18 posts tagged “friends”

Today for work I had to man a station at a science carnival. Despite a day long of standing, it was quite fun. Besides, the post office got me tolerant to 8 hours of standing, so I'm okay with it. So basically, all day I made magic mud and showed it to kids.

Mmm... Everyone's moved out of res except for a few friends. And my building's being shut down for the summer, so I have to move to another one. But that room isn't ready yet, so I'm waiting in this room... one of like 3 people left in this half of the building. The whole thing's so... post-apocalyptic. Doors are swinging open, everything's empty. In the common area, everything's sitting oddly skewed. There are half-finished glasses of iced tea, and plates sitting out with the skeletal remains of a last chicken dinner. Everyone forgot the food they left in the common fridge. It's as if everyone just up and left. Which is kind of what actually happened. It doesn't help that the move-out deadline was in the middle of my work shift, so I left for work and there was still a community here, and when I came back... just me and my friend Izzy. We're hanging out in one of the open buildings, because it's pretty darn depressing here.

Not that there were that many people here last night. Like.... 8 of my friends from res were left last night. We went out for dinner, and when we came back, I commented "Hey guys, aren't you kind of expecting to be greeted by a bunch of people in the common room.... It's just us..." Sigh...

That being said, I'm really ready for the good times this summer. I thought I would dread cooking for myself, but we're all getting kind of excited planning meals and going grocery shopping. I doubt we'll be so excited after the first several meals, but we'll see.... Darn I wish I could stay the whole summer..

I finally went book shopping today. Walking down the street... I felt like time was going slower. Everyone was walking slower. I'm done... I'm not rushing anywhere. It's warm... no one's hurrying to get inside.

It's going to be fun.

Every week in Chem we'd get this online homework due at midnight on Sunday. And since last week was my last week of classes I figured no way they'd have it tonight. But, like a good student, I logged on 5 hours ago to check. Buttt... then I started listening to music and completely forgot. And I just remembered now, and surprise surprise we did have it. But it's 2 am. I don't care too much though. I did 11/12 of them. That's a good mark.

Today we had no hot water in our building and   no one     knew     what     to     do with themselves. I don't know. It was really the focal topic of the day, and everyone felt kinda greasy. I guess everyone showers in the morning. I tried to shower in only cold, and this left me feeling chilled all day. Lame. And it wasn't even too nice out today. That's okay; I lived in the library anyway.

I have spent the last 4 days working on the newspaper, and it was really making me go mad, but it'll be done by 4 tomorrow or..... it'll be done.

Ay ay ay!

I got up early for class today, but now I have nothing until 7. Hours and hours to enjoy this beautiful day!! It is so nice. I went over to the library for lunch with a friend (did I mention that every building on campus seems to have an eatery), and then we just dawdled so much getting back to res... and we were enjoying it so much, we just got a bunch of people together and went for a lovely walk to the east. I was aiming for a park, but we kept drifting north and missed it. But I cared not - it's warm enough for a windbreaker over a short-sleeved shirt, even just a t-shirt without a jacket places where it isn't windy. Aaaahhhh....

And so now I'm sitting in my room trying to work.... but my window is wide open, and there's jus no way.... I can smell the hotdog stand across the street, and I'm thinking of barbecues on the back deck... And the cottage. Oh hot damn I need to get up there. Lazy buzzing days reading on the moss in the shade of the pines... Dinners outside in the late dusk light... Thunderstorms!... Kayaking, swimming.... Bonfires.... Friends and family. Oh god! I love the city, I do, but there is nothing like being up north by the water, surrounded by nature.

And it looks like I may get a vacation this summer after all. They said we wouldn't at the first job training session, but then I heard that the first week of August was off. So we may get out west to see the family, which would be awesome. I miss Gramma. And I have good memories of hiking in the coulees, down by the river in the dry prairie heat. Yikes! I am looking forward to summer. And enjoying now, too.

Too bad about exams!

Spring is totally here. Yesterday was damn warm! For a while. And today was beautifully clear but not cold!

