I'm a University student; i am not particularly interesting, avant-garde or risque; i like to pretend this blog contains thoughts
worth sharing with the few friends who take the trouble to read it - but i know that is a delusion. These are mostly journal entries. Occasionally i post a short-story
or scholastic insight. oh yeah, my name is heather and i live in a suburb of Montreal.
i am in a class i took last year because i am not enjoying school very much this week and this professor is really fun and it is nice to just be sitting here typing away and not worrying. i am sitting at the back of the class though and it is obvious how people who are actually paying attention sit in the front. my aquafitness class on monday was in an unheated pool. of course, i called building managment to complain of course. who wants to freeze to death? last night's music class was good. i chatted with veronica for the majority of the class, gotta luv laptops and MSN. i lucked in because my prof. kind of did part of my assignment for my concert review exercise to exemplify the whole process for everyone else. this week-end i am going to try and write an outline for the paper and send it to the prof. i also have to decide if i am going to give an oral or do a paper on music in a place of worship. i think i want to do an oral, but i need a topic. i only got a 73% on my map quiz in arab history. ick. nice going. i really want a caramel corretto for my italian class, but as i on have $22 for the next week it is probably a bad idea. i wish i could get over it though. i am falling asleep. maybe i should splurge... my mum woke me up this morning half an hour early by fighting with the dirty dishes which had to go in the dishwasher. ugh. it put me in an awful mood about my brother. i want to move out, but i don't want to work anymore too and the two are obviously mutually exclusive unless i win some sort of weird-ass lottery that you don't even have to buy a ticket for. oh yeah...that's what i've decided to get the deadbeat for his birthday - scratchie lotteries in a card and maybe a $10 Subway Gift Certificate. If i am in a good mood.
the murder mystery at Sandra's house for her 25th birthday was surprisingly fun. the wine i drank and the excellent menu helped i will admit, but it was very well done and it was fun. i got home at midnight, which is really very surprising as i think that is the latest i have ever arrived home when it was me driving. i stalled in the middle of the 117 while crossing oncoming traffic though. i thought i was going to die. i was not the murderer at the party. watched two movies this weekend (besides another five episodes of gilmore girls): the hitchiker's guide to the galaxy and a thai movie of the bruce lee type genre, but it was much better than expected as the fighting scenes actually appeared to require some exertion on the part of the protagonist. Steve and i had little spats all week-end, which of course sucked, but when i arrived at his house on friday after waiting around for him to "leave in 15 minutes" for 2.5 hours (he was stuck with his boss in Bellefeuille) i was very upset to discover that his room and bathroom had gotten into a worse state than the week before. and he had been complaining that he hadn't been able to do anything all week. he washed the bathroom this afternoon and i cleaned the catbox and put all his clean clothes away. it helped. i still do not have full motion in my jaw, but there is little i cannot eat other than baguette bread. we had a big dinner this evening too, and lost 2 lbs this week! woohoo. i have two tests tomorrow so i won't be going to prof. gittes' class. it's italian and latin. i only have lists of what i have to know instead of actually having memorized the vocab and grammatical rules...oh well, that's what tomorrow morning is for. i also have to go pick up my textbook for history of china which has FINALLY arrived. i only have $20 for all of this week and until thurs. of next. this could be rough. i also have to pay my cellphone bill and my visa before steve and i go away for our anniversary. we booked the place this week-end for Saturday night. the plan is to go to Mont-Tremblant saturday during the day and walk through the fall foliage. okay, well this post has rambled enough.
