I really want a veggie burger right now. With extra cheese.

Today was relatively good in terms of happiness.

I have a full shelf on my bookshelf dedicated to books about archaeology and anthropology.
I found the rest of my postcard collection, including all of my European ones.
I got my L finally, though I have no intentions to drive for at least eight months.
I watched Mars Attacks! and sang along.
I drank some really good wine.
I found out that if there are no Europe trips at Moody next year, I can go with Centennial and bring a friend. They know me and love me as the youth worker's daughter who went to Mexico with Centennial to work, not get shitfaced.

Dad dampened my mood a bit, but whatever.

Grasshopper Abortions

Today I went over to Mikhael's and he, Alex and I worked on our concept map and played on the treadmill that Mikhael is trying to sell. Anybody want a treadmill?

After we met my parents and sister at the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner, then the five of us went to see the Festival of Lights in VanDusen Gardens.

Pictures on Erin's blog. Maybe I'll post some tomorrow, but those ones are mine, so you'd be seeing them anyway.

Grandfather-in-a-box dressed up for the holidays

Okay. I'm trying to remember if I left my house on Christmas at all. No, I didn't. We opened our presents. I seemed to get more than everybody else, but most of it was really small stuff.

The tree


Opening gifts


Lou


It smells like Mikhael's house


Truffles :)


The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe


Threadless shirt


Another Threadless shirt


Shirt from One Tooth, a store like Lululemon, but much cheaper. Actual purple is darker than it looks.


Far Side page a day calendar. Gary Larson said a few years ago that he'd never do another one. Whatever.


Sweater. I love it.


Stuart MacLean's new book


The best purse in the world.


I've wanted one for over a year. Really bad picture


Christmas ornament


Starbucks card


Chocolate


More chocolate


More chocolate


More chocolate


Art stuff


New flashcard


The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories


Another memory card


Two new journals. I'm going to use them for math next semester.


Mikhael's family is taking me to see David Copperfield


More chocolate


My family is going to Eric Clapton in March


Cookie cutters


More art stuff


Two Ray Bradbury books. Wasn't expecting that at all.


All of my presents on my bed


Mom spent part of the day cooking, and I spent most of the day on the computer. We watched both The Devil Wears Prada and Little Miss Sunshine. We played three games of cribbage, which is not an old lady game, Mikhael. Dad and I won two out of three. We usually win. Erin got mad at me for playing with the lazy susan.

~

Yesterday I went to Mikhael's, where we watched Fantasia and I slept on his couch for a while. Came home and watched another movie, something about swimming the English Channel. Stayed up late talking to Mikhael.

~

Slept in really late. Went for lunch with the parents, ate soup and a sandwich and drank a couple cups of coffee and felt better. Half-heartedly worked on bio for the rest of the day.

I've been scoring Threadless submissions all day. I just can't stop.

Oh my god!

James Brown is dead!

The Boy with Nails in His Eyes put up his aluminum tree. It looked pretty strange because he couldn't really see.

Merry Christmas, kids.

Songs of the '60's

On Friday I suffered a lack of Katie. I cheered myself up by wearing my new crinoline to school. Everybody loved it.

In block one we were kicked out of the library because we didn't have permission slips to see the BodyWorlds dvd, despite the fact that we had already seen it when the grade tens who hadn't gone to Science World watched it and despite the fact that I did have a permission slip even though I wasn't planning on attending. We played cards in the caf. Esaly gave everyone a candy cane.

Block two we had a quiz, then we marked our provincial excerpts, then Bellemare said we could either read our bad French novels or sing Christmas songs it French, so we all got together and discussed our upcoming orals, like the good little IB students that we are.

Block three we just talked about Lord of the Flies and were given Macbeth to read over break. I can almost guarantee that I will be one of maybe four people who actually reads the book.

Block four we started ecology. I don't remember that class being too boring at all, but it was probably one of the most boring bio classes that we've had all year.

