If you left it up to me, every day would be a holiday from real.

Happy New Year! I've made it back safe 'n sound from Cuba. After chatting with my family and my roommate (who got engaged while she was away in BC over the holidays), reading my fave blogs and transferred my 200 odd Cuba pics to my computer, I battled blogger to upload some for your viewing pleasure. By the way, the weather was heavenly. I miss the sun already. Anyway, without any more delay, here are pictures from sunny Cuba.

Here are a couple views of the resort outside of Varadero that we stayed at:


Here's the beach:

Some Cocotaxis on the streets of Valadero. We were warned not to take these since they're quite dangerous. Passengers are sitting over fuel tanks. Not the place I'd want to be in a crash.

Al Capone used to have a house in Varadero. Here it is. Hmmm, the life of a 1920s mobster could be the life for me.

Now here are some pictures from our day trip to Havana (which was yesterday believe it or not!).

Here's a view of Havana's crumbling architecture. These bulidings are across from the Capitol.

I'm not sure what this building was, but it was beautiful.

The Cathedral:

A view of the market in Havana:

A painting that I bought there:

Havana's cemetery. It was huge and one of the most incredible sights that I saw.

Sunset over Havana.

Last night's show at the Tropicana Nightclub. It was amazing. They also give each table of 4 a huge bottle of rum and one can of coke apiece. Had some mighty stong drinks while watching the show.

This morning's sunrise as seen from the balcony of our room:

Anyway, it was a great trip. I really needed that sunshine. I think I'm kind of sort of energized to get back to the old grind. Yeah right. Thank goodness I have three days until I have to do that again.

Later!

Edit: There should be text in between pictures. Sometimes the text disappears on my computer, but will appear if I highlight it. I don't understand why. Grr at Blogger. Anyway, highlight if you can't see it.

2005 Top 25 List

I've been working so hard on my list of my favourite things/experiences/whatnots from the past year. Here it is (before I leave for Cuba in less than 12 hours)...

1) My trip to Australia! - 3 weeks of pure bliss. I wanna go back.

2) Securing a permanent position - At the beginning of 2005, I was filling a long term occasional position. I was pretty lucky to secure this position 2 weeks after moving back to Toronto. Anyway, the board hired me on for permanent full-time work and then the fates alligned and a position opened up at the school where I was working. I really loved that school and was sad at the prospect of having to transfer. Thankfully, I didn't have to.

3) Blogging & Blog Buddies - I love blogging. I'm totally addicted to blogging and reading blogs. Even better I love the comments that I recieve and the people who make them.

4) New Harry Potter book and Harry Potter movie - I foresee suffering Harry Potter withdrawl in '06.

5) Beachfest - kickass Labour Day concert where I saw David Usher, Kathleen Edwards, Stephen Page of BNL, Ron Sexsmith and Blue Rodeo. Oh, Tom Cochrane was there too (life is a highway).

6) Christine Fellows - saw her play in June at the Mod Club. Fell in love with her cd Paper Anniversary

7) Ben Folds/Rufus Wainwright/Ben Lee @ the Kool Haus - Ben Folds is one of my all-time favourite muscisians. Having him paired with Rufus, who I also love, was too awesome. And, I also go introduced to Ben Lee.

8) Ben Lee - awhile after seeing Ben Lee play at the aforementioned show, I bought his CD Awake is the New Sleep which, as you all know, I love. Then, I saw him play an incredible show in November where I got a picture, flowers and an autograph. Love him.

9) Finally getting a digital camera - comes in handy for travelling and blogging.

10) Kathleen Edwards' Back To Me - Love this CD.

11) Al Franken's The Truth - I love politcal humor. As long as it is cut on a left bias.

12) Desparate Housewives Season 1 on DVD - That distracted me from marking and lesson planning.

13) Stars - Your Ex-Lover is Dead from their stellar CD Set Yourself On Fire is my most-listened-to song on the ol' iPod. Also got to see them play an incredible live show in December.

14) Book Clubs - Joined the brand spankin' new staff book club at work (read The Kite Runner). Formed a book club with some current and old roommates (read The Lovely Bones). Great discussions followed. Both clubs to resume in 2006 (reading Freakonomics and Pope Joan respectively).

15) The Beekeeper by Tori Amos - Another CD I love.

16) Sloan! - 2 free summer shows - What's better than seeing your all-time second band for free twice in the summer?

17) My friends - These people consistently kick ass year in and year out and are responsible for me not going off the proverbial deep end. I often question how I was able to hook up with such fabulous people.

