A Lot More "New" Than Expected

Happy New Year to you all.

It's been kind of quiet on my part lately. There was a good reason for it: it's a little hard to talk when you're holding your breath.

For the last month or so, I was being considered for a position in another pharmaceutical company. This was entirely of my own doing, since I went and applied to the job posting. It's a validation specialist position, which is more in line to what I'm interested in doing. I didn't tell anyone (outside of my family) in an effort to avoid jinxing the entire process. The last time I was this excited about a job prospect, I didn't get it, and then afterwards everyone I had told asked if I had gotten it. It was like reliving the disappointment over and over.

It wasn't like I was actively looking for a new job. I just casually glanced around here and there for the past few months. If it weren't for the fact that my current job didn't utilize much of the knowledge and skills I had paid so much to learn in university, I would have stayed there for a long time. There are also some personal perks associated with this new job which helped me with my decision:

1) the company is 15 minutes away from my house,
2) I'll get to work with new products, and the duties are more applicable to my goal of becoming a professional engineer, and
3) despite first appearances, and after doing some calculations, I'll actually be making the slightest bit MORE (per hour) than I am now.

They offered me the position yesterday and I accepted this morning. The only thing left to do was to break the news to my boss and co-workers. There was some degree of surprise, and a little sadness mixed in with the happy from everyone. I will sorely miss this group when I leave in two weeks. One of my co-workers was slightly more distraught over my leaving than the others. Of course, she's the one whose workload will probably double until they hire my replacement, so it's understandable. Even the director of my department expressed his sadness to me personally. I think he's gotten used to my quick responses to his requests.

I've got a few days of recreation scheduled after my last day, and then it's straight to my new place of employment. Onward and upward.

Stage 1 of Plan B complete. Proceed to Stage 2.

"It's like the calm before the storm, you'd better swim"

The Cost of Stupidity

I lost $100 tonight. Not for any particular reason, I just lost it by being stupid and putting $100 in my pocket instead of somewhere else. If it were just my own money, I suppose I would feel stupid enough, but in this particular case:

a) it was a Christmas gift from my uncle, and
b) it was to be split between me and my brothers.

The worst part was that we were at a restaurant, and I got out of my chair only once to get some condiments (we were at a hot pot restaurant). That was near the beginning of the evening. Two hours later, no matter where it was or who it was who picked it up, it was definitely long gone.

Of course, I gave my brothers their money and took the loss myself. Then my mother walks into my room with $100. And now I feel EVEN MORE stupid. Why should she pay for my mistake? It was my own stupid fault. She didn't want to see me so sad, she said. I tried my best to talk her out of it but as anyone with a Chinese mother knows, it's pretty futile to even attempt to argue with them.

So Merry Christmas to whomever it was who scored a hundred dollars on a whim at a shabu shabu restaurant in Markham tonight. People gain from stupidity all the time. Especially from mine.

"You stupid girl, all you had you wasted"

What Were the Odds?

Yesterday, my father was driving in our shiny new car and he got struck by a pedestrian. Honestly. He told me this after I had spent two and a half hours trying to get home from work and somehow it both surprised me and didn't surprise me at the same time. I don't recall if he told me where it happened, but basically some guy was getting his car ticketed across the street and in his mad dash to stop the cop he ran into our driver side mirror and cracked it. The guy stopped at first, but that was mainly because the mirror had physically stopped him. Then he was about to keep running to his car when my dad stopped him and showed him the damage. "Oh, your insurance will cover that," he said. WHAT?? Oh, but that's not even the most infuriating part. The most infuriating part was how much it's going to cost to fix the mirror. Even now, I can't bring myself to repeat the number, it's just too ludicrous.

Today I experienced a new level of frustration as I attempted to get Coldplay tickets yet again. I can't believe that I can say that it was much easier to get eight U2 tickets than it was to get a pair of Coldplay tickets. But, after multiple website crashes and a split second of hesitation, I was finally victorious. Now we play the waiting game...

"...aw, the waiting game sucks. Let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos."

"The sign that I couldn't read, or the light that I couldn't see"

What's Important

After a couple of months, my brother has decided to quit his job as an apprentice at a nameless dealership. There are many things I could say about this place, most of which would probably reveal glaring and blatant violations of general labour laws, but I will refrain. I think most people tend to follow this simple guideline: If your place of work is a hazard to your health, you should find another place of work. My brother has been quite unlucky in his recent choices of employers.

Before his untimely descent into unemployment, he was asked to clean up some of the cars that had been returned after the lease had expired. (Why, you might ask, would he be asked to do this? Because the guy who was supposed to do it was fired and had yet to be replaced) This is where he (and I) discovered what people view as being important. First of all, one of the cars experienced some kind of catastrophic snack disaster, where it appeared that an entire bag of potato chips self-destructed. Under the seat, no less. Actually, he was able to find a good portion of the chips UNDER THE FLOOR MAT. People, I don't know if you value your automobile, even ones that you lease, but for pete's sake, that's just gross.

What else did my brother find in these newly abandoned cars? Loose change was a popular one, not just on the floor but also in the storage compartments in plain sight. He claimed it as his gratuity. But that's not very original. Well, how about a bunch of baby photos? Once again, shoved under the seat. I can understand if, like any parent, they had taken a gazillion photos of the kid and losing one or two shots would probably not be so terrible. But what were they doing wedged under the seat?? My brother didn't comment on the appearance of the child. (Hey, there could be good reasons for these things)

Here's the best one: a woman's wallet. Complete with credit cards, the car's license and registration, and $4 worth of Canadian Tire money. He found it...you guessed it...as he was trying to vacuum under the seat and had to stop because something was blocking the hose. I can't recall if the owner returned to the dealership to claim the wallet, but my brother turned it in anyway...after claiming a $4 finder's fee.

So, next time you have to return something, or leave a location, what should you do?

Lesson of the Day: Keep a close eye on your potato chips; you never know when one of those suckers could go off.

"It's a shame we have to die, my dear, no one's getting out of here alive this time"

New Addition to the Family

We welcomed our new baby to our home today. She's so shiny and new.

After months and months of badgering, my father finally found the time to buy a new car. A Hyundai Sonata. It all happened really fast, once the ball actually got rolling.

So what does this mean for me? Well, it means that Phase 1 of my plan has hit a snag. Basically, there's no more room on the driveway. But never fear! Phase 2 will commence shortly.

And now, for those of you who enjoy all things quirky and old-school, this is for you.

"And you may ask yourself, how do I work this? And you may ask yourself, where is that large automobile?"

The Sensation of Falling

While I wouldn't say that I nearly fell to my death a few days ago, it wasn't until after it happened that I could properly evaluate the experience of freefalling. And, given the circumstances, I really only have one thing to say about it.

Cool...

After more than a year, I ventured back to the climbing gym. I knew that my technique had become quite poor (who am I kidding? It was ALWAYS poor), but I had the gear and a few more visits left on my ten-visit pass, so why not?

After a few easy climbs, I went over to a 5.7 that didn't seem too bad. Laurie was belaying me. I climbed to the top of the wall with only a few minor pauses. So I made sure Laurie was ready and I sat in the harness. As she lowered me slowly down, I kept my gaze slightly upward, watching the fake rocks as I passed them. Partway down, Laurie let the rope out a little too quickly and there was a short drop (maybe a foot) before I jerked to a stop. As she started lowering again I could feel the drop again, so I was ready for it. Only this time I didn't jerk to a stop.

I kept falling.

And falling.

And falling.

Until I realized that, hey, I'm kind of falling now.

And hey, that's the floor right there.

And I'm still falling.

And just like in the movies or in cartoons, about two inches from the floor, I stopped falling. My feet touched the ground as though I had meant to plant them there, and I felt Laurie next to me swinging about two feet off the ground.

In reality, it might have been maybe ten feet of falling, but of course in the moment it felt like forever and a split second at the same time.

Some guy (out of the half-dozen witnesses) came over and said to Laurie, "You know, if you lose control of the rope, you just have to let go of the lever."

You know, if you were watching carefully, she did let go of the lever. If she hadn't, I would have been a mangled heap instead of swinging with my butt two inches off the floor. But what you didn't know is that her first instinct was to grab the rope with her right hand, which unfortunately meant that she ended up with a pretty nasty rope burn while I walked away injury-free.

In the end, nobody got permanently hurt and there was never any danger of that happening anyway. Woo hoo for cushy floors.

And Laurie, for God's sake stop apologizing.

"At the end of the world, or the last thing I see, you are never coming home"

Dancing on the Edge

It's been pointed out to me by several loyal readers that I have been very remiss about the frequency of my blogs. And they are very correct. Life is funny that way: you don't blog because there's nothing to blog about, but then everything starts happening and then you don't have time to blog. I'll try to remember what happened, but I think the only way to do this is in reverse. So here goes:

Last night I went out to celebrate the birth of my good friend Livy. She was my clubbing buddy back in the day and when she went off into the world for a couple of years I was sure that my clubbing days were over. But she's back home now and we've had some fun (although my stamina is not what it used to be). As for last night, we started with a Chinese feast with a large number of friends, and then moved the party down to Clubland. The night wasn't quite as crazy as we had anticipated (the venues were not quite as packed as usual). I, however, managed to step right up to the edge of drunkenness and dance my way back from the brink with minimal damage. Unfortunately for Livy, although I knew that she could hold her liquor a little better than the average Asian girl, the event did end with some hair holding. But I'm happy to report that she's feeling much better today, and we've got some photos to remind ourselves of the good times.

