Summer Days #1: Hong Kong Part 1

Surprise post! What what!

This is madness i know, but i was just watching the chelsea vs. portsmouth game when i decided that i wanted to post something. So, from the title most of you could probably guess that i'm in Hong Kong rite now!! WOOHOOO! I haven't really been doing much though, just wondering aimlessly wherever i choose lol. Parents are too busy to plan anything, so I just decided to make an adventure outta my free days.

So the things that i have gotten so far: a pair o' bball shoes, 4 uniqlo polos, and 2 uniqlo shirts. I still gotta get the UT shirts from uniqlo though!! gotta find a few that i like.

O today i watched Ip Man 2 and Robin Hood at Elements! Ip Man 2 was so intense! The martial arts in that movie is sooo amazing. Like it's hard to imagine that all the fighting in that movie is done by the actors and hardly any of it is special effects. Just makes me wonder what i've been doing with my life so far, haha. And Robin Hood was pretty good as well. Although I can't really say it was about Robin of the Hood per se lol. Won't spoil anything but yeah....

Well I hope every1 has an amazing summer and i hope to see everyone when i get back!

OOOO b4 i forget look forward to the start of my youtube vlog!!!........possibly...... lol

R.I.P.

Hey! I'm finally back home! The girl with the ruby slippers said it best. There really is no place like home sweet home. It's like taking one giant exhale. I can finally hang up the old thinking cap and give the old noggin a well-deserved rest.

I just wanted to give a grand farewell to the blog because if it's not already dead, it's soon going to be when everyone goes home (Sorry Rach and Melvin!). I'll try to keep checking and updating but I make no promises. Big plans this summer! I'm going to Shanghai in July to take Mandarin. I figured I might as well try to prepare a mode of communication when the US inevitably crumbles, dragging the EU down with it while India tries and fails to fill the vacuum only to be annexed when China takes over the world. Plus, it's a good excuse to go to the Expo! Very exciting!

So now I have a long-awaited date with my huge stack of books. I've been buying books all year and never had a chance to just sit down and devour them all. We need to spend some quality time together or this relationship just isn't going to last.

We need to get together this summer before everyone disappears on their busy summer adventures. Just putting it out there. If you don't like it, just send it right back and we can discuss issues like the housing bubble. No pressure.

o___o

Wow this blog really is dying. It's been a week and absolutely no one has posted anything : O

I thought I would just stop by to mention that. Well nothing is new in my world except that I gonna be starting to learn how to knit soon : DD with my roommate and we are gonna go by yarn soon! I'm excited haha Oh and I will be going to the Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival) at Brooklyn Botanical Garden on May 1st, so that should be exciting as well! I finally get to wear my yukata ^o^

Other than that... school work hasn't really been piling up a lot. It's just that I am super procrastinator so... I'm getting things done last minute, studying for my tests the day before; it's all good!

I shake my fist at those who are done for the year and are on summer break now. rawr

Best day ever!

I was walking along outside my res when something caught my eye. I looked down and there it was: a bright, shiny . . .

Paintball!

Okay, it was not the best day ever. But if I had put "Boring, bland, blah day with some humdrum ho hum on the side," you would have never bothered to continue reading. Sadly, that is how my life is right now.

There is absolutely nothing going on! Everyone is holed up studying from dawn until dusk (well, to be more accurate about the university kid's sleep schedule, from noon until dawn). I wish I had awesome stories to tell like Rach, but I've got zilch.

On the exam update:

1. French oral: terminated
2. Journalism: terminated
3. History: doom still impending
4. French written: boredom still impending
5. Psychology: Scantron joy impending
6. Linguistics: don't make me laugh

Colours are fun. You see how little I have in my life? Font colours on a blog! This is rock bottom, folks.

What is keeping me sane? Six more days until I go home!

HEY! I do have something to write about. I finished How I Met Your Mother (much more quickly than I'm proud to admit) and am in dire need of a new show. If you have suggestions, please share.

Requirements:

• Must humour me (and I'm talking guffawing and hysterical paroxysms of laughter that will make me want to re-enact the scene at the next cocktail party. Shows eliciting pity laughs need not apply.)
• Minimal cliff hangers (I do not want to be stuck in front of my laptop for the next month trying to see what happens next, though I do understand that some level of cliff hanging is required to make a show successful.)
• Minimal thought needed to enjoy the show
• This is the big one: AVAILABLE ON DC++

I started watching Glee and I still don't know if I really like it. There are just too many characters that make me want to claw my eyes out. Then, just as I'm about to stop watching it forever, Sue says something about caning children or the poor wheelchair kid gets pushed off the stage. How they toy with my emotions! The fiends!

Now I'm officially out of any material that may be remotely interesting to you. Here is proof: the next big thing coming up in my life is scouring our room to make it ready for inspection. They sent us a little pamphlet telling us exactly what we have to do and I do not like all those action words they put on there: wipe, vacuum, remove, empty, CLEAN! The horror! Our res has been here since about 1945 and I'm pretty sure not one student in all that time has ever cleaned our room.

As you can see, my life is just exploding with fineness.

sending some luck your way

Hey!

Just wanted to wish everyone luck on their finals! We're almost done first year guys!! :)

Fiinnneeee

Hey!

First blog since like beginning of January lol. I hope ppl r happy now cuz i'm the second guy who blogged! woohoo! every1 jump for joy!

so my exams officially begin tomorrow!

this is basically the schedule starting with tomorrow:

1) Monday
2) Friday
3) Monday
4) Wednesday

5) Thursday

6) Monday

7) Wednesday

and yeah... thats basically when my 7 exams r... DUN DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN. lol that was a bit to dramatic.

k well ditto to melvin except maybe for the horny and intercourse-craving part lol. but yeah i hope to see every1 over the summer break to catch up b4 our sophmore year begins!

See everyone soon!

come on guys!

I decided to take a few minutes out of my life to help the blog too! =] I would hate to see it die.

Okay so it is now 1:17 here and this is my day so far. Woke up, took a shower, and write on blogger.  lol.  I really wish I could wake up earlier, but even with my ___ alarms, I just cant. I need like a bucket of water hanging on top of my bed or an electric shocker or anything that does something more than just make annoying sounds.

I know some of you are in finals mode, so I just wanna say good luck!!! You are almost done!
As for me, I have 8 more weeks of school and then finals so that should take me to mid-June. Hopefully I will get to see some of your horny and intercourse-craving faces during the summer.

most LOL week ever.

This week was just FILLED with laugh-out-loud moments.

I don't even know where to begin...

Two major events happened this week:

1. The oven in my room caught on fire.

2. I experienced my first ever speed dating event.

You can read about those in detail here and here, respectively.

Let's just say, both were filled with epicness and laughter xD

See guys, it's not THAT hard to post a quick update.

i guess i could update

Fiiiine, I'll post if I must. But also I'm in art history. lol.

I'm pretty much done!!! :) I just got 2 presentations to go, but it's not like I'm going to loose crazy amount of sleep over that.

Vertical STudio is in and my spoon is in. And boyyyy was that a disastrous day! I'm done though! I don't really wanna get into it.

Yesturday, I had my first last class and right now I'm in my last art history class. It's finally done!!!! But other then loosing sleep and not eating, nothing is new. So this is going to be short and sweet.

I would love to hear from the dudes of the blog. update please :)

I'm not dead yet!

I thought it was time for me to come to the rescue and resuscitate (wow, it's been a while since I found a word that was difficult to spell. That one really stumped me.) this dead blog of ours. I appreciate Em's and Rach's efforts. The rest of you: FOR SHAME!

As aforementioned (I always wanted to use that word) by Rach, exams have indeed arrived apace. I had my French oral exam yesterday, which was so easy that it was practically a joke. We have to go in pairs so Kitty and I went together. Our French teacher loves us . . . and we hate him. He has a horrible yuk-yuk-yuk! kind of laugh and he asks the same questions over and over again. Aside from actual content questions for the oral, he kept asking us informal, unnecessary questions in the spirit of mild chatting and polite banter. It was incredibly dull. What are we doing this summer? What language do we speak at home? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. At least it was easy.

The real exams start tonight at 7 p.m. Journalism. Last semester, we just had multiple choice for the journalism exam. But this time, our prof decided it would be fun to watch us squirm in the two-hour limit and answer 20 multiple choice questions and two essays. Albeit they're not long essays (only four pages double-spaced), but still. I'd rather not.

Naturally, as my entire future rests on my performance in those two hours, I have been cramming my head full of media history and the prospects for journalists today. And after all that I have learned, I now know that I want to build a time machine, go back in time, and knock out everyone who named the policies that govern the media. Why would anyone want to make three Broadcasting Acts and two Radiotelegraph Acts? These wishy washy people were never happy with the names of their organizations either. They created the Board of Broadcasting Governors and the Canadian Film Development Agency, only to rename them as the CRTC and Telefilm. Lame.

On the up side, my memory seems to be up to snuff. Excellent. I can't wait until this exam is over and I can just empty my brain. Then I'll have a whole week to sit around and collect dust until my next exam.

I'm sure most of you are having the same exam blues as me. Study hard, kids! We're almost done!

For those stuck in the US: I offer you my motivational fist pumps. I'd cherish those if I were you. They don't come by very often. You lucky dogs!

oh boy...

Wow, our blog is practically dead right now since Ve doesn't even have time to update... finals time for her! good luck!

