Dear Blog,

How I've missed you so. I know I've been away forEVER, but I haven't forgotten about you. I'm sorry I didn't even have time to swing by to wish you a Happy Holiday or anything. I hope you're not mad. I've just been THAT busy. 5 turkeys in 7 days...that's gotta be some kind of record or something. And just think, I'm still not sick of it. I must be obsessed with that bird or something. Especially when it's coated in Gung-gung's gravy. Mmmm-mmm good. Bring it on.

Boobie dinner was a success this year. We had two absentees, but they were excused--their gifts sent along afterwards. We missed them though. My Kris Kringle recipient was Boo. I dressed her in pink from head to toe. It's apparently her new "thing," and she seemed to like it so I was happy. Looks good on her as always. I was Boobin's Kris Kringle. A friendly mug full of chocolately warmth is what he sent my way. What a guy. You can never go wrong with chocolate. Squiggly was a big huge loser and bought each of us a ticket to see the Raptors play Boston in February. What a loser. What a GREAT big loser...in the most loving of ways, of course.

Santa was more than generous this year. I feel bad for Brodder though. I wish I'd had more money to spend on him earlier, though the homemade Domokun was worth the laugh. I'm making it a point to take him out shopping soon. That or figure out something awesome. Usually my gifts for him are kick-ass, but I seem to have experienced a major brain fart this year. That sucks. I swear to make it up to him. Brain fart or not.

I received my first piece of real jewellery this year. Outside of mommy and daddy that is...as in not from BBT (no, that's not BubbleTea...you'd have to have been there). From Hun-Gee (both of them), I got a VERY pretty necklace. On a dainty-fine silver chain there's a silver heart with sparklies in it. SOOOO pretty. I've never owned something so pretty and delicate, I'm afraid to wear it half the time. But SOOOO pretty. By the way, did I mention it was pretty?

Anyway, there's SO much more to write, but I'll have to get back to you later on that stuff. I'm trying to help Hun-Gee pack so that he and the guys can get on their way to spend the New Year in Montreal. Oh yeah, so have I mentioned yet that I'm spending the New Year Countdown at work and without a Hun-Gee to kiss at midnight. :p Ah the sacrifices...

Love,

melody xoxoxoxo

Dear Blog,

How are you doing? I'm doing alright. Been a little busy lately what with it being exam and Christmas time and all. I'm working on my shopping, but it's had to be pushed aside lately for study time. My second exam was today and it seemed to go alright, but then you never really know with these English exams. It may seem like you're making perfect sense, but sometimes if you don't see it the same way that your prof sees it, you're screwed. I wish it wasn't that way, but it is sometimes.

I'm sorry that I've been neglecting you but like I said I've been busy. Besides the studying and the shopping, I'm trying to spend time in a fun way so that I don't totally stress myself out. This weekend I played in another Outtahand tournament, went clubbing, and spent the usual JFC Sunday out. I've also been working like mad crazy, trying to stay out of debt. I'm cutting it a little close right now, but I figure that since it's Christmas, I can afford to do so.

Anyway, Blog, I just wanted to leave a quick note to say that I'll write again as soon as I can, but it might not be a while so I don't want you to get offended or worry about me. I'd never forget about you--in this short time, we've already shared so much. Please wait for me, and I swear I'll be back soon.

Love,

melody xoxoxoxo

Thank You For Making My Night

    Me - "So is your roommate hot?"
    TK - "Yeah, she's pretty hot,"
    Me - "Well, what does she look like?"
    TK - "Uh, well, I guess...well, she looks like you,"

Awww... Hehehe, I don't think TK realized the implications of what he was saying until Boo and I started to point them out for him--"So you think I'm hot, huh?" He was just trying to give an honest description that came out in an overly-flattering way for me. But you know what? That's okay. It put me on a high-horse for the whole 30 seconds that followed. After the 30 seconds, I realized that the 2 Heinekens he'd drank so far COULD constitute as beer-goggles--he IS asian, afterall. :p

When To Be Speechless

A common argument between Hun-Gee and I:
"I love you."
"I love you more."
"I love you the most."
"I love you more than words can describe."
"If I could love you any more, I'd explode..."

The argument as re-scripted by Boo tonight:
"I love you."
"I love you more."
"I love you the most."
"I love you more than words can describe."
"I..."

Very correctly re-written Boo. Very true...

"Baby Boy You Stay On My Phbbbb Mind..."

Señorita and I are on a roll this week. So far we've seen each other twice in two days. Yesterday she came over to cram with me before my exam and then dropped me off at school. Today she picked me up and we went grocery shopping for her mom. We actually went grocery shopping, (free) ice cream eating, mall walking, accessory shopping, more grocery shopping, and cruising to music today, but who's keeping track--her fridge is now stocked with food, isn't it? :p

This is why Señorita is my Señorita and sister in one; she BOUGHT (as in went to the store and paid for) this CD for me, knowing full well my addiction to both Boyz II Men and to Christmas music during Christmas time. She ROCKS. It's apparently the first part of my Christmas gifts, but she wanted me to have it now cuz if I opened it on Christmas, I would have only the rest of that day to listen to it as the season would be already drawing to a close. She's so smart. SS4EVR. That said, now I can go on and rant about her car's crappy-ass speaker!!! (I so told you this was coming, chicka...)

Okay, so on our way home from grocery shopping, we put in the Beyoncé CD and were beginning to jam away when all of a sudden, her front right speaker utters this disgustingly rude "Phbbbb" farting sound! Apparently Señorita blew the speaker a while back and it hasn't been able to handle any bass since. Instead of the low thumping bass beats, we were instead left with semi-low pitched farting sounds. omg there were giggles. Now the speaker could handle some bass, but there were certain notes that for sure it couldn't, and by listening for a bit, I could tell that they were coming, and everytime, I would (via raspberrying) make the farting sounds along with the song/speaker. Mad laughs. I kept it up until she smacked me to get me to cut it out as she was "trying to DRIVE!!!" Whatever. She liked it. I loved it. Fun was had by all... ;)

Blogrings, Blogrings Everywhere

I finished my first of four exams today. ENGB25H3F - The Canadian Short Story. I studied a total of...maybe one day for it, if I round up to the nearest day, much like cell phone companies round up to the next minute, even if you've used half a second. Yeah, so I studied about 20 hours than my above guess-timate. But that's okay. It's a B-level course that I'm not extravagantly worried about. I'm a Canadian who's already studied The Short Story - ENGB41H3F; how different could it have been? (Now just wait and watch and in a few weeks time I'll be posting my regrets for not having taken ths exam more seriously. :p)

As a reward for this accomplishment, I rewarded myself by doing NOTHING all night. I still have three more exams coming up sometime next week, but still, I decided that my poor eyes needed a break from reading the equivalent of a novel a night for four nights running (though these novels weren't related to this exam, they were for the other three coming up). So how did I spend my night then? Reading blogs!!! Alright, so my eyes didn't get the break I wanted to give them, but I DID stumble upon some very interesting blogs, one of which I added to my sidebar o' links.

Al the Shouter is the author of Shouting into the Void and I accidentally stumbled onto his blog and was hooked instantly. His Hallowe'en post called Candy Samples totally cracked me up--and I think all should read it. If I could at my sarcastic best all the time, he'd be me only at least 5 times moreso. Good stuff I tell you, good stuff.

Once I stumbled onto Al's blog, I found myself suddenly sucked into a huge vortex of blogs in which I'd read about 3 posts from each before skipping off that person's recommended links and onto the next blog. It was a enthralling experience I tell you. I totally have respect for those that write and write well. I can only aspire to be as accomplished one day...

An Outtahand Side Note
(I keep forgetting that I want to mention this. Not that it has any significant relevance to anything, but I thought it was fun.)

At the tourney yesterday (or rather, I guess the day before yesterday now), there was this awesome volleyball player dude that my teammates were wary of as soon as he stepped onto the court for warm-up. (Wolfgang: "If that guy's teammates are anywhere close to as good as he is, we're so dead...") Anyway, point is this guy looked SO much like the lead singer from Coldplay, I swear! I mentioned it to Wolfgang and we had a good gawk. I'm sure that this volleyball dude was at least a foot taller than the Coldplay lead singer (named Chris Martin, btw--that's the Coldplay lead singer, not the volleyball dude) and though the resemblance was slight, it was pretty significant. Enough to make me wish I'd brought a camera of sorts.

Could you just imagine how awesome that would be though? To be such an awesome volleyball player AND an international singing superstar?! I don't think there could be anything more that one could want in terms of skills/talent! I lead the happiest life if I could do that...sing and play volleyball all the time. swEEEEt. Wolfgang dared me to go up to him and ask him if he was often mistaken for Chris Martin by others. I was going, to but didn't cuz I forgot all about it after watching a bit more of his hitting practice. I think Wolfgang forgot too.

AVD (Awesome Volleyball Dude) was a pretty cool and modest guy too; no smack-talk on the court, no hard feelings, no showing off the fact that he could totally smash a hole in the floor if he wanted to. How do I know? Cuz I got a personal comment from him, almost accidentally. There was one hit that I saw him going for while I was in middle. I somehow managed to read where he was going to hit it, it was only a matter of timing my block right and jumping high enough. To my greatest surprise, he brought the hit down low to the net where I could reach it, and I totally managed to stuffed his ass! I don't know who was more surprised, me or him:
    AVD - "Wow, you totally stuffed me! Nice block!"
    Me - (nervous laughter) "Whoa."
    AVD - (smiling) "Whoa, yeah, I think you just threw off my whole game!"
    Me - (more nervous laughter) "Sorry?"
    AVD - (kinda chuckling at my stunned-ness) "No, that was nice."
Apparently I did throw him off a bit as he totally shanked the next serve (AVD - "See? You did!"), but he got right back on top of things by the next serve, as any awesome volleyball player would do. I was so relieved that to discover that he was a good sport--for a while there (as indicated by the nervous laughter), I was seriously afraid of losing my fingers on his next hit in order to earn revenge on my block. Whew. Go Chris Martin!

