Peas & Gravy

Windowsill I passed on my way from home from Emily's house.

I met up with my friend Emily on Sunday. She is my friend who is a seamstress at Cique du Soleil, freelance fashion designer, and is a tap dancer too! We planned to meet after her dress rehearsal, but the rehearsal went late, so I got to see her perform. She was doing two sets at a burlesque show, which is very trendy right now. I’d never seen this side of her before, and was amazed at how wonderfully she looked and danced. It was a real treat for the eyes!

Afterwards, we went to Juliet and Chocolate where I ordered cake and Emily had a crepe. We hadn’t caught-up in a while, so sat there talking for a long time after we’d polished off our plates. When it cake time to move, we walked up St. Laurent and St. Denis Street, going into all the local Montreal designer shops and shoe stores to admire stuff. It was fun doing it was Emily, as she noticed all the small details in the clothing that made them special.

I walked her to her house and we sat on her couch pouring over fashion books together trying to figure out what types of clothes would work for my body type. Funnily enough, I already wear most of those styles.

I stayed up late Sunday night and got up early Monday morning to do a rush job for Modasuite, creating the flyers to be handed out in Markham and Toronto advertising the sale.

When I got into to work that day at telemarketing, I was greeted with a performance plan: make more sales or you may get fired. I didn’t make a sale again that day, despite my best efforts. The only person who showed the slightest interest in the insurance I was selling was this sweet gentleman on leave from work due to an accident- and had such a huge balance on his card I couldn’t bring myself to give him that ‘push’ to get the insurance. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get a happy “Yes, ma’am.” from somebody who never uses their card. Wouldn’t that be nice… (cost of the plan is based on your average daily balance- which is evil).

I felt rather bummed-out after work. So, I went grocery shopping for some comfort food. I had a major craving for a beef, gravy, and peas pie, like the ones my grandparents used to give me when I stayed at their house for dinner. I did an extensive search through the frozen food section of store, but was unable to find even an ice cream pie! So, I bought a bag of frozen peas and a can of gravy instead.

Once home, I put the peas in a bowl, the gravy in a cup, and put them both in the microwave. There was a rumbling and tumbling, so I opened the microwave to take a look, and found that my cup of gravy had fallen over. Gravy was all over the microwave, the fridge (it sits on top of the fridge) and the decorative shawl I have hung over the back of the fridge to hide the ugly wires.

Chloe and I put in a team effort to clean-up the mess, propping the microwave up with a can of soup in order to sponge up the gravy that had flowed underneath it, and dumping the shawl in a bucket of water to deal with later. I still wanted my peas and gravy, so poured a new cup of gravy and stuck it in the microwave. It didn’t topple over this time, but when I poured the gravy over my peas, and dipped in my spoon- I found it was still cold (I hope I don’t get salmonnella poisoning!). So back in the microwave it went.

When my bowl of peas was finally ready, I felt like it had all been an anti-climax as the taste and texture did not live up to my childhood memories. Chloe and I sat in the living room together and discussed life: our goals, our dissatisfactions, the expectations society and family have on us…

Chloe made a very good point about the post-graduate life: It’s the first time we’ve ever had our life not planned for us. I mean, we go to kindergarten, elementary school, highschool, then university… then you graduate university and for the first time, you don’t know what to do with your life. Yes, you need to find a job- but where?

Now I sit at my computer, still pondering. I should really go to bed now- its almost midnight and I have to get early again tomorrow to go to Modasuite. I wonder what I’ll dream of tonight?

Late Night Rant

Bicycling home down boul. de Maisonneuve at night.

Monday was my first full day on the phones at work. It wasn’t as bad as I had expected, although I felt like I was on a conveyer belt in a voice factory, saying the same thing over and over again. It felt kinda strange. Luckily no one yelled at me today, but I didn’t get any sales. There were a few people I probably could have milked one out of by praying on their fears, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it… its feels so morally wrong!

After I finished work at 9pm, I met Nicole at the McGill music library. We walked together to her house where we found her roommate Aria watching the 1992 version of Romeo & Juliet. It was still a visually appealing movie to watch, but I kept cracking up laughing at DiCaprio’s acting. It was so funny!

Aria had just made a batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, so we sat in front of the TV and vegged away on her freshly baked delights. After Romeo & Juliet ended, we put on the French film Priceless, but it was too difficult for me to follow without subtitles, so we put in Austen Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Did you ever notice how the French version of this film is called Austen Powers: Agent Secret Oo Sexe? Nicole and I had a good chuckle over the Oo bit. We also had a good chuckle over how bad the movie was. This was one of my favourite movies when it came out in 1999 (I still know most of lines) but we both sat through it laughing at the slapstick humour and groaning with shame that we were watching this. Its so bad!

After the film, I walked Nicole to Milton and Alymer where we said farewell (she to Second Cup, me to home). I went to bed and had a beautiful dream about going to green Niagara for a wine tasting tour with my new Montreal friends, then hanging out in a sunny brown and white mafia artist’s apartment filled with paintings and papers everywhere. I woke up reluctantly to my roommate making breakfast, and laid in bed for awhile trying to fall back asleep. I didn’t feel too tupper that morning, so hit up the vitamin C and echinacea in case I was catching a cold.

Work felt more morally wrong that day, and I had to keep reminding myself that I actually wasn’t a terrible person, it was just the marketing department who was responsible for making telemarketers pester people relentlessly at home, calling then multiple times in a single day for a product that they do not need or want. I made one sale though… so perhaps I’m not as vile as people think I am.

After work, I met up with Jason at the McGill engineering building. We walked down to Harvey’s to grab some pre-movie food before heading to see Tim Burton’s new film 9. It was an alright film, but nothing special. I left the cinema shrugging my shoulders, and Jason and I immediately went in search of a bar. It was surprisingly hard to find one open that late on a Tuesday, but eventually we found one with a horrible screamo band playing in a venue filled with mid-twenty-something’s who looked like they were trapped in the nineties. It was a very odd place to find ourselves in. It was almost as if we were back in high school!

Now I sit at home, having ridden home on my bike. I’m rather sleepy. but reluctant to go to bed. Tomorrow is yet another day of telemarketing and I don’t look forward to it one bit. I just have to keep reminding myself that its just a job… and once I finish paying off 6 months of credit card debt and 4 years of university I can finally buy that pair of blue booties at Aldo which I’ve had my eye on all season! Yay- shoes!