5.30.2005

today was a big day

dear friends,

today was a big day. since the beginnning of april i have been listening to my songs in itunes in alphabetical order, slowly weeding out songs i do not like and creating playlists for friends. today i reached the t's. the end is in sight.

this post has been brought to you by the letter 't'
cam

5.27.2005

wearin' the company golfshirt

dear friends,

if there is a sociology equivalent of wearin' the company golfshirt, today i am doing it. these are things i have done/am doing on "causal friday":

- sending off a journal article that i reviewed and felt confident enough to suggest be revised and resubmitted
- (re)scheduled an academic phone date with a professor at a tri-state school who wants to discuss a project i want to work on next year. collaboration possible. assistance definite.
- had purely academic conversation with colleague chris about a proposal he is working on. extra golf shirt points because we used to have conversations about new records and shows we were seeing.
- had proposal accepted for major conference in sub-discipline. (this time my exciting academic career will be bringing me to thrilling rochester) i am on a panel with 3 actual professors, all of whom i have cited at one point or another
- setting the pace on an article that i could end up as first author on...

and to think, this time last week i was watching as the world turns and hoping that someday i might be able to drink white wine again. i am growing up so fast.

at this rate, tomorrow i will be wearing dockers.
cam

5.25.2005

stalking zach braff, episode five

dear friends,

welcome to stalking zach braff episode five, wherin i simply link to zach braff's blog.

upon hearing the news that zach too watched rob and amber's wedding (i swear there was nothing else on), i announced that he should have come over to watch it. but then tanya reminded me that our freezing apt, where we run the dryer for warmth is probably not on par with movie star hotel room... and that a better plan would have been to be an actual stalker...

maybe. maybe if i ever get tired of my life of manipulating variables and watching reality tv.

go bo.
cam

ps- salad bowl clue for bo bice= guy that sara likes from american idol, last name starts with same letter as first name. last name rhymes with hair bugs.

5.23.2005

of angels and angles

dear friends,

fab weekend. cottage trip and decemberists last night. any show where:

a) the band pretends to be robots
b) petra hadden covers kate bush and wuthering heights no less
c) colin meloy covers the smiths
d) the band has the entire audience sit in unison on the floor of sala rosa

is just fine by me. swoon. severe colin meloy swoon.
cam

5.20.2005

i am carol ann's angry stomach

dear friends,

on october 16th, 2004 i made an agreement with the ol' tummy that i would never fail it again. well not even a year later, i must report that i have not lived up to my promise. and so the story goes...

we are appointment-television viewers at the icrm. and last night was the night-o-the-season-finales. we wanted to watch the oc, csi, and er and there was also a request for the apprentice. icrm-resident sara is also on a one-woman mission to end social isolation in our dept. and so one of the new ma students came out to our hood and the five of us, student who shall not be named since she does not know about this blog sara, jeff, priscilla and i head to korea house for dinner. dinner was a strange affair, ending with the two waitresses and one member of the kitchen staff simply yelling "tourists" and asking if we would not mind moving. the place filled up with two bus loads of koreans in under a minute. this left us with time to go to the saq before tv-time.

since it is after april i have switched to white wine and everyone else drinks red. but i bought a bottle and put in the fridge thinking i might have a glass later. the plan was to utlize the digital cable channels that air shows on a three hour delay. this was the schedule.

8-10 csi directed by quentin tarrentino
10-11 doctor carter leaves er
11- the oc
12- the apprentice

csi was super-badooper scary. like hide under a blanket scary. i drank nothing. i decided i would not drink, since i registered for a conference on family and social policy at u de m the next day that would mean an early start. watched er. joined in collective freak out about the fact that er started when we started highschool. 11 years ago.

so then with much anticipation we turn it to the oc channel. but we don't get the channel! foiled! and the delayed channel that we do get had the oc on at 10, since it was originally on ctv at 7. fuck the duck. sara who is almost as big of an oc fan as me is crestfallen. there is denial. there is channel flipping. i decide to take solace in two things. the eleven o'clock law and order and the bottle of wine. that's right-- missing the oc drove me to drink...

and then tanya (roomate number 3 at the icrm) got in from los angeles at around 11:30 there was more wine. sometime around midnight the bottle was gone. sara broke out a tall can of beer that was in the fridge. the three of us split it. then tanya asked if there were any bars in the new neighbourhood. i told her just one. the sketchtacular bar o'sheas. and thursday is both ladies night and kareoke night. we decided to go. i changed out of my pjs and broke out some real pants. and we were off.

there was kareoke. but other than the bartender there were no ladies other than us. it is clean enough though and we had no problem getting a table. and a pitcher for the girls and a drink for jeff was like $15. this seemed like an even better deal last night. we drank. we laughed at the music. we drank. we plotted tommorrow's trip to tanya's cottage. and then i knew i was going to throw up. so i ran to the bathroom. ok time to go home. but not before throwing up once more on the floor.

luckily the trip home is all of 250 steps. i drink a lot of water. tanya turns of my light. i roll over and throw up twice in the night. once on each side of my bed. except that i had nothing to throw up. nasty i know. and not the nicest thing to wake up to. but i pull myself together clean my room up and get ready to show up late to the conference. i decide it would be best to show up after lunch.

so i go to java u to blog. but i cannot even finish my tea. i am in rough shape. so here i am wearing my business wear, telling myself there is no way that someone can seriously review a journal submission after throwing up four times. and feeling guilty about not attending the conference.

