library – Imaginary Sunshine

Mishaps, cheerful antics and everything else

Michelle — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 05:31:21 +0000

I’ve been sending time away from the computer lately (I was online for ~10 minutes yesterday!). I counted it all up, and I spent nearly four and a half hours in public transit yesterday! 3 hours for to and from school, then more time on various buses and trains. I completely abused my transit pass, thank goodness I have it though – it would have cost $15 out of pocket if I didn’t have my transit pass!

Going out to dinner last night was horrible. My mom heard about this restaurant on the radio and on a tv commercial. They serve “fusion” food (Chinese food and western foods) but the service was absolutely horrible. We got seated very quickly, and we ordered within like maybe 10 minutes of arrival. After we ordered our food for dinner, it took over 50 minutes before the first dish arrived. We’d called a server over (at around 30 min) to see what was taking so long. She apologized for the wait and promised to go see what was going on. At another time (maybe at around 50 min), we called the (same!) server over again, in hopes of just getting rice or something while we were waiting (it was a 4 person combo meal, so we were supposed to get rice and dessert with 4 different dishes) and she sees us waving, walks over, stops, looks at our table and then just turns around and walks away – without even asking us what we were asking for! Every single thing that was brought to our table that night (including the bill) was brought by the manager, with an apology for the wait every single time. One of the dishes was too salty, the rice was cold (!) when it arrived at our table, the person refilling our tea cups spilled into two of dishes and… well… needless to say, they didn’t get a very sizable tip from us. But seriously, 50 minutes? One of the dishes we ordered was a type of fish with vegetables – which should have been the easiest (and quickest!) thing to cook up. The table next to us was seated after we were, ordered after we had ordered and they got their food quickly, ate, paid and left before we even got anything that we had ordered.

My dad just got home from his trip (I’m hesitant to call it a vacation, as he spent some time at tourist spots, but the reason for his trip was a death in the family). During the time, he apparently never got a hair cut and we were all like “Oh. My. Gosh.” when we saw him. There was definitely a lot of photos being taken before his hair cut last night (my mom did it) as it was the only time we’ve ever seen it that long. He did bring back gifts for us! My sister got a really nice watch (however, she’s not sure when she’d get to wear it as it’s not waterproof and she works with tanks full of water at work…), my other sister got a new cell phone (granted, she needs to use a power adapter, but it’s essentially an iPhone lookalike and she’s been wanting a new phone for ages, and her SIM card fits ‘quite nicely’ into it) and I got… Well, heh, I got another Blythe doll. I’m still bouncing around names for her, but she’s quite cute. She’s got black hair, bangs and a bowl/mushroom hair cut. So she pretty much reminds me of me when I was under the age of ten. Not quite sure what to call her, most of my childhood nicknames are related to my name and none of them seem to ‘fit’ her, especially since some of those nicknames are still in use and I haven’t had bangs and a bowl/mushroom cut since I was under the age of 10.

We’d gone out for most of today – out for tea/lunch, grocery shopping, the library (I borrowed Intensely Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History by John Ortved with the foreword by Douglas Coupland and Rubber Soul by The Beatles because my sister said that she never knew there was a song called Michelle). Got home maybe mid-afternoon? I spent a few hours looking at trip photos/videos from when my dad was on his trip – there’s the most adorable photo of the behind of a red panda! And giant pandas! And other awesome animals! And then there were photos of relatives that I recognize (ahem, I’ve apparently met all of my uncles and aunts, at least the ones that were living when I was born, but I only recognize a handful of them because I’ve never been back to visit them after that first time… When I was under 2 years old…).

Oh, also while I was out today, I found someone’s hiding spot outside of the restaurant that my family went to for lunch (the bottle was full and unopened – but I left it there):

It’s been a slow Saturday…

Michelle — Sun, 17 May 2009 05:17:38 +0000

@ Kelsey & Kristi – I’m feeling the love. But I’m currently online and neither of you are…? Bet you’re all having an awesome fun filled day. =)

So… Saturday… I didn’t do much beyond waking up at noon (just in time for lunch, awesome). I went shopping with the parents but split up while they were going to an electronics store to refund something and I went to clothing stores to see what there was. Tried on a few things, saw something that I really liked, but then I checked the price tag and realized that it was roughly twice the amount of one of my textbooks (that was bought new), so I put it back. I did buy two balls of yarn (only because I needed the colours and I didn’t already have any – of course, after I got home, I decided on a completely different idea so I’m going to return them).

