I'm on the edge.

To add injury to insult, I had a dentist appointment today. I'm on the mend, but I'm still sniffly and sick-sounding and all around pathetic. Anyway, I had to get a filling done, and it was a particularly nasty one, so I had to get a double-dose of freezing done so it wouldn't hurt quite so much. (Note: DO NOT procrastinate going to the dentist for years at a time. You will pay. If you are in that situation, take care of it ASAP or else you could turn into a creature similar to that I will continue to describe in this post.)

Anyway, I left the dentist's office with a "no more fillings!" hurrah and a half frozen mouth. The trickiest thing I find about a half frozen mouth is the temptation to chew mindlessly on your tongue/inner cheek. In fact, it can be quite satisfying. However, I discovered that you should not under any circumstances give into that temptation the first time I ever had my mouth frozen as a kid. I chewed at it, and I was in lots of pain later. (Has anyone else ever done this?)

So yah, I'm walking to the grocery store with a stuffy/runny nose, and concentrating as hard as possible on not accidentally or purposefully chewing on my half-frozen mouth. I had to be careful not to walk into people or traffic too. I also realized that it could be really easy to accidentally drool out the side of my mouth as well, so there was added focus to that problem as well.

When I'm checking out at the grocery store, the clerk asked me if I needed a bag. At this point, I realize that I can't talk very well. I actually had already placed my reusable bag by my groceries, so I'm frantically gesturing towards that, because she doesn't seem to understand the polite "I brought my own bag" that I'm trying to say through my frozen mouth. She gets the idea, and I sneeze loudly. Awesome. Then she asks me how I'm going to pay, and when she doesn't understand how I say "debit" (maybe I sounded like I was trying to ribbit?), I yet again have to wave my card in her face while fighting back a sneeze attack. I want to explain that I've just come from the dentist, but seeing that she couldn't understand my other simple communication attempts, I realized it was futile.

Moral of the story: run errands before you get your mouth frozen. However, being that yesterday was a holiday and everything was closed, and I stayed close to my bed all weekend, it was tough.

Anyway, my mouth is now unfrozen, and I'm slightly less stuffy, I think?

All right, now I have a confession to make: I may have accidentally on purpose acquired the new Lady GaGa album. Yah, see, I like cheesy to music to listen to at the gym, and I figured that her new album would fit the bill.

I like it. Eeep. I wish I was healthy enough to actually take it to the gym (soon, I should be well enough to exercise by Thursday). However, it made for good listening during my earlier walk of monumental focus as described above.

Even worse, the song I like best is Yoü and I. Yes, I even like it despite its unnecessary umlaut. And I like it despite the fact that it was produced by Shania Twain's ex-husband, who I'm not a fan of, since I'm fan of Shania's autobiography. Anyway, I'm feeling a bit of conflict over this enjoyment, but life is suprising, right?

Right.

Hopefully my next post will less monstrous.

Breathe, just breathe.

After feeling super yucky on Tuesday night, and taking Wednesday off of work as a result. I was feeling pretty fine on Thursday. I had the energy to go to the gym after work and then head to the school play after that. I got home late, blogged, and then went to bed, and then I noticed my throat was itchy. Then it got sore. Then very uncomfortable. Oh, crap.

I felt yucky on Friday but made it through the day, made it home, and then slept 'til I had to go back to school to help sell concessions at the play. All the concessions kids were like: "Miss, you sound really sick." It was yucky.

On Saturday, I pulled myself out of my sickbed to go see Billy Elliott, which I've had tickets for for a long time. It was really great. I even managed to go for lunch first.

I can't remember what happened on the rest of Saturday or Sunday for that matter. There was sleeping, that's for sure. I think I watched some stuff on TV, but I can't really remember what.

Today, I felt a bit better and had lunch plans with my friend Elaine and decided to go instead of cancelling. It was fun.

Anyway, I feel that this long weekend was almost a complete washout for me. I didn't get very many of the chores nor schoolwork that I wanted to get done either. Sigh. Oh well, they will still be there when I'm better, right?

Right. Happy back to work everyone.

p.s. I've been feeling a little bit like Eeyore lately; all complainy and the like. I think I'll have to do some positive blogging to make myself feel better and soon.

I think this is it. It's a hit.

I'm tired but pretty happy.

My grade tens, who are my favourite class this semester, were concerned that I was away. It was really sweet. I love those guys. I wore my new outfit to work today. I got compliments from many people on my new red sweater. A former student said "oh Miss, you look so pretty in red." Maybe I should wear it more often.

I saw a lot of former students tonight because it was the school play. This was the performance I chose to watch. My great friend Fea puts so much work into the play and it freakin' amazes me every year. I try to help as much as I can, but since I do a lot of other stuff around the school, she usually just gives me an easy job like concessions.

She completely outdid herself this year. I think it was definitely my favourite of all her plays. It was a twisted version of a bunch of fairy tales, and was simply hilarious. It was a perfect choice for the student body. I loved seeing all of the kids up there; so many of them I've taught or worked with on various extracurriculars. It's so nice to see them shine and I always get a little bit emotional on play night.

There are some days that I get a little bit frustrated at work, and I can even feel a little bit burnt out too. However, days like the school play alleviate that and remind me why I'm a teacher. Even though the play's not my project, it reminds me of how lucky I am to be in a nice little community such as my school.

But I'm still happy that it's a long weekend.

Well you can be so kind sometimes. And you can be unkind sometimes.

I didn't get to wear my new work outfit today.

I start feeling very poorly and uncomfy last night, and couldn't sleep as result. (I think poor Jason thought he might have given me food poisoning, but it was something completely unrelated. Dinner was very tasty and it was so good to have leftovers around so I didn't have to worry about food today!) Past midnight, I realized that I should go see a doctor. I sat there thinking "hmm, I could go in and teach my morning classes, see if I can get an appt in the afternoon and leave early, or just go to a walk-in clinic after school." Then thankfully, a voice of reason appeared in my head and told me that it would make way more logical sense to call in sick and take care of myself. What good would I do attempting to teach after a sleepless night?

