Tonight, Tonight

In case you're wondering what I've been doing with my ever-precious time, here are a few answers.

I'm in school, or at least registered in classes that I occasionally attend. I dropped one more today. Why do I suck at school?

Working more: I love it, my wallet loves it, but it's turning me into (more of) an alcoholic. I do love my work people though.

I found every episode of Law & Order online. Nerdy? Yes. Essential to my knowledge of the character development of Lennie Briscoe? Absolutely.

I've watched this about 8 times, trying to get the Russian down word-for-word to the English text. I know the first page or so of this book by heart, and I wish I could read Russian to see how it plays in Nabokov's first language. The thing about this dude is that he speaks English as a third language, and he has a vocabulary waaaaay beyond anything I can ever dream of having. (How's that for an awkward sentence? But you get my point.)


Found a tumblr blog randomly, I think from The Superficial, and I'm reading through archives. Kindacarsick, if you're interested. Hipster alert, but in a fairly un-irritating way.

I'm thinking about going to New York for Christmas instead of back out East. I figure I'm only there for a few days, I'll see a few people and stress out about the people who I don't have time/the schedule to see, and it's hella expensive... then again, Manhattan on Christmas day will probably be quiet and boring. Maybe good for wandering around and taking pretty pretty quiet(ish) New York pictures though. Any input is appreciated.

Welcome Back, Kotter!

Okay. It’s been a while. Backing up, I went to New York and had an amazing time. We walked for days, met some (ahem) interesting people, ate some great food, and saw some really fucking cool shit. (Taco Bell and late night drunken McDonalds aside, of course.) One thing I’d never done before was the NBC studio tour; it was a lot more historical than I thought it would be, but super neat. We saw Brian Williams’ set (!!! See above photo, of course) and checked out the SNL studio, took a ton of cheesy pictures, and accidentally flirted with tour guides. (Sort of accidentally.) This was also when I decided I am officially too old to be doing shots. At 22, I’m hitting that “I’m too old for this shit” Murtaugh stage. Sad? Maybe. But don’t worry; I’m not quite ready to be a responsible grownup yet. A pleasant mid-20s limbo will suit me just fine for the next few years.
Last week – wait, 2 weeks ago – I went out East. It was great to see a bunch of people, but I didn’t get to see everyone I would have liked and even those I did get to see felt a little rushed. Some of my closest friends were unavailable during the only times I could see them (people I know who have kids in Halifax, when I was only free in the evenings because of family and work stuff; people in Moncton who were working nonstop), which sucked. It was bad timing for me to be down there, but family reasons made it the only time I could go and not get yelled at by my mother. Very few people have met her, and those who have are generally unnerved and/or a little scared of her. This afternoon I had a scary dream about her, actually. So I know that the rules dictate I do not cross her. She was already ticked that I wasn’t staying in Chester with her for more than a day, I wasn’t going to risk anymore of that animosity by changing the dates I was coming down to not coincide with her vacation. Like anyone who knows the feeling of having to visit home, it was alternatively stressful, frustrating, pleasant, boring, and filled with days of trying to hide every bad habit I have. I was glad to get home.

Chester, last summer. Pretty. Too quiet.

