Showing posts with label Stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stories. Show all posts

8.18.2009

note to self

  1. "I want a piece of chicken with a lot of barbecue sauce. Oh wait, I'm wearing white." I then wore a paper napkin around my neck and covered my shorts with the table cloth. I'm just dripping with class.
  2. Alana said that she was going to get a glass of pop, so I asked for one as well. She returned with an empty glass.
  3. When my name was announced for winning second low gross in my flight, they pronounced my name "Alyssa Set-o". When they were taking a picture of us, they were trying to get us to stand closer and Alana yelled, "c'mon, squish in there Alyssa!" It took me a while to realize she was talking to me.
  4. There was a paper trimmer in the middle of all of the prizes on the table, and immediately I knew I wanted that to be my prize. When they finally got around to the draw prize, the second girl who went up took the paper trimmer. I was the third. My friends laughed so hard at me. When the girl realized I actually wanted the paper trimmer, she traded her prize for mine, so I got the paper trimmer. "I am going to trim SO much paper with this!" Then a lady came up and told me that it wasn't actually a prize; somebody owned it and it was about five or six years old. So I had to give back the paper trimmer and get a new prize.
  5. Kristina picked a prize bag with a bag of cement and a sleeve of shitty balls. We thought that it was a joke prize so we opened the bag of cement ... to find a block of instant drying cement in there.
Cities was a lot of fun this year. I can be such an idiot most of the time.

7.28.2009

folk fest memory #1

When we were in the beer garden, Tori and I were sitting by the porta-potties waiting for Theresa and Mika to buy drinks. We were talking when I saw Michael Bernard Fitzgerald walk into one of the porta-potties, and since Tori had just told me that she loved him I persuaded her to talk to him after he got out.

So, as soon as he left the porta-potty, still wiping his hands with sanitizer, Tori booked it towards him and had a drunken conversation about how she loved him and how he was so cute. Shortly after Theresa and Mika came back, and when I pointed to Mika that Tori was talking to Michael, she, also drunk, ran towards him and yelled that he was Michael Bernard Fitzgerald. Many pictures were taken, and Mika tried to give him her phone number (when I told her she should). It was great.

listening: four night rider - the rural alberta advantage

10.10.2008

i found my place in the wishing well

Guys!  My mom is leaving to go to China tomorrow!  I accomplished something that really should be something small but it means so much to me.  I'm taking great steps to get away from who I was, and as a result I'm becoming more of who I used to be.  And I am quite happy!  Boy has my life been such a roller coaster.  Sometimes I go back and read my previous entries, and I just sound really crazy.  Man.

I opted to stay home and watch disc one of 30 Rock instead of hanging out with people.  Maybe it was because Gavin invited me and I've been kind of resisting.  Sometimes it's just easier to hide away for a little while, you know?  But we're okay and it does feel easy to talk to him.  There's just a lot of times now when I don't really want to talk to him.  I think I just need space, because we have still been interconnected even through everything we've been through.  Is all of this healthy?  I have no idea, but I really don't mind.

Anyways, some anecdotes.  Today in chemistry, Mr. Schrottner was gone so Mr. Brownlee, our student teacher, was in charge.  It was a work period anyways.  Since none of us could really remember his name (I thought it was Mr. Bradley), I decided to just call him "Bro", because it was the first three letters of his last name.  And we said it in a dumb surfer voice.  Anyways, while he passed me in the hallway during lunch, he called me "Seto", which didn't phase me at all until he pointed it out.  He told me that he'd start calling me Seto since I was calling him Bro.  Then, during class, we got a talk about Aids Awareness and I said I'd wear red pants, and Mr. Brownlee stated that my purple pants I wore yesterday were obnoxious.  And that I was obnoxious.  Which hurt!  Well, not really, but I told him that I wasn't going to talk to him for the rest of the class.  At one point, he sat in the desk in front of me to try to get me to talk to him, but I just pulled my desk back.  And then later he took my calculator and typed "IM SORRY" on it.  I didn't talk to him until the very end of class.  It was pretty fun.

Also, there is a guy in band who came here from China.  Have I mentioned this before?  Anyways, the first day he was in band class, we had a conversation and ended up taking the same bus home.  So on Thursday, he came up to me after band class and asked if I would take the bus home with him.  Unfortunately, I was staying to watch the volleyball game (our senior girls owned!), and so he asked if I would take the bus with him next week and I agreed.  It was sweet!

4.24.2008

i like your face, tail, scale, walk, and talk

(This post is more for me than anyone else, but it would be nice if you read it.)

Mon-Mon-Montreal!


We started out in the airport, and Gavin took my camera and took a lot of random pictures. We got money for lunch and headed off to go get Jugo Juice, when we realized that we did not bring Boggle so we went on the eternal search for it. Of course, we found it in that shop with the alligator in the front, so I spent all my lunch money on it. We found a whole rack of funky sunglasses so we tried them all on. When we were going through security, Gavin took a picture of Cole with my camera and we got yelled at by the security lady. Then she made me delete the pictures and then show them to her, so I had to show her a random picture of Cailey.

When we were checking in the lady giving me my boarding pass told me that none of the seats were preassigned, so she told me that I could pick whoever I wanted to sit with, but all the people in my chaperone group had already just checked in, and I panicked so I just said I didn't have anyone, and so she probably thinks that I don't have any friends, but despite that she gave me a aisle seat. Of course, my seat was in the front of the plane and everyone else's was in the back.

After the plane was in the air, I went to the back and played Boggle with Cailey. And then I played Boggle with Jessica. And then I played cards for about an hour with Cailey. We played Golf, and War, and Crazy Eights. It was a good plane ride. And after that, we landed in Ottawa and my head really hurt from the descent.

While we were in the airport waiting for our luggage, Megan fell off her chair and I'm not sure if she landed on her head or not, but she was perfectly fine. We then went through a revolving door to leave the airport, and Megan tried to push it even though it was automatic. From there we went to our hotel, from the hotel we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, and that was pretty fun. We got to eat hamburgers and watch strange music videos on the TVs. And after that, they played YMCA, so we all (or most of us) got up on our chairs and did the dance.

