Oh Boys!

I called home yesterday to wish my mom a Happy Mother's Day, and my brother was there so I chatted with him a bit. (Oh, by the way, my phone line was resurrected late yesterday afternoon.) So asking what was new in my brother's life, he said, "Oh there's this girl I've been on a few dates with." Nice, but I was sensing some kind of hesitation in his voice so being the big sister that I am, I probbed further. Well, turns out she is not quite broken up with her previous guy. Here is where I sigh in despair because this is not the first time my brother has done this to himself. He seems to have what I dubbed "the puppy dog complex". He falls for someone and follows them around. Last time, he was left with a broken heart for a long time because the girl did not in fact end up leaving her boyfriend despite months of promise to the contrary.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why he does this to himself. Now, I'm not an expert at relationships as my very pathetic love life will attest to. There is potentially something wrong with me for being unable to find and/or keep a boyfriend. LOL However, I do know that being single trumps dating someone who is still not quite broken up with their former partner. My brother says he won't wait around for months for her to break up, to which I said, "I hope not!". She might be a very lovely girl, but I am always a little suspicious of girls who don't think anything of dating two guys at once. It is just a really bad idea. Our parents have a very happy, very functional relationship so it is not like we are lacking a model for a good relationship. (In fact, I suspect that if my brother has mentioned this state of affairs to my mother, she probably shook her head and sighed in sadness!) I've always been protective of my brother so I just don't like the idea that a girl might mess around with his feelings, but I'll guess we'll see what happens.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Belated wishes, but nevertheless... I came back from Montreal late last night. My day has been a lovefest with the cat, who won't let me leave her sight and who is purring at the lightest touch. I think she wants to make sure I'll never leave her again.

Life is going okay. I took a few days off of work, but I'm getting back in the saddle tomorrow. I feel a little more rested, but I had so much to do; it didn't feel like too much of a vacation. But as I've said many times, as soon as I graduate, I am going backpacking somewhere far away from here for a while. I have a definite need for escape.

My internship is going well though. I still have a lot to learn, and some parts of it have been though, but I enjoy doing therapy even though I am still trying to find my bearings. It's just a lot of readings and practicing what interactions with clients need to look like. It gets me all anxious, as novelty usually does, but amidst the constructive criticism, I have also gotten some positive feedback on my general performance, which is nice. I have been told though by my supervisors that I have very good clinical skills and that my greatest strengths are being able to work with a variety of clients, being patient, explaining complex things in a palatable fashion, and making remarks in a non-threatening fashion. I must say that last one did make me snicker a bit, since if you were to ask my family, they would say that being diplomatic is not always my strong suit with them.

Speaking of my family, why is it that every time I go home, I feel like I am reverting a little bit to my 15-year-old self? I wasn't overly fond of her in the first place! It's as if I forget that my parents know exactly what buttons to push to get me irked or that there are all these little things I really don't miss about living with them like criticizing what time I go to bed at or what I eat or what my skin looks like. Yes, mom, I have an eczema outbreak on my cheeks; thanks, I hadn't noticed! I know they mean well. I do love them. I just wish I got better at handling it, and that it didn't bug me so much. Although if you ask them, they could tell you that I'm overly sensitive. ;)

Family Love Brain Diva

An Arrested Development reference is always appropriate! I'm going home for 10 days, and I can't wait. I'm happy that I get to spend time with family and friends, and I think the feeling is mutual. However, I just realized that I will be stranded as far as the Internet go. I will have to rely on my parents' crappy dial-up connection. My brother moved out and took with him his fancy computer and high-speed connection. It hasn't happened to me in about 4 years to have to rely on such a stupid connection. It makes me think of one of my techie friends who in 1998, had one of the first high-speed connection in Montreal. At the time, I couldn't understand his disdain for dial-up and he told me he couldn't use one anymore because it was too infuriating. Once you've experienced high speed, it is hard to go back. I guess, it will keep me off the computer for a few days! LOL

It is always weird to go back to suburbia as well. I can't walk anywhere. There is no coffee place around the corner. I have to drive at least 10-15 minutes to get anywhere. Wow, I've become such a city girl.

