P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE !!!! :)

Love,
Denise xoxo

Spring... ah lovely Spring. A time of rebirth and renewal and the FLU! Agh... I have been caught in the clutches of this horrible illness and of course right at the best time. Working on my project is a bit sketchy and scary since I cannot work as efficiently as I normally would but I've got to work with what I have I suppose.
You know, I thought that winter in Vancouver was fucking with my head because of the lack of snow but I have to say... I am so glad that it's springtime in February. Today down at Quilchena Public School in my neighbourhood there were Little League tryouts at the baseball diamonds! I can honestly say that in Ontario people are still skating on their neighbourhood ice rinks.
I spent the afternoon at Mel's scanning pics and my scanner didn't work any better on her computer than it has been on mine so I am afraid it is just aging terribly and a new scanner might be in order soon. I certainly hope not ... perhaps I can get through the term without a new one and just buy one next year.
On the way to Mel's house I realized that I had forgotten a disk to burn my pictures to so I stopped in at London Drugs and wouldn't you know it, they were all out of CD-R's in the small packages of 10 but they had the 50 pack of cd's on a spindle so I bought that. However, much to my shock and horror I was nailed with an additional $10.50 copying levy because of the new laws in Canada which put a higher tax on all recording gear. I couldn't believe it and trust me if I hadn't needed a disc so badly I would have returned the lot but what else could I do? I think it it somewhat misleading to advertise the price of cd's as one thing and then tack on the additional fee at the register. It made my purchase considerably more expensive than I wanted it to be. These fees should be in the posted price on the shelf and hey... if that makes them less desirable to buy then so be it but at least I won't be shocked by the time I hit the register and look at my receipt. Oh well... ok I gotta get off this thing... I am having another dizzy spell... blech....

Ok this is gonna be short and sweet tonight... It's been a long week, I am damn tired and all this week I have done a half ass job on my assignments. This weekend I have to sit down with a shitload of readings (some which I still have to read) and make sense of them for an hour long presentation on The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis and frankly the fact that my scanner is acting up is not helping very much. What the fuck? I swear that sometimes I am so friggin organized and then it comes down to this last minute crap where I start having technical difficulties. As you can tell I am in a rather bad mood at the moment *frown*.
I finally went to the Aquatic Centre today to accustomize myself to the UBC pool and I hope to become a permanent fixture there as I have gained some rather unsightly weight in the last year. I have my suspicions about the culprit because my lifestyle hasn't changed too much, but possibly just enough to fuck around with my body and mind a bit. Anyway the weight is moving out the door because I certainly won't be letting it stick around on this body. Also I suppose I forgot to mention that I was hired by that archaeology firm over Reading Week... well working for them in the hot smoggy weather of Southern Ontario for four months will probably kick my ass into some sort of shape that doesn't resemble a lump so I look forward to that too. Although I can guarantee that I will be pretty miserable from about May - September on Mondays to Fridays. At least this time around I can dig for dollars. Next summer I aim to get back on a real Classical dig and head to Sicily with one of my profs. He is taking students this year but I just cannot afford to do that right in the middle of my degree which is being funded by a massive loan that is disappearing rather alarmingly quickly. Ah... the stress of student life and the money which funds it. I can't wait for the day when I have a steady job, no debts and have more than $20 at a time in my bank account. Grr... I am just becoming more irritated as I bitch about things now.
Last night I had a disturbing dream about living in the south in an old Greek Revival Plantation house which was rather run down and also being attacked by armed gunmen. Now where the hell did that come from? Possibly from the fact that I read Cold Mountain recently and the fact that I saw part of ER last night where some freak stole a tank and actually drove to the hospital to open fire on a doctor who wouldn't treat him. Still my dream was freaky and it took place at night and I had to keep running from room to room re-hiding myself and keep loading a rifle. At moments the scenery would change into a modern streetscape that looked like London England (the way they depict it in movies as that is the only way I have seen it) and I would be running with a companion who was younger than me and also related to me but it was not my real sister. I think it was even a little boy. How odd... anyways someone was certainly trying to track us down and I have no idea why. Ok I said this was going to be short and it's turning into an essay. I have to save my writing skills for a creating my Eleusis presentation tomorrow. Good night one and all and have sweeter dreams than mine!

