Exams are O-V-E-R, which means that I have official finished my first year of university. I have mixed feelings about the past year. On the one hand, it sucked. Big time. I had some pretty bad profs (more specifically my comp teacher last session and boughn), and many bad experiences in lectures, mostly having to do with the immature individuals in the classes. But then again, I had many good experiences. Literature "study" groups... before the Midterm, we were studying at the Pita Pit, discussing a friend's promiscuity, when some random woman (who, as it turns out, was sitting beside us) came up and said that she doesn't approve of his relationships, and that he isn't much of a role model for his fellow students. Ok, I understand her having this opinion, as I don't agree with it either, but it was NOT her place to say that. She went away, and then CAME BACK about half an hour later and continued the argument. That was funny, although that could just as easily have made it into the "bad experiences" category. I met a lot of really nice (yet crazy at times) people, many of whom I think I will be seeing in future years due to our majors. And Gillian, I look forward to our Thai/Indian cuisine date.
As for the summer, lots of work. And reading. I must read every book on my "must read" list: Pilgrim, Headhunter, Cunning Man, Anil's Ghost, Coming Through the Slaughter, the Cornish trilogy, Wicked, Slaughterhouse-Five, 1984, reread Lord of the Flies and Catcher in the Rye... there's more. Let me know if there's anything I'm missing or anything I should read... And ask me if you need recommendations... hehe.

An update : The family that ordered that book canceled it last night. I passed them off to someone else - I didn't want to have to deal with them...again.

Chapters customers, on the whole, are retarded
It started with Map Man. Within the first few minutes of my shift. What a good way to start the night... sigh. My faith in humanity has failed me yet again. "Faith". I could tell in Rose's eyes as I walked up that he was going to be trouble. He wanted a Perly's guide of Toronto streets. Ok, that part's easy. But he wanted a black and yellow one. No problem, right? Wrong. There ARE no such things as black and yellow Perly's. At least, not in our store. So I looked it up. But, lucky me, there were no pictures of the books. Therefore, there was no way of telling which store had it. To make a long story short, he swore it existed, and so I sent him to Eglinton Squre, as it had the only other version of Perly's that's available. Then again, that's assuming he can get there, as he was positive (and even ARGUED with me) that Eglinton Square is at Warden and Eglinton, despite the fact that we were looking at a map, and Eglinton square IS at Eglinton and Vic Park. Stupid bloody man. Idiot. Oh well, let them deal with him.
Next, on to a family of about 10 people. They came in, ordered a book, and left. Easy enough. But then they came back, multiple times, in order to ensure that they had ordered the correct book (which I explained time and time again WAS the right book). Then they left. And came back. They bought another book. Left, returned. Seriously. I should have counted. But it had been at LEAST 5 trips in and out of the store. I wonder how far they made it out of the parking lot before having to turn around to ask another dumbass question about their ordered book...?
A little girl, 4ish, stopped me as I passed her bench on the way to cash. "I can't find my mommy" she said. "My sister went to find her. Who's supposed to take care of me?" I could have cried due to her innocence. But then the anger of child abandonment crept up. I wanted to find her mom and scream at her. She doesn't know the crazy people that come into our store. Seriously. But her mom found her before I could get far, and had hauled her out of the store without a word... I wonder what makes some people reproduce. There should be laws so that one has to have a certain IQ in order to have kids.
Last, but certainly not least, there was this man that was sitting on the fireplace. When we closed, Connie shut off the lights, so it was completely dark in his section of the store. Yet he refused to move or stop reading the book he had with him. He just sat there. I thought for a moment that he was dead. But no, he turned the pages every once in awhile. So i stood and shelved over his shoulder, looking at my watch. But he couldn't take the hint. I was going to give him 5 minutes before I stole the book. But Connie got there first, and told him that we were closed and he had to get out. He looked up at her blankly, and kept reading. So she repeated herself. THREE TIMES. He didn't say a word at all. Finally, he slammed the book down and left. A full 5 minutes after the lights had been turned off AND after everyone else in the store had left. Retarded man.

I realize now that there's no possible way that you could see how much all of this annoys me. Reading this, you most likely have a "yeah, so?" mentality. Which is fine. But I needed to get all of this off of my chest. *breathes a deep sigh of relief.* Now I can sleep.

And YOU thought Profs were intellectuals?

