Fortunes and Fortunes
Heckuva Monday.
I got up earlyish today, cut my hair, put on a tie, and went to get my passport renewed (unrelated to the hair/tie-wearing. It's just been a while for both).
Hiked to and through the Dufferin mall, a scene that's as sorry as any I've seen. Actually, it's not the worst mall, but it always makes me feel especially gross. Maybe because I went there once looking for a bookstore and found myself to be barking beaneath a wholly inappropriate tree. They've got a Cinnabon though. I am a snob.
I got to the gummint' office that lurks beneath the mall, and found it crowded with chilluns for some reason. Probably something to do with March break - maybe they were getting welfare checks or drivers' licenses or something. Anyway, a big (small) sign told me that they do passports there, but if you want them faster than 5 or 6 weeks, you need to go to an actual passport office. I was under the impression that this place was one. I was wrong.
So I spent 10 bucks on food court chinese, and spent 10 minutes playing Xbox on the display at El Boot. Electronics Boutique, for those not in the know. It's actually been remonikered "EBgames", but screw that noise. Letters. Phfaw.
Left that place, walked through Dufferin Grove Park, and met two skittish cats and a lot of cocky squirrels. If you don't know, my personal mythology declares cat sightings to be a wholly positive omen, and more so based on the cats' behaviour. These ones didn't want to have much to do with me. One was huge and pretty with speckles, and the other was skinny and funny-looking, kind of like a surprised chihuahua with black and white fur.
I traveled to work and met with some goofiness there. Work is dumb this month. I have all of two students to teach, and one of them will be taking off next week and coming back for the second half of next month's class. So I'll basically be tutoring a student for 15 hours a week. Might have to get creative and plan some field trips. Particularly since somebody broke into (walked into) our offices this weekend and stole the computer, projector and video camera that I usually use for my class. Oop. On top of this, some jerk was occupying the bathroom forever, and some other dumb stuff happened.
Still, the class went okayish, I wrote a bunch of stuff on the subway and enjoyed it enough that I got off the subway, sat on a bench and kept writing until old ladies started flocking around me and I figured they probably wanted to sit down or something.
On the way home, met one of my favourite cats of the neighbourhood, whom I haven't seen all winter. He's a ginormous black lump who always seems to be dirty. He's friendly though, and sometimes follows me around. So I hung out for a while, getting positive reactions from one or more cute girls on bikes.
Overall, kind of felt like the day was a bit of a journey from ill luck to good, like I may have been purging my last day without a banana from my psychic system (the other major ingredient of my personal mythology). So I was feeling pretty good when I got home and found a letter from Canada Revenue on the table for me. Apparently I did my taxes kinda wrong, and they want to give me a refund of 2000 bucks instead of 600. I am okay with this.
It's been a pretty good week up to this point, anyway. There was art and milkshakes w/ Robin, Rocks and rolls w/ Matt and Robin, French mewvie and tea and walkin's with Anna, and some penultimate episodes of the Battlestar. Falafels. Coming week feels like it needs to be super-action-packed, and I think there's a chance that it might be. I have no intention of powering down.
I got up earlyish today, cut my hair, put on a tie, and went to get my passport renewed (unrelated to the hair/tie-wearing. It's just been a while for both).
Hiked to and through the Dufferin mall, a scene that's as sorry as any I've seen. Actually, it's not the worst mall, but it always makes me feel especially gross. Maybe because I went there once looking for a bookstore and found myself to be barking beaneath a wholly inappropriate tree. They've got a Cinnabon though. I am a snob.
I got to the gummint' office that lurks beneath the mall, and found it crowded with chilluns for some reason. Probably something to do with March break - maybe they were getting welfare checks or drivers' licenses or something. Anyway, a big (small) sign told me that they do passports there, but if you want them faster than 5 or 6 weeks, you need to go to an actual passport office. I was under the impression that this place was one. I was wrong.
So I spent 10 bucks on food court chinese, and spent 10 minutes playing Xbox on the display at El Boot. Electronics Boutique, for those not in the know. It's actually been remonikered "EBgames", but screw that noise. Letters. Phfaw.
Left that place, walked through Dufferin Grove Park, and met two skittish cats and a lot of cocky squirrels. If you don't know, my personal mythology declares cat sightings to be a wholly positive omen, and more so based on the cats' behaviour. These ones didn't want to have much to do with me. One was huge and pretty with speckles, and the other was skinny and funny-looking, kind of like a surprised chihuahua with black and white fur.
I traveled to work and met with some goofiness there. Work is dumb this month. I have all of two students to teach, and one of them will be taking off next week and coming back for the second half of next month's class. So I'll basically be tutoring a student for 15 hours a week. Might have to get creative and plan some field trips. Particularly since somebody broke into (walked into) our offices this weekend and stole the computer, projector and video camera that I usually use for my class. Oop. On top of this, some jerk was occupying the bathroom forever, and some other dumb stuff happened.
Still, the class went okayish, I wrote a bunch of stuff on the subway and enjoyed it enough that I got off the subway, sat on a bench and kept writing until old ladies started flocking around me and I figured they probably wanted to sit down or something.
On the way home, met one of my favourite cats of the neighbourhood, whom I haven't seen all winter. He's a ginormous black lump who always seems to be dirty. He's friendly though, and sometimes follows me around. So I hung out for a while, getting positive reactions from one or more cute girls on bikes.
Overall, kind of felt like the day was a bit of a journey from ill luck to good, like I may have been purging my last day without a banana from my psychic system (the other major ingredient of my personal mythology). So I was feeling pretty good when I got home and found a letter from Canada Revenue on the table for me. Apparently I did my taxes kinda wrong, and they want to give me a refund of 2000 bucks instead of 600. I am okay with this.
It's been a pretty good week up to this point, anyway. There was art and milkshakes w/ Robin, Rocks and rolls w/ Matt and Robin, French mewvie and tea and walkin's with Anna, and some penultimate episodes of the Battlestar. Falafels. Coming week feels like it needs to be super-action-packed, and I think there's a chance that it might be. I have no intention of powering down.