So I think it's time for us to have a toast.

It was an okay weekend.  I socialized a bit, binged on Kimmy Schmidt a bit, and did some work.

I have one more big deadline on April 30th, and then my month of craziness of work will end, and I really want to take May easy and spend some time on self-care: spa appointments, getting myself reacquainted with the gym, eating healthy, etc.

I've been thinking a lot about the summer and my summer goals.  Usually I travel a lot in the summer.  Heck, I've had summers where I spend more days away than here.

This summer I have couple of small trips planned: a baseball road trip to Detroit to see the Jays vs. Tigers with my baseball buddies, and Las Vegas to meet up with my friends Claire and Mariah Carey.

However, I'm thinking I'm not going to do much other than that.  There is some labour unrest for Ontario teachers these days; my union is actually in strike position.  It would be prudent to be careful with my cash these days.  More importantly, I want some time to work on the following during the summer:

• get my bike fixed so I can ride it to the gym;
• spend my mornings in the gym getting back to strength-training, running, and yoga;
• drink lots of coffee;
• eat healthy and cook for myself;
• read lots of books;
• do some nerdy cross-stitch;
• write letters and postcards to friends afar;
• watch baseball;
• declutter my home and deal with the clothing situation

Of course, there's always the possibility that I'll pack my bags and go to somewhere random.  However, I feel the summer of 2015 might just be where I press a giant reset button on life and work on me.

Avalanche.

The gods of iTunes shuffle have put the Matt Good song Avalanche on and I forgot how much I love it.  I might just have to put it on repeat as I write.

Anyway, it's been a busy few days.  I think I've finally recovered from the at-school sleepover.  It was worth it though, as the kids had a great time.  Today one of the grade nines came up to me and told me how much fun she had and how she was going to do it again.  It was all worth it.

On Tuesday I took the Eco Club to the Science Centre for our annual trip. It was great and a nice break from being at school.

Every year at this time I get invited to an event that our school participates in.  Students get mentored in guitar by local police officers, and then one kid per school is chosen to play in a big showcase at a concert venue (one I go to for real shows!).  Anyway, it always seems to be a kid who knows me well enough to ask me to come watch and I do.  It's actually pretty fun, although this year I went by myself since my regular teacher pal who goes with me is on a leave.  Heck, anything that gets me out on a school night is a good time.  My student is a great guitar player too!

Other than the constant avalanche of work these days (I'm having a marking/planning weekend), stuff is good.  It's baseball season, and I finally got to meet up with my blog pal Aaron of The Void this Sunday at the game!

And that's the end of my update.

Taking a moment.

Right now the fasting-for-charity teenagers are happily sewing sock monkeys and drinking juice. Some colleagues of mine were kind enough to stop by and help out, so instead of making a monkey for the fifth time, I've come outside to enjoy sunshine, fresh air, and solitude.

I'm sitting in the city park across the street from my school. I can see my classroom window, and think fondly about how the room is quiet for the weekend, but it'll be back to normal by Monday. 

I've given ten working years to this place, and even though some days it frustrates the hell out of me, I'm glad that I've come to think of this quirky little building as my home.

Overload

As far as weekends go, this one was quiet.  There was some drinks, some brunch, and a few errands, and happily I did not open my backpack to do any marking.

Now it's on to a super busy week.  Report cards are due on Thuraday and I'm frantically trying to get a few more sets of assignments marked in time.  Tonight I got a major set of lab reports marked while watching the baseball game, so that feels like an accomplishment.

Last night I went to the Jays' home opener.  No marking got done.  They lost.

Oh and I have a houseguest.  My pal Vern got a job in the city and needed a place to stay this week.

And Friday is a big student council event where kids fast for charity and sleep overnight at school. I sleep there too.

Is it summer yet?

Baseball

Thank goodness the season started.  I'm going to make a bold statement here.  I like watching baseball more than I like watching Netflix.

Home opener is on Monday.  I'll be there.  Next Sunday is Jose Bautista bobblehead day.  I'll be there.