And since basically all of you are done classes now (or will be done): Good luck on your finals! 8D Congratulations! You have completed your first year of university! Now go and enjoy your summer break to the fullest, while melvin and I slave away for these couple of months. Sigh I have two more months... hopefully they'll zoom past. They probably will.

Back to research now... at least about something I'm interested in.

leaving ry

hey

i can't believe school is almost done. i cannnn nott wait!!!!!

Vertical Studio + Spoon= death of me! Actually.

i dont know if interior design is for me, so i'm going to leave school for a bit. There's just soo many things I want to do. I don't know if Interior Design is for me, right now. So I think I'm going to finish this semester off then go back home and figure my life out. I'm not sure if I'm ready for this industry. So yeaaaa.... wanted you guys to hear it from me.

Hope you all are well!!

p.s:: jokes! Happy April 1st! :)

Homestretch

Don't cry, my readership. Veronica's back to write for you!

It's officially the last week of school, to be followed by Easter, and then the dreaded exams. I have neither assignments nor readings, and there is nary a project in sight. You can whine about the unfairness all you want, but at the end of the day, I will be watching How I Met Your Mother while you will be pulling all-nighters and cramming your saturated brains with more information.

Evil cackle. Sometimes I get to win.

Last Weekend: Emily came to visit!

I am fully aware it's a big deal when your friends visit you in the dull city of Ottawa so I had all the most cliché, touristy things planned for Em.

1. Visit the Hill. That's probably the biggest selling point. Think about it. If Ottawa didn't have the Parliament, there would be absolutely no reason at all to even stop here. We might as well merge it with Kingston or something and start putting up motels and fast-food chains because the only people who stop here would be sleepy drivers on their way from Montreal to Toronto and vice versa.
2. Hit the Byward Market. I had to show Em how normal and folksy it can be with daylight. The last time we went the Byward together, it was about 10 p.m. with a scrawny white man in a dirty wifebeater following us down an empty street. It was time to give Byward a chance to redeem itself.
3. BeaverTails. It's a must. Enough said.
4. Peruse the Rideau Centre. The mall itself isn't anything new. It's the Eaton Centre of Ottawa. Same old stores with same old stuff (plus a store dedicated completely to the Sens) but you have to see it at least once.
5. Walked along the Rideau Canal. If I had it my way, we would have skated. But Em and I are both kind of like babies on ice. And there's that small problem of the ice having melted about two weeks ago.
6. Exploded at the Works. Every time we go there, I eat until it hurts to breathe. The milkshake. The sweet potato strings. The Tower O' Rings. And that delicious thing of beauty known as the burger. It's actually a heart attack. A tasty, tasty heart attack. Why have I been there five times?

We also had Earth Hour while Em was over. Ottawa has this amazing thing called sit-awkwardly-in-the-dark-for-an-hour. It's too bad you missed out.

I hope you all helped save the planet, otherwise your grandchildren better enjoy putting on SPF 5000 every time they want to set foot outdoors.

Other highlights:

• Kitty had grading over the weekend and she got her orange belt with three mon (which are little stripes on the ends of the belt). You only get them if you are supremely awesome and three is pretty much the most you can get. It's nice to have a roommate who can kick some butt. I can save some money on an alarm system.
• I aced my history essay! Props to Tommy Douglas.
• I have a story to write for the Charlatan, assigned to me by a Gr. 11 kid who's acting as guest editor this week. She has no experience whatsoever but hey, I don't make the decisions, I just write the stories.

So it's all good! I can't wait until Easter (and for exams to be over, but I'll start with small goals) and before we know it, first year will be over. Thank goodness. I'm done with first year. It feels like being a Gr. 9 again - just general eye-rolling and disapproving scoffs from everyone.

Onward!

good luck~

Hello everyone! Listening to telephone right now haha.

 So I am back in Irvine again now and a new quarter starts tomorrow!!!  I am really scared that I wont be able to handle the work.  I wont be able to do other stuff like reading veronica's posts, watching shimmy and ign on youtube, reading blogsecret, ichatting, dying in the hot weather, eating oily foods from the caf, enjoying icee's from the cafeteria, watching lady gaga make a secret poison to kill everyone in the restaurant, shopping at target, watching tar, bbt, fringe, kitchen nightmares, and hopefully himym. Oh and going to disneyland. oh and sleep. oh and taking naps. And other random stuff that is of utterly excruciating utmost importance.

Anyways just wanted to wish everyone good luck on the rest of the year! two more months!

batawa? heck no! ottawa!!

lol. sucha cheesy title.

Well I'm off to Ottawa!! I'm finally free enough to trek 4-5 hours to Ottawa. Ve you better appreciate it. Can't wait to see you girl!

I know a few of you are back home too. School is almost over! yay! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

oh em gee!

Hey!

So my all nighters streak may come to an end tonight. I cant' believe I pulled 3 all nighters. I feel like a freaking zombie right now!!!! It might be 4 tonight, but we'll see. I technically do have something due tomorrow, but it's like "touchup" so it's not a big deal. But I should probably work on stuff due next week. But starting Thursday, the best week will start!!!!

Why?!!?!

Because I get to see people!!! I've been stuck in my apartment working!!

Thursday:: Dinner with UT kids! the asian ones :P But I haven't seen Harriet,Nat,Wendall,Bosco in like yearsss!!!!! okay, so I saw Harriet and Nat this year, but not Wendall and Bosco!

Friday-Sunday:: I get to see Veronica+Kitty!! I'm so excited for Ottawa!!! :)

Sometime between Monday-Friday:: I get to see Rach!! :)

School-wise:: Nothing terribly difficult due! :)

Thursday:: Girls night with Rach and Harriet! :) (BTW is Nicole coming?)

Then it's Easter!!! where I can see all your pretty faces :)

Then it's back to to hell. x_x But I'm soo excited to see everyone!!!! I have an hour to kill and I swear I was like "I guess I'll do ______" But a second later I forgot what that ________ was. Sighs. My zombie brain.

So shall I update you on my project? Sure, why not! I have an hour to spare!! I'll do a nice long post like Veronica

Vertical Studio

So our lovely (sarcasm) vertical studio project is gross. It's not as bad now because it's like individual stuff now, but it stilll has to be cohesive with our group's idea. So I personally feel like we're all on different pages, but apparently my other members feel differently. Like honestly we have to wait till our prof rips us apart for us to realize we're not on the same page. Eg. Our presentation for the group portion was so fail. We worked so hard on our research book that we didn't leave time to prep properly for our presentation, so it was kinda thrown together last minute. The slideshow people did the ppt without the script. So like the pictures were really random and stuff. And I didn't have time to care because that week was hell. Vertical Studio due the same as our CAD project. The next day, Art history essay. And we had something else. I feel like it was a spoon thing. So this isn't really my point, my point is.....my prof is like CRAZY HIGH INTENSE expectations. So we have to go all out and then basically go home, redo them and so on till it's due. So we're basically doing our initial stuff like our floor plans like a million times. He never has a nice thing to say. Like his critz are like good ,but he says it in a way where he sounds like he's saying "do it again." Sooo we' all goo crazy on the weekend and straight through to Wednsday. Plus we have to render, although rendering is kinda fun (maybe cause we get high of the markers) and it doesn't take that long. We go into class, do our critz, and leave. The other classes stay for the whole 3 hours and more!!! They actually work in class. It's so weird!!

Next project, Spoon. -_-

Spoon

Death. I fraking hate it. The process book for our prototype is due today, that's why I was up doing my prototypes. And our prof for this course always emails us and is like "i'm expecting (insert a million points) by next class" And she doesn't follow the outline, but marks us by the outline. Gay. sighs. I don't really wanna talk about this. I'm sick of the spoon. I'll post pics later. The packaging I did is the shittiest thing ever. not even joking.

Well this is getting uber long. Sorry for my rant!

Pray that I can sleep tonight!

See you guys soon!!

To Toronto and back

After a marvelous weekend at home, I am now back in the homely town of Ottawa. That weekend flew by! One minute I was sitting on the couch conquering a sushi platter with my mom, and the next, I'm back here brushing my teeth in the shared washroom while trying not to look at the mysterious brown stains on the counter.

I spent the entire weekend catching up with my mom who finally returned from Hong Kong. I got presents and you know what that means? She does love me! Oh boy! I got:

1. a new recorder for doing interviews (my old one, as I'm sure you've all seen, is reminiscent of a much earlier era). This one has a screen that lights up! AND I can record interviews over the phone! Best day ever!
2. rockin' pink headphones that block out all sound. It's a must when you're rooming with Kitty. She likes to sing and the quality varies.
3. Cookie Monster earphones, which soon became just Cookie Monster because the earphones that were attached to it didn't hold up very well. They tried to make them high tech, with a recoiling feature to let them disappearing inside the Cookie Monster. That poor recoiling gadget didn't last very long at all. I salvaged the Cookie Monster but I'm afraid the earphones didn't make it.
4. a pink mini kettle. It's sitting on my desk now. While people are bringing things home from res, I am still bringing things in. We'll deal with that when it's time to move out in a few weeks.
5. hand warmers that come in an elephant pouch. It's so cute, you know it has to be from Hong Kong.
6. a giant raisin bun. That was courtesy of my grandma who insisted that I would miss the bread from Hong Kong and made my mom smuggle a whole loaf of raisin bread back to Canada just for me. It's the thought that counts.
7. stationery! There's a Muji for a reason. I also got pens shaped like chopsticks holding a giant piece of sushi. That's all coming in the mail. My mom tried to mail it to me so I could get it earlier but Canada Post is extremely slow. I also got ink refills! (I get excited about these things. Just go with it.)

