9:40 PM

Addicted to Crazy

So it occurred to me on the weekend as I was reading a gossipy magazine at the hairdresser (yes, while getting that cut and colour discussed in my last post): Exactly what, pray tell, was Britney Spears in rehab for?

The article was some delightful fluff piece, detailing how poor Brit had exploded to a (*gasp*) size 6, and was hoping to have $130K in plastic surgery getting back to a size 2. Before getting into how she was so damnably desperate to be a 2 again because she wanted K-Fed to see what he was missing, and because she so very much wants charming JT -- whom she's been split from longer than she dated by now, no doubt -- back, the author pointed out that plastic surgery couldn't happen immediately. You see, dear readers, after being in rehab, surgery requiring painkillers isn't allowed for a certain period of time.

Issue.

What was Britney addicted to, y'all?

Yeah, sure, we all saw her wee breakdown slash head-shaving episode. And we saw the lost panties, boozy nights out with girlfriends, and the fact that her kids seem to have all but disappeared. And I have no doubt she was messing around with way too much alcohol and a mixed bag of drugs.

Is that actually addiction? Because it sure looked like a mental breakdown of some sort. In either case, nobody actually did say what Britney was addicted to.

Unless it was Crazy?

8:01 PM

Meine Liste

Alrightie, with less than two weeks to go before I head to Dreamy Deutschland, I have not really prepared anything. What do I still need to do?

* Drop off course paperwork and get required Rotman stuff at school.
* Pick up new contact lenses and solution.
* Make copies of passport photo page and birth certificate for all bags.
* Print travel itinerary copy with contact info for the boy, in case I go MIA.
* Make emergency contact cards for wallet and bags, including consulates (Canadian, British, American), local hospital, hotel, and the boy.
* Pick up some more fun summer stuff to wear.
* Grab a German translation guidebook.
* Find new headphones that don't drive me crazy.
* Hunt down resistance bands for faux strength workouts in room.
* Figure out long weekend plans -- Berlin?

All I've really done is book my flight and hotel, practiced minor levels of language skills on the BBC site, and gone to the pre-exchange departure session at school. And gotten my hair cut and coloured!

Um.

But the semester is over now, and I still have practically two weeks. Right?

11:05 PM

Another Semester Down

Alrightie, I'm officially done two of the three years of my MBA. I bid a fond adieu to IMC and branding and the wonderful professors I got to learn from this semester. It was, I think, the best one to date, and will hopefully lead to even more cool learnings next year.

I'll be celebrating in style with my charming classmates on Saturday. There will be comedy gold, there will be boozing, and there will be karoke. I kid you not!

I've got a few weeks off, then I'm off to study international business in Germany for the rest of May, then I'm back at Rotman for the rest of the summer.

Please figure out how to help me make school last forever.

9:33 PM

I Run!

I get a huge kick out of how my adorable niece talks, and in my recent attempts to learn basic German, I've discovered that, in Wiesbaden, I will be linguistically equivalent to a two year old. It's hard when you're trying to translate in your head and still have limited vocabulary, people.

"I Canadian! I student! I work!"

And today I will add: I run!

Yep, a site I love is doing a virtual running clinic (props to Changa) and I've thrown my little self into the midst of it. Seeing as I will be without anything close to a gym for over three weeks, I thought I'd better come up with a secondary plan of attack, and this shall be it.

I went for the first time tonight and it was all kinds fun. Google Pedometer tells me that I ran just over six and a half kilometres, which thrills me endlessly. I'm going to try to throw this in as cardio twice a week 'til I go away, then by the time I get there, it should be all easy-peasy. I forgot that running outside has this awesome thing about it where you start to feel like you're flying around the twenty minute point -- the whole world just feels like it's disappeared and it's just you and the wind and loud music in your ears. I like that very much.

I also noticed tonight while running back through the park that the tennis courts are officially open for the summer. I will so be harassing Dave about that this weekend. Whee!

10:41 PM

The Truth Hurts

We watched a bunch of the American Legacy truth campaign commercials in one of my classes today.

