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The MJ blog!

2008-05-13T08:28:00.002-04:00

So a couple of us in the MJ program have started a journalism blog - it will be updated every day at 11 o'clock (in other words way more reliably than mine!) and I really encourage you guys to check it out :)

(Yours truly's first post will be up today at 11 a.m.)

My classmates are insightful, smart and well written - it will be a good read.

So check it out: http://jsteak.blogspot.com

Well it's been nearly a year...

2008-04-07T10:38:00.003-04:00

so I thought it was time for a post! hahaha

This blog seems to have fallen by the wayside in the last year or two but I've resolved to make regular posts again, at least for this summer, because frankly, what self-respecting journalism student doesn't have a medicore blog?! And, even better, I'm going to be toiling away as a journalism intern at two different organizations this summer and I think my adventures working for no pay might make for some interesting entries :)

In other news, I think my legs are thinking of taking leave of my body after the last two weekends (ok, make that the last few months) of marathon training. Marathon training is kicking my ass but the best news ever is I get to begin my taper this week! Woo! (That means my mileage starts going down as I try and convince my legs to stay firmly attached to my body at least until I get to marathon start on April 27.)

A smile of sheer relief coming across the finish line of the 30K
Around the Bay race two weekends ago in Hamilton

Aside from marathon training, school has pretty much been sucking up all of my time but I'm nearly done my first year! If you are interested, you can check out the final product of this semester's online class, Visible Majority, at http://www.networkedstreets.com and my part of the feature here. I have two more end of term things to finish up over the next two weeks and then I'm free for the summer! Oh, I'm already dreaming of patios, bbqs, cottage weekends, car camping, triathlon season, 10 days in Montreal and getting to know Toronto in the summer.

So here's to some more regular posting (as long as I survive the marathon)!

Half Marathon!!

2007-04-22T15:01:00.000-04:00

So I have lots of updates, but they'll have to wait 'til after exams (and after the solid week of post-exam/undergrad is over partying ;)

For now, I just have to say:

I did it! I ran my first half marathon!! 2:10:12.

I'm a bit proud ;)

Me & Farah: all smiles post-race!

Another plane story...

2007-02-25T21:47:00.000-05:00

Only this time, it's not my fault!

My flight Hamilton-Montreal tonight was cancelled. Fan-freaking-tastic. Because I didn't want to go home tonight anyway; its always been my dream to spend the last Sunday night of break in the Super 8 next to the Hamilton airport. The weather decided to throw a fit in the form of quite the snowstorm just as my plane was supposed to be boarding. (Normally I love a good snowstorm, but not so much tonight...) Oh well, life goes on - free wireless internet and the Oscars, it could be worse. I'll be in Montreal by 8:30am tomorrow -- unfortunately this delay isn't getting me out of any midterms... you can't have it all!

Amazing.

2007-02-22T18:58:00.000-05:00

As lame as this might seem to sound, my parents are incredible human beings.

4 years ago when Grant and I both finally left home, the new empty-nester lifestyle inspired them to get into shape; they both lost 30+ pounds in a matter of months and became fit, healthy 50-somethings.

2 years ago a bike ride with another couple made them catch the cycling bug and a mere 3 months into their new hobby they completed a 100km bike race - on mountain bikes! The mountain bike mania grabbed them hard and by the end of that first summer they'd each worn out their first bike chains and were talking of buying new, better bikes: the cheaper starter bikes already surpassed. Their enthusiasm for their new hobby reignited the mountain bike passion in my brother and introduced me to a brand new sport I'd never thought I'd love, but quickly began to look forward to summer weekends at home, mountain biking with my mom & dad.

Seeing my "over-the-hill" parents get fit, grab a sport and become hardcore "weekend warriors" was inspiring. I started running, 3-4 times a week, did my first 5K last year and have my sights on a half marathon this spring. Thoughts of a triathalon started to trickle into my head and I announced my plans to complete my first, a sprint distance, early this summer. How do my parents respond? "Oh, that sounds great! We should do that too!" Imagine: two 50-somethings, embarking on their first triathalon. Incredible.

I just watched my mom, the sworn non-runner, run down the driveway in my running tights and jacket on her first run in over 25 years. On Sunday morning, my dad will get into the pool with my mom and I for the first time in probably over 30 years. They will finish the triathalon in June, I have no doubt; in fact my dad will probably beat me knowing his competitive streak. How many other 24 year olds can say they did a triathalon with their parents? Not many, I'd wager.

I hope I am half so adventurous and fit when I'm 52. I certainly have the best role-models I could ask for. Mom & Dad, you are amazing.

Funny story...

2006-11-23T15:41:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't been posting. And I know I haven't even been posting my storm journal. Someday I'll have time to do everything I want to do and still be able to procrastinate as much as I do ;)

In the meantime, entertain yourselves with a story of my stupidity.

Girl-who-completely-missed-her-plane-for-no-good-reason

Standing patiently in a long line at the airport security checkpoint, I’m happy I took the earlier shuttle from downtown. I slip my boarding pass out of my purse, marveling at the convenience that is online check-in, when suddenly my stomach drops. Departure time: 16:00. Its quarter after four and I am in perfect position to catch my flight, at 17:00! I was sure my flight was at five. Sure. How did this happen?

I blindly fumble with my bags as I excuse myself from the security lineup. I’m in shock. It’s not the end of the world, missing a plane, but being so sure I was right on time–not even rushing to the gate and just missing the final boarding call–it hardly seems fair. I head over to the airline check-in area and among the mass of people with actual flights to catch, people who haven’t missed their planes, I stand in a daze for awhile trying to decide which line I, girl-who-completely-missed-her-plane-for-no-good-reason, belong in.

“I missed my plane, where do I go?” I finally ask an airline rep. Can she tell I’m feeling incredibly stupid and incredibly lost?
“Ticket counter. Over there.”

Another lineup. But the calm, patiently-waiting-in-line feeling of only a few moments ago seems far away; scenarios of having to sleep in the airport, pay hundreds of dollars to switch my non-negotiable flight and missing my weekend with my Mom bounce anxiously around in my head.

“Hi, Mom,” I manage to say into my cell phone.
“Hey!”
“I missed my plane.” I choke out. Hearing my mom's voice has brought out the frightened little girl in me and I fight the urge to cry right there in the ticket line.

Once I get off the phone promising to call back with the verdict, I collect myself: I am a responsible, capable adult (well besides the fact that I missed my plane!) and I will handle this.

Mentally pleading and crossing my fingers that the airline ticket agent will take pity on me, I step up to the ticket counter. My judge and jury smiles and his eyes look kind, or maybe I’m just praying they do. I can’t tell the difference at this point. I shamefully admit that I’m girl-who-completely-missed-her-plane-for-no-good-reason and beg to get on the next flight. Chuckling understandingly, Kind-eyes starts punching code into his computer and I concentrate all my energy into willing the flight not sold-out.

“Perhaps you want to frame this?” Kind-eyes asks jokingly as he throws away my useless old boarding pass. No. I feel sufficiently stupid right now, thank-you-very-much. It is never going to happen again.

Luck is with me, Kind-eyes assures me I do in fact have a seat on the next flight! I will, of course, have to pay the $100 change fee, however. Of course. Small price to pay for the banishment of girl-who-completely-missed-her-plane-for-no-good-reason.

Handing me my new boarding pass, Kind-eyes circles the boarding time. “Don’t worry. I won’t miss it! I swear.” I tell him sincerely, but with such a feeling of relief I’m nearly giggling.

Now girl-who-is-really-really-early-for-her-plane, it’s back to the calm waiting in line at security.

(written in the Montreal airport after I missed my flight home last Friday)

Yes, I am still alive!

2006-09-13T00:29:00.000-04:00

Wow. I know its been a long long while, but life is slowly approaching something resembling normalcy so regular updates are sure to return again soon ;)

Summer has been super, Frosh went AMAZING and life is generally good - I could ramble on and on and update you all on the little details (and I probably will later) but for right now, I just want to vent a little (and its my blog, so I'll rant if I want to ;)

Life is busy. And its great that it is busy - god knows though it is nice to spend a day here and there on the couch doing nothing, but if thats all we did, life would be pretty boring. Though I do a great couch potato now and then, I prefer to be running around with a million things to do (as long as most of those million are un-schoolwork related, of course). I thrive on the bouts of 'I'm too busy to clean my room', 'jump out of bed at 7am cause I know thats the only way to fit it all in' busy -- but even in the midst of this, I am never too busy to call my mom and say hello, to have lunch with a friend, or send out (albeit sometimes drunken) text messages to those I haven't seen in awhile to say I'm thinking of them. Why? Because these are the people that are important to me. People are what make life, and for those that you truly care about, there is no such thing as too busy. Despite how busy we are, those we care about are always on our minds and so we make time; not because they want us to - but because we want to. Either you care or you don't.
So here ends the mini-rant: Remember to always call your mom and thanks to all of you guys who drunk dial me, MSN or Facebook me to remind me that in your busy life, I am important, and you are thinking of me :)

Post-trip debrief

2006-06-07T22:47:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! Well we've been back from tornadoland for over a week now, and things are slowly returning to normal. I'm starting to go through the hundreds of pictures and have decided to post my daily journal entry on here for your enjoyment (as well as for me, because my stellar handwriting added to the fact I wrote my journals in the car means in few weeks parts of it will likely be illegible even to me). I am backdating the entries, so it will be like time is rewinding and the newer entries will actually show up before this one. I'll be adding a few small photos to the end of each day, but look for a more complete photo album on Facebook in the next week or so.

The trip, as you'll be able to read for yourself, was amazing. It was the most incredible roadtrip and much silliness and laughter punctuated everything we did. We covered 11 states and over 12 000km in 14 days, never sleeping in the same city twice. I hope you enjoy the narrative as at least a taste of what this crazy trip was like for me.

Day 1: Montreal-Detroit

2006-05-15T22:29:00.000-04:00

We were supposed to meet 8-8:15 at the Roddick Gates, and well trained by the Johnstone family, I was on time and ready to leave, only to find not one person there! Confusion and battery problems reigned and we finally left at 9:30 – Dad would’ve been sorely disappointed in us.

Riding in Andy’s Subaru with Andy, Jess and Dan we took off after what we thought was Shawn’s car at the gas station, and ended up out front of the pack, which would prove to be the theme for the day – Team Awesomeness was born!

The trip to Detroit went remarkably quickly, good music and good company made the time fly. Around Kingston Shawn decided to forgo rest stop fare and detoured into downtown Kingston. Team Awesomeness’ need for speed disagreed and we left Shawn & company to their gourmet lunch. No line at the border seemed a good omen and we were making great time. Despite Andy’s claims that he always has good luck with the border patrol, we unfortunately drew a humourless, power-hungry patrolman who didn’t seem the least bit impressed by our Storm Chasing itinerary. Upon our being unable to tell him our destination after Detroit, he coldly announced that Andy needed to “take the Canadians back”! Horror momentarily instilled in us Canadians; we shoved the MapQuest printout with the Detroit hotel address into his hands, silently pleading. After a few more questions about what we had in the car (thank god he didn’t make us unpack!), how we knew each other and how we were getting back to Canada, he finally let us go… what a relief!

An uneventful drive to the airport and then some confusion locating our rental car place, we finally found ourselves in Dollar rental, where an enthusiastic young customer service gentleman went out of his way for us “weather photographers”, giving us a sweet care with a huge trunk and satellite radio! If only he knew the real purpose of our trip…

By the time we made it to our hotel for the night, we were sure we’d find a few others there to greet us. However, a quick phone call to Shawn to confirm our hotel location revealed we had arrived first, and by about an hour and a half!! High fives all around – Team Awesomeness, undisputed champions. So, with little else to do, we ventured across the street to the Bowery Grille & Pub – a sketchy side door was only the beginning… the smell of years of stale smoke and the bored stares of the Canton locals greeted us upon entering. A bit unsure, we decided it would do, but we seated ourselves in the corner, as far away from the bar as possible. Another reminder we weren’t in Montreal anymore when the delightfully Michigan accented waitress asked to see our IDs. After a quick trip back to the hotel for hers (4 to be safe), Jess needed a double. A call from Shawn to announce their arrival came a little later, during which Andy, in full earshot of the waitress, loudly proclaimed we were at the “dinghy place across the street” – Jess and I laughed so much we cried, it was too funny.