But of course, I didn't just go home for the presents. I went home for my Marmee's company. We watched so many movies. Three Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra movies: On the Town (one of my new favourites), Anchors Aweigh, and Take Me out to the Ballgame. We also watched Guys and Dolls with Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando. It was great! They just don't make movies like they used to.

It's the homestretch now. In a few more weeks, it'll be exams and then the beautiful freedom of summer. And just like that, first year would be over. In the words of that immortal bard, Robin Hood Daffy Duck, as he was poised at top of a tree with jungle vine in hand, "Yoiks and away!"

another vlog update!

This is what I do at 4AM!!! If you have 7 minutes to spare then go right ahead and watch! lol.

new vlog!

take 10: kinokuniya! from rachel on Vimeo.

30 days....

Hey everyone! How is everyone doing?

Well, this is like a status update from Waterloo!

So, I have to survive 30 more days till I am finished my first year here! It will be a tough 30 days. Especially, the last 19 days of these 30 days. I shall call these days "anti-social hardcore studying days" 19 days of studying hardcore for six final exams. All of them are worth 50%+ which I find ridiculous. Pass or fail exams are SO stressful.

The Vancouver Olympics are almost officially over since the Paraolympics are ending on March 21st!

I have an ELPE exam tomorrow as well. It is an essay writing exam which I failed once. Hopefully this time, I will surpass this exam and pass it!

I believe I can do this and good luck to all you girls and guys on your finals!

Peace,
David

guess where i am?

Can you guess?

ART HISTORY! oh can you sense my excitement??

God has blessed us with this beautiful, sunny day and I'm stuck inside learning about......ummm.....yeaaaa.... we're looking at chairs at the moment. lol.

AND guess how long I slept for last night?!

17.5 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that's like a typical month's worth of sleep!!! Isn't that craazzzy?!?!? lol. Well I didn't sleep on Tuesday night. I slept for like 2 hours and almost missed a quiz. I have to stay up late tonight and tomorrow so I don't screw myself over on Sunday night.

I hope everyone had a good St Pattys Day. I think I slept too much because my brain is goop atm. I want to be outside!! grrr. OH!! I think I'm going to take a walk down Queen St W tomorrow!! Oh I'm so brilliant. Lol.

Ok. This is starting to make no sense!! So i'm just going to stop.

Hope all is well!

Happy St. Patty's Day

Aww, thanks! You took time out of your busy, green-beer-drinking day to read the blog! What a pal. I hope you're wearing green. I am and I didn't even know I owned a green shirt. I had to resort to a pajama shirt (there's a giant "PINK" logo on it) but hey, it's not like anyone's sober enough to read today.

The world is less green than I thought it would be today. There were some people who ignored the day completely and just carried on with their regular humdrum lives. I'm not a huge fan of St. Patrick's Day myself but I still put on some green as a gesture. That in itself was a challenge. I don't own a lot of green. I did manage to find some green earrings and I made myself a giant clover, which hung around my neck on a lanyard all day long (except for a temporary crisis when it broke at dinner, but I did some speedy damage control). One side says I SEE GREEN PEOPLE and the other side says I SWEAR TO DRUNK I'M NOT GOD. The public enjoyed it.

I also had green socks but no green shoes, so the world will never know. That was just for my own satisfaction. I didn't even have to whip out the green face paint (that stuff is a pain to get off. In the end, you don't know whether you got all the red off or if your face is just rubbed raw trying to get it off).

My favourite accessories of the day:

• One guy had green-rimmed sunglasses that had green light bulbs inside the frames. They lit up and everything!
• Several people had those giant green hats. If you've ever seen my Canada Pride hat, it looks like that, but green and covered in shamrocks.
• My favourite giant hat was shaped like a great big mug of beer sitting on a green plate. That one made me jealous.

Unlike my fellow colleagues here at Carleton, I will sadly not be out running wild on the streets in my green attire. I have crazy plans of my own: a midterm tomorrow. Don't wait up.

What did I learn about St. Patrick's Day? It's the one day of the year when everyone is drunk before noon and no one else can judge them or send them off to AA meetings. I don't know how these people are going to survive the whole night to party away. They'll be puking by 9 p.m. Mark my words!

Fun fact #2: The reason the beer's green is because of... are you ready for this? ALGAE! Yeah! That's how they make it green if you want it organic. If you're smart and don't really care if your beer is organic, I'm pretty sure they just put dye in it that they extract from bugs or create out of some chemical concoction. Bottoms up!

It's back to the old grindstone for me. Drink safe, lassies and laddies! Aim for the bucket and watch where you face-plant (other people may not be so good with the bucket-aiming).

Update... vlog style!

take 9: new yawk from rachel on Vimeo.


Decided to copy em! <3

Brownie points for Em!

And no points for everyone else! I'm paddling the sinking canoe here all by myself while the rest of you are holding onto your bail pails and staring at the clouds. Make yourselves useful!

Here's a note to Rach: I was about to go to New York! There's a trip going down for three days at the end of April (you're still in school then right? You started a whole month after us, so you better still be there when we're done!) but there's one teensey problem. The trip is after exams, which means I will be kicked out of res and I will have nowhere to stay in the 2.5 days between my last exam and the day we leave for the trip. There's also the unfortunate reality of there being no late trains on Sunday night when I get back. Meaning, I will either have to be a hobo for about three days in total or I can't go on this amazing trip about which I was getting totally psyched.

Other sad things: My desk lamp has called it quits. The optimist in me would say, "It's not broken. Now I have a strobe light!" But I have temporarily suspended my inner optimist without pay so I'm going to stick with, "Boo! My desk lamp is busted!" What does that entail? It means I can't accomplish anything for about two to three hours every morning. That is the buffer period when I am awake and Kitty is still sleeping. Usually from 8:30 to about 11 a.m. give or take another 30 minutes. It's so not ideal! All I can do is read news online and kill my eyes in the process, squinting into the painful brightness of my laptop screen.

Reason why I'm not bashing my head against a wall: I'm going home in two days!

Reasons why I should consider face-planting into my keyboard as an alternative to head-bashing: I have six classes to go before I can leave. One of them is French (kill me). One of them is history (We get to learn about Pearson. What joy.) Two of them are journalism related (put me out of my misery) and one of them is a midterm, for which I have yet to study. Cruel world.

Oh boy! Kitty's up now! I can turn on the lights! High point of my day! (You have to understand I have very little in my life at the moment.) Finally, I can... study for my midterm. My life is just so exciting. Be jealous.

So before I sign off, I'm going to send Em a virtual high-five...wait for it...it's sending...it's sending...it's sending...THERE it is! Thanks for helping me paddle ye olde canoe as it's going under.

helping ve out via vlogging

Hey

I thought a vlog would be fun, so here it is!

ps, is it just me or his audio and visual off? lmao

Oh what a beautiful morning

My day is proceeding with fineness. It's been raining all weekend but the sun is finally out. But the best part is... my morning class got cancelled! I'm so glad I caught that email on the way out, otherwise there would be a whole other kind of post for you to read.

My oh my, what shall I do with all this spare time? It's so freeing! I can't wait until summer. It's like every class has been cancelled everyday! School should just end now. Everyone's tired of it already. There aren't that many more assignments. Everyone's just sitting around waiting for exams. And let's face it. Who really wants that? Not the profs, not the TAs, and certainly not the students. We should all just do everyone a great big favour and go home.

All those in favour, say aye! Excellent, the motion has been passed. Everyone go home.

The morning after

Ughhh... I'm so tired! I have no idea how I had so much energy last night. I am hangover free though, so it could be worse. Much, much worse.

Sidebar: I should probably mention that yesterday was my friend (the bartender)'s birthday party. So there was a purpose to that rambling post from yesterday. All in good fun in the commemoration of being legal at last.

This morning, I was greeted with several (and by several I mean more than 10) videos of last night. Man oh man. It all just comes flooding back, doesn't it. I was kind of hoping it would all just blow away. I'm also looking forward to rereading whatever I posted yesterday. I only hope it was coherent thoughts.

I think my eyelids are on strike. They won't open! I think I have Chris Woo eyes, and that really is a tragedy. Now I have news to catch up on because sadly, the world doesn't stop when I open the schnapps.

May your day have far more consciousness and awareness than mine.

D to the runked

Hello lonely citizens. I am what some may call drunk. To me, I think my head is just a little fluffy. It'll pass. I realized tonight that I am a big raging fan of peach schnapps. First we had orange juice, rum, peach schnapps and grenadine. That's a Caribbean Sunrise apparently. I was not a huge fan but hey, it's got to go somewhere so I drank it. Then I decided to mix Nestea with peach schnapps and it was a work of genius. The first batch wasn't so great, but the SECOND ONE! That was perfection. So I had to get an encore. Then I got cut off by our makeshift bartender.

And through it all, the motto remained: Dignity. Always dignity. We watched Singin' in the Rain while I drooled over the great hunk of man candy that is Gene Kelly a.k.a. my husband if he wasn't dead. May God rest his sexy soul.

