Baby I'm a lost cause.

Well, I'm not feeling very creative and nothing overly interesting happened to me today, so I pulled up an old survey email from a friend and pasted it in just for heck of it.

1. What is your full name?
- I go by Christielli in blogland. (One name just like Cher or Madonna)

2. What colour pants are you wearing?
- Dark blue jeans

3. What are you listening to right now?
- The iPod gods have chosen "Lost Cause" by Beck for me at the moment

4. What was the last thing you ate?
- Peanut Chicken from the Green Mango and ju-jubes

5. Do you wish on stars?
- Not since I was a teenager. I guess university made me cynical.

6. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?
- My red crayon was always the first one used up, so I'll say red.

7. How is the weather right now?
- Freaking cold and windy. (Check the weather pixie for exact temperature.)

8. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
- My mom

9. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Yuppers - it was the friend I went all the way to Stratford to hang out with this weekend.

10. How old are you today?
-25 years 10 months and 7 days

11. Favourite drink?
- Chocolate Milk

12. Favourite sport?
- Well, I was a big baseball fan as a child and can still hold my end of the conversation with boys who are into that sport, so I'll say baseball.

13. Hair Colour?
- brown

14. Do you wear contacts?
- No, I have pretty good vision.

15. Siblings?
- None. I'm a spoiled brat.

16. Favourite month?
- December

17. Favourite food?
- hmmm... organic baby carrots or chocolate

18. What was the last movie you saw?
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!!!!

19. Favourite day of the year?
- Christmas Day for sure.

20.What do you do to vent anger?
- Hang out in my room and grumble to myself.

21. What was your favourite toy as a child?
- My She-ra dolls. I had all of them except Bow, the only male.

22. Summer or winter?
- Summer, except when it's really humid.

23. Hugs or kisses?
- Depends on my mood (and the giver of the hug/kiss)

24. Chocolate or Vanilla?
- No question - chocolate!!

25. When was the last time you cried?
Hmmm... had to think about that, but most likely when I finished reading the Kite Runner last week.

26. What is under your bed?
- Dust

27. Who is the friend you have had the longest?
I've been good friends with my crazy pal Mel since grade 7 and met her when I was in kindergarten.

28What did you do last night?
- Saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!

29. What are you afraid of?
- I'd have to say getting really sick and being in pain and not being able to do things.

30. Plain, buttered or salted popcorn?
- The microwaveable stuff with butter and salt.

31. Favourite car?
- VW bugs

32. Favourite flower?
- Don't have one.

33. Number of keys on your key ring?
- Work keyring = 3, Home keyring = 5 keys + 1 keycard

34. How many years at your current job?
- My one-year anniversary at my current job was November 1st.

35. Favourite day of the week?
Friday at 2:50 pm

36. What did you do on your last birthday? Worked, then had dinner with a bunch of my TO friends at the Madison.

37. How many provinces have you lived in..name them?
Only 1 - Good old ontaryaryary-o!

Okay, I feel kind of self-indulgent after answering 37 questions about me but hey, that's what blogs are for, right? Shortly I'm going to go indulge myself in some tv! Good night and happy hump day tomorrow!

When they say every flavour, they mean every flavour.

Harry Potter was great!!! I comment the screenwriter for being able to effectively cut down a mammoth book to a 2 and a half hour movie, without missing any key parts. Although I could have gone with a longer World Quidditch Cup.

I think my favourite little scene was when Filch dances with his cat Mrs. Norris.

TB and I had planned on getting some Harry Potter candy to go with the movie. She originally wanted to get Bertie Botts' Every Flavour Beans. Have you had them? They are crazy. They have flavours like vomit, earwax, booger, and sardine. I suggested we get more pleasant candy like Fizzing Whizbees or Chocolate Frogs. I had seen them in Toys R Us a couple weeks ago. I went after work to pick them up and they were out of everything but the jellybeans. We tried to eat them but some of them were just too gross. It's better to eat them in the light, so you can at least pick out a good one to wash down the disgusting ones with. Anyhow, I plan on serving the remainder of my gross jelly beans at my next party to unsuspecting guests. Shhh... don't tell.

Well, I gotta go to bed. Have a good Tuesday!

If you wannabe my lover, you gotta get with my friends.

Well I am home safe from my lovely weekend getaway from the city. But I'm very very glad to be back in the city now.

Anyhow, my weekend was super relaxing. When I arrived home on Friday night, I had dinner with my parents and made a quick trip to Zellers to get some wool to start on a new scarf. It's for me this time! Anyway, I just knit in front of the TV on Friday night.

Oh gosh, I can't even really remember what I did on Saturday during the day. Oh, I went to the mall in search of a new pair of shoes. A totally silly thing to do in Stratford since the mall's really tiny and really doesn't have much in the way of shoe stores...

Then Saturday night was our big girls' (and two boys) night out. It was very fun! We started at Molly Bloom's, which is supposed to be an Irish pub. We managed to annex a large section at the back and had a great time being loud and rowdy. Discussions centred around the marriage pool - i.e. who is going to be next and apparently some people have their money on me of all people. A couple of my friends have decided I'm going to meet a doctor/scientist, have about a 3 month relationship, get married super fast and then live in a big house. Hmmmm, I wouldn't object to this. Of course, the marriage/baby pool has a tendancy to be way off. When it came to kids, my friend T was last on the list for having a kid and she ended up being first.

Oh the live music at Molly Bloom's was priceless. The singer decided that he stomach was a great percussion instrument and pulled up his shirt and started drumming on his bare belly during a cover of "Mr. Brightside".

After a few drinks, we decided to changed venues. Which is a hard thing to do in Stratford since the bar scene is very, very, very pitiful. We wanted to go somewhere with a dancefloor, which lead us to pretty much our only option - Classics (also known as Divorce Court) which attracts a high proportion of Stratford's redneck/cougar population.

We weren't there for 20 minutes when a fight broke out a few feet away from us. As my friend S said "Apparently that guy's Ford was better than that guy's Dodge." A few minutes after the fight, quite a few older women thought it'd be a great time to table dance... There was one chick who was up there for an hour. We were totally impressed with her stamina. To quote my friend C "One redneck bar fight, 3 table dancing cougars, and a whole lotta fugly.... priceless. For everything else there's Mastercard."

So yeah, I totally dug being at the seedy local bar for the irony of it. I don't think I could handle going there anymore than every three years.

What was totally depressing is that there were actually two wedding parties that ended up there, complete with bride and groom. What a way to set your marriage off on the wrong foot! We've always referred to the bar as Divorce Court, since on most nights you can see quite a few marriages breaking up. Don't these people have honeymoons to go to?

Anyway, I've had enough small town colour to do me for awhile, but it was totally fun hanging out with my pals. I totally forgot to bring my camera, so I don't have any pictures. Argh!

Hope ya'll have a good week. I'm off to have some supper, watch the Simpsons and Desparate Housewives and do some work. Oh - and I'm totally psyched 'cuz tomorrow night TB and I are going to see Harry Potter at the Imax screen at Paramount.

ps Yes, they still play Spice Girls at Stratford bars, hence the title of my post.

Coffee, BMWs, and Chocolate Macaroons

I owe TB a coffee.

A couple years ago, we got a ride to the subway from in my friend's boyfriend's friend's BMW. We found that exciting so we made a pact that whenever either of us rode in a BMW in the future, we'd owe the other a coffee.

Last year, she got a ride in a crappy BMW and paid up.

Last night, I got a ride home from school (after the staff book club meeting) from a colleague who has a BMW and lives near me. Anyhow, this colleague is my emergency ride to school in case of TTC strike or other calamities. Glad that there was no TTC strike last year or I would have been buying a lot of coffees for TB.

I finished off the Kite Runner and immensely enjoyed the staff book club meeting. TB, my roommate and my pal A have started a book club of our own. We're reading "The Lovely Bones" as our first selection.

Can you believe I'm *not* seeing the new Harry Potter movie on opening night? Gasp. I know. Tomorrow night I'm taking the train to Stratford to visit the 'rents and hang out with my high school gal pals. I really love the train ride to Stratford. I'm totally looking forward to sitting on the train, listening to my iPod and doing some knitting.

Tonight's project for me is to make some chocolate macaroons for the staff potluck lunch tomorrow. My roommate is in shock - I usually keep my distance from the culinary arts. But every now and then I feel that I must prove myself and not be the person who volunteers to bring the bread to a potluck.

So off to the kitchen I go! Have a nice weekend!

Ba-ba-ba-ba-bup-ba, love just leaves you bruised.

So I stood up Pride & Prejudice tonight. I gotta finish re-reading The Kite Runner for the staff book club so that I don't look like a goof. Turns out that I forget more about it than I thought I did.

Rain = yuck.

Taking a far-too-long break from reading to phone friends, read blogs and blog. Talked to my friend T from high school for a bit. Discussed how my group of high school friends seems to be a little slow on the relationship/marriage front. Out of 9 of us, 1 is married, 1 is getting married in April, and 2 are in pretty stable long-term relationships. That leaves 5 single girls. (T and I being in the latter group.) Anyhow, I'm sure that when a bunch of us get together this Saturday night, we'll continue the endless of analysis of the states of our lives.

Okay, time to finish off the book. Laters.

