A Lesson in Laughs

Today my public speaking prof gave an official lecture on how to be entertaining. She outlined different types of humor on the board and gave us examples of each. Never knew being funny could be so formal.

If anyone can give a lecture on being funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-ap5Fp2T6c

Been watching Ethan Hawke's Hamlet in English. Soo awesome. How come out of the 5 versions of Hamlet Mrs ouellette showed us this one never made the cut? it makes hamlet sexy;) mmm ethan hawke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YHMYkUrV7A

Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It sNOO

so there i was in english absent mindedly staring out the window when- noo,is that? are those little white flakes? yes, yes ladies and gentlemen it was snowing. november 5th and the snow has begun- the white fluffs were coming down in all their glory. it was quite amusing to witness the people outside scurrying to find shelter.
it hasnt snowed since but after being informed waterloo is in 'the snow belt of ontario' i figure it's only a matter of time. oh well i bought myself a cute polar bear snow hat, or tuque? i've been learning all these canadian phrases people in windsor apparently pass by. the majority are actually quite annoying. im sure ive blogged about 'pASStah' before...
anyways its a quiet weekend here at south e. everyone went back home, or on a spontaneous trip to montreal. hopefully the lack of distractions will able me to finish- *ahem start*- my essay. so far i've managed to waste most of the day though so who knows. for the curious i will probably be returning either the 4th,5th,or 6th of december and be around for a couple of days before i leave again to write my exams.

Song Recommendations:
1. tickle me pink- johnny flynn
2. hello seattle- owl city
3. never had nobody like you- m.ward ft zooey deschanel
4. send me on my way- rusted root *its from matilda:)
and, of course,
5.let it snow- frank sinatra

movie recommendations:
1.darjeeling unlimited
2.turtles can fly
3.saved!

until next time

'A' Philosophy Quote

So i just got back my first philosophy essay. It was a product of 4 hours of work and a quick dash through the rain to hand it in right before the deadline. Some how my hard work garnered me an 'A'. Here's just one of the insightful thoughts I touched upon...

"The possession of a soul is the reason we live on a higher playing field than those stupid geese that rely purely on animal instinct. It keeps us subject from the cold fatalism of the physical world and allows us to escape mortality, because unlike those stupid geese that will just disappear one day, our souls will live on. We are invincible!"

The word combination of 'stupid geese' really secured my mark I guess. The Rocky sounding 'We are invincible' was found to be quite deep as well... Also managed to reference tuna fish sandwiches twice.

Smelt My Home for the First Time

Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to. ~John Ed Pearce

Holidays have that way of bringing you back. Not just back to the physical homestead like in my case but they bring memories too. Snuggling up on the same old couch with the fire blazing and the movie on the same way you did when you were 5,10, and 15. Holidays have some sort of constant about them, same meal with the same people in the same place. That's why when someone dies its the roughest during the holidays, the constance is disturbed, its tainted. The memories flood back like normal but they don't bring a safety they bring sorrow.

Today was the first day I've really appreciated the holidays since I was probably 11 or 12. Once my family started getting smaller and the magic of santa and the easter bunny had vanished so did my appreciation for the holidays. It was basically the same as every other day of the year with the same people in the same place. I no longer wanted to be surprised with presents I stressed about my parents deviation from my prepared list. But now that I've been gone, and its only been a month so far, I've returned home with a new thankfulness. I longed for my room, my books, my ugly but comfy clothes, sitting at the dinner table with a bednight bowl of miniwheats, watching jay leno with my mom, my music (with a roommate listening to music is a whole different game), CHEESE!, cheese and crackers... i didn't even realize how much my body ached for this familarity until I walked through my door. Strangest thing, when i walked through my door I smelt my house for the first time. you know how when you visit a person's house and it has a specific smell and how you were always convinced your house didnt smell like anything even after your friends told you otherwise. well i smelled my house today and it smelt like home:) just being with my family has been a nostalgia trip, events as recent as the summer already have that nostalgic air to them after being in a completely different world for a month. i hadn't really experienced any homesickness but when i saw my mom and sister jump of of the car screaming my name friday night i realized that i did miss them, yes even carly. i'm now looking forward to the same meal with the same people in the same place. i am finally thankful for that constance.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

(sorry to my lactose intolerant readers, it was a bit cheesy)
(what? i dont have to be sarcastic alll thee timme)

Can't Escape My Past

Spotted: Trevor roaming around campus munching on a bag of chips, hair blowing in the wind...

