I know, not the most appealing title out there, but a very evocative one about what has been happening in my life lately. Incidentally, I have noticed that my blog is strewn with apologies and broken promises of more frequent posts... *sigh* Stupid busy body that I am! I am really sorry and I promise that, should I finally manage to stop stressing out over every little thing, I WILL post more often!
Okay, now down to business...
I have been the worst blogger ever of late, due to an accumulation of unpleasant and stressful circumstances... which is why the numerous zit outbreaks. Stress does that to me, sadly.
First off, I had all four of my finals in very close succession, and I also started to work for Air Canada again. I was deliriously happy to work for them again until... I found out most of my shifts started at 3 a.m. I am not a morning person and these horrid morning shifts have caused me to be very sleep deprived. I have been stressed over exams, sleep deprived and stressed over Christmas shopping for the past three weeks, almost relentlessly. My very first days off were yesterday and today. Needless to say, I had reached such a low in energy that I had to be carried to my bedroom and did not find the strength in me to change clothes for two days. But I am all better now (though I still wake up ludicrously early due to habit)...
Wow - that summed things up pretty quickly...
My exams went, if not well, certainly OK. The last exam, especially, made me rather happy, as it was a multiple choice exam that reminded me of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." What I mean by that is, in the show, all questions worth less than 500$ have one riddiculous option out of four. It was the same with this exam. The question would have an excerpt of a novel we had read and ask "what is the significance of this passage?" Three options were serious, though they did not necessarily all fit the bill (and one could easily eliminate the right answer) and one answer was often out of the blue, for example "d) That Anthony Hopkins should play the main character if this was adapted into a movie" - probably a fair answer, but certainly not objective enough to be the answer to a multiple choice (and certainly not the explanation of a particular passage! ^_^ ) In all honesty, that exam was the one that scared me the most, because I did not really know what to expect. I have never had a literature exam be entirely multiple choice (I am so used to essay questions through which I can bullsh*t my way...) so I was pertrified of what kind of difficult questions the professor might ask... It turns out that all one needed to have done was read the texts and attended class, really. I think the fact that the prof is pregnant, and probably not in the mood to write and correct exams forever over Christmas break caused her to write such a nice exam (a good way to finish off my finals, really!).
As for work with Air Canada, it is still a challenge, and still fun. However, I forgot that Winter brings along issues that the airport does not have to deal with in summer... Flight cancellations!!! Well, flights do get cancelled in the summer too, but there was a snowstorm on the east coast of the USA that caused both New York airports, Boston, Newark, Fort Worth and other airports in the surrounding area to be entirely closed... tons of stranded passengers were at the airport and there was little we could do to help them because NOTHING else flew out there... Working on the Transborder (in other words, the American) side of the airport, I got to experience the unpleasantness of this situation first hand and I feel truly sorry for the passengers that had a weekend or business trip and that were stuck until it was too late and they could just go home...
Additionally, my 3 a.m. shifts were really difficult to cope with. I started by spending all-nighters and then just heading to work. Then I proceeded to nap afternoons and be ready to leave at night. Then, on Christmas (yes, I worked through Christmas Eve, Christmas and for pretty much all of the holidays - merry Christmas to me...) I slept from when I got home to when I had to get to work and was STILL overtired... I truly think I was overworked and sleep deprived, because my only days off so far had been my exam dates (which are, to say the least, not exactly relaxing or favouring recuperation from a hard week's work...). Here's proof that I was overworked: I sleep talked! Michael witnessed it all and recounted the sleep talking to me, though I barely (if at all) recall dreaming or talking to him in my sleep.
The first sleep talk I did was when Michael came to wake me up from my nap. I asked him solemnly (like I do to passengers at the airport - I suppose I dreamt I was checking him in at work): "What's your final destination in the United-States?" As Michael did not give me a straight up answer, I repeated my question several times, apparently getting more and more frustrated by the minute...
The second sleep talk that went on, I apparently said: "Tied up elves."
Michael asked me: "Why are the elves tied up?"
Me: "Because they activated it!"
Michael: "Activated what?"
Me: "Christmas!!!"
...
Me: "I feel sorry for the vegetables..."
Michael: "Why?"
Me: "Because they are being sacrificed so we will not get eaten..."
What the hell was I dreaming?! O.o Seriously?! I vaguely remember saying some of this stuff, especially after Michael recounted it to me, but I cannot for the life of me remember what I dreamt... *sigh* Too bad... though I do think that the nonsense I have been blurting out in my sleep is a sure sign of overtiredness...
And now for some passenger anecdotes!
I got a passenger at around 6 a.m. on my third day at work. He was traveling business class, and I can honestly say I do not think I have ever met more arrogant a person. He marched to my counter and demanded I check him in along with his six family members... which was okay, that is what I am there for anyway. But then he went into a major tirade about how much he hated that the flight for Florida was so early and that he thought it was unacceptable that he had to fly out at such a time. I politely refrained from telling him that I had to leave my house at 2 a.m. in order to be at the airport at 3. But then the guy called someone on his cell phone and went into a loud obnoxious rant about how long I was taking (I had to enter each and everyone's passport information, as they were going to the USA, which takes a while). He was saying loudly things along the lines of "No, I am still at the stupid counter! I've been standing at this counter for half and hour! This is going to take us longer than driving here!!" I can guarantee you, dear reader, it took me - at most! - ten minutes to check them all in (actually, make that five, because I am good at what I do). So the guy was making a fuss about ten minutes. Then, we went to weigh his bags. His adorable five-year-old son asks "Daddy, why do they have to weigh the bags?" I was about to answer when the father says aggressively "Because they like making our lives more difficult, that's why!" Thank you, sir. A nice day to you too... That sort of major jerk is the type that will really ruin your day at the airport, especially when they show up before sunrise.
The other anecdote is about a guy whose stupidity I could not believe. In order to go to the USA, you have to fill out a customs declaration form. This one guy filled out the form at my counter and thought out loud as he answered. I could not help but stare incredulously as he answered... To "address where you will be staying in the USA" he put down his Montreal address. An understandable mistake, but it gets worse from here... To "passeport delivered by (country)" he answered "Yes." He actually asked me if this meant whether his passeport was delivered here in Canada. I said yes, and he wrote down exactly that. Then, to "state" (as in "state where you will be staying in the USA") he put down "Single"... he actually thought they were asking for his marital status!!! And, finally, the cherry on the sundae; to "I am bringing; ... disease vectors, cellular cultures, snails" he checked off "yes." His reasonning behind this one? "Oh, well, I will be bringing my cellular phone with me... So I guess that I should check yes..." *facepalm* I think this guy made me lose faith in humanity.
However, on the day after boxing day, some of my faith in mankind was renewed. One guy who had flown over from Halifax and was supposed to head to New York was, obviously, stranded due to the fact that his destination airport was closed to all air traffic. So, he asked me whether I was quite sure that there was no way he was getting to New York that day. When I answered yes, he beamed at me and told me that was exactly what he was hoping to hear and that he now had the opportunity to visit Montreal and especially the Old Port. I gave him some sight-seeing advice, he made me so happy! Thank you, awesome passenger!!
In other news, Christmas was wonderful!! This year was really very special to me. In good German fashion, we celebrated not on Christmas day, but on Christmas Eve (which is the best way to do it, after all *wink*). My grandparents and my aunt had come over all the way from Germany to celebrate with us. My father and step-mother also came over to my mother's house and, for the first time in years, I had my whole family together on Christmas Eve!!! I cannot begin to describe how special that was and how much this meant to me. I cannot even remember when the last time was when we were all together... It was great and I will cherish the memory of this Christmas for a very long time!
--- and on a little side note, I got an awesome umbrella from Michael (the hilt of it is that of a katana and you can strap the umbrella to your back... It is called an "umbrella for the civilized, but discontented." Watch it, commuters! Here I come! ^_^), as well as fluffy killer rabbit with pointy teeth slippers (you know the ones: the rabbit from Monthy Python's Holy Grail is now a nice decoration for my feet... I have named the slippers, respectively, Flopsy and Mopsy...). I also got a manga from my brother, which made me really happy, and a beautiful polynesian pearl and some money from my parents. My dad also got Michael and me one of those small electrical grills that you plug into your kitchen wall to use in our apartment! Yay! This was really a wonderful Christmas (slightly ruined by the next day 3 a.m. shift, but otherwise good...)
And finally, as I am desperately trying to wrap up this post and keep it short (I am so hopeless!), I have to let you all know that we are slowly slipping into a promising New Year. Aside from the Savoy shows, I will also be modeling for Dr. Sketchy (it is an event called "Temptation" look it up on the Dr. Sketchy Montreal website!), and auditioning for Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus... among many other good things. So I am really looking forward to 2011, as it feels like it will be an even better year than the last!
And with that, dear readers, I shall leave you and get ready for work again. I wish you all a belated Merry Christmas and hope you have a very Happy New Year with much love, health and happiness. And overall, have a happy holiday season!!
P.S. I nearly forgot! Michael cleaned up our room and the rest of the apartment! I want the world to know that he is awesome and takes good care of me! He gets full credit for tidying up (as I was too exhausted to move a muscle when I got home from work). Michael cleaned up really nicely and really impressed my mum when she came to visit. My aunt also loved the apartment, I think she may be tempted to move in with us, lol. Anyways, thank you, my love, for all your hard work!!
Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
In which the blogger is too tired to figure out a decent title
It is unbelievable how slowly time passes when you are tired. Make that exhausted. When one is exhausted, time seems to ooze by sluggishly, just like a very thick jam spilled over a countertop... that's right: it oozes (that is worse than crawling, if you ask me). I swear, I have been up since 8:27 a.m. It feels to me like I have been up for at least half an hour and should leave for school asap. But then I look at the clock. 8:35 a.m. I look again. 8:38 a.m. It is now 8:44 a.m. and, in the hopes of having time pass a little faster for my bogged down, foggy brain, I have decided to update you all on just how tired I feel.
I am certain that all of you feel tired as well. Lets face it: it is the end of the semester - crunch time for the best of us. We have papers and exams and life currently really (really!) sucks. I am fully aware of that right now. But today sucks more than usual for me. I have pulled my first full-on all-nighter since my first year at McGill. It still sucks. In first year, though, all I did was hand in my essay in class, leave class and go home to sleep. This year, I have spent the night writing, only to have to go to a 9:30 lecture, in order to retrieve one of my essays. Then, I have to think of a presentation for my current, crappy, result-of-an-all-nighter essay, because I have to present my bloody argument in 5 minutes, in front of the whole bloody class at 2:30 this afternoon. Class will not be over before 4:30. Yup - it sucks. All I want to do is sleep! Is that such a crime?
Certainly, I could have written my essay earlier, but I had essays for other subject due all week, and so I worked on them instead. When it came down to this essay (a paper for my Mass Culture in Post-War Japan class... my most hated class this semester), I actually started much earlier than usual. I started working on it at 6 last night (I did not get home from class until 5:30, so that is a very fair time to start) and got so confused, bogged down and scattered in my ideas that, until a long discussion with a good friend of mine, I was stuck with not even a thesis. It was 3 a.m. when I finally started writing something. Miraculously, I wrote 12 pages in 3 hours. I do not know how I did it. But I certainly am a speed writer. Is the essay good? Hell no! Will I proofread it? Rather not - I am afraid I will fall into depression if I see just how bad it is. Right now, my mind is blissfully unaware of how terrible the essay is (though there is a nagging at the back of my mind that bothers me) and I would like it to stay that way...
