“The McClellan stacks are a silent study area” - go downstairs to chat with your group member you doofus! It’s 10:30pm, do you think any of us are here for fun? there is plenty of space on nicer chairs on the first floor! Grrr…

We were talking about bogs…and I had a flashback to a fall week-end afternoon behind the undeveloped lot between the local shopping centre (now a Home Depot) when climbing up the banks from the gutter, my shoe got caught in the mud. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry standing at the top of the mound, on the grass standing on one foot with my now brown-speckled sock. It’s a nice memory and it’s not the first time it’s revisited. I look forward to encountering it again.

I haven’t done more work since the last time i posted really. Veronica came into town and the opportunities of seeing her are so few that the week-end, which had been my last “pull a rabbit out of a hat” chance got sidetracked. Ah well.

I met a rabbit yesterday. He was soft and his nose was twitchy. I want one.

The author of the wikipedia write-up on Montreal is very humourous. I recommend checking it out.

My indignation about the University Writing Test had been largely due to a previously-held belief that it would be impossible for anyone who attended an English or French language institution for high school in Canada to fail it. It seemed insanely redundant and a waste of time. I still think there should likely be an exemption for students who are completing programs in English and French literature, but quite clearly, there are many native-Canadians who are failing the test. I am astounded. What has the education system come to? How are these papers really this bad? Why is one essay only two paragraphs? Why are some paragraphs (in another essay) only one (albeit insanely run-on) sentence?

In other news - i forgot to mention last week that i received my first response from a grad school. I was rejected from Yale. To be perfectly honest, i didn’t deserve to get in. The package i sent was not even up to my own standards.

I was sad because i was missing his birthday to be on a cruise ship. I am trying not to think about it by marking papers. Marking papers makes me want to jump off a bridge even more. I will not recount the horrors of some students’ grammatical apparati, but if you want a laugh, call me and i will regale you with many humourous examples. i thought this blog was poorly written - comparatively i deserve a nobel prize (or at least the governor general’s award).

i know i said that i wouldn’t do this anymore, but i was dumb enough to get on a scale this morning and OMFG. I wasn’t going to attempt to lose any weight during the break because of the insane amount of work there is (i won’t bore you with a list), but no wonder my clothes have been tight. Damn my love for desserts.

I finished Lolita. The plan for today is to finish reading and noting the passages in Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose and correct half of the essays i have to get through. Hopefully i will manage. I know i should be working on my honours thesis, but i forgot my index cards with my notes at home as well as my Latin grammar guide - Tuesday i will start writing. Tomorrow i am going to re-outline and try and brainstorm some of the smaller points.

My Dad is cooking dinner tonight! Woohoo.

my ticket read “9pm to the break of dawn.” It’s winter. We are far up North, but not so far that even in the summer does dawn break before 3am. I didn’t feel like leaving yet. Hence why i am at home blogging rather than sleeping. Got a second wind i guess.

Reading week has officially begun and i am almost done reading Lolita. The last fifty pages is dragging and i hope it picks up, but otherwise it has been fantastic - a great way to start the mountain of work.

The Masquerade Ball was not as big of an event as i had expected it to be. There were much fewer people and an astonishing number of LACers considering the proportions. We were our usual anti-social selves and ended up outside the main room sitting around a table - there were just too many couples dance to music that was too loud. We tried - and we paid to attend. Since it was for charity, i presume that is all that matters.

how sparkly snow is…

the program “Scribe” for historians taking notes…

Tiger brownies from M & M…

London fog (tea)…

Sleeping over ten hours a night (even if it does mean no work gets done)…

pink pens…

cookies…

Vegan food.

and i skip my first class of the week. I do not like Tribute to Freud by HD. I still can’t walk without it hurting, but i think it is getting better. i am going to look up methods for improving circulation because i am tired of headrushes and sleepy extremities.

i have a paper on the Crusades due tomorrow morning. I dreamt about it last night. I HATE dreaming about papers i am writing. It is horribly disturbing and i wake up paranoid that i have read all my notes wrong and misinterpreted. How can you cipher what is dream and what is memory of wakeful contemplation…grrr!!!

Ok. rant over. I am going out with Isabelle for dinner tonight. I shouldn’t, but she has been trying to make plans since New Years so i need to remember to try and be a friend.

Yoga with Sarah yesterday was…intense. I am very, very poor at yoga. i think when i say that people actually believe i am being modest, but i am not. I am horrible at it, but i am also a masochist. Even masochistic-me, however, is wondering about the sense of doing THAT much stretching yesterday. I cannot really walk without being insanely aware of every muscle and tendon down the back of my legs. Today is going to be a day of random forward bends in an attempt to limber up, but i am not hopeful.

Thursday Bryan convinced me to go to Upstairs, the jazz bar on Mackay below Ste-Catherine, and it was AWESOME! There was a Latin-Jazz trio playing (i believe they were working under the name of the pianist, Joel Diaz) and i was just floored with the awesomeness of their second set - all for a meagre $3 cover. I also had a lot of fun staring at the aquarium behind the drummer. The fish would dart around to the beat. The tiramisu at Upstairs could be better, but the waiter was kind of cute. LOL.