18) Parties - There were some good parties in '05. I threw two baby showers in May and attended some super fun housewarming and birthday parties, among other things, this year. Parties were excellent because of #17.

19) Apples to Apples - I bought this game to play at one of the showers I threw this year. Too much fun.

20) Corpse Bride - My favourite movie of '05? Perhaps. I'm so psyched for it to come out on DVD in January so I can watch it over and over like a 5 year old.

21) My 1st semester classes - I've really lucked out with three really nice classes - even my period 4 class who drives me crazy. All in all, they're really nice kids

22) Peach Schnapps and Coke - My friend Joanna introduced me to this new tasty mix of two things I wouldn't have thought that go together.

23) Play On - The Stratford Festival introduced a program where the under 30 set can get play tickets for $20. As I result, I saw As You Like It (music by the Barenaked Ladies) and Noel Coward's Fallen Angels. Even better news (espeically for those of you in the Toronto area), they're continuing the deal next year.

24) A Million Little Pieces - Definitely the book that made the biggest impression on me this year. I still shudder thinking about the root canals he had.

25) My new bed - So much better than sleeping on a futon. Thanks Ikea!

Honourable Mentions:
My iPod - Got it in '04 but it totally made '05 all the better.
Cuba - Okay, it's an '06 thing, but looking forward to it has made the end of '05 exciting.

All the best to all of you in 2006 and thanks for reading and commenting! See ya in a few days!

Some Photos from Home

Well, I made it back all safe and sound to Toronto. And instead of unpacking from my trip and repacking for my next trip, I'm procrastinating.

What's everyone else got planned for New Year's? This new year will be very low key for me. One of my travel buddies and I are just gonna kick around my apartment. We gotta leave for the airport at 3 am. I don't really want to waste my first day in Cuba being all tired and hungover.

Tomorrow I promise I will post my "Christieilli's Favourite Enjoyabilities of 2005" list. I'm a loser and I've been jotting down ideas for a couple of weeks.

Anyway, here are some pictures from my trip home:

This is my favourite Christmas decoration of all time. Last year they didn't have it up and I was sad, thinking that the family may have moved away. My dad called me this year as soon as they put it up.


This house is next door to the Grinch house. I've wanted to own it all my life. (Now that I'm older I only want to own it as long as it comes with staff.)

Have a good new year's eve eve everyone!

No egg nog. In fact, no nog period.

Isn't it always the weirdest feeling when Christmas is over? It's crazy that we spend so long waiting for one day and then in a blink of an eye it's over.

Anyhow, I had a lovely Christmas. It seemed to be the year where people decided that I needed lots of Simpons paraphernalia. I got:

• 3 Simpsons board games (Loser Takes All, Simpsons Monopoly and the Ultimate Simpsons Trivia Game)
• A deck of Simpsons cards that comes in a Duff can
• Season 7 of the Simpsons on DVD
• Simpsons candy
• 2 Simpsons Christmas tree ornaments
• A book called "Planet Simspon"

So as you can see, I've garnered a bit of a reputation as a Simpsonian among my family, friends and well-wishers.

Anyhow, it was a huge rush to get home in time. The Christmas concert on the last day of school was very long, and then our staff luncheon was very long and then I had to rush home and pack. I had soooo much to carry with me that I decided to leave the heavy laptop at home. So, right now I'm at the good old SPL (Stratford Public Library) checkin' my email, catching up on my blogs and posting.

Note: Oh wow! I hear sirens. Makes me feel at home despite being back in the small town. Right now I'm suppressing laughter as people are looking out the window to see what is all the hubbub. Sirens are a rarity in Stratford.

Anyway, I am having a lovely time catching up with the 'rents and the friends. I've also been hanging around the house reading a lot and doing some shopping in Stratford. The mall was soooooooo empty on Boxing Day, although I did manage to get a fun new skirt and some new fun tanktops for Cuba (3 more days!). According to the headline in the Stratford paper, I must be blind because it reported that the mall experienced a very busy boxing day.

I took a picture of my all-time favourite Christmas decoration which I will post when I'm back in Toronto on the 30th. Catch ya then! Enjoy the waning moments of 2005!

Almost done!

Well, today was the last full day of classes! And, it was also the day I told my students that I'd be in the Christmas spirit when I've been dealing with the comment "Oh c'mon Miss, get into the Christmas spirit!" when I've made them do work.

