A Long, Boring-ish Post* About How I'm Lil Miss Social Now



My roomie and I have been spending loads of time together lately because her relationship woes turned into a full-out relationship loss. Boys are very good at making girls very sad. She needs to get out of the house and since we both need to make more friends in this town, we've been trying to get out more. The low-down on our activities recently:

- Lots of movie watching!

- Headed down to the local indie-film theater to see Closer. Seeing as the movie was all about cheating, lying, deception, and lots of hurt and anger, we both left the theater thoroughly depressed and melancholy. As a friend of mine commented after she saw the movie:
"Well, that certainly reaffirmed my faith in relationships." < / s a r c a s m >
The good bit is that I've discovered Damien Rice (he has 2 sites for some reason, here and here) and his song The Blower's Daughter. Ladies and gentlemen, Damien Rice officially rocks (in a folky kind of way).

- Headed to the theater again after a few days to see Finding Neverland. A lot more lighthearted than our last choice, Finding Neverland was all about imagination and the fantastical things we think up. It was inspirational, filled with a wonderful strangeness and loads of cute British child actors. It comes highly recommended by moi.

- Next on our To See List: The Phantom of the Opera.

- Desperate to get her dance on, she wanted to go out somewhere, anywhere, please for the love of goodness let me dance! So we went to Philthy McNasty's, a place whose name makes me shiver because it sounds like you can contract a disease just by standing inside. Upstairs is a restuarant that boasts great fries (or something like that) and advertises Tuesday nights as Kids Eat Free! Night. This seems strange to me (who would take their kids to eat at a place called Philthy McNasty's??) because just one flight of stairs down it is packed with scantily clad university girls and more boys wearing pinstripe shirts than you can shake a stick at all grinding on the meat market they call a dance floor. We ignored the girls who were drunk enough to make out and the creepy guys who watched them and had a blast, until a beer bottle got smashed in the air somehow and suddenly there was alcohol and shattered glass all over my arm and tangled in my hair. We came home that night after waiting for a cab for half an hour in the cold feeling like old ladies. My feet are killing me! What did I do to my hips? My back hurts! Well, maybe you should wear more sensible shoes!

- Next, a night at the guys' house, a game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos and the Atlanta Falcons vs. the St. Louis Rams. I didn't, still don't and don't if I ever will "get" football. And Hungry, Hungry Hippos wasn't as fun as I remember it. Off to the bar, and after hours of good conversation, warm pita triangles and spinach dip, it was back to the dance floor. I was irked by the coat check that managed to "run out of room" and how bottles, straws and limes managed to find their way onto the dance floor with the intention of getting under my shoes, making me slip and look like an idiot. Then the roomie felt sick and alcohol gave her the urge to spit everywhere. I learned how to make a bunny with my gloves, came home and tried to scoop Jello with my left hand at 2am.

*I tried to make it interesting, but it's Sunday afternoon and I really don't feel like it. I swear, when I started, I didn't know it would turn out this badly. Forgiveness, please.

4:59 pm

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

2-3 Sentences About Me



So after nearly three and a half months of waiting, I've finally won stuff! I've been chosen as the recipient of an award and a scholarship and in two weeks I get to walk across a stage, shake hands with some important university people and smile for my dad's camera. The thing is, I get to write whatever it is that the Dean of Arts reads out to the public while I'm up there, but I'm stuck for ideas (I've never liked referring to myself in third person). So here's where I ask you lovely internet people for help!

In two to three sentences, what should I write for the Dean to read out? I've heard that people have written silly things in the past, but remember to keep it PG people, this is a family event!

9:05 pm

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Nerding It Up


Someone said that they don't like photos with this sun-glare/streak effect thingy. Personally, I don't mind them, but I'm wondering what you think. Yay or nay?

I'm feeling a little light-headed right now because I've spent the last few hours reading sociology texts...it's the first weekend of the term and already, I'm nerding it up.