When we finished dinner we went down to do our walking ghost tour, which was pretty fun, except I couldn't pay attention long enough to be scared by the stories. At one time, our tour guide was telling a story and instead of listening I watched a window washer wash the very top window of a pretty building. We then went to the old jail, and saw the haunted cells. Gavin, Elliot, and I all tried to climb up the walls in it because they were narrow enough. We then saw the gallows, where they hung people, and there were some pretty creepy stories that probably would have been scary if we believed them.

We went back to the hotel, and chilled out. Mikki, Cailey, and Megan all put on their dresses and looked pretty (I didn't bring mine), and Megan gave Mikki a massage and a very awkward picture (or two) was taken. We then found out that we could take out the screen on the window, so we climbed through the very narrow window and onto the roof. We were very sneaky. And it was hard getting back in. When we finally got into bed, we got really hyper and laughed a lot, talked a lot, tried really hard to be quiet a lot. Mikki and I found out that if we rubbed the two blankets together, the static would create sparks and it became a whole light show. And then Cailey and Megan tried it. Finally we tried to be quiet and go back to sleep, but we only lasted ten minutes before somebody started talking and they all started laughing really hard and so Mikki started making the bed shake, and so I said "STOP SHAKING THE BED, GOD!" and we all started laughing harder. We finally had to turn all the lights back on, and start reading to calm ourselves. Which worked, because we finally went to sleep.

We had to wake up really early the next day, and we headed off to breakfast, which was kind of crummy. After that, we headed down to an elementary school and performed to the elementary kids, who were really young and really cute! After that, we headed off to the Byward market for lunch. We bought really nice mittens because they were pretty cheap, and had bagel sandwiches for lunch. There was a panhandler who did statue poses with a tennis racket, and when we were heading back, Gavin imitated him, and the man saw and gave him a badminton racket to start learning how to pose like he did.

From the Byward market, we went to Parliament and performed at the Rotunda. I hurt my finger badly doing a gliss (it's still healing). We then went on a tour around the place. The library was gorgeous! We didn't get to take any pictures in it, but it looked beautiful. After the library, we headed to the Peace Tower to take a look up there. Ms. Digel told us that she had never gone up to the Peace Tower because it was always too busy, but that she would finally get the chance to go until we stepped into the elevator and the fire alarm rang. So we all had to evacuate Parliament and wait out while the fire trucks came. Mikki, Megan, and a whole bunch of other people were still up in the Peace tower, but they all got to take the elevator down, which was weird because isn't that a safety hazard? But anyways. While we were waiting, Gavin and I took off our dress shirts because it was too hot, and I dropped my music and lots of it blew away. Luckily, Gavin helped me pick it all up. While I was putting it all back in my folder, I gave Gavin my shirt and he ended up putting it on. And then we were taking group pictures, and Mr. Paddock got mad at me for not having my dress shirt on, so I had to wear Gavin's. It was really funny seeing everyone's reaction when they saw Gavin .. "nice puffy shoulders!"

From Parliament, we went to the Museum of Civilization. We were going to go to the imax theatre to sleep but the next movie wasn't for some time, so we ended up going to the kid's zone of the museum, which was really fun. The first room we went into was like a theatre, with costumes and masks, so Team Boggle made up the lamest play ever while I filmed it. After that, we found a bus that could drive over continents. Then we watched a cartoon film about Chinese immigrants and a Chinese violin, and throughout the whole film we tried to figure out if the kid was a girl or a boy. Megan thought it was a boy. At the very end, the child played a performance on the Chinese violin in front of the school and wore a dress! It was really funny. We went through the entire place, dressing up in several of them, and I sketched a bad portrait of Gavin on a motorcycle, although he lost it. We found a camel, Gavin ran up a pyramid, we spelled Boggle using hieroglyphics, Megan wore clogs, Mikki and Cailey had a bread fight, until we finally left and went to the other parts of the museum.

We went straight to the Museum of War after, and my camera battery died. Luckily, I still had my battery charger in my backpack, so everywhere we went, I tried to find an outlet. The first one I found was blocked by another piece of plastic. The second one was really weird and could the charger could only fit halfway, so we had to put Gavin's wallet and the camera underneath the charger so that it would stay. We watched the movie playing in that room twice before finally leaving. My battery was only a quarter charged. We found a trench, and soldier outfits that were really itchy, and then we went to the bathroom and found a perfectly functional outlet. So we hung around there for a while, and Cailey and Cole snapped coins until Cole blasted a loonie all the way to the other wall and we got yelled at by one of the employees. So we went into the memorial room, a really pretty room with blank, gray walls and a single window, and a pool where people could throw coins into. Cailey tried to snap hers in but it ended up going up her sleeve and then feebly falling into the water. I took a picture of a reflection of my hand, which confused Cailey because she thought the reflection was my real hand. Even though I had just taken the picture, and there was no way I could have took a picture of my hand like that, she refused to accept that Gavin, Cole, and I were right. Until ten minutes later, when she finally got it. We then left the room, and found another outlet just outside of it, so we hung out there. We then met up with Mikki and Megan again, and we decided to go to the cafeteria to play cards. And we found another outlet there. We played President for probably half an hour, when we finally had to leave.

We went to dinner after the museums, and Mr. Paddock told us that if we had the "first dance" on the "dance floor", we could go up to get dinner first. So we girls did it, and none of the guys did it. But then it turned out that it was Bronwyn's birthday, so we sang 'Happy Birthday' to her, and her table got to go first. We were outraged. But then we got to go up after the chaperones did. We waited precisely for when Ms. Ginet picked up her plate, which took a while because she was talking to someone. During dinner, Cole and Gavin (I think?) were fighting over who would get the piece of chicken (I don't think either of them wanted it), and it ended up in Cole's glass. Then they threw bread crumbs at people at our table. They weren't too great at dinners. (Oh, and I found an outlet in the room where we were having dinner so I got to charge up my battery to three quarter's full). We then had pudding, which tasted decent, and we put stuff in Cailey's water when she and Megan went to the washroom to see if she'd notice. She did. After dinner, the guys went to the bus to get changed, and then we did. We then went off to the symphony.

