digital downpour

Actual quote shouted out by a bunch of drunk frosh kids at 5:30 in the evening outside my window: "Three cheers for fucking! McGill, McGill, McGill!"

Lord help us.

Turns out I have four cavities. Blast.

Well, I just got back from a week of being eaten alive by some zillion muskeeters in northern Ontario. What fun. Aparently they really like the way your blood tastes if you eat lots of bananas, which I do, so that'll teach me. But other than that, it was a nice vacation. Lots of kayaking and capturing of the flag with my little cousins, almost like being at camp.

As some of you may know, the Montreal World Film Festival kicks off tonight. The thing with this fest is that there's often a lot of crap, and I mean like a LOT of crap, but there are usually a few great films somewhere in the midst, you just have to look. Tonight, for example, they're playing Les Triplettes de Belleville outside, for free, at Place des Arts. It starts at 8:30 but I'd suggest getting there up to an hour ahead if you actually want a seat.

That's all for now. I'm hitting up a dentist apointment in an hour so I have to go floss my heart out to make up for the fact that I haven't been doing that much since the last visit. You know how it is.

Oh and one more thing: I cheated at my own bookclub. I'm reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver now instead, but I'll read Raise High the whatnot right after, I swear.

Who needs Oprah when you've got digital downpour to tell you what to read? This week it's 'Raise the Roof High, Carpenters and Seymour, an Introduction' by J.D. Salinger about the Glass family we've all grown to love through Franny and Zooey and the Seymour of Nine stories. I love the Glass family. They remind me of the Royal Tenenbaums whom I also love.

There's nothing like a Manhattan apartment filled with quirky, blood-relative intellectuals to get the pages turning, I tell you what. So read up.

Since I don't have my own fancy-shmancy digital camera and actually have to wait for my photos to get developed, I'll just steal these pool party pictures from Emily and put them up here.

So digitaldownpour and 'em and me' are throwing an end of summer pool party on tuesday, and if you're reading this then you're probably cool enough to come. It's happening at the secret pool on the mountain which nobody knows about and which is impossible to get to but that just makes it all the more of a fun-filled adventure.

Here is my attempt at some clear directions:

Step 1. Go to Pine Avenue at the cross street of either Peel or University. You can do this by walking up from Sherbrooke Street or by bus, taking the 144 up the hill from Atwater metro or, if you're coming from the other way, then the 144 from Sherbrooke metro.

Step 2 a. If you've decided to get off at Pine and University, then walk up along Pine one more block till you've passed the Royal Victoria hospital. You should see a big blue sign at the edge of the second entrance to the parking lot that says nothing about a pool, but don't be fooled. Turn right into that parking lot and walk up, keeping to your left, until you see a road that turns up to the left with a pedestrian walk. Follow that road up, then turn right and you should see a staircase going up the hill on your left. Confused yet? Don't worry, you're almost there! The pool will be right at the top of those stairs.

Step 2 b. If you've decided to get off at Pine and Peel, you'll need to walk down half a block on the north side of the street until you see a sign saying 'Allan Memorial Insitute' with an arrow pointing up the hill. Walk up the path on the right side of the institute's lawn until you get to the edge of a parking lot, then through until you see a small satircase which leads to the pool.

Step 3. You made it! Well, either that or you're completely lost, wandering around the Mont-Royal muttering to yourself and cursing my complicated directions. The pool costs 4 bucks to get in, so don't forget your change purse! There are changing room there and you can bring food or buy little snacks, as you like.

I think the plan is to show up anywhere between noon and sometime after that so feel free to meander on in at your leisure.

See you there!

Tonight's pick is a snack at Namur metro's Big O, the Orange Julep that is, where all the old greaser cars in Montreal come out to show off their wheels, a wednesday night tradition since god knows when. Then a hop, skip and a jump to the Dollar Cinema to see Mean Girls at 9pm cause everyone knows that Lindsay Lohan is a hottie.

Total cost of this fun filled evening: about 10 bucks.

A couple of friends and I just made a killing selling old junk on the sidewalk in front of my house. I myself made 35 bucks. Not too shabby for a day of sitting in the sun and knocking back Mr.Freeze's if you ask me. Totally worth the heat stroke and mad giggle fits that ensued.