Why, Yes, I am a Truly Astonishing Specimen!

It felt a bit like a one night stand when I left Katelyn's house the other night, as she was still sleeping when I left quietly and auspiciously, and I was carrying my moccasins.
I have been rereading Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, and it is equally as riveting the second time around as the first. I read it for four hours today. Due to my inability to read at a notable speed, I didn't get as far as someone else would have; however, I did get from less than half way done to more than halfway done. I have always highly recommended this book. I heard the film was a disappointment, but I myself never saw it. Perhaps I should, now that I'm familiarizing myself with the characters' stories once again. I also think I'm enjoying it even more now that I'm older, for the last time I read it was a few years ago, when the movie was still new.
In addition to my kind of slow reading pace, which is partially due to my tendency to reread paragraphs for clarification and more vivid imagery, I displayed my lack of prowess at simple mathematics to Mugs today. I've always known I've been poor at simple math, particularly as I learn more advanced math and succeed at it, but I guess this is something most people don't really know about me. It certainly isn't something you would assume about somebody without precedent, and as I am good at math, it isn't assumed I struggle to simply add and subtract. The other day, in fact, I was at work and counted something on my fingers, and Alexandria proclaimed, positively astounded, "Did Callie McIntosh just count something on her fingers?!", as if this was an absolutely preposterous notion. And then I said yes, because I did, and I do.
The example I was getting to was today, less than an hour ago, actually, when I showed Mugs my "Special Drawer" from when I was a child. I had sort of forgotten about it, but I spotted it so I thought I'd show him. It's really just a drawer full of miscellaneous objects that used to have some sort of value to me when I was young, like my Magic Bean and Magic Rock from my grade three teacher, or my stickers, or my tiny box of earrings, or my Pokemon cards which are in Japanese (which is actually kind of cool). We discovered one of those Mad Minute math sheets, which are just sheets full of either adding, subtracting, multiplication or division questions, sometimes a mixture, which I did in school in the primary grades. I don't know why it was in my drawer of once-cherished possessions. It had no answers, and I guess I mentioned that I'm poor at simple math, so he decided to make me do it orally and he would time me to see how far I got in a minute, as per Mad Minute procedure.
Well, it turns out I failed. I got less than half of the sheet finished. It's just really hard for me to make the numbers relate to each other. I even used my fingers on some of them. Maybe it's just because I'm out of practice, maybe I don't rub right with sums and differences, but either way, I felt kind of inadequate.

More Misadventures

With Callie and Katelyn! Attached at the hip. Kind of.
I woke up at 845 and baked some brownies. The plan was that Katelyn would be up around 11 and we'd hang out at 12 or so, but she got up at 12, so we didn't end up hanging out until around 2-ish, as can be expected with the Katelyn.
We were at her house and for the first hour or so we ate and talked and ate. We made some delicious cheesy things that set off the smoke alarm twice, and we exchanged gifts. She got me some pajamas which I'm wearing, and I gave her a picture of us with some collage-y hints, four brownies, plus a wonderful card written, of course, by yours truly. It was good.
We then headed over to Burma's to give her her Christmas gift from me, but she wasn't there so we just left the gift there and moved onward.
We continued to the Feminine Touch because I wanted a bra and matching undies, but they didn't have what I wanted so we left. Then it was Starbucks, to buy some gift cards, and we also ended up getting some delicicous hot drinks and a cookie we didn't finish (we took it to the movies but I forgot about it--it is now in my purse).
We stopped at McDonald's to pee.
Then we got to the theatre and bought our tickets to see Avatar over an hour in advance because it's cheap night (we're cheap) and it gets busy fast (but efficient!).
Then it was La Senza, where I did find the bra and undies I sought, plus some more. I also renewed my membership and got a stamp on my Bra Club card. 76$ spent there.
We finally go to the movies to actually watch the movie, and Katelyn got the popcorn with her many Scene Points Card points. Wonderful.
Except for how it wasn't, because like half an hour into the movie Katelyn started to feel gross from a motion sickness-type deal and left to find health "for a while". I say that in quotations because she left for the rest of the movie. The popcorn ended up being barely touched, as well as the pop. When she first left and didn't come back for a while, I thought maybe she was sick enough to be puking or something, and despite the fact that this thought came into my head, I didn't go check on her. I just kept waiting and waiting until I realised she wasn't coming back and hoped for the best. I figured she just went to go see another movie or something. I watched the whole thing by myself, which wasn't so bad actually. The plot was kind of the predictable romance, but the graphics were so INTENSE it was just unbelieveable. It was so real, I just, augh. I can't even explain it. Simply outstanding. I guess you could say I was watching it for the technology more than the movie, but, you know, a storyline is always a nice perk.
So after the movie (oh yes, and I was holding in my pee the whole time because I didn't want to leave our stuff by itself) I gathered Katelyn's stuff and went out to find her, and she was standing by herself with this smirk on her face like yeah, I just ditched that movie because I can't handle the AWESOME. By that I mean, she was thinking how ridiculous it all really was.
I gave her her stuff, but it turns out I forgot her scarf, so while she fetched it I went pee; the line moved surprisingly quick.
So while I was in the theatre actually enjoying what I payed for, it turns out that Katelyn hadn't been in another movie. She was sitting in the lobby people watching for two hours straight. The ticket ripper guy in a wheelchair was apparently "creeping" her, with stares and such, but I think she just doesn't know when a guy wants her. He talked to her. Poor guy. Picked the wrong chick for small talk. Afterwards we stopped at McDonald's to pee again and then came home, and here we are, me typing and Katelyn watching me type. The strangest thing about it all is that we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves somehow.
Yep.

