I've also just ordered Seabiscuit and the ultimate edition of Legend - and I've finally filled up my DVD shelf! :-)
I got my hair cut on the weekend, and dyed it a slightly lighter brown, so it looks quite different now - not *too* drastic a change, but enough.
I better get ready to go to work, but before I go, here are some pictures from Susan's birthday celebration last week. First, Susan with her cake at work:
Then, later that night, this is before we went out, and then while we're out at the bar:
And finally, this is a picture of Susan's new cat, Wilson! I am so happy that she got a cat. My Tiger brings me so much happiness, I'm sure Wilson will make her happy too. :-)
Next update will be in February!
----------------------
Date: January 25, 2004
Time: 9:46 a.m.
----------------------
This month has been sooo busy - I feel like I've hardly had a spare moment to just sit and relax! My email is so far behind, I can hardly bring myself to look at it anymore. Today is my 24th consecutive day of work, and I've still got another month to go! Someone remind me why I thought it would be a good idea to give up my weekends for two months...?
Which is not to say I'm not enjoying the skating lessons, because I am - when I'm actually there, on the ice, with the kids, I enjoy it quite a lot. But it's the whole preparing for the lessons, travelling all the way to North Toronto, being out in the freezing cold parts of it that I could live without. :-) I don't enjoy the mornings on the weekends now because I keep thinking about how I have to get ready to go, and then by the time I get home, I'm too tired to do anything else. This is the same reason why I hated working the 12-8 shifts when I worked part-time in high school. I guess perhaps this whole experience will teach me not to complain too much about my regular job now. :-)
Anyway, there were some fun things this week too! On Wednesday we had an open house in our office, so there was food and drinks and chocolate-covered-strawberries on Christmas trees! Friday was Susan's birthday, so we had cake and went for an extended lunch with coconuts and fried bananas, and then in the evening we went to watch her brother's band play at a club downtown.
Rumour has it Pia Douwes will be coming to New York! If that's the case, I must go. Hopefully she'll be there in May, which is when I was planning to go anyway. :-) I've got Jennifer at work interested in coming to see Wicked with me as well!
Alright, time for me to go get ready now! Yay for Tanith & Ben for winning Four Continents, and for Jeff winning as well, though it sounds like he didn't have the best skate.
----------------------
Date: January 20, 2004
Time: 8:46 p.m.
----------------------
I went on a scanning spree today! There are lots of new pictures in the photo album (well, they're all old pictures, but they're new to the album). They're in the "home", "friends", "travel" and "Tiger" sections. Check it out!
And, I didn't add these to the album, but I thought they might be good for a laugh... my yearbook entries!
Secondaire V, Québec, 1995
Grade 12, Alberta, 1996
----------------------
Date: January 17, 2004
Time: 10:59 a.m.
----------------------
Good news today! I found a new apartment!! My application was just approved yesterday, so I will go in sometime next week to sign the lease. I'm really happy about it - it's probably about the same size space as I'm in now, just laid out a little differently. The kitchen is *really* small, which will be a pain after my nice kitchen here. BUT the major improvements are that the building is really nice, with an indoor pool and everything, it's only two blocks away from where I work, AND no bugs!! :-)
Here's the floorplan for the new place:
It's on the 23rd floor, which is pretty high!! Should be a nice view - too bad it's not facing south though. I'll be moving probably the last weekend in February (the 28th & 29th). I can't wait!
Other than that, this week was pretty quiet. I went to Susan's for dinner on Thursday. It has been sooooo cold all week long, and I ended up being outside for far too long on Wednesday (long story), and so I would be perfectly content to just sit inside all day today. However, I have to go teach my skating lessons in about half an hour, and I don't even know what my lessons are for today, so maybe I should get that prepared! :-)
----------------------
Date: January 12, 2004
Time: 9:15 p.m.
----------------------
Alright, the figure skating is pretty much over for a while (other than Four Continents and Europeans, which won't be on TV for weeks anyway), so I can actually do something else with my time now!
I was so sad for Jeffrey on Saturday night though! :-( I can't believe he won't be at Worlds! Makes me kind of glad I didn't get tickets to Dortmund after all. Hopefully he comes back next year with a consistent quad, and two new beautiful programs and blows everybody out of the water.