The Jays took 2/3 of their first series at Yankee Stadium which is significant, since Yankee Stadium is their Achilles heel.  Last year they broke a something like 19 game losing streak there.  Damned Yankees.

I like how this season is starting.  2 HRs so far for my man EE.

Also myself from two years ago is in shock how die hard into baseball my current self is.

Long Weekend

I had a rather chill long weekend.  The pile of marking I lugged home from school, and then all the way to Stratford and back, has barely a dent in it.  Oh well.

Things I did, in point form:

• Started watching The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix, which is hilarious and amazing.
• Did a little bit of shopping in Stratford where I splurged on a new Jays' hat.
• Watched four movies with my parents (Gone Girl, St. Vincent, The Theory of Everything, Maleficent).  I crafted a cute little cross-stitch fox as I watched.  I want to craft more while I watch things.
• Got a little bit of exercise in. 
• Caught up on sleep.
• Watched the Jays' exhibition games in Montreal.
• Watched Jays vs NYY opening day game which was amazing.  We won 6-1.  Please be representative of the season.

And that was my chill long weekend.

Reading habits as of late.

I've been quite bookish so far this year.  Sometimes, life will get ahead of me, and I'll go a few weeks without finishing a book.  However, thanks to a bit of down time during March Break and my current obsession with getting ebooks from the Toronto Public library, I've been reading quite a lot lately following a dry spell in late February/early March.

This year, I've seemed to solely read fiction with a focus on mystery/thrillers for the most part. During the school year, I crave escapism in my literary adventures, and I've found that my favourite escape these days is in a good mystery/thriller that also has an interesting theme and/or plot twist.

I've also noticed that as I have all of my life, I read a majority of books written by women.  I can go on and on about sexism in the literary world.  I closely follow writer Jennifer Weiner on Twitter because I like her books and her super hilarious tweets about The Bachelor.  However, I'm come to appreciate her also for being vocal about how books written by men are reviewed much more frequently than books written by women.  Books written by male authors, such as Jonathan Franzen and Jeffery Eugenides, that are about "women-centric" subjects like relationships and family are widely praised and reviewed, whereas similar books written by women are often belittled as "chick-lit".  Lori Lansens wrote an excellent novel called "The Girls" which is a fascinating story of the lives of conjoined twins.  I was dismayed when the paperback edition of this novel was slapped with a bright pink flowered covered that would scare off most men from reading this worthy story.  Of course, the fact that the colour pink is feared by men is another way in which the feminine is looked down upon in our society but that's another rant.

Anyhow, the point of this is that with entrenched sexism in literature, I don't really feel that bad about my very skewed reading habits.  However, I read an article somewhere earlier in the year (probably on Buzzfeed, I'm sure) about how a great new year's resolution would be to read more books by diverse authors since it's important to read stories about people who are underrepresented like women of colour, other ethnicities, and authors from the LGBTQ community; not to mention how important it is to support these authors so that there is more diversity in what gets published.

Anyhow, I have read a couple of amazing books in the past few months that are notable.  I love Roxane Gay's collection of essays "Bad Feminist" and her novel "An Untamed State" was excellent although brutal and graphic (not a light read). Celeste Ng's "Everything I Never Told You" because not only is it a fascinating look at an Asian American family and the prejudice faced by this community (which is entirely underrepresented in all forms of media), it's kind of a murder mystery!

This year I also want to read novels by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Helen Oyeyemi.  Are there any other books/authors that you'd recommend that would help me in my goal about increasing the diversity in my reading?

I, I do it all the time.

Today as I was marking with a friend/colleague in my local Starbucks I said "You know, I'm more on top of this marking stuff than I was last year.  That's good news."

It's true, I am.  I am teaching the same course that I did exactly a year ago, and it provides a good benchmark for me.  For example, a lab report that I was frantically marking on the plane back from France for March Break last year, was marked way before March Break this year.

Then I paused to think.  "However, I am completely losing the work/life balance battle this year, so I guess I'm not that good."

Last year I was in tip top physical condition, and training for a half marathon.  Today's exercise was walking to Starbucks to mark.  I had a backpack on though, so extra weight, ha-ha!

