Usually, I’m on the bus by around 8:10am. Occasionally, however, I am on the bus a bit later than that.

On the later bus, there is a young man of Asian decent. He rides the bus for only one or two stops after I get on. And he creeps me out the entire time.

The guy always stares at me. I’ve always thought it was a bit weird, and kind of creepy, but mostly thought nothing of it. People sit on the bus and people watch. Maybe he finds me attractive, I thought. No big deal.

Last Wednesday, however, things got weird.

He did his usual staring at me. And then he got up from where he was sitting (right beside me!) and went to stand by the back door (right in front of me!). He kept looking at me. Then he started licking his lips.

I still didn’t think much of this—the dry winter air often causes people to lick their lips in an effort to restore moisture to them—until he started grabbing his crotch. And then he tried to make eye contact to make sure that I was seeing him do what he was doing.

This went on for probably only 15 to 30 seconds. We arrived at his stop and he exited the bus. Then he stared at me through the doors and licked his lips. He began walking toward his destination. As the bus began moving again, he made a point of staring and licking his lips at me one last time as the bus passed by him.

While you’re seeing this post nearly a week after the incident, I’m writing it just a few hours after it happened. I still don’t know how to react to what happened.

I feel gross and violated.

Having people hit on me and turning them down because I am not attracted to them (and getting married) is one thing. Having them sexually harass me is quite another. Hell, maybe this goes beyond harassment. Even though he didn’t actually touch me, it kind of feels like I was assaulted.

I will almost certainly be on the same bus as this guy again in the future. If he does this again, what do I do?

I’ve made a few vegetable sandwiches, but they rarely turn out well. I did make a good one last week: heavy on the sprouts, which added nice flavour and are dry enough that the sandwich doesn’t get soggy between the time I make it and the time I eat it (but not so dry that the sandwich is unbearable to eat). But, excepting that sandwich I don’t really know what to do to make a tasty sandwich that doesn’t have meat on it.

Sure, there is the classic grilled cheese, but that’s not really something you can bring to work. And there are various nut-butter sandwiches, but these can get tiresome. Egg salad is about the only other meatless sandwich I can think of without getting into the fake meats that you find in the vegetarian section of grocery stores.

I have had a few ideas for other options: smoked tofu sandwich (I made this once and it was OK, but I think I cut the tofu too thick, so the texture of the tofu sort of overwhelmed everything else); tempeh sandwich (this is apparently a thing).

Earlier this week, I made a sandwich based on a recipe in Everyday Flexitarian: Recipes for Vegetarians & Meat Lovers Alike. I tweaked the recipe a bit, based on what I had on hand, and it turned out pretty good. It is yet another nut-butter sandwich, but the flavours combine for something quite new and unique. The recipe, as I modified it, is below.

Apple butter, miso, and peanut butter sandwiches

Yield: 2 sandwiches

• 1/4 cup apple butter
• 1 tsp genmai miso
• Peanut butter to taste (approx. 2 tbsp)
• 4 slices of whole wheat bread

Mix apple butter and miso together in a small bowl, until well blended. Spread the mixture onto two pieces of bread. Spread peanut butter on the remaining two pieces of bread. And, finally, in case you were unsure how to make a sandwich: put one piece of bread with the apple butter mixture and one piece of bread with the peanut butter together. Cut in half and enjoy.

I think this will probably become a new lunchtime staple for me, but I am still open to other options for vegetarian sandwiches.

I often get the urge to move away from Edmonton. I’ve never acted upon it, obviously, but it hits me from time to time.

Maybe it’s the recent cold snap. Maybe I just want to be somewhere that isn’t here, right now. But, then, I find myself contemplating the Yukon again. Surely, the cold isn’t the issue.

Now is not the right time to move.

Sara and I are getting married in the summer. We’re contemplating buying a new house. We’ve laid down roots in Edmonton. Mine may be mostly by chance of being born here, but they run deep. And Sara has spent the past 4 and a half years establishing herself in a new city.

Now is not the right time to move.

But, yes, I want to move away. Part of it, I think, is because we’re getting married.

Both of my parents are from away. They moved out here for different (though very similar) reasons, built a life, got married, and are now working toward a hopefully relaxed retirement and old age. The thing that is key, for me, is that they moved far away from home and established a new life.

I feel like I should do the same. Sara and I are getting married and, because of my parents’ life story, I feel like the thing to do is to move far away and build a new life as a married couple.

We’ve talked about this, Sara and I, and for all kinds of practical reasons, now is not the right time to move. But I can’t help but think that if it isn’t now, it’ll never happen.

I’m going to die in this city. I’m not sure I’m ready to accept that yet, but it’s probably the truth. I was born here, I was raised here, I will make a life here, and I will die here.

Now is not the right time to move and I am going to die in this city.