a cultural outing: classical music is cooler than i expected. i did know that i like it, but the concert Lisa and I (we met Bryan, a friend from the LAC too) went to last night was pleasantly enjoyable. a Big thank you to Lisa for staying out late with me so i could go. We first went out for dinner at Nickels and i ate real food: cheese tortellini and some of Lisa's Chicken Caesar salad. Then we went to Tim Hortons for Iced Caps. That was fun. When we got to the concert hall (McGill's Pollack) we discovered that it was sold out, but luckily i had reserved and paid for tickets three hours earlier. The first concerto was by a montreal composer - Jose Evangelista, who is also a Professor at the Universite de Montreal. The music was beautiful, a violin concert, and i think the best description of how it was played would be conversationally. It was very very nice. Then there was a piano concerto by German Galynine (1922-1966), a Russian, with a fantastic concert pianist Sergei Salov. The second movement of this concerto was acutely painful, but the resolution of the tension in the third movement was only all the more satisfying. It made me think a lot of the whole "paper-writing process." It was great. They did an encore however, which screwed up my whole lift arrangement home and ruined much of the experience of the Symphony because i was so busy worrying about how mad my Dad would be that we were so very late. Beethoven's Fifth was great. Of course i had heard it before, but i had always been doing something else too, so it was great to really focus. Bryan said that the horns screwed up in the first movement (the metallic sound was maintained during the decline of the notes???), but i didn't really notice. I didn't pick up the break between the third and fourth though, because i was worrying. It was intensely powerful though because i ended up being distracted from my bad mood on more than one occasion. Unlike in the second movement of the piano concerto where i COULD NOT concentrate on the music for the life of me, which of course was the point. Now i am just hoping that there will be reviews in more than one paper this morning so i can write my assignment on this concert. I would like to be able to hand in multiple rough drafts and actually get a good mark. I am only working this morning, then i am going home to do homework. I am seeing Steve tonight - i saw him Wednesday to by the way. And i managed to get there only stalling my car once! I am so proud. I'd better go punch in. Thanks again Lisa.
a quick post-i am really tired already and i haven't even been to one class i am actually signed up for yet. the line at the Student Centre was so atrocious that i have put off getting proof i am a student for the insurance company until at least wednesday (after school fees deadline has come and gone). I saw Prof. Nixon about the concert i am going to thursday and now i am supposed to find time to listen to different recordings of the symphony before going. yeah. that will happen. i didn't sleep well at all last night. i couldn't fall asleep until almost midnight and then i woke up at 4:15 with no painkillers in my system. thank god i had thought to put a glass of water and the pills on my nightstand. I only fell back asleep at 5:30 though. I am not well-rested and my head hurts. i wonder how taking a caffeine pill will react with the other drugs. i am not sure aquafitness tonight is a great idea. at least i will have some arab history readings with me incase i have to drop out.
i'm taking a break from some music history homework. i just finished taking care of my teeth and trying one of the new "life brand" exfoliating masks from Pharmaprix that my Mum bought me for $1.99 to cheer me up on Friday. My face feels all tingly. I am downloading some North American flute music that my music history textbook mentions in a blurb that i am curious about. i actually got quite a lot of work done today and was still able to watch three episodes of the gilmore girls. yeah. i woke up and 2:30am though, after falling asleep watching my history of china lectures, and i thought something was trying to bore its way out of my head. thank god for painkillers (i think i have written that before). Anywho, i was awakened at 7:30 by my parents attempting to herd a baby squirrel out of the house. He/she was very obstinant about hanging around inside and obviously did not understand the danger of humans nor our three cats. It eventually scurried out the side door though. I worked on Latin a little, but i have not managed to complete what i needed to get done. it requires a higher level of concentration than i am able to muster at the moment. I did finish the China lectures and my Italian homework however. Hopefully i will get my music readings done before going to bed. Steve came over this afternoon and we attempted to teach me how to drive a standard. i stalled quite a bit, but i understand the principles a little better now. i am going to try and go to his house on wednesday for an hour all by myself. hopefully i will be good enough to drive to Lisa's thursday evening before going to the Beethoven concert. We went to Walmart and i bought some ibprofen (because my prescription version is almost out), a pair of furry socks, some listerine and some comfy undies that will be one size too small after shrinkage in the wash. i am kind of upset about that last bit, but i think since i am supposed to be losing some weight - not that the diet has been working - i will be able to use them as any indicator of how successful i am being because since i don't have a scale in my bathroom weighing myself is an issue. Steve and i surfed the internet after dinner (i ate what looked like previously digested pea soup - ick) and we talked about what we are going to do for our six year anniversary in the beginning of october. it was a nice day despite the pounding in my head which made driving even more difficult than it should have been. well, that's enough procrastinating - see...there have been three posts this week, that is much better. i am not as optimistic about the webpage however.
