"Wishlist"

"Wishlist" by Pearl Jam

I am listening to this song on repeat and loving the lyrics, so I thought I'd share...

I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off

I wish I was a sacrifice but somehow I still lived on

I wish I was a sentimental ornament you hung on

The Christmas tree, I wish I was the star that went on top

I wish I was the evidence, I wish I was the grounds

For 50 million hands upraised and open toward the sky

I wish I was a sailor with someone who waited for me

I wish I was as fortunate, as fortunate as me

I wish I was a messenger and all the news was good

I wish I was the full moon shining off a Camaro's hood

I wish I was an alien at home behind the sun

I wish I was the souvenir you kept your house key on

I wish I was the pedal brake that you depended on

I wish I was the verb 'to trust' and never let you down

I wish I was a radio song, the one that you turned up

I wish...I wish...

Healthy Living

Oh man, I am feeling so good right now!

I've started this new diet, maybe you've heard of it? It's called eating-good-food-and-avoiding-fatty-gross-food-as-much-as-possible. Familiar with it? Yeah, what I've discovered is that I actually feel pretty darn good when I'm not stuffing my face with refined sugars and carbs. Whodathunkit? :)

This great new health kick really started when I bought my friend's old blender a couple weeks ago(which still works fantastically well). I decided to try making myself some nice fruit smoothies in the hopes of replacing my normal evening regimen of cookies and ice cream. Well...it's been working like a charm.

Cutting the sweets and high-fibre pastas out of my lunchplate has also really been making a difference. I'm finding it almost easy to avoid them now. It certainly hasn't helped that the dessert section is at the beginning of the lunch line, but I'm becoming quite adept at walking past and heading straight for the salad bar where I proceed to fill up at least half my plate with salad. Then it's just a matter of getting rice instead of pasta, and a lot of the vegetarian options - while being inordinately good for you - also tend to look more appetizing than the meat options anyway.

Granted, I haven't completely cut ALL sweets and carbs out. Come on, we're only human - everyone wants a cookie now and then. But with a surprisingly little amount of effort, you can indulge in the naughty sweets without feeling guilty because you know the rest of the time you're eating right. It's actually kind of liberating...so there you go.

Eat right=feel good. It's not rocket science.

Partnerless

Adam's last day of work was yesterday, and now I find myself partnerless in a sea of flats that need fixin'.

I certainly hope I am up to the task of doing this job independently for awhile. I mean, sure, the guys in the office can help me out from time to time if I need some assistance with back-breaking labour or something, but it's not really their tasking, heretofor they cannot help me all the time.

There are pros and cons to every situation; this one is no exception. Sure, I may have to carry everything myself all day, but there won't be anyone in the car to smell my lovely stench at the end of the day. I won't have anyone to talk to in the car, but I will be able to turn on the ol' ipod and crank some tunes and sing at the top of my lungs. Terribly.

And, now I have the good desk. The one that faces outside so I don't feel clausterphobic and frightened that spiders are going to attack me at my desk (yes, it's true, don't judge me.) The nice desk where I can see people when they walk into the office. Yay!

It's going to be all right...

Mostmand/Morrissey Fest

We had a lovely dinner at Matt's flat the other night, to celebrate...well, to celebrate each other, really. He wanted to term the evening Mostmand Fest in honour of Mr. Reza Mostmand, but being the incredibly humble human being that he is, Reza refused to allow a dinner dedicated to himself.

So Matt decided to honour all of us instead and we ate wanna-be Mexican food. It was delicious and oh-so (kind-of) Mexican. :)

Later in the evening Reza wrote a love song for Iman, Laura and I made up a Spanish love song for each other, and much hilarity was enjoyed by all.

The night was capped off by one of the water pipes overflowing in the kitchen and the entire floor being soaked with soapy, foul smelling water. Apparently it was one of those pipes that don't really go anywhere but are still open to flooding occasionally. Good times.

CHINA!!!

There was a lovely talk given the other day by some counsellors visiting from the Asian continent. They talked specifically about China, and it was wonderful - brought back so many memories of living there so long ago.

I want to go back to China sometime in the near future. It sounds like it's becoming so cosmopolitan. And I know the government has been in the news a lot recently for things like human rights violations in Tibet and the boycotting of the Olympics and all that sort of high-profile media circusry, but really, the local Chinese people are so warm-hearted and friendly and open and curious about all sorts of things; it's really quite refreshing.

A generalisation that has always stuck with me:
When offered information of value or information that's highly useful, they don't usually say "this will be good for me", they say, "this will be good for China". If only more people in the world were that selfless. We would all be much better off for it.

Double birthday bash!

My birthday was recently on the 29 of April, and my friend Laura's was on the 2 of May, so I decided to throw us a birthday bash to celebrate (both of our birthdays has been skipped due to the International Convention this year.) We had a bunch of people over to my flat, and we had a grand old time, playing games and getting scolded by the neighbours for making too much noise.

Here we were playing Fruit Salad, a game not unlike Musical Chairs. PJ got so fed up, he decided to take his chair with him as he played.

Here I am laughing HYSTERICALLY as they bring out our respective birthday cakes and sing us the Canadian national anthem instead of "Happy Birthday". They butchered it, but it was wonderful nonetheless.

Here Laura and I decided to cut our cakes like an old married couple. Good times. The frosting was excellent. Yum!

Here we are just kicking back and having some laughs. We got waaaaaay too rowdy, but I blame all the sugar we were hopped up on.

Highlights from Ridvan, the Holiest of Festivals