friday february 27

today i arranged my evening music-listening schedule around the fact that my 80,000th scrobble on last.fm was imminent. i arranged it so that one of my favourite songs recently was #80,000, and timed it so that i played to that song just before i stopped listening to music for the night. that way, i was able to admire the round nature of the "80,000" on my counter for as long as possible.

thursday february 26

today i ordered some chicken wings at the green room. the wings came sauce-free, with the sauce on the side. unfortunately, this sauce was fairly hot, something i just can't get behind. as such, i was left with the choice of either dipping my wings in this unpleasant hot sauce or eating them sauce-less, which didn't make for much flavour. i even attempted dipping them in the salsa that had come with my quesadillas, but that was something of a failure. in the end, i settled on a combination of sauce and no-sauce, leaving me feeling fairly unsatisfied and likely to order something different next time around.

wednesday february 25

today i opened our freezer and was surprised to see a small box of vegetables jump out as i opened the door. with my spare hand, i reached out and snagged them before they hit the ground. pleased with myself, i looked around, but realized that there were no witnesses on the scene to be impressed by my cat-like reflexes; unless i wanted to set up a recreation of the scene later, which felt wrong.

tuesday february 24

today i had a class in the morning in which i spent time researching the hamburger chain fatburger (for personal purposes), and then completing an assignment in which i wrote an advertisement for a fictional burger joint. by the end of the class, my brain was so overwhelmed with thoughts of hamburgers that i immediately walked down to harvey's and ordered a cheeseburger combo.

monday february 23

today i was killing time online during a three-hour class that was in its last moments. the class had gotten progressively less interesting over its duration, and as i briefly scanned the room, i could see that i was far from the only one distracting themselves to make it through to the end of the period. the most blatant example of this, however, came from the guy sitting next to me, who had opened ms paint and was drawing random lines that did not in any way form an attempt at a picture. it took all of my willpower not to laugh out loud as i glanced over at his mess of lines that looked like the drawing of a three year old. the only activity i could think of that could possibly have represented a more devastated boredom was if he'd opened up a notepad file and just started mashing the keyboard and typing in random letters.

sunday february 22

today i crushed an unofficial oscars pool, despite having watched literally none of the films nominated except for the dark knight.

saturday february 21

today i decided to make a salad to go along with my dinner. it had been a while since i'd made a real, bona-fide salad, so i was pretty excited about it, and went all out; cut up a few veggies and had a nice palette of colours going. i put it in the fridge until the rest of my dinner was finished cooking, so i could eat them together. a few minutes later, i went to go grab it. somehow, i lost my grip on the bowl and it fell out of my hands, flipped over, and emptied the contents of the salad all over the inside of the fridge and the kitchen floor. lettuce and tomato and peppers everywhere. this was so discouraging that, after cleaning up, i almost didn't want to make a replacement salad. i'd been so into the idea of finally eating salad again though that i eventually convinced myself to do it. worth it.

friday february 20

today i was forced to promise that i wouldn't make fun of a friend eating ribs before she'd actually start eating them.

thursday february 19

today i got over my phobia of someone stealing my wet clothes when i left my laundry in the machine at the laundromat, and ran a few errands while waiting for the load. although it denied me some extra reading time, i felt so productive by the end of the endeavour that in the future i'll probably just plan laundry days around chores that i need to do in the area.

wednesday february 18

today i planned my evening around watching the 7:00 pm cavaliers/raptors game. since it was their first game since making a big trade to acquire shawn marion, i was excited for the first time in weeks to see toronto play. at 7:00, i went downstairs and browsed through the tv guide to find the game, only to realize that it was on tsn2, which isn't one of the one million channels that rogers' cable boxes provide.

tuesday february 17

today i went to three different restaurants/cafes in the span of about three or four hours. in each place, i ordered one item, to ultimately sort of compose a full meal in total.

monday february 16

today i let myself into a friend's house to crash for the night. as i approached the house, a cat that had been hanging out in the street followed me and raced inside when i opened the door. although i believed this was a cat that did, in fact, belong in the house, it was fairly dark, and there was a slight possibility that i just let some random street cat in for the night.

sunday february 15

today i spent nearly five minutes attempting to rescue a friend's debit card that was thought to be stuck in an atm but turned out to actually be safely tucked in her wallet.