My God, I am tired! My head hurts and feels like it will explode. When it does not feel like it will tear apart, it feels like it is filled with cotton or duvet fluff... it is a really weird sensation. Also, everything I perceive right now seems to be coming from the other side of a very large volume of water (a large aquarium, maybe?), because sound is kind of muffled for me at the moment. As for my eyesight, I feel like a horse with shutters: my peripheral vision decided to take a nap, while I have to stay awake... Bleh... I want my stupid presentation to be over already so I can sleep all afternoon until tomorrow morning!! I truly look like death warmed up right now... this promises to be a cheerful presentation...
I will be off to class now. I feel numb all over (except for the pain in my lower back, which is quite sharp and annoying right now). I really am worried about this essay. Due to the all-nighter factor, it really sucks. It is full of riddiculous mistakes (of tiredness), and the argumentation sucks anyway, because I had no idea what I wanted to write about. Or, rather, I did know what I wanted to write about, until I read the supporting texts I was supposed to use for my class, and I just became seriously confused as to what my topic was... And this stupid bloody paper is worth 50% of my final mark in this stupid f*cking class! And I am certain that the highest grade I will get on it (if I am lucky) is a C... damn it!
I have to stop writing and get going. I will update again soon, when I am actually awake and less likely to completly misspell my own name and not even notice... Cheers, I guess... And goodnight in a few hours...
*Edit: I forgot to let you all know that I slept for about ten minutes between finishing my essay and getting ready for class. During those 10 minutes of dozing, I had to have a nightmare. It was horrible and gruesome: I dreamt that bloody corpses wrapped in plastic cling-wrap were being put on the bed beside me. It was gross... and scary... and really unpleasant... talk about a good sleep, eh? *sigh*
I am certain that all of you feel tired as well. Lets face it: it is the end of the semester - crunch time for the best of us. We have papers and exams and life currently really (really!) sucks. I am fully aware of that right now. But today sucks more than usual for me. I have pulled my first full-on all-nighter since my first year at McGill. It still sucks. In first year, though, all I did was hand in my essay in class, leave class and go home to sleep. This year, I have spent the night writing, only to have to go to a 9:30 lecture, in order to retrieve one of my essays. Then, I have to think of a presentation for my current, crappy, result-of-an-all-nighter essay, because I have to present my bloody argument in 5 minutes, in front of the whole bloody class at 2:30 this afternoon. Class will not be over before 4:30. Yup - it sucks. All I want to do is sleep! Is that such a crime?
Certainly, I could have written my essay earlier, but I had essays for other subject due all week, and so I worked on them instead. When it came down to this essay (a paper for my Mass Culture in Post-War Japan class... my most hated class this semester), I actually started much earlier than usual. I started working on it at 6 last night (I did not get home from class until 5:30, so that is a very fair time to start) and got so confused, bogged down and scattered in my ideas that, until a long discussion with a good friend of mine, I was stuck with not even a thesis. It was 3 a.m. when I finally started writing something. Miraculously, I wrote 12 pages in 3 hours. I do not know how I did it. But I certainly am a speed writer. Is the essay good? Hell no! Will I proofread it? Rather not - I am afraid I will fall into depression if I see just how bad it is. Right now, my mind is blissfully unaware of how terrible the essay is (though there is a nagging at the back of my mind that bothers me) and I would like it to stay that way...
My God, I am tired! My head hurts and feels like it will explode. When it does not feel like it will tear apart, it feels like it is filled with cotton or duvet fluff... it is a really weird sensation. Also, everything I perceive right now seems to be coming from the other side of a very large volume of water (a large aquarium, maybe?), because sound is kind of muffled for me at the moment. As for my eyesight, I feel like a horse with shutters: my peripheral vision decided to take a nap, while I have to stay awake... Bleh... I want my stupid presentation to be over already so I can sleep all afternoon until tomorrow morning!! I truly look like death warmed up right now... this promises to be a cheerful presentation...
I will be off to class now. I feel numb all over (except for the pain in my lower back, which is quite sharp and annoying right now). I really am worried about this essay. Due to the all-nighter factor, it really sucks. It is full of riddiculous mistakes (of tiredness), and the argumentation sucks anyway, because I had no idea what I wanted to write about. Or, rather, I did know what I wanted to write about, until I read the supporting texts I was supposed to use for my class, and I just became seriously confused as to what my topic was... And this stupid bloody paper is worth 50% of my final mark in this stupid f*cking class! And I am certain that the highest grade I will get on it (if I am lucky) is a C... damn it!
I have to stop writing and get going. I will update again soon, when I am actually awake and less likely to completly misspell my own name and not even notice... Cheers, I guess... And goodnight in a few hours...
*Edit: I forgot to let you all know that I slept for about ten minutes between finishing my essay and getting ready for class. During those 10 minutes of dozing, I had to have a nightmare. It was horrible and gruesome: I dreamt that bloody corpses wrapped in plastic cling-wrap were being put on the bed beside me. It was gross... and scary... and really unpleasant... talk about a good sleep, eh? *sigh*
Sunday, August 1, 2010
In which a blogger is very much in love...
I will have to make this short, as it is way past my curfew. Yes. I am THAT tired. I now impose curfews on myself. So far, I have all but failed to actually respect it. I am disappointed in my own sense of discipline (where did that military discipline of mine go? I must have left it in the suitcase Michael brought to Weimar... darn!)
This is just a post to say two things:
a) Michael wrote to me!! ^_^ It made me deliriously happy to see a nice, epic long post from him! I am overjoyed to hear that all is going well! And did you see his comment on my blog!? Did you!! I love him so much and miss him dearly! My tiredness serves as a good distraction, but, sometimes, the "missing Michael" blues hit me really hard. It sucks when it happens on lunch breaks. Anyways - I will update as much as possible my love! You are the best and I know you can do this programme! I think of you and support you!!
b) Today was a very long and very odd day. I got this woman at my counter (at TB... the flights that only go to the USA), who showed up with a manager. From her accent, I deduced that she was German, so I immediately made the switch the the mother tongue. As ever, I was right! ;-D No one can hide the German accent from me! mwahaha!! Anyways, the managers asks me to check in the lady's group. The lady pulls up a stack of eleven passports and I say "sure, no problem!"
I should never have said that! I spent two and a half hours checking people in!! Why? Because the group was a total of 62 people! That's almost the entire aircraft to Laguardia, other than the two seats reserved for crew members! We were aligning the passports and there was not even enough counter to hold them all! However, I had a really nice conversation with the group, who turned out to be a Kammer Orchestra from Germany on tour. It was nice to talk to them. But I went on my break two hours late and half-dead from starvation... That was the less pleasant part.
I also served a passenger who is even more impatient than my father and step-father put together... if that's possible at all. He was quite the piece of work! And my last passenger to boot! Enough said about him, really... he wore me out the most!
Apparently, some of my colleagues had some sexy encounters with guys of the ramp (the men who work on the actual tarmac for those who do not know)... of which I got nothing... No eye-candy for me, sadly. But I got a ton of wheelchairs and walked a long way today...
Oh... and passing by the backyard fence to get out of the house (reminder: missing staircase) is a total nightmare for stockings. I'll let you guess the way those things look now!
Oh... and my roommate accidentally and unfortunately locked herself out of the apartment today. She managed to get back in through the kitchen window really easily though... Can we padlock that window, please?
Okay - that's it for tonight! I should have been in bed two hours ago already!! But Michael's message got me so full of energy! I love him and hearing from him!
Anyways - sorry if this post was dull or not particularly witty... Just letting you know that many more posts will come... and I am tired... but very much in love with my dearest star in the making! ^_^
This is just a post to say two things:
a) Michael wrote to me!! ^_^ It made me deliriously happy to see a nice, epic long post from him! I am overjoyed to hear that all is going well! And did you see his comment on my blog!? Did you!! I love him so much and miss him dearly! My tiredness serves as a good distraction, but, sometimes, the "missing Michael" blues hit me really hard. It sucks when it happens on lunch breaks. Anyways - I will update as much as possible my love! You are the best and I know you can do this programme! I think of you and support you!!
b) Today was a very long and very odd day. I got this woman at my counter (at TB... the flights that only go to the USA), who showed up with a manager. From her accent, I deduced that she was German, so I immediately made the switch the the mother tongue. As ever, I was right! ;-D No one can hide the German accent from me! mwahaha!! Anyways, the managers asks me to check in the lady's group. The lady pulls up a stack of eleven passports and I say "sure, no problem!"
I should never have said that! I spent two and a half hours checking people in!! Why? Because the group was a total of 62 people! That's almost the entire aircraft to Laguardia, other than the two seats reserved for crew members! We were aligning the passports and there was not even enough counter to hold them all! However, I had a really nice conversation with the group, who turned out to be a Kammer Orchestra from Germany on tour. It was nice to talk to them. But I went on my break two hours late and half-dead from starvation... That was the less pleasant part.
I also served a passenger who is even more impatient than my father and step-father put together... if that's possible at all. He was quite the piece of work! And my last passenger to boot! Enough said about him, really... he wore me out the most!
Apparently, some of my colleagues had some sexy encounters with guys of the ramp (the men who work on the actual tarmac for those who do not know)... of which I got nothing... No eye-candy for me, sadly. But I got a ton of wheelchairs and walked a long way today...
Oh... and passing by the backyard fence to get out of the house (reminder: missing staircase) is a total nightmare for stockings. I'll let you guess the way those things look now!
Oh... and my roommate accidentally and unfortunately locked herself out of the apartment today. She managed to get back in through the kitchen window really easily though... Can we padlock that window, please?
Okay - that's it for tonight! I should have been in bed two hours ago already!! But Michael's message got me so full of energy! I love him and hearing from him!
Anyways - sorry if this post was dull or not particularly witty... Just letting you know that many more posts will come... and I am tired... but very much in love with my dearest star in the making! ^_^
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
In which Michael has gone abroad...
I must warn you - there is nothing cheerful in this post.
I have always found writing relieving. It is somehow soothing for me. So here I am... blogging. I should totally be writing a story, but I have absolutely no inspiration.
Michael has gone. I went with him to see him off at the airport. Of course, I was thoroughly overdressed, as I do best. I hope he will remember how I looked (other than ridiculously overdressed) in the dress that he prefers on me. I actually intrigued most of my colleagues, who were surprised at how formally dressed I was just to see someone off. One of my colleagues called me a "heart-breaker".
Michael's flight for Vienna left at 8:45 pm. I glimpsed him last at the security lines of my workplace, the airport. That was five hours ago now... And I already miss him. I miss him a lot! I know this sounds extremely cheesy. However, I have been living with Michael for a full year now. In three days, our old lease will be up. And this means that, for a full year, Michael and I have been inseparable. Michael and I were like bread and butter, like coca- and cola. I am finding it extremely difficult to picture Michael not being home when I come back from work, greeting me with his gorgeous, enthusiastic and loving smile, loudly clamouring: "hello lovey-love!" (he says that when I enter the house after a long day of work). I will also miss his cooking a great deal! (lol) All those little things he did to make me happy will be dearly missed!
