The Chelsea Chamber

Farzana and Jessica Rabbit

So Farzana is unable to come up to see Mandi and I this weekend, which I have to say is rather disappointing. I've pretty much decided to do homework and sleep the day away. :(

On the bright side, Mandi, Andrew, Spo, and I are going to the Bedouin Soundclash concert this Friday as planned. That will be so fun! Probably going out with floor people on Saturday night. More Markham people will be in town this weekend (Dave, Kaitlyn, Gokdag... etc?), but I don't know if we shall be seeing them, as our plans might not overlap well and Lowe has first dibs, I think, this time around, on Dave.

Last night Mandi and I watched 'The Incredibles.' Edna the fashion designer is easily the best character in the film, though obnoxious Cory the babysitter runs a close second for pure snicker-value. Mandi and I have been watching cartooned movies lately (it began with 'Madagascar,' Ali G as the voice of King Julian just slays me). Though I was appalled to discover that Mandi has not seen 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit.' That movie is a classic, and has one of my fav animated characters ever: Jessica Rabbit. Her greatest catchphrase: "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way." So here are some pictures of one of the greatest classic cartoon chicks ever.

That's Jessica Rabbit for you! She's awesome and that brings back memories. I could go for some schnazzy opera gloves like her's, I'll be honest. It's funny though, that they would put so provocative a character in a kid's movie. Actually, scratch that. Sexual content in cartoons is such old news, so I won't get into it.

We're likely going to watch 'Closer' tonight, Mandi and I. Clive Owen, Jude Law, Natalie Portman... (and Julia Roberts, but whatever) ought to be at least interesting.

Anyways, I have now been struck by the desire to talk about sock-rocking cartoons, but I won't at present because I am tired (English was so long today; that definitely felt like longer than an hour and a half) and I want to take a nap.

("Then fire the missiles!") Ha.

Exit Chelsea, Stage Left.

posted by Unknown @ 3:00 PM 1 comments

Pictures from Saturday Night @ Le Bop

Here are some pictures of our trip to Le Bop on Saturday Night. For more, see my Space and Mandi's Space.

posted by Unknown @ 5:52 PM 0 comments

Election Day/ The Weekend/ Househunting

Ottawa, recently hit by many varied forms of precipitation and temperatures, is now both snowy and icy. Though the slushy streets are presently devoid of tension and excitement, this chilly capital will, as of tonight, have a new government residing within it.Hope you've all voted, because if you haven't you have no right to complain about the government from now until the next election! So go out (now!) and do your civic duty, exercise your democratic rights, and give your opinion. Today is one day that the government has to listen to us.

So here I am, indulging in some undeserved procrastination and updating The Chamber. Considering how relatively unproductive I've been, my life has been fairly busy of late.

Tyler and Mike came up to Ottawa this past weekend. Amanda and I made a cake for Tyler, which we ate on Friday night. The cake was cherry chip with cream cheese icing, dusted in chocolate, and it was ever so yummy. A guy in my poetry class totally didn't believe me when my answer to the question "What are you doing after class?" was "Baking a cake." If the cake had not been for Tyler I might have considered bringing him a slice, but then why should such doubt merit confectionary reward? In any case, we baked the cake using the 90U kitchens (we have a stove in our kitchen here but not an oven), which was fun. Funnier, though, was Mandi dropping three raw eggs on our floor; thankfully only two broke. I wish that this demonstration of utter grace on her part was an isolated incident, but less than 24 hours later she managed to empty an entire box of powdered laundry detergent onto our carpet and into Tyler's shoe. Oh Mandi, how I love you. You are a great roommate and an endless source of entertainment.

Anyways, friday night was uneventful. We ate dinner in the common room with floor people and later on went to Andrew's to watch some Family Guy. Saturday we all slept in and managed to be a full half hour late meeting Mike and Cassie at the Rideau Centre. That wasn't my fault. Anyways, so the six of us (Ian, Mike, Tyler, Cassie, Mandi, and myself) ran around the Rideau Centre for a while, then we all came back to Thompson to chill for a while before a whole herd of us went to Don Cherry's to watch the game. I won't claim to be any kind of an expert on hockey, but I can say with utmost certainty that the Leafs got owned by the Sens that night. Our large group was mostly comprised of very vocal leafs fans; poor Curtis was certainly a minority as a Sens fan. Waseem was hilarious in his too-snug jersey, and more hilarious still while he was hitting on the scantily-clad sorority girls sporting Leafs apparel at the next table. Waseem, you're a true ladies' man. Most of us left before the game was officially over, because it was obvious that there was little argument as to who had won.

