in other news, school trucks on. in exactly one month i’ll be done with these courses and i can start fresh with another semester. the end of the term is going to be a whirlwind of papers and assignments, who knew that two courses could produce THIS MUCH WORK. i guess there is a reason mcgill only asks you to take 2 to 3 courses per term and suggests you don’t work while taking 3 courses. next term i have three classes but my job will have hopefully died down somewhat.

in yet other news, i want to start a kind of vegetarian restaurant listing for montreal. they seem to be few and far between and rarely updated. now the only question is, where do i host such a thing?

its friday. its less-friday than usual because i have to work this weekend, but friday none the less. back in toronto, i used to get rather excited for fridays to roll around because it meant i could don jeans to work for “casual fridays”. in montreal, every day is casual friday because we have an office of 3 (on a good day) so there is no one to impress. no client/vendor visits. casual fridays here would involve pyjamas and slippers, i suspect. don’t tempt me.

it has been a good month since we spoke last. some highlights include:

-i went to chicago for a work trip but it was my first visit to that city and i got to meet up with a family friend and her new baby/see a bit of chicago. nice place!
-i went to toronto and calgary for work too. tiring and fun.
-i successfully pulled off chana masala and made ange’s tummy very happy
-i also finally figured out why the cookies that i was making for ange were little hard nuggets of hate: i was using half the prescribed butter. apparently one stick is only half a cup. now that this has been corrected, they have turned out to be melt-in-your-mouth goodness. (Side anecdote: Ange tried to make the cookies on Saturday while I was still in Cowtown, and texted me to report that the dough was impossible to work with. turns out she didn’t read the butter package either. oops! they still tasted good, even if the texture [like my previous versions] was that of biscotti left on the back porch in January for 4 days prior to consumption)

but it hasn’t all been about me!
-Vivek came to visit and play a show in the village. it was great to have him couch surf for a couple of days.
-Nadia and Melissa also came to visit and we, par for the course, laughed more in one night than most laugh in 4 months.
-Ange completed another paper and got an A on her first paper!
-We saw Final Fantasy and I fell asleep during his set. I kid you not. Wonder how one gets tested for narcolepsy.

what else? we are truckin along.. I can’t believe its november 9th. where have the last 2 months gone? its almost christmas. I told Ange that as soon as the clock struck November 1st I was going to start decorating but I realise now that plan is a bit silly. I’ll leave it until November 15th, then its ho-ho-ho all over the plateau. look out world, tinsel is coming!

for example, veggie shepherd’s pie has been a big hit (and we will be eating it for weeks to come), whereas the zucchini casserole, not so much, thanks to uncooked rice.

this week we are going to try 2 new recipes:
-spaghetti with”farmhouse sauce”
-polenta pizza

I must say, I am the most excited for the polenta pizza for two reasons: 1. its fun and different to have a polenta crust and 2. i have never ever made polenta. finger’s crossed!

I am going to tackle apple crumble this weekend, and let it be a pre-cursor to apple pie. and ange and I are, in the process, going to gain thirty-five pounds each, i suspect. but OMG it will be worth it!

i exclusively spent the time with various family members in exotic locales such as brampton, niagara falls, and welland. i spent most of the time with my brother and my folks in brampton.

my mom and i spent saturday night sitting out by the fire pit with a few drinks. we talked for hours. topics included how smart i was a child, the game show network, and being back in school. at one point in the evening, my mom took a couple minutes to talk about anxiety/worrying all the time. i clearly inherited these traits from her (whether it was nature or nurture, this is the end result).

she told me i had to stop worrying so much. she told me to enjoy my life. it felt slightly tv sitcom-like but also incredibly awesome and important to hear my mom telling me these things. she doesn’t really understand my choices or my life, but she reminded me that i only have one shot at life and that i should do whatever makes me happy and to “spend what you got”. it’s clear, not only, that my mom is getting weird in her old age (i say this in jest) but that she’s been thinking about me and about life in general in a way that i never gave her credit for before. it’s strange but incredibly gratifying to recognize how our relationship has evolved to one between two adults rather than adult and child.

meanwhile, i’m reminded that the more things change the more they stay the same. my dad and i argued about politics and my mom is sending lauren and i back to montreal with homemade lasagna!

september has been an overwhelming month but i feel slightly better prepared (perhaps even rejuvenated) and ready to get down to the business of ENJOYING myself again.

- i started off friday morning by listening to the new weakerthans album, which lauren pre-ordered for me and surprised me with on thursday night!
- the weather cooperated nicely on saturday and sunday. a perfect fall day!
- we bought a ton cheap produce and lauren cooked two fabulous meals. sunday’s veggie shepherd pie is a brand new favourite for me!
- she baked cookies.
- i put the finishing touches on an apron and fixed a pillow, sewing it all by hand!
- we went to a party on saturday night even though we were feeling shy and homebody-ish. we’re going to make some new friends if it kills us!
- we wandered around mile end with an old zine friend (and new montreal friend? i hope!), discovered a record store only accessible from a back alley and an amazing graphic novel/comic store!

and things will just keep getting better:
- lauren is going out with a potential new friend tonight!
- we are going to see final fantasy this thursday with a couple new friends we made a couple weeks ago.
- we are going back to toronto this weekend. sadly, i don’t think i’ll see any of my friends but i’ll see my family! and maybe get to meet one of my cousins (first cousin once removed [see cousin definition]) for the first time ever.
- a trip to ikea is in our near future!

this week has started off more with a cough than a roar, thanks to a bug i managed to pick up last week and have since transmitted to ange (note to ange: sorry!) . in fact, i am coughing as we speak. its miserable. we are misery embodied, and there is no one to take pity on us. except perhaps half the street that can see into our apartment when the drapes are open.

