"Earth Angel, Earth Angel, will you be mine??"

I dreamt the other night that she was there, giving advice to someone else on how to be my friend. Her advice was to "just act like his girlfriend." I actually thought to myself, "Wow. This is an interesting revelation."

Then I remembered it was a dream.

The Weird Stuff I See: Runaways...

Heading back to school from home the other day (only went for the night to complete a hockey pool), I grabbed the 8:30am bus. Being an idiot, I forgot to charge my iPod as it had died just as got home the day before, so I had no music to listen to on the almost 2hr ride back to school. Because of this, I chose to read a play that I had to, and try to distract myself from any other people who were conversing around me.

I lucked out and only had someone sitting beside me for two stops, so I lounged between two seats for the majority of the ride. Being that it was that early, on a Thursday morning, there weren't very many people on the bus either, so not having music wasn't as bad as I was anticipating. I had a play on me, and decided to bide my time by reading that. That was, until the two homeless middle school children began talking.

I was maybe the third person on the bus, so I got to get myself settled in first and see all the other people who were going to be taking the bus with me. After about 5 minutes, a young girl (or rather I THINK it was a girl... pretttty sure) in a new era cap and giant, floppy coat entered the bus, and was stopped by the driver. Apparently, she had not paid as much as she thought she had or something on the bus BEFORE this one, and thus the driver was making her pay again. She did as she was told, but judging by her reaction as she came to take a seat, she was not happy about it. At all.

She made her way down the middle of the bus, and sat across the aisle from where I had sat. Following her was a slightly taller, similar in attire, same aged, black kid, who sat down in the seat beside her. I was trying to indiscreetly place them as to what/who they were, but couldn't figure it out right away.

Once they started conversing however, I drew some conclusions.

These two kids, who were at the very MOST, the age of grade 9 students, were a pair of runaways. They were obviously going to Waterloo in order to live on the streets there, as opposed to Toronto, where I heard them talk about often.

They discussed drugs and being totally wasted and what not. It was very odd and semi-disturbing to hear them talk about such things being that neither one of their voices had dropped yet. It was a pre-pubescent version of something you'd hear on "The Wire" (which, when I think about now, actually might happen on "The Wire"...). But regardless, I tried my best to focus on my play, and just ignore what was happening to my left.

What happened next, I was not prepared for.

The girl was obviously distraught over something. The guy, was not. But what was clear is that the two of them helped each other out. It was heart-breaking and heart-warming at the same time. At least, it was heart warming until I hadn't heard anything from them in a while. I looked over to investigate the silence, and noticed that underneath the jacket that the male had placed over his lap, there was movement. Consistent movement. Up and down. I could not see the girl's right hand.

Immediately, I felt sick to my stomach. I can't say for sure, but I am pretty certain, he was getting a handy like, 4 feet away from me. As I was attempting to deduce whether what was happening beside me was ACTUALLY what was happening beside me in order to say something to make them stop, the movement came to an end. Kind of abruptly. Because of this, it makes me think that it might not have taken place. But then again...

Either way, it made me feel gross until I got off the bus. It was weird. Hopefully, I don't have to go through THAT again...

Things That I Love Today: 13

"The bitch is back."

"If you think I'll just be sitting here waiting..."

Wow, does NOT feel like a week since I last posted. Didn't mean for that to happen.

Not in a particularly "in depth" kind of mood. Breaking the last few days down in point form:

• VA's were yesterday

• Started off pretty good; won "Graphic of the Year"

• C0-hosted the event and that went over well I thought

• Did some karaoke (sang Dierks Bentley's "What Was I Thinkin'")

• Ended the night in a crappy mood

• Too many reasons why, the most prominent of which was a 9am exam this morning

• Bad sleep last night; couldn't study as much as I wanted to

• Exam today was meh; wrote it in the worst room, felt sick all the way through it

• Came home after and slept 'til tonight

• Still felt crappy all day

• Then, did an ice cream study break and crappy mood was lifted

• Hopefully, it stays this way

"Oh baby!! Oh what a cryin' shame!!"

This past week, was not as bad as it could have been. Part of this could be because I set myself to cruise control from Wednesday until now (for good reason), but I think my "not letting it beat me" attitude helped with getting through the week.

My work at the paper is done for the year though. Tear. I have to say, the year in producing a newspaper turned out to be almost exactly what I expected. It was really fun. It was the opposite of that some times, but overall, I would do it again in a heartbeat. And I am. Kind of.

I got the Visuals Director position at the paper next year, which is kind of different from being Graphics Editor, but not too far off. So I'm excited to try something a little different, and a little more challenging creatively. But, of course, I'm up for it. Drawing and that sort of thing is quite a bit more fun for me than school has been over the last couple semesters. In fact, if I didn't have the paper, or Fr!nge or any other extra-curricular stuff to do, then I dunno if I would have lasted as long as I have.

Despite being back at the paper again next year, it's gonna be different, both good and bad. I mean, I am going to thoroughly miss some of the peeps I worked with this year. No way am I turning this blog into sentimental drivel, but I figure I've developed some strong friendships because of The Cord, and that is going to be sorely missed.

The fact that we had our last issue of the current school year released on Wednesday has had time to settle on me, and I'm not particularly bothered by that. Some people leaving (and even some staying) absolutely lost it, which I can understand. But for me, I just... I am proud of the year, and now I can move on to the next.

It would have been kind of nice for the last issue to write one last piece on the year, but I didn't have the time to write anything. Like I said previously, I wanted to maybe write something on Liz Taylor, but I simply had too many other things to do. I did actually get to partake in our group review of Sucker Punch though, which was nice. The movie was unbelievably disappointing, but the article was nice to partake in. And I got to do the graphic for it, which I

enjoyed and was quite proud of.

So yeah. The year is over. Out of it, I got some great work,

and some great friends.

Now let's see what the next one will bring...