Happy 2003! I just realized it’s been ages since I updated this thing, and I’m sure you’ve all been on the edge of your seats waiting to hear about how my wolf-bitten arm is doing now. And the answer is... it looks almost completely fine. You can still tell I was bitten – I have three little red marks on my arm – but I don’t think they’ll even scar, and all the swelling and bruises have gone away.

Now, wasn’t that anticlimactic?

I did end up going to the hospital for a tetanus shot a few days after I was bitten, because my arm was really swollen and I was worried it might be infected (it wasn’t). I debated telling the triage nurse I was bitten by a large dog, but I figured I might then have to provide some sort of rabies shot documentation, so I decided to go with the truth. She was rather blasé about the whole thing, but the receptionist and a couple of the nurses were amazed that I managed to get attacked by a wolf and made me tell them the story a few times. One smart-ass nurse took my temperature and asked me if I was drooling, growing fur or showing any other signs of lycanthropy.

My doctor, a young, good looking fellow, was actually quite impressed by my bites. He excitedly told me I was his first wolf-bitten patient, although he did once treat three guys who got drunk and tried to steal a lion (and got mauled in the process, of course).

Everyone at work was also suitably impressed when they saw my arm. Josh pronounced it “awesome” and Dré told me I was a crazy broad. I ended up having to sneak by the editor-in-chief’s office for a few days, though, because he kept trying to make me call the zoo and tell them what happened.

My last couple weeks in Toronto were a lot of fun. I saw more overpriced movies (seriously, $13.50 on a weeknight is a bit steep, don’t you think?), wandered Queen West and Bloor West with Elinor, met Alison’s family and cats, met Angela’s boyfriend Rey (who is very nice and funny – good job, Angela!), got growled at by Sarah Harmer’s manager (he hates fact-checkers), saw Ed the Sock in person (he waved at me... well, the sock didn’t, but the man with it on his hand did) and went out for a farewell breakfast with everyone from Saturday Night. They gave me a card and a $50 gift certificate from Chapters, and they promised to send me pictures, the next issue of SN, and lovely reference letters so I can get a good job after I graduate. They wanted to keep me for an extra couple weeks after my internship ended, but unfortunately I was running out of money and had to come home. I had a blast there, and now I miss Toronto.

I flew home on the 23rd, and I went to PEI for a few days to see my family. Naturally, I ended up spending much of that time with Kim. We called up our old friend John, who we hadn’t seen in almost four years, and the three of us went out for coffee. We ended up having a fun three-hour conversation. John was exactly the same as he was last time we talked, which was nice. I love it when I can easily jump back into conversation with people I haven’t seen in years and it’s like no time has passed.

So, anyway. I’m now back. in Halifax and enrolled in the online journalism course at school. I was originally going to take TV, but I realized while away that online would be more practical, and I’m already decent at HTML and writing for the web anyway, so why not take advantage of that? So far it’s been fun, even though I do have to be at school by 7 a.m. every three days to write news summaries for a mailing list, which means I’ve been getting very little sleep most days (I just cannot make myself go to bed early).

Pip stayed with me for a week right before school started up again. She brought me presents – a Moses action figure to go with Jesus, and a whole package of homies! She and I went out with Angela and Jay for New Year’s eve and talked to random guys at the Split Crow, and one night we trekked downtown to buy Pip a new toothbrush. The rest of the time, we did absolutely nothing but watch music videos, nature documentaries and movies, and it was a lot of fun.

Apparently I’m going to the Young Alexandra Society ball with Allan in a couple weeks. The university throws this ball each year, but I’ve never gone before. It should be fun; I think Allan and I plan to drink a lot and mock everyone who takes fancy balls seriously. And hey, free dinner! Now I just need to buy shoes.

Oh, I almost forgot – I put up some new pictures! Now you can see the Multi-Vision office building, my view looking south on Bay Street, that life-sized $5000 cow and horse I mentioned, the inside of the Eaton Centre, and Angela being silly.

I really should have more to talk about, but I can’t think of anything right now. So... here, go watch the trailer for How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I don’t usually get excited about romantic comedies, but this one looks really funny. And go see Chicago, Catch Me if You Can, LOTR: The Two Towers, and Adaptation, because they’re all really, really good.