Wednesday, December 19, 2007

December is the darkest and June is the light/ but this empty bedroom won't make anything right

So, every year, I have a calendar. It's one of those things we just do in our family. My mom gets two calendars -- both of Paris. One for her desk and one for the bathroom. We always have a calendar in the bathroom. It doesn't really make any sense to me, except that we used to always have one of kittens in there that my grandma would give us, but after she died we changed to Paris calendars. I remember sitting in the bathtub, when I was little and my sister and I still shared a bathtub, so this was way back. I always got stuck with the side with the tap on it, and had to lean around the thing, while my sister got the nice side. But from my side I got a better view of the calendar. The kittens were always cute, because kittens always are. I remember looking at it a lot. I guess that's why we had a calendar there.

My dad gets a calendar too, but like all things that he likes a lot, he keeps it at his office. His changed every year, but it usually something civil war related. My sister and I get whatever someone though we would like that year. My sister has one of kids rock-climbing. I have one of art of goddesses.

To be fair, this isn't this year's calendar. Somehow, last year, I ended up not getting a calendar. It just didn't happen. I'm not sure why. But I didn't. My mom had an extra one, so she put that up in my room, but it fell down and I never picked it up again. It's still kicking around behind my desk somewhere. If I cock my foot to the side right now, I think I can feel its spiral bind. But I'm not going to pick it up. I put the goddess one back up instead.

I didn't look at it much the first time. Haven't looked at it much this time either. It got stuck a February. February is a beautiful piece of Psyche with Cupid. I've kind of had this thing about Psyche ever since I went to the Louvre and saw this amazing statue of Psyche and Cupid, and fell in love with the thing. So this is where I stuck. Here is the picture in question, but I promise the colours look a lot better on my calendar than on this website.

So I have looked at that picture a lot. I never changed the page, or the year. I feel kind of guilty about it, like I've been doing something wrong. You change your calendar when the month changes. It's just what you do. But I've never been good at it. My mom would always do it for me because it'd be halfway through the next month and my calendar wouldn't have been flipped over. It kind of drove her nuts the way my messy bedroom does, but I say she should just close the door. This is a hard thing for my mother.

But seriously, why should we HAVE to change over the calendar? I'm sure there's a psychoanalysis that can be done on me about why I won't flip over my friggin calendar, but that's not what I mean. I just mean, if I like last month's picture better, why not leave it there? No one writes on calendars anymore, no matter how hard my mother tries to make me, I just write things in my own agenda and give her a heads up when necessairy. So calendars are just really there to be looked at, like the kittens in the bathtub. It brings art to the masses. Changeable art -- every month, something new! No committment to one piece. But maybe I've committed myself to February.

This is all to say, calendars are not really my thing. I only like them for their art.

Here is the statue from the Louvre, called L'amour de Psyche.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Paulie Bleeker is totally boss.

If you do not understand what that title means, it's ok. I barely know myself. I would have a better understanding if I could go and see the new movie Juno, staring Michael Cera, Ellen Page, and others. However, so far I have been unable to find it playing ANYWHERE in Ottawa! Does anyone know where it's playing?

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Stressfuk

ewings73: my night just got a lot less stressfuk
ewings73: o
ewings73: lame.
LehrerBoggs: Yep.
LehrerBoggs: Why was your night stressful?
ewings73: stressfuk.
ewings73: an appropriate typo
LehrerBoggs: stressfuk?
ewings73: yes
ewings73: Im keeping it as a real word
ewings73: its stressful and fuck put together
ewings73: perfect

Go forth and use it, people.

LehrerBoggs: If you use it often enough it could enter mainstream usage.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

I have summatives to do, Improv Gods!

A quick update:

As of night three, Lisgar is still in first place!!! *does a really happy dance*.

So... come to finals. (knock on wood).

That is all, Baudelaire calls to me.

Evey

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Improv

So I know I haven't been on much, and quite frankly I don't have time to post right now
BUT!

On Monday, I competed with the improv team on the first night of play at Connor's Cup. Playing on the first night is so hard because then you have to wait ALL WEEK to see if you're in the top 5 who can make it to the finals.
We won our night with a 315. West Carleton won tonight with a 314. Which means we're still in the finals, and still number one! *Knocks on wood*

Finals will be help Friday Dec 14 at the museum of civilization. If Lisgar makes it, you should all come. I'd be happy, and so would you, because it'll be a great night of improv :)

www.ottawaimprov.com

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Daft Dancing

So, when Mike linked me to this video, I wondered just why my ex-boyfriend was sending me to a video of two scantily clad girls with boxes on their heads. But really people, give it a chance. Because this is pretty cool. Make me wish I were cool enough (bored enough) to come up with something like this. That and that I had their nicely sculpted thighs. Either or, really.

Harder Bodies Faster Stronger

Only for good

I went out to a reading at Collected Works this evening, featuring a few very talented Ottawa authors. All you need to know is that I would gladly marry Ian Roy, and you should all bug Jennifer Whiteford to work on her next novel. Constantly. I want to read it.

Every time I go to a reading-type thing, I think about how much I'd love to do that. I mean, I'm not the most confident person, in terms of being confident in my writing, but to be in front of people like that, sharing your work with them, doing the banter thing... I love that. I had a little taste at coffehouse and loved it -- though not many people were watching or listening. But I enjoyed it. It didn't matter who was paying attention. It's like improv, but with more planning. Paradoxical, I know.

The other part of my evening was dinner and West Wing with Davis, who conveniently lives two blocks from Collected Works. Sounds like a good night to me.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Like a bird in an aviary

If you, like me, tend to watch a lot of TV (guilty pleasure!) you have heard about the Writers' Guild of America strike (am I the only one who loves that the entertainment industry gets guilds? I want to join a guild!). Also like me, perhaps you have been casually saying "yeah! They deserve to have their demands met!" or something of the like, without actually knowing what is going on. My good friend Erin has written a great post explaining it all here. It has the added bonus of being tagged with the tags "doom", "the stupid" and "the intolerably stupid". Then watch this well made video on YouTube, grab your button makers and get to work!

Incidentally, if someone has a button maker they want to let me use, email me. I want to make some buttons.

Wind in the Wires

Here is what happens when you wake up 30 teenagers at 4 am, tell them to go to school and put them in a cafeteria together. It's called Lisgar's United Way Pancake Breakfast.

4am wake-up, though not wonderful, is not a new concept to me. As a rower (cue Bailey yelling ("brrrap") we do this waking up at 4 thing three-four times a week during the month of May when we are on the water training and competing. But since it is now November, and not May, my poor body was not sure why, oh why, I was waking up at 4am.

When I finally rolled out of bed and down the stairs, and dressed myself in my "pyjamas"* it was 4:30. I just barely grabbed breakfast before I ran out to the door to my ride -- from Jake. Who was blasting Aqua. I love getting rides from my friends with G2s. We pulled up, parked, and went down into the caf. Where there wasn't much for us to do.

Well, I decided we should get right to work on the balloon arch. After some Erica vs Jake/the world drama, the arch came together quite nicely. Let me tell you, it looked completely professional, and it was just a few high school girls tying balloons to a ribbon.

We were almost done... when the piercing, screeching sound of the fire alarm sounded in the school. Everyone stopped what they were doing and walked over to City Hall to escape the building and let the firemen check to make sure everything was ok. No, we didn't call them -- they automatically get a call when a fire alarm at a school goes off. That's how you can tell if the admin planned a drill -- the firemen don't show up. If they do, you know someone is getting suspended. Or the school is on fire.

All was righted quickly enough, and the main school alarm was turned off, so we were let back inside. Only, the cafeteria alarm, separate from the other school alarms, wouldn't turn off. The poor firemen wandered around for half an hour, Ms Gledhill in tow, looking for the shut off switch. We were about to go nuts from the noise by the time they go it off -- after guests had started arriving.

Another side effect of the fire alarm (thank you to the griddles in the kitchen where someting was burning) was that we were incredibly behind on cooking everything. There was a forty minute line just to get the food, but then when the thing ended, we had loads left over. So I got to eat lots of pancakes. Mmmm.

******

It was my birthday yesterday! Birthdays are a huge deal at my house, and always have been. Everyone goes all out. My sister made me crepes for breakfast as well as biscotti, which were part of my present. My mom made me a wonderful birthday dinner (give me a tub of tomato and feta salad and I will die happy) and, as is our way, spoiled me with presents. Right now I'm listening to my new Patrick Wolf (thank you Kevin Lu!) with my new speakers (Mom: There were these ones and another set. The other set were better quality, but these ones have their own travel case. Evey: Ohh! It zips up!) while clicking with my new mouse. And wearing a new Tshirt. How lucky, lucky am I.


*It was also pyjama day. I wore sweat pants over pyjama pants and wore them sagged down so I looked like a teenage boy, and let me tell you, you actually can't walk like that.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Magical Desert Fox

I took a mostly sick day yesterday.

Yesterday I went to school, but by third period I had a definite fever and felt awful. I stuck it out through improv practice until 5, but I wasn't doing so hot, so I took a day off. Sleeping until 10:30 did surprisingly little, unfortunately, as I still feel super sick.