A tired group from our long day of driving and giggling, we headed for bed as the slowpokes went out for their very late dinner (not at the Bowery). Aside from Alain’s fear of waking up to find himself the little spoon to Andy’s big spoon, sleep was great. So ends Day 1…

Dan expertly packing the car - a scene that would become a morning ritual in the days ahead

TORNADO CHASING TOMORROW!!!

2006-05-14T17:30:00.000-04:00

The day has finally arrived (well nearly): tomorrow we leave for Tornado Chasing!!!!!!! I am still in disbelief that I will actually be chasing storms in Tornado Alley in a few short days... I have honestly been dreaming of this forever -- fingers crossed we get lucky enough to see one!

I can't imagine what it will be like to actually see a tornado... What will I feel when I see it? What will be the first thing I think of? Just sitting in class last week planning where we would drive and how we would approach the hypothetical storm in order to be in the best position was so exciting, I cannot imagine what it will feel like to do it for real - I am soooooo pumped!

I will try to update or at least send out emails sporadically while we are down there, we should have fairly regular internet access, and any good pictures will definately be posted - so stay tuned!

I'm off to chase tornados!!!!!!!! Woot!

An update!

2006-04-20T13:30:00.000-04:00

Wow. It has been an age since I updated... I'm just not as motivated to blog as I have been, I guess. But, guess what, I'm supposed to be studying right now so that is motivation enough to update! lol.

Life is going along as it always does this time of year, taste of warmer weather making it hard to study, the anticipation of summer making it hard to study, thinking of all the fun summer plans making it hard to study.... but at the same time, everything is different this year -- a large portion of my friends are graduatating and going on to bigger and better things in another city in the next 4 months! Everything is going to change. And while change is exciting, and there are a few changes about which I can barely contain my excitment, knowing that in Sept. all these people that have come to define my life in Montreal for the last 4 years will be gone is strange, and as of yet, unbelievable. We cannot make life stand still, nor would we want to if we could, but I still can't help but wish that these years could last a little longer, they have been so awesome. I wish everyone of my graduating friends the best of luck, you've done it! You've survived university and will have the degree to prove it! I am very curious to see where you all end up in 10 years :)

In other reality, Kat bought a house!! (Well, an apartment) We are moving at the end of June to a lovely place in Little Italy only blocks east of Marche Jean Talon! I can't wait, we even have a little garden!

I started running regularly about two months ago, and I am running in my first 5K this Sunday with my brother (who is visiting for the weekend). I am planning to run a 10K in Sept. and a Half Marathon in the near future -- and this me who hated running the mile in high school and 2 years ago laughed at my trainer when he suggested I build up to running 30min on the treadmill for my cardio! I have put over 100km on my new running shoes since the second week of March!! I'm a bit proud :)

Ooh, also I am going to be coordinating Frosh this summer - sooo excited! We have a great team of coordinators and I know Gen is going to do a great job as our director -- we are going to have way too much fun, and make this years Frosh amazing while we are at it :)

Ok, that is enough procrastinating... I really need to get started on my studying for the day -- Waves final tomorrow.

A prayer

2006-04-04T00:37:00.000-04:00

The liquid drowns you
from the inside.
Squeezes out all that is
the real you.

How can you reclaim you?

How can you dry off
when the horizon seems an unending set
of breaking waves--

drenching you.
drowning you.
destroying you.

Oh please let hope
buoy you up.
Let friendly hands
pull you out.
Let life
breathe air into your lungs.

Refuse to drown.
Return to shore.

Wow. its been awhile.

2006-03-21T11:47:00.000-05:00

So its been nearly a month since I posted from Vancouver, which gives you a little bit of an idea how busy these last few weeks have been... however, this is not a real update - I'm not in the right mood right now, but I promise soon!

Instead, as I am sitting here bored in the lab waiting for a company to get back to me about an order, I will procrastinate by copying a list from Tara's blog which I found absolutely fascinating.

Instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, ~~cross out~~ the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place (parentheses) around the ones you've never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
(His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
~~The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien~~ *just couldn't get through it...*
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
(The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold)
(Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut)
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
(Neuromancer - William Gibson)
(Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson)
(The Secret History - Donna Tartt)
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
(Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides)
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman)
(Atonement - Ian McEwan)
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
~~Dune - Frank Herbert~~ *hate this movie...*

Anyway, the company still hasn't called me back, so I think I'm going to call again and bug them - meeting Jenna for lunch and shopping for Red&White at 1:00 so I want to get this taken care of.

Let me know if you'd highly recommend any of the books on the list I haven't read, I am always looking for more reading material :) And an update is coming soon, I promise!

Vancouver!

2006-02-24T01:12:00.000-05:00

Having a blast in Vancouver so far! Just the right mix of relaxing and doing nothing-ness + awesome snowboarding + touristy stuff + shopping + partying to be enjoying my break to the fullest :D

The highlight reel so far includes: yummy indian feast for my birthday, real sashimi, huge greek lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in over 5 years, great night of dancing at Celebrities in Vancouver's gay village, awesome day at Whistler, sleeping in!, fantastic afternoon attacking the moguls at Grouse Mountain, and of course, lots and lots of Starbucks!

Still to come: BC weed, "Death by Chocolate" (dessert place - enough said ;), tour of UBC, a "beer garden", and another day at WHISTLER!

I feel like I've already had an incredibly full week and its only a bit over halfway done!! Here are some pictures from beautiful Grouse Mountain (a local mountain just outside of Vancouver) that I took this afternoon - the view was incredible, you could see the whole city - so amazing.

Break! (and TORNADOS!!)

2006-02-17T19:05:00.000-05:00

Wrote my dreaded PDE midterm today - it was long, and I don't think I got 90% - but overall I'm happy, it went well. And, best of all: it's Reading Break!!!!!!!! Headed to Vancouver tomorrow morning to spend the week with Jenny! I am pumped :)

Went to get my haircut today after class, by someone other than Gail (my wonderful hairdresser back home) for only the second time since I was 10 years old. Needless to say I was nervous (more nervous than I was for my midterm!), worried it would be horrible and I would hate it. Anyway, I went to La Coupe to a hairdresser recommended by Lia and although the style is a bit different (and a bit shorter!) then what I am used to, I like it! I think it will take a bit of getting used to catching glimpses of myself in the mirror but overall, I am happy with it, which is a huge relief ;)

Big news of the week: yesterday afternoon we had our first Tornado Chasing meeting! Our trip is CONFIRMED!!! We are headed to Tornado Alley May 17-28!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hearing all the details yesterday made me unbelievably excited - I am in disbelief that this is even going to happen! I am going to chase tornados!!! And for sure see some insane weather along the way! Its going to be unreal... eeeee!!!!!! (I plan on taking lots and lots of pictures - I'm getting a digital camera for my birthday from my mommy ;) - so you guys can share this crazy experience!)

Ok... i need to do laundry and stop procrastinating - must pack, my flight goes at 11am tomorrow which means I need to leave here fairly early tomorrow morning... Vancouver here I come!!!

My first all-nighter ever!

2006-02-07T19:12:00.000-05:00

So Sunday night I pulled my first all-nighter ever - sure I've been up late working before, even 'til 4 or 5am, but I have never actually stayed up all night, as in not going to bed at all. Its seems like one of those university experiences everyone should have at some point, so maybe it wasn't so bad - but let me tell you, realizing you've spent your entire night, more than the 8 hours you normally sleep, working on math is depressing. But my PDE assignment got done and handed in, and when I arrived at my 9:30am Synoptic class we got an extension on that assignment 'til Wed so it all ends well :) Somehow I survived my classes and then came home and slept. for a long time. It was possibly the most wonderful nap ever ;)

In other news, less than two weeks 'til break!!!!! I cannot wait to get on that plane to Vancouver! I'm so excited to see Jenny and get to peek into her life in Vancouver; meet her friends, see her apartment, have her show me her city... And of course, I can't wait to spend some time at WHISTLER!!!!!!!! (That reminds me, I need to go and get my board sharpened...)

Anyway, not much else going on - too much work and too much procrastination as usual ;) I should get back to work...

Mark that X!

2006-01-23T13:48:00.000-05:00

Have you voted??

I just did!

Now all that is left is to wait... and do homework in front of the Election coverage tonight :)

Time for an update!

2006-01-22T19:13:00.000-05:00

Well its been awhile since I last posted... somehow I just haven't had the urge to blog the last little while, not really sure why, I guess I've just been busy with other things/lazy ;)

The semester has started. really started. Last week the work began and I don't expect it'll let up at any point soon, instead midterms will come and it will just get worse... but hey, such is school. In terms of my classes for this semester, they are pretty good though I don't think quite as good as last semester, but we'll see. Synoptic is pretty much my favourite class (I mean I can't count Science of Storms since I have yet to attend even 1 lecture... lol) though my prof has an unnerving trick of calling on people for answers randomly and fankly, I fear for my life at 9:30am sometimes and that is entirely too much for so early in the day... just kidding - mildly - it really is a bit unsettling, I guess I had better just pay very close attention :) My PDE prof doesn't speak English, assigns huge assignments every week and already hates us for talking in class so that is going to be a winner of class, I can tell already ;)

Otherwise, my life has been rather uneventful, which isn't a bad thing :) I can't believe that is the last semester for a large majority of the people I have come to know as friends and integral parts of my life at McGill... I'm still not ready to let them go so I'm going to put off thinking about that for a few more months ;)

In other news, I am currently fostering two adorable 4-month old kittens for Sphinx - Jack and Jill. They are all black, full of energy and affection and get into no end of mischief :) I love them already - good thing I know I can't keep them... I spent a large portion of last week Sunday just cuddling on my bed with them: yes, another procrastination method is born! lol. Audrey has even begun to enjoy them and watching them all play is a never ending source of amusement for me :D

Somehow its 7:30 on Sunday night right now and I'm marvelling at where my weekend has gone - I had much too much fun for my own good this weekend (not ;) however, very little work has been accomplished.... oh well.

What I learned this weekend: playing Snakes and Ladders and Clue with a bunch of drunk people while sober is beyond hilarious, trust me ;) hahaha

Tomorrow is Election Day. Please, please, please don't let Stephan Harper get a government... though it looks like he probably will... i might cry.

Anyway, thats the end of my random collection of thoughts for now... Oh, except - I was going to make myself a really nice dinner tonight as Kat and I usually do on Sundays but I'm feeling quite lazy and might just have pizza ;) lol.

A Tribute to ABSOLUT Olympics: Science Carnival 2006!

2006-01-12T23:33:00.000-05:00

Holidays are over... Carnival has ended... and I started class on Monday (reluctantly ;). Reality has officially taken over... But boy, was it a great break and a fantastic Carnival!!!

Carnival went so amazing - better than I could have imagined. Everything went off pretty much without any problems and people definitely enjoyed themselves :D In true SUS Carnival Style, much beer was consumed and much debauchery engaged in (I cannot even count the number of hickies I saw on people's necks throughout the 4 days - lol).

(Beer and debauchery... lol)

Congrats to Sloppy Seconds, defending champs that proved themselves to once again deserve the Gold Medal! Also, huge congrats to Team Shitstorm, a virgin team that really showed they had what it took to be on the Carnival podium and earned the Silver this year (with much chanting of 'NEXT YEAR, NEXT YEAR' ... watch out Sloppy Seconds, you've got some competition! ;) Both teams cracked me up beyond belief all week with their antics... I love Carnival.

