3 things I've learned

Just a quick entry tonight. I'm hungry and need to make some dinner. I have learned three things recently that I thought you, dear reader, might find helpful.

1. Ares is the best file-sharing software that I've found in my searches. It's quick, easy, has a great selection of files, and the downloads are faster than any other program I've tried. Plus, the best part is no spyware or adware.

2. When you mix taco seasoning into sour cream and then eat it with nachoes, magic happens. This is the best thing I've done in a long time. I now believe that cumin is addictive because I have not been able to stop eating this. Well, now I have, because I'm out of sour cream. But this is only temporary...

3. Boy on a Stick and Slither is a bizarrely humourous webcomic. Its offbeatness tickles my funny bone. I would like a BOASAS T-shirt someday. I like the one about magical rainbows.

And now, off to dinner and dishes, then reading Allen Ginsberg in the bathtub. What a fun night I have planned! If only I still had some sour cream...

I like Fridays

Fridays are fast becoming my favourite day of the week. Two weeks ago I posted about another fun Friday with warm temperatures and amusing parties. Last Friday I got my first decent night's sleep in over a week. Yesterday was even better than either of those two previous Fridays. First it consisted of a lot of gossip time in the office with Ashley, and the news that my next dose of OSAP is in earlier than I'd expected. Then, there were plans to take in improv in the evening, though as it ends up, Ashley and I were late, and the improv room was too loud for us to go into (we don't like loud, especially when it's already in progress) so we went upstairs and sat around the SUB enjoying more chatting time as we waited for improv to end so that we could meet up with people and grab some pints or something.

Eventually we realized that we must have missed everyone leaving, so Ashley and I went to Paddy's and had some pints on our own. Anyone who knows me at all knows how sensitive I am to any sort of chemical - alcohol, caffeine, sugar, cocaine, etc - so I have to be really careful about how much I consume. Last night I struck the heady balance, so that I sustained a buzz for about 5 hours. It started with sugar in the SUB while we were waiting, and then was continued by a pint at Paddy's and a pint at the Library Pub, and then a gin and tonic back at my place. I was hilarious the whole time. It was a sustained giddiness that I managed to transmit to Ashley. So much giggling... hee hee hee... good times.

Zenon and Ross met us at the Library Pub for a pint, and then we ended up going back to my place to play games. The awesomest part of last night, the point at which my giddiness reached such a level that I thought I would explode, is when Ross said, "Let's play Frustration!" I have never heard of this game outside of my family. It is one that I was hoping to teach to Ashley someday, since it is one of my favourite card games ever. When Ross said this, I jumped up and raced into the study, where I had the rules written down on a piece of paper. My Mom did this for me when she helped me move in, so that I could teach new people how to play it. To have found friends who were ready-made Frustration players seemed too good to be true. We only ended up playing about 5 rounds of it, though, before Ashley and I decided that we wanted to move on to Trivial Pursuit. Frustration is fun, but it was a little too detailed for my substance-befogged mind last night. I was excited just to have had the opportunity to play it with people that I'm not related to, or to play it at all, really.

Trivial Pursuit went well. Zenon and I won, and by "won" I mean "totally kicked butt". This was mostly Zenon's doing, admittedly, although I did answer a couple (listen to me being so humble... that's a strange change). I liked having a partner who could answer the sports questions.

The other fun thing about last night is that I got to use my teapot. I don't often get this chance, because I usually only make tea for me, or at most one other person. However, last night the teapot came out and we all partook of some homegrown peppermint tea... yummy! Last night there were the most people in my apartment that there have ever been since I moved in. Ashley and Zenon had to sit on lawn chairs. Their heads were even with my table. It was funny.

Today's plans aren't too exciting... homework, dishes, laundry, etc. The usual. It's a really sunny day, and it seems to be a bit warmer than it has been the past few days, so I might have to get out for a walk later. Some of the other English girls are going to a dance club in Kentville tonight, but as I spent all my money on pints last night, and groceries yesterday afternoon, I think that I'm going to sit this one out, which is sad. Oh well. I can have a private dance party in my living room. There's always lots of room on my dancefloor. Care to join me?

More IQ Fun

I went back to this site and did the Super IQ Test (earlier I'd done the Classic IQ Test). I found this test to be much harder, even though it was shorter. Anyway, here's what it said:

Heidi, your Super IQ score is 131

Your overall intelligence quotient is the result of a scientifically-tested formula based on how many questions you answered correctly. But it's only part of what we learned about you from your answers on the test. We also determined the way you process information.

