Hayley's Journal

Thursday, October 6th, 2005

5:31 pm

I'm not even going to count how long I've neglected this journal for.
I'm feeling oddly at peace right now. I can't imagine why. I suppose it's partially because I've finished the first draft of my WRITE 398 essay, an interview essay that I was worried about writing because I'm not terribly good with interview essays. And what's more, it is not completely horrible. Then again, it may be because I have a topic for my presentation on Tuesday, and am actually interested in it. And then again, there's the CSL project, which is finally getting underway. (I'm going to be helping to write and format the ECOS website. It should be exciting.)
It's also very nice outside. And on a completely unrelated note, Spanish is a beautiful language.

Tuesday, May 10th, 2005

5:38 pm

Not being in school is suiting me quite well right now. Work is going well. I've officially been working at the library for a year. I had a performance review on Saturday, which went fine. Saturday was also interesting because the power kept going out. Anyone travelling around St.Albert may have noticed this with some traffic lights as well. It didn't affect me much, seeing as I was shelving in an area with enough natural light to keep going, but the library more or less closed, which meant that some people were getting bored and coming up with ideas for screenplays I should write (a murder mystery taking place when we're stuck in the library because of something to do with a meteorite...I didn't quite catch the details, but I don't think it made sense).
Sunday was also fun because of Lesley’s choir concert. They were singing a couple of songs that the ESSMY choir sang at some point. “J’entends le Moulin” and “I Went to the Market,” which was written half in English and half in French (actually, each sentence was half English and half French). The KinderSingers were once again adorable and amusing.
Yesterday was dull, except that I made pitas, and much to my surprise they worked quite well.
The remainder of the week promises to be much more interesting. Thursday and Friday we’re having a garage sale from 3-8, so I will probably be sitting in the garage during the majority of that time. If anyone wants an entertainment centre, Sweet Valley Junior High books, billions of tins, or other random items, please feel free to come.
Laurel will be getting home from her three weeks in Nicaragua on Saturday. I’m very excited to hear her stories.
And lastly, my grandparents are arriving from Victoria on Monday. We still need to get our disaster of a basement set up for them. The garage sale’s supposed to help a bit with that. As was painting the study and putting everything back in there. Lesley and I contributed on Friday by going kite-dusting (our productive-sounding term for kite-flying). Does anyone else always think of Mary Poppins when they think of kites?

Thursday, April 14th, 2005

9:46 pm - Dear World,

The school year is quickly coming to a close. I feel like it already is over, which is why I’m putting off the studying I know I should be doing now until next week. I feel strangely calm. Possibly because four of my classes are already finished. Possibly because I did well on my chapbook. Possibly because I got much higher participation mark in English than I would have awarded myself.
The Rotary Festival was on this week. This is the first year in…well, in many, that my family has not been in family music. We missed it horribly and are busy thinking of ideas for next year. Julia and Lesley were super busy with their billions of classes, which all went well. I only got to watch one this year (one of Lesley’s voice classes), much to my disappointment.
WAME finished yesterday, partly to my disappointment. It was a horribly stressful and time consuming class. But also very fun. The stress was mostly from our group project. Getting fourteen people together can be very challenging. Besides that there were a few other problems which weren’t resolved until yesterday, but now it’s all over and done with, and I’m really going to miss it.
Our house has also been the place for many parties over the past two weeks: Father’s birthday, Laurel’s birthday, Mother’s book club, and a library party. Contrary to popular belief, librarians can be quite loud in large groups. Our kitchen also has very good acoustics, so that might contribute to the noise level.
This has been a boring post, but it’s also been a boring day. I did next to nothing, and am horribly irritated with myself.

current mood:

calm
current music: Contradanza - Vanessa-Mae

Monday, January 17th, 2005

3:17 pm

The noise in my house is slowly driving me crazy. I think I may opt for staying at the university all day some days, provided I can find enough to occupy myself (which wouldn't be a problem if I were motivated).
On the bright side, the house is starting to look like something. Of course, it's always looked like something. After we knocked out all the cupboards in the kitchen it looked like a mess. After the wall between the kitchen and dining room came down it looked huge (and still does). But now our walls are not full of holes, the pantry has been built, and some painting has been done. It's so exciting.
Days like today feel really strange. I've already gone to class, and come back, and now it feels as if the day should be over. But no, instead I have to go back for my much longer class. Which is not to say that I'm not glad that I'm taking it; it's going to be awesome.

