Another little while has passed and I haven't gotten around to updating my weblog. I know it's a bad sign when my mother tells me over the phone that she was disappointed that there had been no updates. Sorry !

Anyway, it's a busy time for me. It wasn't supposed to be, but it is, and there's nothing I can do about it except get on with things. I am supposed to be working on Adam's FYI newsletter, but I haven't been able to make the template files work for me, which is a serious problem. I'm supposed to have them done by Sunday, but lord only knows if I'll be able to do it. I guess that's what I'll be doing tomorrow. After a meeting at the Cafe Diplomatico, anyway. Adam's municipal campaign team choose the tastiest places to hold meetings.

On Tuesday, I went to meet with Professor Nagel about getting a reference and that went quite well. Professor Nagel (I get to call him Alex now) was my absolute favourite professor at university. Not only was he well dressed, but he was engaging and encouraged his students to become actively involved in their learning. He pressed us for creative thought, critical thinking, and enjoyment of the subject. Very few professors successfully manage to do one of the above, let alone all three. I also ran into an old school friend, Guita, and she encouraged me to go back to school for a Masters. We'll see about that.

On Wednesday, I went to a job interview. Back in December, Al had told me about a job opening at his work and had asked me for a resume. I forgot about it until Monday when he told me that I had an interview on Wednesday. Not a heck of a lot of time to get prepared, but it was a good interview, regardless. First of all, right off the bat, I asked the interviewer, Don, where he was from. His accent sounded very familiar. "Brooklyn," he answered. "Where in Brooklyn?" I asked. "Sheep's Head Bay," says he. "No kidding !" I exclaim, "I come from Sheep's Head Bay, too !" "No kidding !" he exclaims. Don is a nice guy and the interview went well, but the job is a scary one. High pressure telecommunications sales. The incentives are good, but it's hard work and... well, it's just scary. Anyway, I'll find out if they're offering the job to me either today or Monday. I've spent the better part of yesterday thinking about it.

Well, that is when I wasn't sleeping off my migraines. I woke up with one, which kept me out of work, and when it cleared around 1pm, I decided to do some cleaning of my room. Boy, was that ever some serious work. By supper time, I'd developed a new migraine and spent the majority of my night in bed. Oh well, I got the box in my room delt with, nearly a year after moving in, and my bookshelves are almost completely reorganised, including a display of most of my toys. It's nice to have my old friends out again. When I have a little money, I'm going to buy myself a filing cabinet of some sort, though. I have too many loose papers lying around.

Tonight, I'm taking Rick to the gym. We were supposed to go yesterday, but I couldn't because of my head. I'm going to take it nice and easy, just doing some of the machines, maybe rowing and cycling, or something. I don't know what Rick plans to do. All I know is that afterward, we're going to hace a nice dinner somewhere, or order something in. We'll see. Not quite a date, but it will be fun.

How I spent my weekend, or, Why bother getting dressed? by Maya Hirschman.

I spent all of Saturday in my nightgown. It was wonderful. Okay, perhaps not 'wonderful' in the truest sense, but it sure was enjoyable. Rick seemed a little surprised by my desire to avoid real clothing, but as I explained to both he and my mother, I planned to do nothing, not even get dressed. Also, I spent most of the day in front of the television watching the NDP convention on the CBC. Like I said, my leadership predictions went right out the window, along with those spoken by people much more experienced in such matters. There were a lot of delays in getting the voting closed and ballots counted, which meant a lot of 'fill' from the correspondents.

"And now to Anna-Maria Tremante who is speaking to Nigel Proose, just some guy waiting in line to vote. Anna-Maria?"

"Thanks Bob, I'm here with Nigel Proose who I found snoozing in the voting line-up. Mr. Proose, are you having a good time here at the convention?"

"Well, I was having a pretty good dream until you stuck this microphone in my face, but otherwise, it's been pleasant. Mostly, I've just been waiting here."

"Mr. Proose, do you know what the delay is?"

"I think it's something to do with computers. I don't know. They told me to wait. I'm waiting."

"May I ask you who you're voting for?"

