August 2005 Archives

The other night, I took the time to celebrate Abby's 'coming of age part one birthday party'. I say part one because what good is it if you can vote, but you can't drink, smoke or gamble? I'm just glad we don't have busted laws about possession like they do in the states. We hit up Philthy's in a true Oakville fashion because, like it says on the door, it's "where Canadians let loose." Of course, by Canadians they mean middle aged men, but that's ok.

Apparently my habit of accidentally sleeping through parties has become very well known because I received no less than 3 phone calls on the way there from people who wanted to make sure I was awake. I still managed to get there before everyone else, and I didn't look busted at all (which is amazing considering I was sleeping 15 minutes before I got there). The party itself consisted of a large group of teenagers, constantly coming and going. It was a mish-mash (yes, I used the word mish-mash) of Dairy Queen and White Oaks with a side of Mike Haddad. I spent most of the dinner telling stories and being really loud. Typical Mike Haddad Stories: boys that turn out to be much younger than they are, people with hot relatives, and gangmos.

Philip was there, and I loudly declared his hate for me to everyone else. I'm sure Torie has done nothing over the years to alleviate the hate. In fact, I'm pretty sure she enjoys making the situation worse. It’s not that she doesn't love me; it's just something that would amuse her. I mean, the same thing happened with Joey, and now she’s doing it again with Philippe. The fact that their love can't compare to the Mike Haddad is all good and well, but you're not supposed to be telling them that.

I had to leave the dinner party early so I could do my last endurance swim. Adam had gone to get me vodka (note: Smirnoff, while no where near as nice as Grey Goose, still gets you drunk), so I paid and left. The swim was uneventful. The first 18 lengths were fine, but after that I could feel the Thai stuff coming back up. That wasn't pleasant, but I dragged myself through the rest of my swim, got my note, and left. Of course, I had to have the mandatory flirt session with the lifeguards, but that was fine. I just had a definite need to go home and wash off all the chlorine so I could re-pretty myself. That's something I won't miss: feeling the chlorine on my skin. Then I was off to the after party.

Abby's was apparently the place to be on a Thursday night because it was packed. After talking with Jess and Angela for a bit it became apparent just how little I had eaten. How did this become apparent? I was smashed. At one point, we went downstairs because Josh and Kyle were dropping Matt off. After that most of the night was spent in a drunken stupor hitting on a boy I've decided to call hot Robert. And I swear I didn't smoke with my brother afterwards.

I noticed something about myself after reflecting on that night. I seem to get very dry around people I don't really know, especially when I'm drunk. I don't really mean to be. It was either Jess or Angela who had said I just try to make people feel dumb. While this is a possible outcome of what I do, I want to state right now that I'm honestly not trying to make people feel stupid (unless otherwise stated). One of the gravest crimes in the Confucian school of thought is to make someone lose face, and while I'm not Confucian, I can still see why it has its benefits.

I did some thinking and came up with something that I had previously discussed with only one other person. It's not that I'm insecure, but if I feel it would be beneficial to impress you then I'll try. Around teenagers it means I end up being dry. I'm not sure if this makes me a bad person or not, but it's a habit that's caused a lot of tension between myself and other people; people who are insecure, or have the same philosophy as I do. It's not that I'm a try hard, but if I see a hot boy, or I'm with people who would make good friends or better acquaintances, then I'll do what I can to be memorable. I always thought it was just human nature. Maybe it's just Mike Haddad nature.

It is entirely possible to rank that as one of the sketchiest 24 hours of my life. It all started when Torie and I decided to add some homo spice to her regularly hetro life. Plans were to originally include Alyssa, but Ryerson scheduling conflicts put a quick end to that. And the initial attempts to take pictures to prove that I can be pretty failed. We ended up playing with the camera settings resulting in a number of pictures of me looking like an idiot. There's always next time, and hopefully it will include a shiny new camera.

After wandering the forest, we got home only to be reminded that: 1) I wasn’t of age, and 2) the LCBO had already closed. Luckily mother and father love me and donated a bottle of Grey Goose to our cause. I have never had so much vodka in a drink and not been able to taste it, so my parents had better start stocking up on Grey Goose more often. Since we had planned on moving into Alyssa's new place downtown, we already had a car and changes of clothes. We decided we may as well just drive downtown anyways and parked across from Wellesley Station. The drive down was uneventful, with the exception of the sketchy ice cream trunk on the on ramp at Trafalgar. Well, that and the dog that was riding a bike. That's when I knew the night would be interesting.