Thank God Monday is over! (at least the hard part, anyway...)

Oi! Getting back into the swing of things after lazing about and sleeping for 3 days is definitely a hard transition. But, I survived. Actually, all of my classes, including the dreaded period 4, were really good today. There were some kids in other people's classes giving me headaches, but at least mine are well-behaved.

Nothing too eventful to report. On Saturday, I ventured out to do some Christmas/roommate's birthday shopping and ended up buying myself a new winter coat (Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!). The Christmas/roommate's birthday part of the expedition was far less successful.

I have a pretty busy week ahead of me. Tomorrow night I may go see Pride and Prejudice with TB, roommate and another couple of pals. I haven't totally committed yet. I'll betray my gender by admitting that I'm not the biggest Austen fan and I may not got because there is a very good chance that I may fall asleep. However, the social aspect of the outing may be fun.

On Wednesday, the staff book club is meeting. I must finish re-reading The Kite Runner tonight. I was a bad girl this weekend and read non-book club books...

Thursday night we have a staff meeting. Which means I get home 1.5 hrs late with a splitting headache.

Then on Friday, we have a staff potluck dinner. I'm considering borrowing TB's recipe for maccaroons, but I suspect by Thursday evening I'll be more in the mood to just go buy some freakin' maccaroons.

Then Friday evening, I'm hopping the train to Stratford to visit with the 'rents and some friends.

Yeesh, I get tired just thinking about all the stuff I gotta do!!

Have a great night!

Edit: I totally forgot to mention the tragic occurrance of my weekend. TB and I tried to get Stars tickets and all four show are sold out. Oh the humanity!!! I am having a really bad time lately getting tickets. Oh well, I'll just mentally convince myself that there are NO Stars shows in December whatsoever.

Mmmm... I just saw a commercial for President's Choice Pumpkin Cheesecake. That sounds too good.

My Mariah Carey Theory

I have a theory that I'm being stalked by Mariah Carey's greatest hits of the 90s. When I was in Sydney, we took a bus trip out to the Jenolan Caves in the Blue Moutains. It was a pretty long bus ride. Anyway, for 85% of the trip, the bus driver played a tape of Mariah's hits from the 90s. The first time he played it I thought "Okay, this is kind of fun. Reminds me of when I was a huge Mariah fan when I was eleven." However, on the second to fifth times he played the tape, the nostalgia wore off pretty damned quickly. He was playing it very loudly too, so it was hard to drown it out with my own music.

Anyhow, Mariah's 90s hits have followed me back to Canada. Whenever TB and I meet up for coffee at the 24 hr Second Cup near her place, they are also playing 90s Mariah. It happened again tonight! What the? TB frequents there far more often than I do, and she swears they only play the Mariah when I'm there. Mysteriously scary.

Oh, if you want to have fun dressing Mariah or other celebrities go to www.paperdollheaven.com. It's hours of fun! I spent too much time on there today.

Another fun internet toy I came across today was The Gender Genie. You can paste in a sample of your writing, be it fiction, non-fiction or blog, and the genie uses an algorithim to determine your gender. When I pasted in my blog enteries for October, I was almost gender neutral. However, I've been more feminine in my writing for November. I also pasted in a couple of stories I've written and they were quite high on the girly scale. I wish I had some essays from university on my computer. I lost them all in the post-university hard drive crash - I only have hard copies stored somewhere at the parents' place. It's be interesting whether to see if my academic science-related essays would score as male. The authors of the study did say that they used female writing from scientific journals to create their algorithm. I'd like to see if my science writing would identify as female... Since I don't have any of my essays, I tried I some work-related writings (tests and assignments) and they were very male. I wish that I could read the Nature article about the Genie, but I'd have to pay money for that. It's pretty interesting stuff. Incidentally, I wrote an essay about gender differences in language usage for a first year anthropolgy paper. I remember none of it. ;)

By the way, I'm feeling much better after my lazy day. Although my voice is still a bit scratchy. I should be all mended and ready for action on Monday. We'll see if I get any nasty notes from the supply about my classes.

Edit: I ran this post through the Gender Genie and it scored as male. I think overally my writing is pretty gender confused. Oh, I just read that the scientists predict that the Genie should be right about 80% of the time but stats on the website say that it's been right 58% of the time. So maybe it's the scientists are confused. Although I would suspect people probably report when the Genie is wrong more often than they report that it's right so I highly doubt that the website's statistics are very reliable...

I have a headache, I have a sore back, I have a letter that I can't send...

Yesterday I was losing my voice and just felt crappy overall so I decided to stay at home today. I slept 'til noon and I've been hanging out on the couch ever since.


I really like the new Sarah Harmer CD. I think my fave song is a cover of a Dolly Parton song ("He will be waiting for me" or something like that...).

Happy weekend to all!

Dear Mom and Dad, please send money...

Argh! I was just at April's blog and now that song is stuck in my head! If my pals from high school knew that I had a country song in my head, they'd all have heartattacks. I'm the girl who professes an intense dislike for country music and complains if we go somewhere if they dare to play it. Good thing none of 'em bother to read my blog...

On a related note, I just bought the new Sarah Harmer CD today after work. It's supposed to be rather blue-grassy.

A couple of my friends from high school, who both work in the education system, and I are thinking of going on a mini-holiday to somewhere tropical the week after new year's. School gets out really late in Decemeber (on the 23rd), so we go back rather late. It's looking like we might go to Cuba. I'm liking the thought of lying by a pool and drinking for a few days.

I'm exhausted. I spent 2.5 hours entering marks and report card comments after school, but thankfully, they're done now.

Tonight = Martha's Apprentice. Will crazy Jim be let go this week? He would frighten me in real life.

Have a good Thursday.

ps Oh look, blogger is being co-operative right now. So here's my Ben Lee autograph, thus completing my Ben Lee concert odyssey posts.

We're all in this together...

Okay, I really don't know if my post from last night made any sense but here are some accompanying pics:

Here's Ben singing. You know a concert's gonna be fun if there's a disco ball. Note the lovely flowers decorating the mic stand.

Here's Ben playing the acoustic guitar and singing sans microphone at the very end of the show.

Here are the daisies from the mic stand that TB wrangled for us. I thought they were white when we were in the club, but when I walked outside I exclaimed "Hey look - these are yellow!" All the people on the sidewalk laughed at me but another girl was like "I said the same thing when I walked out here." So I felt a tad less uncool.

And here is the signed CD insert (hence the whole flower thing). Oh freakin' heck. Blogger isn't allowing me to post pics anymore. I'll add it later... Have I told everyone to go buy this CD yet?

Oh yeah, and of course, I won't post the pic of Ben, TB and me because: a) TB would kill me. I can't even use her name in my blog; and b) I look really horrible because I was very tired and it was hot in there. But, I will honour any requests...

So, today I was back to the drudgery of work and not play. Although, I survived today okay considering I was functioning on a deficit of sleep. I had to go to a safety workshop during P4, so my day was considerably easier without having to put up with that lovely class.

And then tonight I had a thrilling night where I holed up in the Second Cup marking for two hours. Report card time is upon us. TB was nice enough to join me so we could debrief the concert a bit more.

Hope you all had a tolerable Monday!

In the 7/11 of my soul, you're the red slurpee.

Okay quickee post.

But Ben Lee was AWESOME!!!! Ahh!!!!

It was such a small show and he was amazing and he got into the crowd at one point. At the end of the show, he sang a song with just the acoustic guitar and no mic. It kind of made me feel like I was just hanging around with a talented friend who was jamming in your basement (that was filled with 100 or so friends).

The mic stands were decorated with flowers (like his CD cover if you remember that from a previous post). At the end of the show, TB asked a band member for some so now I have a nice handful of yellow daisies.

Also, Ben was signing CDs at the end of the show. I didn't bring mine, but TB bought one so she got the case signed for herself and the insert signed for me. We also go our pic taken with him! Yay.

Well, I'll post some pics tomorrow. I need to go to bed so I can survive tomorrow! Lata!

Sugar we're going down swinging.

Yeah, I really like that Fallout Boy song, even though they're playing it tonnes on MuchMusic, which indicates that it's probably quite un-cool of me to like it. But, can I be bitter towards a band whose name comes from The Simpsons? No.

Last night I saw the movie Crash. It was good, I guess. I found it a bit draggy, but sometimes that's more indicative of my mood rather than the movie. There was a part that made me cry very hard though. I won't say what it was in case you haven't seen the movie. Anyway, I did get quite a bit of scarf knitted during the movie. I'm halfway finished Christmas present #2!

Oh here's the big dilemma in my life: on the weekend of Nov. 19th, one of my friends from high school, who is living in North Bay now, is going to be in Stratford for the weekend. I think the girls are going to go out the night for a beverage or two. Now, I am thinking of going home for a weekend in November, but I was thinking of going the weekend after the Nov. 19th. Don't forget that the new HP movie is coming out on the 18th and I was planning on seeing it opening night with TB. Also, there's a "knitting mittens on two needles" class that I was thinking of taking on the 19th. But, honestly I can see Harry Potter a couple of days later and I could take that knitting class in the winter, since it's not like I'm going to have time to knit anyone mittens before this Christmas. Everyone can get mittens next Christmas. Plus, I just remembered, she had said she won't be home for Christmas, so I won't see her then. So I think I will go home that weekend. Yay! Sometimes blogging about my indecisions helps me decide. What a practical reason to blog.

