not quitting my day job...

apparently my masters' level education leaves me horribly unqualified to bag groceries. today at lunch i decided to go to the loblaw's at the next subway stop & stock up on fresh fruit to munch on for the next few days. dionne is a big supporter of the self-serve checkout, so i hesitantly joined her there, even though i often have troubles, and today was no exception. it took about 10 minutes, and 3 consultations with the "in case of emergency" cashier to scan & pay for my 6 items. wonderful. at least i came away with a stockpile of clementines guaranteed to give me a tummyache and turn my fingernails yellow.

as for my weekend, on saturday rob & i decided to check out a free screening of a new "reality show", citadel, by atom egoyan at his screening room/lounge camera, just down the street from my house. it was, not surprisingly, really interesting and fairly well done for a work in progress. the film is structured as a letter to his son, to be viewed sometime in the future, centred around a family trip to lebanon. egoyan's wife was raised in beirut until the age of 17, when the ongoing civil war forced her to leave. this trip was the first time she had been back since. the dramatic nature of the the climax was alluded to fairly heavily throughout, and in the discussion following the film, egoyan asked if knowing who he & his wife were had influenced the way the ending was perceived. at this point, two women said they had never heard of egoyan before, so they were not influenced. pardon me? you have never heard of atom egoyan, yet you've come to an advance screening of his new film at a tiny little hole in the wall in west toronto?? umm, ok... nominated for two academy awards? the sweet hereafter? ring any bells at all? sigh. also it should be noted that on the way out of the screening, i made some serious eye contact with my tv boyfriend, george stroumboulopoulos. perhaps he knows sarah harmer, and he can arrange a double date for us with her & rob.... how perfect would that be?

the good times just kept rolling on sunday, with ted leo at the mod club. well, actually they were rolling along quite nicely until the third (and, thank god, last!!) opening band, the junction, took the stage (note: yes, they were wearing those zip-ups last night). rob & i took turns trying to "guess the genre" as they seemed to run the gamut from indie rock to keane-inspired piano drivel to god awful smooth r & b. they, however, describe themselves as "a sound that combines the organic acoustic elements of folk music, with an innovative interpretation of the modern british rock scene". wow... so not. by the end i was dying to clothesline each & every one of them. thank god, ted leo was quite good. i have been spoiled lately by an abundance of amazing shows, so my standards are quite high now, but it was definitely good. the highlight may have been the token rush cover included, but it may have been 'shake the sheets'. i'm not sure.

and now it's getting to be lateish on monday afternoon, and i am starting to dread making my way home in the muck of the first official snow i've seen all year. booooo. down with snow!!!