Basically, I think I can win one or the other: life or work.  Last year I was winning life, but I know I was more stressed with work.  This year I'm winning work, but I'm way more stressed about life.

HOW CAN I WIN BOTH?

That's the million dollar question that I'm going to be trying to crack ASAP.

A Decade.

It's March 23rd, 2015.  This means that I've had this blog for a decade.  Ten entire years.  Holy shit. (I've even set the date and time of this posted so it posts EXACTLY ten years from my first post. Details, that's how I roll.)

I've been composing this post in my head for quite awhile, since one of my many good blog friends reminded me that my decade blogoversary was approaching.  (FYI a traditional ten-year anniversary gift, according to Hallmark, is tin or aluminum.)

I started this blog on a complete whim.  2005, as all of my longtime blog friends will attest, because they most likely started their blogs in that year too, was the golden age of blogging.  I spent a lot of time reading musician Matthew Good's blog back then, and when he started linking to fans' blogs on his, I decided I should start a blog, and when it got good, I would send him the link.  He stopped that linking practice long before I ever would have considered sending him the link to this blog.

Heck, I never even came up with a title for this thing.  That's what "Permanent Title Currently Under Construction" means.  When I had a to fill in a blog title, I blanked, typed that in, with the good intention of thinking of something clever that describes the content of this blog, whatever that would be.

Ten years later, I can comfortably say that the content of this blog is me.

I don't think I ever thought anything would really become of this blog.  Sure, there are some bloggers that have found internet fame, or even book deals from their blogs, but that's the equivalent of a Little Leaguer making it to the big leagues.  However, I can honestly say that this blog did change the course of my life.

I know that if I'd never started this blog there are so many people I would not have met, trips that I would never have taken, friendships never forged, connections never made, bridal squads that would have been minus their token Canadian member, concerts not attended, postcards never sent, and memories never made.

I have friendships that have almost lasted just as long as this blog.  My blog friends live across the country, in other countries, and across oceans but some of those friendships are concrete as anything in my own city.  Heck, it really helps because if a girl can't sleep because she's going through a nasty breakup, she's got friends in all timezones to hear about her heartbreak and make her feel better.

I've got travel buddies who will host me in their city, come visit me in my city, or we'll just meet up in some other random city.

Most of my blogging friends stopped their blogs long ago.  Some of us hang on, and usually for the same reason, and the very reason why I keep hanging on.  I've never been able to keep a journal, or any sort of record of my life, but for some reason I've been able to use this medium to write about me for ten whole years.

After all this time, I have a cool journal, and I've met people that have become my dear friends.  I am so thankful for this.

I'm going to end this post with a picture of me.  Back in 2005, I was adamant that I would never post a picture of myself on this blog because what if someone came across it and knew it was mine?  I used to send early blog buddies emails with pictures if they wondered what I looked like.  Anyway, here's a recent selfie (hah! a word that didn't exist in 2005) that I like.  I'm in my classroom, in front of the chalkboard, wearing my green cat hoodie.  The lighting is good and I liked how it turned out, so here I am.

Decade #1 out.  Here's to decade #2.

Nowhere We Cannot Go

This is my favourite song these days.  I'm very excited for the new Hayden album to come out next week.  I enjoy when I see an artist live a few times before an album's release.  It means I already know a few songs and have some special memories linked to them.

My Vancouver March Break trip definitely created some new memories for me, as well as evoked lots of fun memories from the past.  This was my third trip to Vancouver.  I saw some new places (The Art Gallery, Main Street, new restaurants, Becca T's new hood in Kits), but also revisited old places with the people with whom I'd first discovered them.

 I really enjoyed then Art Gallery, especially the exhibit on Chinese contemporary art, which had an amazing piece by Ai Wei Wei.  Another trip high light was a visit to a Hammam spa with Becca.  It was incredibly relaxing.  I enjoyed all of the shopping, walking, drinking, and chatting that I got to do with friends too.  I definitely feel relaxed upon return, even if my internal clock isn't quite back to Eastern time.

