father – Imaginary Sunshine

Say what now?

Michelle — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:40:59 +0000

I’ve been getting a lot of mail lately. Some of it was solicited (TEXTBOOKS!!#$%!) and others was not (dear playhouse that I purchased musical tickets from you 2 years ago, you’d think because I haven’t bought tickets in 2 years, that would be a hint to stop wasting paper). Unfortunately, I’m still unable to intercept the mail so my dad always sees it first.

Dad: Why are you getting mail from [insert name of local community college]?
Me: I applied there.
D: long pause. What program?
M: Their 4 year nursing program.
D: longer pause, I can practically see the wheels churning inside of his head. Is it the same program as at [insert name of big university/the one that I attend]?
M: Yes.
D: hands over the envelope, finally. Okay.

Because even nearly 5 years after I graduated from high school and even after he even admitted that trades was an “appropriate” career choice, he still has a problem with smaller schools, or not internationally recognized institutions, even if they’re public, government funded & approved schools.

My sister J started school this week. She graduated from said Big University in either 2006 and is just going back to school now for a trades program. Granted, it’s a medical-relate program, so it’s not like she’s becoming a mechanic. But J is the Golden Child and can never do anything wrong. So because she applied (and was accepted into) a trades program, suddenly trades is the Best Thing Ever.

And my father had the nerve to ask me:

D: Why didn’t you go into trades as well?

Well, dad, maybe it’s because you spent the first 17 years of my life telling me that I need to go to university and get a degree because it’s what I’m fucking supposed to do. That and I get to live rent-free at home provided I stay in school, so it was kind of no brainer. But I have friends who graduated on time (unlike me) and are woefully unemployed. A friend of my sister’s has been out of university since 2006 and just got a full-time job in her field (she has an education degree and spent 5 years being a substitute teacher, filling in when people were sick or on maternity leave and having very uncertain employment). Having a Bachelors, regardless of what it is in doesn’t mean a whole lot these days. Mostly because a lot of people have a Bachelors degree. Which is really depressing to think about, considering I’ll be graduating with one at the end of May. And it’s going to be fantastic. The word “Science” will be mentioned on that piece of paper 4 times in my degree title. Not because I wanted them to emphasize how much I love science, but because of what my program was. (A lot of science.)

But really. Having my dad tell me when I’m 9 credits away from finishing my BSc that I should have gone into some sort of trades instead? Like a knife through the heart. Maybe he should have been pushing that for the first 17 years of my life instead. Or maybe he should just keep his opinions to himself.

Study Mode: On

Michelle — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 08:22:02 +0000

Not a whole lot to report, but I have the urge to just blog right now. Granted, I’m starting this at 11:57pm on Friday… So yay, this’ll be posted on Saturday, of course. I don’t know why I felt the need to mention that, I mean, you can tell by the date stamp when this post goes up. I may schedule posts over at BlytheLife.com (which is the only reason why posts go up three days a week over there, because I schedule everything like a month in advance, because I’m cool like that), but I don’t do that here. Mostly because it’s my personal blog and it seems weird to schedule posts for that? I mean, I used to do ‘sponsored’ posts here, but I haven’t done that in ages. Mostly because people don’t seem to think that bloggers are worth as much money (for the most part), so all my posts are all just written for me now (yay).

And now I’m all rambling…

So I’ve been working on study notes for the last week. I actually got up early enough to head out to school on Tuesday to study in the library. All the other days I either woke up around 8am (when I wanted to be at school already) so I just stayed at home to study. Which worked well, because I love the fact that I can just stay in my room in my pjs and comfy fleecy robe (which is warm!) and just work away on my laptop. I’ve also been watching podcasts during my study breaks (and listening to them as well). Mostly knitting related, because I’ve suddenly fallen back into knitting (I did take a loooong break without knitting a darn thing). I haven’t been able to find any crocheting podcasts that I like. I’m a big fan of the ones with video, not just audio, because I like getting to see the projects. I also caught up on the Savage Love podcast. Because who doesn’t like to listen to Dan Savage answer his caller’s questions about sex? (The answer: prudes.)

I’m actually ahead of my studying schedule. I finished all my study notes for zoogeography & paleogeology. I’m almost done going through learning goals for my climate change class (whoot). I finished the notes for my parasitology take-home final, which is another essay. I did a little bit of outline for that paper, not as much as I would have liked to have done, but I did most of it. I’m hoping to finish the climate change study notes & parasitology paper outlining Saturday morning, because I’ll be going out for lunch with the family and then listening to my sister’s choir sing Christmas carols in the mall (horrible acoustics there, just got to say…).

