What Saving Up For University Is Like
I Missed Tegan & Sara For This?

Good afternoon, if there is anything I can give you a hand with, please let me know. And I can bring down the teas for you to smell if you'd like. Oh, you're welcome. Yes? A tea? Of course. That'll be $2.13 please. Let that steep for 3-5 minutes, enjoy your tea. Thank you very much, enjoy your day. Hello there. Yes, of course. Would you like that warmed up? Here you are ma'am. Now there's no lids for theses cups so do be careful. My pleasure. Good afternoon sir, welcome to our tea shop. If there's- oh yes, of course. $2.13 please. Let that steep for 3-5 minutes, enjoy your tea. Oh a coupon, of course. Hi- I mean, hello. Is there anything I can give you a hand with? Here's a list of the teas. Just looking? Alright, you're welcome. You can choose from this list here- No sir, that's free. Just a coffee then? There you go sir. $1.67 please, thank you. Milk and sugar is right out there. Good afternoon, $2.13 please, thank you, enjoy your tea. Tea or coffee then? Here's the list right over here-of course. Thank you, enjoy your day- Hello there, what can I get for you? Coming right up, is there anything else- No no, that's free. There you are, now there's no lids for these cups- cream and sugar is right out there, enjoy. Coffee or tea then? Well, here's the list for you- yes, tea bags, choose from here- $2.13 please. Thank you, milk and sugar is right out there- Good afternoon ladies, if there's any- Yes, coming right up sir, that'll be $1.67 please, thank you, the cream and sugar is right out there, do be careful though, there's no lids- Of course sir, no that's free, yes, your coupon- Tea or coffee? And what can I get for you, oh are you together, that'll be- of course, yes, right over here, coming right up. Just looking, well if there's anything I can- you're welcome. Thank you very much, enjoy your day- enjoy your tea, oh not a problem at all, let that steep for 3-5 minutes, yes? Milk and sugar is right out there, here's the list for you to- oh just a coffee.Yes, we have have coffee, that's $1.67 please and thank you very much, cream and sugar is right out there. Would you like that warmed up? Here, I'll refill that thank you oh you're welcome enjoy- there's no lids for these so be careful it's hot- Good afternoon gentlemen, what can I get for you tea or coffee, here's the list right over here, oh yes of course they're free, no it's on us, the coupon yes, thank you very much here you are now there's no lids for these cups, cream and sugar is right out there enjoy your day thank you. Hi there- I mean, hello there no of course not what can I get for you $2.13 please yes tea bags you can choose from this list right over here no it's free, thank you very much milk and sugar is right out here, let that steep for 3-5 minutes, would you like to smell that? Of course you're very welcome tea or coffee- yes, what can I get for you just looking, of course, just let that steep for 3-5 minutes, enjoy your tea- would you like that warmed up? Oh that's no problem at all, $1.67 please- Tea or coffee then? DEAR FREAKING LORD IT'S ONLY 4:30?! Here's the list right over here-of course- Thank you, enjoy your day- Hello there, what can I get for you? Coming right up, is there anything else- No no, that's free. There you are, now there's no lids for these cups- cream and sugar is right out there, enjoy. Coffee or tea then? Well, here's the list for you- yes, tea bags, choose from here- $2.13 please. Thank you, milk and sugar is right out there- Good afternoon gentlemen oh thank you very much I'll refill that what can I get for you tea or coffee yes we have coffee $1.67 please thank you hello there here's the list right over here if there's anything I can- good afternoon thank you you're welcome yes of course that coupon it's free today here you are do be careful there's no lids for these cups hello there what can I get for you just looking of course just a tea then $2.13 please let that steep for 3-5 minutes enjoy your day yes tea bags you can choose from this list right over here thank you very much just looking milk and sugar is right out here tea or coffee would you like that warmed up yes of course you're welcome no problem my pleasure OH MY GOODNESS WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE GET ME OUT OF HERE?!

