Try to make sense of the things that you think.

I think I figured out how our new mayor must have won. His win is a mystery because very few people admit to voting for him; but he got almost 50% of the votes.

I'm convinced that he forged the electoral list to have dead pets vote for him. Just like when Sideshow Bob beat Mayor Quimby in the Springfield mayoral election. That's the only explanation I can think of. I'm just thankful he didn't do this in Stratford where my dear Butterscotch (my first cat) is buried, 'cuz then it would be personal.

***

Thanks to everyone for all of your nice comments on my last post. Yah, a down-Christielli is a strange thing, and I'll be okay. I just need a little bit of time and some (but not too much) emo music to heal some wounds and I'll be fine. Your regular happy blog-programming will resume soon!

Last night's show was AMAZING. Check out the CBC Song Quest 2 album on iTunes if you are interested! It's a collection of thirteen road songs written by one artist from each province or territory. Ontario's song is done by Jully Black and it's about Roncevalles Ave here in Toronto. I also love the songs by Hopeful Monster (Nova Scotia), Hannah Georgas (British Columbia), Kerry Latimer (Manitoba), and Two Hours Traffic (PEI). I downloaded it immediately after the show and I've been enjoying it all day.

I'm completing a concert hat-trick this week, folks. Saturday was Stars, yesterday was the CBC show, and tomorrow is Dan Mangan. Well done, me.

After that, I'll be heading to Stratford this weekend for Evita attempt #2. My dad made a point of telling me that today he was at the doctor's office and there was a Stratford Festival programme sitting in the waiting room. He double-checked the time of the performance and it is indeed 8 pm. Thanks Dad! You always have my back, especially when it means you can make a little bit of fun of me.

I hope that the rest of you are having great weeks! The greatest thing I think is that since tomorrow is Thursday, they are almost over!

Thousands of ghosts in the daylight.

There's so much going on in my life right now. Some of it's personal, some of it's political, some of it's educational, and thankfully, a lot of it is musical. I'll run down a lot of it randomly.

First of all, Stars was a great show. Young Galaxy opened, and I enjoyed watching them. Stars opened with "He Dreams He's Awake" which set off the show perfectly. The show had flowers, a wicked bubble machine, and so many great songs to sing along and dance too. The best were the songs from "Set Yourself On Fire" which is hands down my favourite Stars album, but I loved the new stuff too. In fact, seeing the new stuff live has given "The Five Ghosts" a new lease on life on my iPod.

Probably my favourite song of the night was "Your Ex-Lover is Dead" which was the song that got me into that band in the first place; and it was extremely cathartic hearing and singing along (as off-key as I wanna be) to it this particular Saturday evening. And then, during the encore, the bass player threw a bunch of roses into the crowd... and one fell perfectly into my hands. A rose was exactly what I needed after a flowerless spell in my life.

Sunday was a pretty good day too. I went to a birthday party for my friend Ali, and a lot of friends were there who I hadn't seen in a long time. I had a great time catching up, ate a lot of food, and had some wine and champagne.

Today was back to the grindstone. I was rather unprepared for the day, and I made it through, despite all of the computers being down and me nearly having to cancel a test. I feel lucky that my job mostly makes me happy. As soon as I got to school, one of my fave kids was there to get extra help before a test, and I dunno, it was just a good start to the day seeing a friendly face.

After a busy day at school I went to the mall to figure out my Halloween costume. My work spouse and I were trying to have matching costumes, but we never pulled it together. I found a rather cheap doctor costume and bought it (final sale... just like camping toilet paper) but then a friend phoned me with the possibility of a mad scientist costume. So, I guess if I'm not a doctor this year, at least next year's costume will be figured out.

And exciting news this evening: a friend texted me with an invite to see the CBC 2010 Song Quest show tomorrow night. I love impromptu concerts! I'm excited to see Two Hours Traffic, Hannah Georgas, and Jully Black. She blew me away when I heard her sing in "Da Kink in My Hair" years ago.

After the mall, I had to hurry home to vote. Which I thought was an important thing to do since there was a particular candidate I didn't want to win. It didn't work out for me. Eeep, I can't believe Toronto just did what it did. Hello? Progressive city folk, where did you go?

Anyway, it just goes to prove my theory that Toronto (at least as long as I've lived in it) alternates between crazy mayor and good mayor, so now it's crazy mayor time again. Oh good.

At least my choice for my ward's councillor won. I'm still trying to find out about the school trustee. I was actually quite interested in those races...

So yah, despite some gloomy things going on, there are many rays of sunshine these days.

Today will be better, I swear.

Sometimes a truly crappy Friday night will show you a thing or two: 1) that you have really really awesome friends who are willing to talk to you for three hours at the drop of a hat and/or until their cell phone dies; and 2) no matter what, there will always be a good concert (or three) to cheer you up.

How appropriate it is that I get to see Stars tonight at Massey Hall with one of my best buddies ever. I really hope that they play "Today will be better, I swear" because it is a great feel-better anthem. Of course, whatever they play will make me super happy. I am so incredibly excited to see them play Massey Hall too. It's one of my favourite venues in the city, and it's sit-down, which I appreciate now that I've hit my thirties. ;)

I'll leave you with this awesome video. I've been listening to a lot of Stars today. (Sorry that it doesn't fit properly... that's as small as it goes.)

So I stayed ho-oh-ome.

I'm very happy right now. I've been very productive lately.

I am officially caught up on all marking. (However, I'll be flooded with lab reports, tests, and projects by the end of the week.)

I got some laundry done and even put it away.

I downloaded the new Jim Bryson + The Weakerthans album: "The Falcon Lake Incident". It's very nice. Mellow, autumny, folksy, good instrumentation. One of the songs is the iTunes free song of the week (in Canada) so check it out if you are so inclined. I didn't even realize that the album was released today until I saw the free single at the iTunes store. Fave song right now = "Up All Night".

Incidentally, they are playing for free at the Horseshoe Tavern tonight. In my younger years, Becca T and I would have shirked our responsibilities, and getting to bed at a decent time, and would have gone to that show. However, I have to admit I've aged. I can't do a 10 pm show on a weekday, even if it's free. And my partner-in-crime is in France. I miss my younger years, I do. I would have stayed up all night, like the song says.

Instead, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is another day with a million things to get done. However, Steve and I are going for sushi, so it's good to have a mid-week reprieve from housework, marking, and responsibility.

p.s. As I write this, Rilo is on my shoulders pricking her claws into me. Ouch! Sometimes I wish my kitty was a little less social.

Going, going, gone.

It's completely unbelievable how quickly weekends go by. I feel like it was just two seconds ago that I was happy that it was Friday evening, and now it's Sunday evening. And, it's a five-day work week coming up which is always more daunting following a four-day week.

However, this weekend was completely enjoyable. On Friday, I got the whole Evita ticket situation sorted out. I'm going to attempt to see the play on October 30th. It's really at 8 pm this time. I'm looking forward to it. And, I'm looking forward to an extra trip to Stratford as well. I'm so appreciative that someone read my blog and got me new tickets. I always knew my hometown rocked!

I went to the gym after school with my work spouse, and then came home and vegged for a little bit. Then, I went what I thought was Mathew's housewarming party, but it was really only a low-key get together which Mathew reminded me was clearly specified in the email. Yet again, I got mixed up. Anyway, low-key it definitely was, and I got home early but I was fine with that.

On Saturday, I slept in a bit, finished reading "The Postmistress" by Sarah Blake on my Kindle (it was only meh). Then I started reading a library copy of "The Bishop's Man" by Linden MacIntyre. It won the Giller Prize this year and it pretty good so far.

After a slothful morning/early afternoon of realizing and reading, I ran some errands, did a bit of cleaning, and then met up with Steve for dinner at a great Middle Eastern restaurant in my neighbourhood. Afterwards we went for gelato and rented a movie. So that was a really fun evening filled with a bunch of my favourite things.

