If You Want to be Happy in a Million Ways

In just a few hours I will be returning to my friendly neighbourhood international airport, where the lines will hopefully not be insane despite the baggage scandals going on. I hadn't heard anything about it until Mum told me, but apparently there has been some skullduggery with lax security over Thanksgiving, so now they're going to make up for it by making travellers' lives extra-miserable now. Oh joy.

Thursday night I slayed my economics exam, or at least wounded it. I'm fairly pleased with how it went. But then when I got home there was nobody around because Jacob is in Mexico (lucky fool), Katherine was out with Jordan, and Emily is usually asleep by 10:30, so I did some Christmas cards for the folks at work and watched TV. Woo.

To make up for this lameitude last night was extra-fun, for I attended a party at Matt's place. His housemates and friends all seem very nice, and a few of the choir folk (Laure and Louise) were there. I still don't understand the "raid dance". Apparently it has something to do with hard drives and the fact that they are read in a circular motion, so you have to have multiple people dancing around making circles with their hands. Just when I think I'm a geek, someone has to outdo me, and with choreography too...

Finally, I would just like to note that the new Fall Out Boy song currently on the radio sounds eerily Backstreet Boys-esque in the chorus. My inner teenybopper likes it; the rest of me is determined to mount a vigorous resistance.

Garden Statement

And so I return. It has been quite a while; it must look from the vantage point of the Internets as though I have disappeared into a pool of justified rage. And I have, if by this we mean "I have written a geography exam and then gone to New Jersey for a weekend with the fam". Both of these things went well, despite some justified rage at Continental Airlines and NYC-area air traffic control for trapping me in the airport for nearly five hours on Thursday night. Flight delays, bah humbug! I was confined in a Tim Hortons-less zone for interminable hours, with only bad tuna wraps to sustain me (I seriously have no idea what they did to the things; they tasted awful). My poor cousin John had to pick me up at the airport at 11:30 at night when he'd thought he would be home by 9:00.

The rest of the weekend was much more pleasurable. Friday I went into the city with Nina, Aunt Marie, and Lauren, or "baby Lauren", as Sophia calls her. We tripped around and did a little shopping, saw the Naked Cowboy, etc. Good times.

Friday night Aunt Marie and I babysat for Lauren so that Dan and Nina could go out for dinner. We watched the last half of Braveheart on TV, thus warping Lauren's tiny mind forever. If she is Scottish when she starts to talk, we will know why. If she commits treason against the king of England, we will also know why, though this will be difficult to do as she is not actually a British subject.

Saturday Nina took me into the city again -- she said she was very happy to do it, as it let her relive her Manhattan days, but it was still very nice of her! We went to see the Frick Collection, which is marvellous and is housed in a very beautiful building in the Museum Mile. It is right across from the Met, but so is everything in the Museum Mile because the Met is eleventy billion blocks long.

This was in the window at Carolina Herrera and I lust after it. There are lots of brocade coats in the shops at the moment but this was my favourite. The embroidery is just extraordinarily beautiful. So, you know, Christmas is coming up... who loves me?

The George Washington Bridge at the end of the day

Sunday was the big dinner with the family. Aunt Ronnie, Uncle Jim, and Jenna came up from South Jersey. Aunt Marie's three sons and their families also came, as did Aunt Elizabeth, Evelyn, and Linda. The babies were, again, a real highlight. I hadn't seen Sophia since she was about three months old; now she three and a half or so, and is full of energy. She's very sweet with her new little brother and with baby Lauren. Lauren loves her back, and went power-crawling across the floor to greet her when Michael, Marian, Sophia, and John arrived. John is only three months old and is reputed to wake up only when he is hungry. Nevertheless, he seems very good-tempered and darn cute. Most of my photos didn't turn out great, though there are a few I like. I was going to get Jenna to send me a few of hers, but in the meantime here are some that look OK. The photo I tried to take during dinner was not really a success; I should have known better! Anyway, the food was great and it was lovely to see everybody.

Monday Ruth was going to come by in the morning and take me to meet Father Brian (your friendly neighbourhood priest and a longtime friend of Ruth's) but unfortunately her truck's alternator broke and she had to spend some time in the Ford dealership on Route 17. In the end, we skipped out on Father Brian and cut straight to our traditional fare: lunch at the Park Tavern, home of the best pizza ever. Mmm, New Jersey bar pizza. Her sister Leslie came along, which was very nice indeed. It is lovely to spend time with Ruth but afterward my jaw always hurts because we both talk so darn much.

Later that day, John kindly trucked me back over to the airport. We were delayed about a half-hour, but that's how it goes with evening flights, I guess. Customs was uneventful, which is GOOD. This was, after all, my first solo international trip. And now I am all familied out and have to go study for my economics exam, which is tomorrow (gah). And then it is back to the airport, which is becoming my home away from my home-away-from-home. Hooray for Christmas!

Doormatitis

Today I realized something that is new about me, and is something I have been trying to believe for a long time and hadn't really realized until this week. I realized that occasionally, it is OK to be mean to people. Sometimes, as long as you don't go overboard and do any interior design involving femurs. This is extraordinarily liberating. It doesn't mean uncontrolled anger is my new modus operandi, but it does mean I am free to be curt if that is how I feel.

Wow.

So expect a lot more discriminate rage from me in future, mmkay? Enjoy.

Sculling About in the Quiet Pool

Yes! Papers done! Business presentation done! Now for exams...

The weekend was largely taken up with my econ paper and business presentation. Some of the gang stuck around after our meetings Saturday and there were shenanigans. I dropped in from time to time (being largely in my room writing) but didn't really participate.

Monday was completely insane. I was as short with people as I have ever been in my life. Having insulted the product of hours and hours of work, I then threatened to decorate the display board with the entrails of one lucky contestant. At the time, I felt kind of powerful and red-misty, but in retrospect kind of like a big meanie. Our presentation actually went reasonably well, despite all the precedent carnage. Then I came home, and Kyle and I went out for coffee and broke up. But it's OK, we sat in the Timmy's downstairs and talked. It was probably the least dramatic public breakup in the history of time. This is facilitated by my heartlessness and incapacity for significant romantic attachment. This is what I say to myself, not what others say to me.

My economics paper is done and finished, and I'm hoping the prof doesn't notice that it's not really about economics at all, but rather about how stupid economics is in its belief that material production can be expanded almost indefinitely. One of the Fraser Institute papers I checked out for it was talking about the "demand" for environmental quality, as though that's something humans alone control, on a day-to-day market basis. "Well, deciduous trees are up 10 points today, but I'm seeing stagnant watercourses under 5 hectares are down another 15." This may be a gross oversimplification of their position, but really: good freaking luck putting the natural house of cards back up once you've knocked it down.

Work yesterday was fine -- it was the office park's Christmas party, so there was tonnes of food and I inadvertently ate some chicken salad, which tasted kind of weird given that I was expecting it to be tuna. This is not the first time this has happened. All I can say is I'm glad it wasn't horseradish this time.

Today was Christmas shopping, to supplement the start I've made on Amazon. I recommend that everyone start making overtures for presents now, because there are lots of cool things out there. Even if it is just something small, it's nice to find a present that you know the giftee will like. At least, something you think they will like. So Mom, I hope you enjoy the bolster I have bought you. You should be particularly excited to hear that it is four feet long, extravagantly scented with amber musk, and shaped like a tabby cat. Sorry to give away the surprise, I'm just really psyched to have found it.

And so, to geography studying. Tah-rah!

