::alio!::

peaches and cream

Work sucks.

Officially, I am back to the daily grind of work, school, work, work, maybe sleep and eat, who knows . . .

It's just hard because I was so damned busy during Reading Week that the absence of school and one of two jobs really didn't seem like that much of a break at all. When I started again this morning, it was like I'd never left, except there's even more to do than before.

*sigh* June is only a few short months away . . .

My application to the University of Calgary is being rejected. Turns out the due date was 1 February, instead of (as I thought) 1 March. Whoops. At least I get my money back.

That's about all I have to tell youse guys. I have a cold, and am constantly amazed at what can come out of my nose. Other than that, my life is, as always, boringly stressful and busy.

Peaches [typo from "Peace." I like it better.]. Out.

betcha didn't know!

My first interview went so freaking well. I love my little transcriptor. We were in a BAR and the sound is crystal clear.

Borrowed from Chel.

Five Things You May Not Know About My Time in School:

1. My friends and I once had a plan to set up a romance novel library in one of the empty lockers in the tunnel between the two buildings.
2. I spent most of grade nine living under my brother's shadow and playing Asshole in the hallways.
3. I got to sing "Summertime" twice by myself in front of the whole school: once in the dead of winter when I had laryngitis, and the next time at the end of the year assembly.
4. The summer after grade twelve I cut off two feet of hair. My head felt light for weeks.
5. In my OAC year, I started a national controversy that lasted three weeks and got me an interview with CBC News. And to think it all started with a poorly-worded letter!

Five Things You May Not Know About the Jobs I Have Had:

1. My first real job was as a nanny for three screaming children under the age of three. I did that for two summers in a row.
2. I still see a co-worker from Subway, Cody, and wonder what he's going to do with his life.
3. I used to be a recall officer for a company that did quality control for Nestle. I spent a lot of time picking up pieces of metal people found in their ice cream and destroying family packs of Nestle Quik.
4. I practically ran a business from the time I was eighteen until I quit at aged twenty. The owner subsequently went out of business.
5. I met one of my closest friends (Chel) while working as a manager at said business.

Five Things You May Not Know About My Online Life:

1. I don't have one. I hate internet chat programs because people continuously TALK to me.
2. I spend most of my online time tracking down students whose papers I have to return.
3. This is not the way this website is supposed to look. I have had a new design for over a year now.
4. I know nothing about computers (haha, is it that obvious?)
5. I used to talk to these two people online when I was younger. One was from Texas, and he turned out to be a Jesus freak and kept forwarding me sermons on gay marriage and sexual depravity. The other's name was Brad Fergusson and he lived in Australia. We just lost touch. I wonder what he's doing now?

Five Things You May Not Know About Where I Live:

1. I live with my parents and my brother and I spend my entire day wanting my brother to move out.
2. My room used to be three different shades of ugly and badly painted pink.
3. I plan to move out this coming September.
4. My bed is extremely squeaky.
5. People walk by my house, even if they see it all the time, and stop and stare at it. We call it the Playmobile (R) Mansion.

Five Things You May Not Know I Would Really Like to Have Are:

1. A winning lottery ticket for a bunch of money.
2. A job in the NHL.
3. More time to get things done.
4. A place of my own.
5. Peace of mind.

Five Embarrassing Fannish Admissions

1. The majority of Senators paraphernalia I own was actually purchased for me by other people.
2. I burned a CD of hockey music for Cait during the playoffs last year. Every second song was the HNIC theme.
3. I have slept in my Marian Hossa jersey.
4. I own a Marian Hossa and a Wayne Gretzky action figure.
5. Wayne Gretzky once gave me a dirty look at a game because some kid sitting next to me was harassing him.

Tada?

girls

Last week was the most intense, long, stressful, and emotional week of my entire life. I'm not sure if I'm glad it's over.

