Birthdays for me in the past have been much like newyears--all this build up that leads ultimatly to disappointment. This year I felt an urge to ignore the birthday thing all together. With the number seeming so significant it seemed that it could only lead to disaterous events. The casual outlook on the day itself lead to a most enjoyable day, stress free and full of laughs. The morning started off so relaxing and decadent, with the bubble bath music and vegan pancakes. I got a few cards in the mail, and a few early morning phone calls from groggy singing family. I also received a letter from a friend, unrelated to my b-day but wonderful and sweet not the less. Work was enjoyable yes i said it enjoyable, the people were friendly and my co-worker called to say that she coudl take the evening part of the shift! A few people call me at work to say happy b-day included a call from AB all the way from BC!!!

My aunt had invited me to this reception party at the Royal York Hotel, she gave me an invitation from yale!! So sean, regan, chris and I headed down to the hotel looking very causal about to crash a party. We were interested in the free drinks and food-plus regan and I had never been to the royal york hotel before. When we got there my aunt wasn't there, but I recognize a friend of hers who she pointed out to me at the airport as we past him in our car. Luckily he was wearing a name tag and I went up to him and said "Hi Peter, I'm and Marianne LaFrance's niece, is she around her?" he hadn't seen her but declare to the whole room that "The LaFrance family was there family" and directed us towards the bar . . . my aunt did show up but we stayed longer after she left.
our souvenirs included a yale napkin and the laminated sheet outside the Alberta room that said yale reception.

The four of us went out for drinks on Queen street, then chilled in the park at bathurst and Dundas and then walked home. Over all the most pleasant unstressful b-day ever. Strange to think just one year ago, I was with sal in rome eating indian room and cruising queer bars.

a bubble bath, erica badu, blueberry vegan pancakes . . . happy birthday to me!

Girl boy pick up story hilarity:

Girl 1: she met this guy at elconvento rico, and they exchanged numbers. They went on a few dates, dinner, a walk etc. After a few times out she went back to his place. In a moment of passion, he said to her “It is large, it will please you.” She held back her laughter and shortly after had to stop and leave.

Girl 2: she met this lifeguard at her hotel pool while on vacation in Israel, she brought him back to her hotel room. When his shirt came off she noticed that he had his own name tattooed to his arm. She asked him to leave. She didn’t think she was missing much since he was a bad kisser.

Girl 3: She joined a poly group, the guy in charge of the group every month would give guidelines such as confidentiality, respect and discouraged against cruising at this space. After a few months of attending she got an email from the head of the group that read: “do you want to have sex sometime, you look like you would be fun to play with. She replied as politely as possible but the end result was NO!!!

All three of these are true, as you might have guessed girl three is me. The other two are friends of mine (or maybe you !!).

My aunt is in town, this excites me greatly. She is here for a psychologist conference at the convention centre for the rest of the week. I asked her what she is working on now and she said a chapter in a book on psychology and gender. She is also working on a paper on smiles and how women reaction to sexual harassment. Yeah! This aunt is a prof. at Yale doing work in the psychology and women studies department and she is queer! Yes you could say that she is a role model for me. When ever she is in town ever since we were little kids we all fight for her attention, she was the fun aunt, the aunt that wasn’t all parent like and domestic. She traveled the world and did great things. I’m not sure if we just wanted to be near her or if we wanted to be her.

The way we relate to her hasn’t changed all that much, we still gravitate to sit next to her at family dinners. We still want to hear about what she is up too. And we still want to share with her what we have been doing. The one thing that has changed is that the things that me, my bro and my cousins do and think about are now very in line with what she does and thinks about so we can have real conversations instead of just screaming look at me look at me!!! We have travel to the same places (oh course our trips are much more budget then hers).

I think the money thing is one thing that separates us, and may always separate us. She made a joke about the field I’m going into that I will be poor and unhappy. We will have different ideas of happiness. Even though she is self proclaimed lefty and does good work. Much of her life was about making it, becoming established, making money, having the best of everything, buying the second home etc. Well that’s just not the route that I’m taking. I would like to be able to take vacations and travel the world and I would like to not have to worry where my next rent check is coming from. But in terms of making money those are my only aspirations. I don’t need a huge house, or the best kitchen appliances, or expensive clothes etc. I want to stay a lefty but a different kind of lefty.

