En direct de St. John's University, Jamaica, New York...

THE SMALRUS WEB SITE v. 7.0

8/30/00-wow. going to this school is quite quite quite different from anything i knew in south windsor. and the main reason is because of the drinking age. our frosh leaders are like "you dont have to drink, but it does help." and the peer pressure is so overwhelming that you really can't not drink. because unlike a small group thats having a few drinks and you can easily say no thanks, this is all 1100 arts frosh that are having drinks and not one of them is sober. not to mention they've been giving away beer for prizes for things we've done, etc...maybe i'm more weak willed since i went into this thinking, ok, i'll have a beer here and there and have had a few drinks now, but since its legal here and orientation stuff is based on alcohol ("the booze cruise" down the st. lawrence river, clubs, etc...), its hard to do anything sober. like here's how my last few days went...

monday i got up and did a lot of waiting in lines, there was an hour wait to get our phone and internet info. then we went back and got my lease and they were looking for ross spencer on sunday which is why i didnt get it. which also made us have to wait 2 hrs to get a number at the bank (there's one branch of the bank that does student banking and the other branches refer you there) and another hour til our number was called, so now i've got an account up here. student id lines have been 4 hrs long for the past 2 days, so i decided i'll get it when there's less people. so after that, i started my arts frosh 2k orientation stuff. rather insane cause everything revolves around drinking and they're not afraid to have all their events geared that way. which is really crazy cause this is like, harvard/yale students where the entire student body is getting bombed. but i'm sure it'll settle down a little once classes start and we're not like, partying all the time. i had some free time and we were supposed to meet our frosh group at redpath hall's steps but we mistook which steps we were going to so we missed them. so i hooked up with this guy, andrew, who's british, and joel, who's french but went to boarding school in ontario for 3 years (he's got no accent either way), and we went out to dinner at this falafel place that really wasnt so great. after that, we went to a bar before the club and i had a simple vodka martini, which i also found to be bitter. then went to this club, polly esthers, for our next event. not bad, we had a few shooters, but i really didnt feel anything. left the club around 12ish instead of 3am and that was that.

yesterday my parents came over around 745am and i was so freakin tired, but we went down and i started my "discover mcgill" orientation which lasted til about 4 and it was just a big campus tour and some speeches from the deans, etc...i wanted to go to the counting crows/live concert at the molson centre last night but no one wanted to go, so i ended up having to go on "the booze cruise." everyone got 3 free beers and there was not one sober person on the boat, myself included (but i didn't get completely plastered, just a bit tipsy). it was kinda fun and we still met people so. that was from 8-1am and then after, the next event was this club, foufounes electrique, from 1-3am, but i punted on that also. i was already drunk and pretty tired so i met up w/4 girls from my dorm and we took a cab back to the dorm...i got online and was talking to julian, but lied down on the bed between ims and ended up waking up at 6am with my computer still online...so here we are and i have to be at breakfast at 11. so since i didnt get to shower last night, i guess i'm braving the coed showers today and not getting the bathroom to myself like i did before. today is an comics scavenger hunt, an expos game, and the mcconnell rez party, but i dunno how long i'll be there...i've had enough parties and i gotta go through it again when there's the molson party on saturday and its not like i can shut my door and not go out...*sigh* this is all so overwhelming...

8/28/00-i'm here! this is my first transmission from my new home in montreal (well new home for this year atleast...til i move into an apartment as a sophomore. unfortunately, by the time this update gets published, it'll prolly be the second of 2 to go up at one time. the reason is because i'm sitting in here with a phone and network connection, both of which aren't hooked up yet to anything. i don't know how to dial out or anything, but atleast the phone is charging and ready to be used...(the message has yet to be recorded, so i'm still taking suggestions as to what my bilingual message should be...i do have an address now...