Also walked through a block through the pouring rain to visit Katie and the windsor girl's soccer team. I played soccer with katie since we were 8 years old on acucaps industry's unlimited now there she is all grown up and playing uni soccer:) felt like a proud mom...a proud mom that also felt a tinge of envy. for the first time was regretful about not playing uni soccer, o well. btw windsor and waterloo ended up tying 4-4, not sure where my loyalities lie on that topic.

i've learned my blog title couldnt be more fitting for living in waterloo since it rains every day here. even this self proclaimed rain lover is growing tired of wet jeans and snuffy noses.

note: living in close quarters with 50 other ppl is great for cold and flu season, pretty sure im on my third round of this same cold. its oh so cute how everyone keeps infecting one another.

in other news, 100 on my first english assignment- apparently i really grasped the underlying meaning of little red riding hood (its all about sex and death people-everything is about sex and death)
wrote my first midterm for economics on friday and i think it went really well. wasn't sure about 3 questions but other than that supa easy so hopefully i 90'd that shit up

watched freedom writers and cried, now i want to be the inspiring english teacher to gang kids and drug lords. but seriously good movie, and seriously good potential occupaysh

went to sobeys, felt super adultish and important buying my own mini wheats and milk:)

right now im currently procrastinating reading riddley walker. heres an excerpt:

"He done the reqwyrt he ternt and stood anf clattert his teef and made his rush and there we wer then"

This is what literature is meant to be....
-Anthony Burgess

i don't know who this anthony character is but someone send him some better books!
oh and in case you didn't figure it out, reqwyrt is required

that is all
see you all at thanksgiving!!
xoxo vanessa girl

The Laundry Conundrum

co⋅nun⋅drum [kuh-nuhn-druhm]
–noun
1. a riddle, the answer to which involves a pun or play on words, as What is black and white and read all over? A newspaper.
2. anything that puzzles

ok so doing laundry wasn't a conundrum a at all, i just thought it'd make a good title. well on second thought it was a little bit puzzling. let me tell you all about it...

so i put off doing laundry as long as i possibly could until i found myself wearing sweat pants and a white shirt with a navy bra underneath. it was time. so i sorted my clothes into lights and darks and put the whites into a white bag and the darks in a dark bag (to avoid confusion) (ok upon opening the bags i would know which are darks and light, regardless...). i grabbed my ultra surf laundry detergent some frabic softener sheets and bravely headed over to the laundramat. there i was standing alone before all new territory, i let the drama of the situation take me over and i continued to stand in the doorway staring at the machines for a good three minutes. i found two good washing machines, carefully poured a cup of detergent in each, threw in my clothes and hoped for the best. i washed my clothes swish around, is anyone looking at my underwear? o well they're sexy underwear anyway. after 15mins of watching my clothes circulate i got bored. know what the best way to cure boredom is- read economics of course(L) so as my clothes finished self cleaning themselves i read about production possibility curves, opportunity cost, and 1848 (the year america came of age). economics>poptarts, not to mention studying it will make you rich.
-interrupt this blog for an important news bulletin-
apparently this guy on my floor richard has found my blog. lets make him feel uncomfortable.

hmm the recent news bulletin has thrown me off my game. ok i'll try to resume. since i wasn't in the mood to be environmentally friendly i opted for the dryer instead of the clothesline. FUN FACT: you dont have to seperate colours while drying clothes. Yes, buck saved!

-omg richard just quoted me

so then my clothes were dry and smelling nice. Laundry 0 Vanessa 1. victory!

since i never update, other interesting tidbits

-saw ill scarlett, was right i mean RIGHT infront of the lead singer, he took my hand and held it up for an awkward amount of time. i let go cause it was an awkward amount of time. met them after, got autographs and pics.