Block five we presented our current projects to each other. Minjee was admiring my public speaking skills, so I helped her come up with what to say about her piece. Eventually I became bored, having been the second person to present, so I wrote myself a note in my phone.

Mikhael and I played cards on the floor after school. People stared at my crinoline and not-quite-so-current art project on which I received one hundred percent.

We eventually bussed it to Eagle Ridge manor because I had a family dinner function there. Grandma had forgotten, and since it was dinner time there was no help to get her dressed and out of bed, so she employed me to help her dress. Kind of disturbing. It's one of those things that you wish you'd never have seen, or touched . . . Eventually help came and relieved me of my duties, and I went out to where Mikhael was saiting and twirled for some elderly ladies who then asked us about school and if we knew their grandchildren.

Eventually the cousins and parents etc arrived and Mikhael went home. We ate take out Hons and nanaimo bars, then I spent the next I don't know how long running after the cousins and they galloped through the manor.

~

Yesterday:

Mikhael came over and helped put up the tree and decorate it. It took quite a while, but we fed him twice and gave him a ride home, although it probably would have been faster if he had just bussed it.

~

Today:

Mom, Erin and I went shopping for Dad, then we came back and wrapped everything, drank a cup of tea, then left to visit dad's mom. We had an okay time there, Grandma's roommate Margaret is the sweetest, little woman who absolutely loved my crinoline.

Getting ready for bed and Santa :)

Happy Second Blogversary to me!

So, this is the time of year where I talk about the previous year in blogging.

It all started off with this time last year. I had just moved into my new room, and the last week of 2005 was full of broken-down vehicles, visiting family and train rides.

January was a whirlwind of studying for exams and computer viruses. There was some mathematical stigmata going on, and I made fun of Stephen Harper a lot. On January 20th, a Friday, I injured myself somehow, that included a lump on my head. I did not give details. If anyone has any information about said lump, please tell me. Um, I went to that big warehouse sale and bought most of my loud and garish ties, and that black skirt that everyone likes. Since then, I have given one of the fifty cent belts to Natasha for her birthday, because I saw her eyeing mine. My mp3 player died, stupid piece of shit.

The beginning of February was the end of the semester. We took lots of pictures. Exam week sucked, but as soon as it was over Jordan and I celebrated by going to see Capote. I went to a Great Big Sea concert. The next day I went for sushi and Death by Chocolate and filmed cutting Alexis' hair beside Best Buy then went to the park and danced and played games like Squeeze 'n Jump. I was single during Valentines Day, but I don't care, because single or not, I still hate Valentines Day. Erin and I made up a Secret List of Death. Luke's father had two brain aneurisms. The rest of the month was filled with bitching about dance and dance costumes.

March started off with a visit to Metrotown with fifteen of my Asian friends and a sort of going away party for Tiffy. During Spring Break I went to Tijuana, Mexico to help fix up a school with a bunch of people from Centennial. We visited many places, Ensenada, Rosarita, La Bufadora, Tecate (the brewery) and La Rumorosa. It was good fun, though it was nice to travel North and be able to flush things down toilets and have warm showers again. On the way back I lost my Disneyland virginity and spent way more than I should have at the NBC store. Jack Skellington is sitting on my bed at this very moment. SUS had a birthday party at her dad's friend's house, where we watched movies in their rec room with the big projector screen. Kenny turned one and we threw a little party for her. Yuki was sacked on his birthday. Mom received a letter from a man whose return ticket to Germany we found at the airport three years ago. I joined rugby. Carolee threw a going away party for Tiff, where we made her a collage and I stole Richard's hat and triumphantly wore it for two hours. Luke and Thomas played, "Let's Make Fun of Abby's Chest" at a manor show. I think they were jealous. Tiffy left for Japan for three years to study at a Buddhist school. Very emotional, especially since she forgot to hug The Wall goodbye.