This morning, I chatted with my mom on the phone for a bit, and then rode my bike to the gym. This afternoon consisted of more reading and grocery shopping.

I also managed to finish knitting this pair of mittens this weekend while watching movies and Modern Family. I had never kept any of my knitting for myself, but I decided this pair would be mine. I'm glad that I finished them since mitten weather will be rolling around soon!! The wool I used was really neat and I like how my mittens turned out non-matching.

Anyway, I think I'm going to spend my evening doing some more reading. This next week at work will be crazy, and I purposely didn't bring home any work because I figured I deserved a good weekend of relaxation before next week. I'm going to have to wake up super early to get to work on time tomorrow since I'm unprepared for the day, so a quiet evening with a book should get me prepped for that.

Hope you all have great weeks!

ps Any new music suggestions out there? I'm in a bit of a rut right now!

Smell the burning leaves in autumn driveways.

Oh man, how I love short weeks. Can you believe it's almost Friday?? I love it. Here's a post of randomness...

1) It looks like something pretty cool is going to happen as a result of my last post. Remember how I wrote about how I missed out on a performance of Evita at the Stratford Festival because I'm too silly to keep times straight? Well, someone who works in the Festival's media department found my post and commented on it, and is going to try to get me makeup tickets for a different performance! Isn't that so awesome? Anyway, I'll keep you updated... hopefully I can find a weekend performance that works with my schedule. It'll mean an impromptu Stratford visit, but I am down with that.

2) My work spouse and I have taken our relationship to the next level: we are gym buddies. We went today after school and I had a great workout. I have to face it, the "I'll come home and have dinner and *then* go to the gym" strategy does not work. Especially now that it's getting cold out. I'm not a fan of having to pack up my stuff the night before and lugging it to school. But I need to suck it up because exercise makes me feel so better and more energized.

3) After the gym, I had a few errands to run so I went to Starbucks for a pumpkin spice latte. They're not as good as they used to be; a couple of my twitter friends both said they taste quite chemically now. I think I'm going to branch out into chai lattes, and try a green tea latte because I realize I've never had one of those.

4) Last night I had a dresser drawer open for a while, and then I shut it and came out to the living room to pay some bills and stuff. I started to hear weird noises, so I went to investigate. I called for Rilo, figuring she was the source of the noise. I was puzzled that she didn't come out, until I remembered the open drawer, and my cat's penchant for getting into drawers. I opened it, and she hopped out. I felt bad and apologized, and she was cool, but pretty talkative afterwards. It ironic that I had the rescue of the Chilean miners on in the background while my cat was trapped in a drawer. Silly thing. I hope she's cured of the bad habit of hopping into drawers. And that I'm cured of leaving them open.

Oh, and look I even have a picture of Ms. Rilo in a drawer from a previous incident. At least that time I noticed her before I shut it.

4) Weekend plans - my pal Mathew is having a housewarming party on Friday, and I'll chill with Steve on Saturday. I'm thinking of making another lasagna even though it's tonnes of work, but I do have the cheese kicking around for it.

5) I don't know what to be for Halloween. My work spouse and I want to have matching/complementary costumes. Any ideas for nifty, cheap, easy-to-assemble costumes for a couple of science nerds?

6) This week has been exhausting even though it's short. I can't wait to curl up in bed with the latest book I'm reading on my Kindle. So far I've finished two books on my Kindle, and they were both good. This one (The Postmistress by Sarah Blake) is just all right, but still decent nought to be worth finishing. I love how I can download the first chapter of books for free on my Kindle; I did that with the other two books, and it proved that they were worth reading. I didn't do it with The Postmistress and look where we are now.

So that's it for today's randomness. Happy Friday blogarinos!

Don't cry for me Argentina.

My long weekend has been pretty good, but unfortunately not perfect.

The lack of perfection started on Sunday afternoon when I started the second mitten in a pair, and then realized after I'd knitted 11 rounds of the cuff, that I was using the wrong-sized needles and had to pull out my work.

Then, I got all dressed up on Sunday night to go with my aunt to see Evita at the Stratford Festival. We got to the theatre and were amazed by the ample parking... then we noticed the theatre was dark. I pulled my ticket confirmation out of my purse and noticed that the show was at 2 pm, not 8 pm as I'd thought. D'oh! Bye-bye tickets. Glad that you were discounted at 20%. I think I'd gotten confused because we had originally debated between the Saturday and Sunday shows, and at no point in time did I ever notice that the Sunday show was in fact a matinee. Sigh. Guess I'll have to wait 'til next season to catch a show at the Festival.

The ticket snafu at least allowed me some extra time to remedy that earlier knitting mistake though...

This morning, I got to the train station with my coffee and thought I'd have about ten minutes to wait for my train. Nope, try 75. Apparently there wasn't enough friction on the track between the previous stop and Stratford, and this resulted in the train being extra late. I managed to get a lot of reading done with that extra time.

Other than that stuff, my weekend was good. The time in Stratford was super chill. I spent a lot of time with my 'rents watching baseball and Modern Family DVDs, eating as per the expectations of this long weekend, and I skunked my dad in a game of cribbage (so he refused to play again). I went for a walk downtown, and had an amazing chai latte at Balzac's. Seriously, that place makes the best chai lattes.

Oh, and Friday night was a tonne of fun and I managed to not mess up the time of that entertainment event. As you know, Friday night was the much anticipated Los Campesinos! volcano redemption show. Seriously, though, we could have missed that one too. We were totally dawdling over dinner 'cuz it was a bar show, and typically at bar shows the band's not on 'til late, so you don't want to get there too early 'cuz you'll be bored and tired. Luckily, I decided to check Twitter to see if the band had anything witty to say about Toronto, and they'd posted that they'd be on at 9 pm! So we had to quit the dawdling ASAP and fly out of the restaurant.

My little buddy from Winnipeg (to quote rawbean) and I had been waiting for this show for ten months. It was worth the wait. The new venue was much smaller and hence more awesome than where April's show was supposed to be. The band put on a super high energy sweaty show, as I expected. It was so fun to hear so many of my fave songs live. For me, the highlight of the night was "You! Me! Dancing!" but they were all great. It was such a fun show. Yay! They had some neat merch too: I picked up a maroon "Romance is Boring" coffee mug. Anyway, I look forward to them returning to Toronto soon!

So despite the flaws, it was still a pretty good weekend. Right now I should be going to the gym to work off some of the food I ate, or marking, however I want to finish the book I spent most of my waiting time + train ride reading. I have my priorities.

So I always write your letters in multi-colours.

Pretty much the biggest and most exciting news in my life is this: 2 more sleeps until Los Campesinos! Finally, my redemption concert after the one that was cancelled after that volcano in the spring. According to the twitter, the band has arrived in North America, so all systems are go. My friend from Winnipeg is returning for the show, so I'm anticipating a super fun Friday evening.

And super bonus - it will be the Friday night before the long weekend. After a great night of rock and roll, I'll be on the morning train to St. Ratford. I'm hoping to catch up with some friends on Saturday night. On Sunday, my dad's in charge of cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and then I'm going to catch "Evita" at the Stratford (not just) Shakespearean Festival. Then on Monday, back on the morning train to Toronto where I'll hang out with Rilo and Steve.

So clearly I have a super fun weekend coming up, and I know that it will fly by, but I'll have to enjoy every second of it.

Anyway, I need to be up early so I'm going to hit the hay. I'll leave you with a fun LC! video. I can't wait for that show bloggarinos!

I Wish.

I wish that instead of working this week, I could take off and stay at some little cottage up north where the leaves are changing. I could wear warm sweaters, scarves and mittens, and drink red wine by campfires and stare at the stars. I could spend my days reading, writing, apple picking, walking through fallen leaves, knitting and going into town to wander around antique stores.

Odds and Ends

Wow, I'm feeling ultra-bloggy these days, so here's the third post in three days.