First person I found downtown was Trevor. He was cracking around at the park. After dealing with pleasantries, Torie and I left him and his friends to find things spike for our own drinking pleasure. Our first target: Starbucks Iced Green Tea Lemonade. By the time we had made it up to Wellesley Park to spike our loot, I had seen almost every teen homo that regulars 5ive. We did what we needed to, and went off to find Princess to respond to a voicemail that was left for me. I think as it happened I actually saw Trevor and Paul and asked loudly where Princess only wsa, only to realize that Princess happened to be standing right next to me. Luckily, we were on the move to KFC to get Paul something to eat so I didn't have much time to feel stupid. KFC didn't have what Paul wanted, so they went to McDonald's and we bid Princess and Co. farewell. Rather, I bid them farewell seeing as Paul was the only one who had spoken to Torie at all, and he was gone.

I had a phone call stating that I needed to meet Chris at Church and Gerrard, so that's where we trekked to as we sipped on our foul tasting drinks. For future reference, the Green Tea Lemonade and Grey Goose don't mix. As I got down to Carlton the most peculiar thing happened. A cab pulled up in front of us and a boy got out. Not just any boy though; Seany had made his return from wherever Roger had abandoned him. I don't think I have ever squealed in my life before then, but at that moment the flood gates were opened and I let out some outrageously loud, high pitched squeal that could have knocked a banshee out as I jumped on him. I'm incredibly lucky that he did the exact same thing otherwise I would have had to officially put that on the list of embarrassing personal things that Torie was subjected to that night.

Sean left to get ready for 5ive and Torie and I were off to meet Chris who had Justin with him. We went off to 7-11 where we found Jon, and purchased extremely large slushie things with which we used to apply alcohol to our systems. Due to all the previous drama, we ended up spending a fair amount of time predrinking and waiting for people to show up before we could head over to 5ive, and I spent half of my 26er in my drink alone. And then the drama came back.

I still don't know what happened between Justin and Princess; not the full story anyways. All I know is that it got physical very fast. I walked in on Danny yelled and promptly made the mistake of yelling "Shut your trashy mouth" because I didn't want to deal with them. Yes, I'm admitting it here too because I've already told everyone else about it. Most people would have been afraid as Princess rounded on me (apparently Princess and Danny had gotten over whatever issues they had when I was driving them home the last time - which reminds me, I should totally give Danny $10 for the gas money he gave me, since no one else did), but I was much more afraid of Torie. There was a loud "Michael Haddad!" yelled from behind me, and I'm sure my eyes were wide with fear as Paul pulled me aside quickly telling me not to get involved because they still liked me just in time for Torie to whisk me back upstairs. I decided to stay out of the drama after that.

I did sit outside and talk to Princess afterwards, after things had calmed down of course. Which only meant no one was trying to kill someone at that point in time. Nothing big, just cooling down outside (it was way too hot inside) and talking. Princess, like everyone else I talk to downtown, is easiest to talk to alone. I went outside a few more times as the night progressed and the music started to suck. I did see Mariah, which was nice because it has been way too long since Andre's house party (which, drama aside, fucking rocked). Eventually Torie, Chris and I left to walk around while we waited for everyone to finish it. It involved a lot of bonding between Torie and Chris, which continued well after I was dropped off at home. While I had a great time at 5ive, and I know Torie had fun, I'm glad we took the break. It gave us time to cool down, and get our heads cleared. This turned out to be necessary, since we didn’t leave right away. Instead we cracked around the parking lot with mass flirting and sex talk. Because what's a night if you don't talk about how much you like sex, and scar your high school friend in the process? For your own personal scarring, feel free to book an appointment with Mike at haddad.mike@gmail.com

It was supposed to be a quiet night. A few drinks with Adam, a visit with Laurence and go home to get my beauty rest for tomorrow. Yes, this does mean that I rank the hop higher up on the social hierarchy than regular clubbing. The hop is an event. College night and Bitch Slap are only fun when you're popping, and that gets to be an expensive and not-so-healthy habit. Especially if you consider that everyone is going to be at the hop anyways. I've had no less than ten separate people tell me that I need to go, and they want to see me there, so I figure it would be in my best interest to go.

