Prosaic Adrenaline

Books.

2011-07-19T08:12:00.006-04:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I live for reading. Books excite me. I am a book hoarder. Etc. Etc. Etc.

I've decided I should start to review some of what I read, so you will all be privy to my strongly worded opinions. This idea immediately makes me think of the hundreds (actually thousands) of books I've read in my life that I haven't reviewed, but have wanted to talk to someone about after reading. Despite that daunting feeling and the slight urge to track down the majority of all books I've read, in order to read them again and properly review them, I will simply start now, from here on.

Last night I finished "Recipes for a Perfect Marriage" by Morag Prunty. Did I buy this because I'm getting married in 46 days and want to read marriage-themed books? No. I bought it because it was on the "3 for $10" table at the World's Biggest Bookstore. I actually pick up a lot of those clearance books, and it's a total lottery. I've found amazing books that I absolutely LOVE, and others that are so horrible that they go directly into the recycling bin. (That's my hugest 'YOU SUCK' statement to a book: refusing to pass it on to someone or put it in the giveaway pile, bypassing these options for a direct CHUCK, because no one else should be subjected to its awfulness.)

(Side note: Morag Prunty is an Irish author - I seem to find a lot of Irish authoress' works on clearance racks at bookstores, and so far, I've thoroughly enjoyed every one of them.)

Anyways, "Recipes for a Perfect Marriage" was a novel containing two interspersed stories, one from the perspective of a woman in her late thirties who had just gotten married, and the other, her grandmother. The book started with the younger woman, Tressa, wondering if she'd married the right guy, and knowing that she didn't really love her husband as much as she should - guiltily feeling like she married him just to be married. She had always looked up to her grandmother, Bernadine, and felt like she'd had such a perfect marriage to her (now dead) grandfather. But as Tressa reads Bernadine's stories, she realizes her grandmother had a past love and was somewhat forced into marrying James, her grandfather. Over the years she learned to love him, so that finally theirs was a marriage of love and partnership and respect, even though it didn't start out that way. Her grandmother's journals help Tressa realize that marriage isn't necessarily all about feeling 'in love' every single moment, but that it's a choice, and she makes some bad decisions before realizing that she does want to stay married to her husband.

Reading that summary, the book sounds boring and trite. It wasn't. However, I think the one overused feature in it was the fact that there was a recipe at the beginning of each book. I have read SO many novels that incorporate the food theme, how food and love go together, and especially where the grandmother is passing down recipes to the grandmother. I'm more than a little sick of it. Yes, we all know food is important, we all know we'll never bake and cook as well as our grandmothers did. Stop trying to bait my emotions with this tactic.

That being said, I really, really liked this book. Typically, books written for females involve a lot of crap about following one's heart and being in love, as well as decisions based on feelings, emotion, and not a whole lot of grey matter. I think marriage is much more about a choice to love someone despite your sometimes varying feelings for them, knowing full well that your commitment to that person won't equal goopy lovesick emotion all the time. So generally, my reaction to "chick lit" books where women run off and have affairs and do whatever they feel like at that moment isn't favourable. Which is why I really liked this book. Granted, (SPOILER ALERT) the main character did have an affair, which was ridiculous and not totally fitting with her behaviour previously in the book. BUT, I liked the author's emphasis on a real-ish marriage relationship, and the fact that life sucks a lot of the time. The recipes at the beginnings of the chapters were accompanied by quotes, such as "You don't have to feel love to give it" or "When it feels difficult to give, give more." I liked these quotes. They were refreshing and wise and real, and gave the book a tone of depth.

That's all. I would recommend this book - but probably not if you are being asked to pay full price for it. Then again, I don't pay full price for any book.

My take on NKOTBSB's Mash Up track.

2011-05-27T13:45:00.003-04:00

Okay. When I first heard about NKOTBSB, obviously I realized it was this huge ploy to get females my age to relive their childhood and buy the new albums and go to the concerts. That's fine. I don't mind at all. I have very fond memories of both NKOTB and BSB.

HOWEVER.

If you're going to do this whole thing, bring back all these guys, actually legitimately try to market this thing and make a few dollars off these washed-up dudes, then DO IT RIGHT. Meaning, get a talented producer, good sound effects, good studio mixers, etc.

This was the product that was produced: (I recommend you listen to the whole song to get the full effect of my upcoming critiques).

I think we can agree: the song is HORRIBLE. I was honestly expecting something sort of good. Here are my top 3 beefs with this song:

1. Sloppy transitions. Whoever decided to do this mash-up had a good idea in theory, but didn't put more than half an hour of thought into how all the songs would fit together. Technically, I believe the definition of "mash-up" is that the songs are mashed together, maybe even somewhat seamlessly? This is more like various song clips sloppily stuck together with awkward pauses in between.

2. Brutal singing. I mean, come on guys. And, come on marketing guys! Yes, you need to have all the former members of the two bands in this new group - but do they really all have to sing? You couldn't have invested in some voice lessons, or just let the few talented singers step up to the plate?

3. PRODUCTION QUALITY: my largest beef. So the guys can't sing: FIX THEIR VOICES. And why not use the authentic sound effects from the original songs, instead of trying to 2011-ize them by making the whole song sound more modern and therefore less fun? I feel like I'm not explaining this accurately. But the whole thing just sounds like one of those "Starlight Productions" albums where it's like, "In the style of ABBA!" and not ACTUALLY them, you know? They sort of made an effort to sound like the original but don't even come close.
I WANTED original sound effects.

I am constantly puzzled by this mash-up, which really had potential to be a great nostalgic dance track and ballad all in one. Instead it's just an embarrassing talentless mess. Sorry guys.

Spring? Have you sprung?

2011-03-19T08:57:00.003-04:00

I hate to be one of those people who talks about the weather, but seriously. This winter has dragged on forever and a day, and finally the other night it felt like spring. I sat in my favourite corner of the couch and opened the sliding door to the porch to let a fresh breeze in, and I felt ridiculously happy. But now, it's BACK TO BEING COLD!!!! At least we have been given a tiny foretaste of spring. I heard on a podcast the other day that the human body was designed for hotter temperatures, and it's much better at self-regulating in hotter weather - in other words, the body can cool itself down much better than it can heat itself up. I so agree. Hot weather just makes me happy.

Whenever I feel stressed, in my brain, I use the word "stressio" to describe it.

The other night I tried to make a pad thai dish. It turned out OKAAAAYYY, not super great, but not bad for my first attempt. I started by sauteeing some onions and garlic, and then adding some random frozen veggies that I happened to have: namely, peas and green beans. Pretty sure those aren't standard fare for pad thai, but I wasn't about to run out for more ingredients. Then I added the shrimp.... all instructions (the shrimp package, plus extensive online research) led me to believe that the shrimp would only take 2 minutes to become pink and translucent and done. But it took more like ten minutes. At that point I worried that I'd ruined it by cooking it beyond belief, but it was actually perfectly cooked. I added the shrimp/veg mixture to the cooked noodles, and added this package of pad thai sauce I bought. (Come on guys, it's my first time making this. I can't be expected to make the sauce from scratch.) I should've taken a picture but I didn't. It looked lovely and colourful. There are still leftovers in the fridge.

Today I am: cleaning, doing laundry, hanging up clothes in my room, going shopping with Steph, and that's it. You?

There is no better way to start your day than by listening to 80's Christian rock at a loud volume.

2011-03-08T10:22:00.002-05:00

I don't know how to put a video into my blog post, so I'll just give you the link.
TURN IT UP. This is true 80's christian rock.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULcJSLIWoU&feature=related

Thoughts on Thursday.

2011-02-24T20:22:00.002-05:00

I feel guilty sometimes about the small and stupid things that make me immensely happy. Here's a few examples:
- chocolate
- ridiculous novels by Marian Keyes
- watching MXC, Wipeout, or any show where people are wiping out
- laying on the couch with a glass of wine when I get home from work.
- clean sheets

I choose to believe that this just makes me an easily pleased, very happy person. NOT one who is amused by small things because I have a small mind.

The new Thursday night lineup SUCKS. "Perfect Couples" is the worst show ever on an American network, and 30 Rock isn't on until 10, by which point I'm half-asleep.

I NEED TO START A WORKOUT REGIME!!!!

This weekend I'm having a meeting with a place to possibly rent a chandelier for our wedding. This sounds ridiculous. I'm not a Bridezilla at all, and have been a pretty chill bride-to-be thus far, so don't think I'm some kind of cinderella-esque crazy person who needs a chandelier at her wedding. But because it's being held in a tent outside, lighting needs to be considered. Know what I mean?

Ways I know I'm getting old:
- I enjoy going to bed at 10pm.
- I enjoy eating prunes.
- I say "oh dear" every time I yawn.
- I can't get through the weekend without a nap or two.
- I look at teens on the subway and can't believe I was ever that young and annoying.
- I wear sweatpants a lot. Never in public though.

That's all.

Kleines geschenk fur dich. (Little present for you.)

2011-02-04T11:35:00.006-05:00

Hi friendsicles! Tonight we're going to venture out to a restaurant called Trevor's Kitchen for Winterlicious. For those of you not in Toronto, Winterlicious is when normally-expensive restaurants offer a price-fixe menu for a few weeks, so you can go try them out. They're usually around $25 or $30 per person and include an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert.

Last summer we went to some place on Roncesvalles for Summerlicious, and it was really not that great. The food was just unexciting. And the decor and music were very odd. We felt like the staff looked down on us for ordering Summerlicious stuff. Afterwards we walked down the street to a wine bar and I had champagne while sitting on the patio. Now THAT was fun.

As some of you know, I'm getting married in about 7 months. We're not sure where to go for our honeymoon. Initially Jai completely mocked the idea of going to Sandals, because he said they made fun of it on Seinfeld. Then he changed his mind and decided he'd really like to go to Sandals. I wanted to go on a cruise. It turns out we're probably going on a cruise in March 2012, so I relented and said we could do Sandals for the honeymoon. But now I've actually looked into prices and it turns out Sandals is preeeeeeeeeeetty expensive. NOW WHAT???!!!!

I've become obsessed with this new show called Portlandia, created by Carrie Brownstein (formerly of Sleater-Kinney) and Fred Armisen of SNL. Only two episodes have aired so far, and it's the best thing ever. You know when something hits your funny bone exactly, 100%, and you just agree so totally with the humor? That feeling is rare. And that's how I feel about Portlandia. You can find a clip from it on youtube. I have already posted several on my Facebook. A new Portlandia episode debuts TONIGHT, so I'll have more clips for you soon.

My other current full-blown obsession is the show Big Love. I knew for the last couple years that HBO had a show about polygamy, but hadn't gotten around to watching it. [Side note: I have always been really interested in polygamy, extreme FLDS mormonism, and also regular old LDS mormonism. Not sure why, but possibly because one of my good friends growing up was mormon. And just to clarify, when I say really interested, I mean from a truly social standpoint... I can't quite figure out how people think some regular guy found golden plates that were meant to start a brand new religion. I'm not considering converting or anything. But I can't stop reading about mormonism, and about people that have "escaped" from it.] ANYWAYS. Back to the show Big Love. It's incredible. So interesting, quite believable, and really well made, as HBO shows tend to be. Very consistent characters and some very evil and amazing characters. There are several villains. I will describe them in a future post.

That's all for now, folks. What are you up to this weekend?

BAKING!

2010-12-16T10:26:00.005-05:00

The Christmas baking I've done so far consists of the following:

(please note that these pictures are internet stock photos, NOT actual photos of what I made....)

- Sugar cookies: the classic. They're super good and colourfully decorated.

- Gingerbread cookies. Also super good.

- Savoury shortbread - namely, Rosemary Walnut Shortbread. Usually I make a sweet whipped shortbread, but I decided to go savoury this year. People may not like it.... (here's a picture of rosemary since the internet can't find a picture of my cookies)

- Pumpkin muffins. Okay, so these don't really count as Christmas baking, but I'm bringing them to mom's house so they count.

- Chocolate-almond popcorn. But I didn't like it that much, so I brought it to a party last night and didn't take home the leftovers. Ha.

WHAT IS THIS LIST MISSING? WHAT ELSE DO I REALLY NEED TO MAKE? Help me.

P.S.

2010-12-14T12:11:00.002-05:00

My blog needs a new name. Submissions welcomed. The person who submits the winning name will receive a batch of cookies of their choice, baked by me.

A new era.

