Tabula Rasa Slowtime Notices

LAST DAY BEFORE TRAVEL COMMENCES, PANIC PANIC PANIC. I, naturally, did not do any of the things I needed to last night, so tonight will be The Big Scramble, as I'm catching the first bus of several straight from work. My stomach is periodically twisting itself into knots of anxiety out of nowhere, but there's excitement mixed in there, too, and once I get on the train to Winnipeg the really stressful 'no room for delays or fuckups' part of the trip will be over. But until then, I'm playing within very tight margins. Anyway, it was -32 degrees again this morning and I almost got frostbite walking to work and also I fell down in the several inches of additional snow we got overnight and I simply gotta get outta here!!!

So yes. Packing tonight. And some other stuff. No perogies and/or Fallout until after I am ready to hit that ol' dusty trail. And a whole lot of work bullshit in the meantime.

27. What Are Your Earliest Memories of Music?

Hmm. An old music box I had when I was small, maybe. The casing for it has not survived, and the winding mechanism is busted, but I do still have the cylinder and could hum the tune in a pinch.

Today's lunchtime joshi match was Sareee & Natsupoi vs. Takumi Iroha & AZM from Sareee-ISM Chapter IV. It's a banger, but I still despise you, Natsupoi, can't believe my man Shingo married your annoying ass. And Takumi is badass, why can't she wrestle in a promotion I actually watch??? Also Sareee's own YouTube channel apparently not having the rights to anyone's entrance music, including her own, is pretty funny.

Okay, back to panicking!!!

Friday!! One week to MLP/ROH in Windsor (though Josh Alexander getting injured right beforehand has me absolutely devastated)!! I have so much laundry to do this weekend, and I should also probably pack because god knows I'm not going to want to do it after work on Monday or Tuesday, and then on Wednesday I'm heading straight to the bus stop the instant I clock out of here. Time to start working out the nuances of my schedule, since it's all well and good to say things like 'I'll catch the red eye flight right after the show ends' but I do still need to figure out the logistics of actually getting around and finding places to stash my backpack in the meantime and whatnot. That MLP-to-Flixbus-to-VIA corridor Saturday night/Sunday morning is particularly tight, but at least I can chill for a week once I get to Winnipeg. To the bullet journal! It's also time to start scoping out nearby movie theatres so I can fill my fuckin' boots as much as possible before returning to this wasteland.

Mom is wishy-washing about her decision to quit her job again, which is not a huge surprise, but it's felt like the ultimate outcome as soon as she started dooming endlessly about the acquisition months before it went through, regardless; maybe it does suck as much as she's saying, but I can't tell because she was always going to talk herself into hating it no matter what. I'm wary about her taking extended time off! I worry that she'll let her physical capabilities atrophy even further if she no longer has to leave the house and stay upright for a few hours every day! But she also worked all the way through the worst of her chemo during which she probably SHOULD have taken the time off, so idk, she's certainly earned it. IDK, capitalism is a scourge, we'll see how it goes I guess!

25. How Good Is Your Sense of Direction?

I can probably get turned around and completely lost better than anyone you know.

Today's lunchtime joshi match is Mio Momono & Starlight Kid vs. Mei Hoshizuki & AZM from the Marvelous 5th Anniversary show. A killer few minutes of high-speed nonsense featuring three of the best in the world at that style (I am not otherwise familiar with Momono's game, but she can clearly hang with this insanity). Love the way the yellow lighting makes the whole thing look way older than just five years ago (though Azumi clearly being a fucking child also helps), wrestling always looks better when it's not overly glossy, at least to my tastes. ANY EXCUSE TO SEE MY GOOD GOOD SKY TIGER STARLIGHT KID IN ACTION IS A GOOD ONE.

I am having a craving for bagels. A nice Tim Hortons bacon BELT or something like that. I'm not allowed, though!!! Maybe I'll splurge on horrible little dough balls one last time when I get home tonight. I want to finish season 2 of Sailor Moon this weekend, but man I'm sick of that fuckin' kid. Onward!!

