joey flies

2004-03-08T00:34:00.000-04:00

New blog! I'm now at livejournal. http://www.livejournal.com/users/sleepyjoanne

2004-03-04T16:33:00.000-04:00

Ok. I realize that this hair is going to go to someone who needs it much more than I do, this is a really good cause, and I can't even imagine what it must be like to have cancer and go through chemo, but I'm really nervous about cutting my hair this Saturday. I've never had hair that short before, and I'm afraid it might look crazy, plus, I'm having a terrific hair week (which only ever happens right before I cut my hair). I'm going to miss it.

Suck it up, right?

2004-02-23T11:36:00.000-04:00

It's been a bit crazy here, weather-wise, for the past few days.

Thursday, we had this gigantic snowstorm - it's been called a 'weather bomb' by the media here, which I think is hilarious - 95 cm of snow in 24 hours or so, which is, needless to say, insane. Thursday was a madhouse outside, not only was it snowing like mad, the winds were crazy, and hardly any streets were plowed. Spent the day inside working on my pop health paper, how boring is that? while ed slept on my sofa. Nice and cozy in my apt, and thank goodness the power didn't go out.

I only took pictures from my window, and they're not very impressive:

This is from this morning, I don't understand why it hasn't fallen yet. Maybe I'll go stand under it and prod it a bit, think it would be hilarious to be standing underneath it when it collapses.

There's a big snowdrift on my balcony, I'm planning on making some sort of snow sculpture with it.

Only went outside once all day, and that was to go to ed's place later that night. It's normally a 10 minute walk, but it took us much longer. We got all bundled up in ski jackets and snow pants in preparation for the hike. There were some huge snow banks. We tried walking up the sidewalk for a bit - the snow drifts were such that there was a narrow path that wasn't too deep - but got impossibly bogged down, so we ended up walking down the middle of the street, which other people were doing anyway, plus, there were hardly any cars out - a very good thing. Just some plows, and one car stuck in the middle of tower rd (what were they doing, anyway?). Wind was pretty strong, the kind of it hurts when the snow is smacking against your face kind of strong.

Friday, met up with a bunch of people and went sledding down citadel hill. So much fun, and there were tons of people out. I think gorsebrook is the better sledding hill, though (although the 'crowd' is different, heh - little kids and their parents at gorsebrook). Afterwards, went for hot chocolate and/or beer at rogue's roost. Spent the evening with ed and my sister, made brownies and watched Moulin Rouge. Apparently there was an 11 pm curfew to make sure people weren't in the way of the plows, but I wasn't aware of it, and I was walking my sister home at 12:30 at night.

Went shopping day before yesterday... pete's frootique for some groceries, and got this pair of shoes for $14 at winners :)

Saturday night, hung out with ed - again, I've spent the past 4 days with him - and watched True Lies (which was, inexplicably showing on Canadian Learning Television). I've seen this movie 3 times, why? Some great one-liners. It was sad how they made the Saudi terrorist group look like a bunch of buffoons. And can an F-16 really do that?

Sunday - slept in a lot (maybe until 1 in the afternoon), was walking home when I bumped into nick and guy, so I went with them to nick's house where we hung out and watched two episodes of scrubs (the ones with micheal j fox. He plays a visiting internist/surgeon with a severe case of OCD. Nice to see him onscreen again. I always forget how hilarious scrubs is. Epiphany toilet!

Hmm, and today, I'm going to head downtown and do some errands, then go home and hang out with my mom and sister.

I haven't studied since last Thursday though... I didn't go anywhere this year for feb break because I was planning on catching up on my work, which I badly need to do. It's like I'm not even in med school, I'm so lazy.

In other news, I'm cutting 8 inches of my hair (gulp) to make a wig for cancer patients. It's part of the med school's fundraiser for Head for a Cure. I'm too chicken to shave my head, but I've been wanting short hair for awhile. I've been growing out my hair for the past couple of months in anticipation of cutting 8" off for the wig, but I wasn't going to do it for another few months. My hair is driving me nuts now, though: it's way too long, and looks terrible. So I think this will be a good thing. Many of my classmates will be shaving their heads and collecting pledges to raise money for Camp Goodtime, a one week summer camp in Nova Scotia for kids with cancer to basically have a really good time in a fun supportive environment. The head shaving/hair cutting will be taking place at the Halifax Shopping Centre on Saturday March 6th. There'll be some live entertainment as well, should be a good time.

2004-02-13T15:45:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I haven't posted in awhile...

Sort of a stressful morning (though everything turned out alright in the end) because we were choosing who gets to go where next year during clerkship.

First we chose pediatrics/ob-gyn, and there are a certain number of spots in halifax, charlottetown, saint john, kentville and summerside. Not many people want to go to saint john - really, who wants to go to saint john? And everyone wants to go to Charlottetown for obs-gyn b/c you get to deliver loads of babies. In any case, I ended up with my first choice - peds in Halifax, hurrah!, and obs-gyn in halifax too, which is fine. I won't get to deliver loads of babies, but I will get to deliver a few, and I won't have to make all sorts of arrangements to find a place to live elsewhere.

And then we chose internal - erg. Five people in my group wanted to do cardiology, but there were only 3 spots. So, sort of stressful, but I ended up with cardiology, so relieved. That's all I really cared about. And then I've ended up doing another session of MTU (medical teaching unit - supposedly a killer rotation, don't get to sleep much at all when you're on call, and long hours, but supposedly you learn a lot). I just hope I don't get burnt out doing two rotations of it. I think I'm probably a bit crazy doing two MTU since I could have chosen many other things, but... oh well.

So all in all, kind of stressful during the process, but I think everyone was pretty good about it - I hope most people were happy in the end. No one threw a fit, no one started crying, and no one made a speech about how they've always wanted to be an obstetrician, so please please please let them do ob-gyn in charlottetown.

On a completely different note, what a cute iPod case (the pink one in the middle).

2003-12-30T12:22:00.000-04:00

I forgot to post a photo of my halloween costume: I was a magic 8 ball. I dressed entirely in black, taped a print-out of an 8 ball on my back, and taped a blue triangle (construction paper) on my front. I then printed out all of the various predictions the 8 ball makes, and sticky-tacked one to the triangle on the front when someone asked me a question. Took 15 minutes to make, and people were entertained.

2003-12-29T23:13:00.000-04:00

I really need to so something productive, I only have another week before I have to spend two weeks cramming for my skin glands and blood exam. I've been sleeping in, reading, shopping, watching movies, eating a lot, and surfing the internet. What I should be doing is studying right now.

Instead, I slept in, went to Minato for their bento lunch special with Ed, and spent the afternoon walking around downtown and checking out the sale at Biscuit. Ended up buying a pair of really dark blue denim - almost black - pants which have the fit I've been looking for for awhile: tight up top and a bit low cut, wide thighs and legs which flare out so much they cover my feet. I realize they're way too raver-y for me, and probably look silly, but I love the wide flares. Don't really have the proper shoes to wear them with, but fortunately, when I'm wearing them, you can't see my shoes anyway :) Then I went to le chateau with the intention of buying an off the shoulder black top if they were on sale (they are not). Instead, I found a purple velvet halter dress for a mere $20, with a nifty, slightly tacky fabric flower pinned to the neck. Couldn't say no to that. And it looks pretty good. Though I have no occasion in the near future to wear it. Maybe New Year's Eve at home with my mom?

2003-12-19T22:17:00.000-04:00

Running commentary as I watch an episode of sex and the city (season 6, boy, interrupted - just downloaded! I love talking through this show, but no one to talk with, bleh)...

Holy crap, it's dave ducovney (spelling is wrong). Hmm... he's looking kind of weird. Shiny? I guess he was never shiny in the x-files. "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to chemistry class?" CHEEESE, hehe.

Miranda had better get together with her super hot neighbour.

Dave must be walking in a ditch, or SJP's wearing really tall heels or something, because the height difference between them isn't as much as it should be.

AHHAHAAAHAHAA, it's geri haliwell! This is the best episode ever.

Erg. Carrie's habit of constantly interrupting her friends and changing the subject to herself... why do they not throttle her? Though when did she dye her hair brown? Looks so much better that way.

AHAHAHAAAAHHAAA Carrie's looking in her highschool yearbook, and there's a photo of Dave, supposedly his HS yearbook photo. He has long shaggy hair and a big nose and looks hilarious.

The big question of the episode: 'When it comes to matters of the heart, did we have it right in high school?' (my answer - obviously not).

Why is everyone at the pool British? And why is no one actually IN the pool? hehe, Cum see, cum sa.

Craziness, Carrie's actually dressed like a normal person this episode.

hehehe, I just fast-forwarded a bit... everyone sounds like chipmunks.

You know... not everyone working at an asylum is dressed all in white. And I wanted to find out why he was there! I wanted some medical terms.

(all photos are screen captures)

2003-12-19T16:23:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile.

Last day of classes today. Went out for lunch (yummy roasted veggie wrap at Satisfaction Feast).

Crocheting a scarf:

2003-10-28T19:17:00.000-04:00

I was walking home at sunset today (which now is around 5 in the afternoon). It was overcast, and the sky was this incredible pink colour. All the colours - the red and orange leaves, the green grass, red paint of the furniture store next door, were so vivid, it made me stop in my tracks for quite some time. It was a bit other-wordly, in a way.

2003-10-27T19:38:00.000-04:00

This is the coolest thing ever.

(warning - if you don't want to see some boobs, don't click on the above link)

2003-10-13T11:25:00.000-03:00

Food blog!

Tuesday, Oct. 7

Ed took me to Fid for my 23rd birthday - a surprise. We had the 'taster' menu, so the chef made about 5 small courses (3 appetizers, a main course, and dessert, as well as a green apple sorbet between the appetizers and the main, and some homemade butterscotch caramels at the end which just melted in the mouth, mmm), a little bit of everything. Felt kind of dorky taking pictures of the food, but it's my new hobby.

We asked for some juice; they suggested a beet and green apple thing. I realized I don't like beets very much. But it looks pretty!

This salad was really yummy. Five different kinds of tomatoes, and broccoli that looks like it came from another planet.