The way you think about things makes you a Complex Intellectual. This means you are highly intelligent and have extraordinarily strong verbal and math skills. Compared to others you are a highly conceptual and complex thinker and are able to understand information in an abstract form. You also show great attention to detail. In fact, it's hard to find something you're not good at (my emphasis).

How did we determine that your thinking style is that of a Complex Intellectual? When we examined your test results further, we analyzed how you scored on 8 dimensions of intelligence: spatial, organizational, abstract reasoning, logical, mechanical, verbal, visual and numerical. The 3 dimensions you scored highest on combine to make you a Complex Intellectual. Only 6 out of 1,000 people have this rare combination of abilities (my emphasis again).

Endquote. This test had those spatial questions that I hate, that always seem to be unfairly black and white. "Which of these shapes doesn't belong?" Well, it all depends on how you classify them... you can choose any one, actually, if you're creative enough, though the test only accepts one right answer. This one also had the ones with pulleys and with "which chair fits under this table" and such, the ones I hate. I don't know how I keep coming up with good math skills, except that I remember my high school math, and these questions are grade 10 level at best - solve for x and find volume, etc.

Anyway, even though this score is lower than my previous one, I feel comfortable with my 131 score, although Andrew is doing the test right now, so depending on his results, this comfortableness might change.

Just an Update

Hello. I just thought I'd post something. Not much has been going on lately. Monday was indeed another snow day, so we're now two weeks behind in my confessional poetry class. These snow storms are neat.

I saw the new Topher Grace movie, In Good Company. It was as good as I expected. As I said to Gillian, it was good enough to see in theatres, but not so good that it would be bad to wait until it comes out on video. I'm a big Topher Grace fan, though, as you probably guessed from my That '70s Show obsession, so I just liked being able to stare at him for 2 hours. My next big movie plan is Garden State, which I'm planning on watching tomorrow.

Today I went to Paddy's for some pints with the A's - Ashley and Andrea. It was fun. We had some cajun pizza (very yummy) and I splurged on the good-as-sex chocolate mousse cheesecake thing that Andrew and I discovered when he was here in September. I was happy to be out of the apartment and getting some fresh air and exercise, as well as pints and social time. It was good all round.

Tonight I need to finish reading another Arthurian romance by Chrétien de Troyes. This one is Erec and Enide. It's better than Lancelot was... this one reads kind of like a Harlequin with more battling knights. Quite enjoyable, as Arthurian romances go.

Here is what my balcony looks like today. You can see how the snow is only about a foot from the top of the balcony. I really really hope that my balcony doesn't collapse from the weight. You can also kind of see the snow blowing around in the background. Yay nor'easter! 

I'm smart! S-M-R-T Smart!

I just did an online IQ test here. Who knows how accurate it really is, but I like the results. I actually took this test once years ago. I checked my results, and I scored one point higher this time (yay grad school!). I also realized that I remembered my score wrong all these years, which explains how everyone I told about it had a higher score than me. I knew that something had to have gone wrong somewhere... Anyway, here's what the test had to say about me:

Your IQ score is 136

Your Intellectual Type is Visionary Philosopher. This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways. Like Plato, your exceptional math and verbal skills make you very adept at explaining things to others — and at anticipating and predicting patterns.

I'm not sure about the math part, although the math questions on the test weren't that hard. I just had to cast my mind back to high school, which was the last time I did any sort of higher math work like algebra or geometry or fractions. I found the test relatively easy, but then, I'm a Visionary Philosopher, so of course I did. I should also mention that my achilles heel, my Waterloo, if you will, was not on this test - that is, there were no questions about spatial manipulation. Those are always the questions where I either crash and burn, or else burn my brain out figuring them out. This would probably explain how I get lost so often. Again, this probably isn't the most accurate IQ test going, but I'm going to ride this wave. I like being called "visionary"... it's so much better than "crazy".