The symphony was really good, listening to all the strings was awesome and the percussionist was fantastic, even though he didn't play at all for the Schubert set. I liked when he played the xylophone. It was a really long day so Gavin, Megan, and Cole all ended up falling asleep. Gavin was a lot more discrete than Megan, and Cole, though .. Megan was curled up to the side and Cole had put his head back. And of course, all the chaperones - and Mr. Waters - were sitting behind us. So they all got yelled at. Which was a bit unfair, because it's hard to stay awake to classical music when you are exhausted. I kept falling asleep for tiny spurts, and I'd always have a different dream. Cailey stayed awake the whole time because the conductor was her cello teacher's best friend. It sounded really good - it was just really hard to stay awake to hear it.

When we got back to the hotel, we found out that both of our keys got demagnetized, which was puzzling because I had kept one key in my back pocket while my phone was in my front pocket. Like, it can demagnetize through bodies?! But anyways. While Mikki went to go get the keys activated again (by the way, we had locked ourselves out of the room the night before and had to get another key, so we must have definitely looked like tools by then), I went over to Jessica, Brittany, and Kate's room and chilled out there. I've been teaching Brittany funny Chinese sayings and so we kept going over them, and I taught her some more really funny ones like "wo bop ney lau yu!" And Jessica and Kate learned them too so every time we were talking, someone would shout something out in Chinese. Usually wrong. Or with a really weird accent. I hung out there for the rest of the night, because they were just so ridiculously funny that I didn't want to leave, and I can't even remember what we talked about, but I remember my stomach really hurt from laughing. If I knew how things would have worked out after that, I would have taught them Chinese so much earlier. At 11, I had to go back to my room and Cole and Gavin were there playing Egyptian war with Cailey, Megan, and Mikki. Mikki couldn't ever slap the card in time. Finally they got kicked out and we started watching the hockey game until we were losing 2-1. We went to bed a lot faster that night, because we were all exhausted.

The next morning, I got a text from my aunt because she lives in Ottawa, and we went to question period at Pariament. Which was ridiculous, because they kept telling us that we had to be quiet and everything (the guard specifically told us we couldn't talk, laugh, cheer, or cry while we were watching), yet everyone sitting in the green seats were rude, loud, and obnoxious. They acted so immature! They would jeer at anyone else who wasn't in their party, talked over each other, shouted out nonsense stuff .. one guy kept shouting "Wrong! Wrong!" Every time another man said a word. I was disappointed in them. After question period, we went to a food court that was basically like a cafeteria. I had Chinese food, it was good. I also had a fudgesicle. When we were getting changed on the bus I yelled through the window at Gavin to not let anyone eat it, but then my stomach hurt a bit after and I ended up giving it to Steve. We then went to the middle school and performed in a round gym! When we were waiting around, Jessica and I sang into the microphone because it wasn't on .. but then it got turned on and we didn't even realize it. So we looked a bit like tools. The kids got really excited at Hairspray, but at least they clapped on time. From the school we went to the retirement home. Mr. Paddock and I couldn't find the volume, even though it was right at the front. We then mingled with the residents; I talked to one who taught me how to a bow look nice when wearing it around your collar. It was funny. After there was some waltzing, and Elliot asked a resident if he wanted to play pool, which led to Gavin and Cole playing, and then another resident, with her oxygen tank and everything, decided to play. She was pretty good! The very last shot of the game was Elliot's and it would have been awesome if he made it, because Gavin or Cole had scratched, but he hit the ball a bit too hard, and alas, it did not work out. But that's okay. We headed to a diner for dinner, I think it was called Rockin' Johnny's. It was kind of gross, the place. We played a lot of cards to pass the time. Nobody was hungry when the food got around, but I finished my fish and chips. We had ice cream after, too. I love ice cream! When dinner was done, we boarded the bus to Montreal! We sang Danny Boy to Josh's ukulele, which sounded pretty sweet. I got to read Everything Is Illuminated on the long ride, I've made it halfway through the book and it is really good. Elliot fell asleep right when he started reading his biology book, which was funny. After Elliot, Cole, Cailey, and I all played Boggle, which was really hard because it was travel Boggle, so the lid doesn't come off, and there was very little light, and I had to hold the set in order for all of us to see it. I love Boggle, though.

When we finally got to our hotel in Montreal, they didn't have our keys so we all had to wait outside. But of course, a fighting championship was in the city and all the drunk guys were staying in that hotel. So then all of a sudden guys are coming out onto their balconies and start yelling down to us in French. At that time I was having a high five endurance contest with Gavin, left handed. He was high fiving really hard, but then when he decided to not high five and let me high five him, he burned me by saying that it felt a whole lot weaker, and so out of the blue I slapped him across the face and it was the best moment of my life. Not really, but it was perfect timing. I got high fives from everyone around. haha. Then Ms. Digel made us all go either into the hotel lobby, or under the canopy, because apparently one of the guys almost poured beer onto Sydney's head. She was so mad. Finally, we got our key, and our room was actually really nice! It was a suite, with a big bathroom, and a kitchen, and a step difference between the kitchen/eating table area and the TV area, and there was a separate bedroom! We went to Cole's room and played spoons. At first, we played with the spoons of the table. Then, we decided to put the spoons across the room. So, we had to pretty much jump over the rail in order to run down to get the spoons, and it was intense. But, to make it a bit more safe, we decided to move down to the TV area and put the spoons up right over the stairs. I was closest to the spoons, and Megan got a four of a kind first, so I bolted for the spoons, and on the way Megan shoved me and drove my shins straight into the step. The next time Cole elbowed me in the forehead. And then the last time, they moved the spoons so I didn't know that they were even further away, and I didn't want to get trampled so I watched them all squeeze into each other, Cole squashed against the railing and carrying Gavin on his back. Finally we had to go back to our room. I got free internet. A drunk woman was on our floor and made a scene outside our room. She shouted in French, and the management was there. Megan, Mikki, and Cailey all translated for me. We must have stood with our ears to the door for half an hour. It was really dramatic. Then Ms. Ginet and Ms. Digel came to give us our itinerary and make sure we were all in our room. Their room was straight across from the drunk lady's room, so they got to see everything. Megan and I slept on the pull out couch, which was really lumpy. I was having a dream where I was going to a concert, and a whole lot of random people were there. Suddenly, for some reason, Cole was reciting to me a whole lot of biology terms I didn't even think I knew. Then he kicked me in the back of my knee. Which was actually Megan kicking me, and so I woke up and it was really cold. So Megan and I spooned, and she was fire hot!

