The pause feels like an extra year of high school.

Today was one of those odd days where you end up doing a bunch of different things, and having a bunch of different emotions and feelings and experiences, so that the day feels more eventful than some entire weeks you've had in the past.

It was just busy because we had a special day at school, during which I ended up bonding with a classroom of grade 10 boys over Feist's 1234 of all things, then I had an activity-filled rest of the day, then I went out for a yummy dinner to celebrate a colleague's birthday, and finally I ended up having a couple of friends over to watch the season premiere of The Office.

On the way home from dinner, a couple of my colleagues and I got into a total Oprah conversation where we discussed insecurities and things in our lives that have messed us up, and ways to cope with life, emotions, and feelings. You know, definitely very Oprah-y stuff. It was weird because I actually opened up to them about some things that I very rarely talk about, even to my closest friends who I've know for a long long time. In fact, I think it would give some of friends quite a surprise to hear me talking about these things so matter-of-factly. I'm lucky because I realize that I do have colleagues that I totally do consider friends, and it's neat to have people at work that you like spending time with and consider friends on a personal level. Anyhow, as I was having my Oprah moment, one of my colleagues commented that I sounded like I'd come to terms with a lot of this stuff, which I really had thought that I'd more or less bottled away, but maybe I'm coming to grips with things.

Enough Oprah talk. The Office was hilarious. Oh, it was nice to see my old friends again. I love that show. :D

And... of course you know I've been obsessively listening to the new Weakerthans CD and, of course, I am in love with it. My current favourite song is "Reunion Tour", which didn't stand out to me at the beginning, but after a couple of listens, its instrumentation converted me to loving it.

Well, tomorrow is Friday, so happy weekend!

I know I know it's the sky that makes the ocean blue.

It's late Saturday, technically Sunday morning, and again I'm amazed at how quickly weekend days fly by. I wish I could slow time at will.

I recently bought season 1 of Heroes on DVD and my pal Becca T and I have been working on watching it together. We're almost done. On Friday night, we got take out sushi, and watched a bunch of episodes during which we consumed a bottle of wine. We've just started disc 6 out 7, so we've almost reached our goal. The season premiere is on Monday. We won't be done in time for it, but I'll tape it and I'm sure we'll be caught up. I really like the show. I figured that a good Monday night show would be a good addition to my week. I love having TV to look forward to.

Today I slept in and lazed around my place using the fact that I'm trying to get rid of the last vestiges of my cold as a reason for my sloth. I read a bit and watched the 1998 movie Elizabeth. In the late afternoon, I tackled my dishes and brought down the large pile of recycling that I'd been avoiding for weeks, so I don't feel that the day was wholly unproductive.

This evening I went to a party at Becca T's. It was pretty fun. I got to see a couple of friends that I hadn't seen in a long time, plus my dear friends Jon & Ali showed up unexpectedly and we had fun.

It's crazy how fast time flies. I'm still amazed that people I met in university, who I consider my "new" friends, have actually known me for almost 10 years now. It's weird talking to new people and realizing that this is my fifth year teaching.

I guess it all makes me wish that I could bend space and time just like Hiro on Hereos.

ps The new Ben Lee CD is super fun. I recommend it if you like fun poppy music that you can sing along with.

I was kissing Valentino by a crystal blue Italian stream.

You know it's Monday when:

a) You put on outfit #1 for work and then turn on the TV to find that the weather will be too cold for outfit #1. You change into outfit #2, and realize that the shirt just isn't doing it for you, so you make do with outfit #3.

b) You arrive to work early so that you have time to well, familiarize yourself with what it is that you do for a living, and find that your office is cold. As in Antarctic cold, and there you are without your parka, snowpants, mittens, and winter boots. You forgot them at home, since it still is technically the season of summer.

c) Every time you make the trip from your office on the cold cold cold third floor (Hey isn't hot air supposed to rise? What happened to that?) to the main office downstairs, you realize that you forgot things upstairs and have to make the jog back up. At least the physical activity is warming you slightly.

d) Your "clients", as I'll call them, are super energetic after having a weekend to rest up, and you are exactly in the opposite state of energy since you feel a cold coming on.

e) You go downstairs to make *one* photocopy and the damned machine jams, and you can't fix it even though you spend 10 minutes of your precious time trying to fix it, and you know very well that it's not actually jammed, but in fact it just wants you to fiddle with its knobs. So, your only recourse is to ask the secretary who scares you for help.

And that's how you know it's Monday.

Note: I actually had an all right day at work today, and despite all this, I enjoyed myself overall, as I frequently do. I was just inspired to write a bitter post.

Also, Tuesday's gonna be good because there is a new Ben Lee CD coming out, and I'm going to buy it at the record store where the cute boy works, and it will be warm enough tomorrow to wear outfit #1, which is super cute, and I'm glad that I didn't waste it today. ;)

So find a sweater, and you'll be better.

My old pink-and-black-and fun template randomly stopped working, so I had to quickly change to a new run-of-the-mill readily-available blogger template. Maybe someday I'll have the time to find something better, but 'til then, this nice green template will have to suffice.

I've survived week 2 of being back to work, and it's going well. Knock-on-wood of course, but even though it's still the honeymoon period, my classes are giving the vibe that they'll be pleasant for the long term.

