Volleyball

I joined a volleyball team!

Not one of those fancy pants expensive teams for 20-something people with fake tans, white teeth, and Lu Lu Lemon outfits. My skin is pasty, my teeth are yellow, and I can't afford Lu Lu Lemon or even a name brand knock-off. But that's ok.

We play in this sketched out area of town in what looks like a hybrid between a church and a school from the 1930's. Luckily the other players are cool - mostly people with master's degrees who are around my age. AND it only costs $10 for 8 weeks!

The gym was SWELTERING, it felt like a sauna. I was absolutely soaked after about 10 minutes of playing but it was a great workout. I'm probably the worst player on the team but I scored the winning point of our tie breaker game! Yay!

It's been 2 hours since I played and I'm already SORE.

So Choice, I Highly Recommend These

Ever look at your music collection and think, "I hate all of this?" Despite having 27 gigs of music on my hard drive, I am sick of most of it. Allow me to make some suggestions:

1. The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo: Stop what you're doing and listen to songs Rivers recorded in his home from 1992-2007. They're very early Weezer and catchy as hell.

Choice songs:
Lover in the Snow, Lemonade, Chess

2. Conquest Single - The White Stripes: These songs are pretty catchy and have the added bonus of having the fabulous Beck involved in the recordings.

Choice song:
It's My Fault for Being Famous

3. I've heard good things about the Black Keys, will listen to them shortly but they come highly recommended by Marc. Aside from his love of Queen's of the Stone Age, his taste is impeccable ;)

When I'm Coming Home

Dear Everyone,

People have been asking me when I'm coming home to visit, so I will tell you:


April 15 - May 3

I'm planning a night out in TO so I'll let you know the details when they are figured out. I'm thinking a bar night somewhere. Otherwise I will mostly be at home. Hopefully I will see y'all soon.

Victory

As a child, I had a dream to beat a Nintendo game called Maniac Mansion. I literally spent the better part of the late 80's/early 90's trying. Every time I figured out a new piece of the puzzle, I recorded it in a diary. I even bought Nintendo magazines to find tips. Eventually, my cousin took the game and we lost touch. I wasn't reunited with Maniac Mansion until this year when both G and Marc [accidentally] bought it for me.

This was the dawn of a new era. The internet age. Armed with my trusty laptop, my friend and I looked up a walk-through for game and followed the directions step by step. With a little help from Eric, I was able to...

SEND THE METEOR TO THE MOON AND BEAT THE GAME!!

A great weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

*poof*

Guns

I had lunch with some friends today who told me that they both own guns, and they keep the guns in their homes. Although one of them had a gun license, the other did not. I asked how she got the gun, and she said she walked into a gun store, bought the gun, went home. She said it was like the scene in Bowling for Columbine when Michael Moore gets a gun at the bank.

I asked them why they needed guns in their homes, the answers were [in no particular order]: protection, hunting, and target shooting.

Personally, guns scare the crap out of me and I wouldn't want one in my house, even if it's unloaded. I'm probably scarred by that story of the rock star guy who accidentally shot himself in the head at a party...JTL - help me out here...

Anyway, I just can't see how easy gun access can be a good thing. My friends agreed with me, and went on to discuss the right for civilians to purchase automatic rifles. One friend summarized, 'Owning automatic rifles is a perversion of the constitution.'

I think out of all my friends, I know one who has owned a gun. Does anyone here know of people who have guns?

Flash Back

While frantically cleaning my apartment to prepare for a visit from a certain JTL, I found an old pair of jeans from high school that I forgot about. They're Silvers [natch] but so old school: button fly, high waisted, all frayed at the bottom from years of walking on them through rain, mud, parties, woods, etc.

I put them on and they were SO COMFORTABLE. I even took them out for a strut around the neighbourhood, thinking about all the crazy things I've done while wearing these jeans [they're a good 8 years old, if not more] while listening to Everclear [Santa Monica, Strawberry, and Heartspark Dollarsign in particular].

That made my day.

Living on Video

No, I'm not referring to the greatest Canadian song of the 80's by Trans X. My most recent homework assignment is to tape 15 minutes of an initial interview with a client [role played by a student] and write an essay based on the tape.

I'm sure we all cringe when watching ourselves on video, but imagine that PLUS looking nervous and confused while trying to do something you don't know how to do without losing your shit. A few things I've never noticed before:

1. I blink furiously when nervous.
2. I have the worst posture I've ever seen [Mr. Burns meets a dishrag].
3. I use my hands waaay too much.
4. My face always looks bored. Meaning, I don't have a bored expression on my face, my FACE just always looks BORED. I have a bored face.
5. I see a resemblance between myself and my niece [that's not a bad thing, I'm just saying].

Faux Pas

When I was in elementary school, our male teachers were addressed as 'sir'. In high school, it was always 'Mr. Soandso'. In university, it became 'Dr. Whatsyourface'. In grad school, my formality and apparent social skills have declined dramatically...

Today, I accidentally called one of my professors 'dude'. As in, 'Dude, I totally know what you mean!' while talking about brainmeats. Fortunately, he didn't seem to mind/notice, so...gravy.

Other notable moments of glory:

1. One time RC called one of her profs 'Buddy'. I can't remember the context so RC, if you're out there, please enlighten us.

2. One of JTL's students referred to him as 'mom'. No. Shit.

Anyone else have a slip up you want to share?

Misc

Eyebrow Woes

No one will be surprised by this - my eyebrows turned against me. I think I had some sort of reaction to either the wax or the lotion the chick put on...but right now my eyes are all puffy and the areas where the wax was are HOT PINK. I shall remain a recluse until the swelling subsides :(

God's Coffee House

A friend of mine told me about Jehovah Java which is exactly what it sounds like. Unfortunately, the website is shit and doesn't show the logo: they ripped off the broad in the Starbucks logo but instead of a chick it's the face of Jesus with flowing hair...Don't miss the link to the life coach!