Anyhow, I couldn't get a TV period 1, so that poor class did get a full lesson today. However, I game 'em a pretty easy assignment and told them that if they worked on it in class, they wouldn't have any homework over the holidays. My evil plan worked and they worked well. Muahahaha!

I was luckier in periods 3 and 4 since I did get a TV. In both classes, they watched The Grinch with Jim Carey as I marked a pile of assignments.

Tomorrow we have 15 minute classes and then a Christmas concert. The kids go home at noon, the staff have lunch, then we go home and get two glorious weeks off!

Anyhow, tomorrow I'm taking the train home to Stratford. I'll stick around there for a week, then come back to TO for New Year's and then off to Cuba.

I'm not sure when I'll get around to posting next, so Merry Christmas to all you crazy kids!!

p.s. Check this out for some holiday laughs at the expenses of some deserving celebrities.

God rest ye merry gentlemen let nothing you dismay.

Today my period 1 grade 9s were all stressed out about their period 2 English test on "To Kill A Mockingbird". I commented that I had read that book when I was in high school and that I'd really liked it (most of them hate it). I hear one kid grumble "As if they teach the same books for thirty years..."

Me: "Thirty years!!! Thirty years!?! What!?! You think it's been thirty years since I've been a student??"

I can hear other kids mumbling "No, Miss it's only been maybe, what, five years since you've been in high school... maybe ten..."

Me: "Okay, that's a bit better. I thought I was going to have rip up the easy quiz I was going to give you guys and write a new super super hard one."

Anyway, they make me laugh. Some of my students want to know my age and I usually just say I'm ancient. If they were really astute, they'd be able to figure it out since I once told them that I was 10 when the Simpsons first aired. (Doesn't everyone know that was in 1990?) Usually they can get it in the 25 ballpark but I refuse to disclose the magic number.

So I'm feeling much less stressed and overwhelmed today. I just spent a small fortune on candy for students, coworkers and some friends.

Last night my roommate and exchanged Christmas gifts. She's off to BC for Christmas. She got me "March of the Penguins" on DVD and a nifty Christmas ornament. I love that movie, plus I can work it into the grade 10 ecosystems unit and let the TV teach the kids for a bit.

Well, I can smell that my dinner's almost ready.

ps Download the version of the carol above by the Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan. It's very merry. ;)

The snow's coming down. I'm watching it fall.

Getting ready for the holidays is no holiday, I tell you.

I feel that I have this gigantic teetering mountain of paper that is going to crush me any day now. And it's only growing by the day. And I need to have it all dealt with before the holidays because when I get back, I have tests to write, projects to assign, exams to write and a lot more curriculum to shove down the poor kids' throats before the end of the semester. Hopefully, my days in Stratford and Cuba will divert my impending burn out.

And, if school isn't going to burn me out, the holidays are. My to-do list is shrinking, but it's all of the chores I hate that I've left to the end. Namely, I have to figure out who I need to give Christmas cards too. Then, I have to clean my apartment and clean out the fridge and pack for going home. All chores I do not like.

Okay, rant over. Feel better.

I did have an enjoyable Christmas moment today. I left school when it was dark and it was snowing. It was the fun kind of snow - big fluffy flakes coming down at a slow pace. Hawksley Workman's version of "Silent Night" was playing on the iPod and I felt very Christmas-y and happy and not stressed out.

On that note, I'm gonna go tackle those Christmas cards. Perhaps literally.

In the year of my decline, sucking freezies in the rain...

Stars show = amazing! What an awesome live band! Spectacular. I love the whole "gang band" trend that's going on - there were eight people on stage including a violinist and a saxophone player. And, they played all of my favourite songs from "Set Yourself on Fire". It's such a great album. Oh at at the end of the show, they played "Fairytale of New York" which is such a fun Christmas song (It's originally by the Pogues).

I tell ya, Canadian bands are the best. If I was only allowed to listen to Canadian music, I really would complain that much... Although I'd miss my beloved Bens (Folds & Lee).

I wish I had some pictures. I actually brought my camera, but I could get any decent shots because of the lights and then my camera battery died. So instead, I found a Stars video ("Ageless Beauty") for y'all. It's not my favourite Stars song although I still love it. I really wish they had the video for "Reunion". They were filming for the band's latest video during the show, so who knows, maybe I'll be in it.

Gotta go do dishes, wrap gifts, and watch Desperate Housewives. Pile of marking is going to be neglected. Christielli out.

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

I've totally ripped off the idea of this post from Lea, but I did get her permission and they do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (don't they?).

