And one more thing... some mindless fun for home or office.

This Freaky-Tie Friday brought to you by Maya's political pics:

Bev Meslo will lose on first ballot and back Lorne Nystrom. Pierre Ducasse will lose and back Joe Comartin. Joe Comartin will be up against the front runners Bill Blaikie and Jack Layton. Nystrom will lose and back Blaikie. Comartin will back Layton. It will be a tight fight for Blaikie and Layton, but because Layton has no Federal political experience and would end up being the third consecutive party leader lacking a seat in the House, Blaikie will end up taking it.

I've never played this game - the game of politics - at least not for real. But, now, because I work for Adam G_______, I can't help hearing this talk around me. Who do I support? Who would I vote for had I managed to join the party in time? I would back Layton, though I'm sort of partial to Comartin, as well. I certainly wouldn't back Meslo - I've never seen so much crap. "For a socialist and feminist New Democratic Party." Huh? The word 'feminist' is NOT a good sell. Too many people, including many women, are bothered by the word. Besides, there's a big fat rose on her webpage and underneath it says, "Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too !" I'm pretty sure that's a quote from somewhere, but it's not attributed. What kind of a mixed message is this? Anyway, that's a rant for another day.

I'm all done with G________'s re-election work. He called me last night to tell me that the buttons look fabulous. I've enjoyed working for him on this, although spending this weekend doing relatively nothing sounds like a great plan. I was all keyed up to go to the gym tonight before we (Rick and I) leave for the Petes, but I left my shorts and shoes at my appartment, so I guess I'll just go home and take a well-deserved nap. Next week, I start with more stuff for Adam, this time for his municipal stuff. He is certainly going to keep me busy. Of course, the busier I am with his stuff, the less of a struggle I have financially, which is definitely a good thing.

Also, I got my application to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the mail. It has to be postmarked with today's date, so it should be fine, but just in case, I'm going to email my application in as well. On Tuesday, I'm meeting with my old Professor Nagel, and hopefully Mac Johnson, too, in order to talk to him about references. I'll also be going into the university registrar's office in order to pay for my transcripts. God, my marks were terrible. They were worse than I'd thought. I was one heck of an average student. For each fail there is an A, there are more Bs than Ds, and there is a stack of Cs. It doesn't bode well for the museum, but maybe they'll look past that to all the extra-curricular stuff I've done... Heh, ya, right.

So, anyway, it's Freaky-Tie Friday, which happens about every three Fridays or so, as long as it's not too hot and I've got a clean shirt. I've been wearing ties far longer than Avril Lavigne and I wear them with more style and flash. The idea behind FTF is to wear a tie (preferably a nice loud/ugly one) with either a surprisingly coloured shirt, plain shirt (for extra loud ties), and if possible, with matched socks. Today I'm wearing my red button-down that I got last month at Value Village along with a purple-lavender tiny-white-polka-dotted tie. I had hoped they would clash, but they work surprisingly well together. I'm wearing black and red argyle socks, too, so I'm a looker. Admit it, Freaky-Tie Friday is WAY more exciting than casual/denim Fridays.

Slogging. That is what I am doing. I am slogging through great sucking marshland called graphic design for Adam G_______. Now, Adam's a nice guy, and I want him to win, but there are only three things that are keeping me sane through this mess. The first: my respect for Adam. The second: the money. The third: techno. Yes, that's right. It's the body-moving, bass-thumping rhythms of some classic (and somewhat less so) electronic dance music. There will be further entries at a later date when I have either finished Adam's stuff, or finished Adam.

Wow, there's nothing quite like a beautiful winter day. The sky is that shade of blue that can't possibly be real, except that you're looking up and there it is - blue like a technicolor dream. The sun is shining and it's that warm sun because January brings the earth closest to that great ball of flame in the heavens, but it's not warm enough to shield you from the wind. It's a teasing sun. There's snow on the ground and it's bright, luminous in the sunlight and a blue that matches the sky in pockets of shadow. The snow crunches underfoot because it's so cold outside, there's no slush, no muck, just beautiful frozen expanses. Today, Toronto is beautiful.

I feel good today, and not just because it's so great a day. Yesterday, I went to the YMCA (everyone, together now, do the dance !) with Erin, my friend from the ROM. She dragged me around and showed me how to use the machines and whatnot, and I had a blast. After stretching, I we did the stairclimber for about 15 minutes and then walked it out for a while on the track. Then we did about half an hour on various weight machines before finishing up with some abdominal work and more stretching. It was amazing. I figure that we worked out for a bit over an hour, and considering how poor my condition is, that's pretty darn good. We went for a very healthy dinner at a little Japanese Bento place and then we drove home. Needless to say, I'm quite sore today, especially through my upper body. I'm going again tonight !