Takin' a Look Around:

Since I'm on the road a lot these days, I get to see a lot of interesting things. Like close calls. Goddamn, why do all the crappy drivers hang around me??? It's almost a daily occurrence now to see someone almost get hit by someone else (thank God it's never me...so far). And it's like it always happens in slow motion. The guy starts moving into the next lane, not noticing that someone else is already occupying the next lane, and he just inches closer...and closer...and closer...and finally the guy in the other lane gets a clue and swerves out of the way, honking like there's no tomorrow. Or the ones where the guy stops just centimetres away from rear-ending the guy in front. Hello, do you not see that the car in front has come to a complete stop?

I probably mentioned this in the past, but Stouffville is the horse capital of Ontario. So naturally, I see a lot of horses. Even more now that the weather is nicer. There's this one farm that's right by the highway, and the horses are usually grazing by the fence so you can see them pretty well. Lately there's a new foal standing around looking cute. But today on my drive home, I glanced at the fence, and although I only saw it for a second, I'm almost certain that I saw a llama. Otherwise it was the ugliest horse I've ever seen. On second thought, it could easily have been a camel too. I'm going to have to take a closer look tomorrow.

The other day my dad asked, "Where's Moldova?" To which I gave my standard geography answer, "I dunno, somewhere in the middle." The reason he was asking was because one of the many cousins in my family is getting married in August to a guy who's originally from Moldova. Kimberly's the daughter of my dad's cousin, which makes us somewhat related (I can never get the categories straight. Second cousin? Third cousin? Removed a couple of times? I don't know). This is also the infamous "brainchild" cousin that I think I may have met many many years ago, but haven't seen since. She's the kind of kid that our parents will heap praises on and make the rest of us kids feel completely inferior. She got into Johns Hopkins University at age 15 or something, then got into med school at around the same time I was starting 3rd year at Waterloo. Now I think she's a practicing OB/GYN. And she's about the same age as I am. And she's getting married. To a dermatologist from Moldova. Grrr...

"Hey, don't write yourself off yet, it's only in your head you feel left out, or looked down on"

If It Isn't One Thing, It's Another:

Lesson of the day: Hippopotamus sweat is a natural sunscreen.

Maybe it's just been a long winter, or I need a refresher course on applying sunscreen. No sooner had my hand burns started peeling away, I go and burn myself again. First, on both my arms in a single band, right where my t-shirt sleeve ended and the apparent sunscreen protection began. And also...on the top of my head. Yes friends, I have sunburned my scalp. That's going to look great when it starts to peel.

So how did I let this happen? I was at my good friend Jocelyn's first horse show this weekend and I neglected to bring a hat. Who knew we were going to be sitting out in an open field with no shade for about five hours? At least I was smart enough to copy some of the other spectators and get the umbrella out of my car. Otherwise I probably wouldn't be able to touch the top of my head for a week. But other than the potential skin cancer it was a fun day. Jocelyn did as well as could be expected with an ornery horse and really subjective judging. I'm sure next time we'll be able to entirely cover her outfit with ribbons.

So the photos of that day are in the process of being developed, and yes, I am STILL in the process of getting those other photos up on my website. But...in the meantime, here's a little something I was finally able to scan for your viewing pleasure. (Kev, this one's for you)

P.S. In case anyone wants to kill me for some reason, I just want to point out that the only link to the photo is through this blog...so this internet experience will be somewhat contained.

"And I'm so sad, like a good book I can't put this day back, a sorta fairytale with you"

As Though It Never Happened:

Hello one and all. Well, some stuff has been going on lately, but due to work, social encounters, a weekend out of town, and a very brief but violent bout with nausea, I haven't been able to keep this blog up to date. So here we go.

This past weekend I went with my good friends Emily and Jocelyn to Warsaw (Ontario, not Poland), just north of Peterborough, as they prepared to do their first adventure race, Storm the Trent. 4km run, followed by 16km bike, followed by 10km paddle (canoe, not doggie). Since it wasn't set up as the most ideal spectator sport, I got into volunteering to help the organizers (my specialty, I guess you could say).

The race started early Sunday morning, so we headed out Saturday afternoon/evening to Em's friend Ryan's place just outside of Peterborough. Since we were a little late getting on the road, Ryan and his fiancee Stacey had gone out by the time we got to their place. But they left us their key and their dog Tripper to keep us company. We watched the ends of "Point Break" and "Harry Potter" on TV before we realized that it was 11pm and we had to get to bed soon if we were going to be able to get up at 6 and be on the road by 7. Now...keep in mind that I have never met these people before, so it was extremely weird wandering through their house, looking for the bathroom or some kind of sign of where they expected us to spend the night. The basement was unfinished, but we found some sleeping pads so we quietly borrowed them to sleep on the living room floor. After learning that the cold water faucet in the bathroom doesn't shut off properly, I went to sleep wary that at some point in the night Tripper was going to bound off the chair and land on my head. But not long after lights out Ryan and Stacey returned and took Tripper with them up to their bedroom. In the morning, we tried to make as little noise as possible as we let ourselves out. That was the weirdest overnight visit I've ever had. Not only did I never get to meet the owners of the house, we left the place almost exactly the way we had found it. It's as if we were never there...

The overcast sky worried us a little, but it turned out to be an awesome day. Not as many bugs as I had feared, but much more sun than I had anticipated (Lesson of the Day: Remember to put sunscreen on the back of your hands). As with any event, the initial registration was the most chaotic part of the day, but I was able to hold my own against a sea of eager racers. When they all left on the buses to the starting point, it was eerily quiet. I hung out with the other volunteers (very nice ladies) and walked around and took photos. After about an hour and a half the first bikers started to arrive. I got worried when most of the people had already checked in and taken their canoes and Ema and Jocelyn were nowhere to be seen. Finally I saw their matching red bike helmets. After they took off in the canoe, Sean (the main organizer guy) asked me to man the Wall. This thing was pretty impressive given that I think Sean and his dad built it on their own. It was a roughly 12-foot wall, with two bells attached to levers at the top. There was also a small climbing wall right next to it with a bell at the top. The 2- and 4-person teams had to work together to boost one of their teammates up and ring one of the bells at the end of the race. Solo competitors got to climb the wall. My job was to be at the top of the wall (there was scaffolding behind it) and help out the teams by pushing the bell a little lower if they were having a hard time reaching it. I have to say, it was the best part of the race for me. For some reason, when the person rang the bell, it was like a signal for the person/people at the bottom to just let go. Luckily, nobody got hurt really badly, and I started to caution the teams about letting them down a little more gently.

So the race results are posted up at the website, and Team Triboluminescence came in 68 out of 85 in the 2-person team category with a time of 4:04:02 and no time penalties. Add on to that the fact that Em won a t-shirt and socks in the draw, and I'd have to say it was a pretty successful race. I don't have access to my scanner right now, plus I haven't gotten the photos developed yet, but once things are sorted out I'll post some on my website. And I SWEAR I will get the dogsledding photos and stories up as soon as I can. Kev, I'll let you know when I've got the OTHER photo scanned too. =)

Oh, I guess you're wondering about that nausea thing I talked about earlier. Well, it seems to be a unanimous diagnosis at work that I suffered some kind of heatstroke on Sunday that didn't hit me until 10am on Tuesday when I was at work. I couldn't handle it and barely made my way home at lunch (had to pull over on the 401, but fortunately the traffic was slow). I collapsed on my couch for a couple of hours before my mother fed me some water and the nausea really kicked in. Funny thing about me is that once I get it out, I'm 100% okay, as if I had never been ill in the first place. I'm a weirdo.

Finally, in a really unrelated way, congrats are in order for Laboni! She secured herself a teaching position in Mississauga, which means she can enjoy the summer knowing that kids will be waiting for her in September. Wait...is that a good thing?

"Between my fire sighs and my burning eyes, my heart burns wildly in his eyes, he's just a drunken, gambling man, dealing with the hands of desire's game, I'm gonna shuffle his deck clean"

High Rate of Turnover:

It's a game of musical chairs at work. Last week Tina (one of the Validation girls) left the department and went to work at the Markham site. During her farewell dinner there were some horror stories about her new boss and the plant in general (Lesson of the Day: the smell of penicillin during production will permeate everything you own). She was cool but I didn't really get a chance to talk to her. All I really know is that she loves the show "American Dreams".

This Tuesday will be Shanthini's last day. She got offered a job at OPG (hooray for nuclear power). She was kind of surprised because she had the interview in November. But a job's a job, and in particular this is an engineering job. She's kind of nervous about it and a little hesitant because she likes the pharmaceutical game, but it's not like she can't come back. So we're having her farewell dinner on Monday (I've been eating out a lot lately). I guess this means that there is yet another opening in our department. Oh, and the new summer students started last week. Jonathan's a kinesiology student, which is a little different than the rest of us, but like Monica said, this ain't rocket science. He's sort of the hobo of the group, since there weren't enough desks in our area. He's using Michael's (the night shift guy) desk right now, which works out. And all the production guys are drooling over Maria. I'll admit that she's pretty, and it was funny how some of the guys reacted when they first saw her. Especially the guys who are married and have a few kids. Actually, that's kind of dirty...

Anyway, by the end of the month the new QA office on the floor should be finished, and so half the department is moving out onto the floor and the rest of us will stay in the office. All this moving about made me think about my situation, and how I kind of feel bad about deciding to move on after my contract is up. But this is after all a contract position, and the woman I'm replacing right now will be back, so it's not like I'm leaving them with another space to fill. The most ideal situation would be to get an engineering job with this company, but I guess we'll see. I suppose I should start to get to know the engineers a little better...

