Wear A Little Red Ribbon

Today is World AIDS Day. Not enough can possibly be said about the amazing amount of work that needs to be done in relation to this disease; education about its cause and spread, research towards its cure, and ackonwledgement that it is indeed a big problem in the world. Most people my age know or have known someone who is or was HIV positive. Wear a little red ribbon, and show your support.

Are There Any Songs About Seattle?

I'm not aware of any. But Seattle is where Greg, T, Tessa and I went today, for a little south-of-the-border shopping. It was fun. We went to Northgate, a suburbia mall, as well as wandered about downtown. We met up with T's mum, and she came with, which was awesome. I found a new favourite store. Sadly, it exists only in the US, but that's likely for the best when considering my financial state.

We found one interesting difference between BC and Washington while ordering food at Red Robin's. I ordered a burger, and the waitress (who, by the way, was very friendly and helpful) asked me "would you like a little pink in your burger, or no pink?". She asked Greg the same question, and he just looked at her, completely confused, until I told him "no pink". This pink vs. no pink thing is not an option I've ever come across before. I assumed no one liked pink in their burgers, because of E. coli. I'm pretty sure burgers can't be pink here at home. Anyway, it was pretty funny, as Greg had no idea at all what was going on.

Another thing we noticed was that there were far more babies and toddlers in the mall than in Vancouver. I don't know whether Seattle just has more babies, or if it's a cultural thing, and Seattle...ites? bring their kids shopping more. It was cute though, little tots running all over the place.

It was a fun trip, although now I'm exhausted. And I didn't even really do anything; we conned Greg into driving.

Calendar Girls

So T and I rented Calendar Girls last night, which was a really sweet-hearted movie. It was funny and light and based on a true story, apparently. I would definitely suggest it.

Yesterday I tried Starbucks' Eggnog Latte, and I have to say, I wasn't terribly impressed. I completely enjoy eggnog mixed with coffee; I prefer it to both the ingredients on their own, but the starbucks mixture is, I think a little too coffee for me. It tasted bitter. See the reason eggnog and coffee is so good is because I don't like the bitter of coffee, or the cloying sweetness of plain eggnog (plus it's too thick. Ech). But mixed (although apparently the ratio is important) these two unpleasant features cancel each other out, making a perfect holiday drink.

Mmmm, gotta buy some eggnog.

In Which I Ramble, And Then Rant At Bus Drivers

Well, I have to say that I'm not entirely sure what I've been up to these past few days. I do know that I haven't been studying, and this is bad. Also, I watched Oprah's "Favourite Things" episode,which always makes me feel a little squicky at the rampant commercialism and sponsoring. However, at least all the people getting the favourite things were deserving teachers, and not like the latest WB stars or something. Also, I completely agree with Oprah's fascination with this dryer. It's genius, and eventually I plan on having one. On an unrelated-to-Oprah, but shopping-related note, I've decided that the classic and simple (but still ridiculously expensive) Tiffany engagement ring is my favourite. Not that it needs to have the Tiffany & Co. label on it. It's just so...elegant.

I understand that so far, this has been a pretty shallow entry. In my defense, it's been a long day, and you should all be kind of used to it by now. So now the bus driver story.

I have class starting at 2pm, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I live about 10 minutes by bus from campus, so I left my house at 1:25, which according to the bus schedule was ample time to get to my class. I get to the bus stop, and wait for about 15 minutes. I see the bus coming. I get up to get on the bus, and instead of stopping, the driver honks at me and drives off! I mean, he obviously saw me, because he honked, and when I saw he wasn't deccelerating, I flailed my arms like an orangutan. Often, bus drivers will do this when an emptier bus is right behind them, but there were maybe 3 people standing on his bus (ie. it wasn't very full), and there was no other bus. For half an hour. Finally a bus comes (and stops for me), and I end up getting to campus 15 minutes late for class. I'm still miffed, and still confused as to why the bus driver didn't stop. I mean, what was that?

Ah, Electricity

So, our power went out for about...oh, a minute, today. This isn't normally a huge inconvenience this time of year. I mean, we aren't in Quebec, so cold isn't a big problem, and yet it's cold enough today that we could've put all our fridge-necessary foods on the deck outside (although that may have been asking for more raccoon-visitations). However, for reasons unknown, our burglar alarm has reacted to this particular outage by becoming extremely enthusiastic in its...alarming. Every time the doors (or windows, I'd assume) are opened, the alarm screams. So, now that the power's back up, we've gone from the no-power 'don't open the freezer' to the power-able 'leave and enter the house as fast as humanly possible or the rest of us will kick you out the door and lock it'.

