Bridges

well today i went to bridges, the all vegetable-tarian eatery on campus for my second time ever. the food there actually isnt very good and i only went cause i was planinng on going to the greenhouse right after, but that fell through and is another story to be told another time. anyway so i got the special of the day at bridges which consisted of four spring rolls, a gigantic samosa, a salad, and four little falafels. the whole thing was pretty tasteless except for the spring rolls which were very MSG, not cool. but the tamarind sauce was good and the salad was fresh, plus teh samosa was nice and filling... just not tasty enough. i also got a drinking box with strawberry soy milk in it... ive never had the strawberry before. it was good but i always feel like milk and milk like products on campus are never cold enough. they have to be so cold. i was also amazed at this guy in front of me who got the same meal, but he also got a huge bowl of pasta and an extra spring roll and a bunch of little samosas, and he ate it all. it was incredible, watching him put away all that food, and i was a little jealous. anyway the one thing i really did like about bridges was the atmosphere, which is why i went in the first place. theres something about bridges that just makes a vegetarian feel safe. its so dark and quiet and i love how EVERYTHING on the menu is vegetarian, you arent stuck wondering if chicken stock has made its way into your food or feeling guilty about food being cooked on the same grill as meat or being forced to be a pain in the ass by modifying the menu all over the place. its so gratifying to read a whole menu and be like i will have this please, and you can be talking about any item and you dont even have to give it a closer look or a second thought. theres just something about being there that seperates you from the world and you feel so apart and among your people and the people who are there who arent vegetarian are getting a taste of your lifestyle for a change and its them who feels a little out of place, a little odd. and theres a strange kind of comfort in that for me. i dont know why. but i like it.

May You Live To Forget This Night

well a big happy birthday to my roomate, matt, also referred to as matieu and matt des maths at home... he turned 22 yesterday, and let me tell you, he was HILARIOUS. he had his party at the pepperjack café for open mike night, and long story short, this girl that is totally infatuated with matt showed up and by the time they were both intoxicated, they were sucking face like no tomorrow. it was HILARIOUS. it happened so suddenly and it didnt stop and i laughed and laughed and laughed. matt, you are so pimpin. other highlights include the arrival of a threesome who decided that steve and i were lepers, and a very chill conversation with another couple at the leper table which included "so steve what do you do?" and us having a laugh and me being like yes, what DO you do, which was excellent. i also enjoyed the guy who beat boxes.. ive heard him before hes excellent, and steve was like get up i want to SEE him which was adorable. anyway so yes, until the next brithday, adieu.

Better Climax Than An Erotic Novel

WELL i have quite a few things to talk about today. first of all, a thousand thank yous go out to shayla for hooking me up with both the original dolly parton version of jolene, and the dolly parton duet with melissa etheridge of jolene. both versions are spectacular. dolly parton is the shit and i love melissa etheridge as much as any straight woman can love a lesbian rock star. anyway my comments on the dolly parton orginal is that its jsut as excellent as the cover... i agree with shayla that jack white adds an element of desperation to it that dolly doesnt and that makes his version more haunting which is what is so moving about it, but that said, the dolly parton version has that whole "i will slap you six ways from sunday, bitch" thing going for it. as for the duet, ive heard dolly and melissa together before (thats actually how it came about that shayla found it for me) and the two of them sing together beautifully. melissa's soulful gravelly voice adds the right amount of emotion to the piece and dolly's more feminine harmony really makes it quite the girl power experience. that and i think dolly sings beautifully. anyway so that was the big excitment in my life last nite... listening to three versions of jolene over and over and over again.
the other thing i wanted to talk about was something nik and i were discussing at work yesterday. nik and i listen to a lot of elvis at work, cause i do love that old time rock n roll (that kind of music just soothes the soul). anyway i was lamenting to nik about how no one ever does elvis covers and i dont understand why when there are so many elvis impersonators. and he suggested that the presence of so many impersonators is probably the very reason why no one makes any covers. this is possibly true, but i think that in light of there being so many impersonators, hearing some elvis covers would be at the very least refreshing... and they wouldnt be such a bad idea, because i mean elvis had the most number one hits of all time or whatever, so like i mean theyre good songs. and the fact that his music is still so popular just confirms that. so all of you rock stars out there... i need a little more fire, a little less spark, get off your asses and do an elvis cover.