Yesterday was my first day back in Toronto.  I was lazy for the most part, but went for a lovely dinner, walk, and browse around the Eaton Centre with my pal Elaine.

I was on the hunt for the new Joel Plaskett album on vinyl, which I didn't find because it isn't on vinyl.  Too bad.  I got it when I came home, and also finally got the new Dan Mangan + Blacksmith album which I enjoy more now that I've seen it live a couple of times.

Today I'm going to pick up Rilo from my parents' house.  That truly does mean the end of the vacation.

West Coast

It's been a busy but relaxing trip so far.  I can't believe that I'm on my last day in Vancouver.

The first two days were super busy.  My flight here was really early in the morning, which meant that I had a super full day with only four hours' sleep and jet lag.  Probably the highlight of my first, busy day, other than seeing and catching up with friends, was the Hayden/Dan Mangan show at the Vogue Theatre.  It was definitely a show worth seeing in two cities.

Sunday morning was an early start to catch the ferry over to Victoria.  It was a lovely day of shopping in the rain despite the fact that I was exhausted.

This week I've had lots of lazy mornings, and time exploring the city.  I'm feeling relaxed and refreshed but not ready to go back that's for sure.  When I get home late tomorrow night it'll mean my break is almost over and it'll be back to the grind so soon.

Thankful

Today I realized how incredibly lucky I am.

I am pretty much booked solid for two weeks. I've made the effort to schedule in dinners with friends that I haven't seen in awhile, new friends, and I leave for Vancouver shortly.

At least one nice thing happens to me every day.  I think I'm up to four today.

I can maintain friendships that have started in the most random way possible (blogging) for spans of time that are approaching a decade.

I've traveled.  I'll travel some more.  Always with the travel.

I like my job.

I challenge my brain.

I read a lot.

I have a soundtrack for my life.

I love my little family and have a really nice cat.

I feel down sometimes, and I forget about all this stuff, but it's really nice when somehow my brain turns its spotlight on and I see it all.

Lent

My mother would always make me give up something for Lent.  I have memories of being a kid diligently abstaining from chocolate, pop, or French fries.  It was always a huge challenge, but I'd feel proud at the end when I got to eat whatever it was I gave up on Easter Sunday.  I remember the year that I gave up fries and my mom took me to McDonald's for Easter lunch.

A challenge of willpower is usually a good thing, I think.  I've often tried to give something up for Lent as an adult for the heck of it.  One year I gave up celebrity gossip, which was super challenging and good for my brain.  However, I usually do give up something edible, and since March Break falls during Lent, I haven't attempted to give anything up for a few years.

This year, I've so far given up fries, potato chips, and beer.  I've been drinking a lot of wine as a result! Haha.  Anyhow, I think beer's not going to last on the list much longer.  I have a couple of outings where I'm meeting new people, and beer's the perfect drink for such occasions.  Sugary cocktails upset my stomach, I ruined white wine for myself a long time ago, and I love red wine but I hate how it stains my teeth, tongue, and lips.  I need beer to deal with new people!

So perhaps I have given up beer with old friends for Lent.

ps So far I've made it with the fries. I guess I'll have to hit up the drive-thru on Easter Sunday for old time's sake.

I had an accident with a potato chip where a colleague had a bag open on her desk and I reached over, grabbed one, ate it, and then exclaimed "oh shit! I ate a chip! I gave those up for Lent!"

Random list of things I love these days.

1) Broadchurch - binged on series one last weekend, series two this weekend.  Now what, life?  I have a hard time transitioning from one TV show/book to the next.

2) Hayden - saw the man live last night and can't wait for his new album to come out at the end of March

3) Birthday parties at lunch - my group of friends at work have a lot of birthdays in February, which means that we actually make time to celebrate at lunch and eat cake

4) Reality TV shame night on Mondays - a guilty pleasure is a good way to start the week.

5) Longer days - the sun sets at a noticeable later time.

6) Lemonade - so refreshing!

February always finds you folding.