An hour or so later we left Thompson to catch the bus and meet up with Amanda's cousin Clay (who is super-cool, by the way) and head off to Le Bop. Clay's method of going to Hull, however, consisted of walking from where we met him at the war museum through the bitter cold and the icy wind. I no longer held it against him after I regained feeling in my face, but Andrew was lucky to have taken a cab and met us there later. Needless to say we took a cab home at the night's end. Le Bop was crowded that night but I think we all had a quality time. Mandi, Tyler, Cassie, Mike, and Ian left a little bit ahead of Clay, Andrew, Curtis, and I, so we cabbed back to Rideau Street where Clay could catch a bus back to Kanata. Rideau is fairly lively after 2am. The wait for his bus involved our first experience with shawarmas (I'm an official resident of Ottawa now that I've appreciated the Heaven that is a shawarma, I'm told) and running into Andrew's English prof in McDonald's around 2:30. We all agreed that that was pretty random and rather awkward. After we saw Mandi's cousin off and ran into a few more random people, the three of us walked back to campus. Both Andrew and I were still pretty awake, though, so we watched The Negotiator. Kevin Spacey is awesome, however I don't think I'll ever get over The Life of David Gale.

Needless to say, I was pretty tired at our delicious floor breakfast ('Ante Meridiem Chaw & Glutch'- we love you Ahmed and Veronica) that started at 11am. It was worth getting out of bed for though. It was as yummy as the caf's new (chocolate, banana, and coconut) cream pies, which are positively sock-rocking! Tyler came to the breakfast but Ian did not, for which we are very dissappointed in him, after being declared an honorary floor member too! Tyler left shortly thereafter, and we napped and read the afternoon away, until the time came to go see another house.

Now, I could write an endlessly long post about Househunting alone. The deliberations and discussions are still in progress, but I'll just satisfy myself with telling of a few of the valuable lessons we have learned so far:

Mission to DiscountRez: never put Ian in charge of finding directions to a place. You'll find yourself standing beside the Transitway while he looks around blankly and laughs as if he had expected the house to fall from the sky. Thankfully we ran into a nice guy who actually lived at the place we were looking at; turns out it wasn't complicated or very far away at all, but the bottom line is never delegate. The rez itself was pretty cool.

489 Maclaren: if you like Mandi, Ian, Justin, Curtis, Nabeela, or myself, say a prayer of thanks that we got out of this place alive. Ok, I exaggerate, but to any uOttawa kids who are reading this: 489 Maclaren is the crappiest place in the history of housing, and we decided that the landlady probably routinely eats her tenants. She could make more money if she rented the place out as a horror movie set... she could even star in the movie, she's a natural talent.

475 Catherine Street: this was easily the best place we've seen so far. The interesting experience here did not actually involve going to see the house or the house at all, it happened afterwards. Amanda had to call the cops on some crazy (likely homeless) guy who was violently screaming at and threatening a lady in a bus shelter outside a Harvey's. That was a weird and unnerving experience, but hearing Mandi recount how the Emergency Services operator asked her, "Do you need fire, ambulance, or po?" is pretty funny. "Po"?! Well, it all worked out in the end.

I have a lot to do and it is getting later than I had intended. Mandi and Ian are leaving in a few hours to go to the Leafs vs. Sens game... hopefully the Leafs don't get bent over a desk (pardon the metaphor) like on Saturday, because Mandi and Ian will both very dissappointed. However, no matter what the outcome, my spiderplant is still flowering and that makes me happy. It almost makes me less bitter at my poetry prof for assigning a two page 'essay' that is worth 15% of my mark. Two pages!? I could write twenty on this topic! Anyways, that is due on Wednesday, so I've got to get cracking and finish that up.

Farzana and Bedouin Soundclash on Friday!

Exit Chelsea, Stage Left.

posted by Unknown @ 4:53 PM 0 comments

And to think it all started with a simple couch theft...

Floor antics reached the level of ridiculous last night: Due to the obscene amount of work I had to do (and of course a nice mid-afternoon nap), I did not leave my room until the evening, some time around 5:30 pm. Upon entering the common room I was met with the news that, sometime during the previous night, someone had made off with our couch. Yes, because someone must have left the common room door unlocked, the 20th floor was hit by couch thieves. This strikes me as a rather inconvenient heist to pull off, as there are cameras in the elevators and who wants to drag a couch down twenty flights of stairs? But the fact remains that someone took the couch. Speculation was widespread that in fact someone on the floor had taken the couch, but given the limited space in our rooms this seems a rather silly thing to do. In any case, our C.A. (Josh) was notified, and all I really cared about was not having to pay for its replacement, cause I sure as Hell didn't steal the couch. Add this to the fact that our cable was out and our common room became an even less accomodating place to chill.