Security is a marvelous thing, no?

Ech, Mondays.

Yeah, so today wasn't fantabulous. It actually wasn't bad either, though. The operative word here would be bleah. On the bright side, my mom made chili for dinner! So good. And Girly got home! Yay! On the not so bright side, I've been feeling all conflicted, pretty much for the past couple of weeks, and I am so over it. Except that I'm apparently not. So yeah, fun times.

Oh well, hopefully the rest of the week is better. Bloody Mondays.

No Medium

Looking back on the past few months, I've discovered that my shopping behaviour always falls at one end of the extremes. For a good while there, I almost never went downtown to shop. The past few weeks, I don't think there's been a week without my going downtown. It's very odd.

Yesterday, it wasn't really my fault. Greg wanted to go downtown, he "needed" some new clothes. So off we went. Of course, I ended up spending $60. In my defense, only $15 of it was for me. I got my mom something, and a couple of Christmas presents. But still. I think I'm going to have to lock my wallet at home, because Christmas is comng, and there's no end in sight.

Sigh.

The Best Part About E-Shopping...

...Is getting your purchases in the mail. Today my books arrived! I ordered six books from bookcloseouts.com, a site with amazing discounts. The prices are in American dollars, but the warehouse is in Ontario, so I don't even have to pay for cross-border shipping! And example? The shipping for my six books came to $4.72. Total. Seriously, y'all need to check it out.

Anyway, I'm really excited, because now I have tons of books to read! I may save them for Christmas, but it is far more likely that I won't. Heh. I've come so far in discipline, and yet...

So here's what I bought;

In Paperback;

College of Magics, Caroline Stevermer (never read it, but it sounded good, and I liked a book she co-wrote)

In Pretty, Pretty Hardcover;

The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin (one of my favourite books of all time. I now have two copies)

Sorcery and Cecilia, Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer (also an incredible book, also already owned)

Wild Robert, Diana Wynne Jones (another amazing author, ver Harry Potter-esque, but most of her stuff is pre-Harry Potter)

A Stir of Bones, Nina Kiriki Hoffman (yet another great author, love everything of hers)

The Marquisarde, Louise Marley (again, an awesome author. I'm now only missing one of her books)

DONE, People!

Almost. I have a little more formatting, and as we speak T is going over it, but the paper will be done in less than twelve hours, so wooo! I wrote my last midterm before finals today, andonce I hand this in, I'm officially finished until finals. So excited.

What will I do with myself, in all my new found free time, do you ask? Well, at some point I'm ging to see The Incredibles with Girly. Also, I'm meeting with the photographer who will be doing my portrait (what a weird phrase. I don't think I've ever said that before), and I'm going to go Christmas shopping! Also, I'm going to study, so I don't die in finals. But whatever. I'm free!

Spreading The Word

This paper is killing me. There isn't enough to write, and I don't know where to put what there is to write.

Anyway, I thought I'd take a break and introduce you all to two new additions to my link list. Veiled Conceit and The Fug Blog, both of which are hilariously funny. So check them out, because everyone needs to laugh.

Complaints, Ramblings And Recommendations

Ech. I've been trying to slog my way through this paper, and I think it's slowly killing me. Not because it's difficult; that I could handle. The problem is that I can't seem to discipline myself enough to sit my ass down and write the damn thing. I've now read my articles, sort of, and boiled one of them down to the essentials. I'm supposed to be comparing two articles, but my two examples of case studies are both deficient. One is just...kind of poor workmanship on the part of the author, and the other is pretending to be a case study. It's actually an amalgamation by the author of several patients that were treated, which sounds to me a lot like...fiction. Seriously, how does that get published? The concept sounds distinctly unscientific to me, but what would I know? I'm just an undergrad.

I've been living half at my house, half at T's for the past few days. Although if by 'living' you mean 'sleeping at' then I've been living at T's. Basically I've just been eating at home (mmm, home food). Tonight Claire and her parents are coming over for dinner, and my mom has made pumpkin pie, a food I would write songs about, if I had any such skill. Let's face it; I'd write the songs without the skill. In fact, I think I have sung songs about it. As you probably can tell, I can't wait.