Callie's Daily Transformation

Without makeup (pale, lifeless-looking, as well as grouchy)

With makeup (lovely colour in face, big eyelashes, feeling much better)

Mm, Mm, Good

Itches have an incredible power over us living things. People will go into wild positions that are uncomfortable or strenuous to relieve themselves of an itch. They put stress on other parts of their bodies to take away very mild discomfort. Cats go into wild contortionist poses. It's very bizarre.
In other news, I'm recently sick. Wooo. However, being sick spawns toast eating, and I do love toast, so I'm eating it. With cinnamon spread.
Mmm.
Toast.

AUUUUUUUGH!!

I don't remember what I was going to blog about! Sorry guys. This is all I've got tonight.

Psychedelic.

Alright. So, I just suddenly remembered The Ashes (see followers--I am too lazy to create a hyperlink) has the guilty pleasure of reading young adult novels. Well, I have discovered my most shameful pleasure is reading trashy, trashy teen magazines.
I mean, they're just awful. It's like Playboy: some great articles, but that's not why most people buy it. They like the celebrities and beauty and health questions, also known as sex questions and am I too fat questions. Personally, I like to look at the fashion and take the quizzes ("Are You a Good Flirt [that's what it tells me]?" or "Are You a Twi-Hard [not so, I'm afraid]?"). It's fun. I've also noticed that over time, the shopping and things has gone from 'saves and splurges' to 'outfits under 50$' because nobody wants to read about the 200$ clutch they can't afford anymore, I guess.
It's not as if I don't read good and decent magazines, because I do. I enjoy Maclean's quite a lot; it is a magazine full of strongly opinionated but open-minded writers aimed at readers just like them. It's great. I like Elle Canada because it is kind of my life force. I don't know why, I just really like the Elle Guy article and usually the other articles are really insightful for every day life. Plus, the high fashion photos are inspiration for art a lot of times, and I often save certain pages and tape them to a variety of things because the photography is very unique and even rhythmic. Depending on the photographer, of course. I also know that both Chatelaine and Homemakers have AWESOME recipes, for meals and desserts, some of which I will attempt to make in the near future (as in possibly Christmas). And I also read the Walrus at Chloe's house, and I quite enjoyed that too. I should get me some of that.
Anyway, I just love teen magazines. They're great. I know they're really not, but I can't help but dive into one every chance I get, even if I just end up making fun of it the whole time. Actually, sometimes I can't handle the stupidity of them so I skip the section entirely (flirting tips, for example), but otherwise, I think they're a fine form of amusement for half an hour or so. Plus, the bright colours are great for collaging, one of my favourite things to do.
Anyway, this isn't even what I was going to blog about. I was going to blog about ym adventure to the store. I was counting my steps while I walked in the cold wind with Clara to get some milk and, yes, a trashy teen magazine (although that was not in the original plan). I counted them in groups of eight, like music. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 3, 2, 3, 4, etc. When I got to ten groups of eight, I counted that as one on my fingers, as in one group of ten eights, or eighty. I believe in total I counted to 14 on my hands, from my house to the store and back, excluding steps inside the store. 14 x 80 = 1120, so I took 1120 steps to walk to the store and back. I don't know why I did this, or why I felt compelled to blog about it, because it's turning out to be a relatively short blog particularly in comparison to my spontaneous magazine blog, but here we are. Or should I say here I am, since I can't really know if you're even there. I guess that's why I call you ghosts.
Oh goodness, I just got another blog idea. I won't do it here, because this simply cannot be that long, but be prepared! The next blog: ghosts. My ghosts. Not the normal kind. As it would be assumed, all things considered. All persons considered.
Oh yeah, and I end today with a super faded period. Conclusive, but soft around the edges.

