The Chelsea Chamber

Welding Stinks

My door is finally fixed (it wasn't closing properly), however my room now smells of welding. Blah.

posted by Unknown @ 10:23 AM 0 comments

Contemplation on a Rainy Day

"In the rain the pavement shines like silver
All the lights are misty in the river
In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight
And all I see is him and me for ever and forever"

-from Les Misérables (the musical), Eponine's "On My Own"

I love rainy days in the city. Seeing as it is presently pouring outside, I thought I'd mention that.



This past weekend Cassie and I visited Ashlee at Bishop's University in Lennoxville. We had a jolly good time, I must say. We met loads of people, partied hard, and ate poutine- a perfect sojourn into la belle province. Happy Birthday to Ashlee!! Funny: the bar we went to on Saturday night, called The Lion, is one with which my father is familiar. He said it's been the Bishop's bar of choice since forever. So that was cool to talk about.

My mommy sent me another package- this one full of chocolate and my favourite snowman-shaped mug. I love my mommy!

I am presently feeling very energetic. The rain, the fact that I handed in one of my last essays this afternoon, an entertaining English Lit lecture, watching Friends with friends, the prospect of Starbucks... all these things have combined to replace my earlier dismal mood with one of elation. I think I shall put up Christmas lights. It is, really, the little things that make life worthwhile, cliché as that may sound.

Semicolons are little.

Nerve cells are little.

That reminds me: a little while ago I began making a list of things I like and things I dislike, partially inspired by the introductions of characters in Amélie.

"Raphaël Poulain n’aime pas : pisser à côté de quelqu’un , il n’aime pas surprendre sur ses sandales un regard de dédain ; sortir de l’eau et sentir coller son maillot de bain .
Raphaël Poulain aime : arracher de grands morceaux de papier peint ; aligner toutes ses chaussures et les cirer avec soin ; vider sa boîte à outils , bien la nettoyer et tout ranger , enfin .
Amandine Poulain n’aime pas : avoir les doigts plissés par l’eau chaude du bain ; être , par quelqu’un qu’elle n’aime pas , effleurée de la main ; avoir les plis des draps imprimés sur la joue le matin. Amandine Poulain aime : les costumes des patineurs artistiques sur TF1 ; faire briller le parquet avec des patins ; vider son sac à main , bien le nettoyer et tout ranger , enfin ."

And so on and so forth, characters are introduced with little summaries of what they like and dislike, culminating finally in the description of how someone's housecat likes to listen to children's stories. Trivial but oh-so-delightful. I love that movie. Anyways, what I am getting at here is that I garnered a lot of pleasure out of listing things I like- the smaller and more insignificant the better. I highly recommend it.

I like water chestnuts.

I like the sound of stiletto heels on marble flooring.

Gosh... I am now feeling like such an oddball. Oh well, I suppose I am at that.

Now that I am reminded of movies... I discovered today that Johnny Depp was in a film entitled "The Libertine," based on the life of the Earl of Rochester (a poet, for those who didn't know). John Malkovich is also in it, playing Charles II. I think I shall have to see it.

Anyways, I will now end this post lest I blather on any further. Tata to you all, and good luck in all your pursuits (finals are approaching- AAH!)

Exit Chelsea (finally, I'm sure you're thinking), Stage Left.

posted by Unknown @ 4:01 PM 1 comments

Cold

The weather is lovely, don't get me wrong... but I wore two pairs of pants to my religion lecture this morning.

I've decided that making snow angels in the sports field over yonder is certainly in order.

*continues humming bits of The Nutcracker Suite* Jenn I am still envious of you!

I think I need to get my hair cut sometime soon. I despise haircuts, I really do. It's always so depressing to see bits of my dark golden locks hit the floor, especially since my hair grows so slowly. *sigh*

Anyways, much to do, and little time to do it in.

Chelsea Out.

posted by Unknown @ 1:04 PM 1 comments

Good morning, snow...

Winter, if you'll pardon my language, has taken an unholy shit on my city.

posted by Unknown @ 7:14 AM 0 comments

Catch-22 and Deja Vu

Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for, so I have decided to live forever or die in the attempt.

Thank you, Mr. Yossarian.

For those of you who haven't read Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (and therefore did not catch my first statement as an almost direction quotation from said book), please do so the moment you have the chance. It is a favourite of mine. It simulataneously hilarious, tragic, and horrifying... a lovely cocktail of laughter, tears, and screams.

It has just occurred to me that this is the second book recommendation I have made here in the Chamber (see the post of October 10th, 2005 if you missed the first one). This presents a problem. I really ought not to recommend books, for then I'd be doing an injustice all the other incredible books I think you ought to read, and thereby doing an even greater injustice to the incredible books I ought to read but have yet to. Gosh!