Also, my new cover-my-whole-foot shoes are great, and do, indeed, cover my whole foot. I love it when purchases live up to my expectations!

Now for my current recommendations, of the music variety. Here we go;

See You When You're 40 - Dido
Respect - Erasure
Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright
Independence Day - Melanie C
Sparks - Coldplay

Tired

Wow, it feels like so long since I've posted. I've been ridiculously busy for the past two days, so I'll recap the interesting parts for you.

Wednesday:

Got my eyebrows done (finally), and was busing home when I got a distress call from T, who had managed to fracture her rib a few days earlier, and had just managed to tear a muscle in her chest. Needless to say, she was in quite a lot of pain, and shortly afer we talked she headed to the hospital, where she was told that she had a fractured rib, and a torn muscle. Ah, medicine.

That night, I stayed at T's, as no one else was home with her, and she was all doped up on elephant tranquilizers. I'm totally joking, she was on T3's. But her dosage was pretty high, and her mobility was limited, so we watched TV and talked until about 4 am.

Thursday:

The next morning, I had breakfast with Tessa at De Dutch, which I have to say, was pretty good. I then went to meet Girly, who wasabout to explode with excitement, as she was going to Montreal. We went shopping, and I finally got shoes that, you know, cover my whole foot, as well as fun shoes, and a bag. Girly bought a pair of boots, which I think cost about as much as all my purchases combined. They are however very nice boots. We then went back to her house, where she got ready to go to Montreal, and waxed rhapsodic about Montreal and its residents (one in particular). We also had a very lovely dinner and dessert.

So that was my Wednesday and Thursday. Nothing really happened today, although I found out I got an 86% on one of my midterms, so woo!And the average was 68%, so I'm even doing okay relative to other people! Also, thank goodness it's Friday, because I need some serious sleep.

Copycat

I can't think of anything to write right now, so I'm stealing a questionnaire from Dancing Brave and UltraTart, which are both excellent sites. So here we go;

What to wear: Hmmm. I'd have to say, there are a few things I think are important. One, the clothes should fit. Two, a nice top can make an outfit. And three, if you have really, really good hair, no one will care what you're wearing.

What NOT to wear: Ponchos. I will never never like ponchos. Also shirts that are too short. I have a long torso, and understand that sometimes the tee and the jeans just can't meet, but seriousoly people, there's a difference between one inch and three.

What to shoe: I have to admit, I suck with heels. I can't walk properly, they make my feet hurt, and they're just too expensive for me to buy, when I only wear them Out. So, I'd have to say either runners, or my Aldo clogs, which are pretty standard, but go with everything.

Biggest Shopping Splurge: I just bought a new coat from Jacob, and a new watch from Guess, so...you pick. Before that? I guess my prom and grad dresses. I really don't spend much on single items of clothing.

Fashion Security Blanket: Good hair and a fitted classy coat. They ensure that even if you randomly run into someone while on your way to the grocery store, you still look good.

Favorite Historical Period: Um...I know pretty much nothing about history. Also, as a biracial person, my existence would have been far more difficult in any other era than now. So...I got nothing

What to see (movie): Incredibles. And Bridget Jones 2. And Garden State, because my viewing of that was unfortunately postponed.

Favorite Bad Movie: Hmmm. Fast and the Furious? Sad, but kinda true. I'm sure there're more. Possibly 10 Things I Hate About You and Legally Blonde, but I personally don't think they're bad, so I'm not sure if they count.

What to listen to: There are a lot of good songs. Such Great Heights (Postal Service), Across the Universe (Fiona Apple version), I really can't list them all.

What to eat: Sushi, panini's, my mom's cooking, lobster, seafood in general.

Where to eat it: Sushi can be found almost anywhere in Vancouver. They did a survey recently, and there are almost as many sushi places in Vancouver as there are Starbucks's. Panini's can be found at the Citrus Cafe, on Georgia and Bute (down Bute). My mom's cooking you have at my house, with my mom. Lobster and seafood...really, just look it up yourself.

Morning Person or Night Owl?: Kinda neither. I like the middle of the day best, and nighttime only when I have a good book to read.

Worst Vice: Picking at my eyelashes, and rubbing my eyes. Also, touching my hair.

Most Thrilling Famous Person Meeting: I've never actually met a famous person. So sad.

Color That Best Represents Your Personality: I don't know...can one colour really represent you?