Then it happened: the floor was thrown into uproar because apparently some time within the 5 minutes that the common room was just left unoccupied, someone stole the other couch (the smaller one). The stairwells were vacant and the bottom floor was occupied by all the C.A.s who were having a meeting, so no one could have pulled a couch out of the elevators past them. In my opinion, that pointed to one conclusion: that someone on the floor had taken the second couch as a prank; and the prime suspects, Amanda and I concluded, were Waseem and Ian, just because that is something they would do, and they appeared too scandalized when we put the notion forth. So, unsurprisingly, Ian, Waseem, and Justin were found sitting on the couch in the guys' washroom shortly thereafter. The floor all shared in the humour of this joke... then it got funnier, because the three thieves were stuck on the couch. Yes, that couch was only designed to hold two people, and let's just say that neither Ian nor Waseem are skinny guys. So this is the sight with which we were met upon entering the guys washroom:


To make matters worse, in his efforts to "dislodge himself," Waseem managed to pull the papertowel/ trash receptacle right off the wall. So there are some floor damages for him to think about now.

This morning, when I entered the common room, both couches had returned and the cable was fixed for the TV. This has yet to be explained. Hahaha. So that is the tale of the couch thieves of the 20th floor... now I must go eat something because Ian, Mandi, Justin and I have an appointment to view a possible house for next year. Figuring out where we are living next year is irritatingly complicated. Wish us luck.

I am voting tomorrow. Hope you all plan to do the same. Have a nice week, everyone.

Chelsea Out.

posted by Unknown @ 1:58 PM 1 comments

The Energy and Eccentricity of Fridays

Vive les weekends! I am done classes for the day and for the next few days to come. Having had Fridays off last semester, the fact that I have class from 10 straight through to 2:30 this semester is a little irksome, but I do have Mondays off so I suppose I can't complain. Classes were nice today; I really do simply adore my French class. I have missed taking French so much. I won't, however, give an account of today's classes, because (first of all) none of you really want to read about that, I'm sure, (second of all) I don't especially feel like writing about class at present, and (thirdly) I am far too energetic right now to recount such matters.

I will, however, say that my psych professor makes me so happy. His vocabulary and manner of speaking are contagiously invigorating. The way he phrases things and the words he chooses to use fill me with pure, geeky, English-major delight. For example:

"Lions, my friends, are titanically boring."
"...And by 'natural,' I don't mean biotic, organic -like tofu!- kinds of research."
In describing various patterns on scatterplots: "You can have all your points nicely lined up like this [demonstrates]... or you can have all your points nicely lined up like this [demonstrates]... or you can have a BIG, AMORPHOUS CLOUD OF POINTS [demonstrates, this time involving the flailing of limbs]... like this."
"Women who are smarter tend to have higher social status, so they don't have to dress like hos to get respect."

Teeheehee. So that is my psych prof. I think that class will be entertaining. If he says anything else worth noting I may well convey it at some point. We'll see.

It has been unseasonably warm here in Ottawa for the past few days... consistently above zero, I believe. This would not be so bad in itself if it did not cause the Rideau Canal to be closed. I want to go skating! The necessity of bundling like an Antarctic explorer just to go to class doesn't really bother me anyways, provided I can skate. Grr. How am I supposed to hone my (very limited) skills if there is no ice for me to fall on? Haha- actually I have yet to fall skating this year, despite the fact that I haven't skated in ages... but that was another post, so I won't go on about that. I just want the ice back.

Mandi is rather sick and I have a touch of a cold, but since tidying my room, for some reason, I feel infinitely better. Funny how that works; perhaps I really am the clean freak Amanda accuses me of being. Oh well, it's better than the alternative, I say. Anyways, I think both Mandi and I felt good about going for yummy breakfast together. Hash browns rock my socks.

Emma and Ryan are arriving in Ottawa today to visit Ian, so it will be nice to see them. I have nothing extraordinary planned as of yet, apart from some serious Alexander Pope reading and other school-related obligations, but I am certain something will materialize. The weekend has scarce begun, and I am filled with energy and optimism at the prospects before me.

Here's a question: why is my surname not as interesting as 'de la Rochefoucauld'?