Dear Weakerthans,

You know you're my favourite band and I love you. However, I have a teensiest bone to pick with you. Ever since I fell in love with you in 2001, I have seen you, on average, twice a year. Well, 2005 is fast coming to a close and I have only seen you once this year. More Toronto shows are needed. I think in order to rectify this situation, you need play at least 4 Toronto shows in 2006 (opening slots don't count) and put out a new CD.

Dear Stephen Harper,

I know you really don't want to be Prime Minister. Heck, leading any country is a lot of work. Look at all the troubles your Republican buddy in the US is having this year. Plus, if you do become Prime Minister, then you won't be able to criticize Prime Minister Paul Martin anymore, because he won't be Prime Minister anymore. Admit it, you like being the leader of the Opposition and that's why you screwed up all of the elections in the past. Here are some suggestions that will help you lose the election:
1) Make yourself look as closed minded as possible. You've always been good at this.
2) Emphasize how much you love George Bush and look forward to being his doormat. If he says jump, you'll say "how high?" in a heartbeat.
3) Talk about what you'd really like to do if you became PM. That's enough to scare anyone away.
If you need any help throwing the election, let me know. I don't want you to be PM either.

Dear Luke Wilson,

After seeing The Family Stone, I realized that you are so my boyfriend. I'm sure you've filmed many movies in Toronto and you must love the city. Email me, and you can come visit.

Dear Apartment,

Why can't you clean yourself? You don't have to go to work like my roommate and I do. You just sit around all day. Would it be too much to ask you to dust yourself, clean the floors and do the dishes? It would be highly appreciated, and I'd go buy you some new furniture at IKEA if you did.

Dear Visa,

Can I win what I bought this month? I did a lot of Christmas shopping and I put my trip to Cuba on my Visa. Please let me know in advance if I won what I bought, so that I can by a lot more. I promised my apartment some new furniture in the letter above.

Dear IKEA,

I need to buy new furniture since I'm going to win what I buy on my VISA this month, plus I did promise my apartment some new furniture. Also, I need to get this place into better shape for when my new boyfriend Luke Wilson is coming to visit. All I'm asking you is to start sending cute Swedish guys to put together the furniture for me. Luke won't mind.

Dear Stars,

I'm really looking forward to seeing you tomorrow afternoon. Please play in Winnipeg for m@ .

Sincerely,
Christielli

You look so good in the shoes of an outcast.

No snow day today. I think my trip to work was faster today than the usual. Anyhow, my lovely grade 9s all made it to school safe and sound but my period 4 class of grade 10s was pretty empty. Ironically, the fewer of them there are, the worse they are. They figure that since there are only 9 of them in class, it's time to be loud and demanding and refuse to do any work. And of course, my favourites, who get seats of honour right by my desk, are the ones that show up.

Anyway, here's the weekend rundown:

1) Looks like I'm going to see "Memoirs of a Geisha" with some friends. Loved the book when I read it years ago.

2) Tomorrow, my friend from home may visit me if the weather's cooperative. Either way, I gotta get some shopping in and do some laundry.

3) Have a wine and cheese party on Saturday night in honour of my friend finally finishing her undergrad courses.

4) Stars is Sunday afternoon!!!!!

5) I have a gigantic pile of marking to deal with on Sunday night.

Hope you all have fabulous weekends!

And I got up in the ring because I had you there in my corner.

7 more school days until Christmas break.

Cuba's officially a go. It looks like we're leaving on Jan. 1st at the ungodly hour of 6:10 am and we're returning on the 5th or something like that. I'm excited!

I'm looking forward to the weekend. On Saturday night, my friends J&A are throwing a party for another university friend who has finally completed her undergrad. Sunday afternoon is my highly anticipated Stars concert. And, my friend W, freshly back from teachers' college in Australia, may come crash here for the weekend.

Last night (or was it the night before?) I started to draft my list of my favourite things of 2005 to post at the end of the year. I love year end lists. So far I'm up to 23 things. I wonder if anything else super fun will happen in the waning days of '05...

Election Update: Last election, I read an article in Chart magazine about how Nardwuar (crazy Vancouver guy who writes for Chart/appears on Muchmusic) borught a 1960s game called "The Hip Flip" to each of the 3 main candidates. Anyway, Paul Martin was the only candidate who hip flipped with Nardwuar and he ending up winning the election. Jack Layton said he'd play after he had time to read the rules, and Stephen Harper refused (of course). According to this article, Nardwuar is going to see who'll Hip Flip with him this time around. This stuff cracks me up.

