Fight off the lethargy. Don't go quietly.

Dirty Little Secrets – swiped from MyUtopia.

1. The phone rings; who do you want it to be? Hmmmm, maybe that doctor/brilliant scientist that Sandee is convinced I’m going to meet someday… or, some rock star. If not those, I’d take any friend. I like talking to all my friends.

2. When shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart? Yes. I follow the rules in most situations.

3. In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener? How much have I had to drink? But honestly, I’m chatty as long as I’m comfortable with the people.

4. Do you take compliments well? I think so.

5. Do you play Sudoku? Yes… always good when I’m bored or on the train.

6. If abandoned alone in the wilderness, would you survive? I would be so dead.

7. Do you like to ride horses? Never been on a horse. (Joanna, have this fixed.)

8. Did you ever go to camp as a kid? Just day-camps. Oh, and then once I decided that I wasn’t a wilderness girl, I went to art camp… despite my lack of artistic skills.

9. What was your favorite game as a kid? Monopoly.

10. If a person was pursuing you, but you knew he/she was married, would you go for it? Probably not, since I follow the rules in most situations.

11. Have you lied to get out of a date? I'm more of a creative half-truth teller. Or I try really hard to remember something else I have to do.

12. Could you date someone with different religious beliefs than you? Probably as long as they were tolerant of my beliefs.

13. Do you like to pursue or be pursued? I don’t pursue.

14. Use three words to describe yourself? Funny, personable, and loyal.

15. Do any songs make you cry? Yeah, different songs at different times. I would say “Magic” by Ben Folds Five is the winner though.

16. Are you continuing your education? There are a bunch of teaching courses that I need to take. I always say some day I might get my Master’s, but I don’t know if I could actually go through with it.

17. Do you know how to shoot a gun? Goodness no.

18. If your house was on fire, what would be the first thing you grabbed? My iPod, my laptop, and artwork from my trips.

19. How often do you read books? I’ve always got a book or two on the go.

20. Do you think more about the past, present or future? I think about past and future more than I do present. I need to learn to live in the present.

21. What is your favorite children's book? From my childhood: Matilda by Roald Dahl. But, as you know, I love Harry Potter.

22. What color are your eyes? Brown

23. How tall are you? 5 feet 6 inches

24. Where is your dream house located? The Annex neighbourhood in Toronto.

25. Have you tried sushi? Yes..

26. Have you ever taken pictures in a photo booth? Yes… many times when I was a teenager.

27. When was the last time you were at Olive Garden? Not since I was probably like 11, and that was with my parents.

28. When was the last time you were at Church? Sunday

29. Where was the furthest place you traveled today?
Work – 25 minute Subway ride each way.

30. What was your favorite job? Teaching.

31. Do you look like your mom or dad? I think I look like both.

32. How long does it take you in the shower? 10 minutes.

33. Can you do the splits? No.

34. If you could fast forward your life, would you? Can I rewind back? If I could rewind, I’d fast forward out of curiosity. But I would like to live each moment.

35. What did you do for New Year's? Saw a movie with Christa and Heather, and then celebrated “Texas New Year” (we were late) with a drink.

36. Do you think The Grudge was scary? Didn’t see it.

37. Could you relate to a character in Mean Girls? Saw it, but don’t remember it clearly enough.

38. Do you own a camera phone? Yeah, but it’s pretty crappy.

39. What do you buy at the movies? Mmmm, normally I smuggle in a drink. I might buy an ice cream bar though.

40. Do you wear your seatbelt? Always. I follow the rules.

41. What do you wear to sleep? PJs.

42. Anything big ever happen in your hometown? Well, the Festival, I suppose… Oh and then there was the time that a swan cheated on his mate and then tried to kill his cygnets. That saga made the paper for weeks. Then there was that time a swan was killed. They thought it might have been a person, but it turned out an owl did it. Another hot story in the paper.

43. Ever been to L.A.? Only the airport.

44. Do you steal or pay for your music downloads? I typically pay, but I have stolen a few.

45. Are you a gullible person? Maybe once and awhile, but usually not.

46. If you could have any job what would it be? Hmmm, music journalist?

47. Are you easy to get along with? I think I’m very easy to get along with.

48. What is your favorite time of day? Whenever I have time to chill.

Got nowhere but home to go; got Ben Folds on my radio right now.

So far it's been one of those weeks where it seems like work rules, and everything else is just a small side dish.

On the upside, I enjoy my job and most of the busyness has been fun, but it's been pretty tiring. Yesterday at about 7:30 pm, I lay down on my bed thinking "I'll close my eyes for a minute" and slept for three hours. I woke up at 10:30, shuffled into the kitchen to make my lunch for the next day and then went back to bed.