Overall, the food was good, and very interesting. They used all sorts of exotic ingredients, and everything looked great. I found some things too salty, especially the oolong noodles. But man, the seared smoked salmon was amazing.

This Thanksgiving weekend has involved a lot of laundry, and a lot of eating.

Saturday, Oct. 11 - Thanksgiving dinner #1 at Carolyn's house. Roast chicken, squash, stuffing, cranberry sauce, fresh bread, pickles, mashed potatoes, antihistimines for me (I'm allergic to their cat). Catholic saying of grace, including the crossing, which is always awkward for me.

Sunday, Oct. 12 - Thanksgiving dinners #2 and 3 at Ed's parents' (turkey, squash, stuffing, squid - the Chinese part of the meal, sweet potatoes, peas and carrots, green bean soup, and pumpkin pie I bought at Glen Eagle bakery), and JP's (a really large turkey, no squash, rice stuffing, the same pumpkin pie, a 'mandarin orange' cake, salad, and apple crisp) homes, respectively.

I now have loads of Thanksgiving leftovers in my fridge, which should keep me for the next week or so. I do love a good thanksgiving dinner, but man, this weekend has been tough on the tummy.

2003-10-03T16:27:00.000-03:00

Argh, I finally know why I haven't been able to post for so long. Digitalrice is down, and they're making all members re-register. Sort of annoying. Back to blogspot for now.

2003-10-03T16:08:00.000-03:00

the city of trees?

One of the things I loved best about Halifax is all of the trees. Walking down quiet tree shaded neighbourhoods in the south end, and a little further west by the university.

I just read in the paper, an estimate of 10,000 trees down in the city alone.

I was out walking downtown this afternoon, and went by the Public Gardens. I felt like crying. There were hardly any trees left standing, from what I could see.

Some photos of my neighbourhood post-hurricane:
Woody
And here.

2003-09-21T16:14:00.000-03:00

Holy crap.

Why models you see in magazines aren't real.

It's such a conspiracy.

2003-09-12T19:43:00.000-03:00

Woohoo! Posting from my new computer =D It's so pretty. I also like the fact that I can curl up with my computer. And it's so fast. I'm going to name it.

2003-08-22T14:58:00.000-03:00

Just took some Benadryl which expired in 1999. Now I'm all hepped up. Yikes!

2003-08-21T23:51:00.000-03:00

According to the SelectSmart.com Belief System Selector, my #1 belief match is Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants.
What do you believe? Visit SelectSmart.com/RELIGION

My next two closest matches were Liberal Quaker and Unitarian Universalism.

Quiz is from kboy. I dunno if he knows that I read his blog occasionally.

It's an interesting quiz, and given that I actually am a liberal Protestant, I guess, since I go to a Presbyterian church (occasionally) and am liberal.

2003-08-21T21:15:00.000-03:00

Friday - durr

Saturday -

Sunday -

Monday -

Tuesday - a really busy day, actually. went to the public library and found 2 coupland books there. yay! rock climbing with ed! His first time. Pretty fun. We did some challenging climbs at the end (for us, anyway). Spent some time hanging in the air, which is fun, but now my bum hurts. Will be going again sometime soon. Met friends for dinner at My Other Brother Darrell's restaurant (Halifax entrepreneurs have a penchant for weird names). Then had a short orientation week meeting re: slideshow and what sort of drinks to have at the multicultural night dinner (my contributions - sangria, Asahi, Stella, and Irn-Bru). Then, ran back to help NW move (sort of. My forearm flexors were shot, as usual, after rock climbing). Back home to change and put on lipstick, then it was out with Christy, her new friend Kathleen, and Ed and his friends Tony and Lee, to the Pogue Fado for a very brief period, then the Planet for some very loud, very bad live music. They attempted to convince me to go to the Dome. The attempt failed. C was super drunk, and it was funny.

Wednesday - Slept in. Got to the blueberry U-pick a mere hour before it closed. We wanted to get around 8 pounds of berries each, so we had to motor. We were picking FAST, dude. I got 5 mosquito bites, two of which are huge, 5 cm in diameter. Mosquitoes suck (hi Brian!). Went back to apartment, attempted to wash/dry/freeze many a berry. Read more Girlfriend in a Coma (such a good book! Can't put it down). Went to Ed's for a BBQ with the boys. Lots of eats, as usual. Veggie kebabs, steak, ed's rosemary potatos (oh so good), pineapple upside down cake, and BBQ duck from Chinatown in Toronto. No wonder I've gained weight this year :P

Thursday. Christy is dumb. She left for Scotland a day early. We were supposed to go out tonight!

2003-08-15T02:10:00.000-03:00

Best wedding ever.

Friday - left for Fredericton around 1 pm. We weren't sure how long it would take to get there; Mapquest predicted a ridiculous 8 hours (it took us 5). All of the other guests we talked to stayed at the Lord Beaverbrook or the Sheraton. Us, we stayed in a UNB dorm ($18 a night, can't get much better than that). So here we are, staying in the univ dorm with some other random people, getting dressed up in our fancy clothes. ET and KJ are wearing suits, and I have my strapless black dress on with my new ridiculous 3" wedge heels, hair done up, tottering down the stairs to the car. We're hungry, but don't have very much time before the wedding, so we stop at Harveys for some burgers. It was pretty funny being in a Fredericton Harveys with our suits and dresses on eating onion rings, I have to say.

The Catholic wedding was simple and sweet. Milie was beaming all the way down the aisle. Sean's brother looks exactly like him, only with more facial hair. ET tells me that when the priest was speaking, Milie looked straight into Sean's eyes and mouthed 'I love you,' one of those sweet, perfect moments. The sermon was amusing.

'Now, Sean has only eyes for his Milie. All of the other hopeful girls in medical school... too bad for you. You've lost. Milie has won. And Milie, she only has eyes for Sean. All of the other boys... no no no no no.' etc.

Following that, the reception, at which I broke a glass and felt bad about it, but didn't help clean it up =\ Drank a little champagne.

Afterwards, we were really hungry, and attempted to eat at Quizno's because apparently their subs are really good, but it was closing :P so we went to an Irish pub for greasy pub food instead.

Then ET and I stayed up until 3 in the morning or so talking.

Saturday - The Sikh wedding ceremony was at 10 in the morning, so we were a bit grumpy about that. We all took off our shoes and were given bandanas to wear on our heads, and sat in a room in the Lord Beaverbrook, which had a small canopied structure installed. There were so many women wearing gorgeous saris. Mili's outfit was crazy elaborate, embroidered and beaded, and she was also wearing a lot of jewellery, including these long dangling bracelets . Sean was wearing a turban! That was great.

Lunch was a buffet at a local Chinese place, not bad. Afterwards, the three of us took a very long nap.
The reception that evening was great fun. Everyone was out on the patio, initially, enjoying the view of the Saint John river, drinking cocktails and eating samosas. At each of the tables in the banquet hall, there were little boxes for each guest, wrapped in foil paper. I was a little worried about what it was going to be, knowing Miliís penchant for frogs (she has hundreds, apparently, of toy frogs and frog paraphanelia. She and her husband even drive around in a lime green VW beetle). And yeah, sure enough, they had purchased over a hundred little Chinese good luck frogs for their guests. Man.

The reception itself was so nice. There were lots of short speeches, from their parents, friends, siblings. Some hilarious stories. Seanís younger brother was talking about them early on in their relationship, in high school (yeah. Theyíve been together for something like 9 years). Sean would call Mili up late in the evening, and say in his soft speaking to mili on the phone voice, ëAre you ready? Ok.í Minutes later, his brother would pick up the phone and hear Mili snoring on the other end. Apparently, they did this every night throughout high school, and their family had to install a second phone line.

Lots of really touching speechesÖ I thought I was going to cry at many points, but I held back for fear of the mess I would make with all that mascara on. Iím such a sentimental slob. Man, but Seanís brother was sniffling, his Mom had trouble making it through her speech. Miliís youngest sister was crying.

Sís youngest brother made up a song in their honour, and sang it. It was great.
ìChangesî
# 1. They can sleep in the same room when at either of their parentsí houses.
# 2. Mili changed her last name.

Miliís friend Sascha danced, to this medley of Indian dance music. So much energy. So great, and it was crazy how many songs changes she had. Sheís a terrific dancer.

All in allÖ those guys have been together for a crazy amount of time, and their families are so close. I think it really made it more special.

The dance afterwards was great fun. Every second song was an Indian dance number. Lots of crazy dancing. ET was keen to show Sean his new moves, learned in Belgium. The Helicopter was pulled out more than once that night. ET and I did a simultaneous Taking A Shit (have to work on the timing, though. As ET points out, the lack of coordination for this manouever serves to highlight the fundamental difference between men and women ñ women push it out, while men take it easy and let it drop out). The Right Foot Of Fury also made an appearance. We attempted to swing dance and failed (I had tried to show him some moves earlier in the evening). After the last slow song, I attempted to pick him up (things were getting really silly by this point, especially after they played the Macarena) and almost fell over (I was also a little bit tipsy). A good night.

Sunday ñ drove back to Halifax. Borring. We did eat lunch at Quiznoís. It was pretty good, but expensive.

Monday ñ spent the morning by myself, cleaning the apartment (when I clean - which is not very often ñ I go all out). Was going to vacuum, then realized my vacuum had disappeared. Was reading Mary Elizabeth Braddonís ëLady Audleyís Secretí ñ sheís sort of a Victorian Danielle Steele, which is to say, a very prolific author, slightly trashy, but good stuff. Man, I could not put down that book.

Tuesday ñ ummÖ donít remember.

Wednesday ñ slept in. Drove ET to the garage to pick up his loaner car. Went to the gym for a brief period (upper body). Choir ñ we sang a new tune, Hymn to Freedom. Itís great fun, showy, and all that. Started making the baklava right after choir, so maybe around 9. We had to shell four cups of pistachios by hand. That was nuts (ahhahahahaaaa. *cough ). Well, my thumbs hurt afterwards. By 11, we were only getting started on the actual baklava, but I had already promised my friends I would go out with them.