20 Nuggets of Randomness

Lucky for you kids, Raina tagged me to post 20 random facts about myself. So you've been saved from reading my harping about how I hate Mondays, about how I'm tired of arguing with teenagers and about how it's frickin' cold out. Phew.

So here goes.

1) Do you remember the movie "Cool Runnings" about the Jamaican bobsled team? I haven't seen it years, but when I saw it when it came out, I cried not once, but twice while watching it. I cried at the climatic ending, of course, but also at the part when one guy was holding a postcard of Buckingham Palace saying he was going to live there one day and another guy said "Dude, you can't live there - that's the Queen's house." Highly emotionly charged stuff apparently.

2) I've had four friends have five babies in the past two years and they've all been boys!! Can someone have a girl? It's more fun to buy clothes for girls, dammit!

3) My middle name is Alexandra. That name was derived from my maternal grandfather's name.

4) My first name was derived from my paternal grandfather's name. His name was Christmas. Guess when his birthday was?

5) I'm half Polish, one quarter English, and one quarter Welsh.

6) This year I splurged and bought myself two Gwen Stefani LAMB handbags on Ebay partly because I really like the lamb charm that comes with them.

7) I've had five different jobs in my life. I worked in a restaurant in high school, I had a job at an art gallery one summer in university, I worked in a government office for two summers and I've taught at two different schools.

8) I suspected that I might want to be a high school teacher when I finished my first year of university. I didn't know for sure that it was the right career for me until I started practice teaching.

9) I won $25 in grade eight for a farm safety poster that I designed with the catchy slogan "A Safe Farm is a Happy Farm."

10) I took piano lessons for years and can play with amazing mediocrity, even though I'm pretty rusty now.

11) My favourite animated movie is Disney's Robin Hood. I think Robin Hood is pretty hot for a cartoon fox. I'd be all over him if he was not animated and if he was not a fox.

12) Every year from grade 8 to grade 12, I won my school's French award even though I cannot speak the language very well. However, I can conjugate a mean verb. Or at least I used to be able to.

13) I don't really like hockey.

14) I wish I was here right now:


(Cape Tribulation Beach, Queensland, Australia)

15) My birthday is February 15th.

16) I hate the book I'm reading right now, but since I'm stubborn, I insist on finishing the damned thing. The damned thing being 4 Blondes by Candance Bushnell (creator of Sex and the City).

17) Favourite song of the moment is "Hockey Skates" by Kathleen Edwards. The line that's really resonating for me is "I'm tired of playing defense and I don't even have hockey skates."

18) 9 more days of school until the holidays and 5 more days until the Stars concert.

19) It's taking me forever to write this post about randomness because during this time I've being talking on the phone to my friend about my trip to Cuba (it's booked!) and explaining logarithm graphs to my friend's boyfriend.

20) I still have a hard time falling asleep on Christmas Eve.

Voila. There you have it.

I'm gonna tag jason, since I know he's studying for exams, and posting 20 random facts would be a great way to procrastinate. Also on the tagging-block are new blog buddies Guggenflurgen, EveyQ and Lea (although Lea can be exempted since she just did a random fact post).

Have a good Tuesday!

Goth-ic fla-vour, how I miss you.

Last night I had a fun early Christmas gift exchange with TB. TB was my roommate for 5 years in university and my best friend/therapist/partner-in-concert-going-crime. She had horrid taste in music when she moved in with me and had only been to one concert in her life (Britney Spears - although she wasn't sure what she was even going to when she had accepted the ticket). Anyway, after living with me her taste in music and concert-going behaviours showed incredible improvements. Once of my friends commented to me "That's so cool that you and TB were randomly paired up in residence. What are the chances that two people so obsessed with music would be matched? I laughed at him and said "She wasn't always that way..."

Anyhow, she totally enjoyed the Rock Chick themed gift that I got her. And she got me an iDog (one of those little robotic dogs that you can hook up to your iPod and it lights up and dances...) Here's a pic of mine sitting on my desk shelf beside my Sydney Starbucks mug:

He seems to be developing a Rock/Punk personality from listening to my music.

After opening presents, we went to see "Walk the Line". I liked it and thought the Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon did amazing jobs of acting/singing in it.

Today I did a bit of shopping with my pal with Whitby who came to Toronto to escape the 'burbs. I picked up a couple more Christmas gifts - I'm oh-so-close to being finished my shopping.

Not sure what I'm doing tonight... Hope you all have happy Saturday nights!

