ME AGAIN.

I guess fall has brought with it not only cooler weather, lots of wind, and the early musings of Halloween, but also more motivation for me to express my thoughts with the handful of folk who enjoy this WEBLOG.

I know you're wondering how the fantasy hockey draft went. I felt pretty solid about my picks and just hope to high heaven that my players do okay. I feel like I've done a heck load of research so far, so I think it's just a matter of sitting back and waiting to see how things go. I also feel like, in my effort to be more connected to the other side of the gender dome at work, I may have inadvertantly distanced myself from the ladies there. I HOPE NOT!! Geez.

Here's a quote for you by someone called Tom Stoppard, who claims to be a british playwright: "Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art." I gotta admit that I kind of agree with him. Our city's in a tizzy about the upcoming Nuit Blanche right now, and confession: I turned down, somewhat rudely actually, an invitation to be part of an exhibit/music thing there. I didn't think the exhibit/music thing was a horrible idea, but it was pretty bad. I have a really hard time appreciating Nuit Blanche, and modern art in general. I'm really not sure why. I mean, I had a fairly cultured childhood. Our parents took us travelling often, my mom took me to see the symphony and theatre, my dad took me to hockey games (ok not a good example of my cultured childhood, but anyways), we learned other languages, I took music lessons and dance lessons and drama lessons, etc etc etc. So WHY do I have next to zero appreciation for modern art? I'd actually like to figure this out, because I truly don't get it. I'm thinking maybe it has something to do with the whole "open to interpretation" thing. With good writing, for example, a group of leaders in the field could all look at one piece of fiction and generally come to a consensus that it is GOOD. This would never, ever happen with a piece of modern art. Maybe I just like standards and parameters? I don't know. I don't actually know how or why so many people are into things like Nuit Blanche. Maybe they just like the chance to stay out all night and wander the streets with crowds. Admittedly, it's a good atmosphere. But after attending last year, I concluded that I "just don't get art."

Tonight I played my piano a bit and realized I'm really out of practice!! I miss the times when I was in a band. I felt like such a rock star.

Here's an excerpt from an email I wrote to a friend on July 25, 2004. Apparently I had a lot of fun back then:

on friday, mary and i left for port rowan. we went to my grandparents' house on friday night, and then saturday, got up early and started the day. we had a really busy day and it was just perfect.... such good weather, so many fun times... went to garage sales, to a provincial conservation historic area, and to a beach. in the evening after dinner we left for a campground and spent hours gathering the perfect firewood and then building a massive bonfire and poking at it with sticks. SO much fun!! slept in a tent and then today went out for lunch with my grandparents before driving back here. we stopped a lot along the way to take pictures of roadkill. it was truly the greatest weekend i've had all summer....

Another taste of the good life.

It's Sunday Afternoon, the most boring time of the entire week. Not in a bad way though, because you're free to do whatever the heck you want! It's just hard to mobilize friends into an actual activity though, so I mostly end up hangin' in my apartment and being cool. Right now I've got some cookies baking that will PROBABLY turn out crappy because I didn't exactly use a recipe, just threw some stuff together. I also have SCALLOPED POTATOES (including ham, cheese, and onions) in the crock pot. Hooooooooly crap, can't wait til that stuff is done. The trick is to wait til it's cooled off though, for obvious reasons.

I'm listening to this right now - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_FhEL1JL2Y - pretty catchy stuff by Little Boots. I saw her in concert a couple weeks ago and it was a good time, although being a heterosexual female, I was totally a minority at the bar. That seems to happen whenever I go to shows that feature a hot chick as the lead singer. WHAT GIVES?

Tried to take a nap earlier and it didn't even work. Got a solid 9+ hours last night, so even the idea of napping was pretty ridiculous, but I like to take advantage of every sleep-op possible. (Cookie update: they turned out! I'm eating one right now. Get yourself over here if you want one!)