Well... back in Vancouver, back to school. Monday night was somewhat hellish for me because I was pretty much uncomfortable on the entire flight and even before that. It started with a migraine headache, then the gate change which took me from one end of the terminal to the other, then a 40 minute delay taking off, a sweltering temperature inside the cabin of the plane ( I wore a sweatshirt because more often than not it's kind of cool on a plane) and the fact that my 'window' seat was really the very last aisle of the plane where there is no window because it's next to that big engine-propeller thing which I found out is VERY loud compared to other seats on the plane. To finish off the bitch session here, I couldn't even recline my seat because it was pressed against a wall, but the person in front of me could and did most certainly recline their seat thereby making my space even tinier. It was just hell... I think on the way home I am going to book a flight with Air Canada. At the moment they have the cheapest seat one way to Toronto for sometime in May so I will definitely look into that because at least the monotony of reading for four hours and 25 minutes can be broken up with a movie. I can never seem to sleep for more than 20 minutes on a plane... it's kind of a bad deal when you think about it because sleep would be lovely.
Anyhow school has been interesting since I have been back. The seminar room where I have most of my classes has been rearranged and bookshelves that once lined the back of the room have been taken out and the wall painted white. It's much roomier now but also more cell-like. And where the hell did all those journals go? I actually want to use one or two but I suppose it doesn't matter now.
There was also a film crew on campus yesterday and of course film crews always seem to park all their trucks outside of the Buchanan building so walking to the library is walking through a maze of white trucks, food trucks, extras tents, etc. But yesterday they were actually doing filming in front of the library so I had to wait a few minutes to get in so as not to block their shot and get yelled at by some scary little director. And in case you were wondering what was being filmed, it was the TV series Tru Calling which stars Eliza Dushku. I haven't really seen her much since her Buffy the Vampire Slayer days although I know she has made some teen horror movies and other such films. Sadly, I didn't see anyone famous... just extras being shot walking into Koerner Library. Maybe I should try and actually watch this show for the day that they air that episode. I didn't even realize it had made it past Christmas without being axed by a network so I guess it must be doing marginally well.
I find it funny when shows that are made in Vancouver sometimes make it obvious. Smallville is also filmed here and I used to watch it much more frequently than I have lately (I need to catch up on episodes since Christmas) but one of the early episodes this season showed Clark in an apartment in 'Metropolis' and apparently the view of the mountains was forgotten in the editing room because I am pretty sure that Kansas doesn't have any mountains. Someone has also published a website detailing the Smallville sets in and around Vancouver and surrounding cities for any interest out there.
I think the next big film to come here will be some indie flick starring none other than Mr. Boobylicious himself aka Justin Timberlake. I imagine he will be well sheltered in some swank hotel downtown for all of March and April.
Ok well I have obviously talked about some rather silly stuff today but hey... we all occasionally need mind-numbing pleasures that distract us from real life. And speaking of real life I should be getting to the library to pick up some books before I start a long day of assignments. Have a good day everyone...