I got an email from an offlinefriend asking me why I never blog about Clay anymore… Not sure if she was more concerned or if she was just being nosy. I’m going to go with concerned, because being nosy is never cool. There’s not really a whole lot to report on the boyfriend front. We are still together, we had our third anniversary in September of this year. He works a stupid amount of hours (like seriously stupid amount of hours) and I spend a lot of time studying. Well, I always have an abundance of free time to spend with him, but he works what feels like 24/7. It’s probably closer to like 12-16/7, but that’s still a lot of hours in a week and he does need to sleep. I’ve also been using my sadly boyfriend-free time to work on his Christmas present. It’s going to be awesome. And he’s going to love it. Mostly because I say that he will… I’m really trying to put together something thoughtful and practical and useful and all those things. But I always end up coming up with something impractical, but still super awesome. So we’ll see how that goes… Wow, rambling. We also don’t live in the same city (maybe ~30-45min drive, depending on the the traffic, so it does make things difficult at times. But I don’t know, I haven’t been all gushy about the time that we do spend together, because if I did, my blog posts would be like “So, I saw the boyfriend and we did A and he made me B for dinner.” and I would also have to totally censor my blog posts from some of the activities that occur, for obvious reasons… And with that… Change of topics!

This didn’t really get mentioned on the blog, but my dad went away on vacation/trip/whatever for three months. He went to visit relatives and whatnot. Came back with a lot of gifts, which is always appreciated. He was away during my birthday so he brought me back this:

Yes, it is another Blythe doll. (He also got me another one, but she’s under the tree for Christmas.) The doll’s stock name is Simply Bubble Boom. She’s a limited edition doll, at 1500 dolls in this model. She was actually part of a trio of crime-fighting skaters. Yes, I said skaters. She came with some super cute orange skates, not pictured. The other doll that my dad got me for my Christmas present was Simply Sparkly Spark (who has blue hair!) and the last of the trio (that I’m not getting) is Simply Thumpty Thump (who has a bright purple hair colour). I’m really happy with her. Her hair is a neon reddish-orange, so it looks rather pink in some lights and rather orange in others. Which is kind of really awesome. I decided name her Moxie, and she is my 8th Blythe doll and first in the FBL mold.

(For those who don’t really like Blythes or just dolls in general; sorry about the photo and the blurb… But I like ’em! And I do try to restrict dolly talk to the designated blog when I can. But I was just super pleased at getting a new doll for my birthday… and there will probably be photos of my Christmas doll too.)

An Obligatory Post-Christmas Entry

Michelle — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 04:10:13 +0000

Work last week went well. I may have enjoyed the fact that people were bringing in cookies and chocolates and the fact that there was a steady supply of decent hot chocolate right there a little bit too much. But, well, it’s just a little sugar? I did do some Christmas baking last week – shortbread and sugar cookies. I’d brought the shortbread into work to share with people, and they seemed to like it (I went home with an empty box) and some people came by my desk for seconds (or thirds, for some people). What’s interesting about going to work during the winter (as opposed to the summer) is that people have a very different dynamic that what I’m used to. They honestly act differently during winter than they do in the summer. It was very difficult to put my finger on it at first, and then I figured out that people act differently. I don’t know, it was just some weird observation that I had. But what was really nice was actually being able to go in and say Merry Christmas to people and get to bring in the cookies I made for people at work myself (I generally send a plate or box with my mom and she’ll relay the comments to me later).

Overall, Christmas was the same as always. My parents spent hours arguing (normal), my father gave me an I.O.U. (expected) and we changed boxes of chocolate with our neighbours (oddly enough, we gave them a box of hedgehogs, they gave us a box of hedgehogs – first year we’ve ever given the same thing, right down to the brand!). I don’t know why I expect things to change (mainly referring to the arguing part of my Christmas), but I do.

And what post-Christmas blog post would this be if I didn’t talk about what kind of loot I got?