For breakfast the next morning, we got chocolate chip croissants and they were delicious. We then went to McGill for a clinic. The clinic was neat, we were taught to sing like we meant it and we sang our African song in the dark and everyone sang with their hearts. After that, we got to tour some of McGill, and I love that university! That would be my idea university, if I could actually go and study music. The library ... oh my goodness. 50, 000 CDs and vinyls, you could borrow recording equipment and iPods and whatever, there were rooms where you could just go and watch/listen to stuff or practice ... man.

We went to a mall after. Which sucked, because we didn't get to go to St. Catherine's Street, where there was actually good stores. The stores in the mall really, really sucked. Except for the import store. But anyways. After a bad Chinese lunch, we went around to a couple stores before heading into Winners to try on the ridiculous shoes. And then, as we were heading out, we ran into Elliot, Rae, Kate, Morgan, Jessica, and Brendan. I found out that Morgan learned the Chinese phrase, so I stopped for a second to listen to her say it, and at that moment Megan and Mikki and them had already left, so I decided to just hang out with Elliot and them. We went around to a lot of stores, and I taught them even more Chinese words. Like "fong pei" (fart). Then we found a photobooth, and crammed into that. It was so funny! The pictures came out really well. We took two sets. Then we went to the import shop, and spent a long time there. We headed to the Starbucks after, and then across to the forum, and found some sweet cardboard cutouts, like one of Hannah Montana, and Darth Vader. Finally it was time to go, and we checked out Elliot's mask, which was really cool. We then headed back to the hotel to do whatever, and then boarded the bus to do a bus tour of Montreal (beautiful, beautiful, beautiful), and went up to Mount Royal to take in the view. We took a lot, a lot, a lot of pictures.

After we finished taking pictures, we headed to St. Joseph's Oratory, and went through the entire church, from the bottom up. A lot more pictures were taken there. Gavin and I thought we went through the entire church when we had walked through one of the massive rooms, but that was far from the case. We ended up going up to the very top of the stairs, and overlooked everything below.

Once done there, we continued around Montreal until we got to our final destination of the night: the governor's feast. While we were waiting outside, on of the actors came out to talk to us, and Cole taught me how to make people's knees buckle by kicking the back of their knee, which was strangely like what happened in my dream. So we went around doing that to people. I tried to do it to both of Gavin's knees at the same time, but I couldn't time my jumping and kicking right and ended up wiping out. And then it started a ninja fight between me and Gavin, and I lost badly. Ms. Digel even tried to get in the way of our ninja fight. When we got inside, I was sitting with Cailey and them but then suddenly Mr. Waters told me to sit between him and Mr. Paddock at the centre table, which was really weird. Ms. Digel was going to take a picture of us, so I threw out my hand to give a thumbs-up sign, and ended up punching my drinking glass and shattering it. That was the beginning of my making an ass of myself. Elliot came and sat in the folding chair beside Mr. Paddock, but when the show started, and a bright, white light started flashing around, suddenly he was gone! And then when they announced the governor, it was .. Elliot! Dressed up in a rob and a three-cornered hat! And then he got to almost get soup flung at him and serenade on of the actresses. Good times, good times. Oh, and I tried to pour Sprite for Mr. Paddock and ended up spilling it all over the table and onto my leg. At the end of the show, we got asked to sing and so we did - kind of badly. But they still liked it. It was weird.

When we went back to the hotel, I hung out in Kate, Jessica, and Brittany's room again and had more laughs, again. I showed them our room because it was so much nicer than theirs, and they found out some information that was actually pretty obvious for the whole trip. So Brittany started singing "Cole yao bop Mikalinaaa lau yu!!" really loudly, right when there was a knock on our door from Cole and Gavin. We almost died. But anyways, then I headed back to their room and we just talked, more like yelled loudly while laughing, while many funny accidental things happened. Brittany tried to toast her bagel, and after she pushed down the button, we smelt burning bread, even though the toaster was "broken" and the bagel wasn't toasted at all. Finally, Jessica exclaimed "Brittany, you fool! You plugged in the coffee machine! The toaster isn't even plugged in!" And we laughed really, really hard. And then we wondered why we smelt burning bread, if the bagel wasn't even getting toasted. And right at that moment, Mikki knocked on the door and told us that they had set a bun on fire. Actually, Cole had left a bun in our microwave for seven minutes (he meant 70 seconds), and they were all oblivious to the smell when management knocked on the door and told them that everyone could smell the smoke. Even Mikki's mom, who had called management from two levels above, because they thought something was on fire. So, our room smelled really bad from then on. But anyways. Somehow we found out that a massive party was happening at Chloe's room, so we headed down there and watched Harry Potter (and the Prisoner of Azkaban!) and was served KD. I got kind of bored so I went back to my room
and played spoons with Cailey, Megan, Mikki, Cole, Gavin, and Glen, with the spoons placed outside our room. When we ran out to get them, I shoved Glen out of the way, and Cole carried Gavin all the way to the spoon. Then we got into trouble with Mr. Waters, because we were really loud. Then, I remembered I had left some of my stuff in Jessica's room, and I didn't really feel like playing cards, so I went to go back to their room. Except I forgot which room was theirs. So, I headed back to Chloe's room. Then we found out that we had to pack (I already did), so I went back with Brittany and Jessica to hang out with them while they packed. They had all their stuff laid out everywhere - it was crazy. Jessica showed us her amazing imitation of the 10 second tidy from The Big Comfy Couch, and it was sooo hilarious. She does it so well. Then she left the room for some reason, and Jessica and I decided to lock her out until she could tell us a password. Of course, she comes back, and we laugh at her and tell her she can't, until Jessica looks into the peep hole and we find out that Mr. Waters (and Elliot) is with her. So then we talk to them and Mr. Waters heads off. Again, when it was 11, I headed back to my smoke filled room, and I give my family a call. It turned out that they were at my aunt's potluck, and my older sister was drunk. It was ridiculously fun talking to her, she giggled a lot. Anyways. It was really cold because we had to open all the windows to air out the kitchen, and so Megan and I spooned again and talked. Then we decided to steal Cailey's and Mikki's blanket while they were sleeping, and we went all ninja-like and totally stole it. It was warm.