"Like the Christmas Spirit Threw Up"

The essay-writing adventures continue. I'm trying to write about NAFTA right now, but it keeps turning into an environmentalist tirade about the folly of viewing Earth's resources as basically infinite and mobile, without any regard for the balance of natural systems. I suspect I am also going to thoroughly castigate the Alberta government for deliberately being poor planners.

Last night was December first, which means ritualistic excess in the form of Christmas decorating. Notl, Emily, and Nate came over, and by the time I got back from choir rehearsal it was pretty well insane. We were going for a somewhat revolting amount of tinsel, accentuated by coloured lights, bows, etc. I think we've achieved it admirably. Plus, we did groceries on Friday, so now there is actually, like, food in the place again and we aren't trying to figure out what you can make with remnants (viz. penne, chutney, dijon mustard, canned kidney beans).

And now I'm afraid I must get back to work. Though Katherine seems to have made eggs. Maybe there are some for me? I shall investigate.

Geneva Has A Lot To Answer For

Another quiet week of school work and work-work. It hasn't been bad, really, and any time I start getting aerated about the amount of writing I have to do in the immediate future (actually, in the immediate now) I just remind myself that I went to Montreal and out to some shows, and that I totally deserve any amount of library time I'm putting in now.

The New Jersey gang can get ready for a good weekend December 14-18. Why? Because I'm coming! I talked with Aunt Marie earlier today and she says it's OK, so I've booked my plane ticket. There are babies to meet and other exciting things to do. It will be beyond weird in some respects because it's been such a long time since I've seen most of them and there will be no parental backup information bank to remind me who works where, whose children are whose, and what stories I've forgotten. Such is the journey into adulthood!

Sunday Night Is Facemelting Guitar Solo Night

Zep and Floyd, how I love thee. When the Levee Breaks and Comfortably Numb are two of the best things ever.

Also pretty awesome is this: free TV on the Internet. Jay showed it to us when he was over with Yuna for their business group meeting with Katherine and Emily yesterday.

Spent most of the weekend in school mode, oh glee. Though really I am the Procrastination Queen, I don't know what I'm whining about. Anyway, I got my geography essay done and submitted it online fourteen whole minutes before the deadline. Well done, me. I've started my international affairs paper and am feeling cautiously optimistic about it, though one of the books I checked out is about conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War and had all the words to the Fixin' to Die Rag as a dedication in the front, so then I had that stuck in my head for three hours. Thanks, Country Joe and the Fish. And now, while I'm on a roll, I'm going to go write my penultimate business assignment.

Show It, Long As God Can Grow It

My hair!

Oh, Ha Ha

If I had a nickel for all of today's tasteless-but-still-kind-of-funny internet cracks about Trent Lott now being the minority whip and how that's a job, Trent, not a weapon, I would have... well, at least two nickels that I know of.

Had a nice run with Jacob tonight, though really contacts are superior to glasses in humid weather. It was the first time I've broken 7km in a while, and I think I'll be a little sore tomorrow, hooray!

Katherine has been doing her economics assignment and fielding calls from Kelly, because econ is a group undertaking. I have been not doing econ, since that's the class I dropped, but rather working a bit on my geography essay. The next two-and-a-half weeks have me writing three papers (!!!) but I am confident I'll get them all done somehow. Mostly I'm just not going to leave the library on weekends, and hope for the best.

Katie tells me that she and 21 of the high school gang (I didn't even know we had 22 in the high school gang) hit Sunshine this weekend for some blissful early season action. Mad with jealousy over here; I think she said it was 90 cm base and 20 cm fresh or powder! If that's what it's going to be like then bring on Winter, I say! Enough with the cold November rain.

Raining Again

30-Second LifeBlurb: Further rain today, hiss! Entire city acquiring SAD all at once. Choir performance with huge massed choir was good; girl high school choristers (choristeresses?) slavering over percussionist Nick Halley was sad spectacle, particularly as he is too old for, well, anyone in a youth choir. Various term papers apparently going nowhere, but am trying again for the one due on Sunday, which I think should be fairly easy. Possibility of faculty going on strike - negotiation period expires at 2 a.m. tonight. Should I cross the picket line?

People who have made me laugh today: Katherine, Emily, Lindsey, Jenn, Jacob, Jay, in roughly reverse chronological order.

Rip Through the City on a Saturday Night

Ah, Saturday night in the library. Have just come from Thai food with Alison (in town from Guelph), Heeya, Mal, Nicole, and Kaija (spelling?). All are well. Mal and Alison got piercings in the afternoon -- ear-ring for Ali, eyebrow barbell for Mal. Despite some peer pressure I elected not to join them, though I must concede that both of the newly hole-punched look lovely.

Novemberism

The afore-promised touring diaries from our 14-hour minibreak.

On the bus, ready to go!

At Metropolis. This is such a cool theatre -- the interwebs (those trustworthy sources) tell me that it has been there since the 1800s. Evidently people in the 1800s were a little slow, because they put the bathrooms on the top of four floors.

The opening act was the folky and terrifyingly thin Alasdair Roberts. He has a very lovely voice and sang many a traditional Scottish song -- a little slow compared with the main act, but still beautiful.

And now I think I will just throw photos all over the place; most of them don't need an explanation. Suffice it to say that the show completely rocked, and I knew this for sure even before they came onstage because the music between the sets was Peter and the Wolf. Omens don't get much better than that. Katherine and I both went preparing to be whelmed (not under, not over) but came away with big smiles on our faces. Not liking their particular brand of embarrassingly over-the-top, folk-tale-like music is like not liking pie: you come face-to-face with it and you just can't say no.

In addition to skillfully playing every instrument under the sun (viz. violin, hurdy-gurdy, banjo, mandolin, Moog and other crazy synth things, accordion, double bass, cello, slide guitar) the Decemberists get 10/10 for audience interaction. During 16 Military Wives (very catchy) they did the usual "which half of y'all sings louder" contest for the "la-di-da, di-dah, di-da-di-da-di-daaaa" section. They had people form a circle for a danceoff. They stole a cell phone from someone, dialed a number at random, and sang to whoever picked up. At some point in the encore (the encore, yet!) they did a sort of 1066 And All That history of the Founding of Montreal, and encouraged people to form up in groups of Huguenots, redcoats, and "Native, uh, Canadians" and re-enact the battle. "The Huguenots are coming down the river in canoes! Yes, in their nimble birch bark canoes! They spot the redcoats, and attack! And the Native, uh, Canadians see the melee and want in, too. They just... well, they attack everyone. And then are obliterated by disease and two hundred years of oppression." That pretty much says it all.

And so, I return to my essay, and then to work tomorrow. Alison is coming to town from Guelph, I may get together with her and Mal. And a bunch of the choir folk are going to be having a party over to learn the music for the Sankta Lucia concert. James' band, the Red Light Saints, are playing Zaphod's on Saturday. Elliott Brood is doing a show as well, and Kyle wants to go. Darnit, why do people I know have to continue doing cool things when I have work to do? An embarrassment of riches, truly.

Free/Three/Tree

Man, sometimes I wish I was a linguistics major. I picked up a really cool book entitled English Dialects while I was in the library looking for materials on the WTO (I know, yay). Its introduction starts off going all the way back to pre-Anglo-Saxon times. Imagine all the words that have been born, and grown up, and died in that time. A lot of the rest of it consisted of maps of England showing different pronunciation zones for particular words, like where the locals would pronounce "f" instead of "th" in a sort of Cockney way (it doesn't just happen in London!).

