I would want my last meal to be the bridesmaid's dinner we had at my house. Amazing! Instead of the typical bridesmaid's brunch, Rach planned a catered dinner at my house. This dude (I guess I should call him chef) was fan-freaking-tastic! Not to mention he brought everything, including dishes to my house, left no mess, and left me over half a chocolate torte and strawberries in my fridge. All for much cheaper than going out for a nice meal. Not that I was paying, but still. Go dude!
Course #1 - Lady bug salad
Best salad ever! It had a ladybug in it. A big one. It was a peeled tomato with black spots and antenna. So cute. Said adorable lady buy was nestled in the corner, appreciating our tasty greens and the delectable maple dijon dressing it dressed with.
Course #2 - Chicken and veggies
Not just any chicken, chicken stuffed with cream cheese. Very tastily spiced cream cheese. If you have never stuffed a chicked with cream cheese, I'd suggest you do it ASAP. It's like stuffing your supper with love. With the love, we had purple mashed potatoes. To quote Rachel "I never knew purple tasted so good." The were Japanese sweet potatoes and some kind of yam. I wasn't super crazy about the texture (though no one else noticed) but they were tasty. Also, some of the best asparagus I've ever eaten.
Course #3 - Chocolate torte
Now it's impossible to go wrong by feeding me chocolate. It's a given I will love it. However, you can make me LOVE it if you serve it on a banana leaf garnished with strawberries and pineapple.
Best supper ever.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
best day ever
The same day I was planning on quitting the Odeon, I went in to visit/help my mom at her new store. Turns out, she wasn't very busy and didn't need my help. While chatting, I noticed a draw box on the counter. I went to enter my name in said draw box. Mama Parker stopped me.
"You can't do that, you're family" she scolded.
Defiant as ever, I proceeded to enter in Rach's name, followed by my phone number. For good measure I entered 3 times.
"What are you going to do if they phone you and ask for Rach?" queried Mama, not overly pleased.
"Say hello" seemed the obvious answer.
After visiting for awhile longer, I was running a little late in getting ready for work. This is of course why my phone rang, I had no time to answer the phone. Awesomely enough, they asked for Rach. I remembered, and played along, thinking I had won some lipgloss or a gift certificate. No, not on the best day ever. That simply wouldn't do on the day I was quitting the Odeon. I in fact won a $1000 shopping spree at the Scotia center mall. So great. I was minutes late for work, choas abounded, I didn't care.
(For those of you who don't know about the Scotia mall, $1000 is always wonderful, but there are really only 6ish stores in it... I'm sure I'll manage)
"You can't do that, you're family" she scolded.
Defiant as ever, I proceeded to enter in Rach's name, followed by my phone number. For good measure I entered 3 times.
"What are you going to do if they phone you and ask for Rach?" queried Mama, not overly pleased.
"Say hello" seemed the obvious answer.
After visiting for awhile longer, I was running a little late in getting ready for work. This is of course why my phone rang, I had no time to answer the phone. Awesomely enough, they asked for Rach. I remembered, and played along, thinking I had won some lipgloss or a gift certificate. No, not on the best day ever. That simply wouldn't do on the day I was quitting the Odeon. I in fact won a $1000 shopping spree at the Scotia center mall. So great. I was minutes late for work, choas abounded, I didn't care.
(For those of you who don't know about the Scotia mall, $1000 is always wonderful, but there are really only 6ish stores in it... I'm sure I'll manage)
take that odeon!
I've finally quite the Odeon. After over a year of caring and putting in effort to a job where my boss clearly had no appreciation for his staff, I quit. While the working conditions slowly got better and the returned to worse again, it wasn't really that that did it in for me. The owner's lying, and inability to even understand he was lying was the end. It's one thing to lie to customers, one thing to cheat people out of money. He's greek, it's what they do. The lying to and about his staff, staff that only ever tried to help his business was the final straw. Silly man, you can't pretend you're telling the truth when I WAS THERE for what happened. I quit at 2am on a day where I made $300 in tips. It was awesome. He proceeded to lie about how I quit to remaining staff (Oh Nick, will you never learn...). I did feel really bad for the new manager and went back in for one 1.5hr shift where I trained someone and showed her a couple things. However, I am free! It's wonderful. I still keep in touch with all the wonderful people I worked with (80% of whom have also quit, 10% who are in the process of finding a new job) and I never have to work there again. Take that Odeon, I hope you go bankrupt before the Junos.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
F-I-T
No, I have not bought a Honda Fit. But I really really really want to. Damn you parents for providing me with common sense!
So in an attempt to incorporate the word fit into my life in another, somewhat less satisfying way. As of today, I've started running again. By writing about it here, I figure that will kind of hold me to continuing to run.
So you heard it here first. Instead of buying a Fit, I'm just going to get fit. Cheaper yes, better for my life expectancy and general health, yes, but much less fun all around.
So in an attempt to incorporate the word fit into my life in another, somewhat less satisfying way. As of today, I've started running again. By writing about it here, I figure that will kind of hold me to continuing to run.
So you heard it here first. Instead of buying a Fit, I'm just going to get fit. Cheaper yes, better for my life expectancy and general health, yes, but much less fun all around.