I do not know how I will be able to find sleep. I am so used to having Michael sleep at my side since we have been together. I am used to his warmth beside me, used to him holding me and used to his calm breathing lulling me to sleep. Tonight is going to be very difficult for me...
However, I have followed Michael's advice and gone out with a friend after Michael left, in order to relieve my mind of the sorrow of his departure. I went to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice... it was very entertaining, but I went to see it with a friend from work who is soon moving to Toronto. Another person to leave. It does make me very sad.
Do not get me wrong. I am very happy for Michael. I am deliriously happy that Michael has managed to succeed at getting a lead role in an Opera Programme in Germany! He will be in the most beautiful country in the world and gaining most valuable experience as a singer! I am very excited and happy for his success! What makes me sad is that I cannot be by his side. I wish I could have tagged along. I wish we could have done like the whole past year and just go everywhere and do everything together... *sigh*
The sewing hands have come to a standstill right now. Lately, because the deadline of the Otakuthon was fast approaching, I have been spending every spare minute that was not spent with Michael sewing my massive out of proportion cosplay. This is why I have been blogging so little. I have either been sewing or spending every last moment I could with Michael. I have found myself unable to sew at all tonight. Like writing, I find myself with no inspiration for sewing.
On either side of me are flowers that Michael has given me. Last night, he met me after work, giving me a single, gorgeous red rose. It is standing on my beside table, looking beautiful and fragrant, reminding me of him and his gentle love for me. On his beside table, I have placed another bouquet of flowers. These flowers are bright and the colours of summer and sunlight. Michael came home from some errands this morning, offering me these amazing flowers as a "goodbye present". They are beautiful... but they make it difficult for me not to cry right now...
It is exceedingly quiet except for my typing at the moment. The apartment lies empty of all life, except for myself and maybe another stray mouse. My roommate is out at a party tonight. As I sit here typing, for some weird and inexplicable reason, a song that I have not heard in ten years comes back to mind. It was called something along the lines of "So Weit Weit Weg" ("So Far Far Away") and I believe it was an Austrian singer who performed it. I remember my mother having this song on a cassette when I was little... she would listen to it in her car and tears would well up in her eyes when she listened to that song, while my step-father, the love of her life, was abroad in Germany, like Michael is now...
Darn it! Why can I only think of sad songs??? Michael better be writing to me, because I will be writing to him! And I will wring his wonderful neck if he does not write to me! (did you read this, my love? I am serious!) *sigh*
I think I will fall asleep looking at the flowers and holding Theophilius, the little black vinyl piggy Michael and I purchased (it is just an insanely cute stuffy)... Michael declared Theo as my guard-piggy... he is to protect me of other men who may have lecherous intentions towards me, lol. I love that Michael understands my love of stuffed animals and enjoys "interacting" with them too... I will miss that a lot.
In other news, since I have to let everyone catch up... I have a stupid summer cold! A summer cold that no ammount of vitamin C seems to be able to cure! I blame both the airport air conditionning and the passengers who have a cold and do not bother keeping their germs from spreading everywhere. I am tired of my inability to breathe!
Also, I have been to see Inception recently with Michael and some friends, and the movie was awesome! I strongly advise it to anyone who is free to go to the theaters sometime soon. Despite the movie's goodness, though, I was still able to predict the ending... I sometimes detest those Oracle abilities of mine; they ruin the best of movies! I have also been to see The Last Airbender (originally named Avatar until James Cameron ruined the title with an abomination of a movie!)
Okay, so the acting in Airbender SUCKED. They chose dreadful actors! But, for the first time ever, they actually stayed true to the original series. I was very pleasantly surprised. Sure, they rushed through some bits of it, but, overall, good job at the script writing. It caused me to re-watch the whole Avatar anime series with Michael over the past few weeks. The movie was very entertaining and the costumes and film settings were great.
I also had a photoshoot. I will post some photos soon. I have another one in a few weeks as well. I promise photos of that too.
And now, dear readers, I will try to distract myself with a movie or something. Writing no longer suffices to quell my sorrow. Michael's flight will be landing in Vienna in a few hours. After that, he has a long train ride to his destination, Weimar, in Germany. I do hope his trip goes well and that he travels safely and arrives soundly. I hope to hear from him then.
Goodnight. I am counting on a few friendly readers to keep my morale up for the coming month! Thanks all!
I have always found writing relieving. It is somehow soothing for me. So here I am... blogging. I should totally be writing a story, but I have absolutely no inspiration.
Michael has gone. I went with him to see him off at the airport. Of course, I was thoroughly overdressed, as I do best. I hope he will remember how I looked (other than ridiculously overdressed) in the dress that he prefers on me. I actually intrigued most of my colleagues, who were surprised at how formally dressed I was just to see someone off. One of my colleagues called me a "heart-breaker".
Michael's flight for Vienna left at 8:45 pm. I glimpsed him last at the security lines of my workplace, the airport. That was five hours ago now... And I already miss him. I miss him a lot! I know this sounds extremely cheesy. However, I have been living with Michael for a full year now. In three days, our old lease will be up. And this means that, for a full year, Michael and I have been inseparable. Michael and I were like bread and butter, like coca- and cola. I am finding it extremely difficult to picture Michael not being home when I come back from work, greeting me with his gorgeous, enthusiastic and loving smile, loudly clamouring: "hello lovey-love!" (he says that when I enter the house after a long day of work). I will also miss his cooking a great deal! (lol) All those little things he did to make me happy will be dearly missed!
I do not know how I will be able to find sleep. I am so used to having Michael sleep at my side since we have been together. I am used to his warmth beside me, used to him holding me and used to his calm breathing lulling me to sleep. Tonight is going to be very difficult for me...
However, I have followed Michael's advice and gone out with a friend after Michael left, in order to relieve my mind of the sorrow of his departure. I went to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice... it was very entertaining, but I went to see it with a friend from work who is soon moving to Toronto. Another person to leave. It does make me very sad.
Do not get me wrong. I am very happy for Michael. I am deliriously happy that Michael has managed to succeed at getting a lead role in an Opera Programme in Germany! He will be in the most beautiful country in the world and gaining most valuable experience as a singer! I am very excited and happy for his success! What makes me sad is that I cannot be by his side. I wish I could have tagged along. I wish we could have done like the whole past year and just go everywhere and do everything together... *sigh*
The sewing hands have come to a standstill right now. Lately, because the deadline of the Otakuthon was fast approaching, I have been spending every spare minute that was not spent with Michael sewing my massive out of proportion cosplay. This is why I have been blogging so little. I have either been sewing or spending every last moment I could with Michael. I have found myself unable to sew at all tonight. Like writing, I find myself with no inspiration for sewing.
On either side of me are flowers that Michael has given me. Last night, he met me after work, giving me a single, gorgeous red rose. It is standing on my beside table, looking beautiful and fragrant, reminding me of him and his gentle love for me. On his beside table, I have placed another bouquet of flowers. These flowers are bright and the colours of summer and sunlight. Michael came home from some errands this morning, offering me these amazing flowers as a "goodbye present". They are beautiful... but they make it difficult for me not to cry right now...
It is exceedingly quiet except for my typing at the moment. The apartment lies empty of all life, except for myself and maybe another stray mouse. My roommate is out at a party tonight. As I sit here typing, for some weird and inexplicable reason, a song that I have not heard in ten years comes back to mind. It was called something along the lines of "So Weit Weit Weg" ("So Far Far Away") and I believe it was an Austrian singer who performed it. I remember my mother having this song on a cassette when I was little... she would listen to it in her car and tears would well up in her eyes when she listened to that song, while my step-father, the love of her life, was abroad in Germany, like Michael is now...
Darn it! Why can I only think of sad songs??? Michael better be writing to me, because I will be writing to him! And I will wring his wonderful neck if he does not write to me! (did you read this, my love? I am serious!) *sigh*
I think I will fall asleep looking at the flowers and holding Theophilius, the little black vinyl piggy Michael and I purchased (it is just an insanely cute stuffy)... Michael declared Theo as my guard-piggy... he is to protect me of other men who may have lecherous intentions towards me, lol. I love that Michael understands my love of stuffed animals and enjoys "interacting" with them too... I will miss that a lot.
In other news, since I have to let everyone catch up... I have a stupid summer cold! A summer cold that no ammount of vitamin C seems to be able to cure! I blame both the airport air conditionning and the passengers who have a cold and do not bother keeping their germs from spreading everywhere. I am tired of my inability to breathe!
Also, I have been to see Inception recently with Michael and some friends, and the movie was awesome! I strongly advise it to anyone who is free to go to the theaters sometime soon. Despite the movie's goodness, though, I was still able to predict the ending... I sometimes detest those Oracle abilities of mine; they ruin the best of movies! I have also been to see The Last Airbender (originally named Avatar until James Cameron ruined the title with an abomination of a movie!)
Okay, so the acting in Airbender SUCKED. They chose dreadful actors! But, for the first time ever, they actually stayed true to the original series. I was very pleasantly surprised. Sure, they rushed through some bits of it, but, overall, good job at the script writing. It caused me to re-watch the whole Avatar anime series with Michael over the past few weeks. The movie was very entertaining and the costumes and film settings were great.
I also had a photoshoot. I will post some photos soon. I have another one in a few weeks as well. I promise photos of that too.
And now, dear readers, I will try to distract myself with a movie or something. Writing no longer suffices to quell my sorrow. Michael's flight will be landing in Vienna in a few hours. After that, he has a long train ride to his destination, Weimar, in Germany. I do hope his trip goes well and that he travels safely and arrives soundly. I hope to hear from him then.
Goodnight. I am counting on a few friendly readers to keep my morale up for the coming month! Thanks all!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
In which a blogger is really bloody tired
Hello all you avid readers out there! I know you have anxiously been waiting beside your computer screens, with my page open, just waiting for me to post new stuff! Well rejoice and make merry, for the wait is over and I am, once more, updating!! (And do not give me that bollocks that you have NOT been waiting beside my blog all week, because I KNOW you have!!!........ just kidding! :P )
Anyhoots, I have loads to tell... Really, really have loads to tell. I had been wanting to post all week, but I was insanely busy with work and completely drained and over tired when I got home. For that, I apologize. However, my shifts will be much improved come Tuesday, and then I will be able to blog to my heart's content! Yay!
First of all, I promised some anecdotes related to my wonderfully awesome job. The conclusion? First day of real work = bleeding nightmare! Even my coach was freaking out! I personally thought it was a great learning experience, but, on the other hand, we were told in the classroom that "if all this is happening to you in one single shift, then you're having a really bad day!" Does that mean I should conclude that my first shift was a very bad one?
Let me clarify what I mean. The first passenger I EVER checked in on my own... turned out to be DHP. In other words, his name was similar to the name of someone on a list (potentially even a "no-fly" list) and thus the passenger is not allowed to travel no matter how valid his passport and visas are. So you have to call security and have the passenger cleared so that he may actually check in and board the aircraft. Why is that an issue? Because it takes forever! When you call security, the first thing you hear is "your call is important to us, please hold the line to keep your call priority..." What kind of service is that?! I have a passenger who is super concerned about his passeport in front of me, getting upset about it because he is a foreigner and does not understand why his passport is being refused and I have to be put on hold before I can tell him that he is all clear... *sigh*
Anyways, the next passengers were on a flight to Penticton (or something like that) via Ottawa. The flight to Ottawa had an oversell, so someone took the liberty to offload the passengers (that means to take them off the flight) and put them on a direct flight to their destination. The problem? They never informed the passengers about the change and the direct flight was earlier than the one they were supposed to take. So when they showed up, the flight was closed!! Poor passengers! I felt so bad!
