Haiti, the Bachelor, and my Eyes.

Hi friendsicles. (Like popsicles, but friends instead.) How the heck are you? I sometimes feel guilty for not updating this thing more. My guilt usually goes away in about 7 seconds though.

So the ongoing crappy chaos in Haiti still makes me super depressed, and I just HOPE that things improve somewhat. I can't think about it too much otherwise I just wish I was down there and could do something actual, you know?

In other (petty) news, I watched the Bachelor last night, and it was soooooooo good. Psycho Michelle FINALLY got booted off, thank goodness. I'm fairly positive that although she constantly talks about how she really, really, really wants a husband, she will never get married. No one wants a desperate whiner. Also Elizabeth the Game-Player was not given a rose. Her signals were super confusing and she kept totally misinterpreting what was going on. She was really annoying and frustrating. I can't totally figure out why all the girls hate Vienna. Yes she's young, and she talks too much about her and Jake's date, but I don't see her as that bad otherwise. It seems like next week, there will be even more DRAMAAAAAAAAAAAA so stay tuned for that, folks. Seriously.

Today I have another eye doctor appointment. You'll remember that debacle a few weeks ago during which a so-called optometrist got really confused, changed my prescription a ton, and also felt the need to give me crazy eye drops that made my eyes go huge and blurry. I was sitting in the chair, reading letters off charts, and he kept getting so muddled and asking ME if he should change my perscription. Isn't that your job, buddy? He wasn't wearing a white coat, so that should've been my first red flag. Anyway, I walked out of there with some kind of bogus perscription that consists of numbers and symbols. When I had it expertly translated, I was told that APPARENTLY my eyes had miraculously gotten much better and I now needed a much weaker perscription.

This is a pure lie. I've had glasses since I was 14.... so that's 15 years total. And every time my eyes have been checked, they've been a bit worse than the time before. So I have a really hard time believing that they improved that much. I wasn't ready to lay down like 60 bones for new contacts when I don't trust the prescription, ya know? So I'm going for a second opinion today - this time NOT at Wal-Mart Optical. Yeah, I know that was probably my first big mistake. NEVER again. I'm pretty sure Dr. Ikjgafidgmawaye or whatever his name was just wrote some arbitrary numbers on a page and gave it to me to get rid of me. (And I use the term DOCTOR loosely.)

So, I'll keep you guys posted on the sitch. Now back to my coffee. SECONDCUPRULES.

Haiti.

I feel horrible about the earthquake in Haiti. I can't even express it. I wish I could help more than just donating money. I wish I could go down there and do something productive.
My parents lived in Haiti for a year, during 2005-06, and have a lot of friends down there, who may or may not still be alive. I spent Christmas there in 2005 and loved it. I can't imagine the devastation that the city of Port-au-Prince is facing.
Please go to http://www.redcross.ca/helpnow/ and donate to help with the relief efforts.

Tuesday TEATIME

Oh, hello, dudesies. I wish I had the technology to make this into a little "video blog" instead of just words on a page. Picture me in an easy chair in a library, sipping on my drink of choice. That would be the setting. As it is, I'm in my burgundy office chair, drinking blueberry green tea, which totally makes my stomach hurt. Weather: blustery. Office mood: tired/bored. Tonight I'm going to my book club. We're discussing A Fine Balance, written by Rohinton Mistry. I'm almost finished it, and I definitely recommend it. Everyone says the ending is horribly depressing though so maybe once I finish it, I won't be recommending it anymore.

New years eve was extremely solid. A bunch of people from here and there met up at the Goertz apartment on the east side, and hung out with their new puppy that has about ten names. We also drank huge tequila shots and ate cheese. Then our normal crew, "The Usual Suspects", headed down to the Imperial to watch Erin croon her heart out. She was spectacular as usual, and the bands that followed were dance-worthy and so catchy. I enjoyed my first Amaretto Sour in years, a drink I used to order all the time, and felt nostalgic.

Now it's time for new year's resolutions!!!!!!!!!!! Blaaaahhhhhhhh. I'm not telling you all my resolutions, because then you'll guilt me if I don't accomplish them. Next time I'll try to post a video of myself doing something awesome.

2009 is slipping away!

Hello, friends. Christmas is over, but it's not the new year yet, which means we're enjoying the period of time I like to call the HOLIDAY SAG. You feel kind of sad that Christmas is over, you're not really that pumped for new years because you already drank and ate a ton during the last few days, and you just feel like hibernating for a week or two, at which point you could slowly ease back into things by going into work maybe 2 days a week.

Christmas was quite solid this year, and I received a lot of items I wasn't expecting, such as a brand new IPOD from the brother. I downloaded a few episodes of shows, and spent my morning commute watching "Dog the Bounty Hunter" instead of listening to coughing and snoring all around me. Such bliss! My brother and I also realized this year that we're getting old. We now get excited about gifts like a blender or new pots and pans. When we were kids, unwrapping things like a super Nintendo or barbies or Connect Four, who would've ever thought we'd get excited about kitchen gifts?

I definitely did not go shopping on Boxing Day, except to accompany my mom to Costco. If you went shopping on Boxing Day then maybe we can't be friends anymore, because I find the whole thing unnecessary, chaotic, annoying, and a sad reflection of our materialistic society. Costco was pretty solid though, although the fluorescent lights kill my eyes, and the whole place smells like new tires. My mom can be convinced into buying things fairly easily, so I scored a new board game called Party Playoff. I had friends over the other night to play it and I'm pretty sure the general consensus was that it RULED.