American Sushi

I went out for sushi tonight and couldn't get over the size of the portions. Sushi here is all about mammoth sizes: the pieces barely fit in your mouth, they're filled with tempura bits and misc sauces, then are covered in more sauces, THEN covered with MORE tempura bits. I even had dessert sushi which was covered in a thick white sauce and sprinkles of sweet, unidentifiable things. Sushi has practically become fast food. Although you can just get sashimi without all these crazy sauces, it's hard to find on a menu.

Canada

I was talking last night to Eric about my appalling general ignorance of the political system in Canada [for which he mocked me]. Sure, I know what the parties stand for, and that Stephen Harper is a total douche, but as for the nitty gritty details of the system, not so much. Thoughts:

1. Someone at school said something to the effect of 'a person easily becomes a nationalist by moving to another country' and there may be truth to that. The less people know about Canada here [and that includes almost everyone] the more I want to talk about Canadian politics, actors, movies, shows etc. As differences between Canadians and Americans become more obvious, I feel more fortunate that I am Canadian.

2. Eric pointed this out and I agree. We mock the Americans for being so self-absorbed, ignorant, and how their political system is ridiculous, yet most Canadians are watching presidential debates like it's a sport [including myself]. We watch Colbert and the Daily show religiously and talk non-stop about American issues. Not that there is anything wrong with that per se, but we may be forgetting to talk about our own political system and to watch shows like the Mercer Report, This Hour has 22 Minutes and the like. Admittedly, I don't watch them that often but when I do, I quite enjoy them.

3. I find a lot of people from Ontario never want to travel within Canada. In fact, it's the last place they'd want to explore. I think many people think there are no interesting places outside of Toronto, that it's all a boring wasteland when you venture out too far. Before I traveled around Canada I used to feel the same way - like, who would live in Saskatchewan? *shudder*. But I had the opportunity to go to conferences in Calgary, Ottawa, and Montreal and found that these places were alright. I was inspired to go to BC on a trip, then on a crazy roadtrip to Nova Scotia while stopping here and there along the way. My conclusion? Canada is a pretty neat country and I could probably live in a variety of provinces other than Ontario. Although I still have a general disdain for Newfoundland...is that wrong?

4. We have crazies in Canada too. There are creationist museums, people who believe humans hung out with dinosaurs, and political scandals. Let's not forget about the shit in our own backyard that we need to clean up. Not that it's on the same scale as the US but we should be aware of these issues nevertheless.

So, today why don't you check out one of these links:

Learn about Halifax: http://picnicface.com/videos.php?videoID=33

Read Rick Mercer's Blog: http://www.rickmercer.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/11/index.cfm

Watch 'Conservative Life Insurance' video: http://www.cbc.ca/22minutes/

Shoes. OMG Shoes.

After not sleeping most of the night, I dragged my ass to class, slept through most of it, and felt awful. I pretty much looked like a hobo and probably smelled like one too. Realizing this was not good, I ventured into Payless to see what they had, and stumbled across these bitches:



Sure, they look like every other pair of shoes I own BUT with one important difference - they were $6!! BAM!! With new shoes in hand, I felt more energetic and decided to finally get my eyebrows waxed [$5 with coupon!!!].

So for $11 I was able to purchase better looks and, as Graham Coxen would say, a sense of enormous well being. My new eyebrows and I are now ready to take on the perpetual disaster that is my life.

On Naps

Naps seem like such a good idea at the time, much like drunk phone calls, buying something from the home shopping channel, and blow. But there is a dark side...

I had a splitting headache all day today, partially due to the insipid class discussions that have been horrifying me on a daily basis, but also due to the fact that I thought staying up really late and getting up really early was a productive use of my time. Unfortunately, when I came home from class [after learning that we don't actually need medications to treat schizophrenia - just sing songs together and braid each other's hair!] I succumbed to a nap attack and slept for 3 hours.

Now, it is 12:43am and I am wide awake. I'm unmotivated to do anything productive, yet sleep doesn't seem that appealing either. This wouldn't be such a problem if I didn't have class tomorrow morning.

This reminds me of a story that is in no way related. This morning when I got off the elevator at school, I came face to face with A GIGANTIC COCKROACH on the wall. It was literally the length of my index finger. I had only seen bugs that big at the ROM and thought they only lived in jungles. I let out a silence scream, soiled myself, and ran to my class. When I told a classmate about my harrowing ordeal, he told me that some cockroaches actually HISS. I'm not even going to google that to see if it's true because I don't want to know.

That's all.

Watch This Now

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/4f551b0252

*poof*

*poof*

Houseguests and Adventures

So the houseguests have all gone home now. Mom was here and I got her obsessed with Arrested Development and JS got obsessed with Klax. That's my second victim of the year!

JS and I had an entertaining weekend. The highs and the lows:

* After a failed attempt at skating [freak power outage, rink closed] and not getting in the art gallery [got there too late] our standards plummeted so we ended up going to the Freedom Museum. It was free [appropriately] and it was cold so freedom proved irresistible. It surprisingly wasn't that bad.

* After standing outside in the freezing cold for almost an hour, we went into the Art Institute of Chicago. Saw cool stuff like a very green van Gogh which looks like crap on a computer but was stunning in real life.

* Had coffee at Au Bon Pain and was served by a woman who pronounced it 'Oh Bone Pane' with extra emphasis on PANE.

* We went shopping on Michigan Avenue. JS bought some snappy shoes so look for him classing up the streets of Toronto.


* Took a picture of a giant bratwurst that was ushering in daylight savings time:




...and now back to the grind.

*poof*