Then, I also had a family travelling to Australia. Everything was in order with their passports and visas. They did not expire until 2018 and they were valid for multiple entries to the country. However, my computer refused to accept the mother's visa. I had to call the "hold the line" number again and was subjected to an even longer wait. So much so that the mother was really getting worried. I could hear her talk to her husband. The children were also quite small and getting fidgety and tired. I felt so bad! And I do not know why the visa was not valid on the computer when I had the perfectly valid paper version of it in front of me. We cleared that up in the end though... Thank God they had shown up early!
Now, I could keep going with stories about the passengers, but I do not feel like it or I will be blogging all day (and this blogger really, REALLY wants her nap now that her shift is done!). But I do have another funny work story to tell.
It was not really at work, but my colleague Chanelle and I were discussing our uniforms and, for some reason, we came to talk about International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I suggested that it would be really funny if Air Canada did something for it (but they would not, as they also do nothing special for Halloween, i.e. reschedule all flights to land in Transylvania). We suggested that the red scarf might be worn as a bandana for the festivities of September 19th. Also, we figured out a completely new procedure on board, specially designed to suit the needs of such a great day as International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
It goes as follows:
"We welcome ye aboard Arrrr Canada. We would like to inform you that parrots are only allowed perched on yer shoulders and should not be stowed in the barrels over yer heads... Also should ye wish ter release the straps holdin' ye down during the navigation, use yer cutlass to undo the belt. If ye've checked in yer cutlass, then that's yer own mistake, ye scurvy dogs! In case of an emerrrrgency that is not on water, a spare wooden leg can be found in the pocket below yer seat. Enjoy yer travels! Arrrrrr Canada!"
... or something like that! ^_^
On a side note: GERMANY WON 4:0 AGAINST ARGENTINA!!! YAY!!!!!!! WE ROCK! Take that, guy at work, who had no confidence in my team!! I hope we win Fifa this year!!
Back to the subject matter...
So I am done with my work stories. Lets move on to the Canada Day Celebrations before I fall asleep halfway through this post...
I went to the Casa Loma Renaissance Faire on Canada Day. It was the only day that I had off during the faire and I decided not to miss it. So I hopped on a flight to Toronto on Wednesday evening after my shift, slept at Michael's parents place, and then went to the faire in the morning.
It was a glorious day! And my costume had turned out really well! I even got compliments from some people who did professional costuming at the faire! I was so happy about it! Many people thought I worked there and admired my dress. I was a photo op for many and my cheeks hurt from all the smiling at the end of a glorious and sunny Canada Day. I myself believe I looked quite ravishing in gold and red, with my cute little caul. Apparently, it was quite historically accurate after all! Yay me and my love for history (and history of costume)!!
I had a lot of fun at Casa Loma. I do not think I have ever gotten THAT much attention before. I will not lie, I quite enjoyed it. And I made some great new friends, which makes me deliriously happy because they are all awesome. The only downside was that I did not get to stay that long because I had to fly back in the evening for work the next day... *pout* Also, Casa Loma is very subdued and tiny in comparison to the faires in Germany and Austria. There, EVERYONE is dressed up and you are an oddity if you are not. At Casa Loma, very few are dressed for the occasion and those who are get asked whether they work there or not. All this to say that I quite enjoyed it. I really fancied the day and just wish it had lasted longer.
I had hoped to make Michael an outfit to match mine before the faire, but that unfortunately failed. So Michael looked really cute in a Tudor-ish costume his ex had made for him a while back. I am quite glad that his ex was not there too. It concerned me a little, because I know she usually goes there too. I think she would have ruined it for us and it would have made quite the fiasco... But nothing happened and thank God for that! I had one of the awesomest days ever!!
And, before I forget, I tried my hand at archery at the Casa Loma Renaissance Faire!!! I am really good at it too! To my big (big, BIG!) surprise, I am actually a good shot. The instructor said I was a natural and was quite impressed by how well I was doing, considering this was my first time actually doing archery. I think I should pick up archery lessons... don't you? I would love it! It would be fun! ... Now, where to do archery classes in Montreal.........?
Anyways - it was AWESOME! And, on the flight back, I was as giddy as a five-year-old on his very first trip on an aircraft. Believe it or not, I squeed about the technology of the Airbus 320. I sat directly over the wing. I was watching the flaps on the wing and noticed that... THOSE FLAPS ARE RETRACTABLE!!! Aircrafts are such an awesome piece of engineering! I have been flying since I can remember and I am still impressed that these things can actually fly! The wings are so cool! ... unfortunately, I do not think you can understand this without a drawing, because it is hard to explain why it was so awesome. But it was awesome. Did that point come accross?
Also, I decided, finally, that life is really good and that I am exactly where I want to be right now, on the flight back from Toronto. I have the best boyfriend in the world, he is loyal to me and sticks to me like glue (I love him!). I have a great, fun and entertaining job. I can exploit some of my talents on the side with modeling. I am honing my sewing skills and achieving great results. I am about to finish my first bachelors degree. What more could one want from life?
What made me come to this realization was the sunset seen from the airplane. It was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen! Yes, I believe it even beat the beauty of the sunrise in Japan seen from the top of Fuji-san! The sun was a vast disc of golden-red, floating on the horizon like an orb. Our aircraft was descending at the same time as the sun. At some point, our aircraft was cruising just on top of a sea of clouds... the wings were just brushing the tops of the tufty white waves in the sky. It looked beautiful, almost as if the plane was a ship on an ocean of cloud. And the sun was still following our descent. Then we went into the clouds and the sun was still visible, except that it was now through a haze of white, like a thin veil. It is difficult to find the words of how beautiful this all was without sounding cheezy. When we finally came out from the clouds, closer still to the ground, I watched the sun be swallowed by a darkening horizon and the sky tint itself of various colours of the rainbow... *sigh* It was amazing. And that is when I realized that I really am where I want to be at the moment.
And upon that reflection, it is time for me to shut up and nap... because I really need it! ^_^
Anyhoots, I have loads to tell... Really, really have loads to tell. I had been wanting to post all week, but I was insanely busy with work and completely drained and over tired when I got home. For that, I apologize. However, my shifts will be much improved come Tuesday, and then I will be able to blog to my heart's content! Yay!
First of all, I promised some anecdotes related to my wonderfully awesome job. The conclusion? First day of real work = bleeding nightmare! Even my coach was freaking out! I personally thought it was a great learning experience, but, on the other hand, we were told in the classroom that "if all this is happening to you in one single shift, then you're having a really bad day!" Does that mean I should conclude that my first shift was a very bad one?
Let me clarify what I mean. The first passenger I EVER checked in on my own... turned out to be DHP. In other words, his name was similar to the name of someone on a list (potentially even a "no-fly" list) and thus the passenger is not allowed to travel no matter how valid his passport and visas are. So you have to call security and have the passenger cleared so that he may actually check in and board the aircraft. Why is that an issue? Because it takes forever! When you call security, the first thing you hear is "your call is important to us, please hold the line to keep your call priority..." What kind of service is that?! I have a passenger who is super concerned about his passeport in front of me, getting upset about it because he is a foreigner and does not understand why his passport is being refused and I have to be put on hold before I can tell him that he is all clear... *sigh*
Anyways, the next passengers were on a flight to Penticton (or something like that) via Ottawa. The flight to Ottawa had an oversell, so someone took the liberty to offload the passengers (that means to take them off the flight) and put them on a direct flight to their destination. The problem? They never informed the passengers about the change and the direct flight was earlier than the one they were supposed to take. So when they showed up, the flight was closed!! Poor passengers! I felt so bad!
Then, I also had a family travelling to Australia. Everything was in order with their passports and visas. They did not expire until 2018 and they were valid for multiple entries to the country. However, my computer refused to accept the mother's visa. I had to call the "hold the line" number again and was subjected to an even longer wait. So much so that the mother was really getting worried. I could hear her talk to her husband. The children were also quite small and getting fidgety and tired. I felt so bad! And I do not know why the visa was not valid on the computer when I had the perfectly valid paper version of it in front of me. We cleared that up in the end though... Thank God they had shown up early!
Now, I could keep going with stories about the passengers, but I do not feel like it or I will be blogging all day (and this blogger really, REALLY wants her nap now that her shift is done!). But I do have another funny work story to tell.
It was not really at work, but my colleague Chanelle and I were discussing our uniforms and, for some reason, we came to talk about International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I suggested that it would be really funny if Air Canada did something for it (but they would not, as they also do nothing special for Halloween, i.e. reschedule all flights to land in Transylvania). We suggested that the red scarf might be worn as a bandana for the festivities of September 19th. Also, we figured out a completely new procedure on board, specially designed to suit the needs of such a great day as International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
It goes as follows:
"We welcome ye aboard Arrrr Canada. We would like to inform you that parrots are only allowed perched on yer shoulders and should not be stowed in the barrels over yer heads... Also should ye wish ter release the straps holdin' ye down during the navigation, use yer cutlass to undo the belt. If ye've checked in yer cutlass, then that's yer own mistake, ye scurvy dogs! In case of an emerrrrgency that is not on water, a spare wooden leg can be found in the pocket below yer seat. Enjoy yer travels! Arrrrrr Canada!"
... or something like that! ^_^
On a side note: GERMANY WON 4:0 AGAINST ARGENTINA!!! YAY!!!!!!! WE ROCK! Take that, guy at work, who had no confidence in my team!! I hope we win Fifa this year!!
Back to the subject matter...
So I am done with my work stories. Lets move on to the Canada Day Celebrations before I fall asleep halfway through this post...
I went to the Casa Loma Renaissance Faire on Canada Day. It was the only day that I had off during the faire and I decided not to miss it. So I hopped on a flight to Toronto on Wednesday evening after my shift, slept at Michael's parents place, and then went to the faire in the morning.
It was a glorious day! And my costume had turned out really well! I even got compliments from some people who did professional costuming at the faire! I was so happy about it! Many people thought I worked there and admired my dress. I was a photo op for many and my cheeks hurt from all the smiling at the end of a glorious and sunny Canada Day. I myself believe I looked quite ravishing in gold and red, with my cute little caul. Apparently, it was quite historically accurate after all! Yay me and my love for history (and history of costume)!!
I had a lot of fun at Casa Loma. I do not think I have ever gotten THAT much attention before. I will not lie, I quite enjoyed it. And I made some great new friends, which makes me deliriously happy because they are all awesome. The only downside was that I did not get to stay that long because I had to fly back in the evening for work the next day... *pout* Also, Casa Loma is very subdued and tiny in comparison to the faires in Germany and Austria. There, EVERYONE is dressed up and you are an oddity if you are not. At Casa Loma, very few are dressed for the occasion and those who are get asked whether they work there or not. All this to say that I quite enjoyed it. I really fancied the day and just wish it had lasted longer.