To answer questions from my previous post, no, my Kindle doesn't have a touch screen like an iPad. There are conveniently-located buttons on both sides of the screen to turn pages. It's funny how we've become to expect everything to be a touch screen: when I first got my Kindle, I kept touching its screen since I'm used to my iPhone, and pretty much everyone I show the thing to tries the same thing. A few years ago we weren't like that, were we? I'm sure that they'll come out with a touch-screen Kindle sooner or later, and my shiny new toy will become a technological relic.

And to answer more questions from last post, we released the bugs, or benthic macroinvertebrates if you want to use more scientific terminology, back into the river. Oh, and all of the girls and boys were totally into everything, and no one was the least bit squeamish. I was impressed.

Oh, and yes, the book I was talking about was about Henrietta Lacks, the woman who has cells taken from a cancerous tumour, and then they were grown in culture and used in countless areas of research. Interestingly enough, my envi-sci class was engaged in a discussion about genetically-engineered foods today, which evolved into a discussion about medical ethics, and I ended up telling them about this book, and they were enthralled by the story.

So that answers questions from my last post, now onto some new stuff.

A colleague told me a funny story today. Apparently while I was off on my field study yesterday, they removed a tree from in front of my school. His class could see this happening from the window, and one student remarks "Oh sure, they wait until Miss Christielli is gone for the day, then they cut down a tree."

I'm feeling so much better from my cold. I have a tonne of energy this evening. I ran some errands, came home, watched Jeopardy and kicked ass on the category about scientists. Then I remembered that I had a coupon for a free Starbucks drink that was good for the month of September, so I went on a nice walk there. When I came home, I marked a pile of stuff despite Rilo doing her best to sit on it.

Anyway, now I'm going to curl up with my new book, which is great so far. Hope you all have nice Fridays and nice weekends!

Field Trips, kindles, and libraries

Hey kids. I've almost kicked this cold. However, a day in the sun collecting and identifying bugs with teenagers has left me exhausted. I just passed out for about 2 hrs in front of my TV. I started watching Jeopardy, and dammit, now I don't know who won. Hee-hee. Luckily, my parents never miss an episode, so I could call them... if I cared.

So yah, my field trip was amazing. It was a great opportunity that I scored with an environmental education organization where all of the supplies and some expertise were provided for my class for free! We were able to access a portion of a local river by public transit, and the kids went in (wearing hip waders) and collected bugs from the bottom of the stream. It was a really nice sunny day; there were lots of people fishing in the river because it is salmon spawning season. I've never been to this particular park in Toronto before; it's nice to know you can kind of get outdoors within the city.

Based on our analysis of the bugs we collected, it turns out the river is unimpaired! How nice! The neat thing about this study is that the procedure and analysis that we used is the same as those that government and environmental organizations use to determine stream/river quality, so that was cool.

After a long day in the field, I headed home (well, to Starbucks) and finished reading my first book on my Kindle. I have to say that I really like the Kindle. It's not like staring at a screen at all. Whenever I've showed it to people, they are surprised how much the screen looks like a real book. As a friend said "it's like they somehow stuck a page of a real book in there". It's very cool. And you can change the font size and things like that too. Also, it's so light and small that it makes my bag noticeably lighter. It's very portable. I kind of miss turning pages, and the physical realization of how much I read (although there's a percentage on the bottom of the screen), but I think as I read more on the Kindle, the less I'll miss that. Anyhow, I think that it's a great toy to have if you read a lot, carry books around a lot, and/or travel a lot.

The book I finished, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", was rather interesting, but I found the first half more fascinating then the second. It was definitely an interesting piece of non-fiction, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who likes biology.

I got a call from the library today, because the brand new Richard B. Wright book had come in, and I'm the first person to get it! Yay! I don't think I've been the first person to read a new library book since I was a kid, and the Stratford librarians used to save the new dinosaur books for me to read first (my nerdiness was well known at the library... I was so Lisa Simpson). Anyway, my new book is called "Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard", and I'm really looking forward to it. Wright is the author of one of my favourite books (Clara Callan), so I have high hopes!

Anyway, I should start it, then sleep. I did not do any marking tonight, so I must get to school early enough so I can finish a grade 9 set of quizzes before they declare mutiny.

The inevitable fall cold.

Usually when there is a change of season, I get a cold. So right now I'm enjoying the fall edition of the change-of-season sniffles. It's rendered me tired and sniffly.

Anyway, stuff's good. I don't feel like I have much to blog about these days. School's busy as usual. I have a field trip tomorrow. I'm taking my environmental science class to a river to do a stream study. It will be a fun day, but means that I'll be outside all day, so hopefully the weather co-operates. Cross your fingers for sunshine and no rain.

I got the new Ben Folds & Nick Hornby album. Ben wrote the music and does the singing, and Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity, About a Boy and others, wrote the lyrics. I'm getting into it. Right now I'm listening to the song "Picture Window" which is making me feeling a little bit emo. It's pretty though.

What else? I got a new jacket today. My old black spring/fall jacket is looking faded these days and has holes in the pockets and when I saw a cute black corduroy jacket while wandering through the mall today after school, I knew it'd be a good buy. I'm going to wear it tomorrow, even though I'll be watching kids in hipwaders collecting bugs.

Which reminds me, I can't forget my camera.

I should wash dishes. I should make my lunch. I just want to curl up in bed and read. Right now I'm 65% into "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" on my Kindle. I'm enjoying it. I'd like to finish it tonight.

I should call my mother.

I think my brain has been addled by this cold I have. I don't feel as on top of things as I'd like to these days.

Maybe an early bed-time will help me. Good night.

Exhaustion and Candy

Boy am I tuckered out! I'm still getting into the groove of school, I think. Two of my classes are ginormous (29 kids each) this semester and I'm feeling it. I know that many teachers have bigger class sizes than this, but I've been spoiled the last couple years with smaller classes, so I'm feeling the difference. The piles of marking seem that much larger, and I find in my fourth period class that I just can't get around to everyone every day. In that course the curriculum is extra heavy too, so it's a challenge. However, the kids are really good, I can't complain, there are just a lot of them!

Anyway, my apartment is a mess, and my eating/gym-going routines aren't what I'd like them to be, but I will work on these.

I've been keeping up with reading everyone's blogs, but I haven't commented in couple days. Many I'll go on a comment spree tomorrow night.

However, lots of excitement in the way of candy!

My Kindle and its pretty green case arrived today! Perfect timing, as I had 15 pages left of "One Day". Oh, and by the way, really great NON-CORNY romance. Loved it.

My first e-book will "The Postmistress" by Sarah Blake. It took me half an hour to find/select which book I wanted to start with. Also, I find it hard to read a new book after you finish a good book. Often, I wish the good book had just kept going.

Oh, and since I'm hoping the arrival of the Kindle will mean that I go on a reading spree, book recommendations from you to me are strongly encouraged. Anything great I should read?

More candy: I've discovered the show Modern Family on DVD. HILARIOUS. Love it. I can't decided who my favourite character is: Gloria and Cameron are both hilarious. And Manny too. Seriously, if you haven't seen the show, check it out. I missed the season premiere tonight, but I'll catch up.

In an annual tradition, I watched the Polaris Prize being streamed online while making some snarky and some sincere remarks on MSN with a blog buddy who no longer blogs. There were four albums nominated that I loved, yet of course, none of them were the winner. (Karkwa won. They were all right.) The performances that I caught were great! However, the standout of the night were Tegan and Sara doing stripped down a couple of their songs with the always amazing Owen Pallett joining on violin. I seriously got teary eyed during the performance below. I can sometimes get emotional at the drop of a hat. Anyway, watch this. Awesome.

All right, I'm off to read my Kindle. I'll let you know what it's like! Oh, and I'm so glad I got a Kindle instead of the Kobo which Chapters is selling. It's gorgeous, whereas the Kobo seems a little chintzy to me.

The dog days are over.

It truly feels like fall these days. I love fall, and one thing I notice is that a lot of my blog buddies are the same way, so a lot of blogs have morphed into fall love letters of sorts.

