This Year in Review--the 2007 Resolutions

1. Health vigilance

Basically, I wanted to not die in surgery in January, and to recover from it with reasonable alacrity. And I did, so this one's a win. The fact that I haven't gotten the plague or fallen down a flight of stairs in the months since is simply bonus.

2. Apply for grants.

Did it.

3. Devote an hour a week to current events.

Failure. Utter and complete failure. I may be a bad person.

4. Get a real job.

Got one.

5. Read lots and read joyfully.

Um, this isn't a real resolution, of course I read. A few books I dragged myself through when I probably should've just stopped. Perhaps more work on the joy next time.

6. Make a blog.

Hey, whadaya know!

7. Travel!

New York and Ottawa, huzzah. Maybe I'll dream a little bigger next year!

8. Practice gratitude.

Um, this one seems in retrospect a bit airy-fairy. Hard to tell how I'm really doing on it. I think ok.

9. Write a book.

Hey, I did that one too.

Whoo, 7.5/9, perhaps my best year ever. Am I softballing myself, should I try for greater things? Stay tunned for the 2008 resolutions--maybe I'm going to climb the side of a building or something!!

You be 1948 / I'll be 1981
RR

Likes from a Post-Christmas Party

618. Digital cameras
619. Men who don't shave their backs (and women too, I guess)
620. Chocolate fondue with marshmallows
621. Monster trucks
622. Rachel Ray
623. George Eliot
624. George Strait
625. Missy (cat)
626. Horseback riding
627. Rodeo
628. Jack Daniels
629. Iron Bru
630. Cauliflower
631. Red wine
632. Lifelines on palms
633. John Deere tracotrs
634. Ben Still as Starsky
635. Kielbassa
636. Strawberries
637. Thermafores
638. Yoga (esp. Warrior pose)
639. Pictures of babies
640. Washable fabrics
641. Chenille sweaters
642. Varnished toilet seats
643. Pepsi blue
644. Dr. Pepper
645. Dr. Pepper Jellybellies
646. Tigger
647. Beeswax candles
648. Apple pie
649. Scottish spaghetti

Things I Like, as of 2008 (from AMT)

You'd think it impossible for me to like Anne-Michelle any better after ten years, yet this list endears her to me still more, especially #529 and 543. Better still, the email that contained it was entitled "Part 1"!!