Sloppy Seconds singing about defending their 'last year's victory'

Shitstorm showing off all the beer they've already drunk about 30min into the Closing Ceremonies 5 a 7

Of course, none of this would've happened without all the 2006 Coordinators (lots of hard work - and beer - went into the planning, rest assured ;) Mike, Dena, Jeff, Joce, Tush, Gen, Joanna, Hussein and Hash -- it was a privilege working with all of you. We did it! In fact, we did a damn fine job of it -- and had a hell of a good time in the process :D I love you guys.

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Bitches!"

The coordinators celebrating the end of Carnival!! [where are Joanna and Jeff??]

And so ends my carnival tribute... can't wait to do it again next year!!!!!!!!

A lovely visit :)

2005-12-30T16:59:00.000-05:00

My visit home ends today... headed back to Montreal late tonight. I'm sad to go, it has been a truly lovely vacation at home - didn't quite see everyone I had hoped to catch up with but spent lots of quality time relaxing with my family :) My dad and I played countless hours of Myst V, chilled with my brother and his girlfriend (who is home for the holidays from Ghana where she is spending a year abroad), shopped, baked and chatted with my mommy, and spent many relaxing evenings with someone delightfully huggable ;) -- a perfect Christmas vacation.

Flying back tonight and will be getting right back in the swing of all things Carnival: there is still lots to do before it kicks off Jan. 4. I can't wait - its going to be sooo much fun!!

I can't believe break is over already... time flies when you are enjoying yourself, eh?
Hope you guys all had fantastic breaks - see you Montrealers soon!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

2005-12-25T15:50:00.000-05:00

Hope you are all having as wonderful a day as I am - Santa spoiled me hugely this morning and am thoroughly enjoying relaxing with the family and preparing Christmas dinner this afternoon :) Tonight our Christmas 'family' - the Ashfields - will come over and share in the yummy turkey dinner and some after dinner silliness: I can't wait.

Much love to all of you!

It is so lovely to be home :)

2005-12-20T20:03:00.002-05:00

Another exam period is over!!! :D

Landed in Hamilton last night around 5:30 (thanks to a certain someone for making the drive to pick me up ;) and spent a lovely evening enjoying being home. Drove to TO with Chris and Matt to pick up Jenny Brook at the airport later in the evening and had an interesting drive catching up (though Matt and I had an extensive discussion on ODE's for which Chris made fun of us - lol) - it was nice to have company on the drive, I really dont like driving at night -- thanks so much, guys! Spent the rest of the night relaxing on the couch, it was lovely.

Slept in today 'til a ridiculous hour and enjoyed every minute of it ;) Then I did errands, had my optometrist's appointment and spent the evening being crafty with my mommy in front of the fire ;) I love the holidays. About to go cozy up on the couch with someone huggable and movie: wish I had a month of Christmas vacation!

Hope you all have wonderful holidays -- don't know how often I'll be blogging so Merry Christmas everyone!!

I LOVE SNOW!

2005-12-16T10:08:00.000-05:00

It seems like my last few posts have been overly full of CAPITALS and happy thoughts, but I can't contain myself this morning:

THERE IS A FOOT OF SNOW OUTSIDE THIS MORNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I want to go snowboarding soooooooooo bad... but I'll have to settle for tramping around in the beautiful winter wonderland ;)

I LOVE THE SNOW!!!

[I promise this is the last of these HAPPY posts for awhile (or at least until I get home for Christmas ;)]

More happiness ;)

2005-12-14T18:16:00.000-05:00

I AM DONE!!! (at least all the exams that matter - I don't plan on studying for logic on Monday seeing as I am taking it Pass/Fail)

It was so unbelievably nice to go out and party last night and then stay in bed today 'til 2pm!!! Speaking of partying, went out with a bunch of the AOS people last night and had a blast! We haven't all partied together before, and it was good times. Dinner at l'Academie and then drinks and dancing at Au Diable Vert on St. Denis - a very fun evening. Its fun to see people you see everyday in an academic setting letting loose and having fun - I enjoyed myself. (Check out the photos here ;)

In other exciting news: I AM GOING TO VANCOUVER FOR READING BREAK!!! I've been planning to go and visit Jenny Brook for awhile and its finally going to work out this year - I booked my flight this afternoon!! Air Canada has been having some sort of seat sale and I got it for $156 each way, which is amazing. So excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are going to have an awesome time partying in Vancouver and snowboarding at WHISTLER!! :D woot!

Also, only 5 more days 'til Christmas break!!

HAPPINESS

2005-12-12T22:19:00.000-05:00

Although I am stuck here at my desk desperately trying to force myself to learn the rest of my dynamics course by tomorrow at 2pm (not a happy time) -- here are some happy thoughts (some of which the word happy barely does justice):

- Chocolate flavoured coffee is divine (esp when studying)

- SNOW! (Also, a possible snowstorm coming our way next weekend!)

- This time tomorrow I will partying and this semester's exam crunch will be long forgotten!

- This time next week I will be HOME!!!

- I am firm believer that life generally works out the way its supposed to (call it fate or destiny or whatever) and today some absolutely fantastic news confirmed this: I'm sooooo happy for you, Kat! :D

[ok... back to work...bah]

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!

2005-12-09T10:13:00.000-05:00

What a gift of a day :)

I woke up about 5min ago, knowing I really had to get out of bed and do a final review for my Climate Dynamics exam this afternoon... so I stand up, open my bedroom curtains and what do I see?! SNOW!!! And lots of it!!! (Well more than we've seen in a while ;) There is already at least 5cm on the ground and its still falling!!!! A goregous winter wonderland outside. I cannot wait to go out and walk in it!!

Today is going to be good - the snow told me so ;)

One course down...

2005-12-07T17:46:00.000-05:00

ONE DOWN! (Only 3 more to go...)

Synoptic went well today - there were a few things I wasn't sure about, but overall I think I did well, which is good.

Bad news, really don't feel like starting to study for Climate (my exam on Friday). But I have to, 'cause I haven't even opened that book yet and my midterm mark wasn't stellar so I need a strong final exam. Bah. bah. bah.

But, lest I forget: ONE DONE! [And only 12 more days 'til Christmas Break!!!]

The "weather girls"

2005-12-05T19:12:00.000-05:00

Annie and I after our presentation in our Weather Briefing class - we played up the 'weather girl' thing to the max, it was fantastic.

[And, no, you still can't ask me if I'm studying to be a "weather girl" without consequences! ;)]

And classes are over!

2005-12-03T16:51:00.000-05:00

[Only 1 more paper, a take-home and 4 finals to go...]

I handed my synoptic term paper in on Friday, and boy did that feel good! Not only is it done, finally - after many, many hours and late nights this past week - but, I felt really good about. I know I did a good job , and that is a great feeling ;)

Kat and I took the night off studying yesterday to celebrate surviving an insane final week of the semester: a lovely dinner, insane amounts of TV, a bottle of wine and late-night chocolate cake may or may not have been involved ;) I love my roommate, she is the best - I can't imagine living with anyone else.

Philosophical physics analogy of the day: Relationships are like the interference of two sine waves - we are all looking for that other perfectly in phase sine wave to interfere constructively with and make a larger, more magnificant wave, taking us both to the next level... if the waves are even a little out of phase, that maximum constructive interference (if it occurs) is only fleeting and won't last - and so, we keep looking...

Naps are beautiful things.

2005-12-01T15:34:00.000-05:00

(Especially at a time of year when sleep is at a premium :)

Story of my day:

I was up late working my paper last night (along with another delightful distraction) and so didn't really get much sleep last night (this time of the semester I know I wasn't the only one!).

My alarm goes off much too early this morning. I consider not getting up. But I have to go down for my one class of the day, my assignment is due. I finally drag my ass out of bed after pressing the snooze button a few too many times - have a bit of headache and can feel a cold coming on - great. just what i need right now. I rush around to get ready and end up leaving my apartment about running about 5 min late, pretty good all things considered.

I arrive at the metro station, happily dont have to wait too long for the orange line and am on my way. Arrive at Berri-UQAM, rush down to the green line, only to find one has just left - I really hate it when that happens! The tv screens say 5min 'til the next one and its 11:21, I will just make it to class, probably 1-2min late. I sit down against the wall, I'm too tired to stand for 5min. As I watch the advertisments on the giant tv I become aware that people around me are getting restless and suddenly I become aware of that lovely banner on the bottom of the MetroVision TV: "Arretment sur la ligne verte cause par un personne sur la voie. Reprendement de service a 11h45" . . . BAH! Some idiot is on the tracks and they have shut down the green line for probably the next 20-30min or so. I debate my options and decide the best shot at getting to class resonably on time is to leave the metro station and walk up to Sherbrooke and hope to catch the 24.

So I put on my jacket and trudge up the many stairs to outside. Did you know its uphill to Sherbrooke down by Berri? Well it is. It took me longer than I thought it would to walk and now I'm really hoping a bus will be there. I cross Sherbrooke and look east hopefully, no bus. I start walking and what do I see two blocks ahead of me? The 24 bus. Argh! I'm never going to catch it - but I start running anyway because it is caught in traffic, and just maybe luck will be with me. Needless to say a few blocks later I am out of breath, even more disguuntled and am still not on the bus.

I begin walking from St. Denis to McGill, 11:30. I know it will probaby take me at least 15-20min and my class starts in 5... I finally show up to class just before 11:55 (with two other poor souls who got stuck on the metro!) sweaty and unimpressed. I half listen to the prof, wishing I'd just stayed in bed... I pass in my assighment and head for home, dreading getting back to work and finishing this paper.

I arrive at home (after a few stops - errands and such) and decide the only cure for my headache, bad mood and exhaustion is a nap. Best idea I have had all day :D

I climbed into bed and slept soundly for a simply heavenly 1.5 hours and now I feel like a whole new person :D Recharged and ready to finish this paper :)

Moral of the story: Never underestimate the power of a good nap!

More proof of my procrastination theory:

2005-11-29T22:05:00.000-05:00

No less than 3 people online right now have MSN names which involve procrastination in some form - lol.

"Why am I so good at procrastinating?"
"Procrastination at its finest"
"Trying to climb back on the road to productivity"

At least I know I'm not the only one! :)
(Although I am being fairly successful on the moment with my paper, only small procastination breaks ;)

ATTN: Music lovers --> coolest thing ever!

2005-11-25T15:55:00.000-05:00

A group of musicians and technologists started The Music Genome Project to analyze music and break it songs into hundreds of musical attributes or "genes". Read more about this fascinating project here - its so interesting. In any case, on the demands of their friends they created Pandora, an interactive radio station-esque music player in which you enter a song or artist you love and through the Music Genome Project results, Pandora creates a 'radio' station or playlist of similar artists/songs that it thinks you will like based on the "genes" of your input song/artist.

It is the coolest thing ever - honestly. It will generate a playlist of well known and unknown artists alike - so cool for discovering new music. It is fast becoming my favourite thing to listen to while studying (yes, studying - I occasionally stop procrastinating ;) Check it out, I promise you will not be disappointed.

[Thanks to Adam for passing it on to me!]

More fun procrastination :D

2005-11-24T20:34:00.000-05:00

Got this off a friend's blog - thought it was cute. What kind of Kisser are you? lol. ;)

You're an Expert Kisser

You're a kissing pro, but it's all about quality and not quantity
You've perfected your kissing technique and can knock anyone's socks off
And you're adaptable, giving each partner what they crave
When it comes down to it, your kisses are truly unforgettable

What Kind of Kisser Are You?

Another new recruit:

2005-11-24T12:49:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the blog world Krista!!

Yay for lots a new blogs to read whilst procrastinating (which as you can tell by last night's entries, I have been doing a lot of).

