Festive Spirit

Honest Ed's window at Bathurst and Bloor.
Yonge and Dundas Square.
The Swarovski Tree at Toronto Eaton Centre.

Around this time of year I start to get festive. Most people do, when it comes down to it, but I have a feeling my festivity isn't like other people's . Since I wasn't raised celebrating Christmas, it's not the religious aspect that attracts me (and there's stating the obvious!) but rather the sparkle and shine of it all. Gifts are great, but I prefer the sales because they mean I can get a necessary item for better value. This year it's either a television set or a dishwasher. I have a feeling that in terms of necessity, the dishwasher is going to win.
Sarah and Mom decorated the main floor for the holidays yesterday and it looks so warm and inviting. The little tree is all lit up on the buffet, the stair railing is adorned with gold tinsel (the kind NOT dangerous to stupid cats) and gorgeous red ornaments are hanging on almost invisible threat from the chandelier, making them look like they're floating above the holly-print tablecloth and pine-themed centrepiece. I'll take pictures. It looks great.
Today the weather is crummy and it makes me not want to go outside, but I told myself I would go to the gym and since I didn't go with mom in the morning, I need to go now. I figure I'll hit the library on my way back and pick up a few DVDs, and then clean my room a little once I'm home and put in some laundry. There's my play-by-play of the day. Oh, and I have work at 6 where I'll be buying a tiny Christmas tree for the family room for exactly $2. Good times.
Mom leaves for Edmonton on Thursday. I want to go with her, but since I can't I hope she has a really great time.

Jingling and cringling (whatever that means),

-Laur

The people that we meet...

Nanowrimo is over. When midnight struck on November 30th I was awake and watching as word count validation shut down and my status as a 2008 winner was cemented. I felt tired and somewhat relieved; November was an extraordinary and month and while I had a lot of fun, I was kind of glad to be finished. The almost overwhelming feeling of bereavement and grief didn't hit me until the next night while I was at the TGIO (Thank God It's Over!) party at the Victory Cafe on Markham Street. The above picture is of the Nano Trifecta of Evil: Laura Winberg, Nelson Yu and Natalia Lopez-Woodside, three writers who met at the first Brunch social at Pickle Barrel Atrium a week after Nano began and will probably remain friends for the next 5, 10, or even 20 Nanowrimos.

This is Natalia. She is my other half. We figure we were separated at birth (though with the 3 year age difference [she's older] there would be a lot of explaining to do) because we're so similar it's scary. People kept asking us throughout Nanowrimo, did we know each other from before? You know each other so well, you probably go way back. Not the case, but a little creepy and definitely a lot of fun. This picture is of her at the all-night write session at Sanctuary on November the 22nd. We sat across from each other, both plugged into our iTunes as we wrote, and looked up at each other at the same time whenever we had something to say. It was neat. I hit 50K that night, and Natalia hit it right before the 30th. I love that we both won.

This is my super happy face from right after I hit 50,000 words. There isn't an adequate grouping of words to describe how happy winning made me. I only hope I can do it again.

I met a lot of amazing people during Nanowrimo, from my long-lost twin to a feather-duster survivor to a transgendered person to a 40 year old man with purple hair who worships bunnies. I hope that I'm in Toronto next year so that I can do it all over again with the same bunch of awesome people, but if I'm not, I'll find Nanoers where ever I am and think about my Toronto Nano team fondly as I write.

Until next year,

L. Rose Harrington, author, Halloween Firsts

Viking Pride

I WON! When I uploaded the 50,000+ words of my yet-unfinished novel onto the Nanowrimo website just after midnight on November 24th (meaning it was actually November 25th) I was greeted with a lovely barrage of images telling me that yes, I had officially won the amazing challenge of National Novel Writing Month 2008. I could download all the little winners badges to brag on my Facebook and blog pages, I could fill out and print a paper certificate saying that I had completed the challenge and am now entitled to crazy sick bragging rights, and my progress bar, once blue with incomplete word count and then green with 50,000 words or more, turned purple and sparkly with victory.
There's going to be a party at Victory Cafe on Markham street on December 1st, aptly titled the TGIO (thank god it's over!) party, for all the Nanoers in Toronto. I can't wait to go, dressed in something festive and sparkling, to celebrate with all my new, kooky, crazy Nanowrimo buddies.
My novel isn't done yet, but it will be soon. I'm going to do my best to wrap it up in the next few days so I can get started on some long-ignored school work before the strike ends. I know how the story is going to end, but now that I've reached that 50K goal I feel like I might rush to finish the rest, or not do it at all. I've only ever finished one story that I've started, and that was because I entered it in a contest and the ending still was more ambiguous than anything else. This story needs a finite ending, or at least a beginning of a new world.
I'm off to York to do some professional development stuff. I'll do another blog entry on the All-Night Writing session I attended over the weekend and put some pictures up as well.

