Sunday, December 31, 2006

Ah, Family...

Well, it's been an exciting family Christmas in Saskatoon. The festivities began on the 23rd with a big party for my cousin Donovan's first wedding anniversary. He got married last Christmas in Mexico, and since basically nobody from our family went they decided to have a big party for us this year in Saskatoon. I had a good time goofing off on the dance floor with my siblings and cousins - especially my cousin Ian who got totally plastered. Unfortunately we were hampered by the worst DJ ever - he didn't even have Thriller!!!! What kind of DJ has no Thriller! But we made the best of the circumstances and danced like complete idiots. Awesome! Afterwards I went out with my sisters and Vashti's boyfriend Chris to the Roxy on Broadway. Vashti force-fed me vodka, which I came to regret the next morning. We didn't stay too long though, because we were all (excepting Anne who was our designated driver) plastered and it was only the first day of Christmas celebrations! The fun part was when I got home and was locked out. I'm just lucky Cayley hadn't completely passed out yet from going out with his friends, and heard me pounding on the door.

Christmas Eve was held at my uncle Mike's farm, as always. Though this year we tried something new with the gift exchange - instead of drawing names and buying for a specific person, we all just brought a sort of generic present and then drew numbers and picked from the pile in order. Cayley and I ended up with matching sets of plates - but they're really nice! My mom foolishly picked the present that I brought, which was basically a smaller version of what I had got her for Xmas. Guess she wasn't as good at snooping under the tree as in previous years. The high point however was my uncle Scott, who got totally shitfaced and made the most hilarious toast to my grandma. She had her surgery for the latest bout of cancer moved up and went under the knife 4 days before Xmas, but she was still partying it up like the rest of us - she attributed it to the painkillers she was on. But anyways, Scott made a ridiculous speech, and then went and passed out somewhere in Mike's house. It was hilarious!

Christmas day was a production, because first we had to wait for Vashti, Anne, and Chris to come over to open presents. Those poor kids had to hit 3 different houses on Xmas day to open presents with their 3 different parents. Suck much! Anyways, I got mostly shirts....but since there was nothing I desperately wanted it was all good. I like shirts, though decidedly not as much as I like pants. I also opened my B-day present from Cayley early, because he's flying to Florida on my birthday. And he kept the chicken gift tradition alive by giving me this hideous chicken hat. Well, it's pretty funny, but I just don't know where I would ever wear it! Then we had to clean like crazy because for some reason the 'rents decided to hold a dinner at our house on Xmas day. So that basically meant that we cleaned while mom freaked out. But the dinner was nice, and fairly non eventful.

Boxing day I went to Preston Crossing with Graeme and Julianne who were hitting up Future Shop for sale printers, and I hit Old Navy to spend the giftcard I got from Julianne for Xmas. Then we went to my aunt Margaret's for dinner, with my fam (minus Vashti and Anne) and my cousin Bob and his wife and two kids. I had a good time playing Yu-gi-oh with Nathan, and got in trouble for being loud and rough-housing. I like little boys better than girls - they're so quantifiable! Besides, I was a tomboy with two older brothers, which basically meant that I played with my John Deere tractor set and not lame-o Barbies. So I find girly little girls somewhat boring.

The five-day holiday extravaganza ended with dinner at my grandparents on the 27th, with the same old Thiesson crowd. By this time though Vashti, Anne, and Chris had all left for New Years @ Tofino, but they were basically the only people absent. The hilarious story from this dinner is that my grandparents planned to have a roast as the main dish, and they plunked it in the stove in the party room of their building and came back an hour later to find out that the stove didn't really work. So we ended up eating the roast last - mmm....dessert roast.... Dinner became this sort of free-for-all and people were eating dessert while some people were still on salad! It was a very Thiesson gathering though. And then I played some sort of card game with my cousins which involved a lot of slapping of people's hands. I forget what they called it....

On the 28th I was so partied out, I didn't leave the house all day. It was awesome. Yesterday I ran errands with my mom downtown, one of which involved me going with her to Lululemon to pick out yoga pants for her. We were joking that she's become sort of like Hugh Grant's character in Two Weeks Notice - she can't make a decision with out me, at least when it comes to clothes. She now just doesn't buy any clothes at all unless I'm with her. But I think this is for the best, as she tends to pick out things at are (how can I say this diplomatically....) ugly. Well, not ugly. But wrong. Things that are wrong.

Today I went to the first live HD broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera. It's this new thing the Met is doing, and we went to our local Galaxy cinemas and watched the Magic Flute live from New York. It was pretty cool - the Magic Flute totally rocks, and it was a really cool production directed by Julie Tamor who did the Lion King on Broadway. The Magic Flute was always my favourite opera as a kid, especially the duet between Papageno and Papagena at the end! It totally rocks! My cousin Alex and aunt Judy also came, and there was actually a really good turnout for Saskatoon! And my mom heard on the news that the Silvercity in Toronto was completely sold out for the opera. I think this is a fantastic new initiative, because what are the chances you'd get to see the Met for 20 bucks, and especially if you live in, say, Saskatoon. It's a shame the CBC has no money to do something like this with the COC - especially for Canadian and/or Canadianish works like the Handmaid's Tale opera. But the CBC doesn't have enough money to HD their own shows, let along broadcast live HD operas. It's a shame though. The Handmaid's Tale was fantastic, but unless you lived in Toronto there was no way you got to see it. They played it on the radio, but trust me it wasn't the same. Anyways, I'm supposed to be going to Econoline Crush at the Roxy on Broadway tomorrow night with Graeme and Julianne, but they're stuck in Regina cause Graeme got really sick, so we'll see. I won't got on my own, because the Roxy is slightly sketchy, and who wants to go see something like that on your own! Lame!

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Velvety

So it's been a while I guess. Nothing extremely exciting really happened - Ingunn came to Vancouver and we took the ferry to Victoria and I hung out with her and her mom, and her niece and nephew for a day. Then I wrote my two finals, and I think they went pretty well. But at any rate I'll find that out soon enough.... Yesterday I flew to Toronto to play in Tom's orchestra - huzzah. I had this really weird ticket booked because I had already booked my ticket home, and it was non-refundable , so I was book to Toronto via Edmonton-Saskatoon. But I guess the Edmonton flight was really overbooked, so they just traded my ticket for a direct one! Score! It's so nice to be back in the T-dot, and Casa Zapf-Belanger. It really was my second home when I lived here. And also to be back with my dysfunctional Toronto family. Everybody in Vancouver thinks I'm weird, but among my brethren here - I'm positively normal!!! So to anybody who's in the Toronto area and feels like a concert, come see the Cirrus Ensemble tomorrow night at Walmer Road Baptist Church, 188 Lowther Avenue. I promise good times - especially at the big Caitlin party afterwards. She throws the best parties.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Love, Pain, and the Whole Crazy Thing

Well, since yesterday I had three somewhat exciting and/or interesting pieces of news. Some of you may (or may not) know that this year I am participating in BC's Universities Model Parliament as a member for the NDP. Never in UMP's history has the NDP risen to anything other than official opposition, but this year after a highly complex system of people who registered vs on-campus polling, the NDP has come out victorious!!! We get to be the government, baby! Prepare to have all your tax dollars SPENT!

Secondly, I went to physio today and found out the reason my back hurts is because my hips are out of alignment. My right hip is 1 1/2 inches below my left, and is turned down slightly, causing the bottom of my spine to bend and compress my sciatic nerve. So the physiotherapist did all these exercises to re-align my hips, and got them to within a 1/2 inch of each other. I felt so fantastic after physio, and in so much less pain, but unfortunately it didn't last and I am now sore again. But he gave me some exercises to do until I go back on Friday. C'mon hips, get in gear!

And lastly, I'm going to Toronto!!! It's so exciting!!! Tom and Michelle are organizing this orchestra concert with Tom conducting, and apparently every single violist in town is busy on that day (the 18th). They have Michelle's brother and another girl signed up, but they needed a section leader. And since I was flying home on the 16th anyways, I'm now just going to Toronto on the 16th to hang out at Michelle's for a couple of days and play this concert! Yay! I'm so excited, to see 2/3s of the girls (but I get to see the other 1/3 this weekend), and my whole extended Toronto family! I must admit I've been slightly homesick for Toronto - not that I haven't been having a good time here, but it's always hard to move somewhere that you don't know anybody and to start over completely. I've done it before, but it's always hard. Anyways, I must now go lie in bed and watch Scrubs on my laptop.

Monday, December 04, 2006

It's Official

Yup, it's official. I am now an old lady. My back's still bothering me, so I decided to get it checked up on. And according to the doctor, I have 'acute lumbar strain and sciatica' and she referred me to physio. This sucks man. This is the second time in 2 years that I've been in physio - first for my knees and now for my back. When will the madness end!!!!! I'm now going to lie on the couch and moan.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Out of the Dark, Into the Pain

So, big storm here. Lots of snow. Three days of snow and counting. In fact, it's snowing right now. I always used to laugh at Vancouver because it shuts down every year when it snows. But this stuff is wet, and heavy, and has taken down trees which in turn take down power lines and trolley bus lines. So that is why my power went out at 2am last night. But on the bright side, I finally get to profit from what I used to make fun of, because all classes were cancelled today. And I went out for the morning and came back to find my power back on. So hooray for that. Oh, and they FINALLY lifted the boil water advisory. Not that I was actually boiling my water, but it's always good to not have an advisory in place....

But the bad news is I pulled something in my back this morning. While stepping onto a low-rise wheelchair accessible bus. I don't know how, but I managed to do it, and am now in pain. That and I can't stand upright. I can only stand if I'm bent over, so I'm thinking of investing in a cane. Anyways, I went and saw a doctor, and he prescribed me ibuprofen and robaxacet, and said if in five days it wasn't better to get it checked up on. So we'll see. But in the meantime I plan to drug myself up, and lie on the couch moaning and watching TV. There's Star Trek and CSI on practically ALL DAY! And hey, if it's still bad tomorrow, maybe I can get out of orchestra! Score!