Monday, April 03, 2006
unit organisers
At the start of this semester I started a little experiment with 2 of my classes. I started making and using unit organisers after seeing another lady in my department use them. They seemed pretty close to something I was doing already - and of course looked much nicer. The first one was no fun at all to make up cause I had to translate the whole thing and figure out how to use power point (one of those days when I wish I'd retained a little more from uni). Now that I've got a French template all ready to go, they don't take me much time. I wasn't really convinced they were doing anything, however. Until today in my Math 20 class we started a new unit. Quadratic equations boo-ya! Anyway, I had a busy weekend and didn't have time to make up my new unit organiser. Which is of course why a student asked me if there was one for Unit 4. The important part is that she asked. So she must use it for something - even if it is just a divider for her notes. Yay, I'm doing something kinda useful in my classroom!
paris!
So i did some cute quiz deal that is supposed to figure out what European city I should live in. Turns out I'll be hanging with Heather in Paris. It was supposed to let me post a cute pic and everything, but for some reason it won't work. Darn you cool blog things. You'll just have to take my word for it.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
see you there heather!
| You Belong in Paris |
 You're the perfect person to wander the streets of Paris aimlessly, enjoying architecture and a crepe. |
What European City Do You Belong In?
**so it looks like this almost posted like it was supposed to. weird. i'll leave it as is, even though the title is missing.
Monday, March 27, 2006
curriculum troubles
It may make me a bad teacher that I've never really looked too closely at the Math 90 curriculum. It's not that I haven't been teaching the curriculum, just that Math departments have everything set up so nicely normally it's not really necessary. For the most part, I trust my fellow teachers and what they tell me.
The French textbook I'm using doesn't really set stuff up in the way/order I usually would teach stuff - hence the investigating into the curriculum to see exactly what I should be doing. Now it's not that I'm not following the curriculum, cause I am - kinda sorta. Following it as closely as one can considering how obvious it is that elementary schools aren't following it.
Now I know not everything can be blamed on elementary schools, kids are awesome at the "we've never seen that before!" when in fact they saw it in your class, last week, two days in a row. However, from my gr 9s definite lack of skills, and how obviously I'm following what should be more gr 8 curriculum than gr 9, what to do? It's definitely not wrong to travel backwards in the curriculum, but it is annoying. Especially when now it makes sense as to why many grade 10s have difficulty with the course. Spend too much time teaching what they should already know and you aren't able to prepare them for what they will need to know next semester.
Now I know the Math curriculum is under a complete overhaul, which is all good, but who is to say teachers will do anything different? How do you remedy elementary teachers who love reading and hate math? (don't worry, the English teachers have the same complaints in reverse, I'm aware.)
Ok, so really I'm annoyed that while I was pretty aware we were teaching "grade 9 lite" I didn't think I was reviewing stuff that shows up in the grade 6 column. Blah.
The French textbook I'm using doesn't really set stuff up in the way/order I usually would teach stuff - hence the investigating into the curriculum to see exactly what I should be doing. Now it's not that I'm not following the curriculum, cause I am - kinda sorta. Following it as closely as one can considering how obvious it is that elementary schools aren't following it.
Now I know not everything can be blamed on elementary schools, kids are awesome at the "we've never seen that before!" when in fact they saw it in your class, last week, two days in a row. However, from my gr 9s definite lack of skills, and how obviously I'm following what should be more gr 8 curriculum than gr 9, what to do? It's definitely not wrong to travel backwards in the curriculum, but it is annoying. Especially when now it makes sense as to why many grade 10s have difficulty with the course. Spend too much time teaching what they should already know and you aren't able to prepare them for what they will need to know next semester.
Now I know the Math curriculum is under a complete overhaul, which is all good, but who is to say teachers will do anything different? How do you remedy elementary teachers who love reading and hate math? (don't worry, the English teachers have the same complaints in reverse, I'm aware.)
Ok, so really I'm annoyed that while I was pretty aware we were teaching "grade 9 lite" I didn't think I was reviewing stuff that shows up in the grade 6 column. Blah.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
life update
Well, I think maybe I should be more like Heather and make smaller more frequent posts. My big long rants just take too long so I never post anything. Hopefully I'll have some time to come back and elaborate on some of this, but in the meantime this is where February and March went.
- I had a wonderful one year anniversary with Sean (best b/f ever!)
- I organized a slightly less good Valentine's Day
- Went to Calgary with Rach
- Heather came to visit from Montreal
- Went winter camping with the outdoor ed club
- I was "promoted" to assisstant manager at the Odeon
- Got to visit with JJ when she passed through
- I've been pretty consistently almost sick for 2 months
- Survived another round of parent-teacher interviews
- Got crazy kinds of dying sick for one day (no news from the doctor, so all the tests must say I'm fine)
- Have bought a condo in Lakeview
- Had a job interview with the public system (I think it went well)
and all sorts of other little day to day stuff. Now I'm off to sign papers about the condo, tres exciting!
- I had a wonderful one year anniversary with Sean (best b/f ever!)
- I organized a slightly less good Valentine's Day
- Went to Calgary with Rach
- Heather came to visit from Montreal
- Went winter camping with the outdoor ed club
- I was "promoted" to assisstant manager at the Odeon
- Got to visit with JJ when she passed through
- I've been pretty consistently almost sick for 2 months
- Survived another round of parent-teacher interviews
- Got crazy kinds of dying sick for one day (no news from the doctor, so all the tests must say I'm fine)
- Have bought a condo in Lakeview
- Had a job interview with the public system (I think it went well)
and all sorts of other little day to day stuff. Now I'm off to sign papers about the condo, tres exciting!