"Oh well sure. That will be Nystrom. Heh, he puts the nice back in 'strom'. Heh, heh."

"Um, yes. Well, Bob, there you have it. Nigel Proose, you can get back to your napping."

However, once the votes were in, it livened up completely ! People were having a good time regardless of the delays, it seemed, waving their banners and calling out chants and cheers devoted to their particular leader-hopeful. Bev Meslo, who really wasn't running but for the opportunity to give her issues some air time, seemed to be having the best time compared to all the other hopefuls. She was dancing and singing and didn't let slack. Ducasse, the little guy from Quebec, was a stand-out, and everyone really likes him. I missed his speech, but apparently, it was the best of the bunch. He's the future of the party, and the NDP's best chance of gaining a seat in Quebec.

Anyway, I'm probably boring you all with this, so, it's time for a change of subject. Sunday, I was supposed to be at a thing for Carrie, a shower, or whatever, but I ended up waking with a splitting headache and after sitting around for 45 minutes to see if the painkiller would do it's job, I decided to go back to bed. I would have called to cancel, but it was a surprise shower and I didn't want to be a wet towel. If anyone was expecting me to be there, they probably assumed I got lost en route, as usual, and ended up in Bobcageon.

I also spent an awful lot of time in the bathtub this weekend. Not because I was so dirty, but because it's a peaceful place where I can relax, be at ease, and generally not be bothered by anyone. I just close my eyes and listen to the radio (sometimes I read). There are few things that I like as much as a scaldingly hot bath with nothing pressing me for time. I'd take baths in the city, except the bathroom is sort of dark and there's this nasty sliding door that blocks what light there is. I'm considering taking it down and putting up an old fashioned curtain. Anyway, it was nice.

So, summing up my weekend: nightgown, sleeping late, bathtub, eating, and watching television.

I wish I were still there. *sigh*

Oh, and another thing: Adam was re-elected. Huzzah !

Well, it's safe to say that no one predicted Jack Layton's decisive and quite incredible first ballot victory. 53.5% on the first ballot. Amazing, surprising and completely terrific ! Go Jack.

More to follow at another point. In the mean time, since people seemed to enjoy the dancing Bush so much, how about a work-out? Or maybe some more dancing?

And one more thing... some mindless fun for home or office.

This Freaky-Tie Friday brought to you by Maya's political pics:

Bev Meslo will lose on first ballot and back Lorne Nystrom. Pierre Ducasse will lose and back Joe Comartin. Joe Comartin will be up against the front runners Bill Blaikie and Jack Layton. Nystrom will lose and back Blaikie. Comartin will back Layton. It will be a tight fight for Blaikie and Layton, but because Layton has no Federal political experience and would end up being the third consecutive party leader lacking a seat in the House, Blaikie will end up taking it.

I've never played this game - the game of politics - at least not for real. But, now, because I work for Adam G_______, I can't help hearing this talk around me. Who do I support? Who would I vote for had I managed to join the party in time? I would back Layton, though I'm sort of partial to Comartin, as well. I certainly wouldn't back Meslo - I've never seen so much crap. "For a socialist and feminist New Democratic Party." Huh? The word 'feminist' is NOT a good sell. Too many people, including many women, are bothered by the word. Besides, there's a big fat rose on her webpage and underneath it says, "Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too !" I'm pretty sure that's a quote from somewhere, but it's not attributed. What kind of a mixed message is this? Anyway, that's a rant for another day.

I'm all done with G________'s re-election work. He called me last night to tell me that the buttons look fabulous. I've enjoyed working for him on this, although spending this weekend doing relatively nothing sounds like a great plan. I was all keyed up to go to the gym tonight before we (Rick and I) leave for the Petes, but I left my shorts and shoes at my appartment, so I guess I'll just go home and take a well-deserved nap. Next week, I start with more stuff for Adam, this time for his municipal stuff. He is certainly going to keep me busy. Of course, the busier I am with his stuff, the less of a struggle I have financially, which is definitely a good thing.