Friday, November 17, 2006

I'm Still Alive

So, apparently the news has been talking a lot about the big storm we had here yesterday. In fact, when I got home from orchestra today I had two worried messages on my phone from my mom. So this is just a little public service announcement to let anybody who cares know that I am in fact still alive. I have power. I was not evacuated. I (sadly) still had school. And I will try not to drink the dirty water....it's just SO TEMPTING!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Ugly Leno



So I was lying in bed, unable to fall asleep, and started thinking about an annoying segment Entertainment Tonight has been running for the last week. So I decided to get out of bed and rant about it. It's called 'Ugly Vanessa', and they dress up MTV hottie Vanessa Minillo in a fat suit, braces, and glasses, and send her out on the streets of New York doing various things and seeing how people react to her. As opposed to when they give her a blond wig, green contacts, and a Gucci wardrobe. There are a few things that piss me off about this. First of all, in making her fat they gave her this enormous prosthetic chin. She looks like an ugly, latin, female Jay Leno. Seriously, just because you're fat, it doesn't mean you have a huge chin! Secondly, they picked a girl who's gotten everywhere she is in her life because of her looks. She was Miss Teen USA, then an MTV VJ and ET correspondent, and all because she's cutesy and hot. So naturally she hates the way she looks, and while she's out as the 'fat' Vanessa she basically transmits how ugly she thinks she is to everyone around her by the way she acts. But at the same time, she tries to be all cutesy, because it works for her when she's skinny and hot. Honey, being cutesy gets you nowhere in life. Unless your skinny and hot.

My other big beef is the things they have her do to test how she's treated differently. First she had to approach people on the street to give them a survey. As the timid, big-chinned girl, New Yorkers just passed her by. As I would have. People laughed at her when she rode the subway, which is admittedly pretty mean, but she looked really ridiculous. She's not used to being that size, so she moved awkwardly like somebody who's used to being much different. And she just sort of stood around awkwardly, in people's way, waiting for them to have a negative reaction to her. If you're standing in the middle of the steps to the subway staring at everyone who passes you, I'm probably going to laugh at you too. Another test was going clubbing. They sent her one night as a hottie, and then next night as a fugly. Well, big surprise the bouncers at NYC's hottest club didn't let in the fugly girl with unwashed hair and horrific clothing. Seriously, they could have at least put some effort into her attire and made her look a lot more presentable. Today they had her go lingerie shopping on Madison Avenue. Dressed in ill-fitting, cheap clothes. And then she wondered why no salespeople would give her the time of day. Those people are trained to smell money, and fugly Vanessa just had the stench of insecurity and cheap clothes coming off her.

My roommate Lisa and I proceeded to have a big discussion about this. More than half of what people perceive you to be is in your attitude. People who are self confident (NOT cocky assholes) and secure in themselves are perceived as 'hotter' than perhaps they actually are. Lisa and I both thought about it, and with both of us the guys we've liked have not been 'hot' in the conventional sense, but we were attracted to their personality and attitude. So there you go Vanessa. If you walk around with the attitude you're awkward and ugly, you will be seen as awkward and ugly. And Entertainment Tonight, next time give that girl some clothes that actually fit! The character on Ugly Betty is a comic stereotype. Not a real phenomenon. Idiots.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

It's Really Quite Easy. I Swear.

Well, another exciting installment of My Life. It's been mostly routine, with classes, rehearsals, and lessons. Last weekend was the string fest. Nothing really exciting happened.

Yesterday we had a UBC NDP social, which basically involved about five of us meeting up to eat pizza and watch The End of Suburbia. The DVD had two versions of the film - one rated G and one rated M for Mature. We of course picked the one rated M, and proceeded to discover that the decline in oil is like a clusterfuck in a shit storm. I kid you not, that's what one guy said. I guess that's why it was rated M. After the movie we got sucked into playing MarioKart in the Arts Undergrad Society office, with us all screaming obscenities (like 'clusterfuck!') whenever we screwed up. After that I was really quite tired and so went home and went to bed early. But some asshat decided to set off the fire alarm in my building at 1:30 in the morning, and we had to evacuate the building and wait for the firemen to come and turn it off. So needless to say my night was not as restful as I had hoped it would be.

Today we had our last rehearsal before the orchestra concert tomorrow, and holy shit am I getting really annoyed at this orchestra! It's like a trifecta of badness. The conductor can't conduct (it's really quite easy to count to three, but apparently out of his abilities), the players don't seem to understand dynamics (p means loud, right?!), and NOBODY CAN KEEP TEMPO! Now, it doesn't help that we have a weak conductor, but doesn't everybody realize that if you rush like a mofo, it just makes everything harder to play?! I really just feel sorry for the pianist who's playing Prokofiev 2nd Piano Concerto with us, because the second movement is just him playing straight (and fast) eighth notes, and we keep rushing him. Actually, we just rush him throughout the whole piece. And as a soloist it is the worst feeling - that the orchestra is not following you, but you are having to follow the orchestra. If I had to put money on it, I'd say that tomorrow during the concert we fall apart in the 3rd movement of the Rachmaninov Dances.

Is it bad that I miss the Con?

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Tired for no reason

Well, seeing as how I'm bored and trying to waste time, I thought I'd do a little posting. Last weekend was a doozy, let me tell you. I blame Aida. Anyways, on Friday night I dressed up like post-pregnancy Britney Spears (minus the baby, because really when does she ever tote the kid around?), and went out with Vanessa and Aida. We first went over to Totem to meet up with some friends of theirs who are RAs there, and then proceeded to hang around and drink while waiting for people. I don't really know why. All I know is that it resulted in a lot of absurd drunken photos of Vanessa, Aida, me, and their friend Nathalie. After we managed to find everyone we headed over to the SUB to go to the Pit Pub, but in the mad crush of people trying to get in Vanessa and I got separated from everyone else. And then Vanessa got really claustrophobic, so we decided to leave the line and go to McDonald's in the Village instead. So we did, and then I escorted Vanessa back to Gage so she didn't get attacked by anyone, and went home.

The next morning I got up, and met some UBC NDPers at the SUB to head downtown to a peace march. So we marched around downtown, and then I had to duck out of the rally at 2:30 to head back to campus to meet Vanessa and Aida for a gig. We played a wedding reception, but the funniest part was that I was the only one who noticed it was a same-sex marriage. The other three were totally clueless, and only when both the 'best men' started giving speeches did they believe me. AHAHAHA. Anyways, I played violin, which was hilarious, but it was all good. Afterwards, Aida and I quickly changed into our Halloween costumes in Vanessa's car, and then Vanessa dropped Aida, Nathalie, and I off at the Blarney Stone. It's this pub downtown, sort of near the Lower East Side (ooh, scary) that everybody seems to love. I don't know, I wasn't so convinced. Of course, that may have had something to do with having to stand in line for and hour and a half before getting in. I never stood in line that long even in TO! So anyways, drunken debauchery ensued, and I somehow managed to catch the bus back to UBC. I vaguely remember meeting some random guy on the street, and him showing me how to get to Waterfront Station to catch the B-Line (because I had absolutely no idea where I was...).

Sunday morning was not a happy time though. It always seems like such a good idea at the time to mix liquors, but Sunday sucked. Majorly. But I managed to get through it pretty much alive, and am now back at the daily grind. There's this 'String Festival' weekend thingie on this weekend at UBC, so that means that I have two string orchestra concerts - one on Friday at noon, and one Saturday evening. Should be hilarious! I'll probably bring my computer to do some work on my Argument essay for English, seeing as my panel is on Wednesday. Anybody got any gems of wisdom on torture?

Friday, October 27, 2006

Personality? Nah.

So, the other day my roommate and I were sitting around watching TV, and they kept running these ads for eHarmony and how you can get a free personality profile. Well, we were intrigued to find out what we are like, so we decided to get our computers and do it. I'm bored now, so I thought I'd post my profile. I think it's pretty good, but the problem I had with the questions was they asked things like, pick three of these terms that your friends would use to describe you. Well, I don't really know how my friends would describe me, so I had to answer what I thought my friends thought about me. Which is weird. Anyways here it is. I just noticed that it says I'm lucky alot.

In Agreeableness you are best described as:

USUALLY TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF

Words that describe you:

* Perceptive
* Realistic
* Demanding
* Down-to-Earth
* Hardnosed
* Judgmental
* Pragmatic
* Skeptical

A General Description of How You Interact with Others

You are clearly a compassionate person; you believe that you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and you know that friends help their friends. But with you compassion is just one side of the coin; the other being a side that also expects others to hold up their end of the bargain. So you help others but it is with the expectation that others don't take advantage of you or try to put one over on you. In short, you expect others to treat you as you treat them.

And for those people who do ask for help when they should have taken responsibility for themselves? This is the time when your more hard-edged side comes out. You are skeptical of people when they expect others to bail them out of trouble; if they got themselves into the bind, they should work their way out of the trouble. If it's an emergency, or if it's a friend who has been there for you when you have had hard times, you are there in a quick minute. But you are a discerning person and to you there is a big difference between an emergency and a self-inflicted wound. You just look at the facts: how the situation developed, how serious the situation, and how they can or cannot get through things on their own. The history you have with the person and with similar situations will inform you whether this is or is not a time for you to get involved.

You also have some limits when it comes to being with people. Sure some people need to be with others all the time and seem to get recharged by helping out most anyone else. But that's not you. You know that you do best if you spend a fair amount of time on your own. Not that you are a loner, just that time spent by yourself is not wasted at all with you. You've come to understand that if you don't take good care of yourself, eventually you'll be not good to anyone, including yourself or others.

So your compassion is tempered by realism. Your sympathy for people in trouble is balanced by a critical evaluation of how they got themselves to the place they are. And you've learned to take good care of yourself, so you have something to give to your friends or others truly in need.

On the Openness Dimension you are:
CONTENT

Words that describe you:

* Sensible
* Realistic
* Conventional
* Sincere
* Simple
* Firm
* Earnest

A General Description of How You Approach New Information and Experiences

You find that you are usually more comfortable with ideas and beliefs that you have held for a long time. These values, which for you are tried-and-true, provide you with practical solutions to life's problems, and with straightforward ways of engaging in intellectual discussions and debates. You've tested these positions over time, you know them well, they work for you, and you trust them. You like the way these solutions provide consistency and value to your life.