I spent the hours between 1 am and 2 am creating and e-mailing in some lesson plans, postponing evening social plans, and such. I think I got a little bit of sleep in between 3 am and 4 am and for a bit of the morning. As soon as 9 am hit, I called my doctor to see if I could get an appointment, but she was unavailable until Friday, so I decided to go to the walk-in clinic down the street from me. I was pretty lucky and didn't have to wait for hours. I got a prescription for my malady, and spent my afternoon sleeping.

I feel much better this evening and expect a good night's sleep. I am glad that I took care of myself instead of worrying about work and trying to do too much at once. I always feel so guilty about calling in sick, but seriously, my health comes first. I've dragged myself in sick before only to make myself more sick, so I'm glad I was more proactive this time.

Anyway, new work outfit will get worn tomorrow. And, it'll get a long day since I gotta be in very early to write a test since I don't feel like doing so tonight.

p.s. Sitting in a chair while reading and waiting to see a doctor at the clinic reminded me of the good old days of jury duty. Thankfully it was only a 1.5 hour wait as opposed to a whole day's wait like jury duty was.

p.p.s I love this new Sloan song "Unkind". I dedicate it to my body for getting sick, and to the weather for being crappy. There was a bit of sunshine this afternoon, but now it's violently pouring rain out.

The Needle Has Landed.

I am so tired of this rainy wet cold dreary drab yucky spring. I've never felt myself so (dis)affected by the weather as I have this year.

After a super busy day at school, I stopped by the little mall near my house to get a bottle of wine for dinner tonight. I thought that I should get a local wine to be environmentally friendly, but I am craving travel, and when one is stuck working, why not get an exotic wine? I was going to get a French wine (of course), but then saw a bottle of Wolf Blass Shiraz on sale, and remembered that I'd visited that winery in Adelaide, Australia way back in the summer of 2005. Wow, that was a long time ago. Here are some pictures. Looking through that file of pictures makes me feel like I was a completely different person back then.

After I bought the wine, I saw a red short-sleeved cardigan in the window of Smart Set. I decided to go in and look for it and found it on sale and also scored a new black pair of dress pants on sale and a white tank top to go underneath. New outfit for tomorrow for the win.

As I was walking home in the rain, I had my iPod on shuffle. I kept flipping through the tracks because nothing fit my mood until "The Needle Has Landed" by Neko Case came on. Even though that song is a little sad, it totally made me feel really good. I like Neko Case a lot.

Oh, now Jason's here to cook me dinner and help me drink my wine. I'll leave you with a picture of the Sydney Opera House since I was going through my Australia pictures. I didn't notice the guys who photobombed my shot in the thumbnail. Yeesh. I think my photo-taking skills have gotten better since 2005.

p.s. Check out that blue sky!!! I could go for some of that!

(Hey!) No cars go.

Despite the rain and the cold temperatures (it's apparently May, you know), my 5K run went quite well. It was really fun! I loved running around Queen's Park, then down University Ave to King St. and back up to the finish line at Queen's Park. I enjoyed being able to ignore traffic lights, and I chuckled a bit to myself to see traffic stuck on cross streets. I think it's kind of funny, because usually the motorized vehicle is king of the street, but it's nice when the streets are taken over by pedestrians.

I also enjoyed the community spirit of the whole thing. It was fun to have people cheering you on as you went by, and I really enjoyed the guy handing out Gatorade at the 3K mark. He was like "You can do it Christy! Only 2K left!" (My name was on my bib.) At that point I thought there was much more left, so that was welcome news.

My time was comparable to my training times on the treadmill at the gym, which was good news. I thought the outdoors, the cold, and the rain would make me slower. When I got home, I promptly signed myself up for the Scotiabank Waterfront 5K in October. I think with about 5 more months training, I'll be able to improve on my time. I'm already looking forward to it!

Anyway, so I've been lazing around at home for the rest of the day. I watched "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" this afternoon. I have to admit that I kept dozing off during it, but I liked the Barcelona part of the movie. The scenery brought back great memories. However, I thought the movie's story was rather meh; I didn't care about nor like the characters, so whatever. I don't think I like Woody Allen movies.

This week at work is going to be INSANELY busy. I look forward to its end already. Happy Monday everyone, and thanks for all of your encouragement and kind words on my pre-run post.

I'm ready so don't stop.

With the recent Blogger shutdown and life's typical insanities, I've not been able to blog in a few days. It's been my longest hiatus for eons. Anyway, a quiet Saturday night doing laundry gives me a chance to catch up on blogging.

On Thursday night I was summoned to a friend's house for emergency wine. I like when helping my friends involves me drinking red wine. Win win!

On Friday night, Jason and I went out to dinner to my favourite neighbourhood Mexican restaurant where I ate my usual dish of taquitos and got a little bit drunk on sangria. Then, we went to see Bridesmaids which is a *great* movie. Seriously, go see it, all of you. I laughed so hard during the movie. It's such a great movie about friendship, and even though it's about female friendship, guys will enjoy it too. It's kind of silly that male buddy movies are supposed to appeal to everyone, but oh, if a movie is about female friendship, then it must be a chick flick, right? Well, I hope that Bridesmaids breaks down that barrier. In "Bossypants" Tina Fey writes a lot about how female comedic actresses face a lot of sexism - i.e. it's assumed that a sketch/show/movie with too many women in it won't be very funny. Anyway, I think Bridesmaids proves Tina Fey's point that women can carry comedy just as well as men. Also, there was one part especially that made me think of my pal Claire. Claire - you gotta see this movie!

Tomorrow is a rather exciting day for me - I'm actually signed up to run the 5K portion of the Toronto marathon. I've been doing a lot of running (albeit on a treadmill) since January, and I've definitely improved my speed, stamina, etc., but tomorrow's 5K could be more of a run/walk (but with more running). I find running outside way harder than running on my comfy treadmill at the gym with a TV in front and no wind, so my outside time will be slower than my indoor time. I wanted to practice more outdoors than I did, but this year's spring weather was so crappy, that I was so much happier on the treadmill.