There were fireworks (don't worry, I wasn't the one setting off the pyrotechnics. I was just the one cheering them on through the window). There was dancing, more dancing, and some attempts of dancing that would just embarrass me. So naturally, they have been captured on video. Oh yes, and my friend, the bartender, announced that Kitty and I are official lesbinims. That's right. I intended to spell it that way. The flamboyant fool fully tried to grab my ass! Not to say my ass isn't grab-able but I like to think there are limits.

At one point, there was a sorely miserable attempt to watch Ironman but I found everything really funny and had NO IDEA what was going on. So we gave that up and danced some more. Then Bartender decided I should drunk skype my friends so that led to me being on skype with Rachel and talking to Emily and I said some things and they said some things and Rach insists I'm not drunk but I think (and Em agrees with me) that you don't have to be over a toilet to be drunk. That is just not cool. I plan to never get that drunk.

Now the alcohol is wearing off, methinks. At least I'm tired enough to sit still. At one point, I really had to dance it off. Well... this blog was the result of strong encouragement from Rach and Em. Naturally, they were no help because they decided to keep talking to me while I was trying to tell the world what it's like when Veronica Tang has her beer goggles on. Well it's not so much a goggle as a monocle b/c it's rather tiring to hold up both goggles at the same time all night. And it's not really beer because I think beer is disgusting. So what I have left is a schnapp monocle. It's mighty fine.

One day I will sincerely regret this, namely tomorrow morning because it's 1:18 right now and I am going to crash and burn. But the important part is I didn't drink and drive, or drink and dial, or leapfrog a unicorn.

Over and out! Cue faceplant.

Why not swing by the LCBO?

One of my friends turned 19 on Monday and since no one likes to celebrate their birthday on a Monday, she held off until this weekend. We went to LCBO and bought a butt-load of liquor. Let's review:

1. 4 cans of Heineken
2. 1 bottle of Baileys
3. 1 bottle of Smirnoff, apple-flavoured
4. 1 mini bottle of Bacardi rum
5. 1 giant bottle of Grenadine
6. 1 giant bottle of Dr. McGillicuddy's peach schnapps (I wish my last name was McGillicuddy)
7. 1 case of Vex (I forget what flavour, something pink)

Oh it's going to be a party. I think the LCBO at the Rideau Centre makes a lot of money. It's always crammed full of students. Location location location.

I'm not saying we're going to drink it all in one night. Please, we have to give those livers a chance to catch up. It's all about variety, my friends.

In the mean time, Kitty and I are having a horrible time trying to get pumped for tonight, despite the many bottles of alcohol cluttering up my already limited desk space. Our can-mate has a splitting headache. She's been sick for the past two weeks and is heavily drugged out on antibiotics. Unfortunately, our shrill voices and sudden bursts of laughter seem to be making her want to blow her head off just so she won't have to endure the pain.

So here we are, running against nature and being completely silent. It's been so long! I need to talk before my vocal cords shrivel away from lack of use. I'll be doomed to miming for the rest of my life. What a horrible idea. The thought of that outrageous costume and that black and white makeup. It's too much to bear!

Oh boy! Drugged-out can-mate is awake! We can speak again! I feel so alive!

P.S. I saw a giant cookie monster at the mall today and I want it! It's huge! I think it's about a foot shorter than Kitty when it's sitting down. It's mine! The store manager just doesn't know it yet.

P.P.S. I saw the Mad Hatter's hat for sale at the same store as the cookie monster and I want it! It's an exact replica of the one in the movie and if I had it, I would let my giant cookie monster wear it everyday (when I'm not wearing it and dancing like a fool of course).

That's what I'm talking about!

There we go, guys! That wasn't so hard, was it? You know what this means? It means you all already check this blog but you just don't write anything! That's got to change. Here's the new plan. Every time you check the blog, you have to write something. Comment, post, share a joke, write a limerick, drop a line, bust a rhyme, do the hokey pokey and fire in the hole. Whatever you do, you can't just check the blog and leave.

It's not that hard. I'll prove it.

Since it is a marvelous Thursday night (and the beginning of ze weekend for those of us who kicked Friday classes out the door), I have spent the past two and a half hours fixating my undivided attention on How I Met Your Mother. This is not good, guys. Not good at all.

You want to know why I watch Friends? Because I've seen it all before. I know what's going to happen. I know what jokes are coming. I know Ross and Rachel are on a break and when they get back together. I know when Joey falls down the elevator shaft and Phoebe marries Crap Bag. I don't have to spend sleepless nights worrying about Chandler and Monica getting married and what really happened when Mr. Heckles stole Marcel. It's all been done and I can carry on with my life as a useful member of society.

But How I Met Your Mother is a WHOLE other story! Man oh man. I utterly despise those clever devils who discovered the beauty of cliffhangers. It's a cruel, cruel trick. How despicably low. How horribly dirty! Too bad it works. Now I am hopelessly glued to my laptop watching episode after episode until my screen explodes or my eyeballs shrivel up and fall out of their sockets (Wow, that escalated really quickly. I did not see that graphic imagery coming. I apologize!).

So until then, my friends!

BUT WAIT! There's more! I just remembered something I had to tell you all. I went to the Parliament with the girls on my floor last weekend and we had beaver tails. My first ever beaver tail (I know I shared one with you on Trek Ed, Em. But I did not think that through withe Cows ice cream. All I got was a pathetic bite off yours.) It was Nutella and banana goodness. Ahh, I could almost hear my arteries screaming in agony as they clogged. It was great!

It was then that I also discovered Kitty can eat Nutella. She's also eaten pecans without dying and she's a big fan of pistachios. Case in point? I secretly think she's not allergic to nuts. Maybe that one time she had peanuts, she actually had a stomach flu and they thought she was allergic. That would be AWESOME because I am craving peanut butter so badly. It's scary. All day long, I dream of peanut butter. My love. My life.

So remember kids, don't skydive naked and never play leapfrog with unicorns.

Countdown~

In exactly 2 weeks, I will be back in Toronto!! I'm ridiculously excited because I get to see all your beautiful faces! (Ve, you better come back to T.O! or I should trek to Ottawa... nah you come back to T.O!)

And yeah, this blog is DYING here... I'm trying to write something here each week even though I hate writing. Come on guys! You can do better than that!

So I'm loving the weather right now... it's perfect; not too hot, not too cold. And it's sunny too, which means that it's going to rain soon. If it rains, it's going to get so stuffy in my room cause the windows are permanently open since it's ridiculously hot already, and we would need to close it. We need the fan/AC/cold air going too since the window stoppers (it prevent us from jumping out the windows when we are pulling our hair out) doesn't make the window go up very high LOL Buggies shouldn't come in since we are on the 14th floor...

I should really go make dinner/shower since I just finished exercising approximately an hour ago, but the web is just too amazing.

How upsetting

What has happened to us? I stopped checking the blog for five days and do I have any posts to catch up on? Nope. Work with me, people! I know we're all busy, but who can't spare 15 minutes to let your old HTS pals know you haven't completely thrown their friendship into a blender and pressed liquefy. Dust off those keyboards! Warm up those fingers!

SHARE THE LOVE!

So in the spirit of practicing what I preach, I will tell you what's going down in Ottawa in these last 10 minutes before I have to head off to class.

The Rideau Canal was officially declared unsafe for skating or any other winter activities last week. It's about time too. I don't know who would be trying to skate on that canal while there are ducks already swimming in it. Crazy winter athletes.

Res formal is coming up on Mar. 26. It's a Vegas theme. Black jack, bar, poker, bar, dancing showgirls, bar, magicians, bar, prizes, bar, limo buses and what else? Oh yes, that's right. A bar. That seems to be the major selling point. I have yet to get tickets. I should get on that soon.

Also on the weekend of res formal, Carleton will be featuring a special guest. For the first time since her beloved best friend in the whole wide world moved to the dull, dull city of Ottawa, she will be gracing us all with her presence. Give it up for... Emily Tam! True story, ladies and gents and all those in between! Em is coming to visit and it's going to be awesome!

In the mean time, I am getting pumped for something else - GOING HOME! In exactly one week, I will be packing my bags and jetting back to Toronto. Special occasion? My mom is coming home from Hong Kong! We have such catching up to do. Oh the havoc we will wreak, the fun we will have, the sushi we will devour and the Gene Kelly we will admire. It's just going to be the best weekend ever, no big deal.

So there we go. My life and all it's wonder and glory in eight minutes. PLUS I pack as much detail as I possibly can when I write. Meaning? You should all be able to keep ME updated on what's happening in your lives in significantly less time.

Keep me posted, or else! Cue ominous music while zooming in on my livid face with intimidating hand gesture.

laundry.

Hello! I decided that I should write something here since I havent in ages. How is everyone doing? It is the third last week of my second quarter here, and I realized that I hate having to do laundry.  I just put my clothes into the washing machine and now I am here writing this. I always have to plan things around my laundry. Its really quite annoying. It does not take enough time for me to accomplish anything while waiting for laundry and it isnt quite short enough for me to do nothing in between. So I cant watch lets say, a full episode of Fringe or Big Bang Theory. No, I need to stop like five minutes away from the end to go put my clothes into the dryer. And after I also have to fold my clothes into miniature sizes so that it will fit in my miniature drawers. Oh wellss. You gotta do what you gotta do right?