Today was a beautiful day - sunny, but chilly - so I decided to walk home from work. I've never done this before and I've always been curious as to how long it would actually take me to make the trek. The answer is about 85 minutes. It was a good walk though since I got to spend quite a bit of quality time with my iPod.

Ummm, I don't really have much else to say, so I'll leave you with a cartoon that I used to have hanging on my fridge. It makes me laugh hard. The look on the cow's face is priceless.

Floating over your rocky spine.

Some bits and bites from this weekend:

* I decided that I wanted the new Great Lake Swimmers album Ongiara and went on a search for said CD. Turns out I couldn't find it because it's not in stores (well, except one store had it as a pre-release on vinyl) until March 27th. However, it is available digitally on iTunes and Zunior. In my need of immediate gratification, I bought it from the latter. And oh. My. God. It's beautiful. (If you're into folk/alt.country/indie rock stuff. Which I totally and decidely am.) My girl Sarah Harmer adds vocals to the track I Became Awake which is my favourite on the CD. Oh, I suppose I should say album instead of CD since I actually do not own the CD.

*I went to a birthday party on Friday night at a lounge/club place. I had a great time, got a little tipsy, and took part in many shenanigans including getting into a heated but friendly debate about Kraft Dinner on the street with a random stranger. He started it. I was looking for a pizza place by saying "I know it's over by where my friend used to live. He used to cook for me becasue he was appalled by how much Kraft Dinner was in my diet." (This was in university. I can't remember the last time I had KD. I think I killed it.) I stayed out much later than I have in a long time, so I feel young and cool again.

*The aftermath of the party was that I think I'm even with my roommate now. She confessed to me that she forgot to tell me that there was a message from the library saying that a book that I'd put on hold had come in. I'd put the book on hold not so much that I wanted to read it, but because it had 1000+ holds on it, and I wanted to see how long I'd have to wait to get it (only two months - they must have tonnes of copies). Now I have no book, just a fine.

Now, I didn't really care about the forgotten message thing. The only thing I've gotten mad at a roommate about was leaving something of mine on the balcony during a rainstorm; but even that was probably due to the fact that I was in teachers' college and grumpy about everything since I hated the coursework. But I did a bad thing too now and we're even for the whole message thing.

After stumbling in quite late after a few too many vodkas and sprites, I fell asleep really quickly and did not realize that my alarm clock was still set for 6:30 am from the week. Well, I got up at about 11:30 am and go get a drink since I was a bit dehydrated (quelle suprise). As I'm drinking my glass of water my alarm starts to go off which puzzled me. I go and check my clock and see that it was set to 6:30 am and that would mean it had most likely been going off every 9 minutes for the past five hours, totally unbeknownest to me. Apparently, I must have been hitting the snooze button, but again, totally unaware of it.

I wander into the living room, where my roommate and her fiance were having breakfast. After commenting that it smelled good (I thought it smelled like banana bread, but it was actually western omellette, but I really wished someone would make banana bread for me in my hungover state), I was told all about my alarm clock. It went off at 6:30 am, went off for 15 minutes straight, after which point it stopped. They had thought at first, perhaps I didn't come home last night, but checked to see that the light was turned off in the entry way which would have meant that I had returned home. They figured that I was probably in a very deep sleep and perhaps it wouldn't be wise to wake me up since I might get confused or panicked. Quite thoughtful. I would have been banging on my door yelling "turn off your freaking clock!!" Apparently, they were able to fall back asleep and ignore the clock going off every nine minutes for the rest of the morning. And that's why I love my roommate, even though she forgets to tell me about my library messages. :)

*I love the Toronto Star's Sunday columne My Name Is URL. This week's column has a lot of good stuff in it (hipster karaoke and "She's Condilicious" among others), but this is my favourite. Watch it if you're an Office fan.

Allright, I'm off. I hear a latte calling my name.

Your science is breaking my heart.

Thursday nights with no new Office episodes really suck. Boo NBC! Boo!

Tomorrow is my blog's second birthday. Oh no - it's entering the terrible twos. Run! Anyhow, since the party I thought that I was going to on Saturday night is actually on Friday night (thank goodness I ran into the host today at work; I would have showed up at her place on Saturday looking like a fool), I doubt I'll get around to posting tomorrow, so this is the blogoversary post.