So anyway, TB and I are going to Sephora this afternoon. It's a totally overpriced beauty store but I loves it. I am currently out of my favourite overpriced beauty product, so it's time to replenish.

Hmmm, since I've been good and I'm actaully "up and atom" (Simpsons reference anyone?) so early, I'm gonna treat myself to a bagel from Timmy's.

Happy Saturday!

And you can spell anything and I've got a magic ring...

Yay to Aaron for correctly getting the brain teaser. If you add a line to one of the plus signs to make it look like a four, then 1 + 1 + 1 = 142!

I ordered "The Truth (with Jokes)" by Al Franken on Amazon and it arrived today. I can't wait to read it. I love my *slightly* biased political humour. As long as the bias is the same one that I have, it's all good to go. I also got a book for my Dad for Christmas (so that I'd qualify for free shipping). It's called "The Know-It-All : One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World". It's about a man whose goal is to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. Anyway, my dad once tried to do this. When I saw the book once in Indigo, I knew I had to get it for him. Anyway, it looks pretty good. There's a favourable quote on the front from Jon Stewart (who I have a huge crush on, of course). Anyhow, I'm totally going to read it when he's done with it. Or maybe even before I give it to him. Now, before you say that's horrible, I'll tell you about how I always knew what books I was getting for Christmas because I'd see my dad reading them a week before. So it's totally fine to read any book you're gonna give my dad.

Not that I have time to read it. I have to read "The Kite Runner" for the staff book club. I actually read it in the spring, but I need to re-read it so I can wow everyone with my brilliant insights. ;)

Did I mention I'm seeing Ben Lee in 3 days? Well, I am and I'm excited because I haven't been to a concert since the beginning of September. That's far too long for my tastes.

I saw a poster for the new Harry Potter movie on the subway today. I'm very exited for that. Only 2 more weeks!

Tonight is Survivor/The Apprentice. I'm not very into this Survivor but it sure beats doing stuff.

Happy Friday!

Commet allez-vous ce soir? Je suis comme-ci comme-ca. Yes a penguin taught me French back in Antarctica.

Yesterday I did something silly. I went grocery shopping after work and then stopped off at the mailroom downstairs to check my mail. Anyhow, I get up to my apartment and notice I'm missing a bag of groceries. I look around my apartment; thinking maybe I put it down somewhere illogical. So, I had to go all the way downstairs to the mailroom and I found the missing bag right underneath my mailbox. I lucked out because no one was there to see me pick up some strange bag. I would have felt cool. Oh and I'm pretty sure that no one poisoned my groceries while I was down there since I'm feeling fine today.

I had a sort of easy day at work today. Well, it was different. It was "Take Your Kids To Work Day" so all of the grade 9s were gone. That means I should have had a couple of free periods, but there was another event going on so I ended up covering some other classes. In one of the classes, I decided to be super-bitch at the beginning of the class and I heard some kid say "Whoa, she's strict." That actually warmed my heart! They never think I'm strict. Woo! Of course, by the end of the period, I reverted to my fun self and did brainteasers with them.

Ooh. Perhaps I can entertain my blog audience with one of my favourites. Okay, add one line somwhere to the equation below to make it true. (No, it's not the "does not equal" line.)

1 + 1 + 1 = 142

I'll give y'all the answer next post.

So tonight I was digging around in my "special stuff box" and I came across I couple of fun cartoons that I'd clipped and saved.

This one used to hang on my fridge forever:

And I cut out this one meaning to stick it on a chemistry test sometime:

Here's a picture of my "special stuff box" which in itself is actually one of my prized possesions. I painted it and podgied old ticket stubs to it. That was a couple years ago and now it's filled with lots more ticket stubs.

So tonight I plan on reading a bit, knitting a bit, and watching Martha's Apprentice to see if crazy Jim gets fired. Have an enjoyable Wednesday evening and a fun Thursday!

Pictures

Yeah, I know I suck at not posting pictures of myself.

See, when I started my blog, I wanted to go totally anonymously because then I could just write what the heck I wanted to about my life, my friends and my work. I just didn't want anyone to read it and find out that it was me. Not that I think that would happen, but I do have incredibly bad luck at such things.

At one point, I thought "screw it, I need to post a picture of myself so my wonderful blog friends can see what the heck I look like" and I did post a picture for all of two hours but then my nagging brain was like "No, you wanted an anonymous-y blog. Stick with the plan," and I took it off.

Anyway, I've been thinking about the whole posting pictures thing and I still don't think I want to, but I will e-mail some pictures to "loyal readers". Yeesh, maybe one day I'll make up my mind whether to post pictures of myself regularly. I'm so freaking indecisive about too many things. Hence, I still have the bloody temporary title for my blog that I just typed in waaaay back in March when I started the thing.

Long story short - requests for pictures will be obliged.

Happy Halloween!

Well, frankly, I'm just sitting here dreading the inevitability of having to deal with teenagers with far too much sugar in their bloodstreams tomorrow. Now that's scary.

I totally stole Aaron's Halloween "costume" suggestion of saying that I'm dressed up as my evil twin. In my first period class, one student asked me where my costume was and I said "I'm wearing it." And she was like "huh?" and I said "I'm my evil twin." That scared them because I was sitting at my desk trying not to laugh at them because they were saying "Oh my gosh, she's her evil twin. I bet she's going to be really mean today. Look, she's sitting there plotting. I'm scared. Oh no!"

Then I used the same joke on my notorious fourth period class who looked at me like I was insane and then I said "You're supposed to laugh at my jokes." Then they were like "Lame joke, Miss," and I gave them dirty looks. Then one girl said "Look, I think she's trying to be evil but she can't be evil. She the most un-evil teacher ever!"

So anyway, not only am I slightly mad at some of them for not believing that I can be evil, none of them noticed my new necklace! (I made it yesterday at the bead store.) Argh! Normally I always get compliments on my jewelry, and today I'm wearing a necklace I made myself, and nothing! Hmmph. Fs for the lot of them I say. Oh well, maybe they'll notice next time I wear it. I dyed my hair a darker shade last weekend and none of them mentioned it until Tuesday. When one kid said "nice hair Miss", I replied "Thanks. No one noticed it yesterday." Then the rest of them were like "No, we noticed! We did! We just forgot to say something."



Here's a picture of my necklace so you can all compliment me on it. ;)

So tonight TB is coming over and we are going to drink wine, eat candy and popcorn, and watch The Nightmare Before Christmas and a Halloween Simpsons episode. I vote for the one with "The Shinning" and were Homer goes back in time ("I wish I wish I hadn't sat on that fish").

Spring forward, fall back down...

I tell you, this must be my favourite day of the year! I got to sleep in this morning, yet still feel like I woke up pretty early. Sweet. This morning I went to Tim Horton's to get some blueberry bagels and a coffee. Anyway, when I got to my apartment door, there was decoration on the door that wasn't there when I left. It really threw me off. Then I noticed that I was standning in front of the door of the apartment two floors below me. I'm glad they had something on their door. If they hadn't, I would have been trying to put my key in their lock and they probably would have thought someone was trying to break in. And, if they'd come and opened the door, I would have screamed thinking that there were strange people in my apartment. Oh, I would have looked cool.

Yesterday I went to the Body Worlds exhibit at the Science Centre. Now, there wasn't a giant inflatable colon there (Could I have missed it?? How does one miss a giant inflatable colon?? ) but it was pretty cool none the less. My only complaint was that I should have gone on a weeknight instead of a weekend because it was very busy. Anyway, here's a picture of the skateboarder exhibit so you can get an idea of what the thing was like. No, the body was not a skateboarder in real life, but he gets to be one now.

Last night I decided I'd rent a bad horror movie (House of Wax - The only positive thing I can say is that Paris Hilton was killed), finally do my laundry and start knitting a scarf (Christmas present for a friend).

Since Halloween is tomorrow, I wanted to post a fun Halloween picture on my blog. In my last year of university, we took my friend A's aunt's cat into our apartment for the year. I still don't understand why. She was defnitely fun to have around - she was the grumpiest, most eccentric cat ever. Her real name was Patches, but we called her Cat a la Breakfast At Tiffany's since we figured Patches was a pretty wimpy name. Anyway, at Halloween TB and I carved a Jack-O-Latern of her at her grumpiest. Then we took a picture of her looking grumpy beside her grumpy pumpkin doppelganger.

Well, I should be going. I gotta meet TB and we're going to the bead store to make necklaces. Later non-corpse Skaters!

It's the freakin' weekend baby, I'm about have me some fun.

Yay! It's the weekend and a long weekend at that. Yes, I consider getting an extra hour a "long weekend". ;)

I haven't cemented any weekend plans yet. I should do something Halloween-y I suppose. There is a party I could go to tomorrow night but I dunno if I'll go.

One thing I hope I'll do this weekend is to go see Body Worlds at the Science Centre. I get to go free, since I'm a teacher, but my free pass is only valid until October 31st. This exhibition uses *real* bodies, so I figure going to see a bunch of dead bodies is rather Halloween-y, right?

