It's a Nice Day For a White Wedding?

The Billy Idol video below is literally the scariest holiday video I've ever seen. Billy...what happened to you? You used to be cool! He still looks hot though. Maybe he's trying to put the sex back in Christmas.

Dancing With Myself

Self Help

Any questions on life? Go to www.videojug.com It's full of helpful videos on everything from how to eat sushi, to how to put eyeliner on to how to unclog a toilet. I heard about it on BBC One. Finally, all of life's questions answered. Seriously.

Citizen's Arrest

So it turns out that the part of Richmond I live in is going through some kind of crime wave. Specifically, people are being attacked almost daily while going to their mailboxes or getting their morning paper. They're beaten, forced into their homes and robbed at gunpoint. Awesome. Now, whenever I go to get the mail, I'm forced to take Angus. He's one of our dogs. He's a carin terrier and weighs all of maybe 30 pounds. Right, like he's going to be able to help me. If I'm so unfortunate as to get attacked, I'm just gonna go completely limp and then once I'm dropped, fake a seizure. Maybe that'll work. Or maybe I just won't leave the house...ever.

Alias

My sister likes to wear wigs. I have no idea where this fascination comes from, but she has a couple in her closet. I remember when she was in the fourth grade she got a bright yellow punk wig for Christmas. It actually had sparkles in it. I think there's a photo of the dog wearing it kicking around somewhere. Point is, the girl likes her wigs. She bought one for her birthday this year and is wearing it in a previous post. In this particular pic she and I are out on the town in Dublin, partying up on Camden Street at a club I can't quite remember the name of. Some random guy starting chatting Sarah up, telling her she looked like Ashlee Simpson. That line didn't work in pulling her. Later that week we went out again, got incredibly drunk and that little wig got us a lot of attention. I remember wanting to rip it off of her head at one point to get her to listen to me. Her attention was focused elsewhere. He was fit. I don't remember his name. His pal kept chatting me up, drunkenly slurring his words telling me he wanted a relationship with me and that he wanted to fall in love. I think we'd been talking for about 10 minutes. OK, I'm exaggerating. It was more like 5. Wigs can be dangerous. The purple wig on my head was just for this photo. It was a friend of a friend's and we were all going out to the Marquee for an evening of dancing. I ran into my high school boyfriend in Hell's Kitchen, but without the wig. He said his girlfriend was pregnant, it wasn't his but they were getting married. How strange. I told him about my travels. He didn't seem that interested. I guess baby trumps world travel. Anyhow, the point of this post was to highlight the fact that although it previously never occurred to me, wigs have played a significant role in some of my most interesting evenings out. Sarah's going to need some seriously warm wigs for the winter though. It's -30 degrees in Banff today. Hee hee.

Please Read This Book

I just finished the scariest book I’ve ever read, The Inconvenient Truth by former US Vice President Al Gore. It’s about the climate crisis, the current state of the environment and how screwed we’re going to be in the next 50 years if things don’t start changing. What was most terrifying was learning that the United States is the world’s worst polluter, how it continues to get worse every year and how government consistently refuses to do anything serious about fixing things. Did you know that out of 132 countries that have agreed to the Kyoto Accord, the United States and Australia are the only two that haven't? It's not surprising but it's really scary.

Happy Holidays?

Wow. I just got home after going to the movies and drove by three houses with Christmas trees fully lit up in their living rooms. It's not even December! American, just when I thought I knew you, again you take the biscuit! Apparently Thanksgiving is even bigger here than Christmas and the second that the last piece of turkey meat is ripped from the drumstick and the wishbone's been pulled, it's off to the shops we go. With the official holiday being yesterday, that meant the shops were closed, including a McDonalds and Arbys I drove by. Unprecedented. It was like being in Dublin for Good Friday and all the pubs being shut. I listened to people grumble about that this spring. I can only imagine what the millions of grease guzzlers have to say about fast food alley being a no-go zone for an entire 24 hours! It turns out that everything is shut on the Thanksgiving Thursday and families gather for the traditional meal they can gorge on goodies, get sleepy from the food, head to bed early, get a good night's sleep and wake bright and early to hit the stores and take advantage of the pre-holiday sales. Most big department stores were open at 5am and the sales only went until noon so you can imagine the hordes of people waiting to cash in on big time savings. On NBC news there were people lined outside a big chain electronics shop who had camped out since 8am the day before! Guess they missed out on all that turkey and stuffing. But some of the deals are really worth the extra effort, with some giant plasma TVs having something like $1,000 being knocked off the price. This country is consumer nation and it's going to be a bumpy ride for non-consumer me. Oh yeah, and there was a recall today, a full day after the big meal, of turkeys and ham that are supposed to make people very, very sick. What are the chances of anything being left. America, you're so funny. You blow my mind.

