Queen of the Geeks

Alright, now I'm not sure if I should officially announce this, but I can't resist. I'm officially a geek. And not just your average comic-book buying geek (which I do enjoy) but an all out internet obsessed geek.

I've been following this ARG called the Lost Experience that's basically an ongoing puzzle to keep fans of the ABC show Lost hooked all summer. It's involved "fake" websites, "fake" commercials, and loads of new characters that have revealed a ton of clues about the backstory to the show and the island. At the moment followers of the Lost Experience are tracking down fragments of a video online that will eventually be pieced together to reveal something that will blow your socks off. The fragments are hidden in codes and glyphs that are scattered in puzzles, fansites and magazines in the real world.

The reason I say I'm a geek is that today fragment #18 (I think) was officially released and by pure luck I was one of the first who found it. It was linked through the Channel 4 website (UK version of ABC that airs Lost) so I emailed the LostExperienceClues and got props for being among the first who found it. My name is even on the website under Clue #86. I rule. Or not as the case may be since I am such a self-proclaimed geek. I don't care, I danced all day. To check it out click right here...but be warned it's definitely addictive.

what do you want to do?

I recently discovered the best way to procrastinate on the internet. It's a website called "43 things" where you list all the random sorts of things you want to do in your lifetime. I'm having so much fun on it that I'm actually trying to knock some of the stuff off my list.
Here are some examples of the things I want to do:

1. stop biting my nails.
2. work on my art.
3. eat breakfast more often.
4. visit Vancouver (which I'm doing next summer for my friend's wedding. Congrats Tracy!)
5. eat more vegetables.
6. get more stamps in my passport.
7. join a gym (which I did!)
8. stop snoring.
9. eat a mars bar (I did this too!)
10. take a cross-Canada train vacation.

To see the rest of my list, and cheer me on click here.

Rants and reels

I'd like to know if anyone else's mom does this. Maybe it's a condition that mothers develop when they turn fifty. If it was, then I'd probably feel more hospitable towards mine and much less likely to murder her before noon.

Ok so here's the thing, I was out last night drinking with a bunch of friends who'd just got home from a year away. Beer was flowing, bands were playing. It was an all round good time. The problem is that when I awoke this morning it was to find my mother standing over me half way into a conversation about my aunt who lives in...I don't even know, I want to say Kansas?...anyway mom was ranting about something.

Apparently my aunt has this dog and she's giving it up cause my uncle doesn't like dogs. Oh and my aunt has also found some kind of baby hawk and it's living in their backyard and it eats crickets. They are giving away the dog, but the endangered and illegal bird is fine to live in their house.

So my mother is ranting above me and I finally croaked out a "what?" in my hungover haze. Mom then wants to know "what's wrong, why are you not up yet, why are you feeling sick, oh you still have a cold, well what medication did you take?, it's because you sleep with your doors closed and you don't open your windows enough, well if you are allergic to pollen then you need better allergy medication, where are your puffers?, take some of mine, don't get all hyped up about sharing medications it's fine it doesn't kill me..." and on and on and on.

The rant of questions literally goes like this with me begging for peace and quiet and to be left alone with my glass of water and tylenol. Why, why! do mothers want to have an entire conversation with their comatose daughters before 11 am?? I need to move out...now.

Greek Olives, Perrier and Cottage Cheese

My family went to PEI on Sunday and left me home alone for a week with no food and no car. I was in Pugwash when they took off so I had no idea what the food situation was until I got home even though my mother had claimed she'd left more than enough behind. "More than enough" apparently means 2 frozen pizzas, a bottle of perrier that I drank on the first day, some cottage cheese that has gone bad, and some greek olives that look questionable. They are kind of spotty. I'm not sure if that is a normal colour for them to be, but I'm not taking any chances. I'm going out for supper.

Megs does as Megs wants

This is the first time in about 8 summers that I haven't worked full time in the tourism industry downtown. I never got holidays off, or even weekends. I can't remember the last time I went camping or even had time to wear the stupidly expensive bikini I bought two years ago.

So because I've decided to take this summer off for personal reasons (I'm starting work as a substitute teacher in September and I need to gather my strength), I am dubbing this the "Summer of Megs." I'm used to bending over backwards for other people and I've decided to be selfish for once in my life. I'm taking care of me. So if I want to sit on my back deck and 12 books in 3 weeks, that's what I'll do. If I want to spend a day making blender drinks and watching talk shows with my mom, that's what I'll do.

Today for example, Environment Canada warned people to stay out of the sun and indoors because it was going to be so hot out. I decided to take that very seriously so I'm staying indoors alrght, indoors in my bed all day. It's almost 2 pm and I'm still in my pajamas. Life is fabulous.

You can never go back

I don't know how many other people have had the "luck" or "pleasure" of movng back in with their parents when they were pretty sure they were out on their own for good. I do know that it has happened enough that there is the saying "you can never go back." For that reason, I've decided that there needs to be some kind of support group for people like myself, who find themselves cramped back into their childhood room as adults. Whether you've moved back home due to financial reasons, failed relationships, or just because you miss Mom's cooking, it's never a good as an idea as it might have seemed at first (that is if it ever seemed like a good idea).

This is the second time I've found myself moving back in wth my parents; my family has even started calling me "Boomerang" because I keep coming back. This time I'm also jobless so I'm pretty much hanging around my house every day bored out of my mind. Now I know that this whole experience is has hard on my family as it is on me, and I'm grateful to them for constantly putting up with my shit. Thank you Mom and Dad, I love you. But seriously, you are completely nuts and I have to document this for prosterity

So cheers and good luck to everyone else who's had to move home at 25 (or later, god forbid.)