September 25th, 2007

Wanna Play?

On-going group project, Kerry, Val, John, and me so far, to find songs about the radio. Why do I care so much about the radio? Unknown. Play with me anyway!

“Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Bugles
“This is Radio Clash” by the Clash
“Radio Nowhere” by Bruce Springsteen
“On the Radio” by Regina Spektor
“Sh*t on the Radio” by Nelly Furtado
“Radio Radio” by Elvis Costello
“Radio Free Europe” by REM
“Boys on the Radio” by Hole
“Radio Ga Ga” by Queen
“Are You Out There?” by Dar Williams
“Do You Remember Rock’n’Roll Radio?” by The Ramones
“AM Radio” by Everclear
“Transistor Sister” by Freddie Cannon
“Catch My Disease” by Ben Lee

They play me on the radio
RR

September 10th, 2007

The Inuit invented sunglasses!!

I didn’t know that. Now I know!

Smarter every day!

RR

September 7th, 2007

Long Friday

Today at work, I dropped my employee id in the toilet. Almost worse: being discovered washing said id in the sink.

Hey, remember that time I was going to the Biodome for some Intro Geography field trip and the girl sitting at right angles to me on the Metro projectile vomited on my new jacket? And continued on vomiting (into her gloves) until the next stop (Pie-IX??) so she couldn’t apologize before I ran away in grossoutedness. Once off the subway, I had no idea where I was, so I went into the only nearby business, a car rental agency and begged to use the restroom. I didn’t explain why, but perhaps the lady behind the counter could guess from the smell, because she let me. I was scrubbing both my jacket and my sweater (yes, it soaked through) in the sink when an enormously pregnant rental-car-agency employee came in, *did* bat an eye but only once, then went about her business.

When I left the restroom (finally) I asked the counter clerk for a plastic bag to put my dripping wad of wet laundry in, and all she had a was a garbage bag. So I show up late at the Biodome with a garbage bag thrown over my shoulder like a hobo sack, and freezing cold because I’m minus two layers. Some nice boy from my class found me and reaffiliated me with the tour, and eventually took me home on the *bus* (I went the wrong way, should never have even been on the Metro) and I was so cold and mizzy that I never even bothered to flirt with him. I think his name was Anthony. Nice boy from first-year geography class, if you are reading this, is your name Anthony?

Remember when I thought I was going to major in geography? Ha!

Enjoy a little kiss and tell
RR

August 29th, 2007

Two days in

My new job is fine, I think. I haven’t really done much yet, except read the manual and decorate my cube and get lost a bunch of times and have to be extracted from the building by friendly HR folk. Ok, actually I haven’t done anything: my new boss is ill, no one else knows how she wanted me trained and are too busy to do so anyway, and I don’t know anything so I can’t be in anyway helpful. Everyone I’ve met is super nice and friendly, but they can’t chat for too long because they have work to do. It’s no one’s fault, but I’m sorta going nuts.

On the upside, the homepage of my internet there is MSN/Sympatico, which I have never scene before. These were the headlines when I logged in this morning:

Facebook everywhere
Owen Wilson is going to be okay
South Park pushes boundaries again
Dress cute for less
Tips for snagging lower airfares

Aka: the news *every day*.

Ruby asked him with a grin

August 4th, 2007

Quick poll

Do you know what Jenga is?

If I used it as a verb–he had a stack of tapes Jenga’d in the corner–would that make sense to you?

Insights appreciated. I thought everybody in the world knew and loved Jenga, but perhaps I am mistaken.