9:59 pm

An 11 Year Old On Post-Secondary Education

My mother was hell-bent on having a BBQ today. She invited some of the family over; an uncle and the girlfriend, an aunt and two cousins, and another uncle. We were relaxing after a full, greasy meal when my 11 year-old cousin Michael asked my brother David about his plans in September. It was a short, but memorable conversation.

Mike: "Are you in college or university?"
David: "University."
Mike: "Oh, I thought you were in college. Which one- Oh, Ryerson right?"
David: "Yup."
Mike: "Yeah, the sucky one."

We played mahjong and I won a lot of money (aka: brightly coloured plastic chips). My grandmother taught me to gamble well. If the whole university thing doesn't quite work out, I can always hustle.

I.
Love.
Mah.
Jong.

Oh right. And my family.

12:10 am

Saturday, July 26, 2003

Feeling Melancholy Despite...

Dear Shirley,

I am pleased to inform you that you have been assigned to:
Room A-303, Single-room occupancy, in Willison Hall Residence...

Wahoo! Just the hall that I wanted. Now all I have to do is figure out whether this room has a bathroom buddy or buddies. I got my new e-mail address as well and I will share it and all it's ugliness with you now.
manh4390@wlu.ca
*shudder* It is the ugliest e-mail address I've ever had. Numbers? Ugh, it's so tacky and gross. I wonder if one's school e-mail address reflects the quality of the institution. If this is the case, then I don't have much to look forward to in September, do I? This is only the beginning of the ugliness that is Laurier.
I kid, I kid. Oh university life, how I pine for you.

university life, n.
1. living on your own, surrounded by good friends and good fun, doing whatever you want (granted that it is still within your best interests)
2. good times without the flamflams of going to class
3. living on little to no money

If school were to start next week, I'd be all ready and raring to go embrace the sweet, sweet independent lifestyle. I'm just not in the mood to start learning and doing homework again. Is that going to be a problem? But until September 1st, I have much to do in order to prepare my new life. I can't wait to buy new twin-sized bed linens (The Bay and Sears are having sales!), a fridge (take that Coldex!), an electric kettle (take that residence rules!), notebooks and highlighters, and all the other things that are required to have a good first year. Like a large CD collection, funky socks and lots of smiley face ware to remind you that there is indeed happiness in the world when you're pulling out your hair from stress. I need to get working on the funky sock thing.... Then there's filling out forms and mailing them in with cheques for large sums of money, registering for this and that with cheques for large sums of money and of course, how could I forget the draining of my savings by means of the cheques for large sums of money.

Oh university life, how I pine for you indeed.

Note to self: Socks are on sale for 99 cents at Smart Set.

2:04 pm

Thursday, July 24, 2003

Fill In The Blanks

Last night was _______ night with Nicola and Bryan. We went to Licks where it was ______ day and bought _______ food for only _______ cents. But we realized that they had run out of jumbo _______ and so we had to settle for regular-sized _______ dogs. As well, they had run out of _______ buns and so we had to settle for regualr sized _______ on _______ buns. Feeling rather _______, we set off for the ice cream bar and got _______ sundaes which we ate very _______. Bryan taught us how to make straw snakes and Niki said that whipped cream was _______.

Then we went to Rogers and _______ a movie. It took us a _______ time. We chose The Life of David Gale which looked _______ as it was rated _______. We went back to Bryan's _______ and enjoyed the movie thoroughly. It involved a lot of _______, which we were not prepared to do since it was late in the evening. But it had a _______ ending which surprised all of us. I would _______ recommend it. Seriously, you should _______ (I suggest the use of the words "definitely" or "go") watch it because it was a very _______ (I suggest the use of the words "good" or fantastic") movie. It basically proved that the death penalty is _______ and should be _______ because the justice system doesn't _______. And who doesn't _______ Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet?

We ate fresh _______ with dried _______ and chocolate chips for a late night snack. I've never experienced so many _______ in my mouth at the same time. Then the movie ended and it was _______am, so we went home.

1:35 pm

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Dear Freaking Goodness, It's 2am

Chien, you may think that you thwarted my attempts to buy cheap shirts yesterday two days ago, but you're wrong! I went back to the mall today yesterday and bought them after all! Ha. I will not not buy two tanks for only $15 even if my bank account does kill me. Yay for double negatives because it's so late early.