I've been having some really nice fall, aka autumn, moments lately. Word choice note: I like the word autumn more than the word fall, however I think I've always called this season fall, so that's what comes out when I think/talk/write about it. Here is a list of great stuff that's been going on in my world during the past week.

1) I went for a really nice bike ride today. It really was just a trip to my friend Fea's and back because we then departed for TIFF together, but it was good riding weather for sure.

2) The movie I saw at TIFF (Sarah's Key) was really good. There was a lot of crying going on in the theatre. It's a movie from France, mostly in French but with a lot of English, so I'm not sure when it's coming out here, but when it does, I highly recommend it. And the book as I said last post.

3) I've been listening to Florence + the Machine's album "Lungs" a lot lately. I bought in the summer but never listened to until last week. It's great.

4) I'm reading a really good book called "One Day" by David Nicholls. It's about a couple and what their life is like every July 15th over a span of twenty years. I'm liking it a lot.

5) My Kindle has shipped. So maybe the next book I read will be on the Kindle!

6) Last week, three of my besties from work and I went for coffee at a really pretty French bakery in my neighbourhood. I can't believe I hadn't been there before. I had a spicy cocoa macaroon. It was delish. The place made me miss France.

7) On Saturday, I got a Zipcar and drove to Vaughn for a workshop at a conservation area there. I'm doing a stream study with my environmental science class, so this was teacher training for that. It was a good day; I think the kids will love the study. We went down to the river for a bit to collect bugs, and I got a lovely mosquito bite on my neck.

Since I had the car, I went to Ikea to get some picture frames and storage boxes, and also went to the big mall there. I bought nothing. Well done Christielli.

8) I feel like this post has completely sucked. I was going to write all kinds of deep things but got distracted by convos on MSN, Facebook, and text messages, so I promise to do better next time.

Random Bits of Fun!

1) I neglected to mention in my last post that I got tickets to a TIFF movie. TIFF is the Toronto International Film Festival for those of you who don't live here and aren't subjected to 24/7 coverage of celebrity sightings on the news. It's the film adaptation of a great book I read this summer: Sarah's Key!

I hope that the movie doesn't disappoint as sometimes film adaptations of books tend to do. However, the story is amazing so I have faith that it will carry through to film.

I do highly recommend the book to anyone and everyone. In fact, I'm usually not someone who speaks to strangers in public, but when I was in a bookstore line in Boston this summer and the lady in front of me had the book in her hands, I had to tell her that it was great. It's always nice to hear that the book that you're buying is good, right?

2) Speaking of books, the cover for my Kindle has been shipped and is on its way. So I guess I can look at it and get excited about the Kindle until the actual gadget arrives. I agree with a lot of your comments about e-readers on my previous post: I too might miss the turning of the pages and curling up with a book, however, since the Kindle was designed with book-lovers in mind, it's not supposed to feel like you are staring at a screen (it's only b & w), and it's supposed to just "disappear" as you get immersed in your e-book.

Anyway, when it arrives, you lucky blog-readers will get to live vicariously through me and find out what it's like. That's why I'm splurging on it, you know. Gotta do stuff for your blog audience. ;)

3) Today I got pre-sale tickets to see Broken Social Scene in December. I'm very excited. I've never seen them properly, only at a record store. I also got to make Steve's day with news of the tickets. Win-win!

4) My classes are still really good. We're all gelling together nicely.

5) I think I'm going out for Brazilian food with some pals from work... but then again, I thought that about last Wednesday too and it didn't happen. We shall see if it's a go this week.

Happy Wednesday!

It just is.

I just got back from a pretty good workout at the gym. New school year: new good habits, I always say. I hadn't been in awhile, and it was great to find that they've installed a bunch of new bike posts in front of the gym. There used to only be two, and they'd always be taken, and I'd have to go around the corner or across the street to lock up my bike. Anyway, it's a nice little touch.

So yah, here's some randomness from the recent past, the present, and the future.

1) I survived the first week of school. My classes seem good. Right now the planning is a bit overwhelming but I'll get back into that groove soon (I hope).

2) I've been listening to a lot of Rilo Kiley lately. Poor Rilo has to put up with my wandering around her apartment singing loudly and massacring her namesake. Poor kitty. (She's giving me a dirty look right now as I sing "I Never".)

3) I ordered a Kindle! One night this week I was browsing the internet because I was in the mood to buy something. Anyway, my travels brought me to the Kindle site and I thought "hmmm".

I was/am still on the fence about e-readers. I love books as physical objects but I have a bad habit of buying too many of them and my bookshelf is full. I'm trying to use the library more, but I also like immediacy. With a Kindle, I can get the latest books for $10 in 60 seconds! Damn this culture of immediate gratification and its bad influence on me! I also like the idea of not having to lug books around when I travel. A con of an e-reader is that I can't lend books to people from it, so I guess people who use me as a lending library (hi Dad!) are going to be out of luck.

My friend Flora got a Kindle for her birthday and raved about it when I last saw her. Anyway, I was discussing the idea with my mom, and she was really for it, so that went in on the "pro" side of the argument. The deciding factor for me is that I hope the novelty of it will get me reading more. I haven't been reading as much as I'd like to this year, so maybe the latest gadget will encourage me to spend more time reading, and less time on more mindless things (hi internet!).

I put my order in today. It's not going to be here anytime soon. They are currently out of stock because they are so popular, but they estimate mine will be ready on September 24th. It's also gotta ship from the US, so that'll add another week or so. I'm going to push it out of my mind and then it will be a nice surprise.

However, who wants to bet my pretty apple green case will arrive well in advance?

4) My plan for the autumn is to rock my purple chucks as much as possible.

5) I am in love with Starbucks' Toffee Mocha Frappucino. So much so, I haven't even had one of my beloved Pumpkin Spice Lattes yet. I'm holding off on the latte until it gets a little bit cooler.

6) I'm really excited to watch this show. It looks like it might have potential, and may warm my heart. I don't get A&E, but I hope that I'll either be able to find it on the internet, or someone nice (hi Steve!) will let me watch it at their house.

7) I was going to be ambitious and make homemade mac and cheese but that would mean going to the grocery store, and I'm supposed to meet up with my long-lost friend Mathew for coffee tonight so I don't think there will be time. Ahhh, well, toast and peanut butter it will be! Happy Monday everyone!

Edit: I just realized that I could have grilled cheese + soup for dinner instead! Yum! Perfect fall comfort dinner!

Labour Day Weekend/First Day Back

Wow. It seems like it's been an eternity since my last post. Here's a summary of what's been going on in the world of Christielli since then.

1) After three hectic days at school where I managed to get enough accomplished, I was able to take Friday off. So I spent the day making my first lasagna ever. It was really yummy. Day well spent. However, it was so time consuming, I doubt I'll do it again until there's another break from school.

2) On Saturday morning, I took the train to St. Ratford. I had a pleasant trip there. I got to spend some good quality time with the 'rents, and catch up with some friends. I got to meet my friend Teresa's new baby (he was born just over a week ago), sample her mother-in-law's amazing shrimp curry, and have a great dinner with my pal Heather.

3) I returned to Toronto on Monday. It was a yucky rainy day, which meant it was not really conducive for anything but spending some quality couch time with Miss Rilo Kitty. I find Labour Day always a little hard to deal with because it's the end of summer. I do look forward to going back to school, however it's always a hard transition and I get a little mopey. Luckily, Steve was nice enough to take me for ice cream to ease the pain, then we rented a movie but ended up watching Hoarders instead. That show is hard to watch, but once you get into an episode it's hard to turn away. Anyway, my Monday night moping was minimal.

4) Today was the big day! I put on my new purple cardigan/lilac frilly tank top duo, my favourite black skirt, and matching lilac flats and headed off to the races. The first day back is a joke. It consists of 20 minute classes which are basically a meet and greet. Then there's a bit of prep time built in, and the same ol' staff meeting where you go through the same ol' staff handbook you get every year.

