tuesday april 29

today i proclaimed that my social goal for the summer was to be "a tour-de-force of charisma and charm, putting 100% effort into every night out instead of just the one in three or so that i do now." though hours later i'm still dedicated to the idea, i'm also already concerned about how mentally taxing it could potentially end up being.

monday april 28

today i made my sixth straight successful bet on the nba playoffs, leading me to briefly entertain the plausibility of moving to las vegas and attempting to make a living solely on poker and sports bets. i had to remind myself that i'd only ever made seven nba bets, and continued success at much higher stakes probably wasn't a sure thing.

sunday april 27

today i was driving my parents home from the airport when i thought i saw one of my very best friends standing on the corner of oxford and richmond. i pointed her out and was on the verge of waving as i passed by, when i suddenly realized that it wasn't her, but rather someone who looked remarkably similar. later in the day, when i saw another one of my best friends in an unexpected situation, from a bit of a distance, this previous gaffe led me to almost let her walk by without saying anything, while i made 100% sure who it was.

saturday april 26

today i pulled into the ben thanh parking lot downtown, looking for a spot to park, and was disappointed to find it entirely full. i drove about halfway through the lot when suddenly a car in my rear-view mirror started to pull out of its corner space. relieved, i kept driving through the lot, intending to claim the spot on my second time around the lot. to my dismay, just as i was approaching the lot's entrance, another car pulled in right ahead of me and began driving in the direction of the lone free space. i continued driving, practically tailgating this newcomer, hoping to force the driver to rush their decision-making process with me on their tail, perhaps forcing them to miss spotting the already hard-to-see parking space in the corner. amazingly, this was exactly what happened, as they coasted right past the empty space, leaving it all to me, karmic retribution from the parking gods!!

friday april 25

today i got on a bus at oxford and richmond to go home, when suddenly the bus began to talk. "NEXT STOP: OXFORD, AT ST. GEORGE... NEXT STOP: OXFORD, AT TALBOT... STOP REQUESTED." while i'm not unaccustomed to these updates in other cities' public transportation, it marked a first-time occurrence in my 10 years of taking london transit, and could very well change the whole ltc landscape if it's being worked into every bus. namely: will force me to always remember to bring my ipod so i don't have to listen to that incessant voice.

thursday april 24

today i received my first piece of what i'll call 'fan mail' for my blogging endeavours here on one thing i did today. it only took 527 days, but it really makes me feel like finally, i've made it.

wednesday april 23

today i received a phone call from a friend for the sole purpose of asking me whether or not it would be appropriate to wear sweatpants with "HURON" on the ass to the alex p. keaton.

tuesday april 22

today i felt like crying after watching chris bosh miss a potential game-winning shot and seeing the raptors lose their most recent playoff game by a point. it was pretty much the male equivalent of the notebook.

monday april 21

today i suffered a moment of extreme embarrassment when i realized that, in a drunken baseball conversation the night before, i'd repeatedly referred to brewers second baseman rickie weeks as "richie," a gaffe of tim mccarverian proportions.

sunday april 20

today i strained, or maybe pulled, a muscle in my back while playing basketball with myself. the injury occurred while i was aggressively pursuing a loose ball (to reiterate: against no one) and resulted in my having trouble breathing and turning from side to side for the rest of the day. still, i felt good that it happened as a result of physical activity and not from something more embarrassing and more expected, like violently shifting positions on the couch.

saturday april 19

today i wrote my last exam of undergrad and promptly celebrated by napping, eating leftovers, and watching playoff basketball games all day at home by myself.

friday april 18

today i had a nap approximately two hours after my parents had left to go to florida for the week. during the nap, i had an extremely unpleasant dream about hosting a house party that went horribly wrong, with household items destroyed and money stolen. it was an alarming cautionary tale, as told by my subconscious.

thursday april 17

today i wrote an exam for english 254e, in which i was so opposed to writing about any w.b. yeats poems that, in the section which relied on identifying passages, i eschewed the only passage that had been identified for us (practically handing a bonus on a platter!) since it came from yeats's purgatory.

wednesday april 16

today i spent much of the day studying for an upcoming exam in a class where the subject matter and my notes were mostly incomprehensible. yet the most confusing moment of my day came when i accidentally watched the wrong 'part 1' of a three-part episode of peep show on youtube, destroying the flow of the episode entirely.

tuesday april 15

today i ordered a piece of lemon meringue pie at williams downtown. after i'd paid and received my 'number' and things appeared finished, i thought i heard the guy behind the counter say "how's it going?" to me, as if i were a new customer just approaching. confused, i assumed maybe he was already talking to the next person in line, but he was staring directly at me still, so i uncomfortably replied "oh... all right." as soon as i said this, i realized he hadn't said "how's it going?" but rather "have a good one" and that his smile had waned as a result of my fairly rude reply.