Carolyn, Tynan and Sohaib hung out in my living room while they waited for my slow-ass to get ready. We got to the Marquee shortly after 1. They played the same music they always play for retro night. This could get to be tiresome. It was bloody hot there, as usual. Couldnít really breathe on the dance floor. Sad that ET couldnít make it, itís not quite the same without his Helicopter. When I got back at 3 in the morning, he had only just finished. The baklava is delicious.

Thursday ñ slept in. Peach cobbler for brunch! ET is the best!!! Packed up some things, and drove back to Dartmouth before rush hour kicked in. Spent most of today in the basement, going through boxes, deciding what to keep and what to throw out. Itís ridiculous, the amount of crap weíve kept. Seriously, my family never throws anything out. We have all these puzzles with missing pieces, random little toys, 5 inch floppy disks!! wtf. Anyway, I don't see how we're ever going to finish. I'm so sentimental. I want to keep all my crappy English essays I wrote in grade 12 because I find it amusing to read them and see what kind of crap my english teacher forced me to spit out (incidently, I got a ridiculously high mark in that course). I want to keep this small box I have of sand I've collected from various beaches. It's sad really.

2003-08-07T20:48:00.000-03:00

I'm off to Fredericton tomorrow, to go to our friends' wedding. Should be fun. It's been raining for pretty much a week straight here in Halifax. I was hoping that it would be different up in NB, but according to the forecast, it's much of the same, only a few degrees warmer. Maybe I can attempt to recount the last week.

Friday - helped my mom teach VBS this morning. Concert immediately following. Went back to Halifax.

Saturday - went to the Olive tonight with JL and ET. Hilariously fun night. DJ was pretty good. Had a drink (Singapore Sling. Fastest bartender ever). I was drunk for the first time in awhile. Went nuts on the dance floor. Love dancing with ET. He did the helicopter, right foot of fury, and 'taking a shit' multiple times.

Sunday - can't remember.

Monday - errr...

Tuesday - Think I went shopping today. Purchased a scrapbook to put all my photos and europe paraphanelia. Did some errands. ET and I made paella, following the recipe in a Spanish guidebook (we had previously made paella in Barcelona using stock from a package, which was terrible). Used saffron for the first time. I don't understand what the big deal is. Sure, you don't need very much for the added colour. But the taste is far too subtle, for me, to justify the price. Also made this sweet potato salad. JL came over and helped us eat all the food.

Wednesday - woke up relatively early. Ran around a lot today. Went shopping with ET and CK's bf TW, for the wedding present. Present is two large baskets of gourmet food items. Hopefully they'll like it. Drove home in rush hour traffic. Got a whole bunch of summer clothes that I had forgotten, and various other random items. Mom was sad that I didn't stay for dinner but I had already promised TW we'd make dinner. Curry for dinner. Bunch of people came over afterwards. Went to the Marquee for retro night. Everyone was there! CK and her boyfriend, her classmate Mallory and her boyfriend, Jackie and ET came along (ET wearing those huge sunglasses I gave him, bless his heart). We bumped into CS, who was there with Ella and AK. Fun fun fun, but it was so incredibly hot on the dance floor, it was getting gross.

Thursday - I guess that would be today. Slept in. Did some errands. Went home for dinner (in rush hour traffic... took me an hour. Sucks). Still here in Dartmouth. Still can't find my USB cable, so I can't upload photos to my computer.

2003-07-30T14:03:00.000-03:00

Just got the rolls from my disposable cameras developed yesterday (for most of the trip, I borrowed ET's camera). Um, before I post them, I must note: I was by myself most of the time in Edinburgh because my friend was working during the day. And I wanted someone in the photo.

Edinburgh

the view from Edinburgh Castle

One of many closes in town

Princes St. garden. I sat in the field below, looked at the gorgeous scenery, and contemplated life while eating 2 quid sandwiches from marks and spencer.

Scotland is the only country in the world where Pepsi is not the best selling soft drink. When I bought it from a guy at a stand nearby, I couldn't remember the name of the drink, so I asked for 'that Scottish pop... that everyone says I should have.'

'Yuu must mean Irn-Brruu. It's made me the mann I am tuday... So be careful.'

Penguin parade at the Edinburgh zoo. Every day at 2:15 pm, they let the penguins out for a walk.

This particular penguin took an interest in my stuffed penguin.

Craigmillar Castle - gorgeous castle ruins. Mary Queen of Scots lived here for awhile.

Glasgow

Neil ordered haggis. It's actually really good.

Vienna

ET and me in front of a random building in Vienna... it's probably important.

St. Stephens cathedral

Museums Quartier.

Random statue... they're everywhere.

The rest of the photos can be found here.

2003-07-28T12:54:00.000-03:00

Just got back last night. I'm pretty jet-lagged at the moment. Overnight from Vienna to Frankfurt on the train... hardly got any sleep, one hour in the airport, something like seven hours to Boston, three hours in the airport, before a quick jaunt (1 1/2 hours) back home. Sooo nice to be back home.

In total:
25 days
6 countries (Scotland, France, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Austria)
8 castles
1 eye infection (my left eye)
but no gastroenteritis for me!!! yay!

My HTML sucks, this is the best I can do
	BEST	WORST
bathroom	Italian restaurant in Menton	0.60 euro bathrooms in Milano train station
restaurant	Aki in Paris
shopping	Barcelona	Paris (mostly because of high expectations)
tarte aux pommes	Ronde des Pains, Menton	restaurant near Paris Gare du Nord station
fruit	Spain, especially peaches	rotten orange in Menton
hotel/hostel	apartment in Barcelona	Believe it or not in Vienna (a hole!)

I kept a travel journal while I was over there... mostly detailing what we did, the money I spent (too much, but mostly too much on accomodation and food), and random impressions and stuff.

Flying through the US is crazy. In the Frankfurt airport, everyone going to the US was subjected to a pat down search. Felt violated. There are notices up in the Boston airport advising people that the US TSA may open any checked luggage, and that locked bags will be opened, then 'resealed.' They further noted that this may result in damage to the bags, and advise that you not lock your luggage. wtf, if I had locked my hiking backpack, would they have cut it open and duct-taped it back up? Also, when I went through one of many levels of security, I had to take off my flip-flops before going through the metal detector.

In any case... the first set of photos from my trip!

It's Loch Lomond, in Scotland. Or, as I like to say, Loch leMonde. Thank you so much Neil, for taking me to see it!

More photos

2003-07-02T10:50:00.000-03:00

In Edinburgh now, just arrived a few hours ago.

Yes, I know it's sad to be on the internet mere hours after going to Scotland for the first time, but my overnight flight was ridiculous, so many crying babies, and they didn't turn off the lights (to top it off, I forgot my earplugs and gravol in my checked luggage), there was no way I could sleep. So I'm quite exhausted, and too tired to be walking around a lot -- my friend doesn't get back from work for another four hours, so I have some time to kill.

Edinburgh is beautiful! All of the buildings here are gorgeous, it's like a storybook. Even the outskirts of the city are nice. Super cute houses everywhere. And you can use these lovely high speed internet computers for free for an entire hour in the library.

2003-07-01T15:03:00.000-03:00

Leaving on a jet plane...

See you in August. Though I might blog while I'm there, at an internet cafe or similar.

bleh, I didn't realize (for some reason) that all the stores are closed on Canada day, and I still need to buy some things.

2003-06-29T20:27:00.000-03:00

Ooh, new blogger editing format.

A quiz to figure out your 'brain usage.'

Your Brain Usage Profile

Auditory : 64%
Visual : 35%
Left : 50%
Right : 50%

Joanne, your hemispheric dominance is equally divided between left and right brain, while you show a moderate preference for auditory versus visual learning, signs of a balanced and flexible person.

Your balance gives you the enviable capacity to be verbal and literate while retaining a certain "flair" and individuality. You are logical and compliant but only to a degree. You are organized without being compulsive, goal-directed without being driven, and a "thinking" individual without being excessively so.

The one problem you might have is that your learning might not be as efficient as you would like. At times you will work from the specific to the general, while at other times you'll work from the general to the specific. Sometimes you will be logical in your approach while at other times random. Since you cannot always control the choice, you may experience frustrations not normally felt by persons with a more defined and directed learning style.

You may also minimally experience conflicts associated with auditory processing. You will be systematic and sequential in your processing of information, you will most often focus on a single dimension of the problem or material, and you will be more reflective, i.e., "taking the data in" as opposed to "devouring" it.

Overall, you should feel content with your life and yourself. You are, perhaps, a little too critical of yourself - and of others - while maintaining an "openness" which is redeeming. Indecisiveness is a problem and your creativity is not in keeping with your potential. Being a pragmatist, you downplay this aspect of yourself and focus on the more immediate, the more obvious and the more functional.

2003-06-23T22:16:00.000-03:00

I've been reading Widow for One Year, pretty much non stop, for the past two days. It's affecting my thinking. I had a hard time sleeping last night because of all the vivid - and, quite frankly, grotesque - imagery running through my head (I had just read a rather graphic death scene, and John Irving just does that to me sometimes). It's been a weird day - I was shocked, for example, to look up from my book and realize it was past three in the afternoon. Hardly did anything all day.

2003-06-22T02:44:00.000-03:00

Quick update because I'm sleepy, but I still feel it necessary to update.

Wednesday - went to my mom's graduation. So proud of my mom! It was pretty nice, at the Mount, in that crazy theatre with the audience sitting 360 degrees around. Very casual, with people running down the aisle to take photos, one man shouting 'that's mah boy!' when his son graduated with a certificate in air conditioning and ventilation repair. Mom sitting two rows in - the circular seating was nice in that family and friends could see their graduates - surrounded by a dozen guys my age, her white hair contrasting with their black robes.

Went back to Halifax, went to the library and borrowed some books, plus the first Star Trek movie. Decided to go to ET's to watch it, but by the time I got there it was already getting dark, so I stayed the night. It was strange being in the apartment by myself. Sitting on the couch, sleepily watching Star Trek (it's terrible. At least 45 minutes too long. Fast-forwarding makes it far more bearable). The guitar is sitting right next to me on the couch, and I'm thinking about the last time I sat on that couch, a week previously, with ET, singing all the Simon and Garfunkle songs I know in two-part harmony. Singing the Protest song. Slept in his bed and hugged the body pillow, but it was hard to sleep because of all the crazy traffic outside.