-english prof references gilmore girls first day of class, great way to make a good first impression

-had a floor tea party

-floor movie night: Slappy and the Stinkers (youtube that shit)

-won soccer scholarship HELL YA

that is all

The Adventure Continues

Just got back from my first day of classes- well class in my case. Today I only had a 20 minute introductory philosophy course so it was a nice easy way to make the transition from frosh week to actual school.

A recap of the second half of frosh week goes as follows:

Thursday was Monte Carlo night. The girls all wore cocktail dresses and the boys nice button up shirts. It's tradition for the engineering frosh to dye themselves purple (why? God only knows...), the purple skin went great with the red, yellow, and black outfits. That of course is a joke. It looked ridic. Monte Carlo was a lot of fun. There were casino games up stairs giving birth to my newfound roulette addiction. Roulette is the game when you guess where the ball is going to land on the spinning wheel. I swear I should go pro. This one guys spins were so predictable it was barely a gamble. Damn Miss blondie took the shift over and she was less dependable but it was still fun. The blackjack tables were intense, in a school of all mathies I'm sure you can imagine, but I held my own and made some "money". Hopefullythe festivities won't turn me into one of those crazies that wear diapers to the casino so they don't have to leave there slots for a pee break. There was also a dance that was crazy and sweaty. I touched my friends tie and IT was soaked. A tie! They don't even have direct contact to the body. After some dancing and stuff we went downstairs to the bomber to watch some local bands play. They were great. Very unique too, a drummer was also the singer in one band. Another incorporated a trumpet player, the keyboard, and had two singers: a guy and a girl.

Friday was a very interesting day. All week we had been doing group activities with our facaulty- I was a Chocolateer. We were supposed to wear the same brown shirt all week to the events but I didn't want to put on a sweaty shirt twice so instead I wore normal clothes and made myself a badge identifying myself. When I say badge I mean a crude piece of paper with "team chocolate" scribbled across it. Underneath I wrote in brackets "not team brown". I arrived late that day, without a shirt so it came as quite the surprise when I was so warmly greeted. The frosh leaders saw my badge and started dying of laughing giving me high-fives all over the place. They continued to bring up the badge well into the week. Hilariously enough this lead to my honourable mention as a Super Frosh aka most spirited. Yes the girl who wasn't even spirited enough to wear her frosh day shirt won an award. lol:) Later that night I went on a wild goose hunt for parties. The first was behind some random trees so I guess that means I have now went to a bush party. After I wandered around Waterloo with some people I had just met to this random house party. Five minutes after arriving the police came and broke it up. I always imagined police breaking up a party to be the big scary thing, but they basically just casually strolled about and I casually left. So that was that day.

*remember all spelling mistakes are artistic expression;)
The next morning I was awokened to people banging on my door to go to the football game. I donned my best black and gold (a black tshirt, jeans, and yellow headband) and headed on over. It was quickly made evident that Waterloo is an academic school- the football team, not so great. It was still fun though. That night was the toga party. I had planned to wear Brittney's halloween costume but everyone was just wrapping their bedsheets so I followed suit. My toga was pink and I pimped it out with a black belt so I was looking pretty kickin. Someone took pics so I'm sure you will all seen soon enough;). The toga party was another dance. I've never been much of a go to dance kinda girl but I'm getting used to it now. I'd even go so far as saying they're *gasp* enjoyable.

Well that wraps up frosh week. It was a lot of fun- so fun I'm considering being a frosh leader next year. Hmm maybe I'm more spirited than I think. That's all for today. I'm off for some tea and philosophy.

The Uni Adventure Begins

Water, Water, Water! Loo, Loo, Loo!
(a sampling from supreme school chant)
-clearly these are the minds behind the top university in canada

Well it's day 3 atmy new school, my new home. I had planned to update this daily but being crazy busy and having internet problems (not being able to connect to facebook is a high on the tragic scale) but no fret here I am now. Hopefully I can remember all the details...
Well move in day was very exciting. As soon as we pulled up on campus a couple student leaders rushed the car and pulled me out. I had to go sign some papers while my parents waited in the long move in line. I was the second to arrive in my room, but I learned even if I was the first I still wouldn't have gotten my side cause it's assigned to you. Lol who knew? My parents and Carly quickly helped me move in,we then went for a final lunch at East Side Marios. After I said bye to the fam I didn't know what to do with myself. My roommate was at a rugby tournament, my internet wasn't hooked up, and I didn't know anyone to hang around with. Luckily, my lonesome aimless wandering was soon cut short. A girl in my res had her door open so I asked her for internet help and viola new friend. Quickly and effortlessly I got to know the majority of people on my floor. Everyone's fairly friendly and since we were all in the same boat random introductions were common and praised.