509. Sample-size bottles at the drugstore
510. Dangly earrings
511. Red gloves with matching scarves and fetching hats
512. Purses made entirely of zippers
513. People offering advice who don't care if you take it or not
514. The smell of lily of the valley
515. Cufflinks
516. Arrested Development
517. More coffee when you have already clearly had enough, bordering on too much
518. New year's eve parties where you know hardly anyone, but they work out
519. Champagne for no reason
520. Very nice pens
521. Silver instead of gold
522. Working fireplaces
523. Long walks in the woods in the snow with the dog
524. Scrabble
525. Scrabulous
526. Cleaning out a drawer entirely
527. Packing gifts to take to the people you will be visiting
528. Red shoes
529. Boots with short skirts and colourful tights, so you look like a superheroine
530. A streak of navy blue in black hair
531. Pretty boxes
532. Sending flowers
533. Receiving flowers
534. Remembering just in time
535. Losing something, looking at the bottom of your bag one last time, and
suddenly finding it there
536. Breakfast in bed
537. Discovering that someone went beyond the call of duty
538. Discovering that someone noticed you going beyond the call of duty
539. Official people being reasonable
540. Clean windows
541. Fog when you don't need to see
542. Ducks in the pond
543. Excessive wind when you are indoors
544. Standing just inside the balcony at 4am in an August thunderstorm
545. Buying christmas cards in boxing day sales
546. Wandering around IKEA with a person you love helping them buy furniture
547. Putting the very last screw or nail into a piece of DYI IKEA furniture
548. Ribbons
549. Not having to say it
550. Bruises that are almost gone
551. A stack of things you have completed
552. Very good headphones
553. Mash-ups of Tijuana Brass and Public Enemy
554. Beginner's luck
555. Laughing till your eyes well up, and when you throw your head back the
tears go flying at the person who made you laugh
556. Getting something really clean that was previously really dirty
557. A long drive in the sun in the Berkshire mountains
558. Fairmount Bagels
559. The Canada Day waterfall off the Edmonton High Level Bridge
560. The kids who really know how to figure skate at the West Edmonton Mall
561. Home-made crepes
562. Old record players that come with their own speakers
563. Typewriters
564. Amnesty International
565. Jade jewelry on glamourous old people
566. Grace Kelly
567. The romantic ideal, though not the practical details, of gambling in Monaco
568. Jimmy Stewart movies
569. Very bad infomercials and evangelist television on late late night TV
570. Croquet, actually
571. Getting letters
572. Mix CDs
573. Poirot with David Suget (sp?)
574. Very old friends
575. Creating websites of no consequence
576. Putting up fairy lights
577. Crispy leaves on the ground
578. Naturally curly hair
579. A dash of freckles
580. Fluevogs
581. Dolce de leche ice cream
582. Newberry St in Boston
583. The Internationale
584. Miniature music boxes
585. Zebras
586. Woman who can pull off wearing long scarves
587. Elegance
588. That Gene Kelly look of too-short pants with loafers, preferably with no socks
589. That very strong Dutch black licorice covered in salt
590. Real cranberry juice
591. Ouzo
592. Stationery stores
593. Eccentric diners
594. Local cable access TV, particularly the shows that involve polka or
municipal politics
595. The box store in Hadley, Massachusetts that sells nothing but pet food
and 2-litre bottles of pop
596. Vegan food that does not taste vegan
597. Vegan buffet in New York City
598. The Strand Bookstore in New York City
599. The huge pubs in Liverpool
600. Pastisse (sp?)
601. Bailey's on ice
602. Blue spruces
603. Making tricky recipes for the first time with someone you like
604. Waking up on special days
605. Curling up in bed with nothing to do but rest
606. Siberian tigers
607. Emperor penguins
608. Montreal's Biodome
609. The Museum of Anthropology at UBC
610. Subversive wrapping paper
611. Duct tape with sushi on it
612. Tweezers
613. Packing foam
614. Brand new tubes of toothpaste
615. Spooky movies
616. Nina Simone
617. Admitting that you like Beyonce

Parental Likes

501. Chocolate
502. Short stories
503. Fires in fireplaces
504. Sleeping in
505. Rain on the roof
506. The smell of baking bread
507. The Rodin museum
508. Gin martinis

That list is pretty representative of my folks, but it does leave out a few personality facets. For example, the incident which occurred yesterday, wherein my father brought a measuring tape to the grocery store in order to settle a dispute with my mother, touching upon the dimesions of pizza shells. It was resolved amicably.

I have new boots!

Let this be a lesson
RR

Neglected Likes

In honour of the warm after-glow of Christmas, I'm offering a special collections of things I like that, I fear, are not liked by many others. I try to like them extra, to make up for it!

462. Fruitcake
463. Chicken liver
464. Small talk, especially about the weather
465. Waiting rooms
466. Airports
467. Hospitals
468. Sleeping in public
469. Really really long lists

In other news, Christmas was nice. In case you doubted that I could do otherwise, I've been writing more or less steadily, but that's a lot easiser when you don't have anything else to do besides eat, sleep, read, and go to the amusing local gym, where you NEVER run into people from high school, even though you are totally braced for it. In fact, given the low-demand life I am leading, I've accomplished very little, but I do not care because I haven't had more than one day off since July. I am totally entitled to sleep 10 hours a night and eat as much fruitcake as I can find. Also to watch a *Fraiser* marathon on television for reasons that now escape me, and play copious *Dance Dance Revolution* (OMG--I do not have my *Chicago Manual of Style* with me and I do not know what appropriate citation style for a video game is. Italics? Quotation marks? Something I haven't even thought of yet, like angle brackets? Oh, the shame!!) My bro borrowed the PlayStation and *Dance Dance* (going with the italics for now) from his girl, and it's been quite the hilarious entertainment. I fell off my mat, but only once.

Um...I've been outdoors. No, really. I went to see AMT for breakfast this am, and she was charming and her t-shirt showed a tiny mouse screaming, "Books rule!" and also she had red leather gloves. I have black leather gloves which are so elegant and grown-uppy, and I adore them and I know not how this meshes with my not eating beef. Cows--too cute to devour, but I'll wrap my hands in their skin? Well, apparently, at least for now. I'll get back to you on this.