I had a crazy-busy weekend last weekend, so I'm really excited not to have any big plans for this weekend. Last night I went for some post-work drinks with colleagues, then ended up having to run home quickly as opposed to wandering around some stores to avoid being caught in a thunderstorm. After dinner, I passed out on my couch watching a movie and woke up there this morning. I think that I just may have be tired.

Today was a crisp cool fall day, which reminded me how much I love love love autumn. I went for a walk this afternoon while listening to my iPod and noticed how a lot of my favourite artists like Christine Fellows, Death Cab for Cutie, Hawksley Workman, The Weakerthans, and Neko Case actually sound a little bit better when the weather gets cooler.

Yay for fall!

My book, my book's gonna make you look.

I survived the first week of school. In a way I'm glad to be back; I honestly do miss the little urchins during vacation. I see a lot of them in the halls, and when they say hello, I remember "Oh yeah, I really enjoy this person!" Anyway, my classes are great so far; I love the September honeymoon period. I hope it can last all year.

I'm also not mourning summer too much because I'm not letting myself get so caught up with work that I neglect my social life. On the evening of the first day of school, I went out for drinks with a couple of dear friends, and that was such a remedy for the back-to-school blues. I had one of those moments when I felt that all was right in my life. I realized I had enjoyable friends, a great apartment, a job that I love, and I had a really yummy caramel apple martini in me.

A friend of mine from home came to stay with me this weekend. Friday night was filled drinking and some trouble-making at the pub across the street from my place. On Saturday, we went across the border to Niagara Falls NY to do some heavy duty shopping. It totally felt like I was back on summer vacation what with going on a mini-road trip and the sunny warm weather.

Tonight was another fabulous night. I met up with my dear former roommmate whom I haven't seen since her wedding in BC. It was great meeting up for dinner, which was followed by seeing Damien Rice in concert. And oh, was it a great concert. If you are not familiar with Damien Rice, you should: a) familiarize yourself right now; and b) make it a life's goal to see him life. He started by playing my three favourite songs (Rootless Tree, Amie, and Eskimo). Actually, it's hard to call three my favourite songs since they're all so good, but I do really like those three. My favourite concert moment was when he held a long note during the song Eskimo. As he did, the lights became all star-like and it was just very cool. His band is amazing. It was honestly one of the best concerts I've ever been to. I think it made my top ten. Hmmm, one day I should sit and ponder what my top ten concerts are. That would be interesting to quantify.

Anyhow, I guess as an update to my current life, I can summarize by saying everything right now is fabulous, and the forecast calls for fabulousity remaining throughout the fall for sure. :)

Then labour day came and went, and we shed what was left of our summer skin.

I've got my lunch made, my newly-purchased school supplies all packed up, and my outfit for tomorrow picked out. It's 8:10 pm and I'm ready to go for the inevitability of going back to work tomorrow. Am I glad? Sure, it'll be good to go back to the normalcy of having a routine. Sometimes, one can get a little bored of summer vacation, but I really haven't had time for that this year. Between taking a course, packing, moving, unpacking, travelling, a visit to St. Ratford, and various social activities, I haven't had much time to get bored yet. So, in that respect I could use some more time, but I guess I can go back to real life tomorrow. Since they're forcing me. Actually I could really use a paycheque right about now too.

Anyway, I've gone for a couple of long walks this weekend, and during these walks I've reflected on the summer that was. However, since my iPod was on, I spent more time thinking about the songs that will always be associated with the summer.

Summer of 2007 Soundtrack:
1) When it Flows - Great Lake Swimmers
2) Moving Pictures Silent Films - Great Lake Swimmers
3) Imitosis - Andrew Bird
4) Heretics - Andrew Bird
5) The Night Starts Here - Stars
6) Take Me to the Riot - Stars
7) Window Bird - Stars
8) The Con - Tegan & Sara
9) Call it Off - Tegan & Sara
10) 1234 (Van She Technological Remix) - Feist
11) Born Losers - Matthew Good
12) She's in it for the Money - Matthew Good
13) The Devil's in your Details - Matthew Good
14) Young Leaves - Attack in Black
15) Northern Towns - Attack in Black
16) Time Won't Let Me Go - The Bravery
17) Walls Fall Down - Bedouin Soundclash
18) Eyes - Rogue Wave
19) Civil Twilight - The Weakerthans
20) Night Windows - The Weakerthans

I started the summer listening to a lot of Great Lake Swimmers. Then I picked up the new Andrew Bird CD which had a song with the word mitosis in it, which made my inner science geek happy. The new Stars CD was then released solely on iTunes and that dominated the old iPod for awhile. I'd been really looking forward to the new Tegan & Sarah album, and I listened to that a lot during the summer.

At the end of July I was off on my trip, but not before I bought the new Matthew Good CD from iTunes so I could listen to it during my trip. I spent long train rides and walks down the beach in White Rock listening to Hopsital Music. On a whim, I picked up the Attack in Black album "Marriage" since I'd seen them open for the Weakerthans in June and it was only $10. That turned out to be a great decision since I ended up listening to it the entire time I had my rental car. It's a really good road trip album by the way.