We have indeed gotten the storm that they were calling for. It is one humdinger of a nor'easter - an even bigger blizzard than the one last week. I've noticed that every third day we've been getting storms, so I will make sure I'm stocked up with milk and supplies for Wednesday. Depending how long the storm lasts, we might not have school again tomorrow, but I think we probably will. I'm going to post another picture of my balcony, which now has enough snow on it that you could bury yourself in and die if you so choose. It would be a strange thing to choose to do, but then, people are strange. The storm has been going on all day and there doesn't seem to be any sign of it letting up. I noticed that on the news they actually used the term "nor'easter" and not to be funny. That was the actual word they used for the storm. Is this normal? I can't recall this ever happening in Ontario, but then, maybe we don't get nor'easters in southwestern Ontario. Is three blizzards in one week typical for the Maritimes? I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I made a Johnny Cake for breakfast this morning. As promised, here is the recipe:

Preheat oven to 375C. Mix together:
7/8 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Blend in 1 cup cornmeal. Form a well in the centre of these ingredients. Combine separately, and then pour in
1 cup milk
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup melted butter or margarine

Blend all ingredients well. Pour into a greased 8" square baking pan and bake for 25-30 min. Serve warm with syrup.

Johnny cake (or cornbread, as it is alternately called) makes a delicious breakfast food, or else a fun snack. Low in sugar (until you add the syrup), it's also fairly healthy. And, more importantly, it's yummy.

Well, that's all for now. I must now turn my super intelligence to my intense philosophical pursuits.

Recalibrated

I've noticed that sleep seems to act as a calibrating system-check sort of thing, so that a good night's sleep leaves you feeling more like yourself, while a lack of sleep throws everything out of whack. I am pleased to announce my return to the sleeping world, at least for now. What made the change, you ask? Drugs? Milk? Meditation? No, no and no. The answer was so simple that it was staring me in the face the whole time: Beatles. I got a Beatles CD for Christmas that I haven't listened to nearly enough (Revolver, for those in the know), so I played it on my laptop with some soothing Winamp visualizations made fullscreen. It didn't work right away, but Beatles music always brings me back to myself, so when I did fall asleep, there were no nightmares. When I got home from school yesterday, I slept for an additional 5 hours or so, and it was the deepest, best, most enjoyable sleep that I've had in a very long time. Now my sleeping pattern is totally messed up, of course, but I don't care. I feel so much better! One might say... recalibrated... This morning I felt like Hyde looks in episode 611 of That '70s Show (entitled "I Can See for Miles") when Jackie re-does his room. Hyde describes climbing into his bed with the new comforter like "climbing into a mama kangaroo". That's how good my bed has felt for the past 24 hours. I woke up feeling relaxed and ambitious. The ambition didn't amount to much, but the relaxation sure felt nice.

They're calling for another blizzard tomorrow. This is a change - a winter that's actually a winter. I got groceries today in preparation, and also because I needed milk and Quaker Oat Squares (guess what I had for dinner!). Not having a car is so freeing. I can hear these forecasts, and my main concern is how long it will take me to make it up the hill from school, and not dying because my car hit black ice, skidded across the median and into a transport truck (sometimes my imagination runs away with me). Also, my current lifestyle has me leaving the house a lot less than my previous one did, so snowstorms glance off of me. As well, I have the love scarf to keep me warm.

I wrote a poem last night. I've decided not to post it, for various reasons. I'm pretty happy with it, but I haven't had any second opinions, and I haven't been sleeping, so I could be totally wrong. Anyway, writing a poem felt good.

Hmmmm... not much else to say for the moment. I've watched a lot of Family Guy today. That's been fun, although probably not the best way to spend my day. Oh well. I also did dishes, so I was somewhat productive. There's still tomorrow left to catch up on life and responsibilities. I have a To Do list... that's half the battle right there.

My day: more snow, no sleep

This will just be a quick entry because I feel kind of yucky. I've been having a lot of problems sleeping lately, which pretty much never happens to me unless I have more than one essay due at a time, which I don't right now. Does anyone have any suggestions for sleeping aids? I've never needed one before. Ashley suggested valerian, which I will look for at the pharmacy tomorrow. I've discovered that compensating for lack of sleep with caffeine makes me feel like I have superpowers. That was a fun discovery. However, the superpowers only last for a short while, only to be replaced with my usual caffeine tummyache. Oh well. They're still fun!

We got even more snow today - they were calling for another 15cm. I'm not sure how much we ended up getting, eventually, but they ended up shutting the school down again. This time, however, they didn't shut it down until 3pm, by which time it was too late for me to benefit from it. It's snowing again now, too, though not as heavily as earlier. I wasn't sure that I was going to make it up the hill this afternoon as the sidewalks had yet to be plowed. However, after three breaks to catch my breath, I made it home and collapsed into bed. Secretly, I enjoy the winter weather as it gives me a chance to bundle up and to feel smug at how warm I feel compared to the other vain people who don't wear hats or mittens. Plus, it's just fun to wear a red hat with a pom-pom on it. I've been considering getting, or else improvising out of readily available materials, a sled to ride to school. When the sidewalks are snowy, it would save me time and energy to toboggan to school. Plus, you can't forget the fun factor.