I did head in to school for improv practice. We were to have our pre-Connors Cup training session with KY. Now, I bet there were quite a few things in that last sentence many of you didn't understand. I'll elaborate. Connor's Cup is an improv competition, totally separate from the official regionals/nationals and named for Ottawa's regional co-director and improv legend Al Connors. The training session is something every team gets before the Cup, run with three other teams, to make sure all the teams know how to improvise. Finally, KY is Katherine Young, head judge, regional co-director and COG volunteer of 11 years.

Now that you're in the know, I'll go on. These training sessions are fine, but Lisgar doesn't usually go, because we're Lisgar, and we usually don't go out for Connor's Cup (last year we threw together one team 2 days before and one team the day of) but since most of our team is in grade twelve, we get one shot. So we all want to make the most of it, especially when it comes to Connor's Cup. This year's team is all new and Lisgar has a reputation, so we all want to come out with a bang.

So. Training session. We showed up there, ready to be among our peers, people as nuts and exciting and into improv as we are. Jimmy members were a little stressed because we haven't really been feeling it lately, and we want to pwn. We were the same night as Brookfield and Immaculata, and almost everyone was new to improv. Great! We're all on the same level. Things started off well, with minor confusion about taking shoes off (KY asked us to take our shoes off. Lisgar already had all their shoes off, but Brookfield got very confused and complained about the smell a lot).

So, what happenned was that Lisgar did super well. We knew our stuff, we made good scenes, and I got to stand up in front of everyone and make a scene that was exactly what KY wanted -- and she nicknamed me "glasses" because she likes mine. It's true that this was to practice and learn, but it felt good to know what I was doing. Improv period felt good.

At the end of the night, we split into our teams. I knelt down next to Ms K, and felt something wierd going on with my knee. Or rather, behind my knee. Back up to earlier that day when I was pulling on my jeans. I felt something wierd as I put them on, but then it seemed to be fine, so I went on with my day. Jump back to the improv workshop. I reach up my pantleg... and pull out yesterday's underwear. I turned very, very red while silently thanking God that they hadn't fallen out while I was walking... or on stage. In front of Brookfield. IN FRONT OF KY.

I probably would have gotten a different nickname...

Monday, November 12, 2007

No! Not that song!

I will start off today's post with a fine OOC*:

Student 1 (walking into Ms A's room): Why is it so cold in here?
Student 2: They have to keep Ms A's heart at its natural temperature.
A (nodding, impressed): Yeah. Good one.

Now Ms A is not exactly the world's most predictable teacher. She latches on to random things, yells often, and gets very worked up. She often seems personally offended by her students/society/something we say. She is a perfect old woman, except younger.

She has decided that she doesn't like me. I have too much attitude. I express opinions. I'm disrespectful. Etc. Well, I hate to break it to you Ms A, but I am not like this at all in any of my other classes. I'm reserved (unless someone is being an idiot and I need to tell them to shut up), I don't yell things, I don't disagree with everything the teacher says. No, miss, it's pretty much just you. I disagree just for the sake of disagreeing because I don't like you very much.* I'm sorry. If you respected me more, I might return the sentiment. But instead I disagree, something I am incredibly good at, might I remind you, as I am a teenager and it's practically a sport for us. So really, you don't want to try to take me down. I will be the clear winner.

There's a big division at my school, between the new Ms A and the old, much beloved Mr Hodgson (old and new to the school, not in age). The Hodge is a Lisgar legend. Everyone loves him, everyone wants to be in his classes, everyone defends him (so it sucks to be the one in like 50 who doesn't like him. It happens, though rarely). We love how he teaches -- the yelling, the dancing around, the clear passion for the texts.

Ms A is totally different. She is analytical, she structures the hell out of everything, and she has crazy idea about theme. She confuses the hell out of students who already took AP Writer's Craft. Everyone just wants their Mr Hodgson back. Hence the division. We disagree with her, we dislike her insane moods and really, we just want theme back to the way it was when it didn't have to be a cause and effect or the moral of the story and we understood it. It seems like not much to ask.

So I suffer through her class and am actually pulling an 89 (yes!). Let's hope I can keep my marks high until I get to my dream semester next -- Mr Hodgson all morning.




* OOC is a section of the Lisgarwrite in which we print things teacher have said. Silly things.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Tell me that you'll open your eyes

There was this add that used to be on TV when I was younger that was on all the time. It ended up driving me nuts and it was probably the first commercial my sister ever memorized and wouldn't stop repeating (luckily she has now moved on to singing songs, and her musical taste is what I would call Good Top Forty, so that's better than singing the subway adds).

This add featured various children doing various activities. The commercial's line was "What's your thing?" There were male ballet dancers, kids with bugs, kids doing magic tricks and one kid who could make T-rex noises, which my eight-year-old self thought was pretty cool. It ended with the kids says "Nobody's good at everything, but everybody's good at something. What's your thing?" Watching this commercial, I'd mentally peruse the various classes and activities I was enrolled in (ballet, tap, gymnastics, art class, etc.) and wonder what my thing was. I liked doing all those things, but I didn't feel that any of them were my "thing". Years later, I have found my thing.

If you read my blog with any regularity, you are familiar with the concept of improv and its constant presence in my life, as well as my feeling of awe when I watch it. So this year, I tried out for the improv team, The Improv Team, Jimmy, of the Ligsar Improv Dynasty. I felt like the kid who's staying up to watch Grown-Up TV with her parents and is afraid she'll be asked to leave at any moment. A pretender, a poser. But I tried out anyway, because it made me feel so good to do improv. Last Thursday, the list went up... and I was on it. I jumped up and down, I screamed, I yelled I cried... I had to read the list a few times to be sure. But my name was really there.

Last night, we had our first team rehearsal. Both Jimmy and Jimbo, the B team, were there, and Ms K sent Jimbo out in to the other room accompanied by former team member Ben Farrow to work separately. When they left, suddenly the feeling in the room changed. The eight of us looked at one another, and there was in incredibly feeling of This is it. This is it. It's us. The group felt so small and so tight, and I just felt this incredible energy in the room. During the practice, Ms K told us "improvise", no prompt, no theme. And we did it. We just... did it. For an hour. No stress, no worrying about anything else, no thoughts of anything but that moment and those people and that feeling. It was easily the most amazing feeling of my life.

After the practice, I was left waiting for my ride and chatting with Ms K. "Did you feel it?" I asked her. "It was so amazing," was her reply. There's a word in french, s'extasier, which is basically complete ecstasy as a verb. To enter into ecstasy. That is how I feel about improv. Je m'extasie. I have found my thing.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Et puis...

This is obviously the best way to spend my spare.

I am just back from a wonderful weekend in Quebec City with my mother. I bet after reading those words many of you gasped and are now in shock. Words like "How?" and "Why?" are now flashing through your minds, quickly followed by "What's wrong with her?". I can assure all of you however, that I have not lost my mind, I actually did have a wonderful time spending every waking moment with my mother for 72 hours. I know, I was shocked too.

Last year at Christmas time, I went to a Christmas party for my mom's office, the SOGC. They have a raffle every year for all the employees with things donated by the various suppliers the SOGC works with. There are enough prizes for everyone, but some are a lot better than others. Since I had worked at the sexulalityandu.ca booth for them, I got my name entered in the draw, and I won a two night stay at any Fairmont Hotel in the Quebec region. So. Off to Quebec City. It was a pretty action packed weekend, so I'll share with you the best story: the story of the Separatist Tourguide.



One thing we decided we really wanted to do while we were there was a walking tour of the Old City. We signed ourselves up for a tour and met up with the guide at the visitors' centre. The guide was a fairly normal looking guy with a comb-over, no fleur-de-lis on his forehead or prominently displayed Separatist Club badge. We didn't notice anything until the tour guide started the tour with a good five minute rant about Parks Canada, the federal government and english speakers everywhere. Apparently, les quebecois are the only ones who really know canadian history, and the federal government is spreading lies about the history of Canada to suit their own purposes. Or something. I stopped listening part way through and pretended to take a picture so I could turn away and laugh.

Ok, so I do not hate les quebecois. I love their language, and am a huge poutine fan (gross but true), and they, as everyone, deserve respect. But honestly people, this guy was hilarious. At least 5 or 6 times he went off on to tangents that would last for minutes. At one point, he even talked about how "silly" Inuit (or as he said, "eskimo") words are. That was less funny that it was incredibly rude and awful, but for the most part he was comic relief more than anything.

And for more comic relief, here is me next to Rene Levesque. Separatist Tour Guide almost had a heart attack when he saw us taking this picture.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Augustine, my Augustine

Below, in the centre column, is my to-do list*:


You see why I have been neglecting you? Not that anyone has been pestering me or anything...