In April some hot, Belgian guys invaded my PE class one day. They owned us in Alleyball. I started participating in rugby games. I went to the ENCOMPASS conference and attended two lectures by Lesra Martin. Went to the Matt Good concert, best concert ever, then went to Erin's and woke up five hours later to go to the Sun Run. Dance competitions, did badly and didn't place in Surrey. The choir performed at elementary schools. Bought a Van Gogh action figure, but was upset because he has both ears. My grandmother changed her digs without telling us, which eventually led us out to White Rock.

The most important thing that came out of May was Mikhael. Now seven months and counting. Danced for my grandmother and celebrated her birthday. Some guy asked me to help him find a Dora the Explorer episode and I admitted my love for Steve from Blues Clues. Found out that an astonishing number of Asians in my school do not know the meaning of Hanky Panky. I got my jaw knocked out of place during a rugby game and couldn't for three days. On the second day Erin too pity on me and made me a smoothie, but it was so painful. I helped out with Leader of the Pack, selling tickets etc, because I couldn't be in the musical and still wanted to take part. Mikhael gave me cheesecake on his birthday. Two medals at DancePower, a silver and a bronze. I set my hair on fire. We went to the provincials, but I only got to play in two games. Went to the grad dinner/dance to perform for choir. Took dance pictures, dad's birthday, I found a bee and named him Albert, but Bergman made me remove him. Bitch.

In June I was n a poetry kick, I kicked a lot of poetry. My left eyelid became all swollen just days before my year end dance shows. Thomas said a lot of amusing things. Final choir concert, end of school, exams. Lots of World Cup watching. I announced to the world that Beckie is my bitch. Commencement ceremony at the Orpheum, sang and listened to Jordan's mp3.

In July I sailed. First two weeks were the first session, next week was Learn to Race, and the next week after that was volunteer training. For details, read the damn posts. Broke my toe. Saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2 with sailing people. Mikhael took me to Cirque du Soleil's Varekai. Mikhael lost my phone and I got a new one. Entered the Maple Ridge fair and won a blue ribbon for my ring. Went to a tea party. Went to the fireworks with the sailing volunteers. Tried honey BBT for the first time.

In August was acquainted with some seals. Went to fireworks with sailing volunteers and Mikhael. Went to the fireworks with family and ate cupcakes from Cupcakes. Wrestled with a daggerboard multiple times. I was supposed to be in the newspaper, but I wasn't. I bought a dress. Celebrated other grandmother's birthday, I made the cake. More sailing. I was stuck with the ADHD kid because I was one of the few people that he'd listen to. Went to a movie with Mikhael and Jordan a few days before Jordan moved to Red Deer. I was obsessed with What It's Like Being Alone, which was removed for the fall season. Shame. Babysat the cousins. Lost my wallet, then got it back three days later.

September started off with another all you can eat sushi trip, this time to Vancouver. There was also BBT and deep fried chocolate bars. Got to school five hours early on the first day just because I could. Steve Irwin died. I finally acquired a duck named Steve. Another Great Big Sea concert. saw the Dalai Lama for the second time. Um, a lot of time was consumed by school. Helped out with parent/teacher interviews. Filmed a movie about cowpox. Went to Carolee's birthday party.

October was mostly school. Not random teacher strike this year. The family went on a bit of a "vacation" which I deemed fairly successful at the end because the parents swore that they'll never go on one again. My baby went to Hawaii for ten days and I missed him muchly. Received my first Threadless shirt. Went to Death By Chocolate because I had a coupon. Cross country meets. Started using a webcam on MSN. My birthday. Sushi and a rugby ball named Stewart. Went to a Canucks game. Glad that I didn't pay for it.

November, more school. Mysterious, giant bruise on my arm that stung. Remembrance Day assemblies, sang in both, both were different. Veteran made no sense. Went to BodyWorlds for the first time. Rearranged my room a bit so that I take up more of it than somebody who doesn't even live there. Was snowed in. Went to the opera with eighty of my friends.

December started off with the failed non-field trip that ended up being lunch. Saw a play at Riverside. Christmas concerts, not as fun as last year. Sabot singing to Abby W's boyfriend. District choir night. Two or three or four storms in a row. Saw Natasha's play. Received a crinoline. Body Worlds again, then dinner. Vancouver Aquarium.