You've always been teachable as well. Whether in textbooks or classrooms, or through a wide variety of personal and interpersonal experiences, you've explored and tested the values and ideas you hold dear. Along the way you've grown to recognize ideas and beliefs that fit with your life. When this happens, you open yourself to learning what it is that this can teach you. Most of the time evaluating new information strengthens what you know and trust; the "next new thing" usually proves too shallow or too impractical to dislodge you from what has served you so well.

On Emotional Stability you are:
SOMETIMES STEADY, SOMETIMES RESPONSIVE

Words that describe you:

* Adaptable
* Engaged
* Able to Cope
* Passionate
* Perceptive
* Flexible
* Receptive
* Aware
* Avid



A General Description of Your Reactivity

In some ways, you've got the best of emotional worlds. When emotions rise up from inside you or are brought forth from a conversation by a friend, you know how to engage them. You deal with sadness, fear, joy, anger - whatever comes up - in ways that are perceptive and flexible. You can adapt to whatever level of emotion is appropriate to the moment. At other times, you are able to cope with your emotions in a more reserved manner. Because you are aware of what does and does not make emotional sense in a particular situation, you will decide when it is an appropriate time to express your emotions and when it would be best to keep them to yourself.

All of this gives you a rich emotional life. You are free to express your passions about certain subjects with appropriate people. But you are also emotionally adaptable; if the conversation needs to be more cerebral, you'll keep it "in your head" and talk calmly through whatever issue is on the table. This emotional awareness serves you well. You seldom get in over your head, either by opening up to the wrong person or by triggering in someone else's emotions they may not be able to deal with.

Your approach toward your obligations is:
FOCUSED AND FLEXIBLE

Words that describe you:

* Casual
* Informal
* Compliant
* Reliable
* Organized
* Solid
* Dependable
* Uncommitted
* Genuine



A General Description of How You Interact with Others

When you take on a task at work or at home, you are reliable; you get the job done. In an organized way, you define the goal, lay out a plan, figure how long the task will take, and get to work "solid and dependable you".

But and this is important you're not a slave to the plan. You're committed to it, but not chained to it; the connection is more casual and informal. You know that sometimes "the best laid plans" fall off the tracks; when this happens, you clean up the train wreck and start over, undeterred.

Though not happening often, when plans change, you're okay with it. In fact, sometimes you change the plan. It's too nice of a Saturday to finish organizing the garage. Let's go for a bike ride instead. True, the next rainy Saturday will likely find you back in the garage, but for now the work can wait.

What an interesting combination of qualities in you're organized, but casual; solid, but compliant; and dependable, but informal. At home and at work, people know they can rely on you. You take great satisfaction in knowing that people think of you as disciplined and responsible, but you also know that you have something of a free spirit in you, and when this spirit moves you, off you go, following the impulse of the moment. You are rightly proud of your work ethic, but you also enjoy your willingness to lay the tools down, crank up the music and play like a child.

When it comes to Extraversion you are:
SOMETIMES OUTGOING, SOMETIMES RESERVED

Words that describe you:

* Moderate
* Amiable
* Laid-back
* Temperate
* Relaxed
* Poised
* Civil
* Uncommitted
* Pleasant



A General Description of How You Interact with Others

Lucky you! You enjoy your own company as much as you enjoy the company of others. You are a great conversationalist and thrive in the wonderful kinds of connections you know how to have with your family and friends. You also equally enjoy your own company, whether sitting in a favorite chair with your book and soft music playing or meandering in the woods by yourself. You like coming home to your family or your roommate; but if no one is home, you find quiet, solitary time to be just as pleasurable. What a great combination to enjoy being outgoing and to be just as comfortable being reserved. Lucky you!!

Because you are so amiable and relaxed, you are comfortable with almost any group of family or friends. Whether they are pumped up and lively or calm and subdued, you remain at ease. If someone needs to take over the conversation, you are comfortable taking the lead; you can also lay back and let someone else be in charge. If the conversation gets rowdy, your moderate demeanor will often draw it down to a more temperate level. If someone in the group loses their cool, you will most likely maintain your poise, and if they get nasty you know how to keep a civil tongue.

You may find yourself out of balance on occasion. If you're alone too much, you may need to get in touch with someone. If you spend too much time with your family and friends, you may need to sneak off for a day by yourself, to putter and read and clear your head of the noise of too much conversation. When you're at your best, you live with a rhythm of time with others, time alone, time with others, time alone It's a satisfying, comfortable balance. Lucky you!

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Fantastic!

So Fright Night got put off, due to cold and rain. But instead Vanessa and I went out to dinner at White Spot, and then did some hilarious and random grocery shopping at Safeway. Last night I noticed them setting up all these trailers for a movie or tv shoot. This morning my roommate had a midterm at 8:30, and she saw them setting everything up to shoot, so when she got home she looked up on the internet what they were filming. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, baby! Yeah! Unfortunately though, it was too cold and rainy to stalk Chris Evans or Ioan Gruffudd or Jessica Alba. So that's my story for today.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Logos, Pathos, or Ethos

So, I'm currently sitting in English, and since I'm bored I decided to write a post. Don't worry mom - the teacher's just explaining how to make an emotional appeal about baby seals. Anyhoo, my week is starting to look up. Tonight I'm hitting Fright Night down at the Pacific National Exhibition with my stand partner Vanessa and her friends. I don't really know what it involves, but I think there's scary rides and Halloween-type stuff. And on Saturday not only am I going to an anti-war march, but I'm playing a gig with Vanessa. But get this - on the violin. Ahaha! Vanessa's friend Aida is letting me use her spare violin, and I'm going to play 2nd violin. It should be hilarious. That's about it.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Bored now

So, I got some flack from my mother over the weekend for not writing anything recently. It's only because NOTHING'S GOING ON! Seriously, my life is boring. The high point of my week was when I left campus for three hours on Saturday to go down West Broadway to buy rollerblades. And that is the only time I've left campus in the past week. Also, I went to the theatre in the Student Union Building on Saturday night to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2. As you can see, Saturday was an exiting, fun-filled day. Last week I wrote my research essay for English, and this weekend I was working on my Poli Sci paper that's due tomorrow. That's really about it. I know, I'm bored just writing about it.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

I Forgot

My total reasons for posting was because I discovered that TVSquad.com had hired Wil Wheaton to review old TNG episodes for them. And although he's only done two, they're really frakking hilarious! This is my favourite quote, from the review for The Last Outpost:

Troi suggests they talk with the Ferengi, and Picard is all, "Uh, we just did, stupid! They ignored us." And then Troi is all, "Hey, you're stupid! You should go try again and suck up to them a little bit." Then Picard is all "Hey, Geordi, what do you think?" And Geordi is all, "I'm just gonna shrug because I got all 'woo-eee' about that plan that didn't work." So then Picard is all, "Well, does anyone have any other ideas? Because right now going to suck up to them is about the best you guys have given me." They're all, like, dude, and they leave. So Riker comes up and is all, "Hey, what do you want to do, man?" And Picard goes, "I totally want to surrender, because I'm, like, scared. Will you hold me?" And Riker is all, "Ewww gross!" And then Picard is all, "No, seriously, dude. If the shit gets too heavy, I want you to blow it up." And Riker is all, "Damn, Gina. That is crazy!" And then Picard is all, "True dat, biotch."

Uni-suckity

Well well well.....so in every one of my classes, before they hand back our assignments, they have been giving little pep talks about how university is harder than high school, and we should expect our marks to dip accordingly. And my TA in Poli Sci said that most people in our class should visit the writing centre for help with our essays. Well, I say stick it suckahs! I got my in-class summary back in English. A. I got my midterm back in Poli Sci. 83. And my essay. 95. I sort of feel bad for other people I know who are not doing so well. Anyways, those have been the bright points in my week, seeing as how on Wednesday I caught the sickness that's going around. Today was the worst, as everything was making me sneeze, my nose is totally plugged, and even though I've gotten 9 hours of sleep the last two nights, I'm totally exhausted. But at least it's not whatever they all caught at Mount Allison University. Though, on the bright side, at least they cancelled school for everybody because of it. I have to research and write a paper this weekend, so that's fun. I'm really craving a burger right now, but I'm too tired and lazy to walk the 5 blocks to get it.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Sniff Sniff

So, I finally caught the cold that's going around town. My roommate was sick last week, and a bunch of people in the orchestra are sick too. It started with a sore throat yesterday, and today I woke up with a serious sore throat, and stuffed up sinuses. And I was tired for no reason, probably because I'm sick. But I don't have anything until 2pm tomorrow, so I can sleep in, eat, and practice all in time for class! I got my in-class test from English back today, and I got an A. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I also think that alot of people in my class suck because the teacher said the average mark was around 68, so if I got an A (85-89), that means a whole lotta people sucked big time. I have noticed in all my classes though that quality of writing is a big issue, especially since about half or more of these kids speak English as a second language. Anyways, I get both my paper and midterm back tomorrow in Poli Sci - and mom, I don't care. As long as I pass, I'm happy. Quit pressuring me to get good marks. It doesn't help my stress levels. And besides, I'm not really sure that you have to bug me, because c'mon, when have I ever failed anything? So now I'm going to take my pillow and blankie, and collapse in front of the TV for a while. sniff.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Oh Yeah, Turkey Baster!

So Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I continued my tradition of Zapf family Thanksgivings with dinner at Michelle's aunt's house. And then after dinner, we had a hilarious game of mafia, because their 84 year old neighbour tried to play, but she was so confused by the whole game it ended up forfeit....good times. Our concert on Friday went pretty OK - we managed to make it through West Side Story without totally falling apart, so that was nice. I then went to the bar and drank a pitcher by myself, on an empty stomach. Good times. So it's back to the grind on Tuesday, with my first quartet rehearsal of the year. So tomorrow I should probably look at my music...

