"I love this song!!"

"Kat and Gordie sitting in Sheridan Hotel..." What rhymes with hotel?!

I just found out that The Red West has released a new EP - Today's Another Nation. It can't be shipped to Canada yet, despite the fact that most of the fans are from Toronto, so I'm counting the days... $10 US including shipping, too.

Merry Christmas, me!

(By the way, if you're interested, TRW has some of their songs downloaded on their website. I encourage you to listen. *wink wink*)

"Uhhh, where do you keep your DVD Players?" (customer)
"We don't have any." (me)
"What?! Why not?"
"Because we're a book store...?"
"Well... What am I supposed to do with my gift certificates then?"
"I don't know... buy books, maybe?"

Ahhh... I'm so frustrated. Why are boxing week shoppers ten times worse than frantic Christmas shoppers??

Today, the most hilarious thing happened. Actually, it was less than ten minutes ago. Fresh off the press.
Alex and I went to a local cleaner to get a new zipper on his winter coat. This older woman (at least sixty years old) insisted that we needed a whole new zipper even though it was only the "slider" (zipper lingo!) that was broken. So we asked her to just try to fix the slider. And it worked. She didn't charge us, but when she gave Alex his coat back, she said:
"Here (hands him the coat), I just saved you thirty bucks. (she smacks him right on his ass, I mean, full palm action) Don't say I didn't do nothin' for ya."
So she didn't charge us, but was the full palmed smack worth it? I don't know. It was pretty ballsy of her though. Gotta admire that.

"Look, I've got a potato bite!"
"A what?!"
"I mean, a paper cut..." - a slightly tired co-worker

Mel and Adam sitting in a tree...

So I've finished my third semester at university. My final exams were fine, despite some last minute worries (thanks to those who gave me words of confidence). Also, I got an A+ on one of my final essays for Women's Literature... when I got it back, it was like an out-of-body experience - I saw my name on the essay but knew it was too good to be true. I guess it was a good sign that the professor, upon seeing my name on my exam paper, recognized right away (with a smile, no less!) which essay had been mine. Good times. So despite my problems with the Shakespeare course, I still feel like I belong in English...

The only problem with exams is that now that they're done, I feel like any second not devoted to studying is a waste. I can't comprehend reading now for fun... So many books, so little time... Martin Sloan by Michael Redhill (my writing professor in the spring) is first on the list.

Happy holiday reading, everyone!

"How was your exam?"
"Let me put it this way... it would probably have been better if I went in, sat down, puked on my paper and handed it in." -a friend after our American Lit exam

"I'm looking for the "Shopaholic" books."
"Why?!"

Ahh I love it when co-workers speak their minds. Why, indeed.

I've almost finished my exams, so that means I can finally start my Christmas shopping. I really hate the fact that everyone waits for the last second to buy presents, because the malls are always so packed. At least I have an excuse - I would have gladly forgone exams to finish my shopping in early December or November.
Ah well.

Good luck with your Christmas shopping, if you haven't already finished. Just don't forget that this whole gift giving thing is really only a trend to boost retail companies' sales... trust me, I know.

Love.

It's amazing to think of how fast time has flown, and yet so many great things have happened in that short amount of time. My love for you has grown quadruple-fold over the past four years, and it increases daily. Your never wavering confidence has helped me in times of great stress (such as recently, through my many insane exams), and your constant support in all that I do is so appreciated. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your love and making me feel special every single day of the year. I love you with all of my heart. Happy four years, love.

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labour to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, reexamine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.

- Walt Whitman, "Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855)