My Brother Cracks Me Up...

I was chatting with my brother a little earlier. He is going to a wedding tomorrow, and I was talking about how 2 couples I know got engaged recently/are getting engaged, both of which were really pleasant surprises to me. He was saying how surprising it would be if he were to announce he's getting engaged since he doesn't have a girlfriend. Hee. Ditto for me, I said. We were then talking about dating, and my brother, who never fails to crack me up, had an awesome line that had to be written down for posterity.

"We're like rock stars. (My brother was referring to the fact that he is studying to be an orthodontist.) Okay, maybe not rock stars, but you know, it is very hard to get into and they only take the very best students so the dentistry students are impressed by us. I think I need to use that to go flirt with the girls in dentistry." He just was so deadpan saying it, it was hilarious. So now you know. Orthodontists are the rock stars of the dentistry world! Hee.

Favourite Things

Just because it is nice to post positive things once in a while.

My top 35 favourite things:
1. My family
2. Caffe latte
3. My cat Portia
4. Cooking for a whole afternoon
5. Montreal
6. Getting a call from a good friend
7. High speed Internet
8. Falling asleep on the couch
9. Cinnamon buns
10. Reruns of 80s and 90s sitcoms
11. Bookstores
12. My goddaughter
13. Walking randomly around the city
14. Crossword puzzles
15. Spending time talking with patients
16. My iPod
17. Monty Python and The Holy Grail
18. TV series on DVD
19. The first snow
20. Red wine
21. Pride & Prejudice (the book)
22. Shopping for kitchenware
23. Nail polish
24. The sound of rain falling
25. The Office
26. Dictionaries
27. Singing while driving
28. Post-Its
29. The human brain
30. Oregano
31. Green pens
32. Purses
33. Lemon-flavoured anything
34. Pyjamas
35. Making lists!

Thursday Morning Blitz

Data analysis has picked up so I'm in a good mood today. I'm feeling physically tired because I've run/walked quite a bit in the last 2 days, but it feels nice. Plus, my parents are coming on Saturday so it will be nice to see them.

I got my invitation to a friend's wedding yesterday. I had been all excited about going but now that I'm looking at things such as the price of the plane ticket (it would be a 12-hour drive and I'm not sure I want to have to drive 12 hours and back in the span of 2 days) and hotel, I'm just not sure I can spare the expense. Plus, life is crazy busy this summer. On the other hand, I think it would be a shame if I missed out on this. I'm so happy she is getting married. I have to RSVP (which comes from the French "Réservez, s'il vous plaît.", meaning "Reserve, please.") by July 5th so I'll think about it.

In random news, it looks like Keanu Reeves wants to get married and have kids. I'll gladly volunteer for that job. ;)

Besides that, we are having fun here dealing with potential terrorism. It's not a surprise that sooner or later, that was going to happen. I'm glad our police and secret services have done a good job, although to think we are out in the clear would certainly be wishful thinking. I guess I'm not overly worried about it, because I think it is pointless to worry about something we have such little control over. I can only hope all these good people out there protecting us continue to do their job so efficiently.

Sad Thoughts

Every time I hear the music from St. Elmo's Fire (like my iTunes just made it pop up), it reminds me of my grandfather and makes me tear up. One of my uncles, who was a TV producer and actually died a few years ago of cancer, made a wonderful video of my grandfather's 80th birthday celebration. It has all these interviews with my uncles and aunts talking about their childhood, and my grandmother, who has also passed away now, talking about how she met my pépé and fell in love with him. There was a montage of the family in it to the music of St. Elmo's Fire. This took place almost 20 years ago, and it still makes me tear up every time I hear that song. My grandfather passed away in 1989, and I still remember coming home and seeing my dad cry. It was the first time I had ever seen my dad cry. I remember he was watching that tape either before or after the funeral, and I remember thinking in my kid's head he was torturing himself. But now, I think I understand why he had the need to rewatch it even if it made him sad. I think I need to get this tape from my dad and convert it to digital so I can make sure to preserve it.

