Friday, December 24, 2004
CHRISTMAS EVE

Well it's been extremely busy since school ended but it's almost here... yay for Christmas!! I started getting in the holiday mood the day after I moved out of rez. I went over to Christina's house and baked stuff for her Christmas party with her. She finally broke out her new Kitchen Aid mixer (damn those things are great) and we made ginger bread cookies, pinwheel cookies, a cake and I think maybe something else but I can remember. Her party turned out great (as always). We had a ton of food that was sooo good... shell pasta, lemon chicken, roasted vegetables, rosemary and olive oil bread (ah bread), some other stuff and oh oh crepes for dessert!!! Tania did a great job making them. After dinner, John taught Lisa and I how to play Texas Hold'em and OMG I'm I ever addicted to it now. I won the first round and Pawel took the second it was so much fun. I gotta get me some poker chips!

Tuesday morning had to be the worse morning of my entire life. I don't think I've ever felt so much pain. I felt like I was going to die but hey doesn't being a girl rock (can you hear the sarcasm?). Anyway, after drugging myself up I mannaged to down a couple pieces of toast before going to the ballet. Janine, Christina, Lisa, Iris, Alaina and I went to the The Nutcracker and the Hummingbird Center. Oh it was sooo good and the costumes were so pretty. I'm not sure if I've actually seen it before, I may have in elementary school but really can't remember. After the ballet Christina, Iris and I decided to get some dinner (boy did I need it), so we ate at Shopsy's (I think that's what it was called), which was right across the road. I got the all day breakfast they had... ah it was really good, but my opinion on it could be slightly biased since I was starving and at that point probably would have eaten anything. It was a really nice way to end what would have otherwise been a horrible day.

Wednesday I went up to Blue Mountain with Christie and Rachel for a little snowboarding. I always like to start off the year on the baby slope just to get back into things... what a mistake that was. On my first run I hit a patch of ice and fell face first into it. My first thought was "oh shit I think I broke my nose", but I was ok... well at least I thought I was, but later when I took a look in the mirror I saw that I had cut my nose and chin. After that run I didn't really fall again. We managed to make out way across the mountain and ended up at the cutest little village. I was all decorated with lights and kinda reminded me of santa's village or something. We decided to stop here to get some dinner at the cafeteria, boy what a disaster that was. The line up to pay was like a mile long and it wasn't moving because the cash registers wern't working and there was only one lady on till doing everything by hand. So oh course we all started eating out food in line, I managed to eat about half of it (now 20 minutes waiting in line) before a very unfortunate event occured... I knocked the damn tray on the floor just before I got the cash register to pay. Man was I ever pissed off... oh course I payed for it but didn't get to eat anymore. After dinner we went back out into the village and got soem beaver tails for dessert.. ah they were really yummy... deep fried goodness. We also joined this group of drunk people by a fire and sang some Christmas carols while warming up (it was really fun and quite an interesting experience). After that it was back to the slopes for the rest of the night. When we got back to Mississauga there was a friggin snow storm so it took a while to get home. Rachel drove me to my house but because the roads were bad, decided to just stay over night. When we got up Thursday morning there was an ice storm and everything was white... so it looks like it'll be a white Christmas since I doubt this snow will be going anywhere anytime soon.

I'm going to my aunt's house for our traditional dinner tonight and tomorrow we had Christmas here with my mom's side of the family. It should be a lot of fun. I'm not really sure what I'm getting but I know there's going to be some clothes, some stuff from amazon and maybe the first season of My Little Pony on DVD (I nearly died of shock when I saw that). Ah, I love Christmas...


Thursday, December 16, 2004
FINISHED EXAMS!!!

Yay, I'm done!! I had my last exam this morning and it totally sucked but I couldn't care less (even though I should since it was worth 50% of my mark - why do profs do that?). Anyhoo, I'm not moving out of rez until tonight so I've got a bit of time to piss away... hence the blogging... Sooo...

Monday was Stacey's birthday so we all went out to see a movie and then to dinner. We saw Ocean's 12 which was not quite so good as Ocean's 11 but not absolutely horrible... they did have Julia Roberts playing Julia Roberts though... After the movie we went to Tucker's Marketplace for dinner. It's a buffet type restaurant with pretty decent food... a little expensive but if you eat a lot it pays for itself.