But this difference wont’ stop me from sitting next to her at my b-day lunch laughing with her and picking her brain.

yesterday was the day filled with good news and fun toys. I found out that I got into residence, I feel so relieved. Althougth I know I will want to get out of rez adn never look back by the end, this always my first 8months of living in Dublin to be much less full of worry. I will have high speed internet, my own bathroom and shower(which is actually a big deal, I found out most apartments or houses have baths and no showers). I will have my own room, which is again a big deal, many dublin apartments, in my price range, are double rooms - meaning that you share with someone else. The rez that I got into is specifically for post grads, they are six bedroom apartments with shared kitchens and living spaces, single rooms that each have there own bathrooms. I have never lived with 5 other people before, lets cross our fingers that it works out, and I don't get an evil roommate like the last one.

As for the toys, it was major capitalist comsumerism day yesterday. I got my laptop back which I took in last week to get fixed. The screen was dark, and it was inconstant if it would come clear or not. They took my hard drive and put it into a similar laptop, every thing was the same but instead of getting a P3-900 I got a P3-850, I don't think that I will notice a difference and I got $35 back. Then I headed over to MEC where I had a $100 gift certificate, I got myself a back pack, similar to sals but it is the new model with a big more space. My mom was with me and she bought me a rain coat for my birthday. I got one of the infamous mec biking rain coats with the reflective strips. I'm going to look so canadian!! That reminds me that regan gave a canadian flag patch to put on my back pack and kevin gave me a huge canadian flag. I figure that a toga party will happen at some point where I can where the flag ;) I have never been all about the flag and displaying it while traveling. Sal and I poke fun at each other since he is all about displaying the canadian flag and I refused up this point. But things have changed and I will be away from this country for two years so I'm sure to want to embrace canada, and I will have th urge to represent. If only toronto had a cool flag like newyork I could sport that on my bag! Its not that I don't love it here because I really do, it just that I have always been anti-nationalist and wearing or carrying the flag seemed way to patriotic for me.

After our mec adventure, we drove over to henry's. I was there the week before looking at cameras. I decided that since I was going away I wanted to get a digital camera so I can email photos to friends and put up photos on line. At the main store they had this camera that had been used in a commercial and therefore was went from $450 down to $350. And my dad had given me $400 for grad to buy a camera. This one is so cute, it is supper small, and has a piviting lens. I had to buy more memory cuz it came with only 8mb which seems to be the norm but is rediculous since that only takes 7-10 photos. It is a Nikon COOLPIX2500 . . .

off to play with my new toys . .

Ok I lost another post yesterday, this is getting really frustrating, yesterdays post included a countdown of important events adn annoyance with insurance companies.

the countdown included
5 weeks till I leave the country
4 days till I turn a quater of a centry
1 day till I find out about residence
1 hour till sk gets home . . . . all of these number work as of yesterday morning

the the annoyance with insurance companies is that I am now waiting an a guy to come and take a signed interview about the bike accident. Althoght it was initially a blessing that my mom was there the day of the accident, now I have to deal with pesky insurance claims. If she wasn't there she would have never gave them her insurance information and the event would have been over that day. I have already had to give two over the phone accounts about what happened that day, and now I will have to give a more detailed account when this guy shows up. I just want to scream and saying I'm ok, shes ok, my bikes ok, no one is going to sue anyone, so just leave us allone!!!

today is the day I find out about rez. maybe, they are sending out letters today, which means in a week I will receive a letter letting me know. My impatient ass emailed the cooridnator of the rez and asked if I could get an email as to the status of my application, crossing my fingers . . .

my bro brought over my pay check yesterday when he came for dinner, they are still being sent to my old apartment. I hadn't called about the change of address because I didn't want to bring any attention to the fact that they have been over paying me. I was quite happy with the difference in pay and was planning a trip to bc with my cousin and her baby to visit my other cousin with the extra cash. While I was there I was going to visit a friend from Italy and AB is there with her partner. I was also going to go see bjork *dreamy island bjork* When I opened my paycheck there was a sticking note that said:

As you may have noticed there is a payrate error on your paycheque. I would like to let you know that there will ve an adjustment on your next paycheque. Thank you MJ

well that means $100 less a week and they were going to dock the extra money they gave me from my last paycheck, so no vancouver, no bjork :( damn it, my mom asked me when I told her that they figured out there mistake and they were going to take back the money if I had any moral objections to not informing them. NO! sorry but no, its not like it was a small company or individual people that were being affected my the few extra dollars. this company has so many hands it took four weeks for them to realize that they made a mistake.

oh well, off to give my report to the insurance guy