You know someone's in love when they seem to inhale the very essence of the one they love. When he smells her hair; when she sniffs his neck.

You smell so good to me...

No, There Weren't Any Explosions

Pretty much everything that I had planned for today bombed. First thing this morning, I had a volleyball game with the Tri-Campus team out at Brother Andre at 9am. I got there and it turned out that I was the third of the "tri"-campus team members to show up. By start time of the first game, we had a grand total turn out of 5 players. Whoo-hoo. We defaulted our whole day. Boo. But on the plus side, we got to scrimmage with two of the other teams for a bit and that was a lot of fun. There was no pressure so there were a lot of laughs--especially at each other during a successful (or not) scramble--and everyone was on her game so had we kept score, we would've ROCKED the other teams. Coach Young stepped in as our setter and you could so see he had it in for this one girl on the first team we played cuz she thought she was all that on court. Every single one of his serves was right to her, but a little short, so she was on the floor for all of them, flopping about like a fish out of water. Good times, good times. Despite our good performance on the court, Coach Old wasn't impressed with out poor turn-out and was a little grouchy on the sidelines, but other than that, I'd say it was a good time. As a re-quote: "Because it's volleyball."

Next plan to bomb on me was an electronics sale with Tuna. I called him up after my non-volleyball games and he told me that he'd slept at 8pm after our tourney yesterday, then woke at 7am to do marking until just then (just after noon). In short, he was too tired to go to the sale for an aimless wander since neither of us really needed anything electronic and super expensive (despite the sale) at the moment. So we ditched that idea. But on the plus side this time, I got to veg on the couch for a while, enjoying the use of the heat packs on my super sore shoulders. *sigh* That felt SO good.

While lying on the couch there with the heat packs, I was ready to doze off, listening to Hun-Gee's soft, soothing voice on the phone. I nearly did, and even hung up with Hun-Gee in order to do so, but not 30 seconds into my fall into sleep, Boo called me and woke me up. She was calling to confirm our movie date for later that day. I was grouchy for a little while after that, having caught a second wind after her call and finding it hard to get back to my previously sleepy state. But again, on the plus side of that, I ended up off the couch and out shopping with mom--she bought me a sweater and one of my Christmas gifts for someone else--swEEEEt!

Back to that movie date with Boo, I made arrangements with her and Squiggly to see the 2:30pm show of Honey today, out east--a 20 minute drive east, actually. So they were to be ready to go by 2pm so we could get started on our journey to the theatre. AT 2pm, I called Squiggly to see if we could get underway, and he told me he still needed a shower!!! And then I called Boo and she admitted to not be ready either!!! The movie date didn't end up bombing though--the plus side was that it was an exciting drive (a 20 minute drive to be done in 10), we didn't have to watch too many previews nor feel pressured to buy any theatre food, and I got to ride shot-gun. :D (As a short "bomb"/"but the plus side": Honey was your typical "overcomes all odds in the ghetto" flick, but there was BOOTY!!!)

Afterwards we headed to the mall, just after picking up Squiggly's bro. Not too long into what we'd hoped to be a nice little early Christmas shopping trip, Squiggly and his bro decided to duck out and head to dinner with their fam downtown. Although it left me and Boo (and consequently the JFC) without Squiggly, we were relieved. Yet another bombed plan was rescued by the fact that we no longer had to be caught up in the family feud between the brothers. *whew* Trust me, that feud could've blown-up at any second...scary... :p

When I finally got home, I gave Vin a call to see if he was still interested in cramming with me for tomorrow's exams that we each had. Turns out that he'd headed out early to study with some classmates (a good move, for sure) and didn't think that he'd be heading back my way for a while to study with me. However, shortly after he gracefully declined my study date offer, Tuna called and wanted to know if I wanted to meet up with him at Tim's to hit the books. Done and done. So, I'm out to there in a bit.

Despite the fact that a lot of my plans didn't work out today the way that I thought they would, they DID end up working out in some way or another. I'd like to think that that's the way it usually is. Everything happens for a reason, right? Without the downs, there could be no ups. And people wonder why I'm such an optimistic person--every thing just always finds a way of working out for me. I guess you could call me Even Steven (even though my name is nowhere even REMOTELY close to Steven) like Seinfeld--it just always works!

Things A Little Outtahand...

Reverse 6s tourney at Outtahand today was fun. Sure we didn't win, but it was fun! (Finally, the FU back in FUN! -->that's such a great line, Shaky) Team: Wolfgang as setter, Schmoe in 6, Tuna in 5, me and O taking turns between power and middle, and Bev as offside. Besides being on court, the day was split between napping, shoelace tying, tickle attacks, Schmoe's talking (and us trying to tune that talking out...as "loud" as it could get), Simpsons/Seinfeld/FRIENDS quotations, eating and drinking (Gatorade, that is), and various other miscellaneous activities. A good day, despite the fact that most of us had underslept. I'd do it again anytime. Except right now. Right now I'm going to ice my finger (that's pronounced "FIN-jer"), heat-pack my shoulder, and bandage my hand--that way I'll be in tip-top shape to play again tomorrow at 9am!!! Whoo-hoo! As O said today after I asked her why she didn't just go home to sleep after her 6:30am shift at work: "Because it's volleyball." Well duh.

Quote of the Moment:
"On second thought, gum would be perfection!"
    --Chandler from FRIENDS, The One Where Chandler Gets Locked In An ATM

Quotes of the Moment:
"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man something...something about fries..."
    --Homer Simpson, The Simpsons computer game

"I kind of Serendipity my way through these things."
    --Me, during an MSN session with Shaky on "Love"

Song of the Moment: "The Trouble With Love Is..." - Kelly Clarkson, from the Love Actually Soundtrack

Love can be a many splendid thing
Can't deny the joy it brings
A dozen roses
Diamond rings
Dreams for sale
And fairy tales
It’ll make you hear a symphony
And you’ll just want the world to see
But like a drunk that makes you blind
It’ll fool you every time

The trouble with love is
It can tear you up inside
Make your heart believe a lie
It's stronger than your pride
The trouble with love is
It doesn’t care how fast you fall
And you can’t refuse the call
See you’ve got no say at all

Now I was once a fool it’s true
I played the game by all the rules
But now my world’s a deeper blue
I’m sadder but I’m wiser too
I swore I’d never love again
I swore my heart would never mend
Said love wasn’t worth the pain
But then I hear it call my name

The trouble with love is
It can tear you up inside
Make your heart believe a lie
It's stronger than your pride
The trouble with love is
It doesn’t care how fast you fall
And you can’t refuse the call
See you’ve got no say at all

Every time I turn around
I think I’ve got it all figured out
My heart keeps callin and I keep on fallin
Over and over again
This sad story always ends the same
Me standin' in the pouring rain
It seems no matter what I do
It tears my heart in two

The trouble with love is (the trouble with love)
It can tear you up inside (it can tear you up inside)
Make your heart believe a lie (make your heart believe a lie)
It's stronger than your pride
(The trouble with love is) It's in your heart it's in your soul
(It doesn’t care how fast you fall) You won't get no control
(And you can’t refuse the call) See you’ve got no say at all
The trouble with love is
It can tear you up inside
Make your heart believe a lie (the trouble with love..)
...

My new favourite Christmas/Special Moment song. What's a Special Moment? Well, you know when you watch movies and there's a couple that dances in their living room to whatever happens to be on the radio? Well, this would be that song on the radio. Or, also when you watch movies and there's a couple that's dancing at a party of some sort to a slow song for the first time and they finally admit they've been crazy over each other for the longest time? Well, this would be that slow song. Yeah, I'm a sentimental sap, but that's what this song was made for, I swear! Bring on the Special Christmas Moment!

Special Accessibility Indeed

This here's the story about how Vin and I found our private study space the other day...much by unbelievable fluke. We'd headed to UTSC to find cubicles somewhere, but just after getting there, he decided that he wanted a tour of the new ARC instead. So we headed off that way and we went past the library and its many group study areas, many of which were well occupied. We were running out of places in the ARC to study in when we walked past the huge new lecture hall. Vin peeked in and after being thoroughly impressed, suggested that we go study in there cuz it appeared to be empty. I figured that it was that way because it was locked up for the night, but decided to check anyway. Sure enough, when I tried the handle to the top left door it was locked. Disappointed, we continued on our way to see if the last study room down the hall would be open. That too was locked, so we started to turn back towards the unexciting and already occupied group study areas to find a spot.

The route we took back brought us past the upper right door of the huge lecture hall and just out of curiosity I tried that handle too--locked. Vin walked by it after me and decided to give the wheelchair access button a punch. He did, and then stood stock still staring at the results. As I was a little ahead of him, I couldn't see the door from where I'd stopped and from the perfectly astonished look on his face, I knew he must be shitting me.
    "You're shitting me--that didn't open the door."
    "I don't believe it. It's open." (chuckles to himself, shaking head in disbelief)
    "Don't shit me. It couldn't be that easy."
    "I don't believe it. It's that easy."
Still not believing him, I walked around to take a look at the door for myself so that we could get the joke over with and get on with our studying. But he wasn't shitting me. The door had swung wide open. It really was that easy.

Both of us in disbelief, we stepped cautiously into the lecture hall as the door quietly closed behind us on its automatic hinges. A few seconds later we finally caught each other's eye and burst into giggles.
    "I can't believe it was that easy."
And so, Vin and I had our own study space for the night. People saw us sitting in that huge lecture hall all by ourselves and tried to join us--we knew because we could hear them jiggling the door handles--but none of them thought to push the wheelchair access switches and so we were allowed to study in private. A few hours later, just as we were going to leave, we heard one last pair of people come by to try the doors. Just as it sounded like they were going to give up and leave like everyone else ahead of them, we heard the muffled click of the button, and the door swinging open to allow a voice through the doorway:
    "I don't believe it, it couldn't be that easy."
But of course as Vin and I already knew, yes, it really was.