-Laur

Writer's Block

Hey, so...my mom yelled at me to post something new on my blog. Here it is.

My university has suspended all academic activity due to a strike put on by CUPE 3903, the union that the TAs, GAs and contract faculty belong to. I'm also banned from my teaching placement because the Ontartio Federation of Teachers considers our attendance to be a form of crossing the picket lines and will not allow it. A lot of my friends are really upset about this strike and the lack of classes, but I think it's the best thing that's ever happened to me. I won't go into the details about why it's so excellent, but I will tell you what I've accomplished since it started 2 weeks ago:

Remember Nanowrimo? Well, I've written more than 35,000 words of my novel so far. I have a lovely protagonist named Poppy Thomson, and delicious love interest named Coll Finlay, and a host of friends, co-workers and acquaintances to shake things up. If I submit what I've written for counting between November 25th and 30th, one of Nanowrimo's corporate sponsers, a self-publishing website called Createspace, will publish my manuscript in paperback form and I will have my very own book to carry around in my backpack and whip out to brag about to perfect strangers. That also means that my friends and cheerleaders will be able to read the finished product.

Shit.

I've also cleaned my room (slightly), baked a batch of cookies or two, and caught up on my sleep. Those are pretty big accomplishments considering I was absolutely unable to do any of it while school was still happening. Weird.

Now I'm faced with a bit of a problem, though; I was writing like gangbusters up until yesterday, and then I got distracted by some FESA stuff and a meeting and forgetting my laptop charging cords in the Senate Chambers overnight (never fear, I retrieved them this morning), and now I'm suffering from... dun dun duuuuuuun...

WRITER'S BLOCK! Oh those dreaded words!!!! Nanowrimo sends out pep talks by famous authors throughout the month and today's pep talk was from the lady who wrote the book White Oleander. She said that whenever she is really stuck, she gets her protagonist into trouble. So that`s what I`m doing. I don`t know what I`m going to do yet, other than try to figure out why my apostrophe key isn`t working properly, but she`s going to get in some sort of crazy trouble very soon.

Wish her luck!!

-Laur

Faith Restored

Thank goodness. Thank goodness the Americans woke up and made the right choice. Obama-Biden 2008 was successful, and even though that wonderful man has many, many challenges to overcome in his first term, I think he'll be okay.
Thank goodness.

-Laur

November dreams

This image is something I'll be referring back to constantly starting this coming Saturday. I registered at the National Novel Writing Month website last week in hopes that I will actually write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. With a TA strike looming, the possibility of reaching that goal is getting more and more real.
Nanowrimo is a fascination I've been courting since 2 years ago when a friend of mine tried it. He didn't succeed, but the idea of actually sitting down and writing in your spare time with the goal of 175 pages amazed me.
I don't have a plan yet; I figured this would be an exercise in using my imagination and letting go of my type-A tendencies to edit the living shit out of everything I write. Maybe I'll come up with something stunning and glorious as a result. Or maybe it will be absolute crap. All I know is that I want to do this and I want to succeed. This is important to me when a lot of things this year have suddenly become unimportant. I really want it to work out.
That means I need cheerleaders. Does anyone want to be my cheerleader?

-Laur

Sparkle: My champagne birthday

Saturday night was my Champagne birthday party. Select friends and I celebrated in style at my house, mostly in my kitchen and family room. Laura and Hank brought extra sparkling wine and cut strawberries and after that, everything got really pretty.

The theme of the party was Sparkle; for sparkling wine, for my favourite texture, and for the intense sequins of my shirt. I asked everyone to wear sparkly clothing or makeup, and just about everyone brought it :D

My girls came a little late, but made up for it with wild photo shoots and huge laughs.

My sparkle wall was a photographic hit, and I feel like it really captured the spirit of the party: sparkly, bright and larger than life! All in all a very excellent birthday.

-Laur

Happy Birthday!