So I've been hanging out with the Gee-Gees, going to some games (thankfully, games they've won, so they can't accuse me of jinxing them and kick me out). So that's working out. I still don't know what the hell I'm doing, but I'm gaining the confidence to do it well. This week's colour scheme is a tribute to the garnet et gris that forms their namesake. Yes, I know it's ugly, but we can't all be Ravens, now, can we?

Saw Lisa this weekend, on a random road trip thanks to the Presidents' Day long weekend (those Americans have too many holidays). And that was great. We didn't see each other much, but enough for the right things to be said. And despite that I see her only once every six months, I know there will always be another time.

Spent a lot of time with the Pie this weekend as well. He's lovely as always. I pulled the girlfriend card and dragged him to the two games I saw at UofO. Not that he minded -- who would HATE to go to a free game? Pshaw.

Basically, the weekend was as busy if not more so than the week was, but I got to see all my people. And this week was great for me getting to reconnect with all my female friends that I don't see pretty much ever.

That reminds me, Chel, which pictures did you end up using for your project?

Out.

mitten marks

I fell for the first time this winter. It was yesterday afternoon and I was on my way to school. I mistook a patch of gray ice for a clear patch of gray cement among the floes I was crossing. Walking across it without my usual care, I slipped quite spectacularly. The cool thing was that I fell in such a way that I was in a position to stand again before I stopped moving. Must be the hockey. I bruise easily, though, and so did not remain unblemished. I have a speckled bruise from my hand connecting to the ground through my mittens. It's quite neat to look at.

I was supposed to go on a date this afternoon, but it looks like I'll be going back to school, after spending all day and most of the evening there yesterday. Blah.

But the assistant captain of the Gee-Gees emailed me and told me how keen he was for this project o' mine. And my prof gave me another connection with one of the trainers, who knows several NHL and AHL players who might want to be interviewed. Things are looking up.

Things are looking BUSY.

See you in four months . . .

rebel in a blue dress, blue dress, blue dress, rebel with a blue dress on

Man, are those Gee-Gees HOT.

I've been doing a lot of thinking since yesterday. Something might come to a head soon. Stay tuned.

Also, I am CRAVING a white chocolate mocha from Starbucks. It's foamy GOD. Baked God is the pretzels from Pretzelmaker, and comfortfood God is the apple caramel crisp I had last night at Denny's with Chel.

There's a fully uniformed policeman in my office right now. He's a client. I have a tremendous urge to do something illegal.

Instead, I stay in my seat and offer him Kleenex.

What a rebel am I.

there is a god, and his name is Dave

Jesus loves me today, oh yes, he does.

Just got off the phone with the head coach of the Gee-Gees. I START TOMORROW!

V-day

Magpie is soooooo slowww today. I get half a paragraph typed in before it shows up on my screen.

Ask Stefan about his exploits with his car today. I heard them second-hand from the Pie, so you could also ask him.

What else . . .? Busy week. First, the Commish will announce the death of the NHL season tomorrow. He would have done it today, but he didn't want the cheesy headlines about a St. Valentine's Day Massacre. What a tard. Busy week for me. Chel is in town for her Reading Week, so I'm trying to see her as much as possible. Midterm (a big one) tomorrow, lots of TA stuff to get done before MY Reading Week, and Lisa's going to be in town this weekend on some random excursion.

So my Valentine's Day has been low key. But Hugs 'n' Kisses and lots of pink heart-shaped chocolate-flavoured paraphernalia to all of you crazy kids. Out.

reflections on ice breaking

Watched Ray last night with the Pie. I thought it was really good. They didn't portray him as a god -- just human. And the music, of course, was amazing.

Things I have found on the internet:

First, advice on love from a lazy, single, indie musician. He's so bitter it's funny sometimes.

Second, if you thought *I* was crazy, read this. At first glance (and don't ask me what I was looking for when I found it -- it was research!), I got really confused -- he doesn't have a blog -- there's no way he's articulate enough in English to say all these things. But then I followed the link to the host page, and found out all I needed to know about this little operation. Creepy that people like someone so much they seek to portray themselves as him or her, down to the tiniest detail. I'm not THAT obsessed.