I *do* like presents. No particular thing, just *stuff* for *me* you know. I think what I like best about gifts, letters, anything in the mail, really, is that it is evidence that someone thought about me when I wasn't around. Something about the image of a loved one standing in a card shop, glaring at one of those Shoebox-silliness cards, thinking really hard--"Would RR laugh at this?" That just kills me.

I think a lot of thought went into this holiday. I am kilt.

This comes to you courtesy of my new Magnetic Fields' cd, 69 Love Songs, vol. 2

Epitaph for My Heart

Caution caution caution
To prevent electric shock
Do not do not do not
Remove cover.
No user servicable parts inside
Refer servicing to qualified
Service personel.

RR

Two more sleeps

I am both tired and using dial-up, two things that I will use as excuses for this post not being fascinating, but it *is* almost Christmas and I'm excited! Yay! Festive! Ecetera! Two! Soon to be one, as I'm pretty much down for the count as I type.

But yay!

Songs for the singers
RR

Ben Likes

448. Anniversaries
449. Goats
450. Irony
451. Tina Fey
452. Animation for grown-ups
453. Men Behaving Badly
454. Blue
455. Sleeping in
456. Yawning
457. Humphrey Bogart
458. Dance Dance Revolution
459. Cream pies
460. Sunsets
461. People thinking I'm cool

10+

414. Clone High (tv show)
415. Tinsel
416. Lunchtime
417. Accents
418. Chopped liver (really)
419. Green
420. Muppets
421. Stop-motion animation
422. Breakfast cereal
423. Synonyms
424. Defribullators
425. Swimming
426. Spelling yoghurt with an "h"
427. The way French people pronounce "h"
428. Banana chips
429. Christmas specials
430. Plans
431. The guided tour of Alcatraz Island
432. Birds
433. Eating an apple while walking jauntily down the street
434. Sesame Street
435. The difference between raisins and currents, whatever it is

Yay!

404. Eavesdropping
405. Vacation pictures (anyone's)
406. Short fingernails
407. Prizes
408. Chicken
409. Tegan & Sara
410. Long division
411. Hugs while wearing puffy coats
412. The word "llama"
413. The Chicago Manual of Style

Musicology

If anyone were an obsessive reader of the sign-off lines around here, they might have noticed that I am experiencing something of a CanRock Renaissance in my life. This is in large part reflective of the fact that I have a fast internet connection at work and can listen to CBC3 to my little heart's content as I work. CBC3 is lovely. In addition to the regular streaming radio, they have these "artist pages" so that you can hear a smattering of cuts from the artist's life's work (is it all singles? most popular tracks? the science of artist pages is a mystery to me). They also have mini-blurbs about who these people are and what they've achieved, but since it's been a couple years since I've even sighted the cutting edge from the crow's nest, I'm pretty disoriented.

So I've been reading up, semi-haphazardly, at Chart Attack, "Your Canadian Music Source." It is, it is! My delightul friend Shannon Whibbs writes for them (she of the shiny hair and puppet shows), but for ages I've cheated by just *asking* her what REM lyrics mean or whether is "Joel Plaskett and the Emergency" or "The Joel Plaskett Emergency" (Shannon reports: it's the latter). It turns out that the site, rife with Shannon-esque wisdom, contains reviews and profiles of all sorts of things beyond my ken. It's particularly handy at this "shopping for others" period of the year, but really this is all part of my quest to be well-rounded! One of these days...

I feel foolish / you look Polish
RR

Snowy days

Hey, we had a blizzard. It was great--I bailed on all parties (which, to be fair, would also have been great), all errands and the world at large. I spent the entire weekend reading and writing and, when I got too stir-crazy, going to the gym. I managed to lure writing/performance partner J. to the house last night, but other than that, I did not see a lot of other humans.

Perhaps that is why, despite the ONE AND A HALF HOURS it took me to get to work, I found the commute a great pleasure. The bus was so packed with so many humans going crazy, and yet everyone was in a good mood. Things that happened on the bus:
--woman speaking to a toddler, both aloud and in sign language, about how many people might be on the bus. The tot's ASL was still weak--she kept signing the zero first in 50. While this was being debated, we hit a stop and someone boarded. The caregiver was patiently explaining how digits worked, when the little girl, who could not speak, impatiently signed something. The caregiver laughed, and said/signed, "Ok, yes, 51."
--a teenager shrieking into a phone, "You *broke Jordan's nose*?? That's not good. Ok, how? Is it really broken? Is she ok? Ok, honestly, that's sort of funny. Has school started yet? I'm gonna be *so* late."
--when I finally got a seat, it was next to a man with an enormous, old-school, 1990s-style CPU in his lap. It came up to his chin and out to his chest, but when I dropped a piece of paper on the floor and couldn't reach it, he got it for me...somehow. So chivalry isn't dead.