Anyway, it's nice to be back and see old friends and catch up. My classes this semester look great. I've got my environmental science course which is my favourite to teach, so that's nice to come back to. My grade 9s probably won't make a peep until the end of October, and my grade 10s seem a little chatty but good-natured. It will be an awesome semester.

5) Tomorrow is the first full day of classes where I'll have to do a lot of talking and probably won't be able to speak by the end of the day.

6) I'm all ready for tomorrow which means that hopefully I can finish the awesome book I've been reading forever and start on the new one I picked up from the library tonight. Fall's a good time for me to reawaken my inner bookworm, I hope.

Happy September everyone!

15 Albums (Special Blog Edition)

I have been hit twice by this little meme in the facebook-o-sphere, and I thought it was a fun thing to do whilst doing laundry. Anyway, instead of another post about work, which is really what's consuming me these days, I've decided to bring this meme to the blogosphere. And, since my blog buddies are very special to me, you guys get the special annotated version!

Here we go.

The rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen albums you've heard that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Remember: List records in no particular order.

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

This album came after my first year of university during a hard summer when my Nana was dying of cancer. The song "Magic" defined that point in my life, and the rest of the album's great. It's funny that it's not too sad for me to listen to either.

2) Under the Pink - Tori Amos

I didn't like this album at first. However, after it being the only CD that was kicking around the art gallery where I worked one summer, and hence the only thing I had to listen to during the last hour of my shift when no one was there, I really got into and became a huge Tori fan.

3) Reconstruction Site - The Weakerthans

I saw this album develop over the course of many Weakerthans shows. I knew the songs so well before the album was released. It's so special to me.

4) Twice Removed - Sloan

Deeper Than Beauty. Pen Pals. Coax Me. Snowsuit Sound. I Hate My Generation. I Can Feel It. A lot of my fave old school Sloan songs in one place. Love.

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

I was at the CD release party at the Rivoli where Hawksley performed this album with a string quartet. It's always been my favourite Hawksley album as a result.

6) Fox Confessor Brings the Flood - Neko Case

This is the album that really got me into Neko Case. That teenage feeling? That's how I feel about this album!

7) Pinkerton - Weezer

I am so happy that I'm among the lucky who was a teenager when this album came out and got to mope around to it in its prime. And El Scorcho is one of my fave songs ever.

8) Hold On Now, Youngster - Los Campesinos!

This album got me into LC! and I'm still waiting anxiously to see them live. October 8th can't come too soon.

9) The Reminder - Feist

Just so you know, this album plays very well when you are in France. And anywhere else, really.

10) Set Yourself of Fire - Stars

Even though Stars keeps putting out amazing stuff, and their preceding albums are great too, this is my favourite.

11) Parachutes - Coldplay

Coldplay, although I'm okay with them, isn't one of my favourite bands, so it's surprising that this album made my list. However, I love the lovely simplicity of this disc, and I listened to it on repeat when I first started reading Harry Potter, so this album reminds me Harry Potter more than anything.

12) You Were Here - Sarah Harmer

This is a desert island album for me. I always come back to it.

13) Three - Joel Plaskett

Triple album of awesomeness.

14) C'mon Feel the Illinoise - Sufjan Stevens

I love the long song titles, the complex arrangements, and Sufjan's voice on this album.

15) Everything in Transit - Jack's Mannequin

This is the album that I go to when I need something pop/punk/emo with mad piano.

If you'd like to tag yourself with this meme, do it! :)

It's not going to stop, 'til you wise up.

I survived a whole day of some pretty intense work. As with most tasks in life, planning a grade nine orientation with the help of approximately forty student leaders, takes longer than one anticipates. Of course, it would have taken less time if the computer server wasn't down for two hours, and things would be completely under control if half of the locks for the incoming grade nines weren't in Mexico. I made it clear that I'd be more than willing to pick them up, but no one took me up on the offer.

Anyway, I'm really glad that my first day back in the building involved me actually working with students as opposed to just coming in and trying to get organized and prepped for next week, which would have been actually a difficult job because there is a heavy filing cabinet right in front of my own desk/filing cabinet so it's hard to get into my stuff with it there. I tried to move it, but got fed up, and decided that'd be a job for another day. (Too bad I discovered this after all the teenage boys left the building.)

The kids were in super high spirits and glad to see each other and did a great job planning games and other activities. One of my fave students greeted me with a "Miss, it's so good to be home!" which warmed my heart. The funny thing is that I completely agree with her. Despite all of its challenges and frustration, my school is my home, and it was nice to be back.

I have to say that I'm excited for the upcoming school year. I'm excited for my courses; I'm teaching all science, which I don't think I've ever done. There's usually a math stuck in there somewhere, or a special course that I used to teach for kids-at-risk. It was weird that they took me out of there, but I seriously needed the break, so it's a blessing.

I'm really excited for my environmental science class, of course. I have a nice list of kids so far, and I found a great opportunity for us to be trained in measuring water quality in a nearby stream. I really hope that pans out. Also, I've been really enjoying Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" book, which totally relates to the Sustainable Agriculture unit in the course. I think I'm going to find a snippet for the kids to read that was written by the author's teenage daughter. I'm planning on taking them to the park to bake pizza in the oven using ingredients from the gardens there, but I'm also toying with the idea of us borrowing the family studies room to cook a local foods meal. That would be so fun!

So yah, actually I'm so glad that I've written this post. When I started, I was listening to Aimee Mann's "Wise Up" and feeling a bit morose, because even on the first day in the building, I was reminded of the politics amongst staff that makes me frustrated with my job. However, I am reminded of what I love about my job: the kids who were so fun and funny today, and of course, the excitement of planning fun and meaningful courses.

It was good to be home.

However, I'm going stay away from there tomorrow and maybe work from home and/or take myself to a movie and/or go shopping. I like that I can ease out of summer.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'; gathering no moss.

Right now I have the Emmys on as I post. Awards shows are like black holes for me; I'll start watching one with the intent of only watching for 10 minutes, but then I end up watching them for way too long as a way of procrastinating something (dishes today) by saying "one more award" and then I get to the point where I've watched so much that there is no point in stopping. Even though I'm bored out of my skull.

I had a very fun weekend.

On Friday night, I went to the Jays game. They were playing the Detroit Tigers and managed to eke out a 3-2 win in 11 innings. I'm glad that they won since I'm pretty sure they have lost more games then they've won in my attendance. I do really enjoy going to baseball games; I was a hardcore Jays' fan as a kid so being at the Skydome (I refuse to call it the Rogers Centre) always brings back nostalgia. It's too bad that it wasn't today that brought me to the game; it's the 20th anniversary of Dave Steib's no-hitter and they were giving out free bobbleheads. My Christmas shopping for my dad could have been done!

On Saturday, I went with Steve and his family to the Elora Gorge to go tubing. I wasn't really sure what to expect as I'd never really been to the gorge before, nor have I ever tubed in a river. I've done the winter type though...

Anyway, it was rather fun and I managed to escape without injury. I got into the river just past the worst rapids but I still go to go through enough of them. The entire ride down the river took about 45 minutes. There were parts that were fast, but others were quite slow and relaxing. There were lots and lots of rocks to watch out for; again, I'm so surprised that I made it out with no bruises. We had enough time to make two trips!

Today I did a little bit of shopping, and now I'm here sitting on the couch with Rilo hoping that bedtime will never come because I'm going into school tomorrow at 9 am. Ach.

Hope you all had nice weekends and have a nice week! Toronto has a heat advisory! Crazy!

The concert post that's been going around...

Lately there's been a "list 50 bands that you've seen" post going around on galapogos' and wigsf's blogs. I did that meme about a year ago on Facebook. However, I thought that it could use some updating, and I could use a good filler post that requires little thought so why not?

Also, after a lean summer concert-wise (only 1), I'm gearing up for an awesome fall concert season. I always find that I go to the most shows in the fall, and this fall, particularly the month of October, is shaping up nicely.