Thursday, October 05, 2006

OK

So, I've been a little negligent in terms of my blog this last week, but I swear not a lot really happened.. Jack came on Friday, and there was a really great showing of students. I sat around all weekend, and it was quite relaxing. Then on Monday, I hurt my shoulder somehow and was pissed off about that. One of those annoying things where all of a sudden you're like, 'wow. my shoulder really hurts.' But you don't know how you hurt it! Today I had my poli sci midterm, which I was a little worried about but I feel OK about now. I'm pretty sure I passed - and isn't that what matters? Soo...I have no big plans for Thanksgiving. I'll probably just sit around, and maybe if I'm feeling lonely hit up the Rez's Thanksgiving dinner on the weekend. Tomorrow is the UBC Symphony Orchestra concert - it will be interesting to see if we can make it through our pieces without stopping..... Oh dear god.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

It's here, I'm on it

It's here. My precious is finally here. In fact, I'm using it right now. In the hallway outside my Poli Sci lecture room. Sweet. So that's my only news, other than we had a strategy session today with the UBC NDP for the Jack Layton event of Friday, but if I told you what we talked about, I'd have to kill you. Mwahahaha.

Monday, September 25, 2006

It's like a drug

I swear, Apple products are like a drug. My laptop's not even here, and I'm already in withdrawl! I need it! Ah! But anyhoo, not too much has happened since I last posted. I volunteered at this NDP meet and greet thing on Saturday night, where I got to meet a bunch of MLAs and tell them what I'm concerned about. It was pretty cool. And the president of the UBC NDP tried to convince me to join the BCYND exec. So that's cool. Oh, and the girls and I finally did our Skypeing. We did a conference call with the four of us - it was 9 pm in Reykjavik, 7 in Cleveland, 6 in TO, and 3 here in Vancouver. We talked for about an hour, and decided we should do this every week. It was especially funny because Catherine's wireless connection she was using sort of crapped in and out, and so for whole portions of the conversation she was about 10 seconds behind the rest of us. So we'd already be onto the next topic of conversation, and then she's say something like, "6 is good!" It was pretty hilarious. So, that's about all for now.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Oh yeah

I forgot when I posted earlier, because I was so excited about my iPod, but I went to a UBC NDP meeting today and found out that Jack is coming to UBC. Next friday. And we're apparently supposed to organize it all. Yay. I've also volunteered at a BC NDP fundraiser thingie on Saturday, where I will apparently get to meet BC NDP MLAs and MPs. And free wine and dessert.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Shiny!

I got my new iPod today! It came from Memphis! Yay! I'm excited! It's so shiny and new!

Monday, September 18, 2006

Memphis?!!!

So, another exciting week in Vancouver. This week it finally got cold and rainy, just like everyone promised it would. I also ordered my MacBook and iPod. See, they had this sweet deal on for students where not only did you get a discount price on a MacBook, but you got a free iPod. Great, right? But the cut-off was Sept. 16, and by the beginning of last week every Apple seller in Vancouver was out of MacBooks. Hah. I had the money just sitting in my account, but my credit card limit wasn't high enough to order it off the internet myself. So I had to call my dad, who was on holidays and fishing up at Emma Lake, to ask if I could charge it on one of his cards and then pay him back. So I ordered on the 14th, and all was good. On the email from Apple they said they ship all their stuff from their warehouse in California, but they're wrong. Or maybe by CA they meant China. See, they shipped my iPod two days ago, from Shanghai. I can look up where it is using my handy little FedEx tracking number they gave me. So it went from Shanghai to Anchorage, and from Anchorage to Memphis. It's now in Memphis, and will hopefully move north sometime. I know I didn't pay the extra ten buck or whatever for fast shipping, but Shanghai-Anchorage-Memphis?! Doesn't that seem like a teensy bit of a roundabout route to get to Vancouver? Oh well, I guess I will leave it up to the infinite wisdom of FedEx. They should ship my computer any day now also, which I can't wait to get. My desktop's all fine and good, but I've been craving my laptop. I could go and write my paper in the study room they have in my rez. That would be cool. Or I could just write it in front of the TV if I felt so inclined. I need mobility!!!!!

Other than that, things are going well on the whole school-side of life. Chamber music is slowly getting organized, as is string orchestra and full orchestra. And I had my first actual lecture in Poli Sci on Thursday! It was very exciting. That's all for now, but you should check out my facebook page I spent and hour and a half making this evening, for lack of any actual homework to do (as opposed to all my roomies). http://ubc.facebook.com/profile.php?id=21011672

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Loverly

Well, I got my computer moniter today. It was pretty quick too - I got my student loan money yesterday, paid off my credit card, and ordered my moniter off NCIX.com. And they delivered it this morning to my rez. Sweet ass. So this means that I'll be able to update more now. I'm into the second week of classes, but only the first full week of classes because of Labour Day. Still nothing too crazy, but then again I'm only taking two academic classes, and the rest are performance credits. So not as crazy as my roommates who have lots of reading and homework already. Suckers.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Waiting....

So I haven't been posting because I'm waiting. On the oodles of money I've been promised. I'm sure they'll come soon. But until then I can only use the free computers in the library or Student Union Building. First week was fine, fairly painless, and I'm starting to get to know my way around campus. I had my first lesson today, and we did scales for an hour and a half. I think I fried my brain.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Pukey

So I got up at 5 this morning and headed over to the airport for my flight to Calgary. I think I've been to Alberta more times this summer than in my entire life. It's weird. Anyways, I stupidly took my antibiotics on an empty stomach when I got up this morning, and while I was standing in line at the airport I started feeling kinda pukey. So I forced myself to eat a muffin, because if you don't take those suckers with food bad things happen. So that was exciting, and mom was all worried because here she was sending me to Calgary again sick. Because y'know last time I spent 8 hours on the bus in anaphalactic shock. It was fun; you should all definitely put in on your to-do list. But I digress. Here I am at Vashti's in Calgary, and as soon as she runs some errands we're off to Vancouver. We're getting me settled in tomorrow and Friday, and then Saturday morning the girls (Vashti, Anne, and I) are heading down to Seattle for Bumbershoot, a big music festival. Anne's flying into Vancouver on Friday night, and I think it'll be a nice little trip. The last time I spent time with both my sisters at once was about 8 years ago. So this is long overdue. Plus it really is the best plan when moving to a new city and starting a new school to take off to a different city the weekend before classes start. Isn't that what everyone does?

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Snakes........ON A PLANE!

So, I've been to a movie a day this week - Monday was The Devil Wears Prada, Tuesday was A Prairie Home Companion, Wednesday was Talladaga Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Thursday was The Lake House, and yesterday was SNAKES ON A PLANE! The only disapointment of the week was The Lake House, and honestly I expected it to be bad, but not as bad as it was. I honestly thought they would have some sort of logical explanation for everything, but they just sort of pretended that the whole crazy time difference never happened. And that there are no repercussions for bringing back someone from the dead and changing the past. Idiots. The best movie was a toss-up between Talladaga Nights and SoaP. I would recommend that if you're thinking of going to see Snakes, go opening weekend. The crowd last night was so much fun, everybody cheering and laughing their asses off. It was much funnier than anybody expected it to be, even with it gory violence and R rating. Well, R in the US and 18A here.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Iceland Pt. 3 (Finale)

On August 6th we went to Skógasafn, the Skógar Folk Museum. The entire collection was put together by 80-something year old Þórður Tómasson, who began collecting when he was just 14. It's considered one of the best museums in the country, and we met Þórður, who played hymns for us on the old church organ in the church there, and demonstrated how to use a spindle to make wool thread. Then we went to Skógafoss, Skógar's resident waterfall. Legend has it that a settler hid a chest of treasure behind the falls, but no-one has ever been able to find it. We took in one more waterfall (I don't remember the name) before heading home, but this one was cool because there was a path to walk behind the falls.

On August 9th we just rehearsed for our Reykholt concert, and then spent the evening at the Blue Lagoon. It's considered Iceland's most famous tourist attractiong, and is hidden in the middle of a lava field between KeflavĂ­k and GrindavĂ­k. It owes it's existance to the nearby Svartsengi geothermal power plant, which is powered by superheated sea water drawn from deep bore holes in the lava. After the steam passes through the turbines, huge condensors convert it back into water, which is pumped directly into the lava field. The minerals in the field naturally filter the water and return it to the sea. But the power plant pumps more water into the lava field than can be filtered underground, and where it pools above ground is the Blue Lagoon. The milky blue water is rich in blue-green algae (cyanobacteria), mineral salts, and fine slica mud that conditions and exfoliate your skin. Just swimming in it is good for your skin, and they also have silica stations where there are buckets of silica mud scraped from the bottom of the lagoon that you put on your face (or anywhere else you want). It sits in the middle of a black lava field, with sheets of steam rising off the blue water – very surreal. They've developed it alot recently, adding a restaurant, gift shop, and spa, but Ingunn says that when she came as a kid all they had was a wooden shack and a hose to wash themselves with.

August 10th was our concert in Reykholt, reknowned as the home of Snorri Sturluson, one of the great saga writers. They have a very interesting display on Snorri and the sagas in the basement of Reykholtskirka. It's also home to Snorralaug (Snorri's pool), a circular, stone-lined pool about 4 metres in diameter, fed by a hot spring. It looks like a little stone jacuzzi and is thought to have been built by Snorri Sturluson. Behing the pool is a passage believed to lead to the cellar where Snorri was murdered in 1241 by GĂ­ssur Ăžorvaldsson. Our concert in Reykholt went well, and there were even a few random Canadians in the audience – a couple from Vancouver, and an Icelandic-Canadian guy from around Gimli. Today was also the day we found out about the new terrorist bust, and the new restrictions of carry-on. Panic!

