my heart is an autumn garage

Because I'm a dork

2008-06-19T18:54:34Z

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

Tee hee.

tee. hee.

2008-05-15T14:53:53Z

Kitten update!

2008-05-07T14:10:16Z

You may as well skip this unless you care about my cats, because it's going to be hella boring otherwise.

Things are going okay. We've let Juniper out of the office and into the main part of the house a few times. Rosie mostly follows her around and growls and occasionally hisses. She's tried to swat at Juniper twice, and neither time with claws, so I guess that's not so bad.

It really sucks to see Rosie so upset, though. I'm used to thinking that we provide a safe, happy home for her and she's generally a really happy, cuddly cat. I feel like I've ruined her home and she'll never forgive me.

Also, it's like impossible to sleep in the same room as a kitten. She spends all night bouncing around on me, purring, mewing in my ear, playing with my hair, etc. I love her to death, but I would also love to sleep.

Yesterday I did two things...

2008-05-04T21:26:56Z

I cleaned our office and got a kitten!

The two are, in fact, related, since the kitten and I are currently living in the office. Well, more the kitten than me. I just slept in there last night so that she wouldn't be scared and lonely. The poor little thing cries whenever I leave the room.

The kitten's going to stay in the office for a while until Rosie can deal with meeting her. Rosie is not so much impressed with the new-kitten development.

Matt and I had been talking about getting another cat for a while, and yesterday we went to St. Lawrence Market with my friend Mandy, and then everything went black and when I woke up I was in a cab with a Humane Society box on my lap. Mandy is a bad influence.

We haven't named the kitten yet, although I am thinking maybe Juniper? I don't know why, she just looks like a Juniper to me. She's really sweet and adorable and purry. She slept with me under the covers last night. She's also pretty crazy and hyperactive, but that's kind of like, duh, obviously she is, she's a kitten.

Anyway, you should give me your suggestions for names and also any suggestions on how to make it easier for two cats to cohabitate without killing each other, and even maybe ending up loving each other! Also, you should look at pictures of my new little darling here:

Your line of poetry for the day

2008-04-24T11:23:52Z

“Those aren’t stars, darling/That’s your nervous system.”

-August Kleinzahler

anne_t_social @ 2008-04-15T09:48:00

2008-04-15T13:51:12Z

Not much to report here except that it's SUNNY and it's going up to 20 on Thursday and I love spring in Toronto! I'm so excited to see flowers and leaves on the trees again! I am also excited to be able to stop wearing pants soon, ie. I am going to wear skirts and dresses every single day. I love sundress time!

Also, I have to go to work later, but I got to sleep in today, and that always helps.

Also, I really, really, really want a bike, with a big wicker basket on the front. I'm searching craigslist every day - I'll let you know how this goes!

Hopefully my good mood lasts the day!

Question:

2008-04-13T02:00:47Z

Facebook - is it worth my time?

Or should I continue to be pathetically proud that I'm the last person on earth without either a Facebook account or a cell phone?

anne_t_social @ 2008-04-10T11:47:00

2008-04-10T15:56:00Z

It's been a while since I wrote something other than a random short post or a long complain-y post, so I thought that I would do a proper update.

The end of March was the one year anniversary of my arrival in Toronto and, now that winter's finally over, I'm liking the city a lot more. I've made a few friends, and found a few old high school friends, so things are pretty good on that front. Work generally keeps me really busy but on the whole I'm enjoying it, so I can't really make any complaints. It's nice to be at head office twice a week - it definitely helped with the monotony I was feeling.

April 8th is the anniversary of the day that Kurt Cobain's body was found, apparently - it's also the anniversary of when Matt and I first hooked up at a cast party three years ago. Matt had to be in Kitchener-Waterloo at the end of last week for work, and I had Thursday and Friday off, so we decided to do the anniversary celebrating thing then. It was really fun - we went out for dinner, we went for a walk, and then we went back to the hotel and had hot-anniversary-hotel sex. Then we watched movies on his laptop and passed out.

The hotel we stayed at had this bed-and-breakfast deal where if you paid an extra ten dollars for your room, you got to have breakfast in their café. The breakfast was SO. GOOD. We were only supposed to get a coffee, a juice and an entrée each, but our waitress was this cozy Cape Breton woman and she let us have whatever we wanted. I had this giant fruit and yogurt parfait thing and also toast. I want more. I think about this fruit parfait thing on like a daily basis, but I'm not sure that I could re-create it properly. It's sad for me, it really is.