Before I started this post, I went back and read my first month of posting. One of the many things I love about blogging is the fact that I actually have kept a journal for two years of my life. In the past, I'd journal for one, maybe two, months of my life and then stop for a couple years. It's fun reading the little snippets I have going back to when I was much younger, but I love that I have a full two years of life on record. I wish I had that kind of record of other times of my life, especially my university years and my crazy year of teaching in Northern Ontario, but having the past two years is pretty great.

What I noticed from my March 2005 posts is that at that time I was:

• digging the CD "Back to Me" by Kathleen Edwards
• really looking forward to my summer 2005 Australia trip
• watching the very first episode of the American Office.
• figuring out how to add links and pictures to my blog
• excited to get Weezer tickets and then whining about the fact they sold out very fast and I lost out
• looking forward to a Weakerthans concert (which was the last time I saw them!!! Sob!!! Oh the pain of it all. )

The thing that strikes me is that my life isn't much different from then. I'm living in the same place, working at the same school (although I'm permanent now - yay!), and more or less into the same stuff. However, I feel like the phase of my life that started a few months before I started blogging will be ending this summer when I move to a new apartment somewhere. I will be living on my own for the first time in my life, and I'm nervous in some ways and excited in others. It will be nice to have a place that's all my own, and have everything thing in it be a reflection of me. Also, I'm going to get a cat, and I've missed having a pet (my roommate's allergic to furry things). But, I'm really going to miss this apartment and my roommate and my time here. And... I do NOT look forward to packing and moving the stuff. Yuck.

Anyhow, it's been a great two years and it will be interesting to see what I say next blogoversary and where my life will be.

Oh, and the other part of blogging I've enjoyed is keeping up with all the other people that I've come to know through blogging. :)

ps My post title comes from the song "Science" on David Usher's great new CD "Strange Birds".

I've grown accustomed to rose-coloured glasses.

Alright, I've been in a majorly random mood today, so here goes a super-rambling random post.

1) The song "Tears Dry on Their Own" by Amy Winehouse is groove-tastic.

2) I've rediscovered an artist that just the other day I wondered "what ever happened to". Waaaaaay back in 2001 (good God I'm old), I went to see my dear Hawksley play in London Ontario and his opener was Martina Sorbara. My friends and I all really liked her, and I caught her at the Rivoli in Toronto a couple of times after that and picked up her CD "The Cure for Bad Deeds". I hadn't heard anything about her in a long long time and yesterday I ended up reading an article about her new band Dragonette. I'd actually come across their name in a celebrity gossip band of all things because apparently they're the next big thing in Britain. I love their song "I Get Around". It's not normally the kind of thing I'd go for, but it's really fun. I think it's cool that an artist I used to watch in tiny Toronto bars may be the next big thing (although very different from what I used to love - but still fantastic).

3) Today I realized that I'm getting very old because it is 2007 and I graduated from university (the first time) in June 2002, which is almost 5 years ago and 5 years is a long time.

4) Oh yeah, March Break is over: boo. I've returned to slightly calmer kids and a well-rested me. And a pile of work, so you might not see me much in blogland for the next few days.

5) I finished my March Break project of reading a 1177 page historical fiction trilogy on Josephine Bonaparte. It was really good. Does anyone else end up with a bittersweet feeling after you've finished a really good book and you end up missing the characters?

6) Last night, I attended a book club meeting. The selection was a graphic -i.e. comic book style- memoir called Persepolis. I highly recommend it. Anyhow, my friend ended up showing me a book about birth order and it was pretty interesting and explains a lot about my issues with perfectionism since I'm a "Lonely Only". Anyhow, I think I'm going to look for it next time I'm in the library because it was pretty entertaining.

7) I thought of more random things to say today while I was running around on some annoying errands and now I forget what those were. I hate that.

Boo-urns!

I was expecting a brand-spanking-new episode of The Office tonight (that's what they advertised after last week's episode, right? Or am I going senile??) and what do I get? Two back-to-back "newpeats"... Two old episodes, with about 45 seconds of deleted scenes thrown in.

Ides of March indeed. Stabbed in the back by my favourite show.

And our families can't agree; I'm your brother's sworn enemy.

Well, mission cheap-kids'-movie was aborted today. I set on my merry way driving from St. Ratford to Kitchener down ol' highway 7/8 and realized that I could barely see 2 metres in front of me due to the incredibly thick fog. Realizing that it probably wasn't the best idea to risk life in limb to see a $2 movie, I decided to turn around, but actually had to drive to the nearest town (named Shakespeare, I kid you not) in order to turn around because I could not see across the road to safely turn into a driveway.

After making a safe return home, I spent the afternoon napping, and playing cribbage with my dad. He won 2 games out of 3, the fiend!