And, if you read my last post, you'll know that I need to do laundry. I don't really hate doing laundry; I just hate organizing it and lugging it all the way from the 27th floor to the laundry room in the basement. I was gonna do it tonight, but now that I bought new socks I can procrastinate for another couple of days. My casual weekend clothes always seem to be clean; it's the work clothes that I'm always washing.

As I was leaving school today, I was putting my iPod headphones on and had my iPod in my hand. There were a couple of grade 12s who I passed by in the stairwell and the one kid said "Wow she has an iPod" when he thought I was out of earshot. Yeah, so I felt cool. ;)

Have a good weekend everyone!

ps I have a special fondness for the R. Kelly song I quoted *only* because Joel Plaskett sang it once when I saw him live. Fun covers make me smile.

Wish I had just one pair of clean socks and a photo of you.

The title of my post is from a Weakerthans' song that I could relate to earlier today. I had to go buy some socks because all of mine are dirty (save a pair of super thermal ones and a couple of pairs of ankle-summer socks) and I don't feel like doing laundry tonight.

On my way home from the sock-buying I missed my subway stop for the first time ever. I was only going one stop (lazy, I know, but that's what a Metropass is for) and I was thinking and I didn't realize my stop had gone by until the doors shut. So, I got off at the next stop and had to switch platforms so I could catch the train back to my stop. The most pathetic thing was that I missed my stop when I was awake. I've never even missed on before when I was sleeping on the train; I always somehow magically wake up at the right time.

Hope ya'll have a fan-tas-tic Friday! TGI-freakin'-F!

Well maybe I'm a little bit slow, or just consistently inconsistent...

I'm totally digging "Middle of Nowhere", the Hot Hot Heat song quoted above.

Speaking of being consistently inconsistent, my period 4 class were little angels today. Frankly, it scared me. I think their behaviour was due to the fact that I told them that I was planning to take them outside tomorrow to do an ecology lab, but if they screwed up today, there would be no ecology lab. And, they wouldn't get a second crack at going outside because they are re-sodding the field starting on Friday. So, maybe it was my threat, maybe it was the weather - I really don't know.

So, since they were good, I spent a good hour tonight constructing home-made anemometers to use in their little ecology lab. They measure wind-speed. Here they are:



I made the protractors myself. I got the little ping-pong balls at the dollar store from a set with a toy gun that shoots ping pong balls. So now I have two guns but all my ammo is used up.

Anyhow, thanks to all of my lovely commentors (commentators?) for consoling me over my silly sadness over not getting tickets to a concert that doesn't exist anyway.

Well, now I'm off to some crappy reality TV (Martha Stewart's Apprentice). Have a good night and a happy Thursday!

*sob*

Well, I picked up the phone at 11 am sharp this morning to attempt to get the Sarah Harmer/Weakerthans tickets. After being on hold for 3 minutes, I found out that they are sold out. Why oh why would they have two of greatest acts around play in a measly 341-seat theatre?? I bet the only people who got tickets are people who know someone...

Anyhow, TB and myself have decided the only way to deal with this travesty is to deny the existence of the event. So, what concert? Huh? Nope, no such thing.

I did get my Ben Lee tickets today. So at leat I'm guaranteed one November concert and I know it'll be super fun.

Hmmm, not much other news. Tonight I plan to be slothful. Here's a picture of a sloth. I think they're nifty creatures.

Argh!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh gee, I just wrote a whole post and it got lost. Somehow blogger got stuck on the publishing screen and kept saying 0% of my blog was published and now I'm mad.

Okay, I apparently did not lose said post because I tried publishing this one, and then the other one was there all safe and sound. Jeepers.

I'm still trying to post pictures though. Oh yay!!! Success!!

Okay, here's a neat series of pictures from when Ben was doing the song "Not the Same". At the end of the song, he conducts the crowd in the vocal harmonies at the end of the song. It's so fun and these three pictures totally capture his energy.

Too fun. Now I'd better publish fast before my stupid interent cuts out or some such calamity.

If it feels good do it, even if you shouldn't, don't let people mess you around.

Here's the post I thought I lost, all safe and sound:

Last night I almost got my dear friend TB evicted, or at least got her in trouble with her landlord.

We had decided that we'd just spend a low-key evening hanging out in her neighbourhood. It was so gross and cold and rainy out, so really there wasn't much else to do but go out for coffee and then hang out at her place.

Anyway, I'd made a copy of my new Ben Lee CD for TB to help pressure her to come along to the Ben Lee concert with me. My diabolical plan totally worked; she's so coming along on Nov. 6th. I'm soooo excited.

We then decided to look online to see if there were any other good concerts coming up. We checked the "Just Announced" listings in Now magazine. As we were scrolling down we both saw the same thing:

Sarah Harmer and The Weakerthans acoustic performance as part of the OnStage Series, Glenn Gould Studio (250 Front West), $30.

Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! I screamed really really loudly. Oooops. She lives right above her landlord, so screaming loudly at 10:30 pm probably wasn't a good idea but I could *not* help it. We had been bitching earlier about that the Weakerthans hadn't played Toronto since April, and it was getting time for them to show up here. Apparently, our prayers have been answered.

Or, they will be if I can get tickets. The box office opens on Monday at 11 am, which is totally convienent because that is when I have my prep period. So I'll call as soon at the clock hits 11 am. I read online that there are only 341 seats at this theatre; luckily, the details for this concert haven't been posted on either Sarah Harmer's or The Weakerthans' websites, so I think we'll have a good chance of getting them. Cross your fingers for me!

Anyhow, so I've got *hopefully* two concerts lined up for November which will make up for October which has so far been lamentably concert-free. There's also a Kathleen Edwards/Joel Plaskett show in November and I might try to pressure my roommate into going to that with me.

Since this post has turned totally into a concert post, I'll post some pictures from the Ben Folds concert I went to in August. (I just got them from TB whose friend had taken them at the concert. I, of course, neglected to bring my camera.) Anyway, we'll see if Blogger and my internet are both co-operative. My dumb connection keeps cutting out. Grr.

I wait in 4/4 time, count yellow highway lines...

I had a pretty good Wednesday. A lot of the kids in my period 1 class were away for a field trip, so they just studied for tomorrow's test while I got some marking done. My period 3 class was pretty well behaved. I laughed at one kid who remarked "I wish I was a teacher, then I wouldn't have any homework." I didn't see him staying 2 hours after school marking projects. I also sincerely doubt that he stayed up until midnight last night doing homework either. I stayed up late watching some rather old science videos about ecosystems, hoping that they'd be suitable for my crazy period 4 class. They actually were and even after they complained that the videos were too old, they seemed to enjoy them. They were about the food chain and endangered species, so there were lots of fun shots of animals. It was funny watching their reactions.

Anyhow, even though I did have a good day, I decided to do some shopping. My first stop was the dollar store, where I only really needed to buy scotch tape but I ended up getting some fun retro 70s stickers and insect stickers for work purposes. I always say I got into teaching because it's one of the few jobs where you can use stickers. My supply of cool science stickers is running low, so I figured these dollar store ones would tide me over until I can get my friend to take me to the Sandylion sticker warehouse in Markham where I will stock up. Even though my students think they're cool, I know they appreciate a nice sticker. Once I didn't put stickers on a quiz and one 17 year old boy in my period 4 class was like "Miss, where are the stickers?" It made me laugh.

Anyway, I also got a light up Snow White pen and a Finding Nemo notebook. They were oh so necessary for my quality of life.

Then I wandered over to Payless Shoes. I scored these cute shoes for $21 and the purse for $11.

Okay, since I'm posting pictures of things, here's a picture of a pin-on flower that I found on the ground in February. I was in Yorkville, the neighbourhood in Toronto with the most expensive stores, so I figure it's probably worth far more than I'd ever spend on an accessory. I get a lot of compliments on it. I wore it today.



Finally, here are a picture of some flowers that are in our dining room. On Monday night, I commented to my roommate "Wow! Such pretty flowers! Did you get them today?" and she replied, "No, I got them on Friday." How I went 4 days without noticing them, I don't understand!



On deck for this evening: some homework, some reading and some Martha Stewart: The Apprentice.

p.s. Stupid blogger. It took me for-freaking-ever to post my pictures because blogger was being uncooperative. Grrrrrrrrr...

You don't hear me on the radio, and that's the way I like it.

I was a bit bored on Saturday night, so I decided to wander down to a late-night CD store. I bought Ben Lee's latest CD. (Artwork above - is too girly for a guy's CD? Discuss...) I love it!!! I had seen Ben Lee open for Ben Folds back in August and I had enjoyed his set so much, that I'd considered buying his CD but hadn't gotten around to getting it. Well, that was totally silly because it is an awesome disc! I've been listening to it constantly, and it's got some fun catchy pop tunes that will totally improve anyone's day!

Speaking of that concert, a friend of TB's had gone to the concert with us and had taken some awesome pics. I, of course, had neglected to bring my camera. Anyway, on Sunday, she gave TB a CD with those pics, but I'll have to wait until the weekend to get it, because TB is away this week for work. Anyway, as soon I get those pics, you'd better believe I'll post them here!

After listening to Ben Lee's new CD several times, I wandered over to his website to check out his tour dates, and he's actually playing TO on November 8th!! I'm going to have to definitely go to that. On Saturday night, I played the CD as I played cards with my roommate and her friend, and they digged the Ben Lee CD so I might talk them into going with me.