Oh man... I finally got the second last episode of Sex and the City downloaded and is it ever good. I am currently trying to hunt down the last episode which aired last night but I suspect that it might be a few days before it surfaces on the internet. It is so brutal that Bravo in Canada is airing the episodes a few weeks behind HBO in the US. I know news of the final show will be on all the entertainment shows and talked about everywhere so it will be hard to avoid finding out how it ends. Argh, how annoying... not to mention the second last show kind of left off in a bit of a cliffhanger...! I am so impatient... *sigh*
Well I woke up pretty early this morning. It must have been around 6am because by the time I hauled myself out of bed it was only 8:20am and my parents hadn't left the house yet but I could certainly hear them moving everywhere. They also took the newspaper with them which drove me nuts because I wanted to do the crossword. Oh well... I guess I will just have to deal with it. I should be washing my clothes at the moment and shoving them all back into my suitcase but I would rather not do anything at all. I am still in super lazy Reading Week mode. I am really dreading going back to school and having to jump right into the grind of things. I could do a bit of homework today so that I won't be totally screwed on Wednesday when I do all my last minute assignments for Thursday morning class... but that would be organized and ahead of schedule which I usually don't like to be unless it is for researching. Actual assignments have to be completed under the pressure of a deadline which is so horrible because then they are probably not of the best quality. How can I change this? I guess I just need a good ass kicking or something.
Anyways I was just reviewing some of the movies that I mentioned I had watched over the break and I think the one that I enjoyed the most was by far Mystic River. I hadn't heard much about it besides the fact that there is an extensive cast of many well known actors and that Sean Penn was up for Best Actor. It reminded me of an episode of Law and Order without the actual prosecution part. You see more of the inner workings of a community after a crime has been committed and the police investigation tied to it. I don't want to give too much of the plot away but if you like murder mysteries it's a great film to watch. I really hope that Sean Penn wins that best actor Oscar because I think his performance was more illuminating than Bill Murray's in Lost in Translation. I am not saying that Bill Murray wasn't great but I think that Lost in Translation was very over-rated. I didn't find it as fantastic as many critics had deemed it. I guess perhaps it was the overall storyline that was just bizarre to me and the back drop of Tokyo seemed like a totally surreal world but I suppose Sofia Coppola was hoping for that. The Tokyo that she portrayed felt like I was trapped in an electric neon anime cartoon except that it was real. I just found it very disorienting and I think that it made me realize that I have no desire to ever go to Japan. It was an interesting film but I don't think that it is something that I wish to ever watch again.
Ok... enough babble... maybe I will check in later before leaving for the airport. Gotta pack... somehow I feel like I am taking more crap back with me then I brought home. How does that happen?

Aaaahhhh... can Reading Week really be over? I have been so unproductive! Barely any homework has been completed and I fly back to Vancouver tomorrow. The most productive thing that I probably did was watch a ton of movies with Dave over the break (Lost in Translation, Mulholland Drive, Intolerable Cruelty, Roger Dodger, the ENTIRE 1st season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, 21 Grams and finally Mystic River). Ironically, the two movies that I did want to see (Girl with the Pearl Earring and Cold Mountain) were never even once attempted. I guess I will have to save those for a day in Vancouver when I really need a break. In the next week I have two assignments and a major presentation but at least all my Inter Library Loan material has come in. I will have to rush into the library on Tuesday and collect it all -- I hope they haven't sent any of it back yet!
This week has flown by so quickly that I feel like I have hardly done any of the things I wanted to do except spend lots of time with Dave. The next stretch of school is going to be brutal since I have tons of work to do and I won't be home until May :( At least I have a summer job to return to though. I was hired by that archaeology company and so at least that settles what I will do with my time Mondays to Fridays from 9am to 5pm for four months. I am also kind of apprehensive about the student conference that is supposed to happen on May 7th and 8th. I know that I should present a paper but I have no idea what to write or present on. Maybe I could skip town before that but it's an opportunity to put a conference on my resume which is imperative for my future career. And the organizers have threatened to track every student who doesn't participate down and make awful threats... I don't want to let them down after all the work they are putting into it with organization and planning. I guess in the end we will see what happens. It feels weird to be talking about May but the school year really flies by very quickly, I mean next week it will be March already! Where has time gone...?
The other important thing for me to do now is to find a place for next year (hopefully with a lease starting in September although I don't really expect to find that) and inform Elaine that I am leaving. It's probably going to be a lot more difficult than I think but I will be filled with glee at some point either before or after and probably filled with guilt during our talk. Man this entire situation SUCKS! It was so nice to leave it behind for a while. I am really not in the mood to go back to that dark basement... I guess reality must continue at some point, too bad it happens to be right now. Can I press fast forward on this portion of my life? I guess that wouldn't really be fair, but the thought is tempting and thoroughly unrealistic. Anyhow I have noticed that senseless rambling has taken over this entry and so it's probably time to cut it short. I know I have more stuff on my mind but it's mysteriously buried itself and I cannot remember it at the moment. I am stuffed full of a Red Lobster meal and I am going to accompany my dad and sister to Hamilton to drop her off at McMaster. Sometimes I just need a good car trip... anyhow more tomorrow before I board that dreaded flight back to the Van... Sweet dreams and good night! ~D.~