And Jim, the picture of me and my long hair is up for all to see. Yes indeedy, that's yours truly before May 31, the day I chopped off my hair for Locks of Love. I tucked in into my pants once. I love saying that. It's a yucky picture and I don't like it much, but it's here.

Enetation is still being silly. This time insisting that the number of comments are lower than they actually are. I stopped caring sometime between 11pm and now.

I made a $5 bet with Ryan that I wouldn't forget to mention his name in my next post. Not only that, but I have to say that he's one heck of a studmuffin and something about jumping him in the sack. I told him that a public domain was no place for such vulgarity, but then I remembered the $5 and all my scruples went out the window. So there. I win.

This is an example of my inability to think one thought for more than a few sentences at this dark hour.

Alright, the tweakage needs to stop. The sidebar is now way longer than I thought I would make it, and although I didn't think it was possible, it's starting to feel too long. But it's still good, it's still good! I'm pleased. I now need to take my fingers off the keyboard, turn away from the screen, run for my life and rejoin the other 3-D lifeforms.

2:10 am

Monday, July 21, 2003

New And Improved

Ladies and gentlemen, may I draw your attention to the left side of the screen where you will see a newly renovated space. Welcome to The Sidebar, the hottest place on this webspace. Home to a picture of yours truly and links galore, you can find out more about the mysterious mistress who owns this domain. That's right folks, the owner of 'i never learned to swim' has finally put her lazy-summer-ass into gear and has utilized the little knowledge she has of html and whores.

Perpetual thanks to Jeff for his webspace (without him my photo wouldn't be here) and Lisa from Web Whores For Rent for her much needed help. I tried doing it myself, I really did. But I have no knowledge of tables and the cells that apparently make up these tables. So Lisa and her web-savvy-ness came in, a couple lines of coding later and I'm on my way! I did all the tweaking myself. And look, different fonts and sizes! Bolds and unbolds! Those little separation bars! (Or 'horizontal rules' if you want to be so technical.) It's more than I can take! Oh my!

I draw this to your attention, and ask of only one thing: PRAISE!
Praise me! Praise me good! I worked oh so hard to make this pretty and now my eyes burn, my back is sore, my butt is numb and I can feel the carpal tunnel syndrome creeping into my forearms! PRRRRAAAAAISE MEEEEEEE!

Side Note: Enetation is being dumb (yes Chienopher....) and insists that there are no comments from previous posts, but there are! Check if you care.

11:45 am

Sunday, July 20, 2003

Parti Gras 2003

I took in some jazz last night downtown in the Distillery District, Toronto's new old art scene. It was Parti Gras 2003, a clever spin-off of N'Orleans' Mardi Gras celebrations, and prelude to the International Beaches Jazz Festival next week. There's still time today if you want to attend one of Toronto's street parties (on a cobblestone road no doubt) and enjoy yourself in a 'phat, fun and flipped out' kind of way. There was good food, good music and a jolly good time overall as the sun glared down on us making us all run for cover under the protective canopy of the ice cream truck. Here's what I consider to be the highlight of the evening:

Lalala, here we are watching a street show by The Fire Guy. Look, he's lighting some devil sticks on fire and doing neat tricks with them. Lalala there go the flying flaming sticks.....

Fire Guy: Unh! Ah! Ha! (these are trick-performing noises that he made)

He messes up his trick at this point and says into his microphone:

Fire Guy: Whoa! Okay, I gotta impress you all now with a new trick because you think I suck!
Little Girl in Front Row: We already thought that!
Fire Guy: Heh heh....shut up kid.
Little Girl: YOU shut up!
Fire Guy: Alright kid just be quiet and let me do my show.
Little Girl: You suck!

The Fire Guy walks menacingly up to the little girl and her group of little kid friends who are all laughing at him.

Fire Guy: Alright, give me your shoe.
Little Girl: No!
Fire Guy: Just give me your shoe.
Little Girl: Why?
Fire Guy: Because I can tell your future with it!
Little Girl: No! Go away!
Fire Guy: Look kid, just give me your shoe!

