Parking potato.
Monthly Archive: January 2006
Sacred cacophony
This morning, I woke up a bit late and was feeling really lazy, so I didn’t go any of the morning services. Instead, I made time to go to this evening’s mass. Now, when the opening hymn started, I was treated to some of the most horrible noises coming out of someone’s mouth. I was seriously shocked at how appallingly off key this person was. Most people who are tone deaf are aware of it to some degree. As a result, they’ll at least turn down the decibels. Oh no, this woman did not even bother. She was belting out the tunes as if she wanted the whole world to hear. At some points during the service, I tried to surreptitiously lean over to my left so that I would not take the full blast of her diaphragm. Unfortunately, bending at the hip and leaning off to one side just looks odd.
I dunno. At some point in her youth, she must have been told, “oh what a voice you have!” Perhaps she didn’t see through the veiled words and thought it was a compliment. This is the result, folks! She was wavering and flirting with her voice like a good singer would, except coming from her it was like she was on a slowly vibrating platform while having her throat massaged violently. It’s the kind of shit that you’d see and hear on American Idol or perhaps to a lesser extent Canadian Idol. See, if she would at least listen to the pitch of the people around her, she’d know where to hit. But no! If the song went down, she’d go down. If the song went up, she’d go up. Thing is she’d never hit right on. If you were to somehow average out her pitch on a musical staff, I’d say that you’d be able to discern the proper melody.
The people in front of me were shaking their heads on every bad note and murmuring among themselves at the horror. It was so bad that she was affecting my ability to hit notes. You know how that is? Normally I’d be able to sing along without sounding like an idiot. However, her bad notes were so overpowering that I couldn’t find my way to the right pitch. As a result, I shut myself up for just about the whole mass. As soon as the mass ended, I ran out of there as fast as I could. There was no point subjecting myself to that torture any longer.
Now, I’m not claiming to have a great voice. Far from it. Thing is, I have the sense to know it. (I can hold my own though in karaoke, but that’s another story)
Cooking alone
I’m sitting here in kitchen with my laptop, waiting for a pot of water to boil. I’m cooking spagetti tonight, which is pretty good, all things considered. For most of this month, I’ve been eating out daily, and that’s been making a big dent in my wallet. So, I’ve decided that for the next little while I’m making a concentrated effort to eat at home when possible. So far, so good. I mean, when I woke up, I decided that cooking some biscuits would be a good idea. Just yesterday, I saw a box of Bisquick in the supermarket. I figured that having the mix on hand would be great when I had a craving for biscuits. I guess I just couldn’t wait.
So, alright, dinner now consists of spaghetti and biscuits. Unfortunately, I’ve got no one to share it with. All my roommates have left the house because they find that there are too many distractions here. Heh. I know it’s true as well. However, the comfort of home is of very high value to me. I’m not going to give it up easily, especially not for the stark, uninviting feeling that the library has. Perhaps this is major problem…
Fa Tsai! *SLAM*
For the past few days, Jenelle, Chris and I have been staying up really late playing Mahjong. It’s not often you find that many people willing to play, so when you find ‘em , take advantage. Of course, this is coming from a non-Chinese guy, so Mahjong players are still kind of rare.
Seems that here in North America, many many people are led to believe that Mah Jongg is just that silly solitaire game; however, the actual game is a lot more fun. Hell, most games that involve other people are fun. Prior to a few days ago, Chris had no idea how to play. When Jenelle and I told him we were going ot teach him, he was all “Sweet! It’s that solitaire game, right?” Soon enough, we was going “Pung!” as well as the rest of us. The game is not that hard at all. The hardest part is just learning what all the characters are–in particular, the numbers and the directions. After that, it’s all pretty easy. We even managed to each Conor how to play the other day. 
Waterloo phone number
Why does my Waterloo phone number have to be one that was once owned by a catering business?
And why do people call it, even though they’ve called before and got me telling them that the number is wrong?
Why do they hang on for a good minute letting the phone ring only to announce “oh sorry, I have the wrong number” when I answer?
And WHY OH WHY must they call when I’m asleep?
Exploring the unexplored
So, K, H, and I were looking for a room to watch a movie in. Our usual empty classrooms weren’t empty so we went exploring. there are so many buildings that we haven’t seen in all the five years we’ve been here. Each one is unique and beautiful. Exploring them Almost feels like we’re on Amazing Race 
Each is a new world to us who are really only familiar w/ Eng. Should do this more often.
Shying away from the real world
I’ve gone home for the weekend. I think that after the mess that was Wednesday, I just wanted to go into an extreme relax mode for a long period. Though, now that it’s Sunday, I think that this has been long enough. I’m ready to get right back into the groove of things on Monday.
Ah, Monday. It’s going to be a hectic day. The election signs are once again up. They’ve sprouted like weeds, making the landscape ugly with dirty ambition. Some sort of change is up on the horizon whether we like it or not, so it seems. Polls open at 9:30, and since I do want to make a decision, I plan on staying here Sunday night and leaving for Waterloo right after I cast my ballot. I don’t know how the traffic will be on the way back. I’m truly hoping that I’ll have missed the worst of the morning rush. If not, I’ll end up missing class. I don’t want to miss class again! Last week, because of all the Symposium craziness, I chose to miss all my classes to get other work done. Now…it’s been too long! I need to get back. It’s time to sink back into my reality.
Symposium going into the dustbin of history
OK, so I just woke up after yesterday’s exhaustion. By 6 p.m., I was struggling to stay on my feet. More often than not, I’d be sitting on the floor, back against the wall, all in an attempt to just get off my feet. By 8 p.m., I just wanted to collapse into a heap of flesh.
Our booth was set up by 8:30, and people started pouring into DC from all over. Our booth proved to be pretty popular. People were very interested in seeing our parallel parking car. For what I hear, there was a lot of buzz about it as well. People were actualy saying, “Oh! You have to see the parallel parking car!!!” It’s a good feeling.
Early in the morning I was pretty damn enthusiastic. I was offering answers to anyone who would listen. I wanted to demo the thing repeatedly to attract a crowd. Late in the day, I’d still make efforts to get up off my ass when people stopped to stare at our poster. At the very end, I was telling Keith, “Just put the car on the table. Maybe no one will drop by.”
You know, at the info session 1.5 weeks ago, the ECE people said that lunch and dinner would be decent. Jenelle predicted that it would be deli sandwiches and pizza–the department is notorious when it comes to feeding students at such events. I argued that they said it would be decent. Well, go figure: lunch and dinner were deli sandwiches and pizza. I was not impressed.
So, I got back from the event at about 8:30, and I slept since. Honestly, I just want a few days off to recover. My right knee is bruised from collapsing down to set the car’s settings. My body is achy all over. As I sit here in bed typing this thing, all I know is that I don’t want to get up ay time soon.
Recent Comments