Damn. I am such a good procrastinator.

I've been in Montreal since early August, and I just now dropped off a CV to get a job. Yup, that's right, one CV at one place. I printed up the CV at least three weeks ago, perhaps even longer,and it had been sitting on my floor in a cardboard envelope since then. Now I am supposed to be going for a run, but I am writing this instead.

It is sunny now and I should be running and listening to my iPod (if I only listen to my iPod when I run, maybe I will run occassionally), but this morning it was not. Just as I was about to get into the shower so I could be presentable for my CV drop-off, it started to pour out. I went to Rachelle Bery Epicerie, an organice grocer chain in Quebec, IN THE POURING RAIN, but first I bought an umbrella, so at least I did that. I walked into RB (after a few deep breaths) and got so nervous I almost thought I was going to walk straight out again. It is really hard to be calm and collected in a foreign language that you still don't understand very well. I asked one of the cashiers if there was someone to speak to--mostly because my CV is shit, but maybe it was just as well that there was no one, because I was making NO grammatical sense as I spoke with her. I dropped of the CV, gave her my disponibilité, and walked out knowing I'd never work there. Whatever,they don't have bulk.

Then, because today is all about PRODUCTIVITY, I went to the CEGEP up the street from my house and asked about FLS classes--Français Langue Second. The woman there was really, really nice, my French was nearly flawless (ha!) and she even said, 'You speak French very well...' That had me grinning like the Cheshire while I walked in the the still pouring rain back home. Then I stopped off at a libarie-papeterie to buy an ink pad--they only had black and blue, but I am glad I chose blue. I then ate toast at home and stamped the backs of my latest plan-for-an-income-that-doesn't-involve-CVs-or-real-jobs.

Book pockets I made back in Vancouver. They were fun to make,

and I have loads more to do. I've started getting them ready to sell

just by stamping them. I have a bunch of other little things to decide

about, like what info to add onto them, price, and whether to add

double sided tape so they can be mounted onto something--

the inside of a journal, say--or to add magnets

so they can be hung on the frigo.

Oh, and didn't go for a run, which is what I was supposed to do first. But I had to wait for my iPod to load up Holy Fuck, because they are running with me, and also I *had*

to spend half an hour hair-drying the paint off the wood trim around thedoorway into the kitchen.

It really is like a hairdryer. It makes the paint

blister and is a really slow process. But I prefer it

to chemicals.

Tomorrow, instead of reading my readings for class (but I will at least look at the lectures for Wednesday and even read the lab stuff for 617--or is it 615?) I am going to help paint our dining room 'whipped yolk', or, you know, whatever that pale yellow, nearly beige colour is. I've decided that I've been stressing about school for several reasons, but I wonder how many there actually are:

1. I am worried I am procrasting and that there will come a day--say in two weeks--when I completely freak out and realise that I am SUPER behind and there is no WAY I can catch up.

Instead of reading the other day, I made this!

Cute, huh? It's a licorice candy box from either

Finland or Sweden--who can remember?

But:

2. Most of my classes are incredibly boring and the readings I have to do are so dull that they actually make me LIVID that I am wasting my LIFE reading them. But then I remembered that several people had commented that not only were they not going to do the readings, they noticed (and I did to) that reading the readings is unitarded* because the professors just re-read the readings in class, and if you think reading something INCREDIBLY DULL is fun, try having someone read dull material you've already read to you in a monotonous voice in a dark room just after you had lunch and a pint of really dark Scottish beer. Thank god (or something) that not all the classes are like this.

* I say 'retarded' way too much. So I told a friend of mine that I was going to start saying 'leotarded', like Dan Savage, who was critisized for using 'retarded' too much, so instead he wrote 'leotarded'. Which is pretty retarded. But I think unitards are more unitarded than leotards, and also they make me think of those shameful things, onesies, which cyclists and people with too much misguided style who shop at American Apparel wear. But my friend liked it because 'uni' for her was more like 'university', which is also dumber than hell, so 'unitarded' it is.

3. I also realised that I am feeling impotent at my procrastination because I can't actually DO anything about the projects I have been assigned because I'm either waiting to find out what the topic for the presentation is, waiting to get in touch with the partners I have been assigned, or waiting for the next stage of the project to be revealed. Therefore I am not even procrastinating because there isn't anything to put off doing, so really I am just worrying about nothing. Basically I am a chicken running around with her head cut off, except her head is perfectly intact and a crowd is gathering to gawk at the spectacle.

Also not helping the situation is that instead of sleeping, I am knitting.

I totally scored at the second-hand store down the street from me.

I got a huge amount of beautiful wool--real wool--for incre

dibly cheap.This multicoloured stuff is scratchy, so I'm pretty sure

it's mohair,or some sort of a blend. I think I meant to make it

a little longer so that it could be worn to midway up the palm,

but tant pis. I can alwayschange it later. I really needed to

liberate the knitting needles so that Icould start on a hat

--in white lambswool--since my head has been getting

cold in the early evenings. Maybe I'll do that

instead of going for a run...

Also, school is just getting in the way of exploring Montreal. If I wasn't going to school, I'd be (procrastinating about) signing up for French classes, finding a cool, low-paying job in some unique little café or something where I get to meet interesting people. I'd be (procrastinating about) trying harder to find a place to sell my various made-objects, and maybe even making more.

I think the best way to overcome procrastination is to have a whole list of pressing things to do, so that you can get the not-so-pressing ones done, or, you know, not do anything.

So, since it isn't raining again yet, maybe I'll get that run in. Or maybe I'll just make tea.