Why I love my iPod

SOOO quick break from the bookstore and I've decided that the sun is slanted just right and the iced cap beside me is just the right temparture for a brief blog update and some pictures... convocation is behind us and in all of that shuffle and shutterbugging it's hard not to pull one of those retrospective-nostalgia-trip-down-the-lane kind of moments... the other day I was tripping along to work with my iPod obediently shuffling through songs and couldn't help but wonder about all the music that has passed through this brain over the last four years... I think it's time to compile a Soundtrack Of My Undergrad, which won't all be easy listening but will definitely all be time-warp-inducing. And I wondered to myself... if I could pick a song... a single musical moment to encapsulate all of the last four years as much as musically and emotionally possible, one that isn't exclusively a gut-churner or dance-party-inducer... and one that, if my computer crashes and I am left with only one song file from the last four years, would be the best choice... I think it would have to beeeeeeeee.... Fishing the Sky by the Appleseed Cast. AND GUESS WHAT... just as I thought that... believe or not... my iPod, on complete random shuffle through 3000 songs, started playing that very song! Seriously!!! I've been listening to that song - and AC's Forever Longing the Golden Sunsets, the namesake of my old livejournal - since just about the beginning of this whole long adventure, and it hasn't gotten even the tiniest bit old... it has been with me in the cars that I love... with the people that I love... in the houses that I love... it gives me this I-can-do-anything sort of feeling, and while it fondly conjures up the faces of certain lovely people who have shared that song with me, it always, without fail, like one of those etching pads where you scribble and scribble with your pencil until a picture miraculously shows through, brings to mind my dearest darling Jen and the CHRW on-air booth where she first gave me the Appleseed Cast's Mare Vitalis CD and told me to take it home... damn, what a good song. what a good memory bank. what a cliche... a great one. Fishing the Sky was playing in my head when this moment happened:



And I think it will be playing in my head (and earbuds) when I take the Montreal metro on the first day of my first class in my first year at Concordia..... nothing else will give me the guts.

sitting in Lucy's right now and Arcade Fire just came on... I will enjoy this musical awesomeness as intensely as possibly before I head back to the Theory of a Dead Nickelfault that is on loop at the store... shudder

I'm running late for work now so time to boot... here are some pictures from grad, just dropped in here because I haven't got time for captions!

This weekend: going to feel proud in/of Toronto! Hooray!

Fast Times at Megan Central!

Fun & Exciting things to report whilst I am on break from bookstore action:

THING ONE!!!
Thanks to Ms. Clarke and her band of invisible cheerleaders I am GETTING WAXED in the bikini region this afternoon! Yipes! At the same time that my mom is facing an interview panel in Guelph for a possible savvy new job, I will be facing Greta the Wax Goddess... I don't know which one of us will need good luck more. Said waxing will be followed up with bikini shopping/hockey watching/music bingo-ing, so the ten seconds of pain will be worth it. AND this means it's gonne be a beachin' good summer!

(side ntoe... Good Idea: searching for nice bikini waxes on the beach. Bad Idea: searching for nice bikini waxes on Google. Especially on the library's server. Yikes!)

THING TWO!!!
Now that convocation week is over (pictures to come soon! I promise!) we have stripped the bookstore of its white & purple glory (heaven forbid we look nice when there is no special event on), and part of the scale-down meant that we had a lot (as in fifty million, give or take) of helium balloons on our hands. SO what did I do? Being the info desk lady, always full of good ideas and the pursuit of all things cute, I took those floating bad boys to the day care with Lucy! You should have seen all the little kids when we showed up with more balloons than we could even hold! Seriously, if you strapped all those balloons to one of those little kiddos and set him free outside, he'd be floating somewhere above Middlesex by now. And not a single one popped in my face!

Okay... back to work now.......... I'm on until 12:30 and then it's wax time.... if you hear me yelping, you'll know why.

Another cousin to influence!!!

A quick post (from the UCC where I am sitting in the giant lounge windows watching fellow grads flap past in their gowns) to welcome the newest member to our tribe, my cousin Neeharika, born May 25th, seen here with [part of] my uncle Dave...

LOOK AT HER LITTLE HANDS!!!


and this is just to whet your appetite... you can see more of her (and her big brothers) at Padma & Dave's photo website.

More posting to come in the near future, as soon as I amass a good selection of pictures from Monday's grad ceremony! For now, back to framing people's degrees at the bookstore... I thought I'd get a raise now that I'm a certified grad student, but no dice.

Can you spot the kitty???

Warning: this blog entry contains an exceedingly high number of Tycho pictures. I figure it's the only way to make up for once-a-week blog entries. You've been warned!

Here is T enjoying springtime in our apartment…


Tuesday was the Book Store at Western's first-ever family bbq, and it was so much fun! I learned a lot. For example, NOT a good idea to wear a white shirt where water balloons are involved:



I also learned (and by learned, I mean "confirmed my suspicions") that Jordan has the makings of a great daddy. This type of greatness involves many things, not least of which is good taste in accessories and high tolerance for being laughed at by cute girls:




New conclusion: Gibbon's Park might just become one of my new favourite hang-out writing spots for the summer. It's walkable (through a fabulous neighbourhood!), it's got a river, it's got lots of dogs running around, and soon it will have a Megan lounging on its grass!

SO I've really been branching out in the kitchen/cooking area of my life (thanks in no small way to Ian & Ingrid and their cookbook gift-giving). Last night I cleaned out the grocery store like nobody's business! I am determined to learn like mad. So far all my problems seem to be in the timing. Overcooked stir fry served on undercooked pasta. I blame Derek! He is too distracting with his talking and his wine sharing. (I will not take the obvious segue into mentioning the wine bottle which someone accidentally smashed outside the apartment last night - no names will be named). This week I'm going to make Cinnamon Toast Coffee Cake! (Who knew that Coffee Cake, unlike its cousin Coffee Crisp, doesn't actually contain any coffee???) All of this cooking means that I am slowly (and as cheaply as possible) building up my supply of kitchen goods in anticipation of my little yellow kitchen in The Mont!

Okay folks, now it's time for Tycho's Learning Corner. He has been feeling left out of the whole blog scene so I've decided to let him include something . (He might even make a podcast someday!)

In today's Learning With Tycho episode: how to look big and scary when something frightening is happening. It's all in the tail! Big tail = big intimidation. Observe:

Regular tail….




SCARY TAIL!!!


One more time for good measure:

Regular tail:




SCARY TAIL!!!


This works for thunder storms, loud hallway noises, spider attacks, and pesky little beasts, especially ones named Yoshi who come and visit with Megan's friend Roxy.



Proper defense mode (protect food dish at all costs):

(NB: scary tail)

That's all from Tycho. For now!!!
















SCARY TAIL!!!