Actually I think I have discovered a new mathematical formula: magnitude of procrastination is directly proportional to the magnitude of work to be done.

--> Case in point:

-Say the the amount of visits to my blog per day is directly proportional to the amount of people wasting time

-And the number of visits has been steadily increasing as the end of the semester nears.

-It is also true that the nearing of the end of the semester means more work to be done.

-It then follows that the amount of visits to my blog is directly propotional to the amount of procrastination on the part of you guys! lol.

Ok, I'm done ;) Off to dynamics... bah. [Only 2 more dynamics classes left -YAY!]

Random

2005-11-23T21:18:00.000-05:00

Another great way to procastinate here (found this whilst procrastinating on someone else's blog - lol)

What should our undergraduate education really be teaching us?

2005-11-23T20:51:00.000-05:00

I swear I have ADD... I really do: end-of-semester-too-much-work-to-do induced ADD. I cannot focus on anything. Hence, I am here blogging when I am supposed to copying out notes from Tuesday's Synoptic class...

In any case, you are reading this right now, which probably means you are also procrastinating - lol. So here's something interesting to procastinate away a few minutes reading:

Some pretty important people in North American higher education are currently pondering the question "What should undergraduates leave college knowing?" and you can read a selection of their answers here at Slate Magazine (link courtesy of Padg).

Its a very interesting question when you think about it, with such a breadth of possible responses. I personally enjoyed Prof. Alison Gropnik's the most, the thought of a science (or any subject for that matter) education like that really blows my mind - imagine how much more fun that would be? Reading these answers almost makes me want to become a prof just so I can help to change the undergraduate experience; there really is so much room for improvement.

I am obviously pondering this question and reading those responses from a science perspective, which is only one small part of undergraduate universe. From the perspective of an arts faculty where most of the students will not end up using knowledge learned directly in their careers, the question takes on an even more open-ended nature. Obviously the easy (but far from satisfactory, I think) answer to this question from a science, engineering, business, etc. faculty's perspective is that an undergraduate leave with all the necessary knowledge to apply the concepts taught to real world scenarios in their future careers - though, I personally think all undergraduate education should be so much more than this even if that is the end result. A another related question, is, I think, shouldn't every undergraduate, regardless of program of study, leave knowing some of the same things? Shouldn't science students leave university better writers than they entered? Shouldn't an English major be exposed to logic and the scientific process? Shouldn't we all be better problem-solvers/communicators/thinkers after 4 years of school? What do you think?

Ok... enough rambling for tonight... must work!

CRUNCH TIME!!

2005-11-20T21:22:00.000-05:00

How is it that no matter what I always seem to end up with soooo much work right at the end of the semester? I swear I stay on top of things (for the most part ;) - I go to lectures, I do my assignments, I keep up with the course material and yet, I never fail to be facing a mountain of work in the last two weeks of the semester - why is that?!? I think all the profs conspire to dump work on us just as we are going into the home stretch and trying to finish term papers. bah. To top it off, after I manage to get all this work done (I can't see how I will now, but it always does seem to get done) there is no well-deserved break awaiting me, nope. instead its boom. straight into finals. woo hoo. The only plus side to nearing the end of the semester: ONLY 29 DAYS 'TIL CHRISTMAS BREAK!!!!

On a happier note: welcome to the blog-0-sphere, Gabe! (You will find blogging a lovely aid to procrastination during finals ;)

In other news, this past week I:

- Stayed up way past my bedtime several nights in succession -- isn't it lovely to be enjoying yourself so much you cease to care what time it is?

- Saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! It was excellent!! I mean, they understandably had to cut a lot from the book to condense the movie down to 2.5 hours, but in general they did a really great job of this.
>Disappointments: The 1st task, Dumbledore's outburst at Harry after the Champion's Selection
>Highlights: The 3rd task, the graveyard scene

- Placed second in the first round of our forecasting competition!

- Went to Jenna's gallery show -- all I have to say: wow. Jenna, you are amazingly talented and I'm glad your show was such a huge success!

Ok, enough procrastinating for tonight... need to get back to my Climate assignment... bah.

Oh procrastination... how I love you.

2005-11-12T17:51:00.000-05:00

Supposed to be working on my term papers... suprise, surprise I am procrastinating. Got this off a friend's blog and decided to fill it out:

15 Years Ago, I:
1. Was 7.
2. Was in Miss Brombal's grade 2 class at Ryerson Public School.
3. Took my first Jazz dance class at Meyerhoffer and loved it.
4. Fought with my brother way too much.
5. Worried a lot about whether the other kids in my class liked me.

10 Years Ago, I:
1. Was 12.
2. Had just started grade 7 at William G. Davis and thought I was very grown-up.
3. Had my first kiss (Bill McNamara! lol.)
4. Was constantly worried about being popular and had absolutely no idea who I was.
5. Discovered my love of writing (Thank-you Mrs. Bennet)

5 Years Ago, I:
1. Was 17.
2. Was in grade 12 at Preston High School and very involved with Student's Council.
3. Had just spent 3 months in France and learnt an amazing amount about myself.
4. Finally felt completely confident and comfortable with all kinds of public speaking (a goal I had set for myself in early high school) and would go on to qualify for the Ontario Debate provincials in the Spring.
5. Felt a bit adift despite all that I had going on and did a lot of soul searching about my life and my future

1 Year Ago, I:
1. Was 21 and starting my third year of my Honours Atmospheric Science degree at McGill University.
2. Was dating Duncan, going on three years.
3. Discovered my love for science writing.
4. Started reconnecting with an old friend and realized how much I missed our friendship.
5. Was panicking about my lack of a future plan for after undergrad.

Last Month, I:
1. Was writing midterms. (yuk.)
2. Flew home for Thanksgiving and had a great weekend with my family - I love them.
3. Found out we might be going tornado chasing this summer with a prof from my dept! (and told everyone I knew)
4. Applied to coordinate Science Carnival and was chosen!
5. Moved on. really. And was incredibly thankful for my wonderful friends in the process :)

Yesterday, I:
1. Slept in instead of going to the gym in the morning.
2. Had a Science Carnival meeting.
3. Went out for an enjoyable dinner with a friend I haven't seen in awhile.
4. Drank too much wine ;)
5. Hung out with Kat and her mom and talked about life.

Today, I:
1. Was working on my term papers, but got distracted ;)
2. Had breakfast with Chase.
3. Chatted with my mommy.
4. Will go out dancing at Foufs tonight with Jenna and Gabe!!!! (Haven't been in forever!)
5. Spent too much time filling out this survey.

Tomorrow, I will:
1. Sleep in (see #4 above).
2. Work on my term papers!
3. Watch Grey's Anatomy.
4. Call Whitney and have our weekly chat.
5. Do laundry.

I now tag (meaning you have to fill this out on your blog):
1. Tara
2. Jenna

Hey! Its Tuesday!

2005-11-08T15:59:00.000-05:00

(That was for you, Scott - lol.) So I've been told I don't post enough to keep up with people's ever-growing need to procrastinate... sorry. I guess what it comes down to is I need to procrastinate more myself and as such, post more nonsense on this site - I will try my best :)

In order to make this entry at little more interesting than just letting you all know that today is in fact Tuesday (though indeed it is), here are some random ramblings:

- Lunches with old friends are amazing, even if they are at a plastic table in Subway ;)

- the Christmas lights are up on Ave Mont Royal already! Its still like two months away!! However, I'm not really complaining because 1) I like Christmas and 2) lights on street are pretty ;)

- I have found a new way to waste time, courtesy of Yahoo! Games (add this to Text Twist, Bookworm and Flip Words - all fabulous): Typer Shark! This is a typing game in which you have to type words on sharks as quickly as possible to keep them from eating you. Yes, it is as fun as it sounds :) Finally, all those years my mom forced me to practice typing are coming in handy! Yay!

- The Upside of Anger with Kevin Costner is a very, very strange movie. (That is the last time we try to rent quality movies, eh Tara? lol)

- My Climate Dynamics prof said he's handing back our midterms on Wednesday - I dont' want my mark. Maybe if I just don't go...?

- ONLY 10 MORE DAYS UNTIL HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE PREMIERE!!

Ok, enough procrastinating - until next time...

I love sleep :)

2005-11-05T22:15:00.000-05:00

So I may or may not have slept in 'til past 3pm this afternoon... and was still in my pjs when it got dark outside... ;)

However, it was a busy, busy week and I definitely deserved the sleep :) Spent most of my week studying for my Climate Dynamics midterm on Friday morning - there was just sooo much information to know it was overwhelming. We had already covered like 15 chapters and 3/4 of our textbook! The midterm went ok - 3 of the 4 questions were easy but one of the problems was insane, so we'll see... In any case, enough school - I'm not doing anything productive this weekend and its going to be great! :D

To kick off the weekend of fun went to see Gabe and Scott's show at La Sala Rossa last night. Had a really great time, got to meet some really nice friends of Gabe's from back home, and just generally enjoyed my evening :) I don't know why, but its always crazy to me to see people I know up on stage rocking out, making great music and having so much fun - I've seen so many bands, so many concerts, and here are friends of mine up on the stage, preforming - I love it :D

Since I may or may not have been in my pjs until a ridiculous time this evening, haven't done much today apart from watching tv and having a nice chat with Whitney - its been wonderful :) Headed out with Carling and some of her friends who are up visiting tonight... and the weekend of fun continues!!

Great news day!!!

2005-10-25T17:47:00.000-04:00

Yeah! Ever just have those days just full of great news? I just had one, and it was awesome :)

Best pieces of news:

1.) I not only passed my horrid dynamics midterm -- I GOT 83%!!!! (the average was 66%) I don't know how I managed it, but I'm very proud of myself :)

2.) I'm was chosen to be one of the SUS Science Carnival 2006 coordinators! I'm so excited!! [Carnival for those of you who don't know is like a miniFrosh the first week of January, but for all the undergrads] Its going to be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun :D

I'm in a good mood.

PARTY!

2005-10-24T19:03:00.000-04:00

--> For all you Montrealers out there:

Come celebrate the end of midterms at our Halloween-ish party on Saturday!

Jackie and Kat's new place:
Saturday, October 29th
9:00pm
BYOB

Don't worry - no costumes required, however, we do ask that you bring a small donation (food, change, etc.) for UNICEF.

It's BYOB and if you are feeling like more than just beer we will be making fanastic Halloween martinis (or at least fantastic martinis) -- so bring along the liquor of your choice and embrace lovely pink (or orange!) drinks :)

I'd better see you all there!!

PS: if you need our new address, call or email me and I'll give you directions.

Perspective

2005-10-18T23:27:00.000-04:00

Its about time I posted, I've meaning to - and until about an hour ago it would have been the usual narrative of my week and such but somehow now I feel all that is irrelevant. It seems sometimes an hour is all you need to lose and then gain a little perspective.

I just want to say again, I have truly amazingly incredible friends. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you guys for being my rocks, my shoulders to cry on (even virtually), my strength and my perspective: I love you.

Thanks for tonight's particular perspective Carling and Adam, you're just what I needed.

Synoptic, planes and thankfulness.

2005-10-03T22:41:00.000-04:00

I'm supposed to be studying for my Synoptic Meteorology midterm (which is this-eek!-Thursday) but I'm taking a little break... just finished my bitch of a Dynamics assignment so I deserve it :) I cannot believe midterm season is beginning already - it hardly seems like we've been in school that long but I guess it has been a month - time goes so quickly during the school year (unlike the eternity of 4 months I spent at NRC).

So, in some ways I wish Thursday wasn't so close, but in others I can't wait for it to come! I get to fly home for thanksgiving on Thursday evening :D I'm soo excited! Not only to go home, but also to get to fly and be there in 1.5 hours as opposed to 7!! yay! Air Canada just added Montreal-Hamilton so there was a special on tickets and my mommy decided to spoil me ;) Although I do have some studying to do over the Thanksgiving long weekend, its not nearly as bad as it sometimes has been for midterms the week after, so I plan on enjoying my family time mucho. I love thanksgiving - its such a great holiday really. Just to be thankful for everything, and everyone we have in our lives, what a wonderful premise for a holiday.

