The Truth About Television

for years i have whole heartedly rejected television. that is, i do not have cable, and i generally watch movies over television when given the choice. i mean, im one of the only people i know who actually says "television" instead of that disgusting abbreviation, tv. but, i will admit, through various means, whether legal or not, i do occaisonally run into shows that i cannot get enough of (minus commercials, the cornerstone of my anti television philosophy). most recently, the two shows i have become enamoured with (or re-enamoured with in one case) are house and scrubs. and as i have sat here, making excuses for watching both of these shows when i actually have schoolwork to do, forcing myself to stay up very very late to get schoolwork done, or missing swimming like i am tonight, i realised a solemn truth about the television shows that do, somehow, manage to grab me. the fact is, the shows that do break their way through my enormous resistance, are shows that bring me hope. i know that most medical shows (or law shows, or crime shows or whatever) are not very realistic and so on, but there's something about the lessons that soothe me. there's something about watching fake people accomplish everything that i have set out to accomplish and learning their little scripted lessons along the way that make me feel better. and even, i hate to say it, inspire me. and for those 22 or 42 minute time frames, i find a way sometimes to believe in myself and what i do. to believe that i will one day reach out and take that medical degree, because right now, i sit here surrounded by my life and i am slowly building my staircase and climbing it at the same time

My Quest

well, what a day this has been. i set off this afternoon to see an apartment way a ways on the east side of hamilton. the girl i was supposed to meet never showed. so, i started hoofing it back instead of taking the bus to write down apartment phone numbers that i saw that i might be interested in. it was a long and treacherous walk (well not that treacherous) and i went to an apartment building i had seen had an open house closer to downtown. the super showed me an apartment and he was a very nice guy, and if i moved there, i would be allowed to have a dog. so thats pretty exciting, i just don't know if i can afford it. im looking at another place tomorrow thats about the same price, in a house. and im going to go down to this other building near my old place thats a little cheaper tomorrow. its all a little unnerving, but a little exciting too. i hope i can find a way to make my big grown up life work. as i was on the bus driving towards the no show, i couldnt help but feel i was looking for my future. or even my destiny. and as i was walking back, i kept seeing people with dogs and i wanted to accost them, saying "where do you live! get me a place in your building!" but of course i didnt.

Liquish?

well, as i mentioned in my previous post, i looked into the so-called "liquish" olives that i bought from the asian snack food store. unfortunately, i turned up very little information. what i can tell you is this. the "olives" as they were labelled in the store, are not the mediterranean olives that we are used to in greek cuisine. also, i think the word "liquish" might actually be a misspelling of "licorice" but im not sure. there might have been a licorice taste to the olives, but i usually like licorice, and these bad boys were awful. so, dear readers, i am asking you to see if you can find any information on this disgusting product for me, so i can have a better idea of what i ate.

Happy Snow Day!

i mean, happy valentine's day. and this has certainly been a valentines to remember. yesterday, the weather was brtual, we were having a blizzard and a half. it looked like a snow day for sure. i went to bed praying that today would be a snow day, because i had my logic midterm, and i was not prepared. so, early this morning, i checked to see if it was a snow day, and they had decided to close the school until noon and reevaluate the weather at 11am. damn. my test was supposed to be at 230, so as of this morning, i was still on the hook for writing it. i was frantically trying to study, and getting seriously stressed. but then, lo and behold, i checked the "reevaluation" of the weather at 11, and school was closed for the day! hooray! now i have a whole extra week plus some to prepare for the test, and prepare for it i shall. so, with a free day on my hands, i felt it was time for some adventuring. and of course, every adventurer needs a comrade, so of course i called amit. after some waiting around and watching seinfeld, amit arrived, and he had brought me a rose and some indian sweets for valentines! that just made my day. (amit, thank you again, you are such a doll). so we were off. i had it in my head that i wanted to try having steamed milk with mint in it, so first stop was the second cup. steamer with mint gets a roaring a+. then we were off to shoppers where i mailed kate her valentine (late of course), and then we went to the mall. i needed some cleaning supplies, and i thought we might stop into this strange asian food store for some foreign candied fruit. i got something called liquish olive and something else called sweet plum. i also got some wasabi chick peas and some cheese flavoured tiny breadsticks. everything was tasty except the olives, which were nasty. (research on them to be completed soon, update to follow). then we wandered around the mall for a bit to pick up my cleaning supplies and i was kind of sort of looking for sunglasses, but i wasnt too bent on the idea. before we left, i got it in my head that i wanted to try running up the down escalator. it was so awesome. about half way up i heard people cheering but i couldnt see where they were because i was looking at my feet. then i made it all they way to the top, but i couldnt get off the thing because the top is the hardest part. so i ended up falling (and i SCREWED my ankle, the same ankle which i already have an x ray and a sports medicine appointment for) and i bashed my knee, but man was it worth it. so i rode the escalator back down on my ass to amit waiting at the bottom. looking around, i realised that the people cheering were some mall rats between 13 and 15 years old. they were also horsing around on the escalator, and the security guard showed up to tell them off while amit and i made a quick retreat. after that we were off to noodle chef, where we each had a beto box, and then on our way home. what a riot. i cant wait to tell the doctor that i hurt my ankle MORE while i was running up a down elevator. im sure that will go over AWESOME.