I went to the opera on Thursday with my brother. We went to see Carmen, which is one of the few operas that I'm actually familiar with. The best part is that they now have a system called "Surtitles", where the English translations are projected above the stage as the lines are being sung. But I was stunned to see a number of people showing up to the opera in jeans and sweatshirts. Granted, there were two busloads of high school students there, but even amongst some of the adults who attended the performance, the standard of dress was surprisingly causal. I know that we don't have an opera house like they do in Europe, but it just seems to me that the opera is one of those occasions where dressing up is expected.

I know I've mentioned quite forcefully that you should go and see Wallace & Gromit if you can. I can also recommend Corpse Bride. It's a little creepy at one point but the amazing thing is what they can do with the technique of stop-motion. Even though I had put it on my list of movies I wanted to see, it wasn't until I was opening my mail a couple weeks ago that I had made up my mind for sure. I thought I had received another piece of junk, when out of the envelope I pulled a double pass to see the movie for free. I had won a contest I entered months ago and had forgotten all about it. This totally renews my faith in the $2 I spend almost every week for the Super 7. My time will come.

I spent a weekend up north in Muskoka with some of my co-workers and had a blast. They went golfing while I went fishing with another girl. We weren't very successful on the boat, but I caught my first fish off the dock, which was rather exciting. There are too many details to be described here, but I plan on revamping my website, and hopefully that will be up and running by the end of the year (I'm being optimistic), so hold on to your hats until then.

"Monster hospital, can you please release me?"

Wheelings and Dealings

I am still recovering from four weeks of constant activity. It only ended on Friday and, aside from little events here and there, will probably pick up again in about two weeks. During this brief hiatus, I will attempt to convey all of my recent wheelings and dealings in this (hopefully) concise blog.

Labour Day Long Weekend
A road trip to visit Marie and Louis in la belle province. Not your typical jaunt into Montreal. For starters, we were hardly on the island. Except when we followed one of our friends on a blind date. In a nutshell, she gave him all the chances and he still came up "short". Add in a hyperactive cat and a really long game of mah jong, and that adds up to a really relaxing enjoyable visit.

DJ Andrew
Andrew, a friend from way back yonder, has been dabbling in the art of the turntable (if you count a CD player as a turntable...beggers can't be choosers). Jocelyn and I went to see him in action at his favourite place in the whole wide world: a hole-in-the-wall that occasionally passes for a pub. It took us a while to recognize him without the mass of hair on this face and the absence of glasses (it was the Clark Kent effect). But a good time was had by all. We also learned that hosts a karoke night at another local watering hole. In his words, "Good money, bad for the psyche." I can only imagine (until I go there and witness it myself).

Film Fest
It's that time of year again. Learning from last year's logistical meltdown, I wisely chopped my number of tickets down from 30 to 10, and only partnered up with one other person in terms of film selection. Just the same, I was able to take in five films (four regular screenings and one gala).

A travers la foret: One guess as to who chose this film (Jocelyn). A quirky French film dealing with loss and grief. The ending was one of those "what do you mean this is the end??" feelings. But the cinematography was really cool. The whole film (about an hour long) was shot in ten separate scenes, but each scene was one continuous take. It's doubtful that it will ever show in North America again.

These Girls: A twisted Canadian comedy. In a small Maritime town, three teenage girls, fresh out of high school, spend their summer blackmailing an older married guy for sex. Did you ever wonder what Amanda Walsh was doing after quitting MuchMusic? Well check this out. She's the delusional one who thinks the older guy (David Boreanaz of Buffy and Angel fame) is in love with her. Caroline Dhavernas (of the untimely cancelled Wonderfalls) is the devious one. And Holly Lewis (yeah, I don't know who she is either) is the remarkably nutty religious one.

Bee Season: A Richard Gere head-scratcher. I didn't realize it would be so religiously based, but what do I know? In a family of over-achievers, the unknowingly talented daughter discovers she is good at spelling. Hence her secret entrance into spelling bees. The father finds out and focuses his Kaballah studies on her to help her achieve some spiritual state of being where she could possibly talk to God. Meanwhile, the rest of the family falls apart. The daughter brings them back together again, but even now I don't really know how she did it.

China Blue: Coming to a PBS near you. A US-made documentary about migrant workers in Chinese sweatshops. It focuses on young girls who work in a factory making jeans for the "big and fat" Westerners. Really well done considering it also shows the other side of the story (our demand for jeans and other clothes) and the consequences of our desire for cheap goods.

Wallace & Gromit - Curse of the Were-Rabbit: I don't care if you've never heard of Wallace & Gromit, YOU MUST SEE THIS FILM. The makers of "Chicken Run" took five years to bring the short-film adventures of Wallace the inventor and his much smarter dog Gromit to the big screen. Wallace & Gromit operate a humane pest control company, Anti-Pesto, to rid the community of rabbits days before the annual Giant Vegetable Competition. But the presence of the mysterious and devastating were-rabbit threatens everyone's veggies, including Gromit's prized melon. (I know I sound like a promotional junket, but I don't care)

More Concerts
Mixed in with this bag of films was the highlight of the 2005 concert season: the U2 Vertigo tour finally landed in Toronto. Although the reviews weren't glowing, I thoroughly enjoyed my first U2 experience. The occasional political rantings were tolerable. Their catalog is so immense that I know it's impossible to play everyone's favourite songs. I heard that we were robbed of four songs from the previous show, but the story of the origin of the Edge was amusing.

We arrived late to the show, so we missed all but the last ten minutes of Dashboard Confessional's set. Fortuitously, that same night I was invited to go to their special acoustic show last night. All proceeds were donated to Hurricane relief, so if nothing else I was going to go for that reason alone. I'm sort of familiar with their songs, but I think I prefer them much more acoustically. A really long show considering they were playing for free (but for a good cause). Amusing stage banter, and constant spontaneous song-writing live on stage. And Chris is pretty cute. (Thanks Steve!)

And Finally...
After a morning of frantic clicking, I was able to achieve the Canadian Dream. And no, it's not warmth. Although it is just under seven months away, I figure I've waited this long already...

"My hopes are so high, that your kiss might kill me. So won't you kill me? So I die happy"

Year of the Concert

I can almost call the Molson Amphitheatre my home. The ACC would be my second home. The number of concerts I have attended so far this summer has surpassed the number of concerts I've been to in the past five years combined. And I'm not quite done yet.

Let's review:

David Usher - a surprise last-minute concert invite from Cathy was accepted through peer pressure (I was at a birthday bowling event). The best part was that I got to sit down for most of the night. Very rare in a club gig. His music is still good although extremely more mellow than his Moist days.

Sarah McLachlan - I returned the favour and went with Cathy to see my favourite performer. The Perishers, a band from Sweden, were the openers. As expected, a great show.

The Killers - I went to see them two days after I returned from Europe, still a little jet lagged but very excited. Louis XIV and Tegan & Sara were on stage first. Wasn't fully familiar with any of their music, but quickly got into it, especially due to the energy from the crowd.

Jet - Another sudden concert invite, this time from Ron. I had never been to the Opera House before, and it's one of those great intimate venues. Somehow I had managed to position myself just outside the perimeter of the mosh, so I was able to enjoy the show without being manhandled.

Weezer/The Pixies - Amazing double-bill. Second concert with my little bro. "Here Comes Your Man" remains one of my favourite tunes. (I just heard it on the radio today) "El Scorcho" was in my head for days afterwards.

Foo Fighters - Last night's concert was kick-ass! The Constantines were the openers, and they weren't bad, I think I have to listen to their music a little more to get into it. Surprise guests were Sloan, who had been part of the bill in other cities but were not scheduled to be in the line-up (they played at the Rexall Centre the night before with finger eleven and David Usher, and I actually had an opportunity to go to that concert too, but I had other plans). Dave Grohl is an awesome musican. He played drums during the encore which was sweet. This was the last concert with my bro for the year (my concert buddy). He'll be back at school in a few weeks.

Coming up on the horizon: I'm eagerly anticipating the U2 show in September, I just bought tickets to see Metric, and I found out that Our Lady Peace is returning to town. The concert season is far from over...

"If anything could ever be this good again"

Start Your Engines

I don't think I've blogged much about my brother's hobby, have I? He races go-karts competitively. I know...cool, huh? He bought a kart (which I always describe as a chassis with a lawn mower engine and a steering wheel) and all the associated gear. He looks kind of impressive when he's all suited up, doesn't he? Funny story: the place where he ordered his shoes turned out to not have the ones he wanted, so they gave him a pair of better shoes for the same price. They're flame retardant. I asked him what the odds are that he would need flame retardant shoes, and he said very small. But in the event that there is some kind of spectacular accident, every part of his body will go up in flames, except for his feet.

This is his first year, so he's "the Rookie". Today was his fourth race. Usually, his friend Calin goes with him when he races, but he's in Romania for two months, so I've been recruited to help him out in the pit. I've already helped him once on Canada Day. While it may sound glamourous (or not), all it really involves is some heavy lifting, and a lot of sitting and waiting. Each weight and engine class (novice, junior light, junior heavy, senior light, senior heavy, junior rotax, senior rotax, and masters) goes through four rounds: practice, qualifying, pre-final, and final. So, you can imagine how uneventful it can be. But today was kind of exciting. I almost got run over by a junior heavy kart. Apparently his brakes malfunctioned during the practice and he came off the track with no way of stopping. He somehow managed to steer his way around everyone standing in the pit before being pulled to a stop by some of the fathers.

It was also "picture day". They had a professional photographer on the track taking pictures of the racers. I told Steve that he probably has some of the best shots in the group because, as opposed to the more experienced drivers who were always going around in a group, he was always by himself at the back of the pack.