cheesburger *no meat

Well, Katelyn and I had quite the misadventures tonight.
Promptly after school, we began our journey to downtown, which was all good and fun. Katelyn was returning a rather unattractive birthday gift to a store which actually had a lot of other really cool jewelery, so the giver obviously took the time to pinpoint the very ugliest item in the store and give it to someone who has no resemblance in taste to that kind of thing. I also found out I have over one hundred dollars more than I thought I did in the bank and bought one Christmas gift.
We then ate at the kind of new Chinese restaurant 98 Super Panda, and it was really, really great. We both had crisp tofu appetizer with sweet and sour sauce, which kind of looked like body parts covered in blood in the darkness of the movies (we ate the leftovers at the movies), but tasted delicious nonetheless. I actually liked the tofu a lot more than my meal, and my ice tea tasted very much like ice tea should, which is glorious. I tipped her twelve percent, which I know is weird, but I was having commitment issues between ten or fifteen. I should have gone for fifteen. Then again, she wasn't much of a waitress.
After that we walked along to the movies to see Brothers, and we bought Yogen Fruz smoothies with pineapple and banana and peach and pineapple juice. Mmm. Better with mangoes, but mmm. Anyway, it turns out watching this movie was quite an ordeal. We sat in our seats like normal and since there appeared to be nobody sitting next to me I put my purse, coat, scarf and Katelyn's coat on the chair. Then on the pre-show reel they told us not to be "Tommy Texters" because when you text it disrupts everyone else, and Katelyn and I agreed, as well as contemplating the use of Tommy instead of Timmy or Tarrence. We concluded Tarrence is a great name.
So, we were sitting there waiting for the movie, when a boy from the group of preteens down the row from us came up and said excuse me to get by our legs, which was fine, but he did this little hand-waving thing to gesture our movement. We moved our legs, but it was like, did he just give us the hand sweep? Sheesh, we'll move, master. And then he eventually came back in and we moved again. And then someone else left, and came back. And then someone else, and then someone else, all from the evil preteen bundle. It was getting rather annoying.
Then someone else decided to come in, late, no less, when the lights had already gone down, and he came in to sit with the evil preteens. He was looking around saying, where is my seat? and then he said, ah, screw it, and grabbewd my stuff and started putting it on the ground. The gross theatre ground! Plus he just grabbed my stuff. I was like excuse me? That's my stuff. And all his friends were like, no, no! That's their stuff. And he's like oh, I'm so sorry, and was super apologetic and everything, but I didn't care. Someone behind me started laughing at him and someone else said way to come into a movie late. So he was like, well, is there any way you could move your things to the floor? And I said no, at first, because I was already kind of mad at him and his dense, blatant stupidity, but then after he tried sitting in the same chair as some chick and swore out loud I just put all my crap on my lap and lived with it. And the chick behnd me laughed again.
Then throughout the majority of the movie the evil preteens were talking and being obnoxious because they were so "cool", and they kept LEAVING and making us move all the time. Then this one chick was walking to her seat (I hadn't realised she left) and somebody whistled at her. Somebody else was going back to his seat and he tripped up the stairs and the whole theatre heard it and laughed at him. Then somebody outside banged on the exit door really loud and it freaked me out. Then the person sitting behind me kicked my seat a bunch of times. PLUS the kid who moved my stuff was a Tommy/Timmy/Tarrence Texter, and one of his friends even told him so, but he didn't know what she meant because oh, he was late and missed the pre-show. I just wanted to shout at him to shut up and turn off his phone.
After that though it was quite fun. We visited Alexandria, and the movie itself was really great! Twisted, freaky, but great. We had a successful, hilarious night, because despite how annoying it all was, it was, in short, hilarious.