This is a message
RR

Worst typo ever

as he lifted the forkful of eyewhites to his mouth


Ewwww.

I meant *egg*whites, obviously.

Hand in hand / to the witness stand
RR

Good and Bad News

Well, it is good news to me, as well as surprising, to discover that 28% of Canadians are currently boycotting Walmart (in a marketing text I read for work; sorry I can't offer a link). I was feeling really pleased to be a part of a group so much larger than I'd have thought. I haven't been able to shop there, despite my delight in inexpenisve consumer durables, since I read Barbara Ehrenreich's gently terrifying bookNickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, about minimum-wage jobs and the lives lived by their workers.

Anyway, I felt good and solidarity-like for about 12 minutes, before I realized Walmart is doing just fine. More than a quarter of the country is pointedly not shopping there, and the store is thriving.

It's maybe that "pointedly" above that was the problem--is the 28% really comprised of people who would've shopped there anyway? As I tell this news to my friends, friends who are mainly young people who rent their homes, have a lot of education, low-level professional jobs and no children, I have found that almost all of us fall within the 28%, but what would we have been buying if we did shop there? Walmarts aren't easily available to the downtown-dwelling, non-car-driving population; the year before my boycott, I remember what I bought there distinctly, because I went only once. A friend's father drove us as there as a special favour, and I bought a coffeemaker and yoga pants, for a grand total of about $50. For the year. Pre-boycott.

My brother points out that people will take on the strong stand when the costs to their personal happiness and inconveniences are minimal, and this is sadly true. I still don't buy much organic food because it is so expensive, even though I do believe it is better for the environement. The sad truth is, I haven't much buying power.

Then yesterday, I was at a party, whinging about this to a group of the converted, one of whom pointed out that it's only by talking about these issues that a relatively powerless demographic can gain some power. My nickels and dimes don't add up to much, but I can tell people who have more to spend, or just so many little people that our collective power adds up to something. So I'm telling you this--not that you should boycott Walmart, but that you might want to if you read about their treatment of their employees and think about these issues the way I do. So...that's it, I've told you. And I think that's for the good.

Other good news is that Polident, the denture-cleaning people, now make one of those effervescing pellets for retainers. The bad news is that I wear a retainer, but you knew that. Now it is a sparkling clean retainer.

But, ok, ok, the *really* good news is that The Journey Anthology was reviewed in The Globe and Mail's Books section this morning, and they said amazing things about my short story, "Chilly Girl." Also the other stories in the collection, all of which blow me away, and the whole thing was quite joyous to read (my protagonist gets called someone else's name, but that's pretty minor. Quibbles!!)

And the other good news is that, despite living under a rock, I have numerous lovely friends who call and email when something nice happens. Otherwise I might never have known.

Let's get wrecked on Rolling Rock
RR

Lauren's Likes

400. Calico cats
401. Exposed brick walls
402. Jelly feet
403. Date squares

Friday Likings

349. Friends
350. Lists
351. Pudding
352. The Joel Plaskett Emergency
353. Annabel Lyon
354. Annotated PDFs
355. The phrase "carbon footprint"
356. Reducing your carbon footprint
357. Marmalade
358. Song lyrics that encapsulate something you've always thought but never said aloud
359. Shiny hair
360. Staple removers
361. Wireless technology
362. Gingerbread
363. Rhymes
364. Futo maki
365. Thoughtfulness
366. Parents
367. Fluffy snow
368. Places where it doesn't snow
369. Free downloads
370. John Updike
371. Punctuation
372. The "Little House" books
373. Hawkeye Pearce
374. Toblerones

Now, don't those 25 things make you want to add some of your own?

Happy Friday!

