was the most uncomfortable thing my back had ever felt, I got a good-quality (and much cheaper than a new mattress set) air mattress. We'll see how that works, but I've slept on some really good air mattresses lately, so I know it's possible for it to be a decently comfortable bed. Also, it's a full, which means that the extra space on my bedframe (which is 3/4 size) isn't hanging out under the mattress like it was on the old single mattress.

So, I got my fill of new stuff without spending too much on it. It was all necessary--I mean, I could have gone without it all; it wasn't necessary like our computers were necessary earlier this summer, but it wasn't frivolous like new, unnecessary clothes.

Sunday, we went to church... except that when we got there, we realized that there was only one service, which was just ending. Oops. Guess we should have checked to see if there was a summer service schedule. Ah well... we ended up going to the Getty instead. I've been meaning to go there since I moved here (gotta love free art museums), but hadn't made it yet, so it was one more thing checked off my list.

Yesterday was Disneyland, and it was a perfect day for it. After the busyness of Ikea on Saturday and the Getty on Sunday, I was worried that Disneyland would be insane, but I guess being the last day of the long weekend, everyone was on their way back home. We didn't wait more than 30 minutes for any ride, and we had plenty of time to get on everything that we wanted to, so we spent a lot more time on the rides than we did last time we were there. We had better spots for the show and the fireworks, too, so we actually saw them instead of seeing the backstage of them. Heh. I think that next time, we need to go to California Adventure. I've heard that it's not as good as Disneyland, but I'd still like to go, at least once.

Today, we had a pretty lazy morning, just hanging around the apartment until it was time to go to the airport. Colin's flight was at 1:50 this afternoon, so we were at the airport and he was heading to security by about 12:30. I ran a few errands and then came home to finish unpacking and cleaning. It hasn't been the top priority the past few days, which is fine, but the half-unpacked bags and boxes in my room were driving me nuts, and there were things that needed to be rearranged after having them put away to make room for the subletter. It's all done now, though. New bookshelf is up and full, the clothes are all put away, the bathroom medicine cabinet is rearranged, and the storage room has empty boxes (and an old mattress) in it. The only thing I still need is a holder/shelf/hook set for my straightener and blow drier. I've tried two different styles so far and neither has worked, so I've ended up returning them both. I guess it's back to Target tomorrow to see what else I can find.

I haven't transferred back to the Starbucks down here yet. Rather, I haven't heard from the manager since my transfer request was submitted. I tried calling her today, but there was no answer at the store (I must have caught them during a rush when no one could pick up the phone). I'll try again tomorrow, and if I can't get anyone, I'll go in and talk to her in person. I was hoping to start working this week, but I'm not sure that's going to happen, so I'll have a pretty boring week, it looks like. Ah well. Still, though, I feel like I should have used these few days to work so that there's not as much of a gap in my paychecks. Anyone have some freelance work for me for a couple of days? ;o)

I have pictures to post from the last month or so, but this entry is long enough, so I'll get to them in a separate one.

And... that's been my week. We're back into long distance, which sucks in a lot of ways, but at least I'm not moving somewhere completely new this year. I'm coming back to a familiar situation and friends, and we know what to expect this time, at least on some level. And Thanksgiving is only 6 weeks away, give or take. That's not too bad at all.

Well, Colin should be somewhere in the air right now--his flight was supposed to leave at 11:50, and it's now 12:30, and I haven't heard anything, so I'm assuming that everything went as planned and he's on his way home.

( The rundown )