Oh and check out these Christmas lights!

You're a real tough cookie with a long history of breaking little hearts like the one in me.

Here's a picture of what the city looks like right now:

Note the snow on the ground. Yuck. It's not too cold out today, but it's so slushy and messy. I hate what that does to my pants.

Anyhow, it's Friday! Yay! Thank goodness. 10 more days of school 'til Christmas break! And, it's lookin' the like the trip to Cuba's a go. A couple of nights ago my pal C called and said she's gonna book it on Monday. I'm excited. I need sun. I get soooo pale in the winter that I look freakin' sickly. All the time people say to me "You look so pale, you must be sick." And I reply "No, that's just my colouring."

Tonight TB and I are exchanging Christmas gifts. I must comment that the gift I got her kicks some ass. I like to do a theme gift and the theme is "Rock Chick". I got her a "Rock Chick" gift set from Lush that consists of a star-shaped soap and some fun bubble bath. I got a Dashboard Confessional T and some patches that were super cheap online. Top it all off with a Matthew Good tote bag, and I think she'll love it.

So we're either gonna hang out here and watch Christmas movies (i.e. The Muppets Christmas Carol) or maybe go see a movie.

Hope ya'll have a great Friday evening!

Yeah, I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby. Listen to Iron Maiden baby with me.

About a half hour ago my roommate's boyfriend knocked on the door and I answered. This is what he had in his hands:

Apparently he's got a friend who's a real estate agent and gives these suckers out to his clients and Christmas and he was also a lucky recipient.

Don'tcha love the detail? I wanna live in a house with a pretzel picket fence one day.

I'm not sure what's to become of the house. I say we should throw a ginger-bread house eating party.

The world lives for the weekend, while I watch as my weeks bleed into them...

Well, 15 more working days to go until 2 weeks off. Yay! It just seems like I have so much to do in the upcoming weeks it's pretty overwhelming. Oh well, no need to stress - somehow in life things always get finished.

My weekend was uneventful but here are some highlights:

• Watched lots of Sex and The City on DVD. My roommate got the complete series for her birthday and hence I profit.
• Braved the Eaton Centre on Saturday and got some presents. Got earrings and a watch for my mom, some airplane Christmas tree ornaments for my pals the Ws and their son, a couple of books for my roommie, and a set of Sudoku books for my dad. Only got one thing for me in the process (a really cheap tealight holder at Pier 1).
• Finished the dishes from the Book Club meeting.
• Hit the new Winners store at Bloor and restrained from buying a new purse.
• Watched the new episode of Desparate Housewives - I hate Bree's son.
• Marked and prepped some lessons. Did not do enough of either.
• Acted as my friend's boyfriend's physics phone-a-friend and helped him with some logarithm questions.
• Procrastinated and did not do any laundry or grocery shopping. Tasks for Monday I guess.

Okay, well this has turned into the most boring blog entry ever. Hmm... maybe I should ask a thought-provoking controversial question to spice things up...

Thinking, thinking, thinking....

Here's one that came up in our book club discussion of "The Lucky Bones".... In the novel, the main character is a 14 year old girl who has been murdered. Her heaven is like a high school, because she died when she was in middle school and she had been looking forward to high school. So, what do you think your heaven would look like?

Book Club Meeting #1 = Success!

The first meeting of my book club was this evening and it went very well. My roomie and I prepared quite the feast of chocolate macaroons (made by me in a fleeting moment of domesticity), fruit (pinapple, strawbeerries and kiwis), cheese & crackers, amaretto cake with whipped cream, cookies, white wine, and coffee (made with the French press I bought yesterday and topped off with frothed milk which was frothed with my new milk frother). Oh man, I am soooo full.

Now I really should have taken a picture of all of the food, but instead here's a picture of part of the mess (which will be dealt with tomorrow).



Unfortunatley one of our members couldn't make it because she was feeling sick, but we still had a really good discussion (maybe 2 hours) on The Lovely Bones. And, we ate had no problems polishing off a lot of the food.

We're hoping to meet again and discuss Memoirs of A Geisha. We've all read the book, so we're going to go see the movie and discuss both the book and the movie.

Anyway, I'm hoping to sleep in tomorrow morning then drag my self to do some hardcore Christmas shopping. I'd love to get most of it done. I really only have my mom and my roommate left to do, and then a few small gifts for friends. My mom's always the hardest. My dad's so easy. I have about 5 books for him already, and I could easily, but not affordably (if that's a word), add 10 more.

Have a great weekend!