Sunday, January 9th, 2005

3:40 pm - Hello World!

I'm still alive and well. Really looking forward to getting back to classes tomorrow. Christmas vacation is so boring, and it doesn't help that I no longer have regular hours at work.

Next term is going to be crazy, but so much fun. The fun part comes from the classes like Comparative Literature 343 (Folktales and fairy tales), and English 388 (Children's Literature). The crazy part comes from the actual schedule, which involves 6.5 hour breaks on Mondays and Wednesdays (during which I will go home), and a 4 hour break on Tuesday (during which I'll have to find something to do, because it's not worth going home).

My marks for my three classes that weren't full-year came in. They went remarkably well, for which I am very grateful, as two of my full-year classes are merely going decently, and the other is going fairly badly. But there's still half a year to fix that.

Also tomorrow is the PK production of "Annie Get Your Gun." Julia and Lesley are in the orchestra, and have a fair amount of solos, being the only cellist and violinist in the group. So rather than come home during my break, I'll go watch the dress rehearsal. It makes the whole day seem more interesting.

Julia, Lesley and I went and saw "A Series of Unfortunate Events" the other day. The beginning was fabulous, but could be confusing for those who have not read the books. (I'm still anxiously waiting to read the latest book; Lesley's number 9 on the hold list at the library.)

I feel like I should have more interesting things to write, seeing as I haven't written in this thing for nearly two months, but, alas, I don't. Christmas and New Year's were fun. I'm currently working on a WRITE project, which is on "The Snow Queen." After having done some research, I've come to the conclusion that I don't much like Hans Christian Andersen (although I still like some of his stories).

And that's all I have to say for now. Seeing as this is one of the only ways I communicate with so many people, I should start to write in it more often. Holidays are a marvelous time to make me realize how little I see of anyone and how grateful I am that I am not an only child.

current mood:

cheerful

Sunday, November 14th, 2004

3:44 pm - Life

I should be working on my collage essay for WRITE 298. I really should have started earlier; all I have are my longhand first-draft scribblings. Although this turned out to be a good thing, as our computer crashed yesterday, so I would have lost it anyhow.
In other news, I went to the choir dessert auction on Thursday. It's a strange sort of event. The live auction part involved people paying immense sums of money for desserts not worth nearly that much. We went with the silent auction, which was nowhere near so expensive. The newest choir was also performing: the Kinderchoir, for 4-6 year olds. There were 12 of them. They were very quiet and sing as well as your average 4-6 year olds, but it was actually possible to understand what they were saying and they seemed to be on key. I was impressed. Speaking of choirs, Lesley just got back from choir camp, where the entire choir was given tuning forks so they can all learn to give pitches. Lesley has nicknamed them pitchforks and apparently it caught on. It makes sense, but it also creates some funny images.
Work has been interesting lately, with all the new people who've been hired. I got to help with training a couple weeks ago. I suspect there are some things I neglected to mention, but everything seems to be going well, plus it resulted in a change to my hours, which I think is for the better.
I've actually been getting back marks for some of my classes. It's nice to know where I stand. It's also nice to have midterms over, and if I were smart I'd stay on top of things, but that hasn't been happening. I'm getting lazy. I should get back to work before my terrible lazy habits become permanent.

