Mouse Crisis, Part Six

They're back! I don't know if they they just had a bunch of babies or were sleeping over the winter and have just woken up, but we had a mouse in our house the other night. We always hear them in the walls but haven't seen them running around in a while. I was sleeping and Jerrica was on my computer when she saw one out in the hall. It came into my room and at this point Jerrica ran across the room, jumped up on my bed and started screaming. I'm not used to my roommates freaking out about mice, usually I'm the only one. Wes, Em, and Ami have all had to save me from them in the past. Well, Jerrica and I stood on the bed in hysterics until we woke up Em who came and tried to catch it. It got away from her but I hope it learned it lesson and stays away.

Not All Fun And Games

I'm really proud and I'm really happy.
Get the fuck out of here, see the world.
Education, discipline, adventure.
But what if something horrible happens?
How will it change him?
And, it finally just hit me.
What if he dies?

Odd Book Titles

There’s an annual prize awarded at the Frankfurt Book Fair for the book with the weirdest title. Here are some of the winners;
-I Was Tortured By The Pigmy Love Queen
-Oral Sadism And The Vegetarian Personality
-How To Avoid Huge Ships
-Highlights In The History Of Concrete
-Greek Rural Postmen And Their Cancellation Numbers
-Stray Shopping Carts Of Eastern North America: A Guide To Field Identification
I think the last one sounds genuinely interesting, you always see shopping carts around in weird places, identifying them and tracking them isn't much more strange than birding. I know this because I have relatives who are birders. My favorite though is The Bookseller Magazine Diagram Prize winner for the oddest title of the year, If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs.

So Happy

I am back on my drugs! Well not all of them, I went off the Birth Control this month and have to wait before I can start taking it again. But I have them, so I'm ready. I have spent the last week on and off the 'important pills' both the Adderall and the Wellburtin. It was a long ordeal; as I ran out, had a mix up with getting them picked up, everything being closed on the long weekend, then leaving them in my brothers car, not realising until he drove the 6 hours home, having issues with our national postal services, and further issues with the internal mailroom at work. Finally though, I got them and I took them. I'm happy to have made it through in one piece; mentally, emotionally, and physically. I tried my best while I was off them. Staying positive. Going outside. Doing some light exercise. Now on the other side of it all, 5 hours after taking them, and I can feel them working. Possibly the placebo effect but I don't care. I'm happy and I want to stay happy forever.

Click To Give

I have know about this site for a long time. I wish I did it everyday, which makes me think I should put it as one of my blog links or sign up for the daily reminder e-mail. I'm not going to do either, but I have it bookmarked so hopefully I will start going more often. It is actually six sites in one. On each of the sites, each day, you click this big button and sponsors donate to charity. Basically the site has a deal with it's advertisers, that they pay per site visit, but instead of having a site visit counter, they have the button which visitors click. All it takes is time, you are basically becoming a whore for the advertisers but when your too poor to give to charity yourself it isn't a bad idea. Go to the site and scroll through the tabs to click on each site - The Hunger Site, The Breast Cancer Site, The Child Health Site, The Literacy Site, The Rainforest Site, and The Animal Rescue Site. Bookmark it and do it everyday if you can. Of course there is more to do on each site then just clicking, you can buy products, or research the cause.

Limits

The longer I wait, the more I want, the farther I fall, the more it hurts when it doesn't work out. I hate this part. Why is life so hard sometimes?

In The Army Now

Little Brother Mike is down this weekend to visit. He has been training with the Canadian Forces Army Reserves every other weekend for the past little while. Now he is trying to get into the Army full time. He really likes it and says the hardest part is not laughing when his superiors are yelling at him. Before sleeping one night, Little Brother Mike was in line to get a drink at the water fountain, without a shirt since he was on his way to bed:
SARGENT: Sweeton, go get a shirt on!
MIKE: Yes, sir
SARGENT: NOW! What are you trying to do? Woo me?