Of All The Assets In The World...

Alright, the "Hello" story from my girly day on Friday. Acutually, it's probably more accurately named the "Helllll-lo" story from Friday. So Señorita and I went to STC after class that day so that she could get my opinion on a dress. We went into Le Château to take a peek, and while she was wandering around the dress section, I busied myself with the accessory racks. This awesome black necklace/choker caught my eye on one of the lowest set of hooks so I bent over to make a closer inspection. I wasn't down there for more than 3 seconds when I heard a "Helllll-lo" from behind me.

I bolted straight up and spun around to face my greeter. There stood a male sales associate, not two feet away, with this grin plastered on his face. I was still trying to get around the fact that he had just greeted my ass when he asked me,
    "Is there anything I can help you with?" with that same pervy grin on his face. I was still flustered and rather than the quick-witted, sharp-tongued remark that I would've normally doled out to a grin such as his, I only managed a:
    "No...no, I was just loooking...at stuff...that I want...but can't have...($25 for a necklace?!)..." How quick-witted of me...*groan*

Señorita found me and caught the last bit of mine and that sales associate's stand-off there (as well as his grin), and two seconds later she had dragged me away to hear the story and to gawk at him from a safer distance. Of course she laughed a bit at my expense, but then--as any good girlfriend would do--made a point to lip read over my shoulder and determined that he'd gotten his buddy in on his grin and were un-discreetly glancing my way. We left shortly after that; one, to escape their glances and grins, and two, so that Señorita could burst out laughing at my loss for words.

It wasn't the fact that a guy had made a pass at me that confused me. It wasn't even the fact that he'd been pervishly checking out my ass as I'd been bending over in front of him. It was the fact that of ALL things it was my ass that had caught his attention! Now, I'm not putting myself down or anything; I don't have issues with self-esteem in the least. But I DO know that of all my physical attributes, my ass is the one area in which I am DEFINITELY lacking. Why else would Boobin make me those "No-Ass™" cards every year? Getting down to it, if that guy was trying to flatter me by making a pass at my ass, he didn't--he only made me wonder..."What the hell's wrong with your eyesight?"

Although I wish I'd had something wittier to say to Mister Grin at that moment, that's not what I regret from that day. What I most regret is telling Squiggly and Boobin about the experience later that day. As they both know about my lack of ass, they found it hilariously funny to wander around behind me, calling out "Hellll-lo" every other step of the way to Yuk Yuks. Not funny guys. Not funny. That's okay though...by the time I'd ushered them into Hooters to have wings and catch the end of the Raps game, they'd forgotten about me and my lack-thereof. So easily distracted men are...

An Abbreviated Recap Of The Week

Thursday

• School and then intramural volleyball championships. We didn't win, but that's okay. I asked One-Of-The-Wills if he still had any pics from the oh so memorable athletic banquet earlier this year. He'll check...whatever. :(
  
• Conned Asked Tuna nicely if he'd drive Brodder to some sushi dinner up in Korea Town on the promise of our own sushi dinner. He drove. We ate. We didn't study.
  
• Filled out quiz upon ridiculous quiz on line with Brodder and Mom. Cheated for the answers we didn't know.
  
• Had a private viewing of Chong's short, "Like Rabbits." Had a good laugh--hehehe, Harry Wang, hehehe. Went for coffee with him and MJ. Renamed each other to Smudge, Crop, and Resize. Another good laugh.

Friday

• Impromptu girly day with Señorita. Coffee, the mall, the "Hello" episode (to be explained later). Spent a little too much time having fun, but bought ourselves 25% off sweaters for having our flu shot that day.
  
• Home to get ready and FLY downtown with Boobin to meet Squiggly for a night at Yuk-Yuks. The headliner? Stuart Francis--the one liner guy. "I was standing in the park the other day, wondering why Frisbees get bigger the closer they get to you...and then it hit me."
  
• Wings at HOOTERS afterwards--my choice, though the guys were wary--and then back up town to meet up with Boo and EBTek, as well as Hun-Gee at my place for some intense rounds of jitz. (Sorry Hun-Gee, I'm just THAT good...)
  
• Late night movie (Tomb Raider 2) and cuddle with the home-again Hun-Gee.

Saturday

• Worked. Got there a little late. C'est la vie.
  
• Mad dash to buy Mom and Dad's 22nd Anniversary present. Felt very under-dressed in the lobby of the Delta East. Wanted to harm the front desk lady...thank goodness for the restaurant manager!
  
• Out to Hun-Gee's for dinner, movie, and more cuddling before falling dead asleep until 5am...so sweet.

Sunday

• Was supposed to work again, but woke up to a UTI (ugh) so I called in sick. Spent the day with the boos instead.
  
• Of the JFC, Boo waited, I baked cookies, and Squiggly drove the distance. Boo also made pasta salad with an addictive dose of cocaine as well.
  
• Went shopping: ClubMo Outlet, GAP, Wal-Mart. Somehow Boo ending up softly shimmering after that...
  
• Dropped in on the 'rents to see how the anniversary brunch went. A huge hit with Dad, apparently-->all you can eat roast beef.
  
• Dinner at Swiss Chalet after dropping the Brodders off at their buffet. Visit to the bank. An aborted attempt at Tim's.
  
• Essaying until...wait, I essayed all night.

Monday

• Finished essay. Flew to school. Stayed at school to work.
  
• Came home to eat, then back to school with Vin for more studying. Accidentally found our own study space. Haha! (more on that later too.)
  
• Came home exhausted, but still managed to blog about it all!

*rEEEEEEeeeEEEeeEEee rEeEeeeEEEeEEeEEee* Know what that is? That's the sound of cutting glass. Know why? It's friggin COLD outside!!! That's the last time I go out with wet hair but no hat! Serves me right. At least I had both gloves on and shoes that didn't show my toes...

The Things We Should Not Do For Fashion

Today was a typical November day; snow had fallen last night, the wind was biting, and it was overall pretty darned cold as the thermometer wavered around the -2 mark for most of the day. Myself, I had on my UofT fleecy pants on with my blue hoodie and blue Skechers to match. I even wore my "G" hat to ward off the bad-hair-day in progress. I had grabbed my coat and gloves on my way out the door (late again) but neglected to snatch my scarf off the top shelf of the closet. Despite my best dressed efforts, I was still a little on the chilly side as the wind whipped my cheeks to a rosy blush. I would like to say that I'd thought I'd managed to be fairly prepared for the weather, without having committed any fashion faux-pas. Sensible, right?

What I don't get are the people out there that still hold fashion over practicality. As I'd like to think I'd demonstrated today, you can manage to dress for the weather without looking like a total bum. But apparently this isn't apparent to some out there. Let's take a look at what I came across today:

1. High Heeled, Open-toe Sandals - I actually came across two pairs of these. I'm totally for the high heels (most are surprised at how short I actually am when I sport the runners), that wasn't my issue. It's just that when it's below freezing weather out there, and even when I've got my boots on, the first thing to go numb are my toes, yet these girls insisted on being able to show off their freshly painted toenails. Come on, you don't want to lose those babies to frostbite now, do you? Cuz then you won't be able to paint them anymore...
   
   
2. Mini-skirt with a Tank Top - Okay, I understand that she was supposed to be promoting something or other by approaching people and handing out flyers (I didn't get one, probably because I outrightly raised the eyebrow at her as she approached my way) but when your legs are still showing signs of redness after you've been inside for at least half an hour, I think one should have perhaps considered leg-warmers while outside in transit to school--I hear leg-warmers are making a raging comeback in Japan right now, it couldn't hurt. Oh, and can you believe she had the audacity to complain to her friends "It's so cold in here!"?!?!?!
   
   
3. Single Gloves - Unless you're talking about something used to catch flying objects with, gloves are referred to as pairs of things, right? And on a pretty darned cold day, why would you keep one hand warm while allowing the other to suffer? Some guy was wearing only one glove on the bus. Granted, it was on the hand he used to hold the bar with so it could've been his "on-the-bus-bar-holding" glove; this would also explain why it wasn't a regular heat-retentive glove but one that looked more like some sort of cyclist's glove. But still. Why only one? And why not a warm one? I would've preferred that he didn't wear any gloves period, that way I could at least assume that he hadn't any at all...but he wore one and only one. I feel sorry for the other one, it must be somewhere being lonely...
   
   
4. Big Red Plastic Comb Stuck in Hair- No, this was not an afro pick of any sort. It was a one piece, red plastic comb with an extended handle, stuck in some girl's hair. It was jammed up underneath her slicked ponytail. It neither held stray hairs in place, nor helped to hold up the pony-tail in anyway. It was just there. Big, ugly, and red, and it was just sticking out from her head, a menace to eyes and faces that may have leaned too close on the bus. This has nothing to do with the weather (although it did keep her from being able to wear a proper toque or other hat of sorts) but it needed to be included anyway.

I'm not saying that I'm perfect--hell, I left the house with one less earring than I should've been wearing (or one too many, depending on how you look at it)--but at least I'm attempting to be practical. Bring it on, Winter!!!

Hooray For Classes On The Second Floor!

After hearing the whole history behind The Matrix today, I tore out of class to rush to work. Running into the stairwell to head down to the main floor, I had to pause for a sec. I bet most people didn't know, but there was a beautiful red sunset going on just beneath the dark grey skyline, but way above the rest of the landscape. You could only see it if you were higher up somewhere, like the second or third floor of a building. It was so pretty. I stayed to gawk for as long as I could, and then had to tear myself away to continue on my rush to work. By the time I reached the first floor, I couldn't see the sunset anymore. Too bad for people who had no excuse to be upstairs today...
...