But it's all in good fun. He had a good practice, but his qualifying round was pretty poor. Turns out his rear axle had become loose and was shifting around. We didn't realize this until just a few minutes before the pre-final. One of the fathers (also named Steve) helped him out and we were able to get him onto the grid just as they were about to start. That improved his performance drastically, and by the end of the final, he had beaten his previous race's best time by a second. And nobody lapped him. So now he's pretty confident that he'll be able to finish second-last next time. Hopefully he'll be able to race against his new nemesis, #7. He probably would have passed #7 this time if the other guy didn't suffer a setback in the first lap of the race and had to pull out.

Until we meet again...

"He's going the distance, he's going for speed"

Strap On Your Tango Shoes

My taste in music is varied, to say the least. I'll pretty much listen to anything and everything. My brother Steve is very similar, but he experiences waves of interest. He'll like a certain kind of music or artist for several months, and then it will be replaced with something almost completely different. He's gone from Mozart to the Spice Girls to Shania Twain to Diana Krall to Linkin Park to Bond to Stars, from what I can recall. I'm sure there were other flavours in between. Lately, he has developed a taste for tango music. So he asked me if I wanted to join him to see a band called Narcotango, who was playing at a place downtown last night. I said okay.

We got to the venue (a former church, it would seem) a little late, so there were no seats available. We went upstairs and surveyed the scene. The stage was set up where I suppose the altar would have been, and there was a bar in the back. The balcony wrapped around the perimeter, so we had a pretty good view of the dance floor below. There was a DJ spinning some interesting tango music, and people started dancing.

Being a girl, the first thing I noticed was the shoes. All of the ladies had similar looking shoes: high heeled, closed toe, with straps across the middle. Some of the designs were a little different, and although most of them were black, there were some white pairs and even red. These ladies came prepared to dance.

Then there was the dancing. It was fascinating watching these people move. Their legs kept weaving back and forth. A few times there were couples who almost collided, but otherwise everyone continuously moved chaotically around the floor with no problems. There was a boy who was trying to cross the room, and it was like watching a game of Frogger.

The demographics were all over the map, people from all ages and ethnicities. The combinations ranged from professional-looking couples with the women in flowy dresses, to casually dressed couples, to a pair of ladies dancing together, to a single woman twirling around by herself. Every couple was moving to a different rhythm and tempo, despite the fact that they were all listening to the same music. It looked really fun, although I wasn't about to try since I was with Steve and I have no idea how to tango. Plus I'm not entirely sure that I can handle that level of coordination.

"Now I've had the time of my life, no I've never felt this way before"

London Calling

My heart sank this morning as I listened to the news of the bombs in the London transit. Naturally, it stirred up the memories of my trip to London just over a month ago. Looking at the locations of the explosions also made me pause a little, noting that they were all in close proximity to my hotel. I, like almost everyone in the city, took the Underground everywhere every day, and became a pro to the point where I was giving directions to people who asked me. I could still hear the voice of the train's automated announcer, calling out the stations as we approached them.

Edgware Road...
Russell Square...
King's Cross-St. Pancras...
Aldgate...

Of course, my thoughts then went to my cousin. Thankfully, she's fine and was not in the vicinity at the time.

It's a little staggering to think about how one day you can be so deliriously happy, and the next day so profoundly sad. I hope that any and all of your friends and relatives in London are safe tonight.

"London calling to the faraway towns, now that war is declared and battle come down"

Lessons in Futility

I have returned! Europe was awesome, to say the least. Too much to say here, the blog would go on forever and ever. So I'll just highlight the weather (much nicer than expected, which caused a slight wardrobe dilemma), the sights (climbed a lot of towers, saw a lot of dead kings and queens, and almost everywhere I went I wasn't allowed to take photos, so I have a lot of scenery shots and funny road signs), and the people (damned if I wasn't hit on by a dirty old English man...but I met a nice Australian guy and actually ran into a friend in the most unexpected place, so it evened out).

I got back last Sunday night/Monday morning. Then on Tuesday I went to the Killers concert. Very cool show. During Louis IV's opening set, I got a call on my cell from Jocelyn. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to carry a conversation with her, but I answered it anyway since I don't have voice mail and I wanted to let her know where I was. My first words were "I can't hear you".

It's funny how people will not give up trying to get into a place where they are not allowed to go. Like the pit in front of the stage. If you don't have the right ticket, security is not going to let you in. But the one blond girl was trying to work her way in all night. At one point I saw her walking around in the pit between bands. But she left, and when she tried to get back in, the five-foot-tall security girl would not let her. Which begs the question, why the hell did she get out of the pit??

And then there was the poor guy who was trying to find his seat throughout the Killers' set. He walked back and forth past me and my brother, and at one point asked us where he was but I couldn't see his ticket. Finally, when they were playing their last song, he asked the short security girl for help. Her gestures seemed to indicate that his seat was WAY farther back than where he was at the moment. He left, and then the show was over. How sad is that?

Before I left for my vacation, there was a slight flutter of excitement at my house, when my brother got a message from Maple Leaf Entertainment (or something) concerning season tickets of some sort. My brother was bummed out, because even in the event that hockey is resurrected this year, he still has to go back to school in September. I made it very clear that I WILL PAY FOR THEM. When I returned, I eagerly asked him what happened. Unfortunately, the season tickets were for the AHL. Although he wouldn't mind seeing the Marlies, he decided to turn them down. Here's the irony: if you get AHL season tickets, you'll get five pairs of Leafs tickets as part of the deal. He's still on the waiting list, but the guy basically told him that he won't get a chance at Leafs season tickets in his lifetime. There are 4000 people in the line ahead of him, and the line moves less than 10 people a year. I wonder if they will let your children take your place in line after you're gone...

And finally, I just tried yet again for Coldplay tickets, and yet again, it sold out instantly. Well, it took two minutes this time, instead of 30 seconds. Boo.

"How long before I get in, before it starts, before I begin"

Do You Know The Muffin Man?

It's a dark and stormy night. Man...am I tired.

But, like every night for the past two months, I've been preoccupied with thoughts of Europe. And now, with one week to go, the anticipation is killing me.

I have resolved not to muck around with my travel plans any further. I've rearranged everything at least once, if not twice, and each time I found something new that I want to squish into the four and a half days that I have to spend in London. I've micro-managed every minute, starting from the moment I step off the plane. I think I'm being really optimistic about my level of energy on the day I arrive, but we'll see how it goes.

Thank goodness Kimmy will be with me in Copenhagen. We've already discussed what we're going to do while I'm there, but the bonus is that she knows where she's going and what we should and shouldn't see. So I've left that part of the trip well enough alone.

One of my recent additions to my whirlwind tour of London is dinner and a show. I found a restaurant in Covent Garden that offers dinner and theatre packages. How could I possibly go to the theatre capital of the world and not go to a big production? So, upon examination of my options, I've got a ticket to see The Producers. I still feel bad that I didn't go see it when it was here, but now's my chance, and it's actually cheaper (wow...I found something in London that's cheaper than it is here?). What made it especially funny is that the theatre where the show is playing is Theatre Royal Drury Lane. That's right, I'm going to Drury Lane.

Can't...hardly...wait...

"Then I saw her face, now I'm a believer"

Random Ranting

That silly Milk contest is back. The one where you call the hotline and can win all kinds of prizes if you have a milk barcode or something. I think I prefer the mooing milk carton. Plus, the TV commercial just weirds me out. For some reason, I find the concept of jingling teats to be kind of unnerving.

So a beer truck tipped over in the express lanes and spilled its precious cargo. Yes, it's a tragic loss. But what peeved me more were the stupid rubberneckers who cracked up in the collector lanes at around the same place. Thanks for making it impossible for anyone to get to work on time.

Lately, I've noticed that when I'm in a state of semi-unconsciousness, there is one pivotal point where I have a breakthrough. Either it's a solution to something that I'm having difficulty with, or it's a spontaneous good idea, or it's something that I have to remember to do. It's at that moment that I snap back to consciousness, and I know that I had meant to do something, but I completely forget what it is. It's unbelieveably frustrating. Come back, good idea! Come back!

"Ageless beauty, cruelty makes its holes but on the shoreline, time will hold its promise"

Daddy-O

It was my daddy's birthday on Saturday. The big 6-0. I put my foot down and insisted that we throw some semblance of a party for him. We compromised with a mah jong extravaganza that was probably more enjoyed by my mother. But Daddy won $100, so I'm sure he enjoyed it a little too.

The gifts were pretty standard, but amongst the bottles of wine was one little bonzai tree. I suppose Auntie Stella thought that he would have time to take care of it. Or maybe it would just serve as a means to de-stress. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening.

In an unprecedented move, my brother stepped up and bought the gift this time: an HP PDA. (He said he knew a guy who could get a deal. I decided not to let him divulge any further details to me) One of the more pricier gifts that we've ever given, for sure. Steve said he was tired of having Post-Its strewn all over the computer desk. Of course, guess who got to play with it first out of the box...

Saturday was also an exciting time for a friend of mine who had started his own consulting company straight out of university. After two years they had finally outgrown his living room and so they made the bold move to an office building at King and Dufferin. It's a nice building, complete with an exercise facility, a lounge and a covered patio. Very nice digs. The grand opening/ribbon cutting ceremony was a big event. They even had a raffle. I won a laptop bag (if only I had a laptop to put in it...).

"Sometimes you can't make it on your own"

Just Checking In

Hey.

How's it going? Staying out of trouble?

Good.

Yeah, things are okay with me. Just haven't been blogging, that's all. Not much to say. The routine has kicked in really well.

Actually, I've been participating in more spending sprees. But everything I've bought is vacation-related, so I figure that it's "essential".