My best interests are something that I'm keeping in mind now after last night; my innocent night gone not-so-horribly wrong. It wasn't long after I got downtown that I found Andre outside of Second Cup. It wasn't long after that when Princess showed up telling Andre he had been banned from Church St and shooed him off to Wellesley. If there's one thing that I've become incredibly good at, it's knowing how to pick my fights. I'm very secure with how I would be able to handle myself downtown, and I still wouldn't want to have Princess going after me.

I'd like to take a moment to interject the story of what initially caused this drama, since I spent a better part of the night trying to find out for myself. Based on the pieces that I got, it's for the most part because Andre and Justin lied to Princess and Patrick; the lies themselves revolving around the drugs Roger had stolen from Dave before skipping town with Seany. From what I gather, Andre and Justin had gotten a vial of k. I don't know if this was just because Roger had it, or to keep them quiet. (With $400 in cash and $600 in drugs, a $40 vial won't break you. Although I'm now hearing that the numbers are upwards of $5000, so I'm not sure what to believe.) I'm also going to do something different, and not speculate about it. I know too much for my own good already, and I'm just trying to not get diet coked.

There was dieting coking to be had too. Although Princess missed Justin and hit some random bystander, the intent was there. Just like the intent was there when she had the mace out, or when she and Patrick spent most of the night running (figuratively, not physically) around the village looking for Andre and Justin. Of course, every good TV show has subplots going along with its main plot, and the same shall be true for The Mike Haddad Show.

In part of the downtime between the mace and the chasing, there was an announcement that a Mike would be at Pizza Pizza in 5 minutes time. That conversation quickly degenerated into talk about how to get him into bed with each perspective speaker. I, being completely unaware of the fact that I not only knew who Mike was but was also close with him, stayed quiet. No offense to Princess, Trevor, or Patrick who I love with all my heart - or at least half of it, which is a lot for me - but it is ridiculous how there seems to be no respect for the term monogamous relationship on Church St. Hell, I'm not sure if they even know what it means. Its not like its something new that I'm experiencing - it was there as soon as I got downtown in the beginning. It must be our genetic addiction to drama; by our, I'm referring to gays in the collective - anyone who denies it is either completely oblivious to it, deep in denial, or not really gay. We will always do whatever we can to get ourselves included; even if it means throw ourselves at our friends' boyfriends. Its just a shame that I wasn't serious when I was placing bets, or I could have scammed some people out of a lot of money. It will be interesting to see what happens when the boyfriends find out. Although in this case it should have been expected with a boy like that (and there I go starting drama again).

Somewhere along the way, while Andre and Justin were making frantic phone calls around the village to anyone they could, they had apparently made the mistake of telling Trevor where they were. As I got back to the park with Mike after dropping Grant off at Wellesley Station, there was much yelling about revealing information and then everyone got up and ran off towards Buddies. Although he tried valiantly to keep the information secret, mace wielded by Patrick and Princess can make for a powerful bargaining chip. Not that I think they would have actually used it on him, but the fact that they have it with them makes a powerful motivator.

At this point I was getting a little fed up, so after cracking around outside of buddies for a bit I was getting ready to leave. And what flamboyant body comes outside? Not Laurence, who ditched me, and not his rice queen friend who I had already said hi to. Sitting on the bench was none other than Mathew Hilder (which should have been a little obvious based on the episode title). He asked about me hanging out with the Church St. Kids, and feeling obliged I gave a half assed answer. I don't feel like sharing a lot of the details about who's who, and which one they're doing while they try to bombaclot another one. I doubt he knows what even asking entails. Sure, he's a big boy, but he's still a Church St. Virgin, and he already hates drama. The last thing I need is him giving out custy looks to people and getting boyoclotted up and down the street. I would be compelled to feel bad.

So I never did end up going to a club, or getting the drink with friends that I had planned on. Instead I got to report on all the drama I witnessed, and I got to plan out in a little more detail how I want the theme video to work. I even got to try the comfortable but bumpy Oakville Transit Zone Express. I'd like to think I've been productive. And of course, stay tuned to be kept up to date with the drama. I'll do my best to keep you posted. At least until I think I'm going to get diet coked.

For those of you who have been kept in the loop about the selection of a theme song for The Mike Haddad Show, and for those of you in the loop because I never told anyone anyways: I have finally decided on a song. This serves the purpose of letting you all know that I am doing things to finally get everything complete here, and also of letting people know that I picked a song and its not been influenced by anyone or anything else. So without any further adieu, may I introduce the future theme song of The Mike Haddad Show: Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten.