Wednesday, October 27th, 2004

9:16 am

It's been over two months since I last updated, so now seems like a good time to do so. Also because I should be reviewing for my lab midterm (last one!). Luckily it's open book, I've already marked all the pages I'm going to need, and the practice exam was fairly easy.
I should also probably be researching for my essay analysis, which I'm not looking forward to writing because I need to use five secondary sources, and it's only 750 words long. And I'm going to do this writing at some time one the weekend, which is going to be very busy. Mostly because I'm babysitting for the entire weekend. Well, Julia, Lesley and I are babysitting for the entire weekend -- evidently none of us were actually free all the time. I'm going there instead of home on Thursday after classes, and staying until they leave for school Friday morning. And then from when they get home from school Friday to 9:30 Saturday morning.
Speaking of the weekend, Happy Halloween to everyone, because I definitely won't be updating before then. And I probably wouldn't remember either, because I rarely do. With the amount of kids who generally come to our house, I suspect it could go by without me noticing.
Anyhow, that's enough about my life.

Thursday, August 19th, 2004

11:25 am

This summer is going so quickly, for which I am very grateful. The reading game finished on Monday, which means that I now have Wednesdays and Tuesdays off (technically).
I read Hexwood yesterday. It's somewhat confusing, but that's mostly because I have trouble remembering each person's multiple names. However, the confusion is partly why I like the book.
We got our music writing program reinstalled on Lesley's computer the other day. Lesley wanted it so she could write something out in alto clef, and it would be readable. She was doing this because she wants to start the viola, and she thought is would be fun to play that piece. After finishing, she realized that three notes were out of viola range, but doesn't really care that much, seeing as she still got some practice with alto clef. I have also been having some fun playing around with the program, and learning all sorts of things about it. It's really so much easier to write music out by hand.
I have about 45 minutes before I need to leave for work. I wish I'd managed to wake up a bit earlier. It should not feel like morning at this time of day.

Sunday, August 1st, 2004

1:15 pm

Hello all! I have recently realized that I haven’t posted in about a month and a half. The first month of that is probably not worth writing about, as I can’t remember anything I did, aside from work.

Last week, however, was full of fun and excitement, because I was at Youthwrite. I won’t say much about it, because I would do a lousy job of describing the experience, but I am very sad that it’s over and that I won’t be going back. I did a lot of writing, made lots of new friends, and realized that I much prefer being woken up by the sun than by an alarm clock.

I got home around 1:30 Sunday morning, and slept until about 11:30. I detest sleeping that late, as it makes me feel as if I’ve wasted the entire day. When I got up, the rest of my family (except Julia, who is in Montreal) was leaving to go to Klondike Days. Normally I enjoy having the house to myself, but it was kind of depressing this time.

Anyhow, this week has been going remarkably quickly. I’ve looked through all my university stuff again. My schedule is insane, but I’m still very excited about going back.

Julia is getting home tomorrow, which is also very exciting, as I haven’t seen her for two weeks.

In closing, I just finished reading Gregory Maguire’s Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and I advise you all to read it.

Sunday, June 13th, 2004

12:23 pm

As Carla recently commented, it has been longer than two weeks since my last post. Upon looking it up, I realized that if I left it another two weeks it would be two months (and two days, to be specific) since my last post. I’ve decided to take the large number of twos involved as a sign that I should be posting today, even if I am having trouble remembering exactly what has been happening recently. I’m also much too lazy to be writing in paragraph format, so I am going to switch to point form.

Things I have done over the past 2 months – 2 weeks + 2 days (that I can remember):

-Worked on random days doing random things, all of which involved books (shelving, deshelving, laminating, stamping, withdrawing, etc.)
-Went to watch Lesley (and six other people) at provincials (for violin). It lasted three hours and was extremely exhausting.
-Went to Lesley’s voice recital yesterday. It was only one hour long, and was much more interesting.
-Read all the Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket books within the past two weeks. Also, “The Transmogrification of Roscoe Wizzle,” which was very entertaining, and “Many Minds,” which was not.