Back to econ. But later I will post some really good photos from the Decemberists show in Montreal on Sunday, which was so far beyond awesome that I just have no words. No wait, I do: fantastic! Ultra-cool yet whimsical! Ironic yet heartfelt! It was lovely. They played a lot of things from their most recent album, which I had not yet heard but am now very glad to have bought. We started off standing in the second row. However, Katherine worked her way up to the front row in time for Colin Meloy to fall to the ground in front of her, sing to her, and muss up her hair. I don't think she has quite recovered yet, frankly.

OK, now back to econ.

Make No Whistle Or Thou Will Be Murdered

Well, I'm postponing the joys of International Monetary Problems for another year after failing it. For once I have met my own expectations -- one key way of telling whether a test has gone well is whether you erase and rewrite nearly everything you have written and then have to go sit quietly in the basement of the library for half an hour immediately afterward. My usual method of giving up is just not even starting things, so actually capitulating in mid-semester is a new and exciting way to bomb out. Anyway, I'll try it again later. In the meantime, I guess that's one less final to do.

Why is there another fly in my room? I am not a dirty person. If you'll excuse me, it's killin' time.

1000 r.p.m.

By "r.p.m." we mean "scheduled events". I'm very excited this week to report that I have:

Been to the Death Cab for Cutie concert - so many, many fourteen-year-old emo kids! Katherine and I were two of the eight people there old enough to have a beer to enjoy with the music. Death Cab is genius at making you hover just at the border of crying, with that uncomfortable tight little bubble in your chest. Their music is simultaneously lush and simple, and their lyrics are gorgeous;

Experienced Katherine's birthday. It was quite small, but a couple of people went out to Barrymore's after a failed attempt to visit Saunders' Farm. Apparently anywhere outside of Ottawa is Amish country and everything closes at five on Sundays even when it is clearly stated on the website and in telephone conversations that they are open until eleven. Hiss. But there is still birthday cake and many exciting things happened;

Passed my economics midterm quite handsomely;

Handed in an international affairs mini-paper (5 pages only! Hooray);

Attended the Rocky Horror Picture Show and had a fantastic time, despite the sad absence of Jacob due to a scheduling mishap involving me being an idiot and him not being home to receive my phone calls to change plans (Goodbye, all this! Hello, oblivion!);

Worked an insane day at the Solar Conference, which is going quite well so far, I believe, but I'm not in today. Poor Krista and Sharon are going to have to do without me not knowing where anything is or how to find registration packages;

Gone to classes. Yes;

Anyway. This weekend there are further birthday parties, because apparently in order to be my friend you have to have emerged from the womb within three weeks of Hallowe'en. And on Sunday Katherine and I are going to Montreal (!) for the day (!!) to see the Decemberists concert (!!!). We'll be back that night, though, because the buses run until midnight.

And here are some pictures. First, pumpkin carving:

Death Cab for Cutie:

We are emo:

K-dawg's birthday (here, Jay displays classic traits of pyromania):

Anyway, I'm off to the National Library to perform for choir! Toodle-oo, all.

Mais Non!

Ach. Exam schedule is out today, and I have only three exams in all, so how is it possible that I have two economics exams on December 21?! Minus several thousand points, Carleton exam planners.

The apartment is full of pumpkins after today's produce expedition. I am eating delicious pumpkin seeds even now. Katherine and I amused ourselves for a while by scouting out the pumpkins, then going to the Heart and Crown at 11 a.m. for sweet potato fries. After that we walked through the Rideau Centre, making revolted "chuh!" noises at all the retailers who have their Christmas decorations up before it is even past Hallowe'en. Enough, yet! Is there no decency?

This weekend is going to be insane, but in a good way. The same applies to the weekend at home -- in a detour that can be seen from space, Dad is going to pick Boopsie up from Calgary on his way back from Lethbridge.

Speaking of things large enough to be seen from space, apparently people have been doing unspeakable things to the Great Wall of China (viz. raves, public urination, skateboarding stunts, absconding with bits of masonry). Given that China seems to be kind of into the whole idea of vengeful, active ancestors, I'm thinking maybe these people ought to lay off, no?

On My "To Steal" List

Hooray! Today on the way to work I had a happy reunion with a hilarious baby. Katherine and I met her in the bus station while we were out shopping this weekend and spent about fifteen minutes jumping up and down, making faces, and otherwise embarrassing ourselves to amuse her. It was very gratifying, because whenever you did something really good she would shriek, as if to say, "can you freaking believe these girls? I could do this all! Day!"

She got on my bus with her mother this morning, and I was somewhat on the morning-brain, sleep-deprived side. So it was wonderful to see her for a minute and make faces and hide behind my newspaper for her entertainment. And now I know her name: Awa.

I haven't said anything about this weekend, really... it was quite nice, I went to a birthday party for a friend of Kyle's, which was at a salon-cum-nightclub. Kyle's sister Kaitlyn and brother-in-law Eric were there, and it was quite the fun evening.

Y Un Poncho Blanco de Alpaca Real

Today I overheard the kind of sentence fragment that inspires intense curiosity about the rest of the conversation: "... well, if a cop specifically told you not to..."

More choir practice tonight; soon choir will have taken over my life completely. But the music is fun and I am making friends with the choir folks (going to the retreat has been very helpful in that respect) so it's all good! And I got out of economics to go to rehearsal. So today is quite Zen.

Mistakes I Have Made

Getting into The Office and into a business course in the same semester. Tell me, please, which of the following is parody and which is course material:

Michael : Phyllis, Stanley, I want you to switch desks. I am going to reorganize and restructure the physical layout of the office to maximize everything. I think we’ll get a lot done. Don’t you? On paper, at least, and we are, after all, a paper company.

Brooke: Mail will come into a special room on the top floor; each item will be opened, scanned, sent to the central computer, and then shredded. Rubbish will go down a meter-diameter clear plastic tube through the floors and the cafeteria so everyone can see it going out. I want study cells set up for meetings -- but bare, so no one can claim one of them as an office. No lingering. Internally we must share, folks, share all, all the time.

Anyway: I have an assignment due tomorrow and I don't want to do it. This blog is definitely going to get me in trouble at some point.

Redeeming Qualities of Planet Earth

Mood marginally improved by sight of huge heronlike bird in the canal, crouching evilly in the shadow of Heron Bridge and staring upstream with steely intent. V. amusing.

Apparently, have become Bridget Jones in sentence construction. Really do not understand inside of own head today. Perhaps bilious humour is unbalanced?

My Yahoo account has spam from Jesus, but apparently the Son of God can't make it through the filter, because He has been directed to my Bulk Mail folder. "Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal contact?"

Huh.

Intensity-based targets. Well, that's just dandy, I'm sure those will create the kind of immediate changes we need to be making to our energy consumption patterns. Thirty bucks says that by 2020 we'll all be a little busy fleeing the supercell typhoons tearing across the Rockies to bother figuring out hard caps on emissions. But, you know, four more years of negotiations could work, too. Feel the sarcasm.

I am beyond fed up. The world is just incomprehensibly stupid some days, and I can't tell if that's because I'm stupid or because other people are stupid, but either of those seems eminently possible today.

Also, my econ midterm this morning was Bad. If I didn't know how he marked the first assignment, I would be less scared. And Tuesday's econ midterm was supposedly a series of three essays, except that instead of real essay topics that would enable you to write a decent beginning, development, and conclusion, we were presented with seemingly random pairs of questions. I think I handled it OK, though.

And so, to geography.

New Friends

Against my will, I seem to have a pet fly. No definitive word yet on whether it's the same fly that irritated me last week during a study session by doing laps around my room. Anyway: sigh.

Kyle just called me. If we can both get enough work done today and tomorrow, we may go out to Lewis Black's show tomorrow night. Phwoargh! That would be the bomb. I'm so glad it's not sold out. Alternatively, we may wind up having a Sit Around And Complain While Studying Night. Because I have two economics midterms this week, and there is a word for this, and that word is: bleargh.

