Happily Alone on a Thursday Night

The hubby is off to Florida for Jays' spring training with his dad & brother, which means that I have the apartment to myself tonight, and then I'm off to Mum & Dad's for the weekend tomorrow. More accurately, it is now Mum, Dad, Hayley & Jeff's, as cuz Jeff has moved in with Mum & Dad as he got a job in Vaughan and doesn't relish the idea of commuting from Hamilton. I wouldn't either. Apparently he is, as is typical of the children of our family, a slob. Mum is thrilled. I am, like the children of my family, messy about some things (I am a terribly messy cook), but our apartment is still immaculate from our lunch with Auntie Laura and Emily pre-cleaning, so we do do pretty well for ourselves when we make the effort.

I am spending my night doing exactly as I please, which tonight means drinking a nice Lindeman's shiraz, reading A Short History of Nearly Everything for the eight millionth time, listening to Bon Iver as obsessively as I have been for the past couple of weeks, working on some art for the living room (I'm a big proponent of home-made paintings), playing guitar, and generally being cozy. Quite enjoyable. It was bitterly cold today, but exuberantly sunny--so sunny that it almost felt like it could be spring coming on--so I'm not too jealous of the hubby. Humidity is just not my bag, baby.

Other random bits of interestingness: I had the most hilarious conversation with a random drunk Newfie guitar player on the bus on my way to guitar class last night. He got on right after I did, saw my guitar case, and started chatting. He had some good tips about learning to play actually: in essence, just put on a CD and rock out, and don't care about how it sounds or if it goes with the CD, but just get into a groove. It was mostly funny because he must have repeated the same sentence about eight times. And he has promised me that he will impart more guitar-y wisdom on the bus next Wednesday. These kinds of things are one of the reasons that I love living in Toronto. People are nutty but nice.

WestJet had a super kick ass seat sale on today (it doesn't end until midnight, if you want to check it out), for their 12th anniversary, so the hubby and I are going to Ottawa for the May long weekend for $12 a piece each way. How can you beat that? You can't get a bus ride for that. We're staying in a hostel right in the Byward (apparently it is a very nice hostel; it got great reviews, and the pictures look good), so it will be a cheap and patriotic Victoria Day weekend. I am much looking forward to the Museum of Civilization, the National Gallery, the Byward, the sound and light show at Parliament Hill, and eating at The Works. Mmmm....crazy burgers. The hubby's condiment mania might actually be satisfied. The man can't eat a meal without putting at least three different toppings on it, chipotle Tabasco being the preferred choice, with ketchup coming in close second. Oooh...I just found out that it is the tulip festival in Ottawa then, which is so fantastic! I've been wanting to go for ages, and I didn't even realize that it was happening around then! A serendipitous choice of weekend on my part! We're going for five days, and only had to take two days off work, so it works well. I'm very excited. I've wanted to take a little holiday for SOME time now, so this was a good opportunity. We're going to have lots to do!

It will probably be a fairly chill but busy weekend at Mum & Dad's. Need to go to the florist and order boutonnieres and corsages for the wedding, start figuring out invitation wording, fonts etc. (I'm printing them myself), hunt down addresses for everyone on the guest list, maybe do a little trip to Buffalo (need wedding shoes, and work shoes, and a new purse), try out some candy recipes with Hayley, and generally just hang. Looking forward to it!