Quote of the Moment:
"--- is so full of shit. Everything thing he says is shit. When he sneezes, he sneezes shit."
    --Brodder's friend, commenting on another, not-so-reliable friend

I really should be doing my homework right now, but then, what else is new? My voice is slowly coming back. Rather than a raspy whisper, I'm up to a quacking-duck sort of sound level. Really, I sound like a duck. Every once in a while, my loudish whisper will crack and explode into a quack. It's actually quite amusing. Tonight at volleyball I was talking as much as I possibly could, just so I could hear it happen and have a good laugh at myself.

I love the way people I know stare at me while I'm talking. They just can't get enough of the fact of how awful I sound. At the end of our games while shaking hands with the other team, I was tempted to quote obscenities simply because I didn't think they'd hear me. G and I had a laugh about this idea, and then I tested it out with Rye:
    Me - (Slapping a high five) "Kiss my ass, Dickhead,"
    Rye - "Let's do this!!!"
Hehehe, he had no idea...it was great.

Of course after the game, the rest of the team stood around and thought up stupid things for me to say in my quacking-transvestite voice:
    "Hi, my name Rye and I like sauce on my balls,"
    "Hi, my name is Chan and I like pepper on my sausage,"
    "Hi, my name is Gertrude, and I like Rye's saucy balls."
I swear, it's too much sometimes. I'm really going to miss missing my voice when it comes back. Who knew it could be such an amusement?

I'm going to bake cookies this weekend! I'm in the mood for the simple classic chocolate chip ones. Earlier when I first thought about doing this, I figured I was just going to go out and grab some of those Pilsbury cookie dough rolls off the shelf at Dominion, but now that I think about it, I'm gonna give Hun-Gee a run for his money and start from scratch. Exciting. omg, boo. I'M BAKING HIM COOKIES!!! hehehe. It means I'm a keeper, right? :p

In Case You Forget...

I was eating a "Fruit by the Foot" last night while writing my essay, and during a thoughtful pause, I noticed that the packaging actually had instructions on it. Do you know what it read? "Peel fruit from cellophane backing before eating." omg. Really, what do people DO with their food that warrant packaging labels like this? It's like the "Caution: contents may be hot" on coffee cups. Puh-lease people. If you need to read those kinds of things before ingesting your food, you shouldn't be ingesting it at all.

My short story prof tends to stand and lecture at the sides of the class, rather than front and centre, and likes to idly squeeze his nipple through his three sweaters, between his index and middle finger. Why do I KNOW that?! He tends to do it a lot. I'm forced to watch him talk, otherwise I lose him with the accent. The least he could do is try to hide his tweaking ways a little by crossing his arms or something. Actually, I don't even think he realizes he's doing it, but still. Ewww. Old man nipple scratching. Ewww.
...

Beware of Squiggly Excitement Levels

On a lighter note, Squiggly came over for about 20 minutes yesterday to say "hi" and to watch the last two minutes of the 4th quarter of the Raptors/Houston game. (I'm sure you know of this kick-ass game.) 83-80 for the Rockets, less than 24 seconds left on the clock, Raptors' possession. Now I don't tend to watch basketball on TV, but for this kick-ass game, I sat down on the armrest next to Squiggly, leaning forward in anticipation. Raptors sub-on all their field-goal shooters...Vince brings it up the floor...passes to the rookie...Bosh takes the 3-point shot...HE MAKES IT TO TIE THE GAME AND PUSH THE ROCKETS FOR OVERTIME!!!

In his excited frenzy, Squiggly grabbed my legs and waved them around like one of those giant foam fingers as I fell off my perch onto the couch behind him. When he'd finished waving my legs, he still had energy to expend so he cried "Hold on!" which I did, and found myself hoisted onto Squiggly's back as he did a lap around my living room/dining room before finally dropping me back onto the couch in a stunned heap. I (voicelessly) laughed and pointed at him for a good 30 seconds after that, rasping that he was the biggest loser ever. I probably would have kept teasing and pointing at him, but the overtime had just started.

We settled back onto the couch for the beginning of the first overtime. Again, down to the last few seconds on the shot clock and Raptors were down by a basket. Again, Raptors' possession...all top-shooters on the floor...a pass to the Raptor Rookie...he throws up the shot...the seconds go down...and IT'S IN! HE MAKES THE TYING SHOT AGAIN!!! This time in his excitement, Squiggly threw his arms out in a backwards pump and cried "Whoo-hoo!!!" à la Homer Simpson, only about ten times more enthusiastically (for those who know, Squiggly's reaction could be more accurately described as a "backwards birth"). Thank goodness the Raptors clinched it and crushed Houston in the second overtime--I was pretty sure Squiggly was going to explode upon his next excited outburst. That and I feared for my personal safety. :p

Squiggly once text messaged me from his workplace in Stratford: "I have so much energy right now, I wish I could just bottle it up!" I secretly think he found a way to do so and bottled just a leetle too much for this game... :) 1334
...

Excuse Me, Could You Pass Me My Lung?

My first day of class in almost a week, and I was all ready to be the best student I'd been all semester. I had my pen, my paper, my notes, and I was paying attention, scribbling furiously. I was even able to focus completely without having to worry about having to answer any questions because my profs knew I had no voice with which to do so. But then, it happened. Halfway through my second class, something started to tickle in the back of my throat. At first I tried to discreetly "ahem" my way out of it, but what started off as a quiet little clearing of the throat turned into a nearly full blown hacking attack. I nearly gagged, trying to hold in my coughing. It was bad enough for the prof to stop lecturing to ask if I was okay. I threw him the thumbs-up from the back and managed to stifle my hacking for about 20 seconds as I tried to sit still. The 20 seconds up, I started to hack again. Grabbing my wallet I dove for the door, all the second-years trying to give me cut-eye for cutting into their note-taking "zone."

A bottle of water and seven straight minutes of coughing later, I knew it wasn't going to let up. Most people to pass me in the hall smiled sympathetically as I tried to keep it down, but there was one chick that threw me a glare for my unsexy hacking background sound accompanying her attempted strut down the hall. I wanted to chase her, cough a big loogie on her (if only I knew how) and then tell her that I was suffering from SARS. Lucky for her I had to double-over just then to keep my lung and diaphram from flying out my throat. I decided that my attempt at being a good student had failed at that point and would have to wait for another day. So when my class broke for break, I dove back in and gathered my stuff, feeling the relieved eyes of the prof and those second-years as I made my exit with an hour and a half of class still left to go. I hate being sick.

Calling Boo earlier today to see if she and her Boo wanted to go out and study, I had the biggest urge to say (rasp) "Seven days..." into the phone when she picked up. That would've been kinda mean though, so I didn't, although had I had this voice at Hallowe'en, I totally would've. This voice, a dirty white ruffled dress, and my hair...terrifying. *evil grin*

Some Random (and some disgusting) Quotes From Our Study Session This Evening:
"Severe diarrhea, yellow anal leakage--you know anal leakage is uncontrollable?"
"What's so attractive about the human body?"
"I'd hate for my dying word to be 'fuck'."
"Seven days..."
"Only talking or whispering is allowed; no inbetweening!"
"Do you know the difference between 'the history of film' and 'films of history'?"
"What is your chota/gonads?"

omg. We're disgusting. Random and disgusting. I shall refrain from identifying which of us three said what. At least it was study-related. :p By the way Boo, do you have any post-its?

Can You Hear Me Now?

So I started playing volleyball again on Thursday, despite the fact that I was still kinda sick with a scratchy throat. And then I kept on playing volleyball on Friday night, and all day on Saturday (despite the results, an awesomely fun tourney--with our own cheering section too!). What's the point? Apparently when you have a sore throat, you can continue screaming and cheering and rooting your team and team members on so for only so long before you lose your voice entirely. Yup. Even if I TRY to talk, I can only manage a decibel level of about a mouse's whisper. It's awful.

Actually, I hadn't lost my voice completely yet by the time the tournament was over yesterday, but the fact that I had to go straight to work afterwards and deal with about a billion-and-one customers was what put my voice over the edge. A lot of the people were nice about the fact that my voice was cracking and squeaking mid-sentence. A lot of the older people felt the need to tell me that I was going to have to deal with it for a long time and that I shouldn't expect to talk again for at least half a week. They were so encouraging.

There was one guy that I think was endeared by my loss of vocalness on the phone. He called in to see if we'd located his FOB (if anyone knows why they're called that, please enlighten me) remote/keychain for his condo that he'd lost last week. In my now whispery rasp (which I have to admit, was almost kinda sexy) we had a quick, fun, and friendly conversation about what he lost and what it looked like, and I told him that I'd call him later after I'd had a look for it. So I didn't find it, but I did call him back and had to leave a message ("Hi, this is the girl with the funny voice...") telling him so, and I figured too bad for him. Turns out later that he called me back and had asked for me, but since I was busy he told my co-worker to thank me for the message and wished that I would get better soon. I don't know what he said, but it was enough for my Chu to ask me:
    Chu - "Did you know that guy that called for you?"
    Me - "No, why?"
    Chu - "I dunno why, but sounds like dude likes you."
Weird...I'm just so damn charming with a raspy, transvestite kinda voice. :p

Anyway, so throughout the day, I've been trying to whisper as loudly as possible. I've been trying to get other people to answer my phone for me as much as possible and serve as my voice for me--without other people, I can barely get the caller's attention and even let them know I actually AM there. It's quite funny sometimes; until I end up having to repeat myself 5 times to get one sentence through. Ah well, only what, 3-4 more days of this? We'll see how this works...maybe my profs will be a little more lenient on the fact that I missed 3 days of school last week due to my hideous looking illness. Man, I hope so...