For the past 6 months or so I’ve been borrowing (yeah, borrowing) internet from my upstairs neighbor. She doesn’t know well enough to lock her network, what does she expect, right? Problem is, now she’s moved to the Bahamas to marry some old friend of hers and work for a windsurfing company or something, and now I need to make a decision about my internet. While this may seem like a simple thing to deal with, I’m completely wrapped up in it. I could get digital cable with a PVR receiver that lets me record shows that I’m out for, and watch them whenever I want. Think of all the Law and Order and Simpsons episodes I can’t download that would become available to me! I’m not a big TV person, in the watching-it-for-lack-of-something-better-to-do sense, but at the same time it’s something I can see being a really fucking enjoyable luxury. Also would decrease the need for me to have super high bandwidth and a large download allowance. I can get this package for roughly the same that I was paying before for basic cable and internet that didn’t even work well with my router, so it’s pretty tempting. On the other hand, I can just get a really high speed connection for probably less money and use that to download whatever I want to watch, which is what I’ve been doing for the past few years anyway. But then there’s news programming, and hockey games, and shows that are un-downloadable. Then there are a bunch of contracts that are involved in all these deals, which is even more confusing. Yeah, this is probably only interesting to me, but if anyone’s got insight I would love to hear about it. I want to make this decision as quickly as possible, because going to the café down the street for hours at a time is starting to get old.
I registered for some classes today. I basically went through and quickly registered for anything that looked interesting that had availability. My registration days opened up back in April, but I couldn’t finish paying off my tuition from last semester until the end of July so I couldn’t go for anything. I know I really need to get a bunch of prerequisites out of the way, but I also want to really think about if I should switch my degree from English and history to just history. Today I downloaded the requirements, I think I remember what credits I have, and I’ll see what I can do in the least amount of time. As it is, I think I might have some interesting classes if I can stick with some of the current choices. Maybe a shitty schedule, but whatever. I’m also thinking of getting more work – I know that part of the reason I completely lost interest last semester is that I just wasn’t busy enough. I’m used to working part/full-time, going to school full time, and keeping myself busy; when I don’t, I get totally lethargic (and stop using words like lethargic, opting for 2 syllables or less). I think the number of semicolons in this show my renewed enthusiasm in being productive and not as brain dead. I hope it works.
Ooh. Back to TV, it’s Mad Men day! Season 3 starts tonight. Tomorrow morning I’ll be at the Concordia library by 8:30 to find a streaming link and watch. If it’s anything like last night, I’ll be passed out by 9:30. PARTY.
(Posting this morning, that is exactly what happened.)

Reee-mix

I'm pretty sure 2/3 of the people who check this were on this trip, but still.

That is Meredith's fancy picture from the Brooklyn Bridge; I had a dead camera and a fear of bridges, so I didn't go up as far as they did. Even though it rained for the first day, we had an amazing time. I drank too much and enjoyed the company of random cowboys, but still had a blast. One of the best birthdays ever.
I leave for Halifax tomorrow morning at 11. I'm trying to get to the airport via the STM for the first time ever, because I totally don't trust it, but since I leave hideously early anyway I figure I'll be okay. I'm leaving my house at 7:40 to get to the airport by (theoretically) 9:04, which leaves an hour for fuck-ups on my end and on the metro/bus' end as well.
I'm totally going to do the 5 favorite places thing, but I think I'm going to wait until I'm on the plane tomorrow. Or in the airport, I hear they're fancy and have electrical outlets these days. For now, I need to get cash to pay my rent and probably do 8 million loads of laundry and dishes so my apartment isn't super depressing at messy when I come home next week. What will help get this party started?

(I don't know, it got in my head earlier and now I can't stop. And this is the only decent video that I can embed, sorry for the shitty quality/random editing of "questionable" language.)

north american scum

I'm leaving for New York tomorrow morning, for my birthday. With some amazing friends. It's going to be wonderful (even the 8 hour bus ride is going to be great), and I'm stoked to drink copious amounts of champagne on Wednesday. I actually have a note on my computer saying "blog post: 5 favorite places in NY" that's been there since October that I never got around to writing...I guess that'll be done when I get home on Thursday. Right now it's time to clean my apartment and pack and give up on the procrastination I've been honing for the past few days.

Keeping up appearances

Tonight, I couldn't sleep. I went to a barbecue this afternoon that got a little crazy, I went home, and had a nap. When I woke up, I could still feel the sticky 30 degree day on me (at writing time, 2:11am, it's still 26...an hour ago it was 29), so I took a shower. As much as I love showers at 11pm, they have the (generally fortunate) side effect of waking me up.
I digress. What I meant to say is hi, how are you, hope the kids are good, and I'm trying to be adventurous with this extra time of mine and changing things up here on this ol' internet web page thing. Patience, friends - hopefully I can get it looking neato soon. Just have to remember how to fuck around with HTML again first.