Scarf update: finished it last night during Desperate Housewives! Christmas present #1 finito! Picture of finished product below. Next on the knitting agenda is a scarf for my friend Jol, and I can totally talk about it on here because she never reads my blog. However, before that, I have to finish my friend MC's birthday present from 2 years ago. Don't ask. Long story of person buying craft kit, getting 3/4s of it finished in a month and taking another 2 years to finish it. And, since I'm a big mouth, she has known about it almost the whole time. I had told her that I'd have it to her by this Thanksgiving for sure (her bday is Sept. 10th) but nope. Anyway, I'm not allowed to start another knitting project until this present is complete. I instructed my roommate to yell at me if she saw me starting a green scarf.

Well, that's enough babbling for now. I have work to do (lesson planning, blech, it never ends) and a book to read. I'm feeling the need for coffee so off to the Second Cup I may go. However, I must get half decaf at this hour...

Paper Anniversary it occurs to me...

Today is exactly one year to the date that I moved into my apartment in Toronto. Before that I had spent 4 months living with my 'rents in Stratford after working in northwestern Ontario for a year. After that experience, I moved back to Stratford to figure out what to do next. I really didn't want to work in Stratford and then I heard through a couple of my old roommates that their former summer roommate was looking for a roommate in Toronto. I knew that deep down that I really did belong in back in Toronto where I had lived for 5 years while attending U of T. Or perhaps those post SARS-era Toronto commercials with the saying "You belong in Toronto" really sunk into my head. Either way, I ended up hooking up with my current roommate and we found a place. I moved in on October 15th and by sheer luck and good timing, I got a long-term occasional position at my school within two weeks of moving in. In May, I got a letter saying that I had a permanent position with my school board, and with more good luck, the fates aligned and there was an opening at the school I was already at. I was so happy to not have to move schools. Anyway, it's been a super profitable year considering I got a position so quickly and it turned into a permanent position so quickly as well. I totally took a risk moving back here and I'm so glad that I did.

Update: Check out the rainbow that was visible from my balcony this afternoon.

There's an eye in me soup.

Well, I finally saw "Tim Burton's Corspe Bride" tonight and I loved it loved it loved it! I think everyone in the whole wide world should go see this movie. I think one of my favourite characters was Victoria's father - pictured below and quoted in my title.


Scarf update: it's now longer than it was before I pulled it all out. I might work on it tonight.

I finished reading "A Million Little Pieces" earlier in the week. I really liked it.

I really don't have much on tap for the weekend. Perhaps tomorrow I'll clean a little bit and I will deal with the mountain of recycling that has accumulated underneath our kitchen sink and maybe go shopping. Argh. I must watch the shopping. It's my default activity for when I have time on my hands and I end up buying something. I feel like I haven't been shopping in forever but I did quite a bit when I was in Stratford last weekend. It's complete silliness I tell you.

And smell the burning leaves in autumn driveways...

This post's title is taken from the song "Stop Joking Around" by my dear Hawksley Workman. He likes autumn and so do I. It's my favourite season. I even enjoy a gray fall day, just like today.

Anyway, here's a picture of the progress of the scarf I started to knit for my aunt.


No, I did not make a mistake and post an earlier picture of the scarf. Last night, while watching Gilmore Girls, I was trimming the wool from where I'd joined two balls together and the knot where I'd joined them had come undone. I'd just started on my third ball of yarn, so I thought it'd be no problem to pull out what I'd done and re-do the knot. Anyway, after I'd pulled out that work, I had to attempt to get my stitches back on the needle. Not so easy with the super fuzzy wool that I'm using. I just got frustrated and pulled out the whole damn thing and started over. I knew that I'd end up dropping and a stitch and making a hole... The perfectionist inside of me just wanted to start over. Anyway, I've learned to be more careful about joining new wool.

Argh. Isn't it ironic when the things we do to relax end up really stressing us out?

Oh, but I do still quite adore knitting and I'm looking forward to re-knitting my scarf while watching "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" tonight.

By the way, my fondness for knitting is pretty much my only flair of domesticity. I hate cooking. Once I finish this post, I intend to go microwave myself a nice dinner.

Yay! The week is half over. Tonight's homework is to start writing a test for one of my grade 9 classes. Tomorrow, my dear period 4 grade 10 class will have a unit test. So, I'm sure they'd appreciate any prayers you could throw their way at 1:40 EST. They need it, since they never crack open their books at home. The way most of the students at my school work is that they bomb quizzes/tests/assignments in the first few weeks of school, then all have nervous breakdowns when midterm marks come out and cry and beg teachers for second chances. So at least I have that to look forward to, and I'll try not to be too smug and say "I told you to study for your chemistry test" when they come crying to me.

Last night TB and I went to see Wallace & Grommit's "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit". It was hilarious. We used to watch the old Wallace & Grommit shorts as stress-relievers in university. I think my favourite part of the movie was when the villian mistook a black rabbit for his toupee and walked away wearing the rabbit on his head.

Long weekend over :(

*sigh* The only positive thing I can say about the end of a long weekend is at least it is the beginning of a short week.

My weekend in Stratford was really good. Here is a run-down of my activities:

a) Did some shopping. Went to Giant Tiger and stocked up on knitting supplies. Since fall is here, I feel like knitting again! Yay! I already started knitting a scarf out of super soft fuzzy wool for my aunt for Christmas. Here is my progress so far:



I also got a new book ("A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey) and read quite a bit of it.

b) Went out for dinner at Falstaff's with some friends. Had a horrible dining experience because:
- the first drink I ordered was tasteless, so I had to send it back;
- I requested a salad without onions and they brought me one with onions, so I had to send it back;
- the second salad they brought me still had onions so I broke down and picked them out;
- after the meal, there was some stuff stuck in my teeth. How embarrassing.

c) Then we went to see Fallen Angels at the Festival. It was super funny. Think "Sex and the City" in the 1920s! It's a play by Noel Coward and quite shocking considering it was written in 1925.

d) After the play, we went to my pal V's house, had a couple beverages and played poker. My friend WJ introduced me to peach schnapps and coke. Yum!

e) On Sunday, I had coffee with my friend R and her baby. Then I had Thanksgiving dinner with the 'rents and went to T's house to watch Desperate Housewives. We are both rather disappointed with the new season.

f) I caught the 8:43 am train back to TO this morning. When I got back, I was super productive and did laundry, cleaned my room, fixed my desk and rearranged furniture. Then I read for a bit and did some work.

And that brings us to:

g) I blogged about my long weekend!

Randomness and Happy Thanksgiving

On Tuesday night, I walked over to TBs so that we could go out for coffee in her neighbourhood. I brought my camera with me especially so I could take a picture of the sign outside of the huge cemetary that I have to walk by to get there. This sign makes me laugh. I think it's a death pun on the level of the funeral home on the Simpsons that proclaims "We put the fun back into funerals."

Yesterday, I noticed that I had a scratchy throat that has now developed into a full-blown annoying cold. I felt like crap today but dragged myself into work anyway. I wanted to start some projects in a couple of classes today, and there was other stuff going on in the school that I didn't want to miss. One annoying thing about teaching is that it's actually more work to not come into work so I always end up never using my sick days unless I'm on death's doorstep. Anyhow, I think I'm feeling a bit better now and I'll be OK tomorrow as long as I remember to stay hydrated at school and take the cold medication that I bought.

After school tomorrow, I'm going to catch the train to visit my parents in Stratford for Thanksgiving weekend. I'm not dragging my laptop home, so I won't be blogging until Monday. On Saturday night, a few of my friends and I are going to see Fallen Angels at the Stratford Festival. Should be a fun weekend and I'm really really looking forward to the break.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A fist pounding on a vending machine, toy diamond ring stuck on her finger

What's up with this crazeee summer weather in October? It was freakin' 27 degrees outside today. Hence I'm using a line from a laid-back summer song ("Girl" by Beck) to start this post.

Anyhow, nothing's better than being stuck in a sweltering classroom with 20-odd teenagers on a beautiful Indian-summer-like day. I hope you all have your sarcasm detectors switched on.

But really, I do like my job. That period four class of mine are always good for a few laughs. Today one of the kids, who frequently gets detentions for being a little too chatty and disruptive during class, hung back after class. He had gotten pretty used to getting detentions and forgot that he didn't have one today. Actually, I think he's gone about four classes without getting one. Anyway, my assistant and I laughed at him staying back.

Also, I got a kid in trouble for not doing anything at all. We were discussing "useful" acids and one kid said "I can think of an acid that is useful" in a tone that made it sound like he was talking about something totally sketchy. I told him he was being inappropriate and he was like "I'm talking about paint thinner, Miss. What did you think I was talking about?" I admitted that I didn't know, it just sounded like he was talking about something bad. Yeah, I love it when I get kids in trouble for nothing. The other day I yelled at some kid for swearing and he was like "I just said something was shiny." I apologized and explained that when people are as ancient as I am, they tend to be a bit hard of hearing.

Random picture of my marking pens. I love these suckers.

Sadly, the manicure I got on Saturday is getting a bit chipped, so I think I'll remove it tonight.

I stole this cartoon from Raymi's blog awhile back. It kills me.

