reply_if_i

So, remember that three page book review that I wrote on a book that I never read? I just got it back today. 98% HA. I only lost marks for a few gramatical errors.

Srsly. I kick ass.

-Xenos

I'm suffering from a serious case of homesickness today. I just want to snuggle up in my bed and do nothing all day.

I just got back from a wonderful night out with my roommates.

At 6oo, Joey, Alanna and I walked over to Dalhousie Street to watch the Santa Claus Parade. On the way over, it felt surprisingly mild, despite it being a balmy zero degrees centigrade. I was still glad that I was wearing a scarf, toque, gloves, fuzzy sweater and winter jacket though, as I knew it would start feeling colder the longer we stood to watch the parade.

The Brantford Santa Claus Parade is not what I'd call spectacular, but I honestly had a great time. Joey and I clapped our mitts together every time a marching band past us and we waved fervently at each passing float. We snagged some candy, but most of the people walking by skipped over us (even though we had our hands out and sang "Merry Christmas!" to each one). I ended up getting the most candy out of all three of us because I was first in our little line up. Joey was a little miffed until she got a candy cane herself. Alanna was busy snapping away with her camera for the year book. At one point, we noticed that one of the police officers patrolling the sides of the parade was actually a boy we had met earlier this year (a friend of Joey's friend, who had come over to our house before we all went out to a bar one night). He stopped to talk to us for a little while, which was vair nice. AND THEN! At the end of the parade, we saw Santa! I waved like I had never waved before. I think this is the first time I've ever been to a parade and actually seen Santa. So, it was cool.

By the end (an hour and forty-five minutes after the start), we were all freezing. My toes were going numb, Joeys arms were freezing, and poor Alanna was shaking like a leaf. Alanna hadn't worn mittens, so she borrowed Joeys during the parade. On the way back I noticed she was holding her bare hands in front of her, so I asked if she had pockets to put them in. When she said no, I gave her my mittens, because my coat pockets were large enough to bury my hands in. Needless to say, we were all in a rush to get into our warm house, and practically speed walked the entire way back. Alanna's fingers were bright red. A couple of mine were red too, but my toes were the focus of my warming up efforts. Joey seemed to have escaped with the fewest personal injuries, having worn thick gloves and warm winter boots.

After warming up for a half an hour, Lacadia joined us and we all went out to BP to meet with a couple of other girls for dinner. There were 11 of us in total, so the conversations were divided up among the sections of the long table we sat at. I mostly talked to Lacadia during dinner since we were both sitting at the very end. Lacadia is really nice to talk to. She is ridiculously intelligent. We were talking about a course we had both taken (she's almost finished, and I had taken it last year) and an assignment we had to hand in for said course. When she was explaining the way she approached the paper, I was really impressed. Like, it's one thing to do well in a course by memorizing definitions, but she masterfully expanded and elaborated upon course ideas and applied them to the project. I complimented her thinking at dinner, but I just can't get over it. I don't think I've ever met someone that bright.

Talking to Lacadia also reminded me of how lucky I am to have moved in with these girls. It is so wonderful to live in a positive atmosphere. It's not sarcastic and bitter like it was in every other residence I've lived in. They're all genuinely nice people and are so wonderful to be around. All of them just ooze kindness and genuineness. Lacadia asked me two questions over the course of the night that could have seemed intrusive. Before each she explained that I didn't have to answer if it was too personal, but that she was curious. She asked me why I was graduating in the fall and why I don't drink. Neither of which seemed to personal to me (because it just happened to work out that way for both of them), but I was touched that she didn't want to make me feel uncomfortable. All the girls are like this. I've never heard them say one cruel thing or even give me so much as a sideways glance. -Smiles.- I really am fortunate.

We were invited over for movies after dinner, but it was getting late and I think we all just wanted to get home. Alanna might have a little frostbite and my pinky finger and toe on my right side both hurt like the dickins, but I think we'll survive. All in all, it was a great night! I'm glad I went out and spent time with them. ^-^

-Xenos

Nothing exciting is happening right now, so I'm not sure why I'm even writing an entry. I guess it's mostly to kill time.

I didn't end up going to the Rainbow Alliance movie last night. Which was kind of upsetting, because I actually wanted to go. Unfortunately, it started at 10oo and the buses don't run at that time (well they do, but it's an honour long bus ride as opposed to a 20 minute bus ride) and I had no other way of getting there aside from walking (which I wasn't keen on since it was 10oo and I live in a sketchier part of town).

