13/24 ain't bad....

My posted Oscar picks were 4 for 7. Not too shabby. And, although I'm probably just as bummed as Tim Burton is over the Corpse Bride loss (okay, maybe slightly less bummed), I think I'll survive.

Overall, I predicted 13 out of the total 24 categories. That's over 50%, so at least I passed. Becca T got 13 too. Rematch next year.

Very surprised at the Crash best pic win. I thought that it'd either go Brokeback for both best pic and director or Crash for best pic and director. I wasn't expecting a split.

Jon Stewart made me happy. I thought he did a great job. Of course, I'm totally biased so I don't really count myself as an objective opinion. I killed myself laughing when he referred to himself as the "fourth male lead" in Death to Smoochy and therefore, not a Hollywood outsider.

And the Oscar to cutest actor at the Oscars goes to... oh look, a tie between George Clooney and Jake Gyllenhaal. Both cute. Becca T and I had the ever important "Would you date George Clooney despite his advanced age?" discussion. She said yes, although her parents would be concerned. I said yes, even though my mother would try to steal him away from me. Mom proved me right when I called her after the Oscars to see how she'd enjoyed the show and the second thing she said was "George Clooney is very good looking. I'm glad he won." (Btw, the first thing she was that Jon Stewart did an excellent job... like mother, like daughter I guess.)

Becca T made me almost die with laughter at one point. George Clooney had come onto stage and I said "Oh look, it's George Clooney" and she replied "What's he doing?" in a tone that implied we were watching, oh, a football game and George Clooney walked out onto the field. Thankfully, we'd run out of wine at that point because I suspected she didn't need any more.

Becca T was disappointed that Capote didn't pick up more Oscars. She realllllllly like the movie, mostly because she thought Truman Capote was an interesting character and she would have liked to have been friends with him. Methinks someone is getting a Truman Capote-themed birthday present this year.

What was Charlize thinking with that bow on her dress?

I think my favourite gown of the night was Michelle Williams'. I liked the colour. However, I withold my final verdict until I see more pictures of it in magazines. I only saw a few brief glimpses of it on the red carpet, so I may be wrong. I also thought it was cool that Sandra Bullock had a dress with pockets. Neat-o.

Allright, so I must be off to bed. Tomorrow's just another Manic Monday. I'll let you know if I win the staff Oscar pool. I figure that I should at least place.

ps I sincerely doubt I will ever mention George Clooney this much in a post again.

Go on and save your scissors...

Oscar night is here.

Snack food (chicken fingers, carrots, grapes, cheese 'n crackers, ju-jubes) - check
Wine - check
Ballots printed out - check
Becca T invited over to watch show with me - check
Aparment cleaned - not yet
Blogging to procrastinate cleaning apartment - check

Ahhh... I swear, Oscar night is one of my fave nights of the freakin' year. Plus this year Jon Stewart is hosting, which makes the night even more special for me. I love Jon Stewart. There is no way he will bomb in my eyes, no matter what eveyone else says.

On Friday night Becca T and I went to see Capote. I was a little nervous that Becca T wasn't going to like it, and then I'd feel guilty for having dragged her there. I believe she liked it even more than I did... Our consensus was that it's a good film and that Philip Seymour Hoffman deserves the Oscar that he'll probably get tonight.

Hmmm, I'm going to post my picks for some of the bigger awards so that tomorrow you can all be amazed by the seeming telepathy that I share with the Academy - or you can laugh at me.

So, after looking into my crystal ball, I predict that:

Best Pic - Brokeback Mountain
Best Actress - Reese Witherspoon
Best Actor - Philip Seymour Hoffman
Best Supporting Actress - Michelle Williams
Best Supporting Actor - George Clooney (who could deny Clooney? - he's dreamy)
Best Director - Ang Lee
and... Best Animated Picture has better be Corpse Bride or else I'll weep. I love that movie.

Okay, well, I'd better go spiff up this mess of an apartment. Again, whenever I have to clean, I spend most the time lamenting that I do not live in Harry Potter's world and cannot enchant my dishes to clean themselves. Oh, the unfairness of it all.

It kinda makes you want to cry that a moth is not a butterfly.

Another week almost down and it's getting so close to March Break that I can almost taste it. I am so ready for a break right now. Speaking of breaks, my roommate is off to the Bahamas tomorrow. Lucky girl. She and her fiance are going to visit friends there. Why don't I have friends in tropical locations?

Anyhow, but I had an overall fabulous day. I'm quite pleased because I managed to score Matthew Good tickets. He's playing at the Mod Club (a fab venue) in April and tickets just went on sale today.

I'm excited for the weekend. On Friday, Becca T and I are going to go see Capote which I'm looking forward to. I read In Cold Blood not too long ago and I'm very interested in the subject matter of the film not to mention that there's Oscar buzz around it. There's another reason to be excited for the weekend; Sunday is Oscar night. Oscar night is my Superbowl. I love it. I'm a geek who sits there with my scorecard and checks out how accurate my predictions are. I've also got my ballots for my staff Oscar pool. I won last year, so I'm feeling quite pressured to pull it off again.

Right now I'm reading Assasination Vacation by Sarah Vowell and enjoying it muchly. It's a non-fiction book about Vowell's travels to sites associated with the presidential assissinations of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. It's super funny. I saw Vowell a couple of times on my beloved Daily Show and I'm glad that I picked up the book.

I'm also enjoying the new Hawksley Workman CD. Only 23 more days 'til that concert! I'm loving the song "When These Mountains Were the Seashore". It's got a great country twang to it, which is a new sound for Hawksley. I say he should stick with it. I'm so amused that I detested country music so much when I was younger but now I'm into so many artists with a country sound (new Sarah Harmer CD, the Joel Plaskett solo disk, etc.). But, I've learned it's "nu-country" that I hate. Blech.

Tonight is Survivor. I'm in third place in my Survivor pool. Gotta pull up my socks. I was in first at one time.

After Survivor, I gotta mark lab reports. My first period class has been nagging me to get them back and I promised them back on Friday. I can't let them down. I once had an instructor in teachers' college who had promised to get a project back to us on a certain day, and she didn't, so she baked our class an almond torte instead. Since my culninary skills are lacking (read do not exist), I'd better mark those reports. Also, it beats having to mark 'em on the weekend.

