Our kitchen sink drain is clogged and it's creating an atmosphere of tension in our apartment. It's not just draining slow or something, it's completely backed up. There's dirty water standing a couple inches high on both side. It's disgusting and we can't wash any dishes. We're out of forks. I just ate a plateful of scrambled eggs with a spoon.
We're tense because we don't know who caused the backup. When I had a sandwich for lunch today and washed the plate everything was fine, but when I came home around eight or nine the sink was just clogged. GG thinks that some grease got dumped down the sink and screwed it up, which would mean she isn't responsible because she doesn't eat things with grease. And I haven't used the kitchen since doing the dishes Saturday night, so I think I'm in the clear. Maybe.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Back By Slight Demand
It's been two months since my blogging was derailed by exams and the winter holidays, so I've decided to give it another go. To summarize the last two months: all the girls went home on the 19th and I left the 20th. In that short space of time, I managed to break the lock on our door and had to have the landlord come fix it hours before I left for the airport. All of us had fairly normal Christmases except for GG, who spent Christmas in Morocco. She managed to avoid last year's ordeal in returning to Montreal though - if you don't remember, last year GG was forced to fly from Nice to Paris to Washington, D.C. She then transferred to the other D.C. airport, flew to Toronto, and rented a car with an oversexed Quebecker to get back to Montreal.
Anyway, there hasn't been much to write about since I never see my roommates anymore. Sometimes interesting stuff still happens, though. Yesterday I was eating lunch as Kate walked by in a robe and did a double take. "Is that a meat pie?" she asked. "Yeah," I said, because it was a meat pie. I don't know why she'd be surprised that I'd eat a meat pie for lunch. She later freaked out when she saw a centipede in the bathroom. I had to use the library's copy of The Federal Reserve System: A History to kill it.
Also, our landlord's have been bringing by students to look at our apartment on weekends as we've decided not to keep living together next year. Kinda weird.
Anyway, there hasn't been much to write about since I never see my roommates anymore. Sometimes interesting stuff still happens, though. Yesterday I was eating lunch as Kate walked by in a robe and did a double take. "Is that a meat pie?" she asked. "Yeah," I said, because it was a meat pie. I don't know why she'd be surprised that I'd eat a meat pie for lunch. She later freaked out when she saw a centipede in the bathroom. I had to use the library's copy of The Federal Reserve System: A History to kill it.
Also, our landlord's have been bringing by students to look at our apartment on weekends as we've decided not to keep living together next year. Kinda weird.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Examland
Classes at McGill ended on Tuesday, meaning that from the 4th to the 19th it's exam period. This is my first exam period not living in Douglas and it's like entering another world - Examland. In Examland, there are no classes you have to get up for, no scheduled mealtimes like in Douglas, and no parents to judge you for sleeping too long. For the first time in my life, there's absolutely no reason to live by any sort of schedule. Because the sun sets at about 4:15, I only see a couple hours of daylight each day. The roommates are either taking exams, out somewhere, or in Genna's case, studying at her grandparent's house somewhere else in Montreal. And my first meal is usually around 5, with another at about 10:30.
No matter how many groceries I buy, though, there's never anything to eat. The exception is bagels. Today I made the long, snowy walk up to Fairmount Bagel and ordered 6 All-Dressed, 3 Cinnamon Raisin, and 3 Sun-Dried Tomato. The woman gave me a very large bag and charged me $15, which seemed a little steep and chalked up to the high price of Sun-Dried Tomato. When I got home, though, I found 6 All-Dressed, 6 Cinnamon Raisin, and a dozen sesame. Great.
Maybe the weirdest thing about Examland is the fact that the Tribune doesn't publish during exam period. Throughout the semester, I've seen the guys that I edit the paper with - James, Tom, Bernard, Adam, and Matt - almost every day, as I spent at least as much time in the office as with GG, Genna, and Kate. It made living with women a lot easier. Now it's all women all the time. Mostly it means a lot less takeout and a lot more bagels.
No matter how many groceries I buy, though, there's never anything to eat. The exception is bagels. Today I made the long, snowy walk up to Fairmount Bagel and ordered 6 All-Dressed, 3 Cinnamon Raisin, and 3 Sun-Dried Tomato. The woman gave me a very large bag and charged me $15, which seemed a little steep and chalked up to the high price of Sun-Dried Tomato. When I got home, though, I found 6 All-Dressed, 6 Cinnamon Raisin, and a dozen sesame. Great.
Maybe the weirdest thing about Examland is the fact that the Tribune doesn't publish during exam period. Throughout the semester, I've seen the guys that I edit the paper with - James, Tom, Bernard, Adam, and Matt - almost every day, as I spent at least as much time in the office as with GG, Genna, and Kate. It made living with women a lot easier. Now it's all women all the time. Mostly it means a lot less takeout and a lot more bagels.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Birthday Season
November is the month of birthdays in the apartment - GG's was the 6th and mine was last week. In France the cutoff for school is by calendar year instead of academic year though, so GG turned 19 while I turned 20. This means I'm now a 20-year-old guy living with a bunch of 19-year-old girls.
The roommates and Becky and Madeline chipped in to get me a book about Barack Obama for my birthday, which was really sweet, and we went out to dinner at Le Pistol. I don't think I'd been there since going for my birthday last year. Le Pistol is a wonderful restaurant for many reasons:
GG is also a vegetarian, which recently got me thinking that I should try being one for a week to see what it's like. There are occasionally days when I don't eat meat just because I don't happen to have any, so it would just be like seven of those days in a row. Then I'd have to eat nothing but meat for a week to make up for it.