"Combat baby, come back baby, fight off the lethargy, don't go quietly"

Viral Chaos:

Sasser struck my workplace today, leaving most of us with little to do for the majority of the day. Funnily enough, my computer was the only one that escaped infection (hooray for Windows 95!). By mid-afternoon, the one IT guy at our site came around and patched things up.

Continuing on the topic of diseases (and, coincidentally, from my last entry), my boss got the results from her biopsy today...and as we had feared, it turned out positive. So on top of the silence in the office today from the lack of PC fans whirring, there was a sombre stillness. Oh...I suppose I should mention that she is already a breast cancer survivor, and so it's quite understandable when she mentioned last week that she would prefer NOT to go through chemo again. But it looks like that can't be avoided now. I was thinking today that she is the first person I've really personally known who has cancer. I know I talked about Vince last week, but I didn't really know that much about him, and had only talked to him sporatically. Then there are those distant family connections who have had leukemia and so on, but I didn't really know them personally either. Monica's been a really great boss, and since we have lunch together almost every day, I've gotten to know a lot about her and her life and her family. But she's a toughie, and I'm pretty confident that she'll be okay. It's just a little hard to watch sometimes and knowing that there's nothing you can do to help.

Sorry for the downer, friends. Hopefully next blog I'll have something more fun and peppy to write about.

"If I could find you now things would get better, we could leave this town and run forever"

My God, I'm So Depressed Now...:

This has been a weird evening. I was watching Sixth Sense on TV, which if nothing else is a pretty sad movie. I flipped between that and Everwood, which featured the character who had AIDS leaving town because people were shunning her and mainly because Dr. Brown just broke up with her. And then, for some reason, I decided to log into Friendster to see what was new and found out that last month a guy I had met at CUTC had died from cancer. When I met him, he had just come back from missing about a year of school and the chemo had left him relatively bald and somewhat thin. But he was such a great guy, full of awesome ideas and energy. He came with me during our midnight grocery store raid for pop and chips, and he was one of the guys who agreed to pull the overnight shift for me at the headquarter desk.

I think he was about a year or so younger than I am, but since he had missed so much school he had to drop back a couple of terms. I remember that I didn't see him at this year's conference in January and I meant to ask someone about it but it slipped my mind.

Vince, we hardly knew ye...

Word Play:

I don't know if any of you look closely at your spam, but I've been getting some fun ones. And not the usual teen sluts or Viagra discounts. These are just a random grouping of words. It's in both the subject line and the message, but there are too many words to list here, so I'll just give you a sample of a couple of my favourite subject lines:

liquefaction juliet rainbow religious facade cornell scram lemonade...

confucian wine tetrachloride jacobus romulus anionic child yank furtherance...

(I couldn't copy it all down, but that second one really brought out the Chemmie in me)

Has anyone ever been able to buy playoff tickets online through Ticketmaster? Is that even possible? Because I've been trying and it's like they allow you to try, but they don't have any left if you wait a second after 10am. You just end up clicking back and forth, typing ridiculous words as their way of attempting to bypass clever computer geeks and their programs. It makes you wonder if the words they use are real too. Hungred? Ostiary? Then, after a bunch of relatively small (5-8 letter) words, they threw this one at me: "trialbalance". After about half an hour of trying (while...um...at work) I started to get the feeling they were telling me something when they were reusing some of the words. And then this word showed up and made me give up all together: "damnum"

Finally, a little tidbit of something that I had heard on the radio while driving to work. There's some new book about the White House and their role in Iraq or something, and they interviewed Colin Powell for it. They asked him what his relationship with the Vice President was like. Powell said that they had an informal and friendly relationship, and here's a direct quote from the book: "When the Vice President and I are alone together in a room, it's just Colin and Dick."

If you don't get it, just remember to pronounce the names correctly.

"And I see you standing there, wanting more from me, and all I can do is try"

Why I Am Not Asleep:

Stupid me is waiting for my cell phone to finish charging. Yeah, I'm weird.

So, Hairspray was pretty good last night. It was cheesy in a fun way, like Grease. And I was mistaken, it's set in the 60s, not the 50s. The hair is impressive, and there were a number of surprises in terms of the set design. Oh, and that American Idol chick is not too shabby either. I don't watch American Idol at all, but the only thing I think I recall about this girl is that Simon called her fat or something. Okay, so she isn't a stick, but what does that have to do with anything? For Christ's sake, check out the guy who won...

Where was I...oh yeah. So yes, I would recommend Hairspray to anyone who doesn't mind some good clean cheesiness. I mean, when you've got 60s style music, racial tension, several sexual innuendos, and a large man dressed as a woman, what more do you need?

Moving on...

Is anyone out there interested in going on a cruise? Sometime between July 24-Aug 1? To the Mediterranean or thereabouts? For roughly CAD$2000? I was just wondering...

BB16

"That's the start, the middle, and the end, aren't you glad the universe pretends"

Back on Track:

A number of things that are finally getting done by me:

1) Joining a gym. It's been almost a year but I'm finally getting back into the groove. I guess I should eventually get around to figuring out how to use the machines, but for now I'll just stick to what I like, and that's the classes. Last week I pushed myself so hard in Step that afterwards I was dizzy and nauseous while I was getting groceries for my mom. That's the stuff.

2) Cleaning my room. Yes, the crap is back. And really never left. I just started new piles on my floor. I still haven't tackled under my bed yet (shudder).

3) Going out with co-workers. I'm not talking about meals either (because I've already done that). We're going to see Hairspray tomorrow night. It was quite last minute (we decided today), and nice and cheap ($60 for an orchestra seat that's about 10 rows from the front).

So...yeah...it's been productive.

Oh yeah, did I mention it was my birthday on the weekend? Quarter-century baby. It honestly doesn't feel any different. Although I have yet to write my age down on paper anywhere. Hopefully I'll remember what it is when I do.

This was by far one of the best birthdays ever. I'd like to say first and foremost that I have awesome friends. For the past couple of months, they've been scheming and planning and organizing my own make-over shopping spree, then dinner, then a trip up the Manulife Centre to the Panorama lounge, which came with a gigantic novelty card (signed by those present as well as those from afar) and a mix CD with personalized liner notes.

Thanks again to everyone for the gifts and well-wishes. This is going to be a year of big celebration for most of us, and this birthday extravaganza is going to be hard to top. But just watch me.

Good job, Binky.

"There's never a wish better than this, when you only got 100 years to live"

The Dream is Dead:

Well, there won't be any condo-living for me in the near future. At least, not in my parents' condo. Yes, I am back on this topic, only because I finally got the guts to confront them about it again. I had to let it cool off for a while, to wait out the aftershocks. I asked my mom if she was serious about what she had said earlier about letting me rent the condo. She said that she was, but that my dad isn't. Doesn't make sense, he says. Well, fine. But then she says one of those ridculous statements of hers. She said that I should save up some money so that I can buy my own place near whatever permanent job I get later on. She went on to say that although it was okay that I was renting a place while I was at school and it couldn't be avoided, I shouldn't be renting anymore because I'm past that age. Okay...I'm TOO OLD TO RENT??? I was somehow able to walk out of the room without bursting out laughing (or screaming). I honestly can't believe that she said that. What kind of backwards bizarro world is she living in? I don't know. I think my parents are doing what some of my friends' parents are doing, living the dream that I won't move out until I'm married. Except my parents aren't being as straight-forward about it.

Oh well, onward and upward. Now I can concentrate on the car proposal. And who knows, maybe I'll wake up tomorrow with $21 million.

"Just a moment of weakness, I should examine my head"

One of a Kind:

I experienced the One of a Kind show yesterday for the first time ever. Yes, it is full of artsy craftsy people and things. Yes, the vast majority of those in attendance were female. But it was still kinda cool. Some quick highlights:

1) Who knew that people could get so incredibly excited about custom made aprons? A snippet of conversation we overheard (and I'm not kidding):
"Ladies! Come over here and check out these aprons! Look, she has a sewing machine!"

2) Why didn't that guy think of this before? Candles that smell like burning logs. Hey, he thought it was a good idea. Through brainstorming we came up with more outdoorsy (and therefore perfectly suited to Em) inspired scents: marshmallows/s'mores, skunk, marsh/swamp
By the time we left the candle guy, our hands were covered in wax and various fruit smells and Ada discovered that by inhaling too deeply, she now had wax up her nose.

3) A veritable smorgasbord. We had a sample of every food product, except the caribou and canned fish (I had just had chocolate covered fruit and didn't think the combination would work well). Unfortunately, I had forgotten about my waxy hands. Between Ada and me, we had successfully met our wax intake requirements for the day.

My purchase of the evening? Three jars of wine jelly. Mmmm...ice wine jelly...

And now, a conversation about the weather:

Water water everywhere...but surprise! We are actually having a crisis at work concerning the water supply. In that we don't have any. Why? Well, all this lovely rain that we've been getting is washing all the crap in and around Stouffville into the local well water, which is our source, and is thus making it impossible for us to use to make the product. This is not to say that we don't treat the water before we use it...oh no. We just can't do anything to purify it ENOUGH at this point. The TOC levels are just too high. (What's TOC? Umm.....yeah.....let me get back to you on that...) And there's no way to get water from Lake Ontario (an example of good planning in the 60s). Well, it's gotta stop raining eventually.

"It's never ending as far as I know, but there's a doubt you feel between us both"

No TV and No Beer Make Karen Something Something...:

Rogers has some 'splaining to do. Not that it really matters to me that our cable has been out for the entire day. I know I probably watch too much TV as it stands. And yeah, I got a lot of stuff done today, which could be attributed to fact that the only thing on the tube was fuzzy snow. I'm just glad I got stuff done.