Spencer Ross
Room 530, Molson Hall
3915 rue University
Montreal, Quebec (or PQ to abbreviate Quebec)
H3A 2B6
CANADA

its been a really cool trip...the rental stuff was a pain in the ass though cause we went to rent a van but it was too small so they gave us a 15 passenger one for the same price, only it had no a/c. so we had to get another one that did, but lacked registration and only had an insurance card...ah well...eventually, it was the one that got me and my stuff all up here. (btw, i did go by the concatelli residence on sat at 715am and they had already left :( ) nice drive up here in our bus/truck, but we basically got to bring everything i wanted to bring in that van. lots of food stops, but lacking actual places to eat. matter of fact, we ended up stopping in winooski, vt and got off at st. michael's college. matter of fact, i think we ended up turning around at the dorm where wallis lives. :) finished driving, came in around 11ish and it was pouring. got to our hotel, the delta hotel. all the hotels around the campus part of city are completely booked for moving weekend so we were lucky we got ours in advance...chilled and went to bed. today (8/27), we woke up, had lunch in the hotel and then came over here to bishop mountain hall to get my room keys...the unfortunate thing was they didnt have my lease so i cant go to the bank first thing tomorrow. nonetheless, we started shipping everything out of the truck and up to the 5th floor. took about 7 hrs to unpack, but now i have a home. (w/coed bathrooms too) fridge, microwave, stereo, etc...i'm at home here (i just need a carpet...) so tonight we went to the provigo (a supermarche) for stock in soup, kraft dinner, etc...lovely. met my "floor fellow," jared, who's a junior i think. they also use years here (first year, second year) instead of freshman, sophomore, etc...i'm on the end of the hall, got a window that looks back into mont royal parc. being a corner, i have one of the biggest rooms on the floor which is nice cause two people could easily sleep on the floor here. i truly lucked out on that one. my next door neighbor on my left is a girl, tess, from outside of vancouver, studying in the science faculty. and the girl across from me, kim, is from beansville, ontario. she's pretty good looking :) that's basically it for my neighbors really. there's a bunch of people that havent moved in yet though.

went with the family for dinner at kam foo, which is the chinese restaurant we ate at in april and we saw the owner again and after thinking a few seconds he remembered us (cause we were talking to him a while in april)...gave me his card, told me to call if i had problems, etc...a really nice man. after that, came back to the dorm to drop off my ton of groceries and go out with the people on the floors. so the floor fellows from floors 4, 5, and 6 took us down campus to this pub on sherbrooke st called "the mad hatter." cool place i guess, but i dunno too much about pubs to know whats good and what isn't. suffice to say, i had my first beer, a molson export ( ;) jules)), and a glass of labatt's blue, and that was about it. you know, beer really doesn't taste too great in my opinion and if i wasnt just being social, i prolly wouldnt have any...but it was a way to meet some people, ease up the tension...some guys were buying pitchers for tables kinda as a way to get people to introduce themselves, etc...there's a girl on the 3rd floor from new hartford (ct), and another kid on the opposite side of my floor (the floors are kinda divided by the central staircase), who's from bethany (outside of new haven) i think he said...i met a kid from boston and his friend who's going to BU, another girl from boston, a few other people, and this other good looking girl from wisconsin, andrea. we were talking a bit, but geez, she likes country and never heard of limp bizkit...we'll have to change that...bring on the rane :) oh yeah, and already the first night was a barfight with pushing and shoving, a broken bottle and a guy with a cut face...pretty intense but kinda funny in a sad way to watch other people be so ridiculous. but you could tell they were plastered. so i left there around 1240, came home and showered...somehow i got the bathroom entirely to myself though. anyways...its been an interesting 2 days, tough to leave CT and i miss everyone but i'm determined to make some friends up here and not blow off first year because i can't break SW and spend all my time online talking to everyone. i'll talk to people still but it took me a good 13 years to make any friends in SW and i don't have that time here in montreal...i've gotta start from the getgo.

its 220am and i prolly should get to bed cause i gotta get up around 730ish to get ready to meet mommy and daddy since we gotta check w/mcgill telecom aboot my phone line and my internet, get my lease as proof of residence to be able to get my bank account up here...all that's gotta be done starting exactly at 9 when everything opens up... and after that is 2 advising sessions and then who knows what? i say goodbye to my parents, start going out with some people, hopefully hook up with megan (i forgot which MORE residence she's at to visit her...) and then whatever's next is next...this definitely is the start of something new...

til we leave for Montreal!!!

