Random Ramblings

What: A chocolate fondue potluck party! I provide the chocolate, you provide stuff to dunk in it! I will also be providing board games (for playing, not for eating), and a selection of non-alcoholic drinks. It's the perfect formula for an awesome afternoon!

When: Sunday, September 21, 1:00-5:00 pm
Where: My place (call / email / comment for directions)
Who: You. Maybe your friends. Certainly me and my friends.
Why: Because it's chocolate! What better reason do you need?

PLEASE RSVP if you're planning on coming so I know how much chocolate to buy!

First off: many thanks to Warren, Blue, and Jbash for opening their home this weekend. The party was absolutely fabulous, full of board games, cuddles, and tasty food. I'd never had a tofu scramble before, but it was mightily tasty. Also lots of good conversation, as I've come to expect from Warren's parties. I just wish I weren't allergic to cats, so I could have stayed longer.

Today I went to a funeral a little west of Brockville. It was for a woman I'd never met -- my aunt's mother -- and it was mostly just an act of familial obligation for me. The service was Christian (my aunt converted when she married my uncle), and very much focused on Jesus, as opposed to the deceased. It was quite odd for a little Jewish girl from Montreal.

The drive wasn't bad, but was quite long. My uncle (for reasons not worth going into) needed a lift to Ottawa, so we detoured north before heading back east. In short: we left the luncheon around 1:45 and only just got back to Montreal. Whew! Now I'm going to decompress and revel in *not* being in a car and *not* wearing panty hose. Yay!

Marc's in town - how could things be bad?

Seriously, yesterday was an awesome day. Among the highlights:

- woke up to Marc-snuggles for the third day running
- breakfast at Picasso's with my two favourite men
- watched the amazingly fun movie Shoot 'Em Up (seriously, amazingly fun. Go watch it!)
- pie at Bonatarte with my two favourite men
- lots of fun conversation at J.D.'s scotch tasting
- again at the scotch tasting, using one of my favourite girls as a chair, and being reminded how amazing my boyfriend is:

Sam to J.D.: "Ooh! What's that?"
J.D.: "[names some very tasty scotch]"
Sam: "Can I have some?"
J.D.: "Only if you and Julie both give me a kiss."
Me: "Only if it's okay with Marc."
J.D.: "Marc, is it okay if--"
Marc: "Yup." (Isn't he awesome?)

- sang some karaoke at Trix in solidarity for Kris
- ending the day with Marc-snuggles for the fourth day running

Today has been slightly less awesome, but hopefully it'll be picking up in about an hour when people come over to make characters for a new game.

Hi all. It's me, your friendly neighbourhood munchkin. I'm back after yet another day of Interesting Stuff (tm). To whit:

( LJ cuts make friends' pages happy )

On a completely different note: I find I'm using this icon a lot lately and am considering making it my default (instead of the happy faces one). What do people think?

This is your friendly neighbourhood reminder that my 25 birthday / Shrek 3 party is this Friday! Come watch Shrek 3 with me, and then go out to Hatterz afterwards for birthday drinks and pub grub.

IMPORTANT: I will be going down earlier in the day to get tickets. If you want me to get your ticket, you MUST RSVP by 9 pm on Thursday, May 17. Anyone who doesn't RSVP does not get a guaranteed ticket. You can email me at julie.golick@gmail.com or call me if you know my number. Note: You'll still need to pay for your ticket if I pick it up, you'll just pay me instead of Paramount.

So, the low-down:

Part the First -- Shrek 3:
Where: Paramount theatre (St. Catherine and Metcalfe) -- meet in the lobby near the ticket machines.
When: Show up at 7:15 for the 7:45 showing.
What: Watching Shrek 3 and laughing our donkeys off

Part the Second -- Hatterz:
Where: Mad Hatterz (Crescent below St. Catherine)
When: Whenever the movie ends (theoretically 9:30-ish) until later.
What: Drinking, food, and merrymaking to celebrate my birthday

Okay, I'm feeling much better now than I was earlier today. This afternoon, at 3 o'clock, I participated in a 100-odd person pillow fight at Place des Arts. If ten minutes of whacking people with pillows isn't enough to get stress out of your system, I don't know what is.

To back up but a moment... Last night, I saw an announcement on facebook for a "Flash Mob Pillow Fight." I never thought I'd say this, but it seems Facebook does have its uses. The premise: people show up at Place des Arts with concealed pillows, and at 3 o'clock, upon the sounding of the signal, people wail on each other with their pillows for 10 minutes. Apparently a similar thing was organized in New York recently that lasted 45 minutes.

So Ian and I arrive at Place des Arts. Unbeknownst to us (or, presumably, the organizers) it was some sort of public security day, and various public security forces (police, SQ, RCMP, MP, etc.) had booths set up and personnel milling about. This threw a small kink into our plans, but when the whistle sounded at three, I joined in with everyone else. Actually, I think the police enjoyed watching us go at it. I guestimate that about 100 people took part in the mass orgy of pillow-y goodness. Someone even brought a small bag of down feathers and tossed them into the air for atmosphere. (And in the atmosphere... feathers are part of a balanced diet, right?)

Afterwards, Ian and I went for drinks with two of the photographers (as you might expect, there were many people snapping pics of the event for posterity or portfolios), Olivier and Jean. I believe they may be new readers to this LJ. If so, hi!