Like taxes. One of the easier returns I've done in a while, although it was never really that difficult to start with. The one thing that was different was the fact that I could do it over the phone for once. Last year I got through half of my return before the recording told me that I'm not eligible to do my taxes over the phone, and would I please submit it using the paper method or the online method. A good twenty minutes of punching 1 for yes or 0 for no. Goddammit.

I had coffee today with Jocelyn, and we were talking about how the majority of her Laurier friends only talk about one thing when they get together these days: weddings. Because the majority of her Laurier friends are in the process of getting married. Which is something that's happening to a lot of people our age. Because it's one of those things that happens near our age. And yet, neither of us could even begin to imagine what it would be like to be at that stage in life. Well, okay, so both of us lack that one crucial element that would allow us to prepare for the mere possibility of it, but that's beside the point. I started thinking about how we're at the beginning again, when a lot of things in life are all shiny and new. Because the first twenty or so years of our lives revolved around the one thing: school. No matter what else happened in our lives, there was school. It was the routine, the thing that we became accustomed to. Now that school is over (for some of us), everything is going to be a first again. First real job, first car, first home, first (and theoretically only) wedding, first child. And the funny thing about this is that little to none of the things that we formally learned in our first twenty years of life have really been designed to prepare us for any of it. I know this isn't a new or revolutionary thought, and I'm sure most if not all of you have already come to the same conclusion. I'm just all scared-excited again, like on my first day of school or my first night in residence at Waterloo. Who knows what will happen next...

"I've found a reason for me to change who I used to be"

Musical Stylings:

I'm pretty bummed that I couldn't catch Aphasia's set at Sneaky Dee's yesterday. After missing their CD release party a while back, I was looking forward to going to one of their gigs. But since their set didn't start until 11:45pm, I had to pass in favour of sleep and general consciousness at work the next day. Stupid job, getting in the way of my having a social life on a weekday...

So rumour has it that Unibrau might be getting back together. Good. Because as I recall, somebody still owes me some rock.

And now, for something slightly different but still musically related. Upon hearing that Madonna was coming to town this summer, I quickly fired off an e-mail to my friend Bashar, who is the biggest Madonna fan I know. Unfortunately, he's sequestered deep in the heart of Chatham at the moment. I got a reply from him shortly, and as I should have guessed, he had already found out about the concert through the e-mail alerts that he gets from some Madonna fansite or another. Life in Chatham has lost most (if not all) of it's appeal, it seems, but Bashar has a renewed lease on life with the arrival of his new pet, a cat. Which he promptly, and in very typical Bashar fashion, named Pussy. I'm sure it's a very adorable cat. Apparently, he still gets slight cringes when he tells his co-workers that he's going home to play with his Pussy.

"Express yourself, don't repress yourself"

You gotta hand it to my parents. Before, they didn't like the fact that I was interested in renting our own condo, the one that's down by the lake. Now that I'm telling them that I'm going to look at a house that's for rent tonight, almost instantly my mother started offering me the condo by the lake. Then my dad started with the guilt trip, the "she'd rather live with two strangers than with us" schtick. And, as per usual, he had a whole slew of negative things to say about the idea. Now I kind of wish I had started with the car proposal first. But...that's life. I know I said that I would never rent again, but I should know better than to say 'never', right? At first, I thought that I could rent from my parents, and that wouldn't really count as renting. So I guess the next best alternative would be to rent from my friend's parents.

Okay, so bad idea #1 was to totally spring the idea on them with no warning. But it's a very fine balance. Tell them early, and they will have time to come up with reason upon reason upon reason why I shouldn't do this, thus prompting me to give up the idea entirely just to get them to shut up. Tell them too late (i.e. after the fact), and then suddenly a HUGE argument could lead to words that you can't take back, or bad feelings for the rest of our lives, or something dramatic like that. My mom has a LONG memory (that's where I get it from). She still complains about that waiter that spilled something on her fifteen years ago, and, as a result, we have never returned to that establishment (even though it has changed ownership three times and that waiter has hopefully moved on to greener pastures). So...oh...there's the phone. Time to go.

"Ain't nobody gonna hold me down, oh no, I got to keep on movin'"

Forever Young:

Today was my former classmate and current co-worker Shanthini's birthday. I basically discovered this through the magic of eavesdropping in a cubicle environment (which, as everyone knows, is pretty damned easy). Marianli (one of our supervisors) and Shanthini were having the age conversation which led to the topic of being carded. Marianli was once carded at a club or something and basically felt insulted that the bouncer thought she was under 19 (I believe she was around 30 at the time). Keep in mind that she's one of the little Filipino ladies I told you about earlier. Dhimo (another one of Shanthini's friends who got into the company through her) mentioned that she always felt great if she still gets carded somewhere.

So we (myself, Shanthini, Dhimo, Thanujah, Wumi, Joanna, and Tina) went out for lunch at East Side's to celebrate the occasion. While we were eating, we noticed that there was a young-looking kid who was serving a table on the other side of the restaurant. By looks, a person would guess that the kid was around ten to twelve years old. First of all, aren't there labour laws against this kind of thing? Sure, it's March Break right now, but holy crap, it was kind of weird, like eating in a sweat shop. We all figured that he was a family member of one of the employees or something, and maybe they couldn't find anyone to watch him this week. But, again through the magic of eavesdropping, we learned that no, this wasn't a situation where Child Services should be called. This young man was actually nineteen years old, and had cystic fibrosis which stunted his growth. This guy is probably going to be carded for the rest of his life.

"Don't waste your time on me you're already a voice inside my head"

Happy Birthday Big Five:

Okay, so this is technically untrue. I have no idea when my beloved Fifth Avenue was "born", but today was the day that the odometer slowly creeped past 99999 and started on it's third time around the dial. 200 thousand kilometers is a lot, isn't it? Sigh...I can't believe we're going to get rid of her soon...

Every once in a while I like to sit back and realize that I'm a grown-up. Well, at least marvel at the grown-up things that I do. Like tonight. I had dinner with my good friend Howie (I find that's the phrase I use whenever I mention him now..."my good friend Howie") at a place in the Bloor West Village that serves "West Coast" cuisine, which was extremely appropriate for the occasion. We ordered martinis, and had a conversation while live jazz was playing in the background. Then we phoned a number of friends and organized a brunch on Saturday. I'm not sure how much more grown-up we could be.

"Summertime and the livin' is easy"

So, my good friend Howie is jetting off on Saturday. Bon voyage...

I had a realization this week. In the time that it used to take for me to drive from my house to Waterloo, that is now the same amount of time it takes for me to drive to work each day. This realization made me think of Mike. Back in the days of Woodbridge Foam, Mike opted to stay at his place in Waterloo (as opposed to subletting it out in the summer, which, as I've experienced, is a complete pain in the ass) and make the commute every day to Woodbridge. It would take him a little over an hour or so. I used to think, "Poor Mike..." Poor Mike indeed. At least he was able to carpool with Andrew, the part-time grad student, full-time foam jockey.

Speaking of work, I now have a ton of it. You know you've made it when there isn't a square inch of desk space left. I'm handling two complaints right now that are frankly not the easiest things in the world and are actually making me a little antsy. First, there's the complaint about a drug that smells like rotten eggs (it's not supposed to smell like rotten eggs). There are at least a dozen complaints about this product that cover maybe eight or ten different batches. So, as you may well guess, my job now is to pull out a million retain samples and check to see if they smell like rotten eggs. My nose is not speaking to me anymore, plus I'm not sure how healthy it is for me to be inhaling this stuff. Second, there's the complaint about another drug that has a coating problem, namely that the coating is peeling off. Right now, it has me stumped because it's unusual that nobody, not in manufacturing or even in packaging, noticed that the coating was peeling off all of these pills, but that's not all. I looked up what this drug is used for (as I do with most of the drugs I deal with now). It is an antipsychotic drug. Okay, I've seen "Girl, Interrupted" a few times, and I know that in most mental institutions, they do use drugs to treat patients, but I would have thought that, by now, they would come up with a better category name for it. Or maybe it's better to keep it simple.

"One, two, three, take my hand and come with me"

Lesson for yesterday: So yeah, the TTC does run 24 hours on some routes, including buses that run along the subway lines after they close...

So work is going well. Still complaining about the drive, but there are some things that you just learn along the way. Like the fact that every day, I drive past that company that used to offer the rocket scientist position for co-op (I kept saying to myself, "why does the town of Gormley sound so familiar?). And it really is in the middle of nowhere, which makes good sense when you're working with rockets...

It's been three weeks, and already I'm kind of swamped with stuff to do at work. Which I'm not complaining about, I like to keep busy. I guess I didn't expect it to pick up so soon. Of course, the obligatory training is coming up, like GMP and WHMIS and Inspection Prep. (a.k.a. "What to do when the FDA guy comes around"). Always a good time at those.

But it's not all toil and stress. The ladies I work with are hilarious. They make fun of each other incessantly. I guess I'm fitting in nicely, since they're starting to include me in the taunting. But there's really nothing like watching a couple of Filipino ladies dancing around the office doing their best rendition of "She Bangs" a la William Hung.

"Cause she looks like a flower but she stings like a bee"

Good Surprises, Not-So-Good Surprises:

I'm usually okay with surprises, good or bad. I know people who don't like them at all (my parents, for example). This week had a couple of surprises in store for me.