It’s impossible bliss
RR

August 2nd, 2007

Dispatches from Department of Dumb Ideas

#1–I have installed a hit-count-thingy on this site. My bro thought it would be interesting, but I said, “Nah, I have four readers and I know who they are.” (Hey, guys!) He said, “Maybe people you don’t know read it, too.” And he was right! Or, at least, either that or you four are strangely mobile! Anyway, now I can check on that and see how I’m doing, hit-wise, whenever I feel like wasting time. Not a good temptation to have. But hello, strange new readers, whoever you are. I like you already.
#2–A small child yelled angrily at me in a foreign language from her stroller. A library patron was rude on the phone. I am upset about both these incidents. Clearly I am being silly and thin-skinned, yet I am sad.
#3–I threw a rubber chicken at one of my students because he wasn’t paying attention.
#4–I put chunks of watermelon in a ziploc instead of a tupperware because it would take less space in my bag that way. Now, of course, it is a big sticky smushy mess. Of *course* I’m going to eat it anyway!

Well, there you have it. The day can only improve, though, with a swim, some writing workshoppery, hwae dop bop and *The Simpsons* movie all afoot for later. Yes, yes, Simpsons. I maintain that this is not part of my streak of bad ideas. The trailers are funny, anyway.

He is surrounded by sound
RR

July 17th, 2007

My composition

Long day, goodish but stressful. Got tired, got hungry, got late. Decided would be the height of gauche and buy a veggie dog to eat on the subway (yeah, yeah, you hate me, I know). Dug in, ate fast and happily, then couldn’t finish. As I was trying to rewrap the napkin to cover up the remains, discovered large bite in napkin.

My current composition: mainly girl, slightly paper product. Huh.

This is the poetry of lesser days
RR

June 28th, 2007

I wash my hands of this weirdness

Post-posting, yesterday continued to be strange. I was doing Pilates at the gym with my iPod on, possibly not a brilliant idea. I was doing jack-knifes, my favourite Pilation, wherein one lies flat on her back, then kicks legs into the air and pulls off the floor into a shoulder stand, then *jack-knifes* the body to put the feet behind the head. In that last step, I accidentally kicked an elderly gentleman with both feet, because I hadn’t heard him step onto the mat behind my head. He hadn’t seen what I was doing because he was bending over away from me, thus I kicked him in the, um, posterior. Needless to say, I tried to apologize and, also needless to say, he wanted only to get as far away from me as possible.

Following that I bought a Greek salad for lunch, only to find that the chunks of red juicy-looking tomato were, for some reason, watermelon. Then I went off to teach and it was the last day of school and the kids were *haywire.* One of my favourite students (I have many favourite students–is that bad?) gave me an end-of-term gift of candies. I was pleased, but when I read the card listing the things she liked about me, one was that I always let her go to the bathroom when she asked! Kinda scraping the bottom of the barrel for compliments there, aren’t we? At this point I went home to lick my wounds.

Today promises to be a better day, despite the fact that I am eating distinctly sketchy tinned tuna salad (it was on sale!) The evening promises Indian food and hilarity, and I only have a half hour more of work left. Huzzah.

Oh, I did hear a rumour that Rose-coloured comments weren’t working, but when I tested them they seemed to. You can always email me at RebeccaBooks@excite.com should you need to comment but be unable.

Floodwater pours from the mouth
RR

June 27th, 2007

Flurgh

I am going to have braces for the rest of my life, and in the after-life I am going to have a retainer. This morning I put a dead bug in a Ziploc and brought it to work with me. The top layer of skin peeled off my nose. I am reading 60 Stories by Donald Barthelme, and it has so flumoxed me that when I came across the line, “Several waves of smickering washed over the class,” I had no idea whether that was a typo for snickering or a new word that I didn’t know (not in the dictionary, except an obsolete usage from Dryden that doesn’t seem to suit) or else a joke. Still unsure, despite “Stop that smickering!” in the next line. Argh.

Barthelme makes me question my IQ. Also it is very hot, and I am now at the library and very cold, and so my system is all confused.

How can you live in the northeast?
RR

June 25th, 2007

You know what I hate?

Having eyebrows. I can’t believe that I left that off my pet peeves list a few months ago. They are my most loathed physical feature. I would pluck them all out if it wouldn’t make me an aesthetic weirdo. Even still, I tug on them when I am tense; during stressful periods in my life they develop little bald patches. What ugly things. Ick.

That’s the way you want it

RR