The song is perfectly suited for what I wanted to do with the theme video. I've been planning that out in my head. It is to involve Toronto, water, and various clips of different friends doing different things. Yes, this does mean that I plan on including clips of friends from UW, clips of the church street homos (drama allowing), and the other homos. So, HT&Co, you aren't going to be the only ones featured on the site. If you have a problem with it, I'd like to direct you to the bottom of the side bar to the section where I need to add "suck it up" in big letters. Not that I foresee any problems, I'm just covering my ass on this.

So there you go. I did do something for the site. I will do more for the songs when I get the camera for my birthday. And I'll do more on the theme video when I can afford a nice camcorder and smooth over all the drama I caused on Church St. But that's a story for another episode.

I wasn't going to post anything because it is so incredibly late, and I should be in bed considering that tomorrow is going to be another long, killer day. Then I stumbled upon a livejournal that I read and decided I needed to post about. It's run by a boy who is spending this summer in Japan studying something or other. I find the timing of this discovery ironic considering that today I decided I need to create a massive verb chart including past-positive (-mashita), past-negative (-masendeshita), postive (-masu), negative (-masen), as well as the invitations and offers (-mashou, -mashou ka, -masen ka) and the -te and -nai forms. After that I would need to do a massive vocabulary chart, as well as practive my hiragana and katakana because you know that I've completely forgotten it (not 100% true, I remember all my hiragana, and about half of the katakana). I want to study in Japan. Joshu-san better travel and study abroad with me. He should bring Hanae-san too.

I had a not so pleasant day at work today, and right now I want to just crawl into my bed and not wake up. The president of the company came to speak to me about the Software Recommendations I had submitted for the IT head. With the corporate rebranding in progress I've spent a lot of my time compiling a list of all the software installed on various computers and the hardware that the computers are running. Never mind setting up and administrating the email change over which for god knows whatever reason is far more complicated that it should have been. I've spent most of my time doing simple contact databases when I could have been working on something that would benefit the company at a greater level. This contact stuff should have been done long before the official launch of the new name, after the new software had been purchased and installed. However, it is not my place to openly criticize how people far more educated than myself run their company. I'm just taking all the lessons I'm learning home with me.

But I digress: the meeting with the president. El presidente. I was sitting with him going over the recommendations, finding it far harder to explain them than it should have been (probably due to the fact that I always tense up around people who have the money and power to run companies), when, of all things, my cell phone starts ringing. I'm surprised that I didn't die on the spot, or even go bright red. I just apologized and silenced the phone. Suffice to say the meeting was over quickly after that; I proceeded to phone Justin back and freak out at him. Turns out they were having their own issues that needed dealing with downtown.

I'm not going into detail, because its not my place and for once I'm going to respect that. I'm never getting my $30 back, but for this experience I figure it was worth it. I will talk about how upsetting some of the recent developments have been for me. Chris and I have been fighting; I don't even know over what. It's upsetting. Now he's downtown and inviting asking what I'm doing and talking about how much fun they're having down there, when they all know good and well that if I was to attempt to make it down there that I would die somewhere between Grand Blvd. and Ford Drive. I wouldn't make it onto the QEW, that much is for sure. I'm not positive he's trying to make me, although I'm pretty sure he is, and it's working.

I plan on reorganizing the side bar. I've added in a thing with the most recent comments, and as soon as I can I'm going to set up a second side-blog detailing the updates about The Mike Haddad Show Events. Technorati Support FINALLY emailed me back saying my blog was miscategorized and I should now be able to claim it. Well not yet, but I can wait a little bit. I mean, Technorati doesn't do me that much good except for show me who has links pointing to me (and according to blogshares there aren't many anyways [I'll be adding more shares for purchase as soon as they fix the discrepancy]).

I had my first Bronze Medallion class today, which was not so pleasant for no reason other than the fact that the Quiznos' I had shoveled into my stomach before hand in an attempt to get something into my system. Well that was a big mistake, because after doing the first 10 lengths in the endurance swim all the Quiznos wanted to do was get OUT of my system, leaving me with a splitting headache and the feeling of vomit moving around my digestive system if I shifted positions for the next 30 minutes. It wasn't pleasant. I have to say that there was one really cute boy in my class. As inappropriate as it is to mention said fact (I'm sure Chris will have a fit), I felt it necessary. Not that anything would ever happen. Unless I suddenly take up the habit of seducing boys that are younger than me, in which case you can expect that it will not only be pon bed, pon floor, against wall, but probably across bench, over desk and in car too. But that's unlikely because you all know that I don't think ANY of you are ready for THIS jelly.