Latest Obsession: Getting new shoes and a new bag (I feel like my backpack damages my pretty, pretty new coat). Also, learning to kayak. I will get lessons, dammit!

A Recurring Dream: I don't really have any. As a kid, I used to have recurring dreams where I'd walk to the top of my stairs, and then jump down to the bottom, over and over. That was weird, and I think the source of my fear of the sensation of falling. Ech.

Now I Get It

So, I think I may have hit on the reason I've been feeling so up-and-down these past two days. Before I elaborate on that, any squeamish boys or extremely polite girls, please read on at your own risk. This entry concerns *ahem*, women's troubles.

Okay, now that I'm left with those of you who are less delicately built, I don't have to use euphemisms and metaphors for everything. Basically, PMS has decided that my emotional stability is enemy numero uno, and that it will not rest until I'm alone, in bed, sobbing like a pathetic thirteen-year-old who's just found out Orlando Bloom is engaged. Normally, PMS is not nearly as much of an issue. I'll concede that I probably get a little more emotional than my normal state, but to be honest, I don't even notice it. It definitely doesn't make me feel like this. It's bizarre. I've learned that when I'm like this, being alone is very, very bad. When I'm alone, I mope, and pine, and then write in my journal until I write something that makes me cry, at which point I stop, because my journal is really, really pretty, and the hell am I getting tears on it. And thus beings the cycle. Write, cry, write, cry, etc. That was the first two waking hours of my day today. Bloody PMS. On the bright side, after this is over, I'm totally going to laugh at myself, because...yikes. But for now, PMS is kicking my ass.

I've said it before, but it's especially pertinent right now, so go read The Menstrual Chronicles. Menstrual Girl? That's me. Except without the hapless boyfriend. Or the cat.

House Of Stars

Last night, a bunch of the ADPi's, including myself, volunteered for the Ronald McDonald House House of Stars Gala, at the Fairmont Waterfront. It was a lot of fun, and I now have a white feather boa for my troubles! It was a really cool event. There was a silent auction, a live auction, dinner, dancing, and a raffle. The decor was really nice too; white chairs, tables, and each chair had a feather boa tied arond the back, which was gorgeous, but meant that all the guests had little feathers all over their clothes. They didn't seem to mind, though; most of the women took their boas home with them, and some had more than one as they were walking out the door! There were also feather lamps in the middle of each table, which were really pretty; I think I may make one.

The one drawback to the event was that I wore heels, and my feet hate me quite a lot right now. It's definitely time for me to go back to the comfy shoes. I guess my inability to wear heels for any period of time pretty much rules out any possibility of me being a socialite. Oh well.

He's Baaack!

The doorbell just rang, and as my mom seemed uninclined to get it, I went to open the door. At the door was Greg. Greg who is supposed to be in Cuba for another week. Heh.

So he ran out of money, and is back home, apparently a little lighter, both in weight, and possessions (boy got robbed). He is however the proud new owner of cigars and rum, authentic from Cuba, and also a really weird straw hat that he was wearing at the door, which made it even harder for contact lens-less me to recognize him. My mom I think is a little stunned. My dad isn't home yet, but I'm not sure how happy he's going to be when he finds out his camera was among the things stolen.

Yep, things are all back to normal, here.

Say It With Me Now: Focus On The Upside

So, the past two days have been...varied, at least as far as my emotions go. So, in the spirit of ignoring that which sucks/is confusing in an angsty way, I will tell you about the good stuff that happened.

Last night, I went to T's, and we watched ANTM and Queer Eye. It was fun (as always), and I've come to the conclusion that pretty much everyone on ANTM is a little...touched. My favourite part was when Tyra talks about how one of the contestants, Nicole, is kind of anonymous and lacking in memorability. Now, T, Tessa and I have all noticed that Nicole has been getting the editing shaft throughout this season, to the point where no one really knows anything about her. I mean, her presence in the show is entirely limited to the photo shoots, to the point where sometimes I wonder if she even lives in the same suite as everyone else. Anyway, Tyra says her line about forgetting Nicole, and we're all "Psst! Tyra! It's because of your editors".

Anyway, so last night was cool, and then this morning, at, you guessed it, 8:30, we had soccer! Now, when I went to bed last night, it was pouring. And when I woke up? Pouring. A couple of weeks ago, it was a beautiful day, and yet the games were canceled because they didn't want to damage the fields. Today,the games were on, and let me tell you, the fields had turned into marshes. These were not healthy fields. But we played anyway. Oh well, it was fun, and I only bailed once, which isn't to bad, for running around in a mud-patch without cleats.