My weekend hasn't really gone according to plan. Couldn't do laundry due to unforeseen plumbing issues in my basement. We're going to have to call in a professional tomorrow.

Hey, here's something funny that my brother told me. There's a type of landmine that he uses during training that has these instructions on it: "This side towards enemy". That's so reassuring and frightening at the same time. Kind of like the instructions on a rocket launcher: "Point away from face".

Anyway...

Later.

"A few times I've been around that track, so it's not just gonna happen like that"

Good-bye Big Five...

I came home this afternoon and he was gone...

My parents sold the Big Five. I think my father put the ad in the paper yesterday and at 8 o'clock this morning people were already calling. Big Five went to a guy who lived close by and apparently had a Big Five of his own, leading us to conclude that he was buying ours for parts.

"Dad, I think he's an ivory dealer. His boots are ivory, his hat is ivory, and I'm pretty sure that check is ivory."
"Lisa, a guy who's got lots of ivory is less likely to hurt Stampy than a guy whose ivory supplies are low."

How appropriate that this episode aired today.

So sad...so many memories. And now we're going to get a car that will fit into the same amount of space as the hood of the Big Five.

"I got me a Chrysler, it's as big as a whale, and it's about to set sail"

A Long Way To Go For Coffee

I may or may not have mentioned this in the past, but I regularly eat lunch with the managers of my department. It's not a strategic suck-up thing, it's more of a force of habit. When I was in co-op I was occasionally the only student in the whole company, and so when it was lunch time, I would sit and eat with my supervisor. So it just happened naturally. It's also more about convenient timing (they just happen to eat lunch at the same time I do).

Anyway, we were eating lunch today, chatting and laughing as usual (these ladies crack me up all the time...we're the noisiest table in the cafeteria). There was a sort of lull in the conversation, and I decided to embark on a new topic.

"So...I'm going to Europe in May."

"WHAT?" was the general reaction. Then Renata made a note of how casually I just dropped this information into the conversation, as though I were saying, "I'm going out for coffee." I guess I didn't realize how big of a deal this is. But yeah, I suppose I did say it with about as much enthusiasm and excitement as a girl who was going to the mall. Okay, maybe even less than that.

But the fact is, I really am extremely excited about this trip. My last European conquest was concentrated in France. This time I'm taking on the UK and Denmark. I know what you're thinking...Denmark?? But my plan of attack for this continent has consistently been focused on places where I know someone who's there. In this case, it's my cousin who's working in London for a couple of years and my friend who's studying in Copenhagen. Things haven't been completely finalized yet, but I'm already counting down the days when I'll be jetting off over the Atlantic yet again. The logistical planning has been going on for a couple of weeks now, timing everything so that every available moment is being effectively used to experience these countries. Maybe I'll even have a free minute to get a coffee. Or a Danish. (ha ha)

"This could be the end of everything, so why don't we go somewhere only we know"

Eine Kleine Nacht...Skiing

It has been around twelve years since I went skiing at night. Yesterday, I left work early, got home, picked up my skis and my parents and headed up to Horseshoe Valley. We got there around 5:00 so we checked in, got something to eat, then headed to the room. I let my dinner settle for a minute, then strapped on my gear and headed to the hill.

Okay, so it was a little frosty outside, and I could really only handle about an hour and a half before my toes felt like they had curled up and died, but it was so worth it. The world was quiet and crispy, the snow made the cool swooshy sound as I glided down the hill, and it was so nice and DARK, with all the twinkly stars overhead.

That was great until I went back to the hill this morning. It was the most perfect day for skiing. Sunny and not too cold at all. My parents took off to find the casino, and I spent four great hours swooshing again. Well, the day wasn't entirely perfect (there were a MILLION children running around, screaming, falling all over the place), but it was very close. I think I was able to improve my technique a little, but I'm still wary of anything beyond a blue square. The sad thing was that I saw someone wrapped around a tree. I didn't see the person exactly, just an arm and a hand. There was a narrow gap between one of the chair lifts and a grove of trees. If you didn't stop or turn in time, it was possible to overshoot the lift line-up and end up in the bush. By the time I got there, there was a small crowd, and the ski patrol with a stretcher attached to the snowmobile was already on the scene. There's a small downhill before you reach the trees, and they were crouched down, gingerly removing a ski. I decided not to gawk and went up the lift. When I came back down, the snow patrol were still in the midst of extricating the person from the tree. I went on the lift again and decided to go down another trail to an alternate chair lift.

So aside from the casualty, the day was very nice. My parents came back for me and we all headed to the casino (not too bad, considering it is in the middle of nowhere). My mother couldn't handle the smoke so we just contributed $10 to a slot machine and headed home.

My face is rosy from the windburn, and I love it.

"They will see us waving from such great heights, come down now, they'll say"

Dinner Theatre

My family and I went out for dinner tonight at our favourite local italian eatery. We had just sat down at a table by the door and were perusing through the menu when a man wearing a nice-looking suit walked in. Our server happened to be near the door and approached him. Suddenly, the man started swearing at our server and threw several wild punches at him, yelling that he was getting his "fuckin' coat".

Violent Man walked further into the restaurant, continued swearing, and started swinging at the next guy who approached him. Then Violent Man picked up a bar stool. Things could have gotten quite out of hand if one of the big guys from the kitchen hadn't stepped out, grabbed Violent Man and attempted to calm him down, causing the bar stool to fall to the floor. After a brief struggle (that I couldn't see very well), three guys grabbed Violent Man, hurtled him towards the door and threw him out.

Violent Man stood at the door and continued to yell at the men, who stayed by the door to keep him from re-entering the establishment. There was some spitting involved, and this went on for maybe five minutes. Then a huge policeman showed up out of nowhere, and the whole thing became a silent movie, as we watched the action through the front window. With lightning speed, the policeman got Violent Man face down on the snowy sidewalk with his knee in the middle of his back. The handcuffs went on, and he kept Violent Man on the ground for several minutes. More policepeople showed up, and they took him away to the cruiser. Later on, three other policepeople came into the restaurant, no doubt in order to gather witness statements from the kitchen guys. We went back to our business, noticing that the food was a little slow to arrive, but we didn't mind.

The speculation was that Violent Man was completely plastered (or mentally unstable) and had already been thrown out of the restaurant earlier in the evening. Hence the coat being left behind. My mother, who could always be counted on for being ridculous in these kinds of situations, had been holding on to my father's arm the entire time, even when the altercation had moved outside. She temporarily forgot that she was hungry.

At the end of our meal, we were surprised by a plate of chocolate eclairs that were on the house. Our server apologized for the unfortunate scene earlier, but we were more concerned about whether he had been hurt. Violent Man had punched him many times before moving to the bar stool. But thankfully our server was okay.

Although the entire event is kind of unnerving and not very pleasant, all of us (minus my mother) found it very entertaining. It seems wrong somehow to witness this kind of thing and then feel excited to tell the story later, like I had just seen a really great movie but in real life.

Look at what popular entertainment has done to me.

"This fire is out of control, I'm going to burn this city"

Due Process

Howdy. Long time no blog.

First off, I read this today and thought to myself, that's a cool idea. That is, if you're into hockey and everything.

So, things have been pretty busy, hence the bloglessness. But I did something last week that was just fascinating to me.

I participated in due process.

I have been a member of a credit union, along with the rest of my family, pretty much since birth. The sad thing is that I never really took an interest in it. Whenever something happened, like my dad wanted me to invest in shares or something, he would just give me a blank application, tell me to sign the appropriate places, and the rest would be taken care of. Basically, I have no idea what I have in my accounts.

The credit union (currently the third largest in Ontario) has decided to merge with another credit union (currently the largest in Ontario) to become one whopping huge credit union (largest in Ontario, third largest in Canada). But since it's a credit union, all of the members get a say as to whether this merger is going to happen or not. Unlike some other major financial institutions that shall remain nameless.

After work, I hurried home and went with my parents to the special members meeting where we would have a decent convention-style meal, listen to the chairman and others say good things about this merger, and then vote. Almost everything involved making a motion to do this or that, having someone second it, then voting by holding the little card in the air. Other than in Model UN, I've never taken part in anything like this (and even back then, it was extremely marginal participation).

So, all of this sounds boring, right? Sure, except that there was some tension when the one director who had resigned due to his opposition of this merger stood up near the end of the question period and started talking about all the negative things that the chairman "neglected" to mention, including the real reason why the director resigned. You should have seen the chairman's face while this guy was making his remarks. The problem was that we had voted at the beginning of the meeting to limit questions or comments to two minutes per person, and that the question period would not exceed one hour. Of course, both of these events were about to occur with this guy at the microphone. Half the people in the room (there were about 1200 people present from all over the province) wanted him to keep talking, the other half wanted him to shut up so we could vote. People were screaming across the huge convention hall, it was total chaos, and I was strangely captivated.

The chairman finally got the room under control, and we voted. There were three categories of voters, two of which were shareholders only, and the third being all general members. There had to be a two-thirds majority in each category for this resolution to pass. When the votes were tallied, both of the shareholders results were in the 87-88% range in favour of the merger. The general member result was 67.5% in favour. This was another first for me. My vote actually made a difference.

So that was the end of our meeting. The other credit union held their vote the following night and were also in favour, so on April 1st, the merger will be complete.

