.two days til freedom

Listening to colourblind, by counting crows, and dreaming of Thursday night, when my academic misery will pause to open up to blue skies and watching Amelie. Currently waiting for paint to dry on a major section of my final painting....trust me, I'm kicking myself for making the painting 5 feet by 5 feet. There's an essay, some journals, a music test, a photo project, and a painting to do. But soon, the stress I've been feeling will abate, and I can sleep without guilt, work without other obligations, and chill with my friends and do some painting (without a loaded deadline held to my skull).

On happier notes, I've been practicing poi til my wrists hurt, picking up new moves fast. I can swing them behind my back now. I keep hitting the ceiling in my room though. I'm hoping to be skilled enough for fire by summer. Though I just practiced and I tangled them a few times. Well, it's only been a week.

Oh, and I recieved a cordial invitation to the Office Christmas party. Hah! office. Christmas. Party. I plan on going of course. Such opportunities won't present themselves every year. They had better not, anyway. (shudder). Free food, free drinks, and apparently we need to compose "The 12 days of christmas", only telephone survey style.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: A completion...in a pear tree?

.life stories. red bull.

Had a breakdown at work today, went home early. It sucked.

An old lady told me her life story last night, though, over 40 minutes. It was fascinating. She came to canada from Poland before WWII, as a young girl. She told me all about teaching in the synagogue, her son (who looks like a movie star, she tells me), her wonderful, proud mother, and most recently, her fall. She didn't break anything, thank God. She likes symphonies. I'm going to send her a card. Or flowers, whatever my wallet permits.

.fly, Northward, fly.

I just got a job with Nechako reforestation, for a really long planting season starting in Prince George BC and ending in the Northern Alberta interior. I'll be planting until August, in fast land. In the meantime, I'm applying to other companies. My quandary with the current job is that
1) it is an expensive plane ride to northern BC
2) the camp costs ain't cheap.
But the treeprices are high (17 cents) and the season is long. And I've been longing for some (comparitively) chill BC planting. A new part of Canada, a new planting season, and one more thing on the great canadian to-do list checked off. Hopefully some sweet cash too. My mother and Father are rather unhappy. My Dad, exasperated, muttered into the phone "There are easier ways to make money." But there's something to be said for honest labour with no guilt about the nature of my job...and some major perks of being in one of the stranger, more unique jobs in existence.

.how to make a cheesecake

Ahem. How to make a mint oreo cheesecake: Shannon style.
2 days beforehand: buy the cream cheese and oreos. Feel like a culinary goddess. Talk to friends about the glorious cheesecake that is to come.
1 day beforehand: eat all the oreos. Feel like a stuffed oreo receptacle. Grumble that new oreos must be bought. the store is closed. Put off cheesecake making til the day it must be served.
The Day OF: set alarm for 9 am. Get up at 11, 5 hours before cheesecake serving time. Grumble and run over to the store.
12 PM: Realize I have no beaters. Determined, whip cream by hand instead. Never again. shudder.
12 20: Discover the best way to make oreo crumbs and delectable chunks is to throw the oreos in my laundry basket and bludgeon them with my hammer. Noise confuses roomates.
12:25: use cooking pot and a jug as mixing bowls. Combine ingredients.
12:40: Throw cheesecake into oven, and run through residence, telling spiritual friends/desiree to pray for it.
1:30: remove cheesecake. panic, for it is a gray cheesecake. Not white and delectable as photos in recipe would indicate. Shrug, throw in freezer.
4:00: retrieve cooled graycake, dismay at colour once more. Cover the top of the cheesecake with oreos. NO one will know!
4:30: serve cheesecake. Crowd mows it. Eat cheesecake...dang, tasty. Recieve multiple hugs from adoring public.
4:45: feel like a culinary goddess.

.and you step into the zone

it's gotten to be that time of year. Ive been working non-stop, and two separate crises tonight put me off sleep about 4 hours. Only two more long, torturous days of full on school, then I have friday to recuperate, and clean my room.
what's my testimony today? I have a good photography project to hand in tomorrow. I got an A on my last painting assignment. My two friends got what time, love and help I could give them. Work was passable, even pleasant. Kudos to Meags. Um...I had smartfood?
I promise a funny story tomorrow.