Here's a list of stupid things that 2 of my profs (Garry Leonard, literature, and Michael Boughn, short story) have said over the past few months:

"The CIA is in my pillow" - Leonard
"Give me the channel changer... I'll kill you!" - Leonard
"My SUV is going to eat me" - Leonard
"In (Hitchcock's) 'Vertigo', Judy's not wearing a bra... not that I was looking...Stop looking at me like that." - Leonard
"You're not supposed to be alive when you're dead. You're supposed to be dead." - Boughn
"Structural weirdnessess... is that a word?" - Boughn
"(Olivio) Paz is...*sigh*...just such a beautiful man" - Boughn (on justifying why his story "My Life with a Wave" is considered a poetic story)
"Unverbalisable" - Boughn *shudder*

And these are supposed to be English Profs!! I'd be interested in hearing some stupid quotes that some of your profs said this year, as well. Mine can't be the ONLY brain-dead ones... I should post some of Chris' favourite quotes from his profs, there are some real good ones.

This day has really gone downhill. I woke up with many great ideas about how to spend my day off of work: studying, movie-watching, etc. But then the subways aren't running, due to a jumper. No one has any freaking idea what's going on. There are shuttle buses working, but they're only going in one direction - the wrong way, and on the wrong track. SO I'm stuck at Chris' house while he is at work. I think I'll give it another try in another half hour or so. I asked this one guy at the subway when he thinks the subway will be up again and he replied "When they find all the pieces". I can't decide if that's hilarious or just... cruel...

We saw Die Walkure last night. I quite enjoyed it, but there were some really annoying people there. On all sides, too. On our right was one of the many old ladies who always goes on Friday nights, and we see her at every show. She, like the old lady who doesn't like getting up to let us out of our seats, takes a hell of a long time to stand up. And she sighs when she does it, like she's doing us this HUGE favour by letting us leave at intermission. She's the "red lady", as she only wears this one really ugly bright red suit jacket. In front of us, there were 2 middle-aged men. They talked a few times, but it wasn't too bad. About 2 hours into the opera (it's 4 1/2 hrs long), they started talking a LOT, and then they got up and left. But they forgot their jackets. Hehe. Stupid men had to wait until intermission in order to leave. Serves them right. And lastly, behind was a family of 5, with kids ranging in age from about 8-15. None of them wanted to be there. I remember hearing the youngest boy saying to his mom "Well, I don't want to be here" and "No one is enjoying this but you, mom". It's always good to see a family trying to broaden their horizons, but it's not something you should do during an opera that's 4 1/2 hours long.

I found out co-op tutorial is at the same time as Victorian Novel, and the (A)Muse(d) class... This has caused me to decide once and for all.

The Anthro exam killed me. I am but a mere shadow of what I was... Sigh. Stupid Lambek. He put too many questions about himself on the exam. "What were the 2 islands on which Lambek did his fieldwork", or "What religion were the people of the islands?" or "What are their mode of subsistence upon his arrival for the first time?" Answer to all three: I couldn't care less. He just wants to know if we find him interesting, I swear.

Tomorrow is opera-time. I feel cultured. But in a normal sense, not a "oh, I must put on a fake accent, wear fake fur and refuse to get up when people desperately need to pee or get coffee during the intermissions"... stupid woman. She'll be there tomorrow night, I'm sure of it.

People suck.

I hear the sad bells of fate ringing...
I realized last night that my entire first year GPA is based on these damn exams. 45% of the session's mark based on ONE exam is....insane.... But, as everyone says, GPAs arent everything, right? But they are good for a well-deserved ego-boost...

I'm horribly addicted to Red West cd... I listen to it WAY too much. It's unhealthy.

I've started a new story, so far it's called "A Lesson in Learning How Not To Drown"... It's going well. It's for the creative writing club I'm a part of at JS. The club's going well, the little keeners are so cute. But walking through the halls is torture. I really truly hope I wasn't like THAT when I was in grade 7/8...? Cringe...

Ahh, one exam down, three to go. The 20th Century Lit. wasn't too bad, surprisingly. I kinda wish I had time to reread my answers, but... I am confident :) I need to get an A to keep my A. But again, I am confident. Prof Leonard was cool, although way too philosophical for his own good. And he had some MAJOR groupies. It was bizarre. He'd walk into class and people from the back of the lecture hall would go "LEONAAAARD!" and he'd be all like, "yo, my homies"... I'm constantly amazed that I go to a UNIVERSITY and not another high school with huge entrance fees...
So it's Thursday morning and I'm bored. I'm going to study as much as possible for Anthropology (a week today is the exam). But while I procrastinate, here's a quiz thingie I found on Matthew's Blog...