Our flight was scheduled for 4:30 pm on the 11th, and Ingunn's mom spent the entire morning on the phone haggling with the airline, and our saviour Gunnar Snorri came through at the 11th hour. He pulled a bunch of strings and got permission for us – which ended up slightly unneeded, but better safe than sorry. After all the worry, and everybody (including the airline) telling us that we weren't allowed carry-on, turns out everyone had carry-on and they were only restricitng liquids and gels. Even in Minneapolis they didn't say boo to me except to remind me not to bring any liquid on. Well, live and learn. And don't believe anything the media or the airline tells you.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Back in Ka-na-ta

Well, I'm back on home turf. It was a surprisingly uneventful flight, other than the zoo checking in at the airport in Keflavik. They were also patting down everyone and looking through people's bags, which took some time going through security, but they weren't actually restricting carry-on (contrary to what we'd been told). I guess it was just UK to US flights, but who was to know! And my transfer in Minneapolis went fine, the airport was actually kind of quiet. Our Icelandair flight got in at about 7, and my Calgary flight left at 9, so I guess the airport wasn't that busy because it was a little lateish.... Anyways, I'm just hanging out in Calgary today, and I head back to Saskatoon tomorrow. I'll work on the bus on a last post about what we did in Iceland - my favourite was the Blue Lagoon. But more about that later.

Friday, August 11, 2006

My firstborn shall be named Gunnar Snorri

And.....a last minute save by Ingunn's cousin Gunnar Snorri. After we got the runaround, Ingunn's mom called him because he's the head of Iceland's foreign service. And he got the Icelandic government, and the US Embassy, and Icelandair on the phone and got us and only us express permission to board the flight to Minneapolis with our instruments. I think we're going to put together a huge care package for Gunnar Snorri, because he is my new hero.

Well Fuck

So thanks to a foiled terrorist plot the day before I'm supposed to fly from Europe to the US, I'm screwed. They're not letting on ANY carry-on luggage - and that means my viola to. So I may be stuck in Iceland for a while, because there is absolutely no way I am sending my expensive instrument in the belly of a plane to be tossed around by ground personnel. As of now, everybody is telling us that there is no way we can get our instruments on, unless we get permission from the US Government. But the US Embassy here says it's up to Icelandair, and that they can't do anything. Fuck.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Iceland Pt. 2

The saga continues....

We left Reykjavik on Friday morning and drove on a big bus across the south to JökulsárlĂłn, a glacial river lagoon. It’s an offshoot of the giant Vatnajökull glacier that covers a lot of the southeast. It’s a lagoon, attached to the ocean by a small river mouth so that lagoon doesn’t freeze. The lagoon has been growing steadily over the years, due to an increase in glacial melting – about 100 metres breaking off each year. The lagoon has also been used in several films, including two James Bond movies (A View to Kill and Die Another Day) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. For Tomb Raider they painted the amphibious vehicles they take tourists out in to resemble Russian ships, and for Die Another Day they blocked off the lagoon’s entrace to the sea, freezing it over. And then they totalled 5 Aston Martins on the frozen lagoon. After JökulsárlĂłn we drove back west to our farm/hotel Geirland, just outside of Kirkjubæjarklaustur. This is the farm that Ingunn’s dad Hallgrimur used to work on every summer, so we’re in his home turf.

Kirkjubæjarklaustur is very near the volcano Laki, whose massive eruptions in 1783 lasted for 10 months. Fountains of molten lava shot up around 1000 metres above ground level, and Laki spewed more than 30 billion tonnes of lava and 90 million tonnes of sulphuric acid. The black cloud that followed covered Iceland, killing crops and blocking out the sun, and 20% of Iceland’s population died. As well, the Laki cloud covered Europe causing crop failure, livestock poisoning, and starvation that led to, among other things, the French Revolution. A favourite story around Kirkjubæjarklaustur is that of a church pastor, who gathered his congregation in the church as the lava started to flow towards them, and proceeded to give a very fiery and passionate sermon. The lava miraculously split and went around the church, leaving it intact. The church is still there, surrounded by a lava field, but the only issue we could find with this story is that people can’t survive even just standing next to molten lava. It’s so hot, that even if you’re beside it you’d probably spontaneously combust. We were supposed to hike up into the Laki basin, as it is now dormant, but it was pouring and foggy and so they decided that if we wouldn’t be able to see anything then there was really no point. Icelander’s have lots of stories about religion and natural events, another one being a large eruption in the year 1000, the year that they accepted Christianity. Many saw this as a sign from the pagan gods that Christianity was bogus, but Iceland peacefully converted anyways so that they would be able to trade effectively with the rest of Scandinavia and Europe.

On Saturday we got up and were originally supposed to hike up Laki, but instead went on a hike to the waterfall behind Geirland. All the farms around the south have there own waterfalls, both for a source of fresh water, and before there was a national electrical grid many farms got their power from their own private substation at the base of their waterfall. In fact, one of Hallgrimur’s jobs when he worked here was to hike up to the waterfall and clear all the debris out of the grid under the falls. After that we changed into dryer clothes, as it had been pouring the whole time and we were all soaked. Then we set off to FjaĂ°rárglijĂşfur, a peculiar canyon carved by the river FjarĂ°rá, lined with steep rock walls. Then it was off to Fagrifoss (“beautiful falls”) on the Geirlandsa river just off the Laki road. Today was a day of falls, and after Fagrifoss half of us went swimming at the pool in Kirkjubæjarklaustur while the others went to the famous church that escaped the lava flow.

On our drive on Friday we crossed the Sandur, and stopped in at the NĂşpsstaĂ°ur farm. The sandur is a broad desert expanse that lies across the southeastern coast, and is composed of deposits of silt, sand, and gravel carried down by glacial flooding when one of the two volcanoes underneath the Vatnajökull icecap erupts. The sandur is divided into two sections, the most visible being SkeiĂ°arársandur, which stretches for 40 km between icecap and coast. Iceland has a Ring Road, and the very last part of it to be completed was the portion across SkeiĂ°arársandur in 1974. They constructed large gravel dykes to strategically channel floodwaters away from the only road in the area, but it didn’t help much in the glacial flood of 1996. On September 29 a 5.0 earthquake rocked the Vatnajökull icecap, causing the eruption of a 4 km long subsurface fissure known as Gjálp. The next day the eruption burst through the surface, sending a column of steam 10 km into the sky. Meanwhile, the subglacial lake in the GrĂ­msvötn caldera was filling with water from ice melted by the eruption, and on November 5 the ice lifted and the GrĂ­msvötn reservoir drained in a massive flood, releasing up to 3000 billion cubic litres of water within a few hours. The floodwaters, dragging icebergs the size of 3 story buildings along with it, destroyed all the bridges across the sandur. The sandur is understandably unoccupied by anyone, and on the eastern edge we stopped at a small memorial to the 1996 flood, where they had on display some of the twisted metal girders that were a bridge.

The NĂşpsstaĂ°ur farm is on the western edge of the sandur, and is set into a cliff side. The small turf roofed church on the farm, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is mentioned in church records as early as 1200. It was restored in 1657 and again in the 1970s by the National Museum, and is one of the last turf churches in Iceland that remains in general use. This farm was also home in the early 1900s to a postman and farmer who was said to be the only person able to cross the sandur in all conditions. Before they built the Ring Road, people would often detour to walk over the glacier, as the sandur is full of quicksand and other traps that claimed many lives. The postman’s 97 year old son still lives at NĂşpsstaĂ°ur, and when we stopped by he was just o his way to the little turf church to scrub the floors!!!

On Sunday morning we packed up our stuff and loaded up the bus. We went to two more waterfalls (there sure are a lot of them), and visited the history museum at SkĂłgasafn. We drove by Katla, an active volcano that is expected to erupt any time. There is a funny legend about Katla involving a nun and some magic pants, but I’ll save that for another time. Our bus driver had reported that we were in the area, and if Katla had started rumbling we would have been given a 30 minute warning to get the hell outta there! Now we’re back at Ingunn’s apartment in Reykjavik, and we had a very quiet day today seeing as we were all tired and sore from all the excitement over the weekend. And now I must return to Buffy.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Iceland, Pt. 1

Recap of Iceland so far....

We flew into Keflavik on Saturday the 29th, arriving at 6:30 am. We took a flight that left Minneapolis in the early evening on Friday, and since we were travelling east it "took" all night. Ingunn's dad Hallgrimur met us at the airport with her uncle Stefan to pick us up and take us into Reykjavik. The international airport is 40 km outside Reykjavik in Keflavik, where the US Army base is. They built the army base as a strategic North Atlantic position during WW II, and the US is only pulling out of Iceland now, as they are having to divert their resources towards the Middle East (ie Iraq). They built a base in Iceland because before the jet plane days, they had to stop and refuel in Iceland to make it to Europe. Also, during the Second World War, North America saw Iceland as the last European blockade before Hitler would expand to America - so it was an important asset to protect. So when Icelandair, the national and only airline with landing rights in Iceland, decided to build and international airport, they built it in Keflavik so they could just piggy-back on the runways the army base had already built. The Keflavik airport only does international flights, and Icelandair also has a domestic airport in Reykjavik on the Nes peninsula near the University, that services all of Iceland.

When we flew in Hallgrimur and Stefan took us over to Stefan's house, where his wife had a huge, delicious breakfast waiting for us. And this is when I had my first tast of Skyr, elixer of the gods. It's this yoghurt-like staple of Iceland made from skim milk. Traditionally they left the milk to ferment in a pig's bladder, and there was an enzyme in the bladder that turned the milk into Skyr. They have now of course identified the enzyme, and there are two companies that produce Skyr commercially. And like yoghurt they also make it in many different flavours. But the best way to eat it in my opinion is plain Skyr, with blueberries and a little Ryómi (cream). After breakfast at Stefan's, they took us to our temporary digs that we stayed at until Ingunn's apartment was ready. Michelle and I ended up in an apartment-style University of Iceland residence on Eggertsgata, while Catherine and Ingunn stayed in the guest room of Hallgrimur and Gudrun's friends Hans and Sölvig on Reynemelur. We tried rehearsing but we were too exhausted, so we crashed very early.