Afterwards, I walked back to Ian's, got a phone call from Marc along the way, and am taking advantage of the free wireless internet from across the street. Yay for wireless technology. Tonight is the tactile party. TTFN.

My birthday (May 18) just happens to be the opening day for Shrek 3. Could the timing be more perfect? Come join me at Paramount to see the antics of Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey. Afterwards, we'll head over to Hatterz for drinking and fun!

I will be going down early in the day to pick up tickets. If you want me to pick up your ticket, please RSVP so I knows how many to buy!

Note: I don't drink (much). But I *do* like watching other people get drunk. If you want to make me happy, buy someone *else* a drink and let the hilarity ensue!

Exact time will be confirmed when show times are announced.

Who: me and all my friends!
What: a birthday party and movie premiere all at the same time!
Why: I'm turning 25 -- it only happens once!
When: May 18, 7 o'clock (ish) showing
Where: Paramount, followed by Hatterz

Yesterday's breadcrumb was about whether the Israelites were really lost for 40 years in the desert. Today's breadcrumb traces a link between modern media tactics and the ancient Israelites.

For anyone who saw me yesterday, I'm not sure whether to apologize or take a bow. I was so very, very sleep deprived. Thank you all for putting up with my babbling.

I went to Ian's parents' place, managed to (just barely) keep all the snarky remarks from passing my lips, and ate some tasty food. Afterwards, it was off to LC's birthday party, where I saw some people I hadn't seen in a whle, most notably the birthday boy himself. Hugs all around!

The only down-side to all this was that I got a call from Marc during the 10 minutes I spent driving home from the party. I make it a policy not to answer my phone while I'm driving, especially when the conditions are as horrific as they were last night. So I was unhappy when I got home and realized that I'd missed Marc's call. Hopefully I'll hear from him today.

On today's agenda: plan tomorrow's lesson, write the next Daily Breadcrumbs essay, transfer over my new pictures to flickr so that non-Facebook people can read them (alternately, you can try this link, which should allow you to see the Facebook album without actually being on Facebook), and then character creation for a new game. TTFN.

Today's essay on Daily Breadcrumbs is about a bad case of God overreacting.

So, last night many people came out to Maz to wish Marc a "fare you well." Even Chris the DJ got in on the fun as everyone did songs that are typically's Marc's, as a tribute to him. It was one of the better Maz nights I've been to.

I suddenly remembered why I rarely bring my camera out places anymore. To set the stage: I don't take pictures, never have. I think, in the entire course of my life before 2005, I'd taken five rolls of film... combined. So it came as a gigantic shock to me that, when I went to Europe in the summer of 2005, and my dad bought me a new digital camera, I took 1300 pictures in 6 weeks. (Yes, 1300. No typo.) Ever since, when I actually bring my camera out somewhere, I'm a shutterbug.

Well, Ian asked me to bring my camera last night. I did. I now have 106 pictures sitting on my camera, ready to be downloaded when I get home tomorrow. Of those, I'll probably be putting about half up on Facebook tomorrow. Consider yourselves warned.

One more note from Maz: I officially hate Scott and Kyn, at least for the time being. Scott, kind and caring soul that he is, made it is mission to get other people to buy Marc alcohol. Which people did. In abundance. When Kyn came in late, however, Scott told him, "Marc has been saying 'no' all night. You're my last chance!" So Kyn bought Marc a round of shots. And then, somewhat later, when Marc was WAY drunk, he bought him another round of shots.

I believe his comment to my reaction to all this was, "I've never seen Julie so pissed." In all honesty, I was (mostly) only joking about punching him in places that probably shouldn't be punched, but it got the message across. Similarly with Sam: when I had Marc drinking water, because I wanted to get him back to his place WITHOUT passing out, Sam mockingly made to exchange Marc's water glass with Sam's beer glass. My comment to Sam: "Understand how this is going to work: if you switch those glasses, the next thing you will experience will be you, writhing on the floor in pain. Do we understand each other?" We did. Ian chimed in, "Dude, she could beat us BOTH up." Sam, quite wisely, didn't switch the glasses.

Long story short: I got Marc home. He's fine. He's packing now. I'm using his roommie's computer and should probably get back to him. TTFN!

Yesterday's breadcrumb was about the apparent lack of purpose to the Nazarite oath. Today's essay will be written a little later and posted at some point in the near future.

So, two days worth of reflections. I'll make them short.

- The Devil Wears Prada is a surprisingly good movie. By which I mean, it surprises me that it's good, not that its level of goodness is surprisingly high. Lots of very nice banter and well-written scenes. I approve.
- Maz Thursday night was full of tense, but also full of Marc, so they balanced each other out. I sang "500 Miles," which could have gone worse but could have gone better. I like the "da-da da-da" parts.
- Thursday night was a very, very long night, ending with me getting home at about 6 in the morning and being sleep-deprived most of yesterday.
- Due to the previous point, I did absolutely nothing productive yesterday except driving my car in to the garage. Stupid sleep deprivation.
- Party last night (for Marc's imminent departure) was lots of fun. I left early, partly because the allergies were acting up, partly because I wanted to get a good night of sleep. I managed to spend time with people I like and haven't seen in a while, which is always good.

The plan for today: try to be productive, Warren's party this evening. That's all.