Some Things Never Change – ROBERT FRANCIS

I’ve been busy.
Very busy.

You’d think that after finally finishing the semester that’s supposedly the hardest that I would’ve been able to publish posts for November and December by now… nope… this new semester is probably going to be even more hectic.

Right, well I’m going to summarize the 2 months. Can’t really do those months justice at this point.

November

Biggest deal:
Jed’s asshole roommates kicked him out after only a month of living there. They schemed to have somebody help pay first month’s rent with.
They gave him 3 days to find a place and move out. A-S-S-H-O-L-E-S. He luckily did find a place in time…with one asshole roommate, but that guy’s moving out next month anyway.

Highlights:
KOS Diner:
“Can’t Talk Eating Special” = best breakfast special on the planet.
Super delicious and affordable food, endless coffee refills.

FREE Patrick Watson w/ Amy Millan show:
Thanks to Twitter, I managed to score a pair of tickets to see those two with Alex.
Such a beautiful set. The Royal Conservatory of Music is an incredible place for live performances.

The Chariot show w/ Virginia, Jed, and Hilary:
Crazy good show…somehow ended up on stage with the mic handed to me…catch-ups…van ride…baklava.

Terroni:
Best pizza lives here.

December

Biggest deal:
Family coming over for the holidays. I look forward to this every year, and it was a blast. So glad Jed was able to join in.

Highlights:
Random semi-formal Filipino dance:
Mom bought Jed and I tickets for this. Jed had no idea what to expect. His reactions were the best part!

Poutini’s deep-fried party:
Deep fried oreos..cupcakes..chocolates…burrito..and PIZZA.

Chad’s birthday at the Cloak & Dagger:
Pub dog, Narnia, random swede killing it on the piano, arcade table, Sally, Julian and Adam joining, good company.

Hang time w/ Dianne:
Like Crazy, pizza, and Menchie’s. Like Crazy really hit home.

Pung-Yo:
PUNG-YO.

Fancy Ladies Kris Kringle:
Bianca was my secret santa. She was super thoughtful :’) I love those girls to death so it’s always a
pleasure to hang with them every chance I get.

Everything’s been good so far, including January.
Although I wish to hang with a lot more people than I do, but hopefully that’ll change soon.

Save The Last Breath – K.C. ACCIDENTAL

Food… so much great food was fed to me in October.

 

Jed finally being able to have his own kitchen to experiment in, obviously led to me being his subject to fatten up in the process. Best. situation. ever.

He made me loads of pasta featuring steak.. and one with a sauce that became my absolute favourite. He became obsessed with making grilled cheese after finding his new found love, George Foreman (..grill). He’d even improvise when we lacked Doritos and make chips himself. On top of all this, he doesn’t follow a set recipe. He freestyles basically everything he makes. He plans on creating a food blog consisting of food using strange ingredient combinations.. ex. sweet grilled cheese ft. whipped cream as the main ingredient. I don’t see an end to me being a tester for all this amazing food… but I do see me becoming much plumper as a result of it…. and I’m stoked.

On top of all this Godsend food creations, I had three Thanksgiving meals… three.
One with the family + Jed, one with my parents + Uncle Peter & Grandma, and one with Jed + friends + Europeans. The first one mainly consisted of asian take-out food because we had no time to cook anything.. still great. The second consisted of traditional Thanksgiving food.. which ruled. The third one consisted of traditional food and then some.. I want some.

To also add to my large amount of food festivities, I had some food-filled reunions. Pung-Yo with Sally and Linzie consisted of lots of booze, junk, and fajitas, and I had a great pizza date with Dianne.. that will now happen every so often.

 
So despite any of the lows that happened that month, the food & hang times definitely made up for it. Although I stress on October being such a food-filled month… just wait for December. Basically none of this will change with Jed, and throw on Christmas dinners into the mix.

FAT & FESTIVE HERE I COME!