2010-12-14T11:33:00.003-05:00

Welcome to a new era in my blogging life. I AM GOING TO START BLOGGING NOW, FOR REAL. I know that the three of you who regularly read this blog have stated several times that I should write far more frequently than I have been. The spark of motivation arrived on my doorstep this morning, and my brain exploded with ideas. Also, I looked at other people's blogs and was jealous of their commitment to blogging and their creativity, and I want to be like them!

So. Today's topic is, THE DETOX. Today is Day 9 of my 12-day Detox Adventure. I embarked on this project because I know I don't have the healthiest eating habits, and wanted to see if two weeks of really healthful eating would make any difference in my life.

There are some herbal supplements involved, but I really don't think they're doing anything for me. The diet consists of mainly vegetables. Some fruits are allowed but none of the good ones - my favourite fruits are bananas, oranges, and kiwi, but they are considered "tropical" and not allowed. The diet also allows unlimited amounts of fish, brown rice, and almonds. You can also have beans, lentils, eggs, and meat, but not a lot (only 20% of the diet should be made up of these.)

When I first started, I thought it would be two weeks of pure torture and that I'd be stuck eating salads for every meal - and gross salads at that, because you can't even have vinegar, which, mixed with EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil) is my absolute favourite salad dressing. But I've realised there are actually a lot of meal options. For breakfast I've been having eggs (except for today - more in a moment), lunch has been lentils and rice, snack of an apple or some rice cakes, and then vegetable soup for dinner. With a few variations, that's pretty much been my diet for the last 8 days.

I thought I would miss bread the most, because I generally eat some form of bread every day, and at more than one meal. I haven't really missed it at all, except when the office ordered Swiss Chalet for us last week, and I couldn't have the bun along with my salad and chicken. I seriously love those little Swiss Chalet rolls..... so so so so yummy. But other than that I've been fine and not at all tempted by bread. The most difficult things have been the lack of sugar, and the lack of alcohol. I'm used to eating something sugary - a cookie or something chocolatey - at the end of every lunch and dinner. Not the best habit, but that's what I do. My meals now never feel complete and I just don't feel "done" or satisfied at all without my little sweet at the end. I've also missed white wine. I didn't realise how accustomed I was to having a glass of wine in the evenings, either while I'm getting dinner ready or else later on.

The most prominent observation I've had through this whole thing has been my energy level. Generally, especially now in the freezing months, I'm a tired person. I'm not non-energetic, but I could always do with a nap. On the weekends I always make sure to take a 2-hour nap on one of the days, preferably both, just so I feel well-rested going into Monday. During the week, while sitting at my desk, I'm usually yawning throughout the day and wishing I was napping. But the past 8 days, especially the last few days, my energy level has been great. I even tried to lay down for a nap on Sunday and COULDN'T SLEEP. Which has never ever happened to me in the history of my life. I haven't yawned at work at ALL. It's remarkable. It really makes me wonder what the source is... not having sugar in my system? Not eating flour/bread? I wish I knew.... I do plan to go back to eating a semi-normal diet as of Friday, but I will definitely incorporate more of the low-carb meals that I've been eating in hopes that the energy levels will continue.

Oh - so about today's breakfast. There were all these signs in the lobby of our office building the last few days, inviting people to come to a FREE HOLIDAY BREAKFAST today. I came in an hour early to enjoy the spoils and spend some time studying for an exam I have tonight. I walked into the building, hopes held high, expecting, perhaps, some eggs, potatoes, toast - standard breakfast fare. At least something hot. Instead my ears were blasted by a bleach-blonde male saxaphone player's antics in the corner while I was handed a cardboard box tied with a silver ribbon. Hmmmmm. I picked up a cup of coffee (poured out of a samovar - weird - I believe those are only for tea), and went upstairs to open this "breakfast". 4 things were inside: a sad, limp croissant, a small grease-soaked muffin, a hard cookie with green stuff on it, and an old-looking rectangular brownie. It was so pathetic and anticlimactic! I obviously couldn't eat any of it, and had to settle for the bruised apple in my purse. What a disappointment. You really broke my heart, Oxford Properties. I appreciate the effort, but next year, please give us something non-processed - or at least HOT. Thank you.

I'm back?

2010-10-09T07:40:00.003-04:00

Hello, friends! Sorry I've been so absent as of late. And that I didn't finish those Montreal food related thoughts. All I can tell you at this point is that Griffintown Cafe in Montreal is THE BEST restaurant in the city. Possibly in all of Quebec.

Life has become ridiculously busy and I haven't had time for this blog. That's my only excuse.

Just now I woke up really early (7:30) (not cool because it's Saturday) and had a fleeting thought of going for a run, which I haven't done in approximately one year. The thought quickly left, thank goodness.

Last night the boyfriend and I tried to make some sort of tomato sauce/pasta sauce/pizza sauce to use up a bunch of tomatoes in my fridge. We removed the tomato skins, chopped the tomatoes up, and started cooking them with some garlic and a bunch of spices. So far so good. But then I made the bad decision of adding a container of tomato sauce that I'd made maybe two weeks ago, which had been hanging out in the fridge since then. As soon as I added it, the whole thing turned really brown. For awhile after that, Jai insisted it still tasted fine. But then he kept putting more spices in and trying to make it better and it just got worse and worse. So gross. We chucked it and ordered pizza. Then I made chocolate cake. The end.

Trip food

2010-06-24T13:28:00.004-04:00

This week I'm in Montreal, working with a few others from our Toronto office. We were sent here to avoid the G20 craziness going on at home, and also to unofficially check things out here and eat lots of food. My All-Star team and I have had the chance to sample quite the variety of food on this trip.... so let me update you on the food situation thus far.

First off, while in the Toronto airport on Sunday, I ordered a "Crispy Chicken Sandwich" at a restaurant inappropriately named "Beaches". I waited approximately 23 minutes to receive this sandwich. It consisted of a bun, mayo, lettuce, and 3 disgusting floppy chicken strips shoved inside. Needless to say this was a bad start to my week. I recovered quickly but was thwarted again when West Jet informed me that they don't serve coke products!!! After grudgingly agreeing to accept a diet pepsi instead, I relaxed in my double-leg-room exit row seat and gabbed with Alisa about the stuff of life.

Upon arrival in Montreal, we made our way to Les 3 Brasseurs, a generic sports pub on rue Ste Catherine, to meet up with the guys. Their menu advertised something called a flamm and claimed it was "better than pizza!" Seriously guys? You better have a darn good product if you choose to market it as better than pizza. We all know that nothing, NOTHING, is better than pizza. The flamm arrived, and was fine, but basically similar to a pizza except on a pita instead of something more crust-like. SO NOT BETTER THAN PIZZA.

Monday morning we had to grab these breakfast vouchers at the hotel in order to get the free breakfast included in our deal. The hotel restaurant featured a waitress who hated her life and didn't talk or smile. We ate really blah meals there, not even worth discussing. Lunch was some sort of food court fare. Oh yeah, I had a whopper jr. from Burger King and a side salad. It wasn't very good. Dinner had to be a quick affair so we'd make it back in time to watch the Bachelorette. James, Alisa and I found an Irish pub a few streets over and decided to try it out. There was this odd table set up in the middle of the restaurant with some mini sandwiches, weird little sausages, and cut up veggies. We couldn't figure out if it was for a private function or was just open to everyone, so I dared James to go fill a plate from that table, and he actually did it. The sausages were suuuper good. For dinner I had a bison burger which was REALLY good. No better than any other bison burger I've had, mind you. But bison is just good meat. Good solid meat. I recommend it. The menu also touted it as being "heart-friendly"- you think this is true?

Tuesday morning we breakfasted at the hotel again. At lunch I tried out a food court restaurant called Taco. Had a good taco. We went out for mexican food in the evening to this place called Carlos & Pepe's. It was so hot in there! Food was alright. I had that whole fajitas deal where you get a container of tortillas and a steaming plate of meat and vegetables. Pretty good but I could only eat two fajitas. The food in general was just meh - no one raved about it but there wasn't much to complain about either.

Wednesday morning we were informed that the hotel restaurant was closed down due to lack of business. ??? So we were given vouchers for Cora's across the street. This seems to be a pretty popular breakfast place, but we only got to choose between cereal, a bagel, or oatmeal, and nothing from the regular menu, so it wasn't too crazy. I chose oatmeal. Obviously. At lunch I enjoyed the leftover rice from Taco the day before.

Wednesday dinner: THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE of the week. I'll write about it later - it deserves its own blog entry.

April Update!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-04-27T09:56:00.002-04:00

Okay. I'm back. So much to talk about, right guys?

First off. Does anyone have a solution for extremely puffy eyes in the morning? No matter how much sleep I get, my eyes are suuuuuper puffy every single morning. I even bought this product that claims "late nights will be your little secret" or something ridiculous like that, and I'm pretty sure it does absolutely nothing. You roll it on under your eyes and it has caffeine in it which is supposed to reduce the puff. But it's all just a show. So if anyone has any tips (that DON'T involve laying down with cucumber slices or cold tea bags for 10 minutes, because I don't have 10 extra minutes to lay there) let me know.

I really dislike it when people yell on the phone. I just experienced a yeller on the phone, and the best part was that she works for THE SAME COMPANY AS ME but was treating me like the enemy. How about, even if you disagree with someone, you keep your voice at the same decibel while you talk about it? Got that? Deal.

Okay, what else. I've been doing this "Booty Camp Fitness" for the past few weeks. It's a women's-only class designed to "whip you into shape", as the website claims. The classes are brutally hard, but really enjoyable. We do constant push ups, burpies, jumping jacks, and other torturous activities. I wish I could do it 5 nights a week instead of two. Seriously. It feels SO GOOD at the end when you're done. I really don't think it's whipped me into shape though. Maybe just made me realize how out of shape I truly am. But I think I can do more push ups now than when I started.

I heard on the radio this morning that Toronto Blue Jays baseball hats are like, THE trend in NYC right now. Very weird.

Lately I've been craving a DQ blizzard like nobody's business. Problem is, aside from the 600+ useless calories I'd be ingesting, I'm seriously lactose intolerant. So even if I had a blizzard, I'd be suffering from extreme stomach pain for a day afterwards, so it's probably not worth it. Someone needs to invent lactose-free blizzards. Currently the only lactose-free ice cream available in stores is ALSO sugar-free. Seriously, did you need to combine these two things? It's completely gross. I had a sugar-free, lactose-free ice cream sandwich and the pseudo-chocolate cookie parts tasted like cardboard and dirt mixed. The ice cream itself wasn't bad. So - just inject some cookie dough and we're good to go. Ok, ice cream companies?

I'm currently reading a book called "The Book of Awesome" and I like it. It makes me really happy. You should google it and enjoy yourself.

Sears.

2010-03-21T21:38:00.004-04:00

In the last few weeks, I've discovered a place I really enjoy hanging out: the upper levels at Sears. There are so many reasons why this is a great spot to chill. Firstly, almost NO ONE shops at Sears, so it's generally pretty much empty, save for one or two staff members. Secondly, it feels like you're in a complete time warp. The clothes are a mix of trends from days of yore, mother-of-the-bride outfits, prom outfits, and just really tacky items. The music is elevator-style. The furniture is plentiful and worn-in, so you can just basically sit and CHILL. Also, if you feel the inkling to buy anything, everything is always on sale. There's always a giant store-wide clearance going on, so you can for sure get 40% off, if not more. It's just a really comfortable place to hang. You can walk around, try items on if you want, or just sit in an easy chair and wait to see if any people show up. You could probably take a nap and go unnoticed. I think part of the reason I love hanging at Sears is because it reminds me of being a little kid and shopping with my mom. But all nostalgia aside, Sears remains a solid place to relax, use an empty bathroom, relax in a chair, and pretend it's 1989.
My only question is - how do they remain in business???????

Helloooooo, summer dress.

2010-03-12T10:50:00.004-05:00

Hi guys! The title of this entry is from a real-life experience. Once, in that awkward four hours between a wedding ceremony and the reception, my best friend Mary and I went for a walk on the beach at Port Dalhousie, the muddied waters of Lake Ontario in St. Catharines. Some dude enjoyed the fact that two lovely ladies were walking barefoot along the beach and said, "Hellooooooo, summer dress." Not sure why it was singular though. I guess only one of us had a dress worthy of saying hello to.

I don't have a lot going on these days - it's rainy, my tennis elbow hurts, things are normal. So instead this entry will be a prehumous tribute to my aforementioned best friend Mary. Here are some of the great things we've done over the years:

We decorated an old record player in blue fabric and white rick-rack and named it the Hot Box. We also decorated all of our records by cutting out pictures of our friends' faces and gluing them to the centres of the records, so that when we listened to music, we could also look at a rotating face. Then we threw a vinyl party where the price of admission was one record. That was probably our most successful party to date. We also made HOMEMADE fortune cookies for that party. It took several hours and several burned fingers but they turned out really well.