Lately, I seem to be busy and a half. It's nuts. I work all night straight, and I still don't get everything done, and what makes it worse is that I'm getting sick of it. While it may seem fun to work sans cesse**, really, I'm kind of getting sick of it. I would rather veg and relax and get to sleep before 1am. The stress of busy has been getting so bad, that Halloween, one of my favourite times of year, has become a hinderance I'd rather be rid of. I don't even have a costume. But I have been a very good girl. I actually spend my spares in the library! Doing homework! Instead of at Dunn's, getting breakfast, or at Rideau, or lying around doing shit all in the airport lounge***.

I did take a break this weekend, on Saturday night. Saturday night was Saunders farm/costume party night. Every October, for a few years now, I get to go to Saunders Farm. I tried to go Thanksgiving weekend, but unfortunately, after the 45 minute drive out there, we discovered that it was closed. So, this weekend was take two. And let me tell you... I had a ton of fun.

Saunders Farm is best done with people who have never been. While I have done most of these attractions many times before, others have not, and it's almost as fun to see what they do. For instance, Jessica turned out to be the highlight of our evening, as she screamed more than anyone I've ever seen as Saunders. I think everyone in the whole place was out to scare her, because everything always happenned to her. I was very impressed with how they've jazzed up the after-dark part. The Hayride has improved, except for the unfortunate decay of the famous T-rex which is so old that he doesn't move forward at the wagon anymore. Bummer, I know.

The best change was the addition of people wandering around as zombies. Are they ever CREEPY! When we went through the new "Field of Screams" I was attacked and chased at the end by one of the zombies. He even chased me out of the maze and across the courtyard, until I bumped into another zombie, who grabbed me. I was so scared I couldn't see straight. Once I got over the scared part, I realized what an awesome job they do. They are always in character, following people, scaring them, staring at you until you look beside you and see a zombie staring at you, and you scream and hide behind your friend's boyfriend... That job is the one reason I wished I lived in Munster -- so I could work at Saunders Farm as a zombie. I'll put that down on my list of dream jobs, right after "dead, rotting corpse" on CSI.


* Other things you can see in this picture include a motivational penguin quote, a silly teacher quote for the Lisgarwrite and my last minute studying for my Tess of the D'Urbervilles test today (which I aced despirte not having read half the book).
**I'm so tired that I can't think of the word in English. It's moments like these that my extensive french training from a very young age can backfire and freak me out.

***No, it's true we have an airport lounge in my school. Same annoying, uncomfortable chairs.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

There's a fire just waiting for Fuel

So... maybe I fell off the face of bloggerdom a little bit. For like, a week. It happens. I'm sorry. I hope you will take out any anger and/or frusteration on inanimate objects or irritating coworkers and read my blog despite the emergence of these feelings.

Last week, Kirsten came to live at my house for a week. Kirsten and I have been friends since grade nine and she often spends lots of time at my house with the "normal" family, but she's never officially been staying here longer than one night. Her family is her dad who has lots of issues of his own and is not the nicest or most supportive of fathers. So Kirsten decided she needs to move out for a while, and she needed a place, so, my house it was.

I was pretty worried since she lives mostly rule-free at her house, whereas my house has rules. Real ones with consequences and guilt and everything. I was worried about getting stuck between my mom and my friend. Luckily, Kirsten seemed to have a great time chez moi and her cat allergies only kicked in during her last night here. (I have three cats... Benedryl stays in our medicine drawer at all times. Right... the medecine drawer. That's another story.)

I spent a lot of time during this stay of Kirsten's hanging out with her. To be fair, I did get most of my homework done, I just spent way less time checking my email, and, well, blogging. Instead we listened to music and painted -- Kirsten painted while I failed at painting. I can do trees, but that's pretty much it. I think I'll stick to writing.

The other fun thing that happenned this week was coffeehouse. LEAF organises a sort of planned open mic type event twice a year, and one was last Friday. These are famous for their funny acts, cool people, and general awesomeness. Unfortunately, a big chunk of that awesome jsut graduated, so this coffeehouse was not the best. It has its amazing moments (um... acoustic "Umbrella" by Rhianna? With dancers with umbrellas? Awesome.) but many were less good, mostly caused by the lack of mics that worked (AVAs talent graduated as well).

Most exciting part for ME and therefor for YOU was that I finally fulfilled my dream of being on stage at coffeehouse. I have pictures that would accompany this post if only they did not involve my double chin. But anyway, I read some of my favourite poems. I wore my hot new dress and I got my poet on in a beret and read. Now, these were not MY poems, which is slightly less exciting, but I love them, and it was a reading, so it was exciting for me. I read "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost first, then I read a piece by a very gifted friend of mine, Matt McCarren (McC) called "In These Arms" (one of my favourite poems ever. And it was written by a high school boy. I feel like the world should end now). My last one was an amazing spoken word piece by Ani Difranco called "Fuel". Spoken word is something I'd like to get into more. There's something about it that appeals to me, and my style seems to lend itself well to it, which is exciting because in french class we're having a workship with Oni the Haitian Sensation about writing slam poetry type stuff in French. Magnifique, non?

PS: Dear Ontario: McGuinty? AGAIN? Really guys? Come on.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Take me, Take me to the riot/ and let me stay

At the beginning of this year something happenned. I started on a long journey that's less like a forward motion and more like freefalling. This journey is called Applying to University.

Applying to University is a scary experience. It involves many parts, which include (but are not limited to) Googling Universities, Visiting University Fairs, Visiting Universities, Freaking Out About Grades, Hounding Teachers for Recommendation Letters, and, the best one, Applying for Scholarships.

Having tackled a bunch of these already, tonight I decided to start in on Applying for Scholarships. As any student might, I mosied on over to studentawards.com, filled out their extensive survey and pressed "go" to match me up with scholarships I might be interested in.

And I was confronted with a loooong list. There were a few that I was able to count out and there are about 5 that are the same "community involvment" thing, which means work once for many things. You know, your general, run of the mill "an essay of 500 words [how is that considered and essay? So short!] about community involvment(s)". And then there was one that was more exciting.

The CBC Literary Awards. Basically, you submit poetry (1000-2000 words) or a short story or piece of creative nonfiction (both 2000-2500 words) and you can win lots of money to put toward school. Sounds good yes? Maybe not. See, much as I enjoy reading, I have nothing to submit. Bummer. Until my mother suggests I try something from my blog.

This is an interesting idea. Something from my blog... but my blog is just a place where I write for fun about my day and my opinions and... hey wait, doesn't that fit into creative nonfiction? I guess so. So I'm going to beef up a piece I've already written (by adding about 1500 words) and submitting that. I think. I don't know if that's what they want though. Will it be good enough? Is it appropriate to submit a blog piece to a scholarship application? Most importantly, does anyone want to help me with this thing???

So, I'm a little stressed and alone. This thing is due Nov 1 (along with every other application, apparently) and I'm not sure I'll be ready by then. Plus, even if I am, is it worth it when I most likely won't win? So many questions running around my head.



Note: If anyone caught the Japanese Grand Prix last night/this morning, they were lucky. It was EPIC. And heartbreaking. Honestly the best F1 race I've ever seen.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Stick to the B.E.A.T. / Get ready to ignite

Today I had the privilege to go and see a collaboration between the NAC and the Royal Shakespeare Company of England. This collaboration is Margaret Atwood's new play (based off the book) The Penelopiad. It's is a play that tells Penelope's side of the story of The Odyssey. Penelope tells the story of her marriage to Odysseus, and how she fell in love with him and then recounts the story the Odyssey skims over: the story of Penelope's long years of wait in Ithica with her twelve handmaids. Atwood takes a character with little depth in the Odyssey and breathes life into her, creating a new intelligent, funny, scared, hopeful woman where there was no detail before.

As I said, this was put on by the RSC and the NAC together. The cast is mostly from the RSC, with a few from Canada. They worked on the play even as Atwood was finishing it and it's the first production. It is also a women-only cast. All characters were played by the twelve handmaids using costume changes, sometimes changes on stage. The lighting was great, the actors were amazing and though certain uptight CBC critics didn't like parts of it (if you listen to CBC1, you know who I'm talking about) I have one thing to say about it:

It was fucking AMAZING.

Easily my favourite stage show I've ever seen. I love love love love love love loved it. Sure Atwood has a tendancy to add pretentiousness in here and there, but it really didn't affect the production as a whole. It really was a breathtaking piece.

Walking back from the NAC, everyone had great things to say about the show and how good it was. Some are of the anti-Atwood mind frame, but they still really liked it. I was dicussing the play with a friend and the two drama teachers Ms K and Ms Szeles, aka, Hellish-teacher-I-had-last-year. I was saying how much I LOVED it and my friend teasingly said "yes, but you are Evey and you're a feminist."

Ms Szeles: Oh Evey, is that so? You're something of a feminist?

Me: Well, Ms Szeles, do you support equal rights for women and men?

Ms Szles: Yes...

Me: Then you're a feminist too.

Thank you Tomato Nation for that response.

So seriously guys, go see it.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Il faudra que je cours jusqu'au bout

When you walk into French class and hear that you will be working on a story that everyone but you has read and that you need the book you forgot at home (while attempting to catch up to everyone else), you start the get the feeling french class isn't going to go well that day. It's a pretty valid assumption. It's one I made today about 10 minutes into french class.

