Thursday and Friday at work were chaotic. The first-year math students had their enrolment appointments (meaning they could enrol in their classes) and there was a horrible scheduling error. Essentially, there was not enough room in the core math courses to accomodate all of these students. Anyone with a late enrolment appointment got completely shafted, and had to come into the MC to be enrolled into their classes.

As a consequence, students arrived in herds to get assistance. I am quite sure that I have not met 50% or more of the first-year mathematics students. And there are still more who are not in their classes (hurray for Mondays…) I have been told the whole situation will work itself out because - apparently - this happens every year. Apparently, the entirety of scheduling relies on the fact that students will - invariably - fail their first-year courses. Since it would cost more to schedule an additional section, they rely on the shortcomings of students to assist in scheduling and budgeting. This is a depressing fact, but it is true.

This weekend, my brother came home for ‘Reading Week’ (the biggest bullshit University practice ever), and - since my ride home from Waterloo was somewhere between Peterborough and the Homeland - I was forced to spend the night in Waterloo. So, I made arrangements to crash at the home of Jacob (The Hair) and Dan (The Korean). Ian (The Money) was also in town. So, it was a regular ol’ reunion. The only people from the North 3 crew that were missing were Mark (Friar Lawrence) and Margueritte (The Baker of Pi).

Since I will be living with the Hair, the Money and Friar Lawrence next term, this was an interesting experience. There are 10 people crammed into this two story house, and the entire place - being student housing - is in a horrible state of disrepair. There is no doubt in my mind that the entire building violates a dozen or more safety guidelines and local by-laws. Thankfully, when the four of us are rooming, we will actually be living in the Cliv (aka CLV).

Anyway, the Hair works until the ungodly hour of 8 in the evening, so he is absent from the start of the story. I met up with the Money and the Korean, and we made the incredibly lengthy journey to the dilapidated shack that the Korean calls home. We got there. Played some Double Dash and SSBM. The Hair popped in to eat his lunch. And then he was gone. We all agreed that we were thoroughly famished as well, and (with Merc onboard) departed for the Plaza to get some pitas (which seems to be the most popular form of nourishment amongst university types). I grabbed my usual - something crammed full of bacon - and consumed it frantically.

During our meal, I told the lovely story about my youngest sister being asked at school about Portuguese Breakfast. She had no idea what that meant…and was told to look it up on Urban Dictionary. Check it out yourself. I can assure you that there is nothing Portuguese about it. And if I ever meet the little prick who brought this up with Tori, I will kick his ass. Damn high school punks.

Anyway, we left Pita Factory and made the same incredibly long journey back to the dilapidated shack. Merc abandoned us to retreat to his room and play Portal (and I did not blame him). The Hair arrived home shortly after we did, and we all settled down to play an intense game of Risk. Unfortunately, we played with the rules of “place your shit wherever”, and so the game started off with Asia and Australia already heavily fortified by the forces of the Money (who we began to refer to as ‘The Sun God’ because of the devestation that lay in his wake. I was trapped between Europe and North America. The Hair was in South America and Europe. And the Korean was scattered between all of Africa and the Middle East. Needless to say, the Money conquered the planet. I attempted to mount an offensive from Alaska to Kamchatka…but thirty of my guys were horrible slaughtered by his twelve. It was embarassing. And - since his turn followed mine - he reinforced the Alaskan-Kamchatkan front.

After Risk, we went back to playing video games the old fashioned way. We started playing Age of Wonders on the Hair’s computer, but we all found ourselves hungry again. It was 1:30 in the morning. And we decided to go to Mel’s. For those who do not know…Mel’s Diner is a nice little place in the plaza that has 24 hour breakfast on weekends. When you go inside, you will feel as if you stepped into a combination of Jack Rabbit Slim’s and Lou’s Diner. I was tempted to order a Five Dollar Shake and ‘something without any sugar’.

Instead, I ordered some eggs, ham, home fries, toast, and a bowl of onion rings (I fucking love onion rings). After downing our meals, we hit the road for our third incredibly long journey to the dilapidated shack. After we returned, we were all so fucking tired that we all passed out. The Money (who was spending the whole weekend there) had a sleeping bag. He got all the cushions in the house and made a bed on the floor. I slept on a partially uncushioned couch with my jacket as a pillow. No complaints. If I am tired enough, I could sleep through a nuclear holocaust. I woke up at 10:00 in the morning, and delved back into Melee again. The sound of me playing awoke some other residents who were drawn forth to play. And - up until 2 o’clock, we played Melee. Pokeball fights (I kept getting useless as shit Pokemon), Giant melees with DKs on Fourside, and all sorts of fun stuff. Eventually, I stopped playing to examine the iPod Touch that the Money had acquired since we parted ways in August. It was awesome. I watched some Portal videos on Youtube (I’m obsessed), and browsed the web on Safari. It is brilliant. Leave it to Apple to make the best interface available.

The only suitable way to describe it is to reference Minority Report. Do you know how Tom Cruise just moves his hands to zoom in, zoom out, rewind, fast forward or rotate objects. It is exactly like that. It was unbelievable. I sat there for ten minutes enlarging and shrinking the focus on a news article. It was awesome. If I had the money, I would totally invest in one of those. However, I have aversions to spending.

I was supposed to call for a ride, but I was swept up in the excitement. Somehow, my dad showed up to pick me up at the house without prompting. It was very strange. Anyway, I beat it the hell out of there and came home to study for Psychology. Three weeks of reading in one and a half days. Boo yah. Wish me luck.