I didn’t go to work. I didn’t really do anything. I slept most of the day.

I’m back in business, though. I’m hoping to put together my review of all three Lord of the Rings movies next week. I’m not sure it’ll be a proper review so much as a collection of the smart-assed comments that Allan and I made while watching the movies, but we’ll see.

I’m sure you’ve played Uno. Most people have played it as kids and will remember it as essentially a branded version of Crazy Eights, with a couple of twists thrown in in the form of the “action cards.” Like most people, you’ve probably also played it with a bunch of house rules that make it a more exciting game.

Last night, Sara and I played a game mostly according to the official rules, but added a few house rules (mostly for the “pick up two” cards, which we made stackable). This got me thinking about what other house rules people might have.

What are your personal house rules for Uno? Did your family play by any unusual rules? Have you invented new rules of your own? Please share your Uno house rules in the comments. And, in case you’re not sure if the rules you learned growing up were official or not, the official rules can be found on the Uno Wikipedia page.

Like most people, I abandon them sometime in early to mid-February.

Should we abandon the idea of New Year’s resolutions? Is the idea of trying to start new habits around a relatively arbitrary date worthwhile or does it feel forced and make us less likely to succeed? Maybe we should make resolutions for change in the middle of March. Perhaps we simply need to change our thinking about New Year’s resolutions.

Regardless of what I might end up calling them or how I might end up thinking of them, I don’t have any resolutions yet for 2012.

I did think of one thing the other day, but I hope to make it a part of my thinking overall, rather than a goal to achieve (because you can’t achieve something that is on-going, right?), which is to not think negatively about other people’s marriages. No: “They won’t last a year.” No: “I’m not surprised they’re getting divorced.” None of that.

As I prepare to begin a marriage of my own, I’ve decided that being cynical toward the marriages of other people is not a good idea. I don’t actually believe in karma but, well, it feels like bad karma. And so I’m going to try not to do it.

Other than that, though, 2012 is resolution-free so far.

With the dawning of a new year, I am going to attempt to blog more frequently. I’m aiming for three posts a week. I’m planning a M-W-F publishing schedule, but I likely won’t hold myself to those specific days as long as I hit three posts a week.

In order to keep up that pace, I’ll likely start blogging more personally again. More of the “dear diary” type stuff. That’s where my writing on this blog has been going for a while anyway, if you ignore the “interesting finds” that I’ve been auto-posting via ifttt (which have been less frequent, since Google Reader’s social functions were changed a while back). I think I’ll keep it up.

Some of the stuff you’ll probably see coming up:  review of the Lord of the Rings movies (I’ll be doing a marathon run-through of all of the extended edition DVDs on the weekend), wedding planning stuff, and terrible whining about how I hate my life and want to drop out of grad school forever (the course I start on the 9th is apparently a difficult one).

In the meantime…

While I am very happy with everything that I got for Christmas, two of my favourite items are the Kobo Touch eReader that Sara gave me, and the Everyday Flexitarian cookbook that she got for me.

The Kobo is a pretty nice way to read books. I like being able to hold a lot of books on one device. As much as I am still a big fan of paper books, the reality is that space will be at a premium in our little house once Sara and I get married (we’re both going to be going through our stuff in the hopes of downsizing our things before I move in). The Kobo is a great way of dealing with this: I can keep a big library without filling the space with books.

The cookbook is also cool partly because of the impending nuptials. Though I am not a vegetarian, I am trying to reduce the amount of meat that I eat. Sara isn’t.  This book is full of vegetarian recipes with options for adding meat to them in a way that lets you make both the vegetarian version and the meat-eater’s version at the same time with very little effort. Instead of making two meals, this book shows you how to make just one meal for the “flexitarian” household—perfect for making dinner once the two of us are married. There are some really awesome recipes in the book and I am looking forward to trying both the vegetarian and the omnivorous version of each.

I also received a burr coffee grinder from my parents. I’ve wanted one for a while, because they grind the coffee beans way more uniformly than blade-grinders (especially when compared to the fairly cheap blade-grinder that I’ve been using for the past few years). This makes better tasting coffee: especially when it comes to espresso. I used it for the first time this morning and I’ve got a damn smooth cup of coffee on my desk beside me.

My brother got me a damn fine bottle of scotch: Laphroaig Quarter Cask. I don’t know if he got a good recommendation from someone at the liquor store, or if he just made a good guess, but for someone who isn’t a scotch drinker he sure managed to pick a damn good whisky. I enjoyed a dram last night and: wow! That’s some good stuff.

My other brother, along with his girlfriend, bought me a pretty snazzy cardigan and a tie-clip. I am officially on my way to becoming a boring old man. But that’s pretty OK with me. (After all, I asked for these items.)