Yikes... it's been quite a while since I have written. See, I warned you that I might be bad at keeping up sometimes, especially when I get preoccupied with travelling home and hanging out with Dave and doing nothing productive (i.e. schoolwork). Anyway it has been a great week so far ... Valentine's Day went by without a blip which was just fine by me. Dave and I rented videos and had a 'romantic' dinner eating pizza slices standing up in Campus Pizza in Waterloo. We didn't really have access to a car so we were at his house most of the time but we ventured out a few times to go to the library at U. Waterloo and then out for breakfast today. We saw Andrew and Jessica's baby Dahlia on Friday evening and she was just the cutest thing! We bought her an outfit and I hope that in 6 months she can wear it because it is the cutest little stretchy denim dress -- hopefully perfect for summer. After Birss' viewing of the baby we went to a party that Melissa invited us to. It was a bit weird but it was good to hang out with Corrie and Mel again and see some familiar Laurier faces. I am beginning to see that everything I remember about Laurier is disintegrating as people move on in life and from each other. It's kind of sad because I hoped this wouldn't happen but it is and I guess it's not wholly surprising. I am enjoying Vancouver much more now and hopefully next year will be even better.
Dave and I have lots of work to do this week and I am back in TO for the moment for a Dr.'s appt and a job interview tomorrow. I am hoping that it goes well because it is a job at an archaeology company that I would love to work for. At least I would be gaining experience in my field and living in Toronto. Now I have to ace that interview and cross my fingers and toes. I hate interviews and the fewer that I have to subject myself to in order to get a job the better. School has been more expensive than I thought this year although I could be more prudent with the money and tone down buying a lot of the books. But it is just that in the end these are all books I have to read and in some way or another should be in my personal library for reference.... ah well... I love books, what else can I say?
Anyhow I think that tonight I should get a good night's sleep before my big day tomorrow. Dave's bed kills my back and I am excited to sleep on my lovely mattress before being shunted back to that crap bed in Vancouver.
I will write again soon! Sweet dreams and good night all.... ~D.~

Fate turned around and gave me a big middle finger today. I received an email from the John Mayer Local-83 Society which is the official fanclub ( I joined because you can buy concert tickets before the public and get great seats -- such as the 8th row Floor seats I had to sell last week because I chose to go home ASAP for Reading Week rather than waiting until after the concert on the weekend). The letter I received from them informed me that there would be a Meet and Greet with John Mayer before the concert only for specific Local 83 members... all you had to do was RSVP and show up. I want to officially cry now. It was hard turning over those tickets to some random person I sold them to on Ebay and now it's even harder to know that I officially sold a chance to meet John Mayer. It's not that this guy who now has my tickets can go to this thing because I got the email and have the membership whereas he only has tickets. The thing is that when I first saw John Mayer in Toronto with my sister in November 2002 we also had a chance to meet John Mayer after the show and we couldn't stick around because my sister had a calculus test the next day. I mean she offered to make her way home alone but as if I would ditch her in downtown Toronto in the Warehouse district just so I could meet a singer that I love. I just find it a little twisted that these opportunities have come up twice now and both times I have turned them down. It's pretty disappointing all in all.