I have spent two days having no goddamn clue what day it is?? I sent in all my weekly numbers yesterday like an idiot, was all ready to go for my Thursday meeting today at 10:30 on the dot, actively confused at several points throughout, just... why??? I think I'm slipping prematurely into vacation mode, gotta get my head back in the game.

Torn between perogies and Wok Box tonight. Both sound delicious, but one is much easier, but also I need to save money because trip. An episode of Wonder Man with whichever I decide, I think.

Stayed up toooooo laaaaaate last night reading Pet Sematary, because at the end of the day, we all just want to feel twelve again, don't we?

23. What Old, Worn Out Thing Can You Just Not Part With?

There are a lot of jokes I could make here, but the real answer is my little stuffed tiger from when I was a kid. I took him everywhere, and he is ragged and covered in blue ink from a pen exploding in my backpack in grade one and stuffed super full because I had loved him pretty flat until Matante Louisa redid him for me at one of my many visits to her cool old house just across from the Olympic ski jump venue where she had a spiral staircase and a basement full of fabric scraps to play with and a clock that opened up every hour and little Dutch children would spin around inside and now he sits on the shelves above my bed with my (much newer) plush wrestler dolls.

Today's lunchtime joshi match is Mayu Iwatani, Mika Iwata & Mio Momono vs. Takumi Iroha, Miyuki Takase & Utami Hayashishita from last week's NOAH Universe Magic 2026. An all-star affair featuring wrestlers from like three different promotions that really drove home how I need to work harder to get my money's worth out of my Wrestle Universe subscription, because goddamn this is good stuff. I miss Utami!!!

AEW's last PPV before the next one that I will be attending was last night, and it was a good 'un! I'm still mad that I had to miss the Oscars just to watch it, but I certainly do not regret doing so. At least four solid MotY contenders in the mix, though none of them were surprises in that respect. TO THE CUT!!!

( AEW Revolution 2026 )

Today's lunchtime joshi match was Syuri vs. Suzu Suzuki from the 2023 5★STAR Grand Prix. Hell yeah. That is all.

I MADE IT TO FRIDAY. I only have one used tech for the next week and am completely buried in units that need to be inspected, but we've managed to get broadly on top of the sold ones, at least, so I'm hoping today will be a little more chill than things have been of late. The fact that I'm able to write this entry in the morning is a good sign!

Eddie Kingston and Ortiz announced for MLP/ROH in Windsor. Taka Michinoku announced for Mystery Wrestling in Edmonton. KENTA announced for Mystery Wrestling in Vancouver. This vacation is going to heal me, I just know it. Also I'll be in proximity to working movie theatres again! Kicking into ~ cinema ~ mode the second I clock out today for today and tomorrow's LotR EE marathon down at Keyano -- hopefully that will make up for missing the Oscars in favour of Revolution on Sunday. Old man yaoi Edge & Christian returning then will also heal me (it's one year after Christian screwed him for the world title in last year's main-event-that-should-not-have-been-the-main-event! Dynasty will be one year since FTR turned heel on Cope and they'll probably still have the belts in a month! Nick Wayne is finally back in action! ALL THE PIECES ARE IN PLACE).

( Album #523/1001: Marianne Faithfull - Broken English )

Today's lunchtime joshi match will be a long-haul, Sareee & KAIRI vs. Arisa Nakajima & Takumi Iroha from Sareee-ISM Chapter II. Kinda wish I hadn't blown my weekly burrito taxi budget on horrible little dough balls yesterday so I could get a wrap or something to eat with it, but alas. They were so good, though. Anyway, I really need to dig into Sareee's self-produced shows, they seem like banger factories!

Work crazy, brain broken. Ate a big ol' wrap for lunch and I have regrets, but it was extremely delicious. T-MINUS TWO WEEKS TO VACATION.

( Album #521/1001: U2 - War )

Today's lunchtime joshi match was Manami Toyota vs. Hikari Fukuoka from Japan Grand Prix 1993 and it absolutely fucks. What's that word for nostalgia for a time/place you never knew? Because just sitting down to watch this and a season 2 episode of Sailor Moon on a random Saturday sounds absolutely peak right now.

Note to future self: look more into the Brudi Brothers. I really like their recent KEXP set a lot.