Bits and Bobs

I have to apologize for the lack of posts. It's been a bit nuts, and that's due to a bunch of factors: the weather, burning the candle at both ends, getting sick, etc.

I don't know how diligent I'll be this month, but I'm certainly going to try and make an effort. But here's a selection of random, unrelated happenings I just haven't gotten around to sharing with y'all ...

Summer sickness sucks. So as I might have mentioned in an earlier post, I was recently ill. It lasted almost three weeks. No, it wasn't the flu. And it definitely wasn't stress. I had no idea WHAT it was. It was awful. I felt uncomfortable all the time. I dropped five pounds. I was convinced I'd finally either (a) gotten that ulcer my mom warned me comes with much worrying, or (b) contracted that killer tapeworm that was going to eat me to death.

The doctor had me take a blood test and provide lab samples (the type I'm not going to disclose here because it's, well, gross). And then they said, "We can't find anything." That was last Tuesday. And very dissatisfying, since I'd been convinced that I had some kind of bug.

Today, however, there was a development. Turns out they were premature in telling me they couldn't find anything in my lab sample. Because lo and behold, about a couple days later, a germy little guy that'd been having a party in my sample decided to rear its ugly head. Turns out I had - say it with me boys and girls - Giardia, also known (unfortunately) as "beaver fever" among the camping and backcountry set. But I haven't been camping. I also haven't been in a nursery. So chances are I either ate or drank something that was contaminated. Anti-dining-out-movement, 1. Me, zero.

He's baaaa-ack ... oh, and so's he. The night before I started coming down with The Fever, my friend and I were walking home after a night out. (Well, she was walking home; I was walking east to reduce my cab fare home.) As usual, our conversation drifted on to the subject of guys - why occasionally there's a spark in a chance meeting with someone, and then it proceeds to never work out. I made mention of 59a (who I will now refer to in future as Actor Guy - click the link for the back story) and how it sucked that he went to L.A.

My friend said, "Oh, he's back now."

"What?" I asked. "Are you f---ing kidding me?"

Apparently - and not being in the TV/movie business, of course I wouldn't know - he went down for show pilot season. I guess he worked on a bunch of pilot episodes for a potential new show, and he then came back here, where he'll stay until or unless he gets word the show gets picked up by a network.

So he's since been back and has been playing soccer with my friend and their actor/theatre buddies.

I haven't seen hide nor hair of Actor Guy for proof of this return, and I probably never will. But who knows? (This is one time I REALLY want Fate and Circumstance to prove me royally wrong.)

On the other hand, someone I hoping NOT to hear from for a long time surfaced in e-mail. Shakespeare (remember this, this and, oh yeah, the second section of this?) dropped me a note to send me the latest installment of the online poetry newsletter he publishes monthly - and because he wondered what happened to me.

"You simply disappeared," he wrote. "I was hoping to see you on MSN ... but no way!"

Truth is, I finally blocked him on MSN this winter (because of a meeting last June which I won't get into - but is partially explained in the third link above - but it completely alienated me, to say the least). And now I'm never really on it, anyway. There's been no time. And my computer at home's broken, so there you go - legitimate excuse.

Perhaps it's shallow and immature of me to still be so rigidly opposed to any sort of friendship. However, I've never felt comfortable with him, because in my eyes, he set the standard for that discomfort. Where I gave a cautious inch, he tried to take a foot. And it's not something I want to deal with after being free of it for over a year.

This may not be the last I'll be hearing of him. He says he'll be letting me know when he's next in Toronto. I'm hoping it'll be much, much later than sooner. He's threatening to appear in September. I'm hoping to make myself scarce. Or at least unavailable.

Summer daze - it's really here. I think that mid-summer glaze everyone gets on their brain has finally set in. Monday morning, after waking myself long enough to don my gym clothes, eat some cereal and get all my essentials for the day into my ginormous backpack, I managed to make it to the bus stop on time. Work ID? Check. Metropass? Check. Keys? Check.

The bus arrived, and I boarded, flashing my card to the driver as I passed him. It was only when I sat down and settled my belongings that I looked at the card in my hand. I had shown the driver my gym pass, which looks NOTHING like my Metropass, and has my name and picture on it.

I was instantly embarrassed. I was debating going back to the front of the bus and sheepishly apologizing while showing my proper card when I realized: the bus driver didn't stop me.

Hope you're enjoying your summers so far!