I ended up working on my essay instead, which I guess was a good thing, seeing as I hadn't started my citations and those always take a lot of time. I creatively cited some of my material because the prof said we were only allowed to have 30% of our references online, and 100% of my references were (from gathering articles, reports, and conference proceedings online). Fortunately, all of those items are also found in print, so I just fudged it a little and claimed that I had the print versions of them. I don't know how realistic that is concerning UN documents though... -Fingers crossed-

I guess I should get a movin' to my next class. Oh, I'll have something exciting to post on Saturday/Sunday though!


-Xenos

Last night on our way back to Brantford, Mum and I stopped in at Adventure Guide in Waterloo. Mum wanted to look at new boots and bindings for her old cross-country skis. Macaroni was working so he showed us what the store had in stock. I've never seen him at work before, which, I mean, shouldn't have been that different from what he looks like day to day. He looked ridiculously handsome though. Ridiculously. You know when you see a super cute guy working at a store and you try to be all cool and attractive to get his attention? Macaroni was that guy! He was wearing a tight, long-sleeve black shirt and fitted dark jeans and... -drools a lot.-

Also, and this isn't in order so much because I just remembered it now, I set up the Christmas tree on Saturday! I love Christmas time and decorating the Christmas tree. This year it was pretty much just me decorating the tree. When I asked John if he wanted to help he said no and went upstairs to play video games. I did keep him around long enough to play "six to eight black men" though. We laughed a lot. In fact, you should listen to the reading too! So, click the link. After the tree was set up, Mum and I made table centre pieces. I got to go on a mission to steal evergreen branches from the green space that our house backs onto. It was fun and the centre pieces turned out really professional looking. Mum and I were vair proud of ourselves.

I can't wait for Christmas! And no school!

-Xenos

is a wet squirrel. Their flouffy tails go all limp and slick. You may not have ever thought about it before, but a squirrel's defining characteristic it's fluffy tail. Without it, it just looks ridiculous.

-Xenos

Macaroni and I were at the movies last night. As we were watching a preview for Avatar it occurred to me: Avatar is Fern Gully.

Think about it. Fern Gully is about a tribe of humanoid creatures (fairy things). Avatar is about a tribe of humanoid creatures (those blue things). Fern Gully is located in a place that is rich with natural resources (trees). Avatar tribe things live in a place that is rich with natural resources (over some sort of large mineral deposit). In Fern Gully humans show up and show complete disregard for nature (start chopping down all the trees). In Avatar, humans show up and show complete disregard for nature (wipe out an entire tribe of blue things). In Fern Gully, one of the bad humans gets turned into a humanoid thing. In Avatar one of the humans gets turned into a humanoid thing. In Fern Gully, the human-turned-humanoid thing starts out pro-destroying the earth and ends up on the side of the humanoid creatures. In Avatar, the human-turned-humanoid thing starts out pro-destroying the alien planet and ends up on the side of the humanoid creatures. In both movies, the human-turned-humanoid thing falls in love with one of the humanoid creatures (because the sexy humanoid creatures look human enough to make the species leap). In both movies, the human-turned-humanoid thing lies to the sexy humanoid creature, and the humanoid creature feels angry and betrayed. In both movies, the human-turned-humanoid thing redeems himself by taking down the company or organization that he had originally worked for.

...Avatar is Fern Gully.


-Xenos

Last weekend was a Cambridge weekend. So, Macaroni picked me up on Friday night and we spent the weekend at his house. We didn't do much on Friday, besides cook delicious tacos. Saturday morning/early afternoon was dedicated to reaching my research essay page quota. I met the quota with time to spare so we decided to go rock climbing!

We drove to the climbing gym in Geulph. Macaroni, being the unselfish gentleman that he is, paid for half of my fees (a day pass, shoe, and harness rental). He also volunteered to belay me almost the entire time, since I'm not qualified to belay anyone. It was really sweet of him just to let me climb, and I was really glad when one of his friends from work, who happened to be at the climbing gym at the same time, offered to belay Macaroni for one wall.

This was the first time I've climbed with a harness since... well, I'm not sure exactly. But it has definitely been years and years. Probably around eight. I climbed the 5.4 without difficulty (except I got a little nervous toward the top and was shaking like a leaf by the time that I let my feet back down on the ground). We had to wait for a 5.5 to open up, so I attempted (and failed) at climbing a 5.8. I encouraged Macaroni to go on the bouldering wall while I regrouped. He did really well. I can tell that he enjoys and is skilled at climbing from the two instances that I saw him on the wall. I can't wait till I learn how to belay so we can both climb.

We later found a 5.5 wall. I did really well on that wall too! I was proud of myself, but it still seemed to easy. However, by the time we got to the 5.6, I had nothing left in me. My arms were aching, my fingers wouldn't grip the holds, and my legs were shaking. I got about a third of the way up a couple of times, but I got stuck at one spot and I couldn't muster the strength to get past it. While I was untying myself, I suggested that Macaroni do some more bouldering, but the place was getting crowded, so we decided to pack it up.