Happy Gobble Gobble Day

Today is the American Thanksgiving which means the tradition Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I've never watched it on TV considering I've spent most of my Thanksgivings in Canada and never paid much attention to the American version. The Canadian holiday is usually the first weekend in October. We don't have fun parades with massive helium filled balloons of our favourite cartoon characters. If we did they'd probably be balloons of beavers and snowmen. Who wants to see that? These photos are of a few of my favs from past parades. I like how Super Grover looks like he's about to flatten the poor people pulling him along and that Kermit looks like he's ready to start eating the innocent bystanders beneath him. Now that would be a parade I wouldn't miss!

Uncle Moe's Family Feedbag...and such

While driving through South and North Carolina, especially through the area around Myrtle Beach, I started taking note of the signage. There were quite a few mini golfs, restaurants and strip clubs. The area had a kind of Niagara Falls feel about it, but a little classier, if that's possible. I started to write down some of my favourite restaurant/establishment names. Here's a few:

Fudrukkers-This is a family style restaurant.

Bottom's Up Gentleman's Club-Enough said.

Waffle House-There was one of these at every turn-off.

Lottery/Smokers Drive Thru-I'm not kidding. People were lined up to pick up their scratch tickets and smokes.

Crabby Mikes-A seafood restaurant which made me laugh until my stomach hurt because my Dad's name is Mike.

NASCAR Cafe-The restaurant was full of NASCAR paraphernalia, cars on the walls, colourful flags and there was a mini NASCAR go-cart driving course next door. NASCAR is huge down here, which is in itself a little intense and a little scary.

Molten Mountain Mini Golf-This place had a massive mountain apparently full of molten lava?

Jimmagan's End Zone-This was a an Irish Sports Bar with a drawing of a crazed looking leprechaun on the sign. Kind of intense.

Welcome Jack

My new cousin, Jack Oliver Skinner was born on Friday, November 17. Isn't he cute? He's so wee. I visited his parents this summer, my cousin Chris and his wife Christie. Jack's in that picture, just look closely. Before this summer I hadn't seen Chris is about 10 years. I got to know him and his wife while in Toronto this past summer. I like to call it the Great Cousin Reunion 2006.

Konichiwa or Konbonwa

I'm so excited! My friend Mika from Osaka is coming to visit just after Christmas. She'll be here for seven days and I have to start researching fun Richmond things for us to do. This photo of us was taken at a mutual Canadian friend's going away party or Saiyanora Party as they're called. It was in an izakaya which is a kind of bar/restaurant which serves a lot of alcohol but mini dishes of food. You usually go with a large group of people and order a bunch of dishes. I went to a work party once where we had to sit on the floor on pillows on tatami mats. It was kind of cool, but in every izakaya you go to, the wait staff always kneel down next to you to take your order. I'm pretty sure I ate all the maki sushi on this occasion. I love that stuff. We were in an area called Umeda is looks like the epicentre of all that is garish and neon in Japan. It was awesome.

Savvy?

It really is.

A twister, a twister...

Richmond is currently covered in a massive thunder shower and the news is reporting that there's a tornado warning in effect for our area. The lights are flickering and I can see flashes of lightning. There's been massive flooding and destruction of houses. Brilliant. We don't even have a basement to hide in, let alone a cellar. There's no place like home, there's no place like home...

Irony

You really did.

Welcome to the South!