Got to talk to my little niece again today. She asked me when I was coming back to Grandma and Grandpa's house (my parents' house in Ontario) from my trip. I told her not until the spring, after the snow melts. She told me that she couldn't wait that long. We blew each other kisses over the webcam. I'm sorry to talk so much about my niece, but these moments are really important to me, so I want to talk about them. My parents sent me a video they made of Anie singing "Twinkle Twinkle" so I can watch it whenever I miss her. Maybe then I'll talk about her less.

Hmmmm... I had other things to say, but I can't remember them now - one of the problems with not sleeping. Meh, oh well.

Fresh Air is Fun

Today I finally left my apartment. I had been stuck here for the past three days, and while I do enjoy a lot of quality Heidi-and-apartment-time, by last night I was getting a little sick of it. However, the package I was waiting for came this morning (early too - before 10am. I was still in bed, of course) so I was then free to roam the streets of Wolfville. By "roam the streets of Wolfville" I mean "go to the school library and do work". It was darn cold today, and I discovered that I had lost my gloves at some point during the weekend. Since I live here, and not in Ontario with my parents, I don't have a whole system of backup mittens, so the loss was pretty grave. However, I needed to stop at the Pharmasave on my way to school to pick up batteries for my MP3 player anyway, so I was also able to score some mittens. They are wool on the outside and Thinsulate on the inside - very warm. I enjoy bundling up. It makes me feel cute. Plus, it gives me a reason to wear my scarf that was made with love by my Mom. Things that are made with love give you bonus warmth, on account of the love.

Speaking of love, I got a phone call last night that made me very happy. It was my niece. She called to tell me that, "I miss you, Heidi!" Her language skills have improved to the point that you can have an actual conversation with her. I told her that I love her a lot, and she answered me, "I wove you a wot too!" That totally made my day, or even my week. Then she regaled me with her rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Hey Diddle Diddle. I'm not sure if it's impressive for a 3 1/2 year old to have things like this memorized, but I was impressed. As her aunt, I feel it is my duty to shower Anie with unconditional love and to be impressed by everything she does. Luckily, these aren't hard goals to accomplish.

On the topic of phone calls, I forgot to mention that I talked to my friend Ken on the phone the other day. This was awesome. It has been a while since he and I have been in contact. I was calculating, and he and I haven't seen each other for 3 years (!), though we have been e-mailing and writing letters somewhat irregularly. I hope that we can organize a visit together relatively soonish. Ken and I got to be friends in the last year of his time at Laurier, just before he graduated. We went out together one time before he moved back to the Sault, and it was one of the best nights I've ever had (in a non-sexual way). We just did neat, fun, low-key things, like go out for dinner, play in Waterloo Park and talk by the river until the sun went down, and then we went to a high school in Kitchener (probably Bluevale, but I don't know for sure... it was dark) and we laid on our backs and stared at the stars, just talking about everything. Finally, we went to Tim Hortons for tea before calling it a night. I don't think that I've ever connected with anyone either before or since on such a conversational level. We had the best conversations, and so naturally too - nothing felt forced or awkward, as I recall. Anyway, my point was, it was great to talk to him. He has moved in with his girlfriend and is now acting as guardian to her 3 children. He tells me that he is really enjoying his new family, and he is going to send me a picture of them.

I can't get over how beautiful it is here, or how much snow there is, but I want to focus on the beauty. It was sunny today, and a beautiful day if you were bundled up, and a brutal day if you weren't. Anyway, on my way to school, and again on my way back home, my breath was taken away by the beauty of looking across the valley and seeing the snow on the cliffs glinting in the sunlight... I can't remember seeing anything this beautiful in Ontario, ever, though I know I must have. I should have taken a picture. I wish that I had a digital camera so that I could show you. Speaking of which, I've taken some webcam photos of my apartment for those who are curious about what it looks like. I'll post them someday when I don't have an Arthurian Romance to finish reading and an article summarize for tomorrow. Oh, and I also agreed to write a poem for the Blueprint this week about "fringe". I'm not sure if this was a good idea or not, but I've been bored lately, and feeling creative, so Dave picked the right time to ask me to do it. I'll let you know how it goes. I might even post it here if it goes well. Oh, I'm also thinking of posting some of my favourite recipes, especially my vegetarian chili recipe, but that fun is for another day. For now, I must get back to work.

