Two Thirds Found or Replaced et La Vie Continue Sans Hesitation

As it is now approaching the season of thanksgiving- and seeing that it may take a little effort for me to get into the spirit- I am going to give you a list of ... let's say... 5, things that are worth your praise or gratitude.

1. The Cobblestone guys. Now, to begin with I was pretty frustrated with all the random sidewalk maintenance and reconstruction going on around my residence and extending out onto St George street, but the other day I was completely won over by the men who do all the concrete and cobblestone work. It had rained the night before and a puddle collected over a three foot stretch of the path so that students were forced to walked around on the grass on their way to Fung! (my caf) not that anyone of them really notice the difference between trampling the grass and using the sidewalk anyway. Amazingly by 3 or 4 that afternoon the guys who were working in the surrounding area drained the water, leveled the ground under the path and replaced all the stones. They did such a fantastic job that it makes the next stretch of path (which is wobbly and poorly done) look even worse than it did. They were attentive, fast and incredibly efficient. They smile in a polite-non-creepy-construction worker type way when you walk by. The following day when I was leaving my building, I got out the door only to find that my step had been completely removed. One lonely worker was pouring concrete and advised me to go to another door so I didn't accidentally trip or something. When I came back from class no more than two hours later I had a beautiful new step completely finished. Honestly, I think these guys might be here all year constantly trying to improve what they already have done so well, but I don't mind. They rock.

2. Reznikoff's employees. Polite, often flirty, kind and humourous.

3. Dryers. Dryers makes your clothes dry and warm and deliciously clean. After you have put them through for that third time, you open the dryer and get a wave of joy that everything somehow actually managed to dry.

4. Folk Music. Folk music is that kind of sound that is perfect for the mood you are in no matter what mood you are in. It can be depressing (Jim Bryson), uplifting (the Waifs), empowering (Bob Dylan), nostalgic (Cash) or prett much anything else. If only I were into drugs and not showering I could join some folk tour and live the hippy lifestyle, instead of just listening to the soundtrack.

5. My fish ring. Just when I was thinking about how I could possible be anything without my fish ring, it found its way back to me and said 'I am not anything without you either'. The best relationships are with inanimate afterall.

The Art of Losing Absolutely Everything I Touch

The list for today is:
-My new boyfriend. note: I am not looking to make a big deal of this, it wasn't a big dramatic scene or anything, just a decision that had to be made. So, yes it is sad for me but I am doing okay and not really looking to talk about it.

-My T card. Twelve dollars later I have a new one and my picture doesnt make me look like satan so I think it is a fair trade.

-My wooden fish ring. This was really really difficult and I am very upset about it. But c'est la vie.


I thought that maybe condensing my life into one room would make it easier for me to keep track of the things around me but alas, no dice. It seems the more I try to stay clean and organized the more things I lose or forget about. This is the real reason why university students live like pigs. If everything gets thrown into one pile there is only one place it could possibly be.

Also, I have run out of those little things that make you feel better on bad days (not to mention my creative ability, worst post ever), so let me know if you have any tricks.

Thoughts From a Tired and Hungry Mind

There is something about the lack-of-structure university class schedual that makes you eat weird things at unatural times of day. It goes beyond the constant caffein consumption (and believe me when I tell you that my caffeteria offers no less than twelve different energy drinks on a daily basis), and the don't-ask-dont-tell rez food attitude (how about meatless meatballs?).

The biggest change for me is the hours. Breakfast stays at its usual whenever I get up time slot and generally consists of a double chocolate muffin and a juice. Don't yell at me for this; it has a hell of a lot more nutrishional value than you would expect in the breakfast of a 95 pound female. I have difficultly with lunch since I am so used to eating it every day at exactly the same time. I like to refer to that part of highschool life as letting the herd out to graze. Generally I try to aim for a noon lunchtime but it never seems to work like that. Instead I just end up eating a salad, sandwhich or soup on the way to something else. Sometimes this ends in diasterous food spilling and embarassing stains. But no matter what I end up drinking Arizona Pommegrante Ice Green Tea. Dinner is dinner and I eat it whenever I can in a given day. Portions are as generous as one would expect from a north american institution and I always have my dinner with chocolate milk.