When I got back from my trip, I went to visit the 'rents. A visit to my 'rents usually involves me driving a lot and listening to the radio. The two radio songs that I picked up on and actually enjoyed were "Time Won't Let Me Go" by the Bravery and "Walls Fall Down" by Bedouin Soundclash.

I recently purchased the first season of Heroes, and Becca T and I have been watching it together with the goal of having it done by the time the second season starts. (I wanted to have a new TV show, and I'd heard good things about it.) I heard the song "Eyes" by Rogue Wave on one episode and made a point of getting it.

My summer has ended with the relentless playing of two songs from the upcoming new Weakerthans album. I love both of them, and I am so excited for the new disc which comes out on Sept. 25th. If these two songs are any indication whatsoever of the quality of the new album, it'll be pretty swell.

Tonight I have to try to get my night owl-self retrained to going to sleep at a decent time so I can be up at 6-ish. Yuck. I'm currently read a fabulous history book called "Sex with the Queen" that is about the royal affairs of queens/princesses through history. It's great; it's like really juicy celebrity gossip, yet educational at the same time. Anyhow, I'm going to do a bit of reading, then hopefully fall asleep at a decent time. Happy back to school.

Wake me up when September ends. Seriously.

Saturday turned out to be one of my most enjoyable days of the summer. After an unexpected awesome concert discovery, I was able to spend the afternoon hanging out with my university crowd of friends. I love my university crowd of friends. There always seems to be a rotation of who's in Toronto, and who is not, and now there are a bunch of kids in the mix, but it's always a great time.

Becca T and I actually ended up being the first to leave the party (that never happens) so that we could catch Sloan at the Ex. It had been raining, actually pouring, for most of the day, but it all cleared up just in time for Sloan. It had actually cooled down too, which lead to Ms. It-will-never-get-cold-enough-to-require-a-sweater (aka me) getting a bit chilled, but once Sloan was on, I forgot about my goosebumps. They are such a great live band. I love seeing them for free (OK - I had to pay $14 admission to the Ex, but it was totally worth it). They played a lot of my favourites, and they were stellar as usual. Did you know that they are my second favourite band? Best song was a super-fast version of HFXNSHC.

After the encore, we decided that we wanted to go on a couple of rides. We spent $10 each on tickets, or credits as they are now called, and that will buy you 2 rides. I tell ya, when I was a kid and went to the fair, you got a heck of a lot more than 2 rides for $10... Anyway, we decided on the Ferris Wheel and the Scrambler, or the Sizzler as it is now called. Lucky for us, the guys at the Sizzler let us on for free, so we got a bonus ride on the Tilt-A-Whirl. Man, I forgot how much that thing whirled.

After that really good day, I've been kicking around in Toronto working on my back-to-school wardrobe. I think I've got it completed now. Let the madness begin!

I am also sadly aware that my stellar wardrobe isn't really going to teach the kids about atoms, ions, and how to balance a chemical equation. That meant that I had to drag myself into the school today. I got some photocopying done, so I feel much better about the whole having to teach next Tuesday thing. Photocopies are my security blanket. I kid you not, but each summer I do have a nightmare about going back to school and standing in front of the class completely unprepared with no photocopies. This year I had it in July. Anyhow, at least I don't have to worry about that becoming reality.

I typically get a little anxious before a new school year. I think it is partially because I worry that my classes will be bunches of hellions, and that I kind of forget how to teach over the summer. I still am not sure how I am able to fill three 75-minute classes a day with learning. Amazingly, I seem to figure it out each year, and I'm sure this year will be no different.

Even though I've been slowly accepting the inevitability of fall, I was able to rebel a bit today. When I went to Starbucks for a well-deserved frappucino, I resisted the new Pumpkin Spice Frappucino and went with my summer Orange Mocha deliciousness. It's so not time for fall frappucinos yet!

When the walls fall down on your old town...

I've been neglecting the old blog as of late. For the past week, I've been visiting the 'rents in St. Ratford, and spending a lot of time running around and visiting people, so my dial-up internet forays have been limited to mainly email and facebook. So here is a long overdue post.

I spent an enjoyable week back home. First of all, I scored free rides there and back (woo-hoo!). I visited with quite a few friends too; I even got to catch up with a fellow colleague from my days teaching in Northern Ontario. I was quite pleased with the social aspect of my trip. I spent some time with my parents and watched some movies with them. Also, my uncle and his family from Ottawa were visiting so I got to see them too.

I caught my free ride back to Toronto yesterday, and I have an awesome day planned for today. There is a going-away party for a couple of my friends from university, since they are going to teach in Korea for a year. The party was going to be on Centre Island, but since the weather is really crappy and rainy, it's been moved to a house. Which is actually okay, because I'm feeling lazy and don't feel like taking the ferry.

This morning I got a pleasant surprise as I read the Toronto Star online with my breakfast. Sloan is playing tonight at The Ex (a really big fair that goes on for the last two weeks of summer - I hate when it starts because then I know summer's really coming to an end), and seeing them is free with admission. Woo-hoo! So, Becca T and I are going to go there after the party, catch the show, and then wander around the midway. I haven't seen Sloan since, oh goodness I can't remember - it may have been 2 years, so it's time. I really hope they play some of my faves from the new album. :)

Perhaps later in the week, I'll publish some deep thoughts or at least something more substantial. I have to admit that I'm getting a bit mopey. I'm going to have to go to school next week and start prepping for the new school year, which means using my brain, and my brain has been protesting muchly. It's much happier just reading fluffy novels, thinking about music, and staying up late to watch the Daily Show.

