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So, guess what Ari SHOULD be doing? Her Algebra assignment. Guess what Ari IS doing? Well, clearly I'm updating my journal... grrr. Procrastination will catch up with me eventually. Then I'll smarten up. After I update, this is what will happen: I will go to bed, bringing my algebra with me... and work at it until a) I finish or b) I cannot keep awake no matter how hard I try... (hopefully a))... Anyhoo..

Colleen (Hanson concert ticket-seller) HAS mailed out the tickets on one of those 1-day mail thingies... cost her FORTY $ apparently! So yeah, Sid should be getting the tix VERRRY soon... if not tomorrow, then on Thursday for sure. So, yay Friday! Now, I just need to a) pay half of what it cost Colleen to send the tix (well actually a quarter - since Sid and I will likely split the cost) and b) see if my parents can drive us, if not, if hers can, and if not, if we can take the bus or find someone else to drive us (and pretend her parents are driving so that my parents don't freak out on me and say 'you can't take the bus alone w/ a friend to somewhere like toronto - this is canada, it's too dangerous')... anyhoo.. yeah. That's that.

Today, this morning.. I went to GRCI. My precious high school.. mmm... GRCI. Anyway, I saw Hemmerich there... he appeared "different" somehow. Less foolish if you will. I wasn't so tempted to just make fun of him at the mere sight of him. Maybe it's me? Then I called Sid, told her to get to school.. Next I saw... Dowhaniuk. Chatted for a bit. That was all nice and good... Went to the cafe to wait for Sid, saw Hitchman and Jordie there. Hung out... Sid came. Hung out. 2nd period ended. Sid and I went walking to her class - on the way I stopped to chat with Mr. Nicholls (hmm - so far the only teacher I've referred to by a "title")...we'll return to this topic in a moment... then we got to her class, and I left... dropped in the math office, and behold... all the math teachers I had wanted to see... those three, and ONLY those three were there. Pretty cool. Bestfather, Hill, and Dubrick. So, we chatted for a minute, then I saw Kevin (Ryrie), so I chatted with him... then I stopped by the Science office and talked to Ackersviller (and Gragor) for a bit... then left to the portable - where Kevin and Bestfather were... chatted with them for quite a while... Mr. Bestfather is GREAT... gotta love him... then Bortolussi came, told me "tall girl" is looking for me... (Sid and I arranged to meet at the end of class in the caf... it was about 7 minutes before the end of class... so I guess she DID end up being able to get out a little early...) So I went to the caf and she wasn't there... guessed she left..so I went walking.. chatted w/ Jenna and Tara.. apparently Jenna is the one continuing the Rainbow club... surprisingly enough. Anyhoo. Then I saw Joanna... walked upstairs with her... saw Keith... chatted w/ him. He said he likes my hair short like this :) Uhm, then I went walking down corridor 3... Ruby was walking in front of me... she reached the science office and was about to open the door, spots me half-way down the hall, grins, and shouts "Hiiii!" and then she makes her way towards me, and I'm still continuing to walk towards her (oh and I said "Hey" lol) and she hugs me and she's all "how is it going" and so on and wow, she sure was glad to see me lol. I like Mrs. Ruby... just... not so much her teaching style. Well, she's a great teacher...I just don't like the particular style... too simplified... (think Quanz, think Cyntha now, think.. well yeah... all the ones who really seem to baby you)... anyway, so we chatted... then I saw Chuck... talked to him for a bit... then we bumped into Quanz... yeah. Uhm.. then I had to go catch my bus to get to class on time...

Now, to return to Mr. Nicholls... MAN! I hadn't seen him since the end of grade 11! I was SO glad to see him! And I have such admiration for him that I just... didn't know what to say really... I was a little nervous in a sense. So yes, I sorta just popped into his classroom (he has his old room back.. 3-113... good ole memories of grade 11 english there).. Sid waited in the doorway... and yeah he was just like "Arijana! Hey.." and then just sorta enquired about what I'm up to (school-wise) - as in, what I'm studying... where I'm going... and yeah... I asked him how Malaysia was... he gave it a thumbs up and was just like "oh it was great travel. good teaching too, but the travel just... great" and yeah... for a brief short moment in his praise the travel speech I just sorta tuned out for a second. Just cuz my mind was thinking things like "wow, Mr. Nicholls! The greatest teacher ever, who I hadn't seen in so long! Yay!".. and yeah...