monday april 14

today i left a voice message on a friend's answering machine. concerned that she was there but just not picking up the phone, i commented: "okay, if you don't pick up in... five seconds, i'll assume you're not there!" unsure of whether to keep talking during this five seconds or to wait and see what happened, i waited a beat and then realized that i was now committed to waiting out the entire five seconds in silence. they were probably the longest five seconds of my day.

sunday april 13

today i watched the abc broadcast of the pistons/raptors game and became irrationally irritated when hubie brown repeatedly pronounced the first syllable of jose calderon's name like, say, "california" rather than "callgirl."

saturday april 12

today i hailed a cab with a friend sometime after 2:00 am or so. as we were getting into the back seat, a guy and a girl came charging over, seemingly from the other side of the road, yelling that we'd stolen the cab from them. they continued harassing us, asking which way we were going, before i finally went to close the door on them. just before i slammed it shut, the guy muttered: "you guys are fuckers."

friday april 11

today i was flipping stations on my television when i came across the pittsburgh penguins/ottawa senators playoff game on cbc. there was 4:36 remaining the third period and the score was tied at 3. the situation was exciting enough to make me watch the rest of the game, which saw the penguins break the tie with about a minute left, and then hold on to win. it marked the first four minutes and thirty-six seconds of hockey that i've watched all season, a remarkable feat considering i participate in a weekly radio show that discusses hockey every week.

thursday april 10

today i put off the writing of my final undergraduate essay by watching say anything... on 'showcase diva' from 12:30 to 2:40 am. the irony here of course being that if i'd actually wanted to WATCH say anything..., which i didn't, then i easily could've taken the dvd on my shelf and popped it in at any time, saving myself the tediousness of watching lengthy sets of commercials every few minutes.

wednesday april 9

today i was sitting on the bus coming home when the woman sitting in front of me spilled what appeared to be an entire tim horton's coffee on the floor of the bus. unable to avoid the spillage as it left its trail over virtually the entire bus, as it braked, accelerated, and turned, i was forced to endure the rest of the ride home with my feet hovering a foot off the floor to avoid getting coffee all over my shoes.

tuesday april 8

today i called my hairdresser to schedule a haircut. she had been on vacation since easter weekend, so i was relieved to finally get through and get a time set. i made an appointment for saturday april 19 at 8:00 am -- this being the first available time that i could make -- and was pleased with myself, when, 15 seconds after getting off the phone, i realized that i had an exam at 9:00 am the same morning.

monday april 7

today i was depositing some cheques and withdrawing some cash at a td bank machine. the process, of course, required a lot of button-pushing and i was getting pretty quick on the draw. when one yes-or-no question came up, however, i pushed 'yes' and nothing seemed to happen, except that the machine made a slight humming noise. suddenly, it began to beep loudly and incessantly, as if something had gone wrong. i nervously looked around to see if anyone else had witnessed me breaking the machine, and was beginning to wonder if i was going to have to go inside to ask for help to excavate my bank card. all of the sudden, the machine spit out my card and came up with a message indicating i'd taken too long to choose yes or no, and it had timed out. apparently i'd been a little too quick on the draw and made my 'yes' click before the machine was ready.

sunday april 6

today i realized that the idea of being involved in "party games" invariably makes me worried and anxious, particularly when it's a mystery what the game(s) will be.

saturday april 5

today i was able to drive around extensively with windows down for the first time of the year, and was chirped at no less than three times by various other motorists.

friday april 4

today i hypothesized to my parents that the reason i'm a light sleeper stems from a scene in one of the mighty ducks movies (i suggested d2, but now that i'm thinking about it, it could be d3). in the scene, some characters put shaving cream on the hand of a sleeping character, then tickled his face with a feather to make him cover his face with the cream (no homo). ever since seeing that scene, i theorized, i've been paranoid that the same thing would happen to me, and therefore wake up whenever anyone walks into my bedroom, no matter how quietly.

thursday april 3

today i went to classes jacketless for the first time so far this year and it was every bit as wonderful as i anticipated.

wednesday april 2

today i was reading the gazette when i came across an opinion column that expounded the exact same argument i made about musical guilty pleasures in my really exciting alternate blog a couple weeks ago, minus the part about porn and plus a lot of stuff about ska music.

tuesday april 1

today i braced myself from the moment i woke up for april fool's day pranks, and was slightly disappointed when i encountered none the entire day.

monday march 31

today i was sitting in a dental office, waiting to be called in for my appointment, when i overheard a child's voice, saying numbers every couple seconds: "3... 5... 4... 3..." and so on. it was quite eerie, and if not for the receptionist's making small talk in the foreground, would have made for a good sample to use in a song, reminiscent of the one in "aquarius" by boards of canada.