On that note, happy Friday and happy weekend!

February always finds you folding local papers open to the faces...

Last day of February! I'd forgotten to use my favourite Weakerthans' February-related song line for a title but thankfully I remembered on the last possible day. Phew.

So now that March is almost here, it only means, what, about 2 more months of winter? Hahaha. Lame Canadian joke.

Anyhow, I am freaking exhausted tonight. I was bad and had a really long nap this evening which means I'll probably fall asleep far too late tonight. I had to be up early this morning to get to school to cook pancakes for the breakfast club. Yes, you read correctly - I actually cooked something. So I figure I can avoid the practice for the next month and a half.

8 more school days until March Break. My plans revolve around sleeping in every freaking day.
My Cuba trip was my March Break trip, so I'll only be heading to the tropical shores of the muddy Avon in Stratford.

Today Hawksley Workman's new CD "Treeful of Starling" came out and I purchased it. One of my favourite things in life is looking forward to a new CD from one of my favourite artists and then going and buying it on the day of release.

As I was walking home today, I thought of a billion things to blog about and now I forget. Guess that what a pre-blogging nap does. Oh well. Happy March to you!

Like those guys with guitars who I've been watching in bars...

All right, so tonight Becca T and I decided that we'd go catch Danny Michel play at the Rivoli. We have gone to many non-sold out concerts at the Rivoli in the past, so we figured if we got there at 9:30-ish we wouldn't have to worry. Anyhow, we got there, and it was sold out. Grr. I was so excited to go to my first concert of 2006 and take lots of pictures for my picture starved blog. I guess I could have taken a picture of the sign outside the bar saying that the concert was sold out, but that would be too sad.

Instead, I took a picture of the Bell ad on the subway with the beaver with a curling rock in his mouth that makes me laugh. (Yay! We got a gold medal in men's curling today. At least one team of Canadian men can do something right.)

We had to come up with alternate plans for entertainment, so we figured alcohol would be a good choice. We decided to go to a bar on Queen St that we used to go to in university every once in awhile but it was closed down! Argh! We headed back to our area of town and went to a pub there. Anyway, we drowned our sorrows and had a good time chatting. It was no Danny Michel concert, but still fun.

When we stumbled outside, it was snowing which inspired me to get out my camera. I took a picture of this beer ad for some reason, but I like the effect of the snow...



I decided to walk home from Becca's because it was such a nice evening. It wasn't very cold and there were nice big flakes of snow falling and staying on the ground. Who doesn't love walking in fresh snow? I took a picture of the gates of the cemetery as I walked by. Looks kinda spooky, eh?

Toronto's got this "Live with Culture" ad campaign going on right now. I was bitter as I walked by the following sign. I tried to live with music tonight dammit, but it's hard to do when the best shows get sold out! I love the city, but I know if I lived in a smaller town like London or Kitchener, I wouldn't have to worry 'bout Danny Michel tickets selling out because, well let's face it, there is a smaller population of music snobs in those places.


On the bright side, I did buy Ben Lee tickets today. Last night I found out (Scott gave me the scoop) that he's coming back to Toronto on March 18th. Anyhow, I have tickets for that. Also, I have Hawksley tickets for March 25th and I might be going to Oasis on March 20th. I guess in March I'll be living with music much better than I have in January and February.

When I got home, I got a last minute email from my dear friend Sandee, who was in Toronto tonight hanging out in the area where we were for the attempted concert. *sigh* That sucks because we totally almost crossed paths!!!! Oh well...

Okay, so it's totally time for bed now. Good night!

You're the crescendo in that melody, that melody I love...

Yay! It's Wednesday evening. Only two more days 'til the weekend. Fabulous!

Well, the Canadian men's hockey team has lost to Russia and is out of the running for a medal. Let the national sobbing, gnashing of teeth, and soul searching begin. On the bright side, we picked up two golds and a silver today. All won by women, of course, who have been kicking some major ass in these games. I must admit that I enjoy the Olympics. Pretty soon I'll be going through Olympic withdrawl.

Right now, at this moment, I'm watching last night's tape of the Colbert show. He is commemorating the discovery of DNA by Watson and Crick and lamenting that it has been used by the "evolutionistas to promote their pro-monkey agenda". Yeah baby! I love that. I shall henceforth refer to myself as an evolutionista.

By no means am I a fashionista. However, I bought myself a new pink beaded top this weekend and got muchos compliments on it today. A couple of my students were like "Miss, you're so bright today!"

Last night I finished reading "The Undomestic Goddess" by Sophie Kinsella. It was pretty good overall, but I thought that the ending was a bit convoluted and drawn out.

Hmmm, since this post is turning out to be random, let's check in with iTunes to see what the last ten random songs on my iPod were:

1) In State - Kathleen Edwards
2) Nothing Left to Make me Want to Stay - Sloan
3) Hoopes I Did It Again - Relient K
4) Leash - The Weakerthans
5) Bruised - The Bens
6) Vindicated - Dashboard Confessional
7) Bloody Mother F*****g A*****e - Martha Wainwright
8) Hey Girl - Dashboard Confessional
9) Don't Forget About Us - Mariah Carey
10) Dance, Dance - Fallout Boy

Whoa... right now I'm watching the women's 3000 m speed skating relay medal round. It's making me dizzy... Canada's in third... oh, oh Italy's on their heels... Oh, the Canadians are now in silver medal position... Woo! Canadians get the silver! Yay! (Korea was first, China third.) Oh wait now, they disqualified the Chinese and now the Italians have bronze. The Italians are quite happy about this.

On that note, I'm pleased that Canada has its 18th medal. And with that, this totally random post and I are outta here!

Thousands faces look the same every one a thousand different names...

Woo-hoo for the Canadian women's hockey team winning gold! As usual, men can learn a lot from women. What's with this whole losing hockey games business? Honestly now.

Anyhow, I had a pretty relaxing time in Stratford this weekend. Friday night's train was pretty busy with university students coming home for reading week, which made me pretty nostalgic. Oh, those were the days.