Then later, when I was coming back in from the portable where Kevin and Mr.Bestfather were (after Bortolussi told me Sid was looking for me).. I passed by Mr.Nicholls' classroom again... and, the song that's currently stuck in my head - and has been all day - (Endless Summer by Zwan) was playing! Mr. Nicholls was listening to the Zwan CD! How great is that? I LOVE Zwan. Not that it's too shocking that he'd be listening to it... but it was just something I wouldn't expect from any other teacher at GRCI..and with him being gone for the past year... it was like "YES! To have a stereo in this building playing such great music.. AWESOMENESS!"

Oh man... He influenced me SO much... He sort of helped steer me in a path so that I can find more individuality in my views and such... recommended great things to me... from one of the best books I've ever read (1984) to Ani DiFranco... and once in class he was talking about reading something in ECHO magazine, then he stops for a second, and says that I'd probably enjoy that magazine (I don't know if I liked being singled out like that, Mr.N! *shakes fist* lol)... so he really influenced me in that sense... and also, he just... Well, let's put it this way- it's possible that if it weren't for him I'd be stuck definitely doing something I don't want to do (math) because I would have seen math/engineering/cs and all that as the only opportunity for me... because arts isn't as... well, it just never even entered my mind as a possiblity... it's as though it was forbidden territory.. and not in the "good" sense if you will... but more like it's MUCH more respectable to have a math-type degree than an arts one... arts is for "stupider" people is the general sense I'd had... and then he talked about how his dad (and I think someone else in his family - maybe brother or something... i don't remember specifically..this was nearly two years ago).. so his dad had studied something "respected" - one of them maths/sciences/etc - something like that.. and so Mr.Nicholls was expected to do that kind of thing too... but he had a passion for english and so he went for it... It wasn't until then that I had even considered it OKAY for me to want to do something in the so-called "less respectable" fields...

And I fell in love with english that year.. it was great... we studied great material and yeah... he was a good teacher... and it was wonderful... (Let's now throw aside the fact that I used to have a little crush on him... being as it's obvious how that could develop out of the amount of admiration I had for him... later in the year I did sort of "stop" the whole crush thing and realised... no, I just have huge admiration for the man...) And see, it wasn't JUST because of him that I loved english... I still do. He just got me to see it as an okay thing. Because, I still loved it in grade 12, with Dowhaniuk. I loved Writer's Craft, with Grant.. Oh, and on that note, I doubt I'd have had the courage to take Writer's Craft if it hadn't been for him.. I'd have been too afraid that my parents might say "Oh, why would you take such a useless course if you don't have to? Besides, you'll already be taking English, you'll be doing enough writing there" and blablabla... and I mean it wasn't this black and white as I'm making it out to be... there were other things in my life that were changing and probably influencing each other... but yeah... because of him I ALLOWED myself to fall in love with english..rather than viewing it as just a stupid requirement in high school... and because I fell in love with it... I wanted to do more of it... hell, I remember in grade 9, looking through the course calendar... and I saw that in OAC they had "Writer's Craft" offered and I was sort of wishing I could take it..thought that'd be so cool... but almost was CERTAIN it just wouldn't happen because I figured it doesn't fit with the overall theme of courses I'll be taking.. in essence, I guess it was like I viewed the arts very similarly to how kids usually may view drugs - they never even consider it - they just have "say no to drugs" "drugs are bad" engraved in their heads... it never dawns on them to consider ANYTHING more than that with respect to drugs... and it was sorta like that for arts with me... only it seemed to me as if anything in the arts had to be something I'd do as a hobby if I wanted to do it at all, and stick with the maths/computers/sciences for my academics/work/etc.. So yeah..in a lot of ways, Mr. Nicholls helped me open my eyes and just sorta helped me actually look for what I LOVE rather than what's "good" and "proper"... and it's interesting, because I don't think he's ever preached directly that "you should pursue what you love, not what will get you most money, or this or this bla bla bla".. yet, he's the one who sort of got me to do that... and all the people who would say "pursue what you love" didn't have much impact.