I just finished watching Rick Mercer's new show, which apparently is taping here in Toronto! I will have to go watch it live at some point. I really enjoy him, though I was hoping the show wouldn't be *so* much like This Hour Has 22 Minutes. I mean, he's even doing the rants and stuff! But I won't complain too much, since he was always my favourite part of that show anyway!
So I made it through the weekend, through the cold and snow and everything. Unfortunately, I got frostbite on my big toe on Saturday. :-( :-( It really, really hurt. Well, first it was frozen, then it was killing me when it started to warm up, then I started having shooting pains all the way up my leg, and then it took me hours of soaking in warm water to get it to a normal temperature. It's still a little bit sore, but I think it'll be alright. It's right next to my broken toe (which I will have to get re-broken at some point, but I'm avoiding it), so all in all, my right foot is just a mess!
Alias rocked last night. More so than usual, I mean.
For some reason, Susan doesn't trust me to drive in Scotland! I think this is unfair. She seems to think that just because I couldn't remember which side of the car was the driver's side in Australia, I might have some trouble with navigating backward traffic circles in Glasgow. ;-)
In case you didn't see it on my theatre site, check out the Stacy's Musical Village Store!
----------------------
Date: January 9, 2004
Time: 10:11 p.m.
----------------------
Wow, I'm in a little bit of shock...I just spent the evening watching the Canadian women's figure skating competition, and *enjoyed* it! I don't think we've had a team this strong in all the time I've been following skating. Yay for Cynthia Phaneuf and Joannie Rochette!
Also yay for Jeff Buttle, who did pretty well in the short program - I want him to win sooooo badly, but Emanuel has apparently finally decided to get his act together, so perhaps this won't be Jeff's year. I'll still be rooting for him at Worlds though. And why do they always take pictures that makes the person look like they're in pain?
Now I am just waiting for the official confirmation that Tanith & Ben won the US championship (which will happen unless the arena should collapse on them), and then I'm off to bed. It has been brutally cold all week, especially today, and is supposed to still be pretty cold tomorrow, when I have to go skate outside for four hours. Boo. :-( So if I don't write again, it's because I'm frozen to the spot somewhere in north Toronto. ;-)
Susan and I have been throwing around ideas for our trip to Scotland this summer. The current plan is that we will go from August 27 - September 11, and spend 2 days in London, 2 days in Paris, and 10 days in Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, the Highlands and Skye). Should be busy, but lots of fun!! I'm bummed though, because The Woman in White, Andrew Lloyd Webber's new show, is supposed to open in London in September, so I'll probably just miss it. :-(
That is about all that's going on at the moment - I'm going to look at apartments next week, and maybe going to visit Susan after work sometime as well. I've been working on something new for my theatre website this week - check it out tomorrow!
Alright, finally, the skating results are in! Only half an hour later... goodnight!
----------------------
Date: January 5, 2004
Time: 10:24 p.m.
----------------------
Well, my first weekend of skating lessons is over! I've got to say, it's pretty tiring! :-) I was tired after Saturday, and then completely wiped on Sunday. I'm teaching 5 45-minute classes back-to-back, with no breaks or anything. Luckily it wasn't cold this weekend, but I can imagine it's not going to be fun when it is (like this coming weekend is forecasted to be!)
I've got about 10 kids per class, at about 4 different levels. The kids seem to be a pretty good bunch - a few that are less attentive than the rest, but it shouldn't be anything I can't handle. I don't really like the classes with the parents, it's a little intimidating having 10 parents listening to you as well as the kids. :-) But I guess I'll get used to it!
I'm watching the end of Cast Away right now - I'd never seen it before, but Susan said it was one of her favourites, so I decided to check it out. I'm proud of myself, I only cried a little bit about Wilson. ;-)
Alright, I'm sure there was more I was gonna say, but I'm pretty tired (this is getting to be a recurring theme!), so I'll try to do a real entry later on this week!
In the meantime, here's a few more Christmas stories!
----------------------
Date: January 1, 2004
Time: 8:18 p.m.
----------------------
Did anyone honestly think I would actually work all day without distraction??