We acquired a really old typewriter and thought it would be hilarious to anonymously mail our friends and acquaintances some extra photos we had laying around. Some of them were from a trip to the zoo, and others were from a roll of film we found and got developed (it turned out to be honeymoon photos from a happy couple). We would put one picture in an envelope and then type the address on with the old typewriter, and then mail them out. We really loved doing this even though our friends obviously knew it was us.

We snuck into several parties at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Chamber of Commerce and just acted like we were supposed to be there, including one for some kind of soccer league. We were pretty good at just chatting people up and going along with whatever they said, and mostly just acting really confident so no one would question our presence.

We waitressed together one summer at a horrible restaurant called Roasters, where we had to wear GIGANTIC red "patio shirts" with black pants. They were men's XL button up shirts and the short sleeves came down to our elbows, and when they were untucked they were almost to our knees. But of course they were gorgeously tucked in while we were working. We had two alcoholic bosses named Nakos and Tolis who strutted around town checking on their leather stores. We got in trouble all the time for absolutely everything, and had to do ridiculous amounts of work because the restaurant was short staffed. We also had a co-worker named Ed who once invited us over to his house, where he turned off all the lights and showed us a Guns 'n Roses live DVD with FULL SURROUND SOUND and even a few strobe lights. We weren't too impressed.

We went on a caribbean cruise and met a man in his 60's who managed to insert the phrase "sex on the beach" into every conversation. He volunteered for a lot of games and stunts on board. A few days into the cruise, after overhearing him talking to several people, we figured out he'd been on this exact same cruise EIGHT TIMES. Like - same ship, same crew, same islands. On this same cruise we also met Oprah the Donkey on St. Maarten.

One time, fairly late at night, we stole a pylon from a construction site, then went to a Tim Hortons and put the pylon in the middle of the drive-thru road, but positioned it so that the person driving would only see it after they'd rounded the corner and were going to the window. Here's a pic of what it looked like:

It was really great because as soon as people rounded the corner, they'd have no idea what to do. The driveway was actually way narrower than that by the way. Some would get out and move the pylon but a few actually reversed all the way out of the drive-thru, parked the car, and went inside. SO hilarious.

And finally, our best and most hilarious feat:

We used to do this grand activity we made up, called Pick Up And Deliver. It involved driving around the Niagara area, seeking out houses who'd left junk outside for the garbage truck. We liked to pick up these items, and deliver them (stealthily) to friends. We left a framed photo in a tree at Chris' house and an ab-flex on Dave's car. Once we put huge bags of leaves on all our friends' cars when they were at a party. We thought the cars looked like stegosauri, but our friends were not impressed. We once found a giant old-style tv, and called up a couple friends to help us lift it into the truck. We then drove it to our friend Rob's house and left it on the doorstep. I think his mom was really pissed off. (A few weeks later, Rob filmed the tv being dropped off a giant cliff, then drew me a treasure map to go find the smashed tv at the bottom.) We didn't give up on Rob though - our most enjoyable Pick Up and Deliver was the time we found an old exercise bike and decided Rob needed to have it. We parked down the road, and I had such an adrenaline rush going that I picked the bike up out of the truck with one arm, jogged down the street with it, and left it in Rob's driveway. We then repositioned the car, and hunched down to watch until someone discovered it. After awhile, someone came home (Rob's dad maybe) and just moved the bike to the side of the driveway. When he went inside, we ran out again to put it smack dab in the middle of the driveway. Rob eventually found it and wasn't impressed. Mary and I loved it though.

And those are just a few epic stories of Mary and I. OH! We also once drove tractors around on Mary's street, which was super fun. Now she lives in BC with her husband and unborn child, and our adventures are few and far between.

Books, movies and food.

2010-02-18T11:17:00.002-05:00

My hugest apologies for not posting in such a long time!!!! Begging your forgiveness.

Today in Survival History, Navy Commander John Collins invented the Ironman Triathalon to settle a debate on which athletes were the fittest - runners, swimmers or bikers.

Sooooo, in two days I'm headed to the magical land of Orlando, Florida. It's probably going to be cold there, but I should be able to have some good times anyways. Our hotel has a HEATED outdoor pool which I may choose to swim in if there are no kids around. Kids make pools really bad places to be for a plethora of reasons, most importantly, their urine in the pool and all the screaming and running. I also plan to do a lot of reading, walking, golfing, relaxing, and crocodile/alligator avoiding.

I'm currently reading "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" by Susanna Clarke, and I can't even express to you how much I LOVE this book. It's about a magician in England a couple of centuries ago and I can't get enough of it. Thanks to Stephen for lending it to me. You probably won't get it back, ever.

I'm pumped to see the new Alice in Wonderland movie when it comes out soon. It's in 3D! This seems to be the new norm for movies. Maybe in 5 years, all movies will be in 3D. And then all our kids will grow up only knowing about 3D movies and no regular 1D or 2D movies. It's sad that my future children won't be able to experience the pleasures of VHS.

I know you guys love to hear about my food adventures, but I haven't eaten anything too stand-out lately. I swore off hot dogs a long time ago but have been craving them lately. My mom insists that hot dogs contain cow eyelids and this just grosses me out to the max. I've tried the soy/tofu hot dog equivalents but they're basically inedible. I need to find some type of hot dog that is only made with regular cow parts and not eyelids or toenails. Any suggestions?

Haiti, the Bachelor, and my Eyes.

2010-01-19T08:27:00.003-05:00

Hi friendsicles. (Like popsicles, but friends instead.) How the heck are you? I sometimes feel guilty for not updating this thing more. My guilt usually goes away in about 7 seconds though.

So the ongoing crappy chaos in Haiti still makes me super depressed, and I just HOPE that things improve somewhat. I can't think about it too much otherwise I just wish I was down there and could do something actual, you know?

In other (petty) news, I watched the Bachelor last night, and it was soooooooo good. Psycho Michelle FINALLY got booted off, thank goodness. I'm fairly positive that although she constantly talks about how she really, really, really wants a husband, she will never get married. No one wants a desperate whiner. Also Elizabeth the Game-Player was not given a rose. Her signals were super confusing and she kept totally misinterpreting what was going on. She was really annoying and frustrating. I can't totally figure out why all the girls hate Vienna. Yes she's young, and she talks too much about her and Jake's date, but I don't see her as that bad otherwise. It seems like next week, there will be even more DRAMAAAAAAAAAAAA so stay tuned for that, folks. Seriously.

Today I have another eye doctor appointment. You'll remember that debacle a few weeks ago during which a so-called optometrist got really confused, changed my prescription a ton, and also felt the need to give me crazy eye drops that made my eyes go huge and blurry. I was sitting in the chair, reading letters off charts, and he kept getting so muddled and asking ME if he should change my perscription. Isn't that your job, buddy? He wasn't wearing a white coat, so that should've been my first red flag. Anyway, I walked out of there with some kind of bogus perscription that consists of numbers and symbols. When I had it expertly translated, I was told that APPARENTLY my eyes had miraculously gotten much better and I now needed a much weaker perscription.

This is a pure lie. I've had glasses since I was 14.... so that's 15 years total. And every time my eyes have been checked, they've been a bit worse than the time before. So I have a really hard time believing that they improved that much. I wasn't ready to lay down like 60 bones for new contacts when I don't trust the prescription, ya know? So I'm going for a second opinion today - this time NOT at Wal-Mart Optical. Yeah, I know that was probably my first big mistake. NEVER again. I'm pretty sure Dr. Ikjgafidgmawaye or whatever his name was just wrote some arbitrary numbers on a page and gave it to me to get rid of me. (And I use the term DOCTOR loosely.)

So, I'll keep you guys posted on the sitch. Now back to my coffee. SECONDCUPRULES.

Haiti.

2010-01-13T10:19:00.003-05:00

I feel horrible about the earthquake in Haiti. I can't even express it. I wish I could help more than just donating money. I wish I could go down there and do something productive.
My parents lived in Haiti for a year, during 2005-06, and have a lot of friends down there, who may or may not still be alive. I spent Christmas there in 2005 and loved it. I can't imagine the devastation that the city of Port-au-Prince is facing.
Please go to http://www.redcross.ca/helpnow/ and donate to help with the relief efforts.

Tuesday TEATIME

2010-01-05T14:55:00.002-05:00

Oh, hello, dudesies. I wish I had the technology to make this into a little "video blog" instead of just words on a page. Picture me in an easy chair in a library, sipping on my drink of choice. That would be the setting. As it is, I'm in my burgundy office chair, drinking blueberry green tea, which totally makes my stomach hurt. Weather: blustery. Office mood: tired/bored. Tonight I'm going to my book club. We're discussing A Fine Balance, written by Rohinton Mistry. I'm almost finished it, and I definitely recommend it. Everyone says the ending is horribly depressing though so maybe once I finish it, I won't be recommending it anymore.

New years eve was extremely solid. A bunch of people from here and there met up at the Goertz apartment on the east side, and hung out with their new puppy that has about ten names. We also drank huge tequila shots and ate cheese. Then our normal crew, "The Usual Suspects", headed down to the Imperial to watch Erin croon her heart out. She was spectacular as usual, and the bands that followed were dance-worthy and so catchy. I enjoyed my first Amaretto Sour in years, a drink I used to order all the time, and felt nostalgic.

Now it's time for new year's resolutions!!!!!!!!!!! Blaaaahhhhhhhh. I'm not telling you all my resolutions, because then you'll guilt me if I don't accomplish them. Next time I'll try to post a video of myself doing something awesome.

2009 is slipping away!

2009-12-29T09:31:00.003-05:00

Hello, friends. Christmas is over, but it's not the new year yet, which means we're enjoying the period of time I like to call the HOLIDAY SAG. You feel kind of sad that Christmas is over, you're not really that pumped for new years because you already drank and ate a ton during the last few days, and you just feel like hibernating for a week or two, at which point you could slowly ease back into things by going into work maybe 2 days a week.

Christmas was quite solid this year, and I received a lot of items I wasn't expecting, such as a brand new IPOD from the brother. I downloaded a few episodes of shows, and spent my morning commute watching "Dog the Bounty Hunter" instead of listening to coughing and snoring all around me. Such bliss! My brother and I also realized this year that we're getting old. We now get excited about gifts like a blender or new pots and pans. When we were kids, unwrapping things like a super Nintendo or barbies or Connect Four, who would've ever thought we'd get excited about kitchen gifts?

I definitely did not go shopping on Boxing Day, except to accompany my mom to Costco. If you went shopping on Boxing Day then maybe we can't be friends anymore, because I find the whole thing unnecessary, chaotic, annoying, and a sad reflection of our materialistic society. Costco was pretty solid though, although the fluorescent lights kill my eyes, and the whole place smells like new tires. My mom can be convinced into buying things fairly easily, so I scored a new board game called Party Playoff. I had friends over the other night to play it and I'm pretty sure the general consensus was that it RULED.

Mostly I spent the holidays laying on the couch, napping or reading, sometimes with a glass of wine. It was pretty solid. Yesterday I returned to Toronto, played Guitar Hero, and watched two dvd's. One was the first episode of "My So-Called Life", which I've NEVER SEEN, and the other was Jesus Camp, a really disturbing documentary about this woman who teaches kids about God, Satan, and intertwining politics and religion. I could write pages about how mad I was at her and how everything she's teaching them is wrong, but I don't think I'll get into it now.

Let me know how you're dealing with the HOLIDAY SAG!!!!

Quick little story for ya

2009-12-15T19:45:00.002-05:00

Wowwwwww were there ever some great characters on the subway ride home today. These two completely drunk guys (who were both unabashedly drinking tall cans of Canadian) just kept remarking on various things, and making not a lot of sense. At one point, the guy with less teeth threw his beer can down, smashed it, then when the subway doors opened, he kicked it out the door and yelled, "He shoots, he scores!!!!" Then at the next station, his friend did it. They both thought they were HILARIOUS. They also kept saying each station name in a growly bear voice, which I loved. The best part was when they spotted some teens eating Doritos, and one of the drunkards gave one of the teens all the change in his pocket in exchange for one Dorito. He kept exclaiming that he loved Doritos, and acted really superior to his friend after that because his friend had gotten zero Doritos. When they finally disembarked, they just kept yelling, "TORONTOOOOOO!!" but interspersed with a few shouts of "EDMONTON!!!" here and there too. So funny.