Also, I got my application to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the mail. It has to be postmarked with today's date, so it should be fine, but just in case, I'm going to email my application in as well. On Tuesday, I'm meeting with my old Professor Nagel, and hopefully Mac Johnson, too, in order to talk to him about references. I'll also be going into the university registrar's office in order to pay for my transcripts. God, my marks were terrible. They were worse than I'd thought. I was one heck of an average student. For each fail there is an A, there are more Bs than Ds, and there is a stack of Cs. It doesn't bode well for the museum, but maybe they'll look past that to all the extra-curricular stuff I've done... Heh, ya, right.

So, anyway, it's Freaky-Tie Friday, which happens about every three Fridays or so, as long as it's not too hot and I've got a clean shirt. I've been wearing ties far longer than Avril Lavigne and I wear them with more style and flash. The idea behind FTF is to wear a tie (preferably a nice loud/ugly one) with either a surprisingly coloured shirt, plain shirt (for extra loud ties), and if possible, with matched socks. Today I'm wearing my red button-down that I got last month at Value Village along with a purple-lavender tiny-white-polka-dotted tie. I had hoped they would clash, but they work surprisingly well together. I'm wearing black and red argyle socks, too, so I'm a looker. Admit it, Freaky-Tie Friday is WAY more exciting than casual/denim Fridays.

Slogging. That is what I am doing. I am slogging through great sucking marshland called graphic design for Adam G_______. Now, Adam's a nice guy, and I want him to win, but there are only three things that are keeping me sane through this mess. The first: my respect for Adam. The second: the money. The third: techno. Yes, that's right. It's the body-moving, bass-thumping rhythms of some classic (and somewhat less so) electronic dance music. There will be further entries at a later date when I have either finished Adam's stuff, or finished Adam.

Wow, there's nothing quite like a beautiful winter day. The sky is that shade of blue that can't possibly be real, except that you're looking up and there it is - blue like a technicolor dream. The sun is shining and it's that warm sun because January brings the earth closest to that great ball of flame in the heavens, but it's not warm enough to shield you from the wind. It's a teasing sun. There's snow on the ground and it's bright, luminous in the sunlight and a blue that matches the sky in pockets of shadow. The snow crunches underfoot because it's so cold outside, there's no slush, no muck, just beautiful frozen expanses. Today, Toronto is beautiful.

I feel good today, and not just because it's so great a day. Yesterday, I went to the YMCA (everyone, together now, do the dance !) with Erin, my friend from the ROM. She dragged me around and showed me how to use the machines and whatnot, and I had a blast. After stretching, I we did the stairclimber for about 15 minutes and then walked it out for a while on the track. Then we did about half an hour on various weight machines before finishing up with some abdominal work and more stretching. It was amazing. I figure that we worked out for a bit over an hour, and considering how poor my condition is, that's pretty darn good. We went for a very healthy dinner at a little Japanese Bento place and then we drove home. Needless to say, I'm quite sore today, especially through my upper body. I'm going again tonight !

First of all, please, follow this link, which was given to me by Nick. Don't worry about not being able to read Japanese, it really won't factor into the story at all. Just keep clicking the pictures.

Last night, feeling (thankfully) much better than I had through most of the day and certainly all of the day before, I took Rick for a belated birthday dinner at The Lobster Trap. They're not kidding - it's awesome. We had a lovely waiter, named Cam, who looked awfully familiar. I probably went to elementary school with him, or something. Anyway, we both had steamed pound-and-a-quarter lobsters with salad and were MORE than pleased at how delicious they were. God, lobster is amazing. I hope they don't over-fish them the way they do everything else, but I'm probably wasting a wish. He had a glass of wine and I had a caesar and for dessert, he had a shrimp cocktail and a couple spoonfuls of icecream off my apple-caramel cake plate. Nummy ! The coffee was good and everything was great. Happy 24th birthday Rick, most of a month late !

