Hippity hop to the shopping...shop

Well, we're off tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn. Flight leaves at 9.45 am, so we have to be there at 6.45 am, ye gods. I looked up the plane we're flying on, and apparently all seats (including "Hospitality class" i.e. the class formerly known as "Economy" but more aptly described as "Humanity in a tin can") will have individual screens for movies and such. Excellent.

Yesterday was SoleDrive's CD release party for The Orange EP. Tons of fruit sliced up and two army-sized platters full of pineapple and sausages shipped over to the Japanese Cultural Centre. I got pineapple juice dripped on me though (boo). A good turnout; I got my CD signed by everyone, including my brother (ha ha).

Today was last minute packing, followed by dinner at, ironically, the all-you-can-eat "Japanese" food restaurant. It's run by Chinese people, hence the quotation marks. But then again, all the Japanese restaurants I've been to aren't owned by Japanese people (except one). And I say "ironically" because in about a week and a half, we'll be eating nothing but Japanese food until we go home. Are we all on the same page now? Good. Jiggy schnitzel, onwards! ("Buh." "That isn't even a word!" "Jinga." "Good night, Homer.")

It's currently a balmy 19 degrees Celsius in Hong Kong and -15 Celsius in Toronto. To top it off, southern Ontario just got blasted with a good old fashioned winter storm. Snow, freezing rain, the works (the car turned into an ice cube). I'm not looking forward to the flight (15 hours, at least it's direct) but I can't wait to touch down. Here's our itinerary: Dec. 25th to Jan. 3rd (Hong Kong) - Consumerism (and a wedding), Jan. 3rd to Dec. 9th (Tokyo) - Culture (and yet more Consumerism).

All in temperatures above 0 Celsius. Mmmm....

2004 Year in review

1. What did you do in 2004 that you'd never done before?
Went to the Brew Pub, a homecoming kegger and took the RTS. Very university-cliche.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Ha, I didn't make any. I never remember them when I do make resolutions, so I prolly won't.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Jen's mummy.

5. What countries did you visit?
Canada. Soon to include Hong Kong, China.

6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
A better head-state, plan for future after graduation, the ability to cook.

7. What dates from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
December 10, last exam. I have a bad memory for dates.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Ate entire spaghetti meal without splattering self. Kept number of classes skipped to an astonishingly low count of 6. Able to reconcile conscience with not going to fellowship (this makes me a "bad person").

9. What was your biggest failure?
Skipped 6 classes.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Allergies and such, but nothing major.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
New monitor :)

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
The guinea pig is much less afraid of us now.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Someone who has been treating others very poorly. Also my dad.

14. Where did most of your money go?
*shakes fist at the money-grubbing bastards at Queen's*
*nods towards slumlord Bri-Bri*

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Moving into new apartment, going to HK and Japan this Christmas.

16. What songs will always remind you of 2004?
The Cranberries - "Twenty-one"
Paloalto - "Breathe In"
Girls - "Death in Vegas"
Maroon 5 - "She Will Be Loved"

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner (not enough snacking)
c) richer or poorer? Poorer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Reading. Have not read nearly enough books this year compared to the last.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Watching TV. But the evil box can be so bewitchingly tempting.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Attending cousin's wedding, meeting up with legions of relatives and shopping in HK.

22. Did you fall in love in 2004?
Not really.

23. How many one-night stands?
None.

24. What was your favourite TV program?
Scrubs

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I've lost respect for some people but that's about it.

26. What was the best book you read?
New ones? I don't remember. The Curious Incident of the Dog at Nighttime? Certainly not Knocked Up by Airhead-Canadian-"Journalist". Old ones: Herriot books.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Soundtracks for Garden State, Lost in Translation and Bleach.

28. What did you want and get?
A bathrobe.

29. What did you want and not get?
Interesting courses in school.

30. What were your favorite films of this year?
The Incredibles, Master & Commander (2003?), and others that I can't remember.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
See birthday post. I got rid of a lot of clothes, acquired a lot of new clothes, ate nachos and cake, and was a lazy arse.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If my profs were not all immeasureably exasperating (except for my stats prof, who is the nicest, most grandpa-ish prof ever).

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
Umm. Dark jeans of leggyness, more grown-up shirts (less sweatshirts). Fuzzy everything.

34. What kept you sane?
My housemates and freshly brewed tea. Also the crossword puzzle.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Colin Farrell. I know he's a dirty boy-slut but he's remarkably cute.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The election; first time I voted.

37. Who did you miss?
My highschool buddies.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I stuck with my boring old people this year. They're all great. Well, there's always the confused Danish (Netherland...ian?) student who, upon learning I was in CompSci, informed me that at home, the ratio of males to females was about 10 to one and that it's much more even over here.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004:
People are often (but not always) bastard-coated bastards with bastard fillings. I wonder sometimes if I should take this as the null hypothesis.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

"Taking off in circles
Wondering if it's worth it
You're innocent and ignored
But this main line system
Has a glitch in it
It's ignorance has been shown
When you realize it's paid for
Wondering where the story's gone
It's how do you feel
It's how do you feel suffocated
Breathe in
Breathe in
Breathe in
Look what's all around you"

Paloalto - "Breathe In". Confusing but inspiring.

