If I had to, I'd characterise this weekend's theme as "family-oriented". Not to say I spent a lot of time watching Disney movies or anything, but more that it started with a (emotionally trying) family dinner and ended with my roommates discussing the joys of motherhood. My 21-year-old, hard-drinking, chain-smoking, has-a-hairdresser-brother Japanese exchange roommate and my Ph.D. candidate roommate with one kid already back in China both want to have a kid soon. Wow.
Never mind the separation of church and state, I'm more interested in the separation of personal politics and that annoyingly accurate insight parents have into their kid's psyche. My parents have a distinctly unfair advantage -- twenty years of unhindered psychological observation means that I've never been able to surprise them. I can't even burst into tears and argue adamantly that despite what they say, I will take French 12/stay in Honours Physics/go into public interest law, and expect to have a half-decent response. My parents invented the smile-and-nod. It's actually a dead-stare-with-knowing-smirk, but that would give too many clues as to where my own prized (and trademarked) *smirk* somes from.
And they were right, of course. I wish I had a blinding conviction that I want to work for the UN and prosecute war criminals in the Hague, because that would be insanely cool and give me a chance to check out the Bavarian palace in the middle of winter and enact my Beauty and the Beast fantasies -- but I don't. All I know is I like the sound of my own voice far too much, have a thing for English accents, nice suits, and doing the right thing. I really am a dime a dozen, aren't I?
End of season for the Spiked Crannies -- we rule. Best game we've ever played. Totally worth the huge chunk of cash I lost to registration because FCRA still hasn't reimbursed me yet.
Saturday night was a last-minute invitation from Cindy and Syl to go to their roommates' birthday dinner at Koji's downtown, and ended up being an interesting exercise of six degrees of fairview separation. My roommate was there, along with the guy next door that's always half-naked and eating scrambled eggs when I ring the doorbell, and Mike's (or Mindy's, depending on who you ask) roommates. I, incidentally, had the honour of being Mike for the evening.
And Sunday? Banana bread day. Ended up being banana cake, but I figure if I don't tell anyone it's like those guys that make up artificial flavours and name them afterwards.
Never mind the separation of church and state, I'm more interested in the separation of personal politics and that annoyingly accurate insight parents have into their kid's psyche. My parents have a distinctly unfair advantage -- twenty years of unhindered psychological observation means that I've never been able to surprise them. I can't even burst into tears and argue adamantly that despite what they say, I will take French 12/stay in Honours Physics/go into public interest law, and expect to have a half-decent response. My parents invented the smile-and-nod. It's actually a dead-stare-with-knowing-smirk, but that would give too many clues as to where my own prized (and trademarked) *smirk* somes from.
And they were right, of course. I wish I had a blinding conviction that I want to work for the UN and prosecute war criminals in the Hague, because that would be insanely cool and give me a chance to check out the Bavarian palace in the middle of winter and enact my Beauty and the Beast fantasies -- but I don't. All I know is I like the sound of my own voice far too much, have a thing for English accents, nice suits, and doing the right thing. I really am a dime a dozen, aren't I?
End of season for the Spiked Crannies -- we rule. Best game we've ever played. Totally worth the huge chunk of cash I lost to registration because FCRA still hasn't reimbursed me yet.
Saturday night was a last-minute invitation from Cindy and Syl to go to their roommates' birthday dinner at Koji's downtown, and ended up being an interesting exercise of six degrees of fairview separation. My roommate was there, along with the guy next door that's always half-naked and eating scrambled eggs when I ring the doorbell, and Mike's (or Mindy's, depending on who you ask) roommates. I, incidentally, had the honour of being Mike for the evening.
And Sunday? Banana bread day. Ended up being banana cake, but I figure if I don't tell anyone it's like those guys that make up artificial flavours and name them afterwards.
