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.)

Supposedly it's "summer".

Hello lackies. I used to watch the show Street Cents, and Ken Pompadour would always greet his followers that way. CBC had some real gems back in the day. I was quite the fan of Jonovision (hosted by Jonathan Torrens) and his music shows, featuring the Coveted Golden Ear as first prize. Prestigious.

Good 90's tv aside, let's discuss more important matters: embarassing moments. Here are a few of mine that I remember. If they're not that good, let's keep in mind that there are probably WAY worse ones that have just been blocked out of my mind completely.

- In Namibia a few years ago, some locals wanted me to try eating a mopane worm. They collect these caterpillars from trees and fry 'em up, and everyone loves them and eats them constantly. I put one in my mouth and couldn't handle the rubbery consistency, and immediately spit it out onto the floor. I tried to laugh it off but was actually super embarassed that I couldn't even eat a worm.

- When I was about 16, I was in a fabric store with my mom and we split up to look around. I think I was looking for fabric for new curtains for my room or something. After walking around for a bit, I went and stood next to her and said, "Well, you know which ones I like." And she turned to me and said, "Pardon me?" Turned out it WASN'T MY MOM. Same jacket though.

- I can't think of any more.

Ok, weak, I know. I guess I don't have too many embarassing moments that haven't been blocked out by my stellar cranium. So - share yours.

Cumulus, Cirrus, Stratus.

In the title of today's entry you'll find the names of three cloud types. I know these (and others) because as a geeky teen, I owned dozens of "zany" t-shirts designed to convey the message that I was unique and cool, and one of them named the types of clouds along with diagrams of them. Instead of standing out, I probably just blended ever so nicely into the mosaic of teens all trying to be unique and cool. Besides the cloud shirt, I also had one with a mosquito biting someone's arm and getting filled up with blood, and one that said "Neighbors from Hell" with a picture of demons moving into a house.

And now, from the inquisitive mind of Cara A. Pauls.... things I don't understand:

- Why is it that humans, myself included, always seem to want to have something to look forward to in life? It's almost impossible for us to move forward and get out of bed if we don't have something that we're anticipating.

- Why do human reproductive hormones kick in at such a disgusting and awkward time of life?

- Why do things get dusty so often?

- Why is there no middle ground with certain things - I mean, why are there things that people either love or hate? No ambivalence for these things... eg. cilantro, poetry, watching surgery on tv, roller coasters

- Why is it so hard to change certain aspects of one's personality? How can one go from loving their personality one day to being really annoyed with it the next?

- Why has summer been so cold this year?

- Why do people that are "religious" have the hardest time accepting other people?

Ok, that's enough of a glimpse into my brain for today. Let's go back to the lighter side and talk about current entertainment options. The highly-anticipated movie Bruno premieres this week, featuring Sacha Baron Cohen as a gay Austrian fashion designer... this movie looks ridiculous but I'll probably see it because Bruno looks eerily similar to a friend/coworker of mine. Summerlicious is also happening right now, which I hope to be able to check out. Games night is also in the works, which I couldn't be more excited about!!!!! There are about a thousand other things I'd like to do this summer. Who's with me?

Post-Canada Day... how do you feel?

Hey guys. I didn't really celebrate our nation's 142nd birthday very well.... I was at WORK!!!! It was incredibly horrible for the first couple hours but then things calmed down.

Some facts about life right now:

- I have a persistent cough lingering from last week's virus, and it is SO ANNOYING AND LOUD. I think everyone I work with probably wants to puncture my lungs with a harpoon in order to stop listening to it.

- A few recent factors have me thinking about veganism lately. I'm going to do some more research. Keep in mind that I'm not big on being friendly to animals, but the idea that you can actually prevent diseases by changing your eating habits really appeals to me. I may have to concoct my own unique brand of veganism though that would still allow me to eat organic/free range meat every now and then. I'll keep you guys posted on the developments.

- The garbage strike is ongoing on Toronto and it's getting just plain DISGUSTING. I feel like I'm living in some underdeveloped country with no infrastructure. I'm hitting up St. Catharines for a couple days this weekend, and I'm sure the Garden City will not disappoint.

- I'm caring less and less about the Blue Jays.

- People are feeling this weird, tired, Monday-type vibe today because yesterday was a holiday. So I'm glad I worked yesterday, thus avoiding the sluggish after-weekend feeling and being able to truly enjoy my Thursday.