That's it. I'm firmly entrenched in my 20s now. Today I turned 22 on this 22nd of October, my champagne birthday. I'm very excited. Party on Saturday night, and I'm going to sparkle the crap out of everyone!!!

-Laur

I'm sorry

I'm sorry, Susan Kadis, Simon Strelchik and Norbert Koehl. I went to the polls yesterday morning and did my civic duty. I did what I could, but it didn't stop the Conservatives from overturning my traditionally Liberal riding.
I'm sorry, Stephane Dion, Jack Layton and Elizabeth May, that Canada cannot seem to figure out that the United States is a bad role model.
I'm sorry that Canadians choose to do what's comfortable instead of what's right. I'm sorry that they didn't research the other parties and realize quickly that there are better choices for our country.
I'm sorry that more Canadians than ever before chose not to go to the polls at all, silencing themselves and the power their voices could have held.
I'm sorry that we seem to be getting stupid and dull, and I hope it changes independently before something truly terrible happens to bring about that change.

-Laur

Bonding in the sunshine

Tomorrow Mom and I are going downtown to explore Queen Street, Kensington Market and possibly St. Lawrence market. It should be so much fun! There will definitely be pictures to come :D

-Laur

Sunny autumn day

Can you believe how gorgeous these leaves are? I was walking home from Bathurst and Steeles on a beautiful sunny autumn day and thank goodness I had my camera with me because it was just beautiful everywhere. I took 60 pictures from the park at the synagogue to the house, just of pretty sunshine on golden foliage and fun ways the light was coming through the branches. It was great, really refeshing, and a real change from how I've been spending most of my days in the past week.
A week ago yesterday I woke up and felt like there was a plastic bag over my head. I couldn't hear, I couldn't swallow, even my eyes didn't work properly. The next day I went to the walk-in clinic my doctor's office offers because my GP is orthodox and was home celebrating Rosh Hashana. The doctor who saw me didn't listen to me, and as a result I went back to my doctor yesterday, far sicker than I was the week before. Now I'm on the superdrugs, the kind that they only prescribe when you're really sick, and I'm slowly beginning to feel human again.


I did a presentation today in the only English class I like this year, Inspiration. I had to present what inspired me, and I chose Halloween. I feel it went really well, though we did get slightly off topic once in a while. I put a lot of effort into it, and I was only the second person to present, so now it's out of the way and I can relax for a while. Or at least until my Renaissance Theatre essay is due next Wednesday.
So that's the end for now. I'll try to blog more regularly.

-Laur

Pictures at last!

Enjoy these! I spent time adding captions when I should have been listening at a FESA meeting.

-Laur

Drink the water

This class is so disappointing. I have to say, it's a hard thing to sit in a class that is supposed to be teaching you skills, important geography-teaching skills, and be totally bored and disengaged. It's awful, and kind of pathetic. This class is such a terrible mix of I/S and J/I teachers, people who are only sticking around until December mixed with people who are here for the whole shabang, and I feel like I should march to the registrar and ask for my money back. Grr.
On a happier note, I rejoined the gym last week. I loved working out at the YMCA in Edmonton so I marched into Women's Fitness at Promenade and set myself right back up. I think I'm going to do the "Biggest Loser" fitness challenge in October and November. I'm so much more motivated now than I was, so I think it's going to be a lot easier for me to continue going.
I work until 9:30 tonight at Penningtons, so it's going to be a really long day, but I think I can make it through. With some coffee, for sure.

Picasa Web Album of BC pictures to come.

-Laur

A brief moment

I'm the worst blogger ever, I know. I thought I would have time tonight to write a few thoughts down, but I really don't, so I'm here apologizing instead.
Tomorrow I start at Langstaff S.S. for my practicum. I will definitely blog about that.

-Laur

Steaming cedar chips and the smell of the Pacific

Fantastic. Tremendous. So many adjectives, so little time. My last days out West were spectacular and when I have more time I'll blog about them, but for now I'm settling back into Thornhill life and thinking about school, which is rapidly sneaking up on me. Tomorrow I'm on campus all day acting as a FESA rep for the consecutive program orientation. I made an awesome shirt. More pictures later on.

Welcome back!

-Laur

Sunshine

Today I feel like I've been crawling around in the dark for the last few months, just kind of surviving with what I could find and accomplish in pitch blackness, and suddenly when I came outside this morning I was blinded by the sunlight and warmth on my skin.
Thank goodness Mother Nature has woken up again.