I went with Rick to pick up a new computer monitor for him this afternoon. He has a dinky 14" creature at home that is barely wide enough to see my own reflection in it. The model he got was not very big, as far as monitors go, and if I can come up with some extra money that won't be funneled into something (ya, right), I'd like to get one for my mother, too, since it's not so large as would take up all her desk space. Rick was a great guy and bought me a swank new video card. He'd intended to get me one for my birthday, but he got me one today, at a pretty darn good price. Had it been more expensive, I would not have allowed him. Anyway, I owe him for the CD cases that he paid for - I forgot to give him money. Then I drove him and his monitor to his house, before swinging back across the city to get home. I had to get ready for An Evening with Adam G_______. That... wasn't so exciting that it deserves a lot of note. Suffice it to say, I met some nice people, some weird people, and some other people. I got asked several times if I'd be attending the NDP convention this coming weekend and now I can safely say, "No !" Hah ! I'll have had enough of campaign fun by then and will sorely need a break.

I spent all of yesterday, up until leaving to pick up Rick, working on Adam's stuff. It looks keen, but naturally there were problems. Tomorrow, I start the other stuff - the stuff due for Wednesday. How did I get into this? Oh ya, I said to Adam about six months ago, "Well, if you need any help..." Who actually comes back to the people that offer? People die and we offer our help to the bereaved, but do they ever take us to task? Not usually. Well, trust Adam to remember, and trust me to say, "Sure !" I will be able to say NO at some point. Currently, I need the money.

Tomorrow, I also start at the gym with Erin. Scarey !!! I need this badly, though. Holy crap, am I ever out of shape. Also, tomorrow, I'm going to draft my letter to the Met Museum for their internship programme. I have to get it out by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest in order for it to have a postmark by the 24th. I have to call the Art Dept. to see if my favourite professors are in this week in order to mooch a couple of reference letters, too. I've yet to hit them up, so they should be ammenable. I'm also going to get Ania, the director of Membership to write me one, which she has already agreed to do. Afterall, ILM isn't exactly beating down the door to get a hold of me.

I am sick. Again. I wish I weren't, but I am. There you go. Anyway, I thought of something worth mentioning. The logo belonging to Lava Life (the internet dating thing) looks an awful lot like the double L in Allan chocolate. Coincidence? Easter is coming. When you find an Allan chocolate bunny for sale, you have a look and see if this was merely the product of a mildly feverish brain.

Willi is dead bored here. She spends a lot of time sleeping - on me, on my bed, on my pillow, on the couch. We tried having a wee game with her bouncy mouse, but she just didn't have the heart for it. I tried to spice her up a little with the catnip fish that Sandra made, but Willi didn't care. My poor cat is moping. Dare I say it? I believe that she misses Chester. She was never at a loss for things to do while at Mom's, that is for sure. I fully understand. I'd rather be at Mom's house, too. Unfortunately for my cat, she probably can't rationalise the whole thing, whereas I'm persuading myself that I have to be here. I do. Right?

So, anyway, I've decided that I am going to apply for the museum admin/curatorial programme at Fleming College. I'm also, as soon as I'm done with this round of Adam G________ stuff, going to send out my applications for internship positions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as a couple of others. Tuesday will be the next chance I get to go to UofT in order to request my transcripts and to speak in person to my old art professors. In the mean time, I'll just keep on keeping on. This Saturday night I am attending 'An Evening with Adam G________' and will be borrowing Nick's camera for the event. I guess it means I won't be staying for the masquerade at Pandemonium, assuming I feel up to it. Whatever. Right now, I just don't care.

It's been a while, hasn't it? You might ascertain that I'm losing interest in my weblog, but you would be wrong. I've simply got too much going on, and when I do get time to myself (like this past week, for instance), which is time I usually devote to my non-paying work and fun, I ended up crashing. I went to Mom's and slept easily half the time I was there. God, it was wonderful.

Now I'm back and there will be no rest for the wicked, as they say. I've got to get down and dirty with Adam G_________'s stuff, plus I've got storyboards to get done by the end of this weekend (hopefully). I'm going to -try- to get to Pandemonium, if for no other reason than to enter a couple dioramas into their miniature contest, plus I'm starting at the gym with Erin on Sunday. I think that maybe I'm crazy.