The next morning we got more chocolate chip croissants, and then headed off to the Biodome for the morning. It was really cool! Like an indoor zoo. We went through the four biomes, and hands down, the best one was the last one because there were penguins. Really cool penguins who looked like they were playing freeze tag - they all were standing in weird poses and not moving at all! Whenever a penguin jumped out of the water, it would do a pose. I told Elliot about the freeze tag thing, and then he told everyone else, and Brendan said that it was the dumbest thing he ever heard, and that it wasn't funny, and it was at that point that I decided that he is annoying. Hanging out with him before kind of made me think it, but after that I knew it. We spent a lot of time in the gift shop, with all the stuffed animals, and after when we all met up together and were waiting to go, we played hackey sack. We really couldn't keep it up very well.

From the Biodome we walked to the Olympic tower, and we got to go up the slanted elevator. I helped Brittany pick out a cheap disposable camera, called the "Fun Saver!" the very last picture she took before her digital camera died was a super zoomed up picture of us. It was funny. Then we took a creeper picture of Cole and Mikki from afar - "for the memories", as Brittany said. I took a lot of creeper pictures that trip! But anyways. The view was super awesome from up there. We headed back down the elevator, and to a quaint museum in Old Montreal.

In the museum, we got the guide who liked to ask us a lot of tricky questions that we always got wrong. We also got to write with quills, and look around at awesome old French stuff. We didn't have enough time to go through the entire museum, so we cut it short and headed off to a nice restaurant, where we played Crazy Eights and had delicious lasagna. Well, except for Cailey, who had chicken. Just like when we all had fish and chips and she got pasta. But her meal looked good. Anyways. Cole, and Gavin both made paper airplanes from the paper they wrote on with quills, and when we finished our meals they flew it off the second floor. I think Cole's flew the best; it made it all the way to the door.

Right outside the restaurant we met our tour guides, and went on a walking tour of Old Montreal. Such a pretty place! I wish we had a place like that here. I took so many pictures there, and I think they all came out really well. We saw so many buildings, went down so many streets with so many beautiful alleys, it was all breathtaking. We ended at the Notre Dame church, which was one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen, besides St. Joseph's Oratory. After we looked around the church, we were allowed to go and shop. Mr. Waters taught Gavin and Cole how to really heel click. We went around and found nothing but souvenir shops. I wanted to buy a tambourine and/or a finger piano and/or a xylophone, but they weren't of very good quality. I still want to buy all of some or one of those objects, though. We stopped when we saw a huge crowd by the street enclosing a man with bowling pins and a unicycle. We watched his whole panhandling act; he was pretty funny, even though I couldn't understand whatever he said in French. A little kid stole the show near the end. When we all got back to the meeting spot, Elliot, Kate, Jessica, Brittany, and I took an awesome jumping picture in front of the church. We're cool.

We sadly went to the airport from Old Montreal. We checked in and got our seats, and then had dinner. We found a nice place with good (expensive) sandwiches. Sadly, Elliot could not eat there (for what reason I can't remember, maybe because of his allergy?), so he had to have Burger King and it really stuck out. The sandwiches were good. After that we all met together again and went through security. I stuck a quarter into Mikalina's butt pocket right before she went through security, on behalf of Cole and Gavin, but she didn't beep at all. However, she did have to get rid of her body spray and lotion, because she had it in her bag, and I felt bad about that. Glen took a long time at ours, and I ended up singing for the security guy there in order to "get us through faster". I don't think it helped. When we were finally at the terminal, Mr. Waters showed us a neat card trick, and then I hung out with people, and then we boarded the plane!

The flight attendants weren't quite as awesome as the ones we got heading out to Calgary, but whatever. This time, I got to sit in the back of the plane, but it was at that time when it hit that we hadn't done our English homework, so I had to find a seat by one of them in order to get it done. So I traded my seat with someone else, and then got stuck because the service was going on, so I had to sit beside Jessica Mosher and Bethany. Who are really, really ditzy. I think some of my brain cells died while I was sitting there. We started talking about some of the things happening during the trip, and goodness. Goodness. Luckily I found a seat beside Bronwyn, subsequently kicking someone else out of their seat but we desperately needed to get it done. So that other girl had to sit with Jessica Mosher.

Bronwyn and I spent so long on the English homework. Seriously. And I was so tired. We read through the last short story out loud, even though it was ridiculously long. And the questions Stephen made for it were stupid. When I was answering them, I couldn't even write properly and ended up writing scribble with jerky lines sticking out of the tops (I had to actually hand it in like that to Mr. McMillan). We thought that it took the entire flight to finish the homework, but when we looked at the screen, it told us that we were only at Winnipeg. WINNIPEG, for God's sake. Anyways. So then we decided we really needed to go to the washroom, and we ran into Brittany and Rae there! We all had to cram in the back while the flight attendants did service. One of them was kind of cranky! When Brittany was going in, we decided to bang on the door to scare her, so we waited a little while and then hammered on it! But then we got yelled at by that flight attendant. Brittany told us that it really scared her though, so mission accomplished. She laughed at us when she heard the flight attendant, though. While I was waiting for Bronwyn, and for the flight attendants to finish service so we could get back to our seats, I met Bridget! She is very nice. But anyways.

Bronwyn and I talked for the rest of the flight, and it was a very good talk. One where I actually talked about what I was feeling at the time. When we landed in Calgary, snow was on the ground and it was below 0, which was really sad. I saw my dad at the airport for the first time in five days, and I almost cried, I was really happy to see him. And I saw Rebecca! She was actually the first person I saw who I knew who wasn't on the trip when we landed (did that make sense)? We then got our luggage, and I said goodbye to everyone and headed off, back home, back to everything that now feels so plain.

This week I felt really tired, like I was always trying to catch up. I fell asleep in a lot of my classes this week. I did miserably on a quiz that I missed, the test my friend and I had to do was much harder than the one that the rest of our class had to do, plus it was entirely written versus theirs, which was multiple. And I fell asleep during midterm review, but I think my actual midterm went alright. It was really rushed, and I felt really panicked through the whole thing. During chemistry I didn't really pay attention at all, after we finished a lab, Kim, Aidan, and I played Boggle, and he got mad because I kept making fun of his lack of skill. I don't know what I think of him anymore. I zeroed the chem quiz because I didn't learn what was on the test because I was away, so I got to do it Friday after school. I took only five minutes to do it, because I thought that Josh M'Gosh and the Holey Soles were playing first for the BOTB finals. Sadly, I got there in time to hear Pherrum, the screamo band. It just doesn't fit for me. But after them, Skazilla played, and they were fun to listen to. Their set seemed a lot shorter than Pherrum's, though. After Skazilla, The Ventriloquists played, and they were decent. I didn't really listen to them, but they did sound good. And then Josh's band played! They started out with Danny Boy, transitioning into Hey Ya, which was sweet. I just really like their band; I hope they get some recordings.