-Laur

Landmark day

Today is the last day of my second last year of university. It's raining, there aren't many people on campus, and this lecture is dragging on and on but I'm content. I'm sick and coughing and sneezing but content.
I'm waiting right now for the last enrolment date I will ever have in my undergrad career. The wait is agonizing yet bittersweet; once I enrol in next year's courses, I will be finished, in a way. There will be nothing left to do but attend those classes, write those papers, complete those exams and walk across the stage at convocation 2009. I am quickly coming to realize that a year is a short amount of time.
Murlene and I were talking on Tuesday, celebrating our last lunch of the year at Blueberry Hill. We came to the conclusion that we have known each other for 8 years. 8 years is a long amount of time. We met in grade 9 and have known each other and remained friends through the years following. I can't boast of many other friends that I have maintained a relationship with for so many years. The ones I have, though, are very dear to me, and even if we aren't as close as we used to be, I still value their friendship immensely.
Last night I got in the Concorde, started the ignition and drove, by myself, to Bryna's house. From there I drove Bryna and I to the bank, and then to Promenade where I performed a fantastically perfect parking job (like my alliteration?) and bought some hot pink luggage at Bentley for my upcoming journey to Alberta. Then, after a leisurely celebratory dessert at Pickle Barrel, I took Bryna home again and pulled into my driveway by myself, triumphant and exhausted.

This is growing up.

-Laur

It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll :D

The Painting Job

This is the slideshow of the paint job our house has been undergoing for the last week. Allan, the man doing the job, took this past weekend off, but he's very efficient and he'll probably be done tomorrow or the next day.

On another note: this morning I went for my G2 (again, I know) and passed. Third time's a charm, apparently. Thank goodness I passed.

If you were wondering about the name of this post, it's the title and chorus of a song by AC/DC that I happen to really like. The first verse and chorus lyrics are:

Ridin' down the highway /Goin' to a show /Stop in all the by-ways/ Playin' rock 'n' roll/ Gettin' robbed/Gettin' stoned/ Gettin' beat up/ Broken boned/ Gettin' had/ Gettin' took/ I tell you folks/ It's harder than it looks/ It's a long way to the top/ If you wanna rock 'n' roll/ It's a long way to the top/ If you wanna rock 'n' roll/ If you think it's easy doin' one night stands/ Try playin' in a rock roll band/ It's a long way to the top/ If you wanna rock 'n' roll

The driving part is why I mentioned it.

-Laur

To delicious creatures, great and small

They don't come more delicious than this. So I touched up the picture in Picnik to show you all JUST how gorgeous and yummy she is.

The first picture I received of Erica with her eyes open. Precious.

-Laur

Straight flush

I learned how to play poker from my friend Peter during Earth Hour. I'd say that's quite an accomplishment.
-Laur

Earth Hour

Saturday night from 8 pm to 9 pm is Toronto's Earth Hour. Everyone in the city, and anyone else outside the city who wants to participate, is encouraged to turn off all the lights and electronics in their home (minus the necessary ones like fridges and furnaces and such) and enjoy an hour of very limited electricity use. I know I'm going to participate, I just don't know what I'm going to do.
I told my friend Irina she could come over and we could drink ourselves into a happy stupor by candlelight, but something tells me that's not so healthy. We can't watch TV because that's an electronic device. I wish this was happening in the summer because then I would take a blanket to the park and lay under the stars with some friends and a snack, or I would go down the street to my neighbour's house and roast marshmallows over their fire (which happens to be in the old body of a bbq). But it's cold, so I don't know what to do.
Any ideas?

-Laur

They call me mellow yellow

We're painting the house, and guess what color? If you guessed brown, I'm going to have to disappoint you. The color is called Dorset gold, and it's a lovely warm tone of yellow. My entire main floor will be that color in a few days, with one accent wall in the family room painted Maple Syrup. I'll let you imagine what that particular shade resembles.
Anyways, the house already looks way better than it used to, and I'm so excited for it to be finished. We got new lighting for the kitchen and family room, and as soon as Alan, the man doing the painting, does the ceilings in that half of the main floor, we'll set about installing it.
I'm actually going to have one of those nice houses that I always admire when I go to my friends' houses. How exciting!
Pictures to come, from before and after.

