Bitten

This has been a pretty fucked up week. I was sick all week, had a sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, fever, muscles and joints aching... Sucks, right? Then I got bitten by a spider just in front of my ear. First there was a red, itchy bump. Then the bump got bigger and turned mustard yellow in the middle, then brown, then the middle fell off and now I have an itchy scab about the size of a penny. Pretty annoying... Anyway, the aching and pain in my throat wouldn't go away, so my friend Nikki took me to the Sainte-Adele clinic. When we got there, we found a note on the door saying that the clinic was closed today only. Sucks. So we were going to return the next day, but unfortunately Nikki's car got towed away during the night for being parked in a bad place. Before she got it back it was already past five and the clinic had closed again. So we decided to go to a clinic in Laval instead. We got there, only to find a similar note on the door, saying that the place was closed today only. So we went to a third clinic, but that one was full. We went to Nikki's place and went to sleep. The next day we went back to the clinic that had been full. According to the sign, we were well within opening hours, but the doors were locked. What the fuck, man? So we went back to the other clinic, but that one was closing in ten minutes. Starting to get seriously pissed, now. Five clinics and we hadn't gotten to see a doctor yet. Why would a clinic close at 2 pm in the afternoon? Are people only allowed to be sick during banking hours in Canada? So we went to a clinic we hadn't tried yet. Finally we got to get a number and start waiting to see a doctor. About three hours later I got to see this doctor. He walks in the room with a sour look on his face and goes "pourquoi?" I tell him I don't speak French very well. He tells me he doesn't speak English. Seriously, I can get the thing about why official documents and signs and all that have to be in French in Quebec and all that. The province wants to be francophone. Fine. No problem with that. But what the FUCK is up with doctors not even having the most basic skills in English? I am absolutely sure that I am not the only person in the province who doesn't speak French... This particular doctor was pretty rude, and didn't exactly give an impression of being very competent either. He stuck a thermometer in my mouth, squeezed my throat, and then decided it was tonsillitis and prescribed me antibiotics. Now, I know for a fact that there is a crapload of things that can cause tonsillitis, and only about 15-30 % of those things are bacteria that are treatable by antibiotics. So to just prescribe me antibiotics without taking a blood test or doing a bacterial culture swab to find out what the cause is seems pretty dumb to me. And that I had to go to a clinic six times before I got to see a doctor? Seriously... So far Quebec health care is really not very impressive.

Sickness...

Yeah, so it would seem I am not going to be able to go to work for the rest of this week. My whatever-it-is disease has gotten a whole lot worse. I'm running a bit of a fever, my throat is killing me and every molecule of my body is aching. Kind of like having the flu but without the runny nose or the cough. Sucks monkeyballs. I'm all drugged up with pain killers and it still hurts. Bleh...

Time out

I'm staying home from work today, my tonsils and neck are all swollen and it hurts when I swallow. Kinda sucks. So I'm calling in sick and staying in bed today. Now, the only question is what to do with this day... Watch movies maybe? Or maybe read a book? Or chat with some people? Ah, decisions, decisions...

I went to the Arcadia Festival yesterday with my housemates and some colleagues, but I must say that for that price the festival was a bit of a disappointment. And I didn't understand why the warderobe people insisted on charging you separately for your jacket and your bag, but then put them on the same hanger anyway. Total rip-off... There were some games that you could try out. I tried Gears of War a bit, it seems like an interesting game. I've heard that it's supposed to be really good, but I didn't really play it enough to get a good idea about it. I was also watching this other game, Lost Planet, that looks really cool. Both games are for the Xbox 360.
There were also some game competitions and random free stuff. They had a tournament on the game Table Tennis on a podium and threw out stickers, ping pong balls and t-shirts to gather a crowd around the players. People went completely nuts over these things, it was kind of insane. I saw five or six people play tug-o-war over a t-shirt. Seriously... Get a freakin' grip, people, it's just a t-shirt! And probably not even your size!
Overall, the festival really wasn't all that impressive. Some games to look at, but kinda boring.

After the festival I went over to Archambault music store to buy a shoulder strap for my guitar, and then over to Nikki's place. She had invited me for dinner and cooked me some Quebecois food. Mashed potatoes, baked beans with maple syrup and tourtiere. Oh, man... That was so good. I can't even remember last time I was that stuffed after a meal... We also watched Rejected by Don Hertzfeldt. That's some seriously weird-ass stuff, but absolutely hilarious! Rejected was nominated for the 2001 academy award for best animated short film and received 27 different film awards from all over the world. If you get a chance to see this, please do. It's sooooo worth the 9 minutes out of your life! :)

Devil, thy name is Cigarrette

I was talking to the girl I've been dating, Nikki Brown the poet, last night. She told me she had a hot friend who was single and that since my roommates are single too, maybe we could match them up and see what happens. So we did. She came over with her friend and a box of beer. We listened to music and talked a lot. Antoine tried to make a fire in the fireplace without much success, most of the smoke came inside and the fire wouldn't stay alive. I think a chimney sweep should probably take a look at it before we try again. But overall it was a pretty nice evening, I had a good time. Had a bunch of beer and, unfortunately, smoked a bit. I usually don't smoke, I just have a cigarrette every six months for the hell of it. I really shouldn't, it gives me a hangover like mad. Alcohol usually doesn't do anything to me, I just drink a bunch of water before going to bed and I'm fine the next morning. But smoking... Blah. I was barely alive this morning when I woke up. I slept for most of the afternoon. Then Antoine made a most excellent risotto and our colleague Sebastien came over for dinner. It was a nicely mellow saturday.

Tomorrow we're going to Montreal to check out the Arcadia Festival. It's the third day of this festival that is all about video games. I'm not really sure about what's happening there, but we'll go have a look and see what's going on. I'll also meet up with Nikki and maybe go have dinner or something afterwards. Should be a fun evening. :)

Meetings

I had a date on friday with this nice girl who lives closer to Montreal. After quite a bit of searching for a parking space, we went to this cool italian restaurant called Edouardos on the plateau. It's a nice place with great food for really decent prices. It seems pretty popular too. We had to wait in line for a while before they had a table for us, the place was packed. After that we went to casa del popolo, a cafe/concert venue, where we saw tune-yards perform. Awesome stuff, it's this lady singing and playing the tenor ukulele. If you have a chance to go see her, please do.
After that we went back to her place with a bottle of wine. It was a really nice evening. I'm going to see her again sometime this weekend. Maybe even tomorrow night. :)

I had a sudden flash of inspiration last night and wrote down drafts for three songs. I have a couple of more ideas but I can't quite put them down on paper yet. They need to float around in the soup that is my brain for a little while longer. Then I'll add some salt and lemon, a dash of poetry, a pork chop, some onions, a spoonful of tragic humour, a couple of witty observations, a piece of garlic and a slap in the face, and ta-dah! The song is ready to be served. Or at least ready to be written down so I can sing it to someone so they can stare at me in disbelief and call me crazy. People sometimes do that. Maybe I should get a t-shirt with a warning label across the chest that says "Warning! Contents may not be suitable for normal or overly serious people."
I have actually freaked people out to the point where they got up and left just by sitting down and listening to them without saying anything back. Heh, kinda proud about that, actually... :) But yeah, some people apparently can't handle silence very well. Weird.