Pictures for April and Raina

Okay, after checking out some buddies' blogs today, there are a couple of pictures I need to post for them.

April posted pictures of her new place at the beginning of September. She pointed out that she had an absolutely fugly dining room light. Now this light has become central to OHFG (Operation Hot Fence Guy). I have the identical fugly dining room light, so I've decided to post a pic of it for April. So April, if you are ever really missing the fugly light once you get HFG to replace it for you, feel free to travel to Toronto to visit its twin. ;)

Today Raina had a great post about how you can learn a lot about a person from their wallet. So here's a picture of my wallet for her:

Here's the story of my wallet. I used to have a very respectable black wallet from the Gap that I really loved. After 4 years, it got pretty beat up and I was in search of a new wallet and I could never find one I liked as much. Anyway, my friend FF took TB and I to an Asian mall in the suburbs so we could go to a cutesy Hello Kitty store. I saw this wallet and really liked and decided to buy it to use for a couple of months until I got sick of it and found a new grown-up wallet.

Well, that was a year ago and I'm still using it because it's such a fun conversation piece. I love when cute boys in music stores and book stores comment on my wallet! *sigh* I just can't give it up because of this. Anyway, a "Nightmare Before Christmas" wallet is a million times better than a Hello Kitty wallet, right Raina? Hee-hee.

Autumn's here... So find a sweater, and you'll be better...

Happy October everyone!

I started my month with a 10 am manicure. In August, I bought this package from a beauty salon near my place. For about $50 I got four visits: one for a haircut, one for a manicure and eyebrows, one for a facial and one for a hair follow-up with 5 accent highlights.

I bought my October Metropass on the way to the salon. TB and I have been arguing about the colours of October Metropass. She thinks they're hideous and I think they're rather fun and a good attempt at being a bit festive. Here's a pic of my newly manicured hand holding my spooky new Metropass:




Starting a new month is always fun when you have a cool Muppet calendar like I do. (Man, I'm geek.) This month it's Sam Eagle who is definitely one of my favourite American patriots.


So anyway, for the remainder of the afternoon I plan on lounging about watching Desperate Housewives and then eventually clean up the mess of wine glasses from yesterday evening. TB came over and we played Cranium with my roommie and her bf. Good times although TB got a little mad at me when I kept insisting that the supposed stretch limo she was sculpting looked like a handgun.

Tonight my pals the Ws, who I helped move at the end of October, are having a housewarming party. I'm looking foward to it.

p.s. The title of my post is from my all-time favourite fall-related song "Autumn's Here" by my dear Hawklsey Workman.

I tried to focus my attention, but I feel so A-D-D.

Well, I'm another day closer to the weekend.

Actually, I can't complain. I had a pretty good day today. My often troublesome period 4 class of jokers almost gave my assistant and I a stomachache from laughter. We were doing a little experiment in class today which required me to cut an apple into slices and put the slices in different liquids to see which was the best preservative. Anyway, as I was cutting the apple, I was talking and I think I started to gesture with the knife (just an everyday bread knife from home - not sharp at all!) and one of the kids was like "Whoa! She's got a knife! We'd better be good today!" and then they were all quiet, except for me and my assistant who started to crack up.

Tonight I was productive and got some cleaning done and had some ice cream with my roommate as we watched a bit of Desparate Housewives. Here's my sad ice cream story. When I went grocery shopping on Sunday, they had Ben and Jerry's ice cream on sale so I bought some. Well, I decided to be healthy and get yogurt instead of ice cream. Unfortunately, they only had what I though was vanilla yogurt but I decided to be good and get that. Well, I got it home and noticed it was not yogurt like I thought, but vanilla ice cream. Vanilla ice cream is soooooooo boring! What's the point? I cheated myself out of a fun flavour and I'm still be unhealthy. Flibberty-jibbet!

Lastly, I snapped a pic of my new iPod case. Here it is:

Wake me up when September ends...

...although it is coming quickly to an end... I resolved that I'd have to give that title to a post in September, and honestly, I thought I'd be thinking that much sooner than this. Even though September has really been too busy for me to complain too much.

Anyhow, the rest of my weekend was good. Saturday was busy. After getting to bed at much past 3 am, I met up with TB and FF for brunch. Then FF and I went shopping on Queen St. where I bought a new purse and a new iPod case! It's black and has sparkly silver stars on it. I'll take a pic tomorrow and post it... Then we met up with a friend from Stratford who was in town and did some more shopping at the Eaton Centre. I got home at about 8 pm and I was absolutely exhausted. I could barely stay awake while watching Desparate Housewives DVDs that evening.

On Sunday, I went to the "Word on the Street" book festival at Queen's Park. This is actually the first year that I've attended. It's super cool - goodness knows why I've always missed it. I got three books for my dad for Christmas, a bag of Canadian fiction for $5 and some super cool subway station buttons from a magazine (spacing.ca I think). I got one for TB and three for me (one work, one home and one for the Christie subway station, which I think has the best subway station name of them all). I'll take a pic of those too and post later. Oh and I also saw Jack Layton milling about. He was carrying a thermos of coffee. Hmmm, is my blog quickly become a source of political gossip? Perhaps!

Today was a pretty good day. No dramas. My period 4 class are still quite the bunch. Even though I think they may be raising my blood pressure and turning some of my hair gray, I must say they're growing on me. They're a bit funny. Although I often have to be careful not to crack a smile lest they see that as a sign of weakness.

I ended up staying at school pretty late today prepping my emergency lesson plans so I wouldn't get in trouble from the VP.

This evening I came home and watched more Desparate Housewives. Last week I bought season 1 on DVD and my roommate and I are totally hooked. TB came by later in the evening. Our plan was to read at a coffee shop (an old tradition) but we just ended up chatting the whole time.

Well, I think I'll watch one more episode of Desparate Housewives then hit the hay.

Edit - Here's a picture of the entire subway button collection. Click here to enlarge it and see if you can find Christie station (which I pass through everyday on my way to work!) By the way, they are missing the new and rather useless Sheppard subway line. Bet people hardly notice. Although I must admit, I do require the Sheppard line for my trips to Ikea.

They all split town and left me sitting with a bottle of wine...

Tonight TB and her roommates had a much-belated housewarming party. She moved in at the beginning of June, I believe. Anyway, it was a very well attended (at least 60 people!) wine and cheese gathering. Here's a crappy camera phone pic of the pile of shoes by the door, that actually extended down the stairs.


Anyway, I had a really good time. I got to see a lot of my Toronto friends who I really don't see that often. I find that I have the tendancy to just get caught up in the daily grind of work and life that I do not see my friends as often as I'd like. So yay for parties! Next week, the Ws (my friends who I helped move at the end of August) are having a house-warming party, so I'll be seeing a lot of the same people. It will be nice to have just a week go by between meetings instead of several months.

I'm hereby resolving to make more of an effort to get together with people. I want to throw a board game party sometime after Thanksgiving. That will be a good start.

Oh, in other news, my roommate is so freaking funny. She came along with me to the party. I guess she was only planning on staying 'til 10:30 and then meeting up with her bf. Well, she totally lost track of time and before she knew it, it was 12:00. She called him and he was well on his way back to the 'burbs. I guess he'd waited at the Starbucks near our apt. until it closed and then headed home. She said to me "I'm such a bad girlfriend. Christielli, make sure you never date me."

I swim with the fishes 'cuz the fish are alright... oh my my..

The title of my post is from the new Matt Good song "Big City Life" which I am so digging and listening to over and over again. Here's a picture from when we were snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef. I decided to add this pic to today's post since it goes with the song and today I've been wishing I was back in Australia, most notably in tropical Queensland.

Every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain.

I spend about 40 minutes a day on the subway per day, as long as things are running smoothly. I'm not much of a subway reader, except for the entertainment/gossip pages of the Metro (Toronto's free commuter paper). Usually I spend my time listening to my iPod, dozing off, thinking and looking at ads.

So, I was happy today when the subway was stopped long enough at St. George station so I could snap a picture of the ad campaign by Global TV that makes me smile. Check out jogging Homer in the background!

And yay for JD for winning Rockstar!

Tonight Martha Stewart's Apprentice is starting. I'm a sucka for reality tv!

L is such a loverly letter for words like licorice and lace...

A couple of nights ago I was bored and searching through iTunes for some new stuff. I came across a 2002 compilation by Nettwerk called "For the Kids". It has some fun stuff on it. I got "The Rainbow Connection" sung by Sarah McLachlan and "La la la la lemon" by the Barenaked Ladies. Does anyone remember that song from Sesame Street? It was a bit sung by Ernie and Bert. Hilarious. I love it.

So I've survived 2/5ths or 40% of my week. Now, 2 of my 3 classes are still really good but my 4th period class is quite the challenge. They were especially bad yesterday, so my assistant and I really came down hard on them today. Honestly! Can they not grow up? I hate having to be bitchy. Argh. Anyway, they were better today, so hopefully some bitchiness will train them and I can go back to being my sweet self.

I'm excited because the English dept. has decided to start a book club. I've always wanted to
join a book club! I think the goal is to read one book per semester (we're teachers so most of our time is spent marking, not reading...) and we're supposed to do one fiction and one non-fiction book. We're supposed to make some suggestions. Hmmm, I pretty much read everything that I want to, so I really can't think of something off the top of my head. I hope they don't pick something I've read before, I'd really like to read something new. Suggestions anyone?