Mostly I spent the holidays laying on the couch, napping or reading, sometimes with a glass of wine. It was pretty solid. Yesterday I returned to Toronto, played Guitar Hero, and watched two dvd's. One was the first episode of "My So-Called Life", which I've NEVER SEEN, and the other was Jesus Camp, a really disturbing documentary about this woman who teaches kids about God, Satan, and intertwining politics and religion. I could write pages about how mad I was at her and how everything she's teaching them is wrong, but I don't think I'll get into it now.

Let me know how you're dealing with the HOLIDAY SAG!!!!

Quick little story for ya

Wowwwwww were there ever some great characters on the subway ride home today. These two completely drunk guys (who were both unabashedly drinking tall cans of Canadian) just kept remarking on various things, and making not a lot of sense. At one point, the guy with less teeth threw his beer can down, smashed it, then when the subway doors opened, he kicked it out the door and yelled, "He shoots, he scores!!!!" Then at the next station, his friend did it. They both thought they were HILARIOUS. They also kept saying each station name in a growly bear voice, which I loved. The best part was when they spotted some teens eating Doritos, and one of the drunkards gave one of the teens all the change in his pocket in exchange for one Dorito. He kept exclaiming that he loved Doritos, and acted really superior to his friend after that because his friend had gotten zero Doritos. When they finally disembarked, they just kept yelling, "TORONTOOOOOO!!" but interspersed with a few shouts of "EDMONTON!!!" here and there too. So funny.

I want snow!!!!!

Huzzah! I'm back. Internet, rejoice! This weekend was about a 7 out of 10 in terms of solidness, but I came out feeling excessively tired which I'm blaming on the grey sky and dismal feel in the city right now. Friday night was a Raptors game with a bunch of friendsicles. You can see another account here which features some details about the family sitting in front of us.

The main "small talk" question these days seems to be something about one's readiness for "the holidays." In case you're curious about my own readiness, I finished my shopping two weeks ago and everything's wrapped and already at my parents' house. I do NOT mess around when it comes to Christmas. Also, I'm all for being politically correct, but I don't think it's necessarily offensive to call Christmas by its real name. Christmas is, as far as I know, the only holiday taking place on Dec. 25th, so can't we just call it Christmas while still acknowledging that not everyone celebrates it? Oh.... we can't?

My new cellphone, the Samsung Link, has served me fairly well so far, but I still miss the smooth stylings of the old Nokia. Also, I can't totally figure out the alarm clock on the Link. I hope it continues to wake me up faithfully. I purchased my first cellphone in the summer of 2002, at Future Shop, and I remember feeling so awesome that I finally had a cellphone. It was one of those huge bulky ones with a tiny screen that was green with black writing. At that time I didn't trust the cellphone fully, and was still paying for a home phone at my apartment AS WELL AS the cellphone. Almost no one does that anymore. Right?

On Friday I took the liberty of decorating our office for Christmas The Holidays. It looks like sweet sweet nectar. There are fake plastic bells hanging near the main trays, and red lights along the back wall behind the supervisor's desks. Yesssssssss. I would've liked to wrap some monitors in wrapping paper, making them appear to be gifts instead of monitors, but people would probably just unwrap them so they could do their work.

Tonight I have to go to choir even though I'd rather get some icing and decorate all the sugar cookies I made on Saturday. The cool thing is, I can *technically* do whatever I want! I often don't eat the crusts of toast or pizza because I don't want to, and I don't have to because let's face it: I'm 29 and in charge of my own destiny. I think I'll probably still go to choir tonight and not decorate the cookies, but it makes me feel better knowing I have a choice.

Lotto Max just takes your money and runs.

Have you ever put your phone number into one of those websites where you can figure out if it spells anything? My phone number(s) throughout my life have never spelled ANYTHING. It would be THE COOLEST if I could be like, "yeah my number is 416 YOU SUCK" or "you can get me at 416 THE CARA" or something. In high school one of our buddies' numbers was 9-DIRTY-9. You don't forget a phone number like that.

Soooo, last time I was complaining heavily about the dentist. Today was that fateful day which saw me swinging wide the door of the evil Waterview Dental and glaring at all in sight while considering running for it. Despite the fact that the dentist is a total and complete loser, who makes jokes like, "Are you nervous? Me too!" and "Don't you think I'm cool? Girls often get nervous when I'm in the room because I'm so cool", I did survive the procedure. They made sure to give me a double-dose of anaesthetic right off the bat, and they also let me wear the TV GLASSES (a solid invention). I'm sure I looked space age and awesome wearing them.

After I left the dentist I was super hungry, so I stopped by my fave digs, McDonalds, for a cheeseburg and fries. Eating when one's mouth is totally numb is really weird and difficult. I kept feeling like I was chewing my cheeks instead of the food. Maybe I was. Really unenjoyable.

As you cats know, I'm an avid reader and usually have a lot of books going at once. Novels are my mainstay and I go through them the quickest, cause they're my fave! I just read one of THE WORST BOOKS ever. You probably remember the romantic loveliness of "The Time Traveller's Wife", which was a pretty good read. I didn't LOVE it, but I thought it was interesting and sad and made me want to keep reading. The same author just wrote another book, called "Her Fearful Symmetry", and it was SOOOOOO horrible. First of all, the characters were all unlikeable. I couldn't relate to any of them or root for them, which is of prime importance when trying to have fun in a novel. The plot wasn't too interesting and it turned weird and sad, but not good-sad. I do NOT recommend this book. Seriously. I was told it was awful and I still wanted to read it for myself, and now I wish I hadn't.

ANYWAYS, now I'm off to games night, the best night of all!