But spring means something sad... the end of the year! I had my last Chem lab, my last Calc lecture.... :-(. This year has been so amazing. I've never felt so happy and fulfilled, really. I love my life. High school was... not an accurate model of the real world, and I am so glad. Ah!

That being said, I am totally looking forward to the near future. My job seems awesome, I get to live downtown for half of the summer, and frosh next year and meeting tonnes of new people will be super.

But yeah... first year is nearly done (only exams really.... yay), and I'm 1/4 done my undergrad. Stay back, adult life!

Man I love walking. On Saturday night I did this walk home from a party:

Granted, it was a little on the irresponsible side because it was 1:00 am. But Toronto is awesome at night. Bloor was happenin'! It was very refreshing, and it was mostly downhill (towards the lake, you know), so it took ~45 minutes. There was a bit of jogging. Just got itching to get going at some parts. I went for another walk today. Short though. I wanted to get out to some parks to the east, but I went with a friend who just wanted a quick break, so I didn't drag her along for something especially involveddd....

Things I planned to accomplish tonight:
- cleaning my room
- three pieces of homework
- laundry

Actual accomplishments:
- sitting in front of the TV
- lurking the internet
- going out for cake with friends (futures!)

The last one made it valid. And I half cleaned my room.

I finally bought myself a májiàng set. $40, which is not bad... nice good-sized tiles I guess. So yeah got a lot of people playing last night, drinking soup, and having a good time until the small hours of the morning. It's surprisingly addictive, and easier than you expect to learn. And everyone seems to want to, though usually they think it's the same as on the computer, but that's mahjong solitaire. Whereas the actual game requires 4 people - which is one of the benefits, since it gets everyone together! I brought my set home for easter, and everyone in the family is pretty hooked.

Oh the one thing is that the box smells like formaldehyde, which is a little off-putting.

I got the science camp job. Which is good except that it takes up 2 complete weekends for training, and I really really can't afford that considering I'm already wading in backlogged homework. But I guess that just means lots of late nights at the libraryyyyy.

Ai...

Oh well. I have like.... 3 more weeks of school. Ho-ly! And then exams for a month....

I didn't study for my calc test, and it went okay, and I knew that because of that, I wouldn't study for this chem test. And I basically didn't, and it went fine, so that doesn't bode well for finals, since I know I'll totally slack. But yeah, it was easy. But as usual, no matter how hard or easy anyone individually found it, everyone acted like it was completely average in all respects, because that's being "polite", which very often involves lying, doesn't it?

Oh and the main reason I didn't really study was St. Patrick's Day. See, I completely didn't drink or do drugs in 2007, after an interesting 2006, and I still rarely drink. So I'm not sure exactly what my rationale was behind getting completely wasted on a Monday night before a Wednesday midterm. But it happened, and I had fun. Boy was I opinionated that night. Now, even sober, I'll take any opportunity to make some sort of angry feminist argument, so with some alcohol in me, well, there was a lot of slurred shouting about "71 cents on the dollar", and "the angel in the house". Other favoured drunk topics of mine, including most aspects of white guilt, were well covered that night.

Aaaand.

Winter is over, motherfuckers. The city is melting, birds are chirping, plants are coming up. Of course, everyone's going a little overboard.... it's not quite shorts weather no matter how people try.... But we're getting there, and I can feel the warm weather already.

For some reason, the DST change really messed me up. Circumstances didn't help.

I had an interview this morning at 9, so I figured I'd try to go to bed early. 11:30. Of course by ~12:45 I was still rolling around in bed practising my pronunciation of rudimentary Mandarin phrases, because this is what I do when I ought to be sleeping. Anyway, then my friends [using initials is getting lame, so we'll call them...] Bizarre and Pineapple knocked on my door to remind me that the time was changing. Which was very very helpful of them because I had no idea and would have missed the interview. But it was kind of unfortunate because there went another hour. Eventually I ended up getting about 4 hours, and I don't do well on low sleep.