I did a lot of watching Olympics with the 'rents, a bit of shopping in the ever-shrinking mall (I couldn't believe how many empty stores there are) and some visiting. On Saturday night, I went to a friend's place to hang out and play some board games. We played a round of Cranium, which I lost since I was paired with my friend Christa. I love the girl to death, but we tend to make a lousy team when it comes to games. We were euchre partners for a semester of spare in high school, and I think we won about two games the entire time. Spare was spent playing euchre, with the exception of the odd tour to the mall (which had more stores back in the day). So only winning two games means that a lot of games were lost.

We also played a game called "Loaded Questions" was pretty good. It's got a bunch of random questions which you answer and then someone has to match the answers to the correct person. We did very well in this game, which indicates that we know each other very very well. No surprises there.

Anyway, Sunday night I took the bus back to Toronto and here we are at Monday again. I had a pretty good day at work. After work, I stopped off a grocery store on my way home to grab a few things. I decided that I was going to have my favourite childhood dinner tonight - macaroni and cheese with hotdogs (I know, I know... not a super nutricious meal, but heck, it's Monday!). As the checkout girl was bagging my groceries, one of the bags broke and a bunch of my stuff fell on her side of the checkout. She rebagged my groceries for me. When I got home, my hotdogs were missing. Grrr! I was so disappointed. I could not have my favourite childhood meal. Plus, I paid $4 for missing hotdogs. Another store on my list of places I have to complain to.

Anyhow, I have to be up super early to be at work at 7-ish tomorrow morning. I've been helping set up our breakfast club on Tuesday morning, plus I have to set up a lab for my first period class. Hope you all have a pleasant tomorrow!

Hope dangles on a string like slow spinning redemption...

Well, I must admit that I had a very happy birthday, despite the fact that I'm ever closer to the big 3-0... Thanks to all of you for your bday wishes.

Anyhow, I had a pretty good day at work. During my period 1 class, as I was writing the date on the board, I threw out the question "Does anyone know what day it is today?" One girl said "Your birthday!" to which I replied "Incidentally, it is... but it's also flag day, you know... the birthday of the flag. They should make it a holiday." A couple of kids preceded to ask "Why did you come into work today Miss? You could have phoned in for a supply you know!" I told them that I preferred to spend my birthday in their company.

I was so busy during my other classes that I kind of forgot it was my birthday. At the end of the day, one of my students from last semester came by my classroom and said "Miss, is it your birthday today?" I told her that it was and she wished me happy birthday. I asked her how she knew and she said "You mentioned that your birthday was the day after Valentine's Day in our class one day and I remembered." How fabulous is that? What kind of kid remembers her science teacher's birthday? How awesome. It totally made my day. Ther twin sister dropped by (who I also taught last semester but in a different class) and they both told me they missed my class. How nice. It's good to be appreciated.

Anyhow, I left school as soon as I could and went shoe shopping. Not because I'm one of those shoe-crazed girls, but because my boots that I bought in December are falling apart. I intend to get them repaired, but I need a new pair of shoes to wear while they're in the shop. Anyhow, I got a nice pair of black Steve Madden runners that I love.

A bunch of my friends and I went out to dinner to celebrate my advancement in age. It was great. I find that, in general, it takes a birthday/wedding shower/baby shower/graduation party/housewarming or some such event for my friends to organize ourselves and get together. It was awesome to catch up. I also made a good choice in restaurant because it was cheap martini night. I know where I'm spending my Wednesday nights in the summer!

Then it was back to my apartment where we had cake and ice cream. I took a picture of the cake because it made me laugh that we didn't have birthday candles so my roommate stuck a tealight on the cake.

Anyhow, everyone stuck around pretty late and we got caught up and had lots of fun. I was pretty tired today at school.

Yeah, so I don't feel my bday's done yet. I'm going home this weekend, so I'll still get to celebrate some more with the 'rents and my pals there. I'll be away from the ol' blog for a bit, since I'm too lazy to lug my laptop home (it's too heavy). So I hope you all have a super weekend and I'll see you on Monday!

Why should I follow that beat being that I'm better than fine?

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! Happy 200th post to me! I can't believe I've kept with blogging for so long... I totally expected to lose interest after a month when I started, but what can I say? I loves it. Oh, and congrats to my dear friend Sandee who's made it to post #10!

All right, so instead of being bitter and cynical about Valentine's Day (which generally I am), I'll just quote a line from a fabulous song, Waltz (Better Than Fine), on the new Fiona Apple CD (that I treated myself to on Sunday):

"If you don't have a date,
Celebrate
Go out and sit on the lawn
And do nothing
-Cause it's just what you must do and
Nobody does it anymore."

Last night my roomie asked me if it was OK for her fiance to borrow the kitchen here to cook her dinner. To which I gave my usual reply of "What? No, of course not! Tonight I was planning on cooking a six-course meal and baking a souffle. Nope. Totally unacceptable." Oh man, the idea of me making a souffle kills me. Last night my roommate joked that I ate a lot of stuff out of boxes. I figure if I can get it from a box, why bother making it myself?

Today was a pretty good day at school. My first period class was vastly entertained because they did an experiment where they blew up balloons using chemistry. Ahhh... the wonders of vinegar and baking soda. Why use toxic chemicals when they're wowed by vinegar and baking soda?

The Daily show last night was freakin' hilarious. Of course, it's not hard to make the story of Dick Cheney shooting a hunting buddy in the face funny. You pretty much just have to tell it.

So, I really should tear myself away from the computer and enjoy the last few hours of my youth. As I've mentioned before, tomorrow I turn the big 2-6. Oh dear, I've hit my late-mid-twenties. Before you know it, I'll be in my early-late-twenties. Egad. Anyhow, tomorrow night, I've assembled a rag-tag bunch of my friends to go out for dinner then come over here and chill until 11 pm when I kick them out since it's a school night.

Anyhow, hope you all have a great Valentine's night, and out I go to sit on the lawn. Well, it's probably cold and wet. Maybe I'll sit on that three-headed bench. Hmmm... cold too. Meh. I'll just go sit in Starbucks.

And all this wandering has got me nothing...

Well it seems like long time no post for me. I've had a pretty good weekend; lots of relaxing and shopping and actually some productive cleaning/organizing of my room. Plus I finished In Cold Blood (now I can see Capote) and watched Corpse Bride again. I love that movie.

