Don't wait to lay your armour down...

I'm relaxing by listening to the new Dashboard Confessional song "Don't Wait". So summery. So fun. I think I'm in love. I got my tickets for Dashboard and City & Colour at the Molson Ampitheatre on June 30th. I'm psyched. What a way to celebrate the end of a school year!

So things are pretty much crazy busy right now. Tonight I had to travel way across the city on a bus for a work-related meeting. I tend to forget how big this city is. Just got home and vegging in front of the tv.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to my school's musical. I think it's gonna be good. A good third of my period 1 class is involved, so it'll be fun to watch. Plus I'll get to see those sets I helped paint in action! However, I'm prolly gonna stick around school until the show in the evening, so it will be a long day.

On Friday, I'm hopping on the train to Stratford. Sunday is my friend Mel's wedding shower. It should be lots of fun. I'm really looking forward to spending the weekend at home and recharging. Gee, 2 days back at work and I already need recharging.

Oh look! Blogger's being cooperative and allowing me to post some pics from my weekend trip!

Well, I may catch you on the other side of the weekend. Don't think I'll have time for blogging until then.

ps Congrats to my dear friend Sandee on getting into teachers' college!

All right, I can say what you want me to.

Ahh... I think I'm totally refreshed and rejuvinated thanks to the fabulous long weekend that I had. I give it a day, and I'll be back to my usual stressed and hurried self.

Here's a run down of the weekend's activities:

Friday - Caught Go-Train to Burlington where my friend/old roommate Jeanine picked us up. We drove to her place, dropped off her stuff and headed to Niagara Falls to stand in the cold rain and watch fireworks over the falls. Then we headed to the new casino where I lost a little bit of money and Becca T won a little bit of money.

Saturday - Slept in a little, brunched and then headed again to Niagara Falls. Walked around for a bit and decided our corny Niagara Falls activity would be to go on the Maid of the Mist which neither Becca T nor I had been on since our childhoods. It was a little cold, very wet, but a fun time. Thank goodness for disposable ponchos.

We took a break and did a little bit of browsing in stores. Becca T used her casino winnings to buy us each a very large, very very tasty chocolate covered strawberry at the Hershey's store. Then we hit the factory outlet mall (the only store that actually had good prices was The Body Shop) and went out for supper. We returned to Jeanine's place, met up with her friend, went out for ice cream and then watched a super cheesy movie (The Perfect Man with Hillary Duff and Heather Locklear).

Sunday - Slept in again and brunched again. Drove around the country and saw tonnes of vineyards, orchards and Brock's monument. Went to Port Dalhousie where they have a really old caroursel that you can ride for a nickel. Jeanine was nice enough to treat us each to a ride. It was fun. We wanted to walk along the beach there but it was far too cold and windy.

We then drove to Niagara-on-the-Lake (Stratford's main competition in the area of tourist town with shopping a festival... I always feel like a traitor going there) and looked around the stores.

Caught the train back to TO. Becca T came over here to watch the season finale of Desperate Housewives. Sunday shows are so much better when you can drink while watching them not having to worry about work on Monday.

Today - Main activity was going to see The Da Vinci Code. The critics are right. It's rather boring. Stick with the book.

Now, I'm trying to post pictures of my weekend but blogger's being muchos unco-operative. Stay tuned.

Happy May 2-4!

I was having such a good day today until about halfway through period 4. My morning classes were good, and then my period 4 class was being good. But then, I had to deal with 3 kids who were caught skipping (honestly, if you're going to cut class, leave the building so you don't get caught... yeesh) and my necklace broke. I managed to save half of the beads but many rolled away. Sigh.

However, all of these calamaties are made up for by the fact that, yes, it is a long weekend. Woo! I'm in the middle of packing my stuff for my mini-trip to visit an old roommate in the Niagara area. A change of scenery will be nice.

Hope you all have great weekends. Thanks for your comments on my previous post. By the way, the albums were in no particular order - just more or less the order in which I thought of them.

Ciao!

10 albums...

Last week, while I was having blogger's block, I made a list of 10 albums that are really important to me thinking that I could make a post out of that sometime. Well sometime is here. I may not listen to some of these a heck of a lot any more, but they always remind me of a certain time or place. I don't know what to call them. Influential? Favourite? Inspiring? Instrumental? (Ix-nay on that adjective - all of them have lyrics...) Ummm, for lack of a satisfactory term, I'll just call them special.

Anyhow, here is a list of 10 albums that are special to me:

1) The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner - Ben Folds Five

This album was released on the last day of my first year of university. So, it kind of marks a milestone for me: the end of my hardest year of university. More importantly, I listened to it constantly that summer. My Nana was dying of cancer that year, and it brings me back to frequently making the trip to visit her in the hospital in Sarnia with my Dad. The song "Magic" was eerily appropriate for that experience. It's about coming to terms with someone you love dying of illness and being glad that they are finally out of pain. I love that song so much, and it makes me happy and sad to think about my Nana who was one of the most special people to me ever.

2) (Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves - Hawksley Workman

I decided to skip an evening stats class to go to the CD release party for this CD. Best reason to skip class ever. The concert was Hawksley, his pianist Mr. Lonely, and a string quartet. It was one of the most amazing shows that I'd ever seen and sort of started the beginning of me going to lots of small concerts in clubs and discovering little known artists.

3) Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morissette

Ahh, to be a 16 year old girl again. This CD was all the rage when a lot of my friends were getting their driver's licenses. We'd listen to this CD while going on roadtrips and sing along with every song. Bonus fun: acting out the Ironic video and pretending to be the various Alanises in the car. However, I never would hang out the window if I was shotgun. That's just not me.

4) Left & Leaving - The Weakerthans

This CD got me started on my favourite band of all-time. I love this album for so many reasons. I can identify with the Weakerthans' songs because many of them have the theme of having a love/hate relationship with your hometown. I always have to listen to the song "Left & Leaving" when I'm on way to visit Stratford. My city's still breathing, but barely, it's true.

5) Parachutes - Coldplay

Whenever I hear any song from Parachutes, I think about Harry Potter. For Christmas 2000, I got this CD plus the first 4 Harry Potter books. I listened to this CD as I read through them, and Coldplay and Harry Potter are forever linked in my mind.

6) Tranatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie

This CD rocks. I got it for Christmas from my dear friend Becca T the year that I was up north. It's just so sweeping and grand. It was a great album to have while dealing with challenging times. And the title track is to die for.

7) Pretty Together - Sloan

I wasn't much of a Sloan fan until this album came out. For some reason (was it fate?), Becca T and I kept constantly getting free tickets to Sloan concerts and running into Sloan playing at various places while they were promoting this album. After the third performance, we were hooked and went through a summer of Sloan obsession. I'm talking Sloan road-trips and even making Sloan crafts. Don't ask. But if it feels good, do it, right?

8) Pinkerton - Weezer

El Scorcho is one of my favourite songs of all times. My roommate and I knew that we'd get along when we discovered that we both love this song. Pinkerton is another one of those albums that remind me of high school. I remember getting in trouble for singing El Scorcho too loudly in the library and my friend Sandra hating me for singing that song which made me sing it more. The rest of the album's good too.

9) You Were Here - Sarah Harmer

I love this album. I'm surprised that I haven't worn out my copy of it. (Can you wear out a CD?) It makes me mad to see this CD on the cheap rack at many stores. It's worth so much more, dammit!

10) Set Yourself on Fire - Stars

Last night I was reading my blog entries from a year ago and I noticed that I'd bought this album last May. I can't believe I've had it for a year! It still seems so new and exciting to me, which testifies to its excellence. I love it all, but my favourite songs are Your Ex-Lover is Dead and Reunion which are respecitively numbers 1 and 3 of my most-listened to songs on my iPod. Oh, can't Stars come play again soon?

Sooooo, what are some albums that are special to you?

ps I actually spell-checked my entry for once. Can you believe that Blogger's built-in spell-checker does not have the word blog in it? Too funny.

Then what could I say that would sound right?

Two days down, 3 to go before the bliss of a long weekend. My plans: Becca T and I are going to visit our old roommate in the Niagara area for a couple days. Perhaps hang out in Niagara Falls, do some shopping, see a movie, whatevs. Should be fun.

Update on last week's fire: it was caused by someone on a higher floor dropping a lit cigarette off of their balcony. Idiots. The poor people whose apartment it was - I hope it's less damaged than it looks.

Today's my mom's birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!

Oh - my flight and everything for my trip to England/Wales/Ireland are all booked and deposits are down. I'm so excited. I leave on July 28th and will be back on August 7th. I can't wait.

Lovin' my 60s cover CD by Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs.

I'm addicted to the "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series. I'm currently reading the fourth book. It makes me want to go to Botswana or someplace else in Africa. Perhaps that can be my 2008 summer vacation. (2007 will be British Columbia for my roomie's wedding.)

