Happy Saturday! It’s mid-afternoon and I am finally home after a rather hectic morning of working out, spending money, parking far away from the doors of evil (aka shopping malls) and, well, spending more money I guess!

Anywho, it’s December and it’s something like 5 degree Celsius and while I am inclined to agree with the general public that this is lovely weather compared to the blustery windchill-filled, flurry filled Decembers we usually have to endure, I am also slightly concerned. Ummm, hello, is this due to global warming??? There’s a certain irony in the idea that our destructive gas-guzzling and oil-burning ways have possibly impacted the weather to such an extent that we now don’t have to use as much oil to heat our homes, because we’ve essentially heated the entire world up with our consumptive-filled lives.

OK, enough of that, on to bigger and better things! Yesterday was one of the most productive/interesting days I have had since returning to PEI. A quick synopsis of main reasons I would term it as such:

1. Lunch with Rob P, one of my favorite people and one of the reasons I have not gone mad with boredom here on PEI…yet. He’s got me thinking, he did have me working and, well, we’ll say ke sera sera for the future now, but I anticipate more thinking, doing and working in ways that are challenging, fruitful and meaningful I joined the Queen Street Commons – this is a local entity/community, namely made up of members who are transient, free-lancing, creative individuals in need of office space and opportunities to interact with like-minded people. In other words, it’s a funky place where thinking is encouraged and towing the line is not!! Given that I already have an office, and a very nice one at that, I’m not sure how often I’ll be popping into the QSC but, hey, if there’s a storm and I can’t get home I know I have a place to stay J
2. I met the owners of a local fitness club/group/community…anyways the long and short of it is that I may have yet another opportunity to freelance my writing skills! Yah!
3. I went to Culturama in the evening with Natasha and met more people in one night that I knew, than I have on any other day or week for that matter, since returning home. It was a great night, especially for the two reasons that follow (5 & 6)
4. I made $50. No, I didn’t win it in a raffle or anything, actually I ended up sitting at the same table as the guy who sold me my laptop last Christmas. I had returned to Scotland by the time I was able to contact him and tell him the laptop did not have a CD burner as he had indicated. He promised to mail me $50 in compensation, but it never arrived in the mail. I didn’t really mind since I’d gotten a good deal anyways. Anywho, he didn’t recognize me at first, but thanks to my loud voice he finally heard me say Scotland and made the connection. Five minutes later $50 was plopped onto the table. Woohoo!!
5. A guy asked me for my number. OK, this isn’t really something new, it happened quite often in Scotland and Ireland, but that’s Europe where guys are more..er..keen and where everyone has mobiles and where my freaky hair doesn’t scare every single lad away. So, history was made last night in that this is the FIRST TIME a guy has ever asked for my number on PEI. So much for my thinking that PEI was some sort of safe haven, that I wouldn’t have to worry about stupid things like men because, well, there aren’t any here. I guess I was wrong. And who am I kidding?? even in the absence of geographically available males, I still find myself thinking/worrying about them..in general and specific ways.

In other good news, random notes and observations

• I am going to take a Creative Writing course next semester! It was only because of yet another lunch-time run-in that’ I lucked into this opportunity. I ran into my former professor, Lesley-Anne, and mentioned that I wanted to take another writing course but had taken all the ones being offered at UPEI. She said she would see if she can get me into her Advanced Creative Writing class, since I took this one with a different professor last time! I AM SO SO EXCITED!!!! I miss writing, I have been trying to do some as of late…
• I have a partner in crime for upcoming Disney Caper! Ms Natasha McKinnon has agreed to join me on a journey that will surely result in much Mouseketeering, revelry and maybe some wild out-of-this-world rides!
• Checked out flights to Australia for the first time yesterday. Can’t decided whether to get a one-way ticket or round-trip, but suppose if I am thinking of doing NZ afterwards, there’s no sense in getting a round-trip right? Anyways, it turns out it’s just as cheap to fly from here to the UK, then the UK to Australia, so I think that is what I will do and maybe I’ll just take a wee bit of a detour to Edinburgh for a week or so!
• Today, as I was coming out of the Charlottetown Shopping Mall, I was greeted by a rather chunky, ruddy middle-aged man with thick-rimmed glasses (like the ones from the eighties, not the cool ones that Joe McGuire wears these days). He had a cigarette dangling out of his mouth (I suspect he was trying to keep his precious hands warm in pockets.even though it was like a bloody warm spring day out). Anyways, this character was wearing a Santa hat. Nice. Geez..all the kids coming out of the mall are going to think Santa’s a middle-aged smoker with two-day growth and no taste in frameware. So many disillusionments for the little ones these days. Sigh.
• I am starting to think I should NEVER change my hairstyle , or make-up routine for that matter. The number of compliments I’ve received on both since coming back to PEI is indicative of two things 1) My hair DOES stand out here, literally and figuratively 2) I could easily open a hair salon here and pretend I am a hair stylist because so many people have asked me if am one. Of course, once I started trying to style other people’s hair, the jig would be up. But wouldn’t it be FUN in the meantime???