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Eye boogers
The human body has some of the grossest problem resolutions strategies ever. It's enemy - bacteria and viruses - are relentless true, but next time round I'd like to request a different attack plan.
Some strange little thing attacked me a little while ago. It was a minor nuisance really, a strange "high" sore throat (not the typical tonsil sore kind), inner ear pressure and the feeling that I might get a headache at any time. Just might though, no real pain, just annoyance at knowing at any second there might be real sickness coming.
Clearly I was far too indifferent to the effects this germ was having on my body. This was an attention seeking germ-oid that's for sure. It took my indifference and resolve to continue on as if nothing was wrong very personally. I offended the little bugger and he wanted revenge. There was no mistake I would feel his wrath for ignoring him.
Germy attacked my eyes. He rallied his troops and in a surprise attack took me down while i slept. I woke up with my eyes glued together with gunk. An attempt to clean said gunk out proved futile. A shower did manage to get rid of all the excess, but germy and his crew would not stop. I was not aware it was possible for a sinus infection to attack your eyes, but let me tell you that it is. Snot can come out your eyes. Believe me, eyes are none too happy about this happening. For one, you can't blow your eyes. When you have a runny nose, lightly wiping the bottom of your nostril isn't a very effective way of staying snot free, same applies for your eyes. Also, crazy eyelid swelling happens, and some serious red eyes. "Pink eye" does not even come close to accurately describing what attacked eyes look like.
Absolutely not enjoying doctors, especially medi-clinics (germy was smart and waited until Sunday to stage his attack) I held off going to the doctor for as long as possible. I surrendered. The eye snot was getting to the quantity that it was floating around in my eyes making seeing quite a problem. My eyes had turned into sockets of pain.
The trip to the medi-clinic was relatively painless. I didn't really understand what the doctor told me besides "eye infection, tonsils are fine, cold attacked your eyes, take drugs." Turns out these drugs had to come in the form of ointment. Germy wins another small victory. Eye ointment is gross. Essentially it's like squeezing vaseline in your eyes. Being that it's not runny, this is quite difficult as it's very easy to just blink and get it all over your eyelids and eyelashes. Also, when you finally do get it in your eyes, it's not exactly clear so you can't see for a bit. It took 4 days for my eyes to look almost normal again - in the war against germy, several blood vessls in my left eye were broken. They're still healing, though they've faded to a dull yellow and pink by today.
I'm so screwed when that pandemic finally hits...
Some strange little thing attacked me a little while ago. It was a minor nuisance really, a strange "high" sore throat (not the typical tonsil sore kind), inner ear pressure and the feeling that I might get a headache at any time. Just might though, no real pain, just annoyance at knowing at any second there might be real sickness coming.
Clearly I was far too indifferent to the effects this germ was having on my body. This was an attention seeking germ-oid that's for sure. It took my indifference and resolve to continue on as if nothing was wrong very personally. I offended the little bugger and he wanted revenge. There was no mistake I would feel his wrath for ignoring him.
Germy attacked my eyes. He rallied his troops and in a surprise attack took me down while i slept. I woke up with my eyes glued together with gunk. An attempt to clean said gunk out proved futile. A shower did manage to get rid of all the excess, but germy and his crew would not stop. I was not aware it was possible for a sinus infection to attack your eyes, but let me tell you that it is. Snot can come out your eyes. Believe me, eyes are none too happy about this happening. For one, you can't blow your eyes. When you have a runny nose, lightly wiping the bottom of your nostril isn't a very effective way of staying snot free, same applies for your eyes. Also, crazy eyelid swelling happens, and some serious red eyes. "Pink eye" does not even come close to accurately describing what attacked eyes look like.
Absolutely not enjoying doctors, especially medi-clinics (germy was smart and waited until Sunday to stage his attack) I held off going to the doctor for as long as possible. I surrendered. The eye snot was getting to the quantity that it was floating around in my eyes making seeing quite a problem. My eyes had turned into sockets of pain.
The trip to the medi-clinic was relatively painless. I didn't really understand what the doctor told me besides "eye infection, tonsils are fine, cold attacked your eyes, take drugs." Turns out these drugs had to come in the form of ointment. Germy wins another small victory. Eye ointment is gross. Essentially it's like squeezing vaseline in your eyes. Being that it's not runny, this is quite difficult as it's very easy to just blink and get it all over your eyelids and eyelashes. Also, when you finally do get it in your eyes, it's not exactly clear so you can't see for a bit. It took 4 days for my eyes to look almost normal again - in the war against germy, several blood vessls in my left eye were broken. They're still healing, though they've faded to a dull yellow and pink by today.
I'm so screwed when that pandemic finally hits...
Friday, February 03, 2006
backwards ne?
Feeling safe is a funny thing. I've travelled to some pretty sketchy countries, I teach in a school where there are kids carrying knives, I don't always lock my doors etc. But, in general, I feel safe.
Until I see a police officer or police car that is. Since moving to City Park area, I haven't really ever felt unsafe either. Until of course, I see the cops. One morning, very early i might add, one was doing a walk around the apartment complex behind me. Kinda feaked me out. Didn't help that the policeman didn't say anything to me. Then, a week or so ago, as I was coming home there was a cop car driving s-l-o-w-l-y down my block. Totally freaked me out. I felt scared just walking from my car to my front door. I almost phoned my roommate to tell her to have her bf walk her to our door, until i re-thought what a paranoid freak she can be and decided that might cause her to have a heart attack AND move out on me.