Hmmm, I think that's all the randomness that I have for today. Gotta go clean the kitchen. Blah. I wish the dishes were enchanted to wash themselves like in Harry Potter.

I see the rain again; I'll take the blame again.

Weird things that went through my head today:

- You could save a lot of money if you decided to celebrate all of your holidays a couple of days late. I was inspired by this latest money saving scheme when I saw Mothers' Day cupcakes on sale at the grocery store for a whopping $0.20 off.

- How the hell did I become a "grown-up"? This question passed through my head as I stood in line to buy a stamp for my mom's birthday card. I don't know why this task made me feel weird and grown-up but it did. Don't you sometimes look at your life and feel like you're playing grown-up? I constantly do.

- Ye gods: the 90s weren't as stylin' as I thought they were. This thought passed through my mind as I skimmed through a 1995 yearbook as I was making copies on the slow-as-death copier in the staffroom. I was in high school in 1995 and I swear I was far more fashionable than those in that yearbook. Hmmm, maybe in the 90s Stratford was the style mecca that I always assumed Toronto was.

- I'd kill to travel back through time and be back in high school for a couple of days. I really think that it would provide me with some kickass professional development. Much more useful than the workshops etc. that I have to go to now.

- Now that I'm a teacher, I do not want to listen to the same music as my students. Ick. That stuff sucks. It seems like it was just yesterday that I felt the opposite way; I did not want to listen to the same stuff as adults did.

Okay, that's all the weird thoughts for now. Here's a totally normal one: thank goodness Monday's over! It's all downhill (in a good way) from here!

Look up, rain is falling, looks like love.

Apparently I've been hit with a bit of blogger's block, if there is such a thing. I started a few posts last week but they went nowhere. They just seemed super boring and rambling, so I just deleted them. Even on Wednesday when there was tonnes of excitement (i.e. the fire), I couldn't come up with much (see short post below).

Sooo, in an attempt to break my blogger's block, I'm going to try and give y'all a rundown of my weekend:

1) On Friday after school, I hit a travel agency to figure out some stuff about the trip I'm planning to go on this summer with my friend Flora (who also went to Oz with me). We're going a tour of England/Wales/Ireland. Anyhow, I just gotta go in on Monday and put down a deposit on the thing. So it's pretty much a done deal. Britain, here I come (well, at the end of July).

2) Friday night I went to my friends Jon and Ali's place to hang out with old university buddies. My friend Gloria has been working in New Zealand for awhile (maybe like 2 years) and is back for three weeks. We caught up and played a loooooooooooong game of 90s trivial pursuit. Fun times.

3) Saturday I just couldn't get motivated to do much. I ended up doing laundry (finally) and watching a crappy movie (Rumour Has It with Jennifer Aniston et al.). Meh.

4) Today I went shopping. Again. At the Eaton Centre. Fourth weekend in a row. It was super necessary though because I needed a new outfit for my friend's wedding in June. I actually bought the very first thing I tried on. Talk about efficiency. But, I swear that I can't go shopping next weekend. But d'oh! I'm supposed to be spending time with Becca T and our old roommate Jeanine, which probably means we'll go shopping. It's hard to not go shopping when social time with female friends (and sometimes the right male ones) invovles shopping. Why is it such a fun activity?

5) I also picked up a new CD. It's called "Under the Covers Vol. 1" and it's by Sid n Susie (aka Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs). It's a bunch of 60s covers and it's super fun. I'm grooving in my room to it right now.

Sooooo, that was my weekend. Sigh. Went by too quickly, as usual. But... this is the last week of school until the long weekend, so things are looking up.

Tonight is the season finale of Survivor, so I have a long date with my TV. Have a great week!

What could you both possibly share (other than the colour of your hair)?

Well, there was a fire on the third floor of my building. Luckily I live on the 27th floor - far, far away from any smoke or fire. The unit that was burned is just above the main entrance of my building. It's totally burned out (all blackened inside with broken windows) and the balcony of the apartment above is all black.

After we were given the all clear, they had problems turning off the alarm, so I ended up going for a walk instead of staying at home. The alarm is freaking loud and I was already agitated enough.

Needless to say my plan of doing laundry and watching tv did not happen.

Tomorrow is another night I suppose.

I

I stole this from Guggenflurgen.

I AM feeling the Sunday night blues.
I WANT to go on a vacation.
I WISH it was June already.
I HATE waking up early in the morning.
I MISS my university days.
I FEAR the death of my parents.
I HEAR the Weakerthans on my iPod.
I WONDER what my life will be like in 5 years.
I REGRET sleeping in today.
I AM NOT a morning person.
I DANCE when I’ve had something to drink.
I SING off key.
I CRY during the series finale of “Sex and the City”.
I AM NOT ALWAYS in a good mood, although I act like it most of the time.
I MAKE WITH MY HANDS quality hand-knit scarves.
I WRITE tests and blog posts.
I CONFUSE my students sometimes.
I NEED a long weekend.
I SHOULD eat more veggies.
I START lots of Sudokus.
I FINISH mainly the easy ones.

Bonus: Here are some I-songs from my iPod (a la Lea's blog awhile ago):

I Am Aglow - Sarah Harmer
I Am Missing - Dashboard Confessional
I Believe in A Thing Called Love - The Darkness
I Can Feel It - Sloan
I Don't Know What It Is - Rufus Wainwright
I Don't Like Mondays - Tori Amos
I Drive Alone - Esthero
I Fought the Law - Green Day
I Hate My Generation - Sloan
I Know I Know I Know - Tegan & Sara
I Never - Rilo Kiley
I Really Want to Help You - Cuff the Duke
I Should Have Been Watching You - Hayden
I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
I.O.U. - Metric

I've made it, my dear, face it, I still kiss the darkness.

Thanks to everyone's suggestions to help me with my musical ennui... I'm going to have to write down a list and take it with me to HMV or whatever other store I wander into this weekend and make some frivolous impulse purchases.

Although... I did manage to pass my little phase by listening to some old stuff I have listened to in awhile. Danny Michel I heart you, and I really hope I can made his CD release show in June, even though it's the day before my friend's wedding. Hmmm... nothing wrong with a sleepy wedding guest, right?

I thought there weren't very many good CDs coming out soon, but I was wrong. I've got Amy Millan's (from Stars) solo CD coming out at the end of May, and new Danny Michel and Dashboard Confessional in June. Perhaps music wasn't getting as stagnant as I feared.

Becca T and I tried to see "Akeelah and the Spelling Bee" yet again tonight. We were going to see it last weekend but then she got a little overwhelmed with work and postponed our outing. Anyway, there were no times that fit with our schedules tonight, so we saw "American Dreamz" instead. Meh. It was all right. A renter, I'd say.

Here are some pictures that I took around town a couple of weekends ago when it was raining like the dickens. I love the few short weeks when trees are in bloom, and I came across some vandalism on a mailbox that, ummm, I didn't really disagree with.





Anyhow, hope you all enjoy your weekend!

ps My real-life friend Jo has started her own blog, since she loves mine and Sandee's so. Check it out and harass her into keeping it up. Also, her spelling's atrocious, so entertainment is guaranteed. ;) She's gonna kill me for saying that but... ummm... I just can't not. She knows I love her.

I should be sleeping but...

If you have not looked at my previous post, go look at it, and then read the next paragraph...

Alright some of you are much too good. I stared at that damned triangle for 10 minutes for me to see that it read "Paris in the the spring" and not just "Paris in the spring". Most people look at things as a whole, you know - the Gestalt prinicple, and don't notice the extra "the". If you did notice the extra "the" it means you pay attention to detail and should consider a career in proofreading.

Honesltly though, I recommend writing that little puzzle on a piece of paper and showing it to people and then yelling "wrong!" whey they read it as "Paris in the spring". Then watch them puzzle away at it for awhile. It's really good fun and perhaps works better in real life as opposed to in blogland.

Okay, so that was the first reason for today's double post.

Second reason = I think I'm experienceing musical ennui. HELP!!!!! I'm feeling a bit bored with the 2100 or so songs on my iPod. Normally when this happens, I can think some new stuff to aquire but I'm fresh out of ideas. I can't even think of anything new that I'm remotely interested in right now. Soooooooooo, any suggestions? Please, please, please help!!! I'm in danger of overplaying a lot of my current faves!

It doesn't help that there are not a whole lot of new CDs that I'm looking forward to. My dear Danny Michel is coming out with a new disc in June (and playing a CD release party in TO! Yay!) but, as you know, June is a looooooooooong time away, especially for a girl in the education business. And other than that, everyone I love seems to be on some sort of hiatus.

Help me end my musical ennui!

Honey, I'm a roller concrete clover...