Sometimes I Amuse Myself

Brodder stayed home on Monday because he was too groggy after sleeping 15 hours to go to school afterall. That and since he'd slept since 8 o'clock the night before, he hadn't done any of his homework. That night, he left a note on the counter, asking for someone to write him a note. Passing by the counter on the way to making myself some tea in an attempt to dislodge the pinecones in my throat, I noticed his note, and decided to save my parents the trouble the next morning by writing him a note myself:

To Whom It May Concern,

Please excuse Brodder's absence from classes yesterday (November 10, 2003) as he was too lazy to get his good-for-nothing, skinny-ass out of bed for school. Have a great day Remembering!

Thank you,

his dutiful and brutally honest, disgustingly fat sister,
melody - xoxoxoxo

I spent a good 5 minutes laughing to myself about that note. I was willing to bet that the poor secretary that received it would be most confused about the "Remembering" part (how many of YOU get that part, huh?). I'm sure you can imagine my dismay when I woke up the next morning to find my note still on the counter. However, when I asked Brodder about it later that day, he laughed for a good 5 minutes as well before telling me that he had seriously considered taking that version of his note in anyway. He'd planned to hand it to the secretary, and just as the look on her face turned from a pleasant "Good morning Mr. SAC President" look to a "What the hell is this shit" look, he'd jump in with a "Whoops, I think I handed you the wrong note there, here's the one for you!" and switch the papers, leaving her wide-eyed and bewildered. *sigh* I'm glad Brodder gets it. If he didn't, I think it'd only be me. I swear, sometimes I amuse myself.

Pfft. A Whole Lot of Pfft...

I hate being sick. I feel so useless when I'm sick. You'd think that when I'm sick and take a few days off from school, I'd have more time to do things. Pfft. Whatever. I've been home the last few days and I've accomplished next to nothing. I haven't even blogged lately. Pfft. Not that you've noticed or anything. Even my most avid reader hasn't complained about my lack of posts yet. Pfft. I guess she wasn't a very avid reader then. Pfft.

I want to go out tomorrow, but I'm sick. Señorita wants to go out, the Tri-Campus team wants to go out, V-jai wants to go out, and all I want to do is stay home and cuddle with Hun-Gee. Is that so wrong? I'm sorry people, I'm usually a party amnimal (pfft, no, that's not a spelling mistake) but this week I'm just beat. Just plain beat. That and I feel like I'm swallowing a pinecone everytime I have to swallow. Yuck. Did I mention that I hate being sick?

Hun-Gee wants to come home and pump me full of drugs to make my sickness go away. Pfft. I hate drugs. But I also hate being sick. What to do? This sick isn't so bad in that I'm not confined to my bed all day--I can actually get up and wander around without worrying about spontaneously keeling over. The worst thing about this sick is that it's made me break out in the worst eczema I've had in a LONG time. And it sucks that there's just nothing I can do about it. No amount of cream or ointment seems to be working, so I've given up and just tried to accept the fact that until I've gotten over this, my face will be hideous to all who happen to lay eyes upon me. Pfft. Stupid feverish rashes. Pfft. Oh yes, it's that bad.

Hun-Gee tried to reassure me over the phone that it couldn't possibly be that bad. Pfft. Wait till you come home FIRST before you say that, Hun-Gee, trust me. Here's proof: a girl from the tri-campus team was sitting next to me and happened to lay eyes on the hideousness that is my blotchy face. She's the nicest girl ever, and she only has the nicest things to say, but still, the fact that the following conversation ensued, has got to say something about how bad I look right now...
    Nicest Girl Ever - (noticing the jug of orange juice between my legs) Oh, you're sick too, aren't you?
    Me - (nods my hideously blotchy head)
    N.G.E. - Does that mean you can't take your anti-acne medication?
    Me - I don't take anti-acne medication. I don't have acne. That's just my eczema acting up really badly.
    N.G.E. - Oh. Well, it's hardly red at all. You can't notice it; it's just that I happen to stare closely at people in strange ways. (chuckles it off, and continues to be the N.G.E.)

Acne. That's what I look like I have right now, I'm so fricking blotchy. I should do an infomercial--the before and after pictures could be done without make-up or photo-touching, as long as they can wait a couple of days for me to get better before they take them! Pfft. I think I'll move on now...

Señorita might drop by tomorrow and go on a quick coffee break with me sometime before my first tri-campus game. That'll be good. She's a nurse, maybe she can fix me. Pfft. But then again, she may not be inclined to be seen with me in public after she gets here to pick me up and actually SEES me. Pfft. Never mind. That was a stupid thought--she's my sista...she HAS to love me, regardless of how I look. Yes chicka, you HAVE to...ring or not, that doesn't count for us!!! Mwahahahahahaha...okay. Back to my laundry...pfft.

Catechisms of the Joy Fuck Club

"I don't know how to be your friend..."
"But she bakes cookies!"
"Long distance won't work."
"But I'll wait..."
...

Why the Joy Fuck Club? Why not? We were sitting around a table over drinks, telling each other of our relationships, our attempts at relationships, and how we'd gotten fucked over at LEAST once in a relationship. Although we didn't really come to any conclusions, we still had each other in the end. At least our relationship works.

Quotes of the Moment:
"Wow! This light is absolutely craptacular!"
    --Brother, refering to the traffic light that was taking FOREVER to change
...

"The argument goes something like this: 'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.'
    "'But,' says Man, 'the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'
    "'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
    "'Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next pedestrian crossing."
    --Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

...Or Is It Just Me?

Picture this: You climb into your PJs and crawl into bed with a book. You've got some soothing background music playing on your stereo and your new reading light is just right for long stretches of textual intake. So you plow through the 60-70 pages of the slowest short story ever, but by about page 66, you pass out. Waking up the next morning, you find your reading light turned off, your sterero turned off, your book closed and on your bedside table, you safely tucked away under your covers, but your PJ shirt on the pillows next to you. Does this ever happen to you? It happened to me last night/this morning. Any explanations are welcome...mine has something to do with elves, though I'm not sure if they're the same ones that deal with my shoes...

Song of the Moment: "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" - Nancy Sinatra

I was five and he was six
We rode on horses made of sticks
He wore black and I wore white
He would always win the fight

Bang bang he shot me down
Bang bang I hit the ground
Bang bang that awful sound
Bang bang my baby shot me down

Seasons came and changed the time
When I grew up I called him mine
He would always laugh and say
Remember when we used to play

Bang bang I shot you down
Bang bang you hit the ground
Bang bang that awful sound
Bang bang I used to shoot you down

Music played and people sang
Just for me the church bells rang

Now he's gone I don't know why
And till this day sometimes I cry
He didn't even say goodbye
He didn't take the time to lie

Bang bang he shot me down
Bang bang I hit the ground
Bang bang that awful sound
Bang bang my baby shot me down

A clear crisp day: the sun shining brightly overhead, Coldplay on the radio, and nothing but open roads ahead. Yes, today was a beautiful day to be single, and a beautiful day to be in love.

Love Actually...

Despite the fact of it being opening day for The Matrix: Revolutions, I actually sat nearly by myself and watched Love Actually instead and discovered it to be my new favourite movie (Sorry Shrek, Nemo, and you Goonies, this one was pretty good). It was just one of those movies that just...clicked with me. Not everyone falls in love, not everyone has the perfect life, and not everyone gets what they want, but there was just SO MUCH LOVE in this movie that it didn't matter. I love Love: it makes me feel all warm and squishy inside--when it's not making me feel lonely and miserable, that is.

love rocks on
love is elementary
love american style
love unspoken
love at work
love and politics
love as a second language
love is awkward
love lasts a lifetime

everyone needs to fall in love at least once...

SPOON!!!

I'm feelin' a little lonely right about now. I think life is getting to me. I need some time. I need a break. I need some extra love. I need a comfortable silence. I need...a lot of things...

Just talkin' to Squiggly about how nice it is to be able to snuggle up to someone and sleep for a good while. A little comfy spooning with some soothing bedtime talking would do the trick. Will someone just come and take care of me right now? I want to be treated like the big baby that I'm feeling like at this moment. I rarely admit to needing things done for me, but I could really go for some serious princess treatment. Some cuddling, coddling, cooing, and I'll feel much better. I really need a spoon. *sigh* Need you really be so far away from me?

A Moment of Egomania

I've decided today (though I permit myself the chance to change my mind later) that I love my height. I am the perfect height. I am slightly taller than average, allowing me to be tall enough to look down upon many around me. I am tall enough to tower above other girls of my age and ethnicity. I'm tall enough to be a threat on the courts. I'm tall enough to see over the steering wheel when I drive. I'm tall enough to be intimidating to most men out to pick up at the clubs. However at the same time, I'm short enough to be able to find pants that fit me. I'm short enough to be able to be cute and cuddly once in a while. I'm short enough to wear four-inch heels yet still be shorter than my man. I'm not too tall, but I'm not too short--I am the perfect height. I love my height. I also have great hair. I am awesome.
...

Test Drive Females! Female Test Drivers!

"Great idea! Go test drive cars together sometime. More likely to let 'couples' test drive. We both drive stick. It'd be awesome!"
    --Squiggly, in a text message to me the other day

I'm in! I'm in! It is a great idea--the fact that Squiggly is just totally using me for my femininity to con salesmen into letting him test drive wicked-cool cars makes no difference to me at all; I wanna drive those cars too! SwEEEEt. Even if Squiggly was the only one to get to drive, I'd be fine with that--Squiggly is one sick driver! Our original plan was to dress casually rich, but with some subtle yet eyecatching *bling* accessories (*blang* is just tacky) and meet up in Waterloo to dealership-hop out there. BMW, Mini Cooper, Honda, and Volvo, all within a stone's throw from each other. If not there, then maybe up Kennedy in Markham. Either way, it's all good; I'd cling to Squiggly's arm for a day for a ride in a Mini. :) I think this is a great thing Squiggly's stumbled upon. A great thing I think I should try to capitalize on...

...anyone looking for a feminine counterpart with whom to convince dealerships to hand you keys to their nicest cars--I'm riiiiight here. I appreciate these cars, I know how to smooth talk these salespeople--who else would you want to go with? Besides, as Squiggly pointed out, I drive stick. :D

...But The Last One Was Just Right...