K thats all for now. I have a whole pile of work to do that I really should be doing instead of doing my laundry and writing this but that I am not doing because I dont want to. Hopefully I will get to see you all in a couple of weeks when I am on my Spring break!

And breathe out

You see what happens when I don't post enormous, lengthy blogs day in and day out? Everything just goes downhill. There were 16 posts last month and nine of them were from me! (You're welcome.) Let's pick up the pace, people! Get onto those laptops, abandon your mountains of schoolwork, and release your life's shortcomings into the blogosphere! (Nice use of the word "blogosphere," eh?)

I see I'm going to have to get this ball rolling myself. Let's see what's going on for V. Tang today. It is a b-e-a-utiful Friday (Thank you, Jim Carrey.) and I plan to laze around and accomplish very little. Why? Because I have NO CLASSES today! Zero, zip, zilch, nada, diddly squat, glokkenschpiel. I may have made up that last one. The word came to me in a dream and now I'm not sure if I actually came up with that all on my own or it's some German-manufactured AK-47 or a rifle or something of that nature.

Before you all hop onto trains, planes, and automobiles to storm my residence in Ottawa in protest of this unjust imbalance of schoolwork and leisure time, I beseech you to lay down your stones and pitchforks to hear me out. I have slaved away for ions on assignment after assignment, including but not limited to:

• writing horrible papers on Tommy Douglas Who knew there was more to him than Medicare?
• explaining why Nellie Bly was such a freak. The lady married her 70-year-old husband when she was 30 on the same day that she met him! And when she was 50, she starts cozying up to a 24-year-old boxer. And I mean boxer as in elevated ring, jeering crowds, padded red oven mitts, and men trying to knock each other unconscious in silk boxers. Hey, maybe that's where they got the name! Point being: Bly has a couple of screws loose. They couldn't find a better model female journalist, could they?
• listening to my French professor drone on and on about the importance of le subjonctif. To be fair, I did learn something that I plan to use over and over again: Tu me rends folle (fou if you're a guy)! Translation: You're making my crazy!
• filling out those infuriating Scantron bubbles They expect you to remember the name of every lump and wrinkle in your brain but they don't think you can remember how to fill in a bubble.
• finding the nonexistent journalistic importance of a guy who thinks the CPR is the root of Canadian culture
• reading up on the extremely boring new budget now that Parliament is once again in session Do you know how many clauses are in that 23-page document! Paraphrase, people! Everything could have been just as clear if they said: cut spending.

I think I deserve a break before my eyeballs shoot out of their sockets, a most unpleasant experience for everyone. I think I'm going to sit around and read a little P.G. Wodehouse or some Agatha Christie, grab a coffee, take a nap, and generally flaunt my lack of productivity in front of those who are trying to finish assignments that were due yesterday.

You may now pick up your stones and pitchforks.

miss you guys!

Hey

Just wanted to say:: as much as we drive each other crazy sometimes, I miss seeing you guys everyday!! :(

Just had one of those I-miss-HTS-(People)-days.

Hope to see you guys sooon!!!

Already a month!?

Yes, it's already been a month since I moved to new york! Time flew by so quickly... it's going to be my midterms before I know it. AND it will be my spring break soon too, which means I'm coming back home for approximately 10 days!

We had another snow day this friday because it started snowing like crazy, beginning on thursday morning. Thursday should have been a snow day too... I almost fell down a bajillion times walking to and from Tai Chi. FIT decided to close the school AFTER my tai chi class arghh.

Now it's actually not that cold, but there's dripping water everywhere. OH and snow clumps falling which is quite dangerous.

School is still okay, not too difficult yet I think. I got one of my assignments back from my advertising and promo class; I got an A! I was quite happy because a lot of people had to redo the assignment. Gotta give all my effort for everything else though! Every week is flying by right now, probably because the week ends for thursday for me.

Laterz...

Under the sea

It's official. I am convinced Ottawa is the lost city of Atlantis. There is water everywhere! People are wading through rivers just to get from building to building. I don't mean large puddles. I mean rivers! The roads have turned into streams complete with ripples and waterfalls at the curb. And do you know why we are suddenly sloshing through all this water? Maybe it's because it's been "snowing" for the past week and a half but the temperature's been hovering around -2 to 3 degrees, giving us a soggy, slushy welcome-back from Reading Week.

On the plus side, I just had the best apple of my life. This was actually a great apple! If I were Eve and that apple was on the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, I would definitely throw caution to the wind and eat as many as possible before God ousted me from Eden. That's how great it was. You missed out, guys. It was the highlight of my life. It's all downhill from here!

I also would like to say that I found my favourite group of people on campus. The Charlatan staff. They are without a doubt the funniest people I've ever met. With every extra second I spend in the news room, I like them more and more. There's never a shortage of entertainment and everyone is so chummy. It's exactly like the play family at HTS, only with fewer fairies and no giant rift between the cast and the crew. I love newspaper!

Too bad I can't actually stay there forever since I don't actually work there anymore. I'll just keep popping in every now and then. They won't mind . . . and if they do, I'll just start picking up some papers and pretend I'm copy editing. It's brilliant! Cue evil laugh.

Now I should really get to work. I have this journalism assignment to do where we have to come up with 10 questions to ask a dead guy. It's to help us practice making an interview plan and we're all supposed to research a famous journalist and ask thought-provoking questions and explain why it's significant to today's society, put it into context, the usual blah blah.

It's not that I don't like the person I'm interviewing (her name's Nellie Bly and she's this crazy American chick who did these crazy stunts just to get an interesting story. Role model!), but it's just tedious work that I don't want to do. Oh well, thinking happy thoughts!

And of course, there's that whole issue of I have a midterm the day before my journalism assignment is due! Yay time management! So in the spirit of making every minute as productive as possible, I've wasted about 20 minutes keeping you all up to date on my awe-inspiring life.

P.S. You all need to watch "Kittens inspired by kittens" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtX8nswnUKU. This is not an option. You must watch it. You're welcome.

i would love spring to come

Hey!

Wow we haven't been updating. Reading week was great. I did nothing, until I realized I was screwed.

So I love living in Toronto! Because it's such a major city, a lot of people come here and events are always happening and stuff. I really love going out in the city. Although I haven't really -omg the floor just shook- our building couldn't fix the floor when they renovated the building could they?! Like we're in Interior Design, we are always drafting and 1 step could mess you up. Our floor is so old!! GEEEEZ SID! xD Jk

okay, now where was I??

Oh yea....so yea living in the city has been amazing and dangerous (money-wise). I get the opportunity to go to concerts and events without having to schedule it around my parent's time. all my time, no parentals :)

on the other hand, I REALLY NEED A JOB! Any ideas??

Gonna keep it short. Gotta head to class soon!

ps. i just realized this was a random post :P

CANADA! CANADA! CANADA!

Hi,

I just like to say:

GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!GO CANADA!

That is all!
-David

Post from the editor

I write to you, not merely as Veronica Tang, but Veronica Tang, national editor of the Charlatan! This is the week I get to be guest editor and it has been extremely stressful. I've spent so many hours in the office clicking away on the abominable Macs and trying to scrape a layout together.

That's right. I am proud to say I am a PC. Macs are pretty but they make me want to smash them against the wall or hurl them out the window. To those who are offended, I offer you my insincere apologies if it makes you feel better.

The important part is, all Mac-hating aside, I have finished layout and I'm just waiting for the results from the copy editor.

I'm catching up on news at the moment (along with all the other school work that I have tossed onto the back burner since this editor gig). So I'll just leave you with this little snippet from the news room.

I was trying to print off my layout to get it copy edited but the printer was not my friend. I tried to change the paper in the paper tray and I made it angry. It made screechy sounds at me! I implored the editorial editor, Marlee, to help me. After about two minutes of fiddling around with it, Marlee turns around to face the news room where all the other editors are staring intently at their desks. At the top of her lungs, she says, "HEY! DOES ANYONE WANT TO MAKE LOVE TO THE PRINTER? IT'S GIVING VERONICA A HARD TIME!"

I just about died. But that wasn't even the end of it. Joel, the news section editor gets up with an enthusiastic, "I WILL!"

It doesn't end there either. Joel walks over to the printer. There's a little wall separating me and the printer. It doesn't reach the ceiling but you can't see over it. All I hear is Joel talking to the printer and making tinkering sounds.

"Who's a good printer? That's it! There's a good printer! Let Joel make it all better!"

He then brandishes my printed pages in the air with the flourish and says, "See? You just gotta show the printer a little love. You see, Veronica, printers are not that different from you and I. They throw tantrums when you're mean to them, but with a little lovin', they'll do anything for you. The printer and I have a special connection."

How I love the news room. The longer I sit there, the more I love the Charlatan and all its quirky characters.

P.S. Our e-in-c made us watch "Kittens inspired by kittens" on YouTube. We had a whole office meeting to watch it. If you need a break from your academic woe, watch it!

All by my...SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELF!

In case my use of capitals, repeated vowels, and conveniently placed ellipsis weren't clear enough, the title is meant to be sung. Sing it! That's an order!

Silliness aside, let's take a quick snapshot of my life as a hermit, shall we? It is extremely quiet in my house. The TV is now constantly on, partly to make noise, partly so I can watch the Olympics all day long (and convince myself that it's all academia-related, for the good of news quiz!), and mostly because I haven't watched TV in about two months. There just is nothing to watch when -

Sorry, I've been taking about 10 minutes to write that b/c I'm watching speed skating and we just beat New Zealand. Third place over all for men's speed skating. Well, race is over. Back to the keyboard!