I had hoped to make Michael an outfit to match mine before the faire, but that unfortunately failed. So Michael looked really cute in a Tudor-ish costume his ex had made for him a while back. I am quite glad that his ex was not there too. It concerned me a little, because I know she usually goes there too. I think she would have ruined it for us and it would have made quite the fiasco... But nothing happened and thank God for that! I had one of the awesomest days ever!!
And, before I forget, I tried my hand at archery at the Casa Loma Renaissance Faire!!! I am really good at it too! To my big (big, BIG!) surprise, I am actually a good shot. The instructor said I was a natural and was quite impressed by how well I was doing, considering this was my first time actually doing archery. I think I should pick up archery lessons... don't you? I would love it! It would be fun! ... Now, where to do archery classes in Montreal.........?
Anyways - it was AWESOME! And, on the flight back, I was as giddy as a five-year-old on his very first trip on an aircraft. Believe it or not, I squeed about the technology of the Airbus 320. I sat directly over the wing. I was watching the flaps on the wing and noticed that... THOSE FLAPS ARE RETRACTABLE!!! Aircrafts are such an awesome piece of engineering! I have been flying since I can remember and I am still impressed that these things can actually fly! The wings are so cool! ... unfortunately, I do not think you can understand this without a drawing, because it is hard to explain why it was so awesome. But it was awesome. Did that point come accross?
Also, I decided, finally, that life is really good and that I am exactly where I want to be right now, on the flight back from Toronto. I have the best boyfriend in the world, he is loyal to me and sticks to me like glue (I love him!). I have a great, fun and entertaining job. I can exploit some of my talents on the side with modeling. I am honing my sewing skills and achieving great results. I am about to finish my first bachelors degree. What more could one want from life?
What made me come to this realization was the sunset seen from the airplane. It was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen! Yes, I believe it even beat the beauty of the sunrise in Japan seen from the top of Fuji-san! The sun was a vast disc of golden-red, floating on the horizon like an orb. Our aircraft was descending at the same time as the sun. At some point, our aircraft was cruising just on top of a sea of clouds... the wings were just brushing the tops of the tufty white waves in the sky. It looked beautiful, almost as if the plane was a ship on an ocean of cloud. And the sun was still following our descent. Then we went into the clouds and the sun was still visible, except that it was now through a haze of white, like a thin veil. It is difficult to find the words of how beautiful this all was without sounding cheezy. When we finally came out from the clouds, closer still to the ground, I watched the sun be swallowed by a darkening horizon and the sky tint itself of various colours of the rainbow... *sigh* It was amazing. And that is when I realized that I really am where I want to be at the moment.
And upon that reflection, it is time for me to shut up and nap... because I really need it! ^_^
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
In which severe head trauma is imminent
Well, for those of you with facebook, this is probably old news, but that does not matter - the post goes up anyway! Yay!! (I figured I had to update my avid readers with something! XD )
So, here is the full account of how I nearly died.
On Sunday, I decided that, if I was to make a costume as extravagant as the Angel Sanctuary outfit, I was in desperate need of a dress form. Problem: they cost a fortune. So I followed people's advice and decided to make one out of duct-tape. Other than the fact that my feet started smarting really badly after a while, the whole process went well and smoothly.
I will not lie, it was quite warm in that duct-tape dress that was around me, as my roommate Vanessa struggled to make it into the perfect mould of my body. However, I would not have judged it as too warm. Many people have been pointing out that it was 30 degrees Celsius outside, but we had several fans going on inside and, for someone like me, who cannot produce her own body heat, I felt quite pleasant during the taping process...
Apparently, my brain registered the temperature as wonderfully and comfortably warm, my body, on the other hand, decided to violently protest. When the time came to cut me out of the dress form, my head started spinning. It was genuinely terrifying! I did not know where up or down was and the living room of my apartment was, quite literally swimming before my eyes... I could not tell where I was for a moment. The odd sensation is really hard to describe, but I think the closest feeling to it would be how your stomach churns when you are in an elevator that does not run smoothly. My stomach was, indeed, churning from all the vertigo my dizziness was causing. It felt like I had been on a high-speed merry-go-round or something...
Anyways, my ears also started ringing. So loudly that I could not hear what my roommate was saying to me, though I did register that she was trying to speak to me.
Then, I was lying on the floor, with not the slightest clue of how in the world I might have ended up there. I had fainted. It had barely been a few seconds, but it was a definite loss of consciousness.
Now, the dizziness and the creepy blackout of the event is my side of the story. But my roommate also told me what she saw. Apparently, my face drained of colour. Not only did I go entirely white, but she say my lips had turned the colour of my skin (which is frightfully pasty even as we speak because I do not get enough sun!)... which must have made me look like death warmed up. No wonder she was alarmed. Although, she deserves a medal: she handled the situation beautifully!
She says I started hyperventilating. I do not have any recollection of this. She says she was trying to give me advice to breathe (but I guess this was the part where I could no longer hear her from all the buzzing in my ears). And then I went down. I fell to my knees first and then forward. Luckily, Vanessa saw danger coming before anything could happen: my head was on a straight crash-course with the corner of our coffee table. I would probably have bashed my skull open and THEN we would have had a major problem... But Vanessa caught me just on time an gently guided me to the nice, carpeted floor. Accident avoided. I think she did a great job and has a lot of merit for saving me from a bloody disaster!
Apparently, I tried standing up several times and could not be convinced to stay down once I had fallen... I do not remember this either - I was lying perfectly still when I regained consciousness. However, my brain did register that I was lying dangerously near the coffee table and I was amazed that an accident had been avoided at all.
Seconds later, I was cut out of my dress form and felt much better in less than ten minutes. Now I feel fit as a fiddle (though exhausted from the day's training!). It was just a super scary situation... this has never happened to me before. But, I must say, it was rewarding: I now have a great (and ultra-cheap!) dress form to work with! YAY!!!
In other news, Michael is hanging on to his job well, which means he does not need to go back to Toronto for the summer! This makes me super happy!
On the other hand, my schedule sucks. I have six consecutive days of work (no days off in between), at which I start my shift at 4 a.m..... this means getting up at 2 a.m. *sigh* I wish I could have the evening shifts because
a) I am nocturnal... I am very active at night and have loads of energy, no matter how tired I feel... however, I am NOT a morning person at all!
b) The evening is when all the international flights are leaving - thus, the most interesting part of a day... it sucks that I have to miss out on it!!! *cries*
Also, during observation at check-in today, I had my first real jerk of a passenger. He said something along the lines that we did not take good care of our customers because we were taking too long. He also said that he could do what we did much faster without even having to touch the keyboard. Well, I have news for him: if we do not touch the keyboard, we cannot verify his information and thus cannot print his boarding pass. Ergo, he would NOT be flying if we did it "without touching the keyboard" as he said. He said he was a frequent flyer and new everything of airline travel... obviously not. I would like to see him try to check himself in with our system (not the airport kiosks)... and, if it was so easy, why did he not check in with kiosk in the first place... *sigh* Some people will never cease to amaze me...
Anyways... that's all for now. My brain is reeling with information about how to execute a check-in... but that is not of interest to any of my readers... if I have any...
And thus, goodnight!
So, here is the full account of how I nearly died.
On Sunday, I decided that, if I was to make a costume as extravagant as the Angel Sanctuary outfit, I was in desperate need of a dress form. Problem: they cost a fortune. So I followed people's advice and decided to make one out of duct-tape. Other than the fact that my feet started smarting really badly after a while, the whole process went well and smoothly.
I will not lie, it was quite warm in that duct-tape dress that was around me, as my roommate Vanessa struggled to make it into the perfect mould of my body. However, I would not have judged it as too warm. Many people have been pointing out that it was 30 degrees Celsius outside, but we had several fans going on inside and, for someone like me, who cannot produce her own body heat, I felt quite pleasant during the taping process...
Apparently, my brain registered the temperature as wonderfully and comfortably warm, my body, on the other hand, decided to violently protest. When the time came to cut me out of the dress form, my head started spinning. It was genuinely terrifying! I did not know where up or down was and the living room of my apartment was, quite literally swimming before my eyes... I could not tell where I was for a moment. The odd sensation is really hard to describe, but I think the closest feeling to it would be how your stomach churns when you are in an elevator that does not run smoothly. My stomach was, indeed, churning from all the vertigo my dizziness was causing. It felt like I had been on a high-speed merry-go-round or something...
Anyways, my ears also started ringing. So loudly that I could not hear what my roommate was saying to me, though I did register that she was trying to speak to me.
Then, I was lying on the floor, with not the slightest clue of how in the world I might have ended up there. I had fainted. It had barely been a few seconds, but it was a definite loss of consciousness.
Now, the dizziness and the creepy blackout of the event is my side of the story. But my roommate also told me what she saw. Apparently, my face drained of colour. Not only did I go entirely white, but she say my lips had turned the colour of my skin (which is frightfully pasty even as we speak because I do not get enough sun!)... which must have made me look like death warmed up. No wonder she was alarmed. Although, she deserves a medal: she handled the situation beautifully!
She says I started hyperventilating. I do not have any recollection of this. She says she was trying to give me advice to breathe (but I guess this was the part where I could no longer hear her from all the buzzing in my ears). And then I went down. I fell to my knees first and then forward. Luckily, Vanessa saw danger coming before anything could happen: my head was on a straight crash-course with the corner of our coffee table. I would probably have bashed my skull open and THEN we would have had a major problem... But Vanessa caught me just on time an gently guided me to the nice, carpeted floor. Accident avoided. I think she did a great job and has a lot of merit for saving me from a bloody disaster!
Apparently, I tried standing up several times and could not be convinced to stay down once I had fallen... I do not remember this either - I was lying perfectly still when I regained consciousness. However, my brain did register that I was lying dangerously near the coffee table and I was amazed that an accident had been avoided at all.
Seconds later, I was cut out of my dress form and felt much better in less than ten minutes. Now I feel fit as a fiddle (though exhausted from the day's training!). It was just a super scary situation... this has never happened to me before. But, I must say, it was rewarding: I now have a great (and ultra-cheap!) dress form to work with! YAY!!!
In other news, Michael is hanging on to his job well, which means he does not need to go back to Toronto for the summer! This makes me super happy!
On the other hand, my schedule sucks. I have six consecutive days of work (no days off in between), at which I start my shift at 4 a.m..... this means getting up at 2 a.m. *sigh* I wish I could have the evening shifts because
a) I am nocturnal... I am very active at night and have loads of energy, no matter how tired I feel... however, I am NOT a morning person at all!
b) The evening is when all the international flights are leaving - thus, the most interesting part of a day... it sucks that I have to miss out on it!!! *cries*
Also, during observation at check-in today, I had my first real jerk of a passenger. He said something along the lines that we did not take good care of our customers because we were taking too long. He also said that he could do what we did much faster without even having to touch the keyboard. Well, I have news for him: if we do not touch the keyboard, we cannot verify his information and thus cannot print his boarding pass. Ergo, he would NOT be flying if we did it "without touching the keyboard" as he said. He said he was a frequent flyer and new everything of airline travel... obviously not. I would like to see him try to check himself in with our system (not the airport kiosks)... and, if it was so easy, why did he not check in with kiosk in the first place... *sigh* Some people will never cease to amaze me...