The House that Food Forgot

...is where I live. When I got home on Thursday (long process, see below), there was half a loaf of bread (which I have since eaten), and a frozen lasagna (ditto) that were available. Now the fridge contains yummy Chinese almond dessert, which I must refrain from eating as it is for the whole family and not just me, and peanut butter. Oh, and eggs. The situation is of +6 direness and full of stomach-rumbling.

So, Thursday. Took the Kingston bus to the bus station, then the coach from Kingston to Scarborough Town Centre, then took the RTS to the Bloor-Danforth line, then the subway to Sheppard, and then walked to my grandmother's apartment. I didn't realize how heavy my bag was until Friday morning, when I woke up with sore shoulder, arm and neck. I thought maybe I had rolled into the wall with extreme force in the middle of a REM cycle or something. Hey, it could happen. Last week I tripped on my doorstop, stubbed my toe and then smacked my forehead into the doorframe.

I'm still feeling iffy about the security of our apartment over the winter break. Wnd informed me last night that the lock to the outer door (that enters into our apartment "building") was wrenched out of the door on Friday night. Dammit. I'm being horribly pessimistic about it; already prepping myself for a potential break-in by telling myself that my computer isn't that important. Pfft.

Katie and my Stinky Brother got me the extended ROTK DVD for my birthday (Whee!), so Stinky Brother is now merely pungent. Oh, and he got his grad pictures developed this week. The general consensus is that he should have shaved more carefully. And also that he looks like a meathead, albeit a smiling one. Ke ke ke.

Six more days until HK!

Twenty-one

So it's been a most satisfactory birthday.

Friday (10th) was my second, and last, exam (STAT 263). CISC 322 was painful; I'm not going to think about that one. Studied my ass off for statistics; however, it turned out the exam was pretty straightforward. This, in spite of the fact that the material covered was the ENTIRE textbook. Arrived home, thoroughly rained on but triumphant, and watched the first four episodes of Scrubs season one. Excellent.

Awoke at 9 AM, paralysed by post-exam period exhaustion and promtply fell asleep again after deciding it wasn't worth it to bodyslam Bento/Wnd/Biku (temporary housemate) to foil their planned birthday ambush (of which I was informed the night before). About an hour later, was cruelly woken up by the previously mentioned wenches, who burst into my room, shouting "Happy Birthday!" and launching themselves at my inert form. Birthday ambush accomplished, argh.

But I have the bestest housemates EVAR. They got me a fuzzy blue bathrobe. It is huge beyond belief. It is fuzzy beyond imagination. It is blue. It is fantastic. I lurv it (thanks guys!).

In return, I had promised to tell the tale of the pie on my blog.

The Life of Pie, by Kobuta

Once upon a time, in the Oven of the Kitchen of the House that Crack Built, a pie was baked. This pie was delicious and filled with cinnamonny apples of the Fuji variety. The Fuji apples were ridiculously enormous and dangerous for human consumption (stomach size issues), hence their transformation into a pie. Upon the top of this tart was carved the face of a cat. This cat was named Crusty Face (or Crusty for short).

Crusty was an ornery cat-pie. Although he was made of dough and full of les pommes and la sucre, he refused to acknowledge his pie-ly qualities and the possibility that he might one day be cut up and devoured by hungry hu-mans.

"I'm a cat, dagnabbit. None of this pastry business!" Crusty would say. "I scoff at hunger! I sneer at apples! I am CAT. Raar." Raar indeed, my flaky friend.

Sadly, Crusty Face the cat-faced apple pie met his end soon afterwards, when a Bento nonchalantly cut him into wedges and distributed his scrumptious slices to her friends. Thus, the heroicly naive cat-pie was reduced to a few crumbs on a rapidly cooling pie pan. But his legacy lives on, in our hearts, our minds and our stomachs. Long live Crusty Face apple-pie-cat.

THE END

Anyway, the day continued with the Clothing Swap '04: Rampant Depantsification. A bunch of girls, a bunch of clothes and a lot of stripping. Basically, everyone brings clothes that they don't want anymore, and everyone else tries them on and carries them away if they like them. I had aimed towards getting (i)a skirt for HK wedding, (ii)pants full of pantsly goodness and (iii)things that are not red or blue, because I have too much of these colours in my closet.

Succeeded on (ii), failed miserably on (i) and (iii). But I ended up with a pair of jeans, two dark blue sweaters, a red zip-up hoody of tinyness, a bunch of tank tops, and RED PANTS. Fantastic. We picked over the leftovers before packing them into bags for Goodwill, so I ended up with a lot more stuff than I had originally wanted. Including a black Le Chateau skirt of shortness and black yoga/capri pants that radiate Peter-Pan-goes-ninja. Fun was had, food was eaten (Mmm...coffeecake and nachos). Much depantsification.

Of course, since I got up at 10, and the swap went from 1 to 6ish, I didn't really eat a proper meal. Except for breakfast, which was yum: scrambled eggs and toast from Bento-neesan, coffee from Biku-neesan and entertainment from Wnd-obachan. I think we all crashed on sugar and appetites were all ruined.

Watched another four episodes of Scrubs while eating grilled cheese sandwiches. Biku, Wnd and I went for bubbletea at TokenBBTLounge of fobness. Talked of cabbages and kings and the density of mooncake.

Came home to a toolbar full of orange MSN messages saying Happy Birthday (aww), watched The Incredibles and now here I am, updating my blog at 2 AM with the longest post ever. Goodnight! Phew!