The first occurred when I got home from work on Wednesday and my dad seemed really anxious about me pulling into the garage. When I got into the house, he started out by saying, "Are you busy tonight?" To which I replied, "No...why?" A family friend had given us tickets to the Raptors game that was starting in a couple of hours. I took a quick look at the tickets. Section 112?? Row 17??? Uh....yeah, I'm going. The game was mediocre (we lost again) but the seats were awesome (behind and to the right of one of the nets). They had the usher guys coming around with their fancy computer pads, taking your orders right from your seat so that you don't have to get up and get in line. And I realized that you can't always hear the people in the Sprite zone from the floor, so that all the chanting and screaming doesn't really do anything. Which is potentially a good thing, because last week at the other game that I went to, the people around us in the Sprite zone started chanting "Bull-shit! Bull-shit!" when the refs made a bunch of lousy calls against the Raptors. All I could think about was how many kids were in the audience asking their parents what the people were saying.

Okay, so that was a good surprise. Another surprise happened yesterday. Kimmy (with whom we had recently reconnected during our Great Winter Getaway) was having a birthday get-together. We went downtown to a nice greek restaurant for dinner and reconnected with some people we hadn't seen since high school. Highlights included Maria and Silva imitating the now infamous William Hung and all of us having completely separate descriptions about our Grade 11 English teacher. Then we walked over to Indian Motorcycle, a club that doesn't look like a club but is actually a dance floor, a lounge, a restaurant, a clothing store, and a motorcycle showcase all in one. It took us a while to find a bunch of empty seats but we did eventually. Ada (whom some of those present thought was a figment of our imagination, since they had never seen her before but had heard us talk about her for years) joined us, and we just sat, listened to an interesting mix of music, avoided cougars and smarmy old guys, watched Jack drink a Hoegaarten (that looked deceptively huge), watched Howie imitate the guy in the washroom who would do a little dance while squirting the soap in your hands or handing you a towel, and caught up with each others lives (I'm convinced that Lauren will become the next Barbara Walters). That was the good part of the surprise.

Em, Jocelyn, Ada, Howie and I left together, while the others stayed (Jack had just bought himself another Hoegaarten). On our way to the subway station, we stopped at a street meat vendor (Howie had a craving), then I led us astray (I thought the entrance at Roy Thompson Hall would be open), and Jocelyn had reception problems while trying to call her brother for a ride from Kipling (he eventually called back). Then we discovered that we missed the last subway. I guess the TTC guy closing up the gate would have been our first clue. But he did say that it was possible that the last one was late, so we each paid our token and ran down to the platform, but alas, the guy came back and said that they told him there wouldn't be any more trains tonight. So we walked back out of the station, and narrowed our options down to the one - a cab. Ada took her own cab back to her place, and the four of us climbed into a cab and made our way back to the west end. On the way, we deliberated on our next course of action (Could we get out at Howie's and he could drive us home? Could we drop him off then go to my house and I could drive the girls home? Do we have enough cash for us to take the cab to each of our respective homes?). A terse phone call from my mother (who is never up at two in the morning, so that was already a bad sign) kind of sealed the deal, and we pooled the money and got the individual cab treatment.

A costly lesson, to be sure, but a new story to tell in the end. Happy Birthday Kimmy!

"You can get wit this, or you can get wit that..."

The Art of Communication:

As my brother and I were subwaying down to the Raptors game tonight (which, by the way, they predictably lost), I saw something that really intrigued me.

Two groups of three came into the subway car with us. They were all young people. In the first group, all three people appeared to be deaf. That, however, didn't stop them from signing up a storm, hands flying a mile a minute, and they were clearly joking around and enjoying each other's company. Just beside them was the second group, who were clearly able to hear properly since all three of them were wearing the exact same headphones, listening to whatever music they were listening to, sitting and staring directly ahead and not saying a word to each other.

Sometimes, the world just makes you wonder...

"If God is a DJ, life is a dance floor, love is the rhythm, you are the music"

Best...NoMan...Ever!!!:

Hey all! Happy belated NoMan to all the single girls out there (and I guess NoGirl to the guys). I had the best weekend ever! Too much detail to write down here, but stay tuned to my website for the stories and the photos.

Today was the official beginning of my adventures in the working world. It went as expected (paperwork and safety shoes), except for a glitch or two (like the ID camera not working, thus forcing me to go back to the Scarborough site sometime this week). It seemed like they weren't expecting me at Stouffville, since I was locked out of the building and I couldn't find my supervisor. But luckily one of the operators let me in and was able to find someone from QA to help me out. And who else could he have brought but my former classmate Shanthini! That was a nice coincidence. We hung out at her desk and she introduced me to people in the department while we waited for my supervisor to come back from lunch. Then I was given the standard cube and a whole stack of SOPs to read for the rest of the day. Coming home was killer though, as I had to also fight my way into a gas station to get relatively cheap gas. Hopefully things will get more interesting tomorrow. Like me getting my computer and voicemail passwords.

"I could use a little fuel myself and we could all use a little change"

Take me back to Constantinople...:

Who would have guessed that there's a Turkish restaurant smack in the middle of Etobicoke? Not I. But there is, and I went there for dinner tonight with Howie. And it was good. Quite good. We were the only customers, but that's to be expected on a Wednesday night. It turns out that they've been open for five years (!), and that the first Friday of each month, it's "Night of Istanbul", where they have live music, belly dancers, fortune-teller, and such.

The owner was so nice, she gave us Turkish coffee on the house. All I can say is holy crap, that's thick coffee.

"That's nobody's business but the Turks"

Do you have someone in your life who consistently throws cold water all over your happy moments? In my case, it will always be my father. No matter how well I've done, or what kind of good fortune comes my way, or almost any time I have a fun activity planned, he'll always come up with some crap that spoils the entire mood. "You should have done this"..."You shouldn't have done that"..."This could happen"..."That could kill you"..."Do you know what I would have done instead?" (that's a popular one, the one that irks me the most)

My mom can be a downer sometimes too, but more often than not her agitated rants come from some kind of misunderstanding on her part. She'll get all huffy about something that has absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand. But my dad is the one who is a pro at making me feel stupid. Just another one of those things on my list of things that I'm never going to do to my child.

At least phase 1 is complete (securing an income). On to phase 2 (getting the hell out of here).

"Only when I stop to think about it...I hate everything about you"

A New Me:

It's not literally a new me, but it sort of feels like a new me. I'm going to be a contributing member of society again. It's just a matter of paperwork now, which has yet to arrive at my door, but I'm confident that it will be here shortly.

It's like a weight has been lifted a little. It's not an entirely stable job, but it's a start. And I can continue to look for something more permanent while I'm working, and it can now include other positions within this company. So I'm already looking 12 months down the road before I've even started my first day. Am I counting my chickens? Are all my eggs in one basket? Can I possibly come up with one more poultry-related proverb? I doubt it. I'm in a weird state of mind right now...

"But I still haven't found what I'm looking for"

A Matrix Moment:

Don't you hate it when you can't tell when you're dreaming and when you're awake? Like this morning. I was semi-conscious at around 7am, so I was drifting in and out of dreaming. The next thing I knew, I was up, out of bed, and basically getting ready for the day. I was hanging something up in my closet, and then I noticed that my closet was half empty, which was slightly odd but I dealt with it by reasoning that my clothes must in the hamper or something. My mom came into my room, reminded me that we were having lunch with my aunt today (which is totally true), and I was arguing with her about something (not unusual) when I noticed that there were papers strewn about in a messy way on the table near my door, which may not have been unusual except that I've never seen that table before, let alone the papers. And then I woke up, and I had to take a few seconds to realize that everything I had just been doing never actually happened.

As most of you already know, I'm a weird dreamer. But what I want to know is, does anyone else experience this kind of thing? Where you dream about current events that could potentially happen in real life, but then wake up and realize that it was all in your head?

Whoa...

"But if you're ready to be my everything, if you're ready to see it through this time"

A Change of Luck:

For all the other people out there born in 1979 (the Year of the Ram), take note: This is your year! For some particular reason, Chinese astrologists have determined that this year, the Year of the Monkey, is going to be a good year for sheep. What's even more bizarre is that if you carry with you a small symbol of a horse, it will bring you additional luck. Today my aunt gave me a little stone horse to carry around on my purse. It kind of looks like a Scottish terrier from certain angles. So, even if it doesn't really work, I don't care, it's still really cute.

I know that some of you are probably saying to yourself, "I don't believe in this crap." Well, I was told that last year was supposed to be a particularly rough year for Rams, and I guess that would be evident in the fact that I was unsuccessful in my search for a job. Well...yesterday (the second day of the New Year), I got a rejection letter from a company that I had an interview with last year, but at the same time I had the best interview of my life with a different company, and right now, it looks like I may have a job before the end of the month. Long story short, it's a contract (1 year) quality assurance position with a big pharmaceutical company located up in Stouffville (northeast of Toronto). From the description that they gave me, it would be a perfect job for me, because it would allow me to be involved in a lot of different projects, and would help me to gain experience in almost all aspects of the industry, like production, validation, quality control, process control, etc. I had the interview in the morning, and that same afternoon they called me back to tell me that they like me, and to send in my references ASAP so that they could speed up the process. So, it's not a sure thing yet, but hey...my luck is changing.

"You must be my lucky star, 'cause you shine on me wherever you are"

Boldly Going Where Someone Has Gone Before:

Oh yeah...in all the commotion, I forgot to mention that I met Al's friend Ben yesterday, who has what I believe is one of the coolest jobs in the world. He's a CG animator, and right now he's working on a Disney feature that's due out in 2005. The company's called C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, and they also did the special effects for other live action movies like "X-Men" and "Blade". He's mentioned a bunch of other things he's worked on, like a weekday morning kids' program. Oh yeah, and the CEO of his company is William Shatner. The employees were sent an e-mail prior to Shatner's visit indicating that they should remain professional, and not approach him for autographs. Regardless, there was a mad dash to the Silver Snail to obtain paraphernalia that could possibly be worth more with a Shatner signature. Of course, he didn't sign anything.