1: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:
" and down and singing out dirty slovos, and it was a nice malenky" (Clockwork Orange)

2: Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?
The basement wall

3: What is the last thing you watched on TV?
The news

4: WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what time it is:
10:20

5: Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
10:22

6: With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
"It's Not Easy" by Red West (I can't stop listening to this damn cd)

7: When did you last step outside?
Yesterday evening after my exam

8: Before you came to this website, what did you look at?
This is a little vague... on the computer or in general? I was checking my email.

9: What are you wearing?
My pajamas :)

10: Did you dream last night?
I had a weird dream... I was trying on prom dresses, and I picked out this really really ugly one :S

11: When did you last laugh?
Probably last night. Not much has happened this morning.

12: What is on the walls of the room you are in?
A few paintings, some Blink 182 posters (my brother's), Christmas lights

13: Seen anything weird lately?
Weird... I see a lot of weird things at Chapters... like this weird homeless guy was wearing a white collared shirt and black vest, and appeared to be pretending he works there... He was showing this family around the store, pointing out landmarks...?

14: What do you think of this quiz?
It's ok. It's keeping me away from the Anthro... It seems to be more intelligent than most.

15: What is the last film you saw?
Dogville. But it's not about dogs. It's very good. And artsy. I recommend highly.

16: If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
I have no idea. This is so hard. I'd probably buy plane tickets to some little corner of the globe and tuck myself away for a bit while writing my first hit novel ;) And maybe think about bringing Chris along... hehe.

17: Tell me something about you that I don't know:
If I told you, I'd have to kill you.

18: If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
I have to quote Matthew on this one... It's one of my pet peeves, as well... "Limit undergraduate intake at the world's universities to the best and brightest. There are too many horrible miscreant wretches."

19: Do you like to dance?
Why, yes. But I haven't for a LOOONG time...

20: George Bush: is he a power-crazy nutcase or some one who is finally doing something that has needed to be done for years?
Don't get me on this subject. It's not that he's a "power-crazy nutcase," but he lacks common sense. And a conscience.

21: Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
I like the name Chloe. But that's likely to change.

21: Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
I like Ethan, but it'd make Chris cringe..

22: Would you ever consider living abroad?
Why not? I'd like to surround myself in another culture.


Ok, so that was... 8 minutes. Sigh. Have a good day all :)

Saturday again. But at least I have this one off of work!! There's a big "do" at my nan's tonight, where we will be eating tons and tons of turkey and ham not to mention all of the veggies and so on.... I'm hungry. My first week off of school was productive. I got a lot done, almost finished studying for my Lit exam which is this coming Wednesday. So much to study for, though!! Too many novels (this exam covers 5 texts and about 5 poems). Fun stuff. I saw Dogville last night, it was SO good. Seriously. If you like artsy-fartsy movies, this is one for you! It has no set, just chalk outlines of buildings. The plot is interesting. Just be warned: it's 3+ hours long. So go pee before entering the theatre. And watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, too. Another very good one. Chris is trying to talk me into seeing it for the 3rd time.... hehe. I regret not seeing my friends already. I mean, Mellie is off of school, too. So we shall get together this week, ok? And no worries about the accident... I'm glad that YOU weren't hurt... And I'll give you a big hug when I see you :)
That's it for now, really. Chris is defrosting his fridge because it won't close due to the build up of ice. There is water all over the floor... hehe. Poor love. Give me a call this week if you're not busy and want to do something fun :)

Woah, so long since a BLOG. What's happened? Too much, far too little. Still no assessment at work, therefore no pay raise. *shakes fist at Chapters/Indigo* Oh well. Big loves goes to my *old* Mellie Bellie, who turned a magnificent 2-0 this past week. I remember the good old days back in Creative Writing class, our notes, your blushes.... *sigh*. Here's to a million more shared blushes in our future! (and next time I see you, I may just make you a new Eminem-ish rap).
I finished school this week. I'm happy but a bit sad because university isn't like high school. A lot of my friends aren't in English, so I'll likely only see them in the halls. But I'm happy because it's the summer. Lots of work, relaxation and reading... I've decided to read "Self" (by Yann Martel) first. I bought it SO long ago but no chance to read it...
Ok, I realize now that Blogs aren't for me. What do I write in these things?? hehe. I don't know... Anyway, that's been my, like, month... Exciting eh? I'll add more if I can think of anything else...