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Wolf, tequila and end of semester blues

Here are three expressions I have taken a liking to in the last few days/weeks.

Don't feed the bad wolf
My mother's coworker has this tattooed on her arm and as she told me the story, I immediately took a liking to the expression. The moral which is based on an old Cherokee Native American tale, is a good one for someone like me who is just a little bit negative.

One winter’s evening whilst gathered round a blazing camp

fire, an old Indian chief told his grandson about the inner struggle that goes on inside people.

“You see” said the old man, “this inner struggle is like two wolves fighting each other. One is evil, full of anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, deceit, false pride, superiority, and ego."

“The other one,” he continued, poking the fire with a stick so that the fire crackled, sending the flames clawing at the night sky, “is good, full of joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith." For a few minutes his grandson pondered his grandfather’s words and then asked, “So which wolf wins, grandfather?”

“Well”, said the wise old chief, his lined face breaking into a wry smile,

“The one you feed!”

Tequila can save any night
I am a firm believer that it rarely gets more fun than the pre-drink. The apartment chill always seems to exceed what is encountered at the bar. Last night began as one of those evenings. Cold weather, long lines and bad atmosphere made the night less than appealing. When I was about ready to give up and catch a cab, Lisa who was determined to save the night-out exclaims that there was nothing tequila could not fix! I have to admit how right she was and say this may become my new motto.

Everything is going to be alright

Maybe not today but eventually.
Our fabulous student paper the Concordian, features a weekly mix-tape hosted on 8tracks.com. I have become a pretty avid user of the site and the other day one of the sets had this photo attached. It stuck probably because it describes my current state end of semester blues perfectly.

Impending failure

I am not sure if it was the love/pressure from my "fans" that sent me back to this very familiar blog or just nostalgia but here I am at 1 a.m. on the night before my political science essay is due to say that I have officially given up! Okay, that reads a little dramatic but basically I have this essay that is 3000 words due tomorrow and I have written 1600. While an all-nighter would be a solution, I simply no longer have the brain capacity to write another word on the subject of clientelism and patron-client relations in India.

Seeing as it is worth 40%, handing in a half completed essay is basically subjecting me to a mark in the D-F range. For someone who cries at the sight of an A- in political science classes, giving up is not only a sure GPA killer but also an emotional disaster waiting to happen. Yet, despite this I still will not return to the essay because I think everyone is allowed one little fuck up in university and with one semester to go, I figured I would use mine up with this essay. Also as someone who stresses and panics over every little thing, I have a sense of calmness about this decision. This of course may change if I fail the class which hopefully will not happen.

While this was not what I planned as my first post back, I figure I can't justify spending time writing much else while my essay sits neglected. SO for now, this is what is here BUT hopefully with each day the Whiteboard will take one step closer to it's glory days....whenever those were.

The Blue Bin: this year's grinch

Well well, its been quite a few months but a recent event has led me to blogger. You see, despite being of the Jewish faith, I have a christmas tree in my house. No, not a chanukah/hanukah bush but rather a 9ft balsam pine. You see, my step-father is not part of the tribe and as a result we celebrate both holidays.

So here we were saturday morning opening gifts nice and early as I was going to work and my mother was going up north. I was delighted to be gifted a new knapsack, electric toothbrush (upon request) and one beautiful black leather purse. She was stunning. My step-father believes in using "fake boxes" aka hides the real gifts inside un-matching wrapping so my toothbrush came in a kindle box and my knapsack in a heating pad one. My purse on the other hand came in a nice gift bag.

Anyways, I went downstairs with my knapsack to see if it was big enough to hold my laptop and left the other gifts upstairs in the time-being. Being a newbie at the christmas traditions, I was informed that all gifts stay under the tree at least for christmas day. No questions asked I left my assortment of gifts in the gift bag and ran-off to work.

Last night I realized I had no clue where my toothbrush was and figured I had left it in the knapsack. This morning I went to checked the bag, no toothbrush and went to look under the tree with the purse. But there were no gifts under the tree at all. As I scavenged the entire house and garbage pale it dawned on me that the recycling man had already passed earlier that morning and before I knew it, I had deducted that the purse was gone. Recycled. Dead. Along with it went the new beautiful purple toothbrush.

So here I am, three hours into my sulk session and still feeling awfully shitty about my misfortune and felt there was no better place to express it than the Whiteboard. Whether this means future posts to come or not is unclear but at least for the time being all 3 of you will be entertained for five minutes.

8000 ft above

As I have mentioned before, I am heading to Peru at the end of the month! In order to celebrate my nearing departure date, I created a travel blog.

CHECK IT OUT

8000 ft above

One Month in

So I have technically been on summer vacation for one month already but between working at the bakery and taking a summer class I have not had too much free time.On the bright side having a job and going to school is helping me kill time until I head to PERU! I am not sure if I mentioned on my blog already, but Lisa and I are heading to Lima in a little over a month! I am so excited! There is still lots and lots to do before then including today's adventure which will include a trip to the travel clinic for some vaccinations.... I also need to buy hiking boots, a backpacking knapsack and some other gear. The trip advises that we get in shape which I am trying to do but my laziness wins over me sometimes. Unlike yesterday when I biked to and from school it was about 25 mins each way and I went to class a little red in the face but it really felt great to give my body a work out. Besides for Peru, I hope to make a few other trips this summer. I alreadyhave plans to head to Toronto but my heart is really set on visitin Truro, Nova Scotia!!!

