Tired

Lately, I've been tired.  I don't mean for the past two or three days.  I mean for the past two or three weeks.  I get 7-8 hours' sleep, and I'm going to bed earlier and earlier.  Yet when I'm not working, I'm existing from one nap to the next.  I've also been having some vivid, odd dreams.  Last night I dreamt I was driving across the American southwest, when I ran into my friend Angelle Arata in New Mexico.  (Back when I went to Arizona State, I made that trip on several occasions.  I've got no idea how Angelle got in there.)  I've also been craving beer, though I haven't been drinking a lot, typically 1-3 each night.  While I've always liked beer, usually after the first, I'm moving on to the whiskey.  My tiredness and my beer craving seem related, but I don't know how.

(Also, Nicole has told me that on several occasions she's woken in the middle of the night and looked over at me, only to find our cat Ella sitting on my chest and just staring down at my unconscious face.  I've wondered if she's psychically tapping into my weird dreams.)



I think what's going on is . . . With our new life here in St. John's, we've arrived in a more stable, happy place, and I feel like my body's trying to catch up on all the stress it's carried over the past few years.  The same thing happened right after I got off active duty.  I was thrilled to be done with the Army, but suddenly my body had all these stress-related symptoms.  Later, I realized my body was pushing down the stress when I was on active duty until it could let down.

One thing about being this tired is that we've missed some things.  There was a women's film festival.  I'd wanted to go but missed it.  Every year here they have a big Halloween/Mardi Gras celebration on George Street.  (I know, they've conflated Halloween and Mardi Gras due to the costumes.  Actually, today I explained to a local that Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday.)  We missed both.  Ah well.

One of the things I've missed is my St. John's slide show.  It's coming, people!  But here are some tidbits about Newfoundland.  Though St. John's is very old, Newfoundland is the last territory to join Canada, in 1949.  It had been a British territory, and there was serious talk about its joining the US.  But Newfoundland isn't a province by itself.  For some reason it's grafted on to Labrador.  Labrador is about the size of Arizona, but has about 50,000 people living there.  It's total wilderness.  So the province is actually "Newfoundland and Labrador."

I know there's been some talk about my recent post, announcing my marriage to Nicole.  So I'd like to share this video with you.  Obviously, it's not of Nicole and me, but I was struck by the eerie similarities between the video and how I proposed to Nicole.

Catch All

I've been really busy at work these last two weeks, though I'm glad to have a productive task to give myself to.  I've been expanding the capabilities of an existing computer program, which is a living example of every bad programming practice.  At one point, I needed a break and went to see "The Social Network" about the founding of facebook and got to watch the fictionalized Mark Zuckerberg programming away.  I identified with him completely.  Though of course by the end of the movie, he ends up a billionaire, and I am not one.   Though I do have more friends than he did at the end of the movie (none).  So I'd say I'm richer than he is.  (And yes, that means you can expect me to ask you for a loan soon.)  Nevertheless like Zuckerberg, I've neglected other aspects of my life (including this blog), and I've got to correct that.

I'd intended to offer a slide show of St. John's, but that's not going to happen tonight.  When asked what St. John's is like, I have to say "Ireland."  And I say that without having spent one second in Ireland.  But from what I've seen they're quite similar--green rolling hills over rocky terrain jutting out into the Atlantic.  St. John's is actually closer to Ireland  than it is to New Orleans.  But I guess the clincher is that the local accent is a real, full-on brogue.  (It is not the Canadian accent, eh.)  I'm constantly asked about my accent, and I think My accent?!  Have you listened to yourself?

Just the other evening, I was leaving a grocery store when a local guy ask me for money.  I gave him some change, and he asked if I had time for a joke.  Sure.  An old man . . . and after that he lost me.  His voice became just a low, ripple of rolly's, lolly's, holly's. So as I stood there, looking at him, I wondered how his face got so damn freckled this far north, and then I realized--out on the sea, fishing.  About that time, he reached the punchline.  I knew because he showed me his god-awful teeth in a big grin.  I gave him a convincing laugh and a nod and went on my way.

We're married!

Most of you know that Nicole and I got married.  Though there's some of you who don't, but now you do.  However, many of you don't know that this November we'll celebrate our fourth anniversary.

So here's the story.  Way back in 2006, in the post-Katrina summer, Nicole and I went on our first date to hear Kermit Ruffins at Vaughn's.  (If you've been watching the Treme, you're familiar with the act.  Actually, Kermit and his music figure prominently in this video.)

I found aspects of post-Katrina New Orleans rather romantic; things were starting over and just being there felt like an act of defiance.  I likened it to living in post-WWII Paris.  So naturally, we fell in love.

Our relationship was going great, when we decided to take a vacation to Vancouver in November.  But then,  Nicole wasn't allowed back in the US, because her papers weren't in order.  A week later, she was given a visa solely for the purpose of getting her van and belongings back into Canada.  The visa would expire in a matter of days, and then she'd have to remain in Canada indefinitely.

Well at that point, I'd had five straight months of her hot lovin'.  There was no way in hell I was letting my Canuck cookie out of my clutches.  So the next day, we went to the Gretna courthouse, eloped, and told Immigration to suck it.

So why'd it take so long for you to hear about it?  Well, at first, it was our secret, which made it all the more romantic.  We hadn't been together that long, and while we definitely wanted to continue our relationship, we weren't ready to publicly wear the "married couple" label.  Then after that, of course, we had the house fire and were completely distracted by that.  And the truth is the period after that has been a difficult one for each of us as well as our relationship.  There never seemed to be the "right" time.

But now that we're starting over again in St. John's, I hope that our lives and relationship are entering a happier phase.  And I'm happy to have Nicole in my life.