Since we were meeting up with Emma in Waterloo, we decided to go to Adventure Guide to kill some time before we were supposed to meet up. I met a bunch of people that Macaroni works with and we checked out some different camping equipment. Then, we realized we had a lot more time to kill than we had originally anticipated, so we went to UW and checked out some dinosaurs!

Yes, dinosaurs. It was neat. They had a bunch of fossils and really cool rocks and minerals on display. It was ridiculously cool, in fact. I really enjoyed myself. Though, I wish the part with the full dinosaur skeleton had been open for us to look at. Still there were a lot of neat sciency things. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that it was a very Macaroni and Cheese place to visit.

Around quarter after 6oo, we headed over to Emma's apartment for dinner. We met her roommate and her new boyfriend, both seem very nice. Her boyfriend cooked us all a delicious meal of stuffed pasta shells in marinara sauce. SO delicious. It was a nice short visit seeing as they had to get ready to go to a play, so about an hour later we were back on our way to Cambridge.

In Cambridge, fog had started to fall and it made everything really ghosty looking, which was pretty sweet. We picked up ice cream, sprinkles and the best darn chocolate sauce in the history of ever (chocolate peanut butter). When we got back to his place, we ordered a movie (The Ugly Truth) and made up some sundaes. Oh how scrumpdiddlyumptious they were. The movie was alright too.

On Sunday, we went for a vair long walk around Cambridge. Our walking adventure was really fun. I liked it because it was sort of random in that we decided where to go as we walked. We'd see a store or something interesting and go check it out as we passed. We even found ourselves in a Homesense at one point. I don't know how to accurately describe the days events and why they were so awesome, but thinking about it makes me smile.


-Xenos

p.s. I didn't even tell you about how I'm feeling today! The short of it is: super sore. In more detail: I have purple bruises on the insides of each of my knees. My shoulder blades are aching, and there are small purple dots covering my forearms (similar to what my arms used to look like after playing volleyball). I can't wait to heal so I can go climbing again, though!

Roadside

The frost was spores of mould growing atop the discarded couch.

Morning Sky

The moon was a ghostly galleon,
Lost at the bottom of the sea.
The sun was more boyant.

Ice

Shoes slip on sleek silver sidewalks.
Watch out!
you might fall.


Look! I used: literal imagery, figurative imagery, metaphor, allusion, and sibilance!

-Xenos

 I'm in the computer lab today.  Nothing but Macs.  Although I'm slowly figuring it out, I'm not enjoying the premise of making us all work on Macs.  Especially since we have to e-mail our finished work to ourselves.  Why not just let us use our own computers?  Everyone has their own laptop at this campus (I know this because we were required to have one last year).  So, it doesn't make any sense to force us to use stupid macs in the stupid lab.  Stupid.

I know I'm being a stubborn old fart, but I just feel as though my time has been wasted this morning.

In happy news, only 18 days of class left!  AND!  The weekend is only a day and a bit away!  Yayy!


-Xenos

When I walked outside today, I noticed that the cars in our driveway were covered in frost.  I immediately went back inside.  After throwing on a hat, I was back outside.  In isolated patches the frost was really beautiful.  It covered the brown leaves on the ground making them glitter in the morning light.  It was also effing cold.

-Xenos

It seems that every day I feel a little more in love.  I felt my heart flutter today, and it felt like falling in love again.  I'd say it's pathetic, but nothing about this feeling feels pathetic.  I feel so lucky to have love and to be loved.  I'm so happy.

-Xenos

I inadvertantly killed Charlotte.  I feel really bad.  Thankfully, Joey forgave me.  She is taking solice in the fact that Charlotte will probably give that cat digestion problems.

-Xenos

So, I asked Glenn for a ride to gym this morning since it was at the curling rink at a golf and country club and I didn't really know how to get there.  Turns out, neither did Glenn.  We pulled at least three insane U turns before finally getting on the right road.  Glenn peeled into the parking lot and slid the car into a parking spot.  When I got out of the car I was shaking a bit and probably looked like a deer in headlights for the way a group of our class mates laughed and said, "Poor Marianne."

Curling itself was surprisingly fun.  I only fell down once (but hard enough to add to my weekly bruise quota).  And I made a couple of good throws? (curls?).  Our team ended up loosing, but just barely.  If my toes hadn't been frozen solid at the end of the hour, I could have played another full game!  It was like lawn bowling on ice.