Especially since I now have tickets to Los Campesinos! on October 8th, and my pal from Winnipeg is gonna return for the show. I think of it as a redemption show. Stupid Icelandic volcano grumble grumble.

On to the list: I've added bands that I've seen for the first time since last year on the bottom. And upcoming new bands too. I've put an asterisk besides the bands that I've seen more than once.

One thing I regret is that I didn't start keeping a concert-diary when I started going to shows at the age of 16. I have no idea how many shows I've seen, nor how many times I've seen various bands. For instance, I have seen Sloan, Hawksley Workman, and the Weakerthans probably about 15 times each, but that's an estimate. I really wish I knew, you know?

Here's the list:

1) Melissa Etheridge (first concert ever… not counting Sharon, Lois and Bram)
2) Alanis Morissette
3) Our Lady Peace*
4) Moist/David Usher*
5) Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
6) 54-40
7) Treble Charger*
8) Matthew Good (Band)*
9) Sloan*
10) The Tragically Hip
11) Sheryl Crow
12) Ashley MacIsaac
13) Foo Fighters
14) Smashing Pumpkins
15) Eve 6*
16) Ben Folds (Five) (once Ben with the Buffalo Philharmonic)*
17) Hawksley Workman*
18) Tori Amos*
19) Christine Fellows*
20) The Weakerthans*
21) Andy Stochansky
22) Martina Sorbara* (she's now in Dragonette)
23) Stars*
24) REM*
25) Blue Rodeo*
26) Ben Lee*
27) Bowling for Soup
28) Weezer*
29) The Carnations*
30) Neko Case*
31) Joel Plaskett (Emergency)*
32) Jason Collett*
33) Two Hours Traffic*
34) Hayden*
35) Feist*
36) Damien Rice
37) Danny Michel*
38) Dashboard Confessional*
39) Emm Gryner*
40) Great Lake Swimmers*
41) Tokyo Police Club
42) Hey Rosetta!*
43) The Constantines*
44) Jack’s Mannequin*
45) Rilo Kiley
46) Kathleen Edwards*
47) Kimya Dawson
48) Martha Wainwright
49) Rufus Wainwright
50) Sarah Harmer*

51) Metric*

52) Tegan and Sara

53) Owen Pallett

54) Broken Social Scene

55) Los Campesinos! on October 8th; unless fate intervenes again

56) Dan Mangan on October 28th

Hope that you all have great fall-concert seasons too! Any exciting shows coming up?

ps Thanks for all of the positive hair comments! Love you guys!

A post about hair-dos, eavesdropping, and books.

After a summer of lots of fun, my hair was looking a little bit worse for the wear. Bangs in my eyes, shagginess all over, dried out ends, and colour washed out by the sunshine. I decided that that was that, and I was going to get it overhauled: I'd have it cut and dyed. Basically I'd tell the stylist to go nuts, because I wanted something new.

I've been rather "homeless" when it comes to hair salons since April-ish. My longtime stylist moved, so I went to a slightly pricier place in my neighbourhood. I enjoyed the proximity, the atmosphere, and the free drinks. I decided to make it the location of my overhaul.

Whenever I say I'm going to get my hair overhauled, it never ends up being as drastic as my statement. I wanted my hair darker, but I realized I do like my style (a layered bob that's longer in the front, shorter in the back, with bangs). So really, the overhaul wasn't much. I had the hair trimmed so there are no more bangs in my eyes, and it looks neat again.

As for the colour, it's a nice subtle difference, and no longer looks washed out. The stylist recommended that I get some highlights put it to make my hair look fuller. I have super fine hair, and if someone says something will add body to my hair, I say do it.

I was happy with the end results until I got the bill. I have never ever paid that much for my hair in my life! I had an estimate in my head of how much it would cost, and I though I was being a little bit extravagant, but it was twice that! I'm surprised I didn't faint at the counter! Why was it more than I thought? Well, the only places in my life I have ever gotten my coloured have been in Stratford, and there when they colour your hair, they cut it for free. I thought that was the norm. Here, I had to pay for the colouring + the cut, so hence the heart attack for me. Seriously, what have the rest of you experienced on this matter?? When you get your hair coloured, do you have to pay for the cut too? Or is this a small-town thing?

Anyway, here's a picture of the end result from the back. Please tell me it's beautiful.

Anyway, the atmosphere of the salon was really cool. I got complimentary lattes and hand and shoulder massages. Also, there was an interesting older gentleman getting "a little taken off the top" who was seated next to me. As I was sitting with foil on my head, I listened a bit to his conversation with his stylist. She asked him what was the last book that he read, and he commented that he'd read the latest book by Richard B. Wright which is called "Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard".

The "books to read" part of my brain immediately took note. Richard B. Wright is the author of one of my favourite books ever: Clara Callan. I haven't really kept up with his writing since then, but this new one sounds so interesting. It's written from the point of view of Shakespeare's illegitimate daughter. Now, I'm not sure if there's any historical evidence that there was one, but that's an interesting premise don't you think?

I got home and researched the book immediately: it doesn't even get released until mid-September! Older gentleman at the salon apparently has some connections!

Anyway, since I spent a lot on my hair, I vowed to be frugal ASAP, so I looked to see if the Toronto Public Library had it in their database yet, and they did! 37 holds so far, but for the TPL and their bazillion copies of anything, that will only take a month or so to get through.* Unfortunately, my account needed to be updated before I could place a hold, so I hopped on my bike to fix that situation, plus put a bunch of holds on other books too.

So, I'm really excited for that book.

Right now I'm reading a really great book. I picked it up yesterday on a whim. It's called "The Girl in the Blue Dress" by Gaynor Arnold. It's fiction that's loosely based on the relationship between Charles Dickens and his wife. Did you know that he sent his longtime wife and mother of ten children to live in a shabby apartment so that he could conduct an affair with an actress? And, he released a statement to the papers blaming her for the separation because she was an insufficient housekeeper? Neither did I! It's a good book, and I'm zipping through it.

I also have Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" on the go. It's non-fiction about the author and her family's quest to eat locally for a year. It's really good so far, but I took a break from it because I was craving fiction.

Congratulations if you made it through this rambling post. What are you reading these days?

*My estimate for this time is based on experience. Years ago, on a lark, I put a hold on a book with 1000+ holds to see how long it would take to receive. It took about six months. I never got the book because my roommate at the time forgot to give me the message until it was too late to get the book. Luckily for her, it was just an experiment, and not something I really wanted to read. I think I would have been a little bit peeved if that had been the case.

p.s. One last piece of excitement from today: Los Campesinos! are playing in Toronto on October 8th! YAY!!! Hopefully I'll get to see them this time, barring any interference from pesky Icelandic volcanoes!

Post #800!

That's a lot of posts, Batman. I can't believe that I'm only 200 away from the "I'll never get to one-thousand"-th post. Thanks for reading bloggarinos.

Post #800 is going to be an always-exciting weekend rundown complete with recipe links. Recipe links? That's new!

On Friday, I decided it was time for me to go the Harry Potter exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre. I love Harry Potter, and I think the only thing that had kept me away for so long was the location. I mean, I'm used to going there with 20-40 teenagers in tow, and it just wouldn't be the same to go on my own, ha-ha.

However, it was amazing, and I'm glad I went. The Harry Potter books, and movies, are one of my favourite things, and it was amazing seeing the costumes and props in real life. I had completely forgotten about the hilarity that is Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart in the second movie. I got to sit in Hagrid's chair, saw Buckbeak and Fawkes, and probably my favourite was seeing little Dobby. I have to say that overall the Harry Potter movies are an awesome adaptation of an incredible series of books. Well done movie people. I enjoyed my afternoon of nerding out.