We have this great tradition on thanksgiving (started during our many thanksgiving weekends up at my Auntie Ann and Uncle Lou's cottage): after dinner is over (and before pumpkin pie - yum!) we go around the table one by one (and at the cottage this is sometimes many more than 10 or 15 people) and say by turn, one thing we are thankful for this year. I'm sure we are not the only ones in this world to have this thanksgiving tradition, given the spirit of the holiday, but I really enjoy it. Hearing what everyone else is thankful for, not to mention trying to think of one thing that you are especially thankful for this year, is so thought-provoking. We take so much for granted day-to-day, its really nice to have a hard think about what you are really thankful for in your life.

This year, I think I am most thankful for the unconditionalness (is that a word?) of the love, support and encouragement from my friends and family. From changing my future career plans daily, to searching for answers to tough, life-altering questions, to the little things like announcing I'm moving in on two-weeks notice, I know I can always, always count on the people I love to be there with sage advice, much needed shoulders to cry (ok, sob uncontrollably) on, and even a place to stay. Thanks to each and every one of you - I wouldn't be who I am, where I am, here today without you all. Sorry for the emotional effusivity, thanksgiving does that to me :)

So, what are you most thankful for this year?

"God made me funky"

2005-09-24T01:47:00.000-04:00

Spent a great night this evening at Le Swimming: saw Scott and Gabe's band play, hung out with some friends I haven't seen in forever, and danced like crazy with Gabe to the band which followed them, 'God made me funky' (Isn't that the best name for a band ever?). It was great night... I am slowly becoming sleepy however, so bed: here I come.

Random marvel of the day:
Isn't it great to rediscover a good friend, and upon doing so, reveal an even better friend? Its great to realize the more you get to know someone, and the more time you spend with them, the more you like them. Life is neat like that :)

It's Friday!

2005-09-16T15:55:00.000-04:00

Two weeks of school down and its the weekend again! Yay! I'm actually really enjoying my semester so far - most of my courses are so interesting. So far I haven't really cracked a book yet... that needs to change this weekend, lots of work to do - this was my last week of doing nothing, or rather, going out and doing anything but working, every night ;) But, its supposed to rain all day tomorrow so that will be good motivation to stay in and work.

However, the weekend will not be without some good times. It's Girls Night In tonight: Carling and Tara are coming over, cocktails, yummy dinner, So You Think You Can Dance... its going to be good. Then tomorrow night, dinner with Gabe, going to see his new apartment and catch up on our summers and such. Sunday night is my first game with the AOS Ultimate Frisbee team (I got guilted into it... never enough girls in our dept ;) so that should be interesting... lol. Life is good.

Ok, I'm off to the gym before the girls come up - later!

Just a few pics from the last few weeks of fun!

2005-09-06T18:41:00.000-04:00

Jenny and I partying before frosh! (yes, before -- we partied for almost a week straight :)

Me, Matt and Jenny enjoying ourselves during Matt and Chris' visit.

Chris and I at Lodge smiling for Carling's camera.

Carling and I enjoying ourselves hugely at Coco Bongos (quite drunk ;)

Back to school!

2005-09-06T18:15:00.000-04:00

Well I survived my first day of school in 8 months today - and it wasn't so bad! I'm actually really looking forward to this semester, I think its going to be good. It was sunny and beautiful today, I'm going to my first dance class in two weeks tonight (hip hop!) and then I'm headed out to hang out with a new friend I met during frosh: all in all, a good day ;)

Tomorrow is another day of first classes, and then dinner and So You Think You Can Dance with Carling! Looks like its shaping up to be a suberb first week :) I'm in a great mood and I just want to enjoy life this week!

Just a quickie.

2005-09-01T20:13:00.000-04:00

School started today (even though I didn't), so I guess summer is officially over... but since I'm not back in Montreal 'til Monday, I'm still living the summer mentality, at least for a few more days ;) Pretty busy on the moment (still): the entire extended Canadian family is in town (or arriving shortly) for my Opa's 80th birthday, so needless to say, never a dull moment!

Frosh was spectacular fun, as always - and having Jenny around was awesome. We both partied hard :) I think I am a frosh addict ;) lol.

Cedar Point was a good time - we just beat out the rain from Katrina so we were lucky. Both days were rather grey though which meant short lines = lots and lots of rides on Millenium Force!!! Still the best rollercoaster I have ever, ever ridden. by far.

Anyway, I'm actually looking forward to getting back to school Tuesday, but in the meantime have to survive this crazy family weekend ;) More to come, I promise... off to chill with the cousins.

5.5 hours sleep and up at 6:30am... can only mean one thing:

2005-08-26T07:21:00.000-04:00

FROSH STARTS TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It all begins tomorrow!

2005-08-19T23:30:00.000-04:00

So I'm sitting here relishing my last calm, lazy night for the next two weeks or more - watching bad movies on TBS, drinking lemonade and eating popcorn... Jenny Brook arrives tomorrow evening and the end of summer partying madness begins!

Today Jeff and I got together to put together the Frosh registration table schedule for the O-staff and it made me realize just how soon Frosh really is - I'm so pumped!!! Its always among the best couple party days in the whole year, and I cannot wait!! The fact that Jenny is going to be here to share in the partying makes it even better - this year's Frosh is going to rock. hard.

But even before the endless-free-beer-bad-Science-chants-screaming-until-I-lose-my-voice-dancing-all-night-long partying kicks off, Chris and Matt are coming up to visit and the four of us get to hang out and I get to be an unofficial Montreal tour guide (bike up the mountain, lunch in the old port, Infamous Tuesday night at Cafe Campus!) Basically the next week is going to be full of good times, what a way to end the summer :) [Not to mention Cedar Point the week after!!! forgive me in advance for not blogging for the next little while...]

Bottoms up - lets drink up the end of summer!!!! (And enjoy every last drop ;)

Cannot sit still.

2005-08-08T13:33:00.000-04:00

So, I'm supposed to be working on these powerpoint lecture notes for Parisa right now, but I'm having trouble sitting still for more than 5min [going back to school in a month is going to be a shock to my system!] so I'm listening to the Zeke's Gallery show from last night and blogging :)

I went to see the lovely Miss Jenna sing with Basia Bulat at Zeke's last night and it was awesome! Not only am I now in love with Basia's CD - her lyrics and music are so amazing - but hearing Jenna sing was wonderful ;) I'd heard rumours that the girl could sing, and can she ever! She was fabulous and I throughly enjoyed myself (I even took some bad pictures with Jenna's huge-ass camera ;)

Check out the live recording of the show at: http://zekesgallery.blogspot.com/2005/08/basia-bulat-and-poche-orchestra-live.html You will love it. Trust me.

Anyway, the rest of my weekend was pretty uneventful, biked quite a bit actually (quickly gaining quite a nice tan on my arms and shoulders - though the bike glove and bike short tan is less attractive... ) I did 30km on Friday, 45km on Saturday and on Sunday I made it up the mountain in 20min and 30sec!! I was proud of myself ;)

The summer seems to be slipping away so fast! Make it stop!! Although, I don't really want time to stop -- these next few weeks are going to be really fun - I just don't want my summer to end!! Besides the crazy amount of work I have to do on these lecture notes in the next two weeks, I have lots to look forward to: Jenny Brook is coming up to visit for about a week and half (including frosh!), Chris and Matt are also coming up for a visit in there right before frosh and then of course: FROSH!! I'm heading up the O-staff this year and I know it'll be an awesome 3 days as always... so much fun! And then, if that wasn't enough, Jenny and I are heading back home to meet up with my dad and brother and head off to Cedar Point for our annual rollercoaster holiday!!! I cannot wait! After that, home for bit, family reunion for my Opa's 80th birthday, and then. yes. school. I know, I say I'm dreading it, but once I get back in the groove again, I'm sure it'll be great.

Whew. Rereading all that makes me exhuasted just thinking about all the fun thats to come - I'm going to need to sleep through the first week of school just to catch up... hehehe ;)

Ok... ok.... enough procrastinating. I'm getting back to work... really!

Practically perfect in every way...

2005-07-24T22:11:00.000-04:00

This weekend was amazing :D My parents came down Friday night and brought fresh smoked salmon - Jenna, Jeff, Mom, Dad and I had a lovely feast :) Then Saturday my parents and I went out to bike the Lachine Canal/Lasalle bike path loop: 50km in 2h38! (And my bum doesn't even hurt that much today! ;) It was a beautiful ride along the canal and the St. Lawerence River and we throughly enjoyed ourselves. We had lunch on a terrace in the Old Port, simply perfect. The afternoon was filled with Lance's incredible domination of the individual time trial and his cliching, unofficially, his 7th victory. We wandered down St. Denis until we came to a Carribbean Fusion restaurant that looked yummy - and did not disappoint, dinner was fantastic. This morning we slept in, biked up the mountain and then got take-out crepes for breakfast before they left. It really was a practically perfect weekend...

And, if that wasn't enough, this afternoon Carling, Jenna, Jeff and I went to see Shakespeare in the Park - A Midsummer Night's Dream - at Parc LaFontaine and it was halerious! I enjoyed myself hugely. As if MND wasn't funny enough in its orginal form, this presentation was punctuated by the actors bursting out into popular song and the audience shouting "Woods" everytime a player said "woods" in his speech... "Just as Shakespeare meant it to be" as Jeff astutely pointed out ;) It was sooo funny. I wish I could see Shakespeare in the park every Sunday! Carling and I then went back to the new apt to barbeque hotdogs and enjoy some beer and CSI - enjoyable end to an enjoyable weekend. If I were a cat, I think I'd be purring right now... so content.

Settled in and loving it :)

2005-07-21T22:04:00.000-04:00

Sorry its been so long since I last blogged - my bruise is almost completely gone so it really has been awhile! Busy last little while actually: we moved, Lance has been taking up at least 3 hours of every day (He's going to win 7!!), Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out (I'm almost through it for the 2nd time ;) and I've been dancing 4 times a week - so needless to say, its been busy!

The move went ok, it poured with rain all day of course - I was so wet I didn't notice the rain anymore! - but other than that, it went well and we had lots of good help (Thanks to Dale, Lia, Mark and Eric! We couldn't have done it without you guys!!) The next week was filled with settling in, unpacking, getting the internet/phone reconnected, etc. It is much more fun to unpack than to pack up, let me tell you :) I throughly enjoyed getting all set-up in our new place, in fact within a week it felt so much like home I couldn't believe we'd only been here for 7 days... its also soooo much cooler on the ground floor than in the old apt - I can sleep comfortably at night even when its boiling out, its lovely.

I've been throughly enjoying this year's Tour de France - Lance is destroying his competetion and he makes it look so easy! Heading into the home stretch up 2:36 on his nearest rival with a stage win in the indivdual time trial on Saturday likely, Lance in yellow taking victory laps on the Champs-Elyssee on Sunday is coming closer and closer. What a way to retire from cycling... he is truly amazing.

Last Friday night Lara and I headed down to Indigo in Place Montreal Trust for the midnight release party of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (yes, I am a geek - and proud of it!) and despite their inability to stick to their pre-realase event schedule, we had a great time and I dove right into the newest installment on my metro ride home (with no less than 3 others in my subway car alone ;) -- I won't put any of the details here to avoid spoiling it for those of you who are less obsessed and have not finished it yet ;) but it was one of the best books yet, right up there with Book 4. So many things happened it was awesome!!!! I had to go back and reread once I'd read it because I was just in such shock at the ending I didn't believe it and I needed desperately to search for clues now that I knew what to look for (Yes, I am fired... I know ;) If you haven't read it yet - get to it, you are really missing out on the most important chapter of Harry's life thus far... incredible. Anyway, I could go on and on... hehehe ;) but I'm going to ladies night at Foufs with Carly, Jenna and some other friends to party onCarly's last night in the M.point for the summer - gotta go get ready!

