Yo-ho-ho and some weekendly lessons

Sometimes running around with little time to pause and reflect can actually be a positive thing.

After a week of somehow managing both to be run ragged, but still to think too much, one would think I needed a little R&R. That wasn't in the cards, however, with two birthday parties, a Superbowl Party and a Chinese New Year brunch all in the mix. Though I expected myself to resent the lack of breathing time, the hopping about seemed to be just what the doctor ordered, strangely enough (except for the dietary choices involved... no doctor would be impressed by that much salt in one weekend).

So, blatantly ripping off a page from Bayjb of Everyday Adventures in the City wonderful Key Learning series, here are the lessons I learned from this weekend:

• If there is a bacon sandwich on the menu, The Duke will order it. Even after the server tells him "You know there is only bacon in it, right?"
• All sandwiches should, by default, have their crusts cut off.
• It is not a good idea to eat jalapeño poppers when you don't like jalapeños, simply because the cheese filling is so good.
• I can't trust men who tell me "monogamy is an unnatural state" when only metres away from his miles-out-of-his-league-in-hotness fiancee- especially when I ask him if that means she can sleep with other men, and he frantically shakes his head no.
• Football is more enjoyable than expected when accompanied by nachos and drunken shit talking.
• Lion dances done by children are just about the cutest thing ever.
  
• The second cutest thing ever? Children pouting because they have to march in a parade on a rainy day. (which is easy for me to say when I have an umbrella)
  
• It is always appreciated when a room full of people erupts in protests when my boyfriend jokingly calls me high maintenance.
• I am destined to live my life in pants than are several inches too long.
  
• Even nearly 30-year old successful businesswomen have crushes on teenage vampires.
• Halter bras can often double as torture devices.
• The guy who, on your first meeting, drunkenly, blatantly and unsuccessfully hit on you will pretend he doesn't know you on your second meeting.

***

My exciting jetsetting grad student life is continuing, this time with a trip to attend a conference in Tampa, Florida!

(It becomes much less glamourous when you realize it is taking me over a day to travel there, due to our budgets-- and Air Canada's ridiculous fees-- making us fly out of the nearest American airport, and the fact that I am sharing a room -- and a bathroom-- with three other women.)

As you can imagine, all the learning, schmoozing and traveling will leave for very little covert blogging, so my little hiatus from your comment section and my own page will have to be prolonged a little while longer.

There is also a pirate festival in town, so I can't completely reassure you that I won't abandon the grad student lifestyle to further my pirate wench goals...

If you see a petite girl with an eyepatch and a clipboard doing a jig in the convention centre, you'll know it's me.