"Well why did you come to my class, then, if you did not have your book?" This was the answer to "Miss, may I borrow an extra copy of the anthology please?" (I never did get one). I sat down and instead stared at my feet for 20 minutes (a summer of Birkenstocks means my feet look more like the barnacles on Orli's dad's face in Pirates than parts of my body. That is a whole other story to be told later on. Sounds thrilling, I know.)

Anyway. The point of the exercises was to try, in a fictional court setting, the main character of the story to see if he had committed any crimes (he was in fact the victim of a society that forced him into such situations, but I only learned this later). I was on the defense side. The prosecution was much better organised. The only direction from the teacher was "Use only what is in the text".

Well, the prosecution was enthusiastic, but then stepped all over themselves. They made up witnesses, admitted stealing was ok, and their lead prosecutor didn't speak french. Our side was doing pretty well, aided by me, yelling out random things like "They just said stealing was ok!" and "That's not from the text! I object!" and "That lawyer can't speak french! She obviously has no idea what she's talking about!"

In the end, the judge found the character not guilty on all counts, and listed my various (loud) points as their reasons. So the moral of this story is you don't have to know anything in order to win. You just need to yell louder than anyone else.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Those teenage hopes who have tears in their eyes/ too scared to own up to one little lie

Today has been living up to its full potential of awesome, so far.

Waking up groggy (thanks to loud friends of roommate) and with a scratchy throat, I had my doubts. But things got better when I got to Ladyfest. After spending all the money from my piggybank at the craftfair, I headed downstairs for the workshop on self-publishing.

Now I must say, I was pretty excited. My two favourite bloggers doing a workshop together about blogging was pretty much the best thing ever. I was also pretty intimidated. I mean, sure, I blog, but it's more of a, "Hey friends, read about my life!" deal than, you know, real writing. So going there to hear them talk about how they blog felt a little like ripping off bandaid to expose new skin. You really want to let the thing breath, but the skin is all pinky and pale. And scared. Ok, so now I'm personifying skin. That's my cue to move on.

So anyway, the workshop was really good. Jen and Megan brought up some really interesting things I hadn't thought about (like long-armed staplers....) Just hearing about their experiences blogging and zine-ing made me feel more like a "real" blogger, like the ones I read. Oh, and I am so getting a zine together. I would love that so so much. It would deeply please the tactile part of me that loves little booklets.

One thing Jen said really stuck with me, which I will now impart to you in paraphrased format. It was something like, give value to what you write, blogs, zines, anything. I guess that's something I should work on. But I know that I will. I realized how much I love writing, in any form. But here's the thing: People say I'm a good writer (which is flattering, thank you) but I don't know if I understand that. Not because of that low confidence thing, but more because I feel like to be good at something, it has to be really hard for you. For instance, to become a concert violinist, you have to practice for hours a day for years and years. To be an amazing athlete, you have to train all the time. I don't train at writing... I just write. So I feel like it can't be that good, since I don't work at it. I mostly just jumble words around in my head until I like the way they sound and then I write them down. Does that really count as a creative process?

Well, whether it does or not doesn't really matter because I know I like doing this a lot, and I think I'll keep doing it. After all, to be good at something, you have to practice, right?

Anyway, after the workshop I got Jen to sign her book for me and I chatted with them a little, which was in of itself a little surreal. I mean, these people whom I read about and whom I consider Really Good Writers talking to me. About writing. I hope I'll be a Really Good Writer some day too.

My favourite moment of the afternoon: During the part about blogging communities, Jen pointed to me and said "That's how we know Evey!" That is probably the closest I ever felt to bring a rockstar. I'm a huge nerd.

Ok, I'm off to find a long-armed stapler and a statcounter for my blog.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

All we get is Dead Disco/ dead punk, dead rock and roll...

Just a note to all of you who live in Ottawa:

This weekend is fulfilling its quote of awesome. Not only is there Walk For Life on Saturday night, but also Ladyfest Ottawa is this weekend, so head over to Jack Purcell on Saturday to check out the craftfair and some great workshops (just so long as you don't steal my spot at "Write Here, Write Now: A Guide to Zines, Blogs and Self-Publishing, run by the Ottawa blogosphere's very own Jen and Megan). Not excuses -- go have a great weekend.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Ce souverain des coeurs, cette ame de notre ame

Hey everyone.

For the past couple days I've been feeling kind of down. Maybe it's the going back to school, maybe it's the friends being away; I'm not sure. I do know I'm really stressed out and have about a million things to do and not enough time to do them in. All I want to do is get things DONE so I don't have to worry, but there's so much I ignore it instead. I'm kind of worried I'm going to drown in all this.

So, if you have a minute, say hi to me. I'm feeling kind of lonely and hearing from people who care is nice. Knowing nice people have got my back makes me feel so much better. I love you all! (Except you Davis. I'm kidding, of course). I'm sorry if I don't blog a lot in the next little while.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

We don't give you homework because we think you're bored at night.

I am already having such a hard time feeling motivated to work. Student's Council and Lisgarwrite are fine, I'm full speed ahead on those. Drama? Awesome. But then there's the hardcore french class and AP english. I'm actually incredibly worried right now. For some reason, I just can't get myself moving forward. These courses aren't motivating me, at all. Any advice?

I did manage to get myself motivated enough to bike down to Dave's Bike Dump on Catherine's to get my new bike tweaked (it's the emo bike; it whines as I bike along. Also, my kickstand was falling off). Kirsten was a big part of getting me to actually go. She bikes a lot and to her it was no big deal to just go there. I totally agree -- it's about a 10 minute bike ride to Dave's Bike Dump. However, I am unmotivated and used to ignoring problems until they go away. Sometimes they do, but more often than not, as I'm coming to learn, they do not. Sigh. Also, the guys down at Dave's Bike Dump are great. Really nice guys. As red-haired-braid guy said, "I get to bike and ski for a living. Sometimes I'm so fucking lucky, I can't believe how lucky I am... not going to get rich this way, but I have a fucking great life." You know, that sounds pretty good to me. I don't need to get rich and famous one day, I'd just like to have enough to get by and enjoy life, and enjoy doing it.

In other news, I just finished "The Birth House" by Ami McKay. I would like to pass this along to all of you who haven't read it. Erin, I especially think you should read it. And it takes place in Canada, eh?

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Summer dreams, ripped at the seams/ but oh...

This summer has been a very different summer. Usually I welcome the long lazy days of summer when I don't have to worry about homework or getting up or... anything, really. But summer was just so hot. So gasping for breath, drowning in sweat, feeling irritable and annoyed all the time HOT. Plus, I never ended up seeing any of my friends, and I missed people after two months with my (lovely) family. So when autumn showed up with its new clothes and new school supplies (I'll do homework in a pretty new notebook) and mid-teen daytime highs (celcius, y'all), I'd be like, "oh good friend, where have you been???"

But then this summer with its friends, its cooler temperature, its feeling of blissful teenage freedom... I would not trade this summer for anything. Especially not for waking up and doing homework. Not. Cool. At. All. Doesn't help that the stress is already up to my eyeballs.

Last night was such an example of my wonderful summer. Good friends, hanging out and when we get too tired, to the park down the street. For some reason, playgrounds are just as good when you're older.

So back to school? Umm... could I just get the clothes and the notebooks and stay home?

Thursday, August 30, 2007

love in our summer skin - Pt. 2

Here's part two, which will be more fun if you read part one (scroll down).

So really, women, this hating our bodies thing? Let's cut it out. It's not as if constantly complaining or fishing for compliments is fun, and it certainly isn't a gay old time to spend an hour trying to get dressed to make ourselves appear thinner. Sooner or later we should figure out how it's a lot easier to just love what you've got.

You know who figured this out faster than I am? The cool chicks at (the late) Jane magazine. If anyone else picked up their last ever issue, they'll know what I'm talking about. August is their "naked issue" -- and this one certainly didn't dissappoint (80% more naked than last year!). I loved the photo piece of various female actors hanging out naked. Now, their naughty bits were covered, but it didn't take away from the piece. Imagine! Women proudly showing off their bodies -- the parts they love and the parts that maybe they'd rather cover with clothes. But the truth was, not one of them looked bad. Now, that nagging voice in my head points out lighting and the possible use of retouching, but no one was retouched to look perfect, so I'll get over it. Their bodies had soft curves and had structure. They looked real. And proud.

Another article I loved (both for its content and its writing -- I laughed out loud a few times while reading it) was one about naked yoga. Young and old, hanging out on rooftops in downtown, doing yoga naked. Connecting with nature (well, as much as you can downtown, I guess) and celebrating their bodies. I am SO down with that. The author said something I really like: "something about reducing myself to a soul covered in flesh... I don't feel uncomfortable. In the outside world I spend much time wishing I were more slender, but here, I don't feel that way at all." Doesn't that sound good?