 

 

Highlights:
+ Jed having moved out of the hostel
+ Fucked Up w/ Jed
+ Food hang times with Pung-yo & Dianne
+ Thanksgiving dinners
+ Halloween Haunt (if it weren’t for the rides & people I was with, it wouldn’t have been as fun)

Looking forward to:
+ FINISHING THIS DAMN SEMESTER. It’s the toughest we’ll ever get, and it shows
+ December & all its festivities, freedom, and $$$ earning

Young Blood – THE NAKED AND FAMOUS

September.. back to school… busy. Basically.

So busy, that I’m already at the end of October and finally found the time to post about how September was (should be working on my projects that are due in 3 days.. that I haven’t started). If September had to have a theme, I guess it would have to be reunion. I hung out with a lot of people I haven’t seen or even really talked to in months. It was especially refreshing to see friends from school again.

I’ve realized that this semester is my most difficult one yet. Difficult not because of what’s assigned, but more so the timeframe that’s given to me to complete all of the assignments. It’s a little rough, but it makes hanging out with others feel so much more worthwhile when it’s done.

I don’t know if you can tell, but I have a huge lack of interest in expressing how September was… so just look at the pictures and judge for yourself.

October has already been legit in my books. More detail into that in the next post.
Halloween is this weekend, and I’m not stoked for it at all. Hopefully whatever I end up planning changes that.

What I’m stoked for:
+ Helping Michael & Andrew with they JW design work tonight (+ pizza…)
+ Helping Jed by being his food tester & designer for his upcoming food blog
+ Halloween Haunt w/ Bianca, Justin, Jessica, Jayson, and Jed

Shampoo Suicide – BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE

Although I have a record of having super chill, and almost uneventful (with the exception of my birthday) Augusts, this month was super busy. There were only 3 days that whole month where I stayed home without having any friends over. It was probably the best August I’ve had to date.

I made it a goal to make use of every day remaining in my last month of summer vacation—boy did I succeed. I didn’t do too well in completing my goals of bike riding frequently, cooking more, or going to Montreal even once, but I did succeed in making new friendships. Thanks to Jethro for handing me over her old ID, I was able to make this summer the best yet, and form relationships with people I would not have met without the ID. I can’t even begin to fathom how my summer would have been if I didn’t end up going to these places & meeting any of these people…thank you Jethro… thank you soo….so much. (I’ve never even met you… BUT YOU’RE A SAVIOUR).

Starting Tuesday, I’ll be faced with starting up the routine of heading to & from school, and late nights spent doing work. SO STOKED!….
But in all seriousness, I guess I am a little stoked for the social aspect of school & seeing my good friends again, + learning & re-learning some new things like web design. This semester is apparently the most difficult one I’ll have to face…. which probably means no social life.
ALTHOUGH, once I kill the semester and do tremendously well, I’m sure I’ll be able to gain it back.

Photo cred (last photo on the very right): Kieran Meyn

Highlights:
+ Ribfest w/ Mikaela, Laura, Chris, Ariana
(ice-cream quest, pioneer living, croquet)
+ Bon Iver w/ Michael, David, & Dianne
(Amazing set, Michael Jordan-ed a setlist, ate at the House on Parliament)
+ Decent Exposure w/ Gillian & Hasti
(Reunited w/ CCAA folk, bubble tea, hang out @ Hasti’s)
+ Kitchener weekend w/ Adam, Anthony, & Virginia
(VV boutique,bbq pizza, karaoke, non-stop laughter..but actually)
+ Boat, booze + pizza w/ Claudia & Joei
(Free boat ride + booze, great hang time)
+ Dianne & Michael’s PERTH vintage sale
+ Jed cooking bangers n’ mash at my place
+ Mikaela’s end of summer jam
+ CNE w/ Jed, Christine, Filipe, Bianca, Justin, Jessica, Jayson, Nicole, Ruston
(Bunnies, deep-fried Kool-Aid, Native bracelet..RIP)
+ Birthday feast (no pizza.. but whatever!)
+ Karaoke at Sneaks for my birthday (no pizza again.. but whatever!)
+ CN Tower w/ Jed
(Ramen, ice-cream eats)
+ Every Tuesday at 751

My summer as a whole was a fun, emotional, and beautiful one at that.