my wisdom teeth were removed yesterday and it went pretty well. it only took 45 minutes to removal all four and give me the anesthetic. only one side of my face is swollen. the other three teeth hurt, but not like my lower left one. my mum had taken the day off, so we sat around watching the gilmore girls all day. Eating hurts because my throat is sore and one side of my jaw is seized. My mum is making sheperd's piet for dinner though, so hopefully there will be come nourishment there. we went to pick up my new car this morning. i did not get to drive it back though because i was in too much pain from the headache and throbbing and i can't drive a standard to start with so i thought it might be a bad idea to start under such circumstances. i am supposed to be doing homework this evening, finally, but i am not so sure it will happen. being in pain is not very motivating. thank god for prescription drugs. i am a little upset that i cannot download the whole Jonas album on limewire, there are some songs that i cannot find. sniff. i tried to call Veronica early but she was not in, which is probably a good thing because lisa told me she was not feeling very great yesterday, so i am hoping she went out with Mark for the afternoon and has been cheered up. other than that, i guess all is well. Steve is supposed to come over tomorrow for a little while. maybe i will make him watch the gilmore girls with me. i should probably attempt to burn copies of the DVDs, or The Pretender which Lisa also let me - thank god for lisa. well, i will probably write again tomorrow when i need to proscratinate doing my homework some more.
yeah, so it's been a while but i have been busy. La Ronde on Saturday was okay except they lie that they are open until 10pm when really all the rides are shut by 7pm. That was a let down. My brother proved his sot-ness on my birthday because he let my Mum by me game that wouldn't run on my Mac because he thought i would install it on his PC downstairs. Hmmm. My birthday was alright. Lisa and I went out for lunch which was nice. I got myself a pair of copper earrings and everyone called to wish me a nice day (friends and family) which made me feel loved of course. Steve forgot his cellphone at home and called me after 11pm, but it is okay now. I am less mad. Other than that, i am already behind in school and there is a lot of work to do but i am stuck on the board and haven't been able to go get more work that i can do while answering the phones. Tomorrow i am getting my wisdom teeth pulled, which my insurance won't cover apparently because i can't prove i am a full-time student before tomorrow morning, so there should be lots of posting because i won't be able to talk. sniff. everyone thinks this part of it is very fun.
still don't know if yesterday's post made it up or not. Blogger was having system problems i think. oh well. i am not going to recap. I am working this morning until noon, then i am heading out to initiation for the first years at the LAC. I have to go bug Julius in shipping for some boxes before i punch in. Yesterday Steve came and got me at my Dad's football practice. We stopped at Jean-Coutu to pick up some hair-bleach - and his hair turned CARE BEAR PINK instead of bleaching out the red entirely. Hehehe. He is adorable and doesn't look mean for once. He wants to shave it all off of course, but i asked that he keep it until my birthday because i like it. My Mum laughed at him. I went and bought some pesto for dinner. We dipped good bread in it and i hate cheese tortellini. Steve celebrated actually having money in his pocket by ordering in a submarine. Horribly exciting i know. We watched the O.C. in French and used the massage bar again. I love that thing (thanks Vero). Sarah called me yesterday. I am happy she did, now i need to find the time to call her back so we can meet up one day! Maybe this morning on break. I also have to call Doug about when my new car will be ready. It would be cool to have it for my birthday.
four days in five minutes... yeah. so i hung out with Lisa Monday night. it was fun. we watched Hello Again, a Shelley Long movie from 1987. It was so bad it was hysterical. We also did some of her laundry for the next day. She seems to be liking her new program, so that rocks. Tuesday i worked until 4:30. It was long. Then i went in for music history. yeah. it was really weird talking to all the people i spoke to everyday for like 8 months, but didn't manage to stay in contact with over the summer. I always find going back to school weird for that reason. People you get really attached to, but somehow never become more than acquaintances. If i only had more time on my hands. By the way, Music history looks like it will be painful. I only know 2 people in the class and i'm tone deaf. Lovely. Wednesday i managed to sign up for two more courses (sitting in, not as a registered student) and was sucked into the Vortex that is Ed Lorkovic's office. Then i went out for lunch with Merav. We had class in the same delapitated building on Drummond, so we walked together. My Intro to Italian class is filled with people who already are fluent. FUCK. Then i went to Latin. It is in the tiniest classroom ever on the 9th floor of the hall building. Then i went to History of the Middle East, which looks so bobo i could not go to a single class. And a girl, Gaby, who went to Florence with us is my TA. I got dragged into helping with initiation tomorrow, then i went to the meeting of the Council of Canadians. They seem very nice, but i am unsure as to the effectiveness of their efforts. Hmmm. I will decide after three meetings. Now i am at work, already punched in, so also a bad person. Munching on a coffee crisp...bad for me. But after a sandwich for dinner two nights in a row...i deserve it.