In any case... my thoughts turned to Catch-22 for a reason. In the novel, the Chaplain is continually discussing the threefold phenomena of deja vu, jamais vu, and presque vu. All day I have been plagued by deja vu. It has been truly an uncanny experience. It seems that every other moment I am muttering suspiciously to myself, "Deja vu is a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something..." Hahaha. Seriously though, it has been very weird.

I just finished an essay (the shorter, less interesting but more pertinent of the two presently on my plate) on Political Criticism and Public Responsibility in Canada. It's very opinionated, with my own personal biases thinly veiled with objectivity, so I think I will be making some alterrations before I hand it in Wednesday night.

I've really very little of note to say... I have yet to see the newest Harry Potter film, but with all the other (likely better, sadly) movies I have also yet to see, that fact doesn't really bother me much at present. I am scheduled to see The Chronicles of Narnia film with Dave on December 23rd- so excited!

Speaking of excited: I leave for Bishop's on Friday with Cassie, as if I haven't told everyone enough already. :P

In any case, as I buckle down and get back to work (sigh), the question remains:

"Was it the same cat?"

Hehehe...



Row, row,
Row your boat
Gently down the stream;
Merrily, merrily,
Merrily, merrily...

Life is but a Dream.

posted by Unknown @ 7:54 PM 8 comments

Marilyn Monroe, the Internet, etc.

I've recently become taken with how gorgeous Marilyn Monroe was. Just look at this angel!




Well, several hours on the phone with Res-O-Net and a new ethernet cable later, my Internet lives again. Hopefully it will stay that way, because I don't think I have the patience for another resuscitation. With my Internet connection restored, however, I now feel connected to the world again. Honestly, signing into MSN after having been denied it for many days, I was like a smack addict getting a much-needed fix. Wow- that was a perfectly awful simile. How embarassing. I find it interesting, though, how much it bothered me to be without an Internet connection, when I can happily go weeks without it during the summer. I suppose it is just because now, away from home, it is my only real way staying in touch with everyone. It is also my favourite method of procrastination. Hahaha.

Speaking of procrastination, I really need to get going on those essays if I am to leave Ottawa in good standing this Friday. Cassie and I are going to party it up at Bishop's University to help Ashlee celebrate her birthday. I am so excited to see my Asher again!

Last night there was a mass exodus from the 20th floor of Thompson to Le Bop to celebrate Nabeela's finally being legal. Happy Birthday Nabeela! (Again.) We all had a great time hanging out and "shakin' our thangs" (hahaha I cannot believe I just said that) on the dance floor. We are definitely going to have to do that again, only next time Mandi has to come! Thanks to all participating Thompsonites... does anyone have pictures??

My mommy sent me a little package of fun stuff (including a picture of my kitty- I miss him so much), so now I am feeling especially loved. Three cheers for mothers. I can't decide if Christmas break is very far away or practically upon us. I suppose I just don't want to have to think about the fact that I will have to write finals before I get to go home and... work. *sigh* Money makes the world go 'round, they say.

Wednesday night I had a nice long phone conversation with Dave. That was SO great.

Tuesday night ( I realize that in this post none of my recollections have been in chronological order, but oh well) Amanda and I had a great time. We spent the evening and early morning being absolutely ridiculous. I won't even get into what we did for fear of ruining the reputation of the Ladies of 2014. Let's just say we had a silly girl's night, and were asked several times if we were drunk/on drugs... of which were neither, just for clarification. We went a little nuts with Mandi's digital camera, and took lots of pictures of us goofing around in our pjs. Most of the pictures are up on Mandi's MSN Space if you'd like to see them, but here are just a few:








This has been a really long post... My sincere apologies for taking up your time (that is if you happened to make it this far) with my rambling. If I get as much written down on my essay as I have on my Blog tonight, I shall consider it a very productive evening.

As always, I hope everyone is well. I shall talk to you soon, I expect.

Exit Chelsea, Stage Left.

posted by Unknown @ 10:34 PM 0 comments

Internet-less and Feeling the Lack

My Internet has not been functioning for the past two days, and I just figured out why. It turns out there is something wrong with the outlet in my wall, so when I plug my ethernet cable in it still thinks it is unplugged. Bollocks. Now I need to file a work order or something with the residence. Who knows how long that will take? Hopefully Amanda will permit me to use her outlet (as I am doing now) every once in a while and she can use the unreliable wireless network. That would be sweet of her. I feel so cut off from the world without my Internet; MSN and email are important methods of communication to me.

It is officially winter. The snow is on the ground and the slush is on the roads and I am wearing two pairs of pants. I bundled ridiculously to go to my religion lecture this morning, because it is the farthest away of my classes (over in the engineering complex, which is only an 8 minute walk away, but STILL).

I have my second psychology midterm tomorrow. I am not exactly nervous for it, but I am not yet as well prepared as I need to be, so there will certainly be a lot of studying done today. I also have two essays to write for next week, one of which I am still not entirely sure what to write about. Uh-oh.