-you have to fight over the TV with some avid sports fans on our floor. They can actually sit in front of that screen and watch the sports channel all day. I don't have that kind of commitment or patience. Now I can hog the TV all I want!

You see how I make this whole living-on-my-own thing fun for myself? I'm so self-motivated.

So I've been working away for the past day and half that I've been home. It didn't even feel like I was on break. There's just so much to do! I just realized how much work it is to be an editor, and not even the e-in-c, but just a section editor. I used to always want to be an editor, but I think I prefer writing the stories than assigning them. Reporting is where it's at!

I'm going to my dad's tonight for Chinese New Year Eve dinner. I'm looking at about four hours give or take of awkward, forced social protocol. That means I've got to polish that fake smile and feigned interest. I foresee a lot of, "How are you liking university? Did you make friends? Do you like your classes? What's your residence like?" For my own amusement, I'm going to see how long I can keep up a one-word (or better yet, a mono-syllabic) answer without sounding rude. Very exciting.

Before I forget and go on about the Olympics again, I'd like to send a little "Amen, sistah!" to Rach for her cynical view of Valentine's Day. I didn't know about the Starbucks festive cups (which is a little shameful because I was just at Starbucks and didn't notice anything. Observation is the key to all successful journalists. Awesome.) The only thing I like about Valentine's Day is the emphasis on chocolate. Other than that, it's a great big "Up yours, single losers!" from goo-goo-eyed lovers of the world. Doesn't that just give you warm fuzzies?

On the plus side, I have a little tidbit of entertainment for all to enjoy in relation to Valentine's Day. Hear me out, Rach! It's amusing, I promise! The Globe and Mail had this list of the most romantic cities in Canada (based on sales of romance novels, movies, and the new Michael Bublé CD, the obvious measure of romance). Results?

1. Saskatoon
2. Calgary
3. Victoria
4. Regina
5. Guelph

I love how the top four are all in the West. The west coast of loooooooooooove. And when they finally get to Ontario, it's Guelph. Guelph? Really? That's a little depressing. I would like to think we're a little more romantic than that here.

London is 10th. Ottawa came in 12th. And Windsor gets the Needs Improvement award at a dismal 20th place. Now we know where all anti-Valentine's Day people can settle down for the rest of their lives. Windsor's looking mighty fine. Those are the practical people. That's how we get things done!

I see it now.
It's a brisk winter's day in Windsor. Enter couple.
Woman: What's that you've got?
Man: A ring.
Woman: Oh. Marriage?
Man: Yeah. Pause while Woman contemplates number of carats in that diamond. So. How 'bout it?
Woman: Yeah, okay I guess. I got time for a quick wedding, no reception.
Man: Sweet.

On the other hand, steer clear of the love-drunk West! Unless you fancy the following:
Man: Oh smoochie-poo!
Woman: Yes dearest hunk of man candy?
Man: I've got a surprise for you!
Woman: What ever could it be! My heart is all aflutter!
Man: Brandishes ring with a flourish. Oh my darling lover whom I adore, won't you spend the rest of your life with me? We'll rent out a cabin in mountains, and stare into each other's eyes until we're both blinded by cataracts!
Woman: Oh you know I will, honey bunches! A dove flies out of his coat pocket, picks up the ring in its beak and places it on Woman's finger. A violinist pops out from behind a tree and plays mood music while the setting sun casts a gentle orange glow over the lovers. Oh, throw in some rose petals for good measure.
Man: Oh smoochie-poo!
Woman: Oh honey bunches!
Embrace. Kiss passionately. Grab a bucket while you gag.

On that note, I should really get back to work. It's been fun. Enjoy the break!

Snowed in...

Finished my second week of school! But this week was ridiculously chills for me because school was closed on Wednesday because of the raging snow storm outside (believe me it was BAD) and both of my classes were cancelled today! So I only had two days of classes PLUS it's a long weekend, so even better!

It's quite disgusting outside... all the slush and puddles, yuckiness. Snow/rain in the city is always the worst!

I decided to finally head to the gym yesterday since it was a snow day, but it wasn't exactly the smartest idea. Since it was a snow day, nobody had classes, so everyone either went to go exercise OR do laundry haha

My parents are coming to visit me this weekend, so I can't wait to see them! Lots of stuff coming down for me ^^

Have an awesome reading week everyone! Get lots of sleep and eat some yummy food at home! OH and HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR EVERYONE! oh and Valentine's Day. Go get some chocolates! We should have White Day here in North America. OH that reminds me: I can't believe they have Valentine's Day cups at Starbucks... it's just one overrated day. I understand Christmas, but Valentine's!?!? hehe sorry for my cynicism.

Good luck on your mid-terms!

Homeward bound!

I am running on four hours of sleep and a coffee that had zero effect on me. As predicted by my gremlin diagnosis, I was unable to sleep until about 5 a.m. this morning. I missed my alarm by an hour and only woke up at 9 when Kitty's alarm went off. It's times like these that make me love my roomie. I've just been so pressed for time all day long.

I didn't get to finish doing my laundry. I ran to class only to sit there for about 20 minutes doing nothing while our professor tried to fix some "technological difficulties" followed by an extremely dull presentation about using the library catalogue. I was so tired, I think my eyes were slits all day! As my friend Lindsay would say, I was having "an Asian day."

I had no time whatsoever to get caught up. I think I still had laundry lying on my bed until 5:15 p.m. The only good thing about today (other than the fact that I'm going to be home in about six hours) is our TA in journalism tutorial let us leave early! She was having a bad day too. And by bad day, it was really bad. I thought "bad day" would mean she missed her bus. But it was much worse. She was locked out of her apartment while getting laundry, stuck outside with no coat and no socks in -10-degrees temperature. (It's actually a warm day for Ottawa but not when you don't have a coat). She ended up breaking into her apartment with the help of an onlooking stranger. That right there is the epitome of a bad day.

I'm all packed now and ready to go! I'm probably going to head out in about an hour and a half. I'll just chill at the airport until it's time to board. I just want to get out of the Carleton campus!

By the way, I am going to be swamped with work this Reading Week but I would still look favourably upon any attempts to get together and catch up. Just putting it out there. If you don't like it, just send it back and we'll pretend it never happened.

Toronto-ho!

Breaking News: I'm a Gremlin

You have not misread my title. I am in fact a gremlin. I went out to dinner with my floor (it was one girl's birthday) and we didn't end up eating until really late, maybe about 9 p.m. We went to The Works. That burger place must see a lot of students, but I never get tired of it. With about 100 different burgers, it's not really an issue. Plus, I made good use of my birthday coupon. I got a free burger! All I had to pay for was my mocha oreo milkshake. And oh yes, it is just as good as it sounds.

Now it is 12:41 in the a.m. and I am still wiiiiiide awake! Kitty was the one who diagnosed me as a gremlin. This is exactly why I don't feed after 8 p.m. I become this raging wild beast! Behold!

I was going to start packing because I'M GOING HOME TOMORROW! In fact, in less than 24 hours, I am going to be back in Toronto and snuggling down into my own sweet bed. Life is grand. The only problem is, I have yet to pack and there's nothing I can do about it because tomorrow is laundry day. I can't possibly pack what I don't have.

So now that I've killed some time, I think I will start sorting out the things other than clothes that will be making the wonderful trip home with me. Ahh the life of a gremlin is really going to hit me like a pie in the face tomorrow.

So close yet so far

I can't wait until Reading Week! Kitty and I haven't been able to focus on school at all! Brains have already left for Toronto. There is zero productivity going on here and it's not just us. Our entire floor is going ballistic. People are skipping down the hallways at midnight singing the Friends theme song.

Side Note: These past few nights, I've had little luck getting to sleep because our washroommates next door always choose to watch their documentaries at nighttime. I really hope it's for school because I can't stand another night falling asleep to "And so, Woodrow Wilson... mumble mumble mumble... US at war! Mumble mumble mumble Why do people fear religion? Mumble wartime! Mumble...Eisenhower." It's most distracting.

Now I should really be reading the news and then heading off to class. I've got a French midterm today that I didn't study for (because it's so mind numbingly easy). Just think, in a little more than a day, Toronto will once again bask in my glow. Get pumped.

Happy Hump Day!

WASHROOM PROJECT IS DONE!! --WELL OFFICIALLY IN 4.5 HOURS =D =D =D!!

I'm in my CAD class now, and after I have to go photocopy my washroom working drawings then see if I have anything I have to fix then I'M DONE!!!!!!!! I NEVER THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD COME!!! :D

Now on to Vertical Studio -_-
Let me explain the hell that I have to go through for the remainder of the semester. So every upper year you talk to at Interio Design will tell you Vertical studio is hell. So you work in a group of 3 and a group of 3 of 2nd year. (wow that was not gramatically right, but I'm running on 0 sleep for 2 nights) And this year the theme is adapt and reuse. We haven't officially been introduced to it yet though. that's this afternoon.

Can't wait for reading week!!!! Just gotta sit through 3 hours of art history, 1 hour of Vertical Studio, and 3 hours of an inclass project.

me sleepy, but must sit through class :(
Happy Hump Day! Almost Friday, which means it's almost READING WEEK!! =D
A week of sleeping, no not really. I'm going to take the week to explore Toronto ....finally!!!