Everytime they look at us / We'll blow their minds
RR

Little Big World

Occasionally I de-pod in transit, put down my reading and tune into the world around me. Usually that world consists of cellphone conversations between my fellow TTCers and people who aren't in the world around me.What can you do, ours is a "virtual" culture. Still, it never fails to amaze me how freely people will discourse cellularly, at much higher volumes than they'd ever have a conversation in person. I've heard people talk about what they've stolen, about fistfights at work, abortions, alcoholism, violent relationships, and trips to the food bank. I guess when people raise their voices talking about this stuff, they aren't really thinking about privacy; they have bigger problems. Joy can wait until they disembark, I guess, since I rarely overhear the job acceptances, happy birthdays, just-called-to-say-I-love-yous.

The other morning, I found myself eavesdropping on the fellow behind me, though I could not understand him. He was talking on his cellphone in Hindi at 8 in the morning, but with such intensity that I felt I was following the rise and fall of the covnersation . Though there was heated emotion in his voice, he was speaking in long, reasoned-sounding sentences, and I couldn't tell if it was a business or personal conversation. Then, appropos of what I don't know, he said a sentence in English: "It's not a routine, I call you every day because I *want* to talk to you." Almost a thesis statement really, outlining almost everything else that had been spoken and would be so far.

He went back into Hindi after that, but I felt that understood the rest of the conversation perfectly, even before he gave another couple subject-lines in English a few minutes later. When he got off the bus, he passed my seat and I of course turned to see what he looked like--a college student with an enormous backback, sneakers tied by their laces hooked onto it. He was still talking, somewhat miserably. I don't think he was convincing whoever it was on the other end.

The man next to me visibly craned his neck to see the speaker's face. I smiled at my fellow voyeur and he somewhat awkwardly looked down into his lap, confused at my attention maybe, or startled at being caught out. Me, I felt sad for us all, but strangely happy to be a part of this bizarrely connected world.

He came to inspection / before me in sections
RR

This Lovely Lovely World

335. People with perfect pitch
336. How veggie wraps are tasty in almost every restaurant--seemingly impossible to screw up
337. Sloan
338. The Killers (band, der)
339. Clean dry sidewalks in winter
340. Crunching leaves or cracking ice (or making wine or bursting paintballs) with your feet
341. Clapping on the beat
342. Biting stuff
343. Canada
344. Microwaves
345. People who contribute to this
(so far: 345 a) Jessica
b) David
c) Jane
d) Kerry
e) Penny
f) Ian
g) Scott
h) Felicia
i) Fred
j) Kevin
346. Things that are better than you'd expect
347. Riding in cars
348. Harmonicas

I like you

I hope you've seen the wealth of wonderfulness hiding in the comments on previous posts. To add to the joy, I've been polling a wide range of friends and acquaintances. Liking stuff is a pretty fun game to play with people you don't know well, because everybody does like stuff!!

325. turkey help-lines
326. Christmas cards
327. first-edition hardcovers
328. reading copies
329. giving books away
330. lattice (waffle) fries
331. paintball
332. roasted red peppers
333. lasers
334. families

So much more to come!

Can-Lit Tip

It's going to be a Can-Lit Christmas here at Rose-coloured, and while not exclusively, I have mainly been accumulating books for the holidays, which in addition to being entertaining and edifying, are also easy to wrap rectangles! Hurrah!

I'm also attempting a semi-non-corporate holiday here, not because I am completely convinced of the evils of big companies (I do enjoy shiny, as we all know) but because when possible, I'd rather my cash go somewhere that I think will do something awesome with it, and most likely needs it. I won't be naming names but the companies that I'm ambivalent about are not really feeling the bite of my semi-boycott--if I don't shop there, other people will. On the other hand, when I buy a book at Book City or This Ain't the Rosedale Library I feel like it might actually matter. Which is a good feeling.

Much as I love the look and feel, breadth and range, and care that I see in small bookstores, they can't stock everything. In our want-what-I-want-when-I-want-it lifestyle (ok, in mine) it can start to seem quixotic to stomp to 4 bookstores in the cold when you actually know what you want is at the mall. And while shopping online is the answer to many lifestyle issues, as far as I know the online bookstores are all big corporate. (if there's a little indie site somewhere in Canada, please tell me!)

You've probably understood the point of this post from paragraph one, or some years before, but to me it was a revelation that came last month: you can order books directly from the publisher!! If the book's print, it'll be in stock, and the publisher actually makes more money on that particular sale because they don't have to give a cut to the store/site/distributer/whatever.