On Friday night I chilled and procrastinated the inevitable: the cleaning of the disastrous apartment. For the past week, I've had people in and out of my place without warning because of a plumbing situation, and it's been a little embarrassing because of the disaster. I felt like saying "I don't normally live like this" but I still couldn't muster the courage to start the overwhelming job. Saturday morning was when I finally got my ass in gear, and I did a really really good clean. There's still some organizing stuff I need to do, and some laundry, but if the people need to continue coming in here this week they'll be like "whoa! what happened here?"

One sad side-effect of the cleaning is that I realize I have enough clothes and no back-to-school shopping is needed. :( Well, maybe one outfit...

On Saturday night, Steve came over for dinner and I made this delicious Moroccan Chickpea & Vegetable Stew that is from the blog Everyone Likes Sandwiches that I discovered through rawbean and/or Jabba. Then we went to see "The Other Guys" which was funny, provided you find silly Will Ferrell movies funny (I do). This morning, I made haute egg sandwiches for breakfast which were really yummy. I was so intrigued by the interesting combination of ingredients in this recipe that I just had to try it, and I loved it. Cheese, apples, and honey forever!

This afternoon I treated my beat-up hands and feet for a mani/pedi. Fingers are now silver; toes are now periwinkle. My friend Fea was also able to join me which was fun 'cuz we got to catch up about our respective summer travels and commiserate about the inevitable. We met up again at my work spouse's new house in my neighbourhood for a BBQ. The weather sucked, but at least it stopped raining so we could chill outside. Anyway, it was fun meeting up with friends from work, and seeing them on a regular basis is one reason to look forward to September.

Tomorrow, I was supposed to have Mel, the craziest member of the G of 9, visit me but she's postponed until Thursday. I'll have to figure out what to do with a free day now. On Tuesday, I'm getting my hair cut and dyed (!) for back to school. I want to go darker. I'm excited for that. Wednesday is dinner at my fave neighbourhood Mexican place with friends. Yay for having lots of fun stuff on tap for the last proper week of vacation. However, I just ask for time not to fly while I'm having fun.

I'm moving past the feeling again.

Well folks, it's the tail end of summer vacation. Yah, yah, I know. Poor Hawaii!*

I knew my adventures had come to an end when I had to get a car to go pick up Miss Rilo Kitty from my parents' house. I'm enrolled in an auto-sharing program. It's a super convenient way to get a car when I need one: I can book online, and I can even reserve one for just a few hours. Anyway, I was ultra-pumped to listen to the new Arcade Fire album on the road, because I finally got it. I always choose a car with an iPod adaptor, but the cord was missing from the car, so I was stuck with radio. Oh well...

Anyway, I had a nice visit with the 'rents and I saw my aunt too. The part of the drive with Miss Rilo is never as smooth as when she's not in the car. She is not a good traveller. She cries the whole time. This time, however, she was able to claw/chew a small hole into her carrier, and escape into the car. Driving on the highway with a loose cat isn't my idea of a good time, but now I've learned to choose a hard plastic cat carrier, instead of a cute soft one with netting that isn't a match for a pissed-off cat who wants out.

Luckily, Miss Rilo doesn't hold grudges, and she still loves me despite the car trip. She's also taken to sleeping up here a lot:

On top of all of that excitement, there is a leak on the first floor of my building, and they have been trying to figure out where the leak is coming from. My apartment is one of the suspects, so I've had people in and out for three days now flushing my toilet and running my water to figure things out. However, apparently my bathtub taps were leaking (I never noticed), so a plumber fixed them while he was here. This morning I was awaken by a request to put a hole in my bathroom wall so they could continue with the forensic plumbing.

So the good news is that my apartment isn't guilty of the leak: it's the unit below me. They now have to have their toilet ripped out. As for the hole in my bathroom wall, it's gonna stick around until the situation is all clear.

Today I had a dentist appointment. Right now I'm waiting for the freezing to wear off so I can eat. I'm hungry.

As for the next week and a bit, I've made a lot of social and beauty appointments. It'll be busy and fun. In case you are wondering, August 30th is the day I have to go in and start planning. My brain has atrophied and is afraid of going back. But do you know what my calf muscles say to my brain? If we can do a 35 km hike, you, my friend, can go back to school!

*Poor Hawaii! is something I say based upon this Triumph video. (Sorry, Youtube won't let me embed this one.) A teacher whining about going back school is exactly like a cloud or two in Hawaii.

The post-camping post.

Well, I did it. I made it through the wilderness! Oh, I made it through-ooooo. My camping trip consisted of about 35 km of hiking on often hilly terrain in 48 hours. However, despite the scratches, the multitude of insect bites, the perspiration, the exhaustion, the sounds of large lumbering creatures in the night, the rain, the thunderstorms, and the dehydrated food, I think I'd do it again. Let's just see how long these mosquito bites torture me before making the final verdict.

We left Toronto fairly early on Friday morning, faced zero traffic, and got to Huntsville in good time. After looking around for a good brunch place, we settled on a good lunch place, and then had ice cream to fortify ourselves for the day. After we picked up our permit, we realized that we forgot to pack TP, so we drove a bit to a supply store in the park to pick it up.

While Steve was paying for it, the girl said "just so you know, this is final sale." I had to go hide behind a rack of coats to cover up my laughter. Seriously? TP is final sale? WTF? That's the kind of thing I want to return if it doesn't work out for me! Anyway, whenever the hiking was getting long, one of us would randomly say "do you think we can return the TP if we don't use it all?"

We had about 10 km to hike the first day, and got to our campsite in good time. I really liked the site because it had a nice beach where it was easy to get water, and nice lake views from where the tent was set up, but Steve found it creepy and gross that someone had left a bunch of broken coats/tarps/sleeping bags by a tree. I was able to ignore them because they had also left a comfy camp chair was also left on the site, which was really nice for fireside sitting. Here's a picture of the lake.

Here's a picture of the loon that was hanging out on the lake. At first he was really far away, but Steve was able to call him over so he was closer (talented boy). I named him Larry.

In the evening, we had a really nice campfire, and sipped some fortified orange Kool-Aid to make things more fun. Here's a shot of the fire.

We even went down to the beach where we could get an amazing view of the stars, and got to see some of the Perseids too. I think that was my first time seeing shooting stars. It was incredible to watch.

When we were almost ready to go to bed, we heard some loud noises in the woods near us, so we headed back to the beach area until they stopped. Steve was pretty sure it was a moose, and we heard it snort a couple times. It took a long time to pass by, and in the morning we could see the massive trail it left through the brush.

Anyway, Saturday was a more tiring day of hiking (15 km), and I didn't like the campsite as much. It didn't have random crap left behind, but the access to the water wasn't nice at all. Steve was clever enough to use a metal grate on the site in the water to make it a bit accessible to get drinking water. We had another fun night of dehydrated food and an abbreviated campfire. It started to rain, so we called it an early night, which was OK since we were both exhausted.

Of course, I can't say that I fell asleep right aways because we were in for another evening of large woodland creatures walking by our campsite. This time, they were going right through the site, and it sounded like there was one about four feet from the tent.

On Sunday, we had another 10 km of much easier hiking to do. When we had about 1.5 km left, it started to thunder and pour, but I kind of liked it because it made me feel less sticky. Thankfully it was very close to the end of the hike when the downpour occurred, because my shoes got soaked.

By the time we made it back to the parking lot, it was sunny. We sorted our stuff, and drove to Huntsville for a celebratory lunch of Harvey's and Dairy Queen. The nice thing about doing so much hiking is that you can eat unhealthy food after without feeling the least bit guilty.

And the worst part of the whole experience was driving through the awful cottage country traffic on the way back home to Toronto. I deeply hated anything that stood between me and a shower at that point.

And there you have it: the city girl survived the woods.

Camping!

Let's play the fun game of where in the world will Christielli be for the next three days? Well, the title of this post gave it away, but it's one of the least likely activities you'd expect *me* to be doing.