In any case, though I am sure I had something else to say, I'm going to finish here lest I get to rambling terribly, as I am ever so wont to do. It is time, I think, to put on some loud music and to give someone a hug. It's Friday and I hope we're all feelin' good. If you need added incentive, perhaps consider the random antics of The Happy Poster Project: (http://www.bloggerheads.com/happy/)



Forgive me if I've been overly eccentric. I'm in that sort of mood.

Happy Friday the 13th everybody! Put on your lucky underwear and have a great day!

Flourish. Exit Chelsea, Stage Left.

posted by Unknown @ 4:29 PM 0 comments

Divide and Conquer; Update and Entertain.

"Always do right.
This will surprise some people
and astonish the rest."
-Mark Twain

That is what my "Inspirational" 365-day calendar (a present from my Daddy, I believe in hopes to keep me motivated or something to that extent) tells me today. Not as good as some, but it will have to do. I do not presume to be so lofty as to be in a position to scorn the words of Mr. Twain. Anyways, I used that as a sort of introduction because it was upon my calendar that my eyes fell when I was looking around for some kind of idea. I decided to post even though I have relatively little to write about... which is proving somewhat difficult. I really do hate to ramble needlessly. I am presently eating Voortman cookies with milk, in case you care to know.

Next weekend Tyler and Mike are coming up here to Ottawa to see their respective girlfriends (and me [!] but I think I'm more an added bonus than a motivation for visiting, hahaha). So that will be fun. Hopefully Tyler will be kind enough to bring me my two sweaters that I forgot at home over the holidays; if not, I shall have to coerce Ian into bringing them back from when he goes home to visit the following weekend.

The following weekend, that of the 27th, will be so fun!! An entourage will be heading up here from Markham, likely to include Dave (who will be picked up at Kingston), Gokdag, Kaitlyn... and other people of whom I am not specifically aware but I will nonetheless be delighted to see should I be lucky enough to do so. Sadly, it is not chiefly Amanda and I that they come to see, this time around. Dave, for example, is centering his operations around Carleton U with Lowe and Kaelan, as far as I know. Stupid Carleton, hahaha. I'm joking... I'm just envious. I will likely see people at some point during the weekend, perhaps we shall all meet up at Le Bop. Failing that, I have promised that there will be a more uOttawa-focussed Dave visit at some point during the semester. However, this group's diversion to other friends has actually worked out very well for me: FARZANA is coming to see Mandi and I that weekend!! So since Dave (etc.) are visiting other people, Mandi and I will be free to spend time with our Fuzzer! Chemanza will be united once more, hooray hooray. I am so excited to see her... and, to make that weekend still better: Bedouin Soundclash is performing at uOttawa on the Friday night. Wooohooo! Hopefully Farzy wants to go, because Amanda and I surely do. I shall have to talk to her about that, because we need to get tickets soon. Thank you to Andrew for alerting me of the imminent performance... and no, 'When the Night Feels my Song' is not their only good song. Bedouin Soundclash = so fun. I am listening to their Sounding a Mosaic CD right now in sweet anticipation.

So, that weekend looks like it will be most entertaining.

I suppose that is all I really have to say. Later I hope to go skating, read some psychology, and vegetate a bit. Perhaps I will do some of my French homework.

Here is my randomly entertaining thing of the day, courtesy of Andrew: http://www.smalltime.com/dictator.html
Check this out. Read the instructions and have a go. This thing's uncanny ability to guess sitcom characters (or dictators) is rather impressive. Here are a few names with which Andrew, Mandi, or I tried and failed to stump it. This silly thing successfully guessed the following:
Estelle Costanza from Seinfeld
Xena (yes, the warrior princess... that doesn't even count as a sitcom and it still got it)
Lloyd Braun from Seinfeld (I didn't even know this character, but Andrew did)
House, from House
Daphne from Frasier
Eddie (the dog!) from Frasier
Santa's Little Helper (Bart's dog) from The Simpsons
Pam (Donna's mom) from That 70s Show
The Professor (the squid-faced dude) from Futurama

... and many others. I don't claim that it's infallible, but it's pretty darn impressive. I wonder what lifeless creep designed it? So, if you're bored, feel free to give it a try.

To finish off, here is a thought for you all, courtesy of the poet Langston Hughes:


Not the greatest of poems, but something I was thinking about. Hope you all have a nice day.

