O-Town, Backstreet, *NSYNC

Yes, I was off for the weekend in O-Town/Ottawa, land of sunny skies and buildings so beautiful they inspire patriotism and even architectural study (well, we'll see). At least, the canal, the art museum, the parliament buildings and Laurk&Dave's lawn all looked smashing. And I was put up in splendour at my hosts' new *house*. For those who haven't seen it, L&D's new place really is amazing: curvy staircase, room with a dormer window (mine!) and a china cabinet that *lights up when you touch the hinges*. I want to live there.

Ahem.

Ottawa also contains the lovely Ms. Fred and, in delightful coincidence, KT as well. Fred provided colour commentary on our drive through downtown and KT was even prevailed upon to sit with me on the train back and be charming. And there was Mexican food eaten out of doors and the Renoir exhibit and lots of chattering.

Also a visit to a gym much fancier than mine, where you can plug your earphones into your cardio machine and hear what is playing on any of a bank of televisions. I live in a tv-less bubble, and it is probably tragic how exciting I found all this. I was allegedly not watching the show wherein the family of Nick Carter, former Backstreet Boy, noisily implodes. I kept unplugging my earphone jack and determinedly not watching, only to get sucked back in by the puzzling visuals on the screen. Did you know that Carter's sisters have a lot of body image problems? That the family has way too many dogs that aren't properly housebroken? That his teenaged brother is happy to cuddle in bed with his dad? Aren't you sorry you do now? Nick Carter himself actually did not appear on the episode, having apparently disappeared according to his noticeably unperturbed sisters. The whole thing perturbed *me*, so it was just as well when it was time to go and I was forced to unplug for good. Poor Carters.

I got back on Monday and tried to get back to work as quickly as possibly, but things felt somehow not quite in sync. In general, I feel like I'm quite far behind on my writing, but I couldn't tell you what engenders this feeling. It's not like anyone's yelling at me for missed deadlines or anything. Could it be that I've actually reached the point where I'm as addicted to time at my desk as I am to caffeine? Weird. No wonder I couldn't deal with television.

Anyway, I'm back at it, although if the over-reach in this post title is any indication, it'll be a while until I'm fully up to speed!

She's throwing her charm away
RR