After BOTB, my dad gave Lindsay and I a ride home, and we tried to figure out what my band sounded like. It's hard to tell. But then she might sing for our band! I just need a good version of our recordings; we have one, but it won't ever send, which sucks. But anyways. After that, I went to Gavin's house to hang out with him, Aidan, Kevin, Mikki, and Megan. We played Killer Bunnies, and then Bronwyn showed up and we walked to Chianti's to visit Diana. Then we went to Starbuck's. After that, we decided to walk to Chapter's, but instead we went to Petland. And then Aidan got hungry so we headed to Wendy's, except it was closed. And Burger King was closed. So, we went back to Chianti's and ate there. Well, Megan and Aidan did. We just had bread. Cole showed up there, and Diana finished her shift, so we all headed back to Gavin's house to do some hot tubbing. But Kevin was really tired, so he walked home, and Bronwyn's sister showed up, so she left, and we hung out in the hot tub for like an hour. There were a lot of bubbles. It was a good night.

Today was not a good day for work. I screwed up a lot. Plus, my body was working against me, for reasons, and so I didn't feel good at all. It was terrible. But I'm glad that's over. I have band practice tomorrow, I'm not accessing my Facebook for a long time, and I have to still finish my homework.

1.18.2008

so feel free to drop the ghostly line, 'i'll be glad you called'

I was part of debate, and we all were sitting in desks in the foyer of the school. At the front are three or four people who looked really eccentric. After a massive discussion, I end up with a lady who is pursuing me, even though I'm a girl. We go to my house, except it's not actually my house. There was a period where I got her to go away, but she ends up at my house anyways. My friend who I live with let her in, I guess. She is all over me and it's extremely uncomfortable. After many attempts to get her out, and her getting too close to me, she finally gets out and I'm able to be in my kitchen with just my friend.

I end up outside shortly after, and I'm back in my cul-de-sac. It turns out that the woman now lives in the house beside ours, and it's not a woman, it's a man. My dad is on a motorcycle, although he's not actually my dad. I tell him that there's a woman pursuing me, and he laughs and asks why anyone would do this. I give him the most serious look and say, "it's because .. I'm part of the Fab Five." My dad stares at me and bursts out in laughter before driving off.

A policeman with a thick mustache then comes up to me and tells me that he believes me, and that he'll help me. I look into the window and I see the man staring back at me, so I run back into my house through the open door. With super speediness, he ends up in my house though, and I have to use brute strength to get him out. I lock the door and run to the kitchen to pull out a biggest knife from my mom's knife set.

Then I woke up.

10.19.2007

what is love, baby don't hurt me

Choir camp recap! In case it turns out sounding bland, and you can't tell whether I had a good time or not, I did! It was such an awesome time. It might have beat band camp!

When we got to our room the first night, I found out that I could swing on the door by stepping on the door knob, and that just basically started the Asian stereotypes. As if they weren't doing that already. By the way, all those comments were so hilarious. We discovered a newfound love for tetherball, and spent so, so much time playing! I got owned, even though I had my karate war cries and karate chops. We had our huge group activity, and that was ok. When our group was playing Red Rover, one of the girls ate the pavement and that ended every other group's chance of playing. But it was so funny.

That night we all sat on Bronwyn and Sheila's beds, and talked for a couple hours. Basically nobody had a good night's sleep that night. I was having a dream about finding toonies and keeping them away from Jocelyne, Leslie, Cailey, and somebody else, and walls being renovated, and right when I thought that the floor was about to fall below me, Jocelyne pulled my sleeping bag (she denies this) trying to get down from her bunk bed. Waking up at 6:45 was harsh.

During activities we first went through the bungee cage. Cailey got through in 11 seconds, and I think that's a record. I only managed 17 seconds. After that, we played dodgeball, and our team won twice before losing, and we went off to play ultimate frisbee. I hit Jocelyne in the lip with the frisbee, and caused her lip to swell, but after that we told everyone that I hit her with a nun chuck. We were winning, too. After that we played tether ball, which was ridiculously fun. Cailey lost to Mrs. Digel, and I won to Mr. Paddock. Man, I wish those were recorded!

We played soccer after, and surprisingly I didn't do too bad in goal. The grass was really slippery and I ended up slipping a lot. I think that's why my bum muscles are so sore. Our team got owned. The clinic was really, really long. I'm pretty sure after lunch we played more tether ball. I almost fell asleep during full rehearsal, even though the guest conductor was interesting. During our quiet time, instead of sleeping, I played ultimate frisbee with Cailey, Megan, Mikki, Cole, and Gavin, and it was so much fun. Playing "Piggy in the Middle" with Megan in the middle for the majority of the time was even more fun. Especially when she wasn't in the middle, and we'd throw it to her just so she wouldn't catch it and she'd have to go back in the middle. My hands are bruised from blocking frisbees and hitting tether balls.

During dinner my whole table laid on the Asian stereotypes. "Is the fact that you don't have peripheral vision the reason why your country doesn't have a hockey team?" We laughed so hard. After dinner was more tetherball (!!) with Gavin, Elliot, and Bronwyn. I lost every time. I climbed a tree and when I was going back down, and I made it to the ground before falling down. I tried to throw the frisbee between two trees and ended up hitting the biggest one. We did karaoke for our activity that night, and everyone sang along to I Will Survive, Mambo No. 5, along others. The machine stopped working when it was my group's turn, it was depressing. We ended up having a dance party, and what a sweaty, awesome dance party that was. We all sang to Queen.

When we went back to our cabin, Gavin and Cole came by to pop some popcorn. I tried to ninja kick the microwave door button, but my leg wasn't long enough so I ended up wiping out. The popcorn didn't pop enough, and so they put it in a second time. Megan walked from the bathroom to our room with just a towel on, and Gavin got busted for taking a look. I tried ninja kicking the microwave door button again, this time by launching myself on the counter and then kicking. I hit the button, but it didn't click enough so I wiped out again. I got angry at the microwave so I punched the button until the door opened. It ripped some skin off of my pinky knuckle.