Welcome to my trip to Charleston, South Carolina. This family vacation is full of southern charm, southern hospitality and hot southern weather. This house (with my Dad in the corner), is just the beginning of the gorgeous homes we saw while touring the city. We started off our first day with a horse drawn tour, meandering through the streets and older areas of Charleston. Did you know that in the American constitution, there is no mention of the word democracy? Just a fascinating piece of info I picked up from our tour guide. The two mules that pulled the cart were white and called Assault and Battery. Clever.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

OK, so this is my sister standing on the landing of a gorgeous bed and breakfast. The iron work was very intricate and definitely added a touch of class to the building. Blah, blah, blah. These photos were taken with my sister's new camera and when she looked at this shot, she was convinced that the patch of sunlight on the right of her was very strange and looked almost like there was someone or something there. She had Mom convinced and they were freaking out about the 'ghost photo'. I really wanted to go on a ghost tour. There was a voodoo tour with a doctor who uses a patented ghost detector. We didn't end up going but maybe next time. Maybe he dressed up like a ghostbuster. It probably looked like a metal detector. As you can see though, there's no ghost in this photo.

On the Boardwalk

The boardwalk near the battery in Charleston is long and beautiful. Boats sailed past us as we stopped to admire the park and unbelievable homes across from the water. I think the last hurricane that hit Charleston was in 1989 and devastated this area. How scary would that be watching the storm getting closer and closer? Apparently when the tide comes in, the water is just a mere 10 inches from the top of the wall. We saw a dolphin jumping in the water just off the boardwalk. So beautiful. Sigh.

Pretty in Pink

A pink mansion. How badly did I want to live there?! I'd drink pink daiquiris, have pink flamingos for pets, sit under a tree with a pink parasol and watch pink sunsets. Someone gave me a bouquet of flowers this summer called the Pink Elegance Bouquet. Garbage. This is pink elegance. I imagine everyone who lives in these homes drink mint juleps all day and say things like 'I declare...' and are constantly fanning themselves out on the veranda. They attend cotillions and are debutantes. They have loads of money and consider anyone north of North Carolina as a Yankee. You wouldn't believe how many times I heard that word while visiting.

Tequila Sunrise

The houses along the waterfront in Charleston were amazing. From the palm trees to the verandas, columns, sunshine and warm breeze off the water, I don't know how I managed to get in the car and drive away. It's a completely different way of living down there. I never thought I'd ever be interested in visiting the American South but after this trip, I want more. I loved the houses painted pink and purple. You don't get homes like that in Canada. It's depressing actually to think how bland we are north of the border. Sure there are part of the country with some charm, but nothing like this. It was November 10 and 80 degrees. How could anyone complain?

Rageaholic

I love this pic. We went out to a bar called California Dreaming for some bevies and chat. Mom and Dad had red and white wine, Sarah drank Bud and I had a Caesar. Delicious. It was packed and really noisy. We're not exactly a going to a bar for drinks kind of family, but since Ireland we're branching out. So far, so good. I love how I look like I'm ready to kill Sarah. She looks so snooty. She wasn't being snooty. Funny actually. Our hotel was just across the way and didn't exactly afford us nights of quiet slumber. The first night Sarah and I were constantly woken up to our neighbours slamming their door and their barking dog. Since I recently quit a front desk hotel job, I thought the best course of action would be to call the front desk and complain. Well, we definitely weren't staying at a Fairmont hotel. The woman who answered yelled, with the thickest of Southern accents, "It's not mah responsibilitay, I'm just the desk clerk, I don't know wha ya'll want me to do! Why don't ya go next door and talk to them yarselves!" and so on. She called back a few minutes later apologising for the noise and said she had someone on the way to check it out. She was a lot nicer and called me sweetie when we hung up. I think she might have realised how rude she'd been. I love dealing with abrasive customer service reps, I usually welcome the challenge, but she made me laugh.

Southern Comfort

Sarah wanted to visit a plantation so we drove outside Charleston to visit the Boone Plantation. The driveway of this huge property is lined with massive trees, over 300 years old. The driveway may look familiar since it was featured in a couple of movies. I enjoy learning about history and have to admit that it was breathtaking to see these massive trees and imagine everything they've seen over the last few hundred years. Oh yeah, that's Mom and I walking the dogs. Again.

Sweatin' It Out

Sarah and I decided to have a rest by the river. The dogs were so incredibly obnoxious that they were panting and pulling us in every direction. I tried to keep them away from the edge of the platform. Seconds after this photo was taken they jumped into the river and swam away. Just kidding. I pushed them.

Housing

These are the actual buildings that the slaves on this plantation lived in. At one point the owner of the property had about 40 slaves. You could go inside and read about life as a slave, how their children grew up and the work they did. Kind of depressing. Mom and I took turns standing outside with the dogs. They were panting so loudly, people were actually staring. Dogs. So much work.