I want snow!!!!!

2009-12-14T14:35:00.002-05:00

Huzzah! I'm back. Internet, rejoice! This weekend was about a 7 out of 10 in terms of solidness, but I came out feeling excessively tired which I'm blaming on the grey sky and dismal feel in the city right now. Friday night was a Raptors game with a bunch of friendsicles. You can see another account here which features some details about the family sitting in front of us.

The main "small talk" question these days seems to be something about one's readiness for "the holidays." In case you're curious about my own readiness, I finished my shopping two weeks ago and everything's wrapped and already at my parents' house. I do NOT mess around when it comes to Christmas. Also, I'm all for being politically correct, but I don't think it's necessarily offensive to call Christmas by its real name. Christmas is, as far as I know, the only holiday taking place on Dec. 25th, so can't we just call it Christmas while still acknowledging that not everyone celebrates it? Oh.... we can't?

My new cellphone, the Samsung Link, has served me fairly well so far, but I still miss the smooth stylings of the old Nokia. Also, I can't totally figure out the alarm clock on the Link. I hope it continues to wake me up faithfully. I purchased my first cellphone in the summer of 2002, at Future Shop, and I remember feeling so awesome that I finally had a cellphone. It was one of those huge bulky ones with a tiny screen that was green with black writing. At that time I didn't trust the cellphone fully, and was still paying for a home phone at my apartment AS WELL AS the cellphone. Almost no one does that anymore. Right?

On Friday I took the liberty of decorating our office for ~~Christmas~~ The Holidays. It looks like sweet sweet nectar. There are fake plastic bells hanging near the main trays, and red lights along the back wall behind the supervisor's desks. Yesssssssss. I would've liked to wrap some monitors in wrapping paper, making them appear to be gifts instead of monitors, but people would probably just unwrap them so they could do their work.

Tonight I have to go to choir even though I'd rather get some icing and decorate all the sugar cookies I made on Saturday. The cool thing is, I can *technically* do whatever I want! I often don't eat the crusts of toast or pizza because I don't want to, and I don't have to because let's face it: I'm 29 and in charge of my own destiny. I think I'll probably still go to choir tonight and not decorate the cookies, but it makes me feel better knowing I have a choice.

Lotto Max just takes your money and runs.

2009-11-20T19:10:00.004-05:00

Have you ever put your phone number into one of those websites where you can figure out if it spells anything? My phone number(s) throughout my life have never spelled ANYTHING. It would be THE COOLEST if I could be like, "yeah my number is 416 YOU SUCK" or "you can get me at 416 THE CARA" or something. In high school one of our buddies' numbers was 9-DIRTY-9. You don't forget a phone number like that.

Soooo, last time I was complaining heavily about the dentist. Today was that fateful day which saw me swinging wide the door of the evil Waterview Dental and glaring at all in sight while considering running for it. Despite the fact that the dentist is a total and complete loser, who makes jokes like, "Are you nervous? Me too!" and "Don't you think I'm cool? Girls often get nervous when I'm in the room because I'm so cool", I did survive the procedure. They made sure to give me a double-dose of anaesthetic right off the bat, and they also let me wear the TV GLASSES (a solid invention). I'm sure I looked space age and awesome wearing them.

After I left the dentist I was super hungry, so I stopped by my fave digs, McDonalds, for a cheeseburg and fries. Eating when one's mouth is totally numb is really weird and difficult. I kept feeling like I was chewing my cheeks instead of the food. Maybe I was. Really unenjoyable.

As you cats know, I'm an avid reader and usually have a lot of books going at once. Novels are my mainstay and I go through them the quickest, cause they're my fave! I just read one of THE WORST BOOKS ever. You probably remember the romantic loveliness of "The Time Traveller's Wife", which was a pretty good read. I didn't LOVE it, but I thought it was interesting and sad and made me want to keep reading. The same author just wrote another book, called "Her Fearful Symmetry", and it was SOOOOOO horrible. First of all, the characters were all unlikeable. I couldn't relate to any of them or root for them, which is of prime importance when trying to have fun in a novel. The plot wasn't too interesting and it turned weird and sad, but not good-sad. I do NOT recommend this book. Seriously. I was told it was awful and I still wanted to read it for myself, and now I wish I hadn't.

ANYWAYS, now I'm off to games night, the best night of all!

Skippity Bop

2009-11-11T22:12:00.003-05:00

People keep getting all up in my grill for not posting on this blog!!!!!!!! I have so much amazing and incredible stuff going on, you know, it's hard to find the time to just sit here and write. Here goes.

I got home 18 minutes ago and I'm still wearing my parka. I don't feel cold, but I love this parka because it's knee-length and feels comforting like a housecoat. As a teen, I wore my housecoat around the house pretty much all the time, just over my clothes. My mom was super annoyed by this for some reason. But even now, I often wish that housecoats were a normal part of people's clothing rotation. I'd love to wear one out in public. SO much comfort would be achieved. Who's with me??

Last week I went to the dentist. I HATE going to the dentist and I hate Waterview Dental and their insistance that I come back every 3 months. (I did try to fight this last week, and said that I only wanted to come in every 6 months, like regular people, but they told me that my gums bleed more than normal, which is why they "strongly recommend" I come in so often. FINE. Just call me Cara "Bleeding gums McGee" Pauls.) A few months ago, I did exert some power and refused the flouride, because it always makes me feel pukey after. And guess what? My refusal of the stupid flouride resulted in me GETTING TWO CAVITIES. I was extremely traumatized when they informed me about this, and I just sat in the dentists' chair going "Oh MAAAAANNNN, this is so horrible, I can't believe it!" etc for like five minutes, and they didn't know what to do with me.

The reason I'm 100% freaked about getting the cavities filled is because I have this crazy rare non-response to anaesthetic, both local and general. I woke up once while under general anaesthetic, and when the doctors noticed, they were like, "Holy crap! She's awake! Quick, give her more, give her more!" and then I got knocked out again. And EVERY TIME I have had to get dental work done, they insist on just giving me one dose of freezing stuff, and then start drilling. I always tell them that it's not frozen and they don't believe me. They just give me this disbelieving look like "Suuuuure", and then tell me that they'll start drilling anyway "just to see". Which is a horrible and hurtful idea. So it happens every time that they start drilling, I experience SEVERE PAIN, they realize this, and finally give me more drugs. I am literally going to REFUSE this time. I will cover my mouth with my hand, and give them all the stinkeye, and kick them even if necessary, if they try to start drilling without giving me large doses of anaesthetic.

I currently have 6 books on the go. A lot of people find this weird, and say that they can only read one book at a time. But the trick is not to read the same type of book. I've got 3 novels going, plus a psychology book, a religion book, and a health book, all non-fiction. If you keep things varied, you can read any number of books at once, and then just switch it up. I find the psych one to be really good right before falling asleep.

P.S. I have almost a full container of buttermilk in my fridge - WHAT can I do with it?!?!?

City where the heat is on.

2009-10-18T09:38:00.002-04:00

Good morning, friends. I spent last week on the beautiful shores of MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA. It was a pretty prime vacation spot, with tons of hotels, nice cars, rich people, and hot weather. I think the thing that kept us most busy was just sitting somewhere having a drink and watching people and cars. That may not entertain YOU, but trust me, it was gooooooood times.

Here are some of my astute observations on Miami:

- It seems to be the case that it is legal, or else just 'okay' in everyone's eyes, to get a drink from a bar, and then just walk around on the streets with it. They usually serve mixed drinks and beer in plastic cups (think those red plastic ones from all your university keggers, only clear instead). If you feel like parading yourself around instead of sitting at the bar, you can just pick up and leave and keep on drinking. It was really odd... reminded me a bit of my year in Namibia, where it's legal to drink anywhere you want, even in a moving car.

- The cars in Miami Beach are ridiculous. SO MANY PEOPLE had mustangs, lambourghinis, jaguars, beamers, etc etc etc. And a lot of vintage convertibles. The "cool thing to do" is to just cruise up and down Ocean Drive slowly in your nice car and hope that as many people as possible will notice.

- A huge percentage of the people there are runners. Out on the beach in the morning or the evening, you would see swarms of people running in packs, and also some flying solo. This was okay with me, but what really got my goat was when people would be running in the middle of the day. The heat was super oppressive and it was really humid, which was conducive to sitting around drinking, or swimming. That's IT. Some people would jog by at like noon, just dripping sweat and about to keel over. I just don't like seeing this. It's like torturing yourself!

- An odd contrast to the number of runners was the number of pizza places. Probably every other shop along the major streets was a pizza place. I don't really get this, because most of the non-caucasians there seemed to be from either Mexico or Haiti, countries which I didn't think were huge on pizza. It was comforting and satisfying though to see so many pizza places, and gave me a vision of what Toronto could look like one day if we get our priorities straight.

- There were two other types of shops besides pizza places, and one was tattoo parlours. I think I counted 4 tattoo shops on one block at one point. Pretty much everyone, guys and girls alike, seemed to be heavily tattooed. An interesting trend, but understandable, because it seems that the main goal of people there was to show as much skin as possible. Showing skin on its own maybe gets kind of boring (???) so they get tattooed to give other people something else to look at.

- Restaurants in Miami Beach could be counted on for HUGE portions, including epic drink sizes - like daquiris larger than a baby's head. There were always lots of drink specials going on, and our hotel even gave us free drinks from 7-8 every night. The huge portions of food also didn't really jive with the fact that a lot of people there are ridiculously skinny, but who am I to question these things? Mom and I usually just shared one meal between the two of us which worked out well. Oh and I also got carded several times when ordering drinks, which got annoying after awhile. (Restaurant side note: We also saw a guy order an entire bottle of red wine and a dish of pasta at 10 am.)

- This list would not be complete without sharing with you Miami Beach's biggest obsession: ED HARDY. The store windows were dripping in rhinestones and emo-esque phrases splashed onto shirts and shoes. SOOO many people, even moms, were wearing Ed Hardy crap constantly. I do NOT get it - Ed Hardy seems pretty tacky to me, and it's overpriced. Plus it's become synonomous with sleazeball Jon Gosselin. Please explain to me why this brand is so popular. Am I getting too old to understand??

ME AGAIN.

2009-09-29T22:07:00.004-04:00

I guess fall has brought with it not only cooler weather, lots of wind, and the early musings of Halloween, but also more motivation for me to express my thoughts with the handful of folk who enjoy this WEBLOG.

I know you're wondering how the fantasy hockey draft went. I felt pretty solid about my picks and just hope to high heaven that my players do okay. I feel like I've done a heck load of research so far, so I think it's just a matter of sitting back and waiting to see how things go. I also feel like, in my effort to be more connected to the other side of the gender dome at work, I may have inadvertantly distanced myself from the ladies there. I HOPE NOT!! Geez.

Here's a quote for you by someone called Tom Stoppard, who claims to be a british playwright: "Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art." I gotta admit that I kind of agree with him. Our city's in a tizzy about the upcoming Nuit Blanche right now, and confession: I turned down, somewhat rudely actually, an invitation to be part of an exhibit/music thing there. I didn't think the exhibit/music thing was a horrible idea, but it was pretty bad. I have a really hard time appreciating Nuit Blanche, and modern art in general. I'm really not sure why. I mean, I had a fairly cultured childhood. Our parents took us travelling often, my mom took me to see the symphony and theatre, my dad took me to hockey games (ok not a good example of my cultured childhood, but anyways), we learned other languages, I took music lessons and dance lessons and drama lessons, etc etc etc. So WHY do I have next to zero appreciation for modern art? I'd actually like to figure this out, because I truly don't get it. I'm thinking maybe it has something to do with the whole "open to interpretation" thing. With good writing, for example, a group of leaders in the field could all look at one piece of fiction and generally come to a consensus that it is GOOD. This would never, ever happen with a piece of modern art. Maybe I just like standards and parameters? I don't know. I don't actually know how or why so many people are into things like Nuit Blanche. Maybe they just like the chance to stay out all night and wander the streets with crowds. Admittedly, it's a good atmosphere. But after attending last year, I concluded that I "just don't get art."

Tonight I played my piano a bit and realized I'm really out of practice!! I miss the times when I was in a band. I felt like such a rock star.