Mary Freakin' Sunshine!

After checking back through my last peck of posts, I have realized that in every one of them there has been some element of complaining about something: fatigue (school-related), overwork (school-related), overscheduling (school vs. actual life of fun vs. work vs. sleep), or apocalypse (North Korea -- thanks, Kim). Anyway, I don't want my negativity circuits to overheat, so here is a post of happy things, many from Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was lovely, so, so lovely. My flight there went completely smoothly, and my moment of freakout at the ticket counter that the flight left at 17:55 instead of 7:55 p.m. was completely unfounded in reality. Phew. When I got in, Boopsie and I stayed up late watching Parkour videos on YouTube. Look how cool! Look! Look! The ones I like best are when the people in them don't look like gymnasts gone AWOL from their neo-Stalinist training compounds; it's cooler when the parkouristes just look like regular people.

The fam is A-OK, and on Friday I went into the city and had lunch with my madre and her boss, Diane, at Booster Juice because Earl's was full. We discussed the importance of not spoon-feeding your students. I called Becca on the spur of the moment (well, actually on my cell)and went with her to genetics class and then the library. Her genetics prof sort of vaguely reminds me of Mrs. Kelly, my grade twelve English teacher who I love dearly Anyway, there was a lot of phosphorylating happening and something about reaction regulators. Apparently it all had something to do with the movements of bacteria and their responses to stimuli. Becca can probably explain it better than I can.

Similarly, Heather can explain Darkwing Duck better than I can, because she has it on DVD. (!!!) She came over for a bit and we watched a couple of episodes and it was like being nine again and watching weekend morning cartoons. Only in the afternoon! And then I went skating, like you do, and met Boopsie's friend Kelsie and Kelsie's boyfriend, John From St. John. Like me, John was in town for the weekend. Unlike Ottawa, Newfoundland is multiple flights away. Yuh.

Anyway, Mum and Dad abandoned us Saturday night, so I replaced them at dinner with Laura, Becca, and Katie, as well as Katie's puppy, Gromit. It was most lovely, of course, for they are most lovely people (and a most charming puppy). It is a source of continual amazement to me how different my friends have all turned out from each other, and from me. Laura's in anthro and regaled us with tales of totally terrifying lab exams where they give you a bone splinter and ask exactly what bone it is. Katie and Becca are both so much into the medical/animal side of things, and I'm into... whatever it is I do. And Laura's a Pi Phi, so she can tell you absolutely anything and everything about the Greek scene at U of A (she was happy that there had been a fraternity "Myth Busters" type of feature in the campus paper a week or so back). Katie and Becca are actually in a few of the same classes, which I hadn't expected, but I suppose even in third year the animal science people and immunology people have quite a bit in common. Then we watched Beauty and the Beast and realized that our irony detection powers have developed considerably since childhood. Shopping for dinner supplies yielded new botanical knowledge for Boopsie:

Sunday afternoon was a cup of tea with Tom, who was doing carpentry but has decided that it is not for him and is going back to Games Workshop. After tea, it was back home for the production of Thanksgiving dinner -- Mum, being enterprising, had put the dolma together a couple of hours earlier, and I had stuffed my veggie variation, tofuma. My request for dolma meant that there was no cranberry sauce, natch! We considered putting some out anyway, to garnish the rice with toasted pine nuts. It was just a nice, quiet dinner at home.

Before going home, I also managed to squeeze in a cart ride with Katie and Cricket, one of her two miniature horses. I met her new kitten, Chester, and marvelled at how very, very tiny he is. Tawnie and I had brunch and walked around on Whyte for a while, too. And then it was home for a couple of hours, and off to the airport. All is well, all is well. School is insane, but there are a certain number of good things going on in my life that makes all the crazy not matter so much.

Goder afton i denna sal

First things first: much excitement! There is a new baby! John George (Paul Ringo?) was born October first to my first cousin once removed, Michael, and his wife Marian. So Sofia has a little brother now, as well as a little cousin. I should probably get my bad self down to Jersey to see them, seeing as I am now two babies behind on introductions! Congratulations, Michael and Marian. John is just gorgeous, and it must be so nice that he's home from the hospital so they can get to know him.

On a totally different note, I should really not have read Guns, Germs, and Steel this summer. Because this geography essay could get to be a book at the rate I'm going "hmm, should probably cover that. And this, too. What about the number of navigable watercourses? And the time unique political cultures had to develop? And how about debt relief? And the Catholic Church? How is society structured in all these places, anyway?" Note to self, it is just a 1500-word paper, not the New, Improved Theory of Everything (now even more comprehensive!). And it's due tomorrow, so really.

Here are a couple of photos from this past weekend. Oh, the fabulousness. Diane has the one of us by the fountain. I'm not going to tell you what's in the fountain, you'll find out when I chivvy her to send me the picture! And here she is in the National Gallery!

Jordan and Wulfric threw a party for the occasion of Diane's visit (OK, it was the traditional party for Jordan's birthday, but whatever). It was a great party no matter how you slice it. And, fortunately, nobody got sliced and the fuzz didn't show up. Just lots of people (some B.PAPMers, some -- gasp! -- not, but still very pleasant). Katherine agrees:

Oh, Good

Hey, maybe I shouldn't bother writing this term paper proposal after all.

No, Sir, No Dancing Today

Hello all!

This is by way of saying that (1) I am still alive! Though I am sick and have mountains of work to do, and (2) my weekend with Diane was uber-fantastic and tons of fun, and I would do it again next weekend it were not true that (3) I am going home for Thanksgiving this weekend! Yes, American readership, I am going home for Thanksgiving in October. Just deal.

I will write more about Diane's visit soon. But first I am going to go register to vote in my first American elections ever! Whee!

Sandpaperhead

Good e'en, citizens! I am pleased and proud to report that last night saw my first fatigue-related eye twitch of the school year.

Today was my first day at Ye Olde Part-Time Job. I spent much of it struggling with Ye Olde Outlooke Express, because said program was giving me a dreadful time of actually contacting my mail server without giving me a million password screens, none of which accepted my password. In a small office with no tech support people, this can be a problem. But eventually I fixed it using my skills in magick and leechcraft, i.e. by going to the mail server's page and changing my password settings. And I sent two e-mails off about my first project, which was pretty much all I wanted to accomplish today anyway. I actually got to tick everything off my work to-do list. This is far from the case on my school/personal list, but whatever! Fantastic Sharon the admin lady included me on the coffee run, and it is things like that that make me happy, not petty little things like actually having time to sleep.

Sadly, I have not seen Kyle even once since last Saturday or so. We are both free Thursday, but there is a problem... The Office is on. And I am enough of a loser to want to watch TV instead of actually interacting with real people, people who are not fictional. So we shall see how that plays out. I suspect Team The Office will come out on top, though, because they've got a little help from Team Jessica Must Study for International Affairs Quiz Tuesday.

This weekend is going to rule. Diane is coming in from London (Ontario, that is) on a flying visit, just because we both had the weekend relatively free. She's staying at her aunt's for a night and then she will be wined and dined chez nous. She is the first of the Al Birda friends to experience my pad and the delights of the futon! How exciting! We will show her a good time.

And so, with happy thoughts in mind and a completed econ assignment in hand, to bed!

Start Your Engines

I was gone all weekend at choir retreat, which was lots of fun; more on that when I actually have time to write about it and no economics assignment to do.

As of today, the school year has really picked up. The time commitment to choir is bonkers, there are assignments coming at me left, right, and centre, and I have a job! A real job! And what's more, it involves solar power. The people I'll be working with seem really nice, very passionate about their work, and well-informed besides. I am ultra-psyched to start work Wednesday.