i am equal parts nerdly and hungover. and i am never drinking again,
cam

5.19.2005

the sufjan stevens moving plan


dear friends,

i hate moving. hate it. hate it. hate it. i don't mind the getting rid of old stuff/acquiring new stuff parts, but the transporting of the must keep stuff from one location to another gets to me. it is probably the influence of my father, who when my parents divorced paid my mother for half of the house that he had already bought so that my sisters and i could stay in the same house we had always lived in. now 90% of this is because my dad is awesome. the other 10% is probably because my dad is not a big fan of moving either. in 60 years and counting he has lived in five places and three towns. he has worked in twice that many places. he would rather commute 2 hours a day than move somewhere, gasp, urban.

so, when i talk to him about moving he stresses. and then i stress. my move from my undergrad house started six months prior to the move out date when i began boxing and labeling things. my beloved housemates who do not share this moving philosophy looked at me like i was insane. the day of our move out, i was throwing out cutlery and generally freaking out. but i survived and moved to montreal with relative ease. the move across town to the icrm was quick and dirty (olive oil in carla's car, conference to attend in michigan the next day), but made less painful by the lack of furniture. i thought i was getting better. but since i have experienced vicariously several moves in the last few months (neville the elder move out part one, neville the younger move in and out, neville the elder move out part two, sara move in, tanya move in part one-the stuff and part two-the furniture) i have begun to freak about how to move to jersey.

all of this is to say that i have decided that the best possible course of action is to get everyone i know to come to nyc to see sufjan stevens on august 20th. if you'd each bring a bag of my stuff, or say, my filing cabinet, i'd be set. and my life in the greater nyc area would get off to a suitably delightful start...

any takers ?,
cam

5.17.2005

montreal news, truthfully truthfully style

dear friends,

firstly, the church i go to was broken into over the weekend. crow-bar to the door, smashed stained glass, and broken confessionals. apparently this is an escalating problem and the church is now hiring security guards to patrol. there are many things i like bout living in an urban centre. not among those things are attending a church that needs security tighter than most pubs.

secondly, zach braff was/is here. while he was eating ben and jerry's i was watching a movie about suffrage tht made me cry. damnable digital cable.
and now i must generate variables.

peace in the middle east,
cam

5.14.2005

rainy day


picture by lukas

dear friends,

there is a lot of deja vu around the ol' icrm these days... not only is it once again moving/construction of furniture/reconstruction of furniture season... but it is raining and people are wearing publi-sacs.

ok, a real person has just phoned me... so this blog post is done.
cam

5.10.2005

small town weekend


dear friends,

had a good weekend at home. visited baby hope who is really into running around now. she is also very into cats. cat is her favourite word. other words she knows= ma and up.

also had the distinctly small-town pleasure of catching a distant relative committing adultery. in the parking lot at tim horton's.

and, then i ran into former roomate-extrodonaire lukas on the train.

so, that was the weekend. and this week has been about just two things: 1) working on my proposal and 2) welcoming two new residents to the manor.

blogging is so winter-months,
cam

5.05.2005

the best day ever

dear friends,

i am feeling very pollyanna today... several things have me delighted:

* i slept in
* i had a nap four hours after i woke up
* i became a reviewer for a journal with no extra effort on my part
* the java u bottecelli sandwich- marinated portabello mushrooms, chevre, herbs put in the pannini press
* my final fantasy cd came in the mail
* i used preference points for a free ticket home this weekend
* my work meeting got cancelled which meant i did not have to come into campus
* i am going to chuch tonight (it has to be chicken) with the sociologists
* i am going to copacabana (yes, the hottest spot north of havanna) with more of the sociologists

and remember to wear blue tomorrow,
cam

5.03.2005

wear blue this friday


dear friends,

got the following note from otis' mom this morning:

On Friday, April 29th, little Otis was the victim of a hit and run. Although alive, he now faces 6 weeks with a very big blue cast to support his broken leg. The outpouring of cards and phone calls has been very touching and the little guy wanted me to thank you all. We are working hard with Otis to identify the driver, but thus far, he seems unable to do so. We are naming Friday, the one week anniversary, "wear blue" day to make Otis feel less self conscious of his large blue appendage. Please commemorate this day with us and show your support by wearing blue on friday. We hope to produce ribbons and wrist bands in the near future. A Fund has been created to support Otis in his time of need. To make a donation, contact Shelley and she will make arrangements for direct deposit into her bank account.
Love to all.

Otis and Supporters

Otis Supporters Unite: You never know-you could be next!


i'm blue,
cam

5.01.2005

there's mental mapping and then there's just mental


dear friends,

this is part of my proposal for the working-group i am trying to become part of. i made it with mindmanager. i am hoping the academic liscence is less than my ipod. i am addicted and there are only 19 days left in my trial.

in other news, this has nothing to do with my event-history paper which in spite of some valiant efforts yesterday and today remains a work in progress. i had promised myself the madness would stop with may, but alas... mental health is hanging on a hinge

back to it,
cam

another reason to hate toronto drivers


dear friends,

sad story out of the beaches this morning. little otie (who has grown up since this picture) was the victim of a hit and run. the bad driver took off and left otie with a broken leg, which now sports a little blue cast. it looks like he will be okay in the end... but it is the saddest thing ever.

otie sure is in a muddle!
cam