There will be hockey tonight. I'm looking forward to it, for once. Don't get me wrong, I always love it when I'm there, but I'm usually really tired right before, and I always consider bailing. Although, it's early yet -- talk to me at 5:00 tonight and we'll see how I feel.

Until then, check out those sites, and think happy thoughts. Out.

in love and loving it

Current Mood: Happy.

Nothing, not the fact that the telephone woke me up this morning when I was trying to sleep in, a dentist appointment this afternoon, or a midterm tomorrow and another next week, can spoil my mood today.

I wish you sunshine in a puddle and two assists.

Out.

UPDATE: 9 February 2005, 7:19 PM

Still unbearably cheerful, despite the fact that the time has come for me to think about getting my wisdom teeth out. Yikes.

I should be studying for my geography midterm tomorrow, but it's 20 multiple choice, and 10 definitions, so I'm not that worried.

Instead I find myself alternately daydreaming and reading and editing First Year. For those of you not in the know (which, I think, is only two of you), FY was a novella I started in freshman year and finished in sophomore year. It's just a little ball of fluff, a contemporary Harlequin with a few twists, but I distributed it Dickens style and thereby kept in touch with all my friends who left town and left me behind. It's a pretty good story, if I do say so myself, and, once I get the trite prose excised, it might be publishable some day.

It's funny, though -- even though the main character isn't me, she's still me, and what she is living, main events aside, is my life, in essence. But it's me from four years ago. Odd how much I've changed.

This nostalgic life re-evaluation brought to you by a hungry procrastinator.

a roll of the dice

Current Mood: Contemplative

I've been thinking too much these past few days.

Today we discussed witchcraft in class, and how many African people don't believe in such a thing as Chance or Luck or Fate -- everything happens because someone with supernatural powers makes it so.

I believe in Chance. Maybe Destiny, maybe Fate. I dunno.

But I was just listening to a song that reminded me of who I was a long time ago, and how a simple decision I wrestled over four years ago could have, had I decided against it, precluded one of the best things in my life today. Weird how that happens.

Then I was reminded of a conversation Lisa and I had back in high school, on one of those lazy spring spares spent in the Lisgar mall (space between the two buildings).

We were talking about soul mates, and Destiny, and Chance. And this is what we came up with:

I believe that everyone has not one soul mate, but many. Each one of these soul mates, wherever in the world they may be, I picture them as tinted a shade of red, like in that Sims game where they wait for the elevator and get angry and turn red -- like that. How many and who your "red people" are is dependent on the decisions you (and they) make and how everyone constantly changes. So your red people quota is always in flux. Depending on what you decide to do one day or the next, some red person somewhere will cease to be red; likewise, another person somewhere could suddenly turn red -- all depending on the irrationality of human nature.

Weird.

grumpy gus

*ANGER*

Remember how, two weeks ago, my boss' wife paid me for all this time that I didn't work? Well, she took it off my paycheque this week. She subtracted eleven hours from the thirty I worked. Except I actually did work on that Friday, as these posts will attest. I worked for three and a half hours, and she subtracted that from my paycheque. She could have at least ASKED me if I worked that day! Now there will be a big kafuff. Grr. AND I get a measly $200 today. I needed the money I was supposed to have gotten today to pay my VISA bill. I know 3 1/2 hours at $12 isn't that much, but when you need it, you NEED it.

GAH. Why did she even WRITE the cheques before the week was over?

*grumble* The world is out to get me.

UPDATE: 3 February 2005, 8:50 AM

I was very grumpy yesterday, so I watched hockey and ate chocolate.

I watched the NHL World Stars play Poland, and I was surprised to find myself cheering for Tie Domi (readers of allyrxntz.net will know how much I hate him). He looks even uglier and plastic-y than ever, and he's assistant captain. It was a good game, though. Aside from Federov, they didn't have too many stars as players. But they had Hasek and Brodeur as their goalies, which surprised me. What surprised me the most was that Brodeur was captain of the team. The NHL hasn't had a goalie captain since Bill Durnan. They outlawed goalie captains due to his many excursions from the net to talk to the refs and subsequent delays of the game. It is implied now that, as the goalie is the most important person on the ice, he's a captain, anyway.