Exit Chelsea, Stage Left.

posted by Unknown @ 12:18 PM 0 comments

The First Post-Holiday Post

I am now back in Ottawa and posting again. Many thanks to Miss Jenny for the much-needed prompt to update my blog; I don't know if I either forgot or I was too busy or I just never felt like it. The last time I posted, I was still going on about fire alarms. I suppose the reason that seems so long ago is the fact that it was so long ago. Gosh what a lazy little thing I am.

In any case, a great deal of time and life has passed since I last posted, so I don't think I can really recall/cover all that has happened to me since, at least not in any sort of detail, but whatever, I have never claimed to be a terribly effective chronicler.

Finals went very well, I should think. I do not yet have all of my final grades for my first semester classes, but the ones I do have are satisfying, and I do not have any real reason to expect otherwise for the rest. Most of my last semester's courses are, in effect, simply being continued this semester (for example, my Lit Pre 1700 is now Lit Post 1700), with a few exceptions: Workshop in Essay Writing is gone forever, hallelujah. I cannot like a course simply because it was easy. Relatively easily attained high marks may help make a class more endearing, but sometimes that help is not enough. The prof did have a PhD in Shakespearian Studies, though, and we did get to read Pico Iyer's article In Praise of the Humble Comma, but other than that the class was a little dull. The fact that the lectures took place for three hour stretches on Wednesday nights didn't help either. I have no night classes this semester, but more early classes... so we shall see which arrangement I prefer.

So, this semester I am taking the following:
Literature and Composition II: Poetry and Drama [will be either fantastic or disappointing]
Literature and Composition IV: English Literature Post 1700 [yay!]
Grammaire Français (Langue Secondaire) Intermédiare [hooray for me; I haven't taken French since grade 11 and yet I was placed in a second year course]
Fundamental Philosophical Questions [continuation of last semester's philo course]
Introduction to Experimental Psychology [probably won't be as fun as the Intro to Applied Psych, but oh well, should be interesting]

I bought all my textbooks yesterday, after we went to Cora's for brunch (?). It was a nice floor trip (plus Ian, but he counts as a floor person anyways) to our favourite breakfast establishment after the previous night's trip to Le Bop. Le Bop was crowded but we had fun, with a few people coming that wouldn't usually. Thanks to Mandi, Ahmed, Frin, Veronica, Amber, Bri, Eric, Jacquie, Spo, Andrew... and to everyone else we ran into that night. To those who couldn't come/we didn't see (Ian, Nataliya, Cory, Francois, etc.): we missed you, but you might have a chance to redeem yourselves in a few weeks (hahaha). Anyways, here are some pictures... for more, check out Mandi's Space or talk to Mandi.











Good times.

Oh goodness... Eric just got back from Costco... wow I'm envious of his massive stockpile of food.

Anyways... so Ottawa is all snowy and ever so cold, regardless of your gender (it can no longer be said that "it's just 'cause you're a girl"). Cold or not, however, the Rideau Canal has frozen over so that means... skating! We went for our first skate yesterday evening. Despite the fact that I have not skated in years, I did not fall! That was fun; I got to use my brand-shiny-new skates that my mommy bought for me over the holidays.

Speaking of the holidays... I don't think I shall be posting in any extended manner about what I did. I saw family: there were about 20 people at my house for Christmas, so that was fun. I saw friends: just chilling with everyone again was great; sleepovers and Starbucks dates need repeating; Narnia was entertaining; New Year's Eve was interesting but fun nonetheless. I love all my friends, especially the ones I either did not see enough or did not see at all... there are too many who fit into those two categories, and that saddens me. However, some of those friends have promised to come see me some time this semester!! Hooray! I'll post on those if/when they actually happen. I also worked full time at the Old Curiosity Tea Company (wheee!) again over the break. Anyways, I'll not ramble on any further about the holidays: they were too short but I savoured (almost) every moment of them.

This summer is going to be four monthes in duration... wow that sounds exciting and yet a little sad... I am not looking forward to leaving the good ol' 20th floor of Thompson, but the investigation into next year's living arrangements has begun.

In other news: three cheers for procreation! My cousin Andrew and his lovely wife Wendy just had a baby boy! Yay! Congratulations Andrew and Wendy; welcome to the family, Evan!

I suppose I will end this post here, just because I have now grown very hungry and must go fill the seemingly very large cavity in my middle. I realize that this post has not actually covered the last month or so of my life, or done it any semblance of justice, but oh well. I have a life that needs living more than it needs detailed documentation.

Hope all is well with everyone... Have a great semester and a happy new year! I promise I will try to update more regularly.

Exit Chelsea, Stage Left.

posted by Unknown @ 9:26 PM 1 comments