~ ANNE! ~

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Happy birthday to Steph! Happy Friday! And here's hoping work issues today do not conspire to crush my morning optimism (it's a verrrrrrry busy and stressful month at work for the entire office. It's also my first month. Go figure).

Did I tell you that I saw St. Patrick's grave? By accident, mind you - because John for some reason asked the bus ticket guy for tickets to Downpatrick instead of Newcastle when we were attempting to go on a daytrip. But hey, Paddy and I have a connection now. We're old buddies.

Also, happy belated Pi Day. (March 14 = 3.14). Yes, I have been spending too much time with math grad students, how did you guess? I did not eat pie on Pi Day, but I did go to a book launch (a kid's book about John Diefenbaker!) and to Steeps, where I could conceivably have had a slice of pie. Instead I had large amounts of a very nice rooibos and some non-math-related conversation with math people.

In other news - it was my last shift at VV yesterday! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! It was a rough one (complete with difficult and whiny customers, a lot of All Voids, and a late finish so I missed my bus by two minutes and had to take the next one half an hour later). However, that managed to eradicate any lingering regrets about quitting. Anything that gets me this tense, stressed and exhausted is not worth an extra hundred bucks a week. I am a little sorry to leave since the people were great, but I gave some of the cooler ones my number so maybe we'll meet again. Anyway, they seemed happy enough that I actually gave notice and left on good terms, so it's all good. And I am now the proud owner of a Value Village water bottle!

Everyone's been talking about the full moon lately. Are more children born under a full moon? Do more people kill themselves when it's full than waxing or waning? The other day I found myself sitting next to a guy with waist-length, matted grey dreadlocks on the bus. As we barrelled down Jasper Ave he gave this huge sigh and looked at me. As soon as I made eye contact, he said, "They found my friend's boyfriend yesterday, hanging from the ceiling".

What do you say to that, really?

So I expressed my sympathy, and he told me his theory: it's all to do with the full moon. "To think," he said sadly, "if the moon had been in a diffferent phase, he would still be here today. Then again, God calls us all home when our time is up." I felt obliged to point out that if someone hangs themselves, surely the responsibility is as much theirs as God's. This led into an interesting bus-discussion about the nature of pre-destination and human responsibility, cut short when I had to get off at Corona Station.

I have a major case of ohr-wurm today. (Ear-worm - song caught in my head). It's Broken Social Scene's Anthem for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl. Every time this song comes up on my Shuffle I am compelled to listen to it at least six times in a row. There's something about the way it repeats that hypnotizes me. I will now have to go home and find the CD and put it on repeat. It's a great song, though! Everyone should listen to it, because it WILL get stuck in your head and misery loves company.