Gone With the Wind

This is the Boone Plantation house. It's been around since the 1600s and at one time consisted of thousands of acres of land. I took a tour of the house and although we weren't allowed to take photos, I can describe the three rooms I saw to you: they were old, fancy and full of antiques. Enough said. This house was used in three movies, The Notebook, North and South, and Queen. How sad is it that I've seen all three? There's a massive garden to the left and right of this photo and behind the house the property just goes on for ages. It's also next to a river. It was so incredibly hot that I couldn't help but feel sorry for the people dressed up in period costume. Then again, no one forced them to become reenactors. They're livin' in the past people.

Pickin' Cotton

These are actual cotton fields, but at the Boone Plantation. When we were driving through North and South Carolina we occassionally saw these along the highway. I seriously thought the ones I saw in movies were fake. Cotton couldn't possibly grow like that. Turns out it does. Just think the next time you put on something made of cotton from a t-shirt to your underwear, how much it must suck to pick this stuff in the heat.

North and South

These guys are supposed to be Southern soldiers. They're reenacting session and shooting off their guns and cannons. I missed most of this because I was sitting in the car with the dogs, making sure they were well hydrated and relaxed. It was because of this that I accidentally caused a problem with our vehicle, causing the battery to die and my Dad to have to get a ride into town with a stranger to buy a new one. It was 80 degrees, sweltering and so I turned on the A/C. How was I supposed to know that if the motor wasn't on that the battery would die? Amusing family trip anecdote? Maybe not that amusing. Charleston 1-Meaghan 0. Dammit.

Beach Bum

This is gorgeous Myrtle Beach. The beach is surrounded by massively posh hotels with tropical names like Breakers and The Palms. We stayed a few miles away but went for a walk along the beach the day we left. It was a little chilly and windy but beautiful enough that I could imagine coming back, sticking a massive beach umbrella in the sand, and parking myself under it for days at time enjoying the scenery. I managed to find a couple of really pretty shells, unlike the random broken mussel shells you'd find in old Nova Scotia. There was less trash and rednecks too.

Weirdness, USA

This is the perfect picture to end on. While we were walking along Myrtle Beach, taking in the sun, the wind blowing through our hair and wishing we had a house on the beach, I noticed this guy jogging towards us. If you can't tell, he's wearing pyjamas and no shoes. He jogged past us a couple of times and then settled in front of this building to do exercises which consisted of him hitting himself in the head over and over and various karate-like arm and leg movements. Although he looked a little nuts, he's probably some rich hotel owner who can afford to be a little excentric. I'm still hoping he was an escaped inmate from a mental institution. Whatever he was, he was definitely the highlight of the beach for me. I thought I'd seen enough weirdness in Japan. Nice to see the US has it's own crop of "different" people.

We Are Family...

My sister is flying in from Banff today for a visit. She'll be here for 10 days and we're going to Charleston, South Carolina for a trip. It's only starting to get chilly in Virginia now. It snowed 5 cm in Banff last week and was -10 degrees. Good for Banff, you deserve it.

