some random questions

1.What would you do if a leprechaun jumped out of the bushes and stole your wallet?
take him down!

2. If you encountered a drunken bear what would you do?
steal his booze?

3. Lucky charms or fruit loops?
ummm. neither. I like plain ol' rice crispies

5. If you were going to a costume party tonight, what would you be?
princess

6. What is one quality that you really appreciate in a person?
honesty

7. What would you rather have; a nanny, a housekeeper, a cook, or a chauffeur?
UGG! Housekeeper for sure! I am not good at this whole housekeeping thing. And a housekeeper could cook right?

8. You are offered an envelope that you know contains $50. You are then told that you may either keep it or exchange it for another envelope that may or may not contain $500.
Take the 50 - i'm not much of a gambler.

9. If you had to have the same topping on your vanilla ice cream for the rest of your life, what topping would you choose?
caramel/ toffee. Mmmm - as much like rolo icecream as possible!

10. Rock, paper, or scissors?
rock. no reason.

11. What is your wallpaper on your cell phone?
snowboarder. He's there to remind me that someday i'll be a truly excellent boarder too.

12. If you could only use one form of transportation for the rest of your life what would it be?
fly

13. Last movie you watched?
"Stranger than fiction" - it was ok - not brilliant.

14. What is the first word that comes to mind right now?
sleep

15. What color are your sheets?
blue and yellow stars

16. What is your favourite flavor of Kool-Aid?
green apple

18. If you could be invisible for a day, what would you do?
huh - i don't know. i'd have to plan it out... sounds fun!

19. What size ring do you wear?
8

20. What was your elementary school mascot?
a dragon.. can't remember its name. but i was responsible for it on hockey tours!

21. What is your favourite Starbucks drink?
mmm... chai tea latte. with lots of cinnamon!

22. Are you a health freak?
nope. prob should look into that tho'...

23. Have you ever been to college?
uggg.... have i ever left?

24. Are you a member of the mile high club?
um... no

25. Do you like your neighbours?
i think they might be drug dealers. Actually, they're probably not, but they seem so awfully nice that its hard not to suspect them!

26. Would you kill someone?
nope

27. Have you ever been arrested?
no

28. Have you ever slept with someone out of pity?
no

30. Have you ever been hit on by the same sex?
sadly yes (it was pretty odd actually.)

31. Do you wear perfume or cologne? If so what is your favourite?
yeah - an AVON (i know, i know - the evil empire!) perfume called "Starring"

32. Tan or Pale?
i'm aquiring prairie pale.

33. Planes or Buses?
Planes - i LOVE flying. Considered a career in flying, but its not much for having a life...

34. Diamonds or Gold?
amethests

35. Who let the dogs out?
not me. i wish nobody had.

36. Orange juice or Apple juice?
apple's my favourite, but i like orange to spice things up.

37. Do you shower daily?
yup. its a pretty good policy if you want to keep your friends!

38. Have you ever made out with just a friend?
no comment?

39. Would you date someone younger than you?
apparently!

40. Would you date someone older than you?
yup

41. Could you live without sex?
probably not - don't really know.

42. Snakes or Rabbits?
i like bunnies!

43. Have you ever Googled yourself?
frequently.

44. Ever starred in your own film?
well, i don't know about "Starred", but i played a major role in "Beq-watch"

45. Do you believe in aliens?
why not? If God made life on Earth, why would he stop there?

46. How do you vent anger?
silence, venting outloud and then usually writing. (its a process!)

47. What is your favourite word?
"ooo - kay!" (i don't know if its my favourite, but its definately an abused word in my vocab)

48. Good or Evil?
me? angelic! (tee hee!)

49. Have you ever cried yourself to sleep?
yup

50. Logic or Art?
i'd say logic. some would disagree ;)

51. Do animals have souls?
i don't know.

52. Rough or Sensual?
sensual

53. Do you smoke?
nope.

54. Do you believe in Love?
of course!

55. Last time you saw your mom?
Monday. Its her birthday tomorrow! She's turning 21 apparently.

56. Have you ever met a celebrity?
nope. umm - does Riley Armstrong count?? Haha.

57. Mints or chewing gum?
Gum

58. Have you ever danced in public?
i try not to. but yes. way too many times!!

59. Would you consider it fun to have the cops chase you in a pursuit?
nope! I always want to cry when i get pulled over - and not for sympathy but because i HATE getting in trouble!

60. Do you have a big mouth?
medium. but a SUPER long tongue.

Wow - its the middle of a busy Tuesday. I have 3 papers to write and a presentation to prepare for tomorrow. But i thought i'd take a short break while walking over to pick up some books from the library. On route the thought of tea and donuts called to me - who doesn't need a donut and a cuppa tea when writing papers?

When i got to Timmy Ho's, i made my order, and discovered, true to university's mandate on inconvieniences, they do not have debit. Nor do i ever have cash. Nor am i willing to put in the effort to go find cash when i should be back writing my papers. So i appologize and prepare to walk away. As i do, another Timmy Ho's lady says - "here, let me fill it up..." and takes my travel mug. I say "no - i don't have any cash" and she says "what did you want?" I repeat - "uhh - i don't have any cash..." and she says "what did you want." Its funny - i have no problems giving people things - but accepting freebies is a humbling experience.

Naturally, since i'm supposed to be writing papers, i'm thinking about anything but papers, and i was preoccupied by the thought of grace. Her simple GRACIOUS act has changed my day - i couldn't find any words to thank her enough for a cup of steeped tea she was probably going to throw out soon anyway. But she made such a big impact on me. I know this is going to sound "floofy" but in all seriousness - what kind of impact do i make on other people on a daily basis by the things i do and say?