On Monday the rest of the freshmen moved in so we had a giant icebreaker event outside. Omg I have never seen so many teenagers. They told us the number of undergraduates but of course I don't recall- it was a lot though. One of the interesting things was when the Waterloo president asked the ensemble of freshmen "Who here is from another country?" close to an astonishing 50% stood up! On my floor alone we have Pakistan,China, Austrailia, and India represented. The icebreaker games while lame were pretty fun but there was a distressing chaotic event that I will rehash. At one point the freshmen, who were all in a giant circle were asked to run to the middle for a high five type thing? I dunno why but the premise sounded amusing- it totally was until, well have you ever seen a domino's fall. Ya well picture domino's as giants and the last domino as me. Someone slipped and people by the dozen were falling backwards. I made it out alive but sadly Brittney's gold shoe did not. My leg also got cut? and started bleeding. As we were walking back to residence I was telling my catastrophic experience to a friend theguy walking behind my stepped on the good shoe and it broke!! painful irony! Brittney I will replace your shoes and I determined to still let them shine their light at the toga party. I went to my first university party Monday as well and let me tell you how glamorous they are! Well picture a room about the size of mine downstairs,maybe a littlee longer. Now picture about 30 so teenagers dancing like maniacs on hopping on beds tossing a glow in the dark Jesus statue around the room chanting the Lord's name (ok so maybe I was one of the kids) Sound like a typical Evangelical mass? Knda except I think the Jesus chanting may *possibly* have been in vain (vane?) and I think this crowd had a little more in than than some holy wine... Oh and strobe lights, I don't think they have those either. But ya,it was surprisingly fun once you got passed the claustrophobia and stench. Funny and interesting side note: the walls and ceiling were wet to the touch from the breathing and sweat. yum.

That leads us up to today, I seem to have finally figured out the internet (knock on wood). Today I had my ARTS orientation and I loved it. The speeches the ARTS chairmen and graduate students gave were inspiring and comforting. It's nice to know there truly is a place in the world for the arts and soft skills like communication and leadership are employer top demand. But enough about that, the arts day was really fun. I was on team chocolate (we are NOT team brown) and our leaders were truly that. They were the usual annoying peppy people, I really thought the embodied the different types of arts people at their best. They were friendly, funny, and very intelligent. Highlights from the arts activities were learning a dance to "burning on the dance floor", free lasagna lunch, free giftbag, and one of the leaders *Fin- think flambouyant, hilarious short harry pottery looking asian. He was such a doll that I am for the first time ever using the expression doll.

Misc Things I've Learned
-girls don't need to buy their own alcohol, guys will happily supply
-geese attack
-don't wear flipflops to mosh-like pits
-what it's like to be a minority
-the real meaning of "asian invasion"
-being from windsor is cool
-cedar point is a "have you ever been to cedar point" not an obvious duh
-foam parties are not universally held in cities

Over the last 3 days I thought of a million funny things to say in this but they are escaping me now. Sorry for the boring review, hopefully their will be better ones to come lol

Super Long Second Post

my family and neighbours organized an end of the year cedar point trip so today brittney, jacob, other jacob, and myself spent the day roaming around the amusement park.

Some highlights include:

1) The Buffet, all the choices laying before your eyes makes even the most typical how-many-calories-in-that-girl transform into a gorging beast. Never have i wished so hard to have a hunger unquenchable by the first plate. btw what kind of sick people decided that foods like pizza, tacos, cake, and chinese would be fitting for a roller coaster park? sadist bastards.

