Saturday, February 12, 2005
hiatus!
I haven't written in a few days. Did anyone miss me?
I have been up to various levels of no good.
I got a job, sort of. I take notes for a disabled student in one of my classes. It's not really a job so much as it is community service that they pay me for. It's only about $300 for the term, but that's not bad when you consider that it's only really 2-3 hours of "work" per week, spent taking notes that I would take anyway. My employer has all kinds of ludicrous rules for what the notes have to look like though, which kind of bugs me. I fucking need to write on both sides of the page. Why waste trees? Hasn't anyone read the Lorax?
I guess I got a part in that play, cause they sent me a weird email saying basically: thanks everyone for auditioning, here's the script cause some of you said you wanted to read it, looking forward to working with you. It wasn't like "congratulations!" or anything even close to that. At any rate, the script is spectacular: very powerful, understated in parts and graphic in others. I think we'll do some great things with it and I'm really looking forward to helping out. I think the play will run from March 17-19, if anyone is in town then and wants to come see it.
I think I'm going to try out for yet another cheer team on March 16th. More on that to follow.
Dag is coming to town in 5 days. This is actually insane. My room is a massive mess and I have so much work to do. Once that's all done I can relax and ensure she has an awesome time here. I'm a bit afraid that I will be busy with school and she will be bored, thus defeating the purpose of her coming. This is why I have to get my shit together right....uh....now.
Abby and Intense Base from the stunting club are competing at Best of the West this weekend. I'm really hoping they do well. I last saw their routine on Monday, and it was a bit scary. I had to catch more than a few rewinds (read: top does back tuck onto base's hands, who then lifts her above his head), and (for some reason I will never understand) they are trying to time the rewind in their routine to the moment in that Black Eyed Peas song where they yell "REWIND!" The timing is scary because they get all rushed and then Abby inevitably comes down and Intense gets all, well, intense about it.
School is out for a week for "Reading Break," which is a way to say Spring Break and still sound academic about it. It's also an attempt to not put images in people's heads of 'girls gone wild,' whenever a prof says there's no class next week. Nonetheless I found a leaflet at the university the other day that kind of scared me. It was an ad for a Reading Break party, and it read: "for all the ladies who dress up in a sexy lingerie outfit we'll offer free cover by 11pm!" Ugh. For some reason I was outraged. I wanted to get a bunch of guys to dress up in drag and try to get in, cover-free. That kind of shit fucking bugs me. University students are about as enlightened as cows standing in a field.
I have managed to avoid doing ANY studying during Reading Break for my entire university career so far. In first year I went to Mexico, second year I hung out on the island in our cabin with the Boy, in third year I went to Spain and Paris (tough life, I know), but this year I will have to work. I have been highly negligent about my schoolwork lately, mainly because I'm bored and want OUT of school, but I have to try and hold out until the end because otherwise my grades will be such shit that I can forget about grad school and thus the prospect of making more than $30,000 a year doing a job that I don't loathe with every fibre of my being for the rest of my life.
I think Tegan & Sara best summed up the feeling of having a liberal humanities degree:
"had a bad day, as bad as they come
time to get a real job you gotta stop having fun
so I got a real job I'm working nine to nine
I'm making five bucks an hour 'til the day I die
got a straw inside of me and it's filled just fine
got a straw inside of me with the strongest wine
I'm one third passion I'm two thirds pride
said I used to have a life once
he said I used to like your smile once
singing silence to the world
but the stars kept marching
he said silence to everyone I said I'm still talking
have you got some more deep inside of you
I'll always have more for me
I take a little more for me baby
I got a picture of the way the world has summed me up
if I could have one wish I sure wish that
I had never grown up
I got a picture of the way I looked when I was three
I came out laughing screaming dancing
I used to be free spirited
now I'm just free of sleep
I got a burning passion in my throat
I got a burning passion inside me
I got a job that wastes my time and gift
I got a life that needs a serious lift
and all the things I wanted
yes all the things I want
go on and on and on and on
on and on and on and on."
Yes, those girls speak to me like no one else.
My hair likes to be messy these days. I enjoy it. Who do I need to look presentable for, anyway?
My need for Ritalin dictates that I read more than one book at a time. Currently I am dabbling with:
-Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass. Don't let anyone tell you it's a kids' book. If you can find a single kid who can analyse it inside and out (including all the Milton references!), then I'll start believing people who say it's Children's Lit.
-Miriam Toews' A Complicated Kindness. It's about a Mennonite community in Manitoba. It's alternately shocking and wonderful. I really like it so far.
-Geoffrey York & Loreen Pindera's People of the Pines. I haven't really started it yet, but it's sitting on my floor so I have to read it eventually. It's about the Oka Crisis of 1990. I just watched a movie in my film class called Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, on the subject, so I wanted to read more.
Oh, and I wanted to ask: who thinks that Canadians pronounce 'about' "ABOOT?" I have an axe to grind on the subject.
My headphones are currently being held together with duct tape. My cd player is on its last legs. This makes me sad because I need my music to live. If I had a wealthy and generous person around, the first thing I would want them to buy me would be an IPOD. You can't buy my love, but you can buy my ability to bob my head up and down on the bus.
Tonight I'm supposed to go for Thai food with Cait (provided she calls me!) and to Gabey's "Welcome-home-from-South-East-Asia-glad-you-didn't-get-killed-in-that-big-wave-incident" party. Need to pick up some liquor, and need to remember not to drink too much of it. With the frequency I've been going drinking lately, I probably have the tolerance of a five-year-old. Yes, times they are a changing.
A few random facts, just for the hell of it:
-I like Leanne Rimes. Especially that song Can't Fight the Moonlight. And not really in an ironic way.
-I am addicted to Chinatown. If I don't go there every few weeks, I start to waste away. The cheap imports and indifferent shop keepers are just too much fun to be missed. My latest finds include purple Mashimoro pyjamas, a coin purse with Winnie-the-Pooh on it, and a green Mao satchel. I didn't buy the last item, but I think I'm going to. The ironic value of such an object is simply too high.
-I quite strongly believe that peanut butter is a gift from the gods, and I would wither and die if I was allergic to it.
-I love all things camp. I nearly went to Gay Pride night at the school bar this week just because I knew they'd be playing lots of Gwen Stefani.
-cats like me. I like them too, especially when they're fuzzy.
-If I were to read a scientific report stating that fundamentalist Christianity was a form of mental illness, I would cheer for a bit, then get all condescending on my relatives.
-I have never worn a cheerleading uniform and think I would look like a total fool in one. HA!
Put your hands in the air y'all, and all that.
Happy Weekend.
-N