Here, as requested, is a picture of the snow this last blizzard dumped on my balcony. Remember, this was all from one storm. My balcony was bare before this.  

If I had hatches, they'd be battened

Zenon warned me last night that they were calling for "the storm of the century" in the Maritimes for last night and today. I had heard no such thing and didn't believe him, but it turns out it's true. It looks like we got the 30+ centimetres of snow that they were calling for. My balcony is half-filled with snow and I have no shovel and no broom to remove it with. The upside to this proliferation of snow is that the university is closed, so I have a free day to do the laundry that I forgot to do yesterday. It makes me really glad that I went out so much (for me) this weekend because now I don't have class until Thursday. I'm going to feel a bit at loose ends, I think. Oh well.

I don't have much else to say. Since I don't have to leave my apartment, I don't really care about the storm as long as the power stays on. I don't want another blackout like in November. I do have lots of food, though (thank you Zenon for taking me grocery shopping on Saturday) and still lots of candles and bottled water from the previous storm experience.

So, I'm going to sign off now. Maybe I'll play some more guitar today. I'm feeling inspired after Saturday's musicfest at Ross' house. But first, Cheerios!

Now I know why they write songs about it

Last night I had my first taste of strawberry wine. It was homemade, and I hate wine, so I didn't know what to expect. However, it was delicious. It was like strawberry juice, but with a bit of a kick. The others thought that it was a little too sweet, but I liked it a lot. My night last night also consisted of the delights of Family Guy, Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (it had been soooooo long since I'd seen one of these. Andrew doesn't like them. I watched Pod People last night. Good times) and the movie Napoleon Dynamite. This last one I hadn't seen before. I'm not sure if I liked it. I think that were I to see it again, I'd think it was hilarious. As it was, it was just... an experience.

I was going to write more about my time yesterday, but I'm actually quite exhausted from all the social time I've been having lately. Suffice to say, I really like listening to people playing guitars, especially when they can play Simon and Garfunkel songs. Also, boys are weird. Girls wouldn't think to dress up the inflatable aliens in thongs and halter tops made out of dish cloths, with breasts made of socks... or at least not most of the girls that I know. However, weirdness can be quite entertaining. I laughed much more last night than I do when I spend the night alone in my apartment.

Why has no one answered my question about how they experience thought? I thought that it was such a great question that would spawn a lot of discussion. Speaking of which, I'd like to modify my answer. I do experience thoughts mainly on the impression level, but I also always have a running commentary of words in my head. I narrate most events in my life as they happen, and then narrate them after the fact to imaginary audiences. When I was little, I thought that this was proof that I was meant to be a writer. Now I think it's proof that I think about things too much instead of just letting them happen as they happen.

Anyway. Vote for Pedro.

Yesterday was fun

Yesterday that warm front that's been sweeping the country finally made it out here. It was 15 degrees in January! I wore my spring jacket to school (unzipped!) and was still sweating by the time I made it there. There's nothing like an unexpected spring-like day to put a spring in your step (groan if you must, but it's true). On top of this, I listened to music on my way to school. I really don't do this often enough. Listening to music helps me get my groove on, so that by the time I got to school, I felt really good. I went to the first year class that I'm TAing for. They were studying Ginsberg. I thought that it would be a good class to go to because I am giving a presentation on Ginsberg in about 2 1/2 weeks time. As part of the lesson, Lisa (the prof, aka my supervisor) played some clips of Ginsberg reading his own poetry. His reading style was different than I expected, and at first I didn't really like it. However, as I was listening to "Sunflower Sutra" and following along on the page, I suddenly got it. It was a strange and exhilarating feeling. Suddenly I felt like a sunflower prophet. I wanted to dance around to everyone and tell them that, "We're not our skin of grime, we're not our dread bleak dusty imageless locomotive, we're all golden sunflowers inside, blessed by our own seed & hairy naked accomplishment-bodies growing into mad black formal sunflowers in the sunset, spied on by our eyes under the shadow of the mad locomotive riverbank sunset Frisco hilly tincan evening sitdown vision". It was a fun feeling. Ginsberg rocks.