In other EXCITING news, Vampire Weekend is returning for their second show in Montreal. They come in sometime in September but tickets went on sale today and I just could not resist seeing them again. Hopefully this time they will have some merchandise for purchasing, more specifically a poster. On the subject of music, my friend Teddy gave me this amazing amazing site that is very much worth sharing. It is called Stereomood... I will not say more but I highly suggest clicking the link and checking it out.

So today was back to school... yes I am taking a summer course. I did so mostly to keep me from crying of boredom. Five months of summer vacation is just too long to sit around and do nothing. This was a lesson I learnt after spending the last three weeks depressed in bed because I had so little to do. This is why I decided to take POLI 204 in the first place and it looks like it won't be too bad minus the 15 page paper. There seems to be tons of "characters" in the class that share their opinions about everything whether it is relevant or not.

But ya, besides for sulking, I have also occupied my time working at the bakery pretty much everyday since school ended and being a bandwagon Habs fan. The truth is Montreal is just so much fun when they win. Last week when we won the series, I was downtown with Jill and the streets were filled with people cheering and celebrating. Apparently there was also tear gas but we left before things got too wild. We ended up going for pizza which is where I made the world's best discovery well actually Jill ordered it so she deserves the credit...but ya BACON PIZZA is the most delicious thing ever. The pizza shop had it diced up super tiny and I fell in love (sorry moses).....

I started this post last week and never got around to finishing it or posting it so I just figured I would do it today...

Purple Bicycle

YAY! I found a super awesome bike yesterday and I love love love it! I got it from a guy on Kijiji behind a warehouse on St. Patrick. Let me just say if I had gone alone (without my father) I would not have gotten out of my car. It was sooooo sketchy that I wanted to take a picture but was being watched by some people who I assume were his "employees". Anyways I think the bike comes from an old rental shop because the seat has a number on it and there were some compromising stickers that I have since peeled off. I also Vim'ed the tires and sprayed the squeaky springs. All that is left is the decision of whether or not to name it... suggestions?

Here are some proud mother snapshots of me looking very unphotogenic on my new purple gem (as Alex refers to it as)!

Sunny Saturday

Tomorrow is supposed to be gorgeous and sunny. Not to mention I have appointments with craiglisters to go look at bikes but have nobody to drag with me. I need exams to be over so I can have some friends again...so basically if you are free tomorrow let me know so we can play. I also must add that I am addicted to Mr. Freeze Jumbo freezies lately - more specifically the white one which I have discovered is Cream Soda flavoured! yum yum! I wish I had more to report on but today was rather lame. I worked, watched more episodes of Psych, had dinner, watched the HABS WIN and played on Sporcle, a highly addictive website whose tag-line is "mentally stimulating diversions."I highly recommend it because it is a great way to kill time without feeling too guilty since it is very educational. Here was my

favorite quiz of the day -"Antonym Movie Titles."

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So back to my summer, which is currently very planless. I have two goals for the next week:

#1. Find a super duper awesome location to travel to with friend Lisa at the beginning of July

#2. Find tons of fun local activities in Montreal to keep me busy until then

What next...

After several months of hibernation I decided to return to the Whiteboard mostly because I am bored and in need of a hobby. I have graduated from my second year at University which freaks me out because I still feel and look about fifteen. I am usually pretty at peace with my youthful appearance but today I was out for lunch when a stupid waiter ruined my entire day. I was with my stepmother at a mexican restaurant. She ordered a piña colada and I ordered a margarita...no questions asked. Halfway through my drink I mentioned how by that point in a drink I usually feel a little tipsy but was currently feeling as though there was very little alcohol. I shrugged it off and blamed it on eating too much. BUT SURE ENOUGH, when we got the bill it listed "1 virgin margarita." I get that I look young but I think the waiter could have had the decency to ask me or maybe even the decency to apologize when we told him his mistake. All he had to say was that he "didn't realize." K thanks buddy but I still would like some tequila. Plus side is that I got treated to an awesome new pair of Converse (after ruining the ones I had with bleach.)

Anyways today is Earth Day but nothing seems to be happening in the city or maybe I just didn't get word of it. Like always though, Google represented with a cool graphic and tons of links. This reminds me of my latest fixation - finding a bike to buy. I am desperate to find a bike I can ride to work or even school. I have searched craigslist and other websites but I still have not found "the one" aka a bike thats pretty and cheap and the right size for my 5"2 height.

Aside for those two little anecdotes/rant so much has happened since I have last posted, none of which include finding summer plans. But I can proudly boast that I am next year's Journalism Student Association President and the Editor of the Life Section of the Concordian!!! Both jobs start in the fall which is why I need something to occupy the next four months. For the last twelve years I have attended sleep-away camp and this will be my first year not returning. This was a decision I was confident with until it was April and I still had ZERO planned. I remember back in November thinking that it all was just going to work out. I believed that I would either find some super awesome amazing trip to go on, a volunteer opportunity to engage in or maybe even some career enhancing internship. I do have to admit that I did not try too hard to find these plans but for once I wanted something to find me which up to now has not happened. And as you can imagine, I am feeling slightly defeated. Though one would think sitting in bed to noon everyday would be amazing, it is less than a week in and I am already so bored I could cry. The one thing that has kept me going is Psych, a TV show I have become completely addicted to and highly recommend!

Other than that, not much to report on but I can imagine there will be lots coming up in the next four months (or so I hope.)