I'm spending far too much time moping, it's bad for me. And ridiculous. It's only a one month long separation.

Thursday. Go to MA's birthday party at Maxwell's Plum with CK. It's nice hanging out with JM again (also, his new glasses... tres chic), and R_ is super excited about my upcoming europe trip, and told me all about his most recent visit. Someone brought sparklers, and soon the whole table was lit up (also by our grinning faces... sparklers are damn cool). Sang happy birthday in at least four different keys all at once.

Friday. Do errands in the morning, shop with CK in the afternoon, for cheap summer clothes. There were all these preteen girls running around - some sort of school trip or similar - and it just hurt my head listening to them squeal. Bought these crazy 3 inch heels (black slides, very narrow 3" wedge heel, with a flower on the toe strap) for a wedding coming up this summer - they were just too nice to pass up, and I have to say, heels like that make your legs look so much longer and skinner.

JS came by, and all three of us went to the Attic. Venus Envy was having a fundraiser for a bursary they're giving out, and it was all female DJs spinning. I really know nothing about this sort of music, and all the sub genres confuse me, but I do enjoy watching people dance and do crazy things. I was, however, super self-conscious about dancing there because there was hardly anyone on the dance floor (hardly anyone there, to be honest, which is too bad as it was a fundraiser), and really, I have no idea what I'm doing. We only made one foray into the Dome, which lasted maybe 20 minutes, which is not bad. CK actually likes the Dome. I must say, I've had some good times there, people watching, and being silly. They played that Justin Timberlake song that I'm embarrassed to like. JS is a really good dancer. I want to get together a whole bunch of people sometime, including lots who are crazy dancers, and dance up a storm somewhere. Went back to my place for fudgesicles, JS left at 4 to walk home (which I still feel really bad about... I should have offered a drive). Crashed immediately.

Saturday. Slept in a lot. But it was a beautiful day, so we knew we had to go out and do something. After some discussion (and some pancakes), CK and I decided to go for a hike, out on the BLT trail. When we were almost there, we decided instead to visit her sister out in Terrence Bay, as we weren't too far anyway. Didn't get there until past 5. AK was just closing up, but she did tell us a bit about the place... err, it's getting late, so very quickly... walked along the trail... very short trail. Did some rock-scampering. Walked down to a little lighthouse. Very picturesque. Took loads of photos which unfortunately can't be shown because the internet isn't working at my apartment... again.

Back home in Dartmouth, I spent the evening going through some more boxes deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. It's crazy the amount of crap I've accumulated. Sometimes I feel like throwing everything away, get rid of that baggage, it's weighing me down. Sometimes I look at a brochure of a museum I went to 7 years ago, which triggers a long forgotten memory, and think, how much are memories worth? And isn't it worth keeping this trinket to preserve this memory?

I think if my own memory was better, I wouldn't have to rely on inanimate objects, old dolls, birthday cards, and dresses.

2003-06-15T12:48:00.000-03:00

It's the Music in Medicine webpage! Fancy flash intro and everything, which features ET and SR singing Feelin' Groovy. While you're there, click on recordings and listen to the spring concert last year. In particular, ET and SR singing Sounds of Silence; this is the best I've ever heard them sing it. It must have been amazing live.

I miss that boy already. Bleh.

2003-05-30T18:43:00.000-03:00

From The Onion:

Magical Gallery Transforms Dull Objects Into Art
NEW YORKóA magical New York art gallery has the power to turn dull, everyday items into brilliant works of art, sources reported Monday. "Seth Clayton's devastating Untitled No. 7 captures the despair of urban ennui in a way that's post-ironic yet somehow pre-pomo," said David E. Sherry, owner of the David E. Sherry Gallery, while admiring a rusty bucket and tattered boot lying on the gallery floor. "Its eloquence is truly heartbreaking."

They used the word 'pomo'!!! Yay!

2003-05-30T14:02:00.000-03:00

I've found two ways to figure out who's linking to your site:

Technorati, or just go to google and type in link:http://...

Oh yeah. I'm done my exam! Hurrah! And it's sunny outside! I think I need a nap.

2003-05-28T19:12:00.000-03:00

ET's mom went to some sort of microbiology conference and came back with some of these:

It's so geeky. I love it. Statistically significantly fresher breath. And check out the bacilli and staphylococci.

2003-05-28T17:49:00.000-03:00

Ok, so obviously I'm not studying at the moment.

My order came in this morning! I'm now wearing my spiffy new grey wool pants which fit perfectly, hurrah! I also ordered a sweater with this huge button up collar - love exaggerrated collars - but the sleeves are inexplicately tight. To the point where it feels like they're cutting off circulation to my hands. Wondering whether I should return it or attempt to stretch the sleeves. I also got this pair of shoes for $9 US:

Stumbled upon this blog - anyone's any. In the most recent post, she writes about using racism, poetry, and her Sims hiring a stripper. I dig it. I hope she doesn't mind if I include this quote from her blog:

For instance, if someone was to say, "Oh, those damn Mexicans, always stealing shit." I could say, "Well, I'm half Mexican." That would embarrass them, but more fundamentally than that, it would make them begin to doubt their assumptions. I look white, but I am really half Mexican. (This is not true, by the way. But it could be, and that's the point.)

...Studies show that it only takes 5-10% of bills being counterfeit before people begin to mistrust money. If 5-10% of the so-called "white" population started identifying themselves as half black, or half Mexican, or what have you, people would begin to mistrust their judgements of people based on skin color or appearance alone.

And wouldn't that be a wonderful thing?

While I'm on the subject of other people's blogs... here's a photo blog, grey expectations. Some very beautiful photography.

2003-05-28T17:32:00.000-03:00

Hey, it's Gray's Anatomy, free online.

hmm... gray's is not very good for embryology. But man, look at this creepy drawing of an embryo. It looks like it's plotting something.

I haven't been able to concentrate all day. Just 1 1/2 more days of studying to go - then SUMMER VACATION - but I still can't keep on task. I spent 20 minutes in the library today leafing through a dermatology reference for doctors working in the tropics, and HOLY CRAP there are some terrible infections you can get. The ulcers made me wince in pain, and there was this horrible disfiguring Leishmania infection that was eating away at this man's face - his entire nasal septum was gone, half of his upper lip was gone, showing his teeth. It's awful, knowing a lot of these infections could have been prevented with better public health and sanitation, and knowing that the people in those photos were most likely not cured. Now I'm all nervous about ET going to Africa to work in a medical clinic. I really really really really really hope he doesn't get malaria or a crazy infection or tapeworm or...

2003-05-27T11:43:00.000-03:00

Don't mind me, I'm just trying something out.

2003-05-22T17:49:00.000-03:00

I'm such a whiner.

Now it's uncomfortable to type. I have to grip a pen lightly. Opening my water bottle hurts. I had to tie my shoes with the help of my teeth this morning. There's no way I can open the kitchen window.

2003-05-21T20:10:00.000-03:00

Ok. Now my forearms are so sore it hurts to perform Activities of Daily Living. Such as:

- carrying grocery bags. Holy crap.
- picking up bookbag
- opening heavy doors
- opening jars

oww oww oow

2003-05-21T11:32:00.000-03:00

Went indoor rock climbing with CK for something like 4 hours yesterday. Today it's sort of hard for me to make a tight fist with my left hand. My problem is really with my flexor digitori; it's always my hands that give out; although I try to use my legs as much as possible, there's only so much you can do, especially on those walls that lean out. I've spent so much of my life being careful with my hands, it's sort of weird for me to fuck them up rock climbing now. But it's so much fun, and I love it.

2003-05-19T22:34:00.000-03:00

BEST WEEKEND EVER (almost. still have to study). Beautiful, sunny, warm (20 degrees!!), and not too much work to feel guilty about not doing:

Friday - went to see Matrix 2. It was sort of cool. Cool special effects, somewhat ridiculous fight scenes at times (instead of spending 15 minutes fighting off hundreds of Agent Smiths, why didn't he just flee the scene immediately?), and the Oracle guard dude should have been much, much cooler. Long boring quasi-philosophical monologues were overdone and contradicted each other.

Saturday - best day ever. Slept in. Went to the farmer's market with ET, bought a pound of cold smoked salmon + some hot pepper smoked salmon + a bag of mussels for $12 (getting there at 12:30 when everyone just wants to get rid of their stuff is a very handy thing to do), had a picnic of smoked salmon, cream cheese and tomatoes on baguettes at the park across the street, fell asleep, then went to CS's for a party (involving Scattergories and lots of cute boys). Capped off the night with a trip to Reflections for some dancing.

Sunday - slept in. Went to NA's for an afternoon BBQ/housewarming. Her apartment has a high slanting wall with skylights, and a second story loft which is her bedroom; it's gorgeous. Thankfully she is paying more on rent than I am, otherwise I would be very jealous. Had yummy chicken/sweet pepper skewers; unfortunately, the curry spices were so hot I could only eat one because my tongue was burning so much. Played frisbee in the park with ET. I can throw forehand a little better now, though I feel like a gimp when I'm doing it. Studied for maybe an hour (but hardcore). Watched Moulin Rouge (man, there are some good song/dance sequences).

Monday - Victoria Day! Slept in. Studied for something like 4 hours (go me!) in the afternoon. Watched the extended versions of the dances from Moulin Rouge. Went for a walk downtown, purchased a tape of Glenn Gould playing Bizet and Grieg for $2, and a Simon & Garfunkle CD (some silly guy had just sold his entire extensive collection of S&G CDs, all brand new and in perfect condition). Went home, and instead of studying, noticed that jcrew is having a fabulous sale, and bought, among other things, a pair of suede clogs for $9, a belt for $5, and the perfect pair of wool pants for $27. Now I'm going to study for exactly 1 1/2 hours.

&

2003-05-16T19:23:00.000-03:00

This must be seen to be believed. The first male preganancy! I'm still reeling from the shock. And thinking about the ethical issues connected with it.

2003-05-11T02:17:00.000-03:00

I'm frightfully normal.