Let’s see, what else did I do today? Went to the library. Borrowed a few books (smutty romances!) and some comics as well. I watched some Grey’s on dvd (season 2, for anyone who’s curious). Umm… Ate an apple, which was really good. Had prawns for dinner (yum!!) and now I’m working on the new super-awesome-super-secret crochet project (one that doesn’t involve math! I’m still planning that one). So yeah, kind of boring all around. But that’s okay! I have volunteering tomorrow (whoot!) and then Clay’s picking me up afterwards. No clue what we’re doing… (Have I ever mentioned how much it annoys me that we never have actual plans? I’m getting accustomed to the spontaneity… sort of.) Have any suggestions? Let me know (I’ll check before volunteering tomorrow).

What did you get up to today?

Time flies when you’re having fun

Michelle — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:42:33 +0000

I was blissfully untethered from my laptop/the internet yesterday. I went out with my family for lunch, we also did a little shopping at a fabrics store that was closing. I got two row counters for knitting (one for ‘regular’ sized needles, one for ‘bulky’ sized needles), really really nice scissors (very pointy – I think I have a new weapon of choice now!), wired ivory ribbon (packaging for jewellery – it’s going to be awesome!) and dress patterns! I couldn’t find any fabric that I liked for it though. My sister bought a bunch of this really nice shiny, translucent fabric. She’s planning on making dragons. Once I got home, I got ready to go out (again). My sister dropped me off near the library where I went and returned (an absurd amount of) books and borrowed a few (only three! I had returned seven). I borrowed one crochet book and two books on this really nice jewellery designs – I do like inspiration!

Clay picked me up at the library. We went to the movie theatre to assess what was playing, decided to go eat dinner first (it was around 5-ish at this point). Actually, first we went shopping, then for dinner. We went to a restaurant that we’d gone to before – he ordered the exact same thing, we ordered the same drinks (iced tea), but I tried a different pasta dish (mmmm, seafood linguine!). Which was nice. Then we went back to the movie theatre (… yeah, we drive around a lot) and saw Adventureland. It has Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg and Ryan Reynolds. I’d heard about it, so I picked it. It was okay, but it just went so slooooooooooooooow. I found it amusing that some of the lines that Kristen Stewart has in Adventureland are identical to some lines that she has in Twilight and she sounds pretty much the exact same when she’s saying them.

Sometime after that, while we were just sitting around and talking, he mentioned that one of his friends was getting married, to his girlfriend. And I said that I kinda figured that, unless there was someone else that his friend was dating, and then Clay mentions that no, his friend only has that single girlfriend. Then I ask how many that he has and he goes ‘three or four’. I questioned him on that one, so he starts counting them out loud. There’s Michelle (yay for making the list?), ‘M’ (that’s how I sign notes and emails, for the most part), Little Miss Sunshine and Chelle-Chelle – which makes four. It’s probably a good thing that he could come up with four that were my name/nick names, or else I would have smacked him. We listened to music and he subjected me to his music tastes between my choices. I picked a song by The Goo Goo Dolls and he commented on how he has four on his mp3 player and he just happens to pick one of the three that he doesn’t like. Actually, now that I think of it, it might be the same four that I have on my mp3 player – only I don’t listen to Iris all that much. But it was fun, we spent a lot of time talking, which was nice since it’d been a long time since we’d seen each other.

So yesterday was fun. This morning, I headed out with the family for shopping. I bought some new pants and a new office-work-appropriate blouse (although, I suppose if I stay at Building A instead of moving to Building B, I can get away with jeans and a tee for the most part). Spent some time with the family and now I’ve secluded myself and tethered myself again to the laptop.

How has your weekend been so far?