Ok, yes, I've been working in publishing for more than five years, but let's emphasize that it wasn't marketing/sales, ok? Thanks!

I can see not wanting to do this if you only want a single book from each publishing house, but multiple books in total, and want the economies of scale that come from the online superstores (ie. free shipping). But some houses have pretty good deals about this stuff, too, especially around the holidays, and many (I'm sure not all) are as quick and easy as an online superstore.

So here's what you do--find out what publishing house puts out your book, or distributes it in Canada (most, though not all, imported books will come into the country through some sort of a arrangement with a Canadian house--no need to order books from abroad unless a) they haven't been picked up here for whatever reason, b) they're cheaper elsewhere, c) you particularly like a cover from another country. If you don't know, Google your book (or, sigh, search it on one of the Canadian bookstore sites) and it'll tell you.

Then google the house or find it on The Association of Canadian Publishers website, and follow their ordering system. It's a couple extra steps, but it might be worthwile, if you feel so inclined.

Happy reading and, oh, happy Hannukkah (everyone spells this holiday differently! How do you spell it?)

RR

More

281 Wintersleep's "Weighty Ghost"
282 Streaming
283 Days of rest
284 Christmas cards

More to like

A retro list from Kerry, circa 2003.

171 Cardigans
172 Red Shoes
173 My hair
174 Pop Music
175 Consumerism
176 Books
177 Oral sex
178 Canada
179 Peanut M&Ms
180 Ducks
181 The Spice Girls
182 Bob Geldof
183 Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
184 kitchens
185 Christmas
186 Eastenders
187 The Beatles
188 Snowglobes
189 Toronto
190 Films based on Nick Hornby novels
191 Duran Duran
192 Sleeping
193 Pineapple
194 Crowded House
195 Sheep
196 Telephones
197 Stew
198 The Saturday Guardian
199 The Sunday Times
200 The Observer
201 The Globe and Mail
202 Quilts
203 Knitting
204 Cher
205 Pizza Hut
206 Greek Salad
207 Vanity Fair
208 Kit Kat
209 Musical Theatre
210 Dar Williams
211 Sheffield
212 Adrian Mole
213 Summer
214 Dirty Dancing
215 Trains
216 The Seaside
217 Dinner parties
218 Mail
219 Free things
220 The Internet
221 Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls
222 Fruit Salad
223 Photo Albums
224 Babies
225 Airplanes
226 Swimming
227 The Movies
228 Cats
229 Bikes
230 Compilations
231 The Simpsons
232 Folk music
233 Grease
234 Banana bread
235 Cheese
236 Long weekends
237 Hungary
238 Summer cottages
239 Swings
240 Markets
241 Zebras
242 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
243 Books in brown paper bags
244 Public libraries
245 Terrace houses
246 Tomatoes
247 The Beer Store
248 Good pens
249 John Cusack
250 Miffy
251 Green Tea
252 Suitcases
253 Learning
254 Horizontal
255 Stationary
256 Lists
257 Flowers
258 Liquorice
259 Scrapbooks

1000 Things in 2007

So here's how it works--everything is valid, even if there is dissent--as long as someone likes it enough to contribute to the list, it counts. Except for sneaky negatives--no fair putting "people who don't steal my parking space."

The following are courtesy of my lovely colleagues over lunch, Penny and Ian over dinner, and myself at intervals. Read, enjoy, and *add*!!!