The girl still refuses to give him her shoe and her friends all chime in with rounds of "You suck!", "Go away!" and "Leave her alone!". The Fire Guy then asks the audience if they think she should give him her shoe. Everyone applauds YES! The little girl, pressured by the crowd, takes off her sandal and hands it over to the Fire Guy.

Fire Guy: Alright everyone, with this shoe I can now tell this little girl's future.

He smiles, pauses, then throws it down an alleyway. I mean, he just WHIPS the thing down there.

Fire Guy: Hmmmm....I can see your future now....you're going for a walk.

1:07 pm

Saturday, July 19, 2003

The Big O

As in 'Orientation'. I spent 6 hours yesterday at Laurier attending workshops and semiars and tours all about life next year at that wonderfully small and culturally devoid school. You can cross the entire campus in about 7 minutes. It takes the average university student 15 minutes to get from their dorm to class, it takes a Laurier student 2. Maybe 3 minutes. Max. Not that I'm complaing. Being the lazy-ass that I am, walking in short spurts is just the thing I need. Heck, I'm starting to complain that a 10 minute walk down the street to dinner at a restaurant is a pain. It's really not that bad; the size of Laurier is totally going to turn me into a whiny, sedentary gal. It's too late for me, but go! Save yourselves!

And my worst fears may be true after all; Waterloo IS a hole. A cultural hole, that is. After months of Jason's whining and complaining, I went to visit Waterloo myself and found that I actually enjoyed the town. It's like a scaled down version of Markham, and there's nothing wrong with that. All the things I need are within walking distance, and everything else is just a bus ride away. They have two restaurants that serve something other than white food, even if all the people who work there are white: Mongolian Grill and Curry in a Hurry. They even have rush hour and a ghetto. It's almost like a city! Not too bad at all. But yesterday while perusing a copy of The Cord Weekly, Laurier's student-run newspaper, I came across an article written by the Editor-in-Chief. Basically, the article said something like this: He (the writer, Wilbur McLean) is black and everyone around him is white. I looked around me and took in that there were about a handful of Chinese people and...that's it. Everywhere I looked there was blonde hair with highlights or brown hair with frosted tips. Tan skin that was meant to be pale.

"My professors are white. The staff is white. Students leaders are white. The school's administration is white. Want to take a course in African history? It's taught by an African, no doubt, but even he's white.
This is not to say that Laurier in general is a racist place since that is not the case at all. Overt racism is not something I've experienced and most people I've encountered don't appear to care whether I'm black, white or plaid.
However, there is a certain level of cultural ignorance that I find disheartening in an institution of higher learning.
Culturally, Laurier is like painting a white stripe on a squirrel and calling it a skunk. They're similar, but not quite the same."

I guess I can always just go down the street to the University of Waterloo to see my nerdy Asian - yellow and brown alike - brothers and sisters. But I'd have to be going through some serious withdrawal because that 10-15 minute walk can't be a good thing.

1:26 pm

Tuesday, July 15, 2003

My Mother, Seamstress And Snooper

Mum: Shirley, help me take down these curtains, I'm going to wash them.
Me: *lazily* Why? I don't wanna.
Mum: Because I made these when we moved here 5 years ago and we haven't washed them since.
Me: *grumble grumble* ...ew...fine...grosssness....

right before she puts them up again, my mother finds....

Mum: Hey! Look at this!
Me: What?
Mum: There's a sewing pin in here! Wow. To think, this has been in here for five years! I'm sure glad it didn't stab into my hand while I was washing them. Huh, this is one of my white ones, I always wondered where it went....
Me: *shakes head*

and earlier today...