I'm trying to watch the Sopranos. Obviously it's groundbreaking and brilliant and blah blah blah, but I just can't get into it. Maybe it's because I'm using really old crappy quality .avi files, but this is the second or third time I've tried to watch it and I just get distracted. If anyone loves this show, tell me when I should just give up (I'm on episode 3 now), because I'm going to persevere and try to get through at least 6 episodes before I call it quits. So far it's just been a lot of stuff about ducks. And then someone gets killed. And there's some weird 60s music. That's all I've gotten so far.
I've been looking for a good edition of Trivial Pursuit for a few years now, and a few weeks ago a lovely friend of mine picked up the 80s Master Edition for me at a second-hand store. Since then, I've spent hours just reading the cards. I take a handful on the metro with me and test myself, seeing how many answers I can get. As always, I suck at the sports questions, I'm decent at politics, and I do well in music and news stories. I have noticed that there are a few reliable answers that I can fall back on:
-hockey questions are almost always Wayne Gretzky.
-anything about cars, and the car business, is Lee Iacocca.
-piano or musician questions are, 2/3 times, Liberace.
-anything about scandal? totally Iran-Contra.
There you go. Now you know the secret to me winning at this game for the rest of my life. I love board games. I love playing them, probably because I'm pretty good at it. My Achilles Heel is Risk; I refuse to play ever again. I am TERRIBLE and it is stress city. I've been trying to find a copy of A Question of Scruples for a while as well, but with no luck so far (if anyone ever sees one, plz pick it up and I will totally pay you back!). My best friend and I used to play it all the time growing up, and it always made me giggle. It's not even that great of an exercise in board game prowess, but the hypothetical situations those writers have come up with are hilarious. If you're unfamiliar with the game, it's basically a bunch of cards with "morally questionable" situations on them. Each player has 5 "question" cards (example: "You are walking down the street and a blind man in front of you drops a $5 bill. Do you stop him and give it back?") and 1 answer card with Yes, No, or Depends on it. The cards are read to another player that will hypothetically answer with a yes, no, or depends - you choose the person you're asking based on the answer card (y/n/d) you've got in your hand at that point. For example, if someone who knew me pretty well had that card, they'd ask me if they had a "no" answer card, and they'd ask a nun if they had a "yes" answer card. Get it? It's awesome. I don't know why it slays me so much, but it does, and if you ever get a chance to play I suggest you do it. If you get it for me for my birthday in a couple months, you can even come over and play with me.
This city is getting a lot nicer again. I love Montreal springtimes. Everyone decides that it's time to get outside, which (ignoring the assholes and inconsiderate idiots who don't understand how to walk/drive/bike) is pleasant. This is the 2-month window before it gets unbearably hot, so I'm trying to enjoy it as much as possible. I've got friends coming into town next weekend, then I'm hopefully off to Toronto the next weekend for NXNE. I'm not big on music festivals, but I realized that I've gone up this time of year for the past 3 years and I want to see some of the delightful people I know. It's unlikely that I'll be around again this summer, and this might be the trip I take instead of going back East again. I have many reasons to go back there, but right now I'm just not in the mood to deal with it. Funny how one person can ruin an entire trip, but I don't want to see that happen. Keeping it light and fun is the way to go, and I know that won't happen this time. That means I'm going to have to encourage everyone I like to come up here, but I think it's worth it. Besides, who doesn't want to take a trip to Montreal? That's right. No one.

There..Are...Four...Lights!

I'm in Moncton. I had a sketchy breakfast sandwich that turned out to be kind of delightful, from a crazy-sounding woman at a little sub shop around the corner from my friends' house. No Star Trek movie yet, but hopefully it will happen this weekend.
Let's start off with a little Patrick Stewart, something everyone needs first thing in the morning:

Ahh, that's better. Now, for your daily trekkage, here's a collection of some of the best Star Trek (TOS) t-shirts. EN-JOY.

May the Fourth be with you

That's right. I Star Wars punned the date. But it IS Star Wars day, so you can't really blame me. But guess what? It's also the beginning of what is, unofficially, Star Trek WEEK, so this post is dedicated to the hotness that is Star Trek:TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, and even that sometimes-trainwreck Enterprise. So, if you want to get a little taste of ST madness, read this article from the geniuses at AV Club. It's called "Space-racism is bad: And 17 other not-so-subtle lessons learned from Star Trek." I'm pretty stoked about it. If that's not enough for you, here's a link to yesterday's Cake Wrecks post, featuring awesomely well-crafted Star Trek deliciousness.
WANT.
I'll update with a few more Trekkish favourites over the next few days, until I head to Moncton on Thursday. I'm pretty stoked for that trip, for a variety of reasons, but mostly to have hugs and eat noodles with Kate and CM.