Just back where we belong.

Well, I'm home! Not for long though, since it looks like I can snag a free ride to St. Ratford on Saturday. This is ultra-convenient since I've not been there in a dog's age, and I was indecisive as to when I'd make the trip. I'm always happy when fate makes decisions for me.

Anyhow, my West Coast extravaganza has come to an end. Yesterday was an exhausting day of travelling from Seattle to Vancouver, and then flying from Vancouver back to Toronto. I spent today catching up on my sleep and ignoring the whole unpleasant task of unpacking and doing laundry. That'll be for tomorrow.

Yesterday while I was sitting in the Vancouver airport waiting for my plane, I took out the little notebook that I'd brought to use as a travel journal but ended up neglecting for the majority of the trip. I made a list of the highlights and
lowlights of my trip as I waited for my plane, and laughed aloud a couple of times as I was doing so, which caused an old man to give me a strange look which incidentally made me chuckle a bit more. I decided that my list would make a fabulous post-trip blog post, so here it is.

Highlights:
1) West Edmonton Mall - This is first since it's really the first thing that we did, plus I'd always wanted to go there when I was a materialistic middle schooler. It was cool.
2) Whyte Ave in Edmonton - Honestly though, I liked the shopping on this funky street in Edmonton much more than the large mall. If I was an Edmontonian, that's totally where I'd shop.
3) Seeing the Rockies for the first time



4) Dinner on Earl's Balcony in Jasper - This restaurant has the best view in Jasper. It's fun dining with the rockies as your back drop.
5) Columbia Icefield - We took the trip out to stand on the ever-shrinking Athabasca glacier outside of Jasper. It was really fun.



6) The town of Jasper - The whole place was super cute. I would compare it to those mini ceramic picturesque houses that people can buy and use to make their own cute little town.



7) Jasper to Edmonton train ride - Even though it was 17.5 hrs, it was relaxing, had some fabulous sights, and I got a good 7 hrs of sleep on the journey.
8) Vancouver Sushi - We ate a lot of sushi in Vancouver. There were three reasons for this: a) Becca T is a sushi nut; b) Vancouver sushi is super cheap (half of what it is in Toronto; and c) sushi is tasty.
9) Biking in Stanley Park - So pretty and so much fun. We were lucky to have great weather on this day.



10) Drinking in Gastown - Definitely my favourite Vancouver neighbourhood.
11) Walking around Victoria - Very pretty city.



12) Whale-watching in Victoria - It was so cold, and we only did see one whale (a grey whale), but I thought it was fun. At least we got to see some bonus sea lions and seals.



13) Renting a car and driving over the Granville St. Bridge in Vancouver
14) Walking up and down the beach in White Rock - That's the lovely little beach town to which I travelled for the wedding.



15)My roommate's wedding - Don't you love it when two lovely people get married? I'm going to miss them since I won't see as much of them.
16) Returning the car safely without having injured self, others, or the car - Did I mention that I'm a nervous driver when I'm driving in places I don't know?
17) Green Tortoise Hostel in Seattle - If you are even in Seattle, stay here. Thanks to a friend at work for this tip.



18) Seattle - I loved the Pike St. Market, visiting the first Starbucks ever, Pioneer Square, the Experience Music Project, and the Waterfront. Great city.



19) Meeting new people - I got to meet a lot of new people on this trip from coworkers of Becca T's who took us in and/or fed us, a super fun blog buddy who showed us around and was brave enough to get into a car with me behind the wheel, and random wedding guests (especially the cute boy who I talked to for most of the wedding). I had a lot of good conversations on this trip.
20) Arriving home safely

Lowlights
I made a list of lowlights not because I'm a negative complainer, but because I think the few random bad things that happened on my trip were actually rather humourous in retrospect.
1) Becca T giving me a nasty ginger candy while waiting in the Toronto airport - I can't believe she likes those things.
2) The really long probably about 5 hour wait in the tiny crappy isolated Edmonton train station. We had to wait the same length of time in Jasper, but we were downtown so we could check our bags and walk around and go for ice cream and what not.
3) Getting hit by a car in Burnaby - Yes, I was actually hit by a freaking car, but not injured in anyway. Let's just say that if you are a pedestrian, you must be very wary of Vancouver drivers. Becca T and I were crossing a street, and the light changed, and I did not see a car who decided that it should try to turn right at the same time I was in the intersection. It turned into me, and only hit my shoulder. Honestly, I felt so lucky it didn't run over my foot. I was in shock, and kind of assumed it was my fault (it totally wasn't), so I didn't react at first, but luckily there was another pedestrian who yelled at the driver. I have never been so rattled in my life. Again, I'm so lucky that I wasn't hurt. That would have ruined the trip.
4) Arrving in sketchy Seattle bus station - I did the Seattle leg of my trip by myself, and ended up taking a bus that got me into Seattle at 11 pm, and during the trip I wondered what the hell was I thinking - how safe can it be to arrive in a strange city, late at night, by yourself? When I saw the sketchiness of the Seattle bus station, I questioned my idea even more, but luckily, that bus station was the worst thing in Seattle; the rest of the city is lovely.
5) The bus trip back from Seattle to Vancouver - I scheduled a lot of time in between my arrival in Vancouver, and my flight, but I'm a worrywart, so I didn't really enjoy the trip. Well, part of that was the fact that I had to go back to the above bus station, and the fact we got held up at customs.

