One is the Loneliest Number

My goodness... I am all alone. This feels weird.

Jim has left for Sorrento to surprise his folks with a visit for a couple days. He's been wanting to surprise them with a visit since October. Really, it's been that long! There just hasn't been the time.

Yeah, so that's what he's doing for the weekend. And because I can't afford to surprise my folks with a visit - although that was once the plan - I've decided to stay home and have "me" time.

While we do have our own interests and spend occasional evenings apart, generally speaking, Jim n' I work, eat, sleep, and do absolutely everything else together... which might sound insane to some, but it's actually okay. It works for us. We love to be in one another's company. (I know... it's ridiculous, isn't it? ;)

That being said, without him here, it feels like half of me is gone. Like when someone loses a limb, they have phantom feelings as though the limb is still attached. But then they suddenly realize it's not there. That's how I feel about Jim not sitting beside me...

It's so quiet. I can only hear the sound of the fan blowing softly, my fingers tapping on the keys, and the rumble of traffic outside. No talking. No guitar strumming. No quiet cursing at some anonymous opponent on internet checkers.

It's weird.

Actually, I take back that "quiet rumble of traffic" part. It's not really that quiet. In fact, Jim would probably be very glad not to be here at the moment, because some asshole keeps revving his motorcycle in the pub parking lot next door. (Argh... Friggin' get lost already, you noisy jerk!! So annoying...)

Anyhow... getting back to what I was saying -- Now the question remains. What am I going to do with all this alone time?

Well, I guess I have a couple ideas. Finish my painting, work on my collage (more on that ambitious project later...), read, play my music really loud, help out at the community garden next door (again, more on that later), and... I don't know? Fill my time with a bunch of "whatever". Like make myself a dirty vodka martini with extra olives... just because.

...

There. Done. How fabulously exciting am I? I don't get to use my martini glasses nearly enough.

But now what do I toast to?

Whenever we have our evening glass o' vino, we always toast to something. Lately it's been to the casting director loving our script. Not that we've heard anything back yet. Our toasts are always more like wishes.

Okay, perhaps I should toast to... umm... A weekend of agenda-free alone time! I'm sure I'll enjoy whatever I end up doing. Cheers!

Anyhow, back to what I was saying earlier... I started another project this week, but I think it's gonna take me forever to finish. Jim has had a subscription to Entertainment Weekly for about two years. (Don't worry, it's not that trashy tabolid kind, like US Weekly...  EW is more behind the scenes movie & TV stuff, music & book reviews, etc... ) Stacks of these magazines build up around here faster than Jim can read them. Even the ones he has finished reading take forever to find their way to the recycle bin. So, I've decided to take advantage of them.

It takes me about an hour to an hour n' a half to cut up each magazine and sort all the little pieces into small boxes of warm and cool colours.  I plan on using all these little pieces to creating a mosaic-like college on a spare canvas I have kicking around the spare bedroom closet. But yeah... it'll definitely take forever before I have enough pieces to cover that canvas! Hopefully I can make some good headway this weekend. I'm totally looking forward to seeing the end result in 2020....

Also, in other news, there's a new community garden being built in the park beside us. So exciting! I was just lamenting the other day that we really need a community garden around here, because I haven't been able to grow anything on our balcony. We face north west, so nothing grows that well - even when I cram all my pots into the one corner that catches most of the sun.

Unfortunately for me, all of the community garden plots have already been filled. I'm 5th on the waiting list. However, they said that if I want to get dirty, I can join their "work bee" on Saturday and help them with building it. I've noticed that it's mostly seniors pitching in, so I might be the youngest of the bunch...  Oh well, I enjoy the elderly. Plus, who knows? Maybe one of them will be charmed into sharing a small corner of their plot with me, and I'll get my little garden patch afterall. Ha. If not, I guess I can always research which potted plants grow well in shade....

So yes... that's what I've got going on this weekend. Jealous? ;)

You know what you should be jealous of? How I spent an hour of my morning. I did my annual Earth Day duty of picking garbage out of duck poop creek! (A.k.a. Brandt's Creek.) Good times.

The creek besides us actually leads down a very nice path with a big pond at the end. It's quite lovely. But where Jim n' I are located, our front window and balcony overlooks a small wooden footbridge that leads to a pub and a plaza on the other side. This makes our little neighbourhood a prime area for bootlegging teens, deaf drunks having a smoke (I say "deaf" because they all shout when they talk), and losers who like to toss their shit in the creek and surrounding bushes.

So instead of just bitching about it, I cleaned it up... at least as much as I could. There were two pieces of trash I couldn't reach with my stick, and I wasn't about to wade through that swamp water to get them. Maybe I'll go back tomorrow with a longer branch.

I know that when you do a good deed, you should keep it to youself. But I wanted to share this deed because I hope it might encourage one or two of you to do the same. Because if you or I don't make a little effort to pick up some garbage now n' then, then who will clean up after us? Our children?

To be honest, I'm not all that proud of my little deed today. Instead of waiting until I have a reason like Earth Day, I should stop being so lazy and make it a regular thing to pick up the trash around the creek. I used to do stuff like that more often back in my mouthy activist days. I really suck at doing stuff like that now. I should carry a plastic bag with me when I go on my walks to grab garbage with.

Speaking of which, here are three interesting things I found today...

1. An unbroken robin's egg that must've been knocked from it's nest... probably by some magpie, I'm assuming. (Aren't they the ones that knock eggs from other birds' nests to make room for their own? I can't remember.... I suppose I could Google it. Maybe later...) Anyhow, I took the small sad egg and tucked it between the roots at the base of the tree I found it at. Then I buried it beneath a pile of leaves and grass. Poor thing.

2. A drinking straw that had become a part of the ecosystem. When I tried to pick it up, I found that I really had to give it a yank. As it turns out, the thin roots of a neighbouring plant had pipelined themselves through the straw and into the swampy (not so) depths of the creek below. So I guess in a way, my so-called good deed helped to destroy the ecosystem a little bit today. Who knew?

3. A crumpled Tim Horton's bag facing "Respect the Environment" side up. Sigh.

A final note. There were so many cellophane cigarette wrappers and pieces of styrofoam buried within the tall grass, that one could almost mistake them for natural flora and fauna. :P

Alright... well, I should go find something to do.

Like answer the phone because Jim's calling... :)