The Imaginus Poster sale arrived at the Meeting Place today. I wandered through the displays and came to the saddening realization that my room contains too little wall space. :(

Some of the stuff they have is really cool, but too fantastical for my tastes. And there are the abstract pieces that take me back to my anti-abstract-art conversation with Jean not too long ago when we decided that some of that stuff just shouldn't be allowed. Then there are those supposedly inspirational photos of beautiful scenes or amazing feats accompanied by the motivational phrase along the bottom ("There is no 'I' in 'team'"); those just don't do it for me. And then I have beef with purchasing movie posters: someone originally acquired them all for free, so why should I be paying (however, the movie scene shots aren't too bad, just so hard to pick from!)? That leaves the celebrity glossy photos (too commercial), the Anne Geddes et al. pieces (too cutesy), the cartoons (too girly), the animal collages (too cuddly), the half-naked model shots (too envy-inspiring), and the credo-lists (too categorical--although I allow the Fight Club rules to serve as the only exception).

Despite all of those exclusions from my personal tastes there are still hoardes of posters left to choose from--something I couldn't do. I wish I could've brought a personal consultant to select or create one poster specifically to fill the empty space of wall in my room. That's a tough job though. Of my friends and family, I would trust very few with that task. As a list, I think they'd be dad, Tobias, Jean, Q, and V-Jai; the artists of my life. Hurry up guys...the sale ends 5pm tomorrow, although I will accept personal submissions after this date... :p
...

On a random tangent, my shoes have been disappearing lately. Pair by pair (granted, I've ony seemed to have lost two pairs so far) I've tried to wear, and pair by pair they've mysteriously gone missing. It all started when Senorita asked to borrow my black sandals for her cousin's wedding. For two weeks I've been looking for those shoes, and for two weeks, I've come up empty-handed. I swear I've checked everywhere. I even checked both of the cars--even hun-Gee's cars--but no sign of them. I've written of their disappearance to the fact that I probably lent those sandals to a girlfriend and forgot to re-claim them after a while. But today, I discovered that yet another pair of shoes went missing. I mean, the ones I lost today were just a crusty old pair of runners, but still, where did they go? I tore apart the upstairs and downstairs closets this morning looking for those shoes. I opened every shoe box and storage bin I came across, whether or not it seemed to have anything in it. Quite frustrating to find absolutely nothing, let me tell you. Mom usually charges a dollar for her to find anything for you in the house. By then I was ready to pay her $20 to find my shoes. But, I don't think she'd be able to find them either. So far, throughout my whole ordeal, she hasn't offered to help at all--sure she's suggested places for me to look, but actual help. That's why I came up with my theory: she's in on it. She may not have taken them, but she's in on it. :p I'm going to have to take an inventory of all my shoes tonight, and move them all to a safer place. I could be overreacting of course, but I can't afford to lose anymore shoes--losing shoes means I'll have to buy new ones and I can't afford that.

Quote of the Moment:
"I seem to have misplaced my pants."
    --Homer Simpson, The Simpsons

Quote of the Moment:
"You know when you first fall for someone and you feel like you want to do a million things with that person? You want to bake him bread. You want to write his name in dirt on your car. You want to surprise him with new socks or wear something that will make his jaw drop. You want to show him your favorite places and let him win at miniature golf or bowling (but never Scrabble). You want to stay up all night with him – talking or whatnot, and you want to never stop smiling.

Yeah. I like that feeling."
    --Beth Cherry, The North Carolina Experiment, October 31, 2003
...

This girl never lets me down when I'm looking for good read.

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!!!

Alright, either I'm a hardcore volleyball player, or I just purchased myself one crap-ass pair of kneepads. I'd very much like to believe it is the former case, however, if I really was such a good volleyball player, I wouldn't have to use my kneepads so much! :p

I went shopping with Senorita today, and amidst the plethora of unnecessary accessories we bought, I treated myself to a new pair of kneepads. I figured it was about time since my last pair were coming up on their...8th anniversary, and since after each game there seemed to be more foam on the court than actually protecting my knees (and we all know how importantly precious my knees are to me, right?). Anyway, less than 5 hours after leaving the store with them, I managed to burn a hole through my right one. Yes, burn. I figure I slid a good enough distance, therefore generating enough heat to melt through the fabric and elastics, and therefore burning the hole. *sigh* So I'm thinking of going back to the store and challenging them to stand behind their product and offer me a free replacement pair. I don't know how far I'll get with that, but I suppose it's worth a try. Free kneepads and a new ball...how sweet would that be?

Speaking of volleyball, I believe that Tuesday's victory was all due to the unnecessary noise G and I generated both on and off the court. A little noise goes a long way...so you can imagine what a lot of unnecessary noise did...it weirded the crap out of the other team. At first it started off with just a little extra cheering for things that you wouldn't normally encourage--a bad hit, a fluky serve, a fumbled pass--but then it escalated to abrupt cries and grunts to each other in between random plays; finally it came down to random eruptions of sounds, ranging from "AHHHHHs" to "UGHs" and other assorted croons, accompanied by over-dramatic facial expressions. It was hard not to have a good time doing it, and it seemed to affect the whole team, in a good way, of course. Afterwards, G and I victoriously (and unnecessarily) grunted and bellowed our way to the car, bursting into laughter between exchanges. Good times, good times.

I don't care what you say--you are NOT a coffee drinker when you have 4 creams and 4 sugars in your SMALL cup of coffee. 4 creams and 5 sugars in a large coffee doesn't make it any better. If you're going to drink a coffee, you should at least have a SENSE of what coffee tastes like, not what sweet cream tastes like. Seriously. I nearly turned to the girl in line that ordered this outrageous coffee (actually, hers was a 5 and 5 coffee) and asked her if she was sure she wanted some coffee with that--just in case she realized that she mistakenly said "coffee" when she meant to say "warm water" or something. Really. After triple triple, additives should be outlawed. Too much cream gives me gas...

I have figured out how to add comments to my page, and now you may comment me whenever you would like! *angelic chorus* COMMENT ME!!!

I've got it. It's temporary obsession. That's what it is. Thanks, G.

I haven't read Penny Arcade in a while. Probably because everytime I start, I can't stop and I have to read every single one over and over again cuz they're just so frickin' funny! I admit, not being a hard-core gamer, I don't always get the jokes they're making about certain games, but living with a gamer-brother does help. But then there are just some that are just too good regardless. Allow me to share a few with those of you who have not bothered to take a look at any of the links I post up and continue to add to on my page here. Do any of you notice what I put up there? Do you take a look? That's what I put them up there for! For you! YOU!!! I digress...
    A Penny Saved
    That's Me on the Left
    Lest Ye be Judged
    A Close One
    Garbage is Too Kind a Word
Hehehe...Jim. Hehehe...cushioned. Hehehe...poop...

Did You Know: that Frank Sinatra sings the "Love and Marriage" song? You know, the one that's the theme song for "Married with Children?" I didn't know that. Now that I do, I think that's so funny!

Quote of the Moment:
"Just now I read this in an interview with Thom Yorke on CNN:

'I've never been able to understand why so many people get it," he said. "That, to me, is the thing. It surprises me because the thing I'm always paranoid about is whether I'm the only one who understands what I'm trying to do. It's the same to everybody in the band. We need to tell each other that what we're doing is good.'

This made me think of something that has been squirreling around in my head lately about how you don't have to be great on a global, national, regional, or even small community scale; but that if five or ten people consistently believe in each other and enjoy each other creatively, then that's pretty good."
    --Beth Cherry, The North Carolina Experiment - October 28,2003
...

I believe it. You don't need everyone to think you're great. You just need to support and be supported by a vital number of people--be they friends or fans--to know that you've truly done your job, and that you've done it well. Fame is all comparative. Boobie's definitely famous: she's got an album sold worldwide, concert listings, posters all over the place, a forum about her online, a fan club, and all of her closest friends to support her. But you don't need all of that to be famous (although I'm VERY proud of boobie for having all of that and I wouldn't want her to have any less for the world). Comparatively, Jean is famous too--that's why he's called Jean afterall. Walk around school and people recognize him and herald him as a monument of that place, of the basketball and volleyball courts, as a good tito (with or without a wedgie), and a good friend. Therefore, he's definitely famous too. And then it only follows that we boos are all famous--we are our own fan club for each other. We will yet take over the world, just wait and see.

I think we're all famous to someone. I think it's important that we're all famous to someone. I think someone is always admiring you and supporting you all the time, whether you know it or not. I know I admire people secretly. I admire that girl at school because she's so tall but manages to fit in confidently anyway; I admire that guy on the courts because he's so good at volleyball, but he's so modest at the same time; I admire that girl at mom's work because she's just so bubbly, cute, and not afraid of anyone. Be admired. Be famous. Don't worry about trying to find out who makes up your fan club, just know that you have one, and then join someone else's...that way everyone can be famous one day.

(p.s. Can I join your fan club?)

Song of the Moment: "Come Away With Me" - Norah Jones

Come away with me in the night
Come away with me
And I will write you a song

Come away with me on a bus
Come away where they can't tempt us
With their lies

I want to walk with you
On a cloudy day
In fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high
So won't you try to come

Come away with me and we'll kiss
On a mountaintop
Come away with me
And I'll never stop loving you

And I want to wake up with the rain
Falling on a tin roof
While I'm safe there in your arms
So all I ask is for you
To come away with me in the night
Come away with me
...