Speaking of crappy weather, tomorrow's weather looks yucky, so I hope to still enjoy the experience. I'm really looking forward to being able to run on streets that are closed off to traffic. It's a nice part of Toronto where my run will happen, so I'm looking forward to the scenery.

I'm proud that I'm at least trying this 5K (there is a part of me that kind of still doesn't even want to do it). I've always been super un-athletic. I found gym class quite traumatizing as a child/teenager. I was always picked last, got hit by baseballs, missed catches, came in last in races, tripped over hockey sticks, missed baskets, and so on and so forth. All this lead to me being so self-conscious about anything athletic. After all, there was nothing else that I failed at. I don't think it helped that my schools' attitudes to phys ed were archaic: the teachers weren't particularly inspirational, the classes were co-ed, and they allowed kids to pick teams. Luckily, I can see that the phys ed teachers at my school are pretty awesome (they are my friends after all), and the class aren't co-ed, so I like to think gym class wouldn't have been as hellish if I'd been in my school.

However, I'm at the point in my life where I realize fitness is important and I've been doing my best over the past few years to get over my self-consciousness. I've been on a dragonboat team, done yoga, got a personal trainer for a bit, tried to go to the gym as much as I can (this year's been good; last year sucked), bought a bike, and now I'm trying my best at running (although I gave running a good run back in 2007; I'd run all the time in the cemetery).

Anyway, I'm thinking that this will be my first go at a 5K and I'll do another in the fall to see improvement.

All right, I need to get my sleep now. This will be hard 'cuz I'd really rather be watching SNL!

I don't need you and brand new Benz or your bougie friends.

Today was one of those days where my nerves seemed to be a little frayed. Nothing especially bad happened today, but it was one of those days where I went home feeling yucky and overwhelmed.

Off-topic rant - Pencil quality these days SUCKS! Seriously. I have to buy a lot of pencils in my game, and all brands eff-ing suck. They will not sharpen, even with a good quality electric sharpener, and it's seriously going to be the death of me. Those pencil companies are scamming us all, and something's gotta be done. I don't want big pencil to win this game. This lack of quality product is unacceptable.

Despite my yucky mood, I did pick up Sloan's new album (!!) and found some YouTube gold that made me happy.

1) Ben Folds' cover of Kesha's Sleazy.

2) Pomplamoose's cover of the Angry Birds theme.

In summary - YouTube = yay! Poor quality pencils = boo!

p.s. This is post #900 on this blog.

The coffee could use more cream.

This weekend was pretty low-key but a really good type of low-key, and I daresay I needed it. This past week at work seemed pretty long.

On Friday night, I met up with a former colleague, but for-always friend, for dinner. At some point this year I resolved to make more time for friends who I don't see very often, and I would give myself a C+ on this resolution. (C+ means I'm very close to be satisfactory, but need to work a little bit harder.) Anyway, dinner was lots of fun, and catching up is always good for the soul.

On Saturday morning, Jason and I were on a mission: we were going to get weekend passes to this year's Hillside Music Festival in Guelph. It's a three-day indie/folk music festival at a conservation area. There is one place to buy passes in Toronto: Soundscapes on College St at 10:00 am. There are also passes online, but apparently they sell out really fast so the online option is a gamble. Anyway, Jason got there at 7:30 am, and was kind enough to let me sleep for another hour (I got there at 8:30 am). The line was pretty long. Here'a picture of what was ahead of us (photography credit goes to Jason). The store itself is around the corner and one door over from the BMO.

Apparently the people who were first in line had been there since 1:30 am! Crazy. It was a nice morning for sitting outside though. I brought Starbucks on my way over, and even managed to get some reading done. We got our passes thankfully. According to the dude who counted everyone in line, we got passes 204 and 205 out of a total of 250 available. The only negative part of the endeavour was the people behind us in line were really really annoying. They provided a lot of stupid inane conversation. I hope we don't see them again at the festival.

I'm looking forward to seeing Dan Mangan, Memphis, Hannah Georgas, Kevin Drew & The Beauties, Old Man Luedecke, and Serena Ryder & The Beauties the most, but I'm sure I'll discover some new artists during the festival. In fact, just looking at the list, I like the name Common Grackle, so maybe I should check out that band.

After we got our passes, we walked down College and went for a nice brunch and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Kensington Markert and down to Queen West. I got excited because I found a health food store in Kensington that sells my favourite flavour of baked potato chips that I thought were only available in the US. Score.

Today we spent the day wandering around my 'hood. We went for sushi followed by my first post-Lent gelato (I gave up all ice cream). In fact, I'm pretty sure it was my first gelato of 2011 at my favourite neighbourhood gelato place. I got coconut and chocolate/orange as my flavours. They had all of my favourites so it was a pretty tough decision. Here's a picture of part of the selection (again, courtesy of Jason... I have the same instagram app, but I'm often too lazy to take pictures. I really should do so more often.)

I've done a lot of reading this Sunday. After I published my last blog post, I noticed that the Shania Twain biography was on sale at Indigo, so I splurged. It's been a really good read so far. Man, she had a pretty tough life. Wigsf - if you think she just married a producer and got famous, her story is WAY more than that. She's not famous 'cuz she had money and got her voice auto-tuned like some Kardashian or whatever. I'd recommend the book to those of you who expressed interest on my last post.

In fact, I am going to continue ignoring my housework and schoolwork and keep on reading it this evening.

Hope you all have really nice weeks! Don't forget that Tuesday is Double Cross day! (Yes, I'm totally treating the day that I will buy the new Sloan album as a holiday of sorts because it's more fun that way.)

The Answer Was You.

Luckily today was a really lovely day to chase away the post-election blues. It was sunny, and I bought some new laceless black Chucks to wear as my lazy slip-on shoes this summer. They'll be good for biking.

Time for a random post.