Bruised

2005-07-08T21:36:00.001-04:00

So had my first Montreal biking adventure today in that I got knocked off my bike by a car. It was fun. not. I was biking down Mont Royal on the way to our new apt to paint when all of a sudden there was a car door right in front of me. Yes, someone opened their car door without looking for me riding along and next thing I knew I was over my handles bars on the pavement. loads of fun. My arm hurt quite a bit since thats what basically bore the brunt of the collision but thankfully I was not going very fast so it is not broken. Just bruised. Really bruised. Like the whole upper part of my right arm is slowly turning a frightfully attractive purple colour... and I'm sure that is only the beginning of the technicolour show it will put on over the next few weeks... its going to look so cute in a sundress ;) Other than that, one of my fingers got jammed in my brakes and is now swollen (its hard to type with two fingers taped together by the way ;) - not going to be so good for moving tomorrow... but what can you do.

On a brighter note, yes, we are moving tomorrow!! I finished painting my new bedroom today (a delightful light yellow) though it did take rather a longer than it should have given my arm and finger distress... hehehe. So will be without phone, internet and worst of all the Tour! all weekend... however, I do have my cell, so feel free to call that :D Ok, enough procrastinating, back to packing!

Packing and nostalgia

2005-07-06T00:45:00.000-04:00

Had a great long weekend at home :) I love the feeling of coming home and finding that nothing (really) has changed - my parents are as goofy as they have ever been, we all get over excited about watching the day's Tour stage (Yes, the Tour de France started on Saturday - GO LANCE!) , tucking my mom in and having girl chats never gets old and they are always there to support me, no matter what - I love my parents. Saw some friends this weekend too, it was so great to spend some time with a few people I haven't seen in awhile -- it never ceases to amaze me how you can not see someone for so long but when you are with them it feels like there was never any separation...

The reality of our move really hit me yesterday when I met Kat at the new apartment after work - its so empty! And so in need of some paint... especially my room, which happily if free of the leopard print wallpaper (Yay!) but has the most horrible paint job ever... dark blue with purple trim and on top of that it is the worst job of painting I've ever seen, super sloppy and uneven... Need to pick a new colour for it - any suggestions? Did a bunch of packing last night and this afternoon, my room is pretty much done - it seems so weird all empty of everything though... the pile of boxes downstairs next to the TV is growing steadily and I'm so not looking forward to all the lifting, loading and unloading that Saturday will bring... at least the new place is on the ground floor! Packing up makes me all nostalgic because I keep on coming across little memories tucked away as I clean up - today I spent like a half an hour reading high school english essays as I was going through old school books - lol! I also came across some poetry I'd written at some point in high school - some of it was pretty good and some of it pretty terrible but I always remember exactly how I was feeling when I wrote it upon rereading so it was a nice trip down memory lane... I thought maybe I'd post one, but on second thought, they really are too close to my heart (no matter how bad they may be ;) to share with cyberspace... I think I'll take my nostalgic thoughts to bed now - goodnight!

Otto Maass was closed today!

2005-06-27T18:16:00.000-04:00

So, I had a lovely breakfast with Jenna this morning (which only cost $3.40!) and then I got on the bus towards campus, fully intending on putting in a pretty full day at work (seeing as how I'm taking Thursday off...) However, I arrived at Otto Maass only to find the doors all locked! The building was still closed for the St. Jean Baptiste long weekend! (even though the actual holiday was Friday) Woohoo! I can't go to work. such a shame. So, I did the only thing possibly left to do, I went over to Burnside to rescue Carling from her Matlab code and made her come shopping with me ;) The inviting cool of the air-conditioned mall called to me, so off we went. No good can come of this, you think -- yes, I bought a really cute dress and some new heeled sandals (all for under $70 though, so I did alright ;) and Carling, very restraintfully bought nothing, though I have the sneaking suspicion she will be going back to Urban Outfitters sometime this week to get the forbidden skirt... hehehe ;)

On another note, its been oppressively hot here the last few days, and today is no exception (38 with the humidity!) - I really wish I had a pool, or at least a/c. I drank a litre of water on my way home from campus today, that is how hot it is. I hate that I'm sitting here right now sweating, its disgusting. Anyway, at least the dance studio downtown finally got their a/c installed so I will manage to make it through jazz tech tonight without collapsing ;)

Headed home this weekend - can't wait! My mom and I are going to make the curtains for our new apartment and she's going to teach me so I'll be able to do it myself next time - saves sooo much money! My grandparents are also going to be down for part of this weekend, it will be good to see them, and my mom makes even yummier meals when they are in town ;) Also I'm taking a four day weekend - yay!

Audrey just ate a moth. gross.

The page turns over and so ends another chapter...

2005-06-22T10:17:00.000-04:00

So, for those of you who don't know yet, Duncan and I are no longer together. We've had a fantastic three and half years together and I will miss some things very dearly - he will always hold a special place in my heart - but I really feel it will be for the best, even if it hurts right now. I don't really want to talk about it all here - just wanted you guys to know that my life is irreversibly changed. However, as the page turns ending another chapter, it can't help but to begin a new one, blank and ready to be written on...

White wine and tater-tots

2005-06-14T22:33:00.000-04:00

That's what I'm indulging in currently :) Hip hop tonight was fabulous, I didn't really want to go because I was feeling really shitty, but I'm so glad I did - it was totally what I needed. So my life seems supremely screwed up right now, I'm not going to go in to the details here, but keep me in your thoughts as I try to figure out my life... ok, I'm going to call Whitney and chat now - need some roomie-virtual-shoulder-to-cry on time ;)

So hot.

2005-06-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

It is so unbelievably hot and muggy here right now, yes, even at midnight. I cannot sleep it is so hot, even though I have a fan blowing full blast on me... makes me wish for the chilliness of my parents a/c that I found so cold this past weekend ;) Anyway, can't sleep so I'm blogging. We are supposed to get rain tomorrow, and for once I really hope it comes, this heat needs to end, it saps me of all energy to do anything productive.

I went by Krista and Josh's new place on Saturday night - it is so nice! It was wonderful to see them and to chat with Krista (we spent the whole night talking a mile a minute, as always -- the boys got a movie ;) I have a bunch of bug bites though 'cause we thought we'd go for a walk whilst chatting - another thing I don't miss living in Montreal, hate bugs.

I'm listening to Mariah Carey's Daydream album right now--yes, go ahead and laugh at me (i am laughing at myself :)--it just brings back so many memories of junior high, so funny (I even still know all the words... weird how some things never seem to leave your brain, eh?) "Sweet, sweet fantasy, baby... " lol :D

Ok, well I think I'm going to try to go bed again and maybe I'll have more success this time... night night.

On the road again :)

2005-06-09T11:48:00.000-04:00

Headed home for the weekend today!! Can't wait to see Duncan and spend some time with my parents (also yummy yummy home cooked meals - roti and bbq lamb!). My train leaves in about 4 hours and I haven't started packing yet, but what else is new ;) Anyway, I'm sure it'll be a full, full weekend as always - to all the Montrealers, enjoy Grand Prix weekend!

Gone.

2005-06-04T14:10:00.000-04:00

So Whitney just moved out. She's gone, basically forever, since we'll never live together again.

Its the weirdest feeling, losing a roommate. 'Cause its hard to leave friends or have friends leave, but you don't spend most of the hours of your week with them, you know? Like Whitney and I have basically spent more time together in the last two years than I've spent with anyone else... we survived crazy Scott and Chris and the unbelivable uncomfortableness of their last few months in the apartment, we've spent an insane amount of hours lying on her bed watching Alias when we should have been studying for finals, we've been silly together, sad together, drunk together (many times :)... we've gone from perfect strangers to great friends in two years and now she's moving to New York and who knows when I'll see her next.

I guess its a warm-up for when everyone goes their seperate ways next year after (most) people graduate... makes me sad, but I guess our university years can't last forever... But then I think of the few high school friends that I'm still in touch with regardless of where they've gone and its comforting, at least real friends are never truly lost - real, great friends remain even if they see each other only once a year, or less, and that makes me happy, and thankful. Thankful for friends, thankful that I am lucky enough to have met a bunch of people that it will hurt my heart to leave, thankful that I was lucky enough to have a roommate who I was sad to see go.

Sorry for being so emotional today - its beautiful outside and I think I'm going to put these thoughts away and go enjoy it (Festivale Modiale de la Biere tonight!) - just wanted to share.

Whitney: I'll miss you, I really will. Enjoy New York but please come back and visit!! You've been a wonderful roomie - glad I answered that ad two years ago. Thanks for all the good times :) (Ok, I'm crying again... enough.)

Oh, the roomies :)

Back from the honeymoon...

2005-05-18T19:42:00.000-04:00

Krista and I were chatting on msn today and she sent me some of the wedding photos: they are so pretty! Anyway, thought I'd share this one with you guys - I think its my favourite.

Awww... the newlyweds :)

mmmm... black bean soup :)

2005-05-16T18:25:00.000-04:00

So I am cooking a big pot of yummy yummy black bean soup right now (its simmering currently) and somehow it made me think of blogging (don't ask me how my mind works...) I am getting back in to the Montreal routine, and loving it (despite the 2 days last week - the 2 most beautiful days in the last several weeks, I might add - that I was sick sick in my bed). Went out to Biftek and Jupiter on Saturday night, sooo good to be dancing in my city again! Carling and I are making plans to do the infamous Tuesday at Cafe Campus tomorrow (if we can stand the lineup) and frankly, I can't wait. I just freakin' love this city, especially when I have no especial work to do :) Summer in Montreal just can't be topped; I feel bad for all those stuck 'summering' somewhere else... it just isn't the same. (Had to go stir the soup)

Anyway, its May 24 this weekend and my Duncan is coming to visit! He arrives Thursday night (I can't believe he's actually taking Friday off school ! so unlike him... hehehe) and we are going to spend a wonderfully low-key weekend just enjoying each other's company - and if he gets his way, seeing the new Star Wars... boys are alike, aren't they ? ;)

I really don't have too much news; I am enjoying my new bicycle (I even made it up the mountain yesterday!), wish the weather would be a bit more summery so I can show off my newly painted toenails (bright pink!) and I offically hate McGill Accounting, they are the frustration of my week in the lab (really beyond stupid). On that note, I really need to go stir the soup again, so... bye!

I do not feel old enough to have a married friend...

2005-05-08T23:08:00.000-04:00

So I went to my first wedding this weekend - the first one of my friends (my age!) to get married, that is - and it was so strange! Krista looked so beautiful and so happy, but I could hardly believe it was really happening: she was really getting married! I nearly started crying when she walked into the church for the ceremony, don't really know why, something in me just melted seeing her in her gorgeous white wedding dress with a huge smile on her face as she walked down the aisle towards Josh.... I'm such a sap. The whole thing was, as Krista succinctly put it, surreal. I still can't believe she is a married woman - a wife! I am so happy for them, they are an amazing couple and I wish them nothing but happiness for their future together.

Congratulations Krista and Josh! Enjoy the honeymoon :)

Best surprise ever!

2005-04-25T10:37:00.000-04:00

Guess who just showed up in my courtyard yesterday with flowers?!?!?!!! Yep, Duncan! I cannot believe he managed to keep his coming down to surprise me a secret all last week!!! It turns out his boss also gave him the last week off and he decided to come down to Montreal and surprise me! Well, it worked. I was definately surprised!! It was almost better than knowing he was coming in that for the first few hours I still could not believe he was actually here! I'm such a geek, but I have the best boyfriend in the whole world: I love you, baby :)

THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST WEEK! :D

Change is good.