Plans for the week

Michelle — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 03:17:32 +0000

I got loads of sleep the night before (Saturday -> Sunday) and a decent amount of sleep last night (Sunday -> Monday). I’ve also been attempting to remember every single thing from my psychology notes, lecture slides (downloaded, of course) and textbook (as she will put questions with facts that are from the textbook, and not the lecture notes – and she’ll also put questions that are from information that we got guest lecturers as well) – all in a bid to make sure that we a) attend class, b) pay attention and c) use the stupid textbook that cost way too much.

I’ve also been studying chemistry. Which has been going okay… I have six problem sets to do before my exam (plus the practice final!). I’m doing three tonight, three tomorrow (before 3pm) and then spending the rest of tomorrow studying for my psychology final (which is on Wednesday morning – 8:30am ftl…). And then Wednesday will be spent (after my final, of course) finishing up studying for my chemistry final, which will be on Thursday. And then I’ll be done! Yeah! I also need to make jewelry on Thursday as my sister needs a gift for her friend’s birthday present. Which means that I a) need to come up with something, b) need to make up packaging that has my name somewhere on it and c) need to photograph it for my own personal jewelry purposes. And completely update some pages on Chelle-Chelle.com. Oh, and I’ve been meaning to update Ames as well… New layout, new in character contest… Oh, the thought bunnies are running rampant in my head!

Then I have Friday where I’m going to start job searching (well, I’ve already started – but shall be intensifying the job search… Know anyone who’s hiring?) and I’m going to volunteering (missed last week because of my biology final). Plus I now have a green Post-It on my laptop telling me to ask L and/or J (the volunteering coordinators) if they’d mind being references. I’ll most likely ask L, I hardly ever see J around. But both of them seem to like me, so that’s okay. So that will be my week up until Friday… I also have to go to the library and return some books since they’ve been sitting in a neat pile in my room going “Michelle? Michelle…? You need to return us soon instead of just renewing us online… Michelle…? DAMN IT, WOMAN! TAKE US BACK TO THE LIBRARY!” (… I occasionally have an overactive imagination. And I’m not crazy. Honest…)

And then Saturday… I have excellent plans for Saturday. They involve seeing Clay! I have no clue what else that we’re doing though. But then we seem to be rather bad at making plans in advanced. A lot of them involve… meeting up and then taking half an hour deciding on where we’re going, what we’re going to do and oh hey, what do we want for dinner? It used to drive me insane the first… two times that we went out. Because I make plans for everything. Ask me what I’m going to take next year and the year after that and the year after that and I can tell you exactly what courses that I want to take, what schools I’m applying to and what I’m planning on having for lunch tomorrow. But I eventually decided that a little bit of spontaneity wasn’t going to kill me. (However, the jury is still out on how many minutes the spontaneity shortens my life by.) But we have plans! For Saturday! And there’s no way he can forget since one or both of us have mentioned it at least once every other day for the last… two weeks. Or so. Probably a little bit more than two weeks.

Anyways… It’s Monday! What did you do today that was awesome and deserving of mention (sort of)?

I paid for lunch when my sister, my dad and I went out for lunch today. My father has expensive tastes in restaurants, just have to mention.

April Fools!

Michelle — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:02:47 +0000

I woke up this morning and it was snowing.This is not an April Fools joke. It was snowing. There was probably about 3-4 cm of fresh snow on the steps leading up to my front door. And then there was rain. And wind, I can’t forget the rain. And no sun.

I thought it was supposed to be spring? Where’s the flowers? Where is the sunshine? Where are the bright blue skies, only disrupted by fluffy white, non-rain expelling clouds? Instead, there was rain, rain, snow, rain, rain, snow, snow, snow, wind, rain, windy snowy rain. Which compels me to write this letter.

Dear Mother Nature,

Sometimes, you’re really wonderful. Sometimes it’s great that there’s someone controlling the weather, because if I was in charge, it’d be pissing rain every single time that I got upset. That being said, snow is not appropriate for spring. Snow is appropriate for very late autumn (even if I am grouchy about it at times) and it is appropriate for winter. Snow is not appropriate in the time of the year that is associated with blooming flowers and fresh grass and sunshine. Lots of sunshine. And flowers.