I slept between Hayley and Bronwyn that night, and we talked again until only 12:30. We kept almost going to sleep, and then someone would say something and Bronwyn would break out into her super cool laugh, and that would get us fired up again. I don't feel like I actually got much sleep last night. When I was about to fall asleep, I started to dream that I was playing ultimate frisbee, and when I was trying to catch the frisbee, my arm totally snapped back and hit Bronwyn. She was sleeping, though. At first I was fine, and on Bronwyn's bed, but eventually Bronwyn started inching towards me, and I ended up on the wooden part between the two beds. And then Hayley got really close too. I think I was waiting for 7:15 to come just so I could get up for a reason.

We packed, and then Cailey and I played tetherball (!!!). I lost five rounds in a row. After that, we joined everyone else, and eventually our conversation led to the junior highs we attended, to how I went to Langevin (and nobody knows where that is), to how everyone in my class was Asian (I think I said something along the lines of "if you were WHITE, you were made fun of!"), which eventually led to Asian tourists and how they always make the peace sign when they take pictures. And after that, basically every picture we took we did the "ASIAN POSE!" Except Leslie, who didn't approve. Fifteen different people did the Asian pose in my pictures. Even Mr. Waters.

On the bus ride home, there were a bunch of us who "didn't want to sing, we want to sleep!" But we all got the back, and we ALL sang any song we knew the words to. We were very, very loud. Camp Chestemere, however, isn't that far out from Calgary, so we didn't sing for as long as Jocelyne, Bronwyn, and Sheila did the ride home from band camp.

Man I loved choir camp!

10.12.2007

just a small town boy living in south detroit

I am so exhausted right now. Band camp was super fun, I had a lot of fun. It seemed like it passed by really quickly, I don't know.

On the bus ride to the camp, the can of Pringles spilled in Leslie's bag, and Leslie and Jocelyne panicked. They started putting chips back into the can, and then they ate the crumbs from the bag. And from Leslie's clothing. It was so epic. Especially when Jocelyne got one of Leslie's hairs in her mouth. We played the license plate game and Zitchdog, and Tamara punched my camera and hurt her hand. I ate a Nutrigrain bar without taking apart the two layers triumphantly, which would later lead to me choking on my spaghetti and spitting it out. After dinner, we had a huge band bonding time, which was OK, I guess. Jocelyne and I skipped snack time and had a dance party in our cabin, consisting of just the two of us. I am terrible at dancing. It lead to Leslie and Jocelyne singing "I Can Hear the Bells", which was so amazing because Leslie was so into it and Jocelyne jumped onto the bed and almost wiped out. We played Who'd You Do, Eat/Boat/Make Babies, and Truth until 2:00.

The next day, we had sectionals and percussion was pretty intense. I have to say that we sounded pretty good. After that Cailey, Jocelyne, Suzanne and I went to wall climbing and watched Sam get owned. After we went to the ropes courses. Jocelyne couldn't swing across the rope. Mr. Elephant Man went across the log on the high ropes course and one of the counselors grabbed the other rope he was attached to and made him slam into the log. It was awesome. After we made him rush through the low ropes course and he sprained his ankle. I sprained my wrist during Jugs & Jog, and we lost right after. We played Charades, which was really fun because we all chanted everyone's names when they were going up. After we had a dance party outside, and we did faux-karaoke in the dark. That night, we talked for a while after lights were out, and then some of us went out to the bathroom, and then ended up wanting to just hang out. Except the people in our cabin didn't want a whole bunch of people in our cabin. So we ended up wandering around for a little while, got invited into a different cabin and immediately kicked out, and then invited back in, and then we headed back to our cabin. We had the most random conversations about squirrels and bagels, and throwing peanut butter chocolate chips at Leslie, and demonstrating different ways to express yourself by sighing. Tamara's laugh was so hilarious.

We woke up this morning by having our door swing open and Mr. Elephant Man playing his trumpet at full blast. We packed up all of our stuff. Rehearsal went by really fast. There was an awesome tree that was curved weird so it was like a seat, and I sat in it and got a lot of sap on my hands. Jocelyne sat in it in half the time, but she has longer legs than me. I mooched just by looking at Skye, and I got a pop in return. I asked James how he gets his hair so luscious (Loreal Paris Men's stuff, leaving conditioner in for a minute). Before we left, Mr. Elephant Man recited a poem he created which had a whole lot of inside jokes. Like the fact that Jocelyne and I call him Mr. Elephant (it was so, so gross). On the bus ride home, a whole bunch of people, including Jocelyne, belted out songs for the entire ride. One third of the bus together sang songs from Rent. Leslie and I talked. I took over 200 pictures and won the contest.

The New Pornographers is tonight!

9.16.2007

me in my boat searching for he

My (UNIVERSITY ATTENDING, 90% AVERAGE ON HER DIPLOMAS) sister borrowed my calculator this morning. "Allison, it's not working. Are the batteries dead?" She changes them, and tries again. "It's still not working. Dad, these aren't dead either? What is wrong with this calculator. Allison, what did you do? When was the last time you used this calculator?"

I tell her last June. "What?! You mean it's just been sitting in your backpack all this time? What is wrong with it? WHY ISN'T IT WORKING? HOW AM I GOING TO DO MY MATH? Not even the backup batteries are working!"

"Can I see it?" I say, and she hands the calculator to me. I open up the battery case.

"Angela, you put one of the batteries in the wrong way."

7.28.2007

and his massive genitals refused to cooperate

I got to Folk Fest at 1:30 to see Final Fantasy. Even though I went alone today, it was really good. Actually, I prefer going alone,because then you can do whatever you want, when you want, or see whoever you want without worrying if the other person doesn't want to be there. Also, then you can hang around the stage, waiting for an autograph, without having to tell someone what you're doing. Because THAT'S WHAT I DID!!!

The first workshop Final Fantasy was in was with two other groups. I didn't really like the other two groups, but Owen was super good. God I love his violin playing! He played along with the other bands, but you couldn't really hear him playing unless he got solos. Luckily, he had a solo in pretty much every song. I think he played three songs or so. He covered a Mariah Carey song!!!! It was awesome. After he finished, this guy and I were first to wait by the stage, where he was before. After we chatted it up a bit, Owen came and he signed my notepad for me. He is such a nice guy!!

