Wednesday, October 31, 2007

*insert beaming smile here*

I passed I passed I passed
I passed I passed
I FUCKING* PASSED!!!!!!

Oh man, SO relieved!! You have absolutely no clue. I can't afford to fail anything this semester. I PASSED! *happy dances around in a circle*

This almost but not quite (and by that I mean, not really) makes up for the fact that my computer is yet AGAIN on the fritz. grrrr!


*pardon my French, si vous plait.

Monday, October 29, 2007

GRRRRR

I hate hate hate hate hate HATE midterms.

Especially Accounting ones. Especially when I've studied and studied and then I sit in front of the paper and MY MIND GOES TOTALLY BLANK! Especially when it's a make-up one and you really have no chances after this to pass the course. Hopefully I come close enough and he takes pity on me and passes me - I know I can pass this course with what we have left to do; it's just this goddamn midterm! (and the way the course is set up, if I can be totally honest).

Anyway, the stench from Elvis' litter box is overwhelming and I (finally!) have new litter to change it with. So that's what I need to do before my roommie gets home...

oooh, good tidbit about today: Methinks my mantoy was successful in arranging time away so we can spend a weekend together in a couple of weeks. First time spending any length of prolonged time together....I get the full details tonight when I'm back home & he's back from the gym. *excited girly squeal* LOL.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

procrastinating....

As I stood outside on the balcony having a smoke this morning, I had an overwhelming urge to go over to Home Depot (incidentally, right across the street), purchase a pumpkin, and carve it. Even though I haven't carved a pumpkin since Grade 7, when I found out that the pumpkin guts give me a horrible itchy rash where ever it touches my skin, and even though I don't have the tools necessary to actually complete the task. I didn't give in to the urge though, thankfully, so my life is pumpkin-less for another year. However, that's fine by me!

Had the very bright idea to rearrange the furniture in my room today, with the help of my bff; it actually works out better and gives the illusion of more space - and, as an extra bonus, it's actually easier to know where to place any artwork/posters I might will buy. I wound up getting a cheaper bed - aka yet another blow up mattress - yesterday, so with the leftover money I purchased the games of Risk (for my friend, his favourite 'classical' board game) and Monopoly (which so happens to be my personal favourite) and this:

Isn't it just the COOLEST?

All the heads move independently and can be arranged into different positions. I love it. It's so funky!

Anyway. Unfortunately, my room isn't getting any cleaner by me sitting here telling you about the new lamp I bought or how I rearranged it, so I gotta get back to it.

Gag.

Friday, October 26, 2007

my day, in all its boring glory!

Today has been fantastic! Although, why do all my fantastic days fall on a Friday? I really should work on making them fall on a Monday so it ensures I have a good week, school productivity-wise!

Got up this morning at 7:30am (which is big for me because I specifically arranged my timetable to start no earlier than 11:30, but most of my classes are in the afternoon, so I don't have to get up early, natch) and was out the door by 8:30. Went downtown and got my "Articles of Incorporation" (Phase I of my major Corporate Law assignment) stamped all official-like at City Hall. The only thing I was missing was the postal code in one area, but the clerk said "in real life, I would let them write it in with black ink" - so I did, he stamped, I left. Whole thing took five minutes.

I was back on campus by 10:30, so I went up to the 3rd floor B-Building labs and started working on Phase II of the same assignment. All it really entails is just submitting information from the file you're given into a legal software program called Fastco, and then it produces the documents you need with the relevant information. Finished inputting the information by 11:00; I'll produce the documents later - main thing is the information is all there in the software file (and, in real life, it means more billable hours! bwahaha!).

11:30 to 1:00 was Accounting. I failed the midterm something awful, but he gave us the detailed solutions to study - the make-up midterm is on Monday. All you get on the makeup is a pass or fail - if you fail a second time, you fail the entire course. Which isn't going to happen, people! Then, once that part of the course is done, you have to do 11 exercises off this Accounting software, with step-by-step instructions provided, by yourself and/or on your own time. So if you finish by next week, then you're completely finito. You don't have to come to class anymore....nice added incentive to finish quickly, eh? I finished Exercises 1-5 during class time; I didn't really feel like sticking around to finish all of them, even though I could have.