Spring Pedi

A Little Bit Of Foo

Foo Fighters concert in Ottawa on Wednesday March 19, 2008
-Jerrica won a Telus contest with seats and a meet and greet with the band
-We sold our original 200 level tickets to Ami
-Left work super early to take bus out to Napean
-Rain, snow, cold and late cabs
-Was allowed one photo per group and one item autographed each
-Got a second thing autographed for Jerrica
-I look super awkward in the one photo we were allowed (see above)
-Couldn't pick between Nate Mendel (on my left) or Chris Shiflett (on my right)
-The drummer Taylor Hawkins cuddled up to Jerrica
-Literally said "I'm going to lean on you girl" to her
-Dave Grohl didn't show up
-Got 100 level tickets, but needed to mess about at the box office to get them
-To the left of the stage, super close, four rows up from the floor
-Antoine Vermette, a Sens hockey player sat infront of us
-I got the aisle, so I sat most of the time with a perfect view
-Jerrica stood, danced, sang ,and screamed most of the time
-I knew 75% of the songs sung, and loved them
-It fucking rocked!!

Bad Week For Carleton

After years of fighting a poor academic image and reputation, as well as the nickname of "Last Chance U", Carleton has fallen on some hard times. On a slightly happy note, this past year Carleton moved up 4 spots on the Maclean's 17th Annual University Rankings, released on November 19th, 2007. Sitting in 7th on the list of Canadian Comprehensive Universities is a big step up from 11th and last place the year before. Mind you, a point of pride for all students at Carleton has always been our 5 time national championship winning men's basketball team. Well this past weekend the boys lost, surrendering our title. In even sadder news, only a few months after a horrific campus rape, a young Carleton student has gone missing. Things aren't looking so great for my fair school. Carleton, 'where the K stands for Quality.'

Nostalgic

I'm visiting Paris this weekend. Spending time with Teri and my family always fills me with nostalgia. A bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past, a past which never truly happened. When looking back everything is sweetened.

On Another Musical Note

I got a call at work today from Jerrica. We are going to see the Foo Fighters in concert at Scotabank Place here in Ottawa next week. We have had tickets for the concert for months now. The on going joke has been that I'm so musically inept that I have no idea who they are or what they sing. This is unfortunately true. They, like many musicians, play songs that I know and love but can't, on command, name. Jerrica has played me a few and I always say "Oh, they do this, I know this song, awesome!" Well the phone call at work was to tell me that we were actually going to meet the band. I gather Jerrica entered some kind of contest through Telus and won. So now I get to meet Foo Fighters and still have no idea who they are, I think it is time to research.

This Is My Life

Twentysomething song by Jamie Cullum

After years of expensive education,

a car full of books and anticipation,

I’m an expert on Shakespeare and that’s a hell of a lot

but the world don't need scholars as much as I thought.

Maybe I'll go travelling for a year,

finding myself or start a career.

I could work for the poor though I’m hungry for fame

we all seem so different but we're just the same.

Maybe I'll go to the gym, so I don't get fat,

aren't things more easy with a tight six pack?

Who knows the answers? Who do you trust?

I can't even separate love from lust.

Maybe I’ll move back home and pay off my loans,

working nine to five answering phones.

Don't make me live for my friday nights,

drinking eight pints and getting in fights.

I don't want to get up, just let me lie in,

leave me alone, I'm a twenty something.

Maybe I'll just fall in love that could solve it all,

philosophers say that that’s enough,

there surely must be more. Ooooh

Love ain’t the answer nor is work,

the truth eludes me so much it hurts.

But I’m still having fun and I guess that's the key,

I'm a twenty something and I'll keep being me.

It is even better when you watch him play it at Blenheim Palace, UK, in front of 10 000 people, most of them old and just not feeling it. He is basically playing jazz but tries to be a rock star which is hilarious at times. Watch the clip on YouTube.

Read It

If this blog and my writing in general emulated any other writer it would probably be Robert Fulghum, author of All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten and an number of other books. I don't think I intentionally copy his style but I have started to reread his books and can see that I do resemble it a bit. I think he is brilliant. My mom was reading them when when I was really young and once she was done I read them too. Looking at them again I can see the writing is quite simple and very positive, edging on sappy. All of the stuff I would want to quote from him is a little too long for a blog post, but his bit on Crayon's is priceless. Start with All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten and if you like it move on to his other stuff. Get it out of the library or borrow it from me. It is a really good little book and a quick easy read.

Random Thought

Pressing the snooze button, and those 9 minutes in between, are like little shot glasses of sleep.