1) Sloan's new album, The Double Cross, is coming out in about a week. I am excited for it. My plan is to actually walk to Soundscapes after work to buy a physical copy of the album. Today I got tickets for their June 22nd show at the Mod Club. The new album is streaming here for the next week. I've been cheating and listening to it. I LOVE the second song "The Answer Was You". It's a Jay song. Jay songs are my favourite.

2) I have no attention span for staying with a book these days. I've been starting them, but abandoning them. I feel that my attention span for anything is at an all-time low. However, I'm intrigued to read the Shania Twain autobiography of all things. It's been all over the TV at the gym, and it sounds like it could be a good story, and probably doesn't take much of an attention span to get through.

3) Today I dug out an old notebook which contained the following:

a) A list of all the books I read in the year 2006. I read 35 books that year. I am so not on that pace with my gnat-like attention span.

b) Directions to the houses of two friends. Neither friend lives at that location any longer.

c) A made-up math problem that I solved. Some people doodle. I make up math problems. Sigh.

4) I rarely really want to see a movie, but I really want to see the movie "Bridesmaids". It looks funny.

5) I don't have any set travel plans for the summer yet. This is not like me.

6) Last week, I gave my biology class a quiz on the nervous and endocrine systems. Two kids walked in late, so I handed them their quizzes. Fifteen minutes passed. I notice one kid holding up his paper, and on the back was a page of lens diagrams. I had mistakenly given the late-comers my grade 10 quiz on lenses. They sat there for fifteen minutes with the wrong quiz and puzzled through it and did not say a thing. I started to laugh, as did the rest of the class, for a good five minutes. I marked what they had completed of the wrong quiz. I added whatever they got right, by sheer dumb luck, on the wrong quiz to their proper quiz to make-up for the emotional distress that they had caused themselves for being late.

But seriously, why is it that teenagers will question everything, until something actually comes along that they should question?

7) Jay has come up with another winning song in "Green Gardens, Cold Montreal". It's beautiful. (I'm streaming The Double Cross as I write this.)

8) I've been going to bed really early lately. For me, that means before midnight. I think my age is catching up to me and I don't like it.

9) I'm pretty psyched that it's almost the weekend.

Happy Thursday folks!

Kent Brockman was right.

He's said it before, and he'll say it again: democracy simply doesn't work.

Seriously, Canada, seriously?? We used to be the cool kids. Now we're going to be the dinosaurs who don't do anything about climate change, and I fear what's going to happen to our healthcare system.

And now we're stuck in this mess for four to five years.

I need a strong drink.

But you could never kiss a Tory boy without wanting to cut off your tongue again.*

Canadians go to the polls tomorrow to vote in #elxn41, as it's called on Twitter.

A record number of voters have turned out for the advance polls which hopefully means that overall, Canadians will be voting more than they did in the last federal election (59% - for shame!).

I am cautiously optimistic that this election will be Stephen Harper's last one.

It seems like his chances at a majority government are fading fast. Jack Layton and the NDP have had huge gains in popularity during this election, and hopefully that will translate to a huge increase in seats in the House of Commons.

Good.

I have had enough of this Prime Minister and his disrespect for the democratic process. The Conservative government was the first government ever in history to be found in contempt of Parliament. He won't even take questions from the public that aren't pre-screened, and if a journalist asks a follow-up, the question will be drowned out by his supporters. YUCK.

And then there is his policy. I can't stand when he goes on and on about how Canada has done so well through the economic crisis thanks to he and his party. Hmmm, however it was his predecessors, from another party no less, who put in place the policy that allowed Canada to make it out of the recession A-OK.

And I won't even mention his environmental policy, or lack thereof. And his support for private, oops, sorry I mean "alternative" healthcare? That's not a road that Canada should go down. We should be proud of our universal healthcare system and work on improving it.

Anyway, so I don't like Mr. Harper or his party at all. They will likely form the next government, but if Harper wins his third minority, I'm sure Tory knives will be pointed in his direction.

As I said, I hope that tomorrow's election will be Harper's last. I really hope that the polls are right and that the NDP will have a strong showing. I would love to vote for Layton, but I'm in a party vs. person conundrum. In my riding, the NDP are running a 23 year old, and the Liberal incumbent is experienced and pretty awesome. Since it's her name I have to put my X beside, I will be voting for her. I really respect this woman, and I believe she is a shoo-in, and I'd like my vote to make sure that the Cons don't sneak into my riding. Which they won't.

I hope my optimism proves to be right tomorrow. Happy voting day to all of you, even if you are going to vote for Harper... I have to give every one who supports democracy my well-wishes. However, if you don't vote, a giant thumbs down. But I know all my peeps are smart and will vote.

*My title comes from a line from the Los Campesinos! song "The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future". I've always liked the line.

p.s To my non-Canadian bloggers, keep your fingers crossed for us!

Concert Trifecta Post #2 - Old Man Luedecke/Hawksley Workman

I totally intended to do three separate posts for the concert trifecta, but since the last two shows were so close together, I didn't find the time to do so. Here's a merged post instead.

Thursday was a long day at work; it was parent-teacher interviews which meant I spent over twelve hours at school (albeit with an hour mall break to get dinner and buy a new umbrella since I left mine on the bus that morning), yet I was still committed to the trifecta, so at 8:30 pm, I transited to the Dakota Tavern to meet up with Jason to see Old Man Luedecke.

I got there with just enough time to chit chat and grab a beer before the show started at 9 pm. The Dakota Tavern is a small basement bar decorated with a bluegrass/folksy/country theme. In fact, my country friends from back home would probably kill themselves with laugher that I hang out at such places now. Anyway, it was a really fun show. If you want to hear one of my favourite Old Man Luedecke banjo songs, go to his myspace page and listen to "I Quit My Job". It's fun, and a really great listen on days when you are a bit fed up with work. Live vicariously, I say.

Here's a picture from the show.