Disorder | Rating
Paranoid: Low
Schizoid: Low
Schizotypal: Low
Antisocial: Low
Borderline: Low
Histrionic: Moderate
Narcissistic: Low
Avoidant: Moderate
Dependent: Moderate
Obsessive-Compulsive: Low

link

2003-05-06T16:21:00.000-03:00

I spent this weekend:

- going to a hillbilly party, woefully underdressed. Ate roadkill stew. Danced to O Brother where art thou music. Went to the Marquee, but left after 5 minutes because the music was terrible.
- many choir practices.
- friends came down from Sackville. Yay! sat around in my apartment, drank, and played euchre (towels vs. girls).
- choir concert on sunday. Sang in a quartet (the water is wide). Did not screw up. thank heavens.
- went out after the choir concert, to the shoe shoppe.

Did I study? No, not really.

2003-04-28T17:01:00.000-03:00

It's a beautiful day (16 degrees celcius and sunny!), and I had a fantastic weekend, hanging out, dancing at pacifico's, going for a walk around long lake, going to lawrencetown beach at midnight, and finishing my elective paper in much less time than I thought it would require.

2003-04-24T09:35:00.000-03:00

I'm done my presentation! Hurrah! More people showed up than I thought. People actually liked my appraisal of the CTFPHC recommendations. No one actually asked any questions, only commented about the subject. Anyway, it went about as well as I could hope. But now I'm sleepy and I have to start studying for Pharm again.

2003-04-22T17:01:00.000-03:00

This is weird beyond words. parallel universe mumbojumbo.

By the way, I think I'm going to go crazy. I'm not stressed out, I just have no idea how I'm going to get everything done. I have a presentation Thursday morning (I'm done the slides, but I haven't started practicing it yet, and I know I'm going to have to make a lot of changes) in front of a bunch of doctors, nurses, and residents (i.e. people who know more about the subject - screening for group b strep infection to prevent early onset disease in neonates - than I do), and my pharmacology exam on Friday, which I am really, really not ready for. If I didn't have this presentation, there would be no worries. I can't believe it's all happening so soon.

2003-04-05T21:34:00.000-04:00

Look, Moby and I have the same camera.

2003-04-02T19:43:00.000-04:00

I'm taking down the news poll. Final results:

They call me Mr. Poll

How do you get your news, anyway?

Responses:
Major TV network (Canada) 8 (17%)
Major TV network (US) 3 (6%)
Globe and Mail 3 (6%)
National Post 1 (2%)
Grapevine 2 (4%)
CBC radio 2 (4%)
Internet 14 (29%)
Alternative media 4 (8%)
News? What news? 4 (8%)
Other (leave a comment) 6 (12%)

47 Total votes

Last 5 Comments:
1. It is beamed directly into my head by microwave signals from outer space.
2. wtf? that's not telepathy! :P
3. I am psychic. I gather my news through my telepathic powers of insight and observation. Ommmmmmmmmmm. Hahaha. -J
4. HOWARD STERN
5. A combination of CBC, Globe and Mail, and National Post (all on the web), and www.drudgereport.com.

2003-04-01T18:14:00.000-04:00

It's been raining a lot here.

2003-04-01T16:40:00.000-04:00

I'm reading a paper about long term prognosis after a first stroke, and it includes the best sentence I've ever read:

"Both death and stroke recurrence represent poor outcomes and patients who have died are not at risk of another stroke."

2003-03-27T15:50:00.000-04:00

From MD Consult:

March 25, 2003

By Megan Rauscher

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - During a telebriefing Monday, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Julie Gerberding, reported that the agency now has "very strong evidence supporting coronavirus in the etiology of severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS."..."We know from sequencing pieces of the virus DNA that it is not identical to the coronaviruses that we have seen in the past. This may very well be a new or emerging coronavirus infection, but it is very premature to assign a cause"...The pattern of transmission remains consistent, she added, noting that 32 of the 39 individuals in the US have recently traveled to parts of the world where cases have been reported. The other seven are healthcare personnel or close family members who had direct contact with a suspected SARS case. "We are not seeing spread in the community at this time," Dr. Gerberding said.

2003-03-25T17:49:00.000-04:00

New unit: pharmacology. And some links for myself.

Internet Drug index
Rx Med (not as helpful as the above)

2003-03-24T22:15:00.000-04:00

I had a good post exam weekend :)

Friday afternoon - cleaned my apartment from top to bottom. Went to dinner at the Granite Brewery with some friends, and had that smoked salmon club sandwich with loads and loads of smoked salmon, it was so exciting. Dio Mio's for gelato, then to the lounge for the usual post-exam lounge party. ET decided he would skip the lounge party and meet up with us at Pacifico's, which was fine with me. I was sitting in the hallway of the link talking to him on the phone, when some of his friends walked by. They asked if he was coming. When they heard he wasn't, they immediately started harrassing him, telling him he wasn't a good boyfriend, that if he didn't come, he would have to buy me 'a very expensive present tomorrow, like, $200.' It was hilarious. It worked, because he was there an hour later. Around 12, we decided to head off to Pacifico's, but I had to stop at my apartment first to drop off some stuff, and recharge the batteries on my camera. We didn't get to Pacifico's until 1 in the morning, by which time some people were already leaving, which was silly. Still, had one decent hour there (though the music was terrible), then called it a night.

Saturday - slept until 1, stopped by the grocery store, lounged around all afternoon (I honestly can't remember what I did), went to a friend's for a movie (watched Amelie for the second time, I had forgotten how much I love that movie), then skipped out early on movie night (apparently, they were there from 2 in the afternoon until 4:30 in the morning, which is crazy) to meet up with CS and some of her friends from camp. We went to Pitchman's pub, which was a bad idea. It's the new JJ's. Underaged people everywhere, I felt so old. Super crowded.

I can't seem to go out on a Saturday night without having some sort of stupid boy story, so here's the new one for this week. This guy (it's always a nondescript blond guy with a beige sweater on, I dunno why, maybe that's the stupidboy uniform) comes up to us, and started dancing with us. It annoys me when guys just come up by themselves and start dancing without saying anything or making eye contact, I find it kind of sketchy, so I say, hey what's up. He mumbles something, then immediately asks whether I know how to speak Japanese. arrrrgghgh. I'm always tempted to give a spiel about why it's offensive to just go up to random asian girls and say that, but I don't want him to fool a girl into thinking he's not a complete asshole asiaphile. I like my asiaphiles really obvious, it's easier to avoid them that way, and it saves trouble. So then I ask him whether he can speak Swedish, but he doesn't hear and asks me to repeat myself, but I don't want to bother, so I just tell him to fuck off (making this the 2nd time I have been forced to do this). While saying this, I give him a little push on the shoulder. He tells me 'don't touch me, you bitch.' Wow, nice guy. But who am I to talk, I just told him to fuck off, right? Whatever. So I turn around and attempt to ignore him, but I'm sort of angry, and I can't enjoy myself, plus, it's super creepy that he's still there. I turn around and ask why he's still there, and he just shrugs. What the fuck. It isn't until CS gives him this LOOK that he decides to leave.

We leave early, and I watch part of 8 Mile (which is pretty decent) with a certain someone, have a bit of a sing-a-long, then it's off to bed.

Sunday - slept in again. Had friends over for pie, tea, and mango pancakes. Attempted to play Clue with only two people (it doesn't work). It had just started snowing late that morning, and it was beautiful outside. Went for a two hour walk down to Point Pleasant Park, saw some puppies, saw some overly anatomically correct snowmen, SA tried to overcome her fear of falling face forward by... falling face forward in the snow. Had ET over that evening, didn't watch the Oscars, instead, played a very crazy game of spit (involving a lot of slamming of hands down onto the table), then played yahoo grafitti (he drew the funniest shoe ever).

If I had lots of time on my hands, I would make some of my own clothes.

Man, look at this shirt (a tube top with a little obi under the bust).

That's all, now it's time to read about the elbow.

2003-03-22T20:03:00.000-04:00

Recent phone conversation:

D: So I'm supposed to go to this party tonight, but I dunno, I don't really want to go.
me: Oh? Why not?
D: Well, it's going to be an Asian party, and I dunno, with that SARS thing going on...
me: That's so lame! Maybe you should stop hanging out with yourself.
D: Dude, I don't want to catch it.
me: That's pretty much the same thing as saying, I'm going to stop hanging out with my middle-Eastern friends because they might be terrorists.
D: No, it's completely different. Um... terrorism isn't contagious.
....

2003-03-19T17:35:00.000-04:00

Just saw the most amazing exhibit at the St. Mary's art gallery (of all places. I didn't even know they had an art gallery).

2003-03-12T17:28:00.000-04:00

With my exam 9 days away, it's back to the 'ol grind. Please send me cookies and/or pie.

2003-03-09T11:21:00.000-04:00

Read this:
Same Difference

I love it. It's thoughtful and witty.

2003-02-24T19:17:00.000-04:00

Weird. It's this site in magnetic poetry form.

2003-02-23T16:08:00.000-04:00

Left Vancouver at 11 pm Friday night, around 6 hours in the air, and back in Halifax at 11 am Saturday. Exhausted, slept all day yesterday.

Man, what a good trip. Had such a good time. I'm totally spoiled for skiing now, it is unbelieveable how beautiful Whistler/Blackcomb is.

Whistler peak
kris skiing

And so good to see my friends!!

link
link

Loads more photos, if you want to see them, give me your email address and I'll send you an invite.

February Break recap:
- left halifax on a ridiculously early flight, around 6 in the morning. The plan was to stay up all night and pack, but I fell asleep, and woke up at 4:30 am, still unpacked. Needless to say, I forgot the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies sitting in my kitchen (would have been a great present for my friends), among many other things. Flew to Vancouver with one stopover in Toronto. I think I arrived in Van around noon-ish. This was my first time flying Air Tango, and I didn't know they didn't serve food on the flights. You could only buy things like cookies and crackers, which resulted in my eating nothing but crackers and oatmeal until around 7 pm PST. Ridiculous. The moral of the story is, if you're flying Tango, bring along lots of food, and a set of headphones (also not included in the airfare) if you want to watch the movie. Whistler was a 2 1/2 hour bus ride (very scenic, the mountains and trees take my breath away) from Vancouver. Fantastic to see my friends waiting for me at the bus stop. Went to supper at a Mongolian grill place (mmm... should have one in Halifax). Went out that night to... err... honestly can't remember the name of the place. Some dance club. I was pretty tired and jetlagged to boot.