Finally, I got some nice “tastes of Newfoundland” type gifts from the in-laws. In addition to another batch of Screech coffee beans (they got me these last year and I really liked them), I got a can of Pineapple Crush and a bag of Nacho crunchits (nacho cheese Cheetos). I also got some knitted socks and slippers. Again with the old man stuff, but I totally love it.

There were other gifts, too. They were all pretty dang awesome. Overall, it was a very good Christmas. Lots of good gifts and lots of good times with the family, eating and drinking and playing some Wii and such. Boom. Holidays.

A scene from Newfoundland

The past year was not a great one for me. It was a tough slog. Lots of personal and family issues popped up over the course of the year that ultimately had me stressing out or downright depressed for much of the year. I won’t dwell on many of those things here, mostly because I want to keep them private.

However, despite some crappy things happening in 2011, there were some really great things that happened. Instead of dwelling on the negatives, I’m going to focus on the best things that happened to me in 2011.

For the purposes of this blog, these things will take the form of a Top 2 list (I originally conceived of this post as a Top 5, but couldn’t come up with five things I actually cared to blog about).

The Top Two Events in the Life of Adam Snider in 2011

While 2011 was, overall, a tough year, I think that the positives actually outweigh the negatives. I’ll dwell on the positives a bit, because I think they are more interesting and worth sharing. In the order required by the unwritten code of Serious Relationships, here are the two best things that happened to me this year:

2. Trip to Newfounland

In October, Sara and I took a trip out to Newfoundland. She hadn’t been home for a while and I’d never been. Her parents were kind enough to fly us out on their Air Miles (they’d originally planned to do so last Christmas, but the flights are astronomically more expensive during the holiday season).

In some ways, the trip reminded me of our trip to the Yukon a few years back. For one thing, that landscape was stunning. I love my prairies, but they sure can make for a dull road trip.

Newfoundland was beautiful. The countryside is all rocks and forests and lakes (or bays, depending on where you are on the island). Some of the small fishing villages are rustically beautiful, and St. John’s is the best looking city I’ve ever visited (at least the downtown and harbour areas). Pictures will be forthcoming.

The other way that this trip reminded me of our trip up north was the way in which the place and the people took hold of me. When we returned home, I found myself feeling homesick for a place that isn’t my home.

The island is beautiful and the culture–especially the music scene–is awesome. Just don’t believe what they tell you about Newfoundlanders being the friendliest people in Canada. Many of them certainly are, but my experiences in the big box stores of Grand Falls-Windsor made me long for some disinterested prairie folk.

The time spent with Sara’s family was also enjoyable. It was nice to spend some with her parents, one of her uncles, and her brother and his girlfriend. And there was the nephew.

I mean, OK, he’s not technically my nephew, since Sara and I aren’t married, but he’s the closest thing to a nephew that I’ve got and it was weirdly entertaining to watch him rock out in his Jolly Jumper (seriously; the kid loves to jump).

Of course, the most memorable part of the trip is the last item on this list.

1. Sara and I got engaged

Remember what I said previously about the nephew not really being my nephew? Well, that’ll no longer be true come June 30th of 2012. That’s the date that Sara and I will be getting married.

And, remember what I said about this being the most memorable part of the trip? That’s not entirely true. It’s not that it wasn’t a memorable moment. It’s just that I was so wired on adrenaline and nerves that the actual proposal is kind of a haze. I don’t even remember what I said, other than the part about: “Will you marry me?”

She answered with something that meant: “yes.” I don’t even remember exactly what she said other than that it was a response in the affirmative. And so now we’re getting married.

I didn’t blog about this sooner partly because we’ve been trying to keep it off of the web. But, mostly, this means keeping it off of Facebook and so we decided that it was OK for me to blog about it. (That said, please don’t mention this on Facebook or Twitter (or even on Google+, unless you’ve got a Circle that is limited to people who are already in the know); the blog is one thing, social media is another beast altogether.)

Much of the past few months has been occupied by wedding planning. It’s gone surprisingly smoothly, so far. There have been a few bumps along the way but, for the most part, it hasn’t been too bad. Hopefully, it’ll stay that way as we get closer to the wedding date.

And then the wedding will happen and then we’ll be married.

Rad.

Partly, I have been enamoured with other webby things: Google+ and MetaFilter, mostly. And partly, I just haven’t felt the desire to write. It’s been lacking lately. I’m afraid of losing it. I have defined myself as a writer for so long and I don’t know what I would do without that definition.

If I’m not a writer, what am I? I have many other roles in life, but “writer” has long been the dominant one.

I want to be a writer. I need to be a writer. I am a writer.

And so I will write.

I’m going to resurrect the blog. It’ll be alive once again. I hope to re-launch in January with a plan for regular posts. For now, consider this a soft launch. I’ll publish new posts semi-regularly throughout the month and come back in the New Year with something resembling a publication schedule (which I may or may not officially outline to the public).