So I finally broked down and had a talk with Mary today to tell her that I won't be staying in the summer and that I am having problems with Elaine as a roommate. Obviously she cannot kick Elaine out for not cleaning our house and I realize this but I just felt that I had to make her aware of the way I was feeling and what was going on. She was concerned that Elaine has crammed her personal heater between her bed and dresser so at some point when Elaine returns I will have to mention to her the fact that it is a major fire hazard and she will have to move it. I don't know why she has done that since the instructions on the side of it clearly state that it should not be within three feet of any furniture... but Elaine seems to be completely oblivious to reality sometimes. Anyways I have no idea if Elaine is staying here in the summer but I am definitely leaving and if she does not have a new roommate she has to pay the whole rent on her own. It's shitty but I want to avoid paying rent in the summer if possible (especially since I have to pay tuition.. grr) and I hope to get a job in Ontario. I have no allegiance to Elaine since she and I are not friends and we have had our issues over money and paying our fair share of the bills before but I don't really want to get into that. I know Elaine can afford things that she says she cannot (judging by the food she buys, the fact that she doesn't have to pay tuition and her family background amongst other things). I find that really unbearable since all students are in the same boat in terms of some financial burden and she seems to think that she should only pay certain parts of things. OK I am not going into that further because I feel anger welling up again. I DO NOT WANT TO BE ANGRY IN MY OWN HOME. So to continue with my story, Mary let me know that most students leave in April and she usually rents to random kids from Ontario who come out to work in BC for the summer and then in September its back to students. I let her know that I would be interested in having the house in September again if Elaine was not going to stay. It would either be me on my own or with a roommate of my choice (hopefully Dave). I think it's fair that if Elaine moves out in the summer that the house is really up for grabs for anyone in September although I know the right thing would be to let her have it since she found it and all. I hope that I didn't put Mary in a spot but since there is nothing she can do I sincerely doubt it. I mean the only problem would be if I found a new place to live and moved out before the end of the school year. But since our lease is month to month and you only have to give a month's notice, it is pretty easy to leave. The only person I would be screwing is Elaine... and sometimes I wonder if that wouldn't be such a bad thing.

On the school work front I haven't done as much as I had planned for this weekend yet. I really want to get a lot of research and photocopying for projects out of the way before Reading Week. I leave on Thursday after class which ends at noon. I have to hightail it home ASAP and get a cab immediately for the airport because my flight leaves at 2:15pm. I am assuming that most people aren't flying east for reading week and that they will not be leaving on a Thursday *cross your fingers*. I know that I won't get to do all the things I want over Reading Week as I couldn't even do all the things I wanted to do at Christmas and I was home for about 5 weeks. I will definitely be hanging with Dave a lot but I also have to do some schoolwork and make some time to head down to U of T to find some resources that UBC doesn't have and probably won't get due to the terrible state of the Inter-Library Loan department. I am amazed at how slow they are but another student in my department has informed a few of us that Library lay-offs were made to Reference staff... absolutely unacceptable for any student! It's so frustrating. In many ways I miss Laurier because they just seemed so much more efficient even though there were limitations due to the size of the school and the amount of funding it received. For all the money that UBC has it seems to bypass any Arts department and go right into science. Another beef of mine is that there is no joint library system with Simon Fraser University which would really be an asset as they have some books that surprisingly we do not. Argh... administration and politics, they only get more complicated the deeper into education you step.
I guess I should go back to work... or return the movies I rented. I have watched Thirteen and The Good Thief this weekend. Perhaps I will come home with another movie... ? :D At this point I just want to stop doing work or even thinking about it and just vegetate until Thursday but then I really would be screwing myself. One thing I can decide on is that I want another glass of iced tea...

P.S. Dave... I hope you come back soon from Tummon's cottage... the last 34 hours have been unbearable without you to talk to.