- Sunday: I honestly can't remember what we did on Sunday, except I think Kris and I went grocery shopping, and made pizza for supper. I think E broke her collarbone while skiing. It was terrible, the poor girl flew across the country to ski, only to break her collarbone on the second day. Stayed at Kris' tonight. So many people are out of commission because of skiing/snowboarding accidents: one of Carolyn's roommates has broken his tibia, another, one of his vertebrae.

- Monday. I went to the town library this morning, sat down, and was studious for 3 hours (learned all about staph, among other things). Met Kris for lunch, then suited up to go skiing. We were trying to scam our way up the mountain (one of her coworkers had found a pass that must have fallen off someone's coat), but the pass had already been declared lost, so that didn't work. Instead, we took a bus up to staff housing, where one can ride a short way up a platter lift (like a T bar) without a lift ticket. Skiied on this small section for an hour, which was good because I haven't skiied for 5 years or so, and was gawdawful back then. Kris gave me loads of tips, and I was feeling more confident by the end. I can't remember what we did this night.

- Tuesday: was a fantastic day. woke up around 7, at the top of Whistler by 9 or so. This time, I legitimately paid for a lift ticket. Kris didn't have to work until 1:30, so I skiied with her all morning. The photo above is, I'm pretty sure, taken from near the top of Whistler. Further up, nearer the peak, it was so foggy you couldn't see your skis underneath you, very trippy and dreamlike. Like skiing on a cloud. I was too chicken to ski most of the bowl, though I think we did do some of the lower parts. Back down, met T for lunch, and skiied with him, N, and A all afternoon on Blackcomb. By then, we were doing all blue runs, which, if you've seen me skiing before, is amazing. T told a hilarious story about penguins on the gondola up. The weather was perfect: sunny, and fairly warm. They made me go down some moguls, which was annoying at best. I still have no idea how to do them properly, not even theoretically let alone in practice. That night, loads of us went out dancing at Maxx Fish (cheesy music, but who you're with matters more), soo so much fun. Sadly, I have no photos of this night, so people had better be sending me doubles :)

- Wednesday, I slept in until 2 or something ridiculous like that. Watched TV with E for a bit (someone-or-other Shrinks? cartoons). Everyone came back from skiing around 4, then we went grocery shopping and movie-renting. T's for supper, he made two kinds of pasta and caesar salad (mmm), then we watched Blue Crush, which suffered from over-editing. I just wanted to watch the surfing, but it was impossible with all the weird effects and fast cuts. Ok, ok, the shirtless guys were alright too. I took super flattering photos of everyone, and made everyone eat animal crackers out of a happy meal tonka truck. Went to a local community pool for a quick dip and some hot tubbing, verra nice.

- Thursday, up at 8, skiied down to the base of Blackcomb with Y and met Kris by 9. Skiied Blackcomb all morning. I think we also met up with T that morning. It was snowing, and quite windy, but there was loads of fresh powder, which is tiring to ski in, but fun. Back down to the base to meet N, A, Carolyn and T (another T). Didn't stop for lunch, except for some chilly at a place maybe halfway up the mountain. Honestly, I have no idea where we were half the time, I was completely disoriented, and relied on others to decide where to go next. Skiing in the afternoon was better because it cleared up and became quite sunny. Went out dancing this evening, to Garfunkles'. People were quite tired, though, so we called it an early night.

- Friday, left on the 10 am bus for Vancouver with Kris. Downtown by 1:30 or so, and we shopped on Robson, Granville, and 4th Ave (only bought one thing, but they're the best jeans ever, from Aritzia, they were having a huge sale on their winter stock). We went into Bebe, and saw this crazy person, and asian chick, maybe 5'4", small frame, and HUGE ROUND implants (I would estimate D cup, but I'm not a very good judge of these things. In any case, they were very melon-y), a tight white tank top, tight low cut jeans, stilletto heels, bleached blond hair, false eyelashes, loads of makeup, and a l'il gangsta boyfriend. It was insane. Everyone was staring at her.

I had a small disaster that afternoon. In any case, it was really stressful. I had put my duffle bag in a locker when we arrived at the bus depot so I wouldn't have to lug it around all day. We were on 4th ave. around 5:55 pm, and I was trying on a skirt. Twenty minutes later, I put my hands in my pockets and realized that the key to the locker with all my stuff in it, was no longer there. It must have fallen out with I was trying on the skirt. I felt so stupid, a pants pocket is a ridiculous place for me to have put it. I ran back up the street in hopes that the salesperson was still cleaning up 20 minutes after closing, while Kris called the store. Got to the store, pounded on the door for a bit, fruitlessly. Peered in the window to see if I could spot the orange key. I was quite upset, and thought that I would have to get someone to pick up the key for me the next day (as I was flying home in a few hours), and mail me my stuff. Walked back down the street, and Kris told me that she had phoned the bus company, who told her that as long as I could provide photo ID, a list of the contents of the bag, and $10 to replace the key, they would open the locked for me. Such a huge relief. Met R, an old friend from undergrad, for dinner at a Thai restaurant, left early to catch my flight home, and arrived in Halifax yesterday around 11 am with no further incident. I took a gravol and slept almost the entire way home, which was nice.

- Saturday. Slept all day. E made me supper, and we finished watching the Sound of Music. I just realized that Maria isn't actually playing the guitar in the movie, her hand positioning is random and not coordinated with the music. Ideals shattered. Still, a lovely day.

2003-02-17T15:06:00.000-04:00

In Whistler now. It's beautiful here :D And very warm. Went skiing yesterday, but now I'm at the library studying while my friends are working =\

2003-02-14T00:14:00.000-04:00

Leaving for Whistler day after tomorrow, hurrah! :D

Hmm... it rains just about every day in Vancouver, doesn't it.

2003-02-13T21:11:00.000-04:00

Why I don't bake very often
I can't bake anything without it being at least a mini-disaster. I'm making cookies, and thought it would be a good idea to soften the butter by putting it in the oven while it was preheating. I then proceed to measure out the sugar and crack open the eggs, forgetting entirely about the butter until I hear it sizzling - it's overflowed all over the heating elements underneath.

... but it's all worth it... mmmm :D

2003-02-08T12:53:00.000-04:00

Wild Mountain Thyme
(The Braes O'Balquiddher)

Oh, the summer time is a-comin'
And the leaves are sweetly bloomin'
And the wild mountain thyme
Grows around the purple heather
Will you go, lassie, go?

My true love, she won't go
I will surely find another
To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the purple heather
Will you go, lassie, go?

And we'll all go together
To pull wild mountain thyme
From around the purple heather
Will you go, lassie, go?

I will build my love a tower
At the foot of a crystal fountain
And on it I will put
All the flowers of the mountain
Will you go, lassie, go?

And we'll all go together
To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the purple heather
Will you go lassie, will you go?

2003-02-05T13:18:00.000-04:00

Links for myself:

Group B strep - from SOGC
policy statement on prevention of group b strep, also from SOGC though it's from 1997, so I need to find a more recent one.

2003-02-04T18:50:00.000-04:00

To top off the weekend of mad eating:

Monday night - potluck at ET's. Started off with crusty bread with balsamic vinegar & olive oil. Had that cracked peppercorn smoked salmon, mmm. There was also some pineapple fried rice. E and his roommate had baked two chickens, each with 30 cloves of garlic. It was sooo good, the chicken was really tender, and the garlic just slipped out of its peel. Spread the garlic on top of the chicken, or on some bread with some butter... mmmm. Then dessert: one girl had made creme brulee with ginger (my first creme brulee experience... I dunno how to make accent aigus). Brown sugar on top, formed into a crust with a blowtorch (that was a sight to behold). Creme brulee is good, good stuff, but I dunno if it's worth the 30+ g of fat per serving. Finally, my berry soup, which we served in martini glasses, poured over previously frozen strawberries (which make a fantastic red swirl in the soup). I forgot the mint leaves, though :( which was sad, but maybe that would have been too exciting. I dunno what to do with all these mint leaves, now.

Eating a lot makes me sleepy, so I wasn't very productive for the rest of the evening, and I almost fell asleep.

2003-02-03T00:40:00.000-04:00

I pretty much haven't studied for the past two weeks. What I have been doing a lot of is eating.

Thursday lunch - sushi special at Sushi Shige, $10 for 2 salmon and 3 tuna nigiri (sp?), 6 spicy tuna rolls, salad and miso soup. :) mmmm. Actually, this was a very reasonable meal, in terms of amount.

Thursday night - potluck at CW's, and some ER watching. Had chicken curry, fried rice, linguini, ice cream, and two different kinds of cake.

Friday night - EM's birthday party. Had (lots of) nachos and salsa, hummus, various chocolates, veggie pizza, birthday cake and ice cream (then went to the med student's for choice fundraiser, and to a med II post Euphoria party (only a bit awkward, being an evil med I) - lots of crazy guitar playing and drunken singing. I learned how to play the harmonica :D sort of).

Saturday night - Chinese New Year's dinner #1, with friends. Ok... I'll try to remember everything I ate. I don't really know what anything is, to tell you the truth. To start, fried shrimp wontons, and some sort of root soup (??). Bok choy (er... shanghai bai tsai) with lots of garlic, haddock with some sort of sweet red sauce, gingered beef, fried dumplings, shrimp fried rice, peppered beef and onions... that's all I can remember. Afterwards, went to a friend's house and had some banana bread and mocha chocolate ice cream (then played Cranium). Then I went to a "party with lots of hot guys, some of whom might be straight" briefly, then to the Attic for some (not nearly enough) Jimmy Swift band action, and told a guy to fuck off.

Sunday night - New Year's dinner #2, this time with family, family friends, and some students from Taiwan. Same restaurant. Same fried shrimp wontons, a peppery thick soup with weird spongey things in it, beef in this sweet red sauce, haddock, bok choy, tofu, these pancake things with the brown sauce and the eggy thing that you roll up, duck, Shanghai noodles. I'm sure there was more but I can't think of it at the moment.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to another potluck dinner. They're baking a chicken, with 30 cloves of garlic. Mmm, I can't wait. I'm
making a chilled berry soup, and bringing some smoked salmon with cracked peppercorns.