Here's an excerpt from an email I wrote to a friend on July 25, 2004. Apparently I had a lot of fun back then:

on friday, mary and i left for port rowan. we went to my grandparents' house on friday night, and then saturday, got up early and started the day. we had a really busy day and it was just perfect.... such good weather, so many fun times... went to garage sales, to a provincial conservation historic area, and to a beach. in the evening after dinner we left for a campground and spent hours gathering the perfect firewood and then building a massive bonfire and poking at it with sticks. SO much fun!! slept in a tent and then today went out for lunch with my grandparents before driving back here. we stopped a lot along the way to take pictures of roadkill. it was truly the greatest weekend i've had all summer....

Another taste of the good life.

2009-09-27T16:48:00.004-04:00

It's Sunday Afternoon, the most boring time of the entire week. Not in a bad way though, because you're free to do whatever the heck you want! It's just hard to mobilize friends into an actual activity though, so I mostly end up hangin' in my apartment and being cool. Right now I've got some cookies baking that will PROBABLY turn out crappy because I didn't exactly use a recipe, just threw some stuff together. I also have SCALLOPED POTATOES (including ham, cheese, and onions) in the crock pot. Hooooooooly crap, can't wait til that stuff is done. The trick is to wait til it's cooled off though, for obvious reasons.

I'm listening to this right now - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_FhEL1JL2Y - pretty catchy stuff by Little Boots. I saw her in concert a couple weeks ago and it was a good time, although being a heterosexual female, I was totally a minority at the bar. That seems to happen whenever I go to shows that feature a hot chick as the lead singer. WHAT GIVES?

Tried to take a nap earlier and it didn't even work. Got a solid 9+ hours last night, so even the idea of napping was pretty ridiculous, but I like to take advantage of every sleep-op possible. (Cookie update: they turned out! I'm eating one right now. Get yourself over here if you want one!)

And now, for a non-exhaustive list of things I'm into these days:

- Olives

- Ridiculously high-energy dance music, useful for "pumping yourself up" while trying to get ready for work when you're still really tired. eg. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uDixD4tXXU

- Recliners

- Loafers

- Candles (best part of FALL!)

- socks

- Thinking about whether to chop all my hair off (opinions??)

- Pizza - not really eating it, but thinking about it and hoping for good pizza. It's so, so, SO hard to find good pizza lately! Please recommend some if you know of really good gooey pizza.

- McDonald's (I'm actually always into McDonald's)

- Not quite getting motivated to start running again

- Setting aside the mixed drink joviality of the summer and getting back into solid wines

There you have it. Tonight's the draft for the hockey pool at work, which the guys have GRACIOUSLY allowed me to be a part of this year. I'm kind of scared since my hockey player knowledge, while semi-decent, isn't as good as it should be. But let's face facts: I'm good at contests, I'm delightful, I do know quite a bit about the sport of hockey in general, and I'm the ONLY girl in the pool. So these things should work for me and not against me. I hope. Cross you them fingers.

For my 3 loyal fans.

2009-09-16T16:31:00.003-04:00

ANNNNNND, I'm back! Today was the "working from home" experiment/extravaganza '09 . I thought I'd hate it: being the life of the party (well, in this case, the life of the office) is not a feat easily achieved whilst sitting in my tiny apartment wearing sweatpants. But I really enjoyed the freedom, and the chance to do things like make tomato soup, not put makeup on, wear pink socks, listen to trance music, and open up the windows to let a cool breeze blow through the room. These things would never have been possible at the office. Except for wearing pink socks, but still.

Quick food update for those of you interested: haven't really had anything too noteworthy lately, although I did hit up one of my fave sushi/korean combos, Hosu, on Sunday after churchy church. Unfortunately I ordered too much food... easy to do at those places. You order one dish but then they bring all this extra stuff like soup, salad, and tiny bowls of spicy stuff. It's so yummy and filling! I went the extra mile and ordered a side order of glass noodles, and pretty much filled up on those, so I had to bring the cali rolls and maki home. Don't worry, I polished 'em off at dinnertime in my recliner.

Today's food hasn't been as yummy or as filling. Breakfast saw me heading to the local java joe's for some craptastic "java" and a crummy excuse for a muffin. It was the kind that crumbles into bits as soon as you look at it. Pfffffffffffff LAME MUFFINS AT JAVA JOE'S!!!! At lunch I made Campbell's Tomato Soup, one of my fave childhood treats. Unfortunately there's no bread here so I couldn't have a grilled cheese sandwich. I finished off the meal with a couple of frozen chocolate chip cookies. I keep 'em in the freezer. Got hungry again a few hours later and made some sweet potato fries, which were okay, but really, who am I kidding? They taste a thousand times better at the local pub.

And now, a list of things that are a TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY that I regularly spend money on:

- Magazines. Ok, I don't really buy them too often, because I have a subscription to Toronto Life and that's all you really need. But sometimes I'm suckered in by the glossy covers of Marie Claire or Glamour. They always only provide about 10 minutes of entertainment, have pointless articles, and just make me wish I had more money to buy all the clothes gracing the pages.

- Coffee from the Second Cup. This is now part of my budget. I officially spend $40 per month on Second Cup coffee. Some would say this is a waste. I could probably get away with spending about $10 per month if I made my own coffee. But folks- life is about enjoyment. Would I enjoy making my own disguistoid coffee and carrying it to work on the subway? HELLS NO.

- Books. Ok - NOT a pointless purchase. But I could just as easily go to the library, right? Thing is, I'm somewhat obsessed with bookstores, and with the new book smell. I just don't get as much pleasure from a library book with sticky germs all over it as I do from a brand new book that is ALL MINE!!!! BWA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Okay. So, that's it. Who wants to play board games with me? Also, I'm taking a week off soon and my plans "fell through" as they say so... I NEED SOME PLANS post haste. Disneyworld, anyone? (P.s. I'm serious.)

Supposedly it's "summer".

2009-07-22T10:28:00.003-04:00

Hello lackies. I used to watch the show Street Cents, and Ken Pompadour would always greet his followers that way. CBC had some real gems back in the day. I was quite the fan of Jonovision (hosted by Jonathan Torrens) and his music shows, featuring the Coveted Golden Ear as first prize. Prestigious.

Good 90's tv aside, let's discuss more important matters: embarassing moments. Here are a few of mine that I remember. If they're not that good, let's keep in mind that there are probably WAY worse ones that have just been blocked out of my mind completely.

- In Namibia a few years ago, some locals wanted me to try eating a mopane worm. They collect these caterpillars from trees and fry 'em up, and everyone loves them and eats them constantly. I put one in my mouth and couldn't handle the rubbery consistency, and immediately spit it out onto the floor. I tried to laugh it off but was actually super embarassed that I couldn't even eat a worm.

- When I was about 16, I was in a fabric store with my mom and we split up to look around. I think I was looking for fabric for new curtains for my room or something. After walking around for a bit, I went and stood next to her and said, "Well, you know which ones I like." And she turned to me and said, "Pardon me?" Turned out it WASN'T MY MOM. Same jacket though.

- I can't think of any more.

Ok, weak, I know. I guess I don't have too many embarassing moments that haven't been blocked out by my stellar cranium. So - share yours.

Cumulus, Cirrus, Stratus.

2009-07-07T10:16:00.002-04:00

In the title of today's entry you'll find the names of three cloud types. I know these (and others) because as a geeky teen, I owned dozens of "zany" t-shirts designed to convey the message that I was unique and cool, and one of them named the types of clouds along with diagrams of them. Instead of standing out, I probably just blended ever so nicely into the mosaic of teens all trying to be unique and cool. Besides the cloud shirt, I also had one with a mosquito biting someone's arm and getting filled up with blood, and one that said "Neighbors from Hell" with a picture of demons moving into a house.

And now, from the inquisitive mind of Cara A. Pauls.... things I don't understand:

- Why is it that humans, myself included, always seem to want to have something to look forward to in life? It's almost impossible for us to move forward and get out of bed if we don't have something that we're anticipating.

- Why do human reproductive hormones kick in at such a disgusting and awkward time of life?

- Why do things get dusty so often?

- Why is there no middle ground with certain things - I mean, why are there things that people either love or hate? No ambivalence for these things... eg. cilantro, poetry, watching surgery on tv, roller coasters

- Why is it so hard to change certain aspects of one's personality? How can one go from loving their personality one day to being really annoyed with it the next?

- Why has summer been so cold this year?

- Why do people that are "religious" have the hardest time accepting other people?

Ok, that's enough of a glimpse into my brain for today. Let's go back to the lighter side and talk about current entertainment options. The highly-anticipated movie Bruno premieres this week, featuring Sacha Baron Cohen as a gay Austrian fashion designer... this movie looks ridiculous but I'll probably see it because Bruno looks eerily similar to a friend/coworker of mine. Summerlicious is also happening right now, which I hope to be able to check out. Games night is also in the works, which I couldn't be more excited about!!!!! There are about a thousand other things I'd like to do this summer. Who's with me?

Post-Canada Day... how do you feel?

2009-07-02T11:10:00.002-04:00

Hey guys. I didn't really celebrate our nation's 142nd birthday very well.... I was at WORK!!!! It was incredibly horrible for the first couple hours but then things calmed down.

Some facts about life right now:

- I have a persistent cough lingering from last week's virus, and it is SO ANNOYING AND LOUD. I think everyone I work with probably wants to puncture my lungs with a harpoon in order to stop listening to it.

- A few recent factors have me thinking about veganism lately. I'm going to do some more research. Keep in mind that I'm not big on being friendly to animals, but the idea that you can actually prevent diseases by changing your eating habits really appeals to me. I may have to concoct my own unique brand of veganism though that would still allow me to eat organic/free range meat every now and then. I'll keep you guys posted on the developments.

- The garbage strike is ongoing on Toronto and it's getting just plain DISGUSTING. I feel like I'm living in some underdeveloped country with no infrastructure. I'm hitting up St. Catharines for a couple days this weekend, and I'm sure the Garden City will not disappoint.

- I'm caring less and less about the Blue Jays.

- People are feeling this weird, tired, Monday-type vibe today because yesterday was a holiday. So I'm glad I worked yesterday, thus avoiding the sluggish after-weekend feeling and being able to truly enjoy my Thursday.

- All this Michael Jackson hype is pretty interesting. As usual, the media is making dead people out to be saints, of the type that do no wrong. Clearly Michael Jackson was a musical genius, but he was also a total freak. Let's not forget that he had a disturbed childhood and was a tortured soul who made bad decisions and probably shouldn't have had custody of his kids. I just want our perspectives to be balanced, ok?

Eggs & Toast usually do the trick for Saturday morning.

2009-06-20T13:39:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm about halfway through the weekend at this point - it's Saturday afternoon and I'm wondering how I'm going to go out and do those pesky errands without getting pelted with rain. ARRRRGHGHGHGHGHHHH!!!!!!! Rain really gets my goat. It makes my hair frizzy and my apartment humid, and I also get a headache and sneeze a lot.

Last night I was out for dinner at a vegan restaurant. Normally I wouldn't do this, but I'll try anything once. Generally I enjoy meat and think it's an integral part of a dinner out. But I actually really liked the meal and only remembered afterwards that there had been ZERO meat involved. This restaurant was tapas-style which meant you ordered about 3 or 4 things to share between 2 people. We had some chickpea/avocado/other stuff salad, a mushroom phyllo pastry thing, some flax fettuccine, and some asparagus on quinoa. Plus wine, OF COURSE. I'm not going to "go vegan" or anything, but I can survive it now and then.

This aft I'm hoping to hit up "The Proposal" and then head to a friend's bday bash. Keep me posted on your weekend stylings.

Here I am.

2009-06-16T10:41:00.004-04:00

Hey guys. It's finally summer! These are the days of sitting on patios and new adventures, in that order. Soon I'll be hammering out some birthday plan details, but before that, I need to figure out a day to go to Canada's Wonderland. I actually liked it a lot better when it was PARAMOUNT Canada's Wonderland and they had the rights to the Hanna-Barbera characters. Oh well. I believe there are still some Scooby-Doo icons floating around in the deserted areas of the kids' section.

Has anyone had any customer service debacles lately? I was pretty mad at Rogers last week. That company just really gets my goat. The story is, I decided to downgrade my cable to "basic plus combo", meaning that I wouldn't get as many channels, or pay as much per month. I called them, and they told me I had to return the satellite box that I had been "renting" from them. I never even wanted that satellite box in the first place and it turns out it hadn't even been necessary for the channels I was getting before. ARGH! So I was paying around $5 per month just to rent this stupid box that I didn't even need. Anyways, I was on the phone for quite awhile with this Rogers guy, figuring out exactly which channels I'd have on the new service, and what my new bill would look like. He said he'd put everything into the system that we'd talked about, and I just had to bring the satellite box thing into any Rogers store.