I had dinner with some friends tonight, hung out, chatted, watched part of a movie and made a late night trip to Shoppers' for nail polish and such. Good times.

I went for another of my late night walks and ended up passing by the St. Ratford jail, which has a sign reading "Perth County Gaol" which makes me happy because I find gaol a pleasing alternative.

On tap for tomorrow: ONE HOUR episode of the Office baby!!!!

Oh on that note, I drove by a road crew today, and one of the workers looked so much like Roy, I kid you not. I decided against looking like a crazy woman and screaming "You'd better not harm a head on Jim Halpert's head!!" out the window.

A brief American Office vs. British Office comparion: Roy is not detestable like Lee, his British counterpart. Even with his breakdown on last episode, I can't really hate him. He just seems rather simple, and not adorably cute and witty like Jim, whom we all love. Poor Roy. He's not bad - he's just not Jim.

You're supposed to have the answer, you're supposed to have living proof.

Why does time go so much faster when you're on vacation?

I've been laying low for my first couple of days in St. Ratford. Just hanging out with my family and doing a lot of reading. I'm almost halfway through my massive trilogy on Josephine Bonaparte. Between this book and my Marie Antoinette phase of late 2006, I've learned more about the French Revolution than I ever thought I would.

I've spent a bit of time going for long walks too. This warm weather is great for it, except for the massive puddles that I end up stepping in since I'm too busy daydreaming and listening to music to watch for them.

I've also been holding my breath when driving or walking across train tracks. It makes me nervous.

I downloaded a new Feist song that I came across on iTunes - "My Moon My Man". It's pretty good. I also bought the Amy Winehouse CD "Back In Black" today since I like the song Rehab and the thing was only $9.99.

Tomorrow I'm driving to Kitchener to catch a $2 kids' movie matinee with a friend, then having dinner with some friends here. I guess I'll be ending my anti-social couple of days, which is good. I get way too emo-y if I spend too much time alone.

Long Afternoon

Last night, I attended a friend's bday party, chatted and visited with people, had a couple drinks and played a murder mystery game.

This morning I woke up a bit earlier than I like to on March Break so that I could catch the morning train home to visit the parents.

Outside of Guelph, I was somewhere in between a state of sleep and wakefulness and staring out the window into the sunny, snow-covered countryside.

I was startled out of my reverie by the passengers ahead of me shouting "Oh my God. Did you see that?" and standing up in their seats, and turning their bodies so they could get a better view of what we were passing by. I shifted my gaze onto the crossroad that the train had just passed over and saw a mid-sized silver car, crumpled at one end, spinning into the ditch.

The train kept running for what seemed like an eternity. I thought that we had just witnessed an accident on the road that we had just passed, for I didn't feel a thing. The passengers ahead of me were saying "We just hit that car." Another passenger, a girl in her late teens, said "What? We just hit a cat?" and then learned that it was actually a car that was hit, and not a cat, although hittting a cat would almost make more sense since we did not feel a thing. Surely something as substantial as a car, carrying human lives, would have been noticeable.

The train finally came to a stop. After a bit of confusion, the conductor came over the PA and announced that we had hit a car and would likely be stopped for 2 hours.

After about 2 hours, passengers going on to Kitchener were taken to the train station by taxi. At some point, people from other cars walked onto my car and explained that they had heard that the car was trying to beat the train, it got nicked at the end, one passenger died and two others were taken to the hopsital. And, oh yes, hold onto your receipt because you'd get a discount next trip.

After about 3 hours, the conductor explained the OPP got permission to back the train up to the road so that we would not have to trudge through snowy countryside. Buses were on scene for passengers on their way to London and Sarnia; taxis were there for Stratford-bound passengers.

After piling into a taxi with some strangers, the driver explained that he'd already heard a lot of details about what had happened from the passengers he'd driven to Kitchener, and they were not pretty so he wouldn't be repeating them. There was a bit of silence, then some of the other passengers started talking again. I remember one woman saying at one point "We've been inconvenienced for a few hours, but in that same time some lives have been changed."

I thought about even though the three hours that I was delayed were insignificant to me, shorter amounts of time can be extremely significant. We had been delayed for about 2 minutes in Toronto because of track maintenance. I wondered about how if we hadn't been held back that two minutes, we would not have crossed paths with that mid-sized silver car that brilliantly reflected the sun's rays as it spun out of control.

(Read here for a report of the accident.)

Spring forward, fall back down.

Got my Ben Folds tickets! Woo-hoo!

And.... it's March Break!!!

That is all.

I might just get up and dance or buy some acid-wash pants...

I checked my email at lunch today, and look at what was there!!!!!!!