1) empathy
2) oranges
3) puppies
4) fur in general
5) oxygen
6) nitrogen
7) the moon
8) the game Apples to Apples
9) the police (civil servants)
10) The Police (band)
11) firemen and -women
12) good grammar
13) em-dashes
14) apple pie
15) pecan pie
16) the Loch Ness Monster
17) sharks
18) Shark Week on the Discovery Channel
19) cephalopods
20) cafeterias that don't mind giving you a free fork
21) fresh-baked croissants
22) found money in last year's coat
23) Winona Ryder
24) juice boxes
25) carrots
26) the Festive Special at Swiss Chalet
27) stockings
28) stalking (friendly)
29) Christmas
30) Bon Jovi
31) big movie popcorn sizes
32) the sun
33) Martha Stewart
34) crafts
35) yoghurt cake
36) non-bill mail
37) festive stamps
38) pennies
39) foreign mail
40) intercontinental travel
41) unlimited long-distance
42) extra bacon
43) pizza
44) when strangers share their umbrellas
45) lip balm
46) cake in general
47) snowflakes
48) the beach
49) ski chalets
50) sports
51) the Olympics
52) friends
53) teamwork
54) goldfish (cracker)
55) goldfish (pet)
56) cottages
57) pistachios
58) Scrabble
59) toasted marshmallows
60) recliners
61) finding something you want on sale
62) argyle
63) 4:45 in the afternoon
64) finding a subway token
65) running into friends
66) shoes
67) chocolate milk
68) popsicles
69) babies in hats
70) America's Funniest Home Videos
71) cereal box prizes
72) typography/fonts
73) crunching through fresh snow
74) falling unexpectedly (w/o pain)
75) Coke Zero
76) Extra Bubblemint
77) Ice skating
78) snowboarding
79) getting your braces off
80) biting dental wax
81) picking glue off your hands
82) butter-pecan flavoured coffee
83) glitter
84) playing hooky
85) Tim Hortons
86) Smile Cookies
87) the universe
88) Across the Universe (film)
89) stars
90) needing a smaller size of clothes
91) freckles
92) glasses
93) shiny hair
94) socks
95) laughing until gasping
96) waking up before the alarm
97) playing fetch
98) the plough position (yoga)
99) little girl ballerinas
100) slippers (all varieties)
101) kisses (all varieties)
102) watching a penguin fall down
103) whale watching
104) dolphins
105) porpoises
106) home
107) redecorating
108) photographs
109) parasailing
110) paintball
111) big tails
112) free gift with purchase
113) napkin origami
114) maps
115) naps
116) sleeping in
117) Nintendo Wii
118) sailing
119) databases
120) shopping
121) leaving early
122) babies' feet
123) call display
124) call waiting
125) iPods
126) scarves
127) grass
128) hide-n-seek
129) swings
130) sand
131) airports
132) Love Actually (film)
133) sticky flags
134) Ferris wheels
135) people with perfect pitch
136) cello
137) Douglas Adams
138) kittens
139) Secret Optimum Points Day
140) Red Lobster
141) birthdays
142) balloons
143) hockey
144) fireworks
145) Splenda
146) dinner theatre
147) dinner parties
148) concerts
149) good health
150) Visa Dividend
151) after dinner mints
152) crab legs
153) Clinique Bonus Time
154) crafting
155) Mom's cooking
156) sweet potatoes
157) nieces and nephews
158) nanaimo bars
159) bear claw ice-cream
160) blackberries
161) picking blackberries
162) silk
163) cashmere
164) lying on the floor
165) bubble baths
166) pottery
167) getting jokes
168) visiting with friends
169) CBC3
170) Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts by Bob Dylan

1000 Things in 2002

If you read the comments here at Rose-coloured, you might have noticed a while back that Fred mentioned a doing a 5-year anniversary edition of 1000 Things We Like. This is clearly the best idea in the world, and though Fred is now somewhere on the European continent finding new things to like, I thought I'd get the ball rolling with some sentimental memories.

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about: in the summer of 2002, I read a novel which, while being otherwise rather good, was principally about adults, and the 12-year-old girls in the background were treated dismissively, especially when they started working on a list of 1000 things they liked. I *hate* it when adults are shown to be intrinsically more interesting than kids (which is why I hate The Gilmore Girls and I like positive endeavours and I wanted to make such a list with my friends, though we were adults.

Fred agreed with her characteristic enthusiasm, and so did countless others of our shared and separate circles. We began in late October and finished well before Christmas. Reading over the old list the past few days, I have been positively misty over the passage of time, the tenacity of friends and the no-end of goodness that there is in the world. I thought of putting the whole list up here, but that would probably break blogger, so below is just a random sampling, for inspiration. I'll start the new list in the next post, and from then on, please feel free to add to it in the comments or by email. Even though we're starting way later this time, perhaps we could still do it by Christmas??? Come back, Fred!!!!

