the weekend wrap-up

this weekend was extremely tumultuous on all fronts: meteorological, emotional, physical, familial.

friday night featured the "thunderstorm of our lives" as dr. rei called it and a class A meltdown from yours truly. upon coming home and finding that the dotytron had been home all day, and having been given an extremely minuscule list of things to do, one of which consisted of doing the dishes, which he had dutifully done, but had NEGLECTED TO EMPTY THE GUNK FROM THE SINK TRAP, i promptly lost my mind and went on a classic, karl lagerfeld on the birth control pill-era tear. seriously. there were so many eff bombs dropped that if there was an international body tracking such things and mapping them GIS-style, there would have been a noticeable spike and surge centred squarely on our house. lately my recourse of choice when having hormonally induced meltdowns is to resort to stuff that references the coming year of upheaval and how buck it's going to be having to look after an eating/s**tting machine 24/7 and how if the dotytron can't pull his weight now, then how is he going to do it THEN, when i'm going to be exhausted and leaking and at my wits end, etc. etc.

ultimately, the increasingly diminished sensible, sane, rational part of me that exists as some vestigial memory of the pre-incubator karl lagerfeld knows that i'm being somewhat ridiculous (i'd put it at 70%). it also knows that i lucked into having a partner that is quite capable of pulling his weight and even if he isn't as mindful of the labour that goes into maintaining a house to the level at which i am accustomed, he is MORE than capable, and outright enjoys, the prospect of impending fatherhood much more than most (read: i) - so i know that if the sight of a dirty house is making me go crazy, at the very least i can feel very comfortable that the dotytron will look after the fatburger while i get down on my hands and knees and hand-wash the floor (yes, i hand-wash the floor because i'm just that crazy.)

once the maelstrom had exhausted itself we headed over to dr. rei and hanbo's first stopping to grab some provisions from poutini's.

 

i got two small regular poutines and 1 small "the works" which is a regular poutine with sour cream, chives, and bacon bits. the portions were a wee bit on the small side, for the price, but for the basic poutine, it's pretty decent, $4.99 for the small, but $6.99 for the large. the works is ridiculously priced, $6.75 for the small, and $9.19 for the large. NINE DOLLARS FOR POTATOES AND SOUR CREAM. what the eff? i was annoyed by how long the order took to be ready - there were maybe 2 other people there and i waited 15 minutes. unless you're starting FROM SCRATCH with each order (and i know they're not, because the guy was frying pre-blanched fries) then there's NO REASON IN HELL why it should take 15 minutes to do the second fry on an order of french fries, add cheese curds, and add gravy that's in a gravy-warmer, ready to go. i do think smoke's poutinerie has more generous portions. the cheese curds at poutinis are good - really large, chunky, squeaky curds, but the gravy! the gravy is pretty bad. SO THICK. like, KFC chicken gravy thick. like, mostly flour thick. it was globby and the only thing you could taste was salt. i'd personally rather have swiss chalet dipping sauce, st. hubert's gravy, or even canned gravy - at least something with some FLAVOUR other than salt. overall, i'm glad i tried it but i'm not sure i would ever go back.

NFA was pretty good. truth be told, i was coasting on a high of getting hit on at the club while secretly being 3+ months preggos. AND dancing. AND getting home after 2am. it was glorious! the rest of the camp had a decent time although ayres was under pressure to play randoms for the drake crowd that kept filtering down and stomping on people's feet with their stilettos and being totally smarmy "keys to the vip" clubwear dudes from oakville and taking a zillion pictures of their lame-ass bachelorette party. highlight for me was hearing this tune:


it's on my thursday night dodgeball mix and it makes me go crazy.