You would think that my feeding rituals would end there for the day, but if i dont eat anything after that I wake up hungry. Waking hungry is a terrible and sick feeling that ruins the rest of my day, so I find myself getting up in the middle of the night for granola bars, Mr. Noodles or rice. I am not sure how healthy this is for my digestive system, and I generally feel better waking up if I stay up later and have a second dinner at around 1 am. But that cuts down on my sleeping time which is no good.

Besides all of that I continue to develop my sweet tooth. Recently I rediscovered reeses pieces (thank you Aidan). I keep some in a drawer so I don't accidentally kill Ariel.

Sam

Eater of all things free

I wrote a post complaining about U of T newspapers that I may get around to finishing one day. I gave up on it because I got busy going home for the weekend and because somewhere in the last three days I found something more important to say. It is about people.

In the last days of highschool I felt so much like I was moving. A feeling sort of like the one I get from driving in Mustangs; no matter where I am going, it is somewhere that really matters. I guess I kind of figured that this was the natural time for us all to become adults, suddenly we would all just know how to live.

Then the summer happened with all of its melodrama and heartbreak and I lost that feeling. I replaced with a sense of hopelessness, a sensation of stumbling in the dark and when I got tired of that, I think I just stopped moving altogether.

One way or another (I am not sure how) I managed to make it out of that summer and into University. I survived the first week and than the second and somewhere in the last couple of days I came to realize that the people around me were all in the same boat.

I watched as friends of mine moved away from home to cities they had never been to, as they struggled with illness and boredom and fear, I heard them yell and scream about so many things, friends lost hope and doubted faith, I watched as a friend feared for the lives of the people he loves and I watched his mother cry.

In all of this, somehow I don't feel lost. I don't feel like we are all fucking up, or that somehow the world is less than what it should be. In all of this I have a suprising faith that never ever left me.

To try to explain where this comes from would be impossible and a waste of perfectly good words. So I will just say a little bit about the autumn, which most of you already know is a fundamental metaphor in my life. Generally nostalgia and sadness rule the fall. Death and bad things always seem to happen when the leaves change colour. Just listen to Hawksley Workman sing Autumn's Here and you will understand.

But for some people this weekend is the new year. It feels that way to me. It feels like if I make a resolution right this minute, I may have a chance of keeping it up for the next 356 days.

A dear friend of mine turned 18 today. For her the last year has been hard. For all of us, but I know just how many fences she has had to climb, mostly on her own. In the next twenty minutes she will be 18 and one day and it will start to seem like a new year never began, but it deserves to be said that she is a better person, in my view a stronger and healthier person, than she was this time last fall and I know that she, just like all of us, will be even further along when the calendars fall on this day again.

We are doing badly. We have crappy relationships and bad marks, we don't understand everything and sometimes we lie, we make mistakes unknowingly and knowingly but as I have always said hope is just a light to show you the way, but faith is what keeps you wandering around, even in the dark.

And more important than that, in this new year (even if it isn't a new year for me), every single one of us can look around and know that we are not alone.


Sam

A small note about fall fashions and one of the many reason why everyone does indeed love an asian boy

I love the fall fashion season. Particularily when it comes to men.

Originally I assumed that living on campus would mean living in a sea of sweatpants, and other such unpleasing articles of clothing but today I discovered the perfect mens outfit for fall at university.

Now I will try to break it down for you as a general example from which you can design your own perfect ensemble but I would like to first give a shout out to my muse; the random asian boy crossing the street to Trinity college (WHORE-sorry frosh habit) from back campus. Now in and of himself he was not strikingly attractive. He was so rediculously well dressed, however, that I nearly asked him if I could take a picture of him with my cell phone. He pulled off the look of all fall looks with an understated flare.