I magically had Sunday off, too, so we went for a long walk in Bloor West Village and ate ice cream and then walked in High Park and held hands and giggled like teenagers. Have I mentioned that I love Matt? Because I do. That was really kind of the point of this post. I'm not really very good at expressing positive emotions, especially talking about how I love people, so I wanted to make a point of saying how much I love this dude and how happy I am that we're still together three years later and he still makes me really happy. Even if he did make an awesome stirfry last night while I was at work and the house smelled SO GOOD when I got home and he hadn't saved me any leftovers. Even while I was busy being hungry and annoyed about my lack of stirfry, I still loved him. So I guess it's meant to be.

THE END

anne_t_social @ 2008-03-30T21:43:00

2008-03-31T01:43:58Z

I went with my friend to see Basia Bulat play at Lee's Palace last night. SO. GOOD. Any band that has an autoharp, a viola, an accordian and a banjo on stage gets my endorsement.

I'm totally smitten.

1000 Tiny Things This Dude Hates

2008-03-26T01:59:42Z

Okay, so this blog is pretty much my new favourite thing:

http://tinythingsihate.blogspot.com/

Because I do hate a lot of things!

Garrett showed it to me, and he would like me to say that his favourite thing to hate is #65, the ramekin.

I would like to state for the record that my favourite thing to hate so far is #57, prison:

"I have my doubts that I'd survive the prison scenario. There are some things I'm pretty confident about. For example I've always had a feeling in my gut that, if I ever needed to, I could pilot and land a helicopter without any formal training. I'm 99% sure I could do that.

But prison, I fear prison may be my Achilles' heel.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to admire about the prison set-up. I like the fact that all prisoners have the same bedtime. Saves on any nonsense. Like you'd never get your cellmate rolling in at five in the morning, then waking you up by really noisily making a cheese toastie. That's on the plus side.

Then there's the fact that prison seems to be the last remaining place where it's socially acceptable to bully someone just for wearing glasses. Which I have to say I admire.

It's just the whole 'lights out' situation that worries me. I'm a pretty big 'bed-reader', and to be honest, I wouldn't take too kindly to someone turning the lights off midway through a chapter.

Obviously this something I'd try explaining to the prison warden/governor. I'm just not 100% convinced they'd understand."

SO. AWESOME.

anne_t_social @ 2008-03-21T19:00:00

2008-03-21T23:01:37Z

I was going to write about a few small, silly things that are causing me anxiety right now, but then I read my friends page and realized that a lot of people that I know are going through some really hard things right now. So I won't whine.

Except to say that OH MY GOD IS THIS WINTER EVER GOING TO END.

But that's it. No more whining.

Hope everyone is having a good long weekend.

anne_t_social @ 2008-03-10T21:45:00

2008-03-11T01:44:30Z

The stupid snow here is still up to my knees. I am not kidding!

These are the things that this weather makes me want to do:

-Eat chocolates and assorted baked goods
-Watch bad TV
-Read
-Never leave my house again

YOU ARE NOT GIVING ME A LOT OF OPTIONS, ONTARIO WEATHER. GET IT TOGETHER BEFORE I BECOME AN OBESE HERMIT

anne_t_social @ 2008-03-08T10:28:00

2008-03-08T15:31:54Z

Yesterday wasn't too bad after all.

One of the scary things that I had to do was to go talk to someone about figuring out how to start repaying all my university debts, which I haven't been very good with - mostly because I haven't really had the money until now. I think that a part of thought that as soon as I went there and started talking someone would be like, "HOLD ON, YOU OWE MONEY? THAT'S IT, I'M CALLING THE POLICE." I had this huge fantasy where I had to call Matt tearfully from jail and he had to come bail me out and it was awkward.

Anyway, when I told the woman about that she just laughed and said that things definitely weren't as bad as I thought. So that's good. I really feel like I'm getting my life back on track.

The other thing that I had to do, which wasn't really scary at all, was that I went to a placement test because I've decided to take a French language course. At my Head Office job I have all the French stores calling me, because I'm just about the only one who speaks French. And even though none of them have said anything that's not encouraging about my French-speaking abilities (in fact, they've all been really nice and awesome) I still get super embarrassed because I think my accent is bad and sometimes I have to search for words. I also feel like when people see my name and see that it's super French, they expect me to speak a lot better than I do.

Anyway, I was really shy to take this test because, as mentioned above, I'm super shy about my French and I think it's pretty terrible - but the woman who was testing me said that I had a really nice accent and that I spoke well and had a good grasp of the language. So she put me in an advanced level class. I'm actually pretty excited about this. I love taking classes.