second highlight of the night was seeing the dotytron getting hunted like a defenceless baby seal by this super-trashy, oshawa looking girl wearing a self-ripped "i <3 NY" t-shirt that she had turned into basically a bikini top. she wasn't club trashy per se, she was more like, tonnes of black eyeliner, and tattoos and piercings and tight black pants trashy. she had her sights on him from the get-go - even before we hit the dancefloor and were standing on the stairs, she came up and basically presented herself to him and stood in front of him all awkwardly giving him the "come f**k me eyes." then when we finally WERE on the dancefloor at a certain point she planted herself in front of him and was all grabbing his butt and grabbing his neck to pull him in close to talk while me and dr. rei and bwong gave each other "LOL" eyes and LOL'd. it was awesome. the dotytron just kind of stood there and gave dead fish until she gave up. 2 seconds later her face was in some other dudes' crotch doing a dance that is very unbecoming on white people but that somehow seems fine if you're like, at a dancehall jam. HI-LARIOUS. the best was the dotytron gazing off into space with his arms limply at his sides as she groped and pawed at him. i felt kind of bad and contemplated helping a brother out but then i realized he's a grown-a** man and he should be able to take care of hisself.

saturday was a bit of a write-off. we were exhausted and under-slept and we had to do our grocery shopping in pissy weather and i went on a ridiculous mission to ikea to get these small lack shelves for our bathroom (they're forever going out of stock) so that we can move all the supplies we have sitting outside the bathroom in a small plastic drawer organizer onto the shelves and clear out the hallway some more. then we bought a stroller off of craiglist because some crazy rich lady was giving an insane deal.

i know it's kind of crazy to already buy the stroller. and it feels jinxy. but it was such a good deal! we weren't going to pay $1000 for a stroller because i draw the line at shelling out that much coin for something that doesn't have an engine (seriously, that's 1/6 what we paid for the captain.) but the problem is that people on craiglist who sell strollers are n00bs and they're selling to n00bs so they'll knock off like, $150 for a USED stroller but people will actually pay it and it's super annoying. anyway, we found the model that we liked and it was probably the most ideal craigslist scenario. a rich lady (doesn't want to recoup her costs) who wanted something smaller, was super-high strung about her first kid (the stroller was barely used and immaculate) and who was super-conscientious so she let us wheel it around and take it for a test drive and gave us the original bill of sale and whatnot so that we got the warranty. she'd only had it for 5 months. anyway, we got it at a significant discount and no tax and so we felt like we got a really good deal. we got the uppababy vista:

the pros are it comes with a bassinet, handles like a bugaboo, has a telescoping handle that's tall enough for the dotytron, and comes with the rain shield, bug guard, and a seat that you can switch to forward or rear facing, plus huge amount of under-seat storage. the cons were that the 2009 model retails for $799.00 PLUS tax. that's just insane, as far as i'm concerned. we were totally going to go for a peg perego but i have to say, there is a bit of a difference in the handling and maneuverability between the $300 strollers and the $500+ strollers. the lady also threw in the car-seat adapter.

the funniest part was smuggling it into the house because we haven't really told the neighbs yet. i feel like they're not on the first-tier need to know list...but somehow it keeps coming up which means that i have to keep saying stuff like, "if we ever have kids [then we'll do such and such]" and then have the dotytron give me the superdramatic *rollseyes* around their backs. lol! the point is, we got a top-of-the-line stroller for the same price (roughly) as a mid-range stroller and this one is pimped out AND the handles extend enough for the dotytron, which is kind of a big thing. also, this stroller holds its value well (see craiglists n00bs above) so i'm like, i could even turn around and sell it again on craigslist and make a pretty tidy profit.

we were supposed to see 2 hotdocs on saturday but due to another hormonal meltdown and a SNAFU with our tickets i made the dotytron leave and so we came home and watched "top chef masters" and i baked a batch of those mona's mother's mother's cookies and drank milk and slept for ages and ages. it was bliss.

sunday for mater's day we had momma and poppa d and ehmdo by for brunch - i made spinach, refried bean, scrambled egg, and monterrey jack cheese breakfast burritos and a bob evans sausage, red pepper, and potato hash:

 

ehmdo brought fruit, we drank coffee (even though i had the fixin's to make caesars) and then we loafed around until it was time to play dball for s-dawg's team whereupon i played a SICK-ASS game. we had NO subs and had to iron-man it the whole game - they had a bunch of people from the intermediate league sub in on their team so that they had MORE people than us and we still whipped their behinds 15-11. it was awesome. i've been doing MORE showboating than usual lately because it feels EXTRA good ducking and dodging and catching and getting people out knowing that i'm preggos. it's kind of the best.

sunday night we had dinner with my grandma and grandpa and the fam-bam up in markham at asian legend. good times.

also, the crazy thunderstorm and wind on saturday BROUGHT DOWN A TREE on our street. i think some people are like, trapped in their houses! it was crazy! basically the tree was about 3 ft in diameter and a 1/2 of it split off and fell onto two people's houses, bringing down a power line. it was scary. our neighbours (the ones we're attached to) have a GIANT tree in their yard - like one that's easily 4ft across so we're a little paro about it now. we took a look, it doesn't look like it would split in a way that would damage our house - mostly the deck. apparently they had an arborist come by and take a look at it and give them a quote for cutting it down but it was going to be 10,000 or something like that (!!!!!!!!!) i'm sure our home insurance would cover this - especially since it's not even on our property. we should probably call and check that shiz out, though.


it's been super-wintery cold out lately so for dinner tonight i made us a split pea and ham hock soup (ham bone leftover from the hamcamp klik bday dinner for dr. rei) with corn, zucchini, and monterrey quesadillas to use up the pounds and pounds of guacamole i made for the sunday brunch. we also got up early and went for a run this morning, so i'm feeling pretty healthy.

fin.

I HATE YORK UNIVERSITY

and i haven't even started it yet! so frustrating.

firstly, the program administrator is a TOTAL flakebot supreme. like, speaks in a sing-songy voice, doesn't remember anything about your client file, and gets all "i can see why you're upset" as soon as you say anything remotely ON TOPIC OR ASK A POINTED QUESTION no matter your tone of voice! i hate having to say, "i'm not upset, i just don't understand what you're saying." lol! she's so disorganized and she is the most scattershot person i've dealt with in post-secondary education in a long time. like seriously?

then, the program director is a total shacker who acts like his program is the shiznit. they keep congratulating me for getting in, "congratulations, this is a very competitive program" and i'm like, ummmm...ACTUALLY IT'S NOT. it's for working professionals, the minimum grade requirements are a B+ in your final two years of undergrad (nevermind that i got straight As in my previous masters), so it's kind of like fake grad school for mature students. stop being so high on your own juice. as if they wield so much power! a program that has to extend the application deadline TWICE by as much as TWO MONTHS is not one that's got people beating down the doors. lol! get over yourselves. i've been emailing back and forth with him asking him questions on how i should proceed with spumante on the way and he's all like, "well, if you recall from my presentation at the information session, the MINIMUM expected attendance is EVERY CLASS" and i responded to the effect of, "ummmm...i was the ONLY PERSON TO SHOW AT THE INFORMATION SESSION, and as such, didn't get the formal presentation but asked you my specific questions about the program" lolz.

then i feel a little bad cuz i remember how sad he looked sitting in that room by himself with a powerpoint all loaded up and ready to go. but i'm ALSO like, I SAW YOU IN THAT ROOM ALL BY YOURSELF, don't conveniently forget that i saw that no one showed up and that i'll actually BUY that this program is sooooo in-demand and that people are beating down the door to get in.

ANYWAY, the annoying thing is that these are my options, given that the fatburger is making an appearance in november:

1) THEY DON'T ALLOW YOU TO DEFER, so miss a whole year and reapply next year
2) accept the offer, start in the fall, pay the $2000 term fee, APPLY for a leave of absence, and then pay $200 FOR EACH SEMESTER of my leave.
^^^ with this method, there's a chance that the director might consider that a "false start" and then make me re-do the work or kick me out AND i'd have to wait the full year's cycle for the courses to be offered again
3) accept the offer and go balls to the wall and hope for the best.