I do believe that today is going to be a bit of a rough day. On top of not actually trying to sleep until about 5:30am this morning, I kind of tossed and turned until about 11am. Hardly any sleep at all I know but I guess I did have that three hour nap yesterday... Something tells me naptime is in the cards again for today.
Currently it seems to be a balmy 7C and absolutely pouring rain. I haven't minded winter so far in Vancouver but the rain is certainly depressing and today it's probably going to hinder my grand plans of actually getting to school and doing research and hauling books back to the house. Hopefully I can muster the guts to do this because I must have a good research weekend before Reading Week.
March will be presentation after presentation. Upcoming topics are: Eleusis ( I guess everything I can talk about in an hour and a half), The Argive Heraion (), The Neocorate (which from what I can tell so far refers to the priesthood that maintained the Imperial cult temples in Asia Minor), and finally Pisidian Antioch ().
Yesterday I finally sat down with Dr. De Angelis after class and we figured out a suitable research project for GREK 535 and I will be studying the development of the settlement at Ancient Syracuse so that is another topic to add to the list and start accumulating material for. It's amusing to find that at Laurier I took five full courses and was just fine with handing things in but here at UBC I only have to take 3 per term and I feel like I have tons more work. Where is the justice?

Well Elaine has taken off for rainy Seattle for a few days so I have the house to myself. I have already done a bit of cleaning and I think it's probably time to sit her down when she comes back and talk about cleaning again. It is really unacceptable that just because we are both busy that we cannot find some of our spare time to live in a decently clean apartment. I know for instance that she constantly talks to friends on the internet and watches movies on her computer so she is not all work and no play (but oddly enough she never really seems to go out on weekends). I won't clean up after her so this just delays everything. I think we need to have a concrete schedule on the fridge or something because I do want my remaining weeks here to be pleasant.

That brings to mind the problem of where the hell I am going to live next year. We briefly chatted the night before she left for Seattle (Wednesday) about the summer and I said that if possible I want to avoid paying rent this summer because I definitely hope to have a job at home and she seems to be of the same mind (not paying rent here if she has a chance to work elsewhere). We will have to talk to Mary about this but Elaine doesn't realize that I was planning to give my notice that I was moving out. Perhaps somehow I can work it out that if we both move out then I will tell her that I am not planning to move in again in September and behind her back I can swing a deal with Mary to have the apartment to myself next year. It's sneaky and mean and I don't want to do it but Elaine is the cheapest roommate that I have ever had and I know that she has some money about her. I just have my issues with the way some of our bill payments have come up and such. Anyhow if I can get the apartment just for me that leaves open the possibility for Dave moving in. I know I can afford the rent on my own if I budget right and I definitely would prefer it since I rejoice every time Elaine walks out the door for more than 2 hours. Dilemmas dilemmas...
Am I an awful person to be this sneaky? I suppose to the average person who hasn't heard some of the horror stories of living here you would say 'yes' but I have lived with many people and would like to think that I have some bit of patience but the end of my rope is fast approaching and the scene could get nasty if the status quo doesn't change.
Whatever happens, I will just have to hope that things work out for the best. I generally like Kerrisdale because it has all the services I need and a few more and the neighbourhood is very nice as is Mary our landlord. Anyways, I need to get off this topic. It in some form pops up every day and at the moment I have not had enough sleep to coherently make any conclusions.
I think I am going to experiment with some more editing... until later... ~D.~

Well,

I have had a very late night and done some serious upgrading to this site. It still looks pretty bare but if you only knew how long I have been sitting here messing around with the HTML codes. I just want to thank you Greg for putting up with my idiotic questions. I guess that weblog seminar today wasn't too instructional but it got me started! Anyways... to bed... its 448am .. ugh.

Ok... I must admit that I was wrong about Ticketmaster. They called yesterday to inform me that the show was cancelled and I would receive every single cent back because it was cancelled by the label/promoter or whatever. Ticketmaster CAN BE merciful to the average consumer.
Today I am extremely tired, unproductive and pissed that Elaine doesn't have a fucking clue in her head to wipe down the stove which is spattered with grease from HER cooking and the counter that currently has curry stains on it. I am going crazy here. I don't mean to incessantly bitch and moan about this but how can a graduate student have such a miserable homelife and succeed at school? I tell you... only a few more months of this hell and then I am outta here.