In my last post, I promised to take some pictures this weekend. I was mad at myself on Saturday, because I'd gone down to the Eaton Centre for some shopping and could have taken some fun pictures but I'd forgotten my camera. D'oh!

Anyhow, when I was out running errands today, I made sure to bring my camera.

Here is a picture of the "sculpture park" by my apt. building. Apparently, pointy sculptures are cool.

I like this bench. Too bad someone added graffiti to it.

Ummm, I don't know what to say about this sculpture.

I took a picture of some subway trains relaxing and enjoying their weekend off.

I walked by my old apartment that I lived in during my last two years of university. Look what they're building across the street from it:

So I know they're not terribly great pictures, but I feel that I deserve an A for effort. Next weekend, I'm going to Stratford to visit my parents to celebrate my (ack!) 26th birthday, which is on Wednesday. I plan to go for a walk and take some interesting pictures of my hometown. This is what I say every freakin' time I go home and it never happens... But maybe this time it will. ;)

Well, I'm off to do some stuff 'til Desperate Housewives. Hope everyone has a good start to their week!

You look like the perfect fit for a girl in need of a tourniquet.

Right now I'm watching the Grammys and feelin' pretty darned bored. Too much yapping between songs and awards and too many commercials. I'm thinking I could be doing something far more productive with my time but, meh, that would require much more effort than watching a boring, bloated awards show.

So, after making me take a shuttle bus yesterday due to technical difficulties with carbon monoxide, the TTC is raising fares. A metropass will now cost $99.75. $100 will now buy you a metropass and a gumball here in Toronto.

Last night my blog buddy Scott introduced me to a song by William Shatner (featuring Ben Folds and Aimee Mann). After complaining about my dislike for William Shatner, I had to admit that I like the song. Actually, I've been listening to it a lot today. It's called "That's Me Trying" and it's got a pretty cool story within it. Plus, Ben Folds' piano is amazing as always (what makes the song) and I love his and Aimee Mann's background vocals. Anyway, it makes me grumpy that I actually like something by William Shatner.

I had forgotten how much I like Aimee Mann, so I had to go dust out my old Magnolia Soundtrack and put it on my iPod. I love her songs on that album. They are very haunting.

(Aside: For some strange reason, I really like will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, even though he's responsible for the existence of "My Humps". Right now he's dancing really super cool in a tribute to Sly and the Family Stone.)

(Another aside: I just saw a commercial for XM Satellite radio with David Bowie and Snoop Dogg. Man, Bowie is soooooooo hot for an aging rock star. I love Bowie. As long as his hair is not on the long side. He and his hair look good in this commercial. Hmmm, perhaps I should subscribe to satellite radio. Damn them and their clever ads! Hee-hee.)

Oh - the answers to my brainteasers from last point:

a) Some of you guessed that he took the stairs, but were not able to correctly identify how he got to the stairs... He was washing the insides of the windows, so it was fairly easy to get to the stairs. I never said he was using the life. ;) (If you don't like this one, neither did my grade 10s. They complained.)

b) Yup, as most of you guessed, it's a towel. Again, some of my grade 10s weren't fans of this brainteaser, arguing that towels get wetter as they dry things, not as they dry.

Well, I'm gonna go iron a shirt and see if I can handle the rest of this show. Happy Thursday!

p.s. This weekend I'm going to take some pictures of some stuff and put them on my blog. I haven't posted any pics in for-freakin'-ever. I blame blogger. It always screws up when I want to post pictures so I've lost my mojo to post pictures.

All I really want to say is you're the reason I wanna stay...

Countdown: 3 more post until #200; 1 week and 1 day until birthday #26.

Our school has started up a breakfast program and today was the first day. I volunteered to help set up this morning, so I went to bed early last night so that I could be out the door by 6:30 and at the school by 7.

Anyhow, I get to the subway and there are "electrical problems" or some such calamity at the station north of mine, so I have to catch a shuttle bus for four stops. Luckily I was there so early in the morning and I could actually get a spot on a bus. Yeesh. Anyway, I ended up being a little bit late for set-up after all the effort I'd put into making sure I was there on time.

Today was the first day of the second semester and my new classes and I are enjoying a honeymoon period where the kids work quietly and contentedly listen to me ramble on about marking schemes and classroom expectations and science safety. My new period 4 class seems to be better than the old one (same course, different kids). Keeping my fingers crossed about that. Although, I have to admit, I did have some good laughs with that old class, even though I'm positive they gave me gray hairs that I yet cannot see.

I was entertaining the new period four class with some brainteasers at the end of my class today. They couldn't them so they insisted that they were horrible. Here are a couple for your puzzling pleasure:

a) A man is washing windows on the 18th floor of a building. The power goes out, so the platform outside the building wasn't able to move. He was able to get to the ground floor easily without hurting himself. How?

b) What gets wetter as it dries?

Right now I'm reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I'm enjoying it. I told my dad that I was reading it and he said "isn't that a really bloody book?" and I pointed out that my generation is very desensitized to violence so it doesn't seem that bad to me.

Have a good night and happy hump day tomorrow!

Note: Right now my dad is telling me that the subway calamity had nothing to do with electrical problems but carbon monoxide. All I know is they had said "electrical problems" over the PA in the morning. All I care is that I was had to take a shuttle bus in the cold...

Let's get friendship right, get life day-to-day...

What is it about weekends that turns me into the laziest person? I need to clean and do laundry and get groceries and I cannot bring myself to do it. I end up putting off all of those things until either Sunday night or for a week night... Yeesh.

Here's the weekend rundown thus far:

Friday night - Becca T came over and we played 90s Trivial Pursuit. We each won a game. We left it at a happy tie and I burned her some CDs.

Saturday - Could not bring myself to go out in the crappy rainy weather. I live on the 27th floor and the weather always sounds about a million times worse up here than it actually is. As a result, there are days where I forget about the 27th-floor-weather-amplification-effect and I hide up here with a book and some hot chocolate. Yesterday was one of those days.

I did eventually brave the weather to go see "Brokeback Mountain" with Becca T. It was very well done. It's such a sad, sad story and I think both actors were amazing. (Oh yeah, and Jake G's got pretty nice blue eyes.) If it wins Best Picture, I think it's deserving. I still gotta see 3 more Best Pic nominees (Munich, Capote, and Good Night and Good Luck) but so far Brokeback is the leader in my books.