I celebrated my new job by going to business class and instantly getting in a bad mood. Said mood was mostly inspired by the way everybody who knows me well in the class instantly knew that on a mildly bogus list of personal styles in teamwork, mine was "maintains harmony". The "maintains harmony" type's reactions to stress and conflict were quite close to what I usually do, too. It's not that harmony maintenance is a bad thing, it's just not a particularly dramatic gig and worrying about people getting along is an excellent route to a Charlie Brown stomachache. So cheers to me and my predictability, and to Charles Schultz as well.

To relieve my bad mood, I went shopping alone after school and bought myself a new pair of sneakery shoes, although the Rideau Centre was eerily uncooperative at first. Foot Locker had some shoes I liked but not in my size, and every time I turned around to request a size, the Foot Locker guy had vanished. Athlete's World had mostly ugly, ugly, uncomfortable shoes and a salesboy giving off serious stalker vibes ("Do you go to Ottawa U? Oh, that's odd, I can usually tell. Carleton, then? What program? You're not from Toronto, are you? Where are you from?"). Oh, and no sizes either. For a while I thought maybe I was on Candid Camera. I was practically waving money in the air, because my dress shoes were hurting my feet, and still no dice. Sears finally came through for me, though, just before I had to run to choir practice through the light rain. All I'm saying is, retail therapy should maybe try to be a little more therapeutic in future.

So... let the Stressathon begin!

This Just In...

I HATE POISON OAK. AND I HAVE INTERNETS TO USE, SO I WILL USE THEM TO COMPLAIN ABOUT IT. AUGH!

I Have Some Good News, and Some Bad News

The good news is that Indra is in my Tuesday econ class now. This is good news not only because Indra is awesome, but also because now I have somebody with whom to trade skepticism when our professor makes questionable statements, such as that Saudi Arabia is a major coffee-growing country, or that Africa's current economic problems aren't at all linked to decolonization. I think this class just got survivable!

The bad news is that I probably have poison oak, because Jacob also took his friend Nick rock climbing the same week as we went, and they both got it. So let's have a slow clap for rock climbing. Anyway, I've checked it out online, and I'm going to the pharmacy to get myself a topical corticosteroid cream. Just what I wanted to do tonight.

Spring in my Step Like a White-Tailed Deer

I have to standardize the capitalization scheme in these post titles, it's driving me nuts. But that's not what this is about.

Rather, this is about this week in my life. What has happened? Well, Friday was better than Thursday. Thursday I got stood up for lunch by my mentee, and I haven't heard from her, so I have no idea whatsoever what happened to her -- she could have gotten lost on the way to the coffee shop, she could be dead in a ditch. Anyway, I guess I'll reschedule.

Three things made Friday better than abandonment by a first-year: I fed my nascent addiction to The Office, I went on a long walk and coffee excursion with Kyle, and Katherine and I went to see Corb Lund's show at Capital. So much awesome, y'all! The openers, Elliott Brood, were like Bob Dylan souped-up with extra screaming and louder guitar. Most enjoyable. Our favourite Hurtin' Albertans took a while to actually come on (they weren't on stage until nearly 10:30) but when they did, it was quite a sight and sound. The first thing we noticed (other than the fact that Corb Lund appears to be nine, maybe ten feet tall) was that they had all dressed in old-timey duds: pants tucked into long boots, waistcoats, suspenders, those funny old quasi-bolo ties (matching red ones). Ten points for all dressing in the same period! They have a standup bass and one of those instruments that does the slidey noises in Western films (I have no idea what it is called, but it sounds pretty cool). They played all of the four songs I really wanted them to play: Roughest Neck Around, Short Native Grasses (my theme song for whent things are going badly), Hurtin' Albertan (my theme song for when things are going well), and, last of all, Counterfeit Blues. They have a very easy, comfortable stage manner, too: energetic, but not too keyed-up. Corb found time to say a couple of relevant things about the state of Canadian country music, namely that it would be pretty cool if people wrote songs about, uh, Canada.

Also, God, in His infinite wisdom, provided us with a Drunk White Lady for our amusement. She danced violently with every male in a ten-foot radius and we were above her on the balcony to witness the carnage. It's a miracle nobody lost an eye, but she did look happy. So really, a perfect night.

One more extremely exciting thing: Nate proposed to Emily on Labour Day! I didn't want to write about it until she'd had time to tell people herself, but she's given me the all-clear, so here it is! Congratulations to them! Apparently it was all very romantic, with champagne et cetera. And Katherine and I are BM's! As in bridesmaids. Whee! They're thinking of a fall wedding in 2008 or 2009, with possibly cranberry or brown dresses for us. Really, the dresses are the important parts of a wedding. The cake, venue, tux, priest, and all the rest are just there to fill the space between dresses. Or that is how I choose to look at it.

The Perils of Refrigerator Ownership

Me: Tiramisu cheesecake?

Katherine: I thought you'd thrown that out.

Me: Oh. I thought you'd thrown it out.

Sentient baked goods aside, all is well. Yesterday I had my other econ class, and I sincerely hope the professor becomes less irritating to me than he was this time around. We spent a great deal of time discussing Celine Dion's record sales and enthusing about how she is a "fantastic" business and the highest-selling female artist ever because she keeps herself out of trouble and out of the tabloids. To this I respond that being bland is not really a virtue, that Jerry Springer makes lots and lots of money, and also that Barbra Streisand is the highest-selling female artist in the States, followed by Mariah Carey in all her tabloid-haunted kookoopants glory. Anyway, I don't know anyone in that class, so I'm going to have to make some friends toute de suite so I will have someone to share the pain.

Tonight I look forward to easing my distress with a viewing of my new The Office DVDs. Darn, those people at Amazon are good! The series only got released yesterday, and here it is on my doorstep. God bless 'em.

Hope for the Future

I was checking out my professors on Rate My Professors, as one does at the start of term. It's kind of disheartening that one of the reasons people see to criticize my geography prof is that he "speaks in these weird interconnecting sentences that never end". Ooo, compound sentence structure! Heaven forbid we fail to cater to the lowest grammatical denominator since this is no longer high school!

He seems like a nice guy, is all I'm saying. I may change my tune, who knows? But I happen to enjoy a weird interconnected sentence, and I thought he made perfect sense in the one lecture I've been to so far. And the coursepack is very well-organized, so points for that.

Hoopy Froods

Last night was a trip to the Zaphod Beeblebrox, and lo, the house was rocked. Katherine, Kelly, and I met up with Kayt and Rachael downtown and went in about 11:00, which was really too early. The bands were just finishing (we were there for the last of a polka-style group). After a slow set they started playing a little ska, which was very much fun. One of the most exciting parts of Zaphod's is, of course, the bar, which features drinks like the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, the Slartibartfast, and the Bambleweenie 57. The Slartibartfast tastes irritatingly like something I have eaten before, but before I could work out what it was I had gotten fixed on the idea that it was gummy bears, and once your mind gets trapped thinking things are gummy bears, there's really no hope of breaking out of it. Anyway, I was in the bathroom when they played Blitzkrieg Bop, but that's really the only thing that went wrong the whole night. The rest was pure dancin' fun. I am very glad that Kayt and Rachael came, because (as Kayt noted in the comments for the previous post) truly we are like a glowstick which must be cracked, that the chemicals may intermingle and light up the universe. I even succeeded in not shouting so much that my voice was shot for my choir audition today.

