Welcome to the mid-winter. Today was amazing. The birds were singing in the bright, warm winter sun. There was a bit of snow-melt, but only because of the heat of the sun; the temperature did not rise above -5C. At the ROM, people were in good spirits, and there was a really nice concert of traditional Erhu (or Chinese violin). The violinist was George Gao and he was accompanied by a small chamber string orchestra as well as a pianist. The music was very interesting, combining western influence with folk tradition of China and Gao himself was delightful. I sat in on the performance when my shift ended and found it enjoyable and restful.

Last night was the Yay-I-Quit party for Erin my friend from the ROM (and my old gym buddy). She'd been pigeon-holed and held back from advancing in her department long enough and she was through with it. It was a very good turn-out and I had a lot of fun. Held down at Fionn McCool's on King St. W., it was a pleasant pub and the food was excellent. I had a goat-cheese salad, old-fashioned steak and mushroom (you just don't find kidney around these parts) in a crock, and finished off my night with a sumptuous dessert called The Tinker's Tower that was so rich and huge it required help from others to finish. Rick came, too, which was nice because I got to show him off to all the ROM girls and now that he's not a stinky, long-haired smoker, he's forced to mingle like a real person, not behind the shields of hair and cigarette. I think he had a good time, and he certainly had a good dinner. There was much toasting and laughing, gossiping and story-telling. It was like a good day at work, only with much more alcohol and no fears of a supervisor catching you goofing off.

I've just had a completely satisfying dinner of fried ham and eggs with peach juice to take me through the night. There's not much in the way of veggies in the house, unless you count the tins in the cupboard, but I'll survive today without them. I would like to thank my mother who has helped me out with rent this month, which saves me from having my phoneline cut. Tomorrow is for paying Bell and then, for the most part, all my bills are caught up. The next pay cheque should be more substantive so that I'll be able to pay off what I owe to Arthur and hopefully half of the following month's rent. Whee ! I'm starting to look forward to going home for school. It will be a relief in so many ways, not the least for my wallet. I'm a bit impatient, now that I've figured out what I want to do with my life, for it to get a move on. I'm now in a kind of limbo between current annoying issues and future excitement. This is a much better limbo between crap and more crap, by the way, so this, too, is a great relief.