And then there were two...

Well, my apartment is always a little bit vacant, with just T and I to occupy a 3 /12 (in Ontariospeak, that means a "one bedroom")... but now it seems emptier than ever, because it just spent the last three days stuffed full of rowdy, romping Ontarians (four of them, to be exact) and I felt like I was completely in my element. Everyone making drinks, making food, making conversation, making music (not in a dirty way), and, for about 4% of the time, making ZZZ's. Jen & Mark were here for the weekend, it being our annual Winterlympic time (though we forfeited skiing due to the threat of broken bones and the reality of broken budgets), and then to our mix we added my dear old Woodward roommate Dawson, who was travelling through town with his/my friend Elodie, both in need of a place to crash. So we all squeezed in here for two days/nights! Now I am extremely exhausted, barely able to see the keys... and I owe a bunch of emails.... and somehow I woke up one morning this weekend and realized that I had JOINED FACEBOOK the night before, in a moment of weak judgement and strong skills of persuasion from Jen. If you don't know what facebook is, GOOD! STAY AWAY!!! people always warned me it would take over my life, and people are right. I suddenly have a burning urge to "check my wall," and until this weekend I didn't even know what that meant. Plus, I've only been on for about three days, and already I'm behind on facebook goings-on.

Anyway - thought I would post some pics, so that all y'all who are faithful blog checkers won't be disappointed too often.

Here is the menage-a-quatre that I hosted this weekend (thank goodness I upgraded from a single bed this year):

Good times, good times... a pleasure to see Daws again, and to get to know Elodie, and, of course, to do the "Jen & Mark" thing, which is one of my all-time favourite things to do in the whole world:



We spent some time all together just chilling in my apartment with the T-man, who officially has a crush on Jen (and would hate to know that I was announcing it to the world, but luckily he can't read yet). The minute Jen sat down, Tycho shyly but coyly crawled up beside her, and she remained his prefer lap throughout the weekend. What a ladies' man! Observe:

And, even though there were ten of us spending Saturday night together on the town, we managed to get an unreserved table at L'Academie (vrrrry delicious montreal spot) after waiting only about 1/2hr out in the Montreal cold!

And, of course, this morning was the "Mark In Montreal Breakfast Special": poutine from Steamies.
It was so sad to see them all go... Jen & Mark back to T-dot, Dawson & Elodie on to the second half of their road trip to Boston. Still, I am in dire need of some serious rest, so I suppose it's for the best that there will only be one of me sleeping in my bed tonight.... well, one of me and a cat.... and thus ends Reading Week 2007, which actually involved a surprising amount of reading from Monday to Friday... and a surprising amount of shenanigans on both weekends!
Last weekend, of course, was "Quebec City With The Girls," generously and graciously hosted by Claudine's wonderful mom and dad, who cooked delicious things for us, including crepes for breakfast, expertly flipped in the air for our pleasure:


We did and saw EVERYTHING... including giant plastic Bonhommes....


Sugar on snow.... (apparently I am seriously lacking in the "how to roll a good syrup popsicle" department):


We even went tobogganing, right in the middle of the city! You can see Chateau Frontenac in the distance, from the top of the hill.... all four of us squished onto a toboggan, which, let me tell you, would be a great way to break the ice if you were ever out on a hot but uncomfortable date and happened to pass by a giant ice track like this one. I mean, people have to straddle other people... legs and arms are going everywhere... there's no room for shyness. Plus, you get the thrill of rocketing down among throngs of tourists aboard a wooden sled! I'm amazed that I had never done it before....

You must pick your sled very carefully, with attention paid to aerodynamic qualities and the wetness of the cushion thingy that you will be forced to sit on...

Next, climb the mountain!

Observe: beautiful view of Chateau Frontenac (which will happily distract you from what you are about to attempt).

To celebrate our survival of the Great Toboggan Ride, we followed Clau to a fabulous bar, where many drinks and jokes were consumed at a feverish pace...

.... and there may or may not have been 3am poutine involved....