On the weekend we had a surprise birthday party in the common room for Nabeela. She is 18 years old and is now an adult (legally, I like to say, if not mentally :P ). We set off the smoke detector due to candles and sparklers. Good times.

It seems that I have acquired a reputation as a merciless but terribly effective editor. I now get to indulge my neurosis on a regular basis by gutting people's work for punctuation, grammar, and structural weaknesses. Cruel as I often feel, I am told that my suggestions (though I maintain that not all need be heeded, as they are suggestions only) do improve marks, and as a result I now have people claiming to be "forever in my debt." I do accept bribery and incentives, in case anyone was wondering (thanks Waseem, I love you). Hahaha. No seriously though, I cannot stress enough the importance of having your work edited and proofread by as many people as possible. Jenn has always been a favourite of mine to go to, just because she can be just as splendidly picky as I. Leaving your work for a day and then going back to it is also wise. I am forever disgusted by the stylistic and structural weaknesses I find in my writing after going back to it later... Another reason why writing at the last minute isn't wise, though everybody does it (myself unfortunately included). *sigh* Given all the time in the world, the things we could accomplish...

Anyways, I suppose I ought to get down to work now. Hope you all have a nice day.

Chelsea Out.

posted by Unknown @ 1:58 AM 5 comments

Tummy aches

This evening I learned an important lesson:

Contrary to what one might be inclined to think, there is indeed a such thing as too many perogies.

posted by Unknown @ 6:23 PM 2 comments

Snowballs

Thompson Rez just had it's first indoor snowball fight of the season. It involved the 20th floor, some very rowdy boys, and the serious violation of an elevator.

Great fun.

posted by Unknown @ 3:04 PM 2 comments

The Family Guy Movie...

I just got back from watching an hour of family guy with floor people. It is so odd to watch television, seeing as I rarely have in the past year or so. However, chilling in the common room and watching TV is fun. I finished off my essay proposal and preliminary bibliography for my Religion and Culture in Canada class, and now I am munching on Kellogg's Just Right cereal and posting on my Blog while I wait for Mandi to polish off the essay she wants me to edit for her. Hooray for editing. *cackles maniacally as she readies her red pen* Hahaha.

This weekend was, as promised, pretty insane. Friday the boys arrived far faster than is probably safe (I guess Jaymie has a heavy foot), so uOttawa was graced by Jaymie, Kyle, Loney, and Tyler... Throw Mandi and Cassie into the mix (with three other girls I never had the chance to meet) and I am told their night at the hotel in Hull was very fun. Ian and I opted to be responsible and attempt to do homework so we could justify going out with them on Saturday. Believe me, the effort was herculean.

Saturday night I went and chilled over at Ian's for a while, so his floormates had another ally in teasing him mercilessly. After that we came back to the good ol' 20th floor of Thompson to collect Ahmed and Nataliya and head off to Le Bop. The wait in the line was short, and we met up with more people once we got there, including the Markham boys with Mandi and Cassie. That was such a fun night: good music, good company, good fun. Le Bop rocks! Pictures are up on Mandi's space if you want to check that out.

Needless to say everyone was rather worn out when the weekend came to a close. The boys left early Sunday.

This Wednesday I have a psych evaluation and an in-class writing evaluation in my Workshop in Essay Writing class. Yee-haw.

I'll be having a movie night with Mandi and Andrew sometime this week. We'll probably watch American Beauty and Snatch, but who knows?

Anyways, time for me to go edit an essay then take a shower. Hope all is well.

Exit Chelsea, Stage Left.

posted by Unknown @ 11:40 PM 4 comments

Eng Lit Pre 1700 exam = done!

I just got back from writing my English Literature Before 1700 exam, and so my weekend can begin. I am so relieved. That is not to say that I haven't still a gross amount of work to do (the reading never stops, the essays, another psychology evaluation... you know), but now that my exams are basically done for the time being, I can relax and get back to some semblance of a normal functioning life. I never thought I'd be excited to do laundry.

I haven't posted in quite some time, so I am not sure exactly what to talk about. Pretty much I've been studying and sleeping the time away, with the occassional social thing thrown in (let's get serious, how much do I want to study on Saturday nights?). So rather than tell you about my eventful but rather uninteresting existence, I suppose I'll just pick up again.

This weekend Tyler, Jaymie, Cory, Kyle, and Mike are coming up, so Friday night and Saturday are going to be a little crazy, but lots of fun.

Now that exams are done I get to start working on essays. The fall edition of YAWP, our literary publication, is due out soon. I am a reviewer, which means I help pick what goes in and what doesn't. As a result, I had to spend a few nights reading and rating the submissions, which altogether encompassed well over a hundred pages. So that was mostly fun. If you care at all about renaissance/17th century poety, I have a story for you. Talk to me.

So, either I have nothing of relevance to say or I've forgotten how to blog. I think I'll end here. Hope everyone is well.

Exit Chelsea, Stage left.

posted by Unknown @ 4:05 PM 0 comments