saturday february 14

today i did other things on these days:

monday february 2
today i was getting off the bus from humber at the kipling subway station, when i noticed that someone had left their wallet on the seat across from mine. realizing that the person who it belonged to was already well off the bus and into the subway station, i took it up to the bus driver, and was followed by another female passenger. when we got up to the front, she took over, instructing him on what to do, and hanging around while he made a call. relieved to be.... relieved of this responsibility, i took off to catch the subway home. it later occurred to me that maybe she wanted to be the one credited with finding it in case its owner offered up a reward upon its return. would that hypothetical reward have been worth it to wait around when i could have gone home right away? probably not.

tuesday february 10
today i was given a second chance to hear rhymes from the college street rapper. this time, i couldn't pass it up. the result was a slew of words so ridiculous and indecipherable that it took an enormous amount of self-control to not just start laughing hysterically in the middle of the performance.

wednesday february 11
today i left class to pay a brief visit to the humber bookstore. on my way there, i was stopped in the hall by a radio student with a recorder, who asked me if i'd contribute a quirky story about a past valentine's day experience, for a piece he was doing. since i was in a semi-hurry to get back to class, i used that as an excuse not to stop and chat. in retrospect, had i not had that excuse, i may have been too polite to say no. at the same time though, i have no interesting valentine's day tales. essentially, my lack of time to spare allowed everyone involved to avoid a really awkward conversation.

friday february 13
today i was asked "how is everything" five times during my meal at ben thanh, shattering the old restaurant record. eventually, the constant inquiries made me vaguely worried that things at our table looked bad, like they needed to be frequently checked on.

friday february 13

today i listened to the guy sitting beside me on the bus to london talk on his cell phone for approximately 45 minutes. there were multiple times when i wanted to correct his misinformed opinions, such as his hypothesis on why the bus was crowded, which didn't even include the fact that most ontario schools started their reading weeks today. his worst offense came when we pulled off the highway into london and he told the person on the phone that the bus was now "on the outskirts of kitchener." i mean i know he was asleep for a while, but i hope he felt sufficiently embarrassed for putting that statement into the universe when we pulled into the london greyhound station five minutes later.

thursday february 12

today i was watching the office and 30 rock on nbc. in between the two shows, nbc showed a promo for 30 rock, the show which was beginning in about 30 seconds. the clip showed a plethora of scenes and basically outlined the entire plot of the episode. being extremely anti-spoiler, even when it comes to light, barely serialized sitcoms, i closed my eyes, put both hands over my ears and begin to make random humming noises to block out the promo entirely. while the technique worked well, i was very glad that neither of my roommates happened to enter the room at this moment and see me doing an impression of a four year old.

wednesday february 11

today i went to the humber bookstore and bought a sharpie for labeling burned cds. the total came to $2.93, so i handed the cashier a loonie and a toonie. she opened up the register and said, in a dismayed voice, "ohhhh i don't have any change." having left in the middle of a class to make this bookstore visit, and needing to get back, i wasn't about to quibble over seven cents. i made a couple of comments like "i guess i can go without those seven cents!" and, when she said she owed me, "i won't hold you to it!" a girl standing adjacent to the counter laughed so enthusiastically at these not-that-hilarious comments that it provided a huge ego boost. i left the store feeling like a really affable and charming person.

tuesday february 10

today i participated in probably the most fun public sing-along of my life, when i belted out "el scorcho" as loud as i could at a weezer tribute show.

monday february 9

today i was walking through the no frills parking lot when i noticed a man loading up his car with two-liter bottles of coke. he had no other groceries, just a trunk that was already filling up with two-liter bottles of coke, as well as a ton more still to move in there from his grocery cart. i stared at the trunk, mouth agape, for one or two seconds, attempting to quickly calculate, for the sake of the story, how many bottles he had in total; suddenly, i noticed that he was looking in my direction. i quickly turned away, not getting a chance to calculate as precisely as i would've liked, but i would estimate at least 50 or 60 bottles. at least.

sunday february 8

today i debated most of the day about what to do for dinner, as the contents of my grocery shelf dwindled. eventually, i decided to eschew getting groceries for another day, and order something from swiss chalet instead. unfamiliar with the menu, i decided to go to their website, and maybe even order online!! it was at this moment that our internet connection stopped working. despite repeated efforts, we had no luck reviving it. eventually, not content to pick up the phone and order without seeing a menu first, i dismissed swiss chalet and walked to pizza pizza to pick up a couple of slices instead. when i returned home, the internet was back up and running.

saturday february 7

today i responded to an inquiry about my "favourite literature" by incredulously saying, "what, you mean books?"