So, just so that we’re clear. Snow = winter. Snow ≠spring. Okay? Try better tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Michelle

Besides the craptastic weather that I’ve been experiencing today, today’s been kinda crappy overall. Luckily, no one’s played any April Fools jokes on me today (thank goodness…). I went to the library today as I had a lot of books to return and I borrowed only three (three!) books today. I returned much more than 3, so overall I had a loss. So I’m doing okay and not being all crazy-book-addict. Yet, anyways! I borrowed a super cute book called Tiny Yarn Animals: Amigurumi Friends to Make and Enjoy by Tamie Snow. It has some really cute things in it! Shall have to see what I feel like making… I also borrowed Knitting Rules! and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot’s Guide to the Land of Knitting, both books (obviously…) by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I think the second title is a bit… umm… long, shall I say? The first title is nice, it’s short but descriptive. But the second one is just so damn long. I feel like I need to pause and take a drink of water before continuing on.

Oh yeah, there’s also a new header and colour scheme… I hope you’ve noticed it. It’s a lot more spring-like than the weather is outside…

Questions

What was/is the weather like where you are today?
When’s the last time that you experienced snow?
What is your absolutely favourite flower? If you only had to pick one?

My answers

Crappy.
Today.
Daisies! The ones with the white petals and the yellow middles.

When I grow up, I want to be yarn harlot too!

Michelle — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:06:28 +0000

A library that I frequented almost daily throughout my grades 11 and 12 years of high school recently reopened to the public after undergoing extensive renovations (it’s really pretty inside, but you can tell that they’re not quite done yet as none of the shelves have signs!). So, of course I had to go, even though the grand reopening isn’t until later (the place still smelled like fresh paint – probably because when I walked in, I passed two guys wearing those white overalls and hauling paint around…). Due to the fact that none of the shelves had signs, it was a pain for me to find what I was looking for, but I eventually found the craft books (yay!) and I picked out a few books to read.

Things I Learned from Knitting …whether I wanted to or not by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (i.e. The Yarn Harlot)
Anticraft: Knitting, Beading and Stitching For the Slightly Sinister by Renée Rigdon and Zabet Stewart
The Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches from Reader’s Digest
The Crafter’s Guide to Pricing Your Work by Dan Ramsey

And yes, I do knit. Even though it doesn’t seem like it… I learned how to knit (and purl! The only two real stitches in knitting.) before I learned how to crochet. However… While crochet may take up approximately twice as much of yarn as knitting would for something that’s the same size in terms of area… Crochet’s a lot faster. And I’m less likely to drop stitches (… I do that a lot). And I just find it easier (which is really odd, because most people who learn one before the other almost always find the first one that they learned easier). Plus, you know… amigurumi.

That being said, I found an awesome page in the first book (the one by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee). The book has no patterns and it reads more like a list… With a lot of stories. And there was one page in particular that I really liked. It’s on page 122. The page is titled “5 Ways That Knitting is Better Than Video Games”. Numbers 2, 3 and 4 I really like and they apply greatly with crocheting as well (Number 1 doesn’t work for me and number 5 doesn’t apply to crocheting at all).

2. I decide how many points I get and for what.
3. I can do it even if the power goes out.
4 I never lose something because I forget to hit “save” before I go do something else.
– Things I Learned from Knitting … whether I wanted to or not by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (page 122)

It’s a really quick read, but some of the humour would be difficult to understand if you’ve never been in some of the situations (i.e. really screwing up a pattern, working on something with an intensive deadline, frogging an entire project due to something you messed up in row 2…). I finished the book today (I read a large majority of it while walking home – it’s a fairly small book and I really like it, I’ve never seen it in a bookstore before though, which is why I thought it was either very old or very new – until I saw who it was by, then I knew that I’m either just blind or it’s new).

I’m planning on finishing up my English paper today, printing it out and reading it over tomorrow on the bus. It now has a title! Before it just had “Working Title”, highlighted in red, at the top of the page (and centered). Now it has a title and it is… Paving a Road to Hell. Which is kind of ironic considering my paper is a) about hell and b) about hell isn’t a literal place. Still have have of the conclusion to go, hopefully I’ll get it done.