Sunday - Has been my day of rest so far. I actually bought a paper copy of the newspaper and spent quite awhile reading it (except for the sports section, of course). There was an article by one of the paper's music critics describing how he went to a fundraiser where Queen's "Bohemium Rhapsody" was played over and over again for 6 hours (a sort of CN Tower climb for the out-of-shape rock snob). Anyhow, it made me think about what song I could endure for 6 hours straight. I'm thinking I'd put my money on "Your Ex-Lover is Dead" by Stars, since it's got the highest play count on the ol' iPod of 215 "spins". Hmmm, so if I get out my trusty calculator, 215 plays of a 4 minute and 16 second song is equivalent to 15.3 hours. So, since I've already spent 15 hours and 20 minutes of my life listening to that song, chances are that I could handle 6 hours straight. Maybe... So... what song do you think you could listen to for 6 hours straight (if any)?

I was just out running some errands and it's pleasantly chilly and snowy. I think the fact that I'm finding snow in February pleasant is a sign that we have had a verrrrrrrry warm winter. Usually at this time of year, if I see one flake fall from the sky, I curse the snow gods vehemently.

Well, if you're inclined to watch the Superbowl, I hope that you enjoy it. I think I'm going to go be responsible and do some cleaning and such. Have a good week!

Shoreline.... it passed me... it's cool....it's time...

Okay, I'm going to start this post by wishing happy bday to the three people I know who celebrate Groundhog Day birthdays. One is Scott, the other is a high school pal of mine, and the third is my old university roommate/residence muskateer. Only one of these people will probably read this wish. I leave it up to you, dear readers, to figure it out.

Last I night I brought wine, cheese, crackers, grapes and Corpse Bride over to Becca T's place. A fun time was had by all. I frickin' love that movie.

Today I got finished marking exams early so I took off from work and got my hair coiffed. I totally think the hairdresser styled it a la Raina. That is, I'm pretty sure that I have porno hair for the day and I gotta admit that it's pretty fun. Tomorrow, it'll be pretty flat and straight as I don't have the energy in the morning to devote to my hair.

Tonight the new Survivor starts and I'm watching because me friend Wendy invited me to join an online Surivivor pool. I didn't watch the last Survivor, so maybe I'll be psyched for this one. I have to pay attention to it so that I don't let my tribe down. It's on shortly, so I'm off! Lata!

ps The title to the post is supposed to be a line from "7/4 Shoreline" by Broken Social Scene. As I really have no idea what they're saying in the song, that's my best guesstimate. I totally dig that song though. Does anyone know any other BSS songs that are in the same vein? Some of their stuff is a little out there for me, but I loooooooove this one!

If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks then I'll follow you into the dark.

There's been a lot of bitching about the TTC in the Toronto Star lately. Things like what are the worst routes, inconsiderate passengers and other general malcontentedness.

Well, here's my TTC rant. Why the hell does my station sell out of Metropasses?? I understand that my station is one of the few that accepts debit and credit cards, so you'd think it make sense to have more passes there. Apparently not. I got there quite early this afternoon to get my pass, and no luck. Gah. This probably means that I'll have to head up to Eglinton, get some cash, and buy my pass there. Grrrr. And they want more people to take transit.... Yeesh.

I tell you, my job is a heck of a lot easier when the kids are studying at home. We're on day 2 of exam week, and I've been able to organize my desk, my binders, my classroom - including all of the beakers and flasks I've been meaning to wash, and hang up a bunch of projects that I had the kids do. This morning one of my classes wrote an exam, so now I've gotta mark those.

I bought Corpse Bride after school. I love that movie. I think I'm gonna watch it tonight and then watch it tomorrow with Becca T. She refused to see it in theatres with me because it had too many corpses in it, but I made her promise to see it when it came out on DVD.

Oscar nominations came out today. It's my annual tradition to go see as many nominated movies as I can. The only best picture nominee that I've seen is Crash, which was good but I didn't get overly excited by it.

I just got finished watching last night's Daily Show on tape. I love that Jon Stewart pointed out that Oprah was far harsher on James Frey than most "serious" journalists are on the current adminstration. Don't you love it when it's the comedian on the fake news that asks the best questions?

Well I think I may have a mini-nap and then go hunt down a Metropass.

Rise Up with Fists!!

The title above is the name of the Jenny Lewis song that was my free download of the week from iTunes. Make sure that all of you iTunes users download it, as it is awesome (and free too).

So the weekend's been great so far. Last night my book club met where we discussed "Pope Joan" by Donna Woolfolk Cross, which I had finally finished Thursday night. Overall, 4 of the 5 of us liked it (it didn't grip my roommate). We spent a lot of time criticizing all of the convienient coincidences that helped moved the plot along but overall it was a well-written piece of historical fiction. After consuming quite a bit of wine and tasty food, our conversation drifted from the book to other deep philospical issues to which we posed the question "What would Pope Joan do?" This has now become a bit of an inside joke.

Today I slept in and then spent the afternoon watching my tape of Daily Shows and Colbert Reports from the past week. I met up a friend from home who was in Toronto doing some shopping with friends. We went out for dinner. When they'd headed home I met up with my dear friend TB for coffee. Oh! Big news. Last night, TB gave me permission to use her real name in my blog. So from now on, I can call her Becca T here! Woo!

I walked home from coffee with Becca T. The weather has been very warm for January in Toronto. As I walked home, it was drizzling and the stretch of Yonge St. I was on reminded me of Adelaide Australia. I got rather nostalgic for my trip last summer...

Hmm, on that note, I might watch my Ben Folds DVD for a bit before going to bed. So make sure you all download that song and have a good night!

Questions of science, science and progress, did not speak as loud as my heart.

I come home from worked all psyched to read my blogs and blog about my day. I log onto MSN and notice that my dear friend Sandee has finally posted her first blog entry ever. I’m even more psyched to read that and then… BLOGGER IS DOWN! I can’t get to anyone’s blog!!! Grrrr!!! So mad.

Anyway, I complain to Sandee online about my quandary and she points out that I can blog in Word and then paste it when Blogger’s up. Brilliant girl. Anyway, so that’s what I’m doing right now, but it just doesn’t feel the same. Sigh.

