my awful titles and my busy month

here`s my bright conclusion after going through writing workshops, past and present: i like  to give ambivalent, one-word, obscure inside-jokey titles to things - posts, poems, articles, what-have-you. what serves me okay when i`m the only one who chuckles rereading them - is not so cool when i`m getting grades for posting stuff online.

so it`s coming to grades again. blah.

three quizzes, two draft deadlines and 1 project later, it`s sort of coming to grades again. because it`s the only functional thing i`ve got when i want to check whether i`m functioning, as opposed to slipping into an abyss or smth.

have accepted fall as my overlord. this went well for about 2 weeks, but now it`s too damn cold.

was just studying in my kitchen, and then it occurred to me that this would be a good picture and spent like 20 minutes trying to make the best of it. no kidding. anything is better than reading celce-murcia

fall things that make me happy, happier:
- crunching leaves underfoot. never easy to describe the satisfaction. the sound, the movement, the grace of it all

- for a few days, some leaves are like flowers. some flowers like leaves

- i baked chestnuts in the oven. crack the skin, then put some water on the bottom of the tray.
- when i come back from classes at 11.30 pm (this is not a fall thing, but i discovered it now), there`s a portuguese bakery at the corner of...gounod and lajeunesse? they are just starting to make the dough when i pass by: the back door is open to the street, light and flour and all the good vibes.

i don`t know about friends any more. i just know that there are in the world people i love, and newer people whom i like. i wish frantically and sometimes desperately and awkwardly that they would love or like me back, and that they would express it. of course. i also wish i could do things for them. sometimes it happens, and it`s good. sometimes i get resentful, but mostly of the circumstances.  so i don`t know. 

this is from a citizenship swearing-in ceremony i saw. very interesting stuff (to me at least), may have a story about it later.

melanie at the cat cafe. the newer cat cafe, `chat l`heureux`. i`ve been twice (three times?) and it`s always full. you`d think the cats would get stressed, but i don`t know, they look good.

i think this is luciole, one of the 3 teeny ones. there are 4 adult cats and 3 kittens, and the other 2 kittens are fluffy. my favourite (not pictured, because i pet her instead of photographing her) is fluffy grey. her name, you ask? luna. her name is luna.

night on the town: at place des arts. that globe was there as a sort of tent-y headquarters for the festival de nouveau cinema. then there were projections on the uqam building...a lot of things going on. as usual, indescribable. 

and because it`s been thanksgiving, òur`thanksgiving, whatever, i want to be thankful for :
1. standard thanksgiving dinner in my house (even if it happened after midnight) - with turkey and sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce and ice wine and all the works. could not have been better or more heartfelt.
2. all the people in my life. i know i say it everytime, but i would not exist without people.

to keep in mind. i was like,"is this insulting? should i feel insulted?"

yes we can! i was up on the mont-royal! although most of  the time i was following a squirrel and stealing her hazelnuts, i managed to come to this spot to take the same picture that 2 different groups of american tourists were taking at the same moment. 

and a classic belvedere one. 

and a pretty classic "lights at the botanical garden" one. i should know, cause by now it`s my third year visiting. yes they change the "theme" ever so slightly each year, but it`s usually the same techinques, and always some boats on the water, because duh.

this year the new twist was "discoverimg" the japanese garden almost at closing time. there were different-colored waterfalls, meditation spots, a weird gong sounding, a bell from hiroshima...there were things.

so here we go: back to the crowds downtown. 

back to reading about listening exercises, coherence&cohesion, and freaking sentence stress. (one of my classmates says she starts giggling every time our teacher asks "so, what is stress? can you tell me what stress is?"