(Aside - April, I'm reading "Shake Hands with the Devil" right now and finding it fascinating. Have you seen the documentary? My roomie's bf is going to lend it to me...)

In other news, tonight is the finale of Rockstar: INXS. I hope JD wins because he is Canadian and, let's face it, he's the edgiest of the three and therefore the most rock-and-roll. I'm pretty sure they'll pick Marty. I have a friend who says that Marty looks like a serial killer - I tend to agree. I'm still sad they offed Suzie though.

Before I watch that, I have other rock-n-roll business to attend to. In A Coma, Matthew Good's best-of collection, is out today. Apparently it's only $22.99 at FutureShop. Now, I do own pretty much every MG(B) CD (I think I'm missing one EP) so the collection isn't really necessary for me, but there are two new songs on it plus it comes with a second disc with acoustic reworkings of selected songs and some rarities PLUS a DVD with the collected music videos. I love when artists put out best-of collections that have enough candy to make it worthwhile for fans who already have the collected works.

So off I go to bask in the glow of commercialism!

And I broke like a bad joke somebody's uncle told at a wedding reception in 1972...

Well, I've just returned from my cousin's wedding. Hence the wedding-related-song-quote-title of this post. It's from the Weakerthans song "Reconstruction Site" which is my very favourite song in the whole wide world. This luckily meant that I didn't have to rack my slightly wine-addled brain very much for a wedding-related-song-quote.

So, the wedding was very nice. My aunt from Stratford has been staying with me for a few days and I took the GO Train out to Mississauga for the wedding. My relatives from Ottawa were also at the wedding. My parents couldn't make it, so I was sort of sent as their representative. I don't even really know my cousin that well.

Anyway, I'm just sort of in a melancholy mood right now. Weddings always make me this way. I guess that's because I'm at the point in my life where get married is the next logical big step, since I've done the whole education thing, and now have the career that I want. But, I'm totally NOT ready to get married. Which works out okay, being as I really don't have anyone to marry at this point. I'm lucky that my family doesn't pressure me about my total lack of marriage inclination or prospects. I was totally expecting to hear some comment about me being the next in line to get married, since I'm the next oldest cousin. But I didn't. The worst I got was having to get up to catch the freaking bouquet. Whenever the bouquet is tossed, I always make sure I'm standing in some spot where the bride could never toss it. My 16 year old cousin did catch the garter however. So I guess the poor sucker's next. Ha! Hmmm, if said wedding occurs anytime soon, it would totally be a family scandal so at least I'll be amused.

Well, another reason for my melancholy could be that I haven't done anything very fun in awhile. I need to go out or something. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride has opened early here in Toronto at the Paramount Theatre, so I think I should go see it one night this week. And top it off with a round of martinis. That would be good.

Edit: I just thought of something funny that happened. I was talking to my 16 year-old cousin and grilling him about what kind of music he listened to (I always fear for my little cousins' musical souls). He asked me "Have you ever heard of Green Day?" I laughed so hard at the child. "Of course I have heard of Green Day," I said, "I've been listening to them since 1994!" Then I proceeded to give him a long lecture about how he'd better make sure he listens to albums as a whole because downloading has lessened people's appreciation of albums as a whole - which is a sad, sad thing.

Live through this and you won't look back.

I decided to quote a line from my most-listened-to-song (see previous post) for the title of this post.

Now I really really do love my job. In all honesty, I could never see myself doing anything else. But some days...

Today was picture day (pain in the ass), another teacher broke my desk in my classroom (don't ask), I had to give a kid detention for writing on a desk, two of our three photocopiers are down and my last period class were incorrigible. One of them banged her head on the wall while goofing off and I kicked another one out for throwing paper while the rest of them were overstimulated by the broken desk and the injury.

But, on the bright side... most of them are going to be away tomorrow for the Terry Fox run. They become so socially conscious when it means a day off school.

Thank God tomorrow's Friday.

Evolution Schmevolution...

Wow, I can totally tell that summer vacation is over by my lack of posting. So far it's been a good start to the year but I'm soooooooo tired. It's been really hot too (30 degrees plus humidity today) so that sucks. I'm actually in a classroom with air conditioning but even it was boiling in the afternoon.

Anyway, I was so exhausted that came home a bit earlier and had a nap. Now I'm spending time getting reaquainted wtih my good friend television. I watched the American version of The Office, a bit of the final Cdn Idol and right now I'm watching what I think is the final episode of Tommy Lee Goes to College. That show makes me laugh. Poor Tommy's having trouble in chemistry. Now it's time for Rockstar. Go Cdns go!

So I don't have too much else to say, unless you want to hear about how I really need to be prepping a lesson on drawing Bohr diagrams of atoms.

On another note, one thing I really I love about my iPod is that keep track of how often you listen to songs. Here are my top 10 listened to songs:

1) Your Ex-Lover is Dead - Stars
2) Souvenirs - Christine Fellows
3) Sleeps with Butterflies - Tori Amos
4) Natural Disaster - Joel Plaskett
5) Every Day is a Holiday - Esthero
6) Mushaboom - Feist
7) Reunion - Stars
8) Lola Stars and Stripes - The Stills
9) All That I've Got - The Used
10) Agoraphobe - Matthew Good and Ryan Dahle

I can't believe that I've listen to that Used song that much. That's the only song of their I know. Their lead singer kind of grosses me out from when he was on The Osbournes.

p.s. Everyone in the world shoud be watching the Daily Show this week for their "Evolution Schmevolution" special!

Affection has two Fs, especially when you're dealing with me.

Week one of the 2005/2006 year is finito. It was a pretty good week. I can't complain. 2 out of 3 of my classes are really good and the third isn't so much. I've had worse though.

On Friday night, Sloan was playing Frosh Week at U of T. In 1998, when I was a frosh (oh God, I'm old) , The Killjoys played. Anyone remember "Today I Hate Everyone"? TB and I both decided to go to the show. It was on Back Campus and open to anyone who knew it was going on. We figured we were totally entitled to it after all of the $$ we've funnelled to U of T over the years. It was a really good show. Nothing's better than Sloan on a sunny day.

Of course, of course, of course I neglected to bring my camera but I did snap a couple shots with my phone. The first is a nifty juxtapostion of the stage with the UC Clock Tower in the background. You can kind of make out Chris Murphy in the second.




Anyway, today I slept in until noon. I needed it since I was averaging about 4 hours of sleep each night last week. My roommate has her bf's car today and she was nice enough to drive me to the grocery store. I dropped $100 on heavy stuff that I don't normally buy since I have to lug my groceries home.

TB came over this evening. My roommie baked a tasty dessert (it was kind of like a cake with plums in it) and we drank red wine and watched the Phantom of the Opera. I loved that musical when I was in grade 6 and my parents were nice enough to take me to Toronto that summer to see it. We went to the Eaton Centre and I was really impressed by its vastness. Little did I know that one day, the Eaton Centre would become "the mall" in the sentence "I'm going to the mall."

Well, tomorrow I've marking and planning to do. Oh, and I guess it's the season premiere of The Simpsons. Woo-hoo!

Skipping the TIFF

I used to live in the heart of the Toronto International Film Festival district. Every year at this time, I'd have to weave around long lines of Festival Patrons while trying to complete my daily errands. However, it was always very exciting since you'd never know when you'd see a famous person like Sarah Polley just passing by or Jason Biggs sitting by the window of a hotel bar.

Anyway, now that I've moved a bit north, I barely even know that the Film Fest is on. TB and I were thinking of taking in a flick this year and I spent about an hour looking for a good movie that had available tickets and would fit into our schedules. Lamentably, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride was sold out (no surprises). A lot of the big name movies were sold out or had tickets left for a weekday morning show. I was very excited to see that there were tickets available for a Saturday am showing of the new Wallace & Grommit moive, but it's for next Saturday when I have a cousin's wedding to go to. *sob*

There were a few questionable movies that we could have gotten tickets for, but $22 is a lot of money to spend on what could be a crappy movie. I've been burned by the Festival before. In 1998, I saw some Billy Baldwin movie that was the most pointless, confusing thing ever. It was called Shattered Glass and I doubt it was ever released. One of the movies sounded okay and had some stars in it, but then I read the phrase "alternate reality" in the synopsis. Warning bells for a far-too-cerebral-artsy-type film went off in my head.

So I think we're just going to have a drink in Yorkville and keep an eye out for celebrities and skip the movies this year.

Day One

Well, I survived day one. I won't even say how many more there are, even though I know.

It was only a half day, which was sweet and then we had meeting in the afternoon.

It's nice to see all my colleagues again. Although it almost feels like I never left, and the last two months didn't even really exist.

My wrist is sore from helping poor little grade nines figure out how to work the locks for their lockers.

Right now I'm watching Rockstar and cheering for the Canadians. Then it's off to bed. I don't like this waking up at 6 am.

Remember how I complained that I didn't get Death Cab for Cutie tickets? Well, it was just announced today that Matt Good is playing the same night. So it worked out! Also, my pal told me that Jon Stewart is doing stand up at Massey Hall. I want to go! Tickets are kind of expensive so I don't know if I'll find someone to go with, so we'll see if I end up going...