~

That was my year in brief. Today shall be talked about tomorrow, as it is nearly two AM and dad wants me to go to bed.

~

This is my six hundredth post.

Noodles and pie

Today I got my firstest ever Santa Gram :)

I don't remember anything else, um, Emily gave me a pencil and a pen that are all Asian-y.

Bellemare made us do parts of old provincials. Beckie got out of class early in block one and we taught her how to play big two. I found out that we have the same block off next semester, which means that we can talk about dance and bore everybody. Bio we looked at a dissected frog and Sabot was attacking people with the legs. English, class itself not exciting, but I stayed after school to write two commentaries.

Met up with mom at the train station after and we waited for dad. As we were leaving dad yelled at a train comissionaire for blocking the drop off lanes with his car.

That's about it :)

Smut 101

We went to the Vancouver Aquarium today. It was muchly fun.

In the morning we looked at all of the fishes and the octopuses and the belugas, and in the afternoon we did a big review of a bunch fo bio stuff and got to touch things.

More tomorrow. And maybe pictures. Lots of pictures.

Mikhael gave me minty chocolates :)

Today was another one of those days where I did not do anything.

Watching Mikhael cut the head off of our rat put me in the perfect mood to finish my art project.

Studying for French oral and hating it.

Give me a hug!

To the left!
<-----------------------

That rat needs to look more festive

I didn't do much today. Block two we talked about the power outage and Christmas, block three we had a toc and nothing to do, so she read us a story, then we did whatever we wanted; I played pictionary with Kenard and Emily. Block four I took pictures of Mikhael dissecting what looked like a curried rat, block five worked on my piece.

Played with Wiggle Cars at the mall, Diane was there, then we hung out near the TVs.

Dance, Donna didn't realize how hypoglycemic I really was because I look that tired and out of it every day.

Stupid blogger automatically switched me to Beta. If you don't have Beta, Nuxxy, you can't comment.

They're not geckos, dammit!

Today was our second attempt at a Science World non-field trip. It was decidedly more successful; we got in this time.

Body Worlds was more informative this time, with Sabot there. The movie was okay, but too broad.

After a bunch of us (Katie, Megan, SUS, Carolee, Emily, Faaria, Stanley, Yuan, Alex, Mikhael and I) went for dinner at IHOP. Alex and Mikhael ducked out and bought two lemon meringue pies and candles, as it is Katie's birthday. Happy birthday, Katie.

Parents picked me up and we gave Mikhael and Stanley rides home.

Um. I didn't take many pictures. Tomorrow maybe I'll upload that clip of Alex eating lemon/ketchup/tabasco pie to YouTube.

Shut up, you fool

Mikhael still without power, poor baby, all cold and hungry. I'm bring you breakfast tomorrow.

Today we went to Vancouver, and Mikhael bought me a crinoline from Mintage as an early Christmas present. *Starts grinning like mad*





As we were walking around, I saw the Oogie Boogie Man on the ground, which was also cause for celebration.



We skytrained it to Metro and wandered around a bit, bought a Strawberry Julius, then got on the bus and went to Willingdon Church to see I'll Be Home for Christmas. We got there two hours early; there was free seating in the mezz, so in order to get good seats, we had to be there early. I enjoyed it for the most part, all except the slideshow thing before the play started that had all of this trivia, and I only got one question right.

We just missed our bus after, so we bought a pizza at some pizza place, and after eating a couple slices each, we booked it up a hill for two blocks and barely caught the bus. On the bus I finished my pizza, then on the skytrain we shared some baklava.

Took the B-Line to Coquitlam Station, then was picked up by the parents. They went for dinner, I drank copious amounts of tea and stole articles about sea urchins from the Vancouver Sun.

When we got home we watched ballroom dancing on KCTS and commented on how it was more of a burlesque show than a dance competition, due to the female dancers flashing their vaginas every five seconds.

Watching Saturday Night Live. Tomorrow I'm going to Science World with bio people again.