2)I (heart) CP shirt- cause even after serious thought i couldn't rationalize CP= Cedar Point. yes, a brighter moment of mine. thanks brittney for putting me out of my misery.

3)Mean Streak- i don't care what you all say there's nothing better than a rickety, head thrashing wooden roller coaster.

4)Demise of Bird- ok maybe so maybe 'highlight' is a questionable word when regarding death but it certainly was one of the most memorable moments of the trip. Basically, while on the maverick poor unsuspecting tweety came a flying and good ole maverick was a chargin and SPLAT (yes, the sound effect was necessary) little birdie crashed into the girl two carts ahead of us, preceded to ricochet off jacob's cart and collide to my seat where it fell to its untimely death. now aren't you glad i shared that story :). All fooling aside it was pretty traumatic adding unnecessary rouse to an already white knuckle ride.

5)Being “Rebels” while posing for our 'on the ride pics'. Guy at millennium force picture counter- lighten up friend, wait till your at least 75 before you start the cynical old man act. Unnecessary attitude and threats for a teenage boy sticking up his middle finger only adds fuel to the fire. Immature? Yes. Slightly funny? ;)
-“i CANNOT sell you that picture because of what your friend is doing AND if he does it again he will be kicked out of the park!” (insert awkward neck jut)
-“you inconsiderate asshole, he only has one finger!”
(...maybe funny?)(...at the time)

6)Petting Zoo- real life farmville:) i pet a nice little sheep (note: sheep's wool is not flammable because of lack of oxygen in the wool*)

7) Dragster for the first, second, and third time ever

*heard this little tidbit at a soccer party so if i heard wrong i'd rather live in ignorance than have it brought to my attention

Warning annoying analogy ahead, precede with caution:

what i learned about rides is that the scariest part is the wait. I nearly psyched myself right out of going on the dragster. thankfully my friend looked me in the eye told me i was going to do it and not only that i would live to tell the story. The closer we got to the front of the line the higher my anxiety grew. Finally, I was locked to my seat and there was no turning back. Waiting for the headlight's count down was almost unbearable. Funnily enough when the third light switched on and I was being thrust forward at a bajillion (point 8 to be exact) miles per hour I felt a sense of relief. Yes, the actually ride was the more calming of the experience. Was the thing fast as hell, did it go up 420 feet in the sky at a 90 degree angle? Yup. But it was the waiting, the pause before the drop, the rise before the fall that did me in every time. The actual rides were fast, and bumpy, and fun making the fight with pre-ride stress attacks worthwhile every time. So what are you trying to get at Vanessa? Well clearly this is my motivational transition to university speech, rehatching the very cliché “life is a ride” metaphor. (analogy? I dunno. good thing my major is english) So basically, what I'm trying to say is don't spend all your time stressing about what's to come because you will just get yourself all worked up for nothing. Even though university is going to be crazy, fast-paced, and (wait for it) have it's ups and downs, it's going to be fun. There's no point in worrying about things to come- just jump right in and try to make the experience a worthwhile one. I'll finish with a quote by Travis McCoy because he's really sexy and it kinda relates so I'm grabbing the opportunity.

So take a step back
And a breath in
Let it out now
Put your chin up
You can do it tiger
You a [wo]man now
And in your dream it's time to do the best you can now

Epic First Post

'Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns'- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Well i've finally done it. after years of intently following random strangers lives through these things i've opened myself up for the dissecting and created my very own blog. me leaving home and venturing off to uni in (...checks clock-2:08) !7 days! has been the push to the incarnation of 'rainy days and vampire sandwiches'. new beginnings, new blog, and hopefully new adventures worth telling. Now before we begin my little blogstalkers (sounds like gobbstoppers..hiya willy wonka) some things worth noting:

save face 1: any grammatical/punctuation mistakes i make are purely for artistic value
save face 2: no i will not capitalize- im like ee cummings that way

purpose 1: to keep those less fortunate updated on my every thought + experience (warning: most of my experiences only take place in the aforementioned)
purpose 2: expose my soul to the world wide web
purpose 3: attain the ability to stay dedicated to an undertaking

goals:
@be entertaining
2. honest
c. and less wordy (...i have a long way to go)