Won both the battle and the war

I win! Ha ha. What did I win? The war with the landlady!

By noon I had managed to work myself up into such a state of agitation, I actually phoned my mom and work and arranged for my dad to come and pick me up after work. I was willing to sleep in Owen Sound for the final two nights and DRIVE to work. (This would require me getting up and leaving the house before 5:30am!

Anyways, when I got home, I was ready to start packing my things when Tao mentioned there was a letter from the landlady. Turns out she's gone until Thursday morning. Mwahahahaa! I drove her out of the house! Hee hee! So I've cancelled my ride home and enjoying the apartment for the last bit.

(I'm especially enjoying the fact that it's nearly 6:30 and I haven't started cooking yet. Mwahahahaaa.)

Stress makes for a sleepy Mau

Somebody help to wake me up! I'm at work right now and I'm fighting SO HARD NOT to fall asleep... So far I'm failing. I fell asleep for about 15 to 20 minutes just awhile ago. Since my catnap (done on purpose), I keep drifting off and jerking upright. Trust me, I'm not being stealthy at all about it.

In response, I tried drinking lots of water. That didn't work. I turned on my fan to blow much colder air on me. That didn't work either. Now I'm trying to eat a sugary snack bar to help keep me awake until break (15 minutes). I'll even bring some money so I can buy a sugary cappucino and hopefully that will work. I don't get why I'm so tired...

Well, that's a lie. The truth of it is that I'm exhausted from the stress of living in my current apartment. Last night the landlady finally spoke to me, to inform me that my last month's cheque had been dropped off. I kind of stood there and then screwed up my courage and told her, "Oh, well what about the July cheque? I've already put a stop payment on that one too." Ha. If I thought she was mad before... She was even worse. It's not like she said or did anything different, but you could practically feel the temperature in the room drop. I gave her dad a call to confirm they wouldn't try cashing the cheque and he was quite pleasant to me. Ha.

Lauda came home shortly thereafter and I asked her to let me know when she was going to be cooking - I can handle being in the same room as my landlady as long as someone else is also there. After less than an hour of me being home, Lauda knocked on my door to let me know that Michelle had left the apartment. While there's no way I can confirm it, I suspect she went back to her other city in order to escape me. In an effort to keep the avoidance game we're playing going, I went and cooked my dinner/lunch, prepared my breakfast, and had my shower all before 6pm so that I could hide out in my room. Luckily Michelle didn't return home last night. I'm hoping that she'll stay in the other town, Walkerton, until the weekend.

So that's why I'm so tired. I'm stressed out from last night (I was constantly jumpy, thinking I heard her car in the driveway) and now I'm stressing out about going home tonight. Oh well. I refuse to be run out of the house because of her.

On to happier news... After several weeks of oggling cell phones on the internet, I finally bit the bullet and bought one. My dad's union has an excellent contract. To summarize the plan... I have free call waiting/answering/conferencing/etc, 250 anytime minutes, unlimited weeknights (6pm - 8am) etc. Unfortunately it's a 3 year contract, but hopefully I'll use the phone enough to justify it. Amusingly I got the EXACT same cell phone that my friends Henry and Rishi have. (Henry had it first, then Rishi bought one, and now so have I. I'm a sheep. Bah.)

I guess that's all for now. I feel better getting that off my chest. Only 2 more sleeps in my apartment, then I'm home free!

Prepare for liftoff!

It's the weekend! Yay! I have been oddly excited about this upcoming weekend for some reason. I suspect it's because of the stress of the last week. Let me divulge the story of my life since you last visited...

Last weekend I ventured home for the night. My family and I decided to have a night out and went to see the Davinci Code. It was a good movie - surprisingly faithful to the book, although the ending was quite different...

Upon returning to my house, I was pleased to find out that the DVDs I had mailed to myself from Hong Kong had finally arrived. My parents were amused to see how movies are sold in China. I ended up tossing Serenity into the DVD player and watching it. Luckily it worked (mostly) and my dad and I watched it together.

The next day my mom and I ventured out to do some shopping and buy my dad a father's day gift. I had decided I wanted to buy him some headphones. My dad likes to listen to music quite often, but his current headphones are so disgustingly greasy and old that I can't bear to look at them. I bought him some freakin' expensive ones (supposedly they drown out outside noise) but he later determined they weren't comfortable enough. (He blames it on his
baldness...) So the plan for this weekend is to return his old ones and buy him a new set.