Checkit

These pictures are so fucking cool. Wow.

Oh Oh Oh

Also, I just noticed that the Old 97s are playing in Philadelphia and just outside New York in June. Considering a road trip-type excursion, depending on my work status and possible days off. They're #1 on the list of bands I desperately want to see but haven't yet. If anyone's up for a jaunt, let me know.

I jumped on the twitter bandwagon! I was bored the day I left Montreal for Moncton, and instead of doing something productive I decided to explore a new avenue of social networking websites. For those who are also on there, I recommend this article by Margaret Mason, "14 ways to use Twitter politely." Ahh, The Morning News. You never fail me.
When I was in Moncton, I bought a lottery ticket for the first time in my life. Now I'm sort of addicted to it. Gambling: it's a problem! The person who got me into it is now my enabler. We go and buy $20 of tickets for each 649 draw and agree to split the winnings. I'm doing my babysitting-in-exchange-for-free-laundry tonight, so I'll have nothing to do but check the winning numbers and watch hockey. PARTY! Time to think winning thoughts.

Roll Credits

After almost a week in Moncton, it's time to head on home. I was thinking this morning, and I realized that there are certain events and places I frequent pretty much every time I'm here:
A Motorleague show
The market on Saturday to get noodles and giant coffee
Another random show (this time, the Tireless Sedans)
A strange afterparty
Random bouts of cleaning someone's house/apartment, just because it's fun to play music and clean things, really
Zen Garden (today with Kate and Christine)
Breakfast breakfast breakfast - this time, Jean's twice
Ordering in random (sometimes sketchy) pizza

Delicious! My list for next visit includes the Barnyard BBQ (sorry Kate), Crystal Palace for sweet pirate mini golf, a wedding (my own?) and Big Stop breakfast. Everyone here made this an amazing 6 days (especially since it was supposed to be 3). I spent time with people I don't usually get to hang out with, and got to have lots of time with the people I love. It makes me miss this place and the maritimes a ton, but at the same time I can't wait to get back home. Also, I'm still worried that I left my stove on before I left. SURPRISE!

Vacation, all I ever wanted

So far, it's been filled with overindulgence in every possible way. I've been to 8 shows since I got back East, and 2 more to go before I head home to Montreal. I'm planning on soaking up as much of the Marquee as I can before they tear it down in a couple months.

I got into Moncton on Thursday, the 18th, for a Festivus show. That's right. Festivus. My train was 3 hours late (it was a festivus miracle!), we had a grand ol' drunk time filled with ripped-to-shreds pants and sub-zero temperatures and belting out songs off-key onstage. The Monoxides show the next day was amazing, with guest appearances from a bunch of great people. Finished off a Moncton music hat trick weekend with an acoustic cover night that closed with some mandolin-accompanied Limp Bizkit that went on for about 16 minutes. This was all followed by North of America, King Konqueror, more and more and more New Brunswick rocking out, Christmas, and a great last night at the Marquee with punk covers of some wicked bands done by some incredibly talented musicians. All in all, a great trip back.
I want to go again in February, but I think part of the reason I get so excited and I have so much fun is that there are only a couple times a year I get to party like that.
Much more to say, but it'll come later. Now it's time to get back to reading Supreme Court cases. This was a saved post I wrote about a week and a half ago, and I want to get it up right away (yeah, that's what he said).

Iron Giant Interview

Some other lovely Moncton folks were in town this weekend - the boys in Iron Giant. Love the band, love the company even more. I showed up to the venue and was greeted by the guy who'd interviewed Ryan and Dana a few weeks ago. I couldn't place him at first, until he asked if I wanted to come and hang out in the men's bathroom for the interview since I missed the last one. I politely declined. Here's what I missed out on:

Warning: nudity + obvious grossness. it's in a bathroom stall. you do the math. pretty funny, though.

New York.

18 hours on the bus, hundreds of dollars, very little sleep... and so fucking worth it. Pictures now, stories to follow.

New York - Columbus Day Weekend

Against ME!, Ted Leo, Future of the Left

Chester.

