Would someone please put some love in the Toronto water?

Y'know, I think one of the worst things about not being in Toronto this year is hearing how half of my friends up there are miserable and not being able to do a thing about it. When a friend is upset, there are a number of things one can do: listen to him/her cry, let him/her sleep over, provide comfort foods (most notably cake of the chocolate variety), plan a fun outing...or provide a little physical affection, such as a hug or head rub. I can do none of these things right now, and can barely even grab an hour of Internet each day (thus even hindering my "MSN chat your way to comfort" ability). Sigh.

God willing, Becca and I will be in Toronto for about a week in the middle of January. And God willing, we'll be moving back to Toronto for a good while this coming summer. If everything works out, mark my words: I'll be beating the angst out of Toronto with my Love Stick.

I'll start my Syria posts in a day or two. There are stories...already, which doesn't bode well for whoever reads this blog.

A winner is me.

Well, I'm not in Syria yet. On October 11th, I was packed up and in the car, ready for my million-hour trip, when I started feeling a little carsick. The trip to the airport (in Newark) was a long one, so I lay down...and 60 minutes into the 150 minute trip, I started vomiting into a baggie. 45 minutes later, I was still vomiting into a (third) baggie. Carsickness? No no. Probably the most ill-timed stomach bug I've ever had in my life (and I've had some ill-timed stomach bugs). So we turned around and drove home, thanking God my ticket had re-scheduling insurance. Barring any more projectile disgorge mishaps, I'm leaving for Syria this Saturday evening (about 36 hours from now).

But whatever, I have an even better story. Ever read the movie/DVD reviews on The Flick Filosopher? She writes amazing reviews. Becca and I don't usually see a movie unless she approves of it first. We love her, for she is awesome.

She ran a little contest for the very cool movie Serenity. You can see the description of said content and the list of winners here.

Do you see that name? That "Lianne"? That is me. That is ME. *fans self Emily-style* Like, oh my God.

This may sound really big-headed, but I've entered four online, skill-based writing contests in my life, and I got first place in three of them. I know I shouldn't need continuous positive reinforcement regarding my career path, but this sort of thing is still, like, mind-bendingly exciting.

I'm aware that winning the Flick Filosopher's silly contest (which is notorious for getting crappy entries) isn't really positive reinforcement regarding my career path. Neither were those other two writing contest wins, since they were for fanfiction--and for the Sailor Moon and Digimon variety, respectively. But I rarely win raffles or under-the-cap soda games or whatever. Having a much better record winning skill-based contests as opposed to luck-based contests makes me feel a little better about life.