And now, for a non-exhaustive list of things I'm into these days:

- Olives

- Ridiculously high-energy dance music, useful for "pumping yourself up" while trying to get ready for work when you're still really tired. eg. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uDixD4tXXU

- Recliners

- Loafers

- Candles (best part of FALL!)

- socks

- Thinking about whether to chop all my hair off (opinions??)

- Pizza - not really eating it, but thinking about it and hoping for good pizza. It's so, so, SO hard to find good pizza lately! Please recommend some if you know of really good gooey pizza.

- McDonald's (I'm actually always into McDonald's)

- Not quite getting motivated to start running again

- Setting aside the mixed drink joviality of the summer and getting back into solid wines

There you have it. Tonight's the draft for the hockey pool at work, which the guys have GRACIOUSLY allowed me to be a part of this year. I'm kind of scared since my hockey player knowledge, while semi-decent, isn't as good as it should be. But let's face facts: I'm good at contests, I'm delightful, I do know quite a bit about the sport of hockey in general, and I'm the ONLY girl in the pool. So these things should work for me and not against me. I hope. Cross you them fingers.

For my 3 loyal fans.

ANNNNNND, I'm back! Today was the "working from home" experiment/extravaganza '09 . I thought I'd hate it: being the life of the party (well, in this case, the life of the office) is not a feat easily achieved whilst sitting in my tiny apartment wearing sweatpants. But I really enjoyed the freedom, and the chance to do things like make tomato soup, not put makeup on, wear pink socks, listen to trance music, and open up the windows to let a cool breeze blow through the room. These things would never have been possible at the office. Except for wearing pink socks, but still.

Quick food update for those of you interested: haven't really had anything too noteworthy lately, although I did hit up one of my fave sushi/korean combos, Hosu, on Sunday after churchy church. Unfortunately I ordered too much food... easy to do at those places. You order one dish but then they bring all this extra stuff like soup, salad, and tiny bowls of spicy stuff. It's so yummy and filling! I went the extra mile and ordered a side order of glass noodles, and pretty much filled up on those, so I had to bring the cali rolls and maki home. Don't worry, I polished 'em off at dinnertime in my recliner.

Today's food hasn't been as yummy or as filling. Breakfast saw me heading to the local java joe's for some craptastic "java" and a crummy excuse for a muffin. It was the kind that crumbles into bits as soon as you look at it. Pfffffffffffff LAME MUFFINS AT JAVA JOE'S!!!! At lunch I made Campbell's Tomato Soup, one of my fave childhood treats. Unfortunately there's no bread here so I couldn't have a grilled cheese sandwich. I finished off the meal with a couple of frozen chocolate chip cookies. I keep 'em in the freezer. Got hungry again a few hours later and made some sweet potato fries, which were okay, but really, who am I kidding? They taste a thousand times better at the local pub.

And now, a list of things that are a TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY that I regularly spend money on:

- Magazines. Ok, I don't really buy them too often, because I have a subscription to Toronto Life and that's all you really need. But sometimes I'm suckered in by the glossy covers of Marie Claire or Glamour. They always only provide about 10 minutes of entertainment, have pointless articles, and just make me wish I had more money to buy all the clothes gracing the pages.

- Coffee from the Second Cup. This is now part of my budget. I officially spend $40 per month on Second Cup coffee. Some would say this is a waste. I could probably get away with spending about $10 per month if I made my own coffee. But folks- life is about enjoyment. Would I enjoy making my own disguistoid coffee and carrying it to work on the subway? HELLS NO.

- Books. Ok - NOT a pointless purchase. But I could just as easily go to the library, right? Thing is, I'm somewhat obsessed with bookstores, and with the new book smell. I just don't get as much pleasure from a library book with sticky germs all over it as I do from a brand new book that is ALL MINE!!!! BWA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Okay. So, that's it. Who wants to play board games with me? Also, I'm taking a week off soon and my plans "fell through" as they say so... I NEED SOME PLANS post haste. Disneyworld, anyone? (P.s. I'm serious.)