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!