escape artist

Major forms of stress relief:

- Laughing over Morty's wings
- Baking under a night sky and mellowing out to Dave Matthews.
- City escape to a night of cocktails, flashing lights, and loud music, celebrating a bride-to-be.

Ahhhh. :)

Catching up with myself

I feel drained lately.
A bit bogged down with worries and wondering why I can't do enough fast enough.

It doesn't help when you drag your butt out of bed for a 10am group meeting and then nobody shows up and only one person bothers to let you know what's going on.
I can think of about 50 better things I could have done in that 1 1/2 hrs.

mm.. I don't know what else to say. I need a vacation from everything. (it's not that bad really. I just need better coping mechanisms.)

I remember!

I remember now why I love Dr. Dan's exams-- they are so FAIR!

haha-- no tricks.

I aced that baby for sure.

Cramfest

Cram session number 1 of this term.

Social Policy has entirely too many definitions.
Subway makes me sleepy.
I need more coffee.

But I'm learning that study buddies are good!-- it really helps having Krystel here. She's focused! And it forces me to stay awake!

(*Sigh* Blogs are such a wonderful method of procrastination. )

Ready, set, scream.

Today's general annoyances (and it's only 11am.):

1. People who adopt chauvinistic attitudes that seep into all their thinking and opinions-- even if their opinions can't possibly be informed yet! When you know literally NOTHING about a social movement group you can't already have the opinion that the group takes an angry/violent approach.
(If you just took a slightly closer look, you'd see that the group's method is satire and drama. Oooooh, fierce.)
(Honestly? I think you just don't really like women.)

2. When people ask you questions as if you haven't already just told them the answer. An example of such a conversation is as follows:

Person A: Hi, I'm done class.
Person B: WHAT??!?! you're done class??? already?? are you sure???

How does Person B expect Person A to respond? "...well no, actually I'm not done class. I just made that up to see how you would react. Because I have so much time." .. HEL-LO!!!

3. WHY can't I enroll in REQUIRED courses?!?!??!!?!!?! SCREW YOU STATS.

Ok, so I'm having an angry sort of day. Bite me, Friday.

Give me my goat cheese!!

I love goat cheese. ♥

Recently though, my love for it was dampened because of being given some incorrect nutritional information about it.

I can't remember who I was talking to, saying "isn't goat cheese is better for you?" and they scoffed at me and said something like "What! NO! Goat cheese is even more fattening than regular cheese!"

Well for your big fat information, according to the Food Network:

Goat cheese is rich in protein and contains potassium, vitamin A, thiamin and niacin. Significantly lower in calories, fat and cholesterol than cheddar or cream cheese, some people may also find it easier to digest than cheese generated from cow's milk.

Yes I looked up the nutritional value of goat cheese. You would too if you tried the thing at the keg where they give you little crostinis and goat cheese and special salsa and you spread it all around and becomes the most perfect combination of crispyness and meltedness you've ever experienced and then somebody told you goat cheese wasn't good for you!

ARGHHH!!!

I slept in this morning and my prof called me to tell me he'd be 10 min late.
I rushed to school and took me a million years to pay the cab driver because my cash was buried in my bag.
I lost my eyeliner.
I attended a really pointless meeting.
I got frustrating news.
I feel like I've been accused of being an unreasonable person.
I am NOT an unreasonable person!!! I EXPLAIN things CLEARLY.
I CARE about the feelings of others.
How can someone know you but then act like they really don't know you at all?!

I want to give people a piece of my mind. I want to display LOUD amounts of emotion.

But what's the use?

The sophomore slump is an uphill battle and someone said that ain't my scene.

I should be reading. And I will continue in a second but first I must share about a very exciting discovery!-- I found the most adorable coffee shop on campus today! God knows why I've never heard about this place before-- it's at St. Jerome's which is right next to Renison where I have all my classes. (Really, I shouldn't take credit for this discovery. My classmate Lyle told me about it.)

It's a quaint little shop, tucked against one side of an underpass. Its name is printed in white along the front of its glass entrance. Campus-heaven. Well, no. But that's what it should read.



The Atrium is its real name.