Chocolates (hedgehogs and Lindt – the double-milk chocolate bar)
Cookies
Beads
Glass tank (as a new enclosure for my pet)
Cash (always useful)
An I.O.U. that stated that I was owed one Christmas gift (I also got a similarly worded piece of paper for my birthday)

For Boxing Day, I ventured out to go shopping. Oddly enough, one of the malls I went to wasn’t particularly crowded at all. And there was actual parking spots available, many of them! My Boxing Day loot is as follows:

Cosmetics, 4 nail polishes, 1 lipstick – $0.99/each
Bear plush, wearing a scarf (approx. 9″ in height, maybe?) – $1
Clothes, 4 shirts – there was a buy one, get one free promotion (1 that could essentially double as a bustier or just a fancy top, one that’s super pretty with a little flower print and works well as a work/office or formal-setting shirt) and 2 were on clearance (a tank top and a V-neck tee) – $30 (BOGO portion was $20 by itself)
Santa Hat ($3.50)
Chocolate, discounted because it came in a clear tree-shaped box – deliciousness at only $3
Tall snowflake mug/cup/thing – $0.50 (I’m going to use it to hold yarn needles)

Overall, Boxing Day was a win because I was a) out of the house, b) did a little retail therapy, c) got a gorgeous top on sale and d) got discounted holiday-themed chocolate. It tastes just the same as non-holiday-themed chocolate, honest. And it doesn’t even expire until 2012… Not that it would last that long anyways!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas weekend! I, for one, a looking forward to a bit nicer weather so I can set up my glass tank. I also have 2 days of work this week (Wednesday and Thursday) and then another four-day weekend before I start school again on the Tuesday of next week. I’m mostly looking forward to spending some time with my boyfriend than spending time at home, hehe.

Catching up and why I’m upset tonight

Michelle — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 04:48:01 +0000

Little updates for what’s been happening so far:

I registered for classes for the 2010/2011 school year – I’m going to be taking 9 classes (1 statistics, 2 oceanography, 6 biology) which includes 9 classes worth of lectures and a total of 5 lab components (3 in term 1, 2 in term 2).
I successfully stalked the courses that I wanted to get into a better time slot for (ecology) and to get off the waitlist and into the actual class (animal locomotion – like flight, running, climbing, swimming, etc.).
I finished another project at work, yay.
I finally finished and photographed prototype hats for a new pattern that I’m done and got the prototypes out to people who are trying them out on their kids, whoot.
I nearly finished another crochet pattern, yay! Just need to redo some parts and test it out again.

I talk about my dad quite a bit sometimes, especially when he’s done something ridiculous.

I got home from work today with my mom and the first thing I saw was my mirror (oval shaped, it has a wooden frame with gold paint, candle stick holders, ornate carving – best thing I’ve ever picked up from spring cleaning week ever) hanging from a branch of one of the hedge trees in my back yard. I was pissed at that, so I went and got it down from the tree and took it back inside of the house.

My dad opens the door and sees it in my hand and angrily demands to know why I have it (it’s mine and I never gave anyone permission to put it outside). And he starts in on this whole lecture about how I leave my clothes lying around everywhere, how my room is a mess, how dirty clothes attract the insects into the house and on and on and on.

I go and put the mirror away and there is nothing on my bed besides the sheet and a few stuffed animals and a power cord (for my cell phone). I then go and eat dinner and he starts talking about how I left so many clothes on my bed and if I don’t want to have something washed yet, I should hang it on my chair. I then turn my attention to the pile of stuff from my room that he’s got in the dining room (we eat in the kitchen). None of the hoodies or cardigans that were in the pile were on my bed – they had been on my chair (like he was suggesting). My pillows were in the pile as well. Along with a bathrobe and my pajamas.

He had originally put all of that stuff outside to “get some sun”.

On the grass.

And then informed me that if he ever finds an insect in the house, it’s my fault and I’ll be kicked out for it.

Right. After he went and put my stuff outside. Guess where insects live.

So pissed off because of all of that. I didn’t do anything. If he doesn’t like the way I keep my room, he doesn’t have to go in there. He doesn’t have to do anything at all and he should get a freaking hobby besides bitching at me every single day.

Pretending to be busy like a bee

Michelle — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 20:56:39 +0000

So I’ve been a little busy lately, what with a new website project and all… BlytheLife.com

Oh, I’ve also learned what every good webmaster knows: have giveaway, will have hits/comments/linkbacks skyrocket. Which isn’t bad, to say the least.

Other things in life, since my Canada Day incident with a cat and subsequently stupid people have been fairly low key and fairly tame. I paid my credit card bill, have thought out what courses I want to take next year (although if the fourth years keep on filling them up, I don’t know what I’m going to be taking next year because I wanted my fourth year to be my ‘easy’ year – if I take 28 credits like I want to for my 3rd year, I only need another 20 credits for my 4th year, whoot). I do have a good chance of getting into two classes that are on my ‘want-to-take’ list – my academic advisor is teaching/lecturing for those and she said that she can force-add me into the class rosters if needed.