-Laur

Big things on a sad day

On Monday my very close friend Peter's father died suddenly. Peter is only a year older than me, recently graduated from the Shulich School of Business and now an accountant at the prestigious Ernst and Young. His younger sister, ages with Sarah, just started at York. Mr. Albert's death came as quite a shock, and I'm still unsettled, but mostly I feel badly for Peter and his family. The funeral is on Thursday.

But amidst this tragedy, good things are happening, and I don't know how to feel about it. I learned yesterday that I'm going to be FESA's (Faculty of Education Students Association) social director next year, so that's pretty cool. I'll be in charge of organizing fundraising events, socials, and the year-end formal. I haven't been involved at all in the last 4 years of my university career and I'm really looking forward to getting back into it next year.
Also, in terms of my home life, big things are happening. Mom finally decided that it was time to paint, so we hired a painter and he starts on Friday. YAY! Pretty colours on the walls! It's going to make our house look SO much better. And, on top of that, we're getting a new car, a 1999 Chrysler Concorde in beige. Our red Nissan Sentra is from 1990 and is threatening big time to die, so much so that it screams bloody murder every time we start it up, so this couldn't have happened at a better time.
I'm excited for all these things to be happening but at the same time I feel horrible about Peter's loss. I hate being so conflicted.

-Laur

Departure

My flight leaves Toronto at 7:15 am on May 5^th. Gramma, according to her plan, leaves for Toronto on the 13^th.

What an adventure.

 

-Laur

Running over...

On Wednesday March 12th, at 4:48 pm Edmonton time (6:48 pm Toronto time), my second-cousin Erica Kay Bell came squalling into the world, 2 weeks early but welcomed and appreciated nonetheless.

This is the closest I think I'll ever come to being an aunt. I'll be spending my whole summer close to this blond cherub, this tiny gorgeous being with incredibly skinny fingers and a squished face from her quick journey into the world. I'm going to take pictures like a fiend.

My cup runneth over.

-Laur

Approaching

Canada Blooms 2008

Enjoy the slideshow. Mom and I had a lot of fun.

-Laur

10 degrees Celsius to my happiness

The weather, as some of you Torontonians may have noticed, was just delightful today. On Friday as it snowed and blustered outside the bus on my way from school to work I just about cried, longing for the days of frozen precipitation and temperature drops to be over. Today, apparently, I got my wish :D

Next Thursday my mom and I are going to Canada Blooms at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Nothing shrieks SPRING! like Canada Blooms to me, and I'm so glad we're going this year. Last year we didn't go because Mom didn't want to (ergo was too overwhelmed with her newly single life) and I really missed it. Canada Blooms, for those of you who don't know, is a huge flower and garden show that takes place in the middle of March every year in Toronto. It's a multi-faceted show, with landscaping companies, horticultural societies, and big home and garden stores like Home Depot and Rona presenting their best garden and outdoor living designs. The flowers are GORGEOUS and the designs are breathtaking. Since I won't be around to help maintain the garden this summer I wanted to do this with Mom more than ever. And I want to test out my new camera on the flowers, to see if I can hone my photography skills just a little more.

I'll post some of the pictures after the show. For now I have to get back to work on my Filming Literature essay.

Cheers!

-Laur

The Ethics of Attending an Ed Class and other moral conundrums

I'm in my ISIP class again and you know what? I hate it. It is a useless class with a useless teacher and I feel cheated having taken it. I feel this way about other Ed classes as well, and I don't really know what to do about it. I'm going to graduate with a BEd next year and what will I have actually learned about the theory behind teaching? I've learned from the practise part at this point, but that's about it. So should I even bother going to class when I so clearly do not learn anything? Should I bother getting up at 6:30 in the morning to attend my ISIP course to talk about cheating and how we SHOULDN'T deal with it? Useless.

Another problem I'm coming up against is the issue of my professional development portfolio. I'm not upset about this or anything because I know I can do it, but I'm just wondering about the technical aspects of it. I'm going to do a blog just like this one, but more professional. I need to figure out how to organize the blog so that it's not just all post and surplus; I need more text and less crap. I don't want to move to Wordpress because I don't think I know how to use it, but perhaps it's the smartest route to take at this point? Hopefully I'll find out enough about Blogger in the next month that my portfolio is bang up fantastic.

Class is over in 45 minutes. Excellent.