Anyway, gotta get going; I have studying to do! Atleast I don't have to worry about wishing I was outside. Still raining up a storm out there.

Night of a Thousand Dinners

So last night I attended The Night of a Thousand Dinners, an event for the UN's Adopt-A-Minefield Campaign. It was put on by my friend Claire, who did an excellent job, as she does at everything. It was very informative, and enlightening, if not uplifting. If you don't know about landmines, then you should; click on the link, or google 'landmines'. They are a particularly vindictive and long-lasting form of weaponry, and someone is injured or killed by a landmine every thirty minutes.

The dinner (well, dessert, but that's the best part of dinner anyway) was really nice; I met a lot of cool people, ate some good food (and took some home! There were leftovers), and bid on a couple of items in the silent auction. I even won something! A portrait done by this company. So that was pretty cool.

On the walk home, I saw four raccoons (which are so, so cute) across the street from my house, so my parents stories about seeing raccoons lately are probably true, and not indicative of some psychological disorder. Phew!

Freak Out

Has anyone other than me realized how soon Christmas (or the winter holiday of your choice) is? It suddenly crashed down on me this morning, and I'm now (metaphorically) hiding in a corner in the fetal position, because I have so much to do. Forget the presents and decorating, I still have midterms and papers, and that doesn't even count finals! And I have no money with which to buy presents! And there's all this socializing to be done around Christmas, and where am I possibly going to find the time, when my every moment will be absorbed by my attempts to make Christmas presents for everyone?

Granted, this fear will probably go away. I love Christmas. It's my favourite holiday, in fact. I have to say, Christmas Day actually isn't that huge of a deal for me, but the surrounding half-month, as a whole, is awesome. Plus, Christmas means Christmas TV specials, like Charlie Brown, the Grinch, and the recently discovered Yogi Bear's First Christmas. Christmas also means Ferrero Rocher chocolates, which are amazing. Yay! Now I'm excited again!

Heh. I may need some sort of mood-stabilizer. On the Christmas List it goes!

Not Mentioning the Election

Except for in that title. Ugh. Everyone needs to go buy a shirt, like now.

Other than that, my day has been pretty good. I talked to girly, went to class, meeting, and now am finally back home, eating dinner before I drop into bed.

Speaking of bed, and therefore sleep, I actually fell asleep in class today, for the first time in my life. It was really weird. I was writing notes of what the prof was saying with my eyes shut, borderline conscious at best, and it was like my brain blinked. My head fell forward, and apparently so did the rest of my body, because I woke up literally 3 milliseconds after, and there was this random line from my pen moving when my body rocked forward. So weird.

And, as I'm about to do that all over again, I'm signing off. Definitely time for bed. 'night!

One Hundred

According to Blogger, this is post one hundred for me. Woo one hundred! Next big milestone; five hundred.

I spent today with Shakey, helping get a mass mailing done. We actually got quite a bit done, which was impressive; it was a difficult day. We only had one big screw-up; we thought postage was $3.20, instead of 98 cents, which is what it was supposed to be. To be fair, the envelopes we were mailing were big, and the price-chart is confusing. Anyhow, our mix-up led to the postage machine running out of money in like two minutes. Oops.

Yikes. My mom is cooking crab, and she bought live ones from Chinatown. One of them is obviously a little more alive than the others, and just pinched the hell out of her finger. I've never heard her yelp like that. The crabs are smallish, too. That one was clearly the badass crab, though; the rest are all kind of sluggish, while this one's dancing around like Sebastian in The Little Mermaid. I shall call him Chauncy, because I like how "Chauncy the Crab" sounds Heh. Chauncy. I'm apparently about to be treated to quite the amazing dinner; in addition to the crab, my mom is also making her dumplings. Mmm, dumplings.

I'm going to go contemplate my food now.

Resolutions and Calculations

So the fury has abated. It was addressed and resolved, and I feel much better. Still not perfect, but at least not like my insides are boiling, so that's good. While I'm still on the theme of goodness, I got 90% on my Psychology of Language midterm! I'm pretty excited.

On the not-so-good side of things, I did some financial calculations, and while I'm still in the positive numbers, it's a little too close for comfort. So...more spending-control is going to be put in place.

I hate unsettling financial news. But 90%! Yay!