My question is, what is wrong with out law-enforcement, that they make us feel unsafe instead of the opposite? Maybe this should just be "what is wrong with me"? I'm well aware I could keep rambling on here, but I should do something a little more productive than blog for a little bit. : )
Until I see a police officer or police car that is. Since moving to City Park area, I haven't really ever felt unsafe either. Until of course, I see the cops. One morning, very early i might add, one was doing a walk around the apartment complex behind me. Kinda feaked me out. Didn't help that the policeman didn't say anything to me. Then, a week or so ago, as I was coming home there was a cop car driving s-l-o-w-l-y down my block. Totally freaked me out. I felt scared just walking from my car to my front door. I almost phoned my roommate to tell her to have her bf walk her to our door, until i re-thought what a paranoid freak she can be and decided that might cause her to have a heart attack AND move out on me.
My question is, what is wrong with out law-enforcement, that they make us feel unsafe instead of the opposite? Maybe this should just be "what is wrong with me"? I'm well aware I could keep rambling on here, but I should do something a little more productive than blog for a little bit. : )
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
i want a cat
I'm house-sitting for my uncle right now while him and his wife are on a cruise. It's made me miss my cat. Their cat Lucy (or girly) is just so darned cute and loveable. So really, I want a cute, friendly cat. Not just any punk cat will do. If it could be slightly crazy too, I think that would be fun.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
christmas fun
From December 1st to now has been one good time after another. December is such a happy month (unless you are a university student, which i happily am not). So much visiting, socialising and general goodwill towards men (and women). All this with my new paint and cleaner surroundings, the happiness never ends. Well I guess sometimes it does, but that's another post.
There were many casual gatherings, lots of hugs and laughs, and much wishing I could see every one who came home to visit on a more regular basis. I think I also wish every one was as happy as they are at Christmas at least one day a week. Don't get me wrong, Christmas time is pretty great, but would it kill people to be "christmas-y" the rest of the year as well? By the time Dec 28th rolls around people are already throwing out their elbows in the mall and on the sidewalks in an effort to prove they are busy, focused and most definitely mean business. Hey, I'm not doubting your business, but what's wrong with happy business?
This year was also a little different in that I spent a lot of time with my family and very little time running away from my family to be with friends. It was really nice. And probably a huge hint that I'm getting older and more responsible or something. Okay, just older. And of course there is the terribly delicious table full of goodies my Nan reals me in with. How do you say no to a table full of goodness? If you're me the answer is you don't. No use fighting a losing battle.
I spent a very nice New Years with friends at Sean-o's. Sean-o spun us some wicked tunes all evening and into the morning hours. That Sean-o, he sure can spin things. Things like plates and records. On New Years, it was mainly records. I shall credit the good music and company with my temporary abilities of staying up til crazy hours while not working.
In typical me style, I fell stupidly sick New Years day, and didn't wind up recovering for a full week. This did extend my holidays an extra two days, but considering I'd planned on doing at least a little work before going back to school, that wasn't quite the treat you'd think it was. The being at home part was good, the having to work extra hard now isn't quite as good. Aside from a massive coughing attack today in period 3, I'm pretty much back to healthy as it gets.
There were many casual gatherings, lots of hugs and laughs, and much wishing I could see every one who came home to visit on a more regular basis. I think I also wish every one was as happy as they are at Christmas at least one day a week. Don't get me wrong, Christmas time is pretty great, but would it kill people to be "christmas-y" the rest of the year as well? By the time Dec 28th rolls around people are already throwing out their elbows in the mall and on the sidewalks in an effort to prove they are busy, focused and most definitely mean business. Hey, I'm not doubting your business, but what's wrong with happy business?
This year was also a little different in that I spent a lot of time with my family and very little time running away from my family to be with friends. It was really nice. And probably a huge hint that I'm getting older and more responsible or something. Okay, just older. And of course there is the terribly delicious table full of goodies my Nan reals me in with. How do you say no to a table full of goodness? If you're me the answer is you don't. No use fighting a losing battle.
I spent a very nice New Years with friends at Sean-o's. Sean-o spun us some wicked tunes all evening and into the morning hours. That Sean-o, he sure can spin things. Things like plates and records. On New Years, it was mainly records. I shall credit the good music and company with my temporary abilities of staying up til crazy hours while not working.
In typical me style, I fell stupidly sick New Years day, and didn't wind up recovering for a full week. This did extend my holidays an extra two days, but considering I'd planned on doing at least a little work before going back to school, that wasn't quite the treat you'd think it was. The being at home part was good, the having to work extra hard now isn't quite as good. Aside from a massive coughing attack today in period 3, I'm pretty much back to healthy as it gets.
Friday, December 30, 2005
sanity
I gave notice at the end of the November long weekend. This really didn't give me much time to find a new apartment or a new roommate for December. Luckily Rach's little sister was looking to leave home so that solved problem number one. For many people it is confusing that I now live with my best friend's little sister (including their family), but it works quite well. Now to find a place.
I looked at lots of places and they were all "OK." Blah. There wouldn't be any trouble living in any of them, but nothing really great. Considering how many times I've moved over the years, I was hoping to do a little better than just ok. I was hoping to finally move somewhere I could stay and love until I bought something. Something that felt like my home. Just as I was giving up hope and getting ready to settle for the least blah of the blahs, I found it. A townhouse in City Park, end unit, nice size and layout, newly rennovated. It's selling feature - paint! The owners have a hatred for eggshell white that rivals my own! Our kitchen and hallways are a nice shade of yellow with blue/turquoise cubboards, our living room is a very nice shade of green, Dani's bedroom is a blue and mine is a brown. It's wonderful to live somewhere that's not white and sterile. Yay to having a home.