But when one compares the highlights to the lowlights, you can see what a really great trip I had. It's sad that it's done, but I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. :)

I am too tired to think of a title.

All right, it's been awhile since I've done any vacation blogging. I tried once when I was at the hostel in Vancouver, but I ended up having problems with the internet and got rather fed up and went to bed. Right now, I've just arrived in Seattle and I'm just waiting to check in. Everything has been fabulous so far, but this internet is also slow, and my words are appearing on the screen slower than I am thinking them, so I'm going to quit and try blogging another time. You might have to wait until I'm back in the T-dot on Wed morning for all of the details of my West Coast craziness.

Update: It's the morning now and I'm well rested and a little bit more coherent. I have an exciting day planned of Space Needles and Starbucks. I'm pretty excited. I really like the hostel I'm staying at, but that may be more because I just had waffles for breakfast than anything. Ha-ha. No, but seriously, I liked it before the waffles. The waffles just sealed the deal.

My former roommate's wedding was also fabulous. Not that I had any doubt that it would be, since the girl has always had impeccable taste (as you can no doubt tell from her taste in roommates). The funniest part of it was that I had to rent a car to drive to the wedding, which really made me super nervous, since I rarely drive, especially in areas with actual traffic in highways. I have to say though, driving over the Granville St. bridge was really really really fun, and worth the nervous spazzes that preceded me renting the car, and the ones that I had when I got lost on the way back to Vancouver from the wedding.

Anyhow, I really hear the first Starbucks calling my name, so I'll catch ya'll when I'm back in Toronto!

Just hop a train you hate to fly...

Greetings from a random internet cafe in Jasper Alberta. I'm on day 5 of my Western Canada Extravaganza vacation! Thus far, it's been really awesome. We started in Edmonton, where we spent Tuesday and Wednesday. When we arrived on Tuesday it was freaking cold, and started to rain, so we thought it would be a great day to spend at the West Edmonton Mall. I think said mall still holds the title of World's Largest. When I was in grade 6, and really into shopping, and dismayed by the lack of shopping in Stratford, I really wanted to go to the West Ed. Well, my inner grade 6 was appeased, however, 8 years of living in Toronto has left me far too accustomed to great shopping, so all in all I was meh about it. All I ended up buying was a fun belt.

The next day, we spent the whole day walking around Edmonton, and spent some time shopping on Whyte Street, which is a really picturesque little street in the older part of town. There are lots of neat stores there. We had dinner at some friends of Becca's and played karoke games on their playstation. That was fun. Then we headed out to a pub downtown.

The next morning we were up early to catch our supposed 8:50 train. We arrived at the station, and it was running 3 hrs late! Gah! Now, if we were in Toronto, or even Stratford for gosh sakes, we could have just checked our baggage, left the station and wandered around downtown. However, the train station in Edmonton is way in the middle of nowhere, so we were stuck. I found it rather ironic that we ended up probably spending just as much time in the little crappy train station as we did at the mall. Anyhow, we eventually did get to board the train, and the ride itself was pretty good. It got awesome when we arrived in the Rockies. Lots of pictures were taken.

We ended up arriving in Jasper about 5 hrs late. We checked into our B&B then headed to town for dinner. We found a restaurant with a patio overlooking the mountains, which was awesome. After dinner, we wandered around for a bit, then it was off to sleep since the next day we had to be up early for a trip to the Columbia Icefields.

The trip to the glacier was really amazing. We got to see lots of scenery, and actually go out on the glacier. It was really cool, literally, ha-ha. There were all kinds of signs showing where the glacier ended during different times, which reminded me of An Inconvient Truth.

We returned in Jasper in time for supper, did some shopping, then hit a place where martinis were $1.00 off. I love martinis!

Today our train is scheduled to leave at 3 pm, but we'll see what time that turns out to be. It's okay if it's late here, since we can spend more time in town, and I've found a coffee shop that I'm in love with. Really, I wouldn't mind if the train was late since I feel they owe me 5 more hours in Jasper. Watch it be on time. Actually, I'd rather to make it to Vancouver sometime on Sunday morning, so hopefully it's not too late.

Anyhow, I have a 17.5 hr train trip separating me from Vancouver. I'm excited for Vancouver, because I'm looking forward to biking in Stanley Park, going to many sushi places, seeing the ocean, meeting up with a blog buddy, taking the ferry to Victoria, my old roommate's wedding, and eventually making my way to Seattle. Yay!

Gone Fishing...

Well, not really. I've fished once and it was a horrible experience.