Eustress

Isn't it blissful?
I find that when I look at other people's profiles on any site, although it is facebook in particular due to the explicit nature of the profiles, I go look at mine just as thoroughly and scrutinize every tidbit of information in my info, quotes, favourite books, etc. I think, how does my profile look to them? Who are these them people anyway? Do people even look at my profile? If they do, what do they do? Do they laugh with me or at me? Do they laugh at all? Do they feel pity or intrigue or fondness or hatred, or do they simply pass over my profile as an unintentional link to another, more interesting profile, and forget about mine just as quickly as they came upon it? Do my friends look at it less than strangers? Do people even know I exist?
Not that it matters, really, I'm just curious. It's just that I added two new friends on facebook and I molested their profiles, and now I do the same to mine. I have a system for looking through profile pictures. I start with the oldest ones and work to the new ones to see how they have developed and their tastes have changed over time, which is particularly effective if they have over thirty pictures. I tend to delete mine as I go so that they can't see my awful, awful taste in profile pictures from long ago. I'd rather not share that with the world.
Anyway, I came on here to blog about something in specific, but I really don't remember since I added two friends on facebook and have been glued to the screen ever since.

So it Is

What is with moving Christmas decorations? They really freak me out. Not only are they extremely tacky and UGLY but they're creepy too, and that is never a good thing for Christmas. They move on their own! It's terrifying! Usually it's semi-normal, like a snowman lifting his hat or a reindeer moving his head, but I saw this one and it was a penguin riding a polar bear, and it rocked back and forth really, really, really slowly. And it was looking at me the whole time. Awful, awful stuff. Plus they are those decorations made out of material that are lit up, more often than not poorly, from within. They take up the whole yard practically. Freaks.
Another sight seen in my journeys was a man delivering newspapers from his van on a busy, 80km/h road. Almost a highway, possibly a highway, but fast and relatively busy nonetheless. He was just putting his flashers on and throwing the papers out the window, across the passenger seat. It was ridiculous and excessively lazy.
I've also come to realise I feel obligated to fill the gap in front of me if I'm going down the stairs at the far end of the school, near the tech hall. It is always really slow at the top of the stairs, but on the second half it runs really fast, so I feel like if I don't go fast enough to fill the gap between myself and the guy in front of me I'll be holding up the whole line and throwing off the flow. It's kind of nerve-racking.
Oh and did I ever mention my bus issues these days? I don't really take the bus, but when I do, I'm a little better about not having a totally irrational and outrageous panic attack about it's coming, but I still kind of freak out if it's been a really long time.

YES!!!

I got my new issue of ELLE today, and I'm making brownies for rehearsal tomorrow. Rehearsal for the musical, that is, in which I play the slutty chick! Woo! It's a blast. I wish we rehearsed more. I love it. It makes me want to be a Broadway all-star and just get paid to do rehearsals for awesome musicals. And performances, of course. Anyway, I am in a super mood, and I have brownies baking their happy little selves in the oven as I write.
I have big plans for my brownies this season. They are my primary gift. I'm making two batches for rehearsals tomorrow, two batches for my homeroom on the last day before Christmas, on or two batches for my friends (I haven't added it up yet) and two batches for Christmas Eve. I must buy ingredients, obviously.
I have all my Christmas gifts planned out. I even made a list, and my whole paycheque is going toward gifts when I get it. I'll probably get most of my shopping done on Tuesday next week, and it will be out of the way! It's thrilling. Last year I was good at Christmas shopping too, but this year, I am just on the ball. On top of the ball, you might even say. I'm very pleased with myself.
Lately it has felt so blog-like outside, it's amazing. Late Fall is the ultimate time for blogging to me. It just feels so right. When I have an idea, anyway. I don't really know why, I guess it just reminds me of my glorious blogs I wrote last Fall. It feels like the blog I follow that starts with an L that I can't pronounce. Beuatiful and pure and natural.