We moved in December first and a few days later I realised exactly how unhappy I'd been with my previous living arrangements. Magically I was back to my old self again. My short temper with poor Sean-o and my students all but dissapeared. I started laughing again. Regular customers at work commented on how happy I seemed. I started sleeping and relaxing more. I should have started blogging more, but Christmas was right around the corner and there was so much to be done!
I looked at lots of places and they were all "OK." Blah. There wouldn't be any trouble living in any of them, but nothing really great. Considering how many times I've moved over the years, I was hoping to do a little better than just ok. I was hoping to finally move somewhere I could stay and love until I bought something. Something that felt like my home. Just as I was giving up hope and getting ready to settle for the least blah of the blahs, I found it. A townhouse in City Park, end unit, nice size and layout, newly rennovated. It's selling feature - paint! The owners have a hatred for eggshell white that rivals my own! Our kitchen and hallways are a nice shade of yellow with blue/turquoise cubboards, our living room is a very nice shade of green, Dani's bedroom is a blue and mine is a brown. It's wonderful to live somewhere that's not white and sterile. Yay to having a home.
We moved in December first and a few days later I realised exactly how unhappy I'd been with my previous living arrangements. Magically I was back to my old self again. My short temper with poor Sean-o and my students all but dissapeared. I started laughing again. Regular customers at work commented on how happy I seemed. I started sleeping and relaxing more. I should have started blogging more, but Christmas was right around the corner and there was so much to be done!
the stress
So, I know I am a terrible blogger and email updater. But at least there is some explanation, mainly the stress that was my old house.
I believe I mentioned earlier that I moved. I have since moved again. Why so much moving you ask? I have learnt that I need to live in a clean environment to be happy.
You see, the first move involved me moving in with a very swell girl I met at work at the Odeon. She's also a teacher with a couple side jobs, and she was looking for a roommate to help pay her mortgage. When I viewed her house in the summer when I was thinking of moving, yes it was a disaster, but she spoke of cleaning, finishing renovation, and it was (and is) a very cute house. Added bonus being I liked her enough to think we'd make good roommates. To help fix the first two problems, it was decided I'd move in in October instead of September to give her a little extra cleaning time. I gave my notice, my landlady was sad to be losing me as a tenant and I was looking forward to living with my new roommate and doing roommate-y things. Eating supper that wasn't popcorn, watching girly tv shows etc.
The end of September came and I started moving my stuff in. It was very obvious that no progress had been made in the way of cleaning or renovation. It would appear "some things came up." Not really having any options, I moved in anyway. Thus commenced a two month decent into hell.
You see, this was no ordinary kind of mess. This was a super mess. A house eating kind of mess. This kind of mess would make the people on that TLC show about organizing rooms want to eat babies. There really is no was to describe the utter madness that was to be my new home. Imagine if you took the contents of 4 homes and then jammed them into one small wartime house. Now buy new furniture for the house, but have nowhere to put it, so randomly keep it in boxes where it will fit. Now flood the basement so you have to throw everything around to get it out of the way. Add an argument between yourself and the house so the house decides to vomit it's contents up at you to prove a point. Create one path to walk through the house and clean one chair off so one person may sit. Voila! That's about the best description I can muster. I'm speaking very literally when I say the entire house except the one path,chair and folding table beside the chair was stacked a minimum of 3 feet high in stuff.
Stress mounted. My bedroom and a small area around my desk were the only Oasi of "clean." I spent my days trying to spend as little time as possible at home. My home stressed Rach out and that says a lot. Sean-o was very concerned. The stress got to a point where I couldn't even recognize it as stress anymore. An ultimatum to the roommate was made - progress on the house must be made, or I would be moving out. She seemed to understand, you really can't be in denial about something like that. I was hopeful for change. The agreed cleaning date came and went. A desk was cleaned. Much anger ensued. Frustration hit an all time high. I gave my notice.
I could go into detail on the frustration, but I have a feeling this is a long post already. My ex-roommate and I still get along very well, she is still a great person, however we have very different opinions on what an acceptable living arrangement is. I think I've done a pretty good job of not taking out my frustrations of spending 2 months in hell on her. Considering everything, I think that's pretty amazing.
I believe I mentioned earlier that I moved. I have since moved again. Why so much moving you ask? I have learnt that I need to live in a clean environment to be happy.
You see, the first move involved me moving in with a very swell girl I met at work at the Odeon. She's also a teacher with a couple side jobs, and she was looking for a roommate to help pay her mortgage. When I viewed her house in the summer when I was thinking of moving, yes it was a disaster, but she spoke of cleaning, finishing renovation, and it was (and is) a very cute house. Added bonus being I liked her enough to think we'd make good roommates. To help fix the first two problems, it was decided I'd move in in October instead of September to give her a little extra cleaning time. I gave my notice, my landlady was sad to be losing me as a tenant and I was looking forward to living with my new roommate and doing roommate-y things. Eating supper that wasn't popcorn, watching girly tv shows etc.
The end of September came and I started moving my stuff in. It was very obvious that no progress had been made in the way of cleaning or renovation. It would appear "some things came up." Not really having any options, I moved in anyway. Thus commenced a two month decent into hell.