I was attacked by my thoughts on the taxi ride home last night. As it turned out, a subway delay caused me to miss my train home by about 30 seconds resulting in me taking a taxi so I could get home on time and not be shot by the parental units. That gave me enough time to think, with actual music to think along to. I was thinking mainly about how I have been a huge slacker, to the frigginmasendeshita. It's like to the max, only with more emphasis on being a friggin.

The big focus in my mind was the question "What makes the show unique?" In the end I was satisfied remembering a lyric rapped by Eve in her pop hit 'Let Me Blow Ya Mind' featuring the ever so crazy Gwen Stefani: "I do what they can't do, I just do me." Given a few seconds to giggle at the sexual allusions of that, I proceeded to think about what "doing me" meant. What do I have that makes me unique from the other bloggers out there? You can't just say everyone's special, because as brilliantly stated in Mr. Incredible, that's just a way of saying no one really is. So I started trying to think about what category the show would fit into.

More often than not, a blog is either personal or political. That didn't help me very much. My blog, though occasionally political if someone does something really stupid, is not anywhere near political enough to be considered a political blog. So that left personal as the most obvious choice for the show, leaving me with the unpleasant challenge of becoming more interesting than some of the better established personal bloggers out there, and their perspective bags of tricks (not the kind you pull; at least not yet anyways).

Dooce has both her daughter, and the fact that her body will NEVER EVER allow her to go to the bathroom in peace. The fact that she lost her job because of her blog gave her a nice little push into the spotlight. The blog at Thick Slab is both Church & Wellesley based, angry and occasionally R-rated. Xiaxue is a mediocre looking Singaporean chick that has no problem making fun of herself, no problem making fun of others, and a knack for doing both extremely well. I think the fact that she gets paid just to blog, and is given free passes to events also helps her case.

I think I have two things left working for me, and my anger is no longer one of them. That trait started faded, and is not usually beaten into submission by the fear of offending my close friends who provoke the beast that can be my anger. So anger is out. I have the fact that I'm a homo and I have nut allergies. I find the nut allergies thing rather amusing since I've had more run-ins with nuts in the past two weeks than I had suffered through over the last 10 years. Both times, the nuts happened to be hidden in a piece of food given to me by my father. So I guess that it has finally come to the point where I'm spending far too much to the point where I'm now a huge liability. Maybe I can run around screaming "My father is trying to kill me, read my blog for details!" for the publicity. Right.

I may not have been blogging in a while, but I’ve got some serious work accomplished on the site. More than getting work done on the site, I’ve been getting work done off the site. I’ve been talking to my parents about getting the camera, as well as signing up for photography lessons. I’ve been finding and installing plugins to make the site better than it is now. I’ve also been planning the next Mike Haddad Show Events. It’s become apparent that I’m not going to be able to make it to any of Kaitie’s photo shoot events; I’m going to be at work all day. Instead, I’ve been planning what events I’d like to have and take pictures of. No, not all of the events are going to be the mentally straining, long-drawn out, focused on meticulous detail style of photo shoot (only about half of those are). The very big event coming up (which is going to be cross posted on The Mike Haddad Show LJ Community) is the ‘Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Pies: That is how you get very big thighs’ Chocolate Inspired Cooking Contest.

The CCaCP Chocolate Inspired Cooking Contest is planned to work as follows. In pairs, contestants will make any sort of food item that contains chocolate in the recipe. I don’t care if it’s a breakfast food, a dinner food, or a dessert. As long as there’s chocolate in it and at the tasting you have the recipe with you then you won’t hear me. I’m trying to figure out where the cooking will take place, which is why I’m going to ask who plans on competing first. That way I can find out where we can find enough stoves to cook all this. I’m not going to supply any ingredients. I’m sorry, but I’m poor. At normal parties I try my best to supply foodstuffs and beverages even when its becoming less and less common. This has the potential of getting crazy weird to supply for, so I’m telling everyone now that I’m not going to be doing it. You can use anything you can steal from your parents’ kitchens. It’s for this reason that you’re not going to hear me ask you to make your meal nut-free; like I give a flying frigginmasendeshita about it. As long as you tell me before hand so no one with allergies eats it and dies, I won’t need to beat you. On the same side, you’re not going to hear me making it a requirement to be vegetarian or vegan friendly. I’m sorry to all our vegetarian and vegan friends. You’re going to have to deal with it; I’m doing the same about the nuts (granted you have a much more limited choice of food product).