We all decided to give each other our Christmas presents early so obviously we all ended up opening them... just another way to procrastinate. Anyway, I got a bunch of really nice presents... got some new decorative socks and a hamster stuffed animal from Christie, star earrings and chocolates from Rachel and a "grow a nerd" and Pillsbury doughboy ornament from Stacey (take a look at my yahoo pictures to see the grow a nerd!). The funniest thing was the earrings though. I got Rachel the exact same pair! I guess great minds do think alike. Actually it's probably because when we were at the new mall together we both really loved the earrings but just didn't buy them. Ah I just love Christmas. I absolutely can't wait for it to come. We're definitely putting up the tree this weekend, I'm gonna try to decorate the house as much as possible this year since we really didn't get to have Christmas last year. I won't be able to decorate the banisters though... my mom won't let me *tear*


Thursday, December 09, 2004
I HATE HATE HATE RESIDENCE!!!!

Did I metion how much I hate residence.... well let me say it again I HATE RESIDENCE!!. I just got back from an hour long meeting with Paul Handley assistant director of recidence facilities and I can honestly say talking to him was like talking was like talking to a wall. When we moved into residence there was a ton of things wrong with our unit... oh blood stains on the matress cover... no that couldn't possibly happen... oh but yes it can. Along with gum in the sink, gun pellets in the wall, garbage in the storage room, white power which I can only assume to be cocaine on the carpets, oh and oh course we had no water pressure but we all have different standards... or at least that's what Paul Handley seems to think. Apparently biohazardous material on your bed is only disguisting to some people. I guess he doesn't think sleeping in a pile of blood and cum isn't such a bad thing. Ah but who am I to say what is acceptable. All of this aside we went to see him for a $20 fee we were being charged for a missing window screen. This screen was not present upon our arrival at the unit and thus we did as any good resident student would do, we reported it. Let me tell you I'm never going to do that again. About a month later it was replaced and a few weeks after that we got a bill. None of us could see why we should be responsible for something that wasn't present upon of arrival so we wrote and appeal. After another month of waiting we got a letter in a mail saying that the committee reviewed our appeal and rejected it... why? To this day I still do not know.... So now being extremely mad we wrote to Paul Handley who immediately informed us that he could not discuss our specific case but that we could come in to talk to him about the appeal process... why all the secretism Paul? why are we not allowed to know how the committe arrived at the decision for our case? The committe meetings are actually closed so you can't attend them and really have no clue whether they go on at all... Sooo, we went to see Paul anyway and got this whole big bullshit story about having to protect the confidentiality of the commettee members. When I asked if I could be on the committee he said NO... well then Paul, how do I know that people are getting a fair trial (and I say trial because that's what it is) if I can't be on the committee or sit in on the meetings? Apparently decisions are made by looking at the check in forms and the appeal written however, I have my doubts that this even happened because had they done this there is no way our appeal would have been rejected. Especially since my check in form clearly indicates that the window screen wasn't there when we arrived. So when I showed this to Paul he tells me that it's all really a matter of interpretation... um what the fuck is there to interpret?!? It clearly says that the screen was missing!!. So at this point I start to get really mad with him. He tells me that the committees decision is final so there's no use arguing with him because nothing is going to change... well asshole I just proved that the screen wasn't there what else do you want me to do. Obviously the committee didn't do their job since they didn't look at the check in forms so shouldn't this case be re-opened? No no that would be the fair thing to do and residence is all for raping the students... Well this matter isn't over yet... I intend to fight this to the death... oh and if anyone wants to send their comments/complaints/viruses/hate mail to Paul, he can be reached at: phandley@utm.utoronto.ca

Now on to happier topics.... I'm free!!! The week from hell is officially over. I don't know if I passed anything but at least it's over and I'm finished school for the semester. I only have one last exam next Thursday and then it's Christmas time. I totally getting the the Christmas spirit now. I'm gonna start my shopping this weekend... I just hope I have enough money for everything... I could very well be completely broke...

It finally snowed this week. I was so happy when I woke up Monday morning. It made me feel a lot better about the impending doom of the week. It's all gone now but it was fun while it lasted. Hopefully we'll get a big snow storm before Christmas. Anyhoo, here's some pics... One is from the fall and the othe is from Monday.