Then Labour Day came and went and we shed what was left of our summer skin.

The title of my post is from the song "Summer Skin" from the new Death Cab For Cutie CD. Did I mention I love that CD?

Anyway, it's quite aproppriate, since Labour Day is almost over. And it was a pretty good one. For the second year in a row, TB and I attended Beachfest down at Sunnyside Park. This year we had our good friend ML in tow, which was great, since I haven't seen him in forever and a day.

Last year we went mainly to see Hawklsey Workman and ended up catching some Canadian Idol finalists and took off after that because the last band was The Calling, which none of us had a calling to see (insert groan here).

This year the line-up kicked ass! Sarah Slean, K-OS, Ron Sexsmith, Stephen Page of BNL, David Usher, Kathleen Edwards, Tom Cochrane and Blue Rodeo! Did I mention it was *free*?!? Now, unfortunately we missed K-OS because the website said he was on at 1:40 but then they switched it 12:45. Anyway, let's never speak of that again. Also, we didn't catch Sarah Slean because she was too early. We'd have to leave before noon to see her, and that was too early for all of us - ye gods, how am I going to survive going back to work?

Anyway, it was such a good concert and the weather was great. It wasn't too hot (like last year). We also had a really great spot (last year we were really far back.) Everyone was great and Blue Rodeo was fun because they had Ron Sexsmith, Sarah Slean, Kathleen Edwards, Tom Cochrane and Stephen Page come up and sing along with them. I love that.

The other thing I like about Beachfest is that the airshow is going at the same time, so you get to enjoy the music while watching the Snowbirds. Kathleen Edwards was the (un)lucky performer who got to play during the airshow; she was great - she said that she was happy just being their background music and joked that the guys in the sky must have definitely graduated high school, whereas she'd just scraped by.

Poor David Usher! He had walked from his hotel to the park and got hit by a car on the way! But, the show must go on, and he put on a great show. ML pointed out that wouldn't it be funny if you were the person who hit David Usher; it would make great conversation every time a David Usher/Moist song was on.

Quote of the evening goes to ML. David Usher asked if people would prefer an up-tempo song or a slow song for his last and everyone was all for the up-tempo. He said "I guess you don't want to be intimate with me." ML yelled "I'll be intimate with you David!"

Well, that's my long rambling review of my afternoon. What a great way to end the summer. Oh, I of course neglected to bring my camera, so I snapped some pics with my phone. Here's an example. This one's Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, believe it or not. Honestly, why did I buy a digital camera when I leave it at home all the time? Welcome to my blog, home of crappy camera phone pics.

Well, that's it folks. Gotta get ready for work tomorrow.

p.s. I'm totally digging this mash-up of Green Day vs. Oasis vs. Travis vs. Eminem. Look on the right hand side of that page to download it.

So why are you alone wasting your time when you could be with me wasting your time?

Have I mentioned that I absolutely love the new Death Cab for Cutie CD? Good on them for making me happy after Transatlanticsm. I was in love with that CD and I was totally expecting their follow up to most likely disappoint me. But it hasn't! It's not as grand nor as sweeping as Transatlanticsm, but it's a fun little disc.

Anyway, I have been spending far too much time today reading articles about the situation in New Orleans. This one made me sad that I've never visited New Orleans (make sure you read reason #15). I read another article that described how so many people couldn't leave the city because they were living paycheque to paycheque and couldn't afford a way to get out. I wish I could remember where I read this article since it was very well done.

Make sure you read Michael Moore's letter to Bush if you haven't.

Well, this afternoon I went and got myself a new pair of shoes for school. I can't believe it starts on Tuesday. I really wanted to get a new pair of running shoes, but I figured since the kids have to wear black dress shoes with their uniforms, then maybe I should too. Then, when they try to get away with wearing running shoes, I can tell them that I'd like to wear running shoes too but out respect for them, I am not, so they'd better go get their proper shoes on their feet. So instead of getting fun black comfy runners, I got this fun chunky pair of black dress shoes. Here they are in all of their dress code glory.

Gets me frustrated...

I am very angry at myself. Today I went to run an errand, and I managed to lose my subway pass. Argh. It either fell out of my pocket or purse or wherever I'd put it. So I'll have to go buy another one tomorrow. I only hope that whoever finds it can use it and will benefit from it.

Anyway, that put me in a bad mood, so I've decided to cheer myself up by watching a tape of the Muppet Show that I have. I love the muppets. I just watched an episode with Peter Sellers. Last night I watched "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" which was all right, although I find biopics are never my favourite types of movies, since normally the protagonists aren't extremely likable. But, Geoffrey Rush was excellent in the role of Peter Sellers. Now I'm watching an episode with John Cleese and he's stretching poor Gonzo's arms out of shape.

One thing I was rather shocked at was that they had a little skit where Ms. Piggy was dressed in a wedding dress and was obviously pregnant and singing a song about how she was left at the altar. Then Kermit comes out and sings "I can't get to church to marry you today. My wife won't let me." It was funny but a little shocking. Can you imagine what the religious right would say about this today? They pick on the Teletubbies and SpongeBob for supposed homosexual references, so what would they say about inter-species -pre-martial-adulterous sex resulting in an illegitimate pregnancy? Good thing this was safely aired in the simpler days of the 1970s.

I love the old critics on the Muppet Show. My pal TB and I have decided we're going to be roommates in the nursing home and totally act like these guys. They're also my calendar boys for September (I have a Muppet Show calendar).

On another note, I just read about how Kanye West blasted George W. Bush's "response" to the hurricane. A poignant quote from West: "I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, they say they're looting; you see a white family, it says they're looking for food." Here is an article claiming that our dear friend Bill O. at Fox News has been doing the same thing. Another interesting thing is that the Rev. Jesse Jackson has been saying the same thing about the response to the hurricane, but as always, statements from celebrities will always garner more attention than from prominent community leaders.

Well, as my friends the Muppet critics just said, "See you next time - unless I break a leg! Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

Which one of these things doesn't belong?

Let's play a very fun game of match the website headline to the news organization!

Here are yesterday's morning headlines from the websites of MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN:

"Where's the Help?"

"The Agony Goes On"

"Personal Attention"

Can you match the headlines to the networks? Betcha can't guess which one is Fox! For the answers, click here.

(Found this at Antonia Zerbisias' blog. She's the media critic for the Toronto Star. She's great; she actually went on Bill O'Reilley's show and showed him a thing or two.)

Those sneaky devils at Apple are so good at marketing...

There are currently several subway cars painted with iPod ads. I was bored while waiting for my train today so I snapped this picture.

A certain cable company be damned!

So, I spent most of my last official day of summer vacation by first sleeping in and then just lounging about reading a lot of news articles online.

I was quite dismayed when I turned on the TV this afternoon to find a bunch of channels missing. When I'd first gotten cable, I'd called the cable company and asked them if there was any way I could avoid paying the $75 installation fee. Turned out that I could sign up for digital cable for free for the first month, and then downgrade afterwards. So, we did that and after that month (or was it two?) of having far too many channels, we downgraded to basic cable, since neither of us really spends that much time watching TV (I just require the Daily Show, Simpsons reruns and a good dose of cheesy reality shows - all available via basic cable). Anyhow, after I'd switched to basic cable, we still got about 6o channels! Sweet! And I was being charged for basic cable, so there were no complaints from me.

Well, I guess the so-called jig is up. I feared this day would come. I'm actually finding myself missing CNN (good background noise since the CBC is on strike), MuchMoreMusic and Showcase, since the subway has been full of ads for cool shows on that channel. Oh, and I'll miss the Comedy Network since they show the Daily Show at 11 pm versus CTV's 12:05 am.

So, if that wasn't enough hassle from that company (how dare they take away something that I didn't deserve anyway?), I went to the video store chain that they own to rent a movie and they claimed I had a late fee of $20 for a movie called "Lost in La Mancha"! Has anyone heard of that movie??? I don't even know if such a movie exists and I know for sure I didn't rent it. Anyhow, I had to argue with the poor cashier, who seemed pretty new to the job, but finally one of her co-workers told her to wipe the fee off of my account.

(Edit: I just googled "Lost in La Mancha", it does exist but it definitely is not something I'd rent!)

Unnatural Disaster

Normally, I'd be posting about the trivial events of my day, like how I got my hair cut for back to school and that I went to a Blue Jays game in the evening (they lost).

But, I've just been reading up on the effects of Hurricane Katrina in the Southern US and I just can't be bothered to write about those non-entities.

I found it unbelievable a few days ago that New Orelans had to be evacuated.

I found it unbelievable that thousands of people had to camp out in the Superdome.

I can't describe what I feel when reading sentences like: "He described scenes of lawlessness and desperation, with people simply dragging corpses into corners." Or: " 'They have quite a few people running around here with guns,' he said. 'You got these young teenage boys running around up here raping these girls.' " (Both of these come from a CNN article.)

I looked through some other blogs to see what others are saying. I think April's post today was excellent. Here is an interesting post from Matthew Good.

I'm beyond sad to watch how this tragedy is unfolding. I can't believe that there wasn't better preparation put in place for this hurricane that was ample warning about. There's nothing more I can really say.