I'm leaving for the airport in less than 5 hours and I'm not quite yet done packing. I'm sure that I will be blogging from the road, so I'll catch ya then. :)

Edit: It's now 1:34am, and I'm more or less packed, except for my toothbrush and other stuff that I will need. We're leaving for the airport at 5 am, which means I need to get out of bed at about 4 am, which means tonight's sleep will be more of a nap than anything. I'm kind of hyper right now, so I figured I'd see if I could use my computer as a sedative.

I was able to download the new Matt Good album from iTunes shortly after midnight, so I'll have that for my travels.

The itinerary is Edmonton/Jasper/Vancouver/Victoria/back to Van/White Rock (wedding)/Seattle. I'm excited. We're taking the train from Edmonton to Vancouver (stopping in Jasper) and I'm excited because I'm a bit of a train geek and excited to be taking the train somewhere other than St. Ratford. I really do enjoy trains, and the one through the Rockies is supposed to be beautiful. And did I mention that 8+ years of frequent train travel has earned me the trip for free? Woo-hoo.

All right, I'm going to try to have that nap. Catch ya somewhere northwest of where I usually type from. :)

Or will you spend your life in the cinema?

I'm just back from seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. (And you thought things were going to get less Harry Potter around here since I finished the book.) It's my favourite Harry Potter movie hands down. I loved it. I think it's because I am quite partial to that book because I think young Harry's got the makings of a fine educator. Even they changed some details, and left a few things out, I think it was a fine adaptation and I can't wait for #6. Oh man, the stuff that'll go down in #6 will be crazy.

Anyhow, I'm coming to the close of my first week of real vacation (i.e. no course). It's been swell. I'm totally finished unpacking, and I've got all of my stuff up on the walls, so my apartment is feeling quite like home now. All I need is a coffee table. I'm using a large blue Rubbermaid container as a makeshift coffee table right now. It's actually making me quite nostalgic for the old apartment because the very same container was used as a coffee table before my roommate got one.

One thing I really do miss about having a roommate is having someone to show stuff to when you come home from shopping. One thing I find dangerous about summer vacay in Toronto, is that I have a lot of free time, and I like to go for walks in my free time, and it means that I invariably end up shopping. Now, a solution for this problem would be to leave all forms of payment at home, but unfortunately, I end up actually having to go shopping for a specific item, and leaving with a few extras. Today's task was to buy a sweater to go with the dress I'm wearing my old roommate's wedding, and I ended up with that, a new T-shirt ($7!) and two pairs of shoes. In my defense, the shoes were super on sale, and will be really good for work once I have to bite that bullet. Anyhow, earlier in the week, when I accidentally bought a different super-cute shirt (damn these summer sales!), I got said shirt home and wasn't sure if I liked it anymore. So, I used the self-timer on my handy camera, took a pic, and sent it to some friends who assured me it was indeed cute. Technology is great, eh?

Okay, tomorrow I have to go shopping again, this time for a wedding present for my old roommate. Which brings me to the topic of my trip out west, which is coming upon me really fast. I leave on Tuesday! And, I'm starting to think about all kinds of last minute details that I need to iron out soon. Thank goodness I have this weekend.

Anyhow, it's late so I should go to bed. I need to get up early tomorrow since I have a bajillion errands to run. Hope you all have excellent Fridays!

I've been under the ground, eating prayers from this old book I found.

Well, I finished it. One kind of wants to slowly read a book that they've been waiting 2 years for, but when it's very good, the idea of slowly relishing it goes out the window.

Side note: one thing I learned from this volume of HP is that Harry was born in the same year as I was. There's a scene where he goes to his parents' grave, and their death date is Oct. 31st, 1981. Since they were killed when he was 1, I did the math, and yeesh, if I'd been a fictional girl in Great Britian, I would have been in Harry's class. Freakin' hell, I would have been Hermione, since like to think I have her brains, her righteousness, and yes, her tendency for know-it-all-ism. To top it off, I'm Muggle-born.

Anyhow, I'd give the book, nay the entire series, about a million stars out of ten. Best. Heptology. Of. Books. Ever. (Thanks Jon Stewart for the word heptology.)

Well, I'll come down from my HP-induced state of euphoria since those of you who aren't into the heptology (shame!) are getting bored, and those of you who are into the series are getting sore necks from nodding in agreement with me. Basically, this whole Harry Potter phenomenon has re-affirmed my hypothesis of happiness.

Basically, I think happiness lies in enjoyment of the little things in life. I am a generally happy person, not because I have an amazing life; I mean, my life's pretty swell but there are aspects of it that I could dwell upon and act grimly about, but I find my overall cheery demeanor comes from the fact I get true joy out of little things like:
a) the final volume in a popular children's heptology
b) the use of a weird word like heptology
c) concert tickets
d) new albums
e) frappucinos
f) movie dates with friends
g) sleeping in on Mondays
h) trips with friends
i) shiny objects
j) hilarious TV shows
and I could go on. (Okay, I kid about letter i, but I got a small amount of joy out of making that joke even if it's little cornball. The little cornball reference reaffirms my enjoyment of letter j. )

So, I say to all of you, find some little thing to be happy about on this Monday. :)

That what's mistaken for closeness is just a case of mitosis...

