Hella Stella

I've been meaning to make a fan page on Facebook for my music.... It's been in the back of my mind for about a year now. The trouble with Facebook is that people get so many invites and so many requests that I feel sort of badly for adding to the flood. I know I can't really keep up with the amount of stuff I get.

Anyway. With two gigs happening in May, I figured it was high time for me to get that page going. It's just easier to let folks know about shows without hounding them via e-mail etc. I set it up yesterday, and although it's not the most exciting page I've ever seen, people are actually joining it! People I don't even know! I'm thrilled. Seriously.*

In other news, the renovations from hell continue at our apartment. You know what's bad about it? The landlord is only doing the bare minimum to make a quick buck. He wants to fix up the units and sell them off, but he's doing a completely half-assed job at it. My BH overheard him yesterday telling his contractors to not bother making a wall fit the fire code because "nobody will check." You know what honey? If there's a fire and someone dies, that's on your head. Especially since he just built a wall over everyone's back door. No escape route and no fire safe walls. That's just great.

Also? This guy is one of the main home inspectors in the city.

We're thinking of reporting the building to the fire marshall when we're a little closer to our move date.

Let's swing back to more positive news. My overtime money is starting to come in! Granted, it's already allotted to the house renos, but it's nice to get compensated for that insane workload.

Oh, and I've set up the home reno blog! I'll give y'all the link when it's a bit prettier. I haven't actually posted anything yet.

*I guess I'm assuming that most of you know the real me, name-wise. If you don't and you want to know more about my tunes, feel free to drop me a line at hello.hella.stella AT gmail DOT com.

I'm becoming an absentee blogger! Bad Stella.

I'm afraid I have nothing particularly exciting to report, but I can give you the rundown on my comings and goings anyway.

1. Ongoing renovations aka My landlord is a jackass

It has actually become a bit of a joke. Every morning at 8am, we are startled by some new deafening sound caused by the destruction of part of the house. This morning it was the sound of giant metal scaffolding being assembled outside my bedroom window, followed by the sound of a giant drill going through the exterior of the building to prep it for siding. Siding! Do you have any idea how much hammering it's going to take to put siding up? My poor nerves. The other day it was the sound of our basement wall getting knocked out with sledgehammers. In case you were wondering, we don't get a warning about any of these jobs ahead of time. I know that's illegal, but I'm past the point of caring. I just need to get out.

2. New neighbours

We have two new neighbours on the street who, I'm sorry to say, are really not cool. They have two large dogs, one a pit bull, one a shepherd, and they walk them off leash all the time. Did I mention that both dogs are aggressive? As are the owners? Yes, it is a sticky situation. I have come to the conclusion that I will absolutely kick their dogs in the teeth if they try and attack Morty one more time. If that sounds harsh, keep in mind that watching Morty fight off two large angry dogs is not a nice alternative either. Unfortunately, the owners so far seem unwilling to listen to reason, and were walking them off leash again this morning. The situation makes me so anxious I actually feel sick about it.

3. We really did buy a house

We don't get possession of the house until late May, but I'm planning as best I can in the meantime. I have lists upon lists upon lists of things I need to do, pay for, or get ready to pay for. I'm not sure yet if the lists are helping yet. They are just do damn long. Also? I'm nearly out of money.

4. Music!

I have two great gigs booked for May, and then I'll probably take another gigging break while we move into the house. As I mentioned in a previous post, I really am trying to build a tiny studio into a closet as part of our house renos. I think that will make me feel very happy. I guess you'll hear about it soon enough.

5. Death and near death

In the past week, we've had one family friend slip into a coma after a stroke, and the mother of another friend die. It's got both my BH and I thinking a lot about how we want to live our lives. Live each day to the fullest, etc etc, embrace that cliche a little more than we have been. On a more practical note, it also makes me want to write a will.

Jeez, I didn't mean to sound that morose.... But there you have it.

I hope you have a very sunny spring day, folks.

Now that my work craziness is over, I've replaced the insanity with buying a house. Not the best planning perhaps, but there you have it.

I'm learning so much already, and things will only snowball from here. I've decided to take on some renos myself. Wanna hear what I'm going to try? OKAY!

- tearing down a wall
- putting up a wall elsewhere
- laying engineered wood throughout most of the house
- drywalling
- painting
- tearing up old rotten tile and re-tiling a shower stall
- replacing light fixtures
- putting up bedboard

What's interesting about that list is that I only know how to do one of those things: painting. Am I crazy? Likely.