Put it all together and, damn, those guys were good.

10:19 PM

I Have a Huge Mouth

Not physically. You know what I mean.

Nothing particular happened to make me acknowledge this, it just suddenly occurred to me that I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've kept my mouth shut when I should've.

10:07 PM

I Like Brains

Seriously, is there anything cooler ever to exist than the brain?

I was reading some stuff on neuroeconomics today -- basically, a discipline that takes neuroscience and economics and applies them to psychology -- and I nearly lost my mind with the excitement of it all. Neurons and activation and weird words that I had to read fifteen times and multiple processes and decision-making and behaviour. Ahhh!

The brain is flipping crazy. I love it. I will definitely be taking psych electives in the 2007-08 year.

That is all.

6:46 PM

Existing Is Fun

Institutionalized spirituality has never appealed to me. How is it that one is supposed to be able to find what should -- according to all sources -- be an individual experience within a strongly collectivist one?

Well, if not institutionalized spirituality, then what?

Why not an awe and amazement for the science that came together over gazillions of years that ultimately resulted in humans even existing, that ultimately resulted in each one of us getting to experience this very moment?

I would never refer to this as "spirituality". Instead, I think it's acknowledgement of reality and a gratitude that you could be so lucky as to come together as you did -- even if it's only temporary. It's a reminder that you are lucky enough to have a chance to do good things that could contribute to moving the species forward. It's an awareness of your responsibility as a component of the universe. It's a wonder over how the heck it even came to be and a giddiness that you got to see even the tiniest speck of the big picture.

There's a sense that, without some form of spirituality, we are threatened with the possibility of being taken over by a collective megalomania. It's said that without some sense that there's something else out there, we become our own gods. (Alternatively, of course, celebrities or athletes or kings or designer labels can take on the role.) And, to be fair, this does seem possible. I have ranted time and again about the ickiness of North American culture and how we seem to be a little... lost. But institutionalized spirituality is still around and "better' than ever-- see politics and war for evidence -- so perhaps these aren't the connecting points at all.

Why do people feel so uncomfortable with the idea that children might not be raised with this traditional "spirituality" component? How can the feeling that you're just a tiny piece of the gazillion amazing things that happen every second spur megalomania? How can the concept that you're incredibly fortunate to even get to exist go horribly wrong? How can having the awe we all so admire in children for the whole time you're around be so troubling?

8:10 PM

The World is a One-Stop Shop

I swear, I'm losing my mind with consumerism lately.

No, not in my usual rage about how ridiculous and grossly North American it is. In my inability to stop.

It's funny, I don't have much in the way of stuff. I own maybe five purses, probably eight pairs of shoes. A normal closet of clothes, I even had a coworker ask me once where I kept all my stuff, as she saw my closets and thought they appeared rather empty.

But here's my trick: I'm a trader.

I buy a new pretty thing? I get rid of an old once-pretty thing.

Sometimes more than one oldie gets recycled in honour of the new thing. If the oldie isn't that oldie at all and in pretty-delicious condition, I will find myself sending it to my mom or my sister, and they enjoy the new-to-them. If it's slightly raggedy, I get it prepped for a trip to the Sally Ann. It's not completely wasteful -- I never throw anything away -- so I shouldn't feel bad. Right?

In the last couple of months, I've been over-indulging in a bad way. Well, not bad bad, but scandalous bad. I've found new beloved stores and new beloved cuts that fit just right and new fun patterns and colour schemes and, holy hell, I just can't get enough.

I want a black pair of pointy heels like the brown ones I just got, and I want their beige-and-brown open-toed sisters. I want cropped brown version of my new favourite perfectly-fitting black pants. I want more denim and I want it hemmed just right. I want this darling short sleeved black blouse. I want a black jacket to wear when I'm not in the mood for my new-best-ever white and beige striped one. I want lip gloss. I want purses. I want glasses. I want, want, want, want, want.

It's a good thing I never tried any real drugs.