The whole place is very clean and modern. Impressionist and abstract paintings line the walls. The tables and chairs which are expertly arranged around a fireplace are a sleek, pale wood. Student minded, there are electrical outlets in convenient locations and campus Wifi is accessable.

I didn't have much time to examine the menu in detail. I really was just in and out with a coffee. But I did note: three flavours of Ritazza brand coffee, three roasts. Decent tasting. A selection of grilled sandwiches, soups, and salads. Cold drinks. Pastries and icecream. What more can you ask for really?

And its basically the only establishment on campus that accepts Interac. About time!

That place is going to be seeing a lot of me this summer.

Good morning upper east-siders.

Spotted--haha. Just kidding. (Sort of. :P)

It's Wednesday. The weeks seem to slide by more and more quickly.
This week I turned in my first assignment of the term-- on time! HA! take that 'old me'.

Kat had to cover for Auntie Mony at Mikey's today, so I hitched a ride with her onto campus at 11. She showed up at my house with a wonderful surprise-- STARBUCKS! :D Eggs flourentine and a caramel macciatto. Can you think of a more perfect start to the day? I can't.

Other thoughts:

When bad things happen-- they've already happened. And getting angry or making negative comments isn't going to help situations any. Especially if the thing that happened wasn't intentional.

If you knew taking a chance on something could get you hurt, and you'd gotten hurt before because of it, and that even if you took the chance, you could still lose the love of your life, but that not taking that chance would definitely cause you to lose the love of your life--- would you take it? (Did that run on sentence even make sense?

On THAT cheery note, the song of the day is a toss up between Leona Lewis' Yesterday and Gotta Have You by the Weepies. For your listening pleasure:

I so don't feel like going to class right now... =/

A Glitter of Sunshine

As much as I wish I coined "a glitter of sunshine"-- the credit goes to Alison-- who noted the 'glitter of sunshine' on the tarp despite the thump of shadow that had settled over what had been our tanning spot.

In a sense, the weekend was a little glitter of sunshine in itself. A small escape (if you will), escape into giggles, woodcollecting, stargazing, and even a bit of reminiscing. Oh, and cheese sausages, of course.

A random assortment of information

I almost threw up at work today. I do not handle people's gross body odor well. It makes my stomach lurch and my head pound. My supervisor gave me her Marc Jacobs (!) daisy ring to wear though! It was perfume filled!

I love broccoli and cheese quiche. And I really appreciate the company of Kat, Amanda, and Esther.

I'm waiting for my laundry to be done so I can stick it in the dryer and go to sleep.

I need to get the laundry done so I can wake up early in the morning and shove it in a bag and go camping for the weekend.

PPIC's and SMORES justify sleeping on the dirty cold ground with bugs.

Marie Digby's single Say It Again has a video! (Watch. The props are really cool.):

"...and never in my whole life have I heard words as beautiful as when you say my name..."

Long Weekends mean something again!

When I wasn't in school, weekends didn't mean much. Long weekends meant nothing.

But this long weekend I soaked up the holiday like double-quilted bounty!

I made a trip to Toronto and packed basically every minute of everyday with fun and food. Mainly food. Here is a vague schedule accompanied by some visuals:

Friday night: frantic shopping, Go for Tea with Bee, Andrew, Nate, and Jo (bbt and popcorn chicken)
Saturday: Ikea breakfast with Jo and Carson, Ina and Brian's wedding ceremony, trip to visit Alison in Ajax with Laura and Jo (laura secord), Ina and Brian's wedding reception
Sunday: church at ntcbc (after which there were croissants!), Shanghai lunch with Laura and Jo, shopping downtown, meeting up with Deborah (baskin robbins, starbucks, mcd's), karaoke at Laura's
Monday: breakfast with Euming and Jo (Rosti! mmmm!), visit CC, lunch with Tiff and Jo (cha siu/sew yuk faan!), head to Laura's for bbq, FIREWORKS!, bubble tea at The Sugar
Tuesday: lunch downtown with Kat and Laura at Salad King (which honestly, isn't that great for the price! Way to get worked up about nothing!)