Yesterday after work, Jason and I drove to Guelph to catch Hawksley Workman at the River Run Centre. We did the same trip in November when we saw Joel Plaskett at the same venue. A lot of artists will do a tour that covers small cities in Ontario, and it's fun to be able to leave the city and catch one of these shows. The River Run Centre is a really nice sit down venue where you have an awesome sight line from anywhere in the theatre. Our seats this time were farther away from the stage than when we saw Joel, but the view was still incredible.

The opener for Hawksley was Oh Susanna. I'm pretty positive that I saw her at the Canadian showcase that I caught at SXSW in Austin with AlieMalie way back when. I have a couple songs of hers, and I really liked her set. It was a bunch of great folksy songs and she has a killer voice. When she sang her last song "Soon the Birds" from her latest album of the same name, I would have to get it because I have a thing for birds.

In between sets, I went to buy the album and ended up buying a lot of merch. I got a Hawksley Tshirt with a wolf on it, because well, I love Hawksley and the image of the wolf brings me back to his (Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves days when I first started listening to his music and catching him live. When I went to get the Oh Susanna album, I loved the matching book bag, and then I could throw in a *purple* (fave colour) Tshirt WITH A BIRD ON IT for an extra $5, I bought everything.

I got the CD signed too! She was standing right by the table, and I'm always a little bit embarrassed about autographs and such, but I would have felt weird not asking since she was right there. I told her I really enjoyed her set, and commented that the design of her new album was super cute. I'm sure I sounded dorky, but earnest, so there you go.

Then it was Hawksley time. Hawksley is one of my all-time favourite artists (I felt the bolding was necessary there). I have been following him for ten years now (it's our anniversary), and I'm sure I've seen him a minimum of fifteen times in that span of time.

This was definitely one of my favourite Hawksley shows of the lot. He played with his long-time pianst, Mr. Lonely, and a drummer, and I found that having three musicians on stage was a great way to showcase his music. He often plays with a full band, which I enjoy, but I felt that a bit less instrumentation allowed Hawksley's voice to shine very well.

Hawksley is the king of stage banter. I don't know how he does it, but he likes to randomly talk about subjects such as hockey cards, elementary school, cats, his family, and more throughout the set. And during his banter he'll go on a tangent within a tangent, but it's just so fun. I love his eccentricity.

Musically, he is phenomenal. His songs are great, and so many of them have special places in my heart. I'm always guaranteed a show full of my favourites, and I always seen to discover a new song when I see him live. This time it was "Lonely People" from his Los Manilicious album that came out a couple of years ago. I didn't recognize it when I heard it, but loved it and noted that I needed to figure out what song it was. When I did, I realized that I didn't listen to it because I don't like how it starts (therefore it would get skipped), but now that I've heard it live, it will find a resurgence in my Hawksley collection.

One of the other things I love about Hawksley (I'll try not to make this post a 10,000 word thesis, I swear) is his multi-instrumentalist talent. He played the guitar for most of the show, but also made it to the drums a few times, broke out a recorder (no joke!), the harmonica, and played with Mr. Lonely on the piano for "Your Beauty Must Be Rubbing Off". After that bit of sheer amazingness, someone from the crowd yelled "that was pretty good!" and Hawskley replied "that's what we're striving for here." It was funny.

It was an amazing show, and I'm thinking Hawksley will probably be working on something new soon since his last albums Meat and Milk are from last year and he's prolific that way.

I'll leave you with for a video of one the songs he played last night: "Oh You Delicate Heart". It's a little bit sad, but I love the video because it's shot in Paris.

Concert Trifecta Post #1: Christine Fellows

I just got home from a very enjoyable show at the Music Gallery.

The Music Gallery is one of my favourite venues in Toronto. It's located in a small church just off of Queen St. W. It's like a little oasis of calm in the middle of downtown.

Christine Fellows is a great person to hear at a venue with such great acoustics. Her songs are an eclectic mix that deal with topics such as spinsters, birds, stenographers, and well, death. Also, she's from Winnipeg, which is a town that tends to produce some interesting musicians, imho.

As I was discussing with my friend Jane, who accompanied me to the show, her music also exemplifies female friendship to me. I first saw Christine with my great pal Becca T. In fact, we had gone to see her play because we were more interested in who was playing before her, and had actually planned on leaving during her set since it was a school night, but we fell in love with her music and stayed and each bought her wonderful album "Paper Anniversary".

Since then, I've seen her play again with Becca T, and have also gone to a couple of her shows with my friend Jane. Christine played this show with two cellists, who both seem like they are her friends, so that's why I consider her shows to be kind of girl-power-bonding moments. However, I know lots of guys who like her music too, so it's not exclusive.

Anyway, I had a great first show of the trifecta, and I'll try to post after my other concerts this week (Thursday and Friday). I'll leave you with a picture I took (on my iPhone so not the best but it gives you an idea of the intimacy of the venue), and one of her songs if you are interested.

Just the slightest bit of finesse.

Greetings from a lovely spring day in St. Ratford. What? Spring I say? Yes, yes I do! It's warm (no jacket weather), and there was a little bit of sun out too. I'm confused. I thought we'd just be in the cold and rain forever.

It's the long weekend, and I'm enjoying it immensely. I got into town last night, and have been having a quiet time of it. Right now I've stopped at my fave Ratford coffee shop with wifi for a yogurt smoothie and blogging break from running errands. I went to the gym, went to Staples to replenish my pencil supply (my period 2 class NEVER has pencils and walk away with mine) and then I went to Zellers for new socks and ended up actually buying some clothes from there. Shhh, they are totally nice, and if anyone asks, they totally look like they came from the Gap, so yah, I guess they did.

My last stop on errand-running is a trip to the grocery store for some Mayan Chocolate Haagen Dazs. I gave up ice cream for Lent, and I look forward to eating some good ice cream tomorrow. My dad's gonna go nuts when I tell him the little pint was $7, but seriously, I'm not breaking the fast with cheap stuff. (ps I'm paying for it too, so he can't go on and on, but he will. It's all part of the fun of spending the weekend with my parents.)