You see, this was no ordinary kind of mess. This was a super mess. A house eating kind of mess. This kind of mess would make the people on that TLC show about organizing rooms want to eat babies. There really is no was to describe the utter madness that was to be my new home. Imagine if you took the contents of 4 homes and then jammed them into one small wartime house. Now buy new furniture for the house, but have nowhere to put it, so randomly keep it in boxes where it will fit. Now flood the basement so you have to throw everything around to get it out of the way. Add an argument between yourself and the house so the house decides to vomit it's contents up at you to prove a point. Create one path to walk through the house and clean one chair off so one person may sit. Voila! That's about the best description I can muster. I'm speaking very literally when I say the entire house except the one path,chair and folding table beside the chair was stacked a minimum of 3 feet high in stuff.
Stress mounted. My bedroom and a small area around my desk were the only Oasi of "clean." I spent my days trying to spend as little time as possible at home. My home stressed Rach out and that says a lot. Sean-o was very concerned. The stress got to a point where I couldn't even recognize it as stress anymore. An ultimatum to the roommate was made - progress on the house must be made, or I would be moving out. She seemed to understand, you really can't be in denial about something like that. I was hopeful for change. The agreed cleaning date came and went. A desk was cleaned. Much anger ensued. Frustration hit an all time high. I gave my notice.
I could go into detail on the frustration, but I have a feeling this is a long post already. My ex-roommate and I still get along very well, she is still a great person, however we have very different opinions on what an acceptable living arrangement is. I think I've done a pretty good job of not taking out my frustrations of spending 2 months in hell on her. Considering everything, I think that's pretty amazing.
the conclusion
So before I make a proper update I think I should end the mmm bop story.
While being the part time home of many hooligans, ruffians and future low life of Saskatoon, Feehan also houses some very ambitious, motivated and creative kids. Many of these students find themselves in a young, trendy, opinionated and challenging teacher's law 30 class. This class just so happens to occur in period 3, the class in which our Christmas hampers are put together. What does this have to do with mmm bop, well at first not much.
Said teacher's creative students really wanted to go the distance this year for their Christmas hamper. These are generous folk, the kind who make us all wish we were better people. They brainstormed ways to raise as much money as possible for their family. And then, they came up with a goal. They made a deal with their teacher that is they raised $400 dollars for their Christmas hamper that he in turn would let them wax his legs. A contract was signed. Work commeneced. These kids went all the way - bake sales, asking families, allowances and precious work money was all collected for 2 weeks. The goal was met, an appointment with an esthetician was made.
Would these crafty students let it stop there however? No! $400 was not enough for these gianormous hearted gr 12 students. They devised a second money making scheme, this time the profits being donated to the stop the bop charity. The deal? To view the waxing of the very popular teacher's legs you would have to pay $1. A pretty good deal considering it's rumoured he screamed like a little girl... These wonderful students raised another $400 in admission fees that was donated to stop the bop - meaning for the last week of school we could all enjoy Christmas carols instead of the mindless spasms of the Hanson brother's vocal chords. Thank you Law 30 students.
On a final note, said teacher has girlier legs than I.
While being the part time home of many hooligans, ruffians and future low life of Saskatoon, Feehan also houses some very ambitious, motivated and creative kids. Many of these students find themselves in a young, trendy, opinionated and challenging teacher's law 30 class. This class just so happens to occur in period 3, the class in which our Christmas hampers are put together. What does this have to do with mmm bop, well at first not much.
Said teacher's creative students really wanted to go the distance this year for their Christmas hamper. These are generous folk, the kind who make us all wish we were better people. They brainstormed ways to raise as much money as possible for their family. And then, they came up with a goal. They made a deal with their teacher that is they raised $400 dollars for their Christmas hamper that he in turn would let them wax his legs. A contract was signed. Work commeneced. These kids went all the way - bake sales, asking families, allowances and precious work money was all collected for 2 weeks. The goal was met, an appointment with an esthetician was made.
Would these crafty students let it stop there however? No! $400 was not enough for these gianormous hearted gr 12 students. They devised a second money making scheme, this time the profits being donated to the stop the bop charity. The deal? To view the waxing of the very popular teacher's legs you would have to pay $1. A pretty good deal considering it's rumoured he screamed like a little girl... These wonderful students raised another $400 in admission fees that was donated to stop the bop - meaning for the last week of school we could all enjoy Christmas carols instead of the mindless spasms of the Hanson brother's vocal chords. Thank you Law 30 students.
On a final note, said teacher has girlier legs than I.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
mmm bop!
In case some of you have forgotten the love that is mmm bop is, let me remind you :
"mmm bop, bee doo bee dop, bah doo wap, boo doo bah dop"
Thank you Hanson brothers/sisters - they may be married but it still is quite possible they're not boys...
I digress. My school is raising money. Money for people in Uganda. Hopefully $500 for people in Uganda. Quickly. This is where the Hanson boys come in. The SRC is going to play the song "mmm bop" by Hanson every single break, between every single class until the school raises $500.
Brilliant! I love it! We're on day one of the fundraising campain and already there are gangsta looking students humming mmm bop in the the halls. No one with any kind of "street cred" would be caught dead humming Hanson. The fine folks in Uganda will have their money before Christmas! A big yay to the school in Edmonton who's idea this was, I'm a huge fan of annoying people into giving up their money.
"mmm bop, bee doo bee dop, bah doo wap, boo doo bah dop"
Thank you Hanson brothers/sisters - they may be married but it still is quite possible they're not boys...