Mum: Shirley, where are my glasses?
Me: I don't know, why?
Mum: Well, I found this letter Vivian wrote to your brother and her handwriting is really small.
(Vivian is my brother's girlfriend)
Me: Ma! You can't read that! It's private!
Mum: What? It was lying right there on the table, it's not like he hid it! If I had to snoop to find it, you're right, it would be wrong. But I didn't so it's fine.
Me: I'm sure he doesn't want you reading that, put it back.
Mum: Oh come on, help me with this. My goodness her writing is small.
Me: No. Put it back.
Mum: Wow, these 12th graders sure have big vocabularies. What does this word mean?
Me: Ma! I'm not helping you read that!
Mum: Fine. I'll go get a dictionary.

sigh
oh mother

2:19 pm

Sunday, July 13, 2003

Fringe Fanatic

Apparently I'm not really good enough with my words to convey to you exactly how I felt or what a good time I had, so go to Annia's place to read a very good report on our Fringe Friday. It's hi-LAR-ious. Our day and her post. Too lazy to click and read another account of something you just read a day ago? Well, here are a few reasons why the trip may be worthwhile:
- humping beatles
- shooting pet store bunnies
- falling horizontally
- toilets and shit
- Waterloo IS a hole
- dead pigeons
- O.D.-ing...on humour!
- and finally, read proof that Annia and I were meant to be together

My beef with the weather? The two days that I spend downtown/outside, the clouds rain and the winds blow. Today, when I'm stuck in the mall working, it's sunny and warm.
Anyway, back to the Fringe for three more plays yesterday. What a wonderful way to soak in the culture of the T-dot. I love the Fringe Festival! incoheRANT, Eros at Breakfast and Simcoe Triangle. I can't wait to go back next year and get the Buddy Pass, 7 pairs of tickets for $88, or even 10 for $64. I'm too lazy to say anything about them right now, nevermind linking to their descriptions because I think you're too lazy to click and read about them anyway. Plus, the Fringe Festival is over in about 3 hours, so really...does it matter? I didn't think so.

I love how the readership on this thing has dropped dramtically since the summer started. Maybe it's because I'm boring. Oh well, I suppose that means I can post whatever I want without having to worry about what everyone thinks. Funny, that was the intention when I first started here....
Anyhoo, with that being said, I'm pretty sure that one of my breasts is slightly smaller than the other. Nah, I'm positive.

8:05 pm

Friday, July 11, 2003

The Fr!nge

Yes, Toronto's theater festival is back, celebrating 15 years as its largest, most exciting and adventurous theater festival. 125 plays from across Canada and around the world, 900+ performances and 20 venues equals 12 days of exciting fun-filled theater for everyone. And I was one of them! Annia and I headed down to Fringe Fest armed with vim, vigour, a thirst for culture and of course, a coupon book. The plays are very affordable at only $8 a pop and most of these, if not all of them, are better than most movies out there. I picked up my Frequent Fringer pass, 5 plays for only $32, and off we headed down Bloor Street to the George Ignatieff Theater for our first Fringe, A Canadian Bartender at Butlin's.
Number One: the theater was wonderful; small and cosy and deliciously inviting. The perfect setting for this scrumptious one-man show that left Annia and I in stitches and thirsty for water.
Number Two: TJ Dawe (writer and performer) is genious. A gifted writer and wonderful storyteller who throws form, style and production values out the window. With just a bench and himself, he manages to bring the audience into his story and although the monologue seems to be a bit choppy in places, it all weaves together in the end with his refreshing humour. We left feeling quite sated.

Off for a quick lunch at Shakespeare's Cafe where we were charged insane amounts for not-so-Shakespearean food. We then braved the elements and headed off to our second Fringe play of the day at the Royal St. George Theater, It's Raining Fun! Oh.My.Goodness. This was GOOD. So funny. It was so good and so funny that I can barely speak properly and am left with only the ability to repeat things. Such as: IT WAS SO GOOD and IT WAS SO FUNNY. Written by The Awesome Club (which I now desperately want to join), it features original music, matching t-shirts, an owl that disappears (and then reappears! gasp!) humping beatles, humping bunnies, Mysterious Mystery Guests, and ruthless idealism. Here's the description of the play which convinced me beyond any doubt whatsoever to see it.
Who like LAUGHING and HAVING FUN? Well, join the club! The "AWESOME CLUB", that is! (wink!) Where SINCERE is the new CYNICAL, WHITE is the new BLACK and everyone leaves feeling like ther HEART exchanged a HIGH FIVE with their MIND! The IRONY is that there is none! (Or IS there...) We're not sure! And neither are YOU! EXCLAMATION MARK!
So good. Isn't it just precious? The play was as awesome and as fun as promised. Annia has never experienced such cramps from laughter and I was crying at one point. It was so funny that I even laughed my obnoxious laugh. Now, that's something.