This issue of Jane magazine came at a perfect time for me. I have been working harder to appreciate what I've got and not wish for a different body, because you know what? THIS is me and you know what? I'm pretty awesome. What this body can do never stops amazing me. Walking, running, growing, healing, sleeping, dreaming, dancing... all the things my body does for me, I feel like I should appreciate it more. It's a gift, every curve, every inch, every part is a gift.

So I've been working on appreciating it. First thing I did? Pitched those uncomfortable, over padded, pinch more and more and the day goes on, good for nothing bras. Because, really, the biggest plus to having a small chest is that I can forgo the padding and wire for bras that don't make me irritable and pained. And I am not going back. Nuh-uh. My body is much happier this way. And when my body is happy, so am I.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Chillin'


How every Sunday night should be.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

The night starts here, the night starts here/ forget your name, forget your fear

Pt 2 of that other thing is coming later. But here to interrupt is this account of my day!

While waking up at 7:30am on a Sunday morning may not seem like a choice thing to be doing, this is what I did this morning. After going to sleep at 2, I woke up at 7:30 (still more sleep than average this summer, but I guess that's part of the problem), and I hit the snooze button. This, however had no effect as it was not my alarm that had woken me up, but my father in the doorway. "It's 7:30," he told me simply from the doorway. I think I said something eloquent like "Mmmmph" without opening my eyes while really I meant "What in Heaven's name are you doing waking me up at SEVEN THIRTY on a Sunda- oh. right. I asked you to wake me up."

I have really great ideas sometimes.

And here's the thing: even though I was dead tired and still mostly asleep, I dragged my butt out of bed and downstairs to the couch, my bed-substitute, in time for the 8 o'clock start. Start of what? you may ask. Why, let's see: Sunday morning, in the summer, 8am start = F1 season. Turkish Grand Prix. That's right: car racing. My dad and I have been watching car racing for as long as I can remember. Nascar, Indy car, F1... I know 'em all, I've seem 'em all. Sundays after church, or on days when I was allowed to stay home from church, I'd sit on the white couch in my living room, with my dad on the other couch and we'd watch cars of various shapes and sizes zoom around tracks. Meanwhile, my mom would be cooking Sunday dinner as well as the usual Sunday Night Special Desert and my sister would be helping her. It was Dad Time, and I loved every minute of it.

Gradually, as I've gotten older, we've done this less and less. I stopped watching Nascar on Sunday afternoons because I often have homework, or plans, and besides, I have no patience for Nascar anyway (they're pussies. They stop the race the second a little rain falls!). The mornings were harder and harder to wake up for because of my later Saturday nights, but everyone now and then, in the summer, during F1 season, I drag myself out of bed and sit in the living room with my dad and watch F1, which was always my favourite. Sure, I may be half asleep and I wake up and blindly agree with whatever my dad just said, but he still loves me being there. And I love being with him. Dad Time. Just me and him, while the rest of the house sleeps.

The rest of my day was pretty good too. I worked, and then found 74 dollars in chapters cards, bought myself two books and a scarf (yes, a scarf) and then saw the Nanny Diaries with my godmother. It was, by the way, a great movie. I recommend it to everyone. I also still love Scarlett Johansson, and was very happy to see that she had obviously raided my closet for this movie.

If you're bored tonight, give me a call. I'm going out around 11:30 to watch from some shooting stars. Hope to see you there.

Friday, August 24, 2007

love in our summer skin - Pt. 1

As a teenage girl, I spend a lot of time being told how much I should hate my body. Not just the media (yeah, ok I'll lay off for a second... that's a whole other blog post), but also by my peers. Loving your body just isn't cool. I remember one scene in Mean Girls, the first time the new girl, Cady, hangs out with the Plastics. Everyone is hanging out in the classic teen girl bedroom, and suddenly, as if a sudden alarm has gone off, all the girls congregate in front of the mirror and start pointing out their flaws. "My hair is totally wierd", "I have man shoulders", "My nailbeds suck"; the three girls completely pick apart their bodies. When Cady doesn't join in, they all prompt her to do so. That scene, though short, was one of the most true to life, because this happens all the time. Anywhere girls are hanging out this will happen. One girl starts with "I am so bloated today." and soon everyone else joins in. And not only do they join in, but they deny the other's problems ("You're so thin! What are you talking about?"). This may sound like a good thing, but really it is a put down. Your thing isn't as bad as my thing. My thing is worse. You aren't good enough at being unnattractive. I deserve more pity. On and on and on.

The inevitable result of this is that girls hate their naked bodies. Sure, we prance around in the changerooms after gym class grade 7, but only long enough to show the other girls that we can suck in our guts and rock our new training bras. In the changerooms at the Y we stare (without staring) at the old women who let it all hang out in the showers. How can they do this? we wonder, How can they stand to let people see... everything? And, uh, they sag like, a lot. Like, omg. How can they do it? How can they stand themselves? We scoff, we roll our eyes, we even giggle some, but there isn't one of us who doesn't envies the way they are totally comfortable in their own skin.

Me and my body have had our ups and downs, emotionally, and, well, physically. I remember from the time I was in fifth grade and probably even before, standing naked in front of my bedroom mirror, sucking in my stomach. Loves: lips, feet, legs, back. Less than love: stubby fingers, round cheeks, squinty eyes, let's-not-even-talk-about-them breasts, and, of course, the stomach. Number one enemy of the state. I was always kind of one of the chubbier girls in the class. "Puppy fat", it was always called, but I never got that. Puppies = cute. My stomach... not so much.

I never really dealt with my body-hate, my body dealt with it for me. Two things happenned: first, I grew. I stretched out, my weight redistributed itself and people started saying "Oh my goodness! Evey, you're so thin!". The other thing that happenned was that I joined rugby and spent the run-up to swimsuit season running up and down a field 2 hours a day, 4 days a week. It was going good. Since then my weight has been up and down (more up than down lately), which is totally normal. I'm not one of the thinnest girls in my class, but I'm not overweight, and I'm hoping that one day I can accept that.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Took a step back, couldn't read the signs/ Cross the plains till they start to climb

2/3 of the way through my trip to Indiana, and I am remembering why I love my cousins so much. Sure, they drive me totally nuts sometimes, but I love them so much. So much silly. They are my older brothers, and it's quite regrettable that I only get to see them once a year.

Today we went to the fair! We sang the fair song. If you don't know this song, just remember the song:

We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo
How about you? you? you?
You can come too, too, too,
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo


and then you ask people what they saw at the zoo and what sound it made... it's a fun silly song to sing in the car. We adapt it to our needs, changing the rhymes as we need to (We're going to the beach, Gonna eat a peach, Watch out for the leech...) And in this case, the fair! Amy thought we were nuts, we sang songs the whole way home. First, the regular car/camp songs and then we moved on to Broadway stuff (Elephant Love Medley! Guys vs Girls!)



So the fair was so much fun. We didn't actually travel a great distance, but we did tons of stuff. We ate honey ice cream (Jonah, reading ingredients: "Guys, the only thing there's less of in here than honey is something called "stabilizer". Who knew honey was so unstable?"), we saw a gourd turned into a whale and we discovered Erin's family secret (me: "ok, who knew that Erin had a farm? I didn't know! I bet you have a secret plan to fight inflation too, Erin."). Oh, and we ate fried food. DEEP fried food. A short list of things that various people from the group ate:

-deep fried corn fritters ("Like corn nuggets, but worse for you!")
-elephant ear (like a Beavertail but not as good)
-corn on the cob (ok, the real food)
-corn dog
-walking taco*
-steak on a stick
-deep fried strawberries dipped in chocolate
-deep fried oreo (it was free, and now I can say I've eaten one.)



All in all, I quite enjoyed the Indiana State Fair. And the deep fried oreo.

*A walking taco is snack sized bag of fritos with lettuce, tomato, cheese and ground beef in it. Can you say awesome lunch? I will be making this with whole wheat corn chips when I get home.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Saturday, August 04, 2007

She's Shameless

When three girls follow their dreams and start an online magazine, all I can do it shout their praises from any rooftop I can get to. I've read the premier issue of "She's In Fashion" magazine, and I think it's pretty friggin awesome. I only hope they'll let me write for them, cause this is a kickass project.

Check it out and tell all your friends:

www.shesinfashiononline.com

Friday, August 03, 2007

Feminist.

I'm a feminist, I don't bathe. Ever.
I'm a feminist, I burn bras in lieu of logs in my fire place.
I'm a feminist, I hate men.
I'm a feminist, I date a girl and,
I'm a feminist, so I don't call my partner my girlfriend.
I'm a feminist, I would rather die than settle down and have a family.
I'm a feminist, I always have dirt under my fingernails
I'm a feminist, the only hair I shave is the hair on my head.
I'm a feminist, I pierce everything that can be pierced.
I'm a feminist, I wear lots of leather.
I'm a feminist, I listen to loud, angry music.
I'm a feminist, I heart Rosie O'Donnell.
I'm a feminist, when I'm not barefoot, I'm wearing my Birkenstocks.
I'm a feminist, I refuse to wear a dress.
I'm a feminist, I only eat the vegetables I grow in my backyard.
I'm a feminist, I don't wear deoderant.
I'm a feminist, I care about equal rights for men and women, and I think women are kickass.