The other fun thing from yesterday was that I went to a party at my friend Janice's place last night. Janice lives next to the apartment that I would have lived in if I didn't live in this apartment, if that makes sense (if it doesn't, let me know and I'll clarify). Anyway, it was good times. I had gin. I got a real-fruit slushie from Muddy's on my way to the party which was so deliciously awesome. I mixed in some gin with it, so that it became frozen drunken goodness. Then I had gin and tonic. Gin is great.

After all of this drunken fun, I actually slept quite badly last night. I had so many dreams and I woke up a lot. I'm not sure why. I guess my body was rebelling against all the toxins I'd fed it. Usually this only happens to me when I'm stressed out, but I don't think I was. Anyway, that explains why I just got out of bed now.

Today's plans include grocery shopping (this has reached the critical stage), cleaning the apartment, and possibly watching movies with new friends from the party last night. Otherwise, watching movies by myself in my apartment. Either way, it should be fun.

Insert Title Here

This webcomic thing has become an obsession. Not only do I read and re-read Questionable Content all the time, but I am branching out in new directions. I have also found that I like Wigu because of its wackiness, and Fallen because it is like reading a fantasy/sci-fi novel, but it's in a comic form instead. I think I'd like it better if it were a novel with pictures, but it's still pretty neat. I am almost looking forward to school picking up. I've been feeling a bit at loose ends lately, which explains the webcomics. However, the books are in for my Monday class, so I can begin my reading tomorrow, and tomorrow I also start my second class, so I will have stuff to do after that too.

I had other stuff to say when I started posting, but now I forget it. Oh. I have an interesting question to ask everyone. How do you think? As in, how do you experience your thoughts? Do they come to you as words, images, feelings, a combination, none of the above? I'm curious about this, and about if people actually experience thought in different ways. I think primarily in undefined meanings or impressions, and then words. That is, most of my thoughts are not worded, I just experience them as their meaning, if that makes sense. Once I examine them, or need to communicate them, they become words. This means that sometimes it is hard for me to express myself because I'm making verbal things that I experience in a non-worded fashion. Does any of this make sense? I thought of this the other day and have forgotten to bring it up since.

Hmmmm... not much else to say. I met Ashley's cat the other day, and I seemed to have passed the cat test. Ashley says that her cat liked me, which is important because she trusts her cats' readings of people. Her other cat is coming in February, and I'm excited because she says that the other one is a cuddlebug (my word, not hers). Since my break included a large amount of cuddling, I've been feeling sadly bereft of this activity since my return. Cat-cuddling sounds like just the thing I need, at least until Andrew comes to visit.

I think I've used up all the material that I've garnered living as a shut-in lately, so let me know how you experience thought, and maybe we can have some interesting conversations.

Webcams are fun

I got a webcam for Christmas, which I've probably mentioned previously. It is neat. I found out today that my parents have bought a webcam as well, as has my sister. My parents were experimenting with theirs today. I got to see them and they could see me. They're on dial-up internet, so it's not the best setup, but it was still neat. I can't believe that they actually got one, but my Mom was excited by the idea of being able to see me when I'm so far away. I also got them to download Skype, an internet telephony program that Andrew and I have been trying out. This program lets you talk to people over the internet, at any distance, for free. It is very handy for Andrew and me since he has only a cell phone, so it's expensive for us to talk even if I call him using my super long distance plan. I tried that program out with my family as well, and it was like being back home. I could both see and hear my parents. It would have been more special if I had been gone longer than 2 days, but it was still neat. I also got to see my sister and my niece as they were over for a visit. I used my webcam to take my Dad on a tour of my apartment, since he's never seen it. I could only show him my living room, balcony and kitchen since I don't have wireless internet, but he got an idea of what it looks like here. If anyone else wants a tour, catch me on MSN sometime.

The other thing I wanted to say is that I've found a webcomic that I absolutely adore. It's called Questionable Content and it cracks me up. It's about these people who have graduated from university and are out in the "real world". They are all into indie culture, which is probably why I like it so much. I HIGHLY recommend it. It also has a very cute tiny robot named Pintsize who is just plain weird. Andrew disagrees with me about this comic's goodness, and insists that Ctrl-Alt-Del is much better. I think that he likes it more because this webcomic is about video games. He is into video games and I am into indie culture, so we both have our favourite webcomics. I recommend Ctrl-Alt-Del as well. It has a penguin in it.

