Friday night. Most hallowed of all nights for me. It represents the dawn of a new weekend, free from work. Sitting here with a nice glass of red wine, eating some cheese and crackers. I managed to track some weird-looking square brie... VERY sketchy. Will not be consuming it again.

Get this, according to my CheckPoint class, when you're sick you should drink sake with raw egg in it! I'm not totally weak-stomached, but that seems a bit much for me. People also eat nato here, which is fermented soya beans. It has a strong odour, but I've never tried it.

My jaw is acting up like crazy. I clench it because I'm feeling stressed out, and it starts to tense and it just gets worse and worse and prevents me from sleeping well. Today, one of the teachers went to the chemist with me to get some muscle relaxants. I'm supposed to take 2 pills, 3 times a day. I can see this is going to be an expensive solution, but I wear my TMJ bar nightly, so I'm at a loss for what else to do. I REALLY don't want to see a Japanese orthodonist, no matter how well he speaks English. I want my regular, nice, kind, funny Canadian orthodontist! I know I'm being a baby, but have you seen the tools those people have access to? I don't want even a minor risk of mixing up left and right! The consequences could be rather painful.

WARNING: Rant ahead, procede at own risk...

Spent some time checking out Sima and Jon's blog. Still can't figure out how to link the damned thing to my site. Pain in the ass I say! But, I felt oddly nostalgic for Sima's virtually-pregnant food tastes and desires. Sounds like Safeway in Vancouver is not up to the job of satisyfing my newlywed amigos. A pity, really, as Vancouver IS a nice city. It's no Toronto, but hey, nowhere but TO really is. (Any city that has a teensy weensy silver golfball and has the audacity to call it "Science World" deserves everything it has coming to it! Give me Ontario Science Centre anyday!) I miss my two buddies. I miss the days of American Chopper because Rav was occupied with his bike or rollerblades or IPE or caloric value... I miss cayenne-pepper Blood Mary's care of Isaac. I miss Makela's short attention span during a long paper leading to Rav and I yelling at him repeatedly to get out of the living room. I miss cheesecake with Emma and Sima and brutally honest talks. I do not miss La (fucking) Senza. What an awful and hellish place. I do miss Pub Italia and Bankok Thai Garden. And Siam Kitchen. I do not miss OCTranspo and their idiotic drivers, who were never on time, ESPECIALLY during a snowstorm or a cold snap (snap my ASS; they lasted for two months) of -30! I do miss the O Train; what a pristine, albeit goofily named, mode of transportation. I also miss the Rideau Canal, and walking along it on a summer's night. I actually miss AK College and the damned Loeb Cafe. Who'd have ever thought it possible? I don't miss Leeds, but I do miss Kim, who I need to email. I miss Marlo, Grover and the incorrectly-gendered cat, Jakob. And Ma, Pa and Junior Spek. (8 days and counting!) I almost miss the cold. I miss the MacOdrum. It sucked and it was cold and I did a lot of sleeping there, but it holds fond memories of TAing with Jamie, crushing the souls of young law students (kidding) (well, sorta), socializing, laughing at Neha and Araz for having such elaborate food, checking out piles of books I never read... I miss so much I always took for granted.

I keep having weird dreams and nightmares about the people I knew before I came to Japan. Sometimes it's comforting, sometimes it's disturbing. It's odd, but I never dream about Japan, or being here, or my job. Never.

Soooo, that was a large rant, time to hit publish and watch some "Dead like me." Amazing series, seriously, buy the DVDs, excellent entertainment.