All this sad stuff makes me think of even sadder things. I happened to see her interview with the author and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel on Wednesday. He spent teenage years at Auschwitz, and they showed a trip he and Oprah made there. He was explaining what happened at the camp. The scale of that place was just horrifying. They said it was half the size of Manhattan. A place where you use slave workers and kill millions of people was that huge. It gave me chills. I had a big ball in my stomach watching the whole thing.

On Thursday, she had these high-school kids who wrote in essays pertaining to "Night", Elie Wiesel's book about the Holocaust. The stories some of these kids told were so moving. In particular, there were these two girls who went through the Rwandian genocide. Their stories were so touching. Then, Oprah actually reunited one of the girls with her parents she had not seen since 1994. My eyes were full of tears. It was very powerful. I rarely ever watch Oprah, but I'm glad I caught that.

Music & Sitcoms: Chicken Soup For The Soul

This blog is a funny thing. It allows me to be as neurotic as I want to be, a luxury not really afforded to me in the real world. Well, except when talking to my mom & my very close friends, who know the weird intracacies of my mind. I was rereading my recent posts, and some of it reminds me of the tortured teenager I used to be. I was a good girl as a teenager (except maybe for the heavyhanded sarcasm! LOL) but boy, was I an anxious mess. I used to have a lot of difficulty managing it. Everything was a crisis. I was succeeding, at least mildly, at most everything I did but I was always waiting for the impending failure or the other shoe to drop. Fortunately, I grew up, and things got better. I became more adept at managing stress, and I noticed that things have a way of working themselves out. At the same time, I've also learned that I'll never be happy in a job where I have too much stress. Having to repress the anxiety-filled side of me has had its consequences at time, especially in terms of my health.

Anyway, two of my surefire weapons against stress are music & sitcoms. I've termed them chicken soup for the soul because I was being so new age, and had to borrow the names of those books! LOL I'm listening to classical music at the moment, and it just made whatever knots in my stomach I may have had melt away. I think that's why I love singing in a choir so much. There is such a power in singing at the top of your lungs. This semester, we are singing Summertime by Gershwin! I love Gershwin as many of you know; I just wish we had also sung Someone To Watch Over Me, which is my favourite song. We're also singing some Rachamaninov & Dvořák pieces, and one badass Bach piece, Lobet Den Herrn, Motet #6. This Bach is so tough because it have no melodic line that repeats. The harmonies constantly change, and it is just so hard to count the beats because it goes so fast. Still, it is an entertaining challenge.

I have now changed my CD to classic 70s Quebec granola rock. LOL It's from one of the most popular bands of all time in Quebec called Beau Dommage. They've sold an incredible amount of records/CDs over the years considering only 8 million of people live in Quebec. It's urban poetry about love, friendship, city living (mostly in Montreal),... I feel home just listening to it. They wrote one of my favourite songs in French called La complainte du phoque en Alaska (literally The lament of the seal in Alaska). It's about a male seal who sits by itself on his iceberg in Alaska, missing his girlfriend who joined a travelling circus in the continental US. He ponders whether the ephemeral joy gained from exhibiting in the circus is really worth leaving loved ones behind. Anyway, it's a beautiful love song to which I could never do justice. I never tire of listening to it. Another balm to my soul.

Sitcoms are the comic relief in my life. You never get enough laughter in life. I love my NewsRadio and Friends DVDs. Oh, and they've been airing Cheers on the Comedy Network, which makes me happy. :) I got say, Cheers has aged well (unlike The Cosby Show) but the one thing that has not aged well about it are the clothes. Dear God, Sam wears horrifying sweaters, and Diane's clothing is plain scary.

Finally, I did forget one other stress relief in my life. Cute, ain't she? :) I need to scan even better pictures of her.