~ ANNE! ~

Argh. Not only is it Monday, it appears to be List Day at work. In fact, I have been compiling lists of the lists I have to go through. I am snowed under by giant piles of printed-out spreadsheets. Whee!

This is all the more annoying because there is the tantalizing promise of more interesting work to be done... if I could only get the tedious (but extremely important) things finished so I had time to work on it. I hope this happens by the end of the week, but I am not holding my breath. The tedious, slogging stuff has a strong tendency to expand to fit the amount of time available, however large or small it may be.

My coworkers have started to ask if I am ever healthy. A fair question, since I've had a non-stop stream of minor illness (and one good long bout of food poisoning) since I started. I thought maybe cutting back to working one full-time job would help matters, but it would appear not, judging by this nasty cough-and-sniffle that's invaded my system this week. It's okay that I don't get benefits or sick days for another month and a half: work is probably paying out the equivalent just by keeping me in Kleenexes.

(okay, now it's Tuesday. Blogging rate is slowing because I don't have much to say, and reading well-written weblogs makes me want to keep my own rubbish to myself).

I finally bought some new work trousers this week. I've been wearing the same solitary pair for two months now. When the receptionist keeps offering you her old clothes so you have something different to wear, it's perhaps time to go shopping. The new ones are a little clingy, though, so I had to check with the girls to make sure I was not having VPL issues.

"Steph, do I have lines going on?"
"No, I think you're okay."
"What if I gain ten pounds?"
"...Don't."

Huh. We shall see. I think I take after my favorite deceased relative, my grandma's Auntie Flo. I know I would have liked her, mostly because I am in possession of a picture of her that she must have sent back to England at some point (not entirely sure how it wound up back here, but in a family of packrats these things happen). In the picture she's looking pleasantly substantial, and on the back she's written, "Do I beat you in Fatness?... Isn't it dreadful!"

So rumour has it (and I do believe this is wishful thinking on the part of Edmonton's music geeks) that everyone is now bored with Montreal (Vancouver, of course, is old news) and that Edmonton is going to be the site of the Next Big Scene. It could happen, I suppose. (Hell hasn't frozen over yet, but it's April and there's no snow, which is roughly the same thing). It's true that there are lots of good local bands around at the moment. This is a good week for getting my gig fix, as well - saw Julie Doiron on Saturday with Shotgun and Jaybird. She was very charming, although I could have missed hearing about her phlegm as I had quite a lot of my own to deal with. I saw her with Gord Downie a couple of years ago and was much more impressed this time. This gig was also part of the Sidetrack Cafe's grand opening in their new location, and I have to say it looks promising.

And tonight is the Franz Ferdinand/ Death Cab for Cutie gig, for which I have much-sought-after tickets (thanks to my friends in high places, who got me tickets in the online pre-sales.) I have seen both these bands in unbeatable circumstances, but hey, if they're touring my little backwater (er, sorry, I meant "Next Big Scene") I will make the effort to show up. Apparently we are going right after work to stand in line. Oy.

So what else is new? The weather's gorgeous and I am soaking up the sun. I went to a party at which there were people perhaps even geekier than my friends (and I mean that in the nicest possible way), who were wearing matching hackcanada.com t-shirts. I was very impressed. The party ended with people lying on the bathroom floor with socks on their heads, which pretty much summed up the night for me. And I saw the World's Best Commericals (Clio awards) at the Garneau, and enjoyed it way too much as usual. The amount of money, effort and creativity that goes into trying to sell rubbish never ceases to amaze me.