2005-04-24T13:16:00.000-04:00

In view of the end of my adventures at the Flight Research Lab, I decided a change in my blog's styling was needed. So here it is :)

Also, yesterday, after a bit of over-breakfast-angst at Avenue (so yummy!), Kat and I decided we'd found our new apartment!! We are officially moving to a gorgeous 5 1/2 at St. Hubert and Bienville as of July 1st! It had almost everything we wanted in an apartment (which was quite a bit), is in the area we wanted and is literally a 2min walk to the Mont Royal metro. It is so open and well set-up - I can totally see us making it our own. I'm very excited to have a place to call ours - and no more apt hunting!! What will be my bedroom has very interesting leopard print wallpaper on two of the walls, but I quite enjoy it and I think it will grow on me ;) The kitchen is huge and beautiful - I cannot wait to cook in it!

Change feels good, it really does.

Finally.

2005-04-22T09:08:00.000-04:00

TODAY IS MY LAST DAY OF WORK!!!!!!!

Of course, I'm going to be right back to work in the lab at McGill, but my co-op term is over! I've packed the car, cleaned my room and tidied my office, all that's left is an exit interview/evaluation with my supervisor (or possibly his supervisor since I don't think George will be in today...). I'm so ready to come back to Montreal: TGIF!!!! Going out dancing with Tara and Carling tonight - I cannot wait; it has been forever since I have been dancing.

I've been desperately trying to survive the boredom of having nothing to do for the last few days and yesterday my brother passed on this link http://www.wagenschenke.ch - check it out, it is the funniest Flash game. The object is to keep the drunk guy walking without falling over for as long as possible - my record so far is 83m! Warning: quite addictive, a perfect study distraction, so you might possibly hate me for giving you the link if you are still in exams... ;) [But post your record in the comments ;)]

Ok, see you in the M.point!!!

I've always loved twins!

2005-04-19T15:04:00.000-04:00

I actually have always been fascinated by twins, but today I have another reason to love twins: George's wife gave birth to two twin baby boys this weekend and that means I get to end my co-op term a week early - my last day is going to be this Friday!!

Those of you who have been privy to my gripes about my co-op job (some of which have been posted here) understand just how excited I am about this - Montreal, I'm coming home!!

Anyway, just wanted to share this joyous news (the twins, and my co-op ending) - bring on the summer!

Spring!

2005-04-15T13:28:00.000-04:00

It is just so damn beautiful outside today! I feel like putting on a skirt, sandals and sunglasses and just getting out and enjoying it... but alas, I am here, stuck in front of my computer doing nothing useful (well except blogging ;) and it sucks. Yes, I know most of you are in exams right now and are telling me silently to shut up, at least I don't have to study in this weather, and that is true... and I feel for you all, really I do (I definately do not miss exams, regardless of what ever else I have missed these last 4 months) but I'm still going to whine about being trapped here instead of skipping (ok, well probably not actually skipping...) gleefully around outside.

Sorry I haven't blogged for awhile, the last few weeks have seemed to fly by (though I wonder each day how that is possible given that each and every day at work seems to drag on and on and on... quite a paradox actually) For those of you who haven't yet heard my very exciting news (just a *little* sarcasm intended), all the work I've been doing for the last three months is screwed. Yep. screwed. Isn't is super? Turns out our imager wasn't properly calibrated from the beginning (the fault of the manufacturing company) and so all the processing we've done has to be redone once the calibration problem is fixed, which it won't be until the company comes at the end of May. But, it is all out of my hands, so all I can say is, such is life and move on. Only there really is nowhere for me to move on to in regards to this project and so I have a feeling that these last few weeks are going to be so completely boring and useless I shudder just thinking about them. But that's enough whining...

I cannot wait to move back to Montreal for good; I hate going for the weekend an leaving my apt on Sunday, it feels so unnatural. Kat and I are still in apt hunting mode, and once I get back we'll be kicking it up a notch and I'm sure that we'll find somewhere great to live. I'm excited to find a place that we can really feel like home in, however, I am trying to put off the reality of having to move in July...

Last weekend I flew down to TO to see Duncan and he took me to see the new musical, Wicked! (A birthday present :) It was fantastic! The story centers around the Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch of the West, it is a kind of prequel, explaining her childhood, how she became Wicked and even how the Tinman, the Lion and the Scarecrow came to be in Oz! The plot is truly a work of art; it is based on the book by the same name and I will definately take the time to read the story at some point, I think the book would be fascinating.

Tomorrow I'm taking my 15 year-old cousin, Lauren, out for a girls day - a birthday present from the whole family complete with hair and makeup at a fancy salon, lunch downtown and a shopping spree! She is so excited and I can't wait to see what she's going to look like when we're done :) So good family fun, literally, for me this weekend (only the 2nd weekend I've staying in Ottawa for these whole four months! I can't believe it) and I'll be back in Montreal next weekend, though most of you will probably still be studying... best of luck on all your exams!!

Très mouillée.

2005-04-02T15:51:00.000-05:00

So Kat and I went out and did our first batch of real apartment hunting today: in the pouring rain. At first it wasn't too bad; kind of fun to be out tramping around Montreal on a spring day, but then the wind picked up, the rain started to fall a little harder and every so often my umbrella tried to assert its independance and will to fly away... add to that the every increasing amount of water seeping in through the tops of my suede skate shoes and the dampness at the bottom of my jeans creeping slowly upwards toward my knees... needless to say, after two hours we were very ready to go home and crawl into bed. We saw one really nice place, but the appliances weren't included so we decided it wasn't to be, but at least we know there are good places out there, just waiting to be found :)

Anyway, not much other news - Sugarbush was a blast last weekend - I even got surburnt! (helmet chinstrap tan and all ;) Grant, Duncan and I really enjoyed oursleves, you couldn't peel us of the hill - even after two full days! The mountain was fantastic - I would definately go back.

I'm headed to Toronto next weekend to see Duncan and we are going to see Wicked, the new musical, on Saturday afternoon (my birthday present :) - I am soo excited! I haven't seen a musical in Toronto for a few years now, I love musicals, they are so fun. We are going to get all dressed up and go out for a nice dinner and martinis after the show - yummy.

Well, that's all she wrote - I'm going to curl up here with some movies and hot chocolate because in Katherine's words: "what a shitty frickin' day"...

Sugarbush, here we come!

2005-03-23T18:53:00.000-05:00

So the Easter long weekend is on the horizon: yes! It has been an especially boring work week and 2 days, 2 nights of snowboarding and partying in Sugarbush, Vermont is just around the corner!! Also coming snowboarding this weekend are Duncan and my brother, Grant - the snowboard club has got us slopeside condos for Fri. and Sat. nights, it's going to be awesome. Probably the last weekend of snowboarding for the season and the forecast is looking like sunglasses weather: 7 deg on Friday and 4 deg on Sat! Maybe I'll even get a ski tan ;)

Anyway, not much other news, just wanted to express my excitement for this coming weekend - what are you up to for Easter weekend? (I expect some comments ppl!! hehehe ;)

Here's looking forward to a Montreal summer!

2005-03-14T20:52:00.000-05:00

I love party dresses, I really do :) I know I'm not much of a girly-girl but I went to the SUS semi-formal on Friday and it was so fun to get all dressed up, and even more fun to see everyone else all fancied up - so pretty! I miss that, I haven't been to a semi or formal since prom and I forgot how much fun it was - we should wear party dresses more often!! Anyway, this weekend was fantastic: starting with the semi-formal on Friday, a lazy Sat. morning in bed and then an even lazier afternoon/evening in bed with Jenna, drinking martinis, watching movies and eating junkfood ;) I love Montreal.

Speaking of Montreal, my boss, George, offered me another 4 month term at NRC, which would mean staying here in Ottawa for the summer... I, however, turned it down. For a number of important reasons, but also because I cannot miss out on another Montreal summer!!! Basically, the job is ok, but not spectacular - it definately has its boring moments... and if I stay I give up my job with Dr. Ariya, which I really don't want to do, so all in all, I'm definately coming back to Montreal in May!!! (But any other atmospheric science ppl out there who want to work in Ottawa?? Let me know and I'll see what I can do) I can't wait to move back to the city... i miss it!

Tonight I went to my first hip hop class in about three months - I missed it so much I finally searched the internet for a studio in Ottawa where I could take classes - and it was so good to be dancing again! It wasn't the same as class with Stef, but it was definately fun :) I did a beginner class tonight and it was a bit too easy so I'm going to try the intermediate class on Thursday. I can't wait to get back to Montreal and get back to my regular hip hop class, though!

Off to see the Planet Smashers on Friday night!!!!!!!! It has been about 8 months since I've seen them last, and I'm in withdrawals... hehehe ;)

Well that's all for now - 1 1/2 months 'til I'm back in the city! Oh, and if anyone out there knows of a 4 1/2 in the plateau for July 1st, Kat and I are looking!

I love surprise visits ;)

2005-03-03T21:22:00.000-05:00

No new OC tonight... so sad. But lucky for you, I'm blogging to fill the emptiness ;)

So Monday at work I decided I really wanted to see Duncan this weekend and checked some flights and nearly bought a ticket for Friday but held off to double check his plans for the weekend. Monday night I told him, all excited, that I was coming down on Friday and instead of the happy response I expected all I got was silence and a "no, you can't"... but what followed made up for it: "awww, but I was planning on coming to Montreal on Friday to surprise you!" he said in a dejected voice... hehehe :) Good thing I didn't plan an equally surprise visit ! Anyway, the long and the short of it is, I get to spend the weekend with my love - a largely surprise one :) What a nice way to start the week.

Work has been mostly monotonous this week - my boss, George, hasn't been around much for the last three days 'cause his wife is sick so I find my self at loose ends for things to do quite a bit... and while doing nothing at work all day may sound fun, it gets old fast and the hours go by soooo slow! But, such is life, I guess.

I went into La Senza the other night and boy, do they have cute new stuff for spring! All the colours in there right now were almost overstimulation for my eyes!! Girls, if you haven't been in, go! So much cute, cute stuff. I got a couple new bras which I am so looking forward to wearing - i love underwear that makes me happy, even if no one else knows I'm wearing it :)

Off to Jay Peak this weekend, they have had 40cm of new snow in the last couple days, so should be a wicked Saturday! Duncan, my brother and I are also headed to Sugarbush, VT for the 3 day - 2 night snowboard club Easter trip so it's going to be a solid month of snowboarding ahead - I'm pysched! =)

Oh and for all you Montrealers: Sat. night, Jupiter room - lets go dancing!! Let me know if you are interested, ok I'm out - see you this weekend!

I think I know what I want to do when I grow up!

2005-02-24T15:24:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! It's been a long time since I really posted, sorry for the negligence - its not that I don't love you!

Anyway, another week of work is almost over and I find myself impatient for the weekend.... going back to Montreal again this weekend, actually not snowboarding Sat. as there is no club trip with reading break, so I'm planning to party! Anyone want to come dancing on Sat night?!

Going out to dinner for my cousin's 15th birthday tonight - convinced my grandparents we should take her to East Side Marios, so should be a good time, I hope she likes it. I also talked them into getting a cake and bringing it to the restaurant so we could do the big embarrassing singing in the restaurant thing ;)

Today I was reading some scientific articles (and mentally correcting as I went along) and it suddenly occured to me what I wanted to do when I grow up: be an editor of scientific and technical publications. I think it is probably a perfect job - just enough variety to keep me interested, good application of my anal retentiveness and lots of room to grow and customize the job to find my niche, as well as being able to write my own stuff of the side. Anyway, for some reason it seems perfect - but I really have no idea how one goes about becoming an editor, but I guess I need to do some research :) Just thought I'd share... some of you know I've been stressing a bit trying to decide what to do after undergrad, and I still might do my masters of atmospheric, because I'd like to have it, but I don't think research is quite where I'm headed... well just a few more musings to add to my mental examination of my future ;)

Work is going well, I'm finally getting in to the atmospheric stuff as I look for and read articles on spectroscopy of clouds. It's pretty interesting stuff actually and I think once we really get going on analyzing these cloud images, it'll be a lot better than just doing the data processing stuff I've been doing up 'til now, but such is the life of a "co-op", its not all glam, hehehe.