After that workshop, I headed to Stage 2 to go see Final Fantasy ... again. I managed to see the end of Nathan's concert, and they sounded awesome. The Cape May was pretty ok. I didn't really like their song that much. Elini Mandell played a really good song. Final Fantasy played a song he played yesterday, but it was still really good. I had to leave after that to catch Neko's workshop.

I never heard The Sadies before today, but now that I've heard them, I have to get into them more. I loved their songs! Neko was great; she played three songs, and sang along with The Sadies and Good Brothers. I got a spot right up at the front, so the pictures I took of her today are much better than the ones we took last night.

After she finished the workshop, I waited around, hoping for another autograph. Twice she came out right in front of me, to grab her guitars and cords, but I was way to nervous to ask her for an autograph. Instead, I just stood there, hoping that she could read my mind. The last time she came back out on stage to grab her last two guitars, I almost called out but then just watched her walk away. A man standing next to me suddenly said, "you missed your chance!" I could feel my heart drop in my chest. Regardless, I stayed by the stage, hoping that maybe she would come back.

Another lady was there, hoping for Neko's autograph too. She asked the security and the volunteers if they could get her to sign for her, but they simply said "Neko said she wasn't signing." My heart sank even lower. I kept waiting, though. The lady walked away.

A volunteer on the stage caught my eye after. "Are you waiting for Neko?" she asked me, in the nicest voice. I nodded. "I'll go get her for you." She then walked back to where Neko was, but she was busy signing cheques, so the volunteer kept waiting. I just waited, praying that I would get the autograph. The volunteer then talked to this other guy, who walked up to me and said, "I can get you Neko's autograph for you." Oh my god. He took my notepad and pen and walked up to Neko. After a couple minutes, he came back to me and said, "it's a good one!" It was. I was so, so happy that I forgot my water bottle on the stage.

I made it all the way back to the volunteer area before realizing I had left the bottle. I raced back towards the stage, but it was really busy. And as I stood by the vendor where yesterday Heather bought her deep fried chocolate bar, I saw Neko Case. She was wearing a hat and sunglasses and a backpack, and at any other time I would never had recognize her, but I had seen her put it on while I was waiting. I walked up to her and I totally mumbled all this stuff, like thanks for signing my notepad, I really love your music. She was super nice. I talked to her for like thirty seconds, though, because then she had to grab another plate of poutine, and I didn't want to be a jerk and just blabber on. So I just kept walking towards the stage.

I also got Nathan's autographs! The lead singer recognized me from plate recycling, and when I was returning my plate after dinner she recognized me again. Performers are so nice! I can't believe how lucky I was today, and how everything turned out so great. I'm just disappointed that I can't watch Final Fantasy's actual concert tomorrow. However, I am getting my hair cut!

TODAY WAS SO EXCELLENT!

7.17.2007

people cannot tell you there's no life without them

Last January, my family went out to Las Vegas as part of our family vacation. Of course, instead of wanting to go to shows, or gambling our little brother in the casinos, we went out shopping. We spent one and a half days dedicated to shopping. And we would have spent the other half shopping if we didn't have to board that stupid plane.

We went shopping in those huge outlet malls, because we're Asian and every thing's got to be a deal. After a few shops, we stumbled along the Adidas store. And where else would you want to go shop for shoes? So at first it's just my mom, my older sister and I, because the other half of our family is in some other store somewhere. After some looking around, my sister finds these wicked shoes, bright and funky and in every way beautiful. And I find the same model, except in red and with a different design on them. They were stunning, and I fell in love with them, and for ten whole minutes I drooled over them. The store had a buy one get one 50% off sale, and we had found two pairs of shoes, and so in my mind I was screaming "BUY THEM ALREADY!" at my mom. But of course, my younger sister has to come in and find some shoes that she likes and declare that she will ABSOLUTELY not find any other pair of shoes in any other store to like. And of course, I have to put my shoes back in the box, all the while choking back tears and trying not to look like a lunatic saying goodbye to the most gorgeous pair of shoes I could've had.

Of course, I got a pair of Converse shoes that are pretty cool, and a pair of Pumas that I like enough. But as every day passes by, NO shoe will compare to those Adidas ones! Every single day I think, "man, I wish I got those shoes!"

I just had to bring this up because I just wore my older sister's pair of her Adidas shoes to get the mail. And all I got to say is, I better get a pair of fucking beautiful shoes or something when we go to Seattle.

7.14.2007

we gotta menstruate in disguise

I went shopping with my mom and my two sisters today. Boy was that something. We first were browsing around, buying whatever was not expensive and what we "needed", until we hit a shoe store and suddenly my mom remembered that my grandpa's birthday party is next month, and that we (or I, in that case) needed to buy some dress shoes, nice clothes, etc. for the occasion. So that was what we did. For the following two and a half hours.

I didn't realize how similar my older sister and I looked until we were in Nine West. My older sister had found a pair of shoes she liked and was waiting for an employee to give her a proper size. Meanwhile, I picked up a random shoe and got an employee to get me a pair in size 7 1/2s, because she caught me right when I was looking at the shoe, and I didn't realize that I didn't want to try on that shoe. When she left, though, I inspected the shoe further and realized that I had picked up the mother of all terrible shoes. Ok, maybe they weren't that bad. But still.

So, I was waiting for her to return, standing where I was when she left, when she comes out and ... walks up to my sister. And then says "sorry, we only have these in size 7." I watched my sister say "oh, that's ok," before looking at the shoes, a "what-the-hell-those-aren't-the-shoes-I-picked" expression forming on her face. At that point I had already started walking towards them. Right when I said "oh, those were mine", the employee looks at me. And then at my sister. And then at me again. Then takes a double take.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry!" She exclaims, slightly embarrassed. "Are you twins? No wait, just sisters! Oh ..." She then gives me the shoes while we laugh it off awkwardly. I had her get me a larger size, then two different sizes for another shoe before deciding that I didn't want to get any at all. Not on purpose, though! We ended up not getting anything from there at all.

I did, however, realize that I never want to work in a shoe store.

listening to: myriad harbour - the new pornographers (x8)