We had taken a chartered bus to the convention centre (provided by our local branch), and on our way back, I was sitting next to an elderly gentleman. We were all munching on cookies, and as we waited to exit the parking lot, he leaned over and asked if the vote had gone the way I wanted it. I hesitantly said yes, since I wasn't completely sure it would affect me at all, and I didn't really have too much to say about it. He mentiond something about the weather (it was pouring rain), to which I agreed. He went back to eating his cookie, and I felt that he was trying to get a conversation out of me, and I wasn't being very co-operative. So I jumped in and asked him a question. That was all I had to do. He ended up talking for the rest of the ride, first about how he wanted to buy some property back in the day, and the credit union gave him the loan on the spot, and how people had tried to buy it from him over the years but he held out and was going to pass it on to his family after he was gone. Then we somehow got into the topic of age, how his wife had died some years before, and how both his parents and his wife's parents lived to be in their 90's or 100's, and how it's because in Poland they have good water. Then it became an environmental talk, and if they ever produced a good hydrogen car he would be the first one to buy it. I said a word or two here and there, but I basically just listened to him talk because he seemed to enjoy it so much. When we reached our stop, I said goodbye and he smiled at me and waved. What a pleasant man, I thought to myself as I got off the bus. I really hope he gets to own that hydrogen car.

"Could have been your statue, could have been your friend, a whole long lifetime could have been the end"

English For The Non-English

Last night I went out to dinner with some friends from university. We get together regularly...well, by "regularly" I mean when the fancy-pants restaurants in the city offer fixed price menus so that normal joes can afford to eat like the other half. So that's about twice a year. But one of these days Kevin is going to move his business out of his living room and will be able to host a proper mah jong party, so then we'll probably see each other more often.

In any case, we were at Centro (which is a very nice restaurant, highly recommended by "some guy on the internet"), catching up and having a great meal. Time disappeared as quickly as our food and suddenly we had spent 3 hours there. Kevin and Sylvia had to leave to catch the bus to Vermont for the annual ski trip (dear God...I want to go skiing...). As we all entered the subway, Kevin's phone rang, and after he answered, his voice got louder, his grammar became non-existent, and it was as though he was singing a slow children's song. Sylvia smiled and informed the rest of us that it must be the Japanese exchange student on the phone, who had been invited to the ski trip but was waiting for someone to pick her up.

I know it's bad, but I have to admit that I am guilty of this kind of behaviour as well. Ron commented that it's no wonder new immigrants have such a hard time grasping the English language. Nobody ever speaks to them normally. I find that I just can't help speaking louder, slower, and using as many simple words strung together as possible to try to get the meaning across, complete with hand gestures if possible. I can understand the slower pace and the simple words, but why on earth do we feel compelled to speak louder? They're not deaf, they're just from another country, and it's not like we can force our message into their brain by shouting.

But I still laughed as we watched Kevin attempt to communicate with the Japanese girl. I'm afraid it's just hopeless, isn't it?

"Give me back my point of view 'cause I just can't think for you"

Winter Physics

Why is it that after it snows, the majority of the population loses all perception of straight lines? This phenomenon seems especially prevalent in parking lots. Cars are arranged in strange geometric patterns, like crop circles. And how did the standard parking space suddenly increase in width by two feet? So, for about four months in the year, the parking lot at work mysteriously decreases in capacity by something like 20-30 spaces, and people decide that they have no choice but to block the loading dock and potentially have their car taken out by a tractor trailer that's just trying to get off the property. Bizarre.

Maybe extreme whiteness affects the logical part of the brain...

While we're still on the topic of cars and straightness...does anyone out there who's right-handed find that they have no problem driving with only their left hand, but somehow can't keep the car straight with only their right? One of the girls at work was talking about it today. She finds it very easy to drive left-handed, but when she switches, her driving exhibts the characteristics of a crazy drunkard.

I think she's a weirdo. But perhaps I should test this out tomorrow before I render the final verdict.

I'm still pretty confident that she's a weirdo.

Finally, on a completely different note and in light of current and future adventures overseas, take this little quiz to make sure you don't offend anyone with your eating habits.

"Tell all your friends, make believe all 'round"

Across The Crowded Room

It's January, so you know what that means.

The gym is packed.

I have to admit that I haven't been to the gym in about a month and a half. But it's a new year and another new beginning, and I'm determined to return to the "3 times a week" routine.

Sunday morning hasn't been this busy in a long time. The majority of the machines were in use, and the step class was almost filled to capacity. But I still managed to bump into Olga A. Who, of course, looks exactly the same as the last time I saw her. Come to think of it, she looks the same as the first time I saw her too. I carry very specific memories of some of the people in my past. For Olga, I will forever remember her as the wizard in the Grade 5 musical. Somehow, I'm pretty sure that she would love it if I didn't.

Tonight's step class was similarly crammed. As the previous class was exiting the studio, I bet all my money that I would see someone I knew. And sure enough...how many of you remember Lauren D.? (I can hear copies of the Panteria whipping open already)

Looking at all these women running/stepping/cycling in a row, or moving in sync with the instructor, or making small, repetitive movement with disproportionately large machines, it made me think of the things that we value. Are all these people here to improve their health? Or are they attempting to mold themselves into what we have all been tricked into thinking is the acceptable norm? Or both? And how important is it to them, really?

I guess we'll find out in February.

"If you believe it's in my soul, I'd say all the words that I know"

Crappy New Year

Well...the dream of having a good year was somewhat short-lived...

Where do I start? Okay...last night our car was broken into. Maybe not so much broken into as it was opened due to my father forgetting to lock the car. Since we don't keep that much junk in any of our cars, they only took a change purse (a few bucks at most), a cheap flashlight, a granola bar, and...our garage door opener. Which they of course used to open our garage. Since we had two cars jammed into it and two cars on the driveway, they didn't end up taking anything. The whole thing looks random, but I learned today it's not actually a rare occurrence on my street. My dad was talking to the neighbours this afternoon and found out that almost everyone had experienced something similar at one point or another over the past few years. Someone had left their car unlocked on their driveway in broad daylight and some punk went in and rifled through their stuff. The old couple on the corner were robbed recently. The little old lady had stepped outside to rake leaves or something, and some guy just walked into the house and stole their antique watch collection, while the old man (who's ill) was lying in the bedroom. I mean, come on, the guy(s) that paid us a visit last night took the light bulb from our motion detector.

So, after looking over the car as quickly as possible, I headed to work. Where I was told that my boss had died yesterday. She had lost her battle against the tag-team cancer (breast, then lung). The only good things that can be said about this are:

a) her suffering is finally over, and
b) she died they way she wanted, peacefully at home in her favourite rocking chair, instead of hooked up to a bunch of machines in a hospital.

She would have been 42 in February.

Monica was the nicest and the best manager I've ever had. She had an amazing sense of humour, and she never failed to help me out whenever I had a question or problem. Her conviction in beating the illness was awe-inspiring.

Despite the heaviness of the day, it wasn't a complete bust. I got some work done, and I was actually okay for the most part until the grief counsellor showed up. We went in to see him as a group and spent an hour talking and sobbing. We all came out of there more depressed, and I had blown my nose so much it hurt.

Lesson of the Day: Grief counselling is not for me.

The funeral is on Thursday. I've never been to a funeral with a cremation before. I hope I'll be able to hold it together.

I know this has been a downer of a blog, but the pamphlet did say that writing down your feelings can be theraputic in these situations. So here it is. Thanks for reading.

"It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right, I hope you had the time of your life"

Glance Back, Look Forward

Happy 2005 to one and all.

As everyone counted down the last seconds of 2004 at our annual New Year's party, I made my biggest resolution: this is going to be the best year ever. I am going to make it happen, no matter what.

This morning I woke up and it was the first thought in my head. It's a new year, a new beginning, and I am excited. I know it's not going to be an easy thing to accomplish, but I already have a plan in mind and a few surprises hidden up my sleeve.

Stay tuned.

"So let go, jump in, oh well whatcha waiting for?"

Freezing Rain Warning Is In Effect

Looks like I chose the best day to start my vacation. I'll bet the girls at work are grumbling about it right now...

Apart from the general traffic carnage and the physical strain from digging myself out of the house, I love winter. If people hated winter as much as they say they do, then what the hell are they doing here? This is Canada. It's cold here. Get over it.

I think it's been 6 or 7 months since I've gone climbing. I miss it. I've had a couple of excuses (busy at work...all my climbing buddies are gone...etc.) but I have to admit they're not really good excuses. I'm going to try to get in as much climbing as possible in the next two weeks. If I'm going to be attempting ice climbing, then I'm going to need all the help I can get.

Do you like the smell of a camp fire? I love it. Don't know what it is exactly, but it's sort of soothing, very natural. Guess what I found? Candles that are campfire scented. Can you believe it? I bought them immediately and gave them to Emily for Christmas. Why? Because the last time we went to the One-of-a-Kind show, she was joking with one of the candle merchants about making a candle that smelled like wood smoke. And what do you know? Someone has already done it! But I hope it doesn't end up smelling like her house is on fire. That would be considerably less than soothing.

"The lamp is burning low upon my table top, the snow is softly falling"

30 Seconds

Do you find it difficult sitting through the 3+ hours of "It's A Wonderful Life"? I know it's a classic holiday movie, but I have never been able to watch the entire thing from start to finish. Good news! Now you can go here and watch the entire movie in 30 seconds...re-enacted by bunnies.

Nature

It's frickin' freezing...

That being said, you can still find some really interesting scenes of nature. For example, I was driving along the lake shore this morning, and the wind was whipping everything around, especially the water. The whole lake was covered in white caps, something that I don't get to see that often. Giant waves crashing over the breakers and the rocks. Reminded me of the ocean, something else that I don't get to see very often. Beautiful and powerful at the same time.

On the other end of the spectrum, I witnessed a gigantic swarm of pidgeons (I know it's the wrong quantifier but holy crap, there were a lot of them) clustered on the side of the road and either fighting over a morsel or quite possibly pecking something to death. Kind of scary.