Right now my classroom is a mess because they are renovating two of the other science classrooms so all of their stuff has been boxed up and moved into mine. Mostly this situation is annoying due to all of the clutter, the fact that my room now seems half its size, the distraction that the extra stimuli has provided for the kids, and mostly because I'm tired of answering the "Miss, why are all these boxes in here?" question a bajillion times. (One kid gets bonus points for the comment "Gee Miss, they must love you and really want to keep you because they gave you all this stuff. Look - 3 new computers!")

There are also weird random objects that have been shoved into drawers. Yesterday I found this book published in 1960 called "Science Puzzles" and I flipped through it while the kids were writing a quiz.

I found the following puzzle that I have attempted to reproduce in MS Paint. All you have to do is read the words in the triangle below and tell me what it says.

So far I've shared it with all of my classes and lots of colleagues. No one can get the answer right away. It took me an embarassingly long time to figure it out. Let me know if you get it!

It's (or was) just another manic Monday...

It's my first 5 day week at school after 3 four day weeks (thank you Easter and PD day). Will I survive????

After today, and the crazy behaviour of my grade 9s to which I attribute to a chemical reaction between their hormones and this crazy delicious weather we've been having, I have my doubts.

Now that it's May, I have to repeat myself a minimum of 27 times for all 28 of my grade 9s to catch onto the most basic of things (eg: do the questions on the handout I just gave you).

Oh, but I'm not giving them enough credit. According to their math teacher, they retained one thing from my class this morning. Apparently they corrected her when she mentioned they have 8 weeks of school left. She was met with a resounding "No! Ms W said we only have 7 weeks left." Not that I'm counting or anything.

Today brings to an end the grade 9 biology unit on reproduction since I started test review. And the award of question of the semester goes to:

"Miss, why are pregnant women so good looking?"

After having to pick myself off the floor from laughing, I made the kid feel a bit better by saying "I think you're referring to the healthy glow that is commonly attributed to pregnant women. Interesting question.."

I tell you, I'm looking forward to the relative safety of the electricity unit. Although, they still have two work periods to finish their project on reproductive technology, which was the catalyst for the winner of the question of last semester: "Miss, is ecstasy a fertility drug?"

Okay, well, I'm going to brave this beautiful weather to make a trip to Starbucks and get a tasty frozen coffee beverage. Or maybe the Second Cup. Hmmmm, decisions, decisions. Then I'll attack the pile of marking that I avoided this weekend. Have a happy Tuesday!

Now this romantic duels into the streets, bon appetit, he's eating me alive.

I was chatting with my dear friend Sandee a few days ago and she'd pointed out that she'd seen a music post awhile ago and was shocked that I had never completed it myself. I'd told her that I'd get to it on a rainy day. Well, it's not rainy today (that was last weekend) but I really don't have much else to say, so here it is (stolen from Scott's blog awhile back).

1. Name of band/artist: Tori Amos
2. Are you male or female? : Cornflake Girl
3. Describe yourself: Strange Little Girl
4. How do you feel about yourself?: Pretty Good Year
5. Describe your ex girlfriend/boyfriend: Icicle
6. Describe current girlfriend/boyfriend: I'm Not In Love
7. Describe where you want to be: Jamaica Inn
8. Describe how you live: Happy Phantom
9. Describe how you love: Spark
10. What would you ask for if you had just one wish?: Cars and Guitars
11. Share a few words of Wisdom: The Power of Orange Knickers
12. Now say goodbye: Goodbye Pisces

Okay, Tori's got a song called "Hoochie Woman" which would have been totally hilarious to throw in somewhere, but alas, a hoochie woman I am not.

So far this weekend's been pretty productive. I did laundry last night after school then went out for drinks with Becca T. Today I got up early and did some shopping. Last weekend, I bought myself the Roots purse that I'd been lusting over for months (thank you Revenue Canada for some money for that). Last night I walked by a Roots and they had special sale this weekend where everything is 25% off. Grrr. So I went back and had the price adjusted (woo!) and bought a cool necklace. I also picked up some cool new sunglasses, new jeans and a new shirt while shopping. Then I realized that I haven't had a weekend in a looooooooong time that hasn't involved shopping. So my goal next weekend is to *not* go shopping. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Tonight Becca T and I are gonna catch "Akeelah and the Bee". (Victims of the current Starbucks advertising campaign for this movie? Perhaps.)

Alright, I'm hungry. Supper time. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

This summer I'm going to get us a motorbike...

Tonight I had parent-teacher interviews aka the longest day of the year. Thankfully all were pretty good. My interviews fell into three categories:
a) Your son/daughter is fabulous.
b) Your son/daughter is fabulous but needs to study more.
c) Your son/daughter is a piece of work.

Usually the parents of letter c kids tend to stay at home, but I did get to talk to a few of them, and I'm hoping that they'll upgrade to letter b by the end of the semester.

The style nowadays is that the kid will often come along with the parents to the interview. I actually like this but one of the dangers is that there are sometimes tears (usually from boys believe it or not). I had one kid who looked like he was going to cry, but I think it was more from the stress of other interview and not from me because I'd classified him under category b and his dad had said "finally, some good news!" when I'd spoken about his son.

Tomorrow is a PD day and I get to sleep in. Hence I'm blogging so late.

When I got home from work tonight, my roommate and I had a discussion about my dichotomous nature. Here are some of the many dichotomies that make up this blogger:

- I'm hard-working (at work) yet lazy (mainly that I'm really good at putting off housework)
- I'm girlie (I like pink and own a surprising amount of makeup) yet not (I don't scream much and I'm not overly touchy or mushy)
- I'm quiet (around people I don't know) yet loud (around people I do know -- in fact if you get to know me, I don't shut up)
- I'm cool (see my tastes in music) yet geeky (although they say geek is the new chic)

We talked about some more but then she offered me some wine so I'm forgetting the rest.

Yay for the upcoming weekend! Hope yours rocks.

ps Post title is from the song "Ilfracombe" by Hawksley Workman which I'm listening to right now. Only a month and a bit until that concert. Yeesh. I've been waiting forever!!

Time can take its toll on the best of us.

I just got back from doing something that should have been surreal, but wasn't really, which made it in fact kind of surreal. (That sentence makes complete sense in my head... apologies if it doesn't on screen.) My old best friend (circa grades 7-12) is getting married in June and I just dropped the RSVP in the mailbox.

Right now I'm feeling that odd sensation of wistfulness/melancholy that accompanies the realization of growing apart from someone who used to be very central in your life. A time when I totally appreciate the value of a blog for an outlet for my thought.

Mel and I became pretty good friends in grade 7; her dad was going through a divorce (his second) and at some point she moved a couple of blocks away from me. In grade 8 our relationship as best friends was cemented. Every day after school I'd hang out at our school where we'd gossip, attempt baking cookies, watch TV and movies and plot elaboarte pranks against our chauvinistic, inept grade 8 teacher (none of which were actually attempted).

High school started and we maintained our friendship and moved among different groups of friends together until we eventually found one that stuck (and is still stuck together today). We still had our after school and weekend rituals of spending a lot of time together and getting into enough trouble together. Wait? Isn't it only technically trouble if you get caught? Luckily, we didn't get caught doing 99% of the stupid crap that we pulled; which was good, since my mom probably wouldn't have let me pal around with her so much.

If I were to describe our relationship using a favourite biology term of mine, I would say it was a mutualism. She took advantage of my booksmarts and voice of common sense (which was really beneficial for her since her parents were frequently absent and I used to have a running tally of stupid things that I'd talked her out of); whereas I benefitted from her social capabilities.

Sending away the reply to her wedding has made me reflect a lot on our friendship. If you'd asked grade 10 or 11 me about her wedding, I would have assumed I'd have a big role and that I'd know her finace really well. Not so much in reality; I think I could count on one hand the times that I've met him.

We grew apart starting in grade 13 (the old Ontario school system used to have a grade 13 aka OAC... essentially univesity prep - we were weird... it's gone now). She was done with school since she didn't want to go to university and I was working hard taking my advanced sciences and maths. She met a guy at a bar and started to date him very seriously. They moved in together and got "engaged" pretty quickly (it was a long engagement that thankfully never went anywhere). Once I'd met him and spent a bit of time with him, I coined the nickname "The Devil" for him. He was seriously the worst human being I have ever met in my life. Anyway, not surprisingly a girl involved with The Devil loses track of her friends and by the time I was off to university we'd grown apart sizablely.

We drifted apart further during univesity. She started to rarely show for the semi-annual gatherings with our high school friends. She'd cancel most plans we had. If I called her she'd say she was busy and then never call me back. Finally, one day I just stopped calling her because being shafted so much by my old best friend stung too much.

Eventually she got rid of The Devil and began replying to group emails. She began making and keeping plans with our group of friends again. She has visited me a few times in Toronto. Often there are flashes of the easy going fun friendship we had, but the closeness is gone.

I remember what she told me the last time I saw her before I left for university. "You'll never have another friend like me again."

It was true.