Call me crazy. Some of those things are true, some are stereotypes that aren't true of me, but they are of some people. Who cares? Whatever form it takes, feminism rocks. No matter what some teeny boppers think (*ahem Hilary Duff*)

So, I have this thing for quizzes.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

I'm keeping my cervix far away from the line.

So here's what I've been doing today:

http://www.shamelessmag.com/blog/2007/08/big-pharma-wins-again/

I am a fan of Shameless magazine. I like that it brings to light real issues instead of "281 ways to look pretty!" (see 17 for more of that). However, I don't like it when women in places of power at this magazine use it as a soapbox for their own personal (wrong) views about a vaccine that will help so many women. Yep -- HPV vaccine. It can't avoid controversy anywhere it goes. Here's my last bit, since I know most of you won't read it.

"I totally agree with you that Pap smears are essential to ensuring you stay cervical cancer-free. The problem is many women (like women in Aboriginal communities, as you mentioned)do not get Pap smears and it is these women who are most likely to get cervical cancer. Much needs to be done, socially. To start, why don’t we make sure all canadians are vaccinated? This is a huge break through in medical science. It is the first time in medical history that there is a vaccine against cancer — and this is what it is. 90% of cervical cancer is caused by HPV and it is the second highest cancer killer of women, second only to breast cancer, which has also been linked to HPV.

As to why the vaccine isn’t available to men — it is likely that the vaccine will be available to men in the next 12 months. This delay is because HPV does affect women more than men (although men can get anal, testicular and penile cancers from HPV as well). It is not a “women’s problem”. It is a solution for women.

As for Merck’s problems — they are a Big Pharmaceutical company, yes, so they are out to make a buck and out for themselves. But it would be cutting off our noses to spite our faces to push this breakthrough away because it is coming from Big Pharm. To make Merck more socially concious, why don’t we lobby them to donate vaccines to clinics where women who would never have access otherwise can get the vaccine? Women who will never get Pap tests, women who wear burkhas and chadors, whose husbands will never let them get Pap smears but who can get a needle and can protect themselves. I’m not trying to make sweeping generalizations, merely a suggestion. This vaccine can do so much good.

The idea that this is siphoning money away from other health issues frankly makes me a little annoyed, because this will in fact save so much money. As I said, HPV causes 90% of cervical cancer — without that 90%, so much money will be saved in terms of expensive, stage IV cancer treatments, all the way down to the wart treatments that come with HPV. Maybe not immediately, but in the long term, this will save so much money.

This vaccine has been in developement for over 20 years and clinical trials for 5. It has recieved exactly as much scrutiny as all other vaccines before they go to the public. Clinical trials continue, it will be monitored on an ongoing basis — just like every other vaccine. Why should we waste time over-scrutinizing when real lives can be saved. Scientific research on the long-term impact of the immune impact shows that if the vaccine is given to a 12-year-old, the immunity will be enhanced as time goes on. Why wait? We can help women. We can help an entire generation of teenagers, girls and guys. Why wait? Why put our cervixes on the line in order to “teach a lesson” to Big Pharm.? It is my body and as a socially-concious young woman, I feel my body will be of more use to any cause to which I want to lend it if I don’t have cervical cancer.

The fact is, cervical cancer prevention is a women’s issue — so let’s take control."

These women make me so angry sometimes. I hate that they would rather fight Big Pharm then save themselves and others from HPV and cervical cancer. This is a GOOD THING. Let's remember that people.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

You're on a bridge to nowhere and you're gettin' there fast/ put it in the past

My family has some sort of problem with planes.

I don't know what it is, but hardly a Bickbeck vacation has been had without plane troubles of some kind. I kid you not. When we wanted to go to Paris, the flight was canceled because of freezing rain. Luckily, the airline guy took pity on the mom with her two cute kids and gave us an extra day in Paris since we lost one, and I ended up being able to spend my birthday in Paris, which was nice... but still. It was touch and go for a while. I know, freezing rain is sometimes a problem when you leave for somewhere in the middle of November, and I wouldn't think much of it, were it an isolated event. There are other stories.

This year, when we were going to Cuba, we called the airport to check on our flight's status only to discover our flight had been canceled. Now this was only the flight to Toronto where we were to stay over night and then leave for Cuba in the morning. Now, this doesn't seem like such a bad thing, since there are flights to Toronto on the hour every hour all day from Ottawa until like 11pm, and we were leaving at 5. The problem was that this cancellation had been preceded by 3 days of terrible storms which left everyone flying anywhere in Eastern North America, and beyond, stranded for days. So every single seat on every single of those flights was booked. Every one. The standby fly list was a mile long. So we had to leave the next day (but that almost messed up too since the airline guy who rebooked us didn't press save or something and when we called back we discovered we had never booked a new flight. Fixed that in a hurry).

And now my poor father, who was to arrive last night here in Indy, after a week of stress and working overtime instead received a recorded call from the airline at 6am telling him: "Your flight has been affected due to .... cancellation." Now he is arriving today at about 2pm... right in the middle of the Brickyard 400, a huge car race of some kind that is happening right near the airport. As if Indianapolis' freeways aren't clogged enough normally.

I swear, it's a curse. I am the only one to break it, when I went to Indiana by myself a couple winters ago. I guess I'll fly alone from now on.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

It was 100 degrees/ as we sat beneath the willow trees

It's really hot here, in Indianapolis. Much hotter than Ottawa. I could actually go swimming, and not freeze my ass off. Radical, I know.

Last night was so much fun. I went swing dancing with Nathan, Jonah, Saralyn (Jonah's girlfriend) and Amy. We went early for the lesson, so they taught us how to do all these fancy moves, like the inside and outside turns, as well as the man turn and the sweetheart. Let me tell you, swing dancing is not that hard. It's hard to get really really good and have it look way awesome and all, but to learn some stuff that looks neat and is fun and then get out on the floor and dance... not too hard at all. When Evan showed up, I managed to teach him some dancing in about 2 minutes (and this is Evan, Mr I do not dance).

Whenever we got tired we went into the diner. See, the place where the dancing is hosted is this old theater place that has been converted to a dance hall with tables and a dance floor in the balcony and some practice room where Nathan and I practiced some really nifty moves, like the pretzel.

After discovering Evan had never seen RENT! we made last-minute plans to bring him back home with us and watch it at 1 in the morning. I fell asleep on his shoulder a couple times, but on the whole, the time was much enjoyed by all.

This evening, after a "fun-filled" afternoon at grandma's residence* my Uncle Stan went out to dinner with all the nieces and nephews to Steak 'n' Shake and then to a movie. I love my Uncle Stan. First of all is the money. Money is the going thing here. Everyone is always trying to give one another money. Often it is put to us, the nieces and nephews, to pass on/accept/not accept the money. It's a little silly. The other thing with Uncle Stan is that everything is always political. For instance, he was driving us to dinner in the van, which is kind of old. We were discussing how it's missing a mirror and the window is totally jank and such, and Uncle Stan said "Wouldn't it be nice to be a republican and be able have something fixed when it breaks?" The right and the left are black and white to him. Always.

We saw Transformers, and before you roll your eyes or otherwise knock it, know it was so much fun. Because it was so funny, and then when it got scary or serious, they'd just mention the name of the robot -- Bumblebee -- and then we'd all laugh.

*we tried playing jenga, since she can't really so scrabble anymore. It went ok, but games are a little beyond her now.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Jenk, Jank, Janky

Family vacations are a funny thing. For instance, usually, they come at exactly the wrong time for me. This year is no exception, but last year is the example I will use in which I went away right at the time when my relationship was falling apart. Mike and I subsequently broke up.

The other thing about family vacations is that, as evidenced by popular belief, you have to spend it with you family. This is a problem. The only member of my family I really spend a ton of time with ever is my mom. My dad is always at work/napping/reading, but we still get some good hang out time. But not always, constantly, which is good. And with my sister and I, the less we hang out, the better we get along, it seems. But we're going to the same high school next year so we'll see how that goes...

Anyway, I have already moved on to phase 2 of my vacation, phase 1 not having been a huge success. Visiting my aunt and cousin was ok, but that house is a big box of drama ALL THE TIME. Very stressful, lots of crying. And today we drove to Indianapolis where I am now, sitting on the floor of my cousin Jonah's room (yess laptop) while he serenades me with Ben Folds songs on his guitar. I will go join in on this now.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

I feel it all, I feel it all

And today, I feel my teeth with no braces. Oh yeah.


Pretty, no?



Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Montreal might eat its young but Montreal can't get us down

Last night at 9:15pm... do you know where you should have been? At the Final Fantasy concert at Bluesfest. Which was one of the (if not THE) most amazing concerts I've ever seen.