I’ll leave the entry off with this:

Fucked Up’s David Comes To Life, has been my summer album.
This song was my summer anthem for many reasons.

Cornerstone – ARCTIC MONKEYS

July definitely outdid June.
Although it did have its flakey times, good times clearly made up for them.

I’ve started reconnecting with some people again, and meeting so many people in just under a month.
I’ve been able to really reflect on the past couple of days & realized that I’ve grown more confident in myself in just over a month.Oddly enough I can compare myself to how I was with others in May to now,
and see a difference.
…Thank you random change.

Photos: Kieran Meyn

The most repetitive questions that have crossed my mind recently, have been:
- My fear on the end of summer, and the return of major routine.
…Can I just be free to do whatever and do it in constant warm weather?! IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?!..Or at least have Summer weather for more than just 3 months.
- What to plan for my birthday? All I know so far is that I want pizza, beer, friends, and dancing to be involved. I feel like I have a ridiculous amount of people I want to come, and no place to accommodate them. Stoked to see what actually ends up happening.
- Can I already have a solid partner in crime? I want someone to do ALL of the following with: eat pizza, take photos, play video games with, nap breaks, watch movies, try new things at different places. I have best friends that do some or a majority of these things with me, but if I could meet someone who’d do all of these and not care/get bored of it.. that’d be ideal. Summer has made me realize that I’d like to do all of these.. almost all the time.. and no one to do them all with.

August has always been such a bitter-sweet month for me, but always a great time.
I’m stoked for these so far:

+ MFOY Tuesdays. I find myself spending more time talking to people then actually dancing.. and I don’t mind.

+ RIB FEST TOMORROW w/ Mikaela, Laura, Bianca, Jessica, & Christine

+ Decent Exposure comedy show

+ Pung-Yo

+ Visiting Kitchener w/ Virginia to see my dearest boys , Adam & Anthony

+ BON IVER!!!!!!!!! w/ Michael & David

+ More spontaneous nights

Highlights:

+ After parade Pride celebration w/ Virginia. CALI MOCHOS!!!!!!!

+ MFOY @ 751. I was honestly a little skeptical of having that much of a good time there… and now I go every Tuesday.

+ Jack Astors w/ Bianca, Justin, Christine, Filipe, Michael, & Andrew

+ Hanging with my CCAA boys w/ Gillian. Missed them.

+ Finally reuniting with Jake after a year. Went to see him play with Sia, with Aurora & Virginia. Hung out afterwards and met the rest of the guys,who were hilarious… and fed me Dominos.

LOOOOONG LIVE PIZZA, CALI MOCHOS, SUNNY DAYS, GOOD SPOTS & GOOD COMPANY.

The Morning – THE WEEKND

June was off. SUCH an off month.
Not only me, but a strange amount of people I knew were  also sick and felt upset for a good majority of the month. It felt like everyone was comforting each other on their problematic situations every other day.
As bitter as this month seemed, it did have its highs.

I ‘ve gotten closer to some people, met new people, and developed this soothing habit of drinking tea on my balcony late at night.
Those are enough to make me not hate June.

Thankfully July’s already been really good. Hopefully that sticks til the end of summer (..which ends so..soo soon. shit).
Highlights:

+ Work/$$$

+ Spontaneous balcony hang times w/ Dillon

+ MTV’s 1G5G 500 Fans special w/ Gillian

+ JW mock party shoot. Pizza & a bottle of wine overlooking the DVP

+ THE PHARCYDE @ DUNDAS SQUARE. So fun

+ Parts, Aji Sai, Java House, Blue Truck, Indian food

Things to look forward to:

+ 751, Parts, Sneaks as part of Hilary’s 1 month birthday celebrations

+ Pung-Yo

+ Thursday drinks

+ More dumb dancing, more pizza, more biking, and revelry

Really vibing that this month is going to be really good. CALLING IT OUT NOW… (forget that it’s already half-way through..)