Shuffle Time

Got this game from Aaron. All you do is put your iPod (or substitute) on shuffle and the following questions are answered for you by the song selection. Oh, and you are NOT allowed to skip by embarrassing songs. Okay, I'm getting nervous but here goes... I've got my iPod on shuffle are here are the results...

Will I get far in life?
Standard Lines – Dashboard Confessional

How do my friends see me?
Extraordinary Girl – Green Day (I knew I loved my friends!)

Where will I get married?
California – Rufus Wainwright (Oooh… sounds fun!)

What is my best friend’s theme song?
The Marquee and the Moon – Sloan (Ahhh! That works. Becca T loves the Sloan.)

What is the story of my life?
Strange Little Girl – Tori Amos (LOL)

What was high school like?
Mood Rings – Relient K (Had several of those in high school.)

How can I get ahead in life?
Hold On – Sarah McLachlan

What is the best thing about me?
Time of Our Lives – David Usher

How is today going to be?
2 for 1 (Part 2) – Christine Fellows (Does this mean I should go shopping?)

What is in store for this weekend?
The Masterplan – Oasis (Does this mean I should buckle down and plan some lessons?)

What song describes my parents?
River of Daughters – The Old Soul (But they only have one…)

My grandparents?
So Pure – Alanis Morissette

How is my life going?
Eight Easy Steps – Alanis Morissette

What song will they play at my funeral?
Dead Disco – Metric (LOL!! Yeah, my funeral’s gonna be funny in an ironic way.)

How does the world see me?
Just Tonight… - Jimmy Eat World

Will I have a happy life?
The Grace – Neverending White Light featuring Dallas Green

What do my friends really think of me?
Non-Believer – Joel Plaskett (Oh well. They still think I’m an extraordinary girl so whatevs.)

Do people secretly lust after me?
Hymn – Andy Stochansky (Huh? Guess not. Hymns are not written with the intent to inspire lust. Sigh.)

How can I make myself happy?
Nothingwrong – Jimmy Eat World

What should I do with my life?
The Best Deceptions – Dashboard Confessional (Okay, so does this mean I should go get a cute emo boyfriend, go on a trip, cheat on him and break his heart? 'Cause that's what the song's about. However, it sounds like a potentially fun plan.)

Will I ever have children?
Elgin Avenue – Danny Michel

What is some good advice?
Bells for Her – Tori Amos

What is my signature dancing song?
Here Nor There – Andy Stochansky (Ummm... totally not a dancing song. Which I guess works since I'm not a dancing girl.)

What do I think my current theme song is?
Calendar Girl – Stars (Cool. I can totally live with that.)

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
Heroine – Wild Strawberries (I love people. They think I’m an extraordinary girl AND a heroine.)

What type of men/women do you like?
Nice To Be Out – Stereophonics (Nice to be out of what? Huh? I'm kind of scared here.)

What did you think of this meme?
Perfect Situation – Weezer

Well, I’d have to say that beats a magic eight ball. And, phew... No embarrassing songs were revealed.

Ba-ba-bup-ba-ba

Yay! The weekend! It's Friday night and I came home and had a big nap and then just went for a walk. Whoa. I'm a wild 'n crazy girl.

I was tired today after school because there was a lot of drama surrounding renovations that are happening in our deptarment. I hate when grownups act far more immature than teenagers.

Anyhow, it is the weekend! I must I must I must do my taxes this weekend and other assorted chores I've been putting off. Also, I think I'll indulge in a little retail therapy, which I seem to do far too often.

Have you all seen the Jack White coke ad? I haven't seen it on tv, but I had read a couple of places that it was good so I found it online today. You gotta hand it to Jack White - he can write a catchy tune, even if it is for the purposes of being a corporate schill. I'm not a huge White Stripes fan or anything, but I really do think he's an awesome songwriter. I love My Doorbell.

Have a great weekend!

Wow look at you now; flowers in the window; it's such a lovely day...

Holy beautiful weather Batman. It's so nice out! I'm soooo jealous of anyone I know who is still in university and summer is looming before them. Although, I'm not so envious of the fact they have to study for exams.

Today was a good day at work. Most days are. The worst that ever happens is that I get frustrated at lazy teenagers but there are enough nice hardworking ones to buffer that frustration. Today I had a healthy mix of frustration and the happy opposite of frustration so it's all good. Luckily, I end up laughing at the frustrations because something lightens them somehow. Case in point: today I booted a kid out of my class and gave him a lecture in the hall. A student who I taught last year, who would look rather large and menacing looking to the kid I was lecturing, was passing by and leered at the kid and said, in a rather menancing tone, "You'd better listen to her." I had to try hard not to laugh and resume my stern lecture.

Today was a happy flower day for me; hence the post title from the super happy springy Travis song Flowers in the Window (suggested download of the day). I brought in some mini daffodils for my period 1 class to examine. I felt guilty this morning as I was bringing the plants to school since I was essentially bringing them to meet a gruesome, but educational, death at the hands of grade 9s. However, we didn't use as many flowers as I thought we would, so now I have some daffodils in my classroom. I'll have to put a kid in charge of watering them so that they don't meet the ill fate of the ivy plants I had last semester.

In other flower news, my fabulous roommate has planted some flowers in windowboxes on our balcony. They look so beautiful and I've been meaning to take a picture. Here are a couple plus a depressing shot of my gardening attempts. Oh, a word from my roommate: the tulips are actually dying a bit now and aren't at their most beautiful.

From top to bottom:

- a view of the windowboxes
- tulips in the foreground; view of lake in background... I doubt I'll ever have an apartment with such an awesome view again
- the remnants of my feeble attempt at horticulture. This is the ficus plant that I got mad at and banished onto the balcony because it was dropping too many leaves on the floor. I've killed several other plants since then. There is nothing slightly green about my thumbs.

Well, I'm going to enjoy the rest of the lovely evening and go for a walk and maybe get a coffee (decaf at this time of night)!

My city's still breathing but barely it's true.

Oh, the sadness that hits me at the end of a long weekend. The bright side: next week only has 4 school days. And, the next week is another four day week because we get a PD day. Which means that I have to go to work, but there is no planning or kids to worry about which makes it almost a day off.

Anyhow, I've just finished typing out overhead notes for a thrilling lesson on sexual reproduction in animals and plants (oh, I dread the questions that I'll have to deal with when I bring up the subject of hermaphrodites ). My old crappy overhead finally broke and I got a new one last week. The old one was so bad that I never used it. And, you cannot get something replaced on the basis it is virtually unusable. It's gotta be completely unusable. Finally it completely broke and I got a new one. I'm into overhead overdrive now. I'm enjoying the reduction of chalk on my pants.

Anyway, I had an enjoyable time at home. On Friday night, I met up with Sandee and the gang (my new blog name for my high school friends - gives you guys a point of reference). Some good gossip was shared. The rest of the weekend was spent with my family. I saw some movies with the 'rents (Cinderella Man and Good Night, and Good Luck). I also actually took some walks around town and got some pictures of Stratford. Here they are:






From top to bottom:
- the court house
- one of the many trees that is now practically growing in the river due to erosion
- the Festival Theatre
- crooked picture of the city's "skyline" (guess you could call it that) complete with swans on the river
- a swan cooperatively posing for a picture - they're like typical models: all hissy and ill-tempered until you put a camera on them (yes, swans hiss)

Well, time for bed. Hope you all have a great week!

Lost out on this highway, these high beams have blinded me.

I am forever grateful that this is a long weekend. I couldn't have possibly taken another day.

Last night was the Matt Good concert that I had practically forgotten about in the insanity of the stuff going on this week (namely getting my marks/comments in for report cards). The concert was awesome. The opening artist, Melissa McClelland, was quite good. Matt played for a really long time which was beyond great. Here are some pictures of the show:





From top to bottom:
- far away stage shot
- zoom lenses are great
- not using a flash makes for a cool effect
- encore where Matt covered NIN's Hurt with Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet

Song that I was psyched to hear = Indestructible. I actually did not like MGB until that song came out and then I got Underdogs and fell in love. I equate that CD with my first year of university. When I hear it, I picture walking across Queen's Park in the spring, taking a nap after a bio lecture and studying for chemistry. (Whoa, wasn't I quite the wild child?)

I also really enjoyed hearing Better Man, which is the hidden track on White Rock 'n Roll Review. It totally goes with my newfound enjoyment of a lil' bit of country twang.

Soooo, today I was tired but I made it to school. As I was helping a student with math this morning, he pointed to the stamp on my hand and said "Miss, is that a tattoo?" I laughed as I said no.

"Did you go to a club then?"

"No, no, no. Just a concert."

Another student overheard me. "Miss! A concert on a Wednesday night! How irresponsible!" Love how they judge.

"No, it's not. I'm here and I'm teaching you, aren't I?" Although after this point the rest of the class turned into a discussion about tattoos.

