mall rat

i met up with dr. rei after work today and we went to the mall. her cuz S was supposed to meet us but was running on iran-time and thus it didn't work out. we ate dinner at this lebanese place called "milo's ___" (i forget) which is in a really nice, not skeevy food court on the third floor of the new theatre/adidas complex at the north-east corner of yonge and dundas. it was solid! i got a falafel sandwich combo (meetings with dr. rei are turning into falafel-fest lately) which was plussed up with tabbouleh AND hummous inside and a side chickpea salad. it was delicious and fresh and very healthy for food court fare. this isn't to say that i almost went down in a ball of harvey's poutine flames...but i resisted. the food court tugged at my heartstrings. it's all tucked away and OF COURSE all the establishments are run by hard-working minorities, who pull and worry at my heartstrings like few other things in this world.

h&m was having a sale and so i got this marimekko beauty that i've been eying (truth be told, i would have preferred the fuchsia/orange combo instead) i love it! it was half off by now, we ALL know how much i love looking like a crazed nicole richie/hippie/mrs. roper in free flowing dresses that could mask me carrying quintuplets. it's very sheer and light and flows and drapes beautifully and makes me look both tall AND like i'm swanning away my summer on a terrace of a villa on the amalfi coast (not a bad life). dr. rei got a proper lady cardigan, which makes her look sophisticated and urbane and like a member of the gentrified intelligentsia, like she swans away her summers smoking gauloises in paris drinking rose and buying hermes scarves. our style meets somewhere in the middle at shirt dresses, which manage to be simultaneously playful and youthful (for me) and with a structured cut and ladylike (for her). i also found the white pants i've been searching my whole life (well, two summers) for. trouser cut, low rise, fitted in the leg with a very flattering flare in a heavy enough denim weight so that you can't figure out the colour of my drawers. there's something so crisp about white with a wide, woven leather belt (good thing i purchased just the thing in ital-towns!).

so...on saturday we invited our friends (a couple) over for an impromptu dinner. i came up with the antipasti idea on the fly and went out and supplemented the zucchini blossoms with purchases of buffalo mozzarella and charcuterie. i got home and was elbow deep in cooking when i got a phone call telling us that they had just found out about a bbq hosted by another friend of the dotytron's who we don't see barely ever (but that the couple has remained in close contact with). so they suggested that we move the operation over there and we (the dotytron and i) crash the bbq. i wasn't too keen on that (plus i wanted to eat those zucchini blossoms) so i assured them that it was okay and we'd catch up with them another time. no biggie, but we got ditched. straight up. but maybe because i was pmsing...i got a little depressed about it. and then i got all "i have no friends" and "nobody likes us" and a little head-wonky about it. luckily i've snapped out of it and today, with dr. rei, came again to the realization that when it comes to friends, i suffer from the proverbial embarrassment of riches. the people i have in my life, while not mighty in number, make up for it by being so special, amazing, unique and one-in-a-million that i'm awestruck with my good fortune. i'm lucky and blessed. how did dr. rei and i find each other in this crazy, workaday world? how is it that we've only been friends with bwong for LESS THAN A YEAR and it feels like it's been forever?! no one has as awesome a family as mine (both blood and adopted) and when i think about how much fun i'm having, i wouldn't trade it for all the ziggy's potato salad bbqs in the universe.

okay. subject change alert. tell me if this is crazy or not. so, we have an ongoing plumbing problem in the house, with tree roots growing into one of the out pipes. this causes the toilet to make this glugging sound...and it's semi-serious...because when large volumes of water hit the pipes, the tree roots block it from being whooshed away...so it's kind of slow...and it *could* result in a backup. the landlord came and did a half-assed job fixing it...but it really requires a plumber to come in and smash up some of the tiles outside the bathroom and take the pipe out and replace it. it's a half day job. we've been trying to get it done since like, march. it didn't work out but the landlord found a new guy, so i called and tried to arrange a time for him to come and do this half day thing.

now, i don't know about you, but when work people are coming to the house to do stuff, i like to have someone here. the dotytron feels the same way. i mean, i guess it's different if you're getting extensive renovations done, because that takes a long time and you can't take months off of work, but in that case, i figure the contractor stands in for you. if it's like, rogers or bell or the plumber, then i want someone there. so, the dude doesn't want to work on weekends. now, the roomie has every other weekend off, from thursday at 6pm until monday at 6pm. so i suggested a friday when i knew she'd have it off. i told the guy i'd check and get back to him.

so i asked the roomie last night and she goes, "but that's my weekend off"
and i say, "well, it's only friday for half a day"
and she goes, "but my [our] friend I is coming into town"
so i say, "okay, i can do it two weekends after that"
and THEN she says, "well, i don't really care if someone is here or not when the plumber is here"
and i say, "yeah, but the dotytron and i would prefer someone to be here"
and she says, "well since i'm the one who doesn't care, i don't want to spend my day off waiting around the house. i don't know what i'd want to do that day"

ummmm...SO I'M KIND OF FREAKIN' ANNOYED. is that justified? here's my rationale:
a) NOBODY WANTS TO SPEND THEIR DAY OFF WAITING FOR SERVICE PEOPLE. but does it make sense for me or the dotytron to do it and then miss a PAID day of work, or does it make sense for someone who CONSISTENTLY has a friday and monday off to do it?
b) aren't we living communally? isn't that what quasi-hippie midwives are supposed to be all about? IT'S NOT JUST YOU. like, how is it MY problem to find someone to come in and arrange a time to fix OUR toilet? don't you care? couldn't i just as easily say: "well, i don't care if maggots take over our fridge, so if it doesn't bother me, then too bad"
c) i feel like i'm the one who takes care of this administrative house stuff and she gets to capitalize on it and it's bogus. what do we all do on our days off? i mop the floor, the dotytron goes grocery shopping, we do the stuff we need to do to have lives. i'm sorry, but when you're pushing 30 (or have pushed 30) you don't have the luxury of doing the teenage carefree leisure all the time on weekend business.
d) i feel like there's an undercurrent of her misreading me at play here. i also feel like if it was one of her friends asking her, she would do it (case in point: she's going over on her day off this week to walk the dog of the rude friends who had the boring baby shower and just had the baby they refuse to send an email announcement for).

anyway...i think it's annoying and we're having a house meeting. because i also feel like if the dotytron had asked...it wouldn't have been an issue. gah! okay...i'm done venting. she really is a lovely, warm person...but like everyone (myself included) she's capable of being a jerk sometimes. that's fine. but it's one thing to always call ME on being mean and harsh and whathaveyou and not take ownership of when you do it yourself.

fin.