That is mainly all I had to say. I start classes tomorrow, and probably a large part of my day will be spent standing in line to pay my tuition. I'm hoping for the best, though. I am really dreading the end of holidays, but I'm trying to get over it. School at least will give me a reason to leave the apartment, which I have not done since I arrived here in the early hours of Saturday morning. I'm such a homebody, but I like it that way.

Back in NS

Here I am, back in my apartment. My flight was delayed by 4 hours last night, so I got here around 3:15am. While waiting the extra 4 hours at the airport, I read a new book. I bought myself a book and a bookmark to pass the time and to soothe my disappointment. The book I bought was the new one by Joyce Carol Oates, Rape: A Love Story. It is typical Oates, which is awesome. She is one of my favourite contemporary American writers. I wanted to do my thesis on her, but I didn't. Anyway, I highly recommend this book. It's short too, so you should be able to read it in a few hours. It's about a woman who is gang raped and beaten when walking home with her 12 year old daughter on the night of July 4th, 1996. She is left to die, but she survives. It gave me a lot to think about.

I also bought myself 2 magazines for the flight - Jane, which I'd never read before, and Cosmo, which is my guilty pleasure. I was pleasantly surprised by Jane, actually. It touts itself a more intellectual magazine, but I didn't really believe it. However, it definitely is more sophisticated than Cosmo. Not like it's a literary journal or anything, I mean, it's still a magazine, but fewer weird slang words than Cosmo, and the humour is definitely at a higher level.

My flight was delayed because Jetsgo cancelled 2 of its earlier flights and put all of us on this late night flight to fill it up. I'd never had this happen before. I'm not altogether impressed. If I had been planning on taking the earlier flight that arrives in Halifax around 4pm with the intention of taking the bus, I would have been very mad, since a cab is quite a bit more expensive than the bus. As it is, this delay meant that I wasn't able to share a cab back to Wolfville with Ashley as we'd planned, which is unfortunate. I still was able to share my cab, so my fare didn't go up, but she unfortunately had to pay full price. The couple with whom I shared my cab seemed nice. They were glowingly happy because the guy had just proposed to the girl when he got off his plane. (Sidebar: What is it with this matrimonial epidemic? Maybe it's just the Christmas season or something, I don't know, but marriage seems to be all around. Oh well.) I spent the trip back talking to the driver, who was surprisingly interesting. I learned a lot of stuff that I didn't know before, especially about the army.

When I got home, I found that I had done something to my computer that made me not able to use the internet. After freaking out, I tried to fix it myself. 4am is not the best time to be playing with your computer settings, but I eventually got it figured out, so here I am, the next afternoon, posting about my experiences. I still need to unpack (which I'm excited about... it's like Christmas all over again) and go grocery shopping (you can't eat Quaker Oat Squares without milk, or at least, I can't). My plants are all alive, happily. A little droopy, but I've watered them all now, so they should perk up.

You know how all homes have their own particular smell, based in large part on who's living in them? My parents' house smells different now that I don't live there, which is interesting. Last night, when I walked into my apartment, it smelled like it did when I first moved in. It took me back. That smell that belongs to my apartment made me feel like I was home again. It's good to be back.

Last night in Ontario

Well, here I am. It's my last night in Ontario for probably at least 4 months. I finally got my butt in gear the last couple of days and started visiting people, although I still wasn't able to see everyone I wanted to. Yesterday I visited the DriverChicks at DriverCheck where I used to work. Business is booming there, and I had about 3 job offers to come back and make some money, all of which I refused. After I spent a good hour and a half there chatting with people, I felt a little bit better. I had been sad yesterday morning at the prospect of going back to my solitary life in Nova Scotia. I tried to ease my heartache by going shopping and spending my La Senza gift certificate, but this act only served to frustrate me even more as there were no (that's right, NONE) bras in my size in the store. I finally settled for a bra that's almost my size that fits OK, but come on! La Senza is a BRA STORE! They should have BRAS in all sizes! Anyway, I started feeling better after chatting with the DriverChicks because I told them all about my apartment and I got excited then about going back to it. I still don't really want to go back, but I'm starting to look forward to it a bit more.

After hitting DriverCheck I went to see my sister and family. They have a brand new computer, which is really exciting. They were in the midst of setting it up when I got there. I attached the speakers. Anyway, leaving there made me sad because it will be four months until I see Anie again, and since she's only 3 1/2, I know that she will change so much in that time and I'm going to miss it. I'm not going to think about that, though. I'm going to focus on how much we have when we're together, making forts and wrestling and playing Dora the Explorer dominoes.

