Sweet Obsessions

Regular readers of my blog will know of some of my current obsessions: my shoes, David Emerson (see: hatred thereof), the Vancouver Canucks (sub-obsessions include: how ugly the Sedin twins are, how I would like to have Brendan Morrison's babies), Cobs Country Grain bread, Vancouver restaurants*, being a scientist, my neice, the TTC (specifcally, hot guys therein), I Saw You.

But I also have a number of other obsessions that I haven't really given any air time to here in the blogosphere. In no particular order, they include:

• filling out surveys - perhaps I just like being deluded into thinking that if I'm asked to fill in a survey, someone actually cares about my opinion on things, but I love filling out surveys! I don't even care what they are about. I've piloted several questionnaires for various people's graduate research projects, participated in any research project I've been asked to. I especially like when I have the possibility to win something for filling out a survey. In both of the last two Censuses I received the long version and was absolutley in heaven!
• Simpsons quotations - I really do believe that there is a Simpsons quotations for all occasions. Ones I use most frequently include: "Mama's watchin' her stories" (used when I want someone to stop bugging me), "I dunno, internet?" (used when I don't know the answer to (or don't care to waste my time thinking about) the question in question), "And now we play the waiting game. I'm sick of the waiting game - let's play Hungry, Hungry Hippos!" (used in situations involving waiting, obviously), "Sitting still, writing down numbers, paying attention. Yes, science has it all!" and "Batman's a scientist" (used several times during an average workday in the lab), "Me fail English? That's unpossible" (used to make fun of the grammatically impaired), "I'm somewhere I don't know where I am!" (for me, used frequently)
• weird pluralizations - octupi, matrices, ulnae - I can't get enough of that shit.
• the Young & the Restless - this one started in my first year of university. Whenever I came home from my afternoon labs, my roommate, Laurie, would have Y&R on her TV. And being tired from lab, I would always drop down onto my bed and watch it. And thus I became addicted. And even though I haven't had access to television for the past 5 years, I've still kept up with the storylines by reading a spoiler site. And now, in my new place that has a TV with bunny ears that gets only one channel, Global (which happens to show the Y&R), I can watch again! The acting is terrible, the writing is worse and the special effects would make those who produced Tron go "wow, that's some lousy FX." But yet I still tune in. I mean, where else can you hear a woman who's had several affairs (and whose husband had also had several affairs) say to another woman who got impregnated by her husband's brother and never bothered to tell him, letting him believe that the kid was his (and whose said husband left her 'cuz she wouldn't give up her career, but then they got remarried) say "Oh, Drucilla. I always thought you and I had the most stable marriages." Or where else can you see that same women sleep with her brother-in-law (who just married her sister-in-law mere weeks before, and who also was engaged to your mother-in-law and whose step-daughter is the child of his wife's former step-mom and her father, but only because the former step-mom stole his sperm from a lab)? Now that's entertainment!
• caffeinated beverages - especially diet Pepsi and coffee. Especially Tim Horton's coffee. This addiction stems from two sources: (a) I worked in a donut shop when I was young and having to open the store at 5 am, combined with access to all the free coffee you can drink during your formative years, is a recipe for caffeine addiction, and (b) my family's tendency to express affection via the delivery of hot, caffeinated beverages. In my family, saying "want a cuppa?" or bringing someone a Timmy's is the secret code for "I love you," which they would never be caught dead actually saying.
• my boots - although I have gone on ad nauseam about my beloved sexy shoes, I don't think I've yet rhapsodized about my boots. Referred to as CFM boots by some** and bitch boots by others, I love my boots. I only seem to have a couple of not very good resolution photos of my boots***, but here they are:

(would you believe that these photos were taken, of all places, in a bathroom?? Moxie's on Broadway. In the pic on the left, I'm sitting on one of the make-up chairs. In the one on the right, I'm next to the fire place, below the big screen TV. Nicest.Bathrooms.Ever)

• libraries - OK, I do realize how nerdy that makes me sound. But combine my love of books with my abject poverty and there you go. Up until I moved (and decided it was easier to return most of them than to move them to my new place), I had about 15 books checked out of the UBC Library (including one book, which I still have, that I've been renewing for over 4 years) and I just checked out 4 books from the VPL, to accompany the 3 that I already have (and the 1 that I've requested).
• Harry Potter - And if you don't believe me, email me at halfbloodbeth {at} mugglenet {dot} com for more details. And don't even think about calling me a nerd for this obsession, or I will curse you. And since, according to a certain person who threw out my Tarot cards (!!), I am, in fact, a witch, I totally could.
• lists - Grocery lists, to-do lists, Christmas gift wish lists... if it's in list form, I'm all over it. As evidenced by the list of which this is a part. I actually add things that I've already done to my to-do list, just so I can cross it off****.
• my shoes - I may not have mentioned it before, but I bought these shoes on ebay...

*see Dave's blog entries from April 12 to April 23, 2006 for more details.

**mostly by people who want to CFM.

***my kingdom for a digital camera!!

****come on, I know you do this too.