And today I went to a garage sale after my choir audition and got a suitcase and a wicker chair for $7. Hooray! And I did make it into choir, so Monday I am off to rehearsal. I was surprised to have to reaudition, but then I was also surprised to find that I am at all OK at sight-reading. I found this during the audition, when Mrs. Clark gave me a hymn book and said, "you're alto, yes? OK, do number 357." TERROR! But now I will feel like a more legitimate member of the choir, because the last time I joined was in January and they weren't doing official auditions. This time I didn't sneak in under the radar. Then tonight I went out to Jericho with Katherine for a lovely Middle Eastern dinner and a walk home along the canal in the humid, cool fall air. Their fatoush is a delicious creation, and their falafel pita was probably the tidiest one I have ever come across, a perfect cylinder of chickpea goodness.

I'm also pleased to report that I now have a credit card. My first purchase was preordering the second season of The Office from Amazon. I will, however, do my best to avoid consumer debt, as it is a Bad Thing.

It is bedtime, but before I go, here is a photo of the gang at Zaphod's! From left, we have moi, Rachael, Kayt, Kelly, and Katherine. I have been distracted by a moving object or something shiny, possibly both.

At This Point I Must Have Lost My Presence of Mind

Yesterday was the first day of classes, and so far everything looks promising! Even my early economics class wasn't too bad, the professor seems quite relaxed and groovy and there are lots of people I know. Geography surprised me: it looks like it's going to be Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Class, but could be fun anyway. Carly and Wendy from my first-year environmental studies class last year are in it with me, and so is Lisa, who I know through Notl.

This has been a wonderful week for being out-and-about. I've been out for lunch and shopping with Steph. My love for her apartment continues: how do all my friends have such fab places? Monday and Thursday I went out with Kyle, the first time for dinner and the second for Timmy's and a walk by the canal. He told me he got kicked off his junior high basketball team for "profanity", which seems totally inconsistent because he really doesn't swear that much. Who knew? But really, I think everyone gets a free pass for things they do junior high, because in junior high one is basically hormone stew seasoned with delicious spicy angst. Anyway... Tuesday I went rock climbing with Jacob near Luskville, which was most excellent once we had gotten out of the hell-maze that is Gatineau and once I had stopped trying to make us take the highway to Montreal. We parked, with permission, at an equestrian centre and struck off toward the rocks for a couple of hours of scaling rocks. I failed to negotiate a fairly easy slab due to psychological problems I have with finding handholds, but then had a great time on a course where Jacob had set up a top-rope. And then I tried to come down and found that the rope had jammed in a crack. So Jacob and I both hauled down, but the rope kept me dangling six inches above the ground. I figured that at this point, one more haul would dislodge the rope and, in accordance with the Laws of Comedy, I would thud to the ground in a loose impersonation of the Bricklayer's Letter sketch. This did not happen, but the rope didn't unstick itself, either. Eventually we were able to loosen my harness and I elegantly tipped myself out of it upside-down. And we did get the rope back, so no harm done.

Today is just a day of errands, reading, and laundry, though there is talk of an Outing of some kind later. Hooray! Katherine is out at a meeting for a policy forum, and I am all on my onesie, so it is once again very quiet. This is the last weekend before school really starts in, so I had best make the most of it. And that is what I am off to do.

As a bonus for the readers who have made it this far, here is a photo of how I learned that "mossy rock" does not mean "round, non-painful rock".

Herpetology

Well... this morning I awoke to the news on the radio that Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter, has died in a truly freakish and horrible way. I always thought it would be a good honest mauling for him, but no, it was a stingray barb through the heart. Truly dreadful, and for all my family always joked about the huge life insurance policy his wife must have out on him, you've got to feel bad for his wife and kids. Kyle told me it is only the second time in Australian history that someone has died from being stung. Or it has only happened twice before, not sure.

In unrelated news, I am taking advantage of my temporary life of solidute by messing up my sleep schedule. Last night I went to bed at 5:30, woke up at 9:30, watched a movie and had dinner, tidied my room, did yoga, and then went to bed again at 3:30, to wake up at 9:30 this morning. Also: partridge posture is the bomb.

Jessica out!

"Osti de Calisse de Tabarnac!"

It begins! I've been back for a few very busy days. Well, moderately busy and full of coming and going and buying things, anyway. I replaced my printer in hopes that a new one will eat less ink than my old one. The old printer came free with my laptop and is now sitting disconsolately in the corner as though offended by its larger, shinier replacement. There have also been various clothes and bus passes purchased.

I have also been catching up with my socializing. Katherine left for Tronna on Saturday morning, but before she went we managed to get in a dinner with Kayt, Rachael, and Kelly on Thursday. It was most lovely to see all of them again.

Friday my thong sandal's strap suddenly detached itself from the sole, so I wound up limping one-shoed through the Rideau Centre before buying cheapo flip-flops at Old Navy and turning up twenty minutes late for lunch. Friday was meant to be my day of bus pass purchasing, but turned into a solo shopping expedition while everyone else was at work. Very satisfactory. That night Katherine and I went out to Elgin Street for a good walk-and-talk and a delicious tartufo, after trying and failing to meet Rosina and some of the frosh facilitators. Rosina has been with the facils for two days and is, I believe, dreading the rest of her week with the pretty preppy party people. We meant to dilute the unpleasantness of the company but we couldn't find her so that was moot.

Saturday morning I took a walk over to where Kelly was completing a "Try-a-Tri" triathlon, which was (I think) a 500 m swim, a 15 km bike, and a 5 km run. I just missed her finish by about ten minutes, but found her and her friend Sarah near the finish line, both looking fresh as daisies and not at all exhausted. They said it was a lot of fun, so maybe I'll do one next year. The only thing that would deter me would be my hatred of swimming pools due to all the ear infection bacteria that swarm upon me gleefully as soon as I hit the water. And I'd have to get a bike here, but that can be done. But I do run -- Jacob came over soon after I got back from the tri and we went for a good run, then got dinner ready for the arrival of the folks: Steph, Jesus Ian, Rosina, and Jacob's girlfriend of five months, Leslie. Leslie got to my place early and we played catch with avocado pits (we discovered that fresh ones are suprisingly springy and bouncy). Steph didn't bring her boy toy, whom I have not yet met, but I'm sure I'll see him soon. She looks quite happy, at any rate, and when Jacob incited a wrestling match she held her own. We all have some scratches from that! I made tilapia with homemade pico de gallo and guacamole for tortilla chips, and corn on the cob. Rosina and Ian left because they had stuff to do that was more important than hanging out with us (I kid because I love, guys) but the remaining foursome went to see Bon Cop Bad Cop. Money well spent on a very funny Canadian movie! I laughed hysterically and felt like a good bilingualist at the same time, as well as learning some useful constructions for cursing in French. Apparently you can just compound swears in the form "____ de ____ de ____ de ___!" for as long as you feel is necessary to express the depth of your emotion. Heh. And, as I told my parents earlier on the phone, when people got hurt, they stayed hurt, rather than acquiring magic powers of instant regeneration like most action movie characters do. The acting was good, and the whole story was over-the-top but not so much that it wasn't lovable. Three cheers.

Today I finally got the new printer and the bus pass (my photo is not nearly as good as last year's photo, boo) and so my consumerism is done for now, though textbook shopping remains. It is drizzly and yucky out, as it apparently was for much of August, and I plan on staying inside until the darn weather improves. If anyone needs me, I will be on the couch. Ta-ra!

Sound the Trumpet!

I'm a-coming back to Ottawa, effective pretty darn soon. The plane leaves in the morning, and today was my last day at work. I am mostly packed. It's been a crazy summer and I will write more later. For now I just wanted to issue a weather warning: Tropical Storm Jessica is heading east for the third year in a row. Y'all watch out, now.

