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