See you guys soon!! :)

Beware the sketchy do-gooders

I forgot to mention in my last post my latest adventure. I don't have Friday classes (and it's the best feeling of life) so I decided I'd do something nice and volunteer with the Ottawa Mission. They needed people who help make sandwiches for the homeless. I figured sandwiches were pretty easy. Even I can make a sandwich.

Carleton has this club called Meal Exchange. They were in charge of doing Trick or Eat, which is the equivalent to Halloween for Hunger. It sounds like a good cause. They sound pretty legit so I decided to go with them to the Ottawa Mission. Biggest mistake ever!

These people are WEIRD! I should've seen it coming from the beginning. I went to their office where we were supposed to meet and it's this tiny little room with a precarious divider acting as a temporary wall down the middle. This huge girl named Tabitha looks up at me with her dopey face when I ask if I'm in the right place. She gets up (which took a lot of effort) and she shakes my hand. That doesn't seem too bad, right? Wrong! I know people are supposed to have firm handshakes but this one was bone-crushing! I had to check to make sure I was still smiling as I tried to inconspicuously pry my hand out of hers. She tells me to sit on this old squishy couch, which was covered in bags filled with loaves of bread and jars of peanut butter and jam.

About 10 minutes go by. This guy comes in and Tabitha seems to know him. He largely ignores me and starts talking about how much he hates first years.

Excerpt from bitter guy: "I hate all the random little first years running for election. Who are you? Get out! They don't even know anything about the system and they think" [cue high pitched, squeaky annoying voice] "I was president of student government in high school. Now I'm going to be super involved in university! Yay!" [back to normal-pitched annoying voice] "Ugh! I hate them all! I'm not voting for any of them. I laughed in one girl's face when she asked me to sign her nominations board. Please, like I'm really going to vote for you."

At this point in his lively rant, he turns and sees me, puts on fake cheery face and says, "Oh hi there! I didn't see you! I'm Andrew." Extends hand for handshake.

I wipe off the look of disgust and shake his hand while mumbling "Veronica." in a less than ecstatic voice. And I couldn't believe it. Twice in 10 minutes! He has a bone-crushing handshake too! Who are these people!? Why do they hate fingers?

We start heading out to the bus stop and I just follow along quietly. Tabitha and Andrew continue to swap stories about every crappy thing that happened to them in the past 24 hours. For people who are supposed to be helping the helpless, you'd think they'd lighten up a little. Another volunteer who seems to know Tabitha and Andrew comes to join us. His name is Daniel.

We finally get to Byward Market and we're moving along at a brisk walk. Andrew confidently leads us into a building clearly marked Salvation Army. I think to myself, "That's funny. I didn't know the Ottawa Mission was the same as the Salvation Army." But I didn't question. I really didn't want to trigger another rant from the Hitler of first-years. Yeesh.

We're sitting around in the lobby for a good 20 minutes. Tabitha's been on and off the phone with two other people who are supposed to meet us. They're the executive members of the club and yet we don't see them anywhere. It turns out we're in the wrong shelter. Big surprise. We walk out shamefully with our bags of food while a group of homeless people stare at us as they lean against the side of the Salvation Army. We're feeling wonderful at this point.

After several narrow alleyways, we finally get to the Ottawa Mission. There I meet Allison! and Mumblemumble! That's actually how they say their names, loud and chipper like it comes with exclamation marks. We all sit around a table with the food we brought and we wait for the volunteer coordinator to come out. She does eventually and goes on a very long explanation of everything the Ottawa Mission does. I get bored and focus on the two pigeons attacking each other outside the window. At first I thought they were fighting but I actually think they were busy making baby pigeons. There's the Discovery channel for you.

The long explanation eventually ends and we start making sandwiches. That part was okay. It was kind of fun actually. We made so many sandwiches. I think we used up 10 loaves of bread. It was great! Who doesn't like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? The real sketchiness starts after we start cleaning up.

I'm finishing up the last of my sandwiches when Mumblemumble! picks up one of the end pieces from the bag of bread. "I'm so hungry!" she says. And she starts spreading peanut butter and jelly on the end piece and she eats it! I think my jaw actually dropped. She's stealing from the poor? Seriously?! I know no one likes the end pieces but I've just been making sandwiches out of them anyway because I'm pretty sure the hungry poor will still want to eat them.

Mumblemumble! must have seen me staring at her because then she offers me one! She actually reached into the bag and offers me a sandwich! I said in a rather disgusted voice, "No thanks. This is for the poor." She shrugs and starts making another sandwich! I couldn't believe it! And you know what everyone else does? They JOIN her! They all start munching away on the last pieces! I was disgusted.

I start cleaning up. I gather up all the leftover jars of peanut butter and jelly and I take them into the kitchen to donate them. Or at least I try. Tabitha reaches over, grabs a jar of peanut butter and says, "I think I'm going to keep this! I'm out of peanut butter anyway." And this was after she said everything was on sale at the grocery store.

These people disgust me. I'm never volunteering with them again.

To top it all off, they left me to fend for myself and find my own way back from the Ottawa Mission. I asked Daniel for directions to the Rideau Centre. He says he's going there too so he says, "I'll walk you there." Great. This means I won't get lost. We're walking along at a good place when suddenly, he points off into the distance and says, "There. The Rideau Centre's right there. See ya." And he books it! He just runs away! He ran across an intersection and left me! He's so bizarre. I just kind of wandered off in the direction he pointed out in a bit of a daze.

Common denominator: These people are all in third year. I met a lot of people here at school but they're all either first, second, or fourth year. Third years have just disappeared. Now I know where they all are. They live in a private room in hell together, stealing from the poor and sharing bitter stories. Good riddance.

Filling in the blanks

Like I promised earlier, I will now be filling in the giant gaps in the ridiculous life of Veronica Tang as I'm sure you've all been perched anxiously on the edges of your seats, desperate for updates. And don't you worry. I shall deliver.

Madness of CUSA elections

These are the Carleton University Student Association elections. It's absolutely insane! I actually think it's more intense than the federal elections. You can't get through the tunnels without being bombarded by platforms. Candidates shove pamphlets in your face and every wall and pillar in the school is plastered with posters, each featuring a confident-looking student with a too-happy smiles.

Why does this concern me? Well other than being an actively concerned member of the student body, the CUSA elections are of great interest to me because I am a newsie through and through. Well, the second half of that is true. I actually couldn't care less who's representing me. School politics are not really my thing. I've got bigger fish to fry. I am Veronica Tang.

How did I suddenly find myself face-first in students' campaigns? I wasn't so much introduced to the subject as I was thrown, plunged and launched. At 10 a.m. on Wednesday, I receive an email from the Charlatan's news editors. They have three people for me to cover. Three executive members. Not just the little council members. This is much more prestigious and they chose me! Finally, all my hard work pays off and I get recognition!

The real kicker: The three profiles are due at 6 p.m. the same day they were assigned. Let me crunch some numbers for you.

• 3 hours
• 3 profiles
• 250 words each = 750 words

Three hours may seem like a lot but let me remind you I have to track down my sources, set up a meeting with them, actually meet them (and wishing the campus was a lot smaller), interview them, transcribe my recordings, condense their platform into fast and easy points to read, and oh right, actually write the thing.

Long story short, I missed my deadline by 10 minutes but I think we should still categorize this as a success, partly for my self esteem and partly because they still published it. I really tried my best, okay? I nearly gave myself an aneurysm. It's the biggest rush you'll ever get, trying to make a newspaper deadline. I think I'm leading myself to an early grave but it's great! I love the thrill, the rush! Three hours has never felt so short. I am significantly closer to getting arthritis than ever before, but we all make our sacrifices.

Small fill-in: I've spent the past week and a half groveling for stories at the Charlatan office with excellent results.

• I'm going to be National editor for a week after Reading Week.
• Our e-in-c (editor-in-chief) now recognizes me. Face and name!
• The news editors told me everyone raved about my prorogation article at post-mort (the weekly meeting after the paper's released where everyone gathers and goes through the latest issue.)

My latest story: I have one day (tomorrow) to cover a conspiracy story! One of the campaigning teams, United Carleton, has violated several rules. They've advertised on Facebook and they have a Twitter account, and they've spent a fortune on their website. It looks amazing but it's definitely violating some rules. If you want to check it out, it's just their graphics on their opening screen. Go take a look if you have some time to kill since you all seem so bored and not stressed at all. Here's the link: http://unitedcarleton.ca/

Kitty's Birthday

I got up extra early, partly to set up for Kitty's birthday but more so because I had mucho work to do. I've been incredibly busy lately. It's terrible! I really need this Reading Week. Anyway, I made a card for Kitty and I got everyone on our floor to sign it. I got her some DVDs (Benjamin Button and Princess Bride) and some books (Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm). I hid them in a Cheerio box so when she had breakfast, it would be like the prize in the cereal box! The only down side was it didn't fit in her Cheerio box (she hasn't eaten enough of it for me to fit a present in there!), but I'm a thinker! I had just finished a box of the same Cheerios. Kitty had the family size and I had the regular size and I was kind of hoping she wouldn't notice. I needn't have worried. Kitty can't register anything suspicious within the first hour of waking up.

