#101

so apparently, this is my one hundred and first post.

yikes. i need to get a life.

but before i do... let me tell you that i just finished reading the best novel i have read in a very long time--perhaps, ever. the kite runner, by khaled hosseini. i can't even put into words right now what was so amazing about it, because i just finished it. (i started it on saturday night. it's a 400 page book. yes, it's that riveting. i'm supposed to be writing papers, doing reading that's relevant to them, and i have been addicted to the kite runner.)

if you ever need a good book to read with a book club or just on your own, pick this one up. maybe i'll try to explain its goodness later. or not.

the joys of public transit

Yesterday night I was coming home on the streetcar (after waiting for at least 15 minutes for it), going north on Bathurst (I know these street names will probably mean nothing to most of you), desperately hoping to catch the subway before it closed at 1:50am.

If you miss the subway, there are buses that run the same route as the subway, but they are not-so-affectionately called "the drunk buses" because you ride them with the people who were kicked out of the bars at last call. Anyway, I've had a few bad experiences on the drunk bus, so I like to avoid it if at all possible.

So here I am, in the streetcar, a block away from the subway station, minding my own business, when suddenly we stop. In the middle of an intersection. Right in the middle. Blocking all traffic going both ways. So I'm a little curious, but not worried. But we don't move for a minute or two, and now I get annoyed. Why are we stopped?? I hate the drunk bus!!

Well, I hear the guy behind me call his friend on his cell phone and tell him that he's going to be late because there is a homeless man standing directly in the path of the streetcar waving around his transfer. Huh?? I look out the front of the streetcar. Sure enough, there he is, a middle-aged man who looks a little ragged, and he is standing facing the streetcar, wildly waving his transfer. The driver, obviously not the confrontational type, simply puts on his flashers, picks up a newspaper, and sits there reading. There wasn't really anything he could do, anyway, short of physically removing the guy--it's not like he could go around him! After five or ten minutes, a cop shows up and escorts the man away from the streetcar tracks. The driver sighed and put down his newspaper, as if he were disappointed that he had such a short break.

I made it to the subway station just in time to catch the very last train of the night.

Phew.

boo that

so when i got home from ICS tonight, i saw my new answering machine flashing one new message at me. excited to hear it, i pressed the "play" button and waited in anticipation. a friend? family member? at least someone who knows me?

nope. my very first message on my new answering machine was from a security company that wanted to sell me a $1000 home security system that will protect my family from burglars, alert the fire department in case of a fire, and act as my "help! i've fallen and i can't get up!" system to boot. oh, and they even threw in a free vacation if i called a 1-800 number and entered the secret code 1068.

great. just great. this is what i was missing!

(i realize how lame it is that i've posted twice about my answering machine. it's taking me a while to get back into this blogging thing. i apologize. consider this a test of your endurance and dedication to reading this blog. it'll build character.)

now i am always available

well, sort of.

some of you reading this may have tried to call me in the last 6 or 8 months. some of you may have heard my standard, "hello, this is sara" if you were fortunate enough to catch me during the few hours a day i am actually in my apartment. others of you probably faced one of two alternatives:

1) the phone just kept ringing, and ringing, and ringing, and ringing...
2) an answering machine picked up, and you heard my message, and left a message. or so you thought.

the answering machine i had been using was lent to me. i found out later (by pulling out the cassette tape and trying it in my stereo) that it was from at least as far back as 1994. i don't think it worked properly once. sometimes it picked up and played my recorded message. sometimes it didn't. sometimes it recorded messages, or so it appeared to those calling. but i never once heard any of those messages, because it would never play them for me, nor alert me to the fact that i had new messages! after listening to the cassette of messages from 1994, i'm pretty sure it never actually recorded anything relevant to me. so now lots of people think that i'm a big jerk because they called and left me messages and i never got back to them.

in come my parents, the GST auction, and a new reachability...

i told my parents about this dilemma (and they themselves experienced the frustration of unreturned calls more than once), and they agreed to look for an answering machine for me. as it turns out, the local christian school, where my mom is the principal, had its annual GST (goods, services, and talents) auction on saturday night, and there waiting for the highest bidder was a new fangled answering machine, complete with digital messaging and three (count 'em, three), separate mailboxes. (i don't need more than one. but still. if you do call and get the machine, just for fun you can choose to press "2" or "3" and surprise me by leaving a message in one of my other mailboxes. thrilling, i know.) at any rate, they thought of me, bought the answering machine, and the school got the money. what a deal!

so now, i am reachable at any time. well, at least you can always be sure to hear my lame-o answering machine message if i'm not home to answer the phone myself.

Phantom - Feb. 21

Phantom of the Opera--Opening night!!

Ohhh...spooky....

Getting ready (no was as dressed up as we expected...)

pictures of the lenten days

Yvana and me, on the way to an OHL hockey game (reading week: February)

The snow that blew up against my door...I couldn't open it without the snow falling into my poor entryway!

Lorraine relaxing while...

...the boys do the dishes.
(March)

Jeff and I laughing at the guys goofing off in the hot tub.

Said hot tub fun.

Our amazing fondue feast. And Chris.

Lorraine's a good photographer. This is our magazine picture. I love salads.

i'm back

but i'm really tired right now. the ics retreat was last night and today. needless to say, very little sleep was had by most. including me. but it was a grand ole time!

here's a picture of my new haircut to tempt you to come back and check again later when i have a whole bunch more photos up... (ok, so it's not new to anyone who has seen me since march, but hey, i haven't blogged since then.)