On Sunday we got up bright and early for church, because in order to get the church we were playing our concert in for free, we had to play at a service. So we headed over to Neskirka (Nes church) for service. Then we had some major rehearsing to do, as our concert was on Monday night. So we rehearsed our booties off, and played our concert. It went well, and a reviewer from the paper came. We are still eagerly anticipating the review, as it hasn't been published yet. As well, Icelandic Public Radio recorded our concert, I'm not quite sure why. Then on Tuesday there was more rehearsing to be done, and we said goodbye to Eggertsgata and Reynemelur, and moved into Ingunn's apartment on BĂłgahlid. It's a very nice, big apartment in a three story walk-up. She's close to downtown, and the University, so it's a very nice location.

On Wednesday we got up for our 9 am recording session at Neskirka, recording the Kansas Quartet by Thordur Swinburne for Icelandic Public Radio. It took about 2 hours to record a 20 minute piece, but I think it will turn out OK. Then we went swimming and after that to a big dinner at Hans and Sölvig's. Ingunn's brothers had both flown in that day or the day before - Gunnar with his wife Adrienne, and Benedikt with his wife Lee, daughter Elizabeth, and Lee's parents. Benedikt had gone fishing that afternoon with Stefan, and so we ate the huge catch he brought in - about 8 large cod. If was a fun night, but long and exhausting. Made even more exhausting by the fact that we got up at 6:45 this morning to go swimming.

The pools in Iceland are so cool! They're warm, and either very lightly or not chlorinated at all. They get the water from natural underground springs and every public pool also has 3 hot tubs (hot, hotter, and ow! burning!), and a sauna. In order to not heavily chlorinate, they have very strict rules about showering, with signs in the showers showing you where you have to wash before going in the pool. So we've been going swimming alot, because it's so nice, and even when it's chilly out, the pool is still around 20 degrees.

After swimming we walked back to downtown and met up with people (mostly Ingunn's family) for a noon hour organ recital at Hallgrimskirka. It's this huge church in downtown Reykjavik that was partly designed by Ingunn's grandfather. It's a good orientation landmark because it's about five stories taller than any of the other buildings around it. You can see Hallgrimskirka from anywhere in town, so if you're looking for downtown, you just follow the church! It also has a famous, super good organ, so there's always an organ recital going on. After the recital, the entire family (plus us) headed to the 66 North outlet store to pick up discount fleeces. And now we're just relaxing at Ingunn's apartment, in our new comfy fleeces, before we leave for our trip to the south tomorrow.

So that's all from Iceland for now. It's kinda cold and rainy, and hopefully our entire weekend in the South won't be this bad. It's kind of hard to hike in torrential rain!

Friday, July 28, 2006

I'm Goin' To Iceland

Well, the day has arrived. My car comes in an hour to take me to the airport, and I'm meeting up with the girls in Minneapolis to catch our flight to Keflavik. Woot! I'm so tired and hungry, it's really just unbelievable.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

MONEY!!!!

Well, the tour is going well. We currently have $2100 in the quartet bank account, with another $500 confirmed, and more coming in from our Regina concert tonight. And I got some exciting money news for me - UBC gave me full scholarship plus more! I'm very excited, because I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to afford it..... When I was accepted by the Faculty of Music, they gave me a $1000 scholarship. And when I was origionally accepted by the school they gave me a $500 scholarship. I applied for more, not thinking I'd really get anything, and yesterday my letter came in the mail saying I had been awarded the $5000 Chancellor's Scholarship, and the $2000 President's Scholarship. And my tuition is only about $5100, so they're just going to cut me a cheque for the rest. Yay! I'm thinking of investing in a laptop, because to keep my scholarships I have to keep a pretty high average, and so I think it might be beneficial for my work to have one. But I'll deal with that when it comes. Maybe I should pay off some of my debt too...... Tomorrow we head back to Calgary, and on Friday it's off to Iceland!

Sunday, July 23, 2006

HOT!

Wow, it's hot in Calgary today. It's 11:15 pm and I'm sweating like a pig. Disgusting. Anyways, our tour has basically officially started. We kicked off with a concert at Ingunn's parent's house in Calgary on thursday night, where people were extremely generous and we came away with $815 CND, plus $20 US (we have a stop-over in Minneapolis). We played a concert this afternoon in Sundre AB at the Mountainview Festival's new unfinished concert hall - when it's finished it's going to be pretty sweet. Tomorrow we play at the opening ceremonies of a museum in Markerville, then are on the road for Toon-town. We'll probably get in pretty late, seeing as how I don't think we'll be leaving Markerville before about 4 pm, and it's an approx. 8 hour drive. Yee-haw. And sadly, we have to listen to Ingunn's CD selection, which is odd. I guess she's just older than me though, because alot of her CDs are sort of before my time a little - like by a couple of years, but it's mostly stuff I could care less about, like REM. All their songs sound the same, but in a more depressing way than the way all Britney songs sound the same. But I'm sure we'll survive somehow. Our pieces are going okay, but our intonation is still a little off, due to a number of factors. The biggest being that with the extreme heat, and even high humidity (for the prairies), and the change in humidity for Catherine and Michelle who came directly from humid places (Toronto and California), our instruments don't really stay in tune for the time it takes us to play a whole piece. It's actually super annoying to have to re-tune every couple of minutes. Gah! And it doesn't help that all our locations are churches, not climate-controlled concert halls (which the instruments would react to better). Throughout our concerts the hot locations invariably get hotter, forcing our instruments more and more out of tune. But I'm sure we'll live somehow. Iceland will be nice and cool - I think somewhere around 15 degrees?

Monday, July 17, 2006

Cowtown

I know it's been a while, I'm sorry. My whole stay in Saskatoon was entirely uneventful, except for that I got sick a lot. I got heat stroke one day, and it was not pretty. And then towards the end of my stay I got this really bad fever, and I just thought that I had whatever bug was going around. So I hopped on a bus to Calgary last Friday, and spent 8 1/2 hours popping Tylenol to keep my fever down. The day after I got to Ingunn's, my face and neck swelled up and I got a full body rash. It was very painful, and I also had a dangerously high fever. Turns out I was having an allergic reaction to these antibiotics my doctor had put me on. It was unpleasant, but at least when the doctor asks if I'm allergic to any medicine, I have an answer other than, "I don't think so..." So we've been holed up and rehearsing, but we have to venture out to Canmore today because Catherine's soundpost is fucked up, and Ingunn has an open seam. So we are taking their instruments into Wilder and Davis to get fixed - it's hard to rehearse when nobody can play their instruments. So we have to go do that now.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Daddeeeeeeee

Well, it's been a while since I updated. Mostly because since I've been in Saskatoon I've been sitting around watching movies. The weather has been crap-tastic, overcast and rainy, for almost two weeks. I'm supposed to be doing yard work for my Aunt Margaret, but not much chance of that in this weather. I worked for three days this week at Lorne Calvert's MLA office filling in for the woman who normally works there. I got to deal with lots of annoying people who didn't understand that the provincial and federal governments are different things. Argh. And also people who want you to do things for them, and have you to magically have all the answers for them right then on the phone. So then after they abuse you, and you look into it and find out the answers, they don't say thank you because they're jerks. But it was an interesting learning experience - and I did get to meet most of the Saskatoon MLAs. They all know Cayley because of his position in Regina, and then they started waxing poetic about what a nice young man he is. Right. I could enlighten them on a few things. Anyways, I basically am going to be sitting around for the next week or two till I go to Calgary to rehearse with the quartet, so I most likely won't be updating.

Happy Father's Day!

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Back in Black

Well, I'm back in Saskatoon. The recital was Thursday night, and it went good, and then I came back on the bus yesterday. This morning my mom woke me up at 10 and told me that I had to not only pick up my brother Cayley at the bus station at 11, but that he was taking me to the neighbourhood cleanup. So I picked him up, and headed into the 'hood. It's an initiative by the NDP constituency office, because Premier Calvert is our MLA. They told all the home owners, landlords, and tenants that any crap they wanted hauled away (tree branches, old appliances, etc.) to just put them in the alley and we'd come and haul them away. I met Premier Calvert, and Yvonne who I'll be working for at the office in a couple of weeks. However, we really only made an appearance because the whole reason Cayley's in town this week is he has to go to a wedding with his girlfriend Carly. Some friends of hers from the U of S are getting married, and he was her arm candy. Only, he had no idea what time the wedding was. So at about 11:40 he got a call from Carly on his cell saying her hair appointment just finished, and the wedding was at 1, so he had to pick her up from the Midtown Plaza. So we went and picked up Carly, and I dropped them off at her pad, and I returned home. I've just been bumming around this afternoon, unpacking all my boxes so I can organize what I need to take to Vancouver and what I can leave here. Tonight we're going to a Prairie Virtuosi concert - they're a chamber orchestra I used to play in, and they agreed to put inserts for our quartet concert in their programs. Sweet.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

OK Fine

So, I take it back. They're not that wierd - they're actually really nice. If a little overly religious, but of course they must find my complete lack of religiousness a little strange also. I had to go and buy a crappy Dan Brown paperback to read, because the only books in the house are religious ones. But other than that, it's all good. We're rehearsing this afternoon at somebody's house who has a grand piano, and since they live near West Edmonton Mall, Matthew and I are going to rehearse the Clarke first and then I'm going shopping!!!! After, I'm going to meet up with my Aunt Elaine who's been in Korea for the past five or six years. So, good work.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Wow

Well, I'm in Edmonton now. Markerville to be more exact. I dropped my bow off to be rehaired at a place in Edmonton, they said they'd put a rush on it and I'd have it by Wed night or Thursday morning. I can't say very much because I'm on the communal computer in the living room, but after meeting only Matthew's mother, I'm surprised he's as normal as he is. Seriously. That and they have bible quotes all over their bathroom.