May

This is as basic as it’s going to get for describing the past month:

Songs that weren’t lyrically related, but key:

 

Things to look forward to this month:

+ Starting my seasonal job at Aritzia as a stock helper (Thanks to Daria)

+ Reunion with Linzie, Sally, Nate, and David over AYCE sushi @ Aji Sai

+ Alex’s arrival back from Panama this friday

+ Pizza party w/ Michael, Andrew, and Virginia

+ Christopher’s arrival from Ireland

+ More dumb dancing, more pizza, more biking, and revelry.

+ $$$$$$$$$

Unchained Melody – AL GREEN

Finally on my summer vacation, and I still feel as though I should be working on an assignment inside of writing this entry.

It’s hard to fathom that I’m on break from school for the next 4 months! Sleeping..partying..dancing..pizza..all the time!…I need a job.

April almost felt like the longest month I’ve endured since last summer maybe.

The beginning of the 1st half of the year consisted of partying and getting that out of the way. Then consisted of working on all my final projects… then more partying in celebration that all the projects were done.

Now I find myself trying to be useful, sleeping all day or going out all day and night, having a lot of reunions, and trying to understand that I’m not traveling to L.A this summer :\ Some more Montreal trips will need to happen to semi-compensate for this loss of a trip.

Parts w/ Virginia, Alex, Michael, Brian, Andrew, Shane, & Chika:

Basically got sick.. on a streetcar.. but had way too much fun to even care. Never dull at Parts!

Cut Copy w/ Bianca:

I’ve actually anticipated this show for years. Luckily I can say it was phenomenal! Even with it being at The Sound Academy/my least favourite venue.

Milagro + Clinton’s w/ Bianca, Justin, Virginia, Alex, Yohanna, & Joey:

I’ve been to Milagro in the past w/ Michael & Andrew. I had to take these guys there to eat their heavenly Mexican food… /I was craving that way to hard not to bring them and have them crave that stuff too. We wanted to hit up a place to go dancing, so I knew about something going on at Clinton’s. Never been there before then, but it turned out really good. The DJ had a great range of songs that we were able to pop off to

London Taphouse + Sneaky Dees w/ Nate, Linzie, & Sally mostly:

Linzie won a contest to get her and her friends in for free + free appetizers @ the London Taphouse. Some dancing happened there too… but when the DJ starts playing some Justin Bieber, that’s when you leave. We ended up going to Sneaks after for about an hour. Never been there before, but it had a good vibe from what I took from it.

Other highlights:

+ Adrian’s birthday feat. lots of drinks, lots of food, candy bar, and good company

+ Michelle’s birthday & reunion @ Mr. Green Jeans

+ Thrifting in this one store Virginia & I have never been to at Kensington Market before. Got a maxi skirt, and 2 jackets

+ That one bite of birthday cake ice cream + cookie dough from Marble Slab

Things to look forward to this month: 

+ Mikaela & Laura’s birthday jams

+ The Chariot w/ Virginia

So far those are the only things set in stone. This month (and summer in general) I plan on hanging out everyday with at least one friend I haven’t hung out with in a while, or being productive at home.

Summer Goals (from the top of my head):

+ Meet lots & lots of people and form those friendships

+ Go to Montreal at least twice

+ Bike at least once every week

+ Get. a. freakin. job.

+ Finally finish decorating my room

+ Paint, draw, make beautiful creations

+ Cook more

+ Hang with the fam more

+ Practise playing drums way more than I was ever able to this year.

These aren’t hard so I have no reason not to follow through.

