Maps

www.parisbythethroat.blogspot.com

New adventure, new blog.

I DID IT

Look out, Timothy - there's a new neighbour coming to town.

Anyone want to split on a Colorado road trip next week? If you need an excuse:

Take me to the riot! Or don't.

I meant to add in last night's post that I was safe at home during the Montreal "riot" after the Habs won on Monday. I filched this photo of Ste. Catharine St. from someone else. I could hear the celebrations all the way from here, and I live an hour's walk from downtown! I remember having a twinge of regret that I wasn't down there too, being a bandwagon fan and all... but when those two hours of cheering and car honking evolved into two hours of sirens, I felt a little better.

Click here for a photo blog about the riot. Perfect example of how terrifying the "mob mentality" can be. If only we could get people to put that kind of enthusiasm and outrage behind an actual cause, like human rights. Also, if the Habs make it to the final round, I'm insuring my apartment and leaving town until it's over.

Coming to a toothpaste commercial near you

One of these girls is in the middle of a 6-month hike of the Appalachians. One is working for one of the world's largest media companies. Two are about to become masters. Another is inches away from becoming a world-famous DJ.

Kind of cool, no?

My friend Marko "defended" his novel to the academic committee this week ("It's written in sentences! I swear!") and he invited a few of us to witness the proceedings. This was a rare and welcome experience, because most MAers understandably seal off their committee defense to the public, opting instead to invite everyone to the post-defense celebratory drink-off. The closest I've ever come to seeing how an actual defense works was sitting in the hallway outside the interrogation room - I mean, conference room - and holding the defender's hand while her committee deliberated. Thanks to Marko and his novel Mongrel (check bookstores in the coming weeks - or, at least, library shelves at Concordia), I now know what happens behind those closed doors. I watched him defend his 65,000-word achievement to the committee, and I just kept thinking, isn't this amazing? Isn't it amazing that a bunch of us have decided to spend two+ years, several thousand dollars, and a few hundred brain cells, all for the end goal of having a novel under our belts? (NB: very uncomforatble, lots of papercuts to the abdomen).

Things I have been doing lately, in lieu of blogging (because what would be an out-of-the-blue blog post, without a litany of excuses for not updating?):

1. Writing a novel. I don't even have to say thing-that-rhymes-with-hovel anymore, because it's very nearly complete! It has a beginning and a middle! And characters! Isn't that the basic criteria?

2. Watching archaic episodes of "My So-Called Life." See that TV screen? That's Claire Danes, circa 1994.


3. Celebrating Rocky McRockstar's birthday:

4. Having my first summer feast of ice cream, thanks to Elise (please, just hook me up to a chocolate-flavoured IV for the next four months):


5. And, finally, learning how to be blissfully undignified - a lesson that could benefit everyone. Especially if your name is Tycho and you have a fondness for licking your nether regions and eating any crawling thing that is smaller than a dime. Earwigs! Yum!

We be chillin'

I am trying to write my last university paper. Seriously, I am trying. Can I be blamed if most of my efforts devolve into searching YouTube for old 80s cartoons? I'm sure that relates to the intertextuality of Canadian war literature somehow. It hasn't helped that most of my energy has been sopped up by some sort of disgusting cocktail of various winter germs. Luckily I live with the world champion of all-day sleeping, so I'm in good company as I attempt to rest away the lingering ick (or smother it with a steady diet of toast and honey). Almost back to normal. Once this horrid paper is finished I will turn my full attention to putting the final touches (read: the entire ending) on my thesis before the guillotine drops on May 1st, after which I have only to wait for the jury (reading committee) to summon me to my own defense. Oh! I just remembered! I have to write another paper for a conference at the end of May. This is exactly how my brain has been behaving lately: it lets me rationalize and prioritize until I think that everything's do-able and under control, and then it goes, "Whoops! Forgot about this other BIG HUGE NEAR-IMPOSSIBLE TASK! My bad!"

I check my mailbox every day for news about what my future might be. I'm trying hard to remember that my life may never again be quite this unpredictable, and that I should appreciate it and embrace the twists, but.... that sort of appreciation takes the kind of concentration that I can't often muster.

And in the meantime, I entertain D while he entertains his own various potential futures...


That photo pretty much sums up how we're both feeling these days. Just throw some pillows over me and wake me up when it's July.

At least there have been sightings of buds on the trees around Montreal. That's something! Not to mention the frequent sightings of the most perfect, kissable little pink toes ever. Maybe I could write an essay about degrees of cuteness in kitties.... A+ for sure.

HYSTERICAL IS THE NEW CALM

My brain has been taken over by little dudes in hard hats waving picket signs which read GET TO WORK. They always appear around this time, the end of the university term, and this year they've each been issued a police whistle which they're not afraid to use. They get extra agitated when I do things like draw shapes on the window, look up random celebrities on IMDB, or... write blogs. Hence the current dry spell. Back when the madness stops!