After our day of Fringing, we headed off to Free Friday at the ROM to continue our quest for cheap culture. We took in the Korean Art exhibit, some colourful prints of trees by Naoko Matsubara and learned about South Asian religions. A lovely and affordable Indian dinner at (the recommended) Woodlands later, and off we went to the subway station in the rain.

I *maple leaf* T.O.

More Fringing for me tomorrow.
To everyone: There's still time, go Fringe!

11:09 pm

Thursday, July 10, 2003

Sold Out

I finally saw the video for Jewel's latest single, Intuition. A few words: Gaahhh! My eyes!

What the hell is wrong with that girl?? Her skirts are so short and everything is so tight and...sparkly. She is totally shakin' it and it bothers me. Her boobs don't look like they can stay in that swatch of fabric she calls a top nor can her ass stay in those short-shorts. What have those music execs done to the country/folk-singing-guitar-playing-song-writing sensation that we all loved? Ugh, it looks like they tried to turn her into Britney Spears. Her teeth are even straight now. To me, that was the one thing that kept Jewel real, the fact that she had ugly teeth. I mean, it made her human and brought her down to earth, kept her humble and other such good things. But now she's paid money to have them starightened so she can flash her smile and flip her hair (which is still very blonde and nice, just a tad more shiny), and bounce her breats and shake her ass for all to gawk at. Oh well, it's a woman's perogative to change her mind. You go girl indeed.

And in the words of the lovely Jewel herself, "It's time to cash in".

12:53 pm

Monday, July 07, 2003

Resisting The Urge To Scratch Everything

I.AM.SO.ITCHY. 31 mosquito bites. Possibly more because I stopped counting. Some so swollen up that when I put my arm down on a surface, only the bitten swollen part touches the table and not the rest of my arm. Neat I tell you, gross, but neat. And I can't even begin to tell you how much it sucks to have 3 on your ass. Oh Mother Nature, how beautiful you are, but do you think you could tell your bugs to leave us alone? Please?

The 3 hour drive there was worth it in the end, despite Anna's almost-car-sickness, the pools of sweat puddling here and there on our bodies from the extreme heat and Nikhil's refusal to take a rest stop because "we're hardcore".
"Weee!" -Anna, looking up from her book to prevent actual-car-sickness
The beach was nice, and once I showed Anna I could 'survival swim', she left me alone and didn't bother giving me lessons. Sweet. It's frisbee time! 77 cent Food Basics brand hot dogs for dinner that night, some Equality chips (boy, did we eat cheap) and then a 3am mosquito hunt.

Saturday found us in a canoe paddling towards that perfect lunch spot on the rocks. And we found it. Even though the rocks were so slippery with algae and various sea-slime material that we could barely stand on them. I learned that day that Kraft Dinner made with no milk and no butter can be good. The trip back to the campground was, quite simply, a bitch. We were going against the current, the waters were choppy, the wind was windy and there were times when we couldn't tell whether we were moving or not.
"We've been trying to go past that rock for the last 10 minutes!" -Nikhil, a keen observation
"You have no idea how much this hurts!" -Anna, after spending 6 days canoeing in Algonquin last week
"Weee!" -Me, in the front where the winds and waves made the ride better than something at Wonderland
But we managed to make it back alive, well, and not asleep even though the rhythmic stroke stroke of the paddles and splash splash of the waves almost put me to sleep. The night was interesting as we had to tolerate our Japanese neighbours blasting their teeny-pop, reggae, latino and country music. They played "Build Me Up Buttercup" throughout the night and I awoke to find myself humming it while cooking pancakes.