friday was both long and short simultaneously. i had so much work to do that the actual time passed quickly, but i spent the whole day waiting for it to come to an end. My whole family went out for dinner at the restaurant where Lisa works. Because of the huge amount of chinese food i managed to eat i haven't managed to lose a single pound in the past two weeks. This is upsetting. Steve came by and we went to tim hortons to pick up an extra large hot chocolate and then we went to the beach in rosemere to sit and watch the current. there was a drake who had been in a fight with his wife and was wondering all alone in the middle of the river quacking. she was talking back to him too, he eventually swam down river so i figure they made up. Then there was something swimming about close to us that was breaking the current, but we couldn't figure out what because it was NOT a duck. I was betting on an eel. I slept in until 8:40am this morning...what a delight. I got up and played around with the webpage, wrote some emails and then i had to take a shower and get ready to go out for breakfast for my Mum's birthday. She appeared to enjoy all of her presents very much. I ordered french toast with a mound of fresh fruit drizzled with english cream for breakfast because i was so upset about being on a diet (i.e. always hungry) for the past two weeks and having not last any weight. Since we got back i put a patch on my jeans to hide the hole in the butt, sewed up the tear in the knee and redid the seam on a pink sweater i own but never wore last year because i was too lazy to fix it. i forget to repair the rip in my long jean skirt however. the plan for this afternoon is to actually write some content for the webpage and read some of the news magazines i never get around to. that is if i don't fall asleep first.
I go back to school on Tuesday, but only in the evening and next week i will be working all day Tuesday and Thursday, so it isn't really, but i am trying to pretend to make the day less dreary. I didn't sleep well, my wet hair has saturated my shirt and i am cold. Just a barrel of monkeys this morning, aren't i?
Yesterday was a pretty long day because my Dad left work early and i stayed here until quarter to six waiting for Steve to pick me up. I managed to make it to the bank though and deposited my loan certificate. Then Steve and i ate and tried out the new massage bar Veronica gave me for my birthday (2 weeks early, but she was in town). It was very nice. It's called "fever" the scent and is very appropriate because it is mildly flowery with just a hint of cinnamon. I love LUSH Cosmetics.
Then we fell asleep watching Shanghai Knights, which was playing on TV. I had signed up for my aquafitness course yesterday morning and our Shiatsu massage course too. I don't know what we are going to do this week-end except that it is my Mum's birthday tomorrow, so i must be home for lunch and give her her present. Oh yeah, and Steve is working Saturday and Monday. He says he needs the money for my birthday present. Maybe i won't be disappointed this year. That comment is almost a guarantee i will be.
worries over gas prices Gas is now at $1.35/litre. Meaning the cost of living just jumped incredibly and i am a little worried about what the upcoming year will hold. i am strapped for cash enough as is and some killer inflation is going to make things much harder. i know the gas prices are katrina-related, but it's worth noting that prices rarely FALL. I put down a deposit on the little red neon, but i don't see myself using it much. Other than that, Steve was acting like a woman again last night. Apparently i was supposed to know that for the first time EVER he wanted to come and hang out with me and my girlfriends. I almost 6 years of being together i have invited out with me and my friends at least once a month and he has NEVER said yes. So i have stopped. Of course "c'est toujours ma faute" was his answer. I can't cope. My webpage on videotron is starting to look better, so i figure i will be linking to this page because it is so much more hassle-free to make entries in blogger than to write it all up in html. The address is http://pages.videotron.com/hfeather/index.html, but i warn you that there is no content whatsoever yet on the shell. Hopefully Veronica will be interested in working on it with me this school year. Maybe Lisa, Merav, Julie and some other people from school will contribute the occasional article too. I want to run it as a web magazine. Well, i only have five more minutes before school starts, so i had better go sign up for my aquafitness course with my Mum. Hopefully i will make it to the bank today to deposit my student loan and begin the week long process of actually getting the money.