It's A Montage

I'm preparing to give away my bunny. I have had little Toby for over 3 years and I love him so much. The new apartment is too small for three people, two cats, and a bunny so I needed to find him a new home. Toby is also a lot more work then you would think and I don't have the time to handle and play with him as much as he deserves. I love him so much and it is so very hard to see him go. I'm comforted by the fact that I have found a great person to take him. I'm having friends over on Easter Monday to say goodbye to the little guy before he heads off to his new life.

Losing Time

I just lost an hour of my life. I guess it is all relative since it was a time change and everyone lost an hour. Spring ahead daylight savings time was last night, but I didn't even figure it out until this afternoon. There was a chance I may have even forgotten totally this time until I went to show up at work Monday morning and would have been late. Now it is Sunday afternoon and I feel even worse about wasting away my day since it is an hour later than I thought it was. There is always talk about not doing the daylight savings time thing anymore and I fully support that, since it is great in the fall but terrible in the spring.

The Daily Coyote

I have added a new link. I am strangely picky with my links and take great pains to only include those I truly love, and check regularly. I have known about The Daily Coyote for a while now, as there have been a few links from Cute Overload to it. The story of it all is so beautiful; young women, Wyoming, log cabin, cat, adopted coyote. There are two options, you can either sign up for a weekly e-mail to get photos and written updates or you can visit her site. The blog is a number of months behind the e-mails. Check it out. She is a brilliant photographer and her subject matter is incredible, predominately landscapes and the coyote.
(Photo used with permission. Prints of it and others are available for purchase from the site.)

Too Much To Take

This post has been a long time coming. I rant and whine about this alot and it has become a regular topic of conversation for Teri and I. People from Paris are settling down, like crazy. There have been engagements, weddings, houses, and babies. They don't seem to always occur in that order. It isn't really happening to my friends here, just those I knew from home. I can understand it, those that didn't go away for school have spent 4 to 5 years earning money moving up in the work force, getting benefits, gaining experience, seniority, and promotions. Those that did go away to school are now starting to graduate and enter the workforce. Relationships that started in high school or just after are now established, committed, and long term. Property is more affordable in Brantford, Paris and the surrounding area, compared to my current location of crazy overpriced housing in Ottawa. Facebook is an easy tool to see what stage of life everyone is at, what they have made of themselves and where they are. Teri gives me regular updates as do my parents. It started with those older, but quickly spread to those who are my age and younger, at first it was just acquaintances and names I knew but now it is close friends and even family. I look at it all and just want to scream "But we are so young!"

Such A True Song

It is the song from the intro for Friends. "I'll Be There For You" by The Rembrandt's. This is only the first part, as I have never heard the full version. It really sums up my life right now.

I'll Be There For You

So no one told you life was gonna be this way

Your jobs a joke, you're broke, your love life's D.O.A.

It's like you're always stuck in second gear

And it hasn't been your day, your week, your month,

or even your year but..

I'll be there for you

When the rain starts to pour

I'll be there for you

Like I've been there before

I'll be there for you

'Cuz you're there for me too...

The New Kitty

Jerrica adopted a cat. A friend of her cousin just had a baby and the baby is allergic. So we are now in the process of introducing two cats to each other. It is very slow. We want to be careful because Binx is a princess who seems to think she owns the entire place. We mostly keep them separated but have started to integrate them when we are around to watch. The new cat is 6 years old and named Cora. She is massive and Jerrica has put her on a diet.

Every Week

I have fallen into some patterns. It now seems as though I have a weekly routine. I wasn't intending on this, but it just formed on it's own.
Mondays: Grocery shopping right after work at Hartman's
Tuesdays: Meet Kristin on campus to workout
Wednesdays: Shakespeare night course at Carleton
Thursdays: Go to Taylor & Kristen's for dinner and to watch ANTM
My weekends fill up too, but there is less of a pattern. Well actually, lately there has been a pattern of being very social as well as going out a lot to drink and dance. I will have to cut back on that in order to be more diligent with my school work.

Everything I Love

I went to see a ballet tonight at the NAC. I love the dance program they have here in Ottawa, they have lots of different companies touring through, and there is alot of dance. Tonight's performance was Le Songe (Midsummer's Night Dream) done by Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. It was incredible; great music, interesting costumes, great choreography. The dance was just traditional enough to be beautiful and just modern enough to be interesting. They stuck really close to the story and the erotic nature of the characters and story really showed through. Three things I love; eroticism, Shakespeare, ballet, all together in one!!