"Jealousy, turning saints into the sea, swimming through sick lullabies, choking on your alibis"

More Knick Knacks

Ah...I love the One-of-a-Kind Show. Or, as my brother calls it, the "Knick Knack Place". I already went last Thursday and bought a couple of things, mainly for Boni's birthday but also an item or two for myself. I went back earlier tonight to try to pick up some Christmas gifts but two of the three purchases were once again for me.

The One-of-a-Kind Show...where you can purchase a resin pendant, yogurt-covered berries and a little margarita man all in the same place. And the cranberry pudding with butter sauce is excellent.

I think I'm going to go again on Friday...

"If you like pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain"

A Tale of Two Parties

'Tis the season for excess.

Friday kicked it off with my company's "holiday" party. None of us were in the mood to work, and of course something came up half an hour before the end of the day, so I had to rush around to get it started and then passed it off to Marianli who was kind enough to take over so I could leave. I went to Anna's place to get ready, then went to Farrah's to pick her up. We were exactly on time but there were already a ton of people there, having drinks and chatting. It was then that I realized that I would only know about a third of the people at most, but it would give me a chance to meet people I had only known through e-mail correspondence. The food was excellent, there was plenty of people-watching and gossip going on, and there was a lot of dancing. I must say, I love going to these kinds of events because you get to see people as they really are...crazy, fun-loving, and able to move their bodies in ways you can hardly imagine. Monday is going to be FUN.

Last night, we pulled another surprise birthday, this time for Boni. I went to "kidnap" her at her place, blindfolded her and put her in the back of my car. Then I got a call saying that key people were going to be late, and so I had to stall. I ended up driving around and around in circles for 20 minutes, keeping in mind that Boni was most likely counting the times I was turning right to figure out where we were going (and she was). When I got to the restaurant, I decided to have some fun and told her to stay in the car. Then I locked the doors and went in to see what was going on. I talked to the people who were there for a few minutes, then decided that I should probably go and get her, since it looked like the "late" people were going to be really late, and it was kind of cold outside. I solicited Kimmy's help by asking her to take one of Boni's arms when she got out of the car, and I would take the other, but we wouldn't say anything, allowing Boni's imagination to have a good workout. We led her in, giving "right" and "left" commands when necessary. After we got the blindfold off, and Boni was able to say hello to the people who were there, she finally asked, "Where ARE we??"

We were at Anatolia, a great Turkish restaurant near my house. It's been a really long time since we've seen Boni eat meat (they used Halal). The rest of the night proceeded well, with a surprise guest whom I had never met before, but, funnily enough, knew Cathy through the "Love Boat" program and had a mutual friend with Ada. There were also some incidents, naturally, like the waiter accidentally pouring tea down the back of Jocelyn's pants and the little girl who was sitting at the table next to us who decided to throw her book over her shoulder. But it was great seeing people we hadn't seen for several years, and after dinner the conversation carried out of the restaurant and into the parking lot for another half an hour.

Biggest laugh of the night: "I'm cold. I need some more tea down my pants."

Needless to say, I'm a little partied out today. But give me a minute and I'll get my second wind.

"Who really cares cause it’s your life you never know it could be great"

Have You Ever...

...wondered how someone can work overtime and leave early on the same day?
(Actually, I can answer this one..."Pam" follows her own rules governing time and space)

...watched the sun set almost every night?

...seen a tow truck being towed away?

...taken half an hour to drive one kilometre?

...been to a book signing?
(CRAZINESS...)

...considered Band Aid to be a great idea...and how sad it is that Band Aid 20 is still necessary?
(By the way, the new version of "Do They Know It's Christmas" sounds nice...but a little weird near the end)

I have.

Lesson of the day: If you want to cut in line at a book signing, bring a baby with you.

And now, a Public Service Announcement: ease off the gas if you're heading south on Martingrove past Eglinton. The cops are back and this time they're ticketing. Luckily I'm still dodging that bullet.

"Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you"

A Busy Bee

I know, I missed you guys too. I didn't mean to leave it for this long, but I've been busy with this. It took me a while to get the hang of it, and then it took me even longer to sneak onto my home computer (between my mom's games of mah jong and my brother's games of Rome Total War) to scan the appropriate photos. But it's funny how dedicated I was to finishing it once I made up my mind to do it. Crap...now I know what it reminds me of...yearbook...

In any case, stuff has happened in the past couple of weeks that I've been meaning to talk about, but didn't. Some of it has actually stuck in my mind without the aid of a written list, so here we go with "the list":

• Dodging the bullet: I don't know if I'm lucky or the cops just don't care, but lately I've been breezing by the radars without getting a second glance. And I don't mean that I'm one or two kms over the speed limit...I'm talking 10-20, and I'm almost the only car on the road. But I think the guy stationed across the street from MCI was just gathering information, he didn't look up from his notebook when I passed by.
• Speaking of Martingrove...: Have you ever witnessed a game of "chicken" where nobody chickened out? Again, this was one of those "why do I always witness these things?" kind of moments. People who are familiar with the two-lane stretch of Martingrove that passes West Deane Park know that the lanes used to be separated by the dashed yellow line, but after the construction they made it solid. That didn't stop some yahoo from passing me anyway as we came down the hill. Then he tried to pass the guy in front of me, but the other guy kept the pace, and so the two of them were hurtling towards the intersection, and into oncoming traffic. Nobody slowed down, nobody budged. By some coincidence, there was enough space between the guy in front of me and the oncoming car for the yahoo to squeeze in between, straddling the yellow line. I don't know why he was being such a jackass, the light was red anyway. And of course, it was a souped-up Honda.
• Speaking of witnessing things...: I seem to be an accident magnet at work too. Some of you may remember me talking about "Pam" from a previous blog. Well, last week, I was exiting the office, heading towards the washroom, when I heard a shriek behind me. Pam had just exited the office and headed in the opposite direction towards the cafeteria, but had failed to notice an empty wooden skid on the floor just outside the office doorway. By the time I turned around, she was somersaulting on the floor. I was more concerned about her hurting herself than anything else, but I suppose later on it did seem kind of funny (okay, it was hilarious). I had yet to see her upset to the point of tears up until that moment. Then she was red-faced and on the warpath, STORMING into production to get them to remove the skid. By the time I returned from the washroom, the skid was gone, but after I retrieved my lunch and started heading to the cafeteria myself, Peter the IT guy was putting the skid back, looking pretty peeved and asking me if I knew which "moron" had who moved his skid. "The one who tripped over it?" I replied, before I realized what I had said. Just then Pam came out of the office and had a discussion with Peter, who then moved the skid to the other side of the door. Luckily, I don't think she heard his question, which makes my answer less insulting even if she heard it.
• "Matt & Ben" is a really funny play.
• A classic Ada line of questioning: "Do you do drugs? No...wait...I mean, does your company do drugs?"

"I walk this empty street on the boulevard of broken dreams"

Starting Over

I don't think I could feel like a bigger idiot. But I guess I got upset over something that perhaps wasn't so devastating. I was sprucing up my little computer, rearranging things so that I would have more space on my C drive. Since there's always the possibility that Microsoft will ruin my life, I backed everything up, including all of my e-mail and calendar events (both past and future).

I went through the process and everything worked out great. So the next day I started going through the stuff I had backed up and stupidly deleted the mail archives, thinking that everything was still on my computer.

1st Lesson of the Day: "Archive" means "cut and paste", not "copy".

Of course, I already knew that, but somehow I didn't clue into it until hours later, when I realized that every single e-mail and event that I had saved over the past 3 years was wiped out. I completely lost it. I know it sounds ridiculous that I should get so worked up about electronic data, but it was in this moment that I realized exactly how much I relied on this technology.

I have the worst memory. Sure, I can quote Simpsons' episodes and recall that time that Mrs. Plevins yelled at me in front of my whole Grade 5 class, but otherwise, it's hard for me to remember what I was doing last week, or last year. So I use old e-mails and the calendar in Outlook to remember for me. So it was really important to me that 3 years worth of memories was erased because I was careless. And the saddest part of all this is that I don't remember what I lost. I know most of it was correspondence between me and my friends, and there were some newsletters that I get once in a while, and there might have been some important stuff, but I had placed all of my faith in this little machine to remember things for me, that I just pushed it out of my own head, thinking it was in a safe place.

I actually had trouble sleeping that night. By the next morning, I had come to my senses and realized that all was not lost. Half of my messages were still saved on the server. In my attempt to recopy all of the messages back onto my computer, I forgot to click one little box, and now all of the messages that were on the server are now downloaded onto my computer.

2nd Lesson of the Day: "Download" means "cut and paste", not "copy".

So, the server is empty, and I have most of my recent e-mails on my computer. The majority of the stuff that I permanently lost were really old Waterloo Engmail messages from my classmates about projects and from my profs about assignments. Technically, this was all stuff I should have ditched a while ago. As for the rest of it, I'm going to have to rely on friends to fill in the gaps. I suppose I should just make this a "silver lining" experience and move on.

But I still feel like an idiot.

"I don't feel the way I ever felt, I know, I'm gonna smile and not get worried, I try but it shows"

It Could Have Been Me...

I don't know if it's the weather, or if people just don't pay attention anymore, but lately I've been passing a lot of accidents on the way to work. Specifically, on the 404. Yesterday, traffic slowed as I passed Highway 7, which is unusal because when you get that far north in the morning there's less traffic. I crawled past a couple of cars that were mysteriously dented (mysterious because they were both dented on the right side...and I didn't see any other cars on the shoulder).