Last night Adam and I want for a walk around Oakville , which was something we hadn’t done since before he had gone off to Europe . For anyone who isn’t from Oakville , it’s hard to explain just how therapeutic walking around some parts of the town can be. As great as it was to have the walk, when we were finished I was still left pondering a large number of things. I can’t figure out if the drama between me and some people is my fault, their faults, all of our faults, or none of our faults. I’m thinking that it’s one of the latter two rather than the former. I’ve never ever had this problem to this extent before, and it worries me. In a previous life I would have just ditched the friends and not spoken to them again (and if you don’t believe it, I can give you a long list of people I used to be really, really close with). Now I think the problem is that I’d like to continue the friendships, but I’m finding it hard to; I find myself frustrated with people and easily aggravated. So I try and think of other things.

I finished my Emergency First Aid course; I got 100%. Next week I do my Bronze Medallion. From there I need to try and find out if the courses are offered in Mississauga or Burlington so I can get it all done and do my NLS before I go back to Waterloo in January. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like that will work, unless I can somehow convince my mother to take my busted body down to Toronto for lessons.

I'm not joking. I'm getting really out of shape. My arms and chest are shrinking down and my stomach is bloating out. This phenomenon does not seem to be something I'm suffering alone either; Adam and a few other friends have mentioned going through the same thing. I guess its time to start going back to the gym again. Now its only a matter of finding free time, and I dare you to try and add working out into my schedule (work 8-3:30; bronze medallion 4:00-6:15; food and sleep). I found a note my mother had left me from god knows when in the back of my Half-Blood Prince. It was about phoning Family Fitness to book a test, or something. I guess I'll just book it for Sunday.

I sent my mother an email with the link to the camera I want from my parents for my birthday. Now its just a matter of not bankrupting the family because I want a camera. Granted, I'd totally pay for it if I get a good coop job for the fall term. I'm tired, and not funny. I'm going to go shower before work. If someone gets me a 'Being Funny for Dummies' I promise I'll try harder.

Slacking is apparently what I do best right now. I'm not exactly proud of the sketching either, but it happened and I'm dealing with it. I had a good time over all though, whether or not the sketch is included. I definitely felt really good the day after, even if I was up all night before hand. Now that I've started going to 5ive, I've come to appreciate a bunch of things, the top two being my bed and having money for food. College Night has better music than Bitch Slap, but I was also in not so good of a mood during Bitch Slap (and I was also rather intoxicated too). Its started to get incredibly busted just cracking around downtown with friends. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my friends; we've spent so much time together in the last two weeks that people are starting to call us a clique. Walking around the village in circles just isn't what I want to do with all of my time.

On to a hopefully more grammatically correct and understandable paragraph about what the original point of this entry was. Aside from the fact that I've been too busy to even blog (which goes to show you just how busy I am if I can't even blog), I want to send my slightly sincere condolonces about any voicemails I may have left people. They were apparently extremely amusing to listen to, even if I stopped halfway through to talk about the weather or to mention the fact that my hands/legs/body were/was shaking. Just thinking about it now gives me shivers.

I have a whole whackload of doctors appointments coming up. All that basically means to me is a day where I don't go in to work, and I might get to sleep in a little bit. Specialist appointments are not-so-tentatively scheduled for 11, 17, and 23 August 2005. And for those of you who don't already know, I work Monday to Friday, and then I have various lifeguarding courses. When I'm not doing these things, I'm either sleeping or out on other prearranged plans. So don't expect to see me, and don't get upset when you don't see me.

I didn't actually get a chance to mention this, but it was friday when I actually cracked for the first time. Sitting around unproductively whatever will power I had exerted over the first two weeks disappeared; I logged into livejournal and checked my friends page. It went against every feeling I had about crossing personal and professional lives, but I did it anyways. I don't even remember why but it was probably during the downtime while I was waiting to speak to someone, or check another persons computer. Which, coincidentally, is what I'm doing right now. Waiting for the manager's meeting to end so I can bombard them with questions about things that were assigned to me that I can't get done without them there on the next step. A little more autonomy would be nice, but I can deal. They get out at 12:00 which means I can ask the questions, and then take my lunch break.

