Tuesday Relief

Back at school today. Andrea and I rented a kiosk from school (illegally it turned out, as the woman contacted us after our formerly approved slot of tabletime to say it was under no circumstances possible for us to sell books at that time (....lol, Concordia)). I also finished off all editing for the Rebetika book I'd been working on - it's been sent off to the press to be printed!! So happy and relieved, words can't even cut it.

Anyway, ran around for a while photocopying posters, buying cream puff pastries from Harmonie, hanging up posters, drinking juice, forgetting our original poster in the photocopying machine, returning to pick it up... Eventually we got back to our table, just in time to put everything away with the help of our fellow volunteer who had stayed to guard everything in the meantime.

Before heading off to study, we went to Voyages Campus to see about a trip to Cuba during reading week. We found an excellent one for $640, all inclusive - meaning flight as well as bungalow, food, drinks, disco, and snorkelling. I'm tempted to book it immediately. First we'll see if we can gather up some women to join us and make it even more of a blast.

So then, with spirits high and heads in the sunny Cuban clouds, we went to go study - only to get distracted with thoughts of shopping. I convinced an all-too-eager Andrea to skip her class, and we went to HMV for an hour and a half and eyeball-raped every single individual piece of merchandise. I also convinced her to buy the fourth and fifth seasons of Six Feet Under, because being the good friend I am. We also found the most wonderful thing: the first two seasons of That 70's Show for only $12.99 each. Needless to say, we bought them - one each - in preparation for our weekend in the city (we are hijacking Andrea's friend's apartment while she's away for deviant cooking endeavours and cat-sitting duties).

Yup. Then class, missed bus, went to library, found books, came home, ate late, fell in bed, and talked to my Australian lover for about 2 hours while falling asleep. OH and I also got my USB key in the mail that I'd forgotten at my other Australian friend's house - plus a wonderful note! It made my day, particularly because on my USB key was around 10GB of music that I'd been craving a terrific amount. Lately I've reached that stage where none of the music on your iPod, despite how awesome it is, is in any way aurally appealing. So now I'm looking forward to some good trance music indulgence.

Rain

I love rain. When I was a kid, I loved rain so much I couldn't understand why adults didn't like it, why they complained so bitterly as if the clouds descended upon them and them alone in some spiteful natural vengeance against their hair styling beauty products or high fashion name brands. I guess I kind of kept it in my head that I wouldn't turn into one of those adults, but even so for the last many rainfalls I've not been pleased because it means I have to walk to the bus stop and work when it's a sheeting downpour. My shoes always tend to be the biggest sponges on Earth, and so now when I see rain, I think of how soggy my toes are going to be for the day, or how under the weather the weather will make me.

But, when it comes down to the thing itself, I still love rain.

This morning in particular is the perfect kind of rainy. The window in my kitchen is open and the contrast of how stale it is inside to how fresh it is out there is overwhelming. I can't even say what it smells like. It smells like home, I guess. All the different smells of soil and plants and bark and flowers and nature just mingle to create this fresh, North East Canadian scent.

When I was in Wollongong, the rain was really different, but equally wonderful. In winter it was a bit different, but my first encounters with rain in their autumn was a rainfall so polite you couldn't feel it or even see it unless you looked at a puddle and saw the water drops. It was like the cloud just hung there and the condensation appeared from mid air all around you. I know exactly what it smelled like there though: eucalyptus. You can't really smell the eucalyptus unless it's raining. It's the most wonderfully refreshing aroma that no bath salt or hand cream can replicate.

But if I were to compare Wollongong rain to Chambly rain and have to choose a preference, I think I would still go with Chambly rain. Canada might be boring on the visual and aural levels, but it's definitely got the olfactory (and gustatory, but in completely unrelated matters) down. If I weren't so worried about getting sick right now, I would go roll around in the grass like I did when I was five and look into the pure white sky to try and see the raindrops before they fall. Alas, I'm stuck inside doing homework.

I knew I should have gotten rid of those spiders in my windows...