I've made little tags that say "bahgs by tina," with a little sheep. It's my own "line," minus the plans for selling them.

This Christmas break has been nice so far. My parents have generally left me alone to do whatever I please, and I've just been really anti-social and feeling tired and sick. It's been snowing a lot, and so it's quite pretty. I've been getting my Star Trek fixes; sometimes SATC just doesn't cut it.

On Thursday, I had all you can eat sushi with Ally M., Gina, Steph, Janice, and the rest of the "church" people. It was nice seeing them again; I only see Gina at school. On Friday (Christmas Eve), Ally C. and Janette came over and we just hung out and talked forever, I so needed that!

I got some cool presents. A hairdryer, watch, a book, and Swarovski necklace from the parentals; Elenor Rigby by Douglas Coupland in hardcover from Jason; a L'Occitane box set and a Soigne gift set from my aunt, a Boucheron Jaipur Saphir box set from my neighbours, and probably some other things I can't remember.

Classes resume January 3rd. I'm ticked, because Queen's doesn't start again until a week later, on the 10th.

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19 December 2004

If you've followed my designing throughout the years, you would notice that my palette is generally dark. Rarely do I ever create something with a white background, and the first time I strayed from my typical black was nearly a year and a half ago, and it lasted until now. When I showed Ally the beginnings of this layout, her first reaction was "BACK IN BLACK!"

A lack of drive is what I attribute to my design hiatus. Nothing reached me to the point where I couldn't explain it in words (through an entry). After the Pilate show on Wednesday, I'd never craved an creative outlet more. The result is this design. I enjoyed creating it as much as I enjoy the end result.

All of the photos were taken on my Canon Powershot A75 by me (with the exception of the one under "Bella," obviously someone else took that one). The main image on the blog pages is of Bloor St. West on the morning on the Santa Claus Parade (when else would I have been able to stand in the middle of all the lanes without being hit?). The sunset under "Elsewhere" was taken from a car window en route to Jono's cottage in Bala in late August with no flash and a lower shutter speed.

This layout was built for Firefox, but it works in IE with minimal alignment issues that I don't want to fix for an inferior browser. Everyone should be switching to Firefox; tabbed browsing is the way of the future!

Lyrics are all Pilate:

I have found my muse. Pilate is my muse. I've never been more inspired.

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16 December 2004

The last time I said that was after the Goo Goo Dolls show two and a half years ago.

The sold-out Pilate show at the Mod Club last night was nothing less than brilliant and beautiful. They put on a really good live show, considering how melancholy their records are. This girl on my floor calls it "suicide music." I was so floored the entire time. They did an awesome rendition of "Into Your Hideout," I almost cried during "Fall Down," and "Endgame/A Reprise." There were no barriers and minimal security, which made for a very intimate show. I was standing right at the stage exactly in front of Todd Clark, wearing my XXL-Markville Music-tshirt-turned-halter-top, and then I talked to him after the show after I talked to Ruby (bassist). Todd signed my (very, very pretty) tour poster and we talked about Markville Music, and he was like "They still work there?" when I mentioned Mr. Taylor and Mr. Corrigan. I also stole the setlist after the show/before the encores (they played 4 encores, count them, FOUR!!!!) and everyone was screaming for "Alright" and finally Todd was like "And this song is called 'Alright'" and everyone went nuts. I had the best time EVER. I was so happy I couldn't even chew when Ally (who came all the way from Burlington just to see them and me!), Ama, and I went to some pizza place on the way back to St. Hilda's.

My favourite part of the whole night was the fact that you could tell that the band was honestly just so fucking happy and in love with what they do. It just makes the whole experience that much better because it's just that much more authentic and sincere, and just about nothing in the whole world makes me smile like that.

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8 December 2004

It's a tad scary to break this down, but I am done one eigth of my bachelor's degree--not without a week and a half of all nighters (I'm not exaggerating, I lived in Robarts for about a week), a trip to the ER at Mount Sinai, and lots of Thai and Japanese delivery or just going to the restaurant at ungodly hours of the morning (well, for going to a restaurant). Only in Toronto can you get sushi made fresh at 1am if you so desire.

I wrote my last exam this evening. Ama and I went for Thai (my new "thang!") afterwards and when we got back Laura broke out the zinfandel and we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding because Aidan/John Corbett is my new tv hubby. ;) We downed two bottles in about 15 minutes between the three of us. Then we went to the Frosh "Xmas Xtravaganza" were we cackled obnoxiously while sitting front and centre (slightly inebrieated) at everything including a very sad rendition of the Mean Girls dance. Then we came back to finish watching BFGW and Alan brought over a bottle of red wine and we drank that, too. "TINA, YOU BOOZEHOUND!" "OPA!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Yesterday Laura, Ama and I watched the two-part series finale of Sex and the City and we bawled like babies. I haven't cried that hard since my last nervous breakdown, which I think must've been during high school. I am such a fucking wuss now. I guess this is what happens when I live in an all-girls rez for three months! Before then I would not even HEAR of SATC whenever Alex mentioned it ("You're SO a Miranda!" "WHATEVER!"). I don't know where I went. I need an ST fix.

I'm just happy to be done school for now. I'm going to with Alan to pick up his $300 computer speakers tomorrow, then it's Christmas dinner! Thursday I'm gonna go shopping (Bloor West, look out!) and then go to the airport to pick up the parental units. I'll be back and forth between Markham and Toronto until Tuesday which is Ama's 19th and Wednesday which is the much anticipated PILATE SHOW! Ally's coming from Burlington and I'm SOOO excited. <3 <3 <3 Life is good. I can finally sleep forever.

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