Plans for the future:

-Laurel’s choir’s concert tonight.
-My guitar recital on the 25th.
-Julia’s cello recital, also on the 25th.
-Hopefully I will eventually go see “Harry Potter.” Hopefully, I will also see “Ella Enchanted” sometime, even though it promises to be nothing like the book.
-More work, including setting up the book sale all Wednesday and Thursday, and taking it down again the following Wednesday.

Sadly, that’s all I can think of at the moment, so it will have to do.

Sunday, April 25th, 2004

4:35 pm

So, school's over. Technically. Except for the portfolio I need to finish writing and editing so I can get into a fiction writing class. So that's happening this week. Also: continuing the job search.

Seeing as that reminded me of the newspaper, it's now time to talk about music festival. For those of you get the Gazette, the article's amusing. About half of it deals with Liam and Shelby's unintentional comedy act, which is shown on the front page. Well, one of the less violent parts of it was shown. As for the rest of the concert, it was great, and full of people I knew, or had seen at some point in time. We did our family music thing, and Julia and Lesley went up to get their scholarship and provincial nominations. Previous to our performance they messed up on the introduction (by saying that Lesley played the piano, I played the violin, and Julia had just run her second marathon). But who really pays attention to the introductions?

Other than that, the past two weeks have been exams and studying, and all that fun stuff. And now it's all over. As is this post. It's amazing how little can happen in 2 weeks.

Saturday, April 10th, 2004

4:23 pm

So, seeing as I haven't updated in so long...

Today I spent doing Psychology notes for about 5 hours, and now they're done.
Lesley has decided that next year for LAJ she's going to try out for Jesus. Except that it's not happening next year, and Jesus's son will probably take over anyhow. And I don't think they allow girls to play Jesus.

Yesterday was Laurel's birthday. She's now 20.

The day before I went to a LING pre-exam seminar, which was lots of fun, as always. I am also very relieved that I'm in the class I'm in. Then I waited around for an hour before going to learn about scansion. Very useful.

The day before that was the official last day of classes. I handed in my French essay that isn't actually due until Friday next week, but I didn't really want to have to work on it during exams.

Nothing special happened on the two days before that.

On Sunday, we went and got Lesley from the airport. She had been in Ontario with her choir. Then we went to the Japanese Village to have supper, in celebration of Laurel's and my father's birthdays (my father's was on the 1st, when he was away in Allentown).

And that's about as far back as I can remember.

Plans for today: Make supper. Go for a walk. Write the vast majority of my Comp Lit Notes, which are going to be nice and colorful.

Plans for tomorrow: Study. Edit stories for portfolio. Grandma and Grandpa's for Easter dinner.

That was an ugly post. Perhaps in another two weeks I'll feel more inclined to write coherently.

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Wednesday, March 17th, 2004

7:20 pm

I hate studying. Actually, that's a big lie. It really isn't that bad. Just mildly boring. Currently I'm trying to concentrate on Linguistics, because that is tomorrow. It's guaranteed to be incredibly easy, and, luckily for me, doing better than a large portion of my class will not be a problem, judging by the last midterm and the stats of the online quizzes. All the same, I will be spending much more time tonight studying, because I want to get at least 95%, and being the academically competitive person that I am, I also aspire to being better than everyone else. :) The only way to be sure of doing this is getting 100%. As a result, I will continue to study until I know this inside out and backwards. Also, I'd like to be able to remember most of it for the final in a month, or somewhere thereabouts.

But who really wants to hear about this anyhow? Seeing as there is a one in a billion chance of me posting tomorrow (yes, I do realize that that is within my control, but I find posting 2 days in a row absolutely inconceivable, so it won't happen), I will take this opportunity to wish Kristen a happy birthday. Happy birthday Kristen!

On the topic of tomorrow: Plans include exam (yay!), studying for psychology, English, studying for psychology, choir potluck, guitar, and studying for psychology (surprise!).