All of New York City misses you
RR


585) kittens when they are so young their eyes are still blue
586) the Christmas displays at Pottery Barn
587) remembering an obscure tv programme with someone else who loved it once, too
588) the dreidel song
589) craisins
590) when you don't understand and don't understand and suddenly, like a flash, you do
591) how cheap long distance is these days
592) good complexion days
593) thick cotton tights
594) purging your closet down to only stuff you actually like
595) baking cookies for no reason other than enjoying the process of baking
596) very complicated notes to yourself that only you can understand
597) spearmint Trident
598) when the SNL cast loses concentration and giggles

You could say it's my own damn fault

...for being cheap enough to buy the bottom-of-the-line coffeemaker, or being clumsy enough to smash the carafe by hitting it with a hot tray of corn muffins, or being weak enough to get addicted to caffeine, but I still think it's stupid and unfair that Westinghouse doesn't sell a replacement carafe for the cheapest coffeemaker on the market. Unfair to the cheap and clumsy and caffeine-addicted, I guess. Anyway, I now have a coffeemaker I could give you free of charge, never been used, as long as you can provide your own carafe. Hit me up, yo!

Who taught you to live like that?
RR

What I Don't Know

A quick cruise of my favourite blogs indicates that it's year-end best-book lists that are currently fascinating and irritating people (if people-I-know are reasonably representative sample of people-at-large, which they probably aren't). Since I need to update my links list anyway, and there's this copacetic (not a word? unsure) moment, let me introduce you to Thirsty: A Biblioasis Miscellany is a blog run by Daniel Wells for Biblioasis press, but occasionally guest-written by authors from the press. It's about the books, obviously, but also about Canadian publishing, poetry, grants, reviews, translation and a host of other things that I know a lot about *in theory* and yet am contunually surprised by in real life. Thirsty is a great window into how (hard) you work to get books into the world, and it's written with such consistent passion that it also reminds you why someone would.

Steven W. Beattie at That Shakespearian Rag is at the other end of the food chain, a consumate reader and reviewer of books. I have to admit that I have trouble keeping up when I read that blog, because not only have I not read most of the books under review, I have often not read that reference points to which they are compared, the reviews that Mr. Beattie is in dialogue with, or the awards he is in agreement or dispute with. Sometimes this blog makes me feel dumb, but it is also highly educational, and the writing is interesting and broad enough that you can learn starting from square one if you have to. It's also sometimes pretty funny, and always well-written, and we both liked *Michael Clayton*.

Both these gentlemen have been commenting on year-end booklists, as I say, and so has my touchstone of the book-reviewing universe, Ms. Clare at Pickle Me This. I would encourage you to read all three and then, if you are like me, strongly consider but not actually get around to finding the actual list somewhere.

I wrote the thesis
RR

December 1

Yes, I know Blogger will apply the date for me, but this is a date that requires a header, too! It's the beginning of the silly season (I think New Yorkers apply that to an entirely different time of year, but oh well) when shopping is a serious pursuit and everyone's always about to go to a party and no gets anything done at work because all the key people are away on vacation. I think enough Christmas carols, or nearly enough, have now been written that we might be able to get through the season without hearing any given one (or version of one) more than eleven times, but who cares if we do?

Things are shiny in Rose-coloured land. I got out the Hannukkah hand towels last night (it has gold embroidery floss on the candle flames!)

Two things to do today, being posted way too late, but no one's really free today anyway. But if you were, you could go to:

Friday, November 30, 2007
CITY OF CRAFT ESSENTIALS
WHAT: City of Craft
WHO: 60+ craft vendors, community groups, installation artists & workshop leaders
WHEN: Saturday December 1, 2007, 11am-8pm
WHERE: The Theatre Centre, 1087 Queen Street West at Dovercourt (enter in the blue doors on Dovercourt).

Possibly followed by a staged reading of
THE HOUSE OF MANY TONGUES by Jonathan Garfinkel
With Hrant Alianak, Maev Beaty, David Fox, Janick Hebert, Daniel Karasik, Julian Richings
A house in Jerusalem, 2003, is home to Israeli General Shimon, and his 16 year old son Alex, who's busy trying to bring peace to the Middle East through improved sexual techniques. When Palestinian writer Abu Dalo returns to the house he left 40 years ago, pursued by his long-lost daughter, we realize somehow these four people are going to have to live together - if they don't kill each other first.

Whatever you do, I hope it's great day! Really, though, it could hardly miss.

A very shiny nose (like a lightbulb)
RR