And So It Is

Well, I am back in Al Birda. Someone from my poli sci class was on the plane, across the aisle from me. Sitting beside me for the Toronto-Edmonton leg was a couple which had caught Floridian retired couple-ness just by visiting their son in West Palm Beach for a few weeks. They kept asking for extra glasses of water and harrying each other about not drinking the coffee before it got cold, and are you too cold? They have blankets, I could call the girl and get you a blanket, oh here's the girl. You don't want a blanket? OH GOD only three and a half more hours, please let me not chew my own arm off. The airport more than made up for this: a choir from Namibia had also been on the plane, and was greeted by an extremely white choir doing some extremely joyful and African singing. The luggage claim area was flooded with song, it was just wonderful. Dad and Boopsie drove me home, and so my school year is well and truly over.

I would sort of like to keep blogging here over the summer, but that would be contrary to this blog's mandate, really. It's supposed to be for my Ottawa adventures, and most of my little readership has my e-mail address if they need me or miss me or what have you. I wish I had something profound to say, but since this isn't the end end, I don't really need to! Suffice it to say that so far it's nice to be home, though I do feel more and more like I have two homes. Arriving this time, I didn't feel as much as I have on past trips that the landscape was stretched and flattened, a caricatured prairie. It felt right. Spring is in the air. For now, most things are going my way. And so to bed. See you in September!

Hey, all. Well, second year is done and so far it looks like Jessica 2, Uni 0. I celebrated by having tofu and salad for dinner, preceded by part of my Easter chocolate. And, for some reason, a tortilla. One of those zombie "caaaaarbs" things, I suppose. Then I did my taxes, OH THIS LIFE OF ROCK AND ROLL. Then I completely forgot (again!!!) to call Jacob's mum to see if she can put me in touch with her friend who knows everything about the federal equivalent of the stuff I'm going to be doing this summer. Hiss, me!

About all the exclamation points and capitals in the foregoing, it's because I've been reading Dooce and I've absorbed her style. She's a very funny ex-Mormon woman who makes a lot of poo jokes. Sounds bizarre, but then so do bacon sandwiches and people eat those, don't they?

Aaaanyway. Yesterday I went out to the movies with Kyle, who was in PAPM last year but hated it and thus left (have I told y'all that before? I might have.) We saw this slightly inscrutable Bertolucci thing from the '70s. I would call it a "joint", but I'm pretty sure that term has only ever been applied to Spike Lee movies. Anyway, it was pretty good in a "what on Earth is this guy's angle? Is he a real fascist or isn't he?" way. I'd have to see it again to properly know what was going on. After the film, we grabbed a cup of java/hot choc in Nate's Deli ("You don't have to be Jewish to eat here") and had a quick chat, all very nice. Then I scampered off to a study session with Carly.

The test today was OK, though more difficult than I expected. I soldiered on through, though, because it would have been tediously easy had it been as easy as I'd thought it would be. And then I came home to celebrate, and now we have closed our time loop. Hooray! Emily and Nate have a new fridge, and all is right with the world ce soir.

Sometimes My Mind Plays Tricks On Me

Argh. What a basket case of a school I go to. I don't think I'd ever contested a mark before now, and here I am doing it for the second and third times in a month. This may reflect that I am simply not doing as good a job as I used to (not out of the question, I have been sillier this year than last year), or it may be that my professors and TAs this year are just generally more inconsistent than they were last year. One of the marks is mostly so low because I didn't report my own attendance in the time frame that the professor and TA had in mind, even though there was no deadline given. I really need to do something about these, because these two marks have the power to make my GPA even more unimpressive and my head a very bad place to be. That said, it is my experience and observation that the squeaky-but-not-rude wheel gets the grease: usually if you care enough to make the argument respectfully, you can get stuff done for you.

Nevertheless, a dispiriting kind of way to start the third rainy morning in a row, and also my third morning in a row without much voice to speak of (ha ha). This is just as well as there is nobody in the apartment to talk to. Seriously, though, Mother Nature is a tease. 23C one week, and then BAM! Three days of chill and rain and misery. That it coincided precisely with two days of quarantiney hermitdom is something I appreciate, though. Nothing better than not being fit to leave the house when it looks so inhospitable outside.

It's A Party In My Sinuses...

... and you're not invited, because there's no freaking room in them. Exam in t-minus-ten hours and this is how the universe chooses to get its kicks?

Sunshine, We All See The Same Sky

Hey, a good day today: lots of sunshine and studying. I sat on the lawn and then in the Loebeteria. Katherine and then Jesse joined me for political economy studying fun, and it was ever so much more entertaining than studying alone. Plus, Jesse and I got to make fun of Katherine for, uh, being from Toronto and caring about real estate. And she got to make fun of us for thinking about oil price shocks all the time. Mike and I went for a run in the afternoon, but I have so thoroughly lost my hot-weather running skillz that I only made it about 5km. It was 23C, people! In April! But to be fair, I did do the round trip from school twice today, once at a run and once at a walk. Katherine and I went for ice cream before she headed off to her French exam, like ya do in summer. The nadir of the day was sitting on an anthill by accident, then moving to another tree with another anthill at its base. Apparently anthills come standard with the trees at school now.

Today I picked up my last public affairs short essay, and it seems that I can cross off "write a paper I actually like" on my Big List, entitled "Things To Do This Year Or By The End Of 2006 Anyway". Not only was it a fun paper (hooray for abstract essay topics!) but it was also one I actually felt I'd executed pretty well. And, as a bonus, Rob the Awesome TA of Awesomeness, attached a ream of his recipes to my essay: mint-cured salmon, lobster and red pepper bisque, cardamom ice cream, and banana spice cake, as well as the recipe for the walnut and fennel seed biscotti he brought into class. Apparently Rob used to be a professional chef, and still cooks part-time for various families. As I was picking up my essay, I also found out that one of our admins, Rose, has a catering service on the side, called Rose To The Occasion. Hee.

Windup

The school year is drawing to a close. My second-last and last exams are looming, one much more threatening than the other. I'll survive. Katherine's leaving before I do, I think she's taking the train out Saturday. So I'll have the place to myself for a while -- whatever shall I do? I guess I'll experience the bachelor(ette) lifestyle. I'll have to do something wildly exciting to celebrate. I'll let you all know, but I suspect it will involve eating tofu. Possibly an invitation-only interpretive dance/kickboxing event, too. Only one invitation will be issued, and it will be issued to me. Aw yeah.

After those exams, there will be summer. Don't quite know what to make of that. I'm just hoping to be awesome or at least good at my job, do a bunch of running without injuring myself, hang out with the old gang, and maybe squeeze in a vacation.

Mixed feelings about this year as a whole: in some ways it was better than first year, in some ways it was worse. On the whole, I think last year was more satisfying. Now, we've all settled into the routine of university more and things don't seem quite so novel and wonderful. The two Franz Ferdinand concerts and OK Go have been definite high points, and going to the McGill Outdoors Club weekends was awesome as well. I loved my spring break, even if it was shorter than planned, and our late-night Ramones dance parties. I took advantage of my age by voting for the first time and attending some good parties. I've gotten closer to some of the guys and gals in the program, and have found them to be excellent people. I've finally met Jacob's Faye, Katherine's Claire and Dan, and a few of Emily's friends from the Hammer. I've kept myself out of boy trouble (go me!). Jeanne's Wildfire show was awesome. And on top of that there have been simple things: I spent some contented hours sitting in my room looking out the window and went for some really nice runs, ate some delicious food and had some good conversations, rewatched West Wing and memorized Eddie Izzard routines ("do you have a flag?"). Seldom have I slept less and thought more about sleep; we'll have to work on that next year, among other things.