Here's some background. Final Fantasy is a one man band, basically. Owen Pallett is that one man. He plays violin, keyboard, and sings. Not all at once -- he's awesome, but no one is that awesome. He uses recording pedals. He lays down one harmony and then loops it and adds something on top of that... on and on. And then he opens his lovely mouth and sings. It's the kinda of music you just lose yourself in. The songs just get better and better as he builds them. He uses everything to its max. He drums on his violin to add percussion bits, he uses the back of his bow to create a new sound, he even yells into his violin, distorting his voice.
So basically, it was an amazing concert. The set list was perfect. He even played a Block Party song, and two encores that were the songs I still wanted to hear. One thing that I really liked was that his friend Steph ("WHO'S STEPH?" Owen: "Who's Steph? She's the one on stage who isn't me, I already explained this to you.") did really cool visuals. As they were setting up the stage (Kevin: "Quick! Take of pic of Owen's ass!") they put up a sheet and brought out an old school projector. The kind we use to take notes from at school. Steph turned this into the coolest visals. Layering images on top of each other, using textures, making these images come alive. It really added to the show, since Owen is only one guy with a violin, a keyboard and some stuff at his feet. He's smart that one. Puts on a great show.
After, he signed autographs. When the we heard that, Jake and I high-tailed it to the Compact Music tent where the signing was to be. Unfortunately, Hedley was still playing, which resulted in a lot of Owen fans yelling angrily and rolling their eyes, because Hedley was so bad, and the lead singer was incredibly obnoxious. I was pretty glad when it ended.
When I got to the front of the line, unfortunately my phone was too low in batteries for a picture! I was so so sad. Instead I hugged Owen. Best moment ever. The first time I saw him play, 2 years ago at Vinyl Cafe, I said "I love him! I just want to give him a big hug." and I got to. How lucky is that?
It's really too bad that he's gay. As Olivia said, all good violinists are.

Monday, July 09, 2007

I definitely thought I was a Ravenclaw since I go to Lisgar.

i'm in gryffindor!
be sorted @ nimbo.net

Congratulations on making Gryffindor!
Basically, you're brave, daring, chivalrous, and pretty much.. an all around good person. Of course, some see you as a goodie-two-shoes. But hey, it's true! You're really good at winning, and normally always come out as the hero. Everybody likes you.. except, maybe, the Slytherins. You're too perfect. No, really.. You're too perfect. It's annoying to watch you win, repeatedly. Oh well. Be proud anyway.

Gryffindors to Remember:
Harry Potter
Ron Weasley
The whole Weasley family
Hermione Granger
Albus Dumbledore

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

My moon and me, not as good as we've been/ it's the dirtiest clean I know

Today I found the cure to my summer boredom/lack of motivation and it was a fridge. Actually, I was assigned the job of cleaning out the inside of my fridge (my mom bought me a lovely, sweatshop-free, black skirt in exchange for some hard labour).

It was a slow start. I've been putting it off and putting it off for about a week now. But today, overcome by boredom and a complete lack of motivation to leave my house to do anything else productive (prepare my proposal for Lisgarwrite, go for a walk) I finally gave in an bit the bullet.

I'm not going to lie. It was 3 hours of hard work. I had to empty each shelf of my fridge, pull the shelf out, put it in the soapy water in the sink, let it soak, clean it, put it back, reorganise the shelf, take everything out again and clean the walls... and repeat. Over and over.

But you know what? It gave me a goal. A purpose. No longer was I bored Evey, sitting on the couch watching bad, bad TV all day. I was Evey With A Purpose, and it felt good.

In other news, in a display of complete last minute-ness I have finally decided I need to see some of the bluesfest. I finally actually wrote down all the bands I was interested in seeing, and there were lots! I think I'm going to have to spend more money (sigh). Perhaps I will convince my parents to pay for the new bike.

Monday, July 02, 2007

This is a sequins kind of song

Since I am La Canadienne who Speaks, I figure I should educate all of you about Canada Day. Or, at least, my Canada Day.

Now, I am quite the patriotic Canadian. I like being a Canadian -- I think it's a great place to live. I mean, sure we have our problems, but over all, Canada is pretty nice. We're healthy, we have great music and we have some pretty nice vistas (well for now... let's get on that saving the environment deal, ok Canada?). I even like living in Ottawa. I like all the green everywhere (just look at our buildings.) and the people tend to be nice. Also, it is the capital, which means we have certain perks, like all the museums, the public servants and, or course, the NCC funded celebrations, certainly not the least of which is the Big Canada Day Bash.

Though I am proud to be a Canadian and all that, really... I am not one for the big, downtown Canada Day celebration. It's hot, it's crowded, and really, we're all there for the fireworks at 10pm, aren't we? So I usually just stake out the top of the Bank Street Bridge near my house at about 9:30pm, watch the fireworks from afar, and go home again to early bed, listening to neighbourhoods hooligans setting off backyard fireworks. It's tradition.

However, this year, things have been different lately. Going out is increasingly part of my life. I enjoy going out with friends. So this year, I decided I wanted to spend the day with some friends, and if that was downtown, then, I wanted to go downtown! Which is why, when Davis invited me along to Graham's house* for Canada Day celebrations, I was pretty excited.

We ended up having a really really great day. We wandered around for a few hours, met up with some other people, and then headed back to Graham's for a while. I was clearly exhausted and fell asleep on the couch while everyone played WWE video games. After Marroushe for dinner (Marroushe, Marroushe! Quite near the scotiabank!/ Marroushe, Marroushe! On Elgin South of Frank.) and a dance party, Kevin and I headed downtown to see Feist play on the Hill with plans to meet up with the rest of the group later at the ORC for fireworks and spiked slurpies. We met up with Bora and waited a couple hours for Feist, who ended up going on last before the fireworks. at 9:30 and she was AWESOME. As usual. Her new CD is all kinds of awesome. Since she was on so late (but so worth it) we ended up staying on the Hill instead of going to the ORC, which was ok.

I was let down a bit because I didn't spend as much time with friends and the view of the fireworks was actually not that great from the Hill. But after the fireworks, I just put on my music loud and walked/skipped/danced down the street to Graham's house. I biked home feeling on top of the world. It was just so amazing, the wind in my hair, singing music that makes me feel good and smiling at the world going past me. I don't know what it is about Canada Day... it's just something in the air.

Happy Canada Day everyone, eh?

*Graham is a really nice guy who also happens to be pretty "cool". I felt kinda special to be invited to his house.

Monday, June 25, 2007

There's too much of you/ and there's not enough of me

Today was my first lazy, sleep-in, nothing to do day of summer. I woke up at 9:30 when my chemistry teacher called me to ask about my textbook, which is still AWOL. It wasn't the best wake-up call ever (hear phone, jolt upright, blink twice, roll out of bed, stub toe, step on drawer sitting in the middle of the room, grab phone, drop phone, grab phone, croak "hello?"), I was strangely not all that thrown off by it being him on the phone. I guess this means I've been spending way too much time in the chem room.

After that I was awake, and lay around doing precious little all day. Read. Watch bad bad bad and boring TV, and ate junk food. And you know what? I was BORED. This led me to the following conclusion: I need a summer project. Something to work on, pass the time. Davis is my solution.

This summer, Davis and I have decided to make a zone together this summer! It is to be called "Three Word Title" and it will be epic. I'm so excited.

Here is something I spent an hour and a half on. Oh, facebook.




It's supposed to be of the picture of this picture of Nick and I by Dow's Lake:


Sunday, June 24, 2007

Cause it's you and me/ and all of the people/ with nothin' to do, nothin' to lose

Lorien has gone to camp. She will have fun, I hope, but I will miss her. She came over on Friday night to hang out before she left. Our plan was to have a Grey's Anatomy marathon (I keep forgetting to lend her season 2) and stay up late chatting -- you know, the best part of a girl's night.


The plan changed a bit, however. I ended up spending the day with Nick and he tagged along to come to work with me. That, in the first place, was a bad idea. I was hoping it would be fun to have him there and we would hang out since he had, after all been with me all day, which was fun. But instead, he and Mike were thick as thieves and ignored me. Nick ended up coming back to my house and hanging out with Lorien and I for the evening.


We watched Grey's Anatomy and then ended up walking Nick halfway to where he was going, which had us stopping by Dow's Lake. I love going out walking at night -- it's too bad I'm not allowed, or whatever. He showed up the next morning at 6:30am and woke us up. Normally, I would have been annoyed, but you know what? I am going to miss all of them. Even a semi-crappy night with them ends up making me happy.
*Pictures taken by Lorien



Wednesday, June 20, 2007

How I know I'm so cool.

Today was my last exam (and there was much rejoicing!). I got six lab reports done this afternoon (and there was much rejoicing!). I bombed my chemistry exam (and there was mu-...)



Well, on the plus side, summer is here, and I tried my hardest.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Time, time ticking on me/ alone is the last place I wanted to be

The internet really is a weapon of mass distraction. I can procrastinate for hours by flipping through mindless facebook photo albums and play mahjong instead of doing my eight (oh my god... eight) lab reports or cramming for my anthro exam, which I will fail for sure. For sure. I don't know what it is lately, I just have so much trouble lately motivating myself. I directly blame senioritis. Because you know what? It's contagious. I hang out with grade 12s a lot, and now I have senioritis even though I'm not a senior. Coincidence? I think not. As Davis said, I'm now a druggie... without the drugs. I have no idea what she's on about, you'd have to ask her.