In conclusion, I have too much energy at the moment, and I am going to go learn more Linguistics. Have a lovely day!

Saturday, March 6th, 2004

3:26 pm

It is now time for some procrastination. I did tell myself that I'd finish an essay this weekend, but there's still time. Actually, I'm in the middle of the French one. The good part about this is that after Friday there will be no more French poetry. I find that this is actually quite a bit easier to write about than the play though. Perhaps because the play was a comedy.

Anyhow, now for all the exciting current news. Firstly, Laurel and my parents left for California on Thursday. Laurel wanted to run one more marathon before she turned 20, because it's much easier to place in the 19 and under category, so they decided to do the Napa Valley marathon. They=Mother and Laurel. Father is just watching.

I'm really looking forward to the next two weeks. Actually, I'm looking forward to the next two weeks being over. This Friday I'll be handing in two papers (Comp Lit and French). The next week on the Thursday I'll hand in my English essay and take a Linguistics midterm, and the next day will be my Psychology midterm. And then I will feel immensely liberated.

I haven't updated for a long time, so I'm going to go back to the only other very interesting event I can remember since then: The Broadway concert. The preparation was about as fun as the actual concert. Lesley and I watched both musicals ("My Fair Lady" and "Oliver!"), and I made a hideously ugly "My Fair Lady" hat. We just happened to have a really huge hat lying around. It's a bit like those cloth frisbees that you're supposed to be able to fold up. It's the same fabric and has the wire rim. It is apparently also capable of being folded up, but it never stays like that. Anyhow, we stuck it on Chopin to glue on a bunch of lace and ribbon, and a huge flower made of white fabric with black velvet polka dots. It was fabulous. The concert itself was great. Lesley had a couple one-word solos. I am now completely addicted to musicals.

I guess I'd better get back to my essay. I WILL (mostly) finish it this weekend.

Sunday, February 15th, 2004

5:33 pm

The past few days have been pretty good.
Friday: Handed in lousy French essay. My mum and I made really good soup with mushrooms, barley, tomato, pasta, and a bunch of other stuff, and we had apple pie. I started watching some show with my dad, and was going to go with him to pick up Lesley from a party, seeing as I was really bored, and then Lauren, Megan, and Chelsea showed up, and I got to see everyone, which was fabulous.
Saturday: Got up early to do papers, did some schoolwork (very little), got bored. Ate salmon and more apple pie, and actually did go with my dad to pick up Lesley from yet another b'day party. We were probably there for about a half hour as they finished up their game, which was similar to Balderdash, and all the rest of the parents showed up, and talked, and it was fun, because I don't see Heather (b'day girl) very often. Though I will on Saturday at the choir's Broadway concert, my favorite of all the choir concerts. They're doing 'Oliver' and 'My Fair Lady' this year. I need to rent 'My Fair Lady'. I don't remember much of it.
And today: Having more or less forgotten about Valentine's day yesterday, we celebrated today by making chocolate-dipped fruit for breakfast. Then we cleaned out the storage room. Julia should get back later tonight (she's in Banff with Youth Orchestra).
As a result of writing this I can safely conclude that half of the happiness in my life is a result of good food.

Monday, January 26th, 2004

9:46 pm

I remember when I used to have a strange habit of thinking as if I was writing to people. That has thankfully gone away, seeing as I never write anymore, except for school. I've gotten lazy. Of course, after 5 days there's not a whole lot for me to say. Yesterday was family picture day. Seeing as it was my aunt who was taking the pictures we have the "proofs" back already. I was also horribly sick yesterday, so my nose was red and my eyes kept tearing up. I've got a bit of a lopsided trying-not-to-cry sort of look in several of the pictures, which mostly just makes me look evil. Yet they still look good, particularly the group ones.
Today I wrote an incredibly lame research proposal. We were assigned a poet at the beginning of the year, and it turns out that very few people wrote about mine. We need three secondary sources. I found two periodical articles and a book. As a result, I found myself searching the articles for a common topic, and eventually came up with one that is interesting: the relationship between the world and people. A bit vague, but I think it'll work.
Anyhow, I think it's time for sleep. Aurevoir!