This February has been bitterly cold. An abnormally high percentage of Lake Ontario has frozen over, and it is unsurprising given the high snow banks, wind chills, and extreme cold alerts.

My skin has never been this dry, nor my lips as chapped. It's truly the winter of my discontent.

I am doing my best to avoid my tendency to hibernate.  Today, instead of coming home from work straightaway, I ran some errands and then worked for two hours at my local Starbucks as opposed to hunkering down on my sofa to bone up on mechanisms of cellular transport, you know, sodium-potassium pumps and the like.

My workload feels infinite.  It's not out of control (yet) but there's always more to do, and more that can be done.  I feel like I'm going to spend all day on Sunday in Starbucks marking lab reports, woo-hoo.

However, I do have some fun things planned this weekend like dinners with friends and a Hayden/Dan Mangan concert as Massey Hall.

This last weekend I binged on season one of Broadchurch.  Has anyone watched that?  Amazing!  I also watched an episode of the Welsh program Hinterland which is delightfully dark, and I totally have a crush on the lead detective.  Both these shows are about murder, and I also watched Dateline NBC with my pal Mathew on Saturday, so I might be murdered out, I don't know.

Cold, dark, winter.  That sums up February.

Take the weakest thing in you and beat the bastards with it.

It's been a cold few days I tell you.

There was a freak power outage on Friday at the museum so we actually got kicked out at noon.  One of the employees commented it was only the second time the ROM had closed in his 20-year career.  It was too bad since the afternoon was the part that I was looking forward to the most: walking around the exhibits.  Oh well, the power in the rest of the neighbourhood was still working so I treated myself to Starbucks and browsed a bookstore.  I picked up a new book for me and a third baseball preview magazine for my dad.

Night two of Hey Rosetta! and Stars was amazing.  For night one, we had balcony seats (a good school night option) but with our GA tickets night two, we made it to the very front which was amazing.  Stars is in my top three favourite bands, and is my go-to when I need to cheer up and they are just such an amazing and gracious band.

On Saturday, I took the train to Stratford and hibernated in the cold reading books with my parents.  Same with most of my birthday until I ventured out for drinks and dinner with friends.  That was fun and I made it back home to watch most of SNL40 with my parents which I really enjoyed.

There were mechanical issues with my train on Monday, but luckily they figured that out in advance and there was a bus in place of the train which got me home mostly in time.  Again, with the cold on Monday, I hibernated, spent time with Rilo, and caught up on my most awful guilty TV pleasure (The Bachelor, of course).

Today was back to the old grind and it was a nice day. I have really nice classes yet again.  My friends surprised me with a tea party in the drama department prop room and it was lovely with real teacups, cucumber sandwiches with no crusts, and tiered-platters of baked goods.  I really have great friends.

And even if I was being mopey for some of the weekend because I've hit the midpoint of my thirties, I think this birthday taught me that birthdays aren't about getting older, but just a necessary reminder of one's awesomeness by our loved ones, which is something that we all need, especially in these long winter months.

p.s. FYI, you are awesome, my reader friends. Trust me on that.

No One Is Lost

It's as cold as fuck out there.

Tonight I got to see two amazing bands (Hey Rosetta!, Stars) play at a great venue (The Danforth Music Hall).  Tomorrow night I'm going back to do it all again.

Today some kids threw me a mini surprise birthday party after school.  I think I wasted my wish as I blew out my candles; I definitely should have wished for something more substantial during such a special moment.

Tomorrow I get to spend a PD day at the museum.

On Saturday I'm heading down to St Ratford to visit my parents for the long weekend.

On Sunday I turn 35. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I was feeling morose earlier, but then the concert put it into perspective for me.  Life is pretty good; I've got a lot of people who think I'm awesome, even though I sometimes don't.   I should listen to the Stars song more about holding on when you get love and letting go when you give it.

But, ugh, it's going to be cold as fuck on Sunday.

Rewind

I've started teaching a course that I've never taught at all, save for dabbling in a few units during my practice teaching in 2003.  That was a long time ago, I tell you.