Home again

Home again, home again, jiggity jig. Well, to be more precise, Ingunn's home. But whatever. Domaine was super awesome AGAIN, and I even enjoyed the retardedly long concert yesterday. It lasted 7 1/2 hours - I went on stage at 2pm with the first group, and the last group finished at 9:30. So then we had to party. Like crazy party, with people peeing in the bushes and everything. We ate a late dinner after the concert, and the best part was as I walked into the room where we ate, one of my chamber coachs, Ian Swensen, handed me a beer. Then after we finished eating, my other chamber coach, Anssi Karttunen, invited all the people from his two groups up to his studio where he produced a bottle of Veuve Clicquot. Apparently in the States, teacher aren't allowed to pour liquor down their students throats. Just one more reason to study in Canada. I then proceeded to drink lots, and mix my liquors, which was a very bad idea. As I discovered this morning when I woke up in a room full of stolen pate and cheese, and could not keep anything down for hours. Apparently while very drunk, Carolyn and Catherine thought it would be genius to steal the pate and cheese from the party. But then they just left it sitting out all night. Needless to say, it was very disgusting by the morning.

About a week ago Carolyn told Martin Beaver about Steve leaving all these messages on her phone and how he pronounces my name (Kah-tya). Martin thought this was hilarious and proceeded to call me Kah-tya all the time, and got everyone else to do it also. Then he started singing it, while conducting himself like a choral conductor at the same time. It culminated in the moment when I walked back into the room from drinking champagne in Anssi's room, and the entire camp (all the students and all the faculty) erupted into singing. Singing "Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah-tyaaaaaaaaaaaa". It was pretty awesome, I have to say. I'm thinking of hiring someone to just follow me around all the time singing my name. You should try it.

We set off from Domaine around noonish and got as far as Chez Ginette's, the local greasy spoon at the bottom of the hill. It's a Domaine tradition that you have to eat one last cheeseburger before you leave, but unfortunatly I couldn't stomach more than a few bites of poutine. Happily though, the grease soaked up the rest of the liquor in my stomach, and by Quebec city I was feeling good again. We decided to show Ingunn a bit of Quebec city from the car, as she'd never been there before, but we just ended up getting kind of disoriented and lost and its windy and confusing streets. We finally made it out, and it was clear sailing the rest of the way back to TO. I'm off to Edmonton tomorrow (or rather, later today) - watch out, it should be hilarious. Check my Flickr site for more photo goodness from Domaine.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Flickr

I made a page on Flickr for all of my photos. Check it out. http://www.flickr.com/photos/39938743@N00/
I don`t have much time, as we`re in the middle of the big chamber music marathon. The concert started at 2 pm, and will probably go till about 10 - there`s 12 groups all playing full works. Yeehaw.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

It`s Alive!

Well, now here I am at Domaine. I`m in the middle of nowhere, where no one speaks English. It`s totally awesome. It`s wierd though, being disconnected from the world. The internet was down for the whole day here yesterday because it was super stormy, and everybody was really antsy. It wasn`t that we had to really DO anything, but it`s our only connection to the outside world. Just the fact that we couldn`t check our email or read the news was unsettling. It`s been disgusting and rainy ever since we got here on Wednesday, and the sun only came out this afternoon. Praise be. Now I have to go to Chez Ginette`s for a cheeseburger, because both lunch and supper were completely inedible and I haven`t eaten since breakfast........

I aplogize for my wierd apostraphes - it`s a French keyboard, and I have no idea where anything is on it.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

It's Art I Swear


So............they just put up a trailer on Apple for the new movie 300 based on a Frank Miller thing about some sort of Greek war or something. I think that it is going to be a cinematic gem to be passed down through the ages, mostly because it seems as though the entire movie is greased up men wearing nothing but metal underwear. As seen is the hot hot hot picture of Gerard Bulter in his metal underwear. I'm thinking that I may just have to see this movie over, and over, and over, and over again. Because I care about art. I swear.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

End of an Era





Well, I shipped the last of my boxes today. The Zapfs/Tom have offered to take my furniture off my hands, and so I'm basically moved out. It's so sad! When I cleared all my stuff out of our apartment today, it looked so bare! It's a naked and sad apartment.
When I was driving my stuff down to the Greyhound depot, there was this really wierd low-lying smog over downtown, so I had to take a picture of it. Because what good is a camera phone if you can't take random pictures of smog!

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Mostly sleeping

Well, I've been doing a whole lot of nothing lately. We played a gig for the Department of Training, Colleges, and Universities on Thursday night, and then since then I've mostly been sleeping, hanging out, rehearsing, and packing. I scored a bunch of wine boxes from the LCBO, and so far I've packed all my cds, dvds, books, and music. All that's really left is my assorted misc. posessions, clothes (which I still need to use), bedding (which I also still need), and computer (which I'm using right now). I do have this whole plan for how I'm going to pack everything when the time comes. I just really wish I had a laptop, because I don't know how I'm going to survive without my computer. It's my best friend. Well OK, second best after my iPod.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Mmmm...Sunny

Well, it's been an exciting couple of days. We flew in on Monday, and seeing as how it was Catherine's 21st birthday we decided to do something exciting, like a BBQ. So I made home-made burgers and we ate at a picnic table in Michelle's back yard. Then we went and picked Ingunn up from the airport (she was on a later flight, it's a long story), and sat down and wrote our grant proposal for the school, and all the thank you notes to people that we've been putting off. Then we went to bed. Party animals, I know. On Tuesday I got up at about 10:30, and puttered around the house until about 11:45, when I left for school. I ran through the Clarke with Matthew in the concert hall from 12:30-1, then I bummed around at school, and then went on a chase for new headphones. I then hung out at Ingunn's until my Mozart trio rehearsal at 5. This clarinettist at school asked me to play the Mozart Kegelstadtt trio in his recital, and he was so desperate I couldn't say no. Anyways, it's not too hard, although there's this one chord that has a b natural instead of a b flat, and it keeps messing with my head! But I digress. After the Mozart rehearsal I headed home, and picked up a box at the LCBO on my way home. They only had one, but they said they'd have more later in the week. So I sat up until 12 pseudo-cleaning my apartment, and I packed up all my dvds and books. Almost. I have a lot of crap.

Today I got up at 10:30 and puttered around the house until 12 when I went to school and practiced before my rehearsal with Matthew at 2. After that I went to the Starbucks on Yorkville Ave, right smack dab in the middle of trendy Yorkville, and I sat outside on their 'patio' with my venti green tea and people watched until my gig at the Four Seasons at 4:30. It was one of the most annoying gigs ever, for Manulife Financial's Board of Directors dinner. It's one of those gigs where no one pays the slightest bit of attention to you, you can't hear the other people in the quartet, and then to top it all off they gypped us and paid us each $75 less then they said they would. I was so angry, I stole Diet Coke (it was the only thing convenient enough to take. The desserts would have just made my purse a mess). Anyways, it was arranged through our assistant dean at school, so we're going to see if he can rectify the situation for us. The moral is though, don't trust Manulife Financial. They can't count.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Sleep Now

Well, I'm back from Manitoba. It was pretty good, if a little cold and rainy. We flew in on Friday morning, and we had enough time to get to Ruben's house where we were staying, and eat something, and look over the Communist songs before we headed off to the mini-reunion at the Fort Garry Hotel. We played a montage of Communist songs while they played a retrospective video, and then we ate. We went back to Ruben's place and folded down the sofa bed, and blew up the air mattress, and crashed for the night. On Saturday we got up and I made Catherine and Ingunn go running with me - we left Michelle behind to make breakfast. We went down by the river, but the problem with Winnipeg is that the riverfront is mostly private property, so they don't have nice trails like there are in Saskatoon. They did it wrong. Then we went back to Ruben's and had breakfast. After that Michelle's parents took off for a tour of the printing press, while we stayed behind to rehearse. Then we got all dolled up, and went off to the big May Day banquet. It was good times, we danced the night away until about 10:30, then we went back to our uncomfortable beds and slept.

Sunday was our very exciting trip to Gimli. Our ride picked us up at 10:30 and drove us to Gimli and dropped us off at the hall we were playing in so we could rehearse. We warmed up, and had some coffee and scones at the tea room downstairs, then we played our concert at 2. There was about 40 people there, and they loved us. And I love people who love me, so I had a good time. Afterwards, the woman who drove us out there wanted to take us out to eat in Gimli, but first showed us the sights. This consisted of a giant cartoonish statue of a Viking, and driving us through all the residential streets and talking about who might live there. "I think Hallgrim lived there." "No, they moved two years ago and sold it to Gudrun and, the Bjarnssons moved down the road." "I thought they lived over on the next street." "No, that's the Gunnarssons." And etc. I gotta tell you, it was gripping. Then we finally arrived at the fish and chip place where they wanted to take us, and it was closed. So we ended up at some random place down the road. But hey, who doesn't love free food! Then we got back to Ruben's at about 7:30 and decided we should get some food because we had cleaned Ruben out. There were three grocery stores within walking distance of his house, but being a Sunday night in Winnipeg, they were closed. So we ended up at 7-11 where we went for the healthy choice of Slurpees and candy. We then went back to Ruben's and set up shop on the couch. We watched Grey's Anatomy, then Forrest Gump on TBS. By the time it ended at 1 am, we were all exhausted and crashing from the sugar, so we sat there for the last 20 minutes of it and cried. Forrest's so sweet!!! And then Jenny died!!!

We got up this morning and packed up our stuff, and flew back to Toronto. We had some excitement boarding the plane, as they absolutely could not let me on with my ginormous instrument. I am so pissed off at Air Canada, and am considering never flying them again. I fly quite a bit, and I've only ever had problems flying Air Canada - I've not just been hassled, but had to deal with openly hostile attendants who belittle me and act like I'm a stupid little girl who has no idea about anything. On Westjet, they're nothing but nice, and even let me pre-board with my instrument. Our union has a deal with all the carriers that violins (and violas) are allowable carry-on even though they're longer than the dimensions allowed, but nobody at Air Canada ever seems to know this, and they all act like it's giant travesty and that I am the stupidest person alive. I hate them, and I hope they all burn.

So now I'm bitter and back in Toronto.