Anyways... that's all for now. My brain is reeling with information about how to execute a check-in... but that is not of interest to any of my readers... if I have any...
And thus, goodnight!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
In which AC called
Before I elaborate, I just wish to say that I had a wonderful weekend. I studied hard and arduously (no, really! I studied airport codes until I could no longer speak: drilling myself with flash-cards and all!), but I still had fun.
Indeed, I went to China Town on Saturday... we had Mongolian hot-pot. It was really good! Loads of squiggly squid! XD And I also made some small purchases which I had wanted to do for a while... Shiro and Kuro (two Monokuroo boo pigs - a black one and a white one - that are on a round throw pillow simply too cute to resist) and Moka (a big black Mokona that is always smiling and insanely cute!). I will have to post pictures of them at some point, as I am sure many of you think all this was Chinese (it was Japanese, just so you know! ;-P )
Anyways...
YXY (Whitehorse), ORD (Chicago), MCI (Kansas City), FCO (Rome), PVG (Shanghai), etc... Overall, I believe I know about 70 airport codes by heart now, as well as airline codes. Because I so got the job! Yes! I am, at last, working for Air Canada! I joined the family trade.
Unfortunately, I am not with in-flight. That is to say, I am not a flight attendant. *sigh* I wish I was... their uniforms are wonderful! But I think that I will apply again (and achieve my goal) next summer, after I have finished my bachelors. It will be much easier to concentrate on being a flight attendant then. I really want to do it. I went to try on uniforms today and I went by the in-flight training center and I REALLY WANT TO DO THIS!!
Until then, I will be a CSSA. Customer Sales and Service Agent at the Montreal Trudeau airport. That is to say that I will be working check-in, baggage tags, kiosks, special needs passengers, etc. Unfortunately, I will no get to do gates, as this is a privilege only permanent employees have at the moment. They seem to believe that if temporary agents learn to work gates, then their jobs will be threatened... which is nonsense really... considering we summer temps are there to allow the perms to go on vacation... *sigh* It puzzles me sometimes...
Alas, as a temp, I do not get to wear the full uniform. Anything with an Air Canada crest is not allowed, as we do not have to pay for our uniforms at all. We get two bottoms and four tops from Air Canada, of our choice, so long as they do not bear a crest. So I picked skirt, a trouser, three blouses and a shell. I think that will do nicely.
As for work - I love it! So far, I am still in training. I have classes every day (from 7 to 3, but I have to get up at 4 a.m. to make it on time!) to learn about policies, security and computer programms... However, I also have half-an-hour of on-the-floor observation every day! I am looking forward to being on the floor! As of June 30th, we will be starting O.J.T. (on the job training)... I cannot wait! I am really excited!! *squee!*
Anyways - the people are really nice in my class. I met a girl, who almost did become a flight attendant, but who had to leave training because of a height requirement. Poor thing! She would have been a great flight attendant too! But she is really nice! I really appreciate her! The others are really awesome too! One girl actually studied opera at the same school as Michael and is currently in a show with the choreographer of the McGill Savoy Society!!! Small world!
I am really, really enjoying work. Everyone at Air Canada recognizes me as my mother's daughter. I got really funny comments about it. Others see my last name and know I am related to my infamous father (who liked to be the bratty one at the airport during his career here). And, today, we got a speech from the union, which means that the union V.P., my dad's girlfriend, visited our class. It was hilarious!
All this to say: I love my new job! I would love in-flight even more... I can feel it, but, until I am finished with school, this temp CSSA position is ideal!
And Michael went out to find a job today! Cross your fingers: hopefully he gets it!
I am looking forward to seeing you come to my airport counter soon!
Cheers!
P.S. If am not posting as frequently, it is because it is hard to post when you are tired after work (yesterday I was kaputt!)
Indeed, I went to China Town on Saturday... we had Mongolian hot-pot. It was really good! Loads of squiggly squid! XD And I also made some small purchases which I had wanted to do for a while... Shiro and Kuro (two Monokuroo boo pigs - a black one and a white one - that are on a round throw pillow simply too cute to resist) and Moka (a big black Mokona that is always smiling and insanely cute!). I will have to post pictures of them at some point, as I am sure many of you think all this was Chinese (it was Japanese, just so you know! ;-P )
Anyways...
YXY (Whitehorse), ORD (Chicago), MCI (Kansas City), FCO (Rome), PVG (Shanghai), etc... Overall, I believe I know about 70 airport codes by heart now, as well as airline codes. Because I so got the job! Yes! I am, at last, working for Air Canada! I joined the family trade.
Unfortunately, I am not with in-flight. That is to say, I am not a flight attendant. *sigh* I wish I was... their uniforms are wonderful! But I think that I will apply again (and achieve my goal) next summer, after I have finished my bachelors. It will be much easier to concentrate on being a flight attendant then. I really want to do it. I went to try on uniforms today and I went by the in-flight training center and I REALLY WANT TO DO THIS!!
Until then, I will be a CSSA. Customer Sales and Service Agent at the Montreal Trudeau airport. That is to say that I will be working check-in, baggage tags, kiosks, special needs passengers, etc. Unfortunately, I will no get to do gates, as this is a privilege only permanent employees have at the moment. They seem to believe that if temporary agents learn to work gates, then their jobs will be threatened... which is nonsense really... considering we summer temps are there to allow the perms to go on vacation... *sigh* It puzzles me sometimes...
Alas, as a temp, I do not get to wear the full uniform. Anything with an Air Canada crest is not allowed, as we do not have to pay for our uniforms at all. We get two bottoms and four tops from Air Canada, of our choice, so long as they do not bear a crest. So I picked skirt, a trouser, three blouses and a shell. I think that will do nicely.
As for work - I love it! So far, I am still in training. I have classes every day (from 7 to 3, but I have to get up at 4 a.m. to make it on time!) to learn about policies, security and computer programms... However, I also have half-an-hour of on-the-floor observation every day! I am looking forward to being on the floor! As of June 30th, we will be starting O.J.T. (on the job training)... I cannot wait! I am really excited!! *squee!*
Anyways - the people are really nice in my class. I met a girl, who almost did become a flight attendant, but who had to leave training because of a height requirement. Poor thing! She would have been a great flight attendant too! But she is really nice! I really appreciate her! The others are really awesome too! One girl actually studied opera at the same school as Michael and is currently in a show with the choreographer of the McGill Savoy Society!!! Small world!
I am really, really enjoying work. Everyone at Air Canada recognizes me as my mother's daughter. I got really funny comments about it. Others see my last name and know I am related to my infamous father (who liked to be the bratty one at the airport during his career here). And, today, we got a speech from the union, which means that the union V.P., my dad's girlfriend, visited our class. It was hilarious!
All this to say: I love my new job! I would love in-flight even more... I can feel it, but, until I am finished with school, this temp CSSA position is ideal!
And Michael went out to find a job today! Cross your fingers: hopefully he gets it!
I am looking forward to seeing you come to my airport counter soon!
Cheers!
P.S. If am not posting as frequently, it is because it is hard to post when you are tired after work (yesterday I was kaputt!)
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Chapter 22 - In which the Japanese final took place (and nearly killed Naria in doing so)
*Sigh*
Okay. My Japanese final is over.
I. AM. NEVER. TAKING. A. LANGUAGE. CLASS. AGAIN!
Seriously, taking one of the McGill language classes is the equivalent of suicide! The teachers are insane! I am not saying I disliked my professor - on the contrary, I thought she was very kind-hearted. However, she was excessively unreasonable in her expectations of the class. I mean, she expected us to learn new material until the LAST day of class! This is just not right! We never even had a review! I am sorry, but I came to that exam completely unknowing as to what to expect from the exam. I wish she had AT LEAST made an outline. Instead, the only thing we knew about the exam was that it was "cumulative." Great! Like that is not too vague for anyone to know what to expect from a three hour final.
It really annoyed me, because I did not have all that much time to study: I had my first final immediately after the last day of class, then a photoshoot and the Savoy formal (which had been planned waaaay ahead!) and then I worked on an essay for last Monday over the weekend. As a result? I only got to study Monday and Tuesday for today's exam!! Not NEARLY enough time! And because I did not know what to study, it turns out I studied the entirely WRONG chapters in the book! Of course she would not ask how to ask a shop-clerk to show you something, or to tell you the price of something... why should she? This was the chapter I studied after all! She rather went ahead with the REALLY new stuff, like weird-ass verb conjugations that nobody uses, the ones for which my brain had no more attention in class because I had a million assignments due simultaneously and was not sleeping... And she asked those sneaky underhanded questions again, you know, the questions for which the answer was only briefly mentioned in passing during a class, and it happens to be crammed in a corner of the textbook, so apparently that means you're supposed to know it...
*sigh* There were things I knew I knew, but I could not remember them to save my life!! I also screwed up quite a few kanji... forgetting a line here, missing a line there... Why was the only kanji I could remember perfectly VEGETABLE of all things??? (yasai: 野菜 - yep, that I could remember with ridiculous ease... and it was not on the test...)
Anyways... I managed to fill out most of the test, to my surprise. Though, after verifying some answers, I realize that this does not mean I did well. In fact, I believe I did very poorly. I kept having to replace certain words with others (i.e. "to own" with "to have" or "to exist") because I could not remember for the life of me how to say stuff. And the newest verb conjugations... yeah, uhm, forget about those. I did not get a SINGLE one right! (Trust me, I checked now that I'm out of there.) At this point, I hope I can just scrape a pass... It would suck to fail this exam and lose 9 credits and have to potentially retake it (I sure hope not!).
Anyways, I also slept very poorly last night (in other words, not at all!). I was very upset by that this morning. Indeed, I had desperately tried to sleep and yet the hours crept by, minute by minute on my alarm clock and still no sleep came. My head was reeling with kanji and random phrases in Japanese. I tried all the tricks in the book to empty my mind, at which point I got stuck at the "stop thinking now! Stop thinking about not thinking! Quit that! SLEEP ALREADY!" bit... I hate that. It makes me very upset because I really want to sleep, but just CAN'T!
So I currently look (and feel) like death warmed up. A ghost would look cheery when compared to me. That is because this is the second night in a row that I have not slept well.
Yesterday morning, after I went to bed at 5 a.m. because I wanted to really study Japanese well (I rewrote 7 chapters of the book, made vocabulary charts and everything... and I still screwed up the final!), I thought I could sleep in because I had the day off. Nada: someone decided that it was time to renovate my apartment building's courtyard. So at 9 in the morning, the jackhammers started and they kept at it until the afternoon. When your pillow is shaking and vibrating with sporadic uncomfortable tremors and the obnoxious sound of the tools drifts in through paper-thin windows, sleeping becomes quite impossible. So, with only 4 hours of sleep, I went through my day yesterday. I went and studied with a friend, then came home and studied some more.
I did have a nice little 2 hour walk with Michael, though. After calling my dad (and him telling me to quit the books and refresh my mind and body) I decided to drag Michael outside with me and we went for a walk on Mont-Royal. We went around the mountain, reaching the Lac aux Castors and having a small lunch there (we had stopped at the grocery store before to pick up some sandwiches). We had fun in the jungle gym on that side of the mountain, and also enjoyed the pleasant weather and the nice scenery. We should take walks like that more often...
