Life in progress

Category Archives: Life


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Playing the “Dumb” Card

I admit it: sometimes when I want something I’ll play stupid to get it.

Take for instance the laptop battery that I’ve been waiting for since May from Best Buy. They screwed up once and in return promised me a free battery, but it’s taking forever to arrive. I’ve called them countless times on the matter but it never seems to go anywhere. There comes a point when I just get tired of explaining myself to everyone I talk to. Eventually my answer becomes, “I don’t know.”

When did we first order the part? the Geek Squad guy asks.

I don’t know.

I’ll look it up.

This, from my perspective is a good thing because a) it forces them to admit they’ve screwed up somewhere and b) it means they’re actually looking at the problem rather than just listening to me complain while they gaze around the store at the pretty girls looking at iPads and/or pick their noses.

Then there’s my newspaper, which was cut off today because I got a new credit card and didn’t call them to give them an updated expiry date.  So I call them to ask why my paper didn’t come.

It looks like all we need is your payment information. Did you not get a notice in the mail?

I didn’t see one. (I’m of course lying.)

Oh, well I’ll update that for you today and  get a paper out to you right away. I’m not sure why your carrier didn’t mention it to you.

I don’t see my carrier. (Again, blatant lie. I AM my own carrier. I don’t, however, have a lot of mirrors in my house…)

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Don’t let it happen again. (Okay, I didn’t really say that, but what fun it would have been!)

I’m not a liar when it comes to anything else, but I’m certainly not beyond acting like an idiot when it comes to dealing with company’s bureaucracies. There’s nothing more annoying than being brushed off when you pay good money for a service: you shouldn’t have to fight for it if you’re paying for it!

Am I alone in this practice? Tell me you’ve done something similar. Please.

 


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Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Now I’m Here

I’m here. I’m always here. But aren’t we all? Where else would we be but here?

Here, for me, is usually my living room couch with my laptop on my lap. At least when I’m at rest. And by ‘at rest’ I mean working, because working on my novels, whether writing or editing is right up there with relaxing with a good book. I may call it working but to me it’s nothing like work.

Back to the ‘here.’ There is a marked difference between being here and sitting next to Alex than there is being here when he’s at his dad’s. I’m afraid, most of the time, to allow myself to concentrate on my work. There’s nothing worse than being wrenched out of it by someone demanding something of me. It’s like laying down for a nap when you know the phone will probably ring. What’s the use?

Not only that, but the difference in noise is also a factor. When I’m alone I can put my music on–when I’m writing or editing it’s always the Japanese band, Buck-Tick–but when Alex is here I’m usually listening to him sing. And by singing I mean a long, drawn out single note, because he’s Deaf and doesn’t understand that singing means more than one sound. The good news is, he can watch TV and play video games with the sound off and he doesn’t know the difference. At least I don’t have to listen to Dora the Explorer all day long.

So here I sit, now trying to decide if I should take the plunge or just give up on the idea of working for the day. It’s stressful not to work.

Especially when Buck-Tick is playing.

 

This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-214/  Click the link to see how you too can join in!


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The Trip to Queen and Back

Now that I’ve written the official Queen and Adam Lambert concert review, it’s time to relate the story of my trip.

We arrived in Toronto with about four and a half hours to spare before the show so we decided to do some walking. And some lunch. We chose a nice English pub downtown and sat down to have a beer with our meal. This is only notable because it marked the first time I’ve ever had a beer with my son in a restaurant. But I didn’t feel old AT ALL. I’ll just keep telling myself that.

After lunch we walked until our legs gave out (and no, it wasn’t just me). We sat on a flight of steps in Yonge-Dundas Square for a rest. Whilst there, we watched as a member of the security crew poured a bucket of soapy water on a rectangle of chalk that a group of kids had drawn on the pavement. Then, another employee came along with a broom and mopped it up. Can’t be too careful about that graffiti here in Canada I tell ya.

Of course, that called for a coffee. Since there were no tables available at the first Tim’s we went to, we walked a little more and then stopped to sit beside a fountain. There I took a picture of my traveling companions:

My eldest son Fred and my best friend John

My eldest son Fred and my best friend John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got to the Air Canada Centre long before the concert started and got to listen to some really annoying people behind us, who complained about everything: their own seats, other people’s seats, the line-ups, when was the concert going to start… I had had a headache all day and these people weren’t helping it to go away. But you know what did make my headache go away? Queen!

I didn’t think about what putting my hands above my head for almost two hours was going to do to my poor shoulder, let alone what singing at the top of my lungs was going to do to my throat. Strangely enough, my shoulder hasn’t felt better since January. Funny what adrenaline can do.

We got back home at 1:00am on the dot and I was still feeling the effects of being tired yesterday. Today I seem to have finally recovered. Not only am I fully awake, but I no longer sound like a teenaged boy whose voice is cracking either.

But you know what? I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

 


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One-Liner Wednesday – April 13, 2004

“You are the Stars and I am the wanderer who gazes,

yearning to understand what makes you so beautiful.”

~me (part of an old poem)

 

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Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday, if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

The rules that I’ve made for myself for “One-Liner Wednesday” are as follows:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Make it either funny or inspirational.

Have fun!