The drive home was taken in spurts as Nikhil and I stopped off at Gananoque and Kingston to enjoy Milano's Pizzeria, the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario. All in all, the trip was great and I had fun, but it's nice to be home. My bed feels so good.

2:37 pm

Thursday, July 03, 2003

A Camping We Will Go

Tomorrow morn Nikhil, Anna and I head east to Charleston Lake for our Camping Adventure o' Fun! It will be a weekend filled with tenting, hiking, cooking, beaching, bug spraying, smores-making, canoeing, and of course, not showering. I cannot wait to go canoeing. I LOVE canoeing. Two years ago, I had the supreme pleasure of going up to Mike's cottage in Huntsville where I learned to perfect my J-stroke. Actually, it's not perfect or anywhere near perfection. But I learned. And I fell in love with it.

One thing I am nervous about is the beach. My ideal beach activity is sunbathing, but Anna insists on teaching me how to swim. You see, I don't really know how...to swim. Surprised? What's the title of this place again? Anyhoo, I had some tragic, life-scarring event happen to me in Grade 2. We were on a field trip to the local pool and I swam out too far (I needed to be within arms reach of the wall), so I grabbed onto the closest thing I could find; a girl in my class. I don't remember too much, except that I clung onto her for dear life and she kept trying to push me off because apparently, I was hurting her. Eventually, I managed to claw and pinch my way to the edge of the pool and pull myself out, by this time I believe we were both crying. The next day at school, the girl comes into the classroom accompanied by her father who proceeded to lecture me sternly on not hurting his daughter. Ever again. Or else. Y'know, the usual middle-aged man threatening a 7 year old girl scene.

A few years later, I took swimming lessons but I pulled some muscle in my neck near the end of my Orange lessons and did not proceed to Red because I wanted to let my neck heal. Oh, and I was afraid of the deep end. Still am. So I never made it past Orange and I haven't been in a pool in years. Except last year at Niki's party when I was pushed in. The funny thing was that most of the people there were lifeguards and none of them helped me out. Apparently, they all watched me get shoved in, and kept watching me attempt to save myself until someone said, "Huh. Uhm guys, why isn't she coming up?" Oh you lifegaurds.

Anyway, I'll be back Monday (if I survive swimming lessons), have a good weekend all.

2:26 pm

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

Yay For Canada

Congratulations Vancouver.

Check out the Bid Site.

1:18 pm

Such A Good Great Hair Day

I've resisted the urge to blog all day...until now. Why give in? I asked myself, it's not like I have anything to say in particular. But why does it matter? I argued. It's your blog after all. And so the conversation went until I decided that this was in fact my blog and I can say anything and nothing all at once if I so desired. So there.

I finished The Order of the Phoenix today. How was it? What did I think? Two words: So looong. *cries* SO long. But I kept turning the pages, thinking that the sooner I finished it, the sooner I could take the heavy thing off my knees. It's angst filled till the end, CAPITAL LETTERS and exclamation marks (!) galore. Still, quite enjoyable and highly recommended.

It's been a yucky few days, glamming up in the anticipation of going somewhere, but then not actually getting there. I've had more fun than this before. Though slightly dull as life may be right now, I've a few things I'll be keeping myself busy with for the next little while. I'm surprised at one of the things on my To Do List however. Currently, I'm putting together a proposal package for Kodak in hopes that they will sponsor an expedition to Antarctica. My first stab at this was with Jason three years ago, but that failed almost abysmally and quite miserably. Since then, I believe we have put forth another effort or two...but as I have not yet been to Antarctica, I do not believe that our attempts were indeed successful. So why, exactly, have I not given up on this? Who knows, perhaps it's my stubborn nature and my unwillingness to accept defeat. Hmm, let me make that sound a bit nicer...I'm determined and impassioned. Yes, that will do. Or maybe because one of my life goals is to visit every continent on the planet, and the last time I checked, Antarctica qualified as one. Paraphrasing what I said in my grad write-up, I'm doing this because I want to, and because I believe I CAN. Sappy, isn't it? Of course, there still is the distinct possibility that Kodak will toss aside my proposal and deny me the trip, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

12:19 am