Spending time at Mom's was great. Moreso even than usual. Willi is completely at home there now, playing and sleeping in intervals, Chester her willing partner in crime. It's beautiful at Mom's and the floor isn't tile, automatically gaining points for being warmer than freezing. Also, there's my mom, who is definitely one of, if not, THE coolest people I know. More and more, lately, I think about moving home. This might be a possibility if I end up applying to Sir Sanford Fleming for their Museum admin/curator programme. That would, of course, require more funding, if OSAP will allow it, considering I'm currently heading for default (even though it's their fault).

Now my day is done, which is good, since the last half hour has seen little more than me fighting with Betsey (my ROM computer) who believes that what I'm asking her to do, something I ask her to do on a regular basis, is something she absolutely cannot do.

I am alone. Totally alone. All I hear is the water cooler and the occasional muted yell of a child coming to me from three floors below and through two pairs of doors. The membership department is eerie, yet serene when there is no one else in it. I'm supposed to be working site sales, and indeed, I am, or was and will be again soon, but because today is so quiet in the museum, I decided to come upstairs and get a little work done to ease my burden tomorrow. There is a large stack of e-sales for me to process, so I'm getting some of the preliminary work done. Anyway, it's strangely peaceful.

Last night, Rick and I were supposed to go see Chicago at the Varsity, but we dawdled and ended up missing it by only a few places in line. It was sold out. We deliberated, but I did want to see a movie very much, and the idea of going home with a rented flick did not blow my skirt up. We found ourselves a Now Magazine and checked to see what else was playing in the area and, as it turned out, The Gangs of New York was playing at the nearby Cumberland 4. We shopped for some books at Chapters, and I ended up with a book on Maya 4 that will help me relearn what I've forgotten. It wasn't the book I wanted to buy, but it was an exercise in intelligent spending.

Now, onto the movie. Well. I knew it was going to be violent. I had no idea just how violent it was. It was brutal, and brutally honest. The images in the minds of people when they think of old New York usually stops around the turn of the century 20th Century as film became a new and powerful medium. This takes us further back to a rather disturbing time in New York's history. It was a good film, I think, and while I can't say that I enjoyed it, I did like it. It was pretty honest, though how true the specifics are, I don't know. Daniel Day Lewis, someone that seemed to have fallen off the map for a few years, gave a knockout performance as Bill the Butcher, and somewhat frighteningly, he reminded me of my father. The other surprise was Cameron Diaz, an actress not known for taking on challenging or interesting roles. My goodness, the girl can actually act. Of course, Leo DiCaprio was as he usually is, which is nothing particularly exciting, but steadfast and not actually bad. It was good. Gruesome, but good. I would recommend it, regardless of the violence, simply because of its honesty.

Tonight, I did something I hadn't expected to be doing, not only because I'd called out of work feeling sick today, but strange as a whole. I went to Derek's for some anime, but that wasn't it, though at one point I was fairly certain I wasn't going to his place. No, in fact, I've just come back from his place and I've since done that which I did not expect.

I shoveled. This is not to say that living in a Canadian city, I expect not to have to lift and chuck the white stuff. No, this is simply not what I expected to do ... as a tenant. My landlord, bless his rent-nagging heart, does do a very good job of keeping the sidewalk and paths around my place nice and clear. Unfortunately, between he and my anal neighbours (the ones that don't like cats), and ESPECIALLY the dreaded snow plow, Scarlette had been fairly snowed in. Now, she's an old fashioned four-wheel-drive and I know she can handle snow. That said, even a four-wheel-drive will have trouble when the snow is higher than the tires. On the street side, where the plow had passed, she was surrounded by a bank near 45cm deep (um, about a foot and a half). That's a lot of half frozen snow to move.

I was going to just leave it, but then I thought that if the sky decided to keep doing what it was doing, ie., snowing, there was no way I'd want to be stuck in an emergency with even more bank and drift boxing Scarlette in. So, ever since driving into a ditch a couple of winters ago, there's been a snow shovel in my trunk, but I've never had the occasion to use it. I could have used it that night in the ditch, but it was only that event which taught me the importance of trunk shovels. This is a short shovel, a short handle with a small scoop, but the perfect size for digging into the banks built up between cars. And digging I did ! Let me say this: I am WAY out of shape.