We ended up ordering pizza and watching another movie and then my parents drove me home. Why did I return home after only one day? Because on Sunday I had planned to go to Wonderland!

Everything went according to plan. I got up at 6am so that I could wait for Cory outside. Cory's a co-op student also working at Bruce Power. I had met him twice before and that was about it. Well, if I had known what his TRUE colours were, I would have told him to shove his offer of a ride up his wazoo! I was TERRIFIED on the drive to Toronto. He was driving 120 to 140km/h on the backroads, and when we finally hit highway 400, he managed to get up to 175km/h!!! Needless to say, there were times where I wanted to claw at the windows.

Another example of his stupidity was on a backroad near a small town. We were driving uphill and coming to a stop sign. Well, on the road were those strange marks that cause your tires to make weird sounds that warn you a stop sign is coming. Well, suddenly Cory swings into the wrong lane and finishes his drive up to the top of the hill in the wrong lane!!! That was the first time I felt like freaking out. I was NOT impressed.

Wonderland itself was great. (Photos are here!) I didn't actually get to go into the park until nearly 11am because one of the cars that was picking up a friend of mine was late. (We were supposed to meet at 9:45am.) Overall though I had a fun day. My friends Stacy (my old housemate) and Minnie (a friend I met while in Hong Kong) showed up to spend the day with me. I was so happy to see the both of them. We ended up hanging out the entire time I was there (Stacy's friend Max also came, and he was fun too).

I think I've gotten past the stage in my life where I need to go on rides at Wonderland. I only went on about 6 rides while I was there. The rest of our time was spent chilling out and eating. (Err, eating and rides... Not a good combo - I was more worried about getting sick than about the ride itself.) We ended up leaving the park around 4:30 and getting dinner in Orangeville. The ride back home was much saner and had good music. (Note to self: Steal Ana's CDs!)

The next few days were uneventful. Our landlady had been around for them. She was working around the house - painting it in order to get ready for her daughters to move in. She had seemed a bit stressed out and not too friendly, but I couldn't blame her for that - she'd been working non-stop. Well, on Wednesday she left the house with her daughters. Tao brought some of his friends over and left them in the dining room alone while he made some phone calls. I was in the kitchen for awhile (right beside them) and then left to go to another part of the house. I heard the landlady come back and nothing else. When I went back out to the kitchen, she asked me, "Maureen, who are those strangers sitting at my dining room table???" I mentioned they were Tao's friends, but that I'd send them to our common area. Nothing more was said.

The next morning when I woke up, there was a three page essay by our landlady attached to our bathroom mirror. It seems as though someone had stolen $400 from her purse that had been sitting on the dining room floor behind the table. She wrote that she was not happy and proceeded to write out some "new rules." These rules included having to eat and be out of the kitchen by 7pm, have our showers by 9pm, etc. I understand that she was upset by the money being gone. She thinks it was one of Tao's friends who took it. Personally I think it was her own daughter or her daughter's friend. (Her daughter's 12 and smokes and hangs out with a "bad crowd.")

The only problem I have is that now we're being told to stay in our little common area (which is very tiny) and stay out of the rest of the house. I'm paying too much damned money to be restricted to a small house and be treated like a child. There were a lot of other problems too - it took forever to get things fixed, they had dogs even though they said they were getting rid of them, etc... Therefore on Thursday, after discussing it with my parents, I decided to tell the landlady I was moving out. I was totally prepared to have an all-out fight with her. I approached her and said, "Michelle, I'm not happy with the living situation here. I've decided that I'll be moving out by the end of June." Her response? "OK." That was it. I was totally thrown off balance by such quick acceptance. When you're expecting a huge fight, that's not the response you would expect...

I was very relieved to hear that, but for the rest of that night, and Friday when I saw her, and even today when I returned home, she hasn't said a word to me. And I have done nothing but been pleasant. I greet her, but she ignores me. It's nice to see one of us can be mature about this.

Luckily for me, my pal Henry at work said his landlord had some empty rooms available. By the next day, I had signed my lease (for 2 months) and given my deposit. I'm going to move in on Thursday. Lauda and Tao are sad to see me go, but I just can't handle the friction in the house anymore. (Oh, and I should mention that Lauda told me that the landlady was very friendly and helped Lauda carry stuff into the house this evening... The same evening she ignored me.)

The rest of the weekend was just as relaxing as I had hoped. Now I know that the anticipation I felt for the weekend was due to the stress of living in this apartment. I'm already looking forward to next week when I move into the new apartment.