And then we came home and went back to the grindstone. I found (thanks to a wonderful classmate of mine) some websites that quizzed your Japanese and I drilled myself with them to the utmost. Unfortunately, all the vocabulary and grammar points from those tests were NOT on the exam (despite the online quizzes being based solely on the textbook we used in class... ironic that the teacher has to chose all the obscure chapters that are not as well elaborated...)
And then I went to bed, attempting to sleep. To my consternation and mounting despair, attempting to sleep was to no avail and, when I finally felt tired enough to fall asleep, it was already 7:30, 15 minutes before my alarm was going to ring. Thanks for nothing, you stupid brain of mine (why couldn't you retain what you were SUPPOSED to know!?!??!) Michael, sadly, had a terrible night of sleep as well, though he was lucky enough to fall asleep in the end. I lay still by his side with very dark thoughts floating through my mind - I hate insomnia: worst case scenarios all over the place and about every situation imaginable! And telling myself that the exam "will go well" did nothing to help the visions going through my mind...
And now the test is done. And I really, sincerely hope to God that I achieved a pass. I think I deserved it. I just screwed up, that's all (and there's my luck again: this is what, the 5th time I study the wrong thing for an exam??)
I'm currently praying that I won't fail. I'm also thinking of Michael who's doing his history final today (he should be starting soon). Best of luck to him, I'm sure he'll do well.
Now there's only one more final to go before Germany. Victorian Lit. I still have to read Bleak House, but I think it'll work out fine. At least now I can breathe again. Victorian Lit isn't out to kill me, like the Japanese final was (it tried to choke me in my sleep! I'm sure of it!)
And now, dear blog, after the long promised post about the exam, my brain feels like mush. Seriously, I am surprised it did not come streaming out of my ears and nose during the exam like some gruesome pulp. Because it does feel thoroughly mashed (picture grapes being stomped on to make wine... yeah - that's my brain). I think that if someone was to crack open my skull right now they would not be able to tell the difference between what was once called my brain and a huge bowl of apple sauce... I don't know why, but I'm just convinced that my brain now looks like apple sauce. That, or it's fried... like when I fry an egg (i.e. burnt to a black crisp that set off every smoke alarm in the house).
Okay, enough now (geez - I can't believe how much I can write even in this state of... bleh!). I am going to TRY and get some sleep...
私は寝ています、ね？がんばって、ナリア！
お休みなさい。。。
P.S. Still no news from Germany for jobs... sad face... T_T
Okay. My Japanese final is over.
I. AM. NEVER. TAKING. A. LANGUAGE. CLASS. AGAIN!
Seriously, taking one of the McGill language classes is the equivalent of suicide! The teachers are insane! I am not saying I disliked my professor - on the contrary, I thought she was very kind-hearted. However, she was excessively unreasonable in her expectations of the class. I mean, she expected us to learn new material until the LAST day of class! This is just not right! We never even had a review! I am sorry, but I came to that exam completely unknowing as to what to expect from the exam. I wish she had AT LEAST made an outline. Instead, the only thing we knew about the exam was that it was "cumulative." Great! Like that is not too vague for anyone to know what to expect from a three hour final.
It really annoyed me, because I did not have all that much time to study: I had my first final immediately after the last day of class, then a photoshoot and the Savoy formal (which had been planned waaaay ahead!) and then I worked on an essay for last Monday over the weekend. As a result? I only got to study Monday and Tuesday for today's exam!! Not NEARLY enough time! And because I did not know what to study, it turns out I studied the entirely WRONG chapters in the book! Of course she would not ask how to ask a shop-clerk to show you something, or to tell you the price of something... why should she? This was the chapter I studied after all! She rather went ahead with the REALLY new stuff, like weird-ass verb conjugations that nobody uses, the ones for which my brain had no more attention in class because I had a million assignments due simultaneously and was not sleeping... And she asked those sneaky underhanded questions again, you know, the questions for which the answer was only briefly mentioned in passing during a class, and it happens to be crammed in a corner of the textbook, so apparently that means you're supposed to know it...
*sigh* There were things I knew I knew, but I could not remember them to save my life!! I also screwed up quite a few kanji... forgetting a line here, missing a line there... Why was the only kanji I could remember perfectly VEGETABLE of all things??? (yasai: 野菜 - yep, that I could remember with ridiculous ease... and it was not on the test...)
Anyways... I managed to fill out most of the test, to my surprise. Though, after verifying some answers, I realize that this does not mean I did well. In fact, I believe I did very poorly. I kept having to replace certain words with others (i.e. "to own" with "to have" or "to exist") because I could not remember for the life of me how to say stuff. And the newest verb conjugations... yeah, uhm, forget about those. I did not get a SINGLE one right! (Trust me, I checked now that I'm out of there.) At this point, I hope I can just scrape a pass... It would suck to fail this exam and lose 9 credits and have to potentially retake it (I sure hope not!).
Anyways, I also slept very poorly last night (in other words, not at all!). I was very upset by that this morning. Indeed, I had desperately tried to sleep and yet the hours crept by, minute by minute on my alarm clock and still no sleep came. My head was reeling with kanji and random phrases in Japanese. I tried all the tricks in the book to empty my mind, at which point I got stuck at the "stop thinking now! Stop thinking about not thinking! Quit that! SLEEP ALREADY!" bit... I hate that. It makes me very upset because I really want to sleep, but just CAN'T!
So I currently look (and feel) like death warmed up. A ghost would look cheery when compared to me. That is because this is the second night in a row that I have not slept well.
Yesterday morning, after I went to bed at 5 a.m. because I wanted to really study Japanese well (I rewrote 7 chapters of the book, made vocabulary charts and everything... and I still screwed up the final!), I thought I could sleep in because I had the day off. Nada: someone decided that it was time to renovate my apartment building's courtyard. So at 9 in the morning, the jackhammers started and they kept at it until the afternoon. When your pillow is shaking and vibrating with sporadic uncomfortable tremors and the obnoxious sound of the tools drifts in through paper-thin windows, sleeping becomes quite impossible. So, with only 4 hours of sleep, I went through my day yesterday. I went and studied with a friend, then came home and studied some more.
I did have a nice little 2 hour walk with Michael, though. After calling my dad (and him telling me to quit the books and refresh my mind and body) I decided to drag Michael outside with me and we went for a walk on Mont-Royal. We went around the mountain, reaching the Lac aux Castors and having a small lunch there (we had stopped at the grocery store before to pick up some sandwiches). We had fun in the jungle gym on that side of the mountain, and also enjoyed the pleasant weather and the nice scenery. We should take walks like that more often...
And then we came home and went back to the grindstone. I found (thanks to a wonderful classmate of mine) some websites that quizzed your Japanese and I drilled myself with them to the utmost. Unfortunately, all the vocabulary and grammar points from those tests were NOT on the exam (despite the online quizzes being based solely on the textbook we used in class... ironic that the teacher has to chose all the obscure chapters that are not as well elaborated...)
And then I went to bed, attempting to sleep. To my consternation and mounting despair, attempting to sleep was to no avail and, when I finally felt tired enough to fall asleep, it was already 7:30, 15 minutes before my alarm was going to ring. Thanks for nothing, you stupid brain of mine (why couldn't you retain what you were SUPPOSED to know!?!??!) Michael, sadly, had a terrible night of sleep as well, though he was lucky enough to fall asleep in the end. I lay still by his side with very dark thoughts floating through my mind - I hate insomnia: worst case scenarios all over the place and about every situation imaginable! And telling myself that the exam "will go well" did nothing to help the visions going through my mind...
And now the test is done. And I really, sincerely hope to God that I achieved a pass. I think I deserved it. I just screwed up, that's all (and there's my luck again: this is what, the 5th time I study the wrong thing for an exam??)
I'm currently praying that I won't fail. I'm also thinking of Michael who's doing his history final today (he should be starting soon). Best of luck to him, I'm sure he'll do well.
Now there's only one more final to go before Germany. Victorian Lit. I still have to read Bleak House, but I think it'll work out fine. At least now I can breathe again. Victorian Lit isn't out to kill me, like the Japanese final was (it tried to choke me in my sleep! I'm sure of it!)
And now, dear blog, after the long promised post about the exam, my brain feels like mush. Seriously, I am surprised it did not come streaming out of my ears and nose during the exam like some gruesome pulp. Because it does feel thoroughly mashed (picture grapes being stomped on to make wine... yeah - that's my brain). I think that if someone was to crack open my skull right now they would not be able to tell the difference between what was once called my brain and a huge bowl of apple sauce... I don't know why, but I'm just convinced that my brain now looks like apple sauce. That, or it's fried... like when I fry an egg (i.e. burnt to a black crisp that set off every smoke alarm in the house).
Okay, enough now (geez - I can't believe how much I can write even in this state of... bleh!). I am going to TRY and get some sleep...
私は寝ています、ね？がんばって、ナリア！
お休みなさい。。。
P.S. Still no news from Germany for jobs... sad face... T_T
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Chapter 15 - In which there is a funny dream, essays and lack of sleep
HI!!! HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY!!!
(... I didn't just write that, did I? Hold on... yes... I did.)
(... I didn't just write that, did I? Hold on... yes... I did.)
Okay, so I had this ueber wacky dream last night. I swear, it sort of made me giggle in my sleep it was so odd! The funniest bit was that I was utterly convinced it was reality until I woke up in bed! And now you're all thinking: "get to the point, you silly girl who writes too much" so I shall indulge you.
In my dream, I was dating Michael like I am now... Except that I was in high school. My high school. My beloved, uniform-wearing Academy, where I hated the guts of three-quarter of the students for a period of six years. Anyhow... I was sitting at a table in the school cafeteria (THE school cafeteria, line with windows on either side, looking out on the playing field, the place that was a former dance studio...). I was wearing the dark green plaid skirt, the pale-blue oxford shirt and the ugly navy polyester cardigan. Even my hair was short, like back in the old days! Odd thing was that Michael was there with me. In high school. Dating me.
Now, this may not strike anyone as odd... yet. The thing was, in my dream, Michael's ex showed up. Not his real ex. Some nondescript, bland and boring brunette, the type of girl I used to hate in high school; the type of girl whose name you're not likely to remember... that was his girlfriend in this dream. She was just another typical high school girl that my imagination fashioned for the sake of the dream. Anyways, she was also a student at the Academy, for she was wearing the same uniform, though she was wearing it in the way that I used to consider "pompous and slutty".
Here comes the funny part. The ex-girlfriend sat down at the table with both of us, looking incredibly moody and in a huff. She started bad mouthing me about how I stole her boyfriend, etc. For some reason, Michael was very porcelain-doll-like in this dream: he just sat there, smiling an empty smile, not noticing anyone and unaware that two girls were fighting over his affections. Michael, if you read this, it's nothing against you: I think you were just... an accessory to the dream - like a very, very minor character. (I'm sorry!)
But back to the foul-mouthed ex. So she started ranting about me and insulting me and calling me names. I started to get really tired of her and it could potentially have degenerated into a cat fight. Not the case. Exasperated, I opened the little knapsack I had with me (now this is REALLY weird because it was so... well, SMALL! I usually always carry around an oversized heavy schoolbag!). I started rummaging inside the little bag to see if I could find anything that would shut her up (because whatever was in the knapsack was the obvious solution). I was mostly thinking about throwing something at her head. But the only things inside the bag were a pen and a flyer add for a "Miss Sixty" razor (WTF?? seriously!).