We didn't go out and celebrate that night but tomorrow night we're going out to dinner. Kitty went to LCBO today and stocked up on so much booze. It scares me a little. She's got another bottle of Baileys, she just finished her bottle of raspberry Smirnoff so she got several cans of Heineken, and some coolers and rum for our friend (which she is definitely going to help drink). I feel like I should be concerned.

Reading Week

Okay. I know it's going to be difficult but I'm going to segue into a more serious subject. I am super excited about Reading Week and coming home, but it's not really going to be as great as I expected because my mom is in Hong Kong until Mar. 9.

My uncle in Hong Kong has stage four cancer in his spine, neck, and lungs (and possibly more places that they have yet to track down). I don't know a whole lot about cancer, but I do know that stage four is just about the worst stage there is. On top of that, spine cancer is extra risky because it's hard to do treatment so close to the spinal cord. My aunt (my mom's sister) is terribly upset, as I'm sure you can imagine. They also live with my grandma. They didn't want to tell her about the cancer yet so as not to upset her.

What does this mean? This means my aunt has to go with my uncle to the hospital and find out all this horrible news, cry her heart out and then go home and pretend nothing is wrong so as not to alarm my grandmother. No one should have to go through that, especially not alone. My mom was also really upset when she found out and she was telling me about it. It's the worst feeling in the world to have your own family so far away and there's nothing you can do to help them.

My mom decided (with my full support) to go to Hong Kong and be with my aunt and my grandma while my uncle finishes all his tests and to break the news to my grandma. It doesn't look good so far, but we're all keeping our fingers crossed.

So anyway, I think we're all up to speed now. I should really try to post shorter updates more frequently instead of one long update. Easier said than done.

Bye Bye First Week

I have successfully survived my first week of classes here at FIT!

Here's a breakdown of them:

Monday - Fashion Business Practices (8am), Intro to Psych (3pm), and Excel for Business (6:30pm)

Tuesday - Advertising and Promotion (9am)

Wednesday - Intro to Fashion Industry (12pm)

Thursday - English Composition (9am) and Tai Chi (2pm)

Friday - NO CLASS!

Needless to say, I was really nervous for the first day of class because I really didn't know what to expect since I was the newbie here. I actually wasn't as nervous at Ryerson because I had already met so many people who had the same schedule and classes as me. But here at FIT, meeting people is one of THE hardest things ever; you have to be the one that has to take the first step to say 'hi'. All of my classes seem really interesting, especially Advertising/Promo, Intro to Fashion Industry and Tai Chi. I think Tai Chi is going to be one of my favourite courses ever, I've already learned some moves! The only class that seemed really intimidating is the Fashion Industry one because my professor is ridiculously strict about punctuality and assignments. He's also flamboyantly gay LOLS He's very nitpicky and a tad whiny... All my other professors seem pretty chills and cool. OH and there are only 25 people in all of my classes, good and bad. The good is that it's easier to talk to the profs and to the people in the class. The bad: it's impossible to skip class here; they take attendance every day.

I've met at least one person in each of my classes so at least I'm not TOO lonely. The first two friends I made at FIT are both Korean haha. There are A LOT of Koreans in FIT; they make up most of the FIT population. This is really funny, but I actually feel kind of at home in Ktown (Koreatown) on 32nd and 6th. Also at Kinokuniya, my beloved bookstore at Bryant Park.

My first week here at FIT was really lonely because I didn't know anyone here and everything seemed so intimidating. The crazy people are actually scary. The insane in Toronto seem tame. I'm serious. I'm petrified of the crazy people in new york, but I'm learning the ins and outs of the city, so I should be okay. Plus I'm learning Tai Chi, which is actually the 'calmer', more 'peaceful' way of killing someone, so I'm learning some self-defense moves too along the way. I'm slowly warming up to the city but I do miss Toronto. A lot surprisingly. I also miss DRIVING; I'm so tired of walking everywhere, especially when you have to buy groceries and lug it all back to dorm.

I can't wait to see you guys in the end of March!

One deadline away from an aneurysm

Let's get some perspective, shall we?

It's 12:06 a.m. I am still awake and typing away on a blog when I really need to be studying for my midterm in 14.5 short hours. I know it seems like a lot but it really isn't. I don't have nearly enough time and energy to fill you all in on everything I want to say. It's been a horribly long time since I last posted. Mere days can equal thousands of words in my life as I'm sure you know. But don't worry. I'll spare you. Partly for your sanity but mostly for the livelihood of my soon-to-be-arthritic fingers.

As a teaser of what's to come (hopefully), here is a list of topics upon which I hope to elaborate in the near future:

• Madness of CUSA elections
• Kitty's birthday (a.k.a. my extremely long day of consciousness)
• Reading Week (incl. mom, uncle, and Hong Kong)

There is undoubtedly more points or at least more subcategories. But that's all I'll say for now b/c I need to sort laundry. That's right. I need to. Trust me.

Absolute

Soooooooooooooo its been a month since the semester started and hows my life?

Well, I'm running out of food in my fridge and the meal plan is terrible here. Currently, I just finished my com sci project that is due at 5pm. Also, I'm doing laundry and i have 20 minutes till I can retrieve my clothing from the dryer.

How's my life?
I have no life.
Just had a midterm last night and taking seven courses is tough. Especially if you are taking 2 biol, a chem, a chem lab, econ, com sci and a scibus course (which is like a Harvard business review workshop...no jokes)

O_O, ]_], o_o, =_=, -_-, :S, :_:, ?_?; >.< RANDOMNESS!! WOOHOO

Enough for now,
David

Who doesn't like dinner and a show?

I just got back from phase 2 of my birthday celebration, also closing curtain on my birthday week but it's been a good run! This was a present from my mom, a dinner for me and two friends at Scarlett's Dinner Theatre. Qu'est-ce que c'est? I'll tell you!

Like the title says, it's dinner and a show! It's actually a great idea! The restaurant is located on the second floor of a pub/restaurant called Fat Tuesdays (appetizing, isn't it?) and it's all cozy and dimly lit with lots of lamps and curtains and big comfy booths. It looked just like a scene out of the Clue boardgame.

There's a cast of seven actors and two crew members, and they engage the audience in an interactive murder mystery performance. I know what you're thinking: "I hate when people come into the audience." But this was different. The audience has to help the inspector figure out "who dunnit" and why. There were cheesy and melodramatic moments but it's really easy to get into it and I had a lot of fun.

They made a lot of Ottawa jokes. Exhibit A

Inspector: Maybe you shot Mickey by accident! You exchanged angry words. Things got physical. Before you know it, the situation has escalated too quickly! You pull a gun and accidentally shot him!

Stutters (that's the suspect's name): You really think I could shoot someone twice in the back by accident?! Who do you think I work for? The Hull police force?

This was met by a lot of yukyuking from the audience.

There were also a lot of general jokes that I thought were pretty clever. Exhibit B

Mickey: I've really turned over a new leaf! I've gotten a job with a company and now I'll never be unemployed again!

Inspector: That's great, and what company do you work for?

Mickey: Nortel!

Exhibit C

Inspector: Take Shay for instance! He used to be on the streets, stealing old valuables from others and pawning them off for money. Now he works for Ebay!

And my personal favourite: Exhibit D

Inspector: [with gun pointed at criminals] Not so fast! Take one more step and there'll be so much lead in you, you'll think you were made in China! [He turns and looks directly at the table where I'm sitting with Kitty and another Chinese girl] No offense.

Everyone spun around in their seats and stared at us. I was so tempted to say, "I'm from Michigan." It's not everyday you get to make a Mean Girls reference! But I decided not to steal the show and just smiled and waved.

In addition to all this splendid murder mystery fun, there was singing and dancing. There was a table full of evidence that I never got to see. There was always a crowd of old people who got really into the show and were trying to pick apart the evidence. I was not about to battle it out with granny to see a forged bloodstained letter.

Highlight of the evening: I ordered my first alcoholic drink! It's called a Fat Tuesday's Hurricane. I actually completely forgot that I could order drinks until the waitress pointed out the drinks menu to me, which then led me to realize

Disappointment of the evening: I had forgotten to bring ID!

Crisis averted: I decided to just go for it and order. Wonder of wonders! She didn't ask me for ID! You know what that means? I look 19! Living breathing proof that I have matured and now radiate eminence and sophistication. Look out, world!

My drink was awesome! To be fair, I didn't really taste the alcohol and Kitty thinks they gave me a virgin one, which kind of brought down my party. But I still think this is an auspicious moment. Even if it was virgin (which I refuse to believe), it was a symbolic gesture. Besides, it was pretty! All I really wanted as my first legal drink was a pretty drink with lots of colours. This one started off orange at the top and turned red at the bottom with a nasty maraschino cherry and a lemon wedge! It was tasty tasty goodness!

After the show, we decided to go have dessert (because a 3-course dinner just doesn't cut it, you know). We each ordered a giant slice of cake, since dessert cafes have become a bit of a trademark of my birthdays. There's no Demetre's in Byward Market, so we made do. It was pretty satisfying but now I think my arteries are completely clogged forever. Success? I think so!

I definitely need to hit the gym tomorrow, or at least think vigorous thoughts about the gym. Yeah, I think it's going to be the latter option. If I don't make it back for Reading Week, it's probably because I got stuck trying to get out the door.

And so concludes my birthday festivities. 19. NINETEEN. Just getting a feel for it. I think I could get used to it.