It's all about MEME!

Two names you go by ~ Tai and Laurie. Tai (pronounced 'TAY') has been my name since I was about 12. It's really lucky when you get to pick your own name and it sticks.
Laurie is my other name.
Tai might be considered my alter ego. It's always Tai who gets the speeding tickets and in trouble with 'the man'.
Laurie's the one who goes to work everyday and brings home the bacon. Looking closely at this arrangement, one would suspect Laurie would get tired of having to pay for all those speeding tickets. But there ARE benefits. Tai gets free trips, new cars and adventures that could never happen to anyone else, and naturally, Laurie gets to go along for the ride.

Two things you are wearing right now ~ Two pairs of socks. One pair black, the other, white. It is VERY cold in my house.

Two things you would want (or have) in a relationship ~ Free trips. New cars. I'm kidding. Mischief and laughter.

Two of your favorite things to do ~ Reading and dining out. They go remarkably well together.

Two things you want very badly at the moment ~ An open ended plane ticket and enough money to travel in style. It's not too much to ask!

Two pets you had/have ~ Bentley. My gorgeous old gentleman cat. I still miss him. And Wen. Pol and I decided to have pet mice, so we each got one. Wen, and Doubt. But Doubt was a bit vicious and liked to bite, so we traded her in for Mousameeque (my own spelling...I wonder if Pol spelled her name the same way!).

Two people you think will fill this out ~ Who ever would like too! Mostly everyone already has done this...I'm so behind.

Two things that you did last night ~ Went for dinner with a friend of mine and ate oysters, both raw AND cooked and read a travel book.

Two things you ate today ~ Bacon. (The bacon Laurie brings home!) And a fruit muffin for breakfast.

Two things you’re doing tomorrow ~ ooooh, I'm going to WORK! And then I'm going to do my volunteer shift at the local crisis centre.

Two longest car rides ~ From Courtenay to Lake Tahoe in a truck. I would climb through tiny window to get to the back of the truck at 80 mph just to feel the Nevada sunshine on my face. Now THAT was fun. And from Banff, Alberta back to Courtenay.

Two favorite holidays ~ Halloween and...and...I guess I don't really get a kick out of holidays, but I sure do like the time off!

Two favorite beverages ~ Wine. Red AND white.

Two people no longer alive who you’d like to talk to ~ Well, I'd like to talk to my Grandmother again. We got along very well, but we never really 'talked'. She was very 'old school' and I don't think she thought an 18 year old kid was really set for conversation. I'd also like to talk with Richard Feynman. He was a quantum physicist and Noble prize winner. His books are so filled with life and laughter it seems to me that he would be a truly amazing person to sit and speak too.

In a strip club.

Drinking pop.

'Cus that's what he liked to do.

*The pictures are from Spider, Pol, Jeff (our personal photographer and Spider's dear husband) and my trip to Italy last year. The first and last picture are from the Cinque Terre and the mask in the centre I found in Venice.

In the first picture, I ordered to much food. The last picture is the 3 of us hiking the Cinque Terre trail between villages.

Wash your own cups.

"I'm going to ask you a question." She wandered over to my desk. "Just out of morbid curiousity, do you have to wash the doctors' and executives' cups?"

"No, not here." I replied, "But I've had to do things like that other places."

"Well, I think I came up with a good plan. I washed the floor with an old rag and then used that to clean out her cup. Guess that'll be the end of that!"

She did WHAT?!? Was she serious? I couldn't quite tell, but she seemed a little too pleased with herself.

She didn't say she was thinking about doing that, or thought it might be funy, oh no.

That sentence definately spoken in a past tense sort of way.

Several thoughts popped into my head after that bizarre converstion.

Like, why would she tell me that?

And why not just tell the woman, who's cup she soiled, that it wasn't her job to clean cups? Or perhaps put a sign up at the sink for people to wash their own used mugs?

And how would the woman whose cup was treated so poorly KNOW that had occured unless the dirty swill was left in the cup?

That kind of thing could go on for years, if left unchecked. What next? A quick rinse in the toilet?

Talk about passive aggressive.

Handmade.

There's something really lovely about a friend who is coming to visit you for a weekend. There's even something better when she says, "And I'm bringing a little present for you, too."

Let me give you some history. Spidergirl (and Kimber and Pol, of course!) and I have been friends since we were 11.

When I was about 12 I discovered, sadly, that my profession of choice was no longer a viable option in this day and age.
Instead, I would have to get a regular kind of job. A kind of job that didn't highlight cutlass and pistol proficiencies in it's requirements. And pillaging was certainly no longer a sought after 'skill set' on the modern 9-5 market.

Yeah, I wanted to be a pirate.
Never mind that I couldn't abide 'roughing' it. Never mind I didn't know how to operate a flintlock or batten a hatch. Ignore the fact I couldn't swim.
I was willing to learn. And I never get sea sick.

So fast forward 24 years to this weekend, when Spider came to visit with a present.

You know, this present was spectacular. It was a handmade representation (complete with gold glitter and button Kraken eyes) of me and my age old dream.

But it wasn't just the present, you know, that made me cry when I received it. There was this whole other feeling that struck me. It was the idea that my dear friend truly knows me. Knows me that well (and still loves me!).
That my friend remembered and wanted to celebrate that 12 year old kid who never got to be a pirate.
And she's not the only one!
Last year Pol surprised me, too.

She said she saw this and HAD to buy it, 'cus it reminded her of me.

How'd I get so lucky?