I digress. My school is raising money. Money for people in Uganda. Hopefully $500 for people in Uganda. Quickly. This is where the Hanson boys come in. The SRC is going to play the song "mmm bop" by Hanson every single break, between every single class until the school raises $500.
Brilliant! I love it! We're on day one of the fundraising campain and already there are gangsta looking students humming mmm bop in the the halls. No one with any kind of "street cred" would be caught dead humming Hanson. The fine folks in Uganda will have their money before Christmas! A big yay to the school in Edmonton who's idea this was, I'm a huge fan of annoying people into giving up their money.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
GWAR!
Now hopefully I won't run into any more people who haven't seen Empire Records (maybe the best movie in the world...) so that you can all have an idea of who GWAR is. If not, well that's what google exists for.
So GWAR was at the Odeon yesterday. I worked. Now, before I went to work I knew there was going to be some insanity. We'd been warned to wear clothes we could get wrecked cause of the fake blood spraying. I knew they were planning on "plastic wrapping" the Odeon. I'd "seen" them on Empire Records. You'd think I'd have been prepared, this of course was not the case. Thinking I was prepared probably made me even less prepared.
So I get to work. While I knew the place was to be plastic wrapped, for some reason my mind obviously was rejecting that as reality. Boy was I surprised when if really was plastic wrapped. The Odeon is 3 stories tall. The plastic went all the way to the top. The dance area was completely covered in carpet and mats. There really was no exposed space in the whole front area. I started to get a little worried at what I'd gotten myself into.
Happily, I was scheduled to work the landing bar. This was a really good thing in my opinion - not for it's money making possibilities - but for it's distance from the insanity. It would be very difficult to spray me with anything if I was at the landing bar.
Doors open. It would appear if you go to a GWAR show, it is mandatory that you wear a black t-shirt declaring your love for GWAR or another suitable heavy metal band. If you could not afford a real band shirt, it was acceptable to make one. In visiting with the patrons, it was obvious everyone was excited. Think of how excited a 14yr old girl would be if you told her she could meet Justin Timberlake or Hillary Duff. This is the excitement of GWAR fans. They were basically vibrating from excitement. If you could bottle that excitement, we could have powered Saskatoon for a year. Take that SaskPower!
GWAR finally makes the stage. Whoa. They are gianormous. I wasn't actually expecting them to be wearing their costumes for some reason. I really wasn't expecting their costumes to make them 8' tall. Here's where the bad part of working at the landing bar comes in - I couldn't see anything. Not that I had a lot of customers by this point, so I kept sneaking out to see what was going on. So yes, GWAR is this crazypsycho costumed group. Something like pokemon warriors meets transformers meets the devil meets steroids meets g-strings (oh yes, their costumed selves wear g-strings). I have no idea how they don't pass in those things or how they play music. So if this wasn't enough, GWAR is really crazy musical theater. Their sets have a story line - they play songs and then make fun of and kill public figures. The first victim was President Bush. They eviscerated him on stage. At least that cleared up my curiousity as to why they spray blood all over the crowd. I got to see the bit where his intestines were being pulled out along with the rest of his organs. They also killed in various ways Sharon Osborne, Michael Jackson and one other person. At some point in time green goo was involved.
Their fans loved it! I'd never seen so many people happy to have ruined their clothes. Some of them were more than happy, they were proud! It's some kind of status symbol to be able to get the most guck on you. Clearly this states your dedication to GWAR and killing stupid people (that part I kind of understand...). Besides, the fact that these people managed to dye black red is pretty amazing all in itself. Just think of how wet you have to get to dye black. Oh ya, that was 500 people last night at the Odeon. Then imagine me trying to walk between these people at the end of the night without touching anyone for fear the love of GWAR is contagious or something. If I was Marla there is no doubt I would have slipped on the goo and made a spectacular fall into a group of dripping, vibrating fans. It was pretty entertaining.
So GWAR was at the Odeon yesterday. I worked. Now, before I went to work I knew there was going to be some insanity. We'd been warned to wear clothes we could get wrecked cause of the fake blood spraying. I knew they were planning on "plastic wrapping" the Odeon. I'd "seen" them on Empire Records. You'd think I'd have been prepared, this of course was not the case. Thinking I was prepared probably made me even less prepared.
So I get to work. While I knew the place was to be plastic wrapped, for some reason my mind obviously was rejecting that as reality. Boy was I surprised when if really was plastic wrapped. The Odeon is 3 stories tall. The plastic went all the way to the top. The dance area was completely covered in carpet and mats. There really was no exposed space in the whole front area. I started to get a little worried at what I'd gotten myself into.
Happily, I was scheduled to work the landing bar. This was a really good thing in my opinion - not for it's money making possibilities - but for it's distance from the insanity. It would be very difficult to spray me with anything if I was at the landing bar.
Doors open. It would appear if you go to a GWAR show, it is mandatory that you wear a black t-shirt declaring your love for GWAR or another suitable heavy metal band. If you could not afford a real band shirt, it was acceptable to make one. In visiting with the patrons, it was obvious everyone was excited. Think of how excited a 14yr old girl would be if you told her she could meet Justin Timberlake or Hillary Duff. This is the excitement of GWAR fans. They were basically vibrating from excitement. If you could bottle that excitement, we could have powered Saskatoon for a year. Take that SaskPower!