Something On Your Mind – KAREN DALTON

Wow. Times have been hectic lately. I’ve had so much work to complete in the last couple of weeks. School is about to break for the summer in less than 2 weeks, and things have been piling onto another. Despite all the work, I can’t even fathom that I’ll be on break for the next four months. I’m finally trying to find a job again, but I’m very serious about getting one this time around. I’m keen on traveling out of this country this year, and if that’s what I want to do I’ll have to earn myself some money.

Speaking of traveling, I’m not so sure about LA anymore. As much as I want to go, things have come up where I’m not sure if I’ll financially be able to go. If I do manage to make enough in time, maybe I’ll be able to go during the winter. Regardless if I’m going this year or not, I’m making it a goal to go at least by 2012 (…not cause of that end-of-the-world conspiracy theory).

In regards to what happened in March: It was amazing.

Montreal:

Endless drinks, great food, and hilarious times basically sum up the trip. It was such a spontaneous plan going up there, and it turned out so great.

Bianca, Justin, Christine, Alex, Jordan, Faiven, and Mikaela and I = the GOIN’ HAM FAM. Hung out with the goonz, dougie, hot KOL-look-alike waiter, poutine,  TONY VANOE, breakfast coupons, UNITY Gay club+Candy Bar+Soca Bar+Club Musique+Bluedog Motel, free cheese tasting, so…much dancing..laughing… so great. Hands down one of the best trips I’ve been on.

Talking & seeing Broken Social Scene @ New. Music. Live. on live TV:

Note: Me practically mid-stroke for being caught off-gaurd speaking live on tv

Went to see Broken Social Scene perform for free for like.. the 10th time now.. at Much Music haha.

I went with Justin and it was just an overall very weird, but fun experience!

Oh yeah, and our boy NELLY was there too ….. we had no idea he would be.

Other highlights:

+ The Chariot @ The Annex

+ Brendan and I pulling a surprise visit at Virginias (Mc.Donalds, accents, Ferris Buller, talks talks and talks, Jack Daniels, Irish dancing)

+ Sally’s birthday at 244

+ Blue Mountain/ PUNGYO FESTIVAL w/ Sally & Linzie. Super fun and super Canadian.

+ Carried out a shoot for Nathaniel/ Labels & Liqour

+ Milagro w/ Michael & Andrew. AMAZING Mexican food.

March was basically a party every weekend. April is here now, and that means Spring is coming… thank you.. thank you so much.

Some things to look forward to this month include:

+ GETTING SHIT DONE, AND DONE WELL, AND OUT OF SCHOOL … :’)

+ London Taphouse celebration with GBC crew

+ All the other parties following the end of school

+ Actual warm weather.. and more sunny days

+ Pizza celebrations

+ BIKE RIDING. BIKE.RIDING.

 

Although this first half of the month is dedicated to working so much, it’s going by fast and will bring me to the second half.. which will be unreal.

PIZZA CELEBRATIONSSSSSSSSS

Guilt of Uncomplicated Thoughts – BRIAN MCBRIDE

Have you ever listened to a song, and you can’t do anything else but listen? You try and do something else, but find yourself still and listening anyway?

I’ve been sitting around while listening to music, and it has brought me into deep thought.

+ I’m too young to not feel fully alive.

+ I find myself only truly free and radiating with joy in the Spring and Summer time.

+ I’m only hoping what I’ve gotten myself into gets resolved with what I really want.

+ I don’t know if it’s because I’m over-thinking, or that I’m actually being used for shallow reasons. Probably a bit of both.

Time can only really tell me if and when these will change. Although these may sound a tad unhappy, I’m honestly looking forward to the future.

I really do wonder what the future will bring. I find that the change and events that happen in just under a year are overwhelming. To try to even fathom what the next 5 years will bring is too much, but exciting.

This year I’m sure that a big positive change, different from the previous years, will happen.

Positively positive on the positive.