Tonight I was transferring all my photos from Hong Kong (currently on CD) to my harddrive so that I can burn them to DVD next weekend. I ended up glancing through most of the photos - I got all nostalgic and sad seeing them. I miss my friends from there. I miss the comraderie and sense of family between us. I did laugh though seeing some of the photos... I was sad though to realize I've forgotten some of the names of the people in my photos though. I need to go through them and add descriptions before the memories fade completely.

That's all for now - I have work tomorrow, so I should be off to bed soon...

P.S.
Tao had his 25th birthday two weeks ago! Here are the photos!

Nei gei hai psst!

Today near the end of the day, Henry and I walked to the cafeteria so I could buy some cookies. (Nothing beats the cookies in the vending machine and microwaving them for 30 seconds.)

Earlier on our way to lunch, Henry and I had been following Annzley down the hall, and Henry kept trying to get Annzley's attention by making a "psst" sound. She ignored him because she thought the sound was a leaky pipe.

Well, on our way back from the cafeteria, Henry kept making the Pssting sound at me. Suddenly he says, "neigeihaipsst."

I was like, "What the hell?" I realized he was speaking Cantonese. So I tried to translate the sentence out loud. I kept saying it over and over trying to figure it out. "You. You umm. You something is Psst." Well, he starts staring at me like I'm a freak (a sensation I've become familiar with). And repeats what he said once again.

That's when I finally realized what he was saying. "Leaky pipes. Psst." I don't know where I got Cantonese out of that, but I nearly died laughing when I realized what had happened.

Great office!

Greets y'all!

I had a fabulous weekend. I'm enjoying my summer - it's not nearly as exciting as Hong Kong was, but I have no reason to complain. I'm often relaxed, and I enjoy my weekends even if I didn't do anything on them.

Case in point: This Friday I met with my Academic advisor. As you may recall, I had been freaking out because I thought I might not have the necessary courses to graduate university. I finally managed to get my advisor on the phone and was trying to negotiate a later meeting time on a Thursday to come meet her when she suddenly asked me Where I was working for the summer. I told her that I was at Port Elgin, and suddenly she claims, "I'm from Port Elgin!" It turns out that she works in Waterloo Tuesdays to Thursdays, and from Friday to Monday, she works in Port Elgin. How cool is that? We decided to meet at the Tim Horton's after work so I could discuss my courses.

I had a really good talk with her. She figured out all the courses I needed to graduate, and gave me suggestions on which ones I should or shouldn't take. (For example, I wanted to take a 3rd year history course on Canada in World Affairs, and she suggested I avoid it because she knows I have trouble managing work loads.) So she was very helpful that respect.

I also asked her advice on getting my Masters degree. She named a few places to help me get my search started. Amusingly, she started by recommending the London School of Economics in downtown London, England. She described it as, "A not inexpensive school." The moment I heard London, I then asked, "Do you have any other recommendations for schools in Canada?" (I later searched the LSE and found out that it's tuition was $24,000 CANADIAN dollars! That's only tuition! Nevermind living expenses etcetera. I just about choked.)

On the way to Owen Sound, I told my mom that I would drive the van. As most of you know, I loathe driving. I'm a terrible driver and am extremely paranoid. But I have to admit that it would be nice to not be at the mercy of my parents any more. I just mainly need to practice in order to gain more confidence. My mother later told me that she had been slightly nervous the entire way. (With one or two exceptions, I had done a damn good job thanks very much!)

The next day we all headed down to Waterloo again so I could sign my lease. I got to see Agnes again. That was cool. Turns out the lucky wench gets to go back to France! Our reunion was short and sweet, and the best part was that we've already chosen which rooms we get.

One room is much larger than the other, but the small room is a lot brighter instead. Agnes asked which one I wanted, and I mumbled something to the effect of, "Well of course I want the bigger one," to which she replied, "Good! Because I want the bright one!" I think that's when I had to pick my jaw up off the ground and laugh. That was a lot easier than anticipated. I'll now have a dark blue room that's fairly large and has a HUGE closet. (Peggy - it's bigger than the closet we shared in Hong Kong!)

After signing the lease, my mom, dad an I left again. Mom and I went for a shopping spree during which I spent a stupid amount of money. I feel bad about it in retrospect - I should have waited for a sale, because god knows the stores I shop at have sales every month practically. But I'm afraid that if I take my stuff back, I won't be able to find it again - and I got some niiiiice stuff to wear. I'll have to inspect my clothes again - maybe I will end up returning some stuff after all.