Last weekend at Holiday Valley was fantastic - we had so much powder the first day it was unreal, like surfing on snow. I had such a fun time, I love snowboarding and I love my family, they are great. I also got spoiled on my birthday - I have the best boyfriend in the whole world - I love you, Duncan. Anyway, thanks guys, what a weekend :-)

Guess I should get back to work, break's over... see you in the M.point this weekend!

Off to Holiday Valley!!

2005-02-17T15:54:00.000-05:00

Hey, sorry I didn't really post this week - somehow it just flew by. In just over 30min I'll be off for the weekend and it can't go fast enough: we are headed to Holiday Valley to go snowboarding for Friday and Saturday!!! I'm so excited; I grew up on skis at Holiday Valley, my parents used to take us out of school the week after Christmas break and we'd go down with another family and us kids would do SkiWee (all day ski school) for the week - fun memories of hot chocolate, Old Maid, and games on the hill ;) Anyway, going to Holiday Valley always feels like coming home: oddly familar, it has changed but it hasn't, welcome feeling. Anyway, can't wait to get out on the snow.

PS: For all you McGillians, enjoy reading break, you lucky ducks!!

Single file, don't run, turn off the lights and shut the door...

2005-02-09T15:28:00.000-05:00

...those were the first things that ran through my head as the fire alarm went off this afternoon - funny how those elementary school fire drill procedures seem to stick, eh? Well, we had a fire drill just after lunch today and as the whole building filed out into the parking lot I had deja vu from elementary school (except no one was taking attendance to make sure some poor misguided classmate hadn't got left behind ;) It's been so long since I have been part of a fire drill (do they even have those at McGill??) but now that I think about it, we used to have several a year all the way into high school... best way to waste a period :o) Anyway, just wanted to share my deja vu - when was your last fire drill?

Skanking it up tonight!

2005-02-09T08:49:00.000-05:00

Hello! I'm back - sorry I didn't post last week, I was sick and off work at the end of the week... On the plus side, I'm fully recovered, though suffering a bit from sleep deprivation this morning (the finale of the Amazing Race was on 'til 11 last night :o) I'm off to skank it up tonight at my first Ottawa ska show and, remarkably, my first show in months - what have I been doing this year? Big D and the Kid's Tables, The Know How and Crowned King at a small venue called Mavericks (somewhat like the Trash from what I gather, for those of you who know what I mean by that) I'm going with the oldest son of the woman who drives me to work in the mornings - funny, eh? He asked his mom a few weeks ago if he could go to the show while I was in the car and I promptly asked if I could come too - I miss concerts!

George, my boss, is gone today and tomorrow to a conference in Sudbury (now you know why I'm blogging at work :) so Kevin (the contractor from National Defence) and I are basically on our own. (He's not even here yet, since George isn't here he can sleep in and come in late... lucky... wish I was still sleeping right now!) We are working on writing up a processing guide to the software we have spent the last few weeks figuring out, it's actually kind of interesting to try and write a "ITRES processing for Dummies" so to speak; technical writing is hard! but I think we are doing a good job - its nice to have two heads to bounce phrasing off of. I'm also writing some background for the technical report that George and I will be putting out once we get finished with the processing of the cloud images he took - i love that I am basically being paid to write :) Also, today is payday!

Its been raining here the past few days - not what I like to see for snowboarding on Sat. but I have signed up anyway because looks like some places around the city may get some snow later on in the week. Matt is alo coming snowboarding this weekend too, so at least I'll have someone to hang out with. He's been in Montreal for over a month now and we still haven't hung out - so it's about time we got it together ;) Anyway, pray for snow!!

In a little over a week I will be heading home (flying again! yay!!) for a few days to go skiing/snowboarding with my family and Duncan! We are going to Holiday Valley in Ellicotville, NY ! I basically learned to ski at Holiday Valley so it's always fun to go back to somewhere so familar and so full of fun memories :) I love it there...

Well, I guess I've prattled on quite a bit today... in the writing mood, I guess :) But I'm going to wrap it up here and go grab a coffee - later!

Gimp

2005-01-27T11:16:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I took at spectacularly ungraceful fall on the badminton court and twisted my ankle... at the time it hurt but it didn't seem bad as I was able to walk it off and continue the game. Needless to say that was possibly not the smartest decision I've ever made as after an afternoon of sitting idle at the computer it hurt quite a bit more and forced me to limp pathetically out of work. Today I lean on the banisters while ascending and descending the stairs and gimp down the hallways trying not to put too much weight on it... good thing I wasn't planning on snowboarding this weekend... and I guess I won't be playing badminton for awhile...

On a brighter note, in a few hours I will be gimping my way through the Ottawa Airport on my way home! (Yes, I'm flying! so exciting :) I am flying on Jetsgo from Ottawa to TO (it's only going to take 1 hr!!) and Duncan is coming over from his work site to meet me at Terminal 3! I cannot wait to get on that plane and go home for the weekend - work has been pretty boring this week, monotonous, mindless running of the processing software with frequent lulls while we wait for tech support to get back to us about this or that... such is the life of a co-op student, I supppose :)

Well, I guess that's about all for now... should get back to work ;) (Lunch is only 45 min away!) *less than 5 hours until the weekend begins!*

When the cat is away...

2005-01-20T14:06:00.000-05:00

So my boss, George, is away today - but at least this time, unlike Monday, he left me enough work to keep me for the whole day, if the processing isn't hampered by incomprehensible program errors like it has been for the last week... so far the programs seem to run but the output doesn't look quite right... I'm blogging right now because I am waiting for my files to transfer via ftp to the tech support website so I can get some help (1h 5min remaining...!)

Anyway, I just checked the Snowboard Club website and we are going to Jay this weekend!! yay! I'm pysched to get some good snowboarding in. Going home next weekend (flying!) to see Duncan and the family - Duncan (complete with kilt ;) is taking me to some Robbie Burns celebration so should be interesting. I haven't seen him since Christmas and with his long hours plus the over use of the phone where he lives, we haven't even been chatting as much as usual - I miss him! It will be so nice to be home, and to only spend 1hr in transit - what a treat :)

Things are picking up here at work, like I said, I'm done reading - finally - and on to this processing, which isn't half bad. George wanted this stuff processed by next Tuesday but we've been having so many problems, even with me putting in extra time to take off next Friday, there is no way it is all going to get done... but such is life. This processing is basically the first step in turning the hyperspectral images taken by the spectrometer into a useable form to analyze for research. We had one sucessful run yesterday and the image which starts out disorted and full of strange stripes, does indeed look much better after the processing (when it works!). The problem I am having now is that the programs are running but my output is even stranger than what I began with! Full of weird stripes and somehow the edges seem to have gotten cut off... argh! This one is supposed to be of a ship off the coast of Halifax but right now it looks more like award winning abstract art.... (43 min remaining...)

Not much else to report - going to see Big D and the Know How in two weeks at a little venue about on the scale of the Trash with Sandra's (the woman who drives me to work) son, Adrien - be nice to get to a show... (they are playing Feb. 12, i think, in Montreal, Carly - only $11!) Really missing Montreal and all you guys... that's all she wrote. (40 min remaining..... going to be here awhile.)

Shannon, twins and badminton

2005-01-12T18:51:00.000-05:00

Things are going much better at work this week - I got discouraged towards the end of last week with all the reading I had to do and things I had to learn... I was reading this rather long, technical math journal article on Shannon's sampling theorem but not understanding it at all... I kept reading hoping it would begin to make sense but like a bad physics textbook, as I read on I only got more lost... George (my supervisor) is a super nice guy but he seemed to assume that all this business about the spaces of Lesbeque, Hilbert and Sobolev was something I'd learned in calculus: uh, no. must've missed that class/course... in anycase apparently this Shannon sampling stuff was quite important to my job (at least what I will be doing once I learn all this stuff) .... hmmm. that's bad since I don't understand any of this... needless to say I was nearly in tears on Friday I was so discouraged. But somehow over the weekend Shannon seemed to get through to me, even though I didn't look at the article (though I do confess to pondering some of its ideas while on the chairlift on Sat... yes I know, I am a loser) and when I picked it back on Monday renewed determination and perspective got me through it... not sure i understand 100%, but I definately am a lot farther along :) and am enjoying my job a lot more.

Finished the mountain of reading today! Yay! George and I went down to the lab and he started showing me some actual data - we are going to run through how to process, transform and analyse a test image tomorrow! Yay, no more reading! (My head is full!) Also, played my first badminton game in quite a few years with some guys at work today (they have two courts outlined on the hanger floor) and while I am a bit rusty, the games were ok and it felt good to be playing again - though my racket needs to be regripped, the grip was distingrating in my hand and leaving really attractive black marks... Found out today that George is having twins! His wife is 3 months pregnant and they just found awhile ago that it is going to be twins, so exciting.

Anyway, that's about all the news for now... oh, joined the Goodlife down the street here and worked out yesterday - they have all the same stuff as Nautilus Plus so I am able to do my program, which makes me happy - good to get back to the gym, haven't worked out regularly since before Christmas... such is the holidays. Not headed back to Montreal this weekend because the forecast is rain for Thurs. followed by a temp drop Fri./Sat. which will really wreck the conditions for snowboarding Sat. - plus my mommy is coming to Ottawa for the weekend, so I'll be chilling it here. Miss you all!

2005-01-06T20:46:00.000-05:00

View from my office!

High speed internet arrives!! Finally, reconnected!

2005-01-06T20:42:00.000-05:00

Well here I am, watching the OC and blogging! :) Sorry, I didn't post on Tuesday after my first day, but my grandparents only had dial-up here... eek! Rogers came and installed the high speed today, so I'm reconnected with civilization!!! Anyway, I'm settling in here in Ottawa, made a little niche for me here in my mom's old room and starting to get to know people at work. I've survived 3 days of work at the NRC now and it's going really well: the people in the Flight Research Laboratory are super friendly and welcoming. So far the work is really boring - just reading 8 hours/day... but once I get through all this background reading hopefully it'll get more exciting :) The staff take regular breaks and lunch together though, so the day is nicely broken up and there are lots of good opportunities to chat with people. There is a large variety of people that work in my building: scientists, pilots, engineers, plane mechanics, ... makes for interesting conversation. Part of the building is a large hanger containing several research planes and helicopters (if i play my cards right, maybe I'll get to go up in one! ;) [I've posted a photo - sorry for the low quality, took it on a keychain camera - thanks Grant!! :)] Anyway, not much other news... back to the M.point this weekend (yay for all the snow today!!!!!!) to go snowboarding and hang with the roomies (miss you guys!) And now, back to the OC...

And a blog is born...

2004-12-18T02:33:00.000-05:00

So I'm moving to Ottawa next semester! Since Tuesday I applied for, was interviewed and offered the job at the National Research Council's Flight Research Laboratory - basically in the last three days my life for the next four months did a complete about face! I will be living with my grandparents during the week and coming home to Montreal every weekend :) It still hasn't really sunk in that I'm not going to be coming back to school in January... weird. In any case, this co-op term is going to be both an interesting and challenging [I have to learn C++ - eek!] experience... and hey, no homework means more time for snowboarding!

I decided to start this blog as a way to keep in touch with everyone, but also because it is one of those things I've always wanted to do but never really had the time or reason to do so. You will get to hear all about my adventures in C++ and what its really like to live with my grandparents... ;) So, see you Jan. 4 - Happy Holidays!!