Uh yeah and I didn't know that on Sundays our caf opens at 9 so.... breakfast was a Rice Krispie Square from last night. Classy.

Anyway the interview went fine, ended at like 11:20. And then I went and got lunch, played Wii with Bizarre for what I thought was an hour and then.... it was 4:30. And then I fell asleep. I felt jetlagged, to tell you the truth.

So I woke up at 6:30, had dinner, and then tried to do this online homework we get in Chem due Sunday night (hence doing it now). And this stuff is damn easy - everyone gets basically perfect. But I kept fucking up. Like... arithmetic. I was getting upset, and that wasn't helping. Anyway, so the point is, uhh the new DST schedule didn't go well for me. Damn you Yankees!

China has only one time zone when it ought to have 5. The ROC says it does have the 5, but the PRC puts everyone on Beijing time.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
That map is hella outdated, if anyone cares.

Hey last entry was bitter!

This year is going by wayyyy too fast. I was reading a friend's Livejournal, and she was reflecting on her progress on accomplishing her New Year's Resolutions. And I could so clearly remember talking to her on the phone on New Year's Eve and her telling them to me... it feels like last week! And it was 2.4 months ago! Where did my life go! I don't want this year to end. Summer = home + work = lame.

However summer also = warm. And this weather is ridiculous. We're getting 36 hours of snowfall! Someone claimed we're in for 50 cm... I don't know about that, but it's certainly coming down. The melt is going to be gross.

Song!

Not terribly upbeat, I admit, but good for evening-time. A friend of mine called Black Moth Super Rainbow "trance". Err.... I'm not sure exactly why. I think the vocoder's just gotten a bad reputation. But what does she know.

Notice how there's just silence at the end. Another untitled track follows it on the album... I guess it's supposed to be "secret"? That worked on casettes, but not so much on CDs.....

My chain scarf is going well. I finally figured out how I was switching knit-purl on the wrong stitch, which was making one part of each "link" look funny. But now successive links are better.

My Bioethics assignment is only minimally happening.

Today's weather was terribly unpleasant. Really quite cold. And snow falling at about the rate and density of rain. Really small flakes.

Thinking about including that in this post led to this dialogue in the Common Room, featuring me, my neighbour, who I will designate with A, and my friend, let's say L.

Me: You know, I realized today that I am that boring person who always talks about the weather.
[I realized this long ago, but I brought it up like that]
L: Hah.
Me: I mean, with like Fung [the caf] staff, and with acquaintances, when they say "How are you?", I say "I'm good, it's cold," or "I'm okay, it's sunny out."
A: Yeah that's true.
L: I've never noticed that.
Me: Do you mean it's true about me or people in general?
A: I mean about you.
Me: That's because L is my friend, and you're my acquaintance.
A: Pff.
Me: I'm kidding.
[A leaves]
Me: I'm not kidding.
L: Haha.

I am an asshole in real life. "I.R.L." The acronym R.L. was used in this way in one of the university papers today, and I didn't really know what to think of that.

I called my old boss from the post office today. She's pregnant, 40, and a chain smoker. Good luck.

Some time mid-next week, I am going to be grossly behind on coursework. I'm just sort of teetering now. It'll work out.

But I don't want to get proactive! I just want to knit and listen to music. Allll day. Foxfire Forest are having a renaissance for me.

The lasagna at the cafeteria today is horrendous.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that my circle of close friends ("close") is dictated by people who understand my sense of humour, which can sometimes be... esoteric? Did I mention that my closest friend told me that I have "an unlikeable personality". This caused self-esteem damage of approximately 20%, though it was positive in that it made me care much less about others' opinions of me.

My friend from Jilin told me that if I move to China I should live in Hainan. I don't know how much this appeals to me, as it is quite warm, though said friend reports Chongqing to be much worse. Guangdong province is nearby, and it seems nice, though they are Cantonese there. Hangzhou or Nanjing are the most likely candidates for now. We'll see how this eventually pans out.