I was actually alone in science office, which was a good thing, because I got really really really excited and then accidentally hit my foot on the table and then swore. Rather embarrassing actually...

Anyhow, tickets are onsale tomorrow, and they actually do go on sale when I am on my prep period (5 mins before I have to go teach), so I will so be getting them ASAP. Ya gotta hate ticketmaster for their "convenience" charges (yeah, it's convenient for them to charge me $10 per ticket, sure) but I did enjoy their informative email today. Oh, yeah, not an attractive picture of Ben, but whatever.

As I've been grumbling, I have NOT been to a concert yet in 2007, and if I don't get to one before this one, seeing Ben Folds is quite a way to kick off a good season of concert going. Ben is one of my favourite musicians of all time and he doesn't play Toronto very often. In fact, he played here 4 times since I started university, and I've made a point of seeing him each of those times. Ahhh... number 5 will be fabulous I'm sure. If you ever get the chance to see him live, go, go, go! I think he is one of the most underrated musicians around and does not get nearly enough acclaim.

In other news, I had a colleague comment that she heard from other people that I was funny at the party I went to on Saturday night. Uh-oh. Well, good thing I've always been comfortable with the fact that I *am* an amusing drunk and I rarely do embarrass myself. (Quiet some of you. I hear snickers.) And, I did fork over the $120 today for the dragonboat racing team that I pledged to join as well as followed up on my offer to paint sets for the play.

Finally, in the most important news of all, 1 more school day 'til March Break. I've planned quizzes for a couple of my classes. I gotta keep them from tearing down the walls, and nothing's better for that than a quiz. Although I tell them "it's better than me giving you lots of homework during March Break" and there's no arguing with that.

Happy Friday to you all!

I've made it my dear face it.

I think the bloody cold is on its way out! Woo-hoo!

While on my subway ride home tonight, I finished reading Vincent Lam's "Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures" which won the Giller Prize this year. (Some other woman on the same car was reading it too. Kind of weird to be reading the same book as someone on the train.) The book was pretty interesting overall. I have to say that I liked his style of writing, but it made me glad to not be a doctor. The book is a series of short stories about some doctors, set in Toronto, but none of them seem to enjoy their profession very much. The author is a doctor, and it makes me wonder if he cares for his profession. I hope not all doctors are that unhappy.

I've started my March Break reading project. It's a trilogy of historical novels about Josephine Bonapart all together in one volume. The thing is huge: 1155 pages in total. I started it this evening and it's pretty good so far. The only problem is that its not very portable, so I think I'm going to have to carry a bigger bag as long as I'm reading this thing. However, it could make for a good weapon if someone tries to accost me on the street.

Today the song Lost Cause by Beck came up on my iPod. I love that song. Does anyone have the album Sea Change? I think I might like it. Feedback please!

Nothing unusual, nothing's changed...

I totally jinxed myself. On Friday night, I bragged to my roommate: "I haven't been sick at all this school year. Nothing. Not even a cold or a scratchy throat since September."

I should have kept my bloody mouth shut.

On Saturday, I woke up and the left side of my throat was scratchy. Of course, I didn't help matters with my truly heroic intake of alcohol on Saturday night. I've heard that it weakens the immune system. Anyhow, I woke up on Sunday morning somehow not all that much hungover, but very stuffed up. And stuffed up I've been for the past couple of days.

Anyhow, I think I'm going to have a warm bath, curl up with a book and go to bed early. More excitement later I hope.

ps 3 more school days 'til March Break!

Update: This makes me feel better:

Rely a bit too heavily on alcohol and irony...

Tonight I consumed:

2 pints of beer
2 shots of tequila
1 Sicillian Kiss shot
1 Bazooka Joe shot
2 Amaretto & Cranberry juice
Celery and Carrots
1 Mozzarella Stick
1 piece Vanilla Birthday Cake
1 glass Port (I walk into apartment after above debauchery and announce details of debauchery. Roommate and friend are drinking port. Before I know it, I have a glass of port in front of me. I love my roommate.)

Tonight I volunteered to:

1) Join a dragonboat racing team
2) Help paint sets for the school play
3) Take part in staff karaoke night

Tonight I pledged to:

Throw myself a kickass 30th birthday party in 2 years and 347 days from now. You're all invited. I will throw it in some sort of pub that has a floor I can take over. In Toronto, of course. I expect no excuses from my dear friends from high school for not attending. You've been warned. Blog buddies are welcome. Past roommates will be there, as will colleagues and friends from university. Oh, and maybe dragonboat racing friends too.

There are some grapes on my desk near my computer. They are quite tasty.