Oooh, in neighbourhood gossip, apparently my neighbour's sons are having drama in their lives. My dad was chit-chatting with the neighbour today and was sharing all the dirt with my mom and I, and then he said "I mentioned that my law-abiding, god-fearing, top of the bracket, gainfully-employed daughter who is never moving back in with me was around for the weekend." My dad makes me laugh. I don't know what top of the bracket means, but at least I'm doing my parents proud in the neighbourhood gossip, or lack thereof, department.

Tonight I'm meeting up with some Gof9ers at a pub. Actually, no, I believe it's a wine bar. Anyway, last two times I've been in town we've gone to Bentley's, so I suggested Foster's this time. Some chit-chat and catch-up will be fun.

Tomorrow I'll have another nice quiet family day, and then I'm back to Toronto on Monday. (Schools get a four-day weekend, bless them.) This upcoming week will be busy. I'm going to see Christine Fellows, an awesome folk singer from Winnipeg, who is married to Johnny K of the Weakerthans, on Tuesday night with my friend Jane. Then Thursday is parent-teacher interviews, and I think I'm going to meet up with Jason afterwards to catch Old Man Luedecke, a banjo-player from Nova Scotia, at the Dakota Tavern. Incidentally, I once saw Christine Fellows and Old Man Luedecke play together as part of the Pan-Canadian Folk Ensemble, so it's kind of funny that I'm seeing them within a couple days of each other this week. On Friday, Jason and I are going to Guelph to see my beloved Hawksley play. I haven't see Hawksley play in over a year and I realizing that I'm totally jonesing for a Hawksley show. I spent a good part of yesterday afternoon watching Hawksely stuff on Youtube. Keep your fingers crossed that he plays Ilfracombe for me.

So yes, next week will be a concert trifecta week, which is always my favourite kind of week (last happened in October). My 2011 concert-going has been a little sparse, but hopefully it'll pick up.

I hope you all have nice Easters if you celebrate. No matter what, you should eat at least one egg or rabbit shaped chocolate concoction.

Now show a little backbone, why don't you?

This post has been brought to you by aching joints that woke me up at 2:00 am courtesy of my work spouse. She talked me into trying a new class at my gym that I've been meaning to try for, oh, three years, but have always put off until another time because new things intimidate me. Anyway, having a person to try the new thing with finally got me to do it, and it was good, but I am sore. I will go back again, provided I regain proper working order of all of my limbs.

Anyway, aches and insomnia should bring to you a good random post.

1) I really love the new Foo Fighters' album "Wasting Light". Get it. I haven't listened to something this straight up rock 'n roll in a long time. It's all killer no filler; each song is great. I am rekindling my love affair with Dave Grohl and I like it.

2) I am reading Tina Fey's "Bossypants" and it's a must read. I'm almost finished; it's laugh-out loud hilarious, and is especially awesome if you are an SNL/30 Rock fan like I am. It's totally a book that you could read in one sitting. I thought I would be able to finish it last night, but my ability to turn pages and focus was hampered by bodily pain. (Ha-ha, joking... I'm not that broken...)

3) I feel like we've skipped summer and fall and gone straight back to winter. What is with this? Snow on Sunday, then cold on Monday, and absolute nastiness on Tuesday. Also, since it's April, I have the silly habit of putting on my spring/fall jacket when I leave the house and then paying for it later. Clearly, my weather expectations are too high.

4) I really like the salted caramel squares at Starbucks. They're little, so not a caloric kick in the pants, but a nice little treat instead.

5) I bought a new tshirt at Lululemon that has anti-stink technology: they say you can wear it a second time without washing it. I'll be trying out that property tomorrow. If no one will go on the treadmill beside me, I'll take it back. Have you ever had the misfortune of being beside a really smelly person at the gym and then having to pretend you were finished your workout to change machines? I have. Also, I was once beside some dude who curiously smelled of maple syrup which, although not unpleasant, was really distracting.

6) We watched Reality Bites last night. It's still good. It's fun to watch a world with giant cell phones, people who talk into phones attached to the walls, and a world without Youtube or other parts of the internet. I've been feeling all sorts of 90s nostalgia lately. I liked that decade. I find it awesome that Doc Martens are apparently back in style. There is now a Doc Martens store on Queen St., and I like watching people wear them on the subway. I kind of want to buy a pair, but I know I have a black pair of boots somewhere in my closet. Breaking them out again is on my to-do list. Or better yet, I'm sure I could find my purple three-holes from grade eight kicking around my parents' place somewhere. (Kidding... well, I could find them, but I don't think that pair has aged as well as plain black boots.)

7) My high school is planning its 25th year reunion. I want to have no part of it, but I've already been added to the group on Facebook. I am still in touch with the people that I really liked during high school, and for the rest of them, bah. Also, the parts that I really enjoyed during high school, other than shenanigans with the Group of 9, were the nerdy ones where I learned about science and math, and I doubt there will be any of that during the reunion.

8) I having been counting down until this long weekend. Two more teaching days. April's been an exhausting month, and the last week will continue to be with parent-teacher interviews and Earth Month activities. But then, it's May, and the long coast into summer will begin. I haven't taken on any projects in May/June so it should be an easier end to the year.

And with that, I'm going to try sleep again. Happy Wednesday everyone!

p.s. Thanks to everyone for the sweet comments on my previous post. I enjoy all of my bloggarinos immensely!

Personal Life.

Here is one topic that I don’t blog much about. Ironically, I think I started a blog so that I would work on becoming more open about my feelings and thoughts and all of that stuff, but my blog has become very light and fluffy most of the time, and more of a record of things that I’ve done rather than my feelings.

Anyway, I have an awesome readership, and I’m sure they probably sometimes wonder what’s going on: does christielli have a boyfriend?

A lot of my long-time friends from high school read my blog and know the tell-tale signs that there is someone special in my life: I’m doing all kinds of fun stuff but I don’t mention with whom. If I’m going to sushi with Mathew (my friend who’s like my brother) you know. However, if I just say I had sushi... well it was probably on a date.

