Whoosh

On days when it has been rainy and cold outside I have given myself permission to drive to work instead of bike. Today, however, when my alarm went off, the sun was shining brightly and there was only blue sky above so I had no excuse to be lazy. As the piercing beep-beep-beeps filled my room, I begrudged myself for staying up so late last night. I started negotiations in my head (if you drive you can sleep for another 30 minutes! It *might* rain later! You can always bike tomorrow!) but ultimately rolled out of bed. Fifteen minutes later I was pedaling hard, feeling the wind whip by me, and was happy that determination won over laziness.

The weekend was nice overall. Friday night at the Art Bar was a lot of fun. It was packed with people and was buzzing with energy. People seem in better spirits since the weather turned sunny (maybe it has something to do with all the pretty girls in summer dresses!) Drinks were cheap and we took advantage of that and I found myself in a dizzy, happy, hiccup-plagued state. The Art Bar itself is really nicely done. I had to remind myself that it wasn't just a bar in the Art Gallery but was an art installation in itself. It is a small space with deep, warm colours that almost seem more suited to Fall or Winter than the middle of Summer. There are lovely arches that give it a cozy feel and one of the walls has a wallpaper pattern that adds a bold splash of colour to the room. The lighting is dim and moody. I liked it. I wish it was a permanent fixture there. It's the kind of place that makes you want to have long, memorable conversations. Beside the Art Bar was a larger room set up for mingling and dancing and people were doing both.

Ooooh, if you are looking for a website to kill some time, check this out. It's an amazing project that has been running since 2005. It monitors the web, searching for blog posts that have the terms "I feel" in them and then takes an excerpt and categorizes the feeling. The result is a database of millions of human feelings that can be sorted by feeling, location, gender, or other demographics. I spent a few hours on the weekend completely captivated by it. Check it!