So for those of you itching to know how to look sharp at school or your place of business here it goes. Begin with your favorite non-ripped, darker wash jeans. Next throw on your favorite band t-shirt .

Now put down the Metalica, Rolling Stones, Jimmy Hendrix or Che Guevera shirt. Che was not a musician. Che hates you for owning a shirt with his face on it.

Instead think a little more independantly. Wear one of those great band shirts that doesn't look like a band shirt. Here are a few suggestions:
http://www.maplemusic.com/product.asp?dept%5Fid=43&pf%5Fid=40%2D46&lang=EN

http://www.backstreet-merch.com/bands/artb/product.asp?item=artb05

Then put on a good clean pair of non-flashy sneakers.

Now the piece de resistance, finish with an old school brown blazer-cut leather jacket.

Delicious.

Sam

ps. Women, I tried to find an equivalently fantastic female fall fashion but alas, why are you all out there in sweat suits, croped sweaters and leggings?

The stupidity of boys carries on long after they can be called dumb highschool guys

To begin with some epiphanies from the streets of toronto, the shelves of Robarts, the tables of fung and floor of my enormous closet.

-> Be careful about living next to a library shaped like a giant peacock. You will have dreams about it coming to life and shooting flaming (over priced) textbooks at you.

-> Fair trade coffee with clever names is not as delicious as it should be. It is clearly over compensating for it's mediocre taste by being morally superior.

->Don't buy coffee from Reznikoff's when you are already late for class across Queen's Park. Yes, you will need the energy boost to jay-walk effectively, but the thousands of tiny burns on your hand and the bizare array of stains on everything you are wearing will only cause others to look at you with pity and shame in their eyes.

-> Spend equal amounts of money on organization supplies as you spend on decorational supplies. This way your room will be just as clean as it is pretty. Or at least it will have the potential to be.

->Every student should be allowed to spend the same amount of money on new shoes as they did on their text books. This way I could purchase these:
http://www.shoes.com/product.asp?p=5029256%7EWomens&sc=WOMENS&variant_id=EC1016264

http://www.shoes.com/product.asp?p=5029783%7EWomens&sc=WOMENS&variant_id=EC1017601

simply for having bought physics concepts and connections.

->Beware the moderately naked guy from frosh week. His bizare exhibtionism may be a deceptive cover for a fantastically strange and wonderful person.

->When a bewildered old lady comes to your first year seminar, usher her to the nearest exist as quickly as possible. This way your actual professor wont get all confused and yell at you because they thought someone stole their class. Also, crazy old women are generally not to be trusted.

-> Attend poster sales, but keep in mind the thematic message you want your walls to give off. The ché style print of einstein saying "VIVA LA RELATIVITY" may be clever, but you may not want to see it above your bed each and every day.

->Be kind to your caf food. It tries so hard to make you feel at home. Although it may often be overcooked, overpriced and underheated, it is made with love and care. Also, don't spend your entire meal plan on jolt soda and rockstars. Being that caffeinated only makes you hungrier and further serves to depleat your resources.

->Go to China town for all your shopping needs but bring a friend. Ducking through crowded sideways, evading the live crabs and interpreting the mutterings of off the wall homeless people is best done in pairs.

-> Select your courses based on how close the bookstore you have to buy your textbook at is to your residence. If you can, pick only courses that are taught by crazy environmentalists who give you only online readings. Also, find a cheap massage place so your back doesn't start a rebellion uprising agaisnt you.

-> Lastly, study the inner workings of ceiling fans prior to moving in. You will save yourself time, energy and prevent looking very very stupid in front of all your guests.

Sam.
Studier of Religions, Fine Art History, Magical Physics, Shocking Art and French.

ps. try to enrol in a french course taught by your highschool teacher's favorite daughter. Possibly.