Oh! I met my paternally approved ‘BFF’ on Saturday. So hilarious. She wants to go to the same school as I do, but my dad lied when he said that she was starting this year, she’s actually finishing up her secondary education still and has one more year to go. She wants to go into pharmacy, not nursing. I don’t know a thing about the requirements for fulfilling first year pre-pharmacy, or what pharmacy even looks at. She wants to go into the Faculty of Science for her first year, but doesn’t like math, chemistry, physics or biology. I just said ‘good luck’ to her, as if pharmacy requires general first year science, she’ll need to take all four, at least 2 classes each, plus 2 classes of English. Anyways, I’m really not sure why my dad thought it’d be a great idea for us to meet/talk/whatever when she doesn’t even want to go into the same program as me. I can’t even give her any advice for application or admissions requirements because they’ve changed everything since I entered my school. Besides the fact that I’m domestic student… and went through the Canadian public school system… Sigh.

In other news… Finally finished up a new crochet pattern (just editing my writing – fixing typos, grammatical errors, etc.) and then going to get that up on chelle-chelle.com. Not feeling the greatest today for just a mountain worth of reasons. Starting with my voice, or lack thereof. Off to go and crawl back into bed soon. Or maybe I’ll just have some marshmallows. … sugar’s my catchall cure for everything.

I saw this coming like a predictable movie ending

Michelle — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:50:57 +0000

D: So I have this friend…
*long pause*
M: I have friends too!
D: *gives me a look* So I have this friend and he has a daughter…
*long pause*
M: I have friends that have daughters too!
D: *gives me another look* And she’s coming to Canada to go to school.
M: *can see where this is going* That’s nice.
D: And she’s going to [insert name of school that I go to]
M: Okay…
D: And she’s going to be starting this September…
M: *can really see where this is going* That’s nice. *continues eating*
D: And she’s going to be in first year. She’s going to be in first year science. Just like you!
M: I’m not in first year. *mentally adds “thank you very much”*
D: That doesn’t matter. I want you to be her friend.
M: You want me to what?
D: I want you to be her friend. She doesn’t know anyone. So you have to be her best friend here.
M: ‘Have to be’?
D: Yes, you have to be her best friend. She’s my friend’s daughter, so you must treat her well and be her best friend.
M: *looks at dad like he’s gone off his rocker* …
D: I will call him tonight and tell him that you’ve agreed. I will arrange for you two to meet.
M: *wtf look* What?!

I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t !@#$ing care.

Michelle — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:37:29 +0000

I don’t care if you’re related to me (and happen to live in the same house as me), it does not mean you’re allowed to:

Lend out my jewellery pliers to a visiting relative when she wants to fix something. No. That’s what the regular pliers are for. Not the pair designed for crimping that cost over $25.
Go looking through my (messy) closet to lend my clothes to someone else (who isn’t even the same size – this should have been super obvious).
Use my nail polish as paint.
Borrow stuff off of my desk without asking first – there’s a reason that no one else in the family uses my Staedtler pens and that’s because you all abuse them and leave the caps off and misplace them. Grrr.
Never. Use. My. Sandals. Again. Your feet way too big. And you owe me new sandals. Why? Because you tore one of them with your massively-way-too-big-feet. Duh.

And that was my Monday (after I got home).

Last day of lectures!

Michelle — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 03:19:27 +0000

I had exactly one class today (biochemistry) and it was the most boring class of my life. Not because I was feeling restless because it was the last day of class, but because we were learning about enzymes regulating reactions… and she kept on saying the same thing over and over and over again because this student in my lecture (N), who asks stupid questions every single lecture, was going “I’m very confused, can you explain what an allosteric enzyme is to me again?” for more than one time.

Allosteric enzyme: an enzyme that binds to other molecule(s) in addition to their substrates. These other molecules effect the active sites so that the binding of the substrates to the active site is more stable.

Not the most in depth definition, but it’s the extent that I need to know it for my course.

Seriously, that’s what the definition was. But this guy asked three times for her to repeat it, even though he was holding up a copy of the lecture slides for the day AND he had his course notes (custom courseware) out in front of him. And she was saying the exact same words as what was in the course notes so I really don’t see how that was an issue.

Then again, this is the same person who asked why people do not do photophosphorylation (which occurs in chloroplasts) – so why am I even remotely surprised?

Ugh.

Anyways… Class ended on time, my prof got a standing ovation (granted, I didn’t stand because I was putting my books away and all my pens back into their case). She was a pretty awesome professor… Despite the fact that she never started class on time (ever).