Oh, one more thing...they can scan a photo of your face and project what you'll look like in 30, 40, 50 years. Usually they use it when kids go missing for several years or when they're looking for criminals who have evaded capture for decades. Apparently they scanned Ben's picture into the computer. But for some reason, they wouldn't let him see the result.

"When I was seventeen, it was a very good year"

So, if my parents ask, I was at my friend Bob's place last night, hanging out, okay?

Here's the real story:

My Waterloo friends and I have a tendency to torture our friend Allan on his birthday. Last year, we gave him a break, and we just took him out for dinner. This year, we figured we needed to do something more interesting. So we took him out for dinner again, except we surprised him by secretly inviting his friend Ben from high school. That was all well and good. Then with the gifts, we gave him a gag gift (a pocket-sized version of "Dating for Dummies") and a real gift (an Ottawa Senators t-shirt...I felt so icky when I bought it). So that was okay. Then we took him blindfolded down Yonge Street and stopped in front of...The Brass Rail. Yes friends, we went to a strip club. What was really great was that everyone went inside to check it out, even Rehmat, whose parents would probably kill her if they ever found out (shhh!).

So, what are my impressions? Well, it was crowded, but probably because there was a bachelor party going on (there was a bus parked outside), so we didn't get the best seats in the house. There were actually a few other women in there who weren't employees. And perhaps it was because it was still kind of early (around 10-11pm), but the ladies weren't all that impressive. They were pretty, but not that great at dancing. One girl used the Atari's "Boys of Summer", which in my opinion was a weird song to dance to. It could have worked but she was kind of moving around slowly, which was all wrong. Rehmat and I were somewhat disappointed, and Bob actually got bored. Even the audience wasn't that excited. Every time a girl finished her act, there was a small smattering of applause. The announcer had to keep encouraging the guys to make some noise. The last girl we saw before we left was a little more interesting though. She climbed up the pole and hung upside down using only her legs. We left soon after that because a party of 15 was going to come in and we didn't want to get trapped in the corner.

Conclusions? Maybe The Brass Rail isn't the best one out there, but if most strip clubs are like that, then I don't see what the big deal is. I know that sounds funny coming from me, but I think that even if it were a bunch of guys getting naked on a stage, it wouldn't have been any more interesting. Unless they were really good looking...

"I search myself, I want you to find me, I forget myself, I want you to remind me"

A Mish-Mash of Thoughts:

"Why are millions spent on the war each day, while not a penny is available for medical science, artists, or the poor? Why do people have to starve when mountains of food are rotting away in other parts of the world? Oh, why are people so crazy?"
- Anne Frank, May 3, 1944

I started reading the Diary of Anne Frank last year for my Children's Lit class and never got around to finishing it. I picked it up during my cleaning phase and have been reading it for the past few weeks. Interesting that almost 60 years later, people are still asking the same questions that she did.

Winter decided to catch up all at once. After a mild wet December, we've been hit with a cold snap that would freeze you to the bone instantly. Windchill makes it feel like it's -30C or lower. Last night was clear, and with the moon shining down on my frozen backyard, it was eerie. Even though it's been sunny, I've chosen to hibernate in my home, waiting for the weather to ease up a little. Which will happen later this weekend, thankfully.

I got some government money in the mail today (hooray!). I also got my tax return package for 2003. I just realized right now that I didn't make any money last year. Well, a little bit from my investments, but other than that, since I didn't have a co-op or regular job, I had no income. That hasn't happened in five years. I'm not sure how I feel about this. No taxes to pay makes me feel good, but no job kind of makes me feel bad. Like I said before, I feel like I am detached from reality, existing but without a purpose.

Bah...when are those people going to call me back about the job???

Lesson of the day: Chocolate does not go bad, even after three and a half years. It does, however, get a little crunchier.

"All I want to do is be more like me and be less like you"

Good News to Kick Off the New Year:

Congratulations to Lisa McMurray (nee Dabor) and her husband Dave! For those of you who remember Lisa from high school, she just gave birth to a boy, Adam Jonathan. I heard she was due in late December, so this kid was taking his time. But still, Lisa's gotten to a stage that I can't envision for myself even in the near future. She's been married...five years now, at least. She and Dave had been together for seven years prior to that. If I were to take the same path starting this very second...I would catch up to her at the age of 37. Still, perspective is everything, and I doubt that our paths would be all that similar. But I can still dream.

Lesson of the day: "Wozani" means "let's get together" in Zulu.

"Someday, somehow, we're gonna make it all right, but not right now"

The Feel-Good Moment of the Season:

I was finally able to complete one of my pre-New Year's resolutions. I'm afraid that eating all the chocolate I own before the year is out is not going to happen (I have quite a way to go and two days in which to accomplish my goal), but I was able to go to the Daily Bread Food Bank yesterday to help sort food for the needy. And surprisingly enough, this kind of manual labour was really fun. I went with Emily and her church friends, so there were maybe ten or twelve of us. I knew a few people, so it made it less awkward. After receiving instruction, we got to work. The one thing that impressed me was how well everything was organized. They had 17 categories of food items, all arranged in alphabetical order around a group of tables. We had people date-labelling the food, people sorting the food according to which side the boxes were on, and people boxing the food and putting them on the trolley. The time went by so fast, and suddenly we realized that we had sorted 4 or 5 skids in two hours. Food was flying back and forth, since we kept mixing up baked beans with plain beans, and dry pasta with noodles with soup. And what exactly counts as a significantly dented can? It also amazes me the kinds of things that people donate to the food bank. We found a bagful of old chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies. There was one bunny that wouldn't fit in the box even if the box was empty. We checked with one of the people in charge, who took one look at it and said "Garbage". Honestly, I don't think starving people are interested in Easter chocolate. We also kept getting lollypops and gumballs. File those under "Snacks", I guess.

It was such a great experience, I encourage all of you to try it at least once. And go with a group, it's much more fun with people you know. I can't wait for Easter.

"Help me if you can I'm feeling down, and I do appreciate you being round, help me get my feet back on the ground"

Storytelling:

Last night, I stayed up nice and late and watched "High Fidelity". Now, I love this movie for several reasons: 1) John Cusack; 2) it contains one of my favourite scenes of all time, which is the fantasy sequence where the shy quiet guy beats the crap out of the neo-hippie with a telephone and an air conditioner unit; 3) the music kicks ass; 4) for the most part, the lead character is telling you his story directly, except once in a while you get to see the action first hand. You get to see his perspective, his view on life and love and all the crap that happens along the way.

Today, my bros and I got to see the full version of "Big Fish". Basically, the lead character in this movie also tells stories about his life, except the accuracy of the facts is not entirely reliable. But they're really interesting stories, even if they didn't really happen. I guess the reason why I like these movies so much is because I love to tell stories too. I suppose that's evident by this blog of mine. So...yeah. Storytelling. Good. That's all I have to say about that.

On an almost unrelated note, I miss my friend Leo. I got to see him yesterday at a get-together with other high school people that I haven't seen in ages. He makes me laugh just by standing there, but he makes me laugh even harder when he tells his stories. Whether it's about his cheerleading days or his first hand experiences with Viagra, I can always count on Leo for a good story.

Lesson of the Day: I shouldn't drink red wine at a party. Or in public for that matter.

"Shadows grow so long before my eyes, and they're moving across the page"

Weirdos At The Door:

This is could possibly be construed as a cautionary tale. Or it could be funny. Depends on your point of view.

My cousin Ellen called me just a little while ago. She's at home by herself (well, my grandfather is there too, but basically she's there to look after him as opposed to the other way around). Someone rang her doorbell. She guessed that her sister had returned home and forgotten her key. As she approached the door, she noticed it was a man, so maybe it was her father. But her father isn't six feet tall with grey hair. As she was about to open the door, the person outside started trying to open the door. That made her stop and begin to freak out. Who is this weirdo? So she backed off into the kitchen and waited. After maybe ten minutes of constant bell ringing and knocking, the guy left. That's when she called me. We figured things were okay, except he came back and started knocking and ringing the bell again. She really began to freak out, so I gave her the number of our family friend (where our parents were playing MJ) and told her to call the police in addition to her parents.

After several minutes, she called me back. The 911 operator had instructed her to talk to the man through the door. It turns out that the man was her sister's friend's father, and he was looking for his son. I'm not sure about the details, but it was something like he was supposed to come and pick up his son but wasn't sure of the correct time or place. So she informed him that they had gone out and hadn't returned yet. And as far as I know, he left.

Man, Ellen was freaking out. She had even armed herself with a kitchen knife. To be honest, I would have been pretty scared too if I were in her situation. Unfortunately, my uncle and aunt are probably speeding back to their house right now, freaking out even more so than Ellen. In any case, it's good that everything turned out to be non-hostile. But seriously, what kind of person tries to open the door while they're waiting for someone to answer it?

"Every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you"

A Keira Knightley Kind of Christmas:

Merry Christmas to one and all! I hope your holiday festivities are proceeding nicely. It's been interesting so far for me. Bucking tradition, my family and my uncle's family went to a Chinese buffet for dinner last night. There's nothing like watching adults jousting each other with tongs while trying to grab the best crab legs to put you in the holiday mood.