I've taught the same set of nine or so courses for about ten years now.  The science curriculum has gone through an overhaul in that time with units flipping around and the addition of new topics I personally knew very little about (light and optics anyone?).  I always change my styles and my methods, and I love adding new activities and keeping my courses current.  However, I've felt quite comfy for the longest time, and enjoy knowing my shit.

But this new course: the most advanced high school biology one can teach.  Should really be no problem for me: I have a specialist degree in biology, and I graduated with some awards on top of it.  I know, okay, I knew, my shit.

But, argh, time.  I wish the fates would have brought me this course at the beginning of my career.  It would have been easier back then, I think.  My skillset has changed in a decade. Bring me students who are unmotivated, and/or struggle with reading, writing, behaviour, are new to Canada, etc. and I'm rather good at getting them to learn, and hopefully like science.  Those skills took a long time to build, but aren't so useful at the moment.

Now I feel that it's me versus the content.  I have get back with biochemistry, biochemical pathways, metabolic processes, DNA replication, protein synthesis, homeostasis, and population dynamics.  I find I have to take notes before I teach, and I have to look at these notes while I teach, which I have not done in years. As I go through my lesson, I have to predict the times at which my students will ask "why?" and make sure I know the answer.

It's a good challenge, and my brain is happy with the challenge, and I do feel like I'm tapping into a dormant part of myself. Dammit, I think I missed some of these molecules, proteins, and enzymes that I was oh-so-familiar with.  I've already found a great series of videos on YouTube to enhance my lessons with, and booked a cool trip for my class where they'll get to DNA fingerprinting using PCR methodology.

But dammit, I do feel a little nervous when I'm up there, which I haven't felt in years! It's weird.  I feel like a fraud with an expired degree but I'm doing my best to renew it, but it's keeping me on my toes.  A decade is a long time.

Hibernation, Cross-Border Shopping, Superbowl, and Snowmagddon

It's been a busy long weekend of sorts for me.

I worked really hard last week to get all of my exams marked, semester one wrapped up, and stuff ready for semester two, so that I could work from home on Friday.  This was great.  I didn't leave my house at all that day.

On Saturday, even though our dollar is low, a couple of friends and I went cross border shopping in Buffalo.  I didn't buy very much, other than a bunch of groceries at Trader Joe's.  The highlight was going to a diner called Grover's, which was apparently features on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and had the most insane ginormous burgers ever.  I think I am still full.

Sunday ended up being a rather fun day.  I ended up going for drinks with the same person both before and after the Superbowl, and during the game I ran some errands, but did take time to watch Katy Perry's sharktastic performance.  I have to admit that I might be suffering from a slight hangover today, and I'm super tired, but that's okay.

Today is the start of a new semester, but it's a bit of a fizzle.  We got a lot of snow overnight, and it was still coming down this morning.   My commute to work was awful, and I got in a couple minutes late which didn't matter because classes did not start on time.  When they did start, they were half empty, so I ended up having a light watered-down day one since I didn't want to do anything too important that I'd just have to repeat tomorrow.  I'd love to go home early today, but I have a meeting after school, so I am procrastinating and drinking tea instead.

March Break Booked!

In typical Christielli-fashion, it was a concert that was the impetus for me to actually plan something.

I had been planning to use my March Break to visit all of my pals in Vancouver: Becca T, Wes, & Rawbean (and I'm also hoping to make it to Victoria to see Jabba).  I was dawdling because well, I didn't want to think about the cost of a flight etc etc.

Then today, my #1 crush Hayden tweeted an article about his new song, which also had a listing of his upcoming shows, including one in Vancouver DURING MY MARCH BREAK. He's playing w Dan Mangan, and I am seeing them in Toronto at the end of February.  I bought those tickets way back in August when I was eating delicious Indian food at Claire's place in London.

Anyway, this concert would be a great show for Becca T and I because we both love Dan, and I used to drag her to Hayden shows all the time in university.

So, I booked a flight, and booked the show.  And within a span of 1.5 hours, now Wes is joining us for the show, and Rawbean and I will visit Jen in Victoria on Sunday.

This is all shaping up to be a lot of fun!