Holy long time without a post Batman. I'd like to say that I've been busy unpacking the remaining boxes that are littering the floor of my new digs, but you can just tell by the construction of this sentence that's not the case. I suppose the knowledge that there is still a lot of time left of summer vacay promotes procrastination.

Today was the last day of my course - woo-hoo! Yay for that being over. Although, I did enjoy the people in my class; you get a little bit close to people when you're stuck together in a windowless classroom for three weeks during your summer vacay and you're forced to discuss a wide range of controversial topics. We went for some drinks after today's class; ya gotta love sitting on a rooftop patio drinking beer on a Friday in the summer. I just slept off the effects of my beer; I hate to say I'm becoming a bit of a lightweight.

Tonight, of course, is the release of the seventh of last Harry Potter book. I got into the Harry Potter series during Christmas of 2000. Basically, I wanted to see what the fuss was about, so I asked for the first book for Christmas. Well, I got hooked and here I am today waiting for the clock to strike 12:01 am so that I can get my hands on the very last book. It's totally going to occupy me until I'm finished, and I might just read it for a second time after that.

In other news, I'm digging the Andrew Bird album "Armchair Apocrypha". I dig that there's a song that actually contains the word mitosis. Continuing with music news, I got tickets to see Damien Rice at the beginning of September. Today I found out that Ben Lee is releasing a new album on Sept 18th. Yay!

Hmmm, not much else to say for the day. Oh yeah, happy bday to Wes, one of my fave bloggers. :)

Today, today is gonna be a better one.

Quick post - I should be in bed right now, or at least finishing my homework assignment for my course (5 days left!). Or making my lunch, but I've been wasting a little time online since I found out that my internet is working a day early. :)

Anyhow, the move went well - it took longer than I anticipated, and it rained a bit, but those were the only dilemmas. Oh, I had a minor panic attack when I thought a box of my CDs went missing (I'd mislabelled said box "books", because I shoved a couple of books in there, and therefore thought it was a box of books, hence the mislabelling.) After finding the box of CDs, one of my kind St. Ratford pals who came down for the move, put some of them in my CD holder, which toppled over not once, but twice, luckily not taking anyone out, but damaging a few CD cases. It apparently is not as steady on carpet as it was on hardwood. I think I've remedied the situation, but I think it would be rather ironic if I was hurt by my beloved CD collection.

After completing the move, we went on a break-neck Ikea trip, where I dropped a lot cash. The cashier actually asked me "are you ready?" before giving me the total, which turned out less worse than I'd anticipated, mainly because they were out of the coffee table that I wanted, and I was too indecisive to pick out a dresser quite yet.

Post-Ikea trip, we went to dinner at a really good Middle-Eastern restaurant in my old neighbourhood, which isn't too far from the new neightbourhood anyway. Then, one of my friends went home, while my other friend, who was staying overnight, declared that she wanted to get drunk because she typically is stuck driving, so we found a pub, and stayed out quite late. After last call, we stopped at a 24-hr grocery store for cake, and then stayed up pretty late. So my first sleep in my new place was a short one.

Today was spent getting odds and ends for the place, going for a long shopping excursion downtown, putting up curtains and some of my new furniture. I've unpacked a lot of my boxes, and now all of the empty ones are an eyesore on my living room floor. That will be something I can tackle tomorrow after class. (Did I mention 5 more days?)

I also called my old roommate to see how she was doing. She is going to keep the old apartment, and her fiance has started to move in his stuff. On Tuesday, I'm going by there to thoroughly clean my old room and bathroom, and then we'll have dinner. It's cool having my own apartment for the first time in my life, but when you have a roommate that you get along with really well for 2.75 years, it's really bittersweet to move on and out.

Take me take me to the riot....

Well, I'm thinking this will be my last blog post written here on the 27th floor. The move is on Saturday afternoon. I got a lot of packing done this weekend, but I've been slacking these past three days, so tomorrow and Friday will be busy; hence no blogging will be done. The internet will be working at my new place as of Monday, so I'll update you about the move and the new place then (while I'm most likely waiting for the cable guy).

Anyhow, as of today 7/14 days of my class are finished! Woo-hoo! There are 4 different units in the course and a different instructor per unit. Anyway, we are now done two of the units, and I think the 2nd set will be more interesting. I think the course is on an upswing... I hope...

Yesterday I found out that Stars released their new album 4 days after completion on iTunes. The physical CD won't be out 'til Sept 25th (coincidentally the same day as the new Weakerthans album). Anyhow, I had to get it right away and it is excellent. Yay!

Well, I think this will be a concise wrap-up of my blogging from this apartment. Catch you on Monday from the 4th floor of a much smaller building that is about a 20 minute walk northeast of here.

With your summer hat and smile, you came here to leave there.

You learn a lot about yourself in the midst of packing. I've learned:
a) I own a lot of Tshirts that I forgot about.
b) I save shopping bags for some reason.
c) I save shoe boxes.
d) I have a box of stuff that I haven't unpacked since I moved here. I've decided to not touch and bring it to my new place, where I'm sure it will remain packed up.
e) I have too much junk. I'm trying to get rid of it, but I get sentimentally attached to the stupidest things. Luckily I have shoeboxes to shove that stuff into.
f) I have a bad habit of holding on to mail. I'll just shove it into a shoe box or shopping bag and leave it. I've been shredding stuff from 2004!
g) I really should dust more often.
h) I have a lot of socks.
i) I've thrown out enough old lip glosses to, ummm, hmmm, it's hard to come up with an analogy for that, but let's just say it's a lot of old lip glosses.
j) I love Lifesavers story books, but I never eat them. I just gave my roommate's fiance enough Lifesavers to last an eon.