I am learning a ridiculous amount of things on this placement, both about myself and the way things are done in offices. I had some trouble adjusting to what I like to call Office Life, or O-Life for short. Maybe even O-Lizzle. I should have seen it coming but I was too preoccupied with other things; I always hit kinks when I'm trying to adjust to being around new people. I don't think I could work in a regular office environment. I'm going to need to try and find that coop placement from the last time that advirtised casual environment complete with a week long Biz Caz Fri and on site tennis courts. It's hard for me to make the bonds required for the O-lizzle in some cases, made worse by the ever present fact that I'm only the temp coop student from Waterloo.

I wouldn't be able to work in a customer support position. Well, that's a little bit of an overexaggeration. If it came down to it I would be able to work the job and I would do a damn good job of it too. I would just prefer not to do it. We live in a world where too many people are using computers and not enough of them know how to use them properly.

This position wouldn't be as straining on me mentally if it wasn't a volunteer position. It's extremely mentally draining to sit at a job for seven or eight hours a day to go home and know that you're not getting paid for it. Let's add on the fact that for the next two weeks I have Emergency First Aid Training from 6:15-7:15; the fact that I have friends getting paid $17-18 an hour at jobs that they claim are either boring, require little effort, or both; and the fact that I have an extremely well flourishing scene life to attend to. And damn is it a flourishing scene life.

As of this weekend I've met all of the people I had seen around at the clubs constantly that were part of the crowd, and in the short period of time I've exeperienced more than enough drama to last me for the next month. I have three friends wandering around downtown, possibly homeless: one permanently as of right now, one possibly permantently, and the other unable to commute to his job; I have a birthday to go to at 5ive on Wednesday; and a dinner date tonight after Emergency First Aid.

In other news, Abby passed me a livejournal belonging to a one scottage_cheese who has done everything I wanted to do with The Mike Haddad Show and does a damn good job of it too. I'm dropping off MikeCam1 at Torie's tonight with the manual so she can figure out all the advanced shutter functions, etc., for the next big Mike Haddad Show Project. Now I'm going to lose the pants and go back pon bed, pon floor, against wall. You can leave a message and I'll call you when I'm done.

This weekend was Carabanna Weekend downtown. For that reason, I spent the weekend in Markham. I hope I don't actually have to ellaborate on the reasoning. It's not exactly pleasant. The short time we spent at Eaton Center thursday afternoon was more than enough proof of that. The regular part of the weekend (a.k.a. The Friday-Saturday-Sunday Run) was spent entirely at a friend's house in Markham. Nothing says interesting like a weekend at a house full of homos when the parents are away.

The crowd was the regular homo crowd that I had seen around either at clubs, in the village or performing, but never been introduced to. I shanghai'd the van and did what is becoming a very regular QEW-427-Eglinton-Park Lawn-Lakeshore trip to downtown. And by regular, I mean I think I did it every single day last week. After picking up Chris and then a one Christiano, we were doing the extremely ghetto trip up the DVP and I was being a huge bitch and not letting these ginos in some shitty car beside me pass me. I couldn't even tell you what time we got to Markham, or what we did until we left because there is a large blank spot in my memory. I do remember what happened after we left though: the LCBO and 717.

For whatever reason, Markham doesn't have any LCBOs that are open past 9:00 on a Friday night so we had to drive all the way into Scarborough to get to an LCBO. I make that sound much more dramatic than it actually was if you consider the fact that we had to drive into Scarborough anyways to get to the 401. When we got to 717 in Oshawa something dawned on me. It had to be the only gay bar in all of Durahm Region. I think it was actually an old warehouse garage thing that they put a bar and pool tables up in. Not that it stopped the drag show from being fierce. Roger and Mariah get my love forever, or at least until they start playing Marian Carey on repeat again.

There was a lot of drama over the weekend. I learned something from it too. No matter how angry and threatening a person is while they brandish a box cutter, as soon as the blade goes flying down the stairs its really hard to take the drama seriously anymore. At least until they start going off on each other again. I also learned that no matter how small a person looks, you should take them seriously or you might look really dumb after you couldn't get the sliding door on and the girl comes up and smashes it back into place for you.

All in all, after going back downtown Sunday night to suffer through more Carabanna shit and Carabanna-induced traffic, I've become sleep deprived. It's caused the quality of this entry to deteriorate. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. I didn't even need to mention boobies either.