I missed the last Insight Theatre gathering. The party was this afternoon, and I missed it. I was at work. It just totally slipped my mind, and I feel terrible. I missed the last part of Insight Theatre. I will never see most of those people ever again. That makes me so incredibly sad.

That has been happenning to me more and more lately. The intense feeling that time is slipping by, slowly swallowing up moments and faces and throwing them to the wind to be scattered. And then that's it.

I am not one who likes to let go. Of anything. My security blanket from when I was little is still sitting in my room on a shelf. The heads of the first dozen roses Mike ever gave me are sitting in a vase next to the teddy bears he gave me for Valentine's Day. Deleting msn conversations is often painful for me. I'm just so so afraid of forgetting, afriad of losing this moment, because I don't know what the next one will hold.

Because of all this Friday was just one big ball of freak out. Friday was the last day of school, which meant the last day for all those wonderful, talented people I have idolized and gotten to know over the past three years and even more so over the past month. Friday is also the day when we get yearbooks and you know what that means... signatures. Yearbook signing is so stressful because I am afraid to miss someone. In grade six I made everyone in my class sign my yearbook, even just with their name (the boys mostly weren't interested) just so I could collect them all and go over them. Count the names, count the memories -- good and bad.

So now my yearbook is sitting next to me. The signature pages are full. I've barely even read the yearbook, I've only skimmed the messages from my friends. They've made me laugh, they've made me cry, they've made me look forward to next year, but most of all, they make me feel better, more secure. I know who I'm missing, and I will track them down and they will sign my yearbook. I had to add a page to fit more people in. More memories. More time.

If only a pair of scissors and tape could buy more time.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Sunshine on the window/ makes me happy/ like I should be

It just figured that that day I decide to go to anthropology, it's (pretty much) canceled. So I don't have to go anyway. I guess I'm just lucky.

Speaking of lucky, I was just thinking to myself "Hmm... I haven't watched 10 Things I Hate About You in a while, I should watch it again." when what was advertised on CityTV's nightly movie, but that movie. I think I shall watch it.

Here is the start of my list of things to do this summer. Maybe I don't have a job, but, gosh darnit, I will have a wonderful summer.

1. Pull out my water colours and paint a lot
2. Work on playing the guitar
3. Learn the banjo (maybe)
4. See friends, a lot.
5. Go to a cottage (I'm accepting invites now ;) )
6. Rent Season 1 of the OC and watch it.
7. Rent Weeds and watch it.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

On being "different"

Friday night was cast party #2 for the cast of "A Pirate's Life". I was not actually in the musical (poor judgement call on my part) but I have been consistently skipping per 3 with a bunch of the grade 12s with period 3 spare, who were in the play.

Period three has been the joke period of my year. I missed it a lot for Insight Theatre, and, unlike math, I never really felt the need to catch up and work on it. Since I was doing well in the class, it never became an issue. A couple of weeks ago, I found out that a bunch of the grade 12s have per 3 spare and that was it. No more class for me. I've been to class only 4 days in the past 2 weeks. And you know what? I've really enjoyed it. The people I've been hanging out with are so nice and so much fun. It's really too bad that they are leaving in two months. Darn grads. But isn't that always the way with high school?

Due to this new "self appointed spare" I have been able to do some fun stuff, like going to Bridgehead lots and have a nice chill time in the middle of the day. And it has led to conversations like this one:

Kesha: Hey, Evey, you should come to Leaf Camp!
Lilly: Yeah, why aren't you coming to Leaf Camp?
Lina: You should come!
Me: when is it?
Kesha: Tomorrow [friday] night until Sunday afternoon.

So you know I went. I was up until 2am thursday night and sunday night to finish my summative for anthro, but it was so, so worth it. And I got to go to the second cast party.

Which leads me to the Birkenstocks story. Birkenstocks are the accepted footwear of hippies everywhere - at my school. So all the kids who fancy themselves different that way wear Birkenstocks. I used to wear them a lot, and bought a new pair this year, but never really got around to wearing them. So after Leaf Camp I pulled them out of my closet and I just happenned to be wearing them when I went to the party.

Bad idea, let me tell you. At midnight when my mom called me and was all "I'm outside to pick you up." and I said "be right out." what I meant was "I'll be out in ten minutes after I walk onto the back porch, search for my Birkenstocks in the dark, yell at the floor, the light, the world, jam my feet into dozens of shoes and then, finally, find my sandals." Which makes me wonder... if we're all wearing the same shoes... we can't be that different can we?

Last real day of school tomorrow. I can't believe next year I will be in grade 12. I mean, I'm used to hanging out with them, but it was always accepted that they were above me. But not anymore. How wierd.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Who's Guido?

If you live in Ottawa and don't have any other plans tomorrow night, go and see a wonderful production called "A Pirate's Life". It was written and directed by two Lisgar students, which is why I went, and it turns out it's actually hilarious, which is why I'm going again tomorrow and bringing more people. It was a part of Youth Infringement this year and they're doing a couple shows at Lisgar as well.

Incidentally, when Griffin came up to me 2 months ago and went "Hey Evey, want to do Youth Infringement this year? We need more people for the play." and I said "No I have work." what I should have said was "YES YES YES YES YES!"

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

I will dress your eyelids/ with dimes upon your eyes

When waking up in at 4 in the morning 4 days a week, two things need to happen: you need to make get getting ready the path of only slightly more resistance than sleeping and you need motivation. The former I have covered by laying out my clothes (in two piles on my floor; one for rowing clothes, one for school clothes). I sometimes make myself a nice PB + J sandwich but often, I'd rather just go to bed the night before, so I dont.

With all those things covered, now is time to deal with motivation, which is key. Lack of motivation is why it takes me forever to get out of bed every morning. No matter what I have to do that day, keeping my poor, sad, sleep-deprived body in bed for just 5 minutes longer sounds so much better. Even if my parents aren't going to like it.

Today I had no problem. For the first time all week, I was psyched. I was ready. I was actually out of bed by 4:20. I had the best motivation: going back to bed.

You see, when I woke up, I knew three things: 1)We don't row in the rain 2) the weather network called for rain and 3) I could hear rain on my window. I was imagining myself coming home, crawling back into bed and sleeping for a couple more hours before heading off to my Insight Theatre show. I rushed in a more controled way through my morning routine and jumed into the car with my ride. I forgot my breakfast -- oh well, I was coming home! I didnt have tea -- no caffeine if I want more sleep!

When we arrived at the club, Craig, our coach, was already there. We all gathered around him and asked if we were rowing. He replied with ``Of course we`re rowing``.

Unfortunately, nothing would dissuade him. Not the head of the ORC saying (water`s too bad), not the other teams going in, not the novice boat breaking off a rudder, oh no. The senior women still went out and it was the scariest row of my life. The waves were pretty big -- even bigger for being in a boat six inches above the water. Especially toward the end, it seemed like we were on a roller coaster. The girls kept squealing and laughing and once we wre back on the dock, we all agreed it was the most fun ever. And that we`d never do it again. No one else went out on the water that day.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Cats = Love

You know, it's moments like these when I'm so glad I have my cat.

Lately, I've been feeling a little bit like everything is passing me by. It's not just the overwhelming schoolwork, but that is pretty bad. I just feel like I'm losing my connections with everyone. Kirsten and I keep fighting, Aidan and I broke up (I don't even know why I care at all about that one) I never get to see any of my friends because of being so obscenely busy... I feel overwhelmed, which is when I really want to reach out, but I don't know who to reach out to. Normally, I'd say Kirsten, but she'd only tell me how good things are for me and I shouldn't complain. I don't like that so much; I wish she'd support me more.

I'm also being a huge asshole to Mike, and I know it. It's not even his fault. It's me. I've been thinking about him a lot lately. It seems that being dumped (okay, so not really dumped, but in an ase, the relationship ended) by Aidan just brought back all this... I don't know. I've been thinking a lot about Mike lately, and it makes me very sad. I still can't do that remeniscing thing without feeling sad all over again. I miss him, and it makes me pretty angry. But more than angry, I just feel defeated, and that is a terrible thing to feel.

My Moon, My Man

Rosie is pretty jealous of my new toy. She doesn't like that, even though I'm in my room more, I spend a lot of time staring at some stupid machine instead of paying attention to her. It is very distressing.

Well, here it is, my new toy:


So, it was expensive and so far Vista is sometimes a bitch (Apple, please hurry up and fix the software so I can plug my ipod in to my computer!)... but it's mine and it makes me very happy. Also? That is a webcam on top. Oh yeah.
Today at work was very eventful. One of the rooms at the Homework Club has a sticky lock, and one of the grade 8s who work there got locked in accidentally. That was fun. Try keeping a group of nosy ten year olds in one place while something exciting is happenning in the other room.
Now I'm off to Lorien's for a fun night of Grey's watching and making fun of Mike, and Andrew when he gets home. Sweet!