- All this Michael Jackson hype is pretty interesting. As usual, the media is making dead people out to be saints, of the type that do no wrong. Clearly Michael Jackson was a musical genius, but he was also a total freak. Let's not forget that he had a disturbed childhood and was a tortured soul who made bad decisions and probably shouldn't have had custody of his kids. I just want our perspectives to be balanced, ok?

Eggs & Toast usually do the trick for Saturday morning.

Well, I'm about halfway through the weekend at this point - it's Saturday afternoon and I'm wondering how I'm going to go out and do those pesky errands without getting pelted with rain. ARRRRGHGHGHGHGHHHH!!!!!!! Rain really gets my goat. It makes my hair frizzy and my apartment humid, and I also get a headache and sneeze a lot.

Last night I was out for dinner at a vegan restaurant. Normally I wouldn't do this, but I'll try anything once. Generally I enjoy meat and think it's an integral part of a dinner out. But I actually really liked the meal and only remembered afterwards that there had been ZERO meat involved. This restaurant was tapas-style which meant you ordered about 3 or 4 things to share between 2 people. We had some chickpea/avocado/other stuff salad, a mushroom phyllo pastry thing, some flax fettuccine, and some asparagus on quinoa. Plus wine, OF COURSE. I'm not going to "go vegan" or anything, but I can survive it now and then.

This aft I'm hoping to hit up "The Proposal" and then head to a friend's bday bash. Keep me posted on your weekend stylings.

Here I am.

Hey guys. It's finally summer! These are the days of sitting on patios and new adventures, in that order. Soon I'll be hammering out some birthday plan details, but before that, I need to figure out a day to go to Canada's Wonderland. I actually liked it a lot better when it was PARAMOUNT Canada's Wonderland and they had the rights to the Hanna-Barbera characters. Oh well. I believe there are still some Scooby-Doo icons floating around in the deserted areas of the kids' section.

Has anyone had any customer service debacles lately? I was pretty mad at Rogers last week. That company just really gets my goat. The story is, I decided to downgrade my cable to "basic plus combo", meaning that I wouldn't get as many channels, or pay as much per month. I called them, and they told me I had to return the satellite box that I had been "renting" from them. I never even wanted that satellite box in the first place and it turns out it hadn't even been necessary for the channels I was getting before. ARGH! So I was paying around $5 per month just to rent this stupid box that I didn't even need. Anyways, I was on the phone for quite awhile with this Rogers guy, figuring out exactly which channels I'd have on the new service, and what my new bill would look like. He said he'd put everything into the system that we'd talked about, and I just had to bring the satellite box thing into any Rogers store.

So later that afternoon, I brought the satellite box into a Rogers store... and guess what... there was NO RECORD of my conversation with dude #1. I repeated everything to the Rogers store people, who were incredibly lame, and then they couldn't take the satellite box thing back from me because there was no indication on my account that my services were changing at all. So essentially, that entire conversation I'd had earlier just didn't exist. The Rogers store people aren't allowed to change things on people's accounts, so they had to call another Rogers person and I had to stand there in the Rogers store and re-explain the whole thing on the phone. SO ANNOYING. Finally the person on the phone changed my account, so the in-store people were permitted to take the satellite box back. It wouldn't have been so annoying if someone would've been even a little bit nice, but they were all really mad at the world and it was super unpleasant.

So, now I'll resume eating berries. Let's take a day off and hang out in the sun!!!!!

THINGS.

Things I did on Wednesday:

- made peanut butter cookies.
- ate quite a few.
- considered slashing my cable. (eg. un-signing up for cable. it's too expensive.)
- had freezing cold toes.
- dropped my green sharpie on my foot, where it left a green mark.
- thought about money, got depressed, thought about money more, concluded that I will never be able to buy a house, ever.
- took the stairs down after work. odd. never done that before.
- didn't go for a run!
- looked at my bike helmet and its ugliness.
- stalked people on facebook.
- talked to one client on the phone like WAY too many times and confirmed the exact same information every time, leading me to believe that she had short-term amnesia.
- listened to "Like a Prayer" while on hold.
-a lot of other items.

weak, weak entry, i know. just trying to get in the habit of posting more often. this is what you're in for. eat more fruits and veggies!