8/26/00-well this is it, my last site update from the USA. maybe i'll revamp the site when i get up there and start fresh, but i know i'm gonna be so busy. things have turned out not how they seemed, after being confused about things with melissa and a big joke we were planning on pulling on everyone, it got really confusing...and its still confusing, but somewhat clarified. *sigh* i'll definitely miss her. what else is there to say, the concatelli's party was the last goodbye but it wasn't. tonight was starbucks and friendly's and jon beat me at eating a super sized sunday by about a minute and a half. i dunno, there's a bit i have to say but i'm lazy, excited, and a little worried at once so rather than expanding on my emotions like i'd normally do here, i think i'm gonna keep it short and update when i can up there...thanks to everyone who's helped me get this far in my social life, in my education, my family...i love you all and will miss you all in canada. this sounds so damn cheesy. my next update will be from The Great White North, most likely in molson hall. till then, peace, i'm out from south windsor...

8/22/00-holy crap, as of yesterday and last night, my life has been thrown into a completely confusing tailspin and if i knew what was going on, i'd be able to elaborate more. let's see most of the day yesterday was spent online, watching tv, or jamming on my guitar and i'm so proud that i can play the solo to metallica's "i disappear" cause its a little tricky. andrew wants me to bring my guitar to his party tonight so i may bring the electric since i can manipulate the sound a little better if i want or put on distortion or whatever...about 8ish, i went over to garrett's house where he and jen, his friend from camp from windsor, had thrown scott and i a little birthday party, so that was real nice of them. we just kinda hung out and saw emily for the last time in who knows how long. maybe we'll see each other winter break, who knows? i dunno why but around 11ish, the night started to get young but nothing to do, no one to go with, so i came home and talked to melissa online for 2 hrs and i think we both came out of it completely confsed but becky was on, so i was talking to her also.

tonight's the concatelli's party which should be cool cause i'm stuck here home alone all day doing nothing but watching tv and going online, much like yesterday. and it's the last time i'll see almost everyone in the group before i leave so...should be sad to some extent, but i'm still looking forward to saturday and life up at mcgill...if only i wasnt so confused, it'd make things a lot easier *sigh*

8/21/00-that's right, its my once a year midi, you missed it today, you blew it...

well yesterday was quite the interesting day. woke up around 12ish after being passed out on the couch and goofed around til my cousins from framingham came up around 2. this was the first time in 10 years they came to our house. so we kinda chilled out around here since it really wasnt lunch or dinner and then dave and emily e-mcq came over and we went to pick up julian for pepe's. got to pepes around 615 and pete was already standing in line, so i parked the car and there was about a 45 minute line. so we got seated, blah blah blah...it was also their 75th anniversary to the date, so we got an engraved pizza cutters, but they only allowed one per table, so it kinda sucked because nobody else got to have one. anyways...great pizza as usual, dave and emily already had it once and liked it, so it was up to the deciding pete and julian, who both enjoyed it immensely. unfortunately, there weren't any clams so i couldnt introduce them to the white clam pizza, and even had to short out my parents who wanted me to bring them back some. cousin david got my message but they didnt eat with us, only stopped in to see if we came, he got a pizza cutter (since he knows the guys), and then basically left. pizza was great as usual and i burned half the roof of my mouth. after that, it was about 820ish, so we went next door to libby's which is a place that sells coffees, italian ices, gellatos, italian pastries like cannolis and tira-mi-sus, etc...long line there too (new haven's little italy section is almost always busy and virtually anywhere you get something to eat has a line...) so we all got stuff and sat outside on the curb, a nice summer night, right on the street was the cop car with 3 cops just hanging around outside...but it was the epitome of a summer sunday night. just hangin on the curb, eating cappuccino gelatto, chillin and dillin...yeah...dropped everyone off and that was about that...