My Motion (for Civil Procedures) group meeting was postponed as 2 of my group members had to go get their "Articles of Incorporation" stamped - I'm on the Responding party anyways, so my stuff isn't due for a couple of weeks yet. We're meeting Monday to go over it, I think?
Went home after Accounting because Civil & Corporate were cancelled, and since I did all my work for Corporate beforehand there was really no point in sticking around anyways. So instead of being done at 5:30, I was done at 1:00 - SCORE! That made me happy!

Still to do today is clean my room (which is what I should be doing instead of boring you all with my school stuff), take back my bed and argue forcefully explain politely that I would like a full refund (not store credit or exchange). Hopefully I won't have to get too bitchy assertive. And hopefully they'll do it! If push comes to shove, though, I always have my sob story of how I'm actually sleeping on the floor and this refund is the only way I can afford a proper bed. Oh, I'm good.
;-)

I wish

1) I wish I didn't have to be up so early (yes, 8am is early).
2) I wish I didn't have to run downtown to do something for an assignment.
3) I wish I didn't leave this to the last minute.
4) I wish I didn't have to be back on campus for 11:30.
5) I wish I could go back to bed.
6) I wish I woke up looking perfect & gorgeous and ready to run out the door.
7) I wish I woke up feeling refreshed instead of still being tired.
6) I wish my cat wasn't being such a spaz right now.
8) I wish downtown wasn't so far away!
9) I hope everything goes smoothly and on time - I can't afford mistakes right now.
10) However, I am thankful that only my morning is busy - after I do this crazy running around dance, all I have to do is meet my Civil Pro group for the Motion assignment and work a little on my Phase II for Corporate, but actual classes are cancelled to let us work on it.

I should get going - no time to waste! *boogies out the door*


"I look into the window of my mind
Reflections of the fears I know I've left behind
I step out of the ordinary
I can feel my soul ascending
I am on my way
Can't stop me now
And you can do the same
What have you done today to make you feel proud?
It's never too late to try
What have you done today to make you feel proud?
You could be so many people
If you make that break for freedom
What have you done today to make you feel proud?"
-Proud, Heather Small

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

chip-chip-a-roo!

I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamed that I was pregnant, but I could feel the outline of the baby's head & torso and limbs - just not the hands or feet, because they weren't 'formed' yet. And it wasn't the typical 'round belly' of being pregnant, rather it was really like I had a child forming under my skin. And my stomach hurt all throughout the dream and I kept rubbing it. Wonder if it means anything? Probably not....I hope not. That's one weird ass dream!

Computers back and fixed! So happy I have my baby back! =-) Still sleeping on the floor though, which totally sucks. I'm a bit crabbier than usual, but its easier to get out of bed (or rather, stay out of bed) in the morning. Operation Take-Back-Bed is scheduled for this weekend - its a two person job because I certainly can't carry that gigantic box all by myself. Hopefully they give me a full refund (even though I don't have the receipt anymore, I have the bank statement saying I bought the bed from Canadian Tire), because I need a bed and this is the only way I can afford one!

Nothing else is really happening here. Back to watching Friends I guess!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The future's gonna eat me.

Life is seriously full of suckage at the moment. Monday night my computer bit the dust completely, and last night my bed deflated (it was a blowup camping bed) as well. So now I'm back to sleeping on the floor indefinitely. I just don't have the money to get another bed right now; I don't even have the money to fix my computer but since a friend is doing the repairs, at least I won't get slammed for the cost of labour. If this keeps up, I'm going to need a hip replacement by the time I'm 30.

Oh yeah, and then I lost my bank card; not looking forward to going in and fighting with them over my ID to get a new card (they apparently don't take health cards as ID but it's the only thing I have!). It's just an extra added annoyance that I could really do without at the moment.