 

-Laur

As much as I dislike winter, when you can get a scene like this at 6 pm, not a moving vehicle in sight, I tend to appreciate it more.
Still working on the blogging from Word sans pictures problem, but it will soon be solved.
There's a lunar eclipse going on outside right now. It's pretty awesome.
Nature astounds, unendingly.

-Laur

A Luddite I am Not

I downloaded Microsoft Office 2007 on Monday, mostly because I think I'm going to be getting a new laptop this summer and I would rather have an office suite that is Vista compatible (ugh). Most of the time I'm averse to new technologies; I like the comfort of knowing exactly how to open a file, insert a header or footer, or double space a paragraph without having to search for the commands each time. I knew that it would be better if I switched to the new Office now and became familiar with it rather than having to fight both a new office suite AND a new operating system at the same time, so Mom and I decided to split the cost and go in on this together (as soon as the optional DVD arrives, I'll install it on her computer, too).

I love this new version of Office, and I'll admit it now. I can't get enough of it! I could play on Publisher, newly included in this version of Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007, for days, creating fliers, brochures, business cards and labels to my heart's content. The new Word is fabulously beautiful to look at, and does MORE and BETTER than the old version used to. As long as I remember to save everything in compatibility mode (so I can share notes with the poor saps out there who don't have this wondrously amazing program yet), I could rule the world with documents.

Now I'm trying something different in OneNote; I'm going to compose all my blogs here and see if I can upload them to Blogger this way.

We'll see if it works!

 
 

 
 

-Laur

 
 

 
 

 
 

Kickback

Do you believe in Karma?
A dear friend was the first to ask me this in quite a while after a personal hardship forced her to ask herself the same question.
I thought about the answer for a while, because keeping faith of any sort is a problem for me. I don't like religion or any sort of dogma for that matter, but Karma is a case I now realize I'm willing to keep faith for.
I have to believe in Karma. I have to believe that all those people out there who do bad things to other people, who make stupid choices and then blame the fallout on other people, and who do not learn from their mistakes no matter how many people they hurt in the process, will eventually get theirs. I have to believe that if I live well, and kindly, if I learn from my mistakes and make decisions wisely and try as hard as I can not to hurt other people and to make others happy, that I will be rewarded, somehow.
Another dear friend recently watched the movie "The Secret" after going through a rough breakup; I know the basics of what that philosophy is about, and I agree with a lot of them. After she watched the movie, I was happy to see that her outlook had changed, and she was feeling a lot better about the world and her circumstances. "The Secret" dictates this: if you put positivity out there, it will eventually come back to you and help you be happy and content. But if you put negativity out there, which I sometimes am guilty of doing, then all you'll get back is a kick in the pants, or worse.
So I have to believe that the people around me who constantly screw up and hurt other people, who don't learn from the mistakes they make and take to blaming other people for their failures, will eventually get their just reward. If I can't believe that, then I don't know what I'm going to do.

-Laur

Seat sale!

I bought my ticket to Edmonton last night, the ticket that will take me to Alberta and leave me there for 3 and a half months. I leave at 7:15 am on May 5th, 2008.
This is a big deal. A very big deal indeed. And now that I'm announcing it, people are coming out of the woodwork from all over my life, asking me why I'm going, when I'm coming back, and expressing somewhat flattering (to me, at least) feelings of upset over my departure.
There's nothing like a few months away to make people miss you. I have big plans for this summer. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

-Laur

Free day

My oh my, there is nothing quite like the sight of a wooden slab of raw fish on seasoned rice to get my mouth watering. This evening I went out to Sushi Fun at Yonge and Glen Cameron with my very good friend Laura and her boyfriend Hank.

Laura D, pictured above with yours truly, had her interview with the Faculty of Ed at York this afternoon. She's hoping to get into the Consecutive Education program, into which she fully deserves acceptance, and I'm rooting for her all the way because it means a) she gets to follow a career path she's dreamed about since she was a kid and b) I get one more year of school with her YAY!

One of these is a Black Dragon roll and one of them is a Red Dragon roll. Can you guess which one is which? I'm not telling.

Afterwards, when Hank and Laura drove home to Brampton, I came home and had 45 minutes to kill before "Die Hard" on AMC's DVD_TV started at 8, so I played with some of the makeup I bought over the holidays and took pictures. I probably could have been doing some readings, seeing as I'm now on reading week, but after careful consideration of my options, I decided playing makeover was so much more fun.
This is what I do on a Saturday night. AWESOME!

-Laur

What a snowy day. Right now there's lightning. Very disconcerting.