I went from the building where I had my biochemistry class to the bus loop, got on the bus and then while the bus was turning out of the bus loop, I remembered that I had to pick up my vascular plants lab final. So I pulled for the bell and got off a block away and walked back towards the biology building. I met M along the way and asked if she’d picked hers up yet and she went “Oh shit. You had to remind me, didn’t you?”. Yes, M, yes I did. She did better than I did, but I rocked the section about flowers and fruit (25/25!). And I thought that was the worst station <- This is because we had to fill out table (name of structure, function of structure and what does each structure become in the fruit). It turns out that I can guess quite effectively! Most of the parts are reduced, only the ovule becomes the seed and the ovary becomes part of the fruit wall (along with the hypanthium). Oh flowers, how I love thee.

Made some headway on my studying – I finished my biochemistry assignment a day early (it’s due tomorrow, I had scheduled in time to work on it tomorrow!) so I’m planning on devoting the newly freed up time equally for biology (invertebrates zoology) and biochemistry (yay!). By Sunday, I hope to have completed problem sets 5, 6 and 7 for biochemistry and to be done studying for invertebrates (as the final is on Monday).

Also… Could someone please inform my father to stop asking me when my finals are? I’ve told him five times since I got home from school today that I:

Don’t have class tomorrow
Have my first final on Monday
Don’t want to go out to lunch with him tomorrow
And that I really do not care what he thinks about where I’m going to be working this summer

And yet he has asked me multiple times if I have school tomorrow (and does not understand why I sound exasperated when I repeat myself), he keeps on thinking I have my first final on Saturday and that I’m done by Monday and my mom thinks it’s hilarious because I’ve told her once and she’s committed it to memory already while he’s just asking me over and over again because he thinks that if I don’t have classes, that means that I’m free to run errands for him or to help do major projects around the house. I try not to laugh, I really do.

Study!

Michelle — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:21:45 +0000

I’m studying today…

… can’t you tell?

On a similar note, I had the follow conversation ~5 minutes ago with my dad (D for Dad, M for me):

D: You need to go and buy milk.
M: I’m studying.
D: You always say you’re studying when I want you to do something.
M: *holds up lab manual* Stud-eeee-ing.
D: You’re just lazy. *stomps off*

Please not that I’m not lazy (most of the time?) and that my father is ‘retired’ and spends all day at home. Oh, and the store that we go and buy milk from is a very short walk from my house. And he was home all day and waited until I got home from school to inform someone in the house that we need milk. Because, you know, it’s just too much damn work to change out of one’s pajamas and to go for a (short!) walk to buy something that one would like to be able to consume.

Little vent

Michelle — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:11:53 +0000

I’ve completely caught up on printing out lecture slides (6 slides per page, double sided – saving on paper, and somewhat on ink), stapled all the pages together, have everything neatly stacked and clipped together. Printed off a reference package, sample midterms (for next week, meep!) and assignment information (due Friday, hello working on an 5% assignment in advanced – it’s 10 multiple choice questions, clearly I’m not too worried). I went downstairs, started printing off some sample midterms and whatnot and then my dad comes in, turns on his computer and then starts asking me questions.

How do I make a new layer in Photoshop?
How do I draw a circle?
How do I make it more blue/white/red/green/etc.?
How do I do [insert something that he’s done before]?

And the thing is, since he bought Photoshop CS4 for me, I feel obligated to help him. Especially since, well, I use the program a fair bit. But the thing is… I explained all of this to him before. I even wrote out directions for him, drawing out the little icons for him. So I asked him (sounding exasperated) where the directions I wrote out for him were. He replied, “Oh, you explain things much better than the paper does.” When there is no difference from what I say and what I wrote out for him, ages ago.

So I show him everything. Twice, each. This takes about an hour. And then he asks me to write out the steps for him so he can do it himself next time. I pointed out to him that they’ve already been written out for him (with pictures!) and that he had the steps already. And then he starts in on how I just don’t want to help him and how I take everything he does for me for granted. Fucking guilt trip. I pretended to do the steps, waited for him to leave, found the original directions and then just left that on his keyboard and took all my print outs and my laptop back upstairs and then locked myself in my room. Which is where I currently am.

I mean, I’m not hardcore studying, not depriving myself of sleep (well, not entirely anyways) in order to stuff information and knowledge into my head (yet) but I do have better things to do than to explain simple things to my father (yet again) for over an hour just to have him decided that written instructions would be better. Like, you know, reading over the lecture slides, working through practice problems or just doing something that I want to do. Is that so much to ask for?

Now back to reading biochemistry slides!

How was your Wednesday?