Oh look! There's my wallet on the tray! Poor old wallet... it has been sadly lost... along with all of my ID cards. I will spare you the tearful story and say only that I am a newfound master of "keeping my cool," and also that I am now in the possession of a brand new wallet, which the wonderful Jen fashioned for me out of duct tape and plastic container lids. I may still be without any form of identity at all, but two things make me happy:

(1) new duct tape wallet, made by Jen

(2) the fact that I have never once been ID'd in montreal! let's hope that trend continues while I replace everything....

Also, I HAVE GOOOOOOOOD NEWS and if you've made it all the way through this blog entry, this is your reward! Even though it's more of a reward for me... but here it is: I may be enough of a dope to loose my wallet (I am convinced it was stolen, and not lost, because you may not believe this but I have been quite good at not leaving it places over the past few months)... well, the good news is that despite being a dope who loses things, I am also enough of a writer that I AM GETTING A CHAPBOOK PUBLISHED WHOOOOO!!!

I submitted a story to a contest, it won, and now Delirium Press is turning it into a chapbook! The launch is in April, and the BEST PART OF ALL is that Steven Heighton is also having a chapbook launched at the same time by Delirium, and he is one of MY FAVOURITE CANADIAN AUTHOR EVERRRRR. He wrote The Shadow Boxer, which is possibly the most emotionally potent and personal book that I've ever read. I read it towards the end of my teenage years, and that book gave me that little nudge out of one era and into another, just what I needed. I can't believe I'm going to meet Steven Heighton, eat with him, give a reading with him! Every time I remember, a balloon full of confetti explodes in my stomach.

In other great young-artist news, my darling, dearest friend Mark (of Rouen - Edmonton - Vancouver fame, not of Jen & Mark fame) is now starring in a short film put together by his acting school and directed by some awesome director (I forget which one - from Smallville maybe?) ... and you can watch the trailer! He is the one who looks like this:


And the trailer looks like this:

And that is all from my world right now.... but only because I have to sleep or I might be in terrible shape! Bon nuit!

Happy Heart Day!

For Valentine's Day, I gave myself... a job! At least, I hope I did. I had a job interview at a bookstore today and managed to keep my slightly-out-of-control feeling confined to my guts, so that my face showed only poise and control. This is a skill I learned from hanging out with Derek. Go go gadget poker face! I really, really want this job, and I really, really think I'd be good at it, so ... fingers crossed!

Tonight I am hanging out with my special T-Dot Valentine. We plan on chasing some plastic soldiers, curling up in some comfy basket chairs, and purring the night away.

...and my peg leg's gone all weird.

I hear we're supposed to get a dumping of snow this week, so today might've been one of the last days for me to get a good look at Ol' Betsy on my way to school. I have heard about past winters when she was buried up to her ears in snow drifts. But I am beginning to be just a bit suspicious of other people's horror stories about the ferocity of Montreal winters ... not that I think anybody is lying, but come on, I was completely hyped up for daily Mt.Everest-ish treks, with ice picks in my boots and ski goggles on my face and only a 50% of making it home from school with all my digits still attached. So far I have managed to get by quite fine with the simplest adjustments to my usual attire ... a pair of long underwear under jeans, an extra pair of socks, a hat knitted by Jen's mom. Tycho has also been dealing quite well by adding just the slightest bit of insulation to his fine frame, and by staying close to the radiators.

Speaking of being warm.... Jen, Mark, & Megan's Annual Winter Adventure Weekend is coming up! Past such weekends have lead to all sorts of thrilling, swilling emotions - excitement, exhilaration, inebriation, and my favourites: heart-stopping panic followed by sweet, sweet relief. This year, for the first time ever, J&M are migrating to Montreal for Winter Adventures! Dudes, I was in Parc La Fontaine yesterday, and I don't want to build this up for you too much, but - people were sledding! People were sliding! People were having adventures! Soon we will be one of them!

This year, to take full advantage of the new location of Central Command (aka my apartment), we are going to go skiing, probably here, though I have been slacking off a bit in the researching-best-rates department.

Here is a taste of last year, to put us in the mood!