For Sale

My fingers are numb from the cold, my head hurts and I'm exhausted. I didn't exactly do anything too physically exhausting today, I just tried to sell a few things at a local flea market. I've been going through my boxes and have been separating the items I truly need from the ones
I'm too attached to to give up and those that I
have no idea why I've held onto them and I refuse to cart them around the world anymore. You'd be surprised how much stuff fell into that last category. Seriously, a sandwich grill? What the crap? Why do I have this? When have I ever grilled sandwiches, let alone needed a device to do it for me? (If you're interested though it's in pristine condition and is selling for $6). We loaded up the van at 7:30 this morning and drove to a large outdoor flea market held year-round in an old drive-thru movie theatre. You wouldn't believe how many vendors were there that early.Everything you could possibly imagine was being laid out on dirty wooden tables with patches of pink paint scratched off (rentable for $2.50). A few items: vegetables, cds, laptops, rugs, tables and tables of jeans, bras, dvds, Hot Wheels collectible cars, Christmas decorations, washing machines, dryers, fridges, perfume tables, various crock pots of all shapes and sizes, stuffed animals and the list goes on and on. The sun was still creeping into the sky and the frost that fell overnight was very slowing melting. It was only about zero degrees outside and we were all bundled up in our winter coats, gloves and hats. I was going strictly for business people, not fashion...as this photo clearly illustrates. Unfortunately for my extremities, the temperature only went up to about 5 degrees and I sat outside on a lawn chair for seven hours. I've been to a fair number of flea markets and have sat behind a table or two in my time. However I've never quite experienced the unsettling phenomenon that occurred this morning. We had literally just parked the van and had set down the first box when we were suddenly surrounded by other vendors, standing a mere few inches from our bodies, anxiously scrutinizing our wares. A few touched things, and moved items around in the larger boxes before we could set them out, but they didn't speak or acknowledge our presence. They just hovered, looking like they were ready to pounce which caused me to imagine flies swarming around a carcass, only we were the carcass. I wondered if we had taken someone's spot. Then I wondered if they were looking at my things, wanting to buy a few, then resell them for a higher price. It wouldn't be the first time I'd heard of it happening. My parents went to a yard sale last summer to sell a few things before their move and after they sold an old quilting rack to their real estate agent who just happened to be there selling things at her own table, they later saw a couple walking to their car with the same rack the agent had bought but had turned around and sold for a profit! Here are my two problems with that; 1) she had just helped my parent's sell their house and received a large commission. Where the hell was her sense of professionalism and common curtsey? What kind of money driven fiend does something like that? And 2) she sold it at the same giant yard sale as my parents and was only a few metres away. She couldn't even freaking have the decency to wait until either my parents had left or sold it at another time! I feel that if I had been there, I would have marched up to her table, called her a money grubbing bitch and then knocked a couple of things off her table. Yeah, that'd show her! Anyhow, after about 15 minutes of looking and examining my things, the vendors all kind of petered away, but the effect was lasting. I felt kind of creeped out. I used to have problems with claustrophobia but fortunately living in Japan took care of that. However, I hadn't felt quite so encroached on since then. It was a little unnerving. Actually, a lot. Anyhow, as the sun rose the buyers trickled in and I managed to sell a few things, not nearly as much as I'd wanted to, but enough for now. In Virginia however, flea markets are taxed and I was supposed to pay 5% tax on what I sold. No one was at the gate when we left though so we peeled outta there! I won't bother you with how much I made. Lets just say I might be having a yard sale in the not too distant future. Anyone interested in a pair of stilts or a camera tripod?

King and Queen of Prom

My personal project at the moment is scanning and burning all of my photos to cd. I have scads of photo albums so it'll definitely take a while. I'm enjoying this trip down memory lane, but not so much the bad hair and sense of style. Then again, it hasn't exactly improved since my teen years. Oh well. Today I went though my high school photos, namely my prom photos. Everytime I told someone in Ireland that students go to prom, I was always laughed at and told it was "so American". I suppose it is a little ABC Afterschool Special. I chose my dress because it looked like a Cinderella dress. My date was my boyfriend Jon. We had our photos taken in the Halifax Public Gardens with friends, went out to dinner at Willows, took at towncar to the school, more photos, then dancing. We then crammed into two stretch limos, drove to the drive-thru liquor store in Burnside and had the only 19 year old buy a case of Molson Canadian beer. I had about 1.5 beers and was blotto. The entire graduating class took a bus into Halifax, had another dance and dinner at a restaurant and were supposed to go on a sunrise harbour cruise. That didn't happen after someone flipped about their girlfriend dancing with another guy and punched a hole in a wall. The boat trip was cancelled and then it was the battle of sober kids vs drunk kids. Not pretty. I like the photos though. My first real hangover. Memories. I wouldn't change a thing about it. Well, maybe I'd drink more and be more selective in my choice of beer. Probably Keith's, maybe. More tripping down memory lane later. Aren't you lucky?

Boo Urns

After buying 75 packages chips along with several bags of Tootsie Pop Lollipops (the ones with the chocolate in the middle), after I carved the pumpkin and waited for them all evening, only 12 kids came to our house. Twelve! My favourite was the teenage boy who showed up wearing absolutely no costume whatsoever and opened his bookbag for candy. He was acutally very polite, much nicer than the ankle bitters I saw before him. But dude, seriously, a little effort! Oh well, now I've got enough candy to last me a month...ok three weeks...alright a few days. I can feel my teeth rotting already.