Anyhow, you should all go read Sandee’s blog. She’s one of my friends from high school and was very pivotal in corrupting me and is freaking hilarious. Plus, she’s my only real life friend who has expressed any interest in blogging, so bonus marks for her. I find it so funny how the “strangers” (who don’t feel like strangers anymore) who read my blog know more about my day-to-day existence than a lot of my old friends. Isn’t blogging a great thing? Yay blogs!

Back to day-to-day existence. Tomorrow is my last day of classes with my first semester classes. I’m going to miss them. They were all really great classes – even my period 4 class. To think, I probably gave some of them their last detention today. Hmmm, I’d better not speak too soon since I do still have them tomorrow… Maybe I'll keep the whole class past the bell just for old time's sake.

I just got off the phone with my mom. Did anyone see James Frey (the author of “A Million Little Pieces” who is embroiled in a controversy over fictionalizing parts of his memoir) on Oprah? I did not but my mother told me about it. I guess Oprah really questioned his authenticity. When the scandal first broke out, I decided to give Frey the benefit of the doubt since I really liked the book but after talking to my mom about the Oprah show, I’ve changed my mind. I wonder now about how much of his story is actually true – if he exaggerated about his time in prison, I wonder what else his exaggerated about? The root canal? The age at which he began using? Obviously his struggles with addiction were real; I don’t think you could fake his stream of conscientious style. But it seems he took too much license for the book to be published at a memoir. Have you read it? What do you think? I had the sequel “My Friend Leonard” on hold at the library and it’s just come in. I will definitely be going into this book with a different attitude.

Speaking of books, I still have about 100 pages of Pope Joan to read for tomorrow’s book club. Later!

ps Oh good. Blogger's up now!

Hey! Give me space so I can breathe, give me space so I can sleep...

Okay, it's been about 20 hours since the Conservatives "won" the election with a very slim minority and I seem to be surviving okay. I cling to those words "slim minority" very tightly. Interestingly enough, they weren't able to capture a single seat in any of Canada's three biggest cities. Wonder what that says?

Okay, here's my favourite line that I heard last night while watching election coverage. My pal TB dropped by for awhile. She was just about to leave when a commentator on one channel (no idea which one, I flipped around a lot) said "The Liberals are running wild east of Yonge Street!" Now I live slightly east of Yonge street so I said "TB, you'd better crash here tonight. It's too dangerous for you to go out with all of those Liberals running wild!"

Oh and speaking of Liberals, the persistant Liberal in my riding won with slightly over 50% of the vote. I can honestly say that I've never personally seen a candidate so many times.

All right, 'nuf about the election. I'm sure we'll have another in about a year's time.

My book club is meeting again on Friday night. I need to do a lot of reading, I've only read about a third of the book. We're reading a novel called "Pope Joan" which is based on the legend (or truth?) that a woman was Pope for 2 years in the ninth century. I'm really enjoying it so far.

Exam time is creeping up on me. Next week, my classes will be writing their final exams and I'll be saying goodbye to them. I came across this cartoon as I was looking to find one to put on their exam reviews. Makes me laugh.

On that note, I'd bet going get cracking on that book!

In this time of introspection, on the eve of my election, I say to my reflection "God spare me more rejection!"

I almost forgot to exercise my civic duty today. I was packing up to leave work and thinking about what I would have for supper, and what I needed to do for homework, and what I'd watch on TV when I got home, and maybe there may be some fun mail for me today, and oh boy I'm tired. Then it occured to me that I needed to go vote.

Anyhow, I did vote. I did what any good Canadian has to do come election time and held my nose and picked the least of the 4 evils on my ballot.

I was going to totally boycot watching any election coverage and try to live in ignorance for awhile. Then I read on Matt Good's blog that he was gonna do election coverage with George Strombolopolous on CBC Newsworld's The Hour, so I figured that perhaps that was where the party's at. We'll see how that is. I invited TB to drop by and watch and perhaps celebrate/drown my sorrows with some Peach Schnapps 'n Coke.

Oh and by the way, the kids at my school voted for the Liberals on Friday in the student vote. Hmmm, so I guess I was wrong to figure them for a bunch of NDPers.

However, I was right about there being something fun in the mail today. I got 2 Something Corporate CDs from April. Yay new music!

On another note, I'd asked my dad (no link - my dad can barely operate a mouse, let alone have a blog) to compile his ideal 7 Jeopardy Categories (since he loves Jeopardy).

1) Canadian provincial capitals (like father, like daughter... that was one of mine)
2) Bug or Snake? (eg they give you a name of something like a cricket or a cobra and you identifty it as either a bug or a snake)
3) Whale or rodent? (very similar to above but with whales and rodents)
4) Baseball before expansion (that was before 1968 in case ya didn't know)
5) Hockey or baseball player? (see numbers 2 and 3)
6) British Monarchs
7) Ancient Greeks

Yeah, that's my dad. Totally not normal. Neither is my mother on that note. There was really no hope for me.

Well, I think I'm gonna relax for a bit and listen to some music before the polls close and I dare look at my TV screen. I'm gonna get that Peach Schnapps ready.

Edit: So I hear a knock on my door a couple minutes ago. I figure "oh, the coast must be clear it won't be any of the political parties now". Wrong. It was a guy for my Liberal candidate asking if I'd voted yet. I might have been kind of grumpy about this, but he was rather cute, plus, as teacher I have to appreciate the persistance/almost nagging of my Liberal candidate. She was at my door the evening the election was called, then she's been at the subway a few time including this morning. Now this. Kind of reminds me of me when I nag the kids constantly to get their work in so that they don't fail.

My office glows all night long, it's a nuclear show and the stars are gone.

I had a super lazy Saturday. I slept in, and I just couldn't get myself motivated to do much except listen to some music, watch some Simpsons on DVD and just generally be lazy.

Anyhow, last night I watched the "Ben Folds and the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra Live in Perth" DVD that I'd gotten for Christmas. Oh. My. God. It was amazing. I tell you, Ben Fold and WASO will be the musical entertainment in my heaven. If you like Ben Folds, you must see this. I'm such a dork, I was trying hard not to sing along and clap after each song and not wake up my poor roommate (nor make her afraid she was living with a crazy) but it was hard. So good.

