Life and Times of AlieMalie

If you don’t know what Fiesta! is, then just google it. And also, if you don’t know prior to this post, I feel sorry for you. It’s like Mardi Gras with a Mexican flair. We’ve stolen the idea of beads – which is all Mardi Gras really had going for it, right? – and added it to the 11 day celebration of beer, food and all things carnival related. We have parades, beer, festivals, fairs, food, carnivals, rides, meat on a stick, fireworks, funnel cakes, good people, lots of music and cascarones. Don’t know what those are either? Poor thing. Long story short, it’s the shell of an egg that is filled with lots and lots of confetti. When in possession of these eggs, the object is to crack them over the heads of your friends and run as fast as possible in an opposing direction. It’s a lot of fun. Really. Unless you get a really hard egg which won’t crack and then your buddy gets a huge knot on their head and you get caught. But it’s all in good fun. The entirety of downtown is covered in confetti at the moment, it’ll be there for a couple of weeks at least because even with the most obsessive cleaners, that stuff is stubborn. We find confetti months later in the lawn of a friend of mine who hosts a yard party during one of the fairs. It rocks.

Wow, totally fantastic weekend. Friday was one of the main parades and while normally it’s like a high school reunion for me because the queen and her princess and duchesses all went to my old high school, luckily I knew none of them this year. The parade and fair yesterday was even better. I got to march in part of it and then dropped out as I ran into my friends sitting on the sidelines so I could get some photos of other friends who were marching behind me and commence the hanging out with good friends, good food, and good beer. Man, I look forward to this day every single year. It’s one event I will not miss. How could one pass up a parade that has gay pink flamingos? Really. You can’t.

Overheard in my kindergarten class yesterday morning while we were colouring, totally casual conversation between two of the girls:

Girl 1: Why’s Ashley sad?
Girl 2: Her parents are getting divorced.
Girl 1: Why?
Girl 2: It’s probably because they couldn’t agree on which last name to use.
Girl 1: Oh, you’re right. Can I borrow your red marker?

If only things were that simple.

To steal from christielli and wes, I’m making a shameless, self-serving, post padding entry regarding what’s making me happy right now, ’cause I’m on cloud 9. Maybe it’s the endorphins from earlier tonight at the gym? I dunno. Actually, I know it’s not that ’cause I’ve been like this for a couple of days. Anyway, without further ado:

• Feist’s version of Inside and Out, I cannot stop listening to it – which I hate because then I usually get sick of the song. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Or that I learn to let shuffle have it’s way with me. Argh, that’s hard.
• Upcoming travel! With friends! To go see a friend! Boing Boing Boing!
• Maxing out on one of the weight machines at the gym. I feel like a total badass now. Dude, I maxed out a machine! My glutes are, like, awesome. I still can’t get over it. Sorry, I totally sound like a meathead here, but it’s really damn cool. And – yes, pride’s getting the better of me here – it’s even better when a guy looks over and has this, “wtf?!” look on his face. Yes, I am a badass. Anyway, moving on …
• I feel like I’m finally on track. Am I where I really want to be? Not exactly. Am I moving in the general direction? Yes. Does it actually feel like I’m moving now? Yes. That should actually be: Yesssss!
• I’m really good at my job. And it’s not that I think that, it’s that veteran teachers think that and are specifically requesting me. Yea, it’s not too terribly hard to sub, but sometimes it can be really draining and difficult, especially when you have a class full of snotty brats or a child with a learning disability or whatever the case may be, but you know what? At the end of the day, if everyone’s happy and the teachers like me enough to tell me to my face as well as other people? I’m doing a good job. And I enjoy it. That’s the kicker; I really, really like it! And they pay me! Hot damn!
• Having some really awesome friends. Even through the highs and the lows, the long breaks between seeing each other and still knowing that they’ve got your back, 24/7? Can’t beat that feeling.
• Driving down the road after the sun has gone down with all the windows open, the music blasting and the cool night air running through my hair. I highly recommend this. Very nice.
• Endorphin highs. Yea, I said this post wasn’t directly ’caused by one, but I can’t deny I’m totally riding one right now. Can’t be beat.

Sooo, I’m going to go be really boing! now, by myself ’cause that’s really awesome too – me time, I luuuuuurv it. Enjoy yourselves, folks.

On the many occasions when time just seems to fly by I tend to get a little upset because I want more of what I had or was doing or the people I was with or because I feel like I/we could have done more. This weekend, however, while it flew by it also took forever to end. That’s a good thing, I think I found a balance of having a great time and not letting it just pass me by. Now if I could just find out how in the world I managed this, I could count this weekend as perfect. As for now, 99.99% perfect will have to do. Good friends, good food, excellent conversation and intellectual pursuits – and learning that I don’t always have to have my alarm set or have my phone on is ok. Those last two might be obvious for some of you, but I almost ALWAYS set my alarm for an early morning wake-up (even on weekends) and my phone has been my leash for who knows how long.

I’m hoping for more of these types of days, I’m almost assured of three of them next weekend – yay! – I’m feeling pretty good about things nowadays, no freakouts like previously.

This wasn’t quite as fun as the Nerd Warz from earlier this year, but if there was ever any doubt as to whether or not I AM a nerd, this should definitely put that to rest.

As of late, I’ve been on a classical music kick while in the car. Not just any classical music, mind you, but classical music that is best played at the highest level of volume possible while screaming down the highway. There are a couple of really good pieces for this, the Mozart Requiem is right up there, it also helps that this is one of my favourite things to listen to.

Today was one of those days that is painfully beautiful: clear blue skies, a nice little breeze, high of about 25C/80F … absolutely glorious; a super day for riding in the car with the windows down and the sunroof open. Perfecto. I pulled up to a light with a total of three lanes, still had my windows down and since I wasn’t moving, I’d turned the volume on the music down a bit too – I don’t particularly enjoy noise pollution – but it was still loud enough to hear in the next car over if the other person had their windows down too with nothing on their radio. A jacked up pick-up cruised in the lane next to me, the driver had their seat reclined nearly all the way, to the point where only their nose really qualified as sitting in the front and with their arm stretched allllllll the way out in order to still be able to grasp the steering wheel. Windows were rolled down and you could occasionally hear the thump of the bass of whatever it was that this dude was listening to.

I’m competitive by nature – duh – and since this bass was starting to interfere with my listening pleasure, I turned up my own volume just a bit so as to drown out the extraneous noise seeping into my car. Cue him to turn his up next. And then me. Then him. Me. Him. Fuck. I turned my little Civic’s volume up all the way and proceeded to attempt to use classical to drown out whatever the hell it was that the Nose was listening to. It didn’t quite work as I still have mostly stock speakers in Bonnie, but you know, it was far more fun than I was anticipating.

Mozart rocks, yo!