This is a quote i was struck by in one of my classes yesterday. Its directed at teachers, but i think it applies to "everyday" situations as well ...

I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in the classroom.It is my personal approach that creates the climate.It is my daily mood that makes the weather.As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisiswill be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized.
- Haim Ginot (Between Teacher and Child)

I think it might be one of those things i need to print out and stick on my desk - just to remind me.

I leave you with TS Elliot - one of my favourite - scratch that - my FAVOURITE poet.

This is his "Portrait of a lady"

AMONG the smoke and fog of a December afternoon

You have the scene arrange itself—as it will seem to do—

With “I have saved this afternoon for you”;

And four wax candles in the darkened room,

Four rings of light upon the ceiling overhead,
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An atmosphere of Juliet’s tomb

Prepared for all the things to be said, or left unsaid.

We have been, let us say, to hear the latest Pole

Transmit the Preludes, through his hair and fingertips.

“So intimate, this Chopin, that I think his soul
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Should be resurrected only among friends

Some two or three, who will not touch the bloom

That is rubbed and questioned in the concert room.”

—And so the conversation slips

Among velleities and carefully caught regrets
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Through attenuated tones of violins

Mingled with remote cornets

And begins.


“You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends,

And how, how rare and strange it is, to find
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In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends,

[For indeed I do not love it … you knew? you are not blind!

How keen you are!]

To find a friend who has these qualities,

Who has, and gives
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Those qualities upon which friendship lives.

How much it means that I say this to you—

Without these friendships—life, what cauchemar!”


Among the windings of the violins

And the ariettes
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Of cracked cornets

Inside my brain a dull tom-tom begins

Absurdly hammering a prelude of its own,

Capricious monotone

That is at least one definite “false note.”
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—Let us take the air, in a tobacco trance,

Admire the monuments,

Discuss the late events,

Correct our watches by the public clocks.

Then sit for half an hour and drink our bocks.
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IINow that lilacs are in bloom

She has a bowl of lilacs in her room

And twists one in his fingers while she talks.

“Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know

What life is, you who hold it in your hands”;
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(Slowly twisting the lilac stalks)

“You let it flow from you, you let it flow,

And youth is cruel, and has no remorse

And smiles at situations which it cannot see.”

I smile, of course,
50
And go on drinking tea.

“Yet with these April sunsets, that somehow recall

My buried life, and Paris in the Spring,

I feel immeasurably at peace, and find the world

To be wonderful and youthful, after all.”
55

The voice returns like the insistent out-of-tune

Of a broken violin on an August afternoon:

“I am always sure that you understand

My feelings, always sure that you feel,

Sure that across the gulf you reach your hand.
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You are invulnerable, you have no Achilles’ heel.

You will go on, and when you have prevailed

You can say: at this point many a one has failed.


But what have I, but what have I, my friend,

To give you, what can you receive from me?
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Only the friendship and the sympathy

Of one about to reach her journey’s end.


I shall sit here, serving tea to friends….”


I take my hat: how can I make a cowardly amends

For what she has said to me?
70
You will see me any morning in the park

Reading the comics and the sporting page.

Particularly I remark

An English countess goes upon the stage.

A Greek was murdered at a Polish dance,
75
Another bank defaulter has confessed.

I keep my countenance,

I remain self-possessed

Except when a street piano, mechanical and tired

Reiterates some worn-out common song
80
With the smell of hyacinths across the garden

Recalling things that other people have desired.

Are these ideas right or wrong?


IIIThe October night comes down; returning as before

Except for a slight sensation of being ill at ease
85
I mount the stairs and turn the handle of the door

And feel as if I had mounted on my hands and knees.

“And so you are going abroad; and when do you return?

But that’s a useless question.

You hardly know when you are coming back,
90
You will find so much to learn.”

My smile falls heavily among the bric-à-brac.


“Perhaps you can write to me.”

My self-possession flares up for a second;

This is as I had reckoned.
95
“I have been wondering frequently of late

(But our beginnings never know our ends!)

Why we have not developed into friends.”

I feel like one who smiles, and turning shall remark

Suddenly, his expression in a glass.
100
My self-possession gutters; we are really in the dark.


“For everybody said so, all our friends,

They all were sure our feelings would relate

So closely! I myself can hardly understand.

We must leave it now to fate.
105
You will write, at any rate.

Perhaps it is not too late.

I shall sit here, serving tea to friends.”


And I must borrow every changing shape

To find expression … dance, dance
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Like a dancing bear,

Cry like a parrot, chatter like an ape.

Let us take the air, in a tobacco trance—


Well! and what if she should die some afternoon,

Afternoon grey and smoky, evening yellow and rose;
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Should die and leave me sitting pen in hand

With the smoke coming down above the housetops;

Doubtful, for a while

Not knowing what to feel or if I understand

Or whether wise or foolish, tardy or too soon…
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Would she not have the advantage, after all?

This music is successful with a “dying fall”

Now that we talk of dying—

And should I have the right to smile?

WOOOHOOO! The countdown has begun!! 9 school days left :) :) :)
Best news ever. I love being a student, and don't think i'll ever stop taking courses, pds and learning, but I'll sure be glad to be done this formal chunk.... I'm ready for the part where they pay me to work instead of visa versa!!
Eek... only 3 assignments, 6 exams and a couple of presentations to do before then... its going to be a fun 9 days! Well, looks like its time to run.. groceries and all that. And prob a car wash = mine got splattered with mud. Oh the joys of spring. But its +16, so no complaining here!
C

Where's Carie?

oooooooooo.... notice any new changes to my layout?? Probably not. But there have been, if you look SUPER carefully.

Its like "Where's Waldo". Fun times for all.
c