today's not over, but already my errand running has made quite a promising day. woke up this morning to take my dad to work. already, i'm now a dee snider radio addict, something i've picked up at work. so i was listening to that in the car. i had to take his car in at 10 to get the radio pulled since its still wrong, but needed a time staller. so went to aaa to get my international drivers license since i'm 18. so now i'm able to drive anywhere in the world. went to shaws and bought a classic lotto ticket and the lady didnt even ask for id, but wanted to know if i'm old enough. stupidly, i forgot to get a scratch game, so i went over to stop and shop and won $8 off the double or nothing game. good day so far. then went to the bank, took in the car, and headed over to the mall to waldenbooks to see if melissa was working and monograms america, but i didnt see her. so i went up, to waldens and got myself a playboy and bought my dad the new tom clancy book out today. went to his office and dropped it off and here i am now. not much doing today otherwise...i'd still like to see the cell, but who knows what's going on...i'm just gonna keep reading my playboy and get some lunch...

8/20/00-i feel like i'm on survivor...ask 21 people to go to pizza in new haven, 3 will go with you. i dunno how anyone would have ever gone along with jon's beach house plans that we were thinking of at the end of last year when no one will go down for pizza in new haven. oh well, guess i cant say i didn't try to get people to go out to dinner and do something before saturday. but hey, i guess that's how the dice tends to roll these days, you know? more pending...

8/19/00 (again)-whelp, guess no seeing the cell tonight since angela's rather tired and she's gotta get up for church tomorrow. ah well...maybe monday she said. and someone else told me to keep monday open or something *shrug* yeah, like i'll really be doing much of anything monday...the new tom clancy book comes out monday, but i'm still working on my clive cussler book, so i dunno about that, besides, my dad'll probably get it instead. perhaps its just the time right now, but this feels like a lame ass week. i liked working better. atleast i knew i had something, somewhere to do but this week is all about surviving through saturday when i can get some semblence of a life again...actually, next weekend is gonna suck also since i'll pretty much be in a fog as to procedures and everything til orientation starts. you know, orientation might not be bad, but class should be what gets the whole college thing into some order (even if i'm not looking forward to doing all the work...a phd from oxford, a phd from harvard, and a phd from mit...half of my first semester professors...yikes). andrew's party should be good because i was hoping sunday's pizza day would be a good farewell event but since the majority of people either a)couldnt go or b) didn't respond to 2 emails i sent...atleast it's another thing place for melissa and i to go out, after all, we only have less than a week before we leave *sigh* maybe we'll have to do something together another time before we go...

8/19/00-what a boring day...got up around 1215 and putzed around with my guitar and being online til i mowed the lawn. that was about the highlight of my day except i went to the video store to rent strange brew, but they didn't have it :P so i browsed the mall, but no one was really there. pizza day's been moved to meeting at my house at 5pm since apparently my cousins are coming down to our house for the first time in 10 years since my uncle was allergic to josie. so that's in the morning and we're gonna make it a dinner trip instead of breaking up the afternoon. tonight is going to see the cell with angela at midnight so that should be fun. anywho...talking to someone else from mcgill now so i'm getting distracted again...

8/18/00-i don't know why, but for some reason the date 8/18 seems familiar. i'm not sure why but it does. today was my last day of work. we sat around in the truck while bob bulldozed more process to make more of the road. we ended up at mcdonalds for coffee break and so i didn't get to get my last sub. went back to the site and worked more on the road (though it was still me and ben sitting in the truck), and then drove around til lunch. some how, the crew at the plant was slim today and so i ended up being the only one in the lunchroom til pat showed up. but as usual, we watch the news during lunch so there wasnt much talking. we then "decommissioned" our truck, 309, which had gained 1913 miles in 39 work days. in one town alone...drove with bob in 325 for the last time. rode out to porter to get our assignment from peter (who actually shook my hand and wished me well), which was to cut down some of the cedars in the forest so they could stick the poles in the ground and make them into trail markers for the different woodland trails around the reservoir. so we were doing that most of the rest of the afternoon except it started to rain. so much for that. got back to the plant and hung out with the guys for my last half hour as usual...it's gonna be really interesting next summer. they really were a different group of guys, but still fun to work with. punched out for the last time, exactly at 330, just like every other day of the 8 weeks i was there. *sigh*