I might even start up a secret home reno blog so that the public can watch me stumble through my steep learning curve. We'll see.

In the meantime... I'll tell you stories about my clumsiness. Yesterday I tripped on the edge of the sidewalk and fell over. Other than being surprised, I felt fine. I dusted myself off and went along my way.

Today, however, it has become clear that I've pulled all my ass muscles. I'm not even sure how one pulls all their ass muscles in one quick fall, but apparently I've done it. That, and I've pulled my ankle to shit and my shoulder too. It's weird - it seemed like such a small tumble. Now I'm limping all over the place and people keep catching me trying to massage my own butt cheeks.

Enough about that. Thanks for all the well wishes on the house - you bloggy folk have been so supportive!

I don't move for several months, but I thought I'd take this opportunity to show you some of the vintage flooring I'll have the pleasure of ripping out once we take over the house.

Observe.

Red quasi-leopard print carpeting:


Linoleum from the... 40s maybe? It's old, dudes.

I think I need to opt for a list-post, because my brain is a bit wonky today and it's probably that or nothing.

1. I may get to spend a week in Montreal this summer writing songs. To clarify, I'd be renting an apartment and locking myself in there with my instruments. I'll either write songs of die of boredom. My bet is on writing, but my track record has been bad lately. To be continued.

2. It might be time for me to purge my Facebook list. There are so many people on there I don't really know anymore, and have no desire to know anymore. I also have a few people on there who have gotten so annoying that I've hidden them from my view. One guy took to posting drunken weird things on my wall.... And I've never actually met him. Unfriend, sucka.

3. My food mojo has been ROCKING lately. I made a lentil dish last night that should have fed my BH and I a few times over, but instead we gobbled everything up. It's especially great because the dish probably costs under $2 in supplies, and it tastes like a million bucks. Thank you, food gods.

4. I nearly opened a can of whoop-ass on my landlord last night because he thought it would be cool to install molding and use a shop vac at 9:30pm. My BH had just gotten off a 12-hour shift and needed to sleep. Something broke in my brain and I went and had words with the contractors. If they think I'm a bitch, that's cool with me. At this point, I see that as being a good thing. Contractors listen to bitches - particularly the angry ones.

5. I'm taking a tiling course this weekend with my mom. Have I told you about my awesome mom? She's the best. Anyways.... We're going to learn about tile and mud and fun things like that. I'm pretty thrilled.

6. I was worried that my terrible work schedule would mean dropping out of choir. Thankfully, I not only get to stay, but they will be flexible with the repertoire to make sure I can catch up. I LOVE CHOIR.

7. Unfortunately, I may have to increase my security settings for comments. I'm starting to get daily spam and it's driving me nuts. Forgive me. If I do tweak things, I hope you'll still leave me messages - I love them so!

I swear you'll get a proper post next time....

Random things:

Heather and I now own exactly the same coat and exactly the same winter boots. She's about a foot taller than me, so if we ever stroll around the neighbourhood together, I will look like her munchkin twin. That is quite possibly the greatest thing ever. Maybe we should start a band called Munchkin Twin?

My BH and I have been assured that the renos upstairs will only go on for another week. Meanwhile, my charming new landlords have decided to change up our furnace from oil to gas, and as a result, have torn up my street to put in the lines. Torn. Up. My. Street. After having torn up our hallway and subjecting us to jackhammer sounds for a month and a half. That is quite possibly the shittiest thing ever.

I had a gift certificate for a hot stone massage lying around, waiting to be used. I'll finally get around to it this weekend. I have no idea what it will be like, but I imagine it will be better than my Indian massage experience (HOLY HELL, I just went looking for my Indian massage post and discovered that it does not exist! How have I not written about this? Maybe it was on an older blog? You are in for a treat when I get around to writing it down. It involves spanking and nudity, and I was expecting neither.)

In choir, there is a girl with the same name as me. To avoid confusion, everyone will be using my high school nickname instead of my full name. I have a few close friends who still use my nickname, and I love it.... But man, I feel like I've been thrown backward in time. Think about it: my old high school teacher runs the choir, and all the members are people I went to school with. When I close my eyes, I can practically smell the lockers, drama mats and cafeteria food. Maybe THAT'S why I've been getting urges to shave half my head and dye my hair green...