Haven't been sleeping well - well, of course not, I'm sleeping on blankets on the floor - but I'm also super stressed out and worried about everything that's happening in my life right now.. Slept maybe? 4 hours on Monday night, and 5 last night, which is definitely not enough.


I feel overwhelmed, scared and very, very much alone.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Good Friday

Today I actually went to class - three cheers for me!

And they were good classes too - in Civil Pro we went over how to do Title Proceedings, which is the legal names of the parties involved in the suit at the beginning of the document - and they're all different according to category (say you had a minor, without a Litigation Guardian, suing an estate with a will - it'd look something like this, informally:

IMA WHINE, an infant by her Litigation Guardian, the Children's Lawyer

- and -

STAN TALL, Estate Trustee with a will of the Estate of Rich Moneybags)

Formally all you add is the Court, Court File #, titles of Plaintiff & Defendant, and the title of the document (i.e. Statement of Claim). So we did a 5-page worksheet on it during class - I'm nearly done, just need to read up on how to title Sole Proprietorship's and 3-party suits.

Then, in Corporate, she gave us nearly the entire class to work on our Corporate Phase I assignment - I wasn't there when it was assigned though so I had to familiarise myself with it. Basically, we work for a fictitious lawfirm (mine is Daly, Colbert, Stewart LLP, which I thought was hilarious) and a business wants to go from being a partnership to an incorporation, so you need to prepare all the documents needed for them to do that. It's all kept in a binder called a "Minute Book". There's three Phases to the assignment in total.

Anyway, I finished it in just over an hour & a half, thankfully! We're supposed to actually take it down to the Courthouse (or is it City Hall? Must ask) to present it to get it pseudo-"incorporated", starting Monday. Eeep!!! I'm thinking getting it done on Thursday?

We even have to keep 'timesheets' the way legal professionals do it - a couple of my classmates and I joked it was "fake-billing" - most law firms keep track of time in 6 minute intervals and then round off to one digit, so I 'billed' 1.5 today. It's fun stuff! lol.

I have 3 mid-terms next week. Eeeep!!! Intellectual Property on Monday, Landlord & Tenant on Tuesday (open book exam, oh how I love thee so!) and Civil Pro on Friday, and two the next week in Accounting and Corporate. Already had my Public Admin midterm (thank heaven for small mercies).

Plans for the weekend include cleaning this apartment top to bottom (even the floors) studying for Intellectual Property and doing Activity #4 for Public Admin. Doesn't that sound like fun?!

PS: I just checked out starting salaries for my position based on my city - basically the median is 43,789$....that's 31,341$ more a year than what I survive on now.....woaaaah!!! lol.
Ooooh, and I figured out last night that I get the BBCk channel...I adore British television in general, so I've now added "Little Britain" to my viewing schedule. I absolutely LOVE Little Britain, I think its right-piss funny. Sooo glad I get it!
PPS: Don't ask me why I'm up at 4am. it's not worth mentioning.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Me want!

Geoffrey Rush & Cate Blanchett are reprising their roles for a 'sequel' to the 1998 movie, Elizabeth. Joining them is Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh. It opens in theatres tomorrow.

Me want to see!!


PS: if I ever get to university, I've decided to do a major in Law and a minor in History. ;-) Now, if only I can get there.....

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Best. Book. Ever.

"Oh no," said Milo seriously. "In my family we all start on the ground and grow up, and we never know how far until we actually get there."

"What a silly system." The boy laughed. "Then your head keeps changing its height and you always see things in a different way?
Why, when you're fifteen things won't look at all the way they did when you were
ten, and at twenty everything will change again."

- The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster.