A picture of the end of the Common through the orange glass of the Accolade Collonade. It looks almost sepia-toned.

Isn't this just the neatest thing? This is one of the cross-cultural workshops put on by York is U, our student alumni association. Regular people got to dress up in saris. It was so fun.

Pretty Lauras in a row! Today has been an interesting day.

-Laur

Miss Take-Me-Seriously

Sarah says I look really grown-up in these glasses. I was never under the impression that I looked less than grown-up. But anyways, I am now known as Miss Take-Me-Seriously, and I think I'll test that particular theory out on my new grade 9 classes this Thursday.
How long has it been since I've had new glasses? Sometime in high school, surely. I like these new ones, I think they're a nice cross between funky and professional, so hopefully they'll serve me well. It was time for a change anyways, and I can only cut my hair so many times until there's none left to cut.
-Laur

*Paradise*

I'm having a bit of a blast from the past right now. My old Caribbean Geography prof, Bill Found, is here in my World Geography class guest-lecturing on the Caribbean as a region. I really enjoy him, despite some of my complaints about last year's course, and after class I'm going to talk to him about the 4000 level Caribbean geog class he teaches now.
I've been thinking a lot about my course selection for next year; I only need 21 more credits in my BA to graduate, and 9 in my BEd...that's really not very much. That's one year of study. I need 2 4000 level Englishes, 1 4000 level free course, and one any-level half course. In Ed I need my Teaching Geography in the I/S division and another Ed elective, hopefully Inclusive Education or Education and Human Rights. When I put those numbers into perspective, I can see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel; I can see the end of my university career.
I have mixed feelings about graduating; I'm intensely excited to be done with university, but at the same time my sense of trepidation is almost overwhelming. When I graduate I have to go out into the real world; I have to apply for jobs and interview and face more setbacks than successes. I can hope and wish all I want that this process goes smoothly, but I know that smooth is probably not what I'm going to get.
I was just on my friend Valerie's Flickr site checking out her very excellent pictures, and I noticed that she had found an album by a duo called Iron and Wine; these artists have a folksy, hauntingly sweet sound, and they sing one song in particular that I'm fascinated by because the same song is also covered by a techno-rock-indie band called The Postal Service. The song is called "Such Great Heights" and I love both versions; however, if I had to choose a favourite, I would choose Iron and Wine's version. The lyrics go something like this:

I am thinking it's a sign
That the freckles in our eyes
Are mirror images and
When we kiss they're perfectly aligned

And I have to speculate
That God himself did make us into
Corresponding shapes like puzzles pieces
From the clay

True, it may seem like a stretch
But it's thoughts like this
That catch my troubled head
When you're away, when I am missing you to death

When you were out there on the road
For several weeks of shows
And when you scan the radio
I hope this song will guide you home

They will see us waving from such great heights
"Come down now," they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away
"Come down now," but we'll stay

I've tried my best to leave
This all on your machine
But the persistent beat
Sounded thin upon listening

That frankly will not fly
You will hear the shrillest highs
And lowest lows with the windows down
When this is guiding you home

They will see us waving from such great heights
"Come down now," they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away
"Come down now," but we'll say...

Think of soft acoustic guitar and a man's voice, gentle and breathy and soothing. That's why I love this song. Paradise.

-Laur

Home home home

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the meaning of home, and the comforts that term seems to bring to most people. Yesterday I began to read a book called "The Namesake" at Thornlea during my lunch break. I didn't finish it, nor did I bring it home because I had a test to study for, and I can't wait to get back to it next week and finish the story of Gogol, and young Indian-American learning to live his life with a sense of duality. Where is is home, in Cambridge or Calcutta? What is his good name, as opposed to his pet name? It's so interesting.
Yesterday, consequently, I fell as I raced down the hill to Willowbrook in order to catch the 10-minutes-early bus home. I slid in mud that had been frozen solid 7 hours before, and fell on my butt. It hurt, a lot, and as I fought tears of frustration as I limped down the rest of the hill and down another to head the bus, who's driver had seen me fall and driven away in spite of it, off at a different stop on Royal Orchard, all I wanted was to be at home. All the way to Clark and New Westminster, all the way down Clark to Tansley, and all the way down Tansley to home all I wanted, with my entire being, was to go home.
So what does home mean? I'm willingly leaving home this summer to go live 3 provinces away, thousands of kilometres from my superior bed, my gorgeous cat, and all my friends, so that I can make enough money to pay for my final year of schooling. I love my home, but I'm leaving it. Are the ties that bind so very strong, or can they be stretched for a time without becoming uncomfortably drawn?
We'll see. We'll see.