Have you ever gotten lost before? As in, let's-turn-down-this-road-and-see-where-it-goes-but-all-of-a-sudden-there-are-no-more-street-lights-and-you-have-to-use-your-high-beams-in-order-to-see-the-dips-and-curves-in-the-roads-and-you-pass-by-"concessions"-and-"hamlets"-and-the-houses-have-fire-numbers-instead-of-actual-street-numbers-and-there-are-unpaved-shoulders-or-ditches-on-either-side-of-the-road-so-you-can't-pull-a-u-turn-very-easily-especially-cuz-the-speed-limit-is-like-80kph-but-the-cars-behind-you-are-going-along-at-twice-that-speed-but-it's-then-that-you-notice-how-bright-the-stars-are-cuz-you're-so-damn-far-from-civilization-so-you-have-to-pull-over-despite-it-being-so-damn-cold-and-star-gaze-for-a-bit-until-it-gets-too-cold-and-you-start-to-drive-along-those-almost-dirt-roads-again-turning-randomly-until-you-find-some-street-lights-and-a-road-name-that-sounds-familiar-so-you-drive-that-way-for-what-seems-a-short-time-compared-to-the-time-it-took-you-to-get-lost-in-the-first-place-and-then-finally-you-get-back-to-civilization-and-you-feel-like-it's-been-forever-since-you've-seen-a-Tim-Horton's kind of lost. I was that kind of lost for a while tonight. It was an adventure. An adventure that was scary at some points, speechless at others, but overall, it wasn't weird. Thanks for the adventure, Jean.

Song of the Moment: "Every Little Thing" - Dishwalla

Let me in
To see you in the morning light
To get me on and all along the tears they come
See all come
I want you to believe in life
But I get the strangest feeling that you've gone away
Will you find out who you are too late to change?

I wish I could be
Every little thing you wanted
All the time
I wish I could be
Every little thing you wanted
All the time
Some times

Lift me up
Just lift me up don't make a sound
And let me hold you up before you hit the ground
See all come
You say your all right
But I get the strangest feeling
That you've gone away - you've gone away
And will you find out who you are too late to change?

I wish I could be
Every little thing you wanted
All the time
I wish I could be
Every little thing you wanted
You wanted
All the time

Don't give me up
Don't give me up tonight
Or soon nothing will be right at all
Salvation
Will you find out who you are too late to change?

I wish I could be
Every little thing you wanted
All the time
...

So, apparently, Dishwalla's Opaline album is a really good one... :p I LOVE IT!!! It's definitely buy-worthy. Fo sho.

Shakespeare Sonnet 44
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Injurious distance should not stop my way;
For then, despite of space, I would be brought,
From limits far remote, where thou dost stay.
No matter then although my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth removed from thee;
For nimble thought can jump both sea and land,
As soon as think the place where he would be.
But, ah, thought kills me that I am not thought
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But that, so much of earth and water wrought,
I must attend time's leisure with my moan.
    Receiving naught by elements so slow
    But heavy tears, badges of either's woe.
...

Oh what I would give to be thought--never would there be space between me and the ones I love. I could be there in an instant, or escape in a heartbeat. I would never have to long for you, I could just be there beside you. Rather than spending my time yearning, I could spend it with you in love. Oh to be a thought. Would you think of me?

I totally forgot about the daylight savings time change last night. I actually woke up this morning thinking I was an hour late for everything. Thank goodness it was brought to my attention that I had indeed been a dumbass and had forgotten about changing my clocks (actually, I still haven't changed them yet--my room is in its own futuristic time-warp).

Despite my set-back (or rather lack thereof), I managed to get up, shower, pack my work stuff, punch two new holes in my ears, buy a new pair of pants, a new shirt, 2 coffees and a bagel, all before the time I had to be at work. By 12:30pm (adjusted time), I'd already had an eventful day; those feel really good, don't they? I worked my 5 and a 1/2 hour shift, after which I went home to wait for hun-Gee and watch my family leave for their steak dinners at Tulips--one of the BEST steakhouses in TO. I wanted to go too, but unfortunately there wasn't enough time.

Dinner was yummy pho at the place I'd never been to before and where we subsequently fought over the bill vehemently for once (usually the fights are lackadaisical in manner). From there we flew to Pedro's and then home so I could pack some more supplies before hun-Gee headed to Loo and I headed to boobie's to study. When I got there just after 9pm, it was Squiggly, me, and boo and we all kind of piled into her basement to spend some QT before Squiggly had to head back to St. Kit's for his ungodly early morning shift.

We had just planned to catch up a bit over some warm drinks and mellow music to kind of round out the weekend we'd barely seen each other, but 7 hours, 4 CDs, 3 music videos, 5 coffees, 2 chocolate bars, 2 bags of chips, 5 original songs, a bag of juicy berries, and 2 parking tickets later, we found ourselves barely awake, yet still also barely able to part from the comfort of each other's affection. You know that warm feeling you get when you know you're loved? Well, we were hot tonight.

I really do wish we could just move in together. There's just something about knowing that you're able to come home to love that is just so encouraging. I'd feel like I could survive anything, as long as I'd be allowed to come home after it. You know that whole saying about love being able to move mountains? Yeah, that's the kind of love we had tonight. We may not have had the love we were wanting from the loves that we were aching for, but knowing that we had each other somehow made it okay. And cuddled in each other's arms (or legs or necks, as the case progressed throughout the night) gave each of us the comfort we needed and for tonight, we needed no one else. I could just be speaking for myself, but I'd like to think that I'm speaking on behalf of the three of us. Who doesn't get that feeling when they're around the ones they love, and when the ones they love are loving them right back? If you aren't loving someone right now, you're missing out.
...

I love you.
Cuddled in your arms I know I'm safe.
I wouldn't accept anything in this world to be anywhere else tonight, except in your arms.
Love me.
I find no greater comfort than the warmth of your body next to mine.
It warms me through and through and I wouldn't trade that for the world either.
Your heartbeat. Your soft breathing. Your presence.
If I have you, I need nothing else.
I love you.

I think I'm addicted to coffee. Tim Horton's coffee, specifically; but I suppose java in general. I discovered this today as I arrived at work and found myself to be in quite the grumpiest of moods, despite my having slept the whole afternoon away. My co-workers were being nothing but sweet to me, but I could neither crack a smile or be pleased by any of their efforts to cheer me. I decided to get out of there for a sec and offered to go on a coffee run for my managers. While at Tim's, I bought myself my usual large-double-double coffee thinking nothing of it--only ordering it because I was there (when in Rome...). I got back to work and it wasn't even until after I had delivered everyone's orders to them that I finally cracked open my own cup. And when that sweetly warm liquid touched my rather grumpy lips, I swear I could feel my frown turn upside-down and all of a sudden I was cheerful!

I don't like to admit being dependent on anything, but I think this is one addiction that I'm going to have to come to terms with. I figured that it grew out of the fact that mid-terms and papers were due back-to-back these past two weeks and all I knew during that time were caffinated-insomnia sprees. I mean, I had no reason to need a coffee today at that point, but yet it was all I could do from biting off heads without it! I have to admit though, that stuff is pretty good and it does make me feel all warm inside. Anyone up for feeling good, warm and wired, give me a call--in my mind, it's never too late for a good cup of joe.
...

OW! DAMN YOU BURN!!! Why is it we are so intent on picking at scabs? Why don't we just leave the dang things alone and just let them do their things to heal? My burn's just recently been getting better, but yet I still feel the need to poke and prod at it, as if that'll do anything. Whatever. I know it's something I should just leave be, but just as I manage to push it to the back of my mind where I've forgotten it, something minor brings it all back to the surface again and I'll be once again, poking and prodding. And it doesn't help that it's so dang itchy! Goddammit! Where the hell was that guy's mind that night? I wish I'd at least seen it coming; maybe I could've ducked or something--anything to avoid this constant irritation! When was the last time YOU had a burn? Did it hurt? Did it itch? Did you pick at it? You did? I feel for you. If you didn't, please, share your secret...this is killing me. Owwie...

Note to Self: don't go blubbering blubber that other people in blubbering states have just blubbered to you at blubbering times of the night. Blubbering people sometimes blubber things that they don't mean to blubber, and then by blubbering their blubber, you don't make it any better. And sometimes the people you blubber that blubberer's blubber to don't always want to hear that blubbering nonsence. But then again, in the first blubbering place, those blubberer's should watch what they're blubbering when they know that they're in a blubbering mood. In conclusion, no blubbering blubberers should have access to phones that will allow them to blubber their blubber to other people; whether or not those blubberers are blubbering to other blubberers or not. Sound good? Or is that just a bunch of blubber?
...

I really think I should go to bed now...I think I'm starting to blubber a bit myself...

Allow me to waste your time...catch the flies with chopsticks...

Why can't I go to sleep? Well, for one thing, I won't get away from the dang compooter. It's becoming like watching infomercials for me: there's nothing on, but yet I can't stop flipping. And it's not exactly like I'm the most far-fetched surfer. In fact, I only visit a couple of pages altogether--most of them blogs and more often than not, they're my own. So what keeps me glued here? Well, you never know when something might happen. I can't run the risk of missing that! Or, what if I come up with a good idea that I want to put on my blog right away? I can't easily do that while I'm in bed sleeping, can I? Of course, if I'm in bed sleeping, then I don't think too many ideas will come up consciously enough for me to want to put them here. But then what if I pull a Seinfeld (you know, that time when he semi-consciously scribbled down what he thought was the funniest joke ever in the middle of the night, and then he woke up the next morning and couldn't even read his own writing)? Then I might be in trouble. See, it's reasons like that that keep me glued here at night!

Chong said that this was when artists were at their peak time of creativity. The nocturnal ones, that is (well, duh). Is that true? Any nocturnal artists want to share their thoughts? Feel free; it'll give me something to read at this hour without having to leave the comfort of this office chair that just doesn't lean back enough to be comfortable. I think I've had too many cups of coffee and not enough sleep in the past 72 hours. But what could I do? I had to study, didn't I? Thank goodness that's done with, despite the fact that I finally decided to drop out of my elective (sorry Jean, no more [w]-ing or [j]-ing during study-time). Now all that's left is for me to read five different texts by Monday and write an original piece of fiction. Goodness knows how I hate to write about stuff. :p Actually, I think I just might post something I wrote a while ago for you to read a little later tonight since I'll probably be up anyway. Is it even "tonight" anymore? What am I waiting for?