Wednesday, January 21st, 2004

4:57 pm

I realized recently that my last post (from over three weeks back) was my 50th. And I missed celebrating it. I guess that'll have to wait for my 100th in a year or so.

Anyhow, the change of classes has been going well. Not much has changed. Except now I have a lot of research and writing to do. And sources on my poet, Pat Lowther, are really hard to come by. Also, thinking up a topic for my essay on her is a challenge. I wish I liked/understood poetry.
My main source of excitement recently was going to "Big Fish". Interesting movie. My other out of the ordinary experience was being told that someone cheated off my math final. Luckily, he did a bad job of it, so I don't have anything to worry about, though I must remember to be more paranoid in the future.
Also, I'm now in gr.2 guitar, after about 1 year.

And once again I have nothing more to say, and I feel that I should be doing something more productive.

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Saturday, December 27th, 2003

11:03 am

It's been a fun and exciting Christmas. Christmas eve was a big music night, which our cousins joined us for. The music (from my family) was mostly not too great, seeing as it was stuff we put together that day, or the day before. In any case, it was lots of fun and our cousins were incredibly excited and full of energy.
Anyhow, on to Christmas itself. The family supper was at our house, so I got to do lots of fun stuff like help make trifle and apple pie. I love Christmas food. We also played around with the new pedals for Lesley's electric violin. We found out how to make it sound as if she was playing underwater, or like a bass was playing with her. We particularly enjoyed making it echo for about ten seconds after she's played it. It made it sound like a round. Anyhow, We've been doing a lot of reading, particularly Julia, who has to read "To Kill a Mockingbird", and got books from nearly everyone.
Moving on to yesterday: Boxing day brunch at my grandparents'. I was half asleep the entire time. Then we went home, and Julia, Lesley, and I went skating while father walked Mindy on the river. I'm really really terrible at skating, but I suppose that's because I very rarely go.
And that brings us to today. Mother, Laurel, Julia, and Lesley have gone shopping (because Laurel was at work yesterday so they couldn't go then). I haven't the slightest idea what I plan on doing.
Also, if any of the m's or c's are missing, it's because I'm using this lovely new(for me) laptop on which their keys are slightly sticky.

Friday, December 12th, 2003

4:58 pm

Exams are over. I'm not exactly excited. More like relieved. Though I'm pretty sure the English midterm went very badly. In any case, I got at least 25% for having memorized a sonnet, and then some for writing a couple of very unorganized essays. On a more happy line of thought, I have an A in psychology. That class made me very glad that I had taken Bio 30. On the other exams: Math was fine, Comp Lit was fine, and I didn't have one in French, which was more than fine. I really want to know how I did in all of them.

Anyhow, I really have very little to do now, so I'll probably end up writing epic Christmas cards, and playing lots of piano. I'm doing some duets with my mum which is exciting. I also get to go to a few Christmas concerts. Something of Julia's I think, part of Laurel's choir's concert, and all of Lesley's choir's concert.

Over the past few days I've been slacking off horribly, however it's been kinda fun, and I feel very low stress, which is unusual when it comes to exams. I've done lots of pointless stuff, like watching movies (2 dvds of "The Muppet Show" and "Pirates of the Caribbean", which I got for my birthday). So yes, I'm lazy and horrible. I also managed to buy all my family's Christmas gifts except Lesley's without going shopping. I don't know how that happened, but I am very happy with it.

I feel so much more Christmasy than usual. Which might be because I've been doing Christmas baking, or because procrastination/boredom has led me to play lots of Christmas music, or any number of reasons. The point is, I am feeling strangely happy.

Alright, I haven't posted for over 3 weeks, but I think this is long enough. Not that I can remember if anything's happened during the past 3 weeks anyhow.