-Laur

Edmonton Adventure

I took so many photos that I can't post them all, so here's a slideshow instead:



I have to get back in the swing of things now, so I'll post again later.

-Laur

It's back

Winter, that is. How depressing.
So yesterday I saw Sweeney Todd with Lia at Silvercity Yorkdale, and while the acting was excellent I have to say there was something missing. Tim Burton doesn't like funny when the movie isn't supposed to be, and his removal of the Sondheim classic "God that's good!" from the score and soundtrack was a big mistake. The song, which brings much-needed lightness to the very dark play, would have changed the entire feel of the movie and it's a shame he decided to omit it. Johnny Depp is tortured and downright frightening as Mr. Todd, and Helena Bonham-Carter is charmingly self-centred and twisted as Mrs. Lovett. All in all somewhat disappointing, though the casting of Sacha Baron-Cohen (otherwise known as TV personality Ali G and Borat) as Adolfo Pirelli was a stroke of genius.

Anywho, winter has descended once again and while I always enjoy a good sprinkling of white on a fir tree, I can't help but sigh at the sub-zero temperatures and what they do to my disposition. Tomorrow I get to work on learning the series in my Pilates book. I promise.

-Laur

Horror in Song

This ain't no Hairspray musical.

My friend Lia and I are going to go see Sweeney Todd on Monday. When I first heard that Tim Burton was making a movie version of a play I have been so fascinated and repulsed by since grade 11 when I saw it on Canstage. We arrived at the theatre hungry and harried after our school had been locked down due to some stupid kid with a BB gun. The theatre smelled like old, dead things and it was full of old people. The play terrified and thrilled me, and I never forgot it. The Ballad of Sweeney Todd, its main chorus song, has been reduced to background noise in the movie but I still hear strains of it whenever I think of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. There was a child character in the play and a young boy, probably 8 or 9 years old, played him and the whole time I watched I wondered why he wasn't in school.

I'm very excited to see it even though I've heard it's bloody and scary and thoroughly deserving of its R rating. More on this later.

-Laur

P.S. I love Johnny Depp.

Update: New Years Resolutions

Such a gorgeous day, and now all the snow is gone. I have to admit that it's hard to be enthusiastic when everything around you is gray and drab, but I'm giving it a go. So far my resolutions are going alright; I bought a great book about Pilates, one of those "For Dummies" books, and it's chock full of all sorts of tidbits of insight and bits of wisdom that actually make me look forward to trying my first series. Hopefully I won't wind up laughing at myself like I did after the Winsor Pilates DVD.
As for the heart-shaped face, we'll see how well that goes. The above picture is an artistic photo I took of myself with my new camera; you can see that my chin is looking kind of pointy, so we'll see what happens from here.

I started a new class today. It's called "Critical Thinking in Curriculum" and so far I'm pleased with it. My last Ed elective experience was so awful that I seriously considered dropping this one and trying the other ones next year, but I was lucky enough to get into two Ed electives as an Ed2 students so I figured I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. The class is full of people I know and enjoy, and the prof seems like a scattered but rather loveable guy, so I'll stick to it and do my best.
Auntie Brenda left to go back to Moscow today and I hope that she gets settled quickly when she arrives. I really enjoyed her visit, and look forward to spending more time with her this summer. For now, though, I get to look forward to my visit to Edmonton at the end of this month. I miss my grandmother, and I really want to go to Carson (my cousin's) wedding. Even though it's going to be ridiculously cold there, I know I'm going to have a good time (and take lots of pictures!).
I'm writing a few things to be published in the next couple of days, and I hope it all goes well. I just submitted a quick piece to the EDible Newspaper, the Faculty of Education's biannual newsletter, and I hope they accept it. It's about pursuing other semi-professional goals while being a teacher during the day, and how it can be possible. The other two pieces I hope to write is one short piece for a writing supplement in Excalibur, York's student newspaper (and the one that chose my short story as the winner in its short story contest last year) and one for Stong College's student newspaper, The Flying Walrus. The theme for that one is Sex and Death, so I know I'll have a good time with it.

I'll keep you posted on the outcomes.

-Laur