Oh, plus, I’ve been in the process of designing (ohemgee, I used the d-word!) a crocheted hat. I keep on seeing hats with cat ears everywhere. And, while I do like cats – I really do think that they look best knit. The last time I knit anything was when Goose’s wife was about to have their baby girl. And, well, that was last year. Plus, I don’t really want a cat hat, crocheted, knit or otherwise. Or rather, I don’t want to make one. But I shall post photos when the hat is done! I’m hoping that everyone will be able to tell what it is when I get photos up… Let’s see how good I am at mimicking nature.

Questions

How often do you go to your local public library?
What kinds of books do you normally borrow?
Do you think the road to hell is paved with good intentions?

My answers

Used to be frequently, then dwindled down to about once a month or so (which makes me sad, but keeps my reading in check – what with school and all).
Craft books, romance (paranormal romance, the smutty romance), chick lit, fantasy, sci-fi (depends on the author though), literary fiction (usually the teen stuff only – it’s quicker reads).
Yeah, pretty much

A trip to the library & Barnaby’s safe!

Michelle — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:31:08 +0000

It’s been kind of a crappy day, so I’m currently sitting in my chair with my second cup of tea for the night with a fleece throw around me (it’s chocolate brown and cute). I don’t particularly feel like dealing with my father today, but he’s intent on talking to me (and lecturing me, and so on).

Oh! I went to the library today. First time in a few weeks (… roughly 3, since my last batch of books were due this Saturday). I borrowed two dvds (not sure if I’ll have the time to watch them – I borrowed The Devil Wears Prada and Marie Antoinette), two crochet books (Crochet Me by Kim Werker and Amigurumi! Super Happy Crochet Cute by Elisabeth A. Doherty) and two fiction books (Exposed by Susa Vaught and How They Met, And Other Stories by David Levithan). Granted, not a whole lot (I used to borrow so many books…) but it’s a little bit, just enough to keep my tide over. So far, I’m not sure how many of the amigurumi patterns that I’ll actually try (there’s not a lot that appeals to me – there’s a cupcake pattern, but I’ll have to tweak it as it looks kind of… gimpy with the way the cake part is set up). From the Crochet Me book, there’s a pattern for thigh high stockings that I’m probably going to try, if I get the right weight of yarn (I only own worsted weight, silly me).

My dad just came into the room with Barnaby in his hand and wanting to know (for lack of a better way to translate it) ‘what the hell’ it was. Apparently he doesn’t look like an owl and my dad wanted to know if he could throw Barnaby away. I stared at him and held out my hand for my little pocket owl and took him back and attempted to be as polite as I possibly could and said “Maybe you just should stop going into my room and asking if you can throw away my things.” The reply that I got? “Why would I do that?”

Seriously? It’s not like I walk into my parents room and pick up something that is obviously not garbage like a watch or a wallet or a shirt and do something with it without asking first. Him going in and picking something up off of my desk and asking if he can throw it away would be like me going into my parents’ room and pick up a stack of documents from somewhere and asking if I could shred them. Granted, in theory the documents could be irreplaceable, but if I were to make another owl, it’s not the same. Plus, I ran out of the yarn that I used for Barnaby’s body. And the store that I got it from is 2.5 hours away by transit.

It’s one of those days where I just really want to crawl back into bed right now. Like right this moment. Just turn everything off and crawl into bed.

In which Monday was rather dull, but I wrote about it anyways

Michelle — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:12:27 +0000

I just played the word ‘ZEBRA’ on Lexulous (the new ‘Scrabble’-ish-like game on Facebook) for 60 points. Yes, that is the highlight of my day. No, I don’t have a life. Thank you very much for asking.

Umm… Today’s been pretty good. I didn’t trip on anything, I haven’t fallen over anything… I did knock over my cup a few minutes ago, but it was after I’d finished my tea so it was okay. I’ve done a little research for my English paper, I now have exactly five articles saved onto my computer and I hope I don’t need to do any more research. Plus, I need to go and look up how MLA citation is done again, because I can never remember (I’m a science student, that’s my excuse for not remembering every single time that I need to use it as I’m used to the format used for biology research papers). Why am I’m going on about citation practices? I don’t know, really. I just am. I could, however, start talking about the assortment of molecules that I have built around my laptop, but that would just make me seem just a tiny little bit more of a science geek than I already am.

