::alio!::

I feel pretty! Oh so pretty!

It's raining -- are you surprised? It means I have to spend the lunch hour in the office, but it also means I can talk to you! Yay you.

I'm reading the big bad Woolf right now -- that's right, Virginia -- To the Lighthouse. Gah. How anyone can go through so much mental agony whilst staring at an urn filled with petunias is beyond me. But I'm determined to read it through and culture myself.

I'm miffed, though. My mp3 player is still busted beyond all recognition, and Chris didn't get the extended warranty, so I have to send the bloody thing to California and back to get it fixed. It might just be worth my while to buy a new one, although the Pie has a sketchy plan that he's trying to convince me is a good idea. We'll see.

On a superficial note, I'm pleased with how I look today. I'm wearing a skort. God bless that invention. You can wear a short skirt and not worry about people seeing your bits. And you can do anything in it (I once climbed over a railing in the parking lot of the NAC in this one). The little bit of extra fabric is so worth it. And here I was, all set to sit cross-legged on my grassy knoll with my V. Woolf, and it rains. Bah. And, no matter what I do, braid it when it's wet, spray it with hairspray, use barettes, bobby pins -- you name it -- I cannot get my hair to stay in a French braid for more than a few hours. BLAST and TARNATION!

And that's my story. It's random and irrelevant, but I wasn't expecting to spend my lunch hour inside. Alas.

Oh, and, Manda, if you're reading, I will send you an email soon. We should hang out when we're not so FREAKING busy.

AT LEAST FRIDAY IS TOMORROW!

1:41 PM

Mwah, the delivery man came in just now, and the first thing he did was look at my chest. This is not unusual, but he had a quizzical look on his face. After he left, I chanced to look down, and, to my utter surprise, the right cup had come unhooked from the strap. So one side was hanging really really low, and the other side was nice and perky. I was totally lopsided. I wonder how long I've been walking around like that. Whoops.

tummy troubles

I have had a BAD day. It involved the Goobermonster, so what can you expect? I was actually supposed to be in Cornwall right now, being miserable, but luckily (?) the stomachache I've had for the past four days has worsened, so I'm in the office dealing with occasional hot flashes and pains and waiting for the doctor to call me back. Alas, I know.

I hope you all watched Doctor Who last night. See Chel for some juicy details.

Doctor just called. I have an appointment at three, so I'm heading home for a bit before I go. Chris is picking me up. LATER!

I deserve a raise! (2)

God I love long weekends!

So, I found something at work that could totally make or break our case. There is strong evidence, in this thing I found, that the opposing party is fabricating their records. This could totally discredit all their evidence. Now I DEFINITELY deserve a raise. And a company car. ;)

Also, I bought this. It was expensive, but will prevent my family from carping at me that I'm using a whopping 15 gigs of their 40. *sigh*

STAR WARS

I dislike the telephone.

There's something about talking to a machine that produces a simulacrum of a disembodied voice that I don't like too much. I prefer either the total connection of a face-to-face conversation, or the total disconnection of a PC-to-PC conversation. Give me email any day.

In addition, I find it rather hard to focus on a conversation when the person I'm speaking with is not actually there. There are too many other distractions, and, unlike instant messages or email, you are expected to respond immediately. You can't go to the bathroom in the middle of a call. Well, you could, but let's not go into that. And, if you're like me and have a corded phone, you are trapped, on a leash, as you will, until you break the connection. I don't like that at all.

Especially when you're talking to someone you don't know for the first time.

What am I getting at? Don't call me unless it's to make plans. I cannot hold a conversation over the phone. I am simply not capable of it.

Also, I have to call three real live hockey players, and I'm not too keen on the process. Methinks I will wait until the weekend and leave a message on their office telephones.

I'm also far too tired this morning to be polite and have a conversation. Why?

Yes, I was there. I saw the very first showing of Star Wars last night.

My opinion?

It wasn't worth staying up six hours past my bed time in order to fall asleep at 330 and wake up at 700.

Call me a nostalgic, but you really can't beat 4, 5, and 6. You just can't. Heavy on blatant visual symbolism and memorable one-liners, they were vivid and they felt, well, real.

I can't say the same for 1, 2, and 3. Especially the last one. I guess people were just building up the hype for me. Jay Stone gave it four stars. He never does that. So I was just expecting something better, I guess.

The problem with films shot entirely in front of a blue screen is that they tend to end up just as flat as said screen. It was a very pretty movie, I will grant you that, but it was totally one-dimensional, and completely lifeless. The fighting was cool, in its way, and Yoda, as always, is my favourite; even so, most of the fighting was CG and not skill. Upsetting.

And so was the acting. I mean, please. I've seen better melodrama in a soap opera. It seemed like Lucas was trying to tie up too many ends at one time, so everything came out choppy and over-acted at the end. And those of us who saw it know what I mean when I say at the end. So, I have one word for those who made me see it, all of whom are happily asleep right now because I resisted the urge to call y'all: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Back to work.

changes

So, Wayner spent all day at the Children's Aid Society on a disclosure, and I didn't get a chance to ask him. Today will be the day, although he is very grumpy this morning, finding fault with pretty much everything, especially the telephone and the computer template system. *sigh* To work for a sane man would be a dream . . . I'm going to buy him a cookie and soften him up.