went home, went online, and basically my system crashed for a while, so i decided to defragment it since i had added a lot of stuff. it took over an hour to do, so basically i was screwed, but now its better. also a little faster as well. not defragging it made it quite sluggish. so after a nice round of jeopardy with my dad. man, we wont get to do that anymore when i'm away :( so when that was done, i went to pick up margaret after also trying julian for about an hour, and we went to the rane show at the equator. there were a bunch of people in the beginning and this band, zero chance, opened up. they werent bad, but their drum beats were rather predictible. but still good. rane came on and played all the good stuff- long road, hazelnut, transportation, minutes, lisa marie, mirage (the one with the cello), gemini, blindness, the sound of sleep, bownicity, and apparently they ended with a pink floyd cover we left while they started. it was a good show and they dedicated it to everyone going off to college. *sigh* my last rane show til who knows when? good show. of course it wasnt nearly as good as the 8/10 show since i didn't get to go to this one with melissa (makes listening to the music so much more...entertaining) ;) *sigh* but it was still fun going with margaret (although she always bombs when i go with her, but atleast she seems to like the music also...)

so, as i write this, i've crossed over to the one week mark and now it's almost time for me to go. i'm not doing anything tomorrow, if anyone still wants to come sunday for pizza let me know, or i'd like to see the cell on saturday, so if you wanna go, give me a call...or maybe angela's not working and wants to go or something (although i wouldnt mind doing something with a certain someone who happens to be at a wedding tomorrow, but hey, congratulations to both their families...that's what really matters most in life). so...that's it, i'm out for now, time for bed says the big guy...

8/17/00-don't confuse poutine with poontang. poutine is fries with gravy and cheese on it. poontang is well...if you look in a search engine, you might get an idea of what it is :) basically, we were talking about canadian cuisine at work and about poutine and steve was babbling about poontang cause he never heard of poutine and thought i was mixing it up. no. no mike today so it was interesting and tomorrow's my last day so ben'll be by himself. not much happened today except that there's proof john mcadam is still alive and kicking. today we worked on making a 100yd macadamized road leading from well 7 to well 8 off new state road. process on dirt, that's what its all about, that's what binds the transportation of modern society as we know it...*sigh* tutored today, which was rather interesting. not much other than he needed to study more as usual but it was my last day tutoring him so i had to talk to his grandfather about it and we were talking about some other stuff like construction of the new synagogue around the corner. it's coming along really nicely. after tutoring, i stopped by to see melissa at work and we're hopefully going to movie night at joes tonight so that should be pretty fun ;) as for tomorrow night, if anyone else wants to see rane with me, let me know, i'd like to go but i dunno yet...tick tick tick...

8/16/00-two more days left of work. and the countdown timer keeps on ticking above. response for pizza day is rather interesting...so far it's me, pete, margaret, and possibly nicole and jon...its kind of a shame since i don't know that i'll get to see anyone else before i leave next saturday. which was basically the intent on asking everyone on the sunday of the last weekend i'll be in the states. this weekend- pizza day is sunday, mowing the lawn on saturday and possibly catching a flick while my parents are at LTM...either godzilla 2000 or the cell...friday night is my last rane concert before i leave so i might ask angela since we're supposed to go out before the summer's over. and all next week is probably packing for school and next friday's the last night, everything last minute being resolved...

work this week has been rather hohum other than that mike's last day of work was today. he's moving into his new house on friday, same day as i leave. not much has been going on outside of work other than we brought the other computer. and i've been stopping by stop and shop after work to visit melissa :) and we're prolly going to youth group tomorrow night...should be interesting again ;)

damn i am so psyched to be leaving, this is so great...i just found someone online who's in my dorm...from atlanta...so along with some of the other people i've met and megan from jersey, it's gonna be a sweet time. the student society party for frosh is gonna be at my rez that saturday from 11pm to whenever. should be interesting...ah yes, the countdown continues and it should be really great to leave. i suppose it'll be sad to leave and when my family goes it'll be sad, but it's one of those growing up things that i'm sure will be fine in the end...i'm looking forward to meeting everone i've been talking to...ah yes....dinnertime...