Today I learned how to make homemade phyllo pastry samosas. I'm in Chester, at my mother's house, for the next couple of days. She's decided that it's time for some bonding activities, which so far have been going riding and cooking.
I still can't wait to go back home to Montreal.
I plan on sleeping in as late as possible again tomorrow, and while she and her husband are golfing I'm heading back to the city. More updates soon!

Halifax, Day 3.

I think most people who have lived in Halifax for a while have the same love/hate relationship with the city as I do. It's great to be home, and great to see certain people; it's also so small that you run into everyone you don't want to see as well. I wish I could get one without the other, but I don't think it's going to happen.
The VKNGS/Establishment show on Saturday night was great. Ben was here from Toronto, so we had a nice little reunion. Leah and I rocked my dinosaur earrings for a while. You know, good times.

There's been a bit of family quality time, and a lot of my dad and his wife leaving and assuming I'll watch the kids. That's what's going on right now; I'm watching my brother play MarioKart while they're out getting groceries (it's been over 3 hours, so I'm assuming they've gone to the grocery store in Truro).
I'm going to visit my mom and her husband tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll take a million pictures since I'll have nothing else to do. I started reading The Castle by Kafka - I'll have a report in by the end of the week.
It has rained nonstop since I arrived Friday morning. Here's hoping it clears up, even just for a day.

Lil' Miss Get Around

I wonder if anyone gets that song reference.

It's been almost a month. Poor, neglected blog. Here's a little resuscitation.

[...I just spelled "resuscitation" right on the first try. Point!]

I went to Toronto. Someone on the street tried to convince me to do porn. [I didn't.] I visited Meredith and Josh. I saw a crazy Norwegian band and not much else, thanks to unnecessary bullshit. It was a nice weekend, filled with good food and lovely people. I drove home with Don, Nathan, and Jonah who were recording their new record with Ian Blurton that week. Even though we left Toronto at 3am, it was a lovely drive. I counted 8 dead things on the side of the road (well, I only really started counting once the sun comes up, so I'm sure there were more), and we had breakfast at Café Orange once we got to Montreal.

Since then, it's been a whole lot of nothing. Actually...that's not entirely true. I've got a new career idea, and it's called Avoiding People Who Want To Hang Out With Me. I assure you, I'm fantastic at it. If I could combine that for my love of the internet and bad sitcoms, I think I'd be a very rich girl. I've got a few key targets I'm avoiding, and any number of interchangeable weirdos besides those, so my plate is very full. Everything I do, from running out for groceries to going for a drink must be carefully considered: who could I run into? what are the possible side effects I'll have to put up with if I stay here for a while?
I've discovered something else: I have an incredibly low tolerance for most people these days. My conversation skills are severely lapsed as well, apparently, because I can't seem to keep my end up without resorting to inane classics like "so, where are you from?" Ugh. I hate it. It's probably because of my reliance on a lack of interpersonal contact as of late, and the fact that most of the people I meet these days are horribly uninteresting. And irritating. There, I've come full circle now, and still don't have an answer as to why I'm getting fed up so quickly. I used to be great at all of that conversation-with-strangers crap.

I know there was something I wanted to do on July 6th, and I'm blanking on it now. Shit. July 13th will see me getting an autographed copy of David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed in Flames for my birthday (what? you don't give yourself presents?). I'm trying to decide on a plan for that oft-celebrated day, and I can't quite bring myself to just let it pass by. See, as with most people, I love birthdays. Especially my own. But every year in the past five or so has inevitably ended in disappointment. Last year had heaps of it - from making my own cake to working at 5am (and being sent home at 6, having made about 40 dollars) to having my boyfriend completely forget about it - so I can't help but be a little optimistic that this year will finally see me celebrating properly. Then again, I should just not think about it, but since I have hours on end available to muse about nothing I'm sure I will. I think I'll fill it up with Andrew W.K., The Cure, and booze. Sound good? Yeah, I think so too. Feel free to join me. I'm turning 21, so I might convince a friend to drive down to Plattsburgh for a drink with me.

Because we can.

Oh, by the way, that picture is around 5:30am on the drive home. I just thought a little bit of sunrise might be nice.