Face. Meet. Palm. I spent the last 10 minutes trying to gain access to my account with my local public library. Trying again and again and again. Finally, I get up and go and grab my wallet to make sure that I actually put in the correct bar code number (which it was – I’ve had it memorized since I started high school, so I was pretty sure that I had it right). Attached to my library code was a small Post-It note reminding me that the password had been changed when I had my account information verified again, the last time that I had checked books out. Go me. I am no longer impressed with myself (not that I ever was, but that’s another story).

I’m also doing my duty as a local crocheter and just made suggestions for purchases at my local library for 5 different crochet books. … It’s not because I’m cheap and don’t want to fork up the money for the books myself. Honest. I’m, erm, giving back to the community. -nods- That’s it. (I like giving it a positive spin, makes myself feel better.)

Love of chocolate (and books!)

Michelle — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:15:52 +0000

Ahem… In reference to my last post, that whole thing about never having had chocolate before? That was my example. To emphasis what I meant. Sort of. Ish. I didn’t actually mean that I’ve never had chocolate before. I have. In fact, I love it. Chocolate cake, hot chocolate, peanut M&Ms, Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Cream, Twix, white chocolate, milk chocolate, those giant Kisses and all that jazz? I love chocolate. But I used it as an example because I figured it’d be easy to understand. Ish. Like you experience something really awesome (i.e. chocolate) and then after, all you want is that really awesome thing (i.e. chocolate). Not to say that I’ve never had it before. I have. Many times before. In fact, I’m eating M&Ms right now. So umm, yeah, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…

Anyways, I head out to the public library (a very local one) for the first time in… a very long time. And borrowed a bunch of books. I have a two from a teen chick lit series that I’m too ashamed to mention the series title to you all. I also borrowed Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That’s Changing Your World by Hugh Hewitt and Alternacrafts by Jessica Vitkus. I’ve read the introduction to the one by Hewitt and I’ve flipped through the photos (because a picture says a 1000 words, right?) by Vitkus. The projects are cute, and most of them are fairly easy. So it’ll give me something to do when I have free time (free time – time when I don’t have to study and I’m not catching up on blog entries via my RSS feeds… And when I don’t feel like baking, because then it just turns ‘free time’ into ‘baking time’). But you know what I saw at the library today? See, they’ve mentioned in the local newspapers that the library has a games catalogue. Like games for Playstation and XBox-360 and Wii but I’ve never seen any games on the shelves (near the dvds, of course) because they’re always all out! So today, I was looking for a Monty Python dvd (couldn’t find it) but I saw a video game. First time ever. But it was some Barbie game and very pink. And rated ages 6+. Plus, you know, I don’t own any game consoles, so that would make borrowing it a waste of time. But it was still pretty cool to see it there.

And can you believe it’s the end of February already? It seems like it went by so fast (and I had an entire week off that just seemed to drag on forever – note to self: don’t complain next time!). Next year will be interesting, since I’ll be getting 2 weeks off instead of just the usual one week. I have no clue what I’ll do with myself during that time. Maybe I’ll just stay at home and study the entire time? (… You can all stop laughing now, I can hearing the snickering!) Or maybe I’ll just go somewhere and take a small vacation… And yes, I just remembered that I have no money, and therefore that makes taking a small vacation kind of silly and improbable. I shall have to see. Maybe I’ll just craft and study for a week (I totally know how to live it up, honest).

Questions:

What’s your favourite type of chocolate? (Flavour? Brand?)
Do you have to pay an annual fee for a library card in the area where you live?
When was the last time you went on a major vacation?

My answers:

I’m a fan of white chocolate. And Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Cream. And Twix. Hmmm, chocolate…
No, I don’t. I’m pretty sure that they are subsidized from tax money paid to the city. However, I read an article the other day about how people are feeling really happy about how $24 can get them a library card in a city in Alberta (can’t remember which one anymore).
Umm… Summer of 2000.