Today, traffic slowed again, this time near Major Mackenzie. A pretty bad rear-end accident had just happened in the middle lane. I got to work a little late but it was okay. A couple of hours later, I found out that one of the guys in my department, Robert, had gotten into an accident. What happened? He was slowing down due to the traffic caused by the accident I passed, and he got rear-ended. Can you believe that? His bumper was in pretty bad shape, and after a lot of convincing from the rest of us, he took the rest of the day off to go to the doctor in case he has whiplash.

So, my first thought was, what the hell is going on? I know accidents happen every day, but to have another accident caused by an accident? Luckily Robert was slowing down properly and wasn't following the guy in front of him too closely, otherwise he would have plowed into the front car. That means the guy behind him was going pretty fast despite the fact that everyone in front of him was obviously slowing down.

But the really sobering thought for me is...that could so easily have been me. I could have been the one that guy slammed into. I mean, Robert gets to work the same time I do, so he couldn't have been that far behind me on the road at the time.

Lately in the news, they've been talking about how commuters are more likely to die from a heart attack due to the stress of sitting in rush hour traffic.

Right...because what we should be worrying about when we're on the road.

"Crash...on the last splash"

Little Bugs

This has been bugging me for the past couple of weeks. Why does Bono say "Uno, dos, tres, catorce" at the beginning of Vertigo? It's...weird, and it throws me off for some reason. Is he trying to be different? Does it mean something? Because I refuse to believe that he can't count to four in Spanish. For that matter, I refuse to believe that ANYONE can't count to four in Spanish.

Have you ever had the feeling that something is missing? You can't quite put your finger on it, but there's a very tangible hole somewhere in your life, and you don't know what's supposed to fit in it. I've had the feeling for a while, and I'm starting to not like it. I know what you're thinking, and it's NOT IT. I'd like to think that I'm not that shallow. But I think I'm formulating a solution as to how to go about looking for my missing thing.

More to follow...

"Hello hello (hola!) I'm at a place called Vertigo"

Multitasking Technology

I was at yet another warehouse sale with my parents on Tuesday (Levi's this time). Same old, same old. As my dad was trying on a reasonably priced, decent-looking belt, all the lights went out. Talk about flashback. But a glance outside the door told us that the only place with no power was the room we were in. So...okay. But it's a fairly large room and somehow the dark seemed bigger because of it. So what do people do? They started turning on their cell phones and continued to shop by the light from the screens. And I have to say, some of those coloured screens are really bright. For pete's sake...it only lasted ten minutes. And naturally the first things to regain life were the cash registers. Naturally.

Now, for my real cell phone rant. In the middle of the standing posture sequence of my yoga class yesterday, there was a sudden and very unmistakable melody permeating through the new-age ocean wave music that the instructor always uses. Everyone sing along! "I see a red door and I want it painted black..." The instructor asked the guilty party to turn off her cell phone, and all the woman could say was that it was going to stop playing in a few seconds. Um...right...until the next minute when the person calls back? Even as the woman went to turn it off, someone else's cell started ringing. Honestly. It rang again just before the final meditation, prompting the instructor to firmly, and with no attempt to hide her irritation, say, "If anyone has a cell phone in the room and thinks that it will ring in the next ten minutes, I'd like to ask them to leave now." The second cell phone woman picked up her stuff and left the class.

Is it too much to ask people to leave their lives outside the door for one measly hour? Okay, I know better than anyone that it's easy to forget stuff like turning off the cell phone. But, seriously! It already rang once! And isn't the point of practicing yoga to relax and let go of the stress in our lives? Why bring the phone in with you?? That's like the source of all stress!! Holy crap, just thinking about it is stressing me out!!!!

Thank you, and good night.

"I have to turn my head until my darkness goes"

24 Hours

I just recovered from a 24-hour cold. It was absolutely fascinating...okay, it's absolutely fascinating in retrospect. At the time, it was pretty crappy. When I woke up, I felt fine, except for a very slight scratchiness in the throat. It didn't hurt as much as it usually does before the onset of a cold, so I decided to deal with it later (especially since I was already a little late for work). I started sniffling at around 2:00 pm, prompting me to make a mental note to take some medication before I went to bed that night. I didn't have a chance to do anything...by 4:00 pm, I was sneezing and congested. By the time I got home, it was a full-blown sinus attack. I lay on the couch in front of the TV like a slug until it was time to take some drugs.

Sidebar: The apple-cinnamon Neo Citron kicks ass. Not only does it actually taste like both cinnamon and apples, but it works like a charm. A little promo just in time for cold and flu season.

So I took the Neo and passed out for the night. By the time my alarm rang this morning, I was perfectly okay. Other than some residual sniffles during the day, you couldn't tell that I was sick as a dog the night before. It was like a week-long cold compressed into 24 hours. If only all of my colds were like that...

24 hours can do a lot to a person. For example, you think that you're going in to get your chemo treatment tomorrow, and then 24 hours later, you find out the chemo isn't working, and just for extra kicks, it turns out that the reason why you can't breathe properly is because fluid has been building up around your lungs and you have to go into the hospital to get it drained out of your body. It was the first time I personally saw my boss cry, which was pretty upsetting for me. You have to hand it to this woman, though. She finds out she's only got one working lung, but she comes into work anyway while she's waiting for a bed in the hospital to become available. I swear, she is my personal hero. Meanwhile the blood clot in her right arm hasn't cleared up yet, so she's in constant agony. It's astounding when you think about how life can be so unfair to really nice people. She's supposed to be in the hospital for a couple more days, so I'm going to try to visit her tomorrow. Just another 24 hours.

"I wanna hold you high and steal your pain away"

This Should Happen More Often

Another reason why I think Sarah McLachlan is cool. And an awesome person in general.

More Proof...

...that I have a ridiculous capacity to retain all facts and trivia relating to pop culture and entertainment. Last week at work, we heard these words broadcast on the PA system: "Birdie num-nums". I was in Marianli's office at the time, and I just started cracking up while Marianli looked confused. Thankfully, Scott was passing by and started laughing too, since he knew who it was who had made the "announcement". I said to Scott, "It's from 'The Party'!" And he confirmed it, saying that Malcolm used to say "birdie num-nums" on the PA all the time. He figured that Malcolm decided to do it one last time before he left the company (makes sense). The next day, Scott mentioned to me that I was the only person he had talked to who knew that the line came from that movie. I was kind of shocked, for a few reasons: 1) the movie predates my existence by more than a decade, 2) it has become a classic Peter Sellers movie, and 3) given my relative youth compared to the majority of my fellow employees, I would have thought at least one other person would have seen that movie in their lifetime. In addition, I haven't seen that film since I was a preteen, but the line sticks with you long after you watch the scene. Now, in retrospect, I guess the only minor problem is that it makes fun of East Indians the way Mickey Rooney made fun of Asians in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". But it was the '60s, and I guess I can forgive them for being a little politically incorrect. So if you're bored sometime, and you've never seen Peter Sellers make a complete ass of himself, go rent it.

"There was a little Spanish flea, a record star he'd like to be, he heard of singers like Beatles and The Chipmunks he'd seen on TV, why not a little Spanish flea?"

Well, Aren't We Pretty...

So...what do you guys think? You have to admit that my blog needed some sprucing up, and I was really tired of trying to figure out how to fix the comment formatting.

Critical Eye

One and a half weeks, 8 films. I still laugh when people consider this an impressive statistic. Not to say that it isn't, I guess, but being someone who knows what the festival is like, I'm impressed when the woman who's standing in line behind me has seen 30+ films and it's not even the last day yet. That's an average of 4 films a day. I think I read somewhere that someone once saw 6 films in one day. That would probably mean that they didn't stick around for any Q&A's, or see the end of a lot of films for that matter.

But I digress. As promised, a little recap of the week's highlights and a sneak peek at some films about hit a theatre near you:

Les Revenants (They Came Back): Not your typical zombie movie. Everywhere in France, the recently deceased start walking into towns and villages. No blood and guts, no feasting on brains. The citizens of the town in the movie begin to reintegrate the dead back into society, reuniting them with their families, giving them jobs, etc. But the dead behave differently than the living, and they discover that they are resistent to disease and don't die quite as easily as they did the first time. Fear takes over, and then some really weird stuff starts happening. Not likely a movie you'll see at the Cineplex, but still interesting.

Haven: If you liked Traffic or Love Actually, you will like this film. Three groups of people converge in the Cayman Islands, with plenty of sex, drugs, violence and millions of dollars in offshore accounts to go around. Anyone who thinks that Orlando Bloom only gets pretty-boy roles will be happy to know that he becomes physically disfigured during the course of the movie. During the Q&A, there was a question to the cast asking them which aspect of the Caymanian culture made a lasting impression on them. Bill Paxton replied, "The jerk chicken is just excellent." (Watch the film to understand the joke)

Beyond the Sea: Hitting your local theatre on November 24th. A biopic that blends fantasy with reality with a bit of song and dance thrown in. Kevin Spacey was really impressive, singing all the songs himself. He's a really funny guy in person too. When the film fest dude was telling the audience that anti-piracy devices were going to be in use during the screening, Kevin added, "I'M the anti-piracy device...I'll chase your motherfuckin' ass down the street!" The film itself is set up so that it appeared as though Bobby Darin was actually directing the film about his life, so you get the "film within a film" idea. He talks to his 10-year-old self quite a bit, and the boy who plays the young Bobby, William Ullrich, is really talented. He's already done 4 Broadway musicals. My mom thought that the real Sandra Dee was way prettier than Kate Bosworth. All in all, a highly recommended film.