Yesterday I went for Indian food with Kyle, which was very nice. He was in B.PAPM last year but didn't like it, so he's taken a year off. He's a very meditative type of person, which is excellent, and we had a good old chat about the ethics of ethics professors (minimal, we concluded) and what our families are like and things of that nature. All good. And I appreciated that he was very sanguine about my unfashionable lateness (traffic jam in Little Italy earlier in the day threw off my entire schedule). I did miss the political economy study session going down chez Emily, but I made it up tonight with Blanca, some other guy from our class, and, for a bit, Jesse.

Speaking of political economy, this exam is giving me the willies. But there was a bright spot today: I got the essay remarked by the prof, and he raised my grade to an 82. This pleases me greatly because I had a B before and was not amused. My TA seems to be a very hard marker, and to have given out participation marks more or less at random. Some people got lower than I did after speaking more often and submitting more mini-assignments than I did. But then, I can't help that I'm prettier.

This stopped being about winding up the school year a while ago and started being about the petty details of my life. I'm tired and the BBC World News on CKUA sounds very soothing (probably because I'm not paying attention to the words). I think it's time for bed. Night, all!

P.S. I'm quitting school to become a lighting tech/groupie. Just so you know.

I: Arrival

Let the fun begin! The train out was lovely: we didn't have to get up too early and still got a full day in Montreal. Katherine's high school friend Dan picked us up at the station. After lunch we met Fluffy the millipede, who is just charming. Dan's a really nice guy, on top of being considerate enough to let two vagrants like us crash in his res room. In the afternoon Katherine and I tooled around Montreal (Dan was studying). We found a really awesome travel book emporium and a beatnik record store with a section of "Various Moog" and about a frillion Nana Mouskouri LPs. After refreshments and a quick nap in a coffee shop, we took the Metro (like big girls!) to CEPSUM for the Great Lining Up, only to find that about 150 other people had gotten there even earlier. Evidently Montreal people are hardcore about their concertgoing. Above: I represent the huddled masses yearning to be free at the feet of James McGill, while Katherine poses like a grownup.

II: Concert-tastic, Slightly Spastic

We got in and got a decent spot on the floor. The Cribs have a really cool logo, so... I took a picture of it.

After a relatively short wait, the Cribs came out and did their stuff. We'd been expecting to like them and we weren't disappointed: they're really good live. Their drummer is a total madman; he bounces up and down constantly and his hair flicks magically back and forth in time with the music, even when he's not moving his head. It's weird, man.

They converted a lot of people in the crowd. I distinctly heard someone to my right say, "the Cribs? Who the fuck are they?" but by the end of it they were cheering. The set was short and sweet and pretty well awesome.

After the Cribs, Katherine and I left the pit. We figured Death Cab for Cutie would be more "strummy-strummy-la-la-sad-sad" and we weren't all that interested. But we were wrong about Death Cab: I'd expected to sit out their set in protest, going "meh" on the sidelines. They were actually very good. I'm really glad we were up top, because the lighting design and set were really trippy, better appreciated from a distance. They all seemed rather sweet, too, always thanking the crowd and doing nice intros to songs. They sounded much less acoustic and sad than they do on CD, which was a very good thing for the size of the space. Katherine turned to me at some point and said "I find myself liking them against my will." I was willing, but surprised, to like them. Thumbs up, guys. And the Sad Trees in the background were really cool. After Death Cab went off, I took advantage of the turnover in the crowd to move into the pit again. Katherine, who is sensible, stayed up top with the purse and my jacket.

I made my way down to the floor and spent a while miming that I was looking for someone situated deeper in the crowd. This was a lie, of course, but it got the job done! I made myself reasonably comfortable and waited. Franz Ferdinand took the stage and launched into "This Boy", one of my favourites of theirs and a good dancing song. The crowd was awesome. Clearly people had not just come for Death Cab; there was a lot of singing along and everyone seemed... well, about as excited as I was. Franz played "L. Wells", which is a new song that I'd really wanted to hear live, and it was amaaaazing. They messed around with the beats of songs a lot, a few things sounded almost more R&B than the recordings (sounds weird, I know, but trust me). They've also started doing little noodley bits, changing chords and putting in solos or vamping for just a little longer, and it was a really refreshing change from the last time I saw them. The style was still really tight, but they all looked incredibly comfortable onstage, like they were really having fun, and I think the sound reflected that. Andrew Knowles is a new addition: he's been their drum tech, stand-in drummer, and keyboard player for a while, but he's also doing more drumming (two-drummer stuff as well as standing in when Paul's playing guitar), and was included in the intros, so I guess he really has been promoted to full member. Long story short? The set rocked.

This photo had to go in because it's the only one I got of Bob playing: see him at the right? Shortly after this, I got into the pit and was too busy dancing to take pictures.

The pit chewed me up and spat me out. It was awesome, actually. It's bizarre how much fun it is getting thrown around and sweated on by strangers. By "Michael", the second-last song before the encore, I had been ejected into the third row. Here, Andrew continues to work his crazy magic while Nick, Paul, and Alex play on. The introductions during "The Fallen" were pretty fantastic: the entire band just got much more into the showmanship than they had in Toronto, so Alex was prancing around the stage speaking at length about each member of the band. "This boy with the angel face! -- this man who breaks hearts, with each note he plays he breaks a heart! -- this man who leaps about with so much energy!" Could have turned out cheesy in the hands of someone less awesome, but the audience was wildly into it. My favourite intro was for the drummer, Paul: "this man at the back with the beat-a! the beat-a! the beat-a! The man with the gap-a in the teeth-a!"

A blaze of glory! People demanded an encore and got one, in spades. I've never felt so authentically crazy -- there was just no way I could have stopped dancing. After the music stopped, everybody had these dazed expressions on their faces, like they didn't quite know what to do next but whatever it was, it would be loud.

III: Unthwarted By The Law

We waited outside for a while (hey, we had nowhere else to be) and watched the security guards surpass themselves in delusional self-importance. They told the little crowd that the bands would be coming out the parking garage, or that they had already left. The security guys didn't know why we were waiting here, they said, we'd already wasted half an hour and why didn't we just go home, tuck ourselves in bed, and read a book? (The preceding is a direct quote.) As Katherine asked repeatedly afterwards, has anyone ever actually listened to that? Presumably it must work sometimes, or they wouldn't do it. But it's kind of a thin story when the tour buses are parked right across the street. Better luck next time!

Bahahaha. The mass of scary fangirls came in handy after all: the flowers they brought make this photo nine or ten times more hilarious to me. However, we got nervous, had a little nutty, and got lost in the shuffle, so I didn't get a photo with Bob the Taciturn Bassist. But my disappointment was fixed right up in the next few minutes, as the rest of the band came out in pretty rapid succession. On the "my band is better than yours" end of things, Franz Ferdinand stayed around for a really long time doing the fan interaction business, but Death Cab just vanished into their tour bus as quickly as possible. The Cribs left right after their set, unfortunatelyfor those wanting to welcome them to the New World and inform them that they are awesome. Just in case that had escaped their notice. Even if the following pictures are mostly kind of goofy-looking, the important thing is that they exist and that we didn't have to freak anyone out in order to get them. Actually, the whole proceedings were pretty civil and quiet, and everyone was being very polite.

Andrew Knowles and his huge suitcase were completely surrounded by women, but we threw some elbows and kicked some shins and there we were. I told Andrew that the show had been well worth the trip; he asked where we'd come from and we told him. It was a thrilling exchange, people.