Jack White Rocks My World

well, i have been obsessively listening to the white stripes cover (its actually a dolly parton song believe it or not, i would like to hear her version of it actually... so is the song "i will always love you" that whitney houston popularised) of jolene for the last three days (probably more than a hundred times, no word of a lie) and smoking like a madman lately... i really should write jack white a letter and tell him that his music is getting me through university... anyway, since jolene is eating my soul (it is three minutes of heaven) i figure i should post the lyrics and encourage everyone to find a copy of it and listen to it.

JOLENE: By Dolly Parton
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you, please don't take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
Please don't take him even though you can
Your beauty is beyond compare
With flaming locks of auburn hair
With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green
Your smile is like a breath of spring
And your voice is soft like summer rain
And I cannot compete with you Jolene
And he talks about you in his sleep
And there's nothing I can do to keep from crying
When he calls your name Jolene
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you, please don't take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
Please don't take hime even though you can
Well I can easily understand
How you could easily take my man
But you don't know what he means to me Jolene
Well you could have your choice of man
But I could never love again
He's the only one for me Jolene
And I had to have this talk with you
My happiness depends on you
And whatever you decide to do Jolene
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you please don't take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don't take him even though you can

Someone I Think Arden Will Meet

a man in a wheelchair enters the crowded café. the old time jazz, so full of soul, keeps time for the ebb and flow of conversation and the influxes of joy as people come and go. a woman arrives, meeting the man in the chair. they appear to be on a date, not their first, but they have not been together long, either. before the woman sits down, she tells the man she needs a favour. the favour is that he permit her to move the tables they are sitting at so that the two tables are evened up. of course the man accomodates her. she finally sits down and pulls a book out of her purse, and suddenly she has a disgusted look on her face, holding her hands poignantly, with disdain. her hands are small, and she has contorted them so that they almost look stricken with palsy or paralysis. the cause of her suffering is the presence of jam on the cover of her book, which she had smeared "all over her hands." it took her a while to decide what to do; finally she went and got a cup of water from the staff and rinsed her hands. why she didnt go to the washroom, i dont know. the man kindly got some napkins and wiped the table while she was fussing, and for some inexplicable reason did not accuse her of being totally insane. as they sit and chat, she holds her coffee cup to her lips precariously, touching the ceramic as little as possible with her mouth, with her hands. she holds the handle of the cup gingerly in her right fingers and supports the left side with two fingertips of her left hand, her other fingers poised out, like little limbs unfurled for action. what a proud neurotic. what is this man doing with her? does he find her habit of smoothing her eyebrows endearing? or maybe he likes the way her eyebrows run almost parallel to her widow's peak. or maybe she is kind. kindness can be hard to come by these days.

Mack Daddy

well today wasnt that exciting. i had yoga today and im sure ill be feeling it tomorrow, but i really enjoyed teh yoga mat that jen gave me for christmas and it went so nice with my new yoga pants. anyway i also had my first plant physiology lab, and i ended up kind of ditching amit, because this chick who i know from lab and class snagged my lab partner skills before he did. anyway i felt sort of bad about it until the end of the lab when ryan and kyster and i were waiting around for him to finish up and i realised he was macking up the french babe. so that was the highlight of my day... amit macking up the french babe. hats off to you amit! although today was the second time id seen her and when i saw her the first time someone else was trying to mack her up so i dunno man she seems to be a hot commodity (those crazy foreign chicks!) so you better strike while the irons hot and use the lab partner solidarity to your advantage. its gotten you this far ;)

Episode II: Amit and Chloé Do Japan

Amit’s Review:

This past Monday, Chloe and I finally ‘Did Japan’; through the medium of the Noodle Chef. WOWEEEE! This place had great service, as soon as we walked in the hostess greeted us with piping hot green tea and menus. I enjoyed the atmosphere, it was quite relaxing and it was amplified by the green tea, which had a nice Japanese taste to it (unlike the English green tea I drink at home). After much deliberation we ordered vegetarian sushi of the radish and avocado kind, gyoza, tofu and shrimp ramen. The food was prepared fresh and right in front of Chloe’s eyes (I wasn’t watching), she seemed extremely fascinated by it, like the hypnotic jiggling of a fat man’s belly. Anyway in no time flat, we were chowing down. The sushi was awesome, the tofu was not so good (not a fan of tofu blocks), and the ramen was pretty. That’s right I said pretty, so much thought went into the presentation, it was very simplistic, but it made it ever more appetizing (refer to schematic below). What I really enjoy was the fact the hostess gave us chopsticks and no forks or knifes because most places never give you chopsticks. Following some after dinner green tea for two, Chloe and I headed out, but not home because the service was so fast, we had time for more downtown adventuring. We stopped off at the local bubble tea house (I don’t remember the name) and like ‘bakas’ we over complicated the ordering of the bubble tea, good thing the hostess was patient (and cute!). Overall the Noodle Chef and Bubble Tea Night get a rating of dragonfruit!

Chloé’s Review:

This past Monday, Amit and I finally did japan by going to noodle chef, which until Monday afternoon, I had been referring to as mr noodle. Why that is, I don’t know. The restaurant was your typical low budget Japanese eatery, but the server was extremely nice, and since there was not another soul in the place, we got top of the line attention. The green tea that generally gets put in front of you at establishments like this was excellent, piping hot and had that oh so pleasant Japanese aroma, you can almost taste the sea breeze in it. Anyway so amit and I perused the menu for ages, since were both terribly indecisive. We finally decided to get two kinds of sushi, avacado maki and sweet radish maki, vegetable gyoza, tofu, and amit got shrimp tempura ramen soup. The sushi, which is never a bad choice, was delicious, and I was playing the “chloé tries to eat as much wasabi as possible without expelling her sinuses all over the table” game, which I always win. I was so impressed at how the waitress was making our food fresh to order, and doubly impressed because if she had have gotten busy, it would have been challenging indeed to have to serve tables and make food. Also I was happy about her bringing chopsticks and only chopsticks because I think it compromises the whole Japanese flavour of the restaurant when they have forks and knives on the table. Plus I love the idea of being out with my friends to dinner and having one of them have to suffer the humiliation of requesting a fork because they are too incompetent to eat with chopsticks. Anyway the gyoza was good, nice and hot, but it had a slight msg taste to it, not my favourite. I think the gyoza would have been improved if they had served it with a sweet dipping sauce instead of the saltier one it came with. This would have better complemented the saltiness of the gyoza itself. The tofu was less than remarkable, but this is often the case with restaurant tofu, so I don’t hold it against the noodle chef, he is a noodle chef after all, not a tofu chef. Amit’s tempura soup was by far the best looking of all the things we ordered. The presentation was both appetizing and original, and the portion was very generous. Anyway, the food was painfully inexpensive, a good choice for paupers like ourselves, and I left the server almost 30% cause she was so nice and we enjoyed our food so much. We then proceeded to the bubble tea place, which was an adventure in itself, and im pretty sure we were by far the most idiotic customers that the server had to deal with that day. The bubble tea wasn’t the best ive ever had, but the inside of the place was very nice. All in all this nite out gets a sweet july cherry.