White Tower: Unfortunately, not at all what I was expecting, and mostly disappointing since it could have been much more interesting. It's a documentary about the deaf in China. Since we NEVER ever see or hear anything about the physically handicapped or how they're treated in that country, I thought it would be enlightening. It was a couple of hours of watching the camera move back and forth while deaf people talked to each other. The other problem was that there were technical difficulties with the projector, and everything was kind of blurry, which was really bad since subtitles were extremely essential. They stopped the movie after half an hour, spent about ten minutes fixing the problem, and then, at the request of the directors, started the movie again from the beginning. Oy. There was a story (a partially deaf man fell in love with a deaf girl who was already involved with a deaf Taiwanese man), but it was really hard to watch. However, it answered my question about how the Chinese sign a word that doesn't have a sign (since there's no alphabet). They just write the word in the air with their finger or on the palm of someone's hand. I doubt that anyone will see this film in a theatre in North America.

A Good Woman: Funniest film of the lot. Set in the '30s, a woman with questionable morals (Helen Hunt) leaves New York and heads to Italy to target a newlywed couple (one half of which is Scarlett Johansson). Based on the Oscar Wilde play, "Lady Windermere's Fan". Some of the best lines I've heard in a movie in recent years. A lot of social commentary about men and women and relationships between the two. And there's a twist in it. It will likely be in theatres eventually.

Siblings/Trouser Accidents: The latter is a five-minute short film about accidents caused by pants. It's like a mock-documentary, with what appears to be actual statistics of pants-related mishaps. It also compares them to accidents caused by other household items (brooms, newspapers, etc.). But it's important to keep in mind that the statistics are a little misleading, since there are some trouser accidents that are not reported, or reported under a different category. Siblings is a great film. Four kids who are not blood-related to each other or the people they call "Mom" and "Dad" accidentally-on-purpose kill the parents after their grandfather dies. A black comedy, to say the least. The parents are the worst people on the face of the earth. The little girl has the best lines in the movie, as she tries to come up with ways of killing the parents and making it look like an accident. Film fest veteran Sarah Polley has a supporting role. Go see this film. Support Canadian cinema.

Innocent Voices (Voces inocentes): This was by far the most serious of all the films I saw. It's based on a true story, and takes place in El Salvador in the 1980s during the civil war. The Salvadorean army "recruits" 12-year-old boys by force and trains them to become soldiers. The story centres around 11-year-old Chava, who, with his family, is caught in the crossfire almost every night. After being introduced to an underground radio station by his uncle, Chava begins to fight back in his own way. The kids in this movie were amazing.

L'Équipier (The Light): A predictable but still nice French film about a wounded veteran who takes over a position in a lighthouse on the Breton island of Ouessant. The residents are furious about the idea of an outsider taking the position over a local. But he slowly wins some of them over, and falls for the wife of a fellow lighthouse keeper. A lot of humour, and a tiny bit of action too.

So...that's it. Good thing I didn't see 30 films, huh?

Does This Count As A Degree?

Oh my...where to start? I was planning on writing up the whole festival experience after next Friday, so that I'd be able to share my reviews of the films I'd seen and make my recommendations. But I had to write about my close encounters now...while I'm still reeling from the excitement and absurdity of it all.

Last night I went to see the world premiere of "Haven" with Ada. Yes, there was an ulterior motive for my choosing of the film (Orlando), but the story was also interesting. So, the two of us were in line waiting to go in. There were some people in front of us who started screaming, but that was because they were listening to the radio and Canada had just scored to make it 3-2 (I think). Then, I kept hearing sporatic screaming from further off. As the line moved closer, we could hear the ridiculous chanting ("Or-lan-do! Or-lan-do!"). And then the screaming, and people running into the path of oncoming traffic, and flashbulbs lighting up the street. The guy behind us was asking his female companion why they were going nuts. I turned around and said that it was probably because Orlando Bloom had just arrived, and the guy looked at me with a mixture of complete incredulity and disappointment and said, "Aw, MAN! Is HE in this movie?!" Hmmm...looks like he wasn't the one who bought the tickets. As we passed the red carpet area on our way in, we tried to look at the commotion but it was really quite blinding and chaotic.

As we sat and waited in the theatre, we noticed that the people in the front had started standing up, looking towards the back and taking photos. We looked ourselves to see who they were looking at, but it took us several minutes to figure out that Kevin Bacon was about 20 feet away from us. He was wearing a leather jacket and glasses, and Ada kept saying "It doesn't look like Kevin Bacon!" until he stood up to greet someone and took off his glasses. He's not in the film, but he's here to promote his own movie ("The Woodsman") and I realized later that he was probably there to support his good buddy Bill Paxton.

There were many more highlights but I'll save that for the final review later. After the showing and the Q&A, the stars fled out the back door while we went out the front. There were STILL people on the other side of the red carpet with their cameras and pens. Honestly. They're not going to come back out the front door. We continued towards Yonge, past the line of people waiting for the Midnight Madness movie to start, when we noticed the line of limos on the side of the road. Then there was a crowd of people being stopped by security, and suddenly we realized we had stumbled across the "back door". The security guys opened the car doors and there, not two feet in front of me, the whole cast was getting into the limos. Bill Paxton walked right by me and thanked the crowd for coming out to support the film. That was...moderately thrilling. Still doesn't top the Fran Drescher/Kim Cattrall moment from last year, but it's a very close second.

This morning, my mom (pinch hitting for my dad, who wasn't feeling well) and I went to see "Beyond the Sea". While we were in the theatre, people were whispering excitedly and craning their necks to look at the back corner. There was Kevin Spacey. To my mom, she was kind of amazed at how people can pick out and identify "just another white man" in a dark corner of the theatre. I laughed and said, "Yeah, they all look alike to us, don't they?" She asked me if I was going to go over there to ask for an autograph, and I said no way, I'm not weird like that. It wouldn't have worked out anyway, since a couple of girls were stopped by the large bodyguard before they could get near him. I was just impressed that he was there at 9 in the morning, since the movie had screened the night before at Roy Thomson. But he was there and he answered questions at the end and everything.

So, four brushes with celebrity in two days. Three films down, five to go.

"And someone's sneakin' 'round the corner, could that someone be Mack the Knife?"

Family Matters

Hallelujah...my brother got a job. For months he's been the laziest ass in the world. Each day started melding into the next to the point where every Friday he asked me, "Don't you have to go to work tomorrow?" And I reply, "No doofus, it's the weekend again." And he answers, "Oh yeah...what month is this again?" But lately he's been getting tired of the routine himself. He told me recently, "Karen, I've gotta get a job...even if it's at Canadian Tire." And lo and behold, he got the call today. I got home from work and found out that my brother got a job at a nearby CT on the spot. Well, he went in for the interview this morning around 11 and they called him at around 2 to report for work at 5. To me, that's on the spot. Right now he's doing all the gopher work but eventually he'll be in the service department. You gotta start somewhere.

Not two days after my youngest brother went back to Queen's, a letter arrived for him from the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency. That's right folks, my 19-year-old brother is getting audited. I just started laughing when I found out. What, they're going to question him about those three days that he tried to sell natural gas? Or the four weeks that he did those heavy lifting jobs from the temp agency? Or whether or not he's actually a university student? Well, it turns out that it's a question about the amount of rent he paid last year. Do they have nothing better to do?

It's been about five days and my mother is still getting persistent headaches. Why? Because she spent last Sunday afternoon in Kingston inhaling chlorine bleach fumes in a closet of a bathroom that isn't even remotely ventilated. I am still incredibly pissed off at her. So my brother's bathroom is a disgusting mess. That doesn't mean you should clean it using EVEN MORE bleach than you usually use in our home bathroom that's ten times bigger (and I can usually tell that she cleaned the downstairs bathroom almost before I open the front door). On the plus side, her eyes have stopped watering and her throat has stopped hurting and her lungs have stopped burning.

Daddy...nothing to say about Daddy. Daddy's been REALLY busy lately. Daddy deserves a break.

"My mother, my mother she hold me, did she hold me when I was out there, my father, my father he liked me, oh he liked me, does anyone care"

Not Complete Without a Crazy Person

In a way, I guess I could have qualified as the crazy person. You know, going downtown at 6:30 in the morning on a holiday, sitting in a line for two hours, just to pick up some film tickets. But, I'd like to point out that I wasn't the first person in the line. Actually, there could easily have been 60-70 people in front of me. And the whole point of being down there so early was that in the event that I didn't get all the tickets I ordered, I could quickly get into the OTHER line for the replacement tickets, which moves much slower comparatively to the first line. But, lucky for me, I got every ticket I ordered this year, so woo hoo, etc.

The crazy person was a guy that I encountered after I picked up the tickets. It was about 9:30, so it was still relatively early, and as I was walking along Yonge, I heard a commotion somewhere behind me. I stopped to look, but couldn't see anything. Then I heard the voice again, only it was louder and closer. Then I saw him walking down the street in my direction. I couldn't think of anything to do except to walk away from the crazy man. Of course, I didn't want to look like I was running away from him, so I just casually walked down the street. He got closer and closer and finally I could sort of hear what he was saying. I say "sort of" because he was screaming at the top of his lungs in a semi-maniacal manner. I heard him say something about starving children, and "fucking this" and "fucking that", and then as he passed me he said something like "for the glory of the British Empire" and then mentioned something about George the VI. I guess that officially qualified him as a crazy person for me.

Not that he looked crazy, he wasn't noticeably dirty or carrying plastic bags. He had normal clothes, a hat, and he was even wearing headphones. Wasn't sure if they were plugged into anything, but I haven't seen very many homeless crazy people with headphones. I lost sight of him after a while, but as I was about to go into the Eaton Centre, there he was in front of me, heading into the mall. At that point I became convinced that I should walk outside, since it was such a nice day.

"Welcome to a new kind of tension, all across the alien nation, everything isn't meant to be okay"