Dandylions and bulletholes we stand in our civilian clothes...

I attempted to have an internet-free-night last night and I did pretty well until about 11 pm when I had to go online to see when my library books are due (next Thursday). Then I chatted for a bit with one of my dear high school friends who had to spill what she got me for Christmas. She got me a build-your-own-atom kit. I'll be excited when that arrives in the mail!

My friend is doing a few extra university courses so that she can bump her average to get into teachers' college. She had been emailling me for help with labs and totally made fun of me last time I saw her because this is the kind of response you get from me if you ask me to do a math/science question.

"Oh wow! Thanks so much for asking me! I haven't done a good problem like that in a long time. Here's your answer. Oh, can you tell me more about your lab because I'm kind of interested now."

Yup, I'm glad I'm comfortable with my geekiness. Isn't geek the new chic?

Today I got my flu shot more to appease my mother than anything.

So, tomorrow is Friday. Then only 3 more weeks of school until Christmas! The kids are getting antsier by the day. They were pretty antsy to begin with.

Tomorrow evening the book club that consists of me, my roommate, and a couple of old roommates of mine who have also lived with my roommate at some point. My circle of Toronto friends are all connected by having lived with each other at one point. It's very fun to play 6 degrees of living together; although we rarely pass three degrees.

Anyway, we're going to discuss The Lovely Bones which frankly, I didn't much care for. There was a certain je ne sais quoi missing from it. So, in preparation for our discussion, I have to clean a bit (yuck) and whip up some maccaroons again. Once a recipe turns out okay I use it a lot.

Oh election update - my MP, who knocked at my door on Tuesday night, was at my subway station on Wednesday morning. She's persistant, that's for sure.

Big work news - we got two new photocopiers to replace the two dead ones! My school was functioning on one photocopier. If there's one thing that teachers need, it's photocopiers and working ones at that. I think I've probably already been responsible for cutting down a small forest this year. However, it's a necessary evil - kids are much more likely to do an interesting handout than questions from the textbook.

Have a happy Friday!

ps I'm listening to All of Our Names by Sarah Harmer because it makes feel wintery and I feel like feeling wintery.

Time takes time you know.

Gah besmirch! There's an election coming up. My MP was already at my door tonight telling me she'd like to keep her job. She seemed pleasant. Last week, when they were swacking about the possibility of an election, Peter Kent from Global TV was standing outside my subway station with a sign for the Conservatives. Guess he's running in my riding.

Anyway, I hope the only time that I use the words "Stephen Harper" and "Prime Minister" in the same sentence is when I say "Thank God Stephen Harper did not become Prime Minister."

Let's switch the topic from things I hate (Stephen Harper) to things I love (Stephen Colbert). Every night I tape the Daily Show/Colbert Report and watch them as I eat dinner. I love both shows, although I admit I'm really liking the Colbert Report since it's still a novelity.

Well, I'm gonna go meet up with TB tonight for coffee. We never met up last night because it was gross and rainy and neither of us wanted to leave our apartments. At this time of year, I'd perfer snow to rain.

Don't it feel like sunshine after all?

I always feel so much better when Monday is over. The kids were all loud today. I commented on this to my first period class and one student replied "Of course we are loud, Miss. We had an extra day to rest." I hope they tired themselves out today.

Anyway, I had a great time visiting my friend F in Whitby. I think we shopped for 7 hours straight. I'm still kind of tired.

Check out the fun watch I got at the Pacific mall in Markham. (It's a fun Chinese mall - I also got lots of Pingu stuff there.)



One of our stops was the Sandylion Sticker Warehouse in Markham. I stocked up on 3 rolls of my favourite science stickers:

I can't remember what mall we were at when I bought myself a new pair of boots but here's a picture. I wore them today and they're super comfy.

We had dinner at Swiss Chalet (yay Festive Special!) and then when back to F's house to exchange Christmas presents (yah, I know early, but it's hard to co-ordinate times to meet up.) Look it all the loot she got me! I swear, I get more from this girl than I do from my parents!

F went to Australia with me and the gift is sort-of-kinda Australian themed. The "Pleasant as a Platypus" bag is self-explanatory. Cheater is a card game. We played a card game or two while we were in Australia. She got me the Bill Bryson book because I made both my travelling partners read his book "In a Sunburned Country" before we went. I love that book. Anyway, I haven't read "A Walk in the Woods" before. Oh, the last gift is a "Nightmare Before Christmas" cell phone holder in the shape of a coffin. It will match my wallet! Hee-hee. Anyway, it's Australia related because I got the phone after I got back from Australia. So that's the fun theme gift I got.