After my sister's, I stopped in at my Grandma Taves' house. She was just recently released from the hospital and is settling in nicely. I had a nice chat with her, and caught up on the family news. I found out that my cousin Tricia is engaged, a fact that my father forgot to tell us. That's exciting. That means a wedding in June, and then my friend Diana is getting married in July of this year. Wedding fever has hit. I suppose that this is a normal disease for people of my age, but I'm still getting used to it.

Today I had lunch and post-lunch beverages with Gillian, who came back last month from being in Australia. We had a very pleasant time (or at least I did, I shouldn't speak for Gillian) eating yummy Asian stir-fry at the Vegetarian Fast Food place on Philip St, and then playing (somewhat improvised) board games at the Sweet Dreams Café. We played the Game of Life, but there were no instructions and neither of us had played it for ten years or something, so we made up rules. We both led exciting lives. We each swam the English Channel once, and the second time through I became a superstar for my career, while Gillian had 3 kids and found a cure for the common cold. Gillian also, during our first game, won a Pulitzer prize, wrote the great American novel, and had a bestseller. I composed a symphony and won a prize for humanitarianism, as well as designing a better mousetrap. Ah, Life, what a fun game you are! I love board games. The second game we played was called Super Quiz and came with 6 boxes of trivia cards in 6 different categories. There was no board or anything, so we set up an elaborate spinner system using pens. I think Gillian won that game, but not by much. It was much harder than we had anticipated.

Now, I'm back at Andrew's house. I'm not sure how we're going to spend our last night together, but I'm leaning towards antijitoes at the Jane Bond, followed by activities yet to be determined. I'm really hungry, so I hope we have supper soon.

P.S. Does anyone want a G-mail account? I can invite 4 people. Any takers?

I'm hungry

Today is Monday. On Friday I leave to return to Nova Scotia. Even though my holiday was almost a month long, it feels like it went so quickly. At the same time, it feels like forever since I was in Nova Scotia. I feel like I dreamt the whole NS experience. I'm not excited about going back. It's just been so great to be here with my family and spending so much time with Andrew. It's going to be difficult to go back to my loner's life again. I'm also really not looking forward to going back to class. I'm not really excited about my courses this term (Medieval Lit and Confessional Poetry) and I've discovered that I'm lazy at heart. I've also been in university for 5 and 1/2 years straight, doing the same things, writing the same essays, and I'm ready to do something else. I don't know what that something else might be, but oh well.

On the bright side, this is what I'm looking forward to getting back to:

• high-speed internet
• lots of Heidi time
• the hill (I complain about it a lot, but it keeps me in shape. I've become a blob over Christmas)
• the other English girls
• Quaker Oat Squares (my favourite cereal ever)
• garlic and basil rice stir-fry
• my double bed (here I sleep in a single bed or else share a futon with Andrew - neither of which options offer the luxury of my Nova Scotian double bed shared only with books)
• lots of pajama days
• my plants

I saw the movie Spanglish last night with my Mom. It was enjoyable, of course. It was actually a bit better than I was expecting, although fairly predictable. My Mom liked it a lot, and thought that it was better than Closer, but I liked Closer a lot more. It all depends what kind of movie you're in the market for. My Mom likes the feel-good fluffy family movies best, and while I do enjoy those movies too, I prefer movies with substance that make me think, like Closer.

Today I am planning on taking some book time for myself. I have done surprisingly little reading over the break. I have two books with me to choose between: Rebecca and Priestess of Avalon. I got the first one at a "Buy two used books get one free" sale. I was very excited about it. The second one I got for my birthday a couple of years ago, but have never found the time to read. Priestess is a large hardcover book, so I feel like I should sit down and do some heavy-duty reading this week to finish it, because there is no way that I can fit it in my bag to take to Nova Scotia, but the jury is still out.

I don't have much else to say. I will probably write more in a bit, since I am trapped in Andrew's room. He is having a meeting in his living room, and since I was lazy this morning, I am still in my pjs and have not showered, so I am putting off leaving his bedroom for as long as possible. Luckily, I have books, a laptop, and internet, so I will be fine. I also have a dark chocolate bar (it's the one that I lost after Christmas, for those of you who heard my anguished screams over it. My Mom found it under the couch, bless her). OK. Bye.