So later that afternoon, I brought the satellite box into a Rogers store... and guess what... there was NO RECORD of my conversation with dude #1. I repeated everything to the Rogers store people, who were incredibly lame, and then they couldn't take the satellite box thing back from me because there was no indication on my account that my services were changing at all. So essentially, that entire conversation I'd had earlier just didn't exist. The Rogers store people aren't allowed to change things on people's accounts, so they had to call another Rogers person and I had to stand there in the Rogers store and re-explain the whole thing on the phone. SO ANNOYING. Finally the person on the phone changed my account, so the in-store people were permitted to take the satellite box back. It wouldn't have been so annoying if someone would've been even a little bit nice, but they were all really mad at the world and it was super unpleasant.

So, now I'll resume eating berries. Let's take a day off and hang out in the sun!!!!!

THINGS.

2009-06-03T22:18:00.002-04:00

Things I did on Wednesday:

- made peanut butter cookies.
- ate quite a few.
- considered slashing my cable. (eg. un-signing up for cable. it's too expensive.)
- had freezing cold toes.
- dropped my green sharpie on my foot, where it left a green mark.
- thought about money, got depressed, thought about money more, concluded that I will never be able to buy a house, ever.
- took the stairs down after work. odd. never done that before.
- didn't go for a run!
- looked at my bike helmet and its ugliness.
- stalked people on facebook.
- talked to one client on the phone like WAY too many times and confirmed the exact same information every time, leading me to believe that she had short-term amnesia.
- listened to "Like a Prayer" while on hold.
-a lot of other items.

weak, weak entry, i know. just trying to get in the habit of posting more often. this is what you're in for. eat more fruits and veggies!

What I've learned.

2009-05-22T12:02:00.000-04:00

I'm currently 28.8 years old, and have learned a few things in my day. Here's a quick "TOP TEN LIST" - a summary of conclusions I've made thus far.

1) You get what you pay for. This is always, always true. Most recently, I've discovered this with paper towels. It's just not worth it at ALL to buy the cheap non brand name paper towels. You might as well be wiping a regular piece of paper all over the countertop, because that's the same amount of absorbancy you'll get with the cheap paper towel brand. Buy the thick fluffy ones, unless you want to be really frustrated.

2) Lazy people don't deserve jobs. And yet - they have them! People with zero work ethic should be banned from the workforce, and from receiving unemployment assurance or any kind of assistance. If your heart is beating, you should get out of bed in the morning and do some freaking work.

3) Learning to cook and/or bake well takes a lot of time and experience. Just when I think I've mastered the art of creating a good meal, something turns out a total flop yet again and reminds me that I will always be making things that don't turn out. Last weekend I tried to make a banana cream pie (probably THE EASIEST PIE to make on earth) and it didn't turn out. For some reason, making food and having it not turn out is more frustrating than bad paper towels or lazy people. It makes me want to throw the bad food across the room. Generally though, I just SLAM it into the garbage can.

4) Perfect jeans don't exist. I've been on a search for the perfect jeans for probably about 12 years now, and have concluded that they are nowhere to be found. If I ever win the lottery, I'll pay a thousand bucks to have some custom ones made. Til then, I'll keep buying ill-fitting jeans.

5) Spam is eternal. Seriously. It's 2009, and spam on the internet is still around. Every day at work I'm greeted with messages about increasing my libido or finding a russian mail-order bride. It even sneaks into my yahoo mail sometimes. How is this stuff still in existance? Are there companies who write spam and send it out? They must be making some kind of money, otherwise the spam industry would be defunct. I'm guessing it's people without a solid command of the English language who are composing these messages, because they're always ripe with typos.

6) We are all turning into seniors. Thinking back to those good ol' university days, I can't believe the tiny amount of time I spent sleeping, and the huge amount of time I spent working, at school, doing homework, socializing, and doing a myriad of other activities. I'm still pretty busy, but by the time Friday night rolls around, all I want to do is soak my feet and watch tv while drinking a glass of wine. Our parties are ending earlier and we're all just getting tired.

7) Don't expect more from people than they can give. This is a very true statement that I for one would be wise to remember more often. And that's all I'm'a gonna say on this one, because it speaks for itself.

8) Kraft dinner is still the best mac and cheese out there. But you better believe you're going to pay dearly for it. This delicacy used to run you about 70 cents at your average supermarket. Now you're lucky if you can find it for under a dollar. It's generally around $1.49, sometimes even up to $1.69. OUTRAGEOUS. You may be tempted to go for the underdogs, like "Great value" brand. But this is as disappointing as it is cheap an experience.

9) People love free stuff. We're all suckers for free stuff. It's human nature, people.

10) Songs get stuck in heads. OK..... it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out. But it's so true, and so annoying. Even the suggestion of a song is enough to get things going. Example: for the last 2 days at work we've had these postcard-ads sitting around that say "Be our guest" on them. Needless to say, all I can think of is, "Soup de jour, hot hor's d'ouvres/Why we only live to serve/Try the grey stuff, it's delicious/Don't believe me, ask the dishes!"

Our office is obsessed with hand sanitizer.

2009-05-11T13:08:00.004-04:00

HHHHHEllo. Since we last spoke, I've been really sick, recovered, and ran a race, among other things.

First, the sickness. It was pretty boring just hanging out at home and being sick. When I wasn't sleeping it off or reading, I had the opportunity to watch quite a bit of tv, and realized that although daytime tv always seems like a special treat, it really, really isn't. Daytime shows that I absolutely despise include: The View, stupid cartoons on TVO, all soap operas, and "local" shows, eg. Dating 201, which supposedly talks about dating in Toronto and is just super lame.

Basically the only things worth watching during the day are Ellen and GSN (the Game Show Network). I caught a couple of episodes of "Just like Mom" which were super great. That show is so awkward. The male host, especially, seems to make moms and kids alike really squirmy. One episode ended in a tie between a boy and a girl. The girl spun the wheel first, and won a set of John Deere toys. (I would've probably cried.) Then the boy won the TRIP TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!! I felt pretty bad for the girl, who didn't get to go to Disney World and didn't even get decent toys.

I finally recovered from the illness around the Thursday/Friday mark. Friday night I travelled to Mississauga via the GO train to attend the Runners' Expo, where I had to pick up my race kit for Saturday's 5k. The Runners' Expo was semi-interesting. They gave me some free stuff, including a bag of Werther's, a Subway gift card, a t-shirt, and some Advil. I participated in such activities as taste-testing a protein shake (EWWWWWWWW) and doing a blind shoe test, where I was blindfolded and two shoes were put on my feet and then covered with black cloth, and then I walked around and had to choose which one was more comfortable. It was an Adidas booth. And guess what - the Adidas shoe was more comfortable. SURPRISE! I think the other shoe they chose was the most uncomfortable shoe known to humankind. I did get a free bottle of body wash for my trouble, so it was all worth it. I also bought some new running clothes and ate some free yogurt before I left.

Friday night, LATE, I decided to go for a run, since I hadn't done so in over a week because of my illness. I had a great run but this was probably a super bad idea, as I used up all my energy stores. On Saturday evening during the race, I never really "got into the groove" as they say, and though I finished with a semi-decent time, I think it was a bad idea to run the night before. Now I know. The race was pretty fun although it was FREEZING out. Some people were really really serious about it and others weren't at all. My conclusion is that runners come in all shapes and sizes, even obese men wearing breathe-right nasal strips can claim to be runners.

Immediately following the race, mom and I stopped at McDonald's for some grub, and headed back to mecca (St. Catharines). On Sunday we went out for lunch with both of my grandmothers, which I won't even comment on because I'm sure you can imagine what it was like.

In conclusion..... I need new shoes, I really need the weather to warm up BIG TIME especially for the long weekend (although I have no long weekend plans anyway so it doesn't matter too much), I should probably get my bike out again for the summer, and I've been craving good pizza for the last week and still haven't had any!!!

Another rainy night in the T-dot.

2009-04-30T20:28:00.004-04:00

Hello out there. Just got home from some ventures I'll explain in a moment. The taste of my third chocolate cupcake is still lingering, and I gotta say, I'm regretting it just a bit. I've sort of been on this healthy eating kick lately, but today I just lost the dedication, and tonight has been filled with cupcakes, and also some ice cream.

Work sucked big time because things are super busy these days. Clients and non-clients alike call in with lame questions that take up tons of time. The most annoying thing is being asked if I'm free, when I'm clearly in the middle of something and NOT FREE. Know what I mean? Good laughs are usually had at work though, so that makes up for it.

After work I went to the grocery store to pick up some items, then met up with 4 of my friends at a nearby church where we cooked and served dinner for about 40 people from the neighborhood who are "down on their luck", if you know what I mean. It was pretty fun and we made them an amazing and tasty meal consisting of rice with beans and corn in it, and tacos with all the fixin's. And ice cream for dessert! I ate lots of ice cream. Blarg!

Then I came home, popped next door to the laundromat (actually it's 4 doors down, but who cares), fed the machines some loonies, then came back home. I gotta go back there right away to see if the clothes are clean and make sure no one steals them. Usually I sit and read a book while the clothes are spinning, but today I thought to myself, I don't want to spend my time in this dumb laundromat. So i'll just trust people not to take my socks and underwear. I'll let you know how it goes.

Weekend plans are shaping up at this point in the week. First on the list is to diss this Swine Flu at every opportunity. Don't even get me started on this, guys. Seriously, it's just another media ploy. I remember when I was about 13 or 14, living in the town of Edmonton, Alberta, there was this big scare about some kind of disease you could get by inhaling mouse turds. People could actually die from it, so there was this huge uproar about not going into your garage or doghouse or wherever mouse turds could be. Now I'm not saying Swine Flu is on the same level as this mouse turd thing, but the whole point is that the media on the whole likes to SCARE the population, and I feel that's what's goin on here.

Anyways! This weekend will see me travelling back to the Niagara region for a hair appointment, a party at my friend Colin's house, and most importantly, my dad's 60th bday bash. It's gonna be NUTS!!! I'll keep you guys posted. Gotta go check the laundry now.

WEEKEND REPORT.

2009-04-13T11:31:00.000-04:00

Best thing I ate this weekend: Paska made by my mom.

Worst thing I ate this weekend: Paska made by some old lady at my parents' church that tasted like play-doh and poison.

Time I was happiest this weekend: Mostly all of it, but especially when I was reading/napping, or eating good food. Also when I laughed at a story this chick told me about being sick in India and the doctors shoving an orange in her face to cure the nausea.

Time I was the saddest this weekend: When my dad told me about how their cat killed a female yellow finch, and the male finch sat on the porch for a super long time just staring and waiting for its dead mate to return.

Time I was the most frustrated this weekend: Going for an early morning run on Saturday and practically being blown into the canal by the excessive ridiculous wind, and also being freezing and having to work thrice as hard as usual to run against the stupid wind, and also dodging huge piles of disgusting goose poo on the sidewalk. Ugggh worst run ever.

Best thing I watched this weekend: I love you man

Worst thing I watched this weekend: golf

Most interesting conversation this weekend: Discussing with dad whether Jesus' body vaporized out of the tomb, then moving on to souls and how they get to heaven, and my dad saying that sometimes airplanes hit souls when they're on their way to heaven. He was kidding, I think.

Worst conversation this weekend: When my brother and I went to a seedy bar and my brother's friend called me by the name of my brother's ex-girlfriend. Soooooo awkward.

Best song I listened to this weekend: Help I'm alive by metric.

Worst song I listened to this weekend: Crazy country gospel crap that was on the radio.

Time I realized I'm turning into a senior this weekend: When my ear hurt and crackled just from the noise of old ladies singing in church.

Time I realized I'm turning into my mom this weekend: When my mom told me I'm turning into her. And when she told me that my laugh sounds just like hers and is almost as loud.

Amount of times I dropped pieces of food on the floor while helping mom prepare meals this weekend: Approximately 37.

Amount of times I smiled this weekend: A gazillion.

Easter Saturday.

2009-04-11T13:04:00.001-04:00

Hello! This morning I went for a nice little run using my new "Nike+ Sport" attachment, but that's not what I'm here to talk about.