Fond-Who?

yesterday was the grand finale to yet another hilarious amit and chloé adventure. the best part about this particular adventure, is that its duration spanned the better part of three days, and i hope i leave no stone unturned while telling the story. so here it is.
last week, i recieved an email from everybody's favourite artist, shayla, inviting me to a party she was having friday, february 9. i made a mental note of this email, and then dismissed it for the time being. come monday of this week, i realised the party was looming and i needed someone to go with, since shaylas partise are always busy and i dont want to take up all of her social time when she has other people to be talking to. so, of course, of course, i did what anyone would do in this situation, i invited amit. amit said of course hed come, and the plans were set. after that, we figured going to shaylas would be as easy as stopping at the liquor store, but we were wrong. on tuesday, i ran into one of shaylas friends, amanda, at the blood donor clinic (sweet elixer of life!), who reminded me of two things. the first was that the costume theme of the party was the food industry (which was apparently amanda's idea) and that we were supposed to bring dip. good thing i ran into her, i thought. so on wednesday, when i met up with amit, i said "what dip are we going to bring to shaylas party? we need to bring the most original dip, something NOONE else will bring." and without missing a beat, amit said "fondue". GENIUS! i said, except we need a fondue pot. so, since we both had our afternoon free, we made plans to go on a fondue pot quest on thursday, after our shopping around on wednesday was far from fruitful. (although, i did finally get some grocery shopping done on that day, and amit and i made a trip to the bakery. there was also a pie incident that threatened our friendship, but crisis was averted, and the story goes on).
so, thursday afternoon we head downtown. since i had given blood on tuesday, that gave me the green light for a new piercing, and i had been itching for a double eyebrow piercing for quite sometime. i asked amit if he wouldnt mind if we made a side trip so i could start my eyebrow piercing adventure, and he said no problem. so, i got an appointment at the parlour. an hour or so later, and i was pierced and feeling great, with amit having been my first ever stand by piercing witness. he also held my glasses for me which was nice.
so we were off, eyebrow throbbing, hearts pounding, in anticipation of our soon to be fondue pot. we ended up finding one at this really cracked out department store called hart in jackson square. there was this guy a head of us in line with scary prison tats, but the fondue pot was nice and cheap. so amit suggested we go to the liquor store right after so we wouldnt have to go the next day but i said wait because i didnt know how much money i had. this turned out to be a bad call on my part, details to follow. anyway, so i was pretty buzzed with my new piercing and i wanted to go for a couple of drinks. amit was kind of hungry, so we went to this dive bar called buttinsky's down town. i got havlf snapped on three doubles, thanks to my blood donation, and amit and i had an ever interesting exchange of information regarding each other's religion. will that topic ever get old? i think not. so after that, we headed to our seperate homes
friday nite came around with amit calling to ask me to let him into the building, only to get in on his own and scare the pants off of me in the hall. we decided to walk to fortinoes and the liquor store, since the bus is rarely any faster for a medium walking distance like that. on our way to the liquor store, however, we discovered that someone had taken an enormous chunk out of dundurn street. i said it looked like a supervillain had been through. anyway, there was absolutely no way to get down dundurn, so we had to find a way around. after getting trapped in a cul de sac, we accosted a motorist to direct us around, and then we were on our way. after picking up liquor, we went to the grocery store to get fruits and chocolate, and had much bickering along the way about how to buy fruit and how we should have gone to the liquor store on thursday. anyway. i, having three siblings, consider bickering a cornerstone to healthy relationships. amit is not as used to it and i think he was worried we were fighting. anyway, on the way home, irritation with each other gave way to laughter and excitement about the party. we were so excited about our fondue, we were sure it would be the best dip at the party. we were imagining that the fondue set would have people inviting us to all of their parties until we realised that people love the fondue, not us. then we predicted the fondue set would tear us apart in the end and wed have to get rid of it.
so we arrived at my house and got set to cut up the fruit which took a fraction of the time i thought it would. i got changed into my nice kitchen clothes (not my gross snooty clothes), and we headed to amits. amit pounded down three slices of bread at his house and i helped him with his tie, and he looked great. we headed across the street to shaylas only to find there were only four of us in costume! amanda wasnt even in costume even though the costumes were apparently her idea. not only that, but most of shaylas guests didnt show, they were mostly megans friends and shaylas boyfriends friends. but no matter, my outfit made the fondue seem even more slick and we were right, best dip at the party. amit and i spent the rest of the night pounding down bread and dip and vodka and having a grand time. we were sharing an armchair at one point and i joked later that all of that cuddling was blowing my chances of meeting someone at the party. i also ended up taking a nap in shaylas bed (of course) and then trying to nap more on the couch. shayla burned her self on hot pita bread and amit told her to put toothpaste on it and then she was fussing over it for the rest of the night. a couple more people showed up in costume at the end of the night, and we headed home well after two. so that is the story of the fondue. big thanks go out to shayla, we had a blast, and amit, heres to our next adventure.