The roommates and Becky and Madeline chipped in to get me a book about Barack Obama for my birthday, which was really sweet, and we went out to dinner at Le Pistol. I don't think I'd been there since going for my birthday last year. Le Pistol is a wonderful restaurant for many reasons:
- All the lighting is red.
- They play good music that's not painfully obscure.
- They show all the Canadiens games.
- They have great beer, great sandwiches, and great fries, which is pretty much all you can ask for.
GG is also a vegetarian, which recently got me thinking that I should try being one for a week to see what it's like. There are occasionally days when I don't eat meat just because I don't happen to have any, so it would just be like seven of those days in a row. Then I'd have to eat nothing but meat for a week to make up for it.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Provigo
Except for Kate, the everyone in the apartment stayed in and did work this weekend. On Saturday night, GG, Genna, and I went to Provigo together and it made me think about how differently men and women like to eat. In general, I like to buy bread, meat, cheese, apples, carrots, juice, milk, and beer. These are pretty simple foods. GG and Genna, on the other hand, normally like to eat lots of vegetables and some rice/pasta, but occasionally crave foods like chocolate and social cookies. On Saturday at Provigo, for example, GG wandered around the produce section eating mushrooms while Genna spent five minutes trying to decide the best kind of ice cream to buy. Strange.
I just bought capicollo, Nutella, and a scone.
I just bought capicollo, Nutella, and a scone.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Cosmopolitan
One of the women (GG, I think) bought Cosmopolitan last week, a much better magazine that the British Glamour, and it's been sitting on our kitchen table ever since. I'd occasionally read the sex stories in Cosmo when at the houses of girls I knew in high school, but I'd never before had one sitting in front of me while eating breakfast every day. After looking at the cover for several days while eating Oatmeal Crisp, I realized that just how different Cosmo's headlines are from a magazine like GQ. The main headline reads: "BAD GIRL SEX: 75 Tricks for Nights When You Want to Be Just a Little Naughtier." That's ridiculous - imagine if GQ's headline read "BAD BOY SEX" or "BAD GUY SEX." Another reads "Lauren Conrad Answers Her Haters." Do guys even have haters? Do Brad Pitt or Tommy Lee Jones ever "answer their haters"? The best one is "'A Cougar Stole My Man'." A magazine like GQ or Esquire would never run a headline like "An Older Man Stole My Girlfriend." I don't think that really happens, and if it did, guys definitely wouldn't want to read about it.
Other than buying Cosmo, GG and Genna went through two strange phases last week. One was a obsession with Britney Spears that I still don't understand, but I think is thankfully over. The second was that Genna baked cookies for us all week, winning her our Roommate of the Week Award. I think the two balanced each other out.
Other than buying Cosmo, GG and Genna went through two strange phases last week. One was a obsession with Britney Spears that I still don't understand, but I think is thankfully over. The second was that Genna baked cookies for us all week, winning her our Roommate of the Week Award. I think the two balanced each other out.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Gong Show
The roommates and I had been looking forward to Imogen's formal birthday party last night for a while and I don't think any of us were disappointed. It was a wonderful party full of cute girls I didn't know, some that I did know, and one I wasn't expecting to see (Zoe Daniels). By far the best part was the performance of Girl Scientist, the play written for Imogen's birthday. How can you go wrong with Kyle Foot playing a high school polo captain, Chris Firger as a pedophiliac high school teacher, Spencer Thompson as an inspired Christopher Walken, and Becca as the eponymous Girl Scientist? All star cast. I've been singing "I Insist" all day and getting some weird looks from people on the street.
I was reminded last night of a story that I told the last time I was at Imogen's apartment after playing tennis with Ian and Genna (though she wasn't there) that I was encouraged to put in this blog and never did. It must have happened about a month ago by now. I was in the bathroom with the shower running and had undressed but not gotten in yet when Kate knocked on the door. She wanted to brush her teeth and asked if I was in yet. Our shower curtain is a map of the world with the countries in colours and the rest clear, so it's pretty revealing when someone's in the shower. This means that we don't normally go in the bathroom when someone's showering. I thought she meant that I should get in the shower so she could brush her teeth, so I hopped in and told her she could come in. It seemed a bit weird to me, but I figured if Kate was comfortable with it I wasn't going to be standoffish. She could probably concentrate on her teeth well enough not to sneak any glances. Anyway, it turned out that Kate had meant to ask if I was still dressed and did not in fact want to brush her teeth two feet away from a naked man only partially obscured by South America. She was a bit shocked when she opened the door and was gone by the time I finished showering. I made joke about joining her in the shower the other day, but she didn't think it was very funny.
I was reminded last night of a story that I told the last time I was at Imogen's apartment after playing tennis with Ian and Genna (though she wasn't there) that I was encouraged to put in this blog and never did. It must have happened about a month ago by now. I was in the bathroom with the shower running and had undressed but not gotten in yet when Kate knocked on the door. She wanted to brush her teeth and asked if I was in yet. Our shower curtain is a map of the world with the countries in colours and the rest clear, so it's pretty revealing when someone's in the shower. This means that we don't normally go in the bathroom when someone's showering. I thought she meant that I should get in the shower so she could brush her teeth, so I hopped in and told her she could come in. It seemed a bit weird to me, but I figured if Kate was comfortable with it I wasn't going to be standoffish. She could probably concentrate on her teeth well enough not to sneak any glances. Anyway, it turned out that Kate had meant to ask if I was still dressed and did not in fact want to brush her teeth two feet away from a naked man only partially obscured by South America. She was a bit shocked when she opened the door and was gone by the time I finished showering. I made joke about joining her in the shower the other day, but she didn't think it was very funny.
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