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And a Royally Spectacular Time Was Had By All

…and spectacularly happy I am that Queen and Adam Lambert decided to make last night’s final North American concert stop at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

As a long-time fan of Queen’s guitarist, Dr. Brian May, I made sure to secure seats at stage left. Not since March 2006 have I seen a more exhilarating show and that was, you guessed it, Queen with Paul Rodgers. Adam Lambert adds a whole set of unique talents to the concert however. His sense of style is so very much like the late, great, Freddie Mercury’s and yet different enough that I didn’t get the impression that he was trying to step into the fondly missed singer’s shoes. Instead he managed to make the show his own, even as he sang the songs faithfully as we all know them so well from hours and hours of listening.

The set list covered many of their most popular tunes, and some of the lesser played favourites. I had the feeling that quite a number of the younger members of the audience (and there were quite a number!) didn’t recognize the older tunes, though that didn’t seem to suppress their enjoyment. Included here were “The Seven Seas of Rhye” and “In The Lap of the Gods…Revisited,” both of which I’m honoured to have heard live. I was thrilled when Brian began to hint that “’39” was coming up as it’s my personal favourite from the album A Night at the Opera.

Dr. May’s guitar solo, as always, was truly amazing. The things that man can do with a guitar are nothing less than astounding. There are few guitarists on this planet who play with such heart and pitch that their music can pierce the soul and bring tears to the listeners’ eyes. Brian May is indeed one of them. And speaking of tears there was, of course, his solo performance of “Love Of My Life.” Enough said.

In the end, the show was made in the performance of the final three songs. “Bohemian Rhapsody” was powerful, and heart-wrenching as well when a video of our beloved Freddie was shown on the big screen, singing and playing the piano. For the encore, the band played, “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions.” Anyone lucky enough to experience these three songs live… To attempt to put it into words: it’s spiritual; like being surrounded by a sense of all-encompassing love in the form of heavenly sound and to know that the very hands which played THAT MUSIC–the songs you’ll always remember where you were and what you were doing the first time you heard them–are standing before you in the same room, is just incredible! There is the a reason Queen are referred to as rock Gods. This is it.

If you ever have a chance to see Queen perform live, do it. No matter what the monetary cost, no matter how far you have to travel. It’s an experience you’ll never forget.


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Queen Day and Goal Met

Just a quick note to say I’m finally off to see Queen and Adam Lambert in Toronto today. Full report tomorrow.

And I reached my Nano Camp goal of 30,000 words! It’s a happy day. 😀

2014-Winner-Square-Button

See you tomorrow!


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Can a Life be made Beautiful?

There are moments out of my ordinary, often boring life when I see it as something beyond what readily meets the eye.

There are days when I feel as though I was meant for more than just this: my life as a single, stay-at-home mother. That I was born to live a life of luxury seems obvious to me, even as I put on one of my two pairs of jeans and one of my four t-shirts every day. My one pair of shoes that I wear for every occasion is all that adorns my front hall closet, and yet I know this is not “it.”

There are minutes, and sometimes hours when everything I see is in a brighter technicolor. Everything I hear is an infinite song. Every taste blooms as though it is the beginning and end of life.

There are times when the energy of the universe surrounds me and I feel one with everything and everyone.

Is this how life can be made beautiful? Is the existence of a beautiful life all in our imaginations? I believe it is.

My life can be made poetic by the creation of a poem. It can be made inspirational by a scenery or by music. It can be anything I want it to be.

My life is beautiful. I make it so.


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On the Buses

The people in my town are polite – I’ve written about how dangerously polite they are in the past. But today, on the city bus, I found out how far it really goes.

Take, for instance, the graffiti:
graffiti

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s something a little edgier: It originally said, “All your base are belong to us,” until a handy grammarian came along and corrected it to, “All your bases belong to us.”

graffitinazi

 

 

 

 

I swear it wasn’t me.


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One-Liner Wednesday – Writer’s Block?

“Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Have the patience to wait! Be still and allow the mud to settle.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching _____________________________________________________________________________________

Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday, if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

The rules that I’ve made for myself for “One-Liner Wednesday” are as follows:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Make it either funny or inspirational.

Have fun!


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Random Update

I spent a fun-filled day playing Scribblenauts Unlimited on the WiiU with Alex, John, and John’s youngest daughter. That’s only slightly sarcastic – I could do without playing the game again, but we did have a few laughs. Alex is generally glad to be back home. He enjoys playing with his half-brother at his dad’s but routine is routine.

On the Camp NaNo front, I was within 1,600 words of completing my goal of 25,000 and there are still ten days left so I upped my goal to 30,000 words. I know I’m not going to be able to stop writing this one until I’m finished but I am forcing myself to take a break occasionally and edit the first one.

However, I’m having a bit of a difficult time with genre issues – or at least theme. The issue is with my new villain. She’s oversexed so of course the topic of sex keeps coming up. Where the first novel has its erotic moments, (and okay, a couple of decent sex scenes) this one is beginning to compete with 50 Shades of Grey, if not with the constant porn then at least the mention of body parts and, let’s say, warmer feelings. I may be able to tone it down but I can’t cut it out and keep my character in character. You can see my dilemma, right? What would you do? Have you ever read a sequel that strayed far away from the tone of the first… and did you like the second one? Or is this just a recipe for failure?

On that note, and in the spirit of randomness, here’s a picture of the sun setting over Boston Pizza.

 

sunset