Today started out pretty normally. We opened the few presents that were under the tree. My cousins gave my brothers the same sweaters that I had bought for them. After lunch, my mom offered to treat us to a movie, so we took the money and headed to the theatre. Twenty minutes in "Big Fish", the picture suddenly turned upside-down and played backwards. Given that this is an unusual kind of film, the audience thought that either this was part of the movie or someone in the booth would fix it eventually. After about five minutes, people went out to get the manager, and it turns out that yes, some yahoo had loaded the reel upside-down and backwards. They wouldn't be able to fix it for this showing, but it would be ready at the next showing at 4pm. In the meantime, everyone in the theatre would receive two free tickets to any movie they wanted. So we postponed "Big Fish" for tomorrow and went straight to the video store and rented "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Bend It Like Beckham". Not too shabby for one day.

And now, a great excerpt from our car conversation:

Steve: "So nothing's open today?"
Me: "Nope."
Steve: "Not even the 24-hour drug stores?"
Me: "Well, maybe a couple of them, but I don't know which ones."
Steve (in a high whiney voice): "But what if I need condoms and penicillin?"
Me: "I don't think you'll likely be fighting an infection while having sex anytime soon." (I start laughing)
Steve: "Hey...it's not funny when it happens."

"Feelin' hot hot hot!"

A Dirty Experience:

Eww, eww, eww. It's been several hours but I still feel yucky. My friends and I were having dinner at JJ Muggs last night. There was a table of men near us who were having some sort of Christmas party, I would assume, given the steady stream of libations that kept arriving at their table. During the course of our meal, Emily and I (since we were facing their direction) noticed that they kept looking over at us. We chose to ignore them. There were a couple of times when I believe I saw them taking photos of us. That alone was pretty creepy. Finally, they were getting up to leave, and a couple of them came up to our table. One approached my side and asked if he and his friends could buy us some drinks. I declined. He tried again, saying that it was Christmas and what's the big deal about them buying us drinks, and I declined again, and then got distracted by what was happening at the other side of our table. Another guy was trying to get Em to tell him her name. She was getting upset, but remained civil. Finally Ada said in a clearly annoyed tone, "Would you please just leave?" The guy seemed kind of indignant and said, "Why?" She replied, "Because I asked you nicely." He had no response for that, so he just left. The whole group of them stood around, possibly waiting for us to leave, however our waitress had not returned with the bill so we just sat there and ignored them until they left.

Now, I suppose the whole idea could be viewed as kind of flattering. And I guess it would have been, IF THE GUYS WEREN'T THE SAME AGE AS MY FATHER. Eww, eww, eww! I mean, I've passed by dirty old men in the street, but I've never actually had to deal with any in a family restaurant before. How old did they think we were? I still get carded at the liquor store, so I would guess that most people think I look younger than I really am. And I was with Laboni, who can still get away with paying child admission in some places.

That sound you hear is me shuddering violently.

"You can look but you can't touch, I don't think I like you much"

Why Was He Born So Pitiful, Why Was He Born At All?:

I had the rare pleasure of being in a U of T dominated pub last night with a group of people from Mac and Ryerson. Needless to say, it felt a little strange. The place was packed with predominantly caucasian kids being somewhat rowdy, most likely celebrating the end of exams or whatnot. Every so often a group would start singing some kind of drinking or school spirit song. They were very enthusiastic, I'll give them that. The only problem was that I couldn't understand a word they were saying. Other than a "hey!" or a "yeah!", it was really hard to tell who they were singing about or why they were singing at all. I thought back to my days in Waterloo Engineering, and there was always that one song that everyone knew that would single out some poor shlub who, at the end of the song, would have to chug his or her drink while everyone chanted. The first time I heard that song was during Frosh Week, and I was able to pick up the words after the first rendition. So it was kind of disheartening to see and hear those guys last night who, despite being very vocal and very passionate about St. Mike's, didn't do justice to the grand tradition of university drinking songs. I don't know, maybe I'm being too particular about it. But I would imagine that people sing these songs not just to unite with their friends, but also other people who may eventually want to join in at some point.

In other news, I was at Joe Badali's last night for dinner, and we were walking to our table when I glanced to my right and saw Mike "Pinball" Clemens sitting at a nearby table with other very large men in suits who were most likely also football-related people. That was quite exciting in a "Toronto celebrity" kind of way. Sort of similar to the time I passed by Tie Domi in a parking lot after a Leafs game.

"I walks with you, I talks with you, I still can't help thinking"

Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap Crap:

I just donated $35 to the world. I don't think I could feel any stupider. My father had given me the money for gas. It must have fallen out of my pocket as I was going about my business, doing errands. I didn't even notice the money was gone until I came home because I had used my credit card at the gas station. So, somewhere out there in the land of Etobicoke, someone is getting a nice Christmas bonus.

"I'm a loser baby so why don't you kill me"

An Interesting Exercise:

Things have been picking up in the job search department. I had an interview with a pharmaceutical company on Monday that went...okay. I could have done better, but that's life. The fact that they called me for an interview at all has lifted my spirits a little. On Wednesday I got a call from another pharma company who wanted me to come in and write a test. Test? What sort of test? The HR rep tells me it's general math and english, high school level stuff. So basically there's no way to prepare. And high school level math?? That may sound like a walk in the park, but after several years of complicated math, I haven't looked at the easy stuff for a long time. So despite all my efforts to stay positive and optimistic, I still felt kind of nervous this morning as I drove across town in the driving snow during rush hour. Almost being side-swiped by a van didn't really help (although I did forget about the test for a split second).

I should know better by now. First of all, there were maybe 24 people in the room with me, the majority of whom were around twice my age. Secondly, the majority of the people who were also writing the test 1) belonged to a visible minority, and 2) were applying for production jobs. So what did this mean? It was a really basic math test. What's this plus this? What's 7% of this number? If I have this many kilograms of pills, each with an average weight of this, how many pills do I have? No sweat.

The english portion was kind of funny. The first part was simple written communciation. There were three scenarios and we had to write a paragraph about how we would go about doing it. The first was about addressing an envelope for a letter you were going to mail. I couldn't think about it without giggling, let alone write about it. The second was about a fire alarm that goes off in the building. That was a little iffy. The third was to describe how you would go about taking the bus or subway to the company. I decided to go with the third one, based on the fact that I could actually see myself doing it. Not that I couldn't see myself in a fire alarm situation, but that one could have things attached to it, especially in a pharmaceutical environment, that involve more than just exiting the building.

The other parts of the english test were just about reading comprehension. There was a little story, and then there were some sample documents and you just had to describe things in your own words or find specific information. They said that you need to have at least 70% in both sections to pass. I haven't felt this good about a test in years.

So in both cases, they're going to get back to me by early January. And I just got an e-mail from a classmate today about an opening at her place of work (also a pharma company) in Montreal. Looks like the law of averages is kicking in.

"Oh no, she's not a secret now"

Oh No, You Don't Get Off That Easy...:

The past few days have been filled with social activity. Hooray! I have the semblance of a life!

Thursday, I went to Second City with Jocelyn to see a couple of her Laurier friends perform some improv. Their group, Calibre:Gros, was really good. We were sitting next to Alex's mom, and she defintely enjoyed it, even when they made some references to Alex's circumsized status.

Today, I made a little pit stop at MEC and got myself some early Christmas presents. My brothers got me a climbing harness (thanks guys!) and my parents got me some rock shoes (thanks Mom and Dad!). I even gave myself the gift of a chalkbag and chalk (thanks me!). Then I met up with Howie and we made our way through cold streets and detoured streetcars to Joe Rockhead's. After my confidence-crushing experience at Rock Oasis, I was glad to be back where I could make it to the top of several walls, and I got to use my own equipment (no more rental shoes for me!). The best part was that I didn't strain myself the way I did last time. Other than a little knee scrape, I was doing okay. Someone must have noticed that, because no sooner had we finished and I stepped into the changeroom, I jammed my thumb. I guess they weren't going to let me get away injury-free.

Tomorrow, Jocelyn and I will make another jaunt downtown to Aphasia's CD release party. We'll be there supporting her friend Stephany (the bassist). So exciting! It's great to see people you know on a stage. If you're in the neighbourhood of the 360 Club, come check it out! I have to admit, the guys look a little scary on their website, but their music is pretty good. I would suggest wearing black.

"I will let you down, I will make you hurt"

Ding Dong...

Who could that be? A UPS guy? Oooookay...

For me? Who could be sending me a package? From Paris Ontario??

Well, what do you know? I won something! But of course, with the literally dozens of contests I enter at any given time, what exactly did I do to win this thing? Ah...it's from that Toronto tourism propaganda blitz that happened this summer to lure people back after SARS. Apparently, I won the fifth prize. They even sent me the waiver with the skill testing question on it (the answer is 55). My prize? Two extremely large T-shirts, valued at approximately $20. It's funny, because according to the rules and regulations, I sent in the contest form a couple of days late (it was a weird situation...the way they had it there was no way I could have completed the form and sent it in on time). I guess my little note of explanation did the trick.

"We'll be singing when we're winning"

Did They Say Who Was Leading the Choir?

The festive season is fully upon us. Last night, I went downtown to Nathan Phillips Square to see the first lighting of the Christmas tree. Of course, they put on a show before they actually turn on the lights. We were too far back to really see anything, but we were able to make out the general direction of the stage. First up was the Toronto Children's Chorus. They sang a couple of standard carols, then they sang "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day", which is a song I distinctly remember singing in middle school choir (insert flashback here). Boni was able to confirm my memory. Then they sang "Panis Angelicus", and then they sang "This Little Babe", and I turned to Boni and asked, "Did they happen to mention who's leading this choir???" We were reliving our Grade 7 Christmas concert. Very surreal. We half expected Ms. Anber to pop up at any moment.