So I looked up at the girl and I smiled my nicest smile. I cut accross her ramblings and said: "I feel like acting sixty!" (which seemed a perfectly normal thing to say at the time) The girl cringed with dread when I pulled out the pen and the paper... but I just started scribbling down notes, completely unrelated to the situation, blissfully ignoring her... Because scribbles are the obvious solution against people who bad-mouth you...??? *puzzled look* And still, I was quite CONVINCED that this was reality. This seemed like a perfectly natural reaction to the situation. In the dream, I felt quite proud of my coolness and how I had handled the situation.
And then I woke up. Turns out I had onlly been dozing for a grand total of... 10 minutes. *sigh*
Oh, and as for going to Ottawa today - scratch taht. No; it's not because Ottawa is tiny and too far away to be appealing to me at six in the bloody morning that I didn't go. This morning, I recieved a phone call from my mum. She's really ill and has a bad fever. I will admit I'm a little concerned and I hope she gets better soon! Anyways, she can't go through with the two hour drive to Ottawa. It's not worth getting into a car accident for the sake of a bleeding passport (for those who didn't know: I need to get to Ottawa to get my passport renewed... fun times!)
In other news... I still haven't bought my fabric for the Erica Fontaine costume. I soooo want to work on the costume, but I am sooooo broke! It makes me very sad.
And as for essays... one of them is FINALLY done!! Three more essays to go! Two for Anime class (I'll be writing one about the use of genre in Slayers Next and one about the use of media/communication/technology in Gundam Seed), and another one for Victorian Lit. The Victorian Lit topics are so boring that I won't bother writing them down, else your brains will go to mush, dear readers - like mine did upon reading the topic. On top of the essays, I still have four exams and one 12 minute Japanese skit to go through. Then my semester will be over at last. *SIGH* I can't wait. It seems soooo loooooong! *cries* Needless to say, I'm tired of this semester: it's been a really crappy one and it's time for some vacation!
Speaking of vacation... I am FINALLY going back to Germany! We are planning the trip and it turns out that it is actually happening!!Michael and I will be leaving on April 30th and returning toward the middle of May! It will be great!!
And Michael will be RETURNING to Germany in August (lucky bastard)!! He got into a really cool summer programme in Weimar, Germany, where he score a lead role for the Mozart Opera, Cosi Fan Tutte. Not only that, he even got himself a good scholarship for it!! HUZZAH, MICHAEL!! I am really proud of him: the programme people obviously really want him!
Okay. Enough type now. Back to bed for me. Why? Because it's 5:30 in the freakin' morning and I barely slept (I couldn't sleep at all... fell into the weird dream doze around 4:00-ish). So I'm going to crash into bed and screw the rules of attendance policies - if I miss class, NOT my fault. Blame my brain for keeping me awake all night.
My typing is getting ridiculous. Get off the computer, Naria! GO TO BED!
Good day to all!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Chapter 2 - In which there is much complaining...
I hate waking up in the morning. I cannot begin to explain how much I hate it! And the worst thing? I don't even have to get up super early!! Today, I got up at 8:30 a.m. Now I feel completely exhausted. And nauseous. Because, in the morning, I'm always nauseous and dizzy (and I can guarantee that is a distinctly unpleasant feeling that makes you want to stay in bed all day). But, despite feeling dizzy, I sit down and write some Japanese homework, for my Japanese class that is in one and a half hours... It's just a really gross way to start a morning. Oh, and did I mention that it's bloody cold outside? Why would I even WANT to leave my bed?
...
Anyways, mornings have been getting much worse for me lately. For some random reason, I've not been sleeping all too well. I have been having all sorts of crazy nightmares (including one where my boyfriend was trying to administer a lobotomy to me using some plumbing tools - his main concern was that no one should see the scar - it was quite terrifying!). Not only are these unpleasant dreams to wake up from, but they also make me very restless at night. Even though I have theoretically been sleeping 8 hours, I feel like I've barely slept for 2 because my nightmares are driving me up the wall and giving me no rest... *grumble* I wish I could knock myself out for a day or two to catch up on sleep. Sadly, this is impossible due to school and rehearsals.
Speaking of rehearsals, the show is going quite well - though the conductor is getting REALLY annoying. He is... a bitch with a god complex, really. There is genuinely no other way to describe the guy. He thinks he's a miracle, a gift to music since Mozart - which I can gurantee you... HE IS NOT! He's not a bad conductor, but he changes his mind more often than stocks on Wall Street about tempo and stuff and it becomes really aggravating and frustrating in the last WEEK before the show. We also have a new director: 3 weeks before the show premiere, our old director was replaced. It stresses me out: we premiere next Friday and I really, really hope we'll be ready! We've got an amazing cast and the foundations of what promises to be a great show and one of the best versions of Pirates of Penzance ever made (me? exaggerate? not at all, why would you think that?) But, overall, will we actually be READY? There are so many last minute changes I don't know how to handle them (especially with 3 essays due the week of the premiere).
And, on a final note of complaint; yesterday I went through one of the worst classes of my life. I love anime, so you'd figure I would have fun in the 'Japanese Animation and Modern Media' class. Not the case. It is important to know that we have two teachers in this class. One of them is brilliant. I mean it: BRILLIANT. She is writing her PhD thesis on the Final Fantasy Franchise... how cool is that? I love that prof. Her T.A. though, who teaches half the time, is terrible. First off, she's Korean (I think) and thus has a very, very strong accent. I don't mind it, but she is really difficult to understand when taking notes. Sometimes, I worry that some of the things she says were lost in translation: half the time, I feel she doesn't know what she's talking about. Yesterday, we were discussing my favourite anime (Fullmetal Alchemist), and I can honestly say that I am a bit of an expert on the matter of that anime. So, when she was talking about the anime and getting many important things (and I'm not talking about details, but about key plot points) wrong, I was getting really frustrated. It felt as if she had never seen the anime and barely Wikipedia-ed the storyline! I kept correcting her and she just went "yes, that too," as if she just randomly accepted what anyone would say about the anime. I bet that, if I had said "Edward has one green testicle" she would have replied "that's right, that too!"
But the reason why I am particularily angry at that T.A. is because of what she said regarding Nazis. Don't get me wrong: I hate the Nazis. I honestly do. They do not deserve to live because I do not tolerate people with a superiority complex - especially not one that exceeds reason, as theirs did. But, as the T.A. spoke of Nazis, she blamed it all on Germany. She said "Nazis are a specifically German problem," "the Germans had no identity until the Nazis," and many more gross generalizations of the sort. As a German (okay, only my mum is German, but I do have the citizenship of that country and I even partly grew up there!) I cannot help but feel offended. Statements like that may be her personal opinion, but they should never be said in front of a classrooom! It is very offensive, and one could even call it racist. Nazis are NOT just a German problem! All it is, is that Germany gave a name to that phenomenon. You still have anti-Semitic morons that roam the world today, most of them in France and in the USA (neo-Nazis, white supremasists, etc.) How the Hell is that only a German problem then? Germany is quite tame in comparison to what some of these new generation Nazis are doing!! As a result, I felt quite upset by the teacher's statement...
Sigh...
Okay, I'd better stop. I am only getting myself worked up again. Besides, I should have some breakfast: I have to go to class in half an hour.
Sorry for all the complaining, should anyone read this.
...
Anyways, mornings have been getting much worse for me lately. For some random reason, I've not been sleeping all too well. I have been having all sorts of crazy nightmares (including one where my boyfriend was trying to administer a lobotomy to me using some plumbing tools - his main concern was that no one should see the scar - it was quite terrifying!). Not only are these unpleasant dreams to wake up from, but they also make me very restless at night. Even though I have theoretically been sleeping 8 hours, I feel like I've barely slept for 2 because my nightmares are driving me up the wall and giving me no rest... *grumble* I wish I could knock myself out for a day or two to catch up on sleep. Sadly, this is impossible due to school and rehearsals.
Speaking of rehearsals, the show is going quite well - though the conductor is getting REALLY annoying. He is... a bitch with a god complex, really. There is genuinely no other way to describe the guy. He thinks he's a miracle, a gift to music since Mozart - which I can gurantee you... HE IS NOT! He's not a bad conductor, but he changes his mind more often than stocks on Wall Street about tempo and stuff and it becomes really aggravating and frustrating in the last WEEK before the show. We also have a new director: 3 weeks before the show premiere, our old director was replaced. It stresses me out: we premiere next Friday and I really, really hope we'll be ready! We've got an amazing cast and the foundations of what promises to be a great show and one of the best versions of Pirates of Penzance ever made (me? exaggerate? not at all, why would you think that?) But, overall, will we actually be READY? There are so many last minute changes I don't know how to handle them (especially with 3 essays due the week of the premiere).
And, on a final note of complaint; yesterday I went through one of the worst classes of my life. I love anime, so you'd figure I would have fun in the 'Japanese Animation and Modern Media' class. Not the case. It is important to know that we have two teachers in this class. One of them is brilliant. I mean it: BRILLIANT. She is writing her PhD thesis on the Final Fantasy Franchise... how cool is that? I love that prof. Her T.A. though, who teaches half the time, is terrible. First off, she's Korean (I think) and thus has a very, very strong accent. I don't mind it, but she is really difficult to understand when taking notes. Sometimes, I worry that some of the things she says were lost in translation: half the time, I feel she doesn't know what she's talking about. Yesterday, we were discussing my favourite anime (Fullmetal Alchemist), and I can honestly say that I am a bit of an expert on the matter of that anime. So, when she was talking about the anime and getting many important things (and I'm not talking about details, but about key plot points) wrong, I was getting really frustrated. It felt as if she had never seen the anime and barely Wikipedia-ed the storyline! I kept correcting her and she just went "yes, that too," as if she just randomly accepted what anyone would say about the anime. I bet that, if I had said "Edward has one green testicle" she would have replied "that's right, that too!"
But the reason why I am particularily angry at that T.A. is because of what she said regarding Nazis. Don't get me wrong: I hate the Nazis. I honestly do. They do not deserve to live because I do not tolerate people with a superiority complex - especially not one that exceeds reason, as theirs did. But, as the T.A. spoke of Nazis, she blamed it all on Germany. She said "Nazis are a specifically German problem," "the Germans had no identity until the Nazis," and many more gross generalizations of the sort. As a German (okay, only my mum is German, but I do have the citizenship of that country and I even partly grew up there!) I cannot help but feel offended. Statements like that may be her personal opinion, but they should never be said in front of a classrooom! It is very offensive, and one could even call it racist. Nazis are NOT just a German problem! All it is, is that Germany gave a name to that phenomenon. You still have anti-Semitic morons that roam the world today, most of them in France and in the USA (neo-Nazis, white supremasists, etc.) How the Hell is that only a German problem then? Germany is quite tame in comparison to what some of these new generation Nazis are doing!! As a result, I felt quite upset by the teacher's statement...
Sigh...
Okay, I'd better stop. I am only getting myself worked up again. Besides, I should have some breakfast: I have to go to class in half an hour.
Sorry for all the complaining, should anyone read this.
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