8/12/00-happy 21st anniversary to my parents...its been a rather ho hum week as far as work goes other than that ben left for vacation on thursday leaving me and mike and bob. and we started using the chipper but you gotta be careful cause if you get sucked in, you come out like the guy in fargo. other than that and the fact that we're actually being productive, i'm left with one more week of work before i take off the last week...

not much has been going on outside of work either. i'm anxiously trying to get out more and i know i'm ready to leave here when i won't come straight home from work and instead wander around the mall aimlessly for an hour and a half. even my evenings i try and fill them with doing something. like, thursday i went to nevers park with my sister to see rane and met melissa and julie there. it was a really great show, nice night (though a little buggy). they played really well and now there's only one rane concert to see before i leave. so after that, we dropped elise off and we went to their church group advisor, joe's, apartment. we were about an hour late and they were talking about setting a moral example as a way to get other people involved in their religion. it was a interesting discussion that we didn't really get to see enough of...i figured it would be different to add a different perspective to the discussion as well as listen to theirs though. but after they ended the discussion, i was talking to joe and another girl, beth, about judaism cause i brought my jewish books of why and my bible. i think i got their wheels spinning a bit because there was some basic judaic premises that i was talking about like not believing that jesus performed miracles but that g-d performed miracles---and they really were trying to understand what i was saying. it's almost like they've been even less exposed to judaism than some of the other people i've been around. so i guess it was a good thing i came because even though they preach tolerance, they don't know what they're tolerating, its almost done blindly. which isn't always a good thing either. so i opened up some of their avenues of thought...but then after that, we were just hanging out there talking and what not, which actually wasnt bad and a different group of peeps to hang with. i've enjoyed doing that a lot more lately. brought melissa home around 1145 and then came home to go to bed for the next morning. and yesterday i went to stop and shop after work to see melissa and scare off the guys that harass her at work with my "so what time do you want me to pick you up for dinner tonight?" routine :) go figure the guys she wanted me to scare werent there. so i got an anniversary card instead. and go figure, my dad pulled the cable for my modem so i didn't get it back till now.

today we opened up a checking account for me using my savings account money. i need a checking account so i can write checks out of my US bank and deposit it into my montreal bank account, which is likely to be at royal bank since i guess they have the most atm machines around campus...and i need to get my saved us money into canadian, so i need an account up there...then we got me a new thesaurus and a bigger french dictionary. tonight's our last saturday night together as a family here in the us since my parents are going out to LTM next saturday night and the saturday night after that, i'll be in montreal, so i guess we're going out to adams mill restaurant for dinner tonight since we also have coupons there. man, one more week of work, another rane show, pizza day in new haven next sunday, and then a week of packing and i'm gone...man, the excitement builds...

8/7/00-happy 14th birthday to my elise today! 2 weeks til mine. its still vegas weekend and saturday was kinda cool. i didnt do a thing in the morning, but at night elise and i went out to dinner at uno's pizza. then i picked up melissa on the way to take my sister home and then drove to bushnell park for the mark twain days. i randomly got on the highway, but realized i didnt want to get on there, so we drove around to a general direction and eventually i found it. then we drove around 20 min til we finally parked in the bushnell parking lot since the capitol was closed for the fireworks at 930. there actually were a ton of people there, which i guess makes sense since theres not much else to do in this state. first up was the radiators, with this one guy who had a big ass fro that kept bouncing up and down and bouncing more during the solos. then this weird guy came out like mark twain and certainly played the part wittily. then were the fireworks that were put on by the guy who put on the paris new years fireworks. of course there was a shameless aetna plug at which fireworks burst out spelling aetna, but the rest of the show was really cool. they lit up the capitol building and the fireworks were shot over it and some of them were extremely bright, especially near the end. so we stayed for the next band, which was big head todd and the monsters. but todd certainly didnt have a big head and they werent monsters. all of their songs sounded the same though. you couldnt tell them apart. "here's a new one." yeah, like you knew. and the lyrics were bangbangbang... boomboomboom....owowow...but then the other day, i was searching on napster and he's on the real world soundtrack and...i was watching a commercial yesterday and the bangboomow song was playing in the background, so i guess he's more famous than we thought. we also saw dan and andrew parker there. and this weird guy who was dancing with just about every girl in the crowd. so around 11ish, we went home cause we didnt want to hear big head todd's encore about a guy named vincent from new jersey.

