never judge a book by its cover

Chuck Palahniuk was at my store last week. You could identify him by the gaggle of managers hanging around while he autographed all of his books.
Despite his popularity I haven't read any of his work. Due to the fact that spook keeps saying "You might like it. I don't know. You might hate it, too." I haven't even seen Fight Club. And yet somehow, I was expecting someone different. Someone cooler. Someone not wearing a sweater vest. I did a double take and came in for a closer look, which really didn't improve matters: it was not, in fact, a sweater vest but just a regular vest, the kind you can cinch together in the back to draw it in a little. Oh, and tapered pants. Ladies and Gentlemen, Chuck Palahniuk looks a lot like Wesley Wyndham-Price, only a little less current. Just so there is no mistake, I don't mean cool demon-hunting Wesley, I'm talking about officious and whiny season 3 Wesley.
It was really weird.
The other thing about him that made an impression was that when he saw how many of his books were on the staff picks wall courtesy of my colleague Nestor, he made sure to talk to him. There was some back and forth because Chuck wanted to autograph a copy of the new one for Nestor, and Nestor didn't own it yet--his publicist gave Nestor her copy. It was very sweet.

****

As some of you may know, the new Harry Potter book is being released on July 16th. There's a great deal of attendant hype. We have a big mural in the front window of our store, and there's going to be a Harry Potter costume contest. Fortunately for me, this is one day before our BBQ of love, so I get to miss the insanity which begins the minute the clock strikes midnight. What I cannot avoid is the gigantic sign in the middle of the children's department, which today will read:

Only 16 DAYS to Harry Potter!

Yeaahhhh...it's not like I was nervous enough about our committment party. Oh no. Let's have an enormous countdown that I have to walk past every time I have to go to the staff room. Only 16 days to deal with all your last-minute details!

I feel faint.

visible vocal proud and strong

Believe it or not, that was the last line of my high school graduation quote...it seems like a long time ago that I celebrated my first Pride Day, and for a long time it was the most important holiday I had. This year was a little weird. I feel like Pride snuck up on me, and I wasn't ready for it, wasn't looking forward to it. We didn't do the annual getting-folks-together, and I wasn't sure I was even going to march. But then we had brunch with Rebecca, and when I came up to the beginning of the march to try and meet up with people I ran into Jenny, who I haven't seen in months, and ended up marching with her, using the route as a way to catch up.
Even though I started this weekend feeling kinda cynical about the whole thing, it still makes my throat hurt to see all the shiny people gathered in one spot, happy--even if they are stepping on my feet, even if it is all sponsored by beer companies. There have been so many times this year when reading the news made me want to scream. The whole equal-marriage debate sure has taken up a lot of air space, much of it filled with people who want queers to be ashamed, be quiet, go away, or as mr. pixie pointed out, want us never to have existed in the first place. It isn't so easy to feel good about yourself living in a world that still hates you a lot, and I'm glad we can have our party.

I've gotta go. There's a show with ladies doing the can-can in combat boots, and there are seven-foot-tall drag queens and girls with fairy wings and big bears in their leather to dazzle me. There are old friends to kiss and street music to yell over. There's a whole queer wonderful glittery world, and it's practically on my street.

yesterday's news

So, I switched my cats' litter. Oh, I know, you're supposed to do this gradually, but they've never complained about anything before. (Well, except when Tish got into the sink on her first day here and decided that the apartment made her wet! and she was never going to like it. She got over it.) Figured we'd try this recycled newsprint stuff I've heard good things about; it's dust-free, which means I can change the litter box without coughing or wheezing, and it's harder to track all over the apartment. Ahem.
So far, Schrody is mostly sitting next to it and yelling.
All attempts at reasoning and ignoring his pleas have failed.
I may have to go out and buy some clay litter, or risk cat pee in unpleasant places.

"Aw, honey, I'm sorry. Maybe they'll get hit by a car. Ooh! A bus. No, a car, driven by someone mean."

My day: coffee, cat-snuggling, blog-reading. Breakfast with Adam (slightly rushed but still fun), get to work on time, move books around, feel productive. Good mood brought about by gratitude at being able to breathe. Have more productive-feeling talk with co-worker Cookie, who also has good advice for me about the odious book I found in the Gay and Lesbian Studies section, and what I might do about it. Evening hours spent reading and completing quizzes for Health and Safety Certification (some swearing involved, but no customers, so it evens out).

spook's day: work stress, stressful work conversation (positive result), RSVP in the negative from family member who can't come to our committment par-tay because she's flying out of Toronto that day, upsetting family conversation, discover bike stolen. Oh, and nice phone call with Bean.

Peh! Peh! Peh!

Girlyman! Girlyman! Girlyman!

Because spook is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most perfect partner I could ever imagine having, he brought me home the new Girlyman album tonight. It's called Little Star, and you should buy it. You should also buy their first album, Remember Who I Am. You should, because they are not only incredibly talented, they are adorable. When we went to see them at Ottawa pride last year they were totally freaked out that we had come all the way from Toronto to see them, and they talked to us for ages and insisted on hugging us both.
It's my first listen through this album (okay, I cheated by hearing some of it live) and I was crying by track three.

Go! Visit their site! Listen to clips! Purchase their albums!

Why are you still here? Go!

the thrill of victory

I finished my blinds! I finished my blinds!
Yes, they are all slightly or not-so-slightly too wide for the windows, and one of them is four inches too short (I might have figured out how to fix that while sewing the second one, but it involves ripping out a seam and sewing two new ones, so it's going to have to wait while I recharge my enthusiasm) but they hang and they block out the brightest of the sunlight instead of absorbing it the way the navy blue curtains used to, and dammit I call that satisfaction.

Now I will resume plotting my elaborate configuration of fans to force a cross-breeze in my maze of an apartment.

No power in the 'verse can stop me.

boy, is my face red. but my blog is still green.

Uh, I have just discovered to my embarrassment that the template I switched to is the same one that Shanghai and Adam are using for their wedding blog, Groomzilla. I am, however, staying with it, 'cause dammit it's my favourite colour. I'll try to fiddle it enough that y'all can tell the difference, you know, by something other than the fact that they're talking about a wedding and I'm talking about the boring minutiae of my life.

I suppose there are people who read this blog who didn't know they were getting married yet. They are. The formal announcement was made at Shanghai's birthday party. Even though I knew this proposal was coming, even though I had heard the various stages of planning it for the last couple of years, even though Adam had told me that by the time the party came around he would actually have asked her, Shanghai came up to me and held up her ring with this gorgeous "lookit!" smile on her face and I burst into tears. I couldn't help it. They're a burst-into-tears kind of couple. The progression of this engagement was like a serialized novel--we were all breathlessly awaiting the next installment.

Congratulations, you crazy kids. And sorry 'bout biting your styles.

let's approach this rationally

As you may have noticed, Newly Human has had a bit of a facelift. If you must know, it's because I tried to add links in the old template, and could not get them to show up no matter how many times I pasted them into the code. Then I got annoyed. Then I discovered this lovely green.

Next I will be arguing with the font, but perhaps I'll save that for after I finish arguing with my sewing machine. ("What do you mean, 'this fabric is too light, I'll skip stitches'!?")