So anyway that was my anxiety-inducing day. Thank you to all of you who wrote encouraging stuff. You guys are awesome. Now I have to haul myself through the snowy, snowy weather and go to work. Booooo.

anne_t_social @ 2008-03-07T08:52:00

2008-03-07T13:48:21Z

I have some slightly scary things to do today! I'll tell you about them when I get home.

Wish me luck!

anne_t_social @ 2008-03-02T11:53:00

2008-03-02T17:02:03Z

Matt and I had the best night last night!

I finished work early, so we took the Queen streetcar way out east to the Beaches and went to this funky little tea place. It was so good - there was tea, and there were warm blueberry scones and there were those little sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Plus, the girl who was serving us had this amazing old-school Jackie O. type hat, complete with veil, and was exactly the kind of person that I wanted to be in high school. That is, the kind of person who wears awesome old Jackie O. type hats and doesn't care about what other people think.

After walking around in the Beaches and Leslieville for a while, we hauled ourselves back to Bloor west and went to this music/dance show called "Music for a Medieval Labyrinth" and it was so awesome.

The music was all medieval and early renaissance music (hence the title, I guess) ranging from the early 10th century to the late 15th century. Not only that, but they had all the authentic instruments - rebecs and harps and vielles and even a lute. Then for the dance part, it was a traditional Indian dance company dressed up in full awesome Indian regalia, and they had an Indian drummer, too. And there was a pamphlet explaining the music and talking about how labyrinths are found in every culture and almost every religion worldwide, which was why the music was both medieval AND multicultural.

Okay, I know I am very nerdy, but it was seriously SO COOL. I heart history. I am such a nerd.

Anyway, after that we went to greasy old Mel's 24-hour Montreal Diner down the street and ate poutine and smoked meat until we couldn't eat anymore.

Yay! I like doing random, interesting cultural things!

and YAY! Tonight I am going to see Gogol Bordello with Matt and my friend Amanda. Yessss. Gypsy punk.

anne_t_social @ 2008-02-29T10:33:00

2008-02-29T15:31:17Z

There seems to be some weird law of physics that applies only to my apartment which states that only ONE ROOM can be really clean at any given time.

Anyway, right now it's my living room. It looks pretty awesome. After yoga yesterday I ate some chocolate for energy and just got 'er done.

Now if only I could get the rest of the house just as clean at the same time... damn you, working 45 hours a week.

anne_t_social @ 2008-02-28T12:01:00

2008-02-28T16:58:12Z

I just forced myself to get out of bed early on my day off and go to a yoga class in MINUS 17 DEGREE WEATHER.

YES I AM A MASTER OF WILLPOWER.

Mind you, I'll probably spend the rest of the day sitting around doing nothing. But still...

anne_t_social @ 2008-02-24T18:30:00

2008-02-24T23:33:18Z

I'm so tired of wanting things, of owning things. I'm so tired of people going shopping and accumulating things and piling stuff up. I want to be happy with what I have. I want less than what I have. I seriously have so much crap that it's depressing. Every time someone asks me what I want for Christmas or my birthday I don't even know what to say.

I want to pare myself down to the essentials, to make my life simpler. I want everything that I own and do to have some kind of meaning. I'm tired of feeling like everything's piling up around me and I'm just sleepwalking through it

Also, Billy the Kid is from there

2008-02-22T03:20:54Z

I've decided that I want to go to New Mexico.

I've been thinking about it, and I've decided that what's not to love about New Mexico? I've made a list of things to love:

- Lots of crazy caves and canyons and hot springs!
- Those awesome cliff-dwellings that ancient native peoples lived in
- Taos Pueblo!
- There is one of those crazy tramways near Albuquerque!
- Albuquerque makes me think of Bugs Bunny!
- Roswell!
- The Roswell International UFO Museum!
- This church in Chimayo, NM which some priests belonging to some crazy sect built in the 1800s after being told by God that the church had to be built there, and now the dirt cures people!
- There is a place called Truth or Consequences! Dudes, best name for a town ever.

Also, I really want to go to Arizona to this Arcosanti place. It's based on the idea of arcology, which fuses architexture with ecology, and plus it just looks really cool:

I really want to do this. I heart planning things and travelling. Now I just need to figure out when and how.

Day Off 2.0

2008-02-15T15:19:00Z

In the last three days I have worked 30 hours. Wheee. No wonder I'm never online / at my house anymore.

One of the cool aspects of my new job is that I get to do translation stuff. The girl who usually does the translations is in India for three weeks, so I won't be doing it forever, just for another week or so. The fun thing is translating stuff that's going on the posters for the Quebec stores, and then seeing the posters printed with what I wrote on them. I'm such a dork.