First order of business: The Toronto Bus Terminal. This has got to be the most chaotic, poorly-run transportation system in a major North American city. I arrived there around 9pm on Friday night, got in line, and stepped up to a ticket booth around 9:07. Spent $22 and change on a bus ticket to St. Catharines, and asked ticket booth guy if I could still get on the 9:15 bus. He said, "Sure you can." I went outside to lineup #3, and assessed the situation by asking a number of people in line which bus they were waiting for - some said St. Catharines, some said Peterborough. One of the St. Catharines girls in line asked the bus driver if that was the St. Catharines bus, and he confirmed that it was, but it was full. Great.

So, me and the 4 other St. Catharines people in line went back inside, waited in the ticket line again, and exchanged our tickets for the 9:30 bus. Heading back outside to lineup #1, we saw at least 100 people already in this line. We joined the end of it and waited. Waited. Waited. W A I T E D. FINALLY a bus pulled up at 10, loaded half the people on, and then some genius figured out that there were WAY too many people waiting there, and another bus pulled up at 10:20 which the rest of us crowded onto. Keep in mind, that bus was supposed to leave at 9:30. So I did finally make it into St. Catharines at almost midnight that night, but in a bit of a sour mood, and freezing because the bus driver clearly thought that the 3-degree weather outside warranted blasting the air conditioning for the entire trip.

The annoying thing is this: WHY the heck did they sell so many tickets? I've come to the conclusion that there is NO logic going on here at all. The ticket guys inside are using these Apple II-E computers, circa 1985, where they just select the destination city and print out a ticket. I am absolutely convinced there is no correlation between how many tickets they sell and how many seats are available on a bus. They just keep taking the money and printing the tickets out, giving NO THOUGHT WHATSOEVER to how many people may be trying to get onto one bus. I mean, COME ON, you guys. There are over 100 people outside lined up for one bus, and you're STILL thinking it's a good idea to sell more tickets for that bus? Wouldn't that tiny customer service gland inside you make you want to actually inform someone that they may be better off coming back in an hour or two when they can actually buy a ticket and step onto the bus for which they bought the ticket? JUST A THOUGHT.

During the bus ride, I had the opportunity to listen to my ipod. I recently picked up two new albums that I'm thoroughly enjoying. Want to know which ones?

Those two. They are solid, solid albums that I'm loving right now. So if you like good music, you may like these. I was going to say a lot more about these two bands and how much I love their music, but I haven't got it in me. I'm going to go stuff myself with more Easter items such as paska (sweet bread covered in icing... mmmm.) Then I'll read a book and fall asleep on the couch. I know you envy me. You too could have an afternoon like this - just do it!

My time in the Twin Cities (but mostly Minneapolis)

2009-03-24T13:43:00.000-04:00

Work is so slow right now that I could be asleep and no one would notice, so I might as well update my blog for the 3 people who always bug me to update it.

From Thursday to Sunday I pretended I was rich and famous, and along with that fantasy came a jetsetting weekend whirlwind trip to the great state of Minnesota. I flew Midwest Airlines, which was somewhat annoying because I had a stopover in Milwaukee (a very quiet, grey airport where the food selection is minimal.) The great thing about this airline though is that they give you "baked-on-board" chocolate chip cookies. You can even have two or three if you want. I realized pretty quickly that the cookies were pre-baked and then just heated up in the miniscule oven at the front, but warm cookies are always better than cold ones, so I'm not complaining. This is supposedly what it looked like.
But in reality, the armrests were regular size, and not huge with trays like this one.

So when I arrived in Minneapolis, my friend Naomi picked me up and we stopped at her apartment to drop my stuff. Her apartment is HUGE and gorgeous and she barely pays anything for it. These are the "perks" for living in the midwest United States. It's tempting. Then we walked around the neighborhood, watched some court tv shoes including Judge Judy, and went out in the evening to a place called "The Shout House." This is their logo:

Pretty cool, I know. Definitely wouldn't have classified it as Rock 'n Roll, but I'm positive there were two pianos which seemed to be dueling. They had pints of beer for 3 dollars (!!!!) so we enjoyed a few, along with a pizza that might've been previously frozen. We nicknamed one of the piano players "Featherhead" because his hair was light and feathery, and the other one, we called him "Farm Boy" for obvious reasons. The music was pretty decent, and people made lots of requests on tiny slips of yellow paper.

The crowd in the Shout House was kind of odd, especially a table of dudes right at the front. At first it looked like a few regular guys out for a drink after work. Then odd things started happening. First, the guy we called "Mock-Turtleneck" (again for obvious reasons) fell sideways off his chair. Then his friend SkiJacket started flirting with all the other guys in the group and dancing really sensually. Mock-Turtleneck ended up getting on stage and dancing up a storm. I took a few photos but they're not on my work computer, so I can't upload them. Just picture a short asian guy in a white mock-neck and baggy Dockers (pleated) having the time of his life.

The next day (Friday, for those of you keeping track) we spent the entire day shopping, first at Target and then at Mall of America. The mall was kind of a mecca for country bumpkins, but had some good stores and we both SPLURGED on shoes. The spending wore Naomi and I both out, so we rented two movies from this thing at McDonald's called Redbox. It's such a great concept, and I can't figure out why we don't have it here. Every McDonald's there had a huge red box, aptly named Redbox, where you just select the movies you want to rent via a tv screen thing, then it drops them out of the box. When you return them (at ANY McDonald's location) you just pay $1 per night per movie. SO CHEAP.

Unfortunately we picked horrible movies. The first one was The Women, which I chose, featuring all women. The characters were annoying (especially Jada Pinkett-Smith's character) and the lack of men was simply maddening. Then we took a break for some brie and crackers and a quick Scrabble match. On to movie number two: Nights in Rodanthe. Naomi picked that one. Man, what a bad movie!! I actually cried at the end, but mostly because of how bad it was.

Saturday we went out for a delicious brunch, then ran/walked around Lake Calhoun in the gorgeous weather, then went out for numerous beverages in the evening and met some delightful new folks. Sunday I went home.... not a fun travel day. Felt kinda sick and took some anti-nausea pills which made me feel like I was 20% awake all day. I fell asleep on each flight plus in the Milwaukee airport and almost missed my flight. The free cookies were pretty good though.

If I've left anything out or you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

For your consideration.

2009-03-13T09:07:00.000-04:00

It's Friday the 13th, AGAIN!!! Sweet. This must mean something good. Currently I'm halfway through my coffee, and two-thirds through my cereal. People tend to think it's gross that I like to let the milk sit in the cereal for about 10 minutes minimum before I eat it. It's just personal preference. What's wrong with that? Soggy cereal is a comforting and mushy way to start your day.

Yesterday I finally visited the mecca that is Whole Foods. It's this super posh grocery store in Yorkville, where things cost a ton and everything's organic. I must say that it was an extremely delightful experience. I felt like I was pretending to be from the Yorkville area and it was kind of fun. In the end I only spent $20, but it was fun just being there.

Last weekend I was in Chapters, just sitting and reading a book, when this guy approaches me and says, "Can I just say one thing?" I gave him my skeptical look and said, "Okay." He said, "You are truly beautiful." Then he went on to ask me for coffee, at which point I shot him down. Then he told me I was harsh. Then I escaped. He was for sure in his 40's! Ew. It's such a tough call with these things, because if he would've been a guy my age who was attractive, it's possible that it might have worked, after I stopped barfing at the cheesy pick-up line. But when it's an older guy who is not attractive, it's unpleasant all around.

This weekend I'm going to do my taxes, and I better not have to pay the government any more money, because if so, I'll flee the country. Have a good weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kitchen disasters.

2009-03-11T12:52:00.000-04:00

The other day I wanted to make some soup, but should've known that it wouldn't really turn out. Every time I try a new recipe, something goes wrong. I started making the soup, then realized I didn't have about half of the ingredients, so I started substituting other things, and it ended up taking like 2 hours to be finished. I had to eat a pizza pop while I was waiting for the soup. ARRGGGHHHHHHH.

After that I decided to try making a new cookie recipe. When I finally got them into the oven, I was expecting to start smelling the lovely cookie aroma, but instead I smelled burning plastic. Turns out I had a large tupperware container sitting on one of the burners, where tons of steam was escaping from the oven. Picked up the tupperware and discovered the bottom of it had melted onto the burner. Also, the tupperware wasn't empty - it was full of white sugar. So white sugar ended up all over the stove and pretty much the whole kitchen. Just a lovely experience over all. And the cookies were probably the worst cookies I've ever made. Now they're in the freezer just hanging out.

This is my life.

"Cara Recommends...." - a series of tv shows that are pretty good.

2009-03-05T20:50:00.001-05:00

Good evening, friends. I just got home from an attempt at running (a sorry one, I might add), and am now drinking some Sleepytime tea. I've seen billboards for it on buses and stuff, and it says something to the effect of "Brew some sleep." Not sure why I even bought it, because I sleep just fine without brewing Sleepytime tea, but it can't hurt.

The topic at hand is my current favourite tv shows, so let's get to it.

Dr. G: Medical Examiner. A really great show on the Discovery Health channel which features Dr. G examining bodies to figure out how the people died. It's super interesting as she goes through the steps to figure out what happened. She only does interesting deaths, not boring ones, like people dying of old age. My only beef with this show is that it could probably all be summed up in about 15 minutes, but they stretch it into an hour-long show (featuring 2 bodies) because there are all these "dramatizations" of her wearing her blood-splattered scrubs, making a Y-incision into the body. The Y-incision is ALWAYS the first incision. The cool part is when she can't figure anything out from the internal organs and she has to move to the cranial exam. This involves a drill cutting a hole into the skull to get to the brain. Neat!!

Mystery Diagnosis. In the same vein (pun intended) as Dr. G, this show features people who have odd diseases or conditions that no one can figure out. They all have harrowing stories of having gone to 20 or 30 doctors and no one being able to figure out their disease, and them almost dying before one doctor finally figured it out. The diseases are always really rare, and if you're a hypochondriac, you probably should stay away from this show.

Jon & Kate Plus 8. I love this family. The kids are so darn cute, and one of the twins even shares my name. Kate is so ridiculously bossy and Jon's always rolling his eyes, but they try to do cool activities with the kids. They recently moved into a new home, and got two new puppies.

Ace of Cakes. OHHHH man. If you haven't seen this Food Network gem, you are missing out. Chef Duff and his coworkers at Charm City Cakes (who are all hip cool people) make cakes for people. They make the coolest cakes EVER and are ridiculously creative. In one episode they made a cake version of Hogwarts for the Harry Potter premiere in Hollywood. Watching this show makes me so hungry for cake, and it makes me want to hang out with the Charm City Cakes people because they seem so fun.

Cash Cab. Ever seen this? It's a surprisingly entertaining little show, usually on the Discovery network, set in Toronto. It's just a guy driving a minivan-cab around, and when people get in, he tells them they're in the cash cab. From that point til they reach their destination, he asks them trivia questions, and then for every question, they win cash. On the last one I watched, two guys won almost $900 during their ride!! I'm constantly on the lookout for the cash cab but so far no luck. Best part about the cash cab is that when the passengers get the answer right, the inside ceiling of the cab lights up like a disco.

That's it - going to test out whether the Sleepytime tea has actually induced sleep.

Friday the WHAT?

2009-02-13T08:35:00.000-05:00

That's right. Friday the 13th. I wonder if anyone's actually scared of this day. Apparently there's a phobia called paraskavedekatriaphobia, but I mean, COME ON. Who's scared of an actual day?

Upon arriving at work this morning, there were small triangular boxes on some desks. They're red and say "Love is in the air at WaterPark Place" on them, and each one houses a heart-shaped chocolate. Apparently the distribution of these treats was completely arbitrary (possibly done by the overnight cleaning lady) but some people have felt insulted and dare I say outraged at the fact that they did not receive a chocolate. Things are getting petty here. By the way, WaterPark Place is the name of our building, and it sounds a lot more exciting than it really is. In theory, you'd think there would be waterslides instead of elevators - for going DOWN at least. But sadly, this is not the case.

I'm going home to St. Catharines tonight to visit my fam, as well as my aunt Linda who's visiting from BRITISH COLUMBIA. She brought a salmon along. She usually does. And tonight, we shall feast.

Friday Cara.

2009-02-06T12:57:00.000-05:00

Around the office, on Fridays, I'm known as "Friday Cara." Probably not the most creative nickname in the world, but everyone knows that this means I'm more hyper and laugh-y (and probably more annoying) on Fridays. I just get so darn excited for the weekend, folks!

So many people who work here are hilarious, so I have a hard time not laughing a lot. Also, I find that a lot of us are eerily similar in that a large majority of us enjoy reading and writing. If I compare my work friends with my non-work friends, the percentage of those who like reading and writing versus those who don't is absolutely staggering. I guess that's why us "work friends" all picked a job that consists mostly of reading.