My intention was not to dig her out completely, as that would take probably over an hour, and as it stands, I worked for twenty minutes, sweating for at least ten of those. I dug out three out of four wheels (one was blessedly clear - I guess the plow driver got careless) and then proceded to dig out the front half of the car on the driver's side. I also cleared out about half of the substantial bank between mine and the car in front, tossing that onto the cat-hating neighbour's lawn and out into the street. Finally, when I thought my sides were going to burst, I just stomped in the snow and broke it up with the shovel so that Scarlette's tires could gain purchase. The final test was to try to escape. I shoveled off the car and then, entering by the passenger's side (yes, of course the driver's side key hole was frozen), I turned her on. Throwing her into "Lo" range four-wheel-drive, in other words, the more powerful range in which you have to use the low gears, I put her in reverse and hit the gas.

God bless my car. Scarlette leapt to life. It's a surprise to feel the difference between two- and four-wheel-drive, and many SUVs and such are in all-wheel mode all the time so you never feel the 'rush'. I threw her in first and we roared out of the snowbank into the street. Then, just to see if I could find a clearer parking spot, because I'm a selfish girl like that, I cruised around a little. I passed a Cadillac higher up on Greenlaw that was stuck in less snow than remained in my old spot and briefly considered offering my shovel. Passing them by, I ended up putting Scarlette back into the spot I'd pulled her from and did a strategicallly better parking job that left me more room for error at the front. I again considered helping the Cadillac as its tires spun, but feeling the effects of an asthma attack and my pants covered in snow, I opted to come in here and write about my little adventure instead.

I really do love the winter.

It's been quite a bit of time since I last logged an entry. I'll make no appologies as I simply had better things to be doing. Since my last entry, Christmas and New Years have come and gone and I enjoyed them both very much. Mostly, the time between these significant dates was spent working site-sales at the ROM, and the days immediately surrounding those dates were spent in Peterborough visiting my mother and as it happens, my cat. I haven't had a lot of time to relax. Christmas Eve saw Mom and I driving back and forth, to and from, Toronto where we'd spent several hours visiting with Julie and Jerzy. There was a lovely white Christmas through out southern Ontario for the 25th and Mom and I enjoyed visiting with friends that night. Boxing Day was hardly a time to relax and visit friends as it was once meant, rather, I spent most of the day bent over Tracy's commission. It came out wonderfully, by the way, with only a couple minor suggestions each from Mom and Ray.

There was a delicious dinner at Rick's parents' in Stoney Creek on the 28th, which was partially a belated Christmas dinner for me, and also a day-late birthday dinner for Rick. That was a great deal of fun, though I recall that I was incredibly tired for it. At some point, I met author Margaret Atwood when she came into the ROM and I was pleased that she was very gracious. Sure, she can't read her own work and she's a bit overdone, but the contribution she's made to international literature is enormous. I hosted a small do for New Year's Eve on... yep, the 31st, to which Al and Carrie, Kerri and Mark, Rick, and Richie all came. That was nice. It was a pot luck dinner and it was so well timed that we hardly stopped eating from around 7pm until nearly midnight ! It was nice hosting an adult soiree. I felt very grown up. Of course, that was a short-lived sensation and then spent the 1st dressed in my nightgown and housecoat for the entire day.

Here are my Top Five of gifts that I received (just for the heck of it):
5 - Chanel No5
4 - Lion and Mouse mechanical toy
3 - "The Nabes" (a book)
2 - a very gorgeous watch by Fossil
and finally, being the best present of all...
1 - Beast feet slippers ! (big tiger paws)

Even better was the fact that I put presents under Rick's tree that he didn't notice until I told him about them and then didn't get to open them until the 26th. Gina and Nicole loved the jewellery that I sent them and I am the most happy about how much Mom adores the necklace that I gave her. She deserved it, too, for all the support. Eventually I'll pay her back for all the money she's given me over the last couple of years, too.

To everyone else, I hope that 2003 is a year of health, happiness, and, God willing... Peace.