In other news, yesterday was Valentine's day, so I hope Kat was having a Shrevolution somewhere. We used it as an excuse to go out for dinner, and went to this Thai place down the road from us because a) they weren't all creepy and Valentine-oriented and b) they were pretty cheap. Matt gave me a book about Frida Kahlo and I gave him an issue of Wired magazine and some chocolates.

Oh, and also, Matt sent me flowers at work, even though I told him not to. I have to say, though, the flowers are pretty awesome, even if they are just going to sit on my desk and die.

In other news, they've been testing the fire alarm in my building today. Seriously. Does someone send them a copy of my schedule? Because every time they're doing something annoying, such as testing the alarm or turning off the water, it's my day off.

Day Off!

2008-02-12T01:35:03Z

Today I:
-Changed the layout on my livejournal
-Did some yoga (the cat was quite intrigued - she tried to join in more than once)
-Made some of the Ginseng Lily tea my sisters gave me
-Bought a new shirt for work
-Read a bunch
-Made Vegetarian Haggis for dinner (it sounds gross, but it's really just eggplan stuffed with lentils and bulgur wheat and onions and stuff)
-Tried to keep negative thoughts to a minimum

THE END

anne_t_social @ 2008-02-10T19:47:00

2008-02-11T00:45:27Z

It's so goddamn cold here that I had to take a taxi home from work, because I couldn't brave the walk from the subway station. In other news, I'm kind of a pussy.

The cab driver I had was really cool though. He was from Afghanistan and he was telling me all sorts of stuff about his home, like how snowy it gets in the north and how there's this mountain that he liked to visit that takes an hour to drive up, and how when they were trying to keep the USSR from invading they'd sneak up on the Russians and hit them with wooden clubs and steal their AK47s because they had no guns of their own.

I like having random conversations with people.

anne_t_social @ 2008-02-08T11:01:00

2008-02-08T16:00:18Z

A few weeks ago, our toilet was leaking.

Last weekend, the toilet stopped flushing and, after our superintendent didn't do anything about it, we had to call our own plumber to replace some parts.

This morning I woke up and the water had apparently been turned off.

WHAT THE HELL. This place is like the House of Plumbing Disasters.

I've been tagged by witch_kat!

2008-02-04T01:59:11Z

A. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
B. Tag seven people to do the same.
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag "whoever wants to do it"

1. My dad named me while my mother was still whacked out on painkillers after giving birth to me. I have been told three variations of the story, in which I am named after three different people: a) Anne Schneider, heir to the Schneider Meat Corporation, on whom my father had a crush in high school b) Princess Anne, Audrey Hepburn's character in Roman Holiday c) My great-grandfather's sister Annie who died of TB when she was 16

2. I eat the same thing for breakfast every day and I have a specific order that I do it in, and some weird part of me believes that if I deviate from this order that I'll have bad luck

3. We have like 3,000 tealights in our apartment. What the hell.

4. I have a mole right between my breasts, and when I was nine my mother told me that it was probably a third nipple.

5. I was picked up by the police during the curfew after the big snowstorm in Halifax, but I cried my way out of a fine.

6. I just learned that vagina means "sheath for a sword" and I'm pretty ticked about this

7. I spend half my life terrified about what other people think about me, and trying to figure out ways that might help me to seem more normal, and all this worrying is probably what makes people think I'm weird to begin with

Okay I'm tagging salvadors_deli tiger_eye beyond_my_smile devifemme ciararavenblaze
kanalah retrospektives

anne_t_social @ 2008-01-31T20:43:00

2008-02-01T02:45:26Z

In the spirit of not whining, I have made a list of the top ten things that I like about living in Toronto (in no particular order):

1. The Subway! Best. Way. Of. Getting. Around. Ever.

2. Free yoga classes.

3. All the museums - I think that it's kind of cool that I go right by the ROM every day on my way to work

4. All the neighbourhoods and their festivals, such as Taste of The Danforth - I have perhaps never eaten so much in my life

5. The heat in the summer. I am apparently the only person who likes this.

6. Hanging out with friends from high school that I haven't seen for a million years, but it feels like we've all picked up right where we left off

7. The ravines

8. All the bands that play here - I am going to see Gogol Bordello AND the Foo Fighters next month, and I've seen Joel Plaskett TWICE since I moved here. Whee!

9. That big city feeling of being in the middle of everything - and also it's kind of cool knowing that I live in the biggest city in the country.

10. It's nice to be closer to my family and see them more often than once every two years.