This evening, TB dropped by and we watched "Wedding Crashers" which I hadn't seen before but enjoyed muchly. My roomie and her fiancee and their friend watched with us which was fun.

My favourite part of the movie was when the closing credits came on and a Weakerthans song was playing (Aside). Cool! I hope the band got some good money from that.

Oh, also I've been reading some fun playlists on some people's blogs (Scott, Lea, Guggenflurgen and jc). Warms my heart. I love reading about music almost as much as I like listening to it.

Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.

My 7 Ideal Jeopardy Categories

All right, I've been tagged by Scott to list my 7 ideal Jeopardy categories. Really, I can run pretty much any jeopardy category they throw at me, so this is a bit of an exercise in futility. *lol* Just kidding.

Okay so here are the 7 categories that would turn me into the next Ken Jennings:

1) I'll take "The Simpsonian Institute" for $1000 Alex. (My clever title for a Simpsons category that I'd run in a heartbeat.)

2) Maybe I'll find the Daily Double in "90s One Hit Wonders"...

3) Hmmm, it's not there. Let's move to "The Periodic Table of the Elements" for $1000.

4) That was too easy. Okay, let's get down and dirty with "Celebrity Gossip".

5) Hmmm... am I allowed to put in a second Simpsons category? Okay fine. How about "Canadian Provincial Capitals"? I did well on that test in grade 4.

6) Okay, let's get literary with "Contemporary Novels" for $1000.

And final jeopardy would be....

7) Biology. That pricy degree had better be good for something. ;)

Okay, I'll tag jc, m@, Guggenflurgen and Lea to keep the ball rolling. I was going to say "this is an easy tag" but I got a little stuck after the periodic table.

Now if there was a category about "Elections that are annoying the hell out of Christielli" one of the correct responses would be "What is the 2006 Canadian federal election?" However, I did get a bit of amusement out of the thing today when my crazy period 4 class asked me who I was going to vote for. Naturally, I gave them the "I'm not going to tell you that" schpiel and then made the following bad joke - "I'll tell you who I'm not voting for - The Bloc Quebecois!" Anyhow, they decided that since I was a science teacher, I'd probably vote Green... or maybe NDP. They all seemed to be pro-NDP. Really, if the NDP ever wants to win, perhaps they need to get the voting age lowered to 15.

Non-celebrity Playlist

I love browsing through The iTunes Music Store for fun. One feature I especially enjoy are the celebrity playlists. Why do I care about what kind of music various famous people enjoy? I don't know but today I found it very validating to learn that members of Death Cab for Cutie enjoy Sloan's False Alarm and Stars' One More Night (Your Ex-Lover is Still Dead) just I like do. I also enjoy reading their mini-explanation of why they enjoy each song.

I was thinking that it's a travesty that I have not been contacted by iTunes to make my celebrity playlist. I suppose this may be because I'm not a celebrity.

Then I realized that, heck, what do I have a blog for if not to post my very own non-celebrity playlist?

So I give you, Christielli's Non-Celebrity Playlist.

1) Your Beauty Must Be Rubbing Off by Hawksley Workman - This song is lyrically bizarre song but extremely enjoyable. C'mon all you girls out there, wouldn't you love it if a guy said "Your beauty must be rubbing off on me"?

2) Wonderwall by Ryan Adams - I'm not sure how long this song's been around but a friend of mine just sent it to me. It's such a sparse bleak take on the song. And using the piano for the hook at the end creates a haunting effect. Feeling melancholy? Listen to this.

3) Reconstruction Site by The Weakerthans - Years ago I decided this is my all-time favourite song. The first time I ever heard this song was live, and it's just got such vivid imagery in it. My favourite line: "where a little boy under a table with cake in his hair stared at the grown-up feet as they danced and swayed".

4) I'm a Loner Dottie, A Rebel by The Get Up Kids - Heck, I just love the title becasue I am a loner Dottie, a rebel. Or so I'd like to think.

5) Annie Waits by Ben Folds - Somehow Ben Folds knows exactly what it's like to be a girl waiting for a stupid boy to call her. And there is a twist at the end of the song that makes my heart break.

6) So Unsexy by Alanis Morissette - Feel like crap? This song might make you feel better, or at least it expresses the way you feel. I have several friends, as well as myself, who use it as therapy.

7) Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson - Even I like this song. C'mon is there anyone who doesn't like to dance around in the privacy of their own house to this song?

8) Wait by Death Cab for Cutie - I'm hoping that I can redeem myself slightly by adding an obscure Death Cab for Cutie song. The only thing I know about the OC is that Seth likes DCFC, so at least I've redeemed myself in the eyes of a fictional TV character, I'm sure.

9) Elevator Love Letter by Stars - I love the part where this song goes "I get too tired after midday[wait time] lately".

10) I'm A Mountain by Sarah Harmer - A blue-grassy, toe-tappin' song that makes fun of Wal-mart by my favourite female singer-songwriter. Good times.

11) MFEO by Jack's Mannequin - A two songs for the price of one ditty on from a CD I've been listening to a lot for the past few weeks (thanks again for the introduction, April).

Okay, so there you have it. I've created my very own non-celebrity playlist. That makes me happy. Now I'm going to listen to it while I clean the living room so that my fabulous roommate won't hate me for being a horrible procrastinator when it comes to matters of domesticity. Cleaning makes me unhappy.

Howeveer, it would make me super happy if other bloggers made their own non-celebrity playlists. One rule - you must include one potentially embarrassing song. ;)

Wow look at you now, flowers in the window, it's such a lovely day and I'm glad you feel the same.

All right, so here's the latest tag that's been making the rounds. Now, I haven't been directly tagged, since everyone who's done this assumes they're the last person in the world to do it and don't tag anyone (i.e. me). So I'll take it upon myself to tag myself, since I don't really have anything specific that I want to blog about today anyway.

Four jobs you've had in your life:

1) Cashier at an un-named fast food restaurant in Stratford;
2) Art gallery assistant (that was my title - I took people's admissions and dusted the gift shop)
3) Information Access Officer for a provincial government office (I answered the phone and sold people maps/aerial photos/hunting and fishing licences)
4) Teacher

Four movies you can watch over and over:
1) The Wedding Singer
2) 50 First Dates
3) Edward Scissorhands
4) The Nightmare Before Christmas

Four places you have lived:
1) Farm outside of Mitchell, Ontario
2) Stratford Ontario
3) North Spirit Lake, Ontario (find that on a map... I taught up there for a year)
4) Toronto!!