The shootout at the end was neat. Not as exciting as it has been touted to be, but fun nonetheless, especially when Marty threw himself out of the net on a pokecheck that had his Polish attacker laughing as he skated scoreless back to the net.

*sigh* This mini-play-by-play was brought to you by the good ol' days of allyrxntz.net.

I MISS HOCKEY.

I'm VERY grumpy.

oh, the pride before a fall!

"Dear Alison,

After many tentatives to find solutions and a type of schedule for interviews, I found that it becomes awfully difficult for us to manage this huge project. This month, we are playing 12 games in 25 days and maore [sic] than half of them are on the road.

It becomes too hard, impossible to organize a suitable schedule. Players and staff have very little time to spare besides hockey and school duties on one side and their private life on the other side and even you have, as you mentioned, a very tight schedule and are pretty busy.

I don't know if you have tried to contact the Ottawa 67's Hockey Club for their participation in your research, but for us, it won't be possible to deal with this interesting but huge project. Even after school hours, guys have homeworks [sic] to do and curfews are early at this time of the season . . . in preparation for the playoffs.

I wish we would be able to help you out, but the lack of availability in everyone's schedule forced us to unfortunately decline our participation.

Sincerely,

[Name of Guy]"

UPDATE: 2 February 2005, 12:08 PM

I was far too upset last night to comment on the letter below. Now, twelve hours after reading it, I'm still pretty upset.

No, I'm absolutely FURIOUS.

HOW DARE they string me along and effectively WASTE two months of the four available for research? Sure, NOW, the mere fifteen hours I require seems like a big deal, but it wouldn't have if they'd actually RESPONDED to my letters in December and January.

WHY TELL ME I CAN DO THE PROJECT, then go all incommunicado and French and then tell me, when it's TOO LATE to find another team, that they're not doing it?

And now I have to write them and THANK them for taking the time to think about this project -- taking TWO MONTHS of MY TIME -- just so I can keep the doors open for future research?

They'll be sorry. They'll be sooo sorry. When I've written volumes on improving communication amongst team members, and teams all over the world are using my technique and touting its success, the team I worked with will become famous in academic circles, and its members will go down in literary history. Then they'll be begging me to see them. They'll be sorry.

But they're not sorry now.

organizational tactics

When I go to bed tonight, this will have been my longest day in a good while.

6:00 AM - Wake up. Have shower.
6:30 AM - Check email. Respond to student and professor inquiries. Draft letter to Gatineau Olympiques.
7:00 AM - Eat breakfast. Read Sports and Comics. Brush teeth and hair.
7:30 AM - Drive to chiropractor.
8:45 AM - Drive to school.
9:00 AM - Break into Karen's office, alphabetize 600 exams and assignments (half done -- 600-odd more left to go).
11:15 AM - Meeting with Blair regarding thesis. On track, but really need to make progress with interviews. Otherwise good work.
11:30 AM - Ethnographic Enterprise with Derek. The good Prof assumes I know what I'm talking about.
1:00 PM - Scarf lunch. Back to class.
2:30 PM - Applied & Participatory Anthro with Louise. The good Prof assumes I know what I'm talking about.
5:35 PM - Drive home.
5:45 PM - Use washroom. Check email. Still no word from 'Piques.
5:55 PM - Drive to work.
6:09 PM - Fax letter of ultimatum to 'Piques. Cross fingers.
[the following is conjecture, as it hasn't happened yet.]
7:30 PM - Drive home.
7:40 PM - Alphabetize Winter Term Assignment #1. Separate according to TAs.
11:30 PM - Drive to school. Place assignments in drop box. Drive home.
12:00 AM - Check email.
12:25 AM - Brush teeth and hair. Go to sleep.