saturday, february 7:
natasha picked me up around 8:30 or so and went and set up our arts and crafts for the royal bison. we had about half an hour extra before people started coming at 10, so we walked to starbucks and back. i am not into starbucks very much except for their cupcakes, but natasha is a fanatic. and i like walking, so it all worked out well. sitting at our shared table all day was pretty enjoyable. i spent the morning hand-sewing the edges for that quilted wall hanging for my mom that i posted a picture of a few weeks ago. i spent the rest of the afternoon knitting my green sweater. becky, shannon, and jenni came and visited me, and brought angela, sarah, justina, chris, jeremy, and shamira. i also saw adrienne and alexia, some girls from high school. nathan dropped by to see natasha and ended up staying for the rest of the afternoon. he was lots of fun to hang out with. bethany came to watch natasha's table while natasha and her sister went cupcake-tasting for the upcoming wedding. natasha even brought back mini cupcakes for bethany, nathan, and me! i sold about half of my things that day, and made about $250 or so (i had 3 wallets, 2 shoulder bags, 12 wall hangings, and 10 pairs of mittens). i used $115 of that to buy a cute little grey wool dress. i will try to post a picture of me in it soon. natasha drove me home at 5, and we were both feeling pretty exhausted. i think i just spent the rest of the evening crafting and internetting. the usual.

sunday, february 8:
natasha picked me up again, but this time at 9:30. sunday wasn't as busy at the royal bison as saturday had been. one highlight was seeing the boy i had gone on a hand-holding date with about 10 months ago. i still don't know his name. thankfully, he didn't see me and we didn't talk. i think that would have ruined the awesomeness of that date. jordan also met me at opa while i was eating lunch so he could drop off a few of my things. i crafted the same as the day before, finishing my mom's wall hanging in the morning and knitting my sweater in the afternoon. nathan came again and sat with us all day, which, again, was pretty fun. julia visited me. i didn't sell as much on sunday, which wasn't a big surprise. i think i still made about $200, but that is partially because the mother of the boy i tutor picked me up afterwards so i could tutor cree, and she bought one of my shoulder bags (which i had priced pretty high, because i wasn't sure i wanted to sell them and because i had hand-appliquéd the little animals on) and a pair of mittens. so. tutoring afterwards. the family picked me up a sub from subway for supper, which was pretty nice, and then drove me home afterwards. i spent the evening drafting a letter to nathan. he told me a few months ago that we couldn't be friends because he already had enough female friends. BUT since natasha is thinking about moving to seattle this summer, i figured there would be an opening available. so i e-mailed him this:
"February 8, 2009

Nathan XXXXX XXXXXX
Edmonton, AB


To Whom It May Concern:

Re: “Female Friend” Opportunity

I am writing to express my interest in the Female Friend position in your social circle.
I have been advised that the departure of Natasha XXXXXX in July 2009 will leave an availability in your limited and exclusive Female Friend collection.
Having been a former applicant and then deemed unworthy of this position, I am writing to assure you that my potential for Female Friendness has grown tenfold since our last discussion.
I am interested in this position because I believe we are destined to be best friends (cf. circa 2005). I have significant experience and skill in conversation, awkward-silence-enjoying, onion-face-making, crafting-and-movie-watching, and t.v.-show-line-quoting, and butter-chicken-from-the-curry-fix-eating.
I would welcome the opportunity to further discuss my skills and this position. I can be reached by telephone at (780) XXX-XXXX, or by e-mail at this address. Please find my references attached. I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours truly,

Caylie XXXXX

References

Natasha XXXXXX
Friend, 2007-2009
Acquaintance, 2006-2007

Jenni XXXXXXX
Friend, 2006-2009
Enemy, 2005-2006
Friend, 2004-2005
Acquaintance, 2002-2004

Bethany XXXXXX
Friend, 2003-2009
Acquaintance, 2001-2003"
and then i waited for a response.

monday, february 9:
this was my sister's 21st birthday. i didn't get her anything (although i planned to get her a dairy queen ice cream cake, but didn't have the time or opportunity to go get it that day), which is normal for me because i am bad at planned gift-giving. BUT she didn't get ANY presents from ANYONE (my parents knew they were going to get her a camera, but hadn't been up to the city to pick it up yet), so she cried about it. eek. i skipped the elementary school and tutoring that morning so i could study for my social impact assessment midterm. i think it went pretty well.

tuesday, february 10:
the same as every other tuesday, except that i didn't have to tutor cree from 3:45 until 4:45. it was a nice break. my sisters and i drove to dairy queen so i could buy alyssa a birthday cake. we all came back to the apartment to eat some. i think i am losing my appreciation for dairy queen cakes in favour of real cakes.

wednesday, february 11:
i had my cree lab in the morning, and then i went to my computers lab to do the library assignment. ugh. i worked at the elementary school and tutored cree. i had wanted to go to the royal alberta museum's birthday party for charles darwin (because of the free cupcakes), but decided to stay at home instead and study for my northwest coast archaeology midterm. jordan stopped by in the evening to drop off a framed picture of the garneau theatre, featuring "rocky horror" on the marquee.

thursday, february 12:
i went to all my classes, but didn't work at the elementary school or tutor cree like usual. instead, i studied. i wrote my archaeology midterm at 2:00. i think it went okay. i ran into both emery and courtney in HUB. it was nice to see them and talk to them both for a bit. i haven't seen either of them very much lately. in the evening, i went over to natasha's for our weekly project-runway-and-crafting date. as usual, it was great.

friday, february 13:
i went to talk to one of the elders at the aboriginal student services centre in SUB at 9:00. i tutored cree at 10:00, and worked at the elementary school at 11:00. i thought i had to work at a bake sale for the native studies students' association, but it apparently was cancelled, so i bussed down to whyte to check out the new yarn store there (!). in the evening, emily and i came with alyssa to hundred bar and grill, to celebrate alyssa's birthday with all her friends. but her friends are not really our type of people, and the place was super expensive and didn't look very appetizing anyway, and alyssa was ignoring us, so emily and i left. yes, we are jerks. we went to the upper crust and each bought a little valentine's day sugar cookie, and then ate the buffet at new asian village. i didn't know that on weekends they have a chocolate fondue! it is incredible! it was easily the best fondue i have ever had. emily and i couldn't help but be pleased with our decision, despite its jerkiness.

saturday, february 14:
the best part of my day was receiving this e-mail from nathan:

"To Ms. Caylie XXXXX,

This is a formal notice that your application for Female Friend has been received and is currently being processed.

As of late the number of positions for Female Friends has been decreased by my society’s board. As such it should be noted that competition for the last remaining spot is quite tight. Frankly, competition is nearly impossible. But, rest assured, as Head of the Committee for Social Circle Refinement I can ease a great deal of your potential anxiety. It has come to my attention through some of your references as well as sources of my own that you very well may be the right candidate. I’ve heard extraordinary things about your onion-face-making abilities. There is much deliberation left, but I’m positive that you’re a sure thing.

You should know that it is far without the committee’s policies to accept applications in written form. Orthodox procedure for considering new Female Friend applicants has always been in person. Despite this breach of etiquette, or quite possibly because of it, the majority of the board has found your application particularly intriguing.

The board will be holding open hearings this coming week. It would be within your favor to attend one of these meetings in order to state your intentions before the entire committee.

As it seems you are not entirely familiar with this procedure I would like to offer my guidance and perspective. Please respond as soon as possible with potential times for meeting that I might prepare you for your formal hearing.

Sincerely,

N. SXXXXX
Head of the Committee for Social Circle Refinement
NDS Society"

awesome. the only other notable part of the day is that i tutored cree for an hour and a half.