Here's a little end/beginning of the year survey I came across:
2003:
1. go to a party?: Quite a few! Mostly work-related though
2. try something new?: Does learning a few words of Hungarian count?
3. have someone change your life?: No
4. kiss someone?: Yes
5. tell your family and friends you love them?: I hope so!
6. buy something extravagant?: Yes, but not too many things. I mostly just spent money on trips. :-)
7. do something nice for you?: Yup
8. do something terribly wrong?: I don't think so...
9. move?: No!! When's the last year I could say that?
10. go to a concert?: A theatre one, yup ;-)
best of the year:
1. party: The one at Skydome
2. tv show: Alias
3. cd: Wicked cast recording
4. movie: "Finding Nemo"
5. song: "Morgen på Atlantis", sung live :-)
6. experience: Both my trips!
7. concert: The Colm Wilkinson one, since it's the only one I went to :-)
8. book: "And Quiet Flows the Don" (I'm going by books I *read* this year :-)
9. month: August
10. day: Oct. 17
worst of the year:
1. party: they were all okay - probably ING's Christmas party
2. tv show: Any of the reality shows!
3. cd: Clay Aiken's...what a disappointment
4. movie: I liked all the movies I saw!
5. song: The remake of "Drift Away"
6. experience: living with the bugs!
7. concert: I liked the one I went to :-)
8. book: "Mirror Mirror"
9. month: January
10. day: Nothing really stands out for me...
hopes for 2004:
1. predict something that you think will happen in 2004?: I will move to a new apartment ;-)
2. what do you hope changes about your country?: Stand up against the U.S.
3. what do you hope for yourself?: To pay most of my loans off
4. what do you hope for your family?: Everyone stays healthy, and Mom starts to make some money!
during 2003:
1. where were you when it began? In my apartment with Tiger
2. did you stay up?: Yup
3. what was your new year wish?: To travel lots and see theatre
4. how many boyfriends?: zero :-)
5. broke up?: n/a
6. have any crushes?: one
7. care to mention names?: nope - he's gone now anyway, so it doesn't matter!
8. had to say goodbye?: not forever
9. missed anyone?: of course
10. win anything?: yup! lottery tickets for "Hairspray" and "Wicked"
11. best place you went to?: Budapest
12. worst place you went to?: Delaware!
13. happiest moment?: lots of those...in Vienna, in New York, Christmas at home, just hanging out with my cat
14. how was your birthday?: nice! I got cake and presents, and taken out for lunch
15. best present?: mini-disc recorder
january: skating, killer "Alias" episode, and not much else! :-)
february: see January, minus the "Alias" episode
march: Shae & Victor won Worlds!!
april: Easter in Ottawa
may: New York, "Alias" finale, American Idol
june: Tonys, lots of trip planning
july: more trip planning :-)
august: Mom was here, and big road trip through the U.S.
september: website transfer, more trip planning
october: Europe, birthday, Halloween
november: New York and being sick
december: lots of parties, food, and home for Christmas
----------------------
Date: January 1, 2004
Time: 12:04 a.m.
----------------------
Well, I stayed up until midnight, and now I am going to bed. :-) I was invited out to a party tonight, but I'm still pretty beat from my trip home, so I decided to stay in and gets lots of sleep instead, so that I'm rested up for the weekend, when my skating job starts.
I've given notice at my apartment here, so I'll be moving to a new place at the end of February. Which means I have to find a new place! I've done a bit of looking already, and come across some pretty decent looking places...now I just need to find one that's in my price range!
I've received a few Christmas stories from people - you can still add yours if you'd like!
My computer monitor doesn't seem to be as colour sensitive as others are. For example, the background of the picture at the top of this page is quite grainy, but on my computer it shows as solid black. So I'm never quite sure if I've got the exact right shades and everything. If it doesn't look quite right, I apologize. :-) I hope you like the new layout though! There's a new survey in the "about me" section, and some new pictures in the photo gallery.
Alright, I'm going to head to bed now so that I can get up tomorrow and clean the apartment (Tiger seems to have shed half of himself while I was away), and get my coaching books ready for the weekend. Happy New Year everyone!