Friday, April 28, 2006

The Peg

Well, we had our marathon o' concerts day yesterday, with our quartet playing at the Shoe Museum at 5:30-6:30, and then rushing down to the brand spanking new opera house for a concert with the COC. It was super fun, and all I can say about the new hall is wow. wowee wow wow wow. It is the most amazing hall! Even playing in the pit, the sound is amazing. They're doing a series of concert this week to test out the acoustics, and experimenting with putting the pit at different levels, and having different amounts of audience in the hall. It's a pretty cool thing really, through our rehearsals and even in the concert there was acoustics people throughout the hall and even in the pit who had microphones attached to their glasses right besides their ears, so it would record what their ears heard. They asked us to play this concert so they could test out the hall with a gigantor Mahler sized orchestra. Oh, and the orchestra pit in that hall is so roomy!!! They made it extra big, with is extra nice, because often when they cram you in the pit it does a number on both your playing and your body, because you have to sit awkwardly to find room to bow. But this was so roomy! Even with a ton of us in it! After Richard Bradshaw invited us all over to a jazz bar down the street - The Rex (you came there Graeme, when you were in town). And then he bought us all free beer. I only had a couple glasses, then at 10:30 I went home like a loser. But also because it had been a crazy and slightly stressful week, and I had to pack for our flight to Winnipeg this morning. Tom will be here shortly to pick us up - mostly because I don't trust Catherine on the subway because she didn't come home until about 7am, and while packing she keeps running off the the bathroom to puke. Not the best conditions for riding the subway to Etobicoke.

We fly to Winnipeg at about 12, then we have a little soiree tonight we have to play at, then tomorrow night we're playing at the big International Workers Day banquet, then on Sunday we're going to Gimli to play a concert there to raise money for our Icelandic trip. It's the largest settlement of Icelanders outside of Iceland I think - it's kind of like those Mennonite communities but more integrated into society. They all speak Icelandic, and keep Icelandic traditions alive, even if they and their parents were all born in Canada. We're off to see the Communists, the wonderful Communists of Winnipeg.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

It's The Pleasure Principle


I'm taking a break right now from odious school work. I've already written my paper for Canadian Rep, and prepared my presentation, but I still have to finish my masterclass journal and masterclass essay. It's the most odious thing ever. What teachers did you like and why? Blah de blah de blah. I've been working all day and it's odious. You know what a fun word is? Odious.

I've had this newspaper article in my wallet since Vancouver that I meant to post up here, because it's really funny. "Dutch busker squacks after saxaphone seized. The Hague. Dutch police have confiscated the saxophone of a busker who played so badly that his audience complained. The 43-year-old used to perform at the railway station at Leiden in the west of the country to the dismay of passengers, who found his instrument an ill wind." Man, I wish that cops did that more. Sometime you hear buskers on the street, and you're just like, 'oh, dude, that's disgusting.' At the market when we play at the spot inside, the people who work around there thank us because otherwise they're forced to listen to this really bad guy sing with a guitar all day.

Now I'll leave you with a rejected greeting card idea. "Spread some holiday cheer. (Inside) Or drink alone. Who am I to judge?"

Monday, April 24, 2006

I'm In

So it's official, I got accepted to UBC, and they gave me $1000. Vancouver, here I come.

Test this

Well, it's over. And it was thouroughly depressing. I mean, why would you ever need to know who invented the piano, or whether Phillipe de Vitry wrote Ars Nova or Musiche Gestutche. And my essays comparing theBaroque to the Classical and the Classical to the Romantic were just bad. Between the Baroque and the Classical, people wrote stuff. There were these guys, and they were really bored because their TV was broken, so they just wrote a new cantata every week. I wish that's what I could've said, but no. I had to be all analytical and shit. There was increased dissonance and chromaticism, with more idiomatic compositions and sacred music being written in the vernacular. Cause they were bored.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Cheese With That

I just want to go to bed now!!!! But I'm only up to the Baroque. I still have Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th Century left to study!!! I wasted the whole day at school for this stupid-ass chamber concert that went on forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111111111111111111

Saturday, April 22, 2006

The Stretch

Well, I'm in the final stretch. I'm almost done. I have a chamber music concert tomorrow afternoon, and then mad studying for my history final on Monday, then I have to write a paper and make a presentation for my Canadian repertoire class on Wednesday, and then I'm done with school!!!! At least the school part of school - I still have lots of playing, but as of Wednesday at noon, I'll be done all my classes and assignments. Boo-yah. I'm excited but also apprehensive about moving across the country. I hate moving, mostly because I'm a clutterbug and have a ton of stuff, all of which is VERY IMPORTANT. How could I possibly go without my collection of moisturizers. I have the soy extract, radiance, renewal, collagen, almond, vitamin C, healthy defense, and deep comfort. And I need them all! So you can see my problem - I have too much crap. Of course, it will probably be good for me to go through it all and get rid of random stuff I've had for four years and never used. Although, as soon as I throw it out, I might need it. You never know. Last month I was feeling all maniacal in the middle of the night and I sorted through all my books and packed a box of books. It's been sitting in the middle of the floor since then....... My efficiency amazes me.

Friday, April 21, 2006

Yawn



You know, it always seems like such a good idea. Have a party at the end of the school year to say goodbye to everyone! I'll get all dolled up and go to the bar on a weeknight, but I won't drink much. Oh no, because I want to accomplish things tomorrow. Well, I think we all know what happened. I woke up this morning and my feet hurt, my eyes were gummed shut, I was really dehydrated, and I really really had to go to the bathroom. And it is now 2:58 pm and what have I done? I went to Starbucks and got coffee, then I came home and watched an entire season of Two Guys and a Girl. I can't stop!!!! It's not even that I'm hung over - I'm just so tired!!!! I walked home from the corner of Bathurst and St. Clair at 1:30 am in my bare feet! And I don't want to leave my apartment because it's cold out. And there are wolves after me.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

I Quit


So, I cancelled my recital. It was for a lot of reasons, the biggest being that I have a quartet gig on the same night at the same time. That's kind of a conflict. Also, I'm just really freaking busy finishing up school stuff, and with quartet stuff. We're going to Winnipeg for 3 days the weekend before, and we have a concert every day we're there. It's going to be crazy. So I cancelled it, and now I am zen.

I had my art history final yesterday, and I think it went pretty well. There was only one painting I hadn't studied, but I remembered what he had talked about with it, and I guessed the name and date and actually got it right. It was Vermeer, and the names for his paintings are usually pretty self-explanitory, so I put "Street In Delft". The title he had in our outline was "Little Street In Delft", but he'll accept what I put. And then for the date, all the paintings by Vermeer we looked at were from around 1600, so I just put that. And I was right. I rule.

Like the photo? It's my quartet and our Performance Manager from school at the bar in Stratford. I just thought it was a hilarious picture. The most hilarious ones are the ones you take at the bar.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Nathan Fillion


So, Michelle and I decided we should start one of those Gawker map websites where people write in real-time sightings fo stars, except just for Nathan Fillion. He's super hot, and who doesn't want to know where he is at all times?!!! We're all obsessed with that really bad TV series Two Guys and a Girl (and a Pizza Place) that both Ryan Reynolds and Nathan Fillion were on. I downloaded all four seasons, and have burned dvds for both Michelle and Ingunn. In fact, Michelle called me at 9:15 tonight, very distraught and saying she couldn't study for our Art History exam we have tomorrow morning because she couldn't stop watching Two Guys and a Girl!!!! I had to calm her down and point out that if she absolutly could not stop watching, she could always watch while she studied. It's only cause they're so hot and funny.

So, anybody seen Nathan lately?

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Van

Well, I'm back from Vancouver and I guess I'll give you a run-down of what happened. I flew in on Monday morning, and with the time difference I flew out of Toronto at 7:30 am and got there at 9:30 am. So I wanted to get sort of switched over to the time difference so I went out and wandered around downtown Vancouver for a while, and ended up going to see that new movie She's The Man. It was kinda funny. Then I went back to the place I was staying and crashed at about 8 pm. I got up on Tuesday morning and tooled around for a bit, and practiced, then I headed out to UBC for a lesson with David Harding. I left myself alot of time because I wanted to time how long it took me for my audition the next day. So anyways I went, and I had a good lesson, and he seemed to like me and all. So then I went home again, and watched Gilmore Girls and Pepper Dennis on the WB and then went to bed. I got up at 7 on Wed to prepare for my audition. I packed up my stuff and took my suitcase with me to UBC, and I had my audition at 10:40, and then I had an ear-training test at 12:45 (which I aced), and a theory test at 1:30 (which I also aced). Then I grabbed all my stuff and headed out the ferry terminal at Tswaassen to catch the ferry to Nanaimo. I got there at 8:30, and my grandma met me there and took me back to her condo.
On Thursday I tooled around Nanaimo with my grandma, then at 4:30 my cousin Gayle's husband Robert picked us up and drove us up to my Cousin Bob and his wife Amanda's place in Comox. They have a 4 year old, Nathan, and a 7 month old, Emma. Nathan was so excited to see visitors, and was running all over the place, and insisted on showing me all of his video games and dvds. We had supper there, and I crashed not soon after Nathan went to bed. On Friday morning we had breakfast, and then my cousin Bruce and his wife Ramona and their kids (7 year old David and 4 year old Joseph) took the ferry over from Vancouver and came for lunch. Joseph is so cute - he was completely enamoured with Emma, and kept hugging her and patting her. Bruce said he really likes babies - he has Down's syndrome, and he's been in the same swimming lesson class for the past three years, so by now it's Joseph and all the babies. After lunch my Uncle Gerry drove my grandma and I up to Campbell River to visit my cousin Gayle and her kids Spencer, 13, and Devon, 7. Bruce and Ramona followed as they would be staying with Gayle and Robert over the Easter weekend. We had a nice little visit, and were back in Comox by 5:30 to pick up my cousin Bob from the airport. He works for a trucking company based out of Calgary, and he's finding it really hard to be away from his family so much. He used to live in California, and owned his own company, but when they had Emma, and Nathan got to school age, he and Amanda decided they'd rather raise their kids in Canada. Especially since they were not only living in the land of Bush, but also Schwarzenegger. Ugh. Anyways, we went back to their house for supper, then after supper we went for a walk with the kids around Comox. It's very pretty there, though rainy..... And my flight was at 6:30 this morning, so Bob got up 5 to drive me to the airport. Anyways, I guess I'll probably be in Vancouver next year!