Oh, I adore this book to bits. I re-read it last night for the first time in a quite a while and, oh, just so amazing. Really. My favourite quote (and there's so many gems to choose from) is the one above. Even though it was published in 1961, and it's technically a child's book, it still - perhaps, even more so - applies and serves as a commentary on what our society has become now. I think I should somehow acquire a copy and read it once a week to remind myself of the many demons of Ignorance, and to always let Rhyme & Reason shine through, while I'm trying to build a kingdom of Wisdom, not live on the island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping, you know)!

Saturday, October 6, 2007

S4, E2: Grey's Anatomy - Love/Addiction

just finished watching this weeks episode of Grey's Anatomy: Love/Addiction.....

wow. as a former addict I identified so much with this episode, but I'm not going to get into that.

it was also one of the best episodes I've seen in a really long time from Grey's - just the right mixture of humorous and heartbreaking....I was laughing out loud at some parts, and my heart literally broke when Callie was begging George to just "not say anything, not tonight" because she suspects George is having an affair (he isn't, but he IS telling her the marriage is over, because he "loves" Izzie...ugh) and she just cannot take it right now so please, George, don't say anything. and she's nearly crying and I have a lump in my throat and my eyes are all teary and my heart is, literally, aching and I just want to reach into my screen and give Callie a really huge tight hug and tell her it's okay to just let go and let it all out - cry, scream, break things, cry some more, just let. it. out.

ah man, now thats some great TV.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Off I go.....

Well, off I go, travelling 560 km (that's 348 miles for you US folks), times two, 12 hour stretches each way, all for the sake of re-building & maintaining a relationship with my family. Oh. joy.
And I don't even like turkey.

But sitting out on the deck and getting to see this during daylight hours:















And this after nightfall:















Makes it slightly more bearable.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

"welcome to 2nd year!" .... oh, bite me.

I'm drowning. and we're only in week 5? and I'm thinking of adding another 3 years to this?

I must be, clinically, certifiably, totally, without a doubt, 100%, seriously freaking
insane.
Got my big project assigned in Civil Pro today - worth 40% of my overall mark. Fail this, fail course. And it's teamwork, which I hate with a burning passion. I can...do this? Right.

I'm also very lost in Corporate -- it's not even funny. Well, not actually lost, really, as I'm just bewildered - very different style of teaching than what I've grown accustomed to - that class is actually tough. I'm guessing Intellectual Property will be, too, but I have yet to make it to a class for some reason. (Somehow, 2pm on a Monday doesn't agree with me? Yeah, I know it doesn't make any sense - it's not really making sense to me either....)

Actually, this whole thing has gotten me right freaked. I'm even thinking of un-installing MSN on my home computer, putting in long hours over at the school instead of trying to concentrate at home, stuff like that. But when I say I'm un-installing MSN....oh boy. You know the situation is dire then.

What else has got me bugged out? Oh yes. Going home for Thanksgiving this weekend. For the first time in .... oh, a very long time .... I'm lying to my mother. Willfully. It's stressing me out & leaving a nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach, but what can you do when she's told you she doesn't want you coming if you don't travel up on the Saturday? But you can get a ride, which normally costs 85.19$, for 25$, on the Thursday? And, if by travelling up on the Thursday, you get to see your best friend from high school whom you haven't seen in exactly a year? (who's also willing to drive you the last leg home, for free, and keep you until Saturday so you don't get in trouble? Man, words fail to describe how much I adore this girl).

And besides, if you complied with her request to travel up on the Saturday, it means pretty much less than 24 hours at home - and oh, come on, 85$ for 24 hours is just a bit steep in my books. So I'm doing it. I'd rather pay the 85$ (going back) plus 25$ for a proper four-day weekend than 85$ for just 24 hours. Which, I just realized, I don't have to spend more than 24 hours with my family in any case (it's a really long story as to why I don't actually want to spend any more time than necessary with them, and one that doesn't really bear repeating).
Oh, this is working out perfect....really. I can't wait to see my friend, it's been far, far far too long.... :-)

PS: remind me to do my laundry tomorrow & also to buy a disposable camera for the weekend. Fall in the country = breathtaking.