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

V803, how I love thee!

The dog at the top is named Daisy. She is a 5 year old Golden Retriever who belongs to my Uncle Ron and Auntie Dee. I love her even when she smells disgusting. She came over for dinner tonight because yesterday was Sarah's 19th birthday and my Auntie Brenda is here so we were all gathering for various festive celebrations. Isn't she gorgeous? Can't pose for a picture to save her life, though.
The next picture is of my Auntie Brenda and my mom. They're sisters, and sometimes the likeness is astounding. Though not right now.
The third picture is of Maggie, my Uncle Jim's Golden Retriever. She's 9 months old and is lucky enough to live in Nanaimo, BC, where she can chill by the ocean and find all sorts of interesting ocean debris on the beach to play with, including but not limited to: dead things, seaweed, garbage, driftwood, rocks, and other interesting and semi-disgusting stuff. This summer I'm going to meet her, by hook or by crook.
The last picture is an artistic one of my cat Emily, perched on my windowsill on a bright winter day. She's very small and can contort her body into all sorts of strange shapes. Sometimes she looks very striking, as she does now. She usually doesn't photograph very well because she's so solidly dark, but this time I caught her eyes at just the right moment. Scary, but beautiful.
Can you tell how much fun I'm having with my new camera?

-Laur

Welcome welcome welcome

I need to learn more discipline. The funny thing is I'm a pretty disciplined person; I almost always go to class, I do my homework, I go to work and do my job, I keep my room clean and pitch in around the house, and I very rarely slack off. But when it comes to food and cosmetics, I'm just plain terrible.
I love food. That's part of the reason why I'm as large as I am. There are other factors, like height and bone structure, and unhappiness (I'm working on it) that contribute to the luciously large Laura, but it really boils down to my love of food. And not crap, either. I've been taking stock of what I eat and it's very rarely junk food (with the small exception of chocolate, which I cannot and WILL not ever say no to), so I figure I just have to practise more discipline.
And cosmetics, don't even get me started. I have a stockpile of body cream, a mountain of makeup, and I don't think I'll run out of deoderant for a while. The makeup part is a process, though, as I'm replacing all my cheap drugstore brands with high end, quality makeup that's better for my skin and better for the environment, but the madness has got to stop. So I'm keeping all my receipts and tallying them at the end of the month to see just how bad my habit is. Hopefully I can rein it in before it gets too out of hand.
Here's something amusing, though; I tried out a pilates DVD today and it was HYSTERICAL. I don't think I've laughed at myself so hard in a long time. I know I have to keep at it but while all those cracked out gymnasts on the screen were contorting themselves into pretzel shapes I was huffing and puffing and trying my best to emulate their otherworldly exercises and finally I kind of collapsed on the floor in the basement and just watched the rest of the workout. It was 20 minutes and I'm proud to say I got through 15 of them, but I want to call up that Mari Winsor and tell her that my bubble butt does NOT rest flat on the ground the way those women's flat asses do so she can forget about my "powerhouse" taking the brunt of the impact.

2008 is going to be an interesting year, kids.

-Laur