For most of last year I was with someone that I actually started to mention by name on my blog, which is a pretty big deal for me. Then, out of the blue, he broke up with me and emo posts started to appear. I was surprised that the break-up hit me hard: I was unhappy in the relationship in a lot of ways; but still content enough to stick around. I was even once close to breaking up with him myself. At one point, I actually listed a bunch of things that were bothering me, and he was really great about everything so I left things, only to be dumped a couple of weeks later. I think the reason that I was bothered so much is that I knew the reasons that he was giving me for our breakup were not sincere. He just didn’t want to feel like a bad guy and couldn’t say “this isn’t working” and went the “it’s not you, it’s me” route. I ended up feeling so brushed off and uncared for, and I think I took things more to heart than I could have anticipated which made things a bit rough.

After that happened, I started spending time with a friend of mine who I’d always harboured a bit of a crush on. I met this friend through a mutual love of music: a couple years ago he’d posted some pictures of a Joel Plaskett show that we were both at on the internet, I commented on them, and we connected through various forms of social media. We started running into each other at various concerts around town. I always thought this guy was very nice and cute, and clearly had good taste in music, but by that time I figured that out he was dating someone, and then I ended up meeting someone else, so that was that.

However, fast-forward to the end of last year and we were both single. We ended up going to a string of shows together and things just clicked. We spent a good deal of time together over the Christmas holidays and kept seeing each other more and more afterwards. I don’t know if there was a particular point when we were “together”, but when you end up celebrating your birthdays, and Valentine’s Day, you know things are going well.

Anyway, I’ve been really happy in this relationship, so I’ve been thinking that I should blog about it. I mean, I blog about everything else, so why wouldn’t I blog about this? I think it’s just because I am always afraid of jinxing things by writing about them or talking about them too much. Whenever I start dating someone new, I try to tell only a few friends. Why? It’s because whenever I tell too many people and things don’t work out, well then I have to tell all those people it didn’t work out and I end up feeling even crappier. I think I’m this way because I have A LOT of *close* friends, so it’s always a nightmare after things go sour. There are so many people I have to tell. Note: I’m not saying that I’m super popular, but I’m just really good at maintaining friendships and I’ve been left with a lot of people who are interested in my happiness.

It’s definitely time to start writing about where I am because it’s been almost four months since Jason and I have been together. I’m very happy: we have the same ideas of a perfect afternoon, we love shows and music, and he makes me feel very special. Also, I’m pretty sure that he could hold his own with the Group of 9, and that’s really important. Also, he would be the third Jason who has been brought into the group, so you just have to wonder about the odds of that.

Just thought I’d share that with you on this snowy Sunday in April.

p.s. Sleeping over at school went well. Here is the sock monkey that I made. I think its mouth and the Instagram filter that I used for the photo make it look very Tim Burton-esque. Should I buy it or donate the monkey to charity?

Procrastination.

I should be in bed. I should.

Tomorrow is my second annual sleeping at my workplace event. Student council is organizing a fasting-for-charity event, and I get to supervise for the duration. It will be a lot of fun, but it's been a lot of prep work.

On top of that the Eco Club has been really busy because April is Earth month.

And, did I mention report cards are due tomorrow? I'm finished for two of my classes, but for one I still have two sets of assignments to mark tonight. I'm done that, but I have to go in early tomorrow to enter the marks.

Of course, I wouldn't be up so late if I hadn't procrastinated so much. Tsk tsk.

I look forward to Saturday and an epic sleep following tomorrow's sleepover.

Can you believe I'm brining a suitcase to work? Figured it was the easiest way to transport my stuff on transit.

The next two weeks of April will be really busy with more environmental stuff, parent-teacher interviews and the usual daily grind of planning, teaching, and marking.

However, I am really really looking forward to seeing Hawksley Workman play in Guelph on April 29th. We were gonna stay overnight since Guelph's a cute town, but it looks like I'll be attending a funeral (friend's dad) the next day.

Happy Friday and enjoy your weekends. Keep your fingers crossed that the sleepover is problem-free!

ps We are making sock monkeys. It will be fun.

We Are Who We Are.

Okay, first of all, I apologize for taking my title from a freaking Kesha song. I listen to the worst of worst pop music, tossed together with some upbeat indie stuff, when I'm at the gym. That's why that song title came into my head as I was thinking of this post while I was on the treadmill. Anyway, I am getting sick of the same old same old, so I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions to add to my lame and cool workout music.

Here's a post about me being who I am. Which is a nerdy science teacher who tries her hardest to make stuff funny.

I'm teaching one of my classes a unit on optics. You know, light, mirrors, refraction, lenses, etc. It's so not as fun a chemistry because we can't light anything on fire (well, I guess I could try it with a magnifying glass... hmmm....) and we can't dissect anything (well, actually we could cut open a cow's eye if there are any kicking around... hmmm....). However, I can try to pepper in some lame jokes during my lessons to liven things up.

Today we were talking about all types of mirrors. When describing the properties of an image formed by a mirror, we science teachers tell students to remember the acronym SALT which stands for size, attitude, location, and type.

Here is how I always explain SALT in my most deadpan and driest of voices.

"S stands for size. Is the image larger, smaller, or the same size as the object? A stands for attitude. Is the image ruder than the object, or is it more polite? L stands for location..." And on I go.

Now, today's class was absolutely silent when I made my little speech. I turn around and I say "Seriously?" and I look at them. They all sort of look at each other and start to laugh. "Miss, you weren't serious about attitude**, right? Right? What if we mess up on the quiz and get that part wrong?"

"Then I know you weren't really paying attention the whole class."

"Oh... well will you at least write LOL on the quiz?"

"Sure. However, did you like my delivery? I tried so hard not to laugh. I think you guys totally fell for it because you were so quiet!"

"No, no, we didn't. We just wanted to make you happy!"