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch
1) The Simpons (over and over and over again)
2) The Daily Show
3) The Colbert Report
4) Desperate Housewives, I guess... really that's the only other show I currently watch besides #s 1-3

Four Places You Have Been On Vacation

1) New Brunswick
2) Cooperstown, NY (It was my dad's dream to visit the baseball Hall of Fame)
3) Australia!!! (Brisbane, Cairns, Adelaide and Sydney)
4) Cuba

Four Websites You Visit Daily

1) Blogs, blogs, blogs
2) Hotmail (to read my blog comments and other emails)
3) The Toronto Star
4) Chartattack.com (for my music news)

Four of Your Favourite Foods

1) Pad Thai
2) Peanut Chicken from the Green Mango
3) Mint Smoothies from Rheo Thompsons in Stratford (delicious chocolates)
4) Caesar Salad

Four Places You Would Rather Be Right Now

1) At a Weakerthans' concert (at a Sloan concert, at a Stars' concert... I could go on of course.)
2) Cairns, Australia
3) Back on the beach in Cuba
4) Toronto Ontario - Oh wait! That's where I am! Ha! Cool.

So feel free to tag yourself if you haven't done this yet. ;)

Tonight I'm off to have a beer with TB and my friend Mat. Perhaps other people will show up, who knows. Have a lovely Saturday night!

This night's a perfect shade of dark blue dark blue...

Happy Friday the 13th!

Happy Birthday to Raina!

Well, I've officially survived the first week back after two blissful weeks of vacation. Woo!

So, apparently I'm making a difference in my chosen profession. Today I overheard one of my little grade 9s muttering "I used to hate science but now it's not so bad." Hah. High praise coming from a 14 year old, I tell you.

This morning the local Conservative candidate was standing in front of my subway station and one of his "helpers" side-swiped me with their gigantic, ugly sign. Oh well, I should have assured the poor misguided girl that she had not assaulted a potential voter. I will never ever vote Conservative because I am not a conservative girl. (Big C or little c.)

Anyway, this is blog entry interrupted because my friend Ali just called and asked if I wanted to go to Ikea with her and her husband and little son. Of course! And we're gonna do the "Ikea Experience" where we have dinner too.

What a good start to the weekend!

Baby can you hear it? Don't it make you want to wake up and open eyes?

So it's unseasonably warm in Toronto. My weather pixie's wearing her light jacket. I tell you I'm convinced that climate change is rearing its ugly head. Our weather's been unnaturally weird for years. My poor students get my climate change/global warming/it's up to you to be good environmental citizens lectures all the time.

Anyway, today was a pretty good day. The semester is winding down. Today I got the news of a change in my timetable for next semester. Instead of having all science, they've given me a grade 9 math. It's going to be a class with a lot students who are just arriving to Canada, plus some others who have failed the course multiple times. The principal assured me that they'd be careful to keep my class size low, since it sounds like it'll be challenging. I hope it'll work out okay, although it will probably be a bit easier than the class they took away from me. I'd had some of the kids in that class last year, and they tended to be high maintenance.

2 more days 'til the weekend. I'm wiped today.

Sigh. I'm getting very discouraged with the whole election right now. I dislike them all. Humbug.

Okay, I really don't have too much to say but I felt like blogging so this is all you get.

Can't Get You Out of My Head: In A World Called Catastrophe by Matthew Good

Speak slow tell me love where do we go ah-ah.

Well I survived today! I feel like a climbed Mount Everest! I always get a little anxious on those "first days" (First day in Septemeber, first day back after Christmas, first day of new semester, etc.)... On the way out of the school today I was chattin' with another teacher and she was saying how she felt all overwhelmed today and I said "me too!" and she said "we should have run into each other in the morning!" Anyway, I feel like now I can deal with the bajillion and one work related I tasks I have to get done this week.

Gah! I'm itchy! Freakin' Cuban bugs ate my legs and I've been scratching like an I-dunno-what! Jeepers!

So aren't all of you Canucks soooooooooooo excited about the last English language debate tonight? Hahahaha. I should keep that on while I'm making up exams tonight. It'll keep me focussed on my task.

The last time I saw a movie in the theatre there was a commercial for CPAC, ya know the rivetting Parliamentary channel (Canada's equivalent to CSPAN I believe), that starred Tom Green. I was so confused. Tom Green? CPAC? Did someone put some sort of hallucinogen in my popcorn?

Oh, if any of you enjoy wasting time playing pointless computer games, try this.

Okay, really, I need to go do some work now. Maybe have a mini-nap first. TGMO (thank God Monday's over)!!

Can't Get You Out of My Head: Speak Slow by Tegan & Sara

Why must vacations come to an end?

*sob* I can't believe that I gotta go back to work tomorrow. I'm so not ready. My mother, who's a teacher too, assures me they'll be quieter now that they've got the holidays out of their systems, but I'm less optimistic.

I like my job but I like being on holiday better.

Anyway, I'll stop whining since I really have no right since my 2 weeks off were much longer than what most people get. I apologize.

This afternoon I went for a walk and bought a new CD to console myself. I got Martha Wainwright's self-titled disc and it's good so far (I'm on my first listen). She's Rufus' sister. Last night I downloaded her song "Bloody Mother f****** A*****" and I love it. I'm in the mood for music with a lot of cursing lately.

I've been plowing through "Planet Simpson" which is a great book. If you're a Simpsons devotee and have not read it, you must. I think I didn't pick it up earlier because I figure I know everything about the Simpsons anyway, so why shoul I bother reading some hack's analysis of it? As Lisa would say, I stand corrected. It's a perfectly cromulent book.

Okay, I figure if I go do laundry right now, I can justify sitting around reading as opposed to working on the mounds of schoolwork I have. Yeah, that's it.

I'll leave you with some more Cuba pics, just 'cuz.

Here's a view from our hotel. I'm not sure what the structure to the left is. We were totally gonna take a walk to it one day and check it out but never did. I think it's an old military post or something.

If you leave tips for your housekeeper, she'll fold your towels into fun things like swans and hearts.

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.