friday february 6

today i ventured out of the house to make stops at shoppers drug mart and the lcbo. thinking ahead, i brought a big cloth bag with me in preparation for the lcbo, since they always seem disappointed when i don't have my own bag. unfortunately, my first stop was at shoppers, where i had to buy toilet paper. the oversized package that i purchased would've been maybe a perfect fit in my bag, which of course i was still carrying around empty at this point. but, knowing i had to save it for the lcbo, i made the shoppers cashier put the toilet paper in a special, oversized bag, and felt irrationally guilty as i walked out with both that plastic bag and my empty cloth bag.

thursday february 5

today i was asked by a homeless man on college street, identifying himself as the "college madd rapper," if i wanted to hear his raps.

wednesday february 4

today i logged on to facebook in a computer lab at humber's campus and noticed that, for some reason, their settings are set up for facebook to use what appeared to be uk english. within a couple minutes of browsing, i noticed the following differences: i'm referred to as a "uwo graduate" rather than a "uwo alum" and people who are "maybe attending" event are referred to as "undecided." this was fascinating. even more fascinating was that later in the day, when i changed my own computer's settings to uk english to confirm what i'd seen, the "maybe attending" to "undecided" change did not happen. i now have no idea what to believe.

tuesday february 3

today i was walking down ossington behind a man carrying two handfuls of tools and supplies, when, unbeknownst to him, a screwdriver dropped out of one of his cases onto the sidewalk. i picked it out of the snow and called after him. no answer. i walked a little faster until i was right on his ass and said "hey!" a little more forcefully. he turned around and i handed him his screwdriver, letting him know that he'd dropped it a little ways back. he was so grateful that he said "thank you" four times.

monday february 2

today i wore a sweater to school that i hadn't worn for a few weeks. when i pulled it out of my closet in the morning, it was pretty dark and i didn't take a good look at it. this came back to haunt me when i took off my coat during my first class, casually scratched my shoulder, and felt something mildly wet and unnatural there. i looked at the shoulder and saw a giant stain that appeared to be pizza, presumably from the last time i wore the sweater, though i can't remember for the life of me how i would've gotten pizza on my shoulder. embarrassed, i did my best to hide my right shoulder for the rest of the day.

sunday february 1

today i watched a commercial for an ab machine that advertised, in on-screen text, its ability to allow the viewer to "loose one pant or dress size in just 10 days."

saturday january 31

today i went with another edition of "another thing i did on these days."

sunday january 25
today i caught a bus at the kipling subway station to ride out near the airport, in order to meet my mother for dinner. when i was coming up to my stop, an altercation broke out between a talkative, rambling passenger and the driver. "cut that shit out," the passenger explained. "you know what i'm talking about." no one knew what he was talking about, though he seemed to be referring to the way the driver was driving, and kept loudly requesting him to "cut that shit out." finally, the driver turned around and began giving it back, telling him to sit down and relax; this advice went unheeded. as i got off at my stop, the argument had escalated to the point where each man was yelling at the other that he "wasn't afraid" of him, with the passenger insisting the driver could call "the ttc police, the metro police, even the ARMY" and he still wouldn't be intimidated. the only way i could've possibly been happier to leave a bus is if i'd been caught on the one in speed.

monday january 26
today i noticed that our house's internet had stopped working. the router is in my roommate's room on the floor below, so i started heading down there to see if i could do anything to fix it. as i walked down the stairs, i heard her arrive home. she had just come a funeral, and was all dressed in black, so it seemed an inappropriate time to immediately ask about the status of the internet. i waited until she found out on her own that it wasn't working.

tuesday january 27
today i laid down for a nap in the late afternoon, and set my alarm for 6:10. when it woke me up, i became convinced that it was actually 6:10 am on wednesday morning, since that's the exact same time that i wake up on wednesdays in order to get ready in time for my 8:00 am class. it wasn't until i got up and started walking across my room that i heard the sounds of my roommates downstairs and remembered that i'd just been napping for an hour. i was so relieved that it wasn't 6 am that i went back to bed for another hour, and woke up at 7 pm with little confusion.

wednesday january 28
today i listened to the assignments of multiple classmates in my announcing class, where the rest of the class was responsible for critiquing the good and the bad of their recorded performances. when one classmate's assignment played, the room came to the consensus that he'd only had trouble with two or three pronunciations -- no one noted, however, that all revolved around the letter g!! at this point, i was struck with the urge to throw up my hand and point this out, finishing by exclaiming that "it ain't nuthin' but a g thang." i ultimately chickened out, however, convincing myself that since i hadn't yet spoken in class, this would hardly be an appropriate first observation to make.