I have stopped freaking out about a variety of things. Life will be a bit crazy over the next six months or so, but I will manage. The panic is subsiding, and it is being replaced with a strange calm. Yes, it is the calm before the storm, but I am hopeful that I won't lose my shit during the howling gale.

For all the craziness that has taken over as of late, I haven't had a nervous breakdown. Yet.

We'll see how that goes as the momentum builds and then I faceplant! Ahem.

In the meantime, I'm getting very excited about New Years, and greatly enjoying my Christmas gifts. Especially the bulldog shirt.

I played a house concert this past weekend.... I know I didn't mention it here, but it was really low key and built for a tiny crowd. We got just the right number of people out and I even played some very new (and very old) songs. Stuff like that is welcomed at a house concert. Not always the case at a bar.

Anyway, the show was lovely. We (Shawna, Brian and myself) had mulled wine and chatted with the folks who showed up. High School Boyfriend even came bearing home-baked gifts and alcoholic beverages. Yay for me! Yay for HSB!

In other news, the renovations from hell continue unabated at my apartment. Well, technically in the apartment above us, but it's so damn loud you wouldn't know the difference.

The other day, a guy was in here patching up some drywall after they ACCIDENTALLY BLEW A HOLE IN OUR WALL. We had the following conversation:

Him: So I guess the renovations have been pretty annoying for you, hey?

Me: Yeah, they are pretty shitty.

Him: I suppose the sound gets really bad.

Me: The sound is bad, but I'm also pretty peeved that the roofers and contractors seem to think we can't see them peeing out the back of the building.

Him: Uh, what?

Me: Yeah, I can see them all though the bedroom window, peeing away. My apartment isn't a toilet, you know. I can't believe how many wangs I've seen in the past month. It's getting kind of tiresome.

Him: ..... UM.

Me: (muttering) Fucking wangfest.


But in all seriousness, I have seen a lot of wangs this month. And yes, I'm complaining about it.

The construction continues unabated at our apartment. The new landlord said they should be done the majority of the work by the end of the month. I really hope he's right, because I'm going to bust a cap in someone's ass if this goes on through January. This morning, giant chunks of my roof were falling outside the window while I was showering.

So remember back when I joined that church choir? Our big concert is this Sunday. I think my BH might be working, so I don't know if any of my friends will actually witness my transformation into a choir girl. I'll be wearing robes and everything. I'm also going to be standing next to a friend of mine who is about a foot taller than me. Maybe I'll dig out some heels so I don't look like such a shrimp.

Did you hear? The strike is over! Congrats to my bloggy friends who have been freezing their butts off to get better working conditions. You deserve a good stiff drink.

More soon when things aren't so nutty....

I bought a Canada Goose coat this fall so that my wintery walks would be more bearable. It is by far the best coat I have ever owned, and I don't think I'll ever switch brands again (thanks for convincing me, Heather!).

I'm still not nuts about that thin line of actual fur around the hood, but considering that I walked 40 minutes through a blizzard and barely noticed the howling winds, I guess I'll just deal.

On my walk, I saw one guy without a hat and one guy with sneakers on. Are they making a fashion statement, or are they just dumb? I'd love to know. When you can't see a few inches past your nose with all the snow, it's time to dress for the weather. This is Ottawa! We get nutty weather! Converse will not protect you.

As I feared, December is slipping by faster than I would like. I've put off decorating the apartment because my new landlord is always coming in to do renovations, but shit, the month will be over soon. If my decorations get some plaster dust on them, so be it.

While it's nice to see the building getting fixed up, I'm getting pretty sick of all the noise. They tore off the roof the other day, and they tore up the flooring of the upstairs apartment yesterday. Today they are doing something disruptive to our hallway. They may have to rebuild a dividing wall because apparently, "It's not really a wall. Somebody tossed up a piece of wood and some drywall and called it safe." Fucking lame. Morty is a nervous mess because of all the thumping and my BH is trying to study for exams. The timing really blows.

I'm trying to be patient, but there's a big part of my brain that wants to go out and get a mortgage quote or two. I'm starting to talk to myself in soothing tones so I don't do anything irrational. Renting still makes sense, providing the renos don't go on indefinitely.

My gig schedule is pretty clear now with fall being over. I'm going to take the opportunity to book some songwriting time, and maybe a few key gigs. I don't think I'll be as busy as I was over the past few months, and that's cool with me. Gigging in the winter without a car is kinda tricky. But songwriting? That I can do.

Poor Morty. Between the reno noise and the sound of my guitar, he's going to be one miserable bulldog.