So yes. Damn, how much I'd wished he decided to go to Malaysia for a year THIS year, and not last year! That way I could have had him last year for English or Writer's Craft (hopefully WC, since I did learn a whole lot from Dowhaniuk...and I'd just much rather have had Mr.Nicholls and Dowhaniuk as my english teachers than Mr.Nicholls and Grant... Grant was okay..nice guy.. but just... meh. Not someone I respect a whole lot. And if a teacher doesn't have my respect.. then I ain't gonna like em as much as one who HAS gained my respect)...

So yeah... *sighs* I miss GRCI... I literally LOVE my teachers... well, most of them... most of the ones I chatted w/ today... I've gotta go back another day... I wish I could sit in on each of the teachers' classes... I miss that. There I was, talking how I do love university and how I'm really enjoying it- moreso than high school... and at the same time, I'm wishing I could have these great teachers teaching me once again... And well..I DO love university more... but that's if you look at it all "content-wise"... I just feel a warm connection with the teachers at grci... And it wasn't until today that I sort of sensed a more cold/impersonal portion to University. Not AS much in my CS class... I have a great prof there... and a small class-size (25 of us)... so that one was okay... but there is somewhat more of a distance elsewhere... then again..if I think back to grade 9... that connection/warmth wasn't there... I guess it built over the years... maybe some profs I take multiple courses with..if I actually get to communicate with them at all personally... it might be "warmer"...

I just still really miss Mr. Nicholls most of all. I wanna sit in on his classes... Just to sit there and take it in and to explore all that there is to explore in the course he's teaching... *smiles* you know what else? He'd really probably rather be a rock star than a teacher... I mean, he did (does?) have his own band (The Duncan Nicholls Band) - he did try to "make it" for a few years after university (ie. he wasn't working at all - realised he wasn't getting anywhere, decided to get it together and get a job, so he decided to teach.. and why oh why do i remember little things like this that he told us nearly 2 years ago?).. and then I recall in grade 11, for the one assembly... he had his electric guitar.. and he was playing and singing.. and he really got into it... and I was sure he must have been imagining he was you know, playing a concert for a paying crowd and all that... ah man... and in class... we'd looked at one of his poems which he wrote in april 97 (why did THAT stay in my head?? lol).. we also looked at ani's "coming up" - he played the one where you have her voice starting at 2 different points and just overlapping and mixing and all that... that was great... it was interesting that shortly before we looked at the ani poem in class.. in a comment in response to my essay i handed in, he recommended that i check out ani. Why did he know me better than I knew myself? Grr. I could have just sort of let him pick out everything I'm gonna like (music, books, etc), and he'd do a better job than if I tried to do it myself. THAT is a big part of why I like him so much... he sort of knew how I worked. And it seems that a lot of what he recommended to me, he had interest in himself, so perhaps he just saw a part of himself in me in a sense and figured I might be able to relate to the same type of stuff... Perhaps.

Anyhoo... another topic that's crossing my mind which I won't get into... the love for a teacher. You have your different types of love... people often tend to think of family, friends, and lovers... but there's a significantly different kind of love... for teachers. At least for me... and I could start a long thought-process about all sorts of things related to that.. but let's not...

Anyway... that sums up my grand river experience today...well it sums up much more than just that... but yeah..

Sid just signed in on MSN, but I'm appearing offline, and I'm tempted to appear online and say hello...but I MUST go to bed.. it's past midnight.. I've been MSN-ing and typing here for too long... must do algebra and more importantly SLEEP! I think I'll do algebra half-assed so I can pull off as many marks as possible without taking too long to stop and figure things out... we'll see how it goes... goal: fall asleep by 2. Anyhoo.

Nighty-night.

PS. Guess what Ari will likely being doing on Saturday for the first time in her life?

Oh, you expected me to answer? I SAID "guess". Fine, if you'd really like to know the answer, ask Hans.

PS#2 (is that PPS or PSS?? hmm..) anyway... Goddamn Liz hasn't responded to my e-mail yet. What IS with her and signing on for like 2 seconds and then leaving? I always figured it was to check her mail... But if that was the case, why didn't she reply? *shakes fist* grr you, Liz, GRR! Anyway... I'll stop being the lazy bum I am and start that algebra...

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