After a not-so-quick stop at the Crossroads Restaurant buffet, we returned home. I stayed up late surfing the net and reading.

The next day was uneventful like normal. I baked some "Maple Pecan Butter Balls" and had a nap before going grocery shopping and returning to Port Elgin. We finished the day off by going for a walk along the water in Port Elgin. I pretended to be a photographer and snapped a bunch of photos. The one displayed it my favourite - it's my mom and dad walking into the sun.

I also finally snapped some photos of the students who work in my building. You can check them out here.

Finally found a house!

Well well well. It seems that a whole week has flown by without my noticing. Let us look as to why this happened.

I had a short work week last week because I was scheduled for an optometrist appointment on Friday. Therefore on Thursday night I had planned to go out to the bar with a few other students. Some of the co-ops apparently go out to the bar every Thursday night - my one pal, Rishi, stays out until 2am each time. That's veritably INSANE! I get up at 5:40am - I need more sleep! Anyways, since I wasn't going to work the next day I planned to join them finally.

Sunny and I agreed that he'd phone me and then we'd head over together. I got all dressed up and wasted time watching TV waiting for his phone call. That didn't come. And didn't come. I tried phoning both him and Rishi but neither answered their phone. I was feeling a bit put out. Finally Sunny phoned me at 11:30pm - turns out he had fallen asleep and had just woken up. I ended up going over to his house and we chilled out in his room until 1pm-ish.

(Turns out Rishi had gotten into a car accident - hence the lack of a reply!)

After I left I went for a very quick bike ride (quick because my bike pedal was falling off). It was a beautiful night - you could see thousands of stars in the sky. Gorgeous. I then returned home and promptly broke my glasses so I sat around surfing the web, holding my glasses in place.

The next morning my parents came to pick me up to drive me to Waterloo. We took a different route to Waterloo than normal (backroads). We got a bit lost because our google directions weren't accurate.

We got into Waterloo and picked up Mel so she could join us. Not only were we getting our eyes checked (err, my dad and I), but we had also planned to look at some apartments for me to live in during the fall. We had to rush off to meet the first landlord right away.

I ended up seeing 4 houses throughout the day. Compared to a lot of student housing I've seen, these were nice places. I ended up giving a deposit to one apartment close to where my first apartment used to be in Waterloo. Amusingly the landlord told us that it was possible to steal the neighbour's cable connection and get 1000 channels.

We had lunch at the Student Life Centre on campus before heading off to the optometry clinic. My appointments went well, but I must say, I have never been in so much pain during an eye exam! I had two exams - one for my contacts, and one for a general eye exam. The contacts one went well, but I was writhing in pain for the second. The doctors put the chemical in my eyes that forces your pupils to dilate. That wasn't bad. What was bad was having them shine an insanely bright light into them. Of course I'd instinctively try to shut my eyes, but they pried them open instead. Cruel jerks!

Our appointments took insanely long. I thought it would only take about an hour for the appointment, I was in there for at least 1 and a half hours, and my dad was in there for around 2 hours! Crazy!

To give us some time to recuperate, we went to Boston Pizza for dinner. I offered to pay for dinner and we had a fabulous time. Our waiter was cute and hilarious - he reminded me of Jay Manuel from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

When I got home that night, I made the decision to accept the one apartment I had looked at. I was about to phone my sister to tell her to give the landlord the cheque I had given her... But then I remembered to check my bank account. That's when I realized that my rent cheque had come out for my June rent here in Port Elgin! Meaning I didn't have enough money in my account for a deposit!

Much panicking occurred, but as usual, my heroic parents came through for me and floated me a loan to help me put the deposit down on the house. Mom? Dad? You guys totally rock!

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. On Saturday my parents and I went for a walk around Harrison park. (See the photos here.) (This is my favourite photo!)My mom and I watched an adorable film called "Little Manhattan." On Sunday we went out shopping (how can I shop so much when I don't have any money in my account???) and then went to Port Elgin.

Today I came thisclose to suffering a nervous breakdown. I was beginning to plan my course schedule for the next term. I glanced at the course requirements for my degree and suddenly saw that was missing 10 courses! I nearly threw up on my keyboard. 5 panicked minutes later I realized that I was looking at the wrong requirements - that was for some other history program. Dear lord. Relief is the sweetest sensation in the world.

Now I'm trying to grab hold of my academic advisor at UW so I can set up a meeting with her to discuss what I do need to graduate. Still waiting to hear from her... Her office hours are insane.

Wish me luck folks!