After the new mayor made a little blah-blah speech, and after the Ontario Guild of English Handbell Ringers performed (they have guilds for everything!), there was a performance by Strange Fruit, those people on bendy poles that we had seen at the Street Festival this summer. They must have been FREEZING. Their performance would have been good had it been less cold and the music had been less trance-like. Most people couldn't handle it. The minute they were done, flames started shooting up from city hall, and a huge fireworks show filled the air with smoke (luckily the wind was in our favour). It was quite impressive - better than New Year's, according to some people.

The skating was a different story. The ice was covered with a thick layer of snow, and people were skating in any direction they wanted. We had to avoid the kids zipping around our knees, the bumps that we couldn't see due to the snow, the garbage that was strewn about, and the people who had a complete disregard for safety and were just walking across the ice or were standing in the middle of the rink to watch the live band. Queenie actually yelled at a couple of kids, who yelled something back but I didn't hear what they said.

On our way out, we decided to partake in the free hot chocolate being dispensed by a guy with a Starbucks tank strapped to his back. There was a spillage in Ada's direction, naturally. I got bumped by the tank and spilled some on my mitten, which (and here's the low point of the evening) I decided to suck out. Boni, Queenie, Ada and Janice were trying to balance cups of hot chocolate with the free brownie squares. I just shook my head and said, "More than you can chew!" Queenie nearly choked on her hot chocolate trying not to laugh. I had inadvertently crossed the line into "stern elderly relative" mode.

"To see the legend of my play, to call my true love to my dance"

The Leaky Tire and the Asian Posse:

Dear god...so hard to type right now...
fingers...cramping...too...much...climbing...

More about that later.

So today (well, yesterday) was kind of eventful. First, we discovered that one of the tires on our car had a leak. To my mother, it was almost like the worst thing that could happen in the world. "We need to get it fixed TODAY! We need the car tomorrow!" Technically, that was a false statement. My brother had taken one of the cars since he has army training this weekend. I was going to go indoor rock climbing with friends in the evening, but we still had the van. Tomorrow (i.e. later today) my parents are going out all day and I'm going downtown but I could take a bus, I'm going to take the subway anyway. My mother was of the mindset that I needed the car to drive to the subway station. I don't know, she's weird that way. In any case, my dad and I took it to the dealer and got it fixed within half an hour. No problem.

So I went rock climibing tonight. I realize now why I didn't find it too difficult at Joe Rockhead's when I went last week. I had forgotten how tough Rock Oasis is. I was climbing 5.7 and 5.8 walls at Joe's with minor difficulty. But at Rock Oasis, I could barely make it to the top of a short 5.6 wall. Stupid handholds...how are you supposed to grab something that's almost completely spherical and smooth? I have decided that I like Joe Rockhead's better. Good thing I bought the membership there.

The rock climbing brought two of my worlds together. On the one hand, there were my close friends from high school (Em and Ada), and on the other there were people from university (Stacey, Danny, and another girl who I just met today). After the climbing, we went to Chinatown for a really late dinner and met up with a couple more of Stacey's friends, one of whom was the infamous Arthur (who else?) and another friend I just met (Jimmy). Suddenly, I looked around and realized that we had formed an Asian posse. The greatest part was that we all spoke Cantonese, which made it all the more authentic. I was proud of myself for being able to recommend a place where the food was good and cheap, and we all had a good time eating and getting to know each other. But some of us were having some issues using the chopsticks with our cramped fingers.

Lesson of the Day: It's easier to pull the snail out of its shell if you try sucking it out first.

"But when you feel so powerless, what are you gonna do?"

That Would Have Been the Fifth Continent:

Okay, so I went in knowing that it was the biggest marketing gimmick in the world, but whatever, it involved shoes, so why not? I was chosen as a "finalist" in a contest at Town Shoes, but naturally you had to be there in person when they did the draw, which was tonight at a downtown store. So I went. The draw was for a trip for two to South Africa for Cape Wine 2004 valued at around $25000. There were also going to be hors d'oeuvres and wine and gift bags for everyone. So I stayed around for a couple of hours, eating their food, drinking their wine, and looking at all the pretty shoes. There was an African mystic woman who was telling fortunes or something, but the line was quite long. They were also giving away prizes for answering trivia questions about South Africa, but there were WAY too many gung ho ladies (many of whom were at least twice my age) who really wanted the lipsticks, hair spray and Vitamin C tablets more than I did. At 9pm they did the draw for the ten runner-up prizes and then the grand prize. I got squat, which was to be expected. But the lure was too great and I ended up buying a really cute little evening bag using one of the "save $10 - tonight only" coupons they gave out. It was nice since the bag cost less than the minimum allowed on the coupon, and they gave it to me anyway. It would have been a lot nicer if I had won, but I guess I'll have to find some other way to get to that continent (I suppose I could go on safari, but in which lifetime is that going to happen?).

"Don't be afraid, navigate and I will steer into the sun, we will run"

The Story of My Life:

I've started another marathon cleaning session, and have begun to unearth some interesting artefacts from my past. More specifically, notes that were written by me or to me during that soap opera better known as high school. Now that enough time has passed and things have gone for better or for worse, it's utterly fascinating. I can now laugh at the things that we used to think were so damned important, or things that we would freak out about. Okay, when I say "we", it's more about "me" than anyone else, but I suppose the people who were involved were thinking about the same things and freaking out about similar stuff. I've found notes that were the instigator for other notes, and so on, and the whole timeline of events is pretty much documented. Which leads me to the question: should I keep this stuff or throw it out? I've been pretty good so far in throwing out my old junk (my inner pack rat is screaming in agony). But this is gold! It captures my high school experience so much more than a yearbook could (again, something that I used to think was SO important back in the day). I suppose I'll have to think about it a little more.

On a related and MUCH HAPPIER note, I found money! I'm glad I'm taking the time to examine everything I'm pitching out, otherwise I might possibly have thrown out $150 worth of traveller's cheques that I had totally forgotten about. You should have seen me earlier, jumping around and giggling with glee. YAY! Free money! Ding ding ding!

"But when it comes to being lucky he's cursed, and when it comes to loving me he's worst"

I Should Have Known They Would Say 'Nein':

It's been a couple of weeks of inactivity, I know. Nothing terribly exciting has been happening to me. Well, not until this past weekend, when I spontaneously decided to go to Montreal. It all came together quite quickly, and worked out pretty well. I crashed at my cousin's place, which was really nice. Got to hang out with Marie and observe her sushi eating habits. How the roe got in her hair, we'll never know. We also went to see "Love Actually", which is a hilarious movie starring every British actor on the face of the planet and is not as sappy as one might think. While the "many stories linked together" concept isn't new, the interesting twist is that not all of the stories have a happy ending. Go check it out. Oh, the guys in the audience need added incentive? It actually has some porn in it.

Here's some relatively depressing news. I got a rejection letter today. From Kraft Foods. Located in Munich. Yes friends, I had applied for a job in Germany. It was quite exciting for a little while, but they ended up saying nein to me after all. They even sent my resume back. It's like they want no recollection of me whatsoever. I learned soon after I had first sent off the application that in some countries, it's common to send a photo of yourself along with your personal information as a part of your resume. Maybe they thought I had something to hide by not sending them my mug shot.

"I've asked myself how much do you commit yourself? It's my life, don't you forget"

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween. I was on candy patrol, and as predicted there were only a few handfuls of people who came to the door. The second group of the night consisted of four kids, three of whom were dressed as SpongeBob Squarepants. I was handing out the treats when the last SpongeBob stopped me and said, "I have a nut allergy." All I had were Reese Peanut Butter Cups and Mars bars, so I felt kind of horrible for the kid. Then one of the other SpongeBobs, who looked like his twin, fished out the Reese that I had given him and handed it back to me saying, "Me too, but thank you for offering." These kids couldn't have been more that 7 or 8 years old.

The next notable visit came from a tiny white lion and his mom, who was dressed as a cat. He was literally knee-high, probably 3 or 4 years old. The mom tried to get him to say hello to me, but he was way more interested in the flashing bicycle light that was tied on a string around his neck. Finally he glanced up from his chest and said hello.

One of my first thoughts was, where did these kids come from? Most of the kids in my neighbourhood have grown up and even the younger ones have now entered university age. My next thought was, where are the older kids? I got a couple of kids, one with just a purple wig and the other with a green and white striped "Cat in the Hat" hat, and that was about it. I guess it just means more candy for me, although I did carry on my tradition and bought Halloween candy today.

"It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark"

15 Minutes...Maybe More:

Wow. I was on TV. Not only that, I was on TV standing 6 feet away from Sarah McLachlan, my favourite recording artist, listening to her perform. So, if you saw me and Boni last night, sorry, we hardly had room to breathe let alone wave when the cameras were turned towards us. Damn tall people. But since MuchMore is going to rerun the special presentation a million times in the next couple of days, here are some general tidbits of information:

1) Boni and I were standing directly to the right of Sarah when she's performing on the piano. Look for the woman with the dark v-neck sweater and short hair. You'll see me and Boni on either side, peaking around her head.

2) During the first interview segment, near the end of the "Lisa from St. Thomas" phone call question, there's a very clear close-up of Boni.

3) During the performance of "Dirty Little Secrets", the second song, there's an EXTREMELY clear close up of my head.

4) We had to rehearse the opening (where Bill Welychka first introduces Sarah while everyone is going crazy) FIVE TIMES before the show started. We had to cheer just as loudly each time.

5) I'm about the same height as Sarah. I know because she had to walk past us on the way in and on the way out, and I was maybe three feet away from her. Also, her hair is just brown, not black, despite what the promotional photos would suggest.

6) The floor director made it clear that we weren't supposed to approach her for autographs, but some people did anyway. Bastards.