I think that since I'm up at all hours anyway, I should host my own wake-up call service for my friends. It seemed to work the other night for Senorita. I was studying and she needed a nap, so I called her at 3am to make sure that she woke up and got right back to it. Alright, so any one requiring a wake-up call between 12am - 8am at anytime, just email me and let me know--take advantage of this limited time FREE offer! :p Man, this is bad. I know for a fact that some of you are going to be getting up soon--poor Squiggly's already in the shower by now--I really should just call you to wake you up with my "I-haven't-slept-a-wink" voice...it can get pretty sexy sometimes. *sigh* *yawn* Ooooh...that's a good sign. I think I'll start to peel my eyes off the screen now...night-night.
...

Pillowtalk

She watched her clock turn from 3:59 to 4:00 in the morning. She still wasn’t tired yet—her last exam was really stressing her. She was glad he had offered to keep her company on the phone while she crammed for the final tomorrow, but it had been a while since he’d last said anything.
“Hey you, are you still awake?”
“Mmmm…” came the muffled reply. He heaved a long sigh of sleepiness a moment later. She smiled at it. They had only known each other for a few months, but had quickly become close friends. She didn’t mind that he had fallen asleep; his soft breathing comforted her and depleted the loneliness of her room while she studied. A little while later, she finished up her reviewing, turned off the light and crawled into bed.
“Hey, I’m done,” she said softly. She heard him grunt an unintelligible reply. “You can go now, I’m done.”
“But I don’t want to ride the train…”
He was babbling. She giggled softly; he’d done it before with humorous results. He never meant to and he never remembered doing so either.
“Where are you going on the train?”
“…Vermont…”
“What are you going to do there?”
“…Ski…snowboard…pick up chicks…”
“Oh really?”
“…mmm-hmm…”
There were long pauses between her questions and his replies, but she didn’t mind. It was an amusing relief from her present stress.
“Who are you going to hit on?”
“…someone I like…”
“Who do you like?”
“…someone…”
“Who?”
“…hot chicks…”
“Which ones?”
“…the hot ones…”
She had to smile again at his ambiguity. She’d always been drawn to him for his sarcastic wit—and it was still there, even in his barely-conscious state. A little flutter rose in her stomach as she recalled sarcastic arguments they’d had over nonsensical issues—he usually won, grinning the whole time. She loved that grin.
“Hey, what’s your e-mail password?”
“…mmm…”
“Never mind, you—“
“’Strawberryjam’…”
“Really?”
“…mmm…”
“Your password is ‘strawberryjam’?”
“…mmm-hmm…”
“Where do you keep you spare key?”
“…flowerbox, under mom’s window…”
“So I can let myself in from now on?”
“…no…”
“Why not?”
"…moving key somewhere else…”
She laughed that time, then yawned. It was nearly 5:00 by then. She knew she should sleep, but she didn’t want to hang up just yet. He was being adorable. She paused, listening to the soft, steady breathing on the other end of the line, disturbed only by the faint, occasional chirp of the early birds beginning to wake outside her window. She curious about one other question; she’d wanted to ask him for a while, but never could bring it up. He gave another sigh; rustling sounds told her he’d rolled over. She decided to finish up—she needed to sleep.
“Hey, go to sleep. Hang up the phone.”
“…no…”
“Come on…”
“…mmm…”
“If I was a hot chick, would you do it?”
“…you are hot…”
“Really? Does that mean you’d hit on me?”
“…mmm-hmm…”
“So why don’t you?”
“…dunno…”
“Are you scared to date me?”
“…no…want to…”
Her stomach fluttered again.
“You want to date me?”
“…mmm-hmm…”
It fluttered a little more. She’d always wondered about it. He meant more than just a friend to her, but she’d never known the other side. She knew her feelings were strong, but she could never admit them—she was scared she felt a little too strongly. She decided to ask her question.
“If we were together, do you think you would love me?”
“…I already do…”
There was a pause before she realized she had been holding her breath. She let it out slowly as her heart pounded and the fluttering in her stomach reached through her whole body. It was another while before she said anything—she listened to him breathe a time, wondering what he was dreaming about as he slept on the phone. Finally, she started to drowse off to sleep herself, still feeling fluttery the whole time.
“Hey, go to sleep, you. Hang up the phone.”
“…hmm?…”
“Go to sleep.”
“…okay…”
“Goodnight,”
“’Night…good luck…”
“Thanks, bye,”
“…bye…”
She hung up the phone on her end and rolled onto her back. Staring at the ceiling, she thought about what he’d admitted, that she’d taken advantage of his unconscious babbling, that he wouldn’t remember it at all. She wondered how she would look at him the next day; too shy to reveal what she’d learned, too shy to tell him she loved him, too shy to do anything about it—but fluttery all the same…
…He hung up the phone on his end and rolled onto his side to go to sleep. He wondered if she knew he’d been awake the whole time…

Song of the Moment: "Today, Tonight" - Dishwalla

Today, tonight
Tomorrow, the next night
Too long too late
Till then I'll wait
...

Yes, this song has been my song of the moment already, but now it's my song of the moment again. However, in the interest of saving space, I left the rest of the lyrics in my archives. These are the important words. Well, the words in the first verse might be a bit more important. Actually, I want you to read ALL of the lyrics again. Do it. Now. Go ahead, I'll wait...

Quote of the Moment:
"Mean of All Sample Means: The mean of the sampling distribution of the mean always equals the mean of the population."
    --Taken from a Statistics textbook
...

You know you've been studying too long when... naw'mean?

    S H i V e R S

      t i N G l e

          d
            o
          w
            n

          m
            y

          s
            p
          i
            n
          e

  w H e N E v E r

I T H i n K o f Y O U
            .
            .
            .
...

That's for you and me, chicka...you and me. See if Elisa likes it. Don't worry, he'll call you, you'll talk to him, you'll tell him, he'll tell you, and that'll be that. You'll never be vulnerable. Ever. But if you ever feel like you are, I'm here for you sis. You and me...

Hot dangnit! I'm finally done that FRICKIN' ESSAY!!! Think I wore myself out, writing on blogger though...I fell about 2 pages short of what I was aiming for. What kind of writer AM I? One at a loss for words, apparently. But then again, who measures essays in pages nowadays? Get with it, Ms. Prof, we go by the wordcount! That way if I start falling short of the target, I get to use up all the adjectives I know...and those that my thesaurus can provide me with! Whatever, it doesn't matter, I'm done, DONE!!!

Picture of the Moment:



Dear goodness we be sexy bitches. :) That's right, me and my women are hot. Drool--go ahead, I know you want to...

Note to Self: when emailing friends to share webpages or pictures with them, be sure to include the links!

I love lightning storms. I was awake to catch the one this morning. It was beautifully powerful. I had been reading in bed with my feet propped up against the wall when I first felt some of the thunder rumbling outside through the wall. After a few more low rumbles, I crawled out of bed to open the blinds and turn off the light. I knew I should've just kept reading, but it was worth it.

The storm started off slowly but of course grew and gained momentum until huge drops of rain were pelting my bay window, distorting the bolts of lightning that raced across the dark backdrop of sky outside. Every ten seconds the lightning would illuminate my whole room, cracking and streaking across the sky, a prologue to the clap of thunder to follow; it wasn't long before the lightning was continuous and the thunder simply rolling. A few of those thunderous roars were angry enough to rattle my window panes. One of them woke my brother nextdoor; I heard him crawl out of bed and open his own blinds to watch. I myself lay curled in bed, mesmerized by the spectacle of nature outside my room. I was sad when I realized the seconds between the lightning's strikes and the thunder's growls were growing longer. Soon the lightning dimmed to a mere flicker while the thunder diminished to a mere purr. That's when I got out of bed to come here and tell you about it...

I've always loved lightning storms. My dad used to hold me in his lap when I was young, and watch them through the open blinds with me so I wouldn't be afraid. He told me exactly what was happening up there in the sky--why we had lightning and thunder, and how to tell if the storm was getting closer or going away. Ever since then, I'd never been afraid of the storms and instead would get excited when the sky would begin to come alive with light. My dad didn't have to search me out to hold me anymore, I would go and find him to come sit with me by the window to watch. Even now I still sometimes search out my dad to sit and watch by the window--it's so beautiful that I always want to be sharing it with someone. Tonight I wish I hadn't been the only one awake.

Song of the Moment: "In My Place" - Coldplay

In my place, in my place
Were lines that I couldn't change
I was lost, oh yeah

I was lost, I was lost
Crossed lines I shouldn't have crossed
I was lost, oh yeah

Yeah, how long must you wait for him?
Yeah, how long must you pay for him?
Yeah, how long must you wait for him?

I was scared, I was scared
Tired and underprepared
But I wait for you

If you go, if you go
Leaving me here on my own
Well I wait for you

Yeah, how long must you wait for him?
Yeah, how long must you pay for him?
Yeah, how long must you wait for him?

Please, please, please
Come on and sing to me
To me, me

Come on and sing it out, out, out
Come on and sing it now, now, now
Come on and sing it

In my place, in my place
Were lines that I couldn't change
I was lost, oh yeah
Oh yeah
...

At least now, Boobin, we'll know some more of the words while we sing along. And of course thanks for the tickets tonight--you really didn't need to TCB, you know--crazy gambler, you. Q, thank you SO much for the flowers--they're beautiful. They were such a surprise, and just what I needed right now. Thanks... And Squiggly, thanks for the garb--you know me too well. A little too well...I can't believe you saw right through me. Only you, I swear; only you. Boo, you and I will be together for eternity--it has been decided as of tonight. Thank goodness I'll at least have you with me. PWC-girl, you almost joined us, but you just squeaked by... :p Here's to a night for the girls from the guys. *toasts* iluhyooguys...