i'm leaning towards #3. as dr. rei says, if she's going to bet on whether or not i can do something i've set my mind to, she's always going to err on the side that i can do it. lol! i've also spoken to people who are doing the program (colleagues at work) and they're like, yeah, the profs totally accommodate people missing classes all the time because of work commitments. since 1 course is offered 6:30-9:30pm downtown once a week, and the other course is 1 saturday, 9-5 a month - i figure the chances are good that i'll only have to miss 1 or 2 of the weekly classes and maybe just 1 of the monthly ones, and i'll pump my way through the rest of it. and lean on my friends and family and their babysitting/housecleaning services :)

it's not like there's NO PRECEDENT IN THE HISTORY OF GRADUATE STUDIES for extensions/allowances/accommodations to be made in the face of life events (or in my case, as the queen of extensions, with some b.s. reason like "shiz is getting too real") which is what the program director is making it out like. again, get over yourself.

so i'll probably miss a few classes in november/late october. classes only run into the first week of december anyway, so it's not even a deal. i think i'll be fine. i mean at this rate, NOW IT'S EFFIN PERSONAL and nothing inspires me more than a grudge match/schooling someone/proving someone wrong. i just have to get myself some slick-a$$ electrical pump and pump my way into a MPPAL.

i love my sis because she reads the blurg and then in phone conversations she'll tell me about how i got details of her life wrong and then i have to promise to post a correction. so yeah, she didn't get 3 months mat leave. she said it was like 6-8 weeks, tops. consider it corrected, T!

last night's dodgeball was aces! we ended up accidentally messing up and playing the intermediate team, while the intermediate team in the gym next door played the rec team that we should've been playing. here's the thing, even with 2 new members on board (people who were on the team but hadn't been able to make it to the previous games) - WE WON! wooooooooooooooooo!!! by a significant amount, too! what what!

it was the best!

tonight the goosetang clan is going to rise from the ashes like dumbledore's phoenix fawkes and go to see dj ayres (of the rub) at never forgive action at the drake:

so pumped! it's going to be aces! we're considering it a success if we make it to past 1am. we're meeting up with those guys at dr. rei and hanbo's pad and then having dinner at poutini or massimo pizza and pasta or mother india and then heading out for some old skool hip hop dancing fun. i feel like i'm leaning towards mother india right now, just because i know that by 8pm i'm going to be STARVING and that i don't necessarily want to make a whole meal of poutine, in light of last night's dietary indiscretions.

the next couple of weekends are kind of insane and jam-packed.

this weekend we've got brockin' out going down tonight, tomorrow is 2 hot docs, sunday is a mother's day brunch with dotytron's fam-bam and then asian legend dinner with my fam-bam.

dinner with the roomie and l'army on tuesday, massage wednesday, dodgeball and beers thursday, dinner with friends S & P on friday, kdubsguelph hangs on saturday, supper club on sunday.

then a whirlwind 4 days with a dinner with our friends S & A before heading to NYC over the long weekend, which we tacked an extra day onto to make extra-long. NYC is going to be THE BEST, because not only are we staying with pingy, but dotytron's good buddy count chocula is down there doing his masters in jazz playing at NYU and is there, and xtina and buns are going down, and i have 2 cook friends down there, and my foodshare friend M is also heading down that weekend. i've got our restos planned out - it's going to be light on the insane-tasting menu type places and more on the neighbourhood-y joints (like, $60/person instead of $250) interspersed with cheap, $20 meals of hot dogs, pizza, momofuku crack pie, gelato, etc. interspersed with buying us new kicks at century 21 and me some fat person clothes at uniqlo and jcrew and built by wendy and maybe some fun stuff at pearl river mart. interspersed with a tonne of jazz music and hanging with the best people on earth.

then we're back on tuesday for a midwife appointment and then hooking up with J & S to see sharon jones and the dap kings. then around for 2 more days before we decamp to geneseo for a long-desired visit with that crew. which is going to consist of mass amounts of five guys burgers & fries, delmonico's, brian's USA diner, aunt cookies subs, pizza pauls/mama mia's, cheesecake factory with some shopping at target, the jcrew outlet, and marshalls for discount designer gear.

and then onward into summer!

FUN!

fin.