The car ride home was a lot less scary.  When I got back into the house, I went into the kitchen and noticed Charlotte's (Joey's goldfish) tank sitting empty beside the kitchen sink.  Oh no.  The cat that sometimes visits our house ran inside when I was going out this morning.  I REALLY hope that it didn't eat the fish.  I kind of think it was though.  I feel super bad.  I'm going to have to ask Joey about it when I get home.  Gahhh.

-Xenos

I've finally posted my Little Red Riding Hood story to spinning_yarns

You should read it, because I am super proud of my short story.

-Xenos

So, I know we've all made slime at one point in our elementary school careers.  I know that I've made it on several occasions myself.  So, I wasn't too excited about making it again for Science class this morning.  I mean, I love making slime.  I just was bored with the prospect of doing the same old experiment again.

Well, wouldn't you know?  My science teacher pulled out a recipe for slime that I had never tried before, and actually has COMPLETELY different results!  It turns out a lot like silly putty actually, which is wicked cool.  I have my slime (which is an unfortunate pepto pink colour) in a baggy in my backpack.  I foresee myself playing with it all through next class (which I have to get going to).  But srsly, this is the coolest thing in the history of ever!  The recipe calls for Borax, which is a laundry detergent-esqe compound.  Google slime with Borax and make it yourself.  I promise you won't be disappointed.

-Xenos

I just got back my research proposal for Human Rights.  I am the most concerned about Human Rights as far as my ability to get a good mark in any of my classes this semester.  So, naturally I was very concerned with what my mark would be on this, my first ever research proposal...  I kicked its ass.  I got 87%.  Only one person in my class scored higher than me.  Eff yes.  I guess I'll have to shift the focus of my unease to Canadian Fiction.  Which is ironic considering its a second year class and I have taken more English courses than I can count...

-Xenos

I went to Cambridge this weekend for birthday celebrations with Macaroni.

On Saturday we began our day way too early in the morning, so I napped as Macaroni contacted (woke up) everyone else for our adventurings.  We picked up Rory and Denis and then drove to Hilton Falls for a hike.  After a few turns in the wrong direction we located ourselves on the map we were given and started heading toward the falls.  The forest was beautiful.  The sunlight overhead made the birch trees blaze with colour.  Bright orange, red and yellow leaves coloured the canopy.  It was very tempting to walk with my neck crained up the entire time.  Then, Rory and Denis decided to sing "Oh, Holy Night" in falsetto, which was nothing short of hilarious and also seemed to work in the situation.  Later, Macaroni found forest chocolate on the path, so I dared him to eat it.  He said it was delicious.

We walked past a trail that wound down a hill to a big reservoir.  Rory and I opted not to stay at the top while the other two scrambled to the bottom.  I found a jutty outy rock that worked perfectly as a seat.  Unforunately I leaned a little too forward and twisted my ankle as I fell off.  Fortunately, I could still walk.  When the boys came back we set off again for the falls and shortly after we got to the end of the trail.  The falls were pretty, but we couldn't see them well from our angle (looking down on the falls).  Macaroni wanted to go trail blazing.  Then we walked a couple of meters and found that the trail actually went down to the bottom.  Now that was pretty.  The rocks surrounding the falls trickled with water seeping between the cracks.  The waterfall itself had enough of a cave behind it that Macaroni could climb behind it and stay relatively dry.  It was really neat.  Especially since there were ruins from an old saw mill beside the falls.  I love old foundationy things.

On the way back from the falls we saw a little kid wearing a tooque with bear ears sewn to it.  It was sssssssssssssoooooooooooooooo adorable.  Even the boys were cooing over the little one.  So so cute.

After our hike, we had a little picnic of granola bars and mini oreos at the car.  Then we went for lunch at Frieda's.  I thought I was super hungry, but the burger was too much for me.  It was still delicious though.

After lunch, we went to Denis' to watch Grizzly Man.  I had not seen the movie before, but I knew the story (man who studies/lives with bears for over a decade is killed my a grizzly on one of his expeditions).  I had assumed this person was the picture of masculinity.  Someone lumberjack-ish.  I was wrong.  The guy was a pansy, God rest his soul.

After the movie, we started another but shortly after went over to John's house for dinner.  John made us a really nice dinner (although I don't much care for barbequed chicken).  We watched as much of the Leaf's game as we could handle and then started playing video games.  The video gaming was hilarious.  People get so into video games (myself included) and tempers flare so quickly.  I held my own pretty well when I was playing and placed second in most of the games.  All in all, it was a ridiculously fun night.  I really enjoyed the chance to hang out with the guys and just play video games.  Chicks are rad and all, but it's not the same.

On Sunday, Macaroni came back to Brantford with me and we essayed, made pizza, watched movies/pushing daisies and hungout.  It was a nice relaxing evening.


-Xenos