so sunday, we didnt do a thing til andrew came over and shot pool for about an hour, which was cool cause for all the time i actually have during the evenings, we didnt' get a chance to do much this summer. and now that there's only 19 days left til we move, the chances are growing slimmer and slimmer. then my grandparents came up and we went out to dinner at reins...man, i love that place...nothing like a good rubin sandwich and potato knish. dropped everyone off at home and then since melissa invited me to go to a youth group meeting at 7 at the church i went. of course i get there and there's all these older people in the basement (i guess?) of the church and all these cars and its 840. so i'm sitting in the car for 25 minutes debating whether to go in and ask where they're meeting or not and feeling kinda funny about it since i was late and coming myself...finally i saw adults leave so i got out and wandered around outside the church and upon deciding that there might not have been a meeting, i recognized a few people from their church, carol, jack, and joe. and that's when i found out there was no meeting during the summer. so i guess that was off...so i went home and hung out online for most of the night.

today was a great day. cloudy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon, about 90degrees and 80% humidity...perfect day to be outside. so we raked this big section of land, then bob used the backhoe to smash in an old unnecessary well, then we picked more rocks out of it, loamed it, raked out more rocks, seeded it, raked in the seed, and put straw all over it...a great all day project. went to the mall area after work to check out stuff and not much was going on so here i am now...so we're now 19 days til we leave, 20 til moving day...anxious anxious anxious...

well, for all the times i talk politics on my site and no one wants to respond, i figure i'll take it upon myself to respond to some news that another website addressed. today was vp al gore's selection of sen. joe lieberman as his vp candidate for this year's elections. personally, i'm elated for several reasons. one of the first being that he's jewish (he actually went to the synagogue that my mom went to as a kid, so she knew who he was). its always good to see a minority trying to make it to the top and as an orthodox jew who's performed his senatorial duties without hinderance due to his religion (orthodox jews wouldn't work on the sabbath), he's setting a stepping stone for minorities in major offices (the last time this happened was walter mondale's selection of gerraldine ferraro for vp). for me, this would be great because i know gore wont appoint new supreme court judges that favor prayer in school (which was a big sticking point for me on this election, even if i'm out of country). and yet lieberman still is a man of many moral principles that's been an advocate of anti-violence...criticised clinton during the lewinsky deal, etc...and i'm sure his religious background will help gore pull votes (despite what everyone else is saying). now as i registered to vote, i didnt affiliate myself with a party but i'm thinking i should have since i don't really follow along with conservative idealism and i find myself pretty much a democrat. i prolly would have voted gore anyways (cause i adamantly disagree with bush on various issues), but i didn't really have a good reason to other than i couldnt stand bush, not to mention that fact it helps if you know where certain countries are in this world. but now i actually have a legitamite reason to vote for gore. and its got absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he's from connecticut.

8/4/00-here we go. wednesday was same ol, same ol. but thursday...i woke up at 530 am to start calling MARS since the phone lines open at 6. and at around 6, the line became busy and was like that for 1/2 hr. so my dad called on the other line to their help line and during the summer, they dont open the lines til 9am. so i called in late for work, went back to bed and woke up at 850 to start calling. well, the line was busy til 912. (try competing against 18,000 other students for registration). so finally i got in and got my logic cours registered before they cut me off. that was my first concern since it was a limited size class. then around 924, i got through again, and registered for all but my music history class because i had the section number for it miscopied. so by the timei figured out my mistake, they cut me off and it took until 1050 for me to get through again to register. but now i'm officially in. then i went and booked it to work and went for the next 3 1/2 hrs straight weedwacking.