After school, I had to finish our book club selection (The In-between world of Vikram Lall). I had 40 pages left to go and I'm sure you'll all be pleased that I got it done. Overall, it was a good book. It took me awhile to get into it but it really picked up after 100 pages or so. Only 2 of us actually had finished it but we managed to have a good book related discussion and the others are motivated to finish it.

I also found out that my old summer roommate/dear friend/book club member Ali is pregnant. It's her second child (the first was born in May). Wow.

Well, I'd better get to bed. I gotta wake up early, do some dishes and pack for my trip to Stratford for the long weekend. Happy Easter everyone. See you in awhile.

Now that we've met, we can only laugh at these regrets.

Here's proof that I may be losing my mind (taken from a phone conversation from Becca T):

Becca T: "So when's the concert tomorrow night?"
Me: "Huh?" pause "Oh my word - I totally forgot that Matthew Good is tomorrow night! AHHHH!!"

Yes, I actually totally forgot about the concert that I've been looking forward to for eons. I even had my Wednesday plans made: come home from work, clean floors and finish book club book just in time for Thursday's book club meeting. Ye Gods. I can't believe that I totally forgot.

Sooooooooo, anyhow thanks for all your wonderful haikus! You guys totally rock. At least I didn't forget that.

On the weekend I bought Neko Case's new CD "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" and I love it. My favourite song is "That Teenage Feeling" which has a line that I adore:

"And nothing comforts me the same
as my brave friend who says
I don't care if forever never comes
'cuz I'm holding out for that teenage feeling."

I love that part so much that I know that it starts at exactly 1 minute into the song. Anyhow, if you like your indie rock with a bit of twang and awesome vocals, get this CD.

On Thursday, my book club that consists of some friends and many a current/former roommate is meeting to discuss The In Between World of Vikram Lall. I had the hardest time getting into this book but now I'm really liking it. I'm on about page 250 with 150 pages to go. Can I get it finished? I have faith in me.

My other book club, the teacher book club at my school, is looking for a book to read over the summer holidays. Any suggestions? (It has to be fiction.)

Lost poetry

I just spent some time digging around my room searching for my favourite carrot cake recipe. (This is the one thing I bake -- it doesn't happen often. The search was brought on by the fact that my roommate just baked a delicious cake and I figure I'll have to repay her one day.) In my searches, I came across some rock star haikus that I wrote years ago; inspired by an article in Chart magazine. I just had to share some of these.

Matt once had a band
They broke up; now he's alone
With Rivers' glasses

David Usher drinks
Coffee from King Street Starbucks
We didn't see him

Much black eyeliner
Bazillions of records sold
Sings like Alanis

Summer approaches
Question remains unanswered
When are Sloan concerts?

Stupid computer haiku:

Want to check email
But modem will not respond
Restart computer

Annoying pet haiku:

My cat's loud meowing
Goes on and on constantly
Will she ever stop?

And yes, there's even a science haiku, proving that I'm truly a geek. Or, maybe it's just proof that I must have written these when I was in teachers' college and had the idea of cross cirricular connections shoved down my throat on a constant basis.

In the nucleus
Protons and neutrons are found
Electrons outside

Have a nice week!

ps I challenge you all to a haiku poetry contest in my comments. You know the rules - 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables. Go!

Epilogue

When I finished teachers' college, I did not have an answer to the "what next?" question. Obviously, I knew that I wanted to teach, but I didn't know where. Should I stay in Toronto? (Could I afford to?) Branch out into the GTA? Maybe a move to Kitchener or London or some other southwestern Ontario town was in the works. I half heartedly applied to boards in the GTA and in Toronto but no one was biting. Despite rumours of a "teacher shortage" in Ontario (which was a total myth), most of my peers in teachers' college were in the same boat. Many of us had not been called for interviews, and quite a few of my classmates had taken positions in other countries.

Anyhow, I decided to move back in with my parents until I found something concrete. I began applying to some jobs on larks. I applied to a non-convential job on a whim; it was at an internet-based secondary school in a remote community in Northwestern Ontario. At the time, my pal Sandee was teaching in Northern Quebec and I figured that if she could handle it, maybe I could too.

Well, I actually got a call from the principal for this job and I was offered it because they really needed a math/science teacher. I had about a week to make up my mind and then a week to get packed up and go. It sounded like an adventure, and I felt I was in need of an adventure in my life, plus the pay was good. I consulted some friends, including Sandee, and my family and I decided why not, it'll only be for a year.

So, for 10 months of 2003/2004 I live in a small aborginal community in Northwestern Ontario. You could only reach the community by plane. Well, except for in a few months in the winter, when there was an ice road that connected the community to the nearest town. My experience there was a total challenge. It was a complete eye-opener. Conditions in communities like this are not good; poverty, unemployment, addiction, depression, violence, and sickness are just some of the problems that plagued the community. Many large families are packed in small houses. It's amazing that conditions like this are present in Canada. It's like a totally different world.

Even though it was hard, and completely eye-opening, I met some great people while I was there and was amazed by the strength of many of the community members. I learned a lot during those 8 months and I've learned not to take so much for granted. I taught 15 year olds who had been through more sorrow and hardships in their short lives than I could imagine going through in my entire life.

Anyhow, the reason why I'm talking about this today is because I called one of the teachers I worked with today to chat and see how she is doing. She is on her third year teaching in the community and I enjoy getting updates from her. Plus, I developed a bond with two of the teachers who were up there at the same time as I was (there were 4 of us in total - one was a nutjob), and it's important for me to keep in touch.

I got all of the updates from her today and there really wasn't too much good news. After the converstaion, I almost felt like my 8 months there was a book and what she told me today was like an epilogue, or like the screen that comes on after a movie telling you what happened to the characters after the story was finished.

I found out that the only student who stayed in my class for the entire school year had a baby in January. She'll be 18 this month. I wonder now if she'll even meet her goal of graduating high school... Her younger sister had a baby the next month. Their father had remarked to my friend "those girls really don't know much about being mothers."

There was a woman who was an assistant in my friend's classroom. During the time I was in the community, she left her abusive boyfriend, who was then kicked out of the community. The following year she moved to the city. I asked how she was doing and apparently she's back with the boyfriend and they are both drinking again. So are her two oldest sons, one who is 19 and the other would be in grade 9 now.

One of the staff members at the computer centre next door to me was about my age. He'd never had problems with alcohol but decided to take up drinking this year. The computer centre is now closed because the manager has left the community. I'm sure he would have been capable of the job, but they won't hire him until he quits.

There were some people who were still doing okay, so it wasn't all bad news. But those three cases have brought me down a bit. Today I have the familiar weight on my shoulders that I felt a lot during my time in that community. There are so many problems facing Aboriginal Canadians in communities like the one I taught in, and it's hard to say what should be done. All I know is that I'm far more aware of the reality than I used to be and I have a personal connection to the reality. Maybe if the rest of Canada was connected the problem, more could be done.

Some nights I have a hard time falling asleep thinking about what I left. Sometime it's because I'm laughing hard about some experiences (like sinking into snow that was hip deep, sinking into mud that was hip deep, bribing the school janitor with cigarettes to pick up literacy tests at the airport for me, riding around with my friend the policewoman "fighting crime" at 1 am) and other times because I'm haunted by them.

10 bits of randomness about my day

1) Every second Wednesday at our school is late start day where the kids come in an hour later and we have department meetings. I love late start because I don't have to rush in the morning and classes are shorter. Today was one of those days.

2) It's exactly one week until my Matt Good concert. Yay!

3) It's exactly one week until midterm marks are due. Eeep.

4) Therefore I stayed late at work today and threw my own marking party.

5) I had to grab a fruit plate for our staff book club meeting tomorrow (book was Freakonomics - I liked it) and "accidentally" bought a fun new necklace from the kiosk outside the grocery store. How I love random purchases.

6) When I woke up this morning there was snow on the ground. What the?

7) Hung out with Becca T this evening and played a fun card game called Phase 10 while having coffee. We're such nerds, but our awesome taste in music makes up for it.

8) Did laundry. One of the washers decided not to drain so I had to pick my wet laundry out of the cold water and put it in another machine and rewash it. Such fun.

9) Stayed up far too late writing this post.

10) So glad that 3/5 of the week is over.

Blog Word Cloud

Got this from Guggenflurgen. I love it - it's too fun! Everyone go here to make your own blog word cloud..

I love that australia, ben, summer, song, iPod, Toronto, concert, weekend and music all made my word cloud.

Less lovin' period (makes it look like I bitch about my period all the time -- not so, mainly I bitch about my period 4 classes), like (makes me seem like a valley girl), and mean (am I always complaining about mean things?).

However, I'd have to say that warts and all it's a fantabulously happy word cloud.

How geeky would I be to buy the tshirt? LOL!

What do you want me to do to make it happen now?

Right now I'm watching the Juno awards, and I'm actually enjoying them... I think. It could be the low expectations that I had going in that is leading to the enjoyment. I wasn't overly impressed with the Nickelback/Our Lady Peace/Canadian Idol stacked nominations this year, but the show's been all right. I like Buck 65's role as MC and I enjoyed Broken Social Scene's performance despite the fact they didn't play 7/4 Shoreline, which is my fave BSS song. But it was cool seeing Amy from Stars singing during their performance.

Blech. Now they have Michale Buble up there. They really should have my dear Joel Plaskett performing since he's a native Haligonian for land's sakes. And, they should have given him the Songwriter of the Year award since he is there and The Arcade Fire is not. And I'll be controversial and say that I much preferred La De Da to Funeral.

Does anyone else find it suspicious that the Black Eyed Peas and Coldplay "tied" for International Record of the Year and they both decided to show up and play? Hmmmm...

Well, I had an all right weekend. I can't remember what I did on Friday night. On Saturday, I got my hair cut and then went to see a movie with an extended group of friends. We saw a sneak preview of the Antonio Banderas movie "Take the Lead". It was the type of movie with is enjoyable if you a) turn off your brain and b) don't mind dancing movies.

I discovered a new song that I love love love and I think you should all download. It's called "See You On the Moon!" by Great Lake Swimmers and it's from a kids' CD made by indie bands. It makes me soooooooo happy. Go get this song.

Today I went for a walk and did a little bit of window shopping. I had to take a detour as I was walking down Yonge St. because a section north of Bloor was closed off. It turns out there was an explosion from a suspicious package at a Tim Horton's. Kind of scary... Read about it here.

Oh-oh. Broken Social Scene just won Best Alternative Album. How the heck they gonna all fit up there? Hahaha. The show could go on forever and ever if they let them all speak.

On that note, hope y'all have a great week!

ps Michael Buble is winning far too many awards. Oh, and Jann Arden is funny. They should have had her host the show. Oh gawd. Now Hedley is closing the show. You know, I think I'm enjoying the Junos just because it's all about Canadian music, even though they have a tendancy to focus on the, shall we say, inferior examples of Canadian music.

Update: Holy - the explosion at the Tim Horton's made cnn.com. Look here.

A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere.

I'm suffering from a terrible malady: spring fever. I'm sooooooooo not impressed with having to be cooped up inside all day when it's lovely out. I think I'm getting more restless then the kids.

It doesn't help that the the third floor of our school, on which I teach, is hot hot hot right now. Plus, the caretakers have an ongoing battle with overheated science teachers on the issue of having open windows. The windows in my classroom need a handle in order to be opened. Now, I am not in possession of one such handle. Luckily, I am able to get the windows opened by using two students: one to turn the knob while one stands on a chair and pushes the window open.

This semester I have been teaching in the room next door to mine for one period. In this room, my two student solution does not work to open the windows. It's been fine so far, but today the classroom was like an oven on account of the warmer weather, plus I'm sure they still have the heater cranked, and hot air rises to the third floor you know. Anyway, the teacher who is normally in that classroom is in possession of one of the coveted window opening handles, but I wasn't sure of her hiding place. Today, the kids were boiling and so was I. I sent a student to look for her, but no luck.

I found her after school to ask her where she hides the handle. Turns out, she always carries it with her in her briefcase because if she hides in a drawer, the caretaker tends to find it and takes it away. (He doesn't seem to understand that insufferable heat does not a good learning environment make. Apparently this issue's been going on for years.) So we have a new handle plan. The handle is hidden in a locked drawer in the science office, with the appropriate key hidden in another drawer. Will it be found? I hope not, or my next post will be that I'm taking a week off of work on account of heat exhaustion.

Last night I found a shirt in my closet that I haven't worn in probably two years (most likely due to the fact that it needed ironing). Anyway, I ironed last night and wore it today and loved it. Don't you love it when you can go shopping in your own closet?

Survivor is back on tonight. Stupid NCAA basketball messing up my tv plans for like three weeks. Ridiculous.

I don't have much planned this weekend, although I really need to do some spring cleaning. My bedroom looks like some sort of clothing bomb went off in it. Plus, I think that the dust bunnies under the bed are on the verge of forming some sort of unholy army and staging a coup. In other words, the real question is will I be able to come up with plans quick enough to avoid my spring cleaning?

Okay, I'm running out to run an errand get myself a coffee (half real, half decaf - that should let me sleep) before Survivor. I'm ashamed to admit that I've become addicted to Starbucks coffee. It's now the coffee that I crave. The unfornuate thing, besides the fact I feel a little cliche and rather like a corporate schill, is that my neighbourhood Starbucks is under renovation for the next week. So I'll have to settle for the Second Cup. There is a Tim Hortons near me too, but that's my least favourite coffee. Well, except for Coffee Time coffee, which tastes like warm dish water to me.

Be kind to me or treat mean, I'll make most of it, I'm an extraordinary machine.

What a busy Tuesday.

I got to school early to help out with the breakfast club. I cooked scrambled eggs. Yes, I cooked. Me, who received a birthday card with the greeting "Every pot is a no-stick pot if you no cook in it."

I had a science department workshop this afternoon, so I didn't have to teach my period 4 class. We took a break where I ran down to the caf to grab a coffee and I ran into about 3 of my period 4 students in the halls. They were like "Miss! You're skipping class!" to which I replied "I'm skipping class? Hello, where are you supposed to be right now?"

After school I helped the set crew paint the school for the musical. Yes, I painted. My painting skills are only about a smidgen above my cooking skills. Anyway, it was pretty fun.

I got off one subway stop early on the way home to run a couple of errands. I stopped by Roots and looked at their leather purses. I love those purses but they're ridiculously priced. *sigh* You'll be pleased to know that I averted a frivolous impulse buy.

I walked home taking a detour through the cemetary. It's was so lovely outside today. Dare I say spring is here?

Tomorrow is the dreaded grade 10 literacy test. Ontario requires students to pass this test to graduate high school. It's a huge pressure for schools to maintain decent pass rates, especially schools with less academically-oriented students (like mine). Anyway, any positive energy you could send my students' way would be appreciated. ;)

Since everyone loves Ikea, I'll leave you with a cartoon I got today via email.

We'll all fight like cowboys and pray like nuns.

Sigh. Another weekend done and over with and I'm experiencing the typical Sunday night gloom. At least there are new Simpsons and Desperate Housewive episodes on tonight to ease my pain.

Well, I had a pretty uneventful weekend. I was sooooooooo tired on Friday night that I just stuck around at home and went to bed early. Exciting.

On Saturday I spent sometime shopping. I am incapable of entertaining myself without spending money, I tell you. I finally brought in the paintings that I bought in Australia and Cuba to get framed. It's going to cost me a bit, but thankfully I saved some birthday cash for that purpose. I also decided to buy myself a decent pair headphones for my iPod after receiving an "evils of earbuds" lecture from my roommate earlier in the week (she'd seen a report on tv).

Saturday night was supposed to be my Hawklsey Workman concert, but it was cancelled becuase he's sick. It's postponed 'til June 10th which is a lifetime away. Becca T and I rented a movie instead. We watched "A Date With Drew" which is a documentary about a guy who wins $1100 on a gameshow and decides to spend it trying to get a date with Drew Barrymore, who he's had a crush on all his life, while making a movie about it. He's only got 30 days to do it because he can't afford the camera he bought at Circuit City, so he's taking advantage of their 30 day return policy. It was a pretty cute documentary. Perfectly fluffy and funny.

Of course, after watching it you have to discuss which celebrity you'd pursue if you were in the filmmaker's shoes. For Becca T, Chris Murphy of the band Sloan would be the obvious choice since she used to have the HUGEST crush on him (she spent a whole summer sketching his portrait -- I hope she doesn't kick my ass for divulging this on my blog... meh, she doesn't check it very often so I think I'm safe... oh, but the sketch is amazing). However, we both agreed that it should be a date with someone of Drew's status. Maybe me on a date with Johnny Depp would make a good movie. I can't really think of anyone else... Most of my celebrity crushes are on musicians who are too obscure to make a documentary that would appeal to a wide audience. Who would you pick?

Happy Monday!

ps My post title is a line from "Don't Look in Their Eyes" which is a Stabilo song that is the free tune of the week from iTunes. I'm really digging it. Stabilo remind me so much of a 90s band, but I just can't put my finger on which band...

Happy birthday dear blog, happy birthday to you!

It's my blog's first birthday today! I honestly can't believe that I kept it up this long. I almost let it go after about a month but then my friend Mathew made fun of my lack of updating.... then I kind of got back into the habit and started to get comments and go more addicted to posting and reading other blogs.

So yeah, it's my blog's first birthday and I'm grasping at straws trying to think of something to blog about. Yeesh. You'd think it'd get easier after a year of it.

Oh, here's something interesting... One of my colleagues passed me some info on teaching ESL at a camp in South Korea for 2 weeks in the summer. All expenses are paid, plus you get a small salary for the two weeks. It looks rather tempting but it overlaps with the course that I was planning on taking (which I'm required to take in my first two years of my permanent contract with my board). Now, I could procrastinate and take the course next year, but I'd rather get it done in three weeks in the summer as opposed to having to take it one night a week from September to March (that seems so long). Plus, I was looking forward to planning my trip to Wales with my pal FF after our courses are finished. I think my course of action will be to stay the original course, and keep the info and see if the thing is running next summer.

Right now I'm totally into the song "Hold On, Hold On" by Neko Case.

Boy, my brain is really mushy tonight. That's all I can come up with. Just had to make sure I made a birthday post.

ps The picture I posted makes me want to watch that episode of the Simpsons (the one with Mr Burns' teddy bear). Luckily I own it on DVD.

Soooooooo tired...

Long, long day at school. Got there early to help with the breakfast club, which is doing well. Then, stayed late to supervise the painting of the set for the school musical. Inhaled too many paint fumes I think. Gotta stay late again tomorrow because the grade 8s are coming to register for next year (here's hoping for a good crop) and then on Thursday we have a staff meeting. Le sigh.

Well, I think some of the kids have come back from March Break lazier than they were when they left. Yeesh. Some days I feel like I'm in need of a good cattle prod.

I was all excited for my Hawksley Workman concert on Saturday. I got an email today saying the concert's been postponed until June 10th because he's sick. I was realllllly looking forward to going on Saturday. I want immediate gratification, dammit! (My I'm-an-only-child-I-want-my-way-now sometimes comes through. But I'm not a spoiled brat, really.)

Well, here's to romorrow being hump day and this week being almost over. I hope we get some actual spring weather sometime. I'm tired of being cold.

ps Today some kids in my period 4 class asked me if I was in highschool in the 1980s or in the 1990s. I said "puh-lease... figure it out." Then one said "80s... right?" and the other said "maybe some 80s, some 90s". I said "apparently you don't want to pass this course." Argh. I try to keep my age on the down-low but then they over-estimate my age and I get mad. Oh well, they're still better than the kid who mumbled "they've been using the same book for thirty years" when I'd told him that I'd read To Kill A Mockingbird in high school. I told the class that story and they laughed and said "at least we're not that bad!"

I was backstage in Toronto and that’s the way I like it.

Ben Lee was extremely enjoyable last night. I love seeing a quality artist in a small venue. The only disappointment was that he didn't play "Apple Candy", which is Becca T's favourite Ben Lee song, but she took it well. He played "Bruised", which is a song that he did with Ben Folds and Ben Kweller (as the Bens), which made me happy. I've decided that "Bruised" is my second favourite song of all-time; my first being "Reconstruction Site" by the Weakerthans. After that I'm stumped. I only have the top two settled on.

I had a super lazy Sunday. I read a book called "Something Blue" by Emily Giffin. It's a sequel to her first book "Something Borrowed" which I did not much care for, but I was intrigued to see what happened to the characters. I much preferred the sequel, even though there were some things that bothered me. One of them being that the main character is supposed to be not the smartest person, yet uses words like bucolic and sybarite. Puh-lease. I think the author was trying to show off her vocabulary there... Anyhow, despite my grumblings, the damned thing made me cry a bit. Yeesh.

I had an interesting question posed to me today: if you could attend any three concerts in history, what would they be?

My answers:
1) Ben Folds playing with the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra in Perth. Luckily I've got that one on DVD.
2) I would have liked to see the Beatles. I'm not picky on the show.
3) Beethoven - I'd preferably see him conduct a symphony like in the movie Immortal Beloved (not sure of the historical accuracy of that).

So, dearest reader, what would your three concerts be?

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

Oh man am I glad to be home. Home being Toronto. I call Stratford "home" too, since that's where I grew up and even years down the road when I've not lived there longer than I actually did live there, I will still call it home. When I'm in Stratford, I call Toronto "home", since that's where I live but when I'm in Toronto, I call Stratford "home". This pattern has lead me to coin the phrase "home is where I'm not" to clarify what I mean by the word.

So yeah, it was a pretty fun week. I spent a couple days being slothful and watching movies with the 'rents. I visited my friend Ramona and her 10 month old son. She lives way out in the middle of nowhere so I was so proud of getting there and back without getting lost.

I went out for dinner one night with some friends from high school. My friend Teresa's son, who is doing really well at living up to the terrible twos image, decided that it would be fun to hit my fun red strawberry mango splash beverage with his teddy bear, spilling it all over my pants and my new white sweater. Aren't kids fun?

I made a trip into London to visit my pal Heather from high school and two of my university friends who are now living in London. My parents' car had broken down on the day I had planned to steal it to go to London. This frequently happens when I go home - the car breaks when it's been totally fine when I'm not around. Guess it doesn't like me or something. Anyway, we got a loaner and I got to drive it for the day which was kind of fun. It was way newer than our car and pretty nice.

I decided to join some other high school friends for St. Patty's day in Waterloo. We wandered around until we finally found a bar that did not have a crazy line up. I drank green martinis called Freaky Irishmen. Lots of fun.

I stayed over at my friend's place in Waterloo and she drove me to the bus station this morning. I'm so glad to be back in the city. I love looking out my window and seeing the cityscape and the lake and the subway and the CN tower.

Before "March Break is over" depression hits me, I still get to go see Ben Lee tonight, beginning my 3 concerts in 4 weeks marathon to make up for the fact I haven't even been to one this year.

Anyhow, I have errands to run, books to read, blogs to catch up on, and it's a really nice day. Lata!

A lyric, a time, a crusade, a line. One minute, a friend, a road without end.

On Friday night, I took time to put a bunch of CDs that I hadn't listened to in eons on my iPod. I've been listening to stuff like Pearl Jam, REM, the Wallflowers and Zwan all weekend and it's making me happy.

Anyhow I figured since I'm procrastinating cleaning my apartment and packing that I might as well post the second half of the list of 100 things about me that I came up with during a bout of insomnia.

51) I lived with my pal Becca T for 5 years. We never had a fight.
52) The only people I really argue with are my parents.
53) Oh, and my students. We argue all the time over school rules like no hats, no cell phones, etc. Teenagers... sigh.
54) I really like the school where I teach.
55) It’s very multicultural.
56) I wish I had learned to speak Polish when I was a child.
57) I was close to all of my grandparents. I miss them.
58) I’m still very close to my friends from high school.
59) I see most of them at least twice a year.
60) I wish that I saw them more often.
61) I’ve been to 4 Canadian provinces – Ontario, New Brunswick, Quebec and Manitoba.
62) I’ve been to 3 Australian States – Queensland, Southern Australia and New South Wales.
63) I’ve been to 9 US States.
64) My favourite television show is the Simpsons.
65) I can relate most things in life to an episode of the Simpsons.
66) Actually, I’m pretty sure that I can relate all things in life to an episode of the Simpsons.
67) My favourite episode of the Simpsons is where Bart shoplifts. It makes me cry.
68) I own seasons 1-7 of the Simpsons on DVD.
69) I plan to own all seasons as soon as they are released. Even the newer seasons, which I don’t like as much as the old ones.
70) There is no other television show that I’d bother collecting.
71) I used to really love some reality TV shows; I’m over them though.
72) I still watch Survivor though.
73) My favourite Survivor was the series in Africa.
74) My goal is to visit every continent, including Antarctica.
75) So far I’ve been to two.
76) I’m not ready to get married and have kids yet.
77) I’m not sure that I’ll ever be.
78) I’d like to write a novel.
79) I’ve started a few, but I never have time to get past chapter one.
80) I have plans for them in my head.
81) I suspect my writing is horrible.
82) I wish that I was musically talented.
83) I can play the piano badly.
84) I love Ben Folds because he can play it brilliantly.
85) I have Ben Folds’ autograph and got my picture taken with him.
86) That was back in the days of cameras with film. I had to waste a whole roll of film of my friends and I running around the Eaton Centre so that I could get it developed right away.
87) I miss the excitement of getting a roll of film back when you’re not sure how your pictures have turned out.
88) My Nana taught the basics of knitting when I was 10.
89) I wish that she was still around to teach me advanced knitting.
90) I want to take a knitting class sometime. My goal is to be able to knit mittens (not just scarves and hats which is all I can do now).
91) I don’t think I’ll ever knit a sweater
92) I like knitting because I can turn a ball of yarn into something. Plus it gives me something to do while watching TV.
93) I like to think of myself as pretty creative for a left-brain math and science girl.
94) I think I was initially interested in math and science because it was traditionally not the domain of women. Oh, and I was good at it.
95) Also, I always liked those subjects because they were supposedly “black and white”. Later on I learned that they are not.
96) I prefer to teaching science to math. You don’t get to do fun experiments in math.
97) I find politics quite interesting. I wish that I was more knowledgeable about them.
98) I always vote in federal and provincial elections. My voting record in municipal elections has been shaky because I’ve always been moving around when they happen. I plan to remedy this.
99) I listened to Christine Fellows as I wrote this list.
100) It actually wasn’t that hard to write a list of 100 random things about myself while suffering from insomnia. You all should try it sometime. ;)

First Day of March Break = Busy but Enjoyable

Oh man... I think I crammed a whole week's worth of March Break into the first day.

First off - I wore my spring jacket today for the first time this year! Woot! It was a lovely day outside!

Had brunch with Becca T and my pal FF (who'd gone to Austrlia with me). Mentioned to FF that I wanted to go to Wales. We're going to look into going in August. I really hope I can get the trip together. I need something to look forward to this summer since I'm going to be spending July taking a course.

After brunch we hightailed it to the Eaton Centre and did some shopping. I got a spring scarf from H&M, some of my fave Body Wash from Sephora and an Olympic sweatshirt and pants from the Bay (they're on sale now).

FF had to go back to Whitby. I returned home so that I could pick up a package at the post office and drop off my shopping. Then Becca T and I went and took the subway and the complimentary shuttle bus to Ikea. The shuttle bus kills me. It's so rickety - I call it the refugee bus.

Anyhow, Becca T bought a bunch of stuff at Ikea but I'm proud to say that I only spent $6. I've never had an Ikea trip so cheap. Saving up for Wales, uh-huh.

Went back home. Grabbed a bite to eat and then got ready for my friend J's 30th bday party. It was a lot of fun. Oh man, I miss my friends who I neglect even though I live in the same city. Argh. I MUST make a point of hanging out with people more often. It's pathetic. I moved back to Toronto a year and a half ago because: a) I love this city; and b) I missed my friends after I taught up north for a year. Well, I see the darned city every day but I average getting together with most of my friends once every six months; usually when it's someone's birthday.

Becca T and I spend sometime looking through old pictures with J's roommate. There was a group of us who hung out a lot in the summer of 2001 and it was too fun going through those old pics. Gosh, we look young! Since the 5 year anniversary of that summer is coming up, we've decided we're going to have a "reunion" summer.

Also saw my friend L, who I also hadn't seen in forever. We also decided that our track record of seeing each other is abyssmal and we must make an appointment to get together and play Simpsons Road Rage and Harry Potter cards like we did in the old days. (Yes, I truly had a wild and crazy youth.)

Soooo, long story short, I am going to make sure that all of my promises to do this and go there and do that with this person and that person are not empty promises and that we actually follow through. Good Lord, it's not like we live in different countries; we're only a few subway stops away.

Becca T and I started the night off by drinking some whiskey with J's roommate. Then, Becca wanted to move on to wine. I hesitated, not being very sure about the rule about having whiskey before wine. But then I made up a rhyme: "whiskey before wine and you'll be fine." So, if I can figure out a rhyme about mixing alcohol, then I'm allowed to do it. And I'm fine. Really I am.

Tomorrow I have about a billion errands to run and then I'm taking a train to Stratford. I'm thinking I'm not going to lug my laptop home, so posting will be non-existant to minimal unless I make a trip to the library. Which could happen depending on how many social appointments I make while I'm home. So I'll probably catch you all later, when we're on the unhappy side of March Break when it's almost over. Have a great week.

March Break Baby!

In one more day, that is. However, I'm actually pleasantly surprised that this week has been relatively fast and painless. I was expecting it to be long and the kids to be a little more wound up.

Anyhow, I'm pretty psyched for the week off. My tentative March Break plans are:

Saturday - Brunch with Becca T and FF. Party for my pal J's 30th (!) birthday. I'll have to watch him close to see if he explodes or anything upon turning the big 3-0.

Sunday - In the evening, I'm taking the train to Stratford. I should be home just in time to watch Desperate Housewives.

Monday through Friday - Hanging out in Stratford. I plan on stealing the 'rents car to visit London and Waterloo to visit some friends. I also plan to catch up on watching movies and reading.

Friday (St Patty's Day) - Hmmm, not sure what I could do. I could hang around Startford and see what's up or I can come back here. We'll see.

Saturday - Ben Lee at the ElMo!! Woot!

Sunday - Get ready to go back to the old grind.

Sooo... just gotta get through that one last day.

ps I'm thristy. I've been drinking my roommate's pop while she's been in the Bahamas. Tomorrow I gotta go replace it. Anyhow, might as well have another.
pps I've been a total couch potato tonight. I watched Survivor, My Name is Earl, The Office and now I'm watching Without A Trace. I really love My Name is Earl. That's a great show.

Newsflash: Insomnia leads to long lists

I fell asleep while watching the movie Rent tonight and now I can't sleep. I've seen other bloggers write a list of 100 things about themselves. I decided I'd try that, figuring that I'd nod off after item #20. Apparently not. I was able to get all the way to 100.

Here are the first fifty things about me. I'll post the other fifty sometime when I can't think of anything decent to blog about.

1) I was born in 1980.
2) I lived on a farm until I was almost 3.
3) I’m an only child.
4) I’m a cat person.
5) I like dogs too.
6) I had a rabbit named Flopsy when I was in fourth grade.
7) I skipped the first grade.
8) I was always obsessed with my grades in school.
9) I have two degrees – An honours bachelor of science and a bachelor of education.
10) I read about a book a week.
11) I love Harry Potter.
12) I also love Lemony Snicket.
13) I like books that take place in Canada, especially Toronto.
14) I’ve lived in Toronto for about 7 years (on and off).
15) I love the city; but I always look forward to returning home to the small town where I grew up for a break now and then.
16) I think cemeteries are cool.
17) I can see Mount Pleasant cemetery from my window.
18) I used to hold my breath when driving by cemeteries so that I wouldn’t inhale any spirits.
19) I don’t really believe in ghosts but I like the idea of them.
20) I really once think that I heard a ghost, but deep down I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for the occurrence.
21) I went on a walking ghost tour of Stratford one summer and it was very fun.
22) I want to travel more.
23) I sometimes order travel information for places that I’d like to go on the internet just for fun, even though I’m not planning an immediate trip.
24) I received some information on Wales in the mail the other day.
25) My paternal grandfather was from Wales.
26) His family moved to Canada when he was about twelve.
27) He had 14 brothers and sisters. None of them had more than 3 children themselves.
28) My mother was born in Poland during World War II.
29) She and her family were captured by the Germans and were forced to work on a farm in Germany.
30) After the War they immigrated to Timmins, Ontario.
31) Both of my parents attended the University of Toronto. My mom graduated, my dad dropped out.
32) I also attended U of T.
33) My guidance counselor in high school told me that it would be a mistake to go to U of T. It was the best decision of my life. Ha!
34) I took a course in the World of Popular Music. I got a really good mark in that class.
35) My best mark in university was in my Evolution class.
36) I think Darwin would be a great name for a cat.
37) As soon as I have a roommate who is not allergic to cats, or when I live by myself, I am going to get a cat.
38) I love the song by the Weakerthans that is written from the point of view of a cat.
39) My favourite song of all time is “Reconstruction Site” by the Weakerthans.
40) The first non-children’s album I owned was by Whitney Houston.
41) The first CD I owned was a compilation called 2 Awesome. It had great stuff like TLC, Sir Mix-A-Lott and Sophie B. Hawkins on it.
42) The first “alternative” CD I owned was Vs. by Pearl Jam.
43) I own lots of CDs. I’ve lost track of how many.
44) The artist who has the most songs on my iPod is Tori Amos.
45) I didn’t like Tori Amos until I worked in an art gallery where that was the only CD that was around for me to listen to. Then she really grew on me.
46) The first concert that I went to was a Melissa Etheridge concert.
47) I can’t count the number of concerts that I’ve been to since then.
48) I try to go to at least one concert a month.
49) I used to have a rule that I was only allowed to buy one CD a month. I don’t follow that rule anymore.
50) I’ve been lucky – I’ve really gotten along with all of the roommates that I’ve ever had.

Ba-ba... this is the sound of settling...

Boo!!! I lost my Oscar pool at school. Although the winner got 15 right so I wasn't far off the mark. I'm going to study up next year on all of the "odd" categories like short documentary and shot live action and the like to give me a competitive edge!

Well, I was able to easily survive Monday with my Oscar hangover. One of my students was humming "It's Hard Out There for a Pimp" this morning, so I was all "Did you watch the Oscars last night?" and we chatted about the show and the various movies.

So last night, as Becca T was eating cheese and crackers, she commented to me "ummm, two of my crackers are stuck together" and I replied "So break 'em apart!" "Umm, I can't. They're stuck together by a string..." Below is a picture of the stringy crackers. And yes, by string I do mean a non-edible string that you would use to tie something together. Hmmm... I suppose I should go back to the store demanding a refund or threatening to sue... but you know, that smacks of way too much effort.

Anyhow, thank goodness Monday is ov-a! 4 more days until another weekend! ;)

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!