Last night my brother came over for supper and I made garlic bread, spaghetti, meat sauce, and ceasar salad. Such a great meal. I generally don't make an actual supper if it's just me at home. I'll just eat whatever happens to be lying around the kitchen. Examples of typical suppers for me include:

- a bowl of cereal
- raw cookie dough
- fried eggs
- rice
- chips and salsa

None of those things should normally constitute a meal in themselves, and yet in my world, that's exactly what they've become. Part of the problem is that I despise leftovers, so if I make real food, there WILL be leftovers. My goal this year should be to learn to like leftovers. It'd make things a whole heck of a lot easier, because then when lunchtime rolls around at work, I could pull out a tupperware container with LEFTOVERS in it, instead of scrounging in my drawers and eating some old crackers and a few almonds.

Enjoy your weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lazy...

2009-02-02T13:31:00.000-05:00

In lieu of writing a new post, I'm just going to copy and paste the "25 things" note I just published on facebook. It's just a list of 25 things you've always wanted to know about me. I promise to be more creative soon.

1. I think a ton of things are funny. I laugh a lot, which is generally a good thing, but often suppress laughter because people will think I'm faking it, or a ditz, neither of which are true.

2. I absolutely hate the smell of cigarette smoke, am horribly allergic to it, and think smoking is the dirtiest, most disgusting habit on the planet. I also often feel compelled to share these views with people who probably don't want to hear my opinions. So, if you're a smoker and I've harrassed you, I'm sorry.

3. I just came back from my 3rd caribbean cruise and it was glorious. The reason I love cruises is because you get to see a ton of cool places instead of just sitting at one resort all week. Plus people wait on you constantly and it's fun to be treated like royalty.

4. My hair is currently its natural colour, which it hasn't been since high school, and it's gotten darker since then. I've had every hair colour under the rainbow in the last 10 years and can't decide which was best.

5. I am always, always cold.

6. I like cooking and baking for other people but not for just me. That's the part that stinks about living alone.

7. When I lived and worked in Namibia for a year, I really wanted to quit because it was so hard and I got so down, and pretty much the only thing that kept me going was the fact that I'd told so many people I was going for a year, and wanted to be able to say I'd done it. I'm not as strong as I seem.

8. I have hyperextendible elbows, ankles, thumbs, and wrists.

9. I often crave cake.

10. I would way rather read a good book than watch a movie.

11. Bad coffee is worse than no coffee at all.

12. I'm pretty blunt and people sometimes think I'm rude, but I'm not intending to be.... I just value honestly a ton. I can't handle it when people are fake-nice.

13. I think people that are ambitious and like learning new things are one thousand times more interesting than those who keep doing the same thing day in and day out.

14. I was a super shy kid and teenager and only started acting normal and somewhat extroverted when I was about 18.

15. If I had a gazillion dollars, I'd probably buy a new item of clothing every day.

16. I've had surgery on my big toes twice. Also, I'm practically immune to anasthaesia and once woke up while I was put out under general anaesthetic.

17. I am super scared of alligators and crocodiles. When I was little I had nightmares about them and I still think they're extremely freaky. I think this would prevent me from ever living in Florida.

18. I am sick of being told that I look like I'm 16. This is not a compliment.

19. Going to shows/concerts isn't really fun for me anymore. I think I'm probably turning into a senior. The music always seems too loud and standing for 2 hours is 2 hours too long.

20. When I was 5, I thought that babies were born by coming out of their mother's shoulder. My mom explained to me numerous times how it all worked, yet I still thought this was how it happened.

21. When I was in high school, I thought I'd be married by 23. Now I'm so glad I didn't get married at that age.

22. I'm tempted to "charge the doors" on the TTC.

23. When I was 12, I asked for an agent for Christmas, because I truly thought I could be a famous actress if only I had someone to represent me.

24. Pie doesn't appeal to me.

25. I need to remember not to expect more from people than they can give.

Whose food would you steal?

2009-01-22T15:24:00.001-05:00

You know things are slow over in the HR department when you receive a corporate email with the subject line "Lunch Room Refridgerators". Apparently, and I quote, "food has been going missing from the lunch room refridgerators." I've done an informal office poll. Some people, like me, have never had their food stolen, but others are eager to tell stories of lovingly prepared dishes, placed carefully in the lunch room fridge, only to be snatched by some devious monster.

A few questions come to mind. Firstly, the logistics of finding a chance to be in the kitchen alone, steal the food, AND find a time and place to eat it would seem near impossible. Is the thief taking the food and running to the bathroom to eat it? Hiding it in their desk drawers? Coming in extremely early or staying late simply to steal food?

Secondly, how do you know someone else's food is even going to taste good? Who knows what's in there? It could be some kind of unclean person who didn't wash their hands while cooking or licked the spoon 37 times. EW. You're essentially kissing that person by eating their germy food. And it's not even a FRIEND.... it's the food of a RANDOM STRANGER. Why is this appealing??

Thirdly, is anyone at work actually so hungry and so poor that they can't just go downstairs and grab a slice of pizza or a cup of soup? It would be a guilt-free way to satisfy the growling stomach.

I can't wrap my mind around WHO would be cheap enough, evil enough, and sneaky enough to actually steal food from the fridge. Is this a common occurance in most offices, or just ours? Most people here seem cool, normal, and well-adjusted. Are they all hiding alterior devilish personas??? Someone, explain!!

Trampoline Hall

2009-01-13T10:49:00.000-05:00

So last night I attended Trampoline Hall for my first time. It's a lecture series held in a rectangular room atop Sneaky Dee's, and the whole point is that three people are supposed to give lectures on topics that they're not experts on. I don't know who came up with this concept originally. I guess in theory, it works, and appeals to those artsy hipster types. In reality, I think that if one was actually lecturing on something they knew NOTHING about, the lecture would be boring, lame, bland, and just generally suck. Just my opinion though.

I decided to check it out because my friend Jon was the curator, and my friend Melanie was lecturing. She chose to talk about conspiracy theories, and she did an excellent job. She's practically a genius, which helped, plus she organized her thoughts really well. She already did know a bit about conspiracy theories, but did some supplemental research in preparation for the lecture. She also (very smartly) tied in information about AIDS and other medical issues, which she actually knows a ton about, being a physician. I was incredibly impressed.

After the lecture, there was a Q & A session. Melanie got put on the spot and held her own. She was so calm, cool and collected. She answered everyone's questions eloquently and kept 'em laughing, too. I kept thinking about how giving a lecture is basically LAST on my list of things I like to do. If i were to give a lecture on something I truly know nothing about (eg. cacti, computer programming, football, whiskey, or Epidemiology) people would hate it. I'd be really nervous and my voice would shake. I'd undoubtedly get booed off the stage. Although I would technically be fulfilling the requirements of Trampoline Hall by lecturing on something I know nothing about, it wouldn't be nearly as riveting as the lecture I heard last night.

This leads me to wonder if Trampoline Hall is actually its own conspiracy theory. Maybe it pretends to showcase people speaking about so-called "unknown" topics to them, when actually, they're experts on these topics! This could actually be a venue for these cranial superiors to lord their knowledge over us plebes and brainwash us into admiring and trusting them until they gain full control!

Til next time, stay alert and dress warmly.

Best Foods On EARTH.

2009-01-08T08:27:00.001-05:00

It seems that the scads of loyal followers of this blog cannot rest until they know which foods are my favourites, so I've decided to indulge them with the top 5 list.

#5) Chocolate. I know you're thinking, does chocolate really qualify as a food? And the answer is, most definitely. Its sweet goodness can lift your spirits and make you feel like your meal is truly finished, if you eat it as dessert. Sometimes, around Christmas or whenever you have extra chocolate around, it's fun to eat it first thing in the morning, before your taste buds have been contaminated by other lesser foods. Try it!

#4) Cheese. Ok, so goat cheese was on the list of my hated foods, but now I'm referring to just your average everyday brick of cheddar: the perfect snack. Do you know ANYONE who doesn't like cheese? Exactly.

#3) Bread. This includes regular everyday bread, bagels, english muffins, buns, croissants, anything in the general "carbs" category. Bread, paired with cheese, has been my favourite food from childhood. As an adult, I often indulge in the luxury of not eating the crusts.

#2) Pizza. My friend Ryan has always claimed to be "Pizza for Life", and I have to agree that the Pizza for Life philosophy is a wise one. The perfect culmination of flavours, easily attainable, a fun triangular shape - what's not to like? Pizza is the perfect food. Thank the LORD for pizza. I do!

#1) Vereneke (cottage cheese pierogies). This recipe was brought over from the homeland of Russia. It's simply homemade dough stuffed with cottage cheese, made into pierogies, and served with a white sauce. If I could eat these every day, I would die happy. And probably be morbidly obese.

There you have it, folks. Tell me what your favourite foods are. Maybe we'll disagree. But as you may know, I'm right 99% of the time, so you'll probably find that my favourite foods are better than yours.

Gallery of Disgusting Food

2009-01-06T12:25:00.001-05:00

I'm sure by now, if you have a curious mind, you've been wondering, "Which foods does Cara hate?" Well, you're about to find out. I'm really not a picky eater, but there are a few things that are simply intolerable in my world. Here's the top 5 countdown of gross food that shouldn't exist:

#5) Black licorice. Seriously. Such a foul, bitter and unlovely taste, made into candy? So wrong.

#4) Goat cheese. Pretty obviously disgusting.

#3) Paté. Basically, it's like someone took all the unedible leftover hot dog remains, added gross flavour, and squished them into a brick, then coated it with a jello-like layer the colour of sickness.

#2) Cilantro. This spice has the ability to ruin large amounts of food. I know it's a love/hate thing and that lots of people think cilantro is "all that". Not me!

#1) Creamed corn. Waaaay too sweet, and pre-chewed by your archenemy's grandma.

Cinnamon buns with raisins get an honourable mention. Who would ruin a sweet, luscious cinnamon bun with mushy sick raisins??!?!?!?!?!?!?

Monday isn't Fun-day.

2009-01-05T08:20:00.001-05:00

5 day workweek. NOOOOOOOO!!!!

Lately I keep waking up in the middle of the night and experiencing that whole super confused "where am I?" routine. I mean, enough already. How hard is it for my brain to figure out that I'm in my apartment? Nothing out of the ordinary. Get with the program, brain.

Last night I dreamed that my ex-bf sent me a cheque for $1,100 with a note apologizing for the pain he'd caused me. HA!

I ate instant Cream of Wheat for breakfast and now it's sitting, expanding, in my stomach. Not really the best feeling. What on earth am I supposed to eat for breakfast that's healthy, tasty, and easy to bring to work?

The sky is blue, it's not that cold out today, and i MIGHT be on vacation 3 weeks from now. Sweet deal!!

What you've all been waiting for.

2009-01-02T08:56:00.001-05:00

Yessirree,
it's been 2 years since my previous blog came to a sorry end. So here I am again for your reading pleasure.
What are your new year's resolutions? Usually I make them and they don't happen. But 2009 is pretty magical so far, and I sense that its mysterious ways will allow me to stick to my goals with a resolve and determination far more powerful than has ever existed before.

So, here are my top 3 resolutions:

#1) Have a good attitude. This may seem really boring and grandma-ish, but it's not! Most people probably think I'm an upbeat person, seeing as how I love to laugh at things, and I have a cute smile. However, I find it really easy to complain about things and just generally think that things suck. So I'm going to try to look on the bright side, ensure my glass is always at least half full, and be thankful for the good things in my life.

#2) Get a better, higher-paying, cooler job. Ok, truthfully, I like my current job. But it pays next to nothing, and at this rate, I'll still be living in a tiny apartment when I'm 45, and this is not the goal at all. I plan to achieve this goal by updating my resume, possibly printing it out on some neon-coloured paper, and sending it to the top 100 companies in Canada. Or else simply "networking". We'll see how it goes.

#3) Get in shape. Right now on the scale of inshapeness, one being completely sedentary and 10 being a marathon runner, I think I'm maybe about a 3 or 4. NOT COOL, people. Exercise can extend your life by YEARS. Plus, my tiny mom is way more in shape than me and can run for miles, and I can't let her show me up like that. I've already signed up for a "Learn to Run" course starting next week. My mom thinks I won't be able to do it. So when my legs fall off from the cold, I can't call her to complain. I have high hopes for this resolution, even though cardiovascular exercise is pretty much the worst thing ever.

And there you have it: my inspirational, motivational, super sensational resolutions. See you next time!