the neat thing about this city is that everything is narrower. we all live in closer proximity. the wide boulevards of Toronto? nothing near. this is a city of front terraces and cobblestones. i won’t even start on what the implications are for the automobiled set, i will simply focus on how it can make all of our meals, conversations, movie-watchin and cookin time the whole neighbourhood’s business. while that is kinda creepy from a privacy point of view, it somehow makes me feel safer. I know it makes ange worry that potential thieves will be granted easy access to the smokin hot television, but thats why we lock the triple paned sliding door.

exhibit a: last week i was puttering around in the office when i heard a very loud, very close crash. my first thought? hope someone isn’t trying to steal my car! so i padded out onto the balcony, forgetting completely i was decked out in powder pink patterned pajama bottoms, to investigate further. so did half the neighbourhood. people filled all terraces, front porches and the sidewalks for a 2 block radius. turned out someone smashed the front door window of the apartment building next door. it was just so neat to see the congregation of people, looking out to see what happened, and ostensibly lookin’ out for the neighbourhood.

petty criminals, beware!

in other news, ange has been working hard at school. she turned in her first paper sunday evening. i have NOT been working hard at school; instead i am filling up my days with work, some travel, shopping for produce and watching way too many documentaries, for better or for worse. for example, last night – i tossed and turned and couldn’t sleep, so i finally got up and went to doze in front of the boob tube for awhile. instead of dozing i got sucked in by this doc on host clubs in osaka japan. 2 hours later….. the lesson learned would be to tune in exclusively to… ummm… the french real estate network next time.

1. real vegetarian poutine (if you ignore the possible presence of rennet in cheese curds) at ma’am bulduc
2. jean talon farmer’s market is huge! the produce is cheap and plentiful! i’d say the prices are at least half of what they are at provigo (loblaws to the ontarians) and everything is fresher, more natural looking, and also plain old tastier! i am so thrilled that montreal manages to support three thriving farmer’s markets. it makes me feel so godo1
3. fair trade coffee from santropol, i was already familiar with their delicious sandwiches but we found out that you can buy fair trade coffee to brew at home for a price better than what we ever found in toronto!
4. the midnight kitchen is a student service that serves completely vegan lunches for a $2 donation. it is truly a complete meal, with protein, grains, veggies and/or fruits, and i hear includes dessert! i haven’t been able to make it yet but i’m looking forward to checking it out.
5. an organic fruit/veggie box on campus, once it gets too cold/busy/snowy for us to frequent jean talon market i think we’ll subscribe. we hear there may be even cheaper fair trade coffee available there so i need to check that out, too!

in other news, lauren and i had our official celebration of our two year anniversary last night and it included fancy vegan thai food at chu chai followed by games of trouble, checker, and backgammon! i also danced lauren around out apartment and sang phranc songs to her (yes, i was slightly tipsy). originally we had intended to explore some mile end bars but we were both feeling like a cozy night in. it was totally worth it!

now, i need to get to work!

i am working from home today as my office is overrun, and it is very quiet and wonderful here, although i am a touch disappointed with the pain au chocolat (chocolatine?) i acquired for breakfast. it was chewy. nothing related to croissants should equal chewy. that is one patisserie i won’t be returning to. but how lovely to have dozens of patisseries close at hand – fresh baguettes are absolutely unheard of in toronto. and epiceries! oh my goodness. there are little grocery shops on every corner. its delightful. produce, produce everywhere!

the only massive downside to the city is the morning show on cbc radio. it is HORRIBLE. it makes a rather pleasant morning commute feel awful. must.. start..downloading..podcasts!

we managed to get out last night for drinks with another couple who is new in town. that was fun, and it was kind of interesting to learn of others’ experience at being newbs in a new city, etc. it feels like it should be a much harder adjustment than it is. i guess both ange and i dove into life here pretty quickly – her with school and me with work, etc. no time to sit around feeling homesick, essentially. ask me again how this is going a month from now.

oh, and its our 2 year anniversary today. swoon.

earlier today i rediscovered a great little brunch/lunch place about 4 minutes from our place (which will make lauren happy since i’m a little hard to please when it comes to brunch and she LOVES brunch). today i also suffered a slight electric shock from hooking up our dryer to the large 220v electric plug and then our landlord came (nicest man, ever) to fix us up right. as soon as we buy laundry detergent, we’ll be ready to do some laundry. i’m extremely excited about that.

it’s hard to imagine we’ve only been here 7 days (we arrived around 2pm last saturday to an almost fully moved in apartment, thanks to my dad and brother) because we/i’ve been busy between unpacking, spending time on campus, starting my RA job, etc.

other highlights/lowlights:
+ our friend denise helping us move in, unpack boxes, and hang curtains!
+ enjoying some veggie poutine twice in the week we’ve been here.
- submitting a timesheet for 5 hours of work at a ridiculously low hourly rate (my hourly rate hasn’t been this low since the last time i was in university over three years ago!)
- both my classes being cancelled during the first week. kind of sucks.
+ lauren picking me up and dropping me off at school a couple times week.
+ always having someone at home to talk about my day with. and having someone to make me lunches in the morning. (lauren is the sandwich master!).
+ the awesome cross-breeze in our apartment.

as you can see, the positives outweigh the negatives.

several times since we’ve moved here, as lauren and i have been wandering around the neighbourhood, we’ve said to each other: “i still can’t believe we LIVE here.” really, i can’t imagine a better neighbourhood to live in. i love and miss toronto, but i am thrilled to be able to live here for at least a couple of years (and who knows what will happen after that).