Anyhow, I pledge to become a better-organized, neater, tidier, less materialistic, less pack-rat-ish individual when I move into my new apartment. I'm sure if there are any neatfreaks reading this, I've given you a heart attack with some of my descriptions.

I'm onto season 3 of Arrested Development during my packing downtime.

I accidentally flagged my own blog for objectionable content. Has anyone done that before? That button is quite easy to accidentally click. Yeesh.

I have a homework assignment to do tonight. Boo!! And, had to break down and buy printer ink so I could print out said assignment. That was an expense I could have done without.

I know it's real slow, honey...

2 days of my course done, 12 more to go.

I laugh at the ridiculousness of *me* having to sit in a student in a desk in a high school classroom. Although, it's strange how one can morph back into student mode very easily. Yesterday, I showed up to the first day, only carrying a pen and a little notebook in my bag; there were some people with neatly organized binders with actualy dividers. I tend to be like that when it comes to my actual school work; but since taking this course is a contractual obligation, I decided that my act of rebellion would be to be a little disorganized and shove my papers into my bag just like some of my own students do. Heck, at the very least, I felt that I was representing my school with flair.

Anyway, today at lunch I broke down and bought a folder for my papers at Grand & Toy. I couldn't hack the disorganization anymore; but still, at least I'm not one of the people who has a binder with dividers.

After the irony of me sitting in a desk wore off, I was surprised at how easily I morphed into student mode and how comfortable the familiar position felt. I listened most of the time, but my mind did wander and when it did, I made up math problems for myself to solve. I wish I had a cooler talent like drawing, but no, that's what I was given.

I was lucky enough to sit behind the class clown. Even in a room full of teachers, there's one. He teased me for being a keener and highlighting what I read; it's really not a strategy to enhance my learning; I've always done it to stay awake when I'm reading something that I'm forced to read. Then we noticed that our intructor had left the room, and everyone was still quietly reading, and then had a good laugh picturing what would happen if we left our classes in the same manner. Reading is the last thing they'd be doing.

Being a student in a classroom setting made me wonder how I was able to hack being a student for 18 years. I think it helped that from grade 11 on, I more or less took stuff I was interested in (math and science) and that I wasn't in the same windowless room for 6 hrs a day. Yeesh.

After class, I had a productive evening scrounging up some boxes, and adhering to the packing schedule that I made myself yesterday while half-listening to the introductory material in class. Today was clearing out my bathroom day. I have an unfortunate condition that I will call BPADD - Beauty Product Attention Deficit Disorder. I'll by a new shampoo, conditioner, eyeshadow, moisturizer, what have you, use it a few times, and then awhile later I'll go shopping and find a new product. The old product will be shoved under my sink, and I'll try the product. A lot of half finished bottles of product were chucked today. When I move, I'm going to put myself on a strict cosmetic diet - I'm not allowed to buy anything new 'til I finish what I have. Yeesh.

Aside - I have the sweetest friends. One of my fave coworkers went to school today, and noticed a that a shipment of paper had come in for summer school, so she unpacked it for them and then brought me a bunch of boxes. I'm so lucky.

Okay, bed time. I'm going to try to be super attentive in class tomorrow.

At 3 am, they play O Canada... True patriot love a la la la la.

Goodness! It's 11:27 pm and I almost did not do my Canada Day tradition: listen to the song "True Patriot Love" by the Joel Plaskett Emergency. Rest assured, I have righted my wrong just in time, and I'm listening to it now, and I'll listen to it a couple of times, just to be safe.

I've been having a pretty low-key long weekend. I spent Friday recovering from Thursday, pre-ordering my Harry Potter book, and getting a stack of books from the library.

On Saturday, I met up with a couple of friends for sushi, followed by a beer on a patio, and a bit of shopping.

I also picked up season 2 of Arrested Development and have been watching that. I never was into that show when it was on tv, but I had a friend lend season 1 to me awhile ago and I've watched that season twice. I like the show so much that I figure I'll just break down and buy the other two seasons instead of waiting to have them lent to me. Then I'll have to of course get season one as well, so that I will have the complete series.

This morning I went to pick up the keys to my new apartment! It looks great! They remodelled the entire kitchen for me and it looks beautiful. I'm excited to move in; however I'll miss this apartment, my roommate, the balcony, and the view, though not necessarily in that order. My roommate is #1, of course. Today we discussed the necessity of going out for an end-of-successful-living-arrangement dinner sometime before I get too busy packing.

This evening I took advantage of the view by watching Canada Day fireworks across the city from my bedroom window. Have I mentioned that I'll miss this view? ;)

I'm also obsessed with listening to the stream of the new Matt Good album "Hospital Music". It's amazing. I love every song. Yay!

Hope you all had wonderful Canada Days. :)