However, I am a fan of trying new things (albeit reluctantly), and since I am an environmentalist, I should probably get out into the environment every now and then. Right? And, since I am dating a super fun cute guy who loves camping, and he actually agreed to go with me enthusiastically (even with the caveat of "it'll be like camping with a five-year-old"), it's probably the right time to get my outdoors on.

We leave tomorrow morning, and are doing about a 35 km hike over Fri/Sat/Sun. I'm going to have to sleep in a tent for two nights. I think the last time I slept in a tent was in high school, and it was most likely on my friend Sandee's lawn during one of her infamous May 2-4 parties. I'm going to have to eat dehydrated food. I'm going to have to go to the bathroom outdoors, which I've never done before.

This upcoming camping trip has provided much laughter to my friends. When I was telling my work spouse about it, she said "Christy! You are going to have to wear running shoes!" (What, did she think I was going to do it in heels?) Now she's actually someone who is *less* outdoorsy than me. She asked me if there are little houses along the path where you can take a break, charge your camera batteries, go to the washroom, and have a nap in a proper bed for a bit. She was appalled that there weren't.

More than one person I know has wished for the ability to turn into a fly to watch me camping. I'm going to be extra cautious around flies, because I wouldn't want to accidentally smoosh a friend of mine, just in case they were granted that power somehow.

Also I have been reminded that I've made the statement "I don't camp" on more than one occasion by more than one person.

However, since I do have an army of people praying for me and wishing me luck, I really think it should go well. If there's one thing I've always had a plethora of, it's well-wishers. And their well-wishes will help me get by, I know it.

So, hopefully, that will reduce the anxiety of my brave camping buddy 'cuz he was a bit worried when I described some people's reactions. However, the ones who did laugh the hardest are the ones who are less outdoorsy than I, so it's not like camping experts were laughing at me. I think I avoided this by not knowing very many camping experts...

Anyway, again, wish me luck, pray for no rain (the forecast isn't great, but I refuse to believe it), and stay tuned for the hilarious post-camping post.

Vacation's come and gone.

Well, after a twelve-hour trip from door-to-door, I'm back in Toronto. We actually made very good time from our hotel in Dedham (guess how many times I made fun of the name of the boring suburb our hotel was in) to Hamilton, but then I had to take the GO bus back to Toronto, so it made for a long day.

Anyway, I guess I haven't blogged since leaving Cape Cod. Salem was really cool, however we got soaked in a torrential rainstorm in the midst of our sightseeing. Luckily it cleared up in time for us to do a ghost walk around town.

The two days we spent in Boston were really fun. I really liked the city a lot, and we spent a lot of time walking around and exploring Boston Common/The Public Garden, Beacon Hill, Quincey Market, and the waterfront. We even trekked out to Cambridge to check out Harvard. On our second day, we were supposed to take a whale-watching cruise offered by the aquarium, but it got canceled because of boat problems, so we ended up going on a corny high-speed boat tour of the harbour called "Codzilla" instead. It was fun.

Anyway, I'm just going to leave you with some of my fave photos from the trip. Yes bloggarinos, you are guys are getting them even before Fbook does, because after this, I'm hitting the sack. I love traveling but I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.

1) Here are my feet as I'm lounging on a beach chair on our hotel's private beach in Cape Cod.

2) View of the lighthouse and the cliffs at Aquinnah, Martha's Vineyard.

3) Some birds (cormorants?) that I spotted during our Cape Cope bike ride.

4) A view of Boston's skyline that I took when we were out on the waters of Boston Harbour.

5) Sailboats on the harbour at sunset.

p.s. I just noticed that my five fave pics all have the ocean in them. I guess you know what my fave thing of the trip was. Although, I do have lots of pics of really old graveyards too. But I guess the ocean even trumps those, ha-ha.

Quick Trip Update

Martha's Vineyard yesterday was lovely. We were up early to catch an 8:15 ferry over, and more or less saw the whole island. We got a lot of use out of our $7 VTA bus pass. I think my fave part of the island might have been the iced mocha I had at Mocha Mott's, but there was a lot of pretty scenery too.

Today was a fabulous day too. We rented bikes and rode the entirety of the Shining Sea Bike Path, which added up to 33.6 km. It was mainly flat, but there was a really tough wind that you had to face when going south.

After we returned our bikes, we had a lovely lunch in town, then did some shopping. We had some amazing chocolate peanut butter ice cream, and bought some AMAZING cupcakes that we ate tonight.

We then drove back to our hotel to relax on the beach. It was cloudy by then, and the waves were a little bit rough. I swam (okay, played in the waves for a bit) and then read on a beach chair for awhile.

We tired of the beach at about 5 pm, and decided to drive an hour to an outlet mall. I was well-behaved: all I bought for myself was a sweater and a new pair of running shoes. No designer handbags this time.

It was a busy day so I'll sleep well tonight.

Tomorrow, we'll take advantage of the beach one last time, then go to Salem. I love trips.

Oh, I'll share pictures probably when I get home. I am too tired after these busy days to upload them.

If it feels good, do it.

One of the things that you have to do on vacation is to really just do what you feel like.

After a second day of lots of driving, we finally arrived in our really nice beachfront hotel in Falmouth, MA. After immediately taking advantage of the beach, and spending a long time in the ocean, we decided to head to town for dinner.

We found parking on the main street right in front of a cute little Italian restaurant. We checked it out, decided why not, and proceeded to eat a really decadent dinner. I had the lobster and asparagus ravioli.

So what to do with the rest of our evening? Well, what we both really wanted to do was watch the finale of the Bachelorette and eat dessert. So, we ordered dessert to go (tiramisu and cannoli) and then drove back to our hotel and indulge.

And it was pretty much perfect.

Tomorrow, it's an early morning where we are taking a ferry across to Martha's Vineyard to explore the island. We'll probably do a bus tour to get oriented, and then maybe rent bikes, or walk around, or just do what feels good. I love laid-back vacations. More later. :)

It's almost trip time!

Hey ya kids!

Well, I've been spending a couple of relaxing days in St. Ratford. On Thursday night, I took the train to Stratford to hang with the 'rents and Rilo for a bit. I had a big surprise when I showed up at the train station that evening: they changed the departure time of the train that I've taken for twelve years! Luckily, it left just 25 minutes later, so I was just a little bit early; at least I wasn't late and missed my train.

On Friday I relaxed, did some light shopping at Stratford's crappy mall, and then went out for dinner and drinks with 4/9ths of the Group of 9. It was great catching up with them. Veronica, my travel buddy for the upcoming MA trip was there, and I suspect we are going to have an excellent roadtrip.

Today was another slightly lazy day but I did drive out of town to visit a Group of Niner who couldn't make it last night. Now I'm chilling at the coffee shop with wifi. My visits here are much fewer now that I have an iPhone, but blogging from an iPhone isn't the easiest.

Tomorrow morning Vern is supposed to pick me up at 7 am (we'll see if that happens) and then we are off. We are spending the night at a mountain resort in Hanover, MA. I hope it's at neat as it sounds. I'm excited, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for nice weather during the trip.

I enjoy my new Mac a lot. I was playing with the built-in camera to get a new shot for Facebook, and I noticed that my tuft of hair was sticking up like a stem on an apple. You may recall that when I was in Nice, I was on a balcony taking a scenic picture, and some cigarette ash fell on my head from the balcony above, burning off a chunk of my hair. The regrowth of that hair is what is currently making a little apple stem on my head. Here is a picture of it. It makes me laugh.

Last time I got my hair cut, my new hair stylist commented on the "breakage" so he got to hear the story too.

Also, you may be noticing my super cute earrings in this picture. I got those at a super cute boutique that Becca T and I came upon as we were wandering in the Marais. J'adore!

So yah, it's an early night for me. I have to do some laundry then hit the sack. I haven't woken up at 6 am in a long time, I tell you. I am nerving out on my vacay: my laptop's coming with so I can blog and Facebook to my heart's content. I love uploading my pics right away.

Hope that you all enjoy the rest of your weekend, especially if you get a long one!