welcome back to me!

what? what's that you say? after almost a full week of silence, who's this i see in my google reader?

is it courtney? is she back and posting again?

goodness, going away on a four-day conference really takes a lot out of a girl. it was my first conference ever as a non-contract student affairs professional (excluding the one for orientation directors that i went to last year, because i was on a contract at that point) and it was a great time. i'll definitely go again next year. suh-weet. (er - that is, so long as there's money for it in the budget.)

anyhow, good times. let's play catch up now.

biggest news: last weekend, i went garage saling and found a treasure of epic proportions. you may be aware of my mild obsession with typewriters. as great as computers are, they just dont have the architectural and sculptural beauty that an old school typewriter has. i'm naturally drawn to typewriters in all kinds of art - gocco prints, paintings, and photos.

and so you can imagine my supreme excitement when, driving around in stouffville looking for treasures, we passed a garage sale with a dust-covered typewriter shining with what seemed to be an otherworldly glow.

(ok, it wasn't shining. it was pretty covered in dust and a few dead leaves. but it was an old school underwood with all of the keys intact, and the first i've come across at a garage sale, which is pretty sweet nonetheless.)

either way, i threw the car into park (sorry, mike), and played it cool. oh, awesome typewriter? yeah, i guess i could use one. i guess. shrug.

i hovered over it until the other dude eyeing it left and then i asked the lady how much she wanted for it. she looked completely flabbergasted. for a minute i thought she was going to ask an extravagant price that would break my heart.

"four?" she says.

four? i think - as in, four... ty? four... hundred? i know sometimes these collector types will drop the 'thousand' off of the end of the price to be sneaky. did she look sneaky to me? shifty-eyed, perhaps? i decided to push my luck.

"how about two?"

she shrugged and said sure. dumbfounded, i handed her a toonie and tried to avoid giving mike the thumbs-up with a huge smile to signal that i'd sealed the deal. as i'd picked up the typewriter (and almost broke my back in the process since it's got a heavy iron frame), i felt like the lady from the ikea commercials who, when she's leaving the store, starts screaming to her hubby, "start the car! start the caaaaaaar!" lest the store realize it's foolishness in selling her something at such an incredible price.

check out my victory shot here.

yeah, i rock. i'll be sure to do a before/after once it's cleaned up.