Caitlin and I dyed our hair last night. I think, once the brassiness dies down, I will be relatively close to my natural dark blonde colour -- with bright blonde streaks in it. Oh, and Stef, you'll appreciate the following sentence by Cait: "Oh, wait, I forgot the shirt I'm going to die in!"

Cross your fingers and toes. Half-Apps at East Side's tonight if I'm successful. Half-Apps at East Side's tonight if I'm unsuccessful.

UPDATE: 11 May 2005, 6:02 PM

I asked. Typical to Waynerform, it didn't go exactly as plan, but it is done. I'll tell y'all at once.

nerves a-wrackin'

Today is the day I will attempt to ask for a raise, and for my rights under the Employment Standards Act to be respected. Wish me luck, and cross your fingers.

Just checked my grades. The one I was worried about ended up being an A-, which is my lowest mark. Calculated along with my marks from last term, I now have a GPA of 10.8. So I'll be on the Dean's List -- AGAIN.

WHY ARE THEY NOT GIVING ME FUNDING?

EUREKA?

I had an Idea just now, as I was folding my laundry. Not any real sort of Idea, anything that will help me with the current predicament my Future has put me in, but a Story Idea.

It's not even really a new Idea, it's one of the many peculiar daydreams that's been floating around in my head for the past year or so. I play them out to the smallest detail in the wee sma's when I try to sleep. I've been doing it since I was very small -- as I've grown, the fantasies have gotten more complex. This Idea, as far out as it may be, is a little more believable than most, and might bear writing out, if only for the unconventionality of its method. First Year came out that way, and it wasn't so bad, for the piece of meaningless tripe that it was. Take it or leave it, you know.

So I wrote it down in my little Idea Book, the tattered blue spiral notebook in which I write all my ideas, and throw out the terrible ones (that's why it has very few pages left). What's truly upsetting, however, is the last time I had a good Idea was in 2002! I guess I've been too busy with the Future bit to notice. Yes, it's bothered me that I haven't written in such a long time, so long that what once was a compulsion with me now seems more of a chore.

But who knows? Something tells me this summer is going to be a memorable one, full of things we weren't quite expecting, and others we won't quite forget. So maybe this Idea will come of the whole thing? Take it or leave it.

highest honour?

However, it's funny how everything is all business while Her Honour is there, and when she's gone, enemies become friends. We're all on a first-name basis now, and we were talking about how Wayner wanted to get everything wrapped up by Wednesday of next week, because I will be graduating on Thursday and am taking the rest of the week off.

Speaking of graduation, go here. Scroll down just a teensy bit and find my name. Look to the right a bit . . . nope, other right . . . THAT'S RIGHT! MAGNA CUM LAUDE SUCKAHS!

Why isn't Carleton giving me money and WHY aren't I getting a raise? Questions to be addressed NEXT TIME on

ALLY's WORLD.

Cue theme music.

Fade to black.

busy busy

I hate May. May is Trial Season in Ontario. And we have FOUR. I've been working on one in particular solid for the past three days, all day, every day. I can do nothing else. I am so well-versed in this file I want to shoot myself.

On another upsetting note,

THEY CLOSED SERGEANT'S!

I shit you not. Chel and I drove past it last night in quest of book cases and dinner and there was a big FOR LEASE sign in the window and the lights were all out. It doesn't even say "Sergeant's Pub and Eatery" anymore. There was a note on the door, but I was too distraught to get out of the car and read it. It's too upsetting for words.

I went to see the oral surgeon today about my wisdom teeth. Cost me 50 bucks just for the consultation, and, worse case scenario, another $950 for the operation! He seemed pretty nice, and he's been doing this for 35 years, and my dentist loves him, so I'm pretty confident. I won't be present for it anyway, so who cares? They only had two dates for me, though, and one of them was for 15 June, the day before my graduation ceremony. Ixnay. So I'm going on 13 July, instead, and I'm taking the following two days (Thursday and Friday) off work. I expect lots of visits and toys and flowers during my drooling chipmunk confinement.

On a plus, I now have three As and an A+, and am only awaiting one more mark. If I'm so fucking brilliant, why the hell aren't they giving me funding?

Ponder that.

I called the Labour Board this morning. I can only claim holiday pay for the last six months, but when she found out I was also not receiving vacation pay (4% of my yearly earnings after 12 months of employment), you should have heard her voice. She was stunned that a lawyer would be in such flagrant ignorance of the Law.

So there's that to ponder.

But not now. I'm tired, and my arms hurt from typing. I'm going to go read my Jane Austen.

updates on updates

Things are looking good so far, final grade-wise. I got the A+ for my thesis, so that's a whole credit, and I have an A in Derek Smith's Ethnography class, which is also good. The only one I'm really worried about is Louise's Applied Anthropology Course. She terrifies me.

And my mother's home. She spends a lot of time in bed, as the antibiotics make her tired and the nurses don't want her walking around too much in case she falls, but she's here and in good spirits. I would be, too, if my entire family was waiting on me hand and foot. :P

What's not looking good is the weather. Will it ever stop raining? And it's so bloody cold.

So, this weekend, I calculated my retro-active holiday pay, should the Ministry of Labour tell me I'm entitled to it. It's close to $1500. I think I want that.

Nothing much else going on. I'm writing again, trying to get an article into The Globe and Mail, The Ottawa Citizen, and The Hockey News. Working on it. I'll keep you posted.