My nerdiness was fed by my Friday afternoon adventure to our campus Bookstore to buy all the books that I couldn't borrow or buy used. Five puny, paperback books no more than 400 pages each ended up costing me an obscene $322. Who knew a 182 page book on Chinese Religion could cost $75? So very angry and broke, I went home and searched online at Chapters and Alibris for hours and found all my books at much lower prices. In the end, with shipping included, I'm only spending about $176 and saving nearly $150 of my hard earned student money. Never have I been so happy to buy textbooks before! When my orders were confirmed, I actually squealed and did a little I-just-ordered-my-books-online-for-so-much-cheaper dance.

Students, beware of your campus Bookstores! Go online and spend a bit of time searching ISBNs and it will undoubtedly be worth it in the end. Plus, you get to feel grown-up because you're using a credit card and then receive neat packages in the mail! (Obviously my favourite parts in the whole book ordeal.)

7:46 pm

Thursday, January 06, 2005

The Little Things



Gosh, I wish I could be inspiring. Instead, I am constantly enthralled by little things that I find around me. Like this plastic rice bowl and a pair of green chopsticks. I liked the green so much that my family and I went to all the kitchen stores (really, they were more like stalls) in the crowded, Vietnamese markets and found a pack of 10 for about $1 CDN. I haven't opened them yet. I still like them, I just don't use them.

I hope that won't necessarily be the case for the next little piece that I came across just last night. It's an old horoscope from a magazine in Welland, Ontario.

Please repeat the following health-giving affirmations until you are totally committed to carrying them out:

In the next seven days, I will wash no dishes, do no laundry, and make no beds. I'll devote myself to exploring every clue, throb and blip that captivates my imagination. I'll lower the barrier between my conscious and unconscious minds. I'll follow the smells I like. I'll listen closely to my body. I'll be kind to nobodies. I'll be wildly peaceful, fiercely tender, and brilliantly sensitive. I'll actually kiss the earth. I'll listen to music that awakens unfamiliar emotions. I'll call out to the night sky, 'I defy you stars.' And unless I can give my whole heart, I won't offer it at all.

4:53 pm

Monday, January 03, 2005

Creatively Constipated


Waterfall in Da Lat, Vietnam.

I'm not going to lie. I didn't come up with that title myself. Thanks goes out to my good friend Annia for being wittier and cleverer than me and for letting me steal her witty and clever sayings.

This post has a point, I swear.

Here's the thing: I've never really believed in making New Year's Resolutions. I'm sure I made them as a child and/or teenager, but a handful of years back, I just stopped. I looked around me and saw people who made resolutions and never followed through with them (and I thought, "How disappointing to end the year by remembering the things you never did!"), I looked around and saw way too many ads for fitness centers and gyms and other weight loss programs. I figured New Year's Resolutions were mostly about weight loss and although it interested me in that roll-your-eyes-and/or-raise-your-eyebrow way, I wasn't really all that interested. So I stopped making resolutions.

I'm looking for the point - it's around here somewhere....

But this year is different. Mainly because I really hope that 2005 is going to be good and I'm going to make it so by actively doing and changing things. And yes, one of the things I've resolved to do is to go to the gym more (the irony is just dripping). I mean, a membership is already included in my tuition so I might as well use it - not to mention the fact that I got 3 new pairs of uber-comfy sweatpants this holiday season and I'm not going to let them sit and gather dust while I sit and gather pounds.

So there's that, and then there's the more important issue of nurturing friendships. I have to admit that I haven't been very good at this for the last...year or so. I'm surprised that people still bother to talk to me. But it was really nice to see that they did bother to talk to me, and that they were there for me when I was going through a really rough time, despite the fact that I wasn't necessarily there for them when they needed someone. But that's going to change. I'm here! I'm your friend! Use me!

And last but certainly not least, I'm trying to embrace the right side of my brain. I want to channel that creativity that lies dormant within me, because dammit, I know it's there! I know I am capable of something, I just don't know what that something is yet. I'm not sure if I should try to use my guitar, sing, dance, paint, or write. So, time and money permitting, I'm going to try my hand at all of them at some point during the year. Something's going to click, I know it. And if it doesn't, then at least I'll have lots of stories to tell.

Speaking of resolutions, perhaps I should try to curb my affection for procrastination. I have an assignment due at 4:30 tomorrow that I haven't started yet....

1:02 pm