Tuesday ups and downs

Routines

Starbucks is a good Tuesday routine. And their new breakfast sandwiches give Kat and I great excitement. I had the sausage and egg today which was ok, but next week I will most definitely be getting the eggs flourentine.

I really like Social Welfare Policy too. Even if it is at 10am. And not just because of oogling the professor.

Other things

"This town is colder now, I think its sick of us.
..steady hands just take the wheel, every glance is killing me.
..all my senses push, untie the weight bags, I never thought I could.

Steady feet don't fail me now.

Yeah i know that everyone gets scared-- but I've become what I can't be."

"So we'll say our goodbyes, I know it's better that way... we won't break we won't die its just a moment of change.

..I need to get some perspective on these words before I write them down."

Considering how often I emo-ize One Republic lyrics, it's a good thing I'm going to their concert! =P

The Second Monday

My blog titles aren't very interesting, are they? Oh, well.

It's the second week back and I feel like I need to really get into "school mode".
I've been a better student than I feel like I've ever been... but yet, am I good enough?
Maybe improvement is futile unless you improve to 'the' degree of adequacy.

Or maybe it's the second bloody week and I need to take a chill pill. haha

As of today-- I no longer drink bottled water. And I really want to start getting all my coffee in a thermos/tumbler, so I'm hoping to make my Starbucks one soon.

Time for class again.

What's that funky smell?

Friday early-morning blogs may become a habit.

I have a 9oclock class on Fridays but my most convenient ride in arrives at Renison at about 8:20, leaving me a good 40 minutes to kill before class.

Of all my classes, this is the only one I haven't had yet. Community Organization. And for some reason I'm dreading it more than any of my others. Will I really be able to stay awake for a four hour class that starts at 9 in the freaking morning?

Lucky things-- Renison has a cafeteria from which I just got some free coffee and it doesn't taste too terrible.

Not so lucky things-- the caffeine hasn't kicked in yet.

That and my bag emits the funky smell of cold cuts from the sandwich in there when I open it. Not condusive (sp?) to friend-making.

Note to self: Find a better sandwich container.

Why I (and possibly Kat as well) should never bake.

We followed the directions perfectly. To the letter. And I have documentative pictures to prove it!

But somehow, this is what became of our shortbread cookies:

Bummer.

Day Two

A honey latte makes it far easier to stay up during a morning class.

I'm weird, I know, but I like walking into class dressed decently, with a starbucks in hand. It makes me feel more prepared. Why looking good and having trendy coffee makes me more prepared for sitting there for three hours to take notes and discuss politics and welfare policy? .... don't ask. But if you look good you feel good! Feeling smart and confident makes me more likely to have interesting ideas to contribute to class discussions.

Plus, I have a giant crush on my prof.

I can't help it! He makes everything so interesting! Even social policy! I mean, come on. He's so brilliant and passionate in an infectuous way. And he remembered me from the one class I took with him an entire year ago! :)

I sound crazy. But hey, if this enthusiasm carries throughout the term-- I'm not going to skip or fall asleep in a single class! *Grin*

The First Day of School

My first day of school in a year.

It's a crazy feeling, people.

All in all, it hasn't been extraordinarily torturous as one might think. I actually enjoyed my first class. Ok, so I've only had one class. Maybe too soon to be relieved.

Renison library is pretty decent, so I think I'll be hibernating in here quite a bit this term.

It would be nice to have my laptop back though. Come on, HP, move move move!

(Night class in 20 minutes... we'll see how that goes.)

Also! I love this song:

Tree Hugger Animation

CHAINSAW MASSACRE!!!

I awoke this morning, to the sound of chainsaws.

Something didn't seem right about it... it sounded as if it were coming from INSIDE my house.

I won't lie, my heart did a little jump while I entertained thoughts of some crazy psycho looking for his victim. But eventually, I worked up the nerve to make my way downstairs toward the sound and outside my front door are two men with chainsaws!

After a few seconds I recognized one of them as Wallace's dad. And saw bits of our evergreen coming off-- so I figure they're helping us trim our tree. How nice. It was a bit overgrown.

I went back upstairs.

WHAT A MISTAKE! -- When I came back down THIS is what I saw outside my house:

Pauvre arbre! :(