2003-01-26T12:49:00.000-04:00

This past week has been crazy, I've spent pretty much all of my free time in practices for Euphoria. Last night was the show, we'd been doing run throughs all day since 10 in the morning, with short breaks for lunch and supper. The plot for our skit was pretty simple: Dr. Evil has an evil plan to turn dal into an evil medical school (cue evil music) by increasing tuition to $12,500, which Austin Powers has to thwart. The usual host of characters: Austin's sidekick Penny Tration, Fat Bastard, Frau, assassin Goldhooters, admissions interviewer Dr. Sexual Innuendo, and various parodied professors and administrative staff. Some song and dance numbers, random non sequiters, a Swedish guy in a wetsuit, a pirate, the devil, and an army of cone-boobed Fembots. Oh yeah, and power cheerleading :D I used to make fun of cheerleaders. But it is so, so much fun, being thrown up in the air.

Oh yeah. And the med 1's won :D

2003-01-21T19:29:00.000-04:00

Hours of rehersing for Euphoria every day this week, so I've been running around like mad. Fun, though. Also, I just made a spinach & mushroom quiche (dinner for the next few nights), waiting to take it out of the oven.

2003-01-18T15:09:00.000-04:00

Exam is over! *dance dance dance* Yesterday, my mom took me to the grocery store, and bought lots and lots of groceries, so I have food again :D and I'm making quiche tonight, I think. Then I got back to my place, took a two hour nap, woke up, lay in bed with the snow falling outside, and read all afternoon (new book: Brave New World). Best afternoon ever. Met up with some friends for dinner (had this smoked salmon club sandwich... mmm), a friends house for a little bit, the Tickle Trunk (a dive, but I got a drink for free. I ordered a Corona, and only had a $20 bill. The bartender told me she didn't have any change for it and walked away. Fine with me), then Pacificos for some very squishy dancing. But good music, and everyone was there.

And... remember how I was saying before that I should meet more non-med guys? oops. :D

Now I have to clean my apartment, it's a huge mess.

2003-01-16T14:57:00.000-04:00

I'm so sick of studying. I'm so bored!!!!!!!! I'm so restless! I feel like going running outside or something. I feel like going dancing. arrrrggghhh. Just one more day. One more day, Joanne. Leave me a note and entertain me.

2003-01-13T19:45:00.000-04:00

Go here. Scroll down. Click on pillow dance.
I'm far too easily amused.

2003-01-12T03:13:00.000-04:00

Reading list:

- (just finished) The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., Sandra Gulland. Historical fiction about the life of Josephine Bonaparte. It's a whirlwind of high society parties, loads of good food, beautiful dresses, gossip. Good escapist reading. I think all of my knowledge of the French Revolution comes from Les Mis (the musical mostly, though I made it about halfway through the book before I got too bored... with all the French revolution stuff) and this book. Might be a little skewed.
- (now reading) The technology of orgasm: 'hysteria,' the vibrator, and women's sexual satisfaction, Rachel Maines. Crazy interesting stuff here. More later when I'm done.

2003-01-12T02:55:00.000-04:00

There really is nothing particularly interesting happening in my life right now that I want to publish here (all I've been doing is studying... unless you would like to hear about regulation of vascular smooth muscle constriction/dilation... which I spent 5 hours on today), so you're stuck with another Friday night story. C and I went to the Dome last night, as a study break for me. Again. I dunno why we keep going there. We always end up dancing a lot and making fun of people there and generally being big snobs. It really is terrible how catty we are, judging people by their appearances as we do, but musing about how some people can dress and dance the way they do without realizing how silly they are, is a form of entertainment for us. There's a difference between being silly, and knowing you're silly, and doing terribly silly things and thinking you're hot shit. For example:
- guy in a fleece vest dancing via the time-tested and true method of waving his arms and head up and down, index and pinky extended. Go to a group of girls and perform dance. When rebuffed, move on. Repeat all night.
- guy wearing a baby blue crushed velvet shirt (a little bit tight, too). This guy chatted me up and gave me his phone number. He was a nice guy I guess, but my goodness, a crushed velvet shirt?????
- two guys in matching, and HUGE ugly blue Hawaiian shirts

I totally feel that I am a worse person from having spent another evening there.

Update: agenda found. Life back in order, supposedly. Also, the hot water has been back since this afternoon.

2003-01-09T21:49:00.000-04:00

I just need to complain. There's no hot water in my building, and what we do have is brown - they're doing something with the water pipes. They say everything should be back to normal by Saturday... I guess I'm walking over to my friend's apartment to shower =\

2003-01-06T00:31:00.000-04:00

2003-01-05T16:53:00.000-04:00

1. It's 12 days until my metabolism & function exam. I think I'm going to puke.
2. I've lost my agenda. I can't even organize my life when I do have that thing.

2003-01-01T17:23:00.000-04:00

Today's dictionary.com word of the day describes me perfectly:
slugabed.

2003-01-01T01:46:00.000-04:00

For the first time in years, I stayed home for New Years... and played Scrabble with my family... and kicked some arse :)
Happy New Year!

2002-12-22T23:20:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I have to study over Christmas break. bleh.

Oh well. Because... my mom made apple pie!!!!!!!!! She makes the best apple pie in the universe!!!!!!!!!!!! And I'm eating it now!!!!!!!!!

2002-12-17T19:24:00.000-04:00

Photos from top secret euphoria stuff and rock climbing last Saturday are up. Once again, if you want to see them, leave your email address :)

2002-12-14T23:41:00.000-04:00

I've been having loads of fun this weekend so far...

Friday night was Skirt Night, so all the med 1 girls got together, wore skirts (some reluctantly), drank, and told embarrassing stories. But that's all I can say because the first rule of Skirt night is, you don't talk about skirt night.
Then we went to the Olive, and the Jimmy Swift Band was playing (wo0t!), they're awesome. Had a good time, sat around and chatted with lots of people, danced. Oh yeah. So I was dancing last night with another girl, E, having a great time, getting really into the music, when BAM this guy dancing in front of us crashes into me. I was sort of annoyed, and said 'watch where you're going, you're dancing like a crazy person,' and he just looks at me and holds his hand out. Thinking he wants to shake hands, I extend my hand, but he pulls his hand away at the last second. A stupid game with a stupid drunk/high person. He extended his hand again, I reluctantly put my hand in his, and he pulled me over and kissed me on the cheek next to my mouth. I was so mad. I wanted to slap him. But I've never slapped a boy before, so I couldn't do it. He wouldn't leave me alone (despite me repeatedly yelling at him to leave me alone), so I had to leave the dance floor. bleh. And then I went to the bathroom and washed off my face.

Which was fine, because I went over and talked to friends some more... 20 minutes later, he had left, and we went back onto the dance floor. And danced a lot. Then we went to the apple barrel (24 hour restaurant a block away), and ate loads of disgusting greasy food. Home at 4.

Up the next morning to do top secret Euphoria stuff (every year, each of the med classes puts on a 30 min. skit/variety show thing, it's a big competition). Fun fun fun.

It was pouring rain today. All day. Absolutely ridiculous. I walked to the library to do some studying for 2 hours or so, and got completely soaked.

Then I went indoor rock climbing in Burnside, got to try out my new shoes :) my new shoes rock.

So... between top secret euphoria stuff and rock climbing... I am going to be very, very sore tomorrow.

... it's stopped raining.

2002-12-10T01:24:00.000-04:00

Christmas ball photos are up :) if you want to see them, leave a note with your email address.

2002-12-08T14:46:00.000-04:00

I'm sure you've always wanted to know...

Which RENT character are you

2002-12-07T16:17:00.000-04:00

One of those stupidhead questionnaires:

Nicknames: joey, jo, poo
Pet(s) and Names: PEABE!!!! (cat)
Jobs: babysitter, piano teacher, usher, chemistry research, lab instructor, camp counsellor
Hobbies: skating, ultimate, reading, canoeing, sleeping
Collect: ? loonies for the washer?
Best Advice Ever Given: SUCK IT UP. Oh no wait, that's James.
Words or Phrases you use too Much: "like"
A Non-Sport Game in Which you Excel: scrabble
A Non-Sport Game Which You Enjoy: euchre
Dream Car: i want a hybrid car
Coolest Experience: seeing a birth
Scariest Thing You've Ever Done: driving in this crazy snowstorm
Fave Thing to do in the Summer: travel, go to the beach, canoe a lot
Fave Thing to do in the Fall: kick around leaves
Fave Thing to do in the Winter: cuddle in bed with lots of warm blankets
Little Known Talent I Possess: you know the card game spit? I will kick your ass.
Special Skills or Talents: pianoing, oboeing, crocheting. I can give you your flu shot.
Character Traits I Look for in a Person: intelligence, sense of humour, honesty, talent, kissability
Future Goals: thinking about: internal medicine, family med, obs/gyn
Denomination: presbyterian
Place of Worship: umm, don't tend to wake up early enough on sundays.
Fave Music: anything and everything. Except for atonal stuff. As long as it's well done, and the people are talented and passionate about what they do.
Groups/Singers you Enjoy: ani, joni mitchell, tori, ella
Fav Color: blue
Fave Food: too many to name
Least Fave Food: I had stinky tofu once. It was gross.
Fav Vacation: trip to Ontario this summer to visit various friends
Fav Subject: my clinical elective where I work with a doctor in the perinatal clinic and see pregnant moms and feel the babies in their tummies and stuff :D
Fav Sports: see hobbies.
Fav Actor: I'm going to have to go with Ewan MacGregor, because he's such a cutie and he can sing
Fav Actress: jodie foster
Fav cartoon: powerpuff girls!!!
Fav Movie: memento, moulin rouge
Fav Music Video: I don't watch TV
Fave Animal: ummmm
Fav #2: another one?
Fave T.V.: see answer to fav music video
Fav Day: Friday
Fav Month: August
Fav Holiday: Christmas
Fav Part of the Newspaper: Social Studies in the Globe and Mail
Fav Things to Wear: wool sweater, my black wool coat, my huge purple scarf, pants with huge flares that cover my shoes, mittens.