7) When the show was over and we were waiting to get our coats, Bill passed by to grab something before he headed home. He thanked us for coming, and then the security guy said something like, "These people were waiting for you. Aren't you going to go over there and talk to them?" Bill stopped and looked at us for a second in a bewildered manner before the security guy started to laugh.

8) The Café Crêpe that's across the street and always visible during Much broadcasts has really good crêpes. Boni wondered if they were clever and knew they'd get free daily publicity or if they were just incredibly lucky when they acquired that piece of real estate.

"Though I've tried I've fallen, I have sunk so low, I messed up, better I should know"

If you aren't doing anything tonight, turn on the TV to MuchMoreMusic at 8pm. Boni and I will try to wave at you if the camera is turned our way. =)

"Listen as the wind blows from across the great divide"

A Smashing Start to My Career:

You just can't take me anywhere. I decided to be bold and attend a forum at York University that was organized by the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers and the Women in Engineering Advisory Council. My motivation for going was the fact that Bob McDonald was the keynote speaker. I thought, "Hey, it may be at 9:30 in the morning on a Saturday, but damn, it's Bob McDonald! I'm NOT going to be bored!" Oh, you don't know who Bob McDonald is? He used to host Wonderstruck on CBC, and now he has a CBC Radio program called Quirks and Quarks. I saw him speak once at Waterloo, and he was great. He didn't even major in anything science related, but he can talk about the subject in a way that anybody can understand, and he's really funny.

Back to my story. The talk was held in one of those typical university lecture halls, with the retractable little table things on the sides of the chairs. Now, these were less stable than what I was used to, and it serves me right for trying to save the environment and use a ceramic coffee cup instead of the available paper cups. Yes, that's right, I readjusted the table and the next thing I knew the cup and saucer were headed for the floor. The room became silent for two seconds, and I could feel every single eye on me as I bent down to pick up the pieces. One of the organizing ladies came around to make sure I hadn't also injured myself with hot coffee or sharp edges or something, which made the whole experience complete. And all this before the session even began.

Embarrassing moments aside, it was a nice little seminar. The ratio was approximately 6 guys to 40 women (but if you don't count Bob and the president of the society, then the ratio was a little closer to what I was expecting). Bob did a similar presentation to the one I had seen, but that was okay. The panel discussion was okay, it focused a lot on the typical "how do we get more girls to join the profession?" and "how do we guys to treat us equally?" Some good points were made, but nothing groundbreaking. The networking lunch was much more fun. I was at a table where pretty much everyone was a Chemmie, except one girl who was a Civ. I got some really good job search advice, and met some interesting ladies. And the food was good, which made it all worthwhile. I'm thinking I should really start to go to more of these events.

And who knew that York has an engineering program now?

"If my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy, well I deserve nothing more than I get cos nothing I have is truly mine"

My Father the Spy:

Operation CleanRoom is picking up steam, especially in the last couple of days since I decided to focus exclusively on my closet. That's when I found one of the coolest things ever. I pulled out a box from one of the more remote corners of the closet, thinking it was something like a portable heater or an old turntable. I popped it open, and it was actually an old tape recorder. It had two big spools, like the ones you see on TV, being used in CIA interrogations in the 1960s, or in old fashioned stake-outs with the two guys in the unmarked van taping the conversations of known mafiosos. The best part is that there's a tape on the machine that has clearly been used. I can't wait to find a power source and find out what's on it. I showed it to my dad, and the first thing he said was "Great! Now I can listen to those tapes that I have."

"Secret agent man, secret agent man, they've given you a number and taken away your name"

I couldn't believe my ears as I watched Everwood last night. The annoying nemesis, Dr. Abbott, was actually using Friendster as a resource to search for potential suitors for his younger sister. I was stunned. First of all, I figured these guys were extremely outside of the target demographic for this particular website. But, after taking a look around, it would appear that there are people of that specific age and background who do use it, and are apparently serious about it. I'm not sure why I was surprised when I heard it referenced on a popular TV show. I mean, these kinds of online networking services have been around forever. I don't know, it probably seemed really surreal to me simply because I've recently become a participant in this modern matchmaking scheme.

By the way, is there anyone out there who wants to see Kill Bill with me? Please?

"Always should be someone you really love"

Jaws, I was actually able to type in your blog address correctly from memory on the first try. You sure don't like to do things the easy way, do you? =)

Reading her blog today reminded me of a quote I heard earlier this week that made me laugh and then made me shake my head because I had laughed at it. I'll tell you the quote, and then I'll tell you the context.

"My God, look at the nut sack on that thing!" - Ed Robertson

The making of the video for the Barenaked Ladies' new single "Another Postcard". The concept: a six-storey tall chimpanzee is rampaging through Toronto while the five band members run around as either civilians or army soldiers with pieces of fake concrete falling around them. The chimp then climbs the CN Tower before it rockets into outer space. Also, each of the guys got to play a character with a line at the beginning of the video. Sadly, the nut sack line didn't make it into the finished product. Those guys are hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing for the entire half-hour show. Well, maybe during the commercials.

Speaking of music videos, I just saw the new Sarah McLachlan video, "Fallen". I've lost count of how many videos she's made in which she is naked. Three? Four? But it has been quite a while since the last one (which I believe was "Possession") so I guess that's okay. And I'm glad that her hair is long again, but the jury is still out as to whether the black dye job suits her or not.

"Another postcard with chimpanzees, and every one is addressed to me"

I seem to have the kind of luck that would result in a brief power outage at the exact time that I've set the VCR to tape something. Boo...

On the other hand, I went to see Cavalia, which was really really cool. There was a girl seated behind me who sort of summed it up: "They're making the horses act like dogs!" This was mainly referring to the fact that the trainers were able to get the horses to lie down and sit up on command. I think my favourite act was the Roman Riding act, where three riders were standing on two horses each, racing around the stage and jumping over bars. It was a really good performance, although the strong winds made sitting inside a tent something like a test of my faith in engineering. As it turned out, my faith was in the right place. =)

"All the mistakes one life contained, they all finally start to go away"

I hate confrontation. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. People who know me probably know this already. Why can't we all just get along? But what I hate even more is confrontation with people I consider to be my friend. This doesn't mean that I won't do it, but I get this pit-of-the-stomach kind of feeling (like I'm about to be sick or something). And I hate it. It's like we're attacking each other. I don't like attacking people when it isn't in a joking, "I don't really mean it" kind of way. It gets way too personal for me. More proof that I don't have the stomach for business.

Hooray for nepotism. I appear to have a job. How? My dad appears to have gotten the cultural centre job. But it's just a verbal agreement, he hasn't signed anything yet. Although, even if it were a written contract, it doesn't mean anything's written in stone. Things can change all the time. I suppose once he gets his first paycheque, then we'll celebrate the job. Oh, and the way this affects me is that I'm going to be his "staff". Yay, monkey work! Well, it's stuff like taking notes at meetings, doing some spreadsheet analysis, creating powerpoint presentations, and such. However, in the words of my father, "THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU STOP LOOKING FOR A JOB." Well, yeah, I don't plan on being a lackey for the rest of my life. This is more of a temporary financial solution while I'm between jobs.

Here's my funny story of the day: I was looking at the cultural centre's website to see what the board of directors (a.k.a. my dad's bosses) look like, and I came across the group photo. One of the directors is a lady who's name is (and I'm NOT kidding) Dr. Dong Dong-dong. I asked my dad if this was for real, and it was. Her last name could have been spelled Tung, and her given name is literally "winter winter". All I can say is, why??

"If I sorted it out, if I knew all about this one thing, wouldn't that be something?"

Things I Thought Would Never Happen:

I never thought I would see Jocelyn take down a 250-lb male. Okay, I didn't exactly see it, but she reenacted the event with some assistance from Em (which was one of the funnier and more painful things I have seen of late). I now know where the pain sensitive areas are, and how to get out of a situation where someone is choking me...err...from the front, anyway. Ooh, I should clarify this: she was taking down the guy as part of her "use of force" training. She wasn't being accosted on the street or anything.

I never thought I would ever join an online network. No, it's not a dating service, but it could be used for that purpose. It's also a friend network, and I've found people there that I haven't seen in years. Funniest thing: I had been on the network for 24 hours and I already received a message from a guy I don't know who's a friend of a friend of a friend of mine. Did I mention that this is a "six degrees of separation" kind of thing? It's staggering, I've got four friends on my network but through them I'm connected to over 27000 people in the world.

The girls and I went on a road trip yesterday to Creemore Ontario. It's an hour and half north of TO, just south of Collingwood. It was voted one of the top 10 prettiest towns in Canada, so we had to go and check it out. Cute town. We thought we would be an attraction for the locals ('look, Asian people!') but it turns out that there was another group of Asians, who were clearly tourists, at the brewery (Creemore Springs...good beer). Then we saw an Asian chick in a restaurant who looked like a local. So much for being unique.

"I think we're alone now, there doesn't seem to be anyone around"

Words you really don't want to see in a weather forecast in early October: Chance of light rain or snow.

Ah...pre-season hockey. As fun as it was to go see a game with my dad, the quality of hockey that we witnessed was disappointing, to say the least. Both teams looked like they didn't know what they were doing. And yeah, we lost, but it was marginal. The fights were satisfactory though. It's interesting that some people who are generally quiet and friendly, like myself, can become such advocates of sports violence when given the opportunity.

And what is with all these goddamned fruit flies?! We don't even have any fruit out in the open! No matter how many I squash, they just keep materializing. Again with that violence thing...well, they started it.

"Hello out there, we're on the air, it's hockey night tonight"