Song of The Week

Super Star-Sheryl Crow

Let's go all downtown I got friends doing nothing but hanging around...

well I feel like there's something I could be missing

you know you look alright

You got cheap shoes a Malibu and big public fights

Well there's no one else I would rather be kissing

Baby when you start to bleed you look so sweet

Everybody's watching you cause everybody wants to be

A little superstar well baby that's what you are

Little superstar, oh honey that's what you are

I got a backstage line

I call you up been watching you for quite some time

I beat around the streets like Bandini looking for Camilla

I'll be satin and speed

If you and I are still alive we'll get off these streets

Well, there was a time I would've hung around just to be seen

Hey man, it's a shame when you start to fade

Diamond rings and sparkily things won't make your shine stay

My little superstar, oh baby that's what you are

My little superstar, oh honey you break my heart

My little superstar, oh honey you know you are

My little superstar, oh honey you break my heart

Botanists Reunited

what a day what a day what a day. today i had my first plant physiology class, and who should be there.... none other than my dear friend amit. it was doubly cool because him and i met in a plant class and here we are, in a plant class together again. also i was excited to see that theres only like thirty people in the class, and its about time the class sizes went down around here. so then amit and i went for coffee for we had much to talk about and much to reminisce. also i picked up my tips from the bar, and i guess the manager was in a good mood when he did them because my tips were addressed to bruce wayne, which just made my day. after coffee i went over to amits and we played cards and his roomate enlisted me to teach him how to knit and how to crochet and i believe to help him with guitar. i also learned that amit can do chin ups which is impressive, since hes sort of small. then the three of us went to our next class and that was cool and then i went back over to their house and chilled for a little while, then i went out for lunch with clancy and i ate tons and tons and it was all very gratifying. anyway needless to say, it was an excellent day, much more excellent than yesterday, which were going to forget about. :)

Things I Wish I Could Keep Better Track Of

1) my keys
2) the day of the week
3) the days of the month
4) what time it is
5) my plans with other people
6) my cigarettes
7) my lighters

We're Back, Ready for Round Two

well well well, after ringing in the new year in a more or less unexciting and uneventful manner, we are all ready to go for term two. woo hoo. honestly my life is passing me by. i think i need to go speak to an academic counsellor about what i need to do to write the MCAT next year... which is frightening and whatnot. i love how my future is hinging on a test. a very difficult test. its all very upsetting. anyway, next subject. jen still isnt home from her vacation.. she said shes coming home today though. i hope she gets here soon though i miss her and matt and i decided we wanted to have some family time when she gets back, cause its been a while, what with exams and all. anyway, today was spent mostly waiting in line. i was waiting in line for OSAP for like an hour and a half, which sucked, and then at the athletics and recreation office for almost another hour. but at least i got my OSAP, and i signed up for two yoga classes so i can use the mat that jen gave me for christmas. i have the seven am class again on thursdays and mondays, which probably means teh end of the sunday night "meetings" of the "breakfast club" at work. we shall have to find a new day im thinking. what else. i only have one class on tuesdays (again) this semester, so i went to that and spent the rest of the day in the aforementioned line waiting activites. big plans tonite: returning my movie and buying milk. possibly renting another movie. (sighs) so lame. oh speaking of movies i went to see memoirs of a geisha last friday and it was excellent. it was a little long but ive never been one to have a problem with that sort of thing. it was interesting and kept my attention, and i really liked its aesthetic. good directing, the whole thing was splendid. and the main character was the chick who was the evil chick in crouching tiger/hidden dragon, who i really hated in that movie, she was such a whiny bitch. i was worried that i wouldnt like memoirs of a geisha because of her presence, but she was quite good, it must just be the CHARACTER in crouching tiger that i didnt like, which is good cause youre supposed to hate that character, and my dislike of said character shows what a versatile and talented actor she is. also, michelle yogh was excellent as always, and the chick who played the evil character in memoirs of a geisha (not the chick who played teh evil chick in crouching tiger) was suberb. she totally stole the show. she was so convincing and excellent and beautiful and just a fantastic actor. id liek to see more of her for sure. anyway so, all in all i would reccommend memoirs, but its not a super exciting movie or anything so you ahve to be in the mood for a more mellow movie.