(I also got her an Australia related gift of a Zoppini Australian flag charm and some Australian scrapbook stickers.)

Tonight I have dishes to do, stuff to mark and lessons to plan. Fun. I might meet up with TB for coffee and to mooch some Christmas CDs from her to put on my beloved iPod.

Lata!

ps Oh my. I can't believe that I had no problems posting my pics. What's wrong with Blogger right now?

Smiled and said "yes I think we've met before."

Okay, I'm totally going to have to use April's favourite saying: Woo-hoo!! Last night, I found out that Stars added two more shows in December, and I immediately bought tickets online! So now I don't have to pretend that Stars are NOT playing in Toronto. Oh man, I'm gonna totally lose it when they play "Your Ex-Lover is Dead" which is still the most listened to song on my iPod.

Anyway, I survived p/t interviews - I did 31 in 3 hours. I think I'm pretty concise. Even though I had so many, I processed them pretty quickly so I never really had a line-up. Most of the interviews were with the students who are doing well, so those are easy but I did get to meet with the parents of some of the weaker students in my courses. Unfortunately, a lot of the parents of some of the slackers in my period 4 class did not attend. Oh well, that's what the phone is for. Although, I really do like meeting the parents in person. It gives you insight into a different aspect of the student. It's cool that a lot of the students come along with their parents. I think it's very good that they hear what I have to say.

So today we had a PD day addressing students at-risk and ways to improve student success at our school. I have an educational assistant in my periods 3 and 4 classes. She was also in one of my classes last year, so she knows my teaching style well. Anyway, she totally warmed my heart when she came up to me at the end of the day and said "I was totally thinking about you during all of the presentations today. You're the best! You already do all of the stuff they were talking about." I know that I'm not perfect by any means, and I have a lot to learn at this point in my career, but I do feel that I work really hard to help my students acheive success and that I am having a positive impact in their lives.

This evening I ran to the Eaton Centre to get my pal F's Christmas gift. TB and I are meeting up with her in Whitby for our annual Christmas get together. (A little early, I know, but we have hectic schedules.) I got her an Austrlian flag charm for her bracelet, since she went to Oz with me in the summer. When I got home, I hung out with my roomie and we had some deep discussions about life and religion and politics and whatnot. It's really nice hanging out with my roommate; we're rarely home at the same time and we don't hang out as much as I think we'd both like to.

I think I'm at such an amazing time in my life; I have a totally awesome roommate, great friends, good family and I love the school I'm at and I really love my job. I'm always amazed at how things have fallen together for my in the past year. I don't know why I'm so lucky but I'm thankful for all that I have.

Okay, now that I've gotten all mushy, I'd better go to sleep. Hanging out with F in Whitby means power shopping, so I need my energy. Have a goodweekend everyone!

Questions, questions, questions...

Right now I'm finishing up the grade 9 reproduction unit with my classes. Here is a taste of some of the questions I've been fielding for the past couple of weeks:

"Miss, what would happen if a monkey and a human... you know...?" (Actually, this question was a good way to discuss the concept of species.)
"Miss, can a girl get pregnant before her first period?"
"Miss, what happens when a person is born with two different... things?" (This is a popular one.)
"Miss, omigosh! Did you know you could be allergic to sperm?" (Someone came across that one today while researching fertility drugs.)
"Miss, are flowers he-shes?" (Technically they are, but we use the word hermaphrodite in science class.)
"Miss, can a virgin get pregnant if the sperm gets near her?"
"Miss, is ecstasy a fertility drug?"

I'm so looking forward to the end of this unit. The test is next Wednesday.

Today my infamous period 4 class had me in stitches. They had just completed a project where they had to create an ecology board game. (Ecology - what a nice tame, sex-free topic.) I gave them some time to play the games today. They were totally into this one game that was totally impossible to win because there were many "Go back to the Start" spaces on the board. They wanted me to play, which I did, and they were quite impressed that there was a board game that even the science teacher could not win, despite her text-book perfect answers to their questions.

So, tomorrow is parent-teacher interview night and I'm booked solid. This means I'll be talking for 3 hours straight. I really should be in bed right now resting up. Luckily, we have a PD day on Friday to recuperate, which means that we can shuffle into school a bit late and sit through many meetings and brainstorming type sessions and whatnot. The lack of teenagers will make the day restful.

Good night and happy Thursday!

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.