Since you made it to the end of this post, I'll tell you about the formal last night. It was loads of fun :) I managed to go the entire night without inadvertantly flashing anyone, go me. Also, a guy asked me to dinner tonight, he's supposed to be calling in an hour or so to confirm location/time, but for varied and messy reasons, I'm going to have to turn him down. Which is too bad, because he was pretty darn cute. But really, much better in the long run. Never really realised until last night how much of a gossip mill med school is. I need to meet more non-med guys.

2002-12-06T17:47:00.000-04:00

Fuckign stupid idea to buy a strapless dress. why????? arg. I cant' move without falling out everywhere

2002-12-06T17:11:00.000-04:00

Med School Banquet and Ball tonight!! :) Should start getting ready. hmm... maybe I should shave.

2002-12-06T16:53:00.000-04:00

So. I go into the perinatal clinic at the hospital nearby once every second week, with a doctor who does a lot of deliveries. We see a lot of pregnant moms, talk to them, do physical exams, etc. etc. and, like the residents, I have a few patients I've seen once or twice, and when they arrive at the hospital because they're in labour, the hospital will call me up so I can be there. Anyway, so labour and delivery called me at 1:30 or so last night, telling me that a certain patient, let's call her Mrs. Jones, is in, and she's 6 cm dilated. 40 minutes later, I'm at the hospital with my preceptor, Mrs. Jones has her baby (ok, so maybe babies aren't cute when they first come out because they're all purple and covered with goo and vernex (sp?) and stuff, but my goodness, when they had him cleaned off, he was awfully cute). I helped, a little bit. Well, not really. But the doctor let me do a lot of stuff. I helped get the placenta out. I helped clean the mother up afterward. This is only the second delivery I've seen, and afterwards, my preceptor was telling me: you have this habit of saying 'oh my god!,' which is bad because it might worry the patient. Oops. I totally said that a lot, I think. That's because everything is so exciting and cool. Giving birth is still this amazing, superhuman act to me. I'm going to sit down and write about it sometime.

In any case, I stumbled into bed at 4 in the morning, forgot to set my alarm clock, and woke up on my own at 10:30. And was over an hour late for my tutorial. arrrgh.

2002-11-28T12:55:00.000-04:00

Peabe rocks :)

2002-11-27T23:07:00.000-04:00

The snow is beautiful.

2002-11-24T16:03:00.000-04:00

It's so windy outside that the leaves are blowing in little mini tornado funnels. One particularly large gust sent leaves flying up the side of the twelve story building across the street from me. But I'm warm and comfy in my little apartment :)

2002-11-20T22:46:00.000-04:00

Huh. I was looking through my sitemeter stats, and found my blog linked from this site, it's a list of personal websites run by dal students. I still don't think of myself as a dal student. My loyalty remains with mount a :)

I also found this gallery of Halifax (well, the waterfront bits) photos.

2002-11-20T22:33:00.000-04:00

I just bought a pair of climbing shoes yesterday *dance dance dance*

Can't wait to use them next week.

2002-11-18T22:23:00.000-04:00

An audio clip from CBC radio 2: a fellow med student here at Dal (who, incidentally, also went to Mt A for her undergrad, wo0t) wrote a piece about med school and being a doctor; she talks about anatomy lab, what it's like to see a dead body for the first time. Really interesting stuff, and really well done, go listen!

2002-11-18T00:28:00.000-04:00

This is too funny. http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/index.html

2002-11-17T23:59:00.000-04:00

Tickets are booked. I'm going to Whistler, yay!

... Air Tango has the most annoying when-you're-on-hold music ever. It's this 30 second clip of cheesy tango music. arrrgh. Whose bright idea was that?

2002-11-17T23:38:00.000-04:00

AHHHHHHHH I almost forgot I have to book that flight.

2002-11-17T23:29:00.000-04:00

Weekend update:

(why can I never get any work done on weekends? I should just accept it)

- Friday night - slept. for 12 hours.
- Saturday - woke up around 1, very groggy. Stumbled around and... I don't remember what I did. Leave apartment at 4 to meet ppl at Tupper, the choir went to Lunnenburg (small picturesque town an hour away) to do a benefit concert. Left at 5, got there after 6, had a bit of a rehearsal. We were up in the choir pews, very squishy. Ok, this is really boring. So anyway, we did the concert, etc. etc. Some of the songs I had never sung before (I tend to miss rehearsals often). So that was... interesting. Sightreading the alto part, yikes. Short reception afterwards, ate a lot because I missed supper :\, left, and didn't get back to Halifax until 11:30 or so. Christy guilt-tripped me into going out. Even though I was exhausted. So we went to the dome. Why does Christy always want to go to the dome. One day, I'm going to sit down and write something about the people you'll typically find there. One good or bad thing about the dome is, I bump into a lot of people I know. Including a friend from Mt A who, as it turns out, is a fantastic dancer. Also, he kept picking up glasses that had been tossed on the floor (why do people just put their drinks down on the floor??), throwing them around, and deftly placing them out of the way. Home at 3:30 or so.
- Sunday - woke up at 1, very groggy. Stumbled around and... read some of my book. Oh! I'm reading this fantastic book - World of Wonders, Robertson Davies (third book in his deptford trilogy). Highly recommended, especially if you're into psychology. Messed around with the computer soon, trying to get the internet to work. Then the power in my building went out for 2 hours or so, which was a bit annoying. Took a shower in candlelight, that was nice :) Made a berry soup for the potluck I went to tonight. All med students there, so we talked about med school stuff most of the time... which is the problem with hanging out with med students. And now I'm totally scared about surgical rotation in 3rd year - 6:00 am mornings, on call one night out of 4.

So now it's 11 and I'm going to get one hour of studying in this weekend. How bad is this? argh. I feel like I just spend my weekends recovering from the week... I've been so tired and rundown lately. I've been running through the possibilities. Anemia? Hypothyroidism?

2002-11-14T11:22:00.000-04:00

Is it a bad sign when coffee is making my hands shake? ugh.

Wow... I'm not too coordinated. I feel kinda gross. Gotta lay off the caffeine.

2002-11-14T09:03:00.000-04:00

I dragged my sleepy ass out of bed this morning to make my 8:30 class, walked in the rain (uphill both ways, did I mention), bought a coffee, only to find out that class is cancelled.

How much has it been raining?
- basements flooding
- some roads in Hants county under a foot of water
- don't remember the last time it wasn't raining. Maybe Sunday or Saturday?

2002-11-09T16:04:00.000-04:00

I was outraged and ashamed after hearing about some of Ms. Joey's latest newsgroup postings. For practical reasons, I have to confine my discussion to areas that have received insufficient public attention or in which I have something new to say. There are two related questions in this matter. The first is to what extent she has tried to infantilize and corrupt the general public. The other is whether or not Joey's intent is to prevent us from asking questions. She doesn't want the details checked. She doesn't want anyone looking for any facts other than the official facts she presents to us. I wonder if this is because most of her "facts" are false. Try as I may, I can't understand why Joey would want to feed information from sources inside the government to organizations with particularly ghastly agendas. If she can overawe and befuddle a sufficient number of prominent individuals, then it will become virtually impossible for anyone to take a proactive, rather than a reactive, stance.

Lest I seem like a hypocrite, I should tell you that if she feels ridiculed by all the attention my letters are bringing her, then that's just too darn bad. Joey's arrogance has brought this upon herself. Despite what you may have been taught in school, Joey can't fool me. I've met morally repugnant, unbridled hoodlums before, so I know that Joey's forces argue that she can walk on water. These are the same effrontive, insane apostates who glamorize drug usage. This is no coincidence; Joey is extraordinarily brazen. We've all known that for a long time. However, her willingness to make people suspicious of those who speak the truth sets a new world record for brazenness. I am certain that if I asked the next person I meet if he would want Joey to cultivate an unhealthy sense of victimhood, he would say no. Yet we all stand idly by while Joey claims that brown-nosing heavy-metal fans have dramatically lower incidences of cancer, heart attacks, heart disease, and many other illnesses than the rest of us. I close this letter along the same lines it opened on: In a country like ours where Pyrrhonism, elitism, and animalism run rampant, we need laws to help enforce behavior that ought done out of common sense, decency, and tolerance.

hehehe

2002-11-07T15:21:00.000-04:00

I haven't been on IM in a few days because it messes with my computer. In case you were wondering :(

There was a bit of a storm last night. Less than 10 cm of snow, though which hardly qualifies. But, since it's still fairly warm, the snow was really heavy and wet, and it knocked down a bunch of power lines. Apparently, something like 60,000 people in the city (including me) had their electricity cut off last night as a result (which is why my alarm didn't go off and I was late for class... honestly). Lucky for me, the power was restored by the time I got up. I did go to class. Mucked my way there through the slush and grossness. I really hope they get better about clearing the slush, because it was super wet and gross and my socks got wet. The power was off in the med school building, so we had our class in the lounge (has lots of big windows), with people sitting on couches, tables, and chairs pulled in from tutorial rooms. We. are. such. big. geeks. Then I came back here and spent the remainder of the morning on the internet, taking a long hot shower, and eating lunch.

All of my classes are cancelled today :D because of the power outage. Can't believe so many people showed up to the lecture this morning in the lounge. Med students are big geeks, yo.

This class cancelling thing is crazy. Not that I'm complaining. My four years at Mount A (in New Brunswick, they get a lot more snow there), I think classes were only cancelled twice because of snowstorms. There have been occasions where I've, honestly, had to wade through the snow to get to the meal hall.

2002-11-05T17:06:00.000-04:00

More links & silliness.

Structural basis of transcription: alpha - amanitin-RNA polymerase II cocrystal (although in yeast)

Um, unrelated, but here is a mass spec haiku:

peptide fragments
many ions, much confusion
trees in a forest

-Ioannis Papayannopoulos

Heh.

For more mass spec haikus (I know you want em): go here.

Um, continuing...

Ok. It's the perfect link. Hurrah! Amatoxins

Structure of RNA Polymerase II.