Anyway, my next lame joke was when I was explain the meaning of the word converge, which is used in reference to light rays that meet up in one spot.

"So now you guys can impress your friends with your new vocabulary. You can say to them 'hey, want converge at the mall after school?' "

Of, course I got a chorus of "Oh Miss, that means our friends would get all confused and wouldn't know what to do! And we'd sound like giant nerds. That would be a horrible thing to say."

"I know it would be. However, my lame explanation will help you remember the meaning. That's why I say these things, you know."

Anyway, that's how I amuse myself during a dry lesson on mirrors. The funniest thing was I told my work spouse this story after school, and she was like "I so use the same joke about attitude! It's so fun. I like to say some images are mean, and some are nice!" And no, we had never converged previously about this joke. It was an example of independent discovery, just like Darwin and Wallace and the theory of evolution due to natural selection.

So yeah, lame professional science nerds. We are who we are.

**In case you were wondering, attitude is whether the image is upright or inverted.

Done, done, and I'm on to the next one.

Jury duty is done. At about 11:30 am on Friday, just as I was contemplating what I wanted for lunch, the head jury organizer dude came out and let us know that our services wouldn't be needed any more. We had completed our civic duty and were exempt for the next three years. Back to work for me tomorrow.

I had a pretty low-key weekend. I ran a few errands on Friday after my early dismissal but didn't do anything too exciting; I picked up a new book at Indigo and spent a lot of time absorbed in it.

On Saturday, I got out and enjoyed the beautiful weather and spent the evening having dinner cooked for me (mussels = yum) and watching some TV. I enjoyed the new SNL; I liked seeing the Foo Fighters play. I had totally forgotten how they used to be one of my favourite bands when I was in university and the massive crush I had on Dave Grohl. I have to admit I've spent some time this evening watching old Foo Fighters videos and listening to their music.

Anyway, I did promise a book review post and since I've been reading voraciously, now is the time. Actually the two books I read whilst on jury duty, "I Love You and I'm Leaving Anyway" and "When God Was A Rabbit" were quite mediocre. I'm going to review the stuff I've read lately that was actually good.

The Paris Wife - Paula Mclain (fiction)

I love any type of historical fiction that is written about the life of a historical "footnote". You know, someone who was associated with someone famous but never really became famous themselves. This book is written from the point of view of Ernest Hemingway's first wife Hadley Richardson.

I found the book very interesting because it is set mostly in Paris in the 1920s, and has interesting supporting characters in the forms of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and other literati of the time. Also, the Hemingways moved to Toronto for a very short time during this period: they pretty much hated it, but their son was born here.

Of course, being that Hadley was Hemingway's first wife, you know that marriage doesn't end well. In case you do plan to read it, I won't describe what happens (of course, I ruined the ending for myself with Wikipedia), but it's a sad tale of betrayal that ends this well-written book.

The Memory Palace - Mira Bartok (non-fiction)

This is a memoir written by the daughter of a schizophrenic mother. Emotionally, it's a tough book to get through. The author and her sister went through a lot growing up with a mother who would often come after them with knives, so they would have to push furniture against their doors to protect themselves. Of course, their mother's behaviour was a result of mental illness, and it's tragic how the system was unable to help her. As adults, the sisters tried to get their mother declared as mentally incapable of taking care of herself, but the court system disagreed since she was capable of cashing her monthly welfare cheque and buying her own cigarettes.

As a result of their mother's destructive influence on their lives, both daughters change their names and move away so their mother can't contact them. Seventeen years later, she is diagnosed with cancer and the daughters re-enter her life. It's harrowing reading about this: it seems really harsh that these women cut their mother out of their lives; however her illness impacting them greatly (she would phone hundreds of times a day), and they really didn't have much of a choice.

Throughout the book, the author weaves ideas about memory and the influence of art. It's a very well written book, and despite its dark topic, it made me think a lot about my relationship with my own parents and how hard it will be to lose them. I got to the end of this book on the subway, and I have to admit I was crying. It was a very powerful read.

I Think I Love You - Allison Pearson (fiction)

This book is the polar opposite of the book I reviewed above. It's a book about a woman who was in love with David Cassidy when she was fourteen and how she gets a chance to meet him when she's an adult. A lot of the book centres around the main character's teenage years, her friendships, her David Cassidy love, and The Essential David Cassidy magazine. I think this book really resonated with me not only because it was a super fun read, but because I think most girls had their own "love" for a male teen idol that happens during that time in between childhood and adolescence. My David Cassidy was Joe McIntyre from New Kids on the Block, and the author does a great job describing that illogical love between a young girl and her teen idol.

We All Fall Down - Nic Sheff (non-fiction)

One of my eccentricities is that I "enjoy" reading books about addicts and their struggles. Why? I think part of it comes because I'm a bit of a control freak, and reading about someone absolutely losing control is darkly fascinating for me; also, since these books are memoirs, they usually have happy endings. The addict cleaned him/herself up and got a book deal to boot! It all works out okay in the end. Happy face.

A couple of years ago, I read a pair of addict memoirs that were very interesting. "Beautiful Boy" was from the point of view of the addict's father, and "Tweak" was from the point of view of the addict. Well, you have to believe that I was stoked when I saw the sequel to "Tweak" on the bookshelf when I was done jury duty.

The style of "We All Fall Down" is similar to that of its predecessor: it's actually classified as a book for teenagers, but I had to read both of them because I was so curious after reading the dad's book. The writing is honest and conversational. Anyway, it turns out that Sheff had not kicked his addiction battles with the publishing of his first book, Tweak. He was off of the hard stuff, but still struggling with alcohol and pot. Anyway, I hope that after this book he's able to stay sober, and perhaps branch out into writing something else, since he is a decent writer.

Anyway, those are some of the better books I've read lately that I felt were worth reviews. Next up, I think, is "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness. I'm sampling the first chapter of this novel on my Kindle, and it really speaks to my inner sixteen year old because, well, it seems a bit gothy.

Happy Monday everyone. Have you read anything good lately?