How clouds have sex

Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday . . .

I did a sudoku with my right hand. I took some notes in English and for once didn't draw little pictures all over them. We did nothing in Bio, having Tsui as our teacher for the day, and she ducked out half way through the block to go to the liquor store (for some non liquor filled bags for Elementary school kids to colour, like what my dad is doing). Jenson visited us to tell us that the tower stairs were off limits because somebody pulled on a railing on the landing between the second and third floors and it had fallen off. Art, worked on my project. Went to the mall, saw Jessica working for the first time. Dance, Luke's birthday.

Thursday:
Jas, Omar and Pepin were meeting with Shirley Bond, and we made fun of Jas because he looked like he was going to his own funeral. French, no quiz, which was nice, and we spent most of the block reading. In English Hunnings was lecturing, and he kept on having to stop, because there were people in the stairwell fixing the railing. Bio, didn't do much at all. Art, worked. Again. Mall, picked up santa photos, then visited Pepin at work. Dance, switched solo times with Luke this week. Realized that when it's just Donna and I, I talk a lot.

Today:
Big storm in the middle of the night. Arrived in Port Moody to find out that school was closed because there was no power. Met up with Mikhael, then his mom picked us up and took us to his house, which also had no power. We ended up babysitting David all day, after finding out that his school was closed. Eventually I went home, earlier than usual for a Friday night, but that was probably a good thing, because all of the buses were behind shadily. After we got across the bridge everything was back to normal, Maple Ridge has power, so I watched all of the Christmas specials featured on CBC.

Tomorrow I'm going shopping with Mikhael, then we're going to see some musical/play at Natasha's church.

More singing

Sleigh Ride and Calypso Carol.





I need to think of a way to convince Donna to let me dance to I Don't Feel Like Dancing by the Scissor Sisters next year.

Penguins

Yesterday night I had to go to another choir concert, the District one, but there are no pictures because I was feeling bitter and wanted to go home and study.

I saw some people whom I haven't seen for a while: Amy, KJ, Tony . . . Apparently Steph was there but I didn't notice. Riverside was too quiet.

Other than that, I don't seem to have done anything remotely interesting yesterday. My random doodle of the week is the lobster.

It was fun to watch the transformers go during the storm.

~

Today Saucier was talking to us, and some former IB Dip student. They make everything sound so easy. I doodled. The CAS hour speech is only interesting the first time. There was a momentary bout of amusement; Saucier admitted that he likes basketball in front of Bellemare.

In English I drew lobsters, took notes and actually made connections, which is "the IB thing to do." Yay. Hunnings asked us a very important question: If you have more than one test in a day, does that mean that you have testes?

In bio we marked our labs, I did very well on both, but there was that momentary panic when Sabot said that he might give us zero on both due to people cheating, but luckily that didn't happen. Sabot went to Branch's room, took us along, and sung Happy Birthday to Abby's boyfriend, despite it not being his birthday, rather their one month. Most of us sang along, and I caught it on film.



In art I glazed my walrus. Chalmers says that I'll get lots of bonus marks for basically teaching people how to glaze and answering questions about clay.

I have dance for the next few days. Not looking forward to it.

~

Happy seven month, baby. You look so cute in green :)

Lobster With Wings

The past week has been fairly uneventful; I've just been busy with homework and extra choir practices. I don't remember much about it, nor does my journal say much, although it does tell me that I spent way too much time drawing the profiles of pigs.

This weekend was more interesting; Erin and were dropped off at Coquitlam Centre while mom and dad went to IKEA to buy a Christmas tree. We did some Christmas shopping and some shopping for ourselves (six shirts for thirty dollars! And penguin bras :) ). After we had wandered around for a few hours, the parents arrived and we lined up to get our pictures taken with Santa, as we do every year. We were going to do it in the morning, but we had to wait until later for certain reasons, meaning Joel was working and he could give us extra pictures.

We ate a quick dinner at the food court, then rushed off to PoMo.

