I am 35 today.

If no one sings ‘Happy Birthday’ to me, I wouldn’t mind at all, because I hate having it sung at/to me and am not generally thrilled about singing it at/for other people on their birthdays. I find it awkward and I find it hard to know where to look and, well, basically I’m a big grump about everything always.

My plans for this 7/20 Century Day include sitting or napping outdoors quite a lot, late lunch, and, eventually, a dragonboat practice. Yesterday’s wee backyard gathering was quite nice, but we were shocked/dismayed that a bar would close at 11pm (the kitchen was already closed when we got there at 9) on a holiday weekend. What’s that about? That combined with the Rochester’s being closed all weekend makes me wonder what the point of having a holiday today is.

Oh, right. Some queenly thing. And my birthday.

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I wish I had skills and know-how and capital, because Ottawa is losing its (very lame) one alternative weekly paper. It has been virtually content-free for several years, so it won’t be missed, but it is super discouraging that a city of this size can’t even manage something as ubiquitous as this. People joke that this city is boring and that there’s nothing to do, but there really is a lot going on here, dammit.

Luckily, Apartment613 is pretty rad. However, it’s always nice to pore over events listings (and, back in the Xpress’s heyday, Savage Love) with friends – there’s something less romantic about crowding around a laptop or sending online messages, eh?