GWAR finally makes the stage. Whoa. They are gianormous. I wasn't actually expecting them to be wearing their costumes for some reason. I really wasn't expecting their costumes to make them 8' tall. Here's where the bad part of working at the landing bar comes in - I couldn't see anything. Not that I had a lot of customers by this point, so I kept sneaking out to see what was going on. So yes, GWAR is this crazypsycho costumed group. Something like pokemon warriors meets transformers meets the devil meets steroids meets g-strings (oh yes, their costumed selves wear g-strings). I have no idea how they don't pass in those things or how they play music. So if this wasn't enough, GWAR is really crazy musical theater. Their sets have a story line - they play songs and then make fun of and kill public figures. The first victim was President Bush. They eviscerated him on stage. At least that cleared up my curiousity as to why they spray blood all over the crowd. I got to see the bit where his intestines were being pulled out along with the rest of his organs. They also killed in various ways Sharon Osborne, Michael Jackson and one other person. At some point in time green goo was involved.
Their fans loved it! I'd never seen so many people happy to have ruined their clothes. Some of them were more than happy, they were proud! It's some kind of status symbol to be able to get the most guck on you. Clearly this states your dedication to GWAR and killing stupid people (that part I kind of understand...). Besides, the fact that these people managed to dye black red is pretty amazing all in itself. Just think of how wet you have to get to dye black. Oh ya, that was 500 people last night at the Odeon. Then imagine me trying to walk between these people at the end of the night without touching anyone for fear the love of GWAR is contagious or something. If I was Marla there is no doubt I would have slipped on the goo and made a spectacular fall into a group of dripping, vibrating fans. It was pretty entertaining.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
internet-ho!
I just thought I'd let you know that I officially have the internet in my new domicile. This is pretty exciting for a girl who is over a full month behind on all the tv she watches. Maybe less exciting for my cooworkers - no more covering my ears signing songs and doing strange chair dances to avoid hearing info I don't want to know yet for me! How the dancing helps? that's for me to know, thank you.
Today was a rather eventful day in period 3. Somehow a student managed to "spill" a slurpee on my floor, down my bulletin board, and on my ceiling. This mislead soul can't add, but he sure knows how to spill up. To make this story even better, while he's cleaning up a brawl almost erupts between him and another typically good natured student. I've pieced the dialogue together and I believe it may have gone something like this (I really only heard the last bit, I was handing back exams at the front of the room):
Slurpee spiller - student is mopping the floor, wiping the ceiling and wall...
Other student "hey, you better do a better job, you missed a bit"
SS "do it yourself if you don't like it"
OS"fuck you"
(I never did find out what SS said here)
OS: "Well I'm not the fucking retard who fucking spilled it in the first place, fuck!"
This is where I clued in and kicked them both out. The admin was in to talk to my class later... never a dull moment...
Today was a rather eventful day in period 3. Somehow a student managed to "spill" a slurpee on my floor, down my bulletin board, and on my ceiling. This mislead soul can't add, but he sure knows how to spill up. To make this story even better, while he's cleaning up a brawl almost erupts between him and another typically good natured student. I've pieced the dialogue together and I believe it may have gone something like this (I really only heard the last bit, I was handing back exams at the front of the room):
Slurpee spiller - student is mopping the floor, wiping the ceiling and wall...
Other student "hey, you better do a better job, you missed a bit"
SS "do it yourself if you don't like it"
OS"fuck you"
(I never did find out what SS said here)
OS: "Well I'm not the fucking retard who fucking spilled it in the first place, fuck!"
This is where I clued in and kicked them both out. The admin was in to talk to my class later... never a dull moment...
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
the reader's digest edition
stay tuned for the full stories later...
so in the spirit of trying to get this thing updated- something is better than nothing ne? - real stories to come asap.
since my last post i have (in no particular order):
- gone on a canoe trip to nistoyiak falls with 5 students
- become an "adult ally" for feehan's youth action circle
- continued teaching
- worked an insane amount of hours at the odeon (one cheque had 40 hours on it...)
- moved into a house with a roommate (odeon employee and public system teacher)
- had parent-teacher interviews
- worked saturday nights at diva's
- attended two conferences, one in saskatoon and one in regina
- attended a stagette in moose jaw
- joined an adult ballet class
- completed my professional growth plan for the year
- most likely driven my boyfriend crazy more times than he can count-he claims to love me anyway : )
- turned 25
- finally finished reading "a complicated kindness"
- bought a new bed
- gone to the ballet twice (swan lake and dracula)
- saw the arcade fire and wide mouth in concert
well i'm sure there's more but i'm drawing blanks so til later.
so in the spirit of trying to get this thing updated- something is better than nothing ne? - real stories to come asap.
since my last post i have (in no particular order):
- gone on a canoe trip to nistoyiak falls with 5 students
- become an "adult ally" for feehan's youth action circle
- continued teaching
- worked an insane amount of hours at the odeon (one cheque had 40 hours on it...)
- moved into a house with a roommate (odeon employee and public system teacher)
- had parent-teacher interviews
- worked saturday nights at diva's
- attended two conferences, one in saskatoon and one in regina
- attended a stagette in moose jaw
- joined an adult ballet class
- completed my professional growth plan for the year
- most likely driven my boyfriend crazy more times than he can count-he claims to love me anyway : )
- turned 25
- finally finished reading "a complicated kindness"
- bought a new bed
- gone to the ballet twice (swan lake and dracula)
- saw the arcade fire and wide mouth in concert
well i'm sure there's more but i'm drawing blanks so til later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)