At the Inlet Theatre, I was late for warmup, though, in my defense,, nobody told me that I was supposed to be warming up on stage.

Performed Sleigh Ride and Calypso Carol, then we were off until the finale, where we sang Hallelujah with the string orchestra and community band. There wasn't enough room for all of us, so the choir got to sing in the back of the theatre for that song. During our downtime, I discussed immigration with Diana.

Slept over at Erin's just so we could watch a foreign film, we chose Hawaii, Oslo, then we watched two episodes of Saturday Night Live, the current one and the older one that came right after, which happened to be the last one of the twentieth century. Went to bed afterwards, around two-thirty.

Woke up around ten and read for a while, then when Erin got up we made a joined effort at breakfast, I scrambled the extra cheesy eggs that I am becoming famous for in my family and Erin made the hash browns out of some old potatoes that she found in her fridge. We left soon after that for the theatre.

At the theatre I met up with Megan, and after discovering that the library didn't open until one, we walked to Starbucks and discussed our French oral on the way.

Once again I was late for warm up. I really wish people would tell me these things.

Concert the same as yesterday, only this time instead of talking to Diana during our downtime, a few of us huddled around a TV ( and I mean huddled; we had to keep the volume low because we were underneath the stage) and watched part of School of Rock.

Mikhael filmed all of the choir numbers for me on my camera, as well as taking a few pictures of Megan, Katie, Krisha and Denis. Here is Hallelujah. You can vaguely hear the choir in the back, but due to acoustics, we weren't as loud as we could have been. If you hear one soprano over the others, that's probably me.



After, Erin and I spent a couple hours at the library until it closed, and then we were picked up by the parents. We went for dinner, and then we went to a concert at some local church that was being put on by the Langley Ukulele Orchestra, or whatever it was called. It wasn't too bad, actually, though I was incredibly tired of music concerts (only one more. Only one more and then I'm done for the year). The conductor had so much energy, even more than Ms Gaye in her "fake it 'till you make it" mode.

No pictures this year. Last year was better.

A brief interlude

I will update after my music concerts, on Sunday. I promise. I have last Sunday partially written and the rest coming.

In the meantime, here is Montreal -40°C by Malajube:



EDIT: Field Trip post is down below. The past week is to follow eventually.

Spot the Evil Toast

This morning I got up early, not really, and bussed it to Lougheed. I met Mikhael on the way, he brought me breakfast.

Met up with everyone, Sabot looked like some sort of pedopheliac drug dealer, collecting money and taking pictures. We all piled onto the skytrain and talked politics, about the Liberal leadership convention and how Katie saw Omar on TV.

We eventually arrived at Science World, only to find out that the power had gone out ten minutes before. Sabot went inside to talk to some official people, and Krisha and I danced:































Sabot eventually came out and told us that the power wouldn't be on for a while, so half of our group left, and the rest of us, numbering twenty one including Sabot decided to go for lunch. We got back onto the skytrain and went one or two stops too far, so we ran across the platform to the train going the other way and got on. At the next stop half of us decided to confuse the other half by getting off the train, running to the end of the train and getting back on. It might have worked had we not crashed into the others as we all got off; Carolee fell over and got trampled. I am technically not supposed to say anything about this for Sabot's sake, as it was not a particularly safe thing to do, so shhhhhh. Mikhael, at the coaxing of others, put on mascara:



We got off at Granville finally, and after making fun of some graffiti:



We continued on to Robson.

Sabot went to go talk to the people at Red Robin, and the rest of us swarmed Banana Republic for a few minutes.

Lunch = good. We ate, drank and were merry.





















Skytrained it back to Lougheed, where we went our separate ways. At Broadway saw this sign:



Seen it before, but we were still all sad when we saw it again.

Mikhael and I bussed it in the general direction of home, he got off at his, and I continued on to Coquitlam Station, where a guy told me that it was Saturday, and then when I told him otherwise, he stated that he was an idiot.

Bussed home.

That's all I remember.

Here's a picture of my cat licking Erin's cat.