Le Ski:


Le Skate:


Le Mark:

And, for a laugh, remember this little mishap?



In other news... there may be a rumour floating around that some policemen were at my apartment on Friday night, but don't let that change your squeaky-clean opinion of me - unless it's a good change. I MIGHT have been having a bit of a party. I MIGHT have been playing my music a little too loud. But it was only 10:30! And it was good music! Doesn't that count for something? In crappy French I told the cops that I am from a farm where we can blast our music all the time and no one is around to hear, and I think my smooth talking got me out of a ticket. That, and the fact that when they busted down my door, all they found were a bunch of wide-eyed, candy-eating, harmless-looking students sitting around a board game. Not exactly the action they were expecting, I'll bet. Still I'm hoping this means that word will get around Concordia that I throw good parties, and maybe that means I'll get invited to good parties!

Speaking of good parties, lots of really good writing- and career-related things are happening (or have the potential to happen in the next little while), but I am only telling you this to tantalize you, because I am under an oath of secrecy on one thing, and am under an oath of don't-jinx-this on the other ... but it will all be revealed over the next few days. So stay tuned!

Something else to report: next week is reading week, which is kicking off with a trip to Quebec City avec mes filles! I will eat beaver tales, buy souvenirs, and fantasize about being a princess in the Chateau Frontenac (even though I know it's not that kind of a chateau). And there will be plenty of pictures to show for it, I'm sure.

Tons and tons and tons of work to do in the meantime, just like everyone else. Sorry for the sporadic blogging. You'll all thank me when I actually manage to graduate!

Here is a hilarious video for your trouble, which might make you feel better about all the complaining that most people (I am a perfect example!) tend to do this time of year...

OOOOOH blog how I've missed you.
It's time we hung out again, you and I. I miss your words and the way you give me a sense of accomplishment for doing something other than school. I also like how you let me worry at my life like a favourite bone! Unfortunately I have just used up most of my allotted procrasti-time for the day by filling out Jen's curs-ed email quiztionaire (which I abandoned halfway through in favour of blog - though I suppose I could combine the two...)

ANYWAY my point is this is brief, dear blog, but I wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten you. I have been busy and for this I am deeply, forehead-touches-the-floor-in-a-bow sorry.

THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN MEGAN-LAND

thing the first - Camera Obscura with Dan-Vi, who I like to call Dan-Very-Cool, when she's not listening. Or even when she is!

thing the second - read three books: Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter (thank goodness that's over), Urquhart's Away (a weird mix of absorbing/annoying, depending on my mood and whether or not I was reading while squished up in the back of the 24 bus, trying not to catch anyone's cough on the back of my neck), and, for old time young-adult's sake, Phyllis Naylor's The Fear Place. I have a whole bundle of "preteen" books that I just love - they provide a good, solid two hours' entertainment and fondly remind me of public school book fairs and those little newsprint book order pages we'd get in grade 6-8, full of books like Friendship Quiz Book and What Is Happening To My Body? (a question that still sometimes perplexes me).

thing the third - workshopped (yes, that's a verb) Chapter One of the Officious Grad Project That Starts With An N and Rhymes With Hovel ... and it went over quite well. Beer was consumed as a congratulatory result.

thing the fourth - I WALKED INTO A DOOR (yes, you heard it right) and severely damaged my nose. It was a little blue for a while and now it clicks every time I touch the bridge. Is that bad?

thing the fifth - helped my friend Michael and company to move several heavy (oh so heavy!) boxes of books from the post office to his digs. It was a very gendered enterprise - my job was to bake brownies, hold open doors, and drink beer. And offer helpful suggestions. I think I performed well.

thing the sixth - this one is IN THE FUTURE! friday night is Gascon Games Night #2 ... which means Tycho and I have to turn this place into party central for the ladies who are coming over expecting fun and tacos.

thing the seventh - helped Derek move... from a distance. Happy new house, D-dog!

Okay, I am officially out of time, must be off to other things (like listening to Outfront and eating chocolate cupcakes).

THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN TYCHO-LAND:

yup. that pretty much sums it up for him.