came home and mowed the lawn and weedwacked with our punyass weedwacker which takes 5 times longer to do than it would at work. called around, but the only one that could go to the grand band slam in hartford was julian. so we went at 845 to see rane, who was voted readers choice (grand band slam is a concert at multiple venues across 4 city blocks of bands that were voted by the hartford advocate readers as best in a multitude of genres). so we were there and it was raining during rane. but we saw julie and her sister cause they were there to see the rane set. i gotta lend her my at war at the moon cd for her to copy and also im her their songs from their first album. so we look around and who's there? the devil himself. so at that point, we felt compelled to say hi to him, and he shook our hands and his family was there (and obviousl his son since he's in the band). julie left after the rane set, but julian and i stayed for the max creek set (they were voted into the advocate hall of fame since they won so many awards in the past, they were being retired from future polling with special status). they weren't bad but there were a lot of older people in the crowd, smoking and drinking and you'd swear they were on cocaine or something...but their guitarist sucked and i thought he'd have been better for an older player, but it sound as if there were notes he was trying to play but couldnt. but their sound was reminiscent of phish's and they had a keyboard...

today was a full work day (for the first time this summer). all weedwacking, all day. and tonight i thought i'd go rollerskating with everyone, but i gotta be home to await a call from elise to pick her and her friends up from mini golf. and i was gonna go out to dinner with her, but then she realized she didn't have enough time to eat and be home before they came to pick her up. and the reason it's so important is cause my parents just left for vegas through tuesday morning. so sunday my grandparents are gonna come up through tuesday morning cause monday is elise's birthday, etc...so anyways...i'm free pretty much the entire weekend (just cause my grandparents are here doesnt mean i have to be home... so, if anyone's free and wants to do something, i should be able to do something (i believe melissa and i are going out sometime, maybe tomorrow and shooting pool) and meg's going up to maine so i wont get to talk to her for a week so thats a bummer, but...til then...

22/23

8/1/00-Its now august, and as of now 25 days til i leave, 26 til i move in. its been about 2 weeks since i've updated and not too much has happened other than some minigolfing, bowling, and the third eye blind concert which i've reviewed on my reviews page. although i don't do much there, most of my time has been spend at work usually sleeping in the truck and whatnot and when i get home, i'm just too lazy to update and obviously i havent worked on my site revamp and it may be pushed back til after i move. i'm getting increasingly psyched to be leaving. i've still been talking to this girl online from New jersey that's going to mcgill. even called her on the phone. and its greatt cause now i have someone to eat with that first saturday there...plus i owe her a massage :) so i'm doing a lot of preparation, doing a throrough cleanout of my room with my mother, shopping for a lot of stuff including the fridge and the microwave, etc...this thursday is the opening of MARS, which is course registration by phone. my schedule is looking like this:

Fall
Introduction to Deductive Logic MWF 1030-1130
Introduction to Comparative Politics MWF 1330-1430
Political Theory I MWF 1430-1530
Microeconomic Analysis and Applications T J 1130-1300
Space, Time and Matter T J 1430-1600

Winter
Government Politics of the Developed World MWF 930-1030
International Politics of Economic Relations MWF 1230-1330
The Religions of East Asia MWF 1330-1430
Historical Music Survey (Classical, Romantic, 20th Century) T J 830-1000
Macroeconomic Analysis and Applications T J 1130-1300

as you can see, i'm already gearing up for my political science major and starting a potential music history minor...

i've already set up my laptop to accept my mcgill emails. so now people can also email me at my school address, sross5@po-box.mcgill.ca . i can receive email, but i have yet to configure to send it out, so if you send there right now, you'll get a response from me via hotmail. as for housing, my dad called today and they oked the early move (they said it was a good idea cause that monday is gonna be bedlum in the dorm halls), but still no room number and they refuse to give it until i move in. essentially, no one will be able to write me or call me until i actually move into my dorm on the 27th. argh, i can't wait. after talking with this girl from new jersey the past 3 weeks, i'm really really really anxious to get up there and meet her, and all the other people who are going there. i only wish i could go to the send off party at the canadian consulate in NYC on the 17th, but my parents say its too cost inefficient to send me on the train down there for a 2 hr party when i'll see them a week later. i don't wanna wait a week though...i'm already to leave, just pack my bags and i'm all set.

anyways, its off to work tomorrow, a few all ages rane shows this month including thursday night's hartford advocate grand band slam...a date with angela...my sister's b'day...my parent's gone all this weekend to vegas w/the house to myself all weekend... etc...and now its time to go...maybe i'll start up with some regular updates again...

25/26....

Past reflections: